Sunday, November 28, 2010

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

'Michael Jackson's Vision' DVD Boxed Set




'Michael Jackson's Vision' DVD Boxed Set Available Everywhere Monday November 22
PRESS RELEASE

EPIC/LEGACY RECORDINGS TO RELEASE "MICHAEL JACKSON'S VISION," THE FIRST-EVER COMPLETE COLLECTION OF ALL THE SHORT FILMS PRODUCED BY MICHAEL JACKSON

Deluxe Boxed Set Features 4 1/2 Hours of Content Across Three DVDs Showcasing
More Than 40 Videos In Newly Restored Color and Remastered Audio

"Michael Jackson's Vision" Available Everywhere Monday, November 22

Michael Jackson's Vision

In collaboration with the Estate of Michael Jackson, Epic/Legacy Recordings is releasing Michael Jackson's Vision on November 22, making available for the first time ever the entire library of short films produced by Michael Jackson during his career as a solo artist.

Packaged as a deluxe boxed set, Michael Jackson's Vision contains more than four-and-one-half hours of content across three DVDs, capturing the entire spectrum of Michael’s pioneering short films that transformed the entertainment industry with timeless, pop culture classics that today’s youth embrace with as much passion as their parents did a generation earlier.

Michael Jackson's Vision brings together more than 40 videos, ten of them previously unavailable on DVD and each presented in newly restored color and remastered audio. And this release marks the debut of the short film for the R. Kelly-penned "One More Chance."

The simultaneous emergence of MTV as a television force and Michael Jackson’s breakout as a global superstar provided the most epochal musical/cultural shift since the Beatles. Seizing the potential of MTV's 24-hour reach, Michael Jackson produced and starred in a series of what would become iconic short musical films that redefined and established the perimeters, and parameters, of an entire new medium.

Jackson's short-form zombie dance party masterpiece, "Thriller," famously directed by John Landis, remains a cultural phenomenon. It recently became the first (and only) music video to be inducted by the Library of Congress into the National Film Registry, an elite collection of only a few hundred films.

Michael Jackson's Vision includes the full-length versions of the John Landis-directed "Thriller" and “Black or White” as well as the classic “Bad” directed by Academy Award ®-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Also included in the boxed set are Michael’s collaborations with such other noted film directors as John Singleton, Spike Lee and David Fincher as well as “Ghosts,” his rarely-seen collaboration with special effects legend Stan Winston.

Michael Jackson's Vision will be available in a limited edition deluxe boxed set featuring a 60-page glossy hard-bound book that includes behind-the-scenes photos from Michael's personal archives.

The state-of-the-art packaging includes cover art using lenticular virtual imaging technology to vividly represent memorable scenes from Michael Jackson's signature short films.

DISC 1
1 Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough 4:12:00
Director: Nick Saxton

2 Rock With You 3:22:00
Director: Bruce Gowers

3 She's Out of My Life 3:35:00
Director: Bruce Gowers

4 Billie Jean 4:54:00
Director: Steve Barron

5 Beat It 4:57:00
Director: Bob Giraldi

6 Thriller 13:42:00
Director: John Landis

7 Bad 18:05:00
Director: Martin Scorsese

8 The Way You Make Me Feel 9:24:00
Director: Joe Pytka

9 Man In the Mirror 5:03:00
Director: Don Wilson

10 Dirty Diana 5:05:00
Director: Joe Pytka

11 Smooth Criminal 9:27:00
Director: Colin Chilvers

12 Another Part of Me 4:45:00
Director: Patrick T. Kelly

13 Speed Demon 10:08:00
Director: Will Vinton

14 Come Together 5:40:00
Director: Jerry Kramer & Colin Chilvers

15 Leave Me Alone 4:36:00
Director: Jim Blashfield and Paul Diener

16 Liberian Girl 5:34:00
Director: Jim Yukich

Total Disc 1 112:29:00 (01:52:29)

DISC 2
1 Black or White 11:01:00
Director: John Landis

2 Remember The Time 9:16:00
Director: John Singleton

3 In the Closet 6:05:00
Director: Herb Ritts

4 Jam 7:59:00
Director: David Nelson

5 Heal The World 7:32:00
Director: Joe Pytka

6 Give In To Me 5:29:00
Director: Andy Morahan

7 Who Is It 6:34:00
Director: David Fincher

8 Will You Be There 5:55:00
Director: Vincent Paterson

9 Gone Too Soon 3:38:00
Director: Bill DiCicco

10 Scream 4:47:00
Director: Mark Romanek
Janet Jackson appears courtesy of Virgin Records

11 Childhood 4:29:00
Director: Nicholas Brandt

12 You Are Not Alone 5:34:00
Director: Wayne Isham

13 Earth Song 6:44:00
Director: Nicholas Brandt

14 They Don't Care About Us 7:08:00
Director: Spike Lee

15 Stranger In Moskow 5:33:00
Director: Nicholas Brandt

16 Blood On The Dancefloor 5:27:00
Director: Michael Jackson & Vincent Patterson

17 Ghosts 3:58:00
Director: Stan Winston

18 You Rock My World 13:30:00
Director: Paul Hunter

19 Cry 4:57:00
Director: Nick Brandt

Total Disc 2 125:36:00 (2:05:36)

DISC 3 (Bonus Features)

1 Blame It On the Boogie - The Jacksons 3:32:00

2 Enjoy Yourself - The Jacksons 3:31:00

3 Can You Feel It - The Jacksons 9:37:00

4 Say Say Say - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson 4:57:00
Director: Bob Giraldi

5 They Don't Care About Us - Prison version 4:52:00
Director: Spike Lee

6 Why? - 3T featuring Michael Jackson 4:33:00

7 One More Chance - previously unreleased 4:03:00

Total Disc 3 35:05:00
____________________________________________________
Retail price on Amazon as of this publishing $27.99


DVD Review
http://www.seattlepi.com/pop/430676_148901-blogcritics.org.html





Sunday, November 7, 2010

For Colored Girls-Opening Weekend Box Office

The top movies of the weekend November 5-7, 2010

1 Megamind $47,650,000
2 Due Date $33,500,000
3 For Colored Girls $20,100,000



Tyler Perry's "For Colored Girls," an adaptation of the acclaimed play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf," premiered in third place with $20.1 million. That's lower than usual for the director, but still a very respectable opening, especially when considering that the film is Perry's first to be rated R.

"For Colored Girls" played a bit older than normal for Perry's movies, with 87 percent of the audience more than 25 years old. The serious drama, with its all-star female ensemble including Kimberly Elise, Whoopi Goldberg, Thandie Newton, Kerry Washington, and Janet Jackson, had no trouble attracting Perry's most supportive fan base -- African-American women. According to Lionsgate, 81 percent of the audience was African American, and 82 percent was female. And with an "A" rating from CinemaScore audiences, Perry's fan base clearly loved what they saw. (ew.com)

Domestic Total as of Nov. 7, 2010: $20,100,000 (Estimate)
Distributor:
Lionsgate
Release Date: November 5, 2010
Budget: $21 million


Cool Black's Mad Commentary: As the article above states "Tyler Perry's "For Colored Girls," ... premiered in third place with $20.1 million. That's lower than usual for the director, but still a very respectable opening". A respectable opening for arguably Tyler Perry's most respectable film to date, still was one of his lowest openings. His 'Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail' (2009) opened with $41 million ($41,030,947 2,032). Shaking my head.


*Related posts-
For Colored Girls - The Cool Black Review
http://coolblackmedia.blogspot.com/2010/11/for-colored-girls-cool-black-review.html


Why Did I Get Married Too? Box Office so far
http://coolblackmedia.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-did-i-get-married-too-box-office-so.html

Friday, November 5, 2010

For Colored Girls - The Cool Black Review

For Colored Girls
Starring
Principal cast

Janet Jackson
Thandie Newton
Whoopi Goldberg
Loretta Devine
Anika Noni Rose
Kimberly Elise
Kerry Washington
Phylicia Rashad






Supporting cast
Tessa Thompson
Michael Ealy
Macy Gray
Omari Hardwick
Hill Harper
Khalil Kain
Richard Lawson

Directed, Produced, and Written by Tyler Perry
Released: November 5, 2010 (USA)



Summary: For Colored Girls is a 2010 American film directed, produced, and written by Tyler Perry. It is an adaptation of Ntozake Shange's 1975 stage play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf (pictured right). Structurally, For Colored Girls... (1975) is a series of 20 poems, collectively called a "choreopoem."

A choreopoem is a work that combines dance and poetry so that each complements the other in a highly dramatic way. The term first appeared in the orginal For Colored Girls... (1975), by Ntozake Shange, an African-American woman. Shange, (Paulette Williams was her birth name), wanted to create a new art form that was different from traditional western (and white) poetry. So, while working with young black girls, she developed the form, which doesn't contain traditional elements of plot and characters, it instead focuses on creating an emotional response within the audience. -Lord Nathan, everything2.com
For Colored Girls... (1975), is performed by a cast of seven women characters,each of whom is known only by a color: "Lady in Yellow," "Lady in Purple," etc. In this 2010 adaptation, since this is a movie, it is structured around a "six degrees of separation" type of storyline.

REVIEW by Cool Black
This is a really good film. I’m not familiar AT ALL with the source material (1975 stage play) so this is my first exposure to it and I have to say Mr. Perry did a really good job. As stated in the summary above all of the characters in the “choreopoem” are “structured around a "six degrees of separation" type of storyline.” And that is effective as well. The poems will make themselves evident without seeming out of context. There is no blank background or weird camera angle or lighting to let you know “this is one of the poems”, they just become a part of the scenes like a character’s monologue or soliloquy.

The performances in this film are on the most part EXCELLENT, a word I never use lightly. The standout performances are Phylicia Rashad, Thandie Newton and Kimberly Elise. The rest of the cast do great jobs as well including Kerry Washington, Anika Noni Rose, Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Loretta Devine and Tessa Thompson.

Lastly I have to give props to Mr. Tyler Perry who directed, produced, and wrote this film and did a great job at adapting a choreopoem that "doesn't contain traditional elements of plot and characters" into a motion picture.

In an October 2010 press conference with the cast, Perry credited his full body of work for being able to make the film, stating, "It took everything – Madea, House of Payne and all of that for me to be able to do For Colored Girls. Had none of that happened I wouldn’t have been able to say, “Listen, this is what I want to do next,” so I’m very proud of it all." ( UrbLife.com)

I totally agree with Mr.Perry.



Cool Black's Mad Commentary: I heard Oprah Winfrey say this film is having “Oscar buzz” and I thought blah, blah, blah, Oprah is Tyler Perry’s good friend so of course would throw terms like that out there.

Well I have to agree with Ms. Winfrey, I think the acting in this film will get several Oscar nominations. In particular I’m going to state NOW several months before the actual nominations that Phylicia Rashad, Thandie Newton and Kimberly Elise will get nominations. Since this is an ensemble piece probably for Best Supporting Actress, but Kimberly Elise might get a Best Actress nomination since she is heavily featured. Janet Jackson who also did a great job might get a nomination because she is a really famous person who did a really good job. Oscars are a popularity contest as well.

Additional quote-
Manohla Dargis of the New York Times published this November 4, 2010 in the review for 'For Colored Girls'.
As it turns out, Mr. Perry, while busily establishing his economic independence, has been finding his voice as a filmmaker. And here, working with fine performers like Ms. Elise, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad and Kerry Washington, he sings the song the way he likes it — with force, feeling and tremendous sincerity.

I totally agree with this one as well.-Cool Black

*Related linksFor Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1975)(Wikipedia)

For Colored Girls (2010) (Wikipedia)

Full Cast Interview:
UrbLife.com. October 26, 2010.


You can see the other great art designs on the other movie posters like the one below right here