Movie Buzz

The only way to convey the absurdity of the film Defendor, making its premier at the Toronto Film Festival September 12th, is to give you two pieces of information. Below is the blurb-narrative of the film, writtend by the festival staff to accompany the trailer (courtesy of ComingSoon.net) and as you read it, I want you to keep in mind that the star of this movie is Woody Harrelson.

“When night falls and danger emerges from the shadows of Hammer Town’s alleyways, Defendor is the only man who stands between us and the drug-ravaged streets. He is the last bastion of decency, the last honourable man: he is Defendor! But he is also Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson), a simple man who lives in the workshop of the construction company that employs him to hold traffic signs. Arthur is a self-made superhero who runs afoul of the law when he lays a beating on an undercover cop, Chuck Dooney (Elias Koteas), who was abusing a young prostitute named Kat (Kat Dennings). Always the hero, Arthur takes Kat to his secret hideout hoping she can help him find his arch-nemesis, the diabolical Captain Industry. Mistakenly convinced that Captain Industry killed his mother, Arthur has made it his mission to track down this enemy at all costs. But in order to do so, he must first overcome his most difficult challenge ever: convincing the court-appointed psychiatrist Dr. Park (Sandra Oh) that he’s sane enough to be on the streets…”

It’s great that Kat Dennings and Sandra Oh star, too, but…enough to save this one?

I GIVE UP ON FILMS. IN GENERAL. I don’t know how I didn’t know about this, but they effin-bleepin did a @##!!*$%&!!! sequel to Boondock Saints. The scarilege is called Boondock Saints: All Saints Day, and will hit movie theaters October 30th. I will obviously go see it because I am a glutton for punishment and apparently masochistic. The film picks up with the McManus brothers hiding out in “the green valleys of Ireland” but return to Boston’s gritty streets upon hearing their priest there was murdered. Not only is Willem Dafoe not in this, but there’s a “sexy FBI operative on their trail.” I think the original is one of the best films of all time. But it’s so incredibly campy I was foolish enough to believe it was safe from sequel or remake. For a second I was surprised they got the originals, Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery back. But then I remembered they haven’t actually done anything since the original and probs need the cash.

This is weird. Warner Bros. has tapped Guy Ritchie to direct their upcoming Lobo, a live-action take on the DC comic about an “alien interstellar bounty hunter.” He’s seven feet tall, blue, rides a “pimped out” motorcycle, and has a teenage girl for a sidekick. This comic has somehow flown under my radar. And I can’t imagine Ritchie directing this. Unless Lobo has a nearly incomprehensible Cockney accent and gets embroiled in an underground gambling scene while his teen sidekick does an awkwardly sexy dance while she kills three members of a rival gang.

On a classier note, The Weinstein Company has just acquired international rights to The King’s Speech, which will star Colin Firth (sigh) and Geoffrey Rush (sigh for different, I-respect-his-acting reason). Firth plays Queen Elizabeth II’s father, who became King George VI, but was plagued with outstanding nerves and a stammer. He recruits speech therapist Lionel Logue (Rush) to help him and they develop a strong friendship, which leads to George being able to step up and lead the country with boldness and power. A 2010 release is planned.

September 3rd, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in Uncategorized | (68)