Time is , as usual, short so we’ll make this quick. Here’s another new episode of The Flickcast.
In this the third episode of 2014, Chris and Joe are back in business and on a roll. As always, they’ve spared no expense and pulled no punches discussing the topics of this week’s show.
Some of these topics include the Oscar nominations, casting news from the movies Ant Man and Dr. Strange and more in the continuing discussion of the evolution of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Of course, there’s whole lot of that more you’ve come to expect from a quality program like this, but we can’t give it all away, now can we? You’ll just have to listen.
This week’s picks include Chris’ pick of the TV show Helix and Joe’s pick of the comic Miracle Man from Marvel.
As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.
Late in the movie there’s a scene where a child is playing with a toy train set. As the little model ’rounds the corner, the boy pushes the accelerator, and the toy derails, crashing onto the floor. The railroad owner, who’s lodging the boy, gives him a light talking-to, “Slow it down at the curves, speed up on the straight tracks.” The boy in turn gives him a look that shouts But crashing it is the whole point! No other scene better sums up the movie.
It’s Disney. And Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp and Hans Zimmer and all those cogs and moving pieces that make it big and loud and hard charging like the locomotives The Lone Ranger delights in crashing, plunging, derailing, and blowing up. And when it is, it’s a lot of fun. Yeah, the trailer’s given a lot away (which has, sadly, been a major problem for many summer blockbusters), but there’s a lot more that isn’t spoiled.
As for the spoilers in this review, I’ll try to keep them to the general plot. The movie opens in 1933 at a carnival in San Francisco. A tyke named Will, dressed in the garish outfit of the ’30s Lone Ranger, wanders through a makeshift museum of the Wild West, one of those galleries with big cardboard dioramas and plaques that state the obvious (“Buffalo: King of the Plains”). Munching on his carny peanuts, he stops at a display of an elderly Comanche, and the camera lingers just long enough to let you know that something’s not quite right with…
“Kemosabe?” the figure asks, and the startled boy confesses that he’s not the real mysterious masked man. The figure, again in turn, reveals that he’s the actual Tonto, and begins to recount the origin of his partnership with the Lone Ranger — beginning with the time they robbed a bank.
As big budget movies go, Disney’s The Lone Ranger starring Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp is, surprisingly, one of the biggest. Budgeted at upwards of $215 Million, it ranks as one of the most expensive movies ever made.
And now, we can see where at least some of that money went as the first trailer for the movie has been released. Check it out below and let us know what you think.
Wes Anderson is a fantastic filmmaker. He has a such a flare for visuals, and a knack for beautiful symmetry that is unparalleled among working directors today. However, since his style has a very distinct look and feel, he is usually on the fringes of the mainstream.
That was until the master of indy quirk joined forces with the master of main stream quirk for his next film. Deadline is reporting that Anderson just landed a very notable new star:
Johnny Depp will star in The Grand Budapest Hotel, the next film that Wes Anderson wrote and will direct. Anderson is going right back into business with his collaborators on Moonrise Kingdom, which is heading toward a $40 million gross to be among this summer’s art house hits.
It seems a rather obvious choice really, and one that is sure to excite hipsters and Depp-ites the world over. As for the rest of us it is exciting to see Anderson get some possible main stream traction, and for Depp to fall back from the blockbusters into a more interesting role.
It is not often Hollywood provides you with a win-win scenario for the filmmakers and the audience, but that seems to be what we have here.
Stay tuned to The Flickcast for the inevitable announcement of four more Pirates films to offset this arty choice for Depp.
Sometimes news is just so pleasantly surprising you can not help but to smile. In the back of our minds we expected another solid Hans Zimmer-y type score for the next Disney period, action/adventure, Jerry Bruckheimer extravaganza. That would have been fine, maybe even great, instead we will be getting something far more interesting.
Jack White, of The White Stripes fame, is stepping on board to compose the music for The Lone Ranger. A bold and exciting direction for Disney to take, but one that makes so much sense when you really think about it. The Lone Ranger looks to be turning into a very progressive blockbuster, and hopefully in this case quality follows progress.
As for Mr. White, movies are not an entirely new endeavor for the talented rocker. He wrote music for actually acted in Cold Mountain, his folksy styling fit in perfectly with that civil war tale. He also co-wrote and sung the theme song to the most recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace. That film might have been divisive, but most agreed the theme was quite good.
Like other established musicians turned composers, Jack White will likely keep a distinctive style in his Lone Ranger music. If he is really successful he will sound like himself while transcending his own sound like Trent Reznor and Danny Elfman have done in the past. We can’t wait to hear what he has in store for us.
One thing will be certain in a few weeks. Once Summer starts there will be more high profile scores than Fridays and some good music might fall through the cracks. Which is precisely why I am so excited to bring you this early review of Danny Elfman’s score from Dark Shadows.
This score ranked as one of my most anticipated of the early summer season, and that anticipation was made all the more severe when we listened to the expanded preview a few weeks back. So suffice to say I am ready to dig into the 14th collaboration between Danny Elfman and Tim Burton.
That is a lot of feature film scores from a director with a very distinct style, and recently there has been a lot of concern about repetitiveness in Elfman’s music. You can only go to that stylized dark well so many times, and eventually it will be dried up completely.
So does this umpteenth collaboration yield beautiful sonic rewards, or is this little more than a Beetlejuice or Sleep Hallow remix album?
There are a few certainties in life, death, taxes and a Danny Elfman score for the next Tim Burton movie. Their creative collaborations have always been among the high points of each new Burton film, even if sometimes the music can sound overly familiar.
In recent years the Elfman music associated with the last few Burton films has been quite exceptional. Elfman’s ‘Burton’ style has been perfected to the point that it sounds effortless. So of course we are excited to hear what Elfman has in store for Dark Shadows in a few weeks.
Well, wait no more, says Warner Bros. as they have put a very expanded preview of the score up on their official website. On the site you will get a full minute and a half of each track, which is more than enough to get a really good sense for what type of music we have in store for us.
Having listened to the expanded preview, I can happily report that this score does not seem to disappoint. The trailers for the movie suggest the film has a bit of a goofy tone, but for the musics part it is all dark and moody. The likely juxtaposition between the music and the tone of the movie feels very right considering the filmmakers involved.
So go check out the expanded preview now and be on the look out for a full review here on The Flickcast when the film is released in early May.
Even though there’s a lot of movies being made from TV shows these days, that doesn’t mean we don’t have room for one more. That’s especially true when you combine the talents of Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eve Green, Chloe Moretz and Tim Burton.
In fact, that’s just what Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow have done with the upcoming film Dark Shadows. Based on the popular 70s TV series of the same name, the film features Depp as vampire Barnabas Collins and his re-emergence in 1972.
We’ve got the first full trailer from the film to share with you today. Watching the trailer it seems Burton has decided this is more of a comedy than the original series, which may or may not please fans. However, whatever Burton and company end up doing, you can be sure there’s going to be a lot of black, a lot of pasty people and probably some snow.
Check out the trailer after the break. Look for Dark Shadows to hit theaters on May 11.
Twitter is fast becoming a reliable and consistent news stream. A place where people can share comments, pictures or videos directly with fans. Case in point, Jerry Bruckheimer took to his twitter to release the first official image from the upcoming film The Lone Ranger.
The image reveals the updated look to the classic Lone Ranger and his faithful sidekick Tonto. Underneath the crazy make-up on Tonto is Johnny Depp, who seems to be on a mission to have a more elaborate face make-up every time he is on screen.
The very dapper looking Lone Ranger is played by Armie Hammer, who many still don’t realize is the single person who played both Winkelvoss twins in The Social Network. He actually strikes as a very good Lone Ranger, he has the look down pat, and his ability as an actor has been proven.
It will be interesting to see what tone The Lone Ranger is going for. The idea of a western franchise that has the same scope and demeanor of the Pirates films could be pretty great. Somewhere inbetween The Mask of Zorro and Wild Wild West there lies a pretty awesome western adventure, hopefully this film will be it.
You can check out the full new image after the jump.
Christopher Young is most known for his Gothic, bombastic scores for horror films like Drag Me To Hell and Hellraiser. His wheel house has always been big, bold and scary, which is why his music for The Rum Diary is so very interesting. This music isn’t scary, it isn’t going to give you nightmares, in fact I think I want to have a Mai Ti with a funny little umbrella in it while I listen to it.
The Rum Diary is a return to the world of Hunter S. Thompson and the music is fits in very well with what you expect from that statement. It has a jazzy, free spirited nature that devolves into some serious kookiness from time to time. The most interesting quirks of this score are the Tom Waits-ian vocals that appear from time to time and a guitar duet with Johnny Depp and JJ Holiday.
Christopher Young, who was originally a jazz drummer, was influenced on big jazz band sounds of the ’50s and ’60s, and you can hear how much fun he is having with this music.
One of the trade mark elements that I love so much about Young’s horror scores is that despite the imagery and pure evil his music represents, you all ways have a since that he is having fun with the music. This trademark is thankfully front and center in this score, I have to smile while I listen.
The experts were wrong again. Last weekend’s huge success of Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 3 lead everyone to believe that the film would have continued success on the weekend leading up to Halloween. Turns out, kids who love Shrek and folks that love adorable, animated kittens proved them all wrong.
That’s right, Universal’s Shrek spinoff, Puss in Boots, managed to blow Paranormal’s creepy handicam shots out of the water this weekend with a decent $34 million in the domestic box office. Don’t worry, horror fans, Activity stil stayed relevant in 2nd place as it pulled in $18.5 million, bringing its total gross up to $81 million so far.
Also opening this weekend, Justin Timberlake’s foray into the world of sci-fi with In Time made a whisper in the box office, only making $12 million, while the faux continuation of Johnny Depp’s performance in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (The Rum Diary) underwhelmed audiences and only pulled in $5 million for the weekend.
Next weekend, it’s the tale of two crowd-pleasers, as the Ben Stiller/Eddie Murphy caper flick Tower Heist hits theaters alongside A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, which both open up wide across the country. Are people already in the Christmas mindset or will Heist prove that the Ocean’s 11 formula works with lesser grade talent? We’ll find out in a week!
This week’s pick is Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999), a newer take on Washington Irving’s legendary 1820 novel The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Johnny Depp stars as Ichabod Crane, a New York City police constable who is sent to the quaint upstate village that is the sight of several grizzly decapitations.
Crane believes in science and deductive reasoning, where as the local inhabitants of the sleepy little hamlet attribute the murders to the slain ghost of a Hessian mercenary killed during the American Revolution.
Crane believes that the killer is flesh and blood, and not a demonic spirit as told to him by the town’s elders. Using his powers of deduction and a bag of scientific/forensic tools to discover traces which will lead him to the killer, Crane is about to discover that in the age of reason, there are still many things that are beyond comprehension in the world of Tim Burton.
Time is , as usual, short so we’ll make this quick. Here’s another new episode of The Flickcast.
