A first look at Kelly Reichardt's Western, "Meek's Cutoff"

As we slowly emerge from a rather seriously dreary movie winter, good movies are coming with us, and the poster above is for one I'm definitely looking forward to. James Gunn's "Super" stars Rainn Wilson as an average guy who transforms himself into the super hero shown above, The Crimson Bolt, to take out the drug dealer (Kevin Bacon, naturally) who has absconded with his wife (Liv Tyler). Throw in Ellen Page as his sociopathic sidekick, and I'm certainly in.

And best of all, if you live in the world of wide releases only like me: This is an IFC release, so it should be coming to IFC On Demand on your cable box right around the same time it hits (a few at least) theaters April 1.

But what really caught my eye this morning was the first trailer I know of for director Kelly Reichart's Western, "Meek's Cutoff," which will be coming to at least some theaters a week after "Super," and will probably be the first 2011 movie I'll drive an hour up the road to see in Atlanta.

Judging from the one Reichart movie I've seen so far, "Wendy and Lucy," starring Michelle Williams as a young woman whose fragile life unravels after she loses her dog, this new flick will be a really low-key, low-action affair, but I'm still betting on something pretty great.

"Meek's Cutoff," which again stars Williams and also Paul Dano, tells the story of Stephen Meek, a hired guide who, according to The Playlist, "led an ill-fated contingent of wagons through a shortcut en route to the Willamette Valley in 1845."

Here's more of the official synopsis from Oscilloscope, which is releasing this:

The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in each other’s instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as the natural enemy.

Man, does that sound great to me. Enjoy the trailer, and if you happen to live in one of this country's very biggest cities, definitely check this one out on April 8. Peace out.


Meek's Cutoff
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"I've had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-Friday plane!"

Dear Scream Awards: In my mind, Piranha 3D was the best movie of the year after Toy Story 3, so calling it "Best Worst Movie" seems uncool.

I have to agree with that little missive from James Gunn completely. I suppose you can't call "Piranha 3D" a great movie, but it was a hell of a lot of fun for what it was, so putting "worst" anywhere does indeed seem a little misguided.

And later today, there will be the first clip I know of from Gunn's "Super," and its just as deranged as you could possibly expect from a movie that stars Rainn Wilson as a self-made, avenging superhero.

But before the clips, there is a good bit of news about one of my favorite directors. I really have no time at all for "Wizard of Oz" sequels, prequels or "reimaginings" of any kind, so I certainly hope this will somehow come before "Oz the Great and Powerful," which Sam Raimi is also attached to direct, with Robert Downey Jr. starring as the wizard himself.

I'd much rather see him do a remake of "Day of the Triffids," the sci-fi tale of mobile, bloodthirsty plants who start preying on humankind after a meteor show renders more than 99 percent of the world's population blind (yes, really).

That just sounds like the perfect kind of Raimi fun, so it's certainly a good thing that Mandate won the auction to the source material, Jon Wyndham's 1952 novel, and that Raimi says he wants to jump into the director's chair. Definitely stay tuned for more on this as soon as I can find it.

And before we jump into the clips today, there's just one more bit of coolness to dispense. If, like me, you can't wait for the return of Conan to late night on TBS beginning Nov. 8, there's a fun toy to keep you occupied in the meantime. Beginning yesterday, Team Coco began broadcasting a live feed from behind the scenes at their workplace, and as far as I know, it's still going here.

OK, now on to the clips, and I promise the rather epicly funny one at the end will finally make the headline of this post make sense. But first comes, I have to warn you, a thorough monstrosity. Pixar's "Toy Story 3" was pretty much a masterpiece, and easily one of my favorite movies of 2010 so far, but what it has apparently spawned is entirely regrettable: Yes, a "Cars 2." I guess it was inevitable, but "Cars" is by a wide margin my least favorite Pixar movie, and as you'll see from the teaser trailer, the sequel looks like it will be just as bad as you could have possibly imagined. "Enjoy."



Next, as promised, comes the first clip I know of for James Gunn's "Super." Though, without exaggeration, Gunn's last movie, the horror/comedy "Slither," only made about $8 million at the box office, I quite liked it, so I can't wait to see what he has cooked up now. And the good news is that, with this having been picked up by IFC, the skewed superhero tale starring Wilson, Kevin Bacon, Liv Tyler and even young Ellen Page too will come to TV via IFC On Demand whenever they get around to releasing it. Enjoy the clip, and if you happen to hear when this will finally come out, please do let me know.

Super - Clip | SpikeTV | SPIKE.com

And finally today, in a definite case of saving the best for last, the Hollywood Reporter was kind enough to compile this collection of some the most egregious examples of what happens when movies get dubbed for TV. It's hard to pick out which one is the best, but the "Scarface" stuff is seriously funny. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Will James Gunn's "Super" deliver a cult hit?

Update: James Gunn's "Super" has been picked up by IFC, meaning, I hope, that it will be available on cable on demand as soon as it hits its probably very meager amount of theaters ... bully

Wow. The word is trickling in from Toronto, and so far I've seen two simply glowing reviews of "Let Me In" from sources I trust, HitFix and The Playlist.

In both cases, the reviewers clearly love the original Swedish movie, "Let the Right One In" (my single favorite movie of 2008), as much as I do. Yet they both say Matt Reeves, director of the surprisingly entertaining "Cloverfield," has done the just about impossible: He's made a movie that, while perhaps not better (which really would be impossible), at least lives up to the spirit of the original and soars thanks to its two young leads, Hit-Girl Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee. You can read those two reviews here and here, and keep an eye out for Reeves' flick Oct. 1.

You can now count me as extremely curious, if not excited, about that flick, but there's something else that came through the midnight circuit up north that sounds like even more my thing. James Gunn, though he delivered a winner in my book with "Slither," is sorely in need of a box office one, since that very entertaining humor/horror mix starring Captain Mal Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks took in a rather amazingly disastrous $7.8 million at the U.S. box office (really? Trust me, maybe it's not great, but this movie is well worth a DVD rental.)

Well, I can't imagine his new movie, "Super," will do a whole lot better, but from what I know so far it seems to be tailor-made for me. Rainn Wilson plays a man who becomes a masked vigilante after his wife (Liv Tyler) gets strung out on drugs and runs off with her dealer (Kevin Bacon). If that casting's not enough to get you intrigued, as you'll see from the clip below, Ellen Page plays Wilson's seriously unhinged sidekick, and she should just be a hoot.

Early Toronto buzz has been good for this too, and according to the headline of an article behind a Variety paywall, buyers are now "circling" it, so here's hoping it's picked up by a studio big enough to bring it to my little corner of the world sometime this fall. Enjoy this first clip I know of, but be warned: Page throws around F-bombs with abandon, so if that kind of thing bothers you, please don't watch it. Peace out.

Yes, James Gunn will get to work again

After the pretty much complete box-office failure of James Gunn's "Slither," it really seemed impossible that any kind of studio would back him for a new movie, but thankfully I'm wrong once again (I'm pretty used to it by now.)

And the thing with "Slither" is, it's really a pretty fantastic movie. It's no "Shaun of the Dead," but in its own way it very deftly mixes humor and horror, and you really can't go wrong with stars Elizabeth Banks and Nathan Fillion. Since a total of maybe six people saw it in theaters, I'd highly recommend a rental for the rest of you.

And now, rather amazingly, Gunn is now filming in Louisiana another movie he has also written, "Super," and it sounds pretty promising for a late-summer comedy (which is where I'm guessing this would fall.) In it, Rainn Wilson will star as a man who, after seeing his wife get hooked on drugs and taken off by a drug dealer, decides to don a costume and grab his lug wrench to go after her. Doesn't sound like much of a comedy, I know, but in Wilson and Gunn's hands I'm sure it somehow will be (and Wilson more than John Krasinski or Steve Carell of "The Office" clan certainly deserves a great big-screen comedy - "The Rocker" wasn't it. And in a more than slightly tangential "The Office" connection, Gunn and Jenna Fischer were married for about seven years, but are no more.)

The rest of the cast will be Kevin Bacon, who has just been announced as the drug dealer, Liv Tyler as Wilson's wife, and even Ellen Page somehow too, but I have no idea in what role. "Gilmore Girls" fans should take note that the usuallyveryfunny Sean Gunn, James Gunn's brother, will have a part in this too.

I know that's a lot of information about a movie that won't come for at least six months or so, but I like writing about things when I find them, especially to exercise my brain on Saturday mornings. I just hope it didn't hurt yours. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see "Avatar," and hoping it doesn't suck. Peace out.

"Frost/Nixon" review

Say hello, good evening and welcome to one of the greatest political movies ever.

That bit of glorious hyperbole doesn't come from me, of course, but from the British tabloid The Sun. My sentiment would be, this was a pretty darn entertaining flick, but I really wish I could have seen the play.

The first question I always ask when I see a movie that's taken directly from the stage is, "did it gain anything in the transfer"? In this case, I'd say a conditional yes, with the big minus that it also adds one very unnecessary distraction.

Either at the urging of director Ron Howard or from the mind of playwright and screen writer Peter Morgan (I have no way of knowing which, frankly), the movie adds to the main dynamic of the buildup, actual showdown and aftermath of David Frost's interview with by then ex-President Richard Nixon a series of documentary-style, cut-in interviews with the other supporting players that only manages to take us out of the main story without adding any real insight or entertainment value.

Morgan, as he did with "The Queen" and his almost-as-good TV movie about Labor Party politics, "The Deal," is best at creating living history, and more specifically filling in the intimate details in the dynamic between historical figures who are much more alike than they originally know. Adding the mockumentary touches only dilutes the fact that he's written another whip-smart screenplay and handed it over to two first-rate actors, here as on stage, Michael Sheen and Frank Langella.

Sheen excels at playing characters, as he did with Tony Blair in both "The Queen" and "The Deal," who are in need of constant attention, seemingly aware of their own talents but still needing to have them reinforced time and time again. He captures perfectly just how insecure Frost was going into the Nixon interview (which he now claims cost $37 million pounds!), and the play's/movie's biggest strength is in naturally bringing out just how much Langella's Nixon felt the same way.

Mr. Langella has received a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of Nixon, and it's well-deserved. It's no mean feat that he manages to make us almost feel sorry for Nixon without hedging one bit on the traits that brought about his fall from grace. Unlike Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of the former president in Oliver Stone's "Nixon," which I found far too often to be a caricature, you never see Langella as anything but Nixon's big ball of vanity, arrogance (of course) and, surprisingly, loneliness. It's that last trait that makes the final act of "Frost/Nixon" the best one, a quiet moment when Frost and Nixon meet several months later at Nixon's compound, La Casa Pacifica.

Which isn't saying that the pre-game action and the showdown itself lack the appropriate dramatic tension. Langella and Sheen (and, of course, Morgan) give their exchanges a wicked humor, but almost as much credit here should go to the uniformly solid supporting cast.

Similarly to "Man on Wire" (a better 2008 movie that, sort of, actually is a documentary), Morgan and Howard set up the staging of the interview as much as a heist than as any attempt at actual journalism. And any heist needs a solid slate of co-conspirators on either side, led here on the left by Sam Rockwell as Nixon antagoniste James Reston Jr. and on the right by Kevin Bacon as Nixon's post-White House chief of staff, Jack Brennan. They get the meatiest supporting parts because their convictions set up the main conflict at the movie's core, getting the truth vs. hiding it all costs, and they both just run with it. Toby Jones is (as usual) just a hoot as Nixon's "literary agent" Irving "Swifty" Lazar, and though I always like to see Rebecca Hall, she's given little to do here as Frost's girlfriend, Caroline Cushing.

In the end, I'd say Ron Howard's movie would have been great rather than very good if, like the superior "Doubt," it had had the courage to trust the inherent strength of its source work. As it is, it is indeed a nearly first-rate bit of political theater, but not for me in the category of Best Picture. If I had a vote, which so far exists only in my mind, I'd give that final slot to Darren Aronofsky for "The Wrestler" or Guillaume Canet for "Tell No One."

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do my cooking for the week and then see Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married," which I'm really looking forward to. Peace out.

Revenge is a dish best served ... well, many ways

One sure sign that it's the end of August is that the movies that get dumped in these dog days just make me think of better ones that preceeded them.

Even though Kevin Bacon was a reliable soldier on CBS' "Early Show" (or whatever it's called) the other day as he claimed with a straight face that James Wan's "Death Sentence" will seriously explore the dark side of revenge, I think I'll just have to pass. I'll be spending my holiday weekend like most Americans: Watching college football and attending a barbecue or two, and maybe getting caught up on either "Heroes" or "Friday Night Lights" on DVD.

Besides, as with most things I enjoy, I often take my revenge on the big screen with more than a little dose of silly, simply because I like to laugh. Here are 10 flicks, some silly and some not, in which revenge plays a big part and I just can't get enough of (and, though they're numbered, they're indeed in no particular order):

1. Revenge of the Nerds
Because, after all, who in the world deserves revenge more than nerds? As far as I can tell, McG's rather insidious plan to remake this has died, or at least I hope so. To hear someone probably much wiser than me on the subject wax poetic about the virtues of this flick, watch Toby riff on it in "American Splendor." Heck, just watch "American Splendor" anyway if you somehow haven't seen it yet.

2. Oldboy
No director has made a better career out of revenge flicks than Korea's Chan-Wook Park, and this one would have to be my favorite. It can be hard to take at times, but watching Min-Sik Choi find out who held him captive for 15 years and get his vengeance (before they inflict further pain on him) is a one-of-a-kind experience.

3. Jackie Brown
Quentin Tarantino obviously tried his hardest to make a "revenge" flick with "Kill Bill," and mostly succeeded, but I'll still take "Jackie Brown" every time. It's still my favorite of the Tarantino flicks, and watching Pam Grier square off against Samuel L. Jackson will never get old to me.

4. Election
Remember, I did say silly, right? Of all the revenge flicks set in the hell that is high school, this one is still the best, both because it's Reese Witherspoon vs. Matthew Broderick and because, adorable as Reece is, you just want to crush Tracey Flick's head long before the flick ends.

5. Taxi Driver
Though I managed to omit "Death Wish" from this list, you really can't snub "Taxi Driver." Even if it has created a long list of cringe-worthy imitators (including this week's entry, of course), Scorsese's movie stands up well over time, and De Niro was rarely better than as the ball-of-rage that was Travis Bickle.


6. Rushmore
After all, what better to drive a man to vengeance than love? Although this movie has so many charms, my favorite moment might just be the look of relief on Herman Blume's face after Max Fischer calls off his vendetta in front of the barbershop. "I'll take punctuality."

7. The Limey
This is the only movie I can think of, at least off the top of my head, in which I liked Terrence Stamp, though surely there must be more. Not nearly as cool or clever as Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight," but it's still a reminder that when he puts his mind to it the man can direct a lean, mean thriller.

8. Get Carter
The Michael Caine original, of course, not the Sly Stallone remake (which I concede I haven't seen.) What I love about this movie is how it unfolds so slowly until the last half hour or so, when Caine's gangster unleashes the bloodbath you knew was coming from the start.

9. Bully
If you're considering moving to south Florida, I'd strongly advise watching this cautionary tale from Larry Clark first. Based on the true story of a group of teens who plot to take out the titular "Bully" (Nick Stahl, if I remember correctly), it's as chilling as it is entertaining. And, finally ...

10. Office Space
Though Ron Livingston is still a fairly young dude, I'm sure he'll never make another movie with the staying power of this one. Just in case you've forgotten just how cathartic watching this flick can be after a long day at work, I've included a YouTube clip of Michael Bolton and friends taking out their frustations on the fax machine, to the soothing strains of the Geto Boys. Feel free to add any revenge flicks that you can watch over and over again, and have an entirely suckfree Thursday.