Release Dates May 08 2008 @ 09:01 pm
Theater Releases for May 9th, 2008
Okay…the second week of summer…which is roughly like the second day of Christmas. Y’know – it’s there, but nothing really happens and nobody really cares. (Except, of course, for the poor sap who gets stuck with a pair of turtledoves. But whatever.) Here are your options this week…
Speed Racer
First they ran the Matrix franchise into the ground with two unnecessary sequels. Then they made a mockery of British graphic novels everywhere. Now, determined to prove once and for all that they have no new ideas whatsoever, the Wachowski brothers have done what everyone else in Hollywood is rushing to do: optioned an old television series. This film has been praised primarily for its distinctive visual style, which could probably best be described as an epileptic rainbow of ADHD. This isn’t my cup of tea, but if it sounds fun to you, have at it.
Recommended if you like videogames but hate pushing all those buttons
What Happens in Vegas
This really is the sort of film I should hate the very idea of. First off, it’s got Ashton Kutcher in it, and I only know of three things with less talent than Ashton Kutcher (hint: they’re all inanimate). Second, it’s named after what is probably the most annoying tag line ever used in a tourist ad, for one of the most annoying tourist destinations. But – um – I really want to see this movie. Why? Well, first off, the trailer made it look a lot funnier than it deserves to be. And second, the premise is worth the price of admission alone. It goes something like this: a couple gets married – as couples in Vegas are wont to do – after a night of drinking and partying; then they realize they hate each other the next day, but after winning millions, they find themselves stuck together, lest they lose their claim to the cash. There’s definitely some potential here, even if everyone involved probably screwed it up. I pretty much expect to be disappointed, but I’m going to this one.
Recommended if you liked Just Married, The Break-Up, or Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Redbelt
Prolific and talented writer-director David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, Wag the Dog) takes on martial arts prize fighting. Reportedly, this one runs the gamut of everything from scam movie to Kurosawa-ish samurai-type drama. And interestingly enough, it costars, of all people, Tim Allen. If anyone can pull this off, it’s probably Mamet. Color me intrigued.
Recommended if you liked Raging Bull, Fight Club, or Reservoir Dogs
Then She Found Me
With this one and David Schwimmer’s Run, Fat Boy, Run, this must be the year of washed-up sitcom stars directing independent films. Helen Hunt, best known for her role on the TV show Mad About You (along with an Oscar-winning performance in As Good as It Gets), directed and starred in this melodrama based on the novel by Elinor Lipman. Hunt plays a woman with no less than two mothers and three significant others. Throw in a pregnancy, and you’ve got the makings of the ultimate chick flick here. This one also features Matthew Broderick, Colin Firth, and – ugh – Bette Midler. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
Recommended if you liked Fried Green Tomatoes, Smart People, or Bridget Jones’s Diary
on May 08 2008 @ 9:56 pm 1. Joseph said …
Redbelt sounds really interesting. And Speed Racer…not sure if I’ll be seeing this one or not.
on May 08 2008 @ 10:22 pm 2. Sean said …
I’m torn… I didn’t like the Speed Racer cartoons to begin with – although the vintage 60’s era cartoons are always awesome – V for Vendetta was alright, not great. I can’t really tell if I’m going to see this tomorrow or not. I considered buying another Iron Man ticket, going to see that and walking in on the Speed Racer film… is that wrong?
I agree with Joseph that Redbelt looks interesting.
Luke, I have to disagree with the 3 comparable movies for What Happens in Vegas. Although giving it some thought I guess I can draw parallels. This looks like a complete replica of Just Married. Not the worst movie but its no Sarah Marshall. Even The Break Up was better than that movie.
Then She Found Me sounds pretty decent.
on May 08 2008 @ 10:23 pm 3. Sean said …
Sorry I meant 2 of the comparables… obviously.
on May 08 2008 @ 11:17 pm 4. kristena said …
Excuse me, did someone say Colin Firth? I am so there.
on May 08 2008 @ 11:18 pm 5. Evan Derrick said …
Well, I’ll be seeing Speed Racer tomorrow and reporting on it, so you can all save your hard earned cash until I weigh in (as you can see, I like to think my opinion is much more important than it actually is).
And I do want to see Redbelt as well…Mamet does Karate Kid? Interested for sure.
And Luke, sorry, but you’re sniffin’ the glue on V for Vendetta, which I found to be 1) very entertaining and 2) very faithful to its source material. In fact, I was surprised by how faithful it was, everything from plot to tone handled just as it was in the graphic novel. If anything, they testosteroned up the action sequences, but you can’t really blame ‘em.
And Sean, shame on you. The poor Wachowski’s are practically begging on the sidewalk (it was Larry’s operation that did them in). They need your money, and fairies die when you pay for one movie but walk into another. Or gerbils. I forget which.
on May 09 2008 @ 12:57 am 6. Sean said …
Hahaha fairies die… on the other hand if gerbils die thats less funny.
So I was watching the first 7 minutes of SR and it actually has me intrigued. It has pushed me from maybe to over the edge and saying I will go see it. Matinee of course.
Here’s the 7 Minute clip, need I say spoilers??
http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=7182
on May 09 2008 @ 7:58 am 7. Luke Harrington said …
Evan, I’m going to humbly disagree on this one, as V for Vendetta was that rare film that I actually hate with every ounce of my being. I was bored out of my skull throughout the whole thing – and I eat Ozu films for breakfast.
And no, it wasn’t faithful to the comic at all – as evidenced by the fact that comic author Alan Moore did everything he could to distance himself from it. The graphic novel was a dark meditation on fascism vs. anarchism; the film was a childish diatribe about how Repubilcans want to kill gay people (not to mention that it recast an antihero as a straight-up hero, and went so far as to have his adversary join him in the final act instead of assassinating him). The whole thing was just overwrought and insulting to my intelligence – not to mention about twice as long as it should have been.
on May 09 2008 @ 9:59 am 8. Phillip Johnston said …
I’m going to partly side with Luke on this one. I’ve never read the graphic novel (it’s on my list), but I found the film to be not much more than a convoluted piece of left-wing propaganda. It sparked some good discussion with the people I watched it with, but it’s extremely preachy. There are some awesome visuals, but I couldn’t see through the sermonizing.
on May 09 2008 @ 10:03 am 9. Evan Derrick said …
Hmmm…well, Alan Moore was fresh off of being bent over by the studios with League of Extraordinary Gentleman, and he started distancing himself from the film before he had even seen it. For him, it was more about principle, not about what V became. So the Moore argument doesn’t really work here. It’s akin to Bob Dole condemning Natural Born Killers when he hadn’t even seen it.
The graphic novel did walk the fine line between anarchy and heroics, sanity and insanity (the question the viewer is supposed to answer themselves, the one that Moore went to great lengths to not answer in the graphic novel, is whether V is a rational revolutionary or a megalomaniacal sociopath), and I will grant you that the film simplified that ambiguity, and made it more of a straight up “rebel against the system” tale. Calling it a childish diatribe discredits it too much, I think, as it does preserve most of the intent and tone of Moore’s original work.
Also, perhaps, it was a bit long. But methinks your prejudices show a bit too strongly here, Luke.
on May 09 2008 @ 12:59 pm 10. christian said …
I’m all about SPEED RACER this afternoon. I need child-like fast wonder, flying cars and monkeys. Plus, the cartoon was a big influence on my childhood. We’ll compare reviews. I think people are forgetting this is not aimed at adults, and the Wachowski’s kept it pure.
on May 09 2008 @ 1:08 pm 11. Evan Derrick said …
Yes, yes, yes Christian! I am with you 100-freaking-percent! I’ll write my review later, but I’m not sure what I’ll say.
Here is a comment I left over at Living in Cinema. It’s a snapshot of what I’m feeling right now, so I’m just going to copy and paste it all over the place.
Holy freaking crap. I have never, ever had so much pure, unadulterated, sheer, brilliant, amazing, giddy fun in a movie theater. I cannot stop smiling – I am grinning like a demented Cheshire cat as I write this.
Heck, I’ve never even seen the cartoon! But Speed Racer, for me, has just become the picture of the year, and I cannot for the life of me possibly imagine that anything else will even come close to topping it. And no, I’m not joking in the slightest. I don’t know what happened, what trigger went off in me, but I loved every second of that movie. I felt — I feel! — like I’m 12 years old right now, playing with G.I. Joes and Hasbro cars, defying the laws of the known universe with nothing but my imagination as they fly and soar and accomplish incredible feats of skill in my hands. Rules? Rules are for old codgers, frowning down their noses at the naive kiddies, upset that they’re having so much ‘fun.’
I know I can probably never see it again, and I don’t know if I want to. Those two hours in the theater, somehow, became absolutely perfect for me, perhaps the most perfect theater going experience of my lifetime. And no, I’m not exaggerating in the slightest. I wish – wish – that everyone could have sat where I was and seen it through my eyes. Films, like all art, are subjective, and we bring in our prejudices and likes and dislikes, what we ate for dinner right before the film, what we’re expecting and hoping for, and sometimes everything coalesces into a moment, a single, beautiful moment, and the world makes sense and is perfect, just like when Speed is behind the wheel of the Mach 5. I’m not sure what subjective elements went into this becoming the practically divine experience that it was for me, but I’m afraid it can’t be replicated, and I don’t think I ever want to give up what it felt like to leave that theater thinking I could take on the world and that no one could ever tell me my dreams were stupid or unrealistic or naive.
I called my friend immediately after the movie, and he thought I was pulling his chain, that there was no way it could as absolutely magnificent as I was making it out to be. I’m sure he’ll go to see it, and I doubt very strongly that he’ll enjoy it at the level I did, and you’re probably reading this wondering how many shots of espresso I took before seeing the film and writing this completely stream-of-consciousness comment, but I don’t care. I don’t care in the slightest. I loved that movie, and heaven help me I love the Wachowskis for making it, for distilling the innocent sense of anticipation and wonder of a 12 year old boy who truly believes the world is his oyster, distilling it and putting it on film.
I’ll write a review for it later, but right now, this, this tiny, insignificant comment that I’m leaving, is probably more important than my review will be. This is like a diary entry, a snapshot of my frame of mind right after seeing the movie, something I won’t be able to get back, and something that I won’t be able to truly replicate when I write my review later. Sorry for everyone who was forced to read what my heart basically up-chucked into the comments section, but dangit, Speed Racer is so infectious, so virally contagious in its giddy adolescent joy that I can’t help myself.
GO SPEED RACER GO!!!!!!
on May 09 2008 @ 2:14 pm 12. Colleen said …
I love those few moments you get to have in life were film makes you deleriously happy for days. I had a moment like that last year with King of Kong : a Fist Full of Quarters. For days on end I just would not shut up about the greatness of that film. I would stop perfect strangers and tell them to go see this film!
This years top film is “Raider of the Lost Ark :the Adaptation” I know this is old, but it has never been shown in Vancouver before, and its unavailable on any format! Saw this last week at a charity screening. Just now starting to come of the high! Those three 12 year old kids are awesome. Even Speilberg seemed in awe of a 5000$ budget, betamax camera, and three unrelenting physcotic kids accomplished.
I wish I could watch Speedracer on the bigscreen, but alas I suffer from severe optical motion sickness. I’ll have to wait till DVD to pause the film…doh
on May 09 2008 @ 2:22 pm 13. Evan Derrick said …
I have Fist Full of Quarters at home, Colleen, but haven’t dove in yet…I’ll have to do that immediately now per your experience!
Oh, that is too bad you won’t be able to see this on the bigscreen. The car races are brazenly disorienting, disregarding the laws of physics with unrestrained glee, so its probably a no-go for you there.
I’m still on the high myself. I almost don’t ever want to watch another movie again, knowing that they can’t replicate what Speed Racer did for me. That’s how enamored I am with this film.
on May 09 2008 @ 2:26 pm 14. Daniel said …
Had to skip your giddiness before my SR viewing, Evan, but I second Colleen on The King of Kong. Best doc of last year.
on May 09 2008 @ 2:30 pm 15. Fox said …
I can’t help wanting to take in the colors of Speed Racer even though I’m almost positive I will regret it. But, Redbelt? Oh yes. I love me some Chiwetel Ejiofor!
on May 09 2008 @ 3:09 pm 16. Colleen said …
Seeing KOK in the theatre was great. Never during a Doc. have I heard so much cheering, and booing, gasping, and laughing.
When you watch KOK at the point where you see Billy Mitchell combing his hair, you need to saw out loud….”KNEEL BEFORE ZOD”
They are making a real movie based on KOK, but I cant help but think it will not be as cool. Part of the charm of the film is…REAL PEOPLE are saying this crazy stuff. Its not scripted (edited maybe, but not scripted).
on May 09 2008 @ 3:15 pm 17. Evan Derrick said …
It’s a crying shame that KOK wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award last year. I understand that the Oscars are political, but sometimes the egotism shows to a disgusting degree. Wasn’t it only a few years ago that Grizzly Man, one of the best reviewed docs–nay, one of the best reviewed films of the year didn’t even make it on the short list for consideration? Add to those injustices that the nominating committee for docs shrouds its decision process in secrecy, and you’ve got the greatest example of why the Oscars are in serious need of reformation.
Real shameful stuff, that.
on May 09 2008 @ 3:34 pm 18. Luke Harrington said …
…or maybe people just need to stop taking them so seriously.