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A hyper-sexualized scene of impending bloodled is teased on this sensationalistic poster for Mario Costa's Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West
Buffalo Bill is the man, who can function diplomatically as a broker between the parties and thus prevent the grand war against the Indians that bad folks on both sides want. - But with so high odds against him, will he succeed?
Buffalo Bill is written by Nino Stresa (Un Hombre y un Colt (1967)) and Luciano Martino (In Camera Mia (1992)), with Ernesto Gastaldi (Stradivari (1988)), Louis Agotay (Haus im Haus (1952, short)) and Piette Lévy-Corti (Les Culottes Rouges (1962)) contributing uncredited work, and directed by Mario Costa (La Sua Strada (1946)). The title is a literal translation of the original Italian title.
It 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 (Goliath e la Schiava Ribelle (1963)) plays the big-muscled title hero with his heart surely in the right place. Photography-wise, cinematographer Massimo Dallamano (A Fistful of Dollars/Per un Pugno di Dollari(1964)) is too wobbly for Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West to strike one as a good film, even thought it is entertaining.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown Box office: Unknown = Uncertain
[Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West was released 19 November (Italy) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Rome, Italy. Details of the film's release results, mainly in Europe, are regrettably not available online, - but it is highly likely that it was a box office success. It was not released in North America. Costa returned with Karim ibn el Sheikh (1964). Scott's return was also in this film. 219 IMDb users have given Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West a 4.5/10 average rating.]
What do you think of Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West?
+ Best Western of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year + Comeback Actor of the Year: Jake Gyllenhaal
Denim-dressed stars with sweetly secretive expressions stand forth against spectacular natural beauty on this poster for Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain
The summer of 1963: 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. SPOILER For Jack and Ennis, it becomes too complicated, until one of them dies.
Brokeback Mountain is written by Larry McMurtry (Falling from Grace (1992)) and Diana Ossana (Joe Bell (2020)), based on the same-titled 1997 short story by Annie Proulx (Postcards (1992)), and directed by Taiwanese master filmmaker Ang Lee (Pushing Hands/Tui shou (1991)), whose 9th feature it is. 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, (although Nightcrawler (2014) may be the exception.) 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 related in a no-nonsense fashion. It is obviously an issue film, because the secret, same-sex couple's 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 through the years. And a really fine film with no real villains it is. Anna Farris (Observe and Report (2009)) has a wonderful supporting role in it.
Cost: 14 mil. $ Box office: 178 mil. $ = Mega-hit (returned 12.71 times its cost)
[Brokeback Mountain premiered 2 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 134 minutes. Anne Hathaway (Interstellar (2014)) was paid 800k $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from June - August 2004 in Wyoming, New Mexico and in Alberta. The film opened #15 to a 547k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #4 and in 2,089 theaters, grossing 83 mil. $ (46.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 17.9 mil. $ (10.1 %) and Germany with 11.1 mil. $ (6.2 %). The film was banned in most Muslim countries and in China it was denied a release, despite Lee getting hailed for his achievement as a 'Chinese', (he is Taiwanese.) The film was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3: For Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and Score (Gustavo Santaolalla (Narcos: Mexico (2018-21))). It lost Best Picture to Crash, Actor (Ledger) to Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master (2012)) in Capote, Supporting Actor (Gyllenhaal) to George Clooney (The Descendants (2011)) in Syriana, Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine (2010))) to Rachel Weisz (The Lobster (2015)) in The Constant Gardner and Cinematography (Rodrigo Prieto (Barbie (2023)) to Dion Beebe (The Little Mermaid (2023) for Memoirs of a Geisha. It also won 4/9 BAFTA nominations, was nominated for a César, a David di Donatello, a European Film award, won 4/7 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for a Grammy, won 2/4 Independent Spirit awards, 3 National Board of Review awards, the Golden Lion in Venice and an AFI award, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Lee returned with Lust, Caution/Se, jie(2007). Ledger returned in Casanova (2005); Gyllenhaal in Proof (2005); Williams in The Hawk Is Dying (2006); and Hathaway with a voice performance in Hoodwinked! (2005) and physically in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). Brokeback Mountain is certified fresh at 88 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
An amazing image of the SS Enterprise about to crash-land makes up this poster for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness
Captain
Kirk's disciplinary difficulties are landing him in trouble. But with deadly attacks from an ex Starfleet officer with
superhuman capabilities, Kirk and his spaceship Enterprise team are sent to seek
out and kill the renegade Harrison on the enemy planet Kronos.
Complications ensue.
Star Trek Into Darkness is written and co-produced by Alex Kurtzman (The Mummy (2017)), Damon Lindelof (World War Z (2013)) and Roberto Orci (People Like Us (2012)) and co-produced and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III (2006)). It is the sequel to Abrams' Star Trek (2009) reboot of the Star Trek franchise and the 12th film in the franchise. With the for many familiar core characters firmly re-established in the first film, the sequel has room to play around with them some more, and especially the scenes between Kirk and Mr. Spock are enjoyable. Chris Pine (Poolman (2023))is still dead-on right as the face of humanity. Zachary Quinto's (Margin Call (2011)) head may have grown a bit fatter in the four years since the last Star Trek, but his Spock hasn't grown a millimeter in any direction. - Still the dorky, cerebral ol' Spockerino, quite amusing at times. I didn't object any longer to Zoe Saldana's (Avatar (2009)) Uhura loving him here, and overall I enjoyed her performance more in this film, especially when she spoke Klingon. Anton Yelchin's (Fierce People (2005)) strained Russian-accented Tintin-like freshman of the crew Chekov has had his role reduced in Into Darkness (thank God), and instead we have more time with the likeable, funny characters played by Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead (2004)). SPOILER Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game (2014)) plays the Harrison character that is later revealed to actually be the major Star Trek mythology villain Khan. Cumberbatch makes a bland substitute for Ricardo Montalban's colorful, campy, sexually magnetic performance in the original series and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). SPOILER Peter Weller (Naked Lunch (1991)) plays a character you first think is good, but then... - Unless you guess by seeing Weller's very face that this is a no-good son-of-a-bitch. He is a welcome addition in Into Darkness to be sure. Into Darkness does go for a darker, almost oppressive tone that I don't think it succeeds with, which is a shame after the very promising, more adventure-focused first Abrams Star Trek venture. Michael Giacchino (Up (2009)) has again made a fine, thundering score. The special effects are beautiful and exciting to look at, as in the first film. The adventure and action of deep space exploration are some of the main attractions of the films, - not so much the super-dark villains, - but Into Darkness has both, and is over-all a fairly suspenseful film experience. Whereas the previous Abrams' Star Trek took its time getting started but then turned out highly satisfying, Into Darkness begins to wobble in its third act: SPOILER Bruce Greenwood's (The Sweet Hereafter (1997)) character Pike dies at the beginning, which I thought was a shame. He and Kirk had good scenes together, and he would have been a great actor to keep in the films. Kirk later gives Pegg's Scotty the responsibility to watch over Khan, a man he has just acknowledged is a kind of super-man. This seems too stupid for any good captain, no matter how upstanding Scotty appears. Later, the self same Khan, who is at least two or three steps ahead of everyone else for the entire film, could not have imagined that the torpedoes carrying his people also could be armed torpedoes. Again, it seems like a flawed, easy writing solution, instead of a likely mistake made by the character.
SPOILER
- At the very last climax, Kirk fixes the 'warp core' by kicking it a
few times. This is both anticlimactic and a little silly. On the plus side, Spock gets the last fight against Khan, instead of the macho Kirk, which I rather liked.
Cost: 185-190 mil. $ (different sources) Box office: 467.3 mil. $ = Even
[Star Trek Into Darkness premiered 2 May (London) and runs 132 minutes. Pine was paid 1.5 mil. $ plus a 500k $ "if the film proved profitable" for his performance. Shooting took place from January - May 2012 in Iceland and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 70.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 another 2 weekends (#3-#4), grossing 228.7 mil. $ (48.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 57 mil. $ (12.2 %) and the UK with 39.2 mil. $ (8.4 %). The film was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, lost to Gravity. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, among other honors. The film additionally made an estimated 80.8 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. The Star Trek franchise returned with Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond (2016). Abrams returned with Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). Pine returned in Paul McCartney: Queenie Eye (2013, music video) and theatrically in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014); Quinto in We'll Never Have Paris (2014); and Cumberbatch in 12 Years a Slave (2013). Star Trek Into Darkness is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Striking images lined with the title and ultra-simple tagline ('Listen') makes up this poster for Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu's Babel
When a couple of Moroccan boys accidentally shoot an American tourist, it starts an avalanche of events on different continents.
Babel is written by Guillermo Arriaga (En Defensa Propia (2015, short)) and directed by Mexican master filmmaker Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu (Amores Perros (2000)), whose 3rd feature it is. It is the 3rd and last film in Arriaga and Iñárritu's Death trilogy, also comprising Amores Perros and 21 Grams (2003). Babel is a unique drawing of the times we live in; the tragedies, the hope and the people around the world, mostly seen as trying to do the right thing. Each working in their own fragment of the wildly divergent world, which is still being held together by some universal instincts and values that we seemingly all share as human beings. Babel lets us into the complexity of our world in the form of an emotionally wild sensual bombardment that took most audiences aback in cinemas the world over in 2006. It is inventively carried out visually, (cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto (Barbie (2023))), story-wise and musically, (Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain (2005)) score is grand.) The film is extremely powerful, due, of course, in equal measure to the tremendous acting performances: Brad Pitt (Fight Club (1999)) gives one of his career's best performances, a gripping portrayal of desperation and grief. Adriana Barraza (Drag Me to Hell (2009)) plays the Mexican sitter with every ounce of her being.
Cost: 25 mil. $ Box office: 135.3 mil. $ = Big hit (returned 5.41 times its cost)
[Babel premiered 23 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 143 minutes. Shooting took place from May - December 2005 in Japan, including in Tokyo, Morocco, including in Casablanca, Mexico and in San Diego, California. Arriaga and Iñárritu fell out prior to the film's premiere; the former was saying that they were co-authors of the trilogy, while the latter stressed that he was the sole auteur behind the films, and consequently banned Arriaga from attending the film's Cannes premiere. The film opened #24 to a 389k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #6 and in 1,251 theaters, grossing 34.3 mil. $ (25.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 14.9 mil. $ (11 %) and Spain with 13.9 mil. $ (10.3 %). The film was nominated for 6 Oscars (7 nominations), winning for Best Score. It lost Best Picture to The Departed, Supporting Actress (Rinko Kikuchi (Westworld (2018, TV-series)), Barraza) to Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls, Director to Martin Scorsese for The Departed, Original Screenplay to Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine and Editing to The Departed. It won 1/7 BAFTA nominations, 3 prizes in Cannes, was nominated for a César award, won a David di Donatello award, won 1/7 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for a Grammy and won 2 National Board of Review awards and an AFI award, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. It additionally made in excess of 31.4 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. Iñárritu returned with To Each His Own Cinema (2007, segment) and theatrically himself alone with Biutiful (2010). Pitt returned in Ocean's Thirteen (2007); Cate Blanchett (Hanna (2011)) in The Good German (2006); and Gael García Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle (2014-18)) in Déficit (2007). Babel is fresh at 69 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A mosquito is magnified against co-star John Turturro's forehead on this sepia-toned poster for Ethan and Joel Coen's Barton Fink
An impassioned New York playwright travels to the very commercially minded Hollywood in 1941, where he is employed to write a film that he can't seem to crack open. While things around him grow gradually worse, so does his writer's block.
Barton Fink is written by Minnesotan master filmmakers, co-writer/producer/co-editor Ethan Coen and his brother, co-writer/director/co-editor Joel Coen (Blood Simple (1984), both). It is the brothers' 4th feature.
I have warmed to Barton Fink, since first seeing it, and find that it grows on me. While first finding it a bit too smart for its own good, and disliking the ending for some reason, I have since found that I like it very much. It is unconventional and ambiguous and makes you think about stuff, - and that's a good thing. The title character is played by the great John Turturro (The Big Lebowski (1998)) in perhaps his career's best part. He plays the moody intellectual with great resourcefulness, and particularly his dance scenes are memorable and fun. The film also has a wealth of great supporting performances: John Goodman (Storytelling (2001)) as Fink's likeable but insane murderer neighbor in the hellish Hotel Earle. Their scenes together are some of the best in the film. Tony Shalhoub (Monk (2002-2009)) is larger-than-life as a Hollywood producer, and Michael Lerner (Amos & Andrew (1993)) is even more hysterical as the slave-owner-like studio boss.
The photography(by Roger Deakins (Revolutionary Road (2008))) is entirely lovely, and the film is also heightened by atmospheric, great sets by Dennis Gassner and Nancy Haigh (Road to Perdition (2002)). Barton Fink is filled with meanings, some symbolism and many great scenes. A very entertaining film.
Cost: 9 mil. $ Box office: In excess of 11.64 mil. $ = Uncertain but likely a big flop (projected return of 1.66 times its cost)
[Barton Fink premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 116 minutes. It was written during a 3-week hiatus from the difficult work of writing the script for the Coens' preceding film Miller's Crossing (1990). Shooting took place from June 1990 - ? in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #18 to a 268k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #13 and grossed 6.1 mil. $. The international gross numbers have regrettably not been released. However, online sources list that the film made 821k £ in the UK (approximately 1.4 mil. $), and that it sold 720k tickets in France and Germany (double as many in the former), coming to approximately 3 mil. $. It sold 210k tickets in Spain, approximately 863k $. It sold 34k tickets in Denmark, coming to approximately 287k $. With the remaining markets added, the total gross should be at least 15 mil. $, which would nevertheless still result in a big flop categorization. The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: It lost Best Supporting Actor (Lerner) to Jack Palance for City Slickers, Art Direction/Set Decoration to Bugsy and Costume Design to Bugsy as well. It won the Palme d'Or, Best Director and Actor prizes at Cannes in a rare feat, a David di Donatello award and was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The Coens returned with The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). Turturro returned in Brain Donors (1992); Goodman in Little Richard: Good Golly Miss Molly (1991, music video) and theatrically in Babe (1992). Barton Fink is certified fresh at 89 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
