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Jan 30, 2009

TGITDNMAR (1/30/09)

It's that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It's The Day New Movies Are Released.

The Uninvited
I must suppose that Unwanted and Unneccesary were already taken as film titles.

I'd like to get excited about this, what with Elizabeth Banks and David Strathairn onboard (note to Strathairn: get a new agent; you're better than this), but I just can't. Wake me when we're finished with all of the The Uns movies.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 2%

The Class
Hard to believe from watching the trailer that this won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It looks like so many other "teacher in the inner city" inspirational movies, where the white hero comes to save all the non-white kids from their surroundings and themselves. Really? We haven't heard this story enough?

The redeeming quality here (aside from the overwhelmingly positive reviews, which I'm conveniently ignoring for the time being) is that this is a semi-autobiographical tale, written by and starring a former teacher, so I'm guessing where Hollywood might bring us cliches, The Class might bring us realities. I hope so, anyway.

Of course, I'm also pretty interested in any movie that has characters with names like Souleymayne and Boubacar.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 53%

New in Town
Raise your hand if you'd heard of this Renee Zellwegger vehicle prior to this week. Anyone?

Thus, the beginning of the end of Squinchy McBunchyface's has begun. Excellent. Sadly, though, this co-stars the appealing (and increasingly talented - see Bug for additional evidence) Harry Connick, Jr. and the always-great J.K. Simmons.

Still, I can't support Renee. Go away, witchy woman. (Daniel, with your interest in Minnesotan filmmaking, will you be swallowing the pill and seeing this?)
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 0%

Taken
I gotta say, this really doesn't look like it's any good at all (not to mention the fact that we've seen a lot of angry WASP movies lately, what with Death Sentence, The Brave One, et al.)...but, something about the thought of 56-year, typically-soft-spoken Liam Neeson going on a murder death kill spree just tickles me.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 68%


6 people have chosen wisely: on "TGITDNMAR (1/30/09)"

Kyle said...

"I don't have any money, but what I do have is a particular set of skills -- skills that allow me to spit out this corny dialogue and make it seem like it actually isn't that horrible."

Nick said...

I went from 'might see it' to 'definitely will see it' for Taken when I discovered it was co-written by Luc Besson. He has his ups and downs with films, but even if they're downs, they're almost always entertaining at the least. And his 'ups' are generally the ones where he has something more to do with than 'producer'.

Fletch said...

Nick - Besson's rep with me isn't so strong. His being heavily involved with the Transporter series isn't exactly a confidence-inducer, and I can't say that I've been terribly in love with anything else he's done over the last 10 years.

Kyle - surprisingly, I've seen mostly positive news regarding Taken. We'll see...

Daniel said...

Ugh, I would rather be "Taken" to a "Class" to which I'm "Uninvited" than go see New In Town. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to be dragged along by girlfriend and friends at some point. I just have to be careful about talking about "going to the movies" for a couple weeks until they forget about it.

Nick said...

Fletch:

The past 10 years? I would definitely recommend Angel-A (it's like a French, more adult version of "It's A Wonderful Life"). Seriously... it's a brilliant (and beautifully shot) movie.

I would also recommend Unleashed. Sure it's a Jet Li action movie, but it has a lot of heart and a great story. It also has Morgan Freeman and Bob Hoskins.

And hey, the first Transporter movie (which is the only one he wrote) wasn't *that* bad. The other two he just produced, and I'm thinking that he was just one of those producers that didn't do much, but had to be there because of his somewhat involvement in the previous. Kinda like Chris Columbus with the third Harry Potter movie (and just like Transporter 2, Prisoner of Azkaban raped the source material and left it for dead).

Fletch said...

Daniel - I can't wait to read your "New in Town" review. If I were a lesser man, I'd make a paralell between it and your love for Gran Torino, but I won't do that. :)

Nick - I'd like to see Angel-A eventually, but I can't join you on the rest. I've seen enough of Unleashed to know that it's not my bag - seeing Jet Li try to act like a scared little kid is painful, though Hoskins as a baddie is fun. And The Transporter was fun to see Statham kick ass, but yes, even the first one is retarded.