Glenn Kenny didn't quite make the cut in last week's scathing critical responses to Jack and Jill, but his withering postscript deserves a look: "One thing I did not get into in my review of Jack and Jill for MSN Movies was just how (ostensibly) insultingly sub-pro forma is its actual filmmaking. It isn't even just a matter of how obviously its indifferent redemption-narrative structure is the Avid-enabled equivalent of a very sloppy butter sculpture. The indifference is felt in almost every aspect [... T]his is the first time it really hit home for me just how mindful Sandler, director Dennis Dugan, and the rest of the perpetrators are with respect to keeping overhead down. Good lord." [Some Came Running]
Happy Tuesday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Channing Tatum is the latest subject of Man From U.N.C.L.E. rumors... Felicity Jones will Hughes it up with Warren Beatty... We're exporting Meryl Streep and Joel Coen to China... and more.
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Poet/playwright Nick Flynn's memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City is right for a movie adaptation: Its two main characters, Flynn and his father, are deep, articulate characters with a lot of angst to go around. In the first trailer for Focus's adaptation Being Flynn, the younger Flynn (Paul Dano) analyzes the value of reuniting with his estranged father (Robert De Niro). Clip after the jump.
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This weekend, Brad Pitt announced that he plans on retiring from acting in three years. Sure, a declaration like that should be taken with a grain of salt, especially considering the similar threats made by actors like Ryan Gosling and drunken directors like Steven Soderbergh, that turned out to be mere fantasies rather than concrete plans. Regardless of the sincerity of this statement though, Movieline wonders: Is it time for Brad Pitt to quit acting?
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Internet, please react: A highbrow cult phenomenon is being ramped up for mainstream audiences. This is your time to shine! According to Variety, Harry Potter director David Yates is teaming with the BBC Worldwide to turn Doctor Who, the monumental British science-fiction series, into a big screen franchise. Said Yates of the new project, "We're looking at writers now. We're going to spend two to three years to get it right. It needs quite a radical transformation to take it into the bigger arena." Excited yet? Or nervous in that Absolutely Fabulous-never-ended-up-happening way?
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Although Albert Nobbs has made the festival rounds and has long been generating awards-season buzz -- particularly for star and co-writer Glenn Close -- the film only had its Hollywood coming-out party of sorts over the weekend.
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"How am I going to market a black-and-white silent movie? I'm praying. I'm going to church and to synagogue. And if that doesn't work, I'm going Buddhist. And if that doesn't work, I'm going Islam. Saturdays and Sundays are very busy in the Weinstein household." [NYM]
Three mockable movies, five prolific Twitter stars: Who most effectively skewered the achronological, bizarrely unlit J. Edgar, the gauzy Immortals, and the downright insulting Jack and Jill? Join us for a rundown of Twitter's best quips about the weekend box office.
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Happy Monday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: The ripoff artistry of the L.A. Times... Vanity Fair has a surprising new film critic... Atlas Shrugged has a blurb problem... The "Chocolate Rain" guy explains the economy... and more.
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How's this for under-the-radar weekend news: Warner Bros. is moving ahead with its live-action/animation hybrid LEGO movie, which should hit screens in 2014. According to Variety, the pic will be comprised of 80 percent animation, to be handled by Animal Logic, the Aussie-based vfx house behind Happy Feet and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, which could mean gorgeously rendered and lifelike... LEGO blocks come to life?
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While it didn't quite slay Jack and Jill at the box office -- a more resounding spanking might've restored my faith in humanity, but many, many folks still came out for the Adam Sandler twinsies comedy -- Tarsem's fantasy actioner Immortals exceeded expectations on its way to a surprising $32 million number one opening, the best ever debut for studio Relativity Media. Also: Puss in Boots and Tower Heist continued to slide down the ranks, with J. Edgar making a decent go of things to round out the Top 5. Dive in for your Weekend Receipts!
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It's over. It can mean the best of news or the worst of news, a new beginning or the utmost in closure. Its extremity is unparalleled, its harsh clarity often benumbing. Some people found out this week what It's over meant for them. For many of the rest of us, it couldn't be over soon enough. But you can get all the more closer here with Movieline's Week in Review.
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Jason Segel, the roving Apatow muse and Jim Henson scion, has joined Twitter in a last-minute PR blitz for The Muppets, which hits theaters November 23. Thus far he's tweeted about five times, which means we should rate each 140-character quip and help Mr. Segel to better his tweeting skills. I'm ready to judge!
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It's Friday, opening day for Sony's legendarily crapped-upon Adam Sandler vehicle Jack and Jill -- so what better time to launch a Jack and Jill Twitter feed than today, amirite? So the timing's not so good; at the time of this writing the page is just a few hours old. But the Tweets?? PRICELESS. Trust me: Skip the movie, hold onto your $10, and instead give it to the poor Happy Madison intern you might imagine slaving away in the office on a Friday trying to drum up interest in the abysmal comedy one unintentionally hilarious awful Tweet at a time. After the jump, a selection of the mind-blowingly best-worst Jack and Jill Tweets thus far. You're welcome.
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Quentin Tarantino's next film Django Unchained has a cast that -- so far -- includes Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kurt Russell, but the director is rumored to be squeezing in an extra star: Sacha Baron Cohen. Borat's guerrilla buffoon is reportedly up for the role of Scotty Harmony, a slave owner who buys Broomhilda (Washington) as a "female companion." I expect an HBO spinoff series about this kooky slave ownership called Da Simon Legree Show. [Variety]
