You can’t say I’m not evenhanded when it comes to stealing interesting animated trailers and what not.
Right now, I’m borrowing La Finke’s “Hot Trailer” of Dreamworks’ “How to Train Your Dragon.” I honestly can’t tell from this or the earlier trailers how good the film will be, but I suspect the kids will eat it up as it looks to have the right combination of cool and cuteness to get a pretty good cross section of ages and genders. Dog movies — and this is a movie about a giant, flying, fire-breathing dog — will always work. The flying scenes should also be a hoot in 3-D. Still, I’d like to have seen them try this one in traditional animation, though it doesn’t look half bad.
And via Ms. Finke’s classy rival, Anne Thompson, below is a mash-up of “Avatar” and “Pocahontas.” As Ms. Thompson says, it’s not like the similarities haven’t been noticed before. Still, it’s interesting to see them in one place.
Sadly overlooked at the box office, Chris Rock’s documentary on black hair – and the billion-dollar industry built around it – is a fascinating, if tragic, look at what black women will do in order to “fix” their naturally curly hair. Rock examines the products that “relax” hair (which will eat an aluminum can in four hours), and the weaves that they buy as a means of getting around using the relaxer. (Raven-Symone actually pulls her weave out of place on camera.) Rock even travels to India to meet the people who collect the hair that’s used in weaves. There is a sub-story involving four stylists competing for a $20,000 prize at the semi-annual Bronner Bros. hair convention in Atlanta – one of whom, surprisingly, is a white boy – but it doesn’t quite gel with the rest of the movie. The meat of “Good Hair” comes from women discussing the hair tragedies they’ve suffered at the hands of relaxer (that asymmetrical haircut in Salt & Pepa’s video for “Push It”? Yep, the result of her hair falling out) and how they handle having sex while wearing a weave (“Stay on top”). And Rock, being an ace comedian, knows a good last line when he hears one, so he wisely lets noted philosopher Ice-T close the show: “I just think that women shouldn’t be pointing their fingers at other women for what they doin’ to help each others’ bodies. Other than that, do whatever makes you feel good, because trust me, if a woman ain’t happy with herself, she gonna bring nothin’ but pain to every-fucking-body around her.”
Yesterday, Mike Fleming reported that Nick Cassavettes was in talks to direct the fourth, or possibly fifth — depending on how you reckon it — version of “A Star is Born,” a perpetually successful property that dates back to the 1930s.
You can complain about remakes all you want, but this is one story that really begs to be remade with every generation, as it’s always pretty much always relevant and only more topical with each new decade. In case you’ve never seen any version, it’s the story of a young actress and/or singer on the way up who becomes involved with a star very much on the way down, mostly because of substance abuse. Apparently the thinking is to once again make the on-the-go female a singer, as in the now iconic 1954 version starring Judy Garland and James Mason directed by George Cukor, and the commercially huge but critically dissed 1976 Barbara Streisand/Kris Kritofferson version directed by Frank Perry and, perhaps, an uncredited Streisand. Names like Beyoncé and Alicia Keys are being mentioned for the female lead.
The two male stars Fleming mentions are interesting. I don’t need to say why Robert Downey, Jr. is either too on the nose or absolutely and utterly perfect for the role. Real-life parallels and method acting possibilities aside, he’s a intriguing choice also because of his own forays into singing. Could make for a dramatic duet or two.
The other name being floated according to Fleming is Jon Hamm of “Mad Men.” This would presumably take the film more in the direction of the 1954 version, which featured James Mason as the alcoholic movie star in love with Judy Garland’s singer. Hamm’s a terrific and versatile actor and I’m sure he’d be very good. I just hope, however, they’re not just mentioning his name because just he does a great impression of Mason.
This Mason, by the way, is mainly inspired by his “A Star is Born” character. In real life, it was Judy Garland who had the drinking and drug issues. As for Hamm, let’s hope we see his impressionistic skills again — and the writers can again figure out something funny for him to do with them — when he returns to SNL later this month.
