Furious on Film Movie News 07.09.08

Posted by Arnold Furious on 07.09.2008

Foul Play remake, the possibility of Alien 5, Yorkshire Ripper trilogy, Joss Whedon’s future project, Wanted sequels, bucketloads of Sweeney Todd feedback, reviews of the Counterfeiters and Over the Hedge and Jennifer Jason Leigh joins the Hollywood Whores.

Furious on Film Movie News 07.09.08

Foul Play remake, the possibility of Alien 5, Yorkshire Ripper trilogy, Joss Whedon's future project, Wanted sequels, bucketloads of Sweeney Todd feedback, reviews of the Counterfeiters and Over the Hedge and Jennifer Jason Leigh joins the Hollywood Whores.

Issue 147

Seems I caused a bit of a stir last week with my comments about Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. Seeing as there was such a series of complaints I figured I'd address them here in the column for this week's intro.

Sweney todd a FAILURE?!?!!!!

ARE YOU DAFT!!!!!!!!!

Best movie musical thingy ever
Better than chicago (SHIT) or dreamgirls

Posted By: Guest#6286 (Guest) on July 02, 2008 at 12:13 AM

I didn't at any point say I thought it was worse than Chicago, which I absolutely hate, or Dreamgirls. The latter of which I reviewed here. You'll notice I called it "shallow" and "overrated" and issued it *3/4, which is less than I gave Sweeney Todd.

you do know that sweeney todd is based of the broadway musical right, so burton didn't have much of a choice in making it that way

Posted By: Guest#5351 (Guest) on July 02, 2008 at 12:16 AM

Yes, Sweeney Todd is based on a musical. That doesn't mean it has to play as a musical movie. I thought it had enough substance to work without some of, or even better most of, the musical numbers. There are a few musical numbers that you could have kept in but basically the movie is better when they're not singing. After all Burton hired actors not singers for that very purpose.

Well, I respect your opinion on Sweeney Todd...because you are allowed to have one. However, I disagree on your opinion on it being a failure. Being a hit or miss isn't decided by your opinion. You are not God. You need to remember that.

Posted By: David (Guest) on July 02, 2008 at 03:24 AM

Maybe failure wasn't the right word but for my two cents I thought it failed at what it set out to do; be a really different musical. The scenes without music are different but the actual musical numbers come across as tame and safe for the most part. Yeah, there are a couple that don't but the love songs between the kid and Joanna were really nauseating. Also you could look at box office where it just about scraped over it's $50M budget with a $52M run in the US. It actually did quite well worldwide though scoring double overseas. Personally I think it's a failure. Obviously a lot of other people disagree. If we're playing a percentage game then I cheerfully withdraw the "failure" tag.

I'm a big fan of Depp and Burton. I LOVED Sleepy Hollow...

I was expecting this to be slightly akin to Hollow. It sucked bad. I'm totally with you. The singing killed it. It was like a musical without any catchy tunes, no good singing and horrible music.

I mean... Who hires Danny Elfman to do creepy soundtracks and then has random ochestra music kick in for songs... Sometimes Elfman's score would disappear, sometimes it'd be playing while the othe rmusic was playing na dthey were singing those horrible songs...

Just an utter disaster. My GF really wanted to see it. She fell asleep 3 times trying to watch it. I couldn't even sit through it all and had to listen to it time and time again and just thought it sucked every time.

Not even the great Alan Rickman could save that mess.

Posted By: Sweeny Sucks... (Guest) on July 02, 2008 at 04:59 AM

Interesting point where you say it has no catchy tunes. I thought that was odd as well. There's no number that really sticks out in the memory. Just the one line of "I will have vengeance" from the one song that appears in the trailer.

Wow. This might be the first time I really disagree with your reviews, AF. Of course, I know they're always just your opinions, but I usually tend to go exactly the way you do. Not this time, though.

Personally, I was a huge fan of Burton's "Sweeney Todd". Depp surprised me by actually having a pretty good singing voice. He draws you into the show. I wonder if your review would have been better if you'd gone into the viewing of it knowing that it was a Broadway play, and not just a Tim Burton creation.

Posted By: Andrew (Guest) on July 02, 2008 at 09:17 AM

I knew about the Broadway play and probably should have mentioned that during the review. I felt the musical aspect could have been ditched to be honest although there may have been contractual obligations preventing that from happening. I wasn't worried about the singing. I thought both Depp & Bonham-Carter did well with what they had. But I don't particularly rate the songs.

Of course sooner or later everyone will disagree on ONE movie at least. My best friend Redje loves the movie Existenz. I think it's toss. I'm sure he hates a movie I really like but in general, 95% of the time, we agree.

Arnold, let me start by saying that you are my favorite writer in the movie zone. I almost NEVER disagree with you, but today I do. Sweeney Todd wasn't as bad as you say...it was worse. Far worse. I think you are just being nice to your (admittedly tasty) crush Helena when you awarded it **1/2. It was an atrocious, pathetic, ill-conceived waste of time, and it made me actively NOT want to see the stage version, and it damn near ruined me on musicals (a guilty pleasure of mine) forever. I'm ashamed that you almost liked this movie. ;O)

Posted By: Deano (Guest) on July 02, 2008 at 12:00 PM

Deano, let me start by saying "thanks". I don't really care for musicals anyway so I wouldn't have been persuaded to check one out based on this film. I just wanted to see how the conversion worked out. Basically I didn't hate it but I didn't like it either. I wanted to convey that middle ground with the rating. The whole movie I was wobbling between ** and *** and ended up just plumping for the safe middle. I didn't particularly want to give it a worse review than Evan Almighty for example, which was a far bigger waste of my time.

In conclusion. I felt Sweeney Todd didn't work as well as I would have hoped for although there are a lot of entertaining aspects to it. As always my review is my opinion and some people are looking at me like I'm insane but there were other well respected reviewers who disliked Sweeney Todd. I'm not out there on a limb by myself here. Dennis Schwartz, Robert Roten, Erik Childress, Boo Allen, John Beifuss, Steven Winn, Lawrence Toppman, John Rosenblatt, Carrie Rickey, Tom Long, Armond White and James Berardinelli all gave it bad reviews. Most of them far more scathing than I was. Boo in particular complained about making a musical with three actors who can't sing. Seemed a little harsh to me. If you enjoyed the movie, good for you, if we were all the same life would be boring. I personally didn't and it's my column. Thanks for reading.

Oh and check out the latest Series Link column. It covers a lot of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. Enjoy.

HERE IS THE GNUS



Keeping it in the family

Credit: Hollywoodbacklash.com

Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey have become this generations Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. Or something like it. They've starred together in two romantic comedies already, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and Fool's Gold, and they are now working on their third.

Although it's in the early stages, Kate has confirmed that she and Matty are planning to star in a remake of her mother's 1978 comedy Foul Play. In the original flick Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase star as a ‘shy librarian and a bumbling cop that fall in love and sold cases involving albinos, dwarves and the Catholic Church.'

After reading that, I think I'm more excited to head over to Blockbuster to get the original than I am to see Kate and Matt reprise those roles. While I can totally see Kate as a shy librarian, not sure I buy Matt as a bumbling cop.



Interesting news story or excuse to post a picture of Kate Hudson in a bikini…you decide! I'm a fan of the Chevy Chase/Goldie Hawn original. I can't see McConaughey being able to replicate a Chevy Chase performance but I'm sure Kate Hudson will do a decent job of playing her mother. It shouldn't be a stretch. Of course if we're now into re-making average films as well as good ones sooner or later Hollywood might actually remake something better than the original. There's some food for thought. But I don't see that happening here and much like the previous two Hudson/McConaughey team-up's I won't be watching. I don't get McConaughey's appeal anyway. He never seems to make anything remotely ambitious.

Now THIS I didn't see coming…someone needs a hit

Credit: OK Magazine.

We've had Indiana Jones, Rocky and Rambo wheeled out from retirement. Now, as she approaches her 60s, Sigourney Weaver is craving a piece of the "comeback" pie.

The Hollywood actress is considering resurrecting her most famous character – shaven-headed, muscle-bound Alien heroine Ellen Ripley.

"I would definitely do another if I had a director like Ridley Scott and we had a good idea," she says of the classic sci-fi movie franchise. "Ridley is enthusiastic about it."



The big question is; how much damage have the AVP films done to the Alien franchise? Or do people just look at the AVP films and see them as a big messy crossover that doesn't really relate to the plot of the Alien or Predator franchises? Personally I hope the latter because I love all four Alien movies even if the last two didn't work out entirely well. And there is potential for Ripley, albeit a cloned version, to be around for a fifth film because she's not dead. Well, Ripley is dead but the clone seemed fine at the end of Alien: Resurrection. There were a few other characters left alive too. And if Ridley Scott is interested in returning to the franchise we might get a slow paced, creepy and tense deep space thrill ride all over again!

Sigourney herself wasn't thrilled with the idea before though. Ever since Alien 4 over 10 years ago she's turned her nose up at the franchise. She did so even after Aliens wanting to do the third film only if her character could die. Then the fourth one if she got to make love to an alien. Weirdo. When asked about AVP she had more derogatory things to say. Seeing as Ripley has run the gamut of emotions and levels of durability it's hard to say where the character can go next. It'd have to be a great script before they even thought about making it but the idea of Aliens running around on Earth has now been done, twice, by AVP. Perhaps returning to the stark reality of Alien once more? I'll keep one eye peeled for news on this.

Yorkshire Ripper slices his way onto the big screen

Credit: Variety.

U.K. pubcaster Channel 4 is prepping a trilogy of films revolving around the hunt for the notorious Yorkshire Ripper serial killer. The three crime films Revolution Films is producing for Channel 4 are based on three of the four books in British novelist David Peace's "Red Riding Quartet," which is set in Yorkshire in the 1970s and early ‘80s. Storylines cover police corruption and perversion of justice in the hunt for the Ripper from 1975 until his detection in 1981, when Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women. He is serving multiple life sentences.

Three directors, all of whom have previously worked with Film 4 on features, are aboard to helm the project, which is budgeted at $10 million in total. Julian Jarrold ("Becoming Jane") will direct "Nineteen Seventy Four," James Marsh ("Man on Wire") will direct "Nineteen Eighty" and Anand Tucker ("And When Did You Last See Your Father?") will direct "Nineteen Eighty Three."

Tony Grisoni, who wrote the screenplay for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," has adapted the three Peace books. Elements from Peace's second book -- "Nineteen Seventy Seven" -- will be woven into the three pics.



Interesting to prepare three films on the subject. It's certainly an ambitious move by Film Four. The murders haven't had much in the way of film coverage. It'll be really interesting to see if they actually cast someone as Sutcliffe and whether they play on his very real weirdness. He claimed God told him to kill people, was a paranoid schizophrenic and told people "the women I killed were filth - bastard prostitutes who were littering the streets". Nice guy. Bit crazy. I'm also hoping he gets no sympathy but is played by someone really good.

Joss Whedon changes priorities

Credit: MTV

Whedon is moving on to a new movie project Cabin in the Woods, which he co-wrote with "Buffy" alum and "Cloverfield" scribe Drew Goddard. "It's genius, it's funny," Goddard said. "It's got a harder and darker edge, but it's also got classic Whedon qualities. It'll rip your heart out and be heartfelt at the same time." Enough with the hype, what's it about? "There's a reason the title is so straightforward," Goddard teased. "It's its own sub-genre, the cabin in the woods, and this is sort of our take on it. It's fresh and new."

Whedon, who said the pair are close to going out with the project, is also wearing a producer's hat on this one; he said doing double duty is "very hard." "Writing is like a cave," he explained. "You have to go very far down, and you have to have time to get down there and come back up. But producing, that means you're involved with everything. Right now, that has more to do with very preliminary stuff, budgeting and whatnot, but it's still another thing on the list that keeps you having enough time to get into your artistic head." Don't worry, Goddard assures us, it'll be worth the wait. "That man is a genre all to himself," he said. "He's comedy, horror, drama, all at once, and you'll never be able to classify it as one thing. What do you call it? At the end of the day, it's Joss."



Joss Whedon is an odd creature. It seems everything he touches has an enormous fanbase of marks for it and yet never enough to save his shows from the axe and not enough to get movies made with any kind of reliable frequency. And yet look at Buffy, Angel and Firefly and tell me someone you know doesn't absolutely love one of those shows. If you don't know anyone then I absolutely love Firefly. So anytime Joss' name comes up as being associated with something new there's a pang of "I hope it's another Firefly movie" and then the inevitable disappointment. I know he's not going to make it. There's no studio that'll back it despite his best efforts. Fuck it, here's a bit of nostalgia…



Wanted three times

Credit: Cinemablend.com.

Wanted may have been number two at the box office last weekend, but it was a number two with a lot of ticket sales behind it. There's already been talk of a sequel, but if what our sources are telling us is true, they aren't planning a sequel but a trilogy.

One of our best sources dropped me a note this morning with details on where Wanted is headed, as the rush to turn it into a franchise begins. Two more sequels, not just one are already being planned out, and from what we've been told both James McAvoy and Terrence Stamp are an absolute lock to be back. That's no surprise really, but what is a surprise is that we're hearing Angelina Jolie may be back as well.



Gee more Angelina Jolie looking sexy? I'm not sure I want that.

I'd like to point out director Timur Bekmambetov has another trilogy to finish before he starts gallivanting off and making another one. Dusk/Twilight Watch is due! Although seeing as the first two films wrapped the story up so nicely there probably isn't much point in making it. Of course there's no surprise that Hollywood wants sequels to popular films. Wanted has done decent box office so here come the sequels. It helps the movie got good reviews but they'll need to retain the star and director to retain the style that got them those good reviews. If everyone is having fun it could be a fun franchise. Time will tell.

That's the news for this week.

What do you mean you've never seen…?

Will return in one week's time.

THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS

The Counterfeiters, Over the Hedge

The Counterfeiters (2007) aka Die Falscher



EXPECTATIONS – This is the film that won the Academy Award last year for Best Foreign Language film. I always try and make a point of checking those out. I'm not familiar with the cast. The film is based on a book by Adolf Burger; himself a survivor of the Holocaust and one of the printers involved in Operation Bernhard.

TRAILER –



PLOT – Counterfeiter and criminal Salomon Sorowitsch (Karl Markovichs) is captured in Berlin in 1936. Sent to a concentration camp he finds a way out through his skills as a forger. Together with other Jewish printers he's put to work on saving Nazi Germany through an influx of fake money. While he's intent on helping Herzog (Devid Striesow) his friend Burger (August Diehl) is less keen on the idea and wants to sabotage the German war machine.

OPINION – It's no wonder so many good films have been made about World War II and especially in concentration camps. Look at Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful or the Pianist. The Holocaust was such an intense experience for everyone involved that great stories are there for the telling. Here the film centres on one man; Sorowitsch, who's a great forger and capable of transforming the Germany war effort by himself. Although externally he preaches about living, surviving and making money there's an internal struggle within the man. He doesn't believe in the Nazi war effort and he's only doing what he does to survive. In many ways this is a brave approach to making a hero because he's practically devoid of morals AND comes across as a negative Jewish stereotype. On the flipside there's army officer Holst (Martin Brambach) who's a stereotypical scumbag Nazi. Generally films aren't made too often these days with such black and white colouring. There are more shades of grey. These shades develop in Sorowitsch's character as the film progresses. But not in Holst. Which is a leaning of the writer towards saying that the Nazi's never changed but the Jews did. That said one of the main Nazi characters, Herzog, comes across as quite the nice guy. He sets them up with luxuries (including a ping pong table) and promises their survival in exchange for the forgeries. Even though he's a little sneaky and underhanded he's not a total bastard. You even feel a little bit for him as Sorowitsch tries to con him into believing one of the men in the camp is an accomplished printer when in fact he's there by mistake. Sorowitsch already has an underhanded nature. It's now a case of how he chooses to use it. To protect his co-workers? Or to save his own ass? Herzog and Sorowitsch are both very bright and capable and that's what makes the mental sparring between them so interesting. Burger is more a bystander acting as Sorowitsch's conscience. He's constantly chipping away at it hoping to convince Sorowitsch to fail in his work. It's alarming that this whole story is based on actual events. Operation Bernhard was created for the Germans to make their own money and save the war that way. When you consider the possibility that a large influx of cash could have saved the German war effort and bought them more time the fact the money was delayed by Jewish sabotage makes the events of this film all the more important. Imagine if the British economy had been derailed by money drops or if the world had been flooded with British and American currency? America was struggling enough at the time as it was. "Buy war bonds" and all that. Historically I think you would call this a near miss.

BEST BIT – The German agent getting cocky with his forged money. "I want to be absolutely sure they are genuine" and off the notes go to the Bank of England. The camp anxiously waits as Herzog opens the letter from London. Did the notes pass inspection?

RATING - ****. A gripping and tense film detailing one man's choices during a time where he faced death on a daily basis. At times some of the characters are more like caricatures and that stops the film from reaching the great heights it could have reached. Some of the acting is a touch below par as well but it remains a powerful film and the latest in a string of European efforts set during World War II. While America has moved on and has other issues (race riots, 9/11, Vietnam) Europe remains fascinated with the events of World War II and how they forever altered Europe.

Over the Hedge (2006)



EXPECTATIONS – Seeing as Lovefilm has chosen not to send me anything this weekend (apart from Fahrenheit 451, which I don't feel like reviewing because it's nowhere near as good as the book) I had a choice between the films appearing on Sky Movies. Seeing as I'd reviewed everything else that was on it came down to this or the Nic Cage remake of the Wicker Man. No brainer.

TRAILER –



PLOT – Raccoon RJ (Bruce Willis) is in a bit of a bind. He's stolen a bear's food supplies and needs to replace them in one week or he's bear-food himself. When in search of food he runs into Verne (Garry Shandling) and his crew of foragers (a squirrel, some possums, some porcupines and a skunk) and figures them to be suckers enough to get the food for him. This leads to a conflict of leadership between RJ and Verne over how to approach the problem of the new suburb that's the other side of the hedge.

OPINION – There are a few nice jokes subtly added into Over the Hedge to make it more palatable for the grown up's, which is becoming the norm since Toy Story. There's a couple of great movie references in Over the Hedge including 2001, A Streetcar Named Desire, Raiders of the Lost Ark and William Shatner's dying possum saying "Rosebud". Unfortunately these little movie in-jokes aside there's not much going on in Over the Hedge. It's all too familiar. The group of cuddly animals, the prospect of doom and so on and so forth. DreamWorks traditionally aren't as good with animation as Pixar and that shows again here. It really has none of that Pixar charm and shine. There's also none of their flow and attention to detail. The only really fun little throwaway being the porcupine kids throwing up the devil horns when paying respect to Ozzie (William Shatner's possum) for his wicked acting skills. Unlike with Toy Story and other Pixar efforts the lack of quality is more obvious to the adult but I'm sure to kids this is every bit as good as modern animated classics. Sadly it seems the thing to do nowadays is churn out a bunch of cute talking animal pictures when you can't think of anything else to do. In particular I'm thinking about the uninspiring Ice Age films and Madagascar. Yeah, there are some good gags in all those films but there's probably one great film spread out between all four (this one included). The market is getting flooded with these things and because kids have no attention spans or memories they keep making huge money. This film grossed $150M in the US alone. You'll also note the much smaller budget of films made by DreamWorks and that cash gulf is apparent onscreen. My worry is that because they're flooding the market with cheaper inferior films that eventually it'll hit the box office of actual good animated films. In the meantime I'll have the same reaction every time I see one of these advertised…not another one, surely?

BEST BIT – Hammy (Steve Carell) decides to name the hedge "Steve" causing The Shatner to drop to his knees and ask "all wise and powerful Steve, what do you want?" (Around 2.40 in the video below).

RATING - **. It'll keep the kids out of trouble for 75 minutes but there's no replay value for anyone over the age of nine. If you're interested in just skipping the whole thing in favour of a ‘best of' here's a 7 minute best of video off YouTube. Save yourself some time!

1.50 2001: A Space Odyssey moment.
2.40 "All wise and powerful Steve"
6.25 I'm getting Meet the Feebles flashbacks
7.28 "STELLAAAAAAA"



HOLLYWOOD WHORES

Jennifer Jason Leigh. The Machinist.



This is yet another movie I've reviewed for 411. Christian Bale stole all the headlines with his amazing weight loss to play the central character but behind every good protagonist is a whore he's attracted to. In the Machinist that whore is played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. "Well don't look surprised. Even a call-girl can scramble an egg".



She might not have undergone the same astonishing physical transformation as Christian Bale did for his role but Jennifer certainly looked plenty haggard as a world weary hooker called Stevie.



I'm not keen on Jennifer Jason Leigh as an actress but in the Machinist she's really toned down and low key, as is her character.




Jennifer Jason Leigh, ladies and gentlemen.



You stay classy…Planet Earth.