Daniel Craig in "Casino Royale"
2006 Holiday Movie Preview
by Fritz Esker and James Jones
Fritz: So, I guess we can start with the obvious question of what film each of us are looking forward to the most in the holiday season?
James: Well. The first thing I noticed while doing the research for this piece was a distinct lack of big, exciting movies this winter. Usually a few of the Oscar Bait films kind of have me excited, but this year it is sparse. The Good German looks promising. Anything directed by Steven Soderbergh is going to make my list, but throw in George Clooney and Cate Blanchett and my buzz-o-meter gets a tingly sensation. But honestly, the movie I am most excited about right now is Borat. I’m a big Sacha Baron Cohen fan, and I think it might be the funniest movie of the year. What about you?
Fritz: I agree about your first point and I think it’s true of the year in general. In terms of quality, this has been a pretty barren year for film. I mean, if I had to come up with a best list now, the only films that I’ve seen that I think are worthy enough to be on a best list of any stripe are United 93, Flags of Our Fathers, The Prestige, and Little Miss Sunshine. And I saw two of this year’s high-profile November movies at the film fest (Little Children and Babel) and both are good, but not best list material. Anyway, I digress…I would go with Borat as well. Even though Fox seems very hesitant about the film, I think it’s wonderful that a major studio is going to slip what looks like a very sophisticated satire (if it’s anywhere near as good as the character is on The Ali G show) into multiplexes. So that’s my top one. I am excited to see Soderbergh do a variation on The Third Man (one of my favorite films of all time) with The Good German. That being said, Soderbergh, being the risk taker that he is, tends to be either terrific or terrible, so I hope he’s the former with this one. Throwing it back to you, two films I’m either excited or intrigued about are Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration and the new Bond fim Casino Royale. Your thoughts on those?
Daniel Craig in "Casino Royale"
James: First off, let me also include my best of 2006 short list: Half Nelson, The Descent, The Prestige, Brick, Dave Chapelle’s Block Party, and Little Miss Sunshine. Now to your question, Consideration and Casino Royale are pretty high on my list as well. Casino Royale is the only quality big budget action film I see coming out this winter. That’s kind of weird, huh? But Daniel Craig’s great, so I’m in. The new installment is supposed to inject a gritty realism into the franchise, but that’s not exactly the first time they’ve tried that. Still, there’s no way it could be as bad as the Pierce Brosnan Bond films. But I really wish they would have let Quentin Tarantino take a crack at this. He was rumored to be interested. For Your Consideration also looks good, but I’m looking for an improvement from Christopher Guest. Waiting for Guffman is now deservedly considered a classic, but Best in Show wasn’t even half as funny. And A Mighty Wind barely had a laugh in the entire film, and didn’t seem like it was even trying for one.
For Your Consideration
Fritz: Interesting. While part of me thinks the Bond people are just copying what Christopher Nolan did with Batman Begins (basically pressing the “Reset” button for the entire franchise), Batman Begins was an excellent movie and there are far worse to copy. Of the Brosnan films, I actually found Die Another Day and Goldeneye to be moderately entertaining (the other two were completely forgettable). That being said, a fresh take might liven things up a bit (at least for one or two films). I don’t know what Casino Royale is rated, but I’d like to see some R-rated Bond movies. As for Guest, I actually think Best in Show is his finest achievement and one of my 10 favorite films of the 21st Century. Waiting for Guffman is hilarious as well, and to me, maybe just one tiny notch below Show. A Mighty Wind was enjoyable, but I enjoyed it in the way I enjoy other decent comedies. Guffman and Show were clearly a cut above other comedies. I think by A Mighty Wind, Guest had collected too many actors and was trying to find screen time for too many different people in 80-something minutes. But, I’m still hopeful he’ll return to form with Consideration and not take another step backwards from Wind. Switching gears a bit, are there any films on the holiday slate that you think are a disaster in the making?
Night at the Museum
James: The Santa Clause 3 will obviously be hot garbage. Even before Mel Gibson revealed his true colors, Apacalypto was essentially unsellable. I know I don't want to see it. That movie is going to gross like 10 million dollars max. Night at the Museum seems to be the first sign of Ben Stiller giving up. It looks like it will be awful, but kids’ sales could make it a success, anyway. Also, I love Tenacious D, and I’m looking forward to The Pick of Destiny, but I’d be surprised if it ends up being a “hit.”
Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny
Fritz: It may or may not be a hit, but in terms of sheer quality, I think Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny looks horrible. It may just be the preview, as I do think Jack Black can be very funny, but the preview makes it look excruciating. Speaking of excruciating, Happy Feet looks like it could be the worst kiddie movie of all time. The preview gives the impression that the filmmakers thought a worthwhile film could be simply made from having animated penguins sing pop songs. The only thing in the current realm of entertainment that nauseates me more than this preview is that John Cougar Mellencamp “This is Our Country” Chevy commercial that’s on all the time and uses images of Katrina to try and sell Chevys. Regarding Gibson, I think he’d already shown his true colors before the arrest; I thought (and so did many others) that The Passion of the Christ was anti-semitic and that his refusal to distance himself from his father’s blatantly hateful comments was clear evidence of how he felt about Jewish people. The arrest just spelled out in neon lights for everyone. It’s a shame, too, because Gibson has some merits as a director. His films, even Passion, which I felt was a 135-minute snuff film, always have at least some striking visuals. He’s got some talent and he’s not a hack, but he’s really self-indulgent and is madly in love with depicting scenes of torture. Apocalypto looks like it will be more of the same – a movie with some good visuals that is ultimately ugly and unsatisfying to watch. To start wrapping up, I’m looking at the big releases for the rest of the year and I see two possibly important ones we haven’t discussed yet: Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation and Darren Aaronofsky’s The Fountain. Thoughts?
Fast Food Nation
James: Let me first address something about Tenacious D. The lower the production values, the funnier they are. Their six episode HBO series is a comedic masterpiece with its place firmly reserved in the Laugh Pantheon. The songs in that series are so re-listenable (catchy and funny at the same time) it’s disgusting. But their album sucks because they got a huge rock band to back them and it’s overproduced. So there’s a danger that Pick of Destiny could be awful, but if they focus on comedy and not on adding drums to their tasty riffs (they’re not a power trio, dude), they’ll be all right. Moving on (finally), I recently read an argument somewhere that The Passion of the Christ actually paved the way for this new wave of torture films like Saw and Hostel. I think that's dead on. To answer you question, I am excited for The Fountain, which has a chance to be great, despite tepid reviews so far. I’m actually reading Fast Food Nation right now, so I’ll check that out as well. Interesting choice by Linklater to make a scripted film where logic would dictate a documentary. But he’s one of the best directors out there, so I’m sure it will be excellent. What do you think about the Charlie Kauffman-Lite, Will Ferrell vehicle, Stranger Than Fiction?
The Fountain
Fritz: Point well-taken about Tenacious D. With The Fountain, I want to see it, but it’s hard for me to get too excited about Aaronofsky just because his films tend to be endurance tests. Don’t get me wrong, I think Requiem for a Dream is the most effective anti-drug movie ever made. But it’s up there with United 93 in the category of “Really, Really Good Films I Never, Ever Want to See Again.” I’m definitely interested in Fast Food Nation. Adapting a non-fiction, journalistic expose into a fictional film is definitely a screenwriting challenge, but we’ll see. Linklater is always interesting, even if he misfires, so it should be worth checking out. As for your question on Stranger Than Fiction, I have moderate hopes for it. I’m not as in love with Charlie Kaufman as many film geeks are. I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is his only script that is consistently brilliant. The rest of his scripts all feature tantalizing ideas whose translation to screen only intermittently succeeds. And Kaufman’s scripts (excepting Sunshine, of course) have a disturbing tendency to completely fall apart in the 3rd act. This is especially true of Adaptation, which I really liked for its first hour or so, then totally lost interest in the last 45 minutes. That last act, that’s where Stranger than Fiction will rise or fall. The premise sounds like it could be fun, but the real challenge for the writer is going to be how to handle the finale. Regardless, I applaud them for trying and I do appreciate Kaufman’s willingness to take risks with his scripts. I love Will Ferrell and I’ll go see this one, but as I go into it, I’m definitely thinking, “How the hell are they going to end that one?”
Well, we’re getting closer to kickoff time for the Saints/Ravens game and since we’re both die-hards, I know we’ll want to be attending to that shortly. Any final thoughts?
Stranger Than Fiction
James: I could not agree with you more about Requiem for a Dream. That joins Dancer in the Dark and Boys Don’t Cry in the excellent films I will never watch again club. It should be noted here, that Charlie Kaufman had nothing to do with Stranger Than Fiction. But it is still an obvious attempt at Charlie Kauffman-Lite. The last film I’d like to mention is Will Arnett’s Let’s Go To Prison. Arnett played Gob Bluth in the recently cancelled, consistently hilarious tv series Arrested Development. He is a rising comedy superstar, so be sure to check him out in this prison comedy directed by Mr. Show’s Bob Odenkirk.
Well, that about wraps it up. Hope you enjoyed and Geaux Saints.