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The BOP 20 of Fall 2003: 5-15) Matchstick Men (September 12th)
4) Underworld (September 19th)
3) Once Upon a Time in Mexico (September 12th)
2) Kill Bill Volume 1 (October 10th)
1) Intolerable Cruelty (October 10th)
Click here to read selections 20-16.
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Nicolas Cage? Eh. Ridley Scott? He's okay. We're looking forward
to the new Sam Rockwell movie. We've been fans since the days of Lawn
Dogs, but it was Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (which you didn't
see - shame on you) that guaranteed his spot as one of our favorite
actors. Though Sam Rockwell is enough to intrigue us, there has
to be more to it to get us this interested. In this case, it's the
simple matter that from the trailers and ads, they seem to have gotten
this one right. Nicolas Cage, who can be hit or miss, looks like he
nailed it and Ridley Scott, whom we normally think of more in terms of
action movies than dramatic comedies (or comedic dramas), has
apparently handled the material adeptly. Besides, we are always
suckers for a good caper film and Alison Lohman is quickly putting
together a string of films to comprise an impressive resume. Oh, and
did we mention that this film has Sam Rockwell in it?
The cast might bristle at the analogy, but there is but one
inescapable conclusion after viewing the Underworld trailer. It's
Romeo and Juliet meets a fractured Brothers Grimm fairy tale.
Forbidden love between a werewolf and a vampire might sound like
something misplaced from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but money shot
after money shot in the commercials indicates a lavishly stylish
action blockbuster. While comparisons to Blade are inevitable due to
the look of the lush set designs, there is a more natural analogy to
Brandon Lee's sleekly enigmatic performance in The Crow. Like the
tortured, quite deceased guitar player, the star of Underworld appears
to be a victim of circumstance as much as a bad ass vengeance demon.
Kate Beckinsale has been on the cusp of greatness for a while now, and
this looks to be her breakthrough role. The one sheet of her in
leather is a visual representation of sexual adrenaline and leaves the
staff of BOP needing a moment alone.
It's about time that Robert Rodriguez took a break from making his
kiddie movies and returned to good old-fashioned bloody balletic
orgies of violence to finish the El Mariachi/Desperado trilogy. One
noteworthy addition to the series is Johnny Depp as a CIA agent who
heads south of the border to take out a ruthless drug lord. When he
hires the vigilante Mariachi (Antonio Banderas, reprising his role) to
assassinate the cartel leader, it's only the beginning of a series of
double and triple crosses. After Pirates of the Caribbean, we're
definitely hyped to see Depp's follow-up, and the trailer makes it
appear that the third movie in the trilogy has the action and
bloodshed times three. But why didn't he make this one in 3-D?
It's been nearly six years since Quentin Tarantino's last directorial
effort, and we're wondering what he's been up to. It's also been a
while since we've seen Uma Thurman in a major studio film. In Kill
Bill, Uma plays a bride who is left for dead when assassins kill
everyone at her wedding. She is the only survivor, however, and if
there's one thing you don't want, it's a mad as hell bridezilla. Bent
on revenge, her new mission in life is to kill Bill, the leader of the
gang behind the wedding day massacre. We've fallen hook, line, and
sinker for the trailer and are further heartened that Tarantino stayed
true to his fanboy roots by hiring Sonny Chiba and Yuen Woo Ping to do
the fight choreography. The shroud of secrecy and the recent decision
to chop the film into two parts may be an elaborate publicity stunt,
but we don't care. We're lapping it up anyway. Of course if Volume
One doesn't deliver, you won't be finding Kill Bill, Volume II on our
BOP 20 Winter list.
After an ill-advised stint in the batsuit, George Clooney seemingly
grasped the concept that if he wanted to make his post-ER movie star
status stick, he should work with gifted filmmakers like Steven
Soderbergh, David O. Russell, and the Coen brothers. Clooney reteams
with the Coen brothers for Intolerable Cruelty, in which he plays a
high-priced divorce lawyer. In a fairly standard romantic
comedy plot device, the tough lawyer falls head over heels for the
soon to be ex-wife (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) of one of his
richest clients. She is also a notorious man-eater, making courtship
even more of challenge. It's not the tried and true romantic comedy
plot that has us eager to see it, however. It's what the Coen
brothers are going to do with it that excites us. The Coens are arguably the most reliable filmmakers working today.
Even their lesser efforts stand above most films, so it's pretty much
guaranteed that it will at least be good, and there's a decent chance
that it will be great. You can't go wrong with those odds.
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Wednesday, April 24, 2024
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