Screenjabber blogs

Tom Cruise is a loony douchebag

Stuart — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:10:28 -0400

We just thought we'd menton that, for the three of you who didn't already know

Aronofsky Getting To Work

Sam Unsted — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:31:54 -0400

Given the length of time, effort and stress it took Darren Aronofsky to create The Fountain, it's highly pleasing that he's now really getting back into the swing of things.

As well as the Golden Lion-winning and potentially Oscar-baiting The Wrestler, Aronofsky has been chatting about his two other pet projects currently in the works.

First up is a Biblical epic about Noah, the guy with the ark. The project which sounds somewhat like it could be a total shitstorm for him again. Talented though he undoubtedly is, he did not deal well with the sizeable budget and pressure on The Fountain so this could well prove a very tough mission indeed.

Second is his reboot of Robocop. This one I would feel somewhat more confident on, although the heavy-handed themes of media globalisation and right-wing security protocol that the original film explored are unlikely to work as well in a post-modern society. He's going to have to reinvent large portions to stop this being a horribly preachy and unappealing piece of nonsense.

The Wrestler Wins Golden Lion

Sam Unsted — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:46:54 -0400

The Wrestler, the new film from Darren Aronofksy starring Mickey Rourke and Evan Rachel Wood, has won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Rourke plays an aging wrestling star looking for one more chance. Yes, on paper it sounds like generic tosh. But the first few reviews have been complete raves and now the Oscar buzz for Rourke is kicking into gear. Mickey Rourke winning an Oscar. Few sights could please me more.

I'm now anticipating this one hugely. I was looking forward to it anyway being an Aronofsky acolyte so now the hype on my end is at boiling point. Likely more reviews will arrive in the coming few days after it gets its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival where many more bloggers will be present. Look out for this one come awards season, folks.

Twelve Angry Men's Quiet Victory on the IMDb 250

Sam Unsted — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:39:25 -0400

A little earlier this year, a furore was worked up over The Dark Knight moving to the top of the IMDb list of the Top 250 films of all-time. I will admit that I found this quite silly given the handful of salt you need to take that list with but nonetheless, The Godfather was unseated with rumours of fans voting down that masterpiece to push The Dark Knight into a stronger position and that list came to some prominence in the movie community.

Well, while all this is going on, and incidentally Shawshank Redemption retook its place atop that chart, Sidney Lumet's Twelve Angry Men, the superb 1957 jury room masterpiece, has risen all that way up, above Star Wars, Casablanca and Goodfellas, to sit proudly in tenth place.

It's a great film no doubt, but how on earth has this understated, actorly little gem managed to beat the fanboys down and take its place up in the higher echelons. It may not be there for long but for now, raise a glass to the Twelve Angry Men and their triumph on this increasingly odd little list.

Michael Moore Giving Away Work Free

Sam Unsted — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:28:59 -0400

Michael Moore has announced that he is to give away his new documentary, an account of his tour around the states in 2004 as he attempts to get 'slacker voters' to participate in the election which eventually saw George W Bush get his second term in office. The pic, called 'Slacker Uprising', is I suppose a companion piece to Fahrenheit 9/11, the Palme D'Or winning populist polemic against Bush himself.

I'm not the biggest Moore fan. My issue is that his documentary work seems to concentrate far too much on him and his brand rather than really delving into stories. His work isn't really in need of a personal touch and we don't need him making snidey remarks and undertaking over-blown stunts to make his point. Fahrenheit 9/11 for my money only stoked the flames of the conservative right and Bush supporters in the US and made left-wing voters apathetic to the cause as they were given a view of Bush as so utterly incompetent that no-one could possibly choose him, making it a minor reason for the past four years we've had to suffer through. Bowling for Columbine at least has some good points to make but loses it at the end when Moore has a grand meeting of minds with an Alzheimer's-ravaged Charlton Heston. Deserving though the NRA may be of lambasting, Moore just came across like a complete prick in those scenes.

I'll likely watch because, unfortunately, he remains the pre-eminent documentarian of his time on a popular level and therefore is still culturally important. But this seems again like another way for him to put himself in a kind of high level position as a leftist activist rather than really try to understand the reasons for apathy amongst voters in the country where the political stakes have never been as high (although this is likely why Moore is trying to get the movie out now at a time when the new election is beginning to heat up). This holds little interest for me therefore but I wonder how you all feel about Moore and his particular line of pieces.

Ghostbusters 3... On?

Sam Unsted — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:35:52 -0400

I've recently been undertaking a marathon of 1980s movies with my buddy-in-watching, Tom. We've gone through a great deal of fine pics from the decade, discovering that for the most part, the majority of films we'd seen a long time prior and had convinced ourselves were classics, actually are classics. We took in The Breakfast Club, Beverly Hills Cop, Back to the Future and, joining the latter at the top of the bunch, Ghostbusters.

I cannot tell you how well the first Ghostbusters film holds up. The writing and performance is spot-on, mixing Bill Murray's cynicism with the wide-eyed optimism of both Ackroyd and Ramis. It's a pretty masterful, nuanced blockbusters and well worth is place in anyones pantheon of greats.

The news that a third, long-touted and previously being pitched as a full-on Apatow production, is now working its way towards production is somewhat encouraging but very worrying. Ghostbusters 2 might not be perfect, but the series didn't die out into crapness like the now-revived Beverly Hills Cop did. A reboot may well work but this is likely going to have to be a full rethink of the entire concept to really deliver something that will differentiate it from the original series and avoid mawkish annoyances.

Although its not quite fully Apatow-d, he certainly got a hand in another pie with this one given that the writers are working on Year One, the Harold Ramis film he's producing which stars Jack Black and Michael Cera. Whether this will lead to the casting of Rogen or Segel or Baruchel, I don't know, but I'm an Apatow lover so I can dig this direction. But honestly, although it's not falling into remake territory, can't we just have a few more original ideas in Hollywood before someone actually does remake Back to the Future and we all cry on our hoverboards?

NewsJab

Sam Unsted — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:00:08 -0400

Guillermo Del Toro is booked up until 2017 with projects coming out his lovely little ears.
Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is premièring in Venice on Friday.
Tom Cruise to be villainous in Shrek 4 (why a Shrek 4??).
Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant will be rebooting the character with less of the Judao-Christian themes.
Here's a first look at Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker.
Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly will imitate life as hubby and wife in a film about Darwin.
Dark Knight scribe David Goyer is working on Baltimore with Hellboy-creator Mike Mignola.
Here's a tribute to a fine documentary, American Movie. Seek it out.
And here's the banned poster for Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
And finally, an interview with Six Feet Under writer Alan Ball ahead of his new HBO series, True Blood.

read more

Milk Trailer

Sam Unsted — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:59:57 -0400

I'm a big fan of Gus Van Sant, most particularly Paranoid Park from this year but back to most of his languid, esoteric and beautiful independent films like Elephant and Gerry. But I can also get on board with his studio work and I would argue for Good Will Hunting with anyone. Milk, his biopic of the life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to any sort of meaningful political office, looks to be far closer in vein to his studio pieces and does contain what appears to be a subtle if still Oscar-baiting performance from Sean Penn. You can check out the trailer right here.

If I've not always loved the work of Sean Penn, it's mostly due to two films. I Am Sam, currently being satirised by Ben Stiller with Simple Jack in Tropic Thunder, is the kind of Oscar-baity role-choice that so many film fans hate and I do too. The other was Mystic River. Not because he isn't good in it because he is. But he won an Oscar when Kevin Bacon, even better in the film, didn't even get a nod and he beat Bill Murray's performance in Lost in Translation for the win, capping off my dislike for the Academy's tendency to reward the loudest performance*.

Anyway, Milk looks pretty decent if lacking in some of the more dreamy aspects of Van Sant's later work and gives a chance to two fine young actors in Emile Hirsch and James Franco to prove their worth to an Oscar-ready audience.

*I would like to add this does not include the win for Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood as he inhabits his character with a grace and skill that many actors would struggle to imagine.

Harvey Dent Dead: Official

Sam Unsted — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:41:49 -0400

Yes folks. If you were like me and hoping that Harvey Dent was not in fact dead and would be coming back to allow us yet more time in the company of Aaron Eckhart for the next Batman, this will not be the case.

Aaron Eckhart has revealed that Dent is dead and there is nothing he can do about it. I imagine this will get those rumours surging once more as to who the next villain will be but I'm a little disappointed. Two-Face is a rich vein to be mined and this only confirms my fears that perhaps they wasted his storyline in The Dark Knight. But, I will trust in Nolan again and hope against hope that this isn't a bungle from the man.

90210 has arrived ... but is it any good?

Stuart — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:15:21 -0400

Well, the CW's glossy new Beverly Hills 90210 spinoff has had its 2-hour debut. And I have to say there were a few nice touches:

• Hannah Zuckerman-Vasquez (daughter of Andrea and Jesse, from the original) popping up reading the school news ... and a teacher commenting that "she looks about 30!" As fans of BH90210 will remember, Gabriel Carteris — who played Andrea — was almost that age when she won the role of a high school student.