Sam Mendes to direct Bond 23?

This is not new news, but my work schedule has been murder the last few days. Anyway, the rumblings seem to dictate that MGM is in negotiations with Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Away We Go, Revolutionary Road) to direct the would-be sequel to Quantum of Solace. On the surface, this would seem to be a dumb idea, as he seems to be the same type as Marc Forster, a respected actor's director with zero action experience. Since Quantum of Solace was victimized by mixed word of mouth due to its hyper-stylized action-editing and its overly hand-wringing politics, it would seem odd to basically dip into the same well twice.

Best shoot outs of the decade...

I'm not a fan of John Singleton's Four Brothers. I think it's a mean and ugly movie that lionizes vigilante murder, with four foster brothers committing wholesale slaughter to avenge their pacifistic foster-mother without seeing the irony of their actions. But the film does contain a second-act climax that is easily one of the two most impressive gun battle of the 2000s. It's wonderfully staged, hair-trigger intense, and frighteningly real, both in the outcome and the acting of the participants. Unlike most action movie gun fights, the heroes of Four Brothers are absolutely terrified the entire time because, like most of us, they've never been in a shoot-out before. Their expressions of panic, confusion, and white-hot fear escalate a top-notch action scene into a thoroughly compelling dramatic moment. Along with the blistering second-act climax of Shaft, I'd argue that no American filmmaker crafts street-level gun battles as well as Mr. Singleton.

Yes, Kyle in the comments section below was right. I completely forgot about the 2003 climax of Open Range. Kevin Costner's Open Range is arguably the best western of the last ten years. It also contains a fifteen-minute action climax that is truly one of the best western gun battles in cinema history. Long, sprawling, and expertly staged, this action scene also generates plenty of suspense due to the sheer amount of 'good guys' and innocent bystanders in peril at all times. We don't know if the movie is going to have a happy ending or a downer climax, so every moment is tense as our heros and their friends are in constant jeopardy. I still love the gunfight in Four Brothers (itself a remake of John Wayne's The Sons of Katie Elder), but I must concede that Open Range has a superior shoot-out. As for my neglecting to mention it, I can only blame amnesia.

Two others that deserve mention, if only because the decade was so lacking in epic shoot-outs (blame Columbine I suppose):

The International - The movie is a confusing muddle and this scene lacks any real emotional impact, but it's an impressive display of action editing in an otherwise low-key political thriller.

Way of the Gun - The actual gunplay isn't all that impressive by itself, but there are pathos galore at the end of this underrated crime drama. But more interesting is the opening action scene, which subverts action cliche by A) having the entire shoot-out take place offscreen with only the noises and screams being heard and B) having our antiheroes murder several innocent bystanders and allowing the camera to linger on their corpses and their grieving relatives for dramatic effect.

Scott Mendelson

Mark Pellington helming The Orphanage remake.

I'm not entirely sure that The Orphanage needs an English-language remake. It's a moody tone poem, not terribly visceral and (with one early exception) relatively subtle in its scares. But no matter, hopefully the hub-bub over Mark Pellington's hiring will bring new viewers to his previous work. While his theatrical filmography as a director is relatively light, there are two under-seen gems that absolutely deserve to be rediscovered.

Avatar crashes, burns in third weekend, finishing 19th day with meager $352 million in US, $1 billion globally. Weekend box office review (01/03/10)

Avatar grossed $68.4 million in its third weekend, dropping a whopping 9% from its previous weekend. It's the biggest third-weekend of all time, clobbering Spider-Man's $45 million third-weekend gross. If this were Avatar's second weekend, it would be the fifth-biggest second weekend of all time. If this were Avatar's opening weekend, it would be the forty-third biggest opening weekend of all time (and it would likely remain 2010's top opening until May). On its own, it's the biggest weekend in January history, clobbering the $40 million Fri-Sun take of Cloverfield. In just 17 days, the James Cameron sci-fi epic has amassed $352 million in the US alone. Only The Dark Knight crossed that mark faster, in just fourteen days. Global numbers, well that's another story. There are now five movies that have amassed over $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. The previous speed record-holder, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, did it in about two months. The Dark Knight took several months and a re-release timed to coincide with Oscar nominations that never happened. Avatar just crossed that threshold in nineteen days. In just two-and-a-half weeks, Avatar is the fourth-highest grossing film of all time worldwide. Pathetic.

Best (and most fraudulent) trailer of the decade...

Rememeber our first glimpse of Christopher Nolan's follow-up to Batman Begins? With little fanfare, Disney had dropped this fascinating trailer into our laps, promising a duel between two 19th century magicians. One, Hugh Jackman, was a virtuous illusionist. The other, Christian Bale, seemed to enjoy playing with darker magic. Was he an evil magician? What was his astounding lightning-filled trick that Jackman proclaimed was 'the greatest magic trick I've ever seen'? Was Bale a genuine dark wizard, fooling the audience into thinking that it was all an illusion while possessing real magic? The stage was set for a battle royale between good magic and evil magic. No so much...

Of course, if you've seen the film, you know that the trailer to The Prestige is in itself an illusion. It sells a pat good vs. evil story using editing that is so clever it may qualify as magic. Nearly every scene is in the film and every piece of onscreen text is accurate. But the narrative that the 155-second preview spins is a blatant falsehood . It is also the most exciting trailer I saw all decade, the rare preview that presented a movie that I knew nothing about and instantly made it tops on my must-see list. The film itself is a much murkier and far more complicated puzzle that is a wholly original kind of masterpiece. The Prestige is one of my favorite films of the last ten years, and the initial trailer, while itself a slight of hand, is my pick for the best trailer of the decade.

Scott Mendelson

If Crash really is the worst film you saw in the last 10 years, then I envy you.

I'm not the first person to notice this, but there seems to be a chorus brewing calling Paul Haggis's Crash the 'worst film of the decade'. Really? Worst film in all of the 2000s? Worse than Catwoman or One Missed Call? It seems like this is a case of several film bloggers saying 'look at me... I picked an Oscar-winning movie as the worst picture of the decade!' But let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's an honest choice on their part. Heck, my pick for the worst movie of the decade (Enchanted) is one that is generally popular but whose philosophies I find abhorrent. The articles linked to basically condemn the movie because it's not an accurate reflection of all race relations in all of Los Angeles. But that's not necessarily a fair comparison to make.

2009 in review - Best trailer of the year: the preview that ruined the movie (and not in the usual way).

I've seen Star Trek twice now. I will concede that the film was far more entertaining the second time around, and that I missed certain nuances of Kirk's arc (like the idea that Kirk acts with logic while Spock acts with emotion for much of the second half of the film). Frankly, I was so put off by the obnoxious kobayashi maru sequence that it colored my perception of him for the rest of the picture. I still find Eric Bana's Nero to be lacking in anything resembling gravitas. I still hate that the film basically ends with a shootout and a chase scene. I still contend that the third act is a mess, with future Spock basically dictating how the rest of the story should unfold and how to achieve it. And the idea that the crew of the Starship Enterprise should still take shape like we remember it, even in this alternate timeline, reeks of manifest destiny (why must James T. Kirk end up captain in this continuity?). Ironically, that last issue was actually dealt with in the best Star Trek movie of all, Galaxy Quest.

Still, I concede that part of my initial disappointment with Star Trek came from breaking my own cardinal rule - being displeased that the movie wasn't the film I wanted it to be, rather than critiquing the film that played out in front of me. I wanted THE Star Trek film, but I got merely a Star Trek film. I wanted something that was every bit as epic, mythic, Campellian, and breathtakingly powerful as the second trailer. What I got was merely an entertaining introductory space adventure, a B-movie with amusing characters, occasionally clever dialogue, and A-level production values. But if I admit that my expectations were colored by the film's marketing campaign, I must also admit that the second trailer (released in early March of 2009) was a wonderful piece of filmmaking, a soaring, emotionally-charged epic in 135 seconds. Star Trek may not have been the best film of the year, but its trailer easily stands as 2009's best coming attraction. As for the producers of the film itself, they've reignited a 45-year old franchise, reaped record grosses, and won over new fans in the geek and non-geek community alike. For the sequel, I still dare them to do better.

Scott Mendelson

Until time allows my crack at all of that 'best of decade' stuff...

Alas, brutal work schedules and (very minor but time-consuming) family illnesses have kept me from doing the whole 'best this and that of the decade'. At this rate, I'll be lucky to shoot off a best-of-2009 essay before 2011. While I'm intending to at least toss a few essays out there as the new decade begins, I thought I'd share the comprehensive decade-in review pieces that Kyle Leaman wrote in the twelve days leading up to Christmas. Each day, he tackled the 2000s in one category or another, ending up with a pretty thorough list that's worth a gander. Kyle runs a site called 'The Part-Time Critic', and he was pretty much the first honest-to-goodness fan of Mendelson's Memos during my first summer of full-fledged publication. In the end, it's just one man's opinion and I disagree with his choices (he shamefully omits Meet the Robinsons in the animated category) as often as I agree with them (he likes Akeelah and the Bee as much as I), but he did the hard work that I didn't, so I thought I'd share his insights.

The most overrated films of 2000s.
The most underrated films of 2000s.
The best action sequences of 2000s.
The best dramatic sequences of 2000s.
The best guilty pleasures of 2000s.
The best foreign films and documentaries of 2000s.
The best animated/family films of 2000s.
The best action films of 2000s.
The best dramas of 2000s.
The best horror films of 2000s.
The best performances of 2000s.
The best films of the 2000s.

I'll do my best to toss out my thoughts on the decade after it's over and a certain someone is back in preschool during the workday.

Scott Mendelson

2009 in review - The Runner-Ups

Before I get to my obligatory 'best films of the year' list, I'd like to take a moment to run down a list of films that are worthy of mention outside of the very best of the year. Some of these films are great pictures that missed the top-ten. Some are surprisingly good pictures that would otherwise have no business on a 'best of' list. Some are simply movies that I felt like pointing out for one reason or another. Enjoy...

The review of Nine that I would have written had time allowed...

I make a point not to pick on the attractiveness of actors or actresses, but otherwise this Nine review by N.P. Thompson at "The House Next Door" is 100% in sync with my own thoughts. An opening excerpt:

"What makes Rob Marshall’s Nine so peculiarly bad is its sheer self-congratulation. We’re incessantly told how important, how fascinating the director Guido Contini must be, and we as viewers are expected to take this on faith, but never once does Guido (Daniel Day-Lewis) do or say anything even remotely intriguing. The movie has no real subject; it’s proudly about nothing. Not the arid nothingness of a Van Sant movie, but a boring sort of Condé Nast nothingness."

Yeah, what he said. Sometimes a fellow critic expresses your own feelings so perfectly, the only thing to do is link and credit accordingly. The only thing I would add is that the razzle-dazzle sexiness feels so forced and artificial that all of the actors involved actually exhibited more sex appeal during the rehearsal montage that played over the closing credits. For the record, I have not seen Broken Embraces (the other film he reviews), so I did not read that particular critique.

Scott Mendelson