MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Wanted’ Is Fantastical and Fantastic!

THE LADY IS A TRAMP: No, Wanted is not a Walt Disney film, but it is a thrilling actioner in which Angelina Jolie plays Fox, a trampstamped assassin who teaches common man Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) how to bring out the expert killer in himself.

PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES

SEBRING, June 30, 2008 – Call Wesley Gibson the new Walter Mitty. Call him Mr. Tumnus with a trampstamped killer as his mentor. Call Wanted, the movie in which Wesley Gibson is the main character, the biggest surprise of the summer movie season since Iron Man.

We’ll tell you this: James McAvoy can act. And Timur Bekmambetov, whoever the haystack he is, can direct. And guess what – tell the critics who gave Wanted modestly acceptable marks to go to that place that is hot and sweaty, at least metaphorically tell them.

For what Wanted is, a fantastical escapist adventure, it gets high marks for its action, acting, scripting, well-placed humor, and plot twists. Bekmambetov serves it all up, makes us feel a bit silly, but leaves us gratified with a sense of fun when it is all over.

Wanted is the story of an “account manager” approached by “Fox” (Angelina Jolie), who tells him who and what he really is in the raw – the son of an expert assassin who has wasted his life. The joyride begins from there.

Beware, Wanted has plenty of violence, blood, gore, and profanity (though much of it is well-placed) and which give it an R rating. It plays at the Carmike Cinema 8 Lakeshore Mall.

Our SEBRING CINEMA AND SPORTS rating (scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best):

NATIONAL BOX OFFICE: ‘Wall-E’, ‘Wanted’ Win

SEBRING, June 30, 2008 – Put a couple Ws in the win column.

Pixar’s animated feature Wall-E and fantastical, Walter Mittyesque Wanted finished No. 1 and No. 2 at the North American box office respectively.

Wall-E became champ by virtue of a $62.5 million take at theater ticket windows for the weekend of June 27-29. Wanted finished with $51.1 million. No other picture was even close.

It is noteworthy, however, that Wanted achieved the best per theater amount: $16,100 vs. $15,656 for Wall-E, which opened in about 800 more theaters than Wanted.

Last week’s champ, Get Smart, fell to third place with a $20 million take. Kung Fu Panda dropped one place to No. 4 with an $11.7 million take. Panda should cross the $200 million plateau in three to four weeks.

The surprise here is with The Incredible Hulk. With much better reviews than its predecessor, Hulk continues to lose steam nationally at an alarming rate. It fell more than 58% to a $9.2 million take this weekend and has grossed $115.5 million to date. It will have a tough time breaking even with its $150 million budget. The latest installment pretty much spells the end for this Marvel property unless Hulk makes an appearance in another property (i.e. Spider-Man, Iron Man).

The rest of the Top Ten at the box office in order are:

The Love Guru – $5.4 million

Indiana Jones 4 – $5.0 million

The Happening – $3.85 million

Sex and the City – $3.77 million

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan – $3.2 million

MOVIE REVIEW: Carell Conjures Up Laughs in ‘Get Smart’

TWO HEADS: Should be better than one, but with the bumbling, stumbling of Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell), one might have to rely on Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to save the day in Get Smart, which plays at the Fairmount Cinema 6.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.

SEBRING, June 27, 2008 – It is hard to find a person Steve Carell cannot make laugh. So it is with his portrayal of Maxwell Smart in the big screen version of the 60s TV comedy Get Smart.

Carell delivers again with his mugging, his voice pitch, his timing, his deadpanning, his comebacks. In fact, if anything, the script and direction may have held him back and allowed too much action to interfere with his comedy.

Otherwise, this is a comedy the whole family can enjoy – unlike Zohan and Love Guru – with good support from Dwayne Johnson (the former pro wrestler) and Alan Arkin.

Anne Hathaway is a good actress and attractive, but for whatever reason the director toned down the sultriness of the original Agent 99, Barbara Feldon. That did not seem necessary, since the TV standards of the time were much stricter than just about any standard today. Perhaps the reason is just today’s idea of what a sexy woman is.

Get Smart is rated PG-13, mostly for “action violence.”

Our SEBRING CINEMA AND SPORTS rating on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being a classic:

‘Get Smart’ Wins Sebring Box Office

SEBRING, June 27, 2008 – Steve Carell won over Highlands County, too, for the weekend of June 20-22.

The comedian helped propel Get Smart to the top of the Sebring box office, which we base on attendance rather than total dollar value, although there is a close relationship between those two elements.

Reported attendance for Get Smart was 749, allowing it to edge out The Incredible Hulk, which finished at No. 2 for 706. That was a much closer race than on the national scene.

Not far behind at No. 3 was the still popular Kung Fu Panda. 604 people saw it last weekend.

The top three movies all played at the Fairmount Cinema 6.

The No. 4 film, however, played at the Carmike. Love Guru drew 577 people. It was followed by The Happening, also at the Carmike, which drew 420. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull remained a strong draw in Highlands at the Carmike, with 280 people moving through the turnstiles.

The rest of the films in order were:

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan – 189

The Strangers – 147

Sex and the City – 133

The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian – 92

NEW MOVIES FRIDAY: ‘Wall-E,’ ‘Wanted’ Open in Sebring

NOTE: Scroll down for the trailers of the films that open today in Sebring.

SEBRING, June 27, 2008 – The summer blockbusters just keep coming! Wall-E and Wanted open today at the Fairmount Cinema 6 and Carmike Cinema 8 respectively.

Waiting in the wings for a mid-week release next week are Hancock and Kitt Kitteridge: An American Girl. Both are slated for the Carmike.

Our focus today will be on Friday’s openers.

Wall-E is Pixar Animation’s latest entry and looks to be a big winner. Every audience I have seen in Sebring reacted quite favorably to its trailers, including grownups. The story is about a lonely robot left to tend to the scrap pile on an abandoned earth – until it meets up with some alien bots!

Wall-E is rated G, so everyone can enjoy it without worry.

Wanted stars Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy (Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) is what is pure adult escapism about a cabal of killers that looks like the cure for any summertime doldrums. Fans of body art will get to see Jolie’s extensive ink blots for the first time.

Wanted is rated R for bloody violence, profanity, and some sexuality. Carmike enforces the age limits and qualifications for film ratings, so if you want to let your kids see it, you’ll have to come along. That’s how it should be.

Here is the trailer for Wall-E:

And here is the trailer for Wanted:

Links to Sebring movie showtimes are on the right sidebar. Enjoy your weekend at the movies!

DVD Review: ‘No Country for Old Men’

Available on: DVD pan and scan  

No Country for Old Men is an atypical movie that is typical for the Coen Brothers. If you’ve seen some of their other movies, Fargo, Blood Simple, or Raising Arizona, then you know what to expect: quirky, imaginative characters that deliver deadpan lines to great effect.

Unfortunately, the story in No Country for Old Men is not as strong as the stories in the aforementioned movies. The plot develops at best in our view at a leisurely pace; others might think it slow and dawdling. The tone and the mood are very dark with no comic relief as in the other Coen Brothers movies. We found the ending to be unfulfilling.

No Country for Old Men won the Oscar for Best Picture for 2007 and Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the killer with no conscience.

Technically, the film offers good picture quality considering the washed out, drab landscape and the bright sunlight in most of the scenes. The night and interior shots provided contrast and detail despite the gloominess. The sound, on the other hand, was so low in some scenes that I had to go back several times to understand what was said. I gave up in several other instances.

This movie has limited re-watchability.

OUR SEBRING CINEMA AND SPORTS RECOMMENDATION: Rent it, DON’T buy it.

NATIONAL BOX OFFICE: ‘Get Smart’ Gets to the Top

SEBRING, June 25, 2008 – An old TV comedy broke fresh ground as a big screen adaptation and won the box office competition for the weekend of June 20-22.

The spy antics of Stever Carell and Anne Hathaway lifted Get Smart to a $39.1 in gate receipts and made it the No. 1 film in its debut weekend.

Kung Fu Panda continued its incredible show with gross ticket sales worth $21.7 million. It has accumulated $155.6 million but will run into tough competition when Wall-E opens this weekend. Kung Fu Panda finished at No. 3.

At No. 3 was The Incredible Hulk with $21.6 million in a photo finish with Kung Fu Panda. However, Hulk’s ticket sales dropped by 61% – not a good sign.

The Love Guru managed to finish at No. 4 with $14 million in gross. It was one of Michael Myers’s weakest debuts. Many critics have vilified the film, but in truth it isn’t bad. It’s just not as good as the Austin Powers series.

The Happening was the only other film that scored double digits with a $10 million take. It finished at No. 5.

The rest of the movie in order were: Indiana Jones, Zohan, Sex and the City, Iron Man, and The Strangers.

Iron Man crossed the $300 million threshhold this past weekend and has grossed $304.8 million. Indiana Jones is about $14 million behind, has been in release three fewer weeks, but opened and remains in more theaters than Iron Man. It will be interesting to see if Indy can catch Iron Man, which remains the surprise blockbuster of the summer.

MOVIE REVIEW: Love Guru Farce Funny

SELF HELP SUCK-UP: Guru Pitka (Mike Myers) lands a job with powerful executrix Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) in hope that he lands a guest spot on Oprah.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES

SEBRING, June 22, 2008 – Mike Myers pokes fun with panache at positive thinking and stereotypes in The Love Guru, which plays at the Carmike Cinema 8.

The laughs – and there are several – come at a price: an extended sexual theme and the requisite off-color jokes, words, and phrases to sustain.

In short, Myers tells the story of cursed hockey team owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba), who must get her star player back (Romany Malco) on track after a wrecked romance, or once again her team will lose the Stanley Cup.

That’s where Guru Pitka (Myers) enters. An American raised and trained in India, Pitka spouts asinine acronyms and axioms to gullible audiences that ply him with cash and credibility. He takes on the challenge of salvaging Darren Roanoke, the hockey star, only because he wants to become the new Deepak Choprah and appear on Oprah.

Myers’s stinging rebukes of American pop culture and its inerhent phonyism are truly funny, but audiences will have to weigh how much vulgarity they are willing to put up with to get a laugh.

The Love Guru is rated PG-13 for sexual themes and crude language throughout. It plays at the Carmike Cinema 8 in the Lakeshore Mall.

Our SEBRING CINEMA AND SPORTS rating on a 1 to 5 reel scale, 5 being a classic:

NEW MOVIES: ‘Get Smart,’ ‘Love Guru’ Debut in Sebring

SEBRING, June 21, 2008 – Two new movies are in town for their openings this weekend. Get Smart opens at the Fairmount Cinema 6 and Love Guru opens at the Carmike Cinema 8.

Get Smart stars funnyman Steve Carell (TV’s The Office, The 40-year-old Virgin, Dan in Real Life), Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada), and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson (The Scorpion King, Gridiron Gang), and it renews the popular TV comedy of the 1960s that depicted two opposing spy agencies of the Cold War filled with buffoonery.

Love Guru is talented Mike Myers’s latest effort, the tale of an guru from India who bears a message of self and who is hired to save a hockey star’s marriage. It, too, is packed with stars, most notably Myers (TV’s Saturday Night Live, Austin Powers, The Cat in the Hat), and Jessica Alba (TV’s Dark Angel, Fantastic Four, The Eye).

Both films are rated PG-13: Get Smart for some rude humor and action/violence; Love Guru for crude and sexual content throughout.

Here are the trailers to give you an idea about the films. First up is Get Smart:

Next up is Love Guru:

Don’t forget to scroll down and page over to check out reviews of other movies still playing in Sebring, or to check or search the archives. SEBRING CINEMA AND SPORTS says enjoy your weekend at the movies!

MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Then She Found Me’ Sparks Thought

KNEED TO KNOW: Garish talk show host Bernice Graves (Bette Midler) will do anything to get to know the daughter she gave away for adoption (Helen Hunt) in Then She Found Me at the Fairmount Cinema 6.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THINKfilm

SEBRING, June 19, 2009 – Oscar- and Emmy – winning actress Helen Hunt directs her first big screen film, Then She Found Me, which plays at the Fairmount Cinema 6 at least through this evening. She also stars in it with Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick.

The film is based on a 1990 novel by Elinor Lipman. Viewers who expect to find adherence to that story should know the characterizations are quite different; however, Lipman herself has stated she has seen the movie five times and loves it.

Thematically, the difference may be substantial, though not disagreeable. The emphasis in Lipman’s book is the clash of style between taciturn April Epner (Hunt) and her flamboyant birth mother, Bernice Graves (Midler), who has decided to re-insert herself into the life of the daughter she gave away.

The thematic emphasis of the film is not so much that relationship, though it plays a key role, but April’s struggle to hold on to her Jewish faith and her relationship to God amid her own and others’ repeated blunders. The fertilizer hits the fan for Epner, who rapidly finds herself fumbling her way through multiplying adversities, some of her own creation.

On top of those conflicts is April’s longing for a child against the ticking of her biological clock, an element not present in the book. Does it unnecessarily complicate April’s conflicts and detract from the thrust of Hunt’s film? Viewers will have to decide. The obstacle to Hunt’s thesis, I thought, was April’s decision about motherhood after she reconciles herself to a fresh understanding of God. Others might say her decision satisfies her quest for identity and acceptance of that identity.

Therein lies the strength of Then She Found Me. It is thoughtful and thought-provoking. One might well leave the auditorium in a discussion about what God is like and how we respond to what He is like. How do we live faithfully to what we believe amid so much failure?

Then She Found Me is rated R for some profanity and some sexual content. It plays at the Fairmount.

Our SEBRING CINEMA AND SPORTS rating (1 to 5 reels, 5 a classic):