VOD Spotlight: Kate Beckinsale returns in “Underworld: Awakening”

May 8, 2012 | By Karl Paloucek
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Possibly the best thing the creators of the Underworld franchise could have done with Underworld: Awakening was to develop its lead character, Selene (Kate Beckinsale), by making her a mother. Up to now, Selene has been a cold killing machine warring against the Lycans. Now, as a mother, she finds herself with instincts that have her fighting for something. Winning the part of Selene’s daughter was something of an endurance test for India Eisley — she tested on the first day of casting, and no one ever topped her. “She was terrific,” producer Tom Rosenberg recalls. “I remember her enchanting [...]

VOD Spotlight: Forgotten promises at the heart of “The Vow”

May 8, 2012 | By Karl Paloucek
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“Till death do us part.” Just about everyone knows these words and their significance. They’re a public sign of commitment to a life together. Many couples who say them don’t make it to the “till death” part. Sometimes life has a way of forcing people to grow apart. And sometimes it intervenes in other ways. The Vow, starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, tells the story of a couple separated, in a sense, by an accident — and how they managed to find their way back to each other. Based on the true story about — and subsequent book written [...]

VOD Spotlight: Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah make a “Joyful Noise”

May 1, 2012 | By Karl Paloucek
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Dolly Parton is nothing if not forthright when discussing her role as G.G. in the film Joyful Noise, costarring Queen Latifah. “It really is the perfect part for me,” Parton says of G.G. — which stands for “Gorgeous Grandma.” “She likes the hair and nails and clothes, and she’s had a few procedures done. She comes right out with whatever she thinks, and I’m like that. I was real comfortable with it.” She may have been comfortable, but it was also part of the role of G.G. to maintain an uncomfortable relationship with Vi Rose, Latifah’s character. It was a [...]

VOD Spotlight: Real-life romance inspires Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve”

May 1, 2012 | By Karl Paloucek
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Garry Marshall has been a part of our entertainment culture for decades and has his fingerprints on some of the most memorable projects of all time, from The Dick Van Dyke Show and Happy Days to Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride. But according to Marshall, there was something particularly special about directing the film New Year’s Eve. It was on a New Year’s Eve nearly 50 years ago that Marshall proposed to his wife, Barbara. “She was wearing a dress the same color as the dress Halle Berry wears in the movie,” he says. “We were in love, we were [...]

VOD Spotlight: Tom Cruise returns in “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”

April 17, 2012 | By Stacey Harrison
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OK, about that skyscraper scene. The signature moment in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, and perhaps of the entire film series up to this point, takes place about an hour into the fourth installment, which finds Tom Cruise’s super spy Ethan Hunt on the run with a group of fellow IMF operatives after being framed for a bombing at the Kremlin. Yes, that really is one of the world’s biggest movie stars hanging close to 2,716.5 feet in the air near the top of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. (For a bit of perspective, it’s about twice the height [...]

VOD Spotlight: “Hop” gives the Easter Bunny a son and a backstory

March 30, 2012 | By Elaine Bergstrom
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For years the cotton-tailed bringer of colored eggs and candy languished as a second-rate legend, far behind the red-clad bringer of holiday toys, Santa. No more! The family film Hop — which seamlessly blends animation with live action — changes all that, giving the Easter Bunny a workshop, a charming mythology and a host of helpers covered with fur and feathers. The film explains that off the coast of South America, on the island of Rapa Nui — fondly known as Easter Island — the most magnificent candy factory in the world can be found under the giant stone heads. [...]

VOD Spotlight: Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock star in 9/11 tale “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

March 27, 2012 | By Stacey Harrison
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You wouldn’t think a movie that opens with an up-close image of a character falling to his death on 9/11 would run the risk of being too cutesy, right? But that is among the charges leveled at Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, director Stephen Daldry’s taxing but ultimately rewarding adaptation of the Jonathan Safran Foer novel. In the decade since the terrorist attacks on New York City, Extremely Loud is one of the few films that have tackled the subject head on, as opposed to keeping it in the periphery. It views the tragedy through the eyes of young Oskar [...]

VOD Spotlight: Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara star in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”

March 20, 2012 | By Karl Paloucek
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When the announcement came that Stieg Larsson’s thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was getting the American remake treatment, like many, I winced. Too often, a domestic versioning ends up a dilution of the original, bloated with hyper-real action scenes and effects. But in the case of David Fincher’s telling, I’m happy to say that the strength of the material justifies the revisit. Critics worldwide agreed, and the film earned multiple award nominations and a won a total of seven various awards. Like its Swedish predecessor, the U.S. version tells the story of journalist and publisher Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel [...]

VOD Spotlight: The penguins return in “Happy Feet Two”

March 13, 2012 | By Elaine Bergstrom
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It’s cold, really cold, and until recently, the Antarctic was the real final frontier on Earth. But as cameras became more forgiving of its harsh weather, documentary film crews began braving the elements and collecting dramatic footage of the frozen continent and its wildlife. This was one of the inspirations for Happy Feet and its sequel, Happy Feet Two. “We went for photo reality [with Happy Feet], as much as the technology and our skills allowed us to do at the time,” says director George Miller. “We based everything on the natural history of Antarctica: the behavior of the penguins; [...]

VOD Spotlight: Adam Sandler does double duty in “Jack and Jill”

March 6, 2012 | By Elaine Bergstrom
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In Jack and Jill, Adam Sandler plays family guy Jack, who dreads the arrival of his needy twin sister Jill (also played by Sandler) for her annual Thanksgiving visit. For the talented comic, the dual role wasn’t that huge a challenge, but having Jack and Jill in the same scene was challenging for the filmmakers. For assistance, Sandler and director Dennis Dugan turned to Dean Cundey, the cinematographer who shot The Parent Trap and Jurassic Park. “Sometimes, it’s a fairly simple process, as simple as a split,” Cundey says. But there are more complicated processes, as well. “We’ll move the [...]

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