"Let's put a smile on that face." ...my obligatory, every-few-months TDK post:
Still the greatest example of super-spectacle-filmmaking ever. Can somebody say EPIC ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE?
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Just saw her
YANCY BUTLER. If you're unfamiliar with that name then you should get off my blog right now. Get. Get out.
I walked right by/made eye contact with/heard that deep, raspy, sexy voice of... She even held the door open for me. All I could manage was a firm, confident, "Thanks..." Otherwise, terms such as "manage" and "confidence" were nowhere to be found in my supposedly rich vocabulary (though 'firm' was certainly in the mix). I practically stopped mid-doorway as she stood there saying thanks to the clerks and holding the goddamn-motherfrickin' door for me...she was with some girlfriends, at that... Ah! Too much to take on a simple trip to La Salsa. God I would marry thatwoman goddess.
This goddess:
Yeah, you're jealous. I know.
I walked right by/made eye contact with/heard that deep, raspy, sexy voice of... She even held the door open for me. All I could manage was a firm, confident, "Thanks..." Otherwise, terms such as "manage" and "confidence" were nowhere to be found in my supposedly rich vocabulary (though 'firm' was certainly in the mix). I practically stopped mid-doorway as she stood there saying thanks to the clerks and holding the goddamn-motherfrickin' door for me...she was with some girlfriends, at that... Ah! Too much to take on a simple trip to La Salsa. God I would marry that
This goddess:
Yeah, you're jealous. I know.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Imagine
Imagine, for a moment, if you will, if roles had been reversed, and James Cameron directed The Hurt Locker, resulting in a tightly-wrapped spectacle, realism without the tack-on doc-style, star power instead of appetizer-cameos, fear laced with more than just a simple thesis and some nihilism.
And then—with Avatar, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, some brains meshed into the lush, ripe-for-the-picking world. Adult sci-fi—like the best of Star Wars—a head for a heart, a head for the soul of the Na'vi, in particular the great character/performance of Neytiri.
Whatever. District 9 trumps all. It should win/it won't. Up in the Air would be great... If it gets beat out by Inglourious Basterds, I won't know what to think. I'd rather see The Blind Side go all the way...like a wide receiver, get it?
The Dark Knight, for what it's worth, shook things up, a la its malevolent Joker. Still waiting on that "ace in the hole," though. Still waiting.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Reactions: Shutter Island and Give 'Em Hell Malone
My reaction to Shutter Island was... pretty good. A little meandrous around the middle, with a big enough plot twist(s) to throw the rest of the picture into question/under scrutiny. Leo and Mark Ruffalo = pretty good. Max von Sydow = great. Lots of great faces popping up here and there throughout. Good atmospherics—good enough, at least. Flashbacks and dream sequences were actually really interesting. Loved the ending, not the final shot, however—should've cut it off one before and smash-cued to the great omnious score.
The most glaring problem for me was Scorsese not fully embracing the material's B-ness, a la Cape Fear. In other words, whereas Cape Fear was balls-to-the-wall B, Shutter Island ends up as a placid B+, making for an overlong, half-ass thinking man's thriller. Horror? Not really. Psychological? Sometimes. B? Certainly not enough.
But if something did live up to that delicious B-pedigree it had to be good ol' Ted Levine. Playing nothing more than a bit part, Levine gets one little speech in before the third act, and man, is it killer. For all intensive purposes, it shall go down as the "violence speech." After being pigeonholed into boring-as-heck 'Chief' roles for the past eternity, it's nice to see him get his crazy on again. Reminded me of how great he was in Nowhere to Run (and of course Silence of the Lambs). What an actor.
...
Secondly, my personally-much anticipated Give 'Em Hell Malone, with which I'll be short. A complete disappointment. Seriously, just watch the great trailer again and call it a day (as with Black Dynamite, flawless advertising doomed a far inferior film). Completely deserving of its DTD status. Live and let it die.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Money Never Sleeps, and it always sells
Did Stone and Douglas actually pull this one off? Shia, too?
Dammit, I think they did. This looks like the first genuinely-wholesome throwback in awhile. That is, if Shutter Island stinks as much as the reviews that are coming in. I'll probably catch it this weekend.
Source: Hollywood Elsewhere
Dammit, I think they did. This looks like the first genuinely-wholesome throwback in awhile. That is, if Shutter Island stinks as much as the reviews that are coming in. I'll probably catch it this weekend.
Source: Hollywood Elsewhere
Monday, February 15, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Special Review: Universal Soldier: Regeneration
Note: After skipping Legion and From Paris With Love on account of their particularly atrocious reviews, and having to sit through the sequelized-mediocrity of District B13: Ultimatum, I'll admit I'd become a little disillusioned with the action genre of the new year. The standard fare of Daybreakers and The Book of Eli didn't help either, and even DTD releases like The Tournament were more of a relative letdown than not. But lo and behold, as title of the previous post states, sometimes you gotta put in the veterans if you want it done right. Universal Soldier: Regeneration is not only done right, but it's done on a sophisticated, adult level—not only surpassing the iconic original—but it's infinitely more deserving of a theatrical release than anything so far this year; the best thing I've seen since District 9 (Up in the Air, Avatar, and others, included). Anyway...
Soulless but soulful Van Damme meets his existential equal in Universal Soldier: Regeneration
From the opening shot, the opening closeup of John and Peter Hyams' (son and father, director and d.p., respectively) Universal Soldier: Regeneration, I knew this was going to be more than a new model, if you'll excuse the very review-y pun. There was a confidence in the direction, in the filmmaking, and most importantly, in the material, which obviously hadn't touched the lowly series before but even rarely surfaces in the (sci-fi action) genre as a whole... If you took the head of Solyaris, and put it on the body of Children of Men or District 9, then you'd have a frame of reference to go from: this is modern, adult, science-fiction art with two presupposed meatheads coming back for what was technically a fifth sequel. I went in with modest expectations; I wanted to be entertained, and entertained I was. But what I did not expect, was to be challenged. And challenged, I most certainly was.
CHERNOBYL. The son and daughter of the Prime Minister are kidnapped in a swift, brutal strike outside of an art gallery. This act of terrorism is only part of the picture, however, as the insurgents proceed to commandeer the nuclear power plant and site of the infamous 1986 disaster. With a stolen Uni-Sol (Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski), or Universal Soldier, on their side, and a scientist who knows how to use him, the ransom and the stakes are simply too high for the Prime Minister not to meet their demands. But there are more sinister forces at play. The Ameri-Russian forces reactivate their own remaining Uni-Sols, including rehabilitating Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Power struggles within the compound continue to complicate matters as does the closet resurrection of unstable Uni-Sol Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren).
Deveraux is introduced as living anything but a normal life—he is monitored and tutored daily by Dr. Sandra Flemming (Emily Joyce), stowed away in small-town Switzerland. Scott, on the other hand, is introduced as something of a Frankenstein monster: Upon defrostation, Scott questions his plight by not answering questions per protocol, an act which leaves his wily maker Dr. Colin (Kerry Shale) a little unnerved. The subtleties of these two introductions are simply beyond words; taking these two iconic characters (and actors) and the lowly original material in which exist, and somehow making it legitimate, is a joy to see. Fresh off J.C.V.D., Van Damme is at his best; soulless, soulful, and soul-searching, wit's end and then some, he carries the picture effortlessly. And Lundgren, practically stealing the show, affirms his real-life high IQ with his respect towards the character and the small role; he comes and goes as quickly as the villainous-version of HAL. His third-act speech, makes the movie. It's what Universal Soldier is all about.
Many have said that Regeneration, as a sequel, breaks away from its predecessors and thus can be seen as its own entity. I beg, beg, beg to disagree. The biggest part of the film's effectiveness is in its genius reframing of the original's material. It's the seeds, it's the childhood to adulthood that makes one appreciate the full transformation. It's not embarrassed by its past, but rather learns from it, and uses that framework to construct something that much greater and more spectacular.
In the end, who woulda thunk it? Universal Soldier: Regeneration blew me away...the biggest WTF in the DTD market quite possibly ever. There's so much going on, so many great ideas, coupled with visceral, flawlessly-executed set pieces and a setting that's shot to perfection. More art than entertainment, Regeneration is more in the line of the aforementioned Solyaris than anything in its supposed genre. A thinking man's action movie? Yes, yes, believe it so. Both Van Damme and Lundgren have been known to attempt such, but now it can be certified as truth. Much like its characters, Regeneration is a machine coming awake, coming into conscious, combining the best of both worlds of the cinematic medium... Actions speak louder than words, and so do action movies.
**** out of ****
~ Patrick Fryberger
Soulless but soulful Van Damme meets his existential equal in Universal Soldier: Regeneration
From the opening shot, the opening closeup of John and Peter Hyams' (son and father, director and d.p., respectively) Universal Soldier: Regeneration, I knew this was going to be more than a new model, if you'll excuse the very review-y pun. There was a confidence in the direction, in the filmmaking, and most importantly, in the material, which obviously hadn't touched the lowly series before but even rarely surfaces in the (sci-fi action) genre as a whole... If you took the head of Solyaris, and put it on the body of Children of Men or District 9, then you'd have a frame of reference to go from: this is modern, adult, science-fiction art with two presupposed meatheads coming back for what was technically a fifth sequel. I went in with modest expectations; I wanted to be entertained, and entertained I was. But what I did not expect, was to be challenged. And challenged, I most certainly was.
CHERNOBYL. The son and daughter of the Prime Minister are kidnapped in a swift, brutal strike outside of an art gallery. This act of terrorism is only part of the picture, however, as the insurgents proceed to commandeer the nuclear power plant and site of the infamous 1986 disaster. With a stolen Uni-Sol (Andrei "The Pitbull" Arlovski), or Universal Soldier, on their side, and a scientist who knows how to use him, the ransom and the stakes are simply too high for the Prime Minister not to meet their demands. But there are more sinister forces at play. The Ameri-Russian forces reactivate their own remaining Uni-Sols, including rehabilitating Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Power struggles within the compound continue to complicate matters as does the closet resurrection of unstable Uni-Sol Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren).
Deveraux is introduced as living anything but a normal life—he is monitored and tutored daily by Dr. Sandra Flemming (Emily Joyce), stowed away in small-town Switzerland. Scott, on the other hand, is introduced as something of a Frankenstein monster: Upon defrostation, Scott questions his plight by not answering questions per protocol, an act which leaves his wily maker Dr. Colin (Kerry Shale) a little unnerved. The subtleties of these two introductions are simply beyond words; taking these two iconic characters (and actors) and the lowly original material in which exist, and somehow making it legitimate, is a joy to see. Fresh off J.C.V.D., Van Damme is at his best; soulless, soulful, and soul-searching, wit's end and then some, he carries the picture effortlessly. And Lundgren, practically stealing the show, affirms his real-life high IQ with his respect towards the character and the small role; he comes and goes as quickly as the villainous-version of HAL. His third-act speech, makes the movie. It's what Universal Soldier is all about.
Many have said that Regeneration, as a sequel, breaks away from its predecessors and thus can be seen as its own entity. I beg, beg, beg to disagree. The biggest part of the film's effectiveness is in its genius reframing of the original's material. It's the seeds, it's the childhood to adulthood that makes one appreciate the full transformation. It's not embarrassed by its past, but rather learns from it, and uses that framework to construct something that much greater and more spectacular.
In the end, who woulda thunk it? Universal Soldier: Regeneration blew me away...the biggest WTF in the DTD market quite possibly ever. There's so much going on, so many great ideas, coupled with visceral, flawlessly-executed set pieces and a setting that's shot to perfection. More art than entertainment, Regeneration is more in the line of the aforementioned Solyaris than anything in its supposed genre. A thinking man's action movie? Yes, yes, believe it so. Both Van Damme and Lundgren have been known to attempt such, but now it can be certified as truth. Much like its characters, Regeneration is a machine coming awake, coming into conscious, combining the best of both worlds of the cinematic medium... Actions speak louder than words, and so do action movies.
**** out of ****
~ Patrick Fryberger
Friday, February 12, 2010
"I guess you gotta reach out to some of the old guys"
Really great interview with Dolph from i09, primarily concerning Universal Soldier: Regeneration, which is coming in my Netflix tomorrow(!).
Source: i09
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Dammit, I liked it
Love the 8 Mile music at the beginning. All in all, it's good, enough.
Source: /Film
the films of the 2000s from Paul Proulx on Vimeo.
Source: /Film
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
