“‘This is the beauty of having two volumes,’ said Rick Sands, chief operating officer at Miramax. ‘Vol. 1 goes out, Vol. 2 goes out, then Vol. 1 Special Edition, Vol. 2 Special Edition, the two-pack, then the Tarantino collection as a boxed set out for Christmas. It’s called multiple bites at the apple. And you multiply this internationally.’ Ah. Only a company as brazen as Miramax would flat-out admit they plan to screw DVD buyers. I wouldn’t have bought the Kill Bills anyway, but if you were thinking about it, it seems best to hold off. (And, yes, this is different from the LotR extended editions, since those were announced in full well before any version of the film went on sale.)
Author: KcM
Streep on Lansbury.
Undeterred by the lukewarm reception to The Truth about Charlie, Jonathan Demme tries his hand at another remake in this new trailer for The Manchurian Candidate. Hmm…so the Communists have been replaced by a corporate conglomerate (Manchurian Global), and Sinatra is now Denzel. That works, although Meryl Streep seems wildly over the top here. (In fact, she may even be out-Voighting Jon Voight.) Well, let’s hope it’s a return to form for Demme, and not another needless remake.
Holy Holes and Broken Bats.
Also in the trailer pipeline of late, “Jesus” Jim Caviezel channels Bobby Jones in Stroke of Genius (Not in a million years…this feels like a Lifetime movie, right down to Claire Forlani as the long-suffering wife…and where’s Bagger Vance?), and Bernie Mac rests on his hitting laurels in Mr. 3000 (Nice of ’em to condense the entire movie into a three minute viewing experience.)
Affleck’s Revenge.
One of the few shows I caught regularly last fall, Celebrity Poker Showdown returns for a second season on May 27, with Kid in the Hall Dave Foley replacing Kevin Pollack. This time around, the players will include Sean Astin, Jennie Garth, James Woods, Matthew Perry, Angie Dickinson, and Dave Navarro. Samwise versus Big Bad Mama…I’m so there.
Earth-Pig Dead.
“One of the most ambitious literary projects of the last 25 years came to an end this March and you probably don’t even know its name: Cerebus. It’s a comic-book series about a talking aardvark, whose creator seems to have slowly gone insane somewhere over the course of its 6,000 pages. But it is also something of a masterpiece.” By way of LinkMachineGo (and something I missed when it was published last month), the Village Voice says goodbye to Cerebus. I read the last issue a few weeks ago and thought the series ended, as expected given Sim‘s preoccupations lately, with a colossal thud. Still, when Cerebus was good, it was really, really good. Congrats on 300.
Babel Fish Not Required.
From the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Tenth Intergalactic Edition: Director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith discuss the upcoming Hitchhiker’s film, including casting decisions, production designs, funding, and the input of the late Douglas Adams on the script. I’m quite looking forward to this project — Until then, there’s always the classic Infocom game online…
Double Billed.
Well, I’ll say this much for Kill Bill, Vol. 2…it’s a vast improvement over the atrocious Vol. 1. Perhaps because, one kinetic trailer park catfight notwithstanding, Tarantino isn’t trying to be an action director this time around, the second half of this revenge tale hangs together much better than the opening act. There’s actually time devoted to character beats here, which, as QT should know, is ultimately his forte as a writer and director. As such, Michael Madsen and David Carradine in particular get a chance to bring some much-needed complexity to the wafer-thin plot around which these films are constructed.
Still, like its predecessor, Kill Bill Vol. 2 has the whiff of a vanity project. It’s obvious Quentin had the time of his life making these two films, and they definitely seem to work as a love letter to a certain subset of grindhouse and chop-socky film fans (a group which includes David Edelstein, Roger Ebert, and Elvis Mitchell.) But, frankly, I thought a lot of Vol. 2 felt sloppy and derivative. I still don’t see why this project had to be two films, particularly as, once again, there’s so many drawn-out, redundant, or unnecessary episodes on display here. What’s up with the Uma car intro? Bud’s boss? Daryl Hannah’s googlesearch notes? Bill’s ridiculously QT-like riff on Superman? The tremendously stupid pregnancy test faceoff? As I noted about the first half of Kill Bill, Jackie Brown moves languidly, but with purpose. For much of these KB flicks, which often feel more like some sub-Tarantino outing (Killing Zoe, for example) than they do Jackie or Pulp Fiction, I was just bored.
Ultimately, there’s a difference between paying fleeting homage to some film influence and constructing a four and a half hour movie that just moves lazily from homage to homage. The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly, some Wu-Tang flick, Oh, look, The Vanishing. I’m sure that I recognized less than 10% of the movies Tarantino was referencing here, and I’m sure that probably invalidates my opinion of the film in many people’s eyes. And, if QT wants to show off his film-geek cred so blatantly and the film-geeks eat it up like candy, who am I to complain? Still, I very much hope that Tarantino had to get this orgy of excess out of his system, and that he’ll now settle down and focus his considerable talents a little more narrowly, instead of jumping all over the map as he does here.
Fire in the Hole.
Slate‘s David Greenberg (a Columbia PhD recently hired at Rutgers…congrats) examines the use and misuse of Iraq-Vietnam analogies.
Failing Up Yet Again.
Clandestine oil deals with the Saudis, secret (and quite probably) illegal misappropriation of anti-terrorism funds, Bob Woodward’s confirmation that Richard Clarke was right despite the Bushies’ smear machine…no matter how you cut it, the news coming out of the White House these days looks grimmer and grimmer. Now Dubya is actually running on the Patriot Act, of all things, and yet his poll numbers are rising?! I’m going to chalk up this latest bounce to sheer GOP cash flow (a funding discrepancy soon to change) and the post-primary press lull for Kerry. But, still, I find it hard to believe that anybody of an independent disposition can look at what’s going on in Washington these days and in good conscience vote for Dubya. This joker can’t handle the 9/11 commission without Cheney by his side, and he can’t even face the national press without begging to see the questions in advance. Why on Earth would anyone think this fool should stay in office? Inept and corrupt, Bush is easily the worst president America has seen since Warren G. Harding. In fact, he’s probably worse. Where’s the outrage?
Dubya and his cronies have coasted on the “soft bigotry of low expectations” long enough…let’s vote out these guys, already.
My Ringdom for a Horse.
Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly…
Reader Jenny from NH passes along this series of pics from Troy (mirrored here), which includes this shot of Sean Bean as Odysseus (who’s been strangely missing from the trailers.) Along the same lines, some new King Arthur images are also up today, including this one of Arthur, Guenivere, and Lancelot (although word is the love triangle has been scrapped.)
