Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Banks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elizabeth Banks. Show all posts
Star faces and a major still of the titular suicide scenario with fish-eye effect make up this poster for Asger Leth's Man on a Ledge
An escaped convict gets out on a ledge on a tall hotel building in Manhattan - but why?
Man on a Ledge is written by Pablo F. Fenjves (A Case for Murder (1993, TV movie)) and directed by Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006, documentary)).
It is hard to care about mullet-haired Sam Worthington's (Bootmen (2000)) protagonist's plans in this dull, unexciting thriller. A random cast of stars are seemingly present to cash easy paychecks, and unfortunately lead Worthington is especially uninteresting.
The film has only insufficient and small bouts of weak action. Man on a Ledge is deeply forgettable and pointless. Its story is hard to follow as it plays out, simply because it is so facade-focused and vacuous. A major turkey.
[Man on a Ledge was released 26 January (Germany and 6 other markets) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in New York around October 2010. The film opened #5, behind fellow new release The Grey, holdover hit Underworld: Awakening, new release One for the Money and holdover hit Red Tails, to an 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 18.6 mil. $ (39.1 % of the total gross. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 3.9 mil. $ (9 %) and South Korea with 3.8 mil. $ (8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Leth returned with Hold On (2012). Worthington returned in Wrath of the Titans (2012). Man on a Ledge is rotten at 31 % with a 4.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Star faces and names surround a nubile female figure in fresh avocado green on this poster for Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Peter Farrelly, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Brett Ratner, Jonathan van Tulleken and Bob Odenkirk's Movie 43
A Hollywood executive gets taken hostage by a desperate dreamer, who insists upon getting his grotesque story ideas green-lit.
Movie 43 is written by Rocky Russo (Brickleberry (2012-14)), Jeremy Sosenko (Paradise PD (2018-21)), Ricki Blitt (The Ringer (2005)), Bill O'Malley,Will Graham (Mata (2006, short)), Jack Kukoda (The Onion (2007-10)), Matt Portenoy, Claes Kjellstrom, Jonas Wittenmark, Tobias Carlson, Will Carlough (Blood Brothers (2008, short)),Jonathan van Tulleken (The Unsteady Chough (2004, short)), Elizabeth Shapiro (The Crossroads of History (2016, TV-series)), Patrik Forsberg (Smådeckarna (2002)), Olle Sarri (Om Inte (2001, actor)), Jacob Fleisher (Moving Up (2005, TV-series)), Greg Pritikin (Totally Confused (1998)), James Gunn (Slither (2006)), Bob Odenkirk (Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003)) and Steve Baker (Confessions of an Animation (2004, short)) and directed by Elizabeth Banks (AIDS: We Did It! (2010, short)), Steven Brill (Heavyweights (1995)), Steve Carr (Next Friday (2000)), Rusty Cundieff (Fear of a Black Hat (1993)), James Duffy (Robin's Big Date (2005, short)), Griffin Dunne (Addicted to Love (1997)), Peter Farrelly (Dumb and Dumber (1994)), Forsberg, Graham, Gunn, Brett Ratner (Money Talks (1997)), van Tulleken and Odenkirk. The title has no actual meaning.
It is a very unusual happening of a film, a creative meeting place and hodgepodge of tasteless, transgressive comedy vignettes. The framing story is pretty funny but could have been executed better. Among the film's 14 anthology-style short film-like stories are some funny ones: Jason Sudeikis (Kodachrome (2017)) as Batman in a restaurant; Halle Berry (Strictly Business (1991)) and Stephen Merchant (Modern Family (2014-20)) on a date that turns into an extreme truth or dare game. - Several others are mostly just major WTF experiences and/or gross, such as Hugh Jackman's (Australia (2008)) testicles-attached-to-his-chin date story with Kate Winslett (Revolutionary Road (2008)); Chris Pratt (10 Years (2011)) and Anna Farris (Eden (1996)) in a relationship bound towards scat sex experiences (the two later divorced in real life after 9 years of marriage in 2018); and Josh Duhamel (Misconduct (2016)) with a horny animated cat... Strangest is the story with Gerard Butler (P.S. I Love You (2007)) as a leprechaun, who is very violent and not particularly funny.
Credits are due to the stars for braving into this endeavor, and for Farrelly, Charles B. Wessler and John Penotti, the film's producers, for getting this mad bag of tricks together, notwithstanding that it isn't all that successful in terms of actual laughs.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 32.4 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5.4 times its cost)
[Movie 43 was released 1 January (Russia) and runs 94 minutes. Several studios refused Wessler's original pitch in the early 2000s. Collaborators Trey Parker, Matt Stone and David and Jerry Zucker left the project prior to shooting. Shooting reportedly began in 2010, although Farrelly has stated that it was shot over the course of 4 years in order to get certain actors, who only offered a few days to work for scale on the film between other projects. It took place in California, including in Los Angeles, and in New York. George Clooney refused to be in a segment which was to be about George Clooney being bad at picking up women, reportedly saying "no fucking way". Richard Gere on the other hand reportedly tried to wiggle himself out of his segment, which he had changed his mind about doing. Jackman and Winslet's scene was shot early on and used as a lure to get other stars involved. Stories with Anton Yelchin as a necrophiliac and one with Julianne Moore and Tony Shalhoub with a missing daughter were shot but cut from the film. It opened #7 to a 4.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 8.8 mil. $ (27.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 8 mil. $ (24.7 %) and the UK with 2.9 mil. $ (9 %). The subsequent features for the directors and stars will not be listed for Movie 43 due to the overwhelming number of talent involved. Movie 43 is rotten at 4 % with a 2.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Paul Rudd undeniably looks like a simpleton on the poster for Jesse Peretz's Our Idiot Brother
Our hero here is a hopelessly naive idiot, who gets incarcerated for having attempted to sell a small piece of hash to a cop. As he gets released, his girlfriend has dumped him and stolen his dog, so that he is forced to live in shifts with his family members.
Our Idiot Brother starts a bit uneasy, but it is worth staying with, (although one may first detect that it first and foremost is about awful people.) Because it really has quite a few hilarious scenes and a peculiar theme and point about how it's better to be a gullible idiot than an egotistical idiot. Career men and women in the creative class and organic hippies get hauled over the coals by the film's satire, and it feels good. Paul Rudd's (I Love You, Man (2009)) lovability makes him feasible here despite his character's intense stupidity. Rashida Jones (A Very Murray Christmas (2015)) plays a hot lesbian; Kathryn Hahn (Bad Moms (2016)), Elizabeth Banks (Swept Away (2002)) and Zooey Deschanel (Elf (2003)) are pros as super-bitches; Emily Mortimer (Scream 3 (2000)) is funny as a frustrated housewife, and Steve Coogan (The Trip to Italy (2014)) is also a pro as a major a-hole. The film is written by Evgenia Peretz (Theo who Lived (2016), producer) and David Schisgall (Theo who Lived (2016)) and directed by Jesse Peretz (Girls (2012-16)).
Cost: 5 mil. $ Box office: 25.8 mil. $ = Big hit [Our Idiot Brother premiered January 22 (Sundance) and runs 90 minutes. The film was developed fast and shot in New York in 30 days from July 2010 forward, obtaining a 30 % tax credit. The film opened #5 to a 7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell from the top 5 in its second week and grossed 24.8 mil. $ (96.1 % of the total gross). It was released in 10 other countries, with the 2nd and 3rd biggest markets being Italy with 338k $ (1.3 % ) and Germany with 157k $ (0.6 %). Our Idiot Brother is fresh at 68 % with a 6.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] What do you think of Our Idiot Brother?
Most people wouldn't want to be Tobey Maguire in Jacob Aaron Estes' The Details
QUICK REVIEW:
Our hero in The Details is a sexually neglected doctor/husband/father, whose new lawn gets plagued by raccoons, which begins a downwards-facing spiral for his otherwise comfortable life. Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man (2002)) lights up in this comical-dramatic showcase, and Dennis Haysbert (Dear White People (2014)), Laura Linney (Mystic River (2003)), Elizabeth Banks (Walk of Shame (2014)), Ray Liotta (Goodfellas (1990)) and red-hot Kerry Washington (Django Unchained (2012)) are also all great. - Haysbert even provides a few touching moments in Details. This is a VERY untraditional American film that walks far into the realm of dark comedy and the dark crannies of drama. It is funny and surprisingly believable and dramatic until SPOILER the third act, wherein everything in the narrative gets 'solved' in a long car scene, which isn't exactly the solution one had hoped for, plus the scene includes a few lines simply because the writer/director thinks they sound good. He is Californian Jacob Aaron Estes (Summoning (2001), short), and Details fits well together with his only other feature to date, if one wanted to do an auteur analysis of Estes' works, Mean Creek (2004), which is also SPOILER about an unfortunate murder. A perhaps intended point after watching The Details, (perhaps not), SPOILER could be that grownups seemingly don't have to let such a murder take them down, whereas kids are more helpless. Details lights a fire under many prejudices, like our stereotypes of the good doctor and the brutal Italian-American. The film isn't for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it.
Laura Linney and Tobey Maguire in Jacob Aaron Estes' The Details
Watch the great trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown Box office: 63k $ (US only) = Mega-flop [The details surrounding The Details are mysterious and hard to come by, but it is clear that something behind the scene went awfully wrong between Estes and distributor The Weinstein Company: The Weinsteins apparently paid a handsome sum for distribution rights and then tried to recut the film and held it under wraps for a long period before finally releasing it on very few screens (less than a hundred) and only in the US! No wonder the film didn't make any money. Estes seems to have been the one who has paid the dearest for this utter failure: He hasn't directed since and has only now gotten a co-writing gig on Rings (2015), the third movie in the Ring horror franchise...] What do you think of The Details? Any details on why the fate of this film has been so dismal and/or the inside stories of the making of it are welcomed
