Tag Archives: paul giamatti

The Great Trailer Debate – Week 7

It’s been another pretty busy week for trailers and for the first time Nadine and I have disagreed on our favourites of the week. Next week – we’ll put it up a few days after Christmas – is the biggie, though, with The Dark Knight Rises (I lied when I said we’d do that this week!), The Hobbit AND Prometheus. Mental. So, as ever, take a look at what’s below and let us know if you disagree with our opinions! We have Men In Black 3, ParaNorman (NADINE’S TIED TRAILER OF THE WEEK), The Flowers Of War, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Perfect Sense, Rock Of Ages, Jack The Giant Killer (NADINE’S TIED TRAILER OF THE WEEK), Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance, Expendables 2, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen (EMMA’S TRAILER OF THE WEEK), Lock-Out, The Dictator and Casa De Mi Padre. Oh, and if you hadn’t already guessed, it’s Ewan McGregor week. Continue reading

2011 Indiana Film Journalists Association Award Winners

Yep. Sorry, more Awards to discuss. This time it’s the IFJA and they’ve decided to mix things up a little by drawing attention to Ralph Fiennes in the Best Actor category. I’m also liking the inclusion of Viola Davis as Best Supporting here, as I never fully understood why she’s being pushed towards the Best Actress category. Check out the winners below: Continue reading

Review: The Hangover Part II (2011)

DIRECTOR: Todd Phillips.

CAST: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Mason Lee, Justin Bartha, Jamie Chung, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Tambor, Sasha Barrese, Yasmin Lee.

SYNOPSIS: With Stu (Helms) choosing to marry Lauren (Chung) in Thailand, he invites Phil (Cooper), Doug (Bartha) and future brother-in-law Teddy (Lee) along for the ride. After being roped into inviting Alan (Galifianakis) against his wishes, Stu’s preferred ‘Stag Brunch’ turns into another night of mayhem resulting in them waking up in a seedy apartment in downtown Bangkok – without Teddy. Their quest to find him involves severed fingers, cocaine-dealing monkeys and one rather unfortunate tattoo… Will they find Teddy before the wedding?

I have to admit I was fully prepared to have a lot of bad things to say about Todd Phillips’ The Hangover Part II. Like usual, I stupidly allowed myself to read a number of reviews and decided the film was a carbon copy of the original before I’d even seen it. I did this with X-Men: First Class, followed the hype and was disappointed. I did it with The Hangover Part II and was pleasantly surprised. Is it too much to hope this theory will work with Green Lantern…? Thought so. Continue reading

Review: Win Win (2011)

DIRECTOR: Thomas McCarthy.

CAST: Paul Giamatti, Alex Shaffer, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Nina Arianda, David Thompson, Clare Foley.

SYNOPSIS: Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) supports his young, New Jersey family and wife Jackie (Ryan) by working as a lawyer and school wrestling coach. With his law firm seeing little commission and a tempting financial offer on the horizon, Mike finds himself at the heart of dementia-stricken client Leo Poplar’s (Young) domestic affairs, with troubled teenage grandson Kyle (Shaffer) having just arrived on Leo’s doorstep. Mike takes Kyle under his wing, strengthening his self-image once again through wrestling, until his drug-addicted mother (Lynskey) arrives on the scene, disturbing the peace.

Giamatti’s Mike may be described as a “pillar of the community”, but don’t let this dupe you into thinking he plays the simple, downtrodden everyman here. Continue reading