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Friday, October 12
Sleuth (2007)
Shoo To These Gumshoes
Trailers & Mo
Jude Law certainly loves himself some movie remakes, and each of the ones he's appeared in, however well intentioned, are complete duds when compared to the originals. I guess he felt guilty for stepping into Michael Caine's big shoes for the '004 take on Alfie, and again in this new Kenneth Branagh directed Sleuth, which he's also co-producing, that he decided to threw the knighted Maurice Micklewhite a bone and let him play the Laurence Olivier part. Clever idea indeedy-do, but even without ever seeing the '72 original (damn those OOP DVDs!) you can tell that this new version juss doesn't quite work. Caine and Law are in love with the same women, whom we never get to see, and the two cocky cockneys go mano-a-mano over her from start to finish. While this acting exercise sounds all dine and fandy, the believability of it all is tossed right out the window in the second act, when Law returns to Caine's house in disguise, as a policeman. Law didn't fool me, and for a character supposedly as smart and crafty as Caine's, he shouldn't have been either. Everything else that happens after that is not worth investigating. Case closed
Without A Clue: apparently remaking Michael Caine movies are the innnnest things to do in Hollywurst. Ever hear of The Italian Job or Get Carter? Maybe if we keep playin our cards wrong, we'll be mistreated to an updated Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Jude Law can naturally take on Caine's role, and as for Steve Martin's Freddy Benson, we see Dane Cook failing again, for the dumpteenth thyme
Rude Boys: probably the single greatest song named after an actor, where the actor sez his own name in the song haz gotz to be 'Michael Caine' by Madness [d|vid]
John Grisham's Jizzum (aka Verdict): Sum Merit But No Stinking Badges
Sleuth opens in NY & LA today and elsewhere elsewhen
until next thyme the balcony is clothed...
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