The Beatles influenced everybody but it’s not every day that Paul McCartney called out that influence. Paul once told Jeff Lynne that Elo’s “Mr. Blue Sky” was partly based on one of The Beatles’ songs from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Lynne discussed what he thought of Paul after that. John Lennon also revealed his feelings about Elo years after The Beatles broke up.
Paul McCartney felt Elo’s ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ was based on The Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’
Elo has genres numerous comparisons to The Beatles. According to a 2022 article from The Telegraph, Lynne discussed meeting Paul for the first time. “He said to me, ”Mr. Blue Sky?’ I know where you got that riff from,'” Lynne reminisced. “He didn’t mince words. He thought I took it from the middle of ‘A Day in the Life.’ But we became great pals.
Paul McCartney felt Elo’s ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ was based on The Beatles’ ‘A Day in the Life’
Elo has genres numerous comparisons to The Beatles. According to a 2022 article from The Telegraph, Lynne discussed meeting Paul for the first time. “He said to me, ”Mr. Blue Sky?’ I know where you got that riff from,'” Lynne reminisced. “He didn’t mince words. He thought I took it from the middle of ‘A Day in the Life.’ But we became great pals.
- 9/14/2023
- by Matthew Trzcinski
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Horton Hears a Who! director Jimmy Hayward has signed with UTA. He had been without agency representation.
Horton, featuring the voices of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Seth Rogen, has grossed more than $275 million worldwide to date and marked Hayward's feature directorial debut.
Hayward began his career as an animator on the Canadian TV series ReBoot before becoming a member of the Pixar family, where he worked on such films as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo. He also was involved in Fox and Blue Sky's animated film Robots.
Hayward continues to be repped by manager Jason Grode.
Horton, featuring the voices of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Seth Rogen, has grossed more than $275 million worldwide to date and marked Hayward's feature directorial debut.
Hayward began his career as an animator on the Canadian TV series ReBoot before becoming a member of the Pixar family, where he worked on such films as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo. He also was involved in Fox and Blue Sky's animated film Robots.
Hayward continues to be repped by manager Jason Grode.
As in the U.S., school holidays drove international markets during the weekend, with 10,000 BC maintaining its No. 1 overseas spot for the third consecutive stanza, grossing an estimated $28.2 million from about 7,400 screens in 62 territories.
The Roland Emmerich prehistoric epic finished strongly in the U.K., Russia, Spain, Italy, Mexico and Korea. Warner Bros. International is expecting a No. 1 debut in China to provide an estimated $5.6 million from 537 digital and 463 conventional situations, which the distributor says is the widest market opening to date. The film's worldwide cume stands at $194.2 million with most of that ($118.1 million) coming from overseas.
Placing a close No. 2 was 20th Century Fox International's "Dr. Suess' Horton Hears A Who!" The Blue Sky Studios animation title drew an estimated $25.2 million from 6,600 screens in 49 territories, and at least 10 of those were new, including the U.K. (with $6.1 million including previews from 508 screens) and Australia ($2.5 million from about 350 sites). The overseas cume is $50 million, with $136.5 million worldwide.
Capitalizing on the holiday season, Paramount opened The Spiderwick Chronicles in 29 markets, nabbing an estimated $15.6 million on the weekend overall from 3,642 screens in 51 territories and grabbing the No. 3 spot. The film's overseas cume stands at $30.1 million. The biggest of the fresh markets was the U.K., where the family fantasy-drama drew an estimated $5.4 million (including previews) from 468 locations.
Tied for fourth position were Sony's Vantage Point and Universal's release of Summit Entertainment/Touchstone Pictures' Step Up 2 the Streets, each grossing an estimated $8 million. Vantage Point, a drama about an attempted presidential assassination, played on 2,825 screens in 38 territories and hoisted its cume to $52.2 million. Step Up played 594 sites across the U.K., France, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand, with the U.K.
The Roland Emmerich prehistoric epic finished strongly in the U.K., Russia, Spain, Italy, Mexico and Korea. Warner Bros. International is expecting a No. 1 debut in China to provide an estimated $5.6 million from 537 digital and 463 conventional situations, which the distributor says is the widest market opening to date. The film's worldwide cume stands at $194.2 million with most of that ($118.1 million) coming from overseas.
Placing a close No. 2 was 20th Century Fox International's "Dr. Suess' Horton Hears A Who!" The Blue Sky Studios animation title drew an estimated $25.2 million from 6,600 screens in 49 territories, and at least 10 of those were new, including the U.K. (with $6.1 million including previews from 508 screens) and Australia ($2.5 million from about 350 sites). The overseas cume is $50 million, with $136.5 million worldwide.
Capitalizing on the holiday season, Paramount opened The Spiderwick Chronicles in 29 markets, nabbing an estimated $15.6 million on the weekend overall from 3,642 screens in 51 territories and grabbing the No. 3 spot. The film's overseas cume stands at $30.1 million. The biggest of the fresh markets was the U.K., where the family fantasy-drama drew an estimated $5.4 million (including previews) from 468 locations.
Tied for fourth position were Sony's Vantage Point and Universal's release of Summit Entertainment/Touchstone Pictures' Step Up 2 the Streets, each grossing an estimated $8 million. Vantage Point, a drama about an attempted presidential assassination, played on 2,825 screens in 38 territories and hoisted its cume to $52.2 million. Step Up played 594 sites across the U.K., France, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand, with the U.K.
- 3/23/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
By Neil Pedley
This week, our cup runneth over with a "Karate Kid" knockoff, a shot-for-shot remake and more documentaries than Michael Moore can shake an overpriced hot dog at.
"Blind Mountain"
The recipient of plenty of acclaim at last year's Cannes Film Festival, director Li Yang has a casual yet immediate style that's been touted as something of a Chinese answer to Ken Loach. "Blind Mountain" offers an uncomfortable but powerful indictment of China's one child policy and the sex trade that has flourished under it. The film follows the desperate struggle of a young woman who accepts a job in a remote mountain village, only to discover that she has unwittingly been sold into marriage as a slave.
Opens in New York.
"Doomsday"
Before anyone had heard of Angelina Jolie, model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra was the original face of "Tomb Raider"'s Lara Croft. Ten years later, she's traded...
This week, our cup runneth over with a "Karate Kid" knockoff, a shot-for-shot remake and more documentaries than Michael Moore can shake an overpriced hot dog at.
"Blind Mountain"
The recipient of plenty of acclaim at last year's Cannes Film Festival, director Li Yang has a casual yet immediate style that's been touted as something of a Chinese answer to Ken Loach. "Blind Mountain" offers an uncomfortable but powerful indictment of China's one child policy and the sex trade that has flourished under it. The film follows the desperate struggle of a young woman who accepts a job in a remote mountain village, only to discover that she has unwittingly been sold into marriage as a slave.
Opens in New York.
"Doomsday"
Before anyone had heard of Angelina Jolie, model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra was the original face of "Tomb Raider"'s Lara Croft. Ten years later, she's traded...
- 3/10/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
This CG-animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! is a delight, brimming with colorful, elastic characters and bountiful wit.
To take nothing away from Fox and its Blue Sky Studios, much, much, much of this owes directly to the book published in 1954 by Theodore Geisel's alter ego, Dr. Seuss. So credit the filmmakers for knowing a good thing when they see it. The film captures all the charm of the book from its rhyming text to its themes and fantastical characters.
This family entertainment represents the first big film of the year with a potential for $100 million-plus in domestic markets. A long life on many video shelves is assured.
Horton, given a comically innocent voice by Jim Carrey, is a rubbery elephant in the jungle of Nool who one fine day hears a tiny cry. It comes from a speck floating in the air, which actually is a tiny planet, home to a city called Who-ville, inhabited by microscopic denizens known as Whos.
Horton can't see these creatures but manages to communicate to its excitable Mayor (vocal magic by Steve Carell). Realizing the vulnerability of this entire civilization, Horton undertakes to shield it from harm while the Mayor must alert Who-ville to the danger. Both suffer mockery from fellow creatures unable to believe in what they can't see.
Vlad the Eagle (Will Arnett) and the sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) torment Horton while the Who-ville citizenry call the Mayor a boob. But Horton, with advice from his pal Morton the Mouse (Seth Rogen), perseveres, believing "a person's a person no matter how small."
Directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino hew closely to Seuss' drawings and designs, while writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio blend the author's rhymes with hipper contemporary lingo.
Despite a brisk pace, Seuss' many characters all get a chance to display their unique idiosyncrasies and viewpoints. The filmmakers imbue the harrowing experiences in the parallel worlds with both suspense and rich comedy. Thus do the filmmakers ride the coattails of Seuss' imaginative powers to cartoon glory.
DR. SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO!
Fox
A Blue Sky Studios production
Credits:
Directors: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino
Screenwriters: Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio
Story: Dr. Seuss
Producers: Bob Gordon, Bruce Anderson
Executive producers: Audrey Geisel, Chris Wedge, Chris Meledandri
Art director: Thomas Cardone
Music: John Powell
Editor: Tim Nordquist
Voice cast:
Horton: Jim Carrey
Mayor: Steve Carell
Kanngaroo: Carol Burnett
Vlad: Will Arnett
Morton: Seth Rogen
Councilman/Yummo Wickersham: Dan Fogler
Running time -- 85 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
To take nothing away from Fox and its Blue Sky Studios, much, much, much of this owes directly to the book published in 1954 by Theodore Geisel's alter ego, Dr. Seuss. So credit the filmmakers for knowing a good thing when they see it. The film captures all the charm of the book from its rhyming text to its themes and fantastical characters.
This family entertainment represents the first big film of the year with a potential for $100 million-plus in domestic markets. A long life on many video shelves is assured.
Horton, given a comically innocent voice by Jim Carrey, is a rubbery elephant in the jungle of Nool who one fine day hears a tiny cry. It comes from a speck floating in the air, which actually is a tiny planet, home to a city called Who-ville, inhabited by microscopic denizens known as Whos.
Horton can't see these creatures but manages to communicate to its excitable Mayor (vocal magic by Steve Carell). Realizing the vulnerability of this entire civilization, Horton undertakes to shield it from harm while the Mayor must alert Who-ville to the danger. Both suffer mockery from fellow creatures unable to believe in what they can't see.
Vlad the Eagle (Will Arnett) and the sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) torment Horton while the Who-ville citizenry call the Mayor a boob. But Horton, with advice from his pal Morton the Mouse (Seth Rogen), perseveres, believing "a person's a person no matter how small."
Directors Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino hew closely to Seuss' drawings and designs, while writers Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio blend the author's rhymes with hipper contemporary lingo.
Despite a brisk pace, Seuss' many characters all get a chance to display their unique idiosyncrasies and viewpoints. The filmmakers imbue the harrowing experiences in the parallel worlds with both suspense and rich comedy. Thus do the filmmakers ride the coattails of Seuss' imaginative powers to cartoon glory.
DR. SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO!
Fox
A Blue Sky Studios production
Credits:
Directors: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino
Screenwriters: Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio
Story: Dr. Seuss
Producers: Bob Gordon, Bruce Anderson
Executive producers: Audrey Geisel, Chris Wedge, Chris Meledandri
Art director: Thomas Cardone
Music: John Powell
Editor: Tim Nordquist
Voice cast:
Horton: Jim Carrey
Mayor: Steve Carell
Kanngaroo: Carol Burnett
Vlad: Will Arnett
Morton: Seth Rogen
Councilman/Yummo Wickersham: Dan Fogler
Running time -- 85 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
- 3/10/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Magnolia Pictures/Shorts International
Providing a valuable service to Oscar pools everywhere, Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International have teamed to demystify those tricky live-action and animated shorts by packaging this year's nominees together and playing them in 39 engagements this weekend.
As a result, armchair Oscar prognosticators won't have to rely on traditional selection methods such as throwing darts or closing their eyes and (hopefully) landing their index finger on one of them.
Here's what they should know about this year's crop.
Among the live-action nominees, both the Spanish and Danish entries happen to be comedies that deal with elderly parents in retirement homes.
In Soren Pilmark & Kim Magnusson's "Helmer & Son," a harried businessman has been summoned to the rest home where his recently admitted father has locked himself in an armoire. His feeble attempts to talk his strong-willed dad out of the closet are met with outrageous and ultimately touching results.
In Borja Cobeaga's "One Too Many" (Eramos pocos), meanwhile, a man wakes up one morning and discovers that his wife has finally left him. He and his son, unable to fend domestically for themselves, come up with a solution involving springing long-forgotten Grandma from the old folks home.
Also from Spain comes Javier Fesser & Luis Manso's "Binta and the Great Idea" (Binta y la gran idea), a strikingly photographed portrait of a 7-year-old Senegalese girl who is determined to alter the destiny of her young cousin. Produced in collaboration with UNICEF, the 30-minute film is a gentle call for greater solidarity among Third World children.
From Australia comes Peter Templeman & Stuart Parkyn's amusing but rather slight "The Saviour", about a Mormon missionary whose door-to-door recruiting has led to his being in a rather uncompromising position with a married woman.
Offering the greatest production value for the money is Ari Sandel's "West Bank Story," an all-singing, all-dancing satire -- with apologies to Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins -- of the Middle East conflict as represented by a pair of competing falafel stands, Kosher King and Hummus Hut. The American production, with its feuding Israeli and Palestinian families making like Semetic Jets and Sharks, is a bona fide crowd-tickler.
All of this year's live-action nominees are first-timers.
Over on the animated short front, several filmmakers are no strangers to Oscar nominations.
Leading the pack is "Lifted", a typically inventive Pixar film directed by Gary Rydstrom, who has collected 14 Oscar nominations (including seven wins) as a sought-after sound editor. The entertaining five-minute Buena Vista release follows the botched alien abduction of an unsuspecting sleeping Earthling at the shaky hands of an alien "driving student."
Buena Vista also is handling "The Little Matchgirl", a gorgeously animated rendering of the Hans Christian Anderson tale directed by first-time nominee, "The Lion King's" Roger Allers, and Don Hahn, a best picture nominee for "Beauty and the Beast". Where "Lifted" is state-of-the-art all the way, "Matchgirl" represents the end of an era -- one of the last films to utilize the first digital ink-and-paint compositing and rendering program known as CAPS, which made its debut on "The Little Mermaid".
The third American nominee, "No Time for Nuts", comes from Blue Sky Studios animators Chris Renaud & Michael Thurmeier and follows the further adventures of "Ice Age" character Scrat, who uncovers a frozen time machine while trying to bury a nut. The witty CG short was included on the DVD release of Fox's "Ice Age: The Meltdown".
Rounding out the animated titles are "The Danish Poet", from Canada and Norway and "Maestro," from Hungary. The former, by Torill Kove, who was nominated for 1999's "My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts," tells the lyrically droll story of a blocked poet who finds inspiration through a famous Norwegian writer. "Maestro", by first-time nominee Geza M. Toth, follows the behind-the-scenes preparations taken by a birdlike character about to take his big bow. It packs one clever little kicker.
Providing a valuable service to Oscar pools everywhere, Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International have teamed to demystify those tricky live-action and animated shorts by packaging this year's nominees together and playing them in 39 engagements this weekend.
As a result, armchair Oscar prognosticators won't have to rely on traditional selection methods such as throwing darts or closing their eyes and (hopefully) landing their index finger on one of them.
Here's what they should know about this year's crop.
Among the live-action nominees, both the Spanish and Danish entries happen to be comedies that deal with elderly parents in retirement homes.
In Soren Pilmark & Kim Magnusson's "Helmer & Son," a harried businessman has been summoned to the rest home where his recently admitted father has locked himself in an armoire. His feeble attempts to talk his strong-willed dad out of the closet are met with outrageous and ultimately touching results.
In Borja Cobeaga's "One Too Many" (Eramos pocos), meanwhile, a man wakes up one morning and discovers that his wife has finally left him. He and his son, unable to fend domestically for themselves, come up with a solution involving springing long-forgotten Grandma from the old folks home.
Also from Spain comes Javier Fesser & Luis Manso's "Binta and the Great Idea" (Binta y la gran idea), a strikingly photographed portrait of a 7-year-old Senegalese girl who is determined to alter the destiny of her young cousin. Produced in collaboration with UNICEF, the 30-minute film is a gentle call for greater solidarity among Third World children.
From Australia comes Peter Templeman & Stuart Parkyn's amusing but rather slight "The Saviour", about a Mormon missionary whose door-to-door recruiting has led to his being in a rather uncompromising position with a married woman.
Offering the greatest production value for the money is Ari Sandel's "West Bank Story," an all-singing, all-dancing satire -- with apologies to Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins -- of the Middle East conflict as represented by a pair of competing falafel stands, Kosher King and Hummus Hut. The American production, with its feuding Israeli and Palestinian families making like Semetic Jets and Sharks, is a bona fide crowd-tickler.
All of this year's live-action nominees are first-timers.
Over on the animated short front, several filmmakers are no strangers to Oscar nominations.
Leading the pack is "Lifted", a typically inventive Pixar film directed by Gary Rydstrom, who has collected 14 Oscar nominations (including seven wins) as a sought-after sound editor. The entertaining five-minute Buena Vista release follows the botched alien abduction of an unsuspecting sleeping Earthling at the shaky hands of an alien "driving student."
Buena Vista also is handling "The Little Matchgirl", a gorgeously animated rendering of the Hans Christian Anderson tale directed by first-time nominee, "The Lion King's" Roger Allers, and Don Hahn, a best picture nominee for "Beauty and the Beast". Where "Lifted" is state-of-the-art all the way, "Matchgirl" represents the end of an era -- one of the last films to utilize the first digital ink-and-paint compositing and rendering program known as CAPS, which made its debut on "The Little Mermaid".
The third American nominee, "No Time for Nuts", comes from Blue Sky Studios animators Chris Renaud & Michael Thurmeier and follows the further adventures of "Ice Age" character Scrat, who uncovers a frozen time machine while trying to bury a nut. The witty CG short was included on the DVD release of Fox's "Ice Age: The Meltdown".
Rounding out the animated titles are "The Danish Poet", from Canada and Norway and "Maestro," from Hungary. The former, by Torill Kove, who was nominated for 1999's "My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts," tells the lyrically droll story of a blocked poet who finds inspiration through a famous Norwegian writer. "Maestro", by first-time nominee Geza M. Toth, follows the behind-the-scenes preparations taken by a birdlike character about to take his big bow. It packs one clever little kicker.
- 2/16/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In an effort to fill two holes left by Fox executives Chris Meledandri and Lawrence Grey, 20th Century Fox's Filmed Entertainment unit announced a slew of promotions for various longtime creative executives.
President of 20th Century Fox Hutch Parker has been promoted to vice chairman, 20th Century Fox Film Group, overseeing both the live action division and Fox Animation.
The animation division, which Meledandri just exited in favor of setting up a similar division at Universal Pictures, will be helmed by 12-year Fox production veteran Vanessa Morrison.
Debbie Liebling, who joined Fox in 2002 as executive vp of production at 20th Century Fox, will slide over to the company's genre divison, as Fox Atomic's new president of production. Grey--who also left the company to go to Universal--most recently held the title of vp of production.
Other promotions include upping Emma Watts and Alex Young to co-presidents of production of 20th Century Fox. Brian Keane will be promoted to chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Blue Sky Studios.
President of 20th Century Fox Hutch Parker has been promoted to vice chairman, 20th Century Fox Film Group, overseeing both the live action division and Fox Animation.
The animation division, which Meledandri just exited in favor of setting up a similar division at Universal Pictures, will be helmed by 12-year Fox production veteran Vanessa Morrison.
Debbie Liebling, who joined Fox in 2002 as executive vp of production at 20th Century Fox, will slide over to the company's genre divison, as Fox Atomic's new president of production. Grey--who also left the company to go to Universal--most recently held the title of vp of production.
Other promotions include upping Emma Watts and Alex Young to co-presidents of production of 20th Century Fox. Brian Keane will be promoted to chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Blue Sky Studios.
- 1/29/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The animated shorts that caught Oscar's eye Tuesday exemplify how the form has become a viable means for studios to develop young talent and experiment with new technology.
Of the five nominees for animated short film, three were from major studios: Pixar's "Lifted", which centers on a young alien who is learning how to abduct a human on Earth; the Walt Disney Co.'s "The Little Matchgirl", based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a young girl who sells matches during winter; and "No Time for Nuts", from 20th Century Fox's Blue Sky Studios, which stars "Ice Age"'s Scrat in a time-traveling journey to protect his beloved acorn.
They will compete against Mikrofilm/National Film Board of Canada's "The Danish Poet", about a poet whose creative well has run dry, and Szimplafilm/Kedd's "Maestro", in which the title character prepares for his big moment just before the curtain rises.
John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar and Disney Animation Studios and the principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, said Pixar has been making shorts for a while, and now he's bringing that focus to Disney, which bought Pixar in January 2006.
Of the five nominees for animated short film, three were from major studios: Pixar's "Lifted", which centers on a young alien who is learning how to abduct a human on Earth; the Walt Disney Co.'s "The Little Matchgirl", based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a young girl who sells matches during winter; and "No Time for Nuts", from 20th Century Fox's Blue Sky Studios, which stars "Ice Age"'s Scrat in a time-traveling journey to protect his beloved acorn.
They will compete against Mikrofilm/National Film Board of Canada's "The Danish Poet", about a poet whose creative well has run dry, and Szimplafilm/Kedd's "Maestro", in which the title character prepares for his big moment just before the curtain rises.
John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar and Disney Animation Studios and the principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, said Pixar has been making shorts for a while, and now he's bringing that focus to Disney, which bought Pixar in January 2006.
- 1/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In the energetic sequel "Ice Age: The Meltdown", youngsters may fret over whether the animal heroes will reach their new home safely, parents may wonder how all this melting ice pack parallels the current concerns over global warming, and 20th Century Fox Animation may have to figure out what to do with the bounty undoubtedly flowing its way from boxoffice and DVD coffers. Ray Romano again heads the voice cast, reunited with John Leguizamo and Denis Leary from the original 2002 "Ice Age".
The story gets under way with the zany sloth Sid (Leguizamo) running a day camp for young animals. His old buddies -- the mature woolly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano) and the dryly witty saber-toothed tiger Diego (Leary) -- make Sid realize that he is really quite unsuitable as any kind of role model. Con artist armadillo Fast Tony Jay Leno) alerts the various breeds that a global warming will imminently melt the enormous glacial dam that protects their valley. Oceans of water will flood the landscape, thus they must embark on a trek toward safety. It is at this point that the very good CGI effects are never more impressive, as the enormous scope of their changing environmental habitat is revealed.
The charm of the original film was its endearing character development, mixing humor with personality traits with real dimension (not all that unlike Romano's former smash-hit TV sitcom, "Everybody Loves Raymond"). This lifts "Meltdown" above many other animated efforts. Along their trip, each of the three leads gets a story arc: Manny may be the last of his species, that is until Ellie (Queen Latifah) shows up, a mammoth who thinks she's an opossum, like her sidekicks Crash Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). Sid, the Rodney Dangerfield of sloths, finds respect in a fun midnight-cult sequence. And Diego struggles to face a long-held fear.
In most respects, this sequel is better than the original. No human characters appear this time, so it's a more seamless animal tale. Although Diego's tiger is more of a pussycat here, the film's overall story line, complete with predatory prehistoric alligator creatures, is more involving. Even clocking in 11 minutes longer than "Ice Age", director Carlos Saldanha (who received co-director credit on the original) has made a vivid and entertaining (and educational?) family film that never flags.
Highlights include the tender depiction of Ellie's life-changing moment when she recognizes her childhood home is now completely melted; a rousing all-vulture version of "Food, Glorious Food" from "Oliver!"; and, last but hardly least, Scrat, the unspeaking squirrel/rat, back from the first film with more silly screen time. He is still risking life and limb on sheer, frozen cliffs above and below icy water in pursuit of that elusive acorn. Scrat's intermittent sequences are episodic, like chapters of an old serial -- and like those old serials, the kids will eat it up.
ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox Animation presents a Blue Sky Studios production
Credits:
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Screenwriters: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow, Jim Hecht
Story by: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow
Producer: Lori Forte
Executive producers: Christopher Meledandri, Chris Wedge
Art director: Thomas Cardone
Character designer: Peter de Seve
Music: John Powell
Editor: Harry Hitner. Voices: Manny: Ray Romano
Sid: John Leguizamo
Diego: Denis Leary
Ellie: Queen Latifah
Crash: Seann William Scott
Eddie: Josh Peck
Lone Gunslinging Vulture: Will Arnett
Fast Tony: Jay Leno
MPAA rating PG
Running time -- 91 minutes...
The story gets under way with the zany sloth Sid (Leguizamo) running a day camp for young animals. His old buddies -- the mature woolly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano) and the dryly witty saber-toothed tiger Diego (Leary) -- make Sid realize that he is really quite unsuitable as any kind of role model. Con artist armadillo Fast Tony Jay Leno) alerts the various breeds that a global warming will imminently melt the enormous glacial dam that protects their valley. Oceans of water will flood the landscape, thus they must embark on a trek toward safety. It is at this point that the very good CGI effects are never more impressive, as the enormous scope of their changing environmental habitat is revealed.
The charm of the original film was its endearing character development, mixing humor with personality traits with real dimension (not all that unlike Romano's former smash-hit TV sitcom, "Everybody Loves Raymond"). This lifts "Meltdown" above many other animated efforts. Along their trip, each of the three leads gets a story arc: Manny may be the last of his species, that is until Ellie (Queen Latifah) shows up, a mammoth who thinks she's an opossum, like her sidekicks Crash Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). Sid, the Rodney Dangerfield of sloths, finds respect in a fun midnight-cult sequence. And Diego struggles to face a long-held fear.
In most respects, this sequel is better than the original. No human characters appear this time, so it's a more seamless animal tale. Although Diego's tiger is more of a pussycat here, the film's overall story line, complete with predatory prehistoric alligator creatures, is more involving. Even clocking in 11 minutes longer than "Ice Age", director Carlos Saldanha (who received co-director credit on the original) has made a vivid and entertaining (and educational?) family film that never flags.
Highlights include the tender depiction of Ellie's life-changing moment when she recognizes her childhood home is now completely melted; a rousing all-vulture version of "Food, Glorious Food" from "Oliver!"; and, last but hardly least, Scrat, the unspeaking squirrel/rat, back from the first film with more silly screen time. He is still risking life and limb on sheer, frozen cliffs above and below icy water in pursuit of that elusive acorn. Scrat's intermittent sequences are episodic, like chapters of an old serial -- and like those old serials, the kids will eat it up.
ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox Animation presents a Blue Sky Studios production
Credits:
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Screenwriters: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow, Jim Hecht
Story by: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow
Producer: Lori Forte
Executive producers: Christopher Meledandri, Chris Wedge
Art director: Thomas Cardone
Character designer: Peter de Seve
Music: John Powell
Editor: Harry Hitner. Voices: Manny: Ray Romano
Sid: John Leguizamo
Diego: Denis Leary
Ellie: Queen Latifah
Crash: Seann William Scott
Eddie: Josh Peck
Lone Gunslinging Vulture: Will Arnett
Fast Tony: Jay Leno
MPAA rating PG
Running time -- 91 minutes...
- 3/31/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The early spring thaw that drove the chill off the boxoffice last weekend could escalate into genuine global warming this go-round as 20th Century Fox launches Ice Age: The Meltdown in the U.S. and a number of foreign territories. Although three other wide releases will bid for the attention of audience segments ranging from urban moviegoers to adults to horror fans, the animated Meltdown, by virtue of its lineage as a Blue Sky Studios offering, is guaranteed to dominate. Directed by Carlos Saldanha, a co-director of the original Ice Age, the PG sequel continues the adventures of the prehistoric pack consisting of Ray Romano's woolly mammoth, John Leguizamo's sloth and Denis Leary's saber-toothed tiger along with such new additions as a mammoth love interest voiced by Queen Latifah.
- 3/31/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- Last year was an annus horribilis for the German film industry. Official figures released Wednesday confirmed that boxoffice dropped 16.6% and attendance figures slumped 18.8% in 2005 compared with 2004. Just 127.3 million movies tickets were sold in Germany last year, the lowest number since 1995. That compares with 156.7 million a year earlier. Boxoffice revenue was down to 745 million ($901 million), versus 892.9 million in 2004. Though established franchises such as Harry Potter and Star Wars cleaned up in the German market, several big-budget blockbusters misfired. Peter Jackson's King Kong sold only 2.5 million tickets in Germany, less than a quarter of the audience that turned out for his Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. Fox scored a hit with Blue Sky's Ice Age in 2002, with an audience of more than 7 million in Germany, but Blue Sky's Robots sold just 1.7 million tickets in the territory.
- 2/10/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens Friday, March 7
Writer-director Rose Troche's third indie film ambitiously reworks several short stories by A.M. Homes into a multifaceted portrait of modern suburbia. Alas, despite an enticing cast that includes Glenn Close, Patricia Clarkson and Dermot Mulroney, "The Safety of Objects" never quite reaches the heights it shoots for. First unveiled at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, the limited IFC Films release has won over some critics, but it's destined to come and go in theaters with little fanfare.
In her desire to mold Homes' empathetic stories of troubled suburbanites and keep it as realistic as possible, Troche has some success initially, but there are four separate families and nearly two dozen characters to keep track of. With a long running time that no amount of nonlinear construction can successfully quicken, "Safety" does have sequences and whole story lines that are fresh and thoughtfully entertaining.
The movie also has an "American Beauty"-like mission to tear aside the veil of respectability and emotional stability that are cliches of clean white neighborhoods, but in this day and age there's nothing remotely shocking or particularly revelatory. Two characters and their crises of identity emerge as the headliners in "Safety": Esther (Close), who has a grown son in a coma, and lawyer Jim Train (Mulroney).
The conceit of the movie is that Esther and Jim have nothing to do with each other at first but end up fatefully connected. Passed over for a promotion and convinced that his wife (Moira Kelly) is cheating on him, Jim starts to unravel and eventually becomes obsessed with helping Esther win a car in a mall-sponsored giveaway. Esther is trying to win the car for her demanding daughter (Jessica Campbell), and the endurance contest becomes a sad spectacle of consumerism.
Meanwhile, single mom Annette Jennings (Clarkson) is toughing out a bitter divorce and thinks her daughter (Kristen Stewart) is snatched by the father. In fact, the girl is lured into a strange encounter with the neighborhood handyman (Timothy Olyphant), who is having a hard time getting past a deadly driving accident for which he was partially to blame.
Rounding out the principal players are Mary Kay Place as yet another stagnant-souled mother raising kids and trying to evolve, Robert Klein as Esther's detached husband and young Alex House as Jim's son, who has a fantasy relationship with the doll of his sister in a cute but overdone shtick involving dialogue and role playing.
Roche's direction is quietly proficient, and the production values are top-notch for a low-budget project.
Overall, one has plenty of time to ponder the often exaggerated roles in life played by things and absorb the message that we all need to have more faith in one another.
THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS
IFC Films
Clear Blue Sky Prods., Renaissance Films An InFilm/Killer Films production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Rose Troche
Based on the book of stories by: A.M. Homes
Producers: Dorothy Berwin, Christine Vachon
Executive producers: Stephen Evans, Angus Finney, Jody Patton, Pamela Koffler
Director of photography: Enrique Chediak
Production designer: Andrea Stanley
Editor: Geraldine Peroni
Costume designer: Laura Jean Shannon
Casting: Bonnie Finnegan, Steven Jacobs
Cast:
Esther: Glenn Close
Jim Train: Dermot Mulroney
Annette Jennings: Patricia Clarkson
Randy: Timothy Olyphant
Susan Train: Moira Kelly
Helen Christianson: Mary Kay Place
Julie: Jessica Campbell
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Writer-director Rose Troche's third indie film ambitiously reworks several short stories by A.M. Homes into a multifaceted portrait of modern suburbia. Alas, despite an enticing cast that includes Glenn Close, Patricia Clarkson and Dermot Mulroney, "The Safety of Objects" never quite reaches the heights it shoots for. First unveiled at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, the limited IFC Films release has won over some critics, but it's destined to come and go in theaters with little fanfare.
In her desire to mold Homes' empathetic stories of troubled suburbanites and keep it as realistic as possible, Troche has some success initially, but there are four separate families and nearly two dozen characters to keep track of. With a long running time that no amount of nonlinear construction can successfully quicken, "Safety" does have sequences and whole story lines that are fresh and thoughtfully entertaining.
The movie also has an "American Beauty"-like mission to tear aside the veil of respectability and emotional stability that are cliches of clean white neighborhoods, but in this day and age there's nothing remotely shocking or particularly revelatory. Two characters and their crises of identity emerge as the headliners in "Safety": Esther (Close), who has a grown son in a coma, and lawyer Jim Train (Mulroney).
The conceit of the movie is that Esther and Jim have nothing to do with each other at first but end up fatefully connected. Passed over for a promotion and convinced that his wife (Moira Kelly) is cheating on him, Jim starts to unravel and eventually becomes obsessed with helping Esther win a car in a mall-sponsored giveaway. Esther is trying to win the car for her demanding daughter (Jessica Campbell), and the endurance contest becomes a sad spectacle of consumerism.
Meanwhile, single mom Annette Jennings (Clarkson) is toughing out a bitter divorce and thinks her daughter (Kristen Stewart) is snatched by the father. In fact, the girl is lured into a strange encounter with the neighborhood handyman (Timothy Olyphant), who is having a hard time getting past a deadly driving accident for which he was partially to blame.
Rounding out the principal players are Mary Kay Place as yet another stagnant-souled mother raising kids and trying to evolve, Robert Klein as Esther's detached husband and young Alex House as Jim's son, who has a fantasy relationship with the doll of his sister in a cute but overdone shtick involving dialogue and role playing.
Roche's direction is quietly proficient, and the production values are top-notch for a low-budget project.
Overall, one has plenty of time to ponder the often exaggerated roles in life played by things and absorb the message that we all need to have more faith in one another.
THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS
IFC Films
Clear Blue Sky Prods., Renaissance Films An InFilm/Killer Films production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Rose Troche
Based on the book of stories by: A.M. Homes
Producers: Dorothy Berwin, Christine Vachon
Executive producers: Stephen Evans, Angus Finney, Jody Patton, Pamela Koffler
Director of photography: Enrique Chediak
Production designer: Andrea Stanley
Editor: Geraldine Peroni
Costume designer: Laura Jean Shannon
Casting: Bonnie Finnegan, Steven Jacobs
Cast:
Esther: Glenn Close
Jim Train: Dermot Mulroney
Annette Jennings: Patricia Clarkson
Randy: Timothy Olyphant
Susan Train: Moira Kelly
Helen Christianson: Mary Kay Place
Julie: Jessica Campbell
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Ice Age".
"Ice Age", a computer-animated film from Blue Sky Studios, has energy to burn -- and you might wish director Chris Wedge and co-director Carlos Saldanha had burned a little. The cartoonists apparently believe a moment without physical or verbal gags is a moment wasted. The lunatic energy does result in several nifty slapstick sequences, at times reminiscent of Warner Bros.' beloved Looney Tunes. Just think of the Roadrunner and Daffy Duck in the Ice Age and you get the idea.
But this gag-a-thon keeps the animators from ever deepening their story or characters. The film lacks the emotional resonance and levels of meaning of such recent CGI features as "Shrek" and "Monsters, Inc". It's simply a fun, silly comedy, but then what's wrong with that? "Ice Age", released by 20th Century Fox, makes for fine Saturday-matinee entertainment and should enjoy a healthy afterlife in video/DVD following its theatrical career.
Certainly, "Shrek" and "Monsters" are tough acts to follow. This film's computer animation is almost Stone Age by comparison to its storied predecessors, which only illustrates how fast this technology is advancing. The rendering of human figures is poorly executed with human beings, who, fortunately, appear seldom, looking plastic and thoroughly unconvincing. (To be fair, no animation house has entirely licked this problem.) The creature animation is better, though no match for the breakthrough achieved by Pixar in "Monsters", where every stand of hair on the monsters' fur is articulated.
The story itself is built for laughs. The tall tale by writers Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson and Peter Ackerman is essentially a remake of John Ford's sentimental Western, "Three Godfathers", where three outlaws on the run discover a dying woman and her baby and swear to bring the infant to safety across the desert, even at the risk of their own lives. Only in "Ice Age", the trek occurs over vast icy vistas of the Ice Age, and the baby's three unlikely rescuers are a lumbering mammoth named Manfred (voiced by a dry, laconic Ran Romano), a rubbery sloth named Sid (a hyper John Leguizamo) and a cunning saber-toothed tiger named Diego (played with icy menace by Denis Leary). The latter must be watched constantly as he clearly views the infant as an hors d'oeuvre.
There is a fourth character, who puts in a series of cameos, including very clever opening and closing sequences. Scrat, a prehistoric squirrel right out of the late Chuck Jones' playbook, spends the entire movie trying to bury an acorn. He never quite succeeds. While the three god-fathers chatter incessantly, Scrat (voiced by Wedge) emits only squeaks, squawks and groans. Which means his welcome appearances bring the relief of relative quiet.
Backed by David Newman's jaunty musical score and splendid layouts, "Ice Age" makes for a snappy vaudeville act that at 80 minutes knows exactly when to get off stage.
ICE AGE
20th Century Fox
Blue Sky Studios
Producer: Lori Forte
Director: Chris Wedge
Co-director: Carlos Saldanha
Writers: Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, Peter Ackerman
Executive producer: Christopher Meledandri
Production designer: Brian McEntee
Music: David Newman
Editor: John Carnochan
Color/stereo
Voices:
Manfred: Ray Romano
Sid: John Leguizamo
Diego: Denis Leary
Soto: Goran Visnjic
Zeke: Jack Black
Roshan: Tara Strong
Scrat: Chris Wedge
Running time -- 80 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
"Ice Age", a computer-animated film from Blue Sky Studios, has energy to burn -- and you might wish director Chris Wedge and co-director Carlos Saldanha had burned a little. The cartoonists apparently believe a moment without physical or verbal gags is a moment wasted. The lunatic energy does result in several nifty slapstick sequences, at times reminiscent of Warner Bros.' beloved Looney Tunes. Just think of the Roadrunner and Daffy Duck in the Ice Age and you get the idea.
But this gag-a-thon keeps the animators from ever deepening their story or characters. The film lacks the emotional resonance and levels of meaning of such recent CGI features as "Shrek" and "Monsters, Inc". It's simply a fun, silly comedy, but then what's wrong with that? "Ice Age", released by 20th Century Fox, makes for fine Saturday-matinee entertainment and should enjoy a healthy afterlife in video/DVD following its theatrical career.
Certainly, "Shrek" and "Monsters" are tough acts to follow. This film's computer animation is almost Stone Age by comparison to its storied predecessors, which only illustrates how fast this technology is advancing. The rendering of human figures is poorly executed with human beings, who, fortunately, appear seldom, looking plastic and thoroughly unconvincing. (To be fair, no animation house has entirely licked this problem.) The creature animation is better, though no match for the breakthrough achieved by Pixar in "Monsters", where every stand of hair on the monsters' fur is articulated.
The story itself is built for laughs. The tall tale by writers Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson and Peter Ackerman is essentially a remake of John Ford's sentimental Western, "Three Godfathers", where three outlaws on the run discover a dying woman and her baby and swear to bring the infant to safety across the desert, even at the risk of their own lives. Only in "Ice Age", the trek occurs over vast icy vistas of the Ice Age, and the baby's three unlikely rescuers are a lumbering mammoth named Manfred (voiced by a dry, laconic Ran Romano), a rubbery sloth named Sid (a hyper John Leguizamo) and a cunning saber-toothed tiger named Diego (played with icy menace by Denis Leary). The latter must be watched constantly as he clearly views the infant as an hors d'oeuvre.
There is a fourth character, who puts in a series of cameos, including very clever opening and closing sequences. Scrat, a prehistoric squirrel right out of the late Chuck Jones' playbook, spends the entire movie trying to bury an acorn. He never quite succeeds. While the three god-fathers chatter incessantly, Scrat (voiced by Wedge) emits only squeaks, squawks and groans. Which means his welcome appearances bring the relief of relative quiet.
Backed by David Newman's jaunty musical score and splendid layouts, "Ice Age" makes for a snappy vaudeville act that at 80 minutes knows exactly when to get off stage.
ICE AGE
20th Century Fox
Blue Sky Studios
Producer: Lori Forte
Director: Chris Wedge
Co-director: Carlos Saldanha
Writers: Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, Peter Ackerman
Executive producer: Christopher Meledandri
Production designer: Brian McEntee
Music: David Newman
Editor: John Carnochan
Color/stereo
Voices:
Manfred: Ray Romano
Sid: John Leguizamo
Diego: Denis Leary
Soto: Goran Visnjic
Zeke: Jack Black
Roshan: Tara Strong
Scrat: Chris Wedge
Running time -- 80 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 3/12/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Titus", based on William Shakespeare's blood-drenched "Titus Andronicus", has never looked better. Director Julie Taymor, making her film debut following her lionization by Broadway for her stage version of Disney's "The Lion King", plays the action not on a soundstage but amid crumbling Roman ruins. This lends a ghostly air to the story's monstrous events, making "Titus" the kind of movie that wins awards for costumes and production design even as audiences stream toward the exit.
While "Titus" is a showy calling card for the theater director who here lays legitimate claim to a Hollywood career, the film will interest few beyond the art house crowd.
During the early 1590s, before Shakespeare was in love, he was a hungry, young playwright eager for a hit. So he ground out "Titus Andronicus", a tragedy of blood geared to please the groundlings. His career-minded calculations proved correct because the play was a smash with Elizabethan audiences. However, it became one of his least-produced works in subsequent centuries.
The general assumption has been that later audiences recoiled at the onslaught of human sacrifices, rape, beheadings, mutilations and cannibalism. In truth, savagery runs rampant throughout Shakespeare's glorious tragedies. More to the point, the plot of "Titus" contains no credibility, the hero and villain are equally unsympathetic, much of the villainy lacks clear motivation and the magnificent language one associates with the Bard is seldom in evidence.
So why this film version of a Shakespeare play that cannot hold its own on a theatrical stage? Why indeed.
Taymor (who also adapted the play) outfits "Titus" with time-warping devices such as tanks, motorcycles, video games and swing music. But these gimmicks and its surreal settings and costumes appear designed to distract viewers from the basic banality of the story. If the play weren't such a mess, she might have gotten away with it.
Most of the play is predicated on the monumental stupidity of the title character and his tragic misreading of the political climate in his beloved Rome. This great general (Anthony Hopkins) returns home victorious after a long campaign against the Goths. After casually sacrificing the eldest son of Tamora (Jessica Lange), Queen of the Goths, whom he has brought back as a prisoner along with her three sons, he loyally supports the new emperor, the decadent and corrupt Saturninus (Alan Cumming).
When Saturninus selects Titus' daughter Lavinia (Laura Fraser) for his bride, Bassianus (James Frain), the emperor's brother, swiftly steals Lavinia for himself. Titus unaccountably slays one of his own sons in the ensuing scramble. Saturninus, now free to choose anew, selects none other than Tamora to be his wife.
This leaves Tamora and her treacherous slave and sometimes lover Aaron Harry Lennix) to plot revenge against Titus and his family. There follows the murder of Bassianus, the arrest of two of Titus' sons and the rape of Lavinia by Tamora's remaining sons, who then cut off her hands and tongue so Lavinia will tell no tales.
Eventually, Titus cuts off a hand to ransom his sons, for which he receives in return not his sons but their severed heads. (Are we having fun yet?) Titus vows revenge, sends his remaining son to raise an army among the Goths -- though why the Goths would aid their conqueror is unfathomable -- then captures Tamora's two sons, whom he slays and turns into savory meat pies for her to feast upon at a banquet.
The actors are over the top, but how else to play this nonsense? Hopkins is at his scenery-chewing best while Lange, decked out in awesome tattoos, freezes her face in a permanent snarl. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Matthew Rhys play her sons as goofy punks, and Cumming turns Saturninus into a glam rocker.
To the modern-day audience, Lennix's evil slave -- providing something of a blueprint for Iago's later villainy -- is the most interesting personality, a black man dedicated to Machiavellian treachery in whom a glimmer of humanity finally flickers with the birth of a son.
Technical credits -- Luciano Tovoli's darkly brooding cinematography, Milena Canonero's wild costumes and designer Dante Ferretti's forbidding and eerie landscapes -- dominate the movie. "Titus" is an epic production of a woefully malnourished tragedy.
TITUS
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Clear Blue Sky Prods.
in association with Overseas Filmgroup
an Urania Pictures
and NDF International production
Producers Jody Patton,
Conchita Airoldi, Julie Taymor
Director-screenwriter Julie Taymor
Based on the play by William Shakespeare
Executive producer Paul G. Allen
Co-executive producers Ellen Little,
Robbie Little, Stephen K. Bannon
Director of photography Luciano Tovoli
Production designer Dante Ferretti
Music Elliot Goldenthal
Costume designer Milena Canonero
Editor Francoise Bonnot
Color/stereo
Cast:
Titus Anthony Hopkins
Tamora Jessica Lange
Saturninus Alan Cumming
Marcus Colm Feore
Bassianus James Frain
Lavinia Laura Fraser
Aaron Harry Lennix
Lucius Angus Macfadyen
Demetrius Matthew Rhys
Chiron Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Running time -- 160 minutes
MPAA rating: R0...
While "Titus" is a showy calling card for the theater director who here lays legitimate claim to a Hollywood career, the film will interest few beyond the art house crowd.
During the early 1590s, before Shakespeare was in love, he was a hungry, young playwright eager for a hit. So he ground out "Titus Andronicus", a tragedy of blood geared to please the groundlings. His career-minded calculations proved correct because the play was a smash with Elizabethan audiences. However, it became one of his least-produced works in subsequent centuries.
The general assumption has been that later audiences recoiled at the onslaught of human sacrifices, rape, beheadings, mutilations and cannibalism. In truth, savagery runs rampant throughout Shakespeare's glorious tragedies. More to the point, the plot of "Titus" contains no credibility, the hero and villain are equally unsympathetic, much of the villainy lacks clear motivation and the magnificent language one associates with the Bard is seldom in evidence.
So why this film version of a Shakespeare play that cannot hold its own on a theatrical stage? Why indeed.
Taymor (who also adapted the play) outfits "Titus" with time-warping devices such as tanks, motorcycles, video games and swing music. But these gimmicks and its surreal settings and costumes appear designed to distract viewers from the basic banality of the story. If the play weren't such a mess, she might have gotten away with it.
Most of the play is predicated on the monumental stupidity of the title character and his tragic misreading of the political climate in his beloved Rome. This great general (Anthony Hopkins) returns home victorious after a long campaign against the Goths. After casually sacrificing the eldest son of Tamora (Jessica Lange), Queen of the Goths, whom he has brought back as a prisoner along with her three sons, he loyally supports the new emperor, the decadent and corrupt Saturninus (Alan Cumming).
When Saturninus selects Titus' daughter Lavinia (Laura Fraser) for his bride, Bassianus (James Frain), the emperor's brother, swiftly steals Lavinia for himself. Titus unaccountably slays one of his own sons in the ensuing scramble. Saturninus, now free to choose anew, selects none other than Tamora to be his wife.
This leaves Tamora and her treacherous slave and sometimes lover Aaron Harry Lennix) to plot revenge against Titus and his family. There follows the murder of Bassianus, the arrest of two of Titus' sons and the rape of Lavinia by Tamora's remaining sons, who then cut off her hands and tongue so Lavinia will tell no tales.
Eventually, Titus cuts off a hand to ransom his sons, for which he receives in return not his sons but their severed heads. (Are we having fun yet?) Titus vows revenge, sends his remaining son to raise an army among the Goths -- though why the Goths would aid their conqueror is unfathomable -- then captures Tamora's two sons, whom he slays and turns into savory meat pies for her to feast upon at a banquet.
The actors are over the top, but how else to play this nonsense? Hopkins is at his scenery-chewing best while Lange, decked out in awesome tattoos, freezes her face in a permanent snarl. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Matthew Rhys play her sons as goofy punks, and Cumming turns Saturninus into a glam rocker.
To the modern-day audience, Lennix's evil slave -- providing something of a blueprint for Iago's later villainy -- is the most interesting personality, a black man dedicated to Machiavellian treachery in whom a glimmer of humanity finally flickers with the birth of a son.
Technical credits -- Luciano Tovoli's darkly brooding cinematography, Milena Canonero's wild costumes and designer Dante Ferretti's forbidding and eerie landscapes -- dominate the movie. "Titus" is an epic production of a woefully malnourished tragedy.
TITUS
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Clear Blue Sky Prods.
in association with Overseas Filmgroup
an Urania Pictures
and NDF International production
Producers Jody Patton,
Conchita Airoldi, Julie Taymor
Director-screenwriter Julie Taymor
Based on the play by William Shakespeare
Executive producer Paul G. Allen
Co-executive producers Ellen Little,
Robbie Little, Stephen K. Bannon
Director of photography Luciano Tovoli
Production designer Dante Ferretti
Music Elliot Goldenthal
Costume designer Milena Canonero
Editor Francoise Bonnot
Color/stereo
Cast:
Titus Anthony Hopkins
Tamora Jessica Lange
Saturninus Alan Cumming
Marcus Colm Feore
Bassianus James Frain
Lavinia Laura Fraser
Aaron Harry Lennix
Lucius Angus Macfadyen
Demetrius Matthew Rhys
Chiron Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Running time -- 160 minutes
MPAA rating: R0...
- 12/22/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal are looking to put some zip back in their careers, they'd do well to hire Lance Mungia to direct their next movies.
The fresh talent behind "Six-String Samurai" -- a sort of "Mad Max"-meets-"Monty Python" take on the post-apocalyptic, sci-fi martial arts picture -- Mungia, along with collaborator and star Jeffrey Falcon, brings a loopy kinetic energy to the screen that's tough to resist.
While the plotting may be as barren as the film's Death Valley backdrop, there's a great deal of visual creativity on a minimalist budget that bodes well for the filmmaker's future. The present, meanwhile, holds some nice cult potential.
Applying a little revisionist history, "Six-String Samurai" reworks the Cold War, contending that the bomb was indeed dropped and Russia ruled what was left of America. Among the less mutant survivors is a high-kicking Buddy Holly (Falcon), making his way through the desert en route to Lost Vegas to claim the title of King of Rock and Roll, previously held by the recently departed Elvis.
First, however, he must contend with marauding bounty hunters, the Russian Army and a tag-along orphaned kid (Justin McGuire), not to mention a big final showdown with Death (Stephane Gauger). Buddy is armed only with his trusty electric guitar and trustier samurai sword.
The bad guys keep popping up with a repetitive, video game frequency and dialogue is used sparingly, but Mungia, like "El Mariachi"'s Robert Rodriguez, deftly fuses visual elements of humor and violence to original effect.
As the bespectacled Buddy, Falcon, an American who has appeared in more than a dozen Hong Kong martial arts actioners, gets the job done without breaking a sweat or further scuffing his saddle shoes, and young McGuire uses his highly expressive face to supplement his extremely limited dialogue.
Cinematographer Kristian Bernier gets a lot of surreal mileage out of all the sand and Blue Sky, as the film's whimsical juxtapositions are neatly summed up by the music of The Red Elvises, a band that corners the market on Siberian surfer songs.
SIX-STRING SAMURAI
Palm Pictures
Director: Lance Mungia
Producers: Michael Burns & Leanna Creel
Screenwriters: Lance Mungia & Jeffrey Falcon
Cinematographer: Kristian Bernier
Production/costume designer: Jeffrey Falcon
Editor: James Frisa
Music: Brian Tyler
Casting: Ross Lacy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Buddy: Jeffrey Falcon
The Kid: Justin McGuire
Death: Stephane Gauger
Russian General: John Sakisian
Little Man: Gabrille Pimenter
Clint: Zuma Jay
Running time -- 81 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
The fresh talent behind "Six-String Samurai" -- a sort of "Mad Max"-meets-"Monty Python" take on the post-apocalyptic, sci-fi martial arts picture -- Mungia, along with collaborator and star Jeffrey Falcon, brings a loopy kinetic energy to the screen that's tough to resist.
While the plotting may be as barren as the film's Death Valley backdrop, there's a great deal of visual creativity on a minimalist budget that bodes well for the filmmaker's future. The present, meanwhile, holds some nice cult potential.
Applying a little revisionist history, "Six-String Samurai" reworks the Cold War, contending that the bomb was indeed dropped and Russia ruled what was left of America. Among the less mutant survivors is a high-kicking Buddy Holly (Falcon), making his way through the desert en route to Lost Vegas to claim the title of King of Rock and Roll, previously held by the recently departed Elvis.
First, however, he must contend with marauding bounty hunters, the Russian Army and a tag-along orphaned kid (Justin McGuire), not to mention a big final showdown with Death (Stephane Gauger). Buddy is armed only with his trusty electric guitar and trustier samurai sword.
The bad guys keep popping up with a repetitive, video game frequency and dialogue is used sparingly, but Mungia, like "El Mariachi"'s Robert Rodriguez, deftly fuses visual elements of humor and violence to original effect.
As the bespectacled Buddy, Falcon, an American who has appeared in more than a dozen Hong Kong martial arts actioners, gets the job done without breaking a sweat or further scuffing his saddle shoes, and young McGuire uses his highly expressive face to supplement his extremely limited dialogue.
Cinematographer Kristian Bernier gets a lot of surreal mileage out of all the sand and Blue Sky, as the film's whimsical juxtapositions are neatly summed up by the music of The Red Elvises, a band that corners the market on Siberian surfer songs.
SIX-STRING SAMURAI
Palm Pictures
Director: Lance Mungia
Producers: Michael Burns & Leanna Creel
Screenwriters: Lance Mungia & Jeffrey Falcon
Cinematographer: Kristian Bernier
Production/costume designer: Jeffrey Falcon
Editor: James Frisa
Music: Brian Tyler
Casting: Ross Lacy
Color/stereo
Cast:
Buddy: Jeffrey Falcon
The Kid: Justin McGuire
Death: Stephane Gauger
Russian General: John Sakisian
Little Man: Gabrille Pimenter
Clint: Zuma Jay
Running time -- 81 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 9/18/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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