There’s a new Pope in town, and he’s chosen a name I rather like. Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina is the first Pope Francis in the history of the papacy. He’s also the inspiration for a trending Twitter hashtag: #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Tweets. From one Francis to another, here are my five favorites so far: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Pope #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope — Comedy Central (@ComedyCentral) March 13, 2013 The Great White Pope. #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope — Dave Coulier (@DaveCoulier) March 13, 2013 #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Mean Popes….”ummm you can't pray with us.” http://t.co/8IHE1LrPiz — ☺MATT☺ (@Mattheewwc) March 13, 2013 #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope The Pope Wears Prada— Charlie Moss (@_CharlieMoss) March 13, 2013 #ReplaceMovieTitlesWithPope Pope Floats, South Pope Bigger Longer And Uncut, Dont Tell Pope The Babysitters Dead, Teenage Mutant Ninja Popes— Mike Jurkowski (@MikeJurkowski) March 13, 2013 Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The rare remake that likely will be enjoyed most by diehard fans of its predecessor, Evil Dead often comes off as the cinematic equivalent of a cover-band concert tribute to a supergroup’s greatest hits — albeit with a lot more gore. First-time feature helmer Fede Alvarez’s blood-soaked reprise of Sam Raimi’s franchise-spawning low-budget shocker, The Evil Dead , boasts far better production values than the penny-pinching 1981 original and conceivably could delight genre fans who have never seen the first version or its previous remakes/sequels. But it’s bound to play best with those who catch Alvarez’s many wink-wink allusions to Raimi’s pic. Working from a script he co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues, Alvarez briskly sets up his recycling of Raimi’s horror premise — five friends visit a secluded cabin in the woods where all hell breaks loose — with an aptly portentous prologue and backstory-heavy opening scenes. But Alvarez goes Raimi one better, by actually offering a logical reason why the characters don’t immediately vamoose once supernatural manifestations begin. Mia (Jane Levy), a drug-addicted young woman trying to go cold turkey, is undergoing physically and psychologically agonizing withdrawal, and her companions — including prodigal brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) and medically trained buddy Olivia (Jessica Lucas) — are loath to interrupt the recovery process. Besides, all those terrible things Mia claims to see are just hallucinations triggered by withdrawal, right? Wrong. Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), the academically inclined member of the group, finds in the cabin a mysterious Book of the Dead filled with horrific illustrations, mysterious symbols and ample warnings not to read aloud anything that appears in its ancient pages. Unfortunately, Eric does not heed those admonitions, awakening a familiar demon for a new generation of young victims. Mia is the first to be infected by the monstrously malignant and singularly foul-mouthed bogeyman, but it doesn’t stop there, inspiring her cabin mates to damage themselves and each other in creatively gory ways. Alvarez repeatedly references plot elements and specific shots from Raimi’s original pic. Taking his cue from the original, he makes especially effective use of lenser Aaron Morton’s swooping, swirling camera movements, which suggest the POV of a rampaging poltergeist. But Alvarez’s tone is completely different, as the helmer rarely attempts to emulate the self-mocking, over-the-top campiness that distinguished the original Evil Dead from so many other cheapie creepies of the 1980s. Actor Bruce Campbell (who’s onboard here as a producer) more or less established himself as a cult figure back in the day with his inspired overplaying of Ash, the astonishingly resilient protagonist of Raimi’s original. In Alvarez’s version, Fernandez’s David serves the equivalent role, but he’s deadly serious. Indeed, the only character who even gets to crack a joke is Pucci’s Eric. Asked if he’s certain that actions described in the Book of the Dead will rid them of the troublesome spirit, the frantic fellow replies, “Am I sure? Of course not! It’s not a science book!” Levy is believably beastly as the possessed Mia, and manages the heavy lifting when her character must handle some last-act heroics. Other members of the cast do what they can with thinly written parts. For instance, it’s not really Elizabeth Blackmore’s fault that her role as David’s g.f. is so ill-defined and unimportant that some may forget she’s in the pic until she starts to make lethal use of a nail gun. The bloody mayhem is so graphic and frequent throughout Evil Dead , one cannot help suspecting that alternate takes had to be shot to ensure an R rating. The emphasis on dismemberment and disfigurement should make this must-see entertainment for gorehounds, but could literally scare off auds accustomed to less explicit, PG-13 fare. Ultimately, the new Evil Dead will rely heavily on existing fans of this unlikely franchise to make a killing in theatrical and homevid release. Those who get the inside jokes should be easy to spot: They’ll be the ones laughing when the onscreen carnage erupts most furiously. More on Evil Dead : Bruce Campbell on the ‘Dead Serious’ ‘Evil Dead’ Remake, Crowning A New Ash And ‘P-ssy Filmmaking’
The synopsis for Generation Um … says it’s set in present-day New York, but judging from the so-uncool-it’s-cool station wagon in the trailer — I’m thinking 1988 Chevrolet Caprice — and usage of the”Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” line from Kelly LeBrock’s classic Pantene shampoo ad, this Mark Mann-written and directed film will have a serious late-1980s vibe. Keanu Reeves plays John, a driver for an escort agency that, presumably employs his for-hire friends, Adelaide Clemens and Bojana Novakovic. After sleepwalking through life, he steals a camcorder and starts asking the ladies uncomfortable questions. Presumably, the answers lead to an existential awakening, or an amateur porn video. Although Reeves looks much younger than his 48 years, the scene of him getting the cute birthday card and check from his parents sure is unsettling. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Deadline’s report that Sony Pictures and Scott Rudin plan to turn the 1970s sitcom Good Times into a feature film reminded me that there are still quite a few sitcoms from that era that are substantial enough to translate to feature films. Here are three: 1. Sanford and Son : Redd Foxx’s character, junk dealer Fred Sanford, was initially touted as a black Archie Bunker, and the show’s writers certainly did explore racial and cultural issues, but the real genius of the show was the give and take between Foxx and a great supporting cast of comedians that played his family and friends, including LaWanda Jackson (Aunt Esther), Whitman Mayo (Grady Wilson) and Slappy White (who inspired one of Tom Hanks funniest appearances on David Letterman’s NBC Late Night Show.) There’s only one funny guy who could adapt this to the big screen and make it count, and that’s Dave Chappelle. He could make a Sanford and Son feature relevant, find roles for Charlie Murphy and other cast members from his Comedy Central show and pull in some impressive hip-hop cameos like the RZA. 2. Barney Miller: I see Hal Linden’s salt-and-pepper mustache and I can’t help thinking Will Ferrell would be great as the captain of that series multicultural squad of plain-clothes detectives in chaotic 1970s Greenwich Village. Ferrell would get to stretch comedically by playing more of a straight man role and you could cast J.B. Smoove against type as the natty, urbane Sergeant Ron Nathan Harris, rewrite the Sergeant Nick Yemana role for Korean-American actor John Cho and feature David Koechner as Detective Stan “Wojo” Wojciehowicz. The best part: Abe Vigoda, who played Det. Philip K. Fish in the original series (and briefly had his own spinoff) is still around to make a cameo. 3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are too original and ambitious to ever attempt a straight parody film, but since Fey has cited The Mary Tyler Moore as inspiration for 30 Rock, I can still fantasize about the feminist fun she and Poehler would have with this landmark sitcom. Entertainment Weekly once even drew parallels between MTM and 30 Rock characters, but, unlike that publication, I’d rather see Alec Baldwin in the Ted Baxter weatherman role. [ Deadline , USA Today , EW.com ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Zach Galifianakis looks more like Hagrid than Harry Potter in this new poster for The Hangover Part III , but you’ve got to love the references to The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 . With Ken Jeong in the Valdemort slot, the image seems to bolster reports that this final film in Todd Phillip s comedy trilogy will depart from the formula that the first two films followed. (Probably a good thing since a lot of critics felt the sequel was a carbon copy of the original.) Back in December, Phillips gave Entertainment Weekly a hint of the plot saying that Galifianakis’ character, Alan, would be the focus of the third film.”He’s going through a crisis after the death of his father, [and] the Wolfpack is all he has.” Galifianakis also told Rolling Stone that his buds, presumably Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha, break him out of a mental institution. Although Las Vegas appears to be in flames at the bottom of the poster, Phillips has said that Sin City won’t be the only location visited by the Wolf Pack. The Hangover Part III opens on May 24. A teaser trailer is expected to break tomorrow. Stay tuned. [ EW , Rolling Stone ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Where was Jimmy Kimmel before the Oscars? Kathryn Bigelow could have used him. On Wednesday night, the late-night talk-show host gave a comic lesson in marketing when he showed this trailer for the DVD release of Zero Dark Thirty that re-positions the movie as a romantic comedy instead of a pro-torture CIA procedural. All it takes is a little voiceover magic and some creative editing to depict Jessica Chastain as a workaholic in search of “the man of her dreams.” Pretty, pretty funny, as is the movie’s new title, Zero Dark Flirty , and tagline: “Sometimes it’s good to be a little bit Abbottabad.” For those who limited their consumption of Oscar-nominated based-on-a-real-story CIA thrillers to Argo , that’s the name of the town in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden’s compound was located. Speaking of Kimmel, he should be the next host of the Oscars. Hollywood loves him, and he’s got the perfect tone for the evening. In fact, Seth MacFarlane left me with the impression that he was trying to be Kimmel on Sunday night. What do you think? Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
To quote Patton Oswalt from his great KFC Famous Bowls routine, “America has spoken,” and for Oscar pundits bemoaning Lincoln ’s loss to Argo , this Oscars truly was a “failure pile in a sadness bowl”: A reported 40.3 million people tuned in to the Oscars telecast, making it the most-watched entertainment show in three years, Entertainment Weekly reports. (Suck it, Golden Globes .) Host Seth McFarlane achieved what Anne Hathaway and James Franco could not: He helped put young adult asses in the seats. Ratings for the key 18-49 demographic were up a reported 11 percent. It does help that most of the movies nominated for Best Picture were those that the general public went to see, but McFarlane was undoubtedly a draw. So, kudos. But more tradition-bound Oscar aficionados may wonder if we perhaps lost something along the way: Bob Hope: “Welcome to the Oscars, or as we call it at my house, Passover” Johnny Carson: “I see a lot of new faces here, especially on the old faces.” Seth McFarlane: “We saw your boobs” (which, by the way, could be the new official theme song for the website, Mr. Skin). Monday morning quarterbacking the Oscar telecast is a tradition in itself. If the producers couldn’t wrangle all the men who would be Bond onstage, why not gather the Bond women? A 17-minute opening? That’s like 119 in TV minutes, especially when you’re making jokes about The Flying Nun . At the Oscars. But this is not about Seth McFarlane (try telling him that). This is about the Oscar pundits who have been on this long strange trip since the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals. It has been their job to track the ebb and flow of the races (and ours to chart their ever-fluid forecasts). They’ve walked a fine line between journalistic objectivity to impassioned advocacy. We reached out to Entertainment Weekly ’s Anthony Breznican before the Oscar nominations were announced to ask about what he conceived to be the role of the Oscar pundit: “It would be arrogant to think that one reporter could dramatically change what the Academy thinks or to make a recommendation that everyone follows. I think the job really is in two parts: You have to reflect the mindset of the people who are casting the ballots because readers want to know what’s likely to get an Oscar nomination. You have to do your diligence and try to talk to as many voters as possible. How much of this is the job is the question. You can spend too much time in that echo chamber. There were a lot of worthy performances and so while you’re out there trying to reflect the feelings of the Hollywood voters, I think it’s important to occasionally [put out there], ‘Everyone’s talking about these films, but here’s one they’re not talking about that I feel is worthwhile.’ If all you do is reflect, you’re not really performing your duty, which is to highlight good work.” Oscar-race forecasting, impacted by forces objective (precursor awards) and subjective ( Emmanuelle Riva is 85 years-old!) can be a mercurial process, stymieing even Nate Silver , the graph-happy breakout prognosticator from the last presidential election, who got Best Director and Best Supporting Actor wrong (he went with Steven Spielberg and Tommy Lee Jones). The pundits’ respective acumens were put to the supreme test in a year.in which Academy members marked their ballots before the PGA, DGA and WGA nominations were announced. So how did they do? Slate.com has compiled an extensive (but not exhaustive) “Oscar Predictions Dartboard” that ranks the pundits, according to the accuracy of their picks. According to that site, the king of the prognosticators is Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil with a 91 percent success rate. His pick of Wreck-It Ralph for Best Animated Feature was the only choice that tripped him up in the categories that were analyzed. On the other hand, he correctly called the evening’s biggest surprise, Christoph Waltz’s Best Supporting Actor win over Tommy Lee Jones and Robert De Niro . His fellow Derby pundit Paul Sheehan also picked Waltz, which helped him rack up an 82 percent success rate and finish second, in a seven-way tie with EW ‘s Breznican, Huffington Post’s Michael Hogan and Indiewire’s Anne Thompson, all of whom did not pick the Django Unchained star. The pundits at In Contention, Gurus o’ Gold and Gold Derby, near unanimously charted Lincoln’s , slow, inexorable fade from frontrunner to also-ran behind Argo . Some, most notably Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone, were not happy about that, but they duly noted the sea change. Some races were fait acompli . “Anne Hathaway: Start writing your acceptance speech,” Yahoo!’s Thelma Adams wrote in November following the film’s world premiere in November. Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director presented more of a challenge, as the pundits tried to make sense and sensibility of the zero-hour groundswells for Riva, De Niro and eventual Oscar-winner Ang Lee . And now, it’s over. Ten more months until next year’s Oscar race begins in earnest. December 20. Mark your calendars. That’s the release date for Anchorman 2 . [ Slate ] Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Ric Roman Waugh says his career as a Hollywood stuntman played a “huge” role in his transition to writer-director. “It gave me a sense of the narrative process,” says the Snitch filmmaker. “I could come into a piece of material and then put my stamp on it narratively, but also construct it in a way that I know, production-wise, [will] make it completely organic and real. Waugh sat down with me for a one-on-one interview where he talked about Snitch, which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson , and about what it takes to become a director in Hollywood. For those who doubt Johnson has the chops to handle a dramatic role, Waugh says the former WWE wrestler turned out to be ideal for the role of a father who becomes an undercover informant in a drug cartel in order to spare his son a 10-year prison sentence. “When we started casting the movie, and all the usual suspects’ names came up…you know, I was like ‘boring! I’ve seen that before.’ I’ll tell you what, why don’t we just show how dangerous this world is? Why don’t we take the most formidable guy on the planet — Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson — and…show you when it’s real world rules, it won’t matter how big you are,” Waugh explained, adding: “When a bullet hits you in the head you die just as fast as the guy that’s 5’6.” Check out the interview in its entirety below: Follow Grace Randolph on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Here’s model Anja Rubik doing a dance I love….no it’s not the commercialized version of the Harlem Shake…or the Lombada….it is the forbidden dance…..and it is not the Pogo or the Charleston…or break dancing….all doin’ the worm….this dance isn’t even reenacting the final scene from Dirty Dancing…my all time favorite movie….this dance is…TITTIES FOR FASHION…… She’s a top model, she’s showing her nipple, I love nipple, even when it is not on top models….so I am all about this Anja Rubik Elle UK shit..
Michelle Williams is doing some modeling…for Another magazine….and I wish it was another model…. I had the misfortune of watching one of her movies the other day….thanks to a vagina I was trying to have sex with…and I could not get over how swollen and under allergic reaction her face looking…making me wonder if Heath Ledger knocked her up one night thinking she was Jake Gyllenhaal….in one of her medicated stupor….but more importantly…why the industry gives her work….and now she’s moved into fashion modeling…and it’s fucking confusing…but what is more confusing is that I am posting this shit….
