BAD SANTA 2 returns Academy Award-winner BILLY BOB THORNTON to the screen as America’s favorite anti-hero, Willie Soke.
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Fueled by cheap whiskey, greed and hatred, Willie teams up once again with his angry little sidekick, Marcus (TONY COX), to knock off a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve. Along for the ride is ‘the kid’ – chubby and cheery Thurman Merman (BRETT KELLY), a 250-pound ray of sunshine who brings out Willie’s sliver of humanity.Mommy issues arise when the pair are joined by Academy Award®, Golden Globe and Emmy-winner KATHY BATES, as Willie’s horror story of a mother, Sunny Soke. A super butch super bitch, Sunny raises the bar for the gang’s ambitions, while somehow lowering the standards of criminal behavior. Willie is further burdened by lusting after the curvaceous and prim Diane, played by Emmy Award-nominee CHRISTINA HENDRICKS, the charity director with a heart of gold and libido of steel.
MARK WATERS directs BAD SANTA 2 from a screenplay by Johnny Rosenthal and Shauna Cross, based on characters by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa. GEYER KOSINSKI and ANDREW GUNN produce. Executive producers are Zanne Devine, David Thwaites, Gabriel Hammond, Daniel Hammond, Mark Waters, Jessica Tuchinsky, Adam Fields, and Doug Ellin. The film is a BROAD GREEN PICTURES and MIRAMAX release.
BAD SANTA 2 returns Academy Award-winner BILLY BOB THORNTON to the screen as America’s favorite anti-hero, Willie Soke.
Fueled by cheap whiskey, greed and hatred, Willie teams up once again with his angry little sidekick, Marcus (TONY COX), to knock off a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve. Along for the ride is ‘the kid’ – chubby and cheery Thurman Merman (BRETT KELLY), a 250-pound ray of sunshine who brings out Willie’s sliver of humanity.
Mommy issues arise when the pair are joined by Academy Award®, Golden Globe and Emmy-winner KATHY BATES, as Willie’s horror story of a mother, Sunny Soke. A super butch super bitch, Sunny raises the bar for the gang’s ambitions, while somehow lowering the standards of criminal behavior. Willie is further burdened by lusting after the curvaceous and prim Diane, played by Emmy Award-nominee CHRISTINA HENDRICKS, the charity director with a heart of gold and libido of steel.
You better watch out: BAD SANTA 2 is coming to town.
MARK WATERS directs BAD SANTA 2 from a screenplay by Johnny Rosenthal and Shauna Cross, based on characters by Glenn Ficarra & John Requa. GEYER KOSINSKI and ANDREW GUNN produce. Executive producers are Zanne Devine, David Thwaites, Gabriel Hammond, Daniel Hammond, Mark Waters, Jessica Tuchinsky, Adam Fields, and Doug Ellin. The film is a BROAD GREEN PICTURES and MIRAMAX release.
In WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT, Tina Fey plays a journalist sent to Afghanistan in 2003 when the more-experienced war correspondents flock to the new battlefields of Iraq. Produced by Fey and loosely based on reporter Kim Barker’s memoir “The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the film continues Fey’s pursuit of more dramatic roles, a less-than-stellar quest so far that might cause some audience members to balk at this one. However, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT is the exception to that rule – actually a very entertaining film, thanks largely to a strong supporting cast that includes Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, and Alfred Molina, who take the pressure off Fey.
In case any one is in doubt, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT (meaning WTF – get it?) is not a hard-hitting war movie or even really about war, but a tale of war reporters and the unreality of reporting from a war zone, a movie that leans more towards “MASH” than “The Killing Fields.” This dramedy is an “absurdity of life in a war zone” tale that has its share of loss and danger too. The story takes place in Afghanistan but there is so little about that war, that it could have been set in any number of wars. No, the subject of this real-life inspired story is war journalists, not war.
The story takes place as the Iraq War is starting, during which fighting (and news coverage) in Afghanistan reduced to a slow simmer, and ends before that situation really changes. With the Iraq invasion, the cable news organization where Kim Baker (Fey) works as a copy writer/producer is put in a bind. Their best war reporters are being sent to cover the new war so they are desperate for someone – anyone – to report from Afghanistan on that war. Her boss assembles all “the unmarried staff without children” – a description that prompts one staffer to burst into tears – and asks for a volunteer. Kim volunteers, in an almost off-handed WTF way. Fey offers little reason why, beyond a vague comment about boredom.
Kim arrives in Kabul a pretty unprepared. She did think to buy a headscarf and brand-new cargo pants, but also brings along a bright orange duffle bag for her gear – a perfect target for a sniper. Arriving at the windblown airport, she meets Marine Col. Hollanek, a tart ramrod officer with whom she will work as an embedded reporter, her Afghan translator/driver/“fixer” Fahim (Christopher Abbott, in a surprisingly touching performance) and her hunky bodyguard Nic (Stephen Peacocke). The streets are dusty, crowded, and an unpleasant stench fills the air, as she is driven to her hotel, which it turns out, is a hang-out for an international collection of Western reporters, photographers and their security guards, and the site of an ongoing party that seems to run through the whole film (playing the same dance song throughout).
The reserved Kim is quickly introduced to the wild and unreal ways of Westerners living in Kabul – or as one character calls it, the Ka-bubble. She meets Tall Brian (Nicholas Braun), the young photographer assigned to her, and is quickly befriended by beautiful British TV journalist Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie). Tanya gives Kim the basics – if you were a “four” back home you are a “ten” in Kabul, and people feel free to invent new identities for themselves here – and introduces Kim to her circle of friends, including wild man Scottish war photographer Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman).
Kim’s first embedded experience, under Col. Hollanek’s command, that erupts in gun-fire and sends her running into the action with camera in hand. She is immediately hooked on the adrenaline rush. As she adapts to life as a war reporter and the crazy world of Westerners in Kabul, her natural reserve and cautiousness gives way to her own kind of crazy.
Co-directors Glenn Ficara and John Requa, and script writer Robert Carlock (“30 Rock”) keep the focus on the characters and the unreal world that envelopes them living in a war zone where what seems like insanity back home gradually becomes what passes for normal.
What makes WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT worthwhile largely are the supporting performances, particularly Martin Freeman. Freeman radiates such a quirky charm and creates such an appealing, believable character that he lifts Fey’s thin performance. The film really takes off with the introduction of Freeman’s Iain, a charismatic photographer with a bad-boy reputation, who lights up the film with snappy dialog and just the right reaction to every line and situation.
Other cast members also do their bit, which allows Fey to just be the figure around which all this madness rotates. Although he has done this kind of role before, Thornton is striking and hits all the right notes as the slightly put-upon, gruff military commander Hollanek. Alfred Molina is very good as Ali Massoud Sadiq, a shadowy, slippery Afghan official who takes a liking to Fey’s character. Abbott is a charmer as the translator Fahim, exuding a sweet appeal as a proper Muslim fellow who truly cares about Fey’s character, trying to keep her out of danger, and later warning her when she is losing her bearings in the Ka-bubble. As Tanya, Robbie finds the right balance for someone who is both Kim’s friend and her competitor. Other good performances are delivered in smaller roles by Sheila Vand and Cherry Jones.
That is a lot of good acting and likable performances backing up Fey, who does just fine because she does not try to do too much. Although the film does say much, if anything, on the Afghan war, it does draw viewers into the unreal life of these people working in a war zone, and balances the mix of dark comic and dramatic portions well. Apart from its lack of comment on war, the film’s major shortcoming is its score, with a particularly odd choice of a sappy ballad for a sequence that represents the dramatic peak.
Overall, it is the characters who make WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT entertaining. Although Freeman is getting a bit more recognition with his excellent role as Dr. Watson in the “Sherlock Holmes” television show, he is still an underrated actor. In this film, Freeman is so good, he elevates both the material and his co-star. Hopefully next time, he will be the one with top billing.
OVERALL RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS
WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT opens in theaters March 4th, 2016.
When reporter Kim Baker’s (Tina Fey) life needs something more, she decides to ‘shake it all up’ by taking an assignment in a war zone. There, in the midst of chaos, she finds the strength she never knew she had. Sometimes it takes saying ‘WTF’ to find the life you were always destined to have.
Based on the true adventures of war-reporter-in-the-making Kim Barker — and her acclaimed autobiography The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan – comes this hilarious and heartfelt portrait of a woman getting her life together in a global hot spot where everything else seems to be falling apart.
Also starring Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina and Billy Bob Thornton, the film is directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“Crazy, Stupid, Love”) from a screenplay by Robert Carlock (“Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock”).
WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT is in theaters March 4, 2016.
WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win a pass (Good for 2) to the advance screening of WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT on Tuesday, March 1 at 7PM in the St. Louis area.
We will contact the winners by email.
Answer the following:
Fey was a featured voice, alongside Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt, in which DreamWorks animated film?
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Left to right: Tina Fey plays Kim Baker and Margot Robbie plays Tanya Vanderpoel in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot from Paramount Pictures and Broadway Video/Little Stranger Productions in theatres March 4, 2016.
So you’re tired of all the news reports and headlines about those campaigning for the president, in an election that’s still over a year away? Well, why not take in a movie at the multiplex? Here’s Sandra Bullock’s latest all about…a presidential campaign. Ah, but Sandy’s not in the running, although she’s dashing around quite a bit. She’s a campaign strategist who’s working for a candidate all the way south, very south, in Bolivia. So are presidential races there the same as up here, with sound bites, negative ads,and other ways to manipulate the media? You bet your ballot! So what does she come up with, how will her hopeful break away from the ‘pack’? Just one way, as Ms. B explains in the film’s first act, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS.
US Public relations vets Ben (Anthony Mackie) and Nell (Ann Dowd) have been hired by General Castillo (Joaquim de Almieda) to get his old job back. He was the president of Bolivia fifteen years ago, but was voted out when he privatized the local industries. Unfortunately the electorate has a long memory, which may account for him being down 28 points in the polls. But Nell has a plan, and so she and Ben drive up to a desolate cabin in the snow. They hope to lure the legendary strategist “Calamity” Jane Bodine (Bullock) out of a self-imposed retirement. After a stint in rehab, preceded by several unsuccessful gigs, she’s hesitant to get back in the game. But when she hears that the front-runner, Rivera, has hired her old nemesis Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), Jane puts away the clay pots and cups and hops on a Bolivian bound private jet. After meeting the third member of the American crew, the prickly Buckley (Scoot McNairy), and the surly, brusque Castillo, Jane hatches a campaign “scenario”: the country is in dire straights, on the brink of collapse, and the general is the only one who can save the day. Bringing in her top aide, “hit woman” LeBlanc (Zoe Kazan), and enlisting an enthusiastic local Eddie (Reynaldo Pacheco), Jane attempts a career comeback, for the candidate and herself, as old demons from the past return.
In her first live action role since Oscar-nominated turn in GRAVITY, Bullock’s star charisma injects much-needed life in many of the story’s soggy stretches. In the scenes back in her tiny snow-bound cottage she projects a great deal of vulnerability with her hesitant line delivery and haunted “seen it all” stare. Upon her arrival on foreign soil, Bullock goes for laughs as Jane battles the effects of the altitude. This plays often as an appeasement to fans hoping for a reprise of the pratfalls from THE HEAT or the MISS CONGENIALITY flicks. But soon she puts down the ever-present bag a’ chips and gets down to business with a hard-driving, “take no prisoners” zeal that propels the plot forward, which seems to mask her sadness over the times she went too far for victory. Once again Bullock ably balances the tough and tender in an expert performance.
Happily, an accomplished ensemble aides Ms. Bullock. Thornton is an excellent sparring partner as the all “too slick” and smooth Mr. Candy, who knows exactly how to get under her skin, with his smug sarcasm twisting like a knife. Mackie is the questioning moral center of the PR team, standing up to Jane when she crosses the line. Dowd is the hardened vet and co-conspirator in Jane’s wild schemes, an “Ethel” to her “Lucy”. McNairy is very funny as the easily irritated and irritating Buckly, always quick with a lousy idea or crass comment. As the candidate, de Almeida, struts about as if the whole affair were beneath his regal, military bearing with a sinister glint in his eyes. It makes us wonder whether he can really woo the populace, as we question his true motives. The delightful Kazan is underused as Jane’s “ace up my sleeve”, but Pacheco has a great deal of youthful charm and energy as the optimistic Eddie who will eventually face the ugly, dark side of politics.
Although the film’s being marketed as a breezy “culture class” comedy, director David Gordon Green breaks out of the stoner comedy cage (YOUR HIGHNESS) to deliver a tough look at dirty side of campaigning. Unfortunately these two goals never quite gel. The high spirits wackiness of making tacky commercials with llamas and racing campaign buses over treacherous mountain roads slams up against ugly internet lies that inspire suicide and exploitation of the poor. Peter Straughan’s screenplay (inspired by the 2005 same-titled documentary) never really finds a way to balance that tone while keeping the story moving at a brisk pace. And the film’s main character is still something of a mystery by the end scenes. At one point she fully plunges back into her old vices (starting with the interminable chain-smoking), boozing with little ramifications other than waking up hung over in a jail cell. In the film’s final moments the script heads down a dark cynical path that is detoured with a contrived hopeful final shot that’s forced (I smell ‘test-marketing’ at work). It’s great to have Bullock back, but her considerable charisma and talents can’t erase the story and pacing flaws of OUR BRAND IS CRISIS.
Here’s your first look at the brand new trailer for director David Gordon Green’s OUR BRAND IS CRISIS, starring Oscar winners Sandra Bullock (THE BLIND SIDE) and Billy Bob Thornton (SLING BLADE).
The film will debut this coming weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival and then in theaters on October 30th.
In the film, a Bolivian presidential candidate failing badly in the polls enlists the firepower of an elite American management team, led by the deeply damaged but still brilliant strategist “Calamity” Jane Bodine (Bullock). In self-imposed retirement following a scandal that earned her nickname and rocked her to her core, Jane is coaxed back into the game for the chance to beat her professional nemesis, the loathsome Pat Candy (Thornton), now coaching the opposition.
But as Candy zeroes in on every vulnerability – both on and off the campaign trail – Jane is plunged into a personal crisis as intense as the one her team exploits nationally to boost their numbers. Dramatic, rapid-fire and laced with satire, OUR BRAND IS CRISIS reveals the cynical machinations and private battles of world-class political consultants for whom nothing is sacred and winning is all that matters.
The drama also stars Anthony Mackie, Joaquim de Almeida, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy and Zoe Kazan.
Green directs from a screenplay by Oscar nominee Peter Straughan (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”), suggested by the documentary by Rachel Boynton, which outlined the American political campaign marketing tactics employed in the real-life 2002 Bolivian presidential election.
The film is produced by Oscar-winning Smokehouse Pictures’ principals Grant Heslov and George Clooney (ARGO), with Bullock, Stuart Besser, and Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King serving as executive producers.
Green’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes frequent collaborators director of photography Tim Orr, editor Colin Patton, production designer Richard A. Wright and composer David Wingo (MANGLEHORN,), as well as costume designer Jenny Eagan (NOW YOU SEE ME).
Movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), together with his boys, Eric (Kevin Connolly), Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny (Kevin Dillon), are back…and back in business with super agent-turned-studio head Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven). Some of their ambitions have changed, but the bond between them remains strong as they navigate the capricious and often cutthroat world of Hollywood.
The last time we saw Ari Gold, he had retired from Hollywood and moved to Italy. This is the story of how he came back.
To celebrate the opening of director Doug Ellin’s ENTOURAGE, WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win an Ari Gold book and soundtrack CD prize package.
ENTER YOUR NAME AND E-MAIL IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW. WE WILL CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE A WINNER.
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ENTOURAGE is in theaters now.
This film has been rated R for pervasive language, strong sexual content, nudity and some drug use.
And now another summertime staple appears at the multiplex: the feature film version of a television series. It’s not a recast movie adaptation of a beloved series from TV’s “golden” or “silver age” like GET SMART or THE FUGITIVE nor one with an intense cult following that like STAR TREK, which has inspired a long-running (over 35 years now) franchise (but who knows?). This series isn’t currently in production as with “The Simpsons” or “The X-Files” (which was still running on Fox TV when the first film premiered). This could be closer to TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, which hit theatres mere months after ABC TV’s show left the airwaves. But it’s closest, perhaps, to SEX AND THE CITY which made its movie debut just a few years after wrapping a successful run on “premium” cable channel HBO (as in “It’s not TV…it’s HBO). The new film’s not closer because of subject matter (there is a lot of sex involved, though), but because it also comes from HBO and it ended merely four years ago. Bursting out of the small screen and onto the big screen, comes the rowdy gang of ENTOURAGE.
At the end of season eight, movie superstar Vincent “Vinnie” Chase (Adrian Grenier) was about to be married. As the movie begins, Vinnie’s boys (the entourage), “E” AKA Eric (Kevin Connolly), Salvatore “Turtle” (Jerry Ferrara) and brother Johnny “Drama” Chase (Kevin Dillon) are on a speedboat skipping through the waters near Ibiza, Spain to join him in a “divorce party’ aboard a lush yacht (seems he and his bride called it quits just days into the honeymoon). Vinnie wants to get back to work and calls his ex-agent Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), who’s now a studio exec and is vacationing with his wife and son in Italy. Vinnie will take the lead in a new big blockbuster only if he can direct it. After the title and credits that cleverly recreate the original show’s opening, it’s several months later and Vinnie needs more cash to complete his epic. Ari must travel to Texas and try to coax some more cash from wealthy investor Larsen McCredle (Billy Bob Thorton). He’ll only cough it up if his dim son Travis (Haley Joel Osment) will go back with Ari to LA and look over the flick so far. We then learn about what Vinnie’s buds have been doing. E, a producer on Vinnie’s “Hyde”, is helping his ex-girlfriend Sloan (Emmanuelle Chriqui) as the birth of their baby nears. Should he try to get back with her? Turtle, now an economic equal to Vinnie thanks to his tequila company, is in pursuit of the gorgeous ultimate fighting champ Ronda Rousey (playing herself). Johnny Drama is pinning his career hopes on a pivotal supporting role in “Hyde”, but still must go to auditions and deal with a tape that leaked to TMZ. Everything soon spins out of control when the obnoxious Travis demands drastic changes in Vinnie’s directing debut. Can Ari get the project back on track without jeopardizing his career along with those of the guys?
Much like the original series, the most entertaining character is not really part of the title group (the mansion’s party boys). I’m speaking of Piven as Ari, the role that deservedly netted him three Emmy awards. Piven’s has remarked in interviews that he plays the role as though he’d just been shot out of a cannon, which holds true this time out. Ari provides a much needed “shot” in the arm, a dose of vitality in the constant orgies and debaucheries. He’s a whirling dervish, the “Tasmanian Devil” in a thousand dollar suit, nipping at any who dare to flick a finger too close. Of the actual quartet, the most compelling may be Dillon as the often tragic Johnny Drama. This was a man who reveled in fame decades ago and now tries desperately to recapture it. But stardom is a flighty, flirty lover and so, he must go out on the cattle calls. Dillon gives what could be a one-note character, a real vulnerability. Unfortunately he’s often the butt of jokes, due to his unchecked libido (and some of the inane gags the script hangs on him). Ferrara mainly mopes about over his MMA dream girl while being teased over his recent weight loss (Turtle was lovably husky in the show’s first few years). Connolly is sometimes the reasonable, restrained, near-adult of the four, other times he’s just the straight man reacting to their outrageous behavior. His romantic subplot never really gels. As for Grenier, after being in the role for eight years, he’s still not really believable as an international screen star. There’s no fire, no charisma (certainly not in the scant scenes we see from “Hyde” a futuristic take on the Robert Louis Stevenson classic tale of dual identities in one man). Plus we never really see him work as a film maker, just as a “chick magnet” for the crew. There’s an entertaining subplot featuring the welcome return of Rex Lee as Ari’s beleaguered ex-aide Lloyd. He wants Ari to give him away at his “big fat gay wedding” (as Ari calls it). Beneath the prickly near-homophobic barbs, we sense a real affection between these very different men. Series regular Chriqui has little to do besides being exasperated with E while Debi Mazar flits in and out of scenes as Shauna.
As for the “newbies”, Osment is quite a revelation as the baby-faced, dead-eyed villain. He’s a very funny wide-eyed clod upon his arrival in LA, but soon the other boot drops and the vengeful brat takes over. Thorton, as his daddy, is southern-fried (oops, Texas BBQ) menace as the tight-fisted money man. Rousey is entertaining as the nearly always scowling cartoon of her tough persona, while Emily Ratajkkowski, playing herself as a possible new Vinnie conquest, seems like she was just awakened from a long nap.
Creator of the show Doug Ellin, directing from his screenplay (with Rob Weiss), tries hard to deliver a nice farewell gift to the fans of the show. Unfortunately the finished product doesn’t seem fresh with references that are well past their expiration date (everything still shoots in LA, no “runaway” productions exist here). And really, after eight seasons, who besides the stars and producers were demanding a movie return (as opposed to other HBO shows)? The endless stream of booze, drugs, and (often topless) starlets no longer feels like exhilerating fun. It’s more desperate. Perhaps that desperation accounts for the unremitting parade of cameos from the worlds of TV, movies, sports, and music. A couple of them are very funny, but most of these star turns fall flat, with most hurling obscene insults at the fictional characters. Much of the time we’re squinting and saying, “Look there’s….and over there is…” while being distracted from some the stale plot elements. Okay ENTOURAGE, you got your flick, now take your booze and bongs and stagger back to rerun heaven.
A24 has released new clips from director Matt Shakman’sCUT BANK.
The film stars Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich, Billy Bob Thornton, Bruce Dern, Michael Stuhlbarg and Oliver Platt.
Dwayne McLaren (Liam Hemsworth) dreams about escaping small town life in Cut Bank, Montana, “the coldest spot in the nation,” with his vivacious girlfriend Cassandra (Teresa Palmer). When Dwayne witnesses an awful crime, he tries to leverage a bad situation into a scheme to get rich quickly but he finds that fate and an unruly accomplice are working against him. Thrust into the middle of a police investigation spearheaded by the local sheriff (John Malkovich), everything goes from bad to worse in this all-American thriller.
CUT BANK will have its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival. It will be released on February 26, 2015 on DIRECTV and in theaters on April 3, 2015.
