Random thoughts on GREEN LANTERN 2-D (I try to avoid movies where 3-D is only added in post-production) in no specific order:
1. Blake Lively should be campaigining to be part of Warren Beatty's just-announced Howard Hughes project; believe me, she needs the career boost.
2. Ryan Reynolds tries for a fusion of his old frat-boy persona, his newer twinkly/bemused romantic leading man persona and a bit of the old Tom Cruise-circa-TOP GUN schtick. Bradley Cooper could have given a better performance with one hand tied behind his back and dragging around an anvil chained to his left foot.
3. No, GREEN LANTERN's not as terrible as some reviews indicate But for an alleged $200 million superhero franchise-starter apparently shot in Louisiana to Save Money, it's pretty underwhelming--particularly so when you consider that Martin Campbell (who revived James Bond with both Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig) directed it.
4. Some quick shoutouts to Peter Sarsgaard (doing a fusion of John Waters and John Malkovich), Tim Robbins, Mark Strong and Geoffrey Rush (imitating Alec Guinness-as-Obi-Wan) for doing professional, keep-the-ship-sailing work.
Showing posts with label Jeff Robinov. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeff Robinov. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Shedding tears for Denise DiNovi's current producing career.
http://rainn.posterous.com/thank-you-hollywood
Once upon a time, Denise DiNovi (met her once and thought she was a nice person--she's married to a man who was a cinematography fellow at American Film Institute during 1988-1989) was involved in the production of films such as HEATHERS and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS.
Now, she has another film coming out from her home studio Warner Brothers--it's a little Katherine Heigl/Josh Duhamel dramedy called LIFE AS WE KNOW IT. From the TV ads, it promises to be a sitcom filled with lots of baby poops/pees/barfs jokes.
Previously at WB, Denise was involved with producing an Amanda Bynes vehicle called WHAT A GIRL WANTS--where the original poster art of Bynes giving the peace sign was apparently thought too subversive (remembering that the film was released in the George Butch Jr. era) and airbrushed out in later versions.
It's just sad to see someone with talent having to make the best of what I'm guessing must be a less-than-ideal environment to get female-centered and/or intelligent mass-audience films greenlighted, made and released with full studio support.
Once upon a time, Denise DiNovi (met her once and thought she was a nice person--she's married to a man who was a cinematography fellow at American Film Institute during 1988-1989) was involved in the production of films such as HEATHERS and EDWARD SCISSORHANDS.
Now, she has another film coming out from her home studio Warner Brothers--it's a little Katherine Heigl/Josh Duhamel dramedy called LIFE AS WE KNOW IT. From the TV ads, it promises to be a sitcom filled with lots of baby poops/pees/barfs jokes.
Previously at WB, Denise was involved with producing an Amanda Bynes vehicle called WHAT A GIRL WANTS--where the original poster art of Bynes giving the peace sign was apparently thought too subversive (remembering that the film was released in the George Butch Jr. era) and airbrushed out in later versions.
It's just sad to see someone with talent having to make the best of what I'm guessing must be a less-than-ideal environment to get female-centered and/or intelligent mass-audience films greenlighted, made and released with full studio support.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Why I haven't rushed out to big-studio summer movies yet.
Perhaps it's age--and perhaps it's also witnessing coming-attractions trailers. But I haven't been persuaded to invest time and admission money in slavish remakes of either THE A-TEAM (from the once-promising Joe NARC Carnahan) or THE KARATE KID (which at least proves that old showbiz legend Jerry Weintraub--who helped birth the original franchise--is someone you should never bet against).
But the cut-cut-cut-costs and play it safe-safe-safe methodology of the studios (one would think that Jeff Robinov would have been 86ed from Time Warner by now) seem to be biting them in the posterior--with Pixar craftsmanship (although with the recent Pixar tendency towards overlength) and Christopher Nolan imagination likely to be the only real offsets to a likely red-ink corporate moviemaking bottom line this summer.
In terms of the big-release summer films I have seen, here's some random opinionating:
The Cronenberg-esque SPLICE (about two-thirds of an engrossing film) would have been better off being distrubuted by IFC or Magnolia on a specialty theater/pay-per-view platform. For WB to throw it out (in the US) on a 2000-screen basis left it to laughed at by mass audience hyenas who wanted copious amounts of blood and dismemberment and less of a thoughtful update of the time-honored morality play about scientists playing God at their peril.
GET HIM TO THE GREEK was a superior Nicholas Stoller-directed Judd Apatow outing to FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL--with the same crack teamwork of Russell Brand and Jonah Hill. Unfortunately, anything emerging from the Apatow banner has to display a pandering, faux-MORK AND MINDY morality (still remembering Robin Williams being stuck with the what-I've-learned "Mork calling Orson" tags to each episode) that is becoming increasingly awkward with every Apatow-based outing. So, if you haven't seen GREEK already, expect a have-it-every-possible-way approach to the subjects of sex and drug use.
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe's ROBIN HOOD was stupidly dumped on by mainstream critics who apparently expected Errol Flynn heroics and zest. But the 2010 version had enough action and humor--and fortunately didn't espouse the dourness and nihilism of Richard Lester and James Goldstone's 1976 ROBIN AND MARIAN (which ended with the deaths of the two protagonists). But contemporary critics/reviewers (e.g. the usually astute Karina Longworth) shrieked as if the Scott film was an exact clone of Lester's earlier (and semi-forgotten) outing.
But the cut-cut-cut-costs and play it safe-safe-safe methodology of the studios (one would think that Jeff Robinov would have been 86ed from Time Warner by now) seem to be biting them in the posterior--with Pixar craftsmanship (although with the recent Pixar tendency towards overlength) and Christopher Nolan imagination likely to be the only real offsets to a likely red-ink corporate moviemaking bottom line this summer.
In terms of the big-release summer films I have seen, here's some random opinionating:
The Cronenberg-esque SPLICE (about two-thirds of an engrossing film) would have been better off being distrubuted by IFC or Magnolia on a specialty theater/pay-per-view platform. For WB to throw it out (in the US) on a 2000-screen basis left it to laughed at by mass audience hyenas who wanted copious amounts of blood and dismemberment and less of a thoughtful update of the time-honored morality play about scientists playing God at their peril.
GET HIM TO THE GREEK was a superior Nicholas Stoller-directed Judd Apatow outing to FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL--with the same crack teamwork of Russell Brand and Jonah Hill. Unfortunately, anything emerging from the Apatow banner has to display a pandering, faux-MORK AND MINDY morality (still remembering Robin Williams being stuck with the what-I've-learned "Mork calling Orson" tags to each episode) that is becoming increasingly awkward with every Apatow-based outing. So, if you haven't seen GREEK already, expect a have-it-every-possible-way approach to the subjects of sex and drug use.
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe's ROBIN HOOD was stupidly dumped on by mainstream critics who apparently expected Errol Flynn heroics and zest. But the 2010 version had enough action and humor--and fortunately didn't espouse the dourness and nihilism of Richard Lester and James Goldstone's 1976 ROBIN AND MARIAN (which ended with the deaths of the two protagonists). But contemporary critics/reviewers (e.g. the usually astute Karina Longworth) shrieked as if the Scott film was an exact clone of Lester's earlier (and semi-forgotten) outing.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Warner Brothers likely to get even more safe post-WATCHMEN.
[NOTE: The post below is to be read strictly for entertainment value. Irresponsible behavior is not encouraged.]
It's a reasonably safe guess that you, the reader of this blog entry, could conceivably make a prank call to Warner Brothers in the guise of a talent agent or producer. And you could even talk yourself into a chance at securing a meeting to pitch either a superhero project (preferably DC) or an adaptation of a self-help book or even a remake of an in-house property. Maybe you could say something like: "I know exactly how to make WONDER WOMAN a durable four-quadrant franchise."
With the box office underperformance of WATCHMEN (an uneven--sometimes effective, sometimes ubersilly--film which was probably the best attempt at ultra-adult comic book fare since the original, and definitely superior, ROBOCOP in 1987), it's safe to say that Alan Horn and the good folks of WB will be even more tippy-toe careful in what they greenlight in the future (another bellwether of whether "edginess", even the manageable budget variety, gets more chances to be bankable at Warners: the box office performance of the reportedly-megaraunchy OBSERVE AND REPORT with Seth Rogen and Anna Faris--opening next month).
At this point, potential pranksters could consider pitching WB on a PG-13 comedy adaptation of the 70s self-help book I'M OK, YOU'RE OK--and suggest Rainn Wilson as a hippieish 70s Marin County shrink who gets cryogenically frozen and thawed out in the late 2000s.
The cynic in me thinks that Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov would pay top dollar for such a pitch.
And, don't forget, the 70s sex manual JOY OF SEX came very close to getting made at Paramount in the early 80s as a vehicle for John Belushi. (It did get produced a few years later as a low-budgeter directed by Martha Coolidge and starring quirky cult-actress Michelle Meyrink. And it flopped.)
Safe to guess that lightning could strike twice.
It's a reasonably safe guess that you, the reader of this blog entry, could conceivably make a prank call to Warner Brothers in the guise of a talent agent or producer. And you could even talk yourself into a chance at securing a meeting to pitch either a superhero project (preferably DC) or an adaptation of a self-help book or even a remake of an in-house property. Maybe you could say something like: "I know exactly how to make WONDER WOMAN a durable four-quadrant franchise."
With the box office underperformance of WATCHMEN (an uneven--sometimes effective, sometimes ubersilly--film which was probably the best attempt at ultra-adult comic book fare since the original, and definitely superior, ROBOCOP in 1987), it's safe to say that Alan Horn and the good folks of WB will be even more tippy-toe careful in what they greenlight in the future (another bellwether of whether "edginess", even the manageable budget variety, gets more chances to be bankable at Warners: the box office performance of the reportedly-megaraunchy OBSERVE AND REPORT with Seth Rogen and Anna Faris--opening next month).
At this point, potential pranksters could consider pitching WB on a PG-13 comedy adaptation of the 70s self-help book I'M OK, YOU'RE OK--and suggest Rainn Wilson as a hippieish 70s Marin County shrink who gets cryogenically frozen and thawed out in the late 2000s.
The cynic in me thinks that Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov would pay top dollar for such a pitch.
And, don't forget, the 70s sex manual JOY OF SEX came very close to getting made at Paramount in the early 80s as a vehicle for John Belushi. (It did get produced a few years later as a low-budgeter directed by Martha Coolidge and starring quirky cult-actress Michelle Meyrink. And it flopped.)
Safe to guess that lightning could strike twice.
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