Upcoming: Twilight (2008)

There are two films set to come out in the next year that I have had the pleasure of reading the books before the release of their film adaptations. The first being Watchmen which everyone by now should know is the movie I am anticipating the most in 2009. The second is film called “Twilight” which is based off the first book of a series created by the author Stephenie Meyer. I saw the teaser trailer for this film a few months back and then saw an interview with the author on a morning news show and it intrigued me. A lot of the same things were being said about her series of novels that were said during the early days of Harry Potter. People of all ages were enjoying them, the books are a huge success worldwide and the movie was making a lot of buzz in the world of film and literature. This intrigued me. Then I found out the book is based around a family of vampires. That was the selling point to get me completely interested in it.

So, as I was saying, I read the book. Finished it today actually. I just watched the trailer again and am now very much counting down the days to its release on the 21st of November. However, a few things are bothering me about the production part of the film. For starters it is being directed by a nearly no-name director whose career peaked in 99′ with “Three Kings” and hasn’t done any better since. The cast is also a bunch of B-listers, the most well known being Robert Pattinson who is playing Edward Cullen and he is only well known for playing Cedric Diggory in The Goblet of Fire. The production crew isn’t even sporting any popular names by anybodies standards either.

But, I am going to remain optimistic and hope that it doesn’t disappoint come Thanksgiving time. Few things better in films than a good vampire film for me.

Review: Burn After Reading

I believe I have come to an understanding of the film making process of the Coen Brothers. The Coen Brothers write, direct and produce their films for an audience of two. The two being Ethan Coen & Joel Coen. If the rest of the world happens to enjoy the film I am sure it is a plus to their feeling of success. Otherwise, as long as they enjoy the film it is still a success.

Burn After Reading is the second movie this year that has had the privelege of completely surprising me from what I believed the movie to be from the trailers. The other film being “Hancock” which is one of a couple dozen movies I have watched since my last post that I have yet to review on this blog (my bad). It is my own fault for thinking that I will understand a Coen Brothers film straight off the bat from just watching the trailers. Burn After Reading is a stark contrast to the Brothers’ last film, No Country For Old Men. Burn After Reading is a dark comedy with sick irony and not a lot of clarity to the plotline until the very end. NOCFOM was just plain dark and we’ll leave it at that.

The performances by the actors were pretty spot on and the dialogue was in the usual Coen-esque format (lots of repeated phrases, plenty of swearing and loads of witty one-liners). There was of course some pretty graphic violence (not nearly as much as NOCFOM though). About halfway through the film I was pretty pissed at the overall pace of the film and by 3/4 I still wasn’t very pleased. The finale did close it all together pretty well and pick up in speed but I feel even for a Coen Bros’ film they were pushing the envelope for the audience’s ability to stay attentive and enjoy the ride of the film.

If I were to score it overall it would probably fall in the low 80’s percential. I couldn’t help but feel that the movie was driven by both the fact that the cast was a bunch of all stars and the film was created by two guys who already have a healthy report with Hollywood. If the same film had been made by a nobody with some B list actors giving the same performances it probably would have tanked after the first weekend.