American Gangster (trailer): A new film by a director named Ridley Scott. Let’s see, that name sounds familiar … nope, can’t place it. Best of luck to him in his career.
Control (trailer): Movie about Ian Curtis, singer of Joy Division, by famed rock photgrapher Anton Corbijn. If nothing else, it’s sure to be stylish as hell.
Sleuth (trailer): I really wanted to watch the original Sleuth before this remake was released, but apparently the DVD is out of print and unavailable. It’s been listed as a “Very Long Wait” by Blockbuster for several months now, so I guess they’re not kidding. On the other hand, I’ve been sitting on Elem Klimov’s Come and See for a month and a half now (finally watched this morning), so my rental queue has not exactly been moving quickly.
Wristcutters: A Love Story (trailer): I remember, back when After Dark’s marketing for Captivity was causing all kinds of hysteria, that their marketing of Wristcutters would be even more tasteless and scandalous. That really hasn’t happened, though.
Angels in the Dust (trailer): Documentary about kids with HIV in South Africa.
My Kid Could Paint That (trailer): Documentary about the controversy over a four-year-old’s paintings that has gotten decent reviews. Trailer reminds me of Orson Welles’ F for Fake in a way, although I doubt this film is as interesting as that one.
Bee Movie (trailer): Doesn’t look funny. But I don’t think “Seinfeld” is funny anymore, either. It feels dated to me when I watch it now. I’m pretty sure we’ve had this discussion before.
Martian Child (trailer): If there’s an actor around who I don’t like but really want to, it’d be John Cusack. This one really looks bad.
Gone Elsewhere 
All I know is that if American Gangster has script problems, it won’t be Ridley Scott’s fault. :-)
You know, I can still enjoy watching a Seinfeld episode. It’s like comfort food. I wait for the lines I like and then I can continue to channel surf. I don’t find it particularly dated (except for the episodes that would have been completely different had there existed cell phones–like the Chinese restaurant eppie) I think it’s just so oversatured in the culture. At least they knew it was time to quit, unlike The Simpsons.
Yeah, because he’s apparently fresh out of film school. Plus, I heard that the script was written by the producer’s nephew, and young Ridley was forbidden to change it.
I thought even at the time that “Seinfeld” ran two seasons too long.
That is so true. I thought for most of its run that ‘Seinfeld’ was a brillant show, one of the best shows of its decade. And its best still holds up pretty well in the eps I’ve seen recently.
But it would’ve been perfect if it had ended after Susan’s death. The last two seasons after Larry David left were awful, with the final season so horrendous that it was often unwatchable. The most dispirting thing was how much the characters had changed from likable to completely obnoxious (especially Elaine).
As for Seinfeld’s film, even though I’m not a major animation fan it sounded mildly promising but Jeffrey Wells’ review appears to have confirmed my suspicions that it brings out all of Seinfeld’s weaknesses. I also saw a bit of Seinfeld being interviewed on ‘Larry King Live’ last night about this film and didn’t exactly enthuse me towards this film either.
Brian, interesting comment re: Cusack. What about him puts you off?
I used to like him, but he’s been doing a lot of roles lately that emphasize his mawkish side. And it’s pretty much become his default onscreen persona – sad, but in an off-putting, narcissistic way.
Saw ‘Bee Movie’ tonight. A few funny moments, a couple of nice animated sequences and some cleverness here and there, but overall slack and forgettable.
I think Wells’ review was pretty spot-on; surrounded by a lot of yes-men, Seinfeld was only able to put in the effort of delivering a lot of Seinfeldesque one-liners and observations without putting in the hard yards to create something substantial… or even that coherent plotwise. It’s all over the shop in terms of plotting.
I had a quick look through a making-of doco of it, and it confirmed my suspicions that all invovled thought just putting in a ton of bee puns was the height of comic brillance and that they were treating Seinfeld like some comic God.