Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
John Carpenter’s The Thing has an ambiguous ending that fans have argued about since the release of the film. Seems the arguing can stop now thanks to the information provided by Dean Cundey, the cinematographer on The Thing.
I’m not the biggest fan of 3D movies, I thought that James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D worked really well. Since T2 is my favorite Terminator movie, I may just have to check it out in 3D when it’s released. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention — I like this poster!
Rocky (1976)
Director: John G. Avildsen
Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Tony Burton, Joe Spinell, Thayer David, Frank Stallone and Stan Shaw.
The Pitch: “Hey, the screenwriter wouldn’t sell without starring in it, but for a million bucks we should be able to make a small profit.”
Tagline: “His whole life was a million to one shot.”
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Rocky Balboa [Stallone] is a collector for a neighborhood loan shark [Spinell] and a small-time boxer. Rocky has a thing for Adrian [Shire], the sister of his best friend Paulie [Young] but she’s so shy, he’s getting nowhere fast.
When the Heavyweight Champion of the World, Apollo Creed [Weathers] learns that his scheduled opponent won’t be able to fight him in Philadelphia and no other top contenders are ready to take the fight on short notice, Creed comes up with a gimmick. He’ll give a local fighter a shot at the title. Because Creed likes Balboa’s Italian Stallion moniker, he decides to give Rocky the title shot.
Rocky reluctantly takes the fight — no one has ever gone the distance with Creed — and feels even if loses but is standing at the end, then he’ll have proved he isn’t just another bum from the neighborhood.
On the surface Rocky is a boxing movie but at the heart is a love story, a tale of relationships and a man’s desire to prove his worth.
Rocky premiered at the perfect time for me. I was 17 years old and had followed Stallone’s career since Lords of Flatbush. To see Sly getting his shot (after turning down a huge payday for the screenplay and not starring in the film), and to see the film be the perfect combination of cast, director, editing and score resonated with me. Rocky became my all-time favorite movie on the first viewing and has remained so.
Often when reviewing or rating Stallone films I have to qualify my rating because of Stallone being my favorite actor. I don’t have to do that with Rocky. Rocky is that great of a movie winning the Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year as well as many other awards and nominations.
Rating:
Wolverine art by Dan Panosian
ComicBookMovie.com presents 10 Amazing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Wolverine. Here are three of my favorites…
10. His Claws Weren’t Originally Part Of Him
Wolverine has a lot of cool powers, including enhanced senses and the ability to heal from pretty much any injury. However, the pièce de résistance is obviously his six deadly claws. Creator Len Wein originally had some very different ideas for those though, and among his earliest ideas was that Logan would be a wolverine who had somehow mutated into a humanoid creature, similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
As if that wasn’t already weird enough, the now iconic claws would have been revealed as gloves with the claws attached to them, robbing Wolverine of arguably his most recognisable feature (and that classic “Snikt!” sound). It wasn’t until years later that we would learn those those claws were actually part of his skeleton before being coated in Adamantium.
7. Hugh Jackman Wasn’t Bryan Singer’s First Choice
After seeing Hugh Jackman play Wolverine almost countless times, it’s now hard to picture anyone else in the role (and with his final appearance as Logan set for next year, replacing him will be a huge challenge for 20th Century Fox). However, while this may now be hard to believe, Jackman wasn’t actually X-Men director Bryan Singer’s first choice to play the character.
It was Russell Crowe who both the filmmaker and the studio really wanted in the role, but he had no interest in joining the comic book adaptation. It was then that Dougray Scott was chosen to play Wolverine, but when scheduling conflicts forced him to drop out just weeks before the cameras started rolling, the unknown Jackman was chosen at the last minute, a decision Singer wasn’t initially that pleased with. Needless to say, it all worked out for the best!
4. Later Versions Were Modeled After Clint Eastwood
As you’ve now no doubt already realised, Wolverine was very much a work in progress when he was first introduced. Having decided against making the hero an angry teenager with clawed gloves, Marvel portrayed Logan as being a little rougher around the edges after he joined the X-Men. However, while his appearance had already been settled on, it’s Chris Claremont and Frank Miller who deserve the lion’s share of credit for the version of Wolverine we all know and love today.
Just like he did with Daredevil, Miller played a huge role in redefining how readers viewed Logan by taking inspiration from Clint Eastwood. That’s something which we’ve also been able to see on the big screen with Hugh Jackman, while Miller can also be credited with dreaming up the iconic line, “I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn’t very nice.”
We have a pretty high ratio of Monkees fans here, so I’m hoping that that same group gets a kick out of this interview about their new album on their 50th (50th!) anniversary.
Source: AARP magazine.
The Bandit (2016)
Director: Jesse Moss
Screenplay: N/A
Stars: Mike Henry, Robert L. Levy Robert L. Levy, David Needham, Hal Needham, Burt Reynolds and Paul Williams.
The Pitch: “We could make a documentary about the making of ‘Smokey & the Bandit’… or a documentary about Hal Needham… or we could do both!”
Tagline: “Old Legends Never Die”
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
The Bandit is a well done documentary that takes us behind-the-scenes on the making of Smokey and the Bandit with a focus on Hal Needham the stuntman turned director who came up with the idea and got his best buddy, Burt Reynolds to star in the film.
Rating: 4 of 5 stars.
Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 10 Cool Things About Body Heat. Here are three of my favorites…
2. CHRISTOPHER REEVE TURNED DOWN THE ROLE OF NED.
“I put myself down too much,” Reeve told The Washington Post of the missed opportunity. “I didn’t think I’d be convincing as a seedy lawyer.” Reeve later regretted the decision, but was happy that his friend, William Hurt, was cast in the role instead.
5. IT WAS SHOT IN FLORIDA—AND IT WAS VERY, VERY COLD.
The film was shot during a cold Florida winter. Turner and Hurt had to put ice cubes in their mouths before each take so their breath wouldn’t show. Their sweat was sprayed on. When the two shot their sex scene, the crew was dressed in duffel coats and scarves.
8. IT WAS MICKEY ROURKE’S BIG BREAK.
Mickey Rourke had already appeared in 1941 (1979) and Heaven’s Gate (1980), but told Larry King that his breakthrough came from playing Teddy Lewis in Body Heat. When Rourke got the one-day gig, he was able to quit his job as a bouncer at a transvestite nightclub.
Kurt Russell makes every movie he’s in a little bit better. Fans love the guy and Russell’s played in so many cult classics that it’s no wonder he recently had an art show dedicated to him.
The Thing piece above was created by Marko Manev. You can see more at XombieDierge and io9.
Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 48 Things We Learned from David Fincher’s Zodiac Commentary. Here are three of my favorites…
13. Fincher thinks the reason why the Zodiac still haunts people is due as much to his letters as to anything else. The idea of an ongoing correspondence with someone who was in the process of killing fascinates him.
15. All of the blood in the film is digital because it saved the production enormous amounts of time by not having to wait for wardrobe changes and cleaning.
18. Dermot Mulroney is in great shape, but Fincher was having none of it. “I wanted him to have a waistline like mine so we made up a little fat suit for him.”
Did you ever wonder How Houdini Stayed in an Underwater Coffin for 90 Minutes? if so, check out Nick Keppler’s article at Mental_Floss.
The Strain is one of my favorite shows producing new episodes. Based on the trilogy of books by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, The Strain tells the story of a vampire apocalypse… but these ain’t your pop’s or your little sister’s vampires! They’re not romantic and they don’t sparkle.
One of the things that I love about apocalyptic stories takes place at their start when no one is sure what is going on or what is the best course of action to take. You know, when Brad Pitt watches in amazement as normal citizens begin attacking each other, or when Barbara is attacked in the graveyard by the creepy guy in the business suit or when Rick wakes from his coma to discover… well you get what I mean.
That’s one of the reasons I’m such a fan of The Strain. We’re two seasons in and just 23 days have passed. The audience knows what’s coming but the characters on the show have only slowly come to realize what’s happening. The producers were brave (smart) enough to not just jump in to the frenzy. A slow build-up has been such fun. I can’t wait for season three to start Sunday night.
/Film has an interview with The Strain Producers Carlton Cruse & Chuck Hogan Talk about Watching the Apocalypse Happen!
Are You Ready for Mel Gibson’s Comeback? by Kevin Lincoln is an excellent profile of, well, the potential comeback of Mel Gibson. Here’s a taste…
While Hollywood figures have made comebacks before — think Alec Baldwin or Robert Downey Jr. — it’s never been quite on the scale that Gibson faces… Gibson’s 60 years old; his days as a classical movie star would be behind him even if the last decade hadn’t happened. But every one of Clint Eastwood’s 11 Oscar nominations have come after that age, all in movies he’s directed. Gibson has been allowed to be a filmmaker again, with the potential for a long and rich career still to come, and Hacksaw Ridge will be a kind of referendum. The people have the power to forgive Mel Gibson. They also have the power not to.
Source: Vulture and Al Bundy’s Socks.
The Making of The Lords of Flatbush by Stephen Verona (2008)
Paperback: 155 pages
Publisher: Creative Book Publishing International; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (June 15, 2008)
First sentence…
When I was single and dating I would regale girls with these stories of my childhood and the guys I hung with.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Stephen Verona, the writer and director of Lords of Flatbush, takes us on the amazing trip to get Lords of Flatbush, one of the first truly independent films made. Along the way, we’ll learn how Verona got started (becoming friends with John Lennon and working with Lennon to animate the Beatles song I Feel Fine) and the long process to get Lords of Flatbush made.
Verona worked with many big names [Lee Strasberg, Janet Leigh, The Beatles, Chicago, Barbara Steisand, etc.] prior to writing and directing Lords of Flatbush and those stories are fun but the heart of the book is of course getting LoF made. Verona provides many anecdotes and behind the scenes photos and trivia. (Did you know that Richard Gere was originally to play Perry King’s role? Stallone and Gere had a falling out and one had to go!]
Verona writes in a conversation style that’s easy to read. Fans of LoF will love the behind-the-scenes peek and prospective film makers will learn from the mistakes Verona as a first time film-maker made.
Rating:
Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 31 Things We Learned from The In-Laws Commentary. Here are three of my favorites…
7. The infamous “Serpentine! Serpentine!” line came from Bergman’s time at college playing touch football with friends. One of his friends used to say it as they left the huddle.
10. Marlon Brando was a huge fan of the film and told Arkin at dinner once that he’d seen it over twenty times. “And then he started doing imitations of me.” Bergman adds that this is the reason why Brando agreed to do The Freshman with him.
30. Hiller had difficulty finding enough American-looking performers to play the dozens of CIA agents who come to the rescue in Mexico. He ran across some American medical students in town and cast them as the extras. Over half of the agents are those students.
Mark Mancini and Mental_Floss present 12 Surprising Facts About Bela Lugosi. Here are three of my favorites…
4. UNIVERSAL DIDN’T WANT TO CAST HIM AS COUNT DRACULA.
The year 1927 saw Bela Lugosi sink his teeth into the role of a lifetime. A play based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker had opened in London in 1924. Sensing its potential, Horace Liveright, an American producer, decided to create an U.S. version of the show. Over the summer of 1927, Lugosi was cast as the blood-sucking Count Dracula. For him, the part represented a real challenge. In Lugosi’s own words, “It was a complete change from the usual romantic characters I was playing, but it was a success.” It certainly was. Enhanced by his presence, the American Dracula remained on Broadway for a full year, then spent two years touring the country.
Impressed by its box office prowess, Universal decided to adapt the show into a major motion picture in 1930. Horror fans might be surprised to learn that when the studio began the process of casting this movie’s vampiric villain, Lugosi was not their first choice. At the time, Lugosi was still a relative unknown, which made director Tod Browning more than a little hesitant to offer him the job. A number of established actors were all considered before the man who’d played Dracula on Broadway was tapped to immortalize his biting performance on film.
6. HE TURNED DOWN THE ROLE OF FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER.
Released in 1931, Dracula quickly became one of the year’s biggest hits for Universal (some film historians even argue that the movie single-handedly rescued the ailing studio from bankruptcy). Furthermore, its astronomical success transformed Lugosi into a household name for the first time in his career. Regrettably for him, though, he’d soon miss the chance to star in another smash. Pleased by Dracula’s box office showing, Universal green-lit a new cinematic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Lugosi seemed like the natural choice to play the monster, but because the poor brute had few lines and would be caked in layers of thick makeup, the actor rejected the job offer. As far as Lugosi was concerned, the character was better suited for some “half-wit extra” than a serious actor. Once the superstar tossed Frankenstein aside, the part was given to a little-known actor named Boris Karloff.
Moviegoers eventually did get to see Lugosi play the bolt-necked corpse in the 1943 cult classic Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. According to some sources, he strongly detested the guttural scream that the script forced him to emit at regular intervals. “That yell is the worst thing about the part. You feel like a big jerk every time you do it!” Lugosi allegedly complained.
10. LUGOSI ALMOST DIDN’T APPEAR IN ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN—BECAUSE THE STUDIO THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD.
The role of Count Dracula in this 1948 blockbuster was nearly given to Ian Keith—who was considered for the same role in the 1931 Dracula movie. Being a good sport, Lugosi helped promote the horror-comedy by making a special guest appearance on The Abbott and Costello Show. While playing himself in one memorable sketch, the famed actor claimed to eat rattlesnake burgers for dinner and “shrouded wheat” for breakfast.
