jeremikarnell.com

Next Generation Movie Franchises

I want to give a shout out to both directors Chris Nolan and Martin Campbell for the work they are doing respectively on both the Batman and James Bond franchises.   I was gutted to see two very cool/bad ass characters absolutely be destroyed in the 80s and 90s to piss poor screen plays, shitty casting, and juvenile direction.  You two have not only renewed my interest in both story arcs, you have also revived my faith in Hollywood.

Batman

Genius!  Chris Nolan, you are the man for taking on the Dark Knight genre of the Batman story.  With the exception of the first Batman movie released in 1989, all of the movies released prior to Batman Begins were absolutely SHITE!  A bubblegum land of neon and unbelievable charters, it seemed that the only reason why they were producing more movies were to fill Toy's R Us with more product.  It goes without saying you saved this brand.  The screen plays, direction, and cinematography all seem to cater to a older/more sophisticated audience.  More importantly, the casting is TOP NOTCH.  Christian Bale, Michael Cain, Liam Neeson, Heath Ledger (you will be missed), Aaron Eckhart, and Maggy Gyllenhaal (who I fell in love with in the Secretary)  are all AMAZING!  Since I am on casting, I feel compelled to cast my vote for Catwoman:  Angelina Jolie!  She looks good in latex! I also think Brad Pitt would make an excellent Riddler.

Keep up the great work!

James Bond

Thank you, thank you, thank you for finding a James Bond that is on par or (in my opinion) better than Sean Connery.  Like Nolan, Martin Campbell saved 007 by setting an all around higher standard for all things related to Bond in Casino Royal.  Daniel Craig is tough (thanks for killing the tendency to make bond Metro) and realistic as 007.  In particular, I like how human you made bond.  He is not invincible.  He bleeds, feels pain, and suffers other character flaws (as highlighted by his contentious relationship with M). One of my favorite lines from Casino Royal was when Bond orders a martini and he is asked if he would like it shaken or stirred.  Response: "Does it look like I give a damn!"  A perfect and subtle way of breaking from old/expected 007 behavior and creating something fresh and new.   I really look forward to your next installment with Quantum Solace. 

While we are on the subject of re-creating movie franchises, I was excited to see a preview last week of Terminator Salvation.  As the name suggests, this story  is also in need of a savior to help re-invent itself.  Director McG, you have your hands full.  I really hope that you take the model provided by Nolan and Campbell, and do something fresh and unique to bring audiences back to what was once a great movie.  The trailer seems to suggest you have:

This also goes for those of you involved in making the new Star Trek:

Planet B-Boy at Tribeca Film Festival

Tim Yu reports via the Cool Hunting Web Site that The Tribeca Film Festival's Drive-In Series will be screening Planet B-Boy, a feature-length documentary on breakdancing. Planet B-Boy depicts the global resurgence of breakdancing. "From the outskirts of Paris to the suburbs of Seoul, the film serves as a reminder of hip-hop's influence on different and diverse cultures. "

Below is a great promotional video for the film.  WATCH THIS!  Truely bad ass!

To see some of the cast from Planet B-Boy live, head to Webster Hall on Friday, 27 April 2007. Some of the crews from Planet B-Boy will battle some of NYC's finest on stage. Click here for more info.

Webster Hall
125 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003 map
tel. +1 212 353 1600

Movies I am Looking Forward to Seeing

Below are three movies I am dying to see (if I can ever find the time).  They are by no means "date movies"....unless there is the perfect girl out there that I am unaware of (which is highly likely).  If so, damn it women....make yourself known! ;)  LOL.

300

Smokin' Aces

Grindhouse

A Scanner Darkly

I cant wait to see this movie!!!!  Below is a write up provided by The Intelligence Group's Trend Central E-mail News Letter:

A Scanner Darkly: Inspired by the 1977 novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall), the film takes place in a future Orange County where the government hires its citizens to spy on each other in the name of drug enforcement and national security. Director Richard Linklater utilizes rotoscoping, a trippy technique used in his earlier film Waking Life, in which the movie is first filmed in live action, then animated over each and every frame, giving it a slightly skewed, distorted feel which conveniently mirrors the storyline. Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Rory Cochrane, Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder star.

Two Documentaries

Its not often that I watch documentaries.  However, last week I enjoyed two that I thought were notable. 

The Kid Stays in the Picture is a documentary about Robert Evans (yes-people call him Bob, and no-he does not own the food chain).  This documentary captures the life story of legendary Hollywood producer and studio chief Robert Evans. The first actor to ever to run a film studio,  Evans' ran Paramount Pictures  studio from 1966-1974. During his tenure, he was responsible for such revolutionary films as The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Odd Couple, Harold and Maude and Chinatown.

Beyond this being an E! Hollywood True Story on steroids, I found the actual work beautifully produced and expertly narrated by none other then Mr. Evans himself. 

William Gibson | No Map for these Territories details a rather deep conversation with author William Gibson while riding in the back of a limousine in 1999.  Commentary included his thoughts on his life's work; the future; how media has changed society; how he came to coin the phrase Cyberspace; and his writing Neuromancer.  Indeed, the film had scenes of both Bono & The Edge from U2 reading passages from the book.

For those of you who know me, you know how much I am a Gibson fan.  To that end, I am embarrassed to admit that its taken me 6 years to finally sit down and watch this work.  I truly enjoyed it.

Syriana

I went to see Syriana last night.   I had very high hopes for this film, as I was drawn in by the intense trailer and have enjoyed writer/director Stephen Gaghan's work on the movie Traffic.  Going into the theater I was prepared, from the reviews that I read, that Gaghan had taken a non-traditional route to the storytelling in Syriana: juggling at least 3-4 plots (there are probably more) simultaneously across 3 contents with an amazing cast (George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, and Amanda Peet) that were all treated (for the most part) as equals .

Unfortunately, this movie ended up to be more of an endurance test then a work of intrigue.  40 minutes into the show, I started to grab for my phone to see how much longer I had before I was allowed to go home.  Instead of providing new insights associated with the petro-politics of the Middle East; oil greed; and/or U.S. corporate/ geo-political influence in the world,  Gaghan tirelessly bores the audience with a mediocre screen play that obviously got in over its head on the subject matter.  The film reeks of Hollywood pseudo-intellect!

I believe that Bill Clark's last paragraph from his review of the film posted on FromTheBlacony.com states it best:

"Those who find the deep inner workings of government corruption endlessly fascinating may find something to take away from Syriana, but by and large this is one of the slowest and most tedious films of the year – and certainly the biggest blown opportunity. A story done right about oil greed has the potential to be an authoritative must-see, but Syriana is not that film."

I give this one two thumbs down!

An interesting side note: "Syriana" is "a very real term used by Washington think tanks to describe a hypothetical reshaping of the Middle East".

Its so Damn Hot! Milk was a Bad Choice!

For anyone who is a fan of Anchorman, I urge you to visit Konfabulator.com (a Yahoo! company) and download their Anchorman 1.0 Widget.  This is a small application that places an image of Ron Burgundy on your desktop and allows you to double click on him for quotes from the movie. 

Konfabulator also lists a Channel4 Widget that opens up the quotes to the other news room members (Brik, Brian, Champs, & Veronica). 

These two apps are great for a quick does of humor whenever the need arises!

Æon Flux

Æon Flux appeared in 1991 as part of MTV's Liquid Television.   Flux, the series' main character, qualifies as one of the first assassin babes that I soundly put in the "YUM!" category.  I admit this notion is kinda (very) nerdy.  Regardless, I had high expectations when I heard that the animated series was being turned into a major motion picture.

Filming began August 2004, and completed at the end of 2004 in Berlin, to be released in mid-2005. The screenplay was written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, and the film is being directed by Karyn Kusama. The character of Æon Flux is being played by Oscar-winner Charlize Theron.

When I visited the film's website, I slowly began to see that the Hollywood adaption of this franchise bears little resemblance to the original animated series.  My  biggest complaint so far is Charlize Theron's roll as Flux-she has refused to wear the scantily-clad costume the animated character is know for (the movie site has video footage of her speaking to this).  To make matters worse Majesco Games (the developer of the Xbox and Playstation 2 adaptions of the movie) and Dark Horse Comics (publisher of the comic book series to be released) have adopted Theron's lame interpretation of Flux. 

Flux is supposed to be a super sexy assassin.  Not that I think Charlize Theron cant pull this off (even after her butch dyke role in Monster), she is just getting off on the wrong foot in my eyes by being self-conscious about her wardrobe. 

If someone would have asked me who to cast, she would not have been my first choice.  Instead, I would have initially reached out to Angelina Jolie.  The only thing I am sure holding her back from the role of Flux is her contract with the Tomb Raider franchise as Lara Croft.  This leads me to my second choice: Jennifer Garner (sigh).  Here is someone that has not seemed to blink once at the outfits that Wardrobe threw her way for her part in Alias.  However, thanks to Ben Affleck (the dick-yes, I am bitter) getting her preggers-I am sure she also was not up for the part.  That leaves me with Kate Beckinsale.  I fell in love with her after her role as Selene in the movie Underworld.  The only challenge she may have playing Flux is her height (This is also an issue with Charlize Theron).

I still plan to see the movie.  Just venting here.  Actually, I think I was interested in just getting photos of these fine ladies on my blog somehow.  A side note.  While researching for this post, I ran across the following web site: http://www.girlswithguns.org/.  Kinda funny.

Wedding Crashers

If I had four thumbs (thankfully I don't), they would all be up for this movie.  I Laughed my ass off!!!  Special  props go to Vince Vaughn.  His comedy was brilliant.

My only complaint about the film is Owen Wilson.  I really do not think that I like him.  His nasally delivery just wears on me after a while.  The only thing that I enjoyed him in was Armageddon (probably ecause he was killed off half way through the flic).  In the future, I think his brother Luke Wilson should be cast in place of Owen.

• Movie Web Site
• Karnells Crashing the Trailer