nice set

Don’t get me wrong- If I don’t have a project this week, I’ll gladly art direct and prop your shoot. A DP asked me last week, what falls within your purview? The answer is-everything that’s not an actor.

Even though Locations is usually a different job from art direction/props, I spend a lot of effort and energy helping some clients find the exact right location. What location we choose greatly effects the amount of propping and/or modification that will be needed on a particular shoot. Besides, most ad houses/PR firms have their hands full, and would love to be able to call a guy they know and whose aesthetic sensibilities they trust and say: we need an all-American street scene, we need a field of wheat, we need a gas station… or whatever.

Jim Kriedler over at GMMB loves to tell the story of when he called around 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon. I was playing golf way out near Front Royal with Kevin Quick and wouldn’t have even picked up the phone except for those magic 4 letters that have spelled gainful opportunity on so many occasions. He said they needed a complete surgical scene, and were shooting in a green screen room (but were not compositing) so we’d need all the stuff of hospital-land: bed, tray of instruments, IV stands, machines that go beep. I said, yeah, I’d like to see a wall of back-lit X-rays, and I could curtain off the perimeters to make it look medical…

No problem, I ended my paragraph about how I thought it could look, when do you need it? That’s the hard part, Jim said, we’re shooting tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. Without recounting the arduous evening, we got it done, it looked like this:

Last week a friend called- she needed an “classic 60’s Porsche” for a still photo shoot. I have fond memories of finding this one for the movie Spy Game: and said, sure, I think I can find one.

Here’s the difference between me and a lot of people who do this for a living: I know you can’t Google everything. If you could, the job wouldn’t be a job, and for the record, when I started doing this, there was no Google. You’re going to have to get out of that chair, do what I like to call ground-level-intelligence. I figured out right away the expert I used last time was no longer in business, in fact, he’s since gone on to his great reward.

So I got in my car and went to the last place I saw a classic Porsche, in this case a ‘76 white 911 Targa with a for sale sign on it: Curry’s. They were busy, I waited until a helpful manager had a second. He heard my pitch, thought about it for a second and gave me the name of another place, one that specializes in Porsches. There, the owner was extremely helpful, and referred my to IMA motorsports, where I met Ivan.

This place is Porsche heaven. His garage is cleaner than my kitchen, and the floor-to-ceiling windows into it make it seem like it’s a giant aquarium filled with exotic Porsche fish. Now might be a good time to mention that I’ve been in love with this particular brand of car since encountering one as a kid in 6th grade. It was a treat just to be here.

I waited. Patience is a key to ground-level intelligence, Ivan is on the phone in his office, and I can hear him cussing. I picture a large, gruff russian mobster. When he comes out, he’s the opposite- he’s friendly, jovial, and, most importantly to my primary task, helpful. He knows a guy who just might have what I’m looking for..

I’ve already decided that my target vehicle would be a mid-sixties 356. The client has specified a convertible, so that’s the goal. Til now, the closest I’d come was a couple targa-top 911s. Remarkable, he dials a number, puts it on speaker-phone to include me, and closes a deal on this masterpiece of automotive design:

I like doing this, it’s a challenge, a puzzle. I live in an area that’s rich in resources and diverse people and things where the film business is still interesting and unusual enough that people are often interested in participating (once they’re sure it’s not a scam). But you can’t do it from your desk, you have to actually go out into the world and talk to people. Maybe that’s why I like it.

Basically

Maestrii sunt mereu caracterizati de tăcere, inţelepciune şi un ritm calculat si echilibrat. E ceea ce mă provoacă de fiecare dată când urmăresc filme în care este un maestru si un discipol, pornind chiar de la Karate Kid, filmul care a fascinat milioane de adolescenţi la vremea lui. Discreţie, tăceree, observaţia, aşa ajunge ucenicul să fie mai bun decât maestrul. Spy Game, (Spioni de elită) în regia lui Tony Scott este un film de acţiune, avându-i ca protagoniţti pe Brad Pitt şi Robert Redford. După eşuarea unei misiuni neautorizate, agentul CIA pom Bishop (Pitt) este prins şi condamnat la moarte. Şeful lui Bishop, Nathan Muir (Redford) la disoiziţie 24 de ore pentru a-l elibera. Cei doi protagonişti nu ăşi vor trăda fanii nici de data aceasta.

Uhhh huh…. *toke* *toke*…. twist… twist.. more twists in this flick!  Saw this movie a few years ago and enjoyed it, figured it was worth a second go round.   Shitloads of crazy espionage stuff…  cool dialogue(whatever the hell that means….), and lots of action.  Definitely a good stoner flick!

Two Bong Tokes

IMDB link  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266987/

IMDB ratings 6.9/10   40,452 votes
Release Date : 21 November 2001 (USA)

Genre : Action | Crime | Thriller

Plot : Retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir recalls his training of Tom Bishop while working against agency politics to free him from his Chinese captors.

Direct Download links

http://storage.to/get/ZM6blvBi/Spy.Game.Collectors.Edition.2001.DvDrip%5BEng%5D-greenbud1969.avi

Before you fear any more FilmWipe fans our lists will come to an abrupt end tomorrow night when we will hit the world of film review full force with a weird of Aki Kurasmaki classic.  But before we do I have noticed that this Blog has tended to focus on the best of European and Art house film.  ”There is nothing wrong with that” I hear you cry.  And while I may agree with you there are 270 million obese burger eating junkies who have got the most powerful national cinema in the world.  So we will honour them and there meagre achievements.  I actually love Hollywood films so hopefully tonight will be a quick guide to everything that has been good in the world of the blockbuster this year.

I will start off with the taking of The Taking of Pelham 123. I am a massive Tony Scott fan.  anyone who has seen the Spy Game and Enemy of the State will know what a brilliant director he can be.  However i approached this film with some trepidation as a film about a train hijacking with John Travolta as a tattooed bad guy (frankly he looks like he has escaped from a leper colony).  Anyway the film is surprisingly entertaining.  Despite holes in the plot the size of the grand canyon.  However lets not focus on the negatives.  The film is brilliantly directed, performed wonderfully and speeds a long as fast as suicide bomber hijacking a train.

In my opinion the best hollywood film release of the year is Tom Tykwer’s the The International. The film is possibly the best blockbuster of the year.  Clive Owen is brilliant and gives a performance that surely will put any of this years Oscar candidates to shame.  Tom Tykwer is in the envious position of having directed a film that is beautiful to look at engrossing throughout.  By the end you feel like the mantle of intelligent action thriller has been stolen from the Bourne series and given to this stylish transnational thriller.

The other action thriller that stole the year was inevitably Star Trek.  JJ Abrams.  The film was simply brilliant.  Finally a Star Trek film that is enjoyable even if you hate sci-fi.  For all his critics i thought that Chris Pine put in the best performance by a young person this year.  His teen choice award nomination actually almost made the award credible, instead of the acne fest it currently is.  and he even gave Shatner a run for his money.   The story was a little far fetched even for Star Trek and the bad guy was played by one of the worst actors currently  floating around on the Hollywood circuit (Eric “I can’t act” Bana).  However this film was excellent.  The acting was generally very good.  The upgrades to the typical star trek sets were fantastic.  The story was enjoyable and more importantly it was gripping throughout.  Genuinely one of the top films of the year.

I Love You Man.  No I don’t!! But this is the best Hollywood comedy of the year.  Jason Segel is brilliant as the youthful Sydney File.  The bromance that is exhibited in the film is and makes you wish you had friends like this.  The only low point is Rashida Jones as the girlfriend of the girls guy played by Paul Rudd.  At no point can you understand why on earth he would ever be with her.  However, you laugh from start to finish.  Anyone who thinks that The Hangover was the funniest film of the year first of all needs to seriously question their life and possibly think about jumping into the Thames with a lead weight tight to their feet and secondly watch this film.

Duplicity.  I feel like i have committed a crime suggesting this.  But i genuinely enjoyed this film.  Clive Owen was spellbinding yet again.  Julia Roberts was hopeless.  The film as a whole doesn’t make a great deal of sense.  However, Tony Gilroy the director made a beautiful film that was visually stunning and entertaining throughout.  Roberts aside the film is brilliantly acted with the excellent Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson weighing in with strong performances.  This is a film of contrast but is certainly well worth watching.

William Bradley “Brad” Pitt[1] (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer, who first achieved stardom in several successful films in the mid-1990s. He has been cited as one of the world’s most attractive men and his off-screen life is widely reported.[2][3] Pitt has received one Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

Pitt began his career in television guest spots, including a recurring role on the CBS soap opera Dallas in 1987. He was cast in supporting roles in such standard teen-oriented films, slasher flicks, comedies and family-oriented sports dramas. He gained recognition as the cowboy hitchhiker who seduces Geena Davis’ character in the 1991 film Thelma & Louise. Pitt’s first leading role in a major film was in Interview with the Vampire (1994). He starred in the 1995 well-received crime and science fiction films Se7en and Twelve Monkeys, for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor. Pitt achieved fame as a result of his portrayal of Tyler Durden, a straight-shooting but charismatic mastermind individual in Fight Club (1999), and since then has established himself as an A-list actor.[4] He has had his biggest commercial successes with Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Spy Game (2001), Troy (2004), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Ocean’s Thirteen (2007), and Burn After Reading (2008).

Following a high profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, and marriage to Jennifer Aniston, as of 2008, Pitt lives with actress Angelina Jolie, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention.[5] He and Jolie have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Since his relationship with Jolie, Pitt has become increasingly involved in social issues, both in the United States and internationally.

Early life Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the son of Jane Etta (née Hillhouse), a high school counselor, and William Alvin Pitt, a truck company owner.[6] Along with his siblings Doug and Julie Neal, he grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where the family moved soon after his birth. Growing up, he was raised as a conservative Southern Baptist, singing in the church choir.[6][7]

Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he excelled; he was a member of the golf, tennis and swimming teams, as well as the Key and Forensics clubs.[6] He also participated in school debates and musicals.[6] Following his graduation, Pitt attended the University of Missouri in 1982, where he belonged to the Sigma Chi fraternity,[1] where he frequently acted in several fraternity shows.[6] He majored in journalism, with a focus on advertising.[8] In 1985, two weeks prior to earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, California to take acting lessons.[1] When asked why he left the university, Pitt responded: “I had this sinking feeling as graduation approached. I saw my friends getting jobs. I wasn’t ready to settle down. I loved films. They were a portal into different worlds for me, and Missouri wasn’t where movies were made. Then it hit me: If they didn’t come to me, I’d go to them.”[9]

Once he moved to Los Angeles, he took a number of odd jobs, ranging from chauffeuring,[10] being a delivery man,[6] selling cigarettes,[6] assisting a soap opera writer,[6] and dressing up as an El Pollo Loco chicken, to pay for his acting classes.[1][6] When asked about the pivotal influence in his decision in leaving Missouri for Los Angeles, Pitt said: “I wasn’t ready to call it quits as far as getting out into the world. It wasn’t leaving something behind, it was heading for something that was nascent and ill-defined. I did not know what it would be when I got to L.A., and to me not knowing that has always been the most exciting thing about making a trip.”[9]

Acting career

Early work

While struggling in Los Angeles, he began studying acting with the late renowned acting coach Roy London.[8] In December 1987, Pitt started out in television guest spots, including a recurring role on the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas playing Randy, the boyfriend of Shalane McCall’s character, Charlie Wade.[1][6] During an interview with People magazine, he revealed, while questioned about his scenes with McCall, “It was real sweaty-palms time for me. It was kind of wild, because I’d never even met her before.”[1] His character spent five weeks in the show.[6] In 1990, he co-starred in the short-lived television drama Glory Days.[6] In 1988, Pitt received his first film role in The Dark Side of the Sun, where he played a young American taken by his family to the Adriatic to find a remedy for a skin condition. The movie was shot in Yugoslavia in the summer of 1988. However, with editing nearly complete, war broke out and much of the footage was lost; the film was released nine years later.[11] Pitt was then cast in the television movie Too Young to Die?, about an abused teenager given the death penalty for murder. Pitt played the part of a drug addict, Billy Canton, who took advantage of a runaway played by Juliette Lewis.[11][12] Entertainment Weekly wrote: “Pitt is a magnificent slimeball as her hoody boyfriend; looking and sounding like a malevolent John Cougar Mellencamp, he’s really scary.”[12]

Pitt starred alongside Vera Martins, in which he plays Joe Maloney in Across the Tracks, which he portrayed a high school runner with a difficult criminal brother played by Ricky Schroder.[13] Pitt attracted broader public attention from a supporting role in Thelma & Louise, where he played a small-time criminal drifter who befriends Thelma (Geena Davis). His love scene with Davis, which showed Pitt shirtless and wearing a cowboy hat, has been often cited as the moment that defined Pitt as a “sex symbol”.[1]

After the success of Thelma & Louise, Pitt starred alongside Catherine Keener and Nick Cave in the low budget, Tom DiCillo-directed 1991 film Johnny Suede, as an awkward dreamer who aspired to be a big-haired rock star.[11] After appearing in Cool World,[11] Pitt starred in Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It in 1992.[14] In 1993, re-uniting with his Too Young to Die? co-star Juliette Lewis, they appeared in the film Kalifornia, a road movie in which he played a scruffy serial killer and Lewis playing Pitt’s ex-girlfriend.[11] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone in his review of the film, called Pitt’s performance as “outstanding”.[15] He also noted the performances by both Pitt and Lewis, with saying: “He and Lewis… play this flapdoodle with enough urgency to make the suspension of disbelief worthwhile.”[15] That same year, he won a ShoWest Award as “Male Star of Tomorrow”.[16]

Early critical success

Pitt’s career prospects began to improve after being cast as vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac in the movie adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel Interview with the Vampire.[11][17] The role of the 18th-century vampire required Pitt to endure several hours of make-up being applied every day to achieve the characteristic white skin; Pitt wore a pair of green contact lenses and vampire fangs to complete the appearance.[18] He was part of an ensemble cast that included Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater, and Antonio Banderas.[11][17] Although he won two MTV Movie Awards,[19] Pitt’s performance was particularly criticized. Variety wrote: “Brad Pitt’s Louis is handsome and personable, but there is no depth to his melancholy, no pungency to his sense of loss. He also doesn’t seem to connect in a meaningful way with any of the other actors except, perhaps, to Slater’s interviewer.”[20]

He then starred in Legends of the Fall (1994) and Se7en (1995).[21][22] In Legends of the Fall, Pitt was part of an ensemble cast that included Anthony Hopkins, Julia Ormond, and Aidan Quinn. Although the film was met with mixed reviews,[23] Roger Ebert in review of the film complimented the acting by the cast, “The movie is a showcase for acting, and in addition to Ormond and Hopkins, it also shows how strong Aidan Quinn and Brad Pitt are, in roles that have inescapable parallels to the Rock Hudson and James Dean characters in ‘Giant.’”[24] For his performance in Legends of the Fall, Pitt earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination in the category for Best Performance, but lost to Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump.[25] In Se7en, Pitt starred alongside Morgan Freeman as the police detective David Mills who hunts a serial killer played by Kevin Spacey.[22] Variety noted, “This is screen acting at its best. Pitt turns in a determined, energetic, creditable job as the eager young detective.”[26]

Pitt next took the portrayal of Jeffrey Goines in the 1995 film Twelve Monkeys. The film was met with well received reviews and the film was successful at the box office. His character was particularly praised, as Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: “Giving a startlingly frenzied performance, he electrifies Jeffrey with a weird magnetism that becomes important later in the film.”[27] Pitt won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor,[25] and received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[28]

Pitt had a supporting role in the 1996 film Sleepers, the film is based on Lorenzo Carcaterra’s novel of the same name.[29] The film starred Kevin Bacon and Robert DeNiro.[29] The following year, he starred alongside Harrison Ford as the Irish Republican Army terrorist Rory Devany in The Devil’s Own (1997),[30] the first of several films where Pitt used an Irish accent in his performance.[31] That same year, he played the main role of Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in the Jean Jacques Annaud film Seven Years in Tibet.[32] Pitt trained for months for the role, which demanded a great deal of trekking and mountain climbing, by rock climbing in California and the Alps with his co-star, David Thewlis.[33] Due to the themes of Tibetan nationalism in the film, the Chinese government banned Pitt and Thewlis from entering China for life.[33] Pitt had the leading role in the film, Meet Joe Black (1998), where he played a personification of death inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it is like to be human.[11][34] The film re-united Pitt and actor Anthony Hopkins, with whom he had previously worked on Legends of the Fall.[11]

1999–2003

In the 1999 film Fight Club, the most successful film of his career to date, he played Tyler Durden, who runs an underground fight club. The film is an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel of the same name. The film was directed by David Fincher, who directed Se7en.[35] During promotion of the film, he noted his interpretation of the film: “The fighting is not necessarily ‘take your aggressions out on someone else.’ The idea is just to get in there, have an experience, take a punch more importantly and see how you come out on the other end.”[36] Fight Club premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.[37] Upon the film’s release, it generated favorable reviews.[38] His performance received positive reviews; In the Variety review of the film, critic David Rooney noted: “Pitt is cool, charismatic and more dynamically physical.”[39] Peter Rainer of New York magazine wrote: “Brad Pitt jangles like a lethal jitterbug.”[40]

Following the success of Fight Club, Pitt played the role of Mickey, an Irish Gypsy boxer in the gangster movie Snatch, alongside Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones and Benicio del Toro, directed by Guy Ritchie.[41] Pitt created a barely-intelligible accent in the movie, that was criticized by critics.[42] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “He [Pitt] is ideally cast as an Irishman whose accent is so thick even Brits can’t understand him. The picture also trades on our past associations with Pitt. For years Pitt was shackled by roles that called for brooding introspection, but recently he has found his calling in black comic outrageousness and flashy extroversion.”[43]

Also in 2001, Pitt starred alongside Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy The Mexican.[11] His next role was in the Cold War thriller Spy Game in which he starred alongside veteran actor Robert Redford, who played his mentor.[44] Also in 2001, Pitt played the role of Rusty Ryan in the remake of the 1960s Rat Pack film of the same name, Ocean’s Eleven. He starred alongside George Clooney and Matt Damon.[45] Roger Ebert, in review of Ocean’s Eleven noted, “Brad Pitt has a nice dialogue passage.”[45]

He also made a guest appearance in season eight of Friends, playing the role of Will Colbert, a man who has a grudge against Rachel Green’s character.[46] The following year, Pitt appeared on an episode of MTV’s Jackass, in which he and several cast members ran wild through the streets of Los Angeles in gorilla suits.[47] In a later Jackass episode, Pitt took part in a staged abduction of himself.[48] In 2003, he lent his voice on an episode of King of the Hill, where he played Boomhauer’s brother, Patch Boomhauer.[49] Pitt’s next film role was in the 2003 animated DreamWorks movie Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, in which he provided the voice of the title-hero, Sinbad.[50]

2004–present

In 2004, he starred in two films, Ocean’s Twelve and the epic Troy, based on the Iliad, in which he portrayed hero Achilles. The success of Ocean’s Eleven led Pitt to return to the role in the 2004 sequel, Ocean’s Twelve. Paul Clinton of CNN wrote: “Clooney and Pitt have the best male chemistry since Paul Newman and Robert Redford.”[51] The film was a big financial success, earning $125 million worldwide.[52] Before filming began for Troy, Pitt spent six months, sword training, for the required role.[53] During film production, he injured his Achilles tendon, delaying production for several weeks.[54] San Francisco Chronicle, in review of Troy, noted that Pitt’s performance was “magnetic”.[55] The film was an international success, grossing $364 million.[52] In North America however, it earned considerably less, grossing less than $133 million.[56]

Pitt starred in the 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The film, directed by Doug Liman, tells the story of a bored married couple who find out that they are both secret assassins. Pitt starred as John Smith alongside Angelina Jolie. The film was well-received and was generally lauded for the chemistry between the two leads. The Star Tribune noted, “While the story feels haphazard, the movie gets by on gregarious charm, galloping energy and the stars’ thermonuclear screen chemistry.”[57] The movie earned $478 million worldwide, one of the biggest hits of 2005.

Pitt appeared in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s critically acclaimed 2006 film Babel, starring alongside Cate Blanchett.[60] Pitt’s performance in the film was well received by critics, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer added that his performance was “credible” and gives the film “visibility”.[61] Pitt called the film “one of the best decisions of my film career”.[62] The film was screened at a special presentation at the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival in 2006.[63] Babel garnered a total of seven Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, one of which was a Golden Globe Award nomination for Pitt as Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.

In 2007, Pitt reprised his role as Rusty Ryan in the third Ocean’s film Ocean’s Thirteen.[64] The sequel, while not as lucrative as the first two, earned $36 million at the international box-office.[65][66] He produced and starred in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik, though production of the film began in 2005, the film was not released until late 2007.[67] During promotion of the film, he noted of his portrayal of the character: “It is — everything that he’s been made famous for is, has, has already occurred. And everyone in his gang is either dead or in jail. His brother’s left. He’s quit the gang and he’s really on his own … the most important thing is, he is consumed by paranoia, most of it justified, but consumed.”[68] For his performance, he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 64th Venice International Film Festival;[69] although Pitt attended the festival to promote the movie, he left early after being attacked by a crazed fan who pushed through his bodyguards, and he was not present to accept the award.[70] The festival failed to ship Pitt the award, so he did not collect it until the 65th Venice Film Festival in 2008.[71]

Pitt appeared in the 2008 dark comedy Burn After Reading, his first collaboration with the Coen brothers (Joel and Ethan). Burn After Reading received positive reviews; Andrew Pulver of The Guardian called the film “a tightly wound, slickly plotted spy comedy”. Pulver, who also rated the film four out of five stars, noted that Pitt’s performance was one of the “funniest”.[72] He was cast as Benjamin Button, the lead in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), loosely adapted from the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald, about a privileged man who is born an octogenarian and ages in reverse.[73][74] The film reunites Pitt with Babel co-star Cate Blanchett and Se7en and Fight Club director David Fincher.

Pitt has two new screen roles scheduled for production. In October 2008,[75] production begun in Germany for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, a film about an American resistance fighter, Pitt’s character, battling Nazis in German-occupied France. The movie awaits release in 2009.[76][77] Pitt has signed on to appear in the Lost City of Z, where he will play a British explorer searching for a mysterious Amazonian civilization.[78] Also in 2009, he will appear in the drama Tree of Life directed by Terrence Malick and starring alongside Sean Penn. Other projects

Pitt has appeared in television commercials designed for the Asian market, advertising such products as Edwin Jeans.[81] He also appeared in a Heineken commercial which aired during the 2005 Super Bowl; it was directed by David Fincher, who directed Pitt in the feature films Se7en and Fight Club.

Pitt, along with Jennifer Aniston and Paramount Pictures head CEO Brad Grey, founded the production company, Plan B, in 2002.[84] Aniston, along with Grey, are no longer partners in the company.[85][86] Aniston, however, is still attached to many projects that were set up before her divorce from Pitt.[85] The company produced the 2005 film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp,[87][88] as well as The Departed (2006),[89] and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007).[88] Pitt has been reluctant in discussing the production company, following the events in 2005.[85] In an interview, he added that there are a lot of films in the Plan B production line in which he would never take a starring role. “We made an edict at the beginning that we would focus on stories and storytellers. I get to be part of stories that I may not be right for as an actor, but as a film lover I think they’re amazing stories to tell.”

Pitt, along with frequent co-stars George Clooney and Matt Damon, supports One, a campaign fighting AIDS and poverty in Third World countries.[90][91] He is the narrator of the Public Television series Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge,[92] which discusses current important global health issues.[92] Pitt is behind Not On Our Watch, an organization that focuses global attention and resources to stop and prevent mass atrocities such as in Darfur, along with Clooney, Damon, Don Cheadle, and Jerry Weintraub.

In 2006, Pitt gathered a group of housing professionals together in the Hurricane Katrina-stricken New Orleans to begin planning a project that Pitt calls Make It Right, with the goal of financing and constructing 150 new houses in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward.[94][95] The houses are being designed with an emphasis on sustainability and affordability, with the hope that the project can and will be replicated throughout the city, with the assistance of Global Green USA, a national environmental organization.[96][97] Thirteen architectural firms are involved in the project, many of which are donating their services. Pitt and philanthropist Steve Bing have each committed to matching $5 million in donations.

In the media

In 1995, Pitt was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 25 sexiest stars in film history.[8] Pitt has also twice been named the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine in 1995 and 2000.[100][101] Pitt has appeared on the annual Celebrity 100 list by Forbes magazine in 2006 and 2007, at No. 20 and No. 5.[102][103] In 2007, Pitt was listed among the Time 100 a compilation of the 100 most influential people in the world, as selected annually by Time magazine.[104] He was credited with using “his star power to get people to look at places and stories that cameras don’t usually catch”.[104]

In 2004, Pitt visited the University of Missouri campus to encourage students to vote in the 2004 US presidential election,[105] in which he supported John Kerry.[105][106] Also, in 2004, he publicly spoke for funding a tax-free embryonic stem-cell research that involves the cloning and destruction of human embryos.[107] Saying, “We have to make sure that we open up these avenues so that our best and our brightest can go find these cures that they believe they will find.”[107] He also supported California’s ballot iniative, Proposition 71, where federal government provide funding for research that use different types of stem cells, including adult and embryonic stem cells.[108]

Starting in 2005, his relationship with Angelina Jolie became one of the most reported celebrity stories worldwide. After confirming that Jolie was pregnant in early 2006, the unprecedented media hype surrounding them “reached the point of insanity” as Reuters described it in their story “The Brangelina fever”.[5] Trying to avoid the media attention, the couple went to Namibia for the birth of their daughter Shiloh, “the most anticipated baby since Jesus Christ”, as it had been described.[109] Two years later, after confirming Jolie’s second pregnancy again it fueled a media frenzy. For the two weeks, before the birth, Jolie spent in a seaside hospital in Nice, reporters and photographers camped outside on the promenade to report on the birth.[110]

Pitt was also prominently featured in the December 2006 Art Issue of Vanity Fair.[111] He is seen posing in a blue-colored photo in nothing but white boxer shorts, socks and holding a gun while appearing to be drenched with water.[111] The cover promotes an article on the Robert Wilson video portraits, a production of LAB HD that includes numerous celebrities and noted personalities.[111] This cover had drawn criticism from Pitt because, although he had signed a release for the image, he did not expect it to end up on the cover of Vanity Fair.[112][113] The video portrait, which represents Pitt’s first effort in avant-garde cinema, was exhibited at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.[111]

In September 2008, Pitt donated $100,000 to fight California’s November 2008 ballot, Proposition 8, initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.[114] He stated, “Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn’t harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8.[115]

Personal life

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Pitt dated several of his co-stars, including Robin Givens (Head Of The Class),[116][117] Jill Schoelen (Cutting Class),[117] Juliette Lewis (Too Young to Die? and Kalifornia), who at sixteen was ten years his junior when they started dating,[118][117] and Gwyneth Paltrow (Se7en),[117] with whom he had a much-publicized engagement. Pitt also dated actresses Sinitta and Thandie Newton.

In an October 2007 interview with Parade magazine, Pitt revealed that he is no longer a Christian or believes in an afterlife. In this interview, Pitt said: “There’s peace in understanding that I have only one life, here and now, and I’m responsible.”[9] He is also a knowledgeable fan of architecture, particularly that of Frank Lloyd Wright, and has helped the National Trust for Historic Preservation raise money.

Pitt met Friends actress Jennifer Aniston in 1998 and married her during an enclosed wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000.[1][120] In January 2005, Pitt and Aniston announced that they decided to formally separate after seven years together.[120] Two months later, Aniston filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.

As Pitt’s marriage to Aniston drew to a close, he and actress Angelina Jolie were involved in a well-publicized Hollywood scandal in which Jolie was often painted as the “other woman”, largely due to their chemistry during the filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. While Pitt denied any claims of adultery, he admitted that he “fell in love” with Jolie on the set.

In April 2005, a month after Aniston filed for divorce, a set of paparazzi photos emerged that seemed to confirm the rumors of a relationship between Pitt and Jolie. The photos, which were reportedly sold for $500,000, showed Pitt, Jolie and her son Maddox at a beach in Kenya.[125] During the summer, the pair were seen together with increasing frequency, and the entertainment media dubbed the couple “Brangelina”. Pitt and Aniston’s final divorce documents were granted by the Los Angeles Superior Court on October 2, 2005, ending their marriage. On January 11, 2006, Jolie confirmed to People magazine that she was pregnant with Pitt’s child and thereby confirmed their relationship for the first time in public.[126] In an October 2006 interview with Esquire magazine, Pitt admitted that he and Jolie will marry “when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able”.

Children

In July 2005, Pitt accompanied Angelina Jolie to Ethiopia,[127] where Jolie adopted her second child, a six-month-old girl named Zahara; later Jolie indicated that she and Pitt made the decision to adopt the child together.[128] In December 2005, it was confirmed that Pitt was seeking to legally adopt Jolie’s two (adopted) children as his own; per the legal requirements, classified advertisements in the Los Angeles paper Daily Commerce announced the name change request.[129] On January 19, 2006, a judge in California approved this request, and the children’s legal surnames were formally changed to “Jolie-Pitt”.

On May 27, 2006, Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, in Swakopmund, Namibia by a scheduled caesarean section. Pitt confirmed that their newly born daughter will have a Namibian passport.[131] People paid more than $4.1 million for the North American rights, while British magazine Hello! obtained the international rights for roughly $3.5 million; the total rights sale earned up to $10 million worldwide, which became the most expensive celebrity image of all time.[132] All profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Jolie and Pitt. Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; it was the first infant re-created in wax by Madame Tussauds.

On March 15, 2007, Jolie adopted a three-year-old boy from Vietnam, Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt, (originally Pax Thien Jolie). Since the orphanage does not allow unmarried couples to adopt, Jolie adopted Pax as a single parent, with Pitt later adopting him as his son domestically.

Following media reports suggesting Jolie might be pregnant again, she attended the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards in a close-fitting dress, indirectly confirming those rumors. In May 2008, Jolie confirmed on the Today show that she and Pitt were expecting twins.[137] On July 12, 2008, Jolie gave birth to the couple’s twins, a boy named Knox Léon and a girl named Vivienne Marcheline at the Lenval hospital in Nice, France.[138][139] The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for $14 million—the most expensive celebrity baby pictures ever taken.[140][141] The money went to the Jolie/Pitt Foundation.

Source: Wikipedia

Afternoon.

It’s been a while. I’m off to the flicks in a sec to watch Tarantino’s latest. Despite having heard some good reviews I’ve never been entirely drawn in by Tarantino’s hype, and am still worried it it going to be another Jackie Brown – people in the film to work with Tarantino, director somewhat riffing off his own hype, and actors (including Brad Pitt) having FAR too much fun with the story and character for me to be able to really engage. I’ve expressed this to people this week in another fashion – is this to be Tarantino’s Ocean’s Twelve? Well, it remains to be seen, and while I have some reservations, I promise I’ll try to be open minded.

On issues of quality – I had a discussion last night on to the relative merits of Ridley and Tony Scott – largely spurred on by Kingdom of Heaven being on TV (excellent Edward Norton performance in that film, and hidden behind a mask too). The discussion largely turned on which director’s movies your would rather see?
After all, Tony Scott is largely dismissed as an action movie director. Ridley has amassed a reputation for solid, worthy film. And yet – looking through their IMDB details, on issues of consistency Tony is a director, we decided, we would much rather pay money to see in the cinema. You know what you’ll be getting – fast paced, some quick-slow camera movies, probably some funky washed-out or grainy textures. The question of quality came down to a simple tally in the end – we listed the movies we had seen from each directors’ CV, and made a simple good/ bad judgement. Ridley, arguably, has made better good films – Blade Runner, Alien, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down all very good films, and some of my favourites. However, when his films are bad, they tend to be VERY bad – yes, GI Jane and Hannibal, I’m talking about you. Whereas Tony has contributed Top Gun, Enemy of the State, Man on Fire, True Romance, Crimson Tide and Spy Game – which more than make up (in my mind) for Domino (“I am a bauntee hunter”) and the (truly abysmal) Taking of Pelham 123 (which – as a sidebar – has just made me realise something about my life – of all the films I’ve been to see on my birthday, they’ve all been awful – The Mummy Returns, The Incredible Hulk and Pelham 123 just some of the examples…Is June a good month to hide bad movies?).

I also discovered that both Scotts are involved in producing the incoming A-Team movie. A shame that Tony isn’t also directing – his style would work well.
So – just some general cinema musings today. Another review to come shortly, to make up for complete lack of any postings over the past few weeks.

Det finns en scen i den f.ö. mycket bra filmen Spy Game där Robert Redford och Brad Pitt äter frukost på ett café i Beirut, mitt under brinnande krig. För att ta sig till caféet har de varit tvungna att springa, huka sig och krypa för att undkomma skottlossning och granateld. Väl framme samtalar de lågmält över sitt kaffe – krigets ljud hörs ibland på avstånd, men på det hela taget är det nästan osannolikt lugnt och fridfullt.

Jag tänker på den scenen idag när jag träffar regionschefen för Diakonias mellanösternkontor på American Colony Hotel. Jag har mailat honom angående en praktikplats och han ringer mig när jag är halvvägs till Mahane Yehuda, och frågar om vi möjligen kan träffas omgående.

American Colony Hotel har en bell boy som ser ut som Marty Feldman och en lummig innergård med tystlåtna, diskreta servitörer i vita skjortor, som serverar kaffe och kakor. Och det är precis sådär lugnt och fridfullt som när Redfords och Pitts karaktärer äter frukost.

”Det här är antagligen den tryggaste platsen i hela Mellanöstern” säger distriktschefen, som heter Christoffer, eftertänksamt. ”Inga bombdåd, inga överfall… ingenting.”

Det hela känns rätt absurt.

Brad Pitt

Dünyaca ünlü aktör Brad Pitt’in geçmişten günümüze uzanan parlak kariyerindeki rol aldığı filmleri resimleriyle hatırlamak istermisiniz? 45 yaşında olan aktörün kısaca özgeçmişini de vererek filmlerine geçmek istiyorum. 1963′te Amerika, Missouri’de doğan William Bradley Pitt ailenin en büyük çocuğu olarak dünyaya geldi. Üniversite öncesi okullarda son derece sosyal bir öğrencilik geçirerek golf, yüzme, tenis gibi spor ve müzik etkinliklerine katılmıştır. Missouri Üniversite’sinde gazetecilik bölümünü seçip okumuştur. Okulun bitmesine kısa bir zaman kala okulu bırakmıştır. Neden mezun olmasına çok az kala üniversiteden ayrıldığı sorulduğunda Pitt durumu ”Mezuniyet yaklaştıkça bu korkutucu düşünceyle daha çok yüzleştim. Arkadaşlarım iş bulup meslek sahibi oluyorlardı. Kendimi hazır hissetmiyordum. Ben filmleri seviyordum. Filmler benim için değişik dünyalara açılan kapılardı ve Missouri filmlerin yapıldığı yer değildi. Sonra kafama dank etti ve kendi kendime dedim; Eğer filmler bana gelmiyosa ben onlara giderim!” diye açıklamıştır. Bundan sonra Pitt hayalindeki oyunculuk işini yapabilmek için Los Angeles Kaliforniya’ya yerleşmiş ve orada oyunculuk dersleri almaya başlamıştır. Bir süre sonra filmlerde ve dizilerde küçük roller kapmaya başlayan Pitt, sinema sektörüne ilk adımını atmayı başarmıştır. Kariyerine 21 Jump Street adlı dizide aldığı küçük bir rolle bakmaya başlayalım.

21 Jump Street (1988)

21 Jump Street

Daha önce duymadıysanız şaşırabilirsiniz ama Brad Pitt’in bir bölümünde rol aldığı bu dizide rol arkadaşlarından biri Johnny Depp’ti. Ve bu iki genç oyuncunun birlikte göründükleri ilk ve son yapımdı.

Cutting Class (1989)

Cutting Class

Pitt bu filmde sorunlu bir genci oynuyordu. Filmin öne çıkan oyuncularından biri olduğu ilk yapım denilebilir.

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Thelma & Louise

Brad Pitt’in ilk farkedildiği film olan Thelma ve Louise’de iki özgür kadının yoluna çıkan çekici soyguncu J.D. rolünde oynar. Bu filmdeki kısa ama etkili rolü sayesinde Pitt’e Hollywood’un kapıları açılmıştır.

A River Runs Through It – Bizi Ayıran Nehir (1992)

A River Runs Through It

1920′lerde geçen bu filmde Pitt yine kendi karakterine uygun olan asi genç rolünde oynamıştır.

Kalifornia (1993)

Kalifornia

Bu çok bilinmeyen filmde Pitt, Earl Grayce adında psikopat bir katili başarıyla canlandırıyordu. Pitt’in saçı sakalı karışmış şekilde psikopat bakışlar attığı bu filmdeki performansı görülmeye değer.

True Romance – Çılgın Romantik (1993)

True Romance

Aynı sene oynadığı bir başka filmde bütün gün ot içip, televizyon seyreden bir karakteri kısa ama akılda kalıcı bir performansla canlandırıyordu.

Interview with the Vampire – Vampirle Görüşme (1994)

Interview with the Vampire

Geldik oyuncunun ciddi anlamda kendini gösterdiği Vampirle Görüşme filmine. Yıldızlarla dolu bu filmde Pitt, Tom Cruise , Christian Slater , Antonio Banderas gibi oyuncularla birlikte insancıl vampir Louis rolünde boy gösteriyordu. Vampir kavramına farklı bir bakışla yaklaşan filmde Kirsten Dunst 12 yaşındaki haliyle çocuk oyuncu olarak yer alıyordu.

Legends of the Fall – İhtiras Rüzgarları (1994)

Legends of the Fall

Aynı sene uzun saçlarını kestirmeden rol alan Pitt, masalsı görüntüleri, güzel müzikleri, uzun ve romantik hikayesiyle İhtiras Rüzgarlarında, Tristam adlı karakteri canlandıyordu.

Se7en – Yedi (1995)

Se7en

David Fincher şaheseri bu filmde Pitt, 7 ölümcül günahtan ilham alarak cinayet işleyen katilin peşindeki David Mills adındaki genç ve idealist dedektifi canlandırmıştır. Pitt’in rol arkadaşı da usta aktör Morgan Freeman olmuştur. İzlenmesi gereken filmlerden biri olduğunu söylemeden geçmek istemiyorum.

Twelve Monkeys – 12 Maymun (1995)

Twelve Monkeys

Aynı sene çekilen kült bilimkurgu filmi 12 Maymun’da, Pitt oyunculukta ne kadar başarılı olduğunu kanıtlarcasına akıl hastası Jeffrey Goines rolünde yer almıştır. Ve bu rolüyle Altın Küre En İyi Erkek Oyuncu ödülünü almıştır.

Seven Year in Tibet – Tibet’te Yedi Yıl (1997)

Seven Years in Tibet

Heinrich Harrer adında Avustralyalı dağcının Tibet’te yaşadıklarından sonra geçirdiği ruhsal değişimi anlatan bu film Pitt’in, Çin’e girişinin yasaklanmasına neden olmuştur.

Meet Joe Black (1998)

Meet Joe Black

Uzun ve son derece ağır giden bu filmde Pitt, devamlı takım elbiseyle dolaşan yakışıklı ölüm meleği rolündedir. Romantik – dram türünde olan yapımda oyuncuya usta oyuncu Anthony Hopkins , Claire Forlani gibi isimler eşlik etmiştir.

Fight Club – Dövüş Kulübü (1999)

Fight Club

Yine bir David Fincher şaheseri olan Dövüş Kulübü’nde, kült karakter Tyler Durden’ı canlandırarak yeni bir akımın doğmasında etkili olmuştur. Dövüş Kulübü, oyuncunun başarısını tüm dünyaya kabul ettirdiği film sayılabilir.

Snatch – Kapışma (2000)

Snatch

Bu filmde bozuk aksanı, kaslı vücuduyla arzı endam eden Pitt, çingene boksör Mickey rolünü canlandırır.

Spy Game – Casus Oyunu (2001)

Spy Game

Genç ve yetenekli ajan Tom Bishop rolünde Robert Redford’la birlikte oynamıştır.

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Ocean’s Eleven

Geniş ve yıldız dolu kadrosuyla bu eğlenceli soygun filminde Pitt, devamlı yemek yiyen Rusty karakteriyle boy göstermiştir.

Troy (2004)

Troy

Efsanevi Aşil karakterini canlandıran oyuncu 6 ay spor yaparak oluşturduğu Antik Yunan Heykellerini andıran vücuduyla boy göstermiştir.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005)

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Evli ve aynı zamanda birbirlerini öldürmeye çalışan iki ajanı oynayan Brad Pitt ve Angelina Jolie bu film sayesinde ilişkilerine başlamışlardır.

Babel – Babil (2006)

Babel

Pitt’in artık orta yaşlı olduğunu gösteren filmde oyuncu aile babası Richard Jones rolündeydi.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – Korkak Robert Ford’un Jesse James Suikastı (2007)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Pitt bu rolle yeniden karizmatik bir dönüş yaptı.

Burn After Reading – Aramızda Casus Var (2008)

burn after reading

Coenler’in filminde Pitt, alıştığımız karizmatik rollerinin aksine sakar ve aptal Chad karakterini başarıyla canlandırıyordu.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Benjamin Button’un Tuhaf Hikayesi (2008)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Yaşlı olarak doğup bebek olarak ölen Benjamin Button’un hikayesini anlatan bu ilginç filmde Pitt, Oscar adaylığı kazandığı oyunculuğuyla harikalar yaratıyordu.

Inglorious Basterds – İsimsiz Kahramanlar (2009)

Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino’nun çektiği daha vizyona girmeyen bu son filmiyle Pitt, yine olay yaratacak bir yapımda yer alıyor. Bu son filmi şahsen merakla beklediğimi söyleyerek yazıya son veriyorum.

Umarım bu uzun bildirim fazla can sıkıcı olmamıştır. Yazılar dışında fikri ve konsepti aldığım kaynak.

by The Great White Gypsy

Away We Go – Directed by Sam Mendes, Written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida
About a couple expecting a child that travels around the country looking for a place to start their family. I’m still reeling from Mendes’s snubbing at the Oscars last year, and this comes out too soon for a shot in 2010, but he’s a great director, and Eggers is one of my favorite authors. The cast looks great, the tone seems heartfelt, and the music already sounds great. I can’t wait for it.
John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Catherine O’Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal
June 5

Downloading Nancy – Directed by Johan Renck, Written by Pamela Cuming and Lee Ross
Maria Bello plays a depressed, self-destructive housewife who meets a man in a chat room, and asks him to kill her. Then they fall in love. Then her husband beats the hell out of him. The uncensored preview looks raw and emotional, but it has the potential to be lame. First feature film for both writer and director.
Maria Bello, Rufus Sewell, Jason Patrick, Amy Brenneman
June 5

Tetro – Written and Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Apparently, this is Coppola’s first original screenplay since 1974’s The Conversation. It involves an Argentinean-Italian family dealing with the past, and brothers dealing with their creative passions. Vincent Gallo isn’t the most reputable actor. Actually, if you’ve never heard of Buffalo 66, then you’ve only seen him for a quick second in Goodfellas. Coppola is a huge name, with a long career. However, this film opened to very negative reviews at Cannes. Haven’t decided yet.
Vincent Gallo
June 11

The Last International Playboy – Directed by Steve Clark, Written by Steve Clark and Thomas Moffett
If you actually recognize Jason Behr, you’re one of six people who ever watched the show Roswell. This time he plays Jack Frost (…subtle), a heartbreaker and womanizer dealing with his mother’s suicide. He learns that the only woman he’s ever really loved is getting married, and his life starts to spiral out of control. He turns to his friends for advice, the most meaningful of which comes from his 11-year-old neighbor. Could be a bullshit chick flick, could be a respectable indie drama.
Jason Behr
June 12

Moon – Directed by Duncan Jones, Written by Duncan Jones and Nathan Parker
Great Sci-Fi films are few and far between. Sunshine was amazing, but most of them suck. Moon looks like a cross between Solaris (the original) and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sam Rockwell plays an astronaut on the moon doing energy research alone with his talking computer (Kevin Spacey). Then he starts seeing and hearing weird stuff, and thinks he’s losing his mind. Could be like Solaris (the remake) or Mission to Mars, but it could also rival Sunshine. I’m excited.
Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
June 12

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 – Directed by Tony Scott, Written by Brian Helgeland
Remake of a 1974 heist movie starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, the new one stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Same basic story, a subway car is hijacked, and a civil servant must negotiate the demands. The original was pretty damn good, but Travolta’s character looks like a Wild Hogs/Swordfish hybrid. Tony Scott’s had some low points the last few years (Domino, Spy Game), but his last two teamings with Denzel were Deja Vu and Man on Fire, which were badass.
Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzman, John Turturro, James Gandolfini
June 12

$9.99 – Directed by Tatia Rosenthal, Written by Etgar Keret
I know when you see stop motion animation with accents, you automatically think Wallace and Gromit (…or not), but after an overdose of Oscar animated shorts and Bill Plympton, I’m willing to give this one a shot. About a bunch of people living in an apartment complex in Australia searching for the meaning of life. Don’t judge me.
Geoffrey Rush, Anthony LaPaglia, Joel Edgerton, Claudia Karvan
June 19

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – Directed by Michael Bay, Written by Ehren Kruger and Roberto Orci
Yes, we all know that Michael Bay is pretty much a joke. But the Transformers kick ass, Megan Fox is really hot, and the first one was really cool. The second one brings back all our favorite Decepticons and Autobots, (even Jazz, the only one to die in the first one…you know, the only one who sounded black?). Hey, it’s summer, time for effects and explosions. It’s Michael Bay season.
Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese, John Turturro, Hugo Weaving
June 24

The Hurt Locker – Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Written by Mark Boal
Every time I see Jeremy Renner, I think of S.W.A.T., which isn’t a good thing. However, The Hurt Locker is much more serious. It is about an army bomb squad in Iraq, and the crazy shit they have to deal with every day. This has the potential to be another The Kingdom, meaning it will be really cool, but completely overlooked by the majority of moviegoers. Bigelow directed Point Break, Blue Steel, and K-19: The Widowmaker, so she’s kinda one of the guys. Boal wrote the screenplay for In the Valley of Elah. I just hope it’s not as disappointing as Stop-Loss, but it’s MTV free, so I’m optimistic.
Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, David Morse, Evangeline Lilly
June 26

Life is Hot in Cracktown – Written and Directed by Buddy Giovinazzo
Brandon Routh is a crackhead? Shannyn Sossamon and Lara Flynn Boyle are hoe-bags? Are we sure this isn’t a documentary? Giovinazzo also wrote this novel about several different people living in drug-infested urban areas. Feels like a much grittier version of Crash, but could just be another urban flop. Kerry Washington is hot.
Brandon Routh, Kerry Washington, Shannyn Sossamon, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Lara Flynn Boyle, Illeana Douglas, RZA
June 26

Quiet Chaos – Directed by Antonio Luigi Grimaldi, Written by Nanni Moretti and Sandro Veronesi
Italian film about a man who saves two women from drowning, then returns home to find his wife has died. Lost in his bewildered emotional state, he sits outside his daughter’s school all day every day, interacting with the people in the area. Grimaldi hasn’t done much outside of Italian TV, but Moretti is apparently a big deal as an actor, writer, and director in Italy.
Nanni Moretti, Valeria Golino, Alessandro Gassman
June 26

The Stoning of Soraya M. – Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, Written by Betsy Griffin Nowrasteh and Cyrus Nowrasteh
James Caviezel (Passion of the Christ) stars as a man driving through 1986 Iran when his car breaks down. He begins talking with Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog), who tells him a story about her niece, who was executed on erroneous charges by the community. The story may be small, but the scope strikes me as amazingly broad. Themes of mob mentality, justice, women’s rights, and cultural pressures. Nowrasteh is new to the game, but Aghdashloo’s an Oscar nominee who’s been in everything. Looking forward to it.
James Caviezel, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mozhan Marno
June 26

Surveillance – Directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, Written by Jennifer Chambers Lynch and Kent Harper
Serial Killer flick meets Rashomon in Lynch’s second film, about three eyewitnesses being interviewed by the FBI concerning a series of shootings they all saw, but each account is different. Jennifer appears to be daddy’s little girl already, and David Lynch is executive producing, so be prepared for a serious mind-fuck. I have goose bumps.
Julia Ormond, Bill Pullman, Pell James, Ryan Simpkins, French Stewart
June 26

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN

Every month I do my research on upcoming projects, and every month the list seems to get longer. With each Coming Soon, however, I must leave out interesting films because either I can’t find a release date, or it’s already out, or the dates are conflicting on different sites. Well from now on, I’m just going to tell you about all these cool movies anyways. Some of them won’t be released in the US until possibly next year, if they ever come to a theater near you at all. Some of them may already be on DVD. Just keep your eyes open.

I Come with the Rain – Written and Directed by Tran Anh Hung
Josh Hartnett gets a bum wrap, but he’s been in some cool movies (Lucky # Slevin, 30 Days of Night, Black Hawk Down). In this one, he’s the token white guy. He plays a cop-turned-P.I. who left the force after killing a serial killer he was fixated with. He travels to Tokyo to find the son of a billionaire, and the lines between reality and fantasy, and good and evil are blurred. Vietnamese writer/director Tran hasn’t done much, and the 5-minute-long promo trailer kind of gives up the whole movie, but it has a lot of potential.
Josh Hartnett, Elias Koteas, Byung-hun Lee
June 6 (Japan)

The Countess – Written and Directed by Julie Delpy
Julie Delpy (actress in The Air I Breathe, Before Sunrise, 2 Days in Paris) tackles her second project as a director with the story of Hungarian Countess Bathory, who thought the key to maintaining her beauty was to bathe in the blood of a young virgin every night (more proof that virginity is harmful to your health). Doesn’t have a US release date yet, but it’s already been to a couple European festivals, so look for it on DVD soon.
Julie Delpy, William Hurt, Daniel Bruhl, Anamaria Marinca
June 25 (Germany)

Fireflies in the Garden – Written and Directed by Dennis Lee
Based on a Robert Frost poem, this is the story of a family dealing with emotional turmoil and internal conflict in the aftermath of a sudden tragedy. The cast alone is worth checking this movie out (when is the last time Julia Roberts and Willem Dafoe were in the same movie?) This has been released in every other freaking country, so I may be really late. Check imdb, or your local Blockbuster.
Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie-Anne Moss, Julia Roberts, Ioan Gruffudd, Hayden Panettiere
May 29 (UK), possible June 26 release in US.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee – Written and Directed by Rebecca Miller
Robin Wright Penn plays a loving wife and mother who, at age 50, starts to unravel when her much older husband (Alan Arkin) wants to move to a retirement community. She must look into and deal with the wild behavior and harsh realities of her past, and still hold on to her present. Miller wrote Proof, and directed The Ballad of Jack and Rose, and this looks like a slight departure for Arkin as an actor. It could be another The Life Before Her Eyes, or it could be really freaking good. Also, I’m in love with Monica Bellucci. There, I said it.
Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves, Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder, Maria Bello, Monica Bellucci, Blake Lively
July 10 (UK)

Ecco i dati di ascolto dei programmi di prima serata di ieri martedì 16 settembre 2008, e a seguire le proposte di questa sera dei principali canali TV italiani terrestri e digitali. Gli ascolti sono basati sui dati forniti quotidianamente da Auditel.
Per maggiori informazioni sulla programmazione televisiva visitate le sezioni Telefilm News, Sat News e Dig News, per esprimere la vostra opinione utilizzate la sezione settimanale TelePagelle.

BILANCIO DELLA SERATA: grande risultato per la prima puntata del nuovo varietà “Tutti pazzi per la tele” con Antonella Clerici, che ha nettamente superato – con uno scarto di 1,6 milioni di telespettatori – la penultima puntata della fiction di Canale 5 “Il sangue e la rosa” con Gabriel Garko e Isabella Orsini. Tra gli altri programmi in onda, molto bene “Ballarò” con Giovanni Floris e i due episodi in replica della serie poliziesca “Senza traccia” con Anthony LaPaglia, sufficiente il film thriller “Spy Game” con Robert Redford e Brad Pitt, disastroso l’ultimo appuntamento (chiusura anticipata) della sit-com ospedaliera italiana di Italia 1 “Medici miei” con Giobbe Covatta e Enzo Iacchetti; infine, la serata reality di La 7 con “S.O.S. Tata” e “Adolescenti: istruzioni per l’uso”. Ottimi ascolti sui canali Sky Sport per i due incontri delle squadre italiane (Inter vittoriosa, Roma sconfitta) impegnate ieri sera in Champions League.

LE FASCE DI PRIMA SERATA (ore 20.30/22.30)

A seguire alcune segnalazioni sugli ascolti disponibili di prima serata, e per concludere cosa ci aspetta questa sera sui principali canali TV gratuiti e a pagamento.

IERI SERA IN TV…

• Alle 20.42 il gioco “Affari tuoi” (5.437.000 spettatori – 21,02%). Alle 21.21 la prima puntata del nuovo varietà “Tutti pazzi per la tele” (5.702.000 spettatori – 24,31%).
• Alle 21.05 gli episodi 6-7 della quarta stagione della serie poliziesca Senza traccia: il primo episodio “Il sequestro” ha totalizzato 2.954.000 spettatori (11,12%), il secondo episodio “Gli innocenti” (ore 21.50) ha raggiunto 3.025.000 spettatori (11,99%). Alle 22.40 l’episodio 12 “Doppio gioco” della quarta stagione inedita della serie 4400, con 1.054.000 spettatori (5,35%).
• Alle 20.36 il 2.632° episodio della soap italiana “Un posto al sole” (2.485.000 spettatori). Alle 21.16 la seconda puntata del programma “Ballarò” (3.403.000 spettatori – 14,67%, preceduto alle 21.04 da un’anteprima con 1.755.000 spettatori).
• Alle 20.45 il varietà “Veline” (6.743.000 spettatori – 25,87%). Alle 21.26 la terza puntata della miniserie “Il sangue e la rosa” (4.145.000 spettatori – 17,59%).
• Alle 21.12 gli episodi 7-8-9 con cui si è fermata la sit-com ospedaliera italiana “Medici miei”, con 1.780.000 spettatori (6,85%).
• Alle 19.42 la soap tedesca “Tempesta d’amore” (1.905.000 spettatori). Alle 20.30 l’episodio “Fine della corsa” della seconda stagione del telefilm Walker, Texas Ranger, con 2.322.000 spettatori. Alle 21.14 il film di spionaggio “Spy Game” (1.772.000 spettatori – 7,92%).

Sono elencati principalmente i programmi di prima serata. Gli orari e i programmi indicati possono variare senza preavviso.

CANALI IN CHIARO

• Alle 21.20 la nuova edizione del varietà “Carràmba! che fortuna” con Raffaella Carrà – puntata 1.
• Alle 20.35 l’incontro di calcio Juventus – Zenit San Pietroburgo, valido per l’andata del Girone H di Champions League.
• Alle 21.05 la serie italiana “La nuova Squadra” con Pietro Taricone e Antonio Milo – episodi 29-30.
• Alle 21.15 il film commedia “A casa con i suoi” (2006), con Matthew McConaughey e Sarah Jessica Parker.
• Alle 21.10 il film fantastico “Batman Begins” (2005), con Christian Bale e Michael Caine.
• Alle 21.10 la serie poliziesca francese Julie Lescaut con Véronique Genest – episodio “Affari privati” (2004).
• Alle 21.10 il film di guerra “La grande fuga” (1963), con Steve McQueen e James Garner.
• Alle 21.00 il varietà “Very Victoria – Best of… Movie Greats” con Victoria Cabello.
• Alle 21.30 due episodi della serie animata “The Oblongs”.
• Alle 20.30 il programma sportivo “Diretta Stadio… Speciale Champions League”.
• Alle 21.30 il programma sportivo “Paddock – Uomini e corse” con Ezio Zermiani.

DIGITALE TERRESTRE – CANALI GRATUITI:

• Alle 21.00 il film thriller “Delitto perfetto” (1998) con Michael Douglas e Gwyneth Paltrow, alle 22.50 la serie A proposito di Brian con Barry Watson e Matthew Davis – episodio 2×04.
• Alle 21.00 il programma musicale “I milanesi per il Duomo”.
• Alle 21.00 la serie animata “Class of 3000″, alle 21.25 la serie animata “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi”.
• Alle 21.00 la serie animata “Skunk Fu!”, alle 21.15 il documentario “Il Mediterraneo”.

DIGITALE TERRESTRE – CANALI PAY:

• Alle 21.00 la serie Dr. House – Medical Division con Hugh Laurie – episodi 4×10-11.
• Alle 21.00 il film drammatico “Cuori in Atlantide” (2001), con Anthony Hopkins e Mika Boorem.
• Alle 20.55 il film thriller “Cape Fear – Il promontorio della paura” (1991), con Robert De Niro.
• Alle 20.55 la serie animata “Phineas & Ferb”, alle 21.30 la sit-com italiana “Life Bites – Pillole di vita”, alle 21.45 il film TV commedia “Brink – Sfida su rotelle” (1998) con Erik von Detten e Sam Horrigan.

DIGITALE SATELLITARE – ALCUNI CANALI PAY:

• Alle 21.00 il programma “Molto più di… Uomini e donne” – puntata 3.
• Alle 21.15 la sit-com Friends con Jennifer Aniston e Courteney Cox – episodi 3×19-20, alle 22.05 la sit-com ‘Til Death – Per tutta la vita con Brad Garrett e Joely Fisher – episodi 2×07-08.
• Alle 21.00 la sit-com Samantha chi? con Christina Applegate e Jean Smart  – episodi 1×12-13, alle 21.55 la serie Ghost Whisperer – Presenze con Jennifer Love Hewitt  – episodio 3×16.
• Alle 21.00 la serie poliziesca Law & Order – I due volti della giustizia con Jerry Orbach – episodi 10×13-14.
• Alle 21.00 la serie Jarod il camaleonte con Michael T. Weiss e Andrea Parker – episodi 2×17-18.
• Alle 20.00 il programma “E! True Hollywood Story” – puntata “Britney Spears”.
• Alle 21.00 il varietà “Italo Americano” con Fabio Volo – puntata “Ritratto 2″.
• Alle 21.00 il programma “Shock” con Edoardo Stoppa – puntata 10.
• Alle 21.00 la docu-fiction italiana “Diario di classe”.
• Alle 21.00 la replica della puntata di ieri sera del programma “Ballarò” con Giovanni Floris.
• Alle 21.05 la serie poliziesca Il commissario Rex con Alexander Pschill e Elke Winkens – episodi 8×03-04.
• Alle 21.05 la miniserie “Salem’s Lot” con Rob Lowe – episodio 3, alle 22.00 il film thriller “Brivido nella notte” (1971) con Clint Eastwood.
• Alle 21.00 la serie poliziesca The Shield con Michael Chiklis – episodi conclusivi di stagione 5×10-11.
• Alle 21.00 la serie australiana Rain Shadow con Rachel Ward – episodi 3-4.
• Alle 21.00 la serie inglese Down to Earth con Pauline Quirke – episodio conclusivo 4×08, alle 22.00 la serie inglese My Family con Robert Lindsay – episodi 4×10-11.
• Alle 21.00 la serie russa Brigada con Sergei Bezrukov e Vladimir Vdovichenkov – episodio 3, alle 21.55 la serie bellica Band of Brothers – Fratelli al fronte con Damian Lewis e Ron Livingston – episodi 5-6.
• Alle 21.00 il documentario “La vera storia di Rain Man” (2006).
• Alle 20.50 il varietà “Best of Takeshi’s Castle” commentato da Teo Mammucari e Juliana Moreira, alle 21.40 il programma “Ninja Warrior” commentato da Jury Chechi.
• Alle 21.10 la serie animata “G.T.O. Great Teacher Onizuka”, alle 21.35 la serie animata “Ranma 1/2”, alle 22.00 la serie animata “Virtua Fighter”.

= film, serie o fiction in prima visione sui canali non a pagamento, o al primo passaggio sui canali Sky.
= film o film TV.
= telefilm (serie/sit-com) straniero o cartone animato [l'indicazione tipo "3x01" segnala il primo episodio della terza stagione].
= fiction di produzione italiana o straniera.
= soap opera italiana o straniera.
= programma sportivo.
= variazione rispetto al programma previsto.

Da ich dringend einen benötige und durch meine bereits geleistete Arbeit finanziell auch dazu in der Lage bin, habe ich mir heute einen Elektrorasierer bestellt.

Braun Series 3 / 380 Herrenrasierer heißt das neue Stück, für welches ich mich aufgrund von Tests und Kundenrezensionen bei Amazon entschieden habe.

Die DVD “Spy Game” habe ich mir auch noch gegönnt, nach einer Empfehlung von Manuel, da ich leider den Film im Fernsehen nicht mitverfolgen konnte.

If you thought my critique of Ridley Scott was bad, prepare thyself.

Tony Scott is my least favorite filmmaker. Some people like him and I suppose he might have some modicum of more talent than the sea of hacks in this industry. But I consider him my least favorite, because he uses those talents to make the worst, most pretentiously ill-constructed films I’ve ever seen… That’s an important distinction.

The golden rule of editing is that the best editing is invisible. Unfortunately, that means people don’t notice it and talented editors usually go relatively award-less. But that also implies I give a shit about awards. See Tony Scott seems of the mind that “more” equals “better”. And thus his films are completely edited until they’re a complete mess. They’re littered with completely pointless avid-farts, jump cutting, layering, blends blips, scratches, and whatever the hell else he can figure out how to do. I’ve heard this being defended as a “stylistic choice” and I suppose that’s fair. But it’s also bullshit. I’ve seen films that use the aforementioned editing style for very specific points and usually artistic merit (like 40 years ago in the French New Wave, or avant garde films). What Tony is doing is completely adverse to the goals of his films. He’s not setting a tone or a mood… Unless epilepsy is a mood. It’s utter bullshit.

It wasn’t always that way but from the very beginning, his films have displayed a certain kind of suck. Let’s track that slow transition from lame duck, abject pointless direction to suped-up, avid-fart glory, shall we? Check out this filmography (which omits certain films I’m saving for later): 1) The Hunger – Catherine Devenue and Susan Sarandon are lesbian vampires. SOMEHOW, this film is a completely joyless and not-even-hot endeavor. Isn’t this the kind of movie that’s supposed to be a riot? Sure, he had no idea what he was doing and got into directing because of his smarter brother did, but still! 2) Beverly Hills Cop II just a massive display of FAIL. 3) Days of Thunder – we’ve all seen this NASCAR craptacular right? He was trying to re-tap into his accidental success of Top Gun but I’ll save my rant on that film for later. 4) The Last Boy Scout - completely ruined a perfectly decent Shane Black script (note: when you don’t get in Shane Black’s way you get the genius of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). 5) Crimson Tide – regarded as his most successful movie but only because Gene Hackman and Denzel are really great actors. The dutch angles and use of color in this film are barf inducing 6) The Fan – A crazy fan kidnaps his favorite player (aka the DRAMATIC version of Celtic Pride). It was also the exact moment in which Robert De Niro’s career took a down turn and his first bad performance. Fuck you Tony Scott. You ruined a great actor. 7) Enemy of the State – this one I don’t mind too much, mostly because of the good script, Will Smith and Gene Hackman, and the crazy stuff fit here probably better than anywhere else (w/ the satellites and all that jazz). I also haven’t seen it since it came out and if I went back now I’d probably hate it. Spy Game – ugh. awful. He took a decent plot and made it senselessly unplottable and very, very boring. Redford doesn’t help either. 9) Man on Fire – the avid fart taken to new heights. Easily breaks record for most pointless, distracting edits. Even Denzel sucks in this. 10) Deja Vu – just like Man on Fire only stuff non-nonsensically repeats itself. It’s like watching the same suck over and over.

I realize this is all very general but I don’t have time to write a book, nor do I want to watch these movies again to really explain just how and exactly where they suck. If you’ve seen them. You understand.

However, there are 3 movies that deserve a little more explanation.

True Romance – People like it cause it’s secretly a Quentin Tarantino movie. It was Quentin’s first script. As such, there’s some good stuff in there but it really just plays like QT’s masturbatory fantasy. It’s really not that good of a story and who really gives a shit about a comic book nerd falling into the gangster world? There isn’t a single note of grace in here which QT figured out how to use later when he started directing himself.

Top Gun – This the most watchably-awful movie he made: Top Gun really is a terrible movie underneath it all, but it’s loveably so. It’s the benchmark for both 80’s cheese and homoeroticism. It’s so quotable and fantastic, but here’s the best part. Tony seems like he was making a serious movie. I’m sure if you asked him now it would all be intentional, but that’s the best part of the 80’s. Everybody thought they were fucking awesome and little did they know they were catapulting themselves into complete douchbaggery. Thing about it, people dressed like idiots, made homoerotic sports team sing/rap alongs, used sythesizers, invaded Grenada, and made movies like Top Gun. It was all intentional and thus unintentional comedy. Hell, the 80’s CREATED bad movie irony and this film was the genesis IMHO.

Domino – on the other side of things you can get a movie with absolutely no redeemable qualities. The story is told with no regard for narrative. The film is shot without regard for composition, color, light, or the audience’s perception of it. The film is editing into a fucking mess, I can’t even get into it. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a script and you can tell. If the intention was to display what a psychotic mess the whole situation was and exhibit that in the film itself then FAIL. The story was not a psychotic mess. It’s actually a pretty cool, interesting, and nuanced true story and could have been a great character piece about why a model would suddenly become a bounty hunter.

Instead it all takes a complete backseat to the bullshit of Tony Scott. You see every movie, every subject, every script nowadays becomes the “psychotic mess” he likes to drape his films with and there’s no point. There’s no justification for it. It’s just what he does. There’s a great idea for a movie, maybe even a great movie and Tony Scott just comes in and “does whatever” and does all his crazy stylistic stuff. So if you want your film idea ass-raped into oblivion by all means hire Mr. Scott.

And yet he keeps getting work. I don’t understand. Who likes these movies? And if you do like them are you liking what’s happening in spite of crazy shit he puts into it or because of it? Because I’ve never met anyone who liked the style. They may have liked the movie compared to me. But not the style.

Lastly, The Secret Worst Movie Ever: It’s a short film he did called “Beat the Devil.” It was one of those BMW films. Look it up and watch. I dare you. I’m pretty sure it helped kill James Brown.

I nearly lost my voice and bruised my hands from screaming and clapping.

One of the best SuperBowls I have seen in a while.  Go GIANTS! (BTW I called it, ak Russ)

Ecco uno dei primi giochi per Android, la piattaforma per dispositivi mobili di Google. Si chiama WiFi Army e fa già parlare di se’ … si tratta infatti di una specie di sparatutto/spy game, ma che sfrutta appieno la tecnologia wifi e GPS. Immaginate di essere in un’area cittadina col vostro mobile … il gioco conosce dal GPS la vostra posizione, e monitora se ci sono altri possibili giocatori nel vostro raggio di azione (qualche centinaia di metri). Appena li trova, il videogames si attiva e vi segnala un possibile concorrente/avversario. E li inizia il combattimento … con uno o più avversari. Geniale …

Ah dimenticavo, il gioco è gratis.

I guess I should explain what I’m talking about, for those unacquainted with the depths of Canadian TV. Intelligence is a TV show on CBC about a big-time pot smuggler in BC. He ends up as an informant for the RCMP, but he uses them just as much as they use him. The show goes into his operation: his grow-op people, business partners, rivals, and others. The show also goes as much into the other side of the fence, showing intelligence and law enforcement people from both sides of the US-Canada border clashing and colluding to varying degrees.

Sounds interesting, right? Ed Brubaker sure made it sound that way when he gave the show a mention in the latest issue of Criminal (Criminal’s a decent crime comic, by the way, have a look if you’re into that kind of stuff). He said, “If you’re a fan of The Wire or The Shield, you need to track it down.” Like most Canadians, I make it a habit to stay away from Canadian-made dramas, so I hadn’t heard of the show -but I am a fan of both The Wire and The Shield, thus leading me to download the first season (and let me just say it was a total pain to find torrents with enough people still seeding). It was a major disappointment. Yes, the premise and the plots are fairly interesting, but the execution falls far short of the standards Brubaker compares it to. Where The Shield has crackling intensity, Intelligence has boring characters. Where The Wire has gritty realism, Intelligence has a bland atmosphere. In fact, if I had to describe the show in one word, that’s what I would use: bland. I’ve met enough government types to know that in real life they’re actually pretty bloodless and uninteresting, and the media probably makes drug smuggling more exciting than it actually is, but that’s the advantage of fiction. Take some fucking creative license, for God’s sake. The biggest crime when producing entertainment is not to make it entertaining. Even when a potential gang war pops up, the way it’s presented on the show is pretty bland and low-key. Actually, “bland” pretty much describes every this and every other drama made for Canadian TV. Maybe I’m not being entirely fair. I know the two American shows have much bigger budgets, which lead to better production values; the budget on Intelligence probably only amounts to The Wire’s coffee expenditure. If the producers of Intelligence had access to the same kind of money, maybe they’d be able to create something as good. At the very least they wouldn’t have to keep setting so many scenes at night (which I suspect they’re only doing to take advantage of cheaper equipment rentals) and they could show more complicated set pieces and maybe an action scene or two. However, I keep thinking about Robert Rodriguez and how he supposedly shot El Mariachi with a budget of only sixty thousand dollars. Or think about the first Saw movie – shot for a hundred thousand, made tens of millions. I know there are differences between TV and movie production, but the point still stands that if the people in charge are good enough, they can find a way to make interesting fare while working within restrictive budget limitations.

(This raises the question, “Why aren’t the people in charge good enough?” This one is fairly easy to answer. The most talented and ambitious creative types overwhelmingly choose to go south, and not just for the money. The creative opportunities are just so much better, and you get to meet and work with some of the best minds in the industry. With those kinds of incentives, you’d have to be an idiot to stay behind in Canada. You do occasionally get a Cronenberg or an Egoyan, but they tend to be few and far between. Everybody else deserves to get stuck directing episodes of The New Adventures of Sinbad.)

What Intelligence reminds me of the most is MI-5, and what I was hoping the show would be like. MI-5 has the same premise, except it’s actually good (at least the first couple of seasons were, before they started trying to ape 24). The kicker is that British TV channels don’t actually have that much more money than its Canadian counterparts. I think it’s made by a private broadcaster, though, while the CBC is government-owned through-and-through. Maybe it’s true how they say that government work kills creativity? In any event, that’s another show Intelligence can be be unfavourably compared to.

I think I’ll have to revise my original title. Intelligence doesn’t fucking blow. Given what I imagine are a small budget and a limited talent pool, Intelligence works well enough with what it’s got. In other words, Intelligence is good for Canadian TV. And that statement tells anyone what they need to know about this show.