On the eve of his movie comeback, can Mel Gibson finally tame his demons?
It was a balmy spring evening in Cannes. Arriving for the premiere of his latest film, The Beaver, Mel Gibson seemed anxious as he walked the red carpet last month, a little uncomfortable posing for the massed ranks of photographers who were shouting his name. When the movie's director, Jodie Foster, leaned across to adjust his bow-tie, Gibson smiled, right on cue. But while the two of them chatted and laughed for the cameras, the actor's brow remained furrowed. The next day's photographs would all show the three deep wrinkles cut horizontally across his tanned forehead, giving him the air of someone who expects disappointment and – more often than not – is rewarded with it.
He was understandably worried, perhaps, about how the film would be received. The Beaver, in which the 55-year-old Gibson plays a depressed...
It was a balmy spring evening in Cannes. Arriving for the premiere of his latest film, The Beaver, Mel Gibson seemed anxious as he walked the red carpet last month, a little uncomfortable posing for the massed ranks of photographers who were shouting his name. When the movie's director, Jodie Foster, leaned across to adjust his bow-tie, Gibson smiled, right on cue. But while the two of them chatted and laughed for the cameras, the actor's brow remained furrowed. The next day's photographs would all show the three deep wrinkles cut horizontally across his tanned forehead, giving him the air of someone who expects disappointment and – more often than not – is rewarded with it.
He was understandably worried, perhaps, about how the film would be received. The Beaver, in which the 55-year-old Gibson plays a depressed...
- 6/6/2011
- by Elizabeth Day
- The Guardian - Film News
After Mel Gibson's most recent psychotic outburst threatened to derail his career this past summer, it was unclear when we might see him on the big screen again. His upcoming film The Beaver had been getting good buzz earlier in the year, but it has since been shelved, apparently until the backlash blows over. While some might question whether or not there even is a backlash (a recent Vanity Fair/60 Minutes poll [1] indicated that most moviegoers were no less likely to see a new Mel Gibson movie), the fact remains that it can be difficult to win back public approval once you have lost it. Just ask Tom Cruise. As it turns out, Gibson may actually be getting pointers from Cruise's publicity team because for his next role it looks like he will be poking fun at himself, just like Tom Cruise did in Tropic Thunder. Word on the...
- 10/18/2010
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
Edge of Darkness, a gritty revenge thriller opening Jan. 29, marks Mel Gibson's first leading-man role in eight years. With his recent tabloid baggage, can the 53-year-old still open an R-rated $80 million drama? "I don't think anybody would have gotten involved if they had any doubts about Mel Gibson being a great actor and a movie star," producer/financier Graham King tells EW. In fact, this production (the adaptation of a successful BBC mini-series), returns Gibson, to the well-worn revenge drama territory that he's mined so effectively in many films, including Ransom and the Lethal Weapon franchise. Sue Kroll, Warner Bros.
- 1/21/2010
- by Nicole Sperling
- EW - Inside Movies
"Rogue", Greg Mclean's follow-up to the lo-fi torture-porn shocker "Wolf Creek", is the most expensive Australian-made horror film to date -- and it's easy to see what swallowed up the budget. The gigantic killer crocodile of the title is an outstanding feat of animatronics and CGI courtesy of Weta Workshop, the New Zealand special effects company that worked on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The rest of this self-serious entry in the creature-feature genre is, however, surprisingly toothless.
Financing from Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who distributed "Wolf Creek" in the U.S., has allowed Mclean to cast Hollywood actors Michael Vartan and Radha Mitchell and employ slick production values that will broaden "Rogue's" appeal beyond the cult status enjoyed by his envelope-pushing 2005 debut. But fans of the truly nasty "Wolf Creek" will be disappointed with a shiny production that delivers formulaic jolts rather than stomach-turning gore and depravity.
"Rogue" currently is testing the waters Down Under to qualify for the Australian Film Industry awards ahead of its U.S. release Oct. 12 and an official Australian release Nov. 8.
As in all the best monster movies, the threat here is all the more menacing for being rooted in reality. At 25 feet long, the rogue saltwater croc does not outrageously exceed the largest found in Australia. But calling this the "Jaws" of the outback is overstating the film's place in the genre.
Mclean says he was influenced by the more character-driven horror films of the 1970s, yet his roll call of characters get little more than a perfunctory introduction before most of them enter the Northern Territory food chain.
Pete McKell (a reliably bland Vartan) is an American travel writer venturing way outside his comfort zone of five-star hotels to board a river cruise in a secluded region of outback Australia. He's joined by a group of tourists, each easily defined by a single adjective: a jolly backpacker, a bickering couple, a nervous widower ("Wolf Creek's" John Jarratt in a glorified cameo), a geeky photographer for comic relief and the obligatory pooch managing to elicit more audience empathy than most of its human co-stars.
Mclean and cinematographer Will Gibson do a nice job building mood in these early scenes, with stunning aerial shots of the ancient landscape's sweeping escarpments and isolated billabongs. While they're developing this quasi-mystical relationship with the landscape, spunky tour guide Kate (the Australian-born Mitchell) is taking care of exposition with a fact-filled spiel about the man-eating crocs that are the area's biggest tourist attraction.
It's intended to give the day-trippers a frisson of fear-tinged excitement -- and the audience a heads-up about grave danger ahead. When the tour boat follows a distress flare farther upriver and is rammed from beneath by something big, we don't need to see much of the huge, primordial beast gliding semi-submerged through the water. And we don't for quite a long while.
The tourists abandon the sinking boat and end up stranded on a tiny mud island. As night falls and the tidal river starts to rise, concerns about missing their bus give way to the realization that they have been, as one character chillingly puts it, "tagged as a food supply."
The rest is a bit by-the-numbers as the tourists are picked off in uncommonly straight-faced fashion, with one even risking his life to retrieve some painkillers without a hint of irony. Although there are a couple of heart-in-mouth set pieces, the pace slackens until the well-executed croc-vs.-hero smackdown in the predator's lair.
This is the payoff, when the croc is revealed in its fearsome entirety from dagger-toothed jaw to powerful tail. The creature is incredibly realistic, moves convincingly and fills the screen with a commanding presence. If only the same could be said for Michael Vartan.
ROGUE
The Weinstein Co.
Dimension Films, Village Roadshow Pictures, Emu Creek Pictures
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Greg Mclean
Producers: Matt Hearn, David Lightfoot, Greg Mclean
Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Joel Pearlman, Robert Kirby
Director of photography: Will Gibson
Production designer: Robert Webb
Music: Francois Tetaz
Costume designer: Nicola Dunn
Editor: Jason Ballantine
Cast:
Pete: Michael Vartan
Kate: Radha Mitchell
Neil: Sam Worthington
Russell: John Jarratt
Simon: Stephen Curry
Mary Ellen: Caroline Brazier
Colin: Damien Richardson
Merv: Barry Otto
Sherry: Mia Wasikowska
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Financing from Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who distributed "Wolf Creek" in the U.S., has allowed Mclean to cast Hollywood actors Michael Vartan and Radha Mitchell and employ slick production values that will broaden "Rogue's" appeal beyond the cult status enjoyed by his envelope-pushing 2005 debut. But fans of the truly nasty "Wolf Creek" will be disappointed with a shiny production that delivers formulaic jolts rather than stomach-turning gore and depravity.
"Rogue" currently is testing the waters Down Under to qualify for the Australian Film Industry awards ahead of its U.S. release Oct. 12 and an official Australian release Nov. 8.
As in all the best monster movies, the threat here is all the more menacing for being rooted in reality. At 25 feet long, the rogue saltwater croc does not outrageously exceed the largest found in Australia. But calling this the "Jaws" of the outback is overstating the film's place in the genre.
Mclean says he was influenced by the more character-driven horror films of the 1970s, yet his roll call of characters get little more than a perfunctory introduction before most of them enter the Northern Territory food chain.
Pete McKell (a reliably bland Vartan) is an American travel writer venturing way outside his comfort zone of five-star hotels to board a river cruise in a secluded region of outback Australia. He's joined by a group of tourists, each easily defined by a single adjective: a jolly backpacker, a bickering couple, a nervous widower ("Wolf Creek's" John Jarratt in a glorified cameo), a geeky photographer for comic relief and the obligatory pooch managing to elicit more audience empathy than most of its human co-stars.
Mclean and cinematographer Will Gibson do a nice job building mood in these early scenes, with stunning aerial shots of the ancient landscape's sweeping escarpments and isolated billabongs. While they're developing this quasi-mystical relationship with the landscape, spunky tour guide Kate (the Australian-born Mitchell) is taking care of exposition with a fact-filled spiel about the man-eating crocs that are the area's biggest tourist attraction.
It's intended to give the day-trippers a frisson of fear-tinged excitement -- and the audience a heads-up about grave danger ahead. When the tour boat follows a distress flare farther upriver and is rammed from beneath by something big, we don't need to see much of the huge, primordial beast gliding semi-submerged through the water. And we don't for quite a long while.
The tourists abandon the sinking boat and end up stranded on a tiny mud island. As night falls and the tidal river starts to rise, concerns about missing their bus give way to the realization that they have been, as one character chillingly puts it, "tagged as a food supply."
The rest is a bit by-the-numbers as the tourists are picked off in uncommonly straight-faced fashion, with one even risking his life to retrieve some painkillers without a hint of irony. Although there are a couple of heart-in-mouth set pieces, the pace slackens until the well-executed croc-vs.-hero smackdown in the predator's lair.
This is the payoff, when the croc is revealed in its fearsome entirety from dagger-toothed jaw to powerful tail. The creature is incredibly realistic, moves convincingly and fills the screen with a commanding presence. If only the same could be said for Michael Vartan.
ROGUE
The Weinstein Co.
Dimension Films, Village Roadshow Pictures, Emu Creek Pictures
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Greg Mclean
Producers: Matt Hearn, David Lightfoot, Greg Mclean
Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Joel Pearlman, Robert Kirby
Director of photography: Will Gibson
Production designer: Robert Webb
Music: Francois Tetaz
Costume designer: Nicola Dunn
Editor: Jason Ballantine
Cast:
Pete: Michael Vartan
Kate: Radha Mitchell
Neil: Sam Worthington
Russell: John Jarratt
Simon: Stephen Curry
Mary Ellen: Caroline Brazier
Colin: Damien Richardson
Merv: Barry Otto
Sherry: Mia Wasikowska
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
SYDNEY -- Baz Luhrmann set the bar high for maverick adaptations of Shakespeare, but fellow Aussie director Geoffrey Wright takes a game leap at it with his postmodern rendering of Macbeth. While this juiced-up, drugs 'n' guns reworking can't match the startling originality or sheer mad spectacle of Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," the two share a sexy swagger aimed at young viewers who might otherwise balk at the 400-year-old language.
Absent Hollywood stars in the league of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, Macbeth can't expect "Romeo + Juliet's" robust international boxoffice, but receipts should be healthy at home, and the heady mix of nudity, uber-violence and a swoonworthy leading man will stir curiosity abroad.
This is Shakespeare as action film -- furiously paced and unapologetically cinematic. If the baroque sets and costumes often overwhelm the acting, it's unlikely the hipsters will mind. Wright, who directed Russell Crowe in the bruising neo-Nazi film Romper Stomper, has matched the sound and fury of the Bard's most bloodthirsty play with depictions of carnage that border on sadistic.
The slaying of Lady Macduff and her son prompted walk-outs in test screenings. Macbeth's frenzied butchering of Duncan, a murder that occurs offstage in the play, is shown here in gruesome detail.
Throw in a casually naked, coke-snorting Lady Macbeth and an orgy with the three witches -- portrayed as bare-breasted teenagers who look like they wandered in from The O.C. -- and you have a Macbeth that would give Roman Polanski pause.
Shakespeare's immortal tragedy about a Scottish prince's murderous quest for power has been relocated to the underworld of Melbourne's present-day gang wars, where the concept of bloody vengeance mirrors that of feudal times.
Macbeth (a lusty performance from Somersault's Sam Worthington) is now henchman to crime boss Duncan (a strong Gary Sweet), and the play's lords and noblemen become rock-star-ready hoods packing heat. The film opens with a flashily edited massacre following a dead-of-night drug deal, and it is a good 10 minutes before the first word is spoken.
The Elizabethan English jars at first (and some heavy Strine accents add another layer of bizarre), but soon the medieval-chic sets, the sleek black SUVs and machine guns and the florid but conversationally spoken language all mesh into a gothic parallel universe that makes its own kind of sense.
It is a bit Reservoir Dogs with a set borrowed from The Crow.
It helps that the original text is magnificent and the plot so precise; Wright and his co-writer Victoria Hill (who also plays a glamorous Lady Macbeth) have produced a fairly faithful, if heavily edited, reading of this timeless tale.
Duncan rewards Macbeth for his service during the earlier battle but, while under the influence of celebratory drugs and alcohol at a derelict nightclub, our hero is visited by the trio of witches who prophesy a much greater prize -- delivering their "fair is foul" speech as a glitter ball spins overhead.
Spurred on by the poisonously ambitious Lady Macbeth, Macbeth kills Duncan and seizes power. As the new crime lord's reign of terror continues and the body count grows, guilt plunges him into madness. With Worthington exhibiting less of the imperial hubris that defined previous Macbeths and more of a wild-eyed, Jack Black-style craziness that proves the film's weakest link.
Staggering drunkenly about his country mansion, dissolute and spooked while those around him plot revenge, the character discourages sympathy. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, acquires an uncommon vulnerability with the implication that she is grieving the loss of a child.
Production design is as wicked as the narrative, all blood-red furnishings and misty, brooding exteriors, with John Clifford White's clamorous soundtrack and cinematographer Will Gibson's skewed camera adding to the disquiet.
Some of the minor players stumble over the dialogue, but performances generally are strong, though style mavens may be too busy drooling over the voguish costumes and opulent interiors to notice.
MACBETH
Mushroom Pictures
Credits:
Director: Geoffrey Wright
Screenwriters: Geoffrey Wright, Victoria Hill
Adapted from the play by: William Shakespeare
Producer: Martin Fabinyi
Executive producers: Michael Gudinski, Gary Hamilton, Greg Sitch, Antonio Zeccola
Director of photography: Will Gibson
Production designer: David McKay
Music: John Clifford White
Co-producer: Jenni Tosi
Costume designer: Jane Johnston
Editor: Jane Usher
Cast:
Macbeth: Sam Worthington
Lady Macbeth: Victoria Hill
Macduff: Lachy Hulme
Banquo: Steve Bastoni
Duncan: Gary Sweet
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 109 minutes...
Absent Hollywood stars in the league of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, Macbeth can't expect "Romeo + Juliet's" robust international boxoffice, but receipts should be healthy at home, and the heady mix of nudity, uber-violence and a swoonworthy leading man will stir curiosity abroad.
This is Shakespeare as action film -- furiously paced and unapologetically cinematic. If the baroque sets and costumes often overwhelm the acting, it's unlikely the hipsters will mind. Wright, who directed Russell Crowe in the bruising neo-Nazi film Romper Stomper, has matched the sound and fury of the Bard's most bloodthirsty play with depictions of carnage that border on sadistic.
The slaying of Lady Macduff and her son prompted walk-outs in test screenings. Macbeth's frenzied butchering of Duncan, a murder that occurs offstage in the play, is shown here in gruesome detail.
Throw in a casually naked, coke-snorting Lady Macbeth and an orgy with the three witches -- portrayed as bare-breasted teenagers who look like they wandered in from The O.C. -- and you have a Macbeth that would give Roman Polanski pause.
Shakespeare's immortal tragedy about a Scottish prince's murderous quest for power has been relocated to the underworld of Melbourne's present-day gang wars, where the concept of bloody vengeance mirrors that of feudal times.
Macbeth (a lusty performance from Somersault's Sam Worthington) is now henchman to crime boss Duncan (a strong Gary Sweet), and the play's lords and noblemen become rock-star-ready hoods packing heat. The film opens with a flashily edited massacre following a dead-of-night drug deal, and it is a good 10 minutes before the first word is spoken.
The Elizabethan English jars at first (and some heavy Strine accents add another layer of bizarre), but soon the medieval-chic sets, the sleek black SUVs and machine guns and the florid but conversationally spoken language all mesh into a gothic parallel universe that makes its own kind of sense.
It is a bit Reservoir Dogs with a set borrowed from The Crow.
It helps that the original text is magnificent and the plot so precise; Wright and his co-writer Victoria Hill (who also plays a glamorous Lady Macbeth) have produced a fairly faithful, if heavily edited, reading of this timeless tale.
Duncan rewards Macbeth for his service during the earlier battle but, while under the influence of celebratory drugs and alcohol at a derelict nightclub, our hero is visited by the trio of witches who prophesy a much greater prize -- delivering their "fair is foul" speech as a glitter ball spins overhead.
Spurred on by the poisonously ambitious Lady Macbeth, Macbeth kills Duncan and seizes power. As the new crime lord's reign of terror continues and the body count grows, guilt plunges him into madness. With Worthington exhibiting less of the imperial hubris that defined previous Macbeths and more of a wild-eyed, Jack Black-style craziness that proves the film's weakest link.
Staggering drunkenly about his country mansion, dissolute and spooked while those around him plot revenge, the character discourages sympathy. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, acquires an uncommon vulnerability with the implication that she is grieving the loss of a child.
Production design is as wicked as the narrative, all blood-red furnishings and misty, brooding exteriors, with John Clifford White's clamorous soundtrack and cinematographer Will Gibson's skewed camera adding to the disquiet.
Some of the minor players stumble over the dialogue, but performances generally are strong, though style mavens may be too busy drooling over the voguish costumes and opulent interiors to notice.
MACBETH
Mushroom Pictures
Credits:
Director: Geoffrey Wright
Screenwriters: Geoffrey Wright, Victoria Hill
Adapted from the play by: William Shakespeare
Producer: Martin Fabinyi
Executive producers: Michael Gudinski, Gary Hamilton, Greg Sitch, Antonio Zeccola
Director of photography: Will Gibson
Production designer: David McKay
Music: John Clifford White
Co-producer: Jenni Tosi
Costume designer: Jane Johnston
Editor: Jane Usher
Cast:
Macbeth: Sam Worthington
Lady Macbeth: Victoria Hill
Macduff: Lachy Hulme
Banquo: Steve Bastoni
Duncan: Gary Sweet
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 109 minutes...
- 9/11/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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