According to Hitfix, Disney has hired director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Kinsey) to direct a big budget, live action musical remake of 1991's Beauty and the Beast. The new version will draw from the old movie and the Broadway adaption that ran from 1994-2007, and will be including most of the iconic Alan Menken/Howard Ashman songs. It's not exactly hard to believe, since that seems to be the new trend, adapting or reinventing the studio's animated classics, but to do a flat out live action remake of what's still their all time best animated film? Ugh- all the household objects are going to be CG, aren't they? Can you imagine CG versions of Lumiere, Cosgrove and Mrs. Potts roaming around? I'm dubious about this already, even though it's apparently Bill Condon's passion project, and keeping it a musical was part of his pitch to the studio. I just hope the Beast is a guy in a costume and not CG himself, but I guess I shouldn't get my hopes up. This movie could never be as great as the original, no matter what they do. Any casting thoughts for Belle?
TRAILER #2: "The Giver"
A second trailer for the sci-fi adaptation The Giver, coming out August 15th. This one shows a lot more of the story and approach they've taken, which looks pretty straightforward, aside from the black and white future. This kind of strikes me as this year's Ender's Game- mostly for kids and fans of the book, maybe with a fun, scenery-chewing performance from Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges for the adults. But I don't know...it doesn't really look all that exciting, to be honest. What do you think?
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Man With No Name" Trilogy (1964-66)
In the 1950's and 60's very few television actors ever rose to a career in movies, being that TV was the far lesser medium at the time. But Clint Eastwood turned out to be a major exception when he jumped at the chance to shed his Rawhide image by starring in then unknown Sergio Leone's Italian-made western A Fistful of Dollars. It was a huge risk, but one that paid off in spades when he donned the hat and poncho, and a legend was born almost instantly. Leone pretty much reinvented the genre in the form of the spaghetti western, which spawned its own cult of fans that exists to this day. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the best of the three films, and my favorite too, but all of them are great and the trilogy is a must have for any fan of classic westerns.
Original Trailer for A Fistful of Dollars (1964):
REVIEW: "The Immigrant" (2014) Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix. Dir. James Gray
James Gray's The Immigrant is a bit of a mixed bag. Visually inventive and pleasant to look at, but not much of a story holding the isolated performances together in the end. The thriving immigration days of the early 1920's should provide a fascinating setting for an equally interesting story to follow, but instead Gray sets up three characters who remain locked in immoveable emotional places for the majority of the film's running time, which can occasionally be a laborious slog.
Not that the film doesn't have its moments. Gray seems to be going for a kind of old-fashioned melodrama with the very minimal plot that's been set up, and by old-fashioned I mean very old-fashioned, almost in the heightened reality style of a silent film from which the era is set. If that is what he's aiming for I wouldn't say the film doesn't achieve it, I just question whether it's enough to hold anyone's attention for nearly two hours (which at times feels longer). Marion Cotillard plays Ava, a Polish immigrant who comes to America after World War I, seeking a new life with her sister, who's immediately detained at Ellis Island for lung disease, leaving Ava to strike out on her own. After being determined liable to become a public charge because of a sexual assault that happened on the ship (thus branding her a woman of "low morals") Ava is helplessly alone, leaving her vulnerable prey for a shady pimp named Bruno (Joaquin Phoenix), who takes her under his wing with the intention of turning her into one of his prostitutes. Ava's downfall is now complete, but she spends the movie caught between the vice grip of Bruno and the kind attentions of his cousin Emil (Jeremy Renner), a magician who falls for her and sets up the love triangle between the three characters.
And that's about it for the story, as the film spins its wheels veering between the melodramatic Bruno/ Emil confrontations for Ava's attention and Ava's continual depression at her hopeless situation. The performances aren't bad but are rather one note- Cotillard strikes the same worried tone for every scene, with only minimal dialogue with which to express herself. It's a believable character given the times but the slow going pace of this film does it no favors. The environment is well set up, portraying early 1920's New York with convincing authority in the set design and art direction- you can almost smell the market spices being sold on the street corners. But simply not enough happens in this film, which is the biggest problem with it, and yet also might be the director's intention. In silent film melodramas, the action is minimal yet exaggerated, and several scenes in this film seem meant to recall the simple emotional pain of these sorts of stories. But I don't think that style can be replicated in a modern movie which is in fact not a silent film. It needs more of a strong throughline to get from Point A to Point B, otherwise it can be a long, heavy slog in which we don't get enough character or action to sustain a feature length film.
It's still a well acted, well shot and beautifully composed movie- but doesn't do enough with the narrative or atmospheric sense to be seen as a satisfying experience overall. The frustratingly opaque filmmaking techniques leave one at something of a loss as to what Gray was ultimately trying to do here (I can only make assumptions), and the result is a feeling of disappointment, or even pointlessness.
* *
TRAILER: "Life of Crime"
I must have missed this one, but the trailer for Life of Crime, based on the Elmore Leonard story came out last week. The movie premiered at Toronto last year to pretty positive reception but it was held over until August of this year, so it was obviously deemed not an awards kind of movie. But it does look pretty good, with all the familiar Leonard dialogue and quirkiness. The cast is great, and Jennifer Aniston so rarely appears in decent movies that that's always nice to see when it happens. It's coming out August 29th.
Happy Birthday Marilyn Monroe
A major icon's birthday is marked today and she's so well known that there hardly seems to be anything to say about her that hasn't already been said. She's still a ubiquitous presence in our culture that has never gone away and won't anytime soon, what with Jessica Chastain set to take on the role in the latest Marilyn biopic. Still, though everyone knows her image, I wonder how many people today have actually seen her movies. We know she was always a bigger star and screen presence than a great actress, so what were the films she made that are still worth watching? I'd say these are her three essentials:
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953)
A light comedy to be sure, but it's definitely the movie that solidified her ditzy blond image, and this is where she sings "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," so you gotta see it. Jane Russell is actually a pretty funny co-star, but it's obvious she gets blown off the screen in favor of Marilyn. Sorry, Jane, it just couldn't be helped.
THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955)
Her first team up with Billy Wilder and it's another comedy, but by now she was already an icon and had to be the impossible dream girl upstairs, completely out of reach and almost unreal for schlubby neighbor Tom Ewell, who fantasizes about her at every turn. This movie may be a bit dated now, but Monroe is perfectly cast (Wilder always knew what to do with her) and creates another famous movie moment- in the white dress on top of the subway breeze.
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
To me it's her best movie and performance by far, with Wilder again knowing exactly how to use her personality and musical talent, giving her the chance to be both funny and bewitching, as she captivates Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, and turns in two great music numbers, with "I Wanna Be Loved By You" and "I'm Through With Love" (below). In fact, this might be the only Marilyn Monroe movie you really need to see. It captures the legend completely.
June Movies Are Here
Happy June, everybody. As we head into the summer months we're already knee deep in blockbuster season (actually this year all the big releases seem to have been shoved even earlier, into May). But traditionally, this is the time for the big summer movies, that used to always be about bad guys vs. good guys, and kind of still are- it's just that they've all now morphed into superheroes and supervillains. Still, going back to the more traditional genre, this month is labeled "Cops and Robbers" in our Movies for Every Month page, where some of the ten best outlaws/cops/crime movies are listed for June, and this time they've come complete with their original trailers. I did include a superhero movie of course (The Dark Knight, one of the very best), but we've also got some of my other favorites, from Bullitt and Thelma & Louise to The Departed. I may have to do a couple weeks of bonus picks this summer, to suss out some of the very best pure superheroes or even just pure action, but for now you can't go wrong with any one of these ten "bad guy vs. good guy" flicks. Happy Movie Watching!
BOX OFFICE 5/30-6/01: 'Maleficent' Conjures Up $70 Million
Disney's latest fairy tale revamp opened big this weekend, with $70 million over the three day frame. The PG-rated fantasy attracted an audience that was 60% female and earned an "A" Cinemascore, while also pulling in $100 million overseas for a worldwide total of $170 million already. Needless to say it's the biggest opening of Angelina Jolie's career, and could possibly get to $200 million depending on the legs, which is pretty much an open question no matter what the audience rating these days. After Godzilla's epic fall last week, this time it was X-Men's turn- despite word of mouth reported to be much stronger, the comic book movie took a steep tumble of 64% to land in second place with $32 million. Many of the X-Men movies have had this problem in the past for some reason, as it's one of the most frontloaded franchises of the superhero genre, but globally it's another story, where it's already crossed $500 million worldwide (the first time any X-Men movie hit that marker).
Seth MacFarlane's poorly reviewed One Million Ways to Die in the West pretty much disappointed, earning just $17 million for the weekend, which was way below expectations, due to the massive hit that Ted was a couple of years ago. It won't do much overseas either, as comedies are not as easily translated like action movie franchises (a sad trend for the future of movies, I'm afraid). Rounding out the top five was Godzilla, which now has $174 million total and may not even make it to $200 million, and Blended, which overtook Neighbors this week for the other comedy slot on the chart.
Top 5:
- Maleficent- $70 million
- X-Men: Days of Future Past- $32.6 million
- A Million Ways to Die in the West- $17.1 million
- Godzilla- $12.2 million
- Blended- $8.4 million
Next week Tom Cruise returns to see if he can still pull some box office muscle in the sci-fi thriller Edge of Tomorrow, while the teen tearjerker The Fault in Our Stars, tries to turn it's social media buzz into actual dollars. See you then!
Movie of the Day: "The Graduate" (1967)
Of course, right? Much like Terms of Endearment was the obvious Mother's Day choice from a few weeks ago, how much better can you do for graduation week than a little movie called The Graduate? It also happens to be one of my favorite movies ever, so yeah, it was an easy call. This was Dustin Hoffman's breakthrough role as Benjamin Braddock, the disillusioned and confused college grad who drifts into an affair with the enigmatic Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and then falls in love with her daughter Elaine (the beautiful Katharine Ross). Scored to the iconic tunes of Simon & Garfunkel and leads up to one of the all time best ending sequences in the history of the movies. Enjoy The Graduate this week, as I have and will again and again, and congratulations to all recent ascendants of higher education. May your future path be less heedless than the wayward Ben's.
Original Trailer:
TRAILER: "What If"
Daniel Radcliffe tries his hand at romantic comedy in this trailer for What If, coming out in August. Looks kinda cute, although I've never been more fully aware of Radcliffe's diminutive status than when I see him standing next to guys like Adam Driver and Rafe Spall. Speaking of Adam Driver, how is it that he's in everything lately? I don't think anyone has ever broken out faster from a TV show than he did (although he was the best part of Girls, maybe the only good thing about it).
REVIEW: "The Normal Heart" (2014) Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts. Dir. Ryan Murphy
The Normal Heart is an imperfect yet emotional rendering of Larry Kramer's famed 1985 play, and thankfully, the original material is meaty and impactful enough to essentially overcome the unnecessary dramatic flourishes of its director, Ryan Murphy, who didn't realize that all he needed to do was step back and let the actors speak for themselves.
Assembling a great cast, virtually all of whom turn in wonderful performances, The Normal Heart is set at the onset of the AIDS crisis, in the very early years of the disease, when it was still being labeled "gay cancer," there was no known treatment and it was only seen to be affecting homosexual men in the large gay communities of major cities like New York and San Francisco. Larry Kramer's play was written in the midst of the crisis and the voice of the protagonist, Ned Weeks, is an angry one, a stand-in for himself as the well known activist and writer of the gay rights movement. Mark Ruffalo plays Ned in the film, and is utterly convincing as the pained and angry rabble rouser, trying desperately to shout his case from every rooftop and at anyone who will listen, which at the time, was close to no one. Fear and hatred plagued the straight world, made up of indifferent (or closeted) politicians who didn't want to come anywhere near the sick and dying, like the majority of the public in the early 1980's. Even the medical community had little hope to offer, seeing how difficult it was to get enough research funding to simply identify the virus that was only seen to be affecting those members of society who were already outcasts.
Julia Roberts plays Emma, a doctor and ally of Ned's with polio, who's just as angry as he is but incapable of doing much except prolonging the lives of the sick, who nearly all perish in her hospital rooms, with many of her own staff afraid to even to bring them their meals. Ned starts the Gay Men's Health Crisis, an organization intended to put pressure on the government to help the affected, but ends up doing many of the tasks that go along with consoling the dying men, much to Ned's protestations throughout the film. The other men involved include Taylor Kitsch, Jim Parsons and Joe Mantello, each of whom get their chance to shine with the dramatic monologues imbued throughout the script, even if Ryan Murphy can't help himself from going nuts with the camera during some of the speeches, thus robbing the actors of what should have been urgent, quiet spotlight moments for each of them. A major standout among this cast is Matt Bomer as Felix, a New York Times reporter Ned gets involved with, but who succumbs to the disease over the course of the film, and it's he who feels the most developed as a character and whose arc over the movie leaves you the most heartbroken. He goes from a confident, smart and charming young man with his whole future ahead of him, to a broken down vessel of wasted potential, making you feel as depressed and outraged as Ned and his friends at the generation of lives lost due to the public's indifference and lack of outcry. If the final scene between Felix and Ned doesn't pummel you into a submission of tears then you truly are made of stone.
Yet even with the powerful material and well cast actors on hand (although Julia Roberts is perhaps a bit distracting as she's made to look as self-consciously unglamorous as possible and her simple inability to disappear into a part proves to be unintentionally amusing when she goes zigzagging around hallways in her wheelchair), Ryan Murphy hamstrings the production with a schizophrenic camera style (especially during the opening Fire Island-set sequence) and poorly edited flashback scenes that often are distractions in and of themselves. It has the unfortunate effect of feeling like it should be a TV movie when HBO films are often a cut above that in effort, usually seeming like they should have easily been in theatrical release (such as last year's Behind the Candelabra, which had Steven Soderbergh's decidedly cool restraint behind the scenes). Still, the actors make it worthwhile, and the feeling and urgency of a subject matter that sometimes seems as though it's been unjustly forgotten in the days when HIV is now treatable and no longer a death sentence, make films that look back on those dark early days a much appreciated tribute to those whose lives were lost. It's a noble effort from all involved and a reminder of the necessity to have compassion and empathy for our fellow human beings, none of whom are ever as different from us as you might believe.
* * 1/2
Movie of the Day: "American Graffiti" (1973)
Today's graduation pick is an essential for any film lover, and if yesterday's choice was one of the best teen romances ever made, than this is one of the best movies ever made about teenagers, period. It's set on the last night of summer in 1962, the night before high school grads Kurt (Richard Dreyfus) and Steve (Ron Howard) are set to go off to college in another state. But as all recent graduates do, they're now having second thoughts, conflicted about what it is they really want, and while they mull it over, we get to hang out with them and their pals as they spend one last, aimless night cruising around town to one of the best soundtracks ever put to film. Part of the fun of this movie is picking out the future star-studded cast when virtually all of them were unknowns (hey there's Harrison Ford!), and Lucas managed to capture a moment in time that felt so authentic it struck a nostalgic chord across the country and became a sensation, influencing dozens of movies in its wake (including Dazed and Confused, which tried as hard as it could to do for the 70's what this one did for the early 60's). I know what you're thinking, it's hard to believe George Lucas of all people had something like this in him once, huh? Almost makes you wonder what might have been if it hadn't been for that little space movie...
Original Trailer:
