The Final Cut: A Closer Look At The Island, Bad News Bears

Posted by Devin Categories: Features, Movies

This week The Final Cut takes a look at 2 of Friday’s most anticipated releases, The Island, with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, and Bad News Bears starring Billy Bob Thornton and Greg Kinnear.  Also hitting theaters this Friday are The Devil’s Rejects, a sequel of sorts to House of 1,000 Corpses directed by Rob Zombie; and Hustle & Flow, a film that was the talk of Sundance, even winning an Audience Award.  Check out The Final Cut’s recommendations after the jump, and feel free to leave your take on any of this weekends releases in the comments section.

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi

“Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) is a resident of a seemingly utopian but contained facility in the mid-21st century. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to the “The Island,” reportedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie. He and all of the other inhabitants of the facility are actually human clones whose only purpose is to provide “spare parts” for their original human counterparts. Realizing it is only a matter of time before he is “harvested,” Lincoln makes a daring escape with a fellow resident named Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson).”

From what I’ve seen and heard, this movie looks to be quite entertaining.  It may start off slow, but once the chase sequence and many explosions begin, it should be one thrill after the other.  I really think we’ll get a good performance out of McGregor and Johansson in this film, and Steve Buscemi always does well in his supporting roles.  Director Michael Bay seems to have made a great film with his latest effort, and while I don’t think it will pull Hollywood out of its summer box office slump, I’d expect to see this movie top the box office come Monday.  If you plan on visiting your local theater this weekend take a trip to The Island.

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden, Timmy Deters

“Morris Buttermaker, a former pro baseball player, was ejected from the game for attacking an umpire and now works as an exterminator. More interested in boozing and broads than baseball, Buttermaker is lured back into the game by Liz Whitewood, an attorney whose class action suit has forced the Little League to accept all players, regardless of their abilities. As the new coach of the Bears, the most losing team in Little League history, Buttermaker has his work cut out for him. Initially, he’s only in it for the paycheck, but he and his inept players have a transformative effect on one another that is wholly unexpected, and completely remarkable.”

Bad News Bears is a remake of a 1976 film by Michael Ritchie, entitled “The Bad News Bears”.  Billy Bob Thornton stars as the drunk coach this time around, and those of you have seen Bad Santa know just how funny he can be as a drunk.  From what I’ve seen so far of this movie, his character in this PG-13 film seems to be a tamer version of his Bad Santa character, which has me wondering just how exactly this film will play out.  You see, in just about every review I’ve read, the writer stresses how they really weren’t impressed with this remake due to one or more of the following: the kids overuse of profanity(instead of being entertaining it’s overdone and annoying); the film is filled with adult humor and swearing, so it’s not really kid-friendly, yet many of the jokes are aimed at younger kids, so it’s not really entertaining for adults; or it was just an overall waste of time.  I love Billy Bob, and I would love to encourage all of you to see this movie, but seeing as how so many reviews say the same negative things about the film I’m going to have to give it the VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK label.