music and lyrics Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I guess because I'm not a dedicated Hugh Grant fan I don't quite understand the impulse to handcuff myself to him. It might not have been the actions of an overzealous fan, but that's what happened to the star at the Dutch premiere of the romantic comedy Music and Lyrics with Drew Barrymore. Hollywood.com reported that Dutch TV personality Cielke Sijben from 101 TV approached Grant as he walked the red carpet at the Amsterdam Pathé theatre and without saying a word, calmly shackled herself to him. It is assumed that Sijben was performing a prank for a show for the network but that didn't make the incident any less bizarre for those nearby.

An onlooker at the event commented, "It was incredible. She appeared from nowhere and Grant couldn't believe it was happening." Police later arrested Sijben, but not before Grant had to stand attached to her for almost ten minutes before fire fighters could arrive to cut the handcuffs. Grant said nothing while waiting to be freed, but as soon as the cuffs were off he went back to working the press line alongside co-star Drew Barrymore. After Grant had fulfilled his publicity obligations he was described as seeming to be "relieved when he disappeared into the theatre--she could have been a maniac." Not to mention that the sensation of wearing handcuffs probably brought back some unpleasant memories.

Welcome to President's Day Weekend, where the multiplexes are stocked with a few pounds of new product, including an FBI espionage drama, a family-friendly kidventure flick, another Tyler Perry concoction, a flashy supehero epic and a sweet 'n' sunny rom-com. Dig in!

Breach -- 80 positive / 22 negative reviews at RottenTomatoes.com.

Pro: "There are some neat, almost delirious scenes of suspense, most of which play against cliche." -- Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Con: "A movie that urgently asserts itself as a spy thriller, but can never quite escape the Bureau's true preoccupation with who is getting the window offices." -- Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News

Pro: "While Breach plays effectively as a cat-and-mouse espionage thriller, its real drama derives from the murky moral and ethical frontier it crosses." -- Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

Con: "The big suspense sequence revolves around whether Hanssen will notice that his briefcase has been moved a smidgen, hardly on a par with Goldfinger giving 007 a laser beam vasectomy." -- Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Bonus! "Has real excitement and true craft behind it, which is just one part of the reason why it's such a pleasure to watch." -- James Rocchi, Cinematical

Bridge to Terabithia -- 66 positive / 12 negative at RT.com.

Pro: "A painfully grounded tale of the stripping away of naivete that is adolescence, and how heartbreakingly excruciating an experience that can be." -- MaryAnn Johnason, The Flick Filosopher

Con: "One wonders if the makers of Bridge to Terabithia actually have something against all the people who loved reading Katherine Paterson's award-winning book as children." -- Chris Barsanti, FilmCritic.com

Pro: "Mark my words: it is that rarified breed of masterpiece with a shelf life destined to span many generations." -- Dustin Putnam, TheMovieBoy.com

Con: "The whole affair has been unnecessarily coated in computer-generated magical kingdom fairy dust, no doubt in deference to the perceived needs of a young audience in a post-big screen "Chronicles of Narnia" environment." -- Mary F. Pols, Contra Costa Times

Bonus! "A heartfelt, respectful and remarkably well-done film." -- Kim Voynar, Cinematical

Damn, but there are a lot of movies opening wide this week -- or in the case of two of them, that opened wide on Wednesday. So I'm going to go waaaaay out on a limb and make this bold prediction: This is the weekend that Night at the Museum FINALLY falls out of the top five. You heard it here first! Or second, or third, or you know, whatever.

Ghost Rider: Nicolas Cage is the cyclist with the flaming skull and Eva Mendes is the love of his life in this adaptation of the Marvel comic book. To paraphrase the song from Grease 2, "He's a ghooooost rider ... and if he's hot enough, he will burn you through and through, whoa, whoa!" Granted, I may be the only person in history to reference Grease 2 and Ghost Rider in the same sentence ... and I'm OK with that. The film, which is about cyclist Johnny Blaze -- who sells his soul to Mephistopheles to save his father's life, and must then become the vigilante Ghost Rider -- is high-profile to say the least, and it's the only action film opening, and it's showing on a whopping 3,619 screens. You do the math.
Get showtimes & tix | Watch trailer | See Cage & Mendes chat |
Get pics, clips & more | Check out our top 20 comic book movies

Bridge to Terabithia: We swing to the other end of the moviegoing spectrum with another adaptation, this one of the Newbery (yes, that's how you spell it) Award-winning children's book. Josh Hutcherson (Zathura) is Jess, an introverted farm kid; AnnaSophia Robb (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is Leslie, the decidedly not introverted new girl who moves in next door. They become friends and create an imaginary kingdom, Terabithia, in the woods across the river. I saw the film last week, and, having read the book, I'll admit I was nervous at the prospect of this being turned into a fantasy flick, with what was only suggested on the page -- Terabithia and its inhabitants -- being made "real." But I shouldn't have worried. The movie manages to pump up the story's visual elements while capturing what makes the book special: the strength of Jess and Leslie's friendship, the power of imagination, and the joy and pain involved in having to grow up. Move over, Museum ...
Get showtimes & tix | Watch trailer | Go behind the scenes | Read Zooey Deschanel AIM chat

"Extraordinary how potent cheap music is."

-- Noel Coward

Music and Lyrics is a nice, light, bright romantic comedy -- a demonstration of the best and the worst of modern romantic comedy in action, in fact -- that only winds up winning you over because it's not hard to have a good time watching Hugh Grant be charming and Drew Barrymore be sweet. I mean, they're good at those things, so in many ways the success of Music and Lyrics is just the triumph of watching professionals at work. Grant is Alex Fletcher, who used to be one of the members of Pop!, an '80s pop band whose work evokes not-entirely-pleasant memories of Wham, A-Ha and ABC. Making a living off of royalties and mall appearances, Fletcher could nonetheless use a big break -- which he gets, as popstar-of-the-moment Cora Corman (Haley Bennett) asks Alex to write her a song.

Alex is a melody man -- and he knows this. After looking for hired-gun co-writers, into Alex's life wanders, in true modern romantic comedy fashion, the last thing he ever expected. ... Namely, substitute plant watering contractor Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), whose idle under-her-breath musings on Alex's music suggest that she may be a natural songwriter. Can the two of them not only finish a hit song before the end of the week but reconcile their growing attraction and affection? Do objects fall down when you drop them?

It's not my fault that when I see the phrase "romantic comedy," my eyes get all glassy and my brain starts thinking about pizza. I happen to be a huge fan of some really great "rom-coms," you know. There's When Harry Met Sally... and Say Anything... and, OK, basically any movie title that ends with an ellipses is a brilliant romantic comedy.

Oh, Serendipity! That one I liked. Of the dozens and dozens of pre-packaged chick-flick rom-coms I've seen, I kinda liked Serendipity. Oh, and Wimbledon. Kinda. Is that weird? I think I also liked that one with Hugh Jackman and the time travel. Oh wait, no, I didn't.

So when I stopped by trailer central to see what new goodies were on display, I offered an involuntary eyeball-roll for Music and Lyrics, which stars Hugh Grant as a has-been pop-star and Drew Barrymore as his late-career muse. And, god help me, I actually liked this trailer. Wait a sec, hold on; I gotta go watch the Transformers trailer one more time. Just to boost my testosterone levels.

I was actually feeling pretty positive about Music and Lyrics -- until I realized it was written and directed by Marc Lawrence, the man who gave you Life with Mikey, The Out-of-Towners, and three of Sandra Bullock's most rotten movies. Still, I do think Hugh Grant can be pretty funny (given the proper material) and I'll always have that Gen-x crush on Drew Barrymore (no matter how old the two of us get), so I suppose things could be much worse. The thing could star Debra Messing and Paul Walker.

Music and Lyrics opens on Valentine's Day, so go find a date right now before they all run out.

While many dog lovers pride themselves on owning a pure-bred animal, I've always been a fan of the mutt, the mongrel, the "Heinz 57 different varieties" if you will. A pure-bred has many fine qualities, but a mixed breed draws its traits from a greater pool of resources. If you've read previous installments of Trailer Park you know how we like to link the trailers together with a common theme. This week, though, I came across five truly noteworthy trailers that don't have a thing in common. Nothing. Nada. Bupkis. And it's the fact that these trailers' strengths lie in such divergent areas that makes the group so interesting as a whole. I give you Trailer Park: The Mongrel Edition.

The Astronaut Farmer
Billy Bob Thornton plays a farmer who is building a rocket in his back yard and is planning to launch himself into space. His loving and mostly supportive wife is played by Virginia Madsen. The locals think he's crazy, and he's recruited his children to help with the project, with his 15-year-old son manning mission control. This one's a head scratcher. It's either going to be an inspiring tale of a man with a can-do attitude, or a cloying pile of schmaltz. Erik Davis first told us about this one back in August of 2005.

It's funny how Hugh Grant might have started off as the adorably foppish romantic lead, but he has come to fully embrace his potential as the "smarmy jerk" that some of us suspected was lurking underneath all along. Maybe that sounded a little harsh, because lately what we've seen of Grant is the softening of the two extremes in romantic parts with a bit of "edge" -- there's an association you don't to often make, Hugh Grant and "edge".

Comingsoon.net has a look at the poster for Music and Lyrics, a new romantic comedy starring Grant and Drew Barrymore. Grant plays a washed up '80s pop singer who gets the chance for a comeback. Unable to write a song, he finds an unlikely writing partner in Barrymore, who'll be playing one of her many variations of the hot, weird girl. The whole thing sounds predictably cute and fuzzy with maybe a laugh here and there. The comedy back up for the romance includes TV alum Brad Garrett from Everybody Loves Raymond and Kristen Johnston from 3rd Rock from the Sun. The poster itself is kind of plain -- but with romantic comedies, most of them are. Music and Lyrics was written and directed by Marc Lawrence, and the film will be released on the gag-inducing date of February 14th, 2007.