Even a man who is pure in heart…

Add comment November 6th, 2009 03:16pm Will Pfeifer

I’m not sure if this new version of THE WOLFMAN is going to work or not, but I have to admit that the trailer pushes all the right buttons in this old monster movie fan, and that this poster — featuring actress Emily Blunt hiding out from the title character — has a nice, understated feel. Plus, it’s in black-and-white, echoing the visuals of the 1941 version, THE WOLF MAN.

Thoughts?

The Force works in mysterious ways

Add comment November 5th, 2009 06:34pm Will Pfeifer

Following up on that Princess Leia photo I posted this morning, here’s a link to some “extremely rare” STAR WARS photos. Normally that would be typical Internet hyperbole, but in this case, I’d say the term is appropriate. I mean, I’ve been a STAR WARS geek for more than 30 years, and I’ve never seen most of these pics. Here, for example, is one with the gang out of costume…

In case you’re wondering, that’s (from left, back row) Han Solo, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, (middle row) Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and (front row) R2D2. No word on where C-3PO was.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November…

Add comment November 5th, 2009 10:24am Will Pfeifer

In honor of today, November 5 — better known as Guy Fawkes’ Day in England — here’s a clip from V FOR VENDETTA.

A pair of princessess

Add comment November 5th, 2009 09:40am Will Pfeifer

I saw this photo over at Boing Boing and thought it was too geekily great not to share. From the filming of RETURN OF THE JEDI (which places it sometime in 1982, I’m guessing), here’s Carrie Fisher in Princess Leia slave girl garb and her stunt double catching some rays in Tunisia (standing in for the planet Tatooine).

The things you own end up owning you.

1 comment November 4th, 2009 05:25pm Will Pfeifer

As much as I love the blinding sharpness of Blu-ray, I haven’t double-dipped on any of my old DVDs.

Well, not yet anyway.

FIGHT CLUB, one of my favorite films, arrives on Blu-ray in a couple of weeks, and that purchase is going to be harder to resist than a directive from Tyler himself. Here’s a link to the official promo site, but beware: Choosing the option to log on to it via your Facebook account is apparently a giant pain in the ass.

PS: Here’s a link to the amazingly-still-active original movie site for FIGHT CLUB.

And the hosts are…

4 comments November 4th, 2009 10:25am Will Pfeifer

Finally an Oscar host — make that hosts — that shows a little imagination in the decision process. As the academy announced Tuesday, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will tag-team the ceremony, which airs March 7 on ABC.

Quoth Variety:

After the Academy increased its best picture category to 10 films and tapped a pair of producers, it announced that there will be two hosts for the 82nd annual Academy Awards — Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin — the first time the show has had multiple hosts since the 1987 ceremonies.

Both men, of course, have hosted SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE several times, both have Oscar connections (Martin has hosted, Baldwin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for THE COOLER) and — no coincidence here! — they both co-star in IT’S COMPLICATED, a comedy opening on Christmas Day. (The movie also stars Meryl Streep, who isn’t hosting, but certainly has her share of nominations.)

MAD MEN podcast: The day we’ve long been dreading

Add comment November 2nd, 2009 03:31pm Will Pfeifer

Since the beginning of the season — heck, since the first time we realized there was a show coming called MAD MEN that was set in the early 1960s — we knew that eventually the folks at Sterling Cooper would arrive at the infamous date of Nov. 22, 1963. Well, that episode aired Sunday night, and now our crack team of podcasters have weighed in.

Listen to the podcast here.

What Were the Best Movies of the First Decade of the 21st Century, Part 10

5 comments November 2nd, 2009 10:14am Will Pfeifer

Haven’t done this in a while, and I probably won’t do it too many more times (I think the list is hitting its limit), but here are three more contenders for my favorite movies of the ’00s…

Can you name ‘em?

Five frightening films

2 comments October 30th, 2009 05:22pm Will Pfeifer

Being that Halloween is tomorrow and the folks at both The Onion AV Club and Cinematical are sharing their selections of scary movies, I thought I’d throw in my two cents. So here, in the spirit of the season, are five movies that did a number on me.

1. THE SHINING: Thanks to Kubrick’s masterful direction, Nicholson’s unhinged performance and numerous random factors — the pages of the novel, that scene with the guy in the bear suit, those twins! — I’d say this is one movie that gets scarier the more often you see it.

2. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: If you’ve never seen Tobe Hooper’s symphony of dread and horror, you might think it’s a non-stop gorefest. It’s not. Instead, it’s a perfectly paced, excrutiating experience. And yes, that’s a good thing.

3. THE STRANGERS: It’s relatively new, but this movie about a nightmarish home invasion does a better job building its tension than anything I’ve seen in years. When we were watching it, during the opening moments before anything had happened, my wife turned and said “I don’t think I can watch this.” I know exactly what she meant.

4. MULHOLLAND DR.: David Lynch’s movie isn’t a horror film, but the scene set at Winkie’s — an innocent-looking Los Angeles diner — might be the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in a movie … in any more. I posted a link to the clip here. Don’t worry if you don’t know anything else about the movie. It doesn’t matter.

 5. PINK FLAMINGOS: Again, this isn’t a standard horror movie, but there are things in John Waters’ cult classic that I wish I could somehow un-see. That’s pretty scary, isn’t it?

Movie Man’s Blu-ray review: NORTH BY NORTHWEST

Add comment October 30th, 2009 03:16pm Will Pfeifer

This week, the Movie Man column moves to Saturday’s GO section, and it’s taking Friday’s Video Vault along with it. For the inaugural Saturday column, I’m reviewing the brand spanking new Blu-ray disc of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic suspense film, NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

And boy oh boy, do those classic cross-country set pieces look great in hi-def widescreen.

Check out the column here.