Culture Surfing

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON: Thrill-seeking Bella (Kristen Stewart) receives warmth and support from Jacob (Taylor Lautner) after a failed cliff-jumping encounter.

GENRE: Supernatural teenage drama

THE PITCH: To prevent a frenzy for Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) blood, the Cullens, including her soulmate Edward (Robert Pattinson), cut all ties and leave Forks, Wash. Devastated Bella eventually turns to longtime friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) to mend her broken heart, unintentionally stoking Jacob’s fiery passion for her and uncovering his true nature. Unable to forget her first love, Bella sets off a reckless chain of events that ultimately sends her on a mission to save a lovelorn Edward.

MONEY SHOTS: Jacob’s lycanthropic nature is revealed when he morphs into his wolven form to protect Bella from an attack by friend and packmate Paul (Alex Meraz). A savage, snarly, teeth-gnarling fight ensues between the two werewolves.

BEST LINES: Almost anything from classmate Jessica (Anna Kendrick) when talking to dazed Bella during a girl’s night out. As Jessica compares zombies to lepers, she notes, “My cousin had leprosy, so it’s not funny.” Best friend Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene) declares, “I have never known anyone more prone to life-threatening idiocy” when she comes to check up on Bella after a tragic prophetic vision.

Continue Reading “Hollywood Product: The Twilight Saga: New Moon“

(Photo Courtesy Summit Entertainment)

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THE FOURTH KIND: Dr. Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich) recalls in detail her alien abduction experience under hypnosis.

GENRE: Supernatural docudrama

THE PITCH: Director Olatunde Osunsanmi reenacts a mysterious tale of alien abduction told by Dr. Abigail Tyler through interviews and recorded footage of close encounters in Nome, Alaska. Shot as a hybrid between a documentary and a feature film, viewers follow Tyler’s (Milla Jovovich) desperate search to uncover the truth about strange coincidences occurring to her family and the residents of Nome.

MONEY SHOTS: Dr. Tyler and her colleague Dr. Campos (Elias Koteas) reluctantly hypnotize her patient Scott Stracinsky (Enzo Cilenti) again in his bedroom after he starts to exhibit abnormal behavior. As he begins to retrace what happened to him, he springs forward, sitting straight up before hovering over the bed and speaking in ancient Sumerian.

Continue Reading “Hollywood Product: The Fourth Kind“

(Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures)

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HUMBUG DEEZ: Ghost of Christmas Present (from left, performed by Jim Carrey) chides his charge Ebenezer Scrooge (also performed by Carrey) in A Christmas Carol.

GENRE: CGI holiday drama

THE PITCH: Disney gives Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale an animated makeover. Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is visited by ghosts who show him glimpses of his past, present and future in efforts to save his soul before Christmas.

MONEY SHOTS: It’s hard to pull away from the visual effects each of the ghosts utilize to show Scrooge various moments in time. Ghost of Christmas Past (Carrey) uses slingshot-ish flight sequences to take Scrooge to parts of his past. Ghost of Christmas Present (Carrey, again) hurls luminescent golden beads that turn the floor and walls translucent for he and Scrooge to spy on the present. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (yup, you guessed it … Carrey) uses ebon shadows to transport and frighten Scrooge back on to a righteous path.

Continue Reading “Hollywood Product: A Christmas Carol“

(Photo Courtesy Walt Disney Pictures)

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DOE EYED: Newcomer Goat mesmerizes audiences and actors alike in his latest film "The Men Who Stare at Goats."

Part PSA and part celeb gnash — be on the lookout for Goat. Goat (last name unknown) is creating buzz among the Hollywood heavyweights with the hilarious scene grabs from A-lister George Clooney in their latest film The Men Who Stare At Goats. While most would illustrate a prejudice toward Goat and his mild mannered ilk, Goat has swayed public opinion of his kind through sheer talent and an inhuman work ethic.

Recently Goat indulged the press with a series of one-on-one e-mail interviews to discuss the film and his newfound celebrity status. Goat fans can follow the actor’s exploits on his Twitter page. Direct messages to Goat via Twitter were unfortunately not returned prior to the interview. The Men Who Stare at Goats opens nationwide Fri., Nov. 6.

With such critical acclaim from your stage performance in Animal Farm, how was the experience for you to leap off the stage and work as an actor in your first feature film?
If I’m being honest the transition was not difficult at all. When you possess real talent, it doesn’t matter whether it’s on the stage, in a film or even in a barnyard somewhere. It’s really about having the ability to bring a character to life and bring joy to an audience. I am just so happy that with this film more people will be able to share in my talent and see what I was born to do.

Continue reading “Speakeasy with … Goat” »

(Photo courtesy Overture Films)

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ASTRO BOY: Tobio (Freddie Highmore) tests his newly discovered flying abilities in David Bowers' Astro Boy.

GENRE: CGI sci-fi adventure

THE PITCH: When Dr. Tenma’s (Nicolas Cage) son Tobio (Freddie Highmore) meets an unfortunate end, the grief-stricken scientist creates a robotic boy in his son’s image powered by an experimental power source — blue-core energy. Tobio soon learns he’ll never replace his flesh-and-blood predecessor and flees when facing deactivation from his father and war-mongering General Stone (Donald Sutherland). His escape takes the young robot on an action-packed journey where his destiny is ultimately revealed.

MONEY SHOTS: Newly created Tobio accidentally learns he has the ability to fly when he falls out of a window. After he quickly masters his jet-propelled legs, Tobio embarks on an acrobatic flight around and above Metro City in a scene reminiscent of the space ballet between Wall-E and Eva in Pixar’s Wall-E.

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(Photo Courtesy Summit Entertainment)

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DYNE-O-MITE: Michael Jai White (l) and Scott Sanders (r) discuss their latest project Black Dynamite in a recent press tour.

According to the trailer, he’s the smoothest mutha who’s ever hit the screen, a man who’s super-cool and knows kung-fu. That’s right, you jive turkeys, we’re talking about Michael Jai White’s latest film project, Black Dynamite. Set in the 1970s, White and co-writer/director Scott Sanders pay tribute to the misunderstood blaxplotiation genre by trying to create the most imperfect spoof. In the film, White’s character Black Dynamite is set on a path to avenge the murder of his brother and stop The Man from distributing drugs in the black community. Dynamite’s take-no-prisoners style of justice sets off a chain of events that uncovers a fiendish plot to decimate the black man.

Sanders and White are longtime friends but haven’t worked on a project together in more than 10 years. The two met while filming Thick as Thieves, which Sanders directed and starred White and Alec Baldwin.

Where did the idea for Black Dynamite come from?
White: I came up with the idea after listening to James Brown’s “Super Bad.” Incidentally, it was the first name for the movie but another film came along and got the name before we went to market. But I had this idea and the story came to me and so I started shooting pictures as the character. Scott and I reconnected and he saw the photos I had taken. Off that picture he got the whole premise. I mean, the picture at first glance is very serious, it looks like a badass picture. Then, you look a little deeper and you go, “How ridiculous, he’s got a gun and nunchucks.”

Sanders: That’s entirely the tone of the movie. I mean it’s badass, but it’s a little too badass.

Continue reading “Speakeasy with Michael Jai White and Scott Sanders”

(Photo by Edward Adams)

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HAIR CLUB: Chris Rock and Nia Long discuss Good Hair during a recent press tour for his upcoming documentary.

When Chris Rock’s daughter came home from school asking why she doesn’t have “good hair,” the question set him on a worldwide quest to track down the answer. In his latest project, titled Good Hair, opening in Atlanta Fri., Oct. 9, Rock reveals the origins of the notion of refined hair for blacks and the lengths to which black women, and sometimes men, will go to acquire it. Here, Rock and co-star Nia Long discuss the Good, the bad and the funny.

How do you think growing up in Bed-Stuy impacted your comedic sensibility growing up?
Chris Rock: New York is a funny place — I can only compare it to L.A. … It’s not a funny place. Everybody wants to be in show business in L.A., no matter what — everything revolves around show business. Where in New York, you can go to a good party given by the corrections officers.

Your wife, Malaak, who runs an organization that helps empower women to transition back into the workplace, was missing from the film’s conversation. Why is that?
I have a policy when I’m doing movies or anything to not hire people I can’t fire. So if I filmed her and didn’t like what I got — what am I gonna do, am I going to cut my wife out the movie? No, I’m going to keep it in so I can keep a smooth house. ‘Cause that’s more [important] than anything and then the movie is not as good, and we don’t have anything.

Continue reading “Speakeasy with Chris Rock and Nia Long” »

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