Early this year we featured a list of franchises in need of a genre change. The Rambo series was not one of the five selected, but apparently Sylvester Stallone thinks it’s a good idea to take a turn into sci-fi for the fifth installment of the action franchise. This, after the Indiana Jones series took a disappointing leap into alien territory last year. This, despite the fact Moonraker is one of the worst James Bond films.
The funny thing is, it’s difficult to find a straight up action or action/adventure franchise that doesn’t have sci-fi elements anymore. So wouldn’t it be nice to have these few series remain grounded in reality if they started that way? We think so. That’s why we’re going to beat Hollywood to the punch on a few action franchises that have yet to add aliens, monsters or whatever to their world.
The following five premises are completely ridiculous, and that is the point. Hopefully the series’ respective studios will thereby see that it would be a bad idea to do anything of the sort.
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Leonardo DiCaprio as Martin Luther King Jr.? Hey, as long as the Telegraph is reporting that Jamie Foxx is “in the running” to portray Frank Sinatra in the upcoming Scorsese-directed biopic about the singer/actor, why not also suggest Leo for the just-announced MLK bio from producer Steven Spielberg? Surely the actor is anxious to work again with his Catch Me if You Can director. And seeing as this is pure Oscar-fodder, and seeing as blackface can get people nominated these days, playing the civil rights leader may just be what the three-time Oscar nominee (and loser) needs to pull off in order to win the Academy Award.
Okay, we’re done with the jokes. Obviously this MLK biopic is super serious and needs to be cast as such. So, who will actually follow in the footsteps of former MLK portrayers Paul Winfield, LeVar Burton, James Earl Jones, Robert Guillaume and Jaleel “Urkel” White? Actually, Foxx might be a legitimate candidate for this one. But we’re going with an actor who has already played the civil rights leader. To find out who we pick for the lead role and the rest of the likely supporting characters, check out our completely serious casting suggestions after the jump.
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I wasn’t surprised to enjoy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, which I saw (and paid for) over the weekend. Even if I haven’t really been a fan of Martin Lawrence since his sitcom went off the air, I could tell the movie would be a stupid good time. I’m a not-at-all-secret fan of Mo’Nique (I was really disappointed that Phat Girlz was so tame), and I’ll watch James Earl Jones anytime, especially as a father figure (from Darth Vader to King Jaffe Joffer to Papa Jenkins). I was, however, surprised to like it as much as I did. And apparently I wasn’t the only film writer to think so.
For the New York Times, Matt Zoller Seitz wrote, “it’s a cut above other films of its type.” Jonathan Rosenbaum didn’t quite recommend the movie, but did call it, “a little better than formulaic,” while Slant’s Nick Schager said, “it’s not half bad,” Entertainment Weekly’s Clark Collis called it, “a decent enough way to spend two hours,” and Newsday’s Gene Seymour said it, “grows on you.” Meanwhile Kyle Smith of the New York Post took the words out of my mouth laptop by calling the movie a sure sign of the apocalypse due its being a Martin Lawrence movie he enjoyed. OK, so they aren’t tremendous raves, but considering the movie’s low, 31% critical rating on RottenTomatoes.com, I have to give these guys credit for not simply brushing this one off. …Read more
