Enjoy Your Columbus Day with Chris Columbus

danseitz — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 17:00:38 +0000

No, not the semi-reviled explorer! The semi-reviled writer and director! You’ve got a day off, there’s no family celebration, and there’s nothing whatsoever to do…so you might as well spend Columbus Day with Chris Columbus, as he’s got something for everyone. Well, his movies. We understand he’s got plans that day.

If You’ve Got Kids

If, like many Americans, you’re stuck with a screaming child for Columbus Day, you’ll probably be spending your day with Chris Columbus anyway, because he’s put out a lot of kid’s movies. Why not rent and pop in the hugest success everybody’s forgotten, and celebrate the American tradition of Christmas Creep, Home Alone, which is still, surprisingly, kind of funny. We guess lighting Joe Pesci on fire never stops being funny. Or how about its justly forgotten sequel Home Alone 2?

Failing that, there’s Robin and the Mildly Upset Inch Robin Williams’ Mrs. Doubtfire. Or, if your kids are into literary adaptations, Chris Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter movies. You know, the ones that are really creepy to watch now that Daniel Radcliffe has done Equus. Or if they’re slightly older, and more into knockoffs of Harry than the genuine article, there’s Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which is actually an award-winning film, for having the most unnecessarily long title since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Which we’re going to use as an incredibly clumsy segue to…

If You Like Spielberg

Despite all the mockery we’ve heaped on him (and are going to continue to heap on him), Columbus has been involved in his fair share of good movies. For example, he worked with Spielberg for a while back in the ’80s, and wrote the script for two Spielberg produced ’80s classics: Gremlins and The Goonies. He also wrote Young Sherlock Holmes, which is like the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes, except not as good. Yep, the same guy who made two painful Robin Williams movies also created Gizmo and snuck in the single greatest John Thomas joke of the ’80s. And there are five of you, just now, who are finally getting what we’re referring to, for the rest, we’ll just set your childhoods on fire by saying it’s kind of sad all those kids were looking to find some One-Eyed Willy. And if you just want something a bit Spielbergian, try Adventures in Babysitting, which features Elizabeth Shue and Vincent D’Onofrio in the most ridiculous wig of his career.

If You Like Weepy Movies

If you’re like me, you had to listen to Rent for four very long, very painful years, because you foolishly opted for the theater degree and girls in their teens and twenties into theater (which make up 90% of theater departments) don’t want to listen to anything else. So you’ll excuse this adventure into the first person and also my refusal to say much more about Rent than Chris Columbus directed the film version, it exists, and it’s weepy because everybody dies of AIDS.

But if you want a good cry on Columbus Day that isn’t from alcoholism or loneliness, you’ve got multiple options in the Chris Columbus ouvre. There’s Stepmom, a movie about divorce and remarriage that manages to make it look like difficult questions of family and respect can be solved with your first wife dying of cancer and Julia Roberts smiling a lot. Then there’s the hilariously mismarketed Bicentennial Man, which tried to make a movie about a man, well, a humanoid struggling for civil rights and eventually getting enough parts replaced to technically become human and die a wacky comedy. And it still wasn’t as much of a disgrace to Isaac Asimov as I, Robot…which, trust us, isn’t saying much.

Of if you want something that’s mildly funny as well as shamelessly emotionally manipulative, try Nine Months, which features the horrifying image of Hugh Grant knocking up Julianne Moore, and came out right around the time he got busted with a prostitute.

If You Like Pain

As much as we’ve teased the man named after the man whom everybody except annoying pedantic people thinks discovered America, his work is mostly good, if a little Hollywoody. But, if you have the day off, and are really mired in self-loathing, and really want to start torturing yourself with the holidays and bad cinema, well, Chris Columbus wrote just the movie for you: Christmas with the Kranks. We think this is one of the few movies tthat actually qualifies as a weapon under the Geneva Convention. Incredibly, this turkey was adapted from a John Grisham novel. Yeah, the legal thrillers guy who was so big in the ’80s.

Although if this actually appeals to you, maybe you should celebrate Columbus Day by tracking down a good therapist. We’re just sayin’.

Chris Columbus Talks I Love You, Beth Cooper

Anet Hovhanesian — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:17:12 +0000

Director Chris Columbus, best known for directing the first two Harry Potter films and for writing such classics as Gremlins and Goonies, is trying his luck with high school comedy in I Love You, Beth Cooper starring Hayden Penettiere and Paul Rust. The film is about Buffalo Grove High School valedictorian Denis Cooverman’s (Rust), who has played it safe and made it all the way to graduation without ever breaking curfew, destroying property, consuming too much alcohol, fist fights, fast cars or women of any sort. He has decided to tell the most popular girl in school, Beth Cooper (Panetierre) that he loves her.

Going from big budgets films such as Happy Potter to I Love You, Beth Cooper is quite a change as Columbus notes himself:

“For me, the reason I did this movie was that I was in a situation where you have big budgets, like with the Harry Potter movies, and you tend to work at a slightly slower pace, and you become spoiled and a little soft, and I thought, ‘I need to reinvigorate the process of film-making.’ I wanted to go back to that, and I said to myself, ‘If I were getting out of film school right now and I was starting to direct my first movie, what would I do?’”

Apparently the answer is a film with a simple plot, low budget and fresh young actors. Speaking of actors in the film, Columbus repeatedly mentions the fact that his lead actress Panettiere, whom he seems quite fond of, was attached to the project from the very beginning.

“I was very taken with her because she’s very bright and has a great sense of comic timing, which I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t know from her work on Heroes whether she was capable of going a little deeper…She was game to do just about anything. It was interesting that she felt very comfortable doing the locker room scene, and I was shocked by that. I kept most of the creepy crew members to the back of the set. The older, creepier guys, who were just sneaking in to get a peek were kept at a distance. Honestly, I was really surprised by her comedic timing. Paul Rust had been studying and doing comedy for years, but I never really associated Hayden with doing comedy, and she was really spot-on, in terms of her timing, which is a very difficult thing.”

Read full interview including future projects for the director on IESB. I Love You, Beth Cooper comes out July 10th.

Does I Love You, Beth Cooper seem like a movie you will go out and see? Or are you tired of the same old high school comedy where the nerd gets popular girl after she realizes there is more to him than his brains?

ScreenCrave.com » Chris Columbus