Thursday, May 28, 2009
Los Angeles Film Festival 2009
If you are in or around Los Angeles between June 18 through 28 I strongly recommend you swing by Westwood Village and check out a film or two at the 15th annual Los Angeles Film Festival. Having started out as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival back in 1995 as a reaction to the popularity of fest's like Sundance, Slamdance and Rainy States the LAIFF went more mainstream in 2001 when it was taken over by Film Independent (formerly IFP/West) in 2001.This years fest' is showing a few interesting movies that caught my eye at Sundance and Tribeca earlier this year including Cold Souls with Paul Giamatti, the British flick In The Loop, the still great Midnight Cowboy from 1969, Johnny Depp's Public Enemies and the US premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
If I get the urge I may jump in my car and make the 7 hour drive from AZ to soak up some LA atmos' but if you are lucky enough to live in the City of Angels you can volunteer at the festival here.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Paul Brings My Comedy Favorites Together
In what looks like a very clever coming together of comedic talent I read today that Seth Rogen has joined the cast of the 2010 movie Paul. The film stars Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) as two British geeks who travel across the US to attend a comic-book convention. Their trip gets interesting when they come across a crashed government vehicle that was transporting an alien (Paul) and end up being chased by a government agent (Jason Bateman). Greg Motolla (Adventureland, Superbad) is helming this one so there is a very good chance this will be a box office biggie.
If you are in Santa Fe this summer you should be able to catch the shoot.
Movie Review - What We Do Is Secret
This is one of those movie choices you make after seeing the trailer just before another DVD is about to start. I can't say the trailer blew me away but it was interesting enough to make me add What We Do Is Secret to my Netflix list.
The film tells the story of the late Seventies punk band 'The Germs'. A band that was controversial, short lived and eventually banned from every club in Los Angeles due to the antics of the lead singer and founder Darby Crash. It is Crash that the movie naturally centers around as we see a smart teenager railing against society and finding acceptance in the early Punk movement that arose in the late Seventies in the US and Britain. Being a Brit' I have to admit it was always hard to take the American Punk scene seriously as it always appeared so contrived compared to what was going on in the UK. These days I'm not sure that's actually the case and if you read anything about Malcolm McClaren and his influence on the UK Punk scene there is very little in the way of authenticity to be found.
When you look at the cast of this film it's as if all my favorite TV shows got together to fill the roles ...
Darby Crash is played by Shane West (ER)
Pat Smear is played by Rick Gonzalez (Reaper)
Michelle is played by Tina Majorino (Big Love)
Penelope Spheeris is played by Michelle Hicks (The Shield)
It's worth noting this because for the majority of this movie you felt like you were watching something that was made for TV. It's not that production values were particularly poor or that the story was any different from any other band biopic but it just had a real TV feel about it. I actually think Shane West put in a strong performance (winning the Rising Star award at last years Philadelphia Film Festival) as the doomed Crash but the rest of the cast had little impact on both story and audience. Where the movie did come on strong was the final 10 minutes when the fate of Darby Crash is forever linked with the shooting of John Lennon. These last scenes were very good indeed but left you wondering why the film (director?) seemed to find itself so late.
From a modern musical history point of view the movie is worth a look. I think it was a particularly interesting time in the LA music scene and certainly for me much more entertaining than the glam metal bands that followed later in the Eighties. It's something to watch if you happen across it on TV or want to grab the DVD for a buck from the grocery store but really that's about it.
Rating: ***
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
500 Days of Summer for Free!
OK so I know this movie was shown at the Phoenix Film Festival this year but hey I didn't get a chance to see it! Now Fox Searchlight Pictures are offering select lucky individuals the chance to RSVP and get to see Zooey Deschanel in all her kooky loveliness for free!
Click here and if you are in New Orleans, Memphis, Denver, Houston, Austin, Kansas City, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, San Antonio, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago or Portland and you might get to see 500 Days of Summer for FREE/GRATIS/NADA/ZERO!!!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel at Sundance
Russel Brand in Get Him to the Greek
The MTV movie blog posted a cool clip of Russel Brand cruising the set of his latest flick Get Him to the Greek. I was really not a fan of this guy when he first appeared on the scene but I have to admit I did enjoy his performance in the otherwise very average Forgetting Sarah Marshall. This movie once again pairs him with the very funny Jonah Hill. Here is the clip and sorry about the annoying 30 second wait which irritates us all I am sure.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Movie Review - Terminator Salvation
So the second franchise reboot of the summer movie blockbuster season is the fourth installment of the Terminator series. You may have already read my review of Star Trek the movie which I think took a tired and down on it's knees franchise and gave it impact and wow factor that frankly hadn't been felt since the show originally aired in the Sixties. Well I was excited and frankly rooting for Salvation to do just the same thing for all things Terminator!The Terminator movies are also near and dear to my heart as I would describe myself as a moderate (i.e non convention attending) sci-fi geek. I enjoyed the first installment of course but it was Terminator 2 that really cranked it and yanked it for me and I saw that a bunch of times at the theater when it was released 18 years ago. So perhaps surprisingly I am not one of the purists that thought Jonathan Mostow's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was so dreadful. I'm sorry to all the naysayers but I actually thoroughly enjoyed that movie. OK it wasn't T2 or T1 and Arnie was to a certain extent strolling through the script but I have to admit Kristanna Loken did it for me as a female Terminator and along with Nick Stahl and Clare Danes I thought it was tough for anyone to have a bad time watching the film.
Anyone who believed the franchise was dead after the muted reception to T3 was clearly high. The Terminator world is so alive with script possibility and so deeply entrenched into modern day pop culture ('I'll be back' etc) that a fresh re-tooling of the saga was always going to be a box office winner and an automatic green light from the studios. How Terminator Salvation actually got made by the relative newcomer to big budget directing McG is a story in itself and I would recommend you check out a most excellent story on the subject by Empire Magazine (Issue 238).
As most of you will already know if you have any amount of interest in the series, for the first time Terminator Salvation takes us to the post-nuclear Armageddon America only referenced in the previous movies. There is no Terminator machine running rampage around present day Los Angeles this time but instead we are 10 or so years from present day and John Connor (Christian Bale in good gravely voiced form) is the mythical leader of the resistance against the machines created by Skynet which destroyed most of humanity on 'Judgement Day'. Without giving too much away the film is 100% action, there is very little time spent on in depth interaction between the main characters and this is as it should be ... hey, this is a Terminator movie not The Notebook!
The action is genuinely intense, mega-fast paced and at time seemingly gloriously unrelenting. The machines that Connor and his motley band of fearless resistance fighters are up against are not the gleaming metal machines seen in the previous movies because the time in which Salvation is set predates even the 1984 original. These Terminator machines come in all forms, from the original human 'Metal Endoskeleton' (who can forget Arnie twisting his Austrian accent around those words in T2!?), underwater metal robots called Hydrobots, Mototerminators (evil motor bikes to you and me) and the biggest Terminator we have seen to date known as The Harvester for it's ability to pick up humans and drop them into mobile holding cells ... nice!
The storyline tells not only the story of the resistance that has been alluded to in the three previous installments but also of exactly how the 'Arnie' T800 gets created by Skynet. This particular part of the movie is told using an actor pretty unfamiliar to mainstream audiences, the Aussie actor Sam Worthington. Director McG gives his reason for casting Worthington as needing to have an actor that could realistically go head to head with Bale and still be believable. Well it's job well done in my opinion, Worthingon was terrific and other than a few small laspses in his American accent he did a great job.
The smaller roles in the movies were also filled well with Anton Yelcin (second outing this summer after playing Chekov in Star Trek) playing the teenage version of John Connor's Dad from the original movie, Kyle Reese. Moon Bloodgood as rough and tough resistance fighter Blair Williams and a lesser role as 'mother of the movement' for Bryce Dallas Howard playing Connor's wife.
Overall this was a great action movie and a solid return for the franchise. It didn't blow me away in the way Star Trek did earlier in the month but it's hard to imagine a better interpretation of a post 'Judgement Day' world than the one McG has created. His own Hollywood star is now burning ridiculously bright and I am certain the studio sees this as the first of a fresh set of Terminator movies, and rightly so. Job well done.
Rating: ****
White Ribbon Wins Palme D'Or at Cannes
Source: VarietyIn awards that ran the gamut from the widely predicted to the jaw-dropping, Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, a stark, black-and-white drama set in a rural German village on the eve of WWI, received the Palme d'Or from the jury of the 62nd Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.
Haneke, who had previously won the director award for Cache (2005) and the Grand Prix for The Piano Teacher (2001), received his first Palme from a visibly delighted Isabelle Huppert, president of the jury. Huppert had won Cannes' actress gong for The Piano Teacher.
"Happiness is a rare thing, but this is a moment in my life when I am truly happy," Haneke said in his acceptance speech.
The Grand Prix went to French helmer Jacques Audiard's tough prison drama, A Prophet, which had been a frontrunner for a major prize since screening early on in the fest.
Star Trek Movie Poster Mash-Ups
Empire recently asked it's readers to create a series of movie poster mash-ups combining sports heroes, politicians, sitcoms and also Star Trek themes with their favorite movie posters. Here is a selection of my favorite Star Trek mash-ups and there are a ton more over at the Empire website.
Bruce Willis in Surrogates
I will admit I am a sucker for Robot movies. Having just seen Terminator Salvation (review on the way) I was interested to see this new trailer for the late September release of Surrogates which is the latest Big Screen adaptation of a popular graphic novel. Directed by Jonathan Mostow who helmed the much maligned Terminator 3 looking at the preview below this looks like it could be a top notch sci-fi flick.
Surrogates releases nationwide in the US on September 25th.
The story is set in the future where human interaction is all experienced through robotic 'surrogates' which allow humans to stay home and become anything they want to be through their robot clone out in the world. Willis stars as a detective forced to get out into the real world again investigating the first homicide in years. There are few better action hero actors for me than Willis and if he brings his A game this could be a real cracker of a popcorn flick. My only concern looking at the trailer below is that Bruce's clone robot appears to be wearing a hair piece ... maybe this is some kind of in joke because it looks very very odd!
SURROGATES trailer in HD
SURROGATES trailer in HD
Surrogates releases nationwide in the US on September 25th.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
New TV Animation from Mike Judge
Movie Review - Angels & Demons
This is one of the big summer movies for some reason I wasn't all that excited about seeing. I am a fan of both Tom Hanks and Ron Howard but let's be honest The Da Vinci Code wasn't as good as it could have been (even with the fantastic Audrey Tautou). That said, it was a hot languid Saturday in the valley yesterday and while my better half was at the mall I figured why not spend 2 hours and 18 minutes in the company of all things Catholic!There has been much chatter and consternation about this movie and I am quite sure the DVD release will be interesting if they include a 'extras' featurette on how on earth this movie got made and shot in the locations around Rome and the Vatican City. I am not a Catholic and it is very probably quite a different movie experience if you are watching it from that point of view but as a neutral it is very difficult to work out what the fuss is all about. I think Howard is actually very fair in his portrayal of the inner workings of the Vatican. For anyone to deny it's politics and power would be naieve but the director doesn't go after the church in the way some of his accusers seem to be saying (the ending of the movie is actually verging on reverential).
I enjoyed both 'Langdon' books by Dan Brown and while they are unlikely to go down as classics of American literature they are great page turners and absolute gold for any screenwriter. With Angels & Demons it's a little like the Harry Potter series with the question of how can you fit all the twists and turns of the novel into a 2-3 hour movie? Well Howard does a capable job of retaining the key elements of the story, taking out some on the extraneous plot lines concerning the scientists in Switzerland and their work on anti-matter and reducing that to a useful 10 minutes or so worth of set up at the beginning of the story. The meat of the film smartly concentrates on Robert Langdon's (Hanks once again reprising his Da Vinci Code roll with adequate aplomb) search through the historic sites of Rome for the anti-matter bomb hidden by the mysterious ancient group, the Illuminati.
Ewan McGregor stars in the movie as the deceased Pope's 'consigliere' (Carmelengo Patrick McKenna) and is at the center of the story pitching the power players within the Vatican against the returning threat of the Illuminati. It's not McGregor's best performance by any means and frankly I felt that he was on cruise control and to a certain extent dialing in his performance.
The story zips along well enough although I could be convinced that the film was 20 minutes too long. There are enough action sequences to keep you with the film and the beautiful historic location shots should keep the Rome Tourist Office very happy indeed. However in the end I think this is a great example of a movie adaptation that just can't do the book justice.
Rating ***
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Parenthood Goes from Big to Small Screen
NBC are adapting the 1989 Steve Martin 'pressures on a modern family raising children' movie Parenthood with the film's original director Ron Howard to act as Executive Producer (along with Brian Grazer) for the hour long show. It features Six Feet Under favorite Peter Krause and ex ER doc' Maura Tierny as Adam and Sarah Braverman, both great actors that will bring alot to the show.
Here's a preview.
Parenthood premieres this Fall on NBC Wednesdays at 8/7c.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Jim Carrey is Ebenezer Scrooge
Coming this Holiday Season is a new Carrey-ized version of the classic Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol, directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forest Gump, Castaway and so many other BIG movies). The movie is a Carrey vehicle to put it mildly as the versatile actor plays not only Scrooge but also the three ghosts that haunt him. The flick also stars Colin Firth, Gary Oldman and Bob Hoskins, making this an animated Holiday treat that should deliver big time.
The shot from A Christmas Carol is courtesy of Latinoreview.com
Six Feet Under Promo Videos
I am going through another Six Feet Under phase and I think when I get back to Phoenix this weekend it will be time to slam Season 5 into the DVD player and finish my third (but by no means my last) series viewing.
There is a pretty decent amount of SFU content on youtube and one of the things I enjoy watching time and again are the promotional clips made by HBO when they were promoting each season. The quality of these clips is something else and the music by Coldplay and Sia for Seasons 3 and 5 respectively add a really special element to them. I only seem to be able to find the Season 1 promo for the Video and not the actual original airing on TV so if you know if it exists somewhere let me know!
Here they are, enjoy.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Patti Blagojevich to Accept Reality Show Role?
The AP recently reported that the wife of disgraced former Illinois Governor, Rob Blagojevich looks likely to sign on to the upcoming NBC reality show I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. As I mentioned in a post on Sunday the former Governor himself had wanted to appear but due to his impending legal issues was not able to take such an odd career change!
According to the AP 'By Tuesday afternoon, another person close to the case said he understood Patti Blagojevich was planning to leave for the West Coast on Wednesday to make promotional footage' for the show.
It's a truly bizarre set of circumstances for what was once a pretty high profile political couple albeit at a state level but from what I hear Illinois politics are rarely dull!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sherlock Holmes Trailer
At long last we have the first footage of Guy Richie's re-working of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.
The trailer tells us a few things about the flick. Downey's English accent doesn't seem that great but he looks fantastic in the role and clearly worked out for the action sequences. The movie looks like a good mix of action, mystery and a few sexy scenes courtesy of Rachel McAdams (Notebook, Wedding Crashers & State of Play). It seems to have taken the best of Richie's past work (Lock Stock ... and Snatch) and applied it to a stories we are all familiar with thus recreating familiar characters in a not dissimilar way to what we have seen J.J. Abrams do with the Star Trek franchise this year. It's hard to tell if there will be good 'buddy chemistry' between Law and Downey but reports from the set say the two got along great having never actually met before the shoot began.
The trailer tells us a few things about the flick. Downey's English accent doesn't seem that great but he looks fantastic in the role and clearly worked out for the action sequences. The movie looks like a good mix of action, mystery and a few sexy scenes courtesy of Rachel McAdams (Notebook, Wedding Crashers & State of Play). It seems to have taken the best of Richie's past work (Lock Stock ... and Snatch) and applied it to a stories we are all familiar with thus recreating familiar characters in a not dissimilar way to what we have seen J.J. Abrams do with the Star Trek franchise this year. It's hard to tell if there will be good 'buddy chemistry' between Law and Downey but reports from the set say the two got along great having never actually met before the shoot began.
We also discover from the trailer (and IMDB!) that Richie has had the smarts to cast the terrific Eddie Marsane from Happy-Go-Lucky fame to play the classic role of Inspector Lestrade. This guy is fast becoming one of my favorite actors and I am sure he will nail this role as he has done in such varied films throughout his career.
Annoyingly for the more impatient among us this movie doesn't get released until Christmas Day and so we have quite a wait ahead of us. That said I'm sure this isn't the last trailer we will see released and it has certainly whet the appetite of fans of both the books by Conan Doyle and Richie's movies.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Jeremy Saunders Movie Posters
I just read an interesting Australian Edge interview with a British Artist living in Australia who has designed some stunning movie promotional posters. Jeremy Saunders clear demonstrates an innate understanding of how interpret the essence of a film into a poster that captivates you where ever you see it. Here is a selection of his visually arresting work:
For the full interview click here.
New Comedy from Mike Judge
How did I miss telling you about this one!?
I am a big Mike Judge fan from back when he was doing Beavis & Butthead for MTV which of course gave birth to King of the Hill (which aired a hilarious episode about US/Canadian relations on Sunday). He also has a very loyal following due to the cult devotion people have to his 1999 flick Office Space, which I certainly enjoyed but am not as rabid a fan as some out there who are truly obsessed with the movie.
But I digress, what I wanted to talk about here is his new movie Extract that is due out September 4th. The most excellent Jason Bateman stars as a manager of an extract plant that is having serious issues with his wife (usually around 8pm if the trailer is anything to go by!) and seeks advice from his stoner buddy played by Ben Affleck. The film also stars one of my unsung heroes of the Big & Small Screen, Mr J.K. Simmons who has an amazing resume of work (Spiderman 1 2 3, SNL, OZ, Everwood, Juno, Burn After Reading).
I think this will be a great summer comedy, so check out the trailer below.
Monday, May 18, 2009
A Logical President
In a recent interview with Newsweek President Obama commented on the new Star Trek movie and comments he has heard about his passing resemblance to a certain Vulcan!Newsweek: And the last movie you saw?
Obama: Now, movies I've been doing OK [with] because it turns out we got this nice theater on the ground floor of my house … So Star Trek, we saw this weekend, which I thought was good. Everybody was saying I was Spock, so I figured I should check it out and—[the president makes the Vulcan salute with his hand].
Newsweek: Very good.
Obama: Yes, absolutely.
Newsweek: Did you watch that when you were growing up?
Obama: I used to love Star Trek. You know, Star Trek was ahead of its time. There was a whole—the special effects weren't real good, but the storylines were always evocative, you know, there was a little commentary and a little pop philosophy for a 10-year-old to absorb.
For the whole interview click here.
Looking for Eric Cantona
This is news that will certainly resonate with UK and European readers but may leave some of you Americans and Canadians wondering what all the fuss is about.
Acclaimed British director Ken Loach has made a film with one of my personal football heroes Eric Cantona (Manchester United legend from 1992-1997). Cantona may have left United and retired from professional football but he never lost his love for Manchester or his legions of fans in the Northwest of England. It seems it is that connection between Cantona and this particular part of my homeland that led him to work with Loach on a new movie that is being shown at Cannes entitled Looking for Eric.
Cantona is no stranger to the Big or Small screen having played roles in 1998's Elizabeth as well as a few French movies and of course a very famous Nike ad. In Looking for Eric the footballing genius turned part time actor plays himself helping out a Manchester postman and United fan whose life is in crisis (also called Eric) ... yes it all sounds quite odd to me too!
Speaking to the The Guardian newspaper in the UK Cantona said 'I like the way it’s so real, like documentary. And I like how you don’t know if you have to laugh or cry ...'. In his glory days with United he was always different, playing with a healthy dose of Gallic arrogance and self belief that matched his unique skills on the pitch. It will be a movie that every United fan (myself included) will clamor to see but I imagine I will have to wait for the DVD as it is highly unlikely it will get any kind of North American release.
For more on this story of one of my personal heroes colliding with my passion for film check out a very readable article by Guardian journo Tom Howard on how he got a text inviting him to be an extra in the film. To check out the trailer click here.
Looking for Eric has been nominated for the Palme d'Or award at this years Cannes film festival and it opens in the UK on June 12th.
Ken Loach & Eric Cantona on the set of Looking for Eric
Sunday, May 17, 2009
I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!
This show is a huge hit in the UK with 8 seasons under its belt but in the States we have only seen one season which aired back in March 2003 on ABC. The good news for fans of this ridiculous show where a bunch of B list and lower celebs are dropped into a jungle somewhere and then proceed to behave dreadfully is that NBC are bringing it back to our TVs on June 1st!The cast so far include Stephen Baldwin, Janice Dickinson, Sanjaya Malakar, Torri Wilson, John Salley, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag ... so no actual celebs are on the show then! Allegedly former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was in talks to participate, but was forbidden by a judge due to his corruption trial ... hilarious!
It really is the very worst of reality TV but I have to admit back in '03 it was a guilty pleasure of mine. I am sure since the success of Celebrity Apprentice and the general rise of the reality genre NBC will have much more success than the shows original US outing.
For more on the show from NBC click here.
The Expendables
As reported here back in February this movie is due out in early 2010 and is a veritable feast for lovers of the action genre. Directed by Sylvester Stallone he also stars in the flick alongside Jason Statham, Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts and Steve Austin. Stalllone wrote the screenplay about a group of mercenaries down in South America to overthrow a dictator. The weight of expectation with that cast maybe too much to bear as the action is going to have to be fantastic but on they other hand if Stallone can pull it off what a ride it will be!
Empire recently offered a look at some footage of the shoot.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Sunday News Guests
Yahoo do a good job in their TV section of giving you the heads up on who will be appearing as guests on the Sunday news shows. This weeks political talking heads are as follows:ABC's This Week - Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Jim Webb, D-Va.; Republican strategist Liz Cheney, daughter to former Vice President Dick Cheney; Steve Schmidt, adviser to John McCain for the 2008 presidential election.
CBS' Face the Nation - Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union; Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.
NBC's Meet the Press - Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Democratic National Committee chairman; Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
CNN's State of the Union - White House Budget Director Peter Orszag; Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio; actress Mariel Hemingway; director Barry Levinson; Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
Fox News Sunday - Rev. Richard McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame; Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Any sane minded individual would pass on Fox Noise Sunday but I regulary check the others out, either live or often on a free video podcast from itunes. It's distressing to hear that the venerable Meet The Press has seen a sharp decline in veiwers since David Gregory took over and the NBC journo came in for some real heat recently on The Huffington Post. I personally don't thinks he's bad at all and moderates the show very well from what I have seen.
Carson Daly Renewed
When I first arrived in the US in 1999 I was a big fan of Carson Daly on MTV. Not because he was a particularly great interviewer of musicians on MTV's TRL but he was just so very likable. He started Last Call with Carson Daly back in January of 2002 and NBC have just renewed the late night talk show for another season.
As much as I like Daly I do not regularly watch any show that airs at 1.35am and can only guess that his audience are people working a graveyard shift or insomniacs. That said I guess in this age of Tivo he is as likely to get an audience as any of the other talk titans if his guests are interesting enough.
As a side note what's up with how he went from a normal looking dude to Mr Skinny? I appreciate he is 10 years older from his TRL days but the difference is a little bizarre and frankly kind of odd to look at. Hey maybe he just avoids In-N-Out burgers ... the fool!
For more on Last Call click here.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Cannes Update
The 2009 Cannes Film Festival kicked off this week and there are a ton of stars, players, journos and bloggers in attendance. I am not going to turn this into a Cannes blog as I am in well over 5000 miles away but when a story catches my eye I will let you guys know about it.So I read today that one of my favorite 'action men' Jason 'Turkish' Statham has been signed to star in the $40 million action thriller Killer Elite. The movie is based on a true story/real events (you never really know just how 'true' these things are) about a group of former British Special Forces soldiers being hunted by assassins. Statham plays a retired Navy Seal who steps in top save one of his friends targeted by the assailants. The movie is to be shot in London, Paris and Australia which hopefully will give it a Bourne/Bond feel and offer ample opportunities for high jinks and awesome action sequences around Big Ben, The Eiffel Tower and I imagine the Sydney Opera House (it might end up on the The Travel Channel!.
If we forget the largely forgettable Transporter trilogy I still think Statham is a great 21st century action hero and is also not above having a sense of humor about his work .... I present Crank: High Voltage as evidence! The movie will begin shooting later this Fall so it won't be in theaters until 2010 or later.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Whatever Works
I have to be one of the biggest Larry David fans for his show Curb Your Enthusiasm which I think is one of the funniest American TV shows I have ever seen ... yes it's that good. So a few weeks back when glum faced Woody Allen opened the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival with Whatever Works, starring Mr David in Allen's return to the streets of New York, I was pretty excited. That along with the fact that I am also a big fan of Mr Allen (minus a few 90's movies oh and Cassandra's Dream!) and consider Manhattan not only one of the best movies of all time but part of the reason I love cinema so much, you would think this would my perfect comedy flick.
So why am I so unsure about this film? On paper these two should be perfect together, but then again should they? They share so much in cultural background, sense of humor, bleak outlook on life (at least in their fictional lives) that perhaps a celluloid partnership will fall flat. I have been purposely avoiding the reviews that came out of Tribeca but when i caught the trailer the other day I have to admit I was a little under-whelmed. The film gets a limited US release (meaning I will be schlepping up to Scottsdale to check it out) on June 19th and until then I will say that I like the poster below but let's hope there is much more to come from Whatever Works than some good marketing.
Hulu Gets Political
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Obama's Top 5 Movies
I will be at the Arizona State University Commencement Address given by President Obama this evening (not as a graduate!) and in honor of my first live Presidential speech I thought we would run through his Top 5 movies.
In no particular order
Casablanca
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Godfather I & II
Lawrence of Arabia
If I was a cynic I would say these are classic movies that would make anyone's list and his real favorites maybe slightly less 'classic' ... perhaps he is a Point Break fan or even has a penchant for costume dramas a la Sense & Sensibility and The Duchess. Then again maybe in this age of off the scale cynicism we should take him as his word and applaud a man with very good taste in cinema!
In an interview with Katie Couric, reported by Movie-Moron Obama states:
“My favorite movie scene?” he told Katie Couric, “The opening of the first Godfather where the caretaker comes in and Marlon Brando is sitting there and he’s saying “You disrespected me. You know and now you want a favor.” It sets the tone for the whole movie. There’s this combination of old world gentility and ritual with this savagery underneath.”
Makes you wonder how often he has played that scene out in his head when meeting other world leaders!
Movie Review - Taken
To say this movie looked generic when I saw the trailer at the theater some months back is putting it mildly but not every flick you see has to break new ground or offer Oscar worthy performances. In fact many 'award-free' movies are among my personal favorites ... So I Married An Axe Murderer anyone?
The premise for Taken is what you might think it is. Liam Neeson plays an ex-CIA covert operative who has retired to L.A to be near his 17 year old daughter and make up for all the time he was away during her childhood. Now paranoid about her safety he very reluctantly agrees to let her go for a vacation to Paris with a friend only for her to end up kidnapped by an Albanian human trafficker ... charming! I had no idea that this film was also written by one of my favorite directors, Luc Besson (Leon, The Fifth Element, Angel-A) so with that in mind I settled down on the couch to see if the big Irishman could convince me.
Neeson does a pretty fair job of 'Dad gone Mad' with his calculated CIA persona bent on revenge and while his dispatch of every foe in seconds is obviously hilariously unlikely you don't really care as the action is fast paced enough. The plot zips along at a good clip wasting little time on emotional reflection and back-story (so not what this kind of film is about) and gets Neeson swiftly to Paris searching for his daughter. There are a few fleshed out plot lines including an old French Police buddy who isn't the man Neeson thought he was but the main thrust of this movie is the search for his daughter and his encounters with nefarious Albanians (Albania being Hollywoods latest 'bad guy nation' I guess).
While watching the film you may think you have seen it all before. An American chasing through the streets of Paris looking for a kidnapped family member and well ... you have. Harrison Ford did much the same thing in Frantic back in 1988 which was a great movie that still stands up today. Frankly when you set any half decent film against the backdrop of Paris, whether it's action, rom-com or animated you usually end up with a pretty watchable product.
Ultimately Taken is a good popcorn, couch-slouch, Friday (or Tuesday in my case!) night DVD and well worth a look. It's not Bourne or Bond but if Neeson was to play this character again I would certainly take another look.
Rating: ***
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Away We Go
This is the first movie The Office's John Krasinski has made that looks like it will actually fulfill his potential as a solid film actor. Starring alongside SNL alumni Maya Rudolph and directed by Mr Kate Winslet (Sam Mendes to you and me!) this looks like a very satisfying movie.
The movie is about a 30 something couple traveling around the US looking for the best place to raise their soon to arrive child. It becomes a journey of discovery for both of them as they meet up with friends and family and learn a few important life lessons along the way.
It has a knockout supporting cast with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara and looks like this could be a real summer sleeper when it hits theaters June 25th.
You can catch Maya Rudolph on Letterman tonight but if you can't wait for that click here to see the trailer (be patient and watch in HD ... much better!).
The Children
There is a healthy tradition of having creepy kids in horror movies which is being honored again by the Brits in a movie that came out in the UK last December (just in time for the Holidays ... nice!). The Children is about a bunch of adults and their kids who get together for a fun Christmas vacation and then all hell breaks loose as the wee ones start to terrorize their elders. While I am no horror film devotee (they are usually WAY to scary for my feeble mind to cope with) I have seen a few flicks that delight in the school set going bananas and making their parents life particularly miserable. My personal favorite and the one that creeped me out most as a teen when I first watched it was The Omen. The kid in that movie was frightening to look at when he was having his lunch never mind making his nanny kill herself and channelling his inner Satan.
The other one that springs to mind is 1984's Children of the Corn. This was a film I watched years ago and I don't remember a whole lot about it other than biblically named younguns running around corn fields scaring the bejesus out of anyone that made fun of being called Malachai or Job!
To check out the trailer for The Children click here. No word yet as to a US release date.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Less Mexican Smooching?
I loved this article from Variety about the impact of Swine Flu on Mexican Telenovelas:
"Have sexy Mexican telenovelas -- the bread and butter of Televisa and TV Azteca -- lost their mojo? Passionate kissing has disappeared in recentepisodes -- victim of the A/H1N1 flu outbreak. Actors are turning down heavy makeout scenes, opting instead for chaste pecks on the cheek, out of fear they may contract or spread the disease. Televisa insists no scripts are being changed and no policy instituted to reduce physical contact in its series, but as producer Nicandro Diaz said last week, if an actor refuses, the shows just have to adjust. TV Azteca, though, has canceled all kissing scenes until further notice. Telenovela fans drawn by tawdry love scenes will just have to use a little imagination until the crisis winds down."
Weekend Box Office
Weekend Estimates: May 8 to May 10, 2009
1. Star Trek - $71,500,000
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine - $27,000,000
3. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - $10,450,000
4. Obsessed - $6,600,000
5. 17 Again - $4,405,000
6. Next Day Air - $4,000,000
7. The Soloist - $3,605,000
8. Monsters vs. Aliens - $3,379,000
9. Earth - $2,488,000
10. Hannah Montana: The Movie - $2,414,000
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Movie Review - Star Trek
The weight of expectation on this film couldn't have been greater. I have been a Trek fan for years enjoying all the movies (OK Insurrection wasn't great) and everyone of the TV spin-offs with a particular soft spot for Deep Space Nine. The power of the franchise is truly something extraordinary with worldwide following from the most rabid convention attending, Starfleet uniform wearing Trekkers/Trekkies to the casual fan who remembers one of the TV versions as a kid and wants to see if J.J. Abrams really has dragged Trek into the 21st century. You will have probably heard already that he has done exactly that and then some!
The film is what it needed to be, telling the story fans have wanted to hear for years about how James Tiberius Kirk got to be the captain we met in the classic original TV series. What is his back story and how did his relationship with Spock begin? All these questions and more are answered in the movie along with an introduction to new actors playing the familiar roles of Uhura, Scotty, McCoy, Sulu and Chekov.
There are many reasons this film has been so successful since it's release on Thursday (a $76m opening weekend is sensational for a Trek film) including a captivating plot, really strong performances from actors giving new life to characters we already know so well and visual effects that are simply stunning and at a level that has not been apparent in the franchise's previous cinematic outings.
The plot is both familiar and new with the Enterprise being hunted and hunting a rogue Romulan played with ferocity by Aussie, Eric Bana. Abrams does a great job at managing to seamlessly play out the back stories we are so eager to hear of the characters we love and still keep us gripped with a plot that blends real tension (how about that space jump scene!) with good old fashioned Jim Kirk humor (balloon hands anyone!?).
It's hard to single out any one performance for particular praise as Chris Pine was everything Kirk needed to be without Shatner's 'ham' quota, Hero's Zachary Quinto plays Spock with such composure that his scenes with Leonard Nimoy are pure fanboy nirvana and Karl Urban both becomes DeForest Kelley and still makes it his own in a pitch perfect representation of Dr Leonord 'Bones' McCoy.
There are so many reasons you should go and see this film. It was without a shadow of a doubt the best Star Trek movie to date (and I was a big fan of both the Shatner and Stewart flicks) but more importantly for the future of the franchise it is accessible to non-die hards too. A richer and more rewarding sci-fi flick you are unlikely to see for sometime ... well maybe until May 21st when Terminator Salvation is released!
Live Long and Prosper indeed, this was two hours of sci-fi movie heaven.
Rating: *****
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Danny DeVito on Actors Studio
This week you can catch the multi talented actor Danny DeVito take questions from James 'What's your favorite curse word' Lipton on Bravo's often revealing Inside the Actors Studio. To say DeVito has had a prolific career is something of an understatement so I will pick my personal favorite performances from this savvy Hollywood player.
Taxi as Loui De Palma -The classic DeVito role and certainly where I first met him on TV.
Twins as Arnie's twin Vincent Benedict - Sure it was ridiculous but so much fun.
Batman Returns as Penguin - OK so the new Batman is great but the old version of the franchise had some pretty cool moments including DeVito's turn as the waddling Penguin.
Deck The Halls as Buddy Hall - I saw this flick last year for the first time and it is actually just what you want from a Holiday no-brainer movie.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as Frank Reynolds - I am not a big fan of this show but my other half swears by it, so in the interests of keeping my marriage together it gets a mention!
So check Mr DV out on Bravo this week and here's a preview for you.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Best Song in a Movie?
Songs and films go hand in hand and whenever you hear that one great movie tune you can be transported back to the cinema in an instant. When pondering the question of which movie has the best song there are many that spring to mind. It might be the extraordinary Philadelphia by Neil Young in the movie of the same name and of course who can forget Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel in the animated classic Watership Down?
That said there are two that really stand out in my mind as songs that bring back memories of the movie before anything else.
Blue Velvet
Movie: Blue Velvet
Performed by: Bobby Vinton
Summer Nights
Movie: Grease
Performed by: John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John
As I am writing this there is one other song which really stuck with me from a band I am no particular fan of but the musical movie moment was memorable (too many Ms?). The flick is 1991's Terminator 2 and the scene is when Edward Furlong takes his bike and roars away from his step-parents house to the sound of Guns N' Roses Welcome to the Jungle ... great stuff!
What's the song you most associate with a great flick?
Thursday, May 7, 2009
District 9
This is a new sc-fi flick that is due out August 14th from South African director Neill Blomkamp. In one of the more original sci-fi story lines in recent years this is a movie about Aliens that are forced to live in slum camps and work while trapped on earth. It is so refreshing to have an E.T movie set somewhere different and the trailer below gives us a taste of something mouthwateringly different. Mark the date on your movie calenders as I think this will be a good one!
Hats off to slashfilm for the heads up on this one.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
His Name is Chris Elliott
There are some actors you see popping up all over the place in films you like and films you hate but they are always there. I was watching The Abyss again the other day (which really stands the test of time well) and there was Chris Elliott in a small role as Bendix, a naval sonar operator on the ship above the undersea rig where the film plays out. It was then I thought to myself 'hang-on I know that guy from somewhere!'. I was thinking about was his character Larry, the sweatered cameraman/ladies man and foil to Bill Murray's world weary weatherman in Groundhog day.
I could be wrong but I don't think Elliott will ever be a leading man kind of actor but he is one of the very regular faces you see in movies and TV that always puts in a good performance whether the script is good (The Abyss) or bad (Nutty Professor II: The Klumps).
Recently you might have caught Elliott on 'Letterman on his Mac vs PC spoofs:
Mad Men Returns for Season 3 in August
This just in from Variety:"We'll have to wait a little longer this summer for the return of Mad Men. AMC has set an August start for the Emmy-winning drama's third season. Show's previous two seasons have bowed in mid-July. AMC has not specified the preem date.
Production on the Lionsgate TV drama, created and exec produced by Matthew Weiner, begins today in L.A. There's no word yet on the time frame for season three of the period drama, which ended its sophomore season in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962."
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Southland Strong Enough for NBC Fall Line Up
My latest cop favorite from NBC has been given the green light to appear in the Fall line up of shows later in the year. While the whole schedule won't be released until May 19th the Peacock network execs were clearly pleased with the strong mid-season premiere from ER producer John Wells.In other new show news from NBC their are rumors that Sony Pictures TV comedy Community starring my Soup hero Joel McHale is almost certain to be picked up for the Fall. McHale plays a guy who become part of a quirky family when attending his local community college. If the writing for this comedy is half as funny as the E! show The Soup McHale will become a good deal more famous overnight.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Pitt Poster Preview
It debuts as Cannes in a couple of weeks and lands on our shores August 21st but until then we will have to be satisfied with a new promo poster released showing Mr B Pitt as his character Lt Aldo Raine.
"My name is Lt. Aldo Raine and I need me eight soldiers. We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. We're gonna be doing one thing and one thing only... killing Nazis. Members of nationalist socialist party conquered Europe to murder, torture, intimation, and terror. And that's exactly what we're gonna do to them. We will be cruel to the Germans and through our cruelty they will know who we are. They will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered, disfigured bodies their brothers we leave behind us and the Germans will not be able to help themselves from imagining the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, at our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the Germans will be sicken by us, the Germans will talk about us and the Germans will fear us. Nazis ain't got no humanity! They need to be destroyed. Each and every man under my command owns me one hundred Nazi scalps... and I want my scalps!"
Sounds like a perfectly reasonable chap!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
New Dennis Leary Ad for Hulu
In More Political News
President Obama returns to Hollywood on May 27th to speak at a DNC fundraiser to be held at the Beverly Hilton. At time of writing the co-hosts/co-chairs of the event so far include Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. If you want a meet and greet with the Prez for you and your other half, prepare to throw on a Tux and give up a cool $30,400 for the honor. Frankly in Hollywood this is loose change so you know it is going to be a very well attended event (just not by paupers like me!).
Saturday, May 2, 2009
In Political News
John McCain will host a day of movies on Memorial Day to honor war heroes and vets across America. McCain will speak about his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The movies shown will include Midway, Patton, The Longest Day, Hamburger Hill, Tora! Tora! Tora! and Battle of the Bulge.
This is the first in a series of 'hero' based movie marathons with super heroes, action heroes, western heroes and anti-heroes to come later in May.
Interviews from Tempe Wolverine Premiere
Movie Review - The Class
This film, Entre Les Murs in it's original French, has been on my radar for a while since I saw the trailer below which was gripping in that you weren't sure if you were watching a doc' or fiction. The film comes with critical acclaim that cannot be ignored. It was nominated for an Academy award as Best Foreign Language Film of the Year last year, it won the 2008 Palme D'or at Cannes and also won Best Foreign Film at last years Independent Spirit Awards. It is another movie by the the Canal + group which has been behind so many quality French productions over the years.
The story follows French teacher Francois Marin, played by actor and screenwriter of the movie Francios Bégaudeau, during a year in a Parisian high school located in a tough and racially mixed part of the city. His class is comprised of 14 and 15 year olds from varying backgrounds representing the diversity that is typical of modern day Paris where traditional French culture merges with influences from West and North African countries. It is a fascinating film that genuinely makes you question if you are really watching a fictional portrayal of a French classroom. So natural are the performances not just from the adult actors but more interestingly from the teenage actors all of who put in performances that are accomplished beyond their years.
With a few exceptions pretty much the whole movie takes place in Mr Marin's classroom where each day he battles to get through to his students through French poetry, literature and grammar. Each subject taught in his class is challenged by students displaying street-smart intelligence, independence and desire to test authority born out of their life experience in the tougher neighborhoods of Paris. We watch Marin struggle through the year cherishing mini victories when he sees breakthroughs in learning and students clearly enjoying aspects of the class. However his frustration grows with one particular student whose family troubles spill out into the classroom and he faces off with Marin finally pushing the behavioral boundaries expected by the school in a scene played out with exceptional understanding.
The Class is a film experience that is rewarding in so many ways. Satisfying and real writing creates a sense of recognition within the viewer allowing the lives of teacher and students to transcend their French borders and become universally accessible. On paper this movie looked interesting but director Laurent Cantet along with Bégaudeau's script has created something extraordinary. Your attention will not waiver for a minute during the two hours of this film and if you haven't seen it yet I promise you will thank me afterwards.
Rating: *****
Friday, May 1, 2009
William Shatner Watches Trailer for Star Trek
Thanks to /film for this gem which has the original Captain Kirk watching (for the first time) a trailer for the new Star Trek Movie with Access Hollywood's Billy Bush.
Pimping his book, barely commenting on the new movie and slagging George Takei. Come on Bill have a little dignity.
Pimping his book, barely commenting on the new movie and slagging George Takei. Come on Bill have a little dignity.
Star Trek US Premiere Photos
Disney Joins Hulu
The expansion of the online video site Hulu made big progress this week when it was announced Disney would be putting their content on the site. What does this mean in terms of actual primetime hits we can expect to see? Well, if you consider that the Mouse network owns ABC you will be getting shows like Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey's Anatomy. It is a move that suggests Disney and ABC are not getting the traffic they want to their own sites and recognize the market share (i.e power) Hulu is generating. For more click here for an LA Times article on the deal.
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