Mark your calender with a big yellow circle. March 6th is Watchmen Day. According to an article on the Number 1 Film Site Jan. 13th, and reported in the Hollywood Reporter three days later, an agreement has been reached between Warner Bros. and Fox.
The movie will be released with WB's vision with no editing or revisions. This is great news as it was beginning to look as if we might never see the film. I will be buying my tickets as soon as possible.
The tag line for Rumble Fish is "The Motorcycle Boy's never coming back." Given the trajectory of the career of the actor who inhabited Motorcycle Boy, it sounds as though S.E. Hinton was into prophecy.
Born Philip Andre Rourke in 1956, Mick had an undistinguished career in high school opting for sports: baseball and boxing. He had great success as an amateur boxer but once venturing into the professional arena he had to quit after receiving serious facial and head wounds.
The beginning of his acting career was remarkable, including the aforementioned Rumble Fish and Diner in 1982, which netted him a nomination for a Golden Globe.
He was a case-book tough guy: tattoos, motorcycles and lots of trouble. He always followed his own muse, unfortunately his particular muse thought the road to success had many washouts and roadblocks, culminating in his receiving a Razzie nomination for worst actor for his role in Desperate Hours.
Mickey made some very strange career choices over the years, turning down some star-making roles. Conversly, he also had roles in some extraordinary films including Barfly, The Pope of Greenwich Village and Sin City. (Sin City 2 is currently in pre-production.)
And now The Motorcycle is back! His latest effort is in Darren Affronsky's The Wrestler, in which he plays the role of a broken-down former wrestler trying to reconnect with himself and his family. The film is receiving rave reviews and Mr. Rourke has already been nominated for best actor awards by The Golden Globes, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Screen Actors Guild and the buzz is looking good for an Oscar nom.
America loves the story of a has-been battling against all odds and reaching the top again, especially when the person involved really deserves it. Good luck Mr. Rourke.
Well, I really was is no hurry to write this review of The Day the Earth Stood Still, because my mother always said that if you can't cay something good, don't say anything. Well that little homily held me at bay for a week and then the anger took over.
This remake, or whatever they want to call it, was an abomination. The movie was perfect for Keanu's acting style because it called for unemotioonal and laconic, and Keanu has those in spades. OK, so they omitted one of the most iconic tag lines in movie history, but then to turn Gort into a swarm of annoying super-bugs and the ending into a bore fest?? I actually got up and left before the credits.
When they remake Casablanca, I want the director to forget all about beautifull friendships, and have Rick Blaine and Captain Renault grab their surf boards and head off to catch a wave.
Christmas Day brings us The Spirit and the reviews are already bad on sites which should know.
The best hope in our chosen genre is The Watchman. There is a great new trailer on the web site, and I for one, can't wait for the movie.
I am one of those people who think it is almost impossible to make an accurate movie from a book. Witness everything Stephen King ever wrote, even with the classics you can almost count on a stray love interest or ambient amnesia cropping up. Peter Jackson broke all the rules and bad karma with his magnificent trilogy of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings".
Other source materials such as comics seem to fare better; what Christopher Nolan did with both Batman movies was genius. I personally enjoyed Constantine. Although it required the ability to pretend that it was new material, with fallen angels and a chain-smoking Keanu, how could you go wrong. Seriously though folks, Constantine would never quit the coffin nails.
Re-makes have the same curse on them, movie making is supposed to be a creative medium so go out there and create writers and directors. No one needs to see a word for word "re-imaging" of Psycho. In this one I was on the mothers side. Now comes the reason for this mini-rant, I like most people live in hope and die is despair.
I am at the moment, clutching in my hot little hand, tickets for the ten-thirty premiere showing of the new "The Day the Earth Stood Still" in IMAX. Be still my beating heart. Now, I understand this could be a total disaster, Klaatu could have amnesia, or the professor could run off with Maryann.This is where the "live in hope" part kicks in. The special effects look terrific and the cast is more than adequate.
The original "Day" is one of my all time favorite sci-fi movies, after I see it and the cd comes out, will I hide it behind Casablanca with Constantine or put it right out front with Blade runner? I will let you know on Sunday.
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!
These are famous sci-fi words you probably won’t hear in the 2008 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. But, some sacrifices must be made. This is not your mother’s memory of Klaatu, and I should know: the original movie is one of my all-time favorites.
The other night I watched a rerun of the first episode of Fringe, not because it looks very promising, or because I needed to reexamine the spooky stuff, but because I knew I was going to see a trailer for the 2008 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
When Harry Bates wrote his original short story, if he even thought of a movie, he probably could well have envisioned Michael Rennie as Klaatu and a hulking silver robot as Gort. Rennie was a perfectly groomed English actor who calmed everyone down in the middle of the Red Scare, even though he told Professor Barnhardt if the Earth didn’t shape up, Gort would ship it out. Who cared when there was a Russian spy under every bed?
The new trailer shows mass destruction, a mysterious silvery sphere, and Keanu. Did I mention Keanu?
Remaking movies just because you can – Psycho for example – can be a giant and unexpectedly hilarious mistake. However, tackling a classic because you now have the full gamut of CGI and other special effects at your disposal could be fantastic.
I am almost positive the first words spoke in this version won’t be “Holy mackerel! Call Headquarters… get the lieutenant!”
On the plane home from Comic-Con, my daughter and I had a discussion about the possibility that we had been exposed to too many of our ilk and would not want to ever go again… riiiight.
I really shouldn’t make long-term plans because while visiting a gypsy camp last night, an old woman named Maleva read my palm and said she saw a pentagram, and by the way, I should stay away from a guy named Larry Talbot. Wait a second I have to stop watching videos at 4 A.M.
To make a long story short we have already made our hotel reservations for next July. Next year we will fine-tune our schedule so expertly, we will see twice as much and be twice as exhausted. And bring twice as many people with us to help load our haul!
What a crazy random happenstance. I never hated the hero or loved the villain so much.
Har, har, har. har, har. Har!
Act 1 of the Sing-a-long Blog is up on the site and it is typical Joss Whedon. I'll be watching again after dawn when I'm fully awake thanks to the demands of the household menagerie.
Dante Hicks, Holden McNeil and the Apostle Rufus: What sick mind could conceive of them? Oh, sure, Kevin Smith… bingo!
A not-so Silent Bob, Kevin is a writer of books and comics and a writer/director of movies. His body of work includes Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and, well, even Jersey Girl, which by the way had a very good performance by George Carlin as the father of Ben Affleck’s character,
Kevin is a Jersey Boy and very proud of it. His first film Clerks was filmed at the convenience store where he worked and was financed by the sale of his comic book collection. It is therefore totally fitting that he is one of the hottest tickets at Comic-Con 2008 this month.
The Comic-Con event is Entertainment Weekly's panel, "The Visionaries: Filmmakers" Friday, July 24th in Hall H. A word to the wise: The venues are not emptied out between events, so get there early to claim your seat.
Comic-Con rules!
Thankfully , Joss Whedon is at it again, check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, you can catch a trailer for it on YouTube or a million other sites by now.
Insanity reigns!
I know I'm a little behind the curve on this, but Friday I finally went to see Iron Man. I had read all the reviews, and it was good. Better than good, it was great. This is a movie to be experienced in a theater. The special effects and soundtrack were exciting and the acting was universally good.
In the words of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, "I am Iron Man."
Toss the name Roman Polanski out to a group of film buffs and they’ll behave like kids choosing sides for dodge ball: A mix of anger, apologies and sorrow, but no uninterested parties.
No matter, there would be very few arguments about his prowess as a filmmaker as some of the greatest of all time are in his filmography,
The short list includes Rosemary’s Baby, with Polanski serving as both writer and director. Mia Farrow, a weak husband, and devil worship made the horror genre accessible to a mainstream audience.
Polanski directed Jack Nicolson in Chinatown as a noir detective with nose problems, and Faye Dunaway with daddy problems.
He served as writer and director for Tess, a visually stunning tragic romance, and again years later with The Ninth Gate. While the latter may not have been up to previous standards, the movie featured books, sex, demon worship and Johnny Depp. What more need I say?
However, my favorite Polanski film is from 1965, Repulsion. I saw the movie in a small, dark theater, pre-cell phones, with stadium seating and wall and aisle lighting that cast a bright hue.
The story of the mental breakdown of a girl left alone in an apartment while her sister went on vacation is not a horror film, but the creeping pervasive sense of dread was more horrible than any beastie could conjure. Had a pin dropped or someone coughed, screaming would have broken out all over the theater.
Great stuff, and a harbinger of things to come from a great filmmaker.
