The Movie Filter

The Children of Kubrick

March 28, 2007
By Jeff Roedel

In theaters Friday: Blades of Glory, Meet The Robinsons and The Lookout.

New on DVD: Children of Men, Curse of the Golden Flower, Happy Feet and The Pursuit of Happyness.

Celebrity birthday: Vince Vaughn is the big winner today! Happy 37th birthday, baby. Too bad you look like you’re 47. Vince, man, I know you’re a party animal (which would account for the perpetual bags under your eyes), but here’s a suggestion: Get some sleep, son! Things have been quiet for you since The Break-Up (both the movie and the real deal), but I know you’ll bounce back with November’s Fred Claus. If anyone was made to play Santa’s surly brother, it was you.

So I rented Children of Men last night. Let me tell you, this film gripped me within the first 20 seconds unlike any movie I’ve seen in a long time. The truncated end did not quite live up to the brilliant start, but still, Children of Men is a fantastic, entertaining, and most importantly thought-provoking movie that should not be missed. Director Alfonso Cuarón is amazing. And if you long for more films from of the late Stanley Kubrick, this picture might fill a small part of that void.

Set in a dystrophic 2027 after a mysterious plague has swept the earth leaving every woman infertile, Children of Men takes off when a group of English freedom fighters called The Fishes discovers a woman named Kee who is pregnant with the first child that will be born in the world in more than 18 years. Clive Owen stars as Theo, a government pencil pusher who is thrust into the plot to smuggle Kee and her unborn baby out of the country to some unexplained but presumably noble group called "The Human Project."

Whereas Blade Runner frightened audiences with a foreign, unrecognizable future, this film frightens us with familiarity. In a lot of ways this dark, chaotic and fear-mongered 2027 is eerily similar to our own everyday present. Check it out. No matter who you watch this with, you’ll be talking for hours afterward. And don’t pass up some of the great extras on the DVD, which includes insights from the filmmakers as well as various "futurists" and my favorite anti-globalization author Naomi Klein.

And now for my obligatory Indy 4 update (if you get tired of hearing about this movie from me, I’m really sorry. I grew up on these, and no matter how old Harrison Ford is, I’ll still be in line at the theater opening night for this one): Ray Winstone has signed up to play Dr. Jones’ sidekick. Hmm. Counting Cate Blanchett, that’s two Brits in the major supporting roles…could Indiana Jones be headed across the pond? Still no word on those pesky Shia LeBeouf rumors…

Who knew some of all that effin’ in The Departed was legit? According to Mark Walberg, he and Scorsese clashed on set over, I’m not kidding, Marky Mark’s hair! Wahlberg can spin this anyway he wants (and I’m assuming it is all water under the bridge since he is talking about it so casually), but what I take away from this is that Scorsese is not too inclined to direct any possible sequel of The Departed himself. He’ll produce or something, but I doubt he’s interested in butting heads with Wahlberg again on a daily basis.

And you thought Sly Stallone looked old in Rocky Balboa, check him out in these set pics from the new Rambo movie.

It took him 30 years, but Christopher Tolkien has finally finished The Children of Húrin, the Lord of the Rings prequel his father, J.R.R., started before he died in 1971. It will be released worldwide April 17, by HarperCollins. I only mention this book news because the "new" Tolkien epic has probably already made about a billion dollars at the box office. I bet both The Hobbit and The Children of Húrin hit the big screen in the next five or six years.

And finally, this is one of the more controversial films I’ve ever linked to. It’s actually a dramedy that stars Almost FamousPatrick Fugit and A Knight’s Tale’s Shannyn Sossamon as suicide victims trapped in some special sector of purgatory for those who have offed themselves. Click here for a trailer for Wristcutters: A Love Story.

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