"Scooby-Doo" the Movie is Kinda Doo-Doo

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 55 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux


Scooby-Doo (2002)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some rude humor, language and some scary action
DIRECTOR: Raja Gosnell
WRITERS: James Gunn; from a story Craig Titley and James Gunn (based upon the characters created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera)
PRODUCERS: Charles Roven and Richard Suckle
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Eggby (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Kent Beyda
COMPOSER: David Newman

COMEDY/FAMILY/FANTASY/MYSTERY with elements of action

Starring: Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, Rowan Atkinson, Isla Fisher, Miguel A Nunez, Jr., Neil Fanning (voice), Scott Innes (voice), J.P. Manoux (voice)

Why does there need to be a feature-length, live action, movie based on the long running “Scooby-Doo” animated series? There are a number of reasons. It’s an exploitable “intellectual” property owned by a giant corporation. It’s a recognizable property and brand name, and frankly, only in recent years has the property owner begun to maximize the licensing potential of this property. Also, most movies from the larger film studios are notoriously expensive; “new” ideas are risky, but remakes and adaptations of stories from other media are the way film studios go when they want to play it safe. To many people, however, both young and old (after all, the Scooby-Doo cartoon concept is over 30 years old), this isn’t a property; it’s Scooby-Doo, man, so a lot of moviegoers were eagerly awaiting the 2002 “live” action debut of Scooby-Doo. And I place live in quotation marks because our favorite cartoon dog is one of many things in this film that isn’t exactly live.

As Scooby-Doo begins, the gang of Mystery Inc. disband due to internal strife. Fred “Freddie” Jones (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) is full of himself and believes that he is the group. Daphne Blake (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is tired of her teammates viewing her as a weak link, and Velma Dinkley (Linda Cardellini) wants credit for her intellectual contributions to the group. As the unhappy trio departs, Norville “Shaggy” Rogers (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby (a CGI character) inherit the Mystery Machine, that van that has carried the kids across continents to solve mysteries, and retire to live their lives eating rude junk food.

The gang inadvertently reunites when the owner of Spooky Island, Emile Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson) invites the former teammates separately by invitation to his island to solve the mystery behind the strange behavior of his resort island’s guests. What they find test their individual skills and forces them back together, but can they solve a mystery that might involve their past?

Scooby-Doo alternates between several phases. Sometimes, it’s really dumb, while other times it’s too lame to be dumb. It’s bad, ridiculous, and doesn’t make sense, which is odd because the creators behind the original cartoon series often went to great lengths to give plausible explanations for their often surreal, bizarre, and implausible stories. Yet, there were times when I really found some of the material to be funny. I can’t kid myself. This movie is for children, and not necessarily dumb children. It’s for children and for adults who love Scooby-Doo and are thrilled by the idea of a Scooby movie. Audiences can look forward to this kind of movie now thanks to the ability to render the strangest looking characters and give them complex movements with the aid of computer software. At one time, a Scooby-Doo movie would have meant an actor playing Scooby in an awful looking costume that wouldn’t fool anyone in believing he was Scooby. Now, computers can create an animated Scooby that looks more real and has more range of motion than the original character that was created using traditional cel animation.

Audiences are consumers, and consumers are suckers for the familiar brand names. While we might see Scooby as a beloved character, he’s a product. No studio is going to risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in sales on a film through theatrical release, home video, television, and merchandising just to make a smart and witty movie. The Scooby cartoons were never smart and witty, anyway. Except for an occasional odd, short film from an inventive animator for the Cartoon Network during the 1990’s, the filmography of Scooby has been one of simpleminded entertainment for kids. And I have to admit that I watched lots of Scooby for over two decades.

Director Raja Gosnell, a former film editor, is a perfect choice to direct this. His knowledge of how film works allows him to create a functional film out of what amounts to a poor script. The story actually has something that’s vaguely neat and interesting – an idea here or there that might work. However, the writers seem mostly to be hacks that specialize in B movies. They’re used to doing atrocious work that is “not supposed to be taken seriously.” So I don’t know if the studio wanted this to stay dumb, or that this was dumb by either the writers’ choice or ability. Either way, they couldn’t seem to hold onto what inspiration they had, and I wonder if these guys even know how to aim it when they’re in front of a urinal.

The casting of this movie is mostly wrong. Matthew Lillard seems born to play Shaggy, and Linda Cardellini is tolerable as Velma; after a while, they all sort of grow on you like fungus, and you accept them. I have to admit that despite my reservations, I grew to like the computer generated Scooby. I thought of it as Scooby the same way I would a cel-animated Doo. I really didn’t like that the film introduced adult “personality” traits to the characters: lust, envy, insecurity, hate, revenge, anger, etc.

This film is mostly trash, something light and fluffy, a curiosity piece, in a manner of speaking, so see it for Scooby and Shaggy if for no other reason. There are some really sweet moments that I can’t reveal without spoiling the film, and the sets and costumes were really nice.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
2003 Razzie Awards: 2 nominations: “Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie” (Warner Bros.) and “Worst Supporting Actor” (Freddie Prinze, Jr.)

Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez to Star in "Getaway"

(Selena Gomez and Ethan Hawke in a photograph from Dark Castle Entertainment and After Dark Films' upcoming feature, Getaway.  Photo by Simon Varsano.)

Filming is Underway on “Getaway”

Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez and Jon Voight star in the thriller from Dark Castle Entertainment and After Dark Films

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Principal photography has begun on Dark Castle Entertainment and After Dark Films’ high-octane action thriller “Getaway.”

The film stars Academy Award® nominee Ethan Hawke (“Training Day”), actress and international music sensation Selena Gomez (“Wizards of Waverly Place”), and Academy Award® winner Jon Voight (“Coming Home,” the “National Treasure” films).

Courtney Solomon (“An American Haunting”) and Yaron Levy (director of photography on “Transit”) are teaming to direct “Getaway.” Solomon is also producing the film, together with Moshe Diamant and Chris Milburn. The executive producers are Joel Silver, Alan Zeman and Steve Richards. The screenplay is by Gregg Maxwell Parker and Sean Finegan, with the latter also serving as co-producer.

Ethan Hawke plays Brent Magna, a burned out race car driver who is thrust into a do-or-die mission behind the wheel when his wife is kidnapped. With Brent’s only ally a young hacker (Selena Gomez), his one hope of saving his wife is to follow the orders of the mysterious voice (Jon Voight) who’s watching his every move through cameras mounted on the car Brent’s driving.

The behind-the-scenes team includes production designer Nate Jones, editor Ryan Dufrene, and costume designer Irene Kotcheva.

“Getaway” began shooting on location in Sofia, Bulgaria. Future filming will take place in the United States.

The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Review: Lean "Haywire" is Hard and Mean

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 36 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

Haywire (2011)
U.S. release – January 2012
Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)
MPAA – R for some violence
EDITOR/CINEMATOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh
WRITER: Lem Dobbs
PRODUCER: Gregory Jacobs
COMPOSER: David Holmes

ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Angarano, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Michael Fassbender, Matthieu Kassovitze, Anthony Brandon Wong, and Bill Paxton

Haywire is a 2011 action movie and espionage thriller from director Steven Soderbergh. Released in the United States earlier this year, Haywire focuses on a female secret operative who must go rogue in order to stay alive.

Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) works for a private firm employed by the American government to perform covert operations. Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) is the firm’s director and, until recently, he was Mallory’s boyfriend. He sends Mallory and a team to Barcelona, Spain to rescue Jiang (Anthony Brandon Wong), a Chinese national being held hostage. After the mission, things go haywire. Mallory goes on the run with Scott (Michael Angarano), a young man she meets at a restaurant. Aaron (Channing Tatum), a member of her team, is pursuing her. Now, she must outwit her pursuers on both sides of the Atlantic if she is going to outlast them and discover who betrayed her.

Although he didn’t write the script, Haywire is a definitely a Steven Soderbergh movie, as he not only directed it, but also photographed it (under the name Peter Andrews) and edited it (under the name Mary Ann Bernard). The film is fast and spare, unlike the extravagant norm of many Hollywood spy and espionage thrillers and action movies. Haywire skewers closer to reality, from the gritty hand to hand combat to Gina Carano’s body and facial features. Mallory Kane looks like a woman who has really served in the military and is trained to do security and covert ops work.

However, there is much about this movie that is flat. There is too much impersonal dialogue and delivery between the characters, and the few scenes of intimacy and personal relationships come across as phony. Much of the cast is underutilized. There isn’t enough of the fantastic Michael Fassbender, and Bill Paxton as John Kane, Mallory’s father, looks as if he is chomping at the bit to do more in this movie.

Still, Haywire is a nice anecdote to the overcooked action, post-human cinema tech, and computer-generated effects that dominate most of the action thrillers now splashed across American movie theatre screens. I like the rough-and-ready Mallory Kane that actress Gina Carano creates. I want more of her, especially if Soderbergh would direct a hypothetical sequel. Haywire is a lean, mean, fighting machine, a breath of fresh air in Hollywood kick-ass cinema.

6 of 10
B

Thursday, May 10, 2012

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"Marvel's The Avengers" Has Earned Over $1 Billion in Worldwide Box Office

“Marvel’s The Avengers” to Cross $1 Billion Globally in 19 Days

Super Hero team-up tallies an estimated $373.2 million domestic, $628.9 million international

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Marvel’s The Avengers is expected to cross the $1 billion threshold at the global box office on May 13, its 19th day in release, The Walt Disney Studios has announced. This is the first Marvel Studios film and the fifth Walt Disney Studios release to reach this important milestone.

The news comes just a week after Marvel’s The Avengers shattered records with a $207.4 million opening weekend, the biggest domestic debut of all time. The film has now earned an estimated $373.2 million at the domestic box office and $628.9 million internationally. As one of only 12 films in history to gross $1 billion, it joins Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Alice in Wonderland, Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides on Disney’s list of billion-dollar films.

“We’re obviously thrilled with the global success of The Avengers,” said Robert A. Iger, Disney’s Chairman and CEO. “It’s a fantastic movie and an extraordinary franchise that will continue with more great stories and compelling characters for years to come.”

Marvel’s The Avengers has set several domestic box office records including the industry’s all-time second weekend record with an estimated $103.2 million, fastest film to reach $200 million (3 days), fastest to $300 million (in a record 9 days), and highest Saturday ($69.5 million) and Sunday ($57 million) totals. In addition, its opening day of $80.8 million is the second-highest single-day gross of all time. Moviegoers gave Marvel’s The Avengers a rare A+ CinemaScore.

Internationally, Marvel’s The Avengers began opening April 25 and is the biggest opening weekend of all time in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Central America, Peru, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, and United Arab Emirates. Marvel’s The Avengers has now opened in all major markets except Japan (August 17).

On May 8, Disney announced that a sequel to Marvel’s The Avengers was in development, following last month’s announcement that a follow-up to 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger will be released April 4, 2014. A sequel to last summer’s Thor is scheduled for release November 15, 2013, and the third installment of the hit Iron Man series, which has earned over $1.2 billion worldwide, will arrive in theaters May 3, 2013.

Marvel’s The Avengers is the first Marvel Studios film to be marketed and distributed by The Walt Disney Studios.


About Marvel’s The Avengers
Marvel Studios presents Marvel’s The Avengers – the team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston, with Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and directed by Joss Whedon, Marvel’s The Avengers is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series The Avengers, first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

Marvel’s The Avengers is presented by Marvel Studios in association with Paramount Pictures. The film was produced by Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige and executive produced by Alan Fine, Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, Louis D’Esposito, Patricia Whitcher, Victoria Alonso and Jeremy Latcham. The story was by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon and the screenplay was by Joss Whedon. The film is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing. For more information visit http://www.marvel.com/.

Happy Mother's Day! from Negromancer

Yes, I wish a Happy Mother's Day to my own mother (Hi, Mama!) and my sisters:  Tracy, Laura, and Liz.  I also wish a Happy Mother's Day to Debbie, Megan, Rachel, Mrs. Dupuy, Mrs. Bob McLeod, all my relatives who are mothers, and all those others I just can't think of right now.

And a Happy Mother's Day to you, dear readers, who are mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, foster mothers, and others who provide a mother's touch.

Review: Johnny Depp Shines in Dim "Dark Shadows"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 35 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Dark Shadows (2012)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITERS: Seth Grahame-Smith; story by John August and Seth Grahame-Smith (based on the television series, Dark Shadows, created by Dan Curtis)
PRODUCERS: Christi Dembrowski, Johnny Depp, David Kennedy, Graham King, and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bruno Delbonnel
EDITOR: Chris Lebenzon
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman

FANTASY/COMEDY/HORROR

Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gulliver McGrath, Ray Shirley, and Christopher Lee

Dark Shadows is a 2012 gothic horror and comedy fantasy film from director Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film is based upon Dark Shadows, a gothic horror soap opera that was created by Dan Curtis and was originally broadcast from 1966 to 1971 on ABC. Dark Shadows the film follows a vampire who returns to his ancestral home, after two centuries of imprisonment, and finds his dysfunctional descendants in need of help.

Dark Shadows begins in the mid-1700s where we meet Joshua and Naomi Collins and their young son, Barnabas, as they sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. Joshua builds a fishing empire in Maine at a town he names Collinsport. Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) grows into a wealthy playboy, who loves and leaves numerous women. His biggest mistake is to spurn the love of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), because she is a witch. Angelique puts a curse on Barnabus, turning him into a vampire, and then, has him buried alive.

Nearly 200 years later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb into the very changed world of 1972. Returning to his family’s estate, Collinwood Manor, Barnabas finds that his relatives are now dysfunctional and not as well off financially. Family matriarch, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), rules over a small group that includes her rebellious daughter, Carolyn Stoddard (Chloë Grace Moretz), and troubled, precocious nephew, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). They need Barnabas’ help, and so he begins to revive the family fortune and the family home, but an old enemy is determined to destroy them all.

Dark Shadows is a Johnny Depp movie, as directed by Tim Burton, and Depp is brilliant as always. I couldn’t get enough of his Barnabas Collins, and neither could the screenplay. This movie is so much about Barnabas that the other characters are left in Depp/Barnabas’s considerable wake. First of all, some of the supporting characters are extraneous, like young Miss Grace’s Carolyn Stoddard and Helena Bonham Carter’s Dr. Julia Hoffman; the good doctor provides some nice comic relief, which is good, because the character is otherwise useless. Some like, Pfeiffer’s Elizabeth and young Mr. McGrath’s David, are under-utilized. Everything about the witch Angelique Bouchard is forced, and so is much of Eva Green’s performance as her.

Still, this is Depp’s show, and he creates a Barnabas that is so cool, you’ll want to be his friend (in spite of the inherent danger of being pals with a vampire). In a career full of idiosyncratic characters, Barnabas is Depp’s most endearing oddball.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I often came across articles about Depp or director Tim Burton that described either man as quirky. Dark Shadows is quirky and also campy. It spoofs the melodrama of soap operas, and Depp’s droll, tongue-firmly-in-cheek comedy gives this sometimes awkward film a lot of humor and laughs, which it needs. Like all of Burton’s films, Dark Shadows has excellent production values, especially the costumes and set and art decoration. However, Dark Shadows is not only quirky, but also odd in its quality. It is partially a good Burton-Depp movie, but the rest of it is a misfire because of the poor screenwriting. The acting and directing cannot, try as they might, change that.

5 of 10
B-

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Batman Vehicles Tour the U.S. Before "The Dark Knight Rises"

The Tumbler and the Bat-Pod Are Rolling from Coast-to-Coast

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fans who have been eagerly awaiting the July 20 release of Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ “The Dark Knight Rises” will have an opportunity to get a firsthand look at the Tumbler and the Bat-Pod, which are rolling out on a coast-to-coast tour, sponsored by Mountain Dew and IMAX®.

Both the Tumbler and the Bat-Pod have served as high-powered modes of transportation for Batman in Christopher Nolan’s earlier blockbusters—with the Tumbler first appearing in “Batman Begins,” and the Bat-Pod being introduced in “The Dark Knight.” They will both be featured in different ways in the hugely anticipated finale to the director’s Batman trilogy, “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Leading up to the opening of the film, the Tumbler and the Bat-Pod will be making their way across North America, appearing in the following cities and towns*:

Bentonville, Arkansas May 12

Tulsa, Oklahoma May 15

Overland Park, Kansas May 19

Kansas City, Missouri May 21

Chicago, Illinois May 25

Washington, DC May 27

Baltimore, Maryland May 28

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania May 30

Buffalo, New York June 1

Toronto, Canada June 7

Montreal, Canada June 10

Purchase, New York June 12

Columbus, Ohio June 13

Lansing, Michigan June 15

Detroit, Michigan June 16

Brooklyn, Michigan June 17

Indianapolis, Indiana June 19

Nashville, Tennessee June 21

Knoxville, Tennessee June 22

Atlanta, Georgia June 23

Dallas, Texas June 25

San Antonio, Texas June 27

El Paso, Texas June 29

Albuquerque, New Mexico July 1

Phoenix, Arizona July 2

Los Angeles, California July 7

*Please note that dates and locations are subject to change, and more may be added.

More information on the tour can be found at:
http://www.tumblertour.com/
www.facebook.com/tumblertour
@tumblertour


About “The Dark Knight Rises”:
Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Syncopy Production, a Film by Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight Rises.” The film stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Morgan Freeman.

Christopher Nolan directed the film from a screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven are the producers, with Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull serving as executive producers, and Jordan Goldberg co-producing. “The Dark Knight Rises” is based upon Batman characters created by Bob Kane and published by DC Comics.

Opening in theatres and IMAX on July 20, 2012, “The Dark Knight Rises” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. The film has been rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.

http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/