With the release of Clint Eastwood’s latest film ‘J.Edgar’, generations not familiar with the historical figure will be hitting Wikipedia to find information on the man. Despite what you think about J. Edgar Hoover, his contribution to law enforcement in America and the flow on effects around the world are worthy of being highlighted. It’s always fascinating with how historical figures are remembered in film verses the history books.

For mainstream audiences the story of biopics is considered canon, and few bother to investigate why these people are worthy of getting the big screen treatment in the first place. ‘J.Edgar’ does a fine job of shining the spotlight on Hoover and questions the way we choose to remember history.

An elderly John Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) reflects on his life while writing his memoirs and reminisces on his beginnings with the Justice Department through to the formation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

DiCaprio completely owns ‘J.Edgar’ with an outstanding performance. There are aspects of Hoover’s life that could have been blown out of proportion for all the wrong reasons, but DiCaprio and Eastwood have carefully put together to pieces of his life and created an interesting character. Judi Dench is wonderful playing Hoover’s mother and Armie Hammer is great in a few of the film’s most powerful scenes.

The plot is a little mixed and Eastwood bounces between telling the story of the origin of the FBI and Hoover’s personal life. Both stories are intriguing but it feels like two separate half-finished films being spliced together and the impact of the story is lost.

Most of the narrative comes from Hoover’s point of view and there is an interesting commentary on how easily facts can be twisted and considered to be historically accurate. It’s very interesting that Eastwood has chosen Hoover to make that point considering the power he had as the head of the FBI. It’s almost as if Eastwood is asking us to question the facts of every story of a historical figure in order to find the truth, a very apt point in 2012 when most people believe what they read in the first search results that pop up on Google.

The biggest problem with ‘J.Edgar’ is that the entire film seems to have been shot without any proper lighting. In some scenes you can barely make out what’s going on and it’s as if the entire film was made in a cave using a bonfire instead of a lighting rig.

‘J.Edgar’ is a decent take on one of America’s most prolific political figures and people with an interest in American history will get a lot out of it; especially if you’re read up on the life of Hoover.

3/5

‘J.Edgar’ is now showing.

The Popcorn Junkie

2011 was a fantastic year for Australian films that included ‘Red Dog’, ‘Burning Man’, ‘the Hunter’ and despite the fact it divided audiences, ‘Snowtown’ still made a significant impact. Four steps forward and now with the release of ‘A Few Best Men’, one large step back.

David (Xavier Samuel) returns to England after holidaying in Asia to inform his friends and family that he’s engaged. His best mates find out they’re part of the bridal party and travel to Australia for what turns out to be the wedding from hell.

‘A Few Best Men’ will really test what you consider to be funny. The film is a farcical comedy where everything is over the top and outrageous, but there are only tiny specks of humour throughout. I felt like a vegetarian in an abattoir during the screening I attended as people howled with laughter at men in gimp masks, cross dressing sheep and Rebel Wilson?!?

The cast are a shoddy bunch with Kevin Bishop the standout as a one of the bumbling groomsmen who provides one of the films only highlights with a memorable wedding reception speech.

Australian director Stephan Elliott puts a serious dent in his resume with ‘A Few Best Men’ and may have his Australian citizenship revoked as a result. The films writer Dean ‘Death at a Funeral’ Craig fares badly too, and at times it feels like Craig got a few of his ideas by typing ‘horror wedding’ into YouTube.

To be fair, the film suffers from being up against a very strong crop of recent wedding themed comedies such as ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Bridesmaids’.

I’m a proud Australian and I feel like I’m shooting my country in the face with this review, but I’m not the one holding the smoking gun, ‘A Few Best Men’ is the culprit. I’ll just draw the chalk around the body and file ‘A Few Best Men’ under terrible. Case closed.

.5/5

‘A Few Best Men’ is released 26 January 2012.

The Popcorn Junkie

Domestic US Box Office 20-22 January 2012

Winners

We predicted that the franchise power of ‘Underworld Awakening’ would take a bite out of the box office and it opened in the top spot with $25.3 million. It’s the second highest opening for the franchise with ‘Underworld Evolution’ still holding the record with $26.8 million. The big winner is Kate Beckinsale who has had a fantastic fortnight starring in two box office toppers – ‘Underworld Awakening’ and ‘Contraband’ – that should see her star power rise. Speaking of ‘Contraband’, it did well to stay in the top 3 and has racked up $45.9 million well ahead of its $25 million budget.

The George Lucas produced ‘Red Tails’ has been in production since 1988! A long development didn’t hinder the film and Fox will say it was worth the wait to the tune of $18.7 million. A good result considering it was only released in just over 2,500 locations compared to ‘Underworld Awakening’ that opened in 3,000. Fox will forever wonder how much of an impact those 500 extra locations may have had but keep an eye on ‘Red Tails’ to possibly hold next week. Average reviews may prevent that happening with the film holding a 34 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating but it could happen once the ‘Underworld’ franchise power wears off a little.

Losers
Tom Hanks has had a rough couple of years. When you take out ‘Toy Story 3’, his films have failed to make an impact and ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ came out of limited release hibernation to bag only $10 million. It’s on par with ‘Larry Crowne’ which opened to $13 million last year. ‘Angels and Demons’ was his last big hit in 2009 and it’s evident that despite his legendary status, Hanks isn’t drawing in audiences like he used to.

‘Haywire’ took a kick to the guts as a new entry in sixth place opening to $8.4 million. Director Steven Soderbergh’s action film opened in the same number of locations as ‘Red Tails’ but lacked the star power to generate any interest with former MMA fighter Gina Carano not proving to be a draw card. The supporting cast is full of well-known actors but Carano featured heavily in the films promotion and was the main attraction. Expect the poor performance of ‘Haywire’ to hinder its release overseas and possibly face a straight to DVD release in some territories.

New releases for the weekend 28-29 January 2012

- The Grey
- Man on a Ledge
- One for the Money

We predict: Man on a Ledge #1
Popcorn Junkie prediction rate in 2012: 1/2 (50%)

Total studio grosses for releases in 2012 as of 22 January

All stats taken from The Box Office Mojo.

Some people say that your high school years are the best years of your life. For a small group of popular kids that may be true and for those people the best years of their lives are also the rest of their lives. ‘Young Adult’ is a character study of what happens to high school stereotypes when they grow up, and it’s not pretty.

Mavis Gary (Charlize Theron) is a writer living in Minneapolis sleeping away the days and drinking through the nights. After receiving news that her high school boyfriend Buddy (Patrick Wilson) has become a father, she travels back to her small home town with the goal of getting him back.

‘Young Adult’ is stacked with terrific performances and Theron is the standout. Her character is angry at the world and Theron gives off a glare that could stop the heart of a hamster. Her portrayal of a high school queen bee/mean girl in her mid-thirties chasing delusions of happiness is awkward and engaging. Squaring off with Theron is Patton Oswalt who is excellent as a geeky social outcast and Wilson is good as the old flame.

It’s a real shame that these great performances get lost in a film that has very little to offer. The story gets repetitive quickly and all the effort put into developing the characters is cast aside with a very disappointing finale. ‘Young Adult’ goes in a complete circle and it’s not worth taking the trip. A shoddy effort from screenwriter Diablo Cody whose name is used a lot to promote the film, and it’s a major step down from her excellent work on ‘Juno’ which she has still not matched with any of her follow up films.

Director Jason Reitman doesn’t fair too good either and his obsession with characters jaded by life is starting to get tiring. I wasn’t a big fan of ‘Up In the Air’ and ‘Young Adult’ fits in the same category. Maybe his next film will be about a bunch of privileged heroin addicts who turn to drugs despite their riches in life? Put the three films together for Reitman’s ‘bummed out on life’ trilogy.

Cody and Reitman were once two of the most promising talents in the filmmaking business, but ‘Young Adult’ erases any of their past success from memory. I truly hope for a return to form soon because ‘Young Adult’ is a real downer.

2/5

‘Young Adult’ is now showing.

Paramount

The Popcorn Junkie

The Popcorn Junkie have five copies of ‘Apollo 18′ to giveaway on BluRay.

Details here

‘Dark Shadows’ show promise and is based on the television series from the 60s. With the release getting close there is still no trailer, but a bunch of new images have appeared so we’re getting close to seeing footage from the film.

A new image shows Depp’s character, the vampire Barnabus Collins, sporting what can be best described as a home-haircut.

Hit the jump to check it out.

Warner Brothers has released a lengthy synopsis below:

“In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.

Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.
Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote.”

‘Dark Shadows’ is released 10 May 2012.

The Popcorn Junkie

What happens when aliens attack Earth and only a group of douchebags survive?  ‘The Darkest Hour’ explores this notion, and becomes a rare piece of cinema in the process.  It’s one of the only alien invasion films where you actually cheers for the aliens.

Sean (Emile Hirsh) and Ben (Max Minghella) are two web developers visiting Moscow in Russia for business when mysterious objects start falling from the sky and incinerating the locals.

1. Chicken thigh fillets

2. Curry paste  

3. Apples

4. Bananas

5. Hair removal cream

Oh!  Sorry, I started writing my shopping list which is something I started doing in my head while watching ‘The Darkest Hour’.  The film projects stupidity and you will be instantly bored.  The problem lies with the moronic characters that are instantly unlikable the minute they open their mouths.  It’s hard to support the ‘heroes’ when you want to throttle them with a phonebook at the same time. Amongst all the death and destruction, one of the main characters motivations is to get her mobile phone to work.   Forget the end of the world, I want to update my status on Facebook – totes bummed bout nd of wrld!

The action is about as much fun as having an AK-47 pointed at your head and despite the fact the aliens do a good job of exterminating the douche element of the world’s population, they’re not threatening enough.  If your rechargeable battery charger grew legs and started walking around you’d get close to the aliens from ‘The Darkest Hour’.

The deserted streets of Moscow looked great in a few scenes but were ruined the appearance of the cast who all deliver terrible performances.

Director Chris Gorak gets seriously deluded towards the finale with attempts to set up sequels with Hirsh proclaiming wide-eyed, “THIS IS WHERE IT BEGINS!”  No franchise is happening, maybe a direct to community television version if you’re lucky.

‘The Darkest Hour’ is so bad that Russian and American relations may break down and reignite the Cold War.

.5/5

‘The Darkest Hour’ is now showing.

The Popcorn Junkie

We don’t know how we missed this one (double-uppercut) but the LA Times got their hands on a new image from ‘Prometheus’.

It features Noomi Rapace standing in a corridor that looks like the hallway at H.R Giger’s house. There are a couple of familiar looking characters on the left hand side for ‘Alien’ fans to geek out over.

Hit the jump to check it out.

‘Prometheus’ is released 7 June 2012.

Images via Empire and LA Times

Yesterday thanks to Empire we got our hands on a few concept posters for ‘Drive’ and today the team at Collider have the poster Gods smiling on them today.

‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ is a great film that’s yet to be released in America. A new poster for the film has appeared that perfectly captures the vibe of the film.

Check it out after the jump.

We love the simplicity of the poster. The team at Collider pointed out that it has a ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ feel to it, and is resonant of a lot of horror film posters from the 60s and 70s.

‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ is a terrific film and worth checking out when it’s released in the US on 27 January. Check out our review here.

Image via Collider and AICN please visit these great sites.

Modern movie posters are terrible. They often comprise of an actor’s fat head badly photo-shopped over the top of the film’s title that’s barely visible.

A good movie poster should get you excited about a film while perfectly capturing the tone of the film.

Our favourite film of 2011 was ‘Drive’ and Empire Magazine in the UK has got their hands on alternative one-sheets that didn’t make it into the corridors of cinemas.

The brains behind the poster campaign for ‘Drive’, Rich Andrews, sat down with the team at Empire to talk through early design concepts and how they chose the final designs.

Check a few of them out after the jump.

Check out all the posters with commentary from Andrew’s over at Empire