Episode 1 6
This Week in Movies #16 with Jac Schaeffer
Sundays at 8pm PDT
This week, we’re joined by writer/director Jac Schaeffer (“Timer”). Plus reviews of “Red,” “Jackass 3D,” “Nowhere Boy,” “Conviction” and “Frozen,” and a look at the trailers for “Drive Angry 3D” and “Dilemma.” Also there’s the Hollywood Headlines with Roger Erik Tinch and a new “Better or Worse” segment.
Follow the show on Twitter: @TWiMovies
Hosts
Farrell Roth
Lon Harris
Roger Erik Tinch (news)
Guest
Introduction
Farrell introduced Lon as her new full-time co-host. Roger Tinch will be Skyping in for the news segment.
Trailer Talk
Nicolas Cage plays a character named Milton who has escaped from Hell to stop the cult that murdered his daughter from sacrificing her baby. It also stars Amber Heard, William Fichtner as an agent of Satan and is in 3D. Where do I sign up?
Directed by Patrick Lussier, who edited a bunch of Wes Craven films (like “Scream”) and directed “My Bloody Valentine.”
It’s a comedy about 2 best friends, played by Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, faced with a dilemma when one sees the other’s wife cheating. Co-starring Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder. Directed by Ron Howard.
In Theaters
Lon reviewed “Red”:
- Director: Robert Schwentke
- Based on a comic by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner (DC)
- Red = Retired, Extremely Dangerous
Best thing I can say for it is that the movie TRUCKS. It moves very very quickly, but always with purpose, and feels very light on its feet. Plot is established in first 5 minutes, then you’re off like a bullet and it’s never dull.
Kind of “Get Shorty”-esque in some ways, how we constantly just ping between wacky new characters, over-the-top comic set-ups and otherwise violent, manic situations.
There are other similarities, too: both films deal with people in unusual professions (gangsters, CIA agents) who are now past their prime and dealing with things like retirement, aging, being replaced by younger people and facing their own mortality. “Get Shorty” remains the better, more thoughtful, clever version of this material. This is basically like if “Get Shorty” were a cartoon.
The action blows. There really isn’t a ton of action in the film – a few shootouts, a couple of explosions, one car chase. But they’re all kind of lame. (The CGI is also fairly unconvincing. There’s a bit with Bruce Willis walkly calmly out of a car that’s spinning out of control that looks like a video game cutscene.)
Fortunately, the movie seems to recognize that it’s better as a comedy anyway and doesn’t focus on the pyrotechnics. (Maybe that’s why they’re releasing it in Fall instead of Summer, where it sort of feels like it belongs.)
Having said all that, it is a lot of fun in spots, particularly any time John Malkovich is on screen. He steals the whole damn movie. Honestly, Morgan Freeman doesn’t make much of an impression at all, Helen Mirren isn’t in all that much of the film and Bruce Willis is in low-key/sleepwalking mode. Malkovich and Mary-Louise Parker are the only ones who really get to shine.
Farrell praised the film for looking at a somewhat obscure chapter in the life of Beatle John Lennon, focusing on his relationship with his aunt and mother, and his initial introduction to Paul McCartney. She appreciated learning new things about Lennon’s background, such as his fascination with Elvis Presley, and was so involved in the story that she would sometimes forget this was a musical biopic focused on the life of a legend.
She also loved the performances by Aaron Johnson as Lennon and Anne-Marie Duff as his mother. She thinks Duff may be primed for an Oscar nomination.
Guest reviewer Chase Nunes of the podcast Geek Gamer Radio sent in a review of “Jackass 3D” which Lon and Farrell screened on the show. You can find it below:
DVD: “Frozen”
Lon and Farrell reviewed “Frozen,” the Sundance hit from writer/director Adam Green about a trio of skiers trapped on a chair lift.
Both Lon and Farrell enjoyed the movie, and found it viscerally effective, challenging the viewer to put themselves in this scenario and puzzle how they would find a way out. Lon also praised the film’s use of sound effects to suggest gruesome things going on just off-screen. Farrell enjoyed the film’s ending, and how it balanced the grim circumstances without seeming totally dour or hopeless.
Hollywood Headlines
“Jackass 3D” Earns $50 Million
It was the third-straight No. 1 opening for the venerable “Jackass” franchise, and set a record for biggest October debut, topping the $48.1 million opening weekend for “Scary Movie 3″ in 2003.
Peter Jackson Making 2 Hobbit Films
Peter Jackson has seemingly finalized his plans for adapting JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novel “The Hobbit.” TheWrap.com has reported that MGM and Warner Bros will begin production in February on “The Hobbit,” which will be split into two films. The budget for both has been estimated at $400 million.
If all goes according to plan, we’ll get “Hobbit 1″ in December of 2012 and “Hobbit 2″ at some point the following year. Martin Freeman has been rumored to be up for the role of Bilbo Baggins.
Original footage shot for “Back to the Future” featuring Eric Stoltz in the role of Marty McFly is being released on the “Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Trilogy,” which hits on Blu-Ray on Oct. 26. Stoltz was let go by director Robert Zemeckis and producer Steven Spielberg after they decided he was too serious and “dark” for the role, and instead hired Michael J. Fox and reshot the scenes that already had been filmed.
Raimi is set to helm a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz” following the arrival of the Wizard himself to the fantasy world of Oz, and the origin of his deceptive rule over the Emerald City. Robert Downey Jr. is being tapped to portray the Wizard, who arrives in Oz via hot air balloon and strikes up a romance with Glenda the Good Witch.
James Cameron and Angelina Jolie have been rumored to be teaming up on a 3D version of “Cleopatra.” It’s be an adaptation of Stacy Schiff’s book, “Cleopatra: A Life.” Word is that Cameron became interested after reading Brian Helgeland’s screenplay.
If he takes this one, it would push back Cameron’s other rumored project, an “Avatar” follow-up. Brad Pitt has also been mentioned as a possibility to portray Mark Antony, in a sort of shadow of real-life couple Liz Taylor and Richard Burton starring in the 1963 version.
Paul Verhoeven’s Sexy Ghost Story
Dutch genius Paul Verhoeven has been linked to direct a supernatural thriller called “Eternal,” said to be “Fatal Attraction with Ghosts.” The film follows a recovering alcoholic who befriends and eventually beds a woman he meets as she is preparing to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. It turns out, she is actually a spirit who is after his soul.
This sounds perfect for Verhoeven, and brings him back into material reminiscent of both “Basic Instinct” and his earlier Dutch thrillers like “The Fourth Man.”
Interview with Jac Schaeffer
Schaeffer is the writer/director of the indie science-fiction comedy “Timer.” It takes place in an alternate reality in which science has developed a way to determine the exact moment when people will meet their soul mates. Emma Caulfield portrays a woman who has her “timer” installed only to discover that it is blank, meaning she will never meet her soul mate.
Schaeffer discussed the making of the film and the experience of taking it on the festival circuit. (She actually found the film getting accepted largely to genre and sci-fi festivals, meaning that it was playing against a lot of horror films. It actually worked well as counter-programming.)
She also talked about the experience of being a female writer/director, and how the toughest part was repeatedly being asked about being a female writer/director. She also said that she is now being offered bigger-scale movies from studios, but that it’s hard to find material to which she relates personally.
For Better or Worse
In this segment, Lon comes up with an element, cliche or trend of multiple movies, and then comes up with the “Best” and “Worse” use case for that element.
THROWING YOURSELF OUT OF A WINDOW
WORST: “The Hours”
Ed Harris throws himself out of a window in a chillingly nonchalant manner.
This spy will do anything to get away from Jason Bourne:
SAMUEL L. JACKSON LINES THAT ARE EDITED FOR TELEVISION
He’s had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane.
GUY BEING KILLED BY A PROPELLER
BEST: “Raiders of the Lost Ark”
This one was kind of obvious…but still…
- Stephen Lackey
