the tale of despereaux Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Doubt
Philip Seymour Hoffman is thrilling to watch as a priest accused of abuse by god-like nun Meryl Streep. Streep's highly-studied Bronx accent cracks me up, but this is a crackerjack stage play by John Patrick Shanley that he adopted for the screen and directed. Viola Davis makes a deep impression, and Amy Adams is a cute nun. Buy it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read Jeffrey M. Anderson's review.

The Tale of Despereaux
Quoting myself: "A slapdash character study of two rodents ... a gentle and nurturing children's story, imparting lessons without being too condescending to its audience." This could become a family perennial. With the voices of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, and Emma Watson. Buy it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read my review.

The Day the Earth Stood Still
You've already seen the best bits in the trailer. Seriously. Even allowing for Keanu Reeves' intentionally blank slate and the prototypical "annoying kid," and crushing on Jennifer Connelly, this was a deadly bore that didn't come close to the far superior original. Skip it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read William Goss' review.

Yes Man
Jim Carrey stars in what our man Will Goss described as "a minor lark in the Canadian comedian's career ... familiar and funny in about equal measure." Still, Carrey familiarity + Zooey Deschanel makes me want to check it out. Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read William Goss' review.

Bedtime Stories

Adam Sandler has always seemed child-like, but Jette Kernion said: "Watching Bedtime Stories is about as delightful as peeking into your Christmas stocking and finding it empty except for a few lint-covered peppermints." (Note: Released this past Sunday.) Skip it.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read Jette Kernion's review.

You really expect a movie headlined by Will Smith -- the consensus Biggest Movie Star in the World -- to at least break $20 million in its opening weekend. You'd have to go back to 2001's Ali to find one that didn't. Instead, Seven Pounds -- poorly reviewed and marketed to emphasize the central mystery in a way that turned out mystifying -- played second fiddle to Jim Carrey's Yes Man, pulling in $16 million to Yes Man's $18.1 million.

The Seven Pounds result is actually not terribly surprising, even given the Will Smith factor -- the movie is a morose downer, with none of the uplifting, holiday-appropriate draw of 2006's affable The Pursuit of Happyness (another Smith-Gabriele Muccino collaboration), and the people looking for that sort of thing have a lot to choose from this time of year, most of it carrying more cred. I'm a bit more taken aback by Yes Man's relatively weak opening. For a high-concept Jim Carrey comedy, opening a good three weeks after the last big light-hearted offering, $18 million is uninspiring. It's in the same ballpark as Fun with Dick and Jane, opening around the same time three years ago, but that one went up against three other comedies opening the same weekend, and was harder to market. I wonder if Jim Carrey's draw might be waning a bit.

Mice have enjoyed a great ride in the movies. The animated variety first rose to prominence thanks to Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in the late 20s, enjoyed a rebirth as heroes in the late 70s and 80s with The Rescuers, The Secret of NIMH, The Great Mouse Detective, and An American Tail, and overflowed into live-action territory a few years later with Stuart Little. More recently, Flushed Away was a superior entertainment about a spoiled upper-class mouse who must learn to survive in the wild and wooly sewers, while the superb Ratatouille gave a rat a rare favorable turn in the spotlight as a culinary artist.

Adapted by Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Dave) from the award-winning book by Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux features both a rat and a mouse in leading roles, but the self-described fairy tale is much more than a slapdash character study of two rodents. The setup makes it sound like a cousin to both Flushed Away and Ratatouille: a disgraced rat must learn to survive in a dark dungeon, a mouse develops a friendship with a human, and gourmet soup features prominently. Yet as the tale unfolds, it deepens and broadens its themes to a welcome degree. Though it never climbs too far above average and too often embraces the familiar, Despereaux remains a gentle and nurturing children's story, imparting lessons without being too condescending to its audience.

While Despereaux is aimed squarely at the little ones, adults may enjoy the top-notch animation and appreciate the above average performances by a celebrity voice cast (Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci) that is well matched to the characters they play, which is a rare pleasure indeed.

America loves a good alien invasion apparently, so the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still took top honors. Holdovers from previous weeks filled out the rest of the top five with last week's two other big releases, Nothing Like the Holidays and Delgo, respectively taking seventh and eighteenth (eek!) place. Here's the top five:

1. The Day the Earth Stood Still: $30.4 million
2. Four Christmases: $13 million
3. Twilight: $7.9 million
4. Bolt: $7.4 million
5. Australia: $4.1 million

Three new ones this week featuring drama, laughs and something for the kids.

Seven Pounds
What's It All About: Will Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent who after a tragic accident seeks redemption through interaction with seven strangers.
Why It Might Do Well: In addition to Smith in the lead, the cast also includes Woody Harrelson and Rosario Dawson, and there's some decent buzz.
Why It Might Not Do Well: People rarely seek out an IRS agent.
Number of Theaters: 2,600
Prediction: $22 million

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that squeaks its mousy way into your heart every Friday. Last week we asked you to show your holiday spirit and give us your bestest captions for a photo from the new flick Nothing Like The Holidays. Congrats to our three Ho-Ho-Homies on their most glamorous win.

1. "The scene shortly before the tragic "Lead Pillow of '78" incident." -- Matt H.

2. "Wait, wait! This isn't cliché enough! Let's turn up the stereo and sing into hairbrushes instead!" -- Jonathan K.

3. "Pillow Fighting with my Ho-Ho-Homies" -- Jason F.

See full image and all captions


This week we're hanging with a mouse, a rat and a servant girl whose fates are intertwined with that of the castle's princess. I'm talking about The Tale of Despereaux, of course, and the three folks behind our most favorite cheesy captions will slip away with one The Tale of Despereaux youth t-shirt, one The Tale of Despereaux adult t-shirt, one The Tale of Despereaux youth hat, one The Tale of Despereaux adult hat, one The Tale of Despereaux bookmark, one The Tale of Despereaux croxs shoe decoration, one The Tale of Despereaux mask, one The Tale of Despereaux Princess Pea mask and one The Tale of Despereaux picture frame magnet. You know what to do next ...



Read the official rules for this contest

Harry Potter has got to end sometime, and by "sometime" I mean in less than three years when the second cinematic half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sees release. And some people would like to still have a career when that happens, thank you very much. To that end, Rupert Grint -- a.k.a. Ron Weasley -- has taken a role in an indie film called Cherry Bomb, which sounds about as far from Harry Potter as you can get without developing an erotic fixation on horses.

The film, written by acclaimed playwright Daragh Caville, focuses on three teens who set out for a wild weekend of drugs, sex and crime only to see it escalate into something far more serious than they imagined. It co-stars relative unknowns Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon, and is set for release next year.

While Daniel Radcliffe has tried more extreme methods of branching out (mainly by taking that infamous role in Equus, which is coming to Broadway per the above link) and Emma Watson hasn't done very much at all (she voices a character in this year's The Tale of Despereaux, but that seems to be it), Grint has spent what spare time he has toiling away in indieville. Cherry Bomb was preceded by the reasonably well-received and much less racy Driving Lessons, about a troubled boy's friendship with a retired actress.

After presenting The Spirit at last month's New York Comic-Con, Lionsgate feels good enough about Frank Miller's solo directorial debut to move it from its January 16th dead zone of a release date to Christmas Day, 2008. So instead of going up against Mall Cop, starring Kevin James as a wacky security guard, and the Notorious B.I.G. biopic, The Spirit will face off against Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories, the supposedly ultra-heartwarming Marley & Me, The Tale of Despereaux, and the aftershocks of Twilight and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

"Adult" Christmas counterprogramming has not traditionally fared too well. Last year's Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem actually did okay, but remember Black Christmas? No? What about Darkness? The move is indeed a vote of confidence, but it might up throwing the film to the wolves. The key is to position it as a prestige picture rather than a throwaway. There's been enough fanfare around the promotional materials released thus far to make that look like a possibility. If Lionsgate can put it on people's radar in advance as a Christmas Movie to See, rather than have it randomly show up to compete against the holiday heavy-hitters, it could work.

Take a look at the trailer for The Spirit here.

I'm not sure what it is about these animated features (Easy paycheck? No make-up? They can work in their pajamas?), but everyone who is anyone shows up to lend their voice. Case in point: Universal has snagged one helluva cast for The Tale of Despereaux, based on Kate DiCamillo's award-winning children's book.

Story interwines the fates of three misfits: a banished mouse, a rat who loves the light and a young servant girl with cauliflower ears. Joining the pic's cast are -- deep breath -- Justin Long (as the mouse, Despereaux), Dustin Hoffman (as the rat), Tracey Ullman (as the young girl), Kevin Kline (as a cook for the king who is also banished), Robbie Coltrane (as a palace jailer), Ciarán Hinds (as the devilish leader of the sewer rats), Christopher Lloyd (as an old, blind mouse), William H. Macy (as Despereaux's father), Stanley Tucci (as a genie) and last, but certainly not least, is Sigourney Weaver (as the narrator).

Mike Johnson (Corpse Bride) will direct, while Gary Ross (Pleasantville) will pen the script. Currently, Universal is eying a late 2008 release. Though its cast isn't as grand, Pixar hits theaters this summer with their own mouse tale, Ratatouille.