Joker’s Disappearing Act

For those of you sitting on pins and needles in anticipation of news as to whether or not the Joker will be making an appearance in Batman 3, your fears (or hopes) can now be put to rest.

In an interview with Empire Magazine last week, Christopher Nolan announced that no, in fact, the Joker will not make an appearance in Batman 3 in any form. Still no news on when that gem will actually be coming, or who actually will be in it, but for Heath Ledger fans, this is probably a relief. This means that Ledger’s Joker, which earned him a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2009, will remain forever immortalized by his depiction.

I, for one, think it is a good thing. While Batman fans may argue for the need for a Joker character, I think at this point whoever we might get to replace Ledger would be a sad replacement. Joker’s depiction was masterfully done. New blood would change the character, in however small or large a way, and dull the image that Ledger left behind. Leaving it as is leaves a lasting monument to the actor’s prowess.

Plus, it allows Nolan to showcase some of the other Batman villains, of which there are many. One or two might even survive more than a single movie.

And, in a lasting memento to Ledger, the infamous “disappearing pencil” trick:

Movie Review: The Messenger

“I’d like to strap her on and wear her like a government-issue gas mask.”

“I’m pregnant.” “What?” “Oh, I’m just fucking with you. Have a nice life.”

The Messenger is an exceptional movie that offers a truly distinctive experience in a field that is never lacking for movies. War is a big-ticket item for the big screen, always has been, but while The Messenger is a movie about war, it manages to tackle an angle of the market most overlook.

It is a movie about one of the least desirable jobs in the military: delivering the death notices of fellow soldiers to their families, and it is unique in that it is a movie about war that never focuses on the war itself.

It follows the story of two Army Casualty Notification messengers, Will Montgomery (Bill Foster)—a Staff Sergeant and “war hero” recently returned and reassigned from Iraq, as well as his superior and mentor Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson). The film plods along as a series of excruciating events, defined by delivery after delivery, each as agonizing an experience to behold as the last. This is a movie about tragedy, and it cultivates it hauntingly. The space between these tragedies is filled with the interaction between Montgomery and Stone, defining their greatly differing views on what they do and the life of a soldier in general, as well as the budding relationship between Montgomery and one of the war widows to whom he has delivered the terrible news.

Both Harrelson and Foster deliver excellent performances, at times moving, at times sickening, but always powerful, emotional, and painfully thought-provoking. Foster’s character is consumed by his own emotions, his connection, struggling with the role he is forced to serve. Harrelson is the by-the-book military man, desperate to disassociate from the events he must engage. He keeps the world at a distance. Foster is the human, Harrelson is, in many ways, the monster—because it is what he needs to be to see the job done. Both are inherently flawed though, as all people are, with their quirks and skeletons-in-the-closet, and they strike you with their believability, and the emotional connection you will develop to them.

The script is powerful, the characters well-developed, and the movie moves and breathes with its own unsettling atmosphere, nestled up against images of beautiful, hopeful backdrops and endearing, but doomed close-ups of love and redemption amidst the madness. The movie never gets away from or ahead of itself, and the pace never dulls, even if the messages it brings may not make for the most complex and intricate of plots.

The movie itself manages to touch you without the need for any of the explosive, action-raddled moments of heart-wrenching war, and that alone earns it much applause from where I’m sitting. This is a movie about the after-effects, about what happens in the wake of Hollywood’s dramatics—and it is stunning in what it achieves. Such lack of action may sound unappealing, but I assure you, it will keep your hairs on end the whole way through.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Reynolds and Bullock are Most Wanted

“Now that we’ve done that, can we please go back to normal?”

The Kiss!

Remember the MTV Movie Awards? Well, okay, maybe not—I know I didn’t watch them. Personal preference: I try not to watch MTV whenever possible. At least, not until they stop broadcasting The Hills.

If you did watch them, though, you may remember Sandra Bullock jokingly hinting that she was over my gender with a fake kiss to Scarlett Johansson. Hey, if Scarlett Jo’s down for it, I know the rest of the world would be.

Regardless, though, Bullock’s apparently already back on the male band wagon. In fact, she’s given up the Jo-love for Jo’s husband–teaming up once again with Ryan Reynolds, for yet another romantic comedy. Given the success of The Proposal, then I’m sure it will mint them a pretty gem or two.

The new movie, known as Most Wanted, unfortunately seems to be going along a similar vein as the terribly clichéd Bounty Hunter (which, coincidentally, the world is still trying to forget). Reynolds is set to star as an FBI agent charged with escorting criminal Sandra Bullock to court. Low and behold, some bad guys show up en route to the courthouse and put both Reynolds and Bullock on the run, leading to action, hilarity, and, most importantly, love.

Heard this one before? Don’t worry, we all have. There’s potential for it to be more than a mere rom-com, and the comedy itself could be good, if Reynolds is in one of his “on” moments, but I don’t see this played out tale going anywhere special.

It will still probably do well in theaters, though, regardless of the quality. Hollywood churns out these rom-coms at break neck speed, to disturbingly successful effect. I don’t like what it says about the populace, but I also don’t see the trend breaking anytime soon…

You can’t kill The Crow!

The Original Crow

Bloody hell, I thought it was long dead, but apparently that crow has swept back in to raise another dead series back to unwanted life. A re-envisioning of the 1994 movie The Crow, which was itself an adaptation of a comic book by James O’Barr, has just finished scripting.

Director Stephen Norrington is the brains behind this one. He also has a history with it, having had a hand in the production of the original. Unfortunately, between the original and this, there have been four other, unbelievably terrible sequels that have served to smash any interest one might have in the movie. Plus, this one will suffer from the same major flaw each of the others inherently possessed (among many, many others)—it’s sans Brandon Lee, due to the inconvenience of death.

Furthering the divide between this and the original, Norrington has highlighted the fact that this new Crow will not be taking place in the urban crawl—at least not for the entire thing. Instead, it’s picking up shop and heading to the Mexican border for a bit, which will make the triumphant return to the dark, gloomy landscape of the original all the sweeter when it comes. At least in theory.

The story follows (or followed), a resurrected rocker and his quest for vengeance. Now we must question if that is set to change at all, what with the drastic change of scenery. Perhaps we’ll switch grunge rocker out for some undead version of Grupo Climax’s Oscar Lobo, or some sort of zombie mariachi.

Either way, regardless of how much producer Edward Pressman works to highlight the differences between this and the original, I think we can safely say it will be an uphill battle for him. The time for the Crow, if it ever had one, is long past. It died with Brandon Lee on the set of the original, and all those…things…between now and then have simply served to beat the series to death with a bat. Best of luck, but don’t hold your breath.

More mirror punching is on the way.

James Cameron, Superstar?

James Cameron

James Cameron may not be God, but he may be one of the closest things to him on this wacky world of ours. Now it seems the government’s starting to recognize that, too.

Remember the Titanic? Cameron didn’t just make a movie of the thing, he was also responsible for the cameras they used down there, and a nice little chunk of the robotics work that went into it. He knows underwater exploration like he knows the back of his hand. Apparently the U.S. government hoped to tap into that knowledge as well, and in a practical way.

Last week, Washington  tapped Cameron for meetings with both politicians and scientists to try and get a little outside help in dealing with the monstrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Specifically, they hoped he could tell them how to get a camera down 5,000 feet to figure out where the oil is leaking and how they could stop it (apparently figuring BP had failed enough being left to work it out on its own).

But now, as the underwater robot plan seems to have taken off, the drama seems to have another act left. BP seems to have reacted poorly to Cameron’s presence. Not only have they rejected his proposed ideas, but have kicked off a round of scathing criticism from the man. In an interview at the D8 tech conference on Wednesday, Cameron said of BP:

“Over the last few weeks I’ve watched as we all have with a growing sort of horror and heartache watching what’s happening in the Gulf and thinking those morons don’t know what they’re doing.”

And I wonder why they can’t get along?

At any rate, I’m sure with Cameron going off on them, BP will have an extra reason to be thankful if their latest plan actually works. I’m sure his presence probably made BP a little nervous. Environmentalist extraordinaire meets oil-crazed billionaires. They were probably worried that if they aren’t careful, Cameron might very well ride in with an army of bow-wielding Na’vi at his back, looking for some serious clean-up, above and beyond the spilled oil. As is, they seem to have evaded that particular end game, but hey, there’s still time left in the game.

Explorer. Director. Producer. Writer. Inventor. Cameron has a lot of titles under his belt, and I can’t say I would have been surprised if he had gotten to add global savior to the list. Sadly things don’t seem to have quite worked out that way, but with this oil mess going the way it has over the past weeks, I’m not going to count him out yet. There’s still a lot of oil spewing into the Gulf, and any number of wrenches that could be thrown into the works before all is finally said and done.

Movie Review: Get Him to the Greek

I’m told they were attempting a more naughty version of Almost Famous, with this one. While I can see the connection, if the goal was to be anything like that wonderful movie, then Greek failed, terribly.

Get Him to the Greek follows Aaron (Jonah Hill), a young record label intern who is sent by his boss, Sergio (Sean “P-Diddy” Combs), to London to get legendary rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand)—“One of the last remaining rock stars.” The goal’s in the title—to get to the Greek, a famous outdoor amphitheater in Los Angeles. The trip is set to be one wacky ride, however, as Aldous has taken a recent tumble off the wagon, following the failure of his latest album, “African Child,” and a split with his lover, Jackie Q (Rose Byrne).

Brand was perfect for the part of the dejected rocker, his real-life unpredictability (and general craziness) adapting easily to the scandalous image of the classic British rocker. They had the part down, what with the sex-craze, drug abuse, and general idiocy that stalks the rocker from day one. It is just about everything we can imagine a rocker being, and Brand delivers brilliantly, not merely through a bout of tedious sketch comedy, but through a generally fun and well-delivered character—despite the narcissism and self-destructive tendencies.

Hill, however, plays the same character he always does. Awkward. Wide-eyed. Child-like cuteness. He is meant to be the foil for Brand, and I suppose in that he succeeds, but if you’ve seen his other characters then you’ve seen this on too—a babbling, worrying mess, complete with vomiting and other quirky mishaps. He lacked the comic quality of, say, Patrick Fugit in Almost Famous, opting away from the incidental humor of an innocent growing up, to the forced humor of the attention-seeker.

The movie was written and directed by Nicholas Stoller, the man who directed Forgetting Sarah Marshall, with another Sarah Marshall participant (Judd Apatow) on hand as one of the producers. It is their brand of comedy through and through—coarse, but occasionally charming, with wild characters and a plot that leaves much to be desired. You know the course of this one from beginning to finish, and, despite a few twists, it follows your traditional youth-meets-rocker mix, complete with glaringly happy ending. The women in it seem to get consistently shafted, though, and I can’t say the shallow people presented to us are around for anything more than to be drooled over and exploited, which I don’t think I need to say is a severe disappointment.

Unlike the tragic figure of Adam Sandler’s George Simmons in Funny People (Another Apatow), Get Him to the Greek gives us glimpses of the darker side of celebrity life, but without straying too far from the comic pleasure of the audience. When comedy does start to sag, it also has a parade of cameos to amuse the audience with, including Christina Aguilera and Lars Ulrich, among others.

There is some seriousness here, but it is few and far between, and does little to enhance the comedy in any way. It can be a bit chaotic from time to time, and despite a strong opening, the comedy wears itself out by movie’s end. It has its humorous moments, but overall, Get Him to the Greek is just another predictable comedy with little to offer its audience in excess.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

New Scott Pilgrim Trailer

Monday saw the release of a new trailer for one of the most anticipated movies coming to theaters this summer.

Personally, I’m not sure what to think of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I’m not the biggest Michael Cera fan (at least, not in a leading role). This one has a strong weird factor that tends to draw you in, though—an independent comic styling fraught with flashing colors and an absolutely bizarre plot. Whether that’s good or bad, though, remains to be seen—things that look this bizarre can really only go one of two ways. Either it’s going to be amazing, or this is going to crash and burn alongside so many other failed comedies.

The plot? Michael Cera’s a rocker who meets the girl of his dreams. But the girl has a bit of baggage—seven extremely evil exes that are apparently out for blood. His blood, to be specific. Don’t let the seemingly simple plot lead you astray, though—the battle is set to be fraught with aerial duels, flaming swords, and Batman-esque “POW!”s.

Previous trailers have pretty much showcased all these gems already, but the release of the movie’s full length trailer adds a few more. Watch the trailer below for an explanation of the dangers of bread, and a look at Cera’s dream girl’s experimentation with her own gender: