Monday, September 29, 2008

NEW RELEASES - SEPTEMBER 30 2008

AFFAIR IN TRINIDAD

ANDERSON TAPES, THE

BABERELLAS

BARRACUDA/ISLAND FURY 

BEFORE THE RAINS

BEUFORT

BOOMERANG (1947)

CHAPTER 27

CHINA RISES

CHOSEN ONE, THE

CIMARRON (1960)

$ (DOLLARS)

EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… (CRITERION)

ESCAPE FROM FORT BRAVO

EXECUTIONER'S SONG, THE

EXTRAORDINARY VOYAGES OF JULES VERNE

FAR NORTH

FELON

FLY COLLECTION DISC OF HORRORS 

FLY, THE (1958) 

RETURN OF THE FLY 

CURSE OF THE FLY

14 HOURS

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL

GARMENT JUNGLE, THE

IRONMAN

IT CAME FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE

KENNY

LOU REED: BERLIN

LADIES & GENTLEMEN THE FABULOUS STAINS

LAST LAUGH, THE (2 DISC SPEC ED)

LAW AND JAKE WADE, THE

LE PLAISIR (CRITERION)

MANY RIVERS TO CORSS

NEW CENTURIONS, THE

NIGHT STALKER, THE (1987)

OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES

OVERSEXED RUGSUCKERS FROM MARS

ROAD HOUSE (1948)

RODAN/WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS

LA RONDE (CRITERION)

SADDLE THE WIND

SOURCE OF THE SECRET, THE

STRANGE WILDERNESS

SURFWISE

STALKING MOON, THE

TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE

TROUBLE IN STORE

WE'RE NO ANGELS (1989)

WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS


TELEVISION:

BEST OF MR. BEAN VOLUME 2

CLASSIC TV COMMERCIALS:

       THE ONES WE NEVER FORGOT

       WHAT WE LUSTED FOR

EDWARD THE KING

EUREKA SEASON TWO

JEWEL IN THE CROWN 25TH ANN. ED.

MY NAME IS EARL SEASON THREE

MY THREE SONS SEASON ONE VOLUME ONE

SAVING GRACE SEASON ONE


BLU-RAY:

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL


NEW ARRIVALS, REPLACEMENTS AND REQUESTS:

2 DAYS IN PARIS

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (CRITERION)

CLERKS II

DICK TRACY

EXCALIBUR

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS

GOOD GIRL, THE

GREY GARDENS

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

KONTROLL

LISTENING, THE

LOST IN LA MANCHA

MAID IN MANHATTAN

MY NAME IS BILL W.

QUINCENERA

REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

RESEVATION ROAD

ROCK, THE

SEARCH AND DESTROY

SERPICO

SMALL SOLDIERS

STELLA

STORY OF O

SUMMER '04

TEEN WOLF/TEEN WOLF, TOO

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT

TREKKIES

VANISHING POINT (1996)

Friday, September 26, 2008

CRITERION LISTS

Criterion website

Lots of new releases from the Criterion Collection recently.

This summer for instance they rereleased their issue of the long out of print Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom. A cult flick, though more or less a slog to sit through, unless your eager to see some of Jack-Ass like humiliations that the young and attractive cast are put through by their psychotic Fascist hosts. But needless to say the film has it’s fans and will continue to be a curio for a new generation of gawkers.


Upcoming Criterion will be releasing some titles never before available on DVD here in the US, including a couple of from Melville, Le Doulos (1962) and Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966) and Samuel Fuller’s 1982 Kristy McNicol disasterpiece White Dog which is more less “Cujo meets Falling Down meets Little Darlings.


They are also putting out their own issue of Costa-Gavras’ powerful Missing from 1982. The Universal Studios edition is still in print, but it’s good news that the leftist filmmaker is joining the Criterion family. A number of his other films have been unavailable here. I would love to see Criterion take on his brilliant State Of Siege (1973) which has only been available on a long out of print VHS edition.


The Criterion website lists film makers MY TOP TEN CRITERIONS

Here's hack autuor Allan Arkush not very interesting list.

Because everyone loves lists, I’ll add MY TOP CRITERIONS...


1) The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo 1966) 

2) Picnic at Hanging Rock (Weir 1975) 

3) Diabolique (Clouzot 1954) The Wages of Fear (Clouzot 1953) 

4) The Naked Prey (Wilde 1966) 

5) The Fallen Idol (Reed 1948) / The Third Man (Reed 1949)

6) Jean-Pierre Melville Fun-Pack (Bob Le Flambeur (1956) / Le Samourai (1967) / Army of Shadows (1969)/ Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

7) The Ice Storm  (Lee1997)  

8) Harlan County USA (Kopple 1976)

9) Bicycle Thieves (De Sica 1948) 

10) Hoop Dreams  (James & Marx 1994)

11) Louis Malle Fun Pack  (Elevator to the Gallows (1957) / Murmur of the Heart (1971) /Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987) 

12) Notorious (Hitchcock 1946) 

13) High and Low  (Kurosawa 1963)

14) This Is Spinal Tap (Reiner 1984)

15) The Long Good Friday (Mackenzie 1979)


And lemme give some love to:

The Bank Dick (Cline 1940), Sullivan's Travels (Sturges 1942), Ace in the Hole (Wilder 1951), La Strada (Fellini 1954), Knife in the Water (Polanski 1962), Claire’s Knee (Rohmer 1970), Straw Dogs (Peckinpah 1971),  A Woman Under the Influence  (Cassavetes 1974), The Tin Drum (Schlöndorff 1979), Burden of Dreams (Blank 1982), Brazil  (Gilliam 1985), Mona Lisa  (Jordan 1986), Sid & Nancy (Cox 1986), The Vanishing George (Sluizer 1988), Hard Boiled (Woo 1992), Man Bites Dog (Belvaux, Bonzel & Poelvoorde 1992), Dazed and Confused (Linklater 1993), Naked (Leigh 1993), Rushmore (Anderson 1998), Beastie Boys Video Anthology (Various 2000)


-sweeneyrules

Monday, September 22, 2008

NEW RELEASES - SEPTEMBER 23 2008

Breathing Room

Constantine's Sword

Deception

Dororo

Innocent Voices

Leatherheads

Midnight Eagle

Mother Of Tears

Naked Fear

The Neighbor

One Take

Pathology

Re-Cycle

Reno 911 Miami: More Busted Edition

Run Fatboy Run 

Scooby-Doo and The Goblin King

Sex and the City: The Movie

Shadow

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat

Unemployed

The Vanguard


TELEVISION:

Boston Legal - Season Four

Friday the 13th: The Series - Season One

Ken Russell At The BBC

Pushing Daisies - Season One

Torchwood: Series Two


BLU-RAY: 

The Godfather Trilogy 

Leatherheads

Risky Business

Sunday, September 21, 2008

STUPID POINTLESS LIST

Here’s a quick pointless list...

My All Time Favorite Actresses...Who have died or are more or less retired from acting

Which will keep some definite favorites of mine of the list including MaClaine,

Adjani, Rowlands, Deneuve, Burstyn, Audran, Maggie Smith and Karen Black.

Keep in mind theirs nothing scientific about thios list, not saying their the best, just some favorites.

So what the hell, here are 20 names that came to mine.. 

1) Shelly Winters

2) Bette Davis

3) Olivia de Havilland

4) Gloria Grahame

5) Patricia Neal

6) Ingrid Bergman

7) Madeline Kahn

8) Deborah Kerr

9) Elizabeth Taylor

10) Thelma Ritter

11) Vivien Leigh

12) Joan Fontaine

13) Simone Signoret 

14) Carole Lombard

15) Brigitte Bardot

16) Jean Simmons

17) Anne Bancroft

18) Joanne Woodward

19) Janet Leigh

20) Veronica Lake

21) Margaret Dumont


-sweeneyrules

Monday, September 15, 2008

NEW RELEASES - SEPTEMBER 16 2008

The Absent Minded Professor/Son of Flubber (Double Feature) 

The Ascent (Eclipse/Criterion)

88 Minutes

Finding Amanda

Finding Rin Tin Tin

Harold

Kabluey

The Love Guru

Made Of Honor

Noise

Nympha

Risky Business (Special Edition)

Seed

Speed Racer

Snow Angels

Speed Racer

Surviving the Game

War Gods of the Deep/At the Earth's Core (Double Feature) 

Wings (Eclipse/Criterion)

Young at Heart


British Cinema Collection

 -Crimes at the Dark House

 -The Frightened Man

 -Girl in the News

 -The Hooded Terror

 -Siege of Sidney Street

 -Tread Softly Stranger


Busby Berkeley Collection Volume 2

 -Gold Diggers of 1937 

 -Gold Diggers in Paris

 -Hollywood Hotel

 -Varsity Show

 

TELEVISION:

Chuck - Season 1

Criminal Minds - Season 3

Father Knows Best - Volume 1

Inside the Actors Studio - Robin Williams

 

Blu-Ray:

88 Minutes

How the West Was Won

The Mist

Friday, September 12, 2008

ACTING LIKE A DIRECTOR

Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder big box office! 

George Clooney’s Leatherheads coming to DVD in a few weeks.

French flick Tell No One directed by actor Guillaume Cane is a art-house hit.


And looking over the upcoming movie slate, director Clint Eastwood has two flicks coming out in the next couple of months. Gran Torino which he also stars in a cranky Korean War Vet will be released at Christmas. But first hitting the street in late October is The Changeling which got a mostly positive, but mixed reception from critics when it screened at Cannes, but sounds like definite oscar bate for star Angelina Jolie will be.


Actors directing, some make the transition, some just make lame movies.


We all know the Eastwood story of rise, Rawhide, Spaghetti Westerns, Dirty Harry, number-one box office star in the seventies, Clyde the orangutan movies and now kinda, John Ford status as a director. 

Though back in the seventies no one would of predicted the award and critical acclaim that would come for him in these last twenty years, personally I think his two westerns he did then, High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) are still the two best films he's directed. Even if they are rather “Leone/ Siegel -esc”. 

His Charlie Parker Bio, Bird (1988) was a also very impressive flick, however, I’ve never had an urge to see it for a second time. It's a total downer made watchable because of an epic performance by Forest Whitaker as the druggy 'hep-cat'. 

Though through the years, Clint has had many directing duds, he's kept at it and he found a formula that has worked for him and obviously for 'award bestowers'. Does anyone remember The Rookie (1990) or the unwatchable Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Have you ever seen the bizarrely awkward flick Breezy? In which cranky old William Holden ends up getting jiggy with twenty-year-old flower-child cutie Kay Lenz (she does have some gorgeous nude scenes. She’s my type!).


Clint’s ‘number one box-office’ rival back in the disco decade Burt Reynolds tried his hand at directing as well. Perhaps Gator (1976) was no worse then most other good-ol’ boy private-dick flicks of the day, each of his three other features he helmed got progressively worse ending his non-TV directing career with a bang in ‘85, with the hilariously awful Elmore Leonard adaptation, playing ‘Stick’ Stickley in the inevitably titled Stick.


The two macho would-be auteurs appeared together only once in the unbearably boring City Heat (1984), ironically, directed by actor Richard Benjamin (AKA Adam Quark) who hit it big his first time out yelling ‘cut’ & ‘action’, thanks to Peter O’toole’s brilliant perforce My Favorite Year (1982). But like his fellow mustache-man Reynolds, Benjamin has been relegated to the boob-tube ever since he made the universally hated Lisa Kudrow disasterpiece Marci X (2003).


So, on with some lists....

You have your first tier of Actors like Eastwood who have become just as accomplished as directors Woody Allen, Richard Attenborough, Warren Beatty, Albert Brooks, John Cassavetes, Charlie Chaplin, George Clooney, Kevin Coster, Mel Gibson, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Orson Welles

Some were established as directors first branched out and became actors for hire in other director’s films, John Huston, Sidney Pollack, Otto Preminger (and to some extent Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarintino).

Others who once were known as actors, are not considered actors anymore like Penny Marshal, Rob Reiner and Ron Howard. Acting has become more of a hobby for them (and a chore for us to have to watch).

Some big-time actors have directed more sporadically but found some success... Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, Dennis Hopper, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Billy Bob ThorntonCornel Wilde.

Others major stars have dabbled but not yet had that film that gives them full credibility as directors, but it still could happen for them... Robert De Niro, Ethan Hawke, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Denzel Washington.

And there have been a number of working class actors who have made a nice transition into directing like Tony Bill, Peter Burg, Nick Cassavetes, Bill Duke, Jon Favreau, Todd Field and Keith Gordon to name a few.


Jodie Foster is probably the biggest name actress to attempt the transition to director.

Lillian Gish directed once the 1920 flick Remodeling Her Husband.

In the 40s and 50s Ida Lupino probably had as interesting a career as any actor turned director in that period.

Jennifer Jason Leigh had a terrific outing co-directing The Anniversary Party (2001) I’ve been looking forward to seeing what she would do next.

And of course more ugly, Nancy Walker somehow took the reins of the horrid Village People epic Can’t Stop the Music (1980).

Eastwood’s ex wife actress Sandra Lock has become a director and his daughter actress Allison, directed a film this past year, Rails And Ties, will she direct another?


Speaking of...

Lets take a look at the big-time established actors (A-list more or less, so no Robert Culp, Talia Shire or Bert Convy) who only dipped their toe into the directing world ONCE (as of writing. Feature films only/ TV and docs don’t count).

THE GOOD, THE BLAH AND THE UGLY 

OF A-List ACTOR’S ONE-TIME DIRECTING


The Good

Ben Afleck - Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Marlon Brando - One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

James Caan - Hide in Plain Sight (1980)

Albert Finney - Charlie Bubbles (1967)

Tommy Lee Jones - The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada  (2005)

Charles Laughton - Night Of The Hunter (1955)

Jack Lemmon - Kotch (1971)

Gary Oldman - Nil by Mouth (1997)


The Blah

Kevin Bacon - Loverboy (2006)

James Cagney - Short Cut to Hell (1957)

Matt Dillon - City of Ghosts (2002)

Sally Field - Beautiful (2001)

Morgan Freeman - Bopha! (1993)

Bill Murray - Quick Change (1990) (co-dr)

Ed Norton - Keeping the Faith (2000)

Anthony Quinn - The Buccaneer (1958)

Martin Sheen - Cadence (1991)

Frank Sinatra -  None But the Brave (1965)


The Ugly

Dan Aykroyd - Nothing But Trouble (1991)

Anne Bancroft - Fatso (1980)

Richard Burton - Doctor Faustus (co-dr) (1967)

Nicolas Cage - Sonny (2002)

Johnny Depp - The Brave (1997)

Shirley MacLaine - Bruno (2000)

Eddie Murphy - Harlem Nights (1989)

Peter Sellers - Mr Topaze/I Like Money (1960)


NEXT TIME:  B & C LEVEL ACTORS, DIRECTING


-sweeneyrules

Thursday, September 11, 2008

GREATEST AMERICAN HERO 25TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE HELD AT SAG FOUNDATION

On Sunday, September 7th, I attended the 25th Anniversary Tribute for the television program THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO at the SAG Foundation’s brand spanking new Actor’s Center Theater and Screening Room. This was the first event to be held in the beautiful new room and the full house promised it would not be the last. The night’s program brought together cast and crew from the cult TV series for three hours of reminisces, stories, clips, interviews and major announcements.

The event was only supposed to be open to friends and family of the guests and SAG members. I am no actor and I am not a member of SAG but through the kindness of SAG member Sally Schaub, I was allowed to come as her guest with the provision that I help in some sort of volunteer capacity such as guiding guests to seats—which is what I did. Everyone who knows me knows that my two obsessions, my two greatest loves, are the programs THE INCREDIBLE HULK and THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO. When it comes to HERO, I have seen every episode multiple times and have read everything I can find about the show. Every Halloween, I dress as Ralph Hinkley with red suit and tights, cape and even a blond curly hair wig (for many years, I wore a home made version of the suit until a few years ago when my mother—God bless her soul—gave me the official suit as a present). So, many friends from SAG alerted me to the event when the announcement was made and I found myself lucky to be present for the awesome evening.

I had met the show’s star William Katt before. As manager of Rocket Video in Hollywood, I host our monthly guest speaker series and we were lucky to have Katt as a guest when GREATEST AMERICAN HERO season one came out on DVD. I actually wore my suit when I interviewed him and he remembered me because of this when we were re-introduced at the tribute. I had never met any of the other stars before so I was anxious to see Connie Selleca and Michael Pare but most importantly I wanted to meet Robert Culp.

Culp is up there with Bill Bixby as one of my all-time favorite actors. A friend from grad school who was like a brother to me opened my eyes to how cool Culp was. We shared an interest in and many marathon sessions watching episodes of HERO. While I talked about how I wanted to be a superhero when I was a kid watching the show for the first time, my friend told me that when he watched the show as a kid he wanted to be Culp. The more I saw of Culp’s work after that, the more I came over to his side of thinking. Culp was just too damn cool. He had a unique delivery of dialogue, a hip style ahead of its time and a great walk that he used perfectly in every role he played. I began to seek out movies and TV shows that featured Culp and I became just as big a fan as my friend. So I found myself waiting to see him with the nervousness that one feels when they are about to meet one of their heroes.

Since Sally and I were volunteering, we got there early as cameras were being set up and sound was being checked. Five different cameras recorded the event and there was talk of a DVD later being made available. William Katt was already there; this was his show and he was obviously in charge. Michael Pare was also there laughing as he watched some of the clips they were going to show. Then Culp walked in. He was very, very thin but as Sally said he was still drop dead handsome. And he was sharp as a tack; friendly enough as well, but a little peeved because the new theater was difficult to find.

The event was great. John Tesh was the host for the evening, appropriate enough since he is married to Connie Selleca. He introduced series creator Stephen J. Cannell, another extremely handsome fellow who was smartly dressed and very personable. They talked a little about the creation of the show. Then the cast came out accompanied by applause. Michael Pare, Connie Selleca, Robert Culp and William Katt all took their seats. Selleca, by the way, still looked just as beautiful as she did on the show and I felt the crush that I had on her when I watched the show at age 12 come back full force. Lucky Tesh. The four stars shared delightful stories about the series and clips from the show were screened.

After an intermission, Cannell was joined by producers, writers and behind the scenes personnel and they shared even more stories about the show. Culp stayed on stage since he had written and directed two episodes of the series, “Lilacs, Mr. Maxwell” and “Vanity the Preacher Says.” Clips showing how Katt was made to fly were screened. Then stuntman Dennis “Danger” Madalone was introduced and a montage of his spectacular jumps, crashes and falls was shown to the crowd. Finally, composer Mike Post (a very funny and entertaining gentleman) and Cannell talked about the music in the show as well as the famous theme song “Believe it or Not” which had reached number 2 on the Billboard charts at the height of the show’s popularity.

As the program came to a close, I jumped up with my disposable camera and approached some of the stars. Sally took my picture with Cannell, Madalone, John Tesh and Connie Selleca. Then I approached the one and only Culp. This was to be my moment, my chance to meet my hero and let him know how I felt.

As I mentioned, I host Rocket Video’s guest speaker program and over the years, we’ve welcomed some major names from the entertainment world—everyone from Faye Dunaway to Ray Bradbury. But I have always had four dream events that I wanted to have at the store, all four of which would revolve around specific heroes of mine. Three of them have come true and each one had a magic moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I wanted to have an evening devoted to THE INCREDIBLE HULK. When season two came out on DVD, we hosted a signing party with series creator Kenneth Johnson, director Chuck Bowman (who also attended THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO tribute), actress Mariette Hartley and, of course, the green guy himself Lou Ferrigno. This was one of the greatest nights of my life and I got a chance to express my thank you to all of them for contributing to something that shaped my entire being. My words were so heartfelt that the audience applauded me and both Johnson and Hartley later called to express how beautiful my speech was. I also wanted to interview Peter Falk and when his book came out we were lucky enough to get him. He was an absolute joy and the magic moment came afterwards when an audience member said our interview was like watching THE TONIGHT SHOW. Falk put his arm around me and said, “We did good, didn’t we kid?” Finally, I love the show MONK and I wanted to have Tony Shalhoub as a speaker. I wrote him a letter and to everyone’s surprise he agreed to be a Rocket guest for an evening. The magic moment here came BEFORE the event when we spent some quiet time in my office talking about the show and then having a wonderful discussion about our mutual interest in Sherlock Holmes. Shalhoub is a charming, bright, immensely nice man.

The only dream guest I never got a chance to interview was Culp. I’ve written to him quite a few times extending an invitation, I even tried reaching him through his grandson. But I never heard back. Some have said he doesn’t like to do “those kinds of things” but here he was at the Hero Tribute. Anyway, this was going to be my chance, my magical moment.

I had it all planned out. I was going to tell him how Bill Maxwell on THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO was one of the greatest television characters of all time. I was going to tell him how great he was on I SPY and as Ray’s father-in-law on EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND. I was going to tell him how much I enjoyed BOB AND CAROL AND TED AND ALICE and HICKEY AND BOGGS (which he directed). I was going to tell him how I had even searched out two really cool made-for-television films he starred in—A COLD NIGHT’S DEATH and OUTRAGE (how many of you out there have seen those two?). I was going to finally, face to face, invite him to be a guest at Rocket or at least offer to take him to lunch so I could hear him talk about his life and career.

And what happened? I blew it. I asked him for a picture and then all I could think of to say was: “You know what the best line from THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO was? When you said, ‘Yamma yamma yamma, whoop-de-doo, scooby-doo and gobbledy-gook’ in the motorcycle gang episode.” He smiled and said he remembered and he was gone. I got my picture but I felt stupid. I had blown it. I got near one of my heroes and I fumbled the ball. I must have sounded like an idiot.

But now that I write these words and I think about the evening, I realize that it counts as a magic moment. For those few, brief seconds, our lives connected and I got to meet one of my greatest heroes. And when you combine that with the fact that I got to meet and hear from the entire cast and crew of one of my all time favorite shows—well, it was one hell of a night and one I will always remember. Besides, Culp doesn’t need me to tell him he’s cool; a guy like that doesn’t need to be told. He’s a pro all the way and one of the greats no matter what. Though I’d still like to take him to lunch…

Also, there were two big announcements that evening. William Katt’s new comic book company Catastrophic Comics will be publishing the continuing adventures of Ralph, Pam and Bill in a new series debuting this November. And Cannell announced that there will be a GREATEST AMERICAN HERO movie. The script has been written (Katt said it was charming and funny), a director has been chosen and he hopes the original cast will all take roles in the film. Good news all around for the fans.

Believe it or not, I’m still walking on air…

Monday, September 8, 2008

NEW RELEASES - SEPTEMBER 9 2008

Baby Mama

Beast Within / Bat People (Double Feature)

The Big Lebowski (10th Anniversary Edition)

Brand Upon the Brain (Criterion Collection)

Cool Hand Luke (Deluxe Edition) 

The Dark Half

The Fall

The First Power

The Forbidden Kingdom  

Foreign Exchange

14 Women

Grand Illusion (Essential Art House Edition)

Gulliver's Travels (1996)

Heckler

How the West Was Won (3 Disc Special Edition)

Knife in the Water (Essential Art House Edition)

Last Dats of Left Eye

Love and Sex

Man, Woman and Child

Peter Cook & Dudley Mooe: Best of What's Left Of...Not Only...But Also... 

Rashomon (Remastered Edition) 

Rogue

We Are Together

Wild Strawberries (Essential Art House Edition)


Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 5 

Castle in the Desert * Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum * Charlie Chan in Panama * Charlie Chan in Rio * 

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise * Dead Men Tell * Murder Over New York


Fox Horror Classics Collection, Vol. 2

Chandu the Magician * Dr. Renault's Secret * Dragonwyck


TELEVISION:

Grey's Anatomy Season 4

Judge Judy: Second to None

Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 4

Medium Season 4

Smallville Season 7

The Twilight Zone (80's) Season 1

Ugly Betty Season 2


BLU-RAY:

Cool Hand Luke

Jerry Maguire

Kill Bill, Vol. 1

Kill Bill, Vol. 2


NEW ARRIVALS/ REPLACEMENTS/ CUSTOMER REQUESTS:

American Psycho

Anne of a Thousand Days/Mary Queen of Scots (Double Feature)

Audrey Rose

Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story Cats And Dogs

Le Cercle Rouge (Criterion Collection)

Disturbing Behavior

La Dolce Vita

L'Eclisse (Criterion Collection)

8mm

Foxfire

The Gauntlet

Heart and Souls

John Carpenter's Vampires 

Leviathan

Lorenzo's Oil

Primary Colors

Shoot the Moon

Strange Fruit

To Live and Die in LA

Friday, September 5, 2008

That's So Retarded - Cop Land

Rewatched Cop Land (1997). 

While watching it, I thought “hey this is a western" or at the least a Bad Day At Black Rock type of thing. Man, I'm so smart. Then afterwards I saw that the making of doc on the DVD was called "Cop Land: The Making Of An Urban Western"

I realized maybe I'm not so cleaver.


When I first saw Cop Land in the theater, I think I was terribly disappointed. We were all very excited about it, a cool cast. As for it’s star Sylvester Stallone, on the heels of Pulp Fiction remaking Travolta‘s career, this looked like the movie that could recreate his Staying Alive auteur into an actual actor after a twenty-five year mumbly slumber. Of course in retrospect, he did get some mild acclaim but then he jumped right back into the junk factory of straight-to-DVD crap and replaying Rocky and Rambo.


Seeing it for a second time, I didn’t have the same expectations. So for a Thursday night watch at midnight, it was very enjoyable. If not a little over the top and obvious. I can see that on paper the script was ‘cleaver’. At least cleaver enough to attract established heavyweights Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro. Of course these guys stopped being choosy about scripts a long time ago.

And check out the supporting cast of talent lead by Robert ‘T2’ Patrick and Cathy ‘what ever happened to her?” Moriarty. As well as Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Noah Emmerich, John Spencer, Edie Falco  and Frank “go get your shine box”  Vincent.


But the real star of the show obviously is Sly Stallone as dimwitted Freddy Heflin. He’s the big galoot New Jersey Sheriff of a town populated by New York City cops all deep in corruption, he’s been their mascot and is both admiring and envious of their big city careers. He was once on track to to go to join them in the police big-league but  saving a drowning beauty (Sciorra) left him deaf in one ear and apparently semi- retarded. Things slowly unravel with a rift between cops Liotta and big dog Keitel starts to get ugly and the questionable suicide of a young cop (Rapaport) brings an internal affairs investigator (De Niro) to town. Freddy starts to open his eyes to the ugly scene around him which leads to a classic Western shootout: The Lone Sharif verse the corrupt owners of the town (High Noon, 3 Ten To Yuma, etc). 

Stallone is very good, in some ways closer to the original Rocky then anything he’d done since his oscar nominated role. He slow and not too confident and gets pushed around the playground by the smarter kids. Instead of his usual blow-dried hair he spends most of the movie with a broken nose. Like Charlize Theron this is his Monster, his The Insider or his Monster’s Ball or... The Hunchback Of Notre Dame! This is his time to win an Oscar. After all, he put on weight and let his big gut hang out! 

Unfortunately his supposed lack of narcissism in the role, begins to feel narcissistic. 

Why can’t an actor just play a normal person or even inhuman person without calling attention to it “look I’m acting!”. And even though Sly’s idea of a deaf-in-one-ear guy is closer to Slingblade then Van Gogh he is ultimately effective in the part.


The biggest problem actually is in the films style or lack off. It’s so dull looking. It’s so poorly paced and edited. And it has a terrible clichĂ©d TV Movie score (composed by the over worked Howard Shore). Ironically, ten years later director James Mangold  would shoot a real Western, the excellent 3:10 to Yuma remake, which would have the best score of the year (by Marco Beltrami).

But enough about these other people, the story here is Stalone’s special day. All hale Sly! He actually took a break from sleepwalking and gave acting a shot. What’s next for him? Stop Or My Mom Will Shot Two?


-sweeneyrules

Greatest Hits - Damn you! God damn you all to hell

It's a madhouse!
I know we don’t get a chance to post as much as we would like to (currently I’m putting together an epic list of actors directing films). And I know the blog can be sloppy and I usually go edit stuff I wrote days after posting, I need distance to see all my typos and mistakes. But i can proclaim, we’ve said a lot of stuff before most of the other mainstream media outlets. 
For instance you mighta noticed recently with the release The House Bunny, critics and writers finally took notice of the comedic talents of Anna Faris, they were falling all over themselves praising her. Well you may recall sometime ago I wrote a gooey drunken love letter to her (where I also pointed out her comic genus) entitled I Think I Like-LIKE Her.


With the new awful looking De Niro/ Pacino flick about to be released. Critics are finally starting to write pieces about their wasted talent. Just today The NY Sun’s James Snyder wrote Pacino & De Niro Circle Back To Each Other

And the great David Thomson wrote a good piece You want ham with that? in The Guardian.


Of course I’ve been making fun of those two over-emoters since we started this blog

I pointed out the limits in the roles Pacino and De Niro do in Cop Or Criminal

and with Coppola Now! I wondered... “The movies no longer feel like events and De Niro no longer seems to give a shit who he works with.  Why did he do Hide and Seek? Was he dying to work with the director of Swimfan?”

And concerning Pacino’s flick 88 Minutes I asked "How many different Producers... does it take to screw in a (lame lookin') light-bulb?


A recent festival in NY had all the NY writers reexamine the underrated career of crazy Charlton Heston.

We wrote and posted a bunch Chuck stuff with Your Name's Mud


Two movies that were only on VHS I wrote about a while ago, have recently been released on DVD and “rediscovered” (by people without VCRs)

King Of The Gypsies and Baby, It’s You


And watch come December when Frost/Nixon gets released and the awards hoopla starts, everyone will be falling all over themselves to reexamine Frank Langella’s career. Just remember, we all ready did that.  Frank Langella Starting Out The Evening 


As The Chuck told Dr Zaius "We Did It First! And we did it better!" 

Shit let me go check my DVD see if I quoted that right.


-sweeneyrules


Tuesday, September 2, 2008

NEW RELEASES - SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

The Art of Travel

Ballet Shoes

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker/Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (Animated)

Dante's Inferno

Empire Records/Singles (Double Feature)

How to Rob a Bank

In Search of the Real Frankenstein

Kings

Lagerfeld Confidential

Married Life

Monster Camp

Moontide

Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (Animated)

Outlaw Josey Wales

Outsourced

The Promotion

Pirates of Penzance (Australian Opera)

Reprise (Norway)

The Sensation of Sight

Then She Found Me


TELEVISION:

Desperate Housewives: Season 4

Faerie Tale Theatre: The Complete Series

Honey West: The Complete Series

Life: Season 1

Mad Men: Season 1

The Office: Season 4


BLU-RAY:

Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (Animated)