Something 4 The Weekend by
Welcome ladies, gentlemen and film
fans everywhere to entertainment manchester's weekly
feature 'Something for the Weekend'. If, as
Forrest Gump once might have said were he a film fan,
cinema really is like a box of chocolates, then think
of us as your mini-menu, steering you away from the
coffee creams and towards the Turkish delights of the
movie world.
Two cinematic legends make their return to the big screen this weekend as Clint Eastwood and Robert De Niro release their latest directorial efforts. For Clint, Letters From Iwo Jimo marks the twenty-eighth time he’s stepped behind the camera, quite amazing really for a man who seems so etched onto our memories not for shooting style or mise-en-scene but Dirty Harry and spaghetti Westerns. Meanwhile De Niro's The Good Shepherd is only the second film from the one time Raging Bull who has recently spent more time sending up his Oscar-winning persona than cementing it.
Letters From Iwo Jima is actually the second part of a sort of World War Two double bill which began with Flags of our Fathers. That film was released at the start of the year and told the story of the battle of Iwo Jima from an American perspective. In a bid to gain a sense of balance (and complete an intriguing cinematic experiment), Letters now tells the same story of the same battle but from a Japanese point of view. Flags was overlooked by critics, partly because it came out during that grey area between Christmas and New Year, but mostly because much of the dramatic weight presumably lies in it being compared and contrasted with this film.
Indeed, it's Letters that has got the Oscar nod and is a good outside bet to win Best Picture this weekend. But in terms of box-office, it could well get over-looked in favour of The Good Shepherd, De Niro's return not only to the directorial career he began with A Bronx Tale fourteen years ago, but also the kind of roles and films he would have favoured in the 1970s. Telling the story of the birth of the CIA, it stars Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie and De Niro's old Goodfellas sparring partner Joe Pesci (his first acting gig since Lethal Weapon 4) and has already received good critical notices. Sadly though, it seems it won’t mean that a third film will be along any time soon, as De Niro is apparently lining up another collaboration with Martin Scorsese, reported to be the sequel to last year’s The Departed.
From the sublime to the ridiculous now as we move onto the latest film from Jim Carrey. His first straight role since 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Number 23 sees Carrey playing a man who becomes obsessed with the titular number after buying a book which seems to mirror his life. It sounds like a premise which would be best served in a half hour long episode of The Twilight Zone and considering director Joel Schumacher is hardly the master of understatement, The Number 23 could end up being too over-blown for its own good.
Finally, the Hollywood machine continues to gobble up Brit classics as Starsky and Hutch helmer Todd Phillips remakes 1960s comedy School for Scoundrels. Billy Bob Thornton seems perfectly cast in Terry Thomas’ old role of a man who teaches lovestruck losers (one of which is Napoleon Dynamite actor John Heder) how to woo the ladies. Critics have been so far kind, but let’s face it, it’s unlikely Thornton will be able to say ‘hard cheese’ quite as brilliantly as Thomas once did all those years ago.
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