Furious on Film Movie News Report 03.19.08
Posted by Arnold Furious on 03.19.2008
Sad news about Anthony Minghella but an assortment of positive news from the wacky world of comics & films. Updates on Narnia, Nick Fury and Dark Horse. Plus a gangster education with Jimmy Cagney and reviews of Outlaw and Tales from Earthsea.
Furious on Film Movie News 03.12.08
Sad news about Anthony Minghella but an assortment of positive news from the wacky world of comics & films. Updates on Narnia, Nick Fury and Dark Horse. Plus a gangster education with Jimmy Cagney and reviews of Outlaw and Tales from Earthsea.
Issue 131
Slight change to the format this week. As the news is what you folks are here for the news will appear first and foremost. If you like you can then hang around for my musings on some films I've seen this week. The usual Furious on Film column was four movies a week. I won't always have time to do that now I have the news to cover as well. So the deal is that I'll do what I can. This week I have bags of time because I'm not working so it's business as usual and four reviews! You lucky, lucky people.
HERE IS THE GNUS
Anthony Minghella 1954-2008
Credit: Hollywood Reporter.com
Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella died suddenly Tuesday at the age of 54. Minghella won an Oscar for "The English Patient" in 1997 and his credits also include "Cold Mountain" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley." "Anthony Minghella died this morning at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, west London," Minghella's spokesman said in a statement. "He was operated on last week for a growth in his neck, and the operation seemed to have gone well. At 5 a.m. today he had a fatal haemorrhage." The acclaimed director most recently wrapped "The No.1 Ladies' Detective's Agency," which he directed and co-wrote alongside Richard Curtis. It was due to air on the BBC here in less than a week. Based on the novel by Alexander McCall Smith, Minghella's adaptation has been made for the BBC and HBO in the U.S. Long-time friend David Puttnam paid tribute to Minghella's career. "He was a really important figure. I'm really shattered," Puttnam told BBC News shortly after learning of his death. "He was a really beautiful man, a lot of fun to be with. He was a storyteller in a classic British David Lean tradition. The performances he got out of actors were overwhelmingly good. This is someone who was a major figure and it will be a long time before we get over his loss."
Minghella had recently stepped down as chairman of the British Film Institute. His tireless work to promote British cinema since his appointment in 2003 had seen government contributions increase and Britain produce more films with larger budgets. The impact globally is still limited compared to films made in America but the investment hasn't been a waste of time. Minghella was never a favourite of mine in terms of directors. Paying tribute to what a great director he was should really fall to someone who was more of a fan. What I can do is tell you he won best director at the 1997 Academy Awards for box office hit the English Patient. He was also nominated for another Oscar in 2000 for the screenplay of the Talented Mr Ripley. He had previously been a playwright in the world of London theatre where he success in the 1980's. At just 54 Anthony Minghella has left this world too soon. Our condolences go out to his family and friends. RIP.
DreamWorks Dragon completes cast
Credit: Hollywood Reporter.com
Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse have signed on to voice-star in "How to Train Your Dragon," the CGI fantasy feature from DreamWorks Animation. Based on Cressida Cowell's first novel in the children's book series, the story centres on the timid son of a Viking chief who must capture and train a dragon in order to be initiated into his tribe. Baruchel will voice the boy, named Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, who is saddled with an undersized and uncooperative dragon. Butler is the father and chief of the tribe, Stoick the Vast, while Ferrera voices Astrid, who partners with Hiccup for the initiation. Hill will play Snotlout, a bully who thinks he should be the next chief, and Mintz-Plasse portrays Fishlegs, a Viking big in size but small in brains.
America Ferrera.
You may know America Ferrera from Ugly Betty. Jay Baruchel is one of the Judd Apatow guys who've been slowly getting their breaks one after another. He was in Knocked Up and should have plenty of work forthcoming because of the success that Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill have found lately. 300's Gerard Butler and Mintz-Plasse (McLovin) complete a fairly cool cast. Dreamworks has had big success in the field of animation with the hugely successful Shrek series and an assortment of others. Although they've rarely hit the critical highs of Disney-Pixar. This flick sounds like a lot of fun and could be the big critical success they've been looking for since teasing it since the release of Shrek in 2001. High hopes here chaps.
Narnia trilogy only?
Credit: IGN.com
Disney could reportedly shelve its Chronicles of Narnia franchise after the third instalment, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and focus its attention on the long-gestating John Carter of Mars film series instead. According to JimHillMedia.com, "studio suits seem to be cooling to the idea of producing movie versions of all seven of C.S. Lewis's Narnia books. And unless The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian does truly huge box office once it's released to theatres in May of this year ... Disney & Walden Media (i.e. Mickey's partner on the Narnia film series) will probably still go forward with production of the already-in-development The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. But after that ... The Mouse would then mostly likely pull the plug on the rest of the proposed Narnia film series." If that happens then the studio will be left with a hole in its release schedules for 2011 and beyond; Disney and Pixar are said to be looking at bringing the Edgar Rice Burroughs literary series John Carter of Mars to the big screen to fill that franchise void.
Ben Barnes (soon to be Prince Caspian and rumoured to be channelling Inigo Montoya to play the role).
It all depends on whether Prince Caspian does well at the cinema. There are big question marks over some of the later Narnia books and whether they'd translate well to film. The reception for the first release was somewhat underwhelming. I think Disney expected huge results on a Lord of the Rings scale. It ended up grossing $291M, which is good but not compared to Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, which cost half as much to shoot and took $314M. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was also met with huge critical response. What probably set alarm bells ringing for Disney was the failure of the Golden Compass. The fantasy movie bubble is bursting with people getting tired of hearing about the new fantasy film. Spiderwick Chronicles, Harry Potter etc. The market is already saturated and the Narnia film wasn't exactly inspiring. The John Carter series has enormous potential and with the special effects available nowadays the Martian sci-fi world can truly come to life. I look forward to the project if it ever comes about.
No Nick Fury anymore?
Credit: IGN.com.
Marvel fans went gaga last year when rumours surfaced -- and were later confirmed -- that Samuel L. Jackson had shot a cameo as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury in this summer's Iron Man movie. But if a new report pans out, Jackson may not have made it into the film's final cut. ComicBookResources.com reports that it was learned during the Mega Movie Panel at this weekend's Wizard World Los Angeles that "Samuel L. Jackson IS playing Nick Fury but his cameo may not appear in (Iron Man). They also confirmed that there is a crossover between this movie and The Incredible Hulk." CHUD.com suggests that the Jackson/Fury cameo would be more likely to appear on the Iron Man DVD than somehow being wedged into The Incredible Hulk.
Nick Fury: black agent of SHIELD!
Hell, it's been shot! It'll turn up somewhere. If it doesn't fit in with the Ironman film then that's too bad but they shouldn't sacrifice the plot just to shoehorn Fury's character in there. Like Venom into the Spiderman continuity or Gambit into the X-Men. These things have to happen organically or it won't work. Although that would be a neat addition to the DVD. I like the idea of Sam Jackson playing Nick Fury. Various fanboy purists are supposedly up in arms about changing a character's race because it didn't work in Daredevil (the Kingpin mess) but Marvel based their Ultimate Nick Fury on Samuel L. Jackson. That's how much they like the connection. When they let a white guy play him it was David Hasselhoff and we all know how bad that turned out. The Fury movie is scheduled for 2010 perhaps leading to some sort of massive tie-in with the Avengers later. If all these projects pay off for Marvel they'll make astronomical amounts of money. I'm already very excited about Ironman. Hell, we're already quoting the trailer at each other ("no gang signs"). It's a good time to be a Marvel fan.
Dark Horse goes Hollywood!
Universal has signed a three-year deal with Dark Horse, which will give the studio exclusive rights to all the comic label's stories and characters. Previously, Dark Horse had sold its properties on a case-by-case basis, with projects like AvP going to Fox and 300 to Warner Bros. However, it seems that the comic publisher's experiences working alongside Universal on Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (the studio upped the budget when they became involved) persuaded it to sign the exclusive agreement with the studio. Dark Horse founder Mike Richardson told Variety: "We've done a number of pictures with Universal over the years, and we have a lot of relationships with the people there," he said. "Since they get the particular genre, it makes sense to go with them."
The only Dark Horse books I have are Star Wars tie-in's. No chance of adapting some of those I guess? George Lucas is quite picky about what gets done under the banner of Star Wars although he allows most things just as long as they're not films. That's his territory. Most of Dark Horse's major sellers are under licence. Stuff like Star Wars, Buffy, Akira and Aliens. Their most original work has mostly been done in film; Sin City, 300, Hellboy. Who knows what they have in mind? Beyond Hellboy 2. Maybe there are some surprises in store from Dark Horse and Universal. This could be one to watch as well.
This ends the week's news.
What do you mean you've never seen ?
Remember in High Fidelity where the potential record buyer is confronted by Jack Black? "Don't tell anyone you don't own Blonde on Blonde?" Well, if you were to enter a serious film buff's rental place, which sadly doesn't exist nowadays thanks to Blockbuster and online rentals, and happened to make a comment about liking movies then I like to think somewhere out there that a clerk still exists who would chastise you for not having seen certain movies. Seeing as that place doesn't exist you'll just have to imagine you're walking into my rental place and happened to mention you liked gangster movies. But what's that? You've never seen
#1 White Heat (1949)
When we're talking gangster movies certain ones are bound to pop up. Goodfellas (which just happens to be my favourite film, ever), The Godfather, Scarface or perhaps more recent fair The Departed or perhaps Reservoir Dogs. But if you look back for some true inspiration for modern gangsters then you look no further than Jimmy Cagney. Hell, in the movie Juice in 1992 Tupac Shakur is there watching White Heat on TV. We're talking O.G. here. While Cagney played many gangsters over the years White Heat saw him hit his highest points. The top of the world if you will. Combining a rich tapestry of his previous characters giving gangster Cody Jarrett real depth. Pained by attention craving headaches, bound to his mother, insanely jealous of anyone going near his wife and completely psychopathic/deranged. Cagney dominates the screen, despite his weaknesses that he tries to keep hidden, making him the flawed character that people can relate to. And yet he has almost no morals and his tenuous grip of reality disappears when his mother is placed in danger. Up to the Godfather this movie was pretty much the quintessential gangster film. Don't go into a conversation about gangster movies without it!
BEST BIT - The End (Spoilers, obviously). Made it Ma! Top of the World!
THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS
Outlaw (2008)
EXPECTATIONS Nick Love has been building a reputation for himself as a British film maker for some time now. Not to be confused with Midlands director Shane Meadows who's work includes Dead Man's Shoes and the recent hit This is England. Love is the guy who did the Football Factory and The Business. The first an accurate portrayal of football hooligans and the second a look at drug running in the Costa del Crime. Unlike Shane Meadows who seems to be showing constant signs of improvement Nick Love is rather going the other way. Football Factory is to date his best film. The Business really didn't measure up to it. Seeing as he gained a powerhouse cast for Outlaw hopes are high for an upturn. He features both Sean Bean and Bob Hoskins in this flick.
TRAILER
PLOT Soldier Danny Bryant (Sean Bean) has just returned from Iraq to discover that the UK has become awash with scum and the law isn't interested. He recruits a few like minded victims like office worker Dekker (Danny Dyer) who got beaten up in a road rage incident and Munroe (Lennie James) who lost his family prosecuting a crime lord. Slight difference there. They gain help from aging copper Walter Lewis (Bob Hoskins) and set about cleaning up Britain.
OPINION Outlaw is a contrived, badly thought out, clusterfuck that starts badly and gets progressively worse until it passes by ludicrous in terms of what happens onscreen. The film goes in so many different directions that its hard to see exactly what we're supposed to be upset about as viewers. First the suggestion is that the UK has become a lawless mess. Then they forget about the whole street war deal and move onto organised crime. Which pretty much makes this a re-tread of a dozen other, better, movies. In fact Love even borrows from his own movies as Danny Dyer has premonitions about getting a shoeing on the streets like he did in the Football Factory. What remains is nothing much at all. The script doesn't do any of the actors justice. Even Dyer gets shafted by the dialogue. Sean Bean and Bob Hoskins are probably just thinking about the paycheque. There are plot holes you can drive a truck through and the characters flip-flop from one personality to another with almost no explanation and at times their actions are completely contrary to their characters throughout the rest of the film. It's badly written, shot with more than a hint of shaky-cam about it and borrows everything that's good about it from other, better, films. Like the shootout with the cops that's straight from Heat. Only complete with a ridiculous beginning where a police marksman can't hit three guys standing shooting at the cops from behind no cover whatsoever. And why on Earth does Sean Bean trust information that comes from a source Danny Dyer's character won't even name? It's a patchwork film that seems to know what scenes are required and pigeonholes the characters into them whether they fit or not. The actions of any of the five "outlaws" change from scene to scene depending on the mood of the scriptwriter and it's frankly a miracle they ever got this shot. I can only think there was a lot of exposition in the scenes that ended up in the cutting room floor because what's left doesn't make a jot of sense. The worst character for me is Lennie James' barrister who literally isn't the same person from one scene to the next. They could have hired a different actor to play him in every scene. It's that bad. Love has surrounded himself with capable filmmakers so it looks slick and professional but every technique that's used feels like it's been used because it's cool and hip. The quick camera moves. The shaky-cam on action scenes. The jump cuts to cover for gaping plot holes (like the miracle/nonsensical escape sequence) There's no soul in this film at all. It's like someone read a copy of the Sun and made a movie out of the stories. I'm only surprised there weren't horoscopes in the middle followed by cartoons and a bit of sport.
BEST BIT The first attempt the Outlaw gang make at having a fight. They get the crap beaten out of them outside a pub.
LAUGHABLE BITS *SPOILERS* 1. Sean Bean sneaking around "undercover" wearing an army jacket in a pub when he's been photo ID'd on TV and the guy he's tracking knows he's ex-army. 2. Them all arguing over methods before Bean tortures and, perhaps, kills one of the team over it. Despite him urging control during said argument. 3. Renting a sports hall to do "covert" training. Subtle. Then not showing any training at all and replace it with Sean Bean ranting far right-wing politics at the assembled potential "soldiers". 4. The head of an organised crime family making a pay-off to low level informant in a parking garage. On his own. 5. The bureaucratic police, who can't do anything about murderers and organised crime, illegally killing unarmed vigilantes. Swerve! 6. Sean Bean somehow manages to get a bag of guns into the country despite being kicked out of the army during a court martial. Where's he get them from? 7. A security guard somehow gets away with installing thousands of pounds worth of surveillance equipment in the hotel he works at in order to watch the rooms. And somehow is watched SO little by his bosses that he allows Sean Bean to live there. 8. Danny Dyer's reasoning for not getting married and getting on with his life seemed to be that he was irritated that someone flicked his ear at work so he'd rather punch him and join up with a gang so he shoot people.
RATING 1/2*. For the level of professionalism. Despite how lousy the film is at least it's made fairly well. I've no major technical issues with the film outside of using irritating camera moves to cover up a lack of quality. I honestly don't know how they've ended up with such a bad film. I would like to think it's just a bad day at the office for Nick Love but his films are getting steadily worse. Next up is his version of the Sweeney. And critics will not be kind if he fucks that up.
Tales From Earthsea (2006) aka Gendo senki
EXPECTATIONS This is the first film from Goro Miyazaki, the son of legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Director of such cinematic delights as Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Porco Rosso and Spirited Away. His son has a huge legacy to live up to. Miyazaki's work was so groundbreaking it help re-mould animation the world over. Standards improved worldwide because of his dedication to animated feature films. Hell, the studio putting out Tales from Earthsea was founded by Hayao; Studio Ghibli. This is the first Ghibli film since Howl's Moving Castle in 2004. The original story by Ursula LeGuin has been refused adaptations many times by the author. She changed her mind after seeing My Neighbor Totoro was interested in having Miyazaki make it. Seeing as Hayao was working on Howl's Moving Castle the responsibility went over to Goro. Although this is Goro's first film he's been around animation a great deal since constructing the Studio Ghibli museum in Tokyo in the mid 1990's. Despite this being his debut film Goro is in fact 41 years old. Late developer I guess. Hayao considered him to be too inexperienced to make this film and the two didn't talk during filming although Hayao attended the first screening and accepted he was wrong. Although that didn't stop Japanese critics from panning the film.
TRAILER
PLOT Teenage Prince Arren kills his father because of a darkness that's covering the land and has to go on the run with his guilty conscience. He meets and is guided by a wizard called Ged (codenamed Sparrowhawk) who instructs him on defeating this evil. They must overcome an old wizard called Cob who's searching for everlasting life. Ged's lessons don't end there and he's equally content to work on the land for his lover Tenar, which is where Arren meets Therru who senses the darkness inside of him.
OPINION Well you can tell its Goro's first film. It suffers from the kind of pacing issues that first time filmmakers often suffer from. Technically it's quite excellent but then you'd expect that from Studio Ghibli. After all everything they release looks incredible. Some of the use of light and reflection are wonderful. It gives the film a rich and vibrant feel. Some of the effects seem borrowed from Spirited Away. The oily goop in that film appears again here as do many of the same sort of dragon flying shots. But the biggest issues lie in the narrative. Immediately Goro seeks to confuse and irritate his audience in the first 5 minutes setting up the hero, Arren, as a boy who senselessly kills his own father in order to steal his magical sword. What a jerk! Then he spends the rest of the film having to rebuild his central character and he doesn't do a very good job of it. There's really no sympathy I can feel for him because I don't understand the reasons behind his actions. Even by the end of the film I'm still not won over by his whining excuses even if the rest of the cast are. And the explanation of how the wizards were losing their powers didn't work for me. Nor did the lack of reasoning behind two of the characters having facial scars. I must have missed something. Is it implied that Tehanu is involved in the opening fight at sea? It's impossible to reason this without spoiling the ending but that didn't really make any sense. And while most Studio Ghibli films lose a little in translation Tales from Earthsea is so confusing that it doesn't work on a base level. You have to understand the source material. It's like 2001 makes virtually no sense unless you've read the book. But like 2001 this film still looks good. There still remain two major issues; 1. As production was somewhat rushed while some scenes look tremendous others don't really have that Ghibli seal of approval. 2. In the words of the author, Ursula LeGuin, the film is "incoherent". Here is a link to her thoughts on the film. She also refers to sentiments and speeches as "preachy", which is something I was thinking about while watching the film. She also makes the point that this is because the characters don't have the time to earn the right to make those speeches. She does have some positives to say about the film but you can look those up for yourself. From a personal perspective I came away from the film more than a little unsure of what exactly had happened, which is pretty rare for me, but that it had been an enjoyable experience. If you're a Ghibli completist you'll want to see this anyway. If you've not seen anything animated from Japan outside of Akira and Spirited Away then check out some of Hayao's better work first. In particular Porco Rosso if you're looking for a recommendation.
BEST BIT The first time I was really digging on the animation was when the king and his men crossed a polished floor with detailed patterns. The reflection of the men as they walked combined with the patterns made for a great visual. Not enough of them in the film for my liking compared to the work of Hayao or Satoshi Kon but nonetheless those moments were there.
RATING - **1/2. Had this been more coherent with a better narrative and improved pacing then we'd be looking at a winner. Likewise if Goro's re-packaging of the original story had paid off then we'd be looking at a winner. As it stands it's just Hayao's understudy making a film that isn't of his father's abilities. Also compared to Hayao's work it's short on action and doesn't have a sense of humour. Goro has a long way to go before he's really a Miyazaki in talent as well as name. Compared to Hayao's first film (Castle of Cagliostro from 1979) he's already got an uphill struggle.
No Hollywood Whore this week as I'm a little pushed for time but I'll try my best to make sure they return next week. Until then
