Friday, June 29, 2007

New Review: Superman Returns (2006)

Today, there is a new review posted at Cinema Utopia of the 2006 summer blockbuster Superman Returns, starring Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Frank Langella, and Marlon Brando (ah, the magic of cinema).

Here's a direct link to the review.

See you at the movies!

Cinema Utopia relaunched!

I am very excited to announce the relaunching of the new and expanded Cinema Utopia website. While parts of the new site are still being constructed, and a few broken links are still being corrected, the site is posted and ready for visitors.

The site still features full-length reviews of movies, which are sorted now by movie title and by the date the review was published at Cinema Utopia. And there are still capsule reviews (though much of this part of the site is still being built).

But there are new bells and whistles.
  • We are at our new cyberhome (drumroll please): http://www.cinemautopia.com/.

  • Movies are now graded with pluses and minuses, allowing for better understanding, at a glance, of our overall grade of movies.

  • While there are only about 40 full-length reviews, there are hundreds of movies which have been graded at Cinema Utopia (with more added all the time). So now, when you access the list of all movies, it not only provides links to feature reviews and capsule reviews, but all listed movies have grades. (This list is still being added to the site. Currently all movies A-J have been added to the pages. More will be added every week, until the list is complete.)

  • There is now a Cinema Utopia blog, which will offer movie-related information and notification of updates to the website. There is a link to this blog on every page on the website (be aware, the blog opens in a new browser window, so it won't open unless you allow pop-ups from Cinema Utopia).

  • There is a site-specific search engine being tested. Currently, each page has a search box; however, this search engine is not yet functional -- you can submit searches, but currently you will get no results. Soon, the kinks should be worked out.

  • AND, last but certainly not least, Cinema Utopia will now accept submitted reviews for publication at Cinema Utopia. Submissions must be suited for publication to a general English-speaking audience (i.e. no profanity) and be no longer than 750 words. You may submit reviews to guestcriticsubmissions@cinemautopia.com.

We are very excited about all of these new features. Rest assured, you'll still get the thoughtful movie analysis you've come to expect from Cinema Utopia, with occasional special movie lists (like the recent 30 at 30, which is posted on the site).

You are always welcome to browse our site. If you like what you see, please tell your friends about us. And, if you would like, you can always join our web group (groups.google.com/group/cinemautopia), through which you'll receive an email to notify you every time new reviews are posted at Cinema Utopia.

Additionally, if you have any questions, suggestions, or just would like to share things with our lead critic, please email Cinema Utopia at critic@cinemautopia.com.

See you at the movies!

Cinema Utopia (www.cinemautopia.com/index.com)

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Most Interesting Movie Weekend of the Summer

Everybody was excited for the big-time box office showdown between the three big sequels of the summer (all of which was, coincidentally, the third movie in the series): Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Who Remembers What the Rest of This Really Long Title Is Because No One Reads After the Colon Anyway. The first two have already crossed the $300 million threshold in US ticket sales, and Pirates should get there sometime in July.

But I've been more interested in the opening weekend receipts for only one movie this summer: Pixar's Ratatouille. Partially, this is because I am a big fan of all the Pixar movies -- they are consistently the best-written movies in Hollywood. But mostly this is because of a rumor I heard almost a year ago. After initial marketing tests, the studio executives discovered that people had little interest in seeing a movie called "Ratatouille." So, over the last nine months, Pixar and Disney have done a lengthy and sophisticated marketing campaign. They released a lengthy part of the movie (almost 9 minutes) as an Internet sneak trailer. They've carefully presented the title of the movie in different ways, including a pronunciation guide: "rat-a-too-ee".

Now all that remains to be seen is how effective this campaign has been. The only other big movie opening this weekend already opened, Die Hard or Live Free, and there's some counter programming, including a new chick-flick, Evening. But the other studios have conceded the weekend to the new Pixar movie. There's little doubt it will open as the #1 movie in the US, but it does remain to be seen how big the opening weekend will be (especially after last weekend's disappointing opening for Evan Almighty). My guess is that it will open around $50 million, which is good, but less than last year's Car's opening of $60 million. But I could be wrong....

Friday, June 22, 2007

AFI's New 100 Years...100 Movies List

I am a huge supporter of the American Film Institutes 100 Years lists. They generally provide some excitement about really good movies in June (when sometimes it's hard to get excited about the endless sequels and retreads brought out by the movie studios). And, apart from the rather disastrous 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes list (which was torpedoed by the abysmal list of nominated quotes that the voters could choose from), the lists tend to be pretty good.

Not that there aren't some problems with this year's list. And it's not just because I disagree with some of the rankings. Like Roger Ebert wrote about the lists, some movie critics may personally think that some films are overrated, and still understand why they rank on the list. (For Ebert, it is High Noon -- which you would think the sentimental coot would like; for me, it's 2001: A Space Odyssey which ranks as the most boring film I've ever sat through -- well that's a lie, it took me three sittings to finally watch all of the movie -- but others see as a classic.)

Also, it's hard to argue with the top of the list too much, given that it includes such films as Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Casablanca, Singin' in the Rain, Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, and The Wizard of Oz. (I love Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg, and especially Alfred Hitchcock, but the other films in the Top 10 are probably a little overranked.)

But there are certainly ideological problems with the list, starting with #100: Ben-Hur. Now, I don't say this just because Ben-Hur ranks within my personal Top 5 -- without question, Ben-Hur is one of the 20 greatest American films. But here it ranks as #100. Why? I think the answer is fairly obvious -- many of the voters are uncomfortable with the film's overtly Christian subject matter. And other voters are uncomfortable with the leading actor who went on to become president of the NRA.

Of course, this is not the only religious film to make the list, but the other emphasizes the political correctness evident in the list. D. W. Griffith's Intolerance, a classic silent film with four inter-woven storylines, makes the list at #49. Interestingly, the story of Jesus is one of these storylines. This would seem to suggest that overtly religious stories might not affect these rankings, except that Intolerance is present in the list because of the voters' complete inability to put Griffith's undisputed masterpiece in the rankings: Birth of a Nation. On any list, this is one of the greatest American films ever; in fact, statistics suggest that it was, per capita, the most seen film in movie theaters in American history. But our voters can't put it high on this list because of the inherent racism of the movie, particularly it's lionizing of the KKK. One day, we might be able to move past this -- hopefully people will soon recognize that the racism of the movie was the product of a racist society, however uncomfortable this realization will be for them. Until then, we have lists that can't honor movies that are too Christian or too extreme or with divisive actors.

But these are small quibbles with the list. There are notable inclusions on this list -- an updating of the list from 10 years ago: including Buster Keaton's classic The General, the drama All the President's Men (which inexplicably didn't make the previous list), and Toy Story. And the little film that could, The Shawshank Redemption, whose reputation continues to blossom the older it gets, also made the cut, at #72.