Thursday, January 17, 2008

Linkspray

Telegraph the generous Johnny Depp
I Watch Stuff takes issue with Smurf movie plans involving the one and only (no longer?) Smurfette
Heroine Content reviews Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles
Anne Thompson on Atonement's Oscar problems. I'm happy to see that someone agrees with my assessment that the withholding (months of hype before screenings and a December release when it opened much earlier elsewhere --Why?) hurt it
PopWatch has Rent memories. The Broadway show finally closes this summer
Everything I Know I Learned... on the Broadway adaptation of CryBaby
Variety The film version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road just added Charlize Theron to the cast. You must read this book. Blew my mind, it did
Movie Marketing Madness on rumors that The Dark Knight is actually more "Two-Face" than "Joker" focused. Will audiences be angry?
Hollywood Reporter Cinematographers Guild to bow down to The Bening. As it should be...

and finally...

Modern Fabulousity continues to contemplate suicide with each new glimpse of Mamma Mia! Me? I could care less if it's terrible. It goes like this: Meryl Streep singing, Amanda Seyfried in a big movie, Christine Baranski and Stellan Skarsgård whenever and for whatever they appear in, song & dance... count me in. For the record, I have never seen the Broadway musical. The idea of it and the idiotic storyline horrifies me. Plus, I freaking l-o-v-e ABBA. Each time the opportunity has arisen I've felt it would be blasphemous to support the show. And yet, and yet... I'm excited for the movie. Welcome to my double standards!!!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Me too (Mamma Mia). There's something altogether more wholesome about the idea of spending 10% of the amount to watch utterly disposable trash in a multiplex than there is shelling out to see ABBA butchered on stage.

Plus there's Meryl, so... obviously.

Rob

Aaron C. Thomas said...

I feel exactly the same way about Mamma Mia. I refuse to see the show, but the movie is totally exciting to me.

Anonymous said...

THE ROAD is a modern American classic. It is poetic prose.

The Charlize Theron news disturbed me tremendously. The "wife" character appears in the book only briefly. Casting her only reinforces my fear that they intend to severely alter the book and its narrative.

Bad move, kids.

www.therecshow.com

Jason Adams said...

Mamma Mia! is giving me a headache. I too adore ABBA, and like you said - Amanda Seyfried in a starring role! That's WONDERFUL. But, well, you know my attitude towards musicals, and this one looks as saccharine as could be.

I don't know what to do!

Cinesnatch said...

Me too (Mamma Mia).

Doesn't Charlize Theron have a history of playing small roles and bit parts to work with certain people?

RJ said...

Yeah . . . from what I understand, the wife will only appear in small flashbacks, and Charlize just loved the book.

Sam said...

I'm an ABBA fanatic from way back and I saw Mamma Mia on stage. It was incredibly dumb and I wanted to hate it, I really did, but I loved it! I couldn't help myself. It was great big dumb fun and I can't wait for the movie.

Anonymous said...

what's this? a smurfs movie plan? NO!

Dianne said...

After seeing the SWEENEY TODD movie, and completely LOVING it, I have more faith that I'll stomach Mama Mia's movie version. Of course, having Colin Firth in it doesn't hurt either. I'd watch him in anything.

Anonymous said...

As another lover of ABBA, I can say with all sincerity that you are SERIOUSLY missing out on Mamma Mia on stage. Sure, it's a silly story line and has cheesy music BUT it is so energetic and fun it actually makes you love ABBA even MORE! In fact (this is NOT blasphemous, I hope) I actually preferred some of the stage songs OVER the ABBA songs. I have seen it twice and I loved it both times.
Go see it.

Anonymous said...

Another reason to fall deeper in love with Johnny Depp. Great Ormand Street is a fantastic childrens hospital that have really goes all out. I know that sounds stupid (talking about a hospital like that) but they actaully have 'clown doctors' (who are really just trained nurses), so putting on a Jack Sparrow show wasnt that surprising.

Anonymous said...

If ATONEMENT's late US release hurt it, then US citizens may understand how Australians often feel about the most hyped award-films of each year. So many films turn out to be crazily overhyped when you have to wait a long time to see them. Traffic, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Pan's Labyrinth and The Fountain stand out in my recent experience. I might have appreciated all of them if I had discovered them on my own and hadn't heard months worth of adulation about each.

Glenn Dunks said...

It's so strange that so many people have the same thought about Mamma Mia! I didn't care to see it on stage (although it did star Rhonda Burchmore and we're not on speaking terms) yet I am totally psyched for the movie and to see Meryl singing again (and so soon after Prairie).

However, that poster is terrible with all those bizarrely disconnected hands and feet. Were Amanda and Meryl's feet so ugly they have to erase them out and replace them with silly cartoon ones?

Anonymous said...

I'm an ABBA fan who also avoided the musical. However, I'm going to have to see this one because I heard Meryl sing in the trailer and her voice was beautiful.

Anonymous said...

1. I loathe ABBA music. There really is no chance that I'm watching the film.

2. Isn't The Road something? The best book of the decade, hands down.

Anonymous said...

That's nice about Johnny.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to me all of these people (including you, my beloved FilmEx) who skipped the Broadway musical, but expect to love the movie.

And maybe you will.

Having seen the Broadway show, I can say only this. I love ABBA. I love Streep. I loved Seyfried. Who knows, maybe they'll fix it, clean it up, make it actually substantial. But at the Winter Garden Theatre where the show is perpetrated nightly, there's a friggin' dance number of underwater chorus boys in FLUORESCENT ORANGE SCUBA GEAR. I know it's fluorescent, because they use a BLACK LIGHT. ON THE KICK LINE. In FLIPPERS.

(All my bitching aside...I bet Streep knocks "The Winner Takes It All" out of the park.)

Benji said...

I also am a huge ABBA fan, but I have to say that I loved the musical! It is silly, yes, but silly fun to see ABBA songs performed on stage, since we cannot have the original.
Weird that so many want to see the film but not the musical.
Although I'm excited to see Meryl, and to find out what Pierce Brosnan's singing voice sounds like ;-)

Anonymous said...

I NEVER thought I'd see a a picture of a Smurf (smurfette, sorry) on this blog.

I admit I stopped reading the Variety article when I got to the part about Theron's role being a small one. One female character in a very small role in a film otherwise populated by male characters - so what else is new? (I don't know if anyone has noticed, but women are more than 50% of the world's population, but we seem to be less than 10% of the cinema's population. And always, always, just ONE significant female character at a time. Who wrote that law, I'd like to know?)

RedSatinDoll

NATHANIEL R said...

hey i grew up in the 80s so my history with the SMURFS is long ;)