HOLYFUCKTHISMOVIE.

*spoiler free*

Caught a screening of Sony Pictures 21 Jump Street last night and I have amazing news. It was fucking awesome. While concerned about how it would work out and be another ‘remake’, I downed a couple Corona Light’s in the office before I took off to the screening. I arrived and sat down next to an older gentlemen with long fingernails. I debated talking to this dude but just hastily turned on my Kindle and began ‘Catching Fire’ (it looks like ******* is in some shit, not stoked about that).

Anyways as you may or may not have heard. 21 Jump Street tears apart the idea of a ‘remake’ both literally and figuratively. The film stars The Vow’s Channing Tatum & Academy Award Nominee (that’s never going to get old) Jonah Hill. Channing, who I usually think sucks, was awesome in this movie and a great actor in his role. Jonah Hill kills his parts, in a thinner (again literally / figuratively) version of his trademark comedy. 

Notable performances and cameos abound, the story is great, Ice Cube kills it as the stereotypical angry police chief and Brie Larson is a great addition as the love interest. My boy Davy Franco is still kind of awkward to see on screen but works well as “the cool guy” in school. 

I really don’t want to spoil anything. The worst thing I’d say to do is watch the trailer because the jokes are built upon and lead to more and more crazy aspects, and feel the trailer ruins the middle ground of apparent jokes. But all in all, the best stuff is thankfully not ruined in the trailer. 

My favorite thing about the film, besides that it’s the funniest movie I’ve seen since Bridesmaids, is the same thing I like about that film - the story. Yes we’ve seen the buddy cop thing a million times but directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller bring a fresh approach to both the ‘remake’ & the ‘buddy cop’ film. I found myself overly invested in the story and trying to figure out the case. Each moment of action I was invested in and some how worried of these guys’ safety - both emotionally & physically. It’s almost as if being called 21 Jump Street is the worst thing about it but at the same time it’s the best thing because of how insane they go with what could have been another bs remake.

 Lord & Miller know how to tell a story & have fun, Channing and Hill know how to take that story and make it insanely entertaining. One of my favorite films of the year so far.

21 WESTIES!

The Amazing Spider-Man “Untold Story” Event

This afternoon I caught a special presentation of the upcoming Sony Pictures’ The Amazing Spider-Man, set for release this July 3^rd.

After going to the dentist earlier today, I swung (har har) into my office near Union Square and checked in on a few projects, answered some emails, watched some cuts, jumped on a few conference calls all while mildly anticipating my afternoon. I was invited over the weekend to a “special event” and, through the tip off of a sponsored hashtag on Twitte, it was plain to see that it had something to do with Spider-Man. In an effort to not spend millions on Super Bowl commercial space, and not get lost in the hype of all the other brands competing for eyeballs, Sony made the genius move of offering a sneak peak of “The Untold Story” to hardcore Spidey fans the day after the big game.

As I sat waiting for the event to begin, a cute journalist sat next to me reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I racked my brain on how to start talking to her for a moment but decided to continue my adventure with Katniss and the remaining six tribunes on my Kindle instead. 

In an event that clocked in around just 30 minutes, Sony actually pulled off the best fan sneak peak event I’ve ever attended. While still peppered with corny pre-selected fan questions [Question: Andrew, Why did you want to play Spider-Man?, Answer: I’m not an idiot!] and the awkwardness that always come with live simulcasts from multiple cities, fans who stood in line (some since eight in the morning) had a freaking blast.

The event was simulcast, with cast and crew piping in from LA, NYC, London, and Rio, along with a few other locations across the globe. Los Angeles got director Marc Webb (get it? “Webb”?), London got Rhys Ifans, Rio got Emma Stone, Avi Arad and one other producer. Luckily, NYC got MTV’s always-a-pleasure-to-see Josh Horowitz as the event’s emcee, along with Spider-Man himself, Andrew Garfield. After the multiple-city intros of talent, the lights dimmed and we put on our 3D glasses to check out the new trailer, which premieres tonight at midnight PST.

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering what I actually saw, and to that I can only say that I saw the Spider-Man movie I’ve always wanted to see. While there are tons of critics who are baffled by the reboot and love Raimi’s series, I have a confession: I never really liked the original trilogy. And you know what’s batshit nuts? I like the often-maligned third film the best, mostly because of how insane it is.

I’ll leave describing the trailer to the side (because you are going to see it within mere hours of my posting this) but suffice to say, the 3D looks awesome and lots of talk after watching it consisted of murmurings that this looks way better than The Avengers.  

 What I can talk about is the insane 10+ minute preview of the film we saw. The worst part about it was that I now feel like I’ve seen the whole movie, but the best part about it? I’ve seen a pretty great Cliff notes version of a film that looks pretty great. The action is stylized. This isn’t a new Spider-Man / Peter Parker – this is the Spider-Man / Peter Parker we’ve all “imagined.” He’s not a huge stupid loser, he’s an outcast, orphaned dude. He wears a Ramones tee-shirt! That’s not a loser, that’s a cool dude! His glasses don’t look like fake movie glasses, he wears cool ones!

 The most hipster/indie scene involves Peter Parker getting scolded by the greatest Uncle Ben ever, Martin Sheen, in the school hallway. Gwen Stacy stands cutely in the background. After Martin, er, Uncle Ben notices Gwen, he busts Peter’s balls in front of her (in a hilarious fashion), leading to his exit and Peter and Gwen finally being alone in the hallway. They awkwardly chat as Peter tries to ask Gwen on a date [pictured above]. They are both super into it, super cute about it, and they literally don’t make any sense with their words. It’s Webb’s humble homage to his 20s-angst from 500 Days of Summer. (I also think a Coldplay song is playing in the background – but may have been temp music.)

 Other notable awesome scenes include:

-     Peter Parker seems like a realistic teenager, from mannerisms to unpreparedness

-     Peter testing out his powers looks so much cooler than Tobey ever did

-     There’s some sweet backstory with his parents

-     The Lizard looks like a cross between the Gumbas in Super Maro Bros. The Movie and the leaked Pez dispenser

-     This Spidey is cool

-     Doesn’t look like Peter works for the Daily Bugle, he does the school newspaper though

-     He’s good at skateboarding

-     The 3D looks sweet and was legit shot in 3D which is always good

-     You actually feel like the web shooters are an actual device as opposed to an afterthought; the web shooters also flash red

-     Denis Leary as Captain George Stacy is awesome

-     Spider will probably get unmasked at some point, he will also probably run out of web-shooting cartridges at a critical moment

Some other highlights of the event included:

 Emma Stone talked the differences between Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson, and the key difference (besides their hair color) is that “Gwen falls in love with Peter Parker, Mary Jane falls in love with Spider-Man”.

 Andrew Garfield, who is the most humble dude to ever jump on a mic and promote a film, talked about how he’s just the guy in the suit and Tobey was before him and hopefully after he’s Spider-Man a “half-Hispanic, half-African American actor” will play him.

Afterwards, I grabbed a beer with some of the bloggers who enjoyed the footage, but were concerned that they saw everything. But what did you expect? They promised we’d get a glimpse of “The Untold Story,” and boy did we ever.

new 30-second movie review is up for Chronicle, in theaters now. Some notes about this video:

- I threw up minutes before we filmed this (i’m crazy sick right now)

- my roommate fell asleep in the movie (it was a midnight showing btw)

- we also sat in the front row, 2 1/2 westies for that experience 

Josh Fox shared with me two pieces of advice for documentary filmmakers when I interviewed him at Sundance last year:

1. I think it’s really important to listen. first and for most.

2. You can’t wait for money. You got to just go.

glad to see he’s continuing to follow his advice.  Not glad to see him arrested trying to make a sequel to his doc ‘Gasland’. (But it will look awesome in his new film).

i reviewed ‘Haywire’ for Bleacher Report! It’s 30 seconds so check it out!

YES = Trailer for Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola’s new film, Moonrise Kingdom

loopermovie: Happy new year, all!

I see a lot of movies. 

Every year I think “boy they don’t make them like they used to”

Then, Matt Shapiro comes strolling onto the internet with his Cinescape recap of the year and it brings me a little shred of joy to remember that talented filmmakers are still making fantastic cinema. 

Charlie Kaufman’s 2011 BAFTA & BFI Guru Screenwriters Lecture

“The world needs you at the party saying ‘I don’t know’ and being kind.” 

Awesome take on ‘the lecture’, it’s a must watch if you care about movies or art or creating or nothing. 

stayforthecredits:

“You think he’s based on Professor McBride?” - C.

Michael Stuhlbarg’s character, film historian/professor Rene Tabard, looks eerily like our former screenwriting professor Joseph McBride. 

McBride FTW.

The Umbrella Man

On the 48th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Errol Morris explores the story behind the one man seen standing under an open black umbrella at the site.

[click the photo player to watch the 7 minute film]

This movie was awesome.

‘Small Fry’ the new Toy Story Toon that played before ‘The Muppets’ was a welcomed surprise. My favorite part was it expanded on the world of toys in an extremely sharp way - this time introducing us to the world of abandon fast food toys. Fast food toys are really an unnecessary staple of youth in low-middle class America. It was the only place kids could get toys for months at a time. Bringing them to class was easy because of their size and the pseudo-indestructibleness from the minimal moving parts - which are exemplified in this film. The variety of cheap fast food toys was also pretty hilarious. Mixed with the unsettling idea of an AA group, the short really works.

I guess it’s only seven minutes but it was a perfect length and a complete story that left me satisfied, I’d love to explore more of these fast food toys and surprised they never had a role in the original trilogy. Pixar needs to keep these up.

Check it out infront of ‘The Muppets’ in theaters soon?