Weekend Forecast: 6/27/08
By Craig Kennedy - June 26th, 2008; 12:01 am
Eve and WALL•E - Just a couple of crazy robots in love
Thursday brings us to another Weekend Forecast. Prospects are certainly better than last week.
- WALL•E. I’m taking a break from the tail end of the LA Film Festival just for opening night of the latest from the fine folks at Pixar. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Pixar doesn’t make movies for kids, they make animation for adults disguised as kids’ movies because Americans are generally too stupid to accept their animation any other way. This one’s about a garbage collecting robot who is left behind when humans are forced to leave the planet for greener pastures. Whatever, you had me at “Pixar presents…”
- Wanted. Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch) brings Mark Millar’s graphic novel to the big screen starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and Terence Stamp. McAvoy plays a nobody who discovers he may be a somebody when his estranged father is killed. Recruited by a mysterious organization that helps him unlock his heretofore-unrealized powers, he sets out to take revenge. I’m torn on this one. It could go either way.
Opening in limited release:
- Elsa & Fred. Elsa, a free spirited oldster from Madrid who dreams of dancing in Rome’s Trevi fountain like Anita Ekberg in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, teaches another oldster how to live life and how it’s never too late to blah blah blah. I’m sorry, this sounds interminable.
- Finding Amanda. I hate the title, I can tell you that much right now. It’s also a bad sign that I’d never even heard of this movie with Matthew Broderick, Maura Tierney, Brittany Snow and Steve Coogan until just this minute. Broderick plays a failed TV sitcom writer, drinker and gambling addict who tries to win his wife (Tierney) back by rescuing their daughter (Snow) from prostitution. The only problem is that the daughter is in Vegas…you know, the American mecca for drinking and gambling.
- Full Grown Men. I’m not sure I’m ready for another movie about men who act like boys. This one’s a comic road movie about man (Matt McGrath) who leaves his wife and child behind to find the childhood friend (Judah Friedlander) whose life he made miserable and hit the open road.
- The Last Mistress. Controversial French director Catherine Breillat (Fat Girl, Romance) joins forces with actress Asia Argento in an examination of human lust set in 19th century France.
- Red Roses and Petrol. Tamar Simon Hoffs, mother of Susanna Hoffs the lead singer of The Bangles, wrote and directed this adaptation of Joseph O’Connor’s darkly comic play about a dysfunctional family gathering in Dublin for their patriarch’s wake. Malcolm McDowell stars. Great, now I’ve got Walk Like an Egyptian stuck in my head.
- Trumbo. A documentary about the blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter who won an Oscar while writing under a pseudonym and who was able to return to Hollywood after Kirk Douglas tapped him to write the screenplay for Spartacus.
Only in New York.
- Gunnin’ for that #1 Spot. Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch directs this sports documentary that follows 8 high school basketball players as they play in the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic.
Filed under: Upcoming
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- Weekend Forecast: 10/26/07
Yeah, it really is all about WALL-E right now, isn’t it?
Looking forward to it.
Wanted looks so mind-numbingly dumb and from what I’ve heard has such a blistering contempt for humanity that I’m either going to have to avoid it like the plague or it may become a curiosity as a result. I disliked Nightwatch and Daywatch (they were supposedly significantly cut from their original Russian versions) rather intensely so I suspect this is more of the same. I was glad to see David Poland note a while back that it looks like such a Matrix retread, as I had wondered if anyone else was hit by that vibe.
Wanted, if early word holds up, is the kind of movie that probably fits the ‘nihilistic’ bill, as far as I’m concerned, than your Salo or Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Reservoir Dogs.
Wall*E would no doubt be my number one pick, but I will see it next Tues.
I enjoyed “Wanted” Craig, it was unadulterated fun, and the cast is good, and Jolie is hot, McAvoy more than does his role justice, and the violence is awesome - especially for people who are over all that CGI superhero crap. Sure it uses a lot of methods that “Matrix” used, and it is not a particularly clever film. Its pure escapism into a world where people just don’t give a shit, about anything really.
now CHAINSAW Jeff, we can really make a case for that one! LOL!!!
WALL-E’s a go. Nuff’ said. I’ll take Nick’s word on Wanted, if for no other reason that I still haven’t seen a trailer so whatever special effects might still look cool. I’ve heard Gunnin’ is supposed to be a delight, a revision of Hoop Dreams. I’m looking forward to it.
Despite wanting to see WALL-E ASAP, I dunno what my theater presence and/or LiC presence will be over the next week. I’m on a flight out West this afternoon for a wedding in Napa, then a couple days in Berkeley, then a couple days in Vegas…”you know, the American mecca for drinking and gambling.” Not my agenda, believe it or not! Maybe if I had money.
If I get in WALL-E and Hancock over the next week, I’ll be satisfied.
I will be camping this weekend, which should be great, but it means no Wall-E for me until sometime next week, which is probably just as well because maybe I can avoid some of the rug rats in the process (no offense to LIC readers with rug rats of their own).
It may be a typo, but one of my local Regal theaters is listing “Gunnin for the #1 Spot” as opening here this weekend. Surely Portland can’t compete with New York for film premieres, can it?
As for Wanted, it’s ironic that it’s being called nihilistic because from what I’ve read it, it chucks virtually all the narrative and characters from the comic book from which it was adapted. Not having seen it, I can’t say for sure, but believe me when I say that the comic was definitely one of the most cynical, sarcastic, nihilistic books I’ve ever read…and a decent twist on the entire genre.
I doubt this film captures a tenth of that or it surely would be NC-17.
It’s all about Wall-E!
I know nothing about The Last Mistress but it sounds like it could be interesting. As does Trumbo.
I’m ready for the robot, and game for Wanted, too. Also have the original Scarface and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead from Netflix, and have yet to catch up with the panda and the Hulk. Life got in the way last weekend, so I’m hoping to set my butt down before some screens big and small this weekend and get back on track.
I read a good review of Trumbo somewhere. Sounds interesting.
oh no to wall-e. just no.please no….thank you. :)
hmm for me roman de gare and maybe war inc. hmm…
Looking forward to WALL*E like woah.
I saw THE LAST MISTRESS, and was totally underwhelmed. Review is here: http://fromthefrontrow.blogspot.com/2008/06/review-last-mistress.html
Wall-E is getting fantastic reviews so far - 98% on RT, with 40 reviews already. One guy didn’t like it - but this is someone who loved The Happening. Take that as you will.
WALL-E! WALL-E! WALLL-E!
As fer WANTED, I just can’t be sated by more spastic CG people flipping through the air firing weapons. I think SHOOT ‘EM UP was the final word on ridiculous gun physics.
Oh, and WALL-E!
Happy Friday!
I just got in from WALL-E and it is a bonafide masterpiece. This may well be the best film of the year. I never thought I would EVER say this about an animated film. Extraordinarily moody, atmospheric, exhiliarating and with a high level of imagination. Above all, a deeply moving film experience.
I admire Wall-E, but gag.
Damn, and I need to wait until July 30th to see it :-(
One title that Craig didn’t include but that’s now playing in Los Angeles is Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World, which looks great.
Jeff: ENCOUNTERS opened two weeks back here in New York, and I can readily agree with your anticipation, as I did see it. It is surely one of the very best documentaries of this year, a year of documentary pre-eminence.
ENCOUNTERS has an interesting tie-in to the context of WALL-E as well, as it concerns the “unsustainable” continuance of the human race on earth, so to speak.
Yeah, I didn’t run the “Finally in LA” category this week due to time constraints. I should’ve known someone would notice. Anyway, I mentioned Encounters when it opened in NY.
Note to LA audiences, it’s only playing the Nuart for one week. Whether it will move on to other theaters at this time remains a mystery. Get it while it’s hot, all I’m saying.
this popped up at boxofficeprophets about wall-e’s friday numbers…
‘The latest offering from animation wizards Pixar opened to $23.3 million, the best opening day ever for anything they’ve ever released. Releases such as Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo have had stronger second days, but this tops all first day totals.’
hope that makes some you happy… ;)
Checking in from the People’s Cafe on Shattuck Ave. out here in Berkeley.
Hoping to see WALL-E today or tomorrow. The little blurbs I’ve seen on airport screens and front pages and websites ALL have the work “classic”. Holy crap, it better be good.
Now to take a dip through Craig’s LAFF coverage…
Just saw WALL-E.
And….?
Cranking out a review, sorta, I liked v. much.
Probably my second fave Pixar flick ever, I will always love “Finding Nemo” more just because of Dory.
awesome…I think my hard drive crashed and the draft I had is lost forever, so I may not review it. We’ll see.