Hot Fuzz

Director: Edgar Wright

  Release Date: February 2007

 Cast: Simon Pegg – Sergeant Nicholas Angel, Nick Frost – PC Danny Butterman, Jim Broadbent – Inspector Frank Butterman, Bill Nighy – Metropolitan Chief Inspector Kenneth, Timothy Dalton – Simon Skinner

Intro: Recently voted as UK movie fans favourite comedy film of all time (Odeon poll 2009) I thought I’d revisit this movie myself and put up a quick review! I’ve always preferred this one to Shaun, but I did see Hot Fuzz first. Strangely, a lot of people I asked about both of these films tend to prefer whichever of the two they saw first. Anyway, enough rambling from me on with the review!

Plot: Sergeant Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the finest police officer London has to offer, with an arrest record higher than any other on the force. However, his superiors have decided that he is making them look bad and so they send him to the seemingly sleepy town of Sandford miles out in the country. It would seem that Sandford is not only winner of ‘village of the year’ several years in a row but also crime free. Once there, Angel is partnered with overeager PC Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) whose police training consists of watching too many cop movies and going to the pub. PC Danny Butterman is also the son of amiable Police Chief Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent).  Angel’s new assignment sees him growing more and more frustrated and is made even worse when, after a series of grisly ‘accidents’, the villagers and the police seemingly turn a blind eye to the possibility of foul play. Angel is convinced that Sandford is not what it seems and is convinced there is more sinister and darker going on.

Review: Through a montage of chase scenes and action set pieces in London we are introduced to PC Nicholas Angel, presented as one of the greatest officers the Metropolitan police have ever had. However, fearful of Angel upstaging every other policeman in London he is packed off to the sleepy village of Sandford, and he is none to happy about the new assignment.

From the word go the film is packed full of references and draws on this source material brilliantly throughout. It is presented from a very British perspective, in a village where everybody knows each other, but also combines story elements from films such Bad Boys II and Point Break, and puts this kind of explosive Hollywood action into the quaint ‘local’ village of Sandford. This works surprisingly well, and includes some excellent action set pieces with gunfights at the local Somerfield and local pub. The second half is the more action packed of the movie, with car chases through country lanes, a swan chase… and even an action packed fight scene in the towns own model village. This all produces (with a tongue in cheek feel) some funny scenes and great stunt work, including the odd one liner thrown in for good measure.

There are some inventively gory scenes, making this not the usual light hearted British comedy most are used to (as well as making everyone a bit more careful around churches and model villages). There are some great performances from everyone in the cast. Pegg and Frost make an awesome comedy duo. As well as the ‘moustache twiddling’ Simon Skinner played by Timothy Dalton and the supposedly kindly old amiable Chief Inspector Frank Butterman, played by Jim Broadbent.

Conclusion: Hot Fuzz is a homage to all buddy cop action movies in the years gone by. Hot Fuzz, like Shaun of the Dead draws from all the material that makes this kind of movie work. Shaun of the Dead was not only a spoof of all zombie movies, great and small, but it was also a thank you with a ‘tip of the cap’ gesture to all those movies too. Hot Fuzz does the same thing and it does it superbly. Pegg is brilliant as is Frost as his bumbling sidekick Danny Butterman. Overall an enjoyable, action packed comedy. Let’s hope this kind of writing, enthusiasm and feeling of personal input into a film continues. Now, does anyone fancy a cornetto? 

Although the month of December is normally set aside for shopping for holiday gifts for loved ones, Mackenzie Image Consulting’s King Street Shop Walk is giving Charleston fashionistas a reason to come out to shop for themselves at a discounted price and for a good cause. On December 3, 2009 the event will celebrate historic King Street and the local community by offering five to 25 percent discounts to over 25 local boutiques from 5-8 p.m. with 40 percent of ticket proceeds benefiting the Center for Women.

The event will begin with registration and a kick-off soiree at boutique V2V, located at 295 King Street, with opening remarks by Jennet Alterman, director of the Center for Women. Wine, signature drinks and appetizers by Cupcake will be provided. Following the reception, Shop Walk pass-holders will be free to explore the participating boutiques where they will receive anywhere from five to 25 percent off their purchases. The after party will take place at Fish, located at 442 King Street. Fish will donate a portion of their proceeds to the Center for Women.

Participating boutiques include Affordables, Berlins, Biton, Bob Ellis Shoes, Boutique NV, Butterfly Consignments, Copper Penny, Cynthia Rowley, Eden Boheme, Farushga, Finicky Filly, Francescas, Handpicked, House of Sage, K. Morgan, Las Olas, Lily Charleston, Lula Kate, Nantucket Brand, Novel, The Oops! Co., Plum Elements, Point Break, RTW Charleston, Sarah Maxwell Designs, Troubadour, V2V, Willy Jay’s and Worthwhile.

Registration begins at 5 p.m at V2V. Tickets can be purchased online at www.kingstreetshopwalk.com for $15 or $20 at the door.

Other sponsors include: Obviouslee Marketing (that’s us!), Y 102.5 and Ctrl P Marketing + Print Solutions.

Poster for Tank Girl; image courtesy of 24hourstomidnight.files.wordpress.com

So I was originally gonna roll up all cavalier-like and blurt out my opinions on Tank Girl, which I watched for the first time a few nights ago. I had some pre-conceived notions about the movie and what I’d think of it, as the film adaption of the beloved Jamie Hewlett comic is widely regarded as a commercial and critical flop.

Now I’m not entirely sure how to approach the subject matter, because a) I’m not sure how to read this movie, as it is disjointed and oftentimes inscrutable, b) I didn’t realize going into my viewing that several friends were fans of both the movie and the comic, and c) . . . I haven’t gotten around to reading the comic. I’m more than willing to read it, especially since I’m a fan of Hewlett’s work with Damon Albarn on Gorillaz and am interested in their ongoing professional relationship. I simply haven’t had the chance yet, as I just finished Truman Capote’s super-dense In Cold Blood and started Margaret Atwood’s promising The Blind Assassin. If anyone has a copy they’d like to push into my hands, my palms are flat and open.  

I'll gladly read this; image courtesy of hero-trailers.blogspot.com

But I still wanted to see the movie and write about it because:

1. Lori Petty stars as Rebecca Buck and I wish her career had taken off instead of stalling around the time of this movie’s 1995 release. While she’s recently run into some legal troubles and I still haven’t seen Point Break or Prey for Rock’N'Roll, I’ve long had a soft spot for this tough, mouthy, gender-queer tomboy ever since her turn as Kit Keller in A League of Their Own. It’s too bad that she was replaced by Sandra Bullock in Demolition Man and that Gwen Stefani sounds just like her, with both women having more visible, financially successful careers.

2. Speaking of Stefani, did she rip off Tank Girl’s style to cultivate her own look, because oh my damn do they look alike. 

But maybe I’m being unfair in pitting Petty/Tank Girl against Stefani against one another and instead should remember the cultural context from which they were formed. I’m reminded of my thesis adviser Mary Kearney, whose dissertation focused on contemporary discourses around girlhood and youth culture. Joy Van Fuqua draws on Kearney’s work in her essay ”‘What Are Those Little Girls Made Of?’ The Powerpuff Girls and Consumer Culture.” In her discussion of the show’s popularity, Van Fuqua borrows from Kearney to suggest that, like many other girl characters during the 1990s, Bubbles, Buttercup, and Blossom had to embody both genders in order to succeed in athletics and other male-dominated activities.

Buttercup, Blossom, and Bubbles are gonna fuck yr shit up; image courtesy of msdn.com

3. Speaking of promising actresses, Naomi Watts plays her sidekick and was a total nobody in the states when the movie was originally released. She’s also rockin’ a brunette bob haircut, which I appreciate.

4. Speaking of wacky ladies, Ann Magnuson makes an appearance as a madame who runs a state-of-the-art brothel where folks like Iggy Pop run around in drag and the talent break out into Busby Berkeley-esque routines to Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It.”

5. Speaking of musicians, the soundtrack is an alternative rock behemoth. Hard to imagine many of the artists represented here got radio play in 1995. Alternative was commercially successful, allowing rock music to splinter off in various, musically diverse directions. Hootie was of course a major player, but Pulp could get a hit single. Beck was at this point a one-hit wonder, but was working on an era-defining record that would come out the following year. The bubble hadn’t burst yet. Man, 1995 was a strange and amazing time. Bush, Björk, Veruca Salt, L7, Belly, Portishead, Hole. They were all on commercial radio playlists and they’re also on this soundtrack.

6. Speaking of Hole, note that Courtney Love was the movie’s music consultant. Now, I’m not entirely sure what her title means here. Titles like “music consultant” and “music supervisor” tend to be flexible. The latter term is usually held by people who work closely with the director, the editor, and multiple representatives from various record labels, as well as help tend to legal matters like acquiring publishing rights, and clearing songs to be used in the movie and often the accompanying soundtrack. 

Courtney Love, 1995's burgeoning hyphenate; image courtesy of rollingstone.com (Ouderkirk/WireImage.com)

My hunch is that Love’s duties were picking what songs she liked and would work with the movie, but had little involvement in the production. After all, she was a busy lady who was trying to heal from the death of her husband, raise her daughter, become a respected actress, and headline Lollapalooza with her band Hole. I don’t think she had time to field phone calls with label execs, although I’d like to imagine what those conversations might be like.     

7. Oh, and since the first six points all involved women, let’s add the cherry on top. Tank Girl was directed by a woman named Rachel Talalay.

But as far as reading this movie . . . hummina. I don’t know what I saw. I know it takes place in what is now a not-too-distant, dystopian future and involves our fearless heroine leading a rag-tag group of girls and mutant kangaroo boys against a corrupt faction that control the earth’s water supply. Still with me? Here’s the trailer.

So, things I enjoyed or found interesting about the movie.

1. Naomi Watts kicks ass as Jet Girl. At first shy and fretful, she learns to embrace her intellect and technological savvy and develops the confidence to take charge of the crew and help beat the cast of baddies.

Jet Girl holding it down; image courtesy of kideternal.com

2. Tank Girl has strong relationships with Jet Girl and Rebecca, Tank Girl’s boyfriend’s young daughter. Homosocial bonding and female mentorship, holla!

3. OMG, the costumes. They could be a chapter in a dissertation on third-wave feminism’s fragmentive, performative, and self-reflexive relationship with fashion (note: if such a chapter exists, I want to read it). Tank Girl never wears the same outfit or hair color twice, and her wardrobe toys with historical periods, film genres, youth culture movements, often playing with age, gender, and race as well.

What are you wearing, Tank Girl?, image courtesy of theage.com.au

4. I can’t tell if Ann Magnuson’s Madame, who briefly kidnaps and attempts to employ Rebecca, is a sex-positive feminist, a critique against the then-timely rise of media’s interest in d0-me feminism, or just morally bankrupt.

And then there were things I hated.

1. While Tank Girl’s costuming is fascinating, that’s really the extent of her characterization. Much of this seems to be the fault of the writing. Petty is engaging enough, but Tank Girl is written as less a complex action heroine and more of a buzzword-and-slogan dispenser. Thus, she brings to mind characters like Itchy and Scratchy’s Poochie, who was created to make fun of corporate-friendly extreme, in-your-face, subcultural cash cows. Perhaps her perceived lack of depth speaks to the awkward process of adapting a comic book into a movie, but her cinematic flatness betrays the torpedo bras.

Torpedo bras don't always provide dimension; image courtesy of mermaidligan.blogspot.com

2. Tank Girl also kicks a disappointing lack of ass here and has questionable methods. I can’t speak to her defense strategies in the comic, but the movie repeatedly has her lure disgusting men with her feminine wiles. Sometimes they get kicked in the balls, but she still shows them her bra or promises sexual favors beforehand.

3. Man, how did Malcolm MacDowell fool people into thinking he could act? He’s the villainous Kesslee here and is making himself quite the ham sandwich. Some may want to bring up Al Pacino and note that some actors deliver progressively broader performances as they age, but I think MacDowell’s accent played a role in snowing audiences as well. I think his Britishness even convinced people he was better in If . . . and A Clockwork Orange than he actually was. Charismatic and handsome? Yes. Once a great actor? I don’t think so.

4. I feel like there’s something racially problematic about the mutant kangaroo soldiers who take up with Tank Girl’s crew. Thoughts?

In short, Tank Girl makes for a maddening but interesting spectatorial experience. Now to get a hold of the source material . . .

It’s a Thanksgiving miracle!

Not really.

Even as her friends and contemporaries die around her, Too Good for Dirt Liz can’t seem to take the subtle hint.

Thus I am putting together an online petition and will be gathering signatures urging Ms. Taylor to do the right thing and die of natural causes immediately.

When I have gathered 3 or 4 signatures I will present the petition to her in the guise of some shitty award because thats all that actors and actresses care about.

Jennifer Aniston wouldn’t piss on her mother if she was on fire but she’d use babies for shoes and run down to the food court at the mall to collect the Best Actress….(Oh Sorry We Meant The Dog)…In A Dog Movie award.

Anyway, I’m sick of posting Liz Taylor pics so here’s this.

Amy Sedaris’s homemade cheese balls can be purchased at The Gourmet Garage in Greenwich Village.

I tried a Lil’ Smokey a few years back and it was yummy…..exactly the kind of yummy that Liz Taylor could choke to death on while her assistants silently look on while forming an unspoken pact.

I might suggest leaving a few along the baseboards of Liz’s mansion.

Terminal velocity refers to a falling object that is in equilibrium. In its plummet, at a particular speed, the drag force will equal the object’s weight. At this point, the object ceases its downward acceleration and continues falling at a constant speed. The downward force of gravity equals the upward force of drag.

After losing to Baltimore and Pittsburgh, the Denver Broncos were most certainly in freefall. Now, after gagging in DC to Daniel Snyder’s dysfunctional and discombobulated Redskins, and doing so mostly at the defensive line of scrimmage, gravity now equals the drag of a freefalling franchise. In skydiving, terminal velocity can be slowed by extending ones limbs. And of course, deploying a parachute creates a larger projected area, with a dramatically reduced terminal velocity, and lands its passenger to safety. Looking ahead, the question now becomes: Is Denver capable of pulling the ripcord and piloting itself to some kind of landing zone, or did it jump out of a perfectly good airplane without a canopy strapped to its back in the first place?

Coach Pincers and Chris Simms try to stay positive as they prepare for San Diego

Defensively, the about-to-explode look is back. A shame, really. Such heart, such effort the first third of the season. Against Baltimore and Pittsburgh, the offense failed its defense. Things just broke loose in the fourth quarter with a complete lack of what Pincers would call “complimentary football.” This time around, with DC’s pieced-together offensive line opening up holes and really bad tackling on Denver’s behalf, Ladell Betts and Rock Cartwright just gutted them. All day. Couldn’t even get Jason Campbell, an atrocious quarterback, to make many mistakes. Looked oh so familiar. As we’ve said before, Denverites can keenly identify an about-to-explode defense. It’s what we’ve dealt with since about this time 2006. That look, that bending, absorbing, would-be more explosions were it not for opponent mistakes, was back in effect. Now, why is this?

This is where “slapdick” or “slappy” comes from. It’s what Brian Billick calls beta players. Profootballtalk.com uses this, too. But we read this book back in 2006 and our buddies adopted it into vernacular shortly thereafter. Way before Florio poached it.

Some people call it the Law of Diminishing Returns, others might say the cream always rises to the top, we call it Slapdick vs. Reality. Coming into the season it was presumed the Denver secondary, even with a well-aged veteran in Brian Dawkins, was elite. The front seven questions were of course loud and clear. It’s probably safe to characterize DJ Williams and Elvis Dumervil as upper tier players, however still not that “upper.” Outside of that the front seven is a collection of hand picked slappies and a rookie. We mean that in a conventional wisdom sense: they are slappies, journeymen, none are elite. Until November came along, these slappies, these castoffs, nobodies from everywhere, had been playing above their presumed abilities in a brilliant and innovative Mike Nolan scheme. Andra Davis, Mario Haggan, Ronald Fields, Darrell Reid, Kenny Petersen, Ryan McBean, La Kevin Smith, Marcus Thomas, not exactly top 10%. The Law of Diminishing Returns says that in contrast to increased expectations when outstanding results occur at Square One, returns actually start to progressively decrease. The cream always rises to the top might suggest statistically better teams, or presumed to be better teams, will eventually get theirs. Slapdick vs. Reality says that no matter how much heart, no matter how many Dawkins “take it” frenzies, no mater how committed and accountable and willing and heartfelt, in the end, you’re still a slapdick.

Again, as we’ve said all year, at least they care, at least they try, at least they are not a bed of flowers like the last 2.5 years of Denver Defense. It remains to be seen what the duration will reveal. In terms of what kind of rhetoric is maintained in this column, we are not condemning them to failure and actually believe slapdicks can come together like some kind of slapdick Voltron and find success. We’re simply pointing out that, at their core, they are mostly slapdicks. There’s really no question about that.

(Furthermore, we shudder, but Champ Bailey looks horrible right now. As Phylis Rivers comes to town this week, a guy who enjoys and has been successful throwing on 24, this creates some uneasiness. In addition, after Heinz Ward literally stepped over him then skipped into the end zone last week, then on a third and three late in the Washington game Champ whiffed huge on what is normally an open field lock, one wonders … one certainly begins to wonder.)

Offensively, we return to last week’s comments about the running game: What exactly is Pincers getting at here? So you’re telling us, Pincers, that with Albert Haynesworth out of the game; with Russ Hochstein limiting him pretty much all day; with a slow, dim, hesitant Chris “Milky” Simms under center; having just completed runs of 3 and 11 yards and with Knowshon Moreno at 97 yards total on the day; and with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter of a 17-17 ball game, you have Milky* hoist up a deep ball prayer? It wasn’t even close. There were four red jerseys by the time the ball arrived. This of course led to Washington’s 10-play drive that took over six minutes off the clock and resulted in a go-ahead touchdown.

Ironic too, in a week where “long ball” media brays could be heard above the wind. That’s not only what Kyle Orton attempted but nailed. Too bad Pincers thought Milky could do the same. Two things are clear now, right Denverites? Orton has plenty of arm and he unquestionably belongs under center. (Does Milky bend over as he brings back his delivery? Is his hand on the top of the ball as he releases? Is that the slowest release in the NFL? At least Pincers booted him, rolled him out, that was good to see again. Didn’t really matter, though.) Looking ahead to this weekend, c’mohhn Greek. We need ya to get 8 healthy otherwise we might not even turn on the game. Also, Eddie Royal quit running on Orton’s third deep ball. That’s on 19 not 8. Also, Hochstein is sick.

(Oh and, 8, Rocky McIntosh wanted to thank you for teeing up Brandon Marshall over the middle. Guy’s name is “Rocky McIntosh.” He plays linebacker. He’s that gigantic fella who drops back into coverage when he reads pass.)

(A special DER goes out to Woody Paige this week. Woody, so baseless, so dependant upon conjecture, so otherworldly in his analysis. Actually advocated, then defended, a Simms start in DC.)

Chris Simms dresses the part now that he lives in Colorado

Special teams, or “the kicking game” as Pincers would say, looks like Ryan Seacrest just wandered onto the set of a Charlie Rose taping and attempted an intellectual conversation. So out of place, so related by medium only. Aside from Eddie Royal’s returns in San Diego and the occasional big hit delivered by coverage teams, this third of the overall Denver attack is a fail. Mitch Berger for Brett Kern was haste in its purest form. We actually enjoyed seeing free loader Lamont Jordan get wasted by Lorenzo Alexander on the kick following the sloppiest touchdown in the NFL this year. Did you know we had enough time to flip over to a WB broadcast of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, laugh at a couple crude jokes, then flip back to the game in the time it took punter Hunter Smith to heave a “500” ball from one sideline to the other … for a touchdown. There are bona fide disgusting things in this world—Dick Cheney, Europeans, a higher yield on US Treasury Notes—and we don’t want to sports-hyperbolize too much. But that was truly a disgusting play. Our buddy C-Po told us he kicked over his three-year-old son’s “block tower” when that classic piece of horse manure actually played out before his eyes. Yep, that … just … happened.

Another fun note in the Washington game was watching Brian Orakpo in action. (Not as much fun as watching Rey Maualuga enforce the middle in Week One, but close.) Let’s summarize Orakpo’s tackles, shall we: Moreno for no gain on a swing pass, Moreno for a 1-yard loss on the edge, Moreno for a 3-yard loss up the middle, credited for wrecking Ortons’s ankle at the end of the first half, half of a 7-yard Milky sack, sacked Milky on his own for 10 yards. Wow, so stoked to revisit Pincers’ draft here.

It looks like Pincers has a very clear idea of how he balances his defensive roster spots. He will play a 3-4, or 5-2 base but it can morph into anything it wants. There is a lot of 4-3 in there and his edge players pull double duty. Also, linebackers are huge in the kicking game. He’s loaded up his defensive roster with big linebackers and has stayed lean with the classic lineman body types (300 pounds plus). Check the roster here. He keeps nine linebackers, all roughly the same size and, weather it be inside or outside, versatility. He keeps seven linemen-only types. Orakpo was touted as a classic outside pass rusher but Washington plays him as an outside linebacker in its 4-3. Considering the versatility Pincers wants in his edge defenders, considering what he wants them to look like, Orakpo (6’-3 260 pounds) seems like he would’ve been an outstanding fit. Plus, he’s pissed, his coaches (according to Dan Dierdorf) rave about him, and he’s currently wrecking shop. Such a treat knowing Denver could’ve had both him and Robert Ayers (6’-3 274 pounds) in the first round.

Instead, Pincers is so scattershot and so scatterbrained when it comes to the run game and the players he chooses to execute it that, when the 12th spot came around in April, he just couldn’t resist 27. If he was still on the board, would he have chosen Orakpo at the 18th instead of Ayers? Who’s to say. And were not saying Ayers is a stinker, either. A conclusion is years off. It may have been marginal and temporary, but Orakpo quietly pantsed Pincers’ draft on Sunday.

(We should also point out that, after a horrifying game last week, Moreno looked pretty good this week. The shimmy was back and he only tripped a couple times. No fumbles, either, and he was back to initiating contact at the end of his runs.)

San Diego slapped Philly around on Sunday so, guess what Broncos Fans?! We get to relive the end of 2008 in the middle of 2009! Love these three-game swings. Let’s hope the third turns out differently this time. We’ve previously said Denver whips San Diego in this game. However we also said barring significant injury. Orton qualifies as significant.

As we all know, the NFL is weird, trending teams mean nothing. Philly goes down, Dallas gets worked, DC wins, Carolina wins, Tennessee is on fire and so is Arizona. At least we can always count on Jay Cutler throwing multiple interceptions. The Bolts come to town on a roll and with the same record as Denver. Denver is in freefall. Something has to increase the drag on this descent and slow Denver’s downward velocity. Maybe Denver’s defense uses Phylis’s carcass to do so. Gets upset, gets healthy, proves to themselves and the world they are not slappies. Milky Simms, well, let’s hope that was rust. He actually maintained a semi decent pocket presence considering he’s barely gone live in three years and Washington went after him. San Diego is still the same group of softies Denver saw in Week Six. But Phylis is still the same gangly, head-snapping, accurate, resilient bastard he’s always been. Beyond San Diego, broadly speaking, at some point Denver is going to have to deploy a chute before it splatters on the ground. Dead as disco.

The most annoying … person … ever

* Gotta give credit to our fantasy football commissioner, Dave, for “Milky.” We didn’t even hear him say it we just read it on our FFB smack board. Laughed pretty hard. Dave is the kind of commissioner that tweaks the scoring rules because he knows the other owners wont check it. This gives him a draft advantage. He’s a gangster about league fees, too. Dave also throws an epic Super Bowl party each year. On a related note, stay tuned for our forthcoming memoir column: “$100 and 0-13: Confessions of a Fantasy Football Failure.” Fantasy sucks. It’s for tools.

I just got an email from a ticketing promoter saying that for the next 72 hours tickets to Seals Brisbane and Adelaide shows are only $70 and that it is a dramatic visual experience not to be missed. Oh my! What a sensational saving of $90 and perhaps I will look at getting a couple of tickets. 

Is what I would say if I had no comprehension of money and if he had more than 2 songs. ‘Crazy’ and ‘Kiss From A Rose’ are not worth $35 each. Also what’s with this “dramatic visual experience” business? Does he get shot on to the stage via a cannon? Does he jump a huge fireball on a Harley? No to both? Well him crooning on a stool in front of a PowerPoint presentation does not a dramatic visual experience make. I declare shenanigans!

And let me get this straight, when Seals ticket sales are bad they can discount the price but when this happens to New Kids On The Block they have to cancel their entire tour? Shenanigans!  NKOTB had twice as many good songs as Seal AND those geriatrics could dance.

Can Seal get me a copy of ‘Point Break’ on DVD, the Slash autobiography and a donut?
Can $70 get me all of the above? Winner.

This is exactly the kind of thing that people will say when Elizabeth Taylor gets off her fucking high horse and dies.

And when they do you’ll say, “No fucking shit you god damned socialist!  I knew about it for months because of I read it on Soylent Steve you dumb fuck.”  

And then you’ll lay them out with a quick punch to the head….SMASH!

Watch this space for my 24/7 Liz Taylor deathwatch!

This outta get me more hits than Rihanna at a Rap Awards show!

                     Liz taylor dying in the 1950s

Enjoy the weekend and keep your fingers crossed for me!

Possibly one of the greatest war films of all time.

In Iraq, a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal( EOD) unit is forced to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse in the chaos of war in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb. Jeremy Renner plays the leader of the EOD team, as he contends with not only defusing bombs in the backdrop of a war, but also the psychological and emotional strain that it inflicts.

This is the exact war movie for people who don’t like war movies. Director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break), takes what you would expect from a normal Hollywood war movie and turn it on its side and provide a different angle and aspect on war, that makes everything more effective. Bigelow directs the film with such a real look, that at points I was wondering if this is actual real footage of the Iraq war itself. Its a great way of showing whats going threw that soldiers mind at that exact time.

The film gives a very deep close insight on one of the most nervous and skillful jobs in the army. The music during most of these scenes are used with such authenticity and one it comes in and out it is used during moments when they’re is nothing else but bomb defusing going on, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Being stressed out during a movie is not very uncommon, but parts in the film are so nail biting that I was shaking by how stressed I truthfully was.

The acting is also incredible. Big kudos to Jeremy Renner who is amazing, so amazing at times that I forgot that he was even acting. He brings much humor and a great outlook of life to the film which is one of the main reasons it is so great. Anthony Mackie also does a very great job at capturing the man who is opposed to Renner’s character, but yet, sort of envy’s him and how he can move on with his life. Some of the big names like Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, and David Morse aren’t put in the movie just to have big name cameos but more fpr support and they have a reason for being in the film.

The Hurt Locker pushes away a lot of the preaching that have plagued films of this Iraq War, and this makes the viewer more interested in what happened and what has been happening in that war zone of Iran. Easily one of the best films of this year possibly of the past 10 years. I pray to God that the Academy, come to Award time, doesn’t forget about this movie and gives some big nominations. I’m thinking if Kathryn Bigelow is nominated for Best Director she would win and be the first female to win in that category. Cause if anyone can do it, it is her.

10/10=Full Price!!

20.00 Uhr: One Way Boogie Woogie – 27 Years later
22.30 Uhr: Point Break

ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE / 27 YEARS LATER

USA 2005
R: James Benning
121 Min, 16mm, OV

1977 drehte Benning “One Way Boogie Woogie”, einen einstündigen Film, der aus sechzig einminütigen Einstellungen von städtischen Gewerbegebieten in seiner Heimat Milwaukee besteht. Um die Veränderungen festzuhalten, die seither stattfanden, kehrte er für “27 Years Later” an die alten Schauplätze zurück.

POINT BREAK

USA 1991
R: Kathryn Bigelow
120 Min, OV

Mit Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey, Lori Petty

Die alte Geschichte: Ein Mann muss Undercover ermitteln, und die Welt, die er da kennenlernt, ist ihm viel näher als die, zu der er eigentlich gehört. Das allein ist oft schon herzerreißend genug, hier kommt noch die Besetzung dazu, und vor allem das Milieu: Surfer beim Surfen, mit Ehrenkodex, wilden Wellen, ohne T-Shirts.

The best breakfast in San Diego is located in the heart of Point Loma in San Diego at the entrance to Shelter Island in the Shelter Island Village Shopping Center, Point Break offers outstanding breakfast and lunch items until 3:00pm and dinner starting at 4:00pm.

This local favorite offers delicious original omelets, superb Benedict’s, and delectable griddle fare, like the one and only honey blended cream cheese strawberry stuffed French Toast, every day of the week!

In a world that routinely abandons genuinely critical thought in favour of populist diversion, it is easy to overlook the finer distinctions that identify the shape beneath what looks like an amorphous blob…

Patrick Swayze’s ballet dancing career was finished early, cut short by injury, but he never stopped being a ballet dancer. That is what he brought to the screen, in a broadly varied career spanning three decades. That is what is so special about him, although it has never been adequately recognised, despite the media blitz and public outpouring of tributes that followed his death, from pancreatic cancer, on September 14. News of Swayze’s death featured on the covers of newspapers and magazines; prime-time broadcasting lamented his passing and celebrated his life. Fans across the globe mourned and sought consolation from a condoling media.

Again and again, we were reminded that “the star of Dirty Dancing” was dead. When more labels were needed, the choice was abundant: dancer, actor, fighter, tough guy, cowboy, hero and loving husband. Now, “dancer” is a generic term – like singer or musician or performer – that tells us very little. In a world that routinely abandons genuinely critical thought in favour of populist diversion, it is easy to overlook the finer distinctions that identify the shape beneath what looks like an amorphous blob. In terms of dance training, Swayze was the equivalent of a concert pianist, to use an example from a fertile field littered with careers that wilted even before the seed sprouted. If you can ripple your fingers through the classical piano repertoire, you are a pretty good piano player even if you never perform another concert after your graduation from a conservatorium. Patrick Swayze had every intention of a professional ballet career and even though it didn’t work out that way, he carried ballet in his body and in his heart until the day he died.

Swayze’s unusual ability to carry a chick-flick, a biff-flick and a spliff-flick, gained him a broad fandom. Judging by Internet tributes, he touched many lives, often in their formative years. In Dirty Dancing (1987), his strong golden body and smooth, predatory dance moves strutted their way into the romantic fantasies of very young women. In Point Break (1991), his strong golden body, skydiving and surfing skills infiltrated the anti-social dreams of adolescent boys and the film became something of a stoner cult classic. In Road House (1989), his strong golden body, starring all four limbs and lustrous mane, flattened an entire town of bad guys while alluding to the fact that tai chi can make you invincible, which would have gone unnoticed by the film’s 99% male fan base. In Ghost (1990), the golden body came back, literally and metaphorically, to give moviegoers a lesson in undying love – women paid close attention. The golden body’s accomplishments were recognised by the world at large and in 1991, Swayze was named “The Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine.

More recently, Swayze introduced himself to a whole new audience, as a pedophile in Donnie Darko(2001), and departed from the screen, on a dramatic high note, with the TV mini-series, The Beast (2008). The latter was made after Swayze started aggressive chemotherapy for the lethal cancer that was then already ravaging his body. Suddenly, he was the gaunt, battered hero, on screen and off.

From birth, Swayze was destined for the stage. His mother, choreographer and ballet teacher, Patsy Swayze, named him “Patrick Swayze” because she thought it would look good on a marquee. His father’s physical display skills included rodeo riding and boxing. Swayze learned much from both parents. His ballet education was topped off with stints at the Harkness and Joffrey ballet schools, which turned out top-flight professionals. Without being the high classical type in terms of finish and refinement, Swayze would still have found plenty of opportunity on the ballet stage of the 1970s but a knee injury cut him out. However, ballet isn’t the only kind of dance, and Swayze turned his efforts to the musical stage, chalking up a range of credits, spanning Grease on Broadway to Guys and Dolls in London in 2006. He launching himself on the screen in Skatetown USA in 1979.

As film is a visual medium, the big screen has always been disproportionately populated by performers who are deemed, by enough people, to have an attractive appearance. Patrick Swayze was the blond, athletic, classically proportioned type. But he brought a lot more than poster-boy good looks. The physicality of Swayze’s personality had the quality of a seasoned circus acrobatic performer: highwire, trapeze, any kind of wheels. When he was young and penniless he got around the vast American distances on his motorbike. When he made the big money, he got himself a plane. He did his own stunts. He understood that every physical art has its own area of expertise and although himself a life-long practising martial artist, he ramped up the volume in Road House by training with Benny “The Jet” Urquidez. The full-contact karate fighter and kick boxing champion got a bit more out of Swayze by putting on Michael Jackson’s Thriller, as a training inspiration with a dance angle. Urquidez, who started his karate training at the age of three, knew a dancer when he saw one.

As movement practice, the Asian, and most specifically, Chinese martial arts, are unrivalled for cultivating physical mastery and well-being. Nevertheless, as aesthetics go, I will always favour dance and, in particular ballet of any style from the purest high classical to the most renegade mutation of contemporary influences. With Swayze, you didn’t have to choose because he offered the lot in one package that also featured the bonus of an authentic cowboy swagger and a Texan drawl.

As an actor, Patrick Swayze was essentially a dancer. Give him a move and he can copy and project it. Give him a script and his body will act it. Dance is a physical language in many dialects and although ballet is only one, the level of mastery required is physiologically so demanding that it facilitates a profound understanding of how movement works, how it looks and what it is saying. It is also a language geared up to story telling, whether literal narrative or psychological exploration. Dancers are traditionally notoriously taciturn in public. Often, this is because they are so eloquent physically and, knowing exactly how to put a foot right, they are fearful of getting a word wrong.

Regardless of how he adapted to each screen role, Swayze always retained full balletic pull-up and placement: knees gripped, pelvic floor held tight, abs rising out of the hips, the ramrod spine perfectly aligned right through to the top of the skull, head poised on a long neck, shoulders held back, body weight inclined slightly forward, each step taken through the ball of the foot. He also had beautiful line. His every move on screen was a consciously refined physical manipulation harnessed in the telling of the story.

In Dirty Dancing, Swayze carries the story with his dancing, which is sensual, sexually-charged and shamelessly suggestive – until you look at what is actually going on. There is a lot of writhing and pumping but the action is all in the face and the feet: the body bits alluded to, connect even less than a screen punch and its target. And Swayze’s Johnny Castle has to do all the work for both himself and his co-star, Jennifer Grey, as Frances “Baby” Houseman, whose dance skill is very limited. As a dancer, Grey is the equivalent of a singer who can hold a note but has a poor vocal quality. Her movements are stiff, lacking articulation and feeling. In the just-published autobiography, Time of My Life (written with his wife and artistic associate, Lisa Niemi), Swayze states that he thought the Castle-Houseman partnership unrealistic as anything more than a brief dalliance, which made him treat the film’s famous finale Time of My Life sequence as a swansong to what had transpired. No matter. The ordinary -nay, ugly duckling – middle class girl got her Prince Charming – a sweaty bit of rough – and girls around the globe swooned.

As a dancer, Swayze was, above all, an actor. In the ballet firmament, he would not even register next to Nureyev and Baryshnikov, both of whom made sorties into film. But unlike these superstars, Swayze made his artistic life on screen, a medium that was mostly interested in exploiting his physical talents and accomplishments. You rarely saw Swayze in aphysical roles; even in Donnie Darko, he is glimpsed threading through a tai chi form and, as the medical doctor in City of Joy (1992), he is battling alcoholism, which he endured repeatedly as a real-life affliction. The latter proved a depression-inducing box office and critical flop for Swayze, largely because it was a relatively dull story, full of altruistic intentions but not enough substance to engage viewers. Swayze was a master of the shirt-off, action acting genre and was far more compelling stitching up his own fight wound in Road House than dispensing medicine in the slums of Calcutta. Ironically the City of Joy experience drove him back to the bottle for a time.

Fred Astaire and Patrick Swayze were the 20^th century’s two great screen dancers, both working from a high centre of gravity, everything happening in the sternum. Gene Kelly, who is also universally well-regarded was, strictly speaking, a song and dance man with classically unfavourable soft-hard tissue and limb-torso ratios. Also, he worked from a very low centre of gravity, giving him an all-leg and pelvis style. It is the union of the high centre of gravity with the pelvic consciousness that Michael Jackson drew on to create his iconic and pervasively influential contribution to 20^th C popular dance.

While Astaire made many movies featuring dance, Swayze made his contribution with just one, Dirty Dancing, although he did also appear in two other films, in a strictly dance capacity. In Dirty Dancing, Havana Nights (2003) he has a cameo as an instructor and he starred in One Last Dance (2003), co-starring, directed and written by Lisa Niemi. This is a serious dance film, based on the couple’s experience as professional company dancers in New York, with choreography by Doug Varone in the late 20^th century neoclassical style. But, like all true dance material, it failed to cross into the mainstream. Nevertheless, it does illustrate where Swayze’s allegiances lie.

Swayze always related well to the media and the public, regarding the “dog and pony show” of media rounds and public appearances as an essential part of his work. As a veteran of the live stage, he had an implicit understanding of the role of the audience in a performer’s work, which is so well summed up in the words of Australia’s ballet great, Robert Helpmann, “You don’t become a star. The public make you a star.” Working the crowd is a key part of your work. Likewise, an open, easy relationship with the press actually gets the tabloids off your back, especially if, like Swayze, you don’t think of yourself as a star. Choosing to live a relatively ordinary everyday life outside the reaches of Hollywood, running two ranches, tending animals, managing conservation projects and pursuing personal interests, kept Swayze in touch with an ordinary, mundane reality. Dance, with its exacting physical demands, was also always a part of that everyday life. One way or another, you not only have to work out to maintain condition, you need to move, you want to move. Right up until his final illness, Swayze maintained excellent form and it had everything to do with his ballet background. For him ballet was second nature. In an interview about Point Break, he said skydiving was easy,”like ballet in the air.” Conversely, “Surfing was not easy to master, it’s a sport that would take you your whole life to master.” If you look at the movie, Swayze is faking the surfing very convincingly. What needs to be understood, is that to attain professional standard as a ballet dancer, you already have devoted just about your whole life to reach that point.

“Dancing is like a magic place, it’s like living in a beautiful storybook, where you can fly, if you want to…” so says Patrick Swayze’s character Travis, to his screen daughter in One Last Dance.

Swayze liked to fly on stage and off. In 2000, he emergency landed his Cessna on a dirt road in Arizona. Although there is a lot of tabloid colour to the story’s details – he may have been drunk, he may have had litres of booze stashed in the plane, he definitely had his dogs with him – fact is, he was obviously a skilled pilot and a man of physical adventure, with enough mastery over space and motion to not fear risking life and limb the way the rest of us mortals do.

But Swayze was mortal and even though he was willing to get up at 4 am every morning to kick start his organs in his fight against pancreatic cancer, he could not keep repeating this heroic daily battle forever. His forthright discussion of his physical condition, and his way of dealing with it, in an exclusive interview with American TV presenter Barbara Walters, gives a glimpse of the intense physical self-awareness that underlies talent for movement art.

I came across Patrick Swayze’s work by chance, walking past a TV screen showing Ghost. Swayze was in motion, running and climbing; I was rivetted. When I learned who it was, I remembered having read that he was a Joffrey old boy. However, when it comes to dance, many are called but few are chosen and if you leave, it’s a bit like leaving a monastic order. Ballet, in particular, is a very insular world. Luckily, by that stage, I’d already broken out and was seriously indulging a hot new passion for Chinese martial art (Wing Chun Kung Fu, Cheung style). My aesthetic snobbery about film had been whacked out of me by mega doses of Hong Kong action cinema featuring stars like Jackie Chan, rigorously trained in the greulling physical art of Chinese Opera. Naturally, I watched every Swayze opus I could track down. Now there will be no more.

Vale Patrick Swayze – ballet dancer, actor, cowboy
(18/8/1952-14/9/2009)

Blazenka Brysha 17/10/2009

BLOGOGRAPHY
http://www.cracked.com/blog/tribute-to-patrick-swayze-2nd-best-film-star-of-all-time/
Why Patrick Swayze was the Second Best Movie Star Ever – very funny tribute by Seanbaby; a companion piece to the above

YOUTUBEOGRAPHY illustrated reference
http://www.youtube.com/watcsh?v=AVk3mR2UhgI&feature=related
Point Break trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ikfz-S6Tjo
Road House trailer – also has glimpse of Tai Chi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo&feature=related
Time of My Life finale of Dirty Dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC-YSIsBGLs
One last dance Swayze, Niemi and George De La Pena extended trio sequence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y0TWOttkVo&NR=1
Patrick Swayze dancing with Lisa Niemi at an awards ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVi4PUx8bXk
Patrick Swayze singing She’s Like the Wind, which he co-wrote
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9droD_nQE&feature=related
Barbara Walters 7/1/2009 interview (a portion)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWkk4jpEedQ
Jackie Chan and Benny “The Jet” Urquidez in a dining room; no real furniture was damaged in the making of this movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2lBCSpdbAc&feature=related
To Wong Foo (Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar)

PATRICK SWAYZE QUOTES
Dancing is like a magic place, it’s like living in a beautiful storybook where you can fly if you want to, you can reach up and grab a star.
Swayze’s character Travis – One Last Dance

Skydiving is like ballet in the air or gymnastics. Surfing was not easy to master. It’s a sport that would take you a whole life to master.
Point Break interview on Japanese TV

Interview with Barbara Walters, January 2009 – excerpts:
-The issue is, when do you decide that the fight isn’t matching up to your quality of life…I plan on spending a lot of time on a horse…and seeing if I can accomplish the things I want to do…in this lifetime, like nurturing my forest. We spent a lot of money on some of the best foresters in the country to help us design a 200-year forest stewardship plan that we have almost pulled off in 15 years. If I can leave those kinds of legacies by way of example…I’m a happy man.
-We’re all dying, it’s only a matter of when.
-It (The Beast) had an incredible timely energy, this character of mine just felt right for my soul…this guy that breaks the rules, that is unorthodox and lives by the art of war and fights non-stop.
I was never collapsing on the set…nobody ever saw me whine, moan like a girly-loser man. If I had a six o’clock call, I had to get up at 3 o’clock just to get the plumbing going. The cancer shuts off the exit from your stomach, it shuts off all the bile ducts out of your liver. If you shut off those bile ducts, all the toxins start dumping into your body. That’s where the jaundice comes from, that’s where you start going downhill really quickly. It takes me hours to get things flowing in both directions…There’d be many mornings where I’d be curled up on the bath mat, just this side of a scream so I didn’t wake Lisa up.
If it’s about pain, I can deal with it, I can rage my way through it.
When you’re shooting, you can’t do drugs. I can’t do hydrocodone or Vicodin or these kinds of things that take the edge of your brain and in 5 months, I missed a day and a half of work because I had the sniffles.
I’d be very specific when I’m lying on the bathroom mat, curled up, “you son of a, you’re not going to beat me.”
The tabloids say, “Patrick is winning the battle against cancer.” I’m not winning the battle against cancer – what winning is to me, is not giving up. No matter what’s thrown at me, I can take it, I can keep going.
With cancer, we have nothing but caveman tools. You fight a monster with poison (chemotherapy). How much of that poison can your body take, can you still keep functioning? One thing it gives you is colonitis and seriously inflamed bowels. What most people don’t understand, it’s not the cancer that tries to kill you, it’s the plumbing, it’s all the things that are around the cancer.
-(Alternative treatment) I do very specific immune system Chinese herbs but not much. One of the pieces of advice you get is, (if) you feed your body, you feed the voracious, insatiable appetite of the cancer. What makes you stronger, can feed the cancer. It’s just gonna pour gasoline on the cancer…one thing I’m not going to do is chase staying alive. You spend so much time chasing staying alive, you won’t live.
-(Still smoking) I’ve been dealing with one thing at a time as it comes, in the order that it’s trying to kill me. Will stopping smoking now change anything? No, but when it looks like I’ll live longer than five minutes, I’ll drop cigarettes like a hot potato. Right now, it’s not my priority.
-If I leave this earth, I want to leave knowing I tried to give something back and tried to do something worthwhile with myself. That keeps me going. That gets me up in the morning. My work is my work; my work is what I do.
-I’ve said that I was on borrowed time since I was 30 years old, I’ve had 159 lives but I plan on shaking this tree. When they say what your options are, you get busy living or get busy dying.

]]> http://turntherightcorner.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/get-the-eff-out-10-great-films-you-didnt-know-were-directed-by-women/ Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:52:45 +0000 turntherightcorner http://turntherightcorner.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/get-the-eff-out-10-great-films-you-didnt-know-were-directed-by-women/

Thanks to The Film School Rejects, they have compiled a pretty good list of some great films you never would have guessed that were picked up and directed by women. Whodathunk?!

10. Real Genius (1985)

The Director: Martha Coolidge

The Pitch: In addition to creating Introducing Dorthy Dandridge and Valley Girl, Martha Coolidge is the director who helped introduce Val Kilmer to the world by delivering a highly quotable comedy that doubles as a demonstration of gravity. Plus, Coolidge also acted as the President of the Directors Guild when she wasn’t blowing up houses with popcorn.

9. Titus (1999)

The Director: Julie Taymor

The Pitch: Roman orgies and people getting spoons shoved down their throats. It’s always nice to see something brutal, violent and sexual come from the mind of a female director, and working with Sir Anthony Hopkins on your first directing job takes brass buttons.

8. American Psycho (2000)

The Director: Mary Harron

The Pitch: For those of you who thought it took a man’s touch to have Christian Bale murder some prostitutes with a chainsaw, it took Mary Harron’s sensibilities to bring the sheer endless joy of a serial killing megalomaniac to life. Harron also wrote the screenplay, keeping the dark tone of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel very much in tact. Sort of makes the arguments that the film is sexist seem silly doesn’t it?

7. Point Break (1991)

The Director: Kathryn Bigelow

The Pitch: I realize that everyone knows The Hurt Locker was directed by Kathryn Bigelow because we’ve been shouting its praises from the rooftops, but Bigelow busted out the action early on with what may very well be the greatest movie featuring surfing robbers in presidential masks. For context, Point Break is prominently homaged right next to action auteur Michael “Awesome” Bay’s Bad Boys II in Hot Fuzz.

6. Billy Madison (1995)

The Director: Tamra Davis

The Pitch: The concept of showing some boobies for every right answer might have come from Adam Sandler’s mind, but it took a woman to shoot it. Tamra Davis delivered what might have been the most random comedy of the decade alongside her other flicks – CB4 and Half Baked. It’s clear that she was plugged into the SNL mentality of the time, and has created more than enough good movies for us to forgive Crossroads. Almost.

5. Hideout in the Sun (1960)

The Director: Doris Wishman

The Pitch: Oh, exploitation. Has a better plot ever existed than two robbers taking a girl hostage and heading back to her nudist camp to hide out? No. That’s the short answer. This film should be championed for the sheer amount of casual nudity involved no matter who was at the wheel. Doris Wishman wrote and co-directed this camp masterpiece and would go on to gain a cult following as a sexploitation filmmaker gaining notoriety as a female Ed Wood (while Ed Wood would gain appropriate notoriety as a male Doris Wishman).

4. Wayne’s World (1992)

The Director: Penelope Spheeris

The Pitch: Party time. Excellent. Coming off of the fantastic musical documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, Spheeris was tapped to direct the Mike Myers/Dana Carvey jump from sketch comedy to feature length stardom and would go on to direct Black Sheep for two other SNL alums. As such, she’s also directly responsible for us banging our heads like idiots every time Bohemian Rhapsody comes on in the car.

3. Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)

The Director: Amy Heckerling

The Pitch: Widely regarded as one of the best high school movies of all time, and one of the funniest coming-of-age comedies, Fast Times was the starting point for more than a handful of famous actors, actresses and a few Academy Award winners. Cameron Crowe gets due credit for writing the script, but you should also be thanking Amy Heckerling when you order a pizza in class.

2. Big (1988)

The Director: Penny Marshall

The Pitch: Leave it to a woman to create one of the movies that resonates the most with men of every age. And a movie that technically includes some hot statutory rape. He was only 13, Elizabeth Perkins! Marshall is also the mind who brought us Tom Hanks Peeing For a Really Long Time aka A League of Their Own.

1. Pet Sematary (1989)

The Director: Mary Lambert

The Pitch: For some reason, with a shortage of female directors in the movie business, there’s a downright drought of them in the horror world. Angela Bettis is a notable example, but Mary Lambert shines through for delivering the fantastically creepy Pet Sematary which also stands as one of the rare examples where a child is made terrifying.

Elizabeth Taylor in hospital for heart surgery.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Elizabeth Taylor said Tuesday she was going into a hospital for heart surgery and asked for prayers.

I don’t know about Liz, but my prayers have been answered!!

Thank you God!

Here come those stats!

No new Liz pics so here’s one of Liza Minelli drunk off her ass.

Sam and Tom venture into the world of Surrogates for no good reason, but emerge stronger for the experience fails to kill us. We move on talk of justice and Roman Polanski, to David Cronenberg remaking himself and to drawing a new career path for Tarantino. Next, the boys all convene to talk about a multitude of documentaries and the pilots of FlashForward and Bored to Death. The conclusion comes in tribute to Patrick Swayze, celebrating him in Road House and Point Break.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 36

Show notes will follow in a later post.

I know this is a little late for a tribute but I had to put this out here because I won’t allow the news media to trick people into believing that “Patrick Swayze, star of Ghost and Dirty Dancing has passed away”. False. Wrong. Nope. Actually, “Patrick Swayze, star of Point Break, The Outsiders, Red Fucking Dawn, Roadhouse and To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar has passed away. I bet Swayze would be up in Heaven or in the fields of Elysium or wherever just livid if he were to know that the only films of his people mentioned were Dirty Dancing and Ghost. Luckily he’s zipping around the galaxy and isn’t bothering to watch Fox News and CNN lunch hour headlines. But I have been, and I haven’t been happy. We lost a certifiable badass and not because he starred in Dirty Dancing or Ghost. Red Dawn kicks more ass in its ninety minute runtime than Floyd Mayweather even dreams of kicking in a lifetime. And Point Break, Ha!, there is literally and absolutely nothing wrong with that movie. It’s perfect. Schindler’s List, eh, good but a few flaws to point out. Point Break, perfect. Roadhouse is like taking a cycle of HGH. I get such a chub watching Swayze kick asses and restore order in that movie. But it isn’t blood engorging my member, it’s testosterone and respect for Swayze. So on that loving note I’ll end this tribute and leave you with a few vids to remember the man’s work by.

Here my first film reviews on this blog of mine. These are two films that I have seen in the past week. I am going too keep my reviews fairly short in length and give a rating out of 10 at the end.

1) Twilight – A fairly slow paced film which really draws you in. Although popular among teenage girls I did not find it soppy or unoriginal. The action sequences were fast paced and good. 7/10

2) District 9 – A really different film to anything I have seen before. Shot like a documentary and this gives it a completely different edge to other sci-fi films. The lead actor Sharlto Copley gives a very good performance and made me laugh as well. Also the graphics are very good the Aliens and there ship look realistic.  I read that the film had a smallish budget of £20 million and I hope other big action film-makers realise that sometimes less is more (Michael Bay). I heard a rumour that a us remake will be on the cards and this would really anger me as there is no point. Also you can read so much more into the film but it does not force you to. 9/10

3) Point Break- It was on TV the other day as Patrick Swayse died recently. I thought his performance in the film was good but felt the film was not. It contains a Keanu Reeves performance where he cannot deliver even the simpliest of line and also the film is incredibly silly and ridiculous and felt very outdate. Although some of the surfing scenes and bank robbery scenes where good. 5/10

先日１対１でお話しすることができた、憧れのミュージシャンに勧めてもらった映画The Hurt Lockerを早速（！）観てきました。

自爆テロや自家製爆弾テロが頻発するイラクで最も危険な任務を持つ爆発物処理班に属する兵士達の現実、人間模様や心理が描かれた作品。冒頭から爆弾解体の緊迫したシーンが連続。。中心人物はこのチームに新しく加わった爆弾解体作業人であるジェームス。事故を防ぐために慎重に作業するべきである所、危険を顧みない彼の行動やその裏側にある格闘などがとてもリアルに映し出されています。

万が一爆発があった場合から身を守るために爆弾解体人は全身を覆うスーツを着て作業するのですが、たくさんの爆弾が隠されていた車を発見して「どうせ死ぬなら、快適に死にたい」と言ってジェームスがスーツを脱ぎ捨てるシーンはとても印象的。あ、このシーン上の予告編でも見られます。。

映画は”War is a drug.”という引用で始まりますが、それを地でいくジェームスの自信と生き様に不思議と敷かれていってしまいました。主演のJeremy Rennerの演技もものすごい！

本作の監督は91年にPoint Break（ハートブルー）も撮っているKathryn Bigelow。家族を祖国に残して見えない敵と戦う男達の生き様を、どうして女性でここまでうまく描けるのかとても驚きですが、ハートブルーでもそれは達成されていたように思えます。アドレナリンを求める男達、っていうところでこの全く違う二つの映画に共通点もあるような。。

私にこの映画を薦めてくれたのは戦争の地獄を体験して、そして父親でもある人。彼がこの映画を観てどんな風に感じ、何に感動したのか、また機会があったら聞いてみたくなりました。

日本での公開は危うい？という記事をどこかで見たけれど、機会があったら皆様も観てみてくださいね。

The Hurt Locker
http://thehurtlocker-movie.com/

In hindsight, Bottle Rocket, the low budget genre mash-up that catapulted Wes Anderson and the Wilson brothers to fame, fits nicely into Andersen’s oeuvre.  Anderson has progressively raised the scope and vision of his films, but I believe Bottle Rocket is his true masterpiece. The film not only stylishly refutes the media’s portrayal of downer Generation X, it  also manages to be the best romantic comedy of the last two decades.

Bottle Rocketopens in a mental hospital and ends in a prison yard, and still achieves maintains light tone. Bignan and Anthony’s misadventures are amateurish, but their enthusiasm is never mocked. On the contrary, Wilson and Anderson write their characters as stoner saints, dreamers trying to live according to their (however absurd and delusional)  passions.   I think Bottle Rocket has a melancholic undertow to it’s zanyness, but in the end the outcasts triumph over their indifferent brethren.

(Plus, the soundtrack is not totally distracting-Wes didn’t have the budget to pick 5 of the cool, largly distracting pop nuggets, to draw attention to themselves instead of serving the story.  The songs featured for BR, one by Love and another by the Rolling Stones, are used to accentuate the dramatic high points of the movie, to great effect.)

Owen Wilson and Lumi Cavazos have palpable chemistry, and the scenes of Anthony helping Inez clean motel rooms marks at one of the funniest and unique scenes in modern romantic sub-plots. Bottle Rocket succeeds on a myriad of levels: a heist movie one minute, wistful and emotional the next; it receives my hearty endorsement for IWA’s list.

Bottle Rocket 1996

Point Break

I like that Point Break and T2: Judgment Dayare facing off in the very first round of IWA New Classics slugfest. The two films, both released in 1991, were directed by the then married Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron. By the time the films were released, they had split. I have no insight into their marriage, but the two films have irreconcilable differences. One is a the technically proficient Pandora’s box that started Hollywood’s march towards godlessness, and the other is a New Classic.

I introduce in support of my nomination, my previous article on Bigelow: http://illwatchanything.com/2009/09/12/kathryn-bigelow-and-the-exploding-man-is-point-break-a-new-classic/.  Point Break has more than enough thrills, gun fights and chases to fill any first rate action film. With age, however, the film’s campy appeal has revealed an astute skewering of Hollywood’s gun-slinging ballerinas. In T2, the heroes blow up half LA with a thrilling insurgent zeal; in Point Break, Keanu and Swayze recognize they are soul mates, and try to help each other commit suicide in a spectacular fashion.  I would rather support the latter.

Cameron has picked up Spielberg’s torch as America’s premiere button pusher, and I cant help but feel that T2:

1. helped shorten America’s attention span

2. fueled the studios’ love affair with bloated blockbusters

3. is the reason Arnold is governor of California

My recommendation, endorsement and vote goes to Point Break.

Point Break, 1991

New Classicsis a ongoing feature in which IWA contributors nominate classics films, released since 1980, for admission on the IWA 50 New Classics list.  Monday through Friday a contributor will nominate and present two films for consideration.  Saturday we IWAs converge in a secret location, vote 1-5 films onto the list, and on Sunday the results will be announced.  -T.P.

Morre aos 57 anos o ator Patrick Swayze DO MELHOR FILME DE TODOS OS TEMPOS: CAÇADORES DE EMOÇÃO entre outros que participou…

Fica a lembrança:

For the past couple weeks I’ve been slowly working my way through the work of director Kathryn Bigelow, whose latest film, The Hurt Locker, has been garnering major praise (I haven’t seen it myself). To be honest, her work left me fairly underwhelmed, but it wasn’t for lack of variety; she’s definitely not a director who works exclusively in just one or two genres. Have a look around Acme and see for yourself: she has a film each in Horror, Sci-Fi, Indy, War, and Juvee, plus three more in thriller (those three are easily the worst of the bunch: Blue Steel is Jamie Lee Curtis doing the female cop thing, with a god-awful Ron Silver as her crazed lover/nemesis; K-19: The Widowmaker is Harrison Ford doing his best Russian accent in the face of one of the most expensive independent films ever made — over $100 million, of which it failed to recoup even half; and then there’s Point Break, which needs no synopsis). All that being said, y’all should really check out her first feature-length, The Loveless.

This was Willem Dafoe’s first film, playing the young leader of a biker gang on their way to Daytona who get waylaid in a small, Podunk southern town. I haven’t seen too many films — especially low-budget, independent films — that have gotten the ’50s biker-flick look so right, and Bigelow deserves major credit for that. The bikes, the cars, the costumes and the sets — everything looks exactly as it should, and it’s all topped off with a totally kickass rockabilly score with original stuff from Robert Gordon and John Lurie. But this isn’t just your typical biker-gang-wreaks-havoc flick, as Bigelow punctuates the film with all manner of disconcerting images: from the boredom and malaise on the faces of the local help, to the vaguely-illegal oil business run by town’s antagonistic alpha-male, to the punchy, nervous atmosphere of the bar in the film’s final scene. Working with just a few set pieces, the photography is thoughtful and consistently original, and Bigelow does a wonderful job of insinuating a great deal about the pain of characters’ lives without beating you over the head with any of it. Dafoe’s performance is the real stunner — and even more so given his age and inexperience. Watching him, it’s hard not to draw comparisons to Brando’s early stuff, as he plays the role with a remarkable softness that belies the intensity of his character. Young ‘uns only familiar with the man from his Spiderman role would do well to seek this one out.