Tag: Headlines (Page 42 of 146)

It’s your pre-Labor Day end-of-week movie news dump. Yay.

September 4, 2010 / Bob Westal

As the madcap summer movie series ends, just a few items to wrap up the silly season.

* Not silly at all and quite possibly tragic. It appears there was a very serious stunt-related accident on the set of “Transformers 3,” or perhaps it was a not so stunt-related “freak accident,” says Nikki Finke.

* L’affaire Depardieu et Binoche est tres bizarre. (If my French is incorrect and it almost certainly is, please send complaints to the UCLA languages department.)

* The concept art from the canned Pixar film, “Newt,” is beautiful. Maybe someday we’ll get to see the abandoned footage. Their discards are probably at least twice as good as most finished films.

* I have a feeling we’re going to hear a lot about “The Black Swan” through Oscar season. It apparently wowed them in Venice though the thoughtful and quirky cinephile critic emeritus J. Hoberman of Village Voice finds it “borderline risible.” To me, remaking “The Red Shoes” with a dash of Dario Argento and even DePalma (not my favorite) sure sounds pretty cool.

* Christopher Rosen may be a doubter, but I say keep hope alive, Kristen Bell!

* Director Tomas Alfredson, who did such a great job on “Let the Right One In,” is shifting genres from very young vampires to depressive real-world style spooks like George Smiley (Gary Oldman this time ’round) in “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” Michael Fassbender, however, left to be a superhero so now Tom Hardy of “Inception” is stepping in. That should work okay, too. (I finally saw “Inception,” by the way, and…I’m too tired to talk about it now, which is sort of how I felt as I was watching it, actually.)

* Is “Hunger Games” really “The Running Man” with teens or more like “Battle Royale” made safe for an American audience? Sam Mendes, Gary Ross and David Slade duke it out to see who’ll realize whatever it is. Interesting to see the name of the talented writer Billy Ray involved here.

* Crocodile Dundee may now roam free in the Outback — I mean the branch of the steakhouse chain in Burbank.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

Billy Ray Burbank Crocodile Dundee Dario Argento David Slade DePalma Gary Oldman Gary Ross George Smiley Headlines Hunger Games Inception Michael Fassbender Newt Outback Steakhouse Pixar Sam Mendes The Black Swan Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Tom Hardy Tomas Alfredson Transformers 3

Let the hobo with the shotgun in

September 3, 2010 / Bob Westal

A couple of bits of video that have been making the rounds.

First, via Screenrant a moment from “Let Me In,” director Matt Reeves’ much discussed and increasingly anticipated Americanization of the hugely acclaimed anti-“Twilight” tale of vampiric puppy love, “Let the Right One In.” Based on Reeves’ work on “Cloverfield,” I had my doubts, but this just could be worthy of its predecessor. This one is slightly NSFW because of a shouted f-word.

Of course that’s Richard Jenkins above as “the father” in a clip I personally thought was outstanding — far better than I would have expected from Matt Reeves based on his work in “Cloverfield.” A really nicely calibrated piece of suspense with some strong period feeling.

And here’s Rutger Hauer as the Hobo with the shotgun in what has to be one of the most violent and gruesome trailers I’ve seen. Chalk that up to its roots in a prize winning fan-made “Grindhouse” style trailer. Decidely NSFW and kind of funny in a very grim way. Oddly, it’s actually creepier than the scene from “Let Me In.”

CinemaBlend gets the HT for this and they also have the original “Hobo” trailer that played in some theaters with “Grindhouse.” Personally, I actually like this new one a lot better.

Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movies, News

Cloverfield Headlines Hobo with a Shotgun Let Me In Let Me In clip Matt Reeves Richard Jenkins Rutger Hauer

Summer to end with a bang-bang and some kiss-kiss, but perhaps not so many bucks

September 3, 2010 / Bob Westal

Say what you will about this labor day weekend’s cinema offerings, you can’t complain that they haven’t covered the twin cinema poles of traditional gender preferences. For mega-manly geeks, Danny Trejo finally gets his big Hollywood close-up courtesy of Robert Rodriguez and “Machete.” For more refined males who like their action thrillers to be a bit more arthouse than grindhouse, we have the latest vehicle for George Clooney. Set in Italy, “The American” sounds as dry as a Bunuel martini’ and likely to be about as popular with the masses when set against the cinematic Long Island ice teas and daiquiris usually served during this time of year. Finally, we have a romantic comedy broadly (and, Dave Medsker says, awkwardly) spiked with raunchy gags, “Going the Distance,” testing the box office appeal of stars Drew Barrymore and relative newcomer Justin Long.

None of these movies are expected to burn up the box office. Jolly Carl DiOrio seems to figure that last week’s narrow box office winner, “Takers,” will take this weekend as well. (Presumably, the #2 “The Last Exorcism” is expected to suffer the usual large drop for horror pictures, exacerbated perhaps by disappointment in the film’s ending.) Still, assuming everyone kept their budget nice and low things shouldn’t be too disastrous. I’m guessing that director Rodriguez’s famed gift for squeezing his pennies combined with some support from the underserved and powerful Latino audiences as well as the geek-American community should assure a reasonably profitable outing for the the tongue-in-cheek quasi-parody, “Machete.” I’m feeling less confident for “Going the Distance,” which seems to suffer from a vague premise and marketing campaign.

“The American,” which was released on Wednesday to no particular box office earthquake, is splitting critics in a way that makes me want to see it even more than I already do. In any case, it is almost inherently a small audience picture in a marketplace this strongly geared to younger viewers not known for their patience with thrillers stronger on atmosphere than action or plot. It’s title might be dull, too, but wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where it at least outgrossed “Vampires Suck”?

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Buneul martini Danny Trejo Drew Barrymore George Clooney Going the Distance Headlines Justin Long Machete Takers The American The Last Exorcism

Slightly early midweek movie news

September 1, 2010 / Bob Westal

Just a few items that have been swirling about the movie media news/blogosphere…

* I know conservative Hollywood-bashers think all we film people both love and fear James Cameron and will leap to his defense with the ferocity of an intimidated momma grizzly on principle. They should take a look at the hub-bub the man has kicked up with some remarks in Vanity Fair that are perhaps best described as 3D snobbery run amok. To use his own terminology, he threw “Piranha 3D” under the bus — presumably with the resulting exploding innards heading directly at the audience’s face. I’m sure the fact that, as per Hollywood legend, Cameron was fired after a week directing “Piranha 2” decades ago, has nothing to do with this.

Anyhow, here’s the oft-quoted choice bit:

…that is exactly an example of what we should not be doing in 3-D. Because it just cheapens the medium and reminds you of the bad 3-D horror films from the 70s and 80s, like Friday the 13th 3-D. When movies got to the bottom of the barrel of their creativity and at the last gasp of their financial lifespan, they did a 3-D version to get the last few drops of blood out of the turnip. And that’s not what’s happening now with 3-D. It is a renaissance—right now the biggest and the best films are being made in 3-D. Martin Scorsese is making a film in 3-D. Disney’s biggest film of the year—Tron: Legacy—is coming out in 3-D. So it’s a whole new ballgame.”

One of the first to get in on the attack — and with the ferocity of a poppa grizzly, I might add — was our pal (and “Piranha” guest reviewer) Dennis Cozzalio. Numerous others have joined Dennis in the good fight for low-budget 3D horror. Apparently not one bit concerned about being able to work in this town again, producer Mark Canton has joined the fray with a sharp counter-attack.

* John Woo directing a movie about the American trained Chinese WWII aces the Flying Tigers in Imax? Where do we send our $15.00? Remakes of his long-time favorite, Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samurai,” and his own international breakthrough hit, “The Killer”? Not my absolute first choice for Woo projects, but I’ll pay to see those too. I just hope he really has something new he wants to say with those stories.

* RIP director Alain Corneau.

* A truly intelligent man like Martin Scorsese knows it’s never time to stop learning. The Onion has the scoop.

*Via an e-mail from the elusive BKS: Cecil B. DeMille rewriting Billy Wilder? Sort of like James Cameron trying to rewrite Quentin Tarantino (and he would too, I bet), but anything is possible in this crazy town.

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

Alain Corneau Flying Tigers Friday the 13th 3-D Headlines James Cameron Jean-Pierre Melville John Woo Le Samurai Martin Scorsese Piranha 2 Piranha 3D The Killer Tron Legacy Vanity Fair

Another look at “The Town”

August 31, 2010 / Bob Westal

The new international trailer and clip that have been circulating has me a bit more amped up to see the new crime thriller adaptation from director-cowriter-star Ben Affleck than the one I ran here last month. It’s not just shorter, it’s more to the point and less pretentious. The even shorter clip isn’t bad either. And, say what you will about Affleck, by casting himself toe-to-toe with both Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner, he’s not afraid to put his own oft-questioned acting skills toe to toe with the two most dynamic new leading men around right now. I questioned that a bit a in my prior post, but I admire his nerve.