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Fright Night: Movie Review

Damon Houx — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:00:28 +0000

On the surface, Fright Night has a number of strikes going against it. It’s a remake. It’s in 3-D. The original is loved by fans and unknown to the general public – meaning that its name brand value is low, and those who love the original are probably going to be annoyed. but to make it they assembled a great cast (including Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin), and they had a good starting point. It would be nice to say that the film overcomes those obstacles, but – though there are some nice touches here and there – it doesn’t work. Check out our review….

The Players:

Director: Craig Gillespie
Writer: Marti Noxon
Actors: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, Imogen Poots, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Toni Collette, David Tenant
Cinematography by: Javier Aguirresarobe
Music by: Ramin Djawadi

The Plot:

Charlie Brewster (Yelchin) is dating hot girl Amy (Poots), and lives with his single mom Jane (Collette) in Las Vegas. They live next door to Jerry Dandridge (Farrell), who says he’s a construction worker, and comes across as a bull-headed straight guy who’s obviously pretty hot. Charlie’s been ducking old friend “Evil” Ed (Mintz-Plasse), but is bribed into doing some investigating with him, as Ed thinks Jerry’s a vampire. When Ed goes missing, Charlie feels guilty enough to check on his neighbor, and there Charlie discovers his neighbor is a vampire. He goes to Peter Vincent (Tenant) to get some help. Vincent is a A-list magician with an interest in the occult. But now Charlie is on Jerry’s radar, and that’s a bad place to be.

The Good:

The Setting: Las Vegas is a city built on the industry of partying, and so it’s a great place to visit, but not a stable place to live. The idea of people moving away randomly and a transient life is a perfect setting for a vampire. You wish they had done more with it.
A Mid-Section Set Piece: There’s a sequence in the middle where Brewster sneaks into Jerry’s house, which allows Jerry to toy with Charlie, and it’s tense, funny, and has a great ending.
The Comedy: David Tenant and Christopher Mintz-Plasse play the more comic relief roles, and every time they’re on screen the film gets juice out of Tenant’s rock-n-roll alcoholic magician and Evil Ed’s cutting jokes.
The Transition into the Third Act: with movies like this, there’s generally a period where the main character feels like the boy who cried wolf. One of the best parts of the film is that you think you’re going to have to sit through more of that, but the film changes gears quickly.

The Mixed:

Colin Farrell: He’s great on screen, but he doesn’t have much of a character to play. It’s great to see Farrell maturing into the film star Hollywood thought he might be ten years ago, and it’s a star performance, but the script lets him down.

The Bad:

The Remake Factor: The original followed a young boy who’s about to lose his virginity when he’s distracted by two men moving in next door (and may be distracted in that way). What follows is a very smart B movie that then puts Peter Vincent – a cinematic vampire hunter – into a situation where he’s confronted with the real thing. It’s well worth checking out. But when this film tries to work in those details, it doesn’t know how to. Here Peter Vincent is a magician, and though it would be impossible to replicate a horror movie host in modern times, why Charlie goes to a stage magician he doesn’t even like for advice is thin. And then how it brings Vincent in for the third act is even thinner and adds a plot point that could be removed and change nothing. There are numerous other examples of this. Like…
Evil Ed and Charlie Brewster: The starting point for their relationship is great. Brewster’s gone on to be a part of the popular kid set, while Ed’s a loser. In the original they were friends who playfully mocked each other (though there was an underlying tension there). With their relationship over, it’s Ed who tips off Charlie about his neighbor the vampire. But though it’s understandable that Charlie would want nothing to do with “Evil” Ed, it starts the film with a protagonist being mean to the one person who is right. And then later it’s revealed his girlfriend likes him because he’s a geek, so he ended that friendship for the wrong reasons. And then later, when Ed and Charlie confront each other under different circumstances it doesn’t pay off. So you’re left with a lot of things that seem to be in there because of the original – but don’t work on their own terms – on top of a main character who’s not very empathetic in terms of the narrative.
Thin Main Characters: Pure evil doesn’t really need a motivation, but you’re left wondering why Jerry lives where he does, and why he does some of the things he does – and a lot of it comes across as writers using the fact that he’s a vampire to avoid those questions. But he’s obviously been doing this for decades (if not centuries), so it raises questions that go unanswered. And then there’s Charlie Brewster, who doesn’t really care about a vampire next door until it’s a threat to his life, and spends the majority of the film responding to things that are happening around him, on top of being a bad boyfriend and jerk to his old buddy. If the tumult of being a teen is supposed to be reflected in his “journey” it doesn’t play.

Overall:

A fumble. Like a number of remakes, it’s either not faithful enough or entirely too faithful to emerge as a complete thought. For every good decision, there’s a number of bad ones. It’s too bad, because it feels like there’s a good movie in it.

Rating: 4.5/10

Photos:

Trailer:

Fright Night opens August 19.

Interview: Colin Farrell and Director Craig Gillespie on Fright Night

Damon Houx — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:32:07 +0000

Colin Farrell has been in the spotlight so long he’s grown to accept his role, and he has developed a playful disregard for anything resembling decorum. Farrell strolled into our room wearing a button-up with only one button buttoned, giving him the causal look of someone looking for a suntan, or a Jim Morrison-esque Lizard King. He was joined by director Craig Gillespie to talk about Fright Night, and how they approached the material, and their reverence for the original (or lack thereof). Check it out.

Colin, how do you get into the mindset of a character like this? He’s not human, and doesn’t really want to be human.

Colin Farrell: He has no desire to be human. It was a world where you couldn’t refer to your most basic human virtues and characteristics. Fear, remorse, compassion, hope, love, all these ideas, they were things Jerry understood objectively – having been human once – but also more than an observer of human behavior over centuries. I had to commit to the idea that this was a vampire that had no human leanings at all. If anything he had disdain for humans, and had a certain sense of humor as a result of that disdain. And his arrogance is what brings him down. In one sense it was liberating, but it kind of got repetitive at times, because without the human things we’re used to pulling and pushing inside us, it ran the risk of being one note.

Is this your first prosthetics role? With the contacts and the teeth?

CF: Yeah.

Did that help with the performance, or did you just feel like you couldn’t wait to get it off?

CF: It did, I’m a sucker for all things practical. I’m doing a movie right now and there’s a lot of green screen in it, but the green screen is forty yards away to create a greater world of grandiosity. But the world I’m in is made by amazing craftsman, so I’m not like I’m working with a tennis ball or Jar-Jar Binks or anything (laughs). And with that in mind, getting to do this practical really does help, and like mask-work, it liberates you in a very scary way. You just have to work with your eyes. It really does effect how you move immediately. Some synapse goes off in your head, and you begin to react to behave a certain way.

Chris Sarandon told us you gave him a copy of Carl Theodor Dryer’s Vampyr, was that film important to you for this?

CF: No, it was something that I came to just before we left to do Fright Night. I was in a book store in Santa Monica, and there was a DVD section and it was there. And that was by chance. I got it, and before I had a chance to watch it I gave it to Chris. But I knew by looking at it, I knew by the director’s name that it had stood the test of so many decades. And then I got a copy and checked it out myself. But there were so many vampire films I had seen, whether it was this, or Lost Boys, Near Dark, the many incarnations of Dracula, Nosferatu, Coppola’s Dracula, they were all in my collected imagination when I did Jerry.

When the original Fright Night came out, a vampire film was an anomaly. Nowadays, it’s one of the most crowded times of vampire films. How do you stay true to your vision, while still acknowledging there’s Twilight?

Craig Gillespie: There is a vague reference to that, But honestly, I judge the material by the script, and I try to keep everything else out of that. That said, when I heard it was a vampire movie, I didn’t want to pick the script up (laughs). But I did because I was going in for a general at DreamWorks, and I was curious about it. I read it, and it’s such a great read that Marti (Noxon) had and the thing that caught me which was a refreshing and more of an homage to the 80’s was that mix of horror and comedy. An American Werewolf in London, the original Fright Night, and the Freddy Kruger character, there’s a sense of humor about them, and there’s not that much of that these days, it’s just flat out horror. I love that opportunity, and I love how ruthless the vampire is written. My immediate thought was he’s kind of like a serial killer. And it was this really interesting take on a vampire – the practicalities of how they would have to survive in our world that I thought would be really fun.

Because of the horror comedy elements you could say that the characters are all in different movies.

CG: Yeah, and to that casting is critical, because you have to have people who can walk that line. And it’s not everyone that can be invested and find humor. Colin was mostly the heavy stuff, but it was important that he has a sense of humor and enjoyment to it, because that’s what makes him fun to watch in any movie. Chris (Mintz-Plasse) and David (Tenant) were much more comic relief, but what was great about both of them was that they were grounded emotionally. You can see their pathos, and where they hurt. There’s a balance of that but overall for the studio it’s got to be a horror film first.

It sounds like you weren’t that familiar with the original.

CG: I was aware of it, I had that iconic image of Amy, but I hadn’t seen it since 1986, since it hit video. I knew it was a neighbor next door. I didn’t watch it again until we were about two weeks before shooting after we figured out the character arcs, so I could go back and pay homage to it, to make the fans happy. Obviously there’s the apple, and there’s the nightclub scene, but it is quite dramatically different in terms of structure.

Was there anything you put in specifically?

CF: The Apple. Originally when Charlie sneaks in I come back with a bag of groceries, and I was like “f*ck.” I had this image of Jerry the vampire with a quart of milk, and artisan bread. I thought “maybe this is a good place for the apple.” But I had no watcher, no keeper to throw the apple to so I had to throw it myself, and since I could juggle one apple, I twirled it off the table and catch it. There were other things, lines that carried over, and Chris Sarandon.

I would totally watch a film about Jerry Dandridge buying expensive cheeses.

CF: Jerry Dandridge loves emmental cheese.

“MMM, Camembert, a little pricey”

CF: He hates stilton because his sense of smell is already too heightened. (laughs)

Can you talk about working with Imogen Poots? You’re a hot couple there.

CF: It was fun working with her, great lady. This film was a lot of fun to shoot, we felt like a tight knit collection of film fans who were really getting a chance to play out some wish fulfillments, we all got to play. I was a lover of the original, I don’t know about the other cast members, but I was eight when the original came out, nine, and I remember seeing it a year later on Betamax, before we had a VHS. Everyone did their work, even I worked on my back-story, but then you get into vampire logic. He’s from the Mediterranean, he’s four hundred years old, he was in Versailles, then he was in Paris, got drunk with Hemingway one night, you just go to town on it. Maybe he speaks nine languages, and he was in China, and what boat did he come to America on? But when we came to the set, everyone had an understanding of what we were supposed to do. I was the horror, Chris and David were the comedy, Anton (Yelchin) was the emotional core, et cetera. And we got on the set and had a blast, and tried to allow that every take could be different, and how much we could push it. Sometimes I would slip into a Transylvanian accent. I don’t know what people from Transylvania sound like, but kind of a count Dracula (does the Muppet Count’s laugh) “One bad English actor- Ah-Ah-Ah”

Was there a transition going from Horrible Bosses to horror?

CF: It was fun. They were both “flick a switch” characters, they were so extremely different from me, so there were these shadows created, and you would step into them. And step out of the shadow and go home. And I didn’t take it home with me because there isn’t that emotional resonance like the parts that are more dramatic and more resonant, and then there’s the parts that echo into the night and into your sleep. Horrible Bosses was only a five day shoot, so it was condensed period of make believe, it was a lot of fun. And I had done three or four years of dramatic roles in dramatic films, which were incredible satisfying, but I need a mix, you know. Stuff that’s deep and stuff that seems more superficial. But it was time to go have a laugh.

Can you talk about the 3-D?

CG: 3-D came up very early on. And I thought about it for a beat, there had been those tentpole movies in 3-D, Avatar, Alice in Wonderland. So at first I was reluctant, but I was really interested in watching two guys in a kitchen talking in 3-D. because in horror, there’s always a sense of wanting to look over someone’s sholder, and around the corner, so I felt like it really put you in the space. And not constantly drawing your attention to it. And part of what was great was that you shoot in a more classic way. You can’t do hand held. These big long dolly moves.

CF: The process was slowed down a little, but the filmmaking process is so erratic to begin with, we didn’t really notice the difference.

Fright Night opens August 19.

Horrible Bosses: Movie Review

Damon Houx — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:00:55 +0000

Halfway between the “put the camera down and let them riff” style of Judd Apatow productions, and the “tight and visually stylized” Todd Phillips aesthetic, Horrible Bosses takes a high concept premise but then lets its actors play in this dark and funny comedy. The film stars Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudekis as men tormented by their employers, who drunkenly decide that homicide is justified in their cases. As director Seth Gordon told us, it’s a relate-able premise. Find out more below…

The Players:

Director: Seth Gordon
Screenplay: Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley, Jonathan M. Goldstein
Actors: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudekis, Kevin Spacey, Jennier Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrell
Original Music by: Christopher Lennertz
Cinematography by: David Hennings

The Story:

Nick Hendricks (Bateman) has accepted that his job sucks, but his boss Dave Harken (Spacey) keeps suggesting a big promotion is on the way. Dale Arbus (Day) loves his girlfriend and wants to marry her, but his boss Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) holds out his sex-crime record (he urinated in a playground) over his head, and threatens that if he doesn’t sleep with her, she’ll fire him. Kurt Buckman (Sudekis) loves his boss Jack Pellit (Donald Sutherland), but can’t stand his over-privileged and drugged out loser of a son Bobby (Farrell). When Jack dies and leaves the company to his son, and after Harken takes the promotion for himself and tells Nick that he will be his slave, the three decide that murder is a good way to get rid of their mutual headaches. So they go to a black club and try to hire someone with experience, which leads them to Motherf*cker Jones (Foxx), who becomes their murder consultant and tells them to kill each other’s bosses so there’s no linkage.

The Good:

The Set-Up: Even if the film has to acknowledge its debts to Strangers on a Train (and the films that ripped it off), everyone has been made miserable at least once by someone in a position of authority. That the gang is mostly incompetent only adds fuel to the fire. But it’s a great starting point.And though Todd Phillips’s The Hangover Part II is way slicker, in most ways this is a better sequel to the first Hangover.
Jamie Foxx: His character is having as much fun as you could possibly have in his situation. He’s got a bunch of naive men willing to pay him money because he’s black. He’s got a nickname because his original name is too weak, and his ten year bid was for something that turns out to be one of the best jokes in the movie. And though Foxx was used similarly as comic relief in Due Date, he really kills this part and walks away with the movie.
Jennifer Aniston: Though Spacey is good, he’s played the paranoid and smarmy boss before. And while it’s also fun to see Colin Farrell play ugly, you want a little more of him in the film (it’s understandable why he’s kept to a certain minimum, he’s a cokehead). So it’s Jennifer Aniston who really pops. She’s the one playing against type and she’s the one who gets to be the most ridiculous problem (on some level, it’s too bad that Day’s character isn’t a homosexual, so his reticence was a little stronger). She’s the one it’s most fun to watch act horrible.

The Lightning Rod:

Charlie Day: The divide with this character seems to be this: the people who enjoy his performance in Horrible Bosses are fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, while those who find it too high pitched aren’t familiar with his previous work. Having not seen Sunny, my response was that – though he was playing the “dumb” character of the three – he was just pitched too high and a little too stupid. But there was a similar critical divide when Jim Carrey hit the big screen. Day isn’t the same sort of divisive talent, but it’s interesting to see him be both the high and the low point for many watching the film.

The Bad:

The Ensemble: Sudekis and Bateman have done this before (with Sudekis, he’s paying pretty much the same character from Hall Pass), and their performances aren’t that memorable. The leads don’t pop, but that works to the movie’s benefit – for them to be likeable they have to be schlubby, and incompetent (at least at murder). And the film could take a little more of Farrell because he is going so far out there you want to marvel at how “ugly” he made himself.
A Sense of More: The film works, and it works well on its own terms, but there is a sense that a couple more passes of the draft, or something might make this a classic, versus a good night at the movies. Films like these are balancing acts, and there’s nothing so much wrong as a sense that it could go a little further or a little stronger with some things. It’s hard to tell if that’s playing it safe, or knowing the limits of audience alienation.

Overall:

It’s easy to tell when a comedy is good or bad because if you laugh, then it’s good. Though it’s no comedy classic, Horrible Bosses is one of those films that works well enough that the laughs are there, and everyone gets enough good moments for the film to work. And that’s all it needs to be.

Rating: 7.5/10

Horrible Bosses hits theaters July 8. Check it out.

Gallery:

New Fright Night Trailer Offers New Moves

Damon Houx — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:42:30 +0000

The first trailer for the remake of Fright Night (and much of the early material) focused on Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell. Yelchin plays teenager Charlie Brewster, who thinks his next door neighbor Jerry Dandridge (Farrell) is a vampire. What it didn’t do is spotlight much of Evil Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) or Peter Vincent (David Tenant), two of the most memorable characters from the original. Now there’s a new trailer, and Evil Ed and Peter Vincent finally make their bows. Check it out.

Okay, so this tells us little about Evil Ed, and doesn’t hint at the sexual confusions that can be found in the original. What it does do is give a better look at this version’s take on Peter Vincent, who is obviously modeled on Chris Angel and David Blaine. Since there aren’t a lot of hosts of horror programs like there were in the 1970′s and 1980′s (maybe teenagers know who Elvira is, but probably not), it’s a smart choice, and is one of the keys to this film working on its own terms.

Though I’m on the fence about this remake in general (the original is one of the best genre pictures from the 80′s), the end bit where Jerry Dandridge blows up the house to avoid the rule of having to be invited in is a very clever idea. How much of this works on its own terms is yet to be seen, but this new footage gives hope. The film hits theaters August 19. Working against the movie is that it’s in 3-D. We shall see how far that format’s stock fall in the next couple of weeks.

Have you seen the original Fright Night?

Kate Beckinsale And Jessica Biel Join ‘Total Recall’ Remake

traviswoods — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:45:09 +0000

Well, fans of remakes of really, really odd 1980s Arnold Schwarzenegger films, along with fans of really, really pretty people, have something to celebrate this morning–/Film reports that, in addition to Colin Farrell playing hero Douglas Quaid and Bryan Cranston playing the bad guy, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel have both just been announced as recent add-ons to the cast of the Total Recall remake. In addition, Bill Nighy will round out the cast as resistance leader Quatto.

Beckinsale will play the role of Quaid’s life in the “real” world (really, none of this will make sense if you haven’t seen the original), originally portrayed by Sharon Stone, and Jessica Biel will star as the woman Quaid encounters in his “spy life.”

And while that may inspire some confidence in viewers approaching the remake, the fact that it doesn’t take place on Mars (which is sorta kinda a crucial plot point—imagine a 2001: A Space Odyssey that takes place in, say, north Jersey rather than in deep space), and the film is being directed by Underworld director Len “I like to cast my wife in things” Wiseman isn’t exactly bolstering. Seeing as how his directing credits are comprised of the Underworld trilogy, the Hawaii Five-O pilot, and the fourth Die Hard film (aka, Bruce Willis vs. Green Screen and Plausibility), it may be safe to not hold out for the Total Recall being something of a cinematic/ action masterwork.

But hey, it’s a Hollywood remake directed by an inauspicious director, starring beautiful people, and seems to have ditched some of the major plot points that made the original such an odd, original work—and that’s always worked well in the past, right?

What do you think of Total Recall’s casting news?

Fright Night Remake Releases First Images

Damon Houx — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:17:43 +0000

The Fright Night remake is due August 19, and the first official images from the film are now online. The film stars Anton Yelchin as Charlie Brewster, who has a vampire (Colin Farrell) move in next door. The Craig Gillespie-directed remake tones down some of the sexual subtext of the original, which is part of the reason why the film still plays well, but the new spin on the material has yet to be revealed. The film also stars Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Imogen Poots. Check out the stills…

The success or failure (at least artistically) of the film seems to ride on the makers doing something new or interesting with the original material. The first film had great Hitchcockian direction and a sexually charged subtext. The film begins with Charlie about to lose his virginity only to be distracted by two men moving in next door. Though it has been noted that the actor who played the original Evil Ed eventually went into gay pornography, and the female lead later outed herself as a lesbian, there’s a constant pan-sexuality to the film. But it also works whether you pick up on that or not.

The film test screened this week, and word has covered a wide spectrum. The film was shot to be R-rated, if the film doesn’t work, expect it to be cut down for a PG-13.

Are you excited for Fright Night?

The Way Back: Movie Review

Mali Elfman — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:00:34 +0000

This week in theaters Peter Weir’s epic The Way Back featuring a stellar ensemble cast with Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan freezing in the Himalayas and scorching across the Siberian desert hits theaters this Friday January 21st. The film is an example of a cinema master at work. Everything about this film was exceptionally well crafted. I guess that’s what happens when the film is lead by a director who has been nominated for six Academy Awards. The film literally takes you on the journey with this group of survivors and engrosses you in their experience — the problem is, is this a journey you want to go on?

Let’s take a look….

The Players:

Director: Peter Weir
Screenplay Writers: Keith R. Clarke and Peter Weir
Novel By: Slavomir Rawicz
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Farrell, Gustaf Skarsgård, Alexandru Potocean, Mark Strong, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Dragos Bucur
Original Music by: Burkhard von Dallwitz
Cinematography by: Russell Boyd

The Plot:

Based on the novel, “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom” a group of Concentration Camp survivors escape a Siberian gulag and walk over 4000 miles to freedom in India.

The Good:

The Acting: Many of us fell in love with Saoirse Ronan when we first saw her in Atonement, and she just keeps on impressing us, over and over again. I could highlight every member of this cast, but the truth is, this is truly an ensemble piece led by Jim Sturgess and Ed Harris, but really it’s about the group. The trick with ensemble casts is that everyone has to be good all the time. Whether it be the actors, the casting director, or Weir’s directions, the entire cast worked wonderfully together and literally carried the film on their weary shoulders. Farrell got a bit pushy with his acting in the start, but once he starts drinking he’s back on track!
The Craftsmanship: I would say the cinematography immediately jumps out at you, but the truth is that everything from the use of sound design, to lightly played music, to the make-up, to every detail of the film was extremely well done. There’s no doubt that Weir is an expert filmmaker who surrounds himself with an an exceptional crew.
Severity Without Violence: Though this film is extremely serious in nature, the one thing that it’s missing is graphic violence and all I can say is hallelujah! We get what happens when we see an animal, they pull out a knife and then they’re eating, we don’t need any more information than that! What’s nice about this film is that they don’t go for shock value or gory effects in order to make this the experience that it is.

The Good/Bad:

The LOOONG Walk: You have to give Weir credit for really making you FEEL like you’ve gone on such an extreme journey with these characters, but it’s not one that is always easy to watch nor enjoyable — though that is the point! This journey was extraordinarily difficult and near impossible, sadly at times the weight of the film rests on your shoulders and makes for a very heavy experience. They did a good job at making the audience a part of the film, I just don’t know if it’s the type of journey people are going to be eager to take.

The Bad:

The After Effects: I think this film actually took about 6 minutes of my life just out of pure sadness. As I said, it’s a journey, and it’s well made, but it’s not enjoyable and I found that it stuck with me for sometime after and wouldn’t let me out of that state of mind for some time. Now some people may love this, I respect it, but it just wasn’t for me.

Overall:

This is a powerful film made by some of the finest filmmakers currently working. The craftsmanship is remarkable and the cinematography is stunning.

Rating: 6.5/10

Check out The Way Back in theaters January 21st.

Photo Gallery:

Confirmed: Colin Farrell for Total Recall

Krystal Clark — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:29:00 +0000

Back in October it was reported that Irish actor Colin Farrell was in talks to star in the remake of the cult sci-fi film Total Recall. The original was released in 1990 and starred Arnold Schwarzeneggar and to say that the actors look nothing alike would be an understatement. But despite their physical differences, Farrell is being primed to take over the lead in the new film based on the Philip K. Dick story.

Collider recently spoke to both Farrell and producer Neal Moritz about what we can expect from the remake. When it comes to the story, Farrell described the script as “cool” and “smart.”

“There’s a good bit of action. I don’t know that it’s… it kind of sits on the fence in a really good way. It kind of sticks to one half or the other. It’s clever. It’s clever and it’s well written. And there’s loads of action. I saw some of pre-visualizations already, that have been done for the world that they’re going to create and it’s wicked man.”

Even though they don’t go into specifics one major story bombshell was dropped from Moritz: they’re not going into space!

“I think the world that Len Wiseman is creating is incredible. It’s a real world, a real future world, where the cities have just gotten so overcrowded that the cities are just built up, up, up, up… We’re playing it like a real world, but there’s all these technological advancements to the real world, and it’s just really, it’s cool. It’s an awesome movie.”…there’s something that takes us from one side of the planet to another that’s really interesting.”

That’s a bit of a let down and a shock. We understand that they’re trying to take their own path with this material but come on. We need to see someone’s head explode from lack of oxygen! What’s Total Recall without someone’s eyes bugging out of their head?

What do you think of Farrell starring in Total Recall? Are you upset that it won’t take place on Mars?

Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley in London Boulevard Trailer

Krystal Clark — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:11:25 +0000

Back in June 2009, we reported that Colin Farrell would join Keira Knightley in a new drama called London Boulevard. Shortly after the announcement we didn’t hear much more about it but today we’ve found a sign of life! The first trailer for the film has appeared online to the shocking but pleasant surprise of all of us. Check it out…

The movie is based on Ken Bruen’s novel of the same name, and centers on a London criminal newly released from prison who becomes involved with a reclusive young actress. As you can see from the trailer, Farrell stars as the guy from the wrong side of the tracks and Knightley is the haughty star who he gets involved with.

On an interesting side note, the film is written and directed by William Monahan. The Oscar winning scribe behind 2006′s The Departed. Besides Farrell and Knightley the usual UK actors make appearances in the movie including Ray Winstone, Stephen Graham, Anna Friel, David Thewlis, and even Jamie Campbell Bower gets in on the action.

London Boulevard is scheduled to hit UK theaters on November 26th but no release date has been set for the U.S.

What do you think of the trailer for London Boulevard?

Colin Farrell Could Star in Total Recall Remake

Krystal Clark — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:21:17 +0000

Has Colin Farrell become the go to guy for remakes? The Irish actor has already snagged the coveted vampire role in DreamWorks’ Fright Night reboot, and now he’s got his eye on the lead in Total Recall. Total Recall as in the 1990 sci-fi film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, and an alien woman with triple breasts (shudder).

According to THR, Farrell is on the shortlist of actors who are in the running for the lead role in the Len Wiseman film. He’s in front of fellow foreigners Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender who are also vying for the Governator’s former part. No offers have been made to any of the actors but they are being looked at as possibilities.

The film is slated to begin production in late March, which means the studio has a little bit of time to weigh their options. Out of this group, we say give it to Fassbender. He looks like the perfect fit to play the role. Hardy would be our next choice, but he’s the new Mad Max, and he recently joined the next Batman film. In terms of scheduling he might be hard to get.

Most of us have seen the original 1990 version of the movie but if you haven’t here’s the deal. The film followed a man haunted by a recurring dream of journeying to Mars who buys a literal dream vacation from a company called Rekall Inc., which sells implanted memories. The man comes to believe he is a secret agent and ends up on a Martian colony, where he fights to overthrow a despotic ruler controlling the production of air.

Who do you think should star in Total Recall?

Jennifer Aniston Circling Horrible Bosses

Krystal Clark — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:37:30 +0000

We’re convinced that Jennifer Aniston is afraid of change because over the past few years she’s played the same character in all her films. She needs to pull a Julia Roberts and do an Erin Brockovich type role so we can be reminded that she has acting range. But until then, THR is reporting that Aniston is in talks to star in a developing comedy called Horrible Bosses.

Horrible Bosses is a Seth Gordon directed film that centers on a group of frustrated employees. Some of the characters include a master manipulator, a sexually aggressive dentist and a weaselly scion. Aniston along with Colin Farrell, Jason Bateman, and Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) are all in negotiations to star in the comedy. The plot kind of has a Strangers on a Train set up by focusing on three friends who agree to kill each other’s bosses.

Aniston is in talks to play the flirtatious dentist who continues to hit on Day’s character, while Farrell will play the weasel (why are we not surprised?).

Bateman is a man who believes that his hard work will be rewarded but hits bottom when he gets passed over for a promotion. Day plays a hapless guy who’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time. A part still to be cast is a ladies’ man who gets a rude awakening when his boss dies and he is replaced.

The fact that no one falls head or heels in love with anyone else in this movie is a breath of fresh air. But it still sounds like Aniston is sticking with situation comedies and refusing to show any real growth as an actress. Remember when she starred in The Good Girl and everyone felt like her career showed promise? Maybe after she bombed in the thriller Derailed she got scared and decided to stick to what she knows best. Either way, it’s getting old.

Are you interested in seeing Horrible Bosses? What do you think of the premise?

Colin Farrell, Marion Cotillard Join Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis

Krystal Clark — Wed, 12 May 2010 00:08:49 +0000

Colin Farrell is tackling major roles left and right today. Earlier this morning we reported that he landed the coveted gig of the sexy vampire in DreamWorks’ Fright Night remake and now he’s signed on to star in director David Cronenberg’s upcoming film, Cosmopolis. Farrell won’t be alone because according to Variety, Oscar winner Marion Cotillard will be his leading lady.

The film will follow a multimillionaire on a 24-hour odyssey across Manhattan. Farrell will play the asset manager who loses all his wealth over the course of one day and Cotillard will play his wife. Cosmopolis is based on the Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name and has been adapted for the screen by Cronenberg. Production is scheduled to run from March to May in Toronto and New York.

Cosmopolis is Cronenberg’s next project after he completes work on A Dangerous Method, which stars Keira Knightly and Viggo Mortensen. Cronenberg always gets the most intense actors to work with him so it will be interesting to see how well he gets along with Farrell. Cotillard has already had her fair chair of intense bosses with her latest being Inception’s Christopher Nolan so this is nothing new to her.

What do you think of Farrell and Cotillard headlining Cronenberg’s latest film? What do you think of the premise?

ScreenCrave.com » Colin Farrell

Fright Night: Movie Review

The Players:

The Plot:

The Good:

The Mixed:

The Bad:

Overall:

Rating: 4.5/10

Photos:

Trailer:

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