Jude Law, Robert Downey, Jr., and Rachel McAdams are a fresh cast for Guy Ritchie.
The more people I talk to, the more I realize that Guy Ritchie films are…an acquired taste. They’re not break out hits at the box office, they don’t bring in millions and millions like some buzzed about action flicks. But they’re cult hits. They have a very devoted following, who find themselves these niche films with characteristic UK brutes, complex and sometimes confusing storylines, large ensemble casts, rough and tumble brawling, and sardonic lines. Personally, I happen to think these films, such as Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch are pretty brilliant. They’re a refreshing change from the Michael Bay-esque, special effects and explosions heavy action films we’re used to. They’re a fun vacation into the gritty streets of England, and the action is, surprisingly, more realistic, being more hand-to-hand. Plus Ritchie usually casts some of the best actors for this type of film, from super famous to not-so-famous, including Brad Pitt, Benicio del Toro, Gerard Butler, and Jason Statham.
Ritchie’s next project, Sherlock Holmes, is due out this coming Christmas. If you ask me, people are paying more attention to Ritchie ever since his high profile divorce from Madonna. On one hand, it’s all the wrong reasons for people to go see his film, on the other hand…whatever gets them in the theater. Hopefully people will go to see a Ritchie flick and come out actual fans. Sherlock’s also getting more attention stateside than most Ritchie films thanks to more high profile casting, including Robert Downey, Jr. as Holmes himself - Downey being a more American household name - though I fear his British accent skills for this project. Jude Law will play Watson, and Rachel McAdams is the leading lady, Irene Adler. It was a long, talked about shoot for the film, and between Ritchie’s divorce and a cast everyone knows, there was a lot of free publicity going on. So whether people will flock to the theaters out of true Ritchie film devotion or for more gossip-minded motivation, it’s fair to say that there should be a nice turn out for the bloodier, gorier take on this classic - tagline “Crime Will Pay.” However, as far as the public opinion of the film, I think it’s a safe prediction that Sherlock Holmes will join the ranks as a cult hit - a gory take on Sherlock Holmes is not everyone’s cup of tea, and it will take the mind of someone already devoted to Ritchie’s tongue-in-cheek violence to truly appreciate the film.
July 1st, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in Hollywood | Comments (1)
Cameron Diaz and Sofia Vassilieva
This June, (June 26) we will see the opening of a film that absolutely promises that we will cry, nay, sob. Nick Cassavetes, struggling to live up to his father’s great work, worked with Jeremy Leven to write the screenplay for Jodi Picoult’s book My Sister’s Keeper. They then got Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, and Alec Baldwin, among some fresher faces, to sign on. The result is a trailer, a trailer alone that can make you cry.
Sofia Vassilieva plays young Kate Fitzgerald, the cancer-stricken daughter of Sara (Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric). The doctors recommend having another child to be able to supply Sofia with organs she may need to keep her alive, and so Anna (Breslin) is born. Anna keeps Sofia alive with bone marrow donations and such, but at the age of eleven she now has to hand over her kidney. Having had enough of this, Anna goes to lawyer Campbell Alexander (Baldwin) to sue her parents for rights to her body. This catches the entire family off guard, the parents stuck between their love for Anna but their desperation to keep Kate alive. The trailer is full of heartwrenching clips of Brian and Sara’s marriage disintegrating at a time they need each other most, Kate supporting Anna and the bond between them, and Kate meeting a boy and getting married (looking very young, leading one to believe it’s a marriage before the end).
Basically the film looks utterly heartbreaking, and yet, beautiful. I tend to avoid movies that look irreparably tragic - why put yourself through that especially in an era in which we need escapist films? But this looks like an endearing, poetic portrait of family bonds during the most trying of times. Abigail Breslin amazes me with her ability at her age, and it looks like Diaz might actually prove she can act with this heavier type of role.
Is there the chance that the clips chosen for the trailer played against powerful music got a bigger response out of people than the film itself will? Possibly, but it definitely deserves the chance to prove that concern wrong. This might not be the best writing or the most amazing cinematography, but maybe at its simplest it will make you appreciate what and who you have in your life.
June 29th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in Hollywood | Comments (1)
How many movies do you see a year that you think could actually be the best picture of the year? I mean, sure, you might see some great comedies that made you laugh out loud the whole time, and some horror movies that really scared the bejeezus out of you, but we all know those aren’t Best Picture material. I’m talking epics, dramas, war stories, romances, tragedies, heroes. The category for the Academy Award for Best Picture was already one of five nominees. Truthfully, I feel that that’s plenty. I rarely think there are more than five pictures that could really be Best Picture. That had amazingingly developed characters, edge-of-your-seat plot twists, riveting emotion. Sometimes there aren’t even five, and a random straggler comes out of left field to be nominated. And yes, sometimes there are a little more than five, and some deserving pictures get left out. But ten? I’m skeptical.
The Academy announced the expansion earlier in the week of June 20th. Their reasoning is that they want to give more films a chance, particularly films that perhaps do not live up to the standard Best Picture formula of sweeping history and tragic romance. Films like Wall-E and Dark Knight. In theory, this is an improvement. Often films get left in the dust because they may not be, for lack of a better word, sophisticated enough, while they easily garnered the most acclaim from critics and fans alike. Think about Dark Knight. You don’t assume it to be Best Picture material, it’s a comic flick, but now it’s time for that to change. The Oscars are finally catching up to the times, and valuing the uniqueness and innovation in film. Could an animated picture take the grand prize? Maybe, if it’s truly the best work, and now it will have the chance. Still, ten pictures? I have the creeping suspicions that some duds will be thrown in to fill that out. Bruno, maybe? Okay, probably not. But with ten spots, who will get it this year? Has there even been any buzzworthy pictures? The upcoming Nine? Dorian Gray? Sherlock Holmes? Nottingham? We shall see…
June 28th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in Hollywood | Comments (0)
Yes.
It can be hard to tell what movies in this semi new, gross out, shock comedy genre are worth seeing. Some truly are funny and possess clever writing. Others are just an onslaught of dirty jokes for the sake of being dirty and seemingly, a lot of male nudity. Maybe all of the movies in this genre, arguably helmed by Judd Apatow, are worth renting, definitely worth catching on TV. At the very least, you’ll laugh. But you want at least the hope that a movie will actually be good when you make the effort of going to the movie theater and paying to see it.
Most of the aspects of The Hangover are recycled. The idea of a crazy Las Vegas vacation has been done, the idea of a bachelor party gone awry has been done, the idea of a group of guys that are deliciously toxic together has been done. But somehow, writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore managed to combine these elements with new spins and ingredients: little bit of action, little bit of romance, healthy dose of crime, and a main character bordering on Rainman status but more disturbing. What makes the film kinda great is this incredible cast of characters that only a few places like Las Vegas would allow to realistically coexist: strippers, escorts, gay Asian crime bosses, thug drug dealers, tough cops, and Mike Tyson. And his tiger. Oh, yeah, and an infant. The movie keeps you on a roller coaster of adrenaline - what can these guys do next? - and yet never gives you the feeling that these events are happening merely to shock. As crazy as it sounds, the shockers weave together into an actual story.
Most importantly, the cast of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, and Justin Bartha (though the bulk of the film is the former three) work famously together. They are a believable group of guy friends unlike what we usually see in this film. They are raunchy, boyish, adventurous, and mischievous, and yet we see redeeming, moral qualities we’re not used to seeing in gross-out comedies. The love for their friend, Doug, (Justin Bartha) is undying, and at times of true test, they choose to take the higher road and do what’s right. Their wild sides seem to be all talk. You assume after a few events that they’re going to either beat the crap out of savant Alan (Galifianakis) or leave him on the side of the road, but they actually manage compassion. And it might be the fact that these characters are so human that makes the outrageous stuff that happens to them that much funnier.
Three Men and a Baby: Galifianakis, Cooper, and Helms in The Hangover.
June 26th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in Hollywood | Comments (0)
In tough times like these, you’re not going to spend the twelve friggin’ bucks for just any old movie. And the sheer volume of films released in the summer can prove harrowing and overwhelming. Here I come, to the rescue. In Part One, I will tell you what movies to skip, and -guess what-in Part Two, I’ll tell you what to see. Of course, this is all my film snob opinion, so you can go ahead and defy this advice.
Today (June 19th), the latest Judd Apatow film will fall off of his assembly line: Year One with Jack Black and bird-like Michael Cera (I don’t get the hype, the kid creeps me out). Here, Black and Cera will dance around dressed (shoddily) like cavemen as they tumble through a thin plot of, like, trying to propel society forward and stuff. Leave this kind of thing to Monty Python, please. You know how they put all the funniest parts in the previews? Not even the previews for this are funny.
Photo Credit: www.impawards.com/2009/posters/year_one.jpg
Uh oh, Year One has competition! June 19 will also see the opening of the Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds crappedy, The Proposal. The preview makes me want to rip my own eyes out and use them to plug my ears. This kind of work romance film has been done - with Bullock herself, too. Two Weeks Notice anyone? Nope, I didn’t think so.
On June 24, the new Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will come out. Oh, I’m just too bored to even write about this one. The first was all right but more than enough to quench my thirst for the Transformers. Plus, Shia LaBeefcake is boring and, ladies, NOT hot.
Disney will give us the third installment of Ice Age with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Here’s the pattern, if you don’t see it. The summer of sequels equals the summer suckfest. Look, Ice Age is cute, and with a lack of other strong kids movies out at this time, this new 3-D version will do well. But Disney needs some new ideas badly. This is tired.
On July 24, G-Force comes out. It’s a CGI movie. About guinea pigs. ‘Nuff said. Oh, except that they somehow got Nick Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Penelope Cruz to do the voices. Cruz really has to learn English better so she can read fully what the scripts are about before she signs on.
August 7 will see the release of the much (though less than I would have expected) anticipated G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra. Besides Channing Tatum, I can’t find anything here to get excited about. This is one of those movies that sounded cool when it was first announced, but it’s been so long since then it’s really lost its steam. Now, I think it will just be cool for the die hard G.I. Joe fans and little boys, though I don’t even know if it’s kid-friendly, and the presence of Sienna Miller makes me lean toward no.
Clearly the poster for the G.I. Joe movie is a poster from a late eighties movies with the actors' faces Photoshopped in. Just like the whole movie itself.
Photo Credit: i39.tinypic.com/jsy0qp.jpg
On August 28, there’s going to be a fourth Final Destination, and it’s going to be 3-D. This is a fateful day for me, because it is the day I give up on movies forever. It is, in a sense, my final destination.
June 19th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in General, Hollywood, Movie News, Stars | Comments (0)
Loading ...
