I took my 14 year old son and his best friend to seethe new Harry Potter film about a week ago, and I was stupified by one of the trailers. I seriously thought it was a spoof, some crazy Will Ferrell nuttiness, or perhaps even a little film about turning off your cell phones in the theater.
The trailer featured Daniel Craig in the old west wearing a high tech wrist thingy.
[Harrison Ford played a mean old guy. After seeing Morning Glory I have come to the realization that he went from Hunk to Cantankerous Old Man very quickly. I missed the in-between movie.]
So the trailer for this space cowboy was for a new movie called Cowboys and Aliens. I can hear the pitch meeting now: "It's The Quick and the Dead meets Independence Day!"
When the trailer was over everyone in the theater laughed.
What really amazes me is that Steven Spielberg executive produced this thing, and it stars Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. It also features some great character actors like Clancy Brown, Keith Carradine and Sam Rockwell. Did everyone involved with this drink the Kool-aid?!?
If you're an old fogey like me you remember Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty in Ishtar. That one had people walking out of the theaters in droves.
It looks that ridiculous. Craig and Ford are going to be cursing the day their agents talked them into that disaster, trust me on that.
THE SUBLIME
OTOH, I am afraid not enough folks will go see Morning Glory, a truly funny film. I loved it. It was comedy built around characters, and it was filled with whip-smart funny dialogue.
I do NOT like Rachel McAdams. I've never liked her. Despite that, I like Morning Glory.The situations were not formulaic. The story seemed plausible even though it was farcical. [I know that sounds contradictory but just go see the movie and judge for yourself.]
And yes, even though I griped about Harrison Ford, the character he played in Morning Glory was a Cantankerous Old Man with some depth of character. He seemed plausible. The bad guy in Cowboys and Aliens looks like a cartoon. [I hope they paid him a lot of money for that nonsense!]
Another film I saw recently was Red. Loved it. It's very smart and funny, and Bruce Willis takes his standard action guy hero and makes him seem fresh and interesting.
John Malkovitch plays crazy in a fresh new way.
Helen Mirren plays a sexy older woman who loves "wet work" - a/k/a killing folks for money.
Morgan Freeman plays a new character, Not God, clearly - a retired CIA guy.
Red doesn't try to tell us any great truths, but it's a fun ride. Even my brother [retired Army major] thought most of the weapons stuff was reasonably plausible, and he's usually highly critical.
So go see Red and Morning Glory, and if the Cowboys and Aliens trailer comes up, enjoy a good laugh and shake your head at the idiocy that is Hollyweird.
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