One of my very favorite directors and actors is gone.  Sydney Pollack, a man who directed and acted in such literate and intelligent ways, was a throwback to times where stories and characters mattered most in movie making.  His Academy Award winning film Out Of Africa touched me deeply because it reminded me so much of my mother and father and the love that they shared.  Even in films where he wasn't as successful (e.g. The Interpreter), the themes and narratives which he conveyed were always smart, rich with detail, and involving.

For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights - underground. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing... and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Now, in a race against time, the citizens must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence, and escape before the lights go out forever.

Gil Kenan (dir.)
Bill Murray
Tim Robbins
Martin Landau
Toby Jones
Saoirse Ronan

I don't know about you, but I can't take another Star Wars movie/spin-off/video game/TV series.  Can't we just give it closure?  Inner voice: Of course not.  Give another decade, and you'll have another trilogy.

As if we haven't had enough of George Lucas's bombardment, there'll be another film (mercifully just CGI this time, but is that any comfort?) this August entitled Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Wait a sec, didn't Cartoon Network air that as a series of cartoon shorts a few years ago?  Yes it did, and it was actually quite good in its simple animated form.  No unnecessary exposition.  It was merely filler between Star Wars Prequel-Films.  Between which ones I don't care to recall.

A lot has been said about how much darker Prince Caspian is over its predecessor (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe), and that it is.  But what gets lost within this observation is how much more assured and polished this outing is as well.  As if released from the burden of fitting this material for children, Andrew Adamson has crafted what is essentially a Jacobean fairy tale, managed with clever writing and a few lighthearted moments, and methodically punctuated with a marvelous climax.

A romantic action-adventure set in northern Australia prior to World War II, AUSTRALIA centers on an English aristocrat who inherits a ranch the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle driver to drive 2000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

Baz Luhrmann (dir.)
Nicole Kidman
Hugh Jackman
David Wenham
Jack Thompson
Bryan Brown

Hi Roger,

It's unusual that you've decided to review a movie that hasn't been released (as I believe it is your policy not to review those at film festivals, e.g. Cannes), just as it is unusual that I'm promoting it, virtually undercutting my future one.  But reading your review of Indy 4 shows that you've given in to your enthusiasm, being an admirer of Spielberg work (just as I am of yours and his).  Your stamp of approval is greatly reassuring.

All the best with your recovery.  If only we could receive those film reels at home the way you must have.

According to Slashfilm.com, Disney/Pixar has developed a mobile animatronic version of Wall-E to roam the Disney amusement parks.  Here's a video of Wall-E inaction in Los Angeles.

What on Earth were the Wachowski brothers smoking?  That's pretty much all I could think about after seeing Speed Racer, a film that blows its wad over CGI (the film's budget was $120 million), and yet feels so spectacularly cheap.  Despite its dazzling visual assault and actors' brave (but thankless) performances, the movie is essentially a two hour Hot Wheels commercial.

Though this may interest no one but myself, I found a remarkable explanation for just this very question.  The following is a reader response (to another reader's comment) on why the samurai depicted in The Seven Samurai appear to be overacting (taken from the reader mail section of Roger Ebert's website:

"... American and European film acting is heavily influenced by the realist movement of the 19th century as exemplified in theater by the plays of Anton Chekov. The realists wanted their work to portray slices of real life (hence the name) and in theater pushed their actors to act as naturally as possible and still be performing a piece of theater.

Japanese films are heavily influenced by Kabuki theater. Kabuki theater as it developed in Edo (modern Tokyo) is known for its stylized dramatic forms, exaggerated make up, and over-the-top performance of characters based on broadly drawn archetypes or stereotypes. It is worth noting that Tokyo based Shochiku, Company, Limited the oldest continually operating film studio in Japan and Akira Kurosawa's employer began in 1895 as a Kabuki theater. So the actors in "Seven Samurai" aren't over acting they are simply acting in the style with which they were most familiar."

- Frank B. Chavez III, Hayward, CA

In this wonderful article about Robert Downey Jr.'s road back to supreme success, David Carr writes about an inside joke about Burger King and Mr. Downey's (and Tony Stark's) life-changing moment:

"On or around Independence Day in 2003, he stopped at a Burger King on the Pacific Coast Highway and threw all his drugs in the ocean. And while he was sitting there chewing on a burger, he decided he was done. This being America, five years later you can walk into that Burger King, and if you order a Kids Meal you can get your own Robert Downey Jr. action figure, wrapped up in gadget ware. (And what does Tony Stark want when he escapes his kidnappers? A good old American cheeseburger -- from Burger King, natch.)"

Both gazillionaires talk about their similarties, differences, and the upcoming 2008 Summer movie season.  Absolutely hilarious.

A lot of you have heard by now of the extra scene that plays out after the Iron Man end credits (read no further if you don't want to find out), where Tony Stark comes home to find Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson, as envisioned in the picture to the left) mentioning the "Avengers Initiative".

Rest assured that comic book fans (especially fanboys) had their hearts leap at that moment, for the promise that movies have held for so long, to breath life into superhero adventures long trapped on the page, might finally come to pass.

Iron Man is Marvel's answer to Batman.  Both are gazillionaires who pour their immense fortune (obtained from weaponry) to fund their personal crusades.  Both wield no "super powers".  Both are haunted by loss and are driven by such trauma to save humanity from itself.  But whereas Bruce Wayne's life-mission is to exact vengeance on wrongdoers, Tony Stark aims to have sinful fun while saving the world.  He's not as focused, but he makes up for it with his technological genius.