Atomic Popcorn in promotions with Best Buy and the film Solitary Man, are giving away 150 dollars to Best Buy! One of you will have the chance to take home a 150 dollar Best Buy giftcard as part of our promotions for the upcoming film Solitary Man. The film stars Michael Douglas,  Danny DeVito,  Jesse Eisenberg, Jenna Fischer, Imogen Poots,  Olivia Thirlby,  Mary-Louise Parker and Susan Sarandon and is written and directed by Brian  Koppelman and David Levien (Writer /  directors of “Knockaround Guys,”  writers of “Rounders,” “Ocean’s  Thirteen,” “The Girlfriend  Experience”)

Film Synopsis:

Solitary Man tells the dryly funny yet all too relatable story of Ben  Kalmen (Michael  Douglas), a fifty-something New Yorker and former  successful car dealer, who  through his own bad choices lost his  entire business. He’s also  divorced from Nancy (Susan  Sarandon), his college sweetheart and the one  person who knows him  better than anyone. Although he still finds the time  for his daughter Susan (Jenna Fischer) and her adoring grandson, his role as   more of a friend than father or grandfather is starting to wear  thin on the  family. His girlfriend Jordan (Mary-Louise Parker) is  the daughter of a very  influential businessman who’s on the board  of a major auto manufacturer. If  Ben can just keep his hubris in  check for a little while longer, he will be  back as big as ever, but some of the same motivations that lead to his  demise are  threatening to take him down again, and for good.

WEBSITE: http://www.solitarymanmovie.com
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How to Enter:

1. Join our Facebook fan page here, or follow us on Twitter here.
2. Comment below on what your favorite Michael Douglas film is.

This is a US only promotion! – the winner will be chosen on the last day of May!

Solitary man now opens  on May  21st,  2010

I am a big fan of HBO and much of HBO’s original programming, now it looks like there will be another quality production added to the long list of HBO classics. I almost forgot to mention that this instant (fingers crossed) classic, directed by Barry Levinson, could star a great (I’m talkin’ not seen since Any Given Sunday) performance from Al Pacino, also starring Susan Sarandon, Danny Huston and John Goodman — this cannot disappoint, dare I say jinx proof. Here’s the synopsis for You Don’t Know Jack:

Kevorkian, known as Dr. Death, assisted in more than 130 suicides. After willingly sending a videotape of himself euthanizing a terminally ill man to “60 Minutes”, he was convicted in 1999 of second-degree murder and spent eight years in prison before getting paroled in 2007.

Loosely based on Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie’s book, Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia, the HBO film follows Kevorkian’s (Pacino) rise as he builds his infamous Mercy Machine and sets out to perform assisted suicides while waging an epic legal battles defending a patient’s ‘right to die’.

John Goodman will play Nicol, a friend and co-worker of Kevorkian since 1961 and a steadfast supporter of the right to die.

Susan Sarandon will play Janet Good, an activist with the Hemlock Society who becomes one of Jack’s staunchest supporters, working side by side with him to make humane suicide available to the terminally ill and suffering.

The two teaser trailers for the film, found here and here, have the visual and audible beauty of the trailer for Sean Penn’s Milk. I can’t wait to “know Jack,” can you?

What’s this? A new trailer for Tim Blake Nelson’s Leaves of Grass with twice the usual amount of Norton? Looks that way. Nelson, known for his off-kilter character work in films like O’ Brother, Wher Art Thou?, Holes and Minority Report, is directing and starring in this story of identical twins who conspire to take on a small-town drug lord together.

The plot synopsis sounds like an action movie, but the trailer is it’s own quirky little beast, with Edward Norton starring as both twins–one a shaggy pot dealer and the other a straight-laced Ivy League professor– and Richard Dreyfuss as the crime boss. Nelson looks to be recycling his usual, scruffy yokel and Keri Russell steps in to add the romantic interest, with Susan Sarandon playing the mother of the twins.

I think this has more than a little of the Coens’ Bros. feel to it, especially some of their earlier, sillier work like Raising Arizona. Nelson himself is a talented and versatile director, having done films as varied as the Othello adaptation ‘O’ and the war film ‘The Grey Zone.’ Norton, whom he recently worked with in The Incredible Hulk, looks to be having great fun with the double role.

Check out the trailer:

As a big fan of Peter Jackson it pains me to say this. The Lovely Bones simply doesn’t work.

Based on a dreamy, meditative book by Alice Sebold, Bones is the very definition of an unfilmable property. On paper it is the haunting story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered by a man in her neighborhood, and then watches the resulting effect this has on her mother, father and younger sister. Author Sebold, herself a victim of rape, created a phantasmal dreamscape for Susie to inhabit after she’s dead; not Heaven, but a kind of ephemeral waiting room, referred to as the ‘in-between’ by those already there.

On film and in the hands of a director as literal as Jackson (this is the same guy who once evaporated hordes of zombies with a push mower) Lovely Bones seems far too passive and breezy to account for its most sinister and disarming scene; Susie’s death at the hands of her murderer, played by Tucci as an uncomfortably sleazy pedophile stereotype. Jackson handles it with a delicate touch and doesn’t show anything terribly disturbing, but all of the surrounding details generate their own queasiness.

The technical achievements of the film are hard to argue with. The cinematography by Andrew Lesnie is spellbinding and lush and it captures such lyrical scenes as Susie’s father staring at a flickering candle and wondering if his daughter might be nearby, or Susie’s moments late in the film where she’s reaches beyond the grave to experience a few stolen moments of adolescent pleasure. The visual effects in the ‘in-between’ are also well done and relatively imaginative. Unfortunately there’s nothing for the filmmakers to grasp because in Sebold’s prose this afterlife is little more than a plot device.

The result is a series of computer-generated images that feel like a music video instead of a functioning and expansive dream world. The score by Brian Eno may be the element of the film most capable of standing on its own, but it fails to really add much commentary on the rest. Jackson’s directing has always been expressive and immediate. When he’s staging a fantasy battle between monstrous armies or a giant gorilla and hungry dinosaurs he can deliver the goods like nobody’s business. Here, where a softer, more thoughtful touch is required, he ends up decimating moments that were awkward to begin with.

On the acting front, there are some great performances on display. Saoirse Ronan proves she has the potential to become a great actress, and I hope that Jackson finds a use for her elfin features and charming persona in one of the upcoming Tolkien adaptations. As Susie she registers almost immediately and when her life is cut short, so is her character’s impact on the storyline. Wahlberg and Weisz are usually capable actors who usually elevate the films they are in. Here, where their story should be the primary focus, they are pushed to the background and have to settle for capturing small moments of grief and loss. Susan Sarandon as the hippie grandmother and Stanley Tucci as the creepy killer fare the worst. They aren’t bad per se, but the movie abuses their effort and they swamp the boat every time they show up. Jackson seems at a loss for what to do with them and when he finds something it feels ham-handed and forced. Tucci’s final moments on the film are inexcusably laughable and bewildering.

After seeing The Lovely Bones and having read its source material, it’s hard to imagine how this one could have been done effectively. When I saw the trailers I hoped that Jackson would be able to give Bones a tone and atmosphere similar to 1994′s Heavenly Creatures, but the whole production just gets away from him. The result is an emotionally empty film that wants to be important but instead comes as off creepier and more pointless than it means to be.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Famed actress Susan Sarandon is seeping her way into Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, directed by Oliver Stone. Sarandon is in talks to play the mother of young Wall Street trader Jacob (Shia LaBeouf) who falls under the seductive influence of Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) (CS!). Also casted in the movie is Frank Langella who’s most recent works include Frost/Nixon and the upcoming fall picture called The Box.

The first film, Wall Street, also starred Michael Douglas along with Charlie Sheen Daryl Hannah and Martin Sheen. Emerging at that time when the economy was on everyone’s minds during that period within the eighties, Stone and others are taking advantage of it again a second time with this decade’s recession. Wall Street 2 is set for an April 23, 2010 release date from Twentieth Century Fox and Edward R. Pressman Films.

Straight from the creative talents of Peter Jackson comes the latest fantasy thriller, yet another novel adaptation, The Lovely Bones. Starring the wonderful talents of Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg and so on, this is one of the more anticipated films of this fall lineup. Finally jumping its way onto computers everywhere, here is the trailer for you all to enjoy. The film comes out in theaters December 11th.

The Lovely Bones Trailer

Here he comes…here comes Speed Racer. He’s a demon on wheels.

I am a big Speed Racer fan. I used to rush home after school to catch Speed Racer before doing my homework. I even wanted to paint my bike white and put a red 5 on the side to make it my Mach 5. So I was stoked when I started seeing advertisements for this movie months ago. I couldn’t wait to see how one of my boyhood shows would be turned into a motion picture.

This movie is a cornucopia of colors, sights, and sounds. For everything that was wrong with the last two Matrix movies, the Wachowski brothers managed to do everything right with this one. They not only captured the essence of the American “Speed Racer” but they also were able to tap into the Japanese original “Mach Go Go Go” for further inspiration.

The movie starts with Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) driving like a demon on wheels at Thunderhead race track. He’s not only trying to win the race but he’s also trying to chase after his dream of being like his older brother, Rex Racer (Scott Porter).

Pops (John Goodman) is the matriarch of the family and the designer of the famous Mach 5. He is supported by his loving wife Mom Racer (Susan Sarandon). Also with the family is younger son Spritle (Paulie Litt) and his pet Chim-Chim the monkey. Pops can’t do everything alone so he has long time family friend Sparky (Kick Gurry) as the mechanic of the group but also Speed’s race day spotter. Rounding out the family is Speed’s girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) who has been there for speed since grade school.

There is more to this movie then the racing. There is a story of big business corruption and how it is taking over the World Racing League by fixing races. One such business is Royalton Industries headed by A.Royalton (Roger Allam). He’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants and if that means paying off drivers to stop Speed from winning then that’s what he’ll do.

Trying to stop him is the CIB, an international law organization that has a few tricks of their own. The lead investigator, Inspector Detector (Benno Fürmann), has a driver that will stop the corruption of the WRL by brining justices back…Racer X (Matthew Fox) is that driver. But he can’t do it alone so he enlists the aid of Speed Racer to help crack the case and bring Royalton’s company down.

The Wachowskis were able to do something new and fresh with the races and make the cars seem alive. Each race left you breathless and waiting for more as you watched the stunning driving of Speed Racer and the other drivers. From the beginning race at Thunderhead to the final Grand Prix you will be amazed at the acrobatic movements of the automobiles.

The casting was perfect. Each actor selected was able to channel their animated counterpart. This movie has plenty of action, adventure, and humor for all to enjoy.

Speed Racer is distributed by Warner Brothers, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. It is rated PG for sequences of action, some violence and language.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆