The movie has a sequence that revolves around the head gangster in church; religious music is the predominant sounds as scenes flash from violence involving the gang, then back to their leader in church.  Is this THE GODFATHER?  No, it’s AMERICAN GANGSTER, where Ridley Scott blatantly rips off this concept.  Too bad, because this film has strong performances by Russell Crowe as Detective Richie Roberts, and Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas. 

Other actors are impressive in small parts.  Ruby Dee had an Oscar nomination for her role as Mama Lucas.  Cuba Gooding Jr., Josh Brolin and Armand Assante enrich the supporting cast.  Then there’s the dog, which proves that an animal lover can’t be all bad.     

The story is loosely based on the true story.  Detective Roberts is notoriously known as an honest cop, and he’s devoted to ending Lucas’s rule in Harlem.  The surprise is who becomes his greatest asset, and the person who ends up being the gangster’s trusted and true friend.  The fascinating view we are shown into Lucas’s involved drug trade, policemen on the take, and restricted lives of the players make the movie well worth watching.    

Just saw a picture on CNN of Bobby Cutts, Jr.  He’s the police officer who murdered his pregnant girlfriend.  My first though was that he looked like an actor from AMERICAN GANGSTER.  Seems to validate the authentic feel of the movie.  If you don’t mind the violence, this is a movie that keeps you involved throughout.  Even when you think it’s over, it continues to astonish.

Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that inside sources working on the post production of The Dark Night have confirmed that Heath Ledger had indeed finished all of his post production work before his death. The reason Ledger had already completed his work for the film before the other principles was due to scheduling constraints related to the Terry Gilliam film Ledger was working on when he died. No word yet on what Gilliam plans to do with the production of his film.

The opening scene of WAITRESS is deliciously seductive. I longed to be a part of it. I wanted to dip into each pie for a taste. Jenna (Keri Russell) is a pie artist who seduces the other characters with her plucky charm and scrumptious pies, and uses her new menu creations to help tell the story.

The plot’s main ingredients are:

-the unhappy marriage between Jenna and Earl (Jeremy Sisto), who is insecure and super-controlling

-Jenna’s unwanted pregnancy

-her new and unsuspecting doctor, Dr. Pommater (Nathan Fillion)

-and Old Joe (Andy Griffith), the pie diner’s crusty,

sour-cherry-pie owner

But the pies are the crème fraiche folded into the chocolate mousse plot poured into the whole story crust.

The story is sweetened with two other waitresses at the diner, Becky (Cherly Hines) and Dawn (Adrienne Shelly), and Ogie (Eddie Jimison). They all add their problems, support, and comedy to the movie.

Keri Russell carries the movie with her amazing character. Her interaction with Andy Griffith is especially endearing. He plays the almost opposite of any other role I’ve ever seen him in, and he plays it very convincingly.

It’s a story with turns that are all worth taking. After watching it once, I immediately watched it again. Everyone should try it the first time. Just make sure you aren’t hungry.

Three major critic associations have named the Cohen brothers’ latest epic ‘No Country for Old Men’ the top film of 2007. The National Board of Review, Boston Society of Film Critics, and the New York Film Critics Online association rated No Country above other 2007 critic favorites ‘Atonement’, ‘Sweeney Todd’, ‘The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford’, and ‘There Will Be Blood’. No Country is also on pace to become the highest grossing Cohen brothers’ film to date. The brothers’ previous best was the 2000 hit ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ which pulled in $45m domestically. No Country is currently at $30m and had double the average take per theatre on opening weekend than O Brother . However, Miramax still hoped to see a bigger box office after putting much more in the marketing end than earlier Cohen brothers’ efforts. Expect to see less enthusiasm from distributors on future Cohen projects.

Even though ‘Justice League of America’ is in early pre-production, it’s already garnered plenty of groans and gripes from comic book fans. From the casting of unknowns after more familiar names ran from the project like the plague to the decision of director George Miller to helm JLA, Happy Feet 2, and Mad Max 4 (Miller directed Happy Feet and all three Mad Max films) - all concurrently - few have any hope that Fox Studios is going to produce anything that’s not embarrassing for the DC Comics franchise. Now comes news that the studio may have changed the name of JLA to ‘American Heroes’. What in the world could execs be thinking if this rumor is true? Do they hope to attract a wider audience who would otherwise be turned off by another comic book movie? I think they’ll realize what kind of film they’re watching after the first couple of minutes. Once again out-of-touch bean counters in Hollywood make another moronic decision.

For the full scoop on the source of this rumor check out moviehole.net and cinemablend.com.

I haven’t seen Cabin Fever or Hostel, so it might seem a little strange that the first Eli Roth film I saw was Hostel Part II.  Until now I have to admit that I was influenced by the venom that Roth provokes from some people, such as one of my favorite bloggers Nikki Finke (see here, here, here, here, and here) who personally named Roth "Enemy No. 1". So on a lazy Sunday afternoon, with no other options I reluctantly agreed to watch the recently released sequel. To my surprise, I found the film well written and well made - not the typical mind numbing horror film that’s come out during the ‘horror renaissance’ Hollywood has gone through over the past few years. Apparently Roth plans on expanding out from the horror genre and it’ll be interesting to see what this solid director and writer will produce. In the short term, though, Roth is slated to helm one more scary send-up with the Stephen King penned ‘Cell’.

Slowly, but surely, media companies are figuring out how to market they’re products in the non-traditional digital world. Sony has posted online the first 10 minutes of ‘Walk Hard’ as a long trailer here. The star of ‘Walk Hard’, John C. Reilly, is also launching ‘Cox Across America’, performing live as Dewey Cox, the comedies lead character. More studios should take a lesson from Sony and learn to take advantage of the unique marketing landscape that is the world wide web.

After months of rumors, Jeff Bridges himself has confirmed that Hollywood is going try and cash in on generational nostalgia. In an interview with cinemablend.com, Bridges not only said a sequel of the 1982 sci-fi hit Tron is in the works but that he’s considering taking part in the film. When I heard about the possibility of a sequel, my eyes rolled at the thought of studio executives trying to cash in on the emotional ties of the 30 something demographics increasing spending power. Do such motivations ever result in decent films? Don’t worry about this pollution taking your money yet, the project is in the early stages and won’t see screens any time before 2010.