Father Geek here with a group of our regular weekly columns that arrived at Geek Headquarters in Austin Texas too late for me to post them before Harry and I left for our great public appearance tour of America's wonderful NorthWest and the fun-tastic city of Seattle. We were treated royally by everyone up there and had a really good time... THANKS to all and Jones Whoops Ass...
Cool festival news for your UK readers! Yes, Frightfest 2002 will be
taking place on August bank holiday weekend (23rd-26th), once again
based at the Prince Charles cinema in central London.
Films confirmed for this year include:
In addition, expect plenty of short films and special guests. For more info check out the website at www.frightfest.co.uk
I rate this as THE best genre festival in the UK, so hope to see a good crowd again this year.
MALLRAT
COOOOOOL... now here's our weekly Euro-AICN report from our editor Robert in Rome...
Hi people. Coming back from my holidays, I found the usual 200+ amount of mails, including some very interesting stuff for this column. Before leaving you with a review of Mike Leigh 's All or Nothing and news about Men in Black II, Signs, Eight Legged Freaks and Vivendi Universal, I would like to explain a few matters which stirred some controversy a month ago in this column.
Today we have a review of Minority Report by Ethan. Probably many of you (in particular americans) have already seen this pic and don't find interesting to read more about it. But considering that MR wasn't showed yet in Europe (with the exception of UK) I find it correct to listen to one of the most faithful european contributors of AICN. Of course, I would be happy to listen to your opinion about publishing reviews of movies already seen in the States. Another point of controversy was my idea to publish an exctract of news, pointing out the link to the full article. I prefer to do it (and not using the full article) because it's more correct towards the magazines which first published the news. Thus, even today you'll find a pair of extracts from Screendaily. It's your choice (if interested) to click on the link or not. That said, let's go with our regular weekly column...
News from Screendaily
Against the background of French newspaper reports suggesting that its Canal Plus division will now be broken up, Vivendi Universal and former chairman Jean-Marie Messier are to be sued by a group of US investors.
The investors, operating under the banner Rosenbaum Partners, bought shares between February and July of this year and allege that the company attempted to hide the true state of its financial crisis. "Messier orchestrated a scheme to conceal the severity of Vivendi's liquidity problems stemming from the massive debt load," the suit claims. Read about it all in this story...
Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI)'s Men In Black II (MIIB) continued its impressive international run with an $11.2m opening weekend in Germany on 1,166 prints, according to studio estimates released today. When figures are confirmed this week it should establish MIIB as the sixth highest opener of all time in the territory, behind Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (Warner Bros), The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring (Warner Bros/New Line), Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones (Fox), Men In Black (Columbia) and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (Fox). In total MIIB grossed $26m internationally on 4,186 prints, including a $1.3m opening in Austria - the eighth highest industry opening in that territory - and $1.1m in Hong Kong, where it looks like becoming the seventh best opener of all time. The international cumulative total stands at $70m. More details here if you're interested
Ratbert sent me this article two weeks ago, but it seems to me that it remains very important, considering what FilmFour did for english cinema in the past years...
Ho there, Ratbert back again, after a lay-off caused by exams, colds and lack of news. This week is devoted to an unfortunate blow to the British film industry.
Up to 60 jobs are expected to go today (8th July) as a result of Channel 4's decision to close FilmFour's production arm, which has been responsible for some of Britain's greatest movie hits including Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Madness of King George. In a major blow to the UK film production industry, the Channel 4 board is expected to ratify the closure of the loss-making division at a board meeting this afternoon. The decision comes 20 years after the founding chief executive, Jeremy Isaacs, decided Channel 4 would make its mark on Britain's film industry by investing in low-budget movies.
For a relatively small outlay, the channel earned an enormous amount of prestige and an international reputation by producing a hits such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick Up Your Ears, Four Weddings and a Funeral (which grossed more than £250m), Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies. Channel 4 insists it is now returning to its roots by abandoning the pretence of taking on Hollywood with big-budget movies such as Charlotte Gray and instead concentrating on smaller features. Executives realised they had to scale back FilmFour dramatically after they failed to find a commercial partner for the enterprise.
Staff at FilmFour have reacted to the news with a mixture of fury and sadness, claiming there was no logic in scaling back the movie production arm when Channel 4 could afford to spend £15m on just one series of The Simpsons. FilmFour's distribution and international operations are expected to close altogether. The FilmFour brand is expected to remain as part of a smaller scale, in-house Channel 4 film-making outfit. Some film production staff will be retained, but most of FilmFour's 61 staff are said to be at risk in the shake-up. FilmFour lost £5.4m last year and £3m in 2000 following a move into bigger-budget productions aimed at the international market. It is now more than three years since FilmFour produced its last hit, East Is East.
FilmFour insiders believe Channel 4 has not given the standalone film business, which was set up by the former chief executive, Michael Jackson, enough time to develop. They also insist £5m is not a big loss for a film production company and point to far bigger losses for other businesses. Last year the E4 entertainment channel lost £37.5m, the FilmFour movie channel lost £11.1m and 4Interactive lost £13.7m. "There is no logic to this. Mark Thompson [Channel 4's chief executive] has only been here five minutes. It seems we are paying the price for The Simpsons," said a source. Channel 4 has agreed to pay £15m for every new series of the US cartoon as part of an open-ended deal. The agreement, whereby Channel 4 will pay £700,000 for each Simpsons episode, caused shock in the industry. The BBC currently pays £100,000 an episode.
Report courtesy of Guardian Unlimited.
Good stuff for everyone able to receive UK satellite Channels...
Hi
Here at skymovies interactive we are big fans of AICN and often plug the site.
Now that we have launched www.skymovies.com you might want to tell AICN's UK readers that they have a top new way of finding out what movies are on TV and when.
Either pick a day and time and find out what's on or find the review of the movie you're looking for and if will tell you if it is showing on UK TV. This isn't available online anywhere else.
It doesn't only cover Sky's Movie channels, but includes UK terrestrial and other satellite channels (BBC, ITV, Sci-fi. The Studio etc).
All this plus a daily updated news service, full cinema previews and a back catalogue of 40,000 movie reviews.
Please play with it and let us know what you think.
Best regards
Mike and the team
Is it a commercial for the upcoming release of Signs?
In a litttle french town, There's marks in a farm like in the movie
SIgns of Shyamalan.
The TV reporters have talked of this in the news. There's a interview
of amateur Ufoloque. I think it's the publicity for the movie...
Make Up Your Own Mind With The Facts From Here
Our reader Ellroy Tevis passed me this interview with producer Dean Devlin...
An interesting interview with Dean Devlin about Eight legged freaks where he talks briefly about what he's doing next and admits that godzilla wasn't all that.
Our beloved Ethan has the usual rough opinion about a movie. This time is Spielberg's Minority Report...
MINORITY REPORT
Philip K. Dick`s story MINORITY REPORT is one of the grand scifi writings I`ve ever read. I consider it to be Dick`s most coherent work on every level. This story just doesn`t seem to slip like his other works.
I knew Steven Speilelberg was going to fuck this up. But still, Scott Frank`s involvement kept me jazzed because I like his style. As I said, I knew Steven Spielberg would fuck this up. I just didn`t know to which extent.
Thus, MINORITY REPORT surprised me. It is much worse than anything I could imagine. I guess, it`s my mistake. I simply had certain preconeptions of how MINORITY REPORT movie should work.
Tom Cruise is miscast. The role called for Jack Nicholson, like every other Dick plot. Because, Anderton is supposed to be an old bastard and his fight for life grows from the typical fact that every old man wants to survive nad gets paranoid about youngsters. Spielberg wanted to fix this for Cruise. He failed. It even seems they won`t even cash-in. By making Anderton younger, he actually gave him the potential to be active. Still, young Anderton wouldn`t act this way if he went through all the trouble. He lost his son and his marriage broke up. He ought to be hardboiled and biter. He ain`t. He wouldn`t run. He`d accept permanent prison in order to escape his demons. This is why I don`t believe in Anderton`s will. I don`t think he would run. As he said, everybody runs. But he is supposed to be different, special, and twice as suicidal.
Anderton`s character is the main failure. Then comes the story. First of all, we don`t get to actually use minority report as the important plot device. The whole story is about the chief of the crime fighting agancy who imprisoned people on the majority report and now his freedom hangs by the thread of minority report. This is the whole point. Also, the story claims that precogs are mumbling idiots. In Dick`s story the whole Pre-Crime concept relies on three mumbling idiots. The metaphore is that three mumbling idiots are pillars of the society and they prove to be well chosen. Spielberg tells the story of the society that relies on the shoulders of three martyrs who combine his two obssessions - childhood and disability.
Also, Spielberg discards the whole concept of intentional murder. He likes his charactrs pure. He also doesn`t go for military conspiracy but for a heavy handed Rollo Tommasi gimmick. This twist was clumsy because Max Von Sydow`s character isn`t too integrated into the plot so somehow you know that the symmetry would eventually lead us back to him.
The tone of the movie is too soft. Spielberg wastes too musch time on mumbu-jumbo and supposed technical advancements. The scene with plant loving lady is laughably bad and just keeps reminding us of the masterful Oracle scene in THE MATRIX.
Nothing terrifying is happening. You have no snese of menace. Anderton just keeps making all the fuss. Look at the set-piece with flying cops. It`s crafty but the dialogue intro is not very likely and the chase is simply too innocent. It feels like Paul Thomas Anderson did it. And this is meant to be an insult because I think Paul Thomas Anderson is an ignorant Altman wannabe.
Spielberg obviously feels that his work has deep social impact and influences many people. Grosses prove him wrong. Not too many people went to see this. Nevertheless, he keeps feeding us kindergarden level bullshit. He ought to be reminded that kindergarden metaphysics can be made with a bit of brutality and suspense in the story. Feelgood outcome doesn`t mean everyone has to be all cute and polite during the proceedings.
Thesrs is an institution of Cheesy Spielberg Endings but MINORITY REPORT takes it to a whole another level. Ending with Anderton and his pregnant wife made me puke. Precogs went to school. They already made a spin-off about that. It`s called HARRY POTTER.
The saddest thing of all is that Spielberg wasted one great property. John Anderton has this Joseph Hallenbeck feel about him. I`d kill for a Shane Black-written, John McTiernan directed MINORITY REPORT. I`d suffer through MAGNOLIA if Renny Harlin`s or Tony Scott`s MINORITY REPORT made it to the theatres near us.
But I guess we`re stuck with Spielberg. Hollywood is dead and all the critics who hail this film simply lubricate our mouth so we could swallow pods of violence-free American cinema made for those who never understood Don Siegel. Movies without violece belong to the totalitarian state that tries to hide the social tensions. Movies in the USSR had no violence. Hollywood is being used as a tool of oppression. For a couple of days I feared that Spielberg maybe made the movie that could top McTiernan`s, Raimi`s and Woo`s misfires. But no, he just underlined his own guilt for Hollywood`s decay.
I know it hurts,
Ethan
James Bartlett reviews for us Mike Leigh's All or Nothing, presented in competition at the latest Cannes Film Festival All Or Nothing d. Mike Leigh with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville, James Corden
All Or Nothing looks into the lives of three families living on a run-down council estate in London. All of them have their problems and all of them rely on various things to get them through the mess that is their everyday lives.
The main story of the film is based around the lives of cab driver Phil (Timothy Spall) and Penny (Lesley Manville) who works in a supermarket. They have a joyless, tough life, barely scraping by and constantly stressed out by foul-mouthed layabout slob son Rory (James Corden) and their less troublesome daughter who works in an old people's home.
When Rory ends up in hospital and is revealed to have a heart defect, Penny reaches the end of her tether. Phil and her finally have the confrontation that the film has built towards; where do they go to from here - do they love each other enough to jump this latest hurdle? The same question applies to their neighbour families we have seen too - how will Donna cope with her pregnancy? Will Carol and Ron blot out the rest of their lives permanently with alcohol?
If you hadn't guessed, this is Mike Leigh's latest film and displays all his usual motifs: intense and realistic performances and a total lack of glamour. Except this felt a little like Leigh treading water - boy, it was relentlessly bleak, with very little humour to break the spell and it and offered or suggested no real solutions for these people - you knew it was only going to get worse.
Are these his thoughts on Blair's Britain, as opposed to Thatcher's? Is the gap between rich and poor now so wide the rich do not even feature anymore in his commentaries? It means there is no villain, sure, but then you find it hard to sympathise much with the characters - their life is just crap. That's seems to be it.
It is moving, but seems unfocused - sticking to one family would have made more sense to me; instead it just seems inconclusive and downbeat - maybe life is like that, but from a man who has made a name for his (albeit dark) humour in similar situations, this really was hard going as a story experience.
James Bartlett
