J. Edgar
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Tagline: The Most Powerful Man In The World
Back in 2004, when Leonardo DiCaprio was becoming as well known for his serious roles as for playing the likes of the plucky Jack in Titantic, Oscar experts predicted that his Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator was going to be the role that won him plaudits and a little gold man. History didn’t exactly turn out that way and, though he’s without doubt a respected actor, that first Oscar remains elusive.
Will J. Edgar be his shot at gold? The stars seem (literally) aligned as he’s fulfilling all the requirements. Celebrated director? Yes indeed, with Clint Eastwood at the helm. Top notch script? Check, thanks to Dustin Lance Black (the Oscar-winning Milk). And is it a biopic? Why of course it is! DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover, from his childhood days in Washington D.C. through to his ascent to power, which culminated in a 50-year reign over the FBI and then, as these things must pass, his death. Not that you need anything else, but there was also the suggestion that Hoover was a closeted gay man, who quite possibly had more than just a platonic relationship with his longtime assistant, Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). With a backstory like this, everyone else is playing for second in the Oscar stakes, right?
Possibly not. Many critics have been as cold about J. Edgar as the man was himself. Our own Richard Corliss makes the interesting comparison between another recent Eastwood misfire, Changeling, which was also based on real events, in a similar period of time, based around an A-Lister in Angelina Jolie. If anything, the star of the show here is Hammer’s Tolson, but you may feel short changed that Eastwood doesn’t delve deeply enough into their clearly intriguing history. As for Leo, the quest for a Best Actor Oscar goes on. Time, unlike the critics however, is on his side.
LIST: Top 10 Biopics
Jack and Jill
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Tagline: His Twin Sister Is coming For The Holidays…And It Ain’t Pretty.
Just when you think you know everything there is to know about Adam Sandler, he throws you a curveball. The easy remark when discussing his oeuvre is to state that there are two Sandlers: the infantile (if loveable) mensch who charms his way through inoffensive comedies, delighting adults and children alike and the more serious Sandler who wants to show the world that he can act (Punch-Drunk Love, Funny People).
But imagine if he played two parts in the same movie! While the combining of those two strands would surely make for diverting fare, Jack and Jill isn’t that picture. Instead, his Jack Sadelstein is a successful advertising executive in Los Angeles (replete with beautiful wife, in the shape of Katie Holmes, and kids, which seems so obvious it nearly need not be mentioned) who happens to dread but one event a year: the Thanksgiving visit of his identical twin sister Jill. And that’s right: she too is portrayed by Sandler and is everything Jack is not (this being Hollywood, naturally she has to be the needy one, disrupting his calm existence rather than the other way around). The sad truth is that we only have ourselves to blame: when Sandler does stray from the norm, we never go and watch him. And that’s not funny, people.
LIST: Top 10 Unconventional Leading Men
Immortals
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Tagline: The Gods Need A Hero
What’s the best way to prepare for Superman? If you’re Henry Cavill (who’ll be starring in the next attempt to reboot the Man of Steel) then you play a buff mortal whom the Greek gods decide should be saving both Olympus and Greece from the nasty King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke), who wants to release those deadly Titans from centuries-long imprisonment. He also comes out with lightening bolts such as, “I have plenty of women. I have plenty of weapons.” Perhaps so, but are you happy?
The reason we don’t write scripts is because we’d want Cavill to persuade Rourke to not get any more work done on his once-buff body, but rather have them tackle Greece’s ever-mounting debt. We’d also suggest a tagline of “You”ll Believe A Man Can Die.” Instead, director Tarsem Singh (The Fall) gets all Sesame Street in the sense that Immortals is brought to you by the letter B (Blood! Beheadings!) and the number 3 (as in D). Along the way, Rourke gets John Hurt to chew up the CGI scenery and Cavill gets Frieda Pinto as the love interest. The only thing that sounds more depressing is the real-life action actually taking place in Greece.
PHOTOS: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Mickey Rourke
NewsFeed’s Flicks Pick: By a process of elimination, we have to go with J. Edgar. He’d have been proud of the way we examined the evidence to reach this conclusion.