Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)
Alex Garland's Civil War (2024)

11/30/2013

Bowfinger (1999) or, Making Chubby Rain



+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Los Angeles Movie of the Year + Best Parody of the Year


The poster for Frank Oz's Bowfinger

QUICK REVIEW:

Steve Martin (iThree Amigos! (1986)) plays Bowfinger, a man who desperately wants to make a Hollywood movie hit. With a persevering team of amateurs, one involuntary, unknowing star, Kit Ramsay, and his dim-witted brother, Bowfinger succeeds in creating the action science fiction film, Chubby Rain.
Bowfinger is no major laugh-fest, but rather a major enjoyment for lovers of classic comedy and the Hollywood movie business, which it parodies. It is entertaining and very agreeable and a somewhat nostalgic trip to a way of making comedies that's not being done much anymore, (regrettably.)
The pairing of Eddie Murphy (The Golden Child (1986)) and Martin, who also wrote the film, - two of the biggest stars of American comedy in the last 30 and 40 years, respectively, - is a merry success.


Heather Graham and Eddie Murphy in one of Bowfinger's funny scenes


Bowfinger is a funny film with a slew of good supporting roles as well, (Heather Graham, Christine Baranski, Adam Alexi-Malle, Terence Stamp and Robert Downey Jr. spring to mind.)
Frank Oz, - the voice of Yoda in the Star Wars-film, and an established director (The Score (2001)) on his own as well, - directed Bowfinger. His next film, Winter's Discontent, will star Billy Crystal going to a retirement community. To get laid! Should be interesting.
Martin is starring in Home (2014), a science fiction comedy, (I hope very much), co-starring Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna and Jim Parsons. He really should write another comedy for himself, I think. He's good at it!

Related reviews:

Frank OzStar Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) - Despite stale romance and Anakin, Episode II excites (voice actor)

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Watch a short, fun trailer for the movie here

Budget: 55 mil. $
Box office: 98.5 mil. $
= Modest success (flopped outside of the US)

Any similar comedies that you would like to recommend?
Personal thoughts on Bowfinger?

Ben-Hur (1959) - Perhaps the greatest epic of all time




One original poster for William Wyler's majestic Ben-Hur


Judah Ben-Hur is a Jewish prince from Judea at the time of Christ, who gets deceived by his old friend, Messala (Stephen Boyd (The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964))), and is made a slave to the Roman galleys, while his mother and daughter are thrown in the slammer. But Ben-Hur has to go through much more in his life...

A still from the film, wherein Charlton Heston portrays Ben-Hur's marring time as a galley-slave for the Romans

Ben-Hur is an exuberant retelling of the Christian messages; to love one's enemy, to stand fast and turn the other cheek and take the punishment and the pain, and to forgive and be forgiven; and it is an excellent and deeply moving film unlike any other. - Additionally it is probably the great Charlton Heston's (Planet of the Apes (1968)) best role and the greatest epic ever. He is phenomenal as the man, who finally after so many trials gets his vindictiveness turned and finds faith, SPOILER and sees a miracle happen for his beloved ones.
The photography alone in Ben-Hur, - by the phenomenal Robert Surtees (The Last Picture Show (1971)), - is spectacular in all its full details and grandeur. The film was the biggest in terms of sets and the most expensive film ever made at its time. It was so big that it was a make-or-break effort for its studio, MGM.
Especially two major scenes are always highlighted as truly unforgettable: The violent galley-scene and the legendary, extraordinary chariot race scene, an eight-minute scene that took 5 weeks to shoot in the biggest set ever built, outside of Rome at Cinecittá Studio. The scene is so influential and amazing that it stands alone in cinema history and is surrounded by myths: Its number of extras going upwards of 15,000; the number of horses that died from the effort tallying from none, (and that the horses were treated with the utmost respect, as you can read in the IMDb trivia page), to as many as 100, as is the number given in The Hollywood Reporter's new Animals Were Harmed-special. Whichever is the truth, the scene is made and should be treasured:

Click to enlarge this picture from the legendary chariot race scene of Ben-Hur


But there are many other fantastic, unforgettable scenes that are less mythologized: The beautiful opening with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem; Ben-Hur's meeting with Jesus, who gives him water, when he is thirsting in chains, - a remarkable and moving scene, - and Ben-Hur's terrible discovery that his kin have become lepers.

It is a tragic fact, however, that the film's producer Sam Zimbalist (Quo Vadis (1951)) had a heart attack and died on set, two months before production ended, at age 57. His wife subsequently took home the Best Picture Oscar for him. Ben-Hur won a record 11 Oscars (out of 12 nominations), not equalled again before Titanic (1997).
Director William Wyler (The Big Country (1958)) was able to walk home his own Oscar, and his - at the time - record pay of 1.1 mil. $. (Still a hefty payment for any director.)
Ben-Hur has an epic span of nearly 4 hours, which doesn't detract from its impact, which is that of an unmissable masterpiece, a gift to humanity, - a truly great film.

Another beautiful, original poster for Ben-Hur

Related reviews:

William Wyler The Big Country (1958) - A big western gift

See some glimpses of the grandeur in this not-so-humble original trailer for Ben-Hur

Budget: 15 mil. $
Box office: 146.9 mil. $ (initial release only)
= Worldwide monster hit; highest grossing film of 1959, and the second-highest grossing film of all time, behind Victor Fleming's Gone With the Wind (1939)

Any comments on Ben-Hur are welcomed
Knowledge on what's fact and what's conjecture in the chariot race annals are also welcomed

11/29/2013

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) - Despite stale romance and Anakin, Episode II excites




A poster for George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

10 years have gone since the events in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), and Anakin is now a young adult. Obi-Wan Kenobi has taught him as his Jedi apprentice, but Skywalker is rebellious and arrogant. Queen Amidala is now Senator, and assassins try to kill her. Anakin moves her to safety, while Obi-Wan follows the mysterious leads that reveal to him a clone army.
Episode II is the longest Star Wars film (142 minutes) and probably the least liked generally, but for me it is a satisfying space adventure, and Episode III is the weakest in the saga, with Episode I and Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as the strongest.
The biggest hurdles in Episode II and III are writer-director, George Lucas' questionable ability to write romance, and Hayden Christensen, the uncharismatic, dull and minimally talented actor employed for the pivotal part of Anakin Skywalker. He has a much better actress in Natalie Portman (Black Swan (2010)) to play up to, but still they mostly fail in bringing feelings of real romance into the calculated scenes; set in excessively picturesque settings to lure the viewer's attention away from the stony dialog and action.
I have problems connecting the dots between the overly smart, cute Anakin of Episode I with the brooding, dumb Anakin of Episode II. Something has somehow gone terribly wrong in the ten year span: The young man talks continuously about his mother and unfairnesses committed against him; he is almost entirely in his emotions' control. Even the death of his mother (Pernilla August) only inspires him to be an enormous idiot. The character, which I loved in Episode I, is now the dumbest Jedi apprentice ever, in Episode II.
Fortunately, Episode II has many better things to offer, which counter-weigh the issues with Anakin and his stale romance:
Ewan McGregor (The Impossible (2012)) is a great Obi-Wan, and I enjoyed his almost detective-like adventure to Kamino and beyond a lot. Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained (2012)) is good as Master Windu, and Christopher Lee (Dracula (1958)) is always a great villain, here as Count Dooku. Behind him, Ian McDiarmid (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)), still lurks around in the villains' wardrobe as the imposing Chancellor Palpatine. All of his scenes are amazing.
Minimizing Jar Jar Binks, who was not treated mildly by many audiences of Episode I, is more R2D2 and C3PO. By theatrical chronology, (IV,V,VI,I,II,III), I think I have had enough of the latter at this stage, but at least he loses his head in this film.
That happens in the droid factory scene, which I quite enjoyed.

A still from the factory scene

The footage for that scene, which was added very late in the process, apparently took just a few hours to film, (everything besides the actors is animated in the sequence.) It works impressively well, and doesn't look rushed.
The film is only the third to be filmed entirely in digital 24 f/ps., and was deciding in the decision to shift to digital for many other big Hollywood films, (and thereby the world in general.)
Other CGI-created marvels of Episode II include the monsters in the gladiatorial arena. Here's a couple of them:


But what many fans will remember as the best of Episode II, - unless they for some reason are grumbling about unsatisfying CGI, - is Yoda's fight scene. I found it highly satisfying and thrilling to finally see him in action. And there's also a really good scene earlier in the film, where Yoda is teaching young Jedi padawans.
What you will, say it; the shit, Yoda is.


The details:

So while Episode II has its problems, I still think that the great Jedi fights and many other great characters weigh up for it. At the end of it, I know I almost couldn't wait to see Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith (2005), when I first saw it more than ten years ago now.
Finally, the Star Wars films are also so exciting because of their masterful sound design and the music, composed and conducted by John Williams, and performed by the London Voices and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Portman is currently involved in two Terrence Malick projects, the first one being Knight of Cups (2014), a film about celebrity. Malick has upped his production pace a lot the last years, but the films also seem to grow worse. Portman is also starring in the troubled Jane Got a Gun (2014), which got its director Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)) replaced after accusations of drunk behavior, irresponsible gun handling and missing money was made against her not long ago. Film Excess hopes Ramsay recovers and heads on to something else.
Since Disney acquired the Star Wars-rights not so very long ago for a galactic sum of money, three more movies have been announced. The first one, Episode VII, should come out in 2015. Unfortunately, I don't know any more about it yet, but I pray that the Force will be with director JJ Abrams' on this new space adventure.

Related reviews:

Samuel L. Jackson: The Incredibles (2004) - Unwanted animated slam-dunk
The 51st State (2001) or, US/UK, drugs and shooting
Amos & Andrew (1993) or, He's Going for the Stereo!

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 115 mil. $
Box office: 649.3 mil. $
= Major blockbuster, but out-grossed by Episode I three years earlier and the first Star Wars film to not be the top-grossing film of the year of release, (3rd in the US, and 4th worldwide; behind Spider-Man, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and worldwide also Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

What do you think of Episode II, and how do you rate the movies individually?
Thoughts and comments on the coming episodes are welcomed

11/28/2013

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - One of the greats




An original poster for David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai

QUICK REVIEW:

A large group of British war prisoners in Japanese-occupied Burma in 1942 get the assignment to build a bridge for the railway. The British major in charge puts all his pride into the project, which is to symbolize the unparalleled craftsmanship and unbreakable will of the British, he announces, while other allies are on a deadly sabotage mission through the hostile jungle towards the self same bridge.
Kwai is an unequalled masterpiece in the suspense-based war movie genre. It is inspired by facts, but is for the most part fiction, as the real life parallel, the Burma-Siam railway, was in fact much more terrible and deadly than the events depicted in the film. (13,000 PoW's and between 80,000-100,000 civilians died as a result of the project.)
The film has some of the most exciting suspense in all of cinema, and yet most of this epic relies on unforgettable, insightful character studies: There's the pragmatist doctor, who sees only pointlessness in the trials of the war; the zealous major, who makes it a matter of personal spite and principal to prove the Japanese inferior to the British. And the Japanese colonel Saito, who buds heads with the Brit and follows his own culture's codes of conduct.
Alec Guiness (Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)) deservedly won an Oscar, his career's only, for his portrayal of Major Nicholson, whose rigid mind and jungle fever takes him to the blinded edge of sanity.

Alec Guinness' portrayal of human spite and near-madness in The Bridge on the River Kwai is fascinating and outstanding

Sessue Hayakawa (The Geisha Boy (1958)) was also nominated for his part as Saito. The two's scenes together are some of the film's best. Highly sophisticated, intense and alive.
In other supporting roles, Jack Hawkins and William Holden are enjoyable. The film is also unusual in that it is almost entirely bereft of women.
The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of the best war films of all time, an eminent epic, and has been restored beautifully. It is a must watch for every movie-lover, end especially for the war-interested.
Its great British director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia (1962)) continuously fought his British cast, and Guiness in particular, during the filming, as Guiness wanted to make Nicholson more sympathetic and thought that the film was anti-British. For Lean, this wasn't the case, but he admitted explicitly to being tired of his countrymen on set: He is quoted for saying after shooting a particularly gruelling scene with Guiness: "Now you can all fuck off and go home, you English actors. Thank God that I'm starting work tomorrow with an American actor [William Holden]."
Lean almost drowned on Kwai, which was filmed almost entirely in Sri Lanka, when he was swept away in a river current during filming, and was rescued by actor Geoffrey Horne.
The film, - Lean's greatest in my opinion, - won 7 out of 8 Oscar nominations, among others for Best Picture and Best Director.
The writing Oscar wrongfully went solely to French writer Pierre Boulle (Planet of the Apes (1968)), whose book the script was based on, and who didn't speak or write English, because the 'real' scriptwriters, Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, were blacklisted by Hollywood due to the McCarthy witch-hunt still active at the time. They were recognized with Oscars and credit inductions in 1984, but both had sadly died by then.

Remember the magic of Kwai and listen to the infamous Colonel Bogey March in the trailer here

Budget: 3 mil. $
Box office: 33.3 mil. (US only)
= Enormously successful (and highest grossing film of 1958)

Comments on The Bridge on the River Kwai are welcomed

Boogie Nights (1997) - Anderson's irresistable porn 'Casino'



+ Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Mark Wahlberg


Cartoonized version of many of the characters in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights

QUICK REVIEW:

Boogie Nights is a movie about life in the American porn business in the 1970s and '80s. It is to porn what Casino (1995) is to Vegas: A glitzy semi-fact-based chronicle. A simultaneously glamorous and sober recap of porn's explosion into major dollars.
Mark Wahlberg (Three Kings (1999)), who is putting himself into the Oscar race right now by co-producing and starring in Lone Survivor (2013), has one of his career's best parts here and gives a splendid performance in his breakthrough role as donkey dick with limited brains, Dirk Diggler/Eddie Adams (based on porn legend John Holmes). The rest of the cast is so star-studded that you just have to keep watching, and many deliver outstanding supporting performances:
Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda (2004)) is priceless; and so is Burt Reynolds (Deliverance (1972)), who was Oscar-nominated for his part as porn director. Julianne Moore (The Hours (2002)) is heartbreaking as porn actress/neglecting mother; and finally Heather Graham (From Hell (2001)) is sugar-sweet as Rollergirl.
Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Thomas Jane and Alfred Molina also have enjoyable minor parts.
Photography-wise, Boogie Nights is a study in long, complicated travelings and hard contrast cuts. Fine work by cinematographer Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood (2007)).
The film marked writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's breakthrough as well, after his debut, the much lesser known crime drama Hard Eight (1996). He is now one of the 5 best American directors working today.
Boogie Nights is a decadent, sexy, incredibly casted, eclectic film. A tour de force in cinematic skill and great period music. It booms with great scenes and wonderful performances, but almost all scenes are also overly long, which makes the film a special experience: It's never boring, but it is unmistakable over-long at 155 minutes.
A few established actors turned down the main part in the film; Vincent Gallo, Joaquin Phoenix and Leonardo DiCaprio (in favor of Titanic (1997)), and especially Gallo must have later regretted this. 
Reynolds only reluctantly agreed to play the porn director Jack Horner. He and Anderson didn't get along during shooting, and Reynolds subsequently regretted doing the film, and even reportedly hit Anderson, who still wanted to cast Reynolds for his following film, Magnolia (1999), which Reynolds turned down. Quite a few people now consider Boogie Nights Burt Reynolds best work. Talk about an ironic turn.


Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner in Boogie Nights, with Philip Seymour Hoffman on his left, and William H. Macy right behind him. The old wolf and sex icon has a great part in the film, but embarrassed himself off-camera. In one of life's great ironies, it seems that Reynolds might have thought it was the other way around

Anderson has made his best film yet in the oil drama, There Will Be Blood (2007), and is editing his next film at the moment, Inherent Vice (2014), another LA-set drug-and-crime-movie in the '70s, led by Joaquin Phoenix.

Related post:

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch the tantalizing trailer here

Budget: 15 mil. $
Box office: 43 mil. $
= Big hit

Additions to the Reynolds' affair are welcomed
What do you think of Boogie Nights and Anderson's other films?
Other good films about the porn industry?

11/27/2013

Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West/Buffalo Bill (1965) or, Cowboys and Indians in the Good Old Italian West





Gordon Scott on this old vintage poster for Mario Costa's Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West

QUICK REVIEW:

Buffalo Bill is the man, who can function diplomatically as a broker between the parts and thus prevent the grand war against the Indians that bad people on both sides want. - But with so high odds against him, will he succeed?
Buffalo Bill is an early spaghetti western with its forte in lots of fighting and shooting scenes. There is drama with kidnapped beautiful women on both sides, and Gordon Scott (Hercules Attacks (1963)) plays the big-muscled hero with his heart in the right place.
Photography-wise, Buffalo Bill is too wobbly to strike one as a good film, even thought it is entertaining.
The director Mario Costa ended his long career in Italian films with La Belva/The Beast (1970), wherein Klaus Kinski plays a sexual maniac. A dark shadow has been cast over films like La Belva, since it has recently been revealed that Kinski sexually abused his oldest daughter Pola Kinski from age 5-19. She has written extensively on the traumatizing abuse in her autobiography, Kindermund/Child's Mouth.

Another vintage poster for Mario 'J.W. Fordson' Costa's Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West
 
Here's the long trailer for the film

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West?
And have you seen La Belva and/or read Pola Kinski's autobiography?
If so, please contribute some thoughts

Brokeback Mountain (2005) or, That Place That Weren't Possible



+ Best Western of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year + Comeback Actor of the Year: Jake Gyllenhaal


Contemplative Heath Ledger and pouty Jack Gyllenhaal on the poster for Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain

QUICK REVIEW:

The summer of '63: Two young cowboys herd sheep on Brokeback Mountain, and get a taste for each other. Both marry women and have children, but their love doesn't fade away.
Life is complicated. For the two characters Jack and Ennis, it becomes too complicated, SPOILER until one of them dies.
When I first saw Brokeback in 2008, I thought it a bit strange to see one of my teenage idols, Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko (2001)) make love to Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight (2008)), but in retrospect, I don't think Gyllenhaal has done anything better than or even as good as Brokeback since it came out. But really, their romance in the film is beautiful and hot.
Brokeback Mountain is a really good film about unresolved, romantic and sexual dreams all told in a no-nonsense fashion. It is obviously an issue film, because their love doesn't pan out due to societal prejudice and sexual taboo, but it is not a pushy issue film. - It is first of all a tragic love-story, just as so many straight tragic love-stories. A really fine film with no real villains.
Anna Farris (Observe and Report (2009)) has a wonderful supporting role.
The film broke records and was received with exceeding warmth in a host of countries. Not in China, however, although director Ang Lee (Hulk (2003)) is from Taiwan. It was banned in China because homosexuality is an official taboo in the country.
Brokeback won three Oscars (direction, music and best adapted screenplay) and was nominated for five more. Lee received his second Oscar as best director last year for Life of Pie (2012). My favourite among his many good films remains the highly sophisticated, Chinese spy thriller Lust, Caution (2007).

Related post:

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

As is obvious in its trailer here, Brokeback Mountain is a heartbreaker

Budget: 14 mil. $
Box office: 178 mil. $
= Enormous hit

What is your opinion of Brokeback Mountain and Ang Lee?
Related movie recommendations are welcomed

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (4-24)
Niclas Bendixen's Rom (2024)