| Westercon
2004 Mark reports on the movies at Westercon. The trailers
seemed to be better accepted by the audience than they have been at recent Worldcons,
while the presentation was a little more polished - and the films seemed of a
higher quality.
Previews of Upcoming Films
(film comments by Mark R. Leeper):
 Just
as the World Science Fiction Conventions have a presentation of upcoming films
of possible interest to attendees, the science fiction convention Westercon this
year had a program of trailers for forthcoming films. The trailers seemed to be
better accepted by the audience than they have been at recent Worldcons. The presentation
was a little more polished and the films seemed of a little higher quality. (Please
note this article is written on the road and is based on just what I saw on the
screen and remember. I have not been able to fact-check.) 
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE has been remade. Jonathan Demme recycles one of
America's greatest political thrillers. The new cast is good. Denzel Washington
is in the Frank Sinatra role. Liev Schreiber, a very good actor who somehow is
not becoming a household name, will play the Laurence Harvey part. That is certainly
the tougher of the two roles. Meryl Streep will be in the role of the mother,
formerly played by Angela Lansbury.
But the question everybody
is asking is why remake such a fine film? What can Denzel Washington bring to
this role that Sinatra did not? I am not a big fan of Sinatra but Frankenheimer
got a very nicely disturbed performance from him that is deeper than the CRIMSON-TIDE-earnestness
that Washington usually plays. Demme is a good director, and there is some question
why he would choose to remake a classic film and one that was so good to start
with. [Postscript: the film turns out to be what I call a saddlepoint. It is better
than just about anything else playing and not nearly as good as the original.]
We have gotten a lot of serial-killer films. And among serial- killer
films a lot of them seem to involve innocents who have some sort of psychic link
to the killer. I seem to remember that after THE EYES OF LAURA MARS opened the
field there were a bunch with this plot made for cable. SUSPECT ZERO is one more
that retreads this plot. Ben Kingsley plays the nasty after showing in SEXY BEAST
that the little guys can be scary. But it is hard to think of SUSPECT ZERO as
anything special. [Postscript: I believe the plot turns out to be a psyhic serial
killer serial killing serial killers.]
This first thing I thought when
I saw the trailer for CELLULAR was that it is obviously a Larry Cohen story. A
New Yorker article said Cohen returns to the idea of an innocent bystander connected
to dastardly happenings by a telephone link. PHONE BOOTH was a recent example
of his storytelling. In CELLULAR a kidnap victim, Kim Bassinger, somehow is connected
to a young male innocent bystander via a cellular phone and it is up to said bystander
to save her. PHONE BOOTH had little beyond the premise and did little that was
impressive. I hope this is better.
The Japanese have their own traditions
of ghost and demon stories. Frequently they do little short punchy ghost stories.
(Aside: There is a traditional ceremony in Japan of telling 100 ghost stories
at night by the light of 100 candles. After each story a candle is blown out.
By the end the group is in total darkness and is just about ready to freak out.
These guys KNOW how to throw a party. But then I am a ghost
story fan.) Last year I saw at a film festival a Japanese film that had not so
much a single plot as a collection of related stores. It had some very startling
and non-traditional images of ghostly happenings. I thought THE GRUDGE was quite
effective even without much plot. It is tough to scare me with a film, but this
certainly had me tense. It is only a few months old, but it has already been remade.
THE GRUDGE (American version) was filmed in Japan and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar
of BUFFY fame, no stranger to facing the dead. Don't expect
a lot of plot, but if it is like the original it should have jaded horror fans
grabbing for the arms of their seats. Again I ask, why bother to remake a good
film? Are subtitles THAT scary? (Another aside: if you like original scary films,
don't look to Carpenter and Romero. Better stuff is coming from Japan.)
RESIDENT EVIL: THE APOCALYPSE is a sequel based, I believe, on a video game. Somehow
the trailer does not look like it would be based on a video game. It seems to
be about some sort of process to restore beauty. Something goes terribly wrong
and it is creating zombies or something. It turns from a horror film to an action
film. Here's hoping it is more original. Do I sound jaded?
YU-GI-OH!
is Japanese anime. The trailer claims "Monsters you have never seen will be more
powerful than ever." I guess if you have never seen them you can't know that they
will be more powerful than ever. It must be based on the TV series. It has something
to do with ancient Egypt, I think. I don't think I will find it interesting, but
I probably would have loved it as a kid.
CAT WOMAN stars Halle Barry
and is based on the Batman villain, I believe. It looks like another comic book
superhero story. A superhero in a cat suit is just the sort of role an Oscar-winning
actress would long for. [Post script: it is already in the theaters by now and
most accounts are negative. The IMDB gives it 2.7/10]
If one popular
series of children's books makes a successful film series, why not try another?
That is the idea behind LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. Jim Carrey
plays Count Orloff and several other roles in makeups that make him unrecognizable.
If they were serious about making this a series they would make it a Lemony Snicket
movie and not a Jim Carrey movie. It looks like a nicely crafted comedy with little
series potential.
The trailer for SEED OF CHUCKY was a teaser and did
not say much about the film. The audience said something about the film. It wasn't
a very friendly response. Do you think this series has run its course?
I ROBOT [already released] is a summer action film inspired by the Isaac Asimov
stories. Actually it is a non-Asimov story forced to have something to do with
the Asimov. It is set in a world where every sixth person is a machine. Will Smith
stars. You can bet you will hear the three laws of robotics, that the robots'
three highest priorities are to act in humans' best interest, to be obedient,
and to protect themselves. [You do hear it.] How much else can possibly be in
the spirit of the Asimov stories remains to be seen, but I am skeptical. [I had
good reason to be.] It looks like a standard sci-fi action film that has bad robots
and which quotes the Asimov laws of robotics. [On target.]
ALEXANDER
THE GREAT had a teaser reminding people who Alexander was, but did not say much
more. The teaser was narrated by Anthony Hopkins. With the failure of KING ARTHUR,
I suspect the producers of this film are having some sleepless nights.
Somewhere in Borneo young scientific explorers are looking for a Fountain of Youth
and instead run into ANACONDAS through the magic of CGI. If you want snake films
they seem to find a new one to run on the sci-fi channel every 27 minutes. I think
two weeks after this film is released they will have BOA VS. ANACONDA.
Part of what made ALIEN good was that it was about a creature that had nothing
to do with Earth. It was just out in space. However now we are told Alien has
been on Earth all along in a pyramid deep under the Antarctic. Predator is there
also. Fox owns both Alien and Predator monsters, which are somewhat similar monsters.
Already there have been novels and comic books having them fight each other. Now
they have gone the whole way and made a film: ALIEN VS. PREDATOR. Luckily they
didn't own Chucky or it would be ALIEN VS. PREDATOR VS. CHUCKY. Monster matches
have never made very good films since Frankenstein met the Wolf Man and didn't
hit it off.
There was an uninformative teaser for THE SPONGBOB SQUAREPANTS
MOVIE.
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW was originally due out
June 25. Visually it looks super, particularly for those nine of us who appreciated
THE ROCKETEER. It is set in the world of the future as seen from the 1930s. In
the era of the Depression people looked for optimism inspired by recently completed
engineering marvels like the Hoover Dam and the Empire State Building. Fiction
fantasized about giant robots and strange flying machines in the future and Depression-era
kids ate it up. This film plays off that feel and sense of wonder and I am willing
to go with it. Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow star in an adventure set in that sort
of future. Potentially I could like this film a lot or it could go clunk.
POLAR EXPRESS is a Santa Claus Christmas fantasy taking its visual style
from some very nice children's book covers. Tom Hanks does multiple voices. The
visual style looks good, but I have reservations about the candy-flavored story.
HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE [already out] is a comedy about
and aimed at college stoner kids. The director previously did HEY DUDE, WHERE'S
MY CAR? [I have not seen it, but there are good words about this film.]
CONSTANTINE is another horror film having something to do with the devil. For
those who think we need another horror film having something to do with the devil
and a supernatural detective who has been to hell and back. The source is the
HELLBLAZER comic book.
THE EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING is another horror
film having something to do with the devil. This is a film about what went before
the events of the 1973 film. Don't trust me on EXORCIST films. I actually thought
there was some good stuff in the second film.
Julianne Moore has a son
who disappears and nobody but her remembers him. Photos that previously showed
him no longer include him. Is it mass amnesia, someone fooling with the time stream,
or what? Didn't they use this idea on the Twilight Zone episode "And When the
Sky Was Opened" with returning astronauts disappearing? This film is called THE
FORGOTTEN.
THE INCREDIBLES has a short teaser about what appears to
be an over-the-hill super-hero, the father of a whole family of super-heroes.
He apparently is called back into superservice. It is Pixar so it probably will
be good.
On very little evidence, I am most looking forward to SKY CAPTAIN
AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. And I can recommend the original THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
for those who don't mind black and white. Also the original THE GRUDGE for those
who don't mind subtitles. Mark R Leeper (c)
Mark R Leeper 2004 - all rights reserved
| |
OTHER CONTENT - September 2004
Steve Cockayne Interview
Steve talks about his novel Wanderers and Islanders, being influenced by C.S. Lewis and Herman Hesse, and working as a TV cameraman, a puppeteer, and dabbling in hypnotherapy
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Tanith Lee Interview
Author Tanith speaks with SFF literary agent John Jarrold about how people are the starting point for her fiction, tackling pirates with Piratica, and being influenced by Rider Haggard, Viereck and Eldridge.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Eurocon 2004
Radi Radev reports from this year's European Science Fiction Convention. While the convention was first created in 1972 in Triest, Italy, this was the first year it's been hosted in Bulgaria.
(CON REPORTS)
Westercon 2004
Mark reports on the movies at Westercon. The trailers seemed to be better accepted by the audience than they have been at recent Worldcons, while the presentation was a little more polished - and the films seemed of a higher quality.
(CON REPORTS)
Code 46
Mark discovers that Code 46 is a very odd piece of science fiction. It is a film with some very nice material that tries some interesting ideas, but it fails to capture the viewer. Its flaws outweigh its virtues.
(FILM REVIEWS)
The Bourne Supremacy
Robert Ludlum's mysterious United States government assassin again returns to the big screen from what some assumed and hoped was death. Again we have a complex plot with twists and doublecrosses. Again the infallible and deadly assassin is pitted against the agency that made him what he is.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Offworld Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy: September 2004
Interviews with Keith Brooke, Geoff Ryman, Gerry Anderson and the co-producer of the new Sapphire and Steel series, short fiction by John Grant and Walter Jon Williams, and Locus Magazine's excellent primer on genre audiobooks.
(NEWS)
Offworld Report: Weird Science: September 2004
The latest tiny flying robot, why Martian astronauts may need replacement body
tissue, harvesting helium-3 from the Moon, the threat to humanity from giant tsunamis and super volcanoes, and the possibility of life on Venus.
(NEWS)
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