Batman spells out the obvious...

2010 Summer Movie Review part III: A word about Independent Cinema and 3D.

These two paragraphs originally ended the Summer Movie Preview: Box Office Review article, but after some prodding, I've decided to highlight them in their own post, as they deal with two specific issues worthy of note.

2010 Summer Movie Review part II: The Box Office Review.

The biggest surprise of summer 2010 is how few surprises there really were. Most of the expected smash hits were smash hits, the expected under-performers underperformed, and the bigger films without studio support tanked. The more mainstream art-house cinema made money, while more challenging studio fare struggled. It surely wasn't the best summer in recent years (that would probably be 2002 or 2008), but it wasn't the worst either (2001 gets my vote). It was a summer just like any other summer, so let's dive right in. You might want to take a bathroom break first...

Jan De Bont returns, will direct live-action Mulan with Zhang Ziyi.

Good news for those nostalgic for 1990s action. After a seven year absence, action icon Jan De Bont is returning to the director's chair. He has signed to helm an English-language, live-action version of the Chinese myth Mulan. Independently financed, the alleged $100 million-budgeted project will star Zhang Ziyi as the icon made popular to US audiences by the 1998 Disney animated musical. It's a pleasant return of someone who really had it all for a few years.

American, Machete, Going the Distance square off over Labor Day Weekend. Weekend Box Office (09/04/010).

Despite stupidly opening on a Wednesday (and siphoning off $3 million before the traditional opening weekend), The American grossed a completely predictable $13.1 million over three days and $16.6 million over the four-day holiday. This is no less than the ninth George Clooney vehicle to open to around $11-13 million since The Peacemaker in 1997. And, as I've written before, every time this happens, the pundits jump up and down about how Clooney may not be a real movie star. As I've also said before, true stardom is when it's just your face on the poster, especially when you're selling a somewhat uncommercial bit of cinema. That was certainly the case with The American, which is a slow and ponderous European-style thriller, with only just enough action to fill up the third act of a trailer (film-goers felt duped, as the film received a D- from Cinemascore). The fact that it will end up with $19.6 million between Wednesday and Monday is a testament to Clooney's sheer constancy as an opener for relatively cheap (the film cost Focus Features just $20 million) and arty projects. For what it's worth, if you know what you're getting into, the film is a relatively satisfying character-driven tone poem. It's a B-movie classed up and pruned down to resemble an art film.

At long last. The Lethal Weapon series gets special-edition Blu Rays.

This is the kind of thing I would have snapped up in a heartbeat just a couple years ago. Of course, part of being a father to an insanely energetic toddler is that you no longer have the time to watch your favorite movies multiple times, so I have found myself buying fewer and fewer DVDs and Blu Rays in the last couple years, especially of stuff that I already own on DVD. The Lethal Weapon films have never gotten real special editions, although the first three films are available in slightly-longer director's cuts and Lethal Weapon 4 got a special edition DVD that came with pretty much every DVD player sold in the first few years of the format. There is no price or release date yet, but it will contain commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a fifth bonus disc with two hours of documentary material (Psycho Pension: The Genesis of Lethal Weapon Lethal Weapon and the Hollywood Monster It Created, A Family Affair: Bringing Lethal Weapon to Life, Pulling the Trigger: Expanding the World of Lethal Weapon, and Maximum Impact: The Legacy of Lethal Weapon). If you're still a fan of the series (the first two are pretty much action masterpieces), and you can still divorce Mel Gibson the actor from Mel Gibson the human being (just think of it as supporting Danny Glover, Rene Russo, Joe Pesci, and director Richard Donner), this set will likely be a welcome part of your holiday gift list.

Scott Mendelson

Tyler Perry Oscar Bait? For Colored Girls moved to November 5th.

As David Poland correctly predicted just a week ago, Lionsgate has moved the newest Tyler Perry film, For Colored Girls, from its original January 14th, 2011 slot into the heart of the awards season. It will now open wide on November 5th, which is incidentally the same weekend that Precious (which Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey put their names on after the fact to insure a Lionsgate distribution) debuted in limited release, wracking up a record $108,000 per each of its eighteen screens. The film is a change of pace for Perry, as it is the first time that he is directing a film based on a prior source, the 1975 Ntozake Shange play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The play itself is a collection of twenty poems dealing with various social issues (rape, abortion, etc) that are performed by seven women known only by a color ('Lady in Blue', etc). The cast is pretty huge, and includes a handful of Perry veterans (Kimberly Elise, Janet Jackson, etc), along with Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington, Loretta Devine, Phylicia Rashad, and Thandie Newton making their debut in the Tyler Perry sandbox. To be blunt, nothing would make me happier than seeing a Perry film as a possible Oscar contender.

Review: Machete (2010)

Machete
2010
105 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

It is easy to dismiss the angry political threads running through Robert Rodriguez's Machete. While it's easy to simply say that 'it's just a comedic throwback to the exploitation films of the 1970s', one must remember that those films did indeed tackle the political and social issues of the day. Whether by coincidence or design, the film ends up being an uncommonly timely glance at one of the major political hot-button topics of the day. Because it is a violent action picture, it resolves its specific issues with confrontation and carnage, and it eventually becomes a form of wish-fulfillment fantasy. But in an age where we constantly complain of empty-headed mainstream entertainment, it is a disservice to both the film and to our own desire for relevant mainstream film-making to ignore the fiery conscience at the heart of this over-the-top piece of Mexican myth-making.

Jonathan Liebesman to direct Clash of the Titans 2. Why that's good news...

Normally I couldn't care less about a sequel to this year's Clash of the Titans remake. The film wasn't very good, and it was most notable for a stunningly awful 3D conversion. I was lucky/smart enough to see the film in 2D (I later sampled the 3D so I could confirm its inadequacy), but the film is still a botched bore, although this seems to be yet another case where poor Louis Leterrier had his movie radically altered in the editing room. But if there must be a sequel, at least Jonathan Liebseman will be directing it. Why is that good news? Well, because first of all, Liebseman has some history with studio interference, as his debut feature, Darkness Falls, underwent massive studio tinkering, so hopefully he can stand up to the newly hands-on Warner execs (the formally hands-off studio apparently tinkered with Clash of the Titans, Terminator: Salvation, and Edge of Darkness). Second of all, his short film Rings, which was shot to coincide with The Ring Two in 2005, is the best American variation on the Ring mythology yet made, better than the rock-solid American remake of The Ring and quite a bit better than the terrible Ring Two. Third of all, this means that his upcoming alien invasion picture, Battle: Los Angeles, is obviously making some studio execs very happy, implying that it may live up to its clever teaser.

James Cameron (Avatar) Vs. Mark Canton (Piranha). That's an easy one...

I could complain that James Cameron is criticizing a movie that he apparently did not see. But I have seen both films being discussed. Piranha was a terrible, an unforgivably hypocritical and misogynistic piece of boring garbage that was made that much worse by the mediocre 3D conversion that turned this trashy matinee picture into a $15-a-ticket eyesore. Avatar was one of the best films of last year and is by-far the highest-grossing film of all time at least partially due to its pure storytelling quality. I don't agree with James Cameron in principal that only certain-level films should be in 3D, but I'll give the win to the man who knows how to actually make 3D work in live-action. Until someone, anyone, can make a live-action picture that looks as good in 3D as Avatar did, Cameron gets to whine all he wants about others cheapening 3D technology.

Scott Mendelson