Hey folks, Harry here... It was a nice surprise to read this from Rav, as I was not entirely sure the boy knew how to read, much less digest said reading and output it into a review that made any amount of sense, but it seems... He can be taught! Anyway, I feel I must address his accusation that I talked him out of a double bill of FRENCH CONNECTION and BONNIE & CLYDE for a screening of BLUE CRUSH. Did you ever see THE BIG NIGHT? Remember the scene where Tony Shalhoub's Primo is told that there is a customer that wants a side of Spaghetti to go with his meal, and Primo loses it because that would be wrong. That a doubling of carbs is just uncivilized? Well... FRENCH CONNECTION and BONNIE & CLYDE are a terrible double feature. Now - FRENCH CONNECTION and THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 - that's a double feature. Or BONNIE & CLYDE and THE LONG RIDERS - they go together.... But FRENCH CONNECTION and BONNIE & CLYDE - that's two great ingredients that don't taste great together. And personally I'd rather watch a stand alone of BLUE CRUSH - than two classics mismatched. Ya just can't put any two films together and show them... there is an art to it. CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?
Hey Harry,
So last week Knowles tricked me using his super-villain intellect to give up seeing a mint double feature of Bonnie and Clyde with The French Connection, the bastard duped me into seeing Blue fucking Crush instead man. Although I did have a lot of fun with Blue Crush and it surprised me a lot like Crazy/Beautiful did (John Stockwell is becoming a master of making good movies that look like crap by their advertising)...It was no fucking French Connection man. So I just want to tag this review with a bit of a warning, be careful when talking to that Knowles guy it might have turned out okay but it like could have been Battlefield Earth or like See Spot Run or something like that leaving one with a couple of mental scars for the rest of your life or something. I don't know, well I guess all I am trying to say here is that the next time I talk to Knowles I am going to be quite sure I wear a tin-foil hat around my head so that he cant control my mind.
Please be kind, this is my first script review. If you are looking for spoilers try somewhere else.
I'm writing in to tell everybody about The Coen Bros.'s Intolerable Cruelty, a script that has been around for quite some time and its more than all likely Knowles and Moriarty both were given copies years and years ago that are now lost under their desk somewhere sitting with copies of the Aykroyd Ghost Busters III, the first drafts of Scooby-doo, and eight copies of The Sky is Falling......or maybe just forty of the Demme rewrites of Intolerable Cruelty. See this script had quite a long history and I am going to try to trace it in less than a hundred words (email me or talk-back, feel free to bitch and moan at how inaccurate this is.). Somewhere along the way it seems Third Miracle writer John Romano came up with the story idea for Intolerable Cruelty, then Matt Stone and Robert Ramsey, the writers of Big Trouble and Life, came on and wrote the first draft, next the Coen Bros. came aboard and wrote the second draft of Intolerable Cruelty. The Coens went on to do a few really cool movies and somewhere Jonathon Demme came aboard to direct the film. He then had the film rewritten a couple more times once by Barbara Benedek and Jay Kogen. During this time the film became a Julia Roberts/Richard Gere project, then a Will Smith project, then a Tea Leoni movie, and even had Hugh Grant in position to star in it at one point or another.
Now it is in production to become the next Coen Bros. film starring George Clooney, Catherine Zeta Jones, Geoffrey Rush, and Billy Bob Thornton. What I am reviewing here is a draft of the script dated December 1994, what I assume is the original Coen draft and am pretty sure this is what STAX reviewed a couple of months ago over at Film Force. Maybe Mori or Harry have the current draft of this and can enlighten us soon. For now let's make due with my idiotic ramblings.
Intolerable Cruelty follows Miles Massey the best divorce lawyer in the business working in the high-stakes divorce capitol of the world, Beverly Hills California. Miles is a normal regular old joe-six-pack he's the type of guy that spends his free time mowing his lawn, taking in a game, raking leaves, and simonizing his lear-jet. Miles Massey isn't just the best divorce lawyer working today, he's the best of all time he's so unbelievably good no marital-dissolution problem is a challenge for him anymore, he has reached perfection for his line of work and has started to become entranced by a beautiful gold-digger. Marylin Rexroth, he just threw on the street getting everything for her husband. In an awkward way they are both drawn to each other, but both still have a couple agendas of their own to settle first.
The thing I love the most about Coen bros. films is their quirky supporting characters like Jesus, Freddie Riedenschneider, or even Brandt from Lebowski. And Intolerable Cruelty does not fail in serving a great load of supporting characters. My personal favorite character from Intolerable Cruelty was Gus Petch, a divorce private detective who specializes in nailing spouse's asses. That Gus Petch is a real ass-nailer, although he'll work for anyone with the dough. I am eagerly awaiting to see Cedric The Entertainer yell, "I'm Gonna Nail Your Ass!" for the first time. Baron Kraus Von Espy seems to be the one Coen character that John Turturro was born to play. Hopefully they will cast him as every little mannerism from him just screams for the jesus. Wrigley is Massey's right-hand man, a lanky bespectacled young atty. who seems to be attached to Miles's hip throughout most of the movie I think that there are only 3 scenes scripted where they are apart. Nonetheless Wrigley is a delight of a sidekick and I can't wait to see who they have come up with to bring him to life. Don't worry there are still plenty of characters you don't know about, like the great Wheezy Joe.
Howard Doyle, a redneck millionaire oil magnet with all his romantic intentions in place, was perfectly cast as Billy Bob Thornton. George Clooney as Miles Massey seems quite interesting I'm wondering if this is going to turn into a weird mix of his performance in One Fine Day with Oh Brother Where Art Thou?. Catherine Zeta-Jones definitely has all the beauty of Marylin Rexroth and she has proven time and time again that she can play an independent female like Marylin. It's going to be interesting to see the chemistry between the two come alive. The script had quite a few confusing lawyer-battering situations that seemed kind of like they kept them and used them in The Man Who Wasn't There, maybe in the new drafts it has been changed quite a bit.
So in the end Intolerable Cruelty is really enjoyable and entertaining all the way through, I'd say it compares best to The Hudsucker Proxy. The 94 script has me now much eagerly awaiting the final product, which I am pretty sure, will be another Coen bros. home run.
Now that all of that is done, I should point you guys over to the George Clooney fan page which has some new pictures from the set in Miles Massey gear CLiCk for GorGeous GeorGe!!!
That's it for now, in two weeks I head off to Italy to cover The Venice Film Festival for AICN. I am eagerly awaiting Takashi Kitano's Dolls down there, so like if you happen to be down around there during the festival or just want to whore your movie just drop me an email.
Rav
Email: Is it just me, or is Harry like the best wetdream material evah? Sigh - Hot flashes!
