Thursday, July 28, 2011

Brett Ratner's all-star caper Tower Heist gets a trailer.

This one has been on the radar for awhile purely due to the huge cast.  The big trump card is of course Eddie Murphy returning to slightly harder-edged comedy after 15 years of being a family-friendly entertainer.  The rest of the lineup (Ben Stiller, Alan Alda, Tea Leoni, Gabourey Sidibe, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Judd Hirsch, etc) makes this a must-see almost by default, while the fact that the first credited writer (out of eight) is Noah Baumbach gives hope regarding its quality (the other seven writers are a mixed bag).  I know this isn't a popular opinion, but I'm a big fan of Ratner's Red Dragon, primarily because he apparently was smart enough to stand back and let his equally terrific cast just do their thing (major caveat - Why was Scott Glenn not asked back to play Jack Crawford this time around?).  Hopefully the same 'go off and play, just come in before dark' mentality will apply here.  It is slightly odd that Eddie Murphy is arguably playing the same type of character he played in 48 Hrs and he doesn't look that much older than he did in 1982 (he turned 50 this past April).  Anyway, this one comes out November 4th from Universal so, as always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson
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2 comments:

  1. DavidatteberryJuly 29, 2011 at 8:18 AM

    From the Jack Crawford entry on wikipedia - "In the supplemental section on the special edition DVD of The Silence of the Lambs, Scott Glenn revealed that he was given audio tapes by John Douglas as a form of research for his character. The tapes were of several young women being tortured and raped in the back of a van by a pair of assailants. Upon questioning Douglas as to his motives for presenting these tapes, Douglas simply said to Glenn "Now you are part of my world." This experience preyed upon Glenn's mind all throughout filming, and he refused to return to the role in the subsequent sequel because he didn't want to place himself in such a mindset again. To this day, he says that the tapes still cause him anxiety and bad dreams."

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  2. Scott MendelsonJuly 29, 2011 at 8:24 AM

    I had completely forgotten about that. I actually own that Criterion DVD (still keep it in the new Fox Blu Ray case because of the exclusive materials). I actually bought it because of the John Douglas stuff, as I used to read his books back in high school. Thanks for the reminder.

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