Sunday, January 18, 2009

Winchesters on the Big Screen

Our boys have been busy lately, though frankly I think Jensen and Jared need Jeffrey’s agent. Horror movies? After doing Supernatural all year?

Oh, well, hopefully it will get them good exposure and bring more fans to the show, right?

First up is My Bloody Valentine 3D, Jensen’s movie, which came out this past weekend. Do NOT go to Wikipedia to see what it’s about, because dang, the whole movie is laid out. I hate being spoiled. Jensen plays Tom, the son of the mine owner, who may or may not be responsible for the mine incident that killed 5 miners and left one in a coma, on Valentine’s Day. The scene we’ve seen over and over (if we’ve been Tivoing Jensen on Jimmy Kimmel and Bonnie Hunt) is when the characters are still in high school. Tom (Jensen) is injured, but the bulk of the story takes place after that scene. I thought Jensen’s comment to Bonnie Hunt that his parents might not be able to see this movie was cute, made me want to see it even more.



Okay, after watching the preview, I want to see it. I admit it.

Next is Friday the 13th, Jared’s movie. Jared plays Clay (apparently no last name) who travels to the legendary Crystal Lake to find his missing sister. He meets up with other young people there (fodder, no doubt) and Jason appears. Again, Jared is the lead character, which is cool, but Friday the 13th? Oh well. The comment I heard Jared make is that he really worked out to get big for the role (I’m thinking this is why he looks so, um, good this season) because the actor who plays Jason is even bigger than Jared. It was filmed near Austin last summer, which kills me, because Jared said he’d drive down to San Antonio (where I am, where he’s from) almost every weekend. GAH!



The movie I’m definitely seeing is Watchmen, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan. As soon as I heard about it, I read the comic, and Jeffrey’s character is Not A Nice Man, even though he’s a “hero.” Since then, I’ve been soaking up everything I can about it, and even my son is getting excited about it. He’s read the comic several times, and got the motion comics from iTunes for Christmas.

Anyway, the plot: The year is 1984 and Nixon is still president. The Cold War is at its peak, we’ve won VietNam (thanks to Dr. Manhattan, the big blue guy) and costumed heroes have been outlawed.

The movie starts with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, as Edward Blake, the Comedian, being thrown out the window. Yes. He DIES IN THE FIRST SCENE. Yeesh. Maybe he needs a new agent, too. Anyway, this sparks an investigation by another costumed hero who used to work with Blake, Rorschach (the guy with the black and white mask, played by Jackie Earle Haley). Rorschach goes to Nite Owl (played by Patrick Wilson) and suggests someone is targeting costumed heroes. It takes a bit more than that to convince Nite Owl to squeeze back into his costume and fight for justice.

The plot is twisted, as are the characters. We get backstory fed in, like how Dr. Manhattan came to be, and we learn what the responsibility of being a hero can do to a character.

Since Zach Snyder directed it, I’m super excited (did you know he’s my age? To be so successful…awesome.) Also, in the comic there’s a sub-story, a kid reading a comic book at a news stand called “Tales of the Black Freighter.” Zach has made an animated version of this, voiced by Gerard Butler, which will release on DVD and rated R. Trust me, again not a cheery story.




Also from Jeffrey Dean Morgan, The Accidental Husband. It’s supposed to come out at the end of March, but it’s been pushed 3 times already. It’s a romantic comedy, which relies on pratfalls by Uma Thurman for laughs. Jeffrey Dean plays Patrick, a firefighter (guh) about to marry a woman he’d rescued, only she calls in to Uma’s radio show to ask if it’s really love. Uma tells her know, and Patrick’s fiancée breaks up with him. He decides to get revenge on Uma by getting his friend to do some hacking and “marrying” her on paper, so she can’t marry Colin Firth, completely wasted in this role.

I felt like a lot of stuff was cut out that would make the movie flow better. There are some scenes worth watching for…the last scene was my favorite, and the bar scene was good too, and it is much more cheerful than any of these other movies.



JDM has three more movies in post-production, set to come out in 2009 as well: All Good Things, with Kirsten Dunst, where he plays a cop with bad hair, Taking Woodstock, where he plays a closeted gay man in the 1960s (who wants to bet he has some serious sideburns?), and Shanghai, with John Cusack, where he plays a man who gets killed in Shanghai (STOP KILLING JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN!!!) before World War II and Cusack has to investigate.

So tell me, will you go see our Winchesters on the big screen? And who will you go with?