News

The Hangover: Part Two

Opens: May 26th 2011

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifinakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong

Director: Todd Phillips

Summary: Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug travel to exotic Thailand for Stu’s wedding. After the unforgettable bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu is taking no chances and has opted for a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch. However, things don’t always go as planned.

Analysis: It really wasn't until about three months before its release that Warner Brothers realised "The Hangover" was going to be a hit. Test screening response was through the roof, while the trailer had great reaction after premiering at ShoWest and online. About that time they commissioned director Todd Phillips, along with his "Old School" and "Road Trip" scribe Scot Armstrong, to pen a sequel. Yet they still waited to see how the first one went before fully committing to the follow-up.

The wait didn't last long.

Over the past month, we've been bringing you the first images from films that will be playing at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Today, we have the first images from a couple documentaries that will be making their debut: Reagan from director Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight) and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold from Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). Hit the jump to check out images and a brief synopsis for both films. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20 – 30th. Reagan Reagan examines the enigmatic career of one of the revered architects of the modern world – icon, screen star, and two-term president Ronald Reagan. --- The Greatest Movie Ever Sold A documentary about branding, advertising and product placement is financed and made possible by branding, advertising and product placement. --- And here are links to the first images from other films playing at Sundance: Another Earth (starring William Mapother, Brit Marling,...

As part of our ongoing coverage for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, we have the first images from Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter. Here’s the one-line synopsis: A working-class husband and father questions whether his terrifying dreams of an apocalyptic storm signal something real to come or the onset of an inherited mental illness he’s feared his whole life. The film stars Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire), Jessica Chastain (The Tree of Life), Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire), Katy Mixon (Eastbound & Down), and Kathy Baker (Edward Scissorhands). Hit the jump to check out the images. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20 – 30th. [gallery link="file" order="Desc" columns="1"] And here are links to the first images from other films playing at Sundance: Another Earth (starring William Mapother, Brit Marling, and Jordan Baker) Benavides Born (starring Corina Calderon, Jeremy Ray Valdez, and Joseph Julian Soria) Cedar Rapids (starring John C. Reilly, Ed Helms, and Sigourney Weaver) Circumstance (starring Nikohl Boosheri,...

As we count down to the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, we’ll be bringing you new images from the movies that will be playing there. After the jump you’ll find images from Benavides Born and Circumstance. Benavides Born is directed by Amy Wendel and is about “a high school senior in a forgotten town has earned admission to the University of Texas at Austin but can’t afford to go. Her one shot is a scholarship for winning the State Powerlifting Championship.” The film stars Corina Calderon, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Joseph Julian Soria, Julia Vera, and Julio César Cedillo.

Circumstance was written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz and centers on “a wealthy Iranian family that struggles to contain a teenager’s growing sexual rebellion and her brother’s dangerous obsession.” The movie stars Nikohl Boosheri, Sarah Kazemy, Reza Sixo Safai, Soheil Parsa, and Nasrin Pakkho. Both films are playing in-competition.

The slate of films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January were just announced, and we’ve been given a slew of images from a number of films that will have their premiere at the prestigious festival. Higher Ground, screening in the in-competition category, marks the directorial debut of Up in the Air star Vera Farmiga. The actress also stars in the film alongside Joshua Leonard (Blair Witch Project), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone) and Dagmara Dominczyk (Kinsey). Scripted by Carolyn Briggs and Tim Metcalfe (Kalifornia), the synopsis is as follows: A frustrated young mother turns to a fundamentalist community for answers, but after years of dogma and loss, she must find the courage to ask the questions that will help her reclaim her life.

Here, also screening in the in-competition category, is directed by documentary filmmaker Braden King and stars Ben Foster, Lubna Azabal and Narek Nersisyan. The script,...

It has been another great year of film. I still have but seven movies left to watch before I complete my “Best of the Year List” but we are already looking towards 2011.

The 57 feature films selected for the four competition programs of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival were announced today, and the titles include some exciting works from returning filmmakers. While the lineup isn’t has loaded with big names it does feature the return of James Marsh whose documentary Man on Wire won the Grand Jury Prize at the fest in 2008. Some interesting movies we should mention that appear on the list are Mike Cahill’s Another Earth, Carlos Moreno’s All Our Dead One (Todos Tus Muertos), Anne Sewitsky’s sexual drama Happy, Happy (Sykt Lykkelig) Rashaad Ernesto Green‘s Gun Hill Road, Sean Durkin‘s Martha Marcy May Marlene, Andrew Okpeaha MacLean‘s On the Ice, Dee Rees...

It's the first day in December, and whether you want to recognize it or not, January isn't too far away. Today the awesome folks at the Sundance Film Festival unveiled their first list of films, international and domestic, which will be presented at the festival. Check it out, and yes there are more to come. Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the four Competition Categories, the Festival presents films in six out-of-competition sections to be announced on December 2. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.For the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, 115 feature-length films were selected, representing 28 countries by 40 first-time filmmakers, including 25 in competition. These films were selected from 3,812 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,943 U.S. and 1,869 international feature-length films.

As we’re getting ready to wrap up another great year of film, some are already looking to 2011 and what it will have to offer and what better way to look a head than with the first round of titles for the year’s first big festival: Sundance.

The list of festival titles isn’t as loaded with as many big name titles as have made the cut in previous years but there’s are definitely some interesting film in the competition line-up including Mike Cahill’s Another Earth which takes place on the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth (wicked!), Carlos Moreno’s All Our Dead One (Todos Tus Muertos) about a guy who finds a pile of dead bodies in the middle of his crops, Anne Sewitsky’s sexual drama Happy, Happy (Sykt Lykkelig) along with the Canadian/Japanese co-production Vampire.

Loads of great stuff on the line-up.

The announcement of the movies playing the 2011 Sundance Film Festival is like looking into our film futures. It's December and most movie fans are looking back at the last 12 months, picking out award winners, writing top ten lists, and chances are we haven't even heard of the Sundance films. They're just titles, people, words on a computer screen. Then in January they unspool on screens across Park City, Utah and become something more. Finally, months later, these are the movies we discuss with our friends and choose on ballots at awards parties. Yet we get to read about them now, a year in advance. Last year at this time, who had heard of Four Lions, Catfish, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Blue Valentine, The Kids Are All Right, Winter's Bone, Restrepo or Animal Kingdom? Sundance, that's who. All those films screened at the 2010 festival and now many have become not only personal favorites,...

The Sundance Film Festival has announced the films in competition for the awesome and cold film festival running January 20th through January 30th 2011 in Park City, Utah.

This will be my third year attending the festival, and I'm really excited for it! There's a great line-up of films this year! Check out the list below!

From the press release:

Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the four Competition Categories, the Festival presents films in six out-of-competition sections to be announced on December 2. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

On Day One, the Festival will forego the convention of one opening night film and instead screen one narrative film and one documentary from both the U.

Park City, Ut . Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the four Competition Categories, the Festival presents films in six out-of-competition sections to be announced on December 2. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at http://www.sundance.org/.

On Day One, the Festival will forego the convention of one opening night film and instead screen one narrative film and one documentary from both the U.S. and World Cinema competitions, as well as one shorts program.

John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival said, .The Festival is a challenge to narrowly define. It is all at once exciting, fun, crazy, engaging, visceral, and sometimes even painful. We can explain storylines,...

Here's the first Sundance line-up announcement, of the fiction and nonfiction feature competitions, both U.S. and world. A few things of interest, on first scan: Vera Farmiga's directorial debut "Higher Ground," in which she also stars; "The Ledge," which sounds like this year's try for "Buried"; Iñupiaq Arctic thriller "On the Ice"; "Terri," the new film from "Momma's Man" director; Michael Rapaport's doc on A Tribe Called Quest "Beats, Rhymes and Life"; doc about the beloved Muppet "Being Elmo"; "If A Tree Falls," a new film from "Street Fight"'s Marshall Curry; Paddy Considine's feature directorial debut "Tyrannosaur"; and "Vampire," the new film from Japan's Shunji Iwai, a favorite of mine.

Descriptions courtesy of the festival:

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Another Earth (Director: Mike Cahill; Screenwriters: Mike Cahill and Brit Marling) - On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, a horrible tragedy...

The films playing in-competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival have been announced. Some of this year’s competitors include Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut Higher Ground, Paddy Considine’s feature directorial debut Tyrannosaur, Matthew Chapman’s thriller The Ledge, Michael Rapaport’s documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life (which is about the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest), and a documentary about lovable Sesame Street resident Elmo (or rather, his puppeteer).

However, the movies playing in-competition at Sundance are only a fraction of the total number of films that play at the festival. This will be my first year attending the festival and I’m super-excited about going. Hit the jump for a full list of the in-competition films. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20 – 30th.

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U.S. Dramatic Competition

Another Earth (Director: Mike Cahill; Screenwriters: Mike Cahill and Brit Marling) – On the...

HollywoodNews.com: The 2011 Sundance Film Festival has just announced its lineup for January. John Cooper, director of Sundance Film Festival, said, “With more than 10,000 films submitted this year, we have had to make some very tough choices. Yet in the end, I’m excited about the way the program has come together. It’s an incredible honor to introduce these films and filmmaker…these are the stories that will define not only our Festival, but also the cultural year ahead.”

Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to the four Competition Categories, the Festival presents films in six out-of-competition sections to be announced on December 2. The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

On Day One, the Festival will...

The Film Stage is headed to Sundance this year and the festival has just announced its line-up. With over 10,00 entries here is what they narrowed it down to. Most initially notable is Vera Farmiga‘s directorial debut, Higher Ground (pictured above). There is a clear lack of stars as NYTimes notes, so the excitement of discovery is back in full swing. The fest will also announce 6 more out-of-competition categories tomorrow. Check out the full list below via the official site.

Us Dramatic

Another Earth (Director: Mike Cahill; Screenwriters: Mike Cahill and Brit Marling) – On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, a horrible tragedy irrevocably alters the lives of two strangers, who begin an unlikely love affair. Cast: William Mapother, Brit Marling, Jordan Baker, Robin Lord Taylor, Flint Beverage.

Benavides Born (Director: Amy Wendel; Screenwriters: Daniel Meisel and Amy Wendel) – A high school senior in a forgotten town...

Well, here they are – the Sundance Film Festival class of 2011, split up into 4 categories as indicated by the headers below. In future posts, I’ll be going over the complete list, highlighting titles that need to be, taking into consideration this blog’s specific interests.

Of note, some titles that I listed on my list of 2011 black films on our radar… Gun Hill Road, Rashaad Ernesto Green’s debut feature (which I actually saw a cut of over the weekend, and gave a thumbs up to; but I’ll talk more about it in detail when the time comes), Dee Rees’ Pariah, and Alrick Brown’s Kinyarwanda. Further, titles we’ve previously covered here… Beats, Rhymes and Life, Michael Rapaport’s documentary on hip-hop legends, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Redemption of General Butt Naked, a documentary on the Liberian warlord turned evangelist.

One film I’m surprised isn...

The Sundance Institute announced today the lineup of films selected to screen in the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Tomorrow will see the announcement of the six out-of-competition sections, which will all screen at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival which runs from January 20-30 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.

For the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, 115 feature-length films were selected, representing 28 countries by 40 first-time filmmakers, including 25 in competition. These films were selected from 3,812 feature-length film submissions composed of 1,943 U.S. and 1,869 international feature-length films. 92 films at the Festival will be world premieres.

The films featured in the U.S. Dramatic, U.S. Documentary, World Cinema Dramatic and World Cinema Documentary Competition are listed directly below and I've gone through and highlighted a few of the bigger known names to check out. However, Sundance has been introducing us to a...