Quentin Tarantino may be many things — perverted, profane, whipsmart, cocky, a little too enamored with his own cleverness — but subtle he is not. He’s not even in the ballpark. Matter of fact, if that ballpark blew up, he wouldn’t hear the sound for another three days. Nah, Tarantino’s a guts-glory-chicks-and-explosions kind of director, and that imagination of his? In the name of Le Royale with Cheese does it dream up some wild-n-twisted trips.

Mark ”Pulp Fiction” down as one of the wildest. Every nanosecond of this humdinger’s 154 minutes contains something warped/crazy/effortlessly cool to behold: philosophical discussions about foot massages, the nature of miracles and a gold watche that has been places no watch should go; murders both coolly calculated and comically accidental; a frightful drug overdose; kinky sex (think S&M with an Alabama drawl and a gimp); and, last but not least, a sinfully delicious $5 milkshake. Random as this catalogue seems, Tarantino’s film is far more scattershot. The action doesn’t adhere to a simple timeline; instead, there are three stories that run parallel, then smash together, then diverge only to reconnect in ways that boggle the mind upon repeat viewings. “Pulp Fiction” is a genius noir/gangster combo that keeps us guessing. Guess long enough, though, and patterns start to emerge from the madness.

Sort of. Since Tarantino makes it nearly impossible to understand how these stories pool into a cohesive ending, let’s tackle one beast at a time. First, there’s “Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace’s Wife,” the tale of L.A. hitmen Vince (John Travolta) and Jules (a perfeclty cast Samuel L. Jackson) heading to do a job ordered by their loose-cannon boss Marsellus (Ving Rhames). Since Marsellus recently threw a guy out a high-rise window for giving his wife Mia (Uma Thurman) a foot massage, Vince has the jitters about taking her out on the town. His plan is simple: “Chew my food with my mouth closed, laugh at her fucking jokes, and that’s it.” Of course, trouble has a tendency to follow Vince, so things don’t go that smoothly.

Smoothness doesn’t much like Butch (Bruce Willis) either, which we discover in ”The Gold Watch.” A talented boxer with a sweetly innocent girlfriend (Maria de Medeiros), Butch shovels some dirt on his own grave by winning the fight Marsellus paid him to throw. But his neat double-cross turns messy through a series of freak coincidences, the most interesting involving two pawn shop owners who plumb forgot to pack their manners (not to mention their morality) when they left the Deep South. ”The Gold Watch” leads into “The Bonnie Situation,” a conclusion of sorts where Tarantino himself shows up as Jimmie Dimmick, a pal of Jules who begrudgingly agrees to help him clean up an accidental hit (“my gun went off! I don’t know why!” insists the a brain matter-spattered Vance) with help from Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel). What’s on Wolfe’s business card we can’t be sure, since the terse mystery man only offers “I solve problems” as his job description.

It’s offhand comments like these that demonstrate one of Tarantino’s greatest strengths: revealing character traits with one or two stray lines of dialogue. He’s a student of human nature, and he knows the ways people fill time by arguing over whether foot massages are sensual or wondering what cheeseburgers are called in France (see above). And yet everything these characters say tells us something about themselves or the story. Christopher Walken, in his lone scene, delivers a howling-good speech that seems like comic relief, but the subject — the gold watch — comes back into play. Jules spouts a nonsensical version of Ezekiel 25:17, but it reveals his own moral code. Thurman, who finds jumpy loneliness in Mia, parlays a terrible joke about tomatoes into a real connection with Vince. Haphazard though they seem, these lines are the threads that knit everything together.

What else dazzles about “Pulp Fiction”? There’s the abundance of lurid violence — much of it comical (including an uncomfortably funny rape scene), some of it truly shocking, none of it gratuitious. Jackson and Travolta are one hell of two-man team, while Willis registers a pulse and Eric Stoltz has wit to burn. Ultimately, though, it’s the manic, fearless force of Tarantino that makes “Pulp Fiction” a sweet, sweet joyride, indeed.

Grade: A

Surrogates

Surrogates [Blu-ray]

Surrogates [DVD]

Director: Jonathan Mostow
Writer(s): Michael Ferris
John D. Brancato

Starring: Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames

The Surrogates stars actor Bruce Willis who is in a futuristic world where human beings now control robotic versions of who they wish to be which are referred to as their Surrogates. The movie is based on a graphic novel series of which I have not personally read but have been informed that the movie does not quite hold entirely true to the graphic novels. That aside this is a movie review and we are going to look at it from that perspective.

Bruce Willis always manages to find himself in the middle of some quite interesting roles, even as he gets older I find his work continues to be a high level of interest. That being said Surrogates as interesting as it seems on the surface did not quite deliver the cinematic punch I was hoping for.

The movie revolves around Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) as he investigates the murder of two Surrogates which resulted in the murder of their human operates, a crime which has never occurred in the history of Surrogate use. Greer tends to believe that Surrogate life is overused and often tells his wife that he would like for them to spend time together outside of their Surrogate bodies.

The investigation leads Greer to a character that is known as The Prophet (Ving Rhames) who leads a group of human beings that believe Surrogate life is wrong and should not ever be used. This movie tends to posses a strong statement about technology and the direction our own world seems to be going in, yet it does not deliver the impact that it’s very own premise wants to deliver.

Surrogates is a movie which I am not going to steer people away from as I did find it quite interesting in many ways. The only trouble is that the movie itself does not surprise you in anyway, nor does it quite drive it’s own message home either. Surrogates is a wait for video type of movie and could very well find a good home in some peoples DVD or Blu-Ray collections as well. Overall the movie itself is worth a watch but not one to rush yourself in to.

My Rating:54%

Muddled and terrifically unfunny, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is a completely inconsequential comedy with little redeeming value other than to prove that Jeremy Piven can, in no way, carry a movie. Directed by Neal Brennan, The Goods is an ode to capitalism and obnoxiousness with a nice slice of Americana on the side. Its reliance on outdated “shock” comedy doesn’t score it any points, either, and it lumbers through its relatively short runtime despite the appearance of some truly unique comic talents.

Brennan is the latest in a line of bland comedy directors, confirming with The Goods the notion that a handful of sketches tied loosely together by a core plot doesn’t make for a good complete picture. Brennan is entirely useless as a director, as anyone could have been behind the camera and produced the same results. It’s a mishmash of sideplots and lines, many of which have cruel foundations in homophobia, racism and rah-rah American jingoism.

Piven stars as a slick car salesman named Don Ready. He has a team of salespersons and they’re like nomads in that they cruise around from town to town trying to sell cars for dealerships that really need it. (Plots don’t get more captivating than this, do they?) Ready and Co. wind up taking an assignment in a small town in an effort to save Ben Selleck (James Brolin) and his family dealership.

Along the way, a series of entanglements attempts to interest us in the respective plights of the characters. Selleck, for instance, has a crush on salesman Brent Gage (David Koechner) while saleswoman Babs Merrick (Kathryn Hahn) chases around Selleck’s young son (Rob Riggle). Jibby Newsome (Ving Rhames) is looking for love, too, and Don’s also dealing with his own romantic complications with Selleck’s daughter Ivy (Jordana Spiro). There’s also a boy band and an old racist guy in the mix, just for fun.

Now, right out of the gate it’s hard to imagine that a flick with the plot of The Goods is going to be any, well, good. It’s a plot that doesn’t really sell itself. Watching a bunch of car dealers finagle various customers using cheating and deception is, after all, supposed to be hilarious given the economic condition the world is in at the moment and, don’t forget, we’re supposed to also care about the con artists selling these vehicles. On top of it all, we’re supposed to respect them a lot because, hey, they really like America.

It’s all a little much to begin with, but then writers Adam Stock and Rick Stempson pack things with a whole whack of homophobia, racism and weird twists on other crap nobody but 13-year-old wrestling fans are interested in anymore. Of course, that’s probably the target audience for this hard R-rated comedy anyway, but I digress.

I can’t say that this movie fails because of the cast because everyone actually does do what they’re asked to do. Piven does about all he can to pull off a big screen version of his character from Entourage and the other actors do what they’re supposed to do too, but that’s part of the problem: what they’re “supposed to do” just isn’t funny. Jokes feel forced and idiotic, with a lot of mean-spirited and misplaced crassness highlighted all the angles.

Look, one expects a movie like The Goods to be rude and crass. But most films, like this year’s I Love You, Man, manage to balance the crassness with a little something those of us over the age of 13 like to call “substance.” The Goods not only flounders in delivering any significant laughs, but it also fails to deliver any sort of reason for its existence. It’s an entirely meaningless, ultimately forgettable comedy.

0.7/10

Trailer:

Throughout history, men and women alike have dreamed of technological advances such as advanced robotics, did they perceive that said technological advancement would subsequently result in near-constant isolation of the human race? Apparently not. The year is 2017 when a company known as VSI create ‘Surrogates‘, robotic shells in which the user can place their own personality, thoughts and to some extent their soul, into it’s well known invulnerable shell, protecting the user from harm and letting them experience anything they desire all from the safety of the users own home.

With the creation of the Surrogates, crime rates have fallen to almost nothing, until FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) catches wind of the first murder to happen within years. Greer finds that everything isn’t what it seems within this futuristic, perfect utopia and in turn, questions what exactly defines a human. Now, that is something that really should be taken into account here, there have been countless films in the past which focus on the creation of somewhat autonomous sentient beings (even if that may be debatable here), such as in; I Robot, Terminators and Transformers, but Surrogates brings forward something unique to the table. Whilst at first, the film may not seem so dark and sinister, if you read in to the concept, it’s really quite disturbing, essentially exploring philosophical questions such as ‘What defines humanity?.’

The futuristic comic book adaptation features Bruce Willis (Die Hard Trilogy, Sixth Sense, The Fifth Element), Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black, Phone Booth, Silent Hill, also the upcoming ‘The Crazies’), Rosamund Pike (Pride & Prejudiced, Die Another Day, Fracture), Boris Kodjoe (Brown Sugar, The Gospel, Starship Troopers 3) , James Cromwell (Babe, L.A Confidential, The Green Mile) and Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission Impossible II, Dawn Of The Dead). Willis is renowned for his die hard attitude which appears in most of his films, and he does an exceptional job throughout Surrogates of preserving that, whilst some people may see as a flaw, I on the other hand, think it’s an attribute that should be carried with him. Alternatively, Mitchell’s performance, whilst definitely professional, seemed rather benumbed at best, but this may be due to the fact her character doesn’t really get a chance to make a big impact throughout Surrogates. I would however like to applaud Cromwell on his rather impressive representation of Dr. Lionel Canter which, teamed with Willis, kept the film going for me. An intricate film which subsequently makes you think, and definitely doubt, you’ll love it if you are sci-fi/comic book fans, otherwise it might not be the film for you.

]]> http://avagacser.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/medium-gives-us-a-night-of-the-dead-to-remember/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:59:13 +0000 avagacser http://avagacser.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/medium-gives-us-a-night-of-the-dead-to-remember/

When Jake Weber’s character on “Medium,” Joe Dubois, referred to George Romero’s zombie flick “Dawn of the Dead” on last week’s episode (which cleverly inserted Joe’s wife, Allison, into the original “Night of the Living Dead”), the significance definitely wasn’t lost on me.

In a slick nod to the brilliantly good 2004 remake of the film – which just happens to star Jake – his character off-handedly says, “That’s not the one where everyone gets trapped in the mall, are they?”

Why yes, Joe, it is. The film, which also stars Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames, follows a small group of people who barricade themselves inside a mall as the world is quickly taken over by the undead.

Here’s the trailer from the film (look closely for Jake), and if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend you do:

Jacob’s Ladder is a 1990 psychological thriller / horror film directed by Adrian Lyne, based on a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin. It stars Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, and Jason Alexander. Actor Macaulay Culkin appears in an uncredited performance.

Tagline:  The most frightening thing about Jacob Singer’s nightmare is that he isn’t dreaming.

Trivia:

• All SFX were filmed live, with no post-production. For example, to achieve the famous ’shaking head’ effect, director Adrian Lyne simply filmed the actor waving his head around (and keeping his shoulders and the rest of his body completely still) at 4fps, resulting in an incredibly fast and deeply disturbing motion when played back at the normal frame-rate of 24fps.
• The Bergen Street station in the film was actually an abandoned, lower level portion of the station, which had to be re-tiled and fixed to look as if it was still in working condition.
• All ads in the subway and Bergen Street station are anti-drug ads.
• According to the original script, the subway station Jacob arrives at in the beginning of the movie was supposed to be Nostrand Avenue – not Bergen Street.
• According to the original script, after Jacob is nearly run over by the subway train, a sequence involving a man being raped in the subway station mens bathroom was supposed to occur. It was filmed but deleted from the final cut (parts of the scene can be seen in the Making-Of featurette Building ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ (1990) (V)).
• Writer Bruce Joel Rubin wrote the script for Jacob’s Ladder in 1980 after he had a dream of being trapped in a subway. He spent ten years trying to get it produced, but the script remained languishing in developmental limbo. During this period, Rubin’s agent told him that the film would never be made as “Hollywood doesn’t make ghost movies”. After the Rubin scripted Ghost (1990) became a smash hit, coupled with the success of Alan Parker’s Angel Heart (1987), studios became more open to the possibilities of Rubin’s script. After taking on the role of director, Adrian Lyne spent over a year refining the script with writer Rubin.
• Adrian Lyne made sure Jacob and his visions never appear together in the same shot.
• The hospital gurney that carries Jacob was deliberately unbalanced by Adrian Lyne. He raised one wheel slightly off the floor, causing it to rattle and spin.
• The confrontation between Jacob and Geary originally takes place in a courtroom corridor. Lyne moved them to the stairs in order to downplay the height difference between Tim Robbins (who is 6′ 5″) and ‘Jason Alexander’ (who is 5′ 5″).
• Some additional scenes from the original script which were changed or removed by director Adrian Lyne: – During the dance scene, ALL the dancers turn into demons. – During one of his Vietnam flashbacks, Jacob has a vision of a “celestial staircase” accompanied by heavenly music. – Jacob watches a reverend on TV who rants about the world coming to an end. – Jacob sees an image of a demon on the wall of his living room, which, when he looks closely at it, becomes a portal to Hell. – A scene following the “antidote” sequence in which the ceiling explodes and Jacob is surrounded by a vision of Heaven. – A different ending, where Jezzie turns herself inside-out and transforms into a huge demon, which Jacob has to fight before ascending to heaven.
• The closing legend of the film mentions the testing of a drug named BZ in Vietnam. BZ is NATO code for a hallucinogen called 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, which was rumored to have been administered to US troops during the Vietnam War in an attempt to increase their combat abilities.
• After initial test audiences reported that the film was overwhelming, director Adrian Lyne cut out almost thirty minutes of material, almost all of which came from the last third of the film. Four major sequences were removed after Jacob (Tim Robbins) first meets Michael (Matt Craven); a scene where Michael gives him an antidote for the Ladder, a scene where Jacob thinks he is cured but turns out not to be; a scene where he goes to Michael’s apartment and finds Michael decapitated; and a scene just prior to his final meeting with Gabe (Macaulay Culkin), where he meets Jezzie (Elizabeth Peña), who shows her true form.
• For all of the chiropractor scenes, director Adrian Lyne ensured there was a real chiropractor on-set, who would work with actor Danny Aiello so as to ensure authenticity. According to Lyne, chiropractors often approach him and thank him for going to the trouble of getting what they do exactly right.
• According to director Adrian Lyne, most of the dialogue in the opening scene between the soldiers was improvised on set by the actors themselves, especially the conversation between George (Ving Rhames) and Jacob (Tim Robbins) about masturbation.
• Prior to the commencement of filming, former US marine Dale Dye took actors Tim Robbins, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Eriq La Salle, Ving Rhames, Brian Tarantina, Brent Hinkley and Anthony Alessandro to a 5-day military boot camp.
• Adrian Lyne also heavily rewrote the scene involving the biblical Jacob’s ladder at the end of the film. Writer Bruce Joel Rubin had written the scene to involve a massive staircase ascending into the clouds, with crowds of people lining it, towering columns, and huge gates at the summit. Again however, Lyne felt that such an image could come across as preposterous (he refers to Rubin’s original conception as the Liberace scene’ on the DVD commentary track). As such, Lyne rewrote the scene to involve simply the staircase in Jacob’s house, basing this on the principal that heaven is wherever you were happiest.
• In the original screenplay, writer Bruce Joel Rubin had created a typical Biblical hell, complete with winged demons, cloven hoofed devils with horns, people with beaks and strange objects lying randomly around (director Adrian Lyne likens Rubin’s vision to the work of Hieronymus Bosch). As with Rubin’s general depiction of demons however, Lyne felt that such scenes could very easily make an audience laugh. As such, he decided to rewrite the scene of Jacob’s descent into hell; ultimately coming up with the hospital sequence where Jacob is wheeled on a gurney into a metaphorical hell which becomes more and more grotesque as he moves.
• In Bruce Joel Rubin’s original screenplay, all of the demons who appear throughout the film were typical biblical demons with horns, wings, cloven hooves etc. Director Adrian Lyne felt that this kind of imagery could very easily come across as comic, which would destroy the film. He felt that the fact that the imagery was so far from human lessened its impact, and as such, he decided he wanted the demons to be humanesque, but not quite human. During his research into this (which was when he discovered the photography of Joel-Peter Witkin), Lyne came across the Thalidomide scandal. Thalidomide was a drug made available for purchase from 1957 to 1961. Ostensibly, it was designed to treat pregnant women; primarily as an antiemetic to combat morning sickness, and secondarily as a sleeping aid. However, prior to its release, inadequate clinical tests were carried out, leading to roughly 10,000 children in Africa and Europe being born with severe physical deformities because their mothers had taken thalidomide during their pregnancy. The most common defects were phocomelia, dysmelia, amelia and polymelia; all conditions which affect the appearance of the limbs. During his research, Lyne studied the Thalidomide case, and came to feel that the birth defects caused by the drug represented the perfect starting place for his redesign of Rubin’s demons. The Thalidomide scandal was also the inspiration for David Cronenberg’s Scanners (1981).
• According to director Adrian Lyne, the drug aspect of the story was inspired by the Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain book, “Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD and Sixties Rebellion”.
• Director Adrian Lyne used the art of painters William Blake, H.R. Giger, and Francis Bacon and photographers Diane Arbus and Joel-Peter Witkin as his primary influences for the visual style of the film.
• The film was green-lit by Paramount Pictures (with whom Adrian Lyne had made both Flashdance (1983) and Fatal Attraction (1987), and with whom writer Bruce Joel Rubin had made Ghost (1990)), but there was a change of leadership in the studio and the new executives were unsure of the film. They demanded that the end of the movie be changed, but both Lyne and Rubin refused, and so Paramount pulled the plug on the film. It appeared as if the project was going to have to be completely abandoned until Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna of Carolco Pictures saved it with a budget of $25 million. They also gave Lyne complete creative control as well as final cut of the film.
• In an ironic reversal, Adrian Lyne turned down directorial duties on The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) so he could direct Jacob’s Ladder. His first choice for the role of Jacob Singer was Tom Hanks, but Hanks turned down the film so he could make The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).
• According to writer Bruce Joel Rubin, the script was heavily inspired by the Bardo Thodol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead), the biblical story of Jacob’s ladder and Robert Enrico’s Oscar-winning short film La rivière du hibou (1962), based on the 1890 Ambrose Bierce short story ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’, in which much of the narrative is a man’s experience of an imagined life in the spilt second before he dies.
• Actors who were allegedly interested in playing the leading role of Jacob Singer included Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino and Richard Gere. For the role of Jezzie, director Adrian Lyne auditioned roughly 300 women, including Julia Roberts, Andie MacDowell, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez. The role eventually went to the very first person who auditioned – Elizabeth Peña.
• Sidney Lumet, Michael Apted and Ridley Scott all tried to get the project green-lit during its ten-year period of non-production.
• Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke both turned down the lead role.

Amazon Specials!

The People Under the Stairs is a 1991 horror film directed by Wes Craven and starring Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A. J. Langer, Ving Rhames and Sean Whalen.

Trivia:

• Wes Craven was inspired to write this film after seeing a real-life news story about parents who locked their children up inside their house, never allowing them outside.
• Wes Craven chose Wendy Robie and Everett McGill to play the parts of Mommy and Daddy after seeing them play husband and wife on the TV series, “Twin Peaks” (1990).
• Through out the entire movie you hear the Man and Woman call each other “Mommy” and “Daddy”. You never hear their real names. But when Alice attacks the woman, you hear her yell for the Man and she calls him Eldon.
• Although Alice was a 12 year old girl, actress A.J. Langer was almost 17 when she played the character in this movie.

A. J. Langer

Amazon Specials!

Next film for Halloween is Dawn Of The Dead remake.

Based on the George Romero 1979 gore classic, this remake takes place as the United States is overrun (after a plague) by millions of corpses who walk the earth as cannibalistic zombies. A small group of survivors, including a nurse (Sarah Polley) and a police officer (Ving Rhames), try to find shelter within a massive shopping mall. But the zombies have a kind of sense memory and start arriving — in droves — for a shopping spree.

This is not so much of a remake as it is an update of the 1979 classic. The whole premise remains faithful to the original but then after that makes its own elements, which really was a good thing after all.

Dawn Of The Dead really does succeed because its use of exciting action and most of all, the gore. The added on blood and violence really does make this film exciting and fun to watch. Also, in the original the zombies were really slow and if you just ran they would’ve never caught up to you. Now, they are fast as a bullet and you can’t run or hide barely, and I think that is what makes this film even better.

The film also has little unriddle social commentary, and zero exposition. For instance, when a government official is asked “what are these things? are they contagious?” he simply responds “We don’t know!”. Giving you this idea of nobody knowing what is going on.

Zack Snyder, in his directorial debut, really does show some really great direction in this film. Many of the scenes he films with the action are slick and feature a lot of good camera angles that really do fit the part of the action.

I only had little minor problems with this film that aren’t as bad as you would expect. In George A. Romero’s 1979 Dawn Of The Dead, there was a lot more comedy and a satirical take on these zombies and the incidents that are being caused. I felt like this film was toned one way throughout, and although it did have some comedy it was more blatant than wise, as the original one was.

I also found the origins of why these zombies came to be very unknown and I wish I knew more of what was actually going on.

Consensus: Dawn Of The Dead is a gruesome, violent, tasteless, and well-directed take on the 1979 classic.

9/10=Fulll Pricee!!!!

Echelon Conspiracy may be a little rough around the edges, but the fighting sequences were very impressive and the main story was quite interesting.

My rating

If you have never heard of Echelon Conspiracy is probably because it was only released for one week in about 400 theaters in late February 2009. The movie only made about $500,000 in the US, it actually made more money abroad where it was released for longer than a week. Believe it or not, that happens a lot with American movies.

Echelon Conspiracy is the story of a young network administrator who unexpectedly receives a cell phone by mail then soon after begins receiving strange text messages instructing him to do seemingly random things. The text messages would advise him on when stock prices would go up, when computerized slot machines would pay out and it would even tell him when to bet big during a blackjack game.

The story revolves around an investigation on trying to find out who is sending the messages. However, when the FBI learns that the messages are coming from Langley the investigation is halted. Instead they begin a different investigation to find out who has broken into Echelon, the NSA’s communication computer. The story becomes a pretty decent action adventure after the kid is finally caught. Although not perfect, the director does a good job at keeping you guessing who the good guys and the bad guys are.

The producers of this movie do an okay job at keeping the suspense through out the movie, however the acting is very week and that leads to a lot of confusion during the film. Regardless, the story is quite entertaining. I am not sure how plausible it is, but who cares, it’s a movie. While this movie wasn’t as good as Eagle Eye or Enemy of the State, it did borrow some elements from both, however they managed to keep it fresh and not appear to have been stolen.

The movie features some pretty cool fighting scenes, some of the best fighting scenes I have seen since the Bourne series. There were some decent car chases and some very cool plot twists. In all it’s not a bad film.

The film does feel a little amateurish, I am not convinced it wasn’t, but that is fine. Greg Marcks, the director of this film only has two other films under his belt. In my opinion Greg is still learning the ropes, however, I do see a good future for him.

Substitutos

No futuro, as pessoas não saem de casa. Usam robôs, os “substitutos”, para tudo, enquanto os controlam remotamente, isolados dentro de casa.

Esta é a interessante premissa do novo blockbuster, a ficção científica “Substitutos” (“Surrogates” no original), que estreou sexta passada nos cinemas brasileiros.

Uma coisa chama a atenção neste filme. Não sei se foi através de efeitos especiais ou através de maquiagem (ou, provavelmente, uma combinação de ambos), mas quase todos os personagens têm duas versões, o “original”, velho e mal cuidado; e o robô, de aparência mais jovem, mas com menos emoções. O mundo povoado de robôs ficou muito interessante, são várias as cenas protagonizadas apenas pelos substitutos.

Um eficiente Bruce Willis, se dividindo entre robô e humano, encabeça o elenco, que ainda conta com Ving Rhames e James Cromwell, além das mocinhas de rostos não muito conhecidos Rosamund Pike e Radha Mitchell.

A ideia (baseada em quadrinhos) é boa e o filme, curto (pouco menos de uma hora e meia), flui bem. E o roteiro ainda traz algumas reviravoltas interessantes.

Não entrará para a história como um clássico da ficção científica. Mas vale o ingresso.

I love stuff like this. Very impressive.

Source: Film Drunk

Garota Infernal 
Terror/Comédia – 16 anos

Uma líder-de-torcida perfeitinha é possuída por um demônio e começa a matar todos os garotos da cidadezinha onde mora. Que revolta desse filme. Alguém fora de Minas Gerais me fala se é bom? Não está em nenhum cinema daqui.

(Jennifer’s Body) EUA, 2009. Direção: Karyn Kusama. Elenco: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons. Duração: 102 min.

Substitutos 
Ficção científica – 12 ANOS

No futuro, a humanidade trocou sua existência diária, de carne-e-osso, por androides substitutos da Virtual Self. Usuários podem sentar-se em casa, em confortáveis poltronas de conexão, e projetar suas consciências em bonecos perfeitos, para viver a vida com segurança, já que o controlador não pode ser morto caso alguma coisa acontece ao seu androide… Porém, quando um terrorista tecnológico descobre como mudar isso, cabe a um policial desacreditado salvar toda a humanidade.
Não me animo com nenhum filme do Bruce Willis. Die Hard FTW!!!

(Surrogates) EUA, 2009. Direção: Jonathan Mostow. Elenco: Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Rosamund Pike. Duração: 88 min.

Os Vigaristas 
Drama/Comédia – 12 ANOS

Os irmãos Bloom são vigaristas como poucos. Acompanhados da japonesa Bang Bang eles passam seus dias aplicando elaborados golpes, até que o mais jovem decide parar. Convencido pelo irmão, porém, ele volta para um último plano, que envolve uma viagem ao redor do mundo com uma excêntrica herdeira.
Amo filmes assim. Ainda mais com esse elenco (Rachel Weisz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

(The Brothers Bloom) EUA, 2008. Direção: Rian Johnson. Elenco: Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffallo, Rachel Weisz. Duração: 109 min. Classificação: 12 anos.

Bons Costumes (Somente no Rio de Janeiro)
Romance – 14 ANOS

Veterano da Primeira Guerra Mundial, Jim se tornou um zumbi cínico, que despreza silenciosamente o teatro de aparências encenado por sua esposa. Mas ele terá com que se divertir: seu filho está voltando para casa, recém-casado, acompanhado de sua esposa, uma estadunidense mais velha e progressista, para desgosto da sogra.
Demais! Humor Inglês por favor?

(Easy Virtue) Inglaterra/Canadá, 2008. Direção: Stephen Elliott. Elenco: Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas. Duração: 97 min.

True Dat

(via The Oatmeal)

Every Ten Years The World's Greatest Assassins Gather ... Only One Will Survive

Provavelmente estaremos perante um objecto de culto para aqueles que procuram adrenalina na 7ª Arte. The Tournament é um filme que vive da adrenalina provocada pelas personagens que nele habitam. O filme conta-nos que os maiores assassinos do mundo são reunidos, para entre eles, e só como eles o sabem fazer, se escolher qual é o melhor na profissão. Preparem-se para ver em ecrã grandes cenas de combate, de perseguição e de tiroteio. A premissa que origina o filme é simples e quase que poderia cair num espectáculo medíocre, tipo video game, mas utilizando o força que certos actores põem nas suas personagens, até se torna um bom filme, dentro do género. De Scott Mann com Ian Somerhalder, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Hu, Ving Rhames, Scott Adkins, Liam Cunningham, Rachel Grant, John Lynch, Craig Conway, Andy Nyman, Sebastien Foucan, Bashar Rahal, Iddo Goldberg, Siso Kamburov, Nick Rowntree, J.J. Perry, Camilla Power, Kristina Pavlova, Thomas Craig, Velizar Binev, Bill Fellows, Kitodar Todorov, Harry Anichkin, John Warburton, Chris Kenyon, Rob Kenyon e Oliver Jones.

Ok, Ok. Eu arranjo-te um papel para a Missão Impossivel 5 3/4

Vale a pena deixar de ver a bola e a caneca da cerveja a aquecer para ver isto

Yes this movie is about a gay couple, in case you couldn’t all ready tell by the title.

Firefighters Chuck Ford (Adam Sandler) and Larry Allensworth (Kevin James) are guy’s guys, loyal to the core — which is why when widower Larry asks Chuck to pose as his gay lover so that he can get domestic partner benefits for his kids, his buddy agrees.

This is one of the most offensive stereotypical films I have seen ever. I thought I was bad sometimes but this movie has definably got me beat. The plot is so dumb, because since Larry is a firefighter he could die at any moment and he believes that his kids would become orphans, yeah ok. So in order for us to have a movie they need to be gay.

The film really does play both sides, no pun intended. Throughout the whole film there are so many ignorant and offensive remarks to gay people and at the end of the movie it tells us we should respect them and be nice to them. Holy contradiction Batman! The f word, no not that one the gay one, is used so excessively and for some reason they want us to stop using that word.

This whole movie is just filled with all the stereotypes. Ving Rhames’ character who gave the film lifeless laughs is scary to everyone else cause he’s a big black guy, and so he ends up being gay in the end too. There’s a gay party they go to and almost every guy there is dressing as a woman and fondling each other which is totally what they do right? Also Rob Schneider, of course, plays a huge stereotypical Chinese person and does a really bad job at it too.

The premise is actually OK but it just seems so tired. There are barely any inventive jokes. There are jokes that are just about being gay, and having gay sex. Which is actually a line from the movie. The writer of this film wrote Sideways which was very witty and this film is nothing like it at all.

Sandler and James should ashamed of themselves for appearing in a movie like this. I do like Sandler and I have always supported him with every movie he’s done, and I almost consider myself a die-hard Sandler fan but even fans of him such as myself won’t even find a chuckle from this. Jessica Biel as sexy as she is can’t win this movie over with her body and she plays a really dumb advisor of the couple.

Consensus: Bad, Bad, Bad!!! This film is not funny, very offensive, and down right dumb. Don’t see this because I can promise you, you will not come out happy!

0/10=BADDD!!!!!

A vēl grupai “Blur” dziesmā “Death Of A Party” ir šāds piedziedājums: “Another night / And I thought well, well / Go to another party and hang myself / Gently on the shelf” – lūk, lūk, tā ir procedūra, kuru filmas sākumā paveic Brūss Viliss par prieku mums un mūsu mazajiem skatītājiem. “Surrogates”, protams, ir brīnišķīga satīra visiem tiem, kas kaut cik mēģina ieslēgt savu galvu, pārējiem nākas samierināties ar manekenu apokalipsi finālā, arī maize. Tas ir briesmīgi, ja cilvēki nespēj padomāt, paskatīties patiesībai vismaz kakla gāmurā, ja ne acīs, nevis sākt anāli norobežoties, kā, piemēram, nemuzikālais kritiķis NN no pilsētas N, kurš salīdzina “surogātus” ar “geimeri”. Nu kāds geimeris, bļa? Būtībā tas taču ir Kim Ki Duka lieliskās filmas “Time” (no kuras te arī mēdz a. norobežoties) jaunākais brālis par to, ka blogeri mēdz saiet ar laiku sviestā. Režisors Mostovs gan ir pietiekami delikāts, lai no ieskrējiena ar kāju nespertu pa olām, bet nu…

…pārmest “Surogātiem” sižeta seklumu un okeānu ar loģiski absurdiem momentiem ir galīgi bezjēdzīgi – viss kiberpanka literārais žanrs ir tāds. Tur pasaules vienotībai nav nozīmes, jo, pirmkārt, čum un mudž no vizionāriem, otrkārt, lasītājam tiek parasti pamesta ideja, un tālāk viņš tiek atstāts vienatnē ar iespaidīgu sendboksu. Ja kādu filmas kosmiskais komiskums vēl nepārliecina, tad izrādās, ka Brūsa Vilisa plastikāta pārstāvis sireālajā pasaulē ļoti atgādina Brūsu Vilisu no tā filmas “The Jackal” momenta, kad viņš tur tēloja geju. Emočolka rulez!

in 2009 martcore says
apm. ņurd +

A cada 7 anos, uma pequena aldeia Inglesa organiza um torneio especial chamado The Tournament. Ninguém sabe nada sobre isso. Ninguém nunca vai conseguir saber de nada. Mas isso acontece, e é mortal. O torneio reúne os 30 melhores matadores do mundo para uma competição sangrenta; eles têm que exterminar uns aos outros como gladiadores modernos.

Download – Parte 1

Download – Parte 2

Now I have seen this film about 4 times but only on TV so everything was censored. Then I got the director’s cut and oh god did I miss a lot.

An inside look at a memorable community of criminals. Prizefighter Butch Coolidge has decided to stop payment on a deal he’s made with the devil. Honey Bunny and Pumpkin are a couple of young lovers and small time thieves who decide they need a change of venue. Meanwhile, two career criminals, Vincent Vega and Jules, go about their daily business of shooting up other crooks who are late on payments to their boss. While one is asked to babysit their boss’ dangerously pretty young wife, the other suddenly realizes that he must give up his life of crime.

OK let me just say this about the film it is great!!! Tarantino makes one of the greatest films of all-time right here. This is film making of an high order. This is a narrative movie that walks a long rope so complicated that if you don’t stop to think about the movie it starts to kinda double-back itself.

This is surely one of the greatest and probably on of the first that mix humor and crime together in one movie. Tarantino has made some of the most original material in the whole world of film. The stuff these characters talk about are hilarious but also very true. The topics of conversation range from foot massages, pot belly’s, double cheeseburgers, and of course crime. But all conversations are equally as funny as the last, and you don’t want these people to stop talking. Another great film from Tarantino is that he prepares us for one thing and gives us something else we weren’t expecting. The pop culture insight is surely a life of its own during this film.

The humor gets blind sided by some violence and pretty graphic violence but it’s not the violence that will make you turn away. Each story is not shown in chronological order but its still shown and well told through the stories that you don’t become confused. This is a movie you have to think about and when you do, you will love this movie even more by its cleverness.

The ensemble cast is purely amazing. There are many big name stars who don’t have huge parts but still do amazing and make their presence known on camera. The one thing I mostly loved about some of these big names is that they were sort of poking little jokes at themselves if you watch carefully. Travolta does the same walk at the end of the story that he did in Saturday Night Fever and Bruce Willis pokes fun at his character from Die Hard with the tough-nosed character that has a soft side. Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson’s story is probably the most entertaining and best well-acted where in which every scene with them the always steal the scene. This was a movie that made a lot of careers such as Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames, and Tim Roth. Also be on the lookout for a cameo from the great Christopher Walken who is actually pretty funny in his 5 min. scene.

There basically is nothing bad about this film other than I wish there was more. I know 154 minutes is a long time but this film could’ve added so much more and been even better. But still I loved it no matter how long it was.

The greatest movie ever, ummm…maybe. But it’s clever, funny, violent, well-told, greatly acted, and surely an amazing classic for everyone to see.

10/10=Full Pricee!!!