This past week, Warner Brothers released an armful of films on DVD under the collective title of “Camp Classics”. Some of these films are neither camp nor classic, but still it’s fun to have them available for home viewing. The films can be bought individually, but are also grouped according to themes. Among the rarities now available are Howard Hawks’ Land of the Pharoahs which was co-written by William Faulkner, yes, THAT William Faulkner. Another newly available title is an early directorial effort by Sergio Leone, the costume epic, Colossus of Rhodes.

I did get the chance to see Hot Rods to Hell, the story of square adults versus those crazy, hot roddin’ kids. While this 1967 release was aimed at the teen market, someone had the misguided idea to emphasize the two adult stars, Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain. Andrews and Crain were big star twenty years previously, and had co-starred in the musical State Fair. The producer, Sam Katzman, who was famous for making teen exploitation films with Bill Haley and Chubby Checkers when they were top hitmakers, forgot that teens rather see actors their own age or slightly older. In spite of the filmmakers’ intentions, this is one of those films where you root for those fast and furious kids.

Leading the hot rodders is Mimsy Farmer as Gloria. This small town bad girl is almost like Marlon Brando, James Dean and Natalie Wood with her energy, animality and bad attitude. In the mid-Sixties, Farmer was starring in low budget teen films. Going to Europe, Farmer was given better opportunities to act, and starred in a couple of cult films, More by Barbet Schroeder, and Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Gray Velvet. In Hot Rods to Hell, Farmer plays on would-be boyfriend against the other, goading them on with a lot of fast and dangerous driving. As the film was originally produced for MGM, the old fogies win while the kids learn roadside manners the hard way. Those who enjoyed Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof might enjoy a true grindhouse car movie from the Sixties.

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Rescue Dawn seems like another film in an already explored genre. However, this one has been made by German director Werner Herzog, and is a fictionalisation of his documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. But is that enough to set it aside from the array of films set around the Vietnam War? So far, there have been concerns about the film, with its release being continually pushed back (thought this is mostly due to the film’s crew not being paid), so are the bad omens prophetic?

The film follows Dieter, a German who became a citizen of the United States, and dedicated his life to becoming a pilot. And the Vietnam War provides the perfect opportunity to do so. Almost ignorant of the danger, Dieter flies out on a secret mission to bomb the Ho Chi Min trail, but ends up being shot down over Laos. He is taken by the Army of North Vietnam and placed in a makeshift POW camp along with several Americans and objectors to the war. As Dieter’s body becomes decimated from neglect, his mind remains strong as he hatches a plan to escape.

Read on »

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In the news has been the report that documentary filmmaker David Ondaatje will be filming his version of The Lodger. The original 1927 film is most famous as the first British feature by Alfred Hitchcock, and the first film to indicate the kind of films Hitchcock would be most famous for. The adaptation from Marie Belloc Lowndes novel has actually been remade two other times, in 1932 by British director Maurice Elvey, and again in 1944 in Hollywood by John Brahm, a now forgotten thriller specialist. Ondaatje is planning a contemporary update on this fictionalized version of the Jack the Ripper story.

This announcement comes almost on the heels of the previous announcement that Michael Bay will be producing a new version of The Birds. The proclamation that Bay’s production will include an explanation of WHY the birds are attacking people does not sit well with Hitchcock fans. After all, isn’t not knowing scarier?

Obviously Gus Van Sant’s version of Psycho hasn’t disuaded anyone, although the best remake of a Hitchcock film is still Hitchcock’s own remake of The Man who knew too Much. Que sera, sera.

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It has been a while since we last saw Bruce Willis play John McClane. Over a decade actually. So does McClane have what it takes to thrill movie goers still, or is Willis too old to pull off what he first started when he was in his thirties? Willis proves that, yes, he still has what it takes and demonstrates the fact convincely in the action packed ‘Live Free Or Die Hard’.

The movie starts with a phenomenal action sequence as Matt Farrell (Justin Long who is famous for his portrayal as the Mac Guy in the PC vs Mac adverts) is wanted by the FBI for questioning for hacking into the FBI’s computer system. It seems that Farrell is also a marked man by a group of terrorists led by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). McClane arrives in the nick of time to thwart the plot and both McClane and Farrell head to Washington DC to find out what to make of the attempted murder.

It becomes clearer that there is much more to the story than the a group wanting one computer hacker dead, as the terrorists have taken over all of the governments access to their computer grid. McClane, who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time once more, proves again to be a one man wrecking ball and begins to completely dismantle the terrorists plot and find his daughter who they have kidnapped.

While Gabriel is a capable villain in the film, he does not match that of Alan Rickman who portrayed the terrorist Hans Gruber in the first ‘Die Hard’. ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ took the template from the first one in a number of ways and that is why the film works. It didn’t get too cute and try to be something that the series wasn’t like ‘Die Hard: With a Vengeance’ which is the poorest offering from the successful series. The only gripe I had with the film was the casting of Justin Long who wears on the nerves a bit, but the film is too good for him to ruin it completely.

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Hi Readers,

Screenhead is hiring new writers if anyone is interested in joining the site:

1. You must love Movies.
2. Cover the latest Upcoming Movies, News and Reviews.
3. Do about 2-3 stories a day, about the 150-200 words in size.

If your interested please contact Paul Briggs at gday1234@gmail.com or gday1234@bigpond.net.au. Can you spare a hour or so a day to write about stuff you love? Only serious applicants need apply. Trial week

Many Regards Paul Briggs

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If you are a reader of this site, you probably know that I am a big fan of the offerings of HBO. If you share my interest in the network, you will be delighted to hear the latest news from the network. HBO has paired up the producers of Entourage and the writing team that has brought us excellent movies Oceans 13 and Rounders to form a show about a group of hedge fund managers.

It sounds like an instant classic if you ask me. I had wondered what HBO had up it sleeves to after the loss of The Sopranos. This seems like a sure-fire winner with big money players betting on the market. Making the news even better is the fact that both teams have put quality products out before, and the fact that hedge funds are an intriguing topic to say the least.

The show is on schedule to debut in summer 2008, just in time to follow the most watched show on HBO, Entourage. The show, which is not titled and does not have any actors lined up, wants to start filming sometime during this upcoming winter.

With this news, I am hoping this does not mean that we may be seeing the end of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but that is obviously pure speculation. Larry David is the one who could really answer that question.

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Last month it was revealed that silver screen vets Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino would be appearing on screen together in Righteous Kill, marking only the second time in their careers that they would work side-by-side for an entire film. Well, now it looks as if Righteous Kill has signed on yet another huge name, hip-hop star Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, practically ensuring that this film will be a blockbuster.

DeNiro and Pacino will play detectives tracking a serial killer, and Jackson will play a drug dealer who ends up helping them with their investigation. “50 Cent” is no stranger to movie sets, having starred in Get Rich or Die Tryin in 2005, and 2006’s Home of the Brave. He’s also set to appear in there other films currently in production, The Ski Mask Way, Live Bet, and The Dance.

Directing the $60 million project will be Jon Avnet, who has directed a range of both television series and films.

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It’s official, the next Star Trek movie is going to be a prequel. This makes the job of doing a new Trek film a bit easier because, as the screenwriters Orci and Kurtzman have said, Star Trek has a four decade long history that they must be very careful not to tamper with or contradict. Keeping the continuity of the series and franchise is of the utmost importance, and any messing around with it would likely upset many Star Trek fans. By focusing on the early adventures of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, they’ll be able to avoid some of these complications, and will not have to worry so much about continuity.

This latest news was confirmed by the screenwriters themselves, Orci and Kurtzman, in an article for the New York Times. The script is apparently now finished, which means the project is really going to start picking up steam soon.

One thing that the duo didn’t yet confirm is whether or not they really did diss Shatner, or if they will give in and hand him a role like they did colleague Leonard Nimoy.

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Adding more fuel to the the discussion of what, and who, defines the great films, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists have posted their Top 100 films. One of the complaints about lists, such as that recently posted by the American Film Institute is that their were no women filmmakers listed in their top 100 and only five were listed in the top 400. The AWFJ list includes films from male and female filmmakers from around the world. Jane Campion is noted for The Piano and Angel at my Table. Recent Academy Award nominee Deepa Menta is cited for Water. The list even includes Amy Heckerling’s Clueless. Among the guys nominated are the usual suspects - Welles, Hitchcock, Capra, and even Martin Scorsese. Those interested in checking out the full list will want to click here. I only wish they could have included at least one film by Kathryn Bigelow.

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This weekend, Evan Almighty came out on top as the weekend’s top movie, bringing in $31 million dollars. But considering that the film’s budget was significantly over $150 million, such an opening is not considered a resounding success.

Coming in at number two was 1408, an interesting horror flick based off the Steven King novel of the same name. 1408 brought in about $20 million. From there we had Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ($20 mil), Ocean’s Thirteen ($11.4 mil), Knocked up ($10.97 mil), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ($7.2 mil), Surf’s Up ($6.6 mil), Shrek the Third ($5.7 mil), Nancy Drew ($4.4 mil), and A Mighty Heart ($3.9 mil).

The biggest surprise of all was that A Mighty Heart completely bombed out at the box office, bringing the studios in just $3.9 million and placing 10th overall. Considering they probably spend several times that in all the promotions and advertising alone, I can’t imagine they’d be too happy with its performance.

So why did it do so badly? It’s likely due to several reasons, such as (take your pick):

• Angelina wasn’t the right person to play Marianne Pearl. A white woman playing an minority just didn’t settle well with anyone.
• Angelina is box office poison. And banning reporters from the premiere couldn’t have been good for her rep.
• Angelina overload. Jolie and Pitt had a box office mega-hit with Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but that was at the same time they were receiving insane amounts of tabloid coverage for Pitt’s alleged affair with Jolie while still married to Jennifer Aniston. We’re all sick of it now. Old news!

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