Over the last two Tuesdays, The Weinstein Company has released two movies on DVD that barely anyone could have seen in theaters even if they tried: Fanboys and Killshot. Fanboys was put on barely any screens but actually added more playdates as weeks rolled on. Killshot didn't even get that chance, going no wider than 5 screens total.
I finished watching Killshot a few minutes ago, and for a movie that got delayed over and over and over, with no visible confidence behind its earning potential, it isn't half bad. It isn't quite half good either. It reminds me of the barely skin-deep action thrillers my dad would rent three of for the weekend when I was a kid. Mickey Rourke's massive Oscar push alone could have made this a profitable January or February dump in a true limited run, but January 23rd came and not even critics in major cities could find it.
The movie follows Rourke's Armand "The Blackbird" Degas (Bird for short), a Native American contract killer for the mafia who kills anyone who sees his face when on a job. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Richie, a cocky, faux-southern-accented young guy who reminds Bird of someone from his past. Rosario Dawson plays Richie's emotionally-abused girlfriend. Diane Lane and Thomas Jane play an estranged married couple who come closer together when Bird starts hunting them after a botched job. They're put in protective custody by the FBI, but we all know that doesn't stop cold-blooded killers like Bird in this kind of film. Hal Holbrook is in there for a blink-and-miss performance too.
Killshot has a long, labored production history dating back to 1995 when it was floating around in development. It ended up one of the select projects Harvey took with him in the Miramax/Weinstein divorce. Multiple sets of stars were considered for Bird and Richie, from Viggo-Timberlake to de Niro-Tarantino. The movie was originally finished in January of 2006, and eventually all traces of Johnny Knoxville's corrupt cop character were cut out of the movie. He would've made a more authentic Richie, in my opinion. I like Joe Gordon-Levitt, but it's not his fault he was miscast here.
No Deleted Scenes or extras (not even a trailer) are featured on the DVD, but it's worth watching as "so badly done you'd have to see it to believe it" survival thriller. There are glimpses of coherence in the trailer that never made the final cut. They apparently cut Knoxville's character (a bad guy) because test audiences "didn't find him likable." Je-sus. The most objectionable thing on display is this dedication plate at the end:
I saw Fanboys at Fantastic Fest last year, and I don't know anyone who saw it theatrically outside critic friends. The movie's ok, and it was easy for me to give it a pass since I had a friend dying of cancer at the time. When you have something in real life going on like that you can relate to, you cut a movie like this some breaks. I'm not saying it's the greatest movie of all time or one of my favorites of last year, but it has a very focused, sentimental mission that it achieves well enough. The movie is an effective, if narrow-market, look at fanboy culture, a celebration of things that fans of all sorts love.
I like Star Wars and Trek a lot, but I'd say my biggest fanboy obsessions are Orson Welles and Charlie Chaplin films. I'm not into dressing up like a Stormtrooper for Halloween, but I can understand that. I do like very much that the movie is about growing up and moving on, whilst retaining reverence for what you loved as a kid.
Ethan Suplee playing a redneckier Harry Knowles than I know in real life.
I consider this DVD release to be an abject failure in a couple regards because it teases honest, blunt "here's what really happened" and doesn't deliver. That's why this is a rental and not a purchase. I'd like talent involved to get residuals, but I don't think I could support buying this and giving Harvey a bigger chunk of the pie. The movie went through post-production hell, with Weinstein at one point cutting out the fact the one friend is dying of cancer. He essentially deleted the motivation for the road trip to steal Star Wars Episode 1 from the movie.
The Deleted Scenes [7:50] are fine, one including the old version of a scene that ended up with Danny McBride in a role William Katt played originally. Three or four featurettes are different sides of the EPK cube. The Truth About Fanboys [5:48] has a very deceptive title; Star Wars Parallel [5:19] is kinda flat; 4 Fanboys & 1 Fangirl has an unfortunate title that is reminiscent of 2 Girls & 1 Cup, which I still refuse to watch; and The Choreography [3:40] is a short bit about the one dance sequence in the movie. The first three are culled from the same run of interviews.
Disturbances in the Force [11:40] is a set of behind the scenes webisodes that, again, have nothing to do with the controversy going on. The Feature Commentary, which I listened to while working on some other stuff, is almost shockingly devoid of juicy info. They even put an "opinions expressed" disclaimer in front of it like this:
The Disclaimer crawl.
The chat track features director Kyle Newman, screenwriters Ernie Cline and Adam F. Goldberg, and actors Dan Fogler, Kristen Bell, and Sam Huntington. The most interesting part of the track is Kristen enthusiastically pointing out it's not her bare ass and recounting her meeting with "Pimp Daddy" (my description) Billy Dee Williams.