April 8, 2003

So Jim Cameron has been spinning his wheels for a half a dozen years and when he finally makes another movie, it’s another Titanic movie.  But I would argue that Cameron has done what he’s done before… he’s found a way to push the envelope beyond what anyone else has done.

Aliens took the Alien franchise in a surprising new direction.  The Abyss broke new ground in computer-generated effects.  Terminator 2 pushed that envelope further again.  True Lies tries to meld a super-sized action hero with the Bond formula… the least groundbreaking film of his career other than Piranha 2.  And Titanic took the non-action drama someplace that it had never been. 

Ghosts of the Abyss is as self-referential and as self-reverential as the title suggests.  Does anyone really need Cameron to go back to Titanic?  Would it seem less self-aggrandizing to grab a thesaurus and find a word other than “abyss?”  Of course.  (The real ghosts of The Abyss are the careers of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Leo Burmester.) 

Yet Cameron has a certain elegance and grace with a camera that still puts him near the top of the Hollywood director’s list.  This movie is not really a “Cameron kind of movie.”  It is a documentary.  But it is done with enormous style.  And he finds some structure in a structureless story.

But I haven’t mentioned the most important part… it’s in 3-D.  (You probably already knew that.)  And Cameron has shot 3-D with cutting edge equipment that has not been used before.  He told the assembled press at the Solaris junket that this was really a transitional picture.  The goal is to make his next feature film in 3-D. 

Having watched Ghosts Of The Abyss on an IMAX screen, I think that wide-release 3-D could actually work.  I would love to see the 3-D Ghosts on a “regular” screen, which I think is in the plan for this film.  Ironically, it is the overwhelming nature of IMAX that may get in the way.  It may be too enveloping.   I found myself, while viewing the unusually-long-for-IMAX-hour-long film, thinking how much I would like to be seeing it in a normal theater.

IMAX may not be thrilled with this idea, but I think that such a worry would be short-sighted.  The simple reality is, IMAX is not a format meant for every film.  Nor is 3-D.  But what is so exciting is the idea of new formats being built to fill niche needs on certain pictures.  The idea of Jim Cameron or others doing a mainstream 2-hour movie specifically for IMAX is really interesting.  And maybe it would be 3-D.  Or maybe a 3-D movie would be better for suited for a big multi-plex screen.  Or maybe it would be better on a smaller screen.  Or maybe documentaries can play digitally on weekend afternoons at Landmark Theaters all over the country.  Or. Or. Or.

The movie is worth seeing for a number of reasons.  It’s not the greatest doc of all time, though I would say that a cinematography nomination at next year’s Oscars should not be out of the question.  At one moment, I thought to myself how odd it was that Cameron had spent the money to create CG imaging to dramatize the story of two motorized cameras.  But no one else would ever do that.  And it works for the story.

SPEAKING OF THE EDGE:  Credit is due to the MGM marketing team.  Others have done CD-Rom press kits.  But only MGM has standardized their new-fangled press kit program and simplified the whole process. 

Yesterday I received a package exactly the size of a DVD container.  Inside, the CD-Rom Digital Press Kit for It Runs In The Family.   On back of the cover, a visual list of all of the images available in the kit.  Inside, a CD-Rom that is clearly marked and a complete set of press notes in the form of a 5”x7” booklet. 

Besides being a nice clean package, the concept offers media outlets a reasonable way of keeping their press kits without file after file of press notes and loose slides and who knows what.  Certainly, there is a lot of stuff on the web and much of our online lives do not require any additional back-up.  But this feels right.  Hopefully, it will catch on.

FILM MOVEMENT:  The Film Movement program has finally launched in earnest.  Well, this Friday.  They are launching with Marion Bridge, which you might remember I liked  back when I saw it in Toronto.  The odd thing is that the Film Movement program is supposed to be pushing quality films, yet when push comes to shove, Marion Bridge, which is really a three-woman ensemble film, is being sold as a Molly Parker film.  Why?  Because she is the only recognizable name.  But still…

The other actresses are Rebecca Jenkins and Stacy Smith.

ANTICIPATING JACK:  Sony is going to release Anger Management on some 3500 screens this weekend.  But they will be sending out more than 7000 prints.  It’s not quite as big a print count as Spider-Man, but it is pretty huge. 

Some have been murmuring about the summer starting early this year.  But I don’t see it that way.  Liar, Liar was released on March 21 six years ago.  Last year, The Scorpion King opened on April 19.  It comes down to this… good movie… open date… all is well.  If Sony sees Anger Management as leggy, maybe they should have gone a little earlier.  They only have three weekends to scoop every pre-X2 dime up that they can.  On the other hand, their timing it probably perfect.  Bringing Down The House has played off enough to leave the category wide open now.  And three weeks is a long time these days.  Look for Anger to be over the $100 million mark before X2 geeks out America.

READER OF THE DAY:  I actually feel bad running this letter… it is not nice.  And I don’t really agree with it completely.  Nonetheless, GA-ROD offers a very specific and very tough set of rules: “After seeing on Monday that the only letter you received (or at

least published) in regards to Friday's comments on Thomas Jane was focused on his fitting into the shoes of The Punisher, I am obliged, no, forced to write you. 

This man has quickly turned into the male equivalent of Kelly Preston: a sub par actor who stars in sub par work that, for some reason, seems to draw big stars into its tangled web.  Both Thomas Jane and Kelly Preston proudly wear the bejeweled crowns in the kingdom of the cursed. To be more blatant, these two are literally putting curses on all of their work.  Let me elaborate: This year, Jane has already starred in the worst movie I have seen in months, "Dreamcatcher." Yes, the fact that the aliens looked like giant vaginas didn't help much, but nevertheless, he was present in the atrocity of it all.  In 2002, he attempted to cast his spell upon Cameron Diaz in "The Sweetest Thing."  2001 saw his curse reach Angelina Jolie when she slept her way through "Original Sin."  Call me crazy, but I find it no mistake that after this came "Life or Something Like It," one of the worst films of last year, no doubt. And now we see that she is actually making a sequel to "Tomb Raider!" The woman has gone mad! I say blame Thomas Jane! SHE WAS CURSED! 

To parallel him with Kelly Preston, she just weeks ago grabbed Gwyneth Paltrow and tried to pull her off the cliff, starring alongside the naive Oscar winner in "A View from the Top."  Her appearance in "Daddy and Them," the long-shelved Billy Bob Thornton movie, caused the film to virtually disappear. I mean, has anyone seen this movie? No takers? OK, I'll continue.  Preston sabotaged her own husband's career in "Battlefield Earth," god help us, and Kevin Costner, whose choice of roles, I'll admit, isn't exactly up to par, was her victim-du-jour in "For Love of the Game."  The latter may have been fortunate enough to hit $35 million, but that's no towering number for a Costner-on-the-baseball-field movie.  It must also be added that since Preston's appearance alongside Michael Keaton in "Jack Frost," he has become the male Debra Winger and gone MIA until a recent HBO-Movie appearance.  And of course, who can forget the fatal dose she injected into Eddie Murphy's career in 1998's brutally awful "Holy Man."  Alot of people can forget it, that's who, and since then, Murphy has been on a downward spiral like no other. The end of this year brings Preston's second tango with Mike Meyers, after "A View from the Top," which may be lucky to hit $20 million, when they star together in "The Cat in the Hat."  God be with you, Mike Meyers, god be with you.

The issue of the curses has been dormant, with seemingly nobody noticing that these two actors are going berserk, punching holes in the careers of nearly everyone they pass by.  I am shocked that Thomas Jane is not in Aaron Eckhart's shoes in "The Core."  Hilary Swank is, after all, on rebound from an Oscar in her first major role since.  What better a victim, no?”

E ME:  I think Thomas Jane is a good actor and I think that Kelly Preston has proven herself to be more than one of Hollywood’s greatest busty babes of all time.  She can act… even if she gets some crappy roles.  But still…

Who do you think has the Hollywood curse?