Burr Steers
53 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
The movie tries to combine “The Sixth Sense” and “Ghost” to reflect on the painful gulf between life and death, while also hinting at our ability to retain something from those we've lost.
All right, there are lots of precedents for this kind of narrative model starting with Ghost (1990), and Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply, released the same year.
It’s possible that Zac Efron’s legion of young, female admirers will embrace their idol in this lachrymose supernatural melodrama, a wannabe cross between Ghost and The Sixth Sense .
Director Burr Steers, who helmed (no pun intended) Efron in the charming body-switch comedy 17 Again, shrouds the film with a guilt-edged melancholy that evokes the atmosphere of Ghost and The Sixth Sense.
But he's not given much of a chance to demonstrate more than a piercing gaze and some of the best crying since Demi Moore in "Ghost."
Efron is clearly talented, and he can shed a single tear on cue in the same uncanny manner Demi Moore did in Ghost.
It then goes the extra mile by casting Zac Efron, featuring lots of strictly-from-hunger comedy tropes ("Star Wars" gags, comic kicks to the groin) and recycling the old plot about the adult suddenly trapped in the body of a teenager.
Best Thing About It: Thomas Lennon from Reno 911! as Matthew Perry's high school buddy, a former super-nerd who grew up to develop software, get rich and live in a Star Wars memorabilia-filled home.
Step 4: Do pay attention to the hilarious performance by Reno 911‘s Thomas Lennon, as Mike’s former geeky high school friend, now a multi-millionaire software designer with a penchant for all things fantasy – from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings.
There's little doubt that 17 Again suffers from a fairly labored opening half hour that's exacerbated by a pronounced emphasis on egregious instances of overt silliness, with such deficiencies epitomized by Mike's friendship with Thomas Lennon's almost unreasonably over-the-top Ned Gold (ie the character, a millionaire computer guru, sleeps in a Star Wars-inspired bed and engages in a sword fight with light sabers).
…writer/director Burt Steers, who covers some of the same ground as 1998's "Rushmore" and this year's "Tadpole" but manages to put another spin on it.
The story, about a poor little rich boy misfit, has been done quite a few times before, notably in films like "Harold and Maud," and "Rushmore," but those were much better films than this weak effort.
Igby is an interesting character because he isn’t immediately likeable – he’s vaguely reminiscent of Max in Rushmore, owing to his dress sense and his propensity for a smartarse remark.
A self indulgent, over-written film that steals man-child/real-world life lesson clichйs from "The Graduate," and some prep school moments of "Rushmore," "Igby Goes Down" would be a lot easier to sit through if it weren’t so concerned with its own hipness and sarcastic wit.
Rushmore's Max Fischer wouldn't be caught dead telling lame New Jersey jokes, and the final-reel play at morbid gravitas (despised mother asks her sons to snuff her out) only invites unfavorable comparison to Harold and Maude.
But as the title states, somehow Perry magically morphs back into the Tiger Beat/Bop-ready Efron, and what follows is a mélange of the Freaky Friday body switch comedy with the maudlin mush of something like The Family Man with--in a rather ballsy, can't-win-at-all move--Back to the Future.
Screenwriter Jason Filardi ("Bringing Down the House") probably watched "It's A Wonderful Life," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Back to the Future," "Big," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Freaky Friday" to get ideas for the story.
While it's not in the same classic league, the movie has a nice Back to the Future vibe to it.
You can complain all you want about the film’s shameless piracy of films like “Big” and “Back to the Future,” but that doesn’t change the fact that “17 Again” is more fun than most people probably expected.
A limp reverse retread of "Big," "17 Again" not only follows in the wake of that classic 1988 Tom Hanks film, but also pales in comparison to more recent body- and age-switching comedies such as 2003's " Freaky Friday " and 2004's " 13 Going on 30 ."
Screenwriter Jason Filardi ("Bringing Down the House") probably watched "It's A Wonderful Life," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Back to the Future," "Big," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Freaky Friday" to get ideas for the story.
Back in the late 80's, we had such age traveling films as "Big," in which Tom Hanks is a little boy who gets an adult body and father/son swaps like "Vice Versa," itself a spin on the mother/daughter reversal of 1976's "Freaky Friday," so the time seems ripe to resurrect the genre with "17 Again," a kind of merging of these films with "A Wonderful Life."
The movie might sound a lot like Penny Marshall's "Big" in reverse, but thanks to some great performances from its cast, “17 Again” manages to succeed as its own entity.
While the temptation is there to label the feature as a body switching comedy along the likes of a backwards “Big,” “17 Again” isn’t aiming for a whimsical handle to the laughs.
A reverse Big, as it were.
Back in the late 80's, we had such age traveling films as "Big," in which Tom Hanks is a little boy who gets an adult body and father/son swaps like "Vice Versa," itself a spin on the mother/daughter reversal of 1976's "Freaky Friday," so the time seems ripe to resurrect the genre with "17 Again," a kind of merging of these films with "A Wonderful Life."
I can recommend Joe Wright’s faithful “Pride and Prejudice” adaptation as readily as airhead Austen parody “Clueless” or zombie gut-muncher “Night of the Living Dead.”
It helps enormously that Jane Austen’s romantic and comic novels are surprisingly sturdy beasts, regularly prompting great adaptations (Sense & Sensibility), witty updates (Metropolitan, Clueless), ethnic riffs (Bride & Prejudice, From Prada to Nada) and serving as a skeleton for other classics, too (Bridget Jones’s Diary).
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Directed by George A. Romero
influenced Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Themes
I can recommend Joe Wright’s faithful “Pride and Prejudice” adaptation as readily as airhead Austen parody “Clueless” or zombie gut-muncher “Night of the Living Dead.”
Zombie films may not be held in the highest regard, but that hasn’t stopped such directors as George A. Romero from creating at least a pair of masterpieces (“Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead”) from the concept.
The zombies themselves, meanwhile, depart from the now well-worn playbook of Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero; instead of automatically coming back to life as flesh-eating ghouls, they only lose their minds after tasting the brains of others.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Directed by Zack Snyder
influenced Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Themes
Zombie films may not be held in the highest regard, but that hasn’t stopped such directors as George A. Romero from creating at least a pair of masterpieces (“Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead”) from the concept.
Bride & Prejudice (2004)
Directed by Gurinder Chadha
influenced Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Plot
All great respect to Ms. Austen and her classic novel, but we’ve seen so many film and television adaptations, not to mention modern twists such as “Bridget Jones’s Diaries” and the web series “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,” and the Bollywood gem “Bride & Prejudice,” and the time- travel-themed “Lost in Austen” miniseries, etc., that if we MUST get another variation on the story, the weirder the better.
It helps enormously that Jane Austen’s romantic and comic novels are surprisingly sturdy beasts, regularly prompting great adaptations (Sense & Sensibility), witty updates (Metropolitan, Clueless), ethnic riffs (Bride & Prejudice, From Prada to Nada) and serving as a skeleton for other classics, too (Bridget Jones’s Diary).
And, coming in the wake of the superior, similarly themed "Submarine," perhaps George needs to consider the last part of another title his movie is reminiscent of, " Igby Goes Down ."
Salinger’s story of a privileged, existentially troubled New York teenager has provided the template for an American indie genre, the quirky, sensitive, coming-of-age stories depicted in films such as Igby Goes Down, Tadpole and last year’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story.
Snakes on a Plane (2006)
Directed by David R. Ellis
influenced Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Themes
In the vein of movies like Snakes on a Plane and Bad Santa, Burr Steers' Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a film that very much tells you what it’s all about with its title: it’s Jane Austen’s classic romantic tale retold with a bit of Walking Dead action.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is: (a) the greatest movie title since Snakes on a Plane and (b) the worst movie with a great title since Snakes on a Plane.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
influenced Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
Characters
That would be a shame, since director Burr Steers (he had a small role as an actor in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction") has graced his movie with gorgeous photography, fabulous costumes, and well-choreographed action sequences that do not wear out their welcome.
If the “Fox Force Five” referenced in “Pulp Fiction” were transported to early 19th century England, well here they are.
In the vein of movies like Snakes on a Plane and Bad Santa, Burr Steers' Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a film that very much tells you what it’s all about with its title: it’s Jane Austen’s classic romantic tale retold with a bit of Walking Dead action.
I haven’t suffered such anguish at the movies since reviewing Uwe Boll’s appalling Alone in the Dark back in 2005.
In fact, the whole impetus for the plot comes when his wife, Scarlett (whom he calls "Scar" -- what is she, the Apache from "The Searchers"?) kicks him out of the house and throws his belongings in a woodchipper.
A limp reverse retread of "Big," "17 Again" not only follows in the wake of that classic 1988 Tom Hanks film, but also pales in comparison to more recent body- and age-switching comedies such as 2003's " Freaky Friday " and 2004's " 13 Going on 30 ."
The premise here is an oft-used one that clearly hasn't hurt the careers of Lindsay Lohan (Freaky Friday), Tom Hanks (Big), and Jodie Foster (the original Freaky Friday): An older person either exchanges his body with his child or through some unexplained force finds himself young again.
This kaleidoscopic, relentlessly downbeat film plays a little like "The Royal Tenenbaums" as envisaged by Whit Stillman ("Metropolitan," "The Last Days of Disco"), a talky, cryptic, often times witty but ultimately overripe look at wealthy, dysfunctional Manhattanites and the problems they're forced to endure.
Perhaps he's unaware of the "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" phenomenon, or he might have worked "Pride and Prejudice and Orgasm" -- or perhaps "Pride and Prejudice and Zowie!" -- into his review, too.
Screenwriter Jason Filardi ("Bringing Down the House") probably watched "It's A Wonderful Life," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Back to the Future," "Big," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Freaky Friday" to get ideas for the story.
Suddenly he meets a bearded old school janitor that he winds up saving, It's a Wonderful Life-style, by jumping into a river.