Archive for May, 2010

Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)

For those interested in reading remembrance articles about Dennis Hopper, who passed away Saturday at age 74 in his home after years of fighting prostate cancer, The Hollywood Reporter has published a particularly good one.

Hopper was iconic in Hollywood for playing the rebel, wacko, or diabolical villain. His cult status is legendary because of it, and despite any optimism we might have it’s hard to believe there will be another like him. The movie world will miss him.

During his career Hopper earned two Oscar nominations – one for Best Supporting Actor in Hoosiers, and the other for Best Original Screenplay for Easy Rider.

Short Take: Perhaps the best video game adaptation to date - for what that's worth

Director: Mike Newell (Donnie Brasko, Four Weddings and a Funeral)

Screenwriters: Boaz Yakin (Death and Love), Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard (The Uninvited), Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia video game)

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal (Brothers), Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), Ben Kingsley (Shutter Island), Alfred Molina (An Education)

Length: 1h 56m

Synopsis: One day in an Arabian marketplace one young orphan boy named Dastan would risk his life to save another’s, and the display of such courage and humanity led the disguised King Sharaman of the Persian Empire (Ronald Pickup) to adopt the boy and raise him alongside his two sons. All three boys grew up to share a strong brotherly bond and undying love for their father, however one fateful day the King is assassinated and Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) unwarrantedly receives the blame. On the run with Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton), whose city was just recently sacked by the Persians and was being forcefully wed to Dastan, the two find themselves in the middle of an even bigger problem. A scheme was afoot to retrieve a special dagger from Tamina’s city that had the ability to turn back time. A gift from the Gods, Tamina is the guardian of the dagger, which she and Dastan must keep away from whoever was trying to steal it. On top of that, Dastan cannot rest until he proves his innocence. Read the rest of this entry »

What is it about "Iron Man 2" that makes it not as good as the original?

Continuing our “What’s Wrong” series that tries to explain why critics and/or audiences haven’t been enamored with various movies that have come out this summer, we’ll take a look at Iron Man 2. Now, since the picture has made over $250 million domestically so far it’s hard to say that audiences have panned it, plus it received a respectable 74% rating on RottenTomatoes.com so it’s also hard to say critics (by and large) didn’t like it. So why are we bothering to discuss such a successful movie in this column? The reason we found it appropriate is not because everyone agrees the movie stinks, but because most critics and patrons we’ve talked to seem to agree that it isn’t as good as the first Iron Man flick. Read the rest of this entry »

What is it about this Robin Hood that has kept him from being as popular as previous incarnations?

Not much has been made so far about Ridley Scott’s newest film Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. The historical epic which attempts to tactfully incorporate elements of the centuries-old legend doesn’t seem to have won over the hearts of Americans like its creators were hoping, as after nearly two full weekends it has yet to top $70 million at the domestic box office (considering the production budget was a reported $200 million, such returns will be deemed relatively minimal by Universal). The film’s rating on RottenTomatoes.com is a pedestrian 45%, and on MetaCritic.com an unflattering grade of 53. Exactly what is it about the film that has audiences and critics keeping it at arm’s length? Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Delightfully obscene

Director: Jorma Taccone (debut)

Screenwriters: Jorma Taccone (Saturday Night Live), Will Forte, John Solomon (Saturday Night Live)

Cast: Will Forte (Saturday Night Live), Kristen Wiig (Whip It), Ryan Phillippe (Breach), Val Kilmer (The Bad Lieutenant)

Length: 1h 39m

Synopsis: International terror financier Dieter Von Cunth (Kilmer) has just stolen a nuclear warhead and is looking to blow up Washington D.C. In his way stands a man known only as MacGruber (Forte), who faked his death ten years ago and is being reinstated by the U.S. military to intercept the warhead. His methods are perplexing, but he gets results. Highly decorated and highly unstable, MacGruber and his team try their best to thwart Cunth’s evil plan in any way they can – even if it means having to rip some throats out. Read the rest of this entry »

Jemaine Clement

Jemaine Clement of HBO’s Flight of the Conchords fame has reportedly been cast as the villain in the next Men in Black sequel.

Jonah Hex‘s Josh Brolin has also signed on to the project and will reportedly play a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones’ character K, though Jones and Will Smith will also return, along with director Barry Sonnenfeld.

Etan Cohen (Idiocracy, Tropic Thunder) has written the script, which some suspect entails time travel due to the involvement of Brolin’s alleged role.

Source: Ain’t It Cool News

Quick Opinion: I’ve heard many complain about how Men in Black II was not as good as the first, and not often were those complaints based on the film’s casting. The original Men in Black struck a chord with audiences because of how fresh it was, and MIB II might have failed simply because screenwriter Robert Gordon was unable to keep that element moving forward. Looking back, this is somewhat surprising being that Gordon also gave us the wonderfully self-aware Galaxy Quest. But come to think of it, a sequel to that film would probably not work either for the same reasons. So why be excited about MIB III? New pedigree has been added, again, in the form of Josh Brolin and Jemaine Clement, which is to be expected with Hollywood sequels. But the real upgrade might come through Etan Cohen’s screenplay. Idiocracy has become a sort of cult classic for its jabs at modern society and scarily convincing premise which suggests the meek may actually inherit the earth. Tropic Thunder was about as self-aware as movies get, de-glorifying the action and war movie genres as well as Hollywood in general. Because of this background it is fair to believe that Cohen can bring the freshness of the first MIB back to the series. On the other hand, I’m sure that’s what they were hoping for from Gordon. Like most things, this will probably be a game of “wait and see.”

The Cannes Film Festival has been in full swing since the 12th, and The Hollywood Reporter has been on top of it the whole time. With daily reports that stretch across multiple pages, there is hardly a stone unturned or topic unaddressed.

Among the many sources covering this annual event that is given perhaps the most pomp and circumstance than any other movie-related event outside the Academy Awards, we find that The Hollywood Reporter has so far been the most thorough in its attempts to cover everything the festival has to offer – and more.

An example of what we think is worth your attention from today’s report is a review of the French film The Princess of Montpensier, directed by Bertrand Tavernier and starring Melanie Thierry. The film is a story of a young 17th century Frenchwoman of moderate status who is forced to marry a gentlemen who sees her as little more than a feather in his cap. Along with this there is another man who actually falls in love with the young woman, however his love seems to be of the unrequited variety. The review spends much of its time detailing the main characters, painting vivid pictures of each but without spoiling too much. If the film is close to being as good as reviewer Kirk Honeycutt makes it out to be, you’ll no doubt be hearing more of it as it makes its way towards U.S. screens.

We recommend keeping up with THR’s ongoing coverage of the Cannes Film Festival for those of you interested in the event, which will continue until the festival’s conclusion on the 23rd of this month.

Short Take: An impressively deft blend of legend and history

Director: Ridley Scott (American Gangster, Gladiator)

Screenwriter: Brian Helgeland (Green Zone, Mystic River)

Cast: Russell Crowe (American Gangster, 3:10 to Yuma), Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I’m Not There), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), Oscar Isaac (Body of Lies), Max von Sydow (Shutter Island), William Hurt (The Yellow Handkerchief)

Length: 2h 20m

Synopsis: As a member of King Richard’s army which seeks to pillage and sack its way across Europe on the way back to England, Robin Longstride (Crowe) elects to leave such uninspired leadership and take a faster way back to his home. In the process he and a small group of followers get entangled in a conspiracy that connects Richard’s brother John to the King of France, who seeks to overtake an England on the verge of civil war. John’s ascension to the throne accelerates this plot, however Robin and his men, along with several nobles, fight to protect their land from the invading French as well as John’s tyrannical management. The gravity of the situation is as such that a losing effort could seal the fate of all of England, and such a fate looks dire to say the least. Read the rest of this entry »

Film criticism is approaching a crossroads that may not allow future critics to have the great influence that the likes of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had. That's two thumbs way down.

The 21^st century has not been very kind to the field of film journalism thus far. Critics in particular have had to endure the brunt of the damage that has been dealt by the increased popularity of social media outlets like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and an innumerable array of blogs.

The CNN article by Todd Leopold that we recognized and commented on earlier this week which questioned whether film criticism was becoming passé is just the latest instance proving that concern for this issue is growing. The advent of the internet and its subsequent rush towards essentiality sparked fear in all fields of journalism that profited from the lure of exclusivity or privileged resources.

But while the entire journalism industry wont be killed off by the internet and its communicative capabilities, the future of the field of film journalism and criticism appears much less certain. Read the rest of this entry »

Oliver Stone

The Hollywood Reporter has published an interview it conducted with acclaimed director Oliver Stone about his newest movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps which will be Stone’s first official entry in the Cannes Film Festival. The longtime director has had several of his films shown at Cannes, but none had so far been in the running for any awards.

The first half of the interview talks about Stone’s involvement with the Cannes festival, the level of which has pretty much been simply showing a film once every several years minus a 20th anniversary showing of Platoon in 2006. The second half of the interview talks about Stone’s intentions behind making a sequel to Wall Street even though the original released back in 1987.

What the director goes on to detail are his research methods and reasoning for releasing the sequel at this point in time. He claims to feel that Wall Street 2 will symbolize a sort of bookend to the original in regards to the recent debauchery and history of the real Wall Street. The first film set things up by showing how out of hand stock market dealing was getting, and this sequel, set to acknowledge the news-breaking happenings on Wall Street over the past two years, will show what can become of such practices.

Through the course of his research, Stone tried his best to talk to banks, trading companies, anyone with inside knowledge that could help make the film more accurate and palpable. He had a good amount of luck, but couldn’t get as much information as he would have liked.

“We got the perspectives of some of the people who bet against, the shorts, some of the bankers who had worked there, we met with people who had worked with the old system and the new system, we met with a few people who worked at Lehman Brothers. Bear Stearns — we met with someone there. We got an overview. But the banks closed their doors, including locations. They did not want us anywhere close.” – HR

We recommend reading the whole interview to find out exactly what Mr. Stone went through to research the film, get it off the ground, and shoot it. For those of you interested in learning more about exactly what has been going wrong on Wall Street the past few years, Wall Street 2 should prove to be at least moderately enlightening. We’ll be sure to keep tabs on the movie and keep you posted. It opens September 24th.