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Not worth a thread: Silver Screen Edition (with downloadable supplement)

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nacho:
Okay, so I watch lots of shit.  Sometimes worth a thread, and sometimes not.  We have a sort of catchall apocalypse movie thread, and one for movies that we should hate, so this will be for the more or less middle-ground movies.  Good, worth watching, but otherwise somewhat under the radar, and not really important enough to launch any sort of useful thread.  Mainly, I want to cut down on no-reply threads clogging up this forum.

So we'll start with In the Electric Mist, based on one of my favorite Dave Robicheaux novels.  Starring Tommy Lee Jones, directed by the gifted Bertrand Tavernier, and written by family friend James Lee Burke.  It's great stuff -- though has been troubled and delayed for a couple of years.

Robicheux has hit the screens before in Heaven's Prisoners, with Alec Baldwin in the title role.  Well worth checking it out...a good story, well done, and adequtely capturing the flavor of the novels.  Though it died at the box office, as will this movie if and when it comes out.

Every once in a while, Burke takes Dave to a supernatural place.  In the Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead is the earliest instance of that, where the titular Confederate ghosts appear to guide and push the story along, only making a show during the finale when Dave is near death.  The movie plays with all of that stuff a bit, and sort of removes the through-lines that link the novels and reference Dave's back story, and that's fine.  Burke's writing is always poetic and beautiful, but he's been written Dave for 25 years now.  The movies (this one more so than the Baldwin attempt) distill the best of the story.  Tommy Lee Jones is amazing.

It's fascinating the Katrina thing.  The book is pre-Katrina, but the movie is Katrina-centric.  I guess there's no way to make a movie set in Louisiana without talking about Katrina, eh? Burke did put Dave into Katrina in Tin Roof Blowdown, which is worth a read.

The links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lee_Burke

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Electric_Mist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Robicheaux

And, by the way, my favorite of the series:

Black Cherry Blues
In The Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead
Jolie Blon's Bounce

The full list is at the first wikipedia link for Jim Burke.  You don't really have to read the series in order, despite the occasional reference to the backstory. So I highly recommend you get some in you. 

Nubbins:
Since this is the closest thing we have to a "general movie news" thread...


--- Quote ---David Goyer: Warner Bros. Putting DC Movies On Hold
7 January 2009 9:32 PM, PST | From ScreenRant.com | See recent Screen Rant news

In an IESB interview for The Unborn, director/writer David Goyer says all DC properties are currently on hold for the time being in regards to film development. This comes as confirmation of what we’ve previously suspected.

When probed about Supermax and Justice League, Goyer had this to say.

“A lot of the DC movies at Warner Brothers are all on hold while they figure out, they’re going to come up with some new plan, methodology, things like that so everything has just been pressed pause at the moment.”

Including the two movies mentioned, Superman and Green Lantern would also be on hold. With an across the board freeze, Warner Bros. may be looking to create a cohesive DC Universe.


 

The follow-up question asked whether or not this was attributed to the success of The Dark Knight and Goyer continued.

“It was the double header of both" (Iron Man)

--- End quote ---

Sirharles:
How about "Who is Cletis Tout?"

It was released a few years ago (2001 I believe), starring Tim Allen, Christian Slater, Richard Dreyfuss and the lovely Portia De Rossi.

Tim Allen is a hitman who is a big film buff.  It's great all the references he makes.  Christian Slater is the guy who everyone thinks is Tout.

A pretty good story with some very funny moments.  Definetly one I would recommend.

Nubbins:
You know what... I think I actually own that movie somewhere on VHS.  We used to get screener copies of stuff all the time when I was at Tower.  I definitely remember seeing it and enjoying it.  I might have to check it out again.

Cassander:
if you ever wanted most of the action of a Jason Bourne movie without all the "acting" and "exposition" then Taken is your movie.  damn, Liam Neeson is still trying to dig himself out of that Star Wars hole.

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