In the ongoing journey of cleaning out my computer files…some classics for your viewing pleasure.

Janis Joplin. Would kill to have that voice.

Jean Seberg. Would kill to have stared in the film “Breathless.”

Jim Morrison. Would kill to have been alive to have seen him perform live. That would be a great story.

Jimi Hendrix. Another performance I would love to have seen in person. Oh, and that jacket…I need to find one like it ASAP.

Priscilla Presley. My mum was in Germany shortly after Priscilla and Elvis hooked up and always had wished that she had gone earlier (maybe it would have been her…that would mean I could have been Elvis’ kid). I love these old pictures of her. The hair, the make-up…perfection.

And last, but most certainly not least…TERENCE STAMP. I found this picture in a Vogue coffee table book about what they had going on in their mag in the ’60s. I feel in love with that page it was on (opposite an amazing picture of Julie Christie…another beauty). He reminds me a bit of Serge Pizzorno from Kasabian.

L’11 settembre 1857 durante il viaggio verso Ovest, una carovana di pionieri attraversa lo Utah, territorio mormone.

Ma, in California, non arriverà mai. “L’ American Dream” viene brutalmente spezzato dagli “Illuminati”, i mormoni , i quali nel “nome di Dio” massacrano 137 coloni, di cui 17 bambini, 22 donne e 13 vecchi.

Un 11 settembre, dimenticato, nella Storia Americana riportato a galla dal regista Christopher Cain e magistralmente interpretato da un  grande Jon Voight.

L’attore intervistato a proposito ha dichiarato:

“ Quell’11 settembre di 150 anni fa riguarda tutti noi, alle prese con i fanatismi religiosi che inquinano il mondo. Il film non è sui mormoni, ma sulle ideologie dell’intolleranza, sulle intrusioni della religione nella politica e nel destino dei popoli, sugli estremismi fondamentalisti e le violenze che provocano”

☼ 24 gennaio 2008

I’m not sure why, but I’ve never found Jim Carrey all that interesting. Watching Yes Man last night, I couldn’t help but find myself appreciating his effort while simultaneously not liking the results. Carrey is certainly the type of comedic actor gifted with the ability to sell himself and his shtick on a wide scale, that’s for sure, but what’s he’s offering is often lukewarm rubber-faced nonsense with little context or substance.

It stands to reason, then, that he needs one hell of a script to deliver something special. Unfortunately for Carrey, Yes Man doesn’t have it. Directed by Peyton Reed (The Break-Up, Bring It On), this 2008 comedy is loosely based on a rather interesting true story and life experience by British humourist Danny Wallace. In Wallace’s experienced, published in his book of the same name, he took it upon himself to “say yes” to things he’d ordinarily “say no” to. The results were surprising, as you might imagine.

Carrey stars as a loans officer named Carl Allen. Since his divorce, he’s become withdrawn and has turned into quite a “no” person. Always ducking out on plans with friends and generally keeping to himself, Carl’s negative outlook on life is threatening his relationships. One day, he is convinced to attend a motivational seminar led by Terrence Bundley (Terence Stamp). The idea is to enter into a covenant with himself that causes him to accept the affirmative and, of course, to become a “Yes Man.”

This sends Carl on a remarkable series of comic adventures, starting with saying “yes” to a homeless guy who wants a ride. This leaves Carl in the middle of nowhere, but as we all know the middle of nowhere is the best possible place to locate a film’s love interest. Upon meeting the eccentric scooter-riding Allison (Zooey Deschanel), Carl realizes that accepting the affirmative has had a positive effect on his life and proceeds to transform things by saying “yes” to everything, including bank loans. The usual complications occur, of course, and are resolved by the third act to much cheesy fanfare.

Yes Man is generally going to please people who are fans of Carrey’s stuff, but it probably won’t earn him any new looks from those on the fence. The unfortunate thing about the movie is that it doesn’t really put Carrey in any conflict, even with himself. He takes on the affirmative because he wants to and because he desires the results, whereas other similar “behaviour comedy” pictures often leave the main character more conflicted and/or estranged from societal norms.

While Liar Liar will certainly come to mind for some as being similar to Yes Man, the comedy also shares some points with the underrated Shallow Hal. But unlike both of those films, Yes Man enters in to its quandary willingly and is a tale of sudden, willing transformation more than it is a truly comic tale of reluctant change. This gives the picture a fluffy, weightless quality, creating little energy or consequence.

Deschanel is probably the movie’s bright spot, as her performance as the weird but likeable love interest helps draw things out away from the formula. While their love is certainly unrealistic and feels forced, she manages to pull off something special thanks to her natural charisma and charm. Her scenes with Carrey work well enough but remain elusive and unconvincing overall, although that’s not her fault. Perhaps with a stronger script, Yes Man could have made more out of the romantic angles.

Overall, Yes Man is far from an awful picture. The problem is that it’s far from a good one and is about as middle-of-the-road as it gets for a comedy. Carrey simply kind of exists on screen, drawing on his well of tricks as per usual and offering little of consequence to the film. While there were some chuckles here and there, this movie is far from memorable or impactful as a comedy.

3.7/10

Trailer:

Jean Shrimpton and Terence Stamp – young, beautiful, rich, famous and in love, 1965
By Terry O’Neill

ABBA songs are so fun to just dance to!

Invited to perform at a casino in remote Alice Springs, Australia, drag queens Mitzi (Hugo Weaving) and Felicia (Guy Pearce) and transsexual Bernadette (Terence Stamp) hit the road in a broken-down lavender bus named Priscilla in this campy comedy classic. Along the way, the friends change into their most outrageous costumes and lip-synch disco tunes — including plenty of ABBA — for the outback’s befuddled locals.

If you do not like big grown strong men fully exposed and dressed in woman’s clothing then do not see this film. This movie will surely test your homophobic ways and if you can get past the very gay themes you will enjoy the film almost as much as me.

This film showed off to be a film that supported the gays and was going to be the calling card for the gay community, but surprisingly it wasn’t. I liked how this film humanizes these three men and shows how all people gay or straight should be treated all equally. The trip is metaphor for the life journeys each of the characters are involved in with each growing in some important way by the time they reach their destination.

Adventures is funny but not laugh out loud hilarious. I found a lot of the scenes to be very clever due to the writing of the script. There are many moments in this film that just made me smile and have a little chuckle here and there but its mostly the memories of a lot of these scenes, that make me smile.

This film surely takes a lot out of its actors to play gay men dressing in woman’s clothing. The trio of leads are all great. Guy Pearce (Memento) is highly energetic and brings much comedy, Hugo Weaving (The Matrix) is your normal average gay man but is very good as well. But the one performance that sticks out in my mind is Terence Stamp. He surely does give a very touching performance as making these three characters very believable and true. The chemistry between these three is also very well done as you can feel these three all have known each other for a long time.

If there is any problem with this film at all is that I wish the ending was handled a little bit better. I feel like the ending was a bit too bland and wasn’t very effective for when it came to a film about being accepted as a human being.

Consensus: Not for the slight bit of homophobia, but is a funny but true look on being accepted in life gay or straight.

9.5/10=Full Pricee!!

Alien Nation 1988 Movie Poster

 

Alien Nation is a 1988 science fiction film written by Rockne S. O’Bannon and directed by Graham Baker. It stars James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terence Stamp, Leslie Bevis and Kevyn Major Howard.

Tagline: Prepare Yourself.

The following year, the film’s plot concept was used as the basis for a television series of the same name, which premiered in 1989 and ran for a single season. A comic book series and book series were started when it looked like it might never return to television. Finally in 1994, the first of five television movies was produced as a continuation of the series.

Syfy is planning a new Alien Nation television series.

Mandy Patinkin and James Caan

Trivia:

• The alien character played by Mandy Patinkin was originally going to be named George Jetson but Hanna-Barbera wouldn’t give the rights to the name. The decision to call his character ‘George’ in the movie was kept as an in-joke.
• Jerry Goldsmith’s synthetic and score was rejected early in post production for being “too weird” and replaced with music by Curt Sobel. Jerry Goldsmith’s rejected score was released in Spring 2005 as a Varese Sarabande CD Club Release limited to 3000 copies.
• The October 1987 draft of the screenplay credits a rewrite to James Cameron. He is not credited in the final film.
• The trailer shows a portion of a fight scene between George and Rudyard Kipling with a burning car in the background, meaning that in an earlier edit Kipling exits the car before it explodes (you see him regain consciousness at one point with a groan) and then fights with George. This would also explain why it is that Sykes compliments George on showing “some good moves back there”.
• When George is comforting the old woman a poster of former boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard can be seen hanging next to the Pepsi cooler.

Amazon Specials

Make Up Department
  Janice Alexander … hair stylist
  David Anderson … alien makeup effects
  Grant Arndt … sculptor: Stan Winston Studios
  John Blake … alien makeup effects
  Roger Borelli … alien makeup effects
  Katalin Elek … makeup artist
  Zoltan … alien makeup applier
  Zoltan … makeup artist
  John Elliott … alien makeup applier
  John Elliott … makeup artist
  John M. Elliott Jr. … makeup co-department head
  Greg Figiel … alien makeup effects
  Steve Frakes … alien makeup effects
  Mark Garbarino … alien makeup effects
  Emilio M. Gonzales … alien makeup effects
  Jeff Kennemore … alien makeup effects
  Makio Kida … alien makeup effects
  Eryn Krueger … alien makeup effects
  Richard J. Landon … alien makeup effects
  Karen Mason … alien makeup effects
  Michael Mills … makeup artist
  Brian Penikas … alien makeup effects
  John Price … alien makeup effects
  Matt Rose … prosthetic painter
  Russell Seifert … alien makeup effects
  Michael Spatola … alien makeup effects
  Michiko Tagawa … alien makeup effects
  Mike Trcic … alien makeup effects
  Monty Westmore … makeup artist
  Kenny Myers … makeup artist (uncredited)

“Smallville” es una de las series de la The CW que más va a tardar en estrenarse, y es que no veremos el primero episodio de la novena temporada hasta el 25 de septiembre. Y recordar que este año cambiar de horario, de los jueves a los viernes por la noche.

Pero empecemos con las novedades que surgen a raíz de la serie. Se ha contratado un nuevo fichaje para esta temporada. El actor es Julian Sands y será Jor-El, el padre biológico de Clark Kent. Es el esposo de Lara, un gran científico respetado en su planeta antes de que fuera destruido incluso previendo su propia destrucción, razón por la cual envió en una nave especial a su hijo a la Tierra. Parece ser que será contratado para el resto de la temporada, ya que pasará a ser un personaje regular de la serie. Hasta la fecha no teníamos imágenes de él, únicamente podíamos oír la voz Terence Stamp dándole vida o en alguna ocasión al propio Tom Welling interpretándolo de joven. Su primera aparición será en el episodio Kandor, anunciado para el mes de noviembre.

Sin muchas novedades más hasta que se estrene la serie, únicamente apuntar un par de curiosidades y a la vez informaciones que se han formado en torno a la serie. Anunciar el estreno de la séptima temporada de “Smallville” en España para el día 21 de septiembre a partir de las 21.00 horas en La 2.

Y comentar también el fichaje de Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang en “Smallville”) por la serie “Chuck”. En ella interpretara a Hannah, una chica que el protagonista conocerá en un vuelo a Paris. Se ha explicado acerca de ello que “Chuck y Hannah definitivamente tienen química el uno con el otro”. Su participación está prevista para un arco importante de episodios, por lo que volveremos a ver a Kristin en la pequeña pantalla.

Includes authentic autographs of the following cast members:

Christopher Reeve     Gene Hackman     Ned Beaty     Jackie Cooper    

Margot Kidder     Terrence Stamp     Phyllis Thaxter     Susannah York    

Marc McClure     Sarah Douglas     Annette O’Toole     John Williams

See my other Superman related autograph post here!!

There’s action movies and then there’s ‘The Hidden’. I’m not the first person to eulogise about this film, but with ‘District 9′ bringing back the uneasy do-gooding truce between man and extra-terrestrial in a film that switched from ‘V’ as envisioned by Ken Loach into an entertaining compromise between ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Children Of Men’ it feels more relevant than ever. It’s curious that in the late ’80s a subgenre sprang up wherein cops were twinned with aliens for some ‘48 Hours’ grit with added laserbeams. Why? Who the hell cares? It’s got car chases and impossible weapons being implemented. That’s what matters.

You never got body-swapping sentient beings driving Ferraris at silly miles an hour during ‘In The Heat Of The Night.’  1987 gave us ‘The Hidden’. 1988 brought the close but no cigar James Caan and Terence Stamp outing ‘Alien Nation’ (you see what they did there?) and 1990 unleashed the Euro video rental favourite ‘Dark Angel’ with Dolph Lundgren and a script rewrite by Hollywood’s perennial writer of choice, David Koepp with Dolph briefly buddying with an alien’s outerspace pursuer who bites the bullet, or whatever otherwordly object pierces his flesh mid-way through the film in his pursuit of a large Aryan gentleman who injects strangers with vast amounts of smack and drains the ensuing overdose endorphins from their brain via their forehead. Its US title, ‘I Come In Peace’ sold it short. So did a trailer than contained the film’s ending.

I’d like to have seen the alien ‘odd couple’ approach employed in ’91’s ‘The Borrower’ – John McNaughton’s ultraviolent follow-up to ‘Henry – Portrait of a Serial Killer’ where an alien has to borrow, well…steal heads from people to stay alove on planet earth, alternating between doctors, a dog, and at one point, Antonio Fargas’s cranium. Instead, the beautiful Rae Dawn-Chong rolls with a disappointingly humanoid sidekick. Earlier oddities, like Larry Cohen’s demented 1976 masterpiece ‘God Told Me To’ (the forefather of ‘The Hidden’) and the dreadful, yet curiously watchable ‘Laserblast’ from the same year would have benefited from mixed-galaxy lawmen too.

Back to ‘The Hidden’ – an alien arrives that takes over bodies, loves fast cars and listens to crappy groups like The Concrete Blondes loudly, kills at will and robs banks for the fun of it. It even shoots Danny Trejo in an early speaking appearance for no good reason. A veteran cop is teamed with the weird Kyle Maclachlan who’s got a modus operandi for bringing in the intergalactic perp. Why this movie isn’t whispered about with the same reverance as ‘Predator’ and ‘Die Hard’ has long been a mystery. It’s fast paced, it’s got one of the best car chases (watch out for that wheelchair!) ever, strippers with firearms, blood, great prosthetics, and an ending that’s open to interpretation, provided you ignore the atrocious 1994 sequel.

This is the buddy movie on sherm sticks. There’s a spot of Carpenter’s ‘Starman’ and ‘The Thing’ in there, a sprinkling of ‘To Live And Die In LA’ and a whole lot more. In the US, a great almost Psycho Stick style poster looks like the way an addled Robert Downey Jr. probably saw the world during the filming of ‘Less Than Zero’ down the road, but in the UK, a different tact was used. The VHS cover stripped it of any promise of non-stop action, and showed something that’s borderline spoiler if elaborated on. Where’s the 308 GTS being blown to pieces? Check out its entry at the Internet Movie Car Database if you’re sceptical. And if the sci-fi cover threw you off the scent, the picture of what looked like a spider coming out a man’s mouth merely made this a ‘perhaps’ rent next to whatever tat Vestron had pumped out that Monday.

Only after seeing the coming attractions before ‘Die Hard’ in 1988, did the error of my ways become apparent. Deaths. Explosions. Silliness. This is the most overlooked film of the decade where the action film came of age…

Ho finalmente visto il tanto discusso film di Bryan Singer con Tom Cruise e devo dire che la pellicola è più che sufficiente riuscendo a tenere alta l’attenzione dello spettatore pur trattando un tema difficile e con poca azione visto che la vicenda è incentrata sulla conquista del potere politico grazie a complotti e operazioni segrete.

TRAMA:
1944: tornato in Germania dalla campagna d’Africa, dove è stato ferito gravemente, il colonnello Claus von Stauffenberg, un aristocratico tedesco, si unisce alla Resistenza ed entra a far parte dell’operazione Vakyrie, un piano che mira alla presa del potere da parte di un governo ombra una volta morto Hitler. Von Stauffenberg assumerà un ruolo centrale nel piano: sarà proprio lui a dover portare avanti il colpo di stato, uccidendo di sua mano il Führer. Il film è ispirato a fatti realmente accaduti: il vero von Stauffenberg fu a capo di un piano – noto come il Complotto del 20 luglio – che mirava ad abbattere il nazismo e a porre fine alla guerra assassinando Adolf Hitler. (fonte comingsoon)
Come dicevo una trama fatti di segreti, decisioni importanti, compromessi e la messa in scena è molto realistica grazie a sguardi, dialoghi e dettagli che tengono alto l’interesse anche nei momenti meno concitati, non mancano comunque i momenti d’azione, penso al primi minuti del film con l’attacco aereo alla divisione tedesca in Africa o ai momenti dell’attentato, situazioni avvincenti e ben realizzate… quello che non convince del tutto è l’interpretazine di Tom Cruise che non è tra le sue migliori ma che soprattutto stona in un film dove deve interpretare un tedesco, cosa che risualta difficile da digerire vedendo sullo schermo il tipico americano da “Top Gun”, in generale tutti gli attori sono americani e la lingua parlata durante il film è l’inglese (io l’ho seguito in lingua originale) e questo toglie un pò di credibilità alla vicenda, forse sarebbe stato meglio prendere più attori di origine tedesca e farli parlare in lingua tedesca (certo è che il film sarebbe stato difficile da seguire). Oltre a questo la notevole tensione che crea il regista si annulla in parte perchè tutti sappiamo com’è andata a finire e quindi non c’è nessuna vera sorpresa finale!
Operazione Valkyria è comunque un buon film, con delle ottime interpretazioni da parte di tutti gli attori “secondari” e che ci fa scoprire una vicenda politico/militare grazie ad una trama avvincente ed efficace.


il trailer:

Last night I watched the DVD of the movie “Get Smart”, this is based on an old TV series of the same name although to be honest I don’t remember hardly anything about the TV series at all so I approached this with no real preconceived idea’s.

This is a Comedy / Action / Adventure film about the battle between “Control” a government organisation with goodie secret agents who fight against the forces of “Kaos” an organisation of baddy agents. The story centres around Maxwell Smart (agent 86) played by the reliable Steve Carell, he starts out as an analyst who’s always dreamed of being an agent and gets his wish early in the film.

His boss “The Chief” (Alan Arkin) teams him with Agent 99, played by the lovely Anne Hathaway, a feisty female agent who at first doesn’t want him as a partner but of course eventually becomes his love interest. They set off on a series of adventures to thwart the plans of Kaos agent Siegfried (Terence Stamp) and his huge hence man Dalip, played by Dalip Singh “the Great Khali” from the WWE” (the WWE connection goes a little further by the way as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson also formerly of the WWE plays agent 23). Also worthy of mention is the appearance of James Caan playing “The President”, he takes a nice little semi cameo role and plays it nicely.

The film delivers plenty of action and loads of comedy throughout, its both funny and exciting and I have no problems in promoting this movie as definitely worth making a point of seeing, its a good one. The two main leads, Carell and Hathaway are great together, definite chemistry, they play off each other very nicely with some good lines.

Its well written, well played, funny, exciting, see it, you’ll love it.

Historias extraordinarias may be confused with the 1969 omnibus film of the same title (in English Spirits of the Dead) where Federico Fellini, Louis Malle and Roger Vadim each made a short film based on an Edgar Allan Poe story. This latter film is a psychedelic romp befitting the tail end of the 1960s, filtered through the genius of Poe and visualised brilliantly by Fellini above all.

Mention of it isn’t as retro as one would think: the best of the three short films, Fellini’s Toby Dammit, has been making the festival rounds courtesy of a newly restored 35mm print. I had the deliriously lucky opportunity to see it several months ago at the Hammer museum in Los Angeles. It remains one of my favourite Fellini films – if not the most favourite.

Toby Dammit is based on the short story “Never bet the devil your head, a tale with a moral,” and stars the wonderful and beautiful Terence Stamp.