The Jamie Foxx Lists

If there is one thing we like to do here at North/South Film, it is argue about movies. In what we are hoping to turn into a more regular posting, The North and I have presented dueling Top 5 (sometimes 10) Lists for Stanley Kubrick, Michael Bay, and just last week, the late director, Tony Scott.

This time around, with the opening of White House Down (the second “Die Hard in the White House” movie of the year – Read my review of the first: Olympus Has Fallen here), we decided to see how the past movies of its star, Jamie Foxx, stacked up.

Foxx has a fairly diverse filmography, especially since he began his career almost solely making dumb comedies before radically shifting gears towards more serious fare. Since his big Oscar win a few years ago, he has been in a string of supporting roles in comedies and action films and few failed dramatic turns. With big upcoming roles in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the Annie remake, Foxx's varied resume continues to grow.

So without further ado, let’s see how Dan and I rank the films of Jamie Foxx:

Top 10 Best Movie/Video Game Combos--Part I: Dishonorable Mentions

I have been on a mission to find the greatest Movie and Video Game Combination of All-Time.

The criteria was simple:

1. The Movie and the Video Game Must Be Directly Related.

We can call this THE WIZARD rule.
When I asked for submissions, many people said THE WIZARD and "Super Mario Brothers 3".
Of course I would love to count THE WIZARD!
It is one of my seminal films and I truly love it.

I've seen it well over fifty times.

Lucas Barton was my hero and idol. 

However, THE WIZARD is NOT eligible for this title.
If they had made an NES game based on the film, where you travel the country side with you brother on a skateboard, no doubt it would have been included in the Top 10. 
Alas, we were deprived of a Jimmy Woods side-scroller.

Same thing for THE KING OF KONG and "Donkey Kong" are both great, but are not eligible.

2. The Movie and the Video Game Do Not Have To Be Identical.

Meaning, any game and film combination from the same franchise counts.
For example, HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN as the movie and "Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secrets" as the game. 
The game does not have to be the exact iteration of the film.
It's a franchise wide combination.

3. Pinball Machines Don't Count

It's a whole different discussion.
There are tons of great pinball machines based on movies.
In fact, you name a big movie and it probably has a decent pinball machine.
So sadly, The Adams Family Pinball, which is truly great, was ineligible.

4. The Movie Must Have Gotten A Theatrical Release.


Click Below To See Which Combos Did Not Make THE TOP 10 in our Dishonorable Mentions

Dan's Discs--The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

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When THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE was about to be released, I posted this.

Basically I was writing down my inner debate on whether or not I should venture to the cinema to check it out. I broke it down into a Pro and Con List:

The Pros: 

1. Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey .--- That's a quality Big 3. 

2. I enjoy Olivia Wilde, James Gandolfini and Alan Arkin. --- Nice Support Staff.

3. Don Scardino. --- He's from TV, but that TV was Directing/Producing '30 Rock'. 

On paper, we have a good movie. 

Carell always delivers.

Jim Carrey is making his comeback this year, with this and KICK-ASS 2.

So we "go to there" , right?

Not yet. 

The Con:

1. The reviews are not good.  Not Good At All. 

A 38% on Rotten Tomatoes pretty much means one thing: it's not funny.

The score is not because reviewers dislike Steve Carell.

In fact, they love him. 

Good comedy, usually gets recognized.

Comedies are venturing into harsh territory in the age of social media. If they are definitively hated by reviewers, that opinion can have serious repercussions at the box-office. I wanted to see THE INTERNSHIP, but less than three weeks after it's release it's already gone from all my local theaters. Same story with THE HANGOVER PART 3. It was supposed to be a blockbuster, but after it was savaged online, it disappeared quietly and quickly. 

I am not beholden to reviews, but when it was all said on done, I skipped the theater trip for WONDERSTONE, and waited for today's release. The film did terribly at the box-office, but hopefully it's high points will be enjoyed on DVD. I also had forgotten until today that this was one of James Gandolfini's last roles. He does have a few performances that were completed before his death and have not been released, but for now, WONDERSTONE is the answer to a trivia question. I have no idea if this movie is great, good or terrible, but with all of the comedic star power, I'm going to bet you won't regret dropping the $1.28 at a RedBox.

Can we still have great comedies?
Of course.
I thought THIS IS THE END was very funny and I have high hopes for THE HEAT, which comes out this week. Deftly, they have not allowed any reviews of THE HEAT to be posted yet, which is the right play in this new era. You want your best jokes and material to hit in the theater, not on somebody's computer. They have not saturated the trailers with every gag in the film. The jokes shown are relatively tame, and you know that the rest of the movie must be pretty wild because it is R-rated. If a comedy is really funny, it doesn't stay a secret for very long, but increasingly, if reviewers give it the kibosh, it might be in trouble at the box-office. However, you are always going to want to head to theater for a laugh, it's therapeutic. So once in a while, save the reviews until after you see it.

Follow Us On Twitter For Movie News: @NorthSouthFilm

Dan's Review--WORLD WAR Z

(Spoilers Only If You Have No Clue What The Movie Is About)

The un-dead are everywhere.
If you have turned on a TV or a computer in the last five years, you know what I'm talking about.
The TWILIGHT franchise, 'The Walking Dead', ZOMBIELAND,'True Blood', "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", 'The Vampire Diaries', etc. These films, books and television shows, plus many more, about the living-dead who terrorize us (and in some cases, save us) have become insanely popular and mainstream. You are more likely to hear somebody talking about Zombies and/or Vampires than talking about baseball. WORLD WAR Z is a thrilling film that takes the zombie apocalypse craze to a level we have never seen before. It is a refreshing entry into a genre that has been limited by repetition and it gives us the next step in the zombie evolution: speed. 

The film begins with a very good title sequence. Scenes of everyday, human life, intercut with scenes of nature. At first everything in the scenes are normal, then slowly grow more and more disturbing. The effect is exacerbated as the rate at which the shots are shown increases in frequency. Scarier stuff, coming faster and faster. Remember the Wonkatania-tunnel sequence in WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY? It's like that, except you know this is only the beginning of the horror.

The Tony Scott Lists

First there were The Stanley Kubrick Lists.
Then The Michael Bay Lists.
Now we will take a look at the director who changed the Action Movie genre forever.

Today would have been Tony Scott's 69th Birthday.
He left us too soon, but gave us many classic films and carved out a legacy in the business.
Big films, with big stars, innovate cinematic techniques and a signature style. 
That's how I would "define" Tony Scott's work.
He directed 16 features and we've both ranked our Top 5.

Happy Birthday Roger Ebert/Past Ebert Archive

This Tuesday marks a little departure from the norm, here at North/South.

This will be the first (and only) Tuesday where there will be no new edition of Dan's Discs.

That's because today would have been Roger Ebert's 71st Birthday!

In addition to his birthday, there has been amazing news that acclaimed documentary director, Steve James, will be making a doc on Mr. Ebert, titled LIFE ITSELF (which was also the name of Ebert's amazing memoir, which you should buy, here). 

Ebert and James have a true connection because it was Ebert whom championed James' seminal film, HOOP DREAMS (which is in My All-Time Top 5 Films).

I can't wait for this and it is already my most anticiapted release of 2014.

You can follow the making of the film on twitter: @EbertMovie

Now let's take some time to celebrate a man who gave so much to film fans across the world.

As you may have already read, we are huge fans of Mr. Ebert.

His death has left a huge hole in many hearts, as well as changed Thursdays forever.

I tried my best to thank him, but I could never express enough gratitude for what he gave me.

While we will not get new reviews from the master, we still have the wealth of his past writings to read, dissect and enjoy. 

His genius should not be forgotten and that was why I began the recurring column, Past Ebert.

I would guess that I have read over a thousand of his reviews and most of his books.

Please take some time and read through our Past Ebert posts and enjoy the work of one of the Greatest American Writers of All-Time. The links at the bottom of this page will take you to our posts and the posts have links which will redirect you to RogerEbert.com, which is the best film rabbit hole in existence. You can spend days, and I have, on his site and you will learn more about film and writing than you could have possibly imagined. 

Below is a list of all the previous Past Ebert columns. In addition to checking them out, please go to our Twitter timeline (@NorthSouthFilm) because in the Tweets from 4/4 to 4/5, there is a life's worth of stories, pictures, videos, reviews, thoughts and thank yous to man that many people in the film community attribute their chosen careers and passions to. I RT'd more than a hundred posts on those days and I promise that if you love Ebert you will not be disappointed.

Roger Ebert may be gone, but he will not be forgotten.

Thank you, Mr. Ebert, for everything you did for a film-obsessed kid from Vermont.

I will always, see you, at the movies.

PAST EBERT

JFK

SUPERMAN

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

CLOUD ATLAS

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

THE SANDLOT

BADLANDS

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT

THE WIZARD OF OZ

Dan's Review--MAN OF STEEL

Zack Snyder loves action.
The director of other rollicking films, like 300 and SUCKER PUNCH, has honed his passion in MAN OF STEEL, the newest reboot of the Superman Franchise. Here, he plies his trade with incredible ambition and gives us possibly the biggest and most destructive fight ever put on film. However, the massive action sequence dominates the movie and leaves us wanting more from the story and more connection to the would-be Superman.

The film starts on Planet Krypton with the natural birth of son, Kal-El, to Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife. The birth constitutes a violation of the law on the planet, which uses genetically engineered births to further their political and societal motives. The planet itself is in peril, due to the mining of their natural resources at the planet's core. Jor-El advises Krypton's Council to abandon the planet and take with them a "Codex" containing the history and genetic information necessary to re-engineering their species if need be.  

General Zod (Michael Shannon) of the planet's military forces, who along with Jor-El, also advocated against the resource mining, uses his command to stage a coup. He wants the Codex for his own motives and will stop at nothing to build a new and better Krypton. With the planet facing certain doom and now the possible loss of it's salvation, Jor-El sends the Codex along with his newborn son to Earth, where he hopes he will choose his own path and become something special. Zod and his rebels are stopped and sentenced to banishment, but Kal-El has certainly made his first enemy, as Zod vows to find him.

I was pleased that when we first get to see Kal-El on Earth that he is fully grown (and played well by Henry Cavill) and has use of some of his powers. MAN OF STEEL avoided a classic origin story trap of a linear plot. Instead of having to wait an hour for our hero to become our hero, we get to see him use his abilities right away. Of course we want to see how he grew up and his struggle to understand what/who he is, but this is done through the use of flashbacks throughout the film, as his past and present stories are interwoven.