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Frankly My Dear...

    Frankly My Dear...

    ‘Arrested Development’ — yes, there’s to be a movie, AND a new TV series

    Posted: 03 Oct 2011 04:57 AM PDT

    I’ve long been puzzled over the years of questions of members of the cast and production team behind “Arrested Development” about when there will be a movie of the quirky big-cast/off-the-wall plotlines and humor TV show.
    And as my wife catches up on the entire run of the show on Netflix, it seems even less like a movie than ever.
    The Ron Howard narration always put me off. The disparate corners of dysfunction in this oh so dysfunctional family don’t seem to have “movie” in them.
    And the biggest breakout stars of the show — Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Michael Cera — are years older now. The show went off the air, after three seasons, in 2006. The manic energy and effort Bateman and Arnett especially put into the show are what young actor’s go through, not seasoned 40ish pros. Cera seemed older on the TV show (it was the baby fat) and while Tambor and Portia and that guy who went on to the Chipmunks movies might want this to happen, it didn’t seem like the others would need the work or want to make the effort.
    But they do and will, and at a reunion event this past weekend, they teased out another promise that the movie is happening, and that the TV show will return for a brief catching-up run.

    But considering how many promises have been made to that effect, this falls under “Wait and see.”

    Movie Preview: ‘Contraband’

    Posted: 03 Oct 2011 04:27 AM PDT

    Mark Wahlberg is in good-bad-man mode in this thriller about a guy out of “the life” lured back in because of problems with “family.”

    Counterfeit cash, bad guys, government guys (and gals), lots of guns. Not enough here to sell this as anything out of the ordinary, in terms of thrillers. But it does have Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Diego Luna and J. K. Simmons.
    “Contraband” opens in January.

    ‘Lion King 3D’ climbs into the all-time box office top ten

    Posted: 03 Oct 2011 04:06 AM PDT

    It’s out on BluRay this week. Tuesday, to be exact. But based on the surprisingly strong box office take of this 17 year old movie, Disney is probably kicking itself for not wringing one more week out of “The Lion King in 3D.”

    The film has climbed into the all time box office top ten (US), and is within striking distance of Pixar’s “Toy Story” among the three animated films on that list. Easy striking distance. It wouldn’t have caught the “Shrek” that sits higher up there, but it has earned a whopping $80 million in this 3D re-release.

    Not bad for a conversion that seemed like a risk (an over-familiar title) when Disney set out to do it. It wasn’t the 3D that sold this, it was the novelty of it being back on the big screen, something Disney routinely managed during the decades before home video.

    The return of ‘Universal Soldier’

    Posted: 03 Oct 2011 03:56 AM PDT

    In a world of “Transformers,” is there a place for that “Terminator”-ish knockoff “Universal Soldier”?

    Freemantle wants to revive the film franchise, which originally had the towering Dolph Lundgren and the diminituve Jane Claude Van Damme wandering the Earth, genetically superior fighting folk.

    A guy who has written for the latter stages of “Stargate” on TV is doing the script, according to deadline.com.

    Movie Review: ‘The Way’

    Posted: 02 Oct 2011 10:20 AM PDT

    Emilio Estevez wrote, directed and took a supporting role in “The Way,” an easy-going road picture that plays right into his father, Martin Sheen’s wheelhouse.

    The “road” in this case, in the Camino de Santiago, the famed Catholic pilgrim’s path from France into Spain, crossing the Pyrenees and ending at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Estevez has plopped his dad on this epic hike in a story of a father taking one last shot at getting to know his son and making a test of his own physical condition and his faith.

    Sheen plays Tom, a successful, widowed eye-doctor who hasn’t seen much of his grad-student-turned-mystic-traveler son, Daniel (Estevez). Daniel’s last call said something about this hike he was going to take in Europe. But the next call about Daniel isn’t from him. He has died on “El Camino de Santiago,” “the way (road) of St. James.” Tom has the unhappy task of going to France to collect his child’s body.

    That’s where the flashbacks start, as Tom sees visions of Daniel — remembers their conversations. “Don’t judge this,” the son pleads, about his traveling. “Don’t judge me.”

    And France is where Tom starts to meet the interesting people connected with this road. The Catholic French cop, played by the marvelous Tcheky Karyo, explains what the journey means to the faithful and to those in physical or spiritual crisis. A grieving Tom decides, on a whim, to take Daniel’s backpack and make the journey for him, scattering his ashes at various gorgeous spots he passes.

    “It will take over two months,” Karyo’s cop warns.

    “Then I’d better get started.”

    He meets an overweight Dutch party animal (Yorick van Wageningen), an Irish blowhard suffering from writer’s block (James Nesbitt) and a chain-smoking Canadian (Debra Kara Unger) who can’t open her mouth without being rude. Tom is stuck walking with them for much of his trip, determined to keep the reasons for his hike to himself, determined to stay on task.
    “Doesn’t this guy ever stop to smell the flowers?” the Canadian Sarah wants to know.
    They stay in hostels, inns and barracks. They sample the cuisine, see the gorgeous countryside, and run into loopy eccentrics, proud gypsies and pious priests (veteran character actor Matt Clark).

    Truth be told, this movie’s ambitions are small and its characters archetypes, for the most part, like modern versions of the people in “Canterbury Tales” or the “If I only had a heart/brain/nerve” crew from “The Wizard of Oz,” which Estevez has called an inspiration for the film.

    The deep thoughts expressed here play like Irish toasts or Dr. Phil aphorisms.

    “You don’t choose your life, Dad,” Daniel lectured his dad. “You live one.”

    But “The Way,” going into limited release this month, makes for a warm, engaging blend of charm and travelog. It’s a plucky film that covers a lot of ground and uncovers this wonderful, ancient ritual that people of many faiths and from all walks of life take on.

    Estevez and Sheen pull off a rare thing. They make us consider the reasons we might want to walk “The Way,” and in this warm and pretty movie, actually make us want to do it.

    MPAA Rating:PG-13, for some thematic elements, drug use and smoking.

    Cast: Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, Jmes Nesbitt, Tcheky Karyo, Yorick van Wageningen, Emilio Estevez.

    Credits: Written and directed by Emilio Estevez. A Producers Distribution Agency release. Running time: 1:55.