Movie Beat 11/23/11 – My Week With Marilyn, Arthur Christmas, The Muppets And More

Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe

Five new movies hit cineplexes today, and they really run the gamut from Miss Piggy to drug-addled sex symbols. I guess that’s Miss Piggy too, isn’t it? Opening this week we have My Week With Marilyn, A Dangerous Method, Arthur Christmas, Hugo, and The Muppets.

My Week With Marilyn:

This movie’s getting a lot of Oscar buzz for its star, Michelle Williams. This is the true story of Marilyn Monroe when she was working on a movie called The Prince and the Showgirl, that was starring and directed by Lawrence Olivier. This was towards the end of her career and, sadly, her life. By all accounts, Michelle Williams’ performance is remarkable.

The film also stars Kenneth Branagh, who plays Lawrence Olivier in the film, which is excellent, excellent casting. I’m really looking forward to seeing this, but it is currently in limited release, so if you want to check it out, you might have to go search for it. I’m gonna check this one out this weekend because when Oscar time rolls around, you’re gonna want to have seen this performance.

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A Dangerous Method:

This is also in limited release this weekend. This is from David Cronenberg, who’s maybe one of the most effed up directors in the world, but he comes up with fascinating stuff. This film examines the relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud – two of the great minds of psychotherapy, and the woman that came between them, who’s played by Keira Knightly. The film also stars Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen. It’s quite the sexual psycho adventure.

Arthur Christmas:

I cannot wait to see this movie. It’s an animated film brought to you by the people responsible for Wallace and Gromit, and all those claymation films. This is their first 3D animated CGI film. It’s about Christmas Night at the North Pole, and shows you how Santa gets to all the kids in one night. It’s an enormously high tech operation. He’s got like a light-speed sled that he flies around in. There’s different generations of Santa, and the current one’s grandson has technologically updated the whole operation.

Hugh Laurie, James McAvoy and Bill Nighy all lend their voices to this film. What a great British cast! I had a chance to see a lot of this film down at Comic Con in July because I was doing the panel for Aardmant Animation and they showed me a bunch of footage from Arthur Christmas. It looks very entertaining, not just for kids, but  for parents who are dragged out to the movies.

Hugo:

This is directed by Martin Scorsese and is about an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station. He gets wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father. It’s a classic kids’ story, but I don’t know if kids are gonna take to this film or not. It looks pretty grown up. This is the movie premiere where Courtney Love had her boobs hanging out at.

The Muppets:

All your favorites are back – Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie. With the help of some of their fans, played by Jason Segel and Amy Adams, the Muppets reunite and save their old theater from being destroyed by a greedy oil tycoon.

They found some great people to replicate the character voices (since Frank Oz is not a part of this film). The voices sound spot-on. The muppetry looks amazing. It looks like the Muppets for a new generation. Jason Segel wrote this as well as stars in it.