Archive for March, 2007

Filed under: Drama, New Releases, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, Theatrical Reviews, New in Theaters

The sell-by date on Pulp Fiction knock-offs was about 1999, but the makers of Ten ’til Noon apparently didn’t get the memo — this is another one of those movies in which an erudite mafioso holds a gun on someone for what seems like forever, all the while making with the faux-profound verbalizing like a second-year philosophy undergrad. Unfortunately, the film’s problems go a lot deeper than that. The premise, which is hidden for as long as director Scott Storm can possibly hide it, is that a businessman inventor named Larry (Rick Wasserman) is being rubbed out by what seems like the West L.A. mob because his corrupt partner wants to take over the company, and has made a deal with the mob to bump off Larry. You see, Larry is the brains behind the company, so killing him will drive down the company’s stock price and let the mob and the corrupt partner buy the company cheap. There are so many illogical things in that premise that I hope I don’t have to pinpoint them.

The only question we have to answer about Ten ’til Noon is whether it rises to the level of bad-good, or is merely bad. I’m tempted to say that it makes the grade on that front, because it’s fascinating to watch no-name, Cinemax-ready actors being forced to put on these very specific, mannered characters and recite dialogue that no human being would ever speak. I’m thinking in particular of ‘Miss Milch,’ a suited hitwoman character played by Jenya Lano. Miss Milch clearly doesn’t know what she’s doing in this picture any more than I do, but she affects a haughty, corporate vice president demeanor that is supposed to give her character some kind of edge as she goes about spilling exposition in the second act. All of the characters in the film are, like Miss Milch, put ons, and so is the film’s stuck-in-neutral morality. There’s a big body count, but some of the deaths are played for laughs, while others I think we’re actually supposed to care about, although it’s sometimes hard to tell which is which.

Continue reading Review: Ten ’til Noon

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Filed under: Drama, Casting, Celebrities and Controversy

It’s too bad that this Dylan Thomas biopic is filming now and not 10-20 years ago, because Tony Goldwyn looks a hell of a lot like the poet. Nevertheless, I guess that Matthew Rhys is a decent subsitute. No, this isn’t Jonathan Rhys Meyers, the Match Point star. He’s got his own bag of period pieces to star in. This Rhys is the man who plays Kevin Walker on that television show, Brothers and Sisters, and who played Demitrius in Julie Taymor’s flipping wonderful Titus. With him and Cillian Murphy joining the cast, we’ve got four players in a rather dangerous true story.

The film will center on a love triangle between Thomas, his wife Caitlin (Lindsay Lohan) and his childhood friend Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley), who was married to a man named William Killick (who will be played by Murphy). Less than happy about his wife’s close relationship with Thomas, and being less-than-centered after a military mission in Greece, he grabbed a machine gun, a grenade, and then attacked the poet’s house. While no one was hurt, it’s a bit of emotional overkill, don’t you think? And then there’s Murphy cast as a crazed man under great stress. I just can’t imagine it! Okay, I can. With the cheeky title of The Best Time of Our Lives, the feature will begin shooting this May. So, now the question becomes: will production run smoothly, or should we get some popcorn and prepare for La Lohan Round two, three, or whatever number it is now?

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Filed under: Documentary, Independent, SXSW, Theatrical Reviews, Cinematical Indie

Whatever you might think about the war in Iraq, it has created an entire subgenre of films in the past few years, mostly documentaries. We’ve seen films focusing on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, films shot from the point of view of ordinary Iraqi citizens, films about Al Jazeera’s coverage of the war, and last year I even saw a documentary about USO comedians entertaining troops in Iraq. The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair is one of the latest in this series, and it’s at the opposite end of the spectrum from the comedians’ point of view. The documentary examines the experiences of a prisoner of war sent to Abu Ghraib.

Yunis Abbas is a longtime journalist and photographer in Iraq. In 2003, U.S. military invaded his home on the grounds that it was a suspected terror cell. Abbas and his brothers were thought to be making bombs to assassinate Britain’s prime minister, Tony Blair. Abbas spent nine months in Abu Ghraib even though no evidence could be found to support the allegations, and the U.S. was aware that he had no useful information to impart about terrorism plots.

Continue reading SXSW Review: The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair

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Filed under: Casting, Deals, Fandom, Distribution, Religious

For those who don’t remember, author Anne Rice underwent a big religious conversion about ten years ago, and swore off vampirism in favor of writing about Jesus. She went so far as to give interviews saying that she would never write another vampire book even if it meant financial ruin. Apparently, her change in lifestyle hasn’t deteriorated her writing ability — those I know who have read Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt say its an interesting book with Rice’s distinctive flair. Hollywood, which is all a-twitter lately with Jesus material, despite the bomb of The Nativity Story, is also apparently interesting in continuing its on-again-off-again relationship with Rice.

IGN is reporting that plans are underway to bring Christ the Lord to the big screen, toot sweet. A company called Good News Holdings, backed by a man named George Barna, is going to produce the film and shoot it in Israel. The next issue of course, is one that IGN put succinctly: “It remains to be seen whether the production will be a legitimately artistic venture, a la Mel’s Passion, or a strictly subcultural cheesefest like the Kirk Cameron-led Left Behind.” I’m sure that shingles like Fox Faith will probably be eager to jump on the project whether it’s the former or the latter — I mean, did anyone see The Sin Eater? That was Kirk Cameron-city. The piece also reports that a casting search is underway to find a young Jesus, but no other solid about the project is available at this time.

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I shouldn't enjoy this show, I really shouldn't. It has a lot of things in it that I don't like including a pun in the title. I never even watched 90210 when it was on, I think I caught a few episodes near the end of the run when Kelly was doing coke and they had lots of guys in leather jackets lurking around but that was about it. The funny thing about that show is that even though I didn't watch it, I still know the characters names and what they are like just from pop culture. So of course I know who Tori Spelling and her famous father are, and I had heard rumors through people who had worked with her of her financial escapades and constant need for attention (although in a clingy way and not loud obnoxious way like some people, yes Scrubs star I'm side-eyeing you), so I was very curious about this reality show of hers and just how "real" it would be.

Is Tori Spelling funny? Find out after the jump.

Filed under: Drama, Independent, Mystery & Suspense, Theatrical Reviews, New in Theaters, Miramax, Cinematical Indie

What would you do if your entire life as you know it was changed in the blink of an eye? It doesn’t take much, really … just a few minutes of bad judgment and a smattering of bad luck and BOOM! — everything’s changed. The Lookout, directed by Oscar-nommed screenwriter Scott Frank in his directorial debut, turns a lens to that question through the story of Chris Pratt (Jospeh Gordon-Levitt), one-time high school ice hockey star and all around popular rich guy, whose life is forever altered after a car wreck that kills his best friend and the friend’s date, and causes Chris to have a severe closed head injury.

When we meet Chris, he is working a mundane job as the night janitor of a small local bank, and the only friends he has are Deputy Ted (Sergio Di Zio) the local night shift cop who stops by the bank each evening to check on Chris and bring him donuts, and Lewis (Jeff Daniels), Chris’ roommate, a blind man who Chris met at the head trauma rehab school he attends. Chris makes his way from one day to the next almost on autopilot, and his greatest wish is to be able to turn back the clock, undo everything and just have his old life back.

Continue reading Review: The Lookout

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