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Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Screen on the Green’s final film: ‘Footloose’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The final film for this year’s free Screen on the Green will be … (drumroll, please) … 1984’s “Footloose” with a toe-tapping Kevin Bacon.
Moviegoers voted online at Peachtreetv.com for Screen on the Green’s fifth and final film to be shown on June 26. The losers: “Rocky” and “Back to the Future.”
The series starts May 29 with “Jaws” at Centennial Olympic Park. Other films will be “Big Momma’s House” on June 5, “Chicago” on June 12 and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” on June 19.
Due to the drought, this year’s Screen on the Green was temporarily moved from Midtown’s Piedmont Park to downtown.
By the way, guess I should have voted in the final film selection. I would have preferred “Back to the Future.”
What’s your feeling about the choice of “Footloose”? Will you go to Screen on the Green this year?
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Get ready for ‘Iron Man’ sequel in 2010
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How hot is “Iron Man”? Smokin’, my friends.
The movie’s not even been out a week and already Marvel’s film division has picked a date for the sequel: April 30, 2010. Which means the live-action comic book character will once again open Hollywood’s summer movie season.
Other Marvel films in the pipeline: “Thor” on June 4, 2010; “The First Avenger: Captain America” on May 6, 2011; and “The Avengers” (which teams Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor) in July 2011.
Final opening box-office tallies place “Iron Man” at $102.1 million in North America for Thursday-Sunday and at $198.2 million worldwide for Wednesday-Sunday.
And early indications are that “Iron Man” could finish No. 1 again this weekend against “Speed Racer.” “Iron Man” is playing in more than 4,100 theaters while “Speed Racer” will debut in about 3,600.
Are you stoked by Marvel’s sudden surge and its plans to bring more characters to the big screen?
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Does ‘Speed Racer’ have enough velocity?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The summer’s second big movie, “Speed Racer,” better get it in gear.
With mostly unflattering early reviews from older critics (New York Magazine calls it an “eyesore”) and fan grades being all over the map (boxofficemojo.com readers who’ve seen the film generally give it an “A” or an “F”), “Speed Racer” might have a hard time this weekend climbing over the formidable, fun and entrenched “Iron Man” at the box office.
Rated PG, “Speed Racer,” starring Emile Hirsch in the title role, is a futuristic homage to the 1960s cartoon. A simple good-vs.-evil race car story, it’s all pop art colors and built-for-speed races where the cars and camera, like a churning carnival ride, go up, down, swing to the side, flip over, turn, twist and defy gravity.
“You might admire it as a Warholian blur of pop art,” writes Ian Nathan of Empire Magazine, “gawk and gasp at its Hot-Wheels-for-real dynamism, or get a headache.”
In Atlanta, Warner Bros. screened the two-hours-plus movie for critics on Monday night. Here’s what moviegoers will likely be talking about after “Speed Racer” opens on Friday (there are also a few late-night Wednesday and late-night Thursday screenings at several theaters):
THE COLORS AND IMAGERY: The film has a distinct otherworld feel, a kind of cross between “The Cat in the Hat” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The comic-book colors are bright and deeply vivid, the kind John Waters will love. Visually, it’s as if humans dwell in a candy-colored world eons after the live-action “The Flintstones.” “Speed Racer” is also the type of film that literally shows a greedy character with dollar signs in his eyes.
THE MONKEY: Speed’s hyperventilating little brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) has a pet chimp named Chim Chim, who steals every scene it’s in. The monkey hangs in there to deliver surprised expressions and, in explaining one reason why the film is rated PG, does what a fighting monkey does — hurls poo.
CULTURAL REFERENCES: There are lots of them, including dialog that drops a mention of the Commodore 64, the popular 8-bit home computer from the early 1980s.
THE TALK, TALK, TALK: There seems to be more race car announcers and analysts than main actors (one announcer is Peter Fernandez, who provided the voice of Speed Racer and Racer X in six episodes of the original “Speed Racer”). The movie overflows with exposition and plot updates and reprises. Perhaps it’s an unintentional joke, but when the young Speed Racer in school is supposed to be taking a test while his mind wants to be elsewhere, the words on the page literally become “blah blah blah.”
THE VIDEO GAMESMANSHIP: Speed’s macho car, the Mach 5, is outfitted with all kinds of James Bond-style gadgetry, all operated with a circular control panel with buttons labeled “A,” “B,” “C,” etc., just like your joystick at home.
Are you planning on seeing “Speed Racer”?
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