411 Fact or Fiction Movies/TV 1.20.12: Week 314

Posted by Ben Piper on 01.20.2012

Will Underworld Awakening be the best film in the franchise? Is a Goodfellas TV show a good idea? Will Haywire make Gina Carano a star? Will Red Tails be better than the commercials make it seem? 411's Trevor Snyder and Dimitri Drolis debate these topics and more in this week's 411 Fact or Fiction: Movies!



And it's time for the Fact or Fiction thing once again. This week brings us Trevor Snyder and Dimitri Dorlis to the festivities. Let's see what they have to say…



1. Underworld: Awakening will be the best installment of the franchise.

Dimitri Dorlis: Fiction. Although, to be fair, I'm not the biggest fan of the Underworld franchise, and it's been a while since I've seen most of the movies, but the first one set the standard for the rest of the series, and I actually liked the one with Rhona Mitra in the lead role. The one thing Awakening has going for it is the new plot throwing humans into the mix, which should open the doors for a lot better storytelling and expansion on the universe that has been created. Plus the fight scenes look over the top enough to be good. It's a tentative fiction mostly because I have no idea how good the execution of a good plot idea is going to go, and I have to assume the worst with any sequel.

Trevor Snyder: Fiction. As an unabashed Underworld fan, I freely admit I'll be checking out Awakening, and hoping for the best. But I also have to admit my enthusiasm is pretty mild at the moment. Partly it's the feeling that Underworld simply a franchise whose time has come and gone, and I worry that this one will feel like a desperate attempt to make it "hot" again. That probably explains the bizarre (in my opinion) decision to ignore the more obvious story possibilities hinted at by the end of the second installment, and instead move the franchise 12 years into the future for a new "direction." Unlike Dimitri, I'm not necessarily excited about this decision - having this now just be another "humans hunting monsters" movie seems a depressingly safe choice, and the news that Michael Corvin will appear only briefly and be played by a different actor and not Scott Speedman already suggests the sort of disregard for the previous films that always kind of gets on my nerves. Look, this is Underworld we're talking about here, so it's not like there's a ridiculously high-standard to live up to, and I imagine this will be an entertaining enough waste of time. But the best of the bunch? I doubt it.


Score: 1 for 1

2. You'd be interested in another Bruce Almighty sequel if Jim Carrey returned to play the title character.

Dimitri Dorlis: Fiction. Oh god no. Listen, the first Bruce Almighty was pretty good, but that was what, 9 years ago? The time for a sequel of any worth has long passed. In all seriousness, Jim Carrey is looking for work and is trying to live off of past successes (supposedly he is also trying to do a new Dumb and Dumber movie as well), but he had the chance when the movie was popular to do a sequel, and decided against them then. And then we got Evan Almighty, which was a poor substitute at best. So no, I'm already over this and I haven't even seen a trailer yet.

Trevor Snyder: Fiction. I'm with Dimitri on everything except for the first Bruce Almighty being pretty good. Personally, I was never really a fan of that film, and so there would be absolutely no reason for me to get excited for another one. Although, sure, I'll admit that - given the choice - I suppose I'd much rather have another Bruce Almighty out there instead of another Evan Almighty. But, really, it's time for Carrey to realize his manic style of comedy just isn't "in" anymore, and start trying to concentrate on finding more films like Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Score: 2 for 2


3. A Goodfellas TV series is a great idea.

Dimitri Dorlis: Fact. You know, originally I was going to say fiction, but the more I thought about it, the more I figured a Goodfellas tv series could work. There's enough story there to last a few seasons, and who says the showrunners can't delve into stories from other famous crime families. The one problem that a Goodfellas tv series will run into is the inevitable comparisons to the Sopranos, but I'm sure there'll be enough to differentiate the two.

Trevor Snyder: Fact. I'm always hesitant about that word "great" when just speculating about something. But sure, this could turn out pretty well. As Dimitri said, there are enough characters and time-leaps in Scorsese's film to justify spreading the tale out over a few seasons. While I highly doubt the end result would rival the film, it could at least be one of the better shows on television, if handled correctly. The tough part - besides the aforementioned comparisons to Sopranos - will be finding actors good enough to make us temporarily forget the iconic performances of Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro while we watch the show.

Score: 3 for 3

Switch!!!



4. Haywire will not only be a very good action thriller, but it will also sport a star turn for former female MMA champion Gina Carano.

Trevor Snyder: Fiction. I do think Haywire will be a very good action thriller, but I'm not as convinced it will have any real ramifications in terms of making Carano a star. After all, Sasha Grey's work in Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience was well-received, but how many other dramatic films have you seen her appear in since? Soderbergh has basically admitted this was another one of his experiments - to build an action movie around somebody he just saw on TV one night and was captivated by. Will other directors see the same potential in Carano? The reports that her voice was "altered" in the film already slightly suggests questionable acting abilities, and it will be easy to attribute any success the film has to the rest of its all-star cast. It just feels like an uphill battle for this movie to turn Carano into the next big star.

Dimitri Dorlis: Fiction. If you had cut this off at the first part, it would have been a fact, but I just can't see Gina Carano making a transition into a successful movie career with this. The movie has enough star power in it to make it good (and, I'm going to be honest here, I will watch any movie with Ewan McGregor in it), but no one's going to go watch this movie because Gina Carano is a great actress. The most she has going for her is her looks (and those are some pretty damn good looks), but as far as charisma and acting talent, I'm just not seeing it. Maybe Ms. Carano will prove me wrong. But I doubt it.

Score: 4 for 4

5. You'd be interested in watching a Metallica 3-D concert movie.

Trevor Snyder: Fiction. I'm pretty much over 3D in regular movies, let alone concert movies (which have never really interested me in the first place - if I want to see a concert, I'll go to a concert). Plus, now is definitely the wrong time to ask this, as after their horrendous collaboration with Lou Reed, the idea of anything involving Metallica is the exact opposite of appealing. I'll pass, thanks.

Dimitri Dorlis: Fiction. I already don't like 3D movies just out of habit, plus having to pay extra money just to get the ability to wear glasses and have something fly at me once every 20 minutes is not my idea of a good time. Combine that with a disdain of concert movies (except for J-Beib's movie. Went to 5 screenings of that), and you have what is going to be a bad time. I don't even know how you would do a 3D concert movie. Would the guitar neck just fly at you at random points? Does the drummer randomly throw his sticks at the audience just to get them to jump? This is also a fiction because Metallica is desperate for something good to happen after their terrible collaboration with Lou Reed, so selling out and doing a concert movie is something, I guess.

Score: 5 for 5

6. Red Tails will be a lot better than the trailers and commercials make it out to be.

Trevor Snyder: Fiction. I guess I haven't really been paying any attention to the trailers and commercials. Have they been making the film look noticeably bad? I honestly don't know. So I'm just gonna take a wild stab in the dark on this one and guess that Red Tails will be exactly as good as the trailers might suggest. Since I haven't seen any of them, I can't say for sure whether that's good or bad. Even if I went and watched them right now, I would have no other info to make me believe the film might be better. Heck, if anything, what I do know about the film would probably suggest that it's going to be worse than the trailers suggest. And yes, I'm talking about the involvement of George Lucas, who I simply no longer trust on any sort of film-making level.

Dimitri Dorlis: Fact, but only because it couldn't possibly be any worse. The one thing I've gleaned from the trailers, besides from the fact that they apparently fight, is that it's a movie about airplanes during one of the World Wars. I'm gonna go with WWII on this one. Beyond that, though, there isn't a lot to go off of. Plus, Lucas's recent track record has not been very good. So there's a lot of negative aspects already surrounding the movie. But I think it'll be a good movie. Or at least be an entertaining one, in the same vein of other action movies. And hey, maybe this will become the signature fighter pilot movie of the year!

Final Score: 5 for 6

And with that, Dimitri and Trevor agree more often than not. Thanks to them both for stopping by, and see all of you again next week!
-BP

TWITTER

http://www.twitter.com/411s_Ben_Piper
http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma