"By the late 18th century, over 11 million African men, women and children had been taken from Africa to be used as slaves in the West Indies and the American colonies. Great Britain was the mightiest super power on earth and its empire was built on the backs of slaves. The slave trade was considered acceptable by all but a few. Of these, even fewer were brave enough to speak against it."

So opens the film Amazing Grace, which is based on the life of British statesman and reformer William Wilberforce and chronicles his 20-year battle to abolish the British slave trade. Wilberforce was a man gripped by the cruelty and injustice of men, women, and children being kidnapped from their homes, shackled, and stuffed into the bellies of ships to be carried across the Atlantic and sold into slavery.

Amazing Grace stars Ioan Gruffudd (Blackhawk Down) as Wilberforce, Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich) as John Newton, and Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour as Olaudah Equiano.

I'm not sure what it is. Maybe my tastes are just maturing as I get older. I blame that on my wife -- not that it's a bad thing. She's never liked the ridiculous heavily sexualized-slapstick, fart-joke kind of movies, and I'm beginning to see her point. That being said, the movie Superbad definitely lived up -- or down -- to its name.

High school kids drinking alcohol and obsessed with sex...where does that sound familiar? For once it would be nice to see a movie about high school kids that did not revolve around those things. Not meaning to preach but doesn't the fact that these movies make teen alcoholism and premarital sex look cool kind of, I don't know, encourage these behaviors? If you're a parent reading this, let this be a red light going off.

Of the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen projects this one's the worst so far. Okay, sure, The 40-Year Old Virgin had some decently funny moments despite all of the innuendoes and nonsense, and it actually had a happy ending that almost made up for the otherwise raunchy film. At least Knocked Up had heart, even if it wasn't particularly funny.

One of the rarest things to find in cinema today is a movie that you can sit down and watch with your parents, your children, your best friends, and your minister, and laugh and laugh without feeling silly, guilty, or awkward in the company you keep. One such rarity is the latest release starring Rowan Atkinson (Rat Race, Scooby Doo) and his beloved fop, Mr. Bean -- Mr. Bean's Holiday.

This G-rated comic adventure film follows the popular British goofball throughout Europe as he travels to Cannes to claim a free trip he won in a raffle. If you've seen the first Bean movie or any of the small-screen episodes that spawned it, you automatically know that the journey is not without incident.

Along his travels, he unwittingly separates a young boy from his father and must spend the rest of the movie trying reunite the family. In the process, he runs afoul of a narcissistic American director and a fancy French waiter.

According to one medical dictionary, anesthesia awareness "is a situation that occurs when a patient under general anesthesia becomes aware of some or all events during surgery or a procedure, and has direct recall of those events. Because of the routine use of neuromuscular blocking agents during general anesthesia, the patient is often unable to communicate with the surgical team if this occurs."

That's the plot fulcrum for first-time writer-director Joby Howard's new thriller, Awake, and it works well.

Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) is a young, wealthy businessman with the world at his doorstep and a beautiful new wife, Sam Lockwood (Jessica Alba). But everything is not so picture-perfect when he learns he has a weak heart. On the waiting list for a heart donor, Clay puts all his trust in his friend, Jack Harper (Terrence Howard), a cardiologist with a shaky record -- no fewer than four malpractice lawsuits against him. Meanwhile, Clay's overprotective mother, Lilith (Lena Olin), doesn't trust Dr. Harper -- or even Clay's new wife, for that matter. She wonders why, with all his money and power, he doesn't choose a first-rate heart surgeon.

Here's an interesting experiment for you: The next time you attend a movie at a theater, try to notice how the people you go with influence your own opinion of the movie. According to a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, how other people respond to the movie closely influences our own response. What's more, we tend to enjoy movies more when our responses line up with others, regardless of how good the film is, researchers found.

“When asked how much they had liked the film, participants reported higher ratings the more their assessments lined up with the other person,” say University of Chicago researchers Suresh Ramanathan and Ann L. McGill. “By mimicking expressions, people catch each other’s moods leading to a shared emotional experience. That feels good to people and they attribute that good feeling to the quality of the movie.”

Interestingly, those little glances we shoot each other in a movie theater tend to affect us pretty dramatically, the researchers found. The influence was mutual, too; no "leader personality" directed the responses, consciously or otherwise. This was even true although study subjects responded differently to specific scenes within a movie.

This study was the first to examine emotional responses in study subjects who freely responded to each other, rather than a study-directed "plant" who expressed agreement or disagreement in order to explore responses.

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Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, the director and screenwriter, respectively, behind the indie hit Half Nelson, have signed with HBO Films to finance and distribute Sugar, their follow-up feature. The film is scheduled to debut in the drama competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008.

Still no word on whether HBO will premiere the movie on its network or via theatrical release, under its Picturehouse label.

Sugar is a fictional tale of a Dominican baseball prospect who begins his minor-league climb to the majors in a small Midwestern town. It's being described as a fish-out-of-water tale.

Half Nelson, the harrowing drama about a crack-addicted high school teacher, made Fleck and Boden the darlings of the 2005 Sundance festival and propelled Ryan Gosling to stardom, thanks to his Oscar nomination for the lead role.

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Today is Day 30 of the Writers Guild of America's (WGA) strike for a bigger share of the new media revenue pie, and while both sides have continued sniping at each other's motives, there is some movement in a positive direction, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A new contract offer from the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) is prompting the Writers Guild of America to counter-offer. A key component of that offer: a fixed $250 payment to a writer for one year's use as streaming content for TV episodes and theater content, in lieu of residuals. WGA initially balked at the idea, while the AMPTP pointed out that it was intended as an initial offer to be negotiated, not a final offer.

Another possible sidestep around a sticky issue: AMPTP has offered to tie compensation to licensing fees, rather than advertising streams. This gambit is designed to budge the discussion away from the no-pay "promotional window" the studios had been demanding for online content.

However, the WGA West board is concerned that writers of Internet-only content would see a significant rollback in pay under this plan. It will be interesting to see how the WGA counters to address this apparent inadequacy.

While there's no reason to hope that the strike and negotiation process may be nearing an end, this is at least a step in the right direction---toward a resolution that, we all hope, will satisfy writers' demands and studio/producer concerns alike. Failing that, a new factor will come into play soon: The looming conclusion of the Directors Guild of America's (DGA) contract with the AMPTP, which arrives June 30, 2008. Early contract talks with DGA may begin soon, which could pressure both sides in the AMPTP-WGA negotiations to resolve differences.
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It was going to be a pilot for UPN, but fell through the cracks when UPN and WB merged to become CW. Undaunted, co-creators Tatiana von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini have reshaped Tanner Hall into a feature film, which begins shooting this month with a budget just under $10 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film stars SNL veteran Chris Kattan, Strangers with Candy star Amy Sedaris, and Tom Everett Scott (Because I Said So, ABC's Cashmere Mafia). It is being filmed in Rhode Island.

 

The script by von Furstenberg (the daughter of fashion designer Diane) and Gregorini (daughter of Barbara Bach and Ringo Starr) is a coming-of-age story based on their experiences in boarding schools. The pair met while students at Brown University and became friends. They are sharing directing duties, as well.

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Congratulations to Infuzemag.com reader Jennifer Ruputz of Lake Ridge, VA -- she's the winner of Disney's "Enchant Your Child" contest!

 

For her prize, Jennifer will receive a professionally created animation cel from the movie Enchanted that will incorporate her children. 

 

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest, and keep your eyes here for more promotions in the future.

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