Father Geek here with Robert Bernocchi, ratbert, Ethan, and another of our reports on cinema from Europe...
Hi people. The Spider-Man cyclone started devasting Europe. In Italy it grossed $5,2M, in Germany $8,7M and in England $4M, an incredible score considering that it was available just in a few previews. Even in Australia, it racked up $5,9M, the second best opening of all time. Of course, a part of this column is dedicated to Spidey, but we have also stuff about Harry Potter, Diego Armando Maradona (!!!), and three reviews of The Sum of All Fears, The Frailty and Shiner. Enjoy...
Ratbert about two of the most important franchises, H. Potter and Spider-Man
Hey-ho, this week's news from moi was written before the England - Argentina
game but however it went the first film sounds bizarre in the extreme. Also
news of the first peek at the next episode of the most over-rated film (and
book) franchise of the moment, and a report on the Spidey UK premiere.
Ratbert about two of the most important franchises, H. Potter and Spider-Man Hey-ho, this week's news from moi was written before the England - Argentina game but however it went the first film sounds bizarre in the extreme. Also news of the first peek at the next episode of the most over-rated film (and book) franchise of the moment, and a report on the Spidey UK premiere.
The cheat Diego Maradona is set to appear in a new film about a Falkland Islander who goes to Argentina to become a football star. Playing For The Enemy is expected to feature Maradona in a cameo role. The comedy drama is a joint production between English and Argentinian film companies. "The history between England and Argentina, both on the battlefield and the football pitch, provides a rich dramatic backdrop to the story," producer Octavio Nadal told www.variety.com. "This is a feel-good movie about the peace process between our two nations."
The trailer for Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets will appear on the Internet on June 11. It will also hit American cinemas on June 14.The trailer will include some of the new characters from the film, such as Dobby the House Elf and Professor Lockhart. The trailer will be on the official Harry Potter website, www.harrypotter.warnerbros.com.
Hollywood blockbuster Spider-Man swung into town as the stars came out for its UK premiere. Actor Tobey Maguire and his co-star Kirsten Dunst braved the pouring rain to attend the first showing of the film which has taken the US by storm. Maguire said he was thrilled to be playing the superhero and said he hoped it would prove to be as big a hit in the UK as it has in the States. "I think it's a great movie and a lot of people will be excited to see it. Spider-Man is a superhero we can all relate to and he has stood the test of time for the past 40 years. It was a lot of fun to make and I did some of my own stunts which was fantastic for me." Dunst said: "This film is really cool and I had a great time making it. It was pretty exciting for me and I think Spider-Man is so popular because he's just like the boy next door." In the film Maguire and Dunst share a steamy upside-down kiss with the superhero hanging from a thread. Other stars at the premiere included model Jodie Kidd in a stunning spider's web dress by designer Scott Henshall, with matching pendant and earrings. Others on the celebrity guest list included Gareth Gates, comedians Vic Reeves and Frank Skinner, and James Gooding, who arrived without on-off girlfriend Kylie Minogue. (Ananova)
A Spider-Man review by James Bartlett
Spider-Man; d. Sam Raimi; Tobey Maguire, Willem Defoe, Kirsten Dunst
"Spiderman, Spiderman, does what ever a spider can." which in this case is to take over 300 million dollars so far, putting it in the top 30 or so box office films of all time - and it hasn't even opened in England yet!
Based on the comic book, Spider Man centres around the story of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) a nerdish guy who gets bitten by a mutant spider and finds he has some new powers - some webslingin' good new powers.
Unsure what to do at first, he turns to fighting crime after the murder of his paternal uncle and then soon comes up against the baddie - Green Goblin (Willem Defoe, chewing the scenery,) formerly a mad scientist. There's also the obligatory love interest too - a cleavage-heavy Kirsten Dunst as MJ, but she has little to do but look sweet.
You get the picture: we are in comic book/ pantomime/Godzilla movie land here, so whilst the script is pretty risible and just serves the action, the web slinger himself when he is in flight does look amazing and overall it's yet another very effective and enjoyable effects movie, with Maguire coming off best in the acting stakes - Defoe is in a different class.
And my spidey-senses are tingling. yes, the sequel has already been greenlit and got a release date.
James Bartlett
Ethan has three great reviews for us, with his typical style....
THE FRAILTY
THE FRAILTY is probably the greatest movie of 2002 thus far,with BLADE 2 in mind.
It is a subversive rural thriller which could have used some more bloodshed but still remains very crafty and eloquent. It begins as an inside job on the TEXAS CHAINSAW population but then it turns into a twisted and subversive tale which actually doubts most of the contemporary Hollywood dogmas. It asks whether all those young lovers slashed in the woods were actually dark sinners respecting their shady sodomist needs. It wonders if all those aggresive rural `Praise the Lord` parents were actually right. It fucks with every single liberal notion of genre cinema and sets out on a Crusade. That`s what sainthood is made of in my book!!!
Bill Paxton delivers his best role to date. I personally never liked his acting but I respected him because he is truly beloved by my favourite auteur James Cameron. So, I always guessed there`s something cool about him. Now, I found what. He is no star, he has no leading man potential, but he can create a devoted role with no irony and that counts. Guys like Travolta or Cage weren`t able to do that for ages even though they impose leading man routine.
Matthew McConaughey also errupts as a fine genre performer, his best role since CONTACT (one of the greatest movies ever) and far away from all those soft romcom sell-outs that got him out of focus.
Paxton`s direction assuredly respects masterful script. He deals with twists and narrative lines with deep understanding so that script`s full plot potential is presented. It is very straight, very precise, muscular, but it lacks bloodshed. Whenever actors get jiggy with axes, Paxton opts for fade-out. It feels like a thirties movie. As if axe murders are a taboo. This is a problem because in an axe murderer movie you actually must see what makes axe murders so gruesome. It must show you how brutal, how nasty, how hard is to kill people with tools. THE FRAILTY avoids doing that. It never actually delves into the anathomy of gruesome crime. Too bad because it would turn this film into a perfect masterpiece.
The kid`s descent into (in)san(ct)ity must be punctuated by undescribable sights of senseless violence and agony. We don`t see that. We see the concept of what happens. We just see the ingredients of the crime but not the crime itself.
Every other aspect, especially meaningful multi-layered ideology of the pic is developed so I am truly sorry that American audience avoided THE FRAILTY at all costs and went to see shameful bombs like SPIDER-MAN.
It is sad that such films don`t appear on major labels. It is sad that such scripts get shopped around by brave but weak companies so actors could debut with them. I still drool over the possibility that some hardened veteran did this. Or Kathryn Bigelow. Or David Fincher.
But today, it seems that youngsters like David Fincher are hooked on mainstream and they spend years of their lives making pieces of shit like PANIC ROOM. Bigelow made THE WEIGHT OF WATER that never got truly released. Old school crew is either retired or inactive. This is why I must congratulate Bill Paxton, the man who learned something from the great guys he worked with like James Cameron, Walter Hill or even the Sam Raimi from the glorious days. I hope he won`t back down.
I would like to face the man who said that THE SUM OF ALL FEARS is the ultimate Jack Ryan flick. I would like to know him by name for that person should no longer visit cinema. That person is either too incompetent or too corrupt to comment on movies.
I used to like Tom Clancy when I was 12 years old. By 14 I already knew Forsyth was The Man. See, Clancy is just a technical expert. No one can match his info. But he is truly ignorant when it comes to characters and plotting. I even heard he has a GOOD WILL HUNTING poster in his room which underlines his complete lack of taste.
Nevertheless, the Jack Ryan franchise was very fine. After starting with a masterpiece THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, it lost its` main atributes - director John McTiernan and star Alec Baldwin. They refused to do PATRIOT GAMES because of their Irish origin. This makes them the coolest guys around. I always loved people who respected their heritage and don`t try to whore it around, like Spielberg or Raimi.
Enter Phil Noyce and Harrison Ford. Their PATRIOT GAMES was fine and CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER was a bit muddled but servicable.
The whole point in these first movies was to take some constant tensions in the world of politics and military and then create a peak of tension where Jack Ryan comes to work with his knowledge and smart patriotism. Obviously, we saw most of this only when McTiernan directed but even Noyce managed to touch some accurate points.
THE SUM OF ALL FEARS is based on a book which tells about the cast-offs of the Cold War, Arab terrorists and East Germans who plot to begin the World War 3. Clancy imagined a dumb concept without a doubt. Then studio and writers came up with a fascist conspiracy to create WW-3 and rule afterwards. That`s smart, everyone would like to rule after the apocalypse. Imagine all the trade and stock market fees and bribes. I mean a bunch of people in fur sound Aryan. Not to mention radioactivity.
Are these people out of their mind? This plot can`t work in a bad Bond entry. The alliance of fascist, extreme right-wing forces, neo-Nazis and revisionists is at work internationally. That is accurate. But they don`t plot to destroy the world to rule it. They plot to win the election. Look at France or Netherlands. Even Hitler won the election.
Also, every such movement is populist and tends to develop in the working class because only working class is ready to change the system since they have all the angst in the world and mostly nothing to lose. Ever seen AMERICAN HISTORY X?
You can defend this conspiracy element on the level that this is just a movie, authors need excuse. You are wrong. Jack Ryan franchise isn`t about action and excuses for it. It is very serious and it tries to add the technothriller element to the spy genre.
Even on the level of being the excuse, we must ask ourselves, what do we get as reward?
We see a badly directed yarn where things just happen and get registered. But Robinson never bothers to create a set-piece, take the happening further into cinematic experience. He just tries to give us facts. Bomb exploded. Some cars and windows were smashed. That`s it. It`s foggy after the nuclear blast. It`s all he showed us.
He seriously dimsantles the Jack Ryan mythos. I guess, you all noticed that. This time he even tries to show us the famous helicopter crash which changed Ryan`s life. Or is it his second helicopter crash? Where is his fear of flying? Let me remind you, he became a historian because helicopter crash back injury prevented him form being a Navy officer. So this one is either his second or he became a historian for some other reason.
The greatest flaw of them all is the complete lack of timing and geography in this film. Things happen too fast and we don`t actually know when will what blow up. President orders F-16s to bomb the Russians. We see them do it and then cut back to President one minute later looking at the results. So, F-16s either took off, bombed and came back in 20 secnds or someone toyed with editing or wrote a senseless script.
These mistakes rule the film so after some time you just pass on them.
Now, the greatest blasphemy of all is the casting of Liev Scheiber as Clark. I mean Willem Defoe kicked major ass in this role. Keanu Reeves was supposed to play the young Clark in John Milius scripted 70s revenge flick WITHOUT REMORSE. And now we see Scheiber as young Clark. He is too far from being a bad ass. He is too far from being anything. They could have taken Freddie Prinze Jr. for this role. He would do it better. At least he looks fit.
This movie hurts me a lot because one of the credited writers is my favourite Daniel Pyne. I own copies of the masterpieces he scripted like THE HARD WAY and WHITE SANDS. I always knew Attanasio was a hack, I mean he works for Barry Levinson but PYNE! I still can`t breathe because of how shocked I am. He truly broke my heart and I hope he was forced to do this shameful exercise but still I wonder how a man of his craft conributed to this mess.
THE SUM OF ALL FEARS is one of the worst movies I ever seen. It`s even worse the SPIDER-MAN which was terrible and I guess it`s a compliment for most of the AICN readers.
Mike Hodges was a pioneer when he replaced the fun-loving Ealing gangster comedies with higly stylized, hardboiled and serious fare like GET CARTER. In the meantime, old school genius John MacKenzie crowned the movement with LONG GOOD FRIDAY and then we witnessed the resurrection of the Engliush gangster comedy with Guy Ritchie leading the bunch.
SHINER was directed by John Irvin, one of the traditionally tough Brit genre directors. It plays out like poor man`s LONG GOOD FRIDAY which is a compliment in the era where orthodox genre is being ripped apart by irony.
SHINER is so far away from irony. It is a story of the illegal boxing enterprenour whose dream comes true when his young son fights for the boxing title. On that day he decides to be as bold and as commanding as possible but things start to go terribly wrong and halfway through the film we enter the situation which calls for Chow Yun Fat and two Berettas.
Irvin keeps things in traditional English bounds. His characters are real and gunplay is just a threat because every bullet creates horrible wounds. It is all about psychology and relationships with strong ethical attitude and no transparent characters. And this is the greatest virtue of the film. We move through the world of gangsters, the stylish genre world, but every character, even the sleaziest one, could both be the hero and the villain. Everyone has weaknesses and strenghts.
The well-drawn atmosphere is a bit let down by the plot which really tries to deliver the twist but the twist`s strenght isn`t as great as it should have been.
Michael Caine goes for a towering performace,it feels like the ultimate mob hitman coming on the last payday trying to impress everyone before he rides into the sunset. It`s so great that he made such a role after getting the Oscar for Lasse Halstrom`s film which equals treason in my view.
Irvin`s direction is pacy. He uses lots of mobile camera to draw the atmosphere but he never goes for shaking hand-held shots so the style doesn`t get aggressive at all. His greatest achievent is that old geezers` field-day doesn`t feel anachronistic. To the contrary, some of the youngsters could learn a lot from this film before their movie gangsters drown in jokes and irony.
God bless,
Ethan
THE SUM OF ALL FEARS
SHINER
That's all for today
See you next week
Robert Bernocchi
Caltanet.it
