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Frankly My Dear...

    Frankly My Dear...


    To see this weekend — ‘50/50,’ skip the rest

    Posted: 30 Sep 2011 04:28 AM PDT

    Not a great weekend for movies, but there is a really good one opening today. You won’t regret seeing “50/50.” Yeah, it’s about cancer, and yeah, the point of view is a little too male-centric to mean that it’s female characters are as interesting as the males. But it laughs at an awful situation, humanizes those fighting the disease and is a great showcase for Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

    I liked Anna Kendrick even though she’s played the naif before (“Up in the Air”), liked Rogen even though the real challenge for him in not playing a foul-mouthed lout with a frat boy’s view of sex. Very good reviews, overall, for this one.

    “What’s your Number?” has two stars a lot of critics adore — Anna Faris and Chris Evans. Most of us, though, were let down by this “Bridesmaids-ish” tale of a woman obsessed with not crossing some arbitrary number of sexual partners.

    “Dream House” I had to catch in the dark of night. Stellar cast and director, dopey script, a few way too broad performances to manage the tricky ending it aims for. Fail. It could do well at the box office, but the studio has been running away from this one. Zero buzz.

    “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” is a gory farce built on one joke — that those rubes the college kids are scared of when they go camping in the woods aren’t straight out of “Deliverance.” They’re just…misunderstood.

    I thought it was a mildly amusing idea that doesn’t pay off.  Others, many of whom are really into this sort of “laugh at the impaling” film, were. The Enzian has booked that one for late late shows.


    Carell as crazy rich heir/murderer John du Pont?

    Posted: 30 Sep 2011 03:53 AM PDT

    Bennett Miller’s stock as a director went WAY up the moment “Moneyball” opened. But the “Capote” director has a darker side, and that’s where he’s more comfortable.

    “Foxcatcher” is a project he’s wanted to make about wrestling enthusiast, uber-rich/uber crazy killer John du Pont — yes of THOSE du Ponts. It was co-written by his “Capote” writer Dan Futterman.

    And now he’s got Steve Carell attached to star.

    Carell is often criticized by those who criticize that he’s been too happy in his comfort zone — stupid character comedies like “Get Smart,” faintly more interesting fare like “Date Night,” and precious little that’s as challenging as “Little Miss Sunshine” or “Dan in Real Life.” This would be a stretch. A BIG one.

    John du Pont died in prison for killing an Olympic wrestler who was training at his wrestler training ground-estate.


    Movie Review: ‘Dream House’

    Posted: 29 Sep 2011 09:07 PM PDT

    Whatever its shortcomings, director Jim Sheridan and stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts deserved better than the give-away-the-store trailer that Universal delivered for “Dream House.”

    Screenwriter David Loucka? Oh yeah, HE deserved a trailer that drops the film’s big reveal on you before you buy your ticket. They would have done us all a favor by hinting at the eye-rolling lulu of a finale he cooked up for this faintly spooky semi-supernatural thriller.

    Craig plays Will, a New York book editor who quits his job, rides the train home to his lovely wife (Weisz) and two kids. He’s going to write a book himself, and they’re going to fix up their suburban Connecticut home.

    “I feel so safe when you’re here,” she says, reciting a line straight out of Foreshadowing 101 in film school.

    “I’m not going to go anywhere,” Will says back, reading from the same textbook.

    But first, there’s the matter of what happened to the last family there. The neighbor lady (Watts) is close-mouthed about it. It was bad.

    And i might be happening again. The children see a man in the window. There are footsteps in the snow. Goth teenagers hold strange candlelight rituals in the basement. And the cops are no help, even when Will blurts out “I bought the freaking crime scene!”

    If you’ve seen that trailer, you know what comes next. And that revelation leaves the movie no maneuvering room. So many peripheral characters have stood out in earlier scenes that we know that Elias Koteas and Marton Csokas will have something to do with the solution to this not-that-mysterious mystery. So much is just so…obvious.

    But the actors and their director (“My Left Foot” and “In America”  were his) saw something here, so maybe you try to figure out what that was. Without rolling your eyes.

    A happy memory — Craig met Weisz on this movie and married her last winter. And they manage a poignant moment or two, to go along with the film’s two decent chills. But something tells me they won’t be treasuring photos or memories from this one in their “How we met” scrapbook. Universal’s best wedding present to the lovebirds would have been to shuttle this one, which they knew was damaged goods,  straight to video.

    MPAA Rating: PG-13

    Cast: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts

    Credits: Directed by Jim Sheridan, written by David Loucka. A Universal release. Running time: 1:30.


    Friday’s interview: Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, Jack Black

    Posted: 29 Sep 2011 10:28 AM PDT

    The bird watching comedy “The Big Year” opens in a few weeks. And if you were just going by this cast and their reps, you’d think “Wacky.”

    But the movie fits right in with Owen Wilson’s “big year,” and can comfortably be mentioned as “His first film since ‘Midnight in Paris.’” And Black and Martin don’t give us that “They’re trying too hard” thing, and are used to good effect.

    I have a few questions for the bird-watching trio, but any questions you have that come to mind, please comment below. I’m looking for ways to try and take this three-on-one conversation.


    ‘Courageous’ leading weekend movie ticket pre-sales

    Posted: 29 Sep 2011 06:44 AM PDT

    Most of the outreach that the folks marketing Sherwood Pictures’ “Courageous” have been doing has been aimed at churches, and that is paying off on fandango.com, Harry Medved says. It’s leading the pre-sales race for this weekend’s new openings. A spokesperson for the film said they’d sold over $2 million in tickets, as of Wednesday, which suggests a pretty good opening weekend.

    “Fireproof” used that same churches-first strategy to open well and hang on until it had earned some $33 million. Impressive for a faith-based film. But at least part of that had to be based on “star appeal.” Whatever place Kirk Cameron has in the TV/movie star pecking order, he was a selling point on that earlier film. And there’s nobody of his stature in “Courageous.”

    The film’s are very similar — “Fireproof” was about a firefighter who has to learn to take a faith-based approach to saving his marriage, “Courageous” has sheriff’s deputies who must learn to take a faith-based approach to being good fathers. Since “Facing the Giants” was about a football coach, you see the Kendricks Brother’s running theme — defer to authority, both secular and a higher authority, something “Courageous” pushes. Hard. The story structures of “Fireproof” and “Courageous” match up, closely (action opener, well-timed action beats later, a little inside-the-profession humor).

    As I said in my review of “Courageous,” the films are showing more polish with each outing. The writing, save for a scene here and there, is nothing a major studio would green light to put on the screen (Tristar was originally behind the film, Sony’s “Affirm Pictures” arm was involved, then backed away from it).

    And the cast is sorely in need of people with that movie or TV star’s spark, that thing the camera captures that goes beyond simple competence. There have to be cost and convenience reasons that make co-writer/director Alex Kendrick take the lead role in a film like this. Otherwise, we’re talking about one of the “seven deadly sins” – “vainglory,” or vanity. The movie’s the poorer for it.

    I have to say, as with “Fireproof,” I went along with this for a bit, connected with the messages. As the father of a tweenager, I appreciate a movie that suggests strategies for keeping girls from falling in with a right or wrong boy too early. Then Kendrick’s character turns a little shrill, the myopia shows through. The movie reaches a climax, and goes on and on for another half hour for a tacked-on EXTRA climax. They should workshop their scripts.

    Still, it’s been a good year for faith-based films. No, the Christian cops in Memphis drama “The Grace Card” didn’t show us much. They hired “names,” but with that script, that didn’t pay off. But “Soul Surfer” found an audience. “The Fifth Quarter” had more lump in the throat moments than “Facing the Giants” ever did. The faith audience found “The Help,” even if it avoided Vera Farmiga’s edgier (subject, language, etc.)  “Higher Ground,” which attempted a serious exploration of faith, and losing it.

    With the church effort in pre-sales, “Courageous” could be another solid performer for Sherwood. But if “Courageous” doesn’t hit that “Fireproof” mark, it won’t be because the message, the church outreach, etc. didn’t pay off. The writing isn’t quite there (several scenes are eye-rollers) and the performances aren’t compelling enough to sell it.


    Dominic Cooper might floor it in ‘Motor City’

    Posted: 29 Sep 2011 05:21 AM PDT

    One of the breakout performers of last summer, Dominic Cooper starred in “The Devil’s Double” and had a big supporting part in “Captain America: The First Avenger.”
    Now he’s up for the lead in a Joel Silver action picture, “Motor City.”
    Variety describes the Dark Castle/WB revenge thriller thusly — “Story follows a felon who, after being released from prison, begins tracking down the men who framed him. Chad St. John penned the script,” and Albert Hughes is now on board to direct.