News for July 26-28, 2000

28 July, 2000

3000 Miles to Graceland

Hollywood is so disappointed by the loss of Elvis that it keeps churning out films that somehow relate back to him. This movie is another in a string of movies that include Honeymoon in Vegas and True Romance. This time the idea is that a group of thieves attempts to rob a casino during an Elvis impersonator convention while they themselves are dressed in Elvis jumpsuits. It sports a cast of familiar names including Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, Courtney Cox-Arquette, Christian Slater and many more.

Demian Lichtenstein will be directing this from a script by Richard Recco. Stax got his hands on Recco's script and provides us his opinion.

One of the script's saving graces – and, believe it or not, also one of its largest weaknesses – was its snappy dialogue. (The story itself was fairly straightforward, a very breezy read.) There were some sharp exchanges between the characters (mostly involving Michael, Cybil, and Jesse) that often raised Graceland above the usual caper movie fare. Unfortunately, the quality of the dialogue could be terribly inconsistent. Well-timed barbs were almost immediately dulled by hackneyed "dialogue" in the following scene. For example: Jesse would make a few good one-liners, then he'd be dramatic, now he won't shut up again making with the quips.

The characters just didn't seem to know when to stop talking; they'd often run a decent scene into the ground. Like they say, in comedy timing is everything. (Look at Cary Grant's movies; he said just enough to be funny or charming, nothing extraneous.) There was a scene where Michael and Cybil verbally spar about who's smarter. "A smart person would never do blah-blah-blah," one would say. "But if they were really that smart then they'd meow-meow-meow," the other would retort. And this would go on for far too long. There were more than a few of these show-stopping, tit-for-tat exchanges. Fortunately, a judicious editor could save this film by trimming all the needless banter (and most of Jesse's more obnoxious "movie kid" lines). That would greatly improve 3000 Miles to Graceland.

To read the entire review, head to Stax's home at FilmForce.

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Tomb Raider

Director Simon West talks about his plans

Charlie's Angels

Full trailer online

27 July, 2000

Spy Kids

Director Robert Rodriguez got off to a great start with the ultra-low budgeted El Mariachi but has been inconsistent since then. With his next movie, Spy Kids, he takes a turn into a strange new territory, kids movies. In this one he will tell the story of a husband and wife team of spies who eventually retire and raise kids. A new villain appears who captures the parents leaving it up to the kids to rescue their parents and save the world.

It sounds a bit silly so you have to wonder about the script. IGN Movies got a copy of it and shared their thoughts on it. "Screenwriter Ehren Kruger (Reindeer Games, Arlington Road) does a good job with the details, infusing the story with some quirky spy charm and elements ripe with special effects potential. The escape pod sequence should rock, with the kids being shot underground and over water in a bubble-like vehicle while henchmen pursue them. Likewise, a piece of spy gum used as a tracking device when stuck to an assailant feels a lot fresher than the typical homing bugs that Bond uses. And while RR could have infused this idea with some of the old ultraviolence, it seems that he's done (at least for now) with the gratuitously genius bullet-dancing of his heyday."

To read the rest of the review, head here.

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26 July, 2000

She may not have had much to say in X-Men, but Rebecca Romijn-Stamos certainly made a big impression with her roll as the sultry shape-shifter Mystique. Now she has turned that into another big role. This time she'll be strutting her stuff in John McTiernan's remake of Rollerball.

Romijn-Stamos "tested for the role only last weekend, following screen tests for a few other last-minute candidates as producers struggled to fill the film's last major role." She will playing the role of Aurora.

Filming starts today in Montreal. MGM hopes to release the movie next summer.

Highlander: Endgame

Check out a script review