--- Here are three upcoming movies that I am very excited for: ---
W.
Directed By Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone, director of JFK, Platoon, Any Given Sunday, Natural Born Killers, Born On The Forth Of July loves his history. He's made numerous movies about real life war stories, he's chronicled two previous presidents during their time in office, and he came out with the 2nd big budget studio-backed 9/11 movie World Trade Center. Each had it's fair share of controversy, given the ongoing accusation that Stone sometimes bends the facts of history for dramatic effect a little too casually. However, what lends W. an added dimension of intrigue is that the president and administration in which it is so intimately depicting (whether it be positively or negatively) is currently still in office. Imagine a movie with this much money behind it being made anywhere else in the world. Nope. Not happening. I can't think of anything more indicative of the cementing of the Bush Administration's legacy than this movie having been made. This also has a stellar cast. Let's hope it's up there with Stone's best. (Take note of "What A Wonderful World" ending the trailer).
FULL BATTLE RATTLE
Directed by Tony Gerber & Jesse Moss
Ugh, Iraq documentary. I knooow we're in a war and it's bad, but how many of these things can we be expected to watch? Check out the trailer for Full Battle Rattle and prepare for it blow your expectations to pieces. Documenting an American army training camp in the middle of California's Mojave Desert, the movie follows soldiers in training, the people training them, and the iraqi actors and actresses who are all working together to form and operate in a simulated Iraq. Not only does the movie's premise sound insanely interesting, the film itself appears to be one of the coolest and sharply funny movies coming out this year. Can't wait for this one.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Directed by David Fincher
David Fincher is the guy who directed se7en, Fight Club, and Zodiac. All his movies are becoming tied together by that golden caramel colored cinematography that strikes the perfect balance of looking interesting and crisp without being too in your face visually. This movie is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald of the same name, and this trailer (the music + editing + shots) somehow work to form a cinematic mood & feeling that I've always associated with Fitzgerald's writing. Something I can't quite put my finger on. Let's cross our fingers the movie itself accomplishes the same thing. I have high hopes.
--- Here are three movies I already hate: ---
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Directed by Peter Sollett
Hey I liked Juno, I'll love this! Look at that cool hand drawn white font! Look at that alternative girl who likes cool music! Look at Michael Cera! Although judging a movie solely by it's trailer and how it's marketed can be dangerous, this one is so blatantly pandering to the Juno audience that it makes tearing it apart somewhat superficially completely OK and fair. Listen to that freakin narrator...not since the summer of '90 have I watched a movie trailer with such goofy, obvious narrating. What makes matters worse is that this guy Peter Sollett directed a somewhat OK indie film years back called Raising Victor Vargas that I remember having a soft spot for. Lame.
College
Directed by Deb Hagan
Ok, so one talky, loud mouthed fat kid, one sensitive, reserved quiet kid we can all identify with, and one skinny nerdy kid with glasses. Box office gold. Those Apatow boys just made this work, let's scrounge up as much money as we can get from excess moviegoers who we can fool into thinking this will be anywhere near as funny/good of a movie experience as Superbad. The dude playing the nerd kid with glasses was a finalist on last years American Idol. He literally got to the final stages of the contest by way of American's feeling sorry for him and his sweet but tragically un-hip vocals, William Hung style. Kid's got the personality of a freaking smiling turtle. But anyway, College is crazy!!
Body of Lies
Directed by Ridley Scott
Ok, this one is a little bit different. I don't have too much of a problem with this movie itself-- Ridley Scott can for the most part hold his own with exciting if not predictable action flicks (American Gangster, Gladiator) -- what makes me mad is freakin' Leonardo DiCaprio's choice of movie roles. The dude is so serious. We get it. It's like he has some complex where he's trying to make up for doing Titanic. It's just annoying how all these apparently "interesting" and "worldly" movie roles he keeps unrolling have become completely predictable and boring. Oh well, at least he has some cool roles coming up in the next few years (including two Scorcese pictures [one in which he plays Theodore Roosevelt], a movie directed by the guy who did American Beauty, and perhaps his most bizarre role to date: a live action adaptation of the 1988 anime film, "Akira", in which the leader of a biker gang tries to save his kidnapped friend from a powerful supernatural experiment) so maybe things are about to be shaken up in the ol' DiCaprio output.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Inglorious Bastards
So Quentin Tarantino has been working for years on a war film based in Nazi Germany called Inglorious Bastards. He's dubbed the script far and away the best thing he has ever written. I'm excited.
The movie has been in the works for a long time, but within the past couple of months things have started to get moving. Perhaps the most bizarre developments to emerge every couple of weeks have been hearing the names of actors that have become attached to the project. If you've seen your share of QT flicks, you'll know that he is someone who places much importance on the actor that is being cast - their acting ability as well as their aura of celebrity. So, with this in mind, the list of actors so far said to be attached to Inglorius Bastards are especially interesting. Check out how random (and potentially brilliant) some of these choices are:
BJ Novak of The Office
Mike Myers of 54 and So I Married An Axe Murderer
Brad Pitt of Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Apparently Simon Pegg was set to be attached (who is apparently Hollywood's new British Steve Carrell...look at this friggin picture):
But because of scheduling stuff, QT has apparently recruited the annoyingly quippy Samm Levine who was one of the younger nerds in Freaks & Geeks and something in Not Another Teen Movie.
cringe
The movie has been in the works for a long time, but within the past couple of months things have started to get moving. Perhaps the most bizarre developments to emerge every couple of weeks have been hearing the names of actors that have become attached to the project. If you've seen your share of QT flicks, you'll know that he is someone who places much importance on the actor that is being cast - their acting ability as well as their aura of celebrity. So, with this in mind, the list of actors so far said to be attached to Inglorius Bastards are especially interesting. Check out how random (and potentially brilliant) some of these choices are:
BJ Novak of The Office
Mike Myers of 54 and So I Married An Axe Murderer
Brad Pitt of Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Apparently Simon Pegg was set to be attached (who is apparently Hollywood's new British Steve Carrell...look at this friggin picture):
But because of scheduling stuff, QT has apparently recruited the annoyingly quippy Samm Levine who was one of the younger nerds in Freaks & Geeks and something in Not Another Teen Movie.
cringe
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Pineapple Express
I saw Pineapple Express a few nights ago and as predicted, we can all chalk up another tally in the solid flick column for Apatow, Rogen & co. It's hilarious and I'd totally recommend seeing it to anyone looking for a good laugh. Yet, the more films I see by this gang, the more I realize how unique their movies are compared to most mainstream comedy flicks these days. I believe Pineapple Express breaks some serious ground in this department, so I wanted to share some aspects of the film that hit me as especially interesting. I want to avoid "reviewing" the movie, so it might be best to read this post after viewing the movie. Here are some thoughts:
- Bluntness of violence depicted paired with comedy. The film as a whole is light hearted, funny and warm, but there is an added dimension of graphic violence that is new not only for mainstream comedies, but for mainstream American films in general. The first instance of this comes as a character unexpectedly gets shot twice in the stomach. Rather than simply cutting away to a reaction shot or a different scene all together (like we're used to seeing), the camera stays planted while a man's stomach absorb two bullets, followed by a frighteningly realistic flow of dark-red blood. The effect is pretty paralyzing-- are we supposed to laugh? Somehow the film creates an atmosphere where the audience is allowed room to warm to the fresh idea that the extreme and at times shocking violence is part of the fun. Eventually, people we've gotten to know throughout the film are killed so graphically and realistically, we burst out laughing when we see their bloodied carcas looking as realistically beaten in as the man in the insane french Gaspar Noe film Irreversible who gets his face smashed in with a fire extinguisher or the man in Pan's Labyrinth who gets beaten so badly with the butt of a gun we witness his face cave in with each hit. It's a hybrid of those moments and this:
- The last five-ten minutes of the film being the Apatow/Rogen brand of comedy filmmaking genius in a nutshell. After a massive, epic fight to escape the bad guys and get out alive for the entire movie, we end with the boys scarred and bruised from head to toe, sitting over eggs and bacon at a diner the morning after. They begin talking and laughing about everything that has happened to them; we hear our favorite moments from the past two hours referenced again and laughed at, but instead of it being with our friends as we walk out of the doors into the cinema lobby, it's reviewed by the characters themselves. This creates an audience-character bond that has made the apatow films hugely popular, which roots itself in being as realistic as possible. We are Dale and Saul-- we'd be in a dinner the next morning too, laughing our asses off at the unlikely adventure that just exploded (literally) into our laps.
- The engine that makes seeing the Pineapple Express an enjoyable experience is constructed by our identification with how the average, everyday characters of Dale & Saul (ie. Us) react to the insane stream of events that occur throughout the first 2/3rd's of the movie. Because the main characters are so much like us, the ordinary movie going public (despite one's individual appreciation or aversion to marijuana use and/or slackerism), we hang on their every choice and action and laugh hysterically when they are put into extraordinary circumstances (like viciously trying to fight off an angry middleman drug dealer in his own home). Yet, the third act of the film strays from this solid formula in a way that seems sloppy and lazy rather than exciting and over the top. When the boys wind up kidnapped inside the main drug dealer's warehouse in the middle of no where, the film morphs into the lame, cheech & chong style two pot heads doing crazy things type of stoner flick it previously did such a great job of critiquing and reinventing. The strong connection the audience held between itself and Dale & Saul is somehow muddied by the ridiculousness of the situation and the ease at which they use automatic weapons to kill bad guys left and right. It devolves into a boring middle state, neither spoofing the late 80's-mid 90's action flicks it takes an obviously tounge-in-cheek influence from acutely enough, nor taking the situations seriously enough to keep our attention in it's palm.
However, Pineapple Express manages to do just what the other Apatow-produced comedy films have done, and that is to set a new standard for mainstream comedy by way of breaking new ground. The breakthroughs are subtle but powerful and will certainly be influential in the construction of future comedy films. These guys know how to write films, and it can be easy to mistake their casualness for simplicity. Pineapple Express is a well crafted story with well-written characters you care about; what makes Rogen, Apatow & gang brilliant is being able to combine these story telling skills with a knack for forming a realistic connection to an audience who recognizes the voice of someone from their generation telling them a funny story.
- Bluntness of violence depicted paired with comedy. The film as a whole is light hearted, funny and warm, but there is an added dimension of graphic violence that is new not only for mainstream comedies, but for mainstream American films in general. The first instance of this comes as a character unexpectedly gets shot twice in the stomach. Rather than simply cutting away to a reaction shot or a different scene all together (like we're used to seeing), the camera stays planted while a man's stomach absorb two bullets, followed by a frighteningly realistic flow of dark-red blood. The effect is pretty paralyzing-- are we supposed to laugh? Somehow the film creates an atmosphere where the audience is allowed room to warm to the fresh idea that the extreme and at times shocking violence is part of the fun. Eventually, people we've gotten to know throughout the film are killed so graphically and realistically, we burst out laughing when we see their bloodied carcas looking as realistically beaten in as the man in the insane french Gaspar Noe film Irreversible who gets his face smashed in with a fire extinguisher or the man in Pan's Labyrinth who gets beaten so badly with the butt of a gun we witness his face cave in with each hit. It's a hybrid of those moments and this:
- The last five-ten minutes of the film being the Apatow/Rogen brand of comedy filmmaking genius in a nutshell. After a massive, epic fight to escape the bad guys and get out alive for the entire movie, we end with the boys scarred and bruised from head to toe, sitting over eggs and bacon at a diner the morning after. They begin talking and laughing about everything that has happened to them; we hear our favorite moments from the past two hours referenced again and laughed at, but instead of it being with our friends as we walk out of the doors into the cinema lobby, it's reviewed by the characters themselves. This creates an audience-character bond that has made the apatow films hugely popular, which roots itself in being as realistic as possible. We are Dale and Saul-- we'd be in a dinner the next morning too, laughing our asses off at the unlikely adventure that just exploded (literally) into our laps.
- The engine that makes seeing the Pineapple Express an enjoyable experience is constructed by our identification with how the average, everyday characters of Dale & Saul (ie. Us) react to the insane stream of events that occur throughout the first 2/3rd's of the movie. Because the main characters are so much like us, the ordinary movie going public (despite one's individual appreciation or aversion to marijuana use and/or slackerism), we hang on their every choice and action and laugh hysterically when they are put into extraordinary circumstances (like viciously trying to fight off an angry middleman drug dealer in his own home). Yet, the third act of the film strays from this solid formula in a way that seems sloppy and lazy rather than exciting and over the top. When the boys wind up kidnapped inside the main drug dealer's warehouse in the middle of no where, the film morphs into the lame, cheech & chong style two pot heads doing crazy things type of stoner flick it previously did such a great job of critiquing and reinventing. The strong connection the audience held between itself and Dale & Saul is somehow muddied by the ridiculousness of the situation and the ease at which they use automatic weapons to kill bad guys left and right. It devolves into a boring middle state, neither spoofing the late 80's-mid 90's action flicks it takes an obviously tounge-in-cheek influence from acutely enough, nor taking the situations seriously enough to keep our attention in it's palm.
However, Pineapple Express manages to do just what the other Apatow-produced comedy films have done, and that is to set a new standard for mainstream comedy by way of breaking new ground. The breakthroughs are subtle but powerful and will certainly be influential in the construction of future comedy films. These guys know how to write films, and it can be easy to mistake their casualness for simplicity. Pineapple Express is a well crafted story with well-written characters you care about; what makes Rogen, Apatow & gang brilliant is being able to combine these story telling skills with a knack for forming a realistic connection to an audience who recognizes the voice of someone from their generation telling them a funny story.
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