Gigantic
Year: 2009
Director: Mike Aselton
Studio: First Independent Pictures
Stars: Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John Goodman
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 98 Mins
Official Website: http://www.thegiganticmovie.com/
“Gigantic” recently premiered in New York, yesterday. The film is about a mattress salesman (Paul Dano), who desperately wants to adopt a Chinese baby. Then one day, he meets a young woman (Zooey Deschanel), who has a potty mouth. The saleman begins to fall for this young woman. To finally have her, he must compete with her art-coll
ecting father (John Goodman) that has a bad back and deep pocket for her and deal with his eccentric parents while waiting for the call about his adoption.
I was really looking forward to “Gigantic”, because of it’s stars Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel. After watching this film, I was very disappointed, at the fact that this should have been a good film.
The reason this film should have been good, the performances and the direction were good enough. Co-writer and director, Matt Aselton does a very good job with his direction. I liked how, he makes most the scenes seem very weird, like the first time that the two main characters meet at the mattress shop and one of them fall asleep for a couple of hours or the fact that John Goodman’s character has to lay down in the truck of the family’s car, everytime he goes out. Scenes like that make a film like this, different and not so grossed-out, like other comedies. The acting was also good here, as I have no problem with the performances here. I though the chemistry, between Dano and Deschanel was very good, as they kept my interest, for most of this film. Also, it
was nice to see Ed Asner get some work, as he has appeared such films and television programs, like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and Disney’s upcoming 3D movie “Up”. He’s very good everytime he appeared on screen, as the performance helped me get though some of the dull moments that film has.
This film ultimately fails in the end, because of its screenplay, which was written by Aselton and Adam Nagata. There were two reasons to why this screenplay and film fails. First, there are noticeable flaws in this screenplay that takes this film off track. Every time this became interesting and fun, the whole subplot, with the homeless man slows this film down and it become very dull to watch. The reason for this is simple; the character felt out of place, as it made no sense with the tone and development that was going on. That’s when this film became very dull. Everytime that character came onscreen, the movie stopped doing the positive things that it was achieving with the development of the relationship and the film’s tone. It hurts the tone of the film, especially in the last act.
The other reason for why this film does not work, there really wasn’t much c
onflict between Dano and Goodman’s character. In order for comedies to work there has to be some sort of conflict, where the two characters that you think are going to have problems, do. There really wasn’t much of this here, as the writers had opportunities, where they could generate some conflict over Deschanel’s character, but I didn’t get the sense that there was any here. They missed the boat there, as there could have been some humorous moments with the two, but there was none.
“Gigantic” is a disappointing film that should have been good, if it wasn’t the fact that this film has a flawed screenplay, along with miss opportunities to generate some humor and interesting conflict. The film is now playing in New York and will hit Los Angeles on April 17th
Review Rating: 2.5 Stars
Hi. this is Anthony T here. Everyday, I receive Press Releases, trailers, and other things in my mailbox. Instead of having ten millions news post, I've decided to start a newswire that will be on the site every couple of day or so. Depends on the volume of news that comes my way. Without any more explanation, here is the first edition of the Film Arcade.net Newswire.
Terminator 2 Skynet Edition Blu Ray and Complete Collector’s Set:
Lionsgate has recently announced that on May 19th, they will be releasing Terminator 2 Skynet Edition on Blu-Ray to coincide with “Terminator: Salvation” and the DVD release of the Schwarzengger DVD Collection.
Blu-Ray Features include:
Multiple THX-certified versions high-definition versions of the film
All-new English 6.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Lossless
Picture-in-picture of behind the scenes video, text commentaries and multimedia galleries
Storyboard-script mode – view storyboards and read the script while watching the film
Interactive quizzes and games
BD-Live™ enabled, featuring games, extra content and more for internet-connected players
Audio commentary with 26 cast and crew members
Audio commentary with director James Cameron and co-writer William Wisher
Enhanced for D-Box™ Motion Control Systems
Includes THX Optimizer
Also on that same day, for the biggest T2 fan, there is a Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector’s Set. That set is a 6 disc set that includes the Blu-Ray, Extreme Edition DVD and Ultimate Edition DVD, which includes every T2 Special feature ever released on DVD. The collector’s set also comes with a digital copy of film for iTunes and Windows Media.
Suggested Retail Price for Terminator 2 Skynet Edition $29.99
Suggested Retail Price for Limited Edition T2 Complete Collector’s Set $174.99
Magnet Takes U.S. Rights to Nicholas Refn’s BRONSON
Magnet Releasing recently announced that they have picked up rights to Nicholas Refn’s BRONSON, which was a critical favorite at it’s screenings at Sundance and Rotterdam.
BRONSON is based on the real life story of the infamous UK prisoner Michael Peterson (aka Charles Bronson), and charts the 34 years of prison life of Britain’s most notorious, dangerous and charismatic criminal (30 of which have been spent in solitary confinement). Played by Tom Hardy (ROCKNROLLA), who underwent a drastic physical transformation for the role, Bronson was initially sent to prison for a botched armed robbery in which no one was hurt, and who has since served up year after year of extended sentences that have been piled on in response to violent outbursts against fellow inmates and guards, motivated by an unceasing desire to become a celebrity super-star. Over time, Bronson has made a name for himself as a world renowned, award winning artist and author, but still remains a “Category A” prisoner, meaning he is still in solitary confinement in Wakefield high-security prison.
Release Date to be determined.
Tokyo Clips:
Liberation Entertainment and Vitagraph Films have recently provided us with to Toyko, a film from directors Michel Gondry (“Be Kind Rewind” Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), Leos Carax (The Lovers On The Bridge, “Pola X”) and Bong Joon- Ho (The Host).
Click on the link to view each clip on our YouTube page.
Interior Design clip: Dead Cat
Merde clip: Green Suit Guy
Shaking Tokyo clip: Blinding Light
Tokyo! hits theaters, in limited release on March 6th
Gigantic Poster
Brian Weathersby (PAUL DANO) is a 28 year-old salesman at a high-end Swedish mattress company. The afterthought child to elderly parents (ED ASNER, JANE ALEXANDER), and the youngest son in a trio of successful brothers, a shady oil man (IAN ROBERTS), a surgeon (ROBERT STANTON), Brian is searching for his place in the world. Unfulfilled by his work he spends a good portion of his day pursuing his goal of someday adopting a baby from China. He gets swept up in a romance with the lovely but misguided Harriet Lolly (ZOOEY DESCHANEL) when she comes in to his store one day and falls asleep on one of the beds. To win her over, he must compete with her bear of a father, Al Lolly, (JOHN GOODMAN) an art-collecting loudmouth with a bad back and deep pockets. GIGANTIC is a funny, surreal love story about the anxiety that comes when two people with crazy families collide unexpectedly and fall for each other.
Gigantic premiers in New York on April 3rd, before, it expands into other theaters throughout April.
"American Violet" Trailer and Poster
Based on true events in the midst of the 2000 election, AMERICAN VIOLET tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts (critically hailed newcomer Nicole Beharie), a 24 year-old African American single mother of four young girls living in a small Texas town who is barely making ends meet on a waitress’ salary and government subsidies.
On an early November morning while Dee works a shift at the local diner, the powerful local district attorney (Academy Award® nominee Michael O’Keefe) leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping her Arlington Springs housing project with military precision. Police drag Dee from work in handcuffs, dumping her in the squalor of the women’s county prison. Indicted based on the uncorroborated word of a single and dubious police informant facing his own drug charges, Dee soon discovers she has been charged as a drug dealer.
Even though Dee has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid or any subsequent searches, she is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison and fight the charges thus, jeopardizing her custody and risking a long prison sentence.Despite the urgings of her mother (Academy Award® nominee Alfre Woodard), and with her freedom and the custody of her children at stake, she chooses to fight the district attorney and the unyielding criminal justice system he represents. Joined in an unlikely alliance with an ACLU attorney (Tim Blake Nelson) and former local narcotics officer (Will Patton), Dee risks everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system.
AMERICAN VIOLET also stars Emmy Award® winner Charles S. Dutton and Xzibit.
"American Violet" hits theaters April 17th
