Grab-bag of movie miscellany.

Movies on my must-see list: Hero and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Heavy stylization either makes (Moulin Rouge, The Hudsucker Proxy, Strictly Ballroom) or breaks (Crouching Tiger (whose "mysticism" quickly wore thin; friends who grew up watching martial arts movies were of the opinion that while it was good, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary compared to the rest of the genre), Romeo + Juliet (probably just over-violent)) a movie for me. The trailers for these two, however, look very promising.

* * *

The promos for Alexander make me wonder if that movie wasn't a factor in KA's release date getting pushed up. The first time I saw an ad for the former on TV, I wasn't paying much attention, and though I knew it wasn't, it struck me as looking an awful lot like an ad for KA. Men in armor on horseback in the European wilderness, wielding swords and shouting bold and stirring things to their countrymen about victory and the future and whatnot. So one's in 300-something B.C. and the other in 400-something A.D., but unless you're a history or period-movie type, those details aren't likely going to register with you during a 30-second ad full of lightning-fast clips. (At least Troy had a bigger time gap, a good rough thousand years, between it and the rest of this year's period battle movies.) Heck, even both men's names begin with an A.

It'd be courting disaster, I'd think, for KA, with its relatively unknown cast and unconventional take on Arthurian Legend, to be released after or--suicide--opposite Alexander. Which leaves an early release date as the only likely option.

Hollywood is no stranger to seeing similar movies released around the same time. There've been duelling volcano movies, comet movies, animated bug movies, etc. But it seems the trick is to get released first, particularly if you're the underdog. If the first movie does poorly, people may be turned off the genre; if it does well, yours may suffer in comparison (unless you get lucky and the first movie proves so popular that it serves to whip up the public appetite for more). A movie with a big budget/cast, at least, can always try that draw (i.e., the big budget/cast) as its trump card; Alexander's definitely got that.

* * *

Caught half of Russell Crowe's appearance on The Actor's Studio last night. That man has the most marvelous twinkle in his eye, which reminded me why I used to pay people in OZ to send me tapes of him in his pre-international-fame days. He also had quite a funny anecdote about the filming of The Sum of Us. Too bad Lipton spent only one question, and a rather generic one at that, on Proof, as it's still my favorite Crowe film.

Grab-bag of movie miscellany.

Movies on my must-see list: Hero and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Heavy stylization either makes (Moulin Rouge, The Hudsucker Proxy, Strictly Ballroom) or breaks (Crouching Tiger (whose "mysticism" quickly wore thin; friends who grew up watching martial arts movies were of the opinion that while it was good, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary compared to the rest of the genre), Romeo + Juliet (probably just over-violent)) a movie for me. The trailers for these two, however, look very promising.

* * *

The promos for Alexander make me wonder if that movie wasn't a factor in KA's release date getting pushed up. The first time I saw an ad for the former on TV, I wasn't paying much attention, and though I knew it wasn't, it struck me as looking an awful lot like an ad for KA. Men in armor on horseback in the European wilderness, wielding swords and shouting bold and stirring things to their countrymen about victory and the future and whatnot. So one's in 300-something B.C. and the other in 400-something A.D., but unless you're a history or period-movie type, those details aren't likely going to register with you during a 30-second ad full of lightning-fast clips. (At least Troy had a bigger time gap, a good rough thousand years, between it and the rest of this year's period battle movies.) Heck, even both men's names begin with an A.

It'd be courting disaster, I'd think, for KA, with its relatively unknown cast and unconventional take on Arthurian Legend, to be released after or--suicide--opposite Alexander. Which leaves an early release date as the only likely option.

Hollywood is no stranger to seeing similar movies released around the same time. There've been duelling volcano movies, comet movies, animated bug movies, etc. But it seems the trick is to get released first, particularly if you're the underdog. If the first movie does poorly, people may be turned off the genre; if it does well, yours may suffer in comparison (unless you get lucky and the first movie proves so popular that it serves to whip up the public appetite for more). A movie with a big budget/cast, at least, can always try that draw (i.e., the big budget/cast) as its trump card; Alexander's definitely got that.

* * *

Caught half of Russell Crowe's appearance on The Actor's Studio last night. That man has the most marvelous twinkle in his eye, which reminded me why I used to pay people in OZ to send me tapes of him in his pre-international-fame days. He also had quite a funny anecdote about the filming of The Sum of Us. Too bad Lipton spent only one question, and a rather generic one at that, on Proof, as it's still my favorite Crowe film.