Secondhand Lions | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tim McCanlies |
Written by | Tim McCanlies |
Produced by | David Kirschner Scott Ross Corey Sienega |
Starring | Michael Caine Robert Duvall Haley Joel Osment Nicky Katt Kyra Sedgwick |
Cinematography | Jack N. Green |
Edited by | David Moritz |
Music by | Patrick Doyle |
Production company | |
Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
Release date |
|
Running time | 111 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $30 million [1] |
Box office | $48.3 million [1] |
Secondhand Lions is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Tim McCanlies. It tells the story of an introverted young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who is sent to live with his eccentric great uncles (Robert Duvall and Michael Caine) on a farm in Texas.
In 1962, 14-year-old Walter's irresponsible mother, Mae, sends him to live for the summer on the ramshackle Texas farm of his reclusive, bachelor great uncles, Hub and Garth. They are said to have a secret fortune amassed from past adventures and are the target of every traveling salesman. They, in turn, sit on their porch with shotguns, shooting at the salesmen.
Walter is given a room in the attic and is not welcomed by his uncles until they realize that Walter's presence annoys other gold-digging relatives. Walter persuades his uncles to try spending some of their money. Packets of seeds to plant a vegetable garden turn out all to be corn. The uncles then order a lion for a hunting target but end up with a tame, retired circus lioness, who becomes Walter's pet.
While loading 50-pound bags of Lion Chow, Hub faints and briefly goes to the hospital. Later, at a roadside diner, 4 toughs pull switchblades on Hub, but he quickly subdues them. Hub and Garth bring the teens home to patch them up and find that the elderly lioness has escaped her cage, claiming the cornfield her new "jungle" home. Hub gives the teens a speech about growing up and being men before sending them home.
A subplot develops around the photograph of a beautiful woman that Walter finds in the attic. Garth tells Walter the story of their past in the French Foreign Legion, during which Hub married an Arab princess named Jasmine, who was promised to a powerful sheik. After living in constant peril from assassins, Hub spared the sheik's life after a duel on condition that the manhunt ceased. However, Jasmine later died in childbirth, and Hub returned to the French Foreign Legion until he and Garth retired to their farm, where they resignedly waited to die.
Late one evening, Walter trails Garth and discovers that his uncles have a money-filled room underneath the barn. On another night, Mae arrives with her latest boyfriend, a supposed private investigator named Stan; he claims Hub, Garth, and Jasmine were bank robbers and demanded the money's location. When Walter chooses to believe Garth's stories instead, Stan pins Walter down and beats him. The old lioness emerges from the cornfield and attacks Stan; awakened by the noise, Hub and Garth find that the animal has died of heart failure defending her “cub.”
The next day, Walter leaves with his mother. Once on the road, Mae explains that Stan will be staying with them to recuperate. Walter asks her to "do something that's best for me for once" and abandons her. While Hub and Garth are delighted to see him back, Walter insists changes must be made: His uncles must involve themselves in his education and live carefully, as he wants them to die of old age.
17 years later, the local sheriff alerts Walter that his uncles have died after a failed stunt in their biplane. Walter returns to the farm and is given his uncles' will, which leaves everything to him. A helicopter bearing the logo Western Sahara Petroleum touches down near the farm, and a man steps out with his young son, explaining that he heard about Hub and Garth's deaths on the radio. He had recognized the names as the two Americans in tales told to him in his youth by his grandfather, "a very wealthy sheik." When the man's young son asks Walter if his uncles lived, Walter confirms, "Yeah. They really lived."
Director Tim McCanlies, who was an admirer of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, wrote requesting work of his to feature in the film. [2] Breathed sent the drawings of a strip called Walter and Jasmine, which is presented as the work of the grown-up Walter, and they also accompany the final credits. [3]
The film holds a 60% approval rating from critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 137 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A wholesome but schmaltzy movie." [4] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. [6]
Alfie is a 1966 British comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Michael Caine. The Paramount Pictures release was adapted from the 1963 play of the same name by Bill Naughton. Following its premiere at the Plaza Theatre in the West End of London on 24 March 1966, the film became a box office success, enjoying critical acclaim, and influencing British cinema.
Haley Joel Osment is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Osment's role in the comedy-drama film Forrest Gump (1994) won him a Young Artist Award. His breakthrough came with the psychological thriller film The Sixth Sense (1999), which won him a Saturn Award and earned him nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He achieved further success with the drama film Pay It Forward (2000), the science fiction film A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) which won him a second Saturn Award, the comedy film Secondhand Lions (2003) which won him a Critics Choice Award, and the animated film The Jungle Book 2 (2003). He has voiced Sora in the Kingdom Hearts video game franchise since 2002, and voiced Vanitas in the same franchise from 2010 to 2020.
Assassination Tango is a 2002 American crime thriller film written, produced, directed by, and starring Robert Duvall. Other actors include Rubén Blades, Kathy Baker and Duvall's Argentine wife, Luciana Pedraza. Francis Ford Coppola was one of the executive producers.
SpiderBabe is a 2003 American made for cable erotic superhero film. It is loosely based on the character Spider-Man created by Stan Lee and published by Marvel Comics. The film was written by John Fedele and Terry West, and directed by Johnny Crash. Erin Brown, better known within the genre as Misty Mundae, stars as the title character.
Tim McCanlies is an American film director and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing Secondhand Lions, and for writing the screenplay for The Iron Giant.
Kid Millions is a 1934 American musical film directed by Roy Del Ruth, produced by Samuel Goldwyn Productions, and starring Eddie Cantor. Its elaborate "Ice Cream Fantasy Finale" production number was filmed in three-strip Technicolor, one of the earliest uses of that process in a feature-length film.
Anamorph is a 2007 independent psychological thriller film directed by Henry S. Miller and starring Willem Dafoe. Dafoe plays a seasoned detective named Stan Aubray, who notices that a case he has been assigned to bears a striking similarity to a previous case of his. The film is based on the concept of anamorphosis, a painting technique that manipulates the laws of perspective to create two competing images on a single canvas.
The Bohemian Girl is a 1936 comedic feature film version of the opera The Bohemian Girl by Michael William Balfe. Directed by James W. Horne and Charles Rogers, and it was produced at the Hal Roach Studios, and stars Laurel and Hardy, and Thelma Todd in her final film role. Mae Busch and Oliver Hardy appeared 13 times, this was their last picture together. This was also the only appearance of Darla Hood in a full-length feature produced by Hal Roach.
Something to Talk About is a 1995 American comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, from a screenplay written by Callie Khouri. It stars Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid as an estranged couple, Kyra Sedgwick as Roberts' sister, and Robert Duvall and Gena Rowlands as their parents.
Great Expectations is a 1998 American romantic drama film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, from a screenplay by Mitch Glazer and starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hank Azaria, Chris Cooper, Anne Bancroft, and Robert De Niro. A contemporary film adaptation of Charles Dickens’s 1861 novel of the same name, it is known for having moved the setting of the original novel from 1812-1827 London to 1990s New York, with the hero's name having been changed from "Pip" to "Finn," the character of "Miss Havisham" having been renamed "Nora Dinsmoor" and "Abel Magwitch" being renamed "Arthur Lustig." The film received mixed reviews.
Educating Rita is a 1983 British comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Willy Russell based on his 1980 stage play. The film stars Michael Caine, Julie Walters, Michael Williams and Maureen Lipman. It won multiple major awards for best actor and best actress and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Caine and Walters both won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best actor and actress. The British Film Institute ranked Educating Rita the 84th greatest British film of the 20th century.
Brooklyn Babylon is a 2001 film written and directed by Marc Levin, and a modern retelling of the Song of Solomon, set against the backdrop of the Crown Heights riot, starring Black Thought of The Roots.
Secondhand Lions: A New Musical is based on the 2003 movie of the same name. Music and lyrics for the musical were written by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner, who also wrote First Date. The book was by Rupert Holmes.
American actor, director, and producer Robert Duvall has had an extensive career in film and television since he first appeared in an episode of Armstrong Circle Theatre in 1959. His television work during the 1960s includes Route 66 (1961), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962), The Twilight Zone (1963), The Outer Limits (1964), The F.B.I. (1965–1969), and The Mod Squad (1969). He was then cast as General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1979 miniseries Ike. In 1989, he played Augustus "Gus" McCrae alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the epic Western adventure television miniseries Lonesome Dove. The role earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. Three years later, he portrayed Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader Joseph Stalin in the television film Stalin (1992), which earned him another Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Film.
Almost Christmas is a 2016 American Christmas comedy-drama film written and directed by David E. Talbert and starring Kimberly Elise, Mo'Nique, Nicole Ari Parker, Gabrielle Union, Keri Hilson, Jessie Usher, Danny Glover, Omar Epps, John Michael Higgins, D.C. Young Fly, and Romany Malco. The film follows a dysfunctional family that comes together for the holidays for the first time since their mother's death.
Mia and the White Lion is a 2018 family adventure film directed by Gilles de Maistre. The film stars Daniah de Villiers, Mélanie Laurent, and Langley Kirkwood. It was released in France on December 26, 2018 and in the United States on April 12, 2019.
The Photograph is a 2020 American romantic drama film written and directed by Stella Meghie. It follows the estranged daughter of a famous photographer who falls in love with the journalist who is investigating her late mother's life. Chelsea Peretti, Lil Rel Howery and Courtney B. Vance also star.
The Ranger is a 2018 American slasher film written and directed by Jenn Wexler. It stars Chloë Levine as a punk who flees with her friends from the law to hide out at her late uncle's cabin in a national forest, and Jeremy Holm as the titular park ranger who responds in an unhinged manner. Wexler has described the concept of the film as an attempt to "blend the genres of 80s punk movies with 80s slashers".
Rogue is a 2020 American action thriller film starring Megan Fox and Philip Winchester, and directed by M. J. Bassett, who wrote the screenplay with her daughter Isabella. It tells the story of a mercenary whose team gets trapped in Africa and must fight to survive against both the local insurgents and a bloodthirsty lioness. The film was released on August 28, 2020.
Pretty Smart is an American sitcom created by Jack Dolgen and Doug Mand. The series stars Emily Osment, Gregg Sulkin, Olivia Macklin, Cinthya Carmona, and Michael Hsu Rosen. The series premiered on October 8, 2021, on Netflix. In April 2022, the series was canceled after one season.