Screenhead

Nick Nolte is set to play a Vietnam veteran boxer-turned-steel mill worker whose family was torn apart by his alcoholism.

He is now-sober and remorseful as he welcomes back his youngest son (Tom Hardy) and trains him to compete in a mixed martial arts tournament. He and his older brother, played by Joel Edgerton, are on a collision course in the ring. Jennifer Morrison is also cast in the film.  

Gavin O’Connor is set to direct the movie, Warrior, in the world of mixed martial arts fighting. Production starts in April in Pittsburgh.

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you happen to swing by your local video store and find a copy of The Spiderwick Chronicles on the shelves, your first inclination is probably to just shake your head and walk on by, thinking, how could anyone enjoy such kiddie garbage?

This would be a mistake.  The Spiderwick Chronicles is actually a surprisingly well-designed work of fantasy, and should provide even the older folks in the audience with a good watch.

The plot is fairly simple but could be the launching point for any of dozens of books or movies—a man named Arthur Spiderwick learns a whole lot about fantasy creatures, probably more than any man should know.  He compiles this knowledge into a field manual, explaining things like sylphs and goblins and brownies and a big ogre named Mulgarath who’s about as evil as his guttural name implies.  Mulgarath wants the field manual as it contains all manner of secrets about the fantastic creatures around him, including those directly related to killing them.  Spiderwick’s descendants move into his abandoned house, find his field guide, and thus unleash a whole new cycle of good versus evil in the grandest of fantasy style as Mulgarath tries to capture the secret guide to killing stuff.

Like I said, clever stuff.  There’s all sorts of opportunity to go places with this movie, so much so that the movie itself is actually based on five whole books.  There’s some controversy over how MUCH of each of the five was actually used, but that’s somewhat beside the point.  The key point is that this is an incredibly dense and well-crafted piece that could carry on for several movies without wearing out its welcome.  Freddie Highmore manages to turn in TWO solid performances playing as a set of twins, and everyone else around him is more than able, even if they’re only voice acting.

But it’s not all sweetness and light.  It may be fantastic to a kid and good enough for a grownup, but anyone with even a passing familiarity with film is going to spot plot holes and shoddy writing all over this.  There’s an actual deus ex machina going on here—that’s the kind of thing they warn you against in collegiate introductory writing courses.  They’ll introduce new characters almost on an as-needed basis; right when something needs to be done or explained or even just worked around, along comes a whole new fantasy boggle that has exactly the capacity or knowledge necessary to fix the problem.  Don’t even get me started on Griffin Airlines that take the kids right where they need to be in the last reel.  And the ending is probably a lot more freakish than it needs to be—any kids watching this are going to be seriously creeped out.  In retrospect, even I was a little creeped out and I’m almost a twenty year veteran of horror film.  Let’s just say I haven’t seen a kid stab his own parents with a butcher knife lately, and I’ve NEVER seen such a creative use of tomato sauce.

But still, if you can play along, and not notice some of the more convoluted elements, you’ll probably get a pretty enjoyable little tale out of The Spiderwick Chronicles.  It’s an excellent rental, and if you’ve got kids, a regular and reliable choice.

Popularity: unranked [?]