Archive for September, 2008
September 17th, 2008
One of the strangest — and most entertaining — political movies ever made airs tonight at 11 on Turner Classic movies. It’s not on DVD, so if you want to catch it — and you really should — set your DVR now.
GABRIEL is the story of Judson C. Hammond (the late, great Walter Huston) a political hack who gets elected to the highest office in the land. During his first days in office, Pres. Hammond smashes his car while joy riding and winds up in a coma. While out of it, he’s visited by — well, by something that the movie never quite makes clear. The title suggests it’s an angel, but frankly, the guy might just be losing his mind. But the cause doesn’t really matter — what matters is the startling effect it has on Hammond, his presidency and the world.
Hammond awakens suddenly, possessed with a fervor he’s never had before. He unites protesting WWI veterans in an “army of the unemployed,” executes gangsters by firing squad and threatens the other nations of the world to act peacefully — or else. GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE is a twisted fantasy about what a president could accomplish if he didn’t have to worry about the Constitution, Congress, the Supreme Court or the will of the American people. Financed by William Randolph Hearst (who knew a little something about power) and produced just before FDR took office, it’s a fascinating, fast-paced look at how desperate the country was in the early days of the Great Depression.
By the way, if you happen to miss tonight’s showing, GABRIEL airs again on TCM at 5 a.m. Oct. 11 and 2:15 p.m. Nov. 25.
September 15th, 2008
This post about cult movies led to some reader comments about CULT MOVIES, the book by Danny Peary, and a few of Peary’s follow-up volumes. (All come highly recommended by this book and movie lover.) So, continuing in that spirit, here are a few more of my favorite movie books …
DARK CITY: THE LOST WORLD OF FILM NOIR by Eddie Muller — Muller’s a bonifide noir expert, and this book gives a compelling, fact-filled overview of the genre by dividing the films into categories that mirror the neighborhoods of a dark, drama-drenched city. There’s a ton of great images (including some posters in full color), but the real drawing card here is Muller’s punchy, well-informed prose. (Also great — Muller’s history of exploitation films, GRINDHOUSE.)
HOLLYWOOD HELLFIRE CLUB by William Gregory Mank, Charles Heard and Bill Nelson — A hilarious page-turner all about the wild and crazy times of John Barrymore, W.C. Fields, Errol Flynn, John Decker, William Fowler, John Carradine, Ben Hecht, Sadakichi Hartmann and others who formed the (extremely) loose knit collection of oddballs in the early years of the 20th century. As their lives get more out of the control, the book gets more entertaining. You think modern stars behave badly? You have no idea. (But at least these guys did it with a little panache.)
MENTAL HYGIENE by Ken Smith — Smith takes a genre everyone else ignores — those education films generations of students had to endure — and writes a fascinating film history. Tracing the history of the producers, from All-American Coronet to crazed Sid Davis, Smith illustrates how young minds were molded via social engineering cinema. He also reviews hundreds of these short films, pointing out their faults but never descending into a “so bad they’re good” outlook.
THE MONSTER SHOW by David Skal — Probably the best history of horror movies I’ve ever read, this compact tome traces the genre from its silent roots up through the modern day, always taking time to discuss the real-world event behind the imaginary horrors. Skal’s discussion of how the mangled bodies of World War I paralleled the popularity of Lon Chaney (who knew how to mangle his own body for maximum effect) is just one example of his perceptive writing.
More to come – and please, suggest some of your own in the comments!
September 15th, 2008
This week’s column is a little different, focusing not on one new DVD but on three classics, all with a distinctly rock ‘n’ roll beat. Here’s the video version of the review…
[flashvideo filename=”http://www.rrstar.com/multimedia/x332633446/Rock-out-with-the-Movie-Man/@@download.flv” /]
And here’s a link to the text version, which also includes write-ups of the British beat movie EXPRESSO BONGO and the Dylan flick I’M NOT THERE.
September 12th, 2008
There’s a very interesting article over at David Bordwell’s Website on Cinema blog examing movie titles — why they’re chosen, why they work and why they don’t. They’re such an obvious, constant presence that they’re rarely considered, but Bordwell and co-author Kristin Thompson make some fascinating observations.
The title of NORTH BY NORTHWEST, Hitchcock’s classic suspense film, has puzzled critics for years, but Bordwell and Thompson might have finally nailed the reason for the unusual phrase, and it has nothing to do with Shakespeare…
Take North by Northwest. Many critics believe that it refers to Hamlet’s confession that “I am but mad North-northwest: When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.” Roger Thornhill, caught off balance by the espionage game he’s plunged into, could be said to have lost his bearings. But I’ve always thought that the compass-point title logo and the cross-hatched latitude/ longitude array that launch the movie prepare us for travel, in a roughly westerly, then northwesterly direction (New York-Chicago-South Dakota). And when Roger is sent from Chicago to Rapid City, he travels by airliner: He flies north, by Northwest. A Hitchcock joke?
September 12th, 2008
Here, just because I feel like it, is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time — the development of the Hula Hoop from the incredibly underrated Coen Brothers film THE HUDSUCKER PROXY…
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/uLOAXDb6fps" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
September 11th, 2008
Apparently, things got a little heated in the audience during a screening of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE at the Toronto Film Festival. According to the New York Daily News…
“Soon after the lights went down, a source tells us, “a man in the audience started yelling, ‘Don’t touch me!’ People looked around and shrugged. Ten minutes later, the voice yells again, ‘I said don’t touch me!’”
Again, people shrugged off the disturbance. But a few minutes later, says our source, “the guy stands up in the darkness and thwacks the guy behind him with a big festival binder. He hit him so hard everybody could hear it. Everyone freaked out and turned around.”
Here’s the twist: The guy swinging the “big festival binder” was New York Post film critic Lou Lumenick, and the guy getting hit was none other than Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert.
Reports say that Ebert, who can no longer speak due to throat cancer, was trying to tap Lumenick on the shoulder to ask him to move because Ebert couldn’t see. According to the Daily News, Lumenick didn’t realize who he’d whacked until the deed had been done, but didn’t apologize afterwards.
September 11th, 2008
For months now, The Onion AV Club has spent each Thursday spotlighting a different modern cult movie in a noble mission to establish a “New Cult Canon” to follow the list of classic cult movies developed in the 1970s and 1980s, largely by author Danny Peary (who wrote CULT MOVIES, CULT MOVIES 2 and — wait for it — CULT MOVIES 3).
This week, in a break from the new stuff, the Club is presenting “The Old Cult Canon,” a list of 16 movies that established the idea of just what the heck a cult movie is. Ranging from FREAKS to ERASERHEAD to REPO MAN to (of course) THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, it’s as good a primer as any if you’re looking to investigate the phenomenon on your own. (I’m pretty sure they’re all available on DVD).
I bought Peary’s CULT MOVIES as a freshman in college, and spent the next four years — and countless hours in the campus theater — checking movies off the list. I’ve seen just about every one (many several times), but I have to admit, I’ve never seen THE HARDER THEY COME, EL TOPO or AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD. Anyone out there familiar with these movies? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em?
And has anyone out there seen PINK FLAMINGOS? If you’re only familiar with John Waters from HAIRSPRAY (either version), this one might come as a bit of a shock.
September 10th, 2008
Here’s a link to a new trailer for the upcoming James Bond movie, due to hit theaters Nov. 14.
It’s the usual mix of snippets of plot development, glimpses of high tech equipment and tantalizing shots of over-the-top stunts. (The one where Bond and some badguy fall through a roof, then keep falling, is the most impressive.) Good to see Dame Judi Dench returning as M and Jeffrey Wright coming back as CIA agent Felix Leiter, and of course it’s a pleasure to have Daniel Craig starring as 007 once again. He brings a real intensity to the role, making the spy game seem like something genuinely dangerous and even a little spooky at times.
Remember when he played Paul Newman’s disappointing son in the 2002 film ROAD TO PERDITION, someone who seemed no match for Tom Hanks’ gangster character? Here’s the movie trailer to remind you. Craig shows up around the 47 second mark.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/IjbSYkY5hVA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Times have changed, eh?
September 8th, 2008
And now, the video version of this week’s review, COOL HAND LUKE …
[flashvideo filename=”http://www.rrstar.com/multimedia/x997993978/DVD-Cool-Hand-Luke-casts-iconic-Paul-Newman/@@download.flv” /]
(Be sure to stick around for the end, where I do my uncanny imitation of Strother Martin.)
Want the old-fashioned print version, with more words and fewer uncanny imitations? Click here.
September 8th, 2008
According to an e-mail the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Caro received from Harold Ramis himself, a new GHOSTBUSTERS is in the works:
“yes, columbia is developing a script for GB3 with my year one writing partners, gene stupnitsky and lee eisenberg. judd apatow is co-producing year one and has made several other films for sony, so of course the studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. aykroyd, ivan reitman and i are consulting at this point, and according to dan, bill murray is willing to be involved on some level. he did record his dialogue for the new ghostbusters video game, as did danny and i, and ernie hudson. the concept is that the old ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity. not much else to say at this point.”
Now here’s the bad news: Aside from Ramis’ annoying refusal, e.e. cummings like, to use capital letters in his e-mail, he neglects to mention one thing…
GHOSTBUSTERS II sucked.
It had the talents of all the people involved in the original, and it was awful. I remember seeing it during its original run way back in 1989, and it was so bad it remains one of the very few movies I’ve ever been tempted to walk out on. (And I sat through MANNEQUIN!) The stars were all back, the special effects were impressive, but something was subtly, horribly off, and in a comedy, that counts for everything. What was funny in the original was painful in the sequel.
Having some new blood involved this time around — besides Judd Apatow, the name Seth Rogan has been bandied about — could be a good thing. After all, it’s been 19 years since that sad sequel hit theaters and two dozen since the original. I like the idea of it being a genuine sequel, rather than a remake, with Bill Murray and company making small appearances. But comedy is a delivate thing, and big-budget, highly anticipated comedies are even more delicate. Nothing kills laughs like a whole lot of money and high expectations.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, the original music video for Ray Parker Jr.’s GHOSTBUSTERS theme. How many mid-80s celebs can you identify?
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/g4uxIo4t7xM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
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