by Margi Blash
Based upon the novel by Tom Clancy. This is the 4th film starring Clancy's
character of Jack Ryan, and the third to star Harrison Ford in the role,
following Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger (Alec Baldwin played
Ryan in The Hunt for Red October).
The plot of Sum of All Fears is, European neo-Nazi terrorists get their
hands on a lost nuclear device, and set about on their plans to use it at a
Baltimore Football game. The plan
is to disguise the attack as being caused
by Russia, in the hopes of rekindling the Cold War. Luckily, young CIA
analyst Jack Ryan (Affleck). Starring BEN AFFLECK, MORGAN FREEMAN, &
BRIDGET MOYNAHAN, & JAMES CROMWELL.
Spiderman takes in $114 Million
by Margi Blash
SYNOPSIS:
Peter Parker (TOBEY MAGUIRE) lives in Queens, New York with his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). Peter leads the life of a normal nerdy student, working as a photographer at the Daily Bugle for publisher J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. SIMMONS), obsessing over his crush the beautiful Mary Jane Watson (KIRSTEN DUNST) and hanging out with his buddy Harry Osborn (JAMES FRANCO).
On a school trip, during which Peter and his classmates are given a science demonstration on spiders, Peter is bitten by a genetically altered spider. Soon after, he discovers that he has unusual powers: including the strength and agility of a spider along with a keen, ESP-like "spider-sense." After discovering these powers, Peter uses his powers in a wrestling match and, armed with his new spider strength, wins the match in record time. But the wrestling match promoter refuses to award Peter the $3,000 prize money, alleging that Peter won too quickly. Soon afterwards, Peter has the opportunity to catch a burglar fleeing from the promoter's office, but because he wants revenge, and refuses to stop him. Moments later, the same burglar kills his beloved Uncle Ben.
As Spider-Man, Peter apprehends the burglar but is plagued with guilt for not being a hero sooner. During his time of turmoil, Peter remembers something Uncle Ben once told him: "With great power, comes great responsibility." Peter decides to use his extraordinary powers to fight crime.
Meanwhile, businessman Norman Osborn (WILLEM DAFOE), Harry's father, is undergoing some changes of his own. An experimental formula has gone wrong, increasing his intelligence and strength and also driving him insane. As the Green Goblin, Spider-Man's arch-enemy, he puts young Peter Parker's vow to fight crime and help the innocent people of New York.
REVIEW:
Casting for the film was excellent. TOBEY MAGUIRE, who is an unlikely "super hero" completely pulls off the character and does an amazing job at. He is the ultimate average guy who gets super human strength to save the day. WILLEM DAFOE as the green goblin pulls off the mad scientist gone psycho,(even though considering the cost of the costume they could have made the mask a lot better. J.K. SIMMONS does a laugh out loud job as the publisher and the sexy KIRSTEN DUNST who finds herself in more pickles than Louis Lane, adds the believable romance between the two. The new teen heart throb (JAMES FRANCO) who is set to appear in 4 films to be released in this year, adds a love/ hate relationship between Peter and Harry which I’m guessing we’ll be seeing a lot more of him in Spider-man 2. The film was a little too slow moving. I wanted more action but with all the technology now a days I expected a lot more from the special effects. Some of the running on top of the buildings and swinging around the city looks like he’s a cartoon character. And even though I understand this is a comic book character, but we as the audience are supposed to believe that he is a human with super human strength. Instead he reminds me of a character made of rubber. I could have done more of JK SIMMONS as the publisher and WILLEM DAFOE talking to himself, yet less of the romance triangle between Peter, Mary Jane and Harry. Overall the film is worth getting out to see on the big screen and with the running time around 2 hours everyone can enjoy the; romance, special effects, good verses bad, etc…It’s a film for all ages. And the ultimate fans who have been waiting for this to come to the big screen for 4 decades won’t be disappointed.
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Tobey Maguire
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Kirsten Dunst
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Willem Dafoe
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Andy Garcia
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JK Simmons
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John & Bill Paxton
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Cuba Gooding Jr.
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Elizabeth Banks
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Garcelle Beauvais
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Gene Simmons
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James Franco & Marla Sokolo
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Jennifer Love Hewitt
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Jonathan Lipnicki
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Kelly Preston
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Kobe Bryant
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Leann Rimes & Dean Sheremet
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Leann Rimes & Dean Sheremet
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Amanda Peet & Amanda DeCadenet
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Macy Gray
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Mario Vanpeebles
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Mary Steenburgen
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Matthew Perry
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Matthew Perry
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Stephanie Romanov
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Steven Tyler
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Phil Jackson
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Stan Lee
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Macho Man
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Amy Smart
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Alex Michel & Amanda Marsh
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Cuba Gooding Jr.
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Gene Simmons
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Lucy Liu
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Teri Polo
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Will Smith
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Will Smith
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Ben Kingsley
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Clare Peploe
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Mira Sorvino
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Mira Sorvino
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Paul Sorvino
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MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING
Attention: All Celebrities
This is what a premiere should be like. The entire cast and producers showing up on time and willing to speak to the press. I have to admit I really enjoyed the film but now I really hope it does well. Monday evening at the new ArcLight Cinemas, they rolled out the red carpet to put the glass slipper to finish off this Cinderella story.
It's a story that very rarely happens in Hollywood. Girls writes and stars in play. Girl gets discovered by big time producers. Girls script get bought. Girl stars in film.
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Nia Vardalos
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Nia Vardalos decided to write a 1 woman semi-autobiographical play about her Big Fat Greek Family, with the goal "I wanted to get a better agent". Then lucky for her Rita Wilson, who is greek, was looking through the newspaper one day because she wanted to support the local theatre is Los Angeles. She was intrigued by the title and went to see it. Wilson was so impressed with the play that she went back stage to speak with Nia, and unbeknownst to Wilson, who just happened to have a script available. A few nights later her husband, some of you may have heard of him (Tom Hanks), stopped by and enjoyed the play so much that his production company bought the script. Hanks called Nia at home and asked about making into a film, she was pleased but said, "I'd like to star in it" and he agreed.
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Rita Wilson
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Vardalos met her husband, Ian Gomez (who appears in the film), when they were both performing with the "Second City" troupe in Chicago in the early 1990s. "My family was not interested in meeting Ian because he wasn’t Greek," she recalls. "It’s not that they had anything against him. It’s just my family believes there are two types of people. Greeks and non-Greeks." Gomez eventually won over the family. "I believe that the movie is about any family that loves you to the point of smothering, which is any ethnic family. You don’t have to be Greek…Italians, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, they’re all the same," says Vardalos.
Synopsis:
Everyone in the Portokalos family worries about Toula (NIA VARDALOS). Still unmarried at 30-years-old, she works at Dancing Zorba's, the Greek restaurant owned by her parents, Gus (MICHAEL CONSTANTINE) and Maria (LAINIE KAZAN) and smells like garlic bread. Her days are drab and dull, just like her hair, her clothes, and her attitude. Toula listens quietly as her family tsk-tsks about her sad situation. She refuses offers by her father to send her to Greece to find a husband. It's likeshe doesn't want to get married. The very thought sends her relatives into a mad fit of genuflection.
Still, Toula wishes for something more, something for herself. Just when she's wishing she were braver, or prettier, she locks eyes on a tall, handsome stranger, in the family's restaurant and she freezes, like one the Greek statues that line the front of the family's house. The handsome stranger barely notices her.
Toula is ready for a change. Unfortunately, the rest of her family is not. She devises a plan to sign up for a computer cla
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John Corbett
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ss despite her father's old-world objections ("Why does she need college? She's smart enough for a girl!"). It's no shocker that he's out of touch, though. He thinks of Windex as a miracle cure-all and that kimonos were invented by the Greeks, along with philosophy and astronomy.
A few computer classes, some contact lenses and a new attitude are all the jump-start Toula's life needs. She takes a job at her aunt's travel agency, where this time, the handsome stranger locks eyes on the transformed Toula. He is Ian Miller (JOHN CORBETT), a high school teacher who is tall, handsome and definitely not Greek.
In no time, he's asked her out on a date and soon they are falling in love. But Toula isn't sure which will be more upsetting to her old-fashioned father, that Ian is a Xeno (foreigner) or that he's a vegetarian.
But none of it matters once he ask her to marry him. The two still stand a fighting a chance of being happy if Ian's country club parents can get along with Toula's parents, aunts, uncles, grandma and her twenty-seven first cousins. And according to Aunt Voula, since, "He don't eat no meat? It's alright, I'll make lamb."
Toula knows that if Ian can pass muster with her crazy relatives and get baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church…their Big Fat Greek Wedding, including one powder blue limousine, two ice sculptures and ten bridesmaids in turquoise dresses, will be a piece of cake, five layers high with a plastic staircase and a fountain of champagne.
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