FILM: Morning Glory Starts Filming

The cameras are busy rolling on Harrison Ford's latest movie, Morning Glory. While his recent movies are getting dragged through the mud, the reviews for Ford have remained solid. You can laugh at Crystal Skulls aliens, nukes, fridges, monkeys, fake jungles, and Mutts, but Indy was rock solid as usual. While Crossing Over's release was limited, the negative reviews were not. However, most critics seemed to go out of their way to praise Ford's acting. The old man can't quite pick scripts that are keepers anymore, but he still delivers the goods.

Perhaps I'm being a tad overcritical, because his latest effort has all the potential to be an enjoyable comedy, and not just for my grandma. The cast isn't perfect, but Jeff Goldblum and Rachel McAdams are definitely funny enough to make me forget how much I hate Diane Keaton. The plot, which originally sounded too much like a geriatric Anchorman, has been fleshed out a bit. What was originally described as two feuding anchors thrown together by a new, young, female producer has now been expanded. Ford plays some grumpy old guy (pictured above on set) who has anchored the news desk for a long, long time. Ratings keep falling on his morning newscast, so his new producer puts him into a Today Show-like program with Diane Keaton. Presumably, Ford hates her almost as much as I do. He gets even crankier when the show steers from legimiate journalism towards celeb/tabloid gossip for the sake of ratings.

While the plot gets me interested, you can easily see this movie turning into a disaster. I mean come on, Diane Keaton KILLS movies. She's the worst part in all three Godfather films, plays the same flustered hag in everything, and her last movie, Mad Money, was SO terrible it got branded with Hollywood's worst award nomination: the CARNY.

However, there are redeeming qualities in this movie: Ford's comedic chops. They don't appear often, but objective people like myself saw gold in his performance as Quinn Harris in Six Days, Seven Nights. Yes, the rest of the movie sucked, but he knows how to play cranky. We know he's gonna go off on Diane Keaton in this movie, and I can't wait to see what kind of rants he's got tucked away.

What's even more exciting is the producer on this film. Hollywood's current golden boy, the flavor of the month, Mr. J.J. Abrams. The man behind the curtain of L O S T's best season (and most of the best episodes). He's got his hands in this, even if he's not the director. The only thing that will kill this movie is if Ford ends up with Diane Keaton. Let's hope the writers can find a more original way to end it. Even so, I'll see you at the multiplex.