Bad Lieutenant and Nicolas Cage

I think people don't understand the Bad Lieutenant trailer.

Maybe I'm wrong, but to me it seems clear. I mean, Herzog is not a hack. I get the sense he got saddled with some awful shitty cop script and responded by just making the silliest, weirdo movie he could.

"Shoot him again. His soul is still dancing." Not the kind of line you see in some shitty Righteous Kill of the week. The soul is breakdancing. There's ridiculous harmonica music. It doesn't make sense to me that Herzog would go from making some of the strongest films in his career to suddenly forgetting everything about how to make a good movie. To me it looks like great fun.

Someone also made a good point: in this weird way, Nicolas Cage has never really sold out.

Bear with me.

As much as he keeps popping up in "WTF?" movies, he has this consistently tried to work with interesting directors: the Pang Brothers, Proyas, LaBute, and now Herzog. The final products may have sucked but he's picking films by guys who have made really interesting movies; maybe he is just incredibly unlucky and all of the projects just end up being bad.

I really hope Cage can get a good role. I am tired of people hating him. He's one of my favorite actors. He is fearless and interesting in a way few actors are. I think that's why his bad movies flop so much. He always puts it all out there. I don't think you could accuse him of phoning it in.

"What are these f---ing iguanas doing on my coffee table?"

I don't know what to say.



Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans will be out in Belgium on December 2nd, 2009. Oh, you don't live in Belgium? Well, it opens the same day in France. No? On Argentina, it opens on December 10th. If you don't live in one of those three countries, no date has been set.

The Thorn in the Heart

As anyone who knows me knows, I am a huge fan of Michel Gondry. So I'm just going to post this link to the ComingSoon article about his latest project, a documentary about members of his family.

In the meantime, I can't wait to hear more about The Green Hornet. It sounds like it's going to be certifiably insane. Summer 2010 can't get here fast enough.

3D

James Cameron's Avatar isn't even here yet and I've already seen the future of 3D in movies. Just this morning I was wondering if it could be more than a gimmick, but of course, Pixar gets it right.



Up opens on Friday. See it in RealD 3D (note: I didn't enjoy seeing Monsters vs. Aliens in IMAX 3D, although I saw it at a "fake" IMAX theater, and I saw Up in RealD, so I'm vouching for that). Check out my DVDTalk review as well, right here.

Remake Watch 2009: Part 1

Flight of the Navigator and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are on the docket. I watched Flight as a kid, and I've been meaning to pop in the DVD I bought back in at least 2006, but I haven't. On the other hand, I've seen none of Buffy, be it the Kristy Swanson movie or the popular TV show (remake is based on the movie).

So far this year, they've announced remakes of Total Recall, The Neverending Story and Videodrome, off the top of my head. Certainly, there were more, so I'll edit this post as I remember.

Remake Watch 2009:
5 film remakes announced
4 film remakes released
2 tv remakes released
2 reboots released

A "reboot" is defined by Remake Watch as a new attempt at a film series with new actors playing old characters (thus, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Race to Witch Mountain are excluded). Sequels to remakes (The Pink Panther 2, Halloween 2) are ignored.

The Bracelet of Bordeaux

A Girl Scout uses a magic bracelet to kill an old lady with a lawn mower, harass an ice cream man, and save some girl's ugly ass dog. Sounds good on paper, right?

My favorite part is when she uses the bracelet to become a Mexican gunfighter and makes a shopkeeper "dance".



The Bracelet of Bordeaux was just recently released on May 18th in select US theaters.

ETA: Please note that Monterey Media also brought us the horrendous abomination that is Gooby. If The Bracelet of Bordeaux wasn't enough horror for your eyes, turn your attention to this:



Gooby was already enacted upon theaters on April 17th, and is apparently coming to DVD soon to terrorize more people.

The Princess and the Frog

The trailer for Disney's upcoming 2-D animated film The Princess and the Frog arrived online within the last month or so. While it doesn't look bad, will it be good enough to engage audiences and save traditional animation?

Nathan Kerce: Is it possible for hand drawn animation to make a comeback?
Tyler Foster: Also, if The Princess and the Frog isn't a hit, is the entire future of hand-drawn animation going to hinge on it? I mean, it looks a little weird. Not in a bad way, but I'm not sure audiences are just going to run out and embrace it. I wouldn't have said the trailer looked like a hit movie, whether we were still making 2-D animated films or not.
Nathan Kerce: Yeah, the trailer kind of threw me off. The latter half with the quick clips seemed like Classic Disney and even got me pretty excited, but the first half felt like Home on the Range-level stuff. It was an awkward mix.
Tyler Foster: Did you see Enchanted? That seems like the smarter way to go, although it sort of short-changes the 2-D animation, in that it's only part of the film.
Nathan Kerce: I did see it. It's hard to judge, considering the plot was a parody on Disney Princesses, so the cartoon portion had too much from other movies for me to really enjoy it on a level above simple humor.
Tyler Foster: As much as I like traditional animation, and I do, I think the question is about finding a story that would somehow be better told with 2-D animation, and that seems like a hard thing to grasp...I mean, 3-D isn't just a technology, it makes the animation and world more dynamic.
Nathan Kerce: Yeah. Is 3D just another form of animation or is it the evolution of 2D?
Tyler Foster: But maybe this is backwards thinking, I mean I guess if I went about it the other way, I would be hard pressed to find anything about Toy Story or Monsters vs. Aliens that couldn't have been done with traditional animation. Maybe the questionable thing is that Disney's trying to kill two birds with one stone here: they're trying to resurrect like Classic Disney storytelling and traditional animation at the same time.



The Princess and the Frog opens November 25th in LA and NY, and goes wide on December 11th, 2009.

Michelin Man: The Movie

Recently, Michael Eisner's company announced that they would be bringing Bazooka Joe to the big screen, and I wondered if Hollywood has any perception of the future they're creating.

Check IMDb: there are movie versions of Stretch Armstrong, Battleship, Monopoly and Ouija Board in development, along with an updated take on Clue. Over time, they've also tried to make Slinky, Super Soaker and Hot Wheels into movies, and of course we've succeeded in gracing theaters with Bratz, Transformers, and the 1980's gem Mac and Me, which regardless of the blatant E.T. rip-off, was clearly a movie about McDonald's. Really?

The point of adapting an existing, established brand name is that you have a built-in audience, but what exactly is the audience for Bazooka Joe comics? How many people out there love Joe so much they'll leap at the chance to see a movie with his character? But more importantly, do we really want to look forward to a future where all we've got coming out is licensed properties? I mean, we're pretty much already there: seeing Star Trek a second time this weekend, they played the trailers for Land of the Lost, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and Transformers: Rise of the Fallen. And these are at least properties with established fans, who are going to go see the movie adaptations in question. I can't imagine people lining up for Stretch Armstrong, and even if people would, I don't think I want to see it.

It's easy to complain about established franchises and the growing commercialization of Hollywood, but I wonder if people even think about what they're missing. Instead of a Beverly Hills Cop for the 21st century, we're probably going to end up with a literal new Beverly Hills Cop movie. Instead of any Die Hard-level action movies, we're going to have to a third Transformers or future X-Men prequels. Our generation won't get a Ghostbusters or a Back to the Future, we're just going to get more of what we've already had, whether that means sequels, reboots, or adaptations we don't want, like the unfortunate Bazooka Joe.

But I'd like to be wrong. Let's hope summer 2010 brings us a blockbuster of surprising scope and exhilarating invention, and that no part of the idea came off of the back of a bubble gum wrapper.

Re: Are These the 20 Best Films of 2008?

This was first posted on the film ick Fightback on December 17th, 2008. Since film ick itself is currently offline and The Fightback only has three posts -- all by me -- I'm going to repost it here for the sake of preservation.

I don't know if this is still my top 10 of 2008 (I saw a few more films that aren't included), but I figured I'd save the article anyway. Additionally, my criteria for including a film on a yearly list is that it received its widest US release during that year (which is why The Signal is included, among others).

Obviously, I didn't see every film released in America in 2008, but of the ones I did see, here are my top 20 picks (up from 10) with a little added commentary.

01 The Wrestler (2008)
A tragedy to its very core. Some have criticized that The Wrestler is cliche, but it's the sincerity of the film that's so powerful, and Mickey Rourke is nothing but sincere.

02 Synecdoche, New York (2008)
I only saw this movie once, so I'm not entirely sure what it means. But I do know it features a stellar ensemble cast doing remarkable work in service of something truly, absolutely original.

03 Let the Right One In (2008)
There's something magical about the way kids regard one another, and it's captured perfectly in this Swedish vampire story. A couple strange missteps (including CGI cats) can't deter the charm of the film's two leads.

04 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is getting a lukewarm reaction from American critics because the film doesn't have much of a statement to make, about life or otherwise. It is simply the portrait of two people, and as far as that goes I was enchanted the entire time. The last shot is sorrowful.

05 Funny Games US (2007)
Either you love Funny Games or you hate it. There's not much more to it I can add -- the experience is so subjective, you just can't know anything about it until you've seen it.

06 Doubt (2008)
The acting is uniformly excellent in Doubt, perhaps the best of the year. I'd have ranked it higher, perhaps, but I was struck by how off-putting I found the last minute of the film.

07 The Signal (2007)
Taken by itself, The Signal might seem pretty slight or unremarkable, but it's the first three-director anthology I've seen that really worked (perhaps because this film tells one consecutive story instead of three short ones), had sharp horror-comedy, and was made for less than $50,000. Underrated and highly entertaining.

08 Burn After Reading (2008)
The first time I saw this movie, it just flew way over my head. I thought the Coens had let me down. When I saw it again, I couldn't stop laughing.

09 Gran Torino (2008)
The joys of Clint Eastwood are captured easily by the man himself in this well-acted action thriller that perfectly demonstrates how a film can have dramatic resonance and still be a pure crowd-pleaser.

10 In Bruges (2008)
A perfectly-scripted comedy thriller that contains a surprise gem of a performance from Colin Farrell and very funny, ludicrous gags. Good thing a friend of mine saw it or the bad Lock-Stock style American ads would have kept me away.
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11 Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Joyous and exciting, with a great cast.

12 Pineapple Express (2008)
Slightly twisted action film all but stolen by Craig Robinson.

13 The Dark Knight (2008)
See the bottom paragraph.

14 JCVD (2008)
Endearing and funny, with a great performance by Van Damme.

15 City of Ember (2008)
A solid family adventure that features some of the most beautiful production design of the year.

16 Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
The best film Kevin Smith has made since Dogma, which uses Seth Rogen and a Live song to perfect effect.

17 WALL-E (2008)
A visual masterpiece. Like most, I would have preferred more of the first third of the movie, but still a great film.

18 The Lucky Ones (2008)
All three of the leads are good, but this corny, even TV-level drama is elevated incomparably by Rachel McAdams, who deserves an Oscar nomination she isn't going to get for her work here.

19 Get Smart (2008)
A sharper and wittier action movie than it got credit for. I'm sure of all 20 picks, people will question this the most, but I stand by it.

20 Ghost Town (2008)
The performances make this one, and Ricky Gervais' touches to the writing are excellent.

I (like many) have to disagree with Brendon about The Dark Knight. An unbalanced and overlong film, sure, but also often very exciting and highly entertaining. I can agree to disagree, Brendon, but you said that we've had "the wool pulled over our eyes" -- how can a film dupe us into being entertained?

Downloads and Blu-Ray

This was first posted on the film ick Fightback on January 5th, 2008. Since film ick itself is currently offline and The Fightback only has three posts -- all by me -- I'm going to repost it here for the sake of preservation.

This is something I posted on another website in response to a) the suggestion that Blu-Ray will never be more than a niche format and b) the suggestion that digital downloads are the forseeable future.
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You say that laserdisc didn't catch on, well, not only was technology, that exponential mover and shaker, exponentially more expensive back in the mid-'90s, but as we invent more gadgets and doo-dads your average Joe ends up with more technology in his house (computer, HDTV, DVR, DVD player, surround sound, iPod, digital camera, game system, projection screen, hi-def DVD, Sirius/XM/satellite, On Demand, whatever) than he did 15 years ago. Not to mention the fact that a laserdisc was the size of a vinyl -- time has shown that people like their technology conveniently sized.

With the digital signal change in February 2008 I think people are just looking to upgrade. Neighbor Bob goes over to Neighbor Dan's house and sees his brand new 50" crystal-clear LCD or plasma screen hooked up to DTS 6.1 and he runs out and gets one. Plus, both Joe and Bob's 20-something kids are twice as techno-savvy and they don't even need to see their neighbor's display to know they want an HDTV. Even if you don't have waves of people snapping these up yet, people know what they are, and if a TV breaks these days, why go for the diminishing selection of $200 25" tube TVs when you could drop $200 more and get something much nicer?

And if HDTV is the way of the future, then Blu-Ray is the next step. People buy an HDTV and they grab the TiVo and start watching the HD channels and then, lucky them, it turns out the game system the kids want is also an hi-def DVD player, and that's all it takes.

Now, sure, I don't see Blu-Ray stomping or even thumping on the SD-DVD behemoth. But to think that this format couldn't easily be ten times as big as it is now by the end of 2009, much less 2015, is ridiculous.

The thing about downloading is that the majority of the people who currently download movies just watch them once and delete them, not to mention the fact that they're probably pirates and want stuff for free. Sure, digital downloads could easily erase, say, the video-rental market in the forseeable future, but try to imagine a world where the Best Buys and Circuit Citys of the world don't carry physical media -- it just doesn't seem possible, and until we're in flying cars I don't think it's a real risk. If Blu-Ray, an easy-to-understand next-gen format that's basically like what we have and love but better, is not going to top SD-DVD, then how can we possibly suggest that digital downloading, a somewhat foreign non-format that easily alienates or disinterests potential users will somehow dwarf both SD-DVD and Blu-Ray, not to mention material media in general?