Random Film of the Week(end): The Conversation

Posted on June 8, 2013 by geelw

It’s not surprising at all to me that everything we do on the internet or on the phone is monitored and for the most part, the average Joe and Jane is too caught up in not paying attention to this as an important issue and continues yakking or clicking away because they don’t see sanctioned invisible nosiness as a problem until it stomps on their big toe while chasing someone else.

That or there’s an “Oh well, what can you do?” attitude that’s only changed when they find out how bad things really are before case of mild online petition signing and outrage slides back into apathy as soon as that new Kardashian photo or cute cat video pops up in your inbox. Yeah, you know that’s you in there somewhere… I’ve got the transcripts if you want to come check them out sometime…

Anyway, The Conversation may (and should) make you even more paranoid as you’re watching it, but feel free to feel delighted as well as its eavesdropping surveillance whiz (Gene Hackman in one of his best performances) has his world fall apart around him while he plays catch-up with his conscience. For me, this is my favorite Francis Ford Coppola film because it’s still as timely, smart and ultimately depressing as it was when it was released almost 40 years (!) ago.

Continue reading →

Man of Steel TV Spot #11/Pacific Rim TV Spot #3: More Heavy Metal Heroes…

Posted on June 7, 2013 by geelw

So, I’m not hanging out in Los Angeles for this year’s E3 and its series of wild post show parties and such, but if I were going, I’d make sure to hang around until the 14th just to catch Man of Steel at whatever big theater it was opening at. I haven’t done that premiere thing since Star Wars: Episode One – The Phantom Menace opened and I got to see it at a ridiculously crowded midnight showing (the only time we could get tickets). Anyway, based on the power of their ads alone, both The Man of Steel and Pacific Rim are certainly going to be a hell of a lot better than Episode One was on a few fronts.

Well, at least I think so… ;^P

?able Humor: Bad Day Rising? Mr. O’Connor Will Set You Straight in 4:08…

Posted on June 6, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, ozabbavo77!)

I remember when I didn’t like musicals much at all, but I’d say that was because I didn’t watch too many of them. I started to fall for them gradually by way of their sneaky as hell way of cracking me up with their precise choreography, offbeat choice of locations or just the sheer number of performers hoofing it up with broad smiles and seemingly not breaking a sweat. I know I nearly fell off a chair laughing the first time I saw Busby Berkeley’s name in a film’s credits because it sounded exactly like the name of someone who’d throw a hundred women and a handful of men into a huge studio and make them dance on a big revolving tower cake staircase a few stories tall until they were doing it in their sleep (and perhaps wanted him a little bit dead for that kind of torture)…

Continue reading →

White House Down Trailer: Here, Forced Dumb.

Posted on June 5, 2013 by geelw

Blech… I just completely do not like these new dopey, expensive action flicks that throw presidents into danger. Yeah, yeah, there have been some well-made ones, but this year’s two blockbusters have just gotten my goat out of its pen and knocking its head into a wall. Well, if anything Roland Emmerich certainly knows about blowing the hell out of well-known real estate. That said, Independence Day was entertaining in a “Yeah, you KNOW that’s not going to ever happen” manner and despite the figurative earth-crushing moments where stuff blows up really good, you could at least walk out of the theater and feel somewhat entertained by what you just saw.

Anyway… this Die Hard meets Air Force One meets domestic terror on steroids stuff is really not necessary, but I guess it’ll have a “happy” ending and a lot of people complaining about it either way. Wait, that’s what I’M doing? Crap. Er, “Free Speech!” “Free Speech!” Now, where did I park that TARDIS? I want to go back and pitch this idea to George Washington and see what he thinks…

Random Film of the Week: Invaders From Mars (1953)

Posted on June 5, 2013 by geelw

Thanks to the need to quickly get out product to audiences rabid for the fantastic, plenty of 1950’s sci-fi and horror movies look as if they were tossed together on a few weekends or less by people more or less making stuff up as they went along. Granted, this led to some true classics of awesomely wretched in-excess (otherwise known as “Z” movie greatness around here), but there were also some surprisingly well-made gems that still pack a punch in terms of story, design and overall impact.

Despite two out of three unconvincing-looking aliens (the third one’s the charm) and a bit too much military stock footage inserted to show loads of troops on the move, Invaders From Mars in squarely in the latter camp thanks to its director and production designer, William Cameron Menzies. The multiple Oscar winner applied his keen eye to the film’s visual style, which presents an alien invasion primarily from the point of view of the young boy who sees a saucer land in the field behind his house. Of course, no one believes him, but as things start to go strange around him, there are a few that finally see the light and fight back against the aliens… Continue reading →

Hump Day With The Ross Sisters: Don’t Get It Twisted, Mister…

Posted on June 5, 2013 by geelw

I’d forgotten all about the almost forgettable 1944 musical Broadway Rhythm until I was flipping around with the remote looking for something to work to as background noise for a bit of writing and boom, I see that TCM is showing the wonderful documentary That’s Entertainment III, an instant watch just for the old Hollywood history lesson and ton of rejected clips and alternate takes from more great MGM musicals. Anyway, they ran the end of this incredible dance sequence featuring The Ross Sisters (their sole film appearance) and as I watched it, I recalled I’d seen part of this film before, but changed the channel just before the “Solid Potato Salad” number where the gals do their thing.

Ouch, and ouch and ouch – all this clip reminds me of is how I really need to exercise more. Well, not to THAT point of flexibility, though. Hell, I almost broke a hip watching this. Anyway, nope, no special effects or stunt doubles here – just a lot of practice and probably no chemically packed fast food slowing them down one bit. Er, don’t try this at home, folks. Or at least keep an ambulance on speed dial…

Shout Factory Keeps The 70’s Rolling Along With Some Genre Classics…

Posted on June 4, 2013 by geelw

Seeing these three films pop up on the Shout Factory site almost makes me feel old, except for they got me excited that they’re back in circulation, so I’m bouncing around the room. OK, not so much at my age… but any activity is good when you get this creaky. I added the road movie from hell Race With the Devil as a Random Film of the Week last year, but haven’t got around to Electra Glide in Blue (a really good, quirky cop flick with one of those depressing 70’s endings) and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, a pretty cool extended car chase flick with some great action and yep, another smasher of an ending sequence.

Hmmm, with all this road wreckage, wild hippie women, devil worshipers doing their thing in the woods and assorted traffic cops going through really lousy workdays, it’s a wonder real people drove ANYWHERE during this period. Well, they had to go to the movies too, so I’d gather an evening at the drive-in for a triple feature of all three might have been happening somewhere out there back in the day…

Anyway, that’s two more films I’ll need to add to the RFotW pile – stay tuned…

Random Film of the Weekend (Too): Time After Time

Posted on June 3, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, warnervod!)

Amusingly enough, this RFoTW post was going to be about Somewhere in Time, but I’d mistakenly typed in Time After Time as the title of that film when doing a search for the poster, looked at the results and remembered that while SoT is indeed a fine (and highly underrated) gem, TAT is more pure fun to watch and does a few more interesting things with its characters and plot as it takes them from past to present.

Adding some unique twists to the time travel and Jack the Ripper mythologies, it combines mystery, drama, action and romance with bits of comedy that work despite some first time director flaws in the ointment. Oh, and it’s a grand little science fiction film that works because you’re sucked in so quickly and completely forget the fantastic elements being so farfetched thanks to the story, characters and direction making it so real…
Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week(end): The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob

Posted on June 1, 2013 by geelw

It’s a big, fat shonda that this 1973 comedy classic isn’t more easily available on home video here in the US. I saw it for the first time as a kid at the movies when it was initially released, then a few times on cable in the 80’s before it vanished. I’d thought it gone for good from circulation until I went to France in 1995 with a few friends and our luggage got accidentally put on another flight from Heathrow during the connection from New York (Oops!).

While waiting around the place we were staying for the airport van to arrive with our bags, I decided to turn on the TV just to see what Parisians watch when they’re not outside at some nice cafe sipping whatever and smoking Gauloises and people watching (which is a fine sport in Paris). Guess what was on? That’s right, and even more amusing, I found out soon enough that the film is something of a national treasure there. Even funnier was during the time I was in France, the two other times I walked past a TV that was on, the film was playing, which led me to believe that there was either a Rabbi Jacob channel running this on a loop 24 hours a day or whomever was in charge of network programming had a rather single-minded sense of humor…
Continue reading →

Pacific Rim “Oversized Robot Sets” Trailer: Those Three Little Words…

Posted on May 31, 2013 by geelw

Wait…What? You mean they didn’t build ACTUAL working robots for Pacific Rim? Man, whadda gyp!! Well, not really, but given that the animation is done with no motion capture at all, these big metal behemoths have weight to them when they move and don’t look like a stuntman going through his paces (and too fluidly, at that). Hey, imagine the action figures for this flick and how HUGE they’re going to be? How huge you ask? Well, silly… what’s the title of that video again? Yeah, that’s right – OVERSIZED ROBOT SETS. I’ll take a dozen, thank you much. And just what do you get the man who has everything? A bigger closet!