411 Movies Roundtable: August 2009 Part 1 - Winners, Losers, & More
Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 08.04.2009
The 411 Movies Staff is back to discuss the biggest winners of July, including Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the biggest losers such as I Love You Beth Cooper, and look forward to August releases like Inglourious Basterds, G.I. Joe and more!
Welcome to the monthly 411 Movies Roundtable. With summer ostensibly drawing to a close, there are still a surprising number of big releases over the next couple of months, so let's hope the weather holds out as well as our cinematic disposition. This month, Eric Bana travels through time, Brad Pitt takes on the Nazis, and Channing Tatum helps reinvent a childhood favorite. This month's picture theme takes the obvious route, and wonders if anyone can ever remember what "G.I. Joe" actually stands for.
Let's get down to business...
Introducing this month's participants:
411 Movies veteran Arnold Furious!
Resident über-geek Jason Chamberlain!
The fearless and peerless Len Archibald!
Everyone's favorite movie reviewer Bryan Kristopowitz!
Newly appointed king of the R's, Shawn S. Lealos!
Saturday night at the movies with Steve Gustafson!
Man of many other R's, Jeremy Thomas!
...and I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield!
The Month That Was
Arnold Furious
Biggest Winner of the Month: I'm going with David Yates. He was criticised by many Harry Potter fans (of both the books and movies) when he was hired to see Potter through to its logical conclusion. Didn't exactly deliver with the last film; Order of the Phoenix and the pressure was on. Although the plot culling continues Half Blood Prince seemed to benefit more so than Order of the Phoenix for the trimming down of the source material (hell, look at LA Confidential; movies can remove stuff from great books and still be great movies). Half Blood Prince would be Yates first serious success with both critics and fans but he still has a tonne of pressure to deliver the final two-part conclusion. Although I've never been a big fan of the Potter franchise Yates is looking like a better choice to helm the franchise after this movie.
Biggest Loser of the Month: Fox. I Love You Beth Cooper is another fine example of Fox's dumbed down approach to making movies. Sometimes it makes money (Dawn of the Dinosaurs) but more frequently over the past couple of years it doesn't. Follow the lead of Fox Searchlight and take a risk every once in a while. I'm sick of Fox churning out the same bland nonsense year after year. But they'll never learn if people keep going to watch their movies. Case in point; Wolverine, which turned a healthy profit despite the studio poking their noses into the filming to introduce a bunch of crap into the film and the resultant horrible reviews.
Biggest Movie News of the Month: Another bizarre legal case from Hollyweird this month. A judge has told Warner Brothers that if they don't make another Superman movie by 2011 (the exact wording is "in production") the franchise rights will revert to Jerry Siegel. This is important news because at present there are no plans to make such a movie so Warners will have to rush one through. That's IF they want to retain the rights to the Superman franchise. I personally think they will but getting a movie into production and bringing it out are two totally different things. Look for another Superman movie soon, I guess!
Your Most Anticipated Movie of the Month:Inglourious Basterds. QT rarely ever lets me down. He's becoming a consummate professional when he's behind the camera. Yeah, Tarantino can be annoying when he opens his mouth but he sure knows his movies. Inglourious Basterds is something I've been looking forward to for a long time and was disappointed when Quentin opted to do Grindhouse first. This should be superb.
Recommended DVD Release of the Month: While I've only seen two episodes of it so far the second season of Flight of the Conchords hits DVD in August. As does Scandinavian horror Let the Right One In. Either would be a worthwhile purchase from my point of view.
Classic Movie of the Month:From Here to Eternity. It's frequently bemoaned, often by me, that the likes of Heath Ledger and James Dean died young but no one seems to talk about the tragedy of Montgomery Clift. He ended up dying in his 40's with his career in ruins thanks to his private life as a homosexual. Clift was such a promising talent who starred in great films like Red River. In From Here to Eternity you can see what a great actor he could have been. Quite easily taking over the screen and pushing the likes of Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr and Frank Sinatra into the background. Everyone remembers Lancaster and Kerr on the beach with the waves hitting them but the true star of this film was Montgomery Clift.
Movie Quote of the Month: "I am going to be the biggest Austrian celebrity since Hitler." – Sacha Baron Cohen further endears himself to the American public in fashion movie Bruno.
Jason Chamberlain
Biggest Winner of the Month: The geeks of the world for Comic Con? Geek nirvana baby! One day I will get there. Oh yes. One day I will. I know people travel from all points of the world, so my "But I live in Canada" spiel doesn't carry much weight, but still, it's not the easiest thing to do! It is a dream though. As usual we got some quality stuff from the Con, including Iron Man 2, an Avatar screening and maybe my favorite thing, an absolutely beautiful Chuck poster. Look it up. It is awesome.
Biggest Loser of the Month: Hayden Panettiere. If the rumors of "Claire Bear" wanting to leave Heroes for the greener pastures of film were ever true, the young lass might want to reconsider at this point. The bombing and critical lambasting of one's first starring role (I Love You Beth Cooper) is a pretty tough hurdle to climb. Especially when said movie had a solid pedigree from a popular book by a famed writer in Larry Doyle. Just keep cashing those NBC checks Hayden.
Biggest Movie News of the Month: Sam Raimi directing the World of Warcraft movie. Not being a huge WoW fan... not being a fan at all, really... I am mostly indifferent to the concept of a movie. However, I do love the fantasy genre, and Sam Raimi as well, so combining the two perks my ears up. I do worry for the Spider-Man movies though. WoW will be a project on par with those I'm sure, which means 2-3 years, which means the Raimi will be away from the wall crawler franchise for that long.
Your Most Anticipated Movie of the Month: This is the final knell for the summer movie season, July probably being the high water mark. Not much catches my fancy this month. If anything, I'll say G.I. Joe. That looks like one more popcorn-y good time at the theatre.
Recommended DVD Release of the Month: Have you bought Watchmen yet? No? WHY NOT?! It came out last month! Stop reading this and go buy it or we are going to have a problem. This shit will get real!
Classic Movie of the Month: With the Harry Potter series heading to a killer climax and last month's Half Blood Prince kicking all kinds of ass, I recommend a look back at the second film, Chamber of Secrets. I skip the first one because, well, it's my least favorite. The second one is much better, with Kenneth Branagh delivering an inspired performance as Gilderoy Lockhart and the appearance of Tom Riddle (sort of) as the villain.
Movie Quote of the Month: "Every day, every hour, this very minute, perhaps, dark forces attempt to penetrate this castle's walls. But in the end, their greatest weapon... is you." - Dumbledore warns against the enemy within in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Len Archibald
Biggest Winner of the Month: I didn't say Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last month, and I could give this to Harry Potter's massive opening, but I have to bite the bullet and give the nod to Michael Bay's antithesis to prolific films. I enjoyed Transformers 2 (nowhere as near as the first installment, though), and I have to admit he makes movies for his audience and they come to see them in DROVES. Anti-Bay sentiment from critics and fanboys aside; give the man props for producing a film that people are willing to pay out the ass to see. Whether or not that is a good thing or is reflective of the type of culture we have become as moviegoers is another topic for another day. So Mr. Bay, I tip my hat to you. No sarcasm, I sincerely and genuinely congratulate you for not giving a flying hootenanny about what any of the pundits say and making your case with C.R.E.A.M... Dolla-dolla billz, YA'LL.
Biggest Loser of the Month: Fans of The Karate Kid - yes, The Karate Kid was cheesy 80's fun, but there was no need for this to be updated. I like Jackie Chan, hell – I don't mind Will Smith's kid as much as most, but this has bad idea written all over it, and I can already see the legions of old school fans ready to crane this into oblivion.
Biggest Movie News of the Month: I'm going to go on a different path (I have to live up to my "Arthouse Archibald" moniker) and say the release of The Hurt Locker, which may have started Oscar season VERY, VERY early. Almost every major critic is hailing this as one of the best – if not THE best film that will come out this year. It's too early to tell, but to get that type of buzz this early before anyone is even thinking of the Academy Awards is something that shouldn't be ignored. If this movie plays anywhere within a 50-mile radius of where I live, I will be there to see it.
Your Most Anticipated Movie of the Month: It's kinda hard for me this month; between Inglourious Basterds, District 9, Taking Woodstock and Ponyo, August looks like one hell of a month.
Recommended DVD Release of the Month:Let the Right One In, foreign vampire movie extraordinaire, by a country mile.
Classic Movie of the Month: In celebration of Hayao Miyazaki's new film arriving to the world, I suggest checking out close to any of the Studio Ghibli works, as I feel that is the closest thing that exists in regards to competition to Pixar's basically flawless record in terms of quality output. Specifically, check out Grave of the Fireflies, one of the greatest FILMS (screw that it's animated) ever made... also one of the saddest.
Movie Quote of the Month:"SAY ‘WHAT' AGAIN! I DARE YOU, I DOUBLE-DARE YOU, MUTHAFUCKA – SAY ‘WHAT' ONE MORE GODDAMNED TIME!" - Samuel L. Jackson, gracing the world with the role that would make him a pop-culture GOD as hitman Jules in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
Bryan Kristopowitz
Biggest Winner of the Month: Warner Bros, as they announced a billion dollar box office year so far and there's five months left. The smashing success of Harry Potter 6 and the somewhat okay success of Terminator 4, not to mention The Hangover, helped tremendously. At least we won't have to hear them complain about not making enough money this year.
Biggest Loser of the Month: Sacha Baron Cohen and Universal, as Bruno didn't hit as big as likely expected. Yeah, in the end it will probably make decent enough money not to get anyone fired and Cohen will still get to make movies, but I'm guessing that they thought they would at least be approaching $100 million by now. It'll probably be a bigger hit on DVD anyway.
Biggest Movie News of the Month: Paul W.S. Anderson is returning to the director's chair for Resident Evil movie franchise, directing the upcoming Resident Evil 4. I like the Resident Evil franchise, so anytime an announcement is made in regards to a new movie I'm excited.
Your Most Anticipated Movie of the Month: Wow, this looks like a great month for "must see" movies. G.I. Joe looks like fun, as does District 9. The Goods looks funny, A Perfect Getaway could be cool, the new Tarantino movie is a given, Final Destination 4 in 3-D sounds great, and even though I despise the first one I'm game to see what Rob Zombie has in store for his Halloween II.
Recommended DVD Release of the Month: Kirk Douglas in Ulysses comes out, as does Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, a 2 disc edition of The Mutant Chronicles comes out, a Henry Silva slasher flick from 1982 Trapped arrives, Alien Trespass, The Simpsons season 12 (with a special limited edition Comic Book Guy head packaging), Sons of Anarchy season 1, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money season 2 sets come out, the 25th Anniversary of The Last Starfighter, that Mike Tyson documentary Tyson shows up, as does season 1 of the Patrick Swayze cop show The Beast and season 2 of Life, and finally the great 1980's comedy Screwballs.
Classic Movie of the Month:Weekend at Bernie's (1989): Man, I love this movie. Two guys (Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman) go to the beach house of their boss Bernie (the great Terry Kiser) and end up carrying Bernie's dead body around after Bernie is murdered by a mob guy that was originally sent to kill McCarthy and Silverman. Funny stuff ensues as McCarthy and Silverman try to make it look like Bernie is still alive, just kind of out of it (I love it when the woman has sex with Bernie and when Bernie goes waterskiing). Ted Kotcheff, the man who gave us First Blood (the movie, not the book) showed everyone what a great movie director he could be with this movie, as it's dark as hell but still hilarious in a "light" kind of way. I like the sequel a little better (the sequel is funnier), but the first Bernie is still a hoot.
Movie Quote of the Month: Monty Capuletti: "My mother-in-law, for years I wouldn't kiss her face, I end up kissing her ass!" - Rodney Dangerfield (Monty), "Easy Money" (1983)
Shawn S. Lealos
Biggest Winner of the Month:Harry Potter. $22 million on the midnight showing. This franchise will surpass the Bond franchise sometime next month, in 16 fewer movies. Plus the movie was fantastic.
Biggest Loser of the Month:I Love You, Beth Cooper. The movie barely broke $10 million in the US. It's production studio Fox Atomic was shut down following flops such as 12 Rounds and Miss March and Beth Cooper was just another bullet to the head for the once interesting studio (Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Slumdog Millionaire). It seems no one loved Beth Cooper.
Biggest Movie News of the Month: Ryan Reynolds is The Green Lantern. I don't really like this because Reynolds is already scheduled to portray Deadpool and I feel he is stretching himself out a bit. Deadpool is perfect for his wisecracking personality but I am afraid The Green Lantern may be moving away from Hal Jordan's story with this casting.
Your Most Anticipated Movie of the Month: Inglourious Basterds. Quentin Tarantino can do no wrong in my eyes. Robert Rodriguez also has a movie coming out this month, so that is double the fun. District 9 looks awesome as well.
Recommended DVD Release of the Month:Dexter, the complete third season - I love this show. I do not have Showtime, so I can only see it when the DVDs are released. On August 18, I can finally get to see Season 3 with Jimmy Smits. I can't wait. Also, coming out on Criterion Blu Ray in August is Kagemusha and Playtime.
Classic Movie of the Month:The Jerk - Since there was a movie released at the end of July about standup comedians, look at one of the best movies to be released by a former standup comedian.
Movie Quote of the Month: "I was born a poor black child." - Steve Martin, The Jerk
Steve Gustafson
Biggest Winner of the Month: Comic books! Comic-Con was a huge success this year and everyone left with a renewed sense of "hey-let's-keep-adapting-these-things-until-the-well-runs-dry"! Not just that but the actual comics have found new life as development tools. Executives love the books, since they give a visual sense of what a film and its characters may end up looking like on the big screen. And filmmakers are now hoping the launch of new comics will help promote properties moviegoers may not necessarily be familiar with before the films open. Take a look around; from G.I. Joe to Star Trek , synergy between movies and graphic novels has never been tighter.
Biggest Loser of the Month: Rachelle Lefevre. Poor poor Rachelle. Seems she has denied Summit Entertainment's claim that she had opted out of returning to the Twilight movie series as the vampire Victoria because of "scheduling conflicts." Summit said that Lefevre was being replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard. Then, in a lengthy statement, Lefevre said that she had been "fully committed" to the Twilight series and claimed that her only other commitment involved only a ten-day shoot. "I turned down several other film opportunities and, in accordance with my contractual rights, accepted only roles that would involve very short shooting schedules," she said. Looks like the gravy train left someone at the station.
Biggest Movie News of the Month: Comic-Con! The annual convention of comic book and sci-fi aficionados may have become more important than any film festival in launching studio fare; this year was proof of that. Several producers screened scenes from their forthcoming movies at the annual San Diego event showing Hollywood's infatuation with all things comic related. Director Jon Favreau acknowledged in an interview with 'USA Today' that Comic-Con helped create the buzz for last year's Iron Man and may have been responsible for its record-breaking opening weekend. "This is the most important time for me," Favreau told the newspaper at the convention, "more important than the premiere, the screenings. This is when we show them the gist of the movie, what we've got. If we don't get them now, I'm not sure how you get them back." The news and press this generated cannot be measured.
Your Most Anticipated Movie of the Month:District 9. Early reviews have been great. We get a solid story, interesting plot, and a new director who is going to make a HUGE impression on Hollywood.
Recommended DVD Release of the Month:The Soloist. Completely overlooked, which is surprising since it featured golden boy Robert Downey, Jr. and the always-solid Jamie Foxx. This true-life story of Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx), a former cello prodigy whose bouts with schizophrenia landed him on the streets of Los Angeles after two years of schooling at Julliard. This moving drama touches on the plight of the homeless and the mentally ill, but without being preachy. Featuring two of the best performances of the year, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Classic Movie of the Month:Tucker: The Man and His Dream. A great, overlooked, and forgotten movie. Check it out if you are looking for a good, solid picture. Based on a true story, shortly after World War II, Preston Tucker is a grandiose dreamer with an idea to produce the best cars ever made. With the assistance of Abe Karatz and some impressive salesmanship on his own part, he obtains funding and begins to build his factory. Great stuff!
Movie Quote of the Month: [He reads a note from Will: "Sean, if the Professor calls about that job, just tell him, sorry, I have to go see about a girl."]
"Son of a bitch... He stole my line." - Sean (Robin Williams), Good Will Hunting
Jeremy Thomas
Biggest Winner of the Month: Loath as I am to admit it, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen continues its run and is one of the biggest hits of all-time. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is doing well enough - despite a large second-weekend drop, it's still on par to become one of the highest-grossing entries in the franchise and had the second-smallest third weekend drop of the same - but it's still lagging well behind the Bay film. It grates on me to say this, but audiences somehow seem to like this thing. How sad is that?
Biggest Loser of the Month: The folks behind I Love You, Beth Cooper who saw their film bomb underneath an avalanche of terrible reviews. Not even the relative failure of Bruno helped this teen comedy make a blip at the box office. Looks like it's back to cheerleading for Hayden.
Biggest Movie News of the Month: The casting of Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern has fanboys in a tizzy. Is he too jokey for the role? Is he not a big enough name? Can he act well enough to play Hal Jordan? Will this kill Deadpool? Relax, people. Just sit back and wait until we see more to start condemning this one.
Your Most Anticipated Movie of the Month: Three have me stoked as hell this month. District 9 is one I've been looking forward to since I profiled it at the beginning of the summer in my news report and the trailers released since look phenomenal. Halloween 2 has me ready for more Zombie-inspired Michael Myers madness. Overall though, it has to be Inglourious Basterds, which looks unbelievably fun and should be one of Tarantino's best if previews and advance buzz are any indication.
Recommended DVD Release of the Month: There's Adventureland and Sunshine Cleaning coming out on August 25th, both of which are movies well worth seeing. Dexter Season Three comes out on the 18th, and I'll likely be picking it up. My top choice though has to go to the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Last Starfighter, scheduled to be released on the 18th.
Classic Movie of the Month: In honor of the above choice for DVD release, I have to go with The Last Starfighter. It was, along with Tron, one of the first films to use extensive CGI and thus stands as a forefather to the modern CGI special effects extravaganzas. It's also a hell of a fun film that stands up pretty well today.
Movie Quote of the Month: "Greetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-dan armada." - Centauri (Robert Preston), The Last Starfighter
Owain J. Brimfield
Biggest Winner of the Month: Fans of the Potter, which is on track to becoming the highest grossing movie franchise of all time (although I do have to question the criteria for that accolade; if you include merchandising than surely Star Wars will never be topped). I think we all knew from the start that Harry Potter would be big news in the movies, but I doubt anyone suspected quite how successful it would be.
Biggest Loser of the Month: I'd like to say "anyone who wanted to see Nathan Fillion cast as the Green Lantern", but I think that man's fans are used by now to the studios inexplicably overlooking his singular talents. I'll go instead with Fox Atomic, for similar reasons to my colleagues - the studio's recent pattern of dreadful flops fully contributed to its demise, and there sadly can't be anyone by now who was sad to see it go.
Biggest Movie News of the Month: Peter Jackson teasing a return to the horror genre, a move for which fans of his early work have been clamoring for years. While I do enjoy his movies Bad Taste, The Frighteners etc. I'm no huge fan, but given how much the man has presumably learned in the past few years from working on the LotR trilogy, any new horror movie to leap out of his mind is likely to be an epic undertaking and well worth being excited about.
Your Most Anticipated Movie of the Month: It's a toss-up between District 9 and Ponyo for me, the former looking like one of the most original science fiction movies since... well, Moon, but you know what I mean, and the latter because Hayao Miyazaki's track record is nearly flawless, and Studio Ghibli has one of the most impressive back catalogues in the industry.
Recommended DVD Release of the Month: Jeremy says there's a new release of The Last Starfighter on its way, which is well worth a purchase for a hit of nostalgia.
Classic Movie of the Month: With all the furore about Tarantino's basterds, take a look at the movie that inspired it, Enzo Castellari's correctly-spelled The Inglorious Bastards. Or perhaps, in light of another release this month, you'd prefer the recut American release G.I. Bro.
Movie Quote of the Month: "If you're a Kraut, he'll take you out!" - the distinctly glorious tagline for G.I. Bro.
