I’m actually half serious. No one outside of WB seems to be saying, “Hey, a Harry Potter delay! What a great idea! I don’t mind waiting 11 months instead of three!” I like the theory in Entertainment Weekly that since The Dark Knight has been insanely popular, WB didn’t need another big movie this year. It’s all Batman’s fault! Or maybe the Joker’s.
I understand the studio is trying to fill out its summer slate, but this still strikes me as a bad idea, if for no other reason than that it will generate a tremendous amount of ill will.
If the studio doesn’t revert to November, I guess that means Madagascar: Back 2 Africa will have the IMAX field to itself after all. Yay! (SARCASM - I can’t think of a family film I’m looking forward to less, outside of maybe Fly Me to the Moon.)
Well, look at the bright side, gang. This way the last three Potter films will come in quick succession: 2009, 2010 and 2011. But somehow I think that’s small consolation.
While Potter fans sigh in exasperation, I will be away next week on my annual Memphis trek. Here’s what’s new in theaters while I’m gone. (I reviewedTropic Thunder Wednesday and decried the attendant controversy Thursday).
At the multiplexes
Mirrors: Hm. Since this is a horror flick, and a bunch of mirrors are bound to break, does that mean more than seven years of bad luck?
Vicky Cristina Barcelona: This has attracted some of Woody Allen’s better reviews lately. I will be seeing this while I am away.
At the arthouses
The Neon hangs on to Brideshead Revisited and The Wackness and adds Brick Lane, about a young girl from Bangladesh who finds the spark in her life fading after traveling to London for an arranged marriage.
Hello, Dolly! is the Cool Film this weekend. The movie doesn’t have a great reputation, but it got some choice exposure by being featured so prominently (and used so well) in Pixar’s WALL-E. So question for Victoria: Does your programmer have a really sharp eye or is this a very happy coincidence? Either way, good going!
Like many disabled people, I’m angry about what Tropic Thunder has wrought, but I’m not angry about the movie. I’m angry about the controversy that has erupted around it.
Many protesters have blasted Ben Stiller’s new movie for its alleged insensitivity to people with mental handicaps. Stiller stars as an actor named Tugg Speedman who made a movie called Simple Jack. Speedman played the character as a stuttering wretch, and several people refer to Jack as a “retard.”
You can read some of the dismayed comments on our review page, or on this very blog, where a Donald Gallegos says, “Don’t support a film like this whose main thrust is to make fun of these kids.” Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, has been especially vocal in his calls to boycott the film.
There’s just one problem: Tropic Thunder’s main thrust is not to “make fun of these kids.” Like too many movie controversies, this one comes mainly from people who haven’t actually watched the movie. Shriver is on record as not having seen it. If people do see it, and are still offended, then I will respect their position, although I still believe any offense is a result of misinterpretation.
I have seen the film, because I prefer to know what I’m talking about before I make my augments. And in no way, shape or form is this movie mocking the disabled. If Tropic Thunder were truly being mean-spirited, I would have picked up on it. Having a mild case of cerebral palsy, I’ve endured little kids making fun of the way I walk, big kids tripping me in the hall at school, and adults who shy away from me when I approach them. I know how that hurts. And I got none of those feelings from Tropic Thunder.
Tropic Thunder isn’t quite the downpour of laughs the trailers promise. If anything, it’s frustratingly funny.
How can a movie be frustratingly funny? By offering occasional bursts of humor that are so hilarious, it’s a letdown when the energy flags. The movie can’t keep up with itself, but during the best gags, I laughed as hard as I have all year.
The premise is certainly inspired: a hapless crew of filmmakers is trying to shoot the titular Vietnam war epic, but it’s not going well. The director (Steve Coogan) cannot control his cast of egomaniacal actors, including the drug-addicted Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black); the over-prepared Kirk Lazarus, who underwent an operation to play a black man (Robert Downey Jr); and especially, the too-cocky Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller).
So the studio decides to up the stakes: they’ll shoot the movie guerrilla style, with hand-held cameras. Unfortunately, the filmmakers stumble upon a band of actual heroin manufacturers, believing them to be actors. In turn, the dope dealers think the actors are from the Drug Enforcement Agency. The horror. The horror…
Some routines in Tropic Thunder are brilliantly funny, particularly ones that skewer the movie business. One of this movie’s favorite targets is awards-bait pomposity. My loudest laugh in the early going came during one of the fake trailers that proudly presented “Five-time Academy Award Winner Kirk Lazarus, and MTV Movie Award Best Kiss Winner Tobey Maguire!”
It seems like every few months, the home movie-renting business offers a new twist. First it was your good old fashioned video store. Next it was DVDs by mail. Then it became watching a movie on demand, piped in through your cable/satellite feed. Now we have DVD rental kiosks, of which Redbox seems to be the most ubiquitous.
Me, I’m a Netflix man, but I’m a little different from the average renter. Unlike 95 percent of moviegoers, I’m actually LEAST interested in the new release section. Since I’m fortunate enough to have watching movies as part of my job, I see most everything theatrically. So I use Netflix mostly to catch up on older movies I’ve not seen.
I tried video on demand a few times, but I’ve found playback is a little funky lately, so I tend to avoid it. On the other hand, video on demand does force you to watch the movie soon, whereas Netflix enables me to be lazy enough for me to keep movies for months on end. I’m sure that ain’t just me.
I haven’t tried Redbox yet, but I like the idea of being able to reserve movies from home before you actually go out. Still, Redbox is all new releases, so again, I would get that only if I needed a movie pronto.
And brick and mortar stores? I can’t remember the last time I rented from one. I’ll go in there occasionally to pick up used DVDs on the cheap, but otherwise, I don’t see the need anymore. Seems the industry doesn’t either. Remember when you used to be able to rent from gas stations?
So which approach do you prefer? Or do you mix and match? Why? Clue me and your other readers in, maybe you’ll give us ideas or venues we haven’t thought of.
And to add to the fun, if you feel so inclined, tell me what your’re watching lately. Here’s the top of my Netflix queue, after the jump.
I like to call myself a Star Wars fan, but not a fanatic. I’m not one of those people that obsesses over Han shooting first, or pines for the original version of “Lapti Nek” from Return of the Jedi. (Although I guess I’m geeky enough that I even know the name of that song.)
Still, I do own every Star Wars film on DVD. Moreover, I’m what’s known as a “prequel apologist,” meaning that I actually like Episodes I, II and III. Yes, even The Phantom Menace, Jar-Jar, Jake Lloyd and all.
So why can’t I get excited about Star Wars: The Clone Wars, opening on Friday?
The trailer for it instantly underwhelmed me.
That animation just looks - cheap. It SCREAMS “direct-to-DVD knockoff that’s getting a theatrical release.”
The reviews so far aren’t encouraging. Variety says: ” … there’s little doubt this stuff will look more at home on the tube than it does on the big screen, since one thing is for sure: This isn’t the “Star Wars” we’ve always known and at least sometimes loved.”
The Hollywood Reporter says: “Frankly, given the newer installments’ increasing reliance on computer-animated effects, the transition from live action to animation isn’t really all that dramatic.”
And then, most witheringly of all, Harry Knowles at Ain’t It Cool News put up a review over the weekend (since yanked-hmm) that contained the pungent phrase. “I hated a Star Wars. That F - - - sucks. ” His review was pulled off the site, but for now, it can be found here.
Good god. If the amazingly forgiving Knowles can’t get into it, what hope is there for the rest of us?
What do you think? Are you interested? I’m not even sure it’ll crack $100 million at the box office. I have a bad feeling about this …
I cannot claim to have been a particular follower of Bernie Mac’s, especially since he gained more fame in TV than in movies, but I can say that he was always someone I was glad to see on the big screen, whether it was in Bad Santa, the Oceans franchise, or especially, his routine in The Original Kings of Comedy. And it makes me sad that I won’t get to see him in something new. I was especially disheartened to read that complications from pneumonia took him. We lost Jim Henson in a similar way. George Clooney put it best: “The world just got a little less funny.”
If you’re looking for a movie review, I wrote about Pineapple Express on Wednesday, when it opened. It’s a terrific stoner comedy from the Judd Apatow crew - and it’s cinematic to boot.
No, today, I’m here to talk about more genteel matters - like Audrey Hepburn weekend at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton. Instead of playing the same film all three days,Victoria plays a different movie each day.
Tonight, it’s Billy Wilder’s Sabrina. Many love the film, although Wilder and Humphrey Bogart did not, as the two of them didn’t get along. But even if Wilder and Bogie weren’t firing on all thrusters, Audrey certainly was. Even an image as simple as Audrey spinning and spinning in a chair remains indelible the way she does it. Referring to Hepburn’s entrance in the film, Cameron Crowe wrote “Today, when many a newly arriving ingenue is heralded as ‘the new Audrey Hepburn,’ it is this moment the Hollywood yearns to recapture … and never quite can.”
On Saturday, the film is Charade. Many people talk about how Hitchcockian it is, but honestly, I couldn’t see Audrey in a real Hitchcock movie. She had a different air than the Hitchcock blondes. She wasn’t the “snow-covered volcano” that the director seemed to favor. However, she did match Cary Grant’s style and grace better than any other female costar of his, which is a large part of why the film works so well.
Sunday’s movie is Roman Holiday. Never mind Breakfast at Tiffany’s and forget the endlessly overrated My Fair Lady. For my money, this is still the quintessential Audrey film. If someone asks me “What made Audrey Hepburn so great?” this is the movie I would show. Is there any other actress who could seem so refined, so elegant, and yet so lovable and adorable at the same time? Simply, put, no.
After reflecting on the comments below, I just HAD to add this scene, which may be my single favorite moment of Audrey’s: Her rendition of “Moon River” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The scene is direct, heartfelt and deeply charming - because that’s what Audrey still is.
For discussion: Tell me your favorite Hepburn films and what her appeal is to you.
Centerville vs. Lakota East
Freshmen move-in day
Bodies ... The Exhibition
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+100. Respect. ;)