Saturday, March 28, 2009

So much for keeping the classics classy.

Alright, so I know by now this is probably old news, but they're revamping Bonnie and Clyde (1967) with the role of Bonnie being played by... wait for it... Hilary Duff. That's right!


Aren't you excited? Literally squealing for joy?

No offense to Hilary, but I can think of about a million people who would be better suited to play Bonnie. Apparently, so can Faye Dunaway, who played her in the original film. "Couldn't they at least cast a real actress?"

Seriously, what about somebody with a little, I don't know, talent? Or at least a bit of an edge to her? I'd much rather see someone like Kirsten Dunst in this role.


What is Hollywood thinking?

1 comment:

  1. I used to really want to be a film writer/maker when I "grew up". It was a huge dream all throughout my teens and I was so excited by it. I mean coming from the eighties and nineties I was really genuinely excited about the kind of work being produced and I wanted to be apart of it. I wanted to tell those stories that would move and astonish people just like my heroes did.

    Yeah, then somewhere around the new early to mid decade something just snapped within the industry and the dream died a slow painful death.

    When I was a kid we were lucky to see maybe one or two big movies in a specific genre or rating category come out in a month.

    Remember how you'd wait all year to see the new cutting edge Disney flick because there was maybe two or three full length feature films to come out of that company a year and it took six months up to a year at a time for the said blockbuster to come out on Video afterwards? Remember how you waited with baited breath? Remember the excitement you felt?

    Those days are more or less gone.

    Now film studios across the board are offering up a dozen releases in a single month. It used to be a film was deemed a raging success if it grossed the highest income for the month. Now its about who can jimmy for the most lucrative position in the first weekend because if they don't break the box in the first few days they're screwed.

    Not to mention the bigger flicks are like 80% green/blue screen/CGI 15% traditional movie making magic and great cinematography, and only about 5% raw tried and true blow your mind Acting Talent.

    Maybe I'm being harsh and maybe I'm exaggerating a little but I'm also bitter and jaded. The movie magic bubble of suspended belief has largely burst.

    What gets me most of all though is casting. The truth of the matter is that because studios are under so much pressure to make the dough there's a propensity out there to cast on who they think will draw the most attention rather than who actually has the better talent for the role being filled.

    And the trouble isn't just with sub-par actors either.

    The A-list is feeling the heat too and overexposure is the result. Need an example? Lets look at the advent of Jennifer Aniston. Personally I don't really consider her an A-list actress but nevertheless she remains a shining example of my point and I have to give her some credit for the sheer amount of "OK" but not "Holy fuck! That was good!" films she's been in throughout the bulk of her career.

    Since ending her decade stint on the award winning comedy series "Friends" which ran from 1994-2004 Jennifer Aniston tried to jump start her at risk acting career by breaking back into full length feature films.

    Starting in 2005 and coming up to the current year Jen spit out major roles in nine different films with an average of about two films a year. A trend sh'll be continuing into 201o acording to IMDB.com. Interestingly enough this seems to be a reoccurring habit since she did the same thing in the years 2001-2004 (four film) and the years of 1996-1999 when she was in a whopping eight films including a special with Steven Spielberg.

    Now in general I can't give her flack for being consistent. Acting is a job after all and not everyone can say they've pulled off that many movies in such short brackets of time. I also can't fault her since her acting ability hasn't really changed in the last two decades. So kudos for consistency Jen Aniston. Over all though I still dub her actual individual contributions to film to be sub-par and predictable.

    And I swear to God if I see one more flick that is like a cinematic tribute to her failed relationship with ex-husband Brand Pitt...I swear something is getting burned down.

    The sad bottom line is that a great many of the films really worth seeing anymore are the ones that never come out in 99.9% of theaters.

    With that being said.The best thing to do in order to get around this is to know who you like and to keep an I on the said actors artist schedule since there's a good chance our most favorite and not always properly recognized artists will be doing amazing things that never show in the mainstream.

    As for the roles and or story lines that we feel our favorite actors have been cheated from exploring all we can do is hope that the old and up and coming actors/writers/directors etc. will advocate for themselves in the future and produce work that we can all feel proud to say that we got something from.

    ReplyDelete