I'm pretty ambivalent about most of the stories this week, we either already knew about it, or it's just another cast member in what is already shaping to be a fantastic film or I suspect the film will be ropey anyway. But here goes with the news.
The Town
Do you think Ben Affleck looks anything like Chris Cooper? Be honest...
No, I can't see it either.
That isn't stopping Ben from chasing Chris for his bank robbers in Boston movie, with a view Him playing the actor-directors Dad. It doesn't really matter because whenever you put Cooper in a film it automatically improves by 15%.
Pirate Latitudes
It was obviously terrible personal news to Michale Crichton's family and friends when he lost his fight to cancer last year. However let's not over state his achievements in film. Most of the work he did was pretty risable. It's therefore with mixed feelings that we hear his last published novel - Pirate Latitudes - about a daring raid on a Spanish Galleon is due to be adapted by Dreamworks. Saying that at least it's not full of dodgy technobabble so perhaps it may just work.
Restless
Bryce Dallas Howard may have a somewhat spotty acting career - not her fault she's usually very good only in dreadful films - but if she ever decided to become an agent for writers she'd probably make a fortune. Earlier this year we heard she showed her dad the Originals, written by a friend, and now Ron going to produce. She's only gone and down it again - this time Restless has been passed to good friend Gus van Sant to direct. I wonder if i should send her my great unfilmed script?
There be Dragons
It's not strictly speaking news - the camera's have been whirling for Roland Joffe's Sapnish Civil war picture for over a month - but the papers got hold of some background this week and there have been questions aout the objectivity of the piece. You see it's about Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, founder of the powerful Catholic sect Opus Dei, and it's funded by Opus Dei. Will the film therefore be prepared to divulge the more controversial elements of the group, or Josemaria's pro-Franco statements? Or will it be a whitewashed recruitment video. Odds on if Opus Dei spend too much time meddling with historical fact it will go the way of other religion funded films like Inchon and Battlefield Earth, so I guess it won't matter either way.
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps
Susan Sarandon has been drafted in to play Shia LaBeouf's mum. I wonder what her character's stance on corporate greed will be? Perhaps it will be as surprising, and require as much "acting" as Michael Sheen had to do in the original.
Box Office News
Release Date News
Creek - Delaying my horrible dilemma with the trailers, look back at Tuesday's post for an explanation, Joel Schumacher's Nazi-Occult experiment film has fallen back by nearly a month. Still looks dreadful. Search for your brother's abducters on 09 October 2009.
The Girlfriend Experience - The low key look at high class protitution has been put back back one week, I guess so there aren't 2 Soderbergh films opening on the same day. Personally I'd still be interested in these as a double bill. Blow your rent on 27 November 2009.
The Boys are Back - It's a very fine line between quality drama and smaltz, especially where cancer and becoming a single parent fire the plot. Still the trailer doesn't lay it on too much so maybe this is one to watch. Let Clive Owen be your daddy on 15 January 2010.
Up in the Air - The internet buzz for George Clooney's satirical turn in this black comedy about corporate practices has been pretty loud, with may pundits suggesting the quality here may be the main factor in shunting Shutter Island back into 2010. Notch up some frequet flyer miles on 15 January 2010.
Brothers - US remake of Susanne Bier's melodrama about Men returning from war may have some powerhouse performances from Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and, especially, Tobey Maguire. If Maguire has to deal with half the trauma that Ulrich Thomsen faced in the original then he'd batter start clearing space for that Oscar. Romance your in lwas on 22 January 2010.
Shutter Island - Following the announcement of a 5 month delay in the States last week it was only a matter of time before Shutter Island was also pushed back internationally. Paramount's excuse is to reduce costs by opening it in the new year (where at least all it's revenue will come in the right fiscal period). Why is accountancy still boring when related to films? Go mad for Leo on 19 February 2010.
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps - Forget the clunky title, Stone's follow up to the classic tale of 80's greed has amassed an impressive cast (see above) and in the dark days of the current recession may show a much needed warning of how society is developing. Find out whether greed is good on 23 April 2010.
Wichita - That's might not be the name it finishes up with, I just hate using untitled ... Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise go on a date, so far so standard rom-com, but when part of his day job as a secret service agent interrupts them she's coming along for the ride. I hope Cruise plays it deadly seriously and Diaz is allowed to be funny. Get airlifted into the multiplex on 02 July 2010.
Straw Dogs - It's not all good news this month. The remake (which is actually going to be closer to the source material) has lost it's UK release. It's not huge surprise considering it's not opening in the States until 2011, but for now no-one has any idea how long we're going to wait for it.
Box Office Report
July was the second month in a row with the top film being a no-brainer. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is currently at the top of the chart this year, the same position as the Goblet of Fire and Order of the Pheonix. It still has a way to go to hit the grosses of the previous chapters though which may mean bad news for the two-parter final chapter. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is also having a fantastic run, outpacing Transformers and Slumdog. Gay fashionistas, CIA Guinea Pigs and American Gangsters round our July's top 5. The last one of which I actually saw in the cinema - I'm suddenly almost with the zeitgeist.
1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
2. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
3. Bruno
4. G-Force
5. Public Enemies
Michael Gambon wonders what he's going to do now...
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Film News (29/08/2009)
Elliott Gould
Happy Birthday to
Elliott Gould
71 today
Elliott's best known for his work in the 60's and 70's especially with Robert Altman and the fringes of counter culture. Although he made a good impression in the Ocean's trilogy.
Running: Week 12, Day 6, Run 5
Today was my last big run before the Marathon. There's a couple more ten milers planned but over than this is it. I wanted to maintain a good pace, but not over do it.
34.9 km in 3 hours 21 minutes, or 10.4 kmph.
If I stay at that pace overall I'll complete the marathon in 4 hours 2 and a bit minutes, whihc is well abopve my basic target. Just a little quicker and I can pass the 4 hour mark. If I do that I will drink a whole bottle of champagne that night!
Friday, 28 August 2009
Out this week (28/08/09)
It's a really tough week for choosing a top film, with 2 battling it out for the honours, and 2 more films with respectable scores lagging just behind. In the final analysis I have decided that film of the week should go to the one with the better reviews, and frankly the reviews have been fantastic on both sides of the pond. Katherine Bigelow's Bomb disposal drama has been on everyone's mind since Toronto last year and continues to find new supporters every time it's seen. The Hurt locker is the standard all war films will be compared to from now on.
Apni Boli Apna Des
The trailer is 12 minutes long. Really, I couldn't sit through it all. Appears to concerns a wealthy playboy who loses his money in the recession and learns that some things in life are more imprtant - like holding on to the woman you love.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Broken Embraces
Every film Pedro Almodovar makes is a sumptious classic. This is a noir-ish piece about film making and the permanance of love, with Penelope Cruz modelling some fantastic wigs.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Funny People
Judd Apatow comes of age in this comedy drama with clear influences from James L. Brooks. It's an ambitious tale of cancer and celebrity starring some of the greatest stand-up to film crossovers of the 20 years (Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Eric Bana).
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
The Hurt locker
Heavily acclaimed Iraq War drama from Katherine Bigelow (Strange Days, Point Break). It's pretty much a men at war flick of the kind that we've seen hundreds of times, but done expertly and with no sense of judging the characters.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Jetsam
A woman washes up on the beach (not far from London ha ha) with no memory and a stranger seemingly attacked her for no reason. Independant British film with reasonable festival pedigree.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Kissan
Second release date for Hindi drama about 2 brothers finding their own ways in life. No website or trailers, so not completely sure it'll open this week either.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1
Second part of Jean-François Richet's Mesrine biopic. If you've seen the first part this will be a must-see taking up the story with Mesrine at the height of his powers and tracking to his death at the hands of the French armed police, via some audacious prison escapes and thrilling bank robberies.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
The Final Destination
This is The Final Destination, as opposed to Final Destination. They could have called it Final Destination 4, but they wanted to highlight the 3D element and that might have confused. So if you don't think this horror franchise peaked about halfway through the first film then by all means go and watch the production team find more ingenious ways of knocking off the attractive cast. IN 3D!
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Running: Week 12, Day 5, Run 4
Short and sweet, and just a little damp.
6.2 km in 30 minutes, or 12.3 kmph (I have said I round the minutes before, haven't I?)
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Tuesday Weld
Happy Birthday to
Tuesday Weld
66 today
Tuesday is another one of those actresses I like to wish a birthday to who everyone thought was going to be huge then completely disappeared. She started off in Television, broke out in films in the 70's until the highpoint in her career of Once Upon a Time in America in 1984. Then virtually nothing except for a supporting role in Falling Down and some less successful ventures until 2001. All quiet for the last 8 years. Whereever you are Tuesday I hope you're having a good time.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Inglorious Basterds
2009. Dir: Quentin Tarantino. Starring: Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth and Michael Fassbender. ●●●○○
I have an extraordinary dilemma in reviewing Tarantino's latest feature, in that over the last few days since I saw the film I have had three distinct reactions to it.
Whilst watching it, and indeed whilst whistling the closing credits on the way home, I was like a small boy. Imagining I could take on the entire Nazi party, wondering what levels of destruction I could do single handedly, gleefully chuckling as my (imaginery) machine gun torn off the face of passers-by who looked at me funny. Later my film theorist intellectual side reminded me of the various nods to classic cinema, nods to Ford, Aldrich and Godard among others. The intellectual revelled in the period detail and tha audacity of the project, praising the way that tension was built up in each scene.
With the Id and Ego satisfied I could have easily written a five blob review of Basterds on Saturday night, however it was then that the Super-Ego kicked in and I began to have very serious doubts about the film.
To understand this I ought to briefly describe the plot, or at least precis it as much as is possible. There are in essence 2 storylines involving revenge and vengeance. The first involves Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent) surving the massacre of her family at the hands of Col. Hans "The Jew Hunter" Landa (Waltz) and then following a handy set of coincidences having the opportunity to take a few Nazi's out. The second revolves around LT. Aldo Raine's (Pitt) squad of Basterds, an elite group of Jewish scalp hunters who intend to demoralise German troops in France and their final mission involving the British and German undercover spies. Both storylines come to a head in the cinema owned by Shosanna and a bloody climax ensues.
Tarantino breaks this up into 5 chapters, each of which jumps to the opposing storyline and essentially allows the tension to build from scratch to a different shocking or exciting denoument. Each of the chapters specifically invokes ideas of different genres, and I don't deny I will almost certainly pore over a DVD copy when I can to look for the changes in the camera angles and lighting that reflect each chapter's core style. The tension is in a large part due to Tarantino's hyper-real dialogue with it's playful use of language. Conversations that dance and skirt around major plot points occur in every chapter, whether it's Landa interrogating a French peasant or gentle probing of adversaries to look for weakness as in the LaLouisiane scene.
The actors given these scenes manage to excel Waltz and Laurent do an especially good job, but the performances from Fassbender as British film critic turned spy Lt. Archie Hicox and Diane Kruger as German film star Bridget von Hammersmark are very impressive. Pitt, Roth and the rest of the Basterds are so grossly underwritten that their sections could easily have been cut out completely but for the connections with the other plot strands.
In keeping with the references to other cinematic landmarks Tarantino does his best to constant remind you that you're watching a film. There are a couple of bizarre narrative sections from Samuel L. Jackson, character names are scrawled on the screen, history is revised to such an extent that it makes Braveheart seem accurate and there's even a burst of David Bowie in the soundtrack. With all of these elements together the film can safely be excused as a fantasy, a nerdy film geek getting his own back on history and executing his own private revenge on Hitler.
However there is something rotten at the core of Inglorious Basterds. There were three key moments in the movie where Tarantino clearly shows his hand and possible shows his contempt for humanity. SPOILERS follow from here, so please do not read on unless you are prepared.
1. The Basterds have beaten a German squad during an engagement and now have three prisoners. They interrogate the Sergeant in order to identify the location and armaments of the next nearest unit. Unsurpringly he refuses to tell them so "The Bear Jew" (Roth) is called to execute him, using a baseball bat naturally. The German soldier is prepared to die, Roth asks him whether he received his Iron Cross for killing Jews, he replies "for bravery" then wham! Roth beats him to death. It is bloody and deliberate and close to being funny. The implication is that the bravery doesn't matter, that in some way that Sergeant was complicit with the greatest crimes of the Nazi's, purely due to him putting the uniform on. I disagree with this sentiment whilst discrimination and segregation of ethnic groups was commonly practised most Germans were unaware of the genocide being committed by the Nazi party at the time. It is also sad that we are not given an understanding of the extraordinary peril this soldier would have faced to be given his Iron Cross.
2. Bravery by soldiers leads us nicely to another point. The only German creditted with any extraordinary ability is Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl) who as a sniper killed over 200 allied troops from his bell tower vantage point. For most of the film he seems couteous and, whilst not shy about his talents, at least humourous and diffident in front of Shosanna with whom he has become infatuated. During the final cinema scene, watching the Nazi propaganda piece Nation's Pride based on his accomplishements and starring Zoller he visible shuffles in his seat, and eventually excuses himself. For a moment I imagined that he had doubts about what he had done, feelings of guilt or compassion. He goes to Shosanna in the projection room and then turns into an agressive bully - suddenly seeming like he's more likely to rape her than woo her. The possiblity of a noble German or a character identifying the sanctity of human life is again dashed.
3. Finally the film ends with a massacre. Many people are killed. Lots are Nazi generals and politico's, others are simply film makers. The issue of killing civilians, or whether it is right to replace one brutal regime with another is not raised. The victims are shot and then fall down dead, there are no injuries or pain just turning from one state of living to a state of death. The treatment of war is not just cartoonish but frightening.
SPOILERS OVER.
All these elements add up to make me feel that in spite of the brilliance at work, in spite of how enjoyable the film was, I simply cannot endorse a film which treats people which such contempt. Thare's a lot of gloss here, but no humanity.
Running: Week 12, Day 3, Run 3
For one reason or another I've not been able to post this mornings run until this afternoon. It's not because I'm a little upset that I was significantly slower this morning than yesterday, although subconciously it may have been a factor. It was moe of a case that I spent half of last night selecting favourite actors (see previous post) and was therefore running late.
9.8 km in 54 minutes. 11 kmph.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Some Great Actors - See more at The Film Experience
Nat Rogers, of the excellent Film Experience Blog, has laid down a somewhat tough gauntlet. He has named his favourite actors. It's a well thought out and considered list, even if he says that to him it's more of a personal thing. He then asks the readers to submit their own top twenty. That's tough. Who do you include, who do you exclude.
I've written 5 or 6 lists; agonised over Cary Grant vs. Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable vs. John Wayne and Matt Damon vs. Jake Gyllenhaal. I didn't want to leave any one out. I could have easily gone on for 200 names. In the end I decided to list 20 actors who Nat hasn't included, all of whom are no longer with us. Some of them I'm sure came close to his list, others are no doubt more obscure. I hope that anyone who sees this list takes the time out to check their work out - all fine filmographies - and maybe a couple will find their way onto revised lists.
They are:
Olivier; Tracy; Muni; Cooper
March; Kennedy; Boyer; Guinness
Rains; Huston; Brennan; Colman
Quinn; Scott; Bogart; Robards
Douglas; Laughton; Ferrer; Mason
Tuesday Trailers - The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
I am struggling right now with the Tuesday trailers. It's not that I don't want to show trailers - I love trailers - it's just that all the trailers I want to show seem to be problematic. My first choice would be Creek the Joel Schumacher Nazi occultist movie - strangely the second Nazi themed film with Michael Fassbinder this month - but alas there is no trailer yet. I admit it will probably be rubbish but I am curious. My second choice was Shutter Island, due to open on October 9th, but with the US release date moving back to February I find it hard to believe that it won't be delayed here too (even if it hasn't been annouced). But surely, I hear you splutter, it's too early for October trailers anyway. The thing is there are so many good films coming out in November I have to start showing those trailers in 3 weeks time, so there really isn't enough time to dally. And so here is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. It looks like a great movie, and the fantasy elements look like classic Gilliam so expect a fun ride.
Catch Doctor Parnassus on 16 October 2009.
