The Sunday Drive: 2/28/10

Check it, 4th & Short is no more, all hail the Sunday Drive. Still the best place for a quick rundown of the 3 best movies in theatres right now, plus my personal DVD pick of the week. With that said, let's dive in...

3. Fish Tank

From the first time the fiery, 15 year old Mia(Katie Jarvis) meets her mother's new boyfriend, Connor(Michael Fassbender), it's clear that life is never going to be the same.  Angry and aggressively edgy at times, Fish Tank is a film that's made by the harrowing portrayal of it's star. A coming of age tale with a dark twist that you'll see coming a mile away, but the journey will still have you captivated.

2. The Ghost Writer

Ewan McGregor stars as the ghost writer for a former British Prime Minister, played to Tony Blair-ish perfection by Pierce Brosnan. Roman Polanski's taut, bare bones political thriller is every bit as good as Michael Clayton, if not better as the mystery of The Ghost's predessesor's murder begins to unravel, and past secrets begin to emerge.

1. Shutter Island

There's a murderer loose, escaped from a penitentiary on the remote Shutter Island. It's up to US Marshall Teddy Daniels to find her, but all doesn't appear to be as it seems. The 4th collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Dicaprio might be the duo's best yet. An atmospheric film noir stripped straight from a horror novelist's nightmares. A must see.

DVD Pick of the Week: Sorority Row

It's all fun and games, isn't it? At least until somebody gets impaled with a tire iron. Briana Evigan(Step Up 2 the Streets) stars as the somewhat level headed member of a sorority who are being picked off one by one by a hooded, blade wielding murder. Sounds pretty standard, right? Well, ok it is, but if you're like me and you love classic slasher cheese, then you're gonna love Sorority Row. Hot chicks, idiotic decision making prowess under pressure, and did I mention the hot chicks? A guilty pleasure for sure, but well worth indulging in.

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John's Take: 'Cop Out'

The buddy cop comedy has been a staple at the movies since the early 80’s with at least one movie of this type appearing every year. Their popularity is unmatched with most usually headlining as a summer tent pole for its studio. This isn’t to say they are all good…the fact is the majority are average at best but that doesn’t stop them from making a ton of money and usually being at least a little fun to watch. So in comes ‘Cop Out’ a buddy cop movie which at first glance doesn’t look any different than the rest, but the studios had a curve ball for us…they made Kevin Smith the director! ‘Cop Out’ follows two veteran detectives, Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracey Morgan), on a hunt to track down a stolen baseball card. Jimmy is divorced and his daughter, Ava played by Michelle Trachtenberg, is getting married, naturally the stepdad is rich and kind of a douche who offers, not so gracefully I might add, to pay for Ava’s elaborate wedding. In order to save face and still give his daughter the wedding of her dreams Jimmy decides he’ll sell a vintage baseball card he owns that’s worth $80,000. Sounds easy, right? Not so much, when Jimmy is at the card shop to finalize the sale the store is robbed and Jimmy’s card is stolen with Jimmy’s partner Paul standing right outside. Paul is a loveable and goofy guy…if only he knew for sure if his wife was cheating on him or not! As the two partners follow the leads to find the robbers and recover the card they embark down a road that leads them right into the center of a drug smuggling gang and the wife of a dead Mexican drug kingpin. All this for a piece of 4X6 cardboard? So is ‘Cop Out’ more of the same, or does it offer something new to the buddy cop genre?

Nope, nothing new here, actually one could even say that they went to extraordinary lengths to recreate the feel of many of it’s predecessors. The film is funny, really funny actually. I expected from the trailers to be eye rolling at least half of the movie but I was too busy bent over in laughter to roll my eyes. The strangest part is that the bits I loathed from the trailer were some of the funniest when they played out in full on screen. Tracey Morgan really turned my opinon on his ability to be funny, he steals the show and is the real star of this movie. It’s a huge plus that he was able to pull this off as the entire movie hinged on his performance, he has A LOT of screen time and this flick is definitely more comedy than action (as opposed to something like Lethal Weapon). He’s not only funny but somewhat endearing in the scenes he shares with Rashida Jones who plays his wife. Bruce Willis does what he does best, kicks some ass and makes some jokes all the while making it look cool as ice. Another big surprise in the movie for me was Sean William Scott, who plays a parkour practicing thief. He really added to the scenes he was in and made the most of his small amount of screen time. Kevin Smith has been adamant about the fact that he didn’t write this film but I’m not buying it. While he may not have actually written the script initially his fingerprints are ALL over this movie. From Star Wars quotes to the toilet humor we know him best for this is definitely a Kevin Smith film. No, it’s not talky and there’s some major action scenes but this feels like Smith, and that’s a huge compliment. One of the things I’ve always loved about Smith is his ability to pick the perfect music for a scene, ‘Clerks 2’ is a great example, his musical selection is out in full form this time around with a really slick mix up of old school rap and 80’s synthesized back tracks that really make you feel like you’re watching this film in the heyday of the buddy cop era, the music hits on all marks and thouroughly adds to the enjoyment of the film. So sounds like ‘Cop Out’ is the perfect cop comedy right? Well, not quite.

Far from perfect this movie is lacking in several departments. The story for one is very basic and shallow, supporting and using every cliché from the genre possible…hell it even steals clichés from other genres at times. I spoke a lot about how funny the movie was and I wasn’t exaggerating but there’s so many jokes in the movie that there’s plenty of room for jokes that fall flat, and they certainly use that room. Every movie has its stars and they can certainly make a movie great, but the devil is in the details my friends and if you have a great hero but a crappy villain than you only have half of the equation now, don’t you? The bad guy in this flick is horrible, I mean really bad. Not only is he a stereotype of Mexican bad guys in general, he’s not even really fleshed out enough to give those stereotypes justice. I don’t know if it was the actor, the direction, or the writing, but he ended up coming off about 2 IQ points north of Forrest Gump, yet were supposed to believe that he runs an evil underground empire. There’s also some unnecessary plotlines that seem like they were just part of some ‘Buddy Cop Movie Checklist’ and were put in because someone felt the must complete that list. Mainly this is the “cop has trust issues with the wife” storyline between Tracey Morgan and Rashida Jones, and the “Other two cops who are partners and douchebags” starring Adam Brody and Kevin Pollack (what a waste!). The ending is really kind of lacking, the action scenes are not very intense, and there are other storylines that aren’t fleshed out at all, particularly between Paul and Gabriela, the dead drug lord’s lady. So with all this bad stuff….is it worth seeing?

A resounding YES from my department, for a stomach ache inducing laugh session this is the movie to see. Even in its faults the movie does well, as it takes these missteps with almost a self referential wink telling you “Yeah we know this is in every movie….that’s why we’re doing it” This flick is way more Riggs and Murtaugh than Sam Jackson and Eugene Levy (stars of ‘The Man’, I couldn’t really expect you to get that reference as it’s to a movie so bad that I don’t even think 8 people didn’t want their money back afterwards). Kevin Smith proves that although he may not be able to shoot the most amazing action scene he is more than capable of making a decent studio movie better. This being the first movie he directed that he didn’t write let’s hope that it has some success so that he’ll keep directing other projects than his own. It’s not that I don’t like the stuff he writes, I love it! I just wish we could see a Kevin Smith movie more than once every 4 years. To make a long story just a little bit longer go see ‘Cop Out’ in theaters and have a good laugh, I know we all need one and if something comes up and you can’t catch this one in theaters be SURE to see it when it’s out on rental.

RATING:

4 out of 5 Guttenberg's

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Snap Judgements: The Crazies; The White Ribbon

The Crazies

Let me get this off my chest now. The Crazies was not a bad film. It's a perfectly acceptable thriller with a few truly eerie moments and horrifying flashes of gore. But that's not hard to achieve. I just expected more, given the cast and my newfound love of the zombie genre. I guess you could call these people zombies. They might just be bored from living in an eyeblink of a small town all their lives. Certainly drives me bonkers whenever I step foot in one. When the Super Wal-Mart is the town highlight, there's an issue.

Timothy Olyphant(Go, A Perfect Getaway) stars as Sheriff David Dutton. Being the sheriff of one of these places is only cool if you're Andy Griffith and you have a bumbling sidekick to take lumps for you. Dutton makes the best of it, though. His wife, Judy(Radha Mitchell), is the town doctor. All's quiet as normal until out of the blue, the town drunk walks out onto the baseball field during a game with a shotgun in his hands. After a violent confrontation, hopefully all is well. But mysterious things continue to happen without explanation. Murders, arson, and a disturbing quiet has taken over the town. It isn't long before the military swoops in and begins kicking ass and taking names, but by then it's too late. The populace has mostly been transformed into vicious, murderous zombie-like creatures.

Director Breck Eisner(son of former Disney exec, Michel Eisner) knows how to elicit tension from seemingly innocuous moments. A lone thresher running on idle in the black of night is a perfect example. Even I got the willies waiting to see what would pop out from behind it, or if someone would end up thrown into it. Unfortunately, there aren't nearly enough of these scenes for me to latch on to. The gore is another story, though. This is one brutal film. The blood flies quick and often, but loses it's impact after awhile. Unfortunately not enough was done with any of the characters to make me care. The film simply loses momentum as the mystery, which isn't much of a mystery at all, unravels. A shame, because Olyphant and Mitchell do their best with limited material, and Eisner has a much better grasp on directing than he did when he made Sahara back in 2005. The Crazies will scare you for awhile, but by the end you'll be bored and ready for them to wipe the town off the map. 5/10

The White Ribbon

Much like The Crazies, the fictitious protestant town of Eichwald, Germany is in the grips of a mystery. The town doctor(what's with the small town doctor abuse, lately?) is injured when someone leaves a tripwire near his house, forcing him to fall off his horse. This type of thing doesn't happen here. It's a quiet town, where nearly everyone works together for the local Baron, farming to sustain eachother through the hard winter months. Nobody knows who did it, but the local kids are immediately suspects. Then, more incidents. A mentally challenged boy is beaten mercilessly. A house is set on fire. What the hell is going on?

Michael Haneke is no stranger to ambiguous morality tales. This is the same man who brought us the violent Funny Games back in 2008, and the perplexing mystery, Cache in 2005. Both films in their own way dealt with violence, or at least the threat of it. Here, The White Ribbon shows how violence can transform an entire culture, inspiring fear and hatred that threatens the ruination of all. Watching it, it's hard not to imagine this as the origin of the same fear and anger that inspired the Nazis rise to power, but knowing Haneke I'm sure his intentions were far greater than that.

At it's core, The White Ribbon is pure psychological horror, and a far more terrifying one than The Crazies could ever hope to be. The wanton cruelty displayed here isn't far enough removed from reality that I can't imagine it taking place somewhere, probably during that same time period. There are no name faces here. The kids are mostly non-actors, but Haneke yanks the best performances he can from them. The acting is never an issue. The story can move a bit slowly, but if you're as wrapped up into the mystery as I was you'll never notice it. Every single line in this film matters, and is a potential clue. Some will take issue with the black and white color scheme, but it's perfect for such an enigmatic morality tale. 7/10

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Win Tickets to an Advanced Screening of SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE!

It all starts to add up on March 12th! Or for you, on March 10th! Want a chance to catch an advanced screening of the hilarious new comedy, She's Out of My League? If you're in the Washington, DC area the event will take place on March 10th at AMC Mazza Galleria at 7:30pm.

In order to win, you need to be the one of the first 25 people to leave a comment answering this question:

" Who are the three actors/actresses that you consider to be perfect 10s?"

All entries must be received by Friday, March 5th. Please remember to include your name and email address.

PLOT SYNOPSIS:  Kirk(Jay Baruchel), an average Joe, can't believe his luck. Though he's stuck in a seemingly dead-end job as an airport security agent, against all odds Molly (Alice Eve), a successful and outrageously gorgeous babe falls for him. Kirk is stunned. So are his friends, his family and even his ex-girlfriend. Now he has to figure out how to make the relationship work, even though he's the first to admit "She's Out of My League."

CAST:  Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, Krysten Ritter, T.J. Miller, Geoff Stultz, Nate Torrence

DIRECTOR: Jim Field Smith

MPAA Rating: R

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Wanted 2 Not so Wanted Afterall; Jolie Backs Out of Sequel

Looks as if that Wanted sequel ain't happenin' afterall. Angelina Jolie, who starred as the sultry assassin, Fox, in the first film has backed out in favor of starring in Alfonso Cuaron's(Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien) upcoming space thriller, Gravity. Universal, after losing their recognizable star, has decided to pull the plug on the sequel rather than simply writing her character off. If you recall, Fox was presumed dead at the end of the last film.

Personally, I think this is b.s.  While this story is still mostly in the rumor stage, I fully expect that we will be seeing a Wanted film in theatres within the next year or two. Either the shooting schedule will be worked around Jolie's so that she can be involved, or they press ahead with James McAvoy and another hot A-list actress to fill the void. 

You can read more of Vulture's coverage of this story here.

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The List! 2/26/10

I wrote this column last week, didn't I? Good gravy this has been the longest work week evah! It's like somebody took time, drenched it in cairo syrup and flash froze it. Or, that just could be my perception of time slowing down now that I'm inching closer to seniority. My AARP card will be arriving in the mail before I know it.

This was a good week for comedies, with the surprising Bruce Willis/Tracy Morgan film Cop Out hitting theatres today. Not to mention we got an early look at She's Out of My League, which is due out in a couple of weeks.  Keep an eye on this site today, as we'll be giving away free screener passes to a showing of the film to all our readers in the Nation's Capital!

Psycological horrors are all the rage lately, it seems, and The Crazies hopes to slice off a piece of the pie. A remake of the 1973 film, The Crazies features Punch Drunk favorite Timothy Olyphant(A Perfect Getaway, Deadwood) as a sheriff trying to survive in a town where the inhabitants have all suddenly gone insane. If the film is half as creepy as the trailer, which features the haunting melody of "Mad World" playing in the background, this could be a sleeper hit.

Let's be honest, Roman Polanski's legal troubles have done nothing but push this film further into the public consciousness, which is a good thing. We don't get enough smart, political thrillers on this side of the pond. Ewan McGregor stars as a ghost writer, hired to pen the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, played by Pierce Brosnan who admits to patterning the character after Tony Blair. The mystery comes as McGregor's character discovers that his predecessor on the job died under very suspicious circumstances. After a lukewarm reception to his 2005 remake of Oliver Twist, Polanski appears to be coming back into the same form that produced The Pianist back in 2002. Let's hope so.

You can check out my review here, but Kevin Smith's first for-hire directorial effort feels as if it were ripped straight from the 80s. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan star as a pair of cops(one bad ass, one lame ass) on the search for a missing baseball card. Doesn't exactly sound like a plot worthy of acclaim, does it? But it is right up Smith's alley. Let's not forget this is a guy who sights Fletch as one of his all-time faves. The success of this one lies flat on the backs of Willis and Morgan, who's oil & water relationship makes for some hilarious moments.

In my mind, people who scale mountains are out of their friggin' gords. I have nothing but respect for them, but if they take a tumble they aren't getting any sympathy from me. However, if they do fall, it's probably gonna make a great movie. North Face is about Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz's attempt to scale the Eiger north face, one of the 6 faces of the Alps back in 1936. A winner of multiple German film awards, the hook for me is that it co-stars Johanna Wokalek, who caught my attention in last year's The Baader-Meinhof Complex.

If there's time....

Think of it as the Danish Hot Fuzz. A cop who screws up royally is sent off to a sleepy town in Copenhagen to cool off and get some therapy. He finds that the little village he's in isn't nearly as quiet as he thought. Looks interesting, and as if it takes some seriously dark turns. If time allows I'll definitely try to check it out.

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1......2......Freddy's Got a Trailer For You!

Well WHHHHHHHHEEEEEWWWWWWWW doggies....Freddy is BACK with a F'in vengence. Personally I've been a fan of the Platinum Dunes remake series and Freddy's facial look aside I think they've got another winner in their pocket. Freddy's story was always the best...let's just agree to that now. A serial child killer burned by his victim's parents who comes back to haunt, or should I say hunt, their surviving children in their dreams. Much better than a kid with down syndrome and mommy issues or a guy in a William Shatner mask that's just plain nuts. Unfortunately though much of Freddy's fear inducing ability went the way of the dodo in the sequels, but make no mistake the original 'Nightmare' was freakin' terrifying! This trailer makes it look like the terror is back and even darker this time around...no 80's fluff. Watch this one with the lights on and let me know what you think, I'm interested to see if the general consensus is in line with my thoughts or if I'm just totally off base. I just love that line "Why are you screaming? I haven't even CUT you yet'


A Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer 2 in HD

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

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Zoolander 2 in the Works; Jonah Hill as Villain

It took me about 5 viewings to finally start liking Zoolander, the 2001 Ben Stiller film about a good natured but moronic supermodel. Eventually it grew on me, not exactly for Stiller but for Will Ferrell's turn as evil fashion mogul, Mugatu. Rumors of a sequel have been going around for years, but it never seemed to take off. Looks like that's about to change.

Deadline.com is reporting that Paramount has finally reeled in writer Justin Thoreaux(Iron Man, Tropic Thunder) to work with Ben Stiller on a script. The story reportedly will take place 10 years after the last film, with him dealing with the fact that he's no longer a model. Paramount's plan is to keep the budget below $50M, due to the fact that Zoolander was not a financial success during it's theatrical run, although it has taken on sortof a cult status on DVD. If you remember, Zoolander was released about two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, a time when nobody was going to the movies.

The plan is to bring in Jonah Hill to play Zoolander's nemesis this go'round. No word yet on whether Will Ferrell will make an appearance. Stiller is on record as saying that a sequel can't be made without Owen Wilson reprising his role as Hansel, a rival male model who reluctantly joins Zoolander to thwart Mugatu.

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Review: 'Cop Out' Starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan

Kevin Smith's involvement in this oddball buddy comedy has been the target of scrutiny from day one. The venerable director/writer behind such GenX fanboy favorites as Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma has never once directed a feature that he didn't write. He swore not to, and yet for reasons all his own he couldn't pass this up. I never understood why until now. Smith's fingerprints are all over Cop Out, making it as much a Kevin Smith film as if he had written it himself.

Think Beverly Hills Cop meets Die Hard with a Vengeance. Bruce Willis is hard nosed veteran cop, Jimmy Monroe. His longtime partner of nine years is Paul Hoges, played by 30 Rock's Tracy Morgan. Jimmy is a hard ass, dropped straight from the John McClane action school. Paul is a goofy, movie quote spouting fool. He plays at being a cop, taking his cues from the cop movies he loves so much. The two are almost total opposites, but there's a dangerous playful streak in them both. Like most cop partnerships, the two are very close even when off the job.

Due to Paul's idiotic mistakes...y'know, like beating up a kid in order to use his bike to chase down a suspect, the duo are suspended without pay. That's funny, in action movies cops steal people's vehicles all the time to run down criminals all the time!? Jimmy's daughter(Michele Trachtenberg) is about to get married. Jimmy's ex-wife and her current husband(Jason Lee) want to shell out for the $50,000 wedding. Jimmy's ego couldn't handle having another man pay for his daughter's nuptials, could it? So what does he do? He decides to sell his rare baseball card, worth $80,000 to pay for it himself. The only problem is: the card shop gets robbed by a pair of two bit criminals, one a wise cracking cat burglar(Sean William Scott). The baseball card? Gone. The mission? Get it back.

The search for the missing baseball card gets the duo involved in the schemes of an enterprising druglord(Guillermo Diaz) who coincidentally happens to be a baseball fan. If it sounds stupid, it's because it is. It's little more than an excuse to have Willis and Morgan riff off eachother for 90 minutes. And I'm perfectly okay with that.

Cop Out feels like it was ripped straight out of 1985. When not bangin' classic hip hop beats from The Beastie Boys or Erik B. and Rakim's Follow the Leader in a blistering chase sequence, smooth synthesized tunes that could've been taken from the 48 Hours soundtrack are in full effect. It's clear what Smith and company are shooting for, and that's to make a film that stands up to those buddy cop films that were such a hit years ago before they all turned to crap.

For the most part, Smith succeeds. While I'm a huge fan of Kevin Smith as a writer, his direction has always been my sticking point. He has a style that's undefined, and that stems from the fact that most of his films are "talkies". It's mostly people sitting around chatting about comic books and their hearts getting broken. Here he gets to stretch his action muscles just a little bit, even if those scenes are played mostly for comedic effect. I could've done with a bit more gunplay and violence(Axel Foley was in more danger!), but I think if there was we probably wouldn't have Smith as the director at all. It's simply not his strong suit.

The draw is obviously the pairing of Willis and Morgan. Willis slips comfortably in a role he can probably do in his sleep. Morgan was the real wild card. He's an actor I liked tremendously early on, but at some point he reached the point of being overbearing and unwatchable, sortof like how I feel about Jack Black. Here Morgan plays to his comedic strength: epic cluelessness. He plays Paul as an exaggerated version of the classic Kevin Smith man-child. He's not a moron, just completely unaware of his own actions. The biggest laughs come from Willis' facial expressions in reaction to Morgan.

The real surprise for me was Sean William Scott. Another actor I've soured on because he tends to play the some wise ass character in every film. Although he showed more depth than I thought in 2008's Role Models. Here he's pretty much back to typical form, but here it works mainly because he never has to be the film's comedic focus. He gets to play as a pestering irritant(he's sortof like how Joe Pesci was in Lethal Weapon) to both Paul and Jimmy. He steals practically every scene he's in, especially when dualing back and forth with Morgan.

Cop Out doesn't aspire to much, but it's certainly better than it lets on. It's not going to usher in a new era of great cop comedies or anything. It's a funny film. Not side splitting hilarious. Just funny enough. For Kevin Smith, I don't know if this will make him want to do more "for hire" work or not, but it does show the guy can branch out successfully. Now if only he could fit in an airplane seat.

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Captain America Finalists Revealed! David Goyer to Write Superman!

Ack! There's too much comic book movie news breaking today! And since I'm in the midst of my birthday celebration, I'm ducking away from the shenanigans are typing away here in the shadows. First off, the Marvel news....

THR is reporting that Marvel Studios has paired down the list of finalists for the role of Captain America in their upcoming film to six candidtes.  The most well known is John Krasinski, currently starring in NBC's hit comedy, The Office. The rest includes Chace Crawford(Gossip Girl), Michael Cassidy(Smallville), Patrick Flueger(The 4400), Scott Porter(Friday Night Lights), and Mike Vogel(She's Out of My League).

Marvel has demanded that the actors be placed on a 30 day hold during testing, meaning they can't accept any other projects during that time. It's speculated that they don't want to see a repeat of the Ryan Reynolds scenario, where he signed on to both Green Lantern and Deadpool practically at the same time.

My initial impression? Other than Krasinski I couldn't pick any of these guys out of a police line-up. Krasinski doesn't have the stones for the role, in my opinion. He's too dorky. The rest are unknowns. I expect they will find a more suitable actor outside of this group.

DC and Warner Bros. were quick to drop some news of their own. Latino Review broke the story that David Goyer(Blade, Blade 2, Batman Begins) has been hired to pen the script for the next Superman film, titled The Man of Steel.  The story is said to not be an origin tale, but set firmly in the John Byrne era of Superman, dealing with the Kryptonian's struggles against Lex Luthor and the alien genius, Brainiac.

Brandon Routh is not attached to the film in any way. Nor is Bryan Singer, who directed the last film.

Expect news on this to start coming fast and furious as it is still breaking.

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Prequel to 'The Passion of the Christ' close to production!

From an inside source we have news of a new film in development that's being described as a prequel to the wildly successful and horribly depressing 'The Passion of the Christ'. 'Mary, Mother of Christ' is to follow the story of Jesus' mother, particularly her struggles with King Herod. The most awesome of news is that Al Pacino is set to fill the most nefarious role of King Herod of Galilee. This is all to be taken lightly as nothing is set in stone and no production has yet begun, but how amazing would this movie be? All to often is Mary overlooked for who she was and the life she lead...I guess it's easy to be lost in the shadow when your son is Jesus Christ. Honestly though I'd love to see a historically accurate showing of Mary's life! Imagine, even if your not of the religious mindset imagine as you would any fictional movie, being told you're going to give birth to the savior of man. Then imagine the life you'd lead trying to raise the progeny of God and the agony you would feel upon his execution. Now tell me this isn't a story worth telling. I'm excited for the idea, and doubly excited for the possibility of this actually happening. Well keep you updated as more news arrives.

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Tobey Maguire To Take on Bobby Fischer!

Not literally. That would be sortof impossible at this point. Fresh off losing his Spider-Man gig, Tobey Maguire is keen to move on by producing and possibly starring in Pawn Sacrifice. The film is based on the life of world renowned chessmaster, Bobby Fischer. The story revolve around Fischer's 1972 contest against then Russian chess champ, Boris Spassky. The match, which carried all sorts of Cold War connotations at the time, was referred to as the "Match of the Century" and transformed the eccentric Fischer into a media celebrity.

The script has already been written by Stephen Knight(Eastern Promises), but it's likely another writer will come on board to patch it up. No word yet on a possible release date.

My earliest exposure to Bobby Fischer was in the 1993 film, Searching for Bobby Fischer, which was the the true story of Josh Waitzkin, a young chess player who's life seemed to be following a similar path to greatness. That film is in my pantheon as one of my favorites, but it actually focused very little on Fischer. I'm curious to know if Pawn Sacrifice will highlight some of Fischer's darker periods. He becomes really rather jaded and cynical later on, especially in regards to his feelings on America.

Thanks to Slashfilm for their coverage of this story.

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Wes Craven Pulls the Breaks on Scream 4

Ok, an update on the story from last week about Wes Craven being set to begin shooting on Scream 4 starting in May. The famed director says hold your horses....

"LA Times has it wrong. I’m still in talks but nothing has been finalized.”

He released this statement via his Twitter feed. It's expected that he will still eventually be on board for the horror franchise's fourth film, which takes the story 10 years in the future.

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Beats, Rhymes, & Life: A Tribe Called Quest documentary in 2010?

Can I kick it? Yes you can! Every real hip hop fan knows those lyrics, the hook behind legendary rap crew A Tribe Called Quest's first break out hit from their seminal 1989 album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. Quest, consisting of lead rapper Q-Tip, emcee Pfife Dawg, and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, is long considered the pioneers of alternative hip hop from 1990 to 1998 when the group split after their fifth studio record.

For the last two years, actor Michael Rapaport(Big Fan, Higher Learning) has been piecing together a documentary based on the legendary group. Consisting of hundreds of hours of footage and interviews with some of hip hop's greats(Too Short, Nas, Mos Def, Pete Rock and a host of others are included), the film chronicles Tribe's influence on the hip hop culture and on the genre even today. It begins with their reunion back at the 2008 Rock the Bells concert. The website for the documentary gives loyal Tribe followers a chance to be included in the film by telling their own personal stories. Rapaport hopes to have a final cut of the film ready by the end of 2010. No word on an official release date, or if it will see any sort of theatrical release.

I'll go to my grave saying that A Tribe Called Quest is the greatest rap group ever in the history of music. Nobody compares. From their soulful yet catchy vibes to their poetic wordplay, their music is basically the soundtrack of my youth. I was fortunate enough to see them in concert one time a few years ago during one of their pre-reunion reunions, and even though we were crammed in like sardines it was still a memorable experience. Michael Rapaport I know is a huge hip hop fan, so I'm sure he'll treat the material with the respect it deserves. My hope is that this will receive at least something of a theatrical run and marketing push similar to when Scratch(another awesome hip hop documentary) was released in 2001.

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Slumdog Millionaire Star Takes on the Gods!

Frieda Pinto, who catapulted to stardom in last year's acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire, has signed to join director Tarsem Singh's War of the Gods(sometimes referred to as Dawn of War). The film, centered around Greek mythology, features a clash between Theseus(Henry Cavill) and his men against the Titans, who wish to start a war against the gods and reclaim their former throne. The film began production around the same time as Clash of the Titans, a similarly themed epic. Pinto will be starring as Phaedra, an oracle who must assist Theseus in his quest.

The film is patterned somewhat after 300, the fictional retelling of the Spartan battle of Thermopylae, meaning expect tons of graphic violence, CGI, and intense massive battles.  Tarsem describes his intentions for the film as "a visual masterpiece done in renaissance painting style action movie", "a bit like Baz Luhrmann doing Romeo + Juliet in Mexico".

I don't know what to say about that description except...it fits his style perfectly.

Director Tarsem Singh might not be a familiar name to most people, but he is one of the most visually talented creators working today. He directed the stunning Jennifer Lopez film, The Cell, back in 2000.  His latest film, The Fall, was on my list of best films of 2008. To put it simply, The Fall is like no other film I've seen. It's breathtaking to look at. If he can combine his masterful visual effects work(he also directed parts of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) with an epic scale action adventure that War of the Gods supposedly is, we could be looking at a masterpiece. I can not wait for this.

You can read more of Variety's coverage of this story here.

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