February 15, 2006
By Jeff Roedel
Freedomland opens this Friday, and looking at the trailer it’s hard to put together what type of movie this is going to be. Is it a cautionary tale with race riots and lessons learned? Is it a kidnapper suspense? Is it a cop falls in love with the victim’s mother drama?
Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore star in it, so maybe if you combine Shaft and Cookie’s Fortune, you’ll have Freedomland, which is probably the first of eight movies Jackson will be in this year.
Some of his roles are classic (Goodfellas, Do The Right Thing, Pulp Fiction), but seriously, I don’t think Sam Jackson has ever turned down an offer. Ever. (Deep Blue Sea anyone? Bueller?). He must be a workaholic or really hate his family. Go ahead, ask him to be in your Junior High production of Pirates of Penzance. He’ll show up with a peg leg and a parrot on his shoulder.
Out on DVD this week is fantasy author Neil Gaiman’s MirrorMask—a 21st century take on Alice in Wonderland, but with more mystery, intrigue and masked madwomen than Jim Henson’s creature crew can shake their creature sticks at. Also on DVD is Bill Murray’s directing turn in 1990’s Quick Change.
I always loved Quick Change as a kid, and its cool to finally see it on DVD. It loses some steam after the first act in which a clown-faced Murray holds up a Manhattan bank and has the cops jumping through his ridiculous hoops. But I crack up when Murray says “It’s bad luck just seeing something like that” after the Spanish Harlem “duel” and when a transient can’t get onto the city bus because the acoustic guitar slung around his shoulders keeps getting in the way.
Speaking of cracking, Salon wonders who stole the funny from Steve Martin, Woody Allen and Albert Brooks in this column. At least Allen looks to be moving away from comedy by choice.
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