robin williams Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The insanity. The epically hairy arms. The alien ways. As a child of the 80s, it's hard not to love Robin Williams. Popeye, Mork, Garp, The Frog Prince ... his ADD comedy left an indelible impact on so many of us.

Unfortunately, it's been a good long while since I, for one, have been eager and anxious for a Williams film. In fact, I remember my last fan twinges clearly -- it was 1996 with The Birdcage. Soon after, Willims busied himself with drama and thrills, and they never held the same appeal. Sure, he headed back for the laughs a handful of years ago, but mainly with incomparable family films and side gigs. Now, however ... now it looks like we might get a Robin Williams comedic renaissance.

World's Greatest Dad is in limited release with great reviews, and The Hollywood Reporter posts that he will also play Dad in Touchstone's Wedding Banned. Picked up last year, the comedy focuses on a couple whose daughter is getting hitched. But they're long-divorced and don't want her to make the same mistakes they did, so they kidnap her on her wedding day and end up re-falling for each other "as they elude cops and the angry groom." It sounds crazy, but it could be bloody brilliant with the right wife -- imagine Lily Tomlin in the role. She might be 12 years his senior, but oh, the fun they could have.

Luckily, no matter how things turn out, there's always the past. And for me, my favorite Robin Williams film varies with my mood. At times, I want nothing more than for him to say good morning to Vietnam. Other times, the day calls for a strength-enhancing spinach and Popeye. Or a dinner party, or even a little poetry. How about you? What is your favorite Robin Williams movie?

By Scott Weinberg (reprint from Sundance Film Festival 2009)

You hear it in lots of (usually sad) movies, and I'd say it's probably one of the truest things ever spoken: "There's nothing more tragic than having to bury your own child." But, just for the sake of argument, let's pretend -- for just a second -- that (in one specific case) it wouldn't be the end of the world. As a matter of fact, let's further pretend that the death of a child could somehow lead to several wonderful and life-changing results.

Sick, I know, but that's one of the ideas that runs through the twisted-yet-amusing dark comedy World's Greatest Dad. Written and directed by the consistently unpredictable Bob Goldthwait (he also gave us the similarly strange Shakes the Clown and Stay), and anchored by an unexpectedly strong Robin Williams performance, World's Greatest Dad is indeed about a high school poetry teacher who finds his life blossoming after his son accidentally commits suicide.

The Bobcat Goldthwait I knew from watching cable as a kid was not the same Bobcat who greeted me at the Magnolia Pictures office and offered me a cookie. It's hard not to refer back to the "old" Bobcat that squawked and spazzed his way to stand-up stardom in the '80s, as well as three Police Academy movies and other flicks that took advantage of his off-the-wall stylings, although it is, in fact, lazy. Goldthwait is now a writer and a director, with three indie movies under his belt. And no, he doesn't really talk like that.

Goldthwait's first movie, Shakes the Clown, has become what people affectionately call a cult movie; Goldthwait plays the main character, an alcoholic womanizing clown mired in an equally bizarre clown subculture. His second outing as a writer and director, Sleeping Dogs Lie, examined the nature of truth in relationships and how much we really want to know about those we love, especially when one's fiancée might reveal she performed oral sex on her dog in college because she was bored one night. It played well at Sundance, but didn't get the same traction from the festival and word-of-mouth that his current film, World's Greatest Dad, is enjoying. Maybe because dog BJs – even implied ones – are gross and could impede viewers from sitting through the first five minutes.

Currently available on-demand and opening in limited cities August 21st, World's Greatest Dad stars Robin Williams as schlubby Lance Clayton – a poetry teacher who has had countless manuscripts rejected, a sad sap with a smile that looks more like a grimace, and the father of one of the most loathsome teenagers to grace the screen in a non-horror movie in quite some time.

While attending a midnight showing of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra last week, we got a surprisingly diverse group of trailers attached to a movie that's based on a kid's property, but has no shortage of impaled skulls and throwing stars to the eye sockets (but it's bloodless, Prince Caspian-style, so it's okay!).

The one that got the biggest rise out of the audience was that of Old Dogs, from the director of Wild Hogs (get it?) and starring Robin Williams and John Travolta as swinging bachelors suddenly saddled with kids to care for and forced, one would gather, to learn new tricks (get it?). And lo, the audience did howl, and lo, I did slouch further and further into my seat. A kid is hit in the head by a ball! Williams loses depth perception after the brats mix up his meds! Seth Green is being cuddled by a gorilla that gets angry if he doesn't sing for it! John Travolta gets pecked in the head by aggravated penguins! Sweet Charlie Chaplin's ghost, that there's a knee-slapper!

Sometimes navel gazing is a good thing, if an artist looks truly and honestly inside him or herself for material. If they're truly gifted, and can tap into something universal or human, the result can be a masterwork. But if the artist finds himself too far removed from everyday life, or if their visions and ideas are too close to home to find a logical shape, the result can be something of a mess. Navel-gazing dramas are a dime a dozen, but it takes a special talent to try it with comedy. Judd Apatow's Funny People was the #1 movie in a very slow week, which shows that audiences were probably about as fond of it as critics were. I would bet the main complaint across the board was the same: it's too long. Either way, there's usually something interesting about these projects.

1. Elizabethtown (2005)
Though Apatow is catching up, Cameron Crowe is the #1 comedy navelgazer in the history of cinema. This rambling, sprawling thing was supposed to be a cute romantic comedy about a depressed schlub whose life is turned around by a cute airline stewardess. Unfortunately, too many useless subplots about funerals and forgotten bands get in the way, in addition to the fact that the male character is overwritten and underplayed by Orlando Bloom, and the female character is underwritten and overplayed by Kirsten Dunst. The whole thing culminates in a weird musical, mix-tape road trip odyssey that must have lit Crowe's fire, but didn't spark for anyone else.

Bobcat Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad is getting a theatrical release on August 21st, but -- as we told you back in April -- you can watch it in the comfort of your own home starting this week, as the film has appeared on video-on-demand services around the country.

It's pretty remarkable how the practice of releasing smaller films On Demand simultaneously with, or even in advance of a theatrical release has spread (also currently available: Pontypool, Dead Snow and the fantastic Flame & Citron). But I'm not trying to shill for Comcast. I am trying to shill for World's Greatest Dad, which I ordered on Friday and enjoyed immensely.

Someone out there will undoubtedly scream "sacrilegious!" or at least "LAME!", but I've always wanted to see The Incredible Mr. Limpet remade. It's a favorite film of both my parents, and so my sister and I loved it too.

Remake talk has been floating around for years, with everyone from Robin Williams to Jim Carrey being attached to star (I always thought Lee Evans would have been a good pick), and the talents of Mike Judge behind the camera. Now The Hollywood Reporter says that Kevin Lima is the next to try and get it off the ground ... and considering his wonderful work on the live action / animated hybrid of Enchanted, he's a natural fit.

The original Limpet takes place during WWII, and centers on a fish-loving fellow (played by Don Knotts, King of '60s Children Cinema) that is belitted by his wife, and rejected by the armed forces. He falls off a pier and magically turns into an animated fish, and ends up a WWII hero because he can help battle U-Boats and submarines. He also meets a sexy girl named Ladyfish, who picks him up in a "Let's spawn!" scene that undoubtedly left many children asking awkward questions.

It's a cute film, and could really benefit from a beefier story and improved effects. The only downside is that they'll probably update the WW2 setting -- although if they got really clever and set it during the Cold War, I would be very impressed.

Click image below to view full poster

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Shrink, which premiered at this past Sundance Film Festival to some pretty great buzz. Starring Kevin Spacey, Saffron Burrows, Keke Palmer, Mark Webber, Dallas Roberts and Robin Williams, Shrink follows "a psychiatrist (Spacey) whose boutique L.A. office, A-list clientele and best-selling pop psychology books form a thin layer of respectability over his ruined personal life, insurmountable grief, serious pot problem and a host of other crises," so says James Rocchi, who covered the film for Cinematical during Sundance and interviewed its star, Mr. Kevin Spacey.

Reminiscent of his character from American Beauty, Spacey (as the celebrity shrink-turned-pothead) delivers a performance here that's not to be missed, and the supporting cast takes what could've been another film about annoying egotistical Hollywood types from Los Angeles and turns it into one that's funny, serious, sweet, sincere and a little bit sideways. Definitely worth the watch. Check out the full synopsis after the jump and click below to view the full poster. Shrink hits theaters on July 24.

Oh, what might have been! Alison Lohman gives a terrific performance as the cursed loan officer Christine Brown in Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, which opens tomorrow. If not for the vagaries of scheduling, though, Ellen Page would have played the lead role. Would Page have been any better? We'll never know, but she joins a long list that inspires thoughts of 'What if ...?'

Once upon a time, we might have seen Leslie Howard as the titular Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi as The Monster. Instead, Colin Clive played the good doctor, Boris Karloff got a jump-start on life, and the rest is horror history. Here are seven more recent examples of actors and actresses who were considered for key roles in great horror films ... and the ones who replaced them, listed in chronological order. [Disclaimer: Based on information provided on IMDb's "trivia" pages, so no guarantees on accuracy.] Better? Worse? You decide.

1. Melanie Griffith / Sissy Spacek (Carrie)

Even though she was in her mid-20s, Spacek looks so young and fragile as Carrie that it's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role. Griffith was 18 or 19 and already had made an impression in Night Moves, The Drowning Pool, and Smile when she auditioned to play the telekinetic high schooler. Conveying Carrie's complexities might have been beyond her still-developing skills at that point. The pic above, left, is from Joyride, released the following year.

Recently, someone and I -- it might've been Weinberg -- were discussing the fact that Magnolia seems to be replacing Lionsgate when it comes to a studio's willingness to put out the seemingly untouchable stuff.

The conversation mostly concerned horror fare, natch, but I suspect that Bobcat Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad falls particularly well into Magnolia's fold, and they seem to agree, as they're all set to have a video-on-demand premiere before a theatrical run in late August, according to The Wrap.

James Grey's Two Lovers was recently released in a similar manner, and Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience looks to be getting a likewise treatment at the end of this month. So far as I can tell, it's a strategy that works to their favor (that is, until everyone inevitably moves to either New York or Los Angeles). As far as the film itself is concerned, it certainly garnered its share of raves out of Sundance, but its subject matter -- Robin Williams capitalizes on his son's suicide -- had put off distributors until now. Here's hoping that Magnolia can tap into the niche audience for blacker-than-black comedy... right in their own living rooms.