Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Regardless of her acting talent, which frankly has yet to be proven (look to Jennifer’s Body for that) you’ve got to love Megan Fox. On screen some comes across like the ultimate fembot, glammed- and dolled-up almost beyond the point of humanity. She’s a pouting, posing, running machine, especially in the hands of Michael Bay. But in interviews she’s reliably awesome, because she evidently thinks she’s hot enough to say any damn thing in the world. And, for right now, that might be true. Cue a bunch of slightly trash-talking comments about Bay and Transformers 2, which has led to a head-shaking, condescending response from Bay. What better way to start the weekend? Read More »
Gallery1988 has provided us with another exclusive look at one of the many art pieces which will be on display at the third annual pop culture art show Crazy4Cult 3D. Jeff Boyes has done a nice piece inspired by Luc Besson’s 1994 film The Professional, which starred Natalie Portman as a 12-year-old who is taken in by a Professional assassin (Jean Reno) after her parents are killed.
Click on the image above to enlarge. Gallery1988 will be selling limited edition prints of this piece at the show, which opens on July 16th and runs until August 8th in Los Angeles.
Movie Review: Visioneers Starring Zach Galifianakis (Man Vs. Office Culture Continues)
Posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
Thirty minutes into Visioneers—a high concept indie dramedy that is, well, brand new to the public—I was consumed by the thought that I, most likely, will never see the movie for sale in a really choice record store. (Don’t worry, this movie review will not serve as a wistful rant on the music industry courtesy of a wannabe Nick Hornby or Chuck Klosterman.) The realization got me down for a half-a-second. Nevertheless, calling Visioneers a “prized would-be staple of the ‘choice record store movie genre’” is a tidy complement that sums up how I feel about it.
In the mid/late ‘90s and early ‘00s, one could find a softly-curated section of DVDs in many independent record stores. Browsing the small selection was a welcome, habitual cool-down after hours spent listening to and considering albums. Generally, the selection amounted to: concert films like Ziggy Stardust, The Show, and Bill Hicks Live. Drug movies like Easy Rider and Neco z Alenky. Godzillas. Tromas. “OG”-flicks like New Jack City and Fresh. Usually a movie starring Natasha Lyonne that wasn’t American Pie. Docs like Grey Gardens and The Corporation. And odd movies starring great comedians like The Magic Christian and The Razor’s Edge. Right, Visioneers would be bunched in with those two.
Of course, “cult movies” is a broad umbrella term for these films, then and especially now, but their location under a roof housing infinite great music birthed the silent notion that the works belonged to a cinematic family. The odd symbiotic relationship is perhaps why the DVDs were rarely purchased; another reason is that, while the DVDs were new, the hands of countless gross nerds, junkies, and patchouli weirdos had flipped them over in states of blank studiousness and after many months of this they felt second-hand. Yet another reason is that most of the diehard culture addicts were shopping for music and…had already seen the majority of these films multiple times.
You may have seen the 1987 Gary Goddard live action adaptation of Masters of the Universe starring Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella, but have you seen Bollywood He-Man? Chahiye He Man He Man from Nafrat Ki Aandhi was released in 1989. Watch a video clip after the jump.
Spike Jonze-Directed Softbank Commercial Starring Brad Pitt
Posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Spike Jonze has directed a new commercial for the Japanese company Softbank, starring Brad Pitt as the personal assistant of a Sumo wrestler. From what I recall, the spot was shot in the Sirius/XM building in New York City. The tv advertisement won’t be airing in America, but you can watch the international television spot embedded after the jump.
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Harrison Ford Earned Almost 2.5 Times More Than The Top Earning Actress in 2008
Posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Forbes Magazine has released their list of the highest earning actresses, once again proving that Hollywood is sexist. Angelina Jolie tops the list with $27 million, almost two and a half times less than the highest earning male actor (Harrison Ford with $65 million - remember, Crystal Skull was a huge payday). The top 10 actresses earned $183 million, less than half of the $393 million total that makes up the top 10 actors. Check out the top 15 after the jump.
As IMAX technology has become a more popular filmmaking process over the past few years, we’ve tried to keep up with it as much as we can here at /Film. Just this past week, I wrote about how the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen IMAX experience compares unfavorably with The Dark Knight from last year. I’ve also urged people to see Watchmen in regular format before you check it out in IMAX. On this week’s episode of The Totally Rad Show, /Film friend Dan Trachtenberg opined that the Transformers IMAX experience rendered the action scenes virtually unwatchable. This raised the question for me: With ticket prices already high as they are, is the IMAX experience really worth it?
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Everyone knows what its like to be awakened by an alarm clock before you’re ready to wake up and start the day. Director Moo-hyun Jang and independent South Korean animation team Mesai capture this feeling in a 9-minutes animated short titled Alarm. It’s hard to believe that the animation and lighting was created by such a small team. These guys have a bright future ahead of them. Watch the short after the jump.
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Michael Mann’s Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Michael Mann’s Public Enemies hits theaters today, and we want to hear what you thought of it. Is it more Miami Vice than Heat? Is the High Definition cinematography as annoying as some people claim it is? Or is this Mann’s best film in the last decade? What did you like, what did you hate? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
LOL: Jeff Goldblum Denies, Then Confirms His Death
Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 by Russ Fischer
If you were intently watching news, Twitter and Facebook feeds last week as Michael Jackson was passing, you probably also saw an equally tragic piece of ‘news’ pass by: reports said that Jeff Goldblum had fallen to his death while filming a movie in New Zealand. Never mind that cursory searches suggested that he was at work in New York; the reports said New Zealand police confirmed the story as true!
How could we doubt such reportage? Cue up a double feature of The Fly and Buckaroo Banzai! (Just do that, anyway. They’re amazing.) Of course the story wasn’t true, but that didn’t stop Stephen Colbert and guest Jeff Goldblum from crying over it last night. Watch the clip, via Cinematical, after the jump. Read More »
/Filmcast Ep. 57 - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (GUEST: Quint from Aint It Cool News)
Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 by David Chen
In this episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley share their feelings on an Uncharted movie; get excited about a Facebook film based on Ben Mezrich’s new book; try not to think about the American Werewolf in London remake; mourn the passing of an influential pop star; and find there’s a lot less to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen than meets the eye. Special guest Eric Vespe (AKA Quint) from Aint It Cool News joins us.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next Monday at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST at Slashfilm’s live page as we review Public Enemies.
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With only two feature films and one TV show to his name, writer/director Jody Hill, is now synonymous with ignoring the boundaries and “genre rules” of modern comedy and creating anti-heroes that laughably burble with nihilistic rage, scary faux pas and hot-air egos. But there is also an internal depth to these macho doofuses played by Hill’s longtime pal and writing partner, Danny McBride, and comedy star Seth Rogen, to surpass the high art of a perfectly-timed and pronounced “fuck.”
Hill’s work on Observe & Report, The Foot Fist Way, and his cultural breakthrough, HBO’s Eastbound & Down, contains more glass-darkly social commentary and life-lived expression than the work of any hotshot young novelist in recent memory. Rather than document the cold realities and indulgent pleasantries of another big city with bright lights, Hill is set on exploring the very place that so many creative-types vacate upon the arrival of their first Visa card or college acceptance letter: the American South. Moreover, as many middle-class and broke white American males face sobering, if inevitable, realizations and disillusions about the future, laughing at Hill’s moronic, unhinged versions as they champion outdated movie/sports star heroics atop small-town kingdoms is like homemade medicine. When it comes to countering the monotony of the average day-to-day? Eastbound is harder to beat still. The sight of Kenny Powers “dancing” in a middle school gym under the influence of eggrolls and ecstasy or ejecting a topless broad from his Jet Ski is priceless. Like cheetah-spotted gold or “a bulletproof tiger, dude.”
A native of North Carolina, Hill is the latest progeny of the North Carolina School of the Arts, alongside McBride and creative partner Ben Best, fellow EB&D director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express), and EB&D cinematographer Tim Orr. In the first part of my interview, we discuss the show in-depth, including some of the surprising and vile admissions and special features on the Season One DVD. We also talk about what it’s like to be a young director coming from, and staying in, the South, why so many comedians today are from there, and why the region was overdue for a proper comedic depiction.
Hunter Stephenson: Hey Jody, how are you?
Jody Hill: Hey Hunter. Good, good, good. Hey man, I wanted to say that I was sorry I wasn’t there when you visited down in Wilmington [Eastbound & Down set, 2008]. I remember the piece you wrote, and it sounded like a really good time. [laughs] Sucks I couldn’t there, man; I was editing my film (Observe & Report), and Warner Bros. wouldn’t let me go. When you have to do a director’s cut, they want to lock you up for 10 weeks. [laughs] Everybody said they had a blast…and I was editing.
Yeah. I expected to interview you there. And I didn’t know about the change, that David Green was now directing the majority of the episodes while you were in L.A. But it all worked out, he killed it. My first question: Legend has it that when you, Danny [McBride], and Ben [Best] first conceived of Kenny Powers you were sitting in a kiddie pool in North Carolina drinking beers. [laughs] Is that accurate?
Jody Hill: [laughs] Yeah, this was before we made Foot Fist Way or anything. We were trying to come up with ideas for shows. I was between jobs; I had been working this really shit reality show job, doing motion-control for Behind the Music and shit like that. [laughs] It was pretty lame. And so, yeah, we were in Charlotte, in the backyard of Ben Best’s house. And yeah, we were literally sitting in a kiddie pool with a case of beer. And Kenny was one of the ideas that, uh, we came up with. [laughs]
