Horror-meister John Carpenter's mediocre comeback

Much of the coverage of John Carpenter's new film, "The Ward" -- or rather "John Carpenter's The Ward," as some of the P.R. material distressingly insists -- revolves around the idea that the legendary horror-meister gets to take a mulligan on this one. Hell, the guy made "Halloween" and "The Thing" (or so the argument seems to go), and we're grateful to have him back making features after a decade-long hiatus, even if the result is a mediocre mental-hospital shocker starring Amber Heard that feels an awful lot like a low-budget knockoff of Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch."

I'd be happy to go along with that argument, if it made any sense. Unfortunately, "The Ward" fits entirely too well in Carpenter's oeuvre, which is consistently inconsistent. There's no disputing Carpenter's place in the history of horror movies, or his status as a genuine pioneer of American independent filmmaking. When somebody challenged me, a year or so ago, to one of those Facebook exercises where you name the 10 directors most important to you, right off the top of your head without cogitating or Googling, Carpenter made the list. (Along with Wes Craven and Paul Verhoeven and Michael Haneke and David Cronenberg and Tarkovsky and ... let's not get sidetracked, but it's a cool little self-administered personality test.) And it's not like "The Ward" is unbelievably terrible or anything. Hell, go see it, or better yet watch it on pay-per-view: It's a competent horror flick with creepy wide-screen atmospherics, a decent cast and a thoroughly worn-out premise, better than 75 percent of the genre.

But let's not kid ourselves: Carpenter's made a lot of junk over the years, and you could describe his entire career as a competition between brilliant concepts and indifferent execution. I mean, step right up to defend "Ghosts of Mars" and "Vampires" and "Escape From L.A." and "Village of the Damned," which were his last four movies before this one. Anyone? Yes, I hear you mumbling in the back, and it was cool, or halfway cool, to see Carpenter get back together with Kurt Russell's one-eyed Snake Plissken for "Escape From L.A." More accurately, it started out cool and then it got really sloppy, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. Carpenter gets by at least half the time on nifty ideas and half-baked left-wing social philosophy and his total DIY aesthetic (in his glory years, he usually directed, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, composed an electronic score and cast himself in a bit part). He's ambitious without being pretentious, he gets things done (or used to) and he's thoroughly likable. The world could do with more people like that.

Read Full Entry

Cars 2

Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, John Turturro, Joe Mantegna, Franco Nero, Jenifer Lewis, Sig Hansen, Vanessa Redgrave, Cheech Marin

Cars 2 is an independent film having no bearing on the prequel Cars. The action begins at sea amidst sinister oil rigs infiltrated by British spies Finn McMissile (an Aston Martin) and his aide Holley Shiftwell, who use all the weaponry at their disposal — wings, heavy arsenal, and underwater capability — to make a nocturnal escape with their dignity and paint jobs intact. In the American desert, the spiffy red Lightning McQueen is hot-rodding around with his tow-truck friend Mater when he’s persuaded to enter an upcoming series of races in which big shot Land Rover Sir Miles Axlerod hopes to prove the viability of his revolutionary clean fuel Allinol as a substitute for gasoline, which won’t deplete the planet’s shrinking oil reserves. Axelrod wants to prove it in a World Grand Prix to be run in England, Japan and Italy.

The plot highlight is that Lightning McQueen ends up in a championship duel with the Italian driver Francesco Bernoulli. At the same time, Lightning and Mater find themselves in the middle of a clandestine war between the forces of fossil and alternative fuels, involving the British secret agents Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell.

The John Lasseter and Brad Lewis- helmed Cars 2 features a wide range of cars and more action than films like say Fast Five; it is noticeably more rambunctious. The race events sparkle with crowd excitement — spectators of course being cars. No memory of the original is required to get one’s bearings, as this wonderfully designed and animated sequel stands on its own four tires. The voice talents — be it Michael Caine, Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Eddie Izzard in starring roles or Joe Mantegna, Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave in a brief sound byte — lend their classic touches to the characters they voice.

Read Full Entry

Kids movies: 10 films for $5

See 10 movies for just $5 during UltraStar Cinemas' 2011 Summer Kids' Movie Series. Movies, which are rated G or PG, will be shown at 9:30 a.m. Mondays-Fridays beginning May 23. A different film is featured each week.

Movies include “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Despicable Me.” Choose a day of the week you'd like to attend. Kids 2 and younger under are free.

Tickets are available at the two locations' box offices.

UltraLuxe Scottsdale, at the Pavilions at Talking Stick, 9090 E. Indian Bend Road, Salt River Reservation, Scottsdale, 480-302-6055; and UltraStar Surprise Pointe Cinemas, 13649 N. Litchfield Road, Surprise, 623-584-3884.

Read Full Entry

Rio tops North American box office

Animated family comedy Rio has topped the North American box office according to initial figures. The film about a birdnapped macaw, which features the voices of Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway, took $40m (£24.6m) in its first three days.

It was the best opening weekend takings so far this year, beating another animated comedy, Rango, by $2m (£1.2m). Horror sequel Scream 4 - the first film in the franchise for 11 years - entered the chart at two with $19.3m (£11.9m). The movie reunites original cast members Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette.

However box office receipts for the film came in lower than industry expectations, as its previous two movies both managed in excess of $30m (£18.4m) in their opening weekends. A spokesperson for the Weinstein Co said that the long period between films may have affected its takings as the typically young teenage horror fan would have been too young for the franchise the last time around.

Last week's number one film, animated comedy Hop featuring the voice of Russell Brand, fell to number three after two weeks at the top spot. Director Robert Redford's Lincoln-assassination drama The Conspirator was the only other new entry at nine.

It took $3.9m (£2.4m) after a limited release in 707 cinemas, compared to an average 2,900 cinemas for the rest of the top 10. The movie stars Robin Wright and James McAvoy in a courtroom tale of a woman accused of aiding Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Read Full Entry

Funny Cartoon Movies For Kids

Funny cartoon movies for kids are becoming more and more prevalent these days, as studios are realizing they can make a large amount of money off these films, due to the fact that both parents and kids can attend and be entertained. Due to this, studios like Pixar, Dreamworks and Disney are producing more and more funny cartoon movies for kids to see, hoping to draw in the parents as well.

1. "Up." One of the most original films from Pixar, "Up" is both a funny cartoon movie for kids and a heartfelt story about life for viewers of all ages. A man whose wife dies attaches a ton of balloons to his house which causes it to float away, leading him on an exciting adventure. It's tough to not love a film that makes you feel just about everything.

2. "Surf's Up." A fun, funny cartoon movie for kids about penguins who also surf. In the movie, we go behind-the-scenes of the penguin surfing championships. What's not to love about that?

3. "Ice Age." An original tale about animals who are surviving the Ice Age on Earth, this funny cartoon movie for kids has been so popular that it has spawned a number of hilarious sequels, for parents and their kids alike to love. One of the best parts is the endless quest for a prehistoric squirrel trying to get a precious nut that he has buried.

4. "Shrek." An animated fantasy film that has modern comedy and the voices of stars like Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy, "Shrek" is one of the highest grossing animated films ever made, spawning numerous sequels, many of which are unwatchable. However, the original is a very good and very funny cartoon movie for kids, even though a large green ogre and a talking donkey are its main characters.

5. "Toy Story." Unlike the "Shrek" series, every "Toy Story" movie has been incredibly well-made on all fronts. This funny cartoon movie for kids follow old toys who are trying to win the affection of their original owner back. But this is what Pixar does, striving for perfection and not a huge return at the box office, or so we are led to believe. "Toy Story" is one of the best funny cartoon movies for kids ever made and the second and third installments are almost as good.

6. "The Incredibles." Another gem from Pixar does their take on the superhero genre, adding all the elements that exist in any film to a wonderfully funny and entertaining story. The story follows a family of superheroes who have since settled down to live the middle-American family life when suddenly they must don their capes and costumes once again. What's even more entertaining is that the kids in the family, even the baby, must get involved and use their super powers to help save the day. This may be the perfect funny cartoon movie for kids.

Read Full Entry

Goody on Film: For kids actors, how much is too much?

Is there a limit to what kids can - or, more to the point, should - do in movies? That question may pop up when "Hanna" opens on Friday, April 8. Director Joe Wright's film is tremendously entertaining, in large part because of his star, Saoirse Ronan, who is brilliant as a 16-year-old girl who, well, kills people. Lots of them, without hesitation or remorse.

Part of the conceit of the film is, of course, that she is indeed a kid who is doing this. We are meant to be shocked, and we are. But Ronan is a gifted-enough actress that we feel far more than surprise watching her break necks and fire guns.

Ronan is 16 in real life; she'll turn 17 a few days after the film opens. Certainly the violence she commits in the film makes us uncomfortable, but it's meant to. It would make us uncomfortable if a 35-year-old man was committing it. The effect is just more pronounced when it's a kid.

In this respect it takes us back to "Kick-Ass," in which 13-year-old Chloe Moretz played Hit-Girl, who sliced and diced bad guys in graphic ways while cursing like the proverbial sailor, only more so. This was, to some extent, played for laughs, which maybe makes it a little different, but the question was still asked: Should a kid this age be doing this, even in a fictional movie?

It's a question that people asked in 1976, when Jodie Foster, then 13, appeared in "Taxi Driver" playing a 12-year-old prostitute. (She got a best-supporting-actress Oscar nomination for her troubles.)

It's a tough spot. For realism, certainly, it helps not to have a 22-year-old pretending to be 10 years younger. But does it affect the young women playing the roles? I've spoken to Ronan and Moretz, and both seem like almost scarily well-adjusted kids. So if they - and their parents - are up to the task, sure. Let 'em act.

Speaking of movie violence, the folks at Complex.com have compiled a list of the 50 Most Memorable Movie Assassinations, just in time for the release of "Hanna" (while complaining that, as good as the movie is, Ronan's character kills people but doesn't technically assassinate them).

No. 1 on the list? A surprise, actually: The killing of Tony Montana in "Scarface." He goes down, of course, in a hail of bullets. From the write-up: "The lesson learned here: Don't do drugs. And always keep an M-16 grenade launcher handy."

Noted. It's kind of an odd idea for a list, but it's actually pretty cool once you dig in and start reading; there are some really powerful scenes here. Among the assassinations that make the top 10 are killings in "The Godfather," "Apocalypse Now" and "Malcolm X," among others. Without giving anything else away, I'd vote for their No. 2 as my No. 1; the scene didn't invent operatic violence, but it did perfect it. If you've been missing Arnold Schwarzenegger since he left office as governor of California, you're in luck.

If you haven't been missing him, he's going to be much harder to avoid. In addition to the already-announced "Governator" comic book and TV show he's creating with comic legend Stan Lee, Schwarzenegger is going to make an animated movie about the character, as well, that's scheduled to be released in 2013.

The character, the Governator of the title, is Schwarzenegger himself, fighting evil-doers as a superhero after leaving office. Insert your own budget-cutting jokes here. And then watch the trailer and decide whether you're excited to see Schwarzenegger back onscreen.

Read Full Entry