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This Week's Comfort Movie: 'The Blind Side'
Filed under: Drama, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Fandom
The holiday season usually issues forth an avalanche of award-contending dramas, feel-good family films, and oddball counter programming. Last weekend was no exception, with the debuting Old Dogs, Ninja Assassin, and The Road jostling for attention with New Moon and The Blind Side. Of all those movies, the one that jumps out at me is The Blind Side, which actually increased its audience in its second week of release.
That's a pretty rare feat, especially for a wide release, and speaks to the broad appeal of the film. "Yes, Virginia, Sandra Bullock is the biggest female star in the world... again," in the words of David Poland at The Hot Blog, and there's no doubt that Bullock's celebrity, even more than her compelling, measured performance, is a big draw. Yet with big stars like Will Farrell and Jim Carrey failing to bring in the expected box office this year, Bullock is not the whole story. Nor is it only a matter of the movie being "generically acceptable [for families] to watch together over the holiday weekend," as our own Eugene Novikov suggested, although, to be fair, it's likely that 'the Sandie Bullock football movie' would be an easier sell to more families to watch together than 'the bare-chested boy vampire romance' or 'the violent ninja flick.'
No, I think it's clear that positive word of mouth has spread. What have people told their friends? Maybe that the first, widely-seen and frequently-mocked (by me) trailer was not representative of the movie as a whole, which comes by its emotions honestly.
Warner Bros Will Make Clint Eastwood Fans' Day
Filed under: Action, Classics, Warner Brothers, Distribution, Newsstand, Home Entertainment
If you're lucky enough to be graced with cash or gift cards this Christmas, and you have a big hole on your DVD shelf where Clint Eastwood ought to be, Warner Bros will be happy to help you out. On February 16 they're releasing a massive, 19-disc collection Clint Eastwood: 35 Films, 35 Years at Warner Bros that celebrates the actor / director / producer. Included will be a booklet and a feature length documentary by Richard Schickel. The retail price will be a hefty $179.98.Warners didn't release a complete list of those 35 films, but it spans the tender years of Where Eagles Dare all the way to 2008's Gran Torino. I imagine there will be some crossover with what you already own, like the entire Dirty Harry collection and The Outlaw Josey Wales. But most of his output from the late 1970s onward was done at Warner Bros, so all those films you've forgotten he ever made -- The Gauntlet, Bronco Billy, Honkytonk Man, Tightrope, Firefox, Heartbreak Ridge, A Perfect World, Pink Cadillac -- and can't find on DVD will make this a must have for the fan who needs everything.
Or almost everything. If you're looking for his directorial debut Play Misty For Me, or forgotten gems like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot or The Beguiled, you'll have to wait until Universal or MGM decides to put out a boxed set of their own. On that day, you better reinforce your bookshelf with steel frames to support the other 30 odd films he's done, even without Francis in the Navy.
Interview: 'Ninja Assassin' Director James McTeigue (Part 2)
Filed under: Warner Brothers, Interviews
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Read part one of our interview over here.
By his own admission, James McTeigue seems to be fast-becoming Hollywood's go-to guy for revenge stories. After beginning his career as an assistant director for the Wachowski brothers, he made his directorial debut with the graphic novel adaptation V for Vendetta, and is now set to release Ninja Assassin, about a martial arts master squaring off against his master and his former clan. Ironically, McTeigue is himself a generous, thoughtful and positively mellow guy, which makes his aptitude for bloody showdowns even more surprising.
Cinematical recently sat down with McTeigue at the Los Angeles press day for Ninja Assassin, where he talked about tackling his latest revenge tome. In addition to discussing the physical and philosophical origins of ninjas (and the movies that love them), he talked about protecting the cultural and ethnic integrity of his characters and story, and ruminated on the challenges of keeping a constant balance between brain-busting ideas and balletic bloodletting.
Cinematical: When you came on board this film, what was your cultural mandate for the film especially since you were featuring an Asian actor in the main role?
Interview: James McTeigue, 'Ninja Assassin' (Part 1)
Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Interviews
Director James McTeigue has been working on films since the late 1980s, back in his native Australia. He was second assistant director on Dark City and first assistant director on Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. He started working with Andy and Larry Wachowski as an assistant director on The Matrix, and they've been collaborating on projects together ever since. The Wachowskis wrote the first feature film helmed by McTeigue, V for Vendetta, and he provided second-unit direction on their most recent film, Speed Racer.
Ninja Assassin, which opened this week, is the latest movie McTeigue has directed, with the Wachowskis on board as producers. You can read William Goss's review for more details about the action/fantasy film. Cinematical sat down with the director in late September during Fantastic Fest, just after the movie played the festival. He was very pleased with the fest screening and happy to talk about the film.
Making The (Up) Grade: North By Northwest
Filed under: Warner Brothers, Fandom, Home Entertainment
Initially I planned to make North by Northwest a title revisited in my "Shelf Life" column, but I decided against it when I realized that most folks just love that movie to death, including myself, so seeing whether it's still good would be purely redundant. But the new Blu-ray released by Warner Brothers also didn't seem like it warranted a question of whether or not it was superior to its predecessors thanks to a wealth of bonus content – that is, until I discovered that in fact some of it was on previous versions, no doubt leaving longtime fans with a quandary whether or not to shell out a few more shekels to see one of their favorite Alfred Hitchcock films in high-definition.
As such, North by Northwest is the overdue subject of this week's "Making The (Up) Grade," and I spare no effort examining the past, present and future of this film's home video incarnations.
What's Already Available:
Gaze Upon 'The Losers' and 'Jonah Hex'!
Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Images, Western
At last, some comic book news that isn't centered around Batman or Spider-Man! Omelete got their hands on some official images from two of Warner Bros' upcoming comic flicks, Jonah Hex and The Losers.
We've seen paparazzi glimpses from the Hex set of Megan Fox and Josh Brolin, but there's nothing like a well-lit and spooky shot, especially when your actor looks good enough to have walked off the page. If you're a fan of the haunted gunslinger and are unconvinced, you might be comforted by the sight of his Confederate gray and mangled lip. I can't say how excited I am for this film. Jonah Hex is a character who has more in common with High Plains Drifter than the capes and superpower crowd, and I think that will surprise and delight a lot of "newbies" who still equate DC Comics with Batman.
Next up, we have our first official look at The Losers! Aren't they a handsome bunch? This is based not on the DC war squad from the 1970s, but on the Vertigo spinoff by Andy Diggle. The Losers are a Special Forces team abandoned and left to die by their mysterious commander, Max. They regroup, vow revenge, and let the bullets fly. I have hopes that this one will be a solid action flick, the kind we all long for from the 1980s. The cast is certainly a lovely one: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Columbus Short, Idris Elba, and Oscar Jaenada are our fine Losers, and Jason Patric will be the villainous Max. You can see the whole line-up of them here, along a very sexy shot of Saldana. Even I can appreciate a lovely lady when she's packing guns. Now, if they'll just release a photo of Morgan to match ...
The photos are below in our gallery. Spend your Turkey Day geeking out.
Review: The Blind Side
Filed under: Sports, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Theatrical Reviews, Family Films
The trailers for The Blind Side triggered my "oh geez, another sports-related Triumph of the Human Spirit" cynicism, and I might not have seen the film at all if I hadn't been assigned to review it. That would have been my loss, and I experienced the lovely surprise of having a movie turn out far more enjoyable than I expected. The Blind Side has no twists or gimmicks other than being a very good example of a sports-related family film, with quality performances and writing.
The movie's title is a football reference, which the voiceover of Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock) explains at the beginning. Michael Oher (Quenton Aaron) is sweating out a tough but unspecified situation in an office, when we flash back a few years and meet him as Big Mike. An African-American staff member at a mostly white Christian private school is trying to get his athletic son into the school, and the school's coach also spots some athletic potential in Big Mike, granting him a scholarship. Big Mike has terrible trouble keeping up in school, and when his friend's family stops helping him out, he is virtually homeless -- sleeping in the school gym, eating popcorn left there after events, wearing the same thin clothes daily.
MGM Studios Officially For Sale
Filed under: Deals, Executive shifts, Lionsgate Films, MGM, Warner Brothers, RumorMonger, Distribution, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, James Bond
MGM Studios' financial troubles will soon be coming to a sad end. Back in September, it was reported that MGM was in such poor shape that they might be forced to auction off their assets, including James Bond and The Hobbit. That day has come to pass. Variety reports that MGM Studios is officially on the auction block.MGM has been given a month of breathing space from their interest payments, time they plan on using to begin "a process to explore various strategic alternatives including operating as a standalone entity, forming strategic partnerships and evaluating a potential sale of the company."
But all hopes of survival may rest on what they sell off from their glorious history, including a library of 4,000 titles, the logo, the United Artists company, James Bond, and half ownership in The Hobbit. Time Warner, News Corp, and Lionsgate are said to be interested in all of the above.
As their library scatters to the four winds, it'll be really interesting to see what remakes and reboots it spawns. Remember, Robocop was on the MGM remake slate, and surely some hungry studio will snap that up. The Cannon Films and ITV Global Entertainment collections are just ripe for harvesting. Perhaps you'll finally see a Lifeforce movie, or a remake of Capricorn One, or an aspiring Tarantino type will buy up all those American International Picture rights and revive motorcycle gang movies. Sure, we all want to know who will wind up with James Bond, but it'll be far more fascinating if someone tries to remake Psych-Out. *
*It's possible this is considered one of AIP's "early" films, though it's unclear where that cut off date is.
'Clash of the Titans' Trailer Now Online!
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Trailers and Clips
In a scant twelve years, Louis Leterrier has gone from being a production assistant on Alien: Resurrection to directing what has just, with a single trailer, become one of my most anticipated films of 2010: Warner Brothers' remake of Clash of the Titans. Sure, he has progressively proven himself a champion of the fantastic, evolving from The Transporter series to last year's The Incredible Hulk, but as much as I've been impressed by his eye for spectacle thus far, I wasn't ready for how fun his take on Titans looks. It's just our first look, but I couldn't stop smiling by the end of this teaser.
And yet, I don't know why I should be so surprised. The original is, after all, a landmark fantasy film packed with Ray Harryhausen's indelible stop-motion imagery. Add on Leterrier commanding a great cast ranging from Liam Neeson to Ralph Fiennes to Sam Worthington, and a script whose bones were written by Raiders of the Lost Ark screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan before WB brought in the duo of Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi to flesh things out. Perhaps the shock of seeing this trailer came from just how indelible Harryhausen's Titans actually were. I knew it would undergo an extreme visual overhaul, but in the back of my mind I was still expecting stop-motion giants, not Troy by way of God of War.
There's nothing stop-motion about this new re-envisioning of the wars between Gods and men. Purists will not be on board with the amount of digital wizardry, but any fan of seeing mythological worlds brought to life should be in love with the energy Leterrier has infused in his Clash of the Titans. You can see for yourself after the jump, then click over to Moviefone to grab it in a variety of HD flavors. Additionally, we've got some fantastic screenshots in the gallery below.
'Sgt. Rock' Looks to the Future with Francis Lawrence
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Scripts, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, War
Once upon a time, Sgt. Rock was in the hands of Guy Ritchie, and many an Easy Company fan was upset. But you'll undoubtedly wish that Ritchie and Joel Silver had made it to the finish line, because Sgt. Rock will not make it to the big screen in a form you'll recognize. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he has a new director in Francis Lawrence and a whole new space-time continuum. Joel Silver is still on board as producer, and he's bringing Akiva Goldsman on board to help. They've hired newcomer Chad St. John to pen the script. As you may or may not know, Sgt. Rock is a WWII soldier. He's always fought in WWII. The poor guy has never even gotten to leave the European theater. (It was rumored in Swamp Thing that he was transferred to the Pacific, but never confirmed.) Any attempt at a movie adaptation has always gone forward with this central idea of keeping him in his element. But budget, politics, and popularity has always been an issue, and no one believes you can make The Dirty Dozen in this day and age unless you're Quentin Tarantino. So Warner Bros has decided to bypass the drama, and put Sgt. Rock in the future. CG is cheaper than Nazis, and a nondescript soldier of the future is less problematic than an American fighting a good fight. (While no war is a good war, I do think we can all agree that fighting Nazis was a good thing.)
Nothing else is known about this storyline, so I hate to jump to a knee-jerk conclusion as to who or what Sgt. Rock will face there, or whether he will be transported to the future from WWII. But I think this is an unfortunate thing to do to a character who resides in WWII for a very specific and honorable reason. The last thing he should become is a Universal Soldier or Terminator ripoff.
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