New Podcast: Insidious: Chapter 2
Insidious Chapter 2 scared more than audiences, it scared up a huge box office return showing that audiences are still hungry for spooky scares and ghost movies! Picking up mere seconds after the first film ended, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell answered all the lingering questions and finally revealed the fate of the Lambert family. Were the reveals satisfying, and what may be in store for Insidious Part 3? Listen to Stuart, Marjorie, and Arnie’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPINSID02.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Psycho by Robert Bloch
Psycho. The word evokes common images, all black and white from the classic Alfred Hitchcock film. The film is such an acclaimed success that for many it obscures the fact that before Norman Bates was on the big screen he was first on the page, in Robert Bloch’s original novel Psycho. Now Stuart, Arnie, and Brock are reviewing all the Psycho movies as part of Now Playing’s limited-availability Fall 2013 Gold Donation Series, but here, unlimited, you can hear Stuart’s thoughts on the original book! Take a listen, then go to Now Playing Podcast before October 31, 2013 to hear the thoughts on the film!
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN068-PSYCHO.MP3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Insidious
James Wan’s first film, Saw, redefined horror for the 2000s. By 2011 the Saw films had run their course, and audiences turned their attention to more ghostly horror in the form of the Paranormal Activity series. So is it any wonder that when the writer and director behind Saw teamed up with the Paranormal Activity studio a new horror franchise? With Insidious 2 taking top spot at the US box office last weekend, the Now Playing crew go back to watch and review the original. Does this film scare the hosts? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPINSID01.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Review: Lou Ferrigno – Liberator Issue 1
Lou Ferrigno has come full circle. He achieved international fame playing TV’s Incredible Hulk, based on the green, raging Marvel Comics character. Now there is a comic based on a character Ferrigno played on screen–Lou Ferrigno: Liberator. It is a 2-shot comic, of which I have read part 1.
Now, full confession, I had never heard of Liberator, the short film on which this Bluewater Comics title is based. I received a solicit from Bluewater requesting we review the title, and was provided this first issue.
From the title, with Ferrigno’s name prominent and his face drawn on the cover, I expected an End of the World type story telling of a “real world” Ferrigno becoming a superhero. The rock band Kiss had such stories told, as did Mr. T and pro wrestler The Undertaker. So I was surprised to see that despite his name in the title Ferrigno is neither a character in this book, nor credited as part of the comic’s creative team.
Research then led me to realize that this comic is an adaptation of an 18-minute film starring Ferrigno, Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson, and Star Trek’s Michael Dorn. Both the film and comic focus on Ed Migliocetti (Ferrigno), pro footballer-cum soldier-cum superhero named Liberator. A decade earlier Ed was assigned to kill someone, but rather than be a whistle-blower he took a fall that landed him in prison. separating him from his wife and daughter. Now Ed wants redemption and is writing a tell-all book. Of course, shadowy figures don’t want the truth coming out, and the first issue ends on a cliffhanger.
This comic is a very short read. With more of an emphasis on art rather than dialogue, the book feels very anemic for a first issue. It is an introduction issue and little more, with the characters and movie events recapped for those who have not seen the film. While the story has a good hook, there is nothing in this first issue to make me crave Issue 2.
But the research did take me to YouTube where I saw a trailer and a clip for the film Liberator and despite the cast being a list of comic-con autograph hall staples, the production values have me very interested. Unfortunately there is no online or video release of Liberator, the film. It is currently touring.
The film looks really good, but the comic only works for me as a teaser for the film itself. It’s a pretty book, but the story is average. So I will give it a pretty average rating of 2.5 stars.
New Podcast: Riddick
Riddick is a hard man to kill, but Universal Studios and the poor reception of Chronicles of Riddick almost did the job. Through the tenacity of writer/director David Twohy and star/producer Vin Diesel the antihero was able to again overcome the odds and return to the big screen. With a story that comes off more as Pitch Black: Part 2 than a follow-up to Chronicles of Riddick, does the back-to-basics approach work? Listen to Arnie, Jakob, and Brock’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPRIDDICK03.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: The Chronicles of Riddick
In Pitch Black Riddick was part of a small group of humans who had to survive one long night. Now Riddick is a warrior going to battle against a Necromonger army to save all of civilization! It’s quite a turn for the former convict, and for the film series as it expands in scope with this sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick. Is this change of concept a welcome enlarging of Riddick’s universe? Listen to Jakob, Arnie, and Brock’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPRIDDICK02.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Pitch Black
A group of space travelers crash land on a deserted planet populated with carnivorous alien monsters. But perhaps even more dangerous to the survivors is Richard B. Riddick – an escaped convict with a high body count in his history. Riddick was actor Vin Diesel’s star-making role, but does Pitch Black stand up to the Now Playing reviewers’ spotlight? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPRIDDICK01.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Kick-Ass 2
At the end of the first Kick-Ass film Red Mist plotted his revenge while Kick-Ass enjoyed high school with girlfriend Katie and Hit Girl, orphaned with the death of Big Daddy, had to adjust to normal high school life under the watch of new guardian Marcus. It was an ending that begged a sequel, and now it has one! With a city full of costumed heroes, including Jim Carey joining the cast as new hero Col. Stars and Stripes, can Kick-Ass still kick ass? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPMM04.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: The Wolverine
Wolverine cannot be killed, and it seems neither can his film franchise. Despite tepid fan response to X-Men Origins: Wolverine a second solo film featuring Hugh Jackman was quickly put into production. With creative changes behind-the-scenes and a change to make The Wolverine a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand, it was released with the promise of being “The Wolverine film you’ve been waiting for.” Does it live up to that hype? Listen to Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart’s latest X-Men movie review to find out as we bide our time until 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPXMEN07.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: RED 2
Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, and all their surviving operatives get a sequel in their sixties with RED 2. Do newcomers Anthony Hopkins and Catherine-Zeta Jones inject fresh blood into this franchise, or has the joke gotten too old even for this crew? Listen and find out.
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHIT06.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: RED
80s action star Bruce Willis may have gotten older, but he’s still considered RED – retired and extremely dangerous. Do Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie have a laugh watching senior citizens strap on pistols to blow holes in the CIA’s rep, or is this AARP action-comedy D.O.A.? Listen and find out.
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHIT05.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: Kate & Leopold
This was released on Christmas Day…I’d have preferred the lump of coal.
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| Kate & Leopold | |
| Starring | Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Breckin Meyer, Natasha Lyonne |
| Director: | James Mangold |
| Writer: | James Mangold, Steven Rogers |
| Studio: | Miramax Films |
| Release Date: | December 25, 2001 |
Today The Wolverine opens in US theaters. Excited for this next film in the X-Men saga I watched Kate & Leopold, a 2001 romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman.
No, I wasn’t just going to watch any Jackman film; Kate & Leopold is directed by James Mangold, and based off their working relationship in this film Jackman tapped Mangold to direct The Wolverine when first choice Darren Aronofsky dropped out. Jackman has said in interviews this decision was based largely off their relationship founded during Kate & Leopold.
While Mangold has done many other respected films, including award-winning Walk the Line, Girl, Interrupted and 3:10 to Yuma, plus the Tom Cruise action/comedy Knight and Day, I wanted to see this Jackman-Mangold time-travel rom-com collaboration to set my expectations for The Wolverine. Would I see something in Kate & Leopold, a spark of creativity, a visual flare, that would show Mangold a good fit for a high-octane comic book film? Would Jackman’s performance be one no other director had been able to get from the actor? Would I see anything in this film to indicate through style or sensibility that Mangold was the man to give fans, as the TV ads state, “the Wolverine film you’ve been waiting for”?
Having now seen Kate & Leopold I certainly hope not.
Jackman stars as Leopold, a 19th century Duke and future inventor of the elevator (which, the credits admit, is not historically accurate). With his family fortune dwindling Leopold is forced to take a wealthy wife, though Leopold has never loved anyone. But at the party where his engagement will be announced Leopold spots Stuart (Liev Screiber)–a strange, shifty man carrying a miniature camera.
Stuart is actually Leopold’s great-great-grandson from present day New York City. Through the laziest time travel explanation ever (he just jumped off a bridge), Stuart came back in time to see his ancestor. But Leopold gives chase and both he and Stuart arrive in 21st Century Manhattan. There, Leopold meets Stuart’s ex-girlfriend Kate (Ryan), a cynical, bitter, career-minded woman, working in market research. Eventually Kate’s resistance melts and she falls in love with the Duke, but Leopold must return to his own time lest a paradox remove all elevators from modern life.
From the trailers and description, I expected Kate & Leopold to be a version of Back to the Future. Jackman plays a man unfamiliar with modern technology and customs, so the obvious plot would be that his focus is to return home while also falling in love. Plus the ancient-man-in-modern-times concept has many opportunities for hilarity, as seen in Jean Renot’s The Visitors.
But under Mangold’s direction Kate & Leopold eschew most all attempts at comedy or realism. The film is a banal romantic fantasy tailored for aging, lonely women. As Leopold, Jackman is polite, charming, and handsome. More, his every attention is given only to Kate–he has no job, no friends, nothing else to occupy his time; Kate is the center of his world. He makes her breakfast in the morning, does her dishes in the evening, and stands up when a lady leaves the table. Leopold doesn’t even seem to want to return to his own time, he’s happy to just stay in the future, living in Stuart’s apartment and romancing Kate.
In Ryan’s introductory scene she is doing market research on a rote rom-com which isn’t working. The researchers think the female lead is unlikeable, and the film’s director exclaims that marketers are sucking the soul from the art of film. That is certainly true of Kate & Leopold. The entire film is so obvious it is set to play to a test audience of the least sophisticated of Americans. An audience with expectations set so low as to simply find comfort in the familiar.
And a romantic comedy with Meg Ryan as the female lead is nothing if not familiar. Here, in the waning years of her popularity, her face taut and lips inflated by the work of a plastic surgeon, Ryan is breaking no new ground. Her character Kate observes a neighbor who plays the soundtrack for Breakfast at Tiffany’s every night, and the same can be said for much of Ryan’s career, stuck in an endless loop of interchangeable roles as a romantic lead. Certainly she does nothing here to broaden the range of her characters.
I am a fan of escapist fantasy, but Kate & Leopold is too obvious in its pandering, and painful to watch in that it ignores its own ironies. Kate broke up with Stuart because he was an unemployed dreamer, yet she falls in love with his ancestor who is just a more romantic version of that same persona. More, as Kate eventually travels back in time to marry Leopold, the film glosses over the icky fact that for four years Kate was sleeping with Stuart, her great-great-grandson!
The film does have several chase scenes, such as Leopold running down a mugger in Central Park and Kate having to rush to travel back in time before the portal closes. Under Mangold’s direction these scenes have no spark to them. They feel obligatory, not exciting. Kate and Leopold stole the plot from Back to the Future’s climax, but got none of its excitement.
This film is not recommended for any but the loneliest of spinsters who want to dream of finding love before their lady parts dry up.
And Kate and Leopold has given me a feeling of trepidation as I prepare to see The Wolverine. There is no doubt Jackman made friends while hanging out on sets leftover from Gangs of New York–Schreiber would play his “brother” Sabertooth in the first Wolverine film; Mangold would direct the second. But in a film this unoriginal I see nothing that makes me think Mangold is a fit for The Wolverine.
But we will find out! You can hear Now Playing’s review of The Wolverine on August 13th at NowPlayingPodcast.com
New Podcast: The Losers
Comic book vets Chris Evans and Idris Elba have joined THE LOSERS – a ragtag band of mercenaries out to punish CIA baddie Jason Patric for a failed Bolivian mission. Should Avatar babe Zoe Saldana trust these C-stringers to get the job done, or should she just call the A-Team? Listen and find out.
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHIT04.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Pacific Rim
What is a Pacific Rim? It’s a movie pitting giant robots against giant monsters! Transformers versus Godzilla; the Cloverfield monster versus Robot Jox. The concept is not high art. But behind the lens is visionary director Guillermo del Toro, who has crafted fantastical worlds in many of his films including Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth. So listen to Jerry, Stuart, and Arnie’s review to find out if this film packs a mean punch!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPP039.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Film Fans of All Types Can Enjoy Days of the Dead
Nightmare on Elm Street star Wilcox poses with the man of her dreams. (Photo by Jeff Flynn)
To someone who’s never been to a horror convention the thought could be as frightening as the blood-soaked splatter fests that appear on screen. One could imagine pale, pierced social misfits and psychopaths standing in line to meet their favorite serial killer. Many may feel if they aren’t into the gory or the grotesque then a horror convention is not for them.
That impression is totally false as shown last weekend at the Days of the Dead horror convention in Indianapolis. Of course it was a blast for those into fright films, but it also had entertainment to offer any movie lover!
One of the big draws of the convention were the large number of celebrity guests in attendance. The stereotype of a celebrity on the autograph circuit is an actor with his career on the decline, clinging to former fame. Days of the Dead proved that image wrong by bringing in several A-list celebrities promoting current films. Some of the headlining guests have big movies out soon included Danny Trejo (Machete Kills in October), Keith David (recently in Cloud Atlas and a dozen more films in production), and Academy Award Nominee Gary Busey (Behaving Badly due out this year). This is an amazing roster for a con only in its third year, besting some of the other national companies who host conventions in the Midwest.
Access to the celebrities was incredibly easy. At many conventions fans have to wait in line for four hours or more to meet their idols. At Days of the Dead my wait time to see Trejo was 10 minutes, and only 15 minutes for Busey.
More, the prices were very reasonable. At conventions such as Dragon*Con or San Diego Comic-Con I’ve paid over $100 for signatures from actors who have not worked in several decades. At Days of the Dead the majority of autographs were $20 and headliners Busey and Trejo were just $40. Trejo would take a picture free with an autograph, while Busey charged only $10 additional for a photo; at some conventions photo opportunities start at $20 and can be as high as $150.
While all of the celebrities have horror films on their resumes, Trejo would sign a copy of the comedy Bubble Boy as rapidly as the vampire film From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, and Busey had available photographs of his roles in Lethal Weapon and Point Break. I did not see anyone asking Keith David to sign their copy of Requiem for a Dream but I doubt he’d have declined.
All the guests were not just polite but completely engaged with the fans, having short conversations and truly making the con attendee feel appreciated. This is far better than the assembly-line like atmosphere found by some guests at Wizard World or New York Comic Con. In fact, the longest line to see a celebrity seemed to be A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 star Lisa Wilcox who would spend up to 5 minutes talking with her fans while signing their items. (Unfortunately for Wilcox one of those fans I observed was a socially awkward male in his twenties regaling her with a story about a specially lit photo he had of Wilcox in his bedroom…so while some of the stereotypes were present at the con most of the attendees were overwhelmingly normal).
Even the guests whose primary work was in horror had non-horror items available. For example, Wilcox is best known for starring in A Nightmare on Elm Street but the actress also had available a wide selection of photos from her single-episode guest-starring role in Star Trek: The Next Generation. As she rarely appears in the Midwest, Wilcox was a draw for Trekkers and horror fans alike. Original Nightmare on Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp also had a minor role in this summer’s Star Trek: Into Darkness.
Of course, the horror fan had much to celebrate. Icons of the genre including Tony Todd (Final Destination, Candyman, Wishmaster), Derek Mears (the Friday the 13th reboot, 2007’s The Hills Have Eyes II), Tyler Mane (Michael Myers in both Rob Zombie’s Halloween films), Leslie Easterbrook (Zombie’s Halloween and The Devil’s Rejects), several stars of Cabin Fever, and over a dozen more horror film character actors were also there.
The vendor areas of the convention were a shopper’s delight. While the non-horror fan would find less that appeals to them in the vendor booths, there were plenty of superhero toys and Star Wars collectibles to choose from. I bought an original painting based on the Howard the Duck movie!
Many booths catered to all children of the 80’s, including Don’t Eat the Gum – a company that sells trading cards from the 1980s and 1990s (and my wife should have listened to the company name as she almost broke her tooth on a stick of gum from Howard the Duck trading cards…the gum was made in 1986). Also there was Adjust Your Tracking selling movies on VHS that were never officially available on DVD.
Of course, being a horror convention, slasher-film fans could buy items not found anywhere else. Many booths offered DVDs of horror movies, including bootlegs of some incredibly rare films like Fright Night 2 and Silent Night, Deadly Night: Initiation.
“They’re coming to get you, Leia!” – a custom zombie stormtrooper by vendor Curious Goods
There were also custom T-Shirts, paintings, and other original expressions of creative horror. At one booth Curious Goods offered custom action figures, including Rob Zombie, and Deathtroopers–Star Wars Stormtroopers turned zombies.
The exhibit floor was split into two small ballrooms, a sign that Days of the Dead is quickly outgrowing the space offered by the Wyndham Indianapolis West hotel. Having Days of the Dead split among several walled-off areas did make the convention feel smaller than it was. While it were ever too crowded, as is often found at larger conventions, the lines often crossed and merged, making celebrity areas hard to navigate. This is likely the product of becoming incredibly popular in only three years, and something I’m sure will be corrected at future conventions.
Overall Days of the Dead Indianapolis was an incredible experience, and I will certainly be attending their Chicago convention this November. While the only guests announced thus far are stars of the Return of the Living Dead and The Blair Witch Project it’s sure to be fun!
When not attending conventions across the globe Arnie can be found hosting the movie review podcast Now Playing, which has reviewed hundreds of movies of all genres, as well as the toy collecting podcasts Star Wars Action News and Marvelicious Toys. He also reviews books on the Books & Nachos podcast.
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- The author poses with Machete and Desperado star Danny Trejo
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- Nightmare on Elm Street star Wilcox poses with the man of her dreams. (Photo by Jeff Flynn)
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- “They’re coming to get you, Leia!” – a custom zombie stormtrooper by vendor Curious Goods
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- Point Break and Celebrity Apprentice star Busey poses with an adoring fan
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- Gnomes protect your flowers…by eating the babies that crawl by! Another gory custom from Curious Goods.
New Podcast: V For Vendetta
Has sweet little Natalie Portman been palling around with terrorists? A masked swashbuckler known only as V For Vendetta hopes she’ll help him rescue future London from dictators, but has Wachowski script tinkering disfigured this classic Alan Moore comic book as well? Listen and find out.
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHIT03.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: Despicable Me
Despicable Me is not a Pixar film. It is not Toy Story where adults and children alike can be swept away into a colorful computer-animated world, both generations equally entertained by the multi-layered storytelling.
Despicable Me is also not a DreamWorks Animation film. It is not Shrek where kids laugh at the toilet humor while adults are mildly entertained by the endless barrage of modern pop-culture references.
No, Despicable Me is the first film from Illumination Entertainment, Universal Studios’ attempt to cash in on the computer-animated film market. This studio also released the forgettable Hop and The Lorax (do you even recall either in theaters? I remember The Lorax more from the “turn off your cell phone” ads than the film itself).
Like Illumination’s other two titles, Despicable Me focuses its energy entirely on the youngest segment of the audience. Adults, and even older children, will be familiar with the tropes of the story in which a super villain named Gru adopts three lovable little girls to use as pawns in the crime of the century. Nevertheless, while entertaining the children with bedtime stories and trips to amusement parks Gru finds his nefarious plot mattering less and less while these children become more and more important. The climax of the film is will Gru steal the moon, or will he give up that lifelong dream and attend the children’s Swan Lake ballet.
Gru’s crimes are so soft-core that never is a person hurt, his primary crimes seem to be using a freeze ray to cut in line at the coffee shop while driving an obnoxiously large vehicle. He is more a comment on Hummer-driving, Starbucks swilling suburbanites than criminals.
Given this, I found myself relating very much to Gru in a scene where he is forced to read the three children a bedtime story. “This is literature?” Gru exclaims in disgust, “A two year old could have written this!” Indeed, Gru could be speaking about his own film.
More, an A-list voice cast is wasted. Every role feels written for a different, less famous actor. In the lead role of Gru is Steve Carell. Gru does not speak in the oddly-inflected stammer that is Carell’s trademark in films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Anchorman, and Dinner for Schmucks. Instead, Carell adopts his worst brogue accent. In voice and in inflection he comes across as a poor man’s Mike Myers. Jason Segel is unrecognizable voicing Gru’s nemesis Vector–twisting his windpipes into a lame Andy Dick impersonation. Even astute audience members will only be able to discern Russell Brand as he voices the one character with an English accent, his voice affected (or digitally altered) to the point of sounding like any generic Cockney.
But despite breaking no ground in storytelling, Despicable Me is not without its charm. While the primary plot and the characters of Gru and the children are all adequate, the film’s spark of originality come from Gru’s minions–a drove of mostly indistinguishable short, yellow creatures that aid Gru in his plots. They speak in unintelligible babble, but their giant eyes, wide smiles, and good nature light up the screen (sometimes literally). They engage in wacky slapstick, dressing up in human clothes to go shopping, and engaging in Gru’s wild experiments. It is physical, silent comedy in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Their jokes come in a rat-a-tat manner while also including wonderful callbacks. The creatures also have a blind adoration of their master, which makes them lovable like pets. I was far more satisfied at the end of the film by the minions finding their place in Gru’s heart than the three generic children.
It is no wonder that the ads for Despicable Me 2 focus so much on the Minions while the three little girls are nowhere to be seen.
For all its hackneyed, recycled plot devices, Despicable Me is far from despicable. Young children ignorant of common story tropes will undoubtedly be entertained. Adults will find enough here to pass the time, if not hold their full interest. I give this film a mild recommend for adults, and while I will be skipping Despicable Me 2 I anxiously look forward to next year’s Minions film.
When not gushing over the cuteness of Minion bobble-heads Arnie is co-host of the movie review podcast Now Playing.
New Podcast: A History of Violence
Viggo Mortensen looks like an unassuming small town diner owner, but to a crew of Philly hoods he’s a thug with A History of Violence. Does director David Cronenberg split opinion in his radical reworking of the graphic novel? Listen and find out.
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHIT02.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Road to Perdition
Tom Hanks is a cold blooded killer heading down the Road to Perdition, hoping to deliver his son from Irish mobsters he once considered family. Has director Sam Mendes made a comic book Godfather, or is this an offer that Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie easily refuse. Listen and find out.
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHIT01.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: World War Z by Max Brooks
This week the movie World War Z arrives in theaters starring Brad Pitt as an investigator traveling the world during a massive zombie outbreak. The film shares the title with the best selling book by Max Brooks, but fans of the book claim the movie has little resemblance to their beloved story. The movie will be reviewed at Now Playing Podcast but first Stuart has read and now reviews the source material!
After you listen to his review, head to NowPlayingPodcast.com and find out how to hear their World War Z movie review, only available until June 30, 2013!
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN067-WWZ.MP3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Man of Steel
With Christopher Nolan’s Batman films Warner Bros. set the gold standard for superhero films. The Dark Knight was a box office hit, a fan favorite, and even won an Academy Award for acting. Yet the year after Batman Begins the other World’s Finest superhero, Superman, failed to take flight. So when Dark Knight writer David Goyer pitched a new, bold take on Superman Warner Bros. agreed. Watchmen director Zack Snyder was brought in to direct, and the result was Man of Steel. Its opening weekend broke records, but both critics and fans are sharply divided over the quality of the film. Now Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob bring their Superman retrospective series to a close with their review of Man of Steel. Can Man of Steel leap tall buildings in a single bound, or should it be stopped with a speeding bullet? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES09.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Superman Returns
SFor 20 years it seemed Nuclear Man and Lex Luthor really had killed Superman. Every attempt to bring the man of steel back to theaters had fallen through. While fellow DC superhero Batman had a major franchise launch, fail, and reboot, Superman seemed relegated to the small screen with Lois and Clark and Smallville. But director Bryan Singer was flying high after two successful X-Men films, and rather than return for X-Men he had Superman Returns. A continuation of the original two films, Superman Returns has the Kryptonian hero facing off again with nemesis Lex Luthor. Fans did not embrace Singer’s vision and planned sequels were scrapped in favor of a complete reboot — Man of Steel opening this week in theaters! But does Superman Returns deserve its bad reputation? Listen to Now Playing and find out! Then join us next week as we review the brand new Superman film Man of Steel!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES08.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Steel
Steel may not seem like a Superman movie, but in the 1990s it was as close as Warner Bros could muster. With Batman ushering in a new age of comic book movies there were many attempts to revive the red caped DC hero. Such names as JJ Abrams, Nicholas Cage, Kevin Smith, McG, and Tim Burton all worked on Superman projects, and all failed to come together. As unlikely as it seemed, the only man of steel we would see in theaters between 1987 and 2006 was Shaquille O’Neil in Steel. Based on a character born from the Death of Superman comic story, Steel is a disillusioned weapons maker who dons a high-tech suit to fight crime. The film was no slam dunk but does it deserve a second chance? Listen to Now Playing’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES07.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Richard Donner, Christopher Reeve, even Richard Lester and the Salkinds, all had declared they were done with Superman. After a disappointing Superman 3 and a disastrous Supergirl the franchise seemed more toxic than kryptonite and the rights were sold off to cheapo genre film company Cannon Films. But despite star Reeves’ earlier comments distancing himself from the character, Reeve again returned in exchange for both control over the story and a guarantee his pet project Street Smart would be made. The film ended up a notorious Nuclear Man sized bomb, but is it as bad as is thought? Listen to Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES06.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Star Trek Into Darkness
It’s been four years since J.J. Abrams beamed aboard as new commander of Star Trek promising fast-tracked movies and TV series. But none of that came to fruition and even before Star Trek Into Darkness would reach theaters news spread far and wide that Abrams was moving on to another franchise, Star Wars, leaving questions as to what involvement he’ll have with future Star Trek films and stealing some of Trek’s pre-release thunder. Finally Star Trek Into Darkness opened this weekend. Was it worth the wait? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPST12.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Punk Movie Review: SLC Punk
Dust of your steel toe boots and dye your mohawk blue, once a month I’ll be talking about a different punk movie here on the Gazette…
SLC Punk
Director: James Merendino
Writer: James Merendino
Starring: Matthew Lillard, Michael A. Goorjian, Jason Segel, Annabeth Gish, Til Schweiger, Christopher McDonald
Studio: Beyond Films, Blue Tulip Productions
Release Date: April 16, 1999
This month I move from the polluted streets of Los Angeles in Repo Man to the conservatively clean landscape of Salt Lake City in SLC Punk. The opening credits are framed as homage to classic punk album covers. It could be a foreboding omen that this film just isn’t for those who stick to Top 40 hits. Yet, instead of leaving the viewer alienated, the film is giddy with wanting to explain the punk aesthetic and show what it is so beloved by those who grasp to punk rock. While the film is overstuffed with exposition about the underground subculture, it twists its quirky adventures around a relatable plot about coming to terms with youthful ideology.
Blue-haired Stevo (Lillard) has graduated college despite his best intentions to only get a 4.0 GPA in damage. His father (McDonald) wants him to attend law school at Harvard, but Stevo is determined to waste his education by partying and living an anarchist lifestyle. However, as his friends begin to move away, go homeless, and die, Stevo wonders if his anarchist lifestyle is really the best choice.
The film is a course in Punk 101 that is humorous and entertaining. Stevo guides the uninitiated. He continually breaks the fourth wall while teaching about the idiosyncrasies of the punk lifestyle like a sociologist. He provides a slide show to explain the pecking order of rednecks, punks, mods, skinheads, and so on in the middle of a brawl. Even if one doesn’t understand the rivalry between the Sex Pistols and the Ramones when it comes to the origins of punk, Stevo explains it as he walks through a mall attacking those he deems poseurs. Lillard’s performance explodes with a contagious excitement that easily draws the viewer into the lifestyle.
The biggest missed opportunity with SLC Punk is, while providing plenty of cinematography of the city, it never convincingly declares much about Salt Lake City. The geography provides prime material to explore an anti-authoritarian culture clashing against a one with a heavy reverence for religious authority through the Mormons that settled the valley. While the characters make grandiose statements about the connection of Mormon occupation and oppression, there are no real demonstrations of the punks’ plight being caused by the religious makeup of the region. The only scene that feels specific to the geography is when Stevo and friends travel to Wyoming after explaining the strict liquor laws in Utah. Without that, this could have been passed off as Boise or Omaha Punk.
Many punks may not like Stevo’s final decision about where he stands with being marginalized by society. However, it is a crisis many who dawn mohawks wrestle with at some point. Can more be done on the outside of society or inside the system to produce change? SLC Punk provides a generalization of this struggle with manic energy grabs the viewer’s attention. While punks often want to keep their scene underground and hidden from the mainstream, SLC Punk delivers an accessible view without much compromise to the experience many punks share.
Recommend
New Podcast: Supergirl
With Christopher Reeve growing tired of wearing tights Warner Bros and the Salkinds attempted to recreate the magic with Supergirl. In her first starring role Helen Slater plays Superman’s cousin who has come to Earth to recover the power supply to her dying city. With a witch as Supergirl’s nemesis, does this film capture the excitement of Richard Donner’s original? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES05.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Iron Man 3
The Avengers broke box office records taking in more at the US box office in the opening weekend than any other film. With such popularity the world was primed for a follow-up. Now, almost one year to the day later, Marvel Studios’ next film Iron Man 3 has been delivered, and came in second only to The Avengers in its opening weekend. The new film features a Tony Stark solo mission against his comic book nemesis The Mandarin in a storyline taken from the Warren Ellis Extremis comic arc. But without Jon Favreau directing and without a Hulk can the armored Avenger still shine? Listen to Jakob, Arnie, and Stuart’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPAVENGERS07.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: The Place Beyond The Pines
The Place Beyond The Pines
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Ray Liotta
Studio: Hunting Lane Films
Release Date: March 29, 2013
The Place Beyond The Pines is a multigenerational saga like the Godfather. Characters will die. Others will rise to power. Some will fall from grace. However, unlike the Godfather saga, these characters are working class. Ordinary cops and bank robbers replace the glamorized mafia and FBI stings. Despite the lack of gangster fantasies, the film provides grounded, well developed characters that make for an emotional drama.
Luke (Gosling) quits his job as a stunt motorcyclist for a traveling carnival when he discovers he has a son in one of the towns his work brings him to annually. He turns to robbing banks when he is unable to find steady work to support his child. As he is pursued by police, a brief encounter with rookie cop Avery (Cooper) will change the course of Luke’s, Avery’s, and both of their sons’ lives.
Luke may seem threatening with his body covered in crude tattoos and his love for high speed motorcycling but Gosling is convincing that his character is kinder than he appears. There is a touching moment when Luke tells the mother of his child, Romina (Mendes), that he wants to be the first to feed their son ice cream to lessen the pain of being an absent father. The hurt and despair Luke feels for not being able to provide for his son is heartbreaking and lets the viewer sympathize with the character. When Luke turns violent and resorts to robbing banks to give his son a future, the tendency is to mourn rather than to harshly condemn his decision.
The film becomes a tense police drama as Avery’s path crosses with Luke in a high speed chase after Luke robs a bank. Cooper convinces us that Avery may have the book smarts to enforce justice, but not the street smarts to stay clean of corruption. The sleazy police workings are felt immediately as Liotta, playing corrupt cop Deluca, is introduced. His reassuring words and smile only heighten his threatening presence.
The movie loses some focus as it turns to examine the sons of Avery and Luke. Their fathers are more interesting, complex characters. These sons are forced into a rote tale of peer pressure. Two-thirds of the film I was engaged in examining characters that were well rounded and storytelling filled with emotion and tension. The third act is underwhelming as tough questions stop being asked and the film becomes an after school special.
Like the Godfather trilogy, The Place Beyond The Pines is hampered by a weak final third. The first two acts are filled with sorrow and tension that grip the viewer. The story may be multigenerational, but the children are never allowed to mature like the adult characters that held the viewer’s attention for most of the running time; making this film a mild recommend.
New Podcast: Return of the Living Dead by John Russo
Return of the Living Dead is best known for being a 1985 horror-comedy film that is both a sequel to and a spoof of George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead. However, few know of the messy history behind the film, and that it originally started off as a novel written by Night of the Living Dead co-writer John Russo and released in 1977. A straight follow-up to Romero’s original film, Russo’s novel bears little resemblance to the film that would follow 8 years later. But now as part of Now Playing’s Return of the Living Dead bonus retrospective series Stuart in LA reads and reviews the original novel and tells how this book became the 1985 cult classic!
After you listen to his review, head to NowPlayingPodcast.com and find out how to hear their Return of the Living Dead movie review series, only available until June 30, 2013!
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN066-ROTLD.MP3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Superman III
1983 was a banner year for computing. Microsoft Windows was announced, Lotus spreadsheets were released and the first IBM clone PC was sold by Compaq. And Gus Gorman builds a supercomputer that becomes self-aware, turns humans into cyborg slaves, and tries to kill Superman! This third installment in the Superman film series, this one directed entirely by Richard Lester, relied more on laughs than action, with comedian Richard Pryor taking a co-starring role. How does the mix of comedy, action, and inner conflict work in this Superman film? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES04.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
DOUBLE FEATURES: Silent Running & Oblivion
Welcome to Double Features, my monthly column dedicated to reviewing a current theatrical release in tandem with a similar classic movie available on DVD. April finds me wondering if Oblivion, Tom Cruise’s new sci-fi effort, shares some DNA with Silent Running, a 1972 cult item that also features a lone astronaut going rogue to protect Earth’s diminishing natural resources from a destructive enemy.
Don’t let the G rating, Joan Baez folk songs, or soft-focus opening shots of bunnies and flowers mislead you. Silent Running – the directorial debut of special effects wiz Douglas Trumbull (2001: A Space Odyssey) – is a somber, adult look at future environmental crisis set entirely aboard a greenhouse space station orbiting a deforested Earth. Bruce Dern goes from docile hippie to psychotic eco-warrior when soulless corporate bosses order him to nuke the last living plant and animal specimens and return to a barren planet sustained by their synthetic amenities. We should be on the oppressed gardener’s side, but his insurrection grows too bloody and paranoid for even the most militant animal activist or macrobiotic foodie to endorse.
Perhaps the only empathetic “characters” in Silent Running are a trio of service robots nicknamed Huey, Dewey, and Louie – reprogrammed to be green-thumbed companions after Dern offs his snide human co-workers. Trumbell’s ingenious miniature droid suits are customized to fit double-amputee actors, who bring a humanizing motion to the walking appliances that’s cute even when they’re digging graves. This is the rare environmental message movie that actually celebrates the machine as nature’s ultimate salvation – a techie’s vision of utopia. It remains progressive today, even if much of the rest of Silent Running suffers from outdated concepts and a meandering plot.
Tom Cruise might hold Bruce Dern’s same custodial occupation on the wasteland of Oblivion, but he’s not going to settle for socializing with a bunch of spherical drones – he wants a hot wife! And not that redheaded nag from his arranged marriage (Andrea Riseborough)… anyone who’s seen Total Recall knows she has ulterior motives for pressing him to spurn Earth for a Saturn moon. No, Cruise dreams of Olga Kurylenko – an enigmatic woman who beckons from repressed memories long before they’re reunited at his secret log cabin tucked inside the last green valley.
The starkest contrast between Silent Running and Oblivion is that Cruise is less preoccupied with rescuing the planet’s ravaged flora and fauna than piecing together his former identity. It’s a self-obsessed journey told largely in cryptic exchanges with coy characters like Morgan Freeman. The mystery unfolds in your head, but never your heart. And once this stooge has finally figured out he’s supposed to be acting like Tom Cruise in a big-budget Hollywood fantasy, many will have grown impatient for some explosions and requisite action.
At best, Silent Running and Oblivion are gentle genre exercises I can only MILDLY RECOMMEND to hardcore science fiction fans thirsting for simple, self-contained stories. Their appeal lies primarily in their visuals. This is a Double Feature that’s easily wiped from the mind, clones of more iconic movies.
New Podcast: Drag Me to Hell
After a series of blockbuster, large-scale films director Sam Raimi returned to his horror roots with Drag Me to Hell. While there is no cabin, no necronomicon, and no deadites, this film feels very much like an Evil Dead movie with geysers of blood and a main character put through physical and psychological torment. Now as a bonus review, Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart are dragged to hell to face the Lamia. Does this film have the impact of Raimi’s earlier, more raw horror films? Listen to find out, then DONATE to Now Playing before June 30, 2013 to hear our Spring Donation Drive bonus reviews of all the Evil Dead films as well!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPP038.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Superman II
How much would you give up for the woman you love? For Superman the cost of love is his every power as he chooses to relinquish all that makes him super to live a mortal life with Lois Lane. But without Superman what can stop the three Kryptonian criminals Non, Ursa, and their leader General Zod from ruling the Earth? All of this, plus Lex Luthor, is in 1980’s Superman II. But do Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob kneel before Zod? Listen to Now Playing to find out as we review both the Richard Donner and Richard Lester cuts of Superman II!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES03.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
TV REVIEW: Hannibal
Hannibal
Creator: Brian Fuller
Starring: Mads Mikkelson, Hugh Dancy, Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas, Lara Jean Chorostecki
Network: NBC
Airs: Thursdays, 10pm Eastern /9pm Central
Cinema’s most notorious cannibal has returned to public life as the unlikely star of a one hour NBC crime drama. Hannibal, set before the events of Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, finds a middle-aged Lecter assisting the FBI on grisly manhunts while masquerading as a Baltimore psychiatrist with a fridge full of secrets. Any movie fan would naturally be concerned that TV censorship and commercial interruptions inhibit Hannibal even more than his signature straitjacket and facial restraints. Yet the horror icon remains menacing and seductive in his new serialized incarnation, bringing a potent flavor to introductory episodes “Aperitif” and “Amuse Bouche” that masks the blandness of formulaic forensic shows.
If nothing else, series creator Bryan Fuller (Heroes) has found the perfect actor for the pivotal title role. Dane Mads Mikkelson avoids Anthony Hopkins comparisons by drawing more on the sinister minimalism of his James Bond villain from Casino Royale. This Hannibal is trying to pass himself off as a boring suit, so he can’t risk the theatricality of those purring taunts and unblinking stares that caged Hannibal used to intimidate his interrogators. Lecter lives out his double life wearing an unwavering poker face, but subtle gestures and asides help Mikkelson retain the dark humor and refinement that has always made this beast relatable. A dinner of exquisite looking mystery meat, or a courtesy call placed to a fellow serial killer, play like private jokes between the viewer and this strangely admirable enigma.
Dr. Lecter hungers for an equal to sniff out his true nature, which makes his relationship with tortured FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) the crux of the show. Graham’s heightened intuition helps him process crime scene clues through the eyes of the most depraved psychopaths – he’s a great investigator but an unstable lawman. Lecter is brought in to help Will develop coping skills and process his recent first kill, but the shrink uses the sessions instead to insinuate his macabre world view inside Will’s fevered brain. Dancy’s jittery performance is a nice contrast with Mikkelson’s calculating stoicism, even when the storylines push Graham’s emotional state to campy extremes.
Fans of Red Dragon and Manhunter recognize Will Graham as Lector’s eventual captor, but Hannibal has changed enough about the set-up to make that future uncertain. Like JJ Abrams’ Star Trek or A&E’s Bates Motel, the project isn’t a slave to the source material and many canonical elements have been tweaked successfully. Will Graham looks more damaged and socially awkward here than in the movies because he has a house full of stray dogs rather than a stabilizing wife and son. Turning sleazy male reporter Freddie Lounds into a scheming female blogger not only contemporizes the character, it gives Lector a tempting new target. As long as the show runners respect the source material, I think defying expectations is a great way of keeping fans interested. Right now I don’t care if this Lecter ever ends up behind bars.
Still, not everything about Hannibal feels like a fresh reinvention. Laurence Fishburne makes for a credible Jack Crawford, but he leads a stock crime fighting unit transplanted from a lesser procedural (annoying Asian scientist, dour bearded white dude, sexy lady shrink, etc.). And the overwrought cases, which include a deer hunter skewering women on a wall of antlers and a pharmacist growing a mushroom garden out of comatose diabetics, create the bogus impression that every murderer on the East Coast is some aspiring performance artist using cannibalism to redress childhood hurt. If this is what we’re going to get week after week, it’s going to diminishes Lecter’s reputation as a unique monster.
Hannibal has impressive production values, and its queasy corpse imagery and violent standoffs don’t feel compromised by broadcast television standards. Yet I can’t help feeling like the show would play better on a network that doesn’t require it to make room for 17 minutes of commercials. Graham resembles a psychic more than a cop when ads don’t give us enough time to covet the clues, and he has to make improbable deductions to compress the plot.
Despite its flaws, Hannibal promises to be a worthy new chapter for the serial killer if it can maintain the Lecter/Graham dialectic. I’m just afraid the show will get lost in America’s overcrowded DVR and wind up cancelled before its audience can find it. I definitely RECOMMEND streaming both episodes over at NBC.com sooner than later, and look forward to tasting the remaining 11 courses of Season One.
New Podcast: New Avengers: Breakout Prose Novel by Alisa Kwitney
Continuing the look at the new series of Marvel Comics prose novels that adapt popular comic arcs into novel form Arnie is back this week to review New Avengers: Breakout by Alisa Kwitney. The original story was told by Brian Michael Bendis in the 2005 New Avengers comics. This novel changes the story considerably making two characters not in Bendis’ comics– Hawkeye and the Black Widow — the main characters. Listen to Arnie’s review to find out if these reviews are for better or for worse.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN065-MarvelProseNewAvengersBreakout.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Superman
In 1978 director Richard Donner and a team of cutting-edge optical effects artists made audiences believe a man could fly. Perhaps even more impressive, though, is that stars Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, and Marlon Brando were able to bring such performances that adults and children watched a man convincingly and unironically wear a blue spandex unitard. But when Superman took to the screen there was no unintentional laughter, just a generation held in thrall as they watched the first big-budget superhero film–a movie to which all superhero films to this day are still compared. Do Now Playing movie reviews Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart still believe the film flies as high? Listen to this week’s podcast to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES02.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Astonishing X-Men: Gifted Prose Novel by Peter David
Next Tuesday the fourth book in Marvel Comics new prose novel series is being released–Iron Man: Extremis by Marie Javins. This wraps up the four novel series announced by Marvel back in 2012. To commemorate the conclusion of this book series, Arnie is back to continue his reviews of these Marvel Comics novelizations of successful comic arcs. This week Arnie is reviewing Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, written by longtime Marvel Comics scribe Peter David, based on the comic series by Joss Whedon.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN064-MarvelProseAstonishingXMenGifted.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
The Collection Movie Review
The Collection
Director: Marcus Dunstan
Writer: Marcus Dunstan, Patrick Melton
Starring: Josh Stewart, Emma Fitzpatrick Christopher McDonald, Lee Tergesen, Randall Archer
Studio: Fortress Features Features
Release Date: September 21, 2012
Elaborate, fatal traps? Squirm inducing injuries? Copious blood? Combine these features with a sadistic and mysterious killer and you’ve got The Collection, a sequel to The Collector. The Collector was initially written as a prequel to Saw. When it was rejected, it became its own movie outright, spawning this franchise.
Arkin, having escaped from The Collector, is tapped by a private security team to tell them where he was held captive so that they can rescue Elena, the latest victim. He’s forced at gunpoint to enter the abandoned hotel that is the villain’s lair, in order to make sure that they get their target. As the team is picked off by the deadly concealed ambushes, they are astounded by the grotesque acts The Collector has committed to his victims.
The Collector likes to kill his victims using fancy mouse (human?) traps. Try to escape through a window and you’re likely to have your hand sliced off when you open it. Step on a certain spot on the floor and large spears will impale you. There’s a dotted line in the horror movie family tree from Jigsaw to The Collector. They seem fairly similar in operations. But The Collector lacks a motive. The novelty of Jigsaw was that he offered his victims a chance at redemption. Freeing oneself from the contraption was also freeing yourself from your past. There is nothing hidden here, these exist solely to kill. There is no redemption for any of the victims. The contraptions are not elaborate as they were in the Saw series. These try but they come off more as a deadly Home Alone movie.
The one thing this film does both very well is the character of The Collector. He is incredibly menacing as we have never seen his face nor has he ever spoken. He lurks, stalks and grabs with the precision of Michael Myers. He’s very mysterious with his lucha libre like mask and insect collection. The potential for a great serial killer is there with all of this covertness, but he is too unknown. There just aren’t enough character details to make him a great antagonist. Other than he collects one person to keep from every killing spree, we don’t know anything else about him. He’s portrayed as cryptic for cryptic sake but for no good reason. It was unfulfilling to know so little.
Instead of paying homage to the granddaddy of torture porn, The Collection comes off like a made for TV copycat movie. It’s similar enough to remind the viewer of its roots but it has just enough differences to escape plagiarism. There wasn’t enough originality to make this work and let’s be honest, if you’re going to emulate another franchise, do it bigger, badder and better. Although the murderer has potential, his details aren’t revealed enough to make him add anything more than a frustration. Even with razor blades held to my face, I wouldn’t recommend this movie.
New Podcast: Superman and the Mole Men
Superman. In the 1930s the DC character was a breakout success creating a template for superheroes that would be copied for the next century. In the 1970s he made moviegoers believe a man could fly in the first blockbuster superhero film. But long before Christopher Reeve would embody the iconic Kryptonian there was another Superman movie–Superman and the Mole Men. Created as part of the television series The Adventures of Superman, Superman and the Mole Men starred George Reeves as the man of steel dealing with a race of beings who have escaped their home miles below ground. Reeves would go on to play Superman on television from 1952 to 1958 becoming the face of Superman for the baby boomer generation. Now, as Now Playing hosts Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob begin their Superman retrospective series leading up to this summer’s Man of Steel film they look back at this forgotten 1951 feature. Is this a Superman adventure worth unearthing or should it have stayed buried deep? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSUPES01.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell
Even if you don’t know the name Bruce Campbell the odds are you’ve seen him in television shows and movies. Currently a star of Burn Notice, Campbell has been featured in the Hercules and Xena television shows, as well as films like Maniac Cop, Escape from L.A., The Hudsucker Proxy, The Majestic, and all three Spider-Man films. But for all his work, Campbell is perhaps best known for his role of Ash in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. As today the remake of Evil Dead is being released, Arnie takes this opportunity to revisit Campbell’s 2001 autobiography for the insights it gives on the actor and his films.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN063-IfChinsCouldKill.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: G.I. Joe: Retaliation
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra left many audience members cold, but the box office proved there was a hunger for G.I. Joe movies. A sequel was started, but to give the series a boost of star power the original cast was almost entirely replaced with The Rock and Bruce Willis featured in the hopes of pleasing a larger audience. After a 9 month delay for a post 3-D conversion, did this sequel fix the flaws of the previous live-action film? Listen to Jerry, Jakob, and Arnie’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPGIJOE03.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Punk Movie Review: Repo Man
Dust of your steel toe boots and dye your mohawk blue, once a month I’ll be talking about a different punk movie here on the Gazette…
Repo Man
Director: Alex Cox
Writer: Alex Cox
Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: March 2, 1984
Repo Man stars Emilio Estevez as loser punk Otto a year before he’d played the jock picking on the losers in The Breakfast Club. Otto spends his days stocking the shelves at a grocery store until he quits after being continually scolded by his boss. However, Otto finds a new job more in line with his punk ethics—stealing cars from yuppies as a repo man. He learns the life of a repo man is always intense. The film maintains the intensity with a plot that grows ever stranger; changing lanes from scathing criticism on materialism to Cold War era fears to a B-movie alien flick.
Harry Dean Stanton plays repo man Bud, who recruits Otto to the profession. He teaches Otto the Repo Code. A repo man shall never damage an automobile he repossesses. Neither commie nor Christian shall ride in their car. The rich will always be the first to default on their loans. These men living on the outskirts of society are the perfect vehicle for the film’s contemptuous humor. They are more philosophers than struggling proletariat. The comedy is in their zen-like attitude as they snort cocaine to stay awake during the early morning hours and firing bullets to scare off deadbeat car owners.
Los Angeles is the ideal backdrop for the story. It’s a city built for driving, with vast stretches of cold pale concrete highways. However, this L.A. is in shambles with abandoned roads where the few roaming the streets are able to swerve from lane to lane. The fear of Cold War nuclear holocaust takes on a sense of normality as characters casually discuss the neutron bomb and the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. If L.A. is yet to be annihilated by the bomb, the city is already conquered by a material emptiness where its residents are so weary of existence they are willing to consume jars of sustenance merely labeled as “food” and “drink.”
Meanwhile, a lobotomized scientist roams the streets of L.A. in a 1964 Chevy Malibu with the stolen bodies of four dead aliens in the trunk. A shadowy government agency puts a $20,000 bounty on the car; resulting in a clash between rival repo men and UFO enthusiasts. Miller (Walter), a repo man who refuses to drive a car, theorizes these aliens had been transporting people back in time to populate the once empty earth. Steven Spielberg had introduced an alien savior that could heal with his touch in E.T. Writer and director Alex Cox further mashes aliens and the Bible with a sci-fi creation story, though with a farcical edge. Cox’s take is a throwback to the B-movies of the 50s, hinting that modern society is more a product of the entertainment industry than traditional religion.
Repo Man is like a fast-paced riff from one of the soundtrack’s many hardcore punk songs. The social commentary must uphold a blistering intensity. As ideas on modern materialism, Los Angeles’s identity, marginalized subcultures, and science fiction B-movies all slam together, there is the threat that at any moment the film can lose its energy and fray into a giant wall of sloppy, distorted noise. Surprisingly, it doesn’t. The film maintains a steady beat of sharp-tongued criticism and brash humor until the end; making it a constant on the set list of must-see cinema.
Recommend
Repo Man will be released on DVD and Blu-ray with a new high-definition restored transfer on April 16, 2013.
Movie Review: Spring Breakers
Spring Breakers
Director: Harmony Korine
Writer: Harmony Korine
Starring: Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, and James Franco
Studio: Muse Productions
Release Date: March 22, 2013
Harmony Korine, a provocateur with a long rap sheet of films about juvenile delinquency, isn’t the most obvious candidate for directing a teen party movie set on the beaches of St. Petersberg. His previous youth culture explorations have shunned Disney princesses in florescent bikinis in favor of more extreme subjects – a serial rapist spreading AIDS (Kids), a drooling schizophrenic (Julien Donkey-Boy), cat killers on ten speed bikes (Gummo), and fetishists grinding their pelvises against canisters of garbage (Trash Humpers – his most literal celebration of depravity).
Yet the four curvaceous coeds at the center of Korine’s new opus Spring Breakers share a commonality with all the other freaks in his menagerie: they’re poor, horny and bored… and that makes them dangerous. Desperate to escape the crushing sameness of their deserted dorm, Candy (Hudgens), Brit (Benson), and Cotty (Rachel Korine, Harmony’s wife) use squirt guns and harsh language to intimidate patrons at an all-night diner into funding their hedonistic vacation. Faith (Gomez) knows she’s courting sin by abandoning her Bible study group for beach time with these hellions, but the utopian promise of Florida’s flesh parade proves equally irresistible to her repressed soul. These girls are sick, and fun is the only cure for what ails them.
Ironically, those most primed for the sun-burnt decadence of a Girls Gone Wild video, or crass Hollywood comedy like Project X, will probably be Spring Breakers’ most disappointed audience members. Korine has never cultivated a taste for commercial storytelling or traditional beauty, and remains fixated on unflattering details as he reduces the foursome’s exploits to a disjointed montage of scooter rides and repetitious drunk talk. Boredom hasn’t been conquered, merely transformed into something more frenzied and sad.
The fun doesn’t begin for viewers until our heroines are jailed and forced to take bail money from Alien, a drug smuggler with delusions of rap superstardom. One look at James Franco’s gold-toothed leer as he leads the ladies from the courthouse into a spaceship-shaped bed blanketed in $100 bills tells you Korine has finally found the proof he needs to convict the American Dream. “Look at my sheeyit! This ain’t nuttin’, I got ROOMS of this shit,” the narcissist boasts as he produces everything from Kool-Aid to Calvin Klein cologne in an effort to impress his guests. It’s Alien who completes Candy and Brit’s transformation into gangsta bitches now packing real firepower, and the trio sail off into a day-glo finale filled with Britney Spears sing-a-longs and drive-by shootings.
Many will call Spring Breakers an empty exercise full of callow behavior, and I’ll not dispute them. Still, I Recommend the movie to anyone able to appreciate the singular way Korine and cinematographer Benoit Debie (Enter The Void) render depravity as its own special kind of beauty. The paradox of their painterly images, married with Franco’s gonzo-yet-human performance, creates empathy for these shallow party girls when their words and deeds might otherwise draw contempt. Korine might not be an artist, but I refuse to label him an exploiter. Perhaps we’ll agree he’s that nose picker that sits in the back of the classroom making sculpture out of his boogers. Certainly Spring Breakers is a gross and glorious mess not soon forgotten.
New Podcast: Marvel’s Civil War Prose Novel by Stuart Moore
Last year Marvel Comics started a new prose novel line adapting popular comic book story arcs to long fiction form. Now Arnie is reviewing all four of these novelized comic book stories, starting with the first book — Civil War. The Civil War comic books of 2006 and 2007 was a best-selling event, spanning over 100 comics and topping sales charts. Now author Stuart Moore is taking this expansive story and compressing it into a 350 page book. Join Arnie as he contrasts the novel with its comic book counterpart, and find out if Civil War is worth a read!
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN062-MarvelProseCivilWar.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
With Michael Bay’s film Transformers Hasbro proved that its toy lines could be turned into profitable movie franchises and Hasbro also had another major toy line in reserve–G.I. Joe! Like Transformers, this film could appeal both to young moviegoers as well as their parents who watched the 80’s cartoon. But in 2009 the second Transformers film made over $400 million while G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra floundered at $150 million, failing in US theaters to make back the production costs. G.I. Joe returns in theaters this week in a semi-rebooted form, but is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra a blight on Joe’s history, or an overlooked gem released in a very busy summer? Listen to Jakob, Jerry, and Arnie’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPGIJOE02.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Double Features: Stoker & Shadow Of A Doubt
Welcome to Double Features, my ongoing column devoted to pairing a new theatrical release with a complimentary older title available on home viewing formats.
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| Shadow of a Doubt | Stoker |
For March I’m fixing up stylish new thriller Stoker with 70-year-old Alfred Hitchcock classic Shadow of a Doubt for a double date that explicitly reminds audiences why it’s never a good idea for a girl to lust after her uncle.
Hitchcock movies pack a subversive punch because the director was so clever at sneaking taboo subject matter past his censors. Audiences in 1943 would merely have understood Shadow of A Doubt as the story of a gushing teenager (Teresa Wright) horrified to learn her visiting uncle (Joseph Cotton) is The Merry Widow Murderer. But savvier contemporary viewers will likely be creeped out by the closeness of their familial bond long before Uncle Charlie’s homicidal habits come to light. The nubile niece, also named Charlie, characterizes their connection as “telepathic”, but I’m closer to calling it out as incest.
Shadow of A Doubt isn’t one of Hitchcock’s more suspenseful or technically innovative pictures. The audience spends most of the run time waiting for its naïve star to deduce what they’ve known since the opening scene. But I suspect Hitch called it the favorite work of his career because it does such an expert job satirizing America and traditional Hollywood depictions of wholesomeness. Not only does a niece’s unbridled desire for her uncle go unnoticed in this seemingly upstanding small town, but common folk commiserate over speculation on how they might kill one another, banks profit from blood money, and perversion can be seen beneath the chipped paint of civility in every scene. The one false note of the picture comes when an FBI agent tries to assure the disillusioned young Charlie that people are basically decent and criminals like her uncle are the anomaly.
Stoker clearly invites comparisons to Shadow of A Doubt as it also introduces a homicidal Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) into the home of a blossoming schoolgirl (Mia Wasikowska), but takes the scenario one step further by suggesting the two share an inherited proclivity to kill. Dour young India certainly knows her way around a hunting rifle, and thinks nothing of silencing randy classmates with the sharp end of a pencil. But she’s a virgin when it comes to the ways of sex and murder, and spends most of the movie warming up to the idea that her father’s brother (and possible killer) has a lot he could teach her in these areas.
Stoker marks the Hollywood debut of acclaimed director Chan Wook-Park (Oldboy). Like Hitchcock, he’s come to America with a healthy dose of cynicism and an eye for subversive detail. Almost every shot in the picture simmers with Freudian possibilities – from the snaky removal of a belt used to strangle a man during intercourse to a spider crawling up the girl’s thigh as she plays a love song on the piano. These searing images perfectly capture the balance between suppressed desire and sociopathic bloodlust that hangs over our not-so-naïve star’s coming-of-age.
Hitchcock used the incest taboo to tease audiences about presumptions of innocence, but stops far short of nihilism and always delivers crowd-pleasing thrills. Stoker, by contrast, corrupts audiences by asking them to fully explore the darkly erotic possibilities of the uncle-niece union and resists reassurances of societal norms. I RECOMMEND both movies, and suspect viewers will get even more out of seeing them together. But you may not want to invite the family to watch along with you.
The American Movie Review
The American
Director: Anton Corbijn
Writer: Rowan Joffé
Starring: George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten, Paolo Bonacelli, Irina Björklund
Studio: Focus Features
Release Date: September 1, 2010
The American is a taut thriller. Every actor delivers an authentic performance that makes their character feel real. Every shot in the film is gorgeous and feels like each frame could be a postcard. The American may just be the best film I cannot possibly recommend.
Clooney plays Jack, a gunsmith and hit man on the run from relentless Swede assassins. In most movies with this type of set-up we would see Jack investigate his attackers, eventually uncovering their boss in an action-filled climax, but The American provides a refreshing, seemingly more realistic take. Instead of going on the offensive, Jack goes into hiding in the Rome countryside, counting on his employer Pavel to keep him safe. More, this attack has frightened Jack, making him want out of his lethal lifestyle.
It’s a very low-key, suspenseful take on a story about hit-men, and that is The American’s greatest strength. Even when Jack’s serenity is interrupted by a Swede attack, the action scenes are bloody and short, the exact opposite of the glossy, adrenaline-filled fights in action films like The Bourne Identity. The scenes are not here to thrill, but to remind Jack, and the audience, that death surrounds him and his quiet respite could come to a bloody end at any moment. This is driven home to great effect.
Indeed, The American treats the Swedes as a subplot, with the main focus being Jack’s relationship with local prostitute Clara. What starts as a purely professional relationship ends in a true romance as Jack connects with Clara, despite not ever truly trusting her intentions. Clara could be a plant, and we’ve already seen Jack kill one girlfriend. As such, Jack and Clara’s scenes together are always bittersweet as the audience knows at any moment one of these lovers could kill the other.
But despite all that is done right, The American fails in many respects. Jack is a laconic cipher We have endless scenes with him drinking coffee, or expertly machining a rifle, but Cloony’s performance always leaves us disconnected from the assassin. Jack’s lies are told so often and so easily that we never know what to believe. We don’t trust Jack and Jack trusts no one, leaving the viewer with no character with whom they can relate. Do we want this agent of death to find love and salvation, or do we want the Swedes to deliver swift justice?
The film’s final fall is in its finale. As we are kept emotionally distant from our main character, his fate becomes ultimately unimportant. The suspense of the eventual double-cross reaches its climax, but in an unfulfilling, perfunctory way.
The American is like one of Jack’s guns–lovingly crafted, expertly made, but ultimately cold and mechanical. Not recommend
New Podcast: G.I. Joe: The Movie
Yo Joe! For almost 50 years G.I. Joe action figures have excited and enthralled children, but it was in the 1980s with the Star Wars inspired comic book, toy line, and cartoon that the G.I. Joe identity would be galvanized. A culturally diverse army of specialists, the G.I. Joes would battle endlessly to keep the evil forces of Cobra at bay. Their skirmishes would be told in a syndicated cartoon series that ran from 1985 to 1986, and as the show prepared for a fourth season Hasbro decided to take the Joes to the big screen with the animated G.I. Joe: The Movie! The failure of Transformers: The Movie would cause G.I. Joe: The Movie to have major plot changes, delays, and an eventual video release long after the series had ended. Was that fate deserved, or does G.I. Joe: The Movie succeed where the Transformer movie failed? Listen to find our review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPGIJOE01.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
A mostly expected journey…
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| The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey | |
| Director: | Peter Jackson |
| Writer: | Fran Walsh, Philipa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro |
| Starring: | Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis |
| Studio: | New Line Cinema |
| Release Date: | December 14, 2012 |
Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey follows in the tradition of his Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is a delicious fantasy stuffed full of dwarves, wizards, trolls, goblins, and a gold-loving dragon. The CGI effectively gives life and scale to each unique race. As a prequel to LOTR, the script is bursting with backstory; showing evil slowly creeping towards Mordor for the eventual war for Middle Earth. The film is also gluttonous. Jackson gives every obscure character with a passing mention in the novel, like a brown wizard or shadowy necromancer, needlessly extended scenes in this near three-hour exercise in patience. The story is stretched thin to somehow turn this children’s book into a three-parter as a desperate Hollywood attempt to secure consistent ticket sales.
In short, audiences will feel the same about The Hobbit as they did with Jackson’s LOTR trilogy. It does nothing to address previous criticisms and gives more of what made LOTR a blockbuster franchise.
The plot sticks to that of the novel, though certain liberties are taken to conform to conventional Hollywood storytelling. Thirteen dwarves aim to take their city and gold back from the dragon Smaug. The wizard Gandalf (McKellen) recruits hobbit Bilbo (Freeman) to assist in the adventure. All the while, Bilbo must convince Thorin Oakenshield (Armitage), the dwarves’ leader, of his commitment to the journey.
Of course there isn’t a complete story provided as the plot has been split into three films. Smaug is hardly seen, much less defeated. Unexpectedly, the script does carry one of its many subplots to completion; providing a sense of closure for this first installment. Bilbo is homesick. He can return home at any point while the dwarves are outcasts and homeless. Thorin grows weary of Bilbo’s seemingly lack of loyalty. This subplot plays throughout the film until its resolution, providing purpose and heroic moments to a climax that would otherwise feel like just another battle.
The film is long but never feels unbearable. Action scenes take place at the appropriate moments to kick up the pace after scene of melodramatic debate. The battles never do capture the grandness and danger of what we’ve seen before. Even the return of Serkis’s Golem doesn’t demand the same awe. I must recognize this dismissive attitude exists because Jackson already has tackled larger foes and greater battles. However, during The Hobbit’s most exciting scenes, such as the dwarves slashing their way through the never-ending caverns of Goblin Town, the viewer is reminded how comfortable it is to spend a few hours of escape in this fantasy world.
I put off seeing the film originally once it was announced The Hobbit would be three films instead of two. I didn’t think I had the energy for anymore of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world after having read the books, watched the animated features, attended each LOTR installment on during their opening weekends, and then sitting through the extended cuts. I was wrong. For those fans sitting on the fence, like I was, you’ll find this RECOMMENDED film will enliven you with plenty of vigor for the journey.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and other formats March 19, 2013.
Now Playing’s St. Paddy’s Day Movie Marathon… Or Why Irish Cinema Totally Sucks
St. Patrick’s Day is a time for partaking in many great traditions – pinching those that forget their green apparel, washing corned beef and cabbage down with a Shamrock Shake, or maybe dancing a jig at the local pub. Movie-going, however, never seems to play a big part of the holiday. That’s because Irish movies are fookin’ shite!
Look, I’m from Irish stock myself. It gives me no pleasure to reach this conclusion about the state of Celtic cinema. And it’s frustrating when you consider how many great Irish actors (Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson), actresses (Saoirse Ronan, Maureen O’Hara), and writers (Oscar Wilde, Martin McDonagh) have brought iconic stories to the movies. But I find it impossible to name five Irish films I love.
Hollywood has been the worst perpetuator of Emerald Isle clichés – Sean Connery singing with Darby O’Gill And The Little People, Tom Cruise boxing to Enya in Far And Away, and Tommy Lee Jones channeling a box of Lucky Charms as Blown Away’s psycho IRA bomber. I’m a staunch defender of Titanic, but even I wouldn’t hold it up as a great depiction of my peeps.
The trouble is productions from native filmmakers are no better. I’ve endured soggy history lessons (Michael Collins, In The Name Of The Father), tortured biopics (Angela’s Ashes, The General), cloying romances (Once, The Playboys), and insufferably cute comedies (Waking Ned Devine, Hear My Song… so off tune I walked out on it). I know I’ve omitted some beloved Irish “classics”, but show me one that isn’t about starvation, drunkenness, or political oppression – that unavoidable trifecta of Ireland’s miserablist existence.
St. Paddy’s Day is supposed to be about having fun. So I’m forced to get a little creative in order to present a movie marathon that compliments the occasion. None of these five flicks are “Irish” in any traditional way, but they’re a hell of a lot more enjoyable than My Left Foot.
Images (1971)
Arty thriller has children’s author Susannah York descending into madness on holiday in the Irish countryside. This atypical effort for director Robert Altman and composer John Williams plays like a Celtic prequel to The Shining.
Jekyll (2007)
Sure you could watch Irish actor James Nesbitt make his country proud in Paul Greengrass’ 2002 Bloody Sunday re-creation, but I enjoy him so much more as the definitive screen version of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s split personality in this addictive six hour BBC mini-series.
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Long before Boondock Saints made Irish gangsters trendy, the Coen Brothers shot up the screen with a mob movie that’s got dialogue and camerawork as rapid fire as a Tommy gun.
Snakes On A Plane (2006)
What better way to honor the legend of St. Patrick driving serpents from Ireland than watching MF Sam Jackson do the same for a doomed Hawaiian flight?
Withnail & I (1987)
Richard E Grant goes on the ultimate bender in 60s London starring in the cult movie that made his career. True he’s not Irish, but if this holiday is just an excuse to get drunk then think of Withnail as the St. Paddy’s Day version of It’s A Wonderful Life.
And if you opt for Gangs Of New York or The Departed, head over to nowplayingpodcast.com afterwards to listen to my thoughts. Both movies are available as podcasts in a Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio Retrospective (which will be picking back up this fall with the release of The Wolf Of Wall Street incidentally).
Would You Rather Movie Review
Would You Rather
Starring: Brittany Snow. Sasha Grey, Jeffrey Combs, John Heard
Directed by: David Guy Levy
Once you RSVP, it’s too late…
Would You Rather takes an innocent slumber party game and twists it, replacing kissing the school dweeb with self mutilation. Reminiscent of the Saw franchise, this is torture porn with reduced gore. The concept of this movie is grotesque but it’s a safer, gentler release with less in your face graphic violence, all while maintaining an interesting and unique story.
Iris is dead broke after the death of her parents and desperately needs money. She accepts a mysterious invitation to a dinner party that promises the chance to win enough money to solve her problems. The party is hosted by Shep Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs), with the promise of one attendee winning money via an contest. The game is revealed to be “Would You Rather”, the party game that forces you to choose between two choices. Instead of choosing to kiss the their friend Martha or their friend Bob, the guests are astounded to learn that their choices are self mutilation or mutilating someone else. As each round progresses with a new painful challenge, guests are eliminated either by fatal injury or killed during an escape attempt leaving Iris and one other as the finalists.
Refreshing a stale genre, Would You Rather presents a new twist that is both unique and original. The writers rely on implied gore to create the suspense.
The mutilating challenges all sound horrible and conjure graphic images but it’s a stark contrast to what is shown. Lucas’s challenge is to slice open his eye. We hear his resistance, see his panic at the thought but when he actually does it, it is so quick and shot at such an angle that there is no blood. Peter’s challenge is to blow up a firecracker in his hand. It sounds simple enough until it’s revealed to be a quarter stick of dynamite and that it is duct taped thoroughly to his hand. When it explodes, the carnage is poorly lit so it’s impact is minimal and the focus is on Peter having a heart attack. Anything imagined is much worse than what is shown causing a much more intense movie.
Combs is delightful in his role as philanthropist turned sadist Shep Lambrick. Known for his stoic portrayal of Dr. Herbert West in Reanimator, he is wonderfully chipper and animated in Would You Rather. His delight and mockery at the moral dilemmas facing his dinner guests is fun to watch. He munches on snacks while they decide who they are stabbing, shocking or whipping. Combs doesn’t portray Lambrick as a maniac, he’s mostly a madman but with social skills. Combs has such a delightful giggle when he is enjoying tormenting his guests. It’s nice to see him break out and have some fun, even if it is at the expense of others.
Would You Rather is a nice twist on the overdone torture porn genre. It had become graphic for graphic sake (Saw) by replacing shock with copious amounts of blood. By relying on good old suspense and implied violence, Would You Rather takes it to a new level and keeps the audience entertained all the way to the surprise ending.
New Podcast: Jonah Hex
When a terrorist plans to destroy Washington D.C. the only hope for the United States is a confederate soldier with a scar on his face and a chip on his shoulder–Jonah Hex. A strange steampunk western based on the DC Comics character, Jonah Hex failed to find an audience despite A-list stars Josh Brolin and John Malkovich. Is this possibly an overlooked gem, or could it really be as bad as world-of-mouth indicates? Listen to Now Playing and find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHERO03.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: Oz the Great and Powerful
Oz the alright, but there are some things that are pretty great…
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| Oz the Great and Powerful | |
| Director: | Sam Raimi |
| Writer: | David Lindsay-Abaire, Mitchel Kapner |
| Starring: | James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff |
| Studio: | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release Date: | March 8, 2013 |
The 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz is a visual feast. The Technicolor landscape—rich with yellow bricks, blue flying monkeys, and red ruby slippers—fascinated me as a child. Oz the Great and Powerful takes the audience back to this fantasy of saturated color pallets and dreamlike characters. The film will mesmerize children and make the discerning adults wish they could see this film through those young ones’ eyes. Its vision is bold and courageous, while lacking some heart and brains.
James Franco is the small-time circus magician Oscar, better known as Oz. To avoid the consequences of his womanizing, he flees in a hot air balloon. A tornado takes hold of the balloon and Oz awakes in a magical land. He is believed to be the prophesized wizard that will unite the Emerald City, which is under the control of three feuding witch sisters. Oz must decide if he will continue as a sham trickster or take up the mantle of the wizard to bring peace.
If Dorothy’s adventure was a journey of discovery, Oz’s is one of redemption. However, Oz never fully changes, but merely finds a way to better exploit his cons. Franco is able to convince the audience of Oz as a grifter. The role doesn’t fall far from the actor’s laid back reputation. Glinda the Good Witch (Williams) will eventually declare Oz to be a good man, but that remains in question. If her sisters, Theodora (Kunis) and Evanora (Weisz), had stayed attractive instead of turning hideously ugly, would Oz be so steadfastly in love with just Glinda? Franco’s constant smirk always gives suspicion to his intents, even at the end when he should be trustworthy.
Part of the problem is in the nature of a prequel. We know Oz is still a bumbling conman when Dorothy eventually arrives. True character development is hindered by needing to sync up with the original. This is a barrier for those in the know to truly invest themselves in the title character. However, there are plenty of set-ups to satisfy long time fans of Oz, though not everything is revealed. Despite not caring much for the future wizard, I did find myself caught up in the film’s backdrop and wondering how certain things will play out to bridge this story to Dorothy’s adventure.
Thankfully, the film finds reasons to focus on non-established characters. There is a town made of china smashed to bits by flying baboons. Here is where the most entertaining character is introduced, a living china doll. She brings sadness, spunk, and laughs. While cute, there is also a creepiness to her fractured skin and stiff movements.
The feuding witches are given a new dimension by fleshing out Evanora, who Dorothy will eventually land a house on. The most interesting of the three sisters, her story carries a tragedy similar to Victor Frankenstein. The audience is told she is wicked, but there is a sadness to her as she comes to terms with the monster she creates; making her a sympathetic villain.
I’m still not convinced there is anything great, powerful, or wonderful about this Oz character, but this land is worth revisiting for its other inhabitants and landscapes. This new vision is twisted like Alice’s Wonderland. The scenery continually spirals from sparkling flowers made of gems to rivers filled with translucent fairies bearing piranha-like jaws. The audience knows what levers are being pulled behind the green screen, but this mildly recommendable movie still manages to create some impressive illusions.
New Podcast: Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits by Garth Ennis
After reviewing the Keanu Reeves film Constantine, based on DC’s Hellblazer comics, hosts Arnie and Jakob turn to the source material on which the movie was based. In their second podcast looking at John Constantine in comics, they discuss Original Sins, Garth Ennis’ first American comic book writing and one of the most acclaimed Hellblazer storylines.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN061-HellBlazer02-DangerousHabits.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
Movie Review: Red Dawn
What’s the capitalist term I’m trying to think of…lazy-faire?
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| Red Dawn | |
| Director: | Don Bradley |
| Writer: | Carl Ellsworth, Jeremy Passmore |
| Starring: | Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Will Yun Lee |
| Studio: | Contrafilm |
| Release Date: | November 21, 2012 |
1984’s Red Dawn was an extreme right-wing fantasy. Set during the Cold War, teenagers flexed their Second Amendment rights and blasted away the commies invading the United States. However, this toothless remake begs for relevancy. It sat on the shelf for two years and finally found release during the 2012 election season; perhaps to capitalize on the polarizing politic discourse. However, it is unlikely anyone on either side of the political spectrum would give this new Red Dawn a favorable vote.
The plot is familiar. Communists, from North Korea this time, attack the United States. Brothers Jed (Hemsworth) and Matt (Peck) train a group of teens in the Spokane, Washington to fight back. Known as the Wolverines, the small militia plays a pivotal role in taking their country back.
Of course, the audience never is sure what the country is being taken back from. The villains are so generic, they were easily changed by CGI’ing over some flags and redubbing their native language. The commies were originally filmed as Chinese. The studio then changed them to North Korean in post production because it’s bad marketing to upset over a billion potential ticket buyers. At least the fear of grinding away in sweatshops while manufacturing cheap knick-knacks for Walmart would be a legitimate fear if China took over. Instead, the only reason given to be afraid of North Korea is because communism was scary thirty years ago.
The Russians are also involved with the occupation, just in case North Korea wasn’t frightening enough. If you’re too young to know the Russians were once the U.S.’s real life communist nemesis, there is a big neo-Soviet, easily identified by his blue hat, who stabs teenagers. There, now do you see how nasty that democratic nation secretly is?
As to why so many resources are used to invade a small northwestern town is never explained, which further complicates any attempt at understanding the invasion. A reeducation camp is built, just like in the original. However, it isn’t filled with the Wolverine’s fathers. Rather, the North Koreans take over an entire country to lock up its cheerleaders. Communism must be pretty awful if it jails the hot blondes.
The communists have one weakness though, besides not being able to kill a handful of teenage soldiers. The Wolverines can turn the war around by stealing a radio. To be fair, it’s a magic radio. It’s immune to the electronic magnetic pulse machine the North Koreans used to knock out the American’s power. Maybe the Wolverines would have done better stealing the device that could actually shut down the North Korea’s machinery, rather than the one used for listening to them. Presumably, the same number of explosions could have been produced in a plot that attempted to make more sense.
The writers may not understand how to construct decent plot or motivations, but they also manage to include unsatisfying character arcs too. Matt has a character flaw. He always puts himself before others. A Wolverine needlessly dies because Matt goes off mission to selfishly save his cheerleader girlfriend. Obviously, Matt will need to make a team decision requiring him to sacrifice his needs to show he’s learned there is no I in team. At least it should be obvious. However, the film can’t even adequately execute an elementary school level morality tale.
Red Dawn is an exploitation film that never exploits. It doesn’t play on the fears of even the most delusional paranoid shut in. There’s no need to rush out and arm yourself, this film is easy to resist.
Red Dawn is available on Blu-ray, DVD, and other formats beginning March 5, 2013.
New Podcast: Hellblazer: Original Sins by Jamie Delano
Jakob and Arnie have returned to Books & Nachos to review more DC comics graphic novels. On Tuesday they reviewed the Keanu Reeves film Constantine, based on DC’s Hellblazer comics. Now they turn to the source material, reading and reviewing Original Sins, a graphic novel compiling Hellblazer issues 1 through 9.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN060-HellBlazer01-OriginalSins.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Constantine
From the pages of DC’s Hellblazer comics, John Constantine was a blonde, British occult detective with a smoking habit and a bad attitude. The comics had a cult following and in 2005 Warner Bros gave the anti-hero the big screen treatment. Moving the action from Liverpool to Los Angeles, the film starred Keanu Reeves as the Americanized occultist. Now, continuing their look at DC comics one-off films, Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob see if Constantine’s theatrical adaptation had spirit, or was dead on arrival.
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHERO02.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: Apollo 18
In space nobody can find your footage.
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| Apollo 18 | |
| Director: | Gonzalo López-Gallego |
| Writer: | Brian Miller |
| Starring | Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, Ryan Robbins |
| Studio: | Bazelevs |
| Release Date | September 2, 2011 |
For years, conspiracy theorists have long believed that NASA is up to no good. Between faked and secret missions to the moon, people have long suspected nefarious deeds in our space program. Enter Apollo 18, an alleged found footage movie that chronicles a previously unknown mission. Much like it’s genre predecessors, it’s supposed to fuel speculation but all it does is make the audience wish for a mission to end the movie.
Under the guise of secretly placing sensors to detect ICBMs from Russia, three astronauts are sent on an unpublicized trip to the moon. While on the moon, they encounter a Russian lunar unit with blood inside. Things start to fall apart when something is inside one of the astronaut’s suits. It ends up under his skin and when removed, it resembles one of the moon rocks. They then begin to theorize that their real mission is to place sensors to monitor these “rocks”.
If you are a fan of the genre or maybe a fan of some other popular movies, you may enjoy this movie. Almost every single plot device has been done previously and with a better result than in this movie. By borrowing from so many other movies, Apollo 18 can’t quite find it’s own footing. Too many scenes are reminiscent of other, better movies that it’s just not satisfying. The most glaring copy cat scene is when one of the astronauts uses a film camera to illuminate the crater where they find the cosmonaut. The use of the camera sounds, with the flash illuminating the crater’s horrifying sites is so similar to the opening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that I expected Leatherface to appear. The worst part of this analogous scene was that it didn’t accomplish anything. The images were so quick and poorly lit that it does not produce the any fear or expectations.
Aside from the lack of originality, the movie falls short on suspense. It’s not for lack of trying though. The filmmakers attempt to create confusion by showing rocks that move and hover. There’s also a mysteriously abandoned Russian ship where it appears there as a struggle. These scenes are so slowly paced that just can’t produce any tension. Because of this, the big reveal of the source of all of the issues – aliens falls flat. The bigger issue might be that the aliens are rocks instead of, you know, something scary. Granted, the rocks can float and they appear to turn into something with tentacles that resemble the facehugger from Alien, but the aliens are rocks about 99% of the time. There’s just nothing scary about a rock that floats. Not recommend.
New Podcast: Tank Girl
Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, those are the heroes DC Comics are known for. But there are others. As we build up to Man of Steel this summer, Now Playing hosts Stuart, Jakob, and Arnie are looking at some of these lesser known DC Heroes who fight bad guys and obscurity with equal fervor. For our first installment in this series, the hosts review Tank Girl, the 1995 film that pitted Lori Petty and a team of human/kangaroo hybrids against Malcolm McDowell. Does Tank Girl hit the mark, or is it a misfire? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDCHERO01.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: Twilight – Breaking Dawn Part 2
Look but don’t sink your teeth into…
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| Twilight – Breaking Dawn Part 2 | |
| Director: | Bill Condon |
| Writer: | Melissa Rosenberg, Stephanie Meyer |
| Starring | Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner |
| Studio: | Temple Hill |
| Release Date | November 16, 2012 |
The first three Twilight films boiled with sexual desire that could never be quenched in a thinly veiled analogy for abstinence. Once the vows of marriage were made in the fourth entry, Breaking Dawn – Part 1, Bella entered a twisted fairy tale where the swan is reverted to an ugly duckling. She was heavily bruised through rough sex, literally feasted upon by unborn child and husband, and left for dead. The pent up sexual frustration continues to find violent outlets when she is resurrected for Breaking Dawn – Part 2. However, this final installment still maintains a prudeness that doesn’t allow for a satisfying climax; only giving a peek of enjoyable possibilities before quickly covering up.
Bella (Stewart) is now a vampire; having been saved by husband Edward’s (Pattinson) bite that granted her immortality after nearly dying while giving birth. The Volturi, a ruling class of vampires, believe the half-human, half-vampire newborn may threaten the stability between their kind and humans. Bella and Edward must create an alliance between vampires and werewolves if they want to protect the child from the diabolic plans of the Volturi.
The film lacks a sense of irony. I often found myself laughing at the film when I should have easily been laughing with it. For example, Bella must learn to act mortal again to keep her transformation secret. It’s humorous to watch her practice breathing and how to casually slouch because of Stewart’s reputation for being emotionless and stone faced. However, the humor seems unaware of Stewart’s perceived coldness and relies on the actress’s attempt at physical comedy rather than giving the audience a knowing wink. The entire Twilight Saga must receive some kind of erotic gratification from its broodiness if after five films it just can’t relax and have some fun.
The movie also doesn’t understand what makes for an exciting protagonist. Twilight’s vampires are more like superheroes than the classic Dracula. Each character has a unique power—elemental control, telepathy, electric bursts—to accompany the super strength and speed given to all the creatures of the shade (sunlight doesn’t harm them, only makes them sparkle). However, after waiting so long for Bella to become super, her empowerment is backhanded. She can only block other vampires’ more impressive talents. The result is a heroine, already scorned by feminists for being too passive, who mostly stands around projecting invisible forcefields instead of bloodying her fangs in the climactic battle versus the Volturi.
This battle becomes an orgasm of severed heads that somehow maintains a PG-13 rating. The story takes some risks by having major characters decapitated. While the action is merely adequate, there is a certain pleasure with its excess. Or at least there is until the script decides it isn’t that kind of movie. Even these most exciting moments are positioned as safe, unfulfilling fantasies.
There is little gratification to be had as the film frustratingly embodies the franchise’s abstinence subtext. The non-recommendable Breaking Dawn – Part 2 refuses to penetrate the deeper desires of those who committed to the saga.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and other formats March 2, 2013.
Movie Review: The Package
There is nothing good inside this Package
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| The Package | |
| Starring | Steve Austin, Dolph Lundgren, Michael Daingerfield, Darren Shahlavi |
| Director: | Jesse V. Johnson |
| Writer: | Derek Kolstad |
| Studio: | Anchor Bay Entertainment |
| Release Date: | February 9, 2013 |
I knew what to expect from Anchor Bay’s The Package. Any film starring Steve Austin (no longer Stone Cold) and Dolph Lundgren is not going to have touching character moments, powerful acting performances, a gripping story, or eye-popping special effects. These types of movies exist to deliver some base thrills with lots of bone-crunching fights and explosive gunfire. But even viewers with those low expectations will leave disappointed in this adrenaline-free shoot-em-up.
The very loose plot of The Package is a rip-off of Jason Statham’s successful Transporter films. Austin plays a mob enforcer tasked with delivering a small package of high importance to The German (Lundgren). Along the way a squad of goons tries to stop Austin in the hopes of ransoming the package to The German for a higher price. The goons just hope to make some money, but as no one knows the contents of the package the goons have no stakes in successfully stealing it from Austin. This makes all the gunfire and fistfights a mere stalling tactic, dragging this film to feature-length.
Unfortunately, the fights are not even entertaining. Directed by veteran Hollywood stuntman Jesse V. Johnson (Starship Troopers, Thor), this film proves just because you can do stunts doesn’t mean you can direct them. The gunfights are loud but uninventive, and the hand-to-hand brawls are all shot with the close-up, choppy, shaky-cam effect that was passé a decade ago. None of the fights even come close to the outrageous WWE matches of Austin’s past.
The movie hits the depths of stupidity when Austin battles one goon in a construction zone. In the background, atop scaffolding, stand two welders going about their work. The light of their arc welder provides a cool strobe-light effect and delivers the only impressive visual in the movie. Despite two large men engaging in mortal combat mere inches from their work area, the teamsters work doesn’t stop. Their torch never turns off, even though a body colliding with their scaffold would likely jolt the machine and scar the workers for life.
If the welders don’t care, why should I?
The high point in this movie is The German. Lundgren plays this mysterious bad-ass for humor. Obsessed with culinary delights, The German regales his victims with recipes for fish sandwiches, fruit smoothies, and martinis. While even in his heyday Lundgren was never one for emoting on-screen, here the aging tough-guy has a subdued sense of playfulness that makes me wish he was given more to do.
Despite the movie saying Lundgren and Austin were on the same side, audience demand the two stars face off, and sure enough they do. This climactic battle between these two action stars should be the most spectacular and memorable fight in the film. Unfortunately, the battle is over in moments, and pales in comparison to some earlier in the film.
Even the most undiscerning action film fan will be disappointed in The Package. It’s an action movie that lacks punch and punches. Not recommend.
New Podcast: A Good Day to Die Hard
25 years ago Bruce Willis delivered his career-making performance as John McClane in the original Die Hard. To celebrate this milestone, John McClane is back, once again showing terrorists that McClanes are hard to kill as he teams with his son to fight Russian terrorists. Is this film a good day for Die Hard? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDH06.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: Side Effects
A potent final dose of Soderbergh magic
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| Side Effects | |
| Starring | Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum |
| Director: | Steven Soderbergh |
| Writer: | Scott Z Burns |
| Studio: | Endgame Entertainment |
| Release Date: | February 8, 2013 |
Steven Soderbergh, exhausted from shooting twenty-seven features in twenty-four years, recently announced he’s retiring from moviemaking, and that new medical thriller Side Effects will be his last theatrical effort. I hope he’s pulling our leg. It’s been a joy to watch the unpredictable 50-year-old filmmaker hone his craft – bouncing from big Hollywood projects with star-heavy casts (Ocean’s Eleven, Out of Sight) to modestly budgeted indie experiments anchored by untraditional leads (Bubble, The Girlfriend Experience). Side Effects finds Soderbergh ending his career where he started it – using video to package sex, lies, and headshrinkers into provocative entertainment.
The screenplay, written by Scott Z. Burns (Contagion), asks a prescient question of our overly-medicated age – can pills, or the people who push them, be rightfully accused of murder. Jude Law stars as Dr. Jonathan Banks, a Manhattan psychiatrist who prescribes Ablixa to his suicidal patient Emily (Rooney Mara) to help her stay strong for a husband (Channing Tatum) recently sprung from jail. Emily initially shows mood improvement, but then commits a senseless act of violence while sleepwalking under the influence of the wonder drug. Now prosecutors must decide if she deserves to go to prison for a crime she did not consciously commit, or if blame can be shifted to a reckless shrink who valued drug company kickbacks over his patients’ mental health.
Side Effects is at its best during this first half debate, where the audience is asked to parse out the truth from morally ambiguous behavior. It’s fun to speculate whether Banks’ interest in Emily is strictly professional when he prioritizes sessions with the damaged beauty over spending time with his wife and stepson. Our bias that he was blinded by love only grows stronger when accusations resurface that he slept with a former patient. Law and Mara have excellent poker faces, and Soderbergh knows exactly when to duck out of their scenes together to keep audiences guessing their true feelings.
The filmmaker’s need to flip the script on the conventions of psychological thrillers, and deliver a culprit that isn’t a stereotypical mad doctor misogynist, leads to an improbable climax far removed from the initial promise of a hard-hitting pharmaceutical industry expose. Yet it’s a credit to Soderbergh’s skills as a storyteller and director of quality actors that he’s able to give the lurid conspiracy of his broadly drawn villains its own wonky appeal. Viewers who understand that what they’re consuming is strictly meant for recreational use, and doesn’t achieve the scope of a drug epic like Traffic, will likely be satisfied with the contact high they get off this better-than-average B-movie.
Side Effects, despite a few adverse reactions to the ending, is a Solid Recommend, and a reminder that Soderbergh can work miracles when treating familiar genre material with his intelligent cinematic approach. Here’s hoping the self-prescribed bed rest will cure the filmmaker of his fatigue, and inspire him to return to making more eclectic entertainment in the not-so-distant future.
New Podcast: Live Free or Die Hard
It had been over a decade since Bruce Willis last played gruff, resilient New York cop John McClane and most fans thought the series finished. But in 2007 it was time for McClane to return to Live Free or Die Hard. Teamed with a computer hacker played by Justin Long, does McClane still have what it takes to stop a cyber-terrorist attack and save his daughter? And is a much older Willis still able to Die Hard? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDH05.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Die Hard with a Vengeance
John McClane is back, and for his third film he’s going to Die Hard with a Vengeance. He’s been called back into action by a mysterious terrorist with ties to McClane’s past. Partnered with Zeus, played by Samuel L. Jackson, and once again directed by John McTiernan, can this be the best Die Hard yet? Listen to Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDH04.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: The Watch
Men in Black it isn’t.
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| The Watch | |
| Starring | Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade |
| Director: | Akiva Schaffer |
| Writer: | Jared Stern, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg |
| Studio: | 20th Century Fox |
| Release Date: | July 27, 2012 |
When Evan’s (Stiller) co-worker is found dead, Evan responds the only way he can–by forming a Neighborhood Watch group to find the killer. Joined by high school dropout and failed police candidate Franklin (Hill), British horndog Jamarcus (Ayoade), and party-guy construction worker Bob (Vaughn) the foursome uncover an invasion plot by extra terrestrials that threatens their small Ohio town.
As a fan of the three of the four stars (I’d not heard of Ayoade before this film) I ignored the word of mouth on The Watch and gave it a try. The Vaughn/Stiller team-up led to big laughs in Dodgeball and I hoped for a similar experience here. Surely enough, neither actor strays far from their wheelhouse–how often have we seen Stiller play a neurotic, pent-up suburbanite who can’t tell his loved ones about a personal failure? And once again Vaughn is playing the carefree party-guy who both parties like a college student and yet is also a devoted family man. These actors have had huge successes playing these exact characters, and they play it safe here. It’s a smart choice–all the film’s laughs come from these two characters and their opposing view of the group.
The other two Watch members are not as amusing. Hill once again plays a somewhat socially awkward sidekick. It worked for him well in Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but it was disappointing to see him again playing the same character. All of Franklin’s dialogue has an ad-libbed feel that would work in any film Hill has appeared, and becomes less funny and more sad every time I see it. Avoade’s Jamarcus makes little impression as a British divorce. His character is important to the plot, but Avoade never escapes the shadow of his more famous co-stars.
The result is a highly uneven film. While ostensibly about an alien invasion, the first two-thirds of the film are really about these characters and their interactions. We also see Evan and Bob having trouble with the women in their lives, Evan’s marriage strained, Bob’s daughter partying too hard with a boy in school. These parts of the film are full of raunchy laughs and hard-R rated dick jokes, several of which were laugh-out-loud funny.
But when the film finally has to turn to the overarching plot it fails completely. It was a mistake to make this film about an alien invasion; the film has neither the budget nor the inclination to tell a good story about evil E.T.s. The film’s entire third act when the invasion comes to the fore is a painful exercise in banality.
Overall I give this film a mild not recommend. There are laughs to be had in this movie, but the three leads have all had bigger laughs in better films, and only Stiller and Vaughn die-hards need to Watch this for the few funny moments.
New Podcast: 58 Minutes by Walter Wager
The original Die Hard movie was based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. But as Thorp’s novel had no sequel, 20th Century Fox had no road map for where to take John McClane in the sequel Die Hard 2. Instead, the studio and screenwriters took Walter Wager’s 1987 novel 58 Minutes about an NYPD officer who has to fight off terrorists at JFK airport. What other changes are there between the book and the film, and is the book worth your time? Spend 14 minutes listening to Stuart’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN059-DieHard3-58Minutes.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Die Hard 2: Die Harder
When Die Hard blew up both Nakatomi Plaza and the box office a sequel was fast-tracked and released in 1990. Attempting to top the action and excitement of the original, 20th Century Fox chose a script based on the original novel 58 Minutes and put the film in the hands of director Renny Harlin. Set in an airport with John fighting another group of terrorists, does Die Hard 2 fly as high as the original, or did it all come crashing down? Listen to Jakob, Stuart, and Arnie to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDH03.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp
Die Hard is based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. The novel was a sequel to The Detective, and starred an old police detective named Joe Leland. The movie made the hero younger and changed his name to John McClane. What other changes are there between the book and the film, and is the book worth a read? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN058-DieHard2-NothingLastsForever.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Die Hard
Its title became short-hand for an action movie template that would be followed for a decade. It propelled star Bruce Willis to superstardom, making him never need to work in television again. It brought joy, and Ode to Joy, to millions of fans. It is the original 1988 action film Die Hard. As we ramp up for the fifth installment in Bruce Willis’ most famous franchise, can Die Hard hold up 25 years later? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDH02.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Movie Review: Officer Down
A tight neo-noir thriller with an amazing cast.
Review Copy provided to Now Playing courtesy of Anchor Bay films
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| Officer Down | |
| Starring | Stephen Dorff, James Woods, Walton Goggins, AnnaLynne McCord, Dominic Purcell, David Boreanaz, Laura Harris, Elisabeth Röhm |
| Director: | Brian A. Miler |
| Writer: | John Chase |
| Studio: | Anchor Bay Films |
| Release Date: | January 22, 2013 |
Detective David Callahan was a dirty cop. He took payoffs from criminals, abused alcohol and drugs, and cheated on his wife with prostitutes. But when a drug deal goes bad and Callahan is shot and given a chance at redemption. Declared a hero by the community, Callahan cleans up. But two years later when the man who saved his life that night shows up and asks a favor, Callahan must return to the seedy underworld he once inhabited to stop a sexual predator called “The Angel” (Goggins). But nothing is as it seems, and Callahan’s past will return to haunt him as he tries to find the line between doing what is right and slipping back into the habits of the man he once was.
As Callahan, Dorff (Blade, Feardotcom) portrays a likeable, layered character. For the story to work Callahan must be a likable character that the audience can root for in spite of his dirty deeds, and Dorff brings the right mix of bad-boy and earnest cop to the role. You believe he is wanting, and deserving, redemption for his sins, and his personal downward spiral is the center of the film. The story’s framing structure of flashbacks-within-a-flashback reveal key plot points to the viewer in a way that allows claustrophobia to build as the walls close in around Callahan. While at first a disorienting storytelling structure, as the film hits its rhythm this technique is used to maximum effect, and repeatedly pulls the rug out from under the viewer.
This is a neo-noir thriller, full of twists and turns in the style of Body Heat or Against All Odds, even casting the latter film’s star Woods at the role of Callahan’s complicit police captain. The film style, including several scenes in black-and-white, enhance the noir style as well. Once I realized this film was a deep mystery, and not a straightforward dirty-cop drama, I was engaged and found myself rooting for Callahan and wondering what insurmountable obstacle would step in his way next. But the script by Chase kept me guessing, and even as the film’s final act started the script still had ways to surprise me.
The script is aided by a cast of name actors, mostly from television work. Several Law & Order alums are in supporting roles, as well as two stars of Angel. The budget of this film was well spent on capable actors. But despite being recognizable faces, most of the cast is kept to the background with only Dorff, and to a lesser degree Goggins (Predators, House of 1000 Corpses) being given a chance to make a lasting impression. In the role of a dirty strip club owner is Purcell (Prison Break, Blade: Trinity) and I can’t help but wonder if Purcell and Dorff spent time on set sharing Wesley Snipes war stories. But if so, none of that levity made it to screen as the dark, suspenseful atmosphere of Officer Down is never broken.
Full of impressive camerawork, including some nice aerial establishing shots of the film’s Bridgeport, CT locale, every piece of this film comes together better than your average direct-to-video fare.
Title cards that end the film feel tacked on for audiences that hate ambiguity, but other than that one element every part of this film clicks. For fans of character-driven suspense I recommend Officer Down, available Tuesday, January 22 from Anchor Bay home video.
New Podcast: The Detective by Roderick Thorp
Die Hard is based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. But Nothing Lasts Forever was itself a sequel to The Detective, a story of a police detective in the 1960s. That detective is Joe Leland, who would take his place in cinema history once renamed John McClane. Now our own reviewer Stuart investigates the literary history of the action movie character. Does he detect a good novel? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN057-DieHard1-TheDetective.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: The Detective
A homosexual socialite is murdered and dismembered, and it’s up to hard-boiled police Detective Joe Leland to figure it out! But there’s more to this case than meets the eye, and events will be set in motion that reveal a conspiracy among New York City’s elite that Leland can only stop at the cost of his own career. With Frank Sinatra in the lead role, The Detective is a racy drama…but what does it have to do with Die Hard? And is the movie worth checking out? Listen to Stuart, Arnie, and Jakob’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPDH01.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Texas Chainsaw 3D
After Platinum Dunes recovered Leatherface from direct-to-video hell, they relinquished their rights to the franchise, so Twisted Pictures and Lions Gate Entertainment stepped in to take the series back to its grindhouse roots. Ignoring all Texas Chainsaw films except the original, this new 3-D film picks up right where the first ended, and then fast forwards to present day. Is this the sequel Tobe Hooper’s classic has always deserved, or another waste of gas? Listen to Stuart, Arnie, and Brock’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPTCM07.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: New Year’s Evil
In Los Angeles, a man calling himself “Evil” has a novel way to celebrate the coming of a new year–killing a woman every hour as a new time zone enters 1981! In New Year’s Evil we follow the man as he rings in the year, and harasses TV host Blaze in between. Should you resolve to see this movie, or is this a slasher best forgot and never brought to mind? Listen to Stuart, Arnie, and Marjorie’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPP037NYE.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Year’s Evil
In Los Angeles, a man calling himself “Evil” has a novel way to celebrate the coming of a new year–killing a woman every hour as a new time zone enters 1981! In New Year’s Evil we follow the man as he rings in the year, and harasses TV host Blaze in between. Should you resolve to see this movie, or is this a slasher best forgot and never brought to mind? Listen to Stuart, Arnie, and Marjorie’s review to find out!
Arnie C: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPP035NYE.MP3
New Podcast: Silent Night
Just in time for the holiday season, genre film studio Anchor Bay released a remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night! Only loosely based on the original, and titled simply Silent Night, the new version brings star power before unseen in the franchise, with Malcolm McDowell, Donal Logue, and Jamie King starring in the film about a psychotic Santa who kills those who are naughty. Is this modern version of Silent Night a Christmas treat, or another lump of coal left in the Christmas stocking? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSNDN6.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker
The Silent Night, Deadly Night films have always been loose with continuity, but in Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker we see yet another exploration of Christmas evil when an angsty Pinocchio unleashes deadly toys upon an unsuspecting young boy. With outspoken Silent Night, Deadly Night hater Mickey Rooney playing a drunken Gepetto, does this film have more to it than delicious irony? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSNDN5.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation
After three films exploring the homicidal impulses of the Caldwell (or is it Chapman) family, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 goes a different direction as a wannabe journalist investigates a case of spontaneous combustion in Los Angeles during Christmas season. Is a cult of Lilith worshipers a good replacement for a homicidal maniac, and is the Ricky played in this film by Clint Howard the same Ricky we’ve seen in the previous three films? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSNDN4.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation
After three films exploring the homicidal impulses of the Caldwell (or is it Chapman) family, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 goes a different direction as a wannabe journalist investigates a case of spontaneous combustion in Los Angeles during Christmas season. Is a cult of Lilith worshipers a good replacement for a homicidal maniac, and is the Ricky played in this film by Clint Howard the same Ricky we’ve seen in the previous three films? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSNDN4.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!
Ricky is back! After being shot at the end of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, Ricky’s brain-dead body is revived after a connection with a blind psychic. With horror vet Bill Moseley taking over the role of Ricky Robert Culp as the cop chasing the killer, and several connections to the classic TV series Twin Peaks, this sequel has more brains on display than the previous two films, but is it better? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSNDN3.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2
The first Silent Night, Deadly Night film was pulled from theaters due to protests, but in the age of home video it found a second life on VHS. Anxious to capitalize on the first film’s notoriety the studio decided to rush through a no-budget sequel, recycling most of the original film into a Part 2. Despite the humble beginnings, the film has gone on to surpass the original in infamy and YouTube fame, spawning a meme and a strange catch-phrase. Is this movie something to add to your Christmas wish list? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Marjorie’s review to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSNDN2.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Octopussy by Ian Fleming
Brock is back to review the final Ian Fleming James Bond short story from the Octopussy and The Living Daylights collection. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. So join us as we complete this look with our final review, discussing the short story Octopussy.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN056-Bond18-Octopussy.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Silent Night, Deadly Night
In November, 1984 one of the most famous movie slashers hit theaters–Freddy Kruger. But that same day, another serial killer film was released that drew far more attention and ire–Silent Night, Deadly Night. Outside theaters across the country people protested the film featuring a bloodthirsty man in a Santa suit, and the film was quickly pulled from theaters. But over the years it has become a cult favorite horror film, spawning several sequels and, this year, a remake. Join Now Playing hosts Marjorie, Arnie, and Stuart as they watch and review this 1984 classic. Is this movie naughty or nice? Listen to find out!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPSNDN1.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: The Man With the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming
James Bond was presumed dead after the Blofeld trilogy ends, and before Fleming could revive the spy that brought him fame the author himself died. Published posthumously, The Man With the Golden is Fleming’s final Bond novel, and Stuart is back to review it, continuing Books & Nachos’ reviews of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond prose stories. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. In this podcast, join Stuart as he reviews The Man With the Golden Gun.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN055-Bond17-ManWithGoldenGun.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Skyfall
After reviewing 25 movies released over the span of 50 years, Now Playing reaches the conclusion of its James Bond retrospective series–Skyfall. Continuing the rebooted spy stories starring Daniel Craig, Skyfall has already become the top-grossing film in the James Bond franchise, and there is even rumblings of Academy Award honors. But can it really best Craig’s Casino Royale, and how does a life long Bond fan warm to this new take? Listen to Now Playing’s ultimate James Bond review to find out! Plus the hosts reflect on all 25 Bond films, picking the best and worst actors, film, and songs from the franchise!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPBOND25.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Quantum of Solace
In 2006 we got a new take on an old hero with James Bond in Casino Royale, but while the film told of the spy’s first adventure questions were left unanswered. Who were the mysterious people to whom Le Chiffre owed money? Who is the mysterious employer behind Mr. White? These answers were to be revealed two years later in the follow-up film Quantum of Solace. With Daniel Craig returning and a title taken from an original Fleming story, can this film live up to the high praise given to Casino Royale? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Brock’s review to find out in Now Playing’s penultimate James Bond review leading directly to this year’s blockbuster Skyfall!
Listen Now: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPRBOND24.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming
Brock is back to complete Books & Nachos’ reviews of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond prose stories, this time looking at the final book in the so-called Blofeld trilogy of novels. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. In this podcast, join Brock as he reviews You Only Live Twice.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN054-Bond16-YouOnlyLiveTwice.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Casino Royale (2006)
James Bond made his first appearance in Ian Fleming’s novels in 1953 in the novel Casino Royale, and in 2006 a brand new James Bond makes his first appearance in a film based on that novel. Rights issues had prevented Eon from adapting the original James Bond story as part of their film series, but with the rights obtained they used that opportunity to present a new James Bond for a new generation. Not just a new actor in the role, but an entirely new take on the MI6 agent, showing his origin, his obtaining his double-oh status, and going on his first mission to win a high stakes poker game against international terrorist Le Chiffre. But did Bond need a reboot? And how does Craig stack up against the previous Bond? Listen to Arnie, Stuart, and Brock’s review to find out!
: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPRBOND23.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Die Another Day
It’s James Bond’s first adventure in the 21st century, and Pierce Brosnan’s last time playing the role of the British secret agent. Partnered with Halle Berry’s NSA agent Jinx Johnson, can the two stop a North Korean terrorist’s nefarious plot? It’s a film celebrating the lore of Bond, but not very celebrated by Bond fans. Is the reputation deserved, and what final impression does Brosnan leave as Bond? Listen to Now Playing to find out!
: http://www.nowplayingpodcast.com/Podcasts/NPPRBOND22.MP3
Category: Movies & Film
New Podcast: Property of a Lady and 007 in New York by Ian Fleming
Brock goes back to the last Ian Fleming James Bond book ever released to review two more short stories from the Octopussy and The Living Daylights collection. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. So make a plate of scrambled eggs and take a listen to Brock as he reviews Property of a Lady and 007 in New York
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN053-Bond15-PropertyNewYork.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Ian Fleming
James Bond is back, as is our book reviewer Brock, continuing his reviews of Ian Fleming’s works. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. In this episode, join Brock as he reads the second novel in Fleming’s Blofeld trilogy – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN052-Bond14-OnHerMajesty.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming
James Bond in a hard boiled detective story with a femme fatale and an enemy with metal teeth–it’s all in The Spy Who Loved Me, an original novel by Ian Fleming. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. In this episode, join Stuart as he reads and reviews another original James Bond novel.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN051-Bond13-SpyWhoLovedMe.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: The Living Daylights by Ian Fleming
The book title is Octopussy (or sometimes Octopussy and The Living Daylights) but in this Ian Fleming book is actually a collection of short stories. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. In this episode, join Brock as he reads and reviews the first-published short story from this collection — The Living Daylights.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN050-Bond12-LivingDaylights.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: Thunderball by Ian Fleming
It’s a Bond story that started as a screenplay, then became a book, then became a film! But in Ian Fleming’s eighth Bond novel such Bond film staples are born as Blofeld, SPECTRE, and a story made into not one but two James Bond movies. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. In this episode, join Brock as he reads and reviews Fleming’s eighth Bond novel — Thunderball.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN049-Bond11-Thunderball.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming – Part 3
Brock is back finishing his reviews of Ian Fleming’s James Bond short stories collected in the book For Your Eyes Only. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. In this episode, join Brock as he reads and reviews the titular short story of the collection–For Your Eyes Only.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN048-Bond10-ForYourEyesOnly.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
New Podcast: For Your Eyes Only by Ian Fleming – Part 2
Brock is back continuing his reviews of Ian Fleming’s James Bond short stories collected in the book For Your Eyes Only. As part of James Bond’s 50th Anniversary, the podcast Now Playing is reviewing all of the James Bond films and we at Books & Nachos are looking at all of Fleming’s original Bond novels and short stories. In this episode, join Brock as he reads and reviews the next two short stories Risico and From a View to a Kill.
Listen Now: http://www.booksandnachos.com/Podcasts/BN047-Bond09-RisicoAndView.mp3
Category: Arts & Literature
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