Revelations

Why, yes, I have a copy of the DVD right hereMy new MSN DVD column is up, in which I throw a little more love at Allen and Albert Hughes’ “The Book of Eli” — which is feeling more and more like a pulp classic in the making the more I think about it — and point out the straight-to-video releases of “Les Signes Viteaux” and “Unthinkable”, just for good measure.

And if you missed it the first time around, here’s my NOW interview with the Hughes brothers. Good guys, good filmmakers. Play the audio clips for extra gearhead fun.

Sweep the Leg, B.A.!

The higher you go, the more we makeThis is why I don’t make a living as a box-office predictor: I would not have thought “The Karate Kid” would stomp all over “The A-Team” in their opening weekend, with the family drama pulling in $56 million to the action update’s $26 million. Maybe there’s something to the whole graceful art of leg-sweeping after all.

Honestly, though? I was under the impression that “The A-Team” was a fairly heavily anticipated picture, while “The Karate Kid” was the less desired remake of the two. But I’m not entirely sure where I got that impression, unless it was that one issue of Entertainment Weekly. Obviously, neither of us is as tight with the zeitgeist as we used to be.

It’s also worth pointing out that both movies pulled in more than last week’s top release — when “Shrek Forever After” topped the charts last weekend, it rolled over all the new openers with just $25.3 million, and the weekend was deemed a scary predictor of a bad summer. Hollywood will be jumping for joy with this week’s bigger, burlier numbers … though now I’m worried they’ll rush to put Jaden Smith into everything currently in development.

Hey, maybe it’s not too late for M. Night Shyamalan to digitally insert him into “The Last Airbender”. At the very least, it’d address some of those nagging diversity issues …

Blasts from the Past

You see, Marty, when something is 'inviolate' ...If it’s Saturday, it must be time to link to my latest MSN Movies gallery. (You guys dont think I’m falling into a rut here, do you?)

This week, in the wake of the new “Karate Kid” and “A-Team” movies, we consider a few other ’80s properties that are ripe for remaking, and suggest some casting ideas. This is not to be taken seriously, of course; I’m really just throwing these ideas out in the hopes that any producer types who see them will realize just how pointless a new version of “Top Gun” would be.

Although I will say that reuniting the cast of “Weekend at Bernie’s” a few decades later could be perversely interesting, like those wheezy comedies Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau cranked out in their golden years. Silverman and McCarthy, together again ..

Forward into the Past

The thing where we don't kill anyone? That's so eightiesTo quote the opening seconds of another classic Eighties title crying out for a remake: “Okay, let’s do it.”

“Agora”: Alejandro Amenabar takes a giant step backwards after “The Sea Inside” with this rather overburdened historical drama about the destruction of the library of Alexandria. I thought Rachel Weisz was quite good in it, but felt the movie as a whole didn’t really work. Glenn agrees; Jason is more accommodating.

The A-Team“: What can I say? I love it when a remake comes together.

It Came from Kuchar“: Once upon a time, in the magical kingdom of the Bronx, two brothers made some very strange movies. Jennifer M. Kroot’s documentary celebrates the creators of “I Was a Teenage Strumpot” and “The Naked and the Nude”. And if you read on, you’ll find a shortish look at “Birdemic: Shock and Terror”, which is playing a midnight show at the Bloor tomorrow night and about which Will Sloan writes very astutely here.

“The Karate Kid”: The ’10s are the new ’80s, Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith are the new Noriyuki “Pat” Morita and Ralph Macchio … and the new “Karate Kid” is 139 minutes long. Rad was less than whelmed, but Adam thought it was okay.

“Machotaildrop”: If Wes Anderson and Harmony Korine had a baby, he might grow up to make something like Corey Adams and Alex Craig’s odd but endearing little fantasy about an impressionable young shredder (Anthony Amedori) corrupted by Big Skateboard. Or he might grow up to take over the world with robots that play Kinks singles. Adam liked it; Andrew didn’t really go for it.

“The ‘Socalled’ Movie”: Fresh from Hot Docs, Gary Beitel’s study of radical klezmer fusion artist Josh Dolgin drops into the Royal for a limited run. Susan found it a little light on insight, but the music will still pull you in.

There, that’s everything. Oh, except for the ongoing Dennis Hopper tribute at the Toronto Underground Cinema, and the massive Kurosawa retrospective that kicks off tonight at TIFF Cinematheque. I’ve written at length about those for NOW Daily, and will link to that post as soon as it goes live. UPDATE: Turns out there are two separate posts — one for Kurosawa, and another for Hopper. Enjoy!

The Majesty of Rock, the Miracle of Roll

In younger, flashier daysThe latest issue of NOW is on the street, and things are a little different in the film section this week. For starters, the one-night-only screening of Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen’s “Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage” gives me occasion to interview legendary bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, as well as the filmmakers.

Interesting guys, fun conversations. (Play the audio clips for extra goodness.) The movie’s screening across Canada tonight, and demand has led Alliance to add second shows in a number of locations; you can find the details here, and possibly even grab tickets.

Elsewhere in the section, you’ll find looks at the film components of the Luminato and NXNE festivals. More detailed NXNE reviews will be up next week; for now, we’re just offering previews. But it’s a start …

” … by the end of the trip, all anyone wants is a salad and some water.”

... and hell followed with themThe AV Club’s Taste Test series is one of my very favourite features on that site — giddy, irreverent food writing about precisely the sort of preposterous snacks that I will invariably consider eating whenever I’m in an American supermarket.

Yes, it’s lost something since Internet Eating Sensation Dave Chang left (a painful decision, I assume, but one that had to be made if he wanted to have a functioning pancreas at the age of thirty) but it’s still eminently readable and even enlightening.

Today’s entry takes the Taste Test project to a whole new level, however, sending the valiant team of Genevieve Koski, Josh Modell, Kyle Ryan and Emily Winthrow to the National Confectioners’ Association convention in Chicago, with its bountiful free samples and freakish experiments in brand expansion that will never, ever make it out of the test-marketing stage.

Honey-flavoured Jelly Bellies! Truffle Crisp 3 Musketeers bars! Chocolate-covered peeps! Really, if you care about candy at all, you’ll want to read this. Forewarned is forearmed, after all.

The DiCaprio Configuration

Have you ever really looked at your hands, man?My latest MSN DVD column is up, taking a second look at Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” — a film I didn’t really enjoy very much the first time around, but was happy to get lost in during a second viewing on Blu-ray.

Seriously, in an ideal universe, this would be playing non-stop as a reference disc in every Best Buy and Future Shop. It’s the most film-like BD transfer I’ve seen in months, and 1080p/24 does wonders for those saturated colors and deep blacks Robert Richardson loves so much.

So, yeah. Great disc; moderate shame about the movie …

Distractions

Remember when they were serious actors? Briefly, sure, but still.So I covered the MTV Movie Awards for MSN Canada last night, but forgot to give all you blog readers a heads-up because I spent the whole day struggling with a laptop BIOS issue and … um … forgot. I did tweet about it, though.

Sorry. I suck. But you can catch up to the coverage here. Kinda kills the immediacy, I know, but at least now you’ll know who the winners were.

And in other news, the “Shrek” fourquel held on to the top spot at the box office for the third straight week, grossing $25.3 million. Which was considerably more than any of the week’s new releases earned —
“Get Him to the Greek” placed a distant second with $17.4 million, and “Killers” third with $16.1 million. “Marmaduke”, the only other kid-friendly challenger, pulled $11.3 million to take sixth place; “Splice”, which is definitely not for the young’uns, earned $7.5 million to place eighth.

The good news? With a cumulative gross of $183 million, “Shrek Forever After” looks less and less like a disappointment for DreamWorks Animation. The bad news? General box-office is way, way down. Maybe everyone just spent the weekend at home, loading up on vodka and Vicodin to suitably numb themselves for the Tom Cruise fat-suit danceathon.

Lord knows I wish I had.

The Second Banana Also Rises

... no, a description of Iron Man, WHICH YOU AREWith Universal spinning “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” scene-stealer Russell Brand into his character’s own movie, the very funny “Get Him to the Greek“, my latest MSN Movies gallery celebrates other second bananas deserving of their own showcases.

Seriously, who wouldn’t want to see Dr. Evil get his own movie? By my admittedly unscientific calculations, it’d have to be at least 50% funnier than any of the “Austin Powers” pictures …

… oh, and in other news, what the fuck is up with Rogers suspending my brother for doing his job? I know the story’s just breaking, but seriously, this should be a much bigger deal than it is.

The Majesty of Rock

This is your godIt’s an interesting week, summer-blockbuster-wise, with four biggish releases in very different genres — a comedy, a kiddie flick, an action thing and a horror movie. But none of them is quite as generic as its genre might suggest … well, except maybe “Marmaduke”.

Get Him to the Greek“: Remember how Russell Brand stole “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” out from under everyone else? Well, they’ve given him his own movie now — a spinoff vehicle which lets him reprise the role of idiot hedonist rock god Aldous Snow — and dear god is it funny. My review should be up later this afternoon.

Killers“: Everyone wants to kill Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl; it writes itself! No press screening, so I’m catching it today, but with any luck my review will be online shortly thereafter. UPDATE: It took until Monday afternoon, but it’s up now. Whee.

Land“: Julian T. Pinder’s documentary looks at the latest American adventure in Nicaragua, as real-estate speculators attempt to create a South American riviera. It starts off really well, but goes sideways halfway through — either because events went in a direction Pinder hadn’t anticipated, or because he didn’t know how to cover what he had. Which is disappointing.

“Marmaduke”: I know, I know. We all thought they were kidding. They weren’t, and now the world must suffer another CG talking-dog comedy.

Splice“: Vincenzo Natali’s clever horror hybrid stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as a couple of arrogant geneticists who create a weird new life form, then have to raise the damn thing in an icky allegory for ordinary parenthood. Much, much smarter than the simple monster movie being teased in the TV spots.

Oh, and the “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” trailer is attached to “Get Him to the Greek”. It’s somewhat amazing. I had my doubts about Michael Cera, but it looks like he can pull this off after all. (There’s also the fact that I trust Edgar Wright with this material more than just about any other filmmaker on the planet.)

Anyway, the trailer’s readily available online, but it’s really worth seeing on a big screen. And then you get to see “Get Him to the Greek”, which is pretty great itself. I’m just saying.

My other other gig.