Terrence Malick doesn’t do many films, but when he does, he sure knows how to assemble and all-star cast. The guy must be great to work with because he seems to be able to get any A-lister he wants. For his next film, which is being kept uber-secret, but is believed to be a romantic drama, he has enlisted the services of Ben Affleck and Rachel Weisz, who join Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and Olga Kurylenko. Affleck will replace the previously cast Christian Bale. Supposedly, he’s already finished with THE TREE OF LIFE, but no one knows when that will hit theaters.
Malick takes a lot of time between films and I loved THE THIN RED LINE, but THE NEW WORLD left a lot to be desired. I like the idea of an ensemble romantic drama done properly, so we’ll see what he adds to it. I am disappointed that Christian Bale dropped out. He’s done so many dramas and action films lately that it’d be nice to see him in a different type of role.
According to a candid interview with Michael Caine, the third Batman film is going to start filming in April of 2011. Okay, before I even continue, I want to correct that; this is not the third Batman film, it will actually be the 7th, or 8th if you count the one from the 60’s. But this will be the third Batman film from Christopher Nolan. But anyway, although we knew Nolan was back in the saddle and hard at work on a script, we didn’t have confirmation until now that production was actually going to start.
But I remember Gary Oldman dropping something like this several months ago, so you can’t really trust what actors say. I don’t think anyone doubts the movie is going to happen, but whether or not April is the official start date is not yet confirmed by anyone other than Michael Caine. But this would jive with the report that the film is being released on July 3rd, 2012.
Warner Bros. Pictures has announced a release date for the next Batman Movie on July 20, 2012 with an IMAX treatment. What’s interesting about this date is it’s just two weeks after Sony Pictures plans to release their SPIDERMAN reboot, July 3, 2012.
I’m guessing the powers that be aren’t too worried about little old Spidey after the success of THE DARK KNIGHT. You might remember it, it was the one that broke most of the records that were held by TITANIC more than 10 years before it until James Cameron followed up with AVATAR last year and destroyed them all. Christian Bale will return as the masked vigilante and Chirstopher Nolan is set to direct. Nolan definitely keeps himself busy just finishing INCEPTION with Leonardo DiCaprio, which will be released this summer.
Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko have agreed to star in Terrence Malick’s next film. Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about the film and in typical Malick fashion, he’s keeping the premise under wraps. All we know right now is that it’s a romantic drama.
Terrence Malick is a bit of a quirky director and is known for difficult shoots. I thought THE THIN RED LINE was brilliant, but then I thought A NEW WORLD left a lot to be desired. It will be interesting to see him tackle romance and he definitely has the cast to pull this one off. His next film is the upcoming THE TREE OF LIFE, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. I assume Christian Bale wasn’t available.
The Great Depression has ended and J. Edgar Hoover, performed commandingly by Billy Crudup, is creating a group of G-Men headed by Christian Bale’s strong Melvin Pervis to crack down on high crime. Public Enemy number one is John Dillinger, played with subtle finesse and charm by Johnny Depp, who robs banks in his own public friendly way.
Bland Bland Bland! Why, oh why? This hurts because I was so looking forward to this film. Christian Bale and Johnny Depp are fantastic!!! Director Michael Mann is brilliant. Throw in one of the most beautiful time periods in history, with fancy clothes, fedoras and Tommy guns and a story dealing with gangsters and you can’t miss. I’m getting excited from my own description but then I remember I’m describing the movie I just saw and it’s NOT EXCITING AT ALL! Look, Public Enemies isn’t horrible it’s just not as great as it should be. Public Enemies does look great, as should a 1930’s gangster flick but Michael Mann has recently lost that little bit of heart that makes one fall in love with his films. His hand held camera style is ok at times but the pacing of the film is way too slow. A big stand out was Stephen Lang as Charles Winstead, a hard edge officer Pervis recruits from Texas who actually has experience being a lawman and using a weapon. He wasn’t given much of a back-story but as a more voice of reason without saying much he seemed to electrify a scene with energy.
The energy seemed to be sucked dry as soon as the love story would come into play. The film could have easily cut much or all of the love interest. Dillinger’s random feelings for Billie Frechette, played by a newly English speaking Marion Cotilliard, simply were neither interesting nor original in any form. I felt like it got in the way of the story of this criminal robbing banks. I was on board during some of the action, however, did not care for Dillinger much either. I’m sort of torn, because I like that for once they didn’t glorify a criminal and try to make us care for him but was that on purpose or by accident? I personally didn’t care about him, nor did I think he was that interesting other than the fact that Johnny Depp played him and he dressed well. Anyone can dress well, but not many of us can be Johnny Depp.
Dillinger didn’t come across as a good man or necessarily an evil man. He simply was a pretty average criminal. The problem with him being ordinary is that he was uninteresting and I don’t really care about seeing a movie about an uninteresting bank robber. His ability to rob banks and escape from prison wasn’t so much impressive on his part but depressing by our legal department during this time. I found the more interesting part of this story about J. Edgar Hoover and Melvin Pervis attempting to change that. Sadly they were not given as much detail or space in the film and instead we get a good-looking picture that is mildly interesting that lacks energy.
Many of the movie fans I’ve met throughout my life attribute their love of film to Mr. Spielberg. The…ahem…older movie fans usually bring up the magic of E.T., the intensity of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND or the adventure of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. The man has made some of the greatest movies of all time and it’s easy to find inspiration in just about every film he makes. I also give credit to the Bearded One for inspiring my love of film, but the movie that had the biggest impact on me was not a summer blockbuster or an Oscar winner, but a film that has slipped through the cracks of the ever impressive Spielberg resume: EMPIRE OF THE SUN.
The film follows the story of Jim (Christian Bale, in his debut performance) as he becomes imprisoned in a Japanese war camp during WWII. Jim is a spoiled, rich, British kid whose parents are working in Japan during the war. When the war kicks off, there’s a mass evacuation and Jim gets separated from his parents. Jim is helped in this endeavor by the always great John Malkovich (Basie), who takes him in (kind of) and teaches him some hard life lessons. Jim soon realizes he’s being taken advantage of, but that realization is part of his growth. When the movie is finished, try to remember that the boy you see at the end of the movie was the same boy you saw in the beginning. The transformation is remarkable and it’s told so well, you barely even realize it. This is where I realized Christian Bale was a remarkable actor and it’s sad that most people didn’t realize that until they saw BATMAN BEGINS about two decades later.
The film is loosely based off the real life events of the recently deceased J.G. Ballard. I wonder if he was tempted to skew the plight of Jim in any way. The remarkable thing about the film is that there is no drastic change in Jim. We don’t see him curl up in a corner and cry for 30 minutes because he lost his family. Likewise, we don’t see him become Superman and save the world. There’s always a delicate balance as Spielberg lets the camera do the storytelling and the audience is treated with enjoyment of watching young Jim become a man. He literally goes from a character we don’t really like to a character we’re cheering for in about two hours.
EMPIRE OF THE SUN is one of my all time favorite films. I remember watching it for the first time as an 11 year-old boy and being entranced with it. The themes and messages were lost on me, but I knew I was watching something special. When I revisited it again many years later, I was amazed that the movie was just as powerful almost 20 years later. If you haven’t given the film a chance, then I highly recommend going back and letting Mr. Spielberg impress you yet again.
In 2018, after Skynet has nearly destroyed humanity, John Connor (Christian Bale) must lead what is left of a human resistance to stop the machines before they terminate all of man kind.
Anton Yelchin is pulling double duty after staring in both STAR TREK and TERMINATOR SALVATION, which opened within weeks of each other this past summer. He does an okay job as a young Kyle Reese and in case you didn’t know, he becomes the stud that Michael Biehn creates of him in the original. However, the real stand out is Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, who is a man who discovers himself in this time period with his last memory being in a jail cell on death row. He is a dynamic actor who held a commanding presence on the big screen and that’s no small feat when stacked against Christian Bale. Wright is just a more interesting character than Connor is in this film. Don’t get me wrong, Bale does a fine job as Connor especially in the opening scene, but without the other films his presence seems far less relevant. Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor is absolutely wasted here. I honestly didn’t understand why she was in the film and I have to believe most of her material ended up on the cutting room floor. I think she is a fantastic actress and was totally underutilized. That goes for Common as well, who played Barnes, Connor’s number one soldier. I didn’t even notice he was in the film until after I saw his name on the credits.
I’m not sure if this was the filmmakers’ intention, but the previews give away a key element that might have been a nice surprise for a character arc. However, the way the previews are set and the way the story is told it is quite obvious. I have a major problem with a specific character’s action in the film. It didn’t seem plausible in any sort of way. A character is saved by a machine that seems human, she then risks her life and everyone and the human race to rescue it. I’m fully aware that people do stupid things but that did not make sense at all. The friends and people that have kept her alive through this end time crisis are suddenly not near as important as this new half man, half machine that she has known for 24 hours.
The implausibility continues when T4 takes a very Bond-like turn and we see the evil villain divulge the evil plan before he finishes off the “good guy”. This got old in the Bond films, but here it’s a little ridiculous because the evil villain is an emotionless machine. The Bond villains did it out of pride and ego, but machines lack those human traits. A machine would choose the most logical path and this proved to be another misstep in a movie filled with them.
Where the film lacked in emotion, dialogue and story it strengthened in its action and visuals. The story wasn’t horrible because it already had blueprints made from the originals. The action was the true star of the film and that is where director McG excelled. The sound and visuals were extremely gripping. Sadly, those come in the opening scene and then again about half way through, and then are never matched again. These scenes are what made me enjoy TERMINATOR SALVATION. There is one shot at the beginning where Connor jumps into a helicopter that flies away, spins around and wrecks in what seems to be one continuous shot. It looks absolutely amazing! I actually wanted more and at that half way point I thought to myself; this movie is really working. Unfortunately, that momentum did not continue into the second half. I think the movie works on a sci-fi channel level. Maybe it should have its own series (ala Sarah Connor Chronicles) about the post apocalyptic time period, but I really hope the next big budget feature of this series gets terminated.
You can’t go out and party every weekend, so on those nights you want to take it easy, Flix66.com has put together a bi-weekly column to help you with your movie selection. The Trifecta is a recommendation of three movies that set a mood, that showcase an actor or director, that acquaint the viewer with a geographic location, or maybe even have some obscure link like a Best Boy or Key Grip.
In the flick HIGH FIDELITY, Jack Black’s character Barry puts together a mix tape of best songs to start off a Monday morning. The first song, track one side one, is Katrina and the Waves’ “Walkin’ on Sunshine,” an upbeat 80’s tune we have all heard before. And why? Because it was used in more than its fair share of 80’s movies and TV shows. And while there are other songs that encapsulate the trials and tribulations of this bygone era (I’m partial to the German version of Nena’s “99 Luft Balloons”), a nostalgic trifecta for a night of remembering Reagan and denim jean jackets should include the following films that use “Walking on Sunshine” to express the jovial tone we all tried to hold on to, while we all secretly feared the Cold War spilling over into a RED DAWN-like invasion.
The 1987 film THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS was a non-TEEN WOLF Cinderella story of Michael J. Fox playing a kid from Kansas who wants to make it big in the corporate world of Manhattan. You can tell its Manhattan from the stock shots of the crowded streets and the jokes they do about small apartments. Fox plays Brantley Foster, who thinks he can walk in and just take over a company, but finds it’ll take a little inter-office trickery, a case of stolen identity, and a tryst with the boss’/uncle’s wife to make it in 1980’s corporate America. The song is played during one of Fox’s quick changes from his mailroom clothes into his suits to transfer from Brantley to his corporate alter ego, Carlton Winfield, changes which take place in his office or in the office elevator. But the song works well to push the upbeat tone that the film needs to keep the laughs coming. The picture also uses the other 80’s staple “Oh Yeah” by Yello for a seduction scene between Brantley and his aunt, which is not as odd as it sounds…though, yes, it does sound pretty odd.
As ridiculous as we think the movie is now, when LOOK WHO’S TALKING came out back in 1989, it grossed $297 million and brought John Travolta into comedy…for which, of course, the sequels killed him. But the formula worked. You get Kristie Alley with Travolta and mix in a cute baby with Bruce Willis’ voice, that’s a recipe for putting rears in seats….back in 1989. As Travolta’s character, James, develops a rapport with the baby, the film shows a montage of James and baby Mikey playing with stuffed animals and laughing and giggling in cute baby ways to the song “Walking on Sunshine.” Of course the baby loves the cool cab driver and uses his charms to convince his mom to do the same, though she prefers men of a higher tax bracket. It’s a tale that warms the heart, until you realize they made two sequels, one of which had talking dogs. The director of the first, Amy Heckerling, is perhaps best known for her 1982 film FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, which should make all of us envision how the tone of LOOK WHO’S TALKING would have changed if she had Sean Penn’s Spiccoli doing the voice. Think about it…Comedy gold.
The last pic of the night is not actually an 80’s movie but takes place in the 80’s and puts a twist on the era’s depiction of the Wall Street executive that Oliver Stone never envisioned. AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000) starred Christian Bale as an investment banking executive in full Gordon Gecko fashion but with the twist of a hidden pastime of killing and torturing people. The director, Mary Harron, depicts Bale’s Patrick Bateman as vain to a psychopathic fault; the vanity represented in his application of male beauty products and his competitive nature with his fellow Wall Street types, and the psychosis represented by things as subtle as a chainsaw murder. The film uses a panoply of 80’s songs to sell the time frame of the action, including our pick from Katrina and the Waves, but also including David Bowie, The Cure and Huey Lewis and the News. But don’t let the upbeat music fool you. This is a disturbing story…more disturbing than Michael J. Fox having sex with his aunt.
Length of Trifecta: 305 minutes
And if you still haven’t had enough, check out the original music video below:
For a critic, it’s best to watch a film, write your review, then research and read other reviews about the film. Changing that sequence of events in any way will negatively impact your review. However, sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you start to hear things about a film before you can see it or write your review and fighting the external influences can be a rather daunting task. Such is the case with me and THE DARK KNIGHT.
I liked the film, I really did. It hits on all cylinders and is just a good time. But I don’t consider it the best film ever made, or even the best superhero film ever made. But regardless of how much praise I throw on THE DARK KNIGHT, it never seems to be enough to some fans. The following and loyalty this film has inspired is amazing. Not since the TITANIC-tweens of 1997/98 has there been a group as supportive of a movie as fanboys are of THE DARK KNIGHT.
The plot is a little more complicated than Batman vs. Joker, but essentially, a new criminal (The Joker) is terrorizing Gotham and at the same time, a new hero (Harvey Dent) has emerged to battle the evil in the city. Batman (Christian Bale), meanwhile, is busy fighting crime, but he’s also looking for a way to hang up the bat suit for good. After all, who wants to run around town every night in the same outfit? Of course, nothing is as easy as it should be and The Joker’s influence spreads chaos around the city and like every good politician, Dent is attacked and eventually becomes Two Face.
I think the basic story is pretty well told. It’s also something we’ve seen before in the earlier Batman films. Remember; this is the sixth Batman film we’ve seen in the last 20 years, and it offers nothing new in terms of characters and plot. What Nolan does better than every previous incarnation is ground the story in reality and show the impact a superhero and villain has on the society in which they thrive. Batman and The Joker act as each others Yin and Yang.
The performances are really where the meat of the film lies. Nolan has assembled an extremely talented cast and everyone brings their A-game to this film. There was a lot of hoopla surrounding Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes, but I don’t think she did any better. The sad truth is that the character is never given an opportunity (probably for the best) to be anything more than a source of misery for Bruce Wayne. As great as Ledger’s performance was, I thought the brightest spot was Aaron Eckhart, who has yet to give a bad performance in his career, except maybe for PAYCHECK…
So what was wrong with the film? Nothing really. It was as good as it could have possibly been. The second part in a superhero franchise is almost always the best because it’s where you bring in your best villain and you don’t have to waste time setting up your characters. The odds were stack in favor of SUPERMAN II, SPIDER-MAN 2, X2 and THE DARK KNIGHT, all of which rank among the best superhero movies ever. Now the third one…that’s a different story.
Finding diamonds in the rough is a wonderful feeling, but in order to do so, you usually have to watch a lot of bad movies. Flix66.com takes the pain away by recommending a movie that you may have never heard of, or missed when it first came out.
Many of the movie fans I’ve met throughout my life attribute their love of film to Mr. Spielberg. The…ahem…older movie fans usually bring up the magic of E.T., the intensity of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND or the adventure of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. The man has made some of the greatest movies of all time and it’s easy to find inspiration in just about every film he makes. I also give credit to the Bearded One for inspiring my love of film, but the movie that had the biggest impact on me was not a summer blockbuster or an Oscar winner, but a film that has slipped through the cracks of the ever impressive Spielberg resume: EMPIRE OF THE SUN.
The film follows the story of Jim (Christian Bale, in his debut performance) as he becomes imprisoned in a Japanese war camp during WWII. Jim is a spoiled, rich, British kid whose parents are working in Japan during the war. When the war kicks off, there’s a mass evacuation and Jim gets separated from his parents. Jim is helped in this endeavor by the always great John Malkovich (Basie), who takes him in (kind of) and teaches him some hard life lessons. Jim soon realizes he’s being taken advantage of, but that realization is part of his growth. When the movie is finished, try to remember that the boy you see at the end of the movie was the same boy you saw in the beginning. The transformation is remarkable and it’s told so well, you barely even realize it. This is where I realized Christian Bale was a remarkable actor and it’s sad that most people didn’t realize that until they saw BATMAN BEGINS about two decades later.
The film is loosely based off the real life events of the recently deceased J.G. Ballard. I wonder if he was tempted to skew the plight of Jim in any way. The remarkable thing about the film is that there is no drastic change in Jim. We don’t see him curl up in a corner and cry for 30 minutes because he lost his family. Likewise, we don’t see him become Superman and save the world. There’s always a delicate balance as Spielberg lets the camera do the storytelling and the audience is treated with enjoyment of watching young Jim become a man. He literally goes from a character we don’t really like to a character we’re cheering for in about two hours.
EMPIRE OF THE SUN is one of my all time favorite films. I remember watching it for the first time as an 11 year-old boy and being entranced with it. The themes and messages were lost on me, but I knew I was watching something special. When I revisited it again many years later, I was amazed that the movie was just as powerful almost 20 years later. If you haven’t given the film a chance, then I highly recommend going back and letting Mr. Spielberg impress you yet again.
