Wednesday, December 22, 2010

For Wednesday, a small cache of clips

Before that, on the day I finally get to see "True Grit," there's a bit of surprising news about one of my favorite actresses.

It's no surprise that on the box office earnings per actor list, Leo DiCaprio came in at No. 1 with the double shot of "Inception" and "Shutter Island," but I seriously doubt anyone could have guessed that Mia Wasikowska comes in at No. 2.

According to the report I read, that's thanks mostly to "Alice In Wonderland" and somewhat more to "The Kids Are All Right," two good but not great movies in my book, but she also appeared in one of my favorite movies of 2010 in Scott Teems' "That Evening Sun." Bully.

After that, there's also a bit of TV news, led by the second season premiere of FX's "Justified," which has been set for Feb. 2. This show started slowly in season one but built into a solid crime drama with a doozy of a finish. And besides, the only thing on my DVR for the next two weeks is "Men of a Certain Age," which I love, but it could certainly use some company. FX also has a promising-looking boxing drama, "Lights Out," due Jan. 11 (and which has been promoted pretty much nonstop since August or so.)

And if you happen to get HBO, which I can never quite manage to quit, Pee-wee Herman has something rather seriously cool coming to the channel fairly early in the new year. Paul Reubens is currently bringing his famous character back to life on Broadway in the rather obviously titled "The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway," and it seems that HBO will film at least one night of the production for a 90-minute special to air some time after the Broadway show ends its run Jan. 2. Nothing but awesome there.

After that today, as promised, it's all about clips, and they're pretty much in descending order of quality until a timeless big Christmas finish from The Muppets (of course.) First up comes the second trailer for "Your Highness," the fantasy/stoner drama from director David Gordon Green starring James Franco, Natalie Portman, Danny McBride and Zooey Deschanel that's set to come out April 8. I'd watch those four in just about anything, and this should be seriously funny, but unfortunately, what's most notable about this trailer is that the studio behind it has apparently digitized a bikini bottom over what used to be a long-distance shot of Portman's bare bum. For shame! Enjoy.



Next up comes the first trailer I know of for something that could be extremely cool. "Hanna," from director Joe Wright, stars young Saoirse Ronan as the titular daughter of an ex-CIA agent (Eric Bana), who has been raised in the wilds of Finland to be the ultimate assassin (because, I suppose, everyone needs a life skill). She of course gets sent out on some crazy mission that somehow includes Cate Blanchett and Olivia Williams (huzzah!) too, so this should definitely be worth keeping an eye out for on, coincidentally enough, also April 8. Enjoy



Now, as I said, descending quality, because "The Lincoln Lawyer," starring one Matthew McConaughey as the titular attorney, would just look like the most generic of legal thrillers if it didn't have a rather stellar supporting cast. McConaughey's character is hired to defend Ryan Philippe, who's apparently the son of a very rich dude who's accused of some unsavory sexual behavior. Fortunately, this also stars Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Michael Pena, John Leguizamo and even Bryan Cranston too, so it just might be redeemable. Enjoy the trailer and keep an eye out for this one March 18.



OK, as promised, where to end up any set of clips than with a Christmas clip from The Muppets? I have no idea how old this clip of the Swedish Chef (not Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, as I originally put before an alert reader politely corrected me!), Beaker and, naturally, Animal, doing the Ringing of the Bells is, but of course its ultimately timeless. And with that, I'm off to do some swimming, do my laundry, buy some blank CDs and then, yes, finally see the Coen brothers' take on "True Grit," for which I'm utterly psyched. Peace out.

3 comments:

*lynne* said...

The Lincoln Lawyer: they've made a movie based on the Michael Connelly book? Weird. It's the 2nd [that I know of] non-Bosch book (or rather, marginally Bosch) that's been made into a film, while the bulk of Connelly's books feature the not-so-nice-guy Harry Bosch as the main protagonist. I wonder if this will lead to a series of movies, or a tv show featuring Bosch.

The Lincoln Lawyer book was rather uninspired, I thought, and seemed to act purely as a vehicle (haha) of introducing the Bosch's half-brother lawyer to us readers. Considering I also find Matthew McConaughey's acting uninspired, I'll hold off on even addting his movie to my Netfliz queue until I see favorable reviews :p

Carrie Lofty said...

Nah, that's the Swedish Chef.

Reel Fanatic said...

You're certainly right, there, Carrie, and I'm gonna fix it .. how embarrassing!