FRANCO GOES OVER THE TOP AGAIN
Actor’s latest role doesn’t seem like much of a stretch,
MOVIES
Big release on Aug. 31: Kin
Big picture: Every time James Franco plays a cocky, amoral idiot with tattoos — think the drug and arms dealer in Spring Breakers — you increasingly wonder how much he’s acting. In the sci-fi adventure Kin, Franco brings more of the same as an over-the-top gang leader. Kin has the kiss of death about it — one of those summer movies buried on the last day of summer vacation, which is the studio equivalent of you putting your creepy uncle at the farthest table from the wedding party (nobody really wants to see him and he’s probably going to say something stupid). Kin finds two brothers — one ex-con and one preteen — being pursued by Franco’s gang, as well as soldiers from outer space (they look like the unlikely offspring off a Predator and Star Wars’ Boba Fett — minus 50 per cent of the special effects budget). Everyone seems to be after a powerful, magical laser gun the young boy finds abandoned in a sketchy, abandoned parking lot (teaching children everywhere a valuable lesson about places to explore). Forecast: The tagline is “no force is greater; no bond is stronger than family.” Brotherly love. Aww. We get it. But in letting his little brother handle an alien weapon of mass destruction for two hours, the older brother in Kin is unlikely to get nominated for brother of the year.
TV
Big events: Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime Video, Aug. 31); Paradise PD (Netflix, Aug. 31)
Big picture: Author Tom Clancy may be dearly departed, but his most famous character is still being adapted for the screen. Jack Ryan has been played by everyone from Chris Pine to Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford to Ben Affleck. In Ryan’s first TV incarnation, he comes in the form of unlikely office drone turned action star (a.k.a. John Krasinski). This series is recast as an origin story showing how the CIA analyst first got pulled off the desk and put on the front lines of combat and espionage. With Chris Pratt having made the successful leap from sitcom (Andy in Parks and Recreation) to action star, why not The Office’s Jim (Krasinski)? While we’re at it, let’s cast Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) as the next Bond.
Meanwhile, Paradise PD is an adult animated series that’s essentially Family Guy (talking police dogs who snort cocaine and hold canine sex parties in the evidence room) meets Cops (small town shenanigans) meets Police Academy (idiots in uniform). Forecast: Jack Ryan’s tagline is “the analyst is activated.” Analysts of all stripes should hit the gym. Apparently, you never know when you’ll go from data crunching to hand-to-hand combat in Yemen. Just ask Jack.