So did Tom ever manage to duplicate Ray Charles’ impeccable mastery of the 88 keys? Check out the latest buzzComix incentive sketch to find out.
It kind of snuck up on us, but the Ray Charles biography Ray will be in theaters this Friday. I find it odd that a potential Oscar contender is being released Halloween weekend. I mean, make some room for the schlock that’ll be out of theaters in a week (Seed of Chucky, I’m looking in your direction), then come in afterwords and sweep up at the box office.
Maybe this is Universal’s idea of counter programming. It’s not any more ludicrous than opening Surviving Christmas in October, I guess.
Reviews for Ray have been off the charts in terms of positive feedback. People are jumping up and down over Jamie Foxx’s performance. From what I’ve seen of trailers and commercials, his impersonation seems pretty accurate. I guess he did all the piano playing in the movie by himself. That’s pretty impressive.
I don’t know what I find so interesting about Foxx, but something about him tells me that producers and directors have barely scratched the surface of what he’s capable of.
He’s had a good year so far. He was great in Collateral. And anyone who has seen his performance as Drew ‘Bundini’ Brown in Ali knows he can bring emotional weight to even the most bombastic character. Unfortunately, for every Any Given Sunday, there’s a movie like Bait or Booty Call waiting in the wings.
He’s supposed to have a role in Sam Mendes’ Jarhead next year, which I’m already looking forward to. I think that will be a good collaboration.
At any rate, back to Ray. Looks good! Cami and I are ready to go see it this weekend.
I have an interest in seeing Saw, mostly because of the grisly “do or die” scenarios the film seems to be rife with. Normally I don’t go for brutal horror, but I think I’ll like the psychological aspects of this one. Cami has no interest. I may have to wait until it comes out on video.
Beyond that, no scary movies in the Brazelton household this Halloween. We’ll pass out candy like good neighbors on Beggar’s Night this Saturday, but I’m not going to chase any kids around the year with a machete. I guess IFC is going to be having a Halloween marathon of Italian horror classics hosted by Tom Savini. It’s almost too pretentious to pass up!
Second round of pre-orders on the Spoiler t-shirt are coming to a close this Saturday. If you want to put your money down, I’ll guarantee you a shirt with the second batch!
That’s about it for now. Less than a week until Election Day. Can’t wait until this circus pulls up stakes and goes into hibernation for another four years.
In all fairness, there was a down year in 2003 between Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. There also was not a Harry Potter movie in 2006 between Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
But there’s some truth to the saying that “perception is reality” and it kind of feels like the Harry Potter franchise has permeated nearly every facet of my pop culture consciousness each year since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 8 years ago and has never really faded in that length of time.
The sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is hovering on the horizon and it kind of feels like a rebirth for me.
Cami and I didn’t see the fifth movie when it was in theaters. Henry had been born a few months prior and considering the downright dreadful slog that was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we didn’t feel compelled to find a sitter.
We ended up renting the movie and watching it maybe a month ago and I was kind of surprised by how dark it was. I’m not a fan of the books, so I can’t compare or contrast against the source material. But I found it INFINITELY more easy to follow compared to Goblet of Fire and (as I’ve been told) there was more complicated plot elements to cram into the fifth movie anyway. So, cheers for that.
With renewed interest I am looking forward to Half-Blood Prince and I think it is to the franchise’s advantage that they have settled on a director with David Yates. He directed Phoenix, Half-Blood and is in the process of filming both chapters of The Deathly Hallows.
As much as I love Alfonso CuarĂ³n’s work in Prisoner of Azkaban (and as much as it looked like they were going to rotate directors out to keep the franchise in step with the natural aging of the actors) I believe a consistent voice is best and I eager to see where things go.
I have no other particular insights about the Harry Potter movies, so I’ll turn it over to you guys. Which one of the films is your favorite? Do you have high hopes for Half-Blood? How do you feel about them splitting the seventh book into two movies? Leave your comments below!