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.
Sounding like a cross between Sharon Stone pervo-thriller Sliver and David Cronenberg's pervo-horror Shivers, Slither is a horror-comedy which looks set to pick up where Shaun of the Dead left off. Directed by writer of the fun-but-dumb Dawn of the Dead remake, James Gunn, it certainly has the cult allure of Edgar Wright's unexpected 2004 hit.
Serenity's Nathan Fillion and Spider-Man's Elizabeth Banks (she plays Daily Bugle receptionist Betty Brant, fact fans) star and the plot follows sheriff Bill Pardy (Fillion) as he attempts to ward off a hoard of intergalactic slugs from his small town after one of them infects local man Grant Grant (seriously, that's his name).
The promotional material promises a blend of classic B-Movies of the 50s, splatter video nasties of the 80s and the knowing self-referentiality of the 90s. Unsurprisingly, wearing its influences on its sleeve so much, the film has attracted the wrath of many horror fans who are battering down Gunn’s door (not literally, that would be harassment) and dubbing him a rip-off merchant, something not helped by the poster openly referencing one of Shivers’ most notorious scenes.
But then again, nobody said such things when Scream or The Faculty were released. Personally, I'm more a fan of Robert Rodriquez's alien invasion spoof, which managed to reference innumerable films and blend genres (pastiche, horror, high-school- comedy) as well as produce a rip-roaring story far better than Wes Craven did with his film.
Slither will, hopefully, follow in those footsteps and avoid Craven's trick of having people stand in a room and tell one another whose going to get bumped off according to the rules of horror films after getting its obvious references out of the way with a cheeky trailer which shoots off a list of classic horrors (Rosemary's Baby, Alien, Halloween), before insisting that the only thing they have in common is that they're all for sissies. It's certainly been getting good reviews and does feature the image of a girl blown up to the size of a hot air balloon. So, there’s a bonus.
Sadly, such an image probably won't be seen in 16 Blocks, Bruce Willis' latest thriller which also features rapper/actor/oddly cast Ford Prefect Mos Def. Willis plays over the hill cop Jack Mosley who is given the seemingly simple task of carting petty criminal Eddie Bunker (wait, wasn't he in Reservoir Dogs and now dead?) to safety as he is set to testify to a grand jury in a matter of hours. Boring, you may think. Well, here's the trick, the courthouse is only 16 blocks away, Mosley’s only got 118 minutes to get him there and there's some people who aren’t keen on seeing that journey completed. Dun-dun-duuuuuun.
Presumably much drama will ensue as will probably happen in the appallingly titled Freedomland, which sounds more some kind of Eastern European utopia than a film. Directed by Joe Roth it's a drama which focuses on Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore) a mother who recounts to police detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L Jackson) the story of her son‘s kidnapping. The investigation which follows soon raises issues of racial tensions and probably high octane thrills…
Finally, my favourite random idea of the week comes in the shape of The Moguls, an indie comedy starring The Dude, Tim Blake Nelson and Sam from Cheers, as a group of ordinary working schmoes who decide to make a porn film. As you do. Frankly, from that description, it doesn't sound particularly great. But Ted Danson is playing a man named Moose, so there's got to be something good about it.
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