Jaden Smith to Star in Untitled M. Night Shyamalan Film

I found some Will and Jaden Smith news, which I posted last week.  Here, is the official version of that news from Sony Pictures:

JADEN SMITH TO STAR WITH WILL SMITH IN AN UNTITLED SCIENCE-FICTION ADVENTURE FOR COLUMBIA PICTURES AND DIRECTOR M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN

CULVER CITY, Calif., April 4, 2011 – Jaden Smith is set to star opposite his father, Will Smith, for director M. Night Shyamalan in an untitled sci-fi adventure, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures. Shyamalan and Will Smith will produce with James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett Smith and Ken Stovitz, Smith’s partners at Overbrook Entertainment. The screenplay is by M. Night Shyamalan and Gary Whitta.

Set 1,000 years into the future, a young boy navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes.

Commenting on the announcement, Belgrad said, “Night is an outstanding filmmaker who has a tremendous vision for this science-fiction adventure story and we couldn't be more excited to be working again with Jaden after our experiences on The Pursuit of Happyness and The Karate Kid. We’re thrilled to have the two of them together on this project.”

Shyamalan added, "The chance to make a scary, science-fiction film starring Jaden and Will is my dream project."

JADEN SMITH is the twelve-year-old son of Will and Jada Smith. He most recently starred in the worldwide blockbuster The Karate Kid, which took in more than $350 million. Smith was nominated for a Teen Choice Award, an Image Award, and a Black Reel Award for his role. Prior to The Karate Kid, Smith starred opposite Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly in The Day the Earth Stood Still and won the 2009 Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Young Actor for his role in the film. He made his debut performance opposite his father in The Pursuit of Happyness, garnering an MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Performance, a Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by a Youth in a Lead or Supporting Role - Male, a Black Reel Award, and nominations by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the NAACP Image Awards and the Teen Choice Awards.

M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN has directed nine feature films: Praying with Anger, Wide Awake, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening, and The Last Airbender. The astronomical success of his chilling psychological thriller The Sixth Sense catapulted Shyamalan into the stratosphere of being one of the most sought after young filmmakers in Hollywood. The Sixth Sense has become one of the highest grossing films of all time and received a total of six Academy Award® nominations, including one for Best Picture, and two for Shyamalan for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. His most recent film, The Last Airbender was a worldwide hit, taking in more than $319 million globally.


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Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; a global channel network; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of entertainment in more than 140 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com/.

Will Smith Joins Son Jaden on New M. Night Shyamalan Project

I don't know if you know, dear reader, but I'm something of a Will Smith fan.  So I'm excited about this exclusive news from Deadline.

Will Smith will join son Jaden Smith on an untitled futuristic science fiction adventure film that will be directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who gave us The Sixth Sense, but also The Last Airbender. Shymalan wrote the script with Gary Whitta, and the project went under the title "One Thousand A.E."  Jada Pinkett Smith will produce the film with Shyamalan.  Go to the Deadline posting for more.

And Now for the Haters: 2011 Razzie Award "Winners"

According to "The Odds" column at the The Wrap.com, there were 637 voters for this year dis-honors.  The Last Airbender and Sex and the City 2 took the brunt of these voters' ire.  Airbender is problematic, but I like Sex and the City 2:

2011 Razzie Award (not really) Winners:

Worst Picture: "The Last Airbender"


Worst Director: M. Night Shyamalan, "The Last Airbender"

Worst Actor: Ashton Kutcher, "Killers" and "Valentine's Day"

Worst Actress: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, "Sex and the City 2"

Worst Supporting Actor: Jackson Rathbone, "The Last Airbender" and "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse"

Worst Supporting Actress: Jessica Alba, "The Killer Inside Me," "Little Fockers," "Machete" and "Valentine's Day"

Worst Screen Couple of Ensemble: "Sex and the City 2"

Worst Screenplay: M. Night Shyamalan, "The Last Airbender"

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel: "Sex and the City 2"

Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D: "The Last Airbender"

Review: "The Last Airbender" Doesn't Fly

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 105 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Last Airbender (2010)
Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – PG for fantasy action violence
DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
WRITER: M. Night Shyamalan (based upon the animated television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko)
PRODUCERS: Scott Aversano, Sam Mercer, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Lesnie
EDITOR: Conrad Buff
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard

FANTASY/ADVENTURE/ACTION

Starring: Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Toub, Aasif Mandvi, Cliff Curtis, Seychelle Gabriel, Damon Gupton, and Summer Bishil

The Last Airbender, a film by M. Night Shyamalan, is based on the animated television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and which originally aired on Nickelodeon. In The Last Airbender, the world is divided into four kingdoms named after the element they harness: water (Water Tribe), air (Air Nomads), earth (Earth Kingdom), and fire (Fire Nation).

The world has been ravaged by the Fire Nation’s aggression and its endless war against the other nations. Katara (Nicola Peltz) and her older brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), of the Southern Water Tribe, discover an iceberg that shoots a beam of light into the sky. Inside that iceberg is a boy named Aang (Noah Ringer), a young successor to a long line of Avatars. The Avatar is the only person who can “bend” or manipulate all four elements and also restore peace on the planet, which makes him wanted by the Fire Nation.

Katara and Sokka learn that Aang never completed his training to be the Avatar. They become his companions and protectors as they journey to the stronghold of the Northern Water Tribe, where Aang and Katara can learn to bend water. Prince Zuko (Dev Patel), the 16-year-old exiled son of the Fire Nation’s leader, Fire Lord Ozai (Cliff Curtis), follows the trio, hoping to capture the Avatar in a bid to restore his own honor. Can Zuko and the Fire Nation really stand in the way of Aang’s destiny?

Visually, The Last Airbender is dazzling. The special effects are impressive; although I didn’t see this in 3D, I thought the effects made for good eye candy. The exotic locales transported me to a wide range of magical and mystical places that gave the world of The Last Airbender a sense of enchantment. The striking sets, colorful costumes, and computer-generated backdrops added to supernatural charm.

Too bad that everything else in the movie is mediocre or problematic. This movie feels compressed, as if it were a half-hour too short. Even the fight scenes, which are at times nice, seem to be missing something. The nonsensical plot twists, the characters who just pop out of nowhere with almost no context, and the constant shifting from one setting to the next makes The Last Airbender feel like a disappointing, condensed version of a much better movie.

The writing is also poor because nothing feels or works as it should. The romance is bland and sometimes feels rushed and phony. The dialogue is wooden, especially the clumsy voiceovers, and the narrative is sodden. The characters are flat, and the overacting of some of the performers only makes those characters seem even flatter. Aang, the hero and ostensibly the lead, lacks personality, and as Aang, Noah Ringer is either a bad actor or is just struggling with a personality-free character.

The Last Airbender keeps throwing so many things at the viewers, and while some of it is pretty and stirring, the heart of the story: the drama, the conflict, and the characters are not at all stirring. You can like The Last Airbender, at the same time you marvel at how writer/director M. Night Shyamalan seems not to have a clue what he is doing. Everything is there to make The Last Airbender a really good fantasy epic, but apparently the notion that Shyamalan was the right director to make that good movie turned out to be a fantasy.

5 of 10
C+

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

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Review: Creepy "Signs" Dances with Fate and Faith

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 127 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Signs (2002)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some frightening moments
WRITER/DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
PRODUCERS: Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tak Fujimoto
EDITOR: Barbara Tulliver
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard

DRAMA/SCI-FI/THRILLER with elements of horror

Starring: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Cherry Jones, M. Night Shyamalan, and Patricia Kalember

Farmer and pastor Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) lost his faith when his wife Colleen (Patricia Kalember) was killed in an auto accident, but when he discovers intricate patterns of circles carved into his corn fields (called “crop circles”), he embarks on an path that will alter his life. The mysterious markings cause a media storm and worldwide panic; trapped in his farmhouse with his brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) and his son (Rory Culkin) and daughter (Abigail Breslin), Graham must discover if the crop circles are the signs of an impending invasion or are they part of a larger pattern of fate and predestination.

Signs was hit-making director M. Night Shyamalan’s third big-time studio film, and it was a huge theatrical hit. It’s a very entertaining film, although it is also a bit too serious and moody. In fact, Signs is so somber that it’s almost a chamber music version of solemnity. Still, like Shyamalan’s other best-known films (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable), Signs is a superbly creepy suspense thriller, a brilliant stroke of quiet, edge-of-your-seat thrills.

The performances and the mood of the film go a long way in dictating how an individual viewer will feel about Signs; those two elements decide the “fate” of the film, as it is. Gibson and Phoenix’s performance are too low-key, so much so that it seems as if they’re stuck in the mud. The children, however, are very good in the film, and young Ms. Breslin manages to be super cute and precious without being annoying; she delivers each of her lines and gives each one maximum impact on both the film and audience reaction. Signs is also an excellent rumination on fate and faith and on how often people mistake the “signs” and the important incidents in life as coincidences. If the film wasn’t so stiff, stuck in the mud, and so deathly deliberate and formal, I’d call it brilliant.

7 of 10
B+

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Movie Review: "Unbreakable" Has Broken Ending

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 17 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Unbreakable (2000)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for mature thematic elements including some disturbing violent content, and for a crude sexual reference
WRITER/DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
PRODUCERS: Barry Mendel, Sam Mercer, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Eduardo Serra (director of photography)
EDITOR: Dylan Tichenor
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard

DRAMA/FANTASY/THRILLER

Starring: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright Penn, Spencer Treat Clark, Charlayne Woodard, and Johnny Hiram Jamison

Sometimes an awkward or inappropriate ending can ruin a very good or even a great movie. For the follow up to his enormously popular worldwide smash, The Sixth Sense, director M. Night Shyamalan decided to smash his fine film Unbreakable over its figurative head with a dud of an ending. Still, the film is worth seeing, if for no other reason than to watch an emerging master filmmaker whose style is somewhat similar to Steven Spielberg, the man to whom Shyamalan is favorably compared.

David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is the father of a lonely boy (Spencer Treat Clark), the owner of a serious midlife crisis, and a somewhat estranged husband to his wife (Robin Wright Penn). He is a security guard returning by train from a job interview when the train suddenly derails. Dunn is the sole surviving passenger, and he escapes the tragedy without so much as a scratch or a broken bone. He meets Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a strange fellow who believes David is the special man with an extraordinary gift for whom Elijah has searched most of his adult life.

Shyamalan is without a doubt a major directorial talent. He understands how to use his fellow filmmakers to maximum effect: using lighting, music, film editing, photography, and actors like toys he can move around to tell delicious, engaging, and fantastic supernatural thrillers. Like Spielberg, Shymalan’s technique is more manipulative than obvious, but what he does works. One scene after another reveals how carefully he weaves his film, as he slowly unwraps whatever surprise lies around the corner of each story twist.

His weakness is in his writing because he has a propensity to cheat and to hide things in order to confuse his audience, or he’s just inconsistent with the rules he establishes to make the world of his film work (The Sixth Sense has many). He doesn’t seem to really want us to solve the mysteries of his film, so much as he wants us to be surprised by his shocking twists, especially if that surprise comes as a slap in the face.

As effective and enthralling as Unbreakable is, the resolution is simply something Shyamalan drops like a bomb. There is no doubt that it is a shocker, but what it does is turn Unbreakable into the back story of Dunn’s life, not the story of his life. This is what happens after Dunn discovers and accepts what he is and what Elijah had to do to make David accept his destiny (or Elijah’s destiny for him). In fact, the resolution simply sours something that was turning out to be really beautiful, admittedly somber, but beautiful nonetheless.

The performances are all pretty good, if a bit too moody. It’s understandable to have the cast in a blue mood to heighten the sense of the otherness or the supernatural, but the actors’ dower expressions make even the light moments too bittersweet. Or maybe the whole thing is supposed to be a downer. It’s really sad that what looked like a great film was ruined by a gimmick – Shyamalan’s one trick; still, I’d recommend you see this thriller at least once.

6 of 10
B

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New Image from "The Last Airbender" (Negromancer News Bits and Bites Extra)

Apparently, Paramount Pictures will air a trailer for The Last Airbender (directed by M. Night Shyalaman and based upon the Nickelodeon cartoon series, Avatar: The Last Airbender) during the Super Bowl telecast, Sunday, February 7th.

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