The Secret World of Arrietty

 

The Secret World of Arrietty Photo Gallery

Slow Start For The River

The River - ABC’s new horror/mystery drama The River launched to so-so numbers last night. The first hour of its 2-hour premiere posted a 2.5 rating in adults 18-49 and 8.2 million at 9 PM. The second hour dipped to a 2.2 rating and 6.8 million viewers, with the show slipping a tenth of a rating point every half-hour. The 2.2 rating matched the debut in ABC’s midseason drama Off The Map in the Wednesday 10 PM slot last year. At 8 PM, back-to-back original episodes of Last Man Standing (2.3/6, 7.75 million; 2.5/6, 7.96 million) were down 12% and 4% in the demo, respectively, from the comedy’s last original 3 weeks ago.

It looks like ABC’s topper Paul Lee was half-right in his hypothesis that during the current economic downturn viewers would flock to genres that were popular during the depression. It worked for fairy tales, with the success of Once Upon A Time. But another top depression draw, horror, may have tougher sledding. 

 original movie

CBS won the night in both 18-49 and total viewers anchored by the 200th episode of NCIS (4.1/11, 20.82), even with its last original 4 weeks ago in 18-49 and logging its second largest audience of the season. NCIS: LA (3.1/8, 16.12 million) was down 6%, while Unforgettable (2.2/6, 11.7 million) was flat. Ricky Martin was no match for the gloved one. Last night’s episode of Fox’s Glee (3.2/9) starring the Latin heartthrob posted a 3.2/9 in 18-49, down 14% from last week’s Michael Jackson episode. New Girl (3.5/9) was even with last week, while Raising Hope (2.2/5) was up 10%. NBC’s Biggest Loser (2.2/6) was up 5% from last week. Parenthood(1.6/4) was down 6% from 3 weeks ago for a series low. CW’s 90210 (0.7/2) was steady while Ringer (0.5/1) was down a tenth.

 Slow Start For The RIver

Black Swan - Sarah Lane

Sarah Lane, a ballerina who was a dancing double for the Oscar-winning actress told EW that she was the victim of a cover-up that would mislead the public about how much dancing Portman actually did. (Lane is an American Ballet Theatre soloist.) She revealed that she did most of the moves and harder dance routines in the movie while graphics allowed Portman’s face to appear on Lane’s body

Sarah Lane, a body double for Natalie Portman in the movie “Black Swan,” has just responded to accusations that she didn’t have a significant role in the movie by revealing that Portman only did around 5% of the ballet dancing in the film.

The movie made Portman a huge star, winning numerous awards, but left her body double in the shadows.

Sarah Lane, a ballerina who was a dancing double for the Oscar-winning actress told EW that she was the victim of a cover-up that would mislead the public about how much dancing Portman actually did. (Lane is an American Ballet Theatre soloist.) She revealed that she did most of the moves and harder dance routines in the movie while graphics allowed Portman’s face to appear on Lane’s body.

This claim is in response to Portman’s fiance and a choreographer for the film stating that Lane did less significant work in the movie. They stated to the L.A. Times, that Portman performed around 85 percent of the movie.

Portman, however, never failed to admit her helpful body double, telling EW, “I do have a double for the complicated turning stuff.”

Black Swan - Sarah Lane

Harry Potter Review

Harry Potter Review. For the moment, though, we have 'The Deathly Hallows', and it’s everything we have come to expect: exciting and menacing, packed with stunning effects, tender and romantic, chilling and funny and, happily, not at all sentimental.

When it comes to tonight’s midnight release of part one of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the key word seems to be“excited.”

The teenage wizard is back with his fearless trio of spellbinders – Harry, Ron and Hermoine – it’s one last stand against the evils of the increasingly powerful Dark Lord Voldermort, and there’s more than just what the book contained.

In the first of a two-part final telling of the amazingly successful J.K. Rowling stories of magic – Part 2 arrives next July – we have a more Earthbound background, though still one packed with the mythical references we have come to love .

The central characters have, naturally, grown up and so too has their impact as the series draws to a climax, for one thing the perpetual swot Hermoine (Kate Watson) here comes into her own with a more telling role.

This seventh film in the franchise, directed  by David Yates, begins with nearly suffocating tension, as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) finds himself face-to-face with his destiny: being the target of the evil Lord Voldemort's deadly wrath. Friends and allieswill have to band together to protect him; some of them won't make it out alive.

Finally, the weight of Harry's past and the frightening unknown of his future are about to collide.

Yates' film is gorgeous with sprawling, end-of-the-Earth shots of foreboding mountains and lonely beaches that reflect the characters' moods.

Interestingly, at the London premiere Rowling hinted, albeit vaguely, that this, the seventh of her wonderful books, need not necessarily be the final one.

For the moment, though, we have 'The Deathly Hallows', and it’s everything we have come to expect: exciting and menacing, packed with stunning effects, tender and romantic, chilling and funny and, happily, not at all sentimental.

Harry Potter Review

Skyline – The Movie Review

I have never been disappointed in Donald Faison in my life until now. Terry was a materalistic, womanizing jerk who didn’t care what anybody thought as long as his needs were served. Was I happy that he was eaten? Hell, yes. It was probably the most watchable part of the movie. I really bought the fear in his eyes and the desperation on his face. He didn’t want to be eaten; he wanted to be saved. It was very believable, and I loved every second of it.

The only reason that I wanted to see Skyline is because I was a preteen girl in the 90s. Why wouldn’t I want to see a movie that not only had Donald Faison from Clueless but also Brittany Daniel from Sweet Valley High? I figured that as a people vs. aliens type movie, it couldn’t be all that bad. I was way off.

Skyline drags on forever. I will say that I did enjoy the fact that it told most of the story without lots of dialogue – good use of a visual medium. That’s all that was really enjoyable about the movie, however. Half way through it, I just wanted everyone to die because I knew that’s where it was headed, and I was getting bored. I understand needing aliens to be tough, because otherwise the heroes have no conflict, but making them indestructible is just as boring in the opposite direction. Also, I don’t get why we’re automatically supposed to hate aliens in movies just because they’re aliens.

The protagonists of Skyline didn’t exactly have the best of traits, except for Jarrod who was insanely helpful, but we have to think the aliens are bad guys just because they’re aliens? Maybe they’re not aware that they’re being evil. Maybe they’re just hungry. I apologize for that tangent, but when you can’t support your protagonists, you tend to find a character you can identify with. We’ve all been hungry. I can understand being hungry. I can’t understand why I want unlikable characters to live.

When Skyline is done being boring, it goes on to make no sense. It’s an “everyone dies” type movie, but it decides it wants to keep going on. It does try to explain, I guess, why the aliens want the people – once again, they were hungry – but the movie could have ended way earlier. Maybe back when “everyone died.” That’s a logical ending. Of course, the movie was already dragging on for forever, so why not continue with that theme?

Jarrod is almost the only character in the movie that has anything resembling a good quality. He’s helpful. A lot of people are helpful, though, and that doesn’t mean they deserve to be saved. Eric Balfour’s performance is incredibly flat and not at all interesting. By the second time he was almost eaten, I wanted the aliens to finish him off already. Jarrod is willing to do anything to save Elaine, his pregnant girlfriend, but there was nothing about him that didn’t make me root for the aliens.

Elaine is the next character you’re supposed to want to live, because she’s pregnant. Of course, she wasn’t exactly excited about the news, so it’s a little bit hard to care. The thought that the baby could be humanity’s only hope did occur to me, but the fact that Elaine was almost eaten also made me think it was already mutated into an alien baby, so I just didn’t care. Scottie Thompson is good at crying on demand, but other than that, her performance wasn’t exciting.

I have never been disappointed in Donald Faison in my life until now. Terry was a materalistic, womanizing jerk who didn’t care what anybody thought as long as his needs were served. Was I happy that he was eaten? Hell, yes. It was probably the most watchable part of the movie. I really bought the fear in his eyes and the desperation on his face. He didn’t want to be eaten; he wanted to be saved. It was very believable, and I loved every second of it.

Of all the characters, I probably liked Candice best. Candice was Terry’s wife, and besides aliens chasing her, she found out her husband was cheating on her and saw him get eaten in front of her on the same day. That’s sad, and stressful. Candice pointed this out as she smoked a cigarette, but upon learning that Elaine was pregnant, she put that cigarette out. Candice was considerate of everybody. When Jarrod decided to try to escape with Elaine, Candice’s thought was that he was going to get Elaine killed. Brittany Daniel really sold all the turmoil Candice was going through, and she was the one character I really hoped would get away.

Overall, I would pass on Skyline. It’s just another alien movie with little motivation and no reason to like the protagonists. It’s completely boring, drags on forever, then goes on to make no sense.

Original Movie Avalon High

.........We think that the movie had a great element of surprise. We were fooled the entire time thinking one thing was going to happen, but in the end it was something completely different than we expected! We think the movie was the perfect length, but we would have liked to have seen a bit more Medieval fighting on the beach at the end of the movie...........

 

We watched the new Disney Channel Original Movie “Avalon High” tonight (November 12) and we really liked it! It was fun to watch Gregg Sulkin play the part of Will in the movie without his British accent – that must have taken a lot of practice! We also really loved the actress Brittany Robertson playing Allie.

In the movie Allie and her parents move to a new location and Allie begins school at Avalon High. It turns out Avalon High isn’t just a normal school – it’s special because it is the place where King Aurthur’s Court will happen again and stories from Medieval times will repeat.

You can tell this is about to happen since the very beginning of the movie, when you are introduced to all of the main characters, including Miles (Merlin), Lance (Lancelot) and Jen (Genevieve).

We think that the movie had a great element of surprise. We were fooled the entire time thinking one thing was going to happen, but in the end it was something completely different than we expected! 

We think the movie was the perfect length, but we would have liked to have seen a bit more Medieval fighting on the beach at the end of the movie. The evil character seemed to be defeated a bit too fast and we would have liked to see the battle last a bit longer.

Apart from that we think that the Medieval elements fit in nicely with the everyday events and that the characters all interacted well together. We love the relationship that developed between Will and Allie – we were rooting for them from the beginning! We also love how close of friends Allie and Miles became!

We’ve heard from many fans that the movie may be a bit different than the book it is based on, by Meg Cabot. If you have read the book and seen the DCOM “Avalon High” be sure to comment in the comments section and let us know what the similarities and differences are.

Avalon High

Fred The Movie

Fred The Movie stars 17 year old Internet sensation Lucas Cruikshank from Nebraska who got his start by making popular videos on YouTube.

Tonight is the big Nickelodeon premiere of the much-awaited film that teens all over the Internet have been waiting for, according to Spread It.

Fred The Movie stars 17 year old Internet sensation Lucas Cruikshank from Nebraska who got his start by making popular videos on YouTube.  

Cruikshank created the character “Fred Figglehorn” back in 2008 when he began posting crazy clips of himself as a very active kid with a pretty annoying voice.  

After hitting it big on YouTube, he was contacted by Nickelodeon about making a movie for the channel based off his YouTube character.

The movie airs tonight and will be available on DVD October 5, 2010.

Fred The Movie