THE BLIND SIDE is not a football movie. THE BLIND SIDE is a movie about what it means to be a family. It’s a about how families don’t always fit into nice, neat little molds and that a family can consist of any number of arrangements. It just so happens those arrangements can include a football team as well as an unlikely family that takes another human being into their care, regardless of social taboo. This is the story of Michael Oher.
Michael Oher, played by Quinton Aaron (BE KIND REWIND), is a man of few words, so I will begin…
Stars in Rewind: Yo! The Marky Mark Workout!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 3:52 PM | From Cinematical
Before Mark Wahlberg was a successful and respected actor in the movie industry, he was Marky Mark. He wore big gold chains, overalls, and tightie whities. We're all glad those days are gone. One thing can be said about those dark days of Calvin Klein underwear ads -- he did have a rocking body. He probably still does, but Martin Scorcese doesn't exactly make shirt-stripping a requirement for his Boston cops. At least, I hope he doesn't.
Luckily, the glory gangsta (yes, I mean that sarcastically) days have been preserved in The Marky Mark Workout video. I'm sure some of you out there have seen this before (and judging from one Wahlberg fan site, it's something the devoted have watched numerous times), but I hadn't and thought it was worth a giggle. Wahlberg doesn't exactly have the cheeriest public persona, but his youthful self was really someone you might not want to hang around. Marvel at the way he comes onto his workout partners, and their forced smiles of "Ok, but only because you're paying me!"
I know, Wahlberg wants us to forget this part of his life. But YouTube makes it too easy to remember and hey, we all did stuff we regret. Let's laugh together, Mark. Say hello to your mother for me, all right?
Stars in Rewind: Tom Waits, Crystal Gayle, and Francis Ford Coppola
Thursday, November 5, 2009 12:44 PM | From Cinematical
Know what this trio of names has in common -- Tom Waits, Crystal Gayle, and Francis Ford Coppola? They collaborated on the music for Coppola's 1982 film One from the Heart. Waits was the creative mind behind the film's music, he performed a number of duets with the country singer, and he also earned an Academy Award nomination for his efforts.
However, that was about all the notoriety the film got. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review some 27 years ago: "This must be the first movie in history to arrive with more publicity about its production techniques than about its stars," describing the film as "a major disappointment." Heart focused on two people in love (Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest) who get swept away by the throes of passion with Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski. But rather than simply tell the story, it was an art piece for Coppola, using creative filming techniques and a carefully plotted score that interacted with the characters.
After the jump you can see a behind-the-scenes look at the music from the film, mainly focused on Waits, but also revealing footage from initial discussions about the project, and how the music came together. It might sound old-hat in a world where we are saturated by DVDs with special features, but I love seeing the old process -- minds coming together in the back yard for a "musical summit," how each piece of a film can be so carefully plotted, and the utter strangeness of seeing someone like Gayle collaborating with Waits.
IGN has introduced a cool new feature they are calling Rewind Theater, where they rewatch a recent movie trailer with audio commentary with one of the creative people behind the property. The first edition takes a look at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with the creator of the game, Jordan Mechner. It's fascinating to watch the trailer with commentary as they rewind, pause, and slow-mo the action. You learn so much more about the film, and notice things you might never normally in fast motion. Watch the video embedded after the jump.
To Watch Paranormal Activity or The Fourth Kind?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 12:27 PM | From UGO Movie Blog
In anticipation of The Fourth Kind/Paranormal Activity showdown, we present notable Hollywood...
Stars in Rewind: Alexander Skarsgard on a Frappuccino Joyride
Monday, October 12, 2009 6:42 PM | From Cinematical
One of the silliest pleasures of revisiting older films is seeing actors in small roles, back before you had any idea who they were. Sometimes it's the only reason to watch something over again -- after all, why else would you rent 1990's Tales From the Darkside: The Movie if not to giggle at Julianne Moore being terrorized by a mummy controlled by Steve Buscemi, or pick up Leprechaun other than to mock the performance of the young Jennifer Aniston?
Sometimes the now-familiar faces pop up in stuff that's still worth watching, as with Laurence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis on TV's Pee-Wee's Playhouse, or Johnny Depp in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. That's a bonanza. And when the earlier role is vastly different from the sort of thing they've settled in to playing now, it's all the more delightful.
Take, for example, Alexander Skarsgard, who sets hearts a-flutter on HBO's campy vampire series True Blood. As Eric, the 1,000 year old, once-Viking "sheriff" who bosses around the show's regional office of the undead, Skarsgard was called Vampire McSteamy and "TV's hottest set of fangs" by Newsweek. The son of actor Stellan Skarsgard, he'll also be seen in Rod Lurie's remake of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, and alongside Jason Statham, Ray Liotta and Mickey Rourke in 13, director Géla Babluani's reworking of his 2006 crime thriller 13 Tzameti. He also showed up the music video for Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi."
After the cut: A surprising early performance by everyone's favorite Norse bloodsucker.
A UFO sighting is referred to as an encounter of the first kind. When evidence is collected, it is known as an encounter of the second kind. Contact with extraterrestrials, is an encounter of the third kind. The next level, abduction, is the fourth kind. This encounter has been the most difficult to document... Until now. Universal has debuted the official trailer for the sci-fi thriller The Fourth Kind starring Milla Jovovich on Hulu (you can also watch it on SciFi Wire if you're not in the US). I will only say that this looks very creepy. It just came out of nowhere, I didn't even know this movie existed until today, but damn, does it look crazy!
Watch the official trailer for The Fourth Kind:
A thriller involving an unsolved mystery in Alaska, where one town has seen an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances during the past 40 years and there ...
Cinematical Rewind: Ye WORST Pirate Movies Ever Made! (Arrr...)
Saturday, July 18, 2009 7:56 PM | From Cinematical
Reprinted from July '06
You'll no doubt remember all the controversy and skepticism that surrounded the production of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl... Oh wait, maybe you wouldn't remember it -- because it existed only in the deepest realms of mega-movie-geekery. Much of the skepticism and dismissive chit-chat came from the fact that the movie was based on an amusement park ride ... but the astute movie nuts knew what the problem was:
There hadn't been a good pirate movie in about three decades, and we had no reason to think that trend was about to be bucked. I know what I'm talking about, because I was one of the hand-wringers, one of the oh-so-brilliant movie nerds who knew that any sort of pirate movie was doomed from the word go. (Needless to say, in the case of The Black Pearl, I was dead wrong, and I was extremely thrilled to admit how wrong I was.)
So with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest only a few days away (and AWESOME!), I thought it might be fun to dredge back over the past few decades and dig up some of the gold-plated mega-turkeys that managed to keep the pirate genre buried at sea.
Jack Black has always been known for his musical side and rocker persona, so it's appropriate to see The School of Rock and High Fidelity voted up as his two strongest films to date. That said, I'm a bit surprised that Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny was ranked as high as it was, considering that it was pretty poorly received (I still haven't seen it). The remaining titles in the top 5, as voted by the readers of Film Junk, are Tropic Thunder and Be Kind Rewind. Does that sound right to you? By the way, I didn't realize Saving Silverman had quite so many fans. Would it have actually have made the top 5 if it had been included? I wonder...
1. The School of Rock -- 25.6%
2. High Fidelity -- 20.4%
3. Tropic Thunder -- 9.5%
4. Be Kind Rewind -- 8.8%
4. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny -- 8.8%
6. Kung Fu Panda -- 8.3%
7. Nacho Libre -- 7.5%
8. Orange County -- 5%
8. King Kong -- 5%
10. Margot at the Wedding -- 1%
In anticipation of The Fourth Kind/Paranormal Activity showdown, we present notable Hollywood...
One of the silliest pleasures of revisiting older films is seeing actors in small roles, back before you had any idea who they were. Sometimes it's the only reason to watch something over again -- after all, why else would you rent 1990's Tales From the Darkside: The Movie if not to giggle at Julianne Moore being terrorized by a mummy controlled by Steve Buscemi, or pick up Leprechaun other than to mock the performance of the young Jennifer Aniston?
Reprinted from July '06