Monday, May 28, 2007

WWMD: What Will Marty do?

Although I promised a review of "Pirates 3," I just can't bring myself to do it. Just in case anyone in the world hasn't seen it yet, here's the short version: The first 90 minutes can be really boring, but the last hour is almost worth the wait. I could watch pirates fight for three hours and you'd never hear a complaint from me, but I could have done with less of that pesky exposition (and more Chow Yun Fat, damnit!)

But enough about that. What I really want to talk about, and haven't for some time now, is Martin Scorsese. I've been wondering for a long while where he's gonna turn next, and the UK's Guardian newspaper seems to have the answer, maybe.

Without a definitive quote from Marty on the subject, the Guardian confidently states that he will next turn to Japan to shoot "Silence," a story about Jesuit missionairies in 17th century Japan set to star Javier Bardem.

"It raises a lot of questions about foreign cultures coming in and imposing their way of thinking on another culture they know nothing about," Scorsese told The Associated Press. Sounds like Marty has modern politics on his mind too, and that can only be a good thing.

Unfortunately, the Guardian piece also stated any Japan shooting won't take place until Summer 2008. Sheesh. Give a man a Best Picture Oscar and he thinks he's entitled to a long vacation, I guess.

But word that he was even able to pick a project, maybe, is good news in itself. Among the selections rumored to be on his plate: "Silence;" "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," another biopic starring Leo DiCaprio; a flick based on Brian Selznick's children's novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," about a 12-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station in 1930 and a mystery involving the boy, his late father and a robot; and finally "Long Play," a rock 'n' roll epic being penned by "The Departed" scribe William Monahan.

Of all those, "Silence" and "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" sound the most interesting to me, so I'm glad he's turned his sights to one of those. And I'll be even happier if someone has solid proof that the great man is even working at all.

A Kazakh answer to Borat?

Apparently the glorious nation of Kazakhstan isn't going to get over the hurt of "Borat" anytime soon.

Miss Kazakhstan (and just in case anyone wants to make a joke about that, I've included a picture of the rather lovely lass) said her country is preparing its own movie in response to "Borat," the hit comedy that portrayed the Central Asian nation as bigoted and backward.

Gauhkar Rakhmetalieva, a contestant in tonight's Miss Universe beauty pageant, said her government is filming the movie to show the nation's positive sides.

"In the end we have to understand that it was only a joke," Rakhmetalieva said. "The advantage is that now our country is world famous. As people are looking toward us, we have the opportunity to show how we really are: a modern country with infrastructure and a very developed culture."

Well, OK. If that's what you have to do, so be it. What would be much more fun, however, would be to send in a Kazakh team to do a real expose on America, and maybe Sacha Baron Cohen's Britain too. Although "Borat" was plenty scathing and funny from start to finish, there's surely more they can find to embarrass us with. And somehow I think that would be much more fun to watch than any propaganda film about the glorious nation of Kazakhstan, even if it would star the rather radiant Ms. Rakhmetalieva.

9 comments:

Divinity said...

I actually thought that the biggest drawback to At World's End was the fact you would have to sit through Dead Man's Chest in order to understand it. I had issues remembering the minute details of what had happened and didn't think that the third film helped at all.
I agree that Chow Yun-Fat was underutilized. In the end, I think that Verbinski had the makings for a decent 3.5hr long movie but had to make two which resulted in one really long, over-drawn and mostly filler sequel with a cliff-hanger ending and a more plot-driven, somewhat more confusing third film.

Reel Fanatic said...

I definitely had trouble remembering some of the "Dead Man's Chest" details too, divinity, and perhaps that hindered my enjoyment of the third installment ... I think you may be right that a combination of 2 and 3, eliminating the need to catch people up again, would have been just about perfect

kookie said...

A movie based on a children's book would be an interesting departure for Scorsese, wouldn't it? I hope he does 'Hugo Cabret'. (Gotta read that one, too.)

Reel Fanatic said...

I bought it when I first heard he was considering making the movie, kookiejar, because the story just sounds great, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet ... It's definitely on my list soon, though

nAl said...

While I agree that "At world's end" did alot of set up in the first hour, it was necessary to accomodate some of the younger members of the audience. My 7 year old relished being reminded of the back story a little, and enjoyed the set up as much as the action.

I am from Singapore, by the way.. :)

Chris Marie Green/Crystal Green said...

Unfortunately, I was bored numb by AT WORLD'S END. The maelstrom battle started to rev up the action, but even that went on waaaaaaaay too long. Also, by the time Elizabeth Swann made that ridiculous "let's fight for pirate freedom" speech, I was already so cranky that I felt insulted by the content as well as the fact that the scene went beyond corny. Oh, and were we supposed to intensely dislike Will? I'm not sure that his characterization made me very invested in what happened at the end (even though I do love the spirit of the conclusion).
While I'm being positive, the film did have some amazing special effects, too. However, it wasn't nearly enough to make me say that I enjoyed this film.

Bummer. I've got to see WAITRESS just so I can have some cinematic faith restored!

Reel Fanatic said...

I was more than a little bit cranky by the end too, Crystal, but I thought the last hour or so was still a wonder to behold ... Elizabeth's transition from damsel in distress to distressing damsel was a bit too much to take, though

Anonymous said...

Your Pirates summary was spot on... the climax was good and fun to watch. The rest of the time I had no idea what was going on.

Chalupa said...

Now I'm going to have to keep my eyes open for this movie from Kazakhstan. I totally agree that it would rock if they made fun of the US and/or GB. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with.