Groundhog Day is becoming its own genre of film. Groundhog Day as a horror film -> Happy Death Day. Groundhog Day as a sci-fi war film -> Edge of Tomorrow. Groundhog Day as an existential romantic comedy -> Palm Springs. Joe Carnahan's Boss Level continues this new tradition as the violent action film edition. It does this while maintaining a fun tone and never crossing over into offensiveness.
Frank Grillo stars as Roy Pulver, a former special forces soldier who wakes up every morning with people trying to kill him...
• The Guardian Vanessa Redgrave and Miriam Margoyes in conversation. Wow, love them both • Variety this year's nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... The Go-Gos, the most success female rock band of all time, FINALLY make the list -- the recent documentary surely helped -- but who knows if they'll actually get voted in because the competition is pretty fierce: Tina Turner, Carole King, Dionne Warwick, Iron Maiden, Kate Bush, LL Cool J, etcetera and only 5 will be chosen • People Halle Berry putting the trolls commenting on her love life in their place. Queen.
Tina Turner, Priyanka Chopra, and bad news for an animated film we were looking forward to after the jump...
• The next James Bond will be... Damian Lewis? Our first ginger 007 you guys! Rumor only but I could see that happening. [Mirror] • It's weird that there's not a definitive feature about the airplane-building Wright Brothers. Steven Spielberg wants to make one as it turns out. Seems like a good fit, no? [/Film] • Life on the red planet? There's water at least. Did Fox pay NASA to announce this the week before the opening of The Martian ;) ? [The Guardian]
• Rising star Jonny Beauchamp says he owes everything to Roland Emmerich. Oh noooo. Tough debt. Also there's a photoshoot [Interview magazine] • "I was being talked to like I was a silly pop singer." Grace Jones is still quotable/fabulous/singular. Just released a memoir [Time Out] • "I've got tea. I've got cookies. No cake!" I cannot tell you how often my best friends and I quote The Log Lady from Twin Peaks. RIP Catherine Coulson [Wired] • "Marlene Dietrich believed her pussy was magic" is the first sentence of this article so you know you want to read it. Why can't we get a biopic about THESE anecdotes? [Pajiba] • Is this really Frank Grillo (from Captain America: Winter Soldier) younger & NSFW? [OMG BLOG] • Everyone in the world has forgotten that Disney was going to make an Enchanted sequel. Except Disney apparently. It's going to be called Disenchanted. I shudder to think of the web exploding with "who should replace Amy Adams?" articles [Coming Soon] • "we were certainly looking for shots that told the story without a lot of cutting." - Roger Deakins on point of view and action sequences in Sicario [The Film Stage] • First image of Woody Harrelson as LBJ in Rob Reiner's forthcoming biopic [Empire]
Image of the Day Thor and The Vision making out from theAvengers: Age of Ultron gag/blooper reel. Love the elegant placement of Thor's hammer. The best part of the image is surely that man about to shoot in the corner.
Video of the Day #1 The Revenant gets a new nearly 3 minute trailer. I won't be watching it because I love the teaser so much (previously discussed, the one with all the heavy breathing) and I don't want any more information in my eyeballs before seeing it than we've already gotten. The reaction online seems breathless/"MASTERPIECEY"! but one should never bank on trailers to tell you what the finished quality of a movie will be, only to tell you whether it looks like you must see the movie. The last trailer that fooled me with "oh, this will be a masterpiece, hands down!" was Little Children (2006) and that's where I learned my lesson once and for all that the art of cutting trailers into 2-ish minute expressive gems was an entirely different art form (a beautiful art form if you don't give too much away) then making a 2 hour movie.
Video of the Day #2 "Bitch Better Have My Money" Barbershop Quartet Quintet style with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
click to embiggenBacklots on "the happiest marriage in Hollywood" William Haines and Jimmy Shields from the golden age Coming Soon first image & poster from Dracula Untold starring Luke Evans which opens in October. (I always giggle when "untold" is used in titles or taglines for characters that every man woman and child has heard of. Buzzfeed great article on Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook, and melodrama VF Hollywood Mary Steenburgen on joining Orange is the New Black for Season 3 (I think she removed this tweet because I can't find it) Jezebel is the Justice League movie really only going to have one female character? The Film Stage That's "Sir" Daniel Day-Lewis to you Guardian interesting read on how social media killed the official websites for new movies Coming Soon Frank Grillo optimistic about returning in Captain America 3 despite being kind of burned alive in Winter Soldier Variety Adrien Brody and John Cusack joining Jackie Chan in Dragon Blade, one of the most expensive Chinese movies ever. They do know those two Americans aren't box office draws, right?
Captain vs. Legos You know how I was all excited about Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which I love and saw again this weekend on a whim)becoming the #1 of the year last week? Well, it's already been replaced as The Lego Movie reclaimed the title the same weekend it debuted on DVD. Only $4,000 separate their grosses - ha! That's what you call a photo finish. The good captain isn't on DVD until September but he's also only in about 200 theaters and could easily lose the rest of them next weekend. Not that any of this matters since Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt 1 and Grace of Mona-(kidding!) have yet to arrive and will easily surpass them.
What is Valka's purpose in How To Train Your Dragon 2?
Today's Must Read Tasha Robinson at The Dissolve on "Losing Strong Female Characters to the Trinity Syndrome". Why is it that even when filmmakers care enough to craft and introduce a fascinating female hero, they always abandon, undermine or reduce her by the third act? Two current examples are dissected: Valka (Cate Blanchett) in How To Train Your Dragon 2 who gets the whole second act (but for what purpose?) and Rita (Emily Blunt) in Edge of Tomorrow
Wednesday, March 17, 2021 at 7:29PM 
