Rob Bricken wasn’t sure why the trailer for “The Expendables” excited him more than this new trailer for the A-Team movie. I’ve got two words for him: obvious, unlovely CGI. Also, the jokes aren’t funny.
Still, even though I never watched the original series, this still has my moderate interest. Maybe.
We live in a climate where even a fairly action-packed stoner black comedy featuring an apparent comedic powerhouse performance by an A-lister can still be released almost as if it were a 4-hour meditation on the futility of existence from the Ukraine. Fortunately for said A-lister, Edward Norton, and actor-writer-director Tim Blake Nelson, “Leaves of Grass” — which has not much to do with Walt Whitman but utterly wowed Roger Ebert — apparently made audiences squeal with delight at SXSW, reportedly setting up a chain of events which saved that film from what Anne Thompson reported on Thursday would have been a mere $250,000 ad budget.
The movie, which really seems to have dramatically divided critics so far (occasionally a sign of a truly interesting film), continues a venerable tradition of great actors interacting with themselves as identical twins and more fanciful doppelgangers. Below, Norton swims quite nicely in the same waters that worked so well for Jeremy Irons (“Dead Ringers”), Nicolas Cage (“Adaptation”), and, more recently, Sam Rockwell (“Moon“). All I can say is that with a supporting cast that features a menorah-wielding Richard Dreyfuss, Keri Russell, Susan Sarandon, and filmmaker Nelson, a strong comic actor whose previous indie films have all been on deadly serious topics, this one may not turn out to be the masterpiece Ebert finds it to be, but it sure looks to me like way too much fun to be left just to us art-house denizens.
A few remaining items worth mentioning this late evening/early morn…
* RIP John Forsythe. The watchably stolid actor with a nice touch at both melodrama and low-key comedy and a memorable voice passed away at 92 late Thursday. He worked a great deal on stage and in kept his hand in at the movies, but he’s did most of his work in multiple television series and, ironically, is probably best known today as the disembodied voice of Charlie from “Charlie’s Angels.” Still, he was a strong presence in a number of notable movies, including playing opposite a very young and very adorable Shirley Maclaine in Alfred Hitchcock‘s black comedy, “The Trouble with Harry” and as a vicious judge taunting a youngish but far less adorable Al Pacino in Norman Jewison’s “And Justice for All…” He also dealt with a murderous Robert Blake in “In Cold Blood” and fended off a nasty, nasty Ann Margaret in, yes, “Kitten with a Whip.”
* Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg — the Jewish-American twosome who struck a blow for the depiction of Asian-Americans as actual human beings, albeit hilariously stoned ones, by creating “Harold and Kumar” — are set to reboot the “American Pie” franchise with a film that is also a sequel. Also, the third go-round with ‘Roldy and Kumar is in motion, even if Kal Penn is currently employed outside of Hollywood. I mean, good roles for Asian American males should not so rare that they are all forced to go to work at the White House.
* The lovely and talented Emily Blunt will not be romancing “Captain America,” according to the Playlist’s Edward Davis. I’m not sure why he’s so convinced it won’t be a very good movie except for the fact that, of course, most movies aren’t very good and the bigger the budget, the more often that turns out to be true. But even so, I don’t quite get it.
On the other hand, I completely agree with the premise of another post by Davis: Yes, the thought of Tom Cruise uglying himself up in a major way to play Phil Spector really does have some demented genius to it. I’m not Cruise’s biggest fan but, well cast, he can be brilliant and playing lunatics seems to work for him. I have no idea why that might be the case.
And, yes, I like a third Davis post about a long-delayed movie being labored over by Cameron Crowe about the equally great and equally demented Marvin Gaye. Re: casting, I’m rooting for Jesse L. Martin of “Law & Order” — a terrific actor and the physical resemblance is pretty eerie.
* Another comic book adaptation for Ryan Reynolds.
* Don’cha just hate it when a star and director team up, get plenty of compliments, and then just repeat themselves? Well, fresh off their mostly good reviews and general decent business on “Greenberg,” about the personal travails of a bitter forty-something musician-cum-carpenter, the two are simply rehashing the same basic premise with “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.” Oh, wait…
* From a couple of days back, Anne Thompson nicely summarizes the spreading conventional movie-geek wisdom on the making and consumption of 3-D films. Shorter version: really, not every movie should be in it, it’s worth a little extra to see movies actually shot in 3-D in 3-D, but the conversions from 2-D to 3-D are pretty much best ignored and may even end up ruining the fun.
* Sharon Waxman writes that a mystery bidder has entered the fray to purchase the studio original named for the Weinsteins’s parents, Mira and Max. Could it be Harvey and Bob W.’s long lost older brother, Mogul X, who fled in shame after his first producing effort sold exactly three tickets at Sundance, and vowed only to return only after he had become the world’s greatest movie executive? It’s a thought.
As Easter weekend continues, I’ll be catching up on few odd trailers and videos I haven’t had a chance to include up to now. We’re starting with what’s looking like a moderately intriguing action/spy thriller starring Angelina Jolie allowing her to bother and bewilder, and possibly even bewitch, two of the best actors and highly competent action performers in the biz, Liev Schreiber and Chiwitel Ejiofor.
I’m not sure about the mix of what looks like a rather serious tone with unexplained near superhuman antics, but then again maybe versatile veteran director Phillip Noyce (“Rabbit Proof Fence,” “A Clear and Present Danger”) and almost-as-veteran screenwriters Kurt Wimmer and Brian Helgeland will finally be giving us that female James Bond/Jason Bourne we’ve been waiting for.
h/t Screenrant
Behind every great actor is a great director. Leonardo DiCaprio has Martin Scorsese, Johnny Depp has Tim Burton, and Penélope Cruz has Pedro Almodóvar. Cruz, in particular, is a completely different actress when working with the Spanish director. Whether it’s the material he writes for her or the fact that she’s acting in her native language, every time they get together, something magical happens. Their latest collaboration, “Broken Embraces,” isn’t their strongest project to date, but it’s much better as result of Cruz’s involvement. A time-spanning love story filled with passion and revenge, the film stars Lluis Homar as Harry Caine, a blind screenwriter who recalls the story of falling in love with an aspiring actress (Cruz) while on the set of his latest movie, even though she was the mistress of his jealous financier (José Luis Gómez). The principal cast all turn in solid performances – Cruz channels an Audrey Hepburn-like innocence as the object of both men’s affection, Homar brings grace to an otherwise unlikeable character, and Gómez is a real villain’s villain – but the story just isn’t that compelling. Though Almodóvar infuses his film with bright colors and some hypnotically beautiful shots of his leading lady, the story dangerously borders on becoming a cheesy telenovella. It never quite reaches that point, but it’s enough to suggest you won’t love “Broken Embraces” nearly as much as fans of the director were expecting.
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