Friday The 13th [Movie Preview/Teaser]

Changeling - Interviews with Angelina Jolie & Clint Eastwood

Description:
Some images aspire to be something beyond just images. They seek to become objects of veneration: icons. Angelina Jolie, as she appears in Clint Eastwood's Changeling, is more than a mere actress or an over-publicized movie star: She's an icon of suffering. Zinedine Zidane, at least in Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's portrait, is not simply a star athlete or even the world's greatest soccer player: He is projected as 21st-Century Man.

Jolie doesn't perform in Changeling; she resolutely presents herself to the audience for admiration. The main attraction in Eastwood's two-fisted snake-pit weepie is the spectacle of Jolie's steely self-possessed suffering. As she lost her husband to Islamic terrorists in A Mighty Heart, Our Lady of Humanitarian Narcissism here endures another dreadful fate: losing her child to a mob of knaves, know-nothings, and psychos, even as she's persecuted by the entire state institutional apparatus of California.

Based on a forgotten tabloid saga that illuminates a particularly lurid Los Angeles guilty secret and might have appealed equally to neo-noirist James Ellroy or cultural historian Mike Davis, Changeling is set in a late-'20s L.A. that Eastwood has lovingly repopulated with the streetcars and Model T's of his own childhood. Jolie's Christine Collins is a single mom and phone-company supervisor. One afternoon, her nine-year-old son vanishes from their modest bungalow; five months later, the LAPD announces with all due hoopla that the boy has been found. A reunion is staged, reporters are invited, and although dazed Christine immediately realizes that the cops are handing her another kid, she's told to take him home on a "trial basis—he has nowhere else to go."

The Collins mystery is predicated at least in part on the historical Christine's extreme suggestibility. Why did she accept this strange boy as her own? But this is subsumed in a greater mystery: Who could possibly compel Angelina Jolie to do anything she didn't want to do? Despite ample physical evidence that the child is not hers, as well as assistance from a teacher, a dentist, and a self-regarding radio preacher (John Malkovich), Christine is browbeaten by the police, bullied by the press, and finally committed to a local bedlam seemingly filled with people whose mental illness consisted in pissing off the cops.

There's no denying Changeling's moldy grandeur. The movie is Eastwood's version of a silent-era melodrama (and given the anachronistic psycho-babble, it might better have been one). Who doesn't want to like Changeling? Clint Eastwood too is an icon. He succeeded John Wayne as America's greatest cowboy and, billed as America's greatest living director, glared out from the cover of last month's Sight & Sound, a craggy object of uncritical devotion. It's been many years (and many mediocre films) since the near-successive appearance of Bird, White Hunter, Black Heart, and Unforgiven established Eastwood's directorial reputation. Where the existential war film Letters From Iwo Jima attested to his viability, Changeling signals only his ambition.

Eastwood's latest is an effort to be bracketed with Chinatown or L.A. Confidential in mythologizing the secret history of Los Angeles. But burdened by a convoluted script and an ensemble-proof leading lady, the director fails to illuminate a particular corrupt system. Meanwhile, this static, sluggish movie grows ever darker—even as it encompasses murder, pederasty, captivity, intimations of the Manson family, multiple courtroom scenes, and a death-row confrontation. For her part, Jolie reverts to her goth-girl origins—her mask of tragedy suggesting a skull costumed for Halloween in a cloche hat and ghoulishly kissable wax red lips.

Jolie is most convincing in her demand for recognition—and Eastwood is glad to oblige. Late in the movie, Christine confidently predicts that It Happened One Night will be the surprise Oscar winner of 1934. Soon after, she strikes a pose identified with Stella Dallas, the motherhood tearjerker for which Barbara Stanwyck received her first nomination in 1937. Image trumps performance. One needn't be clairvoyant to know that somewhere in Hollywood, someone is imagining her acceptance speech.

http://www.blacktree.tv

http://my.blacktree.tv

Meagan Good -- Saw V

Actress Meagan Good arrives at the premiere of Lionsgate’s ‘Saw V’ at the Mann’s Chinese 6 Theaters on Tuesday in Los Angeles, California. She co-stars in the upcoming movie.

I really like all the Saw movies, but with the beautiful Meagan Good co-starring in this sequel I will be first in line!

Journey to the Center of the Earth on Blu-ray, DVD on 10/28/08!

World Movies: 'Frost/Nixon'

Description:
The stars of political drama 'Frost/Nixon' talk about the film's retelling of the post-Watergate interviews between David Frost and former president Richard Nixon. (Oct. 22)

Comedian Rudy Ray Moore dies

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Rudy Ray Moore, a raunchy 1970s comedian who played the title role of a flashy pimp in the movie Dolemite and influenced a generation of rappers, has died. He was 81.
Moore died Sunday evening at an Akron nursing home from complications of diabetes, said his brother, Gerald Moore.

Services will be held in Akron and Spokane, Wash., where his mother and other family members live, he said.

Rudy Ray Moore was part of the heyday of black "party records." His stage personality featured blunt sex routines but, unlike contemporaries Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor, he never crossed over to mainstream white audiences.

The Washington Post said in a 1992 profile that Moore was "an astounding renderer of 'toasts,' — elaborately boastful, profane and scatological tales of life in the old-style urban subculture of pimps, prostitutes, gamblers and badmen. His husky, down-home voice is ideal for it."

Moore said he developed the style, later a feature of rap music, by listening to men sitting outside joints "drinking beer and lying and talking (expletive)."

Moore played the fast-talking pimp and title character in the 1975 film Dolemite. In later years Moore collaborated with 2 Live Crew, Big Daddy Kane and Snoop Dogg.

Moore's other acting credits during the Blaxploitation era of black action films included The Human Tornado in 1976 and Disco Godfather in 1979.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Strangers on Blu Ray and DVD today!!!

Purchase Here

The Incredible Hulk in Stores Now

Purchase Here

Zac Efron & Corbin Bleu lead an ensemble cast in, HSM3

Description:
Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique
Coleman return to the roles they created in the international smash hit High School Musical
and the record-breaking High School Musical 2, that catapulted them to the center of the
worldwide HSM phenomenon.
One of the untold stories of the High School Musical franchise is how talented the cast
really is, says Barsocchini. Yes, theyve all become teen idols. But theyre good young
actors. Our principal cast has molded those characters into something that kids love. Thats the
secret.
Ortega adds, The chemistry the kids have with each other elevates it and makes it
something more than just telling a fun story. They are the most generous lot you could ever
hope to work with. They really come to work with the right things on their minds.
11
SENIORS STORY
Everyones favorite high school sweethearts Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez—played by
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens—still front the troupe.
Im very excited for High School Musical 3 to be on the big screen, says Efron. This
is what weve been waiting for, what weve been working towards, and it feels great because
I feel like we earned it. Were just regular kids that made High School Musical and now its
progressing.
Efron has grown up with his character. Troy is a lot of different things, he says. Hes a
very average kid going through high school, dealing with everyday choices. But the fun thing
about him is that hes got these hidden talents. So Troys got a lot to balance: his basketball
career, his newfound love of singing, and then of course, Gabriella. Whatll happen to them
after high school? You dont know. Its like typical high school drama that we get to sing
about.
According to writer Peter Barsocchini, the Troy Bolton character was inspired by the great
Pittsburgh Steelers football player Lynn Swan. Barsocchini went to high school with Swan;
they played on the same basketball team. One day we were riding on a bus to a game and he
said You know, Id really like to try ballet, says Barsocchini. Theres the character. Theres
so much pressure on kids to be cool that its tough to do something different.
Adds co-producer Don Schain, One of the big lessons from the first movie is to break
stereotypes. The power forward wants to be a pastry chef. The star basketball player wants to
be a thespian. The message to children is that you can be whatever you want to be.
Troy Bolton has always planned to go to the local university with his best friend Chad,
explains Borden. Now, because of his relationship with Gabriella and his relationship with
the stage, he has some choices to make.

Weekly Round Up: 10/21/08

As we ease ourselves into the holiday season, it’s almost as though someone has finally opened up the new-release valve a teeny bit. This week sees the release of Fable II and Midnight Club: Los Angeles, as well as Wii Music. Don’t be completely fooled by the long list of new releases, though. As tasty as they might be, it looks like PlayStation 3 and PC owners are getting a heaping helping of reheated leftovers.

Games
RETAIL GAMES
Fable II (Xbox 360)
Far Cry 2 (PC)
Dead Space (PC)
Bully: Scholarship Edition (PC)
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (Xbox 360)
Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Xbox 360)
Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP)
Midnight Club: LA Remix (PSP)
Rock Band 2 (PS3)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
NBA 2K9 (PC)
BioShock (PS3)
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 (Wii)
Wii Music (Wii)
Eternal Sonata (PS3)

DOWNLOADABLE GAMES
PlayStation 3

Xbox 360
Portal: Still Alive

Wii
Tetris Party

DLC
PlayStation 3
Rock Band—Nirvana Pack. Songs include "Breed," "Lounge Act," "On a Plain," "Polly," "Something in the Way," "Stay Away," and "Territorial Pissings." Tracks are available for $1.99 individually or as a set for $10.99.

Xbox 360
Rock Band—Nirvana Pack. Songs include "Breed," "Lounge Act," "On a Plain," "Polly," "Something in the Way," "Stay Away," and "Territorial Pissings." Tracks are available for 160 Microsoft Points individually or as a set for 880 Microsoft Points.

Movies
THEATRICAL
Saw V
Synecdoche, New York
Passengers
Pride and Glory

DVD
The Incredible Hulk
The Strangers
A Threevening with Kevin Smith

BLURAY
The Incredible Hulk
The Strangers
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Payne Beats Bush at Box Office

Description:
A 'W' took top honors at the weekend box office, but it was Mark Wahlberg's 'Max Payne,' not the Oliver Stone movie about the U.S. president. (Oct. 20)

What Just Happened = C+

Two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job. Ben is besieged by people who want him all to be sorts of things -- a money maker, an ego buster, a bad news breaker, an artistic champion, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, not to mention sexy, youthful and tuned-in -- everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he's surrounded by really are: bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary.

Genres: Comedy and Adaptation

Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.

Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (limited)

MPAA Rating: R for language, some violent images, sexual content and some drug material.

Distributors: Magnolia Pictures

Cast and Credits
Starring:
Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro
Directed by:
Barry Levinson
Produced by:
Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban, Eric Kopeloff