Do you promise to love your wife, to have and to hold, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, while she suffers through grievous memory loss, as long as you both shall live?

That’s the dilemma facing Leo (Channing Tatum) after his wife Paige (Rachel McAdams) recovers from a serious brain trauma wiping out all memories of their marriage in “The Vow.”

The film, loosely based on a true story, tells the standard tale of a young couple who meet, fall in love, get married to live their happily ever after until one of them falls out of love. It’s just not in the way you expect.

When Paige wakes up from a medically induced coma following a car accident, she thinks she is currently engaged to ex-boyfriend Jeremy (Scott Speedman), still in law school, and is in close contact with her estranged parents (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange). Paige resumes her old life, the one she lived before meeting Leo and becoming a completely different person.

So artsy Leo hardly seems her type, and her parents seize the opportunity to re-enter her life again. Can Leo win back the heart of the love of his life? (more…)

Gina Carano might just be the next female action superstar, but it won’t be thanks to “Haywire.”

The new film shows Carana easily translating her MMA fighting chops to the big screen, and all that scrapping clearly didn’t mar her lovely features. But director Steven Soderbergh can’t leverage Carano’s unique screen presence, nor a cast far too good for such a rote spy caper.

“Haywire” marks Soderbergh’s second consecutive genre outing, and it’s clear he’s ill-suited for pulp. Last year’s “Contagion” couldn’t rouse our senses despite the fictional death of millions. Now, with “Haywire,” the soon-to-retire auteur wastes the debut of an electric lead.

Carano stars as Mallory, a private government contractor who takes assignments nations don’t want to claim as their own. The film’s electric opening finds her squaring off with a fellow agent (Channing Tatum, looking suitably hung over) in a diner and fleeing the scene in a stranger’s sports car.

It’s a grand introduction to Carano, who survives a splash of steaming coffee to the face and keeps on kicking.

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Two years ago, movie goers were fed a rom-com with more stars than anyone could process.

The result? “Valentine’s Day” lacked the sugary sweetness we demand from romantic fare.

For 2012’s most romantic season, the leads from “The Notebook” and “Dear John” are hoping to pry open our tear ducts. “The Vow,” hitting theaters Feb. 10, casts Rachel McAdams as a woman who loses her memory in a car accident and can’t remember her own husband (Channing Tatum).

The trailer hits the expected notes – the frustration, endless passion and possible salvation of a couple in distress. The stars as as purty as a picture, although Tatum is working so often these days (“The Vow” is the first of four movies he has in the can for 2012) he could be heading for overexposure alerts.

It’s shame we don’t see more in the trailer of actor Scott Speedman, the “Felicity” standout cast here as the “other man” potentially vying for the attentions of McAdams’ character. He’s been picking some sleepers of late, from the woefully underrated “Barney’s Version” to a nasty 2010 thriller “Good Neighbors.”

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Watching movies online means no one yapping on their cell phones or munching popcorn so loudly you can’t hear the actors on screen.

Sometimes movie lovers actually want social interaction – the right kind, at least. Enter Constellation TV, a new online service which extends the social media realm to movie watching.

The site, launched the first week of November, is more than another streaming platform. Constellation TV allows directors, including  Allison Anders (“Border Radio”), to showcase their older films while promoting new projects. Rising stars like Channing Tatum can participate in post-screening web cam chats to pump up interest in their films. Others will use the site to raise money for upcoming projects.

Wanna pick the brain of writer/director Whit Stillman? Check out Constellation TV’s special showing of his 1990 film debut “Metropolitan” at 8 p.m. EST Jan. 12 and previewing his next feature, “Damsels in Distress,” his first new film in 14 years.

The site also lets actors with pet causes – like singer Jack Johnson’s concerns over plastic bags – to share their passions with the public via documentaries like “Bag It.”

Or, you can simply watch a movie and chat about the experience with some like-minded peers.

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Somebody in Hollywood didn’t get the memo that rebooted TV properties from the ’80s are a dicey proposition.

Just ask the folks who gave us “The A-Team,” the wannabe blockbuster that made us pity the fools who sank good money into it. Now, the creatively-impaired film industry is about to give us “21 Jump Street,” the film version of the TV show which gave Johnny Depp his first taste of fame.

The new film, hitting theaters Spring 2012, stars a thinner Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as detectives working undercover in high school to sniff out a drug ring.

Depp will have a cameo in the film, a belated thank you for the property which launched his career. We don’t see Depp in the trailer, nor do we get many laughs from the two-plus minute tease.

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Many people harbor dark secrets from their past, memories that eat at their souls and cause them to live in fear of ever being discovered. And in the terrific new film “The Son of No One,” a New York City cop named Jonathan White has an even darker one than most.

Jonathan grew up in a Queens housing project where he earned the nickname “Milk” for being the only white kid surrounded by minorities. He was stuck living there with his impoverished grandmother because his cop father was killed in the line of duty. Surrounded by broken lives and with a black child named Vinny as his only true friend, Jonathan dreamed of getting out fast – particularly because a crack addict named Hanky is constantly terrorizing the kids in the building.

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Milk and Vinny find a gun and never really intend to use it other than to scare Hanky away, but in a moment of panic Milk shoots and kills the junkie. When he and Vinny move the body to cover up the killing, another drug dealer finds out and, in an ensuing tussle, the dealer tumbles down a flight of stairs to his death.

Detective Charles Stanford (Al Pacino), the former partner of Milk’s father, figures out these were innocent accidents that took out the worst human trash in the projects so Milk is never charged. The deaths are left officially unsolved.

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The anti-everything, post modern worldview that dominates so much of the west long-ago won the battle for Hollywood.  For many of us, it gets harder and harder to drop our hard-earned money on movie tickets when we know, nine times out of ten, we are paying to have our cultural, political, and religious beliefs insulted or even mocked by condescending Hollywood elites who believe we are no better than Bin Laden.

What a pleasant surprise it is, then, to discuss director Kevin McDonald’s new film, “The Eagle”, which we do on this week’s Take a Movie to Work video at Declaration Entertainment.

“The Eagle” follows the journey of a Roman centurion named Marcus Aquila as he braves the wilds of Caledonia, the most barbaric region of of the Roman Empire’s most barbaric holding – Britannia.

Aquila searches for the Golden Eagle carried by his father’s legion, the Ninth, which utterly disappeared from history a few years before. Accompanied only by his personal slave, an angry young Briton whom he saved from the gladiator’s sword, Aquila intends to restore his family name, or die in the effort. Along the way, he learns something of the power of trust, friendship, and freedom, all the while never failing to champion his own values – personal honor, bravery, and one rarely ever discussed in today’s world: masculinity.

All of this, plus terrific action sequences and solid performances by Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell, would be enough to recommend “The Eagle” to anyone, but there is a much more refreshing aspect to this film.

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Have you ever learned a really bad secret that your best friend should know about, but you just don’t know how to tell them? What if you saw your best friend’s wife cheating on him? And what would you do if she had some dirt on you in return?

Those juicy ethical questions form the center of the new Ron Howard movie “The Dilemma,” a truly offbeat and intelligently adult comedy that stars Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Winona Ryder, and Jennifer Connelly in a quartet of performances that rise far above the norm of most mainstream comedies. It marks a refreshing return by Howard back to the fun and human comedies he specialized in back in the ‘80s with “Splash” and “Gung Ho,” and away from the blockbuster and Oscar-baiting fare he’s been delivering in the decades since.

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“The Dilemma” appears to get off to a rocky start, as the storyline at first focuses on the efforts of longtime buddies Ronny (Vaughn) and Nick (James) to develop an electric car that macho guys won’t be ashamed to drive. Ronny is the smooth-talking fundraiser of the duo, while Nick is the engineering genius who can help them make a $400,000 deal a reality. Some of the negotiations and stress attendant to the business deal are funny, but they’re just not as compelling as what unfolds when the story gets to their personal lives.

Things improve greatly when the story shifts focus to Ronny’s attempt to set up an incredibly romantic proposal for his girlfriend Beth (Connelly). He is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Nick and his wife Geneva (Ryder), whom he calls his “hero couple,” but then he catches Geneva cheating with a hunky young thug (played by Channing Tatum in one of the greatest scene-stealing supporting roles since Brad Pitt rode away with “Thelma and Louise”). (more…)

This weekend, on the recommendation of a friend, my wife and I went to see “Dear John”.  I know, I know… I’m a little late to the game.  It seems this is the movie that briefly unseated the mighty “Avatar” (then in its 8th week) from the #1 slot a few weeks back.

Yeah, it’s a “chick flick” and I’m sure the film did most of its initial box office due to the popularity of its male lead, Channing Tatum.  The ladies love them some Channing Tatum.  He seems like a nice enough fellow; he’s a believable actor.  Aside from the fact that, watching him, I’m constantly reminded that I really need to work my core (we actors are a generally insecure and superficial lot), what’s not to like?  I first saw him in the excellent “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” and the guy impressed me.

In “Dear John,” Tatum plays Staff Sergeant John Tyree, a Green Beret who meets and falls in love with Savannah Curtis (played by Amanda Seyfried), while home on leave.  

Savannah is a pretty and intelligent young woman with a solid set of values.  She doesn’t drink, smoke or sleep around and seems at ease in her own skin.  She is confident, compassionate and gives freely of her time and energy to her friends and the larger community. (more…)

Many people know what they should expect when they are go to a film adapted from a Nicholas Sparks book. Sparks, the author of such romantic books as “The Notebook” and its sequel “The Wedding,” is a well-known author who has had nearly half a dozen books adapted for the big screen. “Dear John” is his latest and one that delivers a fine sentimental story about young adolescent romance, even though the third act disappoints.

“Dear John” revolves around a romance between its two lead characters, John Tyree (Channing Tatum) and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried). The two meet when Curtis’ purse falls into the ocean and Tyree promptly delivers it to her. Although another guy (played by “Friday Night Light’s” Scott Porter) is interested in Curtis, she falls for Tyree, who is at home for a few weeks before he returns to the Army. The romance develops during the two weeks the couple spends together and soon enough the couple is torn apart when Tyree is sent back overseas. But they send each other love letters to keep their romance alive.

The movie develops from there as Tyree is forced to make choices about whether he wants to re-enlist after the September 11the attacks. Curtis is forced to make choices about her own life, as well. This may sound like a romantic movie with nothing else to offer, however there are some strong elements that elevate it beyond a simplistic romance. (more…)

As if the makers of “G.I. Joe” hadn’t mucked up their own publicity enough by immediately politicizing the film with an announcement that all the crass Americanism would be stripped from our favorite action heroes in favor of a more global approach, on Monday director Stephen Sommers decided to polarize audiences even more hectoring we RedStaters not to misinterpret the deep well of subtext put into his creation: ”[T]his is not a George Bush movie – it’s an Obama world[.]”

And indeed “G.I. Joe” does remind of an Obama world: It cost too much, doesn’t deliver and we should all get back our cash for this clunker.

While nowhere near as soul-deadening as “Transformers 2” or the latest “Harry Potter,” you still feel like you’re watching someone else play a video game for two hours. The creative imagination spent to produce all-kinds of cool gadgets and weaponry obviously left nothing for plot, character or even a hint of logic. One of the bigger action scenes is a chase through the streets of Paris involving the combined force of a dozen “Joes,” deadly missiles and million-dollar accelerator suits all in pursuit of a Hummer filled with bad guys. Oh sure, there’s sound, fury, car crashes, and explosions galore, but never an explanation for why no one shoots out the Hummer’s tires. (more…)

In my Final Weekend Tracking column posted on Wednesday, I predicted that X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) would reach $92M on opening weekend, despite soft reviews (now only 38% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). My first fearless forecast of the 2009 summer blockbuster season appears to be close to dead-on (missed by only 5%).

Star-turned-producer Hugh Jackman has scored his second-biggest opening ever and, easily, his biggest as a solo star. Wolverine has mauled the competition with a massive $34.75M opening day (including $5M or so in Thursday midnight sales). That could translate to a 3-day of $86.8M, getting Hollywood’s most lucrative season off to a spectacular start.

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The great thing about a sequel is that it has a built-in audience. The problem with sequels is that, as the numbers after the title go up, so does the production budget. Very hard to know for sure, but sources have told me that the production budget for X-Men was in the $75M range. X-2: X-Men United may have had a budget of about $110M, while the cost of X-Men: The Last Stand was, in all likelihood, as much as $210M. Why doesn’t it make sense to just churn out X-Men 4?

Look at these numbers.

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Recording superstar Beyonce Knowles is building a bankable resume for herself as an actress with Sony Screen Gems’ Obsessed as the latest title burnishing her resume. Co-starring the excellent Idris Elba (The Wire), this low budget, PG-13 genre pic has scored a far-above-expectations $11M on Friday, and it will likely reach $27.5M for the weekend. That is the best opening yet for the former Destiny’s Child lead vocalist as an above-the-title star, topping 2003’s The Fighting Temptations and Cadillac Records from late 2008.

Beyonce does battle with the sexy Ali Larter (HEROES) in OBSESSED

OPENINGS FOR BEYONCE MOVIES
1. Austin Powers: Goldmember – $70.3M opening
2. Obsessed – $27.5M opening (projected)
3. Pink Panther (2006) – $20.2M opening
4. Dreamgirls – $14.1M wide break (after a platform start)
5. The Fighting Temptations – $11.7M opening
6. Cadillac Records – $3.4M opening

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The final weekend of April has never been Hollywood’s favorite release date. In fact, it is generally considered to be among the worst release dates on the calendar. Whatever opens on the final weekend of April gets absolutely crushed by the official start of the summer blockbuster season on the first weekend of May.

The 4 new wide releases and 1 major specialty release set to debut this weekend will face an onslaught of mega-hits over the next month. How can Obsessed (Sony), Earth (Disney), The Soloist, (Dreamworks/Paramount), Fighting (Rogue) and The Informers (Senator) possibly find an audience with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) arriving next weekend followed by, in successive weeks, Star Trek (Paramount), Angels & Demons (Sony), the combo of Night at the Museum 2 (Fox) and Terminator: Salvation (Fox) and Disney/Pixar’s Up?

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