THE CHOSEN ONE:

This weekend sees the release of new movies by three of the most daring and often controversial directors of the last six or seven years, and though it’s always nice to see a new movie from the less-than-prolific Lars von Trier, this week, it’s all about…

TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY (Picturehouse)
Starring Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Kelly MacDonald, Jeremy Northam, James Fleet, Ian Hart, Shirley Henderson, Stephen Fry, Gillian Anderson
Directed by Michael Winterbottom (24-Hour Party People, Nine Songs, Code 46); Written by Michael Winterbottom, Frank Cottrell Bryce (24 Hour Party People)
Rated R (for language and sexual content)
Tagline: “He’s about to play the role of his life.”
REVIEW

Most Americans first met Steve Coogan when he played Manchester record exec Anthony Wilson in Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People, and now actor and director are reunited in a very different type of comedy, a timely film that subtly pokes fun at the recent resurgence of period comedies, while at the same time going behind the scenes of the making of one such film. Then again, Laurence Sterne’s massive 18^th Century tome “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” really has very little to do with Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, because it may be an impossible to adapt book. Apparently, it’s well known among English scholars with entire sites dedicated to dissecting it and places you can read the text online like this. What makes the movie so funny is that about twenty minutes into it, it gives up trying to be a straight adaptation and turns into a mockumentary about the making of this film with Coogan and his good friend, comic Rob Brydon, beginning a game of one-upmanship to get more screen time. The funny bits are even funnier if you know anything about Coogan’s private life or have any insight into how movies are made and financed. It’s another hyper-intelligent change of pace for England’s prolific Michael Winterbottom, who has made three very different films before returning to comedy with Tristam Shandy.

Back in October, I had a chance to sit down with the duo of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon to get a firsthand taste of the patter that makes the film so hilarious. “I learned about [the book] when the script was being discussed,” Coogan told me. “That’s why I wanted to get involved, because the book fascinated me from what Michael [Winterbottom] and [his frequent collaborator] Frank [Cottrell Bryce] told me. I didn’t read it, but I dipped in and out of it, and did a bit of research. Spiritually and creatively, it sounded like a really interesting thing to exploit in a film, and when I heard that Frank and Michael wanted to use me as an actor in the film playing myself, it intrigued me. I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I thought the notion of it was quite fascinating, if it could be pulled off. When Rob came in and it was rewritten to accommodate Rob’s presence, once he’d convinced us that he was up to the job.”

“I did a presentation with slides showing them how it could be if I were to be in the film,” Brydon joked. “The first I heard of it was when you asked at a party if they’d sent me this thing. It was quite funny, because the conversation wasn’t a million miles away from the one we had at the beginning of the film, 'cause I asked how big my part was, and your words were ‘featured support,’ but that’s not what it ended up being.”

Coogan explained how the film evolved from being a straight adaptation to an exploration of the moviemaking process and the egos involved. “Michael wanted to adapt it in some way, but do it unconventionally and do something different with it,” Coogan said. “One of the earlier drafts did have a lot of dialogue written for me, and later drafts had dialogue written for me and Rob. There was improvisation in it, but there was also a lot of dialogue specifically written and situations constructed for both of us. Any mild irritation that existed between us, we’d just spin that into a huge irritation.”

“Steve and I both come from an improvisational background and love doing that deadpan stuff,” Brydon said, “And certainly, there are elements of the real dynamics of our relationship, where we’re friends, but we don’t see a great deal of each other, do we? Let’s be honest.”

“Not as much as you would like,” quipped Coogan, “It was a properly structured piece, although not entirely in the way it came out on film. There’s some examinations of neuroses and vanities of creative people, but also things to reflect things that are talked about in the book. The scene where I’m being pulled in different directions replicates Lawrence’s book where it never seems to get to its point.”

Since this film within a film spends a lot of time poking fun at Coogan, we asked how he was able to play that up, and if he had issues “staying in character.” “When we stopped filming, it was very close to me really,” he admitted. “And all I did was focus it more, in terms of the comedy, on the more negative aspects of yourself, because that’s where the comedy lies, so I concentrate on what I know are my weaknesses without me satirizing myself subconsciously, but I don’t think the script did that anyway. I thought it had a balance about it. I just wanted to make sure that it was interesting and entertaining and resonates with the audience in some way.”

Brydon gets a lot of good digs at Coogan in the film including a hilarious impression, so we asked Steve if he ever tried to do impression of Rob. “I wouldn’t elevate Rob to the status of having me do an impression of him,” he smirked. “To learn an impression of someone, you need to love them in a certain way, and you have to watch and observe and learn about that person. I never really felt inclined to spend that amount of time observing Rob. I like his work and what he does, and as a person, he’s affable enough, but the idea of spending time looking at him and observing his every detail, that’s what a fan does.”

More of that witty banter can be seen in Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, which opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday.

NEW THIS WEEK:

Not a very exciting week for new movies and nothing really jumps out as something that must be seen. Hopefully, that will help The Matador, one of my favorite surprises of last year.

ANNAPOLIS (Touchstone Pictures)
Starring James Franco, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana Brewster, Donnie Wahlberg, Chi McBride, Vicellous Shannon
Directed by Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow); Written by David Collard (Out of Time)
Genre: Drama
Rated PG-13 (for some violence, sexual content and language)
Tagline: “Where Heroes Are Born And Legends Are Made.”
Story: Jake Huard (James Franco) is a young man from a poor family who wins admission to the Annapolis Naval Academy, but finds it tougher than he though when he finds himself facing a superior officer (Tyrese Gibson) in the Navy boxing competition.
Mini-Review: This by-the-books drama fails to deliver on the promise of Lin's earlier work, by resorting to every cliche from Officer and a Gentleman, Rocky and other military or boxing dramas. While the film is adeptly made, the cast just isn't up to snuff with Franco brooding and mumbling through his part, and Tyrese and young Demi Moore lookalike Jordana Brewster fighting it out to see which one can be less believable in their role. The only mostly likeable character is the one played VIcellous Shannon, but even his arc is about as predictable as it gets. A safe and fairly standard film. Rating: 5/10

It seems like years since we’ve seen much in the way of a military drama, a genre that has spawned minor hits for the likes of John Travolta, Jack Nicholson and Tommy Lee Jones. Touchstone Pictures’ Annapolis may be hoping to do the same for its two fresh young actors, James Franco, star of the recent dud Tristan & Isolde, and former R’n’B singer Tyrese Gibson, who last appeared in John Singleton’s summer hit Four Brothers and before that in 2 Fast 2 Furious. While this movie usually would only appeal to older guys, the two good-looking guys might help the movie bring in some younger women, as well. More importantly, it’s the first major studio film for director Justin Lin, whose indie crime-drama Better Luck Tomorrow became a minor hit due to its grass roots marketing campaign to its Asian teen audience. Lin’s success also got him the directing gig for the upcoming threequel The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, out this summer, as well as an English language remake of Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy. Presumably the pairing of these elements should help bring in an audience, even though reteaming Pulp Fiction co-stars John Travolta and Samuel Jackson for the 2003 thriller Basic wasn’t enough to interest fans of the genre, despite them both of them having done well in previous military dramas. Annapolis, not a very interesting name for a movie in itself, is being given a moderate release into just over 1,500, maybe because Disney is trying to build word-of-mouth in a tighter target market before expanding it. Not sure if that will really help make it much of a mark in its first weekend, although the first weekend in February is slow enough to help it hold well if reviews are favorable. It hasn’t really gotten a very big marketing push, at least not when compared to Touchstone’s other January drama Glory Road.

Why I Should See It: It should be interesting to see how director Justin Lin handles his first major film, especially with other high profile films on his horizon.
Why Not: This looks like your typical military academy drama that we’ve seen too many times before.
Projection: $6 to 8 million opening weekend and a total gross of around $25 million.

BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE 2 (20^th Century Fox)
Starring Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Emily Procter, Zachary Levi, Mark Moses
Directed by John Whitesell (See Spot Run, Malibu’s Most Wanted); Written by Don Rhymer (Big Momma’s House, The Santa Clause 2, Agent Cody Banks 2, The Honeymooners)
Genre: Comedy, Cross-Dressing
Rated PG-13 (for some sexual humor and a humorous drug reference)
Tagline: “The Momma of All Comedies is Back.”
Story: FBI Agent Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence) has been assigned to infiltrate the home of a computer programmer designing a “worm” that could cause a huge national security disaster, so once again he dons the wig and dress of Big Momma to become a nanny to the programmer’s kids.

Whether or not you liked Martin Lawrence’s style of humor when the first Big Momma’s House opened in the summer of 2000, you have to be impressed with how well it did, since it took a fairly high concept premise of an FBI agent in a dress and turned it into a movie that reached large audiences. It was certainly a big step in Lawrence being taken seriously as a box office star (see below), although it seemed to be a one-off when few of his movies that followed did the same amount of business. It makes some sense that he’d want to return to one of his most famous roles, and of course, Fox is always ready to try to make more money by revisiting any movie that has made them money. Of course, Lawrence may have been overshadowed by the success last year of Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which has a follow-up movie Madea’s Family Reunion coming out next month. Original writer Don Rhymer is back, trying to bring some of the same magic, although considering his last movie was the remake of The Honeymooners, which bombed, one can’t expect this to be a high quality comedy. Obviously, Fox isn’t too confident in the movie, and maybe they realized that this was a well not worth revisiting or else they would have found it a better release, like in the summer. Getting it into 3,000 theatres at least guarantees that it should do at least enough business in each to make the top spot this weekend and that’s all that matters.

Why I Should See It: Maybe Martin Lawrence is funnier in a dress?
Why Not: No, I’m pretty sure he’s not.
Projection: $15 to 18 million opening weekend on its way to less than $40 million total.

NANNY MCPHEE (Universal Pictures)
Starring Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald, Angela Lansbury, Thomas Sangster, Sir Derek Jacobi
Directed by Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine); Written by Emma Thompson (Sense & Sensibility)
Genre: Family, Comedy
Rated PG (for mild thematic elements, some rude humor and brief language)
Tagline: “You’ll Learn to Love Her, Warts and All.”
Story: A recently widowed father of seven (Colin Firth) has to find a nanny to watch over his unruly kids, who’ve scared off more than a dozen previous nannies, a problem that may be solved when Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) shows up not only to tame the kids but also help their father find a new wife.

There’s little question that Emma Thompson is one of Britain’s finest and most respected actresses, but not many people know that she’s also a screenwriter, having written the Oscar winning adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility, the Emmy nominated HBO movie Wit, and some uncredited rewrites on the recent adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. Adapting the little known Nurse Matilda children’s books is an interesting choice for Thompson, since it introduces her to a younger audience who isn’t familiar with her work. It also reunites her with another Brit comedy regular Colin Firth, who last appeared in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually. Because kids won’t really be seeing this for Thompson or Firth, it’s really the Mary Poppins type premise that might interest them, and this will likely be the first choice for parents looking for something a bit classier. Unfortunately, this film may be too British for the kiddies, much like Rowan Atkinson’s spy comedy Johnny English, which made around $27 million in the summer of 2003 after making $9 million opening weekend.

Why I Should See It: The thought of Emma Thompson writing a children’s film in the vein of Mary Poppins certainly is appealing.
Why Not: Parents might be as scared as the kids to see Thompson in so much ugly make-up.
Projection: $7 to 9 million opening weekend on its way to $35 million

THE MATADOR (The Weinstein Company)
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis, Phillip Baker Hall, Dylan Baker
Written and directed by Richard Shepard (Oxygen)
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Rated R for strong sexual content and language.
Tagline: “A hitman and a salesman walk into a bar…”
Story: At a bar in Mexico, the hitman Julian Noble (Brosnan) becomes friends with a salesman (Greg Kinnear), and then has to ask him for help getting back on track when he feels that he’s losing his way.
REVIEW

Indie filmmaker Richard Shepard’s crime comedy about the chance friendship between a hitman and a salesman become a big deal when actor Pierce Brosnan decided to come on board as a producer and to play the leading role of Julian Nobel. It’s a very different part for Brosnan, getting him away from the suave charm of James Bond, and teaming him with two solid underrated actors in Greg Kinnear and Hope Davis. The movie was picked up by the Weinstein Company at least year’s Sundance Film Festival, but they haven’t really gotten it very much attention in limited release where it’s only grossed about $1.5 million, but Brosnan has appeared in a lot of places to talk about it, and it’s been holding up well. Although at its core, it’s a buddy comedy, it tends to veer closer to smarter films like Sideways and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang which makes it a tougher sell to mainstream audiences who may prefer shooting and car chases over talking and character development. The movie’s expansion into 800 theatres this weekend is a bit ambitious, but maybe Brosnan can bring people in on a weekend where there aren’t too many other strong movies.

Why I Should See It: The teaming of Brosnan, Kinnear and Hope Davis makes for some very funny moments.
Why Not: Might be too tame for anyone who prefers slapstick low-brow humor… I’d advise they go see Big Momma’s House 2.
Projection: $2 to 3 million in its first week of wide release on its way to roughly $10 million.

IMAGINE ME & YOU (Fox Searchlight)
Starring Piper Perabo, Lena Heady, Matthew Goode, Celia Imrie, Anthony Head, Darren Boyd, Eva Birthistle
Written and directed by Ol Parker
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rated PG-13
Tagline: “There Goes the Bride”
Story: When Rachel (Piper Perabo) meets Lucy (Lena Heady), a florist who did the flower arrangements at her wedding, they become friends, but as they get closer, Rachel starts wondering whether her feelings for Lucy may be love and how she’ll tell her husband Hector (Matthew Goode).
REVIEW

Following in the footsteps of Richard (Love Actually) Curtis, screenwriter Ol Parker directs his first feature film, a British romantic comedy that deals with a love triangle between two women and a man, which falls somewhere between Runaway Bride and Kissing Jessica Stein. It’s a very different movie for Piper Perabo, who first got attention with her starring role in 2000’s Coyote Ugly, and who has been appearing in a lot of strange places in recent years. For the movie, she’s romantically teamed with Lena Heady, last seen in The Cave and Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm, while the man in the triangle is actor Matthew Goode, who has a smaller role in Woody Allen’s Match Point and starred with Mandy Moore in Chasing Liberty. In an interesting turn, Fox Searchlight is opening this in New York, L.A. and San Francisco this weekend with plans to expand it fairly wide sometime around Valentine’s Day.

Why I Should See It: The make-out scenes between Piper Perabo and Lena Heady, of course!
Why Not: Because lesbian romantic comedies have already been done before and better.

STAR OF THE WEEK: Martin Lawrence

Or maybe this section should be sub-titled, “Martin Lawrence: What Went Wrong?” It shouldn’t be too surprising that the former stand-up and television star is revisiting one of his most popular characters, after his career hit a new low with the ironically titled Rebound last year. It probably won’t help that his return to Big Momma’s House seems more like an act of desperation than something that audiences really wanted.

At least the 40-year-old actor had a good run at it, going from stand-up comedy to his own hit FOX television show where he got to play all sorts of strange characters from 1992 to 1997. Ten years ago, he was teamed with another television star, Will Smith of the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” for Bad Boys, which did well in theatres but even better afterwards. A year later, Lawrence starred in the romantic comedy A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, which didn’t do quite as well, but after teaming with Eddie Murphy for Life and Luke Wilson in Blue Streak, Lawrence was ready to strike out on his own, and the 2000 summer release of Big Momma’s House set him up for his first real hit, making more than $25 million its opening weekend—back then, that was impressive—and over $117 over the course of the summer.

The following year, his comedies Black Knight and the self-fulfilling prophecy What’s the Worst That Can Happen? barely made what Big Momma did opening weekend, so Lawrence returned to his roots, rolling out the 2002 concert film Runteldat, which paved the way for Lawrence to have a bit more success the following year with two more buddy action comedies, National Security with Steven Zahn, and his reunion with Will Smith, now a megastar in his own right, for the Michael Bay-directed Bad Boys II. The latter was a big boost for Lawrence, as it grossed over $46 million opening weekend, more than most of his other movies made in total, and over $130 million total.

Unfortunately, Lawrence wasn’t able to capitalize on that when he was put in charge of a kids’ basketball team in last year’s Rebound, which had the misfortune of opening against the Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise sci-fi blockbuster War of the Worlds. Although Big Momma’s House 2 puts Lawrence back in the dress, it also once again puts him in charge of kids, and that makes it little more than a cross-dressing rip-off of Vin Diesel’s family hit The Pacifier, which came out mere months before Rebound tanked.