Episode 2 0
This Week in Movies #20 with Stephanie Soechtig, Documentary Filmmaker
Sundays at 8pm PDT
This week Lon and Farrell review “Skyline” and “Morning Glory”, go over the new trailers for “Friends With Benefits” and “Blubberella” and director of “Tapped”, Stephanie Soechtig is Live in studio.
Follow us on Twitter @TWiMovies!
Hosts
Guest
Stephanie Soechtig, Documentary Filmmaker
Introduction
Roger Tinch is ill this week and will no be joining us. Instead, Lon will take care of the news.
Farrell told a story about an incident at a coffee shop. She had donated $0.21 to a cute stranger, allowing him to purchase his coffee, but the barista had instead seemed to take credit for the act. This was distressing to her, as she had hoped it would turn into a “Meet Cute” situation – resembling Farrell’s favorite romantic comedies – and she would end up falling in love with the man.
Lon cautioned her that she was sort of turning into Larry David.
Trailer Talk
Directed by: Cary Fukunaga (“Sin Nombre”)
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, Jamie Bell
Lon noted that there have already been a ton of adaptations of Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel, but that he enjoyed the dark, almost horror film sensibility that director Fukunaga is bringing to the material.
Lon also noted that he enjoyed Fukunaga’s “Sin Nombre.” Farrell felt that movie was overrated.
Directed by: Will Gluck (“Easy A”)
Starring: Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake
Release Date: July 22, 2011
First, Lon taught Farrell about “red band trailers,” which show some of the cool R-rated stuff from the movie. Usually just swearing.
Lon and Farrell discussed if Timberlake has officially crossed the line from being a singer who sometimes acts into being an actor who sometimes sings. Both found the trailer mildly amusing, particularly the use of the slang phrase “slam piece.”
Directed by: Uwe Boll (lots of stuff that sucks)
Release date: Sometime in 2011
Lindsay Hollister plays a fat woman whose footsteps cause explosions in this forthcoming steaming load. Is it a comedy? A parody? Satire? Just offensive? You make the call!
In Theaters
Lon’s review:
“Skyline” is a shame, a movie with a few interesting ideas and effects, but without the imagination, creativity, wit or daring to fully engage an audience. Watching it is like hearing a bad pitch for what could have potentially been a great movie in the right hands…
The set-up: Donald Faison plays an overnight success in the movie effects industry who’s staying in a lavish West LA penthouse with his new trophy girlfriend and his assistant. He invites out his old buddy, who he wants to move to LA to work for him, and his buddy’s girlfriend, who’s secretly pregnant. Then, aliens attack, and our heroes hole up in their hotel room – along with the hotel’s bossy security guard, trying to figure out what’s going on and how to get out of town. (The security guard is played by David Zayas, and he’s the only one who seems to know he’s in a silly, bad movie.)
Nothing about their predicament will feel fresh to anyone who’s ever seen an alien, zombie or monster movie. The Brothers Strause – effects wizards who directed the film and designed its visuals – really want to tell the BIGGER story, about what would happen if LA were suddenly invaded by hostile aliens with crazy machines that suck up people and remove their brains. But they don’t have the budget, so they try to tell that story while using these people as an excuse to keep in one main location, to not really have to show much of what happens on the ground outside of the hotel, and so forth. You can do “Cloverfield” – making crazy sci-fi into a personal story – or you can do “Independence Day” – but you can’t do both at the same time. Or you wind up doing neither.
Farrell’s review:
Though the set-up has a lot of different things that appeal to her – it’s a romantic comedy set in a newsroom from the minds behind “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Notting Hill” – Farrell was underwhelmed by this film.
She took particular issue with the lack of a forward-moving story and a lack of chemistry. In particular, she was disappointed that Diane Keaton and Harrison Ford didn’t share enough screen time and never really seemed to develop any chemistry.
Rather than comparing it to classics of the genre like “Broadcast News,” Farrell was most reminded of “The Ugly Truth,” the 2009 flop about an unexpected romance at a radio station.
Hollywood Headlines
- “Thing” remake without a release date
The new version of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” was set to debut in April 2011, but has now been pushed back as it has been deemed “not ready.”
Instead, Universal has bumped up “Fast Five,” the latest installment in the venerable “Fast and the Furious” franchise, this time with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson joining Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. “I live my life a quarter-mile at a time…AGAIN!” Justin Lin, who did the last two films, is returning. It was supposed to open in the summer of 2011, but this will get it out of the way of next year’s biggest titles.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis, a true show business legend, passed away this week at the age of 91. The guy’s filmography runs the gamut, from his early days teamed with Carlo Ponti in Italy producing films for Fellini in the ’50s, through some of his mega-spectacles of the ’70s and ’80s.
We previewed William Monahan’s upcoming “London Boulevard” last week. Now he’s set to take on an adaptation of the classic play “Becket” by Jean Anouilh, about Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury who clashed with Henry II in the 12th Century.
The play “Becket” was already made into a classic and much-celebrated 1964 film with Richard Burton as Becket and Peter O’Toole as Henry. That film was nominated for 12 Oscars and won Best Adapted Screenplay.
- “Star Trek” script due in December
The sci- fi sequel has been given a June 29, 2012 release date, and co-writers Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are working on a script now to deliver to Paramount by December. Lindelof has compared it, on Twitter, to “The Dark Knight.” JJ Abrams will definitely produce, but has yet to commit to directing.
DVD
Lon recommended “Wristcutters: A Love Story,” newly available on Netflix Streaming.
“Wristcutters” is an intriguing premise executed perfectly. Similar in some ways to “Defending Your Life,” but more intimate and smaller in scale, it’s in some ways the first mundane fantasy film.
The plot: Zia (Patrick Fugit) kills himself over a girl and is transported to an afterlife that’s very much like his life on Earth, only even more boring and bleak. He hears word that the girl he died for has also killed herself, and sets out on an expedition to find her. Along the way, he meets a variety of eccentrics, including Tom Waits as Kneller, leader of a ragtag commune, and Will Arnett as an attempted cult leader.
Shea Whigham really steals the show as Eugene, Zia’s partner in crime whose entire Russian family have all found themselves in the same disappointing eternity
Interview with Stephanie Soechtig, Director of “Tapped”
Stephanie discussed the origins of the “Tapped” project, a documentary which focuses on bottled water and the various crises associated with its manufacture and distribution. Mainly, she wanted to do the film both as a filmmaker and a concerned citizen, as an effective way to spread the message about the bottled water issue.
She also talked about marketing the film and trying to drum up interest at festivals, which she described as a fun but also disheartening experience.
Finally, Stephanie talked about her future plans and whether or not she would want to make mainstream fiction films.
The Unrentables: “Susan’s Plan”
Thanks to Laser Blazer for providing access and information on The Unrentables. Laser Blazer is the premier Los Angeles destination for DVD and Blu-Ray sales and rentals.
Periodically, Lon combs through the Laser Blazer archives to find films that, for whatever reason, have NEVER once been rented. He then rents these movies, watches them and reports back to an eager public.
Film: “Susan’s Plan” aka “Dying to Get Rich”
Director: John Landis
Cast: Nastassja Kinski, Rob Schneider, Billy Zane, Michael Biehn
IMDb Rating: 5.2/10
Trailer:
“Susan’s Plan” is nominally an ensemble comedy, because there a lot of characters in it and wacky “upbeat” music that lets you know you’re supposed to find their shenanigans hilarious.
But mainly, it’s just quick, staccatto sequences which I suppose could be considered funny, but which tend to just kind of happen with very little set-up and then don’t go anywhere. There’s no real context at all.
It’s like Landis purposefully avoided situations that might lead to complete, fulfilling, satisfying movie scenes and tried to replace them with 1-2 minute “jokey” scenes that are loosely interconnected. Like, there’s a ton of dialogue where you’re cutting back and forth between people chatting on car phones, which totally kills any kind of actual momentum you could build up.
But you don’t need momentum, I guess, when you have this much Lara Flynn Boyle nudity. I counted 3 instances in the first 30 minutes. I had no idea she was so down to take it off in movies. Why didn’t I hear about this sooner?
Closing
Join us next week when our guest is director Adam Salky.
- Tri_scorp
