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'Girl Walks Into a Bar' SXSW Review: Breezy and Quick-Witted

By Scott Weinberg (Subscribe to Scott Weinberg's posts), Posted Mar 13th 2011 9:00PM
Filed under: SXSW Film Festival, Sci-Fi, Cinematical


One need not be all that familiar with Sebastien Gutierrez' 'Women in Trouble' or 'Elektra Luxx' to get the vibe pouring out of the latest collaboration between the filmmaker and his lovely muse, Carla Gugino, but it will certainly help your viewing experience if you enjoy clever dialogue, amusing twists, and strong women. Half an anthology piece, of sorts, and half an "all in one night" neo-noir dark comedy, 'Girl Walks Into a Bar' is about as "experimental" a flick you'll find outside the festival circuit -- it actually debuted on YouTube following its SXSW world premiere -- but it's also unexpectedly breezy, quick-witted, and rather fun.

Ms. Gugino plays a tough-talking former detective who saunters her way through a colorfully weird collection of taverns, all of which house a troublemaker or two: Zachary Quinto as a dentist who wants his wife dead; Emmannuele Chriqui as a stripper with the mind of a literary genius; Rosario Dawson as a coat-check girl employed by a very bizarre establishment; Danny Devito as a cleverly nefarious crime boss; Gill Bellows and Xander Berkeley as a sleazy pair of cops, and on and on. (The cast offers a few surprises I won't mention.)
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'Source Code' Review: A Moment Worth Reliving

By Scott Weinberg (Subscribe to Scott Weinberg's posts), Posted Mar 11th 2011 9:00PM
Filed under: Reviews, SXSW Film Festival, Cinematical


It takes a lot to impress a science-fiction fan these days. Truly great sci-fi films are few and far between, which allows the hardcore genre fanatic to A) catch up on all the classics, and B) re-watch (and re-watch) the best of the best. Plus it's just so damn hard to come up with a NEW idea in the science-fiction arena; it's tough to blame us when something fresh and exciting comes along. Take Duncan Jones' 'Moon,' for example, which hit the shelves last year and became sort of an "instant classic" to a lot of genre folks (including me). And the reason so many of us took to 'Moon' so quickly is because ... it's fresh. It's novel. It's original, challenging, fun, and "deep" all at the same time.

Duncan Jones' sophomore effort, 'Source Code,' is not nearly as original as his first film, but it is the next best thing to unique: it's two or three familiar ideas tossed into a blender, whipped into a tasty concoction, and delivered with a great deal of style and confidence. Astute devotees of the realm of speculative fiction will no doubt recognize a few dashes of Terry Gilliam's '12 Monkeys,' the slightly goofy 'The Butterfly Effect,' and even Harold Ramis' 'Groundhog Day' within Ben Ripley's 'Source Code' screenplay, but it's the tight, slick, and efficient way the disparate elements are drawn together that make the script such a cool surprise. (Congrats to Mr. Ripley, who cut his teeth on 'Species 3' and 'Species 4' before diving into the deeper end of the sci-fi pool.)
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'Peter Pan Begins' All Over Again in Proposed Prequel

By Scott Weinberg (Subscribe to Scott Weinberg's posts), Posted Mar 2nd 2011 9:00AM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical


Who's ready for another 'Peter Pan' movie? C'mon, 'Hook' was really gr ... well, that P.J. Hogan adaptation from 2003 was pretty ... hmph. Do we really have to go back as far as Disney's 1953 rendition for the best Pan-related adaptation? (Nah, there's Marc Forster's 'Finding Neverland,' which certainly has some worth.) Regardless, get ready for an all-new Peter Pan tale -- only by "all-new" we actually mean "an origin story tentatively called Peter Pan Begins." Wow, that sounds a little like a Batman flick!

No director has been named, but currently very interested in the project are actor Channing Tatum ('Supercross,' 'Step Up'), screenwriter Billy Ray ('Shattered Glass,' 'The Hunger Games'), and mega-producer Joe Roth, who (as The Hollywood Reporter points out) has his hand in new versions of 'Alice in Wonderland,' 'The Wizard of Oz,' and 'Snow White.' (Public domain properties are an endless source of easy inspiration.)

So we're clearly in the midst of an "origin story" trend. 'Alien' needs one, 'Batman' needs several, and logically 'Peter Pan' needs one as well. Perhaps someone should also do an origin story on 'Pinocchio.' All you'd need is a video camera and a block of wood. (No offense meant to Mr. Tatum.)

Tim Burton and Josh Brolin Eying a Return to 'Notre Dame'

By Scott Weinberg (Subscribe to Scott Weinberg's posts), Posted Mar 1st 2011 9:00AM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical

At this point there's no Tim Burton remake that could surprise us. 'Sleepy Hollow'? 'Planet of the Apes'? 'Sweeney Todd'? 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'? 'Alice in Wonderland'? How about the upcoming 'Dark Shadows'? If there's something that's already been made, Tim Burton will happily remake it with his own patented and still slightly unique spin. Case in point: at HeatVision informs us that Mr. Burton and actor Josh Brolin are interested in collaborating on a new version of 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

The project may have to wait a while (Burton's a busy guy), but Warner Bros. now has Kieran and Michele Mulroney ('Paper Man,' 'Sherlock Holmes 2') working on the screenplay. HV indicates that this project is Brolin's baby all the way, and that a full green won't be achieved until Burton signs off on the screenplay. (Like the man has been all that interested in screenplays lately.)

If Burton's last few remakes are any indication, Esmeralda will be played by Helena Bonham Carter covered in CGI, and of course we'll also see Johnny Depp as a garishly-attired freak of some variety. Then again, maybe Mr. Brolin and the Mulroneys will bring something cool to the table and help bring back the Tim Burton we know and still love. The last good 'Hunchback' rendition was a Disney flick, of course, and not exactly one of the finest ones, so perhaps it's actually a good time for Quasimodo to make another tragic return.

'The Bourne Legacy' Eying Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and More

By Scott Weinberg (Subscribe to Scott Weinberg's posts), Posted Feb 25th 2011 9:15AM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical


Stories about "short lists" are becoming quite the trend with the Hollywood press these days, and here comes another one: according to Variety, writer/director Tony Gilroy has been reading a bunch of actors for the lead role in the new 'Bourne' movie, 'The Bourne Legacy' -- lesser-known guys like Kellan Lutz and Taylor Kitsch, but also bigger names like Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Garrett Hedlund. Meanwhile, Deadline adds the following names to this growing list of guys who may or may not take the role: Joel Edgerton, Josh Hartnett, Paul Dano, Michael Pitt, Oscar Isaac, Michael Fassbender, Luke Evans, Alex Pettyfer, Benjamin Walker.

And no, they won't be stepping into the specific role that's been vacated by Matt Damon. 'Bourne Legacy' will focus on ... someone who's not Jason Bourne, which is sort of confusing since the character's name is on all three four films. Scheduled to shoot this spring, the new 'Bourne' franchise is now Gilroy's baby all the way, given that he's written all four movies and has now inherited the director's chair.

But hey, at least the franchise is headed in a fresh new direction, right? Probably. According to Variety, "the focus on a new character will allow for the possibility that Matt Damon could return to the franchise in some fashion." This is starting to sound more and more like a continuation we simply do not need, which wouldn't be all that unusual, of course, but it's annoying because the first trilogy is such a consistently cool series.

'The Bourne Legacy' is due in theaters on August 3rd, 2012.

'The Bodyguard' Is Finally Being Remade!

By Scott Weinberg (Subscribe to Scott Weinberg's posts), Posted Feb 24th 2011 9:00AM
Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
Love it, hate it, or barely even remember it, Mick Jackson's 'The Bodyguard' was a pretty massive hit back in 1992. (Back when $121 million domestic was big money.) Yes, kids, there was a magical time when Kevin Costner + Whitney Houston = box office wonderment ... if only for a few months. Written by Lawrence Kasdan (yes, really), 'The Bodyguard' was about (get this) a former Secret Service agent who must protect a movie star from things. They also fall in love. There is, I believe, a shootout at the end.

This is a plot that somebody in Hollywood deemed worthy of a remake. You could just as easily make a movie about a bodyguard without calling it a remake ... but then we wouldn't be writing about it this early, I suppose. (Well played, Hollywood!) According to Variety, the hero this time around will be a veteran of the Iraqi war. Probably so we know we're not watching the old version. No casting or director yet, but we do have producer Dan Lin ('Sherlock Holmes') and the first-time screenwriting team of Jeremiah Friedman and Nick Palmer on the case for WB.

So clearly I'm not a fan of the original flick, which is good news for the remake. They can only improve upon it! (Yikes, that's entirely untrue, come to think of it.) All we really want to know is who'll be recording the inevitable new cover of "I Will Always Love Youuuu."

Fatboy Roberts Interview: Funky New Magic in Great Old Movie Scores

By Scott Weinberg (Subscribe to Scott Weinberg's posts), Posted Feb 23rd 2011 10:00PM
Filed under: Celebrity Interviews, Cinematical

Normally I approach "fan-made" remixes (be they audio, textual, or visual) with a grain of salt, a little charity, and a general sense of disinterest. But it took me less than ten minutes of Fatboy Robert's recent release -- Geek: Remixed III -- before I realized how impressive this stuff was. My first exposure to his music was via the excellent Portland cartoonist / film critic / bon vivant Mike Russell. My reaction? "I love this Mario Bros. track because it's not ironic."

Mr. Roberts was truly enjoying the goofy little Mario ditty, and he wanted to make it sound a little, well, funkier. But then he approached movie music masters like John Williams, Ennio Morricone, and Jerry Goldsmith with the same amount of respect; Fatboy's additions actively complement the already-excellent music that we know and love. This is not an over-caffeinated kid who is blaring noises over the 'Jaws' theme, but a sincere movie-lover who also has a real gift for bad-ass beats.

So I told the guy we should chat. And we did. (Be sure to play some of the YouTube (audio only) tracks as you read the interview! Like this one right here!)



Harsh critics call this stuff plagiarism. Loyal fans call it a new angle on some great music. What's your take?

It's a nostalgia bath, really. Auditory comfort food. At least, that's how I always looked at it. Both from the perspective of the stuff I'm sampling and the way I'm interpreting it: I'm taking the music of my nerdy formative years, and combining it with the sort of hip-hop production they stopped doing right around 1997, right before sample laws got really harsh and people started making beats that sounded like they were learning on a Casio made out of Tupperware. I can see the plagiarism argument: I'm essentially taking some genius from John Williams / Jerry Goldsmith / Danny Elfman, taking a razor blade to it and then throwing a sack of breakbeats at it. It's not entirely original. But "originality" and "pop music" don't necessarily go hand in hand anyway. Ask Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters what they think about Led Zeppelin's existence, you'd probably get a different answer than the one Robert Plant would give you.
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