Jackie Chan gets domestic in latest stunt-filled role

In his latest stunt-filled movie, The Spy Next Door, Jackie Chan adds a new element to his usual bag of tricks: A love interest.

In the film, Chan stars as a retired spy trying to woo a single mother and win over her three young children when his old job comes back to haunt him. Chan talked to Metro about this new role.

How was it working with the kids? Difficult. On the set sometimes, I’d want to take a rest for 20 minutes, but then it’s, “Jackie, I want to learn some karate,” “Jackie, I want to do this,” “Show me magic.” I had prepared all these tricks to entertain them. It’s not easy being a babysitter. Besides, I have to protect them on the set, with all the action sequences. I make sure everybody’s safe, especially the children. I have to be very careful.

How important is it to vary the types of films you make? I think for the last 10 years, you can see there are different Jackie Chans. In Japan, I made a very heavy drama called Shinjuku Incident — not for children. I wanted to let the audiences see what I can do. After that, I made The Spy Next Door, then a black comedy, then the Karate Kid. I want the audience to know I’m a true actor who can fight, not a fighter who can act. Just like Robert De Niro. I want to be an actor. An actor can work forever. An action star’s life is very short.

Do advances in special effects make your job easier? Yes and no. I want to learn some things about special effects. Last year or two years ago, I cannot remember, I visited James Cameron’s set for Avatar. I’ve been making movies for 47 years. After I looked at his set, I was just like a kid in kindergarten. You give me all that technology, I don’t know how to use it. That’s why I film the basic things. Simple -- two cameras. So all those years I’ve just been doing Jackie Chan-style action. I would like to do these kinds of things, but I can’t.

This is the first time you’ve had a serious love interest in a movie. Finally, yes. In my movies, we don’t have kissing scenes or making love scenes. We don’t have those kinds of things. I don’t think audiences want to see Jackie Chan naked or making love. And also there are so many children watching my movies. A small kissing scene is OK. But I would rather do action sequences.

Read Full Entry

Sony to open new chapter in "Spider-Man" saga

The "new chapter" will tell of a high-school-age Peter Parker, the alter ego for comic book crime fighter Spider-Man who had been played by Tobey Maguire, dealing with human issues as well as super-human predicaments, Sony and Marvel said.

The reboot follows recent speculation about the fate of a "Spider-Man 4" in development, during which a film's script is worked on and its production planned. "The studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job," Sam Raimi, who directed the first three films, said in a statement.

That trio of movies, starting with 2002's "Spider-Man," have raked in roughly $2.5 billion at theaters and yielded tens of millions more in profits from product licensing, toy sales and other merchandise revenues. In the first movies, Parker had already graduated from high school, so the fourth film will essentially be a reworking of the franchise. Maguire is now 34 years old and a father.

"We're very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter's roots," Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said in a statement. The film will be based on a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, and Sony said it would have more details in coming weeks. Sony Pictures is a unit of Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony Corp.

Read Full Entry

Kids' movie safety portrayals improved: study

The entertainment industry has improved its portrayals of walking, cycling and boating in movies aimed at children, but half of scenes still show risky behaviour, U.S. researchers found.

Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death among children in Canada and the U.S, and children often act out when they see on the silver screen.

Previous studies found movies marketed to children rarely portrayed safety measures such as wearing seat belts, so the researchers set out to test if depictions have improved. Jon Eric Tongren of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and his colleagues reviewed the top-grossing movies rated for general audiences or parental guidance per year from 2003 to 2007.

In Monday's online issue of the journal Pediatrics, the study's authors reported:

22 of 958 scenes depicting children or adults involved crashes or falls, resulting in three injuries and no deaths.
75 per cent of boaters wore personal flotation devices.
56 per cent of motor vehicle passengers were belted.
35 per cent of pedestrians used crosswalks.
25 per cent of bicyclists wore helmets.
During the same time period, seat belt use in the U.S. population was 82 per cent, and bicycle helmet use by children was estimated at 41 per cent in 2003.

"The entertainment industry has improved the depiction of selected safety practices in G- and PG-rated movies. However, approximately one half of scenes still depict unsafe practices, and the consequences of these behaviours are rarely shown," the study said. Unsafe practices included not wearing elbow and knee pads when skateboarding.

Read Full Entry

Karate Kid Remake Trailer....is this really necessary?

Remakes have been fairly common in hollywood for a while now. Truth be told, remakes go back a lot further than recent cinema (such as Scarface). It isn't till the past few years though that they have become downright hated by some people.

I would say this is in large part due to the many crappy remakes we have had in recent year that add nothing to the original and if anything, ruin its legacy (Rollerball and Texas Chainsaw Massacre come to mind). It seems like this tradition may be continued with the upcoming Karate Kid movie.

Now I'll admit, the original Karate Kid is incredibly dated by its 80's-ness but its still a great zero-to-hero tale held up by the great chemistry between Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita (who got an Oscar nom for his role as Mr. Miyagi. With wax on wax off and the infamous crane kick, the movie is a classic. My problem, however, isn't in the fact that they are remaking it. Its in how they are doing it.

First off, what is with it being little kids. Daniel-son was freshmen-ish in the original but these kids look 12 at the oldest. I can't take their fighting seriously (much like I can't take Jaden Smith's dreds seriously). Also, the whole American kid in Asian land feels a little too "Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift" to me. Another thing that bugs me is the fact that the movie features kung fu instead of karate (which yes, there is a difference). I would assume its because movie audiences are more accustomed to the movements of kung fu, but when something is in the name of the movie, you probably shouldn't cut it out.

My last problem is this: they already tried to remake the karate kid franchise! It was called The Next Kara.te Kid and it starred Hilary Swank (long before she was a two time Oscar winner). That movie failed horribly and I fear this movie will to. It doesn't help that this is the director who gave us The Pink Panther 2 and Agent Cody Banks. The only promising aspect seems to be a surprisingly serious Jackie Chan. It seems he could be a decent Miyagi. Still, Jackie Chan seems to have an agent worse than Vin Diesel's and appears in the crapiest of the crap out there. If you want a remake with some promise, wait for Clash of the Titans.

P.S. Also disappointed that they didn't bring on Bill Conti to do the music. This is the man who not only did the original Karate Kid but gave us the Rocky music (except Eye of the Tiger and those ridiculous power ballads which came from Survivor). He did a great job with Rocky Balboa a few years back and I'm sure he could have brought something good to this movie. Oh well.

Read Full Entry

Family Filmgoer Reviews - 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' is cute but cliched

Alvin and the Chipmunks take a break from their rock star careers and enroll in high school in this "Squeakquel," which again mixes live action and computer animation. The trio is as cute and cuddly as ever, but the cobbled-together story, which reintroduces their female counterparts, the Chipettes, warms over a lot of high school movie cliches. (The worst is how the girls immediately defer to bullying jocks.)

The plot leaves the Chipmunks in the care of Toby, their guardian's slacker cousin. He enrolls them in high school, where the girls think they're cute and the jocks bully them (there are toilet-dunking "swirlies"). But when the Chipmunks enter a city-wide high school music competition, up shows the villain from the first film, slimy music promoter Ian, determined to make his fortune with a Chipmunk sister trio, the Chipettes. The film includes flatulence humor, a few semi-crude expressions and very mild sexual innuendo. One Chipmunk is briefly menaced by a large bird of prey. Fine for kids 6 and older.

Favorite Family Films of 2009 There was a real shortage of live-action family films about "real people" in 2009 but a bumper crop of terrific animated features, some, such as "Coraline" and "Where the Wild Things Are," dealing with actual childhood crises in highly imaginative ways. What follows is the Family Filmgoer's list of Top 10 Family Films for 2009. These are films that will entertain children (suggested ages specified) but also older siblings and adults -- i.e. families.

Read Full Entry

The Princess and the Frog

IN A novel twist on the frog-prince fable that is as morally driven as it is delightfully nutty, an ambitious young black woman in jazz-era New Orleans kisses a frog, expecting a rich, handsome prince to appear.

Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose from Dreamgirls) hopes her faith in fairy tales will fast-track her dream of owning her own swanky restaurant. Things don't quite go as planned, however, when she turns into a frog.

In a refreshing re-embrace of colourful hand-drawn animation, directors Ron Clements and John Musker - the Disney duo who gave us.

The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997) and the unfairly trashed Treasure Planet (2002) - deliver a vibrant, funny, uplifting old-school musical cartoon.

If the film boasts any advantages over digital, it's in the pastel richness of its colours and the elasticity of its characters, who enjoy a degree of comic flexibility and range of expressions we still don't get from computers.

The story is anchored in the reassuring bedrock of homespun Disney values. Tiana's frog-kissing gamble goes against what her father taught her, making the film a neat parable about the importance of hard work and the perils of taking short cuts. There are even several well-handled backhanders to the racism of the time.

On this score, The Princess and the Frog also deserves kudos for featuring Disney animation's first African-American lead character, continuing a progressive tradition that includes a Native American in Pocahontas, a Pacific islander in Lilo and Stitch and an Asian in Mulan.

The film's success has been widely seen as a revival of the hand-drawn form, though the common belief that digital would supplant the appeal of hand-drawn animation has never really taken into account The Simpsons. Even Pixar's digital pioneer John Lasseter, who now heads Disney animation and produced this film, champions any style, so long as it brings a story to life. And it does so here. Splendidly.

Read Full Entry