Speilberg's Next Film, Remake of HARVEY! Tom Hanks/Will Smith Up for Leads - Page 2

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/3/09 at 11:28am

Jordan, I said the movie wanted to be a moving tribute, not that it actually wound up being one. It laid on the tear-jerking with a shovel, and yeah, it worked the first time I saw it: I'm only human, I'm not immune to Spielberg's manipulations. Repeat viewings have confirmed the ultimate shallowness of the movie for me, despite its considerable technical brilliance.

"Earn this" my ass. F*ck you, Captain Miller.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/3/09 at 11:32am

LOL. I actually don't remember being moved at all when I saw it. But after reading what you wrote before I kind of want to go back and watch it again, just to see.

[Jon]

Posted: 8/3/09 at 1:40pm

Wish Spielberg directing, we can assume it's Tom Hanks as Elwood. How about Estelle Parsons as Aunt Veta?
Updated On: 8/3/09 at 01:40 PM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/3/09 at 2:28pm

Nah, Estelle's too goofy.

I'm trying to think of who I'd like to see direct and star in a new film of HARVEY, and I can't really think of anyone. It just feels irrelevant, somehow. The original is just fine, thanks, do we really need to revisit this?

On the other hand, that's about how I felt about WAR OF THE WORLDS, which is one of Spielberg's better films until it just turns to crap in the final few minutes. I'll wait and see, but not terribly hopefully.

[Pippin]

Posted: 8/3/09 at 5:37pm

"I liked MUNICH a good deal, with some reservations. I liked WAR OF THE WORLDS even more, until that really just outlandish family-friendly ending pretty well botched the whole film for me."

It cracks me up when people say this, because that's how I felt about the ending, until I realized that that's how the actual novel ends. But instead of the reunion with the son, the main character and his wife are surprisingly reunited.

Speilberg didn't make the ending outandish and family friendly. H.G Wells did.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 8:28am

Well, Pippin, you're right in that Wells did re-unite his narrator with his wife in the novel, but, as folks are so fond of pointing out, there's a difference between what works in a novel and what works onscreen. I'd say that Wells makes his ending work in a way that Spielberg simply does not. I don't think anyone reading WAR OF THE WORLDS shouts out "bullsh*t!" the way people did when I saw the movie.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 8:41am

Harvey was remade for TV in the 90's with Harry Anderson and Swoozie Kurtz.

ETA...I'm glad someone mentioned ET as one of his good films. I, personally, find that to be one of the greatest movies ever made. I can watch it over and over and still be moved at the end. Other ones I enjoyed were Terminal and Hook

Harvey

Updated On: 8/4/09 at 08:41 AM

[romantico]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 10:30am

According to EMPIRE ONLINE, Tom Hanks and Will Smith are up for the lead.In case you are wondering what that sound is, its Jimmy Stewart rolling over in his grave!

http://www.empireonline.com/news/feed.asp?NID=25470

Frankly, I am surprised Jim Carrey,Jack Black,or Russell Brand is not on that list. I mean could they make it any worse?

Updated On: 8/4/09 at 10:30 AM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 10:44am

Ugh to all of them. I don't think Hanks would be terrible, but I think I'd rather see Russell Crowe as Elwood.

But with Spielberg directing, I mean, who cares? I can hear the John Williams over-orchestrated score now...

Diabetics, beware!

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 11:46am

Whatever happened to that Kushner-scripted biopic of Lincoln that was supposed to happen? Impatient huff here.

[Pippin]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 11:55am

"I don't think anyone reading WAR OF THE WORLDS shouts out "bullsh*t!" the way people did when I saw the movie."

LOL! I completely agree with that.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 12:01pm

Borstal, I was wondering the same thing. I was very excited because I heard Sally Field was doing it along with Liam Neeson and it's been WAY too long since we've seen her on the big screen.

And also, isn't Spielberg prepping INDY 5 and a new JURASSIC PARK? I don't know when this man finds time to sleep.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 12:08pm

Even stranger: The always-unreliable IMDB is saying he's also the one going to be doing the thoroughly unnecessary remake of OLD BOY.

Really? Spielberg doing OLD BOY. Ooookay. I'm sure the script will end with the hero returning to his family bathed in a warm glow.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 1:40pm

On the other hand, that's about how I felt about WAR OF THE WORLDS, which is one of Spielberg's better films until it just turns to crap in the final few minutes.

Really? Only the final few minutes? The casting of Cruise yet again pissed me off enough, but the SUPER DUPER EXTRA SPECIAL cameo of Tim Robbins is what turned me off long before the cheesy ending. I'm really quite surprised you had anything positive to say about the film. The one major triumph of the film was its use of sound, however.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 2:16pm

For me, there was nothing in Spielberg's WOTW that was a total deal-breaker until that idiotic ending. Yeah, Robbins' entrance was unfortunate (and got some clearly unintended laughs) but I thought the rest of the section with him was fine. I even didn't hate Dakota Fanning who got a lot of heat for her performance. I thought she was excellent: a perfect depiction of an emotionally damaged little girl.

And the action sequences are sheer perfection. That first scene where the Martian war machine rises up out of the ground is absolutely brilliant, there are just no two ways about it. Nobody is better than Spielberg at that kind of thing.

Yeah, there are some mis-steps, and a couple of major plot holes. I've never understood why the Martians went to all the trouble of burying those incredible war machines all over the world all of those millions of years ago, only to GO BACK TO MARS. Why didn't they just take over then, when there was even less resistance? And it does seem unlikely that the Martians would have mastered interplanetary travel via lightning-bolt but not realize that drinking water out of puddles on an alien world isn't the best idea.

But nothing, and I mean nothing, can compare with that idiotic ending. All those millions of people who had to die, all that horrific destruction just so that Tom Cruise's parental authority can be recognized by his errant son, who finally calls him "Dad."

Updated On: 8/4/09 at 02:16 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 2:27pm

But that's what Spielberg has always been about. Science Fiction as a metaphor for humanity. His sci-fi films will NEVER be about anything else in the end, so you have to either go in accepting that or not attend any of his films. I pretty much believe Spielberg probably started with the ending before settling on the rest of the film. He's simply that rooted in human emotion. To hope for otherwise is like attending a Tarantino film fingers crossed there is no violence or f-bombs.

Updated On: 8/4/09 at 02:27 PM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 2:31pm

There's being rooted in human emotion, and there's tacking on a ridiculously laughable happy ending that makes an outlandish hash out of the two hours of death destruction bloodshed and horror that have preceded it.

I don't expect him to do anything different. Too many of his films have copped out in the final moments for it to be reasonable to expect otherwise. He'll always sabotage his own work with his own pathological need to make everything nice and friendly for a family audience, no matter how stupid or sentimental. It is why Spielberg will always be a third rate talent. The main fun of seeing his films now is waiting to see how he'll screw it all up.

Updated On: 8/4/09 at 02:31 PM

[Q]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 2:51pm

"Spielberg will always be a third rate talent"

Roscoe, you really are the master of hyperbolic overkill.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 2:53pm

No, that wasn't hyperbolic overkill, it was my considered opinion. Spielberg's a third-rater. Incredible technician, but still a pandering third-rater.

[Q]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 2:58pm

It's too bad he didn't direct CHICAGO.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/4/09 at 3:02pm

Yeah, actually, it is.