By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
The Return of Siskel
Gene Siskel finally returned to his balcony seat next to Roger Ebert this weekend, and they provided some on-screen tension that could match any of the movies they were covering. Siskel started to sound a little rusty for the wear when he started complaining that Mulan wasn’t the same, in elements, as Yentl or G.I. Jane. Ebert fought back with full force, all but saying, “Have you lost your mind?!” But as he was responding in his understandable rage, one could read the mixed emotions on his face, as he realized he was yelling at a guy who just got back from brain surgery. And Siskel, in defending his position, shot back, but not with the confident Roger-dismissive tone to which we’ve become familiar. He was almost like watching a guy caught with lipstick on his collar. He wanted to go on the attack, but one could see that he was questioning himself a little and worrying that he’d say the wrong thing and had really dug himself a hole. And he was also trying that slightly too nasty, too defensive, aggressive posture that raises the decibel level in hopes of shutting the other person down. Fascinating. Actually breathtaking. It reminded me (for any of you who know the show) of Pembleton coming back from his stroke on “Homicide.” Only this was real.
BROAD-WAY: Julie Taymor brought a jungle full of animals to life for Disney with The Lion King and won two Tony awards (and many millions for Disney) for her trouble. Now, she’s planning on bringing back the Richard Wagner opera, The Flying Dutchman to feature film for Fox 2000. I can hear the tag line now. “You will believe a Dutchman can fly!” Meanwhile, Jennifer Jason Leigh segues from being fired from Stanley Kubrick‘s Eyes Wide Shut to being in David Cronenberg‘s eXistenZ to Broadway, replacing Natasha Richardson as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, starting August 4. Anyone who saw Last Exit to Brooklyn knows how decadence fits Leigh to a T. Finally, the revival of Wait Until Dark is about to go dark. That’s right. Quentin Tarantino and Marisa Tomei are coming home. So watch what you say in restaurants (QT’s favorite place to brawl) and get ready for My Cousin Vinny 2, 3 and 4.
THE BEYOND CONTEST: It’s beyond me why you would want your very own The Beyond eyeball. (That’s a lie. I have one and it’s my favorite toy on my desk.) But if you do, we’re running a contest. (Another damned contest. Horse races. Weekend box office. Am I out of my mind coming up with another contest?) Send me your description of the most disgusting moment you’ve ever seen from any movie ever. (Was Angie Everhart more disgusting in Bordello of Blood when killing people or when trying to act?) One hundred words or less. (Like I’ve ever written anything 100 words or less in my life. But you guys better stay within those guidelines.) The 10 most-disgusting entries get an eyeball. (I’ll take them straight out of… Oops! Are my thoughts showing up on the page? Dammit! I hate this Microsoft telepathy! It’s great when you can’t afford a transcriber for interviews, but it gets me in such trouble. Just enter. OK?)
READER OF THE DAY: Two today. First, From Issac B: “As a fan of ‘The X-Files,’ I’d just like to say this about your opinion of the movie: If you do get strung up like a piñata, it won’t be by me. During a Sex Pistols’ concert, Johnny Rotten once asked, ‘Did you ever get the feeling you were being cheated?’ At the time he was posing it to himself and his band mates, and now I’d like to pose it to myself and the fans of the show. Watching the movie was like watching the show at home, except I couldn’t get up and go to the bathroom. At the time, I was afraid I’d miss some important revelation on the whole conspiracy. Silly me, there were no important revelations about the show. None whatsoever. If I’d known that, I would’ve walked into the projection booth and pissed on the celluloid. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a horrible film. The acting was top-notch, Rob Bowman did a great job of directing, and the added production values made for some beautiful scenes. No, my problem is with Chris Carter, who seems to get off on dangling ‘the truth’ over the heads of the fans, then yanking it away and laughing while everyone looks around wondering what the hell just happened. I know he can’t reveal everything about the show, but for seven bucks his fans deserved something. What a rip-off.”
And from Cooldaddy: “I don’t know about everyone else, but I found The X-Files movie to be the best movie this summer, other than The Truman Show. I watch the show, but I wouldn’t have had to to understand the plot very thoroughly. One, I haven’t seen a lot of the older episodes (I’m catching up with the F/X channel), but I was still able to follow the plot very easily, as did my mother. And if she can follow the plot with ease, anyone can. Everything in the movie was clever and a lot of it was just funny. I loved the fact that the filmmakers didn’t let the special effects take over the movie, which rarely ever happens. It would be wrong to turn the movie into big explosions and all, and there was only one. I think the people who have never seen the show will love it, particularly because of how cool and funny Mulder and Scully are. And the review I read in roughcut got it all wrong. By having all of the well-known reoccurring characters would have made the movie way too full. It was fine to just bring in a few old and new characters because the audience would really get confused. All I’m saying is this: This was the best episode of ‘The X-Files,’ and a damn good movie all by itself. Lots of suspense is much better than stupid overused special effects. The filmmakers made the right choice. And judging how the audience loved the movie at the screening I was in, it will do pretty well, as it should.”
