Sean Bean and Miranda Richardson are set to star alongside John Malkovich in the biopic of Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache, Variety can reveal.
Also joining the cast is Ben Schnetzer (“The Book Thief”), who has replaced Rupert Friend after scheduling difficulties meant Friend had to drop out of the project. Schnetzer will play a young version of Celebidachi while Malkovich will play the conductor later in life.
They will be joined by Kate Phillips (“Downton Abbey”), Anton Lesser (“Game of Thrones”) and Charlie Rowe (“Rocketman”).
“The Yellow Tie” tells the story of controversial classical conductor Sergiu Celibidache, one of Romania’s best known classical music artists. He battled homelessness and prejudice before becoming the youngest ever conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Anton Lesser (© Asia Werbel), Kate Phillips (© Anna Michell), Ben Schnetzer
Celibidache’s son, Serge Ioan Celebidachi, will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with James Olivier.
Also joining...
Also joining the cast is Ben Schnetzer (“The Book Thief”), who has replaced Rupert Friend after scheduling difficulties meant Friend had to drop out of the project. Schnetzer will play a young version of Celebidachi while Malkovich will play the conductor later in life.
They will be joined by Kate Phillips (“Downton Abbey”), Anton Lesser (“Game of Thrones”) and Charlie Rowe (“Rocketman”).
“The Yellow Tie” tells the story of controversial classical conductor Sergiu Celibidache, one of Romania’s best known classical music artists. He battled homelessness and prejudice before becoming the youngest ever conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Anton Lesser (© Asia Werbel), Kate Phillips (© Anna Michell), Ben Schnetzer
Celibidache’s son, Serge Ioan Celebidachi, will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with James Olivier.
Also joining...
- 6/6/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Right off the bat, it’s important to know for this review that I’m a dog owner. In fact, as I wrote this, my six year old mutt is sleeping mere feet from me. I tell you that to let you know that the manipulation found within A Dog’s Way Home worked on me, almost without fail. The movie is a family friendly animal adventure, but one that made me cry on about a half dozen separate occasions. There are happy tears to be found, sad tears, you name it. By the time the flick had come to an end, I was a total mess. The film is an adventure suitable for the whole family, whether they have two legs or four. We follow a puppy (internal monologue provided by Bryce Dallas Howard) as she goes from a young stray to a beloved family pet. Found with a...
- 1/10/2019
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Michel’le survived Compton – but it took the Lifetime movie “Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le” for her to realize it.
The one-time R&B star (1989’s “No More Lies”) dated Dr. Dre in the early 1990s, as he and N.W.A. turned into superstars (they had a son in 1991) and later married Death Row Records mogul Suge Knight, with whom she had a daughter in 2002 (they divorced in 2005).
But despite her presence in their inner circle at the time (she was signed to N.W.A. member Eazy-e’s Ruthless Records, and Dre produced her album), Michel’le was conspicuously absent from last year’s hit film “Straight Outta Compton.”
Read More: ‘Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le’ Trailer: Lifetime Tells Michel’le’s Side of the N.W.A. Story
“I was told they did cast me and did shoot scenes with [my character], but Dr. Dre chose to not have it in the movie,...
The one-time R&B star (1989’s “No More Lies”) dated Dr. Dre in the early 1990s, as he and N.W.A. turned into superstars (they had a son in 1991) and later married Death Row Records mogul Suge Knight, with whom she had a daughter in 2002 (they divorced in 2005).
But despite her presence in their inner circle at the time (she was signed to N.W.A. member Eazy-e’s Ruthless Records, and Dre produced her album), Michel’le was conspicuously absent from last year’s hit film “Straight Outta Compton.”
Read More: ‘Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le’ Trailer: Lifetime Tells Michel’le’s Side of the N.W.A. Story
“I was told they did cast me and did shoot scenes with [my character], but Dr. Dre chose to not have it in the movie,...
- 10/15/2016
- by Michael Schneider
- Indiewire
The remake of a quintessentially American miniseries which traced slavery through multiple generations including the Revolutionary and Civil Wars will have three Australians in key creative roles.
Phillip Noyce and Bruce Beresford will each direct an episode and DoP Peter Menzies Jr. will shoot all four episodes of Roots for A&E Networks. The original Roots based on the Alex Haley novel Roots: The Saga Of An American Family was the third most watched series in Us history when it screened on the ABC network in 1977.
Laurence Fishburne will play the narrator, Kunte Kinte, portrayed in the original by LeVar Burton, who is among the producers of the remake with Mark Wolper. Mark.s father David produced the first series and the 1979 sequel, Roots: The Next Generations.
Beresford tells If, .One of the things I like about working in the Us is that producers, studios and networks are perfectly...
Phillip Noyce and Bruce Beresford will each direct an episode and DoP Peter Menzies Jr. will shoot all four episodes of Roots for A&E Networks. The original Roots based on the Alex Haley novel Roots: The Saga Of An American Family was the third most watched series in Us history when it screened on the ABC network in 1977.
Laurence Fishburne will play the narrator, Kunte Kinte, portrayed in the original by LeVar Burton, who is among the producers of the remake with Mark Wolper. Mark.s father David produced the first series and the 1979 sequel, Roots: The Next Generations.
Beresford tells If, .One of the things I like about working in the Us is that producers, studios and networks are perfectly...
- 8/5/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Andrew Lesnie was remembered as one of Australia.s finest cinematographers and a warm and generous bloke at a celebration of his life and career on Sunday.
Dozens of collaborators and friends including Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Cate Blanchett, George Miller, Chris Noonan, Bill Bennett, Craig Monahan, Jack Thompson and Andrew Mason gathered to pay tribute to Lesnie, who died in April after a heart attack, aged 59.
Ray Martin hosted the event, Remembering Andrew, staged by the Australian Cinematographers Society at Event Cinemas Bondi Junction.
Video tributes from Russell Crowe, Bruce Beresford, Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen, Barrie Osborne, Don McAlpine, Richard Roxburgh, Dean Semler and Peter Menzies Jnr, among others, were screened.
Among the clips of his work shown were The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (for which he won an Oscar) and other Jackson-directed films, The Water Diviner, Babe, Healing and Two If By Sea.
Dozens of collaborators and friends including Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Cate Blanchett, George Miller, Chris Noonan, Bill Bennett, Craig Monahan, Jack Thompson and Andrew Mason gathered to pay tribute to Lesnie, who died in April after a heart attack, aged 59.
Ray Martin hosted the event, Remembering Andrew, staged by the Australian Cinematographers Society at Event Cinemas Bondi Junction.
Video tributes from Russell Crowe, Bruce Beresford, Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen, Barrie Osborne, Don McAlpine, Richard Roxburgh, Dean Semler and Peter Menzies Jnr, among others, were screened.
Among the clips of his work shown were The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (for which he won an Oscar) and other Jackson-directed films, The Water Diviner, Babe, Healing and Two If By Sea.
- 7/12/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Lionsgate released their new, hardcore action flick, "The Expendables 3," into theaters yesterday, August 14th, and the reviews are in from the top movie critics. It turns out that it didn't quite sit well with a lot of them, getting only an overall 35 score out of a possible 100 across 30 reviews over at the metacritic.com site. The film stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, Glen Powell and Kelsey Grammer. We've posted blurbs from a couple of the critics,below. Chris Nashawaty from Entertainment Weekly, gave it a 75 grade, saying: "So let me just say that this latest rah-rah red-meat installment is the biggest and best surprise of the series. It has its flaws, but it's mostly a big, dumb, gruntingly monosyllabic hoot." Tom Russo over at the Boston Globe,...
- 8/15/2014
- by Andre
- OnTheFlix
This Summer… Get ready for one last ride! The Expendables 3 is opening in theaters on August 15th and Wamg has your tickets to see the film early! Are we cool or what??!!
The Expendables 3 team includes your favorite action heroes – Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Terry Crews …and a new generation of badasses – Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas, Kelsey Grammar, Harrison Ford, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, and Glen Powell.
In The Expendables 3, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables — but Barney has other plans.
The Expendables 3 team includes your favorite action heroes – Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Terry Crews …and a new generation of badasses – Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas, Kelsey Grammar, Harrison Ford, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Victor Ortiz, and Glen Powell.
In The Expendables 3, Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables — but Barney has other plans.
- 8/4/2014
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Every time an "Expendables" movie comes out, my heart gets flooded with bone-crunching glee. As a fan of '80s action movies, and the stars who anchored those movies using little more than raw muscle, some well placed sneers, and an itchy trigger finger, "The Expendables" franchise is the gift that keeps on giving. Each new installment seemingly resurrects the career of some bygone superstar, while offering plenty in the way of brand new thrills. And "Expendables 3," which has maybe the most exciting behind-the-scenes team, is no different. So we are thrilled to debut four new posters from the upcoming sequel (below). These are so hot they might as well be doused in kerosene and attached to stick of dynamite!
The four Warhol-esque character posters, rendered in bright eye-catching colors (just like a festive incendiary device), feature some of the sequel's new characters -- there's Mel Gibson as the evil...
The four Warhol-esque character posters, rendered in bright eye-catching colors (just like a festive incendiary device), feature some of the sequel's new characters -- there's Mel Gibson as the evil...
- 7/21/2014
- by Drew Taylor
- Moviefone
Hunger Games DoP Tom Stern and 12 Years a Slave cinematographer Sean Bobbitt among those chosen for jury duty.
The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jury members of the main competition jury are:
Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition
Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...
The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jury members of the main competition jury are:
Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition
Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...
- 11/8/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Shooter".
"Shooter" is a whopper of a tall tale, a heady brew of conspiracy theories, post-9/11 paranoia, nonstop action and improbable heroes and villains. Certainly the right director is at the helm here -- Antoine Fuqua, whose "Training Day" and "The Replacement Killers" demonstrate a strong visual sense and ability to shoot and edit thrillers so that tension mounts with each sequence.
If the movie only lavished as much thought and care on its characters as it does on each intricate set piece, "Shooter" might have been a classic. As it is, the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, is definitely a cut above the average action thriller, so boxoffice looks promising in domestic and overseas markets.
At the heart of "Shooter" is the old Hitchcock chestnut about a wrong man fingered for a crime. In this instance, the guy is framed and can only clear himself by hunting down those actually culpable. Bob Lee Swagger -- gotta love that name! -- may be innocent, but he's no innocent. Swagger (Wahlberg) is a highly trained Marine, survivalist and sniper. His trademark line is that the government spent a lot of time and money teaching him how not to die -- just after they taught him how to kill.
An opening sequence in Ethiopia has him and a spotter (Lane Garrison) abandoned by the U.S. military on a mission "inside a country we are not supposed to be in." His spotter is killed, but Swagger makes it out alive, just in time to quit. Three years later, the U.S. government comes calling.
Tracking Swagger to an isolated mountain cabin, shadowy officials led by Col. Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) approach him outside of regular channels. An intercepted communique on the inside has tipped them off to a plot to assassinate the president in the next few weeks. All that is known is that the shot will come from a mile away.
Johnson pleads with Swagger to scout the locations of the next three presidential personal appearances and use his skills and experience to determine how and where the attempt will happen so it can be foiled. Audience members' bullshit detectors, honed by years of watching thrillers, will alert them that all is not right with this group and their story.
Nevertheless, Swagger swaggers back into action and concludes that the hit will come in Philadelphia. Isaac thanks him, then asks him to come along to Philadelphia, you know, to act as a scout.
Yep, it's a setup.
The next thing Swagger knows, he is running from the point of the shot with two bullets in him and every cop, Secret Service and FBI agent in the country eager to capture him dead or alive. In the case of the turncoat government officials, the options are dead or dead. One peculiar thing, though: The shot missed the president and instead killed the Catholic archbishop of Ethiopia. Hmmm, Ethiopia again.
The movie kicks into high gear with the manhunt. Swagger, whose photo is everywhere, must escape his myriad pursuers, heal himself of two potentially fatal wounds, then hunt down the real perpetrators. The only person he can turn to is a woman he has never met -- Sarah Kate Mara), the widow of his late partner in Ethiopia. She buys his story and has enough nursing training to heal him.
Turns out, Swagger has help on the inside too -- Nick Memphis (Michael Pena), a rookie FBI agent he disarmed while fleeing the scene. (No reason is given why an FBI man would be doing a Secret Service job.) Humiliated and facing termination, Nick doesn't believe the official "lone gunman" theory. The more he investigates, the more he sees a conspiracy.
Adroitly using locations ranging from deserts to mountain wildernesses, isolated country homes and the streets of Philly, Fuqua keeps the movie pounding at viewers. The editing is swift and sure, and Mark Mancina's music is reminiscent of a Giorgio Moroder score back in the disco era.
Plot holes and absurdities abound, too numerous to mention, but the real flaw lies in the screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin, working from the novel "Point of Impact" by author-film critic Stephen Hunter. His characters are all stick figures. Good guys do good, bad guys do bad, and there is little concern for ascribing motives, sentiments, emotions, backgrounds or beliefs to anyone that would allow actors to actually build characters.
Those playing villains fall back on physical shtick reaching back to the silent era. The worst offenders are Elias Koteas and Ned Beatty. Wahlberg and Mara play clean, decent, good old American malcontents, but these are actors capable of more. Wahlberg also could use a few more lines -- and lines he actually speaks rather than mumbles.
Only Pena, who is fast accumulating a number of impressive supporting roles, manages to suggest an interesting character: an FBI agent who never goes strictly by the manual.
Technically, the film is terrific. The stunt work is top-notch, while Peter Menzies Jr.'s camera aggressively prowls the various landscapes in search of unique angles.
SHOOTER
Paramount Pictures
A Di Bonaventura Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriter: Jonathan Lemkin
Based on the novel "Point of Impact" by: Stephen Hunter
Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Ric Kidney
Executive producer: Erik Howsam, Mark Johnson
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Dennis Washington
Music: Mark Mancina
Costume designer: Ha Nguyen
Editors: Conrad Buff, Eric Sears
Cast:
Bob Lee Swagger: Mark Wahlberg
Nick Memphis: Michael Pena
Col. Isaac Johnson: Danny Glover
Sarah Fenn: Kate Mara
Jack Payne: Elias Koteas
Alourdes: Rhona Mitra
Michael: Rade Sherbedgia
Sen. Meachum: Ned Beatty
Running time -- 125 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
"Shooter" is a whopper of a tall tale, a heady brew of conspiracy theories, post-9/11 paranoia, nonstop action and improbable heroes and villains. Certainly the right director is at the helm here -- Antoine Fuqua, whose "Training Day" and "The Replacement Killers" demonstrate a strong visual sense and ability to shoot and edit thrillers so that tension mounts with each sequence.
If the movie only lavished as much thought and care on its characters as it does on each intricate set piece, "Shooter" might have been a classic. As it is, the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, is definitely a cut above the average action thriller, so boxoffice looks promising in domestic and overseas markets.
At the heart of "Shooter" is the old Hitchcock chestnut about a wrong man fingered for a crime. In this instance, the guy is framed and can only clear himself by hunting down those actually culpable. Bob Lee Swagger -- gotta love that name! -- may be innocent, but he's no innocent. Swagger (Wahlberg) is a highly trained Marine, survivalist and sniper. His trademark line is that the government spent a lot of time and money teaching him how not to die -- just after they taught him how to kill.
An opening sequence in Ethiopia has him and a spotter (Lane Garrison) abandoned by the U.S. military on a mission "inside a country we are not supposed to be in." His spotter is killed, but Swagger makes it out alive, just in time to quit. Three years later, the U.S. government comes calling.
Tracking Swagger to an isolated mountain cabin, shadowy officials led by Col. Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) approach him outside of regular channels. An intercepted communique on the inside has tipped them off to a plot to assassinate the president in the next few weeks. All that is known is that the shot will come from a mile away.
Johnson pleads with Swagger to scout the locations of the next three presidential personal appearances and use his skills and experience to determine how and where the attempt will happen so it can be foiled. Audience members' bullshit detectors, honed by years of watching thrillers, will alert them that all is not right with this group and their story.
Nevertheless, Swagger swaggers back into action and concludes that the hit will come in Philadelphia. Isaac thanks him, then asks him to come along to Philadelphia, you know, to act as a scout.
Yep, it's a setup.
The next thing Swagger knows, he is running from the point of the shot with two bullets in him and every cop, Secret Service and FBI agent in the country eager to capture him dead or alive. In the case of the turncoat government officials, the options are dead or dead. One peculiar thing, though: The shot missed the president and instead killed the Catholic archbishop of Ethiopia. Hmmm, Ethiopia again.
The movie kicks into high gear with the manhunt. Swagger, whose photo is everywhere, must escape his myriad pursuers, heal himself of two potentially fatal wounds, then hunt down the real perpetrators. The only person he can turn to is a woman he has never met -- Sarah Kate Mara), the widow of his late partner in Ethiopia. She buys his story and has enough nursing training to heal him.
Turns out, Swagger has help on the inside too -- Nick Memphis (Michael Pena), a rookie FBI agent he disarmed while fleeing the scene. (No reason is given why an FBI man would be doing a Secret Service job.) Humiliated and facing termination, Nick doesn't believe the official "lone gunman" theory. The more he investigates, the more he sees a conspiracy.
Adroitly using locations ranging from deserts to mountain wildernesses, isolated country homes and the streets of Philly, Fuqua keeps the movie pounding at viewers. The editing is swift and sure, and Mark Mancina's music is reminiscent of a Giorgio Moroder score back in the disco era.
Plot holes and absurdities abound, too numerous to mention, but the real flaw lies in the screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin, working from the novel "Point of Impact" by author-film critic Stephen Hunter. His characters are all stick figures. Good guys do good, bad guys do bad, and there is little concern for ascribing motives, sentiments, emotions, backgrounds or beliefs to anyone that would allow actors to actually build characters.
Those playing villains fall back on physical shtick reaching back to the silent era. The worst offenders are Elias Koteas and Ned Beatty. Wahlberg and Mara play clean, decent, good old American malcontents, but these are actors capable of more. Wahlberg also could use a few more lines -- and lines he actually speaks rather than mumbles.
Only Pena, who is fast accumulating a number of impressive supporting roles, manages to suggest an interesting character: an FBI agent who never goes strictly by the manual.
Technically, the film is terrific. The stunt work is top-notch, while Peter Menzies Jr.'s camera aggressively prowls the various landscapes in search of unique angles.
SHOOTER
Paramount Pictures
A Di Bonaventura Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriter: Jonathan Lemkin
Based on the novel "Point of Impact" by: Stephen Hunter
Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Ric Kidney
Executive producer: Erik Howsam, Mark Johnson
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Dennis Washington
Music: Mark Mancina
Costume designer: Ha Nguyen
Editors: Conrad Buff, Eric Sears
Cast:
Bob Lee Swagger: Mark Wahlberg
Nick Memphis: Michael Pena
Col. Isaac Johnson: Danny Glover
Sarah Fenn: Kate Mara
Jack Payne: Elias Koteas
Alourdes: Rhona Mitra
Michael: Rade Sherbedgia
Sen. Meachum: Ned Beatty
Running time -- 125 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 3/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Shooter is a whopper of a tall tale, a heady brew of conspiracy theories, post-9/11 paranoia, nonstop action and improbable heroes and villains. Certainly the right director is at the helm here -- Antoine Fuqua, whose Training Day and The Replacement Killers demonstrate a strong visual sense and ability to shoot and edit thrillers so that tension mounts with each sequence.
If the movie only lavished as much thought and care on its characters as it does on each intricate set piece, Shooter might have been a classic. As it is, the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, is definitely a cut above the average action thriller, so boxoffice looks promising in domestic and overseas markets.
At the heart of Shooter is the old Hitchcock chestnut about a wrong man fingered for a crime. In this instance, the guy is framed and can only clear himself by hunting down those actually culpable. Bob Lee Swagger -- gotta love that name! -- may be innocent, but he's no innocent. Swagger (Wahlberg) is a highly trained Marine, survivalist and sniper. His trademark line is that the government spent a lot of time and money teaching him how not to die -- just after they taught him how to kill.
An opening sequence in Ethiopia has him and a spotter (Lane Garrison) abandoned by the U.S. military on a mission "inside a country we are not supposed to be in." His spotter is killed, but Swagger makes it out alive, just in time to quit. Three years later, the U.S. government comes calling.
Tracking Swagger to an isolated mountain cabin, shadowy officials led by Col. Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) approach him outside of regular channels. An intercepted communique on the inside has tipped them off to a plot to assassinate the president in the next few weeks. All that is known is that the shot will come from a mile away.
Johnson pleads with Swagger to scout the locations of the next three presidential personal appearances and use his skills and experience to determine how and where the attempt will happen so it can be foiled. Audience members' bullshit detectors, honed by years of watching thrillers, will alert them that all is not right with this group and their story.
Nevertheless, Swagger swaggers back into action and concludes that the hit will come in Philadelphia. Isaac thanks him, then asks him to come along to Philadelphia, you know, to act as a scout.
Yep, it's a setup.
The next thing Swagger knows, he is running from the point of the shot with two bullets in him and every cop, Secret Service and FBI agent in the country eager to capture him dead or alive. In the case of the turncoat government officials, the options are dead or dead. One peculiar thing, though: The shot missed the president and instead killed the Catholic archbishop of Ethiopia. Hmmm, Ethiopia again.
The movie kicks into high gear with the manhunt. Swagger, whose photo is everywhere, must escape his myriad pursuers, heal himself of two potentially fatal wounds, then hunt down the real perpetrators. The only person he can turn to is a woman he has never met -- Sarah Kate Mara), the widow of his late partner in Ethiopia. She buys his story and has enough nursing training to heal him.
Turns out, Swagger has help on the inside too -- Nick Memphis (Michael Pena), a rookie FBI agent he disarmed while fleeing the scene. (No reason is given why an FBI man would be doing a Secret Service job.) Humiliated and facing termination, Nick doesn't believe the official "lone gunman" theory. The more he investigates, the more he sees a conspiracy.
Adroitly using locations ranging from deserts to mountain wildernesses, isolated country homes and the streets of Philly, Fuqua keeps the movie pounding at viewers. The editing is swift and sure, and Mark Mancina's music is reminiscent of a Giorgio Moroder score back in the disco era.
Plot holes and absurdities abound, too numerous to mention, but the real flaw lies in the screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin, working from the novel Point of Impact by author-film critic Stephen Hunter. His characters are all stick figures. Good guys do good, bad guys do bad, and there is little concern for ascribing motives, sentiments, emotions, backgrounds or beliefs to anyone that would allow actors to actually build characters.
Those playing villains fall back on physical shtick reaching back to the silent era. The worst offenders are Elias Koteas and Ned Beatty. Wahlberg and Mara play clean, decent, good old American malcontents, but these are actors capable of more. Wahlberg also could use a few more lines -- and lines he actually speaks rather than mumbles.
Only Pena, who is fast accumulating a number of impressive supporting roles, manages to suggest an interesting character: an FBI agent who never goes strictly by the manual.
Technically, the film is terrific. The stunt work is top-notch, while Peter Menzies Jr.'s camera aggressively prowls the various landscapes in search of unique angles.
SHOOTER
Paramount Pictures
A Di Bonaventura Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriter: Jonathan Lemkin
Based on the novel Point of Impact by: Stephen Hunter
Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Ric Kidney
Executive producer: Erik Howsam, Mark Johnson
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Dennis Washington
Music: Mark Mancina
Costume designer: Ha Nguyen
Editors: Conrad Buff, Eric Sears
Cast:
Bob Lee Swagger: Mark Wahlberg
Nick Memphis: Michael Pena
Col. Isaac Johnson: Danny Glover
Sarah Fenn: Kate Mara
Jack Payne: Elias Koteas
Alourdes: Rhona Mitra
Michael: Rade Sherbedgia
Sen. Meachum: Ned Beatty
Running time -- 125 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
If the movie only lavished as much thought and care on its characters as it does on each intricate set piece, Shooter might have been a classic. As it is, the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, is definitely a cut above the average action thriller, so boxoffice looks promising in domestic and overseas markets.
At the heart of Shooter is the old Hitchcock chestnut about a wrong man fingered for a crime. In this instance, the guy is framed and can only clear himself by hunting down those actually culpable. Bob Lee Swagger -- gotta love that name! -- may be innocent, but he's no innocent. Swagger (Wahlberg) is a highly trained Marine, survivalist and sniper. His trademark line is that the government spent a lot of time and money teaching him how not to die -- just after they taught him how to kill.
An opening sequence in Ethiopia has him and a spotter (Lane Garrison) abandoned by the U.S. military on a mission "inside a country we are not supposed to be in." His spotter is killed, but Swagger makes it out alive, just in time to quit. Three years later, the U.S. government comes calling.
Tracking Swagger to an isolated mountain cabin, shadowy officials led by Col. Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) approach him outside of regular channels. An intercepted communique on the inside has tipped them off to a plot to assassinate the president in the next few weeks. All that is known is that the shot will come from a mile away.
Johnson pleads with Swagger to scout the locations of the next three presidential personal appearances and use his skills and experience to determine how and where the attempt will happen so it can be foiled. Audience members' bullshit detectors, honed by years of watching thrillers, will alert them that all is not right with this group and their story.
Nevertheless, Swagger swaggers back into action and concludes that the hit will come in Philadelphia. Isaac thanks him, then asks him to come along to Philadelphia, you know, to act as a scout.
Yep, it's a setup.
The next thing Swagger knows, he is running from the point of the shot with two bullets in him and every cop, Secret Service and FBI agent in the country eager to capture him dead or alive. In the case of the turncoat government officials, the options are dead or dead. One peculiar thing, though: The shot missed the president and instead killed the Catholic archbishop of Ethiopia. Hmmm, Ethiopia again.
The movie kicks into high gear with the manhunt. Swagger, whose photo is everywhere, must escape his myriad pursuers, heal himself of two potentially fatal wounds, then hunt down the real perpetrators. The only person he can turn to is a woman he has never met -- Sarah Kate Mara), the widow of his late partner in Ethiopia. She buys his story and has enough nursing training to heal him.
Turns out, Swagger has help on the inside too -- Nick Memphis (Michael Pena), a rookie FBI agent he disarmed while fleeing the scene. (No reason is given why an FBI man would be doing a Secret Service job.) Humiliated and facing termination, Nick doesn't believe the official "lone gunman" theory. The more he investigates, the more he sees a conspiracy.
Adroitly using locations ranging from deserts to mountain wildernesses, isolated country homes and the streets of Philly, Fuqua keeps the movie pounding at viewers. The editing is swift and sure, and Mark Mancina's music is reminiscent of a Giorgio Moroder score back in the disco era.
Plot holes and absurdities abound, too numerous to mention, but the real flaw lies in the screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin, working from the novel Point of Impact by author-film critic Stephen Hunter. His characters are all stick figures. Good guys do good, bad guys do bad, and there is little concern for ascribing motives, sentiments, emotions, backgrounds or beliefs to anyone that would allow actors to actually build characters.
Those playing villains fall back on physical shtick reaching back to the silent era. The worst offenders are Elias Koteas and Ned Beatty. Wahlberg and Mara play clean, decent, good old American malcontents, but these are actors capable of more. Wahlberg also could use a few more lines -- and lines he actually speaks rather than mumbles.
Only Pena, who is fast accumulating a number of impressive supporting roles, manages to suggest an interesting character: an FBI agent who never goes strictly by the manual.
Technically, the film is terrific. The stunt work is top-notch, while Peter Menzies Jr.'s camera aggressively prowls the various landscapes in search of unique angles.
SHOOTER
Paramount Pictures
A Di Bonaventura Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriter: Jonathan Lemkin
Based on the novel Point of Impact by: Stephen Hunter
Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Ric Kidney
Executive producer: Erik Howsam, Mark Johnson
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Dennis Washington
Music: Mark Mancina
Costume designer: Ha Nguyen
Editors: Conrad Buff, Eric Sears
Cast:
Bob Lee Swagger: Mark Wahlberg
Nick Memphis: Michael Pena
Col. Isaac Johnson: Danny Glover
Sarah Fenn: Kate Mara
Jack Payne: Elias Koteas
Alourdes: Rhona Mitra
Michael: Rade Sherbedgia
Sen. Meachum: Ned Beatty
Running time -- 125 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 3/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Director John Singleton returns to crime-ridden inner-city streets in Four Brothers, a movie that is part murder mystery and part sociological wish fulfillment. The murder part involves a victim, an angelic older woman, who never met a dead-end kid she wouldn't take into her foster home to turn his life around. The wish fulfillment comes when her four "sons" set out to solve and avenge her murder: Two whites and two blacks, who think, speak and act as blood brothers, go up against Detroit gangsters and cops, where corruption knows no racial divide. A white cop may be bad, and a black gangster might turn out to be a brother.
How willing you are to buy into this multiethnic fantasy might depend on how engrossed you are in the fast action, furious gunfights and the street-hardened characters' unorthodox investigative techniques. The movie possesses energy and a bunch of savvy actors, so it is highly watchable. Yet its increasing implausibility, tipping over into sheer nonsense finally, is likely to mean mixed boxoffice results in markets outside of urban venues.
David Elliot & Paul Lovett's screenplay portrays Detroit as rougher and woollier than Dodge City in a Republic Studios Western. Bad guys and good roam the streets with an arsenal of weaponry. When gunplay breaks out, nary a police officer is in sight.
Indeed, you might not be able to tell them apart except for a helpful expository primer offered by police Lt. Green (Terrence Howard) to his partner, Detective Fowler (Josh Charles), at the burial service of Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan). She performed her last good deed on Earth moments before two convenience store robbers murdered her.
The Mercer brothers all show up: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), a mercurial roughneck just out of stir; Angel Singleton regular Tyrese Gibson), looking to hook up with hot-blooded Sofi (Sofia Vergara); and the youngster Jack Garrett Hedlund), who thinks he's a rock star. The fourth brother, Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin), is the only one with a wife and kids, so he has ambitious business plans.
Green, who once played hockey with the Mercers, advises them to leave police work to the police, which prompts Bobby to sneer. Bobby galvanizes his brothers to kick in doors, knock heads and do whatever it takes to find out who killed Mom. A favorite interviewing technique is to splash gas and threaten to light a match.
The Mercers soon realize their mom's murder was a contract killing. Which brings them up against underworld ruler Victor Sweet (British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor with a thoroughly convincing street manner).
If you take any of this seriously, you are not going to enjoy the movie very much. But as an absurd riff on baadasssss gangsta movies, Four Brothers has an undeniable visceral kick. Here, justice is swift. Bad guy gets popped in moments -- though you realize that with the brothers' interrogation style, a good guy or at least a not-so-bad guy might get popped, too. There's that much room for error.
Actors appear to be having a fine time, which always helps. Wahlberg is a full-bore hothead, a guy comfortable with the notion that a bad temper can be a good thing. Gibson is a commanding presence, as he has been in Baby Boy and 2 Fast 2 Furious. Benjamin, as the one domesticated Mercer, gives his character an appealing complexity. Hedlund has an underwritten part but brings an infectious boyish vigor to the role.
Howard, getting rave reviews for "Hustle & Flow," gives a steadiness to this less flamboyant role until the script makes him do something incredibly foolish. Ejiofor is as thoroughly repellent and unrepentant a villain as you could ask for.
A car chase and a daylight gunbattle are brilliantly executed, both flashbacks to an era when action meant stunts and not CGI. Similarly, the soundtrack is old school, ranging from Jefferson Airplane to Motown classics.
Cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. and designer Keith Brian Burns give wintertime Detroit an appropriately chilly, inhospitable look with a lot of grays and whites -- and the occasional splash of blood red.
FOUR BROTHERS
Paramount Pictures
A di Bonaventura Pictures production
Credits:
Director: John Singleton
Screenwriters: David Elliot & Paul Lovett
Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Executive producers: Ric Kidney, Erik Howsam
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Keith Brian Burns
Music: David Arnold
Costumes: Ruth Carter
Editors: Bruce Cannon, Billy Fox
Cast:
Bobby: Mark Wahlberg
Angel: Tyrese Gibson
Jeremiah: Andre Benjamin
Jack: Garrett Hedlund
Lt. Green: Terrence Howard
Detective Fowler: Josh Charles
Sofi: Sofia Vergara
Evelyn Mercer: Fionnula Flanagan
Victor Sweet: Chiwetel Ejiofor
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 109 minutes...
How willing you are to buy into this multiethnic fantasy might depend on how engrossed you are in the fast action, furious gunfights and the street-hardened characters' unorthodox investigative techniques. The movie possesses energy and a bunch of savvy actors, so it is highly watchable. Yet its increasing implausibility, tipping over into sheer nonsense finally, is likely to mean mixed boxoffice results in markets outside of urban venues.
David Elliot & Paul Lovett's screenplay portrays Detroit as rougher and woollier than Dodge City in a Republic Studios Western. Bad guys and good roam the streets with an arsenal of weaponry. When gunplay breaks out, nary a police officer is in sight.
Indeed, you might not be able to tell them apart except for a helpful expository primer offered by police Lt. Green (Terrence Howard) to his partner, Detective Fowler (Josh Charles), at the burial service of Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan). She performed her last good deed on Earth moments before two convenience store robbers murdered her.
The Mercer brothers all show up: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), a mercurial roughneck just out of stir; Angel Singleton regular Tyrese Gibson), looking to hook up with hot-blooded Sofi (Sofia Vergara); and the youngster Jack Garrett Hedlund), who thinks he's a rock star. The fourth brother, Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin), is the only one with a wife and kids, so he has ambitious business plans.
Green, who once played hockey with the Mercers, advises them to leave police work to the police, which prompts Bobby to sneer. Bobby galvanizes his brothers to kick in doors, knock heads and do whatever it takes to find out who killed Mom. A favorite interviewing technique is to splash gas and threaten to light a match.
The Mercers soon realize their mom's murder was a contract killing. Which brings them up against underworld ruler Victor Sweet (British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor with a thoroughly convincing street manner).
If you take any of this seriously, you are not going to enjoy the movie very much. But as an absurd riff on baadasssss gangsta movies, Four Brothers has an undeniable visceral kick. Here, justice is swift. Bad guy gets popped in moments -- though you realize that with the brothers' interrogation style, a good guy or at least a not-so-bad guy might get popped, too. There's that much room for error.
Actors appear to be having a fine time, which always helps. Wahlberg is a full-bore hothead, a guy comfortable with the notion that a bad temper can be a good thing. Gibson is a commanding presence, as he has been in Baby Boy and 2 Fast 2 Furious. Benjamin, as the one domesticated Mercer, gives his character an appealing complexity. Hedlund has an underwritten part but brings an infectious boyish vigor to the role.
Howard, getting rave reviews for "Hustle & Flow," gives a steadiness to this less flamboyant role until the script makes him do something incredibly foolish. Ejiofor is as thoroughly repellent and unrepentant a villain as you could ask for.
A car chase and a daylight gunbattle are brilliantly executed, both flashbacks to an era when action meant stunts and not CGI. Similarly, the soundtrack is old school, ranging from Jefferson Airplane to Motown classics.
Cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. and designer Keith Brian Burns give wintertime Detroit an appropriately chilly, inhospitable look with a lot of grays and whites -- and the occasional splash of blood red.
FOUR BROTHERS
Paramount Pictures
A di Bonaventura Pictures production
Credits:
Director: John Singleton
Screenwriters: David Elliot & Paul Lovett
Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Executive producers: Ric Kidney, Erik Howsam
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Keith Brian Burns
Music: David Arnold
Costumes: Ruth Carter
Editors: Bruce Cannon, Billy Fox
Cast:
Bobby: Mark Wahlberg
Angel: Tyrese Gibson
Jeremiah: Andre Benjamin
Jack: Garrett Hedlund
Lt. Green: Terrence Howard
Detective Fowler: Josh Charles
Sofi: Sofia Vergara
Evelyn Mercer: Fionnula Flanagan
Victor Sweet: Chiwetel Ejiofor
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 109 minutes...
- 8/25/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
War is hell on character and pacing in "The Great Raid". Recounting what it calls the most successful rescue mission in U.S. military history, the film brings a spectacular but little-known chapter of World War II to the big screen with meticulous attention to period detail -- and almost none to compelling narrative.
Even audiences predisposed to sagas of American valor or nostalgic for the good old days of unswerving wartime coalitions will find little here beyond the retro patina to grab their attention. As Miramax empties its Weinstein-era vaults, this $80 million feature, which began production in 2002, looks unlikely to execute a successful boxoffice raid.
"Inspired by true events" and based on two books -- William Breuer's "The Great Raid on Cabanatuan" and Hampton Sides' "Ghost Soldiers" -- the film's action unfolds in the Japanese-occupied Philippines during the last five days of January 1945. Under the command of the inscrutable Col. Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt), the 6th Army Ranger Battalion sets out to free more than 500 American POWs from imminent death at the Cabanatuan camp. Calling his Rangers the best-trained, least-proven men in the U.S. armed forces, Mucci adopts a daring, detailed plan devised by the bookish young Capt. Robert Prince (James Franco).
The risky operation, which has no significance to the war effort, is all about idealism. But the underdeveloped script by first-timers Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro substitutes stoic noble types for full-blooded individuals and history lesson for drama. Franco's Prince is just one of the story's barely differentiated team players: decent, loyal and impassive.
The Americans team up with a group of Philippine resistance fighters led by Capt. Pajota (Cesar Montano), eager to prove their worth as more than mere backup. In Cabanatuan, malaria-stricken Maj. Gibson (Joseph Fiennes) tries to salvage the morale of his starving troops, whose three years of postsurrender captivity have left them feeling abandoned and doomed while all eyes were on Europe. Keeping Gibson going, besides his reckless friend Major Redding (Marton Csokas), is his chaste love for Army widow Margaret (Connie Nielsen). A statuesque, heroic beauty, she smuggles black-market meds into the camp through the underground in Manila.
"Raid" opens with almost five minutes of background exposition, but apparently the intention was not to clear the way for character-driven storytelling. Characters mouth factoids throughout the two-hour-plus film, and neither the cast nor helmer John Dahl, who has shown a deft hand with mood and character in such films as "Red Rock West" and "The Last Seduction", gives the audience much to care about. Kiwi actor Csokas (who has a leading role in Paramount Classics' "Asylum", also opening Aug. 12), comes closest to suggesting a complex human being and delivers the best line, a bit of not-so-noble throwaway humor.
The handsomely appointed production boasts outstanding work from production designer Bruno Rubeo, costumer Lizzy Gardiner and director of photography Peter Menzies Jr. The latter makes evocative use of backlit images and a desaturated palette of greens and golds in his widescreen camerawork in Queensland, Australia, and Shanghai (subbing for Manila). Even with so much riches on the screen, the raid itself arrives with the requisite explosions but little dramatic payoff. The film closes with period footage of people involved in the raid, which serves only to underscore the lack of emotional resonance in the preceding dramatization.
THE GREAT RAID
Miramax Films
A Marty Katz production in association with Lawrence Bender Prods.
Credits:
Director: John Dahl
Screenwriters: Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro
Producers: Marty Katz, Lawrence Bender
Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jonathan Gordon, Michelle Raimo
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Bruno Rubeo
Music: Trevor Rabin
Co-producer: Anthony Winley
Costume designer: Lizzy Gardiner
Editors: Pietro Scalia, Scott Chestnut
Cast:
Col. Henry Mucci: Benjamin Bratt
Capt. Robert Prince: James Franco
Margaret Utinsky: Connie Nielsen
Maj. Redding: Marton Csokas
Maj. Gibson: Joseph Fiennes
Capt. Pajota: Cesar Montano
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 133 minutes...
Even audiences predisposed to sagas of American valor or nostalgic for the good old days of unswerving wartime coalitions will find little here beyond the retro patina to grab their attention. As Miramax empties its Weinstein-era vaults, this $80 million feature, which began production in 2002, looks unlikely to execute a successful boxoffice raid.
"Inspired by true events" and based on two books -- William Breuer's "The Great Raid on Cabanatuan" and Hampton Sides' "Ghost Soldiers" -- the film's action unfolds in the Japanese-occupied Philippines during the last five days of January 1945. Under the command of the inscrutable Col. Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt), the 6th Army Ranger Battalion sets out to free more than 500 American POWs from imminent death at the Cabanatuan camp. Calling his Rangers the best-trained, least-proven men in the U.S. armed forces, Mucci adopts a daring, detailed plan devised by the bookish young Capt. Robert Prince (James Franco).
The risky operation, which has no significance to the war effort, is all about idealism. But the underdeveloped script by first-timers Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro substitutes stoic noble types for full-blooded individuals and history lesson for drama. Franco's Prince is just one of the story's barely differentiated team players: decent, loyal and impassive.
The Americans team up with a group of Philippine resistance fighters led by Capt. Pajota (Cesar Montano), eager to prove their worth as more than mere backup. In Cabanatuan, malaria-stricken Maj. Gibson (Joseph Fiennes) tries to salvage the morale of his starving troops, whose three years of postsurrender captivity have left them feeling abandoned and doomed while all eyes were on Europe. Keeping Gibson going, besides his reckless friend Major Redding (Marton Csokas), is his chaste love for Army widow Margaret (Connie Nielsen). A statuesque, heroic beauty, she smuggles black-market meds into the camp through the underground in Manila.
"Raid" opens with almost five minutes of background exposition, but apparently the intention was not to clear the way for character-driven storytelling. Characters mouth factoids throughout the two-hour-plus film, and neither the cast nor helmer John Dahl, who has shown a deft hand with mood and character in such films as "Red Rock West" and "The Last Seduction", gives the audience much to care about. Kiwi actor Csokas (who has a leading role in Paramount Classics' "Asylum", also opening Aug. 12), comes closest to suggesting a complex human being and delivers the best line, a bit of not-so-noble throwaway humor.
The handsomely appointed production boasts outstanding work from production designer Bruno Rubeo, costumer Lizzy Gardiner and director of photography Peter Menzies Jr. The latter makes evocative use of backlit images and a desaturated palette of greens and golds in his widescreen camerawork in Queensland, Australia, and Shanghai (subbing for Manila). Even with so much riches on the screen, the raid itself arrives with the requisite explosions but little dramatic payoff. The film closes with period footage of people involved in the raid, which serves only to underscore the lack of emotional resonance in the preceding dramatization.
THE GREAT RAID
Miramax Films
A Marty Katz production in association with Lawrence Bender Prods.
Credits:
Director: John Dahl
Screenwriters: Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro
Producers: Marty Katz, Lawrence Bender
Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jonathan Gordon, Michelle Raimo
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Bruno Rubeo
Music: Trevor Rabin
Co-producer: Anthony Winley
Costume designer: Lizzy Gardiner
Editors: Pietro Scalia, Scott Chestnut
Cast:
Col. Henry Mucci: Benjamin Bratt
Capt. Robert Prince: James Franco
Margaret Utinsky: Connie Nielsen
Maj. Redding: Marton Csokas
Maj. Gibson: Joseph Fiennes
Capt. Pajota: Cesar Montano
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 133 minutes...
- 8/25/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Although it's poised to flex boxoffice muscle when it opens Thursday for Easter-weekend action, "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous" is neither buff nor fabulous, the high concept more wearying than delightful on the second go-round. Even as agile a performer as Sandra Bullock seems to be straining here amid the repetitive jokes and muddled girl-power message.
Returning screenwriter Marc Lawrence finds a smart, logical hook back into the story of klutzy FBI agent Gracie Hart (Bullock) but merely leads her through familiar paces, the sequel's giddy potential unrealized. A sure sign of trouble: Even a Las Vegas chase scene involving Dolly Parton falls flat.
In the first installment (a Christmas 2000 hit), Hart went undercover as a contestant in the nationally televised Miss United States pageant, leaving one to wonder how she'd ever do undercover field work again. She can't -- but somehow the FBI needs a botched assignment to figure out the obvious. So at the urging of her boss (Ernie Hudson), Gracie the tomboy puts her newfound celebrity to work for the Bureau as "the new face of the FBI," a face adorned with false eyelashes and pink lip gloss. Guiding her through appearances with Regis is stylist Joel; in place of Michael Caine's nuanced image consultant we get Diedrich Bader's obvious, if likable, walking stereotype.
When Miss United States (Heather Burns, reprising her role as ultraearnest, homespun Cheryl) and pageant host Stan Fields (William Shatner, making the most of his brief screen time) are kidnapped in Nevada by not-quite-believable sibling thugs (Abraham Benrubi and Nick Offerman), Gracie jets into Vegas headquarters as the FBI's spokeswoman. Besides her hair-and-makeup people, her entourage includes a pugnacious pit bull of a reluctant bodyguard (Regina King).
That King's character is an agent named Sam Fuller is an odd and distracting nod to the tough-guy independent filmmaker amid this pic's formulaic plot turns, not to mention the pearls and Chanel suits. An hour into the film, when Gracie defies orders and goes undercover with Joel and Sam, a certain comic shtick kicks in, briefly. But mainly the proceedings feel as faux and eager to please as the Vegas renditions of Venice and New York. The inevitable drag extravaganza, though it's a shot of adrenaline, has an air of desperation about it.
When given the chance, Bullock and King are so good at showing the friendless little girls beneath their characters' grown-up swagger that it's a shame they have to spend so much time going mano a mano. And while it's hard to argue with the film's message of female self-reliance, "Congeniality 2" clearly revels in the dumb brawling, playing to some ill-defined middle with the notion that beating people up is cool -- or funny -- when girls do it.
Treat Williams is suitably bureaucratic as Gracie's FBI nemesis in Vegas, presiding over production designer Maher Ahmad's striking neon honeycomb of a situation room. Enrique Murciano makes an impression as a sympathetic, if somewhat slow on the uptake, Nevada agent.
With solid creative support, notably Deena Appel's costumes, helmer John Pasquin ("Joe Somebody") and DP Peter Menzies Jr. orchestrate the proceedings in a straight-ahead manner that works intermittently. But it also underscores the thinness of Lawrence's script, which can take the quips about designer latte and highlights only so far.
MISS CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED AND FABULOUS
Warner Bros. Pictures
Castle Rock Entertainment, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures presents
a Fortis Films production
Credits:
Director: John Pasquin
Screenwriter: Marc Lawrence
Producers: Sandra Bullock, Marc Lawrence
Executive producers: Mary McLaglen, John Kirby, Bruce Berman
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Maher Ahmad
Co-producer: Gesine Bullock-Prado
Costume designer: Deena Appel
Editor: Garth Craven
Cast:
Gracie Hart: Sandra Bullock
Sam Fuller: Regina King
Jeff Foreman: Enrique Murciano
Stan Fields: William Shatner
McDonald: Ernie Hudson
Cheryl: Heather Burns
Joel: Diedrich Bader
Collins: Treat Williams
Lou Steele: Abraham Benrubi
Karl Steele: Nick Offerman
Carol Fields: Eileen Brennan
Regis Philbin, Dolly Parton
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 115 minutes...
Returning screenwriter Marc Lawrence finds a smart, logical hook back into the story of klutzy FBI agent Gracie Hart (Bullock) but merely leads her through familiar paces, the sequel's giddy potential unrealized. A sure sign of trouble: Even a Las Vegas chase scene involving Dolly Parton falls flat.
In the first installment (a Christmas 2000 hit), Hart went undercover as a contestant in the nationally televised Miss United States pageant, leaving one to wonder how she'd ever do undercover field work again. She can't -- but somehow the FBI needs a botched assignment to figure out the obvious. So at the urging of her boss (Ernie Hudson), Gracie the tomboy puts her newfound celebrity to work for the Bureau as "the new face of the FBI," a face adorned with false eyelashes and pink lip gloss. Guiding her through appearances with Regis is stylist Joel; in place of Michael Caine's nuanced image consultant we get Diedrich Bader's obvious, if likable, walking stereotype.
When Miss United States (Heather Burns, reprising her role as ultraearnest, homespun Cheryl) and pageant host Stan Fields (William Shatner, making the most of his brief screen time) are kidnapped in Nevada by not-quite-believable sibling thugs (Abraham Benrubi and Nick Offerman), Gracie jets into Vegas headquarters as the FBI's spokeswoman. Besides her hair-and-makeup people, her entourage includes a pugnacious pit bull of a reluctant bodyguard (Regina King).
That King's character is an agent named Sam Fuller is an odd and distracting nod to the tough-guy independent filmmaker amid this pic's formulaic plot turns, not to mention the pearls and Chanel suits. An hour into the film, when Gracie defies orders and goes undercover with Joel and Sam, a certain comic shtick kicks in, briefly. But mainly the proceedings feel as faux and eager to please as the Vegas renditions of Venice and New York. The inevitable drag extravaganza, though it's a shot of adrenaline, has an air of desperation about it.
When given the chance, Bullock and King are so good at showing the friendless little girls beneath their characters' grown-up swagger that it's a shame they have to spend so much time going mano a mano. And while it's hard to argue with the film's message of female self-reliance, "Congeniality 2" clearly revels in the dumb brawling, playing to some ill-defined middle with the notion that beating people up is cool -- or funny -- when girls do it.
Treat Williams is suitably bureaucratic as Gracie's FBI nemesis in Vegas, presiding over production designer Maher Ahmad's striking neon honeycomb of a situation room. Enrique Murciano makes an impression as a sympathetic, if somewhat slow on the uptake, Nevada agent.
With solid creative support, notably Deena Appel's costumes, helmer John Pasquin ("Joe Somebody") and DP Peter Menzies Jr. orchestrate the proceedings in a straight-ahead manner that works intermittently. But it also underscores the thinness of Lawrence's script, which can take the quips about designer latte and highlights only so far.
MISS CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED AND FABULOUS
Warner Bros. Pictures
Castle Rock Entertainment, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures presents
a Fortis Films production
Credits:
Director: John Pasquin
Screenwriter: Marc Lawrence
Producers: Sandra Bullock, Marc Lawrence
Executive producers: Mary McLaglen, John Kirby, Bruce Berman
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Maher Ahmad
Co-producer: Gesine Bullock-Prado
Costume designer: Deena Appel
Editor: Garth Craven
Cast:
Gracie Hart: Sandra Bullock
Sam Fuller: Regina King
Jeff Foreman: Enrique Murciano
Stan Fields: William Shatner
McDonald: Ernie Hudson
Cheryl: Heather Burns
Joel: Diedrich Bader
Collins: Treat Williams
Lou Steele: Abraham Benrubi
Karl Steele: Nick Offerman
Carol Fields: Eileen Brennan
Regis Philbin, Dolly Parton
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 115 minutes...
- 4/20/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A high concept that goes nowhere, "Man of the House" tries, but not all that hard, to milk laughs from its ostensibly hilarious setup: A tough, taciturn Texas Ranger is assigned round-the-clock protection of five witnesses to a crime. The quintet just happens to be -- get this! -- a college cheerleading squad. A winningly restrained lead performance by Tommy Lee Jones, who also exec produced, isn't enough to put the film on the boxoffice scoreboard. Hitting every cliche along its well-traveled road, the action comedy, released Friday without press screenings, will have a quick playoff to video.
After they witness the murder of an informant (Curtis Armstrong), the giggly, high-maintenance cheerleaders for the University of Texas Longhorns football team must share a sorority house with lawman Roland Sharp (Jones). Posing, much to his dismay, as the assistant cheerleading coach, the decidedly nonperky Sharp finds himself navigating household matters like the dietary restrictions of the Zone. The girls suffer unspeakable deprivations, like being denied the use of cell phones.
Ditzy Barb (Kelli Garner) has a crush on him, but Sharp's PG-13 interest in the scantily clad girls is strictly professional. He gets them to expose less epidermis and offers minilectures on why plagiarizing a term paper is not a good thing. Predictably, the cheerleaders stop being demanding and horrid and advise him on how to communicate with his teen daughter Shannon Marie Woodward) and how to comport himself on a date with a fetching professor (Anne Archer).
Director Stephen Herek ("Life or Something Like It") ably orchestrates a few action sequences, but suspense is beside the point. Whatever danger the girls face is as unconvincing as most everything else going on here, from the rote villainy of a corrupt FBI agent Brian Van Holt) to the obligatory importance-of-good-parenting subplot.
Jones' masterful underplaying is a pleasure, and Cedric the Entertainer lends comic fillips to the role of an ex-con preacher. Among the five actresses playing Sharp's charges, only Vanessa Ferlito gets to suggest anything like a real person, and she shares a very good scene with Jones in which Sharp confesses that "The Sound of Music" is his favorite movie.
Otherwise, the girls are broadly sketched types: There's the boyfriend-obsessed Latina (Paula Garces) and studious premed student (Monica Keena). As the mouthy squad captain, Christina Milian must deliver an ode to cheerleading that invokes the names of important people who once plied the noble art -- Madonna, Cameron Diaz and George W. Bush, among them.
With solid but unexceptional tech support, Herek makes good use of Austin locations, both downtown and on the campus of the University of Texas (his alma mater). But he can't quite breathe life into the clunky script, credited to Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone and John J. McLaughlin.
MAN OF THE HOUSE
Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios/Bel Air Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Stephen Herek
Screenwriters: Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, John J. McLaughlin
Producers: Steven Reuther, Todd Garner, Allyn Stewart
Executive producers: Tommy Lee Jones, Marty P. Ewing, Derek Dauchy
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Music: David Newman
Costume designer: Betsy Heimann
Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Joel Negron
Cast:
Roland Sharp: Tommy Lee Jones
Percy Stevens: Cedric the Entertainer
Molly McCarthy: Anne Archer
Ed Zane: Brian Van Holt
Anne: Christina Milian
Teresa: Paula Garces
Evie: Monica Keena
Barb: Kelli Garner
Heather: Vanessa Ferlito
Emma: Shannon Marie Woodward
Morgan Ball: Curtis Armstrong
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 100 minutes...
After they witness the murder of an informant (Curtis Armstrong), the giggly, high-maintenance cheerleaders for the University of Texas Longhorns football team must share a sorority house with lawman Roland Sharp (Jones). Posing, much to his dismay, as the assistant cheerleading coach, the decidedly nonperky Sharp finds himself navigating household matters like the dietary restrictions of the Zone. The girls suffer unspeakable deprivations, like being denied the use of cell phones.
Ditzy Barb (Kelli Garner) has a crush on him, but Sharp's PG-13 interest in the scantily clad girls is strictly professional. He gets them to expose less epidermis and offers minilectures on why plagiarizing a term paper is not a good thing. Predictably, the cheerleaders stop being demanding and horrid and advise him on how to communicate with his teen daughter Shannon Marie Woodward) and how to comport himself on a date with a fetching professor (Anne Archer).
Director Stephen Herek ("Life or Something Like It") ably orchestrates a few action sequences, but suspense is beside the point. Whatever danger the girls face is as unconvincing as most everything else going on here, from the rote villainy of a corrupt FBI agent Brian Van Holt) to the obligatory importance-of-good-parenting subplot.
Jones' masterful underplaying is a pleasure, and Cedric the Entertainer lends comic fillips to the role of an ex-con preacher. Among the five actresses playing Sharp's charges, only Vanessa Ferlito gets to suggest anything like a real person, and she shares a very good scene with Jones in which Sharp confesses that "The Sound of Music" is his favorite movie.
Otherwise, the girls are broadly sketched types: There's the boyfriend-obsessed Latina (Paula Garces) and studious premed student (Monica Keena). As the mouthy squad captain, Christina Milian must deliver an ode to cheerleading that invokes the names of important people who once plied the noble art -- Madonna, Cameron Diaz and George W. Bush, among them.
With solid but unexceptional tech support, Herek makes good use of Austin locations, both downtown and on the campus of the University of Texas (his alma mater). But he can't quite breathe life into the clunky script, credited to Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone and John J. McLaughlin.
MAN OF THE HOUSE
Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios/Bel Air Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Stephen Herek
Screenwriters: Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, John J. McLaughlin
Producers: Steven Reuther, Todd Garner, Allyn Stewart
Executive producers: Tommy Lee Jones, Marty P. Ewing, Derek Dauchy
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Nelson Coates
Music: David Newman
Costume designer: Betsy Heimann
Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Joel Negron
Cast:
Roland Sharp: Tommy Lee Jones
Percy Stevens: Cedric the Entertainer
Molly McCarthy: Anne Archer
Ed Zane: Brian Van Holt
Anne: Christina Milian
Teresa: Paula Garces
Evie: Monica Keena
Barb: Kelli Garner
Heather: Vanessa Ferlito
Emma: Shannon Marie Woodward
Morgan Ball: Curtis Armstrong
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 100 minutes...
- 3/17/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Bless the Child" is a thoroughly unimaginative supernatural thriller that picks over elements from "The Omen", "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" but never improves on any of its borrowings. Lacking the special-effects firepower of such recent exercises as "End of Days" and "The Devil's Advocate", "Bless" emerges as a throwback to a time when filmmakers had to create suspense through characters rather than effects. Good idea -- only when characters are this aggressively obtuse, they aren't likely to win audience empathy.
The genre usually scares up good boxoffice numbers in the first week, and the presence of Oscar winner Kim Basinger should bring in female viewers. But "Bless" lacks staying power, and not too many women are going to appreciate the relentless stupidity of Basinger's character.
Basinger's Maggie O'Connor is portrayed as a level-headed, reasonably intelligent nurse. Then why, with the NYPD and FBI investigator John Travis (Jimmy Smits) eager to back her up, does she go alone, looking like she just stepped out of a beauty salon, to a derelict building in a crime-infested corner of the Bronx to take on the forces of ultimate evil? And why does she take along a gun but never bother to check if it's loaded?
This epidemic of dumbness moves beyond the characters to the writers themselves. For the movie's climax, dozens of state police and FBI agents take off in cars and helicopters for the devil worshippers' estate nearby. Cut moments later to a lonely road in a dark forest where Smits gets out of a car and must ask with a straight face to the only cop in sight, "Where's our backup?"
Where indeed.
The screenplay by Tom Rickman and Clifford & Ellen Green, based on Cathy Cash Spellman's novel, has Maggie, a lapsed Catholic, raising a supposedly autistic child named Cody (Holliston Coleman) after the newborn is dumped on her by a junkie Sister Angela Bettis). Mind you, we see no evidence of autism, but the dialogue constantly tells us that Cody is "special."
She was born on Christmas Eve -- nudge, wink, nod -- when portents and omens point to the coming of another Christ child. (Whatever will theologians think of that plot point?) Cody can make objects spin and heal cancer, but no one seems to notice because everyone is so busy trying to diagnose autism.
Several years later, the kid sister reappears, looking if anything worse but claiming to be fully cured by her new husband, self-realization guru Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell). But Stark clearly is the leader of a devil-worshipping cult. We can tell this from Sewell's dark clothes, bulging eye and nasty smirk.
The filmmakers never quite figure out whether they are making a cop movie or occult thriller. One minute, Cody is a helpless girl in desperate need of protection from a satanic cult. The next, she is healing gunshot wounds and scaring off bad guys with a withering glance. With her paranormal skills, Cody apparently is never in real jeopardy. No wonder the police backup disappeared.
The one smart thing the movie does is downplay its special effects -- for audiences have grown weary of filmmakers hiding behind cinematic trickery.
Chuck Russell competently directs the Toronto-based production. Designer Carol Spier finds, builds or dresses suitably spooky sets and collaborates with cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. in keeping the tones and lighting in the dark, moody range.
And while stars may require makeup artists, hairstylists and designer costumes, didn't anyone ask whether such movie-star glamour is appropriate for a
working-class nurse doing battle with the devil's minions? Maybe she wants to out-glam them.
BLESS THE CHILD
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures and Icon Prods. present
a Mace Neufeld production
Producer: Mace Neufeld
Director: Chuck Russell
Screenwriters: Tom Rickman, Clifford Green,
Ellen Green
Based on the novel by: Cathy Cash Spellman
Executive producers: Bruce Davey,
Robert Rehme, Lis Kern
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Carol Spier
Music: Christopher Young
Co-producer: Stratton Leopold
Costume designer: Denise Cronenberg
Editor: Alan Heim
Color/stereo
Cast:
Maggie O'Connor: Kim Basinger
John Travis: Jimmy Smits
Cody: Holliston Coleman
Eric Stark: Rufus Sewell
Jenna: Angela Bettis
Cheri: Christina Ricci
Rev. Grissom: Ian Holm
Sister Rosa: Lumi Cavazos
Running time - 113 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The genre usually scares up good boxoffice numbers in the first week, and the presence of Oscar winner Kim Basinger should bring in female viewers. But "Bless" lacks staying power, and not too many women are going to appreciate the relentless stupidity of Basinger's character.
Basinger's Maggie O'Connor is portrayed as a level-headed, reasonably intelligent nurse. Then why, with the NYPD and FBI investigator John Travis (Jimmy Smits) eager to back her up, does she go alone, looking like she just stepped out of a beauty salon, to a derelict building in a crime-infested corner of the Bronx to take on the forces of ultimate evil? And why does she take along a gun but never bother to check if it's loaded?
This epidemic of dumbness moves beyond the characters to the writers themselves. For the movie's climax, dozens of state police and FBI agents take off in cars and helicopters for the devil worshippers' estate nearby. Cut moments later to a lonely road in a dark forest where Smits gets out of a car and must ask with a straight face to the only cop in sight, "Where's our backup?"
Where indeed.
The screenplay by Tom Rickman and Clifford & Ellen Green, based on Cathy Cash Spellman's novel, has Maggie, a lapsed Catholic, raising a supposedly autistic child named Cody (Holliston Coleman) after the newborn is dumped on her by a junkie Sister Angela Bettis). Mind you, we see no evidence of autism, but the dialogue constantly tells us that Cody is "special."
She was born on Christmas Eve -- nudge, wink, nod -- when portents and omens point to the coming of another Christ child. (Whatever will theologians think of that plot point?) Cody can make objects spin and heal cancer, but no one seems to notice because everyone is so busy trying to diagnose autism.
Several years later, the kid sister reappears, looking if anything worse but claiming to be fully cured by her new husband, self-realization guru Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell). But Stark clearly is the leader of a devil-worshipping cult. We can tell this from Sewell's dark clothes, bulging eye and nasty smirk.
The filmmakers never quite figure out whether they are making a cop movie or occult thriller. One minute, Cody is a helpless girl in desperate need of protection from a satanic cult. The next, she is healing gunshot wounds and scaring off bad guys with a withering glance. With her paranormal skills, Cody apparently is never in real jeopardy. No wonder the police backup disappeared.
The one smart thing the movie does is downplay its special effects -- for audiences have grown weary of filmmakers hiding behind cinematic trickery.
Chuck Russell competently directs the Toronto-based production. Designer Carol Spier finds, builds or dresses suitably spooky sets and collaborates with cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. in keeping the tones and lighting in the dark, moody range.
And while stars may require makeup artists, hairstylists and designer costumes, didn't anyone ask whether such movie-star glamour is appropriate for a
working-class nurse doing battle with the devil's minions? Maybe she wants to out-glam them.
BLESS THE CHILD
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures and Icon Prods. present
a Mace Neufeld production
Producer: Mace Neufeld
Director: Chuck Russell
Screenwriters: Tom Rickman, Clifford Green,
Ellen Green
Based on the novel by: Cathy Cash Spellman
Executive producers: Bruce Davey,
Robert Rehme, Lis Kern
Director of photography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Production designer: Carol Spier
Music: Christopher Young
Co-producer: Stratton Leopold
Costume designer: Denise Cronenberg
Editor: Alan Heim
Color/stereo
Cast:
Maggie O'Connor: Kim Basinger
John Travis: Jimmy Smits
Cody: Holliston Coleman
Eric Stark: Rufus Sewell
Jenna: Angela Bettis
Cheri: Christina Ricci
Rev. Grissom: Ian Holm
Sister Rosa: Lumi Cavazos
Running time - 113 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/11/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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