Results tagged “premiere”

Irishman Phelim McAleer is a former journalist turned filmmaker whose most recent work is the "anti-environmentalist" documentary Mine Your Own Business. So, yeah, he's part of the head-in-the-sand camp which future generations will likely regard with unspeakable contempt as they hoard fuel Mad Max-style in a miserable, eco-apocalyptic landscape. Which is exactly what the well-intentioned new documentary The Age of Stupid is about; it stars Pete Postlethwaite as a global archivist living in 2055, flipping through the pivotal news stories from 2004 - 2008 and wondering why we didn’t stop global warming when we had a chance.

The Met opened its season last night with Puccini's Tosca, by risk-taking Swiss-born director Luc Bondy. But opera is no place for risks, and according to the Times, the well-heeled audience booed the hell out of Bondy when he emerged at curtain call. The message from the Met audience was clear: Mess with our favorite classics again, and we will cut you up like Gilda in Rigoletto.

Post-apocalyptic docu-drama The Age of Stupid stars Pete Postlethwaite as a global archivist living in 2055, flipping through the pivotal news stories from 2004 - 2008 on a Minority Report-type screen, wondering why we didn’t stop global warming when we had a chance. Well, maybe we would have had time if HBO didn't produce so much time-consuming must-see TV.

You know summer's over when the biggest movie opening is Hamlet 2, a Sundance hit about a high school teacher's struggle to save the school's drama program by writing, directing, producing and starring in a zany time-travel musical. (Okay, there's also Death Race, which the Times calls "a supercharged junkyard apocalypse powered by an unabashed relish for brutal comeuppance and a flair for delirious vehicular mayhem.") British funnyman Steve Coogan – you know, the guy who was "always right there with the drugs" for Courtney Love – stars with Catherine Keener and Amy Poehler. Peter Howell at the Toronto Star was not amused: "As much as you want to tell yourself how funny this idea is, it comes across as such only in fits and starts – and mainly from the neglected supporting cast."

Tropic Thunder – an action/comedy lampoon of a Vietnam action movie gone awry – would seem worth the price of admission just to see Robert Downey, Jr. in blackface, but Robert Wilonsky's Village Voice slam does give one pause: "When it isn't tossing softballs at the studios, Tropic Thunder is the very thing it parodies: a wall of noise engulfed in flame... Stiller is back in the send-up business, nibbling gently at the soft, manicured hands that feed him... It's just another so-so Ben Stiller movie, this time with Robert Downey Jr. in blackface, which you'd think would be enough, but it's not." Netflix?

It's really finally happening, isn't it? First the Bat Signal hyped up the Woolworth Building, now the Batmobile is in town for the The Dark Knight world premiere tonight. The full-size toy was spotted outside the AMC Loews Lincoln Square theater – the one with the IMAX – earlier today. Our correspondent tells us that "handlers were in the process of covering it because people taking pictures wouldn't stop photographing it. When people asked why, the handlers said: 'Because you guys won't listen!'" Fools – just try and stop us from giving your movie more free publicity!

The Sex and the City movie is causing more trouble today, officially making it as controversial as "a Taliban recruitment video," at least according to Jeffrey Wells's scathing review.

       

Though the trailer echoed the sentiment that "Brooklyn is the new Manhattan," and SJP herself called the outer boroughs "desirable," last night the Sex and the City movie premiere took place smack dab in the middle of town at Radio City Music Hall.

Just how much are Sex and the City fans willing to pay for The Ultimate movie-going experience? The NY Post reports that one woman laid down $19,000 for a seat at tonight's premiere, only to find out she'd been scammed.

Governor Paterson joined Mayor Bloomberg at Manhattan Community College this morning to kick off the 7th annual Tribeca Film Festival, which is expected to attract at least 500,000 visitors and $125 million. Paterson used the appearance to announced an expanded state film tax credit, intended to stop the loss of movie money “to our neighbors, like Canada, Connecticut and Massachusetts.” The governor’s office say these “neighbors” have cut into the state’s film revenue to the tune of $750 million.