In the Works: Man on a Ledge and Dark Shadows

• Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) is cast as a reporter in Man on a Ledge.  She joins Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell and Ed Harris.  Why does this movie give me echoes of Phone Booth?
• Giant Mechanical Man, an independent film about a zoo employee who falls in love with a street performer adds Jenna Fischer, Topher Grace, Malin Akerman and Chris Messina to its cast.  Fischer's husband Lee Kirk will be directing the film.  
• Ooh, something to fill the Harry Potter void?  Jackson Rathborne (The Last Airbender) and Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Wild Target) are in talks to join Shadowlands, a 3D fantasy film based on Peter Straub's novel about two young boys who learn magic from a famous magician.  
• Is Alexandre Desplat returning to score the music for final Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows Part 2?
• It's always news when Tim Burton and Johnny Depp work together.  They will be making their 8th film with each other if Dark Shadows gets through.  The movie will be based on the daytime soap which aired from 1966 to 1971.  Depp would play the vampire Barnabas Collins and Seth Grahame-Smith, writer of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has been asked to write the screenplay.

Link of the Day: In Due Date, Zach Galifianakis plays a man who is a big fan of Two and a Half Men and even has a fansite dedicated to them, www.itsrainingtwoandahalfmen.com.  Thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can check it out here!  You're welcome.

Movie Review: Due Date

Imagine taking a cross-country trip with someone you barely know but already dislike so much.  Due Date is that film.  Robert Downey Jr. plays Peter Highman, an architect trying to make home to Los Angeles from Atlanta to witness the birth of his first child.  Along the way, he has the misfortune to run into Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) , an actor who's headed to Hollywood to make it big.  On Two and a Half Men!!

The whole film is a misadventure after misadventure as the two men antagonize each other, tolerate each other and slowly become friends.  Ethan is a man-child with a dog, Sonny, who doesn't quite get why Peter is so mad at him all the time.  Peter, on the other hand, is in danger of turning into The Hulk whenever Ethan frustrates him.  The laughs in the movie are big, I was crying with laughter many many times.  But somehow, I was expecting more from the director who brought us Hangover.  Peter's personality changed so many times over the course of the film, it was almost like he had multiple personalities and there were just a few things unexplained for me.  Too many people are credited for the story but it's barely plausible. But overall, a comedy worth watching only if you have nothing else to do.

Directed by Todd Phillips; Screenplay by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Adam Sztykiel, Todd Phillips, Story by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland; Cinematography by Lawrence Sher; Music by Christophe Beck; Edited by Debra Neil-Fisher

Also in the cast: Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx, Juliette Lewis, and Danny McBride.


Rating:   

Trailer Watch - Comedy Edition

As the year ends, it seems that the films get more serious.  Most of the Oscar competition heats up after Thanksgiving.  Drama after drama, you need a break.  Here are a few of the upcoming comedies that should find favor with audiences.

Releasing this week is Easy A, directed by Will Gluck, a high-school comedy starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Cam Gigandet and Lisa Kudrow.  Whew, that's a lot of names!

Description from Apple Trailers: After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl (Emma Stone) sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne's in "The Scarlet Letter," which she is currently studying in school - until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.



This movie is a good vehicle for Emma Stone who banking a lot on this film.  She let go of the lead in next year's Sucker Punch to star in this.  Hope she doesn't regret it.  As usual, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson have the best lines in the trailer as Stone's parents.

Brain Grazer and Ron Howard present The Dilemma, a comedy about a man (Vince Vaughn) who isn't sure what to do when he finds out that his best friend's wife may be having an affair. Hijinks ensue. Kevin James plays Vaughn's best friend.  Also in the cast are Jennifer Connelly (in a comedy, seriously!), Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum and Queen Latifah.



I know that Howard has directed comedies before but somehow, I've begun to associate him with dramas recently. Second film release for Winona Ryder after The Black Swan. Is she back for good?

This one made me cry....with laughter. Oh, man, I am still trying to recover. From the director of Hangover, Todd Philipps, Due Date stars Robert Downey Jr, Zach Galifianakis and Jamie Foxx. Downey plays a man who is forced, emphasis on forced, to travel cross-country with an eccentric man, Zach G., as he tries to make in time before his wife (Michelle Monaghan) delivers their first child.



Nobody does indignant like Downey, Jr. His reactions to Zach G.'s characters are priceless. And the dog!!

Mark your calendars, November 5 (worldwide release).

Around the world in Posters!

It's already released but I couldn't resist putting up these cute Korean posters.