Clerks II Update

The countdown begins. It's just recently been announced that the official release date for Clerks II is August 18, 2006. Though that's still a couple of months away, I'm overjoyed to finally learn the release date. And even more so, I've also learned that the "official" trailer for Clerks II will be featured at the head of Scary Movie 4, which will be released in theaters on April 14. It probably won't be very good, but I'll be first in line just to see that trailer. Stay tuned for more Clerks II related news!

High Rental Value

Usually when I'm talking about films on the blog, they're films I've seen in theaters. But now, I think it's necessary that I start talking about the films I see on DVD, as well. Some very good movies were released this week, and I'm sure you'll enjoy them just as much as I did!

Rent 4/5
I was really looking forward to seeing this one in theaters, but sadly I never got to check it out. Big mistake. I'm usually not one for musicals, but Rent is really a fantastic film, concerning eight bohemians trying to make the best of things in New York's gritty East Village, where both poverty and AIDS are on the rise. There are tons of great songs in this film like "Seasons of Love" and "La Vie Boheme," but the singing does grow a bit tiring by the end. Still, this is an excellent movie and well worth a rental.

The Weather Man 4/5
Once again, Nicolas Cage turns in a fantastic performance in The Weather Man, the new film from Gore Verbinski. This one falls into the same category of American Beauty and About Schmidt, with Cage playing a Chicago weatherman whose relationship with his ex-wife and kids is falling apart. Steve Conrad's script is fantastic and very well-written, making for a very good film. Michael Caine also turns in a great performance as Cage's father. I highly recommend this one, as well.

Date Movie *½

Date Movie
Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. Starring Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Tony Cox, Eddie Griffin, and Fred Willard. Rated PG-13.

It seems like every couple of months these days they’re coming out with some new spoof of a certain genre, thinking it will ride the Scary Movie train and become a blockbuster. But as of late, these types of movies have been getting worse and worse. Date Movie is no different. This time around, they’ve decided to spoof romantic comedies like Meet the Parents and Bridget Jones’s Diary. The hideously overweight Julia Jones believes she will never find love. But after a visit with Hitch, the date doctor, he “pimps her out” and makes her beautiful. Not long after that, she meets and falls in love with Grant Funkyerdoder. Shortly after, they meet each other’s parents, plan the wedding, and even have their wedding crashed! This has to be one of the most inept productions I’ve ever seen. Most of the jokes are lame and fall flat. Even though I laughed boisterously during their great Kill Bill spoof (featuring Ben Stiller, reprising his character from Dodgeball), the movie just doesn’t work.

Black Suits Comin'

Yesterday was Friday and, as always, I had to buy a USA Today to read their new movie reviews. I opened the paper up to their "Life" section, where I saw the poster pictured to the left. Apparently, Columbia has decided to release a Spider-Man 3 poster to the public over a year before its theatrical release! As you can see, the poster features everyone's favorite superhero, looking very gloomy in a new black suit. After talking with somebody who's a big comic aficionado, he told me that the black suit could only mean one thing...Venom! What will become of the Spider-Man series? I don't know, but I have to say, that black suit is cool. Kinda reminds me of that Will Smith song.

Madea's Family Reunion **½

Madea's Family Reunion
Directed by Tyler Perry. Starring Tyler Perry, Rochelle Aytes, Lisa Arrindell Anderson, Blair Underwood, and Boris Kodjoe. Rated PG-13.

Seeing Madea's Family Reunion was an odd choice for me. I loathed Diary of a Mad Black Woman, but the trailers for this one made me think it could be an improvement on the ghastly original. I must have an eye for this kind of thing. Writer/director Tyler Perry plays Madea, the pistol-packing grandma from the original, who is currently planning a big family reunion. At the same time, she has to deal with a number of other things, such as her love-troubled nieces, Lisa and Vanessa. The former is trying desperately to escape her abusive fiancee, and the latter believes she has finally found love in a kind bus driver. As I've said before, I found the original to be almost completely abysmal, probably because of high expactations which were due to false marketing. In the new installment, there's a lot more laughs, much more Madea, and even though it sometimes ventures into that Lifetime movie-of-the-week territory, it's still a pretty good movie...especially if you're seeing it with a highly enthusiastic crowd like I did.

Clerks II

Since 2004, I've been a Kevin Smith fan. The first View Askew film that I saw was Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and from there I was hooked. Currently, Smith is tied with Quentin Tarantino as my favorite director and Clerks is tied with Pulp Fiction as my favorite film. In October 2004, I purchased the 10th Anniversary Edition DVD of Clerks (pictured to the left). In the booklet that came in the package was a letter from Smith himself, looking back on the making of the film. Closing the letter, he said the following. "And that's why I am going back. They say you can never go home again. Watch me. Clerks 2 in '05." And from there, the obsession began. On September 29, 2005, the Clerks II production site was launched. Every couple of days, they cranked out some new pictures, news reports, or my personal favorite -- production videos! For the past couple of months I've been downloading these things religiously and I often re-watch my favorites like The Good, the Bad and the Man, which documents what happened after a special screening of the flick for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Now, all of this stuff was fantastic, but what happened next was the topper. On January 9, 2006, Smith released the first official Internet teaser trailer for Clerks II. If you're not yet convinced that Clerks 2 is going to be fantastic, go check it out. You'll be converted. As far as I know right now, it's set to be released in August (probably the 11th), and I recommend that everyone go see it multiple times! I know I will.

My Big Fat Independent Movie

Doing a blog about Memento a couple of days ago reminded me of another movie I've seen recently. It's the lowbrow comedy for the highbrow crowd. In the vein of Airplane and Scary Movie comes My Big Fat Independent Movie, a send-up of several recent independent films like Pulp Fiction, Clerks, Swingers, Memento and more! Ever since hearing about it and seeing the trailer, I was psyched (not only because it spoofed movies I love, but also I would get to see the weasel Pauly Shore get his head blown off). Most would think it's a lot of juvenile gay and fart jokes packed into 90 minutes...and they're right. But it's still a good movie and I give it 4/5. I should also note that I purchased the two-disc unrated DVD, which is only available at Best Buy stores for the time being. The single-disc rated edition is available everywhere though, so you can still see it (albeit an inferior version).

Memento Mori

For the two of you out there that haven't seen Christopher Nolan's Memento, it's a fantastic flick and you should definitely check it out (5/5, by the way). And every great movie should get a great treatment on DVD, right? Well, Memento certainly does, with a bountiful amount of extras and superb video/audio quality. However, the DVD menus are designed in such a way that extras and even the film itself can only be accessed by taking psychological tests. As you can imagine, it's quite hard to navigate. But that's what the Internet was made for! After some snooping, I've found a complete guide that gives directions to find every extra on the disc! I am now a happy camper.

Tristan + Isolde **

Tristan + Isolde
Directed by Kevin Reynolds. Starring James Franco, Sophia Myles, Rufus Sewell, David O'Hara, and Henry Cavill. Rated PG-13.

Normally, I probably wouldn't have gone to see a film like this because I'm not the biggest fan of war movies or love stories. Yes, I was dragged to it. And just as I thought, it was underwhelming. Tristan, a noble English knight, is injured and left for dead after a great battle. After his body is put onto a boat and pushed out to sea, the boat washes upon a shore of Ireland, where he is nursed back to health by Isolde, the future queen of England. At the same time, Isolde's father, King Donnchadh, has chosen to give away his daughter to the winner of a tournament between the greatest warriors of England, a tournament that Tristan is to participate in. However, her hopes are crushed when she learns that he is fighting for her in behalf of the English Lord Marke. I went in with low expactations and rightly so. There were some good qualities to the film like a decent romantic story and some fairly good battle sequences, but it still turns out to be just a below average movie.

The Pink Panther ***

The Pink Panther
Directed by Shawn Levy. Starring Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Beyonce Knowles, Jean Reno, and Emily Mortimer. Rated PG.

Going into The Pink Panther, I didn't really know what to expect. I had never seen the original Blake Edwards films, and only a few episodes of the classic cartoon. The trailers looked funny (DO-BURGER, anyone?), and I'm a big Steve Martin fan, so it couldn't be all bad, I thought. Luckily, it wasn't. A famous soccer coach has just been murdered, and his highly valuable Pink Panther diamond has been stolen. Hoping for the media to think someone else is solving the case while he does it himself, Chief Inspector Dreyfus assigns the unintelligible and clumsy Inspector Jacques Clouseau to the case. But little does he know that Clouseau may be better at his job than he seems. The real highlight of this film is the physical comedy of Steve Martin. He brings something to the film that just wouldn't have been if someone else had been cast. Though some may not enjoy the continuous slapstick, I found the film to be very funny (and a definite treat after When a Stranger Calls).

Waiting...

A couple of months ago, Lions Gate released a great comedy called Waiting..., a comedy in the vein of Clerks and Office Space about the employees of a chain restuarant called ShananiganZ. Written and directed by newcomer Rob McKittrick, Waiting... is one of the funniest films of 2005 and it has finally arrived on DVD only four months after its original release! Needless to say, I ran out and bought it immediately today! The discs are packed to the brim with extras like deleted scenes, outtakes, and a 1.5 hour documentary called "The Works." I've also written a DVD review, which can be found here. So what are you doing still reading this? Go and find it!

Five Dollar Shake Productions

I was just going over the blog and realized that I hadn't yet mentioned my new production company, called Five Dollar Shake Productions. Of course, the company gets its handle from my favorite movie, Pulp Fiction. The first official production from the company will be An Evening with Bryan, but we originally started out doing short, humorous videos for the Internet. Our most popular was Fake Dante, a satire of the original ending of Clerks. In fact, we even got featured on News Askew, the official website for all View Askew related news! For a while, the company will do more short films until I can get our first full-length feature, The Exit Doors, off the ground. I've also set up a website for the company. Stay tuned!

When a Stranger Calls *

When a Stranger Calls
Directed by Simon West. Starring Camilla Belle and Tommy Flanagan. Rated PG-13.

My eyes. How do I roll thee? Let me count the ways. Is it just me or are horror movies getting worse? Going into When a Stranger Calls, I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but what I got was much worse than I had ever envisioned. Young high school student Jill Johnson has just broken up with her boyfriend Bobby, and their constant over-the-phone rehashing of their relationship has led Jill to go over her cell phone limit...by 800 minutes! Grounded after her colossal overage, she is sent to babysit for a family to make the money for the phone bill. Alone in the house for hours, she begins to receive strange calls from an anonymous person. Is she just being prank-called, or is her life in danger? Quite honestly, this is the most mediocre attempt at horror since The Fog. Camilla Belle gives an atrocious performance here as the endangered teen, and if she keeps doing movies like this, her career will surely end. Just skip this one. I have nothing more to say.