http://www.thedailypage.com/movies Movie content from ISTHMUS | The Daily Page webmaster@isthmus.com (Webmaster) Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:31:25 CDT Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26310 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26310 It used to be that you'd go to the movies to...see a movie. Maybe neck. Who has time for that now, when you go to have drinks or a fine meal before an eye-popping 3-D IMAX "experience," or even see a live performance in real time as it's performed half a continent away? Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26317 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26317 Man, you should have seen that party. Tuesday evening at the downtown Hilton, revelers celebrating the premiere of <i>Public Enemies</i> wore 1930s clothes and laughed and clinked cocktail glasses. Outside the fete, which benefited Film Wisconsin and Arts Wisconsin, passersby ogled beautiful vintage cars, on one of which a guy wearing spats leaned cinematically. Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26256 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26256 Michael Bay's follow-up to his international smash hit of 2007 ups the ante on big and dumb. His new <i>Transformers</i> movie, whose extraterrestrials are based on the Hasbro toys which can morph from cars and other prosaic metal objects into awesome fighting machines, aims for impact over sense, clobbering viewers with its sensory overload and bludgeoning us into weary submission. Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26193 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26193 Only rarely do romantic comedies reinvent the wheel, which is why whole decades passed between <i>Annie Hall</i>, <i>When Harry Met Sally...</i> and <i>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind</i>. <i>The Proposal</i> is just another studio product, which means it rises or falls on the likability of the leads. Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26135 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26135 How does one of the most universally respected actors of this generation -- Denzel Washington -- come to trust director Tony Scott and his obvious fascination with style over substance? Since their first collaboration on <i>Crimson Tide</i> in 1995, Washington and Scott have teamed up in recent years for <i>Man on Fire</i>, <i>Dèjá Vu</i> and now the remake of <i>The Taking of Pelham 123</i>. Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26136 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26136 With <i>Imagine That</i>, Eddie Murphy has made a family-friendly film without a single fart joke. True, he does put his foot in a cow patty at one point, but <i>Imagine That</i> is refreshingly free of Murphy's usual penchant for antic toilet humor and howling bad taste. Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26219 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26219 Both a great rock concert movie and a superb documentary on youth culture in the Vietnam War Years, Michael Wadleigh's <i>Woodstock</i> -- shot at the legendary 1969 Aquarian gathering at Max Yasgur's farm at Bethel, N.Y. (not the nearby Woodstock) -- brings back the era and all its pot-fumed tenderness, horror, humor, beauty, ugliness, and glorious absurdities, as few other movies can. Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26159 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26159 <i>The Seventh Seal</i> is the quintessential Ingmar Bergman film, which -- along with his other major 1956-57 festival prize-winners, <i>Smiles of a Summer Night</i> and <i>Wild Strawberries</i> -- made his huge initial international reputation while also creating a new audience in the U.S. for art house cinema. Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=25599 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=25599 What is Meg Hamel's most vivid memory of this year's festival? It's the audience members who enthusiastically sang along with the Wisconsin Film Festival trailer. That kind of participation is a good sign. "It's hard for any festival to create a trailer people won't mock," she says. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26308 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26308 In 1934, as the feds were closing in on John Dillinger and other gangsters, Madison was a small capital city in the grip of a spring drought and a summer heat wave. This weeks release of the Michael Mann drama, <i>Public Enemies</i>, starring Johnny Depp, makes for a good excuse to go back and page through old newspapers and phone books to get a glimpse of what the Mad City was like 75 years ago. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:57:43 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26291 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26291 A better -- and shorter, and more vividly dramatic -- film would focus more on searing Dillinger moments. But <i>Public Enemies</i> is rambling and, dare I say, a little dull. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:52:33 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26289 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26289 Old-fashioned cars lined East Wilson Street Tuesday night, ladies smeared on bright red lipstick and pinned back their hair and a few gentlemen even sported top hats and canes. Celebrating the release of the ultra-hyped movie, <i>Public Enemies</i>, locals who worked as extras in the movie along with their families and friends joined Arts Wisconsin and Film Wisconsin at a release party at the Hilton Monona Terrace. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26285 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26285 Joaquin Phoenix, in various weird ways, has suggested that James Gray's Brooklyn romance <i>Two Lovers</i> may be his last movie as an actor. I hope he reconsiders and comes back. Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26248 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26248 Scott Rawson is one of hundreds of local folks who got a taste of Hollywood glamour -- and, in some cases, Hollywood cigarettes -- as extras in <i>Public Enemies</i>. I tracked down some of them and asked them to reminisce. Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26271 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26271 When friends and family learn that Chris Kilgour worked on the <i>Public Enemies</i> set, they are most excited to hear about his interactions with Johnny Depp and other big name celebrities. But what the Madison set builder wants people to know is not how stars talk, walk and act when the cameras aren't rolling, but that there is a whole lot of hard work put in behind the scenes, and it all deserves recognition. Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26160 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26160 There is more than one major Wisconsin-made movie directed by a onetime Madisonian resident that is premiering in June. While that one gangster movie with the movie stars may be breaking the bank in terms of attention, a new indie feature titled <i>Baraboo</i> -- written, directed, and edited by Mary Sweeney -- is also gearing up for its moment on the big screen. Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26145 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=26145 "What would Batman be like if Bruce Wayne didn't have any money?" That's the question filmmaker Andy Schlachtenhaufen explores in his new film <i>Wayne</i>. Shot a year ago at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Madison, and starring his cousin Dave as the title character, the short offers an understated yet striking version of the iconic superhero origin story.