unknown Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We're a few hours late with this report -- and when I say "we" I actually mean "me, Scott" -- but Sundance saps a whole lot of strength from even the most ardent movie freak. With apologies we I now offer you this week's big fat DVD titles ... and a few old-school pieces of ultra-cheese.

Catch a Fire -- Philip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence) goes political again and delivers a fast-paced and very efficient thriller that focuses on the ways in which governments often create the very enemies they're trying to thwart. (Governments are ironic that way.) Tim Robbins and Derek Luke contribute some very fine work. Extras include a multi-filmmaker commentary and a few deleted scenes.

Farce of the Penguins -- From what I've been hearing from reliable sources, this simplistic spoof is way too little way too late. But if you simply must see a movie in which Bob Saget, Samuel L. Jackson, Dane Cook, Jim Belushi, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz and the rest of the Friar's Club provide raunchy voice-over dialogue for a bunch of innocent penguins, hey, here's your dream come true. Extras include a Saget-track, deleted scenes, featurettes and a bunch of other penguin-related silliness.

Flyboys -- Big-budget derring-do war flick ... that dropped absolutely dead at the box office. (Budget: $60 million / Domestic Gross: $13 million) I've yet to see the movie myself, but I do look forward to giving it a fair shake -- even if that "running across the blimp" sequence looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic anime story. Extras include a Tony Bill / Dean Devlin audio commentary, more than a half-dozen featurettes and some deleted scenes.

Gymkata -- Yes! Mid-'80s kung fu wackiness combined with hardcore Mitch Gaylord gymnastical stuff! I swear this movie's funnier by accident than most comedies are on purpose. Extras include the knowledge that you now on Gymkata on DVD.

While the premise is certainly intriguing, I'm getting kind of tired of that whole "guy wakes up in a strange place and doesn't remember anything" storyline. The most recent film to apply this premise was Unknown, and that flick was a prime example of why this is a risky set-up. Basically, it all comes down to the script. Anyone can come up with some bizarre situation to throw their main character in, but if the script gets lazy (and the writer gets afraid), then the film just won't work. Memento worked because the Nolan brothers were sticklers for details, and made sure every piece of that film serviced the plot and moved things forward. Unfortunately, Unknown was so focused on the surprise twists that it botched the details, as well as the characters, leaving us a fantastic set-up with nowhere to go but downhill.

Now, Nala Films is apparently confident that writers Eddie and Chris Borey got things right, and have launched development of their script, Open Grave, with plans to begin shooting next year. Here we go again -- the plot revolves around some dude who wakes up in the middle of the woods in a pit full of dead bodies with no idea who these people are, how they were killed and whether or not he was the one who caused their death. Sure, it sounds like a great set-up -- but what about the rest of the script? I have no idea who the Borey brothers are and there's a good chance this is their first produced script. That's unsettling, however Nolan was fairly new to the game when he wrote Memento -- so you never can tell. No word yet on a cast or director; we'll let you know if any more details pop up.

If you could somehow remove all of the powerful, heart-wrenching moments from Memento, The Usual Suspects, Saw and Reservoir Dogs, and replace them with a slew of flashbacks, a lazy script and an assortment of unnecessary twist endings, you'd wind up with Unknown -- a psychological thriller that loses its edge soon after exposing a flashy and intriguing premise.

On the surface, it's a fantastic set-up: Five guys wake up in a warehouse, bloody and beaten with no idea who they are or how they got there; the only thing that's certain is whoever placed them in this situation does not want them to leave anytime soon. Two of the men are tied up, one of which is suffering from a gun shot wound. While the first of the men, Jean Jacket (James Caviezel), regains consciousness, a phone is ringing somewhere off-screen. As he stumbles into a side office to pick up the receiver, for a brief second we expect the person on the other end to ask, "So James, which scary movie do you feel like ripping off?" Instead, it's a strange voice -- a voice that seems to know who its speaking to, even though Jean Jacket is clueless ... except for that loaded handgun sitting in front of him.