Their Best Role: Michael Caine
Filed under: Action, Drama, Fandom, Best/Worst, Stars in Rewind, Their Best Role
When I decided to do a Their Best Role piece on Sir Michael Caine, I knew that choosing one character would be difficult. Caine's body of work is rich, diverse, and filled with classic parts -- many of which could very well be his best performance. Even then, I underestimated how many options there would be. Looking at a list of Caine's credits and trying to pick one that defines him above all others is a daunting task. The thespian won a Supporting Actor Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules. He was nominated for Best Actor after appearing in Alfie, Sleuth, Educating Rita, and The Quiet American. You can't argue against any of those performances -- each of them is memorable and demonstrates why we revere Caine's work. But, while those performances are great, I think a performance that Caine didn't get an Oscar nomination for stands as his best: his portrayal of Jack Carter in the 1971 British gangster film Get Carter.
If you've never seen Get Carter, you're missing out. It's a mean little film about a gangster (Caine) trying to unravel the events surrounding his brother's unexpected death. It's one of those classic examples of 70's crime cinema that proves "They don't make them like they used to." It's drawn comparisons to Lee Marvin's Point Blank and is often cited as the inspiration for the new wave of British gangster films from directors like Guy Ritchie. Its story of a professional killer seeking to vengeance and retribution at any cost isn't particularly profound -- but the direction of Mike Hodges and an absolutely mesmerizing performance from Caine move Get Carter beyond its pulpy origins and place it amongst the best British films of the era.
Jet Li's Back ... But What About The Wushu?
Filed under: Action, Foreign Language, Newsstand
In 2006, martial artist Jet Li announced that Fearless would be his "last wushu film." This led to a flurry of speculation and demands for clarification. Would he no longer act in films or just period films? Would he no longer perform the wushu kung fu that made him famous? And just what exactly is wushu anyway?
Well here's what I, a poor ignorant Caucasian, (think I) know: wushu is a form of martial arts that comprises various different fighting styles and techniques that Li employs throughout his movies. In Fearless, his character practices and trains other to fight in that style as well as how to treat wushu as a way of life.
Those questions about Li's dedication to making more "wushu films" have resurfaced again now that director Tsui Hark is talking with him about starring in a remake of the famous and ultra-popular martial arts period epic Dragon Inn. And according to the Playlist, that remake will be in 3D and is slated to start shooting in September.
Is Jodie Foster's Directorial Career Cursed?
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Focus Features, Movie Marketing
Jodie Foster's acting career has been steady and strong since she began her career as a child, but her attempts at directing and producing seem to be thwarted at every turn. She can push our buttons with a glance, whether as Iris the 12-year-old prostitute in Taxi Driver, Sarah the gang rape survivor who challenges the "she asked for it" defense in The Accused, or, of course, the seemingly unshakable Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. However, things have been a bit quiet on the Foster front lately. The Brave One, a revenge thriller that she starred in and executive produced, didn't wow audiences or critics, and neither did the family friendly 2008 film she co-starred in, Nim's Island. 1991's Little Man Tate, which she also starred in, was a promising directorial debut, and Home for the Holidays was fair to middling, but since then she hasn't stepped behind the camera. As she told Entertainment Weekly in 2007, another movie she was set to direct, Sugarland starring Robert De Niro, "just fell apart again... That's the story in Hollywood. You make personal movies and they're really hard to get off the ground. S--- happens." Another passion project of hers, Flora Plum, was being shopped around to international distributors as early as 2000 by Good Machine, the company now known as Focus Features.
Movie Club Watch: Space Westerns, Dog Soldiers, and Classic Cops
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Cinematical Movie Club
The movie clubs traverse the cinematic worlds of space, Scotland, and San Francisco for this week's picks:Over at SciFi Squad, Brian Salisbury checked out Peter Hyams' Outland starring Sean Connery and Peter Boyle. Commenting on the connections to the western genre, he writes: "I actually find it more apt to categorize Outland as a crime drama in space which, to me, is almost more interesting if only because it is more rare. The film follows Sean as he works to solve the mystery of why so many miners are suddenly finding it pertinent to off themselves in fantastically nasty ways."
Mike Moody, meanwhile, dug into the world of Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers for Horror Squad. "Dog Soldiers is essentially a B movie with a set-up we've seen a million times before: Good guys must survive the night as the scary monsters try to murder them dead. Still, it feels unique and substantial, mostly because of its characters and Marshall's tight shooting and editing style."
Finally, I dug into the danger of Dirty Harry right here at Cinematical and wrote: "for the most part Dirty Harry is an entirely different cinematic beast. Here's a film that does get funky with its soundtrack, and offers up one of the most iconic cinematic quotes of all time, but is measured and patient in a way that modern action movies are too scared to be."
Check in at the end of the week for the next round of picks, and take a peek at John Sayles' excellent and discussion-worthy Limbo for the first discussion this Friday night.
Woman Claims 'Death at a Funeral' Ripped Off Her Real-Life Funeral Nonsense
Filed under: Sony, Celebrities and Controversy, Remakes and Sequels
Lawsuits claiming such and such film stole so and so nobody's idea are a dime a dozen. But here's one that's more interesting than usual: unknown author Pamella Lawrence is suing Sony, Chris Rock, Frank Oz, Neil Labute, "White male" screenwriter Dean Craig and many others for stealing her ideas and turning them into Death at a Funeral. Both the UK original and the recent African-American-heavy remake. Specifically, they allegedly ripped off her 1995 book Caught on Video ... The Most Embarrassing Moment de Funeral, July 11, 1994, Jamaican Volume 1, as well as the actual embarrassing video the book is based upon, and also included inside jokes, such as one involving KFC's recipe, directly targeted at her. Additionally, Lawrence is calling the act racist and sexist, arguing that she pitched a film adaptation to Columbia TriStar (a division of Sony) in 1998 but was sent on her way because she's a woman from the inner city. And then they went ahead and ripped her off instead of working with her. She later sued the studio and the case was settled out of court (which she believes is referenced through the KFC joke). Now that two films have been released, she's back for more -- $20 million, to be exact. Not just for copyright infringement, but also for "breach of contract," "fraud" and "theft."
See What Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman Would've Looked Like
Filed under: Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Images
The discussion of Wonder Woman's new look rages on (even here on Cinematical). To add a little fuel to the fire, now there's some intriguing new concept art from Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman That Never Was. Costume designer Shawna Tripcic tweeted her costume sketches that she had done for Whedon's Princess Diana and surprise surprise, she's wearing pants.
Too bad Trpcic couldn't weigh in on the comic version's new look. I think this is actually much better than what Diana is currently sporting. All of her iconic gear is visible, it's streamlined, and the pants don't look like they came out of 1990. Sure, I could do without the crop top -- vital organs are contained there, Wonder Woman knows you need armor covering those bits -- and the duster coat is too reminiscent of the Matrix. But she gets to keep her boots. You need comfy boots to fight in --everyone knows that.
Again, it's not too surprising that any eventual movie is going to radically alter Wonder Woman's costume. Few actresses are going to want to wear her glorified swimsuit. But if they do put Wonder Woman in pants, I hope they go back to Tripcic's ideas and give her something that's a little more kick ass and contemporary. Just make sure she covers up her midriff, please.
What do you think of Whedon's Wonder Woman?
[via Geek Tyrant]
Review: I Am Love
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, New in Theaters
In the midst of summer's bombastic, grandiose landscape, there's a film that makes up in melodrama for its lack of star wattage and special effects: I Am Love. The Italian-language film, directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring his friend and longtime collaborator Tilda Swinton, is a lush, intoxicating tale that features no grander adventure than a carefully-worded corporate merger, and at one point, a retreat to a remote Italian village for some afternoon delight, and yet, it's more engaging and more powerful than the vast majority of its competition.
A glorious epic that feels a little bit like Luchino Visconti's The Leopard by way of Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, I Am Love is a truly great film that offers substance at the heart of the season's spectacle.
Swinton plays Emma, the immaculately put-together matriarch of one generation of the Recchi clan. Poached from her native Russia as a teenager and plopped into a marriage of affluence if not much affection, she devoutly attends to the needs of her family without complaint, and celebrates its success even on the eve of her father-in-law Edoardo's (Gabriele Ferzetti) retirement.
'Vampires Suck' Trailer Goes For Twilight's Jugular
Filed under: Trailers and Clips
This was bound to happen eventually; Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the guys behind Scary Movie, Date Movie, Epic Movie and Disaster Movie are about to tackle another Hollywood craze: vampires. Vampires Suck stars newcomer Jenn Proske as a girl name Becca and -- guess what -- she finds herself torn between two boys, a brooding vampire and a were – er, Chihuahua. Before she can even choose between the two, she's got to deal with her overprotective father, the Jersey Shore cast and Lady Gaga.Just because these spoofs have a low price tag and generate a decent profit doesn't give Fox the right to keep dumping them on us. When's the last time you've seen a quality parody film? The only two I can think of that I'd willingly sit through again are Scary Movie and Not Another Teen Movie, but it's been nearly a decade since those two hit theaters and since then we've been subjected to spoof upon spoof that merely regurgitate material we've already seen via bad acting and, um, we're expected to laugh?
The idea of a film poking fun at The Twilight Saga actually sounds promising, especially because it's due to hit theaters on August 18th, right in the midst of the craze, but after watching the film's brand new trailer, it's impossible not to connect it to the atrocities Friedberg and Seltzer have sent our way. I can't lie, I did smirk at a few of the gags, but the only really encouraging element here is the involvement of Ken Jeong. The guy can't be desperate for work, so there's got to be something good about Vampires Suck, right? Or do you think it just plain sucks?
Check out the trailer for yourself after the jump.
The Basics: 'Rumble Fish'
Drew McWeeny of HitFix is contributing a series of columns about the essential titles that any film fan ought to be familiar with, while I respond in kind. Links to your own blog posts on any of these films -- The Basics -- are not only welcomed, but encouraged.
You know, I didn't peg Drew for a David Arquette fan.
He had mentioned wanting to take our column in a new direction, away from your usual list-making classics, but I didn't want to seem rude by pointing out that 2000's Ready to Rumble wasn't exactly some hidden gem critical to my deeper understanding of Brian Robbins' filmography (Norbit, Wild Hogs).
Of course, by the time I saw his piece on Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish, I had realized my error and okay, this joke's run its course.
Help Contribute to Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald's 'Life in a Day'
Filed under: Documentary, Sundance, DIY/Filmmaking, Cinematical Indie
Want to take part in a film directed by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and produced by Ridley Scott? Just make sure you document what you and/or others are doing on July 24, 2010, something that especially represents life in your area on that day in this year. Also, apparently you should show what you fear, what you love and what's in your pockets. Then upload the footage to YouTube (details are here). If it is deemed worthy and fits the project's rules (you must be at least 13; you must live in any but the six usually prohibited nations; you must follow YouTube's usual guidelines), Macdonald may select it to be included in the user-generated documentary Life in a Day, which will simultaneously premiere at Sundance and on YouTube in January. One important thing, though: if you do want to contribute don't do so just to be a part of a "historic cinematic experiment." While this is being sold as "the first user-generated feature-length documentary shot in one day," that title has already been achieved by at least one film, Jeff Deutchman's 11/4/08, which compiles footage shot by filmmakers from around the world on that titular day in which Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. I'm not sure why Scott and Macdonald selected 7/24/10 as their special day, but it certainly won't be as significant. Sure, it will be a time capsule, though so many other films are as well. I also don't imagine it will be a continuing interactive collaboration like Deutchman's project is.
'Vampires Suck' Trailer Goes For Twilight's Jugular
One Man. Five Years. Countless Reviews. All Plagiarized.
Wait, Now Rob Lowe Wants to Buy Miramax?
Wait, Cell Phone Use Encouraged During 'Despicable Me'?
Just One Thing in Defense of 'The Last Airbender'
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