Review: Morning Glory

Morning Glory stars Rachel McAdams as Becky a young enthusiastic producer who after losing her job as a producer on a New Jersey morning show is offered the position of executive producer on a Good Morning America like morning show called Day Break. Becky feeling the need to not give up on her dreams accepts the position at the struggling news program and has to deal with pulling the show out of dead last and managing its two feuding lead anchors Mike (played by Harrison Ford) and Colleen (played by Diane Keaton).

Now that all that summary stuff is out of the way lets break down this movie shall we. Rachel McAdams plays Becky perfectly in that one moment she is this innocent motivated individual, and then the next she is obsessed with her job and wont let anything come between her and the show. Harrison Ford plays Mike Pomeroy who is essentially your Dan Rather type news personality, he has seen it all, won it all, and has done it all... except morning television. Diane Keaton plays Colleen Peck who is pretty contempt with sitting behind the desk at 5am reporting about how to make Pinatas and doing cooking segments. The chemistry between Ford and Keaton is absolutely fantastic and makes for some great scenes. However the one issue with Fords performance is he plays the character so gruff and at sometimes crazy that I was expecting him to grab someone by the collar and demand his family back at some point of the film.

There is also a romantic subplot involving Patrick WIlson as Adam Bennett, a producer who used to work with Mike. Ultimately I believe that the whole subplot wasn't exactly necessary to the main plot of the movie and that the film could have survived without it. Another major issue with it was how the film tried to be dramatic, while it was understandable where the film was going with these moments tonally I felt it was just played a little too dramatic (and the score at these points definitely did not help).

As for the rest of the cast, Jeff Goldblum as Jerry Barnes the head of the stations news department (at least that's the position I believe the character was) was very enjoyable. Also of note is the actor who played the Day Break weather man (for some reason I can not find out the name of the actor who played him) but he diffidently has some funny little non sequitur type scenes toward the middle of the film. Plus there are some smile inducing cameos that both young and older viewers will enjoy.

All in all its definitely a good film but it has its issues. There was initially some award buzz around this film but I do not really see it to be completely honest.

8/10

Teaser Art for Darren Bousman's 11-11-11

A film that certainly has me interested (as my 21st birthday falls on 11-11-11) is director Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw 2-4, Repo The Genetic Opera, and the upcoming remake of Mothers Day) upcoming project, 11-11-11. We have a first look at teaser art for the film which you can see below (and can see bigger versions of if you click them).







The film throws focus on the date 11-11-11, a time when a supposed gateway will open and something from another world will pass into ours. A website has also been revealed 11-11-11themovie.com (but there is currently nothing on the site).

First Look: Red State

Here is the teaser poster for director Kevin Smiths first horror movie, RED STATE. The film currently has no distributor and Smith plans to screen it at this years Sundance Film Festival and see what happens but plans to release it next year. The film follows a group of misfits encounteering fundamentalism gone to the extreme in Middle America. It stars Michael Parks, John Goodman, Stephen Root, Melissa Leo, Kevin Pollack, and Michael Angarano.

Universal sets release dates for Tent Poles

Universal Pictures today set tentative release dates for there tent pole films. (Also known as their BIG PICTURES).

Larry Crowne, the Playtone production directed by and starring Tom Hanks and starring Hanks and Julia Roberts, will be released on Friday, July 1, 2011.

Safe House, a Stuber production starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds and directed by Daniel Espinosa, will be released on Friday, February 10, 2012.

CONTRABAND, a Working Title production starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale and directed by Baltasar Kormakur, will be released on Friday, March 16, 2012.

Untitled Judd Apatow, written, directed and produced by Judd Apatow, will be released on Friday, June 1, 2012.

The Bourne Legacy, a Kennedy/Marshall and Captivate Entertainment production written and directed by Tony Gilroy, will be released on Friday, August 3, 2012.

Ouija, a Hasbro Entertainment and Platinum Dunes production, will be released on Friday, November 9, 2012.

47 Ronin, a Stuber production starring Keanu Reeves and directed by Carl Rinsch, will be released on Wednesday, November 21, 2012.

Snow White And The Huntsman, produced by Joe Roth and directed by Rupert Sanders, will be released on Friday, December 21, 2012.

The Dark Tower, an Imagine Entertainment production to be directed by Ron Howard, will be released on Friday, May 17, 2013.

My Ideal Rocky Horror Picture Show Remake Cast

Recently it has been announced that Ryan Murphy (creator of Glee & Nip/Tuck) may possibly be directing a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for FOX 2000. While I think this is an awful idea just due to how close and treasured this film has become over the last 35 years to so many people, more then likely its going to happen. So I actually have some thoughts on who my ideal RHPS remake cast would be. Keep in mind most of these suggestions are based more on acting and looks then on singing ability for the most part.


Lets starts with the biggie, Dr Frank N Furter. Its kind of hard to live up to the original film performance by Tim Curry, but may I suggest another Brit for the remake. Mr Peter Serafinowicz in my opinion should closely be looked at for playing Dr Frank n Furter, he has great comedic timing, he is tall so he has got the legs for the part and he also has the ability to be perfectly deadpan.



So for the part of Brad Majors, may I suggest a "Superman". By Superman I'm referring to Brandon Routh. Brad kind of represents that all American looking guy although he is also alittle bit nerdy, well if Superman Returns showed us anything its that Mr Routh most certainly can pull off the all American slightly nerdy look.




Now every Brad needs a Janet right. Well it needs to be someone who is short, is innocent looking, but can also be convincingly slutty, I feel Amy Adams would be a good fit for this part and would play nicely against Brandon Routh.





A part I found hard to recast was Magenta. However like a bolt of lightning it hit me, Helena Bonham Carter, she has played eccentric characters in the past and if Sweeney Todd showed us anything she has a good singing voice.





I found myself considering another Tim Burton contributor for the part of Riff Raff, Danny Elfman. He has got that creepy kind of look to him and he is the former lead singer for the 80's band Oingo Boingo, so he does have some singing ability.





In particular I spent a good amount of time trying to cast Rocky. But in all honesty I think this is the part that needs to be played by a unknown, really no one of notice came to my mind when I tried to recast the part, so why not do a open casting call and let the fates decide.




For the role of the wheelchair bound Dr Scott, I thought hey how about someone who has previously played another doctor, Christopher Llyod, the role calls for someone older, smart, and a touch eccentric.






Eddie in all honesty should again be played by Meatloaf . He still pretty much looks the same 35 years later I would just recommend he loses 20 pounds and they use a good amount of make up, its a small part and think it would be a funny connector to the original film.





Now as for Colombia the spit fire tap dancer played in the original by Nell Campbell, interestingly I feel if Ryan Murphy is hired to direct he needs to pull in Heather Morris (better known as Brittany on GLEE) for the part. Out of what I have seen of the Rocky Horror glee episode (which I so far think looks like a mess) what I've seen of Morris as Colombia is great.





When it comes to the The Criminologist I felt the part needed to be played by a distinguished older actor, someone with honor and a award winner. So why not cast Anthony Hopkins as the time warp teaching narrator?






The Lips (a.k.a Trixie or Usherette) these are the iconic lips that sing the opening song of the film, Science Fiction Double Feature. So I feel if we are remaking it we need the most iconic lips of this generation for the part which although it sounds like an awful joke, i feel that it has to be the lips of Angelina Jolie.




So that is my two cents, as someone who loves the original film it was extremely hard to recast these iconic characters, but we shall see if any of these people end up getting cast in the parts I suggested.