Here's a quick update from LATIN-AICN's own Coffin Joe Jr with the latest info on the release date of THE BODY... but still no info when it's coming to a theater near me!
Hey Harry , everybody , a little update on the " The Body " release date . It´s scheduled to open April 27th in LA and NY , but that may change . It was originally going straight to video ( picked up by Columbia Home Video ) and then Lion´s Gate got it for a theatrical release in April 13th , but has postponed it till the 27th . Sorry about all the confusion .
Coffin Joe Jr.
Hey folks, Harry here... I have been doing some checking around and ya know what... I can't figure it out. THE BODY comes out on April 13th... yeah... like in 3 days according to IMDB and ROTTEN TOMATOES.... The distribution company for the U.S..... Lion's Gate has seemingly neglected to put up a website about the film. Apparently I can't seem to find a trailer for the film anywhere... and I could only find the one-sheet from a single dealer on Ebay, and usually for a new release you can find one sheets on Ebay from at least 15 different dealers. Now I want to see this movie.... sure the reviews have been bad, but the film is shot by Vilmos Zsigmond.... One of my all time favorite cinematographers.... And the premise holds some promise. So.... what the hell is the deal?
I saw some info on the new Antonio Banderas flick "The Body" on Coffin Joe's update, and I just happened to see a screening of the film last night so I thought I'd send in a quick review.
First, the credits. Based on a novel by Richard Ben Saphir, "The Body" is written and directed by Jonas McCord, a first-time helmer whose writing credits include the 1993 film "Malice" and a smattering of television episodes/movies of the week. Antonio Banderas stars as Catholic priest Matt Gutierrez, with Olivia Williams ("The Postman") as Sharon, the archeologist who has dug up something a lot of people would like to see buried for good. Veteran British thesp Derek Jacobi and Guy Ritchie mainstay Jason Flemyng also turn up in supporting roles. Notable crew includes Vilmos Zsigmond, cinematographer of "Close Encounters" and "The Deer Hunter."
The movie takes place in present day Jerusalem, where Sharon has just unearthed an ancient tomb containing a crucified body. The tomb appears to be that of a rich man, but as a colleague tells her, rich people were never crucified. Only one man was ever crucified and put in a rich man's tomb, and that man was...wait for it...Jesus Christ. The Vatican gets word of this finding and recruits Matt, a priest with a background in military intelligence, to go to Jerusalem and investigate. Obviously, proof of Christ's unrisen body would be a PR nightmare for the Catholic Church, so the Vatican basically tells him to do whatever he has to in order to prove that the body is *not* Christ's. As if it couldn't get any more complicated, the tomb happened to be discovered right behind a Palestinian-owned store (the guy just wanted to put in a basement), and the store owner is recruited by a major Palestinian terrorist to spy on the excavation so the terrorist can use the body as leverage in negotiating a free Palestinian state.
Sharon and Matt investigate the body together, with the help of various other scientists and priests, and they develop a tentative friendship with the kind of unrequited sexual tension that can only occur between a priest and a sworn-off-men war widow (her husband was a poet killed in the crossfire). Sharon also has two children who apparently only exist in order to be kidnapped. The whole Catholic/Israeli/Palestinian conflict builds to a climax involving the aforementioned kidnapping, a shootout, and plenty of explosions, because in the year 2001, even religion-themed movies need John Woo-esque endings to be profitable.
This film does have a lot going for it--Banderas and Williams turn in very strong performances as characters in conflict both with themselves and with each other, and the cinematography and production design exploit the tarnished beauty of Jerusalem to its full extent; but these positive elements are almost completely undermined by a plot that seems determined to utlilize every cinematic cliche in the book. The ending is satisfyingly mysterious (the John Woo shootout notwithstanding), but then, at the last minute, the movie decides to present us with an irrefutable answer to a mystery that was best left unsolved. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but it's my opinion that a movie should make you think, not do all the thinking for you.
I would advise against paying actual money to see this movie. The book is probably much better.
--A Starving Screenwriter
