Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Marv the lead character from many of Frank Miller’s Sin City yarns. We don’t get enough drawings (let alone stories featuring the big guy), so when we do, I like to share them.
The one above is by Ben Oliver. You can see it and more of Ben’s art at his Instagram.
Isn’t this Psycho poster by Ignacio RC one of the most creative and beautiful posters you’ve seen lately? I love it. Here’s what Ignacio had to say about his inspiration for the piece…
I always loved Atari box art (Cliff Spohn, Steve Hendricks…) and particularly Steve Hendricks art for ‘Haunted House’ Atari 2600 game, so wanted to play with the same concept for ‘Psycho’, just for fun and practice.
Ignacio RC is an illustrator from A Coruña in Spain. If you’d like to see more of Ignacio RC’s art, you can check out his gallery.
Source: Poster Spy.
Check out this amazing animated short, Dernier Round (Last Round) created by a talented group of student filmmakers from France. Dernier Round felt like the set-up for a wonderful full-length movie that I’d love to see!
“In a Parisian suburb, a promising young boxer must find a way to finance the future of his little sister, a piano prodigy.”
Redemption Day stars Gary Dourdan. We have the poster above, the trailer below and they both look good.
Here’s a movie tidbit that I didn’t know until today. During the scene in The Hateful Eight when Kurt Russell destroys a guitar, the instrument wasn’t a prop, but instead a $40,000.00, 145 year old museum piece!
The Hateful Eight saw Kurt Russell fill the boots of a weathered bounty hunter named John Ruth. While transporting a known murderer across the snow-topped mountains of Wyoming, a blizzard forces Ruth’s party to hunker down in a nearby lodge. In response to his bounty’s incessant singing, the bounty hunter eventually takes a six-string guitar and smashes it against a wooden beam. “Music time’s over,” Ruth growls. But Unbeknownst to Kurt Russell, the guitar was an irreplaceable 145-year-old museum piece, which the studio was borrowing from the Martin Guitar Museum. – James Fenner from Top 10 Blunders That Will Go Down In History – 2020 at Listverse.
Check out the scene below and watch as Jennifer Jason Leigh, in shock at Kurt’s actions, breaks character! She obviously knew what Kurt Russell hadn’t been told!
Matthew Jackson at Mental Floss posted his choices for The 30 Best Comedy Movies of All Time. I’m a big fan of lists, more for the discussion they create than any definitive ranking. Jackson’s list is what resonates with him. My list, or your list would be different.
I’ve seen 23 of Jackson’s 30 listed films. My favorites from his top 30 are Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
Movies that didn’t make his list but would have made mine include…
And that’s just off the top of my head.
We have the poster and trailer for FBI/MLK. I like them both and look forward to seeing the film.
Director: Sam Pollard
Starring: Martin Luther KingDr. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered today as an American hero: a bridge-builder, a shrewd political tactician, and a moral leader. Yet throughout his history-altering political career, he was often treated by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies like an enemy of the state. In this virtuosic documentary, award-winning editor and director Sam Pollard (Editor, 4 LITTLE GIRLS, MO’ BETTER BLUES; Director/Producer, EYEZ ON THE PRIZE, SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME) lays out a detailed account of the FBI surveillance that dogged King’s activism throughout the ’50s and ’60s, fueled by the racist and red-baiting paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover. In crafting a rich archival tapestry, featuring some revelatory restored footage of King, Pollard urges us to remember that true American progress is always hard-won.
Here are the poster and trailer for Hunter Hunter. I like both!
Directed by: Shawn Linden
Starring: Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell, Devon Sawa & Nick StahlHUNTER HUNTER follows a family living in the remote wilderness earning a living as fur trappers. Joseph Mersault (Devon Sawa), his wife Anne (Camille Sullivan), and their daughter Renée (Summer H. Howell) struggle to make ends meet and think their traps are being hunted by the return of a rogue wolf. Determined to catch the predator in the act, Joseph leaves his family behind to track the wolf. Anne and Renée grow increasingly anxious during Joseph’s prolonged absence and struggle to survive without him. When they hear a strange noise outside their cabin, Anne hopes it is Joseph but instead finds a man named Lou (Nick Stahl), who has been severely injured and left for dead. The longer Lou stays and Joseph is away, the more paranoid Anne becomes, and the idea of a mysterious predator in the woods slowly becomes a threat much closer to home.
This cool Rocky IV poster was created by Genzo who said this…
My alternative poster for Rocky IV. I have seen this movie so many times and I still love it!
Genzo’s poster was featured at Poster Spy’s Monday Motivation. You can see more of Genzo’s movie posters here.
Christina Newland at Paste Magazine took on the monumental task of ranking The 50 Best Boxing Movies of All Time. Her list is a pretty good one, including several lesser known films (and some silent movies). Before you click over, here are her top five compared to mine (using just her list) and then some overall comments.
|
Newland |
Zablo |
| 1. Body and Soul (1947) | 1. Rocky (1976) |
| 2. Raging Bull (1980) | 2. The Set-up (1949) |
| 3. Rocky (1976) | 3. Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) |
| 4. Fat City (1962) | 4. Raging Bull (1980) |
| 5. The Set-up (1949) | 5. Rocky Balboa (2006) |
Most folks know of my appreciation of the Rocky series so I thought it only right that my best boxing movies using Newland’s list, start and end with Rocky movies.
Looking at Newland’s top five – Usually the top spot in boxing movie lists is held by either Rocky or Raging Bull, so I give her props for picking Body and Soul. That’s a good film, but it wouldn’t make my top five.
All of my top five are films I can watch and re-watch. Outside of the Stallone films, I’ve probably watched The Set-Up the most. It is such a great movie, if you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend you give it a view.
Both the poster and trailer for Always and Forever aren’t bad. This is another film that normally wouldn’t be my type of movie, but yet, I’m interested in seeing it thanks to the trailer.
Next up we have the poster and trailer for The Killing of Two Lovers.
After seeing the trailer, I am surprised by the poster. The trailer has a gritty, crime drama feel and the poster doesn’t give that vibe at all. I’m surprised also by how much I liked the trailer. Reading the synopsis, this doesn’t seem to be my type of movie, but having seen the trailer, I now want to see The Killing of Two Lovers.
Starring: Chris Coy, Clayne Crawford, Arri Graham
Directed By: Robert Machoian
Synopsis: David desperately tries to keep his family of six together during a separation from his wife. They both agree to see other people but David struggles to grapple with his wife’s new relationship.
The poster and trailer for Minor Premise are here. I like the poster, but I wonder if it will make folks think it is more of a horror film than a psychological drama… or at least a different kind of horror film that it may turn out to be.
Attempting to surpass his father’s legacy, a reclusive neuroscientist becomes entangled in his own experiment, pitting ten fragments of his consciousness against each other.
I’m always game for a good crime story. I’m hoping that American Dream will be just that. I like the poster and the trailer looks good.
I especially like the start — if that’s what happen to a guy who owes $126.00, can you imagine what happens when you owe a whole lot more? The problem I have with stories about guys who get in too deep to shylocks is, they knew what they were getting into when they got the cash advance. It doesn’t make the interest or beatdowns (or worse) right, but as my man Rocky said, “If you wanna dance, ya gotta pay the band. If you wanna borrow, ya gotta pay the man.”
Fingers crossed that American Dream is a good crime yarn.
Academy Award winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan) directs this intense thriller about the brutal struggle for success. Desperate for cash, entrepreneurs Scott (Luke Bracey, Point Break [2015]) and Nicky (Michiel Huisman, Game of Thrones) turn to Russian mobster Yuri (Nick Stahl, Sin City). After they refuse the funding he offers, Yuri gets revenge by trying to take over their construction project. The partners are terrified until Nicky’s tough Russian girlfriend Ana decides to take action herself.
D.B. Cooper. Funny how so many people know the name, but no one knows who he is.
Or is there someone who actually knows the identity of the skyjacker who got away with $200,000.00?
Check out the trailer for The Mystery of D.B. Cooper.
