Category: Action Movies (Page 56 of 165)

Another TCM Film Fest movie/moment problem solution

April 24, 2010 /

More complaining — but it’s about the good kind of “embarrassment of riches” problem here at TCM Fest. You see, because it’s on opposite Donald Bogle’s Out of Circulation Cartoons presentation, I’m going to have to miss a true bit of cinema comfort food for yours truly, 1938’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” Of course, especially considering the much higher than usual $20 ticket price, I’m lucky to be able to go to these on a press pass.

Still, if time simply won’t allow me to see the film version tonight, at least I have this five second version of the classic, which really does underline what’s to love about the Warner Brothers’ Technicolor classic.

Okay, so it’s more than five seconds. And (spoiler arlert), here’s the Lego version of the climactic sword fight between the heroic Robin (Errol Flynn) and the villainous Sir Guy of Gisborne (Basil Rathbone). Even in Legos, it’s still apparent that Rathbone is actually the better swordsman.

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Previews of coming TCM Fest attractions

April 22, 2010 /

I’m busy today preparing to hit the TCM Classic Film Festival, which opens tonight in Hollywood, California with a gala screening of a digital restoration of the 1983 restoration of the 1954 “A Star is Born.” Also screening tonight is the 1931 Frank Capra obscurity, “Dirigible,” an underrated Howard Hawks science-fiction comedy starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, and a newcomer named Marilyn Monroe, “Monkey Business” as well as an outdoor screening of 1949’s silly but fun (if memory serves) “Neptune’s Daughter.” That one features swimmer turned musical comedy star Esther Williams alongside a very, very pre-Khan Ricardo Montalban and comedian Red Skelton. The cool part of this is that Ms. Williams, and a real-live water ballet, are included with the price of admission. (I should add that single entries for the fest are very much on the pricey side, starting at $20.00. Students get in for half-price, so I suggest enrolling quickly.)

That’s just tonight. Below are trailers for a some shows I’m personally looking forward to catching. We’ll start with the closing night screening of probably the most significant film of the festival, the new and finally fully restored version of the original science fiction extravaganza, Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis.” (I’m slightly bummed to see this, like “A Star is Born” will be screened digitally. Assuming that celluloid prints of the new version exist, which may or may not be the case, that’s really how it should be shown.)

More after the flip.

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Michelle Yeoh, wire-fu, and flaming swords

April 22, 2010 /

Pretty much everything I can ask for in a movie.

“Reign of Assassins” is a collaboration between relative newcomer Su Chao-Bin and John Woo, the past master of such classic Hong Kong modern day action epics as “The Killer,” “Hard Boiled,” and “A Bullet in the Head,” who recently returned to Hong Kong to make the acclaimed period epic like “Red Cliff” (which I still desperately need to see). Now he’s back with this still-in-production blend of Wuxia madness and romance, also starring Jung Woo-Sung alongside international treasure Michelle Yeoh. This promotional trailer has been making the blog rounds of some of the better sites, and for very good reason. Looks promising, indeed.

H/t Anne Thompson

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Midweek movie news

April 21, 2010 /

Regular readers might have noticed that I’ve taken a couple of days off, and with the TCM Film Festival kicking off tomorrow night, and some other things possibly brewing, I might not be following my exact usual schedule for the next several days, though I’m sure I’ll be posting stuff, but we’ll have to see.  In the meantime, there’s plenty going on and I’m sure I’ve missed something.

Chloe Moretz smashes face* We eventually did get a clear, but narrow, victor in the weekend box-office battle, but nobody’s too excited about the performance of “Kick-Ass.” The film will make money, $19.8 million is not bad for a $30-40 million dollar movie, and it should help everyone’s career, but I wouldn’t bet on a sequel unless it holds really extremely well and also cleans up in home video. Also, it should be noted that the superhero comedy had a slightly unfair advantage because of its late Thursday night opening getting included in the take — at least I think it was. Steven Zeitchik, who thought the film would break out in a major way, offers a post-not-quite-mortem.

* James Cameron‘s new interview with the L.A. Times will annoy conservative anti-environmentalists and climate deniers as well as fans of contemporary written science fiction. (It’s too complicated and self-referential to make a movie out of, Cameron states, apparently unafraid of the sweeping generalization.) However, “Avatar” fans will be delighted to know that two more movies appear to be in the offing along with that extended August 3-D/Imax re-release. Cameron’s cast and crew will be, I imagine, much less happy to learn that “Avatar 2” will involve water, and lots of it. What is it with this guy and moisture? (H/t the Playlist.)

Titanic 1996

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Family friendly “Dragon” grazes the keister of “Kick-Ass”

April 18, 2010 /

We have another apparent photo-finish at the box office this weekend. Despite my confidence Thursday night that “Kick-Ass” would be the top film this weekend and probably come out in the middle-to-high end of the $20-30 million range suggested by all the prognosticators, the film appears to have come just shy of doing either.  For now.
Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz in The “actuals” that will come out sometime tomorrow could change this. However, with an estimate of $19.75 million, the somewhat controversial hyperviolent “hard R” superhero action-black-comedy  is currently within $250,000 of being beaten by the $20 million estimate for the crowd-pleasing, PG-rated 3-D family film “How to Train Your Dragon”. That’s actually still good, if  you can ignore the expectations game.

However much the schadenfreude brigade plays up the gap between expectations and box office reality, the $30 million film from director Matthew Vaughn (a producer earlier in his career) is clearly going to be very profitable for Lionsgate. The man who started his career as Guy Ritchie’s producer and who since has proven himself to be, in my estimation, the vastly better filmmaker (I haven’t seen “Kick-Ass” yet), should be applauded for bringing an action film like this on what is, by Hollywood standards, a very low budget for an action film. I think that is especially so in the home video long haul as the “Kick-Ass” cult will undoubtedly grow, at least among fanboys of all ages. It’ll also be interesting to see if the film develops legs or sinks-like a stone theatrically, as many genre films do. Next weekend will tell that tale.

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