Many critics, including myself, feel that Kevin Smith's peculiar brand of somewhat erudite gross-out comedy has finally outstayed its welcome. Although Smith makes it a point not to listen to critics - and even to openly deride them when they are mean to him - perhaps some of the criticism has finally reached him. His last major feature film was the decidedly non-comedic horror movie Red State, and he's now following that up with the delicious and weirdly-plotted horror movie Tusk.
Behind this well-constructed facade of a cynical blogger there lies the heart of a true romantic. I mean, who doesn't sometimes want to watch an unforgivably schmaltzy movie full of beautiful people discovering their beautiful past loves? Thankfully, we continue to get movies of Nicolas Sparks' novels to fulfill our cheesy romantic needs, and there's no sign of either Sparks or Hollywood letting up.
Nary a week goes by that we do not hear, see, or smell some kind of rumor about a big tentpole film. If it is not who will (or will not) be appearing in Star Wars: Episode VII, then it's who will (or will not) be appearing in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Up next: Benedict Cumberbatch, the silken voiced British actor who has showed up (or not) in almost every big budget movie made since 2012.
Nothing - but nothing! - is un-filmable for James Franco. Novel about a necrophiliac psychopath? Modernist tome written primarily in stream-of-consciousness Southern vernacular? He'll give them all a shot. Franco's latest attempt at cinematic immortality is The Sound and the Fury, an adaptation of William Faulkner's brilliant (and difficult) novel that follows the trials and tribulations of the Compson family as they live, love, and destroy themselves from the inside out.
Since the release of his first English-language film Stoker, Korean director Park Chan-wook has been circling a multitude of other projects without settling on one. Now we have reports that he's finally decided on his next film: an adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith, about female thieves in Victorian London. Chan-wook's version of Fingersmith will be set in his native Korea during Japanese rule.
As festival season winds up once more, there will be those films that over-shoot, those films that under-shoot, and those films that perfectly hit their mark. I cross my fingers that Abel Ferrara's Pasolini, which shows up at Venice in a few days' time, will be one of the latter.
It seems as though every week brings us another announcement, or another rumor, about yet another remake, reboot, or sequel. The remake of the 1980s cult action film Escape from New York has been kicking around for awhile now, but questions have been raised about who can fill Kurt Russell's shoes as the hero with the eyepatch Snake Plissken. In a recent report from Starlog (via /Film), Charlie Hunnam topped the list of actors rumored to be in the running for the coveted (?) role.
When will people learn not to go camping? Only bad things happen to you when you go camping, especially if you sit around the campfire singing beforehand. We still have not learned our lesson, though, as the trailer for Cub proves.
More than a year ago, we saw the first trailer for Seventh Son, a young adult fantasy flick starring Jeff Bridges and Ben Barnes. Then the film got caught in the crossfire during the epic Warner Brothers/Legendary divorce, and Seventh Son was delayed. Now it is in the hands of Universal, and finally has its second trailer. I'll warn you now though to brace yourselves, as this one looks spectacularly bad.
When I think of Steve Carell, I think of Despicable Me and The Office and the "Produce Pete" segment on The Daily Show; I do not think of a menacing sociopath or possible murderer. But all the buzz on Carell's latest performance in the upcoming drama Foxcatcher is that he's one terrifying man. Having watched the latest trailer for the film, I can certainly see why.
