Welcome to Movie Musings with Laremy, a weekly feature that dives into the weekly happenings around the cinematic landscape.
Avatar will either win its seventh straight weekend at the box office… or Mel Gibson’s Edge of Darkness will knock it off. Either way, it will be the first weekend that a film comes within sniffing distance ofAvatar, a film that has racked up an impressive six straight box office weekends by an average margin of victory of $28 million.Along the way Avatar has become the
The Teaser Trailer, all 90 seconds of it, actually looks good. Nobody does the skewering of excess like Oliver Stone, and it seems as though he’s primed to knock this one out of the park. The strong guitar riffs, the giant cellular phone, Gordon Gekko back to mentor Shia LaBeouf, it’s all working here. We’ve also come off of two decades of deregulatory fiscal policy that’s left the economy in shambles. You’ll never find an audience more receptive for a scathing look at the street. The film opens against MacGruber on April 23. Anyone up for a double feature?
Bonus Random Thought: When was the last great Oliver Stone film? I respected what he did with World Trade Center, but I’m fairly certain I’m the only one who saw it. Natural Born Killers was in 1994, JFK was released in 1991. The director’s cut of Alexander was finally released in 2007, but I’m not sure how many people revisited that one either. You could make a strong case that he didn’t make a film that shaped cinematic culture in the entire 2000’s. Which means Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is Mr. Stone pushing all his chips into the middle. He turns 64 this year, can he guide his career toward Clint Eastwood status?
3. The Winner of Sundance 2010 Was…
Kristen Stewart. As I mentionedlast weekend, Sundance 2010 was a litmus test. The case on behalf of Kristen Stewart goes something like this: she appeared in Runaways and rocked the stage. She also gave a nuanced portrait of an exotic dancer in Welcome to the Rileys. Yes, she still needs to survive two (or possibly three) more Bella Swan appearances. But the Twilight series only gets darker from here on out, meaning she’ll have a legitimate shot to impress directors for the next three to five years. Combine that with a deft eye for scripts and you’ve got all the makings of an award winner. There’s a K-Stew train coming, get on board or get out of the way.
4. J.D. Salinger Passes Away.
Salinger, a literary recluse, passed away from natural causes at the age of 91. Now then, I was a Salinger fan, just like everyone else who picked up the highly influential Catcher in the Rye. So I don’t bring this up with even an ounce of disrespect for the artist himself, but you know a movie is going to happen. At one point Steven Spielberg wanted to make Catcher in the Rye but Salinger wasn’t receptive. However, just as with Nabakov’s progeny and the eventual posthumous publishing of the book Laura, the children of Salinger won’t have they same reservations as their father. They’ll want to see his memory honored, of course, and a quality director will be chosen. But the project will happen, it has too many fans not to brought to the big screen. I’d say to look out for it sometime in the Oscar season of 2012.
5. Sherlock Holmes 2 Gets Fast-Tracked.
Faithful Hollywood.com readers will have by now notedGuy Ritchie has set aside Lobo for a Sherlock Holmes sequel. I’m of two minds on this one. On one hand, Lobo has the potential to be a game-changing comic book adaptation. Snarky, subversive, slightly sociopathic, and full of fun, Lobo is great fodder for a film. My hope is that Ritchie still gets a chance to direct, though producer Joel Silver is indicating the project might have to go with another director. On the other hand, I do want to see a Sherlock Holmes sequel, one that fully delves into Moriarty. But I think Lobo has more to gain from Ritchie’s participation than the Sherlock sequel.Hmmm. I suppose I’m back to single-mindedness. Give me a Lobo movie already!
Checkout last week’s Movie Musings here.
Laremy is the lead critic and senior producer for a website named Film.com. He’s
