3D "Zombieland" Sequel being Mulled

If a recent article posted on MovieHole is to be believed, it seems Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg may be reteaming with director Ruben Fleicher for a follow-up to this summer’s hit ‘Zomedy,’ this time with the aid of 3D technology and those irksome plastic glasses through which a healthy supply of zombie extremities are certain to fly.

The first film was an unusual success story for Sony and horror/comedy hybrids, which have a notorious history of underperforming at the box office (“Zombieland” grossed nearly twice that of Sam Raimi’s riotous “Drag Me to Hell”). Woody Harrelson himself has also proclaimed his performance in the original as the first in his filmography he actively wanted to reprise.

So while enthusiasm for a sequel seems high at this point, the franchise would still be unlikely to shamble back into theaters for another couple of years, as a script at this early stage is all but nonexistent. Also curious is how the character dynamics, which shift dramatically at the end of the first film, will shape a potential second installment.

Honestly, though, if it’s another two years before I hear the phrase, “Nut up or shut up,” it’ll be too soon.

"Greenberg" Trailer Review

I’ve become increasingly wary of coming-of-age type indie comedies. The generically ‘quirky’ characters and interchangeable suburban wastelands standardized in independent filmmaking over the past half-decade have driven me into a permanent suspicion of the genre. I don’t need to see another “Juno,” thanks. In fact, I feel like I see one every two or three months. Their attempts at droll realism feel increasingly tired and derivative, shedding all the charm that mumblecore--as some have come to call the market niche--was once defined by. While this is not necessarily a complaint of the trailer for Noah Baumbach’s upcoming film, “Greenberg,” I can’t help but watch the ad through a pane of cynicism.

But to give credit where credit is due, Baumbach was doing the precocious young adult thing back in 1995 with his debut film, “Kicking and Screaming,” (not to be confused with the Will Ferrell/Robert Duvall soccer-comedy/embarrassment of the same name) which was picked up for release by Criterion a few years back. In the interest of full disclosure, it’s the only Baumbach film I’ve seen, outside of “The Life Aquatic,” which he co-wrote with indie auteur Wes Anderson, and which I found infinitely underwhelming despite its strong premise and piercing volume of adamant hipster praise.

“Greenberg” stars Ben Stiller as the eponymous Roger Greenberg, whom we meet ‘at a crossroads in his life.’ Though the first couple of scenes in the recently released trailer reference Stiller’s character’s age, the actor has been curiously outfitted with a hairstyle (or hairpiece?) that makes him look younger than he has in years. The ‘do has a discouraging Farrelly brothers–esque quality to it that evokes their broad slapstick films rather than, for instance, Stiller circa “Royal Tenenbaums,” (an Anderson film I can get behind). They say ‘don’t judge a film by its stylist,’ or at least I say that, and the content of the trailer shows promise.

Stiller’s Greenberg is reminiscent of the Ron Livingston character in Mike Judge’s “Office Space,” for his articulated desire to do nothing. He has an amusing, jaded pretension to him that suits Stiller’s sensibilities, especially when the actor has portrayed himself in the past, as in HBO’s “Extras” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” “Youth is wasted on the young,” a friend of Greenberg’s muses over dinner. “I’d go one further,” he retorts, “Life is wasted on… people.” Stiller’s delivery is convincing and it makes for one of the trailer’s funniest moments, along with a memorable scene featuring the writing of a sarcastic letter to Starbucks.

For the most part, however, “Greenberg” presents itself as a subtly ironic drama, and the remainder of the trailer features predominantly expository information about the character, sets up potential romantic interests (Greta Gerwig), and introduces a subplot involving a (potentially) terminally ill dog. One shot later on seems to border on the spoilerish, with Gerwig’s character addressing Greenberg from a hospital bed, but without context is impossible to fully interpret.

So, despite my initial fear that the prolificacy of indie cliché has usurped any legitimately quirky independent films, I think “Greenberg” could transcend the genre. I must confess to being a big fan of Stiller’s, even in his more broad roles, and have enjoyed the only Baumbach film I’ve seen. Consider me cautiously optimistic.

“Greenberg” hits theaters March 12th, 2010.

Trailer Grade: 3.5/5

FARCE/FILM Episode 20: Bad Lieutenant, Everybody's Fine

--> Episode 20: 11/24/09 <--

Hosts: Colin George, Brian Crawford, and Suman Allakki

Intro -- 00:00 - 04:54
Top 5 -- 04:55 - 19:07
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call (Spoilers) -- 19:08 - 35:54

Everybody's Fine (Spoilers) -- 35:55 - 57:24

Suman's Corner -- 57:25 - 01:04:39

Events and Outro -- 01:04:40 - 01:08:29

"Bad Lieutenant"

Colin:

Crawford:

"Everybody's Fine"

Colin:

Crawford:

"Everybody's Fine" Review

"Everybody's Fine." Yes, the title of the film is actually "Everybody's Fine." Excited yet? Apparently director Kirk Jones wanted to preclude the silly notion of narrative conflict upfront. While the truth may be that everybody isn't entirely fine, the title is still more than appropriate given that the world of the film is a sunny euphemism for life where good intentions reign and happiness is just a smile and an old photograph away. Even in portraying sexual solicitation or drug addiction, Jones can't help but do so with the utmost optimism. "Wanna see my legs?" a prepubescent conception of a prostitute asks a neutered Robert DeNiro. "Wanna see mine?" he quips back. Pause for effect. That's about the height of humor in this aggressively inoffensive holiday family film.

To preface, DeNiro plays Frank, a man who gets stiffed by each of his four grown children whom he's invited home for a family weekend. So, with a chip on his shoulder and against his doctor's recommendation (uh oh!), Frank sets off for a spontaneous surprise visitation circuit! The spunky old coot! His visits reveal that each of his children (Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale) has been lying to him about some major aspect of their life, and go to ridiculous lengths to sell their lies. Beckinsale as Amy invites her ex-husband over for dinner for fear of revealing their separation to her father, Rockwell as Robert is a percussionist who claims to be the conductor for an orchestra and has picked up smoking, and Barrymore as Rosie borrows a friend's Vegas flat to impress her father and suppress her lesbianism. You can't make this stuff up, folks. Somebody smashed open a pinata of cliches and "Everybody's Fine" is a God damn mad dash.

Then there's the matter of Frank's fourth child. I had wanted to spare you the tragic--No. No, it's best that you hear it from me. Poor Tom (James Frain) has gone missing from his apartment, and while his siblings bicker back and forth over what lie to tell their father, building obvious, heavy-handed tension as the film wears on, they hit a wall. Tom is dead. Sure, you never see him alive and thus form no emotional attachment, but it's sad. It's sad. He overdoses after 'buying drugs from a bar' in South America. The language regarding the incident is vague and naive, as though the writer himself can think of nothing worse than the indistinct concept of drug use. A middle-schooler could have thought of a more shocking transgression, and believe me, would love to.

However, the problems with "Everybody's Fine" far exceed its clinical detachment from engaging conflict, as it drops its toothy disposition in the final act and suddenly becomes a misguided tearjerker. Frank has a bizarre near-death experience involving his children (played in this sequence by actual children) sitting around a picnic table finally speaking truthfully about their lives. The pretension of the dialogue and the schmaltzy sentimentality of the premise make the scene downright embarrassing to watch. And as if you couldn't guess, Frank soon recovers and finally gets the holiday he's always wanted with his three, now emotionally honest children. The camera pulls away from the warmly lit dining room and Frank's voice over kicks in. Three guesses as to what the last line is.

"Everybody's Fine" is not funny, not moving, and not in the least bit original. It's troubling to see DeNiro take a film like this, as even the third-rate police dramas he's been churning out for the last decade maintain a degree of his dignity as a cinematic bad ass. Frank is just a wet noodle of a character and on the whole, "Everybody's Fine" is blisteringly uninteresting. To be fair, I suppose many big stars and great performers have received a free pass around the holidays to star in invariably shitty family films. So Merry Christmas, Robert, I hope it was worth it.

1.5/5

"The Road" Review

There's "2012" and there's "The Road;" apocalypse and post apocalypse respectively. The unnamed event that leaves the world of the latter film under eternally windswept gray skies and the last dregs of humanity in utter desperation for sustenance is never seen nor explained. All the special effects happened ten years ago. The film stars a skeletal Viggo Mortensen as a father (like in Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist," his role is simply credited, Man) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (rolls right off the tongue) as Boy. The dynamic between the two: Mortensen as provider, partner, and teacher, proves a compelling emotional ballast to the horrific acts of violence that permeate the film's less tender moments. 'Cannibalism. That's the big fear,' Mortensen muses in voice-over. "The Road" is a bleak, somber film, often poignant and effective in the moment, but somewhat disappointing for its greater thematic ineloquence.

Perhaps by necessity, "The Road" seems broken down into distinct encounters, strung together on the loosest narrative thread, which lends the film a natural feeling of lawless wandering, but undermines the potential strength of the plot. The protagonists have an ultimate destination charted, to make it to the coast, but in general, a character or group of characters will interact with them for ten minutes and part ways. The screenplay by Joe Penhall, an adaptation of the novel by Cormac McCarthy, keeps this potentially redundant scene structure from growing stale with a usually fascinating and diverse array of character types, from bloodthirsty cannibals to a hobbling hobo (Robert Duvall) or a roving pack of bandits.

The other premise weaving these sequences together is Mortensen's deteriorating health. He wakes from dreams of his previous life, filled with the unfamiliar greens and blues of the living world, to uncontrollable coughing fits. It quickly becomes clear he must impart his worldly knowledge to the boy before his time comes. In doing so, he is presented with several morally compromising scenarios, involving the trust of a stranger or the punishment of a thief, and his cold calculation and instinct for self-preservation clash with the ideological selflessness of his son. We can hardly blame Mortensen's character for preaching distrust in the world the film depicts, but the sequences themselves inevitably prove the son correct, treating many of the encounters more as parables than legitimate ideological debate.

This premise, without spoiling it, comes to an underwhelming zenith in "The Road's" final moments. It's not that the ending is sappy, though alright, it's a little sappy. Smit-McPhee's character must crucially weigh the application of his trust, in a scene that should carry the emotional weight of the entire film on its shoulders. Instead, director John Hillcoat plays the moment merely for tension, which is displayed to great effect already in half a dozen previous scenes. Resultantly, the conclusion drawn is acceptable but largely unsatisfying. The audience is left to just sort of shrug it off.

Like "Children of Men," "The Road" posits a bleak future that doesn't feel stagey or pretentious. Both films are visually powerful, if in opposite ways, with Hillcoat's film favoring subtle, moody cinematography over the frenetic energy of its contemporary. Despite my issues with the structure of the film, I have no reservations using adjectives like 'powerful' or 'effective' to describe it, though I can't quite bring myself to call "The Road" 'great.' The distinction for me lies in that the piece doesn't speak as a whole so much as it does a series of interesting scenes that come very close to complementing one another.

Entirely watchable, and by no means worth avoiding, "The Road" offers uncompromising performances, and an unusually intimate take on the disaster film. After all, anyone can blow up the world, but not everyone can make us care.

3.5/5

"New Moon" Rises at Midnight

So Friday afternoon rolls around and you’re already reading about the records the second installment in the Twilight saga, New Moon, has broken. According to variety.com, the film grossed $26.3 million domestically during last night’s midnight screenings, ousting previous record-holder Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which earned just $22.2 million in its midnight run.

Frankly, I’m a little surprised to see Twilight surpassing Harry Potter already, given that as far as I know, Potter is an adolescent franchise boys and girls can geek out over, where the Twilight series is geared more exclusively to the fairer sex (and the subset of men interested in hairless wolfman man-chests). It could be argued that there’s a certain ‘boyfriend’ element to the equation, but then again, most of the die-hards out at midnight are saving themselves for Edward, no?

If memory serves, I remember hearing mixed reactions from fans and snide cynicism from detractors regarding the original film, but it’s hard to argue with the numbers. Twilight brought in nearly $400 million worldwide, and has had continued success in the DVD market. Call it the Star Wars effect. We all pay to see them, if only to hop on the internet to complain about them. Twilight saga, you’re next!

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