Inglorious movie lists

There’s nothing quite like a list to make you feel warm and secure. Organising the complexities of the world into neat little paper-bound columns is one of life’s small, unsung pleasures. When we herd the untidy pieces of our lives into precise, itemised bullet points we create order from the soupy chaos,  which is enough  to warm the heart of anyone with even the slightest penchant for control-freakery.

Or perhaps it’s simply that making sense of the world is an inevitably satisfying thing given (if you’ll excuse the borrowed term) the unbearable lightness of being.

Whatever the case, and even if you are one of those folk who consider that making a list is akin to doing the things included therein, they sure do make for good reading.

And good marketing.

Quentin Tarantino knows this only too well. Which explains the release of a video, currently doing the rounds on the net, in which he details his own list  - a very personal laundry list of his top 20 movies of the last 17 years. Why 17 years? That’s how long it’s been since he stepped out from behind the counter at the video store and started directing films himself .

It’s an eclectic list, by anyone’s standards with a film buff’s blend of gems like Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation, audience favourites such as Fight Club and The Matrix (yes, The Matrix) and stoner flicks like Dazed and Confused. What would your list contain?

New Moon Teaser Trailer 2

The new (14 second) teaser trailer for New Moon was released today in an effort to hype up the release of the full trailer this Friday. As if this series needed more hyping up! And who ever heard of a teaser for a trailer?

As the thousands of fansites, mall stampedes and screaming girls clearly show, The Twilight Saga has inspired millions of devoted fans across the globe. and whether you love it, or hate it,  Twilight is an undeniable pop cultural phenomenon. Here is the (14 second) teaser!

What did you think?

John Cleese rumoured for Spud

John Cleese is in talks to play the role of The Guv in the film version of John Van Der Ruit’s best-selling novel, Spud, which starts shooting in 2010.

Castings for the schoolboys and girls parts began in August and right now hundreds of aspiring Daniel Radcliffes are practicing their falsettos, prepping to win a role in South Africa’s answer to Harry Potter. 

Not that (Charlize Theron aside) South Africa is noted for the number of international stars and icons to which it has given birth. Compare, for instance, the fate of South African Idols winners to that of their counterparts in the US or UK to see the truth of that. Heinz who?

Yet the Spud series (comprising three books, with a fourth on its way) has been an unexpected hit with South African readers, each one a bestseller, each one greeted with anticipation most unusual in a country that tends to shun its own literature (and cinema) in favour of Hollywood exports.

Another thing counting in Spud’s favour is the reflected glory of Neil Blomkamp’s District 9, which has been so ebulliently praised that it is currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

With John Cleese adding credibility and impeccable comic timing as the wine soaked, Shakespeare-spouting Guv, the film may fare better both locally and internationally than might otherwise be expected. I may even go see it myself…

Tim Burton’s Alice – Teaser Trailer!

The first teaser trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland has been released. It looks amazing – visually rich as one expects from the man who brought us Edward Scissorhands, Beetle Juice, Batman, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd…

The scandal (of course there’s scandal) is that this trailer was ‘leaked’ on the internet and Disney have spent considerable time in the futile attempt to wipe all traces of the video from the net. 

Apparently, Disney strong-armed YouTube into taking down all versions of the trailer on the video-hosting site – a serious case of too little too late since by then every movie website already had the video up. 

Here it is. Enjoy.

A Few Good – Teenagers?

Rob Reiner is directing and producing Flipped. Based on the novel by mystery author Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped tells the tale of Bryce and Julie, two yong adults who engage in a he-said, she-said romance. It’s a typical tale of boy meets girl, girl likes boy, boy ignores girl and then realises the error of his way… The book was critically well-received and could make an interesting movie.

While Reiner’s opus contains many rightful classics, such as When Harry Met Sally (1989), Misery (1990), Stand By Me (1986) and, of course, A Few Good Men (1992), it’s been a while since he made anything near as iconic  - or even quotable. Can you remember one – just one – line from Rumour Has It? ‘Nuff said.

Add to this Flipped‘s somewhat dubious cast list, which includes Aidan Quinn (he of the icy blue eyes), Rebecca De Mornay (last seen as the nanny guaranteed to win any Least Like Mary Poppins awards going) and Anthony Edwards.

Still, all is not lost – Reiner has had considerable success with young adult movies in the past: The Princess Bride, which starred a very young Robin Penn and an even younger Fred Savage (pre-Wonder Years) remains just as enchanting and magical a tale as it did when it was first released in 1987; and Stand By Me, based on the Stephen King novella ”The Body,” and which tells of an overnight hike by four Oregon youngsters to seek the body of a boy who had been struck by a train, is one of the finest coming-of-age films ever made.

Here is The Princess Bride trailer  - enjoy the cheesy 80s backing track, but don’t let it put you off watching this classic if you haven’t already seen it.

Plot Synopsis:

The Weekend Take

The US weekend box office estimates are in and no surprises as Harry Potter dominated with the 6th film in the series, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Expectations for the film were high after it was delayed for six months and released a full two years after the last instalment of this lucrative franchise. With critics praising the movie (84% on Rotten Tomatoes), it’s no surprise that the public flocked to the cinema to earn the film a robust $79.5m opening weekend (Friday to Sunday) and an astonishing $159m for the five-day period.

Warner executives must be dreading the inevitable demise of this cash cow; no doubt, this is why Warner have elected to split the final book into two movies – all the better to fleece you with, my dear!

Other studios appeared to be holding back from competing with the magical juggernaut and new release options were scarce on the ground for those moviegoers who found little to interest them in the exploits of Harry and his friends at Hogwarts. Which may explain the excellent holdovers of Ice Age 3 and Transformers 2.

Ice Age 3 came in at second place with $17.7m. Now in its 3rd weekend, the numbers prove the franchise still has legs (although do we really want to see another one?).

In 3rd place, Transformers scored a hefty $13.8m in its 4th weekend, bringing its tally to an astronomical $364m and making it the behemoth at the box office this summer. (Is it only me or does it seem wrong wrong wrong that this movie can even begin to compete with The Dark Knight in terms of box office?)

This week’s big loser, dipping a disastrous 73% is Bruno with $8.4m. If weekends were runways, Bruno just slipped and fell into Donatalla Versace’s lap. No real surprise, considering the hefty Friday to Saturday drop last weekend, but Bruno can now rejoice in the dubious distinction of having the poorest holdover of the year. With these results reflected in international box office as well, we have to ask: Why the rapid decline? Is the movie just not that funny? Are (largely male heterosexual) audiences simply not interested in having their latent homophobia thrown in their faces. Or is it the naked male appendages dangled in their faces that have turned them off?

What lessons can we take from this?

1. Despite fears that Twilight may have stolen some of Harry Potter’s thunder, it seems the Chosen One can still pull the crowds, even if Daniel Radcliffe has less luck.
2. Franchises are big business, whatever the merit of the movie, provided the trailer features big machines and beautiful girls draped over motor cycles – or a squirrel named Scrat!
3. The world is not ready for Bruno – or full frontal male nudity (you decide)