Tagged: film

‘Hugo Cabret’ Headed for Silver Screen in 3-D

‘Hugo Cabret’ Headed for Silver Screen in 3-D

  • News
  • April 16, 2010

Slipped into the coverage for Kick-Ass was the fact that Chloë Grace Moretz will also be seen in Martin Scorcese’s adaptation of The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

The 2007 novel from Brian Selznick is a quasi-graphic novel mixing prose with long silent stretches of graphic narrative, totaling 284 of the 533 pages found in the Scholastic release.

Scorsese, known for his graphic violence not his graphic fiction, will be making the film in 3-D. The movie will be the director’s first kid-targeted effort, with London production scheduled to begin in June. Sony has already announced a December 9, 2011 release date.

Moretz will play the daughter of Cabret who befriends an orphan (a part yet to be cast) who has been living with his uncle in the great train station. The story is largely based o the life of pioneer film-maker Georges Méliès, known for his silent film A Trip to the Moon. He was also an invention of mechanical, wind-up figures called automata which plays a major role in the story.

The novel has won the prestigious Caldecott Medal and was a 2007 National Book Award Finalist, Young People’s Literature. Scorsese bought the film rights when the hardcover was released and hired John Logan (Gladiator, Star Trek: Nemesis to write the adaptation).

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Monday Mix-Up: When ‘LOTR’ Met ‘the Transformers”

Monday Mix-Up: When ‘LOTR’ Met ‘the Transformers”

  • News
  • April 5, 2010

Hey guys, at least this time, Frodo can just drive to Mt. Doom. I mean seriously, it took them like 9 hours of film to walk up to a mountain and drop the damn ring into the volcano. If they were smart, they’d just give it to Jetfire. I mean seriously guys… Frodo walked all the way to that mountain, and then gets picked up by an eagle? You’re telling me the eagle’s couldn’t have dropped him off like…months ago? And speaking of nothing… Gandalf is like this super awesome wizard, right? How come he doesn’t cast anything in the movies except “light” and “light beam” and “beam of light”. Hello? My second level warlock in D and D could cast more useful spells.

But I digress. Enjoy this mash-up.

Review: ‘Lord of the Rings Original Animated Classic’

Review: ‘Lord of the Rings Original Animated Classic’

Ralph Bakshi has been a visionary filmmaker and animator, whose ambitions always seemed larger than his talent. After cutting his teeth at Terry Toons, he talked his way into running Paramount’s dying animation arm before moving on to work such as the ABC Saturday morning [[[Spider-Man]]] series. He finally gained recognition when he set out to make feature-length films, beginning with the X-rated [[[Fritz the Cat]]].

Bakshi’s tastes have always run towards edgy fare and he’s produced animated film son subjects Walt Disney or Don Bluth would never have approached, such as [[[American Pop]]] and [[[Hey Good Lookin]]]’ and for that he deserves credit. Unfortunately, in just about every case, the projects have been flawed, largely because not enough money was spent on the animation or the story so they never felt finished.

In the 1970s Bakshi was in the right place at the right time when he managed to get the rights to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s [[[Lord of the Rings]]], a project that had previously stymied filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick and John Boorman. He set about to create a new look for Middle-earth by using the rotoscope technique, to shoot large portions of the film as live-action and then provide the footage to his animators to essentially trace.

The results arrive Tuesday as Warner Home Video releases a combo pack edition containing Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy discs, the same day it also debuts the Peter Jackson trilogy on Blu-ray.

Tolkien fan Chris Conkling was first hired to do research then was given a shot at writing the first screenplay which oddly decided to tell most of the story in flashback from Merry’s point of view. Bakshi wisely shelved it and brought in fantasy master Peter S. Beagle to rewrite the script. Beagle, of [[[The Last Unicorn]]] fame, followed Bakshi’s instructions to preserve as much of Tolkien as was possible.

What’s interesting is how Beagle and Jackson made many of the same decisions regarding what to drop or change. While there was a huge cry about the absence of Tom Bombadil in the live-action film, he’s also gone in Bakshi’s film and no one screamed in those pre-Internet days. They also both chose to have the Ringwraiths themselves seen attacking the seemingly slumbering hobbits at Bree.

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Millar to Ebert: ‘Kick-Ass Will Knock Your Jaw Off’

Millar to Ebert: ‘Kick-Ass Will Knock Your Jaw Off’

  • News
  • April 1, 2010

With the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo coming soon to the shores of Lake Michigan, it seems that the con has been given it’s first scandal. In a back-and-forth flame war posted yesterday on his message board, Kick-Ass writer Mark Millar got into a little wordy wrestling match, when fans started discussing the film’s upcoming premiere in the Second City.

A board member with the handle “Wanted2Vmt” posted, “Can’t wait to see this film flop at C2E2.  Who’s gonna see it when they can see Gaiman, a real writer, instead?” Mark Millar, known well for his Scottish rage, was quick to fire back, inciting a war of words with his would-be fans.

“There’s not a way Kick-Ass won’t take over the con in Chicago. Gaiman is a sissy fairy who writes for emo-goths anyways. Let those black boot wearing ninny’s go listen to their goblin king whine about his wee shiters… The rest of the real people will be having their asses kicked by our movie!”

As more fans chimed in, Millar kept firing insults left and right towards those who criticized his work. And when one fan quoted famous Chicago movie critic Roger Ebert’s review of Wanted, it set the Scottsman to a nova-like rage. The quote, “Wanted,… is a film entirely lacking in two organs I always appreciate
in a movie: a heart and a mind. It is mindless, heartless,
preposterous. By the end of the film, we can’t even believe the values
the plot seems to believe, since the plot is deceived right along with
us.”

Minutes later, Millar fired out a salvo of his own:

“First off all, that fat bastard wouldn’t know a good movie if it up and bit him in the goolies. He wrote “Valley of the Dolls” for f#@! sake!” Millar quipped. “And if Ebert can wheel his arse into a theater to see Kick-Ass I promise it’ll knock his jaw clean off!”

Roger Ebert, as shown in his recent Esquire exposé, had bones in his jaw removed due to cancer four years ago. While the cancer has stopped Ebert’s ability to speak, it’s only strengthened his desire to write. And as word traveled fast over the internet, it seemed Mr. Millar’s rants reached the north shore home of Mr. Ebert. Choosing his words wisely, Roger fired back a single post on his own blog close to the end of day:

“It seems without even trying, my mouth and I are at the end of a promised ‘arse kicking’ at the boot of comic book writer Mark Millar. Millar and artist J.G. Jones were the creators of the characters in 2008’s Wanted. Had the writer chosen to actually read my review instead of the pulled quote by one ‘Ben the Obiwomble” … he would have found that I rather liked his creation. Was it mindless? Certainly. But it reveled in it’s mindlessness. Not to jab an angry bear over this matter, but did Millar not think his teflon hide might be scratched a bit for trying to sell his fans on “the Loom of Destiny”? It seems without any reason, Mr. Millar is ready for me to turn a thumb down at his next film before it even comes out. By the looks of the trailers for Kick-Ass, I’m already preparing my suspension of disbelief to super-human like levels, ready to accept pre-teen samurai’s and ski-masked adolescents easily defeating shotgun toting thugs with ease. As far as Mr. Millar’s promise that my surgically removed jaw may be installed once again, if only to be blown off by seeing the film, I simply ask him to take the time to read my entire forthcoming review before firing his words off like so many a curved bullet.”

Millar’s final post of the day was near incomprehensible… demanding something to the effect of  a challenge to Ebert in a round of “Whiskey-Eyes”.

Review: ‘Sherlock Holmes’ on Blu-ray

Review: ‘Sherlock Holmes’ on Blu-ray

[[[Sherlock Holmes]]] has been indelibly etched in the mass consciousness of pop culture consumers thanks to a steady stream of adaptations and homages of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories almost since they were first published. As a result, you say Holmes and a certain set of images come to mind beginning with the deerstalker hat and the cloak. Watson is always seen as comic relief, more bumbling aid than professional doctor.

As a result, Guy Ritchie’s take on the duo in 2009’s Sherlock Holmes was cause for debate. Some felt he was being blasphemous; others applauded how much more closely this interpretation hewed to the source material. The film opened to mixed reviews, skewing more positive than not but it also failed to ignite the box office. Still, earlier this month, the sequel went into pre-production and today, Warner Home Video releases the movie in a combo pack complete with Blu-ray, standard and digital discs.

The tale of Holmes and Watson dealing with the occult-minded Lord Blackwell is larger than most any other story, certainly larger in scope and menace than any of the original stories. Story writer/producer Lionel Wigram explains in the extras how he wanted to touch on the occult, then a popular subject in English society but without turning Holmes into a horror story. Instead, the clever Blackwell has spent months planning what is essentially a coup only to cross paths with Holmes, out to stop him.

Holmes and Watson are playing catch up, constantly finding new clues and adding them on the fly as the hunt for Blackwell continues. Meantime, complications arise as Watson is in the process of moving out of 221B Baker Street and preparing to marry Mary while Irene Adler, the one woman in his life, returns unexpectedly. The intertwining sub-plots are intended to flesh out the characters and relationships along with making it certain Holmes doesn’t catch Blackwell too quickly.

The problem is, Ritchie made a somewhat lifeless movie. His previous works are filled with memorable characters and inspired performances; here, everyone is fine and solid, not spectacular. Robert Downey Jr. is a fine Holmes, mumbling and wide-eyed as befits the constantly distracted character and his pairing with Jude Law’s Watson works well on the buddy level. Law, though, seems to lack the inner strength to do what is necessary, always having a weary look as he constantly comes back to Holmes’ side to finish the case. Similarly, Mark Strong is cool and evil, but flat as Blackwell and Rachel McAdams can’t make Irene sparkle, not enough to convince us she’s really the woman of Holmes’ dreams.

What had some diehard fans in an uproar was the action quotient. After all, Holmes is a cerebral detective, seeing everything and making deductions that stagger the imagination. Seeing him in numerous fights was the largest change from previous adaptations and Ritchie is a good action director. But, here things were too large and there was at least one fight too many. The entire sequence at the shipyards could have been excised since it doesn’t fit the rest of the film and was overlong and overdone.

The most effective thing in the film may be the production design which largely relies on CGI to transform modern day England into its earlier 1891 incarnation. The city lives and breathes and feels right. Hans Zimmer’s score helps as well.

Overall, the movie looks great on Blu-ray with solid visuals and fine 5.1 Dolby sound. The Blu-ray also offers us the film in the Maximum Movie Mode, wherein Ritchie appears throughout the film and discusses how things were shot or why decisions were made. The split screens and pausing for explanation are interesting with some nifty tidbits tossed in. This version runs just three minutes longer and is an interesting way to see it a second time. There are 31 minutes of assorted behind-the-scenes featurettes discussing how the source material and era informed the film. An additional 14 minutes has Ritchie and Downey discuss Sherlock Holmes: Reinvented. Surprisingly, there are no deleted scenes offered.

This is a perfectly serviceable adaptation of Holmes but as a film experience, it is lacking in the qualities one has come to expect from Ritchie.

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Review: ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ on Blu-ray

Review: ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ on Blu-ray

Roald Dahl’s imagination is to be celebrated. His books never repeat themselves and offer readers a vivid variety of ideas and images, memorable characters and incredible situations. Thankfully, technology today allows the works to be adapted with an eye towards retaining as much of his creations as is possible. The latest such adaptation is Fantastic Mr. Fox, another stop-motion production.

Available this week through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,  the fall 2009 movie is available in the combo package of Blu-ray, standard DVD and digital copy. Directed by Wes Anderson, making his first animated foray, the movie is a largely satisfying and entertaining production.

With an all-star vocal cast including George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray it tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep), who live a poor but happy life with their eccentric son Ash (Schwartzman) and visiting nephew Kristopherson (Eric Chase Anderson).  That is until Mr. Fox slips into his sneaky, old ways and plots the greatest heist the animal world has ever seen.  When mean old farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean  (Michael Gambon, Robin Hurlstone, and Hugo Guinness) join forces to surround Mr. Fox and his family, they don’t realize they are not dealing with any old fox.

Anderson, who says Dahl was a personal hero, added the opening and closing scenes to frame the novel and they have the right feel, giving the film a nice resolution. Co-writer Noah Baumbach nails the voices of the characters and retains their inventive personalities.

The stop motion work is fluid and attractive, with a nicely selected color palette to make the story feel, well, fantastic. Credit goes to not only Anderson, but to Henry Selick, who collaborated with him on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. When Revolution Studios folded, Selick left to make the equally engaging Coraline while Anderson kept the Dahl book and cut a deal with 20th. The voices were recorded in a variety of settings for a different tonal quality but it’s so subtle as to be effectively pointless. But the performances themselves are terrific all the way through the cast.

The Blu-ray comes packed with a variety of extras to accompany the 89-minute feature. Making Mr. Fox Fantastic is a six-part featurette including the visual look, adapting the script to the stop-motion film, the puppet makers, the puppet animation, the vocal cast and Bill and his Badger (only the 7-minute from script to screen segment can be found on the standard disc). A Beginner’s Guide To Whack-Bat is a fanciful newsreel about the sport played throughout the film; while Fantastic Mr. Fox: The World of Roald Dahl celebrates the author as is appropriate.

Read your children the book then let them revel in this film, which will stand up to repeated viewings.

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Review: ‘Red Cliff’ on Blu-ray

Review: ‘Red Cliff’ on Blu-ray

The history of the world is rich with stories of personal triumph and epic events. In fact, so many stories remain to be told to modern day audiences, you would never need to leave the non-fiction section to find stories to tell. In school, we’re given such a surface review of global history that we’re constantly amazed to find out what really went on.

Take China for example. The country is our partner and rival in modern day affairs but what do we know of a land that can trace its culture back thousands of years? Sure, we were taught they were largely xenophobic and measured their rulers by dynasties but little else. But, to those growing up in the Pacific Rim, the stories of great warriors outnumber those we can tell about out forefathers.

This point is brought home in the release this week of the stunning [[[Red Cliff]]]. Director John Woo has wanted to tell this story about the fall of the Han Dynasty since childhood and spent years researching it, more years to craft a script and then months to film the story.

In 208 A.D., the Han Dynasty Emperor grants permission to the greedy General Cao Cao to form a movement that will pulverize two warlords who stand in his way.  The warlords, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, are sworn enemies but know their only hope for survival is to band together and counter the attack. Although outnumbered by Cao Cao’s vast and fast approaching army, the warlords put their rivalry behind them and end up surprising all those who doubted their small brigade. 

History, as we know, is written by the victors so most accounts make Cao Cao out to be evil incarnate but Woo wisely sourced most of the facts and character descriptions from the more level-headed Records of Three Kingdoms. This certainly makes all the players far from cardboard caricatures.

The story was so epic in scope, akin to [[[Lord of the Rings]]], that he shot a four hour film that was released internationally in two parts. A 148-minute edited version came to America last year, garnering excellent reviews although it didn’t perform well at the box office. The movie has been released by Magnolia Home Entertainment in a variety  of formats such as the two-disc Blu-ray International Edition with the complete film or the single disc with the shortened version. Both come packed with extras galore.

In watching the 148 domestic version, I thought I had seen enough. The problem for me was that too many of the key players were not developed as characters with Woo’s emphasis on his trademark action sequences which were larger and more involved than ever. As a result, Cao Cao is not the standard movie villain but also remains enigmatic, his true goals and desires absent. Similarly, Liu Bei and Sun Quan’s enmity is left mentioned and unexplored so their alliance is missing the significance it should otherwise posses.

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Review: ‘Arizona Dream’

Review: ‘Arizona Dream’

There’s only one reason for Warner Home Video to release the 1993 disaster of a film, Arizona Dream: Johnny Depp. Anything with him in it is virtually a license to print money so the movie is released this week as a part of their Archive Collection. The DVD comes with the movie and nothing else as in keeping with the line designed for collectors.

While Depp was still at the beginning of his film career, the cast includes veterans who should have known better, including Faye Dunaway and Jerry Lewis. That’s right, Jerry Lewis playing a straight role.  The film also has veteran character performer Michael J. Pollard in a cameo and relative newcomers Lily Taylor and Paulina Porizkova.

The movie was shot in 1991, released in Europe only two years later and didn’t come to America until 1994. The original cut ran for 142 minutes while the television and home video cuts are at 119, including this release. From what I’ve seen, that’s more than enough and the director’s cut can stay in the vault.

David Atkins wrote what is politely called a romantic fantasy about Axel (Depp), a young man trying to make it on his own in New York City when his cousin Paul (Vincent Gallo), essentially kidnaps him for a trip to Arizona for Uncle Leo’s (Lewis) wedding to the much younger Porizkova. Depp, with his vivid dreams about Eskimos, is coaxed by Uncle Leo to stay and join the family car dealership. When Axel tries, he falls for Elaine (Dunaway), a woman who dreams of flying. Her stepdaughter Grace (Taylor) has her own dream: suicide and reincarnation as a turtle. Axel and Paul vie for Elaine’s affections while Uncle Leo is convinced he’s dying and wants to leave the family together.

The script, though, under-develops every character and there may be some comedic elements, but there’s little to hold things together. Why does Leo want to marry the younger woman and what does she see in him? How did Elaine get to be so daft and what demons drive Grace towards her own death? There’s a morbid tone to everything and despite the desert setting, the film feels dark and forbidding.

There’s a lot of talk of death from all the characters but there’s no rational behind any of it and interestingly enough, only two actually die. And let’s not even discuss the final scene.

Directed by Emir Kusturica (who cowrote the story) has some terrific performers to work with but doesn’t let any of them shine. Lewis is wasted in a nothing part and you wonder why the extremely selective performer agreed to be in such a minor role. Depp’s characterization tries too hard and at times feels like he’s in an entirely different film.

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Review: ‘Toy Story’ & ‘Toy Story 2’ on Blu-ray

Review: ‘Toy Story’ & ‘Toy Story 2’ on Blu-ray

I think it’s fairly safe to begin talking about Toy Story and Toy Story 2 by stipulating that they’re amazing. Most, if not all, of  you have no doubt seen these Pixar films in the movie theaters if not on cable or DVD.

Pixar burst into the public consciousness with [[[Toy Story]]], which was fresh, charming and original. It was the first family friendly film to entertain all generations with character-based humor and sly winks to the Baby Boomers who were in attendance with their children or grandchildren. It spoke to everyone and coupled with fabulous CGI animation and a memorable Randy Newman soundtrack, the film put Disney and its competitors to shame.

Wisely, they proved they were not a one-trick pony by rushing out a sequel but instead offered up other originals first. But Buzz Lightyear and Woody were too good to let go and they returned for the sequel. At one point, when it looked like Pixar and Disney were headed for a messy divorce, the House of the Mouse put a third film into development without John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton’s involvement.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the two entities became one. Out of that notion, though, a third visit to Andy and his toys seemed inevitable. In June, the 3-D third and final film in the series (we presume) will arrive. To celebrate and promote that fact, Walt Disney Home Entertainment is releasing this week Blu-ray special editions of the first two films.

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What happened to Clifford Meth’s column? Read it here

What happened to Clifford Meth’s column? Read it here

  • News
  • March 14, 2010

Editor’s note: This column, which was originally published at Comics Bulletin and which we pointed to on Friday, was taken down from their site yesterday. We’re a bit touchy when it comes to internet censorship and the hint of legal threats from movie people, so we asked Cliff what we could to do help. Clifford has graciously allowed us to republish the original column here, and he’ll be writing up a fuller explanation of what’s been going on tomorrow. –Glenn Hauman

“Welcome to Hollywood”
By Clifford Meth

I’ve been away from this column for so long that an explanation is in order. I’m tempted to say it was something like a summer vacation where, by virtue of missed flights, I didn’t come home for years…but the truth is I sank belly-deep into a myriad of projects, most of which were destined to fail. So before we go any further, let’s get some closure:

Dave Cockrum’s Futurians and I have been attached at the hip for what seems like a lifetime. Besides being a fan of the project, I penned a back-up story that Dave illustrated for Futurians #0 (1995, Aardwolf Publishing) then personally walked the intellectual property into Starz Entertainment (nee IDT Entertainment) a decade later. How excited was I—and how excited was Dave—when they optioned rights and Stephen Brown, executive producer of Showtime’s “Masters of Horror” series, asked me to write the treatment and first draft for what they planned as a theatrical release. This came back-to-back with a script-editing assignment working with Peter David on Gene Roddenberry’s “Starpoint Academy” as well as script vetting for Stan Lee’s POW Entertainment. Seriously fun stuff. And happening fast.

Then came the long fizzle.

 

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