Trailer for Planet of the Apes Sequel

The movie opens 11 July 2014.

After Hours with the cast of The Hobbit

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Behind the Scenes in Middle Earth

Precious Andy Serkis

Happy Hobbit Day Eve! Enjoy this chat between Andy Serkis and Tolkien super-geek Stephen Colbert last week.

The Colbert Report
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At the NYC The Hobbit Premiere

Meanwhile, Back in Middle Earth...

 Andy Serkis giving high fives running down the super-long red carpet at the world premiere of  "The Hobbit" in Wellington, New Zealand.

 Cate Blanchett with her kids

Martin Freeman enjoying "lovely, positive madness" : "Felt a lot of love. For a baying mob, they’re really well behaved!”

 Hugo Weaving

Richard Armitage

Elijah Wood

 Because one can never have enough of Richard Armitage.



December 14, 2012. Save the date.

Happy 75th Birthday, The Hobbit!

Hail Caesar!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is now out on DVD. You don't have to be a fan of this popular sci-fi film franchise to enjoy this prequel that imaginatively tackles the evils of animal testing and genetic modification.

James Franco and John Lithgow play Will and Charles Rodman, respectively. Working as a scientist at the pharmaceutical company Gen-Sys, Will is driven by his desire to find a cure for his father's Alzheimer's disease. He ends up saving and adopting a super-intelligent chimp named Caesar (the fantastic Andy Serkis in yet another Oscar-worthy motion capture performance). Mr. Serkis' clever and sensitive performance makes the film work and even transcend its genre. He has outdone himself in this one.

After an unfortunate neighborhood incident, the misunderstood chimp is forced to go to a primate shelter inhumanely run by John Landon (Brian Cox) and his son Dodge (Harry Potter's Tom Felton). Caesar becomes the leader of the captive animals, and is responsible for the apes' eerie evolution. The movie makes one wonder what makes humans human. How can we, the more evolved species, be so cruel and barbaric to one another? While animals that are supposedly incapable of compassion, exhibit human-like traits and extend kindness to their fellow creatures, including man? The film's spectacular centerpiece is an epic battle at the Golden Gate Bridge. It was easy to root for our primate cousins. The film ends on a chilling but strangely satisfying note.


(photo from Imp Awards)

There and Back Again

Peter Jackson's first video blog post on the making of The Hobbit.

Hobbit (2012) - Trailer Making the Hobbit - More free videos are here

Guilty by Association?

On a trip to the West Coast this past week, I attempted to watch Margot at the Wedding on the plane. Having enjoyed Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale, I was disappointed with his latest. Margot (Nicole Kidman) goes with her son Claude (with a mop of unfortunate, adolescent hair) to the family country home to attend her estranged sister Pauline's (Mr. Baumbach's wife Jennifer Jason Leigh) wedding to Malcolm (Jack Black). The characters are unlikeable, the pace was plodding so I stopped trying to finish it. I debated whether to watch No Country for Old Men, Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, or Longford. (I I had seen almost all the other choices, confirming that I have been spending most of my adult life watching movies.) I wisely chose the latter.

The HBO TV movie is about the former member of the House of Lords who embarked on a campaign to get Moors Murderess Myra Hindley paroled. Hindley (a scarily manipulative Samantha Morton) was convicted of raping, torturing and killing children in Manchester in the '60s, along with her lover Ian Brady (an even more chilling Andy Serkis). The Queen's Peter Morgan wrote it. It intersperses actual television clips with movie footage, even David Frost interviewing the controversial human rights campaigner. This movie deserves all the accolades, Emmy/Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations it received.

An almost unrecognizable and outstanding Jim Broadbent, stars as Lord Longford. He was a Labour Cabinet minister and social reformist whose deep religiosity and belief in Christian forgiveness drove him to Ms. Hindley and other prisoners, misfits and outcasts. The film begins with him in a radio station fielding listener phone calls while promoting his book on Catholic saints. The radio show is immediately inundated with calls from irate citizens blasting him for his involvement with the serial killer. The events unfold in flashback format. It is a very moving film and you feel for Lord Longford (later dubbed Lord Wrongford by tabloids) as he struggled with his personal beliefs and public opinion. Even his family is unsupportive, although his wife Elizabeth later comes around to his side. This fine film makes you wonder what you'd do and how far you'd go to stay true to your convictions. I was crying by the time Myra tells him that they'd only just missed the death sentence by a few weeks and they'd probably be all better off if they had been hanged. Longford tells her that only God has the right to take human life, and that if they had been hung, he would never have had the privilege of getting to know her. This film will haunt you.