It would be too easy to seethe and writhe with dismay about Matthew Broderick — who’ll turn the big five-O(MG I’m old ) in March — reprising his role as everyone’s favorite truant teen from the ’80s, Ferris Bueller, for Honda. But factor in a 10-second teaser and a few other implications reported this morning, and the spasms of outrage might just ensue involuntarily. Indeed, there is something more than a little destabilizing about a doughy, gray-haired Bueller ripping open his curtains, uttering a midlife-crisis variation on his indelible dictum from the 1986 John Hughes classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off : “How can I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this?” The new video’s most optimistic observers wondered, “Sequel?”, while a new dispatch from Jalopnik may prompt a more piercing cry of, “Heresy?” A source familiar with Honda’s operations hinted to us earlier this year that the company was going to do a Ferris Bueller -style ad for the Super Bowl starring none other than Matthew Broderick. The source also added that the spot was going to mimic much of the original film, except this time prominently featuring Hondas. The big jump the two valets do in Cameron’s dad’s Ferrari? We hear this time it’s going to be a Honda CR-V. Honda is pouring a lot of money into this ad and, according to our source, hired The Hangover writer/director Todd Phillips to put it all together. Ah… ha . [Cue prolonged silence] I reached out earlier to both Phillips and Hughes’s family for insights and reactions to the news; neither has yet responded, but as far as I can tell, licensing the Bueller likeness is a two-party process involving Honda and Paramount, so you probably don’t have any legal drama or the like to anticipate. Coaxing Broderick, meanwhile, probably wasn’t too hard but couldn’t have been cheap at all . It’s strange, too — I always thought of Sarah Jessica Parker as the paycheck-part pants wearer in the family. According to the teaser’s YouTube page, viewers can “[s]tick it out until the Super Bowl, or take a ‘day off’ on Monday and catch the big reveal.” Your call. Developing… Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
One for the Money feels like the forgotten pilot for a TV show that wasn’t picked up for series. Watch as Stephanie Plum ( Katherine Heigl ), Trenton divorcee-turned-bounty hunter, hunts down bail skippers in her high heels while trying to choose between troubled cop Joe Morelli (Jason O’Mara) and badass fellow bond agent Ranger (Daniel Sunjata) — Tuesdays on USA! Plum is the creation of author Janet Evanovich and the basis of a bestselling 18 novel franchise, and if you squint at this big screen adaptation (directed by Julie Anne Robinson, of The Last Song and episodes of Weeds , Grey’s Anatomy, 2 Broke Girls and others) you can make out some of the character’s potential appeal — she’s an everywoman who discovers an unexpected talent for a tough gig, an outspoken Jersey girl who refuses to let the fact that she’s out of her comfort zone stop her from getting the job done, etc, etc. But as played by Heigl, Stephanie is mind-blowingly charmless, the latest variation of the on-screen persona the actress has mysteriously embraced — the prissy, once-wronged gal prone to bouts of inconveniently timed clumsiness and acrimonious banter with her eventual love interest. I don’t dislike Heigl on principle, but it’s all too easy to call out everything that’s gone wrong with the romantic comedy in recent years by way of her filmography. Her characters apparently need to be subjected to a journey of humiliating comeuppance in order to win over/come around to their unlikely loves — the rom-com as punishment fantasy. Here her hostile Romeo, Morelli (no one refers to him by his first name), is the roguish town heartbreaker who’s on the lam after having been charged with murdering Ziggy Kuleska, a local tough involved in some major criminal activity. For Stephanie, Morelli’s more serious offense is not calling her back after relieving her of her virginity in the back of a bakery when they were in high school, for which she still bears a grudge. ( One for the Money ‘s tendencies to see things like murder only as vexing complications in its protagonist’s personal life speaks both to its tonal confusion and to how minor the case around which it’s theoretically structured actually is to the film as a whole.) Stephanie will net $50,000 if she can bring the man in, though the first time she finds him she realizes she doesn’t actually have a way to do that unless he agrees to come with — and he insists he’s innocent. Heigl and O’Mara snipe at each other with the sizzling chemistry of two people who can’t wait to whip out their BlackBerries and check their email as soon as a take is over. The pair’s rictus pantomime of sexual tension is countered by Stephanie’s relationship with the hyper-competent and permanently Kevlar-clad Ranger, whom she describes as “Michelangelo’s David dipped in caramel,” and who serves as an alternate aloof romantic possibility as well as a tutor in the ways of bounty hunting. He’s more superhero and plot device than person, but he’s at least not burdened with the New Jersey accent Heigl and O’Mara gamely, unsuccessfully attempt. Stephanie is supposed to be earthy and sassy, not qualities Heigl is able to summon, but she’s also problematically written as somewhere between active if imperfect heroine and Bella Swan-style object in need of rescuing. She’s terrible at what she does, even for a beginner — a running gag about her having to rummage through her purse for her gun at urgent moments is enough to make you want to bang your forehead on the theater seat in front of you. She gets one person killed and another badly beaten, and she frequently places herself in danger, requiring the intervention of Morelli or Ranger. The tension between the allure of being saved and protected versus the desire to do things oneself is by far the most intriguing part of One for the Money , because the film (which was written by Stacy Sherman, Karen Ray and Liz Brixius) has no idea how to balance the two and ends up instead making Stephanie seem like an indulged annoyance. One for the Money ‘s TV pilot air is furthered by the flat look of the film, and by characters who are introduced largely to have no other purpose, there to be given storylines in some (saints forbid) later installment. Annie Parisse is Mary Lou, the best friend Stephanie always calls for advice; Debbie Reynolds plays Stephanie’s loopy grandmother who shoots the roast the rest of the family is eating while fooling around with her granddaughters newly acquired pistol, because accidental domestic gun violence is always good for a laugh. Patrick Fischler is Vinnie, Stephanie’s sleazy cousin/boss, and Sherri Shepherd plays Lula, a brassy hooker who offers our aspiring bond agent information. John Leguizamo, Fisher Stevens and Leonardo Nam show up too. Hopefully the masses won’t, because there are 17 more of these books just waiting to be dragged, kicking and screaming and rummaging in their purses for their weapons, onto the big screen. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . 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Terra Nova hasn’t even shot a pilot yet, but thanks to the participation of executive producer Steven Spielberg it has loads of advanced buzz and a place on the Fox mid-season schedule. Now — finally — it has an actor. Jason O’M ara — most recently of Life on Mars fame — is in talks to play the lead on Terra Nova , a man who travels back to prehistoric time with his family to participate in a project designed to give humanity a second chance at building a civilization. Which probably reads as “blah blah blah” until you remember that there will be dinosaurs. So, win. [ Deadline ]
