Posts Tagged ‘violence’

Short Take: Has everything an exploitation movie requires, including controversiality

Directors: Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror, Sin City), Ethan Maniquis

Screenwriters: Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror), Ãlvaro Rodri­guez (From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter)

Cast: Danny Trejo (Spy Kids, Heat), Jessica Alba (Good Luck Chuck), Robert De Niro (The Good Shepherd), Jeff Fahey (Grindhouse, The Lawnmower Man), Michelle Rodriguez (TV’s Lost, Avatar), Steven Seagal, Cheech Marin, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan

Length: 1h 45m

Synopsis: A widowed ex-Federale who relegates himself to being a day laborer on the border between Texas and Mexico gets offered an opportunity to earn $150,000 if he assassinates a senator hell bent on closing the border between the two nations. Double-crossed after taking the job, the man, known only as Machete (Trejo), must do what he can to stay alive and avoid capture. He receives help from an understanding Customs officer named Sartana (Alba) and an underground pro-immigration network headed by Luz (Rodriguez), a food truck worker. Together they will try to clear Machete’s name and uncover a conspiracy that aims to make voters sympathetic to the bigoted senator’s platform. It would appear that the bad guys just f****** with the wrong Mexican. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Contains Jeunet's trademark quirkiness, but lacks the polished writing of "Amelie"

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement, Amélie, Delicatessen)

Screenwriters: Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Guillaume Laurent (A Very Long Engagement, Amélie)

Cast: Dany Boon (The Valet, Change of Plans), André Dussollier (Wild Grass, A Very Long Engagement), Nicolas Marié (Safari, Secrets of State), Julie Ferrier (Accro ô croco), Dominique Pinon (Roman de gare, Amélie)

Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

Synopsis: Director/screenwriter Jean-Pierre Jeunet is best known internationally for 2001’s Amélie. That film showed Jeunet’s ability, much like fellow Frenchman Michel Gondry, to create quirky fantasy worlds that resemble our own but have just a bit more whimsy. Micmacs, basically translated as “shenanigans,” follows in that same vein. However, unlike its predecessor, which examines love, Micmacs criticizes weapons manufacturing and its global and more personal effects.

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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 »

Short Take: What's different shouldn't be different, and what's familiar should have been original. An overall wasted opportunity.

Director: Samuel Bayer (feature debut)

Screenwriters: Wesley Strick (Wolf, Doom), Eric Heisserer

Cast: Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, Little Children), Kyle Gallner (Jennifer’s Body), Rooney Mara (Youth in Revolt), Katie Cassidy (Black Christmas (2006))

Length: 1h 35m

Synopsis: In an unsuspecting suburban town various teens begin to experience frightening nightmares that are dangerously real. And in those nightmares they all come across the same evil man named Fred Krueger who continually tries to viciously murder them. Some teens fall victim to his assaults, the rest try to find a way to stop him – and keep from falling asleep. Pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together, which lead the surviving few to a final confrontation with their supernatural terror. To come out on top, they’ll have to literally fight their fears. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Fun, but ultimately superficial

Director: Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard)

Screenwriters: Peter Berg (Very Bad Things), James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, Basic)

Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Taking Woodstock, Watchmen), Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek), Chris Evans (Sunshine), Jason Patric (Narc)

Length: 1h 38m

Synopsis: A smoking aces U.S. special ops team gets double-crossed during a routine mission in Bolivia, and as a result they get the blame for the deaths of over two dozen innocent children. After faking their deaths to escape the CIA they work towards finding a way to get back to the states, but money is tight and options are limited. Opportunity finally knocks in the form of a mysterious woman with wealth, connections, and a serious attitude. Once back in America the group makes it a point to hunt down the person(s) responsible for framing them. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: Tons of action and laughs, as well as surprisingly introspective

Director: Matthew Vaughn (Stardust)

Screenwriters: Matthew Vaught and Jane Goldman (Stardust); based on comic books by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Cast: Aaron Johnson (The Illusionist), Chloe Moretz (500 Days of Summer), Nicolas Cage (The Bad Lieutenant), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Role Models), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes)

Length: 1h 57m

Synopsis: Dave Lizewsky (Johnson) was a painfully average teenage boy growing up in New York City. One day, however, he asked himself a very serious question: why hasn’t anyone actually tried to be a super hero? Although it’s not the most realistic or feasible endeavor to pursue – or safest for that matter – he convinces himself that he should nevertheless give the idea a serious try because standing up to crime is the right thing to do. Through his efforts Lizewsky discovers the serious drawbacks to his idea by getting beaten half to death, but after recouping he dusts himself off and, after some hard-fought success with dishing out justice, is rewarded with praise and admiration from the city’s populous. Unbeknownst to him, however, his fame and actions become a thorn in the side of one of the city’s biggest crime lords, Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong). But is this teen, self-named Kick-Ass, the real nuisance, or is it someone else? Read the rest of this entry »

Aaron Johnson (left) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (right) in the upcoming "Kick-Ass," opening April 16th

SuperHeroHype.com got a chance to talk to two of the stars of the upcoming comic-book movie Kick-Ass, Aaron Johnson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad, Role Models).

The discussion talks about the two actors and their characters, Kick Ass and Red Mist, and their experiences from before the principle photography stage to now. Interestingly, when the two had read the finished script and signed on to the project only the first 3 editions of the “Kick-Ass” comic had been published (there are currently 5). Mintz-Plasse’s character the Red Mist wasn’t introduced until the 3rd issue.

The costumes were designed by the same woman (Sammy Sheldon) who worked on Hellboy, Stardust, V for Vendetta, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. However, the two actors did not undergo any sort of physical training for the film in order to look any more like superheros. Rather, another co-star of the film, Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl, received all the martial arts training from top-notch choreographers and specialists. Johnson and Mintz-Plasse were occasionally brought in to watch her go through her stunts, and were admittedly continually impressed.

The rest of the published discussion goes on to include various other details (including a juicy one at the end), most of which should prove to make an interesting read for those anticipating the film, which opens April 16th in theaters everywhere. For more information about the movie, we suggest visiting SuperHeroHype.com.

2009's "Watchmen" made only a few million more than its budget. Is its "R" rating partially to blame?

In an article for Variety.com columnist Tatiana Siegel reports how lately Hollywood has been growing more and more averse to having their films stamped with an “R” rating. The topic gets introduced with the upcoming Clash of the Titans remake, which if you’ve seen the trailer or any commercials you’ll understand is supposed to have its fair share of violence.

Basically, the rule of thumb has been growing more and more into the overall standard. The bigger the budget, the less likely a studio will accept an “R” rating. The logic is of course that PG-13 ratings draw the widest audiences, which means the highest possible returns. Small budget films receive more slack (such as selective horror projects), but studios even insist that they shoot for PG-13 if possible (ex., Prom Night (2008)).

Some requirements are easy to satisfy. For instance, to avoid an “R” rating a film can only show violence against monsters or limited violence against people. If there is blood it must be limited, and if not it must be a different color than red – typically black. And of course, foul language must be kept to a minimum (the F word can only be uttered once).

Studios are more weary of releasing “R” rated pics lately because they’re failing to bring in big returns. Two recent examples are Watchmen and The Wolfman. Both cost over $100 million to produce but failed to make back their budgets with domestic grosses (Wolfman only managed to make back $61 million domestically, and even its worldwide B.O. failed to make it break even).

Screenwriters have stopped writing scripts that are intended to be “R” rated because studios are refusing to pick them up. However there are people within the industry who are willing to be more cavalier with raunchy material. Director/Producer Todd Phillips (The Hangover) supposedly told writer Phil Hay regarding the topic, “Write [the script] the best it can be. And we’ll figure it out later.” – Variety

What is your opinion on the “R” and/or “PG-13″ ratings? As a moviegoer, do you care about what the rating is of the movie you want to see? Do ratings affect which movies you see? What if a film is rated “R” but proves satisfying and entertaining enough to justify its ticket price?

Tell us what you have to say!

Quick Opinion: The movies mentioned by Siegel (The Wolfman, Watchmen, Prom Night) may not be the best examples to list on this topic. Based on reviews and audience reactions, as well as talks with friends, both The Wolfman and Watchmen‘s lack of success is not due to their being “R” rated. People seem to agree that The Wolfman‘s plot was too generic and its characters too flat, and seemed undecided about whether it wanted to be new or nostalgic. Fans of the Watchmen comics conceded that there was too much story to pack into a single film, which made the screen adaptation feel overstuffed and lack concentration. The remake of Prom Night suffered from arguably too little violence, and might have actually made more money had it shared the same “R” rating as its original. Because of how popular the horror genre is with teenagers, though, business logic tells you that you don’t make a product for a particular audience and then make it inaccessible to them (remember the No Admittance Under 17 “rule”). However, sometimes I think that studios who make horror films fail to recognize that there are plenty of horror fans over the age of 17 as well (in fact most of them). All in all, I’m convinced that it’s not the “R” ratings on certain films that are the issue, but the overall poor quality of those films and their inability to satisfy their audiences.