Nerdy Rotten Scoundrel: Mila Kunis

Showing posts with label Mila Kunis. Show all posts

Thursday, July 12, 2012

COMIC-CON THURSDAY TRAILERS - 'Oz,' 'Frankenweenie,' 'Dexter,' 'Dredd'

Sunday, July 8, 2012

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: 'Spider-Man' Amazes

To no one's surprise, Sony Pictures' The Amazing Spider-Man swung to the top of this week's Fourth of July Holiday Box Office, and managed to leave a few records in the dust since midnight screenings began on July 3rd.

The Amazing Spider-Man amassed a record breaking $35 million opening day, the highest debut ever for a Tuesday. $7.5 million of that came from midnight shows, and $4 million from the 307 IMAX 3D screens.

The Marc Webb directed reboot of the popular Marvel web slinger has now over $140 million in domestic ticket sales from its first six days of release, and a total of $342.1M internationally.

The box office success also allows Sony a sigh of relief that starting over the franchise with a new cast a mere ten years after the previous big screen origin story was not a miscalculation. Similar recent re-boots drew less than Spider-Man's weekend take of $65M, albeit without the advantage of higher 2012 premium 3-D ticket prices. But Batman Begins scored $48.7M in its opening weekend in 2005, and X-Men: First Class debuted to $55.1M in 2011. Sony has plans to make a trilogy from the series, which was fairly obvious from the deep story groundwork laid down in this installment, and will likely see the successive chapters open to bigger numbers.

Warner Bros. is without a doubt watching closely as they will need to figure out a plan of action (again) regarding Batman's big screen future following Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan's curtain cowl with the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. Batman Begins retold the Caped Crusader's origins after the (much needed) hiatus following 1997's critic and fan panned campfest Batman & Robin. The studio will need to look towards the thankless task of moving beyond Nolan's trilogy with another interpretation.

Ted and Magic Mike held their ground with solid footing, coming in at numbers two and five, which stranded studio newcomers, the violent Oliver Stone directed guns and drugs drama Savages, and the 3-D tour documentary Katy Perry: Part Of Me, with relatively disappointing box office leavings.

Falling out of the top ten this week were the geek friendly Prometheus, Snow White & The Huntsman, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, while the animated Brave and Madagascar 3 kept 3-D CGI family fare alive and kicking.

1. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN - Weekend Gross: $65M, Total: $140M

2. TED - Weekend Gross: $32.5M, Total: $120.2M
3. BRAVE - Weekend Gross: $20.1M, Total: $174.5M
4. SAVAGES - Weekend Gross: $16.1M
5. MAGIC MIKE - Weekend Gross: $15.6M, Total: $72.2M
6. MADEA'S WITNESS PROTECTION - Weekend Gross: $10.2M, Total: $45.8M

7. MADAGASCAR 3 - Weekend $7.7M, Total: $196M

8. KATY PERRY: PART OF ME - Weekend Gross: $7.1M, Total: $10.2M

9. MOONRISE KINGDOM - Weekend $4.6M, Total: $26.8M

10. TO ROME WITH LOVE - Weekend $3.5M, Total: $5.2M

Next week's big studio release is 20th Century Fox's Ice Age: Continental Drift. The fourth film in the popular series should affect the animation competition considerably, in addition to splitting further the availability of 3-D screens between Spider-Man, Brave, Madagascar, and Katy Perry.

The Amazing Spider-Man has 12 more days to enjoy his superhero free reign until battling it out with The Dark Knight Rises on July 20th.

SOURCES: Entertainment Weekly, Deadline, Yahoo!

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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Poster For 'Oz The Great And Powerful' Revealed

Earlier this week, Disney released a teaser one-sheet for the Sam Raimi-directed Oz The Great And Powerful, which re-imagines the Earthly humble beginnings of the iconic title character from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel (and the later 1939 Hollywood big screen version), The Wizard Of Oz.

This prequel trip down the yellow brick road re-unites the Spider-Man director with his Harry Osborn, James Franco, as Oscar Diggs (The Wizard), and casts Mila Kunis (Theodora), Michelle Williams, (Glinda), and Rachel Wiesz (Evanora) as the three Witches from the enchanted Land of Oz.

Actress Joey King (Crazy, Stupid, Love) let slip a few details that reveal Sam Raimi plans to pay homage to the visual style seen in the orignial film.

“We’re doing the same thing as the first Wizard of Oz, we’re making it black and white in the beginning and then (it gets) colorful when we enter the Land of Oz. It’s also going to be a 3D movie; I’m so excited about that. It’s going to add a whole new level to the awesomeness of Oz."

Here is the official synopsis from Disney:

"Disney’s fantastical adventure, Oz the Great and Powerful, directed by Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 1-3, The Evil Dead movies) imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved character, the Wizard of Oz. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well."

I had the opportunity to interview James Franco last August for Access Hollywood at the Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes junket, and asked him what we could expect from this new take on the iconic character, as they were already in production on Oz in Detroit.

“I am playing the Wizard of Oz, but if you’ll remember, the Wizard in the original 1939 film is an older man," he said. "So it’s another great opportunity to kind of do a new rendition on a franchise or a tradition, but it’s in a fresh way.”

“There are no real expectations of how the younger version of Oz should be,” he explained. “I do follow a tradition, but I also have a certain amount of freedom to create the character.”

Sam Raimi will be at the Disney presentation at Comic-Con on Thursday to talk up the film (and undoubtedly be bombarded with questions regarding his thoughts about The Amazing Spider-Man). Oz The Great And Powerful is set for release in 3-D on March 8, 2013.

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Film Review - TED ★★★½☆☆

In Ted, Seth MacFarlane takes his entire bag of tricks familiar to all us rabid fans of Family Guy, and lets loose a solid onslaught of no-holds-barred FCC-free hilarity.

The live action / CGI raunchy comedy, and MacFarlane's feature film debut, has all the trappings of the edgy and over the top humor we've come to expect, anchored by a walking talking teddy bear that has distinct voice that falls in between Peter and Brian Griffen.

The plot revolves around Ted, a stuffed toy who became all-too-real in 1985 when a lonely boy wished upon a star for his best friend to come to life. Needless to say, the now living bear became a headlines grabbing pop icon during the '80s, but soon enough saw his roaring celebrity days fast fade away as the years dragged on.

But that lonely boy, John Bennet, remained inseparable from Ted and as the story picks up in present day. Bennet (Mark Wahlberg) finds himself an unmotivated stoner with a dead end job at a car rental company, a gorgeous girlfriend of four years longing for an overdue engagement ring (played by Family Guy's own Meg Griffen, Mila Kunis), and constantly couch sitting with his former celebrity beer guzzling pot smoking potty mouthed childhood slack-happy friend.

The raunchy humor hits hard and fast in the film's first act, with MacFarlane pushing his R-rated big screen freedom to its limits. Gross out sight gags. Check. Foul mouthed lovable characters. Check. Racial stereotype humor. Check. Below the belt raunchy sex humor. Check. Flashback asides. Check. Obscure refrences. Check. Hilarious cameos. Check.

The adorable Mila Kunis plays it pretty straight as Lori opposite all the wild antics going on, especially in countless scenes with a talking CGI bear and her lovable chowder-head Boston boyfriend. Although Wahlberg isn't stretching his acting chops heavily here as the guy caught between settling in with the love of his life and remaining a man child with his child hood buddy, he conveys a winning balance of heart and humor in the lead human role.

In addition to several memorable self mocking celebrity cameos, the supporting cast of Joel McHale, Patrick Warburton, Laura Vandervoort, Giovanni Ribisi, and narrator Patrick Stewart, offer a solid backbone that builds on the strong performances of the leads.

Much like Family Guy where a sarcastic talking dog interacts normally within society, Ted requires the same suspension of disbelief when it comes to witnessing a magical toy that flawlessly runs about in this film. And if a talking bear were to come to life, albeit here scampering around while swearing, drinking, hanging with hookers, and posing for awkward pictures with adoring fans, chances are it would look like Ted (though there is still a strong place in my heart for Teddy from A.I.).

Though the tangible believability of Ted is never felt more than in a violent hotel room bear versus man drag out fight between the fuzzy toy and Wahlberg. If Superman: The Movie could make you believe a man could fly, Ted will make you believe a stuffed bear can brawl (hint: it's best not to use the name Teddy Ruxpin in certain company).

In addition to a brilliant spot-on flashback tribute to Airplane!, you will be left in the cold if your pop culture repertoire can't appreciate a brilliant subplot and extended cameo by Sam Jones, as in Flash Ahhhhhhhh!! Gordon, the '80's 'It's So Bad That It's Awesome' Queen soundtrack fueled sci-fi classic. In typical MacFarlane manner, he really runs hard and fast with the retro reverence of it all, and the more in-the-know you are with Flash Gordon, the funnier it is.

Also a highlight is the disturbing performance by Giovanni Ribisi as Donny, the Ted-obsessed villain with an equally creepy son. Ribisi provides shards of sheer comedic ewwwww inducing moments that I actually found to be on the playing field with the 'best of' Buffalo Bill from Silence Of The Lambs. Ribisi does a lot with a little in this role.

Ted has it's demographic set in stone. There is little wiggle room available to suddenly figure out if this raunchy comedy is your cup of tea or not, so every Family Guy fan should get out and see it. For every time you wish MacFarlane's breakout animated Fox show could take it a step farther, Ted succeeds in accomplishing that on all levels. MacFarlane makes a seamless leap into feature films here by also managing to not just give fans a lazy big screen version of everything we've seen before. He manages to give us a incredible CGI creation that makes you laugh along with his unabashed frat boy bravado, and then balances it back to tug at you when it's a heartfelt buddy movie. At the core of the story, Ted and John really are lifelong best friends who care deeply for one another.

You could treat Ted as brave and bold first date movie to test the uncomfortable levels of edgy humor your better half will publicly laugh at, or be safe and secure with a group of like-minded obscure reference loving buddies to enjoy a night out with. Either way, there is great time to be had here. And frankly you will be hard pressed to find a more original comedy this year than Ted.