Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: In general, I’m a fan of fairy tailish, revisionist history. So long as the film includes enough farcical moments to subtly remind the audience that it is not watching a biopic or docudrama, I see no harm. Inglourious Basterds might be the prime example of this gimmick done well. From the beginning of the film, QT asserts, “Once upon a time in Nazi-Occupied France.” While we may forget about this during the basement shootout or the knelling of the Bear Jew, our memories are jogged during the denouement that provides a much more satisfying end to one of history’s most eloquent genocide puppeteers. Certainly, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will not be Inglourious Basterds. It probably won’t contend for Oscars, or offer much more than undead-slashing fun. However, there could also be a few fun historical references. There are none present in the preview, but Seth Grahame-Smith (the writer best known for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) is fairly clever in his retellings of tales. While I didn’t love his first parody, it was certainly ambitious and daring. Here’s hoping a re-imagination of Lincoln will be the same.
Brave: As a fan of Pixar, it’s nice to see a better-looking follow up to the rather mundane Cars 2. At the same time, the film itself looks uninspired, so I wonder if Pixar is experiencing a creativity recession. Brave doesn’t look like a bomb, but it appears to tell the same “I can do it on my own” female-hero-based narrative. This is a fine angle, but one that is overdone. In fact, Brave looks less like innovative storytelling, and more like a coolly-animated version of Mulan – a charming film that tells a similar tale, only set in China as opposed to Scotland.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World: Outside of The Office, Steve Carell is hit and miss. He was hilarious in Anchorman, depressing in Little Miss Sunshine and Dan In Real Life, a shill in Evan Almighty, viscous in Date Night, and a fine part of an ensemble in Crazy Stupid Love. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World could be just as hit and miss. The story focuses on Dodge (Carell), a man whose wife leaves as an asteroid approaches earth. Fine premise for a disaster film, but this one is about romantic regret. Alone for the end, Dodge takes a road trip and reunites with his high school sweetheart. Here, we have a mashup of genres: the disaster movie, the road trip movie, the reliving one’s youth and atoning for regret movie. Given the brevity of the film (101 minutes), I’m not sure how well any of these genres will be tackled, or if any of them will be done justice. In a sense, I applaud the idea of Frankensteining genres, but teach elements needs to be paid close attention to. If not, the M.O. is pandering to any audience they can grasp.
