Posts Tagged ‘harrison ford’

Ender’s Game is one of my favorite books of all time. Ender’s Game is being turned into a movie. That is all.

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Many critics and bloggers assemble top ten movie lists (like the best movies of 2011) this time of year. Many put together ‘worst of’ lists, too. I purposely avoided movies like Jack and Jill and Zookeeper this year, however. Those stinkers were clearly avoidable from the onset.

Unavoidable, however, were the movies I was really looking forward to. You know, the ones with awesome trailers and great potential. The ones that promise to be the next best thing. The movies that don’t live up to those lofty expectations. They may not be the worst movies of the year – in fact, some may be halfway decent – but they commit a greater sin: they break our hearts.

These are the ten most disappointing movies of 2011.

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What happens when you combine James Bond, Indiana Jones, the director of Iron Man, cowboys and aliens – oh, and Olivia Wilde – stir them all up in a $160-million-budgeted pot and launch the resulting sci-fi western to the big screen? Not what you’d think. Mildly enjoyable but ultimately disappointing, Cowboys & Aliens has the elements of success, except director Jon Favreau forgot to make it fun.

Read FilmJabber’s full Cowboys & Aliens movie review.

From director Roger Michell (Venus, Notting Hill) and writer Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses) comes Morning Glory, a funny, witty behind-the-scenes look into all the glory and ugliness of early morning TV.  Rachel McAdams stars as a rising TV producer, who, after being laid off from her job, begins work at Daybreak, the fourth-place ugly sister of the Today Show.  Faced with finding ways to raise the show’s failing ratings before it is cancelled, Becky (McAdams) decides to bring together two disparate co-anchors, Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), a Kathie Lee Gifford-type, and Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford), a disgruntled hard news man, who has been waiting out his contract at the network after being fired from his last gig.  As Patrick Wilson, who plays Becky’s love interest, points out, Pomeroy is the third worst human being on the planet, which is a title he well deserves.  Becky must navigate these two tricky personalities to save the show and her career before it is too late.

Read FilmJabber’s full Morning Glory movie review.

Oh, how far has Harrison Ford fallen? Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was supposed to resurrect his career, but instead it just seemed to reaffirm people’s suspicions that he is a bit of a has-been, a man whose best movies are behind him. Personally, I believe he still has a few good years left in him, but Crossing Over does little to back up my position.

In Crossing Over, Ford is but one of an ensemble cast that includes the likes of Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Summer Bishil (Towelhead), among others. I like the idea of Ford playing a smaller role, as going the supporting route allows actors to reestablish credibility and play characters he or she might otherwise not get to play. However, if you’re going to do an ensemble part, at least play a character that is at least marginally interesting.

Read the rest of my Crossing Over movie review.

George Lucas, who doesn’t inspire much confidence these days after three so-so Star Wars prequels and an Indiana Jones movie that could have, should have, could have so easily been so much better, is on my good side for the day. While Indiana Jones 5 is still just an idea bouncing around in his head (who blames him, after the movie made $300 million), he had these words to say on the MTV Movie Blog:

“Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be ‘Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis’ or something.”

Personally, I think Indiana Jones 5 is a good idea. Yes, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was not all that great, but it seems like it would be pretty easy – if Lucas actually looked at his original films and made something a little more realistic, a little more down to earth – to do a good Indiana Jones movie. And, considering that the last one wasn’t terrific, I’m actually hoping they do another one to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.

Of course, all of that is said with the condition that Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. No one wants to see Shia LaBeouf’s character take over; that’d just be stupid. Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones, and if he won’t do another one, don’t do another movie. Twenty years down the line, I’m sure they’ll remake the films or something, but keep the main character Indiana Jones, not his bastard child (named Mutt of all things).

As for Indiana Jones 5, Lucas would only say, “We are looking for something for him to go after. They are very hard to find. It’s like archeology. It takes a huge amount of research to come up with something that will fit.” How about something not involving aliens.

A little while ago, I reviewed Volume One of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, and my only real complaint is that it only contained the adventures of the very young Indiana Jones, which means the stories were more family oriented and almost Disney-like at times. However, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Two – The War Years focuses on the teenage Indiana Jones (Sean Patrick Flannery), and spits us right into World War I.

As I only received this DVD set a few days ago, along with about ten other DVDs I need to review, I’ll admit that I haven’t watched even close to a majority of the items in this set, but, like Volume One, the box set is full of good stuff. The DVD box set offers eight full-length Indiana Jones movies, which are re-edits of the original Young Indiana Jones Chronicles series, along with 13 hours of special features (according to the box).

The Indiana Jones movies it contains are:

• Trenches of Hell
• Demons of Deception
• Phantom Train of Doom
• Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life
• Attack of the Hawkmen
• Adventures in the Secret Service
• Espionage Escapades
• Daredevils of the Desert

I’ve only watched Trenches of Hell thus far, and I must say it still holds up pretty well. Yes, the war sequences aren’t nearly as gritty as what you’d expect nowadays, but they still work and don’t come off as cheesy. Flannery makes a pretty good Indiana Jones, though I didn’t see much that resembled the hero in this first film. Still, this one seems less forced into appealing to the Indiana Jones mold than the films found on Volume One (the stories where Indiana is a little kid seemed to cater to crazy adventures, whereas these ones seem more grounded in reality).

Fans of Indiana Jones or the Indiana Jones Chronicles would be foolish not to snatch up anything they can get their hands on. Fans of the character (including me) often forget that there was a whole television show devoted to the dude, and that they were produced with pretty decent budgets for the time.