Category Archives: Jack_Poessiger
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Project X’–Sexy, Rude and Crude Game Changer
Director Todd Phillips of HANGOVER and OLD SCHOOL fame turns producer, creating this time a monster…monster party, that is.
It’s called PROJECT X and features three high school losers taking advantage of mom and dad being away to make a name for themselves by throwing a birthday party for just a few people.
But nothing could prepare them for the complete chaos of what would ensue during the most epic birthday bash ever.
New Jack City: ‘Hunger Games’ On Monster Track
Industry ueber-guru Nikki Finke‘s DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD today reports astounding early tracking (awareness) numbers for THE HUNGER GAMES which is set to open on March 23.
"Numbers every film studio can only dream about," Finke adds.
One study is guestimating that the film – based on Suzanne Collins best selling books – will open north of $70 million—and that’s just for the domestic opening weekend!
If those predictions hold it would make THE HUNGER GAMES bigger than the TWILIGHT debut.
THE HUNGER GAMES, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson was recently screened for the book’s author.
Now here’s Suzanne Collins take for her millions of fans on the big screen adaptation:
New Jack City: This Year’s Razzie Awards Salute Hollywood’s Worst
How Low Can Hollywood Go?
In this endless awards season it’s not over til the fat chick warbles or the worst on film gets their much deserved recognition. We’re talking THE RAZZIES, the annual sendup to the past year’s creme de la crap.
Officially known as THE GOLDEN RASPBERRY AWARDS, these worst achievements in film are normally handed out on Oscar’s Eve. But not this year!
In a departure from an almost three decades long tradition, the winners—make that losers—will be heralded on April Fool’s Day, April 1st. And this year’s pre-Oscar night event was used instead to introduce the world to the nominees for the ultimate schmutz on film – the bottom of the cinematic barrel.
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Wanderlust’ Outtakes Are Best Part of Lame Comedy
When critics exit press screenings they’re usually asked for their opinions by studio representatives…
I dreaded having to give my take to them on WANDERLUST the other day.
All I could come up with was: "I’m speechless."
"In a good or bad way?" the rep asked.
I let her guess my answer.
WANDERLUST basically tells of a New York City couple—Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston—who suddenly fall on hard times. He loses his job and she can’t sell her penguin documentary to HBO.
And they’ve just purchased a micro-loft in Manhattan.
Now overextended and totally stressed, they take a job offer from his porta-potty magnate brother in Atlanta.
Which works for about a week.
But hold on!
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Act Of Valor’- Real SEALS, Real Heroes!
ACT OF VALOR isn’t your average, everyday popcorn action flick…
What it IS, is a low budget tribute movie to the Navy SEALS, co-directed by Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy who are known collectively in Hollywood circles as the Bandito Brothers.
"Nobody from Hollywood wanted us to make it," Waugh told the Hollywood Reporter recently.
"That’s why we ended up funding it ourselves and finding private equity and why we really made a truly independent film with this."
Looking for a testosterone filled, name marquee cast?
You won’t find it in this movie.
New Jack City: Rolling The Dice for This Year’s Oscars
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I can’t remember how long it’s been since I’ve had so much trouble pre-picking the Oscars…
The odds for guessing the winners correctly in several big catagories Sunday are about as good as playing the slots.
Some of the major contests even have the Vegas Sports Books in a quandary.
Granted, when it comes to the top prize—
Best Picture
—it most likely will be coming down to between THE ARTIST and THE DESCENDANTS.
My pick: THE ARTIST
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘This Means War’ Makes for 97 Minute Turkey Shoot
I had heard good things about THIS MEANS WAR…
But after leaving the critic’s screening last week I had to wonder if the people who’d given me that information had actually seen the same movie I’d just sat through?
Then there was the full page advance display ad for the film in last Sunday’s New York Times. The sub-headline read: "The most fun you can have at the movies."
Did someone really say that about this movie? Unbelievable.
New Jack City: KCI Ticket Pricing Heading North?
Mark my words…
The year 2012 could spell the end for KCI to be known as one of the three low-cost ticket airports in the U.S. The other two being Orlando and Las Vegas.
What’s always given us clout – and unusually low pricing – is that we’ve had the luxury of having three discount carriers flying out of here. Those three—Southwest, AirTran and Frontier—have kept the legacy carriers in check.
Something many other markets would kill to get.
So why I am prediciting a future pricing doom for K.C.? Let’s look at the three discounters individually.
New Jack City: Clint Eastwood–Hollywood’s Real Mensch
Clint Eastwood‘s Super Bowl commercial for Chrysler has garnered him renwed attention and respect…
The kind I bet he wishes might have been timed closer to the release of his latest (directed) picture J. EDGAR starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Even Saturday Night Live tipped its hat to the venerable Hollywood legend this past Saturday.
So what is Eastwood like in real life?
I’m here to tell you that with Clint, what you see is what you get. And I know that for a fact!
Jack Goes Confidential: Staying Alive Ain’t Easy in Dizzying SAFE HOUSE
SAFE HOUSE is a gritty, R-rated action-thriller that pits inexperienced CIA operative Ryan Reynolds against once proud but now rogue agent Denzel Washington.
Their location: a safe house off the grid in Cape Town, South Africa where Reynolds is holding Washington who’s in possession of some heavy duty agency secrets that must be protected at all cost.
But when the you-know-what hits the fan—an attack on the safe house—the unlikely duo is forced to escape and make their way through the deadly underground. All while Reynolds is trying to keep Denzel from taking a hike.
But make no mistake, everbody betrays everybody in this movie.
You’ll have to pay close attention or you could become hopelessly lost. But if it’s stark violence you’re seeking, SAFE HOUSE delivers. Or as Washington puts it: "You do what you have to do."
Consider yourself forewarned.
New Jack City: Do-Gooders Outraged at Super Bowl ‘F You’
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The Parents Television Council – protectors of everything wholesome over the airwaves – was appalled at the indecency and filth experienced during Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show.
Specifically rapper M.I.A. flipping off America while performing with Madonna at center stage.
PTC president Tim Winter didn’t mince words when he got the finger during the NBC telecast.
His shock and indignation was clearly spelled out in a just-released statement to the press regarding M.I.A.’s middle finger malfunction.
And it’s worth sharing.
New Jack City: Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway Lets the Good Times Roll
Enticed by a huge, month-long, multimedia ad campaign, I headed west on I-70 Friday afternoon to see what all the excitement created by Penn National Gaming at the Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway was all about.
Surely with all that rain we wouldn’t have any trouble ducking right in for a quick peek into the metro’s newest casino. After all, this was a sleepy Friday afternoon.
Wrong!
Jack Goes Confidential: Harry Potter Grows Up, Goes Ghost Hunting
Is there life after Harry Potter for Daniel Radcliffe?
You’ll have an opportunity to judge for yourself as Radcliffe ventures beyond the mega franchise for the first time this weekend.
Ironically he chose a good old fashioned ghost story for the transition.
In THE WOMAN IN BLACK Radcliffe plays young, widowed-with-kid lawyer Arthur Kipp who travels to a remote village. His assignment, to do the legal follow-up on a recently deceased older woman’s property.
The job’s location: a creepy gothic ‘house on a hill’ setting where at every turn something could—and does go bump in the night.
New Jack City: ‘Mercedes Murder’ a Shot at German Americans?
It’s still a little tough for a German to get a fair shake in this country…
Subtle shades of bigotry and discrimination are very much alive today. The latest example being the recent homicide in Detroit where socialite / marketing exec Jane Bashara was found murdered in her car, with husband Bob Bashar‘s now a person of interest in case.
Yeap, they found her in her car, but just not in any car, mind you. It was a German-made Mercedes-Benz. Hence some national and local news media calling it, the MERCEDES MURDER. Stereotyping by association or plutocratic, teutonic racism?
What if the victim had been found in her KIA—would there have been a slight against Koreans?
Would it have been called the Kia Killing?
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘Man On A Ledge’ Spells Diversionary Vertigo
Granted, MAN ON A LEDGE could easily qualify as a so-called ‘high concept film’—meaning its plot can be described in a single paragraph.
However, that’s not fair to this ensemble action-thriller of vertigo proportions.
MAN ON A LEDGE stars Sam Worthington as a disgraced ex-cop who was framed, convicted and imprisoned for the theft of a rare and highly prized diamond. But to clear his name, he’s escaped the big house, checks into a Manhattan hotel and climbs onto the ledge ready to jump 200 feet down to 45th street and certain death.
Now it’s up to tough police negotiator Elizabeth Banks to talk Worthington down.
But does he really want to jump? And who is Worthington secretly communicating with from the window’s ledge on his tiny, hidden two-way?
Jack Goes Confidential: Liam Neeson ‘Dances’ with Hungry Wolves
Technically speaking THE GREY is a first class action thriller…
It’s got all the elements, fright, surprise, action and manly survival, one could ask for. And its primary setting of the sub-arctic Alaskan wilderness is relentless as duplicated for the film in Canada.
THE GREY stars Liam Neeson as an unlikely hero who, along with a group of oil-rig roughnecks, are the only survivors left and stranded after their plane crashes into this godforsaken icy horrorland.
But if the jet crash and the Alaskan winter wasn’t brutal enough, the survivors now face a new enemy, a vicious packs of rogue wolves.
And they’re hungry.
New Jack City: Few Surprises In Today’s Oscar Nominations
The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences announced today its nominees for the best on film for 2011.
The actual OSCAR awards will be presented Sunday, February 26th on ABC with Billy Crystal hosting.
The scorecard has HUGO in 1st with 11 nominations, followed closely behind by THE ARTIST with 10.
Other big hauls this morning were by MONEYBALL and WAR HORSE, with each scoring six nominations.
THE DESCENDANTS and THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO had five each. And THE HELP and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS both got four Academy Award nominations.
Now here are the Oscar nominations in the major categories as well as my takes on them:
New Jack City: Feds Force Airlines to Show Us the Money!
With the frustration over a la carte pricing by airlines these days, the government is fighting back...
Starting this week, the Feds are forcing carriers to become more transparent when it comes to airfare pricing and the online purchasing of tickets.
Since forever airlines have been using low prices as come-ons in their advertising only to ambush frustrated customers with veiled final pricing that includes additional taxes, fees and fuel surcharges.
But now, as of later this week, the airlines must reconfigure their "now you see it now you don’t" selling model in the following manner:
** Advertised fares must include all government taxes and other associated fees such as fuel surcharges which can add 30% to 50% to the final ticket price.
Jack Goes Confidential: Make that ‘Mother Knows Best’ in Tom Hanks ‘Extremely Loud’
Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock may have top billing, but it’s young Thomas Horn as Oskar who’s the real star in the movie, EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE…
It features Hanks working in one of the World Trade Center‘s doomed towers on September 11th—desperately trying to reach his wife on their home’s answering machine.
Gut-wrenching stuff.
New Jack City: ‘Deep Throat’ Judge Dies, Remakes of Porn Classic Coming Soon
It’s been 40 long years since the granddaddy of porn movies—the allegedly mafia controlled— DEEP THROAT launched the golden age of big screen porn in the 1970s.
The inexpensively produced DEEP THROAT became the first, bigtime porn film to have both a plot and feature actual character development.
It was promptly declared obscene and rapidly became the most profitable porn flick of all time.
After premiering in the Big Apple in 1972, Gerard Damiano‘s trendsetting hardcore adult film – which asked the question, ‘How far does a girl have to go to untangle her tingle?’ – fanned out to other markets most of which also declared it obscene.
Kansas City was one of those decadent cities that dared to show it.
