“I’m more of a stream of consciousness kind of guy.”
– David Arquette
David Arquette made a name for himself in the Scream trilogy and since then has had a long career in television and film. But for his directorial debut, The Tripper, Arquette has gone back to the horror genre, this time infusing it with political overtones. The Tripper is about a Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer that targets a bunch of hippies.
While some may be surprised that Arquette may be stepping into directing, it is no shock because he comes from one of the most talented and prolific Hollywood legacies ever. The Arquette family in show business started with Cliff Arquette, better known as Charley Weaver and spawned Lewis Arquette and Davids sisters Patricia and Rosanna. Most recently Arquette stepped back into television with the sitcom In Case of Emergency and co-producing Courteney Coxs show Dirt. I got a chance to talk with the first time director after his long grassroots bus tour promoting The Tripper.
Jamie Kennedy has played everything from a nerdy high schooler obsessed with movies to a nerdy tech obsessed NSA agent to a nerdy wannabe rap star — well maybe he hasn’t played everything. But usually whatever Kennedy does is very funny and that seems to be the case with Kickin’ It Old Skool where he plays an 11-year old breakdancer who falls into a coma and wakes up at age 30 and tries to put his life back together through the power of dance.
Welcome to your extra long conference edition of Ur W33K 1N G33K!
X-Men: First Class is being widely hailed as the best super hero movie since The Dark Knight, and it ruled the box-office this weekend grossing $56 million. The prequel to the X-Men series may have beat out other current films on its opening weekend, but it doesn’t measure up to any of its predecessors, or in this case protégés. First Class had the smallest opening weekend audience of any of the X-Men movies. Despite all the critics praise, the film appears to have suffered from the sins of its…future, as the past two X-Men movies (X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine) nearly destroyed all the credibility the series had built. Still, they’ve managed to win back many of their estranged fans and currently hold an audience rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
“I would have a problem with having kids.”
– Thora Birch
Thora Birch has been entertaining us for ¾ of her life, from kids films like Monkey Trouble and Hocus Pocus all the way up to her breakout roles in American Beauty and Ghost World. Now Birch concentrates on smaller films with strong character roles and her latest is the horror film Dark Corners where her character wakes up one day as a different person being stalked by terrifying creatures.
“Human beings are always trying to solve the problem”
– Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo really impressed me with his debut feature film Intacto nearly five years ago. He also caught the attention of esteemed filmmaker, Danny Boyle, who had just finished his post-apocalyptic ode to the zombie genre, 28 Days Later. When it came time for Boyle to hire someone to direct the sequel 28 Weeks Later it seems that Fresnadillo was high on his list.
Fresnadillo has directed 28 Weeks Later with grand aplomb and has created a fast paced thriller that combines what 28 Days Later did with new unexpected elements. Robert Carlyle plays a man who in the wake of the rage virus spreading across England was able to hide in a safe house with his wife. When the infected break into their refuge, he makes a split second decision and leaves his wife to be infected. The story picks up again 28 weeks later, the infected have all starved to death and the US military have set up a safe haven in the middle of London. Carlyle’s character is safe in the green zone and is able to have his children fly back into the country and the family can be reunited. But his wife has been discovered to be a Typhoid Mary type with the rage virus and she is brought into the safe zone with dangerous results.
The release of X-Men: First Class is just days away, marking the second of four major super hero movie releases to come this summer. In a recent YouTube viral video, A Toast To Green Lantern, all the super heroes with their own movies harassed Hawkman as he tries to get his own film. As it turns out, the joke was on the makers of the video as Warner Bros. has a Hawkman movie in the works. The current logline listed on It’sOnTheGrid is:
I’ve had a crush on Sandra Bernhard ever since her spread in Playboy years ago. But even before that I loved her comedy and her work in films like Hudson Hawk (Ball! Ball!) and her great role on Roseanne. But Bernhard is best known for her acerbic comedy showcased in the many CDs she has released. Her latest is Everything Bad and Beautiful, and it’s her best yet.
