Liam Nesson is not the action hero you're looking for

Did you see what I did there with the title?
That somewhat subtle Star Wars reference?

Sorry, I have young Jedi apprentice in my house, there's a lot of that floating around.

Anyway....the movie Taken.
File this under the "Could have been" tab.
When Nesson fans like myself saw the trailer to this we were justifiably excited.
Nesson's had a long career, playing Jedis, Sex Doctors and Saviours of one kind or another.
On screen he's rarely boring and always watchable...

Until Now.

In Taken Nelson plays Bryan. Once he was a covert "preventer" for the CIA. He stopped bad things from happening. But in the process he lost his wife (divorce not death) and grew apart from his now 17 year old daughter, Kim.
Now Bryan's playing it safe. He's hanging up his gun and moving back to the States to reconnect with Kim.
Now let me save you 20 minutes of your time by summing up the first part of the movie.

Bryan is an ex spy.
His ex-wife thinks he's an a-hole.
His daughter still loves him.
But her new Dad bought her a horse for her birthday.

So there we are. As you may have seen in the trailer...things get going when Bryan gets a terrifying call.
Kim is being kidnapped and sold into sex-slave ring.
Of course Bryan does what any reasonable ex-spy would do.
He gets on the phone, tells the bad guys he's dangerous and he's coming for them.
Ahhh...now we're in business.

Unfortunately what follows it a series of uneven confrontations as Bryan, who appears to be a combination of James Bond and MacGyver, plows through the competition.

Yes we get he's determined. He'll do anything to save his daughter. But watching Nesson take down baddie after baddie gets....tiring. Can no one stop this guy? In the age of The Borne Identity and Casino Royale we want our heroes to a little more human.

The director here is a same fellow that gave us the watchable martial arts movie District 13. (Beautiful poster there.) But with Taken director Pierre Morel serves up nothing new. The only thing that distinguishes Bryan from the other men-on-a-mission movies is just how far he's willing to go. For me a spy that's willing to go Guantanamo on the bad guys doesn't quite cut it. Take a pass on Taken.

Can You Say Slumdog Backlash?

Listen.

It's coming.

Rumbling in the background.

The backlash has officially begun.

Don't believe me? Read this.

"Slumdog child stars miss out on the movie millions "

Thought provoking article and will certainly fuel the flames of resentment against the presumed Best Picture winner.

...but it'll still win.

Slumdog's Lucky Run (new podcast)

Just look at all of them there, accepting their Golden Globes. How can the Oscar voters resist them?

Just a quick note to say there's a nice summary of Slumdog Millionaire's string of luck and some behind the scenes tidbits on the weekly podcast.  

As always you can find the podcast at cbc.ca/podcasting, look for Glasner on Film and my goofy face.  Or you can go straight to iTunes by clicking here.  Check it out and subscribe if you want to come back more.

Yay/Boo on the Oscar Nominations

Sooo the Oscars nominations are out.

In case you missed me yammering on CBC Newsworld or Radio I thought I'd run down the list with some short reactions.

• Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Amy Adams in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)Viola Davis in "Doubt" (Miramax)

Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

REACTION: Yay! Penelope was great in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Viola Davis has a shattering performance in Doubt. Same for Marisa. My only complaint is it would have been nice to see Rosemarie DeWitt from Rachel Getting Married.

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Josh Brolin in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

Reaction: Yay and what? Robert Downey getting nominated for Kirk Lazarus, the Aussie who  assumes an African American identity is quite the surprise. True he owned the role.
I don't know how Philip Seymour Hoffman merits a supporting nomination...seems like a lead role to me....

Heath Ledger yes great...but think, if Heath was alive, do you think he'd be a lock for this award? I wouldn't bet on it.

Also big YAY for Michael Shannon who I've written about before.

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal)
Melissa Leo in "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

REACTION: BOOOO! Angelina Jolie? Really? Really? No Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky? are you insane? How Happy-Go-Lucky is nominated for a screenplay award but passed over for actress..is beyond me. Mike Leigh is a great director, but I don't think he follows a script too closely. Sigh.

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor" (Overture Films)
Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

REACTION: Yay. Hard to complain. Of course Richard Jenkins is the shocker for The Visitor. Amazing flick. Small, smart and tough. The best in this category? Mickey. Can he unseat Sean Penn? I think so, but it's a tough one to call. Penn may be prickly but a lot of people feel quite strongly about this film.

Achievement in directing

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) David Fincher
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal) Ron Howard
"Milk" (Focus Features) Gus Van Sant
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company) Stephen Daldry
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Danny Boyle

REACTION: BOO BOOO BOOOO! No Chris Nolan? No Dark Knight? Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon?. Yes there was some great acting but the directing was flat, it was like watching a TV special. Bleech.

Best motion picture of the year

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

"Frost/Nixon"

"Milk"

"The Reader"

"Slumdog Millionaire"

REACTION: Again, Booooooooo! Dark Knight easily beats Frost/Nixon or The Reader in my book. Best combination of popular support and artistry in a long time. Just think of what the Academy Awards would have been like with a showdown between Slumdog and Batman...

Good luck with that show Hugh Jackman.

One the Best (of 2009)

Just saw an amazing film I'm confident I'll be placing on my top ten list come next December.

Coraline comes from the prolific author Neil Gaiman and the director behind The Nightmare Before Christmas. Comes out in February. I'll be reviewing it I'm sure. But keep an eye out.

In the meantime check out this trailer.

Oh and by the way it's in 3-D. More on that later.

Rewriting History (Revisiting Frost/Nixon)

Very interesting article in the Huffington Post by Elizabeth Drew.

Drew takes umbrage with the way Frost/Nixon screenwriter Peter Morgan distorts history.

Now I'm no expert on Watergate, but I think some of the Drew's complaints are unrealistic.

This is a movie. I think the audience understands the story isn't a historical document.

Still, if you've seen the movie you probably wondered what the real story is. Drew's essay is a good Coles Notes version of the events surrounding the interview. The way Drew tells it Frost and Nixon were co-conspirators, both counting on the interview for different reasons. Worth a read.

And you can see more about my take on Frost/Nixon including some clips from the actual interviews here.

Don't Believe the Hype (Film Marketing)

Must read article about film marketing over at The New Yorker.



Much of the story comes from following around Tim Palen, Lionsgate's co-president of marketing.




Some choice points from the article:

• Average cost of marketing film - 36 million for big studios, that's one third the budget kiddies.
• From a trailer cutter, "We're in the business of cheating...We give push up bras to flat-chested girls, take people's eyes and put them where we want them. And sometimes it works."
• Titles matter. The Devil Wears Prada caused some people to expect a horror movie. The movie New in Town was once "Chilled in Miami."
• And finally, it's bad enough the current obsession with how movies perform on opening weekends. But in the studios, they begin making estimates before the end of Friday about whether it's a winner or loser. It's all about the numbers baby. (Roger Ebert has a great post about the pitfalls of judging films by their box office here.)