SIXTY SIX Preview, Trailer, Movie Poster

Sixty Six Movie Poster — One-SheetWhat’s more uncomfortable than being a 12-year-old? How about being a 12-year-old preparing for a Bar Mitzvah? Wait, it gets worse. Your Bar Mitzvah is the same day as a major event that has the country in its grip. This is Sixty Six, a 2006 production finally getting a U.S. theatrical release August 1 from First Independent. (click poster for large view)

The year is 1966, the place is North London, and the poor kid is Bernie (Gregg Sulkin, in his debut film), a cute dork born under an awfully bad sign: His Bar Mitzvah date coincides with the World Cup Final and England has some serious World Cup Fever.

The Bar Mitzvah tale has been tackled in cinema recently, from a dumb comedy (Keeping Up with the Steinssee my review) to a documentary about a boy with Down’s Syndrome (Praying with Lior). In Sixty-Six, the Bar Mitzvah is a neurotic, can’t-get-worse comedy of errors affecting the whole family – sort of like a British-Jewish version of Sixteen Candles?

:: CAST
In addition to young Mr. Sulkin, Helena Bonham Carter plays the mom, Eddie Marsan (The Illusionist, Hancock) plays the OCD-suffering dad Gregg Sulkin and Helena Bonham Carter in Sixty Sixand Stephen Rea plays poor Bernie’s asthma doctor.

:: DIRECTOR
Brit Paul Weiland. Ready for a bizarre resume? The infamous Leonard Part 6, a handful of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean TV episodes, City Slickers II and a 1999 Blackadder movie called Back & Forth.  

For the record, yes, I had a Bar Mitzvah. My voice was high, my knees shook and my idea of “becoming a man” had nothing to do with getting laid, driving, voting or drinking. A terrifying day.

If you’re in the UK, have you seen Sixty Six? If so, please share your comments below.

Free DVD Giveaway: MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS

My Blueberry Nights DVD Box ArtTHIS CONTEST HAS NOW ENDED. We’re accepting all entries that were posted by the 5pm deadline, and will select a winner some time next week. If you entered, thanks for participating and good luck!

Rachel Weisz. Natalie Portman. Norah Jones. Jude Law. This is definitely not a collection of unattractive people. This is the cast of Wong Kar Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, coming to DVD Tuesday, July 1 from The Weinstein Company’s promising new “Miriam Collection.” And you can enter to win a free copy of the DVD.

My Blueberry Nights is notable for two reasons: First, it’s an English language film for Wong Kar Wai, best known for his Chinese romances Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love and 2046. Second, it marks the acting debut of singer-songwriter Norah Jones, who plays a waitress traveling around the U.S. after a failed relationship.

Win a copy of My Blueberry Nights on DVD: Just post a comment saying you want to win the DVD. We’ll select one entrant at random as the winner. Entries will be accepted until Wednesday, July 2 at 5pm ET.

The DVD special features include a making-of feature, a Q&A with Wong Kar Wai, a still gallery and the theatrical trailer for the film.

Enter to win the My Blueberry Nights DVD

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Review Roundup: WALL-E, WANTED

What’ll it be? A G-rated sci-fi family-pleaser from a remarkable studio with nothing but hits? Or a sexy, hyper, bullet-dodging actioner with a good cast? How about both?

:: WALL-E
Rotten Tomatoes: 98 / 100
Metacritic: 91 / 100
filmcritic.com: 5 / 5

Image from Pixar’s WALL-E
Easily, the most impressive reviews of the year. As spectacular as the visual detail of a Pixar film. There’s a good reason each of Pixar’s movies receives this type of response: Story comes first, then the bells and whistles. Nobody ever called a whiz-bang animated film “relevant” or “heartwarming” because the colors were pretty. These guys are practically invincible, and WALL-E is their new masterpiece.

:: WANTED
Rotten Tomatoes: 73 / 100
Metacritic: 64 / 100
filmcritic.com: 3.5 / 5

Angelina Jolie in Wanted
Remember The Matrix! That will be the battle cry for many with Wanted, which seems to follow the Wachowskis modern classic in both story and execution. (Hey, there are three guns present in the banner ads alone… not including the ones owned full-time by the stunning Ms. Jolie.) Director Timur Bekmambetov (Russia’s Night Watch) scores points for thrilling action and the occasional fresh approach.

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Images, Trailers for Coen Brothers’ BURN AFTER READING

Just wanted to catch everyone up on more goodies from the buzz-nutty Coen Brothers’ dark comedy, Burn After Reading. Clooney, Pitt, McDormand, Malkovich, Swinton… Imagine if these hacks could recruit some real quality talent?!

Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading
Brad Pitt and his greatest wardrobe accessory, 1990s hair

George Clooney and Frances McDormand in Burn After Reading
George Clooney and Frances McDormand at a Fargo screening (not really)

John Malkovich in Burn After Reading
Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich!

George Clooney and Tilda Swinton in Burn After Reading
The pillows just scream anti-Establishment

John Malkovich in Burn After Reading
Jeez, he’s pissed.

And here’s the exclusive international trailer for Burn After Reading, possibly one of the coolest trailers we’ve ever seen. I sense some Hudsucker Proxy and some Fargo.

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HANCOCK To Pay Your Mortgage?

Will Smith in Hancock

In the world of movie marketing, this is definitely bigger than a Happy Meal. To promote Will Smith’s July 4th weekend release, Hancock, Columbia Pictures will pay off one family’s home mortgage.

The hook: The prize, up to $360,000, will go to a “deserving” family that writes a 200-word essay explaining why they should win. If they judge by what passes for “deserving” in today’s culture, with something like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition as any blueprint, this family will have to be in some awfully deep doodoo to qualify.

An early Hancock review claims the film will challenge Will Smith’s true ability to draw at the box office (I thought Wild Wild West already did that), and the way the movie’s being marketed is probably part of that. Follow the TV spots and trailers and it’s tough to tell if Smith’s character is an anti-hero, unwilling superhero, or smartass ripping the idea of a cinema hero to shreds.

Will Smith and Daeg Faerch in HancockIt’s funny then, when Columbia says: “Hancock’s Helping Hand Mortgage payoff contest was inspired by the film. Hancock is a misunderstood superhero who is encouraged to improve his public image when he meets a good-hearted public relations executive.”

Now that’s the basis of a boring movie! Something tells us that’s not the synopsis Columbia’s promotion team would prefer…

What’s your call on this contest?
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Trailer Tuesday: TRANSSIBERIAN

You may have read our coverage of Transsiberian, Brad Anderson’s (Session 9, Next Stop Wonderland) newest film, the Opening Night feature at the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Now the strangers-on-a-train thriller (yep, stole that from Norm) will be opening nationwide on July 18, 2008.

Kingsley at IFFB
Kingsley at the IFFB Q&A

Transsiberian follows an American couple played by Emily Mortimer (Lars and the Real Girl) and Woody Harrelson (No Country for Old Men just one of his latest) who decide to extend their vacation by taking the Trans-Siberian railway from Beijing to Moscow. During the long trip, they keep busy by listening to various horror stories about the severity of the Russian police and by striking up a friendship with a young couple also from North America. Enter deceit, fear, torture and Ben Kingsley.

I actually recommend not watching the trailer. Or at least not the 2nd half. It gives away more than you need to see. But for those who don’t mind seeing most of a film’s good scenes before paying $10 to watch it:

Transsiberian gives you that “knot in the stomach” feeling the whole way through. You’re on the edge of your seat thinking of all the ways this couple, so out of their element, will get mixed up in something bad. But neither the story nor the main characters are as simple and formulaic as we peg them to be.

What do you think? Plan on seeing it?
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