Invictus Trailer

From director Clint Eastwood, 'Invictus' tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) joined forces with the captain of South Africas rugby team, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africas underdog rugby team as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match.

Invictus is due out December 11, in time for Oscar consideration.

The poem 'INVICTUS', quoted in the trailer, is by William Ernest Henley, from which Nelson Mandela drew strength while in prison.

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

Wanted - mini-review

It killed me to wait, but we were at a family reunion all weekend, and I couldn't see Wanted until Monday afternoon. So, you're wondering, was it worth the wait and the hype? Hell, yeah!

This movie is a non-stop adrenaline rush. I got a kick out of the fact it was set in Chicago, but commuters can only dream that L trains go that fast!

Angelina Jolie is just so at home in her own skin in action roles like this. Morgan Freeman, excellent as usual. But, James, oh my, James McAvoy. His performance is simply brilliant. I can't imagine anyone better in this role. He starts out the movie as this nervous nebbishy cubicle slave, and ends the movie as a total badass. He makes the transformation completely believable. I feel like he poured everything he's been in other movies into this role, at times nervous and twitchy, sometimes showing anguish and emotional pain full out there, and then his intensity which has been seen sometimes in other films is given full throttle. Just brilliant. (James has even said that he made himself pass out by unknowingly holding his breath during intense scenes.)

What I am also excited about with this movie is the director, Timur Bekmambetov, a Russian-Khazak. People have been talking about two Russian films he's made: Night Watch and Day Watch that are supposed to be out of this world. The action sequences and the colliding bullets in Wanted reminded me of my open-mouthed amazement watching the first Matrix film. You're seeing things and techniques that are new and fresh.

Timur Bekmambetov told an interviewer that his influences aren't from living in Russia, but in the USSR:

"(The Soviet Union) was a fantasy world created by one man, and his name was Stalin, and he created and controlled everything," Timur said. "How to dress, how to drink, how to talk, how to think. He was the producer."

Timur continued, "We lived for seventy years in a fantasy movie created by one person. It gave us a sensibility and the ability to believe different things. That influences your way of thinking."

I cannot wait to see what this guy comes up with next. He is definitely a creative force to watch.

Three and a half stars. See it on the big screen. It is totally kickass. With the successful opening weekend that Wanted has had, there is already talk of a sequel. Given the ending, that will be interesting. Only if you've seen the film, read this interesting article on how the ending was reshot. Major spoiler alert!

Morgan Freeman was Always Cool

Was there any doubt that Morgan Freeman was always cool and groovy? Here he is as the Easy Reader from the Electric Company days with Rita Moreno.
Hat tip: Movie Moron

Before Morgan Freeman was cast as Q in Batman Begins, before he played God, the President, or drove Miss Daisy, he was just another jobbing actor. In fact, he was kinda a hippie. And he liked to sing.

Gone Baby Gone - mini-review

I had been avoiding watching Gone Baby Gone. I had ordered it from Netflix before the Oscars, so that I could watch Amy Ryan's nominated performance. The subject matter of a missing person, for reasons many of you know, just had me picking up another movie to watch each time, and leaving this one in the envelope. My friend Janene saw it recently, and told me I must watch it, that it was a really excellent film. Finally, this weekend, I did watch it, and it was everything she said and more. It is a truly fantastic film. Ben Affleck won an Oscar for screenwriting back in the Good Will Hunting days, and one forgets with all the schlock movies he started to act in that the man has talent. It was wonderful to see him hit the ball out of the park with his directorial debut, and he co-wrote the script as well, adapting the book by the same author as Mystic River.

This film has such a sense of place, the story of a missing young girl set in South Boston. Ben Affleck got local people to do walk on parts in the movie, and it really does add into the whole atmosphere. The cast is superb. Casey Affleck continues to amaze me, Michelle Monaghan (Made of Honor) is starting a fine career, Amy Ryan definitely deserved her Oscar nom for the part of the mother of the missing young girl, and you've got the stalwarts: Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman. This is a dark movie, yes, but the plot has lots of twists and turns. You leave the film wondering if the main character made the right decision. I give this film three and a half stars and urge you to see it. Watch the trailer here.

New Wanted Trailer

Wanted in HD