Hackers

For Maleficent I'm doing All Angelina Jolie Movies



This one was my Favorite Till FoxFire came out.
Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

In this high-tech thriller, Dade Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) has been fascinated with computers all his life; at the age of 11, he was able to break into the computer network of several top Wall Street investment and banking firms, and he nearly caused a major stock market crash in the process. As punishment, Dade was forbidden to use a computer until his 18th birthday, but now that he's of age, he's diving back into his PC head first. Dade meets up with a group of fellow hackers: tough-talking cyber gamer Kate, aka Acid Burn (Angelina Jolie), junior hacker Jesse Bradford, born prankster Cereal Killer (Matthew Lillard), Nikon (Lawrence Mason), named for his photographic memory, and telephone expert Phantom Phreak (Renoly Santiago). Dade and his pals aren't out to destroy systems or do cybercrime for profit; they simply want to know more about the systems they encounter, and they like raising some good-natured havoc. But in their travels through cyberspace, they discover The Plague (Fisher Stevens), a former hacker turned computer security expert with a huge multinational corporation. The Plague has not only done the unthinkable and gone into anti-hacker enforcement, he's secretly allied himself with a group of criminals and is using his expertise to drain funds from corporate bank accounts and transfer them to himself and his mistress, Margo (Lorraine Bracco). The Plague is also smart enough to leave clues that would lead investigators to someone else -- in this case, Dade and his friends -- and has a secret weapon at his disposal, a computer virus that could wipe out the entire world wide web in a matter of minutes. Several sequences for Hackers were shot at New York City's Stuyvesant High School, where coincidentally several months after filming, several students were arrested by F.B.I. agents for their involvement in computer hacking. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Roger Ebert

"Hackers" wasn't even in theaters before attacks on it started online. It represents a new genre, "hacksploitation," Mac expert Andy Ihnatko grumbled on CompuServe, adding that like a lot of other computer movies it achieves the neat trick of projecting images from computer screens onto the faces of their users, so that you can see graphics and data crawling up their chins and breaking over their noses.

This grinching illustrates my theory that you should never send an expert to a movie about his specialty. Boxers hate boxing movies. Space buffs said "Apollo 13" showed the wrong side of the moon. The British believe Mel Gibson's scholarship was faulty in "Braveheart" merely because some of the key characters hadn't been born at the time of the story.

"Hackers" is, I have no doubt, deeply dubious in the computer science department. It shares the common hacksploitation conceit that a kid with a computer and a modem can alter the course of human events with a few taps on his keyboard. As the movie opens, indeed, an 11-year-old named Dade has crashed hundreds of computers on Wall Street and brought about a worldwide financial crisis. For his punishment, he is ordered not to go near another computer until his 18th birthday.

Flash forward to Dade's 18th year. Now played by Jonny Lee Miller, he's hacking away again, and gets involved with a bunch of other brilliant teenage computer whizzes at his high school. At first they compete with one another. Then they discover they have a common enemy: the gifted but evil hacker, code-named The Plague (Fisher Stevens), who is in charge of security at a multinational conglomerate. He wants to frame them as a cover for his own crimes, which involve transferring large sums into accounts belonging to both him and his mistress (Lorraine Bracco).

All of the computer stuff is of course window-dressing, even the scheme to sink a super tanker. They're what Hitchcock called the MacGuffin - the stuff everybody pretends to be motivated by, while actually the plot centers on personalities and human nature. The best thing in "Hackers" is the relationship that develops between Dade and Kate (Angelina Jolie), a brusque, self-contained girl who becomes his partner in the online war.

Jolie, the daughter of Jon Voight, and Miller, a British newcomer, bring a particular quality to their performances that is convincing and engaging. And the other kids in the movie are interesting, too, especially a young Latin genius named Phreak, played by Renoly Santiago. I saw this movie not long after viewing "Dangerous Minds," and was struck by how much more authentic these characters seemed - they're younger, more intense and vulnerable, and more gawky than hunky.

Against them, the movie has the wit to create a smart, quirky villain, instead of relying on the usual boring white-collar versions of Conglomerate Man. The Fisher Stevens character is an outlaw at heart, a hacker who simply happens to be playing for the other side, and Stevens gives The Plague a weirdo spin: He can fight these kids because he's as obsessed as they are.

The movie is smart and entertaining, then, as long as you don't take the computer stuff very seriously. I didn't. I took it approximately as seriously as the archeology in "Indiana Jones." I liked the pacing and energy in the direction by Iain Softley (whose previous film, "Backbeat," was about the early Beatles). I liked ingenious touches like a sequence where two hackers battle to control the programming at a radio station and we see a duel between two robot cassette machines. I liked the way The Plague created a virus designed to catch his enemies. And I liked the way Kate told Dade, "I don't do dates," early in the film. That put their relationship on a footing that neatly avoided several obligatory scenes of teenage love cliches.

The movie is well directed, written and acted, and while it is no doubt true that in real life no hacker could do what the characters in this movie do, it is no doubt equally true that what hackers can do would not make a very entertaining movie.

Now that Andy Warhol is gone, who do we have who could direct a film in which a pimply geek spends several hours staring at a computer screen that doesn't even project images that crawl up his nose?

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X-Men Days of Future Past

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. The beloved characters from the original "X-Men" film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from the past, "X-Men: First Class," in order to change a major historical event and fight in an epic battle that could save our future. (c) Fox

Screen Rant

It’s not easy being a mutant. This message has been drilled into the X-Men movies ever since the opening of the very first one, which showed Rogue accidentally kissing her boyfriend into a coma and subsequently being forced to flee her former life. At the end of X-Men: First Class, hatred and fear of mutants led to the US and the USSR being temporarily united against the common enemy.

Mutants aren’t very popular, and in the alternate future of Bryan Singer’s upcoming “inbetweequel” X-Men: Days of Future Past, this anti-mutant hysteria has been taken to near-genocidal extremes. Desperate to prevent mass tragedy before it can even begin, Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine’s mind back in time to his younger body, so that he can convince young Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr to work together and save mankind.

X-Men fans were able to breathe a little easier after theearly Twitter reactions to X-Men: Days of Future Pastproved to be overwhelmingly positive, even praising Quicksilver (who had caused complaints due to his somewhat dodgy hair and costume) as a highlight of the movie. 140 characters don’t leave a lot of room for detail, but now the first batch of reviews for X-Men: Days of Future Past are in and, though they’re somewhat more critical, on the whole they seem to reflect the earlier responses.

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PAYCHECK

RogerEbert

"Paycheck" begins with a thought-provoking idea from Philip K. Dick, exploits it for its action and plot potential, but never really develops it. By the end, the film seems to have lost enthusiasm for itself and should be scored with "Is That All There Is?" It's like an assembly of off-the-shelf parts from techno-thrillers: the vast laboratory, the cold-blooded billionaire industrialist, the hero in a situation that he doesn't understand, the professional security men who line up to get bumped off by the amateur computer nerd. Because the director is John Woo, we expect a chase and a martial-arts sequence, and we get them, but they're strangely detached; they feel like exercises, not exuberations.

Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman establish a strong presence as the leads, having some fun (and shedding a few tears) over the fact that they've been deeply in love, but he can't remember it. That's in the nature of Affleck's job. He plays Michael Jennings, a brilliant engineer who hires himself out to reverse-engineer new computer breakthroughs. He starts with impenetrable codes or uncrackable chips, takes them apart, sees what makes them work and reassembles them as elegant little ripoffs that sidestep copyright infringement.

Because big bucks are involved in what he does, and because corporations wouldn't want a guy like this blabbing on Tech TV, they write a sneaky clause into his contract: After he completes a job, his memory is wiped clean, and he's left with a gap of several weeks and a big paycheck.

For a writer with Dick's pulp origins, Michael is an ideal character type, sort of a cyber version of Johnny Dollar, the man with the action-packed expense account. Give him his salary and he's happy to walk away from the job (although we get a brief glimpse of a check that wouldn't be much of a payday for a program that essentially does the same thing as Al Pacino's software in "Simone" -- creates a 3-D digital actress who looks and sounds like the real thing.

Next assignment: Michael is hired by Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), head of the ominous Allcom. This assignment will take a little longer, three years of his life, as he tries to crack an invention that can see into the future. Yes, Rethrick wants to steal a lens so powerful that it follows the curvature of space and time right back to where it started and then some.

Theory is, if you can predict the future, your stock price will go up. Yes, and you can win the lottery, too, although once the fundamental principles of stock markets and lotteries have been capsized, what do you do for an encore? See if you're going to enjoy lunch?

At a party at Rethrick's house, Michael exchanges small talk with the beautiful biologist Rachel (Thurman), demonstrating once again that we should never, ever worry about the cleverness of our small talk because in the movies, it can be formless and banal, and yet be repeated as a motif for an entire film. After Michael suggests that they "go somewhere else" and talk, she turns him down, and then she says, "You don't believe in second chances, do you?" Not a line to rank with "I want you to hold [the chicken salad] between your knees," but it will be repeated with variations, tears, irony, fondness and urgency, to prove that the movie has not had its own memory erased.

The ingenious element in the plot is that when Michael's three years are up and he's free again, he discovers he has signed away millions of dollars and is left only with a manila envelope containing 19 objects. These are apparently objects that the pre-wipe Michael knew that he would need post-wipe; he has to figure out what to use them for, and when. (Clue: He's being chased by killers at a bus station and -- whoa! -- He has a bus pass!)

There's an echo here of "The Bourne Identity" (2002), starring Affleck's buddy Matt Damon as an amnesiac who takes possession of a Swiss safe deposit box containing clues to several identities, perhaps including his own.

OK, so the idea is for Michael and Rachel to stop Allcom before it can destroy the world. Destruction is likely, it's explained, because if world leaders could foresee that their enemies planned to use weapons of mass destruction, they would launch a pre-emptive strike to respond to the attack before it takes place. Those wacky sci-fi guys! Their way to derail this scenario, of course, involves a long motorcycle chase sequence and a martial-arts battle.

Although Woo is famous for his mastery of action scenes, the motorcycle chase is played by the numbers; there hardly seems to be risk or danger involved, and the computer nerd and his biologist girlfriend don't seem particularly amazed when lots of men in black cars try to shoot them dead.

Later, when Rachel does some hand-to-hand combat, we're reminded how much more convincing Thurman was in "Kill Bill," although there's a scene involving a mechanical hand that shows some wit and gets a chuckle.

There was a basic level at which I enjoyed the movie, just for the scope of the production and the way that Affleck doggedly puzzled his way through that manila envelope. But at the end, we get the sense that Woo is operating with a clipboard and a checklist, making sure everyone is killed in the right order. There's simply not enough urgency involved.

And the attempts of the Allcom security staff to deal with the various locks and alarms in their top-secret lab had me thinking of "Dumb and Dumber." There are countless fascinating possibilities involved in Philip K. Dick's story, and I'm kind of sad that the ones ranking highest in the minds of the filmmakers was the opportunity to have chase scenes and blow stuff up real good.

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

John Woo directs the sci-fi action thriller Paycheck, based on a story written by Philip K. Dick in 1953. Waking up with his short-term memory erased, engineer Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) learns that he has been doing highly secretive work for the last three years in exchange for billions of dollars. But when he tries to get paid, he finds out that he himself had previously exchanged the money for an envelope of random clues to his life. Chased by an FBI agent (Michael C. Hall) and his old boss Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart), Michael uses the clues to find out his identity and prove his innocence. Uma Thurman appears as his love interest and partner, Rachel. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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Locker 13

FearNet

In theory, an anthology horror film should be a great way for some filmmakers to put together a half-decent horror movie. As the V/H/S films (and, to a lesser degree, The ABCs of Death) have indicated, if you have a few dedicated squads of filmmakers (and some decent story ideas, of course) you can sew some short videos together with a simple framing story, and voila, you have a solid horror film. Or at least an amusing one.

But what happens when people with very few ideas (and even fewer filmmaking skills) try the same formula? The result is something like Locker 13, a broad, obvious, and consistently tiresome collection of "campfire tales" that are about as scary as a half-eaten donut. Given the final product's drearily predictable format, its 20+ producers, and its handful of familiar character actors in very small roles, it seems like Locker 13 was a quickie affair for virtually all involved. But here's what we got:

Story #1 (aka "the wraparound") is about a guy showing another guy around an Old West tourist town. The setting serves no real purpose; one simply assumes that one of the myriad producers had access to a set that looks like an Old West tourist town. Occasionally the tour guide (the excellent character actor Jon Gries) will point to an item on a shelf, and just like that we're headed to...

Story #2! Rick Schroeder (one of those producers) plays a loser boxer who becomes a killer after receiving a pair of haunted gloves. Since Schroeder is a pretty good actor, and since this story also features some low-key work from the also great Jon Polito, this section isn't too bad. It actually packs a simple but ironic "punch" up until its abruptly disappointing finale.

(Back to the Old West tourist town for a bit more nonsense blather.)

Story #3 is about a secret group of suburban guys who may (or may not) be part of an actual cult of evil. Again we have a story that goes nowhere new, but there's some decent indie-level 1940s period design here, plus you'll catch a few moments from Curtis "Booger" Armstrong and the always evil David Huddleston as a devious ringleader in a wheelchair. Basic stuff, but not quite terrible.

(Quick commercial message from Old West tourist town.)

Story #4 is where Locker 13 starts to go completely off the rails. Here we have the overtly New Yorkian character actor Rick Hoffman (Hostel Part 2) sporting a Mexican accent that would make Speedy Gonzalez cringe with embarrassment. Hoffman is an assassin who aims to mentally torture three women in order to get the information he needs. Not only is this story completely pedantic and dreary, but Hoffman's thoroughly cartoonish accent kills any tension that may have arisen. 

(Back to you-know-where for a second. Don't forget about that Old West tourist town.)

Our final story, kinda, is about a guy who wants to kill himself, only to find himself talked out of it by a stranger with unknown motives. It's as boring as it sounds, and doubly predictable. And THEN we trek back to the Old West tourist town, once again, for (get this) a half-decent Twilight Zone-y story about an unhappy janitor who somehow makes contact with himself from 24 hours earlier. This segment is as choppy and overlit as the rest of the film, but at least it has a few nifty twists. 

The end result is a 95-minute anthology that somehow manages to feel about three hours long. That the filmmakers are going more for "ironic thriller" than full-bore "horror" is not the problem. The problem is that, aside from a few fleeting moments here and there, Locker 13 is aggressively generic from stem to stern. As a die-hard fan of the horror anthology film, I take no pleasure in stating that Locker 13's few stray glimmers of quality are not worth the slog it takes to find them.

- See more at: http://www.fearnet.com/news/review/fearnet-movie-review-locker-13#sthash.0BUX2zMz.dpuf


RogerEbert

Rarely do I find a movie that is so appalling if not outright insulting to all of humanity (and particularly, in this case, womankind) that it gives me a stomach ache. I prefer popcorn over Tums, so I intentionally stayed away from "The Human Centipede" (1 and 2) since the plot descriptions alone were enough to make me queasy.

It’s true that "Scent of a Woman" gave me a nausea -inducing headache, but that was caused more by Al Pacino’s shouting (damn those obnoxious “Whoo-hahs”) than the actual story. And I came down with the flu during "The Fifth Element", but there wasn’t enough evidence that Chris Tucker’s outlandish Ruby Rhod caused my fever (besides, I would forgive Tucker even if he was behind my illness on the basis of his subdued wonderfulness in "Silver Linings Playbook").

But "Locker 13" really put me off the Cobb salad that I had intended to dine on at lunch. I actually was looking forward to sinking my teeth into a good old-fashioned anthology flick in the style of "The Twilight Zone" that might allow for some reflection upon life, one juicy chunk at a time. Turns out, it’s more of a "Don’t-Go Zone" type of movie.

It might have been a warning that this project that features four vignettes surrounded by a wrap-around tale was Kickstarter-funded, boasts no fewer than 21 producers at varying levels of blame and took a number of years to get off the ground.  But how bad could it be since its massive cast includes that cute Ricky Schroeder of "Silver Spoons", that sweet Tatyana Ali from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", that funny Curtis Armstrong from "Revenge of the Nerds"–not to mention David Huddleston, as in THE Big Lebowski himself? There is even the "Baywatch"-able Krista Allen, who used to date George Clooney several model-actress moons ago.

How about amateurishly acted, illogically plotted, cruelly violent and needlessly sexist bad? Any film that starts in an Old West theme park and isn’t called "Westworld" immediately signals a problem. Especially since the cowpoke serving as our guide isn’t Yul Brynner or even Rod Serling, but a self-satisfied philosophizing supervisor played by Uncle Rico from "Napoleon Dynamite", who aims to teach a lesson in making the right choices to the new nighttime janitor, an ex-con named Skip (Jason Spisak). After going on a bit about the phrase, “Know thyself,”  Uncle Rico begins to bore Skip and the audience by spinning a quartet of yarns, all supposedly tied together by the presence of a locker bearing the number 13.

But what really draws the narratives together is a warped vision of the universe where men drive all the action and women are reduced to being on the sideline as either hookers, strippers, mistresses, gold diggers or victimized wives. The only female character shown in a less than demeaning way? Skip’s online tutor when he was in prison, who isn’t smart enough to know this scowling dude isn’t exactly dating material.

First up:  “Down and Out,” a washed-up boxer (Schroeder) becomes the unlucky owner of a pair of cursed gloves that causes him to win every fight not just with a knock-out, but by basically pummeling his opponent to death. The choice to not show us too much of the action inside the ring is probably a smart one, considering the vicious outcomes–along with the fact that Martin Scorsese did not direct this segment. But the only chill you will get watching how it all plays out is if you left your sweater at home.

Did I mention this is the best-told story of the bunch?

For No. 2, “The Byzantine Order,” we are suddenly thrust back to the early 1900s to witness the gathering of a Shrine-like club of lodge members preparing to initiate a new member. Amid much phony quaintness is the suggestion that something truly twisted and sadistic this way comes. Instead, it is something confusing and stupid, most notable for featuring a trombone-playing exotic dancer who stashes her baby in a giant cake–the one she uses to jump out of in her act. Huddleston at least returns to his Lebowski glory days as a grand poobah who bosses everyone while ensconced in a wheelchair. 

The third vignette concerns a nervous mental patient who is considering a leap from a tall building onto the city streets and a carny-like fast talker who suddenly materializes nearby and claims to be a member of  a “Suicide Club,” in which bets are placed on those about to take their own lives. The fourth and most off-putting of the chapters, “The Author,” features a hit man with a horrendous Cuban accent who taunts and terrorizes three women chained to a wall to find out which one hired him to shoot a sleazy owner of a girly mag. 

It all comes round again to the faux Old West, as we see whether Uncle Rico has gotten through to Skip in any way with his feeble fables. While the finale at least puts the notion of an evil locker to some practical use, it might have been better if the filmmakers simply stored all the copies of "Locker 13" inside the haunted contraption and threw away the key. 

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

Skip, the nighttime janitor in an Old West theme park, delves into the mysteries surrounding an old locker. His sage supervisor recounts chilling tales that underscore the importance of making the right choice. The recollection includes an aging boxer who is given an opportunity to become a real killing machine, a young man seeking membership in a secret society who experiences an initiation with deadly consequences, a would be suicide shaken to his core by a menacing member of a very special club, and a hit man for hire playing a devious cat and mouse game with three women who have a score to settle. The stories suddenly come into play when Skip makes an unsettling discovery and faces a life-or-death decision of his own.(C) Brothers Ink

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Winter's Tale

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

Set in a mythic New York City and spanning more than a century, "Winter's Tale" is a story of miracles, crossed destinies, and the age-old battle between good and evil. The film stars Colin Farrell ("Total Recall"), Jessica Brown Findlay (TV's "Downton Abbey"), and Oscar (R) winners Jennifer Connelly ("A Beautiful Mind"), William Hurt ("Kiss of the Spider Woman"), Eva Marie Saint ("On the Waterfront") and Russell Crowe ("Gladiator"). "Winter's Tale" also introduces young newcomers Ripley Sobo and Mckayla Twiggs (both from Broadway's "Once"). The film marks the directorial debut of Academy Award (R)-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman ("A Beautiful Mind"), who also wrote the screenplay, based on the acclaimed novel by Mark Helprin. Goldsman is also producing the film with Marc Platt ("Drive"), Michael Tadross ("Sherlock Holmes") and Tony Allard (Showtime's "The Baby Dance"). The executive producers are Kerry Foster and Bruce Berman. The behind-the-scenes creative team includes five-time Oscar (R)-nominated director of photography Caleb Deschanel ("The Passion of the Christ," "The Patriot"), production designer Naomi Shohan ("Constantine," "I Am Legend"), costume designer Michael Kaplan ("Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," "Star Trek") and editors Wayne Wahrman ("I Am Legend") and Oscar (R) nominee Tim Squyres ("Life of Pi," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). The music is composed by Oscar (R) winner Hans Zimmer ("The Lion King," "Inception," "Man of Steel"). A presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, "Winter's Tale" opens February 14, 2014 and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. (c) Warner Bros

RogerEbert

Adapting a well-loved book for the screen is always a risky proposition. Elements that work on the page will not work visually and vice versa. Compromises must be made. You cannot please everyone. But the film version of "Winter's Tale" probably won't please anyone: neither fans of the book nor those who have never read it. It lacks visual splendor (except for one or two scenes). It lacks emotional depth. It lacks scope and magic. It is clear that there is some big battle going on between Good and Evil and that Will Smith is somehow involved, but none of it makes any sense. The philosophical underpinnings of the novel, its thoughts on the turning of the centuries (and the millennium), and how cultures and societies go through giant upheaval during such moments, visible, and invisible, is completely lost in the New Age-y dreck drenching the narrative. Not even Colin Farrell as the thief Peter Lake can save it, and he is doing his level best, with an urgent, heartfelt performance. Mark Helprin's 1983 novel is one of the most poetic of the late 20th century, and yet this film version has no poetry whatsoever.

The opening of the film flies us around through time, from the 1890s to 2014, with Colin Farrell in both eras. It is a clue that we are not entering a realistic world, but it's so shoddily constructed that it's never entirely clear what you're supposed to be looking at. In the 1890s, a thief named Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) is on the run from his former boss, a scarred monster named Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe, who seems totally adrift in this performance, hoping that a facial tic will somehow translate as menacing). Soames' black-derbied "droogs" chase Peter Lake through the Bowery, and Lake escapes via a nearby white horse who magically sprouts wings and flies over a locked gate. The visual effects are more My Pretty Pony than anything else.

Lake, who must get out of Manhattan to escape Soames, breaks into a Central Park West mansion to rob the joint before fleeing town. There, he comes across Beverly Penn ("Downton Abbey"'s Jessica Brown Findlay) in her nightgown, playing Brahms. She is a consumptive heiress with only six months to live. Her body temperature runs so high that she sleeps in a tent on the roof of the mansion, hoping that the cold air will cool her down. Beverly makes a cup of tea for the thief, and the two characters from two different worlds sit in the kitchen, talk, and fall in love.

Peter becomes convinced that he can find a way to save Beverly, and he thinks that maybe the magical white horse (now his partner-in-crime) might be able to help. He joins the Penn family in their winter retreat up the Hudson River, and passes muster with Beverly's stern father (William Hurt). Meanwhile, Pearly Soames is on his trail, but through some dark magic is not allowed to leave the boroughs of New York. He goes to request a weekend pass, basically, from the "Judge" (Will Smith), a guy with earrings lounging in a bed in a subterranean dungeon. The scene that follows between the two of them, in which they suddenly turn into snarling, snapping demons, is incomprehensible. 

This is par for the course, I'm afraid. I read the book and I often had no idea what was going on in the movie, except that the growing love between Peter and Beverly is somehow threatening to the status quo and Pearly Soames must stop it. I think.

The current-day sections of the film feature Peter Lake, somehow transported to 2014, wandering around Manhattan with no memory. He comes across a kindly woman (Jennifer Connelly) who wants to help him. One might think she had other things on her mind, such her young daughter, who's dying of cancer. Peter Lake also whisks away the dying child on the winged My Pretty Pony, and then there's a scene where he has a huge fist fight with Pearly Soames on the frozen ice of the Hudson while Jennifer Connelly sobs over to the side clutching her dying daughter. Situations that should be touching become laughable. 

Eva Marie Saint shows up in the 2014 section as a newspaper mogul. She has a breathtaking moment where she holds her arms out to Peter Lake. It is a beautiful reminder of her stature in American films. Her presence almost justifies the film's existence. Almost.

The romance between Beverly and Peter is the only well-done plot line. This is entirely due to Farrell and Findlay. Farrell makes the love story work. He is sincere. He makes the hero's pain at Beverly's illness palpable. When they finally make love in a tent on the roof, their passion has an emotional undercurrent that makes the sex scene about something other than sex. They connect. There is a sadness in their connection, due to the shared knowledge that it will be short-lived.

In her review of the novel, Barbara J. King describes the book as a "maelstrom-between-two-covers." and anyone who has loved the source material would probably agree. In the film, the maelstrom is gone, turned explicit and narrow. The novel has a passionate fan base and I (obviously) count myself among them. Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the screenplays for "I Am Legend" and "Angels and Demons", to name just two, adapted the book as well as directing the film. He's made a mess of it. There are a couple of beautiful images (the glowing consumption tents on the top of mansions, the frozen-over Hudson, the nighttime stroll through the snowy forest), but there is no underlying story, there is no narrative thrust, magical or otherwise.

"Winter's Tale" tells the story of a thief, a consumptive heiress, and a sentient magical white horse, but, really, it is the story of New York City in Helprin's imagination, a place like the one in reality but with some strange alterations. The Hudson freezes solid for miles, and people set up tent cities along the ice. There is a frozen magical town up-river where time takes on strange qualities. There is a whirling mysterious white cloud-wall that surrounds the island of Manhattan, a cloud-wall that everyone accepts to such a degree that no one notices it anymore. What is the cloud-wall? What does it signify? The wall is gone in Goldsman's version. In the book, it is the whole point—the reason for everything. Goldsman has missed the point of the book entirely.

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ForeShadow

Official Movie Site

Jesse Milton lives the perfect life - until a series of suspicious murders involving his friends upsets it. 

When the coroner rules out foul play and the police close their investigation, Jesse decides to go after the killer himself.



Utilising his friend Ash’s computer hacking skills, Jesse is shocked to discover many similar, yet unexplained deaths.

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The nightmare continues with the chilling murder of a surfing buddy, right before his eyes.



Struggling to deal with the death of his friends, Jesse places his trust in a Dominican priest, who reveals that the killer is actually a centuries-old, soul-sucking demon.

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The stakes have never been higher.  Can Jesse accept his destiny and destroy the demon, before it destroys his whole world?

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FORESHADOW is a fast paced thriller that might just rip out your soul.

ForeShadow Movie News

Buzz Productions, in partnership with Movierockets Entertainment, today commenced principal photography in Perth, on its supernatural thriller FORESHADOW.

FORESHADOW tells the story of Jesse Milton (Justin Burford) who is living the high life – money, surf and a never-ending supply of hot dates – until he discovers his latest blonde bombshell dead. When the coroner rules out foul play and the police close their investigation, Jesse decides to go after the killer himself.

The predominantly Western Australian cast is led by ARIA and Broadway Australia award winner Justin Burford (Rock of Ages), and two-time Logie nominee Myles Pollard (DRIFT, THE TURNING, McLeod’s Daughters)

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