2011. Dir: Catherine Hardwicke. Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Gary Oldman and Julie Christie. ●○○○○
Well let's just get this clear straight off the back. I am not the intended audience for Red Riding Hood, however I went to see it on a Thursday afternoon during Easter holidays and the (sparse) audience around me was in the majority were ealry teenage girls, and like me they were shifting uncomfortably in the seats whilst this shockingly inept piece of filmmaking rolled (and not just when the projector turned itself off in disgust).
Perhaps I should be more generous, as there are elements of the film I liked - lovely costumes for instance however poor scriptwriting, acting and direction combine to destroy any positivity I have about the piece.
So using the traditional fairy tale as it's core, Catherine Hardwicke's Twilight inspired picture focuses on the love triangle faced by the eponymous cloak clad heroine (Amanda Seyfried pouting to hide her gritted teeth) as she decides between hunky poor woodcutter (Shiloh Fernandez), rich but faintly dull blacksmith (Max Irons) or being ripped to shreds by the local werewolf.
Meanwhile her faintly ludicris family - a sacrificial sister who's the first victim of the wolf, heart-broken Virginia Madsen, alcoholic Billy Burke and kooky Grandma Julie Christie - as well as the crowds of other largely unnamed villagers have to deal with the sudden arrival of master werewolf hunter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman turned up to eleven). Each of the major characters gets the finger of suspicion pointed towards them at various points, including Seyfried's best friend, the village simpleton and the local priest through lingering pov shots and incidental music.
In a BBC interview Hardwicke claimed she was trying to raise post 9/11 parallels, where we begin to suspect all our neighbours and friends and trust braks down. Gary Oldman even gets a speech to this effect, but that good intention fails because we really don't care about the characters. Frankly they could all have been werewolves tortured and murdered by Oldman and I really wouldn't have cared.
If I were Seyfried I'd have ignored both of her potential suitors. Irons is at least worthy, but his delivery is immensely dull, but Fernandez is off handed and stroppy throughout and has a look of Tim McInnery around him which really took me out of the picture. Trust me, slap a 'tache on Shiloh and you'll want to call him Darling.
The elder cast members are given short shrift too - Madsen has either endless exposition to remind the audience of the parallels between her and her daughter's choices and Christie doesn't even have the good fortune to get eaten by the wolf in real time we only find out in flashback during the reveal. Oldman is clearly having a lot of fun with his screentime but he's so wildly over the top it's pantomimic and off-putting, although the silver fingernails are a nice touch.
The below the line talent is scarely better served with the clean wooden huts and furry white rabbits bouncing around appearing to come out of a children's TV show combined with a horrid soundtrack and giddy swishy camera movements. Complete with a trite and cliche ridden script.
Easily the worst of the 20 odd films I've seen so far this year I can honestly recommend that you steer a wide berth from this monster of a movie.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Red Riding Hood
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Film News (24/04/2010)
This week the news came in a fortuitous drip drip with each day bringing in a different story that caught my eye. There's a fair selection of children's films, comedies and biopics, with inspired on true events being up there too. Nothing that you could reasonably call a new drama mind, which is a shame, but you can't have everything.
Oz: The Great and Powerful
With the news that Bond 23 has been postpones indefinitely by MGM comes the unexpected gap in Sam Mendes schedule. Depending on which rumours you listen to he might end up returning to the theatre, or he might be be directing this origins story for Disney about the beginnings of The Wizard of Oz and his perilous journey from Omaha to Oz. Robert Downey Jr. is in line to play the lead. Apparently this will not interfere with the highly anticipated movie version of Wicked, which is certainly a relief.
The Wizards entrance in the 1939 film.
Read on for catchy pop music, Gothic fairy tales, British explorers, American Cops and Woody Allen surprising everyone. As well as the latest changes in the UK release schedules.
Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson
Spike Lee's joints haven't been doing so good lately. The Miracle at St. Anna failed to secure a UK release and since then he's been focusing on New Orleans documentaries and hanging out with Kobe Bryant. For those of you who have missed him the good news is that he will be returning to mainstream movies with Brooklyn Loves, a project that will look at both the response to the death of the king of pop and the changes in Brooklyn society over the last 20 years. The cast looks to include regular Samuel L. Jackson as well as Anthony Mackie, Julianne Moore and Rosie Perez.
The Girl with the Red Riding Hood
Pre-production on Catherine Hardwicke's moody teen upgrade of the classic Grimm fairytale is moving on with a tentative cast being announced. Amanda Seyfried (Dear John, Mamma Mia - left) will be taking the lead with Shiloh Fernandez (Cadillac Records) as the hunky Woodcutter she has a thing for. So far so blah, but the intriguing news is that Julie Christie and Gary Oldman are circling major supporting roles and as we all know every film improves when you add quality British thesps.
Mallory
The English explorer and mountaineer George Mallory (right), who famously disappeared whilst attempting to climb Everest in 1924, is due to have his life story transformed into film. It's certainly a tale that should be told, with Mallory's instinctive passion for rock climbing (he's behind the extraordinary "Because it's there" quote) and chronicling the upper middle class family he's left behind will make a nice counterpoint. Julia Roberts and Kevin Townsend are producing.
Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen's next film has a name. Now there's a shocker that deserves thinking about for a while. A long time before he needs to, and a long time before it is his habit too Allen has started to announce some of the details: including the title and the plot which revolves around a family trip to Paris where a young couple yearn for a more interesting life. Sounds like Rebecca Hall's part in Vicky Cristina Barcelona to me.
Rampart
Oren Moverman will be reteaming with his Messenger stars Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster for the big screen adaptation about the successes and failures of the Rampart division of the LAPD and the CRASH project (insignia of which is on the left), including references to it's infamous late 90's scandals. The script is by crime writer James Ellroy so expect some clever plotting and lots of characters.
Release Date News
Brooklyn's Finest - If it's dirty cops you want to see, he says nicely segueing from the last news story, then you could certainly do worse than this Antoine Fuqua movie with Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke all on the wrong side of the right side of the law. It's time to hand in your badge on 11 June 2010.
Tetro - We were first promised Francis Ford Coppola's Argentina based familial drama last summer, but at least we have a chance to watch it this summer. Reminisce about your distant parents on 25 June 2010.
Tamara Drewe - Fresh from the news of it's Cannes premier comes a UK release for Stehen Frears' modern update of Far from the Maddening Crowd. Choose between the town and country on 10 Spetember 2010.
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps - Moving again is Oliver Stones 25 fives years later sequel with Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf - this time it's forwarda few weeks so you can't read anything too negative in that. Make a fortune on the markets on 01 October 2010.
Another Year - It's our third Cannes premier in a row as we get a release date for Mike Ligh's latest slice of British miserableism. Find your inner hurt on 05 November 2010.
Love and Other Drugs - Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway reteam for this viagra based comedy from director Ed Zwick. Pick yourself up with a pill on 31 December 2010.
Morning Glory - Unfortunate run of titles but the Harrison Ford/Diane Keaton newsanchors getting a dose of humility comedy has moved to early 2011 following from it's shift in US release dates. Read the news with no trousers on 07 January 2011.
I'm going to end with the music video for Michael Jackson's They don't really care about us. Purely because it's the last time that Spike Lee worked with Jacko:
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Film News (22/08/09)
Remakes with complex rights issues and fairy tales dominate this weeks news with a couple of stories that just seem to be really bad timing for all involved, or me at least.
Straw Dogs
The James Marsden/Kate Bosworth starring remake has gained an interesting supporting character this week in James Woods. As I've attested here before Woods is at his best when upping the sleaze factor - his ex-husband role in Casino being the highlight - so how he will fit into the revenge drama is yet to be seen. Tragically we will have longer to wait to see it than previously thought, the US release date of February 2011 has been annouced, and as we're likely to get it later this side of the Atlantic we could have a very long wait.
The Conspirator
On Tuesday I sent a warm congratulations to Robert Redford on his 72nd birthday, and I said that whilst he has nothing on his plate I'm sure there's another great film in him. Either my message was a rallying cry, or he deliberatly wanted to embarass me, but the next project was announced on the same day. The film will focus on Mary Surratt, who was the landlady of John Wilkes Boothe, and her arrest following Boothe's assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Sounds like a doozy to me, a 19th century courtroom drama with a politcal murder as the backdrop.
Deep Water
The writings of Patricia Highsmith has been movie gold for over 50 years (when Hitchcock used Strangers on a Train) and include 5 films based on her Tom Ripley character. There are more stories to mine though, including Deep Water about a couple in a loveless (or at least sexless marriage) where he consents to her lovers. Then the lovers start dying mysteriously. I'm not sure about the ages of the protagonists, but these sound like a couple of great parts.
Excalibur
It seems odd to me that Warner Brothers have been fighting over the rights to remake Excalibur, John Boorman's down and dirty King Arthur picture. Whilst it may have been the most succesful version critically it's not as if the legend it self is copywrited. However the legal fight to obtain the remake rights has been completed, so expect a carbon copy (and probably inferior) remake to move into production sometime soon.
The Girl in the Red Riding Hood
Whilst the news that Leonardo DiCaprio's production company was preparing a full scale version of Red Riding Hood was released a few weeks ago I thought I'd mention the appointment of Catherine Hardwicke as director purely because it makes an interesting counterpoint to...
Jack the Giant Killer
The other fairly tale that's currently moving into production. In theory both of these will be kids films - aim squarely at the under 12s - but with major studios and high profile directors being bandied about (this one's alledgedly attached to Bryan Singer) then we could expect anything from modern interpretations to Grimm faithful gore fests.
Yellow Submarine
Is a remake of Yellow Submarine necessary? Probably not, but as usual I'll defend the remake process by saying that no story is so good it can only be told once, and if a film is a true classic then the remake will not tarnish the original's reputation. Let's also admit that the original is more of a trippy curiousity than a major work of cinematic art. Just using the Beatles music again will make it very watchable and just imagine how amazing it's going to look in all of Robert Zemeckis' mo-cap glory. 
