Fearless Tagged Articles at Cinematical

All the King's Men -- An all-star cast delivers an all-night snoozer. Sean Penn's spittle-intensive tirades aside, there's just not a whole lot to enjoy here. Extras include five featurettes, some deleted scenes and a really terrible front cover.

American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile -- It's official: "American Pie" is officially the new "National Lampoon." I mean, how creative do you have to be to make an entire movie out of ONE Van Wilder joke? Extra wackiness includes frat-style featurettes, deleted scenes and oh-so-uproarious outtakes.

Fearless and Invincible -- One's a Jet Li kick-fest period piece, the other's a Marky Wahlberg Philly-based football flick. I just like the way the titles sound together.

Lady in the Water -- I really love that he shoots in Philly, but this Shyamalan dude is getting pretty silly. (Six-part behind-the-scenes documentary, featurette, deleted scenes, audition footage, gag reel, trailer.)

Little Miss Sunshine -- One of the year's best indies is slowly turning into a dark-horse Oscar pick. (I'm betting on Best Screenplay and Best Arkin.) Extras include a filmmaker commentary, four alternate endings, music video and trailers.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend -- Underrated rom-com that's sure to find a home on DVD. Uma's dreamy, Luke Wilson is actually funny, and there's some goofy FX stuff too. Extras include a music video and some deleted scenes.

National Lampoon's Pledge This! -- Good god! An American Pie AND a National Lampoon on the same day? And this one stars Paris Hilton? Are we being punished for something??

A Scanner Darkly -- Linklater's finely freaky rendition of P.K. Dick's short story will earn love and scorn in equal measure ... but I'm pretty much split right down the middle. Perhaps the multi-participant commentary track will decipher some of the mysteries, plus there's a pair of featurettes and some trailers.

Step Up -- Wait, is this the one about gymnastics? Volleyball? Girl surfers? No, wait. It's dancing! Yeah, teenagers who step up and dance! Yeah, go dancers. Anyway, extras include a filmmaker commentary, some deleted scenes, bloopers, featurettes and MySpace tie-ins.

The Wicker Man -- Neil La Bute went temporarily crazy and decided to remake one of the all-time cult-classic creepers. Why he did it is still sort of a mystery to me, even if I was one of the very few film critics who actually enjoyed (part of) this remake. Extras include a filmmaker commentary, some trailers and an all-new ending that wasn't seen in theaters ... as if the theatrical-version epilogue wasn't silly enough.

This week I was in the mood for a stream-of-consciousness rant:

It's apparently still a big secret that, just as certain films are marketed to teenage boys, other films are marketed specifically to the critics, with the long view set squarely on Oscar night. These films come with a professional polish, and usually contain 20 or 30 minutes of extra footage. They practically scream "Oscar," but most critics can't seem to hear. Roger Ebert, even after 40 years of experience, was fooled into voting for Crash as the best picture of 2005, a decision that I'm sure helped to fuel Oscar voters. And Peter Travers practically lines up the ten most likely Oscar nominees every year in his December list.

Films like All the King's Men and the other shoo-ins for award consideration are screened in advance, plenty of times, for hungry critics. Basically it's the studios and advertisers who are deciding which of these films get the awards push. Frankly, I'd sooner vote for Borat, Snakes on a Plane or Ultraviolet for Best Picture than All the King's Men, The Last King of Scotland (56 screens), Copying Beethoven (26 screens) or others of that ilk.

When you think about some of the best and most dynamic martial arts action films of the last twenty years, what films come to mind? Some of the ones I think about include The Legend of Drunken Master, Police Story, Fist of Legend and the recent Fearless. These films feature some of the most exciting and innovative martial-arts action ever captured on film and are true classics of the genre.

These films wouldn't have achieved the iconic status they now enjoy (at least in my mind) if it were not for their exceptionally talented stars: Jackie Chan and Jet Li. In each of their films, these masters of fist, sword and other household objects demonstrate why they are regarded as the top stars of the martial arts action genre. Each man is so good in his own films, and brings so much to the table every time he makes a film, it's hard to imagine what he could possibly do to top himself.

Well, I think they might have figured out a way. According to a recent Variety article (and our previous reporting), Chan and Li have joined forces and will star together for the first time in a film for Relativity Media and producer Casey Silver. The $70 million action-adventure, dubbed The J&J Project, is being directed by Robert Minkoff (of The Lion King and Stuart Little) and scripted by John Fusco (of Young Guns and the recent Hidalgo). Li will play the dual roles of the monkey king and the silent monk in the film, which tells the story of the legend of the monkey king and his quest for immortality. Chan will play the monk T'sa-Ho, whose duty will put him in conflict with the monkey king's plans.

As if the paring of these two martial arts superstars in a new film isn't reason enough to be happy, it looks like we have even one more reason -- martial arts choreography superstar Yuen Woo-Ping (of The Matrix and the recent Fearless) will be creating the action sequences for the film. With this combination of talent in front of and behind the camera, it looks like The J&J Project is shaping up and may be destined to take its place among the top films of the martial arts action genre. Shooting on the film is expected to start in April.

What do you think? Is this movie destined to become a martial arts action classic?

From looking at this weekend's box office numbers, it's quite obvious parents were desperate to get the kids out of the house and into a nice, comfy darkened theater. The animated flick Open Season (starring Ashton Kutcher and Martin Lawrence) topped all with $23 million, while Kutcher's live-action pic The Guardian sank into second place taking home a decent $17.7 million.

Both Kutcher films proved to be a bit too much for Johnny Knoxville and friends, as Jackass: Number Two (last week's number one) slid all the way down to third place with a crisp $14 million. However, I'm sure they're not complaining about a sweet 10-day total of $51.5 million. Not a whole lot of folks were interested in yet another dorky Jon Heder performance ( I know I wasn't), as School for Scoundrels opened in fourth with $9.1 million, and Jet Li's Fearless rounded out the top five with $4.7 million. It's also important to note that The Queen (which debuted Saturday on three screens in NYC) took home a ridiculous $123,000 in just two days, while The Last Kind of Scotland (four theaters in NYC and LA) nabbed $143,252.

Full numbers after the jump.

Rumors have been flying that Jet Li is retiring after Fearless, but loyal fans should not worry. He's only finished making wushu films (i.e. films about his own personal fighting style). He has revealed in interviews that he has said everything he's ever going to say on the topic in Fearless.

As a result, Fearless is a dual-edged sword, but both sides cut equally sharp. Li once again impresses viewers with his astonishing physical prowess, but the message here is that all the opponents in the world mean nothing; it's your own true self that is your greatest enemy. (Li has said that "wushu" literally translates into "stop war." People get the "war" or "fight" part, but don't quite understand the "stop" part.)

Along those same lines, Li -- as well as many of his martial arts contemporaries -- is usually misinterpreted as a tough guy, a superbad fighter that can kick any behind in the room. But in reality, he's a poet, a dancer with the grace and sophistication of a Fred Astaire. Moreover, Li shares the same critical reception as most dancers or comedians, or artists who accomplish their cinematic work through physical means; he is ignored. But I maintain that in Fearless he has given performances worthy of awards.

If you've been waiting with bated breath to see Jet Li's Fearless (and really, who among us isn't?), you're just gonna have to sit back on your haunches and wait a bit longer. The film scored US distrib waaaaaaay back in February, after kicking ass at the box offices in Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia. The film has already faced a lawsuit by the grandson of martial arts master Huo Yuanjia, on whose life the fictional film was roughly based, who claims that the film takes liberties with his grandfather's life story (to be fair, the film is a drama, not a documentary).

The film was set to release August 4, but has now been pushed back to September 22. One would presume, since the film has already shown theatrically, that the delay is not a post-production problem, so what might be the reason for the delay? There are several other films opening on August 4. I would assume they aren't worried about competing with Barnyard, so perhaps they didn't want to open against The Night Listener, The Descent, or Will Farrell vehicle Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Anyhow, this is, rumor has it, Jet Li's best film in years (and maybe even the last film in which you'll get to see him do martial arts). If you're a Jet Li fan, you'll probably go see the film regardless of when it screens, yes? So go pencil in September 22, and if there are further changes, we'll keep you apprised.

A few changes have been made to the release dates for some upcoming films. So, in case you're interested in that sort of thing (admit it, you're a release date nut!), stick around and check out the following:

• Those of you itching to catch Jessica Simpson ruin another movie with her horrible acting skills won't have to wait as long anymore seeing as the release date for Employee of the Month has been moved up from September 29 to September 15. The comedy (which currently sports some brand new posters) also stars Dane Cook and Dax Shepard.
• No one knows what's going on with the upcoming Pulse, except that the film has swapped more dates than Lindsay Lohan. Originally, pic was supposed to hit theaters on July 14, only to have its release pushed back to September 8. Now, it seems they've settled into August 8, though, with still a month to go, chances are this puppy will be heading somewhere else. We'll keep you posted.
• The supposed last martial arts-related film in Jet Li's career also has a new release date. Yeah, and Sean Connery is really retiring too. C'mon Jet, you'll be back kicking ass in no time -- just admit it already. Li's Fearless has been pushed back to September 22 after originally settling down to an early August bow.
• Man, and here I was really looking forward to a new werewolf flick. Seriously, I was. I like werewolves. They're cute. Anyway, something is up with the new flick Skinwalkers, as its release date has been pushed back from December to sometime in April 2007. Either production is running long or the filmmakers want to wait until the season's change and the sun stays out longer. Yeah, that joke failed. I'm out of here.

The grandson of Kung-Fu master Huo Yuanjia, portrayed by Jet Li in his new film, Fearless, filed a lawsuit last week against the film's producers and distributors in an effort to halt Fearless' release. According to Huo Shoujin (who, by the way, along with the elder Huo's sons and other grandsons, doesn't exist in the film - Li's Huo has no decedents), the film "contains numerous fabrications about his grandfather's life and besmirches his reputation," though the lawsuit offers no specifics about said fabrications and besmirchments. The decedents of the elder Huo have previously complained about film's depiction of his upbring as posh, whereas in fact their grandfather was poor as a boy. Huo is demanding both a "written apology," and that the film be pulled from release (it's already out in a lot of Asian territories, and will hit Japan, the US, Germany, Korea, and France later this year).

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but it's always been my understanding that filmmakers are allowed to take a whole lot of license with their fictional projects. Hell, if the all-powerful William Randolph Hearst couldn't stop Citizen Kane (at least not through legal channels), it's unlikely this case will go anywhere. At least, it better not - if courts started to set precedents whereby the relatives of those portrayed in fiction films control content via lawsuits, all hell would break loose.*

*The angry cannibal case from earlier this month is different, because that decision was based not on the film's content, but on the fact that its presence in the public discourse might affect an on-going trial.

Rogue Pictures, a genre division of Focus Features, has picked up the American rights to Jet Li's latest hit, Fearless. The film, which dominated the box offices of Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia when it opened last weekend, is the story of martial arts legend Huo Yuanjia and his "triumph...in his personal and physical battles to become the most famous Chinese fighter around the turn of the 20th century."

Working against the film's potential success in the US, however, are a couple of obstacles. First of all, Rogue's track record is awful. Of the nine films (including Unleashed, which also starred Li) they have distributed to this point, only one - Shaun of the Dead - has been successful. Though I respect them a ton for picking up Orgazmo, it's hard to call it (or, for example, Seed of Chucky and Trippin', both of which Rogue also released) a good movie. Another potential stumbling block is the fact that so few Americans are familiar with Huo Yuanjia that his story could prove to be a hard sell. On the other hand, the film looks exciting, and Li has a solid base of followers. In addition, the rumor that this will be his last martial arts role may make that base even bigger than it already is.

Rogue plans to have Fearless in theaters, well, some time between now and 2007. We'll try to keep you posted.