Dolan’s Cadillac

Filme de terror baseado em Stephen King, estrelado pelo Christian Slater? Ok, vale a pena ver qualé.

A vida do casal Robinson (Wes Bentley, de “Beleza Americana”) e Elizabeth (Emanuelle Vaugier) vira do avesso quando acidentalmente ela presencia uma das transações do mafioso Jimmy Dolan (Slater), que trabalha com tráfico de mulheres.

Achei o filme uma grande decepção. Por que? Pelo nome “Stephen King” nos créditos.

A primeira coisa que pensamos é num filme de terror, como a maioria das histórias de King. E com um carro no título, nos lembramos do clássico “Christine, o Carro Assassino”!

Nada, o carro é apenas o meio de transporte. E o filme não é de terror, e sim uma história de vingança.

Aí vem outra decepção pelo mesmo motivo: um dos melhores filmes de vingança da história é “Um Sonho de Liberdade”, também baseado em Stephen King. A vingança que rola aqui em “Dolan’s Cadillac” é até interessante, mas, comparado com aquele filme, fica a léguas de distância!

Para piorar, o filme é um pouco longo, porque quase nada acontece. Li na internet que é baseado num conto do livro “Nightmares and Dreamscapes”. Bem, houve um seriado “Nightmares and Dreamscapes”, com histórias de quarenta minutos. Talvez fosse o caso aqui, em vez de umlonga-metragem.

Só recomendado para os pouco exigentes!

O Forrest levou a fama, mas quem sabia contar uma história era o Lester:

I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn’t a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time… For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars… And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined our street… Or my grandmother’s hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper… And the first time I saw my cousin Tony’s brand new Firebird… And Janie… And Janie… And… Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.

Não ficou convecido?

Brad Dupree: My job consists of basically masking my contempt for the assholes in charge, and, at least once a day, retiring to the men’s room so I can jerk off while I fantasize about a life that doesn’t so closely resemble Hell.” Well, you have absolutely no interest in saving yourself.
Lester Burnham: Brad, for 14 years I’ve been a whore for the advertising industry. The only way I could save myself now is if I start firebombing.

Just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose, sacou?

lady, they said to turn off your cell phone before the movie started...

R

Rachel Nichols, Wes Bentley

Angela: Please just let me go.  I won’t tell anyone.
Tom: Oh, yeah, I believe you…

A woman working late on Christmas Eve is terrorized by the security guard working in the parking garage.

This is a mostly by the numbers movie that’s only elevated a bit by Rachel Nichols going all out with her performance.  She may not be the best actress in the world, but it isn’t for lack of effort.  She’s put through a lot in this movie – including car wrecks, near drownings, dog attacks, and more – and she actually manages to make it all fairly believable.  Of course, before the movie really gets going, they had to get her out of her business attire and into a low cut dress for the remainder of the film.  We can’t have our heroine in peril not looking sexy!

Wes Bentley is not quite as successful as the psychotic security guard who has been obsessed with Angela for a long time.  I think he was going for a sort of Norman Bates type character, but he just doesn’t seem to know how to capture that odd, almost childlike loneliness that Anthony Perkins played so well.  A rewrite of the character may have helped too.  Maybe to make him a tad more sympathetic, sad, and unsure of his own actions, rather than the sadistic creep he is here.

I also wish Angela had been a little more interesting.  Sure she gets free and shows her tough side, but I would like to see these women have a tougher mental side in these movies on occasion, rather than just having them whimper and scream until they finally get the best of their tormentor.  How about if Angela keeps her cool, recognizes how obsessed Tom is with her, then uses that to her advantage and out-thinks him in a series of verbal exchanges.

Anyway, back to the movie that actually was.  It has the usual loud music scares and one scene of over the top violence.  Oh, and another one of violence perpetrated on a dog.  But I’d say it had it coming.  Then there’s the obligatory near rescues and escapes that fail.  That cell phone won’t get reception down here in the parking garage?  What a shock.

It’s not a terrible movie, but not a good one either, though at least it kept my attention throughout, which is more than I can say for some movies.  Of course, that dress might have had something to do with that…

When you’ve got the killer down and disabled on the ground, finish him right there!  Don’t run away and let him recover!  Sheesh…

10 – 1.5 for uninteresting characters – 3.5 for lack of originality + .1 for Rachel Nichols being a trooper and giving it all she’s got = 5.1

Is it weird that whenever I end up in a fast food place, which I’m finding increasingly hard to do with an alarming frequency, I always see the sign on the trash can…

And think of this:

…which, of course, is from Michelangelo’s Creation Of Adam, the 1511 fresco that is one of the many images adorning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and illustrates the Book of Genesis.

Or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whatever your brand of religion is.

Either way: It’s the hand of God touching the trash of the world. Or, rather, throwing it away. The Garden of Eden wasn’t a paradise, it was a compose pile! It was a recylcing bin! The refuse of humanity!

from here.

I know, I know, I need to get out more. Maybe not spend as much time with just myself and my thoughts. Believe me, you’re not the first to mention it. This is where all my thoughts tend to go:

And, only semi-related, the Burger King character still freaks me out…

I mean, right? Look at this guy.

After cars and cash, the next thing fly honeys dig in a guy is his Henry VIII apparel. This I know be truth.

Look at that. First he’s rubbing sun tan lotion on your girlfriend at the beach while you’re at work and then next thing you know…

You’re waking up to a big bad mistake. And he’s got his own cologne. Ugh. But I digress…

…to celebrity trash, it is! No, no, just kidding.

I’m fascinated by the idea of trash as art, such as the sculpture of Tim Noble and Sue Webster immediately above here, or Yuken Teruya’s trash art tree seen a little higher up, the refuse of humanity turned back into something of use or importance. The recycling of that which we used and no longer want into something that we not only want, but cherish. Who knows, maybe Michelangelo would be proud. Especially if it was all done in the name and glory of God. Or, at least of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I don’t want to sound like the Wes Bentley character in American Beauty, but it almost makes you want to look at trash slightly differently, right?

Well… maybe not. But food for thought, I hope.

P2 (2007)
starring Rachel Nichols and Wes Bentley
written by Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur, and Franck Khalfoun
directed by Franck Khalfoun

P2 is one of those movies that passed by without me noticing for I am too busy lamenting the serious lack of horror appreciation in this country. (I need to shut up about it, I know. I will. When I’m dead. Probably.) I’ve only learned about it recently and I was looking forward to seeing it mainly because Alexandre Aja co-wrote the screenplay. Fine, also because Rachel Nichols looks hot in that white dress. Mirrors aside, I am always delighted when I see Aja’s name attached to something. Dude’s only 31 years old and already, he’s secured a place in the hearts of many horror fans. Same thing could be said about Eli Roth but someone needs to sit him the fuck down and tell him to shut his trap. I digress. On with P2.

It’s Christmas Eve and Angela is working late in the office. She leaves after everyone else but soon finds herself locked in with Tom, the psychotic overnight parking attendant and his hound from hell. Tom is lonely and all he really wants is to share his Christmas dinner with her.

There’s nothing substantially fresh about P2. It’s an old game of cat and mouse. The suffocating and contained setting has been done many times before. What sets it apart from typical slashers, in my opinion, is the presence of logic. Angela didn’t make obvious mistakes that would have made the audience go “what the fuck was she thinking?”. It was very easy to sympathize with her. Even the cops did everything right. That is not to say the movie is without flaw, though. There are a couple of plot holes, if you really think about it. Like, how come there is no fire alarm in the building? There should be one in the front desk, right? Oh, well.

Surprisingly, it’s not that gory. I mean, pulling out your own fingernail is hardly ever gruesome, is it? There’s one particularly awesome scene. Not to spoil anything (as if I haven’t already) but it involved a man tied to a swivel chair, sandwiched between a car and a wall. Gnarly!

My only problem with P2 is Wes Bentley’s portrayal of Tom. He was anything but menacing. Unless you’re Bruce Campbell playing Elvis Presley, I don’t think I can take you seriously, much less be terrified of you. The dog did a better job creeping me out. Bah, what was I expecting? Shit, dude used to think a floating plastic bag is the most beautiful thing in the world, didn’t he?

Foto: Go With Sharky

Tja, als ich mir den (miserablen) Titel so angeschaut habe, dachte ich mir: “Jep, der Film passt perfekt für einen Bügelabend!” Tja die Bügelwäsche steht noch und ich bin begeistert von dem Film.

“P2 – Schreie im Parkhaus” kann ich als wirklich tollen Psycho/Horror/Thriller bezeichnen – ein Film, der in jeder Beziehung zu überzeugen weiß. Natürlich ist die Ausgangs – Konstellation (Psychopath und Opfer) sicherlich nichts Neues, aber die hier dargestellte Umsetzung ist schon allererste Sahne.

Nachdem die ersten paar Minuten eher ziemlich seicht daherkommen, entwickelt sich dann in kürzester Zeit ein wirklich perfides Katz – und Mausspiel zwischen dem Psychopaten und seiner “Auserwählten”. Was am Anfang noch wie ein vielleicht krankes Spiel wirkt, wird aber sehr schnell blutiger und brutaler Ernst.

Die Atmosphäre ist einfach exzellent gelungen, sehr dicht, extrem bedrohlich und auch sehr unheilvoll. Ich wurde von der Faszination, die von diesem Film ausgeht, regelrecht gefangengenommen und konnte meine Blicke nicht vom Bildschirm lösen.

Hinzu kommen bei diesem Film auch noch die wirklich erstklassigen darstellerischen Leistungen der beiden Hauptdarsteller. Vor allem Wes Bentley spielt die Rolle des Psychopathen absolut brillant und glaubhaft, das ist schon ganz großes Kino. Aber auch Rachel Nichols als Opfer ergibt sich nicht in dieser Rolle, sondern versucht, ihre wenigen Chancen zu nutzen und gibt sich nicht einfach ihrem Schicksal hin.

“P2″ lief leider bei uns nicht in den Kinos und das finde ich persönlich richtig Schade. Ein Film der wirklich Potenzial hat wird lieber nur auf Sky gezeigt/auf DVD rausgebracht anstatt diesen in die Kinos zu bringen. Aber da es zum Glück Sky/DVDs gibt kann man das nun nachholen

Hauptdarsteller: Rachel Nichols und Wes Bentley

Fotos: Adam Leonardo; Bojanglesyy30

Rodrigo Santoro

Segundo o portal G1, o produtor Ignacio Gómez-Sancha negou nesta segunda, 24.08.2009, que a Opus Dei tenha dado dinheiro para a gravação em Buenos Aires de “There be dragons”, filme baseado na vida do santo espanhol Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer:

O espanhol Gómez-Sancha assegurou que o filme foi financiado por um fundo de investimento no qual participa, assim como o diretor do filme, o inglês Roland Joffé, e o grupo espanhol Antena 3.

(…) O ator Rodrigo Santoro, que interpreta um jovem rebelde da Guerra Civil, assegurou que após fazer um trabalho de pesquisa sobre o conflito, se tornou “obcecado com o tema porque foi algo extremamente forte o que aconteceu”.

Além de Santoro, o inglês Charlie Cox, o americano Wes Bentley e a ucraniana Olga Kurylenko protagonizam esta história que “pretende mostrar o lado humano, e não os preconceitos”, segundo seu diretor.

Leia o texto completo clicando aqui.

Cast: Wes Bentley, Winona Ryder, and Ray Romano
The Verdict: Planning on slashing your wrists but can’t commit to paper a suicide note that adequately sums up your disappointment with your life? Then Evan Merck (Wes Bentley) is your man. For the going rate, he’ll ghost write a poem that will posthumously win you a Pulitzer. Evan, though, is better at communicating other people’s thoughts than his own. That’s why his love affair with Charlotte (Winona Ryder)—who believes Evan to be her late brother’s college pal, not his client—is dying before our eyes. The emotionally withdrawn Evan’s unable to share his feelings; the flighty Charlotte does enough talking for the two of them. Yes, The Last Word presents us with another mismatched couple that we’re supposed to root for. Unlike (500) Days of Summer’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s lovesick fool, Evan’s hard to get behind. Sure, he’s odd, but he’s also all work and no play. He’s boring to hang with, and even Charlotte can’t draw him out of his shell despite her best efforts. No matter what, a dour Bentley insists on playing Evan as though he’s auditioning for the role of The Least Interesting Man in the World. A typically quirky Ryder gives it her best shot with Bentley, but even she knows she’s fighting for a lost cause. As one of Evan’s clients, Ray Romano enlivens this brooding romance every now and then with his hilariously foul-mouthed thoughts on love and sex. But nothing he can say or do can convince us that Evan deserves to be with Charlotte. The obituary was written for this relationship the moment they crossed paths.
DVD Features: Deleted Scenes; Stills Gallery

NOTA : 5

Download subtitrare Dolan’s Cadillac

Trailer Dolan’s Cadillac :

so, not *everybody* actually loves you?

R

Wes Bentley, Winona Ryder, Ray Romano

Abel: I love music.  I just wish I didn’t need it to pay the bills.
Evan: Yeah, but if you didn’t write music, what would you do?
Abel: I would buy a cliff.
Evan: Huh?
Abel: I would buy a cliff where people could come and throw s*** off.  You know, like fax machines and computers or whatever.  Things that piss them off ’cause they didn’t work right.  Like an outlet for machine rage.  And the whole thing would be video taped in slow-motion so they could watch their heap of s*** break into a million pieces back at home.  Plus, for an extra couple bucks, I would attach an explosive so it would blow up on impact.  Just like they do in the movies.  A big fire ball…that would be cool.

Evan (Bentley) is a writer, mostly of poetry, who has figured out that he can make good money writing suicide notes for people.  He interviews them, takes what they want to say, and expresses it in a very eloquent way for them.  At one of his clients’ funeral, Evan meets the deceased’s sister, Charlotte (Ryder).  Charlotte takes a liking to the reclusive Evan and eventually the two start a relationship, but it’s destined for problems because Evan has had to lie about how he knew Charlotte’s brother and about what he does for a living.  Meanwhile, Evan is trying to write a note for his latest client, Abel (Romano).

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie.  I didn’t expect much, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Wes Bentley was good as an intellectual, detached, lonely guy, and it was great to see Winona Ryder in a good role again.  She does a good job of being charming, while still displaying a few off-putting tendencies that annoy Evan at first.  Not to mention, I’ve always had a celebrity crush on her, and she still looks pretty great.

The first half or so of the movie has a fair amount of dark comedy and quirky moments, but the last third of it takes on more of a serious tone.  It almost loses its way in the midst of the dramatic turns, but I think the performances by the leads keeps it grounded well in reality.  Nobody goes way over the top, and none of the characters act too irrationally.  It’s always good to see characters behave in a realistic way.

Ray Romano is good here too.  His character is written in a way that makes the end of the movie – the last scene, in fact – more believable.  I’m not sure I would have gone the same direction with the end that the filmmakers chose, but it still works.

The movie doesn’t get too preachy about suicide, on either side of the moral argument about it.  It uses the subject as more of a dramatic device to move the story and characters forward.  The end might be a little tv-movie-of-the-week, but it still doesn’t wrap everything up in a nice little bow, and as I mentioned above, it works because of the performances throughout the movie.

A nice cliff somewhere might make for a good investment.

10 – 1.1 for a sort of all around unbelievable plot – .5 for a not entirely satisfying ending – 1.2 for some meandering moments here and there + .5 for Winona freakin’ Ryder = 7.7

“my big break” ist ein doku film, der von einigen damals stars wie z.b. wes bentley (ja der typ von “american beauty”, der danach nichts mehr rausbrachte obwohl er als shootingstar galt) handelt. es zeigt den aufstieg und fall einiger shootingsstars als doku!

ich will den film sehen, wo nur?

Thank you netflix for helping me un-earth this little treasure of a movie, which I had never heard of until last night. I read what it was about and thought it sounded interesting, then noticed that Wes Bentley was in it and I really enjoyed his performance in American Beauty.

Evan (Wes Bentley) is a man who writes other people’s suicide notes, he has a few meetings with them and helps write the note from thoughts that they have. But this all starts to go wrong when he starts a romance with Charlotte (Winona Ryder), the sister of one of his recent clients. He obviously lies to her in how he knew her brother Matthew, and this all does eventually backfire and she does learn the truth. I think the main problem with that he lied was that not only did he lie once, he lied twice. As when he realised he was found out to have not gone to school with Matthew, he just said that they were on the same bus together. So when Charlotte found out the truth she was not happy, and even when Evan left she said to call if he comes back but she will probably not want to see him again. Which while I found it sad, I thought it was a good way to end there relationship.

The other story going on is Evan’s growing friendship relationship with Abel (Ray Romano). Who is another one of his clients, who writes classical music pieces. Abel is very messed up in the head, and cannot even write down his feelings for Evan to help him with the note.

I really did think Wes Bentley was just fantastic in this movie, and I really want to see more of his films. He has some strange kind of presence when in a film and has a very intense look in his eyes when acting. I really do think he is just fantastic. I couldnt help but relate the role to his in American Beauty (mainly because it was so good, and I have not seen him in anything else).

So Evan had a very horrible childhood and suffered at the hands of his abusive father who himself and his mother were constantly moving away from. I thought this was linked very well to when he was being mugged that he completly lost it and started punching the guy who was stealing his money. It seemed like all of his agression towards his father and the beatings he used to take started to come out.

So after Evan had his incident with the mugger and had broken up with Charlotte when she learnt the truth during all of this Abel had been calling him all of the time. After this he eventually called Abel back. But Abel said it was too late for anything now and that it was the end. But Evan knew exactly where to go . . . Abel was cutting the wire over a bridge on the freeway. Evan tried to talk him out of it but Abel was having none of it and said it was all too late.

However the final scene Evan was on a cliff with a guy who wanted to throw his fax machine off, yes he had started up the business that Abel had once talked about. (but was Abel there? . . . that is the question . . . trying not to spoil the ending).

I would recommend this movie to people as I really found it good, mainly because the acting was of such a high standard. Ray Romano as Abel was in fantastic form and in such a different Character to Ray from “Everybody Loves Raymond” so it was refreshing to see the depth he can go as an actor. Winona Ryder was very good as well. But Wes Bentley totally stole the show with his ability to appear emotionless.

It gives away pretty much the entire plot, including the end, so if you never read the Stephen King short story and might want to see the movie, you may want to skip it… or the last minute, anyway.

I don’t think this is a theatrical trailer (it’s too long), I think it’s a trailer the production company made to shop around to studios. I don’t see this movie getting a wide release, which is too bad because I kind of want to see it. Although it looks like something I’d Netflix, rather than see in the theater, anyway.

It’s typical Hollywood WTF-ery that they cast Wes Bentley in what is a nondescript, middle aged guy part in the story. (And of course they have to make the wife pregnant, or trying to get pregnant. It’s totes okay to carbomb childless women, y’all!) But I like Wes Bentley and he doesn’t get enough work, so I’m not griping too loudly. Plus, dude is creepyhot. In fact, when I heard he and Christian Slater were in it, I assumed Bentley was playing Dolan and Slater was the protagonist. Bentley just seems villainous to me. I think it’s his eyebrows. He has evil eyebrows.

It’s late and I’m tired, but I’ve just watched this film and was trying to find some stuff on the net about it and there’s hardly anything. The format I have watched this in probably has something to do with it; downloaded from unreliable sources. However I’d like to think of that means of ownership as an elaborate way of me receiving an advanced copy; it’s just they didn’t know that I wanted to review it, and I wasn’t at the Sundance Film Festival, so.. yer.

Ok I’ll just give you the short synopsis from Wikipedia:

A reclusive writer played by Bentley makes his living composing other people’s suicide notes. He excuses the morbidity of his job by claiming that his clients find it life affirming or that sometimes death is the best option for someone.

His life gets turned upside down after he embarks on a tumultuous romance with Ryder, the sister of a recently deceased client. Winona plays the sister the man who enlists the services of a professional suicide note writer(Bentley) before he takes his own life – and events lead to a romance between him and Winona. He also befriends a inelegant uninspired musician client (Ray Romano) who he may not be able to stop from killing himself.

So it’s got her:

Girl off of shoplifting.

Him:

Slightly creepy looking plastic bag lover.

Oh and him:

A review of sorts:

1. It’s not a romantic comedy.

The way it’s presented on the DVD cover and the way it will be presented when/if it eventually comes out is as a Rom Com. It’s more of a drama with elements of comedy, I just don’t want to say ‘Dramedy‘.

2. The acting’s pretty good.

Our protagonist is played well, no hugely moving acty-bits but some very good stuff.

Winona Ryder looks good, her character is slightly underwritten, and again no potentially award winning acting moments.

Manny the Mammoth’s character is perfectly cast, he’s funny and quite good.

3. A guy called Geoffrey Haley wrote and directed it.

It seems this is his first (and maybe last) directing job. Apparently he was a camera man on Six Feet Under and other such things. I like his writing though, and I like the fact it’s his first thing and he’s come out with something rather good. That’s encouraging for me and other budding writers out there.

4. The film as a piece is a great idea, and was a pleasure to watch from start to finish.

I’m sure they’ll be putting that quote on the poster. Actually one second, we need far more superlatives if we want a gooden…

4. “The Last Word is the finest Dramedy I’ve seen in years and was stunning from start to finish.”

Rhodri Brady, The Blewog Blog

I really do mean that though, it was really good and I hope it gets a release somewhere.

5. BTW, it’s got an awesome ending.

__________

Yeah, so look out for it, and if you get impatient buy the DVD or download it.

P2 – Sem Saída

Costumo dizer que o espectador deve se preparar para o que vai ver. Se o filme em questão é um suspense cheio de clichês, não devemos esperar uma maravilha da sétima arte. Devemos esperar justamente um suspense cheio de clichês. Aí o programa pode até sair divertido…

A sinopse: na véspera de natal, uma jovem e bonita executiva fica presa na garagem do edifício comercial onde trabalha. E, claro, tem um psicopata atrás dela.

O filme, escrito por Alexandre Aja e dirigido pelo estreante Franck Khalfoun, é repleto de clichês de filme-de-suspense-com-um-maluco-psicopata-atrás-da-mocinha-indefesa. Alguns desses clichês funcionam, outros não. Como era de se esperar, claro.

Os atores principais até que funcionam. Rachel Nichols (e seu decote maravilhoso) está bem como Angela, a tal mocinha indefesa (mas que sabe comprar briga na hora certa). Wes Bentley, de “Beleza Americana” também funciona como o “stalker”, aquele cara obcecado que segue cada passo de sua vítima, que, na verdade, é o seu objeto de admiração. Por fim, o cenário é interssante - quase todo o filme se passa dentro de uma grande garagem comercial.

Resumindo: não vai mudar a vida de ninguém, mas pode ser uma boa hora e meia pra quem estiver na pilha certa.