Bob’s October Movie Preview

By Bob 10/2/2008

Now that we have gotten through the sludge of September movies, it’s time for some Oscar contenders, and movies that think they’re good but not. Halloween is also this month so there is bound to be a lot of random horror movies going on and of course a Saw film to soak in. Whatever happens though, I’m gonna guess that at least one of the following gets some nods come Oscar time. With that, my October Movie Preview:

Cops, Robbers, and Blah

10) Pride and Glory: October 24^th

From the director of Miracle comes one of the most clichéd trailers of ALL TIME. Edward Norton as A COP. Colin Farrell as HIMSELF. What more could we want from a movie? I don’t know, and I will likely never find out because this is not one flick I will be seeing.

9) Max Payne: October 17^th

As I feverishly go through my mind trying to think of a video game adaptation that has actually been a good movie, I’m also reminded of all of the bad movies Marky Mark has made over the past ever (excluding The Departed and Boogie Nights of course). I would be shocked if there is anybody who is actually excited for this, as anybody who actually played the game has probably outgrown the genre.

8) Body of Lies: October 10^th

Leonardo Dicaprio. Russell Crowe. Ridley Scott. Something about spies. The trailers really tell us nothing about this film except, “How am I supposed to run an operation when you’re running a side operation.” I don’t really know what that means, but Leo says it in the trailer. This film looks like another lame attempt by Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe to win Oscars. I’m not buying it.

7) Flash of Genius: October 3^rd

Greg Kinnear stars as an man who invents the intermittent windshield wiper, and then has it stolen from him buy the major auto manufacturers. This just looks like a boring film that will get a lukewarm response. For some reason, however, it has been getting a huge level of marketing with television and even radio advertisements. I doubt people will buy it.

6) RocknRolla: October 10^th

Guy Ritchie is back in the genre he knows best, and this appears to be an English gangster film much in the mold of Lock Stock and Snatch. We’ll see if he still has his stuff, but for now, I’ll just pop in my DVDs of the older films that I can trust, and look to be almost identical in plot to this one.

Movies that Intrigue Me

5) Changeling: October 24^th

Angelina Jolie stars in this Clint Eastwood film about a woman whose son goes missing and is returned with something different. Any film that Eastwood directs (that’s not Flags of our Fathers of course) is worth checking out, and this looks to be no different. It got solid reviews with it premiered at Cannes, and Angelina Jolie is ready for a solid role.

4) W.: October 17^th

A film that is certain to be the years most controversial, Oliver Stone directs this biopic about our current president. While I am sure Stone will exaggerate many of the details, there is no denying that he has put together an awesome cast including Josh Broling (as Bush), Elizibeth Banks (as First Lady Laura), James Cromwell (as his father H. W.), Richard Dreyfuss (as Cheney), Thadie Newton (as Condoleezza Rice) and others as the rest of his cabinet. Whatever happens in this film, it will certainly be interesting.

3) Synecdoche, New York: October 24^th

A film that I have been awaiting since last year, this is Charlie Kauffman’s directorial debut. I have loved the films he has written (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Adaptation. ) and this should prove to be equally compelling. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a playwright who attempts to put on a production in a warehouse that includes a scale model of New York. It will probably boggle our minds, but that is Kauffman, isn’t it?

2) Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: October 3^rd

Michael Cera and Kat Dennings star as the eponymous Nick and Norah who meet each other one night in New York and have adventures. Something about the trailer really brought this movie to my attention, probably the indie style that I love. Cera is always great, and Dennings was really cool in Charlie Bartlett, so I might make my way to a cinema this week to check it out.

1) Zach and Miri Make a Porno: October 31^st

Seth Rogen and Elizibeth Banks star as two best friends who decide to make a porno together. This is Kevin Smith’s first film since Clerks 2, and I can only hope that it matches that film in hilarity. The only thing I don’t understand, is why are they releasing this film on Halloween? I guess there is probably a Saw film being released anyways.

The Western: What happened?

By Brett

Clint Eastwood once said, "I feel very close to the western. There are not too many American art forms that are original. Most are derived from European art forms. Other than the western and jazz or blues, that's all that's really original." People these days don’t really care for westerns anymore, unless Hang ‘Em High is on AMC or something. No one has made a decent attempt at a true western in a number of years. Sure, perhaps we get a Kevin Costner film every few years that takes place in the old west, but it’s not a western. Those are just emotional dramas taking place in a dusty town with lawmen and outlaws. Now with two new westerns debuting in a few weeks of each other, is it the same old song and dance, or revival?

The western is the lost American art. The settings, plots, and characters are all unique to our culture. These days, so many films are oversaturated with CGI and film twists. Why can Hollywood not go back to an era where everything was so much simpler? Why must we be subject to complicated movies that lack the fun of a true western? Sure, we still make good films, but too much of American filmmaking relies on a psychological factor that the film has over the audience. This works most of the time, but with a western, it cannot be had.

As Mr. Eastwood said, westerns are an American original. They were so exclusive to the United States that other countries began their own takes on the genre. Arguably the best western ever, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, was written and directed by an Italian as homage to the American form. We Americans should be pleased that we have this one matchless art form in our hodge podge society. I don’t know who said it, but the greatest form of flattery is imitation. That is exactly the case with westerns.

But why did Hollywood have to stop producing westerns? The formula is simple enough. You have the good guys and the bad guys, and their struggle. A woman, gambling, whiskey, and murder. A ride out into the sunset. Simple. No twists or societal themes telling us we have to change our ways. No over elaborate explosions or stylized John Woo shootouts. Just a classic representation of what life seemed to be like out in the Old West.

My guess on what happened to the western? Hollywood just got too excited with itself. New technologies emerged and made special effects more prominent. Cinematography became something that heavily impacted whether or not someone would see a movie. Pretty boy actors took the place of rough and tough cowboys as the man every guy wanted to be. Films got to be more about the people who made them, and less about the people who watch them. Mass marketing and commercialization took over. Blockbusters became the new thing.

Now people won’t go to a western if they can help it. Not without a big name star or unbelievable (literally) action scenes. People today are impatient, and get bored too quickly unless something blows up or someone hot takes their shirt/bra off. Realism won’t make studios money, so why should they bother with it? Westerns have lost that human element that separated them from every other film. Today, the closest thing to a western has been Banditas, a movie that Aaron professes shouldn’t even have been made, and The Missing, which has more drama than high school cheerleader try outs. These movies are not westerns, they are movies trying hard to be westerns.

With 3:10 to Yuma and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford coming soon to a theater near you, I can’t help but ask: Is this the rebirth of the American western, or another overcomplicated attempt at one? One is a remake, the other wholly original. I’m not expecting an instant classic from either, but I am expected to be wildly entertained. I’m also expecting Mexican standoffs, men who are above the law, and heroes with fast guns. That, to me, is western. And while I feel that 3:10 to Yuma is going to err on the side of Hollywood psychology and film twists to make it good, I hope that Jesse James, at least, holds true to the genre, and becomes the next great western.