Geezus didn’t they announce this remake of Overboard like five minutes ago? I remember a few years ago there was a push to basically turn Anna Faris into the new Goldie Hawn, but it wasn’t until last March when she was confirmed to lead a remake of Hawn’s 1987 amnesia comedy that those plans took tangible shape. And now…well, the trailer for it is already here and I’ll stick with the original, thank you.
There’s a gender swapping deal going on with this version, as Mexican superstar Eugenio Derbez (How to be a Latin Lover) plays the rich, self-absorbed yacht owner who falls, gets amnesia, and is convinced by Faris’ poor carpet cleaner that they are actually married. I mean “poor” which in this movie looks like working class, but…oh yeah, in this country the working class are considered poor. My bad! It’s more timely than I’m giving it credit for being.
Anyway, if watching Derbez work three jobs and pretend to be daddy to a bunch of kids that look nothing like him is your thing, then have at it. This premise worked back in the ’80s but it also had the benefit of the chemistry between Hawn and Kurt Russell, which clearly this film doesn’t. If there’s an upside it’s Faris, who is always a treat to watch.
There is certainly a camp out there that aren’t feeling Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I get it; the film overturns the apple cart in way that are upsetting and (hopefully) permanent. There has been no greater critic of Johnson’s choices, in particular of the direction Luke Skywalker goes down, than Mark Hamill. He continues to be quite candid in his feelings and feels that Skywalker would hvae gone down a different path. In fact, he outright says in a brand new interview (via CBM) that this is “not my Luke Skywalker.”
“I said to Rian, ‘Jedi’s don’t give up.’ I mean, even if he had a problem, he would maybe take a year to try and regroup. But if he made a mistake, he would try and right that wrong. So, right there we had a fundamental difference, but it’s not my story anymore. It’s somebody else’s story – and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective. …That’s the crux of my problem. Luke would never say that. I’m sorry. Well, in this version, see I’m talking about the George Lucas Star Wars. This is the next generation of Star Wars, so I almost had to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he’s Jake Skywalker. He’s not my Luke Skywalker, but I had to do what Rian wanted me to do because it serves the story well.”
Don’t get it twisted, Hamill still thinks Johnson did a great job and just hopes fans enjoy the movie…
“But listen, I still haven’t accepted it completely. But it’s only a movie. I hope people like it. I hope they don’t get upset, and I came to really believe that Rian was the exact man that they need for this job.”
Yeah, Hamill and others need to realize that the era of George Lucas is over, and Star Wars will never be the same again. J.J. Abrams might restore a little bit of it back with Episode 9, but there’s no returning from the changes Johnson has made.
Who would think that the music of a little Swedish pop band could cross continents and generations, but throw on “Dancing Queen” in a crowded room and see how many hit the dancefloor. ABBA’s music is so popular that it was no big thing for Mamma Mia! to hit over $600M worldwide. The all-star cast led by Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, and Julie Walters didn’t hurt, either. And now a decade later the whole gang is back with more ABBA-inspired tales of romance in the appropriately-titled Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
This cross-generational story brings back Streep, Walters, Firth, Christine Baranski, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, and Dominic Cooper, along with new additions Lily James, Jeremy Irvine, Hugh Skinner, Alexa Davies, Josh Dylan, and Jessica Keenan Wynn as younger versions of their characters. The first movie was based on the Broadway musical about a young bride who discovers that her father is one of three men who are still trying to win over her mother. The sequel jumps back and forth through time to reveal how Streep’s character learned to raise a child on her own, while also showing how all of their relationships formed and grew over time.
Based on this trailer it looks just as infectious and over-crowded as the first. The only way you can swallow how much these movies throw at the audience is with plenty of ABBA to wash it down. I’m pretty sure Streep’s character is dead in this one, too, or at least this footage heavily teases it. Then again I wouldn’t put it past these movies to be pulling a fast one. Oh, and Cher is in this, too, as a very well-dressed but uninvited grandma.
Directed by Ol Parker, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again opens July 20th 2018.
It’s still unclear if Ben Affleck is done as Batman following Justice League. Heck, Warner Bros. may not want him back after the way that film is performing. It’s all but certain he won’t be suiting up for Matt Reeves’ The Batman, but he could return for at least one more DCEU film down the road. Affleck had been set to direct The Batman himself, however that never worked out as planned. He still wants to direct a Batman movie at some point, though, according to a new interview he’s done with Daily Sabah.
“For me, it’s interesting, and I always evaluate this stuff on the merit of the material. I want to direct a Batman movie, and I never got a script that I was happy with, so they are starting over and writing another script.
And right now, I think a lot of different possibilities I think for the way the DC Universe could go, and I will just follow my interests in pursing that. And I know that I love working with this group of people, and it was a real joy for me to make this movie.”
Yeah, we’ll see about that. Affleck’s relationship with Warner Bros. seems pretty frayed right now, but I wouldn’t see past him getting a shot to do a Batman movie in the future. There would probably be someone else in the cape and cowl, though.
Pitch Perfect 3 opens exactly like you’d think the finale to a comedy about a ladies’ a capella band would, with them belting out a rendition of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” before leaping, slo-mo style, away from an exploding yacht.
Say what?
Along with the burning wreckage so goes up a lot of what made the original film a surprise smash in 2012, one that inspired women, encouraged legions of a capella groups to form, and packed theaters for months with one sing-a-long screening after another. It was an ode to female friendship and infectious pop music, but that all pretty much evaporated with the wildly misguided sequel. Pitch Perfect 3 harmonizes with the first movie much better than the last one, but it’s so loaded up with unnecessary, muddled subplots that going out on a flat note is about all it can muster.
So what’s up with the yacht thing? Why does Pitch Perfect 3 look like a Michael Bay sequel at this point? Such as it is, screenwriters Kay Cannon and Mike White do attempt an explanation. The Bellas, now graduated from college and getting a taste of how sucky real-life is, are hungry for a reunion. When they get stiffed by former newbie Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), a cockamine plan to join the military’s traveling USO tour is cooked up by Aubrey (Anna Camp). For her it’s a chance to meet her busy father, for Beca (Anna Kendrick), Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson), Chloe (Brittany Snow) and the others it’s a chance to sing together again. Um, entertaining the troops is somewhere much further down the list.
“There should always be a competition.”
If you were thinking the same thing as that worried Bella, then you’re on the right path. Of course there’s a competition, in which the gals must face off against a trio of legit bands (including one led by Ruby Rose) for the honor of being the warmup act for DJ Khaled. Take a shot every time someone says DJ Khaled and you’ll be doing drunk karaoke in the theater aisles before long. It’s like a 90-minute ad for…well, him.
And that is really the film’s biggest problem; it barely seems to be about the Bellas and them finding a way to continue their friendship into adulthood. If it isn’t focusing too much on DJ Khaled (Seriously, he’s like some sort of zen yoda producer master), it’s on the bizarre number of daddy issues amongst the group. Fat Amy’s father (John Lithgow) is an international criminal looking for a family reunion, while Aubrey longs for a reunion with hers. And even a marginal Bella like Stacy (Alexis Knapp) is pregnant by a guy who isn’t even in the picture. Other distractions include a uniformed love interest for Chloe and a chance for Beca to launch a solo career, leaving her girls behind in the aca-dust.
Director Trish Sie struggles with the severe shifts in tone, but nails it when the girls do what they do best, which is banter and sing. Of the biggest laughs most are when the script is super self-aware, like the aforementioned “competition” joke, or when it’s making fun of background Bellas like Jessica and Ashley (Shelley Regner and Kelley Jackle, both supremely talented btw). The a capella numbers are catchy and well choreographed, not surprising given Sie’s experience on Step Up All In, but you just wish there was more emphasis on it since that is what people came to see. The final act hits every note a fan of these movies could want, a heart-swelling number along with a beautiful montage of the series’ finest moments. So in that way Pitch Perfect 3 delivers a swansong worth listening to, but it probably won’t be a favorite on your playlist.
It’s taken years, but Disney is finally getting their adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s Harry Potter-esque Artemis Fowl off the ground. With Kenneth Branagh attached to direct, the biggest hurdle to cover was finding a child actor to play the title role, and after an extensive search it has gone to newcomer Ferdia Shaw. I can sense Disney already trying to create a new star in Shaw the way the Harry Potter movies did for Daniel Radcliffe. Smart move.
Shaw will play the junior criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl, who finds himself engaged in a battle of strength and cunning against a powerful race of fairies after he kidnaps an elf and holds her for ransom that will restore the family fortune. Josh Gad joins Shaw in the role of Mulch Diggums, a duplicitous dwarf hired to track down Artemis; Judi Dench is Commander Root, leader of the LEP fairy police; Lara McDonnell is Captain Holly Short, Artemis’ kidnap victim; and Nonso Anozie is Butler, Artemis’ deadly bodyguard.
None of us have seen Shaw before so judging his readiness for a franchise of this magnitude. Colfer wrote eight books that show Artemis’ evolution from villain into a child antihero, and you know if Disney has their way we’ll see every step of that change on the big screen. Artemis Fowl is set to open on August 9th 2019.
Netflix’s first true blockbuster, the $90M fantasy cop thriller Bright, doesn’t open for a couple of days and clearly they think it’s going to be huge. Why? Because the Will Smith-led, David Ayer-directed flick is already getting a sequel.
Bloomberg reports that Netflix is moving forward on Bright 2, or whatever it will be called, with Smith set to reprise his role as LAPD officer Daryl Ward. The original movie finds Smith teamed up with Joel Edgerton, who plays his orc partner, as they investigate some world-threatening case involving fairies and a magical artifact. Max Landis wrote the script, but it’s unclear if he’ll be also pen the followup.
How Netflix came to this decision so early is anybody’s guess, but likely they’ve crunched the numbers and found that their subscribers are really digging the trailers. Or a lot of people are watching Suicide Squad (Is that even on Netflix??), the previous partnership between Smith and Ayer. What this amounts to is Netflix potentially building their first franchise, and that in itself is interesting.
Bright premieres on December 22nd, and I’m on my way to a screening now so look for my review Friday morning.
*NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Middleburg Film Festival. Hostiles opens December 22nd.*
Hostiles director Scott Cooper introduced his film at the Middleburg Film Festival last night with a speech, about how he hoped it could help heal the wounds of divisiveness that have plagued our country in recent weeks. It was a heartfelt message, to be sure, but right in the middle of it he also had a complaint. About film criticism. About how it had become “bloodsport”, and that too often movies are ripped apart from the moment they are released. Perhaps, he’s still feeling the stings of lukewarm reviews for his previous two movies, Out of the Furnace and Black Mass.
Cooper may want to prepare himself for another polarizing response, because Hostiles, good as it often is in highlighting the brutality and prejudice that has always been part of this country’s soul, is going to take a lot of heat. Gorgeously shot by cinematographer Masanobu Takayanag, the Old West has never been quite so gorgeous, the dusty plains mingling with the twilight to strike an indelible image. It strikes a stark contrast to the violence in America circa the late 19th-century. The film begins with such violence, as a frontier family is mericilessly slaughtered by a band of Native Americans. The only one to survive the deaths of her husband and two daughters is Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike), but the things she saw haunt her, driving her to the brink of sanity.
The film centers on Christian Bale as retiring Army Captain Joseph Blocker, who has built his career on being just as ruthless as the Natives he’s come to despise. With sentiments towards them changing, Blocker finds himself in a world he no longer understands. He’s spent so much time hating and killing them that he outright refuses an order to escort dying Cheyenne chief Yellow Hawk (the great Wes Studi) and his family (Adam Beach, Q’orianka Kilcher and Xavier Horsechief) to Montana, where they will be left to live in peace. Deciding to be a good soldier, Blocker takes the assignment, his final one, and rounds up a team of loyal soldiers (Timothee Chalamet, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, Jonathan Majors) to accompany him. Their journey is soon joined by Quaid, and eventually by a former soldier (Ben Foster) who has been sentenced to death for his violent crimes.
So this is your classic Western “point A to point B” movie, with the threat of attack looming at every step. Attacks happen on a regular basis, with Block’s party dwindling it seems by the day. Soon it becomes clear Blocker can’t complete his mission without Yellow Hawk’s help, but he’ll have to overcome his personal prejudices and learn to trust the Native Americans. The bulk of the film isn’t so much about Yellow Hawk, which is disappointing, but instead about Blocker and his transformation from a murderous bigot into a man of understanding. It’s a familiar story, but with so many Native American characters along for the entire journey it’s a shame we don’t get to see things from their perspective. If you’re using the mistreatment of Native Americans to make a point about racial division, it shouldn’t just be the white characters who have a say. And to be frank, it’s damned hard to believe Blocker could make such an evolution given how he is for so much of the movie.
That said, Bale does a tremendous job depicting Blocker’s many demons, done with the barest minimum of dialogue. Along with Pike, who is always terrific at portraying women on the edge, they give the film a steady foundation that lasts through some of the slow patches. While the supporting cast are uniformly excellent it’s Rory Cochrane as a career soldier haunted by his memories that will leave the greatest impression.
Hostiles is as poetic as it is ferocious, and entertains while being thought-provoking. The conversations it sparks may not be exactly what Cooper hoped for, but if it gets people talking then has to be considered a victory.
It’s the holiday season, and in many households an annual tradition is a family gathering to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The Christmas classic is just a part of the film franchise spawned by the comedy magazine National Lampoon, whose name become synonymous with edgy and raunchy humor in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. And David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) is bringing the story of how a group of comic geniuses came together to make the brand a reality.
Starring Will Forte, Domhnall Gleeson, Martin Mull, Joel McHale, Neil Casey, Thomas Lennon, Matt Lucas, Seth Green, Natasha Lyonne, Emmy Rossum, and more, the A Futile and Stupid Gesture is based on the book by one of National Lampoon’s founders, Doug Kenney. Here’s the synopsis:
The National Lampoon name became globally recognized after such monumental films as Animal House and Caddyshack, and as the place that introduced the world to comedic geniuses like Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Gilda Radnor—but before the glory days it was a scrappy yet divinely subversive comedy magazine. The driving force behind National Lampoon was Doug Kenney (Will Forte), and his truly wild and crazy story unfolds in A Futile and Stupid Gesture from Harvard to Hollywood and beyond.
There’s a terrific documentary on this very subject, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, and you should definitely check that out along with this one. A Futile and Stupid Gesture hits Sundance next month but will arrive on Netflix on January 26th while the festival is still going on.
There’s nothing incredibly special or extraordinary about, Hangman; a crime, thriller, drama starring Al Pacino, Karl Urban, and Brittany Snow. The movie follows the story of two detectives (Pacino and Urban), along with the help of a journalist (Snow), as they attempt to find and bring down a serial killer that uses the game of Hangman as his defining serial killer tactic because every serial killer has to have a “thing” right? (all sarcasm intended)
As a crime, thriller, drama this movie does work. It has all of the elements; blue/dark lighting, an evasive antagonist, a down on their luck or conflicted detective, and the introduction of another character that is stupid enough to get themselves involved in a situation that doesn’t call for their help and so that brings about the conflict of their own liability, but also usefulness at different times of the story.
If this was in fact what the filmmakers were going for with this particular drama, they succeeded… to a certain extent. The success of a movie can only go so far at that kind of surface level. When you dive into the story at hand you will notice some plot holes that will leave you with more questions than answers; cringe-worthy and sometimes contrived-feeling acting that I’ll go ahead and chalk up to bad writing; motivations, albeit that are made known to the viewer, but could’ve been fleshed out a bit more; and an ambiguous ending that doesn’t leave the viewer wanting more, as much as it just comes off as the filmmakers being lazy and not knowing how to properly end the movie.
However, if the filmmakers actually wanted to make a decent crime, thriller that stands out from the rest, then they failed miserably. In the beginning, of the movie we find out some of the reason as to why Christi Davis (Snow’s character) wants to write about Detective Ruiney (Urban’s character). She tells him that given the extremely divisive times and the growing conflict between cops and civilians, she wants to provide an objective and honest insight into what it’s like being a cop in America.
I feel like this could have been a great opportunity to create a crime, thriller, drama where instead of using an element of the times as a measly motivation for a journalist, they could have used it to actually say something about the times, giving an objective look at law enforcement and civilian life, thus making the movie more special or extraordinary. However, besides one scene where we learn a little more about Davis’ motivation and the ending being a bit of ironic fate for one of the detectives, they don’t really explore it; thus making a great opportunity, a great, missed opportunity.
This movie was kind of entertaining to say the least. I found the second half to be a lot more intriguing than the first half. If you’re looking for a movie that feels as though you would come across it one Friday night as your browsing through Netflix, then by all means, watch it. However, if you’re looking for something with more substance, then this may not be the movie for you.
Hangman will be released in theaters and On Demand December 22, 2017.
