Chris Weitz
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Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
influenced The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
Plot
The parallels that can be drawn to "Romeo and Juliet" are more in evidence this time around.
Sadly, much of what I enjoyed about the first movie seems missing in the overly depressing follow-up film, which comes across like Romeo and Juliet on extra downers.
Scenes where Bella and Edward sit through a class covering Romeo and Juliet act like a subtle wink to adults in the audience: Yes we know this is a bit overly dramatic and self-important, but, as even Shakespeare recognized, so are teenagers.
Enjoying all of New Moon 's 130-minute running time (as I did, well enough) takes the ability to swoon and snort simultaneously—say, when a fantasy Bella runs through the woods in gray chiffon, or Edward recites the closing lines of Romeo and Juliet by heart.
His Jacob is like a slightly younger, and hunkier American take on Hugh Grant’s Will Freeman from the far better “About a Boy.” Exploring the emptiness of the singles scene and what happens with the lady-killer meets his match is a theme that never gets old.
It brings to mind the romantic comedy About A Boy from a couple of years ago, which had a similar scene that managed to be both moving and unsentimental at the same time.
Jackson and fellow Rings producer Fran Walsh’s adaptation of a 2001 YA steampunk novel more than a decade after the release of the ill-advised flop adaptation of The Golden Compass (itself largely blamed for the fall of Rings supposed-powerhouse New Line Cinema) might have seemed craven and misguided even just a few years ago; now it feels preciously, precariously idiosyncratic, a kind of flight of fancy that must be protected at all costs just on principle.
There have certainly been enough attempts at launching fantasy franchises in the following years: The Golden Compass in 2007, YA dystopian fare like The Maze Runner and the Divergent series, and more recently the new Fantastic Beasts franchise, which has yet to recapture the original Harry Potter ’s magic.
It honestly feels like a film released about a decade too late; put it out around the same time as The Golden Compass or The Spiderwick Chronicles , and it might have stood a better chance.
In many ways, it reminded me of The Golden Compass remake – a story that sacrificed it’s true heart at the altar of Hollywood.
Remember how The Golden Compass was a terribly disappointing movie that didn’t have to be terrible?
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The ex-con-befriends-a-kid plot resembles that of grossly underrated Nicolas Cage/David Gordon Green film Joe , with echoes of About a Boy and Sling Blade .
It’s About a Boy , but the boy is gay.
It employs the female lead and the soundtrack artist from “About a Boy,” whose hero was also named Will, and even borrows the look of the poster for “Love, Actually.”
The film is the latest from England's Working Title production studio, the clever chaps who gave us "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "About a Boy," "Love, Actually" and several Coen brothers films.
And if Brooks' attempts to replicate the magic of "About a Boy" weren't obvious by the end credits, the Badly Drawn Boy song will drive the point home.
The Last Airbender (2010)
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
influenced by The Golden Compass (2007)
Themes
“The Last Airbender’’ is dreadful, an incomprehensible fantasy-action epic that makes the 2007 film “The Golden Compass,’’ a similarly botched adaptation of a beloved property from another medium, look like a four-star classic.
Although there’s supposedly more to come, this expensive epic has the huge, hugely desperate feel of “The Golden Compass,” “Eragon” and all those other films that were supposed to kick off kids’-movie franchises — and never got past their first installments.
The Last Airbender feels almost exactly like The Golden Compass.
“Airbender” is kiddie fantasy so limp it makes “Narnia,” “Percy Jackson” and “The Golden Compass” look like unqualified masterpieces.
Just as likely, however, it will suffer the same fate of another fantasy it resembles: "The Golden Compass," which failed to push whatever buttons such fare needs to prosper.
Shyamalan has only directed one Airbender movie -- he's signed on for two sequels, but their fate rests with the box office grosses of this $150 million production -- and this situation feels awfully reminiscent of The Golden Compass, the first (and open-ended) installment in an intended franchise that was abandoned after audiences didn't turn out in enough numbers.
Teen Wolf Too (1987)
Directed by Christopher Leitch
influenced The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
Characters
Bella is crushed and spends the next few months (signified by arguably the most unintentionally hilarious moment in a film chock-full of them), weeping herself to sleep, trembling like a withdrawing heroin addict and acting even more anti-social than usual until she begins spending more and more quality time with Jake (Taylor Lautner), her newly buff and often shirtless best pal who, it turns out, is also a werewolf (though easily the least threatening one to appear on the big screen since Jason Bateman suited up for “Teen Wolf Too“).
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Directed by Tim Burton
influenced by The Golden Compass (2007)
Visuals Themes
And yet even much of what we see feels tediously familiar, borrowed from elsewhere: The White Queen’s (Anne Hathaway: Valentine’s Day, Bride Wars) realm is Rivendell; Alice riding the Bandersnatch is The Golden Compass’s Lyra riding the warrior polar bear Iorek Byrnison; even the Mad Hatter’s tea party is taking place in the shadow of the gearpunk windmill from Burton’s own Sleepy Hollow.
The flat climax borrows architecture and action from Narnia, animals from the "The Golden Compass" and psychedelic jungle flora from the movie it's replacing in theaters, "Avatar."
There are bits of “The Lord of the Rings,’’ “Shrek,’’ “The Wizard of Oz,’’ “The Princess Bride,’’ even “The Golden Compass,’’ all given a wash of chic Gothic gloom.
Based on the non-fiction book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, and adapted by excellent screenwriter Nick Hornby (About a Boy, An Education), Wild may offer some inspiration to those who’ve hit the end of their rope and need somewhere to fall, while to others it will feel like a long and predictable list of “carpe diem”-style platitudes.
Nick Hornby’s (An Education, About a Boy) screenplay predictably dramatises conventional themes like individualism and personal growth but Wild is more interesting as a study of gender and femininity.
To hold all these soul-stretching themes together is quite a feat and director Jean-Marc Vallee ( The Young Victoria , Dallas Buyer's Club ) and screenplay writer Nick Hornby ( About a Boy , An Education ) prove themselves up to the challenge.
The screenplay, deft and nuggety, comes from Nick Hornby, the About a Boy writer whose affinity for female-driven stories resulted in the pitch-perfect adaptation of Lynn Barber's '60s coming-of-age memoir, An Education .
Vallee ("Dallas Buyers Club") works from a script by Nick Hornby, whose novels ("About a Boy," "High Fidelity") and screenplays ("An Education") might make him seem an odd choice for this film.
Where “Wild” disappoints is in the didactic, show-and-tell approach of Vallée’s direction and of the screenplay, which, surprisingly, is by Nick Hornby, writer of “High Fidelity,” “About a Boy,” and “Fever Pitch,” and screenwriter of “An Education.”
Call it The Golden Compass rule: No multi-part movie series should be started without a reasonable certainty that the story will be told in full.
The final image of the movie — a child’s hand held high in warring defiance of a villain we still don’t quite understand — isn’t so much a cliff-hanger as a “dot dot dot” for a sequel that will never get made, trailing off into the dustbin alongside such open-ended fantasy movies as “City of Ember,” “Ender’s Game,” and “The Golden Compass.”
An Oscar pedigree is provided by actor Graham Greene ("Dances with Wolves") who has a small role as the sheriff's deputy, Harry Clearwater.
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
influenced The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
Themes
The movie, directed by Chris Weitz, comes off very much like Clint Eastwoods The Bridges of Madison Countyprofessional filmmaking applied to sub-literary euphemistic trash, in this case couched in the jejune crush-fantasies of a Mormon mom stranded at home with three little boys.
Operation Finale doesn’t reach the Spielbergian heights of Munich or the cat-and-mouse thrills of Catch Me if You Can , but the sparring between Kingsley and Isaac is remarkable, and the film’s structural flaws never blunt the the touching impact of its themes.
The malevolent leader of this Italian faction is Aro (Michael Sheen from "Frost/Nixon" and "The Queen") and his menacing minion is Jane (a nearly unrecognizable Dakota Fanning from "The Secret Life of Bees" and "War of the Worlds").
There is a brush with the vampire ruling class - featuring cameo appearances from Dakota Fanning, as a malevolent, blank-faced vampire girl, and Michael Sheen (recently seen as Tony Blair in The Queen ) as a suave vampire authority figure.
Not until Michael Sheen, of "Frost/Nixon" and "The Queen," makes an appearance as the vampire pope - a cross between Count Dooku and Voldemort, with Dakota Fanning in a small role as his sidekick - does the gloomy and lethargic film show any bite.
I enjoyed it when everyone quit overcast Washington State and surried on over to Tuscany to confront a sect of ancient Italian vampires led by Michael Sheen (switching sides after playing a werewolf in the Underworld trilogy) who looks like a bloodsucking Mr Bean.
Dakota Fanning, all grown up, is seriously creepy with only about four lines as one of the Volturi, the ancient vampire ruling council (or whatever), and Michael Sheen (who gained valuable vampire/werewolf experience in the Underworld movies) hams it up delightfully as the group’s malevolent leader.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
Directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.
influenced The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
I won't go as far as to say Taylor Lautner is a good actor, but he's an improvement over Robert Pattinson, who attempts to impersonate Bela Lugosi from Plan 9 from Outer Space.
After he dumps her (for reasons I can't be bothered to go into - honestly, you have to see the film) the camera revolves around her as she broods in her bedroom and the seasons change outside; it's like that bit in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant walks through Portobello Road market, the modern equivalent of pages peeling off a calendar to represent the passage of time, but I'm afraid it left me wondering how she'd stayed in that position for three months without needing to get up and go to the toilet.
Normally, whether it be in a sitcom like The Honeymooners or Perfect Strangers or a movie such as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town , The Shop Around the Corner , While You Were Sleeping , About a Boy , and numerous titles involving Shakespearean disguise or Pygmalion -inspired wagers, and even the fantastical varieties like Aladdin , Splash , any body-swap film, it’s a love interest who is most hurt by the secret or lie, after which the lying party must make it up to him or her to set things right.
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Directed by Ron Howard
influenced The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
Themes
These are hardly superlatives on the order of “shattering” and “beautiful,” but compared to the film versions of “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” the only two movies ever made with less sex than the first two “Twilight"s, they’re matchless.
West Side Story (1961)
Directed by Jerome Robbins
influenced The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)
Themes
So, I’m willing to give Weitz points if he really did intend for audiences to see a riff on West Side Story — you know, the Broadway musical based on R&J — with that half-naked Native American gang in the woods.