The Duchess offers entertainment for both men and women:

Has there ever been a period piece about an arranged marriage that actually ended with the two people involved happy together and in love? This was the first thing I thought of as I watched The Duchess, an excellent but thoroughly depressing account of the marriage of Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire. As bad and outdated as is the idea of an arranged marriage, surely there was one woman and one man who came together and both made an effort to get to know and love one another, and whose story has been subsequently told. Of course, that kind of bland humanity, down-to-earth romance and earnestness is probably much less interesting cinematically than a story in which bosoms heave and hearts are betrayed. But then again The Duchess is largely successful because it manages to offer those degrees of humanity and romance (if not blandness) amidst the rest of its potent, bodice-ripping drama.

Keira Knightley, who was born to wear corsets, scoop-necked gowns and hairdos that highlight her swanlike neck, plays Georgiana – a young aristocrat whose mother Lady Spencer (Charlotte Rampling) arranges to marry the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes). Despite her efforts to become a worthy companion for her husband, Georgiana disappoints the Duke when she fails to bear him a son – twice. But when she makes friends with another woman named Bess Foster (Hayley Atwell) who similarly toils in a loveless marriage, she finds a kindred spirit – that is, until Bess betrays her with the Duke. Soon, the three of them are living together, and Georgiana becomes a prisoner in her own home, with only her children, her former friend Bess, and the forbidden promise of a long-ago romance with a young politician named Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper) as distractions from her dreary existence.

In predictable but effective form, The Duchess is full of sequences in which modern women will be rightfully outraged by the behavior of her husband, and moreover, the prevailing culture of 18th Century England. At the same time, there are numerous scenes in which Georgiana stands up for herself and in spite of those restrictions, she asserts her identity and makes her feelings known. Perhaps in specific comparison to the truly godawful “women’s films” that were released in recent months (The Women and Sex and the City in particular), the reason that The Duchess stands out so sharply is that unlike the overprivileged females who fret and preen about their pampered lives and quite frankly frivolous personal problems, Georgiana literally has almost no rights, and cannot do anything to change her situation. She is required to make horrifying sacrifices and endure painful losses, and the movie rightfully points out that no girls’ night out or trip to the Victorian-era equivalent of Saks 5th Avenue will repair them.

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Some pretty good movies opening this Friday.

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Samuel L. Jackson (star of Lakeview Terrace) chats exclusively with IGN.

In director Neil LaBute’s new thriller Lakeview Terrace, opening Friday, Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) have just moved into their California dream home when they become the target of their next-door neighbor, who disapproves of their lifestyle.

A stern, single father, tightly wound veteran L.A.P.D. officer Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) has appointed himself the watchdog of the neighborhood. Abel’s nightly foot patrols and overly watchful eyes bring comfort to some, but he becomes increasingly harassing to the newlyweds. His persistent intrusions into their lives ultimately turn tragic when the couple decides to fight back.

IGN recently had the chance to sit down one-on-one with Samuel L. Jackson to discuss his role as Abel Turner. Please be advised that THIS ARTICLE INCLUDES SPOILERS:

IGN: Abel is a widower. Were the circumstances of his wife’s death the trigger that set him off? Or was he already a ticking time bomb before she died?

Samuel L. Jackson: I just think that was an event. That was an event that set him off on another kind of path, that kind of changed the dynamic of who he was at home with his kids. Not necessarily on the job but with his kids. I don’t think that if that couple had moved in next door that was the flame that lit the fuse on it. He may have been OK otherwise, and he may have found a way to defuse the situation. But Patrick’s character didn’t choose to do that. He got kind of confrontational.

IGN: Did you and the other filmmakers discuss what sort of relationship Abel had with his wife before she died?

Jackson: Not really. No, that was stuff I had in my head. I didn’t discuss it with Neil; I didn’t discuss it with the writers. Interestingly enough, I think that they were having marital problems just because most cops don’t have long relationships. I’m sure they were having some kind of marital problem. I’m positive. I’m sure that her being in that car with her boss at that particular time in that particular place was something that was not kosher. And because he knows that he has these feelings of inadequacy that his wife was cheating on him and doing whatever. So he’s not dealing with it very well or is not going to deal with it very well so all that stuff plays into that. So when he looks and sees those people in the pool or sees them sharing affection in a particular way, it kind of clicks things in his head. He doesn’t see them. He sees the boss and his wife.

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New Star Wars: Order 66 book available from Del Rey now. The author is Karen Traviss. Visit Del Rey to purchase the book and read an excerpt.

Even as the Clone Wars are about to reach an explosive climax, no one knows if victory will favor the Grand Army of the Republic or the Separatists. But even the deadliest weapons and the most heroic efforts may not be powerful enough to challenge the apocalyptic horror unleashed when Chancellor Palpatine finally utters the chilling words, “The time has come. Execute Order 66.” Translation: The Jedi have tried to stage a coup, and all must be shot on sight. How will the men of Omega and Delta squads react when their loyalty and trust are tested? The fates of the Republic and Jedi now rest in their hands.

Also available from Del Rey:

Available All Movie Replicas product(s): Star Wars Diplomatic Mission Diorama

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The folks over at IGN wants your help to topple Titanic from the top spot as the highest grossing film of all time. The views concerning Titanic is IGN’s alone:

It was 1997. Titanic opened just before Christmas. It was one of those movies that debuted at exactly the right time, striking every possible chord with audiences. The subject matter, for whatever reason, was a source of fascination for people at the time. The movie had just the right cast — Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were on the verge of superstardom. It utilized exciting, headline-grabbing filmmaking techniques to tell its period story. And we may cringe just thinking about Celine Dion with that giant rock around her elongated neck, but the film was set to music that was absolutely perfect for the times.

And so it was. Grown men cried, virgins were deflowered, and Titanic became the #1 movie of all time. The world was changed. It was that big of a deal.

But a funny thing happened… Time passed, and cinematic tastes evolved. Now, there are plenty of classic Hollywood films that have weathered these changes. But Titanic isn’t one of them. Ironically, the things that made it so very appropriate for the late-1990s, are the things that make it seem so incredibly dated now. Today, Titanic plays like a sickeningly schmaltzy cheese-fest of epic proportions. And that’s why it must be defeated as the top-grossing domestic movie ever. It simply cannot stand! But who will take back the box office crown?

Enter The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece of a sequel to Batman Begins. Now, who knows if we’ll look back on this film the same way in a decade, but we’re pretty sure it’ll still remain one of the best movies we’ve ever seen. That’s why we’re taking it upon ourselves here at IGN to launch a grassroots effort aimed at making The Dark Knight the highest-grossing flick ever. And we need your help, Bat-fans!

TDK, after nine weeks of release, has the second-highest domestic gross of all time — over $517 million. Titanic is still floating atop the list with $600.8 million. For you math geniuses out there, that’s an $83 million deficit. And with the Bat-sequel only pulling in around $4 million this weekend, we’ve all got some work to do. So, spread the word! Let’s get out in force to see The Dark Knight for the umpteenth time, and deliver a shattering Batarang blow right to Jack Dawson’s stunningly gorgeous jaw.

Can we do it? Yes, we can. The Dark Knight has been in theaters for 9 weeks. Titanic enjoyed a whopping 41-week run. That long of a run may not be in the cards for The Dark Knight as the DVD and Blu-ray release are expected in December, but an IMAX rerelease has already been announced for January, so that’s sure to help the cause. For now, the flick is still playing in 2,191 theaters. So, let’s get out there and fill some seats, people!

We hope you’ll join us and do your part to make the world a better place. We’ll be back next week with an update on TDK’s gross and our campaign’s progress. Until then, “¡Sí, se puede!”

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The King Leonidas Premium Format is finally available for preorder. Don’t miss your chance to own this amazing piece! Click on the link below to reserve your King Leonidas fgure today.

King Leonidas Premium Format Figure

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Release date: Friday December 19, 2008
Genre: Comedy
Director: Peyton Reed
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Producer(s): David Heyman, Richard D. Zanuck
Screenplay: Nicholas Stoller, Jarrad Paul, Andrew Mogel
Cast: Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Darby, John Michael Higgins, Danny Masterson, Terence Stamp
Official Site: yesisthenewno.com
Rating: None
Available film art: Yes Man movie posters

Synopsis
Based on a memoir by British author Danny Wallace the studio picked up in April 2005, the story centers on a man who decides to change his life by saying yes to absolutely everything that comes his way. Saying “yes” leads him on a series of unexpected comedic adventures that turn his whole life upside-down.

Jim Carrey stars as Carl Allen, a man who signs up for a self-help program based on one simple principle: say yes to everything…and anything. At first, unleashing the power of “yes” transforms Carl’s life in amazing and unexpected ways, but he soon discovers that opening up his life to endless possibilities can have its drawbacks.

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Some pretty good movies appearing on DVD this week.

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Burn After Reading is a must see. Nuff said, read the review.

All critics have their “rules,” their preferences and pet peeves. Sometimes they’re a matter of personal taste – one genre over another – and sometimes they’re a result of seeing the same approach taken too many times with the same material. But despite cinema’s inherent ability to instruct its audience upon the finer points of finding love, recognizing shortcomings, and overcoming adversity, I really, really hate it when characters learn lessons. All of which is why, at least according to my own, subjective standards, the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading may be the greatest movie ever made. Frances McDormand (Almost Famous) plays Linda Litzke, a personal trainer who decides to blackmail former CIA operative Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) after her colleague Chad (Brad Pitt) finds a disc that contains Cox’s memoirs. Cox, however, refuses to cooperate, and soon Linda is forced to juggle her get-rich-quick scheme, her responsibilities at the gym, and a burgeoning relationship with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) – a married man who is also carrying on an affair with Cox’s wife Katie (Tilda Swinton). Meanwhile, Cox’s former colleague (David Rasche) and superior (J.K. Simmons) at the CIA discover that Linda went to the Russians with Cox’s memoirs and monitor the situation as it continues to develop.

As suggested above, there are going to be a lot of folks disappointed by Burn After Reading if only because it follows the artistic triumph of No Country for Old Men and is by any standard a completely unimportant story bereft of dramatic substance. But longtime Coen brothers fans will observe that this material perfectly fits within the general themes of their other films, most of which make fun of stupid people by telling, yes, a completely unimportant story. From Raising Arizona to The Hudsucker Proxy to Fargo to The Big Lebowski to O Brother, Where Art Thou, the Coens regularly assemble their stories to satirize if not outright ridicule the best laid plans of men with the brains of mice. And this film is no different. While there are a few sympathetic and even intelligent characters within Burn After Reading’s ensemble, they are given enough human shortcomings (arrogance, insensitivity, obliviousness) to make them worthy of the Coens’ derision, if not also the audience’s. Additionally, Malkovich gives a great performance as Cox, the analyst whose self-aggrandizing but by all accounts mediocre memoirs set into motion the film’s comically catastrophic turn of events, and J.K. Simmons contributes a terrific cameo as a CIA superior who supervises the events with appropriately dry disbelief. But as always, Ethan and Joel are the ones pulling the strings, and they’re the ones who most effectively create this tapestry of complicated situations and yet manage to make it all seem simultaneously significant and superfluous. Ironically, of course, there are far more movies made in Hollywood that are really about nothing, but pretend to be about something – which is also when their supposed lessons mean the absolute least. But with Burn After Reading, the Coens have successfully made a movie that both pretends to be and is in fact about nothing at all.

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Jon Favreau sits down with a group of journalists to talk, indepth, about the sequel to Iron Man:

IGN and a small number of journalists were able to sit down with writer/director and Iron Man mastermind Jon Favreau this afternoon for a lengthy and in-depth discussion on the upcoming sequel. The conversation was packed with fresh Iron Man news, including Favreau’s thoughts on War Machine, the Mandarin and the art of the comic-book sequel.

On Iron Man’s success…

FAVREAU: I was surprised by everything. I was surprised that the reviews were so strong, that it made so much money. I was surprised that Dark Knight had better reviews and made so much more money. On the one hand, it was a really unexpected, serendipitous summer. Oddly, when Dark Knight finally came out and was received the way it was, it was such a relief for me because I really felt like we went from nobody expecting anything to people starting to expect something…First, it was, “Who the hell cares about Marvel’s b-level heroes,” to Comic-Con where began building momentum, to this fever pitch where we were afraid that we’d disappoint and fail to meet expectations. And then Dark Knight comes in and makes history and all of a sudden, we felt the relief of that spotlight moving off of us from the guard tower. And now we have two years to lay low and work on the movie.

On what changed the tide of the superhero movie…

FAVREAU: I think 9/11. I think that was a game changer. I think people were looking for emotional simplicity, for escapism. There were superhero movies before Spider-Man, but Spider-Man hit at just the right time. It was the first way that we could get to those emotions. You couldn’t say anything about politics, about war, but you put somebody in a costume and say, “This is the good guy, this is the bad guy,” and you set that in a fantasy world or the Marvel universe, all of a sudden you allow people and kids and adults to experience those emotions. They’re dealing with real emotions in an escapist way. And that’s become more complex as we’ve become more comfortable seven years later, and you can have a movie like Dark Knight that shows people those things. There’s a line you can’t cross, but that line’s moving. But I’m glad that I was able to hit the crest of the genre and I feel safe now that we have a built in audience. But you wonder how that is going to change. Whoever gets voted in, I think there’s going to be an incredible transformation. I don’t know what it’s going to be, how the economy will affect that, or what the politics will look like. But change is coming, regardless, within our political system and our culture. And I wonder, as a moviemaker, how that’s going to effect audiences and what the national attitude is. It’s not something that turns on a dime.

On The Avengers movie…

FAVREAU: It starts off as, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun if we stuck the Captain America shield in the background,” or “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun if we had Sam Jackson play Nick Fury.” That’s a nod to our fans. But now, between the shield and Nick Fury and the final scene of The Hulk, I’m like, “Wow, we’re really forming a team.” That scene is clearly not the day after Iron Man ended, so where does it fit? I don’t want to ignore it or say, as Marvel does, “It’s an alternate universe.” So how do you make it all work within that world? And Hulk was successful in keeping a tone that was not inconsistent with our film… In this case, you have Kevin Feige who wants to solve this puzzle. All that brain power makes you come up with interesting solutions. We have a pretty good gameplan. And there are conversations I’m having with them about The Avengers, where you’re not just dealing with tech; you’re dealing with inter-dimensional portals and all the shit that makes you jump the shark if you don’t handle it right. We were very restrained in how we used our superhero-ism in our movie, and we did that by keeping it all tech-based. Hulk was fairly tech-based. And then you get to Cap, where it’s a guy frozen in ice and you say, “Yeah, OK., I can buy that.” But then you get to Thor and it’s all out the window. So how you make that all feel of the same world is the challenge.

On The Mandarin as a live-action movie villain…

FAVREAU: The Mandarin is such a tricky character because everywhere you turn, it’s a minefield. You get into the mystical, Asian, dark arts and interdimensional travel and all the rings, and you say, “That’s cool; maybe we can make it authentic.” And then you see the trailer for The Mummy movie. That’s as authentic as it’s gonna get, but does it fit our film? I don’t know. What are your rules and how do you stay consistent? Because that’s what happens – people get desperate. How do you up the ante? And people start breaking their own rules and lose their identity. The Mandarin is the main guy, but we always remind ourselves that nobody likes the Emperor compared to Darth Vader. When the Emperor was this figure that you only saw obliquely, you’d say, “Shit, Darth Vader’s bowing to someone?” But then as he talked more, enough was enough. So the Mandarin, to have that kind of weight to him, it’s really a matter of using all the narrative tricks. But if you’re shooting these rings that have powers that could throw off the balance of the universe – how do you keep the whole thing together yet fulfill the expectations from the book? And a little bit goes a long way. There are a lot of other characters and countries that fit very well into our universe. The Iron Man cannon is becoming incredibly cogent and applicable once again.

On the script for Iron Man 2…

FAVREAU: The writing is coming along quite well. We’ve got Justin Theroux, who did Tropic Thunder. He echoes Downey’s tastes a lot. He’s an actor. He brings a real sense of fun. He’s never worked in the genre before, so he has that great newcommer’s enthusiasm. Then it’s about, here are the books. We’re breaking the story and pages are coming out, but it’s more of a conversation than actual writing…We’re looking – not so much for story, but for tone – at the Matt Fraction stuff. That series seems to be informed as much by our movie as by what happened with Iron Man before. It’s informed by current events. I’m very impressed by what he’s written.

On storytelling in comic-book films…

FAVREAU: There’s always a sense of “let’s save something for another movie.” But I think there’s a way to wade into it. In Spider-Man, he seems to be dealing with different issues in each film because they’re very modular. But we want to stretch our movie out like three chapters of the same story… These are smart audiences now with the capacity to understand long-form, complex storytelling, and you’re starting to see it more in TV and videogames. Movies are kind of what they are. It’s like a rock and roll song – you’ve got your thing, your bridge and your end. So how do you keep making rock and roll songs, but also do the White Album? How do you put it all together with other movies and make it something that’s a larger experience for people who are paying attention, but yet not so complex that if you’re not paying attention you’re going to not have fun? I’m a pretty smart audience member and I just don’t have that attention span, so I want to figure out if I can get a better version of that while still upping the ante of what you’re putting on the screen and the humor and the dialogue.

Click on the link below to read the entire indepth interview. It’s a good one

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