2009 Favorites (So Far)

Is there a sadder marquee than that? I think not. Still, with 20+ days left in 2009 and several movies yet to see, here are my picks for my favorite movies of 2009, so far. Remember, these may not be the best movies of the year, but they are simply my favorites of 2009. I haven't seen everything (I don't get free passes or advance screenings, and I certainly can't afford to see everything, as much I'd like to). And while one or two may still get bumped from my final Top Ten come this January, they are the 8 movies I enjoyed most this year.

You can argue, trash, agree or disagree. I don't care (and my feelings aren't easily hurt).

Coming in at Number 8: Coraline

Henry Selig's stop-motion version of Neil Gaiman's tale about a little girl who stumbles upon an alternate world that isn't quite as perfect as it seems was delightfully dark and creepy. A joy for Stop-Motion fans, Gaiman fans and Selig fans alike. Pure fun.

Number 7: Watchmen

Zach Snyder's version of the supposedly "unfilmable" graphic novel may not be the best Superhero movie ever made, but it's striking visuals and grim tone make it the best anti-superhero movie ever made.

Number 6: Zombieland

Hilarious performances, cracker-jack writing and that amazing Bill Murray cameo all combined to make Zombieland the funniest zombie movie since Shaun of the Dead (even if the evil you-know-whats scared the crap out my dear D).

Number 5: Star Trek

JJ Abrams' re-boot of the classic franchise was original, reverent, exciting and a whole lotta fun. Perfectly cast and using state-of-the-art special effects, Star Trek may the second most fun movie I saw last summer. And personally, I can't wait for Abrams' follow-up.

Number 4: Trick 'r Treat

Michael Dougherty's long-delayed festival fave anthology is everything you could want from a Halloween movie: Scary, funny, original and creepy, Trick 'r Treat went Direct to DVD, but deserved a theatrical release. I hope Dougherty's planned follow-up gets the big-screen wide release it should.

Number 3: District 9

Neill Blomkamp's feature debut is not just a Science Fiction tale about aliens, but rather a story about Mankind's Inhumanity. Striking, disturbing and brilliant, District 9 is one of those movies that stay with you long after you've seen it. Brilliant.

Number 2: Drag Me To Hell

Director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man; The Evil Dead Trilogy) makes a triumphant return to horror with this tale about a bank employee cursed by a gypsy. I saw this film with the cast of my summer show and we spent the entire film screaming and jumping into each other's arms. Absolutely the most fun time I've spent in a movie theatre in a long, long time.

Number 1: Moon

Duncan Jones' feature debut is a provocative and insightful story that hearkens back to 70's Sci-Fi like Silent Running and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Am Oscar-worthy performance by Sam Rockwell is just the start of this intelligent, quiet picture about an astronuat/miner spending his days counting down to the time when he gets to return to his home and family, only to discover that his whole life may well be a lie. Simply brilliant.

Look for my full Top Ten of 2009 in January, when I've had a chance to see all the amazing films that December has to promise. I'm still looking forward to seeing Up In the Air; The Princess and the Frog; Avatar; Nine; It's Complicated; A Single Man; Sherlock Holmes and The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. That's a lot of movies to see in three weeks, but I think I can do it. And I hope that I get to see most of them with most of my usual suspects...

And what are your favorite movies of the past year? My Least Favorites coming up soon.

More, anon.
Prospero

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I Should Be So Lucky

Via i09 comes this story of Uraguayan filmmaker and FX artist Frederico "Fede" Alverez, who made a five minute video called Panic Attack and now has a multi-million dollar deal to expand the the thing into a feature film under the guidance of Drag Me to Hell director, Sam Raimi.

Of course, I'm just a writer and a stage director. I don't have open access to post-production facilities. Hell, I don't even own a decent still camera (though I have asked Santa for one, this year). And in all honesty, my demo video would probably be a zombie movie, instead of a giant robot movie. Still, it's mighty impressive what Alvarez has done in his spare time and about $500 U.S. (I have no idea what Uruguay's currency is called and am too lazy (and a little too jealous) to look it up, right now. OK - maybe not...

Anyway, here's Alvarez's original short:



Sorry, but any director who can reference Potempkin; Cuaron, Transformers, Independence Day, War of the Worlds and 9/11 in one 5-minute short, deserves all the attention he can get. I only hope the full-length version of Panic Attack is half as good.

And I'm still waiting for news on the project I mentioned last night. Keep everything crossed you can cross for me. Details (good or bad) as soon as I know.

More, anon.
Prospero

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Oops, They Did It Again

That's the "Ned Flanders" (i.e. not much to look at until he removes his clothes) of Hollywood, Alan Tudyk ("Dollhouse;" "Firefly:" "V") in Death at a Funeral, a 2007 comedy directed by Frank Oz. The movie, written by Dean Craig, is an outrageously funny look at the family secrets that come out after one dies. In this particular shot, Tudyk's character has taken what he believes is a Valium but is in reality, an hallucinogen. In the movie (WARNING - Spoilers ahead), the family patriarch has died and it comes to light that not only was he gay, but he had been having an affair with a Little Person (The Station Master's Peter Dinklage). I loved this movie when I saw it and urged everyone I knew to see it, as well.

Of course, Hollywood, being run by CPA's* rather than artistic visionaries, hired Craig to write a new version, starring a primarily African American cast, headed by Chris Rock; Martin Lawrence; Tracy Morgan; Danny Glover; Loretta Devine and Zoe Saldana. Of course, Luke Wilson and James Marsden are on hand as the token white men. Directed by Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men and the painfully bad remake of The Wicker Man, starring Nicholas Cage), the 2010 version looks just awful (though I must admit I don't mind seeing Marsden in the Tudyk role...).

Let's compare, shall we? Here's the trailer for the original:

And here's the trailer for the American version:

All I keep asking myself is: Why? And almost as important: Is Peter Dinklage the only Little Person working in movies? Why would he even agree to appear as the same character in a lame remake of a movie he'd already done?

Symptomatic of the problems that are inherent in most Hollywood movies today, the remake of Death at a Funeral is just another reminder of the sad state of modern American Cinema. There are loads of writers out there with original stories to tell. And there are loads of directors with original visions to commit to celluloid. Why should a once-promising director like LaBute be given a chance to remake yet another British classic, when he failed so spectacularly with The Wicker Man? Meanwhile, struggling writers with original ideas are reduced to peddling their scripts to independent filmmakers in the hope that they'll make a splash at Sundance or the Toronto Film Film Festival.

Yes, Hollywood has always been about making a profit. Every business is. But it also used to be about allowing people with vision to make original works of art that resonated with people around the world. It's so sad to see an industry that used to dominate the rest of world, reduced to making poor copies of what the rest of world produces.

I will not be seeing the new version of Death at a Funeral and I urge you to join me in boycotting what promises to be an unfunny mess. And yes, I know that remakes have been around almost as long as the industry itself. Hell, even DeMille remade The Ten Commandments, and A Star is Born is scheduled for its fourth incarnation. Still... I'd rather sit through an original film than a lame remake, any day. Sadly, until the sheep that most movie-goers are wake up and smell the disappointment, we'll be subjected to more of this kind of crap. And I will continue to gripe about it. 'Nuff said.

By the way, Uncle Prospero had a rather exciting phone call late last week, and may well have some very big news in the next coming weeks. Please keep your fingers, toes, eyes and any other body part you can, crossed for me. I'll let you know as soon as I can.

More, anon.
Prospero

*Prospero in no way intends to mean that all CPAs are morons. Only those who are currently running the big Hollywood studios.

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Wunderkind No More?

That's a picture of director Tim Burton's wife, actress Helena Bonham-Carter, as the Red Queen in Burton's upcoming live-action version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Burton's films are instantly recognizable as his, even when they don't star Johnny Depp (which, lately, is never).

20 years ago, Burton was Hollywood's wunderkind; a film prodigy whose like had never been seen before. His visual style was new and unmistakable, even in his first feature film, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, starring pre-scandal Paul Reubens as man-child Pee-Wee Herman on a quest to retrieve his stolen bike. The script by Reubens and the late, great Phil Hartman, was loaded with cheesy and often hysterical jokes, punctuated by Burton's own weird sense of humor.

Take this scene for example, in which Pee-Wee and the curiously hot Judd Omen as escaped convict Mickey, drive through the desert at night:

You can't really see it in this clip, but the increasingly bizarre road signs that they pass are very obviously (and deliberately) on wheeled carts. And of course, late character actress Alice Nunn practically steals the movie with her hilarious performance as the ghostly trucker Large Marge.

Burton's next big picture was 1988's Beetlejuice, an odd comedy starring Alec Baldwin; Geena Davis; Jeffrey Jones; the always amazing Catherine O'Hara; a then-unknown Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton as the titular "bio-exorcist." Beetlejuice (a corruption of the name of the celestial body, Betelgeuse). It's here that mainstream audiences are first given a glimpse of Burton's particular style:

Then came Burton's adaptation of the classic Superhero Batman. Originally derided for the casting of Keaton in the title role, Burton's Batman went on to become both a critical and box-office success, spawning several sequels, including Burton's own Batman Returns.

I must admit a certain love for the Batman, but Joel Schumacher went on to destroy the franchise (until Christopher Nolan revived it with two amazing films, much later). Between the two Batman movies, came Burton's most personal film, Edward Scissorhands, his first collaboration with Depp and the first time I fell for Depp's huge eyes (and when I realized what a fine actor Depp actually was). Edward Scissorhands is a sweet fairy tale about theultimate outsider co-starring Ryder; Dianne Weist; Anthony Michael Hall; Kathy Baker; Alan Arkin; Conchata Farrell; O-Lan Jones and Burton's idol, the late, great Vincent Price:

Burton next wrote, designed and produced the amazing stop-motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas, again featuring the voices of O'Hara and Reubens along with Chris Sarandon, Wiliam Hickey; Glen Page and long-time musical collaborator Danny Elfman:

Burton's follow-up my well be his best film, ever. Depp stars as "Z" grade director Edward D. Wood, Jr. in Ed Wood, a romanticized biopic about the infamously bad director. It earned co-star Martin Landau a well-deserved Oscar for his performance as the aging Bela Lugosi and fully cemented Burton's reputatin as an A-List director:

Then came the underrated, all-star Mars Attacks!, the movie that Independence Day should have been, featuring an early performance by then-unknown Jack Black:

Ed Wood was followed by Sleepy Hollow (again starring Depp) and an ill-advised re-make of Planet of the Apes, starring Mark Whalberg; Bonham-Carter; Tim Roth and genre legend David Warner. 2003 saw Burton's adaptation of Daniel Wallace's novel Big Fish with Billy Crudup; Albert Finney; Ewan McGregor; Jessica Lange and Drag Me to Hell star, Allison Lohman. The story of a son coming to grips with his dying father's tall tales, Big Fish was a critical, if not financial success. It's visuals are rather amazing and its performances even more so. Big Fish never found the audience it deserved, probably because it was just a little too weird:

Burton's follow-up? A new version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. While Burton's version is actually more faithful to Dahl's book, it was unfairly compared to the 1971 version starring Gene Wilder in an admittedly career-defining performance. Still , I personally prefer Burton's version starring Depp as Wonka: Freddie Highmore as Charlie: the quirky and underrated Missy Pyle and cult-icon Deep Roy as all of the Oompa-Loompas:

Burton's follow-up was another stop-motion story, Corpse Bride, which featured the voices of Depp; Bonham-Carter; Emily Watson; Tracy Ullman; Joanna Lumley; Jane Horrocks; Richard E. Grant; Christopher Lee; Michael Gough and Danny Elfman in a macabre love story:

Sadly, Burton's hit-or-miss career most recently included the dank, grisly and humorless version of Stephen Sondheim's career-defining operetta, Sweeney Todd. Mis-casting Depp as the title character, Burton turned Sondheim's masterpiece into a bloody horror movie, missing the show's point, entirely. Of course, my opinion of the movie has nothing to do with do with my own performance as Todd in what may be a definitive production directed by my friend (and probably the best theatrical director I know), Dale Simon. Burton's film? Lame:



Dreamworks didn't even trust Burton to advertise the movie as a musical. Sad. Depp's reedy tenor is all wrong for the baritone that Sondheim imagined, thought Bonham-Carter is quite brilliant as Mrs. Lovett, as are Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin and Sacha Baron Cohen as the fraudulent Italian barber, Pirelli.

So, Burton's next film is due this spring, and from everything we've seen, it's definitely a Burton film. But will it be a good one? Only time will tell. As a lover of Carroll's works (and nonsense in general) I can only hope that it will be wonderful. But given Burton's track record of late, I have my doubts. Here's the latest teaser:

So, what do you think? Is Burton still the genius he was in the late 80's and early 90's, or has he lost his touch? Enquiring minds want to know... Personally, I hope Alice is a huge hit, though I will withhold judgment until I actually see the film. Lord knows, we could have been subjected to this, if Burton had been given the go-ahead to make his veriosn of Superman.

Just a reminder, there will be no Caliban's Revenge post tomorrow. Read my ramblings instead on the Zombie Zone.

More, anon.
Prospero

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Bringing Back the Bite

I know that 2009 has 28 days left, but here's the first movie I want to see in 2010: Daybreakers. If you haven't heard, it takes place in a near-future where vampires have taken over the world and the supply of human blood is on the verge of extinction. As vampire scientists race to find an artificial blood substitute, the last vestiges of humanity struggle to survive.

Meanwhile, a cure for vampirism is discovered and the world must choose between a normal, human lifespan, or an eternity of starvation. No teen angst; no sparkling; no greasy flat-faced creeps elevated to obsession status by 13 year-old girls and 35 year-old cougettes (yes I just made up a new word - use it, but credit me, bitches). No hunky, tattooed werewolves; no romantic guilt. In fact, there is not one single mopey, mumbling Emo child in the whole damned picture - thank the gods!

Written and directed by Aussie brothers Michael and Peter Spierig (Undead), the movie stars Sam Neill (Jurassic Park); Willem Dafoe (Antichrist; Spider-Man; Wild at Heart) and Ethan Hawke* (Gattaca; Dead Poets Society).

As I've said before, I blame Anne Rice for the whole Romantic Vampire phenomena, but am thankful for films like this, Let the Right One In and 30 Days of Night for reminding us of what monstrous beings vampires are.

Hell, I was sold when I heard the Pet Shop Boys' cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up that Hill." I just hope a January release doesn't mean it sucks (and not in the good way). The good folks at i09 have more here.

By the way, my Favorite Movies of 2009, my Favorite Movies of the Decade and my 2009 Movie Preview are all coming soon.

*And here's my snark for the day - I have it on the personal authority of someone who has met him, Ethan is not the most regular bather... ew!

More, anon.
Prospero

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Mrs. Keaton's a What?

This is probably old news to all of you by now, but Meredith Baxter, star of "Family Ties;" Ben and countless Lifetime movies, came out publicly today. The 62 year-old actress says it was a late-life realization and has been in a relationship with her partner for five years. Once married to actor/director David Birney and a mother of five, Baxter realized that taking part in a lesbian cruise last year would come to surface, so she decided to make the announcement herself, before the tabloids and creeps like Perez Hilton did it for her.

She says she has lived a very out life in L.A. for the past seven years, and that all of her friends and family already knew.

Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this. First of all, of course, "Yay!!!" Another celeb comes clean. Second, I'm stricken by how sad she must have been for 55 years... no one should have to wait that long to live the life they were born to live. And sadder still that an impending announcement by the sleaze-tastic Perez and the even worse TMZ, forced her to come out. While I am a firm believer that coming out will set you free, I also think it should be a personal choice.

I've never been a fan of third-person outing. Yes, even though they've never actually said "I'm Gay," we all known tons of celebs who are, including CNN hottie Anderson Cooper, Jodie Foster and Queen Latifah - all of them outed by third parties, whether they wanted to be, or not. And of course poor, put-upon Rupert Everett whines about how coming out killed his career (honestly, Rupert, making a movie with Madonna is what killed your career - not the fact that you're gay). But how much damage can be done to one's C-List career at age 62?

I applaud Ms Baxter for the courage to come out publicly. I wish more celebrities would (no, not you, Adam). I'm glad she finally found love as it actually gives me hope. But still...

The point is, we shouldn't care. It shouldn't be shocking when anyone comes out. It shouldn't be shocking that anyone is gay. Or straight, bi, transgendered or inter-sexed. This is 21st Century, folks. I thought we were all supposed to be enlightened* by now. Get on with it already, would you? Sheesh!

Anyway - here's Baxter on the Today show:

And here she is in her tour-de-force performance in the TV Movie "A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story" (co-starring the once very attractive, ambi-sexual Stephen Collins):

Honestly, this is a good thing. As more public figures come out, the more people will realize that sexuality neither defines or confines us and that who we love is far less important then the fact that we do love.

*Wow... that's such an inside joke...

More, anon.
Prospero

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Finally, a Movie Worth Re-Making

In 1979, Disney was in trouble. After Walt died, the studio's standards had fallen and they hadn't had a hit in ages. In a desperate attempt to capitalize on the Sci-Fi craze that had been generated by Star Wars and Close Encounters of the The Third Kind, they assembled a crack team of B-List stars, a former sit-com director (whose only hit movie was the original Freaky Friday, starring the reason Reagan was shot) and a script from a couple of aging TV hacks. The plot revolves around the discovery of the USS Cygnus, missing for 20 years, now perched perilously close to the event horizon of the largest known black hole in the universe, mysteriously immune to the supposedly irresistible gravity. The crew of the rescue ship, The Palomino (lamest spaceship name ever!), boards the Cygnus to discover an army of very cheap-looking Stormtrooper-wannabe robots under the command of the only human on board, mad genius Dr. Hans Reinhardt, who believes his anti-gravity device will protect the Cygnus as he takes her (and the Palomino's crew) into the titular hole. The cast includes Maximilian Schell; Anthony Perkins; Robert Forster; Joseph Bottoms; Yvette Mimieux; Ernest Borgnine and the voices of Roddy McDowell and Slim Pickens as the C3PO and R2D2 of the movie. And of course, there was a "menacing" red, silent hoverbot also named Maximilian. Cheap, silly and loaded with some of Disney's worst dialogue, The Black Hole is a terrible movie:

Well, from those Sci-Fi geeks over at i09 comes the news that Disney has green-lighted a remake of the Black Hole from the team that is about to give us the long-awaited Tron sequel. Given that Disney had been in the business a lot longer than George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg, one might think they would have embraced the new technologies being created by folks like Douglas Trumball and Rick Baker. Instead, they skimped on bad physical effects and cartoonishly anthropomorphic robots. So, for the first time in a long time, comes happy news of a remake of a bad movie that should have better than it was. in the first place. It pleases me to say that I can get behind The Black Hole remake (it also makes me giggle 'cause it sounds so deliberately dirty, which it is). And trust me when I tell you how hard it was not to make more dirty jokes about this movie's title...

And since I went there (talk about segues), as I write this, there are 46 minutes left of World AIDS Day here on the East Coast. If you read me regularly, you know that I am a founding board member of the James Tolin Memorial Fund. We produce an annual benefit featuring a performance of an LGBT-themed comedy and a gala reception and silent auction to raise funds for local AIDS and Arts Education charities. And while it may be the "official" World AIDS Day, it saddens me to think that we need such a day. Every day should be "Stop Being a Selfish Prick and Do Something to Help Someone in Need Day."

Yes, the economy is bad. Yes, you all have bills to pay. So do I. I don't always have money to give. But I do have time. So skip the game next Sunday and deliver a meal to someone not only in need of food, but a smile and a friendly word or two. Attend a local fundraiser (you don't have to spend a whole lot of money) or start one of your own. Why should MLK Day be set aside as a Day of Service? If everyone did just one thing to help someone else, every day -- just one thing -- imagine how much nicer everyone's lives would be. At the risk of repeating myself: Think Globally; Act Locally. Donate. Volunteer. Take Action. Now.

Okay - the rant really is over, as is this day.

More, anon.

Prospero

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