Was this in front of Alice In Wonderland? If so, I can understand how the film did over $100 million in its opening weekend.
Here’s the official trailer for Tron Legacy:
Interestingly, there seems to be a generation gap for this film, with a lot of fans under the age of 25 unimpressed by the first film– so one wonders how a sequel to a 28 year old film will do. What’s your take on it?
From the 1950s through the 1970s many a producer could make a nice career out of producing low budget exploitation films. Roger Corman turned his studio into a training ground and provided us with a generation of terrific filmmakers. Many who make films today were heavily influenced by these films and Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez paid homage with their [[[Grindhouse]]] extravaganza.
Exploitation movies are critic-proof. They will find their audiences thanks to the copious amounts of blood, senseless violence, and frequent displays of cleavage. But, for the most part, their time has come and gone as roadhouse promotions and drive-in theatres have gone the way of the nickelodeon. As a result, you have to admire anyone who sets out to make one these days.
Bitch Slap, out this week on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, is the latest such attempt at recreating a lost genre. Rick Jacobson and Eric Gruendemann cut their teeth on [[[Hercules]]] and [[[Xena]]] and have longed to take some of their syndicated television tendencies and mix them with an over-the-top exploitation film. They cowrote the script and Jacobson directed. Then they set out to bring in their pals (Lucy Lawless, Kevin Sorbo, and Renée O’Connor) to make cameo appearances in support of the stars.
You can see their influences through the clever opening and closing title sequences, which are nicely handled.
The movie features three curvaceous, bosomy beauties — Julia Voth, Erin Cummings, America Olivo – stuck out on the desert and caught up in a violent quest for diamonds and guns. Chasing them or trying to run away from them is another TV vet, Michael Hurst.
The movie cuts between the current action in the hot sun and is constantly flashing back to show how the stripper, the killer and the corporate powerbroker got caught up in this adventure. Clearly, the intention is to have fun and to constantly surprise the audience as we see things progress bringing them to this point.
Unfortunately, it’s an underwhelming mess. The script is too clever for its own good and leaves things confusing and poorly laid out. And while it’s interesting to watch these characters come to known one another, building some level of trust, there’s not enough of a spine to really make you care.
Instead, you’re there for the T&A and frankly, the trio remains clothed throughout despite the sex scenes and the times they pour water on each other or wrestle on the ground. The violence is pretty much as you expect with poor makeup and squib effects. After a while, I got bored watching the endless action despite nice stunt coordination from veteran Zoë Bell.
Much of the film’s flashbacks were shot using green screen technology and the backgrounds don’t seamlessly blend with the actors, adding the cheesy look.
The movie comes complete with a nice four-part behind-the-scenes documentary that shows how much affection went into the project despite the poor results. We see the first cast read through as they introduce themselves and each actor recounts how they got their part. In many ways, this was more engaging than the film itself, especially as they struggled to work within a limited budget and shooting schedule.
The movie had a limited release back in January, earning all of $16,788 at the box office. This DVD is intended to find a more appreciative audience and comes unrated which has to be for the language – certainly not the sex or violence.
Many ComicMix readers no doubt have struggled form time to time telling fantasy from reality. We want to let our minds wander, explore strange new worlds, and avoid the harsh and unpleasant realities that await us in the mundane world. The clash between fantasy and reality fuels the 1983 Michael Ende novel The Neverending Story
The movie was released in 1984 and despite glowing reviews, failed to perform at the box office and its sequels and related adaptations have all gone wanting. The film has been dusted off for Blu-ray, being released tomorrow by Warner Home Video. This appears to be the same version as was released on DVD in 2001 complete with the utter lack of extras. The print looks terrific and sharp while the upgraded 5.1 audio is the only compelling reason to buy this version.
The movie adapts just half the novel and made enough alterations to annoy Ende. Bastian is a terrific reader with a strong imagination, a place he retreats after his mother’s death and constant bullying from classmates. His father tries to convince him to live in the real world and begin adjusting to their new reality. A chance encounter at a used bookstore leaves the boy with a copy of [[[The Neverending Story]]] which he reads in one sitting, hidden in an unused attic at his school. By the end of the book, he is shocked to discover he has become a pivotal character in the tale and holds the key for the realm of Fantasia’s survival.
Much of the film, though, takes place in the fantasy realm and the creature designs and characterizations are imaginatively done. The production designers have done a nice job in creating a wondrous place with magical creatures, talismans, castles, and races that all get along. Yes, they look like puppets but done right, it can work—look at the recent Where the Wild Things Are. If anything disappoints its some of the rear projection and blue screen work which is glaringly obvious on Blu-ray.
The movie fails, though, to make us care. These are fantastic creatures but none have personality nor do our twin heroes – Bastian or Atreyu. In fact, Bastian is conflicted throughout reading the book because he just talked with his dad about living in the world yet his imagination can save a different world. It can be a strong them but is barely handled. At film’s end, when Bastian emerges from the school, there’s no resolution, no bookend to complement the opening. In fact, Bastian’s absence is ignored by teachers and father and there are no consequences for his actions.
The book, which remains a beloved volume, has many more imaginative characters and settings than is seen here. Yes, not everything could be replicated and such a large book needed modifying for the screen. No question. But the lingering shots of Atreyu on his journey could easily have been set against more interesting visuals.
While the film has endured as a bit of a holiday time cable staple, it’s really a tedious adventure failing to come close to the magic contained within the source material.
Filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas grew up fascinated by the amazing stop-motion magic from model maker Ray Harryhausen. His films were cutting edge forays into the realms of monsters, science fiction, and fantasy for decades. His Jason and the Argonauts remains one of the best Greek myths brought to film and his work only got better through his Sinbad films.
By 1981, though, Lucas rewrote the special effects rulebook with [[[Star Wars]]] followed soon after by Spielberg’s [[[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]]]. The effects were aided by computers, the model makers improved the technology and the scripts grew stronger and more sophisticated.
As a result, when Harryhausen unleashed Clash Of The Titans
The movie has served as fodder for the 3-D remake coming this spring so Warner Home Video has dusted off the movie and is releasing it in Blu-ray on Tuesday.
Harryhausen eschewed the computer technologies available to him and did it the old fashioned way so while his creatures were interesting to look at, their stilted movements looked terrible and worse, dated. Similarly, at a time when Industrial Light & Magic showed what can be done on film, Harryhausen and director Desmond Davis chose to use substandard blue screen, double-exposure and poor matte paintings to achieve the effects. The entire film looked cheap and frankly, something that would have been more engaging a decade previous.
These are the Greek gods playing games with mortals. The politics of the gods is fascinating subject matter and in strong hands, can be compelling. Instead, screenwriter Beverly Cross served up a rehashed story that never delved into the character or their motivations. They were like Zeus’ clay pawns, moved on a chess board to advance the story.
Davis was clearly not a good director as he got wooden performances from a cast that included such heavyweights as Maggie Smith. Claire Bloom, Burgess Meredith, and Sir Laurence Olivier. Nor could he get anything subtle from Hamlin, who developed far better acting skills on television soon after. He also settled for horrible sets so Mount Olympus looked like a schoolhouse production, lacking grandeur and scale. Thankfully, the location shooting around Europe made Earth seem a far more interesting place.
And while Harryhausen swears the mechanical owl Bubo was conceived long before R2D2, it is hard to believe. Once that droid rolled across the screen, most genre productions had cute robotic companions much to the detriment of the stories. It’s no different here and a real let down from someone far more imaginative as was Harryhausen.
The Blu-ray edition is lackluster in that the original film seems to have been barely touched for the upgrade. Inconsistent film stocks look worse in h-def and the transfer is competent at best. The audio is fine although it shows us how dated even Laurence Rosenthal’s score was, shamed by John Williams and a new generation of composers.
The disc comes with two extras culled from the 2002 DVD release so if you have that edition, you can skip this one. The disc comes with an extended look at the new film and while the effects and creatures look impressive, and it has a nicely pedigreed cast, it also looks to lack the same depth of character that helped spoil this film.
The packaging is nice, though. Similar to the recent [[[North by Northwest]]], the disc is contained in a bookcase, with a 48-page booklet containing actor bios and a short article on Harryhausen’s amazing career. The package also contains a discount movie ticket for the remake.
February 15th has some fantastic birthdays. Jokers such as the late Chris Farley, Harvey Korman, and Cesar Romero. Former Fake TV Doc and current jewelry designer Jane Seymour. Cartoonist and creator of Television’s longest running cartoon (the Simpsons) Matt Groening. So Happy Birthday to all of those great people and one film that helped shape a generation. I speak of course of John Hughes’ epic teen magnum opus, The Breakfast Club.
That’s right kids. In 1985, Hughes’ released a little dramedy unto the world. Taking archetype teens (“a Jock”, “a Brain”, “a Beauty”, “a Rebel”, and “a Recluse”) and forcing them to sit in detention under the thumb of a tyrannical principal… the movie dared do what few in the ilk had ever done. It shined the light on these caricatures and gave audiences what they didn’t expect: Real teens! The Jock was buckling under the pressure of his father’s great expectations! The Brain was ready to threaten his shop teacher over a bad grade! And the Rebel? Well he was just a kid no one ever gave a chance. While Hughes’ earlier foray into teenagedom, 16 Candles, was well received, it was Breakfast Club that helped define a generation to come.
Let’s face it. No matter which kid you vibed with, The Breakfast Club represented you and your friends like no film had before it, or has since. While other teen flicks make those years out to be nothing but a mad dash to losing one’s virginity, here was a film that took time to show that sex aside, being a teen is a complicated time. I was a mere toddler when the film debuted in theaters. It’s with shame and remorse that I admit my generation cut it’s teeth on American Pie. And while Pie tried hard to capture some of Hughes’ magic, no amount of pie-boinking and Eugene Levy can match Pixie Stick and Cap N’ Crunch sandwiches and amazing dancing.
So, raise a glass and toast The Breakfast Club. It’s finally old enough to see a significant drop in it’s auto insurance rate. Kudos. Now, let’s all take a walk down memory lane…
Paramount Pictures has gone out of their way to announce Mission: Impossible 4 — what feels like a rushed project, coming out in just over a year.
The film is being described as a reboot, without J.J. Abrams behind the camera and will most likely introduce agents to take over the franchise. It also arrives during a packed May 2011 which already has scheduled Thor (5/6), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (5/20), and The Hangover 2 (5/26).
HOLLYWOOD, CA (February 9, 2010) – Paramount Pictures announced today that it is making “Mission Impossible IV.” The film, which will be produced by Tom Cruise, J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions and will star Cruise, will be released Memorial Day weekend 2011.
“Tom and J.J. are great talents and we are excited to be working with them to re-launch this legendary franchise,” said Paramount Pictures Chairman & CEO Brad Grey.
Screenwriters Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec are attached to write the script, from an original idea by Cruise and Abrams.
The studio, Cruise and Abrams are in now the process of identifying a director for the film.
Abrams’s last project with Paramount was “Star Trek,” which he produced and directed. The film grossed $385 million globally. Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” franchise has grossed over 1.4 billion globally.
“Mission Impossible IV” will be co-financed by David Ellison’s Skydance Productions.
STAR TREK’s beloved Chekov has a new film project with a ton of familiar faces and a compelling story to boot. Walter Koenig tells us the facts behind INALIENABLE plus Taylor Lautner is playing Stretch Armstrong, Olivia Munn has bad ass lawyers and Namor on the big screen – really!
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When people get excited about something, they blossom and their affection can become contagious. Such is the case for screenwriter Shauna Cross, who stumbled across the world of roller derby and decided to get her story into print. She wrote it first as a young adult novel, Derby Girl
and then managed to option it to Drew Barrymore’s production company. Barrymore loved the material so much she decided to turn it into her directorial debut.
Whip It [Blu-ray]
opened last fall to generally positive reviews but middling box office, vanishing without much of a splash, which is a shame because the movie is pretty good and worth your attention. Out this week from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, the movie is available in the usual formats with the Blu-ray edition containing a digital copy disc.
Much as Cross, who wrote the screen adaptation of her book, came to love the rough and tumble world, so too does Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page). A high school senior, Bliss is the dorky good girl who goes to school and lets her mother push her into competing on the pageant circuit. Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden) is a former beauty queen now working as a mail carrier, eking out a lower middle class existence with her husband Earl (Daniel Stern) and is somewhat smothering with her love and attention. A chance encounter at a store acts as Bliss’ entrée into the roller derby world and after watching one competition with her best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat), decides to try out. Her speed earns the awkward athlete a spot on the team and the beginning of a new world.
Pretty quickly, Bliss, now dubbed Babe Ruthless, is accepted by the team who become a circle of friends despite the disparity in their ages. Now, Bliss has to juggle school, work at the local BBQ joint, the pageants and the derby. Along the way, her arrival acts as the catalyst the team needs to evolve from losers to competitors. And she meets Oliver (Landon Pigg), the somewhat older guitarist in a band. Cue the violins.
Harden and Stern make an odd but effective couple of parents, grounding the film every time it feels ready to speed off track.
While we all knew to expect the Blu-ray debut of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy this spring, Warner Home Video issued a release regarding the previous film incarnation of the classic tale. Here’s the release:
BURBANK, CA (January 27, 2010) – Journey back into the world of Hobbits, Humans, Elves and Dwarves in the all-new The Lord of the Rings Remastered Deluxe Edition coming April 6, 2010 from Warner Home Video. This original animated classic from acclaimed director Ralph Bakshi and Academy Award Winning producer, Saul Zaentz, has been remastered with pristine New Dolby 5.1 audio and picture quality and will be distributed as a single disc DVD and Blu-ray combo which features a Blu-ray, DVD and bonus digital copy. The film will also be available for Digital Download. This film is rated PG.
One of the great visionary animation directors of the modern era, Bakshi went to artistic extremes to meticulously bring the legendary world of J.R.R. Tolkien to animated life – adding yet another stunning title to the director’s canon of ground-breaking films. Bakshi’s animation accomplishments include Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, American Pop, Wizards and Cool World.
All the magical adventure of the fantasy classic comes to life in Bakshi’s brilliantly animated tale of the enchanted land of Middle-earth – and the brave band of Hobbits, heroes and Wizards who set out to protect it. When a dangerous and powerful gold ring falls into his hands, a courageous Hobbit named Frodo embarks on an epic adventure. Along with the mighty Wizard Gandalf and some daring Elves, he defends his homeland from the Dark Power who would destroy it. Set in a mystical age of magic, monsters and unlikely heroes on incredible journeys, The Lord of the Rings will cast its spell over the entire family!
The deluxe edition also features a never-before-seen, 30-minute in-depth interview with legendary director Ralph Bakshi entitled Forging Through The Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Vision for The Lord Of The Rings. This special feature explores his concept for creating an illustrated film, his pioneering rotoscoping process, and inspirations for his visual storytelling.
“The Lord of the Rings is a timeless classic that continues to be a favorite for generation after generation,” said Amit Desai, WHV Vice President of Family, Animation & Partner Brands Marketing. “The theatrical release in 1978 had a domestic total gross of nearly $90 million at the box office and shipped 1.1 million net videos. We are looking forward to offering this remastered deluxe edition to the fans for their library collections and providing endless enjoyment for years to come.”
Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga ([[[21 Grams]]], [[[Babel]]]) was determined to take greater control over his stories by directing and made his debut in the well-intentioned [[[The Burning Plain]]]. The movie, out now on DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment, played at various festivals before receiving an unsuccessful theatrical release. Starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, the movie is told in Arriaga’s patented nonlinear manner, but keeps us at arm’s distance from the characters.
In short, the story is told in three parallel timelines that eventually begin to converge. Basinger plays Gina, an unhappy mother who is having an affair with Nick (Joaquim de Almeida) and doing a poor job of hiding it from her eldest daughter, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence). In attempting to keep her family together, Mariana trails them to the trailer they use for their trysts, setting the gas line on fire, hoping to flush them out. Things don’t go well and later, at the funeral for the former lovers, Mariana catches the eye of Nick’s oldest, Santiago (Danny Pino) and the two teens begin an affair.
Years later, Mariana now calls herself Sylvia (Theron) and is a self-destructive, near-suicidal restaurateur in Portland. Her precarious life is thrown into turmoil when the daughter she abandoned is brought to her after Santiago is injured in a crop dusting accident.
Structurally, the movie is well crafted and fascinating to see things fall into place. On the other hand, because two of the three timelines are close in setting, there needed to be more visual cues which storyline we were watching. This is a strong drama about people engaging in happy pursuits but none take any pleasure in their acts and guilt is an overriding undercurrent to all the major players.
The greatest failing, though, is to explore any of the characters. Why was Nick so attractive Gina couldn’t resist? Why was Gina so unhappy at home? What prompted Mariana/Sylvia to abandon Santiago and her daughter? All the characters are there but none of them are deeply written to allow us to really feel for them.
This is a shame because the three main women – Theron, Basinger, and Lawrence – give riveting performances. In fact, Lawrence justly earned the Marcello Mastroianni prize, for the best young emerging actor/actress at the Venice Film Festival. You want to know more about them, their worlds, and what drives them all but Arriaga lets us and them down. The film is rounded out with many other familiar faces in smaller roles including John Corbett, Robin Tunney, Rachel Ticotin, and Brett Cullen.
Beautifully photographed, it features a haunting soundtrack from Omar Rodríguez-López and Hans Zimmer. All the elements were there for a stronger film.
The Blu-ray comes complete with a 43 minute Making Of featurette where Arriaga goes to great pains to introduce us to all the major players behind the camera. Along the way, we see how the film was shot and the themes of earth, wind, fire, and water that he subtly assigned his characters. A 15 minute piece shows us the unusual collaboration between Rodríguez-López and Zimmer and there’s a four minute puff piece from HD Net.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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