We continue with our Valentine’s Day/President’s Day-inspired scenes of presidential amour with a scene from “The American President.”
Below, Michael Douglas as fictional prez Andrew Shepherd has considerably better luck than “Young Mr. Lincoln,” thanks to Annette Bening’s very much alive, feisty, and ultra-smart lobbyist, Sidney Ellen Wade. First, however, he must deliver his full share of Aaron Sorkin verbiage.
Since this is both Valentine’s Day and Presidents Day weekend, movie moments featuring American heads of state in love seem like the right theme.
Below, Henry Fonda as “Young Mr. Lincoln” enjoys a pre-presidential rendezvous with the tombstone of his departed sweetheart, Ann Rutledge. Lincoln may be in the running for our greatest president of all time, but definitely not for our happiest. Still, he’s smart enough to let his true love win the argument.
He’s been wrong very recently, but that’s what jolly Carl DiOrio confidently predicts over at The Hollywood Reporter. A fiscally very big weekend at the movies is expected overall because we have three new high profile, high-concept films debuting in over 3,000 theaters each according to Box Office Mojo. Moreover, it’s all happening over a President’s Day weekend which also includes Valentine’s Day on Sunday.
Everyone’s going to either try to get closer to their special someone, forget that they don’t have a special someone, or perhaps try to forget that they have to pretend like they’re want to get closer to that special someone when they really would rather be in a far away foreign land of fantasy. Movies aren’t a bad prescription in any of those cases.
Garry Marshall’s multi-stor, all-star rom-com, “Valentine’s Day,” is the worst reviewed of the three critically unloved films coming out this weekend, but since when does something like a seriously lacking 14% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes stop filmgoers bent on lightly sentimental entertainment? With Julia Roberts on board and Garry Marshall’s brand of uber-schmaltz on offer, a lot of mostly female folks will be interested and their partners better be alongside them. DiOrio is expecting as much as $45 million for Warner Brothers for this one. “Avatar” shchmavatar, I guess.
Director Chris Columbus is, if anything, even less of a critical darling than Garry Marshall. (He’s absolutely no darling of this critic, I can tell you that.) Still, the latest entry in the “Precious: Based on the Noel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” ungainly title sweepstakes is Columbus and Fox’s version of “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.” It may look like a teen-Harry Potter knock-off to the uninterested observer, but critics are being a bit less harsh on this entry, allowing it a mixed 48% “Fresh” rating, It’s worth noting that that the Greek mythological background might make things a bit easier for English teachers the world over. DiOrio is expecting something over $30 million. Sure, I guess.
Expected to come in at the #3 spot or thereabouts is the monstrous semi-remake of “The Wolfman,” with Benecio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins stepping in for Lon Chaney, Jr. and Claude Reins in a much bloodier and more elaborate period tale. Del Toro may be the best actor to play the part so far. Still, many critics, including our own Will Harris, are only about 31% impressed with either his acting this time around or the movie as a whole.
Kind words mostly seem to be mostly reserved for the striking atmospherics from director Joe Johnston’s effects team including make-up genius Rick Baker, which have been getting us fanboys so riled about this long-delayed production for low these many moons. Horror and monster lovers (in a platonic way, I mean) haven’t hard much to work with lately, so that sounds about right to me. I guess.
Circumstances have once again forced me to delay the already-delayed box office preview until sometime tonight (tomorrow morning for those of you in the east).
In the meantime, I just heard that the real-life Texas Democrat behind “Charlie Wilson’s War,” the entertaining film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Tom Hanks in the title role, has passed on.
The movie was fun, but if anyone out there is curious about how things were really done both in congress and the CIA during the seventies and eighties, the late George Crile’s nonfiction book, Charlie Wilson’s War, is a must. The film is only a reflection.
Time constraints are forcing a short post today — and are also dictating that my movie preview will be delayed to (relatively) early tomorrow. Nevertheless, I will point out that Mike Fleming of Deadline|Hollywood is really on fire today with several noteworthy items.
I however, only have time for one. It’s that the self-described Terminator fanboy has seen a treatment for some new Terminator scripts by screenwriter William Wisher, whose been involved in the franchise since it’s inception. Fleming is quite high on it. What’s interesting here is that it’s not a reboot but seems to continue the ongoing saga and even has roles for such original “Terminator” actors as Linda Hamilton and a certain annoying governor of a very large state where I live. (How Wisher plans to explain how a robot can look several decades older should be interesting to see.)
I’m pro-Terminator but not a huge fanboy for the franchise, myself. I liked the first two films quite a bit but never got around to seeing the last two. I also have limited patience with time travel stories that never seem completely logical to me. (I expected Eddie Furlong to disappear after the climax of “T-2.” Don’t ask me why now!) Still, you gotta admire the ambition, and I’d love to hear what any really big T-fans have to say about this.
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