The beautiful and talented (a surprisingly rare combination) Anne Hathaway is slowly pealing away her “princess” image. This year she plays Jane Austen in “Becoming Jane”, and next year we’ll see her first as Agent 99 in the most anticipated movie of 2008 (for me anyway), “Get Smart”.

After that…she’s going to play a coked out model coming out of rehab.

Awesome.

Cinema Blend has the scoop on the film. It’s directed by Jonathon Demme (“Silence of the Lambs”), and is entitled “Dancing with Sheba”. In it, Hathaway plays a former model who has been in an out of rehab for the past 10 years due to her addiction to coke (and not the “a cola” kind). The film is set around her getting out of rehab just in time to go to her sister’s wedding.

It’s a comedy.

Sounds like fun.

Guess what? They’re making another sequel to a Jim Carrey movie WITHOUT Jim Carrey. Young Josh Flitter (“Nancy Drew”) has signed on to play the part of Ace Ventura’s son, who decides to take over the family business.

Director David Mickey Evans (“The Sandlot”) has been chosen to helm the film, and had this to tell MovieHole:

“Well, basically my kids run my career”, Evans said. “After the Final Season got picked up by Sony/Yari for theatrical release, I had a bunch of offers and scripts on my desk. I asked my 9, 11, and 15 year olds what they wanted me to do. And they said, “Dad, you’re doing Ace Ventura 3!. I don’t know if the fact that the film shoots in Orlando (Disney World, Universal Orlando, etc etc…) had anything to with their marching orders, but I suspect it did. Nonetheless, the challenge of trying to meet the expectation of a sequel to one of the funniest movies in the last 30 years appealed to me. Done deal. Cut. Print. Moving on! Done deal.

“…plus I really wanted to work with Jim Robinson and David Robinson at Morgan Creek. The opportunity to cross paths with their brand of creative support is rare and I wasn’t about to pass that up.”

Now, let me say that I LOVE The Sandlot. It’s a great film. A classic.

I will even go so far as to say that the concept of a kid pet detective is not a bad one for a series of Direct-to-DVD kid’s movies. However, making it a sequel to Ace Ventura…and treating like a sequel to Ace Ventura…is a TERRIBLE idea.

Want to know how this is going to pan out?

See “Dumb and Dumberer” or “Son of the Mask”. What’s next “Liar Liar 2: Lie Harder?”

Guess what? They’re making another sequel to a Jim Carrey movie WITHOUT Jim Carrey. Young Josh Flitter (“Nancy Drew”) has signed on to play the part of Ace Ventura’s son, who decides to take over the family business.

Director David Mickey Evans (“The Sandlot”) has been chosen to helm the film, and had this to tell MovieHole:

“Well, basically my kids run my career”, Evans said. “After the Final Season got picked up by Sony/Yari for theatrical release, I had a bunch of offers and scripts on my desk. I asked my 9, 11, and 15 year olds what they wanted me to do. And they said, “Dad, you’re doing Ace Ventura 3!. I don’t know if the fact that the film shoots in Orlando (Disney World, Universal Orlando, etc etc…) had anything to with their marching orders, but I suspect it did. Nonetheless, the challenge of trying to meet the expectation of a sequel to one of the funniest movies in the last 30 years appealed to me. Done deal. Cut. Print. Moving on! Done deal.

“…plus I really wanted to work with Jim Robinson and David Robinson at Morgan Creek. The opportunity to cross paths with their brand of creative support is rare and I wasn’t about to pass that up.”

Now, let me say that I LOVE The Sandlot. It’s a great film. A classic.

I will even go so far as to say that the concept of a kid pet detective is not a bad one for a series of Direct-to-DVD kid’s movies. However, making it a sequel to Ace Ventura…and treating like a sequel to Ace Ventura…is a TERRIBLE idea.

Want to know how this is going to pan out?

See “Dumb and Dumberer” or “Son of the Mask”. What’s next “Liar Liar 2: Lie Harder?”

Well, are you ready for a long, dull week?  You had better be, since this week’s DVD releases don’t feature any tasty treats.

Here they are, the not so glorious DVD releases for Tuesday July 17, 2007: 

Birdman & the Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series
Gunsmoke: The First Season
The Hills Have Eyes 2
The Incredible Hulk: The Complete Second Season
Masters of Horror: The Black Cat
P Diddy Presents: Bad Boys Of Comedy Season 2
Perfect Creature
Premonition
Red Dawn
Rookies: The Complete First Season
Space Ghost & Dino Boy: The Complete Series
Taxicab Confessions: New York, New York Part 1

I guess I’ll have to make myself watch Sandra Bullock’s Premonition as some point, might as well be this week.

If I was ten years old, I’d be all over this stuff. As it stands, the Harry Potter franchise isn’t something I actively pursue as hobby. It’s not really that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with Harry Potter, it’s just that it isn’t my cup of tea. Still, I’ll admit the movies have a certain charm to them and when put together they make a pretty epic tale. This most recent installment, though I found it a bit less exciting than “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, is a worthy follow-up to the tale of everyone’s favorite bespectacled wizard-in-training.

It’s the fifth year at Hogwart’s academy and things could be going a lot better. It would seem that the Ministry of Magic refuses to believe that the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned, and using its connections in the newspaper the Daily Prophet, is gradually swaying public opinion against Hogwart’s, Dumbledore (Michael Gambone) and Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe). To make matters worse, the Ministry has sent one of their own, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), to observe and restructure Hogwarts in a manner that is crippling to both the students and the faculty. Meanwhile, Voldemort is amassing his own army and only a secret organization known as the Order of the Phoenix can hope to convince the Ministry to prepare for the battle that lies ahead.

I’ve never read the books, so I can’t comment on whether the adaptation was true to the source or not, but I can say that the script and editing made it feel like there were a lot of missing moments that didn’t make the transition from paper to screen. The movie moves at a lightning fast pace, throwing so much at the audience in such rapid succession that keeping up can be a challenge. I’m sure the Harry Potter aficionados in the audience had no trouble following along, but the less educated souls (such as myself) are at the risk of being left in the dust.

Several new characters are introduced in addition to all the old ones still hanging around, making everything feel a bit cramped. I’m not sure if it was just the editing or the fact that there are still more movies on the way, but there were several threads, both large and small, that are left hanging. I know that the larger stuff, such as Voldemort’s army aren’t meant to be covered in this installment, but the lesser threads such as Harry reconciling with Cho (Katie Leung) are left wide open. I’m also not sure if some of the other aspects introduced, such as the centaurs, are important or just convenient MacGuffins. I suppose I’ll find out when the next movie hits theaters in a year or so.

As far as the film’s major conflict goes, Voldemort plays second fiddle to the movie’s real villain, Umbridge. She has this double-faced evil-yet-perky thing going on, which is fun, but all the while I just wanted to see more of the cool villain. You eventually get pay-off in that regard at the climax, and the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort was pretty intense, but it all felt a bit stretched out and uneven.

There’s some light political commentary mixed in there, what with the Ministry of Magic being run by an inept bonehead, refusing to believe that anything is wrong and using his control of the media (the Daily Prophet) to brainwash the people into believing whatever he tells them. I think it reflects rather poorly on the characters in the movie, considering so many of them would turn around and despise Harry just because their newspaper told them to. Of course, Harry’s closest friends stand by him, but others still need some convincing.

I suppose “unfocused” best describes “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. It all feels more like a prelude to the next movie or possibly the movie after that. I’d say it’s a definite step downward from “Goblet of Fire”, but not so much as to make it a bad movie…just a bit unsatisfactory.

Grade: C+

For another look at the film, check out Griffith’s review at our sibling site, Forever Geek.

SlashFilm:  All the Boys Love Mandy Lane has been delayed, don’t think the boys will like that…. 

The Movie Blog:  The top ten hottest female movie roles 

Celebrific:  Malcom In the Middle’s Frankie Muniz is all grown up 

Cinematical:   The Spiderwick Chronicles movie trailer teaser

Film Fodder:   Actor Christopher Walken has furry balls 

Pop star Madonna was so moved by what she saw in Malawi when she was adopting her son David, that she’s decided to make a documentary about the African country.

Back in October 2006, Madonna visited Malawi for the first time & was inspired to make a movie about the conditions there & about the problems the people face who live there.

The Material Girl’s rep stated that the singer has been hard at work on the film already, saying, “She’s been working on it for a year. Very intense. And profoundly sad–not for the faint of heart. She did an amazing job, I must say.”

I’ll be interested to see what Madonna focuses on in this filmmaking piece.

I can’t say that I expected Ben Affleck’s first feature film behind the camera to look this good and be this interesting…but then I have to wonder why didn’t I expect that…this looks amazing….

I can’t say that I expected Ben Affleck’s first feature film behind the camera to look this good and be this interesting…but then I have to wonder why didn’t I expect that…this looks amazing….

SlashFilm:  Kevin Smith reviews Gone, Baby, Gone 

The Movie Blog:  Fox & MGM sink to new low? 

Celebrific:  Actor Charlie Sheen gets himself engaged again

Cinematical:  New movie poster for Kevin Bacon’s Death Sentence 

Film Fodder:  How ’bout some DVD news to tide you over until next week?