I wanted to enjoy Ang Lee’s Hulk, I really did. And, up until the last half hour or so, it wasn’t bad. But it suffered from “Return of the King Disease”: It. Just. Would. Not. End! Two hours and twenty minutes to do what Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby used to do in less than half that time? I’m all for psychological complexity, but come on… Where’s the editor when you need him?

The second film has been announced, with Transporter director Louis Leterrier attached. I’m ambivalent about the choice, because I’ve only seen one of the man’s films, the first Transporter, which was entertaining enough, although it lacked much in the way of depth or plausibility. But then, this is a movie about a giant, green monster who breaks things. Still, to succeed, I think that the second Hulk film needs to follow the Superman II mold. Here’s a breakdown of what Leterrier & Co. can learn from the Man of Steel: Read on »

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I have vivid memories of discovering Mystery Science Theater 3000. It would have been about 1996, and as I was sitting in my tiny college dorm room, flipping through the stations, I landed on Comedy Central and saw some shadowy figures mocking a black and white film. I’m pretty sure the phrase “stately Wayne Manor” was involved. I was hooked. Unfortunately, CC cancelled the show not long after, and though the Sci-Fi Channel brought the show back for another three seasons (thank God), I didn’t get that station until the show had been cancelled once again.

Fortunately, the amazing folks at Rhino Home Video have seen fit to take up the cause, and have released more than a quarter of the show’s 198 episode run on DVD. (The 11th four-disc collection will be released in late June, bringing the total up to 52 episodes, not including shorts collections.) But Rhino’s releases are largely dictated by rights availability, leaving some gaping holes in the released episodes. What should they release next? Here are my personal top twelve most-hoped-for episodes, broken down by era. Read on »

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Probably more people have seen Unfaithful than the French original La Femme Infidele. The older film was written and directed by Claude Chabrol in 1969. The prolific Chabrol, a member of the French New Wave, has been making films since 1958 and is still going strong with a new film in the works. Chabrol made a name for himself by co-writing the first serious study of the films of Alfred Hitchcock. A superficial look at Chabrol’s films often compares him to his idol.

Unliike Hitchcock, Chabrol’s films usually have much more domestic settings and can be looked at as examinations of family’s coming apart. While based on a book by Ruth Rendell, The Bridesmaid, made in 2004, has many of the same concerns that can be found in earlier Chabrol films. Like Hitchcock’s films, murder is integral to the story. The basic plot may remind many of Strangers on a Train.

The bridesmaid, a young woman named Senta, is madly in love with the bride’s brother, Philippe. She tries to convince Philippe that in order to prove that their love is true, and that they are capable of living fully, they must do four things - plant a tree, write a poem, make love to someone of the same sex, and murder someone. Without giving the story away, I’ll only say that nothing is planted, there’s no poetry, and the only sex is between Senta and Philippe.

There is a text interview with the DVD where Chabrol’s Hitchcockian influences are discussed, specifically in regards to Psycho. There are no shrieking violins or scenes of mayhem in Chabrol’s film. Chabrol has developed his own style over the years, perhaps seen best in Merci pour le chocolat. I would recommend The Bridesmaid to those who understands that when it comes to Alfred Hitchcock, there is a difference between being inspiration and imitation.

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Action movie director Tony Scott has optioned a Vanity Fair article on the documentary maker Pat Dollard, according to a recent Hollywood Reporter article. When I first heard this, I almost snorted in disgust. Scott isn’t known for his subtleties. I’ve nothing against action directors, in fact I think Hollywood is in desperate need of a few good ones (Zack Snyder, are you the answer to my prayers?). But I’ve always found Scott over the top and downright irritating.

Then again, after looking into who Pat Dollard is, should I be surprised? Dollard started his career as an agent, helping Steven Soderbergh start his life as a director. Dollard was the typical agent, boozing, schmoozing, and talking the talk. But somewhere along the way he had a change of heart, and joined the Marines sent to Iraq, spending weeks in some of the most dangerous battle zones. Will the resulting film really be a gung-ho action pic about the man with the moving camera picking up a gun and taking action? Read on »

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The only thing perfect about Perfect Stranger is Halle Berry’s hair. No matter what situation she finds herself in, Berry always looks great. Bruce Willis, meanwhile, wears a strange hairpiece that appears to be in dire need of a date with a comb. The biggest problem with Perfect Stranger in addition to the generic title, is that the film ends up being less interesting than it should be.

Berry plays an investigative reporter who poses as a temp to get the goods on suspected murderer Bruce Willis. The plot, even when explained at the end, doesn’t make complete sense. The beginning of the film wasn’t just ripped from the headlines, it was hardly re-written - a scene designed to show of Berry as a crusading journalist who is always on the right side of the issues. That scene plays like an episode of “Law and Order: SVU”. Once the mystery starts, Perfect Stranger goes downhill, titillating the audience with lurid details about the characters, and then scolding the characters for not being total straight-arrows. As has been demonstrated in previous films, shots of hands on keyboards and online conversations does not make for compelling drama.

I have to wonder if director James Foley was overwhelmed with what is essentially a showcase for two big stars in a big-budget film. Foley’s best films have been on a smaller scale, and even if one gives most of the credit of Glengarry Glen Ross to author David Mamet, Foley still has Reckless, After Dark, My Sweet and Confidence among his credits. The images of the inside of eyes, and the recurrent theme of people watching other people or uncovering personal secrets made me think of Fritz Lang. The classic filmmaker frequently covered similar material throughout his career in films like Beyond a Reasonable Doubt and the “Dr. Mabuse” series. Unfortunately, Perfect Stranger is too big and glossy to be the tight, nasty thriller it should have been.

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Two studios, 20th Century Fox and Universal have taken some older films out of the vault. In an attempt to cash in on any interest generated by a blockbuster franchise starring Johnny Depp, several films will be available on DVD for the first time. The films represent an era when movies about pirates were a viable genre, as well as films where scores were settled by swords instead of guns.

The better of the two forthcoming sets is “Tyrone Power: The Swashbuckler Box Set”. For those not familiar with Power, he was a handsome and very popular star, something like the Brad Pitt of his era, from the mid-Thirties until his untimely death in 1958. The five film set is somewhat misnamed, as one of the films, Blood and Sand, is about bullfighters, while Prince of Foxes is about the Borgias in Renaissance Italy. The other titles are The Black Rose, Son of Fury and The Captain from Castille. While there is lots of sword fighting, none of these is a pirate film. For those interested in seeing Power as a pirate, The Black Swan is already out on DVD.

For films actually about pirates, Universal is presenting there four film “Pirates of the Golden Age Movie Collection “. The closest to a classic in this bunch is Against All Flags made in 1950, starring Errol Flynn. The original Captain Blood was getting pretty anemic by the time he made this film co-starring Anthony Quinn and Maureen O’Hara. The other three titles make you wonder about Universal’s priorities considering some of the titles they have still in the vaults like this film starring Tony Curtis or this prophetic look at popular media. Two of the pirate films, Buccaneer’s Girl and Yankee Buccaneer were directed by Frederick De Cordova, a guy who found more rewarding success in his long association with Johnny Carson. Also included is Double Crossbones, a musical comedy pirate movie starring Donald O’Connor, best remembered as Gene Kelly’s partner in Singin’ in the Rain. In other words, it’s nice that these movies are on DVD, but while some movies are keepers, some are clearly best part of the rental queue.

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It takes place in an English boarding school, the students get into all sorts of trouble, the film will star many top British actors, and Harry Potter is nowhere in sight!

Flying a bit under the radar at the moment in the U.S., but big film news in Britain, is news of a new “St. Trinian’s” film. Originating from the comic drawings of famed illustrator Ronald Searle, the cartoons were the chronicles of some very mischievous schoolgirls. The films were about the misadventures of the students: smoking, gambling, and generally making life hell for the teachers. The older girls were quite fashion forward for the early Fifties, wearing very short skirts that never covered their suspenders, occassionally allowing for the quick flash of knickers (that’s garters and panties for those in the States). The photo above is of Sabrina in her graduating class uniform in Blue Murder at St. Trinian’s.

Not only is there to be a new film, primarily based on the first of the series, The Belles of St. Trinian’s, but many well-respected names in British cinema have signed on to be part of this film, currently titled, St. Trinian. Taking on Alastair Sim’s dual role as school headmistress Millicent Fritton and ne’er do well brother Clarence, is Rupert Everett. Other cast members include Lena Headey from 300, Toby Jones, the star of the other Truman Capote movie, Colin Firth, Emily Watson, Stephen Fry and Richard E. Grant. Directing this formidable team of actors is Oliver Parker, best known for his film adaptations of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. The St. Trinian’s girls are much wilder than Wilde’s bunch, but Everett has demonstrated how funny he can be stealing My Best Friend’s Wedding and the lively zombie comedy Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore).

The original series was filmed by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, best known as the screenplay writers for Alfred Hitchock’s beloved 39 Steps. New editions of the films will probably be available to coincide with the release of the new film. While the original series became progressively less fun to watch, I am hoping that this new film is at least a hilarious one-shot, if not a new franchise of rude comedy.

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Two people decided to get detailed horoscopes on me. Strangely, I never new what the results of those horoscopes were, and over time, I’ve decided I would rather not know someone’s predictions for my future. First Snow is about a man who learns that his life will be over at the time the first snow falls in his New Mexico town. But on a deeper level, the film is about responsibility for one’s actions. The audience is asked to consider not only what kind of choices does one make make when you are told you will live for a limited amount of time, but also, what kind of responsibility is held by the “fortune teller”.

Guy Pearce portrays the salesman who finds himself temporarily stranded at a roadside stop with a bar, a garage, and little else, when he gets a flat tire. With nothing to do until the car is repaired, he kills time by visiting an itinerant fortune teller working out of his trailer. The fortune teller, sad sack actor J. K. Simmons, mentions a couple of things that eventually come true, but he also responds to touching Pearce with spasms. The session is cut short, the money given back. Pearce returns to the fortune teller to get details of how his life will end. During the course of the film, Pearce looks to various events from the past, and attempts to create strategies to outrun his fate.

First Snow was directed by Mark Fergus. Fergus, along with co-writer Hawk Ostby, were among the several screenplay writers for Children of Men. This is a thought provoking film, one that is played out on an intimate scale with only a handful of actors in settings that are often empty. The emptiness of the sets and surroundings reinforces the idea of Pearce’s solitude. His characters is named Jimmy Starks, a variation on James Dean’s Jim Stark in Rebel without a Cause. In Fergus’ film, Starks tries to rebel against his fate. Even though the audience has a vague idea of how the film will end, there are several twists and turns that may catch the attentive viewer off-guard. First Snow is currently playing in select cities throughout the U.S. I recommend taking the opportunity to see this film in a theater if you can.

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Well, it is to be expected. With Little Miss Sunshine bagging a few Oscars, we could count the seconds before similarly disappointing films would hit the cinemas. The Savages is due out in the US in September, and is billed as a “serious comedy”. From the outset, the film appeared good. But that’s mostly due to Laura Linney, who was excellent in The Squid and the Whale, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who, despite the film’s fatal flaws, deserved his Oscar for his portrayal of Capote.This is his first proper outing since then, excluding his miscast role in Mission Impossible 3.

The films looks like a cross between The Squid and the Whale and Little Miss Sunshine.  It’s the typical dysfunctional family, with a quirky and mad father, coming together in bouts of hilarity and poignancy. Or so the film’s makers wish. The difference between this and the two films above is that at least they were funny. From the trailer, the jokes in this film fall flat. Writer/director tries Tamara Jenkins her hand at the funny-because-it’s-true game, a type of film-making that’s light, nice, and safe, and rarely memorable. Take, for example, the final scene in the trailer, with the dysfunctional brother and sister helping themselves to biscuits during a meeting on dementia. It’s not awkward enough, it’s not clever enough, it’s just dull. And the trailer has little else, besides two accomplished actors, to make it rise above this era of formulaic U.S. independent cinema. Read on »

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After all the talk about Grindhouse being a tribute to the low-budget action films of the early Seventies, the film, in total, is a mixed bag. The closest approximations to the kinds of stuff I actually saw on 42nd Street back during those years is to be found in the hilarious previews by Robert Rodriguez, Edgar Wright and Rob Zombie. Of the two actual features by Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Rodriquez’ Planet Terror is the stronger, more sustained work.

What is a bit jarring are the anachronisms running rampant throughout the films. Both features have contemporary settings but a filmed, more or less, with drive-in aesthetics. The big difference is that Rodriguez maintains the look of an old film - the colors occassionally fade in and out, and at one point the film appears to have been caught in the projector and burns up. The story about a virus that turns people into man-eating zombies never lets up. The narrative doesn’t always make sense either, but Rodriguez simply keeps moving forward as we watch the members of a small Texas town shoot their way out of an impossible situation.

The main attraction of Planet Terror is watching Rose McGowan as a former go-go dancer. There is a visceral thrill when McGowan, to put it bluntly, lifts her leg, that is the one that has a machine gun in place. Planet Terror may also prove that Robert Rodriguez has spent a bit too much time looking at medical books, the kind illustrated with the most disgusting diseases ever photographed. There is enough blood, guts and goo for at least ten drive-in classics. It’s enough to make a film like Humanoids of the Deep look like the paragon of good taste.

Death Proof is Quentin Tarantino at his laziest. The film starts off reasonably well, especially after Kurt Russell invites Rose McGowan for a ride, and she finds herself trapped in the passenger seat of a car that is “death proof”, but only for the driver. Their is a jump to a scene of four women talking. And talking. And talking. There is a great movie about women talking, and it’s called The Women. It’s directed by George Cukor. Grindhouse tries to play with the audience by having missing reels in the two features, but if there was ever a scene by Tarantino that should have been cut, this is it.

After the laborious set-up, the women test drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger. One of the women does a stunt involving riding on the hood of the car. Russell reappears to ram his car into the Dodge, terrorizing the women. It’s fun to watch battling cars, but given a choice, I’d rather watch Fireball 500 or the original Vanishing Point.

The biggest problem is instead of trying to make a grindhouse film from start to finish, Tarantino uses Death Proof to show off his pop culture frames of reference. Using an instrumental by Jack Nitsche is a nice touch. I even enjoyed looking at the vintage movie posters on the walls of a bar. Tarantino shows off his pretensious side by having characters quote Robert Frost. Silly is when Russell discusses how the television series “The Virginian” evolved into “The Men from Shiloh”. Sillier is a discussion of the mostly forgotten 60s British band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.

For a truer grindhouse experience, there are plenty of DVDs with built in double features and previews, with the films that actually played grindhouses and drive-ins. As for the movie Grindhouse, wait for the DVD. I suspect that we will be able to see a special edition, one that includes the “missing reels”.

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Depending on where you live, this will be either a review or a very early preview. Sunshine, Danny Boyle’s new film, is out in Europe and most of the world this weekend. However, in the US the film was set for a March release, and has now been pushed back to September. While many of you who were sucked in by the early marketing campaign may now feel furious that you have another 6 month wait. I can only assume the distributor had a quick change of heart when looking at the release schedule and realised that the film would be overshadowed by 300, Premonition, Wild Hogs, and Dead Silence. It’s all about the money, kids.

Sunshine is set several decades in the future. A select crew of scientists and engineers aboard a ship, known as the Icarus 2 (hopeful title, that), are on their way to deliver a giant nuclear device. The sun is dying, and unless the nuke works its magic, the human race will die with it. As the ship gets closer to the sun, they encounter the Icarus 1, the first attempt to save the sun, which mysteriously failed, and debate whether to rendezvous or not. And then things get complicated, and through a series of incidents both accidental and deliberate, all hell breaks loose. Read on »

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As I prepared to write my review, I became worried about how I should word it. Any combination of the words ‘death’, ‘Bush’, ’shot’ and ‘president’ just may set off some kind of FBI warning that I’m just not ready for. Wait…too late.

Death Of A President is pretty much self explanatory. Much like the movie JFK, D.O.A.P (as the bloggers call it) chronicles the October assignation of President George Bush….that never happened. This film isn’t quite a mockumentary and it’s definitely not an actual documentary. It’s a fictionalized documentary that uses real footage mixed with scripted interviews and a dash of movie magic to tell the story of the shooting that ended George Bush’s life. The film takes place in Chicago at a convention for the local area’s businessmen. President Bush is scheduled to make an appearance as a lead speaker to talk about the economy and maybe sell a few thousand-dollar diners while he’s there. His arrival his ruined by the demonstration of over ten thousand permitted protestors covering the streets surrounding his hotel where the convention is taking place. The crowd becomes more and more unruly, making major breaches in security never seen before by any Secret Service of any administration. An already nervous security finds a way for the President to make his speech and prepare for the meet & greet before entering his armored limo and back to Washington D.C. What they don’t know is that Bush won’t be making the trip.

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With Series 3 of Lost well past the half-way mark, with last week’s screening of Episode 14, entitled Expose, what better time to examine a series that supposedly should be winding down, considering that its creators always claimed that they envisaged only 4 seasons. Be warned, there’s plenty of SPOILERS for those not au fait with the U.S screenings.

A criticism that has been aimed at the show since its inception is the debatable imbalance between the mysterious and the ridiculous. Many claim that its mystery is simply a cynical ploy to keep people watching in the hope that the mystery will be revealed. There are plenty of examples of this, the most obvious being the big monster that terrorised the heroes from Day 1. We’ve seen it in the form of a giant Polar Bear, and mostly in the form of a cloud of smoke. It has already killed, but besides that we know nothing.

The claim that the mysteries are just empty attempts to ensure attention can be strengthened with the show seemingly replacing unanswered questions with more mysterious issues. Read on »

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While I am looking forward to the upcoming Grindhouse, I also am looking back to the time when I saw movies at the so-called grindhouses of New York City’s 42nd Street back in the Seventies. For less than the cost of a single first run film, you could see a double feature. Sometimes 42nd Street was the only place you could see some of these films in Manhattan. I did see some very respectable films there like Murder on the Orient Express and Bingo Long and the Traveling All Stars. But more often what I saw were low budget productions from Roger Corman or classic sex comedies from Russ Meyer. Sometimes the best part of 42nd Street was seeing previews to movies you would never want to see in full like Ilsa, She-wolf of the SS or The Incredible Torture Show. The following list are some favorite films seen in the grindhouses of yesterday -

1. They Came from Within. Officially known as Shivers, this was David Cronenberg’s first feature. I had read about his experimental films and made a point of seeing this. I’m not sure if anyone in the audience was prepared for this combination of science fiction, sex and horror. I sure wasn’t, but I’ve been watching Cronenberg ever since. Admittedly, those parasites in the bathtub freaked me out.

2. Bury Me an Angel. Biker films continued to get made a few years after the success of Easy Rider, a film with grindhouse roots. Written and directed by Barbara Peters, Bury Me an Angel is about a lone woman biker out to revenge her brother’s murder. The film stars the imposingly tall Dixie Peabody, and future Grizzly Adams, Dan Haggerty.

3. Cherry, Harry & Raquel. This is vintage Russ Meyer, and his last indie film before signing up with Fox to make Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Charles Napier plays a crooked sherrif who smuggles marijuana, and nearly gets blown up with sticks of dynamite placed between his legs. While Napier made more movies with Meyer, the two starring nudie cuties, Larissa Ely and Linda Ashton, have only this single credit to their careers.

4. Black Caesar. Larry Cohen’s blacksploitation film might be a reworking of the classic Little Caesar, but Edward G. Robinson never made a film with songs by James Brown. Fred Williamson made up in charisma whatever he lacked in acting skills. While the Sixties belonged to Sidney Poitier, Fred Williamson introduced in the Seventies a different kind of African-American hero with an influence still felt in hip hop culture.

5. Coffy. Once upon a time in the Seventies, Barbra Streisand was the top female star. In second place was Pam Grier. Coffy’s little sister is drugged with contaminated heroin, and Coffy takes on the mob. The film features badass baldy Sid Haig. The two would be seen together again in Foxy Brown.

6. I Escaped from Devil’s Island. While millions were spent to produce Papillon with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, Roger Corman made his version for chump change with Jim Brown and Christopher George. Papillon was directed by Oscar winner Franklin Shaffner. Corman gave the directorial assignment to William Witney, a filmmaker beloved by Quentin Tarantino.

7. Boxcar Bertha. Martin Scorsese made this film for Roger Corman before his breakthrough, Mean Streets. The film didn’t get much of a theatrical run, and has probably been seen by more people on DVD. You can see Scorsese’s nascent visual style. Considering Corman’s tight budgets and schedules, Scorsese must have felt he had something to prove after being fired for being to slow filming The Honeymoon Killers. This is one of several films Corman produced about Depression era women gangsters, though with more serious intent than Big Bad Mama. Corman’s offered to produce Mean Streets . . . as a blackspoitation film. Fortunately, Scorsese listened to the advice of John Cassavetes.

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After watching this, I was hoping that it was an April Fools joke. But alas no. Even since watching The 40 Year Old Virgin, I’ve felt that Steve Carell is something special. He was wonderful in that (and after seeing the Knocked Up trailer, he may have been the key to its brilliance), hilarious in The Daily Show, poignant in Little Miss Sunshine, and the only good thing about the US version of The Office, Bruce Almighty, and Anchorman. But this is something completely different.

Due to the success of the disappointing Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty follows Jim Carrey’s rival news anchor, Evan Baxter, some time after the events of the first film. Evan is now making a success as a politician. That is until that kooky guy God gets involved. As you can see, he want Evan to make a arc, just like Biblical Noah, filled with all animals two by two.

They say you should never work with kids and animals. Not only does this film consist of oh-so hilarious scenes of llamas holding hammers, but the director must be a 5 year old of he thinks any of this is funny. I’m not sure who this film is reaching for. It looks like a family movie, though its predecessor was more young adult. And Carell is familiar and popular with an adult audience. Besides, kids these days either want animation, explosions, or Harry Potter.

Evan Almighty is released in the US on June 22nd, but expect God and Co. to be eclipsed by the Fantastic Four 2.

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It’s not often that this humble website sees a true exclusive. With the DVD of Casino Royale recently out, Universal Artists were in a good mood. In fact, they were so nice that this lucky blogger had an opportunity to see a cut of Bond 22, a very generous offer considering the film isn’t due until the Summer of 2008. Below is a review of what I saw, which supposedly is the locked-off cut.

I’ll try to keep it spoiler free, although considering the attention spans of the average person, this review will fade into obscurity in a matter of minutes. I was a fan of Bond as a kid, although admittedly I was brought up on the Roger Moore Bonds, meaning I find any of the others rather dull and serious for obeying the laws of physics. But to be honest, I gave up on Bond when he ended up in bed with a man in A View to a Kill. Last year saw the revival with Bond Begins, or Casino Royale as it was actually known as. Daniel Craig played the hero with a new intensity (as opposed to Timothy Dalton, who just looked constipated), though for me a film that climaxes with a card game isn’t exactly the pinnacle of entertainment. So does the new Bond film improve on the revived spy? Read on »

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