Looks like it should be an "Indie-an" Summer

Ah the weather is getting better, the birds are singing, and the flowers are blooming. Yes spring is finally here. And that can mean only one thing...time to start thinking of the upcoming summer blockbusters! But if you hate Michael Bay or explosions in general fear not, there is hope. From the looks of it there are some really great movies coming out from some new preformers and veterans alike.

1) 500 Days of Summer
-Ok wow. I try not to giddy about a trailer (save Where the Wild Things Are) but this gem is just amazing from the looks of it. First off is the beautiful and talented Zooey Deschanel. She is the great actress in Elf and Eulogy AND she is the lead singer of She & Him (along with M Ward). In my book she is indie gold. Add to that Joseph Gordon-Levitt who was genius in Brick and you get one great leading couple. Tom (Gordon-Levitt) tries to find out where things went wrong during his 500 day relationship to Summer (Deschanel) (Get it?). I already find myself rooting for the pair to come together in pure RomCom fashion. Do yourself a favor and check out the trailer then go see it in theaters July 24th.



2) Away we Go
-John Krasinski with a beard. Acting! I love The Office, and I love Jim in The Office. But I am really glad that Krasinski is stretching out and testing his acting chops a bit. Under the direction of Sam Mendes (American Beauty) he and Maya Rudolph play an expecting couple searching for a place to call home. The script should have plenty of wit and charm as it is from an original screenplay by Dave Eggers (Author of a Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). Oh and the icing on the cake? Jim Gaffigan stand up extroadinair is in it. Expect a coming to terms comedy about coming to term in theaters June 5.



3) Explicit Ills
-Set in the middle of Philadelphia, this drama centers around the lives of some seemingly unconnected people. Starring Paul Dano and Rosario Dawson it looks to give some great preformances about real life in a real city. This came out March 6th so go right now to the movies and watch it. Oh and speaking of Paul Dano...




4) Gigantic
-Paul Dano stars in this comedy about Brian Weathersby, a matress salesman who wants to adopt a baby. His parents (Jane Alexander and Ed Asner) had him later on in their years. His love interest? Zooey Deschanel (it's going to be a good summer for me). Her father is played by John Goodman and he provides the intimidation of an overbearing father. It is written and directed by newcomer Matt Aselton but from the looks of the trailer he has a good feel for what a movie should look like. Catch it in theaters on April 3rd.


5) Transformers...Just kidding

Ok there it is 4 movies to go enjoy from now till at least july that are sans explosions and cheesy action dialogue. Unless that stuff is your thing. If then stay tuned for a preview of the explosioniest movies of all time.
Oh and here is a clip of She & Him. I'm serious, check them out.



-Kevin

New Kids on the Blockbuster

We have decided to make a title change from "Seany P Does Hollywood" which was a bit egocentric on my part to "New Kids on the Blockbuster".

It represents the fact that we are just starting to do this but were here and we got opinions and we're gonna damn well share them.

New Contributor

Hey everyone (if anybody actually reads this thing)
I just signed on to co-write Seany P does Hollywood so expect some great new posts to come in the future...we might need a change in the title...but yeah strap down for some good times and great discussions. Also, become a follower! Let us know what we should write about and what we should shut up about. Hope to see you soon!
Kevin Randazzo

This is Truth. Plain and Simple.

I have recently been going on a Charlie Kaufman binge. I just saw Synechdoche, New York and although the writing was brilliant I miss when Kaufman combines his vision with that of a director. I have been thinking alot about Eternal Sunshine and no movie made me smile more than that one. Being John Malkovich is one of his oddest films. But I have to say that Adaptation is his best film to date. The screenplay is rich with beautiful lines and monlogues (like this one) and it just has one of the most ironic and engaging storylines.

No real news here, just a love for Charlie and a hope that he makes many more

Where the Wild Things Are Poster is Released

I haven't been as excited as most are for the movie. It definitely won't be one that I will miss but the amount of back and forth that it has been going through in the past few years and all of the dust it has kicked up is slightly disheartening. There was also some unofficial footage released that just didn't seem to do it for me.

However, this was one of my favorite books as a child and it's something that I am interested in seeing. Spike Jonze is a very good director, he wasn't really the one I would think of to create this movie but I do have faith in him.

The poster is probably the best part of the movie and has ingnited my excitement for the movie. It's in line to be one of the best pieces of movie advertising this year. Here it is....

Pretty good, eh? I like it at least

Wall-E Meets the Watchmen

Eastwood's Next Project has a few pics

Clint Eastwood is directing an Untitled Nelson Mandela project and the first few behind the scenes pics have surfaced.

The movie showcases the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. The film stars Morgan Freeman as guess who and Matt Damon as the captian of the South African Rugby team. I never imagined either of these actors playing these roles but I remain both curious and hopeful. I am rather excited for the film and think that anything that these three guys touch turns to gold, so I have faith in the film. It's also refreshing to see a movie where actors play real people and it's not a bio-pic. Not that I'm hating on bio pics but they do tend to get repetitve.

Special Thanks to The Bad and Ugly for the following picture and several others

Happy St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. I hope that you have a great one and enjoy yourself. I know that when going to college it truly doesn't matter if it's a weekday or not. The celebration continues. Remeber to celebrate a day when St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland by getting completely wasted. However, if you are with your families or a little bit too mature for anibriation then might I reccomend watching the greatest irish movie ever.

Some of you may have heard of it. It's called The Quiet Man. It stars John Wayne as an American boxer determined to escape his troubled past by moving to Ireland, where he finds love but also the obstacles that come along with love. What amuses me most about the film is how the small Irish town is portrayed and you simply fall in love with all of the characters. This scene shows the tone of the movie and is a good ol' fashoined irish fight. It had spoilers but the movie was made in the fifties and well....it's kind of a predictable ending.

The Watchmen (Review)

A group of superheroes are forced into retirement when President Nixon, in his fifth term, passes the Keane Act which outlaws vigilantes. Then when one of their own is murdered, the one former superhero that hasn't given up his ways, Rorshcach, sets out to find why his friend was murdered. This is the plot of Watchmen. Zack Snyder's latest work since his cult hit 300. It's an adaptation of the extremely intelligent and well written graphic novel of the same name. As an ardent fan on the graphic novel, it was almost inevitable that I wasn't going to like the movie and I didn't have high hopes going in. But it was because the movie was too faithful to the graphic novel, that I wasn't a fan of the movie.

A successful adaptation from a book to a movie means that the movie has to be nothing like the book and needs to instead be it's own vision. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a fine example of an adaptation that stays true to a good adaptation. If Milos Forman did the movie exactly the way that Ken Kesey wrote the book the movie would be a confusing mess. This is not what Watchmen was but its reliability to the novel left things unsatisfying.

I am not disrespecting Mr. Snyder in any way. I think he is a very talented director and his vision can save even the poorest of plot lines. I would have just hoped that he would've taken more liberties than he did. The liberties he did take helped push the movie along and made it more of a movie than a fictional documentary but it still left many things awkward and unanswered.

The performances in the film varied from wonderful to horrible. I would like to hope that we will be seeing more of Jackie Earle Haley, who played the mysterious Rorschach, in the future. He made a very complicated character his own, transforming himself into the darkest of characters, giving him the most powerful performance of the movie.

Jefferey Dean Morgan, who plays the Comedian, joins the list of dark and complicated characters in the movie. His part was very small but he managed to play it with a cold complexity that made him and his character very enigmatic and fun to watch. Matthew Goode turned a character that was simply arrogant in the novel into a more subtle villainous character.

I have yet to find out who had the bright idea to hire Malin Akerman for the role of Silk Spectre II. It isn't a very crucial character but it was a character that was sorely miscast nonetheless. She was extremely attractive and this was the first problem was that Laurie Jupiter (Silk Spectre II) is meant to be someone much older and past her prime. I know this makes me a hypocrite for being upset about them doing something different from the novel. But some liberties that are taken don't even fit the main idea of the story, like casting Laurie Jupiter as someone much younger. Her performance was also extremely forced watching her act was something that was very uncomfortable for me to watch.

The soundtrack to the movie was something else that was completely off. There is a difference between a good soundtrack and a soundtrack with good songs and the Watchmen soundtrack was a soundtrack with good songs but not a good soundtrack. Every time a song would begin playing in the movie I raised my eyebrows wondering how this song could possibly fit with the tone of that particular scene in the movie. There were some songs that fit very well. The beautifully shot opening credit sequence accompanied by Bob Dylan's Times are Changin' was very well placed with the basic tone of the film. But putting songs by Jimi Hendrix and Simon and Garfunkel in what should be more emotional and thrilling scenes just didn't seem right.

It wasn't bad but it was just a poor adaptation that could have been done better.

2 out of 4 stars.

Fred Durst a Director????

Anyone that has seen the trailer for the new film The Education of Charlie Banks was sure to be surprised when they found the words "a film by Fred Durst" blaze across the screen. Most people looked upon the name in disbelief. I know I was one that did just that. I looked upon the name and thought, "No. It's a different Fred Durst. It's not the Fred Durst that did all for the nookie. It's not the Fred Durst that was the lead singer to Limp Bizkit." Well after some research I found out that the Fred Durst on the screen is that same Fred Durst.

I was surprised to find this out but wasn't necessarily upset. Limp Bizkit was never really taken seriously as a musical artist, but perhaps that's all the more reason that maybe things could work out for him in the movie business. He was also a musician that was able to relate to a younger generation. This movie centers around teenagers and teen angst so he might be able to capture the atmosphere that he was able to show through his music.


Early reviews have said that Fred Durst has found his true calling as a director and I am not willing to dispute this until I see the movie. Also Fred has directed several of his music videos, so he has experience in the technical aspects of film.


Regardless of the director, the movie looks absolutely fantastic. I can't decide what from the trailer draws me to the movie. It could be beautiful and hypnotic background song from Fredo Viola or a cast of slight unknowns that people have seen in this movie or the other that have all seemed to grow up and really bounce off each other well. It could be the curiosity to see how first time director Fred Durst will fair. Bottom line is, the movie should be given a chance.


Unfortunately, the movie will only be released in limited and I probably won't be able to see it until it comes out on DVD but I still plan to make a rental out of it.

Below Radar: Justin Long

Justin Long graduated from the same high school as me. This may be the reason that I began to follow his career when it started but the reason I have continued to watch him is because he has surprised as someone with a lot of comedic talent.

He began to be spotted on Hollywood's radar in Dodgeball. He was the kid that got hit by the wrench. Or the kid that got crushed by the rather large cheerleader. One thing that was for sure, he made audiences laugh through his physical comedy. This was my first chance to be able to tell people that this kid went to my high school. I would say, "the kid that got hit with the wrench. Yeah, he graduated from the same place as me." It wasn't exactly a badge of honor but it was a perk for every day conversation.

He took on a lead role in the lesser known Waiting... A movie, where he played the straight man to a very funny cast. He wasn't able to show a lot of his acting chops in this one. That material didn't really allow for that. But he still showed that he could be a straight man and play very well against some comedic heavy hitters such as Ryan Reynolds and Anna Farris.

He began to grow comfortable in his leading man status in the much lesser known and very underrated, Accepted. It wasn't a great movie but he made do with the dialogue he was given, proving himself worthy of leading man status.

Throughout his career, he has done several hilarious small parts along the way. No one plays gay funnier than him. He is one of the few good parts of the very flawed The Break-Up as the gay receptionist that made the movie almost tolerable. He started off Zack and Miri make a Porno, as a gay porn actor with a deep voice and cheesy confidence that set the tone to a very funny movie. He provided an entertaining moment in Idiocracy as a stupid doctor. He even took on the task of providing comic relief in the action movie Live Free or Die Hard. His most famous work is unfortunately in the Mac commercial series which everyone has seen.

Justin showed a different side to him when he starred in the most recent romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You. This film, though very flawed, showed that Justin Long doesn't always have to make us laugh to entertain us. He showed that he could span further than comedy.

Justin Long has not had the lead in any masterpiece. He has never caught the attention of anyone serious and his goofy mug has never really been taken seriously but I can see a lot of potential and he is going to be big in the next few years. Justin Long has 8 projects he is working on currently, not all of them comedy. The future looks bright for this star. I would keep my eye on him.

The Calm After the Storm

The Oscars are over. It's over and now the cold loneliness of the winter has set in. It's the most relaxing time because there is nothing to see and instead of being intellectually stimulated (as James Franco puts it) from a movie, we can just sit back and enjoy a movie. Therefore let's all just sit back and enjoy the movies, finally. At least until the independent films begin to trickle down in the next few weeks!

Public Enemies

I have always been a fan of Michael Mann. He puts an original touch to everything he creates and films key emotional scenes with pure honesty. He is able to show personal conflict like no other. Whether it be through a cab driver and a contract killer in Collateral or a thief and a cop in Heat. The intensity of his atmosphere can even save some of his worse movies. Miami Vice was one of the worst movies of the summer of 2006. There was no character development and I had a hard time even believing that Crockett and Tubbs were partners. Yet I enjoyed the visual art that Michael Mann provided. So even if the story sucks, I will still have some enjoyment from the movie. Therefore, as a director Michael Mann has given us some great films and Public Enemies will be no exception.


From the trailer, the films looks to be shot in a vintage style much like Michael Mann's typical realistic filming that he uses often. This is going to be a film with a personal feel that Michael Mann often provides.


I am also very excited to see the performances in this movie. For the past few years, Johnny Depp was played a very many eccentric characters showing us his versatility. He has played every part to perfection but I am very pleased that he has finally been able to ground himself into a realistic character. I think that Johnny Depp has shown his versatility but needs to show us his subtlety more often. He did so, when he landed his second Academy Award nomination in Finding Neverland and was a joy to watch him play someone normal. Johnny Depp looks to have the foundation of a fantastic supporting cast on his side including the beautiful Marion Cotillard and the powerful Christian Bale. Both look to match Depp beautifully


While on the subject of performances, Michael Mann has directed several actors into performing amazing roles. He also has led several actors, including Russell Crowe, Will Smith, and Jamie Foxx, to Oscar Nominations in the past. Perhaps maybe there will be some performance nominations for this movie in the future. Until then, just sit back and watch what will probably be the best film of the summer.