Best Picture Nominee: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But hilarity ensues when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out. At the heart of its storytelling lies the question of how anyone comes to know the things they know about life and love.

Trivia: Mercedes-Benz asked that its logos be removed in scenes taking place in the slums. The company, according to Danny Boyle, did not want to be associated with the poverty-stricken area, fearing that that might taint its image. Director Danny Boyle placed the money to be paid to the 3 lead child actors in a trust that is to be released to them upon their completion of grade school at 16 years of age. The production company has set up for an auto-rikshaw driver to take the kids to school everyday until they are 16 years old. The current exchange rate for 20,000,000 Rupees (the grand prize on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire") is USD$411,600. This movie was almost released straight to DVD instead of getting a theater release.

It is refreshing to see Hollywood respond to a movie that has no American Superstars in it, a movie that can survive and actually thrive on a well written story, a movie that is intelligent. Everyone in this movie did a great job. If you haven't seen it yet I highly suggest that you do. You might even be surprised come Sunday night.

Oscar Month Twofer: The Visitor (2008)

Hilarity ensues when a widowed college professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) returns from school to his home in New York and finds a couple living in his apartment. Tarek Khalil (Haaz Sleiman) and Zainab (Danai Jekesai Gurira) have been staying there for a few months. Tarek is a musician and street performer and Zainab makes jewlery. Vale lets them stay and Tarek starts to teach him how to play the African Drum. Tarek is stopped by police and detained on a missunderstanding but it turns out that they are illegal immigrants.

Trivia: The parking lot in which Walter parks is car after arriving in New York--on East 11th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue--was torn down shortly after the film was released.

Richard Jenkins is nominated for Best Actor in this small film. He does a wonderful job of a professor just going through the motions until he meets Tarek and his love of music is awakened. Then his concern over Tarek's situation shows through. It is a touching film and Walter and Mouna (Tarek's mother played by Hiam Abbass) romance is tender. It is a nice quiet movie worth seeing.

Oscar Month: Changeling (2008)

The year was 1928, Los Angeles. As Christine (Angelina Jolie) said goodbye to her son, Walter, and departed for work, she never anticipated that this was the day her life would be forever changed. Upon returning home, Christine was distressed to discover that Walter was nowhere to be found. Over the course of the following months, the desperate mother would launch a search that would ultimately prove fruitless. Yet just when it seemed that all hope was lost, a nine-year-old boy claiming to be Christine's son seemed to appear out of thin air. Overcome with emotions and uncertain how to face the authorities or the press, Christine invites the child to stay in her home despite knowing without a doubt that he is not her son. As much as Christine would like to accept the fact that her son has been returned to her, she cannot accept the injustice being pushed upon her and continues to challenge the Prohibition-era Los Angeles police force at every turn. As a result, Christine is slandered by the powers that be, and painted as an unfit mother. In this town, a woman who challenges the system is putting her life on the line, and as the situation grows desperate, the only person willing to aid her in her search is benevolent local activist Reverend Briegleb (John Malkovich). Not much hilarity there to ensue.

Trivia: Based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, also known as the Wineville Chicken Murders. There is a roadside café named "Bummy's" which appears early on in the film. This is possibly in memory of Clint Eastwood's long time collaboration with Production Designer Henry Bumstead, who passed away in 2006. His nickname was "Bummy". Both Hilary Swank and Reese Witherspoon lobbied for the role of Christine Collins. Clint Eastwood cast Angelina Jolie at the suggestion of Executive Producer Ron Howard, who noted that Jolie's "look" would fit best with the time period. J. Michael Straczynski first learned of the story of Christine Collins from an unnamed source at Los Angeles City Hall. The source had stumbled across case files regarding the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders among other discarded documents scheduled for destruction. Straczynski took the files himself and became obsessed with the case, doing extensive research over the course of a year. Virtually every event depicted in the film appears as cited in legal documents, with dialog often taken verbatim from court transcripts. The exception is the insane asylum sequences which are based more on conventions of the time than documented events. Straczynski wrote his first draft of the screenplay in only eleven days.

Angelina Jolie is nominated in the Best Actress catagory for this period crime drama, and she does a good job as the mother wondering what happened to her child and fighting against the police. The movie is nice a simple and beautifully shot as most of Eastwood's movies are. It is worth seeing. But I am going to talk about movie posters. The one at the top of the page is the American version. The one to the left is Spanish (at least I think it is, it is written in Spanish). (click on the posters to see larger versions of them.) The second one is a powerful poster with a woman looking in on a child that might be her son or it might not be. You can see the concern on her face. The face is instantly recognizeable as Jolie, so you get the star power on the poster. It is a nice poster. The American one on the other hand. What the heck is up with that? Jolie looks huge. She also looks hungry. Hungry enough to eat the small bite size kid in front of her? Maybe. The picture is not enven that flatterying of her. I think the second poster is a much prettier picture of her. It also gives the impression of being in the past. If I saw the first poster without knowing what the film was about I couldn't even start to guess what it was about. No clue. And what is with the solid white background? There are many times when the foreign posters are superior to the domestic versions. Why is that? Because they think we can't understand it? Because they think if the poster doesn't have the stars full face promenantly shown we will fail to recognize them, no half hidden face, no reflections? They think that if the poster is to artsy that we will not watch it? Dear Hollywood, we are not idiots, (well at least some of us aren't. See Meet The Spartans: $38 million dollars at the boxoffice.)

Gran Torino

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can't get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. Hilarity ensues when his neighbor Thao (Bee Vang), a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao's family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.

Trivia: Open casting calls for Hmong actors were held in Hmong communities in Detroit, Michigan; Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Fresno, California. None of the Hmong actors in the cast had acted in a film before except Doua Moua. Clint Eastwood encouraged the Hmong actors to ad-lib in the Hmong language. A Gran Torino was also the car used in the 70s cop show Starsky & Hutch.

This is a typical Eastwood movie if you compare it with his last several movies in which he appears as well as directs. And by that I mean 1) it is pretty good, 2) Eastwood plays a sour old guy set in his ways that changes a little through the story but still comes out as a sour old man, and 3) We are bound to see Eastwood glare into the camera with his trademark scowl. I am not sure good a message it is though. Kowalski teaches Thao some things and you think he is grooming him to take care of himself but when it actually comes time for the confrontation at the end of the movie, Kowalski leaves Thao behind. I know that is the only way to come to the conclusion the film does come to but still it feels like a betrayal. Still its a good movie.

Kataude Mashin Garu (The Machine Girl) (2008)

Ami (Minase Yashiro) is a typical college girl. She's bright, friendly, popular and athletic, with nothing to set her apart from other girls her age other than the fact that she is an orphan, left to care for her younger brother when her father committed suicide after being falsely accused of murder. But while there is tragedy in their past, the siblings' future looks good, except for one thing. Ami's brother has racked up a considerable debt to another boy at school, and that boy just happens to be the heir to a clan of vicious ninja-yakuza. Ami's brother can't pay, violence breaks out and in the course of trying to avenge her brother, Ami is captured by the clan. They torture her and hack her arm right off. Ami escapes, barely alive, and is taken in by the owners of a machine shop who build her a customized, bullet-spewing arm. From that point, hiarity ensues as the quest for revenge is on in earnest.

Trivia: The yakuza family preys to Hanza Hattori, in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Hattori Hanzo is a highly regarded maker of swords.

I have no idea what brought me to this movie but it was very funny. Let me tell you up front. This movie is not subtle and doesn't pretend to be. It was over the top grusome with blood spraying everywhere like a fire hose. But it is so over the top that you laugh. Of course Minase Yashiro is very pretty and she spends 90% of the movie in that little school girl outfit so that is all good. And with that I think I will leave you with two words...Drill Bra.

An American Crime (2007)

Based on a true story that shocked the nation in 1965, the film recounts one of the most shocking crimes ever committed against a single victim. Sylvia (Ellen Page) and Jennie Fae Likens (Hayley McFarland), the two daughters of traveling carnival workers are left for an extended stay at the Indianapolis home of single mother Gertrude Baniszewski (Catherine Keaner) and her six children. Times are tough, and Gertrude's financial needs cause her to make this arrangement before realizing how the burden will push her unstable nature to a breaking point. What transpires in the next three months is both riveting and horrific, leaving one child dead and the rest scarred for life. Hilarity is far from ensuing in this tragic tale.

Trivia: The film is based largely on actual court transcripts from the case. Ellen Page literally starved herself for her role as Sylvia. When director Tommy O'Haver noticed she was looking thinner, he asked her if she was eating and she replied "No, because Sylvia wasn't being fed." Most of the cast were completely unaware of the real Likens murder until after they read the script. Released the same year as The Girl Next Door, which was based on a novel inspired by the Sylvia Likens murder.

I really like Ellen Page. She is such a solid actor. Most people know her from Juno but I first saw her in Hard Candy. Both amazing movies that I highly recommend, although Hard Candy is very much and adult movie so keep the youngsters away. Every movie I have seen her in has been amazing. As a movie this was as good as any of hers but The Girl Next Door was closer to the full story of this devastating murder. Usually a movie embellishes true crime giving it an intensity and terror through dramatic license. This movie actually pulled way back from the actual chilling atrocities Gertrude Baniszewski and her family committed on this girl. It even made Gertrude seem tragic instead of the evil that she was if you read the actual accounts of the torture. Most of this is from Catherine Keener who played Gertrude. So would I recommend this one? Yes, and The Girl Next Door (the one from 2007, not 2004). Both are chilling.

Balls Of Fury (2007)

In the unsanctioned, underground, and unhinged world of extreme Ping-Pong, the competition is brutal and the stakes are deadly. Down-and-out former professional Ping-Pong phenom Randy Daytona (Dan Folger) is sucked into this maelstrom when FBI Agent Rodriguez (George Lopez) recruits him for a secret mission. Randy is determined to bounce back and recapture his former glory, and to smoke out his father's killer - one of the FBI's Most Wanted, arch-fiend Feng (Christopher Walken). But, after two decades out of the game, Randy can't turn his life around and avenge his father's murder without a team of his own. He calls upon the spiritual guidance of blind Ping-Pong sage and restaurateur Wong (James Hong), and the training expertise of Master Wong's wildly sexy niece Maggie (Maggie Q), both of whom also have a dark history with Feng. All roads lead to Feng's mysterious jungle compound and the most unique Ping-Pong tournament ever staged. There, Randy faces such formidable players as his long-ago Olympics opponent, the still-vicious Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon). Can Randy keep his eye on the ball? Will he achieve the redemption he craves while wielding a paddle? Is his backhand strong enough to triumph over ensuing hilarity?

Trivia: Jason Scott Lee who plays the role of Eddie also played the role of Bruce Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story which included a scene where Bruce Lee has to fight to defend his teaching of martial arts to white people. The scene is recreated when Daytona has to play the Dragon because Wong is teaching him, a white man, ping pong.

For some reason I thought this movie would try to be funnier. In saying this I mean, I thought they would pack it full of site gags and stuff like that ala The Naked Gun (which was good) or Meet The Spartans (which was not). It didn't. It was a straight up parody of Enter The Dragon with Ping Pong taking the place of Martial Arts. As with all parodies, it really helps the movie if you have seen the original, you get a lot more out of it if you do. I have and it was very funny. Two of the actors really stand out to me. James Hong has been in a ton of stuff. Wong's charatcer was written specifically to Hong's unique style and cadence. It was hilarious. And then there is the one and only Christopher Walken. This man could probably carry a whole movie be himself. He definitely stole every scene he was in.

Dirty Harry (1971)

1971. San Francisco is under the terrorizing eye of a psychopathic sniper called Scorpio, who claims in one of his written letters to the SFPD, that he will keep killing until his demands are made. Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is a no nonsense San Francisco police officer with his own ideas of how to handle police work. Callahan has a reputation of losing partners and is not to happy when he is assigned a new partner for the Scorpio case. It becomes a menacing task for Callahan, as he's been assigned to apprehend the menacing killer at all cost. Hilarity ensues as the case later unravels into a cat-and-mouse game between the two men. One killer with a sinister, distasteful laugh. The other, a killer with a badge.

Trivia: The title role was originally intended for Frank Sinatra who had to pull out because of a hand injury. The script then passed to Paul Newman, who also turned it down but said it would be a perfect vehicle for Clint Eastwood. Audie Murphy was first approached to play the Scorpio Killer, but he died in a plane crash on May 28, 1971 before his decision on the offer could be made. It is widely accepted that this movie was loosely based on the events surrounding the Zodiac Killer who was actively killing people in San Francisco at the time. After Harry has foiled the bank robbery at the beginning of the film, he strides over to the one surviving robber. In doing so, he walks in front of a theatre which is showing Play Misty for Me, which Eastwood directed and starred in. The final scene where Harry throws his badge in the river is a homage to a similar scene from High Noon. Although Harry was supposed to use a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Mag, the actual gun used was the Model 57 in .41 Magnum. All the outdoor scenes were actually filmed in San Francisco except for the bank robbery which Dirty Harry foils, when he first utters his immortal phrase, "Do you feel lucky?" This scene was shot on a set. A police department in the Philippines ordered a print of the movie for use as a training film. In the final scene, Clint Eastwood really did throw his badge into the quarry pond. The SFPD issued another badge with the same number to replace it.

"I know what you're thinking. 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" This is probably one of the most recognized movie quotes of all time and it really shows you Callahan's character. He is blunt, he is cynical, and his methods are definitely unorthodoxed, but he gets the job done and as long as justice prevails the ends justify the means. This is one of the founding films for this type of cop, the hard, rugged loner who always seems to be in trouble with his superiors, but it is also a kind of subgenre of lone lawmen that has been around in Westerns for decades. The problem now, and I think I have mentioned it before, is that I didn't see it when it came out (I was one and Mom and Dad wouldn't take me, dangit!), so I didn't get to see it as a groundbreaking movie. It is a very good cop movie, but I have seen movies like it before. This lowers the mental impact a movie like this should have given me. Sometimes, well most of the time, seeing an older movie like this really impresses me and I marvel on how good they made movies back in the day as it were, but Dirty Harry was just good, not mindblowing good or anything like that. Maybe after reviewing so many movies I am starting to get more cynical, or hopefully, just more discerning and selective as to what a "great" movie is.

Live Free Or Die Hard (2007)

NYPD Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) has faced some brutal terrorists in his career, but now, he's about to face what may be his most dangerous enemy yet. McClane receives a call to bring in a hacker named Matt Farrell (Justin Long), because there has been a breach in an FBI computer system. Farrell is one of the many hackers who are suspected in the attack, and all known hackers are to be questioned. But after McClane gets to Matt's apartment, a group of men show up and try to kill McClane and Matt, who barely escape with their lives. As it turns out, a group of terrorists led by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) are systematically shutting down the United States computer infrastructure. Hilarity ensues when they crash the stock market, crippling America's economy. It turns out that Matt knows enough about hacking to know exactly how Gabriel is shutting down the USA. Gabriel, a disgraced former Department of Defense employee, plans to bring the country to its knees, but he doesn't count on McClane and Matt figuring out what's going on. Gabriel wants McClane and Matt out of the way, and for McClane, the situation becomes personal when an enraged Gabriel kidnaps his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who is a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Gabriel may think he now has the upper hand on McClane, but he has no idea how far McClane is willing to go to rescue Lucy.

Trivia: The French title translates as "Die Hard 4.0: Return to Hell". The movie's title, Live Free or Die Hard, is a reference to New Hampshire's State Motto "Live Free or Die". Consequently, the New Hampshire state film office received several phone calls asking where in the state the movie was filmed (none of the action was set on New Hampshire and focused on a little New York but mostly Washington). According to Bruce Willis and Director Len Wiseman in the DVD Commentary, the story originally involved McClane's son, Jack. Originally, he was supposed to be the computer hacker John has to deliver to the FBI. Eventually that idea was dropped and the hacker became the Matt Ferrell character. It was then decided to bring in his daughter Lucy to keep up the series continuity of McLane always having a personal stake in what happens in the story. When filming the scenes of John walking through the corridors talking to Gabriel on the two-way, there were no written lines of dialog for Bruce Willis, according to Len Wiseman on the DVD Commentary. So what they did on set was have Willis hold the two-way up to his mouth and speak gibberish so it looks like he's talking to Gabriel. If you'll notice, there are a couple of times where the two-way isn't all the way up to Willis's face and you can see his mouth doesn't match the dialog being spoken. When introduced to an agent Johnson, McClane says: "Johnson, again?". A nod to the two agents Johnson in Die Hard, despite the fact that McClane and the two agents Johnson never spoke to each other or met face to face. The name "Tovarek", which Mai Lihn (the very hot Maggie Q) uses as an FBI agent, is a Polish word and one of it meanings is "hot chick" (the correct Polish word is "towarek", but it's pronounced like this). The car that is stolen in the film by McClane and Farrell is a 2006 E60 BMW 5 series, which was chosen due to a poll that found that people wanted films that had more BMWs in it. The main reason being that the alternatives (Audis and Mercedes-Benzes) were too common and not bold and imposing enough to go with the characters in the film. The particular BMW model (5 series) was chosen because the director, Len Wiseman, found "the 3 series too common, the 7 series too uptight and every other car either too feminine or compensative for a midlife crisis.... Everything McClane isn't, yet".

When in doubt, go back to what made you a bunch of money. Recently this has been happening a bit: see Rocky Balboa, Rambo. However, this is actually a very good movie.The action is not too farfetched (well there is a little poetic license, but what do you expect, it's a Die Hard movie). You would also hope that it wouldn't be that easy to disable America now, or at least the eastern seaboard. By the way, in the Die Hard universe, what did the rest of the country go through when Washington and New York went down? I say this because the bad guys go to one of the power hubs in West Virginia (I'll talk about this later) and it seems that the guards and stuff were pretty much oblivious to what was happening 200 miles away (yeah, they guards did go to the helicopter pad and say that they couldn't land there, but you would expect someplace that vital to be surrounded with a military response if a cyber terrorist attack was in progress). Oh yeah, West Viginia. McClain and Farrell drive to Middleton, West Virginia, yep, I said drive. I checked (excpet there isn't a Middleton that I could find) the closest point in West Virginia to Washington is just under 200 miles (who knows if Middleton is right on the border or not). Now I know this is McClain's movie and he is the hero, but couldn't he get someone else to go check out the power plant instead of driving two to two and a half hours (he didn't look like he was speeding or anything)? I mean he did have a contact with the FBI a few blocks away (at this point the cell system was down). Then while he is at the power plant in West Virginia, Farrell says the Kevin Smith is in Baltimore, except he says he is "close" in Baltimore. I checked, Baltimore is also just under 200 miles away. At least this time they take the helicopter. This is why Die Hard is and always will be supperior to any reincarnation. Die Hard happened in one building, so you don't have to worry about these time issues. But out of the other three movies, this is probably the best.

Top 250

Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Number 146 on IMDb's Top 250

Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) returns to London with the help of a sailor, Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower) after being sent away by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who was in love with Todd's wife. Barker, however, has changed his name, he goes by Todd now, Sweeny Todd. Hilarity ensues and songs burst out as he opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Shop were Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) sells the self proclaimed "worst pies in London." With the help of Mrs. Lovett, Todd plots his revenge on anyone who has ever done him wrong and hopes to be reunited with his daughter, Joanna (Jayne Wisener), who is now Judge Turpin's ward. In the meantime, he might as well help procure some meat for Mrs. Lovett.

Trivia: This is the sixth Johnny Depp-Tim Burton collaboration. They previously made Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride together. Helena Bonham Carter underwent extensive vocal lessons and studied baking in preparation for her role. To prepare for the role of Adolfo Pirelli, Sacha Baron Cohen hired his personal barber as a consultant on shaving techniques, and took up to 16 hours to learn how to handle a razor. Helena Bohamn Carter's hairstyle is tribute to the hairstyle worn by the original Mrs. Lovett, Angela Lansbury. At the end of the song "A Little Priest", Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett strike the same pose as the promotional material used for the original Broadway production of the musical.

The Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration is today's equivalent of the the great colaboration of the past like John Ford and John Wayne. Ford and Wayne made 21 movies together and quite a few are considered as some of Wayne's best like Stagecoach, The Searchers, The Quiet Man, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Burton's films are not as mainstream as Ford's but then again, Depp isn't as mainstreem as Wayne. Depp has a gift for playing the quirky characters that fitt perfectly into Burton's quirky worlds. Helena Bonham Carter also completely fit into that world. She has a slightly grubby quality to her that fits Mrs. Lovett. Oh yeah, this is a musical, I need to talk about the music. Neither Depp nor Carter have sang before and they do admirable jobs of it, again fitting into the Burton world. I realize that this isn't your typical musical fodder, I mean Todd butchers people and Mrs. Lovett cooks them into pies, but it really is a good musical and a great movie.

Lone Star (1996)

John Sayles' murder-mystery explores interpersonal and interracial tensions in Rio County, Texas. Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) is the local sheriff who is called to investigate a 40-year-old skeleton found in the desert...As Sam delves deeper into the town's dark secrets, he begins to learn more about his father, the legendary former sheriff Buddy Deeds (Mathew McConaughey-hey-hey), who replaced the corrupt Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson) as hilarity ensued. While Sam puzzles out the long-past events surrounding the mystery corpse, he also longs to rekindle a romance with his old high-school flame (Elizabeth Pena). Sayles' complex characters are brought together as the tightly woven plot finally draws to its dramatic close.

Trivia: The hands seen laying out the bones in this movie belong to David Glassman, a forensic anthropologist at Southwest Texas State University.

Well, this was a good movie, but it really suffers from truth in advertisements. What I mean to say is that this was marketed as a murder mystery, both in the trailer and in the poster seen above. Then you get into the movie and maybe 20 minutes of the 2 hour and 15 minutes run time is about the murder and trying to solve it (McConaughey and Kristofferson were probably on for less then 5 minutes total). Mostly it is about Sam Deeds trying to get out of the shadow of his father and rekindle a relationship with a woman from his past. Oh yeah, there is a second story arc about a colonel returning to the army base in Rio County and his strained relationship with his father who owns the only "black" bar in the county. This story only serves to flesh out the character of the father who has a minor role in the events that happened 40 years ago. I think it would have been so much better if it had focused on the murder and political intrigue or if it had focused only on Sam and his efforts to rekindle his relationship. It just seems to fall short of accomplishing either. Chris Cooper is excellent as always but I think he seems to fit more into the Jimmy Stewart form of acting. His roles always seem to be the same. A man to is contemplative and introspective. Matthew McConaughey-hey-hey wasn't on the screen enough to tell if he was any good and the same with Kris Kristofferson.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway), the middle-aged proprietor of a roadside restaurant, hires drifter Frank Chambers (John Garfield) as a handyman. Frank eventually begins an affair with Nick's beautiful wife Cora (Lana Turner), who talks Frank into helping her kill Nick, by "accident." But the best laid plans...cause hilarity to ensue.

Trivia: This caused a stir amongst 1940s audiences who were shocked when it seemed clear to them that John Garfield uses his tongue in one of his kissing scenes with Lana Turner. Lana Turner said that her turn as Cora Smith was "the role I liked best". It took 12 years to adapt the explicit material (by 1940 standards) of the novel into a screenplay tame enough to comply with the Production Code prevalent at the time.

Umm...What the heck does the title of this movie have to do with the actual movie? I mean, there is no postman, and the word postman is never even said, you have to wait till the last two minutes of the movie to figure it out and then it was still kind of "Huh?" Is this a generational thing? My postperson (got to be politically correct nowadays) would never even come to the door, if I have to sign for something, they just leave a note for me to come to the post office. Okay, I know it has to do with having to pay for your sins (What goes around comes around, you have to pay the piper, and all those other cliches). Okay, now for Lana Turner and those dresses. Everything she wears is white (except one notable exception where she wears black and thinks about killing Nick) but besides that, all white. I had heard that Lana Turner was really evil in this movie, or rather that she gained her bad girl reputation from this movie (she is known for her bad girl roles, but she only played the bad girl a few times) and I really started to wonder why, but she got worse (in a good way) as time went on and then I thought that one of the main reasons people gave her this reputation was that Nick, her husband was probably the nicest person every shown on film, this guy was a saint and they very casually plan to whack him.

Classic Movie Wednesday

Easy Rider (1969)

Two young "hippie" bikers, Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) sell some dope in Southern California, stash their money away in their gas-tank and set off for a trip across America, on their own personal odyssey looking for a way to lead their lives. Hilarity ensues as on the journey they encounter bigotry and hatred from small-town communities who despise and fear their non-conformism. However Wyatt and Billy also discover people attempting 'alternative lifestyles' who are resisting this narrow-mindedness, there is always a question mark over the future survival of these drop-out groups. The gentle hippie community who thank God for 'a place to stand' are living their own unreal dream. The rancher they encounter and his Mexican wife are hard-pushed to make ends meet. Even LSD turns sour when the trip is a bad one. Death comes to seem the only freedom. When they arrive at a diner in a small town, they are insulted by the local rednecks as weirdo degenerates. They are arrested on some minor pretext by the local sheriff and thrown in jail where they meet George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), a liberal alcoholic lawyer. He gets them out and decides to join them on their trip to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras.

Trivia: The Captain America jacket was designed by Peter Fonda and made by "two little old ladies" in Los Angeles. It was later sold at a charity auction. According to Peter Fonda, four police bikes were customized for the film. One was burned during filming, and the other three were stolen before filming was completed. Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson were actually smoking marijuana on camera. During Jack Nicholson's "UFO" speech, Dennis Hopper was intent on getting him very stoned on marijuana. The laughing that eventually broke up his speech was not planned, and when Nicholson repeats the line "it....it....would be devastating...." was the next take. The final campfire scene was left out of the original shooting schedule and was shot after both motorcycles had been stolen. Some of the film was shot on 16mm film instead of 35mm. This was demo footage shot a year before production began. Some of the weird lighting effects in the LSD scene came about because a can of film was accidentally exposed when it was opened before being developed. Peter Fonda was an experienced motorcycle rider and the bike he rides in the movie is seriously stretched and raked and has tall "apehanger" style handlebars. Dennis Hopper was not as experienced a rider, therefore his bike is less radically chopped. Peter Fonda wore the Capt. America jacket and rode his chopper a week around L.A. before shooting began to give them a broken-in look and to get used to riding the radically designed bike. The American flag on the back of the jacket and on the gas tank of the bike caused him to be pulled over several times by the police. The rednecks in the Louisiana coffee shop who taunt the boys, and the two in the pickup truck at the end of the movie, were all local residents recruited by the filmmakers. In the case of the coffee shop denizens, the filmmakers were preparing to audition a group of local theater people when Dennis Hopper saw Causey, Lafont, et al, watching them and making wisecracks and decided to use them instead. It was one of the first films to make extensive use of previously released musical tracks rather than specially written film score. This is quite common with films now but was quite unusual at the time (the exception being the Beatles films and some other special cases). Hopper and Fonda did not write a full script for the movie and made most of it up as they went along. They didn't hire a crew and instead picked up hippies at communes across the country and used friends and passersby to hold the cameras and were drunk and stoned most of the time. Captain America's (Peter Fonda's) chopper was so "squirrely" to ride that at one stage Jack Nicholson (who was on the back) squeezed his knees on Peter Fonda's side to balance himself and broke one of Fonda's ribs.

Well, this was an interesting movie. There isn't really much dialog, a lot of it is Hopper and Fonda driving across America, which is beautiful. The most interesting part of this was the "making of" documentary. These guys made this on a shoe string budget and with the help of friends. They were also pretty much high the whole time. When you see them smoking marijuana on screen, they are smoking the real stuff. The cocaine was powdered sugar, but the marijuana was real.

Classic Movie Wednesday

The Ladykillers (1955)

When Mrs. Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) advertises a room to let little did she know that the man who showed up on her door, Professor Marcus (Alec Guinness) was there just for the room. He and his band of cohorts (Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Danny Green, and a young Peter Sellers) are there to pull a heist and they pull unsuspecting Mrs. Wilberforce right into the scheme. Hilarity ensues as the scheme is successful...at first but slowly deteriorates into a morass that the gang can not easily extract themselves from.

Trivia: The producers originally rejected director Alexander Mackendrick's choice of 80 year old Katie Johnson for the role of Mrs. Wilberforce on the grounds that she might be too frail for the project, and so they cast a younger actress - who died before filming began. The picture of Mrs. Wilberforce's late husband above the fireplace is actually a painting of Alec Guinness in his role as "The Admiral" in the earlier Ealing Studios comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets. Mrs. Wilberforce's husband died when he "remained at the salute on the bridge" when his boat was going down. This is how The Admiral, played by Alec Guinness, died in Kind Hearts and Coronets. According to both Alexander Mackendrick and Alec Guinness, Mrs. Wilberforce's birds in the film were voiced by Peter Sellers.

I can only claim to have seen two of the Ealing Studios comedies, this one and Kind Hearts and Coronets, but both have been great little comedies and I plan to see some of the others soon. Just like yesterday, this movie was remade recently. In the remake Tom Hanks takes over for the Alec Guinness part. Guinness was great in this as a mousy mastermind with a soft heart for Mrs. Wilberforce. It is rare to see an actor that can play such diverse parts. Professor Marcus is one of his comedic roles, with others from movies like Kind Hearts, and Murder By Death. Compare this to his parts in movies like Lawrence Of Arabia, The Bridge On The River Kwai, and Doctor Zhivago and you will see what I mean. It is also one of Peter Sellers' first parts and you can see some of his future brilliance.

Top 250

Casino (1995)
Number 242 on IMDb's Top 250

Sam 'Ace' Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a mob-connected casino operator in Las Vegas, attempts a civilized lifestyle with his money-conditional wife, Ginger (Sharon Stone). Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), a boyhood friend of Ace and now a Made-Man of the Mafia, arrives in town with an ambitious agenda of his own that soon disrupts Ace's life. Before long, hilarity ensues as Ginger and her long-time leeching lover Lester (James Woods), along with Nicky's mistakes, causing problems.

Trivia: The word "F***" is said 422 times, including in the narration - 2.4 times per minute on average. The blackjack cheats were using a technique known as "spooking". It is highly illegal. The movie is based on the career of casino boss Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal as portrayed by Robert De Niro's character Sam "Ace" Rothstein. The character played by Joe Pesci, Nicky Santoro, was based on the real-life gangster Tony "The Ant" Spilotro. To avoid the continuity problems that accompany a chain-smoking movie character, Robert De Niro always held his cigarettes the same distance from the lit end so that their lengths never appear to change. The jewelry store owner who gets robbed by Nicky's boys is an actual Las Vegas jeweler. His line "I just got a shipment of diamonds from Israel" was not in the script. Casino was filmed entirely in the Las Vegas Valley. The casino and office scenes were filmed in the famed Riviera Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip and the driving scene in the beginning of the movie was filmed on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas, which is no longer open to automobile traffic.

What is it with good ganster movies having to be so dang long? This movie was 2 minutes shy of three hours, The Godfather 2:55, The Godfather Part II 3:20, Goodfellas 2:20, Once Upon A Time in America 3:49. This movie was by far the most pastel of those movies with De Niro wearing pinks and line greens and tangerine suits and stuff. Out of the three main characters, I would say Sharon Stone did the best but she also had the character with the most emotional swings. De Niro was his solid self playing very natural as he always does, so easy it doesn't look like he is acting. And then there is Pesci. Joe Pesci is a solid actor and did very well in the role, but he always plays the same type of character, there isn't much difference between his characters in Casino, Goodfellas, or Once Upon A Time In America. Hey, I just noticed that, Pesci was in three of the five movie I mentioned above, but more interesting really is that De Niro is in four of the five just missing out on The Godfather. I guess he and Pesci make good gangsters. Another interesting thing about this movie is the narration, it is prevelent all the way through the movie and I like how it switches back and forth between De Niro and Pesci.

Top 250

Zodiac (2007)
Number 217 on IMDb's Top 250

A serial killer in the San Francisco Bay Area taunts police with his letters and cryptic messages. We follow the investigators and reporters in this lightly fictionalized account of the true 1970's case as they search for the murderer, becoming obsessed with the case. Based on Robert Graysmith's book, the movie's focus is the lives and careers of the detectives and newspaper people as hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Screenwriter Shane Salerno optioned the Robert Graysmith book "Zodiac" when he was just nineteen years old and developed it with Graysmith for several years before selling it to Disney's Touchstone Pictures in a seven figure deal. Salerno wrote several drafts of the screenplay before multiple administration changes at Touchstone derailed the project about the mysterious San Francisco serial killer, Zodiac. Producer/Performer Anthony Begonia's parents were classmates of one of the Zodiac victims in San Francisco. The cipher mailed to the Chronicle in the movie was actually mailed to the Examiner. Scenes of Dave Toschi and Robert Graysmith watching "Dirty Harry" were filmed inside the Mann National Theatre in Westwood, CA. The garish color schemes of the movie theater were not added by the art department. The very retro interiors of the theater have remained unchanged since 1969, when the National was first built. Interestingly, "Zodiac" played at the Mann National Theatre in mid March of 2007. Thus, moviegoers watched other moviegoers occupy their seats-- on the National's trademark large screen. Dave Toschi in real life was the inspiration for Steve McQueen's performance in Bullitt. In the film, they remark how his specialized holster is like McQueen's in Bullit.

The interesting thing about this movie is that it isn't really about the Zodiac Murders, it is really about the dectectives and newsmen. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Robert Greysmith who wrote the book the movie is based on. He did a good job stay kind of introverted and mousey throughout the movie which really fit his character. Mark Ruffalo played the lead dectective Dave Toschi and for some reason I kept thinking he was John Leguizamo, they really look a lot alike. Robert Downey Jr.'s presence was also felt. So it was pretty good. Dang it, I can never figure out how to end these posts and I always seem to come up with something lame like, "So it was pretty good."

Death Of A President (2006)

A faux documentary broadcast in 2008 gives a news account, with talking head interviews, of the assassination of President George W. Bush on October 19, 2007. The fictional T.V. news broadcast relates how a hidden sniper fatally shot the president following an economic speech at the Chicago Sheraton Hotel, in front of which an anti-war rally was being held. A man of Syrian origins, Jamal Abu Zikri, becomes the prime suspect. Vice President Dick Cheney, promoted to president, uses the possible al-Qaeda connection of the suspect to push his own agenda. He calls for "PATRIOT Act III", giving the F.B.I., police, and other government agencies increased investigative powers on U.S. citizens and others, and contemplates an attack on Syria. But all is not as it seems as the investigation, which was under pressure to find the assassin, relied on dubious evidence even after another possible suspect is found, but this suspect couldn't have done it, could he? After all, he is American. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Preexisting footage of President George W. Bush and CGI effects help to create the scenes of his assassination. The majority of the actors in the film were not told the premise of the movie. The working title for the film was "D.O.A.P.," and the actors were not told what the plot was, except for their specific scenes. The idea of the film received substantial criticism from those who believed the subject was exploitative and in bad taste. The Republican Party of Texas described the subject matter as "shocking" and "disgusting". U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) told the Journal News of Rockland, Westchester and Putnam counties, New York, at the annual New Castle Community Day in Chappaqua, "I think it's despicable; I've never seen a movie so horrible in my life. I think it's absolutely outrageous. I mean, sure most people don't like Bush, but this is beyond bad. It's evil. That anyone would even attempt to profit on such a horrible scenario makes me sick". Co-screenwriter Simon Finch responded to the criticisms and said Clinton had not seen the film when she made her comments. The Bush Administration made no comment on the film. An extra named Robert Kramer, who appeared in the film as one of the ropeline extras during the assassination scene, asked to have his image edited out, alleging the filmmakers misled the actors as to the true intent of the pseudo-documentary.

Well, I'm back and what a way to restart the blog hmm? Death Of A President takes a look at the fictional future assassination of President Bush. To it's credit, it wasn't overtly political and didn't take an anti-Bush stance or anything like that that I was kind of expecting. And actually, it may have been better if it had been more political. It dealt with the events of October 19th leading up to the President being declared dead and the investigation that followed. It did not go into any detail concerning the political upheaval or even the world reaction that the assassination of a sitting U.S. President during time of war would have created. It also glossed over the whole reaction Americans would have had rather quickly. As for the movie itself, the use of stock footage was very good, one once did I notice that Dick Cheney's lips had been adjusted to say the name George Walker Bush instead of another name.

A History Of Violence (2005)

The tale of Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen). Tom is a loving family man and well-respected citizen of a small Indiana town. But when two savage criminals show up at his diner, Tom is forced to take action and thwart the robbery attempt. Suddenly heralded as a hero who took the courage to stand up to crime, people look up to Tom as a man of high moral regard. But all that media attention has the likes of mobsters (Ed Harris and others) showing up at his doorstep, charging that Tom is someone else they've been looking for. Is it a case of mistaken identity or does Tom have a history that no one knows about? Either way, hilarity is about to ensue.

Trivia: The fictitious town that the film is set in (Millbrook, Indiana) is named after the town where the film was actually shot (Millbrook, Ontario, Canada). The scenes set in Philadelphia were actually shot in Toronto, Canada. For the sex scene on the stairs, David Cronenberg was concerned about the two actors getting hurt on the hard wooden steps. He asked his stunt man whether or not he had any stunt pads to soften up the stairs. The stunt man laughed, saying that in the twenty years he had been working as a stunt man, no director had ever asked him for stunt pads for a sex scene. Pads were not used for most of the scene however, and in the shot when Edie is naked on the bed with bruises visible on her back, make-up was used to hide the amount of bruises that Maria Bello received from the scene. During an interview, Viggo Mortensen stated that during the shooting of the first bar scene with Ed Harris he could not stop laughing, and as a result, the scene had to be re-shot several times. Due to Viggo Mortensen's behaviour Ed Harris completed the scene without pants; he only wore his underwear, yet this cannot be seen as the bar table impedes our view. Thus, Viggo Mortensen had to act seriously while Ed Harris was not wearing any pants, and this is the scene that is used in the movie.

By the time you finish reading this post you will probably have spent more time reading then I did watching the movie itself. Now I know you can tell a story in 90 minutes (this was 96) that is sometimes better then a story told in 180 minutes, but this movie seemed to lack something. It was too short. You need to feel sympathy with Tom, but you don't, You are just beginning to understand him when *blink* the movie is over. I also know that David Cronenberg was trying to make a statement about violence following you and destroying your life and stuff like that (at least I think that was what he was saying). It didn't work and this is the reason why, Tom and his family never seemed to be in that much danger. Tom was too efficient in his violence. And what is up with the son, we see a scene at the beginning of the film where he is being bullied by the jock and then in the middle of the film he kicks the jock's tail. (again to point out that violence doesn't solve anything because after the fight he got in trouble with his father). And then...nothing, the storyline was left open ended with no resolution. It is like I started to tell you this important point and then

Brick (2005)

In a modern-day Southern California neighborhood and high school, student Brendan Frye (Joseph Gorden-Levitt)'s piercing intelligence spares no one. He's not afraid to back up his words with actions or ensuing hilarity, and knows all the angles; yet he prefers to stay an outsider, and does - until the day that his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie de Ravin), reaches out to him unexpectedly and then vanishes. His feelings for her still run deep; so much so, that he becomes consumed with finding his troubled love. To find her, he enlists the aid of his only true peer, the Brain (Matt O'Leary), while keeping the assistant vice principal only occasionally informed of what quickly becomes a dangerous investigation. Brendan's single-minded unearthing of students' secrets thrusts him headlong into the colliding social orbits of rich-girl sophisticate Laura (Nora Zehetner), intimidating Tugger (Noah Fleiss), substance-abusing Dode (Noah Segan), seductive Kara (Meagan Good), jock Brad (Brian J. White) and - most ominously - non-student the Pin (Lucas Haas). Only by gaining acceptance into the Pin's closely guarded inner circle of crime and punishment willt Brendan be able to uncover hard truths about himself, Emily and the suspects that he is getting closer to.

Trivia: The horn signal Brendan instructs Laura to give him (long, short, long, short) is the same as the doorbell signal Sam Spade tells Brigid O'Shaughnessy he'll use in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Brendan's earlier line to Laura, "Now you are dangerous," is taken from the film as well. To cheaply create the effect of something coming out of the tunnel and jumping up in the observer's face, the dream sequence in which Brendan sees Emily coming out of the tunnel is shot in reverse. You can see this because the water appears to be flowing out of the tunnel, while in all the other shots, it's flowing in. The car Tug drives is an original 1967 GT500 Shelby Mustang. The music score was composed by Rian Johnson's cousin, Nathan Johnson, with additional support and music from The Cinematic Underground. The score hearkens back to the style, feel and overall texture of noir films. It features traditional instruments such as the piano, trumpet and violin, and also contains unique and invented instruments such as the wine-o-phone, metallophone, tack pianos, filing cabinets, and kitchen utensils, all recorded with one microphone on a beat-up Apple PowerBook. Since Nathan Johnson was in England during most of the production process, the score was composed almost entirely over Apple iChat, with Rian Johnson playing clips of the movie to Nathan Johnson, who would then score them. The two later met in New York to mix the soundtrack. In his meeting with Trueman, Brendan refers to a teacher "Kasprzyk" as being "tough but fair". Mrs. Kasprzyk was an actual teacher of English (including Advanced Placement English) who was largely known as being tough but fair at San Clemente High School, the school where the movie was shot.

This is one of those movies that keeps you a little off kilter in the style Cruel Intentions. Both movies depict upscale teenagers that use highly sophisticated stylized language that is a little incongruous with the usual portrayal of American teens. But where Cruel Intentions centers on Sebastian's manipulations of his piers and Sebastian seems to be far ahead of most of the other characters, Brick is more of a mystery and has a lot of noir characteristics and you feel that the other characters are a lot closer to being on par with Brandan, especially the Brain and Laura. One thing is for sure, Brendan can really take a punch.

(p.s. there are still some questions in the Trivia question below that need answering)

Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize Winner: 1985

Blood Simple (1984)

Abby (Francis McDormand) is cheating on her saloonkeeper husband, Marty (Dan Hadaya). The object of her affections is Ray (John Getz), one of Marty's bartenders. Marty hires Visser (M. Emmett Walsh), an unscrupulous detective, to kill them. But Visser has other, more lucrative plans of his own. So begins hilarity ensuing and a calculating round of double and triple crosses that build to a bloodcurdling, surprise-filled climax.

Trivia: A teaser trailer for the film was shot long before the movie was in production. It featured Bruce Campbell (filling in for the role later played by Dan Hedaya) bloody and crawling down the road, just like the movie. Holly Hunter had auditioned for the role of Abby, but turned it down because she was performing a play in New York at the same time. So she encouraged her roommate Frances McDormand to go and audition for the role (It was McDormand's first big screen role). While M. Emmett Walsh's character is named "Loren Visser" in the screenplay, his character is never actually named in the film (his cigarette lighter has "Loren" written on it), and he is listed as "Private Investigator" in the credits. Holly Hunter's voice is on Meurice's answering machine.

First a little bit about the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance was started in 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah. At the time, the main focus of the event was to present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions; however it also included a small program of films made outside the Hollywood system, commonly known as independent films. Management of the festival was taken over by the Sundance Institute, a non-profit organization, in 1985, and in 1991 the festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival. Many famous independent filmmakers, including Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, James Wan and Jim Jarmusch had their big break at Sundance. It is also responsible for bringing wider attention to films such as Saw, The Blair Witch Project, Better Luck Tomorrow, Primer, Songbird, El Mariachi, Clerks, sex, lies, and videotape, and Napoleon Dynamite. The Sundance Film Festival was named by Robert Redford, who founded the Sundance Institute in 1981, after his character The Sundance Kid from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, probably because this is his favorite character among those he played. With this project I will be watching the winners of the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic films (as apposed to the Documentary category, although I might tackle them later).

Okay, to the movie. This is the first movie written and directed by the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan). Some of their other movies include Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother Where Art Thou? So they have a pretty good track record. This was a pretty good start for the brothers. The double crosses and triple crosses and mistaken identity aspects are done very well. Francis McDormand was good considering that this was her first acting job. Dan Hedaya is a little creepy but he always seems to play the slightly creepy character. If you don't recognize the name just find a picture of him and you will say "oh yeah, that guy!" Same thing with E. Emmet Walsh. He is one of those solid character actors you see in everything.