Tag Archives: Movies

Coming Attractions: Public Enemies

1 Apr

One of my all-time favorite films is Heat by Michael Mann.   Never before had a I seen such a truly amazing rendering of the “cops and robbers” dynamic of the crime film done in such a fair and balanced way to both sides.  Al Pacino as Lt. Vincent Hanna and Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley, expert thief; Here you had two of the greatest living actors of screen playing two extremely intense and driven characters on a collision course with each other.  Honestly, as the movie approached it’s incredibly tense finale, Mann’s careful plotting and direction leaves the audience on the edge of their seat for who will come out on top: the thief or the cop.  I’m hoping that we get treated to that level of crafstmenship with the forth-coming film from Mann for this summer, Public Enemies.  The film will follow John Dillinger as he, at the height of his infamy as one of America’s greatest bank robbers, is hunted by Special Agent Melvin Purvis of the FBI.  Johnny Depp plays Dillinger and Christian Bale plays Purvis.  I’m not sure how this movie can be disappointing when you have Batman vs. Capt. Jack Sparrow at the direction of the master of cops and robbers films.

Synopsis:  In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the incredible and true story of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Depp)the charismatic bank robber whose lightning raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoovers fledgling FBI and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the downtrodden public. No one could stop Dillinger. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyonefrom his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard) to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression.

But while the adventures of Dillinger’s ganglater including the sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of exploiting the outlaw’s capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He made Dillinger America’s first Public Enemy Number One. Hoover sent in Purvis, the dashing “Clark Gable of the FBI”. However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis’men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) who were real gunfighters and orchestrating epic betrayals from the infamous “Lady in Red” to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nittiwere Purvis and the FBI able to close in on Dillinger.

Release Date:  July 1st, 2009

{The song in the trailer is “Ten Million Slaves” by Otis Taylor}

Why I Like Bad Movies: Death Race

29 Mar

death-race-posterRemakes are a tricky beast.  No one really wants them to be made.  If there was a large fanbase for a previously released film that could justify a cult following, there would an equally large enough demographic of people who were just fine with the old movie and didn’t need to see it recast, reshot, and re… somethinged.  I’ve watched this happen dozens of times with dozens of movies and every time there’s some vocal section of fandom that are calling for the heads of those who have “raped our childhood” with their careless and butchering remake of a “heartfelt classic.”   Personally, I don’t see the problem.  If they ever made a remake of, say, Escape from New York, I’d just go watch it, roll my eyes, and then go home and watch my remastered DVD version.  It’s the studio’s money.  Let them blow it on whatever they want.  No one is forcing you to watch their crap.

This brings me to a film that I kind of adore for its sheer disregard for all things logical, realistic, and well-crafted.  We’re talking about Death Race.  A very loose remake of the cult classic, Death Race 2000, the updated version stars Jason Statham and Tyrese Gibson as prisoners of the Terminal Island Penitentiary that are forced to compete in the world’s highest-rated televised sports program, Death Race.  The characters are paper-thin, the cast (which includes the actual talents of Joan Allen and Ian McShane) is forced to recite stilted and awkward dialogue, and the physics of the action scenes defies all known reason.  This is, of course, Why I Like Bad Movies.   We follow Statham’s character of Jensen Ames, framed for the murder of his wife and sentenced to life in prison, as the crooked warden of Terminal Island (Allen) offers him the role of Frankenstein, a fan favorite celebrity in the game, as a way out of jail.  Ames begrudgingly accepts and gets wrapped up in the chaos and violence that is the Death Race with prisoners piloting suped up cars armed to the teeth with firepower and armor for the chance at freedom.  There are no twists that are unpredictable and no action scenes that can be described as “subtle,” but this movie really does manage to satisfy all of the needs of a true action movie junkie.  Director Paul W.S. Anderson has a ton of great “bad” movies under his belt with Soldier, Resident Evil, and Event Horizon topping the list and he adds Death Race with a childish fervor of action and sly wink at the standards of “quality.”

Whether it’s Statham spewing punchy one-liners with his unbelievably hot (and I mean that as, “she’s way too hot to be believable”) co-pilot, the action scenes that combine NASCAR and the Road Warrior, or completely throwaway character of Machine Gun Joe for Tyrese to play, Death Race fires on all cylinders (I had to use a pun) of truly great awful movie making.  It’s another reason Why I Like Bad Movies.

Coming Attractions: Give’em Hell, Malone

27 Mar

I have no idea what this movie’s about.  Frankly, I don’t think I need to.  The “trailer” almost feels like a short film of Thomas Jane just being a bad ass private detective doing… something… involving detecting?  No clue.  The movie is directed by the (sometimes) great Russell Mullachy who is responsible for one of my favorite movies of childhood, Highlander.  He’s also responsible for the craptacular sequel, so give him 50/50 on that talent scale.  I’ve always had a weird theory that using George Thorogood’s, “Bad to the Bone” in your trailer was a guarenteed curse upon your picture, so we’ll see what ends up happening here.  Anyway… trailer below.  Fingers crossed.

Synopsis:  A private eye named Malone attempts to retrieve a mysterious case.  (See? Feels like a short film…)

Release date:  April 1st, 2009 (probably a festival release date)

Coming Attractions: (500) Days of Summer

20 Mar

I’m a huge fan of the romantic dramedy.  Romantic comedies are all well and good, but the thing is that actual romance includes pain and confusion and a lot less slapstick than your average Sandra Bullock movie.  The following is a teaser for the upcoming film, (500) Days of Summer starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in what a great many of film enthusiasts are dubbing, “the next favorite hipster romance movie.”  Personally, I don’t think that label fits.  The tagline says it best:  This is not a love story.  It’s a story about love.  There’s also a full length trailer available that I’ll be posting later.

Synopsis: Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t. This post modern love story is never what we expect it to be — It’s thorny yet exhilarating, funny and sad, a twisted journey of highs and lows that doesn’t quite go where we think it will. When Tom, a hapless greeting card copywriter and hopeless romantic, is blindsided after his girlfriend summer dumps him, he shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days “together” to try to figure out where things went wrong. His reflections ultimately lead him to finally rediscover his true passions in life.

Release Date: July 17th, 2009

{The song in the teaser is “Sweet Disposition” by the Temper Trap}

Second Time’s the Charm

19 Mar

blade_ii_ver1So I have this small observation about genre pictures: Sometimes, on rare occasions, the sequel is better than the original. My DVD collection is rife with holes due to my insistence that I won’t buy the first film of a series just for completeness sake. Blade? Sucked. Blade 2? Sheer brilliance. The Mummy? Meh. The Mummy Returns? Dude… Pygmy mummies! See, when genre pictures (horror, sci-fi, comic book movies, etc) get made for the first time, they don’t get a lot of liberty with the overall vision and budget. It’s a gamble for a studio to fund just any movie, especially one with a niche audience. This is how the Fantastic Four movie can be so, so bad and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer can be… well, still bad, but not AS bad. In fact, if FF:RSS had come out first, I might not have liked it just that smidge-above-crap that I do. If you ask me, it’s not JUST a matter of bigger budgets and more freedoms. Yeah, that’s most likely the case with something like The Mummy where Steven Sommers is given more funding for his massive special effects spectacles or even Spider-Man 2 where Sam Raimi gets to really cut loose and even make a couple of winks to his old Evil Dead style of directing (see the Doc Ock attack in the operating room scene). Other times, though, it’s just a matter of someone else taking overaliens-movie-poster for the second go-around that might actually have been better suited for the franchise in the first place. Transporter 2 is not all that great of a film, but is light years more entertaining than its predecessor. That is in no small part to Louis Letterier getting to make the film HE wanted to and not pick up the pieces of Corey Yuen’s mess. Steve Norrington is hand’s down just a shitty director and shows it in the first Blade movie (if you think it’s a fluke, go rent League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for double feature of crap). It was international sensation Guillermo Del Toro stepping up to the plate that really showed just how cool a Blade movie can be (Zombie Vampires!). Hands down, though, the movie that will always show that the sequel can trounce the original in terms of awesome will be be forever known as Aliens. What Ridley Scott started with the classic sci-fi horror film, Alien, James Cameron shot out of the park with his taking the franchise up to 11 and injecting Space Marines, Power Loaders, Alien Queens, and annoying child hostages. All in all, the original movie sometimes just serves as the tryout film. What can this property do in a mainstream marketplace? It’s a success? Great! Let’s make another and throw a couple more million at it! When that happens, we the audience can sometimes get a taste of a really great time. Of course, we can also get Batman Returns, Chronicles of Riddick, and Rambo: First Blood part 2.

Why I like Bad Movies: Punisher War Zone

18 Mar

punisherwarzoneposter-62908I’ve seen a lot of movies.  I mean, a ton.  I worked 5 years in a Hollywood Video and before that I survived middle school and high school on a steady diet of 5 rentals a week.  I had friends, I swear.  I just really dig films.  As I get older, I find myself really digging some bad ones, but honestly… They’re really great.

See, expectations are the enemy of everything.  Books, music, sex, parties, politicians, you name it.  Barack Obama could be the greatest president we ever have, but the expectations for his administration are staggering.  You throw that attitude at something overly hyped like The Dark Knight or Titanic or Forrest Gump and you’ll see some pretty unsatisfied viewers.  They’ll most likely say the following, “It was good.  I mean, I can see why so many people liked it… I just expected more.”  Some variation of that phrase usually will be the review.  You can only imagine what might happen with a movie that isn’t a blockbuster or critically acclaimed or even quality in the slightest.  These are the movies that make up a good third of my DVD collection.  These films are Why I Like Bad Movies.

Today I bought Punisher War Zone.  This movie is terrible, don’t get me wrong.  The acting is wooden and accents are hidden poorly and attempted worse (British actors do Brooklyn and American’s attempt Irish, all in the same scene), the action is gory as all hell (one scene involve the Punisher dispatching a villain like he’s a Pez dispenser) and the plot is non-existent (I honestly forgot there was one towards the end).  Yet, I saw this movie three times in the theater.  Why?  Because it’s just so much fun.  The trick with a character like the Punisher, a product of a bygone vigilante-obsessed era known as, “the 80′s,” is that you have to play it full tilt.  You can’t hold back one inch or you’ll lose what makes that character still resonate:  Revenge Fantasy.  See, John McClane in Die Hard probably kills more people than the Punisher but does it in a wife-beater instead of a costume.  While the vigilante has been done over and over again as so many different characters, exploring the idea of the audience being able to exact their frustrations on the cannon fodder of criminals will never go out of style.  Punisher War Zone even kicks it up a notch to Rambo levels of gore allowing for so many, “They did NOT just do that,” moments that any true Bad Movie Action Fan will crack at least one smile.

No this film is not for everyone.  Hell, it’s probably only for ten people.  Suffice it to say, Punisher War Zone is Why I Like Bad Movies.

Watchmen Watching with Newbies

17 Mar


We should clarify something very quickly: Of course I enjoyed Watchmen. It was a film based (as faithfully as possible) on one of my all-time favorite comics. The cast was spot on, the FX were great, and the alternate ending even worked despite itself. If you want to read reviews about why it was good, there’re plenty online. If you want a voice of descent, then there are plenty of those as well. What I want to focus on is the reaction of the layman to this movie. Hearing why I loved it or where I thought it needed work doesn’t do much for anyone who would be reading this.

The layman, though. That’s something I’d like to write about.

The friends I enticed to see Watchmen were not comic book fans. They’d read a few (some at my insistence or ones I’d given as gifts) and had been intrigued by the trailers, but neither of them (one a man and one a woman) had that a connection to the material as translation from another work (otherwise known as “arrogant pessimistic nerd syndrome”).

These two “newbies” had positive reactions to the film but for different reasons and being someone who loves to be the “pusher” of all things nerdy and film-related, it was a treat to enjoy the picture with both of them separately.

The man (we’ll call him “Two”) was someone of similar taste in violent and intense films as me. We both liked b-movies and he leaned more towards horror than my interests, but we found common ground in films like Rambo, Death Sentence, and Sin City. He’s also an artist who admires color and mood and he’s into uniquely dark anti-heroes and their brutality. Suffice it to say, he ate up every minute of bone-crunching fight scenes, one-liners uttered in gravely voices, and disturbing scenes of dark behavior. We both sat in focused attention to every frame only breaking eye contact with the film to lean over and exchange the following joke, “I thought I’d seen violent, then I saw Watchmen…”

The woman (we’ll call her, “September”) was someone with an aversion to the things that Two enjoyed. Violence made her uncomfortable and the dark and twisted lives of characters were not enough of a reason for her to show interest in a particular story. The artistic sensibilities, however, were something that Two and her shared and the idea of a different world similar to our own with conflicts of the human condition seemed to appeal to the same degree to September that blood-and-battery appealed to Two. She commented on the colors and the palette used to bring certain scenes to life as well as how the tragedy of certain characters made her really root for them at certain points.

Both September and Two liked the film, no question. Both went on to recommend it to other newbies and both felt comfortable discussing its merits and its flaws. No matter how poorly the film has fared lately, it DID reach an audience. It did have an effect as a movie on newbies and could pique enough interest for a pop culture pusher like myself to now be able to go, “well if you liked Watchmen, then you’ll really like THIS.” That’s what really makes all the difference, right?

Elizabethtown: Images and words CAN matter more

16 Oct


Two things to remember when watching movies: 1) NEVER go in with preconceived notions and 2) Once in awhile be ready for heart to beat out your mind on enjoying a piece of cinema.

Cameron Crowe is an amazing writer/director. For a generation, this films have touched on the feelings of hopeless romantics everywhere. His characters are charming, his dialogue winning, and his soundtracks are co-stars in the movie in which they inhabit. From “Say Anything” to “Singles,” “Jerry Maguire” to “Vanilla Sky” and now “Almost Famous” to “Elizabethtown.” Crowe’s films are a clearly stenciled path of an alternate reality where great music always plays at just the right moment and characters realize the potential in which they are always slightly missing achieving actually resides in their soul, yearning to be found.


“Elizabethtown” follows Drew Baylor played with quiet uneasiness by Orlando Bloom, as he is fired from his job, dumped by his girlfriend, and positioned for public failure akin to the creators of New Coke. As he prepares to commit suicide, his sister calls to inform him that his father has passed away. Thus Drew begins his trip to Elizabethtown, Kentucky to represent his west coast family for a southern memorial service rife with conflict. During the red-eye flight, Drew encounters Claire, an overly friendly stewardess who is eager to help him get through his troubling next few days. The two enter a quirky romance that hangs in the wings as Drew tries to understand who his father was and who he is going to become, all the while trying to navigate every family reunion landmine imaginable.

First, the gripes. Every critic that seems to think that they matter have attacked this film’s lack of realism and it’s cluttered nature of scene construction. The romance has been criticized as unbelievable and over the top while the ending seems to not fit with the rest of the film. Second, the middle of the film has been criticized for dragging down the rest of the movie and might even contribute to gripe number one. To this, I have only to say, “Shut up and watch, you heartless blowhard.”

This movie is not meant to be a linear story, but rather a film where an out of left field girl helps a depressed and confused boy deal with the greatest loss he can comprehend during his height of utmost failure. That’s the whole movie right there. Drew is a cipher for every twenty-something male lost at sea and misguided by the thought that being a success defines who you are. Claire is a fantasy woman, but she is meant to also be the light the end of a tunnel of self-discovery. When you’re ready to face what you’ve failed at, when you’re ready to actually love life despite the pitfalls, you’ll find a girl like Claire waiting for you. Losing your father can be very hard on a son. I dread the day when I might have to put my own to rest. There is no preparation for that and no amount of cynicism can curb the fact that it’s obvious Crowe is still trying to find the words to describe his loss. What he has attempted to do here is create a landscape for his own feelings to come out and talk about what he’s feeling. If you can empathisize with them and join in, maybe find a foothold with which to relate, then this film will make you feel full of life. If not, just try to enjoy an amazing soundtrack and some great scenes of the countryside that makes up this land of ours.

Favorite scenes?

The whole phone conversation between Drew and Claire that leads up to their watching the sunrise is one of the most modern romantic fantasies ever put to film.

Drew’s entire walk of shame and subsequent breakdown are very scarily sympathetic.

The end roadtrip is so well done, it tugs on every heart string until you’ve run the same gauntlets as Drew has.

“Elizabethtown” is not for everyone. I can think of at least three people off hand I would never recommend this movie to. It is still a great piece of film-making and should be seen by anyone who is ready to shut off their critical thinking and embrace what it feels like to go through every emotion of failure, loss, and discovery that we’re capable of.

Serenity: You can’t take the sky from me…

16 Oct


So I haven’t made many updates due to a little distraction. Actually, not too little. We’re talking about a big damn movie that should never have gotten made, but bucking the law of averages, there it was; larger than life and twice as amazing. I am, of course, talking about “Serenity,” the Firefly movie.

First, some backstory: When I served my purgatory that was Best Buy, I met a man named Lawrence, a self-professed “Whedonite.” What the hell’s a “Whedonite”? They’re someone who loves writer/director/television-show-creator Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Now, Lawrence was also preaching about some new show that had just been released on DVD called “Firefly” and how it was sad that it’d gotten pulled from the air. I looked at the box and read the back, but saw nothing that really struck me as truly amazing or ground-breaking. At this point, I wasn’t even a fan of the man. Lawrence made me a deal, though. Since he was waiting on a paycheck and couldn’t by the set, he told me to buy it. If I didn’t like it, he’d buy it back at the standard retail price and I’d make about fifteen dollars on the whole deal. “What if I want to keep it?” I asked. He smiled, “Then I win.” Suffice it to say, I still own a rather worn and loved “Firefly” DVD set that has since been loaned out multiple times over the last two years. During those two years, I was a cult leader akin to Charles Manson, enlisting disciple after disciple in the religion of “Firefly” until every one of my close friends all owned copies of the series and we all waited patiently for the rumor to come true: There was going to be a “Firefly” movie.

Whedon put a part of himself into creating this show and when it was canceled, he was beyond scarred. The thing is, it’s hard to keep a good idea or a good idea man down and through a little bit of fan support in pushing the DVD numbers through the roof and a rival studio of the company that produced the series looking for a new property, Whedon got his greenlight. This became “Serenity.”


“Serenity” follows the cast of “Firefly,” Captain Malcolm Reynolds, his first mate Zoe, their pilot Wash, engineer Kaylee, and mercenary muscle Jayne as they protect a young doctor, Simon, and his psychic, River. Set in the far future, where civilization has grown so advanced that the lower-castes actually resemble the old west, the crew of the transport, Serenity, scour the system for jobs, legal or otherwise. When they offer to protect the young Simon and River from the allied government who are chasing them for unknown reasons, they bring on a world of hurt for very little profit, but a cause worth fighting for.

The message of “Serenity” is not one of action and adventure. It’s one of belief and what you’re willing to do fight for what you believe in. The Alliance has sent an Operative to kill River and whoever stands in his way. This Operative believes in the dream of a perfect world promised by the Alliance. Throughout the film, every character is forced to face their own beliefs, most of all the Captain. Malcolm lost his faith in God during a vicious war that his side ultimately lost. Since then, he’s been a hard man of very confused principles, silently searching for something, anything, to believe in and fight for. To him, without him actually knowing it, defending River from the hands of the Alliance IS that belief that he’s been missing. The moment in the film when he’s forced to face it… “I am to misbehave.” There are moments in movies where someone can feel the room actually shake with the realization that a character is actually going to do whatever it takes to fight for what they think is right. That scene is one of them.

Now, I’m a fan of the show. That is beyond obvious. I loved “Firefly” and was so passionate that I enthralled others to be just as in love as I was. The thing is that I actually brought other people to this movie, non-fans, who had never seen the show nor were total sci-fi fans. Indie movie lovers, action movie junkies, and people just out to see something different. They all loved it. Once again, my DVD box set is making its rounds with a whole new group of people.

“Serenity” is a film built on winning dialogue, fun characters, great action, and a pre-battle speech that we can sum up the movie in one monologue: “Y’all got on this boat for different reasons, but y’all comin’to the same place. So now I’m asking more of you than I have before. Maybe everything. Sure as I know anything, I know this: In a year or maybe ten, perhaps even on this very ground, they’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people better; and I don’t hold to that. I aim to misbehave.”

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