With the recent passing of legendary actor Paul Newman, I thought this would be a good Monday morning post. Here is a short gallery of trailers featuring some of Newman’s best performances. I had to watch a little Newman this weekend (and accidently watched an episode of Mad Men where they repeatedly mentioned Paul Newman - from the first season), Butch & Sundance is as good now as it’s ever been. Anyhow, here you are, a gallery of trailers focusing on the life of Paul Newman:
Legendary American actor Paul Newman passed away last night after a long battle with cancer. Newman was a humanitarian, philanthropist, activist and beloved actor who appeared in films over the course of the last five decades. Newman was nominated for an Academy Award ten times and won in 1987 for his role in The Color of Money.
Newman was most famous for his roles in a couple of small films you might have seen at some point Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Color of Money, Road to Perdition, Slapshot, The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, The Towering Inferno, The Three Faces of Eve, The Long Hot Summer, the Absence of Malice, and The Verdict.
Paul Newman was a beloved American actor and activist (and founded some damn good food lines - I think I’ll go have a chocolate-mint Newman-O (no kidding they exist, they are in my cupboard)).
Michael Moore’s new film, Slacker Uprising, has just been released (about a half hour ago). Slacker Uprising is being released by Moore for free online. You can download the video at SlackerUprising.com. The video is currently only being offered in a stream from the website. But, according to Moore’s press release, the video will soon be available in an HD stream for free from Amazon.com, and will shortly afterwards be released for iTunes and iPod.
Moore’s film seems to follow in the tradition that Radiohead have laid out for new media, pay what you want, though in this case you can’t pay at all. It’s a clever idea and I hope it works. Can you imagine living in a world where quality documentaries (though I make no claims to the quality of this as I have not yet seen it) are released for free, to inform the public. A world where this type of film could break free from the bonds of the narrative film system and where recognized as a separate type of art, where they aren’t doomed to failure in the theaters from the moment “documentary” is uttered. That’d be nice. Even if the film isn’t that great I think Moore is doing something great for the industry (though this has been done before, but not at this level - Spare Change and other great docs are currently available for free online at various websites).
I’m excited to see it, even if it doesn’t end up being his best work.
Baby Mama, for me, was a case study in bad reasons to see a film. I saw some interesting films over the weekend, and this was not one of them. Tina Fey is one America’s best comedic writers at the moment, 30 Rock is a brilliant show. But sometimes her more mainstream brand of humor can take an ugly turn, it teeters on the edge of being ultra-meta-funny and being just like everything else. Baby Mama would fall into the latter category. Aside from a few brief moments of great writing the film is so standard for a romantic comedy that it begs to be shut off.
Fey and co-star Amy Poehler are fine, not a special performance, but no sub-par. Fey plays Liz Lemon, I mean, Kate Holbrook, a middle aged business minded woman who has decided it’s time to have a child. Wait, wasn’t this the plot of a 30 Rock episode last year? Anyhow, Poehler’s Angie Ostrowiski is to be her host since Kate is infertile. When Angie moves in with Kate zaniness ensues. The only redeeming performance is Steve Martin, who plays the stock character of the new age boss who is trying to become in tune with the earth while running a major corporation. He manages to make the stock character funny, and the film’s best moments are when he is on screen.
It’s hard not to ask why this film needs to exist. But, this is what people are buying. I recommend not seeing this and just watching the episode of 30 Rock where Liz steals a baby by accident. Much more intelligent humor.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Ghost Town
Directed by: David Koepp
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Téa Leoni, Greg Kinnear
Gervais’ new film looks like kind of a dudd in the trailer. A pretty boiler plate story. But, on the other hand, Gervais is always pretty damn good. Good enough for Pick of the Week, even though I’m quite skeptical.
Igor
Directed by: Tony Leondis
Starring: John Cusack, Steve Buscemi
Igor is a twist on the monster story (and it’s for kids). It’s the story of the mad scientist’s hunchbacked assistant who dreams of a lab of his own. Meh.
Lakeview Terrace
Directed by: Neil LaBute
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson
Edgy racial drama, or just plain stupid? It may be too early to tell.
My Best Friend’s Girl
Directed by: Howard Deutch
Starring: Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Bigg
Wow. Dane Cook needs to stop acting. This looks terrible.
Appaloosa
Directed by: Ed Harris
Starring: Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen
Maybe this should be the pick of the week. This looks like this could be a sleeper. Go Ed Harris.
Duchess
Directed by: Saul Dibb
Starring: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes
This might be alright, but it seems like 2008 has already seen a few films about Duchesses, I couldn’t even fathom a guess as to why that is.
Battle for Seattle
Directed by: Stuart Townsend
Starring: Martin Henderson, Michelle Rodriguez
The trailer doesn’t seem to do this concept justice. The subject is something that should have been adapted to the cinema long ago, that or it should have come out before the conventions this year, would have been some good timing.
Last Weeks Top 10:
1. Burn After Reading
2. Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys
3. Righteous Kill
4. The Women
5. Tropic Thunder
6. The House Bunny
7. The Dark Knight
8. Bangkok Dangerous
9. Traitor
10. Death Race
Literary giant David Foster Wallace was found dead this weekend in his California home of an apparent suicide.
Wallace was the luminary satirical author of the novel Infinite Jest and the brilliant essay collection A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. He ranks among Mark Twain, Don DeLillo, and David Sedaris as one of the greatest satirical writers American has ever had. His work is repeatedly referenced by others, often with the same biting humor that has influence the quotee. The essay “A Supposedly Fun Thing…” was a legendary essay, most recently I encountered it in a Chuck Klosterman essay where he makes mention of it as the most famous essay about a cruise boat ever written.
Wallace was a man who changed letters, and though this is a film site, and his books haven’t been adapted widely, he changed the world of letters for ever. An adaptation of his story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is currently in post-production and will be released soon.
It’s barely been two months since The Dark Knight began slashing box office records and the rumor mill on Batman 3 has already begun. Though no official production has begun, and the script is not yet under way, Michael Caine has revealed that it is in development at this years TIFF.
In an interview Caine commented,
“I was with [a Warner Bros.] executive and I said, ‘Are we going to make another one?’ They said yeah. I said, ‘How the hell are we going to top Heath? And he says ‘I’ll tell you how you top Heath — Johnny Depp as The Riddler and Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Penguin.’ I said, ‘Shit, they’ve done it again!’”
According to The Playlist Christopher Nolan has already said no to having the Penguin as the next villain. Does a franchise this huge really need any more star power to sell? Depp or Hoffman (both obviously great actors) would add star leverage that could negate what the series is really after. It may be a case of the spiraling out of control that took place within the last Batman series. Either actor may surprise (I didn’t think Ledger would pull it off initially), but can they play the type of dark villain the this series demands? We’ll see. You’ll just have to hang on for about two or three years while they figure it out.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Burn After Reading
Directed by: Joel Coen
Starring: George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt
New Coen Brothers films are always a reason for celebration. It seems as though the Coens, in their infinite wisdom, are retreating back into the pseudo-slapstick comedy of prior films (and hopefully the films prior to Intolerable Creulty). With a cast of the best Coen regulars, and some great addition (John Malkovich) this could be a great return to comedy for the Coens (or it could be as misguided as the indulgent Lady Killers remake). We can only pray.
Righteous Kill
Directed by: Jon Avnet
Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino
The highly anticipated reunion of Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, could this be as good as you’d hope, in theory, from this caliber of a reunion. Eh, maybe. Certainly no guarantee with the low quality schlock these two have been involved in for the last decade.
Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys
Directed by: Tyler Perry
Starring: Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard
I saw a Tyler Perry movie once. It was enough to know that I am not intersted in anything with his name on it. What’s most amazing about how bad these films are is that he sells so well. He is virtually unknown outside of fan and film geeks, yet he is one of the biggest grossing directors alive. This will probably sell very well. Will it be worth a damn…eh, who knows. Interesting that Kathy Bates is involved with this one though.
Women Directed by: Diane English
Starring: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening
Any film that earns the label of bad Sex & the City rip off from the trailer is hard to talk about. Even though it’s a remake of a Cuckor film…
Flow
Directed by: Irena Salina
A documentary about bottled water and the water of the world does not seem like all that exciting of a concept. But, watch the trailer, this actually looks like a fascinating documentary.
Towelhead
Directed by: Alan Ball
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette
Another post-9/11 film about the minority experience in America. Even though “another” makes it sound like a bad thing, this looks like a genuinely fascinating film, a funny indie that might be more engaging than you’d think.
Last Weeks Top 10:
1. Bangkok Dangerous
2. Tropic Thunder
3. The Dark Knight
4. The House Bunny
5. Traitor
6. Babylon A.D.
7. Death Race
8. Disaster Movie!
9. Mamma Mia!
10. Pineapple Express
So, Hancock is an odd film. It’s not odd in a Blue Velvet sort of way, but odd in the sense that it should have been terrible, then you think wow, this is actually pretty creative, pretty inventive and I’m enjoying this, and then you think this got fucking ridiculous.
The concept is engaging. A nice twist on the American superhero myth. It toys with the idea (which isn’t entirely fresh) why are superheros always super from the start? Why can’t it just be an average guy who figures out his powers and then resists the “destiny” part of the equation, or doesn’t take on all of the standard superhero traits.
The film initially takes on that bent, Hancock doesn’t really know where he is from, he’s an alcoholic, he saves the day when he see it happen, but he’s never really that happy about it and doesn’t really give a damn what people think of him. He mistakenly takes on a PR specialist and he (Jason Bateman) tries to make him into a likable superhero.
Unfortunately, (hang with me it’s going some where) the film reverts to a standard superhero mythology and reverses itself by the end. This is representational of the kind of schlock Hollywood is pushing into the theaters, why the theaters are waning. An original idea, a film that was being pulled off, was taken back into the same old formulas that the focus groups have decided that we all like so much.
Take a note producers. It doesn’t work. As much as everyone likes the big budget thrillers, they also like to be surprised and see an original vision, even within the big budget formats. Try it. You might be surprised.
Well, one of them is kind of film, it mentions it at first, and the second one is really about the comedy of renting film, which has been done over and over, but that’s ok, it’s good.
First of all Eddie Argos, the frontman for the awesome British rock-n-roll band Art Brut started a column in Playback: stl on comic books called Pow! To the People! Turns out he’s a big comic book geek, which really isn’t surprising if you know Art Brut (and you should). He’s got a really solid piece on Batman that I highly recommend reading. He only mentions The Dark Knight at the beginning of the article, but it’s a good article about the transient characteristics of Batman in the comics.
The second article is up on Slate. It’s about what films people rent from Netflix and never watch. They sent out a survey to Slate readers and asked what films they have ordered from Netflix and then let sit forever and never watched. Hotel Rwanda tops the list, and not only does it top the list, it’s the tenth most rented film on Netflix. Also good stuff.
