lea thompson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

There are plenty of John Hughes fans that consider Some Kind of Wonderful to be little more than a recycled Pretty in Pink. But today I'm going to nominate the story of Keith and Watts for Scenes We Love for a very important reason: it's about righting some wrongs. If you're a regular around here, you might remember a little theory I have about the ending of Hughes' teen masterpiece Pretty in Pink, and as it turns out I wasn't the only one who had a problem with it; as the story goes, Hughes wrote Wonderful as a way to finally get the ending that he preferred.

Wonderful was the story of Keith, a sensitive painter, and his best friend, a tom-boy drummer named Watts. When Keith makes good on the life ambition of every teen movie protagonist and goes for the popular girl (played by Lea Thompson), Watts realizes that her feelings for Keith go beyond friendship -- and, of course, what would any Hughes movie be without the abusive beautiful people (headed by Craig Sheffer) and the hoodlum with the heart of gold played by Elias Koteas -- who I've had a bit of a crush on ever since thanks to this movie.

After the jump: why I love this movie and Sheffer gets his well-deserved comeuppance..

Zombie films always seem to boast surprising casts, and this '80s-led latest is no exception. Following the likes of Sarah Polley, Billy Connolly, and Michael Jackson, Variety reports that Circle of Confusion is producing a new zombie thriller called Gatekeeper --Lea Thompson and Judge Reinhold are attached, along with Ron Perlman, Matthew O'Leary, and Jana Kramer.

It seems that this cast has been set for a while, if you knew where to look. There's a blog called "The Gatekeeper" which has exactly one post from back in March. The cast list is almost the same, except Reinhold is nowhere to be found, but John Francis Daley is. Let's just assume that Reinhold isn't replacing Daley, because that would probably be the strangest casting twist of all time.

Isaac Meisenheimer's script, which he will direct, will focus on three friends who have to defend their town against a zombie outbreak. Will they seek solace in a mall? In a bar? Wherever they end up, Circle exec Stephen Emery says: "We intend to make a film in the vein of Shaun of the Dead for American audiences." In fact, it seems like they have a lot of classics on the mind. After the jump, you can see the director's makeup tests set to "Thriller." (Note: He was also an uncredited Fire Zombie in 2008's Day of the Dead.)

Is there any chance this indie can compete with that classic zombie comedy? Could Lea Thompson and Judge Reinhold be a suitable replacement for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost? Weigh in below!

In the pantheon of mega-derided '80s films, few films can touch the inescapable reek of Howard the Duck. I know plenty of folks who dig Ishtar, Cobra, and Leonard Part 6 -- but remarkably few movie geeks have stood up and spoken out for Willard Huyck's Howard the Duck, which just recently arrived as a Special Edition DVD from Universal.

I'll spare you the plot machinations -- because frankly a movie this stupid deserves to be seen BY YOU at least once -- but I've always been amazed at the disparity between the source material and the cinematic adaptation. I've also been sickened by the girl on duck seduction scene, assaulted by the horrific Thomas Dolby music, and beaten into drooling submission by the flick's endlessly wretched puns.

But as a piece of mid-'80s big-budget mega-floppage? I find Howard the Duck more fascinating -- and more worthy of mockery -- than Hudson Hawk, Over the Top, and Toys put together. So imagine my ironic jubilation when I saw a new Howard the Duck DVD sitting on the video shelves, as if it were actually a real-live movie that people would want to own...

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In just a little over a month from now, a whole bunch of Cinematical lunatics will stomp their way through Austin, Texas in search of the next great indie beauty via the 2009 South By Southwest Film Festival. And, like we do for a few other festivals each year, we'll be previewing some films, debuting images, clips and trailers -- while basically trying our best to keep you in the loop with regards to what's going on in this groovy film world.

First up for us (and you) this year is this exclusive first look at the film Splinterheads, which, sadly, is not a documentary about fans of the character Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- but is, instead, a romantic comedy for the Harold and Kumar crowd (or so I've been told). Starring newcomer Thomas Middleditch, Rachael Taylor (Transformers), Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore), Lea Thompson (Back to the Future), Dean Winters (HBO's OZ), and Jason Rogel as Wayne Chung, Splinterheads follows a regular dude (Middleditch) whose life changes when a traveling carnival comes to town.

Director Brant Sersen returns to SXSW after winning the audience award for his 2004 film Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story. We'll bring back word on Splinterheads as soon as we hit Austin for the festival, which runs from March 13-21, 2009. Check out the official synopsis for Splinterheads after the jump.

I don't know why everyone keeps referring to 17 -- the Zac Efron movie in which a 40-year-old guy is suddenly a teen again -- as Big in reverse. Or, as The Hollywood Reporter writes today: "turns the concept of Big on its head." I guess nobody remembers the George Burns-becomes-Charlie Schlatter comedy 18 Again! Either that or it's simply easier to reference Big because it's a million times more well-known. Anyway, there's another movie 17 will make people think of: Back to the Future. Apparently, Efron's character (aka Matthew Perry's character as a teen) becomes the object of a crush -- from his own daughter! Playing the poor girl, who obviously doesn't realize her own Electra complex, is Michelle Trachtenberg. Also joining the cast, which includes Leslie Mann as Efron/Perry's wife and Trachtenberg's mom, is Melora Hardin ("Jan" on TV's The Office) as a high school principal.

So here's what I find strange about the new plot revelation: how is it the daughter doesn't recognize her own father as a young man? Hasn't everyone seen photos of their parents from when they were younger? At least with Back to the Future, in Lea Thompson's defense she hadn't yet birthed Michael J. Fox, and she had no way of ever having seen his face before he traveled back in time and became the object of her desires. In both scenarios, it is pretty gross to think about seriously. According to the main plot synopsis for 17, the reason Efron/Perry enrolls in high school is to be closer to his kids (hey, another movie this reminds me of: Mrs. Doubtfire). I guess he truly gets his wish in a terribly sick sort of way. Production on 17 begins this month.

It's either that, or save the clock tower, it's your choice. Granted, if you help save the clock tower, then future generations may forget when it was struck by lightning, and of course that'll strand Marty McFly in the past forever, but we digress.

There is a massive and mind-bogglingly complete Back to the Future timeline on Wikipedia that is the effort of some seriously fanatical fans. It details events that were cut from the original scripts (for instance, did you know that Doc Brown and Marty met in 1983 when Marty showed up to sweep the Doc's garage?), the animated series, and meticulous picking apart of the films themselves. It's a real labor of love, and it's in danger.

Wikipedia has some pretty strict policies regarding verifiability, and that leaves the BTTF timeline somewhere between limbo and a hard place. Check out the discussion page where people are chiming in on whether to keep the article or not. So far is a resounding "keep it!" but if you want to give your own opinion on the matter, roll up your sleeves and dive right in. Wikipedia is by the people, for the people.

My two cents on the matter is "keep it." But it goes a bit deeper than that. I've probably seen Back to the Future at least 20 times, and it's ingrained into the folds of my brain (perhaps that explains a lot). This timeline is really an amazing work of fans that detail everything you could possibly want to know about the history of Mill Hill Valley, Doc Brown, the McFly clan, and anything that even comes close to being touched on in the films (Pepsi Free? Invented in 1955, thank you very much). It's a tribute to the appeal of these movies, and a great demonstration of how fans can keep something alive long after the last bits of popcorn have been swept up.

Continuity is one of the most difficult things to manage on a film. A script supervisor is always on set making sure everything in the shooting script or screenplay is covered on film, and also making sure continuity errors (the things that become "goofs" in a film's IMDb listing) are avoided -- or, more realistically, kept to a minimum. Usually this requires meticulous note-taking and careful observation of actors appearances, placement of props, set decoration and other such details. The importance of continuity is best exhibited in a film like Back to the Future Part II, which not only had to maintain its own continuity, but also work with the continuity of the original Back to the Future, since it revisits many of that first film's settings, scenes and shots.

I've always wanted to play the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" sequences of both films at the same time to see how well Robert Zemeckis did with the continuity, but I didn't care enough to buy another VCR or DVD player. Fortunately, however, the internet keeps making dreams come true, and now we can see a split screen showing both films, and check to see how they match up. A guy named Matthew Muhl did the job for us and synced up the 15-minute-long section of the films, and it appears the makers of the sequel were mostly spot on, with the few exceptions being performance based (watch Lea Thompson as she tells Marty that George will drive her home). The two films aren't time-exact, but movies rarely represent real time, so that isn't an error on the part of the filmmakers.

The script supervisors on BTTF2 were Marion Tumen and Alan Greedy -- perhaps they should have been given a special Oscar for continuity.