filmmaking
08/09/2007
Be Kind, Rewind
When I first heard about the concept for this Jack Black vehicle -- a man accidentally erases all the movies at his friend's video store, and together they must remake the films themselves -- I thought it just sounded like an amusing setup for Black to run around and be silly for a couple of hours. Nothing wrong with that, either. But I was wrong.
To begin with, Be Kind, Rewind is brought to us by Michael Gondry, director/co-writer of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Second of all, Black's co-star is the immensely appealing Mos Def, who not only has Emmy-nominated dramatic chops, but has also pulled off comedy flawlessly in everything from Chapelle's Show to Hitchhiker's Guide. So there's that.
But the big thing is, it looks good. Instead of a simple farce about two guys bumbling around with a camcorder, we seem to be getting a funny, charming fairy tale about two guys who remind everyone how to fall in love with movies again. Which is a lot more exciting than just a movie with Jack Black getting earing a dress and getting smacked in the face a lot.
Although it also has that.
07/27/2007
Beowulf
Zowie. Robert Zemekis follows up his motion-capture family extravaganza The Polar Express with the motion-capture fantasy spectacular Beowulf. The fact that those two projects are bookended by the basically-one-man-show Cast Away and the planned motion-capture remake of A Christmas Carol start to make you think maybe Zemekis just doesn't like working with live actors all that much. But this project looks mighty damn cool.
With the increasing dominance of CGI in the fantasy film genre, it's amazing no one's really run with this concept before. Mo-capping the actors gives them the same visual texture and intensity as the backgrounds and effects, making the whole world blend together seamlessly. It's really pretty gorgeous.
And to those who say mo-capped actors look plastic and creepy, I say puh-leeze. Like Angelina Jolie didn't already look like a goddess crafted from Sculpey anyway.
