November 2011 - Izmovies - Watch Full New Movies movies Youtube

Finally, Someone Made "Moulin Rouge" Entertaining

If you ever needed a reason as to WHY the Channel Awesome/That Guy With The Glasses collective are pretty-much THE force in the criticism-as-entertainment video genre... I'd say that this is the best example to date: a good chunk of the crew (primarily The Nostalgia Critic, Nostalgia Chick and a guest-appearing Brentalfloss, but Linkara, Spoony etc. get in some amusing cameos) dive into a nearly 45-minute breakdown of "Moulin Rouge" in musical format. Amusingly, the film itself is uniquely well-suited to being intercut with the TGWTG "house-style;" aka "mugging-the-shit-out-of-the-camera."

I'm embedding it below, but I really encourage people to visit the site - a really amazing amount of content from a refreshingly-diverse group of voices.

I know that reactions to TGWTG run hot-or-cold at this point, especially as they've become more ubiquitous. Depending on who you ask, they're either geek-culture revolutionaries or the worst thing that EVER happened to internet criticism; as they're seen as popularizing the move away from youtube-slideshow to character/skit-driven as the dominant style of the genre.

For the most part, I'm the mostly-affirmative camp. Having guys like these (along with the gang at ScrewAttack and the omnipresent juggernaut of James "AVGN" Rolfe) towering over this medium has been a consistent and welcome kick-in-the-ass reminder for me to step up my game and try newer/better/different things with my various projects.

Also, it must be said, I think the sheer diversity of voices and perspectives - that it's NOT "only" a site of the usual GenX Suburbanite White Male Nerds - they've assembled is an enormous good for web/geek culture overall. That they have so many female reviewers, for example, is a big net-positive; and while Lewis Lovhaug's (Linkara's) work-ethic and natural talent are what's made him a star (I really do think he's the best thing to happen to comic book journalism/criticism in a decade or more, not that there's much competition...) it's the uniqueness and sincerity of his cultural-outlook that makes his stuff so frequently refreshing.

Hat-tip: BAD

I'm too lazy to check, but I'm sure it's a given that someone else has made this joke by now... none the less, it behooves me to point out that it's kind of wonderfully appropriate that the teaser poster for "Men In Black 3" is built to look like one of those old "Magic Eye" posters: The last time anyone gave two shits about "Men In Black;" Magic Eye was NEW...

There's a second version of the poster featuring Josh Brolin, who's playing the circa-1960s version of Tommy Lee Jones' character from the last one. The plot was supposed to involve time-travel and the origins of the MIB organization; but apparently it's been extensively rewritten (leading to a scandalously-overblown budget, or so goes the gossip) so at this point who knows/cares?

Big Picture: "Favorite Ms.Take"

You asked for "Ms. Marvel," you got "Ms. Marvel"...

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Favorite Ms. Take - Part 1

Crazily-Plausible "DARK KNIGHT RISE" Theory Advanced by Joke Website

CRACKED - which morphed from a middling MAD Magazine clone to a shockingly-awesome The Onion clone - has a blogger advancing a new "what will happen to Batman" theory that, unlike most other versions of the same idea, makes a surprising amount of sense. No spoilers (yet) but the main "big" point is what I'd call my favorite guess yet made as to what the point of Joseph Gordon Levitt's role will be.

Read the piece HERE

RIP Ken Russell 1927-2011

Ken Russell has died. Though he'd slipped somewhat from public consciousness outside of his native England, Russell was the director of a string of popular and/or noteworthy films throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. Any film buff worth his salt ought to have seen "The Devils," "Women in Love" and "Altered States" by now; though he was probably best known for "The Who's 'Tommy" and a slew of increasingly-offbeat biopics of classical composers.

Below, a scene from "Lair of The White Worm" - for my money still the height of Hugh Grant's onscreen moments:

UK readers: Did any news outlets opt to use that clip for effect back when Grant was the big hero of the hacking scandal? Or do you guys not "do" the ironic-movie-clip-as-part-of-the-news thing?

Escape to the Movies: "The Muppets"

Apologies for not putting this up sooner. Busy day for me, and I wasn't even shopping.

"Intermission" has more Muppets.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : The Muppets

Big Picture: "Skin Game"

This is about the PETA Mario spoof. I advise the weak-of-stomach to proceed with caution.

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Skin Game

I'm feeling like this will be the last "super-serious" episode for a little while, because the research I had to do was pretty ghastly stuff and I just don't need the extra stress for the holidays. Lots of people celebrate New Years Eve/Day; but *I* celebrate January 2nd - the day the world gets back to normal.

"Dark Knight Rises" Is Batman (Slightly) Beyond

EMPIRE had a much-hyped set-visit story about "The Dark Knight Rises" recently, much to the delight of all those who can't get enough non-news about next year's all-but-garaunteed-to-not-live-up-to-your-expectations blockbuster. But what was actually revealed? Well... nothing, really; save that Bane still looks about as crummy in the "official" images as he has in the random on-location snaps.

The only thing close to new information is that the film is apparently set 8 years after the end of "Dark Knight;" which is... interesting, I suppose?

A lot of fans are reading the time-jump as a "clue" that the film will ultimately be some form of adaptation of either "The Dark Knight Returns" (i.e. old Batman un-retiring) or "Knightfall" (i.e. Batman coming back from Bane-induced injuries); mostly because for a lot of fans everything is a clue pointing to an adaptation of those stories. More likely, it's a way for Nolan to do what he's always said he was going to do - put a definitive END on "his" Batman story - without having dissapointed fans point out how brief this particular Batman's career was. It also, maybe, gives Warner Bros. room to say that the innevitable new-actor-reboot is actually happening during the "missing" 8 years.

Also "revealed" in the article is the possibility that Bane is actually "powered" by inhaled-gas painkillers instead of muscle-growth chemicals, which will come as a shocking dissapointment to anyone who actually expected Christopher Nolan to include a Hulk-sized monster-man in his movie.

Desert Bus Has Begun!

The great folks at LoadingReadyRun have begun their yearly "Child's Play" charity drive, wherein they play Desert Bus - one of the worst games ever made - for your amusement. You can watch the live feed and donate HERE.

I'm scheduled to call in and shoot the breeze with them LIVE at 11am PST (2pm EST) on Monday the 21st, so tune in for that as well.

Source: JOBLO

Lost in the shuffle of people rushing to invent nefarious conspiracy theories as to why I HATED "The Expendables" was the fact that I'd been looking forward to it at one point. Who wouldn't want to see a dream-team of B-movie action heroes teaming up for one big show? The end result... pretty mediocre, sadly.

This new poster for the sequel, however, promises that they'll try to get it right: Arnold and Willis with (reportedly) bigger non-cameo roles, Van Damme and Chuck Norris added to the roster, etc. Jet Li is apparently in there, too, but didn't rate the poster. I also don't know who the new female recruit is.

It still probably won't end up being very good - Stallone has turned the director duties over the to professionally-mediocre Simon West - but maybe this time they won't bother angling for a PG13 and deliver the ultraviolence properly. Still, good poster.

Right-Wing Douchebags Already Mad at "Happy Feet 2"

Everything below the fold may or may not be MILD plot-spoilers for "Happy Feet 2."

American "conservatives" who still make a go of engaging with the popular culture already seem to live in a kind of fantasy fever-dream where every single entertainment entity on the planet with the exception of Country Music and Call of Duty (dig the ORGASMIC praise the widely-panned "Black Ops" got from the Breitbart coven) is attacking them - personally - with "surprise liberal messages!!!;" so it's always fun to see how they react on those rare occasions when a "surprise liberal message" is actually there.

"Happy Feet 2" (written review coming at some point, but it's REALLY good) features as it's "B-story" a pair of Krill named Will and Bill (Matt Damon and Brad Pitt) who break off from their Krill swarm to explore the "next world" - i.e. everything outside the swarm which they had previously believed encompassed the entire universe. (their sequences are the visual standouts in what's already a gorgeous looking movie - the swarm looks like something out of Tree of Life.) Basically, they're here to go through the "animal outside his boundaries as metaphor for existential-transcendance" (the "Happy Feet" movies are kinda weird) bit that the Penguins already did in the first one.

So what has the professionally-grumpy's panties in a bunch about that? Will and Bill are gay.

To be fair, they didn't imagine this - that the two encompass a male/male couple (which Bill seems to be more "aware" of than Will) is the main "for the grownups" joke of the film. But if you want to see some choice venom, look at the comment thread below all that in the link. Yeesh...

Oh well, at least they'll be thrilled that a film dedicated to telling an audience of mostly teenaged girls that abortion-to-save-the-life-of-the-mother is wrong because dying in childbirth will reincarnate you as what amounts to an angel/faerie/superwoman just had a $30 Million midnight opening. Joy.

Escape to the Movies: "Breaking Dawn"

Bad movie on ETTM...

...bad reimaginings on "Intermission."

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : Breaking Dawn, Part 1

Your Next Big Video Game Movie Might Be "RAMPAGE!"

I've been saying for years that the reason Hollywood keeps failing at making movies out of video games is largely because they keep choosing the wrong games; i.e. they should look beyond the currently-popular crop of big-sellers - overwhelmingly a collection of drably-generic properties built to resemble various popular movies - and toward older and/or more enduring properties originating in an era when the industry was a hair more creative.

Well, producer John Rickard of the reconstituted New Line Cinema has now opted to take exactly HALF of my advice, putting out the call for screenplay pitches for a big-budget adaptation of "RAMPAGE;" a Golden Age arcade classic that was funny, colorful, utterly bizzare... but also a blatant "Brand X" pastiche of popular movies. On the plus side, said popular movies meant "Godzilla," so there ya go.

I'm excited about this on principal (it would be AMAZING if "golden age video games" became Hollywood's new fixation a'la comics) but I'll be interested as hell to see what they come up with... and probably dissapointed as hell when it turns out they just want to make a generic monster movie with a "brand" name attached. People forget this, but there WAS a semblance of a story to "Rampage" - George (gorilla) Lizzie (dinosaur) and Ralph (werewolf) were humans transformed by mad science.

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: If I was pitching this (I'd take this job in a heartbeat) I'd pitch it as a comedy - embrace the juvenility of the game (it's literally coin-op destruction porn) and do it as a broad raunchy slapstick thing; "Harold & Kumar" but with Godzilla-style monsters (use guys in suits green-screened into "real" cities instead of CGI for added humor) as the leads. In fact, make it an Apatow-style dipshit-meets-girl thing with George (Seth Rogan/Jack Black type) and Lizzie (think Sarah Silverman.) King Kong and Girl-Godzilla fucking? That's funny just on it's own. Maybe Ralph is the bad guy, that'd work. Go all-out with the giant-sized scatology humor: Let the giant gorilla throw his giant gorilla poop. Skyscraper-humping. Big river of monster-pee coming down the street like a tidal-wave. Definitely do the toilet-eating thing from the game. Have one of them make a smokestack into a bong. Murderer's Row of comedians doing bit parts as soldiers/cops/bystanders/etc. Do the "this isn't a cave... we're in a monster's mouth!!!" bit... only they're actually in it's butt.

Two TV Things You Should Know About

I'm not one of these people who'll try and tell you that TV is "better than the movies" right now because whatever handful of HBO/FX/AMC shows is the big thing at the moment. Please do not spam the comments with stuff I *NEED!!!* to see. Yes, I've seen and like "Community," internet - thank you.

In any case, remember that "Alias/Jessica Jones" series that was supposed to lead Disney/Marvel into the live-action TV biz? Well, it's going ahead, and today it was confirmed that this particular series will be directly-connected to the continuity of the Marvel/Avengers movie universe.

One assumes the main "point" of this connection is allowing Iron Man etc. to turn up as ratings-grabbing cameo parts, but I'm curious if this means it'll have the same commitment to the comic aesthetic as the films generally have had. The series it's based around was a "street-level" view of a superhero-saturated Marvel universe, the lead character being a depowered heroine turned embittered private eye; and the "hook" was seeing her world bumping up against the colorful costumed-hero world in often dark/ironic ways. Also, Luke Cage - a topper on Marvel's "to-do" movie list - is a supporting character, so call this a potential "back door pilot" for him and a host of others. Carol Danvers - aka Ms. Marvel - has also been cast, wonder if they plan on skipping Mar-Vell altogether for her...

Meanwhile, from the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" file: NBC is bringing back "The Munsters." And, in what sounds too much like a satire of everything wrong with the reboot/remake mentality, the franchise - a cartoonish sitcom spoof about a nuclear family made up of a Frankenstein (dad) Vampire (mom and grandpa) and Werewolf (son) who have a pet dragon - is being reconstituted as (I shit you not) a "dark" hour-long drama that will explore the "origins" of the family. Really.

Titanic 3D trailer

Disney just made a small fortune off of a 3D re-release of "The Lion King," fortelling what many had suspected and/or bet-on for a few years now. Our next big movie trend: 3D re-releases of movies that today's twentysomethings loved when they were in grade-school.

Next up, "Titanic"; which is conveniently JUST starting to end it's "cool to hate" phase of notoriety and begin it's "appreciated as nostalgiac kitsch" phase (see also: the Backstreet Boys/NKOTB tour). I hope you enjoy faux-ironic recollections of teen-heartthrob "manias," misty-eyed retrospectives of "first big date movie" experiences (both packed with "remember-that!?" references to questional high-school fashion choices) because the entertainment press is going to be soaked with them leading up to this release...

On the other hand - circa-1997 Kate Winslet topless in IMAX 3D? There are worse things...

I wonder, does having this back in public conscious help or hurt Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar push for "J. Edgar?" I mean, it's no secret that he's spent over a decade running as fast as he can away from Jack Dawson...

Incidentally, the next big "90s classic" re-release after this is "Phantom Menace 3D." Raise your hand if you're looking forward to butthurt "Star Wars" fans gravely grumbling about it like they're planning a pilgrimage to Auschwitz.

I Live In a Nation of Idiots

hat-tip BAD

American readers, do you ever read those wacky news stories about cuss words or cleavage or other random things being "hi-lariously" edited out of movies and TV shows in certain foriegn countries and have nice, good laugh at their silly, backward cultural taboos?

Well, stop it - because YOUR culture is now no better. Telegraph reports that a BBC nature documentary set to air on the Discovery Channel will be edited for it's American broadcast. The reason? The final chapter is about Climate Change - y'know, that thing that the smarties turned out to have been right about the whole time? - and that's considered "controversial" here.

I live in a country where the following things are true:

Knowing what you are talking about is considered a disqualifying characteristic for high office.

"Bruce Jenner's Stepkids Pretend Not To Know They're On TV" is considered a viable broadcast pitch.

The same people who fight for laws declaring that a blob of cell-tissue has human rights fight even harder to declare that adult homosexuals do not.

It is LEGALLY OKAY to bully someone... providing you claim that God told you to.

It is widely accepted as both logical and "moral" that guns be as easy to get as possible, but health insurance should be as difficult to get as possible.

Only 4 in 10 people "believe" in evolution... and almost no one bothers to point out that "believe" is exactly the wrong term to use when describing a proven scientific fact.

DISGRACEFUL.

It says on this blog, and it remains true, that I am proud to be an American. I am, however, utterly disgusted with what my country too often becomes - a collection of proudly-ignorant, self-righteous dolts who prize "gut feeling" above thought, belief above knowledge and regard a lack of intellect as evidence of some "purer" state of being. Superstitious denialists wishing to ignore facts and reason have, of course, a right to exist... but they should not have the influence that has been afforded them for far, far too long.

Happy Birthday to Shigeru Miyamoto

The greatest video-game designer of all time was born today in 1952. Bow your heads and take notice.

Two Minutes and Thirty Seconds of Pain

It's been a good couple of days for Tarem Singh; as his "Immortals" - despite having no major stars and an R-rating - opened in first place ahead of presumed boxoffice-frontrunner "Jack & Jill." But now, the trailer for his follow-up "Mirror, Mirror" (set to be the first of next year's two competing Snow White movies to reach screens) has debuted and threatens to blast all that good will to smithereens; thanks to one of the all-time unstoppable forces of movie-sucktitude:

Julia Roberts.

The principal difference between this and "Snow White & The Huntsman" is tone: They're both dropping most of the workload onto a celebrated "actress of a certain age" in a broad villain turn versus a neophyte actress, and both are positioning the heroine as an action girl, but otherwise they're different beasts - "Huntsman" is aiming for LOTR-style high-fantasy, while this wants very (very!) badly to be "Shrek."

That's not necessarily a bad pitch, and I don't hate the idea of reworking the princess/wicked-queen relationship from vanity to romantic rivalry... but wow, does Roberts look awful in the part. She's not a terrible actress, but she's never been especially GOOD and the stuff asked of her here - physical comedy, mugging, some kind of unplaceable campy accent - is waaaaay the hell outside of her limited skillset. This looks like a disaster, though not necessarily an unprofitable one given that it'll be first to the gate.

Big Picture: "Words for Nerds"

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Words for Nerds

Doctor Who Gets a Movie

David Yates, the BBC TV workhorse who jumped to features for the final few "Harry Potter" movies, makes what can be called a lateral career move - signing on for a feature adaptation of "Doctor Who." The big news, of course, is that it will (apparently) be divorced from previous/current incarnations.

To be fair, this is a franchise that lends itself easily to a reboot. It's actually part of the "gimmick" - the title character is a nigh-immortal time-traveler who gets a fresh new body/personality every time he dies. The series has been running on and off (mostly on) for DECADES, but the overall "continuity" is generally more about recurring/remade characters, stories and motifs than sequence-of-events.

That says, let me lay some "how movies are made now" bets down:

1. It'll be an "origin story" a'la Abrams Trek or Casino Royale, with a new "first" Doctor and lots of big "oh, THAT'S where/why that came from/does that!" reveals for the TARDIS etc.

2. Youngest (in terms of casting) Doctor EVER.

3. Whoever the antagonist is, expect The Master to be hanging around at the margins for a "bad guy in the sequel!" reveal at the very end.

Meryl Streep Seizes Control of British Empire; Demands Oscar as Ransom

British readers, help me out here: It's been my impression that Margaret Thatcher at this point is really only still lionized by the American right-wing; and that her "legacy" isn't looked upon favorably by anything approaching a majority of her own country. Yes? No?

I mean, is there ANY market for what appears to be a gauzy, mostly-favorable biopic boiling Thatcher down to a "tuff broad takes on the Boys Club" story? Or is this another "British" movie only Americans (well, American AMPAAS-voters) will care about?

"Hunger Games" looks like... a movie... I guess...

"Hunger Games" - which is basically a U.S./European version of "Battle Royale," which was in turn a Japanese-schoolchildren version of "The Running Man," which was in turn a Reaganomics-era "Rollerball" - now has a trailer, embedded below.

Pro-tip: You do NOT want to be eating or drinking anything around the 1:53 mark...

Seriously; what the FUCK is up with Wes Bentley's beard??

Okay, so I'm the LAST possible person who should be giving anything but the benefit of the doubt to adaptations of niche properties with fiercely-devoted fans; but while I'm sure the various flashes of characters, names, banners, logos, outfits, distinguishing-hairstyles etc. is all "ooh! it's _______!" for HG fans... I'm sorry, this looks pretty underwhelming as a movie. ::ducks::

I've not yet read the series myself, so I don't know whether to blame the material or filmmakers first for this. Are the descriptions of the "futuristic" society in the book ALSO as bland, cheap and "generic dystopia" as they appear here?

This is, of course, another adaptation greenlit largely because someone has mistaken a passionate online fanbase (which means deceptively-MASSIVE traffic numbers) for genuine overall interest... the books sell well, but not "Twilight" or "DaVinci Code" well. Sometimes that kind of thinking works out - in the greater-good "a great movie gets made" sense, certainly not in the financial sense - and we get a "Scott Pilgrim" or a "Watchmen" out of the deal. This does not (so far) look like one of those times.

Escape to the Movies: "Immortals"

It's good.

"Intermission" has arty action movies.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : Immortals

"Snow White & The Huntsman" Looks... Good?

Tim Burton's incredibly shitty "Alice in Wonderland" made a shit ton of money, so someone in Hollywood decided that "dark fairy tale" was the next big trend; so now we've got two TV shows running with the "fairytale people hiding in modern world" concept, and next year there'll be two seperate live-action "epic fantasy" re-dos of Snow White.

Below, the trailer for the first one - "Snow White & The Huntsman" - (the other is Tarsem Singh's "Mirror Mirror,") which doesn't seem to feature even one Dwarf but DOES feature Charlize Theron as The Wicked Queen, Chris Hemsworth as Thor But With An Axe Instead and Kristen Stewart as the (functionally mute?) title character. It looks, shockingly, not horrible...

What can I say? Recasting the Wicked Queen as a high-fantasy shine on Elizabeth Bathory (I'm literally astonished they were able to resist making her a straight-up vampire) is kind of inspired, the bald-faced LOTR-knockoff aesthetic works and I kind of love that the "X-TREEEEEEME!" version of The Magic Mirror is essentially a medieval T-1000.

Also, let's not be coy; Theron looks amazing. In fact - and there's just no way to say this without sounding mean, but it's true - the least plausible thing in this swords/sorcery/monster/fantasy is the idea that Charlize Theron is grousing around the palace jealous of Kristen Stewart's (or anyone else's, really) looks.

Someone will have to explain to me...

...Just what the FUCK are people rioting about at Penn State? I mean, yes - I know that they're ostensibly there because coach Joe Paterno was (justly) shitcanned after it came to light that he (and, apparently, what seems like the entire governing aparatus of the school AND the state) covered up multiple cases of child-rape over a period of several decades... but WHY the rioting? How can any thinking human possibly look at this scenario and be angry about about anything other than the fact that he didn't get the axe sooner?

I mean, I can almost understand why people wanted to go head-in-sand-denial when the Catholic Priest abuse scandals started to break - almost. After all, if you take religion at all seriously there's this kind of mystic "human representative of God" aura attached to The Clergy; so I get why that might've been a hurdle for some people.

But this guy? He's not a priest, or some kind of world-leader, or great civic figure, or uber-important doctor or engineer or something... he's just a fucking College Football coach - even without the child-rape scandal, his having or not having a job is literally the least important thing you could POSSIBLY pick to riot about. What the HELL is wrong with people?

Look... the most important thing - the ONLY important thing - is getting justice for the victims here... but if anything else can be taken away from this monstrosity; maybe it should be that the disgraceful lack of perspective being shown by the Penn State rioters is one of the clearest examples EVER of the shameful over-importance placed on the bloated, funding-sucking, resource-diverting institution of College Football. You want a picture of everything wrong with America? Look at these riots, look at what they're rioting FOR... and then look at how much is SPENT on what they're rioting for versus everything else at what are supposed to be institutions of Higher Learning.

"Immortals" is, apparently, very bloody

The continuing buzz I've heard on Tarsem's "Immortals" - which I've not seen yet - is that the trailers are unable to capture it's real selling point: namely, that it's excessively violent enough to the point of out-goring "300." Here's a newly-released clip (hat tip to io9) of the Gods (gold guys) versus the Titans (gray guys) that seems to suggest what we're in for...

Wait... is that... is that... COMPOSITION!? And... and a... CAMERA TRIPOD!!?? In a FIGHT SCENE!? What a novel approach :)

Has The First Truly Great Video Game Movie Been Made?

Below, the trailer for "Gyakuten Saiban" - known to Western gamers as "Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney" - directed by the legendary Takeshi Miike...

I've said it for years: Adapt the games that have their own wholly unique aesthetic and put it in the hands of filmmakers who "get it." If I'm to be proven right, all the better that it be by Miike.

Big Picture: "Science!"

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Science!

Let Go of Your Hate

It goes without saying that anyone who's reading/watching me should also be reading Drew McWeeny, once known as AICN's "Moriarty," one of the men responsible for "inventing" this ridiculous profession of mine. Drew is a living legend among "film geek" personalities - a onetime video store clerk who became part of the first wave of "name" writers to emerge from the nerd-gossip-site pack; went on to write screenplays for John Carpenter (among others) and has now settled into a star-columnist role at HitFix; where he still finds time to remind everyone why he broke out in the first place.

This is one of those times.

Presently, McWeeny is married with two young sons, and he's been writing up his experiences in sharing classic movies with the boys in a series of columns called "Film Nerd 2.0." It's always been a good read; but when he decided to start introducing them to the "Star Wars" films it became something else entirely - a series of six thoughtful, moving, excellent pieces that now comprise what I think is easily the definitive "Decade Later" look at "Star Wars" post-prequels and post-special edition.

Thus far, every appraisal of "later day" Star Wars has mainly been about older fans being disillusioned or dissapointed about Lucas, alterations and the series in general... and after awhile, it's all become rather irritating. The backlash during "Phantom Menace" was one thing - that what was always going to be a letdown on some level wound up being in fact a pretty lackluster movie overall touched off a combination of delayed-reaction rage ("Wow... I'm really NOT ten years-old anymore. Damn it.") and nerd-nitpick feeding-frenzy that has for good or ill (mostly ill) defined the fan/filmmaker relationship to this day.

Frankly, it got out of hand quickly and it's endurance at this point is kind of sad. Yes, I was as impressed as anyone with Mr. Plinkett's tenacity and attention to detail... but to be honest the REAL value of that series is that it's a TON of really good filmmaking/storytelling advice structured around the review of a movie everyone has seen... as yet another excuse to pass around the bile-bucket and spew about Lucas "raping your childhood?" Guys... it's time to give it a rest. And it's sort of fitting that THIS new appraisal comes from McWeeny, whose original semi-negative review of Phantom Menace as "Moriarty" was a major touchstone of the "wait... a Star Wars movie... sucks?" sweep of the era.

THIS, though, is a guy writing about the reactions of his kids - kids who don't have the weight of expectations and preconceptions that "Generation Zero" SW fans had; who've always known a world where it's ubiquitious and are familiar with it - at first - mainly from the "Clone Wars" cartoons. He made an interesting decision regarding the order in which to screen the films - New Hope and Empire first, THEN all three prequels, then wrapping up with Jedi - that overall seems to have paid off gangbusters.

You should read the whole thing yourself (links below) but what's really great about this is the way it cuts through both the obnoxious fanboy-entitlement AND the very real objective criticisms of the prequels etc. to find a more essential truth that's been ignored by many, myself included, for much too long: That the things that WORK about Star Wars - yes, even in the prequels - are A.) uncoincidentally the things that are bigger and more vital than who-shoots-first or whether this or that creature looks like a puppet and B.) perhaps best understood by children... who, at the end of the day, are who Star Wars has always been for.

GET READING, FOLKS:
A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Phantom Menace
Attack of The Clones
Revenge of The Sith
Return of The Jedi

When I see "Phantom Menace" on the big screen for the first time in over a decade in it's "3D" release next year, I'll be doing my damndest to try and watch it on it's own terms; outside the swirl of negativity it's existed in for so many years in the collective psyche. And this series will be the big reason why.

Well done, Mr. McWeeny.

REVIEW: "J. Edgar"

Seems like everyone else is running their impressions of Eastwood's movie early; so I'll jump in. I may or may not have more in-depth to say in a colyumn at some point, but for now here goes...

SPOILER WARNING

"J. Edgar" is pretty much what one expects both from Eastwood as a director (great performances, terse no-bullshit direction, comprehensive "and then this happened..." plotting and a detached-to-the-point-of-"funerial" tone) and from a present-day biopic about J. Edgar Hoover (grim, scheming and bitter.) It doesn't have much "new" to say about the man or the era he lived, and the main selling-point will be DiCaprio's Oscar-worthy lead performance, but there's nothing "wrong" with it and it's a solid, thoroughly-engaging - if not precisely "entertaining" - work.

If it has an "issue" it's that it'd be difficult to make a "fair" biopic about Hoover that wasn't just a little bit unpleasant to sit through, since Hoover himself was - by even admiring accounts - a fairly unpleasant fellow to be around. The film doesn't deviate very far from the generally-accepted view of the late FBI-founder: Repressed, paranoid, obsessive, arrogant and opportunistic; and to it's credit it presents the sketchier aspects of his methodology - secret files, wiretaps, legal-circumvention, outright fraud and deception - as both innovative and effective (i.e. against the anarchist-bombings of the 20s and gangsters in the 30s) and as petty and fiendish (i.e. his fixation on MLK and The Kennedy Brothers.) Incidentally, somebody needs to tell Kevin Costner that "Burn Notice's" Jeffrey Donovan, as Bobby Kennedy, has stolen his title as owner of the worst New England accent ever committed to film.

It also doesn't reach too far outside the box for an "explanation" of the man - Dustin Lance Black's screenplay is couched comfortably in the widely-rumored thesis that Hoover was a profoundly-closeted homosexual, and that his innability to accept this (along with his myriad other "issues") stemmed from his relationship with his cold, controlling mother. The central relationship is between Hoover and his longtime companion Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) who is depicted as having a more self-aware grasp of the nature of their friendship than Hoover himself does.

Interestingly (and possibly without direct intent, since Eastwood has never been one for showy symbolism) it's the small scenes of Hoover breaking his own stone-cold facade in regards to said relationship (and/or his sexuality, such as it is) that the film itself briefly breaks free of the Eastwoodian straightforwardness and attains a kind of melodramatic earnestness; and it stands in such direct contrast to the rest of the film the effect is almost like minimalist-"camp" (critics at my screening compared it to "Mommie Dearest.")

The big showpiece scene, Hoover and Tolson having an unconsumate "lover's quarrel," is almost quaint (approaching caricature) in it's Eisenhower-era rendering of gay men - DiCaprio and Hammer dolled up in slicked-hair and monogrammed bathrobes (!) having a catty back-and-forth about their friends' taste in shoes (!) and escalating to a screaming brawl when one of them mentions a girlfriend (yes, brandy-glasses-hurled-at-the-walls; yes, big cowboy-style haymakers) complete with bloodied kiss and awkward backpedaling. In another, Hoover grieves his dead mother by donning her robe and pearls (you knew it was coming) and talking to himself "as mother" in the mirror, Norman Bates style, before crumpling up into a sobbig fetal position.

If there is ONE thing that doesn't work at all, it's some of the makeup. The film leaps back and forth through Hoover's life and career without the aid of subtitled dates; relying on multiple stages of old-age makeup to clue us in to where/when we are... and it only looks good some of the time. Naomi Watts (as Hoover's secretary Mrs. Gandy) has the most subtle work of it, though she seems to be aging about 1/2 slower than everyone else. DiCaprio actually fares best, which is appropriate, though given how differently the public tends to percieve him as an actor (re: an "eternally boyish" guy who's actually approaching middle-age and DOES look it sans makeup) it's possible that he NEVER appears fully "himself" over the course of it - his final "elderly" appearance makes him look an awful lot like John Voigt. Sadly, Armie Hammer is just a little too young (a DECADE younger than DiCaprio) a little too tall and in far too good a shape to be plausibly transformed into an elderly man for the later scenes. His performance is fine, but the makeup-appliances make him look like a zombie as opposed to "old."

Overall, it's one of those movies that's more "admirable" than "likable," but probably more worth seeing than a lot of what'll be out right now. Plus it's going to be up for a boatload of awards so you might as well.

Escape to the Movies: "Tower Heist"

It sucks. Don't pretend that's a surprise.

"Intermission" is about the "Akira" remake.

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : Tower Heist

"21 Jump Street" Has a Red-Band Trailer

Forget the whole Johnny Depp angle. What *I* wonder is if people under 30 will believe me when I tell them that the TV show that "21 Jump Street" is based on - complete with the automatically-hysterical premise of young(ish)-looking adult police officers going undercover as High School students to bust teenaged drug dealers - was actually meant to be taken seriously...

Big Picture: "The Toxic Avenger"

"Schlocktober" concludes with a look back at a monster who was revolutionary in more than one sense...

The Escapist : The Big Picture : The Toxic Avenger

America in 2011

via huffpo

Actual commercial for a Texas gun-store owner advertising his refusal to deny service to "socialists," Obama voters, Muslims and "non-Christian Arabs."

Oh, Texas... why you so Texas?

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