TheMerryGentleman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Up
If there is one disc sure to fly off shelves this week, it's this one. The Pixar film made instant fans out of most viewers, and agonizingly ripped the rest of our hearts out with the love story opening. In her review, Jette Kernion said Up is "a very good movie that defies demographic categorization." By now, your minds are probably made, but if not: Buy it. Also on Blu-ray.

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The Ugly Truth
How do you follow up comments about Knocked Up being a little bit sexist? By producing and starring in a film that teaches a smart and successful woman the "ugly truth" of life from a notorious chauvinist, naturally. In his review, Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote that this romcom "actually knows next to nothing about dating advice, the behaviors of men and women, or much of anything else romantically human." Skip it and save yourself. Also on Blu-ray.

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Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut
We all knew this was coming -- the step above the director's cut, the disc for uberfans of the graphic novel -- a version of the film with all of The Black Freighter interspersed as it was in print. Grab this, and you should have everything you need from the big-screen cinematic experience. If you adore all things Watchmen, Buy it. Also on Blu-ray.

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The Accidental Husband
When he wasn't spending time in Watchmen's blood and carnage, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was becoming Uma Thurman's Accidental Husband. Another one of those floofy romcoms, this flick takes Uma back to her Cats and Dogs days, but this time, she gets the radio show and the man. I imagine. Do you care? Skip it.

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Also out: Robsessed, Love Finds a Home, A Christmas Proposal, The Christmas Clause, Spread, Summer's Moon, The Echo, Hurt, The Gambler, the Girl and the Gunslinger, The Line, Bad Guys

The 18th annual Florida Film Festival ended a week ago last night, and do you want to know why our coverage of the fest is going up just now? Because I'm selfish and wanted to catch up with as many of the forty or so features as possible, even after the awards had been announced and everyone had gone home (for the record, I managed to miss each and every winning film -- Prince of Broadway, The Garden, Prodigal Sons, Neil Young: Don't Be Denied, and the exceedingly popular Poundcake -- and am kicking myself still).

However, between the appearances by Ken Russell, Glenn Close, and Jon Voight (oh, my!), I did manage to catch my fair share of world, regional, and local premieres at this celebration of Original Cinema, and you can see what we saw after the jump.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive trailer for The Merry Gentleman, starring Michael Keaton and Kelly Macdonald. Not only does Keaton star here, but it's also his directorial debut -- and with it he gives us a story about a suicidal hitman (Keaton) who forms an unlikely friendship with a woman he finds underneath a Christmas tree. In his positive review from last year's Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical's Scott Weinberg called The Merry Gentleman a "crime drama that brings a strange sense of warmth, dark humor, and even some odd romance to a potentially dreary tale" -- adding that Keaton does "a fantastic job on both sides of the camera," creating "a straightforward "people" story, albeit one with a little more brains than usual."

On a personal note, we're all huge Michael Keaton fans here at Cinematical -- we're pumped to see the man back in action and honored to premiere the trailer for his directorial debut. The Merry Gentleman arrives in theaters on May 1.



To view a larger version of this trailer, click here.

Before I had ever attended the Sundance Film Festival, I imagined the event as this small mountain town overrun with an abundance of celebrities, who could be seen just walking around, outnumbering the actual moviegoers. Why? Because that's what a lot of the media concentrates on. And yes, when I did finally attend, I was able to spend five minutes walking up Main Street, in which little time I walked past Evan Rachel Wood, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tom Arnold and others. Sure, they weren't the biggest names, but it seemed my imagined world actually existed. Of course, most of the big celebs are probably not walking around so casually. But I wouldn't know; the rest of the fest I spent my time watching 37 features, mostly far away from Main Street and the celebs, inside the Yarrow Hotel's press screening rooms.

For many attendees, though, it's all about the celeb sightings and the big-name movies, of which Sundance seems to premiere more and more of each year. However, 2007 didn't seem to have as many popular titles (as far as I noticed from my non-attending standpoint). In contrast, the 2008 festival appears to have more stars than the Academy Awards ceremony. Some of the big films that will be premiering or screening this year include Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind, Barry Levinson's What Just Happened?, Morgan Spurlock's new doc Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, Michael Haneke's Funny Games (U.S.), George Romero's Diary of the Dead and the directorial debut of Michael Keaton, The Merry Gentleman. And, for the sightseers, some of the attending stars include Robert DeNiro, Sean Penn, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis, Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page, Ben Kingsley, Ewan McGregor, Sean Combs, Julianne Moore, Charlize Theron, Brian Cox, John Malkovich, Matthew Broderick, Jacqueline Bisset, Meg Ryan, Jack Black and Mia Farrow.

For the rest, head over to Variety for the full list of films and of course their big-name casts.

I went to see White Noise for precisely one reason -- and it wasn't because I thought the concept of "EVP" was screaming out for its very own "psychological thriller." I walked in because I've been a big fan of Michael Keaton since the Mr. Mom days. (Or if you really want to get obscure, it was since the Working Stiffs days.) I figured Noise was the first time I'd get to see Keaton in a leading role since, what, Jack Frost -- and I didn't want to miss it. Long story short: Keaton was fine, the movie ... not so much.

But here's some good news: According to Production Weekly, Mr. Keaton will not only star in the indie drama The Merry Gentleman; he'll be making his directorial debut, too! Newcomer Keith Kupferer will co-star with the one-time Batman, and production is scheduled to begin in Chicago next month. That's pretty much all the news we have so far, but Keaton's cool enough to warrant this kind of attention.