'Bourne Legacy' trailer shows a Jeremy Renner you don't want to mess with

Although $1 billion proves me otherwise, I never warmed to the Bourne series. It felt so--sanitized--with none of the swagger of a Bond spy thriller or the gritty realism of a French Connection. It's true that Jason Bourne was an amnesiac, which could make someone a bit bland. That's pretty much how Matt Damon, who I like in almost any other context, played him. Jeremy Renner, the star of The Bourne Legacy, takes his character, who is a product of the same program, in an entirely new direction. He's angry.

The opening scene of the trailer, released today, shows him beat up and looking not downtrodden, but pissed off. It's in this moment that he agrees to become part of the "program." In later scenes, his foes appear to be sincerely frightened of him. It's like he's an animal who's been let loose from his cage.  The trailer, which uses some of that moody brass that became so popular with Inception, showcases Renner's flashiest spy skills. He runs down a corridor, pursued by security, then halts in his tracks and whacks the guy behind him. It's like he decided running wasn't worth the effort. He also uses a fire extinguisher to create some kind of air pellet, and appears to have his hand in blowing up a cabin and possibly using a sniper bullet to fell a small plane. I like that there's some weapons creativity along with a more emotive hero.

 

It's great to see Renner, who proved himself in The Hurt Locker, land himself a starring role in one of the most profitable action-spy franchises out there. I'll also give a brief nod to Edward Norton, who plays the enemy so, so well. The Bourne Legacy looks like it will inject the franchise with some real spunk. Count me in when it releases on August 3, 2012.

Conservative Christian group MovieGuide prepares to give its Faith & Values Awards--which films make the cut?

When a conservative values group releases a study saying that conservative movies earn more money than liberal movies, I can't say I find the results that trustworthy. In anticipation of its Faith & Values Awards Gala, MovieGuide announced the results of its study, which estimates the average gross of a conservative movie ($59 million) to be almost six times that of the average liberal movie ($11 million). I'm deeply skeptical of these figures. For example, small-budget, low-grossing indies often have "edgy" content, while there are only a few overtly religious indies every year, including two Faith & Values nominees this year, Seven Days in Utopia  and Courageous, which actually released through TriStar. MovieGuide is most known for its reviews aimed at evangelical Christians. They first list any and all objectionable content, with the summary and review secondary to the detailed list of the film's transgressions.

What kind of films win the Faith & Values Awards? The "family" category of the Faith & Value Awards doesn't say much. In the past three years, Pixar has closed out the category, with crowd-pleasers Toy Story 3, Up, and WALL-E winning the honors. Still, not all G and PG-rated films pass muster. Happy Feet 2 earned their ire. In their review, they summarized it as a "politically correct message movie that promotes radical environmentalism, magical thinking, and even same-sex partnerships and evolution." In contrast, The Muppets (which Fox News called communist) is nominated this year and earned raves for its "very strong moral worldview extolling family and clean entertainment," though they do make note "an environmentalist undertone as the oil entrepreneur is the bad guy," "upper male nudity," and, perhaps not so bafflingly, "yoga references."

The winners in the "mature" category include Secretariat, The Blind Side, and Iron Man as its recent honorees. Besides celebrating Christianity, MovieGuide also evaluates releases for patriotism, espousing capitalist, not socialist, values and whether they support conservative or liberal political issues. That explains why Iron Man, the consummate capitalist and individualist who uses his technology to defend the country, earned raves from its reviewer. Among this year's nominees are the blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Mission Impossible--Ghost Protocol, and Captain America. The accolades given for other nominated films can be surprising. Holocaust-themed Sarah's Key was noted for its "very strong moral worldview with an anti-abortion message" and 9/11-focused Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is "pro-forgiveness, pro-family, pro-faith, and profound." They also put Terrence Malick's spiritual The Tree of Life on their list. Despite its references to dinosaurs, and "strong but non-evangelistic Christian worldview," the critic praised the movie.

 

Reading MovieGuide's obsessively thorough reviews, which count every single use of foul language and removes points for instances of political correctness, can be surprising. I'm pretty sure some of my subway rides in New York City would merit a couple of paragraphs of "content" in need of review. With its study proclaiming the popularity of conservative films, MovieGuide is clearly trying to insert itself into the mainstream dialogue, but its catalog of reviews tells a different story.

Are you ready for the new 'Spider-Man'?

Watching the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man, I already feel old. It feels like just yesterday that I was watching Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man giving Kirsten Dunst that iconic upside-down kiss. Man, that background music makes that moment feel so cheesy. On second thought, maybe it is time for a new Spider-Man.

However, the fact that they're re-booting the franchise just five years after the third film starring the original cast of characters signals so much that's wrong with Hollywood. Spider-Man "4" was originally going to star Maguire and Dunst and be directed by Sam Raimi. It was only after those oft-cited "creative differences" emerged that Columbia went ahead with an all-new cast and director. The trailer shows us we'll be getting a lot more of the same-old. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have the same feel as original stars Maguire and Dunst (even though Stone plays Gwen Stacy, not the Dunst role of Mary Jane Watson). IMDB says Rhys Ifans plays "Dr. Connor/The Lizard," so that solves who the mysterious green, monstrous enemy in the trailer is right off the bat--though comic book fans undoubtedly knew that already.

One thing I'm excited about is that an entire set piece appears to take place on the Williamsburg Bridge. I live near the bridge, and last year I saw the production filming a number of times. One night, they trained high-powered lights on the bridge that lit it up from end to end. I thought that was the kind of thing that was normally done in CGI, so the time, money, and effort that went into that impressed me. I was completely charmed by director Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer, but I wonder how much of that sensibility will translate to this big-budget, action-centered production.

Of all the superhero franchises, Spider-Man definitely skews young. There certainly isn't the kind of darkness in the Batman series that changed with each director's iteration and made the superhero have appeal beyond the youth set. If they're only going for kids, perhaps it makes sense that a reboot will occur just ten years after the original and five years after the third film in the franchise. 

I can't help feeling a little bored with it all. The Amazing Spider-Man will have to live up to something that's only ten years old in our cultural memory. When Hollywood is already remaking something that premiered in this millennium, how can they expect adults to show up? And how can original screenplays ever have a shot?

'Chronicle' and 'Woman in Black' lure teens to theatres

This year more studios were willing to place films during Super Bowl weekend, even if it meant they would plummet up to 70% on game day. Chronicle and The Woman in Black were rewarded, while Big Miracle, the only film that actually tried to capture the un-Super Bowl audience, floundered. Overall, receipts were up 36% from last year, a clear sign that Super Bowl weekend no longer signals a lackluster box office.

The found-footage superhero movie Chronicle skyrocketed to first place with $22 million. The low-budget production only cost half that to make, so Fox is probably already in the green. 61% of audience members were under 25, a valued demographic that hasn't been showing up in force lately. Their presence elicited a sigh of relief for the industry as a whole.

The "Harry Potter factor" helped out The Woman in Black considerably this weekend, as it soared to an estimated $21 million. Young female viewers eager to see Harry Potter...er, Daniel Radcliffe...turned out in force for the haunted house flick. CBS Films only  paid $3 million for the movie, so this definitely counts as a win for the up-and-coming distributor.

Big Miracle failed to attract audiences, earning $8.5 million and landing in fourth place, behind the second weekend of Liam Neeson-starring The Grey. However, good audience response may make the whale-saving picture a strong holder. Echoing my feelings after seeing the surprisingly charming movie, audiences gave the movie an A-, the highest score of any new release.

Madonna-directed W.E. debuted to $45,000 per screen in four locations. Her star power has given the historical romance plenty of publicity, though some journalists are probably less interested in her movie than in landing a Madonna interview. The star's Super Bowl halftime performance will increase awareness even further.

The leaders in Oscar nominations all showed strong holds. George Clooney-led The Descendants dipped 28% to $4.6 million, even while playing in just over 2,000 locations. The Artist, for which I've also seen an increase in television ads, had a gentle decline of 22% to $2.5 million, while playing in 1,000 locations. Hugo topped them all, dipping just 8% to $2.3 million.

This Friday will be busy. In advance of Valentine's Day, romantic weeper The Vow will release, fanboys can check out the re-release of Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace in 3D, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island will entice families, and Safe House adult males.

Theatres battle against Super Bowl with 'Big Miracle,' 'Chronicle,' and 'Woman in Black'

Apparently, Super Bowl weekend isn't the box-office ghetto it used to be. This weekend three films are vying for the top spot, and only one of them, Big Miracle, falls into the typical female/family counterprogramming slot.

Betting on big grosses Friday and Saturday, Fox is releasing the found-footage picture Chronicle (2,907 theatres). It centers on teen boys who have an encounter with an unknown thing that gives them superpowers. Since found-footage films usually correlate with the horror genre, this marks a creative departure. Critics have responded, giving the movie an 84% positive Rotten Tomatoes rating. Many estimate the superhero flick could earn up to $15 million this weekend.

Daniel Radcliffe plays a widowed lawyer who is closing up a household's estate in The Woman in Black (2,855 theatres), which is also expected to cross the seven-figure mark this weekend. Critic David Noh laments that the haunted house picture is "lacking in the essential element of surprise." I'll agree with that one. I'm a horror wimp but I didn't even jump once.  It's surprising the movie isn't that good given it's based on a book that has spawned a TV series, play, and radio show. While the adaptation is very cinematic, there were points when Radcliffe's character pored through long-forgotten files that I wish I could have spent time reading. I imagine the book devotes more time to unraveling the mystery through the papers left by the deceased's family.

The whale-saving, feel-good Big Miracle (2,128 theatres) is much better than the commercials suggest. Based on a 1988 news story about whales trapped under an expanse of ice in Barrow, Alaska, its Walkmans and retro costuming feel nostalgic, giving viewers a "not-so-distant look back at an era when three network anchors set the news agenda.” The PG-rated tale is a "family film adults will enjoy as much as their animal-loving kids," critic Kevin Lally concludes. On Sunday, the movie should do big business among non-football lovers, but I suspect the film won't open nearly as strongly as Dolphin Tale ($19 million) because of its muddled marketing. Its best hope will be if it can pull off something like Soul Surfer, which opened to $10 million and grossed four times that figure--though Soul Surfer had the added benefit of the faith-based audience.

Madonna's performing in the Super Bowl halftime show this weekend, and whaddayaknow, her second directorial effort, W.E. (4 theatres), is also making its debut. Noh was one of the few advocates of the historical romance, which he declares an "entertainingly fancy bauble of an ultimate chick flick." The story centers on the romance between Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII, who abdicated the British throne so he could marry the American divorcee.

On Monday, we'll find out if the Giants beat the Patriots and how much the Super Bowl made a dent in the Sunday grosses of Chronicle and its ilk.

Will Scorsese's post-'Hugo' project be the serial killer pic' Snowman?'

Martin Scorsese's currently riding the critical (but not box-office) success of Hugo, which received double-digit Oscar nominations. However, with Scorsese passed up for the Directors Guild Award in favor of The Artist's Michel Hazanavicius, it looks like Hugo won't be as much of a winner as some of the director's earlier works. For his next project he may be returning to what he does best--suspense and crime.  After receiving approval by author Jo Nesbø, Scorsese will direct The Snowman, an adaptation of a Scandinavian crime novel. Interestingly, the book is the seventh in the series starring this character, unusual given that most adaptations start at number one. The anti-hero at the center of it all is Norwegian detective Harry Hole. He's a smoker and drinker, and generally only put up with by his police department because he's such a brilliant detective. The case he'll solve is also quite chilling. It involves a boy who wakes up one morning to find his mother missing and her scarf wrapped around a freshly-built snowman. It turns out this incident is just one of many, but Hole's pursuit of the case may be playing directly into the serial killer's hands.

Despite having virtually no violent crime, Scandinavia has been a hotbed for thrilling books, movies, and television shows, perhaps to replace all that drama its people aren't getting in real life. The media that has crossed over to the U.S. includes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden), "The Killing," (Denmark/Sweden), Let the Right One in (Sweden), and, loosely, Reykjavik-Rotterdam (Iceland), just remade as Contraband and currently in theatres. Another adaptation of Nesbø's work, Headhunters, has become one of the most successful Norwegian films of all time. The material and movement Scorsese's working with must be good.

Matthew Michael Carnahan (World War Z) is scripting the Working Title production. Scorsese has seven directing projects listed on his IMDB page, so there's no word on whether or not it will be his next project. I doubt Scorsese will set a date for anything until after the Oscars at the end of February.

Katy Perry jumps on the 3D concert doc train

Katy Perry is in talks with Paramount to create a 3D concert documentary with behind-the-scenes backstory and biography. If Perry can lead a successful 3D concert film, she may open the field to a host of other musical acts. Currently, concert documentaries tend to focus on acts that appeal to the tween/teen crowd (Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Jonas Brothers, "Glee") and the older and legendary (Michael Jackson, U2, The Rolling Stones). Perry is in more of an in-between space. She tops the charts but she's only a couple albums into fame. Her base does include teens and tweens, but she's also fairly popular among adults.

In some ways, the announcement comes after the fact. Nanette Burstein, director of the great doc American Teen and feature Going the Distance, has already shot the 3D concert footage. The project is moving forward at lightning speed--Paramount plans to release the movie this summer, in June or July. The focus on Perry growing up should be interesting and relevant. She recently parted ways with her husband of a year or so, Russell Brand. She grew up the daughter of a minister and first tried to make it as a gospel singer before embracing her candy, bubble gum, slightly provocative look.

Paramount made $73 million with Justin Bieber: Never Say Never last year. But it will be hard for Perry to replicate that success. She'll have much more competition in the summer than on Super Bowl weekend in February, when Bieber's film released. She also doesn't have quite the rabid fanbase of Bieber. A couple of concert docs have fallen flat in recent years, including Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience ($19 million) and last year's Glee the 3D Concert Movie, which finished with a disappointing $11 million. Perry's success or failure will give the green light or red light to many other pop stars in her league. Next year we may see Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kanye West, Beyonce, or Jay-Z on the silver screen. What's your pick?