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May is here...
My favorite month of the year is now underway. Believe me, nothing beats Montreal in May. The next 26 days usually mean great weather and huge and generally good movies. We're already under way with X2 this past weekend. That film has just raised the bar for every other sequel we'll see this summer. Even that big one in 10 days better be that darn GREAT and more. I also managed to catch Confidence. Great little heist flick. It's more of a rental but it's worth your time.
The Big Bounce Script Review
"The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard was released in 1969 and became his first 'non-Western' novel. The intriguing story centered around an enticing payload was perceived to be perfect for the big screen, so 'Greenway Pictures' leaped (or bounced, if you want a bad joke) at the chance of securing the film rights. That same year The Big Bounce starring Ryan O'Neal was released to horrific reviews. Leonard deemed it 'the worst film I've ever seen.' As the years passed by, Hollywood's wishing well of ideas ran dry, so, hey, why not remake a crappy film everyone wishes never existed?
Sebastian Gutierrez (Judas Kiss and the upcoming film, Gothika) faithfully adapted Leonard's novel, minus the changing of the setting from a Michigan resort town to glorious Hawaii. Jack Ryan is our protagonist, and I'm not talking about the Boy Scout with the cut on his chin who oddly resembles Indiana Jones. This Jack Ryan (Owen Wilson) is a charming drifter who commits occasional B & E's (Breaking and Enterings for those of you who aren't well versed in crime terminology) while still managing to maintain a certain degree of morals. After having a rift with a real estate tycoon named Ray Ritchie, his rival, a judge on the island named Walter Crewes (Morgan Freeman), takes a liking to Jack and hires Ryan to take care of him. Jack gets involved with Nancy, a gorgeous woman with a criminal agenda and subsequent mistress of Ray's, and is black mailed into a taking park in a plan to steal thousands from Ray. Twists and turns ensue. Will Jack get the money? Will Richie get the last laugh? Will Jack get the girl? As if I'm going to say anything.
The Big Bounce is much like Get Shorty in the sense that witty lines and jokes are thrown left and right but not as ingeniously. I got quite a few belly laughs in there and knowing talented actors like Morgan Freeman, Owen Wilson and Gary Sinise will be delivering the witty lines makes me confident the translation from paper to film, especially considering George Armitage is at the helm. His film Grosse Point Blank had the perfect blend of comedy and crime needed to pull this witty comedy off. Here's a taste:
WALTER
I invited this guy to have a beer with me. I'm not through and he's not through. Maybe we'll have a couple more pitches, maybe we'll have ten more, I don't know. You said what you came her to say, now get out of here.
Bob Jr. stares at Walter then turns to Jack.
BOB JR.
I get a feeling we're gonna run into each other again and one of us is gonna end up looking like shit.
JACK
One of us has a head start.
Bob Jr. storms off.
WALTER
You scared?
JACK
Shitless. . . Thanks.
Although it was a breezy and generally fun read, The Big Bounce ultimately does nothing to further the crime-caper genre. It's the same, derivative crap we've seen a thousand and one times, and I was hoping for more. We've seen every character before. The audience (and reader) is supposed to feel compassion towards Jack and actually care about what happens to him, but the script fails to do that. Plus, he's supposed to be this clever character, yet he gets blackmailed into doing the job for a ridiculous reason, and that was, after he had already turned the job down. As far as caring goes, he could have a sex-change operation and become the first she-male President of the United States, and it still wouldn't interest me.
Ray Ritchie is supposed to be the villain of the film, yet he's only in the script for all of ten pages or less. When he is in the script, he barely says a word. The audience is supposed at least feel some ill-will towards the man in order to actually want to follow Jack through the events of the second half of the script. In the first few pages it says:
HARRIS
Ain't gonna get nothin' done today with these menehune huggers blocking the site.
BOB JR.
Mr. Ritchie's gonna take care of these local chop-chop.
HARRIS
I got a hotel to build no matter who got their blood spilled here.
BOB JR
If those guys so much as scratch Mr. Ritchie's car when he shows up, he's gonna throw a shit fit!
Yes, have the fit and another and another! At least do something. The worst thing he says is 'Have him taken care of.' Ohhhhh, wow. He's a scary man! Give me a break. Why would Gary Sinise sign on to such a role? He deserves a role that isn't as ridiculously lame as Ray Ritchie.
Ultimately, The Big Bounce is a fun film that we've all seen time and time again. I was left unfulfilled and generally disappointed that the opportunity to remake a property with real potential was squandered. It happens far too often these days. I'm interested in seeing what newcomer Sara Foster does with the character, Nancy. If Nancy isn't portrayed right, the film won't be the same. She's the key. Maybe Armitage and the great cast can work their magic. We'll have to see on September 26, 2003. You might want to turn your brain off, just in case."
(Review sent it by Verbal.)
The 'Other' X2 Ending
8 months ago, I had the wonderful opportunity of reading the screenplay for X2. The copy that I received was the production draft dated March 30th 2002 with current revisions by Michael Dougherty & Dan Harris. You may wonder why a review of that script never made it to this column. Well, I'm the last person you want to see dissect a Marvel Comics film project. For more than half of my short life, I've been a die-hard Marvel fanboy. Me and my sisters have been obsessed with that universe for a decade or so. Heck, my internet alias is a Marvel character(DeadPool). You cannot judge impartially something you love so much. Before we get any further, let me yell SPOILERS...
The screenplay I read was the exact blueprint of the film that I saw last Friday: From the opening scene with Nightcrawler at the White House to the conclusion with the President. But Bryan Singer and Co. added just one idea or storyline to the near-perfect film. THE PHOENIX. Nowhere in that screenplay was a mention of the Phoenix powers or anything. I was shocked through-out the viewing. You could see the drool dropping for my mouth slowly from beginning to end. It took me a few minutes to grasp the shocker. They killed Jean Grey. (Well debates with my friends and sisters have resulted that Miss Grey isn't dead but in a cocoon in the bottom of that Alberta lake. Damn fanboys.) That wasn't in the screenplay. Here was the mild shocker of that draft, this scene is near the end when they need to stop Xavier from killing the humans by entering Dark Cerebro:
NIGHTCRAWLER
I told you. It's too dangerous. If I can't see where I'm going. I...
CYCLOPS
Jean, No.
Logan looks at Jean closely... notices something odd about her, the way she's staring ahead at nothing in particular.
JEAN GREY
I have to. There's no time.
LOGAN (suspiciously)
Wait a second.
Logan grabs Jean by the shoulders. Looks deep into her eyes.
STORM
What's wrong?
CYCLOPS
She's blind.
She was FREAKING BLIND!!! She wasn't killed off. There was no Phoenix appearance. In one of those rare cases of good on-set rewrites, their decision turned out to be a genius idea. The blindness of Miss Grey would have been a semi-letdown. Her sacrifice was just brilliant work from the creative team. Where do they go next? Like Harry at AICN, I think it's too early for the Dark Phoenix Saga. It could be great for the 4th installment. Some of my friends think it's time to introduce a new super-villain. My favorite X-villain Mr. Sinister is the name that comes up the most often. I think they should close the first X-Men trilogy with the final face-off with Magneto. Anyone noticed that the book Charles is about to discuss with his students at the very end is T.H. White's The Once and Future King. Magneto was reading the same book in his cell earlier in the film. Is that a hint to the next film? The chess scene at the end of the first installment was a direct link to X2. I feel like doing a little reader's poll. What do you think should be X3?
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
Jean-François Allaire (aka DeadPool)
Questions, comments, praise etc. Email me at deadpool@tnmc.org
Jean-François Allaire is TNMC's first columnist. At only 24 years old he has become a respected entertainment journalist, with his columns appearing in Corona's Coming Attractions and Scr(i)pt magazine. He also writes a monthly column in Screenwriters Monthly entitled 'The Last Word.' Hailing from Montreal this young writer is determined to dig up all the details on the movies before they hit your local theater. If you're part of a movie production then you really need to be talking to him.
