Screen Junkies » The Ward

What’s Playing This Weekend: July 8

Col. Longshanks — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:49:20 +0000

This weekend marks one of the only weekends this summer that won’t be invaded by superheros, aliens, or gigantic morphing robots. It will however welcome the return of Kevin James in a kids movie. But don’t fret! There are other options available to you. An air-conditioned theater can still be your sanctuary.

So, what’s playing this weekend?

Horrible Bosses

There's Funny Stuff In 'Horrible Bosses' Red Band

Horrible Bosses follows three guys with varying degrees of ineptness as they try to murder their employers. I often wish I had to bear the burden of Jennifer Aniston‘s relentless sexual harassment.

With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 76%, you can walk in feeling fairly confident that Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, and Charlie Day will deliver a fair amount of laughs.

Best Review

Takes a thin premise and milks it for all its worth, riding a witty script and super-strong cast to comedic glory.

Stephen Silver – Patch

Worst Review

Look at how crazy is the craziness we are doing for you. Isn’t it crazy? the movie shouts, and the more it does, the less you’ll laugh.

Kyle Smith – New York Post

Our Recommendation

If you’re a fan of the actors, and like a dark comedy that doesn’t get so dark you feel uncomfortable, then give Horrible Bosses a shot. Jennifer Aniston also has a real whorish mouth in it. She’s come a long way since Friends.

The zookeeper

Trailer For Kevin James’ ‘The Zookeeper’: Nothing Matters Anymore

Kevin James plays a zookeeper who can talk to animals. Ugh. The animals help him try to win a girl back who’s too much of a bitch to even deserve their efforts. Ugh.

Judging by the 13% it’s currently receiving on Rotten Tomatoes, you should avoid this movie like Kevin James should avoid trans fats. And yes, I know fat jokes are easy, but that doesn’t make them any less funny.

Best Review

James is appealing enough to make it work – just barely.

Chris Hewitt – St Paul Pioneer Press

Worst Review

Offensive to women, men, children, parents, WASPs, Asians, African-Americans, animals and zookeepers … a movie with no conceivable audience.

Steven D. Greydanus – Decent Films Guide

Our Recommendation

If your kid desires to see this one, drop him or her off at the theater with a crisp $10 bill, make your way over to the nearest strip club for their extensive buffet, and return ninety minutes later not feeling like you want to end your life.

The Ward

‘The Ward’ Trailer Might Hurt A Little

A thriller centered on a woman stuck in a looney bin who is being terrorized by a ghost. So is she crazy, or is there really a pain in the ass poltergeist making her appear that way?

The film’s rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes would indicate that this isn’t John Carpenter’s best work since Halloween.

Best Review

Basically, this is a ghost story merged with a slasher film and sealed with Shutter Island twist. But at least Carpenter the spook-meister knows how to goose you.

Owen Gleiberman – Entertainment Weekly

Worst Review

Continues the painful decline of a director who seems more nostalgic for past glories than excited about new ideas.

Jeannette Catsoulis – New York Times

Our Recommendation

Re-watch Halloween and The Thing.

Project Nim

About a chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. So basically, the reverse of Tarzan.

Critics are loving this documentary, granting it a 95% thus far.

Best Review

“Project Nim” is practically irresistible. The story keeps getting odder and richer and more complicated.

Michael Phillips – Chicago Tribune

Worst Review

Another singular case exploited and expanded to look ordinary.

Chris Cabin – Filmcritic.com

Our Recommendation

How can a movie starring a cute baby monkey be bad? It can’t be, damnit.

Lyndsy Fonseca

Screen Junkies — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:58:07 +0000

Lyndsy Fonseca appears in John Carpenter‘s The Ward. A native of Oakland, California, Fonseca is best known for her roles in Kick Ass and Hot Tub Time Machine. She has also appeared in severa television shows, including “Big Love” and “Desperate Housewives.”

A word from Lyndsy: “There is no such thing as bad publicity.”

‘The Ward’ Trailer Might Hurt A Little

Joseph Gibson — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:26:00 +0000

It’s been a long time since a John Carpenter joint was in a theater near you (since 2001′s Ghosts of Mars, in fact). But now, the wait is over, and here’s a first look at his latest horror movie, The Ward.

7 photosAmber Heard Looking All Kinds Of Fine In ‘Drive Angry’ Pics

Set in a mental institution, it stars Lyndsy Fonseca, Amber Heard, and Danielle Panabaker. And there’s an appearance from Jared Harris of”Mad Men,” which is interesting because like “Mad Men,” The Ward is set in the 1960s. The trailer’s presumably been edited with an eye toward putting a “modern spin” on Carpenter’s restrained, static style. Although it could also be that Carpenter managed to restrain himself. You’ll have to wait until the movie comes out to find out for sure. It’s going to be released to VOD on June 8th, and in theaters on July 8th. If you can’t wait until then, try a strait-jacket. They do wonders for me.

The Ward

Reza F. — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:25:18 +0000

Director: John Carpenter

Cast: Amber Heard, Danielle Panabaker, Mika Boorem, Jared Harris

Synopsis: A thriller centered on an institutionalized young woman who becomes terrorized by a ghost.

Release Date: January 21, 2011

John Carpenter Emerges with The Ward, Now Can Go Away Again

Penn Collins — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:27:48 +0000

By all accounts, John Carpenter has been off his game for the past, I don’t know, 20 or so years. Consequently, his hiatus during the past nine hasn’t been met with too much public outcry. Judging from the reviews of his latest film, The Ward, at the TIFF, that sentiment is unlikely to change in the near future.

Reviews of The Ward are unique in that they accuse Carpenter of being derivative of himself, which could be seen as both a blessing and a curse. His techniques harken back to his 1970′s heyday of films such as Starman, Halloween, and Escape from New York, but, like a copy of a copy, the word on the street is that The Ward just isn’t that sharp, rarely leaving convention to tell a story the plot of which has been recycled early and often.

The film begins, as many horror movies do, with a half-naked woman named Kristen (Amber Heard) running through the woods. She is eventually caught by authorities and thrown into a psychiatric ward in response to a number of fires she had set. Once institutionalized, she is haunted by the ghosts of a former patient and stumbles on to a mystery as to what became of the former patients.

Jump scares abound as Kristen negotiates the hospital, still half-naked, we pray. Much of the context sounds painfully derivative of not only Carpenter’s work, but many of the B-grade psychological thrillers that have trickled out in recent years. No US release date is set for the film, but the movie drops in Britain on January 21st. (/Film)