MARCH, 2


THE FORGOTTEN

Gangster / Action
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michelle Williams, Robert Pattinson, Ben Whishaw, Robert Downey Jr., Michael Douglas, Tom Wilkinson, Sharon Stone. Cameo by Robert De Niro
Director: Jonathan Demme
Screenwriters: Chad Taylor and Joey Stark

Box Office: 48 mill.
Net Gains: 7 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: Ouch. First movie of the Season, first box office disappointment. Bad signal for the new Season… Moviegoers didn’t buy the revamping of The Heirs’ saga. At least, we made some profits. But the idea of making a sequel of this one might have to be given a second thought.

LOST AT SEA

Suspense
Cast: Michelle Trachtenberg, Anton Yelchin, Jared Padalecki, Ethan Embry, Katarina Hyde
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
Screenwriter: Matt Kubrick
Producer: Midnight Movies

Box Office: 22 mill.
Net Losses: 15 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: Sadly, Midnight Movies’ releases always give us a hard time at box office. Not even the extremely low production costs and the low budget spent in marketing have been enough to save this one from losses. Painful. I liked this movie.

THE LOVERS STAGES

Drama / Comedy
Cast: Matthew Broderick, Felicity Huffman, Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Jena Malone, Paul Dano, Jimmy Bennett, Sammi Hanratty
Director: Tamara Jenkins
Screenwriter: Josh Collins
Producer: Grand Island Movies

Box Office: 55 mill.
Net Gains: 16 mill.

Stark’s Reaction: Good news at last! Female audience has answered particularly well to this proposal. It partially becomes a ‘sleeper’, as we expected a bit lower box office. Anyway, Season 13 has begun in a most modest way with three medium box offices. I hope we can feel again the delicious taste of blockbusters in the upcoming weeks…


THE FORGOTTEN

‘Although basing it on a recurrent and forced premise (the sudden appearance of an unknown son, just like in soap operas…), Chad Taylor and Joey Stark have made a nice effort to resurrect the mobster family saga of ‘The Heirs’. If you ignore some serious inconsistencies in the storyline (Why an ordinary college student should suddenly want to become a mafia’s Don just because he discovers who his biological father was? Why the villains want to kill him from the very first moment if he is only a college student?), ‘The Forgotten’ is an engrossing action movie entertaining enough. It does not reach the epic of its antecessors and Jonathan Demme does not have the shooting nerve of Scorsese. But still works as a correct mob story that keeps you interested during its full length.’
-Roy Winslow

‘Joseph Gordon-Levitt is not Sean Penn, Michelle Williams is not Nicole Kidman and Robert Pattinson is not Robert De Niro. The new generation of Hollywood stars still lack of the screen presence of big names. They still need time to grow as big stars. At some moments, the characters in this story just looked like young guys playing to be adults. It is the veterans – Downey Jr., Douglas, Wilkinson, Stone – who provide the screen presence and charisma in the characters this kind of stories demand. I remember a movie from many years ago where a bunch of young stars by the time – people like Emilio Estevez or his brother Charlie, I think – made a poor western titled ‘Young Guns’. Well, ‘The Forgotten’ could have been titled ‘Young Mobsters’…’
-Jackie O’Callaghan

‘This is one of those movies made of moments. I mean, there are a few moments along the movie that makes it a deserved watchable experience. The first appearance of Michael Douglas – in his best work in years – as the experienced and tough FBI agent. The disturbing vision of Sharon Stone as a decadent and mistreated wife. All the brilliantly shot final action sequence. The final look in the eyes of Gordon-Levitt. The sum of it all proves the talent of Jonathan Demme as movie maker and make us bet for this new saga. It might never reach the legendary epic of The Godfather, but still it has left me interested to see where the story will go in the announced sequels.’
-Andrew Stampton

LOST AT SEA

‘I feel obliged to applaud every time a CMP’s author tries something new. That’s why I like so much Matt Kubrick, even though the quality of his movies varies too much from top class to bottom of the barrel. ‘Lost At Sea’ is an enthralling survival story where the emotional intensity of the situation confronts with a deliberate coldness in the way the story is told. The distant narrative tone of the drama makes it even more disturbing and distressing. ‘Lost At Sea’ is not a wonderful movie but it isn’t a despicable one either. It’s just a curious rarity from a peculiar outsider of Hollywood like Trenchard-Smith and an author always looking for new things like Kubrick.’
-Charlie Kiggs

‘Movies with sharks can be the best (‘Jaws’) or the worst (‘Deep Blue Sea’ and all the Jaws’ sequels). ‘Lost At Sea’ can be placed in the middle of the ladder. Besides an inevitable feeling of déjà vu, I had a good time watching it, no matter this feeling that I had seen it before. Trenchard-Smith has known how to transmit to the audience the claustrophobic and desperate situation of the characters. You can understand their anguish, their desperation and their reactions. The realistic way the story has been shot improves that identification between the characters and the viewers. So the movie works the way it pretends to be. Maybe the one-only-situation makes it hard to be entertaining enough for 90 minutes and you just end up a bit exhausted of so much water, sharks and desperation, but still the movie is an interesting filming exercise worth to watch.’
-Anne Roman

‘I have read somewhere that Matt Kubrick didn’t want big names in the cast of this movie. And I can understand his choice. This was not a movie for big stars. But, at the same time, the lack of charisma of the starring quintet becomes a pretty dead weight for this interesting production. Besides their distressing situation, these five talents do not get to make you feel any special sympathy or attraction or empathy for them. Some of them are brutally killed by sharks and you just cannot help feeling a kind of indifference. All that creates an insuperable distance from the story that is being told on screen that finally weights the whole show.’
-Jake Cobb

THE LOVERS STAGES

‘Josh Collins has written this time a kind of doctoral thesis about love relationships. But, to my surprise, the usually emotionally intense Collins has stayed this time in a too soft and pleasant territory. ‘The Lovers Stages’ tells four conventional love stories all of them with a more or less happy ending included avoiding any more controversial approach to love issues – gay love? infidelity? lost love? break ups? interracial love? whatever… - and keeping it all at a conformist level to make everyone satisfied. Even apparently lighter movies mixing different love relationships – ‘Love Actually’, ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’, ‘Valentine’s Day’ or even CMP’s ‘Crossovers’ – set out more conflictive relationships than the ones in this movie. So if sometimes we have accused Collins of taking things to extremes too much, for once we have to accuse him of being too self-contained in this one’.
-Vic Carter

‘A return to the origins for Mr. Collins. Here is another example of his talent building up ensemble movies. Saving the obvious differences, ‘The Lovers Stages’ brings us back the proven talent of Collins to tell stories with multiple characters, as he did in some of his best early movies like ‘Hollyweird’ and ‘Blink’ or the underrated ‘Change Of Heart’. ‘The Lovers Stages’ offers us an excellent repertoire of brilliant acting works. Maybe, the next GMA will make justice at last at the growing mature talent of Alan Arkin. Or will support again the peculiar screen appeal of Jena Malone. Or will remember the immense talent shown here by the supporting actresses, Vanessa Redgrave and Felicity Huffman. But, after what we saw at the latest GMA edition, I am afraid voters could easily decide to give the next Best Actress award to Sammi Hanratty for playing just a cute young girl or even Hanratty and Bennett as the hottest Starring Couple of the Season…’
-Tim Reeve

‘The Lovers Stages’ is one of those movies you feel comfortable while watching it but does not leave you any remarkable emotion. It’s one of those nice movies you go and watch on those days when you are not in the mood to be told any kind of deep, intense, stressing or memorable story. Tamara Jenkins tells us four stories with different levels of interest. As the couples get younger, the love stories lose strength. No doubt, Arkin / Redgrave’s story is the most thought-provoking and moving one, while the Bennett / Hanratty’s one could have been suppressed without affecting the movie. And, again, I prefer Collins when he puts the accent on drama more than when he turns to comedy. All in all, ‘The Lovers Stages’ is like watching a Sandra Bullock movie. You watch it, you smile a couple of times, you don’t get neither bored nor excited with the story and you forget it as soon as the theatre’s lights turn on. I am not saying I’m against watching that kind of movies from time to time. It is just that they need a very special mood to not make you mad’.
-Lilly Stevens


Welcome back to CMP to all those who have been following for the 12, going onto 13 seasons. Will Season 13 live up to being the unlucky number? Or will 13 manage fine? If you have a piece of wood next to you, knock on it!

And it's been a while since I've posted any reviews. First of all, anytime I would go on here to send my reviews, the forum would never work. Then I wanted to do something fresh from my usual reviews. I wasn't fond of how I was rating them. So I'm going to try with this type of system:
-Best of It:
-Worst Of It:
-Shine In The Cast/Dead Weight of the Cast: this category is reserved for actors/actresses who performed the best(if any) and the dead weight means I wonder who the hell called this actor's agent because they need to be fired.
-The Brains Behind: This is reserved for commentary toward the director, writing and production in its entirety(music, cinematography, makeup, costumes, etc)
-In Conclusion: a) Watch it or die b) Worthy time at the movies c) Better concentrate on your popcorns d) Save your money for charity

And then choose the MUST SEE OF THE WEEK

So let's begin!

My overall summary of this week's releases is: It feels as if Season 12 never ended. The releases of this week are artsy and award worthy. At least two of them are.

THE FORGOTTEN

Best of it: It's the gangster movie that just has it all. It makes me wonder why it got released so early in the season. I guess the studio wanted to start with an explosion of awesomeness. This movie literally has it all. For those who admired the Heirs series, The Forgotten only helps elevate the entire series' prestige. It's also got originality to back it up.

Worst of it: I feel like I have to put something just to be an asshole. But I would say Robert Pattinson. Moviegoers would go to the film and wonder what this guy is doing in a movie like this.

Shining Star/Dead Weight: Most of the cast is full of film legends, veterans who really need no introduction and do best for what they've been doing for years. Joseph Gordon Levitt though, definitely the shining star. Here's a guy who will definitely be working with every CMP writer at least once or more. As for the dead weight, already mentioned him: Robert Pattinson.

The Brains Behind: John, Chad and Joey. You have a couple of months to figure out what outfit to wear while accepting your GMAs. The musical score, costumes, makeup, cinematography were some of the best I've seen. And it didn't need CGI 3D Blue Men to be a part of it!

In Conclusion: A+ See it or die an unhappy person.

LOST AT SEA

BEST of it: It may not be the GMA award winner and it may just end up in the back of the movie theater with one showtime next week, but damn it it's still innovative and original. Matt Kubrick can do both of those and he does it well in this film. It's 'The Dead Walk' crossed with 'Open Water' with a terrifyingly real scenario that's so scary that it can and has actually happened before.

WORST of it: The thing about getting low profile names is they're still trying to figure themselves out and grow as actors/actresses and still need polishing up of their acting skills. Some of the acting was alright, but other times they fell into overacting.

Shining Star/Dead Weight Of all the actors in this cast, I found the shining star to be Michelle here. The rest still needed something more to bring to the table.

Brains behind Brian, Matt and his production company did a correct job delivering something different from Midnight Movies that's not ultra violent, exploitive or falls on the gory horror line. Matt and Brian's vision of the film with the fantastic cinematography and lack of music was definitely worth seeing the movie once for.

In conclusion B-/C+ It's worth a viewing in the theater or at home. Nothing more or less. It's not a time waster, but something you can watch and say, "yeah. it was alright"

THE LOVERS STAGES

BEST of it: Like I said about The Forgotten, what is this great film doing so early in this season? It may not be as amazingly well done as Forgotten, but it certainly comes in second place. The storylines are real and easy to relate to. The cast is stellar!

WORST of it: I think it could have had a few better endings to the story archs.

Shining Star/Dead Weight: There really isn't an actor in this cast that didn't try to outdo themselves. Everyone performed with such a shining aura that it would be a shame if this film doesn't make a best cast nomination at least.

Brains behind: Tamara and Josh. These types of films don't try to play with neat camera angles or fascinating costumes. But the film itself is just well done in the other aspects to make up for those.

In conclusion: A-/B+ If you're in the mood for a romance movie that's not all too sappy or repulsively "cute" then you're in luck here!

MR. THUMBS' MUST SEE OF THE WEEK

When there's a week of releases where all films deserve the title, it's so difficult to choose. This week go for

THE FORGOTTEN