Quick Cuts

Catching up Quickly …
Sorry I haven’t weighed in over the past month, but free time has been hard to come by. Anyway, I have a few moments, so let’s get on with it …

AT THE MOVIES: The only film I’ve seen since you last heard from me is the new version of “Brideshead Revisited,” which Leslie and I finally caught. Leslie was a major fan of the 1981 TV series as well as the Evelyn Waugh novel about an extremely dysfunctional Roman Catholic family in Britain and their impact on the life of an artist named Charles Ryder, while I had never read the book and went in and out of the TV version, finding parts of it enjoyable but Jeremy Irons a bit of a bore. Interestingly, we both enjoyed the new film, which I thought was extremely well cast with Matthew Goode as Charles (a big improvement over Irons), Ben Whishaw as the flamboyant Sebastian Flyte (gayer but more believable than Anthony Andrews in the TV version) and Hayley Atwell every bit the equal of the TV version’s Diana Quick as Julia (Sebastian’s sister, with whom Charles eventually falls in lust, if not love). Even the small parts were well cast, with the likes of Michael Gambon, Greta Schachi and Patrick Malahide, and Emma Thompson suitably unsympathetic as the Flytes’ overbearing mama. Leslie says the film compressed and left out a lot and juiced up the triangle between Charles, Sebastian and Julia, but I don’t think you could have made a workable film out the material without doing those things. Anyway, if you are at all inclined toward between-the-wars Brit family dramas, this is a good one.

Otherwise, the fall movie season is off to an extremely underwhelming start for me, with none of the new releases coaxing me into the cinema, but there are films coming up over the next three months that at least merit come consideration.

With “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” moved to next summer, the only must-see for me this fall is “Quantum of Solace,” Daniel Radcliffe’s much welcomed second gritty outing as James Bond — and the first 007 film to truly function as a sequel to the preceding film. Directed by the very talented Marc Forster (“Monster’s Ball,” “Finding Neverland”), it picks up where the excellent “Casino Royale” left off, introducing a SPECTRE-like organization behind the demise of Bond’s love in the earlier film. The trailers have been terrific. To see the latest one, go here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/09/10/bfbond110.xml

Already out is the “Quantum of Solace” theme song, “Another Way to Die,” written by Jack White and recorded by him and Alicia Keys as the first Bond theme to be a duet. I like the nasty guitar riff and the instrumental parts work OK, but the rhythmic, hip-hoppish vocals don’t do a lot for me. Of course, I wasn’t too impressed at first with the “Casino Royale” song by Chris Cornell, “You Know My Name,” but got to like it quite a bit after seeing the film a couple of times. Anyway, you can listen to White’s song here:
http://www.thirdmanrecords.com/

Films due out this fall about which I’m undecided but might consider: Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” pegged on a mystery involving black troops in WWII; “Appaloosa,” an old-fashioned Western starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Renée Zellweger and Jeremy Irons; “The Duchess,” a British period piece that does have Keira Knightley, one of my (and my daughter’s) favorites, but also has suffered from particularly lackluster trailers and promotional clips (always a warning sign since you expect the trailer to include the best bits in a movie); “Ghost Town,” the just-released “I see really annoying dead people” comedy starring brilliant Brit Ricky Gervais; “Forever Strong,” with the Fat Hobbit, Sean Astin, starring in a rugby (!) sports drama (“Rudy” with an accent and no helmets or pads?); “Body of Lies,” the CIA thriller starring Leonard DiCaprio and Russell Crowe (good cast but unimpressive trailer); “Changeling,” the Clint Eastwood-directed Angelina Jolie drama about a mother who doesn’t think she got the right kid back after her young son was kidnapped (I’m leaning toward this one); Viggo Mortensen in the post-apocalyptic father-son tale “The Road” (I don’t know enough about it); “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” a remake of the sci-fi classic with Keanu Reeves in the Michael Rennie role (the trailer is OK but I’m resistant to the very idea of remaking that film); “Eagle Eye,” an assassination-plot thriller with Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan (again, I don’t know enough about it); and DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reteamed for the first time since “Titanic” in “Revolutionary Road,” a convoluted-sounding relationship drama directed by luckiest man in the world Sam Mendes (her real-life husband).

Films I’ll most likely leave for satellite viewing unless I get a recommendation from a trusted source: the Coen Brothers’ “Burn After Reading,” which already has opened and has an impressive cast but suffers from the most uninviting trailer and ads in recent memory; the just-opened “Towelhead,” with Aaron Eckhart as the creepy neighbor who seduces a troubled Lebanese-American teenage girl; the already-opened “Righteous Kill” with Robert De Niro and infamous scenery chewer Al Pacino (who unfortunately doesn’t even seem like the same actor who was so brilliant in the first two “Godfather” films); “Hounddog,” the Southern gothic drama aka “the Dakota Fanning rape movie”; “Rachel Getting Married,” the reportedly Oscar-worthy soap starring Anne Hathaway as a recovering drug addict who stirs up the angst at her sister’s wedding; “W,” the Oliver Stone version of the life of our nation’s worst president (I’m really NOT interested in devoting a couple of hours to even a critical look at Dubya); Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in the would-be sweeping romantic saga “Australia” (directed by that master of excess, Baz Luhrmann); “Defiance,” with Daniel Craig, Liev Shreiber and Jamie Bell as Lithuanian brothers leading resistance fighters against the Nazis (this one sounds promising); “Frost/Nixon” with Frank Langella as Tricky Dick in the story of the 1977 interviews he did with British broadcast legend David Frost; Adam Sandler and the adorable Keri Russell in Disney’s fantasy comedy “Bedtime Stories”; and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the technical tour de force in which Brad Pitt plays all the different ages (using motion-capture CGI) of a man who is born 80 and proceeds to get younger (the trailer is intriguing but I’m not sure the premise would hold together for an entire film).

A lot of other films out this fall I don’t have an opinion on one way or the other. And then there are the films you’d have to pay me to attend, including “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” (my daughter, thank goodness, has never been interested in this series); “Marley & Me,” a cute-dog story co-starring the oh-so-cute Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston; “Max Payne” (another video game turned into a movie — no thanks!); “An American Carol” (rightwing director David Zucker of “Scary Movie 4” infamy applies his heavyhanded humor to bashing liberals — sort of “Fox News: The Movie”); “Milk,” the story of assassinated San Francisco official Harvey Milk (Sean Penn begging for another Oscar by playing gay? I don’t think so); and the recent arrival “Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys” (I’m not wild about any director who insists on making his own name part of the title of all his films, but particularly when it’s schlockmeister Perry).

ON THE TUBE: My daughter Olivia and I have both gotten hooked on “Fringe,” the new Fox series (9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesdays) from J.J. “Lost” Abram. It’s sort of a riff on “The X-Files” formula, only with the bad guys being more corporate than alien. It stars Australian Ann Torv (playing an American) as an FBI agent pulling Mulder/Scully duty with the aid of a slightly insane scientist (played by John Noble of “The Lord of the Rings” fame) and his cynical, brilliant ne’er-do-well son (Joshua Jackson, ex of “Dawson’s Creek”). I find the look of the series a bit bleak and the 3-D captions inserted into picture as if they were real more than a bit irritating, but I think I’ll stick with it. I’m also enjoying “True Blood,” the bloody, sexy new HBO series from metro Atlanta native Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under”) set in a world where the creation of synthetic blood has allowed vampires to “come out of the coffin” and assume the role of untrusted minority agitating for their rights. The series is set in backwoods Louisiana and some of the fake Southern accents are a bit over the top, but Anna Paquin strikes an amazing balance between sensual and naïve as a mindreading (literally) barmaid named Sookie Stackhouse who gets involved with a mysterious vampire named Bill (Stephen Moyer), who’s over 170 years old but appears to have stuck with a haircut from the early 1970s. It’s sexy and violent (as you’d expect from HBO) but so far engrossing. And Paquin is the sexiest thing on TV at the moment. New episodes debut at 9 p.m. Eastern on Sundays and repeat several times during the week. Best thing on TV at the moment? "Mad Men," with new episodes premiering Sunday nights at 10 on AMC. Brilliant stuff.

QUICKIES: This week, Microsoft shelved those rather pointless and at times seemingly interminable ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates trying to be lovably quirky. When it comes to ads, as well as computers, give me Mac any day. … If you didn’t get to see Tina Fey’s devastating take on Sarah Palin on the first new “Saturday Night Live” of the season (or early last week on YouTube), you can still check it out at NBC.com. (The clip was pulled off YouTube by NBC). It’s available for viewing here:
http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

On Nov. 11, Disney is FINALLY releasing the DVD of “Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh,” the terrific 1964 smuggling adventure starring Patrick McGoohan that had many kids flipping back and forth between NBC’s “Wonderful World of Color” and CBS’ “Ed Sullivan Show” the night The Beatles made their Sullivan debut. The DVD includes all three episodes as originally seen on TV and the stitched-together film version released in theaters. If you’re making lists of the best TV theme songs of all time, “Scarecrow” has to be in the Top 10. … I’m sure this puts me at odds with a number of my readers, but I was rather underwhelmed by “That Lucky Old Sun,” the new Brian Wilson concept album. Yes, the harmonies are enjoyable and it makes for pleasant listening, but most of it is not very memorable melodically and I could very much have done without the spoken portions written by Van Dyke Parks and read rather woodenly by Wilson. … My friend Howie Edelson (one of those Wilson fans probably choking over the previous item) sent me an amusing e-mail with the subject line “Bill King’s Worlds Collide” about Kate Winslet reportedly being in line to play John Lennon’s mother in the upcoming bioflick “Nowhere Boy.” Only trouble is, it turns out this is more useless U.K. tabloid reportage. A Daily Mail columnist reported Winslet was “one of several actresses” that the film’s director is interested in. Via the Internet, that, of course, got twisted into “Winslet to play Lennon’s mother” headlines. It’d be great, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

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Current Mood: rushed
Current Music: "Another Way to Die"

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