DVD and Blu Ray releases for the week of February 11th!!!

Here are your DVD and Blu Ray releases for Tuesday February 12th:

Skyfall, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Sessions, Robot and Frank**, The Man with the Iron Fists, Bully, Weeds Season 8, Nurse Jackie Season Season 4, Gossip Girl Season 6

**DVD only

Good news this is, Frank Oz return he will if Yoda film reality it becomes

     The Jedi Master Yoda is easily one of my top five movie characters of all time and when the recent announcement of stand alone Star Wars movies came along, the green guy's name was right at the top of the list.
     According to "Screenrant" the voice and puppet master of Luke Skywalker's trainer, Frank Oz, is down for a return.  He says it depends on the script of course and that the puppet aspect of Yoda is out of the question, which I agree with wholeheartedly.  It is strange to me that he would say it would depend on the script considering The Phantom Menace was pretty awful.
     I for one think this is great news and I sincerely hope Oz returns.  More than anything though I'm looking forward to uncovering the Yoda's past which is shrouded in mystery. 
     In the meantime Star Wars Episode VII hits theaters summer 2015.

Review: Les Miserables

Plot:  Based on the novel by Victor Hugo and the Broadway musical of the same name, Les Miserables tells the story of Jean Valjean (Hugo Jackman) a man imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread and then forced to live as a marked convict.  After stealing some silverware and receiving a reprieve from a kindly priest, Valjean uses the money to become a better man.  However, the relentless inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) constantly pursues the former prisoner convinced he cannot change his ways.  Amidst the toil to keep his identity a secret and benefit his community, Valjean comes in contact with the bereft Fantine (Anne Hathaway) who is forced into prostitution in order to provide for Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) her only daughter.  Vowing to help Fantine, Valjean takes Cosette under his protection.  Together the two face the dogged Javert, a rebellion in France, and Cosette's love for Marius (Eddie Redmayne).

Review:  Les Miserables is a bold, sweeping, and beautiful rendition of the classic musical from Academy Award winning director Tom Hooper.  Rife with fantastic acting performances, captivating music, and brilliant set design, Les Miserables proves to be the best movie musical since Chicago and perhaps one of the best of all time.
     While I usually believe that too many cooks ruin the pot when it comes to screenplays, scriptwriters William Nicholson, Alain Boubil, Claude-Michel Schoenberg, and Herbert Kretzmer do a near flawless job of breathing new life into the musical.  Hooper made the innovative choice to have the actors sing live and then put in the orchestral music after the fact, rather than have the songs recorded in post production.  While some felt the idea was misguided I think it was a colossal success and I applaud Hooper for making such a bold choice.  I particularly liked the opening song "Look Down" and the very funny "Master of the House." 
     Danny Cohen's cinematography masterfully captures the beauty and majesty of 18th century France which owes a large debt to the spectacular set and costume designers of Les Miserables.  Undoubtedly the film will be sure to capture a few Oscars in those categories when the Academy Awards airs in a few weeks. 
     Speaking of Oscars, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway's nominations are well deserved.  Jackman's Valjean is the perfect foil for the law minded Javert played by Russell Crowe.  Don't believe the negative criticism about Crowe by the way.  His acting and singing while not nearly as good as Hathaway or Jackman is still very good and I thought he made for a wonderful Javert.  It is simply stunning the transformation that Jackman goes through from destitute convict to well to do business man and surrogate father.  Not to mention he can sing.  If it wasn't for Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in Lincoln he'd probably be the front runner for the Best Actor award.  (Although admittedly I have not seen Joaquin Phoenix's performance in The Master which I hear is equally impressive.)  As for Hathaway you might as well box up the Best Supporting Actress Award right now.  Her portrayal of the destitute and tragic Fantine is one for the ages and her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" is one of the best musical performances ever caught on film.
     My only complaint with Les Miserables is that it seems to drag in spots and is slightly too long.  It also is slightly bombastic at times and the social injustice aspect of the movie is about as subtle as a hammer to the head. 
     These are minor faults however and doesn't prevent a movie, whose literal translation means "the miserable," from being simply wonderful.

My rating:  9/10

And the year that "X-Men: Days of Future Past" will be set in is....

     1973.
     That's right.  The sequel to X-Men: First Class will jump forward eleven years to the disco 70s.  "Comic Book Movie" reports that although director Matthew Vaughn originally wanted it set during the Kennedy assassination, he felt 1973 was a more appropriate setting.  Three major things occurred in 1973 including the end of the US involvement in the Vietnam War, the launch of Skylab, and Watergate.  Now how any of these will factor in considering this a time travel based film is unknown.
     X-Men: Days of Future Past is set to shoot between April and August of this year with a release date of July 18, 2014.

Jeremy Renner to take on the CIA in new film

     Jeremy Renner is one of the hottest working actors today.  He was superb in The Hurt Locker and even better in The Town.  I even liked him in The Avengers.  Well it looks like Renner is about to sink his teeth into another meaty dramatic role.
     "Deadline" reports that Renner has signed on for the CIA thriller Kill the Messenger.  Renner will play real life journalist Gary Webb who exposed a CIA plot to arm Contra rebels in Nicaragua and import cocaine into California.  The San Jose Mercury News reporter's expose resulted in a smear campaign from the CIA that tragically led to Webb's suicide.
    The film will be directed by Michael Cuesta who's directed a few episodes of the award winning HBO show "Homeland."  Kill the Messenger will be based on the books "Dark Alliance:  The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion" by Webb and "Kill the Messenger:  How the CIA's Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb" by Nick Schou.
      Personally I love thrillers that involve our government's major security departments and this looks like a good one. 

Fanboys Chill Out Already!!!

     While this may be the most amazing and technologically advanced era in the whole of human history there is a drawback.  With Twitter, Facebook, Ipads, the Internet, Smartphones, et al, we are living in what I like to call "the world of right now."  If it's not something we can look up in two seconds, tweet, or find on Wikipedia we immediately become irritated, frustrated, and impatient.  Mind you this is a society that is just a few decades removed from the wireless radio.  An era where if you wanted to communicate with someone you actually used the telephone, you didn't text, or you wrote a letter, you didn't email.
     I kind of feel that this "world of right now" has translated into the Fanboy world as well.  It is a sub or offshoot world if you will.  I like to call it "the world of unrealistic movie expectations."  We've become spoiled by such films as The Dark Knight, The Matrix, Iron Man, and 300 that anything less than perfection is seen as a huge let down.  How ridiculous!  Take for example two of the bigger tentpole movies from 2012, The Dark Knight Rises and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  While fanboys complained ad nauseum about the flaws in each film (and there are don't get me wrong) the one thing I gleaned was that these guys were angry that The Dark Knight Rises wasn't The Dark Knight and that The Hobbit wasn't The Lord of the Rings.  I guarantee that if The Dark Knight and The Lord of the Rings had never happened that those same fanboys would sing the praises of The Hobbit and The Dark Knight Rises.  The expectations anymore aren't just high, they're are unrealistic.  I mean Judas Priest people are already condemning Man of Steel because it has Jane Olson in it instead of Jimmy Olson and the movie doesn't premiere for another six months!  Get a grip already!
     Now that's not to say that audiences shouldn't expect a quality film when they shell out their hard earned money at the local theater.  Far from it.  But I do believe fanboys need to stop condemning films just because they don't live up to the expectations of previous superhero movies.  Sorry to break it to you nerds but Antman just doesn't have as compelling a back story as Batman.

See It Before You Size It Up

     It's an expression we've probably all heard before:  "Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself."
     In my work as a movie blogger I think I those words have kind of fallen by the wayside when it comes to my conclusions about movies.  It took two incidents to change my mind.  The first was the recent film Silver Linings Playbook.   SLP was a film I'd already prejudged going in.  I assumed it was going to be your standard rom-com with cookie cutter acting and blase directing.  I couldn't have been more wrong and I've since written quite the mea culpa in my review, especially to Bradley Cooper.
     The second incident was the "Sandy Hook Conspiracy" video that was circulating on YouTube.  Now at first I was hesitant to watch it because my initial reaction was of someone trying to capitalize on a tragedy to forward their own interests.  Many people I know refused to watch it just for that fact alone.  However, I felt it was necessary to watch the film because how can I justifiably condemn anything (books, music, movies, politicians, etc) without experiencing it first.  It just seemed to me like wilful ignorance and I personally think there is too much of that already in this world.  While some of the points raised were interesting, there were also a ton of holes.  And it just so happens that one of the things he pointed out (that strong evidence suggested no assault weapons were used) turned out to be right.  The bottom line is that I wouldn't have known these things had I not watched the video.  Again, although I didn't agree with the majority of the things in the video, I do appreciate the sentiment that one shouldn't take anything (especially in the media) at face value.  It is necessary to question and it's also human nature.  Even if the information is something you find reprehensible and anathema to your moral fiber, it's at least advantageous to know your enemy and their strategy.
     Bottom line is that I've decided I won't prejudge a film anymore.  I reserve the right to say, "this LOOKS awful" but I'm no longer going to say "this IS awful" without having seen it first.  If I haven't seen the film I'm going to say so up front.  So if this month at the Oscars an actor, actress, director, or film wins an award and I haven't seen it, I will flat out write that I can't assess the situation's merits without reviewing it first.
     I leave it to you, Constant Reader, to keep me honest.