Posted on June 18th, 2008 at 8:21 am By Craig Kennedy
I’m a sucker for lists. I really am. I can’t stay away from them, but I’m begging the AFI: please stop. Seriously.
Sure, they probably make tons of money off of this kind of thing, but they’ve long gone past the point of overkill and they’re nearing the frontier of self-parody. Pretty soon they’ll be doing the Top 10 List of AFI Top 10 Lists.
I know, I bit down hard on last year’s 10th Anniversary Top 100, but not this year.
If you must know and don’t already, here are AFI’s Top 10 choices in 10 different genres.
(also, yes, I watched part of the show. I told you I’m a sucker)
Posted on June 17th, 2008 at 9:45 pm By Craig Kennedy
Next up for Spike Lee is Time Traveler which he plans to co-write and direct from a memoir by Ronald Mallett, one of the first African-American Ph.Ds in theoretical physics.
Co-written with Bruce Henderson, Time Traveler: A Scientist’s Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality traces Mallett’s life story from poverty to Ph.D. and of his dream to create a machine that would allow him to travel back in time to save the father he lost when he was 10 years old.
Posted on June 17th, 2008 at 4:48 pm By Craig Kennedy
Dancer, actress, movie star Cyd Charisse died in Los Angeles today after apparently suffering a heart attack on Monday.
I didn’t really grow to love movie musicals until later in life, so my first real memory of her was in college. A couple of friends and I drove up to catch an all night screening of a bunch of Cinemascope pictures as a part of the Seattle International Film Festival. The program included Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress, Pakula’s The Parallax View and Donen & Kelly’s It’s Always Fair Weather.
It was a long night and by the time Weather came on, I was more than a little bleary-eyed. Fatigue is no match for Ms. Cyd Charisse however, and I’ll never forget her in that green sweater and skirt dancing to Baby You Knock Me Out. “What a dame. What a dame. She belongs in the hall of fame. Baby you knock me out.” Indeed.
Posted on June 17th, 2008 at 2:12 pm By Craig Kennedy
I was a scrawny kid growing up, but I never idolized the muscle-bound types. Bodybuilding was always a bore, I hated the He-Man cartoon, I didn’t worship Arnold Schwartzenegger or Sylvester Stallone and I never took professional wrestling seriously. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be interested in a documentary about three Hulk Hogan idolizing boys from New Jersey who grew up to be steroid juiced bodybuilders, but Bigger, Stronger, Faster surprised me. It is more than it appears to be and it deserves to be seen.
Subtitled The Side Effects of Being American, the documentary begins as filmmaker Christopher Bell (also a bodybuilder) explores what drives his two siblings Mike and Mark to use steroids. Ultimately however, it becomes something much bigger and more important. It’s a story both personal and universal that examines the nature of hero worship, of what it means to be a winner, and of the meaning of the American Dream itself.
Posted on June 17th, 2008 at 9:54 am By Craig Kennedy
I haven’t seen a movie based on a Dennis Lehane novel yet that I really liked, but they just keep coming. Clint Eastwood directed Mystic River, Ben Affleck did Gone Baby Gone, Martin Scorsese is working on Shutter Island and now Sam Raimi joins the fray with The Given Day, to be published September 23.
Lehane sticks to his usual Boston territory for Day, but goes back to 1919 as soldiers are returning from WWI and bringing the Spanish Flu home with them. Against this backdrop, the police are attempting to unionize and verge on a historic strike.
Though I’ve never read one of Lehane’s books, I’ve been told that many of the problems with the movie versions are rooted in the novels. On the other hand, it’s nice to see Raimi stepping away from horror and superheroes for a while at least. I’m about ready for another A Simple Plan.
Posted on June 16th, 2008 at 11:57 am By Craig Kennedy
Ain’t it Cool News is reporting that Stan Winston, the 4-time Oscar winner for makeup and visual effects, died in Los Angeles on Sunday.
[UPDATE: Winston suffered mutiple myeloma for seven years, a treatable but incurable form of cancer of the blood plasma cells]
You might not have been able to pick Stan out of a police line-up, but if you grew up watching sci-fi and horror movies throughout the ’80s and ’90s, you recognize the man’s contributions to cinema history. From Starman to The Terminator and from Aliens to Jurassic Park, Winston was one of the go-to guys for pre-CGI creature effects.
You can keep Cloverfield. Give me practical effects any day of the week and, in this area, Winston was a master. He will be missed.
Posted on June 16th, 2008 at 12:01 am By Craig Kennedy
Friday night was The Incredible Hulk night at LiC. The movie was fine. Better than fine probably, but I’m getting tired of superheroes. Seriously. Let’s get The Dark Knight over with, fast-forward to September, put the kids back in school and then start bringing out the real movies. The Hulk review is below somewhere.
Next up was Quid Pro Quo. Hmmm…still processing this one. Nick Stahl plays a wheelchair bound NY public radio host. Vera Farmiga plays a woman more than a little obsessed with the disabled. I got a distinct Cronenberg vibe off of this one, though it wasn’t as cold or ominous.
Last and best was the steroid documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster. I had to be dragged to this one kicking and screaming because I don’t care much about a bunch of meatheads pumping their bodies full of chemicals. At first, it was exactly what I was afraid it was going to be, but then it expanded and became a look at the crazy lengths to which people go to fulfill our twisted idea of the American Dream. Good stuff.
Posted on June 15th, 2008 at 10:45 pm By Craig Kennedy
The troubling part of this Variety report about increased movie theater advertising revenue is the third paragraph that basically says that the ads are working and that people don’t mind them anymore.
I suppose it’s not that big of a deal, but I’m tired of being sold something everywhere I turn. I’ll go out of my way and pay extra to sit in a theater that doesn’t run ads. Am I the only one?
Posted on June 14th, 2008 at 9:53 pm By Craig Kennedy
“Hello. My name is Bruce Banner and I’m a rageaholic.”
Ang Lee sure ruined the Hulk. No, I’m not talking about the 2003 movie where he had the temerity to try injecting real adult emotion into a comic book story. I’m talking about the new 2008 incarnation that is so desperate to forget Lee ever happened, it sheds all traces of genuine heart that would’ve given the film a hint of gravity. Instead, it resorts to shameless audience pandering designed to return Marvel Studios to the good graces of the Hulk nerds. In the process, the poor green guy ends up without a soul and The Incredible Hulk ends up an entertaining-in-the-moment, but bloodless endeavor that doesn’t linger.
Sure, it’s fun, but the thrill is gone by the time you sit through the end credits, hoping in vain for an Iron Man-like zinger that never comes.
Posted on June 14th, 2008 at 1:29 pm By Craig Kennedy
Though I never lived through them, I think I miss the studio days when the buzz around a movie or a celebrity’s image was carefully controlled. At the very least, I’d like to go back to a time before the Internet when behind-the-camera movie gossip wasn’t dressed up as breaking news.
These days, director’s tirades turn up on YouTube and reports of on and off the set squabbles litter fan sites run by people who don’t seem to understand how the creative process works, let alone what happens in group dynamics.
Imagine if someone took notes about the day-to-day workings of your family and posted every disagreement on the Internet for everyone to read. You’d probably be horrified and your family would look like a bunch of dysfunctional freaks. Maybe they are, but even normal, healthy families have their ups and downs. The difference is that, on balance, everyone is happy in the end and the in-between drama isn’t splattered all over the Internet.
Unfortunately, movie productions don’t have that luxury.
Posted on June 13th, 2008 at 1:38 pm By Craig Kennedy
Be my Daikini baby
Turns out he’s probably the only one, but MTV would like you to think that the diminutive actor’s eagerness means plans are in the works for a sequel to George Lucas and Ron Howard’s Willow. They’re hoping you’ll click on their headline and read their ads, but I’m going to spare you the trouble by not hyperlinking it. If you really give a crap (and you don’t), Google it.
Let’s just say Warwick’s enthusiasm, a stepstool and 5 bucks will get him a drink at a bar.
I’ll bet the guy who voiced Jar Jar Binks would like to see another Star Wars prequel too.
Posted on June 13th, 2008 at 12:09 pm By Craig Kennedy
D’oh!
Anne Thompson does a spoiler-free, 10-point post mortem in this morning’s Variety on why Speed Racer was D.O.A. in theaters, pinching off a dismal $42.2 million at the domestic box office to date and another $36 million overseas. As unabashed fans of the film, this is a sensitive subject around the LiC head office - one of the monkeys is still hitting the bottle, expensive stuff too. Nevertheless, let’s take a look at what Ms. Thompson has to say and then agree or refute her points one at a time.
1. Speed was simply too costly to score a hit with its target audience. I sort of agree, but I’d word it differently. More accurately it was budgeted for the wrong target audience. Warner Bros. mistook a personal, experimental, niche film for a blockbuster and they aimed it at the Pirates of the Caribbean crowd. Of course, the Wachowski’s let the studio believe it was doing the right thing, or it’s possible they were equally deluded. On the bright side, this benefits those of us who loved the movie. We got a $200 million art film (after P&A) and that’s not likely to happen again any time soon. Suckers!
Posted on June 13th, 2008 at 3:39 am By Craig Kennedy
Najib: From Afghanistan to South Africa in Kicking It
It’s easy to look at a homeless person and see nothing but a dead ender. It’s easy to forget that these strangers are human beings. However, a single moment in time does not necessarily tell us who a person has been nor does it project who they will be in the future. A lifetime isn’t a straight trajectory from A to B. There are always ups and downs.
Susan Koch’s new documentary Kicking It tells the stories of seven homeless men who are definitely on a downward slide. Though they come from countries around the globe and they’re homeless for different reasons, they’re all united for one purpose: to compete for their countries in the annual Homeless World Cup of soccer.
Watching these souls who are homeless, but not quite hopeless, is a moving reminder that lives can be turned around when people are simply given a tangible dream to hold on to.
Posted on June 12th, 2008 at 8:31 pm By Craig Kennedy
Hurdy Gurdy Man vs. Inspector Callahan
Forget about Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers. It has always been the real serial killers who freak me out the most. Son of Sam, The Hillside Strangler, The Boston Strangler, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer - these guys are more chilling than any Hollywood creep in a mask.
Maybe it’s because I grew up in Washington, a state that has seemingly had more than its share of serial crimes, particularly when I was young. In the 1970s Ted Bundy took his first victims in the Puget Sound area, including one from the college I would one day attend. In the early ’80s there was The Green River Killer who would officially confess to killing 48 women by the time he was finally captured in 2001, though he claimed the actual number was 71. Between the two men, my childhood was filled with sporadic reminders that the boogeyman really existed.
Posted on June 12th, 2008 at 4:56 pm By Craig Kennedy
The AP takes time out from keeping tabs on the world flushing iself down the crapper to make a big deal out of the shared October 24 release date of Angelina Jolie in Changeling and Jennifer Aniston in He’s Just Not That Into You. You’d think the former Brad Pitt squeeze and the current Brad Pitt squeeze were seated next to each other at a dinner party. Oooh, catfight!
Posted on June 12th, 2008 at 8:32 am By Craig Kennedy
I managed to avoid it before Indy 4 and I’m not watching it now, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to tempt you with it. Courtesy of Trailer Addict.
Posted on June 12th, 2008 at 12:01 am By Craig Kennedy
Hulk SMASH puny summer movies!
Here’s what’s opening wide on Friday the 13th:
The Happening. Other than the fact that Mark Wahlberg is in it and it’s directed by M. Night Shyamalan, I know exactly nothing about this one. Whatever your opinion about Shyamalan, he’s a guy whose movies you don’t want spoiled. If I’m going to see it, and I might, I’m going to see it knowing nothing about it. I’m even going to act surprised when Wahlberg’s credit comes up. “Marky Mark? No way!”
The Incredible Hulk. All the proof you need that Hollywood can’t resist a known property is right here. After Ang Lee’s Hulk stiffed critically and commercially (OK, it did make $132 million domestic and another $113 million international, but those are low numbers for a movie with a $137 million production budget…aren’t they?), conventional wisdom suggested we wouldn’t hear from the Jade Giant again any time soon. Well, here we are just five years later. This time Ed Norton is Dr. Bruce Banner, Liv Tyler is Betty Ross, the bad guy is Abomination (played in human form by Tim Roth), and Louis Leterrier (The Transporter) directs. Early reviews are mainly positive though Armond White says “It’s the crappy summer blockbuster Marvelites probably deserve.” Coming from Armond, I’m taking that as a good sign. Count me in.
Posted on June 11th, 2008 at 11:09 am By Craig Kennedy
The LA Times has another piece about the crowded movie marketplace this morning, this one from the angle of movie executives battling over the summer calendar. Before David Poland comes along and dismisses it as a non-story or something he’s been saying himself for years (or pick your dismissal), I thought I’d take a look at it from an audience perspective. What does it mean, if anything, to movie lovers?
According to the article, the big studios and independent distributors combined released an average of 10 movies a week last year with one weekend alone seeing 16 new releases. This is up 49% from a decade ago. How it compares to other decades isn’t mentioned, but it’s still a lot of movies no matter how you slice it. It doesn’t help that the studios are bent on cramming most of their movies into 8 months out of the year, but even if the schedule was evenly spread out, not many people see 10 movies a week in a theater.
In one sense, a greater selection should be a good thing. Audiences have more to choose from than ever before so it’s a great time to be a movie fan, right? The problem is that not all movies are worth seeing and it’s not easy to tell good from bad until it’s too late. An expanded market is a watered down market. For every mediocre movie that you see, are you missing out on a great one?
Posted on June 10th, 2008 at 10:17 pm By Craig Kennedy
I read last night that Paul Newman is gravely ill and that it may be terminal lung cancer.
I debated all day long whether to say anything about it for fear of legitimizing in even the tiniest way the civic embarrassment known as The Dish Rag, the gossip column updated regularly by Elizabeth Snead on the LA Times website and constantly clogging my feed of entertainment news with salacious garbage.
The Rag’s source it turns out is a UK tabloid that in turn pins the story on two unnamed US publications. I’m not linking to any of these vultures because they make me sick to my stomach.
Earlier this evening, Steve Gorman reported for Reuters that Newman spokesman Jeff Sanderson would neither confirm nor deny any illness saying only ”Newman says he’s doing nicely.”
Meanwhile, via Hollywood Elsewhere I see that the Oregonian’s Shawn Levy, who is writing a biography of Mr. Newman, said on his blog this morning in response to the rumors: “I have known for a while that Newman was very ill, probably with cancer…” He adds that he has no reason not to believe the reports.
Whatever Newman’s condition and whatever the prognosis, it’s pretty clear he isn’t interested in talking and neither is his family. They shouldn’t have to, but unfortunately plenty of people are doing the talking for them. It sucks, but there it is.
I feel tacky adding to the back fence gossip, but it seems almost foolish not to at this point.
Needless to say, my best wishes go out to Mr. Newman and his family.
Posted on June 10th, 2008 at 9:23 pm By Craig Kennedy
Positioning themselves firmly as the home of tired retreads, Millennium Films is adding The Three Musketeers to its stable of shopworn properties that now include Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, Hercules, Buck Rogers and Rambo.
The story will reportedly tell how the original three, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, first teamed up.
The best part for Millenium? Alexandre Dumas’ novel is in the public domain so it won’t cost them a thing and there are no pesky rights holders standing around making sure they don’t screw it up.
Regarding the branded properties his company is so focused on snapping up, Millennium’s Joe Gatta said “You can either build one from scratch or find the ones that are available and of interest to the audience.”
There’s a third way, Joe. Leave crappy franchises to the big boys and make movies that matter instead.
Millennium Films: It’s all for suck and suck for all.
Posted on June 10th, 2008 at 12:56 pm By Craig Kennedy
Studio Pinhead #2: Don’t you ever get tired of doing remakes and sequels all the time?
Studio Pinhead #1: What are you crazy? It’s all about name recognition. We save a fortune on public awareness.
Development Weasel: That’s right. Half of our sales job is already done before the scripts are even written.
Studio Pinhead #2: What about personal enrichment? What about creative fulfillment?
Studio Pinhead #1: Enrichment? Fulfillment? I’m plenty rich and all that needs filling are the hookers I buy with the money that rolls in from cranking out sequels and remakes. (High fives Development Weasel)
Studio Pinhead #2: But don’t you ever wonder if there’s more to life?
Studio Pinhead #1: Besides money and hookers?
Studio Pinhead #2: Yeah.
Studio Pinhead #1: Sure. Booze and pills.
Studio Pinhead #2: Anything else?
Development Weasel: Maybe a good dump in the morning?
Posted on June 9th, 2008 at 12:01 am By Craig Kennedy
Happy Monday everybody. It was very nearly a movie-free weekend here at LiC, but I rallied on Sunday and caught a couple of screenings so I wouldn’t be the only guy who showed up at the Watercooler with nothing to talk about.
First up was Mongol, a serviceable if unremarkable historical epic about the man who would become Genghis Khan, King of the Mongols. To qualify as a classic, it would’ve had to be either more layered or more action packed. Not bad as is though.
After that I went to an evening screening of Kung Fu Panda in the hopes of minimizing the number of demon-spawn in the theater. Mission accomplished. The movie itself was a nice little surprise. It probably won’t go down in the annals of animation history, but it was nice looking and most importantly it was funny. Jack Black was pretty terrific as Po the tubby Panda who becomes a Kung Fu hero. Dustin Hoffman was excellent as his master and Ian McShane was good as the bad guy. The comedy managed to target both adults and the Sponge Bob set without overly pandering (no pun intended) to either one.
Trailerwise I caught Religulous with Bill Maher. Bill kind of bugs me, but in an era where religious wingnuts threaten to take the whole world down with them, this looks potentially great.
The best part of the whole evening was there was a guy at the theater whose hair looked exactly like Sideshow Bob’s.
Posted on June 8th, 2008 at 10:41 pm By Craig Kennedy
Neil Jordan has put together financing for his self-scripted film Ondine in which Colin Farrell plays a fisherman in southwest Ireland who reels in a sea nymph played by Alicja Bachleda (Trade). The film begins shooting in mid-July.
Meanwhile, Cameron Crowe is stirring up an as-yet-untitled romantic comedy starring Ben Stiller and Reese Witherspoon. Scott Rudin is producing (what isn’t he producing?) and filming is set to begin in January. It will be interesting to see if Crowe can bounce back from the critical drubbing he took with Elizabethtown.
Next up, Harrison Ford takes off the fedora and puts down his whip for Crowley (I could’ve sworn when I wrote this last night it was called The Cure), the true story of a scientist who helps a couple find a cure for a genetic disorder afflicting their two children. The script is by Robert Nelson Jacobs (Chocolat) from a Wall Street Journal article and a book by Geeta Anand. Here’s hoping Ford can bring some of the energy he brought to the latest Indy film instead of sleepwalking through the production.
Finally, David Lynch’s daughter Jennifer, who most recently made an appearance at Cannes with her new film Surveillance, has signed up for a film called Nagin. The Indian production is based on the myth of a snake woman who takes human form and it will star Mallika Sherawat and Irfan Khan (The Namesake, A Mighty Heart, The Kingdom). Irfan Khan deserve more attention than he gets…so here I am doing my share.
Posted on June 8th, 2008 at 1:58 pm By Craig Kennedy
SlashFilm points us to a June 7 entry at Cigarettes and Red Vines (”The definitive P.T. Anderson resource”) consisting of an unsourced rumor that Paul Thomas Anderson’s next project will be Power Play , based on Peter Bart’s novella about a power struggle between Las Vegas casino owners and Native American tribes.
Bart got in trouble from his employers at Variety back in 2001 for shopping around a screenplay supposedly written by his wife based on the novella - a Variety no-no. At the time, Robert Evans was rumored to be producing with Jack Nicholson to star.
Posted on June 8th, 2008 at 12:43 pm By Craig Kennedy
My first response to the teaser trailer for The Pink Panther 2 was “What’s a French policeman doing lurking around the El Portal theater in North Hollywood?” and my second response was “Wait a minute, they’re making another one of these things?”
Then I looked the last one up at Box Office Mojo and found that it made $82 million from the “I just want to turn my brain off” crowd in the US and another $76.6 million from the “Je veux arrêter mon cerveau” crowd overseas.
Here’s the thing, I grew up loving the Pink Panther movies, and I worshipped Steve Martin in the late ’70s and early ’80s. There was a time in my life where the combination of the two might have sounded like an excellent idea, but then my brain finished forming. Now it sounds like torture, especially with Martin’s ridiculous accent. I know Peter Sellers’ accent was exaggerated, but it worked.
Who is lining up for this crap? Can we blame families, the same people who made a hit out of Alvin and the Chipmunks?
There’s a name for this kind of thing. It’s called Direct-to-Video. They’re cheap, they’re easy, you pop them in and keep the little bastards distracted for hours. The best part is there’s no need to clutter up the multiplex with it.
Posted on June 7th, 2008 at 2:01 pm By Craig Kennedy
The real aftermath of the 2008 Universal fire can’t be photographed
(AP Photo/Ric Francis)
The recent Universal fire claimed more than a few facades and burned more than a few prints of old movies. It struck at the very heart of what will (hopefully) be one of the enduring legacies of the United States of America and it’s got me worried. If you love movies, or if you love this country, you should be worried too.
Every nation that has ever played a part on the world stage has left some piece of its cultural history behind. Social and political groupings wax and wane, but their cultural residue lingers and enriches those that come after. It’s a small example, but as I sit here drinking my morning cup of coffee, I’m dimly aware that the practice came from Ethiopia, spread to Egypt, the Middle East and then Europe with the rise and fall of empires. I don’t give much thought to Ethiopia on a daily basis, but damnit I do love a good cup of coffee. Thanks, Ethiopians!
Besides our ongoing, real-time experiment with the theory of Democracy (inspired of course by the ancient Greeks, a group of folks who knew a little something about culture as far as the West is concerned and have had more than their share of influence), the main cultural contributions of the United States are arguably jazz, rock and roll and cinema.
Posted on June 6th, 2008 at 1:27 pm By Craig Kennedy
Commies…I hate these guys
The paradox of sequels is that, by definition, they only exist because of the movie they’re spun off from, yet all too often they’re unable to hold up to the inevitable comparisons. Can a movie be judged on its own when its reasons for being are inextricably linked to something else? Should it be? If so, do you then also discount the inevitable nostalgia value that probably adds to the entertainment in the first place?
Such is the problem in thinking about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Even people who enjoy the movie will admit that it’s a shadow of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The first line of defense to the film’s inevitable detractors will be that it’s unfair to compare the new film to a beloved classic. This is true perhaps, but how much less enjoyable would the fourth film be if not for the goodwill earned by the original?
With Crystal Skull, I’m trying to find a middle way. On its own, it is a flawed but entertaining film. In the context of the franchise, it neatly ties up a few loose ends and at least manages not to embarrass its forbears even if it only adds a few new (and modest) wrinkles of its own. On balance, the pleasure of spending time in the company of old friends overshadows the movie’s numerous shortcomings and, most importantly, it was fun.
Posted on June 6th, 2008 at 9:58 am By Craig Kennedy
Back during the Cannes Film Festival, Spike Lee was in town drumming up interest for his new World War II drama Miracle at St. Anna. Never one to shy away from controversy, Lee took the opportunity not only to criticize the treatment of life and death by Joel and Ethan Coen, but also to point out that there weren’t any African-Americans in Clint Eastwood’s recent World War II films Flags of Our Fathers or Sands of Iwo Jima.
“Clint Eastwood made two films about Iwo Jima that ran for more than four hours total, and there was not one Negro actor on the screen. If you reporters had any balls you’d ask him why.”
Paul Lewis of the UK’s Guardian apparently has the balls because he asked Eastwood about the comments in a recent interview. Eastwood replied: “A guy like him should shut his face.”
It starts fresh every Monday using the weekend's movies as a springboard. Where it goes from there is up to you. Read what everyone is talking about and add your two cents.
Comment Avatars
Personalize your comments with a Gravatar.
Upload your own image at Gravatar.com.
I haven’t seen a movie based on a Dennis Lehane novel yet that I really liked, but they just keep coming. Clint Eastwood directed Mystic River, Ben Affleck did Gone Baby Gone, Martin Scorsese is working on Shutter Island and now Sam Raimi joins the fray with The Given Day, to be published September 23.
