Discland
edited by Jonathan Doyle
Cloverfield [BLU-RAY] (Paramount Home Entertainment, 6.3.2008) Disguised under deliberately goofy, yet deliciously edible-sounding, aliases such as Cheese and Slusho, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was produced and rushed into theaters under an equally appetizing shroud of secrecy. From last year's incredibly elusive Super Bowl ad to the film's viral marketing campaign, Cloverfield had everybody scratching their heads and drooling in anticipation. Aside from the as-yet untitled title and the Blair Witch-ian visual style, the film's biggest appeal was the enigmatic creature who was last (un)seen hurling the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty onto the crowded streets of New York City. All we knew about the mysterious beast was that it was big and angry. Now that the highy-anticipated project has come and gone, one question has fortunately been answered: Cloverfield was a major success. (continued)

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Cohen to do Mummy 3?

TMZ's Claude Brodesser has written a funny short piece about Rob Cohen's return to the fold with the third bullshit Mummy movie, which even Stephen Sommers -- one of the all-time demonic bad guys of soulless modern-day Hollywood -- has apparently declined to do.


Director Rob Cohen at XXX premiere after-party in '02

"Is director Rob Cohen about to get sprung from movie jail?" Brodesser begins. "Our spies tell us that Cohen, the director of Vin Diesel action hits like The Fast and the Furious and XXX is in negotiations to direct the third incarnation of The Mummy franchise at Universal Pictures.

"A director with those two mega-credits under his belt normally wouldn't be available to do yeoman's service on the third iteration of a Brendan Fraser franchise, but Cohen took the blame for the bloated, plotless special-effects stinker that was Stealth -- a $100 million bomb that that fell out of Sony Pictures' skies back in 2005.

"After a mess like that, you're in 'movie jail' -- the equivalent of purgatory for directors. Performing well on an established franchise would go a long way toward rehabbing your rep, and clearly, insiders say, Cohen's hip to this fact. Look for Universal to make the formal offer to Cohen sometime later this week."

I remember what a great job Cohen did on The Fast and the Furious -- and what a beautiful ending it had. I'm sorry he's stuck doing a Mummy movie, but maybe he can make it work on some level and then get back and do something better the next time out.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 9, 2007 at 11:25 AM

comment #1

Mike Schaefer Author Profile Page says ...

per IMDB, Cohen's "attached" to the Russ Meyer biopic, Big Bosoms and Square Jaws (no, I did not make that title up).

He also did a nice job on the Bruce Lee biopic Dragon some 15 years ago. He was even "attached" to the Harvey Milk movie for a while (which Bryan Singer may finally get made).

Posted by Mike Schaefer Author Profile Page at January 9, 2007 11:58 AM

comment #2

lesterg Author Profile Page says ...

I also remember reading (fairly recently) that he's developing another Bruce Lee film as a follow-up to "Dragon".

Posted by lesterg Author Profile Page at January 9, 2007 1:54 PM

comment #3

jeffmcm Author Profile Page says ...

Few directors are worse than Rob Cohen. He's literally one of the great vampires of creativity in Hollywood. He makes Sommers look like David Lean.

Posted by jeffmcm Author Profile Page at January 9, 2007 2:20 PM

comment #4

GlassFamily Author Profile Page says ...

The only way I'd see this movie is if it were projected on a sleek European T-shirt.

Posted by GlassFamily Author Profile Page at January 9, 2007 7:40 PM

comment #5

MovieBob Author Profile Page says ...

Oh, lighten up. Cohen is an entirely unpretentious worker who knows his way through action scenes and how to keep a pace. Yes, "XXX" is ass and "TF&TF" is ridiculously overpraised, but he's right for his material. Ditto for Sommers. "Mummy 2" was bloated and he lost total control on "Van Helsing," but "Jungle Book" and the first "Mummy" are near-perfect as big-budget B-movies. I'll take a Cohen-directed "Mummy 3" over having ever sit through "Dreamgirls" again ANY day.

Posted by MovieBob Author Profile Page at January 9, 2007 10:37 PM

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