Today after I picked up kidlet from kindergarten, we jetted down to Ceres for some gloomy day movie cheer. Clue strangely put us to sleep but then Miss D, kidlet, and I watched us the crap out of some Goonies. We watched every single feature it had. Maybe even to our detriment.

One of the features we watched, which I'd never seen before in its … I'm not sure what to call it? totality?, was a two-part music video put together by director Richard Donner, theme songstress and my fantasy fairy godmother Cyndi Lauper, with a cameo by producer Steven Spielberg, to promote the film. I don't even have words for the surreality of watching the video. It was really something. I will not soon forget it. These are my neutral words.

[The video features] World Wrestling Federation pro-wrestlers André the Giant, Captain Lou Albano, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Wendy Richter, The Fabulous Moolah, The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, Freddie Blassie; Steven Spielberg; The Goonies cast (except for Kerri Green, Anne Ramsey, Joe Pantoliano, Robert Davi and John Matuszak*); and the relatively unknown Bangles as a group of female pirates. Roseanne Barr appears as the “sea hag”. Lauper’s mother appears as “Cyndi’s mother”, reprising her role from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”. — (the wiki)

*The lead cast members from the film who do not appear in this video are those playing Andy, Ma Fratelli, and the Fratelli brothers.

The plot runs like this: Cyndi’s folks run a Mom and Pop gas station that is being bought out by villains from the WWF, each attired as a different weird stereotype. Unfortunately, they also have dialogue. Cyndi and her brother? friend? and sister? his wife? are helping Mom and Pop (Cap’n Lou) pack up the ol’ place while the nouveau riche chew up the scenery and generally set up quickie symbols of their wealth such as a Benihana-type joint in the middle of the parking lot, which many consider the international sign of good taste and refinement, some to the point of exclusion. (Do not even try to talk dimsum on rollerskates to them; they will not listen.)

Cyndi discovers a secret cave behind a painting of their grand-ancestor, where she encounters the Goonies, who help her decode a map she lifted off a dead guy — real fuckin’ nice, Cyn — but then some pirates show up, and Roseanne Barr. Oh my god, nightmare combination! The Bangles are there, too, but they do not try to sing. In the chase that ensues, Cyndi stops real quick for some hibachi, creating a prevalent and provocative ongoing theme in the video.

Perhaps this is meant to make us reflect on the marketing of foreign cuisine in America, or on materialism and the ease with which an ordinary item common to one country can acquire peculiar clout in another country. Or perhaps it is merely included in order to set up a joke that is some straight racist garbage: ie, the following picture’s caption.

The pirates and the sea hag enslave the kids at murky tasks like, um, stirring big pots, and force Cyndi to dress like a Floridian prostitute while carrying buckets and singing (they do not allow her to stop singing even once).

Cyndi and her friends manage to overthrow the pirates and get away with some loot from the ship, but the “cheatin’ creditors” will not accept it as payment for Mom and Pop’s debt on the shop. Not even when she repeatedly bites it to prove its value! I know, right? If only she had offered them some fresh, dope funky fun hibachi.

As it is, Cyndi grows weary of attempting to convince the creditors to accept her jewels as payment, and whistles as one only does for a taxicab or deus ex machina. And what is it going to be?

Why, it’s Andre the Giant, and I am pretty sure he is literally still wiping coke from under his nose when he first appears! He beats up and chases away the creditors, which means the debt is legally and officially cleared forever, duh, and the video ends with this triumphant shot.

Oh, my god, I want that to happen to me every day after I die. I believe in an afterlife, unless I am in a particularly foul and doubtful and wobegone mood, and of course Andre the Giant is there waiting for me so we can finally hang out and stuff, and I hope so fervently that every single day when I greet him in Heaven he scoops me up and we cheer and do ’80s fistpumps in the air. It’s gonna be sick.

So here’s the video if after a report on all that insanity you need audiovisual confirmation of its existence.

Finally, my secret crush from this movie may be reported to be Data, because I squeal when he comes on screen, but really deep down it’s actually:

Martha Fuckin’ Plimpton. Her and Jan Brady can come live with me and finally be appreciated the way they deserve.

Reality

Rather than ruminate on how long it’s been since I last posted on this forum (17 days – I’ve been spending my “writing block” on translation projects, my dissertation and a filmography for a book), I will elaborate on a few of the major events that have marked the last two weeks.

Our film AOP, a mockumentary about a secret West German fetish, debuted at the HFF “Konrad Wolf” as part of the end of orientation festivities on Friday October 23rd.  It went over lukewarm compared with the other “Knaller” made by the other nine groups (at least 3 of which took place in a bathroom), but director Maurice M. Mohn swore to me that the film “wasn’t unsuccessful” at the party afterwards.  Speaking of THAT party:  it was held after 11:00 p.m. at a sketchy, illegal club in Kreuzkölln with no fire exits, no windows, a sketchy fridge full of bottled beer and nothing but techno beats (the latter being a plus against the other factors).  I sort of plowed my way through the packed bathroom line to reach the exit around 2:30 after quaffing a few cheap beers and yelling my way through several conversations in the smoky darkness.  An experience, to be sure.

I went to a wonderful Fulbright brunch on Sunday October 25^th held by the generous Luisa Greenfield and Ming Tsao in Kreuzberg, where I met Jacob Comenetz, a former Fulbrighter now working at the Bundespresseagentur (more on him to come) and got a pile of great book recommendations from Ming about writing about the electronic music aesthetic (you want that list? Send a comment my way!).  Later that day, I picked up Kat at the Berlin Tegel airport, who successfully got her very heavy baggage out of the terminal without a cart (or my help, since that’s how European airports work) and we ate out at Tuk-Tuk, the Indonesian restaurant down the street from us.

Having Kat around has been great for many reasons.  Here are a few:

* Cessation of married-man-long-distance loneliness;

* More satisfying sleep;

* The apartment is now warmer;

* Increased intake of generally nutritious food that tastes good;

* New impulse to plan social events and outings, and I can show her all the old stuff I’ve gotten to know;

* Celebrating birthdays and holidays is much more meaningful again!

In the first week (Oct. 26 – Nov. 1st), I purposefully overscheduled us with many social events, including coffee with Kira and Beverly and dinner with the same, carving pumpkins with Katie Weeks and Hilary Bown, Luisa’s film screening on Friday night, and a Fulbright alumni Halloween party at Joe’s Bar in Prenzlauer Berg on Saturday night with Jacob.  I did so to make Kat feel at home and connected here, which also conversely made me feel more at home and connected here as well.  Speaking of Luisa’s screening, we had a great turn-out for the two shorter, more experimental films (Light and Bridegroom… see below) but, since we started over an hour late, over half the audience missed the wonderful mess that was John Ford’s Seven Women (1966).  We hope that everybody returns for our continuing Ford/Straub pairings, as well as other assorted film gems we manage to procure.  As for the Halloween party, Kat and I went as a vampire-zombie duo who hated each other through our expressions on our T-shirts:  “Vampires Bite” and “Zombies Need Brains.”  Ha ha.

This last week has presented us with opportunities to walk around and shop (such as in Kreuzberg’s famous Bergmannstrasse), watch movies together (many reviewed below) and get our visas (by waking up at 3 a.m. and surmounting the evil LABO).  All in all a good time, and I anticipate more to come.

Professionally speaking, I’ve had some ups and downs the last two weeks.  Ups:  I spent four hours with Herr Dieter Kosslick, director of the Berlinale, and two hours with Dr. Gottfried Langenstein, director of ARTE; I’ve found hundreds of newspaper articles with revealing insights on the reception of the Indianerfilme in East Germany; I’ve met up with Reinhild Steingröver of the University of Rochester and established contact with several other scholars working on parallel topics to my dissertation.  Downs: I lost my first month’s worth of book/film notes due to a faulty data back-up attempt, so I’ve got another 10 hours of work to do in reconstructing it.  This is the way it goes.

And one final note:  if you’re ever on Akazienstrasse in Schöneberg, DO NOT eat at the South Indian restaurant called Chennai Dosai, not only because their food is not particularly good, but because they played the opening track from the Hrithik Roshan sci-fi Bollywood film Koi Mil Gya (2003) on a loop THE ENTIRE TIME WE SAT THERE.  It was a unique form of tourist torture, though I’m sure they weren’t expecting a customer who knew the film.

Fantasy

Posse (dir. Mario van Peebles, USA 1993)

Woody Strode, Big Daddy Kane, and many other prominent African-Americans star in this somewhat violent, misogynist and cliché Western.  Its primary contradiction lies in its seeming original mission – to re-insert African-Americans into a Western film tradition absolutely dominated by actors coded as “white” -  and its aesthetic outcome – a cheap Leone treasure/revenge plot with a lot of melodramatic cheese and macho strutting from Van Peebles.  The fact that I couldn’t really read the blocky explanatory text at the end didn’t really detract from the palpably saccharine coating that Van Peebles put on this piece of macho-masculine self-glorification.

The Treasure of Silver Lake (dir. Harald Reinl, FRG/France/Yugoslavia 1963)

The film that started the whole Euro-Western trend, and a completely necessary entry in the cinema books next to adventure films such as Errol Flynn’s Captain Blood (1935)or Lucas’ and Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).  The superhuman duo of Winnetou (Pierre Brice) and Old Shatterhand (Lex Barker) stumble upon an injustice committed (the murder of Götz George’s German immigrant father) and a treasure to discover.  Let’s just say that, on a superficial level, the film absolutely delivers:  colorful landscapes, bold action sequences, and plot twists that still convince the 8 year-old inside of you.  You only think about the crazy exoticism of the whole charade afterwards…

The Sons of Great Bear (dir. Josef Mach, GDR 1966)

The East German response to Reinl and Wendlandt’s Winnetou films, The Sons of Great Bear is the most “historically accurate” of all the DEFA Indianerfilme and also one of the most visually compelling.  That being said, Mach had little idea how to direct an action sequence, so the ending fight scene is confusing and frustrating to say the least, not to mention more-or-less tacked on to Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich’s original source material.  The press reviews made sure to note how much actor Gojko Mitic’s physique looked like the “real-life” Shoshone, though their basis on which to judge that comes from other Westerns’ portrayal of Native Americans.  Hmmm….

Little Big Man (dir. Arthur Penn, USA 1970)

Thomas Berger’s picaresque about the only white survivor of Little Bighorn, a man brought up by the Cheyenne (a.k.a. the human beings) named Jack, is expertly executed by Penn, if awkwardly assembled as a whole.  General Custer’s portrayal in the film is nothing short of brilliant – an arrogant prick more than a proper villain – and the Cheyenne are given a lot of positive screen-time.  Of course, Dustin Hoffman’s Jack dominates the majority of the film, with mixed results.

Battleship Potemkin (dir. Sergei Eisenstein, Russia 1925)

Restored 35mm print containing all the original scenes?  Check.
Live accompaniment by an adept pianist?  Check.
Kat’s first time seeing a leftist modernist classic?  Check.
I really can’t say anything more, other than that the Kino Arsenal has a special place in my heart.

Trick ‘r Treat (dir. Michael Dougherty, USA 2008)

A kind of Four Rooms treatment of Halloween, Trick ‘r Treat is a very smooth movie with regard to horror clichés, playing on one’s expectations, and the usual twists and turns one expects of even the slasher genre nowadays.  One should watch this with one’s tongue firmly in cheek, even through all the horrifying bits.  I say no more.

The Omen (dir. Richard Donner, UK/USA 1976)

Um… Gregory Peck’s character is kind of dumb?  This is at least what the film suggests, after one is led through a constant barrage of corroborating evidence that demonstrates his son is the antichrist, and he still doesn’t seem to get it.  Oh well:  there are many other films with evil children that work with the formula that The Omen put forth, so I suppose it’s influential.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (dir. Stephen Norrington, USA 2003)

This was the second time I’ve seen the film, and the second time I’ve seen it in Berlin (the last time was with Mary Brandel in 2003 – and I hated it then too.)  Alan Moore’s excellent graphic novel was to be transformed into a grand piece of pulp, and instead turned into a nightmarish gobbledy-gook of lame special FX (including the atrocious Venice sequence), too many characters running around (including “Tom Sawyer,” their worst revision), and sequel-baiting (the *ahem* “ending”).  Stuart Townsend is about the only redeeming feature of this feature, and that’s because he’s so damn charming in any case.

V for Vendetta (dir. James McTeigue, UK/Germany 2006)

Another slightly second-rate “good” film from the Wachowski Brothers, V for Vendetta continuously bills itself as a smart action thriller which raises bits of moral ambiguity for the postmodern cinema-goer, but is ultimately far too utopian about the power of the masses to stomach.  Alan Moore wasn’t nearly as idealistic as this, and far more critical of the respective places within society that Evie, V and the masses inhabit.  You can tell through the exquisite detail of the sets that the Babelsberg people worked on this one, though.

Genau Gleich (dir. Burkhart Wunderlich, Germany 2009)

A film that I’m currently subtitling for Burkhart about an incestuous relationship between German-Polish twins and an old woman on a bench waiting for Elvis.  An absolutely brilliant concluding shot is likely to give this one high marks at the Berlinale if, indeed, we manage to get the film into competition.

Light (dir. Marie Menken, USA 1964)

Dizzying Christmas lights, spinning motion, elliptical editing.  The lost American avant-garde.  Shall we see it again?

The Bridegroom, the Comedienne and the Pimp (dir. Jean-Marie Straub, Daniele Huillet, FRG 1968)

I must’ve seen this film something like eight or nine times since I’ve come to UMass.  Nevertheless, the mixture of prostitutes against an industrial backdrop, Ferdinand Bruckner’s “The Pains of Youth” by Fassbinder’s antitheater group, and the intense chase/marriage sequence at the end never fail to incite thoughts of alternatives to mainstream cinema and new spatial configurations of narrative.

Seven Women (dir. John Ford, USA 1966)

Ford’s last film is an outright laugh riot starring Anne Bancroft as a self-confident doctor who winds up in a doomed community of American missionaries in Mongolia.  Oh wait – this wasn’t supposed to be funny?  Then perhaps there’s too much Sirkian irony in this overstuffed, full-color studio epic, which is probably why the film was buried after its creation:  Ford’s film is trapped between gender and a hard place.   Oh yeah, and there’s actually eight women, but one of them happens to be Chinese…

Coraline (dir. Henry Selick, USA 2009)

Coraline is a well-executed animated feature in glorious 3D that was screened at the HFF as part of our overall 3D research project.  Many of the fantastic landscapes, both interiors and exteriors, are enhanced by the 3D effects, but these effects don’t overwhelm the adaptation from the original text.  What does overwhelm the adaptation is the inclusion of a male character who has to save Coraline’s butt in the end, classifying it as yet another film with a strong female character who needs a man to both tame and save her.  Why can’t Hollywood ever be done with its male heroes?

G-Force (dir. Hoyt Yeatman, USA 2009)

Most 3D films rely on re-vamped spatial relations that make tighter spaces seem even tighter and wide open spaces seem glorious.  So what better means of exploring tight spaces and big vistas than making a supremely small cast, through whose eyes we must view the world?  Such is the visual premise of G-Force, which has guinea pig commandos saving the world from a silly plot in a classic Jerry Bruckheimer fashion.  Nevertheless, the effects are convincing and most of the side-plots are not particularly annoying.  I would say:  Mr. Yeatman’s background in visual FX for advertising and trailers paid off in a big way for the film, though its effects scenes are so pronounced as to make all of the dialog sequences seem drawn-out and dull.  Definitely a movie that attempts to satiate a hyper-active age group.  Critics who don’t fully “get” 3D films and who are thoroughly in Pixar’s camp are liable to hate it,  but I can root for it from the sidelines.

Les Voyeurs #86 – Les Arnaques

Diffusion le : jeudi 5 novembre 2009 à 18h sur RGO / vendredi 6 novembre 2009 à 18h sur Radio 16.
Rediffusion le samedi 7 novembre 2009 à 10h sur RGO.
En téléchargement pendant une semaine ici.
Et en écoute permanente là.

Actualité

Avant-premières aux Arcades : A l’origine de Xavier Giannoli mardi 10 novembre à 19h30 (tarif unique : 5€) 2012 de Roland Emmerich mardi 10 novembre à 21h30 (tarif unique : 5€)
Aux Arcades d’Alès : Mademoiselle Chambon de Stéphane Brizé, Irène d’Alain Cavalier, This is it de Kenny Ortega en VO, Mission G de Hoyt Yeatman en 3D, Micmacs à tire-larigot de Jean Pierre Jeunet.
David Lynch présente un documentaire sur son film Inland Empire et l’Interview project au Festival Les Inrocks Dimanche 8 novembre au Comptoir général.
La Révélation en avant première le 6 novembre à Bordeaux, St Étienne… Sortie en février 2010.
Raymond Depardon en Languedoc-Roussillon : dernière étape de cette opération commencée le 14 mars dernier au 27e Festival Cinéma d’Alès – Itinérances du 6 novembre au 31 janvier à Montpellier. Le programme ici.
24e Festival International du Cinéma d’Animation de Baillargues du 8 au 25 novembre a comme invité d’honneur Bill Plympton. Le programme ici
Thor de Kenneth Branagh : Odin sera joué par Anthony Hopkins il rejoint sur ce projet Natalie Portman et Robert de Niro.
Action de la fédération nationale des cinémas français “Pour manifester leur vive inquiétude auprès des pouvoirs publics face à leur situation économique dégradée, les 2100 cinémas de France s’unissent pour une opération symbolique en éteignant leurs enseignes lumineuses le mercredi 4 novembre de 18h à 19h” Article de La Marseillaise du 6 novembre ici

Dossier de la semaine : Les Arnaques

Arnaques de voleurs
A l’origine de Xavier Giannoli sortie mercredi 11 novembre
Neuf reines de Fabian Bielinsky
Cash d’Éric Besnard

David Mamet : passionné par l’arnaque
Engrenages (Bienvenue au drive-in)
La prisonnière espagnole

Faites vos jeux :
Las Vegas 21 de Robert Luketic
Maverick de Richard Donner
Les Joueurs de John Dahl
L’Inconnu de Las Vegas de Lewis Milestone

Ocean’s 11 (et 12 et 13) de Steven Soderberg
L’Arnaque de Georges Roy Hill
Les Arnaqueurs de Stephen Frears

Guy Ritchie : arnaques alambiquées
Arnaques, crimes et botanique
Snatch : Tu braques ou tu raques
Revolver
RocknRolla

La bande originale de la semaine :

Générique par Miles Davis.
Extrait de la bande originale du film Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (1957) de Louis Malle.

Chronique : La Carte postale sétoise

John Huston de Patrick Brion éd. La Martinière

Musique :
Miserable lie par The Smiths

Extraits :
A l’origine
La Prisonnière espagnole
Maverick
Ocean 11
L’Arnaque
Snatch

Présentation : Erik Antolin, Jérôme Bauzon
Carte Postale : Jan Jouvert
En quarantaine : Cédric Cance
Réalisation : Jérémie Adrian

O filme é bonzinho,  mas a música dos créditos…

PS1: Segundo o Petiscos, ontem foi aniversário da Julia Roberts. Como a gente A-D-O-R-A ela, vale ver o trailer de Teoria da Conspiração, lançado em 1997.

PS2: E seria Jerry Fletcher o Melhor Fã? Lembra como ele definia o amor por Alice?   

Love gives you wings. It makes you fly. I don’t even call it love. I call it Geronimo. When you’re in love, you’ll jump right from the top of the Empire State and you won’t care, screaming “Geronimo” the whole way down. I love her so bad, I just… whoa, she wrecks me. I’d die for her.

GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

PS3: E todo mundo sabe, mas não custa ressaltar que a Julia fará par com o Javier Bardem na versão de Comer, Rezar e Amar.  Veja a notícia do Ego e confira o meu trecho favorito do livro de Elizabeth Gilbert aqui.

En primer lugar hablar del ya confirmado retorno de Logan/Lobezno a las pantallas. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” tuvo el suficiente éxito como para provocar una secuela. Lauren Shuler Donner, esposa del mítico Richard Donner y productora de todas las películas mutantes hasta la fecha afirmaba hace poco que una nueva entrega del mutante canadiense está confirmada y que en esta ocasión la historia se centraría en el pasado de Logan en Japón. Así, se repasa la mítica etapa de Frank Miller a bordo de la cabecera del mutante canadiense. Shuler Donner, añadía que aparecería Mariko, uno de los grandes amores de Logan y que probablemente la secuela se rodaría (al menos en parte) en el país del sol naciente.

El que tiene una posible secuela más en el aire es Magneto. David Goyer, que escribió junto a Cristopher Nolan, el guión de Batman Begins y su excelente secuela, escribió un guión, pero no es probable que se materialice en breves. Lo que si parece seguro es que Ian McKellen no saldría en ella.

Más mutantes. “X- Men: First” Class está en camino. Hablamos de lo que sería otra precuela con los mutantes míticos cuando eran jóvenes y estudiaban en el colegio de Charles Xavier.  Lauren Shuler Donner, también encargada de este proyecto, afirmaba que querían dar un tono oscuro al film y acercarlo al estilo del comic.

Otra secuela que parece confirmada es la de Deadpool (o Masacre como se conoce aquí). Asegura Donner que va a ser un reboot del personaje, obviando completamente lo visto en el spin-off de Lobezno. Quieren dar a la película un tono sarcástico y oscuro. Parece, eso si, que Ryan Reynolds volverá a ser el personaje.

Queden servidos de mutantes por ahora….

Mos Def and Bruce Willis, what an odd pairing.

Tasked with escorting chatty prosecution witness Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) from police custody to a nearby courthouse, aging New York City cop Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) reluctantly gears up for the 16-block trek. But with powerful forces intent on keeping them from reaching their destination, they’ll be lucky to make it there alive.

Bruce Willis like in many of his film’s as of date, has basically played that same hard-nosed cop who turns superhero when things go array. Director Richard Donner has directed all of the Lethal Weapon films and knows how to do these buddy-cop thriller action films, and this shows he hasn’t lost any of his touch.

The storyline to this so called “great concept” that I just stated could have been put together better than it was. I’m not a film writer or director so I don’t know what exactly could have made the storyline better, but I’m just saying that it could have been better. Some scenes did drag on a little bit too long and the film didn’t create too much of a character personality for the two leads to get us to care for them.

The performances from the trio of leads are great. Mos Def is really good in this film and does make this film if his voice doesn’t annoy you enough. He brings a lot to the table and is not like many other rapper’s turned actor’s that we have seen before, he’s actually pretty good. Bruce Willis I think does relive the Die Hard character within him a little bit too much but makes this one more compelling and more tragic to where we feel sympathy and root for him. The one great thing about the two is how their connection in the beginning of the film is not good but as the film progresses the two gain a great deal amount of chemistry between the two and it actually feels real. David Morse also does a very good job at playing the villain as usual.

A lot of the action scenes though do seem done before are actually well-played out and just create a step to have another clever twist in the story. The film is not very comedic but takes all that away with it’s over the top action. I enjoyed the ending and thought it was very sympathetic but strong at the same time and fully made this film.

Consensus: 16 Blocks features strong performances from it’s trio of leads and has some high-quality action but may seem a bit too predictable and doesn’t add much to thrillers.

6.5/10=Rental!!!

Comme j’adore le mois d’Octobre, l’Halloween et les films d’horreur, j’ai décidé de faire le premier Horreur-o-thon des Bipolaires! En effet, j’écouterai un film de peur par jour jusqu’au 31, alors revenez lire mes critiques quotidiennes…si vous en avez le courage! MOUAHAHAHAAA!

—-

Je serai bref car je veux aller faire dodo.  La vague de films d’horreur/thriller à connotations religieuses des années 70 était vraiment une mine d’or pour le genre.  The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby et The Omen sont tous excellents et déstabilisants, mettant en scène des enfants et/ou des mères.  Dans The Omen, la terreur est provoquée surtout par le fait qu’un enfant est supposément le fils du Diable.  En effet, un être censé être protégé doit maintenant être tué…par son père.  Le dilemme est mis en lumière tout au long du film, autant par le personnage principal (Gregory Peck) que par le spectateur lui-même, qui hésite à vouloir la mort du bambin (mot copyright TVA).  Finalement, même si vous n’êtes pas des fanatiques religieux (en fait, SURTOUT si vous n’êtes pas des fanatiques religieux!), vous aimerez l’atmosphère lugubre et fataliste de The Omen de Richard Donner.

Note finale: 8.5/10

——

Meilleure citation: “Have no fear, little one… I am here to protect thee.” (La nounou de l’enfer!)

Meilleure mort: Keith le photographe perd la tête! HAHAHA! Quel jeu de mot exquis!

Y’as-tu des tits?!:  Non.

Saviez-vous que…:  Il y aurait une malédiction après le film? Voici in extrait de IMDB:

Having changed its title from “The Antichrist” to “The Birthmark,” the film seemed to fall victim to a sinister curse. Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK…yet BOTH planes were struck by lightning. While producer Harvey Bernhard was in Rome, lightning just missed him. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA; he was also struck by a car. After Peck canceled another flight, to Israel, the plane he would have chartered crashed…killing all on board. On day one of the shoot, several principal members of the crew survived a head-on car crash. The jinx appeared to persist well into post-production… when special effects artist John Richardson was injured and his girlfriend beheaded in an accident on the set of A Bridge Too Far (1977).

New York. Vede complotti dappertutto il paranoico e mitomane taxista Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson), tanto che vive in un appartamento bunker, zeppo di documenti e dossier. Sembra un mattoide, ma non lo è: c’è qualcosa nel suo passato che ha dimenticato, ma che potrebbe ricordare. All’inizio il grazioso procuratore al ministero della Giustizia e figlia di un incorruttibile giudice assassinato, Alice Sutton (Julia Roberts), continuamente tampinata, anche per ragioni sentimentali, non gli dà retta. Poi quando il tassista è sequestrato dal dottor Jonas (Patrick Stewart), malvagio psichiatra dei servizi segreti, cui sfugge per miracolo, deve per forza ricredersi. Ma ora diventa con lui il bersaglio di una potente sezione deviata della CIA, anzi c’è chi sospetta sia proprio lui il misterioso killer del giudice federale, padre della ragazza. Che paura e quante trappole prima di arrivare alla verità. Prodotto da Joel Silver per la Warner, scritto da Brian Helgoland (1961, Oscar per L.A. Confidential) e diretto da Richard Donner, è un thriller inverosimile, logorroico ed emozionante, a tratti nelle sagaci scene d’azione, a cavallo tra spionaggio e fanta (forse fantissima) politica, che parte a razzo e poi vivacchia disperdendosi tra i ghirigori rosa e i buchi del copione. Una storia stramba, in bilico sull’assurdo, durante la quale Mel Gibson urla dall’inizio alla fine e Julia Roberts sbatte gli occhioni il doppio del solito.

 Um dos heróis mais icônicos do mundo. Praticamente um mito. Personagem de maior fama da DC Comics. Entretanto tais títulos parecem ter sido esquecidos pelo cinema.

A trajetória do Homem de Aço começou na década de 70 com Richard Donner e o eterno Christopher Reeve como o último filho de Krypton. Apesar do passado glorioso nos cinemas, passados anos, esse herói não voltou com o mesmo prestígio que um dia o consagrou.

Mesmo obtendo uma boa volta com Superman Returns (2006), tornando-se o quinto filme da série e sendo dirigido por Bryan Singer (X-Men), ainda assim não foi suficiente para que a Warner Bros. mostrasse interesse em continuar. Deveria?

Claro que sim. Hoje talvez aconteça um arrependimento por parte dos mesmos, sem contar ser uma grande contradição vindo do mesmo estúdio que bancou um novo começo de Batman virando uma das maiores bilheterias do mundo e altamente elogiado. Então qual é o problema de ser feito o Homem de Aço como nos quadrinhos? Como nos desenhos?

Apesar dos cultuados filmes do passado, o presente é outro e consequentemente, mudanças são necessárias. O que eu não entendo é como num meio em que tantos filmes “fracos” criativamente falando são sucessos e personagens que deveriam ser valorizados são postos num patamar de insegurança? É uma discussão complicada.

Fato é que Superman está por atravessar péssimos momentos. Há pouco tempo a Warner Bros. perdeu uma batalha judicial sobre os direitos do personagem para as herdeiras do criador do kryptoniano, Jerome Siegel. Agora, o estúdio possuí um prazo de até 2011 para produzir um filme do herói ou será processado por danos. Além disso, em 2013 tendo feito um longa ou não, os direitos passam todos para para as famílias dos criadores.

Quais rumos podem surgir para Kal-EL/Clark Kent nas telonas? Mudança de estúdio? Um abandono por mais anos até que uma boa alma resolva investir no personagem? Sei apenas, que independente de gostos, Superman marcou épocas, pessoas, o mundo inteiro para nunca mais sair.

Atualmente, além dos quadrinhos, que particularmente não me atraem tanto, principalmente por muitas histórias confusas que são criadas fazendo uma salada de frutas, só é possível conferir o Superman no seriado Smallville, contando nem já mais a adolescência de Clark Kent, mas já estando na sua vida adulta, chegando na 9ª temporada. Infelizmente, o seriado também perdeu seu rumo depois de um bom começo, mas em termos de live-action, é a única coisa que temos.

Guilherme Jr.

Back in August I posted the news that James McTeigue (Ninja Assassin) was working on a film following the last five days of Edgar Allan Poe called The Raven. First Showing recently caught up with him and asked him for some more info about the film.

It’s about a serial killer loose in 1850s Baltimore. And as his motif, he kills people the way Poe kills them in his books. Sounds cool, but will it be more horror or action based?

“Yea there’s a couple of [action] set pieces, I wouldn’t say it’s action [though], it’s more a thriller. It’s about Poe trying… At each murder that he does, the killer leaves a clue, and basically Poe is set against the clock to find someone before they die. So each murder that he does, he leaves a clue for him. So I would say it’s like a thriller, a dark thriller. Sort of in the vein of of that book The Alienist, in that kind of vein.”

He was then asked if there was any truth in the rumour that he was involved in a new Superman film along with the Wachowski Brothers (or are they brother and sister now?):

“Maybe some truth to… I’ve had some discussions, the Wachowskis to a lesser degree, but the Superman franchise is in a strange kind of place at the moment, I think they’re still trying to work out the mechanics of how that can come together.”

“I think I would be interested in doing it if they let me do it the way I wanted to do it. I would say that, if you take the Richard Donner Supermans and the last Superman [from Bryan Singer], I think that Superman is probably ripe for a bit of a change up. I think society has changed around the core idea of what Superman was.”

“And I’m not saying you do the ubiquitous dark Superman, I’m not saying that… I’m just saying that I think there are some things that you could excise from the Superman mythology that people would get into it, if you took the world that he was in and changed that a bit, and maybe even project that into the future a bit. I think you don’t really have to play into the origin story anymore. I think there’s a whole bunch of things you could do to make that film more alive and exciting again.”

It definitely sounds as if he has the right mind set to breath new life into the Superman films. I so want to see a decent Superman film with lots of big fights, super science and all round coolness.

For the better part of three years, I have been eagerly anticipating the film version of the Michael Crichton novel, “Timeline”. Crichton’s paperback gem did for “time travel” what “Jurassic Park” did for paleontologists. It was smart, slick and clever novel that was in every sense of the word, Crichton. So what happened?

“Superman” and “Lethal Weapon” helmer Richard Donner directs the film adaptation of the sci-fi novel. The film finds Chris Johnston (Paul Walker) searching for his missing father, an archeology professor who was working on a dig in Dordogne Valley, France.

His father’s assistant Andre Marek (Gerard Butler) and his crew team up with the professor’s son to uncover what happened. It leads the team to the dig’s financial backers, the conglomerate ITC. It seems that ITC has uncovered a wormhole in the “space-time” continuum that leads back to 14th century France. ITC sent the professor through the wormhole as an expert but is having difficulty in retrieving him. Now it is up to the son’s team to rescue him. Can they get through the wormhole, rescue the professor and return to our time all in 6 hours? Not likely but they’ll try.

Gerard Butler takes it medieval.

There are a lot of things wrong with “Timeline” and that’s just the beginning. The script-writers have so watered down the plot that it’s hard to understand how some of the events unfold. Then there is the rather oddly fast-paced speed the film barrels along at. The whole front-end of the film is so fast and out of place that we can’t hardly follow who is who especially when there are about 12 characters thrown at us in under 20 minutes.

When the cast eventually arrives in the past the film slows down a bit but the way the 14th Century was conceived felt ever so phony. It was like they teleported back to a film set of a movie being filmed in the 14th Century. Not the actual time period.

(left to right) Paul Walker, Billy Connelly, Frances O'Connor, Neal McDonough

The very few things I liked were the performance of Gerard Butler in a leading role. In every project he always brings something heroic to the role. He was the perfect Andre Marek. I also liked the story and premise but not the way it was presented here.

From the opening scene I knew this film was a train-wreck. And I was never proven wrong. It is just amazing how so many things went wrong in so many ways with this adaptation. It was such a smart, original and exciting story. And the filmmakers forgot all those things.

2 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer.

La semana pasada se dividió entre estos tres personajes:

BRUCE WEBER

El jueves lo entrevisté durante 15 minutos. Hablar con él fue muy emocionante.

Basicamente hablamos de lo siguiente: skaters, Morrissey y perritos.

Le fascina el egocentrismo de las portadas de los discos de Morrissey en solitario. Me ganó.

Bruce Weber rehúye intelectualizar nada.

Reconoció que como cineasta le influyó el cine underground norteamericano de los 60’s.

Creo que Patrick O’Dell es una versión heterosexual de Bruce Weber.

Let’s get lost como documental no es nada del otro mundo. Sí resulta interesante como ejercicio en el que Weber pone a prueba su discurso, vital y humanista, enfrentándolo a un tema como la muerte. Es como un proceso autodestructivo, paralelo al de Chet Baker, para ver qué sobrevive . Al final sale redimensionado como cineasta. Y su torre de marfil queda intacta.

Creo que es mejor cineasta que fotógrafo. 

Me hizo ver que soy un ignorante en música africana.

JOHAN GRIMONPREZ

El viernes fui a la presentación de su última película Double take.

Double take es un film-ensayo que propone una reflexión sobre la cultura del terror post 11-S  y los mecanismos que utilizan los medios de comunicación para construir la realidad. Todo ello mezclado con un duelo entre Hitchcock y su doble.

Ron  Burrage es el doble real de Hicthcock.

Double take es inferior a Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, el anterior film de Grimonprez sobre el terrorismo y los medios de comunicación antes del 11-S , porque resulta un poco disperso. Grimonprez da con una imagen potente con lo del doble de Hitchcock pero su obsesión por ofrecer todo el rato infinitas interpretaciones del mismo tema resulta extenuante.

Para él,  Los pájaros  de Hitchcock es una metáfora de la irrupción de la televisión en los hogares a mediados del siglo XX. 

Me encantan los artistas que también son profesores. 

Grimonprez tiende a la sobreinterpretación y a cierta actitud paranoico-conspirativa que hacen que me guste mucho.

Cuando habla me hace pensar en cómo las universidades norteamericanas en los 70’s  se apoderaron de los pensadores de la French Theory y los trataban como estrellas del rock. Grimonprez conserva ese espíritu.

No pude evitar acordarme de Conspiración  de Richard Donner.

También pensé en Histoire (s) du cinema de Godard, por el uso del sonido, y en la visión poliédrica de Redacted de De Palma, muy de la era youtube.

Le preguntaron si estaba de acuerdo en comparar La pájaros con la gripe A. Después de advertirnos que la gripe A es una invención más para controlar nuestros cuerpos, puso estos dos vídeos alarmantes y reveladores:

MOMUS

El sábado vi por primera vez en directo a Momus.

Ha sido el mejor concierto que he asistido este año junto con el de Sun O))) y el de Beyoncé.

Ver a Momus en directo es ver a un superdotado cantar. Algo muy raro.

Apareció con peluca.

Momus es absolutamente relevante ahora mismo. Creo que los 00’s no se pueden entender sin él. En cambio los 90’s sí se pueden entender sin él.

Su gran obra sigue siendo su blog.

Es el paradigma de la estrella pop del presente: ultracodificada, excluyente, con vocación local y antirock. 

Es muy chula la manera que tiene de repelerte. Y como anestesia la idea de autenticidad.

El directo de Momus está en el límite de todo: es una performance, es teatro kabuki, es una deconstrucción del crooner, es una visión pop de Brecht…suena a lo peor pero funciona de un modo increíble.

Eleven Executioners fue muy guay. Me acordé mucho de cuando un amigo mío me regaló el The poison boyfriend en el 98.

Después de Albert Serra, Momus es el segundo artista al que le confieso mi admiración este año. No sé si eso es bueno o malo.

Las canciones que tocó del disco que hizo este año con Germlin me sorprendieron mucho. Me apetece escuchar el resto.

Terminó el concierto con esta versión del “Ashes to ashes” de Bowie. Banda sonora perfecta para el fin de esta década.

this just makes my heart warm.

I just read a short arcticle on Moviehole.net that there may be new hope for “Goonies 2″ after all. Apparently for some time now Corey Feldman went on record saying that it would “never happen”. Well now Feldman is back saying that there “might” be a chance for the sequel after all and that “perhaps for the first time – that a sequel is not entirely out of the picture.”

My question: is this still a good idea? If it does happen you can bet that I’ll be there in the theater to see it with an open mind. That is if it actually makes it into the theater and doesn’t go straight to dvd like the sequel Feldman did for “Lost Boys” ( which was a total stinker by the way). There was so much hype made about the Lost boys sequel espcially by the two Coreys as they cried about not originally being cast in it on their reality show. The final result a shitty sequel that pretty much turned out to be a lame remake of the first film with only Feldman actually returning.

So in 2009 is Goonies 2 still a good idea? Will Richard Donner return to direct? Will they resort to adding younger, more hip sidekicks into the mix like every other current sequel to an 80’s flick? Or will they stick with solely the original Goonies and cast them out on one last adventure? This remains to be seen but for some reason I’ve a feeling that if this movie involves an older Corey Feldman the Goonies next adventure will most likely be pretty stale…

  Could these older Goonies still pull it off?

“Man you’re really losin’ it
And you’ve really done a lot of junk now
But you keep on abusin’ it
What in the world happened to you
It’s bad enough you do it to yourself…”

The song is called What Happened to You and it is a really fun song by The Offspring. It is fun to dance to. And recently, it reminds me of Mel Gibson and the phase he seems to be getting through. You know; what with the whole thing about Christanity,divorce, 8th kid (the last one being from his girlfriend), religious movies,  bigoted comments and DUI…

(he might have gone into some trouble before but it definitely WASN”T this bad.) Yep, I even stumbled upon an online game where you were supposed to drive Mel without getting caught by the traffic police and pick up as many tequilas as possible during the way…

I know nobody is perfect. I know many celebrities are known for their extreme behavior. But come on…This is not what this guy was like. He just seemed happy to be a part of his big family (wife and 7 kids) and act in wonderful movies. Oh, you don’t remember those times? What? You also didn’t know he used to be extremely handsome too? Oh, well… Then it is time to take a look back at the good old days and cross fingers to wish he gets over this phase and shoots great movies again.

Mel, before

I spent a good deal of my teenage years watching his movies, collecting his pictures and being the ultimate fan. He was a marvelous actor/ director (I know a lot of you must have seen Braveheart but please see The Man without a Face). Close to his family and kids and a being a heartthrob (read on; you will see what I mean) and having an interesting life story, he was the perfect celebrity.

Many people think he is an Australian. His first major roles were in Australian movies. Mad Max and Tim are great, low-budget movies that gave Mel his ticket to Hollywood. Mad Max is a cult sci-fi/thriller classic and Tim is a wonderful drama about a simple man finding his place in the world. Both were shot in 1979. Mel had mastered the Aussie accent, for  he had been living in Australia since he was 12. His father moved the family so that the boys wouldn’t be subject to Vietnam War. His sister persuaded the aimless, surf-loving, flirty Mel-who was holding the odd jobs such as working at KFC, to go into film school. And  that was it. So, it has been an interesting ride to find out this American start his career and make alomst a billion dollars on his way…

Young Gibson

Mad Max

Mad Max (1979)

The country is full of lunatic criminals-motorbike gangs. Being a cop is really difficult. Hell, being anything is extremely frustrating. Young cop Max tries to get on with his life – with his wife and his kid. This is acutally the beginning of the roles where Mel proves that he can play good-guy-turned-mad-after-losing-his-loved-one(s). It is also the first movie of the Mad Max triology.

You have a young,talented American who can successfully fake accents and handle  versatile roles. Hang on- I’m getting to the versatility part…

Tim (1979)

Late 70s, Tim is a very healthy, well-built, nice and a very gorgeous (you will see this is also pointed out in the movie) young man. However he is “simple”. He isn’t very intelligent, hasn’t finished school and is making a living out of manual labor. His family is used to taking care of everything for him and love their son.

Tim’s life changes, however, when he meets an older businesswoman named Mary. He starts to work on her yard and the two develop a strong friendship over time. Mary takes Tim seriously and allows him to reach more potential than anyone has ever did. She believes in him more than his parents do. The stronfriendship is frowned upon by Tim’s older sister,though his father admires and respects Mary. His sister thinks that Mary is taking advantage of her brother. But the truth is, despite themselves, Mary and Tim have fallen for each other…

The story is heart-warming and well-acted. It is modest and true. And seriously, whatever made people think Mel Gibson couldn’t act? Not versatile enough for you, yet? It’s OK. This was in 1979, people.

Gallipoli (1981):

The official tagline from the poster: "From a place you have never heard of, comes a story you will never forget"

He has played in a Peter Wier movie called Gallipoli; a story that is not a stranger to Turkish people. Young Australian soldiers have been tempted to fight in a war that is not their own, only to face the dire consequences…It is the perfect anti-war movie, with a great male friendship in the background.

p.s: Gallipoli is in Turkey and it is one of the frontiers in the World War 1.

Mel Gibson, Gallipoli

Let’s move back to USA first.

Back in the home country:

Mrs. Soffel (1984) :

Mel with Diane Keaton

 Here, Mrs Soffel- married withchildren to the warden, falls in love withthe charming prisoner Ed. She helps him and his brother escape and failing to resist him, she goes with them…

It is romantic and thrilling. You understand why they fall for each other. Although you can’t tell for sure whether Ed is innocent until towards the end…

Mel as Ed and Diane as Mrs. Soffel

Riggs proving that he doesn't give a shit if he happened to dieLethal Weapon 2 had the addition of Joe Pesci as the crook-turned-witness and the storyline became funnier. L. Weapon had Rene Russo- a pretty agent from FBI, who was as crazy and fun as Riggs.Riggs finally got to be romantically happy again.4 was funnier in a sense that now not only Roger looked old enough to retire but Riggs was well into his 40s and he no longer could afford to be that crazy without risking some pain afterwards...Lethal Weapon 2 poster

In between Lethal Weapon series, Mel had other great,if not better, roles:

 

 

Tequila Sunrise (1988)

 

Mel Gibson starred in Tequila Sunrise, along with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell in 1988. In this movie he plays a drug dealer who decides to go legit. It is harder to get out of the business than he thought; since his ex-wife keeps pestering him for money, his cousin wants his help, cops are dying to catch his hands dirty…

Oh, complicated doesn’t even cover it. He is trying to be a normal and loving father to his young son, trying to get the attention of the girl he is in love with (Pfeiffer) and try not to get caught while trying to get out. His ex best friend, Nic(Kurt Russell) is supposed to be watching him and oh,he is also interested in the girl…It is a romantic 90’s thriller at its best. It has friendship, family, wrong choices,love and passion, cops and cops and drug dealers…And lots of grey areas. Not to mention a really hot scene with Mel and Michelle…

 

 

Bird on a Wire (1990)

 

Starring: Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn

I laughed so hard during this movie. I saw it at a time when you had to chase movies down at video stores. But I am glad I did. It is one of those action/comedy flicks where you get one as much as the other.

Mel plays Rick Jarmin-a guy who is on the FBI witness protection program so he has to keep changing identities and jobs whenever things are comprimised. But the men after Rick has acquired a corrupt agent so no longer having ass covered, Rick has to run as fast as he can.

He runs across his high school sweetheart whose still angry at him for having left her behind. Together they have to deal with heights, run away from cars and guns and deal with feelings they probably never could get over in the first place…

In Air America, he played a pilot, flying in Vietnam; and in Hamlet, he played the title role, opposite to Glenn Close’s Gertrude:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forever Young (1992)

 

Mel Gibson, Elijah Wood, Jamie Lee Curtis

Then in 1992, we got Forever Young. It was a really romantic concept: Thinking that the love of his life/his childhood friend will die, Daniel asks his scientist friend to freeze him and wake him up when she is totally gone. It is 1939 and the experiment had only been successful on animals. But Daniel was going crazy with anticipation so he went with it. But then, when he was mistakenly woken up by two kids playing around, he realized that he was in 1992. Now he had to deal with the new lifestyle and technology, with the help of his new friend (Elijah Wood) and his mother. But another problem occurs. He starts to age.

And then there is the news that his girl friend might not have died as expected…

 

 

 

 

 

The man without a Face (1993)

 

Starring: Mel Gibson, Nick Stahl

 

Justin McLeod has been labeled as the town’s freak. It is after all a fav. among any town’s men to gossip,especially when the subject is living on a recluded area, by himself and has half his face horribly burned. Kids love making horror stories about him.

Chuck is no exception. He is stuck at home with his two half-sisters and a mother who keeps changing husbands. They think he is not smart enough to get into the school he wants. Even he has started to believe it.

One day, Chuck gets to meet Justin. Chuck finds out that Justin is a teacher (or at least used to be one) and asks for his help. Reluctant at first Justin puts the boy through some interesting tests. When they start meeting regularly, the two realize they have both been needing such company. As they become teacher and student, they also start to become father and son and two closer friends.

When the townsmen hear about their sessions, they resume their favorite activity: gossiping. Since it seems impossible for them to realize the bond these two have, they make up the perfect story behind Justin’s disfigured face. After all, wouldn’t it be worth talking about if Justin happened to be having an affair with a minor-a male student when they crashed?

The movie beautifully depicts the human prejudice, trust and true friendships that know no limits…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maverick (1994)

 

Starring: Mel Gibson, James Garner, Jodie Foster

It is the big screen adaptation of the TV show Maverick in which James Garner played Maverick.

It is the MidWest…

Bret Maverick is a guy who your typical conmans and gamblers would hate. He gambles, he cheats and he tricks. He uses his wits to get out of trouble and most of the time, he succeeds.

He meets Anabelle (Foster) and she might be the one to outwit him (almost) . Both in a quest to get the money to get into a poker game ($25.000) . The journey becomes funnier when Marshal Zane (Garner) gets involved and seems to get along much better with the girl than Maverick.

It is a funny movie with lots of action,plot twists and lovely supporting actors like Alfred Molina and James Coburn. It is a must for any comedy lover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BRAVEHEART (1995)

 

Starring: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Catherine McCormack

Based on historical hero William Wallace- the man who led Scotland to freedom in the 14 th century…

Mel Gibson plays William Wallace, as well as having directed and produced it. The movie has a total of 5 oscars, and 2 of them has gone to Gibson: Best Director and Best Film. How he did not get nominated for Best Actor is beyond me. It is a difficult role to play and not only do I think he should have gotten nominated but he should have received the award as well.

You see, this is a movie that cost $ 70 million to make and the studio only offered 10. Gibson put the 60 from his own pocket. It has tremendous war scenes, physically and psycologically challenging sequences. But would I rather he got the best actor, and not the director? No, definitely not.

If you haven’t seen Braveheart or it hasn’t touched you, it suggests how opposites movie tastess can be.

But how someone can not be moved by Braveheart is so beyond me.

The story: Wallace’s father and his fellow Scots are trying to live in peace with the English. However their efforts are axed when they are tricked and hanged. Wallace is only about 12 and his father was all he got. But then 2 marvelous things happen. His estranged uncle arrives to take care of him. And little Murron (McCormack) gives Wallace a flower at the funeral.

When Wallace comes back to his village as a grown man, he is very enlightened. His uncle has taught him to use his head before teaching him how to use a sword. So here we have a man capable of making strategies as well as fight. But he is not there to fight. He is in love with Murron. So he wants to start a family and have a simple, happy life. Murron is also very intrigued to a find a well-educated Wallace (he can speak French and Latin) but also a very fun and romantic guy. She is hooked when he gives her the same flower she gave him years ago.

However the English do not feel any inclination to let the Scots live in peace. The King is even happy with the “tradition” of the English noblemen to take away the Scottish bride during their wedding. Horrified at the thought, Wallace marries Murron in secret. But the nobles notice there is something going on between them-their happiness being obvious- and they attack and kill Murron. And out goes Wallace’s plan for a peaceful life in a pacifist attitude.

He thirtsfor English blood and total freedom. And this is where Wallace’s epic journey Scots. He gathers an army and makes progress, eventually scaring off the King enough to send a princess to fake a peace offer. For one thing, the princess doesn’t know the king is trying to king’s intentions. And she is already smitten with Wallace, through his reputation. Her infatuation grows when she meets a guy who exceeds her wildest expectations. So you have a man defying a king in the name of love and freedoand a princess in love with the hero and realizing the true nature of the family she has married into…

The movie has also received an Oscar for cinematography. It lasts for very exciting 3 hours and makes you watch it again and again…It just doesn’t get more beautiful and epic than this.

Ransom (1996)

Starring: Mel Gibson, Rene Russo,  Gary Sinise, Delroy Lindo, Liev Screiber

     Mel Gibson considers ransom to be a light(er) movie; compared to Braveheart. After all, he is not directing.  Moreover it is a less challenging role. Or is it? Ransom is a thriller that comes from a very basic idea. What would you do if your child was kidnapped? OK. So  far, it is easy. You would pay it to the last penny. But Mel’s character Tom Mullen does not. After the first attempt to pay fails and he is 2 millions short and yet with no son, he makes a radical decision and announcement. On TV. Without consulting his wife or the FBI. He declares that he will not pay the 4 mil. Requested. Well, at least not to the kidnappers. It’s the price he names for their heads. The person who can get to them will be paid this amount as a reward. This shakes thinga up at home. Tom is not sure about this decision; but he is sure as hell that if he does pay- his kid will be dead anyway. The balcony scene where Tom goes out and stares down-desperate-I can’t and won’t go into details- is the one that struck me most.

 I think the plot is powerful  and acting/directing make it stronger. Mel’s wife is played by Rene Russo- his on-screen partner from Lethal Weapon 3 and 4. Head of the FBI team is Delroy Linda. The bad guys are wonderfully cast: Gary Sinise, Lili Taylor and Live Schreiber.

 

You don’t need special effects to feel your blood run cold. Nothing is as scary as a fight with your own conscience and maybe your wife-telling you that it just might be your fault-you might cause your own son to die. Our protagonist might not be a hero-in fact he does have anti-hero elements.He is human. I believe it is shame Mel Gibson’s acting wasn’t nominated for Oscar. He was nominated for a golden globe though.

 

Conspiracy Theory (1997)

Starring: Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, Partick Stewart

     Jerry Fletcher (Gibson) is easily labeled as a lunatic. He is a taxi driver who talks too much and too fast- and mostly about all sorts of government conspiracies. He is mad about Alice (Julia Roberts) who merely dismisses him as a charming and harmless stalker. He is obsessed and worried about safety- he even keeps his coffee locked. But one day events follow one another and it might just turn out Jerry does not act “crazy” for no reason.

It is a thriller with good twists, an original script, enough funny scenes. Mel’s Jerry is likeable and you feel for his character even when you do suspect he might be a little bonkers. And of course Patrick Stewart makes a great villain.

P.S: Richard Donner is the director- he directed all the Lethal Weapon movies.

 

 

 

 

 

The Patriot (2000)

Starring: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Jason Isaacs

  Mel is good at epic stuff. Really. He plays glorious characters withheart and soul. He becomes them. He makes you feel their pain, passion and dreams. He also has the ability to look so real while portraying agony. No, seriously. All actors have different methods. Some prefer to be food and/or sleep deprived to look rugged and uncomfortable. Some live isolated for a while. (HeathLedger has done this with his part as The Joker in The Dark Knight and man, he was good.) There’s also the help of the make-up artists. But I have never seen any actor portray pain as striking as Gibson does. In Braveheart, I had completely forgotten I was watching a movie. No, ,it felt like i was there. In Scotland. In the battlefields. Among the crowd watching Wallace’s fate…

I have also previously mentioned that he takes on many parts where his character has to deal with a loved one’s lost. In Mad Max, he loses his wife and kids. Before that he was your average loving young husband and father.

In Lethal Weapon, suffering from the loss of his wife’s loss, he has an amazing suicidal scene where he puts the gun in his mouth, crying, playing withthe trigger. You know he is not going to do it. Hell, it is an action movie, the scene is in the beginning and the movie has lighter elements. But still, it gets to you. It is powerful. In Lethal Weapon 2, he finally meets a girl he really likes. Only to lose her- the bad guys kill her and confess they were the ones who killed his wife too. Imagine the adrenaline. The fury. Forever Young, Hamlet and Ransom gave him more chances for him to let his skills shine. But along with Braveheart, Patriot is the movie where he most gets to the audience.  In this film about the American-British war, Bnejamin(Gibson) has fought in battles before and happy to be a simple man,taking care of his children. He is upset that his eldest son Gabriel ( Heath Ledger) wants to fight. But the British kill one of his children and there are no lengths  Benjamin Martin wouln’t go to avenge his family…

A good, fast-paced epic. Violent and humane.

What Women Want (2000)

Starring: Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, Alan Alda, Marisa Tomei

 Advertising hotshot Nick Marshall is a woman’s man (he can get into their pants very well)and a man’s man (he is fun and cool to hang out with). But one day, through a bizarre accident, he possesses the power (not under his control) of hearing what women think and his world turns into hell and then pure heaven.

It is hilarious. It is a wonderful flick about a womanizer and a useless father/ex-husband forced to hear what people think about him, how he uses this power and  how it comes back to bite him in the ass.

It is as romantic as it is funny. And although I watch many romantic comedies, this just might be my all time fav. of the genre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know how some people feel about a good band. They make hits, they become the very gods of their musical genre and then whatever they do next is considered to be not good enough for their fans. They wish the band had quit “when they were ahead”. I sort of felt this way about Mel Gibson. I wish he had quit after What Women Want. He was a great movie maker and even though he had his idiosyncrasities (haven’t we all), he was remembered and talked about because of his movies.

I have no clue about what happened afterwards. I didn’t exactly like We Were Soldiers and I definitely wasn’t crazy about Signs. He also seemed to get behind the camera more and in front of it less and less. I miss his acting and the variety of movies he was in. He did romance,sci-fi,action,comedy, thriller,drama,epic and most of the time he played in brilliant combinations of these. He is a terrific actor. And frankly I wouldn’t give a shit about his private life if it didn’t seem to effect his work. Same on his looks. So he isn’t that pretty anymore? Who cares??? He needs to stop bullshitting about religion and/or showing his homophobia. He needs to move his ass and turn back into the actor he once was. I hear there some projects where he will be the leading man again.

Fingers crossed!

By Borys Kit – Hollywood Reporter

In the comics universe, where characters are endlessly reborn and reoutfitted, a motto from the 1980s — “DC Comics is on the move” — could just as well apply to the current, hyperactive state of the publisher as it relates to Hollywood.A year after “The Dark Knight” became a worldwide phenomenon, there are more DC Comics adaptations in the works than at any other point since the company was acquired by Warner Bros. in 1969.

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Among the projects on front burners:

– “The Losers,” an action-adventure drama starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans, begins principal photography this week in Puerto Rico.

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– “Jonah Hex,” a supernatural Western starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich, recently wrapped production in Louisiana.

– “The Green Lantern,” Warners’ next big superhero tentpole, is set to star Ryan Reynolds after a long search.

– Fox has picked up the TV series “Human Target,” starring Mark Valley, for the fall.

– And, in a rare example of a film project that has ventured off the Warners reservation, DC has set up “Red,” a spy thriller to star Bruce Willis, at indie producer Summit.

“One of the things that has differentiated us for most of the last 20 years is the depth of our library and the depth of the creative material that we’ve put out and the opportunities that creates for other media,” DC Comics president Paul Levitz said.

Still, when “Dark Knight” invaded theaters last summer, critics of DC and Warners complained there didn’t appear to be a grand strategy in place to exploit DC properties.

In contrast, DC arch-rival Marvel moved quickly in the wake of its successful “Iron Man” to stake out a series of release dates for a slew of movies, branding them as part of one big Marvel universe leading to “The Avengers,” which arrives in 2012.

But DC and Warners have taken a different approach, arguing that DC has a wider breadth of books than other comics companies. They insist their situation isn’t comparable to Marvel, which already has licensed out to other studios a number of its biggest titles: Spider-Man is housed at Sony, while X-Men and Fantastic Four are at Fox.

With fewer marquee superheroes, Marvel works like an animation studio: It only develops select projects and makes most of what it develops, while DC is managing a much larger portfolio.

Still, in the wake of “Dark Knight,” DC and Warners have made strategic moves in the superhero realm, including centralizing the way DC’s titles and characters are developed. In the past, Warners optioned a property, paying DC a fee comparable to what a property could command on the open market. But while the projects ostensibly were being developed under one roof, many were spread out over a host of producers, each with different visions for how to approach each adaptation.

Watchmen (Director's Cut)

To bring competing approaches into sync, Levitz and DC’s Los Angeles-based film exec Gregory Noveck have overseen a reorganization of the development slate. While Warners execs still drive the creative side, DC now has more input, making it an actual participant in the shaping of material.

“The creative process is by and large a true partnership,” Noveck said. “They’ll ask us a ton of questions, and we’ll give a ton of answers. We will talk back and forth. We’ll discuss writers and talent, but ultimately it’s their decision.”

Ryan Reynolds in X-Men Origins Wolverine

This past fall, Warners quietly hired three of DC’s biggest writers — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman — to act as consultants and writers for its superhero line of movies. The move involved taking back the reins on projects being handled by such producers as Charles Roven (“The Flash”) and Akiva Goldsman (“Teen Titans”).

Some agents and scribes grumbled about being forced to work with the consultants, never mind that Johns started his career as an assistant to “Superman” director Richard Donner or that Wolfman has worked in animation since the 1980s.

The moves have begun to pay off. Johns worked up a new treatment for a “Flash” script, being written by Dan Mazeau; Johns will act in a producer capacity on the project, which has not attached a director.

The projects Morrison and Wolfman are working on are in the early stages at Warners, whose execs declined to comment.

The process involves one writer taking point, though the trio do collaborate on projects, reading one another’s materials while hashing out a story that will be at once accessible to nonfans yet still adhere to each character’s long history. The writers also work in tandem with producers, writers and the Warners execs overseeing the projects, showing them treatments and providing notes on scripts.

Meanwhile, other superhero projects are moving forward at Warners.

The studio is taking pitches on sci-fi hero Adam Strange and the underwater-breathing hero “Aquaman,” to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way shingle.

Also in the pipeline: “Bizarro Superman” being written by “Galaxy Quest” scribes David Howard and Robert Gordon; a sequel to “Constantine,” with Goldsman and Erwin Stoff producing; two concurrent Green Arrow projects, an origin story and a prison-set one titled “Super Max”; and “Shazam,” which was set up at New Line but has moved to Warners, with Pete Segal attached to direct.

Unsung in the lineup is Warners’ line of straight-to-DVD animated movies released via Warner Premiere. “Green Lantern: First Flight,” the latest entry, will premiere at this week’s Comic-Con gathering in San Diego and has a July 28 street date.

These movies, produced on budgets in the $3.5 million range, apparently overperformed their targets. “First Flight” is the fifth straight-to-DVD title, with “Superman/Batman: Public Enemies” in production for a September 29 release.

In the home entertainment arena, DC has overshadowed Marvel, with 2007’s “Superman-Doomsday” generating $9.4 million in revenue and last year’s “Batman: Gotham Knight,” taking advantage of the tidal wave of support for the Christopher Nolan movie, generating $8 million, according to tracking site The-Numbers.com. “Wonder Woman,” released in March, already has chalked up $4.4 million. Marvel’s top seller, “Ultimate Avengers 2,” has pulled in $7.7 million.

Not that all the stars in the DC firmament are aligned yet.

Warners and DC still haven’t figured out how to translate “Wonder Woman” to the big screen. In part, that failure reflects the difficulties DC has had turning out a popular Wonder Women comic. Morrison, during a recent Q&A with Clive Barker at Los Angeles’ Meltdown Comics, admitted he didn’t have a complete handle on the character when he was writing the comic “Final Crisis.”

Also, ever since Bryan Singer’s 2006’s “Superman Returns,” a new Superman has been in limbo.

“Our hope is to develop a Superman property and to try again,” Warner Bros. Entertainment president Alan Horn said in April. “What hurt us is that the reviews and so on for the Superman movie did not get the kind of critical acclaim that Batman got, and we have other issues with Superman that concern us.”

 On the Batman front, a sequel to “Dark Knight” also is quite a way off. Nolan is open to doing a third installment, but his next movie is “Inception,” an original script he penned and is shooting for Warners.

All that has put a damper on any movie about the Justice League, whose roster includes the above-mentioned heroes as well as myriad others including Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter. DC would like to present some of the main heroes in their own movies before they are brought together for one big outing, so “League” currently is inactive.

On top of that, there could be another change in how Warners approaches the DC characters, with studio chiefs debating whether to put the operation under one super-exec.

To bring the next generation of superheroes to the screen, DC and Warners might yet have to unleash their own super powers.

Amazon Specials!

Our good friend Tiny the Bodyguard joined my on The Film List  and gave us his Top 10 favorite films of all-time.  Tiny is the official bodyguard forall Lost podcasters, so if you try anything, Tiny will get in your way.  Tiny has been a long time TLRNow entourage member and has appeared multiple times on the Lost Ramble On podcasts.  There has even been a Lost Ramble On named after Tiny.  TLRNow podcast from May 1st, 2009 :  Episode 48 : “Not Tiny’s Boat!”    Thanks again Tiny, really appreciate having you on.  You are the best brotha! 

TINY’S TOP 10 FAVORITE FILMS :

10.   The Green Mile

Tom Hanks, Tiny the Bodyguard, David Morse.

 9.    The Matrix

 8.   Clerks

 7.   The Big Lebowski

 6.   The Godfather

Not Tiny's chair....

 5.   Lord of the Rings : Return of the King

 4.   Superman

Tiny, you the man!

 3.   Raiders of the Lost Ark

 2.   The Empire Strikes Back

and Tiny the Bodyguard’s all-time favorite film :

                                      #1.   GOODFELLAS

TINY'S FELLAS...

To listen to Tiny’s Film List, subscribe to the Film List on iTunes or click here (Appologies for first 2 minutes of podcast, sound has an echo but it’s corrected right away) :

MP3 File : episode 15 “Not Tiny’s List”

Also on episode 15,  Heath Solo read Jessica’s Top 10 :

Jessica (Phoenix, AZ) Top 10 Favorite Films :

10.   The Fifth Element

 9.   Resident evil : Extinction

 8.   Monsters, INC.

 7.   Monty Python and the Holy Grail

 6.   A Nightmare on Elmstreet

 5.   Fight Club

 4.   The Lost Boys

 3.   Transformers

 2.   Braveheart

                  1.   Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Jessica Rabbitt....