Wishing you the best as we prepare for the coming new year.
Happy holidays, everybody! We hope the coming year brings you all the wealth and happiness you want. 2009 was a rough year in a lot of ways, so here’s hoping better times are just around the corner.
SBR is taking next week off, but we’ll return January 4 with our featured profile of – what else – 2010, the sequel to one of the most admired science fictions of all time and an underrated work in its right. Looking back at it now seems appropriate, we think.
Before we shove off, in keeping with your year-old tradition, here are our holiday-themed rants. They’re just our opinions, but we mean them.
1. There’s something to please everybody at the theatre right now, even if some of the stuff available seems like it’s been done a thousand times before – we’re looking at you, It’s Complicated. There’s nothing wrong with giving people a little holiday fluff with which to spend Christmas night, but it wouldn’t kill the industry to shake things up a bit, either. A naked Alec Baldwin doesn’t qualify as “fresh.”
That must be Italian?
2. Last Christmas we wished for better movies in 2009. We also wished for world peace, and we didn’t get that either. Still, there was reason to celebrate thanks to Up In The Air, Moon, and a few others. Mostly, though, we think the year was by and large fallow for filmgoers, with too much formulaic and disingenuous junk like Year One and Couples Retreat clogging multiplexes while glitzy, faux-highbrow offerings like Nine seemed particularly transparent in their complacent excess.
3. We said this last year, and we meant it. We mean it this year, too: behave yourself when you go to the movie theatre. Leave the cell phone in the car, don’t talk after the trailers, and show the theatre staff some courtesy. The holidays are a time you spend with family, but don’t act like you’re at home when you’re in the theatre. It’s rude, and it’s stupid, and it’s particularly crass at Christmastime.
As good a place to start as any
4. Finally, we want to close out the year encouraging everybody to make movies better. Here’s our suggestion: rent and Netflix more classic movies. You know what we mean by classic: these are maybe the ones you’ve heard about your whole life but haven’t ever seen. Or they’re films you think you should watch but haven’t. As a new year’s resolution, commit yourself to seeing one classic film a month. Turner Classic Movies has one on almost all the time, and plenty of other movie channels – Flix, Fox Movie Classics, et cetera – regularly show films that are due and overdue for rediscovery. If you’re not sure where to start, The American Film Institute’s Top 100 films makes a great checklist.
If enough people start watching films worth their time, if we all get smarter about cinema’s history, eventually the movie industry will have to make better films to keep up with us. Film as a whole can be so much better than it is right now, but only if we insist upon it. Thanks and again our best wishes in the new year.
Brittany Murphy, the versatile actress with the girl-next-door good looks and effervescent screen persona, died Sunday of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles. She was 32 years old.
A supporting and leading actress for most of her life, Murphy’s first appearances included guest roles on Murphy Brown and Kids Incorporated before landing regular work playing Dabney Coleman’s daughter on the short-lived 1991 Fox sitcom Drexell’s Class. More television guest spots followed, until in 1995 she gained widespread big screen notoriety by co-starring in the hit comedy Clueless. She continued working in supporting roles, including memorable performances in the 1999 black comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous and the 2000 drama Girl, Interrupted.
A prolific screen presence for much of the decade, Murphy’s other film credits include 2002′s 8 Mile, playing opposite rapper Eminem, and the 2003 comedy Just Married, in which she starred opposite then-boyfriend Ashton Kutcher. Following that film’s success she starred in a string of light comedies including Uptown Girls (2003) and Little Black Book (2004).
Murphy in Clueless, 1995
Her dramatic appearances included noteworthy turns in the 2001 suspense film Don’t Say A Word and the 2005 crime drama Sin City. In 2006 she co-starred in the mystery The Dead Girl, which won several Independent Spirit Awards including Best Feature and Best Director. In recent years she appeared mostly in independent and lower-budget productions, but recently finished work on a featured part in Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming The Expendables.
A busy voice actor and singer, in 1997 Murphy joined the cast of the Fox animated sitcom King of the Hill, voicing the Hill family’s live-in niece Louanne Platter. She voiced the character on and off for twelve years, throughout the show’s run. Her other voice credits include the 2006 animated feature film Happy Feet and the 2008 Futurama movie The Beast With A Billion Backs. She contributed vocals on two of Happy Feet‘s musical numbers, and that same year a collaboration with Paul Oakenfeld, the single “Faster Kill Pussycat,” topped the Billboard dance charts.
Details surrounding her death are still forthcoming. Paramedics responded to a call at her Los Angeles home Sunday morning, after a report that Murphy had collapsed in her bathroom. Attempts to revive her on scene were unsuccessful, and she was later pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. An autopsy is planned for later this week, with an official LAPD investigation also underway.
Murphy is survived by her husband, Simon Monjack. She had no children.
Raunchy, overlooked used car comedy arrives on DVD tomorrow.
Dumped into theatres late last summer and doomed to a quick box office death, The Goods: Live hard, Sell Hard deserves a better fate on home video. Though calling it a classic or even expert filmmaking would overstate the case a bit, first-time director Neal Brennan and a huge, overqualified cast manage build a loose, rambling movie that expects nothing of you but your own low expectations. Because of that, and sometimes despite it, the film is often riotously funny.
Like Talladega Nights and seemingly dozens of other Will Ferrell movies (Ferrell and frequent collaborator Adam McKay co-produced), The Goods puts an alpha dog personality in a working-class situation for trashy comic effect, relying on a barrage of potty language, sexual innuendo and slapstick violence to crowd-surf the audience from one gag to the next. Thrown in for good measure: weird, sometimes lovable supporting characters; an improbably warm-hearted romantic interest; and a shaggy plot hinging on personal honor. In fact, the film doggedly follows that blueprint, moving its characters from one gag or situation to the next while barely slowing down to establish context or meaning to the jokes. You laugh a lot while it’s happening, even as you’re aware everyone could manage to do better.
The saving grace is that most of the jokes are funny – sometimes very funny, with at least three extended gags that detonate with explosive comic payoff. “Used car mercenary” Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) and his team of high-pressure sales experts are hired by failing Temecula, California car patriarch Ben Selleck (James Brolin) to get rid of 200 cars over the Fourth of July weekend. Because the process of inventory liquidation only has so much comic potential, the script comes fully loaded with character baggage: Ready is haunted by a previous failure that ended in the death of his best friend. His teammates are bizarrely distracted by various sex-charged problems: oversexed Babs (Kathryn Hahn) lusts after Selleck’s man-child son (Rob Riggle); sensitive Jibby (Ving Rhames) longs to “make love” to a woman (as opposed to just having sex); financial wizard Brent (David Koechner) finds himself the reluctant object of Selleck’s homosexual advances.
Ready woos Selleck’s daughter Ivy (Jordana Spiro), despite her engagement to weaselly import car salesman/boy-band vocalist Paxton (Ed Helms). The film knows – and we know it knows – that the two are going to end up together, and their courtship has a going-through-the-motions quality despite Spiro’s luminous charm. Ready also finds a possible long-lost son in Selleck’s youngest employee Blake (Jonathan Sadowski), a junior salesman with all of his signature moves. While the potential in that setup teems with character and gag possibilities, the film never really gets the story thread moving. As with the other plotlines, it’s one more thing in the circus of the film’s action.
But despite all the characters and the bevy of jokes the film still sometimes manages to lose its momentum, especially during a plot twist late in the second act that feels forced to the point of snapping. Amplifying this problem is another issue, one of comic pitch: rather than lose additional time by going for depth, Brennan chooses instead to make the movie louder, ever louder. When Ready has his most sincere moment, it’s at the top of his lungs; characters incessantly shout at one another. Such zeal works in skit comedy, but repetitive scenes in a 90 minute film drag on the audience’s patience, raising the bar for the next gag to regain the comic momentum.
Piven charges Ready’s character with sleazy confidence, probably the only way to play such a outsized-by-design personality. Yet he sometimes stumbles giving Ready vulnerability or warmth. Hahn, Rhames and Koechner all make the most of their parts, each of which only comes down to a single character point anyway: the horny one, the sweet one, the smart one. Charles Napier, Tony Hale, and Ken Jeong (Community) are all endearing as Selleck’s beleaguered employees, while Craig T. Robinson makes a perfect ringer playing a defiant disc jockey in charge of music for the three-day sellathon. By contrast, Helms plays the smug Paxton as a variation of Andy Bernard, his character on The Office, while Riggle xeroxes Steve Carrell’s turn in Anchorman to play the childish Steve Selleck. Those Daily Show alumni do know how to play it safe.
Which is not to say this film called for anything too inventive, anyway. Its low ambitions are served well enough, and it’s entertaining while you watch it, containing at least a half-dozen quotes you’ll want to share with friends. In our review of the thearical release we had predicted an unrated-version coming to home video quickly. That’s not the case, though why the studio chose not to exploit Helms’ success with The Hangover in promoting this release is anyone’s guess. The Goods deserves better, if not much, than the reception it got from the public. Next stop for, we fear: endless, bowdlerized reruns on Comedy Central, basic cable’s version of a used car lot.
Always a sturdy sub-genre of science fiction, apocalyptic and postapocalyptic cinema is on the rise again, with a new cycle of films about the end of the world spread out over the holiday season and January. That’s no surprise, considering the mood of exhaustion the country feels, and the frustration. No less than Time magazine has even recognized the last ten years as “The Decade from Hell.” Movies have always followed trends, and when it feels like everything’s ruined, you can bet there’ll be a movie about life after everything’s fallen apart.
Past the “disaster porn” of 2012 and the artier, comparatively restrained melancholy of The Road, three new postapocalyptic thrillers debut just after the new year. All three have intriguing concepts, and all three boast an impressive array of talent on both sides of their cameras. They’re listed below, with trailers, in the order of their premiere.
Daybreakers (January 8): After a mysterious plague transforms the world’s population into vampires, the few remaining humans are carefully contained and drained of their blood. While separate bands of vampires and free humans seek to restore the world to its previous order, a scientist (Ethan Hawke) devises the plague’s cure. Willem DaFoe and Sam Neill co-star as vampires who like things the way they are. The film is written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, the team behind 2003′s zombie comedy Undead. Random thoughts: Has DaFoe really not played a vampire until now? The vampire world previewed in the trailer looks intriguing, complete as it is with blood-serving fast food restaurants and anti-human propaganda; Hawke standing in a lab will always make us think of Gattaca.
The Book of Eli (January 15): In 2043, a man travels across the ruins of civilization carrying a book that holds the keys to rebuilding society. Passing through a village of survivors, he runs afoul of the local warlord (Gary Oldman) that dominates its population. Denzel Washington stars, along with Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Malcolm McDowell, Ray Stevenson and Michael Gambon. Directed by the Hughes Brothers, their first screen offering since 2001′s muddled From Hell. Random thoughts: It’s unfair to hold the film responsible, but holy Christ the first third of the official trailer (below) looks an awful lot like the trailer for The Road. We love Oldman, but projects in which he plays the heavy rarely please audiences: Murder In The First, The Fifth Element, Lost In Space. He’s frightening enough as a good guy. We’re trying not to remember Kevin Costner’s The Postman.
Legion (January 22): After God sends his angels to wipe out humanity, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) sides with a group of survivors in a remote desert cafe to protect a pregnant woman (Adrianne Palicki) who may be carrying the second coming of Christ. The group must learn to fight and then withstand a horde of angels intent on killing them. Random thoughts: The obvious “yeah, but wha?” plot contortions aside, this could be geeky fun in an Intro To Religious Studies sort of way. Maybe we’re getting old, but every new movie seems a combination of two or more that we’ve already seen. This one seems like Maximum Overdrive cross-pollinated with any of the Christoper Walken-starring Prophecy flicks. Having said that, we like the B-movie friendly ensemble cast, including Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Kate Walsh, Charles S. Dutton, and Kevin Durand.
Michael Mann’s disappointing gangland saga arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray this week.
The first half of the 1930′s, when America endured the worst of the Great Depression, also gave rise to a renewed public fascination with crime and the people who committed it. The bank robbers, outlaws, and gangsters of the era were lionized for defying the same corrupt system of laws and commerce that drove America to the brink of economic ruin. Outsized personalities like Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, John Dillinger, and Pretty Boy Floyd received media and public adulation, becoming in a sense the original stars of reality entertainment thanks to newsreels and an entire new genre of film.
Though by no means the first attempt at bringing the life of charismatic bank robber Dillinger to the screen, Public Enemies lacks the immediacy of the best gangster films of the 30s while at the same failing to offer perspective or context to its subject or the era to which he belonged. It’s a disappointing work by director and co-writer Michael Mann that’s further encumbered by vague and unconvincing performances from stars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. It’s also not very entertaining to watch.
The movie begins in 1934, as Dillinger (Depp) attempts to spring his mentor and several other convicts out of a bunker-like prison. The jailbreak goes wrong, but Dillinger and his gang head to Chicago, where in short order they’re robbing banks in a manner that allows Depp to jump over counters and look dashing. Their bravado rankles Federal Bureau of Investigation chief J. Edgar Hoover, at a time when the politically rapacious bureaucrat wants Congress to allocate more funding for his fledgling agency. Hoover appoints agent Melvin Purvis (Bale) to pursue Dillinger, sending him to head the Chicago field office via a ready-made press conference.
La fille en rouge: Cotillard
Dillinger meanwhile romances a hat check girl named Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose), whom he meets and decides to love in the space of a single night. She’s as restless as he is, or so we’re told, and swoons for Dillinger’s promises of eternal love, wealth, and adventure. “Where are you going?” she asks him, in dialogue ostensibly meant to evoke the romantic patter of classic Hollywood films. “Anywhere I want,” Dillinger tells her. They head for Miami, then Tucson, where Dillinger is arrested and returned to Indiana for trial. Their scenes are interspersed with Purvis’ attempts to make crimebusters out of the Chicago field office’s earnest but woefully inexperienced agents. After an early attempt to arrest George “Baby Face” Nelson gets an agent killed, Purvis brings in three lawmen from Texas to assist in the Dillinger manhunt.
What happens for the rest of the film should have the feel of slowly encroaching fate, or a collision course between the self-disciplined but ferocious Purvis and the flamboyant but no less ferocious Dillinger. History itself gives them a spectacular final confrontation, and Mann’s best film, Heat, had just such a cop-vs.-crook trajectory. Instead Mann builds this film as a parade of scenes with little or no resonance to one another. Only once, as Dillinger receives a visit from Purvis while awaiting trial, do the two men size each other up. Yet the scene is typical of the movie’s flaws: Depp talks too much, Bale says almost nothing, and little is put forward by either actor or plot. An important confrontation at a Wisconsin resort, in which the g-men’s bungling gets innocents killed but allows Dillinger and Nelson to escape, never achieves its set piece potential but becomes instead mired in ear-splitting gunfire and under-lit cinematography. The notorious gunfight was a crucial event in Dillinger’s life and in the history of American crime, but the film gives it only perfunctory attention.
Such indifference runs throughout Mann’s direction. Regarded for his work in the crime genre (Heat, Manhunter, the groundbreaking television series Crime Story) and known for his attention to cityscapes and the corruptive power of urban life, both early gangsters and the cities of the Great Depression ought to play naturally to his strengths. Yet the script, co-written with Ronan Bennett and Ann Biderman, cannot manage to place the events in any kind of context. Worse still, the sense of sameness that pervades the look of the film – pasty-faced agents and snarling gangsters, dozens of murky rooms and grimy exteriors, too many of the same characters in repetitive dialogue – keeps it from building momentum or establishing a rhythm that would help the audience immerse themselves in the narrative or the time and place.
This is especially problematic in the scenes with Depp and Cotillard, all of which amount to the same conversation played out in different locales. Cotillard is a charming actress and Mann’s films are seldom sensitive to the female psyche, yet she rises to the part given her better than most. It’s easy to imagine an American actress demanding a monologue or a crying scene; thankfully Cotillard is above such silliness. Depp, conversely, may be letting the incessant critical praise lavished on him since the first Pirates of the Caribbean go to his beautiful head. His Dillinger always seems thoughtful about something, but Depp seldom allows the audience an indication of his character’s internal deliberations. Dillinger – the daring, brash bank robber – remains opaque under Depp’s portrayal, except in the scenes where he’s required to be romantic or dashing. At those times Dillinger behaves suspiciously like Johnny Depp, movie star.
Regarding the other performances, Bale plays the righteous Purvis with low-key intensity, suggesting an anger or indignation that unfortunately never boils to the surface. Even after he and his men gun Dillinger down (in an overlong and unnecessarily graphic sequence), Bale’s iron curtain stays shut on the character. For as gifted and versatile an actor as he is, the indifferent portrayal here is especially frustrating. Alternately, a bright spot arrives in the form of veteran actor Peter Gerety, who barnstorms his way through a courtroom scene as Dillinger’s lawyer. Jason Clarke (Death Race) does a lot with the role of Dillinger flunkie Red Hamilton, despite having lines like “when your times up, your time’s up.” Finally, longtime Mann fans should also recognize Stephen Lang (The Men Who Stare At Goats), a mainstay of the director’s work in the 1980s, as Texas Ranger Charles Winstead. Lange surfaces completely out of the grim morass only near the end, and his final scene with Cotillard at least allows the film to end with a bittersweet grace note.
- Michael Kabel
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(Note: An earlier version of this review was originally published for the film’s theatrical release.)
The fourth entry in the Terminator franchise suffers from a lack of humanity.
One of last summer’s biggest and most surprising flops, director McG’s Terminator Salvation lacks the emotional complexity that elevated the franchise’s earlier films above the standard action routine. The shabby result is a boilerplate genre piece bulging with sound and fury that eschews humanity in favor of tedious summer blockbuster sturm and drang. Sound, especially – between the incessant gunfire, explosions and crashes, this may well be the single loudest film released in years.
Going back to the beginning by way of a sequel, the film depicts the post-apocalyptic war hinted at in its predecessors, a conflict between oppressive machines and a straggling human resistance led by legendary soldier John Connor (Christian Bale). Amidst Connor’s difficult rise to prominence as mankind’s savior, an executed felon from 2003 named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) awakens to this nightmarish new world. Revealed to be a human heart and brain inside the body of one of the titular robots, Marcus joins forces with Connor to rescue a nest of human prisoners that includes Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), the young man who paradoxically will travel back in time and become Connor’s father.
Bale enforces the helicopters-only parking policy
For a film ostensibly about the triumph of humanity over technology, the script by Terminator 3 scribes John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris (and reportedly doctored by The Dark Knight co-writer Jonathan Nolan), focuses instead on effects-laden set pieces at the expense of characterization. And that’s where the film starts to really malfunction. Even though they were essentially chase movies, the first two Terminator installments remain classics thanks to finely-wrought character-driven moments nestled between the tentpole action sequences. There are often clues in this film to suggest a similar depth to its leads: Marcus briefly describes his guilt over the death of his brother, which presumably drives him to take the young, overeager Reese under his wing; likewise the persistent image of John Connor’s very pregnant wife Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard) implies that Connor’s preoccupation with rescuing the man destined to become his father stems from anxiety over his own impending fatherhood.
But such hints of motivation and subtext are never completely explored, whereas the elaborate battles and chases are staged with a slavish adherence to bombast. McG’s (Charlie’s Angels) priorities seem inverted – the overcooked action sequences obviously received far more attention than the humanistic story elements that might have resonated with audiences or grounded the film’s stakes. At other times, you have to wonder if the screenwriters understand their characters at all, as evidenced by the completely out-of-character decision that Connor makes in the film’s final moments.
To be fair, Bale and Yelchin do their best to create some palpable empathy, and their compelling performances are almost enough to salvage the film. Bale portrays the adult John Connor as the stoically noble leader that audiences have waited to see since the original Terminator some twenty-five years ago. Unlike the hero of another film series who was likewise a temperamental mama’s boy of messianic importance, Bale does not disappoint. It is young Reese, however, who provides the film’s emotional keystone: unconcerned with abstractions like fate or free will, he simply wants to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. Yelchin effectively conveys this altruism through a combination of earnest enthusiasm and carefully controlled fear, and in so doing shows a maturity and a craftsmanship beyond his young age.
Unfortunately Worthington fails to bring the same level of charisma to Wright. The character is intended to be a tough guy with a human heart of gold, but Worthington shallowly coasts on swagger and stature without showing credible vulnerability. That worked fine for Arnold Schwarzenegger – his role was that of machine, after all – but for a character that’s supposed to be redeeming his humanity, Wright appears that much more mechanical by comparison. Considering Wright’s status as a new character alongside the more famous Connor and Reese, Worthington should work twice as hard to earn his character’s keep in the story. As it is, his scenes amount to little more than a tedious diversion from the main event starring Bale and Yelchin.
Bloodgood terminates a shrub
And as if to further distance itself from the other films of the series, the women are equally uninspired and uninspiring. Moon Bloodgood’s (Journeyman) Blair Williams shows the most potential for a strong female character, but despite the actress’ best efforts the character devolves into a damsel in distress orbiting Wright. There’s also precious little explanation for why a battle-hardened soldier like Blair would ultimately betray everything she knows for a man she only just met. Admittedly, her character arc could be an intentional echo of Sarah Connor’s relationship with Kyle Reese in the 1984 original, but that film at least laid groundwork to explain why such a nice, lonely girl would fall for a perceived lunatic. Reese’s child sidekick Star (Jadagrace) doesn’t speak, but she doesn’t need to – she’s only there as an adorable accessory meant to spotlight Reese’s selflessness.
Bryce Dallas Howard’s aggressively bland Kate Connor proves most distracting. Unlike Claire Danes’ feisty portrayal of the same character only six years ago, Howard’s doe-eyed and boring Kate shows no indication of being Connor’s mental and spiritual equal, let alone able to remind either Connor (or the audience) of his mother. Along with Ellen Ripley, Sarah Connor is the matriarch of independent action heroines, and that makes it all the more disappointing to see the character’s sci-fi proto-feminism so blithely discarded.
At least in terms of spectacle, the film lives up to its pedigree even if the numerous actions sequences recycle elements of the other Terminator films. It’s also odd that no one realized that Connor crashes two different helicopters in exactly the same manner over the course of one film. For that matter, the digital reconstruction of a familiar face in the final act is not only technically stunning, but also provides the film’s singular moment of genuine terror. Still, actual non-digital sets and scenery appear painfully fake, which ultimately sum up the film’s flaws – meticulous attention to the artificial, sloppy disinterest in the corporeal. Truly, the machines have won.
- Stephen Kabel
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: Note: An earlier version of this review was originally published for the film’s theatrical release.)
Our monthly compendium of stuff that didn’t get a full post, for one reason or another.
There’s just one more month left in the decade (unless you’re one of those weirdos who complain, “the decade begins with 1…”), meaning it’s not too early to start looking back. The 00′s were a decade that likely will never be remembered as a particularly good one for American film; we put it somewhere between the 1950s and maybe – maybe – the 80s in terms of total quality work produced. The amount of dumb, cynical, artless trash far outweighed the good, but then again that’s sadly, probably true of any given time period.
Anyway, here’s our monthly roundup of items of interest that didn’t deserve or receive a full blog post. All our opinions are our own, and all graphics are stuff we found lying around the Internet.
1. This month’s hysteria regarding the release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon came with an earnest attempt at a backlash dogging its wake, as critics from every corner of the media – and especially online – did their best to counter-shout the series’ fans. Not to defend the sparkly vampires, but anyone decrying the phenomenon shouldn’t feel surprised at its popularity. Vampires are a steady, resurgent franchise in American culture, and it makes sense that a version catering to the American Idol generation would surface sooner or later. If Twilight is superficial, mawkish, and clumsily obtuse, it’s only giving its audience what they’ve come to expect from pop entertainment.
2. While we’re on the subject of pop culture and what’s wrong with it, two news items this past week about David Hasselhoff and Donny Osmond underscored a major reason for the current media malaise. Celebrities don’t burn out anymore. They fade… and fade… and fade away. The proliferation of cable channels and other media outlets means everyone gets camera time long after their 15 minutes have worn off. Except all that detritus has become dead weight upon the public radar, with chances for the emergence of new talent becoming that much more remote. Much like pop music at the end of the 1980s, the film and TV industries are in desperate need of fresh air, the sooner the better. More than that, the industries have got to stop cashing in on the past because it’s cheap and safe.
3. Someone else said – but we’re happy to originate the idea – that George Clooney has two screen personae: there’s the talented ensemble actor, the guy that does offbeat work like O Brother, Where Art Thou and The Men Who Stare At Goats, and there’s his American Leading Man mode that you see in stuff like Michael Clatyon and the Ocean’s saga. We’re looking forward to December’s Up In The Air because it might present the first combination of the two while finally getting Gorgeous George the widespread critical respect he’s deserved for years. Here’s the trailer, in the unlikely event you haven’t seen it yet:
Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela
4. Another pervasive trailer this month previewed Clint Eastwood’s new Invictus, about the true story of South African president Nelson Mandela’s attempt to bring the post-Apartheid nation together via the 1995 Rugby World Cup games. While the idea of Matt Damon playing a rugby champion isn’t really surprising, the casting of Morgan Freeman as Mandela is one of those lightning-strike “why hasn’t this happened already” castings that happen every blue moon or so. It also makes us wish by free association that Steven Spielberg would make his Liam Neeson-starring biopic of Abraham Lincoln already. Still and all, props to Freeman for taking the role and props to Eastwood for tackling such unexpected (for him) material. The film debuts December 11.
Burrows to join L&O: CI
5. This time last year we bitched that the USA Network couldn’t nail down a season premiere for its Law & Order: Criminal Intent franchise. Now the show’s reportedly getting a virtually all-new cast when it returns “early” next year. Series regulars Vincent D’Onofrio, Kathryn Erbe, Eric Bogosian and Julianne Nicholson will all depart after the series’ ninth season opener. Saffron Burrows (The Bank Job) replaces Nicholson, while Bogosian will be replaced by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (The Perfect Storm). The newer, streamlined show will feature sole returning star Jeff Goldblum in every episode.
Though we like Goldblum as an actor and in his L&O: CI role, we also remember that his last effort at headlining a detective show lasted seven weeks, even with Graham Yost (Band of Brothers) as showrunner. We liked that show, too.
6. Elsewhere on basic cable, TNT announced this month they would pick up broadcast rights to Southland, the promising cop drama that NBC stupidly cancelled in October. Possibly as a way to afford the ensemble cast, the network has dropped their original series Raising The Bar from its schedule, with a second season for Dark Blue, its other cop show, stuck in limbo. Meanwhile their new Men of A Certain Age premieres next Monday. Anything with Andre Braugher or Scott Bakula has got our attention for at least a few weeks, and this has them both.
Renner in The Hurt Locker
7. Already among the year’s – if not the decade’s – most highly praised films despite only a limited release last summer, The Hurt Locker premieres on DVD and Blu-Ray January 12. The gritty drama co-stars Jeremy Renner, one of the best young actors around right now following his superb performances in ABC’s The Unusuals and onscreen in 2007′s The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. We’re glad his turn here is getting him some attention.
We value our female readership, and stuff like this never hurts.
8. You know it’s close to December when three of the top ten films have “Oscar Bait” written all over them. The Blind Side currently makes the most money (despite scathing reviews), while Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and The Road are both still building momentum. In light of the sweeping changes made to the Academy’s voting process this year, however, it’s still too early to guess which film has the inside track towards Best Picture. If we had to suppose, we imagine Rob Marshall’s Nine will take the statue. It’s got a shitload of razzle dazzle (remember Marshall’s Chicago won in 2003), a screenplay co-written by the late Anthony Minghella, and a broad cast of flashy actors like Daniel Day-Lewis and Nicole Kidman. In years past such a combination would be like crack for Academy voters, but the new rules could change things up.
Thanks for reading. We were a day late posting this, and we apologize for the delay – real life’s been pimp-slapping our writing time lately. We’ll be back later this week.
Screaming Blue Reviews is currentlty on hiatus, and will return February 1, 2012. The opinions expressed are our own, though we welcome your feedback and comments.
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Happy holidays, everybody! We hope the coming year brings you all the wealth and happiness you want. 2009 was a rough year in a lot of ways, so here’s hoping better times are just around the corner. 
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