Why would anyone see Eat Pray Love? I saw because I’m a critic, its what I do. But why would anyone have any interest in seeing this film?

In Eat Pray Love, Julia Roberts stars as Elizabeth Gilbert, a woman who, after being fed up with ordinary life in the big city, goes on a year trek around the world. This true story is the tale of one woman trying to find her soul.

Eat Pray Love is well-made film. It is directed with skill by Ryan Murphy and the acting is excellent. Julia Roberts plays her usual character but the real standout is Richard Jenkins. After an Oscar-nominated turn as the lead in The Visitor, the seasoned veteran is back to supporting roles, and this one is fantastic. The film is also shot well, and the four main locations (New York, Italy, India, and Bali) are all shown beautifully. There is no question that this film is a professional Hollywood production, but at the same time there is nothing extraordinarily special about the filmmaking.

What is really worth talking about is the story that is told in the film. Mrs. Gilbert obviously had some issues she needed sorting out, and this journey apparently did a lot for her. Good for her. Now why should I care about watching it? Honestly, I have no clue what the appeal to the film is. Such an introspective story is well-suited to a book because, in a memoir, the author can go on at length about his or her thoughts and feelings. This does not work in cinema, however. Film is a visual medium and therefore showing is always better than telling. In order for such a one-character character piece to function properly, the audience must be able to empathize with the protagonist and this is the key flaw in Eat Pray Love.

Eat Pray Love was not painful to sit through, but nothing really happened, or at least nothing we could see. By the end of the movie, Gilbert has had a large change take place, but we’ve missed it. The third act saves this film from being a complete waste of time. After rejecting her ordinary husband in America, Gilbert meets a Brazilian (Javier Bardem) and struggles with her fear of attachment. This part of the story worked the best, just because there was another character who could interact with the protagonist in a meaningful way.

Eat Pray Love is a film that lacks conflict. Although I am sure that a soul-searching trek across the globe can do wonders for one’s life, it does not make for a good film. If you really want to experience what this movie wants you to experience, go travel around the world instead.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

If you haven’t seen the previews for this all over the television or heard that this was written for Brad Pitt who turned it down and then rewritten fro Angelina, well get your head out of you know where.

Atomic Popcorn has the privilege of offering up to you all Columbia Picture’s latest action/thriller – Salt! We will be screening the film on Tuesday, July 20th in Baltimore and we have room for 100 people! That is 50 passes for two of you.

Synopsis:

Angelina Jolie stars in Salt, a contemporary action thriller from Columbia Pictures. As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt (Jolie) swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “Who Is Salt?”

Trailer:

How to Enter:

1. Fill out a form below. The first 50 person to fill out the form will be taken. INCLUDE A WORKING EMAIL

The only rule is that we will not be allowing multiple signups from the same family for our screenings any longer. You have 1 admit-two pass per family.

THIS SCREENING IS NOW FULL

Make sure you check out our other free screenings in the Baltimore Area!

If you’ve been eagerly anticipating Ghostbusters 3, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

Columbia Pictures tried to oust director Ivan Reitman so they could find someone younger. But Reitman, along with fellow franchise founders Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis hold veto power for most of the creative decisions that are to be made for any upcoming project.

Everyone in the original crew would like to start on the project, but Bill Murray is still hesitant. Murray has consistently dragged his feet on the project ever since it was first announced in the planning stages.

Murray told David Letterman earlier this year that the thought of a third movie was a “nightmare,” and that he only agreed to appear in it if they promised to kill him off during the first reel, to come back as a ghost, a statement he has assured fans was just a joke.

At the Tribeca Film Festival, Murray made it clear that he believes the hype has come from the movie studio trying to milk more money out of the cash-cow franchise, and that he won’t agree to the project until a great script comes along. He doesn’t believe in just re-hashing.

So all that talk about the studio having hired writers and picking a release date of summer 2011? Just talk. Unless a quality script miraculously appears. The first script, written by The Office writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (who wrote the not-so-good film Year One) seems to be the reason for Murray’s arguments. However, they are due to turn in a new draft in May, so maybe there is hope yet.

Principal photography for The Smurfs kicked off on March 26 in New York. The film, based on the long-running cartoon franchise, is a mixture of animation and live-action.

In the Smurfs’ first adventure on the big screen, they are chased out of their village by the treacherous Gargamel and are transported into the middle of central park.

The movie stars Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays as a couple whose lives are turned upside down when they encounter the little blue guys. The Smurfs are voiced by a fantastic cast that includes Anton Yelchin as Clumsy Smurf, Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Katy Perry as Smurfette, Alan Cumming as Gutsy Smurf, Fred Armisen as Brainy Smurf, and George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf. The cast is rounded off with Hank Azaria playing the evil wizard Gargamel.

In the director’s chair is Raja Gosnell whose previous filmography includes Home Alone 3, Scooby-Doo, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua with Jordan Kerner producing a script by J. David Stem & David N. Weiss and Jay Scherick & David Ronn. The story was written with the approval of Veronique Culliford, Smurf creator Peyo’s daughter.

Out of love for the series, I have to say that this still seems like a formulaic, uninteresting version of numerous other family films out there today. However, I still have hope that the talent involved can make this a fun new Smurfs adventure.

The Smurfs, a joint production of Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, is due to be released in 3D August 3, 2011.

It’s been five years since one of Hollywood’s most influential pioneers of the action screenplay, Shane Black, stepped behind the camera for his critically-praised directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Now Black may be settling back into the director’s chair in order to revive the long-dead silver screen legacy of classic adventure hero Doc Savage.

Doc Savage was created in the early 1930′s by Street and Smith Publications and predominantly written by main author Lester Dent. He’s an adventure hero, most popular in the “pulp novels” of the 30′s and 40′s. Savage is a man trained from birth in all of the greatest skills of science, deduction, and physical prowess, all of which he uses to solve mysteries and fight crime.

The character has appeared in only one successful film adaptation, 1975′s bemoaned camp-fest, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, starring former Tarzan, Ron Ely.

In October of last year, Black told Ain’t It Cool News that he was hard at work scripting a Doc Savage movie for hotshot producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman of Star Trek and Transformers fame, and that his film would  definitely be set during Savage’s heyday of the 30′s, and would include his ever-present team of sidekicks, The Fabulous Five. However, the property recently changed hands over to Sony, who have brought in screenwriters Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry to co-write the feature with no word yet on how much of Black’s original, self-written screenplay will be retained.

Doc Savage has been enjoying a minor resurgence of popularity recently, as DC Comics has begun releasing a mini-series that links Savage to Batman, and that will expand into an ongoing series for the character soon.

Sony hopes to shoot for a 2011 release for the film under their Columbia Pictures banner.

So what do you think? Can a Depression-era action hero find a modern movie audience? Can Shane Black pull it off? And who would you like to see portraying The Man of Bronze?

Really, Hollywood? You’re giving us another remake? Great.

This time, Columbia Pictures is tackling the Audrey Hepburn classic My Fair Lady, the story of a flower girl’s transformation to fit in high society under the guidance of a snobby professor.

My Fair Lady itself was actually based off George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, although it did stray from the original story a bit. In what I think is a good move on Columbia’s part, the new film will closely follow the story of Pygmalion, rather than base itself off the first movie version. This should help create some distinction between the two movies, rather than the new film just feeling like a knock off.

The film won’t be updated from its original setting, but will still take place in 1912 London and feature the same London locations.

Several directors have already been considered to take on the project, including Danny Boyle, Baz Luhrmann and Stephen Daldry, but now John Madden is in talks to direct My Fair Lady.

No cast is tied to the film yet, but rumor is that Keira Knightley could end up playing the lead role of Eliza Doolittle.

Duncan Kenworth will produce the film with London legit maven Cameron Mackintosh. CBS Films, which owns the film rights to the Lerner and Loewe musical, will co-develop.

Columbia Pictures picked up the rights to a screen adaptation of the video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune back in June, and Kyle Ward was quickly attached to write.

Due to other commitments, Ward has now gracefully bowed out of the project, and screenwriting duo Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer stepped in to take his place.

The two writers were responsible for Sahara, Conan, Cowboys & Aliens, and the upcoming adaptation of the  comic book Dead of Night.

Donnelly and Oppenheimer will have their hands full writing the action-packed adaptation. The video game, which sold 1 million copies in its first 10 weeks on the market, follows treasure hunter Nate Drake who is, of course, descended from the famous explorer Sir Francis Drake.

Drake believes a cursed statue has revealed to him the location of the legendary city of El Dorado, and sets out to find the treasure that is said to be hidden there. A rival treasure hunter gives Drake some tough competition, but nothing compared to the “mutated descendants of Spaniards and Nazis” that wage attacks on any who try to learn about the secrets of the treasure of El Dorado.

They are definitely going to have their work cut out for them on this one.

Avi Arad, Ari Arad, Charles Rove, and Alex Gartner will be producing the film.

The day of the screening I was joking around with some friends at my day job and came up with this snazzy catchphrase regarding the new movie 2012: “Only John Cusack can outrun disasters of massive proportions but not be able to stop the disaster that was his character’s marriage.” I knew that Amanda Peet played Kate Curtis, the separated wife of Cusack’s Jackson Curtis and I had a feeling that by the end of the movie their long lost love would be reunited by the events of the movie.  Boy was I right, and I didn’t need the Mayans to predict this like they allegedly have predicted the disaster that is 2012.

Director and Screenwriter (gotta give credit where credit is due) Roland Emmerich managed to create what will be this season’s greatest comedy. I don’t think that is what he set out to do upon drafting, filming, and editing 2012 but that is the end result. This two-and-a-half hour comedy will have you rolling in your seat as you watch Cusack and the gang outrace disaster after disaster after disaster. The over-the-top elements and wacky situations in which Cuscak and the gang find themselves is downright hysterical. You’ll laugh as the Cusack Gang (short name from now on) out drive an earthquake that is ripping California apart. You won’t be able to resist the temptation to crack a smile when the Cusack Gang manage to hit the perfectly placed upturned pavement, use it as a ramp to jump a very large hole caused by the massive earthquake they were outrunning, and drive through a glass building that was toppling in front of them. It’s the Dukes of Hazzard meets Lethal Weapon 4!

The plot is straight out of an NBC Movie of the week that should be shown as a two-parter during February sweeps. In 2009 Doctor Adrian Helmsley, played by Chiwetel Ejofor, discovers that the Earth’s core is getting hotter. He takes the facts and presents them to Carl Anheuser, played by Oliver Platt, who is the President’s top scientist. They determine that with the help of the world’s government, ships can be built to house all of the world’s culture as well as those select individuals that helped fund the project and all government parties throughout the world. The plans are put into motion and in 2010 the governments unite. Over the next two years the Chinese build six very large metal ships that will be used to transport countless live animals and people to safety for months if not years, and house state-of-the-art electronics that will guide their way. These Arks will be used for the months or years it takes to restart civilization after the great floods.

There is even a Who’s Who of characters that gave 2012 that NBC Movie of the Week feel. Danny Glover is the President of the United States. Woody Harrelson is Charlie, the one “crazy person” who knows the Government’s plans but isn’t taken seriously. Blu Mankuma plays Harry Helmsley the father of Ejofor’s character, and George Segal plays Tony Delgato who hasn’t spoken or seen his son in years and is also Harry’s musical partner. This short list of actors helped to make 2012 feel like a Movie of the Week. Where are Hasselhoff and Shatner when you need them?

I won’t even get into the wooden performance Glover gives as the POTUS. His delivery and demeanor seemed to indicate that this was a paycheck and not really a wise career move. Cusack did a good job at not taking the story too seriously. I mean, how can you when you’re constantly avoiding disaster with seconds to spare. Peet was the only actor who delivered a believable portrayal of a character. As I’ve been told, it only takes one rotten apple to ruin the bunch – thanks to Amanda Peet for being that apple. I kid, I kid… you were the bright spot to this comedy and you were the only person that made me believe that your character was in danger.

I’m sure some will think this was an amazing movie based on the great effects. YES, the effects were incredible. The way Emmerich choreographed the destruction of the Earth was, to say the least, beautiful. His use of real-world physics helped to portray the massive destruction that was happening before our eyes. His sinking of California was an awesome effect and the way the land mass sank while buildings kept toppling over was darn cool to watch. His use of dust and debris from downed buildings converging down the roads and toward the populace was too reminiscent of images captured on 9/11/01 in New York city.  I found myself picking up small sound effects that added to some of the massive events unfolding on the screen. There is a scene where the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy is being lifted by a massive tsunami and the scraping noise of the jets sliding off the bow of the ship was a nice touch of realism. But, as we all know, effects do not make a movie great. Story and acting are also needed to help sell the Hollywood magic and are just what was missing from 2012. I find it hard to take a movie seriously when the entire audience is laughing at EVERYTHING that is happening in front of them. If Emmerich is smart he’ll have Columbia put this under the Comedy section come Oscar time.

Columbia Pictures manages to deliver a PG-13 movie with intense disaster sequences, a 2.5 hour run time, little story,  lots of special effects, and laughs-a-plenty (which I’m sure was unintentional and just the by-product of a bad movie).

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆