Friday Morning Videos: ‘… sometimes he wouldn’t go away’

Add comment May 29th, 2009

Back in 1975, the movie JAWS kicked off this whole crazy thing we call the summer movie season. Here’s the best scene in that movie — and it’s just an old guy talking!

Jane Randolph, RIP

1 comment May 28th, 2009

Glenn Kenny, over at his Some Came Running blog, has a nice appreciation of actress Jane Randolph, who died May 4 in Switzerland but whose death was only announced here in the states today.

Randolph, who was born in 1915 in Youngstown, Ohio (coincidentally, pretty close to where I was born) only acted for about a decade, but her filmography has some very intriguing entries, including an uncredited ice skating model for Disney’s BAMBI, the horror comedy classic ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, the great film noir T-MEN and two of my all-time favorite films, CAT PEOPLE and CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE.

Here’s one of Randolph’s most famous scenes, where she’s stalked by — well, something — in CAT PEOPLE.

The main man behind ‘Up’

Add comment May 28th, 2009

Pixar’s latest movie, UP, hits theaters this weekend, and as should be no surprise, it’s getting rave reviews.

The Onion AV Club has an interesting interview with UP (and MONSTERS INC.) director Pete Docter. Naturally, most of the time is spend discussing his latest movie, but he also talks about what it’s like to work on a Pixar film, including this almost frightening look at how much work goes into creating every detail of every frame.

“If you think of the frame as like a cake, a layer cake, any particular image you look at, I’ve had 18 different reviews. I’ve had lighting reviews, shading, the movement is a different review, any special effects, fur, cloth, hair. All these different reviews. So I’ve kind of seen everything, every separate element in that frame. It’s all so controllable, almost to an insane degree, that it’s a lot of work.”

OK, let’s ballpark this. Standard rate is 24 frames per second, and the Internet Movie Database lists as having a running time of 96 minutes. So that’s 24 times 60 times 96, which equals 138,240 frames. Now if we multiply that by the number of layers…

Well, let’s just say that’s a lot of work. And the great thing about Pixar’s movies is that all that work is right up there for you to enjoy on the big screen.

A confusing comedy update

2 comments May 28th, 2009

Pegg and Frost in HOT FUZZ

Simon Pegg (currently seen as Scotty in STAR TREK) and Nick Frost, the stars of SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ, two of the best comedies of the last 10 years, have another movie in the works: PAUL, which begins shooting in June.

According to Variety, they’ll  “play two science-fiction fanatics on a road trip whose conspiracy dreams come true when they trek to Area 51 and encounter the title character, an escaped alien.” Pegg and Frost are also writing the movie, which co-stars a veritable comedy all-star lineup: Jason Bateman, Kristin Wiig, Bill Hader and Jane Lynch. Oh, and none other than Seth Rogen will provide the voice of that escaped alien.

Edgar Wright, who co-wrote (with Pegg) and directed SHAUN and HOT FUZZ, will not be handling the directing chores this time around. (He’s busy making the comic-book-inspired comedy SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, which stars Bateman’s ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and JUNO co-star, Michael Cera.) Instead, Greg Mottola, who directed SUPERBAD (starring Rogen and Cera) and ADVENTURELAND (starring Wiig and Hader), will sit in the director’s chair.

Got it? Good.

They’re not all great, but there are some gems…

Add comment May 27th, 2009

And besides, the whole point of these things is to argue about ‘em anyway. 

I mean, really — Chris Farley? Richard Attenborough in JURASSIC PARK? And let’s be honest — the most memorable quote from DIE HARD isn’t “Welcome to the party pal”… but I guess they really couldn’t include that one, could they?

Movie night with ‘Tiny’ Lister

Add comment May 27th, 2009

Tonight, be sure to tune in to Turner Classic Movies (that’s channel 608 if you’ve got Comcast) to catch an evening of films programmed by none other than character actor Tommy “Tiny” Lister. If you watch movies, you’ve seen Lister at work — he made his debut in RUNAWAY TRAIN, played Deebo in FRIDAY, played the president (!) in THE FIFTH ELEMENT and was recently seen as the prisoner with a surprising moral backbone in last year’s THE DARK KNIGHT. (Check out his extensive — and I mean extensive — filmography here.)

He also has some intriguing movie tastes. According to the TCM site, his lineup includes ANGEL AND THE BADMAN, SHANE, THE PROFESSIONALS and IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. Three Westerns and a classic screwball comedy — not a bad mix. It all starts at 7 p.m.

Want to live in Cameron’s house?

1 comment May 26th, 2009

As any real estate agent will be more than happy to tell you, there’s never been a better time to buy a home. And, if you happen to have $2.3 million to spend and you’re a big fan of FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF, boy, do I have the house for you.

 According to Cinematical.com, the house where Ferris’ friend Cameron lived is now up for sale. It’s located in semi-nearby Highland Park, Illinois, and it really was owned by avid car collectors who owned, among others, a vintage Ferrari (Gee! Just like Cameron’s dad!).

Read the Cinematical story here and the more detailed Daily Herald story here.

And here’s the scene from the movie where Cameron sends that Ferrari plunging out the back of the house…

Will Skynet really become self aware?

Add comment May 26th, 2009

Sure, you think TERMINATOR SALVATION is just a movie (and one that got beat by the NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM sequel, at that), but as military tech expert P.W. Singer points out in this Slate.com article, it’s not completely, totally, utterly impossible for robots to take over the world.

If robots, Singer explains, (a) had a survival instinct or “will to power,” (b) were smarter than us but lacked empathy and/or ethics, and (c) could fuel, rebuild and reproduce themselves, well, get ready for life in a robot-ruled world. But here’s the thing — the very movies that illustrate this scenario might save us from it…

Finally, a robot invasion could only succeed if humans had no useful fail-safes or ways to control the machines’ decision-making. We would have to have lost any ability to override, intervene, or even shape the actions of the robots. Yet one has to hope that a generation that grew up on a diet of Terminator movies would see the utility of fail-safe mechanisms.

And, if that doesn’t do the trick, good ol’ human laziness and ineptitude probably will…

Plus, there’s the possibility that shoddy programming by humans will become our best line of defense: As many roboticists joke, just when the robots are poised to take over, their Microsoft software programs will probably freeze up and crash.

Whew! That’s a relief!

Words of wisdom from Patton himself

Add comment May 25th, 2009

In honor of Memorial Day, here’s the famous opening speech from PATTON with audio by (of course) George C. Scott paired up with a dramatic treatment of the actual words as type. There are a few mild profanities sprinkled throughout, but if you’ve seen the movie (or just the opening scene), you already knew that, right?

Friday Afternoon Videos: You’re all clear kid! Now let’s blow this thing and go home!

1 comment May 22nd, 2009

Just to wash that bad taste of that Jar-Jar Binks montage out of our heads, here’s the Death Star run from the original STAR WARS. I’ve seen this clip more than any other movie sequence, and it still works. Part of that is because, unlike subsequent space battles, we know who the good guys are, we know who the bad guys are, and we know what the objective is.

And part of it is because it’s Luke Skywalker using the Force to blow up the Death Star! C’mon — it doesn’t get much better than that!