Lataa Ohjelma (MP3)

Eeppisen mittaisessa juhlajaksossamme esitellään uusi tunnari, palkitaan kommentoijia ja ennen kaikkea käydään läpi panelistien Top 10 suosikkielokuvat kautta aikojen. Mittaa jaksolle tosiaan venähti melkein kolme ja puoli tuntia, mutta älkää säikähtäkö. Annamme tämän kuunteluun kuuntelijoille muutaman viikon kuunteluaikaa ennen uusia jaksoja ja podcastia voi kuunnella vapaavalintaisissa osioissa.

Juhan Top 10 elokuvat:
- Modern Times
- Amélie
- Seven
- Pulp Fiction
- Á Bout de Souffle
- Apocalypse Now
- Dr. Strangelove
- Mies Vailla Menneisyyttä
- Annie Hall
- Requiem for a Dream

Henrikin Top 10 elokuvat:
- WALL-E
- The Great Dictator
- Metropolis
- The Incredibles
- Galaxy Quest
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Manhattan Murder Mystery
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- Finding Nemo

Dennis Hopper ist vor allem als Schauspieler und Regisseur bekannt. Er spielte in grossartigen Kultstreifen wie Apokalypse Now oder Blue Velvet und erlangte Ruhm durch seine Regie in Filmen wie Easy Rider oder “Colours-Farben der Gewalt”. Was viele nicht wissen ist, dass er auch viel  fotgrafierte. Der Taschen Verlag hat nun vor garnicht so langer Zeit ein Buch mit seinen Bildern aus der Zeit zwischen 1961-67 veröffentlicht und es zum durchblättern online gestellt. Die Tatsache, dass wir zwischen den unzähligen Bildern dieses eine, auf welchem im Hintergrund mit einem Skateboard für die Rabattmarkenfirma “Blue Chip Stamps” geworben wird, entdeckten, macht diesen Dennis Hopper-Post doch glatt zu Skateboard-Content. Siehste wohl!

VERDICT:
7/10 Vegemite Sandwiches

Just one more reason why I need to get off my ass and make my own damn movie already.

Not Quite Hollywood is a documentary about the revolutionary Australian genre exploitation movies that came to rise in the 1960s but never quite made it to the big time and have since been all but forgotten. This isn’t Baz Luhrman and Peter Weir we’re talking about, this is gratuitous sexploitation romps, grisly C-grade horror movies drenched in karo syrup, and some of the most badass car chase action movies you’re likely to ever see.

It’s a pretty fitting title for one utterly insane look back at a whole slew of groundbreaking movies that Hollywood wouldn’t even go near, not even by today’s standards. Chances are you’re in the same boat as me and haven’t heard of 99% percent of these movies outside of Mad Max, but that doesn’t matter, because if things go according to plan, you might just find yourself with pen and paper in hand ready to write the names of these suckers down.

Then again, I can see how this one might not necessarily go according to plan for a lot of people out there. Not only is this a movie about movies you’ve never heard of, but it’s only really catering to all us cinephiles/nerds in the audience as it more or less boils down to people talking about movies for two hours. And while those are two hours I’d gladly spend, I’m not gonna delude myself into believing that this is gonna convert anyone that’s not already part of the congregation.

So for all you out there who are still reading and still interested, here’s what the movie breaks down to.

Not Quite Hollywood is split up into three sections that all provide the audience with a look into what was really going down in Australia when the rest of thought it was all boxing kangaroos and dingoes eating babies.

The first part covers the whole sexploitation genre, and who knew those Aussie’s were such horny bastards. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen such a constant barrage of full-frontal nudity in a movie before, so much so that it could easily pass for softcore porn after a while, so…way to go, Australia, I guess. It gets to be a little much after a while as it’s not exactly glorifying the female body as it is exploiting it, but, man, times were different back then. Pretty interesting in light of the Australian censors nowadays, something that could be said for the next two sections as well.

The second and third parts focus on the horror and action genres. The horror stuff has this early Sam Raimi vibe to it, and even though there’s not a whole lot going for this section, it’s interesting to look at these movies in contrast to what America was putting out at the time. But the action genre…wow. If you’ve seen Mad Max, you’ll understand what I mean. They still don’t make car chases like the Australians did back then, and boy howdy do they stand the test of time. No special effects, overtly dangerous camera angles, complete disregard for personal safety, tons of destruction, super high-octane, and enough badassery to go around to make Vin Diesel piss himself running. Fast and furious my ass.

It’s all really interesting for the most part and some of the commentary had me laughing out loud, but after a while it gets to be a little overwhelming. There’s a lot going on with these movies and in between trying to catch what everyone is saying and the total overstimulation of it all, Not Quite Hollywood sort of ends up being its own worst enemy. And some of us can only listen to people talk about B-movies like they’re golden oldies for oh so long.

Recently I read an interview with one Rob Zombie where he said that Hollywood has turned into a “scared town” that is too afraid to back original movies in lieu of financing another shitty remake that’s going to be box office gold. And you know, Rob is right. As someone who’s had it up to here with all the bullshit that gets released in theaters nowadays just because a frightening amount of people are more than ready to dish out their money on movies that fucking suck, I take a look back on the movies showcased here in Not Quite Hollywood and I think, “What the hell happened?”

Sorry if I’m going off on a bit of a tangent here, but this is one of those movies that gets you thinking, primarily about how ridiculous the so-called “limitations” are that have been put on amateur and veteran filmmakers alike by the producers who only have eyes for the Benjamins. It’s very fitting that Quentin Tarantino is one of the main commentators here, because this is a guy that truly loves movies regardless of their budget and is living proof that you can make effing great movies as long as you just go out and do it.

To say that movies in general have changed a good deal over the course of 40 or 50 years is one disheartening understatement. This is a celebration of filmmakers who had balls, of guys who just went out there and did it regardless of their budget, of movies that are unabashedly lewd, horribly gory, and unanimously crazy, and considering how much green the new Transformers sequel raked in this year, these are indeed qualities to be celebrated. Not Quite Hollywood isn’t for everyone, and sorry for the long review, but if you’re a total movie geek like me and are interested in this kinda stuff, it might just be right up your alley.

Good on ya’!

Lezioni d’amore è un film americano del 2008 diretto da Isabel Coixet. I maggiori interpreti sono: Penelope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Dennis Hopper, Peter Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Penelope Cruz | Ben Kingsley | Dennis Hopper | Peter Sarsgaard | Patricia Clarkson,Isabel Coixet

This is Arabian Holodeck style!

Director: Mehdi Norowzian
Production company: Chelsea Pictures
Editor: Kirk Baxter
Post-production: Final Cut

The Smiths -  Compilation(1992)

Hi. How are you? My name’s Elliot, and I’m with the Cub Scouts of America. We’re… we’re selling uncut cocaine to get to the jamboree.

– Elliot

Quentin Tarantino penned the script for True Romance for director Tony Scott. I heard about this movie, because when I saw the IMDb page of Inglourious Basterds. He made one of the characters “Bear Jew” Donowitz the grandfather of one of the character in this movie. I thought I might check it out. I think this was Tarantino’s attempt to have a bloodily romantic movie, but it fails.

Taking place in Detroit, a comic book store worker, Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) goes to a Sonny Chiba “Street Fighter” triple feature. A beautiful young woman, Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) intentionally bumps into him there. They take a liking to each other and meet each other for pie. He tries to get to know her more, but she is coy.

They quickly fall in love and have sex. Afterwards, Alabama confesses to him that she is a call girl that was hired by his boss to get him laid on his birthday. They promise to be with each other always and get married the next day. She tells him about her fucked up life and how needed to get her stuff back from her pimp

When shit is about to go down the spirit of Elvis (Val Kilmer) gives Clarence a quick pep talk in the bathroom. Clarence wants to retrieve Alabama’s stuff from her former pimp, a Rasta man named Drexl (Gary Oldman). Going over there, things go wrong when he kills Drexl and takes a suitcase. It turns out that suitcase is filled with a million dollars worth of cocaine from a drug lord, Blue Lou Boyle.

The duo doesn’t know this. When Clarence comes back to the apartment bloody and bruised, Alabama is turned on by doing anything for her. They go over to a trailer house to meet his father, Clifford (Dennis Hooper), who is a police officer. They haven’t seen each other in three years. He wanted to know if the cops are after the twosome. Clifford tells them that they are in the clear.

They take a road trip Clarence’s best friend in Hollywood, Dick Ritchie (Michael Rappaport), an actor with his stoner roommate, Floyd (Brad Pitt). After the duo leaves, Vincenzo Coccotti (Chirstopher Walken), the local counsel for Boyle, pays Clifford a visit. The thugs interrogate him when Clarence dropped his license at the crime scene. They want to get their score back.

The movie is supposed to be a modern version of Bonnie and Clyde, but the movie felt false. You know you hear Tarantino dialogue when the characters ramble on about movies and minute trivia. The movie as whole laid flat. There was no oomph. I didn’t care if the characters lived or died. It was disappointing.

Judgment: Words cannot describe how terrible this movie is.

Rating: **1/2

read the vincente minnelli biog last week. also read one about quentin tarantino. now reading bad boy drive about Nicholson, Beatty, Hopper and Brando. Loose idea is that they all lived close to each other on Mulholland Drive, Cali.

It’s a bit lurid and potentially misogynistic at the moment. It might get better. Not holding out much hope.

Not researching anything in particular and as I read more biogs than I do novels these are simply the latest. Going to read The Suspicions of Mr Whicher next.

Ok, so full moon in Scorpio means intensity and fundamental change.

Let’s begin with an old favourite of mine and certain of my friends, namely Jeff and John. For years afterward, one of us would toast the others with, “Let’s Drink to Ben.”

The whole movie is a trip with malevolent Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) scaling the walls of his personal lunatic asylum and inviting others along for the ride. I’ve seen this movie many times. So many classic lines, like…..

For years, my 2nd youngest nephew would say to me “You’re the only one of my uncles to ever say to me, “Ok fuckher.” Little did he know I was merely imitating Frank Booth looking for Kyle McLaughlin’s character when he was hiding in Isabella Rossilini’s closet. I never told Daniel the truth. And there was no need to.

Another Good Flick: Wild at Heart
This clip, I hope, is a premonition of a situation at hand, not a description of what could have been. Most women I’ve met have had shit taste in music; in fact, I wouldn’t even call their preferences music in that it was all over produced fast food junk food diet of synthesizers and Beyonce bullshit. And they can listen to this crap for hours upon end and sing to it and/or they regard Disco as an art form instead of the aberration it was.

The chief reason I skipped a Halloween party this year was that it was to be a glorification of the Disco era. I lived through that shit once and I knew I’d grow ornery having to listen to 3 hours of it again.

Let’s cut to Sailor and Lula doin’ their thang’ though….flush disco down a filthy toilet….

Muppets Death Metal
I don’t care much for this type of Viking Slam Dance music but this clip made me laugh. The drummer cracked me up….

Brilliance Personified
George Carlin was king and he still is. I have several of his albums from the early 70s which I bought after my older brother took his famous record collection (which I’ll speak of at some future time) with him when he moved out to Vancouver.

Here he makes some poignant points about how the media teaches the rest of us how to hate.

….Now That I Can Dance…..
This number by The Contours was re-born, popularity-wise, by the movie Dirty Dancing. I hated the title of this movie and it besmirches in true American Bible Belt style the whole idea of dance. Mass killings and violence are acceptable but dancing…..? M-m-m-m.

It remind me of an old joke: Why don’t Baptists make love standing up? It might lead to dancing.

But this is the form of the song I grew up with. It’s by the Dave Clark Five, circa 1965, and it was in a Greatest Hits album owned by my older brother. There’s lip synch’d versions of it, but the band looks dumb not even mouthing the words, so listen to it like i did, originally:

Finally, let’s close with a clip from Reform School Girls, a trashy movie from the 80s featuring Wendy O. Williams from the Plasmatics punk bank.

“Just a shit stain on the panties of life!” Nice.

Here’s a travelogue I’ve added to give you more of a flavor of Wendy:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXgvrGXEWgk&
feature=related]

So, yes, that was quite a treasure trove this past Monday.

Imagine those words being spoken in the 1960’s, after Corman had directed films like LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, THE INTRUDER, and THE WILD ANGELS. His progeny of talent, including Jack Nicholson, Francis Coppola, Martin Scorcese, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Robert De Niro, Peter Bogdanovich, Bruce Dern, Robert Towne, Jonathan Demme, Stephanie Rothman, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, John Sayles, James Cameron and many others, evolved into the foundation for the New Hollywood of the 70’s and beyond. Without Corman’s belief in fresh ideas and visions, however exploitive at the root, many talented and important filmmakers might not have had the chance to break celluloid ground. So it’s apropos that one of the industry’s biggest outsiders was finally awarded an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Oscar on Saturday along with Lauren Bacall and Gordon Willis. As when Ray Harryhausen was presented with one after decades of envy and indifference, it’s good to see the Academy acknowledge artists who created outside its respect or attention. Though I’m disappointed the statue wasn’t presented to Roger Corman during the live broadcast — just to see a cavalcade of Panavision AIP images before the world.

From Rebel Without a Cause to Easy Rider and now Crash, Dennis Hopper’s acting career spans six decades. But he is also a painter, photographer, writer and art collector. As he explains to Thomas Caldwell, it’s all about being creative.

"Self-portrait at the Porn Stand", oil on canvas by Dennis Hopper, 1962-2008

When I speak to Dennis Hopper he is in New Mexico, US, making the second series of Crash, a TV program based on the 2004 film of the same name. Hopper plays a wild character he describes as a Phil Spector type: “He’s a music mogul from the ’60s. He’s into orgies, drugs and all sorts of crazy insanity.” For those familiar with Hopper playing the deranged villain in films such as Speed (1994) this sounds like sensible casting.

The truth is, however, that Hopper has mellowed significantly, especially since his more excessive days during the ’70s. In conversation, he sounds a lot like the character he played in Elegy (2008); he is polite, amiable, full of admiration for his colleagues, and speaks slowly and deliberately.

Hopper, 73, is happy to reflect on his career, and talks passionately about what is clearly his favourite subject: art. Besides acting, he is a recognised painter, photographer, writer, director and art collector. His work has been exhibited internationally, and has been used on many magazine covers, including Vogue and Artforum.

Hopper may well emerge as a great American Renaissance Man of the late-20th and early-21st century. This would be an unlikely and unexpected outcome for someone who describes his own career as unfortunate. Indeed, after making Easy Rider (1969), one of the definitive counter-culture films of all time, Hopper’s cinematic career went through a tumultuous period. He has been sober for more than 20 years, but, as he has acknowledged previously, alcohol and substance abuse hit him hard during the 70s. It was during this period that he developed his tormented, wild and dangerous on-screen persona in films such as Wim Wenders’ The American Friend (1977) and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979).

It wasn’t until 1986 that Hopper arrived back in Hollywood and revived his acting career, appearing in both David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, as the frighteningly primal psychopath Frank Booth, and in the more family friendly Hoosiers, for which he received an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor. These are two roles that Hopper looks back on fondly. However, he still regards Easy Rider as the high point of his career: “Being involved in the writing, directing and acting for my first film; accomplishing what I set out to do by showing the country and showing what was happening in the country at the time; and playing this goofy sort of sidekick. I’m very proud of that.”

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider (1969)

Hopper and his Easy Rider co-writers, Peter Fonda and Terry Southern, not only received an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay, they created a film that still resonates 40 years on. In the film, Hopper and Fonda play a pair of drug dealers travelling across America on motorbikes. One of the many people they meet is a ‘square’ alcoholic lawyer – memorably played by Jack Nicholson, in a breakthrough role. Easy Rider was made independently from the studio system and its experimental approach to filmmaking captured an early representation of the hippie movement, which included communal living, drug use and the way such a lifestyle threatened the mainstream establishment.

Although Hopper acknowledges that Easy Rider is something of a time capsule in terms of fashion and music, its independent and rebellious spirit is still relevant today. “I’ve seen it recently with young audiences and they are very surprised. It hasn’t really aged at all.”

Easy Rider is just one example of how Hopper has both documented and contributed to some of America’s most exciting and influential cinematic and artistic movements. Now his direct involvement has been captured in an exhibition, Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood, which will be presented at The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne. When Hopper is asked how this exhibition reflects his career and legacy he is keen to make it clear that its focus is on the era rather than himself: “I think it’s more about the time that I was living. It really deals a lot with the art world in my life. My photographs deal with 1961 to 1967, with subjects like Martin Luther King Jr, the civil rights movement and my involvement in the hippie movement. Then there’s my art collection, as I was very involved when Marcel Duchamp [the influential French artist] had his first retrospective in Pasadena in 1963. I was also very involved with Ed Ruscha and Andy Warhol and all the pop artists of the 60s. That’s basically the history of my life besides being in films – and this all happened before I did Easy Rider. To walk through this exhibition is to walk from 1954 until now.”

"Paul Newman", gelatin silver print by Dennis Hopper, 1964

The year 1954 is significant, as that was when Hopper turned 18 and was contracted by Warner Bros. “I’ve been in the public eye for a long time. I forget about it at times. But then I’m rudely reminded!” As well as Martin Luther King Jr, Hopper has also photographed Warhol, singer James Brown and actor Paul Newman, although Hopper insists on clarifying the circumstances in which those photographs were taken: “I wasn’t doing assignments or anything. The people I photographed were friends of mine. I didn’t photograph a lot of movie actors because it wasn’t appropriate. It would have been an intrusion. They were being photographed all the time. Paul Newman was an exception because he was a really close friend.”

One of Hopper’s other iconic actor friends was James Dean, with whom he shared the screen in Rebel Without a Cause (1955; Hopper’s first film role) and Giant (1956). Hopper once described Dean as the most talented and original actor he had encountered. “I thought I was the best young actor in the world, and then I saw James work. I came out of playing Shakespeare at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. I’d never seen anybody improvise before. I was used to learning lines. It was a whole other side to acting – to live in the moment and have no preconceived ideas. That was not the way I was working. So when I came onto the set of Rebel Without a Cause and we started rehearsing I suddenly realised that he’d been working off the page and it was amazing to me. I’d never seen anything like it; doing it in the moment without preconceived ideas.”

Hopper also greatly values art that exists in the moment and reflects the time it was created. His own painting style is conceptual; influenced by abstract expressionism. A pivotal episode in his development occurred in 1962, when a friend who owned an art gallery in Los Angeles showed Hopper pictures of a cartoon and a soup can. “The cartoon was by Roy Lichtenstein and the soup can was by Warhol. Neither one of them had ever had shows before. I suddenly started jumping up and down and said ‘That’s it! That’s it! That’s the return to reality.’”

"Andy Warhol with flower", oil on vinyl by Dennis Hopper, 1963-2000

Hopper went to New York, where he met with Henry Geldzahler (then head of 20th-century art at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art) and also pop artists Warhol, Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist. “They were all the major players and they had never really had any shows at all,” recalls Hopper who, as well as being part of Duchamp’s first and only retrospective, was also part of Warhol’s first exhibition.

“Warhol was dabbling in the commercial area, doing silkscreen work and 20-foot high murals, while fine art was seen as something that was three-by-two feet. It was a different time and a different way of looking at things. Warhol and Lichtenstein stand a real chance of being remembered for their time because they did represent it.”

One of the more curious entries on Hopper’s resumé is his lead role in the 1976 Australian film Mad Dog Morgan, in which he played the notorious real-life bushranger Dan Morgan (alongside Jack Thompson). He loved the experience, describing the film as “way ahead of the curve”. And Hopper sounds delighted when I tell him that Morgan is one of many Australian ‘Ozploitation’ genre films from the 70s and 80s that are now being re-evaluated.

Dennis Hopper in Mad Dog Morgan (1976)

He also responds to concerns that Australia is not doing enough to make commercially viable cinema: “Look, Australian filmmakers are making great movies. They really are. Most of the time they are really hitting the mark. I can figure in my head what might be commercial and what might not be commercial, but in the end that isn’t really the filmmakers’ responsibility. The filmmaker should make his or her film. If they can get financing to make their film then they should make their film.” But Hopper does worry that filmmaking as art is being devalued by films that can turn a profit: “It’s all about what the big hit is going to be on the weekend.”

So how can people be encouraged to see more innovative movies? Hopper has an intriguing proposal: “I’ve always thought that when people build these cineplexes that they should have 10 theatres. Have one for the history of cinema to show old classic films, then have one for foreign films, and one for experimental and art films. Then the other seven can play the Hollywood game… After a year, people would start making a steady line into those other three theatres, because they’d want other people to see them standing in those lines rather than the others!”

It seems that Hopper is never going to be short of ideas or inspiration. There is a pattern running through his career: when one avenue for expression temporarily closes down, he finds another. So is Hopper one of those people who always feels compelled to create? “Yeah, that’s all I do. I never had to stop the things I did in high school, like taking photographs and painting, and that allowed me to have a cultural life. When I was young, most people were going skiing and going to the beach and doing other things. My mother managed a swimming pool so I didn’t need to be going there. I wanted to go to the art galleries. I wanted to find the artists that I liked. I wanted to meet them and I wanted to do that kind of work.”

Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood will be at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) from Thursday 12 November 2009 to Sunday 25 April 2010.

Originally appeared in The Big Issue, No. 341, 2009

© Thomas Caldwell, 2009

Some movies are born great. Some movies achieve greatness over time. And some movies are such trainwrecks of unintentional comedy, flimsy set design, and terrible CGI that you become mesmerized by your television – lost in a cavalcade of overacting, porn stars trying to go mainstream, the word ‘fuck’ being used in all its grammatical applications, and non sequitors starring Steven Seagal – and awaken two hours later feeling oddly entertained enough that you mistakenly watch the film AGAIN whenever it’s on.

The following list is a tribute to those films that are so bad they’re good. Each of these cinematic tragedies are reminders that Hollywood truly is the epicenter of all drug induced ideas. To make the list, the film must’ve been mainstream, because let’s face it, there’s a lot of trash out there that doesn’t see worldwide releases. These are the best of the best…films that somehow made it past their studios Quality Control division and onto the silver screen in your neighborhood, only to be critically flame-broiled and yet somehow beloved…classics?

This list is brought you by ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’ and Sand – It’s everywhere, get used to it:

10. Batman and Robin (1997)

Joel Schumacher should be congratulated. He managed to make Batman more homoerotic than dear Dr. Fredric Wertham: The nippled Batsuit received an upgrade featuring  pre-wedgied, assless-chaps-looking armor. Combine this with Uma Thurman’s idea of acting (remember, she’d just made ‘The Avengers’ that same year, another honorary member of this list) and a ‘Batman on Ice’ segment and you’ve got a lethal cocktail of suckage. Never fear, folks! The Governator is here to turn this movie into campy one-liner glory! Just when you’re reaching for that remote to save your eyes from over-exposure to inexplicable amounts of fuchsia lights, Arnold swoops in – sporting enough chrome to make Jay-Z’s Cadillac jealous – to drop another gleefully awful ice-themed punchline.

Also, why does the freeze gun have a lock and load noise?

9. Snakes on a Plane (2006)

Hollywood Steps to Guaranteed Film Success: 1) Hire Samuel L. Jackson. 2) Give Samuel L. Jackson a gun. 3) Let Samuel L. Jackson add to his collection of priceless film quotes by yelling about things more incoherently than the Ultimate Warrior:

8. Lake Placid (1999)

A completely forgettable film having something to do with a rather large Croco-Gator hiding in some idealistic lake, ‘Lake Placid’ is saved from movie hell by Betty White. Yes, the ‘kooky’ Golden Girl is your savior by doing what she does best: play the innocent old lady who’s actually Nucking Futs (“patent pending) crazy. In this instance, Ms. White can be seen feeding cows to our Gator hero while whimsically discussing the weather with the sheriff.

7. Flash Gordon (1980)

IMDb’s Plot Summary: “A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyrant, Ming the Merciless, to save Earth.” What could POSSIBLY make this film any better? Well, George Lucas wanted to direct this film, but sadly missed the opportunity and had to instead make some silly films featuring singing teddy bears, walking carpets, and trashcans on wheels. Dennis Hopper, YOUR OVERACTING VILLIAN OF THE CENTURY, sadly turned down the chance to play Dr. Zarkov…but all is well, because 80’s rock sensation QUEEN did the soundtrack!

6. Waterworld (1995)

SPEAKING of Dennis Hopper, I present to you Kevin Costner’s global warming disaster flick (as opposed to his equally bad nuclear holocaust film). At it’s time, this was the most expensive film ever made. I can definitely see where all the money went to, such as welding all that expensive trash can metal onto black matte painted jet skis. This movie is THREE HOURS LONG, and yet you can’t turn away from it. Why? Because Kevin Costner drinks his own piss three minutes in, and it’s all downhill from there:

5. Judge Dredd (1995)

No words need to describe this film aside from I AM THE LAW:

4. Street Fighter (1994)

A movie about a game…BAD…?!?!?! Is this even possible?! What about all those great Uwe Bowe films like ‘House of the Dead’, ‘Bloodrayne’, and ‘In the Name of the King’? And who can forget the Super Mario Brothers…It’s true: Video game based films are notoriously well known for being absolutely eye-gouging, jaw-droppingly bad, and ‘Street Fighter’ is no different. The tragedy that is the film is only further enhanced by the realization that it is Raul Julia’s – the lovable Mr. Addams – final film before he passed away. Though Julia does his best to save this movie, the true hero of our film is Jean Claude Van Damm and his string of flexing monologues scattered throughout.

3. Mannequin (1987)

It’s a movie starring Kim Cattrall as a mannequin that comes to life for the lonely artist that lovingly built her who falls in love with her and saves a department store owned by Estelle Getty by designing hip window displays with his flamboyantly gay best friend. Not crazy enough for you yet? Did I mention that Cattrall is actually an Egyptian princess? Let’s kick it up a notch!

2.Howard the Duck (1986)

God Bless George Lucas for this one. He had HUNDREDS of comic book characters to select from – any of which Marvel, DC, et al would’ve gladly allowed the god of all things Science Fiction to direct – and he chose to slam a bunch of midgets into a oversized rubber duck costume and attempt to save the world. If there was EVER a film that needed a rerelease with enhanced special effects, it’s this one. Please, George, stop destroying the land of the Jedi and bring back this Duck in full CG glory!

1. Starship Troopers (1997)

This is, hands down, the greatest bad movie of all time. Casper Van Dien’s chin deserved an Oscar for carrying Casper Van Dien’s dead weight through this 90 minute romp. Michael Ironside plays Michael Ironside with a gun. Gary Busey’s son is only mildly aggrevating, and hey, any film with NPH automatically is a classic. I have one question for you citizen: Are you doing your part?

Well.

Two more days to endure of “24″ week!

DEAL WITH IT.

Today we examine the individual seasons of “24,” ranked from of course worst to best. There have been seven seasons of the show so far, but as I already ranted about my displeasure at Season Six yesterday, I’ve decided to move on and leave it off today’s list.

Rest assured though, that if it was on here…it would be last.

Dead last.

Six: Season Four.

Despite the rampant awesomeness of having the mummy as the main villain, Season Four couldn’t really live up to any of it’s expectations. Ridiculous terrorist plot after ridiculous terrorist plot kept elevating the threat to mammothly outlandish proportions. By the end, I wasn’t really sure what the hell was going on. Marwan (the mummy) while a pretty badass villain had way to many contingency/escape plans. It was just poor writing. Everytime the authorities would close in on him, ready to foil whatever act of terror he was planning to unleash, he would conveniantly escape through a back exit/staircase/trick ladder, ready to start a new, bigger, better plan.

It just got to be a bit too much.

Oh…and, also…I may be wrong on this, but I think this may be the only season of the show where a major character isn’t killed off.

Highlights: Jack’s videogame-like assault on a terrorist headquarters; the surprise re-emergence of Tony; the mummy.

Five: Season Three.

Season Three started off pretty well. In an effort to infiltrate a drug cartel, Jack got himself addicted to heroin. He also got himself a new partner, in the form of hunky Chase Edmunds. It’s usually a bad sign when a series adds a young partner like that, but Chase was surprisingly solid. He was an adequate foil for Jack, and I genuinely would have liked to see more of him.

The villains this season were an interesting affair, beginning with the delightfully charming Salazar brothers and ending with the delightfully British Stephen Saunders – who had amazing potential but was, naturally, pretty much wasted.

The season revolved around some virus with the capacity to kill the whole world or something, and CTU’s efforts to stop it. It also featured the emergence of fan favorite Chloe O’Brien, an interesting (and first of many) twist on the tired mole cliche, and Jack, as always, confronting his personal demons.

At some point Tony also got shot in the neck, but was on his feet glowering and barking orders a few hours later. He’s a trooper, that guy!

Highlights: Michelle gets tough in a hotel; Sherry dies (finally.); Chloe makes her first appearance; Jack plays a game of Russian Roulette; Jack kills Chappelle; Jack kills Nina; Jack doesn’t kill the main villain. (Actually, that was kind of lame.)

Four: Season One.

This is where it all began, seven or so odd years ago. (Which is like nineteen in the “24″ world.) We’re introduced to the greatest hero of all time, his annoying family, and the Counter Terrorist Unit – all tropes that would become, more or less, series staples until the Seventh Season.

It was at times meandering, at times inane (especially whilst covering whatever shenanigans Kim and Teri had gotten themselves into) and at times overstayed it’s welcome.

Still, it had it’s moments – including a scenery-chewing, bizarrely accented Dennis Hopper as the main villain, and the final scene.

Also, Lou Diamond Phillips showed up near the end for some reason – and that alone puts it higher on this list.

Highlights: We meet JACK BAUER; Nina was weirdly attractive; Dennis Hopper’s accent; Lou Diamond Phillips.

Three: Season Seven.

This should have been it. From the outset, Season Seven sounded like it might just be the be-all-end-all of “24″ seasons. And while it didn’t quite make it that far, it came damn close.

This is what we knew initially: for one thing, Season Seven would be the first season of “24″ to leave Los Angeles, the city that had endured terrorists wrath for six years. That was pretty big. Then, we found out that CTU was being done away with as well – in favour of the Effa Bee Eye, in Washington, D.C.

Then we got wind of the sexy new partner for Jack – the beautiful (but deadly!) Agent Renee Walker, played by the talented (but deadly!) Annie Wershing. Add to that a villain played by acadamy award winner Jon Voight, and another bad guy played by the always dependable B-movie star Tony Todd, and brotha, you got a stew going.

Then came the biggest news of all – Tony Almeida would be returning from the dead somehow as Jack’s newest adversary. Saint’s alive!

And, for good measure, it was coming off the heels of the worst season in the shows history. Not a tough act to follow.

While this all sounds epic to the max on paper, it faltered a bit in execution. It was still one of the strongest seasons of the show, with some great thrills, scenes, acting, characters and guest stars. Plus, it pretty much completely did away with the core “24″ cast (or what was left of it) and gave us dozens of new characters – the strongest of which may have been the new president in the “24″ universe, Allison Taylor played by Cherry Jones. (Jones would win an Emmy that year for her portrayal of the strong-willed Taylor.)

Good, maybe even great, but it could have been better…nitpicking, sure, but too many twists and some truly insipid character motivations didn’t help, either – like the amazing flip-flopping Almeida. Even by the end, I don’t really know if he was good, or evil, or what.

Janene Garafalo showed up this season for some reason as well. That didn’t help, either.

Highlights: Jon Voight; Jack’s fight with henchman Quinn; Senator Red Foreman; Bill’s sacrifice; Aaron Pierce and Ethan Kanin’s Hardy Boys Mysteries subplot; Renee Walker.

Two: Season Two.

Jack Bauer was a pretty broken man coming into the show’s second season. After the death of his wife, he kind of went off the rails a bit – which turned out to be entertaining as hell for the viewer.

Season Two revolved around an impending nuclear attack on Los Angeles, organized by a Middle Eastern terrorist cell – manipulated by wealthy American businessmen led by Peter Kingsley (the dude from “Saw.”)

It was one of the more intense seasons of the show, with very few useless subplots (though there may have been something with a cougar…dammit, Kim!) and some great action – including a bombing at CTU.

It also featured a heroic and dramatic sendoff for George Mason, Jack’s boss for the first few seasons. Although kind of a douche, George redeemed himself this season and became a fan favorite because of it.

Highlights: Kate Warner; Jack’s infamous running-wall-neck-snap; Michelle and Tony start getting it on; the  cougar dude from “Saw.”

One: Season Five.

Jack Bauer takes on the President of the United States of America.

Also RoboCop. And the dude from “Warlock.” And C. Thomas Howell.

It’s pretty damn awesome.

This season had it all – one of the best sets of villains I’ve ever seen on the show; some great acting from Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart as the President and his first lady; and super-human secret service agent Aaron Pierce blew up a dude wearing a flame-thrower.

SOLD.

Highlights: The shocking first episode deaths; that fat hobbit’s sacrifice; Aaron Pierce’s expanded role; Edgar’s death; Jack deploying another famous neck snap; Jack’s final shoot-out with Henderson; the Logans.

Well.

Tomorrow we close out “24 Week” with the five best moments in the show’s history.

And then I will return you to your regularly scheduled blog!

Indeed it was a “Filmmakers Apocalypse.”

Until last night I don’t recall ever hearing Frances Coppola talk about his film making. The documentary is focused on the making of Apocalypse Now and more specifically how hard it was to get that film done. It took several years to complete and dealt with political pressures, a typhoon, press bashing and was way over budget. This movie made me feel like I haven’t accomplished anything in my life.

I think at some level everyone wants or thinks they can direct a film. I have done it on a small short-film level but to take that to a major film is possibly one of the biggest challenges I can imagine. The shit Coppola had to put up with during the filming of that movie was heart wrenching. He literally was on the brink of insanity.

Simulating sets from Vietnam and living in that environment for 3 years is not the picture I have for a Hollywood director. He lived in a jungle, witnessed, and later incorporated, animal sacrifice into his film. They filmed Marlon Brando’s scenes toward the end and Coppola was under enormous stress because he only had three weeks with Brando. He hated the film at that time and had no ending or lines for Marlon to read. They talked about the character for several days. Brando came in overweight, so they had to re-define the character. They talked and talked before deciding that Brando, Martin Sheen, and Dennis Hopper should just start ad-libbing to see what came up. The results were powerful, but took the film in a different direction.

Coppola was working around the clock, writing, blocking, creating and nothing felt right. He was known for this haphazard style. Winging scenes and letting actors go their own way, so most people thought it was unfolding in the right way. But Coppola was genuinely freaked out. The movie had to have an end before Brando left and he was on a firm 3 week stint. Anything after that would cost huge bucks to keep him.

The ending came to Coppola. The film was about 10 million over budget, much of it his own money, but grossed nearly 200 million dollars. It was a major accomplishment for the acclaimed director, but it really took its toll on him. It changed his life, literally.

Where does the drive to push so far come from? At one point Coppola decided that he was going bankrupt so it didn’t matter at that point. And since it was his project, he couldn’t “quit himself.” I suppose that is a metaphor for killing yourself.

The creative process had no where to go. They were there. Immersed in the scene, the set, the project. They couldn’t leave. They couldn’t quit.

I talked about this with my friend the other day with regard to music. We’re planning to go to her family’s remote cabin in Colorado for a week to write and record songs. We did this before for a couple days and pretty much wrote our album. We didn’t have the distraction of phones or the real world. It was just us… and our project.

This is why I will sometimes go to Starbucks and write. I have no internet and that has proven to be a major distraction for me over the years. I just told a friend that I am consciously making the effort to be disconnected. My habitual drive for excitement will have to be filled in other ways outside of the virtual world. It brings me back to reality. And it seems, at least for now, that reality is where things happen.

Sometimes even the famous fall to the ranks of the Brotherhood. Whether for shoplifting, joy riding, public drunkenness, lewd behavior, paparazzi assaults, or drinking and driving. Everyone visits the slammer someday.

Larry King

Al Pacino, aka “Scarface”

David Bowie, auteur, idol, Ziggy Stardust

Ezra Pound, Great American Poet

Dennis Hopper, actor, writer, director, all around badass

Johnny Cash, musician, father, husband, Man in Black. Supposedly shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.

Keith Richards,  Guitarist, Drug Fiend, Party Animal. Snorted father’s ashes.

Steve Mcqueen, aka “The Man”,  All American, Actor, Outdoorsman, Ladies man, Trouble maker.

Ed and Frankie welcome actress Gail Gerber (The Loved One, Village of the Giants) and film historian Tom Lisanti, co-authors of Trippin’ with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember, a poignant look at the life and career of iconic novelist and screenwriter Terry Southern

http://media.podcastingmanager.com/9/3/5/3/3/142636-133539/Media/110209tvc33_1.mp3

Um mir die Zeit zu vertreiben, habe ich mal im Internet nach Listen mit den besten Filmen aller Zeiten gesucht. Leider musste ich feststellen das es nicht diese EINE liste gibt. Aber nun ja so ist es halt.

Nun einer dieser Filme auf den Listen war Esay Rider .
Leider kann ich nichts über die Handlung in diesem Film sagen, da ich Ihn nach ca 30 min abschalten musste.

Ich kann nur sagen das die optische Darstellung des Wyatt von Peter Fonda, in mir einen Ekel hervor rief, der mich Zwang den Film ab zu schalten.

Dennis Hopper als Billy dagegen sah ja wenigsten noch echt aus, aber dieser ja schon fast Babypopohaft rasierte Peter Fonda, nein der ging gar nicht.
Peter Fonda wirkte auf mich wie ein schwuler Harley Möchtegern Biker, der mit seiner patriotisch wirkenden Jacke einfach unrealistisch war.
Ich weis nicht ob dieser Film wirklich gut war oder nicht, aber für mich hätte man auch Bill Kaulitz auf das Bike setzten könne, es wäre genauso grauenhaft gewesen.

Bitte versteht mich nicht falsch, es kann durchaus sein das der Film inhaltlich und auch sonst gut war, aber ich konnte diesen wiederwertigen Anblick des Wyatt nicht ertragen.

Der Film war für einige Awards nominiert, unter anderem zwei mal für den Oscar, den er dann jedoch nicht bekam. Allerdings hat er einige andere Awards bekommen und ich bin froh und unterstütze es heute noch das Peter Fonda keinen für diesen Film bekam, yippie yeahh.

Peace and Love

Davy

Easy Rider è un film del 1969, diretto da Dennis Hopper.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Drammatico | Dennis Hopper | Peter Fonda | Dennis Hopper | Jack Nicholson

A Dennis Hopper se’l coneix sobretot per la seva faceta com actor en pel·lícules com Amor a Quemarropa, Basquiat, Speed, Apocalypse Now, Easy Rider, de la qual, a part d’interpretar un dels personatges principals, en va ser el director. Easy Rider és segurament el seu títol més important, tant a nivell formal com de contingut; representa el psicodèlic l’estil i la manera de pensar de l’època. Hopper va trencar amb Easy Rider tot tipus de regles i normes que fins els anys d’amor, pau i herba semblaven intocables, alhora que va atorgar el protagonisme del film a dos personatges que representaven l’altre cara de l’Amèrica més conservadora, convertint el film en tota una icona del cinema de la dècada dels 60. Amb ell podríem dir que va néixer el cine indie.

Precisament en aquella dècada, la dels 60, Hopper anava a tot arreu amb la seva cámera Nikon, fotografiant tot allò que veia i vivia, des de les carreteres per les que viatjava fins a les festes de Hollywood a les que feia acte de presència, passant pels rodatges dels films en els que hi participava, les reunions d’amics, les exposicions de col·legues seus i les manifestacions de caire reivindicatiu en les que hi participava activament. Amb el seu objectiu va acabar fotografiant a actors, estrelles de la música del moment o gent anònima, convertint el seu treball en tot un retrat de l’excitant i convulsa dècada dels 60.

Ara l’editorial Taschen edita el llibre Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967, en una edició limitada de 1500 unitats, autografiades per el propi autor i a un preu realment prohibitiu de 600 euros. En ell hi trobem totes les fotografies que va fer durant aquells anys, un terç d’elles totalment inèdites fins aquest moment, seleccionades pel propi Hopper i el galerista Tony Shafarazi. Instantànees de companys de Hopper com Paul Newman o Andy Warhol, entre d’altres, o la particular i excel·lent visió que tenia per captar l’entorn, mostrant-nos un fotògraf inquiet i realista, estètic i efectiu en parts iguals, i que utilitzava el blanc i negre o el color de forma brillant.

Un llibre recomanable, per aquells que tinguin una bona butxaca i al mateix temps apreciï la fotografia com el que és, un art. Els que busquin postes de sol o paisatges lluminosos sense cap tipus de posicionament artístic, aquest no és el seu llibre, perquè aquí no hi trobem postals, sinó instantànees atrevides que documenten perfectament una època i una forma d’entendre un art.

I love @replies

Yes… it’s another tweet about…ME. First it was Rob Thomas, and next? One of the stars of “Crash” on Starz Channel, Jocko Sims.

Jocko plays Anthony Adams aka Panic, Dennis Hopper’s right hand man in the show. There, he plays an aspiring hip hop artist. What’s kinda cool? Reality sort of imitates art. In fact, he actually recorded a single for the show called “Head Up,” which you can apparently purchase on iTunes.

Anyway. In real-life, he’s the producer behind this aspiring kid rapper, Kiowa Tucker – or “K.O.” as he likes to refer to himself (Yes, KO as in knock out. Yes, he’s like 13. But he’s got skills! Or is it, “skillz?”)

Future of hip-hop?

OK so I interview Jocko, desperately trying to not let my Trojan pride get in the way (unfortunately, he Bruin-ed his life and attended UCLA.)

Awkward moment? I’m giving him a “Crash” quiz and at the end he asks if there’s a question about him! Fail, there isn’t! But in my defense, I didn’t write the quiz, I just administered it.

To be real though, the interview was super fun… great banter, ESPECIALLY once we started talking Twitter.

I feel like Twitter really bridges the gap between celebrity (Jocko) and normal person (me.) Anyway, I call Jocko out on the fact that he never tweets. He says it’s hard for him to think of stuff to tweet, and to remember to tweet it. I tell him that I, too, used to be a hater…until I discovered Twitterfon. Since he has an iPhone, I suggested that he download “Twitterfon” (now known as Echofon) because well… once you have Twitter on a mobile device, you become addicted. It’s really not that cool when you have to like, log onto a computer just to write your 140-character-or-less thought.

Anyway…we now follow eachother on Twitter, and well it’s been over 2 month since our interview, and he’s only tweeted 13 times since then! Ridic. I’m definitely going to at least @reply him and send him this blog entry. Maybe he’ll tweet more after this?

It is early 1969. The colorful word counter-culture had begun to creep into your consciousness. Your name is Dennis Hopper. You are 33 years old and have a growing acting career. But you haven’t gotten ‘there‘ yet. Stardom is still around a few more corners. Somehow you, fellow actor Peter Fonda, along with writer Terry Southern write a screenplay for a movie about hippies, bikers, pot, and the freedom of the open road. You’ve hounded enough suits or backers to raise about $400,000. A paltry sum by Hollywood standards even then, in 1969, but enough to enable the production to begin with you as the film’s director. The movie is entitled Easy Rider; and becomes a runaway success, both artistically as well as at the box office. It would become the definitive counter-culture road movie.

Get your motor runnin’
Head out on the highway
Lookin’ for adventure
And whatever comes our way

40 years later, Steppenwolf’s classic Born to Be Wild, still comes to mind as the anthem of Easy Rider. Powerful music and a powerful film, thank you Mr. Hopper. So Dennis Hopper went from being a rather unconventional actor to being a sought-after, fair-haired, wunderkind. Ka-ching! But success is quite hard to sustain, and Hopper went from being an A-List actor/director to someone whose work and personal life headed downhill. He became someone who might be found at a rehab center during the aftermath following Easy Rider’s release and rise.

Fast forward to 1979 and Hopper resurrects himself and his career. He takes a role of a pot-smoking photo-journalist in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Was he acting or was he just living his dream? After this, Hopper also directed Out of the Blue which garnered critical acclaim.

As Hopper’s reclamation of both his personal life and his career gathered speed, we too can again fast forward – this time to 1988, when Hopper was given the directorial reins for a controversial film about a pair of cops, one an experienced veteran, and the other, his rookie partner. They patrol the streets of East L.A. Their job – to attempt to keep gang violence under control.

This film was called Colors - the gangs were the Bloods and the Crips, and the colors were red and blue. Robert Duvall played the aging cop,  and the mercurial Sean Penn played the gung-ho rookie. You may recall this memorable story told by Duvall as Hodges to the restless for action Penn, as McGavin:

Bob Hodges: [to his new partner] There’s two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: “Hey pop, let’s say we run down there and fuck one of them cows”. The older one says: “No son. Lets walk down and fuck ‘em all”.

Colorful words, indeed and significant to the story as we later found out. Speaking of colors, and of another well known actor, who worked for many years as an A-Lister without his career reaching the pinnacle of an Oscar winning performance; let’s now look at Paul Newman in The Color of Money.

Yes, we are back to colors again. Newman worked with Tom Cruise in this 1986 Martin Scorcese film about a pool hustler and his protege. Newman’s Fast Eddie Felson had last been seen on screen in the 1961 classic movie, The Hustler.

If you want to use the term sequel, you wouldn’t be all wrong. But 25 years did pass before any one could buy a ticket for this so-called sequel. Newman had been nominated for an Oscar in 1962 for his role in The Hustler, but he didn’t win that year. Nor did he win for any of his other noteworthy screen roles. But he did win for The Color of Money.

So we have a few common threads here. Movies, about color(s), with the word Color(s) in the title, and with longtime film actors getting some substantial attention for their work many years into their careers. If not quite the stuff that makes for miracles, then at least we can say that they were heading in the right direction.

Shifting gears but not really changing direction, let’s now look at a pair of artists. These two artists, Jeff Ham (above) and John Nieto (below), are known for the distinctive use of bold colors. But that’s kind of a very mild understatement as you can see by examining their artwork.

Ham has stated that he loves to paint animals, people, and landscapes. He’s not concerned about backgrounds or settings, and his chief goal is to impact the viewer by making everything he paints into an iconic image by his use of raw, bright, and explosive colors. We will start out with a look at some his dynamic animal portraits.

Coyote (l) and Laughing Coyote (r) by Jeff Ham

Bob Dylan (l) and John Lennon (r) by Jeff Ham

Willie Nelson (l) and The Stones (r) by Jeff Ham

Note how Ham uses his striking colors in gradients or as abstractions which propel the model or subjects to the fore. Also note how the raw reds impact you.

Blue Wolf (l) and Powerful Medicine (r) by John Nieto

Nieto’s work is similar in his subjects and his use of striking colors. But Nieto’s works are far more linear Rather than merge or grade his colors, he prefers the clear division which creates a different style but with no less of an impact. But he has not completely gone away from gradients and/or the slow merging of his colors. Its just not his first choice.

Jerry Garcia (l) and Albert Einstein (r) by John Nieto

His works have been called dramatic compositions, which through the use of broad strokes and brilliant colors with a halo of a contrasting color surrounding his subjects – have made for unmistakeably modern images.

Nieto has said, “…if I am painting a person,  I am painting much more than that. My art is the result of an emotional involvement with my subject matter rather than a cerebral one. I’m in a trance when I paint. It’s like being a drummer — you don’t look at the drums, you just know intuitively where they are.”

His works are truly great, but to get a true measure of the man, I must relate one more thing about Nieto which will tie together this article. In 2002, John Nieto suffered a massive stroke. He was nearly comatose for two and half years. In July of 2005, he was admitted to a Dallas, Texas hospital for congestive heart failure.

Navajo (l) and Prayer for the Return of Buffalo (r) by John Nieto

The treatment of his heart failure also helped to bring about a miraculous recovery which also cured all of his stroke symptoms. Literally, within days, John Nieto was painting again. Some of the works on this page are from after his recovery. His journey from death’s doorway to his current place in the world of Art is indeed a miracle, or at least is a legend for the ages, as is his art.

So Newman, who passed away last fall,  and Hopper, who is still with us, as are Ham and Nieto – all have color in their stories. We don’t really need to differentiate between the past and the present, do we? Since none of us live in a world restricted to simple blacks and whites, I am more than happy to share these marvelous stories and remarkably colorful images with you.