After discussing the massive success of Iron Man in part one of my exclusive chat with E! Entertainment film critic Ben Lyons in part two we talk about other comic book movies that are due out this summer, how the untimely death of Heath Ledger will affect the box office and what we will be watching this time next year.
Batman is obviously the other big comic book movie that is coming this summer what can we expect from it?
From Batman I you can expect more of Christopher Nolan’s dark brooding style again, like Batman Begins which was released two years ago and really reinvented the franchise, it feels like it is set in the real world it’s not overly fantastical, remember the ones that Joel Schumacher did with Tommy lee Jones and Jim Carey? It felt like you were watching a comic book.
This one appeals to a little bit older of an audience Christopher Nolan said at the screening if the film that he had to ask Heath Ledger to tone it down a bit otherwise I was going to get an R rating that’s how menacing and violent he is. The film is going to be a little darker than some of the other comic book movies that come out that really appeal to kids.
What do you think Heath ledger’s death will do to The Dark Knight in terms of box office performance, although Batman Begins was very good it didn’t gross $400 million?
What did it gross $399 million at the end of the day it’s Batman and it’s a huge franchise for Warner Bros, In a sick and twisted way, I hate to say it, it will help the box office people will want to go and see his final performance people will want to go and see what everyone is talking about.
But he is that good in it, it’s not like he just shows up in the movie and you go just to see his last performance, he is amazing in the film and I think that’s what people are going to take away from it is that wow we really lost someone special here we lost, not just another young actor in Hollywood, but a true talent and it’s going to be sad when people walk out they are gonna think wow I’m never going to see that amazing talent work again.
And all eyes are on the likes of Indy and Batman but what is slipping under the radar but still worth a look?
There is a sweet British film called Son of Rambow that I really love, you hear the title Son of Rambow and you think it’s some twenty two year old kid in the jungle with a machine gun but it’s not the son of Sylvester Stallone’s character Rambo, it two British kids who love movies and create their own little Rambo film, it’s got imagination and it stars Ed Westwood from Gossip Girl, very cool. And there’s another film that I saw at the Tribecca Film Festival called The Wackness are you ready for this cast? It’s another typical indie film, bought by Sony Classics, it has Sir Ben Kingsley, Mary Kate Olsen, Method Man, from the Wu Tang Klan, and Famke Janssen how about that for a melting pot of a cast I mean Ben Kingsley making out with Mary Kate Olsen that is reason enough to go see it right?
But it’s a really cool film it’s set in New York in the 1990s about a white kid from the Upper East Side of Manhattan private school listens to hip hop, this is the story of my life so I responded to it well.
How is Ed Norton’s Hulk he stars in it and pens the script is it an improvement on Ang Lee’s attempt?
I appreciated Ang Lee’s attempt, I thought he played it like comic book the way the screen was split, unfortunately Eric Bana was just ghastly in the role he didn’t really add anything to it but hopefully Ed Norton can shake things up a little bit.
But I think the best thing that the movie has going for it is that it’s got Tim Roth in it who is just a great character actor and perfect for a villain in a movie of that size.
I liked the Hulk as a kid maybe they can turn this franchise around a bit but it is definitely one that is up in the air a bit will it do well will it flop?
Same goes for The Love Guru with Jessica Alba and Mike Myers, there are a couple of movies that are not a guaranteed to be the huge hit that the respective studios want them to be.
Is Indiana Jones a guaranteed hit?
Absolutely Indiana Jones will be a massive hit around the world the brand is so familiar to people, you associate it with the movies and going to the movies in general.
However I think where it will struggle, and this is where is addition of Shia LaBeouf helps, is the younger audience I have done a bunch of coverage on the film and I am shocked at how many kids younger than me have never seen the Indy movies or heard of Indiana Jones I just wanna slap the taste out of their mouths are you kidding? It’s blasphemous in a lot of ways.
I think by adding Shia and the whole ‘I love Shia in Transformers I love Shia in Disturbia blah blah blah’ that will get a lot of younger people more excited about the film. But if you are young kid and you have grown up playing X-Box and watching movies like Speed Racer and Iron Man with their visuals then you see this old guy on a sound stage swinging around on a whip you are like ‘what is this?’ so I think it will struggle with a younger audience.
But everyone’s parents are going to go and see this movie, it’s weird because most action event movies appeal to a much younger audience but this one is going to get the younger folks to come out for sure.
And how big an issue is Harrison Ford’s age?
I think you will have some fun with it but I don’t think you can ignore it, obviously, I think there will be a couple of one liners that say (adopting a Harrison Fordish accent) ‘I’m getting too old for this’ and ‘it used to be easier back in the day’.
But the guy fit into his original costume his original jacket and original pants, which he was very proud of, and I still thinks he looks great, he is a classic movie star, but he looked old in the first couple of films so why not.
we touched on this earlier but what do you think has suddenly enticed actor like Norton, Bale, Downey Jr and ledger, who are all known for their off beat role, into these blockbusters?
Well one is the nice pay cheque, let’s not forget that this is show business, it’s nice nice pay cheque. But these character are very well rounded if you go back to the original comic books there’s love, there’s hope, there’s dismay, there’s death, there’s anguish they are full rounded characters, and they are pairing up with some really talented directors Christopher Nolan, Jon Faverau and people like that.
So I think as an actor it’s the ultimate playground you get to be physical, romantic, heroic and weak sometimes and vulnerable, you get to show a whole range of emotion.
But then it really raises you star power around the world, Robert Downey Jr was down in Australia promoting this movie he was in London, Korea, Japan and when you are involved in a film like this it puts you on the cover of every magazine it sends you around the world so when you go back to the studio and say ‘hey I want to make a five million dollar little indie movie about a guy who invented the windshield wiper’ they go ok you’re Iron Man you can do your crazy passion project or your bio-pic.
And compared to last summer when only Bourne and Transformers lived up to the hype how does this summer compare?
I think we are having films that have been revered for a long time however they are part of already existing franchises, yes Iron Man is new and Speed Racer, but the Hulk and Indy and Batman already have a little bit of a following from the previous films, Transformers was brand new and yes Bourne was part of a franchise, but it will be interesting to see how the new films like Iron Man and Speed Racer hold up against the movies like Narnia and Indiana Jones that are part of an already existing franchise.
Last summer was great in terms comedies with the likes of Knocked Up and Superbad but I think we are going to have even more comedies that will be huge hits, especially in August, with Tropic Thunder, which is directed by Ben Stiller, and you are already laughing even when I said the name of the film you know about Robert Downey Jr in that movie? I mean that is absolutely ridiculous but if anyone can pull it off he can.
Then you gave got Pineapple Express, another Judd Apatow produced movie with Seth Rogan, that movie should play really well.
Then, I have to get a shameless plug on for a second, there’s a movie coming out at the end of August called The House Bunny, it’s with Anna Faris, who plays a playmate at the playboy mansion who get kicked out and has to go and live with a bunch of misfit sorority girls. And toward the middle of the film there is a cameo from your favourite film critic I have to plug my first movie.
Plus there is also another movie from Adam Sandler, who is always a bankable name at the box office, with You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, which is the most ridiculous premise for a movie ever, and he is the most bankable comic actor in Hollywood his movies always but up huge numbers at the box office so Don’t Mess with the Zohan for sure.
This time next year we are going to have G.I. Joe, Star Trek and a very funny film, that I went to the set of in New Mexico, called Year One, directed by Harold Ramis, it’s with Jack Black and Michael Cera and they play guys who are walking round in the year one A.D. So next summer G.I Joe will be the big event movie of the summer.
Catch Ben on E!’s Hot Summer 25, on Friday 23rd May at 6pm only on E! Entertainment Television (Sky: 152/ Virgin Media: 173)
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
After discussing the massive success of Iron Man in part one of my exclusive chat with E! Entertainment film critic Ben Lyons in part two we talk about other comic book movies that are due out this summer, how the untimely death of Heath Ledger will affect the box office and what we will be watching this time next year.
Batman is obviously the other big comic book movie that is coming this summer what can we expect from it?
From Batman I you can expect more of Christopher Nolan’s dark brooding style again, like Batman Begins which was released two years ago and really reinvented the franchise, it feels like it is set in the real world it’s not overly fantastical, remember the ones that Joel Schumacher did with Tommy lee Jones and Jim Carey? It felt like you were watching a comic book.
This one appeals to a little bit older of an audience Christopher Nolan said at the screening if the film that he had to ask Heath Ledger to tone it down a bit otherwise I was going to get an R rating that’s how menacing and violent he is. The film is going to be a little darker than some of the other comic book movies that come out that really appeal to kids.
What do you think Heath ledger’s death will do to The Dark Knight in terms of box office performance, although Batman Begins was very good it didn’t gross $400 million?
What did it gross $399 million at the end of the day it’s Batman and it’s a huge franchise for Warner Bros, In a sick and twisted way, I hate to say it, it will help the box office people will want to go and see his final performance people will want to go and see what everyone is talking about.
But he is that good in it, it’s not like he just shows up in the movie and you go just to see his last performance, he is amazing in the film and I think that’s what people are going to take away from it is that wow we really lost someone special here we lost, not just another young actor in Hollywood, but a true talent and it’s going to be sad when people walk out they are gonna think wow I’m never going to see that amazing talent work again.
And all eyes are on the likes of Indy and Batman but what is slipping under the radar but still worth a look?
There is a sweet British film called Son of Rambow that I really love, you hear the title Son of Rambow and you think it’s some twenty two year old kid in the jungle with a machine gun but it’s not the son of Sylvester Stallone’s character Rambo, it two British kids who love movies and create their own little Rambo film, it’s got imagination and it stars Ed Westwood from Gossip Girl, very cool. And there’s another film that I saw at the Tribecca Film Festival called The Wackness are you ready for this cast? It’s another typical indie film, bought by Sony Classics, it has Sir Ben Kingsley, Mary Kate Olsen, Method Man, from the Wu Tang Klan, and Famke Janssen how about that for a melting pot of a cast I mean Ben Kingsley making out with Mary Kate Olsen that is reason enough to go see it right?
But it’s a really cool film it’s set in New York in the 1990s about a white kid from the Upper East Side of Manhattan private school listens to hip hop, this is the story of my life so I responded to it well.
How is Ed Norton’s Hulk he stars in it and pens the script is it an improvement on Ang Lee’s attempt?
I appreciated Ang Lee’s attempt, I thought he played it like comic book the way the screen was split, unfortunately Eric Bana was just ghastly in the role he didn’t really add anything to it but hopefully Ed Norton can shake things up a little bit.
But I think the best thing that the movie has going for it is that it’s got Tim Roth in it who is just a great character actor and perfect for a villain in a movie of that size.
I liked the Hulk as a kid maybe they can turn this franchise around a bit but it is definitely one that is up in the air a bit will it do well will it flop?
Same goes for The Love Guru with Jessica Alba and Mike Myers, there are a couple of movies that are not a guaranteed to be the huge hit that the respective studios want them to be.
Is Indiana Jones a guaranteed hit?
Absolutely Indiana Jones will be a massive hit around the world the brand is so familiar to people, you associate it with the movies and going to the movies in general.