Posted Jul 19th 2008 6:32PM by Eric Kohn
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Thrillers, Casting, New Releases, Tribeca, Mystery & Suspense, Celebrities and Controversy, Box Office, Scripts, Movie Marketing, Politics
Death is the ultimate dramatic device, but great art doesn't emerge from strong devices alone. In
Take, the directorial debut of
Charles Oliver, the impact of a single, startling tragic death immediately conveys the sense of watching a gravely serious movie, which is definitely the case. However, having immediately provided a tone, Oliver fails to follow up with a story powerful enough to justify it. That's not to say that the experience Ana (
Minnie Driver) goes through after her son dies in a freak accident before the start of the film isn't relentlessly bleak, but there's hardly anything distinctive about the circumstances to make viewers care any more than they would if they were glancing at it in the morning headlines.
Still, Olilver has made a quietly observant work solely driven by the specific needs of two downtrodden protagonists with completely believable motives. In flashback, we learn that Ana struggled with her son's elementary school, which wants to put him in a special needs program. Meanwhile, she has a hard time communicating with her husband and finding decent work to get by. Elsewhere, reckless gambling addict Saul (
Jeremy Renner) destroys his life in a whirlwind of debt. His misfortune, as it's shown in early scenes at a prison where Saul awaits execution, will lead him to accidentally murder Ana's innocent child, Jesse (
Bobby Coleman).
Continue reading Review: 'Take'
Posted Jul 18th 2008 6:03PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Horror, Thrillers, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Remakes and Sequels
The first
Brad Anderson film I saw was
Session 9. (I also spent $27 on the out-of-print DVD, which I've watched at least three times in the last year. It's a
great movie.) And then I saw his dark and twisted love letter to Alfred Hitchcock:
The Machinist. Wow. Aside from
Christian Bale's staggering performance, it's just a rock-solid, old-fashioned mind-bender of a
noir thriller. Good stuff. Most recently I saw the director's train-bound and icy chiller
Transsiberian at Sundance, which (shocking!) I also enjoyed quite a bit.
Which leads us to a logical question. What can Brad Anderson fans expect next? According to
Bloody-Disgusting, the writer / director is not straying far from the genre fare any time soon. First on the filmmaker's plate looks to be
All Lost Souls, which is a "serial killer movie," and then perhaps
Vanishing, which Anderson describes as "a smart post-apocalyptic horror film." Sounds good so far.
But even further down the road, Anderson could be looking at a remake of the 1943 occult flick
The Seventh Victim --
and a Cronenbergian thriller called
Concrete Island, which just might reunite the director with two of his
Machinist collaborators: screenwriter
Scott Kosar and low-key superstar Christian Bale. And to all those projects, I say this: Cool. Get to work, Brad!
[ Thanks to
Bloody-Dee for the cool info. ]
Posted Jul 18th 2008 11:43AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Horror, Independent, Thrillers, Deals, Scripts, Newsstand
The legendary
Wendigo is getting another chance at the spotlight. According to
The Hollywood Reporter, actor/producer
Michael Emanuel is making his directorial debut with
Maneater. The movie begins shooting on July 30th in L.A., although the leads have yet to be cast.
Maneater centers around the famous Algonquian myth of the Wendigo, an evil, cannibalistic spirit. Humans can either transform into it by engaging in cannibalism, or be possessed by it via a dream. If one of those unpleasant fates befalls you, you'll go crazy eating your fellow humans, your hunger never to be satisfied. So try not to dream up a wendigo spirit and for heaven's sake, don't eat the flesh of your fellow humans.
The cannibalistic aspect makes it the perfect fodder for a horror movie, and it's been used numerous times, most recently (and probably most notably) in 2001's
Wendigo. Now Emanuel is taking on the legend, inspired by a story told to him in the 1970's. His version will follow a former FBI profiler who is now working humbly as a small town sheriff. He begins investigating a series of mysterious (and probably gruesome) murders, only to discover that the monster he's hunting may be someone he knows
very well.
It sounds like the best
X-Files episode never written, doesn't it? Or at least a really good issue of
Wolverine. I think Emanuel needs to delay production, and offer it to Chris Carter or Marvel Studios. Both are in need of a good cannibal spirit story, don't you think?
Posted Jul 18th 2008 10:03AM by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Filed under: Thrillers, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, Cinematical Indie
This never occurred to me before, but "train" movies are a really interesting sub-genre. You could program an entire two-week film festival of
train movies, from comedies (The "Three Stooges" shorts,
The General, The Darjeeling Limited) to suspense movies (James Bond, Strangers on a Train, Murder on the Orient Express, Runaway Train) and tons of others. It's the perfect setting for a movie: it's a limited space, but long -- for chases -- and it moves through the frame as opposed to sitting still like a hospital room or a warehouse. Plus, unlike an airplane, there are plenty of beautiful views going by outside. And so, if the train movie is a genre, it follows that it needs a solid genre director to add another potential classic to the list.
Brad Anderson (no relation to me, by the way) is such a director. Like Howard Hawks or Billy Wilder, he has been able to effortlessly leap between dark, genre films (Session 9, The Machinist) and romances (Next Stop Wonderland), and even weird combinations of the two (Happy Accidents). His films may not reach the pinnacles of great art, but each and every one of them represents a good, sturdy, entertaining example of sheer, joyful craftsmanship. Anderson's fifth feature (not counting his early, hard-to-find The Darien Gap) is Transsiberian, a film that I would be proud to add to the list of recommended train movies. The title train runs from Beijing to Moscow and crosses through some pretty remote, snowy terrain; it's a great place for something devious and sinister to happen. (The 1973 Peter Cushing / Christopher Lee film Horror Express took place on the same train!)
Continue reading Review: Transsiberian
Posted Jul 17th 2008 2:03PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Horror, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Shorts, Family Films, Fantastic Fest, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Aw yeah, this is just about my own personal version of Christmas Eve. The first wave of titles for the Austin's lovely
Fantastic Fest has splattered into my inbox, so instead of me rambling on about how great Austin is in late September, especially if you're a massive fan of films gory, scary, sexy, twisted and weird, I'll just direct you to a very handy FF press release.
But not before I say this: Of the flicks chosen already, I've seen precisely five:
Let the Right One In,
Donkey Punch,
Spine Tingler,
Terra, and
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer. A Swedish vampire coming-of-age story, a British thriller about boat-bound terror, an American documentary about a beloved schlock-slinger, a multi-national animated adventure story, and a scrappy little indie full of monsters that Rick Baker would adore. So from just one random sampling, this is one eclectic mixture of movies. Oh, and for the Hollywood fans: DJ Caruso's
Eagle Eye will have its premiere at Fantastic Fest. By only a few days but damn cool anyway. Oh, and a screening of
The Tingler? Beyond cool.
Click on in for the first full press release on
Fantastic Fest 2008.
Continue reading Fantastic Fest '08 Announces First Bunch of Freaky Films
Posted Jul 16th 2008 5:32PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Drama, Thrillers, Universal, Remakes and Sequels
If you're a fan of the 1999 BBC series that turned
Clive Owen into a movie star, I've got some good news. If, however, you're just an average American who has never heard of
Second Sight, then I simply have some news. And here it is:
Universal has decided to turn the series into a movie. Producers
Don Murphy and
Susan Montford have tapped screenwriter
Craig Rosenberg to do the adaptation duty. According to
Variety, it's about a cop "who leads an elite unit that tackles high-profile murder cases while suffering from a rare degenerative eye disease that causes hallucinations and increasing blindness." Wait, the whole unit suffers from a rare degenerative eye disease? Because that's either one amazing coincidence or one really inept personnel manager.
For the sort of movie we might expect, let's note that Don Murphy was a producer on
Transformers,
Shoot 'Em Up,
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and (the very underrated)
From Hell. For Mr. Rosenberg's part, he's a relative new guy who's done a lot of work on
Lost (and he also penned
After the Sunset), but he also has
The Uninvited on the way.
No word yet on who'll be starring as the optically-challenged policeman, but I'm sure nobody would mind if Clive Owen signed up for the job.
Special Note: This project is in no way related to this film. Shame on you for even remembering this film.
Posted Jul 16th 2008 5:03PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Horror, Thrillers
Yeah, you know
John Stockwell. Every movie nerd should. He directed
Into the Blue,
Turistas,
Blue Crush... OK, he played cool kid Dennis Guilder in John Carpenter's
Christine. That's how most movie nerds know the guy. (He's actually been in a whole bunch of movies, like
Top Gun and
Losin' It and ...
My Science Project.) So now it looks like Mr. Stockwell has his next directorial gig lined up, and he'll be working with one of the horror adaptation specialists.
THR informs us that Stockwell will direct
Sanctuary, which sounds a bit like
Sleeping With the Enemy, only with a horror twist: A woman and her son take refuge from her terrible ex-husband, only the island they've chosen just might be haunted. Oops. The screenplay comes from
Stephen Susco, he of
The Grudge,
The Grudge 2, and
Red, and it's based on the novel
Bad Men, by John Connolly. Umm, and based on some of the things I just read at
the novel's Amazon page, it's something I'll definitely pick up once I'm done reading
this very fun book.
No word on why they didn't stick with the original title. I think it's much cooler.
Posted Jul 16th 2008 4:03PM by Matt Bradshaw
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Music & Musicals, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Box Office, Box Office Predictions
It's a good time to be a cinematic super hero, and Jules Verne proved that his work still has legs 103 years after his death, but Eddie Murphy's
Meet Dave died a thousand deaths pulling in a mere $5.2 million and not even making the top five. Here are the totals:
1. Hellboy II: The Golden Army: $34.5 million
2. Hancock: $32 million
3. Journey to the Center of the Earth: $21 million
4. Wall-E: $18.7 million
5. Wanted: $11.9 million
Three new releases this week, and in the very broadest of terms we have one for the guys, one for the gals and one for the kids.
The Dark Knight
What's It All About: Do I really need to explain this one?
Christian Bale returns to the role of Batman in the sequel to the series rebooting
Batman Begins, with
Christopher Nolan once again in the director's chair. There's a new crime boss in Gotham City and he's called The Joker (
Heath Ledger). The two clash, things blow up, awesomeness ensues.
Why It Might Do Well: This will be the movie to beat this Summer. Batman is so ingrained into American pop culture that he's bonded to our collective DNA.
Batman Begins grossed $205 million domestically and $371 million worldwide.
The Dark Knight is scoring 88% over at Rottentomatoes.com and Cinematical's own James Rocchi had
some good things to say about it.
Why It Might Not Do Well: There remains the possibility that people with a fear of bats will join forces with those with a fear of clowns and boycott the film, which of course means more popcorn for the rest of us.
Number of Theaters: 4,300
Prediction: $125 million
Continue reading Box Office: The Dark Knight Arrives
Posted Jul 16th 2008 11:03AM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg, Movie Marketing, Posters
Even though the inevitable
backlash against
Shia LaBeouf has already begun, you have to respect a guy who made his start in flicks like
Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd and made his way to the coveted spot of Spielberg's go-to leading man. Plus, he has a way of making me enjoy films that I normally wouldn't plunk down my hard-earned dollars for. Trust me when I say that it took a lot of restraint not to throw things at the screen during
Transformers, so, I really hand it to the guy. Hopefully some of that magic will rub off on the Dreamworks action thriller,
Eagle Eye. JoBlo now has the first look at
the poster and Mr. LaBeouf seems to really be working the 'intense look' this time around.
LaBeouf plays Jerry Shaw, a slacker who returns home after the mysterious death of his successful twin brother -- gee, do you think there will be a case of mistaken identities? Along with a single mother played by
Michelle Monaghan, the two are framed as terrorists, and are threatened into becoming members of a cell plotting to assassinate a politician. Joining in on the fun are
Rosario Dawson, and
Billy Bob Thornton as the two government agents that are a step behind.
Eye reunites LaBeouf with
Disturbia director,
D.J. Caruso, in an action thriller that was originally on Spielberg's to-do list. Now that we got a better look at the film, the longer
trailer helped ease some of my concerns that instead of
Rear Window, Caruso and company were looking to rip-off
North by Northwest this time around.
Eagle Eye hits theaters on September 26.
Posted Jul 15th 2008 7:02PM by Jessica Barnes
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Casting, Sony
At this point I'm starting to think that
Roland Emmerich must be in possession of some pretty serious blackmail material, because there is no other explanation why
accomplished actors are so ready and willing to star in his films. MTV now
reports that
Woody Harrelson has joined the cast of Emmerich's end of the world thriller,
2012.
The story is based on an ancient Mayan prophecy about the end of the world, but Emmerich's film is no ode to
Apocalypto. Instead,
John Cusack stars as an academic who opens up a portal to a parallel dimension (don't you hate it when that happens?) in an attempt to contact his double and prevent the apocalyptic prophecy from happening. Harrelson will play what he calls a "modern day Cassandra" who has seen the writing on the wall and has been predicting the disaster for years.
According to Harrelson, he will "play a guy who's been talking for a long time, the whole world thinks he's crazy. But he's been talking that there's gonna be hell to pay for what's been going on ecologically and everything." Perhaps this is Emmerich's idea of a little in-joke considering Harrelson's
activist leanings. In the meantime, fans of Harrelson's work will probably prefer his upcoming thriller,
Transsiberian. But who am I to judge? I guess sometimes a pay check can be its own reward.
2012 is scheduled to begin filming on location in Vancouver and is slated for release in July, 2009.
Posted Jul 15th 2008 2:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Thrillers, New Releases, DVD Reviews, New on DVD, Home Entertainment
The Bank JobIt sounds like your run of the mill caper movie. It stars Jason Statham, which means that it could go either way. Yet this flick fell safely on the positive scale -- nabbing itself a
78% fresh rating. Our Jeffrey M. Anderson said of the film: "
The Bank Job doesn't add anything new to the genre, but it delivers everything we loved about it in the first place."Statham plays a hustler in debt named Terry who is trying to even the playing field and go on with life in 1971. One day, an old friend and model (Saffron Burrows) pops by with a tasty, albeit illegal, proposition -- there's a bank that is getting its alarms changed, leaving it open for a nice case of robbery. However, instead of taking the monetary goods, they'll hit the safe deposit boxes. Terry does it, but ends up coming across a lot of dirty secrets that reach from the mob to the British government. Oh yes, and it's a true-ish story.
On the 2-disc DVD, you can sift through a commentary with director Roger Donaldson, Saffron Burrows, and composer J. Peter Robinson, plus deleted/extended scenes, and a few featurettes -- "Inside The Bank Job" and "The Baker Street Bank Raid." The first tackles details about the film, while the other tackles the real crime for those curiosu about historical particulars.
Check out Jeffrey's Review |
Buy the DVDContinue reading New DVD Picks of the Week: 'The Bank Job' and 'Meet Bill'
Posted Jul 14th 2008 9:02PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Games and Game Movies, ComicCon
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I've been to a few conventions before, here in Philly, a couple in New York, and one hazy weekend in legendary Mesquite, Texas. Horror, sci-fi, comic books, and tons of awesome geeks enjoying their own personal flavor of colorful nerd-dom. I enjoy these events, even though my own style of fandom prohibits me from dressing up like Bib Fortuna or Jayne Cobb. (I like to be amicably cynical at these events, so if I happen to make fun of your Buffy costume, please understand it's all in good fun.)
So this past weekend I spent a little while perusing through the
San Diego Comic-Con schedule, and here's what I've got a red circle on:
-- First off, I will try to interview
the female lead of Fox's
The Day the Earth Stood Still remake. I'll be bringing a pair of defibrillator paddles just in case she smiles while I'm in the room.
-- There's an event focusing on the new thriller
Mirrors, which I wasn't that psyched for -- until I remembered who
the director was. Plus if you don't like Kiefer Sutherland I suspect you're an evil communist robot.
-- The Masters of the Web Panel is either going to be hilarious or it's going to devolve into the geekiest bar brawl you've ever seen. Our own
Erik Davis will be discussing the state of internet movie nerd-dom with guys from
JoBlo's,
CHUD,
AICN,
IESB,
Bloody-Dee,
The Movie Blog,
Movieweb,
Latino Review, and (of course!)
Dark Horizons. And since I know most of those lunatics, this should be one amusing little discussion panel.
Continue reading Comic-Con '08: Scott's Most Geekily Anticipated
Posted Jul 14th 2008 6:32PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Casting
Here's some more casting news, courtesy of
Variety:
First up is twenty-something comedian
Dan Levy. He has worked under
Bill & Ted's Alex Winter in television's
Dirty Famous, and on the big screen side of things, we're about to see him play "Snooty Man" in
The House Bunny. Now, on top of acting alongside a scary-looking (in the film) Anna Faris, Levy has
nabbed a role in
Mardi Gras. This is one of those Maxim flicks -- the one
that already stars West from
Heroes. So, this probably won't help his career, but at least he gets to party.
In an entirely different vein,
Boris Kodjoe is signing on for another science fiction role. He's already completed a stint in
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (I wish I was kidding), and now he's
picked up a role in Disney's sci-fi thriller called
The Surrogates. This is NOT that flick where unsuspecting would-be parents
pick an insane surrogate, but rather, the one that just got a
creepy set photo. There is no word on who he'll play in the robotic flick.
Finally, there's
a new gig for one of the sexy ladies from
Grindhouse.
Vanessa Ferlito has picked up a much less gruesome role in Tyler Perry's latest --
Madea Goes to Jail. She gets to play some woman named Donna. But that's not all that we can see her in. She's also got a gig in
Humboldt Park and
Julie & Julia on the way.
Posted Jul 14th 2008 9:32AM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Thrillers, Box Office, Family Films, Cinematical Indie
French thriller Tell No One and American dope comedy The Wackness traded places at the top of the specialty chart in their second week of release, outearning all new indie releases at the US box office this weekend. According to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo, Tell No One made $13,388 per screen as it expanded from eight to 18 theaters, while The Wackness took in $7,258 per screen in its slightly wider expansion from six to 31 theaters.
Tell No One expanded into Chicago, Northern California (Berkeley, Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Jose), Philadelphia, and Seattle. Music Box Films brings it next to Baltimore/Washington DC area, Denver, Detroit, San Diego, St. Louis, and a flock of theaters in greater New York this Friday. It has further expansions laid out for the following three weeks.
The Wackness moved beyond New York and Los Angeles into San Francisco, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, San Diego, Chicago, and Seattle. Sony Pictures Classics will expand the run into four more markets this coming Friday, and then open much wider into 34 more markets on July 25.
Debuting releases August ($6,500 at one theater), Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired ($5,500 at one theater), and Harold ($3,433 per screen at three theaters) rounded out the Top 5. How did everybody else do?
Continue reading Indie Weekend Box Office: 'Tell No One' and 'The Wackness' Duel at the Top
Posted Jul 12th 2008 3:33PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Horror, Thrillers, The Weinstein Co., Home Entertainment, Remakes and Sequels
...and here's where I usually shake my virtual fist at the horror heavens and ask "Why? Holy sweet sausage on rye, WHY the holy hell are they offering up a sequel to
Pulse, which is easily one of the lamest of all the very lame J-horror remakes?" (Dramatic pause)
"Why?!?"But I won't. There's obviously some sort of fan-base for this title, because movie studios don't bang out sequels (even DTV sequels) if they don't expect some sort of return on their investment. If we're looking for silver linings, we could note that both
White Noise 2 and
Wrong Turn 2 were more entertaining than first expected -- but if we choose to go the snarky route we could remind you that
the star of Pulse ended up mocking it (to hilarious effect) in
Forgetting Sarah Marshall! (Dang that scene made me laugh.)
Written and directed by
Joel Soisson,
Pulse 2: Afterlife stars
Jamie Bamber from
Battlestar: Galactica and a whole bunch of actors I've never heard of. (I don't mean that in a nasty way.) I'm assuming the plot has something to do with supernatural technology. Visit
Shock for the brand-new cover art, and circle September 30 on your calendar if this is a title you're after. And hey, at least it's not PG-13, right? Matter of fact:
Rated R for violence, disturbing images, some sexuality, nudity and language. Already it's better than the first one.
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