June 2nd, 2009
In the latest installment of his series, Black and White World, blogger James Lileks looks at a true classic — 1941’s THE MALTESE FALCON, directed by first-timer John Huston and starring Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Elisha Cook Jr., Mary Astor, Ward Bond, Walter Huston (John’s dad in a cameo) and, of course, the great Humphrey Bogart.
Lileks does an excellent job of pointing out some of the great moments in the movie, but his best line comes when he describes the appeal of Bogie: “… the man’s man other men’s men call a Man’s Man.”
One reason I think THE MALTESE FALCON is so rewatchable is that it, like ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, TOUCH OF EVIL and a few other films, is its so darned confusing that you can never remember all the plot twists from one viewing to the next, so it’s almost like watching a new movie every time. If you’ve never seen it, clear your schedule for tonight and rent it. You won’t be sorry.
June 2nd, 2009
We all know about the STAR WARS prequels, and depending on how you view time travel, TERMINATOR SALVATION was arguably a prequel to the other TERMINATOR movies (Sure, it took place after them, but it also took place before John Connor sent Reese back in time to the era of the original TERMINATOR — and yes, it’s confusing. Time travel always is.) So it should be no surprise that there’s another sci-fi prequel in the works: ALIEN.
According to Cinematical.com, director Tony Scott (brother of Ridley, who directed the original ALIEN) has said during a PELHAM 1-2-3 interview that Fox has OK’d the ALIEN prequel, though he won’t be directing — Carl Rinsch will.
If you remember — and you can be forgiven if you don’t; ALIEN hit theaters 30 years ago — the original movie begins with the crew of the space freighter Nostromo hear a distress signal, go down to a planet and find lots of alien eggs in a wrecked spaceship. A crew member (John Hurt) peeks into one, it shoots an embryo into his helmet and the rest is horror sci-fi history.
So will this prequel be the story of that ship? The pilot, as you can see by the photo above, was giant, so I have to think any prequel will be more human-centered. One thing’s for sure — it’ll be tough to match the original (or James Cameron’s shoot-em-up sequel, ALIENS).
