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Frankly My Dear...

    Frankly My Dear...


    Weekend reviews — ‘Warrior’ endorsed, ‘Contagion’ a little less so

    Posted: 09 Sep 2011 04:43 AM PDT

    The mixed martial arts genre melodrama “Warrior” is winning across the board endorsements this Friday, making a bloody but smart, taut and heartfelt fight picture your best bet this weekend.

    I gave a marginal pass to “Contagion,” and rottentomatoes tallied that as a negative review, which I never quibble with. On the fence-sitting reviews, I could go either way. The line I used on the radio this AM is the one I should have punched into print — “Soderbergh is like a brilliant doctor with no bedside manner.” It’s a technical success, an emotional bore. The metacritic scale gets closer to the mark with this one. Most reviewers surveyed there had mixed feelings about the film.

    I saw “Creature” last night and just hated it. But when you’re a production designer turned director and you’re able to spend your cash on gear, at least it looks like a movie. Pretty awful, though. Inept.

    I’ll see this Bucky Larson/Nick Swardson child of porn stars comedy this afternoon, I figure. They didn’t preview it for review, and Adam Sandler’s involved. So there you go.


    It’ll be Russell Crowe hunting Hugh Jackman in the big screen ‘Les Miz’

    Posted: 09 Sep 2011 04:09 AM PDT

    The Russell Crowe rumors attaching him to the big screen version of the stage musical “Les Miserables,” based on the Victor Hugo novel, turn out to be true. Paul Bettany may have been mentioned as the obsessed Inspector Javert at one time, but it will be Crowe who hunts, tirelessly, remorselessly, for Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) in the Tom Hooper directed film.

    Universal will release it, with shooting slated to start in early 2012 and release scheduled for 12-12-2012.

    Russell can sing. A bit. If you’ve heard or seen his band “30 Odd Foot of Grunts” or whatever it was called (I remember catching them on “Austin City Limits” once), you know he has the confidence to croon, if not the most graceful voice. Think Pierce Brosnan.

    I guess this means he wasn’t able to get that letter writing campaign, lobbying for a “Master and Commander” sequel, but at least he’ll be in a period piece.


    Movie Review: Creature

    Posted: 09 Sep 2011 03:56 AM PDT

    Absurdly plotted, ineptly scripted and haplessly acted, “Creature” is a new variation on the “Creature from the Black Lagoon” theme.

    Take half a dozen good-looking but under-credited actors, surround them with horror hacks and turn them loose in the bayou to be hunted by “Lockjaw,” a half-gator/half-man beast who feeds on skinny dippers and those stupid enough to camp next to haunted houses, and you’ve got yourself a movie.

    Or so production designer turned co-writer and director Fred Andrews thought.

    It’s the sort of script that embraces its obviousness.

    “Where are we?”

    “Shortcut!”

    It’s the sort of cast — Dillon Casey, Mechad Brooks,  Lauren Schneider, Aaron Hill, Serinda Swan Amanda Fuller — that has to pass for so gullible they don’t recognize “Chopper” as Sid Haig (“Halloween,” “The Devil’s Rejects”) when they show up at his backwoods general store. A movie rule — Where Sid Haig goes, incest and slaughter follow.

    The travelers — a couple ar3 just out of the military — decide to detour from their trip to New Orleans and see a local sight, this legendary house where a legendary creature was born. A sales pitch from a couple of fingerless, toothless (Well, there are some yellow teeth showing) rubes in the store convinces them.

    “You have no idea what a real monster looks like,” one of the locals spits out in an actorly version of Cajun-flavored English. It’s a dare. It’s a challenge. It’s a bad line, one among many.

    And the inevitable follows. Which is to say, sex, bug bites, toplessness and desperate flight from a thing that goes growwwwwl in the night.

    What not to do in a screenplay? Have characters sum up the stupid plot points by saying, “So, tell me again” about this or that.

    What not to do in a performance. Lauren Schneider, as Karen, sister of Oscar (Dillon Casey), lifts her top and mumbles, giggles and sputters in some sort of sub-moronic torpor, from first scene to last. Is she meant to be stoned all the time, or was that just what it took to get through every day and night on this shoot?

    There are a couple of built-in audiences for “Creature,” though. Parents should have it on their Netflix instant queue, ready to buttress their “If you go to acting school, you COULD end up taking your clothes off for some hack for a movie like this.”

    And perhaps the voters, taxpayers and legislators of Louisiana should take a look. Cut-rate horror flicks from the state that has the most generous taxpayer giveaways to movie makers are legion. But when outsiders roll in to make a “Shark Night” or “Creature,” the Louisianans in their films come off as murderous in-bred cretins. This has been going on for years. You’re giving away money to be ridiculed.

    MPAA Rating: R for bloody violence and grisly images, some sexual content, graphic nudity, language, and brief drug use.

    Cast: Dillon Casey (Oscar), Lauren Schneider (Karen), Sid Haig (Chopper), Mehcad Brooks (Niles), Amanda Fuller (Beth), Aaron Hill (Randy), Serinda Swan (Emily)

    Credits:  Directed by Fred Andrews, written by Andrews and Tracy Morse.  A Bubble Factory release. Running time: 1:30


    Tonight’s first screening: Footloose

    Posted: 08 Sep 2011 04:09 PM PDT

    The original “Footloose” had its moments, and had its music. The quintessential ’80s movie, it had Kevin Bacon, “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” and enough resonance in the culture that it came back to life as a stage musical.

    And now it’s back on the screen. Curious to see what they did with it, and if they improved on the original film. And since I am a fan of one of the Southern cinemas most distinct voices, Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow,” Blacksnake Moan”), I’m rooting for it to work. The movie opens Oct. 14.

    After that, more movies. Yeah, I figure I’ll stay up until the wee hours to catch “Creature” and/or “Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star” after “Footloose.”


    Florida-made horror flick ‘The Sacred’ hits the street Nov. 8

    Posted: 08 Sep 2011 02:45 PM PDT

    You must remember this. “The Sacred,” the locally made horror picture directed by Jose Zambrano Cassella, has gotten DVD distribution. And a street date.

    It premiered here at the Plaza Cinema Cafe in October of 2009.

    “Osiris Entertainment, has set a street date of November 8 for The Sacred, a highly-anticipated horror film, it was announced today by Doug Dohmen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Osiris.

    The Sacred follows a group of university students who travel to a remote patch of land deep in the Florida swamps to complete their thesis project on Native American folklore. A couple of hundred years ago, this sacred land was used by Indians to judge criminals and unwanted members of the tribal community.  According to legend, these grounds have the power to bring "sins" back to life, to bring the dead back to life punishing whoever is guilty of serious crimes. As the students quickly find out, past actions can lead to present nightmares.

    The Sacred stars Jordan Wall, (TV's The Glades) and Lauren Brown (Great Expectations).


    It’s back to the movies for Charlie Sheen — a Coppola film

    Posted: 08 Sep 2011 02:35 PM PDT

    OK, so it’s NOT a Sofia or Francis Ford Coppola film that Charlie “Winning” Sheen will be starring in.

    It’s by Roman Coppola, whom Variety says will write and direct, with another Coppola kid, Jason Schwartzman co-starring.

    The title of the indie pic is “A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charlie Swan III.”

    “In a plotline that intersects with some of Sheen’s real-life travails, “Glimpse” follows a successful graphic designer whose fame, money and charm have made him irresistible to women. But when his girlfriend breaks up with him his life heads into a downward spiral.”
    Will this do Sheen any good?

    In personal terms, maybe not, if all the stories he and others who know him spread about him.

    Professionally, he’s got nowhere to go but up, at least in terms of film, until another TV sitcom presents itself.

    He’s had mostly bit parts in the movies over the past decade. I wrote him off after1997’s  “Money Talks,” in which he was forced to play second banana (and very dispirited about it, on screen) to Chris Tucker.


    Today’s interview: Giancarlo Esposito

    Posted: 08 Sep 2011 09:40 AM PDT

    He’s been in scads of Spike Lee’s films — from “Do the Right Thing” through “Malcolm X.”

    He’s been in scads of other films (“Ali,” “The Usual Suspects,” “Rabbit Hole”), too, and TV shows. He’s stealing chunks of “Breaking Bad” right before our eyes.

    You know how I am about the great character actors. Giancarlo Esposito is in that corner of acting’s elite, a great favorite of mine who just happens to be coming to this year’s Global Peace Film Festival.

    I have in mind to talk about his actor-as-activist mindset. But if you know the man and his work, I am always opens to suggested questions. Please post them as comments below.