kristen bell Tagged Articles at Cinematical
AFF Review: Serious Moonlight
Filed under: Comedy », Magnolia », Theatrical Reviews », Austin »
The first thing everyone seems to mention about Serious Moonlight is that its screenplay is the last one written by the late Adrienne Shelly. Actress Cheryl Hines, who had a role in Shelly's film Waitress, is making her feature directorial debut with the dark comedy, which stars Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton. The movie opened Austin Film Festival this year. It sounds like a sure-fire comedy, but unfortunately it just left me with a headache.
Serious Moonlight focuses on a married couple, Louise (Meg Ryan) and Ian (Timothy Hutton), who are supposed to meet in their country house for a rendezvous, but both arrive a day early. Louise wants to surprise her husband, but finds out that he also has a surprise: he's leaving her. She refuses to accept this, and ends up cracking him on the head with a vase, binding him with duct tape, and refusing to let him loose until he comes to his senses and realizes how much he loves her and wants to stay with her.
Review: Astro Boy
Filed under: Action », Animation », Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Theatrical Reviews », Family Films », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
A feature-length adaptation of the classic Japanese manga, Astro Boy now comes equipped with a recycling message, both in its story and with its screenplay. Parts feel pieced together here and there from other, better, sometimes darker films, aligning the film itself less with our young protagonist and his knack for salvaging old robots and more with the villain's ability to simply assimilate other devices until it becomes one ungainly mass. That said, there's plenty of color and spunk to keep the kids interested; they'll just have to wade through some atonal waters in order to get to the fun.
A Trailer for Adrienne Shelly's 'Serious Moonlight'
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Trailers and Clips »
Time flies... We're rapidly approaching the third anniversary of Adrienne Shelly's death. Although she spent almost twenty years in the business, Shelly was killed just as her career reached an inspiring new level with Waitress, the sweetly effective story of a woman and creative pie-maker coming to terms with the fact that she's having a child with the husband she hates. Shelly left behind a number of unfinished projects, one of which was Serious Moonlight, a film that Waitress co-star Cheryl Hines took over in her memory. Almost two years after that news hit, we've finally got a trailer courtesy of Yahoo. (You can see it after the jump.) I'm happy to say that Shelly's vision and personality are immediately visible in the trailer. You could almost close your eyes and imagine what she would have done with it. However, I can't figure out whether it's the casting that I'm having a problem with, or the way it's been morphed into the trailer. I still can't get past Meg Ryan's surgery. And I hate to harp on it, but one of the most charming parts of her acting was her expressive face. However, in their rather positive review, The Hollywood Reporter did say she was "terrific" in the film, and I'm really hoping I agree once it hits theaters on December 4. The rest seem fine, but the magic of the trailer definitely comes from the quirks of the story and the lingering feel of Shelly.
What do you think of the trailer?
Kristen Bell Becomes a Burlesque Dancer
Filed under: Drama », Casting »
Cristina Aguilera's big-screen Burlesque debut is already a pretty interesting mix. We've got the slight girl with the powerful pipes, plus Cher returning to Hollywood as a nightclub owner and Stanley Tucci as the man who turns Aguilera's small-town girl "from bumpkin to bombshell." (Please tell me she's living in a lonely world.) But now, in a pretty wild twist, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Kristen Bell is joining the action as her rival.As the story goes, Aguilera's girl has "a big-town voice" and "finds love and success in a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club, reminiscent of the nightclub in Bob Fosse's Cabaret." Bell enters the mix as Nikki, "the loose-cannon lead dancer and main attraction at the club who spirals out of control" when Aguilera steals the spotlight.
Now, there are a lot of women I could imagine battling Aguilera. At the top of the list would probably be Scarlett Johansson. But Bell -- didn't see this coming. Presumably, the rivalry is all in the dance, and not the song, but even then -- nice twist for the geek princess and leading comedienne. But how will her burlesque be? A little slice of Showgirls? Striptease? Or maybe, just maybe, Reese Witherspoon's Ivy Miller in Overnight Delivery? Better yet -- Bell's first big mainstream dramatic gig. How do you see this all playing out?
Production begins next month and is slated for a release during Thanksgiving, 2010.
Review: Couples Retreat
Filed under: Comedy », New Releases », Universal », Theatrical Reviews »
Sometimes it feels good to get your buttons pushed. Couples Retreat shamelessly trots out a stable of tired old nags and magically transforms them into shining young thoroughbreds by the time they reach the finish line. To stir more creaky metaphors into the mix, Couples Retreat reminds me of an Old World grandmother, happily offering up the same old recipe with gentle but insistent persuasion, urging you to "eat, eat!" And you end up eating far more than you ever thought you would, because old recipes taste really good when fresh ingredients are used.
With Couples Retreat, the filmmakers gently but persistently prod, saying "Laugh, laugh!" and you end up laughing far more than expected. The set-up feels familiar: four couples, all at different stages of their relationships, go on an island retreat intending to have fun in the sun, but instead are forced to undergo counseling. In the process, they discover new truths about themselves, everyone laughs, everyone has "a moment." The End. Roll credits. Except that this time, the premise doesn't give away the major pleasures of the movie.
That's because longtime friends Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau collaborated on the sly, brutally frank, and funny script with Dana Fox, creating a solid framework that allows the performers breathing space to do their thing. Vaughn, Favreau, Jason Bateman, and Faizon Love play the men; Malin Akerman (in her best performance to date), Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell, and Kali Hawk are their romantic partners. Jean Reno is a mystical "couples whisperer." Old Vaughn / Favreau accomplice Peter Billingsley makes his feature directorial debut. What really ties everything together is crack comic timing, and a willingness to embrace warmly some of the colder, less pleasant truths about relationships.
Interview: 'Couples Retreat' Director Peter Billingsley
Filed under: Comedy », Interviews », Trailers and Clips »
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The good news for Peter Billingsley is that we should (hopefully) move past all the Ralphie/Christmas Story references once the guy makes his second film, but since Couples Retreat marks the actor-turned-producer-turned-director's debut behind the camera, he'll have to hang in there a little while longer while folks like myself use the iconic Christmas movie as a segue to his new ensemble comedy set in the unbelievably beautiful Bora Bora.
Moviefone sat down with the director in Bora Bora, where some lucky bloke was sent to interview the stars of the film (and no, it wasn't me or else you would've heard about it continually while I was soaking up the rays with Malin Akerman on one arm and Kristen Bell on the other). That said, Billingsley did talk a bit about the film, about how hard it is to actually shoot in a place as remote as Bora Bora and what it was like to star opposite Jason Bateman on an episode of Little House on the Prairie (a career highlight for Billingsley, or so he says).
You can watch the interview after the jump, and all of Moviefone's interviews with the entire cast right over here. Couples Retreat hits theaters this weekend.
Cinematical Seven: The Best Big-Screen Geek Girls
Filed under: Fandom », Cinematical Seven », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Lists »
We often tie our Tuesday Cinematical Seven picks with DVD releases, and this time, I was torn. On the one side, there was the out-to-lunch Hollywood science that allowed there to be identical cousins in The Patty Duke Show. But aside from the wonder of creating a girl with a crappy computer, a barbie, and some David Lee Roth personality, there wasn't much I felt could battle with cousins who look exactly alike. But then there's also the DVD release of the first two seasons of Felicia Day's famous web series, The Guild. Sold -- The Best Big-Screen Geek Girls.
Elisabeth's Geek Beat recently discussed what it means to be geek, and for the purposes of this list: It's on-screen characters who have smarts and delight in things that usual characters don't. They might love learnin', comics, computers, geek flicks, or even following around freaky people and collecting warped memorabilia. They're a little bit different, all sorts of kickass, and all sorts of worthy for the Best Big Screen Geek Girls. Check out the rundown after the jump and weigh in with your own picks!
Exclusive Final 'Astro Boy' Poster!
Filed under: Action », Animation », Fandom », Family Films », Images », Posters »
Cinematical has just received this exclusive final poster for Astro Boy, set to fly into theaters on October 23rd. Based on the classic Japanese manga (and eventual television series), this spanky new colorful version of Astro Boy stars the voices of Freddy Highmore, Kristen Bell, Nicolas Cage, Bill Nighy and Nathan Lane -- and it follows a young robot with big-time super powers who ventures off on a journey in search of acceptance when he's doesn't quite meet the replacement son expectations of the scientist who created him. And it's on this journey that Astro Boy faces his toughest challenge yet: help save earth from an alien race threatening the planet.
From Todd Gilchrist's fantastic post, Astro Boy, Rebuilt and Reborn for the Silver Screen: "In modern computer animation there seems to be two standards – there's Pixar, and there's everybody else. But watching three clips from the film that were mostly finished, Astro Boy promised to have a style all its own – one that feels decidedly digital but is also elegant; one sequence in particular evoked the bustling cityscapes of the Star Wars planet Coruscant. But notwithstanding Astro Boy's familiar, cylindrical profile, the other robots who inhabit his world are intriguingly weird, operating less according to a semblance of scientific plausibility than the whim of their creators."
Check out the full-sized sparkling final poster below, and the latest trailer after the jump. Astro Boy hits theaters on October 23rd.
Gallery: 'Astro Boy' Final Poster
Magnolia Picks Up Adrienne Shelly's Posthumous 'Serious Moonlight'
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », New Releases », Distribution »
Among the many sad things about the 2006 murder of writer-actress-director Adrienne Shelly was the fact that she left behind a screenplay that was apparently intended to be her next film, after Waitress, which she finished just before her death. The acclaim Waitress received from critics and audiences throughout 2007 gave Shelly's husband, Andy Ostroy, even more reason to keep her spirit alive by producing the film, and now audiences will have a chance to see it.The film, Serious Moonlight, premiered at Tribeca in April, and now indieWIRE reports that it's been acquired by Magnolia Pictures, which will make it available through its video-on-demand system in November and release it theatrically in December. Cheryl Hines, who co-starred with Shelly in Waitress and is best known for her work on Curb Your Enthusiasm, directed the project, her first feature film.
SDCC: 'Astro Boy's Kristen Bell and Freddie Highmore
Filed under: Animation », Fandom », Interviews », ComicCon », Trailers and Clips »
Among the upcoming films on display here at Comic Con is Astro Boy, based on the popular Japanese manga series. From Todd's recent report on Astro Boy footage: "Astro Boy is based on Osamu Tekuza's 1952 manga, which was developed into a television series in 1963 and subsequently enjoyed multiple incarnations and reinventions in print and on film. The 2009 feature film promises to stay largely faithful to the sleek and simple design of the character, but with a few updates to his look and his mythology. As the second film from burgeoning animation studio Imagi after 2007's TMNT, Bowers said that he wanted to make sure that the story was both fun and substantive. [Read more]
We caught up with Kristen Bell, Freddie Highmore, director David Bowers and producer Maryann Garger and spoke to them about the film, the fanbase, the voice work and a whole lot more. Check out Kevin Kelly's video interviews after the jump.
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Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
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