bad news bears Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Sequelicious: 'Mean Girls 2', 'Road Trip 2', 'Naked Gun' and More!
Filed under: Home Entertainment », Remakes and Sequels »
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the video store, a whole new line of sequels threatens to crowd the new release shelves. Paramount Famous Prods. announced plans to raid the libraries of Paramount, Paramount Vantage, DreamWorks, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies in search of source material to sequelize, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Projects already in development include sequels to Mean Girls, Road Trip, The Naked Gun, Bad News Bears and Grease. First out of the gate will be Without a Paddle: Nature's Calling, due out in early 2009.
If you're saying to yourself, "Wait a minute, haven't some of these movies already been sequel-ized, sometimes more than once?" the answer is yes. (Naked Gun, Bad News Bears, Grease). If you're then wondering, "Why more sequels?" the answer is, as Deep Throat told Bob Woodward, "Follow the money." The unit is headed by Louis Feola, who formerly ran Universal Studios Home Entertainment, which made three direct-to-video sequels to American Pie and three to Bring It On. Each sold between one to two million copies, translating into many millions of dollars without the risks and expense of thearical distribution.
I have absolutely no problem with low-budget productions that trade on their resemblance to well-known titles, as long as they're smartly made with a degree of fun, intelligence, and style. That's been in short supply lately in the direct-to-video productions I've seen. We'll see what happens when Paramount Famous starts releasing their line in earnest starting in 2010, at a pace of five to six films annually.
Discuss: Movies That Deserved a Different Rating
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Celebrities and Controversy », Fandom », Exhibition »
Over the past few weeks, movie ratings have been a popular topic for discussion. While Kevin Smith's upcoming Zack and Miri Make a Porno appealed an NC-17 rating (and won), The Dark Knight was enjoying a record-setting box office take and a pretty controversial PG-13 rating. Once again, we ask: Why is sex more inappropriate than violence? Should raunchy language and a few "thrusts" be condemned while a dude with half his face falling off and a psychopathic, murderous clown get off practically unscathed? And are there other issues at work here? Does a film with a giant budget and an all-star cast get it "easier" than a smaller film with a lesser-known cast and a director who chain smokes profanity?
No doubt there are shady politics at play here (as is all over this fine country of ours), and over the years there have been a number of films that deserved a different rating. Over on OMG Lists, they currently have up a list of six wrongly rated movies; films that, for one reason or another, deserved either a lower or a higher rating. It's a weird system, for sure -- these days, if you're a comedy, you kinda want that 'R' rating because your box office take will most likely be higher. However, if you're a horror flick, you want to try for a PG-13. Strange world we live in ...
But anyway, among the films featured on their list are Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which, at the time, received an R-rating because of a few profanity-laced scenes, but totally could've gotten away with a PG-13. Or what about Jaws ... with its PG rating! Hey, it's a film about a giant shark that devours people -- bring the whole family!
Todd Phillips Says Goodbye to Romance
Filed under: Comedy », Deals », Warner Brothers », Newsstand »
I used to have such high hopes for Todd Phillips. Not only was Old School a film so funny that I literally watched it repeatedly for days, its success was not caused solely on the talents of its cast -- which is the case with so many comedies these days. Phillips actually showed promise as a director, too. Then came the wretched Starsky & Hutch, which couldn't even be helped by its cast, and now coming this week is School for Scoundrels, which really can't make up for its casting of the bland monotony of Jon Heder. So, I for one am excited about his returning to Old School for a sequel, if it moves forward.If it doesn't, Phillips' production company has a project about Russian brides at Warners (previously at Miramax) based on David Benioff's article "Goodbye to Romance", originally published in the magazine Arena. Phillips isn't set to direct the movie, which has a treatment written by E. Max Frye, but with Old School Dos, a remake called Men, a film listed on his IMDb paged called The Dogs of Babel and the postcards-from-god movie The Disassociate, it is obvious that his plate is already overfilled. If he does go with this film, though, I suggest he casts Vince Vaughn and Billy Bob Thornton (who probably doesn't really need another character in the style of Bad Santa/Bad News Bears/School for Scoundrels) as the men who go to Russia in search of women to wed.
Welcome Back, Jackie Earle Haley!
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Casting »
If you're someone who grew up in the 1970s and early '80s, then you definitely know who Jackie Earle Haley is. If only for his performance as Kelly Leak in the Bad News Bears trilogy (and his great turn as Moocher in Peter Yates' Breaking Away), Jack Haley made for a memorable little character actor. After co-starring with a then-unknown actor named Tom Cruise in 1983's Losin' It (which was directed by none other than Curtis Hanson), Haley kind of fell off the Hollywood radar -- in a big way. Aside from a few quick moments in Murder, She Wrote and MacGyver episodes, Jackie Earle Haley could be seen in titles like Dollman, Nemesis and Maniac Cop 3. And unfortunately he didn't work often enough to gain much of a Campbell-type cult following.So imagine my pleasant surprise when I sat down to watch All the King's Men and noticed that -- hey, isn't that Jackie Earle Haley playing Sean Penn's ultra-tough bodyguard dude?!? How cool to see him back in a movie again! Granted, he didn't have many lines, but it was still great to see an old pal after so many years. And then I headed off to see a dark comedy / suburban drama called Little Children ... and there was Jackie again, this time with a much meatier role: He plays a convicted sex offender who moves into a cushy suburban neighborhood that most definitely doesn't want him around. And the guy gives a great performance in a really difficult role.
So who knows what's next for Mr. Haley? This New York Times article does a fine job of summing up the guy's comeback, and I think that both of the directors involved (Steven Zaillian and Todd Field) deserve a hearty round of praise for pulling Jackie Earle out of obscurity and giving him another shot in the spotlight. Based on the two performances I just witnessed, I suspect Haley will be popping up a lot more frequently in the near future.
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