Screenhead

Normally when I say “Rose McGowan was in a big hit”, you think maybe it was  a movie or TV show.  You might be thinking Charmed.  But as it turns out, it took on a whole new meaning on the set of Red Sonja–a literal one.

“I had wrist and elbow surgery and they took part of my elbow out. I had really bad nerve damage from doing stunts – I do a lot of my own stunts,” McGowan recently told Tarts. “I could no longer use my arm, but now I can hold a fork and drive so we’re working our way up. It’ll probably be another six months of rehab, but It’s the price you pay for being really limber and being able to do back flips!”

I just READ about that and it’s enough to make my arm hurt.  I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for her.  It’s especially strange, though, that technically shooting for Red Sonja isn’t slated to begin for a while yet, so how’d she get the injuries on set?  Pre-filming training?

We don’t know, but we’ll keep an eye out and let you know when the Red Sonja filming gets back in play.

So pretty much every Neil Gaiman fan on the face of the earth was looking forward to this one, even if all he had to do with it was writing the original novel on which Coraline was based.

This one is all about the little girl who’s been named in the title–Coraline.  Coraline’s got two very busy parents, and as so often happens, usually without intent, Coraline grows to feel ignored by her parents, who are, as most parents know, constantly neck-deep in work.  Thus, when Coraline finds a door to another universe located in her own house, she’s pretty eager to plunge into it.  The universe she finds is a lot like our own, only much, much better, with lots of excitement and interesting things happening and people who are actually happy to see her, or at least more inclined to act like it.  But as is generally the case with anything Neil Gaiman comes in contact with, just because it looks like a fantastic netherworld into the depths of a greater universe than our own, doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t actually containing some really nasty unnamed–or possibly unnamable–horrors.

The absolute unsettling beauty of this movie is just amazing.  The figures are all realistic, but without trending toward that “uncanny valley” tendency that would elevate this from unsettling to creepy. The background music is even better, alternating between the soft and gentle to the upbeat and jazzy, with occasional forays into the dark and foreboding.  I don’t ordinarily comment on a movie’s soundtrack, but when it’s as perfect as this one is, it requires some special attention.

Even better, the backgrounds they’re set in are perfect for each character.  Seems like everybody in this movie is insane for any of a variety of reasons, with only the possible exception of our heroine Coraline.  And frankly, the fact that she’s the only one experiencing this “other world” casts serious doubt on the whole thing.

A special note–even the Michigan lore aspect of Coraline is quite real.  When Coraline’s friends refer to her as a “troll” and a “loper”, those are both ACCURATE names.  A “troll” in Michigan is a person who comes from below the Mackinac Bridge, or the LOwer PEninsula, which explains “loper”

The thing that you really need to be aware of with Coraline is that, despite the fact that it’s rated PG, it’s really quite a bit too dark for the younger set.  Seriously–I wouldn’t let anyone under the age of at LEAST eight watch this movie without severe threat of nightmares.  But past that point, you’re likely in for a really rousing family adventure with lots of fun and some amazing sights.  I’m actually really pleased at how this turned out.  It’s got plenty of thrills and a little action packed into this clearly family fare.

Granted, it’s not one for the littler kids, but anyone from probably about eight on up (and don’t think that this is just for kids, either–it’s a solid story with lots of good surprises packed into it and some absolutely beautiful visuals.  Coraline pulls down a full nine out of ten on the Screenhead Ten Scale, mostly because it misses its target market by just a little bit, and not everyone in its upper audience is going to enjoy a–let’s face it–cartoon.  But still, for those willing to try, Coraline will be a fantastic adventure, in every sense.

When I first saw a copy of Into the Blue 2 on video store shelves, I thought someone at my friendly neighborhood video store was having a good laugh at my expense.  Someone with some sweet Photoshop skills and a wild imagination whomped up a cheesy premise and told us a really unpleasant story.

But no…it really exists.  And it may well represent the most desperate excursion MGM has ever put on to date.  So desperate, in fact, that it will actually put on a wet t-shirt contest with only a half-hour into the movie, and you know that’s pretty desperate.

Anyway, this time we’re off to Hawaii, to hunt up a missing piece of Saddam Hussein’s lost fortune, while pretending to look for the wreck of the San Cristobal, a massive Spanish treasure ship that was on its way to the Philippines when it went down.  Featuring a pair of pretty much unknown actors as young divemasters up to their necks in hock, they’ll take on the quest to find Saddam’s lost fortune in the guise of the San Cristobal.

And here I thought Spanish treasure ships were exclusively the province of the Caribbean.  But the folks after the containers comprising the sixty million dollars of Saddam’s lost fortune are on a deadline—figuratively, and literally.  If they can’t find the containers within just a few days, they’re both dead.  And so are the two young divemasters they’ve engaged.

Okay, this sucker’s eye candy of the highest sort.  Constant beautiful views will appear for us, including hot chicks for the guys, hot guys for the chicks, and of course, the sheer beauty that is the underwater scenery, in both daylight and at night.  I think it’s possible that the underwater shots may be even MORE stunning at night.  Sadly, we won’t get to see any huge piles of gold or similar treasure in this one, probably owing to the low budget, but it would have been nice.  Like I said before, they actually included a wet t-shirt contest in this one, which is a sign of truest desperation.  They really went all out to pander on this one in one way or another—action buffs, adventure buffs, there’s even some romance in here to make this one shoot for date movie ranking.    Things like character development and even coherent plotting aren’t really in attendance here, but there’s actually a chance you might not notice.  There’s just too much else to look at to notice that things that make a good movie really aren’t here.

This movie is just one big distraction.  That’s all it is—just ninety minutes of “Hey! Hey! Over here! Look at this!” Is this what attention deficit disorder feels like? Oh, and special note to anyone reading this in Great Britain–this’ll hit theatres over there August 2.  And to my crew in Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy and Australia–you’ll get this in late summer or early fall of 2009, so probably sooner than you think.  A big screen might actually be good for this one, because you’ll get to see the pretty in even greater detail.

But anyway, there’s a lot to enjoy here, even if it’s not exactly the most substantial of movies.  It’s a cheap little distraction, and chances are you’ll enjoy it if for no other reason than it’s just so very pretty.  It’s not much of a movie, let’s be honest, but it’s not necessarily a bad movie for the lack of any substance.  Cotton candy has its place too, and Into the Blue 2 is exactly that.

You know, I’m not a HUGE car buff–I consider a car to be little more than a way to point A to point B.  Though I do prefer to get their comfortably, quickly, and without spending an arm and a leg in gas costs–just an arm is good enough by me–I’m not terribly enthused by the thought of cars that look like small spacecraft that go from zero to sixty before you even blink.  I only really know what torque is thanks to high school physics, and horsepower to me means about as much in my car as it does in my lawn mower.

Though I will admit, I DO enjoy British television–I’m abundantly glad for BBC America, and even the older stuff you find on PBS is actually much enjoyed by both me and my family.  My personal favorite is Keeping Up Appearances, because that Hyacinth woman is just six different kinds of awesome, and she’d probably have a fainting spell if she were described as such.

So when the boys out at BBC America’s PR firm (at least I guess they are–they sent me the disk and they’re some old friends) shipped me a copy of Top Gear season 10, I was skeptical. Especially when I discovered that this show’s been around since 1977 almost continuously.  Almost continously, of course–there was a brief interval in which the show was retooled, so how they call this season ten is quite beyond me.

Strange semantics in numbering aside, Top Gear is a show that really got me.  Like I said, I’m not much of a “car guy”, thinking of them more as utilitarian objects than as artistic statements, but man.  The show is hosted by three guys who deeply, DEEPLY, love cars, and will introduce us to all manner of cars and car-related content.   The first episode, for example, features an interview with actress Helen Mirren (of The Queen) that caps off with having her take a lap around a test track and then putting her score up on a wall of fame reserved for guests. They call this their “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” segment.

They then spend a great deal of time looking for the best road in the world, and you’ve never seen British guys display such sheer glee.

It continues on like this for fully ten episodes, including what they call “the Botswana Special”. They’ll attempt to cross the English channel in amphibious cars.  They’ll stage the most ludicrous drag race ever, involving an Aston-Martin taking on a rocket pack and roller skates.  At one point they will engage the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon jet fighter in a two-mile race with the Bugatti Veyron.  What these guys display here is, essentially, a car show for people who don’t really care about cars.  You can almost feel their enthusiasm as they tell you all about their cars of choice, and that’s the mark of a good reviewer in my book.  Yes, this is partially a review show, but it’s also got a lot more than that, as you’ve seen from the preceding remarks.  This show is almost sufficient to INSPIRE car love in those who don’t have it.  Almost—but man, what a good try.

Basically, if you have even the slightest interest in cars, even the SLIGHTEST, you will find Top Gear to be both engrossing and entertaining, with plenty of laughs and surprises as they introduce you to cars you will likely never see and have probably never even HEARD of.  I had my eyes opened by this little chunk of British programming, and I’m glad for the experience.  Chances are good you will be too.

Walking into Duplicity, I couldn’t shake this incredible sense of déjà vu, like I’d been here before.  I looked at this clever little spy thriller of sorts and said, you know, this looks FAMILIAR.

But more on that later—the plot awaits us!  A pair of spies–Julia Roberts for the CIA and Clive Owen representing MI6–have left their lives of governmental espionage in exchange for a master plan of huge profit and high adventure in the corporate espionage field.  And they think they’ve found their honey pot in the form of a conflict brewing between two rival consumer product firms, one headed by a true zealot of efficiency and corporate dogma, the other a freewheeling publicity hound desperate to sink his rival.  How desperate?   The two get in a small fistfight within their first minute on screen together.  Meanwhile, we’ll also get a look at the surprising history that Roberts and Owen’s spy counterparts share on their way to the (hopefully) eventual fruition of their dreams.

The first thing I thought when seeing this was that it was to be this year’s version of Catch Me If You Can, a compact if somewhat trite punchy rollout of a couple spies going after corporate secrets with all the verve and élan that only spies could muster.    But what I got was an oddly fragmented but still somehow charming story of two spies who didn’t trust each other farther than they could throw each other, and yet, somehow, despite it all were still MADLY in love with each other.  Me personally, I say that each one loved the challenge that the other represented—they had to be on top of their game constantly around each other, and that they continually kept each other guessing kept both from getting bored with the other.

And that’s the really amazing part about Duplicity—almost all the fun here is had from Roberts and Owen’s constant wordplay.  It’s almost like watching them duel with rapiers at close range; the flourishes and the clashes and the occasional disarming that causes the other to fall silent…but it doesn’t last long as the temporarily silenced half of the conversation quickly recovers and launches a flurry of new blows.

Yes, the action in here doesn’t come from explosions or bloodshed or gun battles, but it’s no less exciting for the lack.  It comes almost exclusively from conversation.  Oh, sure, there are a couple of really spiffy action sequences where tension is jacked through the roof—watch Julia Roberts try to make a copy of a secret formula, for example—and you’ll be downright surprised just how exciting watching a woman look for a copier can be.  Guys out there, take note—this is the kind of movie you could take your girlfriend to and BOTH of you will enjoy it.

I’ll be honest with you—if ALL chick flicks were THIS entertaining, you’d never get me out of a theatre. But they’re not, so nyeah.

And I’ll tell you this much: the ending will be a total masterstroke.  Seriously, total masterstroke; the chances of anyone seeing this coming are so slim as to be laughably low.  In fact, I have a hard time picturing ANYONE who wouldn’t enjoy this movie, unless you’ve got an attention span on par with that of a gerbil or something.  This one has a lot of incredible, punchy moments to it that’ll grab hold and won’t let go.  I loved Duplicity, and chances are good you will too.

Before I start this one, I’m going to have to ask you to sit down.  Get a cup of something soothing in front of you—coffee, tea…maybe you want to pour a knock of something stronger in there.  Okay, you ready?  Because what I’m going to tell you is going to blow your mind wide open.

Today, I’m talking about a movie called City of Ember.  And the best way to describe it is as a family-friendly version of Bioshock.

See, yeah. That got me too.  Because City of Ember is all about the city of Ember, an underground, self-contained city that runs on hydroelectric generators run by an underground river system due to some kind of disaster that took place on the surface.  Before entering the city, a box was created, containing tools and instructions to exit the city after two hundred years.  But the box, in the fullness of time, is lost, and the city of Ember carries on.  The only problem is, Ember was designed to function for two hundred years without incident.  Problems don’t appear right away…but they begin to show up.  Ember’s residents make do, and work around many of their troubles, but the problems are starting to get larger and much less fixable with the passing months.  And it doesn’t help that Ember’s residents seem to be forgetting a lot of the technological prowess that got them underground in the first place.  So now, it’s pretty much left to two kids to figure out how to get out of the city by piecing together some of the clues left behind from the fragments of over two hundred year old instructions left behind.

It’s a very subtle movie, City of Ember—it’s got some interesting political commentary, and a nice treatise on how those in power have the potential to abuse that power for their own aggrandizement.  It’s also interesting how, if you move past the status quo, you can find a whole new and wide open realm to work with.

But for those who were hoping for more action and adventure, well, it’s true that you’ll be gravely disappointed.  City of Ember is almost what amounts to a family-friendly suspense title rather than an adventure movie.

However, there’s also something to be said for the appearance of Bill Murray.  Bill Murray is good in just about anything, a fact that’s been used to improve several run-of-the-mill movies with a little extra spice, and City of Ember definitely benefits from Murray.  It doesn’t hurt that they cast him as a venal, callow, corrupt mayor who’s been secretly funneling off supplies for his own use.

When you stack it all up, you get something of a specialist movie in the end.  This is a good one for people who like really great visual work—City of Ember is full of it.  It’s a good one for people who like puzzles in their movies—City of Ember is stuffed with them.  And Bill Murray fans will definitely not be disappointed.  But unless you fit part of a very narrow set of people, you may well not enjoy this movie.  But since I did, I definitely have to recommend it, but take my recommendation with an appropriate grain of salt.  After all, I’m a Bill Murray fan who likes really good looking movies that have puzzles in them.

The upcoming Mummy film may turn out to be terrific or horrific, but that isn’t stopping the director, Rob Cohen, to provide an update on the post-production of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

In his blog for the movie, Cohen notes that the film has to be complete by July 3 and in order to make the August 1 date for release with over 4,000 prints. He says that there are going to be a total of 949 visual effects shots of which 783 have been done so far.

Cohen also reveals that a 10-day scoring session in London has been completed and that dubbing is underway with various sound effects, dialogue elements and score are being balanced together. He adds that the full trailer for the film will be attached to Wanted when it hits movie screens next Friday.