fracture Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Back when Pulp Fiction came out, Quentin Tarantino began publishing lists of his favorite movies in various interviews. To a film buff, these were something of a small revelation. Tarantino had not been so much influenced by the usual Citizen Kane or Hitchcock as he was by a plethora of semi-forgotten, underappreciated trash movies. Suddenly movies like Brian De Palma's Blow Out (1981), Jack Hill's Coffy (1973) and Jim McBride's remake of Breathless (1983) gained in respectability; they had influenced a new American classic, and so there must be hidden greatness within their second-rate frames. Likewise, Tarantino helped breathe new life into already established classics like Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday (1940) and Jean-Luc Godard's Band of Outsiders (1964). He created a film-buff smorgasbord.

Flash forward 13 years to 2007. Tarantino has a new movie out, the bottom half of Grindhouse, in which he sings the praises of a cult road movie called Vanishing Point (1971) among other titles. And yet, for some reason, I had absolutely no urge to rent that movie when Grindhouse had finished up. Perhaps it's because Tarantino's passion had turned into something a little more dutiful. Rather, my cinematic slaverings had turned elsewhere, to a relative newcomer that had been recently initiated into the Tarantino camp with the inclusion of his Grindhouse trailer: Edgar Wright. His exciting, hilarious, and enthusiastic Hot Fuzz (164 screens) had got me thinking about the veiled merits of its buddy cop double bill: Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break (1991) and Michael Bay's Bad Boys II (2003).

In the five years since we've had to Die Another Day, Bond girl Rosamund Pike has been slipping a varied collection of roles under her belt. On the heels of 007, she had the Israeli drama, Promised Land, before going through a lot of more mainstream fare. There's Johnny Depp's period drama Libertine, Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and before she could be pigeon-holed into period pieces, she co-starred as Samantha Grimm in Doom. After a lesser-known stint co-starring with Lena Olin in Devil You Know, she's currently slipping on-screen with Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins in Fracture. After that, she's got a few other films on the way, including the one I'm increasingly anxious to see -- Jackboots on Whitehall.

As part of her press tour for Fracture, she talked to Gaurdian Unlimited for their weekly film podcast. A lot of the chat featured talk of Hopkins, who Pike describes as "this kind of Renaissance man" who always seems to be "having so much fun." And if you can get past her soft, drawling, female British voice, you can hear her imitate the actor talking about his current interests. It's cute. Now, as for Gaslight, she doesn't have too much to say about the film version. In January of 2006, Martha Fischer alerted us to the possible remake, and Pike heard as much as we did -- that Joe Wright was looking to make it after Pride & Prejudice. However, she's heard nothing specific about it, and is actually gearing up for a stage version of the classic, taking on Ingrid Bergman's role. Let me go out on a limb and say that if there is any chance for the remake to happen, it will be soon. Pike is making a name for herself, and if Fracture does well, and she impresses people with her on-stage work as Paula Alquist Anton, she will be starring in a movie version in no time.

My favorite film critic is unquestionably Roger Ebert. When I was a kid, I used to get his "Yearbooks" for Christmas every year, and I've watched every incarnation of his television show. I loved Siskel and Ebert, I like Ebert and Roeper, and the show currently exists in a sort of limbo state I call Not Siskel and Not Ebert. Since Ebert's unfortunate illness, the show has tried a variety of "guest critics." Usually these are film journalists -- A.O. Scott of the New York Times does an excellent job and is the closest the show has to a regular. But they've made some very interesting non-critic choices too. Jay Leno, Fred Willard, and Harold Ramis (Egon!) are just a few of the less traditional names they've brought in for the gig. Kevin Smith did a particularly nice job of co-hosting, and has been invited back. But none of these guests could have prepared me for tonight. The show comes on at 1AM here in Los Angeles, and when I saw who was sitting in I actually jolted up in bed, horror-movie style. None other than John Mellencamp was filling in for Roger Ebert! That's right, the "Cougar!" And it hurt so good!

Mellencamp did the worst job I've seen yet on the show, but it's hard to make fun. The guy's clearly not trying to be a serious critic, he's got a pretty decent day job going. He and Roeper reviewed Vacancy, Lonely Hearts, In the Land of Women, and Fracture. Of that list, Roeper only gave a positive review to Women, but Mellencamp loved each and every one, using the word "fantastic" to describe just about everything. He picked the classic documentary Grey Gardens as his video pick of the week. I don't know how they booked him or how it happened, but Mellencamp did seem to be pretty clueless in the film department. Now I suppose I could get on my high horse and say "What business does a musician have criticizing movies? Does Gene Shalit play "guest guitar" for Green Day?" But I actually think it's kind of fun to hear from these unlikely sources. And hey, Mellencamp did direct and star in a movie called Falling From Grace. I haven't seen it, but before you mock, Grace is highly respected by Ebert, who gave it a four-star review back in 1992, and Roeper, who wrote a column then offering money back to anyone who didn't like it. Apparently the staff of NBC's The Office aren't as keen on his film work. On the episode two weeks ago, Kevin said "If someone gives you 10,000-to-1 odds on anything, you take it. If John Mellencamp ever wins an Oscar, I am going to be a very rich dude."

To watch the Mellencamp show in full, keep checking the Ebert and Roeper website. Get well soon, Roger! And hurry back! Please!

Last week, evilone1414 and isaac showed the power of being eeeevil by scoring a perfect 16 points in our weekly prediction game. (Sorry to lump you in there, isaac, but your name doesn't have anything I can make fun of.) Will Master of Evil Anthony Hopkins show similar devilish luck -- sorry, skill -- this weekend?

Fracture
What It's About: Wiley coyote Anthony Hopkins shoots his wife and then cops to it -- so why can't hotshot prosecutor Ryan Gosling slam this case shut?
Why It Might Do Well: You've got an Oscar winner (Hopkins) and an Oscar nominee (Gosling) going mano-a-mano in a psychological thriller that's getting largely positive reviews. And while the movie's targeting serious adult moviegoers, Gosling's got plenty of female fans, too. (Oh, Sir Tony, you know the ladies love you.)
Why It Might Not Do Well: Remember what I just said about the movie targeting "serious adult moviegoers"? With rare exceptions, these types of movies don't tend to finish first at the box office. And neither actor is a guaranteed box office draw.
Prediction: $12 million

Vacancy
What It's About: A squabbling husband and wife (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) undergo an extreme version of couples therapy when they check into a dirtbag motel, only to find they've been cast as the leads in the staff's next home-movie snuff film. Umm, congrats?
Why It Might Do Well: Horror sells, and this one's got an interesting and original premise. Also, Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale? Pretty.
Why It Might Not Do Well: It's rated R, so it'll lose some of its intended audience to the more teen-friendly Disturbia. And unlike the rest of the Frat Pack, Wilson has proved curiously incapable of building on his Old School success.
Prediction: $14 million

Remember that incident a few months back involving the city of Boston and a marketing idea gone wrong? In case you're totally oblivious or have a bad memory, it consisted of a silly stunt to promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force that accidentally caused a terror alert. In the end, the mistake resulted in two men facing felony hoax charges, the head of Cartoon Network resigning, Turner Broadcasting paying out $2 million in restitution and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino hating the surreal animated series forever. Unfortunately for Menino, the cinematic spin-off of the series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, opens this Friday around the country, including in two theaters in his city. Menino has made attempts to convince these locations to boycott the film, "out of respect to the people of Boston," but obviously the theaters are not willing to meet his demands. The thing Menino doesn't appear to realize, which doesn't take an expert in marketing communication to point out (though the Boston Herald quotes one, just to go with an official perspective), that any negative attention he can give the movie will help in its appeal.

In unrelated news, Menino has also attacked the marketing of another film this week. He has ordered the removal of advertisements for Fracture, which contain written in big letters the phrase "I Shot My Wife" superimposed over Anthony Hopkins' face. The fifty posters, which are part of a reported $52,000 ad campaign, have been on display in bus shelters for nearly a month, and apparently they have caused a lot of complaints. A statement from the mayor's office claimed the ads promoted a negative and violent message, which makes me wonder what Menino would have thought if Boston had been included in the controversial campaign for Captivity. He might have gone and banned all movie marketing within city limits for good. Well, except for maybe those promoting seemingly harmless Tim Allen comedies. After all, in case anyone thinks that the mayor has a thing against Hollywood in general, recall how much love he showed to Wild Hogs last month.

As I reported before, powerhouse performers Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling will next be seen in the film Fracture. Earlier reports about the film -- a psychological thriller concerning an Assistant DA (Gosling) struggling to keep the man who tried to kill his wife (Hopkins) behind bars -- only included a brief synopsis, details on the two stars and the film's director Gregory Hoblit. But now, thanks to the gang over at IGN, we've got a one-sheet and some stills from the film to look at too.

As they often do these days, the one-sheet features the faces of stars Hopkins and Gosling with Hopkins doing what can best be described as the "Hannibal Lecter come-hither look." In addition to the one-sheet, there's also the production stills from the film. In them, we get several images of both stars from various scenes in the film: Gosling confronting Hopkins in jail, Gosling staring purposefully into camera, Gosling confronting Hopkins' wife at an event, Gosling comforting his wife, etc. You get the idea.

I'm a big fan of Ryan Gosling and, on occasion, Anthony Hopkins too. So, I'm pretty sure the combination of these two actors and director Hoblit, who also has a great facility with these types of films, will lead to something good. Gosling was the best thing in the otherwise under-whelming Murder by Numbers and Hopkins was, of course, in Silence of the Lambs so this film should have all it needs to succeed. We'll find out if I'm right when the film gets released later this year.

Don't worry, Paramount didn't fall down and hurt themselves ... even if Tom Cruise might secretly wish they would. Instead, the studio has added another notch on its bedpost of upcoming projects.

According to Variety (via Sci-Fi Wire), Paramount's specialty division (aka Paramount Vantage) has acquired worldwide rights to the psychological thriller Fracture by Alan McElroy (who also wrote Spawn and The Marine) for producers Mike Macari and Neil Edelstein of, among other things, The Ring and the recent thriller The Invisible.

This Fracture should not be confused with the other Fracture (which I mentioned before) being directed by Gregory Hoblit. That film features Anthony Hopkins as a killer who gets off on a technicality and Ryan Gosling as the DA trying to put him back behind bars. They are not the same film. Instead, the story of this film centers around a desperate man's search for his wife and children after they disappear without a trace into a hospital emergency room. At the moment, this Fracture has no director attached (although it's out to some), a cast or an expected start date.