It’s September, which means that the summer movie season is officially over and the crap of Hollywood can make it to the big screen. September is historically a bad month for movies, as kids return to school, vacations end and people scramble for the remnants of good weather. This is also the perfect time for studios to dump the waste onto audiences.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean there will be nothing to watch this September. Below is a list of movies I’m looking forward to in September: (more…)
It’s almost September, which means that network television is returning to us once again. The fifth season of The Office premieres on September 25th, which means that Season Four is coming to DVD… on September 2nd, to be precise.
The Office: Season Four starts off where Season Three left off – surprise, surprise – with Pam and Jim bringing their relationship into the public atmosphere of Dundler Mifflin. Engagement is hinted at, but will Jim actually propose? Meanwhile, Dwight is continuing his quest to become head of the office (or at least second-in-charge, now that Jim officially holds that title), while still annoyed by the progressing relationship of Andy and his ex, Angela. And Michael is finding his relationship with Jan strained to the brink. Also, young “Wunderkind” Ryan, who was promoted above Michael last season, is trying to take Dundler Mifflin into the 21st century, further creating tension between him and his former colleagues.
Another one of Chuck Palahniuk’s books is being turned into a movie, and the world will be better for it. Assuming they do it right, of course.
Palahniuk has Choke, starring Sam Rockwell, coming to theaters this fall, but the author with the name that no one quite knows how to pronounce is best known for Fight Club. Take Fight Club, make it stranger and even better and you get Rant, one of my all-time favorite books.
I had received Rant, the book, as a contest giveaway last summer, and almost gave every copy away. Thankfully, my roommate is a Palahniuk fan and alerted me to the fact that the book may actually be good. So, I decided to read it. A weekend later, I set that book down, utterly amazed at what I had read. It was a frikkin’ masterpiece.
Rant, as described on the book cover, is about the world’s most lethal serial killer. That seems simple enough, right? Right? Wrong! The book is told as an oral history; that is, while fiction, it is told in an interview-style narrative with dozens of characters, all of whom have their own perspective and stories to tell about the infamous Buster Casey. Casey is an odd fellow… he likes to stick his hands down animal holes with hopes of getting bitten, and he also heads up an urban night game that involves smashing cars. He’s not exactly serial killer material, but when Palahniuk means serial killer, he may mean a whole spectrum of things. Trust me – until you read the book through to the end, you will not understand what this book is like, or what it is about.
As you can tell, I am excited at the prospect of a movie. At the same time, this is a book that, if done right – and it can be done right – could be made into an exceptional movie, but it also has a 95% chance of missing the mark. The director, writer and approach will all have a significant bearing on the film’s quality, more so than other, more standard pieces of work. It will be interesting to see how the project progresses.
It may be nothing… or it may be something. Twilight, only a couple months before its release, has returned some of its actors to shooting new scenes.
Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen in the movie) told MTV that there’s nothing wrong with the current film, but that executives were so delighted with the wrapped film that they opted to make some more of it; in other words, make the film everybody is waiting for. “They liked it so much, they are bringing us back for some encore time to beef it up. Add a little salt and pepper.”
That’s ominous, in my opinion. If the executives liked it so much, why add more to it? It’s not completely ridiculous – perhaps the movie is so good that the executives approved additional budget to film scenes that were originally cut – but highly unlikely. And when I hear quotes like the one provided above, it sounds like major PR spin bullshit.
Here’s some more from Facinelli:
“I wouldn’t be walking tomorrow if I spilled those beans, but I’m psyched, especially about the wardrobe. I can tell you that it’s a flashback scene. It gives us a little bit of history of the Cullen family. They are just shooting a couple of different added scenes, and the scene I’m in, I can tell you it’s me and Robert Pattinson. Rosalie and Emmett are in that scene.”
And from Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black in the film): “I am going to be in the prom scene now, at the very end of the film. At first we didn’t film that, and now some people are saying they want to see a bit more of Jacob, and they want him in the prom scene at the end.”
Superman is going to get just a little bit darker, according to Warner Brothers president Jeff Robinov, and will completely ignore the recent Brian Singer movie. Is that good or bad news? I think good.
As most of you know, I prefer something a little darker and edgier over lighter and goofier, which is the direction Singer took (while also attempting to add in drama and Jesus references). Comic book movies need to walk that fine line between being lighthearted and “appealing to the masses” and being serious, hard core movies. With The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan completely crossed that line to the serious side and proved it can work to massive box office returns.
Given the box office “failure” of the reboot Superman Returns and the stunning success of The Dark Knight – the first film to even inspire speculation that it could beat Titanic – it’s no surprise that Warner Brothers wants to take things to the dark side. In fact, according to Robinov, every DC Comics release over the next several years will take that approach, to “the extent that the characters allow it.”
Personally, I really enjoyed Superman Returns, though in hindsight my “A” rating was probably a bit generous. The movie was grand, had some decent action and did, in fact, treat Superman in a more serious light. Still, as Singer stated himself, he wanted this movie to be a continuation of the old Christopher Reeves movies, and thus a level of goofiness and lightheartedness remained. What hurt the movie was that Singer attempted to combine action, comedy, drama and allegory all into one, and that’s just not what people wanted. Furthermore, while there were some good action scenes, the movie was not the explosive action-fest one would expect from a 21st century Superman. Finally, while Spacey was really good, his Lex Luthor was a bit too much of a homage to Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor; the world has moved beyond dangerous but goofy villains with huge, “blow up the world” kind of plots.
So, assuming that Lex Luthor is once again the villain in this reboot of Superman, let’s look at what the new movie, currently titled The Man of Steel, needs to do to be successful:
More action. The Dark Knight proved that you can make a serious, thought-provoking movie that ends with non-stop action and violence for the final 45 minutes.
Better marketing. The marketing team was tied with the last one as the film lacked the money shots needed to really wow audiences into theaters. Better action should help this out.
A more serious Lex Luthor. I don’t need to see him coming up with some zany plot to destroy the world by making new real estate. Have him do serious things with serious consequences, and lose the goofiness. Luthor should be legitimately scary and threatening.
A real, good guy vs. bad guy ending. Don’t end the movie with Luthor winding up on a deserted tropical island (how did his helicopter have the fuel to go that far anyway?) and Superman saving the day by lifting a continent in the sky, causing him to almost-die for another 20 minutes. Have a battle of epic proportions that comes down to the closing credits, where Luthor ends up in jail and some other villain ends up dead.
Have a bad guy that can pose a physical threat to Superman. Done right, The Man of Steel doesn’t need a supervillain, but better be safe than sorry. Introduce a villain that is deliciously evil and can put up a fight against Supes.
Lose Superman’s kid. It’s unlikely we’ll see the son of Superman anytime soon. Seriously, Singer, what were you thinking?
Don’t dwell too much on the beginnings of Superman. We all know how he came to be on Earth, how he was raised, etc. Don’t spend 45 minutes on it, unless you get Christopher Nolan to do that film as well.
Give Superman a personality. He doesn’t have to be a depressed robot like Brandon Routh was.
All that being said, Warner Brothers will have to be careful to keep charisma in their pictures as they give a darker overtone to them. When done right, the results can be marvelous (The Dark Knight), but they’ll have to be careful not to attempt to duplicate its success by simply “making things serious.” If done wrong, you’ll get some rather dull films sapped of their comic energy, and that’s not going to win over audiences. Instead, as with any film, you need the right combination of director, writer, cast and screenplay; WB should be careful not to lose sight of this.
Heroes: Season Three is almost here, which means Season Two is coming to DVD. The four-disc set contains the shortened, 11-episode season, complete with time traveling, viruses, wedding massacres and more. It’s no question that most Heroes fans will scoop this DVD set up despite what my Bible-like words say below, but what about those on the cusp? What about those poor, pathetic people who haven’t completely embraced the world of Heroes? What about starving African children?
Let’s all face it: Heroes: Season Two wasn’t as good as series one. Writer’s strike aside, it was still a tad rushed, a little weak in the writing department at times, and so on and so forth. Some characters were taken down some strange paths (Mohinder), and others were introduced that just weren’t very interesting (like the New Orleans girl who can learn anything). The writer’s strike made the last several episodes even more accelerated than the earlier ones, leading to rough transitions, undeveloped stories and a resolution to the season-wide story arc that should have come 13 episodes later. All that being said, Heroes is still one of the best shows on television.
But that’s not what I’m here to review. There are plenty of websites devoted to just how good (or bad) Heroes is, so I’m focusing the rest of this review on the bonus features. As is typical with TV releases these days, the bonus features are annoyingly spread across multiple discs, which is probably fine for most – except for when you’re trying to review the bonus features and have to swap the disc out every fifteen minutes, damn it.
Anyway, the highlight of the box set is the deleted scenes, of which there are plenty. Practically every episode has a couple of deleted scenes, some of which are quite revealing. As always, you won’t miss too much if you never see these, but as far as deleted scenes go, they’re pretty good. The highlight… of the highlights… is an alternate ending, which truly is an alternate ending. SPOILER ALERT. Whereas in the actual final episode of the season, Peter, Nathan and Hiro stop the virus from being unleashed – only to have Nathan get shot while attempting to announce that he has special powers. In the alternate ending, the writers take the darker approach by letting the virus get released, causing Odessa, Texas to go into quarantine. Ultimately, the actual ending is tighter and more effective, but it would have been pretty cool had Peter not caught the vial at the end of Season Two.
Beyond the alternate ending and deleted scenes, Heroes: Season Two comes with some pretty good “Genetics of a Scene” clips, which are pretty entertaining and slightly insightful. I’d recommend these. There are also some NBC featurettes, which I didn’t watch, and a series of “Untold Episodes,” which are pretty good. There are also audio commentaries for the episodes.
Unfortunately, the rest of the bonus features aren’t all that good. There’s a ridiculously cheesy “documentary” about Takezo Kensei, which is so bad I could only watch a minute of it. I mean, it’s about as bad as faux documentaries can get. A “news reel” about Richard Drucker is also quite terrible, and rather pointless unless I completely missed something. The “Season 2: A New Beginning” featurette is just a promotional, “you’re going to see things you’ve never seen before” kind of featurette, and the Season 3 preview is, as expected, nothing special.
Heroes: Season Two is worth the purchase because, yes, it contains all of the episodes from season 2. The deleted scenes, alternate endings and “Genetics of a Scene” bonus features are well worth it; at the same time, NBC would have done well to save themselves some money and not include their “original” bonus features, as they are downright terrible and just a waste of money. Still, recommended for the overall value of the show.
Anyone remember watching The Tick, which starred an idiotic but good-natured superhero (named The Tick) and his brainier but not quite so confident sidekick, Arthur? The show was hilarious, and while it has been canceled a few times, it never seems to die completely. The lovable superhero is back on the Minisodes Network, which takes the original content, shrinks it down to five minutes while maintaining the general storyarc, and provides them for free on the Internet.
So, in other words, for all of you – like me – who liked cartoons growing up but don’t have the patience to watch 25-minute episodes anymore, this could be a great alternative (I’m pretty sure they have non-cartoons as well). Here’s the pilot episode of The Tick… [EDITOR'S NOTE: Having written this post before watching the video, I now see that the pilot episode is for the live-action version. Either way... Enjoy!]
Here’s the perfect example why popularity ratings cannot be used to make Top 10 Lists… or in this case, Top 30 Lists. Yahoo! has released a list of its Top 30 Sci-Fi Movies, according to its user ratings. I can’t be too harsh, though, as there are some surprisingly good entries – but as you’ll see, there are some surprisingly bad ones, too.
Number 30 is a pleasant surprise, as Yahoo! users rated Serenity as such. I didn’t know there were enough people who had seen this awesome flick to get it on such a list, but I guess there are. Serenity is one of the best action sci-fi flicks in recent memory. The list includes the ones you’d expect to be on there, such as E.T., The Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Future, etc., but there are some that clearly benefited from their recency, such as:
X-Men: The Last Stand – this was really not that good of a movie, and certainly not good enough to rank in the top 30
Deja Vu – a pretty good movie, but top 30 sci-fi films of all time? I don’t think so/
V for Vendetta – it’s set in the future, but I’d question how “sci-fi” this movie really is. Plus, it’s a bit overrated, and ranks above X-Men 2???
Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – seriously?
Transformers – awesome action movie, but it ranks #3 on the list ahead of The Matrix, Aliens and countless other classics. No way, Jose.
Iron Man – guess what was #1 on the list? Yes, this year’s comic book action movie. As good as it was, there is no way I would list it on the top 30 sci-fi movies of all time. What a way to damage the integrity of your list, Yahoo!
Again, in all fairness, two-thirds of their list probably deserve to be on there, but there are some notable films missing, such as:
2001: A Space Oddysey
A Clockwork Orange
Children of Men
Dark City
Independence Day (if you’re going the popular route)
Minority Report
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Unbreakable
Wall-E
Blade Runner
The Thing
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (how many remakes has this inspired?)
The Iron Giant
Planet of the Apes
Galaxy Quest
Total Recall
Mad Max
And the list goes on… This has inspired me to do my own list, which I will release sometime soon.
In the devastating hole left by the retreat of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Disney’s Boltand Summit’s Twilighthave moved into feast on the potential box office dollars left behind. The movies – both of which aim at younger audiences (Bolt at considerably younger) – had been staying clear of the coveted November 21 release date out of respect – or -fear of the sixth Harry Potter flick. With announcement that that highly anticipated film was being pushed back to summer 2009, the coveted date was scooped up by the two films, which now look to take advantage of Thanksgiving weekend to earn some extra dough.
This is a good opportunity for Twilight, which is based on an allegedly popular book series about a normal girl (the gorgeous Kristin Stewart) who likes to screw around with vampires. OK, to be fair, she’s monogamous and prefers to share her time with just one vampire (Robert Pattison, who actually lays claim to being the first profound death in the Harry Potter franchise), but you get the point. There’s certainly some buzz around the picture, but having known nothing about the story other than what Summit’s marketing reps tell me, I don’t really see the big deal.
Personally, I don’t think Twilight is going to be the massive picture that some expect it to be. It’s definitely going to get a boost from the Thanksgiving weekend, but is it going to be a valid replacement for Harry Potter? No. The “franchise” doesn’t have the same name recognition that made Harry Potter so successful, and while it looks decent, it doesn’t look that much different than a dozen other teeny bopper horror movies that have come before it. General audiences aren’t going to be that motivated to go see this one, except for a lack of other entertainment.
I just watched the new movie trailer for Body of Lies, the action-drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe (directed by Ridley Scott), and it’s a lot better than the original that I saw in theaters a month or two back. That first trailer implied that the movie could be good while trying its hardest to prove otherwise; this new one is much more focused and developed.
Body of Lies, about a spy in the Middle East (DiCaprio) who finds himself on the outside when his handler (Crowe) goes over the edge, looks to have plenty of action and, of course, terrific acting. Of course, following the flop that was The Kingdom, will this one earn some bucks?
It’s September, which means that the summer movie season is officially over and the crap of Hollywood can make it to the big screen. September is historically a bad month for movies, as kids return to school, vacations end and people scramble for the remnants of good weather. This is also the perfect time for studios to dump the waste onto audiences.
