Lasse Hallstrom marginally clears the mediocrity bar with Salmon Fishing in Yemen (2012)

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It would be a little harsh to label Lasse Hallstrom the paragon of Oscarbait mediocrity but he's not too far off. His films often are overconfident in their ability to turn a hooky premise -- a free-spirited woman introducing chocolate to a repressed town, a drifter caring for a mentally ill brother, an engineer moving salmon to the desert, a young man raised by an abortion wizard -- into an uplifting narrative. With the exception of Cider Housr Rules, where all the elements came together to make a very solid film, a lot of his films feel overmanufacutred on sentimentality and manipulative with the musical score.

Salmon Fishing in Yemen is not as bad as the most saccharine of the director's offerings at its most predictable moments and its surprisingly pleasant on the whole.

Ewan McGregor plays a doctor, Alfred Jones, who is recruited by a shiekh's emissary (Emily Blunt) for a ridiculous task and McGregor is firmly against the idea. Blunt's character, Hillary, is a woman who comes prepared with the art of persuasion and she slowly wears him down. It's the kind of initial resistance one would see in a screw ball comedy but a nice feature of the film's first act is that Dr. Jones is firmly in the category of married man at the start of the film. It's a purely professional banter and it's a chemistry between two strong personalities that keeps the film interesting.

The film has some major twists in terms of the wants and needs of each of the two characters towards one another. Hillary deals with a tragedy and the film almost gets tonally jarring to the point of distraction but, with the exception of one scene (which carelessly throws around a possible mental illness on the part of Jones), it maintains course.

As the two begin to move past a relationship of colleaguedom and develop romantic feelings for each other, the film takes a slow pace with a development that feels organic. 

With such a strong relationship between the leads, the background can feel superfluous and it doesn't help that little of it is well-developed. There's a terrorist plot that's laughably underdeveloped and a Sheikh character (Amr Waked) who doesn't register on the whole. At least Kristin Scott Thomas makes a strong impression as a foil of sorts who's fast on her feet (although I honestly didn't understand the details of her plot on first viewing).

On the whole, McGregor and Blunt transcend the material and make this one of Hallstrom's  better outings.

My ideal 3 Musketeers Cast

I've been doing some writing on the 3 Musketeers. I've just indulged myself in the book and have been watching several versions of the film as of recently. I'd like to start by discussing my ideal cast:

D'Artagnan: Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights, X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Reasoning: I don't want too big a name for the part. Chris O'Donnell kind of derailed the 1993 version by being too much the center of attention. He played the Cajun action hero Gambit and showed off his ability to do action in that version

Athos: Benicio del Toro
Reasoning: Del Toro's Hispanic heritage is sort of close to French and he doesn't have too heavy of an accent. Del Toro has a chiseled, scarred face and Athos is the oldest, most battle weary of the Musketeers.

Porthos: Sacha Baron Cohen
Reasoning: I wouldn't call myself a huge Cohen fan, but I think he would definitely sell the movie pretty well by sheer "I wonder how he'd do the part" interest. Porthos is like the Zach Galifanakas of the group, but casting most comic actors would risk dumbing down the material too much and Cohen showed he could do a period piece in "Sweeney Todd" and "Hugo".

Aramis: Ewan MaGregor
Reasoning: Like most other adaptations of the 3 Musketeers getting a bankable All-French cast seems impossible, so there's always the awkwardness of having multi-ethnic casts with few of them being French. Ewan MaGregor's an actor I like a lot, he's bankable, and he has done action before. He also seems to have good on-screen comedy with whoever he's with and that would be important for the Musketeers. Most importantly, he will contrast Del Toro and Cohen well. Lastly, he's a Brit who can actually do accents pretty well (see "I Love You, Phillip Morris") which isn't the case with most Brits (see Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Ian McKellen)

Richelieu: Jesper Christensen
Reasoning: Waltz is a great choice except that he's played the baddie in 5 or 6 films in a row and audiences would read him as such a cliche choice. With a sense of practicality that I probably wouldn't afford big-name stars for every part, I'll go a little cheaper here and select Christensen. Christensen was in the James Bond films and is believed to soon be playing a bigger role. He's also European

Rochefort: Gael Garcia Bernal
Because he is such a grand actor, I might elect to expand Rochefort's part. I like this actor a lot, and think he can be kinetic, dynamic, action-oriented and probably can deliver some cutting retorts with style.

Treville: Michael Gambon
Reasoning: Not all three Musketeers adaptations have elected to use a Treville, but I definitely want one. There's no need for too big of a name and Gambon is in that character actor range. Treville is a mentor figure and not a guy in the battlefield, so he should be kind of old

Duke of Buckingham: Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, Damned United, Sweeney Todd)
Reasoning: I'm basically picking a random British working actor here. Pretty much anyone would do. Just someone who sounds British, is moderately handome and who wouldn't cost a lot. Being in Harry Potter and Sweeney Todd also means he can do period pieces convincingly. Literally, you can pick anyone here. This film went the opposite way bny having the most reecognizable actor in the whole cast in this past.

King: Vincent Cassell (Black Swan, Ocean's 12)
I was juggling between having him as Rochefort or the King. I like Cassell here for a reason that's not entirely obvious: He has kind of an oddly shaped head so I don't think he looks particularly good-lucking in a matinee idol sort of way. The Kings in that time period were the result of in-breeding and suffered genetic deformities
so he shouldn't be the best looking guy in the cast.

Queen: Juliet Binoche
I wanted someone soft-spoken and elegant. She would probably be one of the more expensive parts but perhaps the queen should have presence. It might be best to have the 2 French members of the cast be king and queen.

De Winter: Scarlett Johannsen
She can be really wicked and dark, in my opinion. She's a great actress who's star has faded just a little bit in the past 3 years, in my opinion. The only drawback is like MaGregor she's a biy fair-skinned (but so was Dunaway) and she's also a little young. But she's 8 years older than when I first saw her on screen in Lost in Translation. She's also very sexy.

Constance: Abby Cornish
She definitely succeeded in playing a period character in Elizabeth and the Golden Age. In the film that I saw her in, she had a certain shyness to her and a subtlety. I envision Constance as being submissive like that.

Review of The Island

Island, dir. by Michael Bay (2005), Starring Scarlett Johannson, Ewan MaGregor, Sean Bean, Djimon Hotsou, Ethan Phillips, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi

Michael Bay usually achieves high grosses on films that are rejected by critics and most moviegoers of good taste. Richard Roeper called Bad Boys II the worst picture of the decade. Therefore, it was kind of odd that this 2005 film turned out to be a little bit the opposite: It completely bombed at the box office, making for Bay's lowest film to date, yet it might have been his most interesting film.

"The Island" is a sci-fi film along the lines of GATTACA or I, Robot, set in some dystopian future, where the protagonist comes to the rescue of everything by transcending the limits of what the more rigidly stratified society places on him. It's also incredibly close to the plot of the truly awful Arnold Schwarzenegger film Sixth Day, but that film was so hauntingly abysmal that I don't even want to devote an entire sentence to plot synopsis for fear of the awful memories it will bring up. Nevertheless, the story revolves around a futuristic factory that promises to prolong the lives of its clients through cloning the clinets and using the clones' organs for transplants. The clones live in this isolated world with implanted memories and the idea that there is no life outside of this world. They're made to perform tasks that lead to the operation of the factory, so that saves labor costs. The only salvation for the clones is the belief that they will be taken to a paradise called the island if they're selected in a lottery, but in reality when a clone wins the lottery, that means the client needs an organ and the clone is killed. Ewan MaGregor and Scarlett Johannson play two clones who somehow find out about this outside world and are on the lam from the people who run the factory who view this as a doomsday scenario. So, being a Michael Bay film, this is also an action film, and a great one at that.

As I said earlier, it's by far Michael Bay's most interesting film but the plot leaves a lot to be desired. While I'm a sucker for a good sci-fi film, there seems to a complete ignorance of the fact that we've made a lot of progress in terms of harvesting replacement organs already that doesn't require building entire clones. I also feel like the premise attempts too hard to position the story of two runaway clones as the defining tale of this futuristic society to be a little bit of a stretch. Sean Bean is not playing God and can't make people immortal, because there's a point with many diseases beyond where a single organ replacement can save a life anyway, despite what he claims.

Also, considering the quality of the cast, the acting is a little subpar. Ewan MaGregor has the challenge of playing two people and I applaud him for that, but with the exception of Sean Bean, I don't really feel like anyone gave a remotely memorable performance. Visually, there were a lot of interesting things to look at, but it didn't look like anyone bothered to dress up the exterior shots to look equally as futuristic as the clone factory.

actor matches from yesteryear to today

This was in response to a USA Today article asking users
who they would pick as the modern day equivalent of certain stars:


Dick Powell-Ewan MaGregor: Both can sing and dance and play 

young heart throbs, and they also took on a dramatic role in 

Murder, My Sweet and Star Wars, respectively

Robert Mitchum-William DeFoe: Flexible range, can play 

jaded, dark characters

John Wayne-Robert DuVall-In their later stages in their 

career, seen as the top cowboy in tinseltown (Few people 

forget that John Wayne was originally turned down for 

Stagecoach for Gary Cooper and was seen as a B-movie actor 

in the 30s)

Rudolph Valentino-Antonio Banderas: The Latin Lovers

Jane Fonda-Madonna: Both sing, both have remained icons of 

their generations and have generated controvoursey, both 

have passions linked to other countries, Madonna with 

Argentina in Evita, and Hanoi for issues surrounding 

Vietnam, Hanoi Jane

Audrey Hepburn-Mischa Barton/Brittney Murphy: An Audrey 

Hepburn clone comes along every two years, just about, 

Hepburn was very cute and also had a lot of grace and 

sophistication to her. Jennifer Love Hewitt or Brittney 

Murphy are people I would’ve seen in those roles, and I’d 

still see Brittney Murphy in that role, but I think the next 

one to come along as current TV actress Mischa Barton, she’s 

captivating in the OC and the way she dresses when she goes 

to interviews shows a European sophistication about her

Sidney Poitier-Don Cheadle: Black actors, selective of their 

roles, committed to breaking new ground and play pretty much 

all drama forgoing lighthearted comedies. Cheadle’s 

intensity and devotion to Hotel Rwanda raises him to Sidney 

Poitier’s bar

Judy Garland-Emma Rossum: Phantom of the Opera star is 

young, has a naïve and innocent stage persona and has the 

chops to match

Faye Dunaway-Susan Sorandon: Could play sexy in her younger 

days, in her older days brings a commanding authority to all 

her roles (aka Network for Dunaway, Client for Sorandon)

Orson Welles-Sean Penn: Genius is impossible to deny by 

everyone, but seen as an outsider and difficult

Marlene Dietrich-Catherine Zeta-Jones: Foreign allure, very 

seductive

Clark Gable-Harrison Ford: Men of good character, steel 

resolve, both play heroes, Gable’s “Frankly my dear, I don’t 

give a damn” is something I could see Indiana Jones saying 

as he rescues Kate Capshaw from a burning temple while she’s 

complaining about her hair getting wet or something like that

Jimmy Stewart-Tobey MaGuire: Wide-eyed young-at-heart boys 

who can be strong when it counts (Mr. Smith Goes to 

Washington for Stewart, Spiderman for Tobey)

Diana Rigg-Jennifer Garner: Brittish avengers star was a 

beauty but also a tough girl

Barbara Stanwyck-Maria Bello/Marrisa Thomei: Brooklynite 

brashness to them, can be manipulative but usually straight-

up honest, endearing underneath it all

Henry Fonda-Tom Hanks: Quintissential good guy and barometer 

of American character. Hanks’ love of American history 

manifests itself in which projects he choses (Saving Private 

Ryan, Apollo 13), Fonda belief in the goodness of American 

values manifested itself in 12 Angry Men and My Darling 

Clementine among others

Katherine Hepburn-Merryl Streep: Versatile women who are 

respected for their craft above anyone of their generation