tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-369217662009-11-28T05:32:43.826-05:00Movie News, Reviews, and Commentary by Matthew LucasMatthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.comBlogger1611125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-35964793816929498822009-11-27T14:42:00.002-05:002009-11-27T14:43:44.096-05:00

This...looks amazing! I was a sucker for Rambo...I am totally in the bag for this!The Expendables - Trailerby flogoo

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-33702450340762026572009-11-27T02:03:00.012-05:002009-11-27T23:38:34.846-05:00

In my earlier, formative days of being a film buff, my only immediate source of film news or reviews was Entertainment Weekly. I eagerly awaited each issue, got excited every time a new Fall Movie Preview or Oscar Preview issue was released, and pretty much lapped up every piece of information from it I could get.As I grew older and my horizons expanded, I left behind EW and now rarely, if ever,

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-80990412517260701722009-11-25T16:29:00.002-05:002009-11-25T16:34:33.186-05:00

From The Dispatch:I seriously do not understand how something so drab and lifeless can be so hugely successful. It's two hours and 10 minutes of rambling, pointless drivel, where nothing of any real interest happens. The sad thing is that people are eating this stuff up in droves. I'm not sure what that says about a culture where this is considered great entertainment. Regardless, I don't want

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-8093375186536705552009-11-23T00:21:00.001-05:002009-11-23T00:21:48.256-05:00

Source: Awards Daily

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-57385955841133864072009-11-19T16:15:00.005-05:002009-11-19T17:49:43.652-05:00

In the world of film, a new film by director Pedro Almodovar is always cause for celebration. Already a living legend, Almodovar's films were even the subject of a touring retrospective called Viva Pedro in 2006, in honor of his then latest film, Volver. His collaboration with Penelope Cruz has been developing over the years, with Cruz appearing in 4 of his films since 2007 - Live Flesh, All

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-38788425328696283812009-11-19T15:43:00.001-05:002009-11-19T15:44:35.689-05:00

Source: Hollywood-Elsewhere

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-18434551648925176462009-11-18T18:51:00.002-05:002009-11-18T19:03:23.282-05:00

AMPAS has announced the 15 documentaries that will compete for five nomination slots for this year's Academy Awards. They are:“The Beaches of Agnes”“Burma VJ”“The Cove”“Every Little Step”“Facing Ali”“Food, Inc.”“Garbage Dreams”“Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders”“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”“Mugabe and the White African”“Sergio”

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-40714874311159465172009-11-18T17:26:00.002-05:002009-11-18T17:29:36.002-05:00

From The Dispatch:It's all just so mind-numbly inane. For a film about the end of the world, "2012" is surprisingly dull. While destruction on this huge scale may be new, we've seen everything else before. It wears out its welcome at a ridiculous two hours and 40 minutes, throwing out every cliché in the disaster movie handbook. But in the end, it's all for naught, because "2012" is every bit the

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-1687133890866789612009-11-18T16:52:00.004-05:002009-11-18T16:53:13.311-05:00

I want to make a t-shirt out of this and wear it to see New Moon.How many fan girls do you think will assume I just misspelled Bella?

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-49121031528661055572009-11-17T17:03:00.005-05:002009-11-24T01:53:33.971-05:00

Films dealing with the Iraq war have not exactly had a solid track record with critics or audiences. While The Hurt Locker was the first Iraq combat film to make headway with either group earlier this year, garnering quite a bit of Oscar heat in the process, those films that dealt with the aftermath of the war, the soldiers on the home front, have been largely neglected.I'm thinking mainly of

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-44779167264104833172009-11-16T16:43:00.002-05:002009-11-16T16:44:16.368-05:00

Source: Awards Daily

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-78489097656067600752009-11-15T23:21:00.004-05:002009-11-15T23:31:15.365-05:00

I was talking with my former film professor today, who I had for World Cinema I & II, Film Theory and Criticism, and my Advanced Film class on Jean-Luc Godard, and we started talking about what we thought the best films of the decade were.His pick for the #1 film of the 2000s was Guy Maddin's 2000 short, The Heart of the World. It can be seen in its entirety on YouTube. Check it out, it's

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-35089016709300509192009-11-15T16:04:00.005-05:002009-11-15T16:08:31.906-05:00

After suffering through Roland Emmerich's latest disaster porno, 2012, I realized its plot could be easily summed up in just a few actions.The characters get in a car and speed away from an oncoming disaster. Then they jump in a plane and narrowly escape said disaster. Then there is a tearful farewell. Then they get out of the plane, get in another car, and speed away from another disaster,

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-36334354272953035102009-11-14T17:25:00.018-05:002009-11-14T18:36:55.016-05:00

For several years, my friend Roman Presnell has been writing brief but hilarious movie reviews on the Facebook application, Flixter. And I think they're just too funny to not have a wider audience. Their scathing, tongue-in-cheek wit often hits on some pretty incisive truths on film. But let's cut the bullcrap...they're damn funny. Here is the first entry in what I hope will become an

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-6101268186907821902009-11-12T15:20:00.007-05:002009-11-12T16:39:29.218-05:00

2009 may go down in history as the year that people stood up and really began to question the righteousness and effectiveness of our economic system. For years it has been one of the ultimate taboos to even be thought of as questioning capitalism. To do so was to be labeled a communist or worse. At one point in time it was career suicide.But now, we have had no less than three major

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-46578019999154637092009-11-11T21:38:00.004-05:002009-11-11T23:26:34.248-05:00

Few films in recent memory have captured emotional nuances of first love quite as well as Jane Campion's Bright Star. Every gesture, every glance, every moment exudes the aching tenderness of young lovers feeling the pang of love for the first time.It's a rare and impressive feat. Campion does not have the benefit Celine Dion or a soaring, romantic score to transport us into the hearts of 19th

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-42922775003561929992009-11-11T17:19:00.004-05:002009-11-11T17:24:53.462-05:00

According to Cinema Blend, Robert Zemeckis, fresh off doing A Christmas Carol (read my review here) is planning on taking on the story of The Nutracker as his next 3-D mo-cap project.Someone please stop this man before he ruins Christmas. As I said in my review of A Christmas Carol: "Zemeckis has shown himself to no longer be a filmmaker interested in substance, but rather technical gimmicks."

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-50146069620429286392009-11-11T16:45:00.003-05:002009-11-11T16:48:38.177-05:00

From The Dispatch:Disney has done better with this story before, way back in 1983 with "Mickey's Christmas Carol." With this effort, it seems as if the real substance of the story has been forsaken for technological panache. The elegant simplicity of Dickens' novel is lost somewhere underneath the eye-popping visuals, whittled down to nothing more than a series of pixels and binary code. That

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-10651855171044172862009-11-06T12:22:00.005-05:002009-11-07T11:38:01.753-05:00

On paper, The Horse Boy sounds almost unbearable. It's a documentary about a family with a severely autistic son who discover that he seems to have a unique connection to horses, and set off to Mongolia where horses are a major part of the culture and shamanic traditions are still very strong, in hopes that young Rowan can be helped, or even cured.It has all the outward ingredients of a sappy,

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-73569460911490664462009-11-04T19:46:00.003-05:002009-11-04T19:55:49.507-05:00

From The Dispatch:The cynics can sneer all they want, but Michael Jackson meant a lot to a lot of people, and this chance to see the final concert that never was is a truly special event. Even to a non-fan like me, it's readily apparent that Jackson was a rare and unique talent who was taken from us too soon and deserved to have his final bow."This Is It" may not be the ideal in that regard, but

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-49793324819912046452009-10-31T00:01:00.001-04:002009-10-31T00:01:00.763-04:00

That's right, 3 years ago today, From the Front Row debuted on the web. Last year, I predicted that it would continue to grow, and it has. The record setting hit count for 2008 has already been surpassed, as From the Front Row continues to draw in tens of thousands of visitors every year.2009 has brought some changes - I began writing for In Review Online, and officially become important enough

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-62237682572091034442009-10-29T23:57:00.004-04:002009-10-30T00:12:57.060-04:00

Samuel Fuller's directorial debut, I Shot Jesse James, is now available for free at The Auteurs.This is one of my favorite Westerns. Not only is it great fun, but its also surprisingly psychologically astute. It focuses more on the inner turmoil of Robert Ford, after he guns down his friend and partner, Jesse James, in exchange for a reward and judicial immunity. Unlike in Andrew Dominick's

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-25783059758618283622009-10-28T18:23:00.001-04:002009-10-28T18:26:03.116-04:00

From The Dispatch:The nighttime scenes as seen through the unblinking eye of the video camera are chillingly effective. The problem is that everything in between is incredibly dull. Watching "Paranormal Activity" is like being trapped in a closet with the world's most irritating yuppies. The characters are bland and annoying, and their banter is grating and obnoxious. I found myself longing for

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-32220050755863139792009-10-28T00:22:00.002-04:002009-10-28T00:23:52.400-04:00

As a devoted Clint Eastwood fan, I can't wait to see this. The trailer is fantastic, and from the looks of things Morgan Freeman is going to be great. Check it out for yourself:

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36921766.post-35163489291207241472009-10-27T00:37:00.004-04:002009-10-27T00:41:00.075-04:00

From The Guardian:Samantha Geimer, who was 13 years old when Polanski gave her drugs and had sex with her, today asked a Los Angeles court to drop the charges against the Chinatown director. Polanski fled the US in 1978 after pleading guilty to illegal sex. He was arrested in Zurich last month and is fighting extradition to the US.In a court filing today, Geimer said she has been besieged by

Matthew Lucashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04031967293313685427noreply@blogger.com5