I went into the midnight showing of Your Highness with good expectations. Not that I would be seeing a great movie with an awesome storyline, or top-notch acting, but a movie that would have great comedy to make me laugh my ass off, effectively spoofing the fantasy genre. It definitely spoofed the genre very well, but the comedy aspect left plenty to be desired. And I will also be bombarding this article with Natalie Portman pictures so enjoy. Let’s start out with a summary of the movie’s plot and players:
Ahhhh, there’s nothing like a fresh dose of controversy to start your Monday off right. It’s even better when you can’t figure out why so many people or news outlets care enough to make it a controversy, and I can’t decide whether I’m helping or hindering it right now.
So here it is: Natalie Portman is being accused by her body double Sarah Lane, of not doing hardly any of the actual dancing in the ballet scenes of the movie Black Swan. According to an article on OTRC, Lane claims that Portman only did five percent of her dancing parts in the movie, while Portman’s fiancée Benjamin Milliepied said it was her 85 percent of the time. Darren Aronofsky and Mila Kunis both also back up Portman.
The biggest question that I pose however is; Who gives a crap?
As everyone probably knows by now, Natalie Portman won the ‘Best Actress Oscar’ this year for her performance in Black Swan. I thought the movie was okay, but critics everywhere have praised it as a masterpiece of cinema. And now it all comes down to this? She didn’t do her fair share of ballet dancing? I would hope Darren Aronofsky focused more on the story itself, and bringing out the best acting in his cast than on ballet dancing. Is everyone supposed to be surprised she had a body double for the dancing part? I was more interested in other parts of the film, you know, the parts where Natalie Portman is losing her mind and morphing into a f–king Swan. After watching the “scene” with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis my first reaction is: what ballet?
Until they add in a best ballet dancer category at the Academy Awards maybe Sarah Lane should switch her face to the off position.
“I’m sorry? Did you say a Ballet? I wasn’t paying attention.”
I may be a bit biased because I’m a dude and think Natalie Portman is one of the best things to happen to geeks since the Star Wars prequels were announced. (Which sounded good at the time but turned out not so good.) After the Serena Williams controversy a couple of days ago (click her name for link.) it seems like highly successful women are coming under fire from some of the most ridiculous nonsense.
I for one could care less about Natalie’s dancing prowess at this point because I’m eagerly awaiting the upcoming comedy starring herself, James Franco and Danny McBride titled Your Highness, which comes out next Friday – April 8th. Swords, Sorcery and Natalie Portman in a thong anyone?
It seems like Oz: The Great and Powerful is gearing up to be quite a flick. This is a prequel to the much beloved Judy Garland classic from 1939. It takes place years prior to Dorthy and Toto’s arrival, this time focusing on the arrival ‘the Wizard’; James Franco. I’m a big fan of Franco, and I can’t wait to see him in his portrayal of the Wizard, as he arrives in the land of Oz. His character is described as such:
“a fast-talking snake oil salesman and illusionist who flees a traveling circus and winds up whisked away in a hot air balloon by a tornado to Oz where he must face off against real magic and the sisters battling for control of the land.”
Thanks to ComingSoon.net, glorious news has reached my ears that the newest Planet of the Apes movie, entitled Rise of the Apes, will be released even sooner than realized. Instead of the Thanksgiving release that was last announced, the rampaging apes will be flooding the screens this summer on August 5th.
Why such glorious news you might ask? Well, if you’re a classic Planet of the Apes film fan (Remember the ones with Roddy McDowall?) then you’ll feel as cheated and disgusted as I was with Tim Burton’s horrendous reboot of the beloved franchise. It had a great cast, costumes, sets, and budget to match, yet failed in its execution. Especially the ending with our friend Ape Lincoln. I would almost compare the cast of Planet of the Apes to that of the Phantom Menace, both movies had everything necessary to not suck and they inevitably did.
Rise of the Apes is a new origin story, chronicling how the primates war against the humans came into being, the result of genetic experimentation. Even though there has not been a trailer yet, I think it’s safe to assume that James Franco will be able to hold his own as the scientist performing genetic experiments in the movie, and we all know that Andy Serkis can handle playing a primate after King Kong.
The movie will also feature veteran actor Brian Cox and relative newcomer Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire). Also, still relatively fresh off of the 4th season of Dexter, the Trinity Killer himself – John Lithgow.
More on Rise of the Apes as it develops. UPDATE!!! – TRAILER RELEASED – CLICK THE LINK!
Grizzly Bomb 