FredDurst Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Review: The Longshots
Filed under: Sports », New Releases », MGM », Theatrical Reviews », Family Films »
Last year I saw Gracie, a movie about a teenage girl who wants to play high-school soccer in the late 1970s, when the game was considered a males-only sport in America, and faces a lot of opposition from her school. I finished my review with the line, "If it were football, would we be agreeing more with Gracie's opponents?" The Longshots gives us the opportunity to consider that question. Can we sympathize with, and cheer on, a girl who wants to succeed as a quarterback in an all-boys' football league? The answer is yes, because The Longshots focuses on characters and personal relationships and as a result, feels richer and more satisfying than the standard sports-genre film.
The story is simple and except for the girl-quarterback angle, old-fashioned in a Capra-esque way. Jasmine (Keke Palmer) is a middle-school loner and misfit in a small town hit by economic troubles. Her mom Claire (Tasha Smith) has to work longer hours at the diner -- dad ditched town and family several years ago -- and Jasmine is still too young to be left alone after school. So Claire pleads, nags and finally bribes her husband's brother Curtis (Ice Cube), an unemployed ex-football player, to keep an eye on his niece Jasmine. Of course they can't stand each other at first, but eventually Curtis discovers that Jasmine has an excellent throwing arm and teaches her how to be a quarterback. Meanwhile, the town's playground football team is languishing, and one thing they're missing is a decent quarterback, sooo ...
A Trailer for Fred Durst's Football Movie
Filed under: Comedy », Trailers and Clips »
What fresh hell is this? Rapper and rabblerouser Fred Durst gets a chance to make a movie, and he comes up with... a heartwarming tale of a girl who wants to play football, and the underdog team that she joins? Starring Ice Cube? There's a trailer for The Longshots here, but it's... how do you say... uninspiring. Part of it could be the insufferable voiceover ("he was a hero who lost his way; she was a loner who didn't belong" -- you don't say), but really the entire thing looks like, oh, every movie ever made. Every underdog sports movie ever made, anyway, and God knows there are plenty of them.A bit disappointing from the man who once called Creed's Scott Stapp a "f****ing punk" on stage. This isn't Durst's directorial debut -- that would be The Education of Charlie Banks, which played last year's Tribeca and won the award for Best Movie Made in New York. It was about a cat-and-mouse game between a bully and the kid who put him in jail years earlier. I didn't see it, but it sounds like a much grittier film. The Longshots is just weird -- there's no particular reason for Durst to have become a Hollywood hack-for-hire, so one would think he has some emotional connection to this project. I wonder what it could be.
Ice Cube's Back in Rated R Form with 'Janky Promoters'
Filed under: Comedy », Music & Musicals », Deals », The Weinstein Co. »
So today is the day I officially feel old. Variety reports that Ice Cube has made a deal with Dimension Films for his comedy script Janky Promoters; a title that had me running to Urban Dictionary to figure out what the heck 'Janky' meant. But mid-life crisis aside, back to the real news: Cube will be producing the film along with Dimension and his partner Matt Alvarez, and will also star.The story centers on two hip-hop promoters who are given the chance to put together an all-star show in California. When the two discover that they are in way over their heads, wackiness ensues. Bob Weinstein tells Variety, "This feels a lot like Uptown Saturday Night to me, a caper film where you have these music promoters who are slightly shady but are good enough guys that you root for them, this is going to be R-rated, and it appeals right to the core of Cube's audience." Thankfully, Cube is getting out of the kiddie flick business (at least for now) and Promoters is his first script since the Friday series finished back in 2002.
Keke Palmer Becomes a QB and Gets an Uncle Ice Cube
Filed under: Drama », Sports », Casting »
Do you remember the news that Fred Durst was working on his second directorial gig, a sports drama called Comeback? Well, for some reason, the film is now untitled (why change it to untitled when you at least have a working title!?), and it's got a cast to boot. But first, to refresh your memory: Ice Cube signed on to star in and produce the film, which is about a young, female quarterback named Jasmine Plummer who became the first girl to play in the Pop Warner football tournament. Cube had picked the role of Plummer's uncle and mentor.Now Reuters reports that Keke Palmer has signed on to star as Jasmine. You might remember her from Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, or more likely, as the spelling fiend in Akeelah and the Bee. She's going to be joined by Tasha Smith (Why Did I Get Married?), Jill Marie Jones (Girlfriends), Matt Craven (Disturbia), and Garret Morris (The Jamie Foxx Show). Oh yeah, and Dash Mihok, who I left separate because, well, I have a soft spot for Benvolio, and I wanted to give him his own sentence.
Anyhow... There you have it. Comeback is still on its way, just as a different yet-to-be-released/decided name. In the meantime, I'm still waiting to see Durst's first -- The Education of Charlie Banks.
Anchor Bay Will Bring Us 'Charlie Banks'
Filed under: Drama », Deals », Distribution »
While Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is already moving onto his second cinematic feature, a sports drama starring Ice Cube, many of us are still anxious to see what he made of his first, The Education of Charlie Banks. A few years ago, he was telling people he was a "real director" before he had even made the feature. Then, it sounded like the statement might have been more than pompous boasting -- beyond a cast headlined by the wonderful Jesse Eisenberg (Roger Dodger) and Eva Amurri (Saved!), Variety gave the film a solid review from Tribeca earlier this year. Now, finally, the film has been picked up for distribution.The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Anchor Bay has picked up the North American theatrical and DVD rights to the debut, for release this spring. It's a coming-of-age drama starring Eisenberg as a high school student who sees a bully (Jason Ritter) severely beat two kids at a party. Years after telling the police and reneging his testimony, he enters college and the bully shows up at his school, becoming part of his circle. Of course, the kid wonders what the bully's motives are, and whether Ritter's character is there for revenge. Between curiosity over Durst's directorial chops, and this cast, I'll be there to check it out, but what about you? Will Durst's name make you run to the theater? Keep you from it? Or is his involvement irrelevant?
Fill-In-The-Blank: Thursday, April 13th
Filed under: Action », Gay & Lesbian », Music & Musicals », Podcasts », Tom Cruise », Fill-In-The-Blank »
As New
York frantically prepares for the arrival of Tom Cruise (by speedboat, no less!), McDonald's has bigger (Filet O') fish to
fry. Also: felons are getting their Fiddy, and Fred Durst is totally getting his directorial debut on, beeyotch.
Get the podcast
[Watch] Online (please make sure you
have the latest version of Quicktime for best results).
[iTunes] Subscribe to
the Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS] Add the
Cinematical Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator to have all of Cinematical's rich content delivered
automatically.
Hosts
Karina Longworth
Editor
Randall Bennett
Music
Love as Laughter - I'm
a bee
Format
5:30, 32 MB, MPEG4 (iPod / PSP compatible)
Program
00:00 - Cruise is coming to town!
02:04 - Bizkit's Durst sez' he's the
next Scorsese
02:49 - McDonalds preparing Fast Food Nation counterattack
03:52 - While
Brokeback ain't fit for prisons, 50 Cent's masterpiece apparently is
At Long Last: That Fred Durst Feature
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Casting », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
As I'm sure you all remember, late last year Fred Durst told MTV about his rather impressive cinematic ambitions. And
I quote: "I want to
be beside Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson and Francis Ford Coppola. I'm a real
director." Make no mistake about it, haters, Durst has big plans. And now, finally, The Education of Charlie Banks, Durst's long-discussed feature
debut, is going ahead. The movie, which has a budget of about $10 million, was written by Peter Elkoff, and revolves
around "a Vassar College [Holla!] student who gets an unannounced visit from the scariest kid from his old New
York neighborhood." (What Vassar has to do with it is anyone's guess, but I'm preparing to be offended.)Durst has scored a surprisingly solid young cast for his film, including Jesse Eisenberg (the big brother from The Squid and the Whale), who will play Banks, and two of the shockingly talented male leads from Joan of Arcadia, Jason Ritter and Chris Marquette. The movie starts filming this June and, with those stars and a $10 million budget, Durst has a great start on that movie career of his. He better not screw it up, dammit.
Movie Popcorn is Bad for You? Who Knew?_thumbnail.jpg)
'New Moon' Smashes 'Dark Knight's' Opening Day Record!
Black Friday Movie Deals: Best Buy
Sex and Nudity Don't Draw You to the Movies?
What Makes a Real Vampire?
_thumbnail.jpg)
