Whether or not shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force or The Simpsons succeeded in translating their television dynamics to the big screen depends on your point of view, but the release of Speed Racerthis weekend raises a more specific question about the viability of turning an animated series into a live action spectacle on the big screen. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkleand Underdog both suggest how this goal can go wrong -- namely, by imploding on its absurd conceits. You may disagree with the inclusion of some of the following titles, all of which culled their material from animation, but it's fair to say that each of them takes its subject matter at face value, allowing the natural ingredients of the original sources to remain intact. Well, maybe not Super Mario Bros., but that one is a special case (fire away, if you must). Until somebody makes an Animaniacs movie with real actors, I'm sticking to this list.
Robert Altman's offbeat ode to the famous Fleisher cartoon starring the spinach-eating strongman and his darling Olive Oil is the great misunderstood work of the director's career. Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall manage to bring utterly ridiculous characters into a realm of believability that you could never imagine when watching the show. Suddenly, Popeye made sense -- goofy, almost surreal sense, but sense nonetheless -- in the real world. Thanks to veteran adult cartoonist Jules Feiffer's screenplay and a soundtrack so catchy Paul Thomas Anderson borrowed from it twenty years later in Punch-Drunk Love, the classic status of Popeye can't be denied.
A good comeback is like a great third act in American lives; it's the triumphant return, the end of the story. James Cagney retired in 1961, then made a triumphant comeback in 1981 with Ragtime. But a good movie never deals with the aftermath of the comeback. Just as often as not, the comeback leads to nothing. Cagney died a few years after the hubbub. Though we all love a good comeback, the following is a list of comebacks that weren't the end of the story, and didn't provide the inspiring coda that they could have.
1. Sylvester Stallone in Cop Land (1997) Stallone's is one of the most fascinating, dramatic careers in cinema. His fame is so huge that his name and face -- or at least his characters -- are known the world over. He had a fairytale rise to fame with Rocky (1976), complete with tales of writing it in a weekend. He has a lot of charisma, and earned an Oscar nomination for acting. He has directed eight feature films and contributed to the screenplays for nearly twenty. People whisper about how smart and savvy he is behind the scenes.
The critics loved it, the audiences seem to dig it even more, and the sequel has officially claimed a 2010 release date already: This weekend we're all about the Iron Man. (I was gonna say "This weekend we're all about the iron, man," but it was way too corny.) So while we've already been promised the arrivals of characters called War Machine, Mandarin, and Nick Fury, I hope that the fine folks at Marvel Entertainment will consider tossing a few of these guys into the mix:
Alloy Boy-- Desperate to become Iron Man's first sidekick, young Alfred Loye decides to build himself a suit made of several disparate components. A big fan of TV dinners and collectible unicorns, Alfred fuses tin with pewter and creates an outfit that proves to be as effective as a suit made of tissue paper and smoke. His demise at Bessemer mansion inspires Tony Stark to avoid future sidekicks.
Irony Man -- Although he and Tony Stark shared similar talents for pith and witty banter, Irony Man proved to be an undeniably difficult ally to deal with. The two heroes had a massive falling out after, in a fit of rare sincerity, Irony Man referred to Stark's newest suit as "quite nice, actually." Irony Man was killed by Lord Caustic of Sardonica. His remains are buried in Sarr Chasm.
Vitamin Gal and the FEmales -- After depleting their planet of iron (in a matter of weeks) and fully convinced that Tony Stark is Earth's very source of the vital element, the five young women descend upon the tycoon's mansion and have one hell of a weekend. After learning that iron is in fact one of this planet's most prevalent components, they beat the living hell out of Stark, leaving only Vitamin Girl to hang out for a while. (She would eventually leave him for Centrum executive Frumay Tuzinc.)
Long before I was a Cinematical blogger, before I even went to college, I worked in the children's department of Barnes and Noble. It was a daily adventure, filled with germs, the beginning of the Harry Potter craze, impossible shelving arrangements, and fuzzy character suits (of which I was the inevitable wearer of). But I developed a real fondness for children's literature – or rather, rediscovered it, as I came across every book that had made me who I am today. And thanks to Harry Potter, not only are children's books doing bigger business than ever before, the trend has thankfully been towards literary adaptations on the big screen. So in honor of April's Nim's Island, May's Prince Caspian, and the eventual Where the Wild Things Are, here are the seven children's books that need to be put into production tomorrow. To my surprise, a few of these have already been made, but were either forgotten, badly made, or in need of a remake. (My opinion only -- and I apologize in advance if, say, 1969's version of My Side of the Mountain is one of your childhood favorites, you think it should remain untouched.)
I have to say, though, choosing only seven was incredibly difficult. It was a tough call between The Trumpet of the Swan and The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Jackaroo and The Black Cauldron. As I was writing it, friends and family kept throwing in even more selections. So I hope this reawakens the memories of your childhood favorites -- and I can't wait to hear about the ones you'd like to see onscreen too!
When I told a friend of mine that I was heading to a screening of Baby Mama, he immediately replied: "Oh, the Saturday Night Live movie?" Hmm -- well, sort of. The comedy -- which premiered at Tribeca and goes wide this weekend -- was produced by SNL honcho Lorne Michaels, and stars show veterans Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. On the other hand, it's not based on an SNL sketch, and doesn't feature any characters from the show.
Baby Mama's pre-release reputation as a "Saturday Night Live movie" probably isn't helpful: movies falling into that category don't have the best track record in the minds of people who pay attention. At the same time, the show has contributed a lot to the movies, mostly in its capacity as a breeding ground for comedic talent. This installment of Cinematical Seven collects films with an SNL connection that have actually been good, or in some way significant. I limited the pool to the last ten years; we all know that The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World are classics that started out as SNL sketches, but what has the show done for us lately?
Another year, another Tribeca Film Festival. I'm pretty excited about Tribeca this year, as they've obviously listened to all the complaints from last year and a) cut down their slate pretty significantly, and b) centralized the entire festival so that it's, technically, below 14th street. No, the Tribeca Film Festival is still not in Tribeca, but it does help that the screenings are in one or two locations and not spread out across the entire city. This, I hope, will give the fest a more personal vibe, like the one I've experienced at Sundance, SXSW and even Berlin.
What's there to look forward to this year at Tribeca? Well, aside from big premieres like Baby Mama, Speed Racer, Redbelt and War, Inc, there's a ton of tinier films that have caught my eye and teased me with their alluring plot descriptions. Here's seven -- wait, strike that -- eight films I'm really looking forward to ...
Starring William H. Macy, Cheryl Hines and Steve Kaplan, Bart Got a Room follows one dweeb-ish kid whose life turns upside down when the school's biggest loser secures not only a date to the prom before him, but also a hotel room. While our hero attempts to land his own prom date, his divorced (and eccentric) parents search, independently, for love. Not only am I sucker for nerdy, high school stories, but there's no way in hell I could resist a movie featuring William H. Macy rockin' a sweet Jew-fro.
"Are you okay?" "I'm disgusted and repulsed and ... I can't look away."
--Clerks II
After watching Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay with me, my husband remarked, "That may be the most deliberately offensive film I've seen." However, he also pointed out that he'd been laughing his head off most of the time. My first thought was that if the Harold and Kumar sequel was the most offensive thing he'd seen in awhile, maybe he needed to go to QT Fest with me next time, or watch some of those bizarre midnight movies at Alamo Drafthouse. (And what, did he forget we saw Borat together last year?)
But afterwards, I started wondering ... how many intentionally offensive comedies have we seen and loved? I'm not thinking about provocative or transgressive films that try to make you stop and think about your life. I'm talking about movies that, when they succeed, evoke that amazing moment in which your jaw has plummeted to the floor in disbelief as a bubble of laughter starts to force its way out of you and will send you to the floor along with your dropped jaw, in hysteria. I'll put up with revolting, sacrilegious, and downright repellent content in a film if it makes me laugh hard enough. Can I think of seven movies that meet such a high standard for offensive comedy? It's more like seven times seven, and difficult to pick only a few of my favorites. Feel free to share any movies that you think I neglected to include -- bear in mind that in some cases, I simply didn't like the movie enough to get past the offensive bits (the Jackass films), or although I liked the movie, wasn't offended (The Aristocrats).
After this weekend hits, I wouldn't be surprised if Forgetting Sarah Marshall becomes the quintessential break-up movie. But even if it doesn't, the comedy will go down in the record books for being that romcom about the really heart-broken and pissed off dude whose story lathered ad spaces everywhere with lovely messages like: "You Suck Sarah Marshall," and made Sarah Marshalls across the US wonder what they did to deserve that.
But there's still a ton of other flicks out there that deal with break-ups -- way too many to even begin to name. But while each of them has heartbreak on their sleeve, they all tackle the issue in different ways. In honor of Peter Bretter's broken heart, here are seven other men who have had their hearts broken on-screen, all for the sake of comedy. Check these out and then weigh in with your favorites. Annie Hall? The Break-Up? The Philadelphia Story? Say Anything? Swingers?
Wyatt Tripps (Paul Rudd) didn't want much in his happy co-ed experience, just Kimberly Jasney (Christine Taylor)... and one more thing: sex. Imagine his surprise when he finds out that while he's been writing Kim romantic notes and thinking about how much he'll miss her on Valentine's Day, she's been humping the Ricker -- a notion that ruins his dream of white picket fences, kids, and maybe even a house. Sure, he ends up on a spastic road trip with Ivy Miller (Reese Witherspoon) to stop the letter with loving phrases like "cellulite-packed cactuses that you call thighs," and finds real love, but before that, he has a good cry in his cocoa and a lot of humiliation.
One of the scenes in Forgetting Sarah Marshall that people will be talking about over the virtual water cooler next week is the one that involves Jason Segel doing full frontal nudity. Yes, he lets it all hang out, and what's admirable is that he does it purely for the sake of a joke. That takes courage! That takes guts! That takes ... well, you know.
This isn't the first film to use nudity for laughs, of course. Comical naughty bits have a rich history in Hollywood. Here are seven movies with hilarious nudity.
What happens when men in blue, sworn to protect and to serve, fly out of control? If we're lucky, we get a good movie out of it. If we're really lucky, we get a larger than life character to cheer and to fear. Are you feeling lucky, punk?
Keanu Reaves, of all people, will follow in the steel-toed shoes of some of cinema's finest as a cop who goes on an avenging rampage in David Ayer's Street Kings, which opens tomorrow. That made me reflect on my favorite out of control cinematic cops, men in blue who break free from the laws of god and man. Let us know who we missed in the comments section. But be nice, or we'll track you down and crack you over the head with a night stick.
Clint is so cool as Harry Callahan that he can just glare at bad guys and they give themselves up. Dirty Harry never met a criminal he couldn't beat up, a sergeant he couldn't hate, or a partner he couldn't get killed. He can't help it: he married justice a long time ago and the blind old bat won't leave him alone until he takes out the garbage. Don't even think about getting in his way: he solved the Zodiac killings in 102 minutes! Dirty Harry paved the way for several sequels and countless gruff, lone wolf outlaw police detectives.
British rock journalist Nick Kent perfectly summed up pop music by nothing how the best rock combines the Byronic and the moronic. That uneasy mix of poetry and poses, swagger and stagger, makes rock and roll ripe for mockery -- and, with Walk Hardarriving on DVD this week, what better time to name a few great comedies that have mocked rock and punctured the pretensions of pop? 1) Walk Hard
Starring John C. Reilly as roots-rocker Dewey Cox, Walk Hard doesn't just stick a foot out to trip up Walk the Line; it also manages to spoof The Beatles, Brian Wilson, Elvis and much more. (Indeed, Walk Hard follows such a carefully-crafted timeline as it travels through pop music history, it almost feels like a second take on the brilliant, underseen Grace of My Heart, another film that spanned decades through musical styles.) With a brilliant supporting cast and Reilly's cement-headed self-centered performance in the lead role, Walk Hard is that rare parody that nonetheless still loves what it mocks.
Best Line: "Wait a minute, son: Dewey Cox has to think about his whole life before he performs. ..."
Just about anyone who follows horror has bemoaned the sorry state of the genre these days. Nearly everything is a remake, either of some 1970s or 1980s classic or of some recent Asian hit. The rare films that aren't remakes are simply lazy copies of whatever worked a year earlier, the current "torture porn" subgenre, for example. And hardly anything screens for the press, which means that even the studios now understand how low things have sunk.
The new film The Ruins likewise isn't screening for the press, but it is based -- of all things -- on an actual book! With pages! It's by Scott B. Smith, who many years ago wrote both the book and screenplay for the excellent A Simple Plan. The new movie inspired me to look up other literary-based horror movies (whether inspired by novels or short stories). Sadly, aside from Stephen King and the upcoming Midnight Meat Train (based on Clive Barker's short story), I couldn't find much good recent work, but there is plenty to choose from ...
With every passing day, I see more and more movie fans say that they don't go to the movie theater anymore, because their home theater system is just as good, or better. I say: bull pucky. Unless you're uber-rich and have your own personal theater with a huge, perfect screen, stadium seating, and perfect surround sound, it's just not the same. Comparable maybe -- but you're still giving up a lot of the experience.
Going to the movie theater may have its downfalls (ringing cell phones, armrest hogs, screaming kids), but it also has its perks -- it can be a big, fun, communal experience. Popcorn. Laughter. And just sometimes, the armrests can rise for back-of-the-theater canoodling.
Still, if you have a great home theater system, or even an old television that you love to watch movies on, I say make it as close to the real thing as possible. It's not hard, it doesn't have to be expensive, and it just might make your screening room the place to see movies.
In Drillbit Taylor (which opens tomorrow), three kids hire a low-budget bodyguard (Owen Wilson) to help protect them from the school's bully. This got us thinking: What are some of the great on-screen bullies? Those kids you just love to root against because they're written extremely well, offer up top-notch performances and/or remind you of someone from your past. A bully is different from your average movie villain -- they don't tend to carry lethal weapons, or run with a group of deadly terrorists. These are just regular kids with a little too much power thrown their way. Your run-of-the-mill Hollywood bully usually hangs with a group of about two of three of the same sex; guys or girls who don't have many lines, and serve only to make the main bully appear tougher.
Ideally, a great movie bully should have one or more of the following: 1) At least three classic lines. 2) A memorable downfall. 3) Hottie girlfriend or boyfriend. 4.) A name that just says it all.
We put our heads together and came up with seven of the greatest bullies on film. Check them out after the jump ...
With No Country For Old Men coming to DVD next Tuesday (3/11) in the final paces of the film's victory lap, it seems like a good time to note that when one of the film's Oscars went to Best Supporting Actor Javier Bardem, it came as the logical conclusion of a long-established fact for many Coen watchers: the brothers have a Midas touch when it comes to supporting parts -- writing them, casting them, directing them. Throughout their career, the writing-directing duo of Joel and Ethan Coen have always peppered their films with brief, brisk parts that both famous and lesser-known actors have turned into standout moments. Here, then, is a list of seven truly great Coen Brothers supporting parts, as well as runners-up from each film. As ever, these lists are highly subjective, and our comments section below awaits your thoughts. ...
In Miller's Crossing (for my money, the the most overlooked and under-appreciated film in the Coen canon) the brothers pull a balancing act; they not only refuse, refute and re-invent gangster film styles, plots and archetypes, but they also freshen, fire up and fulfill those gangster film styles, plots and archetypes. So it is with J.E. Freeman's Eddie Dane, a fearsome tough guy whose simple, shark-like capacity for murder and mayhem drives the plot and whose complicated private life adds a few twists to the finale. Much is made of John Turturro's work in this film (as it should be) but it's The Dane who keeps sticking out in my mind whenever I re-visit Miller's Crossing, a small, self-contained example of why the film as a whole is so good.
(Runners-up: Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro), Vera Bernbaum (Marcia Gay Harden) and Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito).
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Full 'G.I. Joe' Cast Photos!
