Finally explained to us in 101 English so we can all learn from this very important day.

There’s no mention of Torque in this list so I almost want to immediately cry “fail,” but there are some seriously great moments in this list that are a little more than just the obvious. The list is put together by some insurance company, but whoever put it together at least did some amount of homework. I’m reposting here so don’t click away just yet.

Another glaring omission I can see if the motorcycle chase in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. What say you? Find anything particular smart in here or is there some big missed opportunities?

Over the course of film history, the motorcycle, be it a souped-up chopper or humble scooter, has become much more than a symbol of rebellion, sexual prowess, and freedom. Well, maybe the two-wheeled ride is still all of that. But, as you’ll see below, great motorcycle moments have appeared in movies other than so-called biker films.

10) Zed’s dead, baby!, Pulp Fiction (1994)
“It’s not a motorcycle, baby. It’s a chopper.” There’s nothing more stressful, after you’ve just escaped the dungeon of two sadists and narrowly avoided getting killed by the local crime boss, than trying to hurry up your wife so you both don’t miss a train. It’s enough to tear a couple apart and tears are inevitable. But a gentle word with a big hug goes a long way when two people love each other. Having a tricked out chopper ready to go doesn’t hurt either. No doubt these two will make that train. But what will they do with the chopper?

9) Buster Keaton’s motorcycle ride, Sherlock Jr. (1924)
Okay, so there are a few camera tricks here and there, but for most of this crazy montage, it’s just Buster Keaton riding, block after block, street after street, on the front handle bars of a policeman’s motorcycle with nobody in the driver’s seat. Keaton’s stunts prove that today’s CGI is for sissies. The final crash through the wall of the hideout probably put Keaton in the hospital. That said, it’s still incredibly funny. The soundtrack you hear in this clip is a new one created by The Clubfoot Orchestra.

Would you like to know more…?

Director: Léa Pool
Screenplay: Léa Pool, Patricia Kearns, Nancy Guerin
Producer: Ravida Din
MPAA Rating: G
Running time: 97 min.

(4.5/5)

As the closing credits rolled on Léa Pool’s excellent documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc., I was boiling with anger. I wasn’t angry with the corporations which use an ugly, deadly illness to grow their bottom line. I wasn’t even angry at the organizations that make it their directive to dispense millions of dollars for cancer research that has yet to yield any major breakthroughs. I was angry at myself that this “pinkwashing” (using cancer to sell goods and services) has been happening right in front of me, that I’ve seen it and even contributed to it and never considered the bigger questions. I blindly bought into the capitalist marketing machine that stands behind cancer research and never thought to make a stink about it because I, in some capacity, thought it great that companies were stepping up to the plate and helping the community at large by investing money and effort to try and save lives.

What a joke.

Based on Samantha King’s book which various sources note as being very academic in its approach to breast cancer philanthropy, Pool’s film takes a much more human and easily accessible approach to the subject. Questions on everything from where the money comes from to where it goes are addressed and Pool doesn’t shy away from the difficult questions. In some cases, we just don’t know the answers and it’s infuriating. How a disease that has been in the public eye since the 1940s with the Women’s Field Army for Cancer Control and for which various organizations have raised billions of dollars, still doesn’t have a cure… it’s staggering. There’s a good reason for this of course: money. It all comes down to money.

Would you like to know more…?

We’re going to spoil the shit out of Liam Neeson in The Grey this week. So I hope you’ve seen the film or don’t care about that sort of thing before listening. Right along with our “punch nature in the face” review, we’ve got a brand new top 5 list to go over that deals with manliness in cinema. Not entirely sure what that means to everyone out there, but Kurt and Andrew each give their take on the matter. A smaller watch list this week since we’re recording so close to last week’s episode, but there a bit in here to chew on for sure – including Kurt finally hitting up Joe Wright and his heavy melodrama, Atonement. That should be worth your price of admission right there. We’ve also brought back the homework assignment segment to the show and there may be rewards for those who complete their coursework, so be sure to listen for that. So sit back and enjoy the spirited festivities.

As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

Cinecast Episode 244 [ 2:14:05 | 92.07 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

 
 
Full show notes are under the seats…
Would you like to know more…?

Maybe it’s because it was thought that it wouldn’t pull in money at the box office due to Gibson’s slide in popularity or maybe it is just a sign of the times and the increase in home theater systems, but whatever the case, Mel Gibson’s latest R-rated action comedy Get the Gringo is coming straight to DirecTV before being released on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD and digital download. According to Reuters, DirecTV will premiere the film in HD on May 1, 2012 for $10.99. Get two friends together and you’ve easily saved the money it would cost to go to the theater – that, I’m guessing, will be the point that DirecTV will be trying to hit home in viewers.

The film was written by Gibson and his Apocalypto first assistant director Adrian Grunberg, who also helped write the screenplay. It’s an interesting move and the trailer (which you can watch below) looks like the film could go either way, but I tend to be a Gibson movie apologist, so I am sure I will check this out as soon as I can get it On Demand.

Chime in after watching the trailer below! What are you thoughts on the studio releasing the film in this manner?

Would you like to know more…?

I‘d immediately write this off as a piece of Direct-to-DVD trash (ala last years Tresspass), if it were not for Roger Donaldson at the helm. Like John Frankenheimer and Sidney Lumet before him, Donaldson (Thirteen Days, The Bank Job), tends to consistently make solid more-or-less-grounded genre efforts that stand above the usual array of hack-work polluting the action-thriller section. No he’s not quite as good as his similarly named (I often confuse the two!) contemporary Roger Mitchell (Changing Lanes, Enduring Love) but if you want yeoman’s work, Donaldson is your man.

Here a shaved headed Guy Pearce drops a Star-Chamber-esque service into the lap of every-man Nic Cage (as if!) following the maiming of his wife (January Jones) leaves her hospitalized (probably some irate X-men fan.) The faustian bargain: We’ll give you vigilante justice if you owe us an undisclosed favour down the road. Of course the favour down the road has Cage dodging the sliding rear wheels of a 6 tonne flatbed truck. Lots of intensely silly mayhem ensues. Seeking Justice looks to sit somewhere in the middle ground between modern vigilante fantasies; not as outright stupid as the similar Gerard Butler-vehicle, Law Abiding Citizen nor as talky or restrained as the Jodie Foster-vehicle The Brave One.

Of course, it will be worth watching this movie, when it drops into theatres March 16, just to get to this image:

Given that even the worst episode of the first season of Game of Thrones was better than most movies I saw last year, I felt compelled to post this. Having powered through all five of George R.R. Martin’s book during my recent overseas holiday (they’re awesome), it’s going to be interesting to see whether they have the money to convincingly bring to life all the battle scenes of the second book (which takes a huge step up from the first, action-wise). Assuming they pull it off though, we should be in for a pretty great year of TV.

Game of Thrones Season 2 kicks off on HBO on April 1st

Director: Daniel Monzón
Novel: Francisco Pérez Gandul
Screenplay: Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Daniel Monzón
Producers: Álvaro Augustín, Borja Pena, Emma Lustres Gómez, Juan Gordon
Starring: Carlos Bardem, Luis Tosar , Alberto Ammann, Marta Etura, Antonio Resines
Country of Origin: Spain
MPAA Rating: NR
Running time: 110 min.

(4.5/5)

Few films have the wherewithal to bring its audience into a pulse pounding situation in the opening minutes of a movie and then manage to keep that gripping intensity going full throttle throughout the entire running time of the picture without either going off the rails, so to speak, or becoming tedious or eye-rollingly obvious. Cell 211 has no problem with it and in fact, excels at it. Never once holding back any punches and keeping a relatively simple plot kicking and screaming with minor complications yet avoiding confusion while keeping the chaos is what makes Cell 211 one of the most excellently constructed action/thrillers I’ve seen in ages.

New prison guard Juan Oliver is starting his first day on the job just becoming acquainted with his co-workers and the basic procedures of working “on the inside” when a carefully constructed riot breaks loose and during the chaos renders Juan nearly unconscious. Unable to carry him and at first not realizing the extent of the turmoil the prison is about to fall under, the guards place Juan in an empty cell bed. Before they can figure out what to do next, they’re forced to flee the facility, leaving Juan behind as the prisoners quickly take over the compound. Juan is left to his own devices and cleverly convinces the prisoners he is one of them. Having now inadvertently become an undercover officer, he must remain undetected while gaining simultaneously gaining the trust of the prison population’s head figure, Malemadre. As more and more complications arise and clever plot turns unfold, this task is not as easy as it may at first appear and Juan is faced with several very unpleasant decisions.

Would you like to know more…?

A few years ago the CBC aired a documentary titled Love Hate & Propaganda which looked at the role that propaganda played in winning WWII. Picking up where that first left off, a new four part documentary titled Love Hate & Propaganda: The Cold War picks up at the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War and tracks the war right through to 1991 when President George W. Bush delivered a Christmas day speech acknowledging the end of the Cold War.

Tracking everything from the CIA’s involvement with the Italian elections to the slow fall of Communism power, Cold War provides insights into some of the most memorable moments of the cold war and the wins and losses on both sides. Everything from Russia’s lead in the space race to Nixon’s visit to Russia and the two leader’s fight over washing machines, these are the bits of history that we can now look upon with amused smirks but which marked some of the largest wins and losses of a war of ideologies fought with words and pictures.

Would you like to know more…?

Director: Michael Brandt
Screenplay: Michael Brandt & Derek Haas
Producers: Patrick Aiello, Ashok Amritraj, Andrew Deane, Derek Haas
Starring: Richard Gere, Topher Grace, Stephen Moyer, Martin Sheen
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 92 min.

(2/5)

It doesn’t happen often but sometimes you can just tell that something’s been in the works for a while. That’s the case with The Double. The directorial debut of writer Michael Brandt who often works with Derek Haas, the film is based on a script that the duo had originally sold to MGM and which they re-acquired when the studio went under. The script had sat on some MGM shelf for 10 years before the duo rescued the rights and set off to make their film.

Set in the world of espionage and double agents, Richard Gere stars as Paul Shepherdson, a retired CIA operative brought back into the fold when Cassius, a Soviet assassin he chased around the world, re-appears after years of being inactive. As per usual with this sort of fare, Gere is partnered up with a book smart FBI agent who literally wrote the book on Cassius. Ben Geary (Topher Grace) is smart and determined and when he gets a little too close to revealing the truth, that Shepherdson is actually Cassius, he’s pushed off course and even threatened.

“OMG! You just revealed a key plot point!” It may look like this is the key element to the story but it’s revealed early on in the film not to mention the little fact that it’s in the trailer. This leads to The Double’s major problem. Once they give you that tidbit of information, what’s left to reveal? The information comes so early that it’s obvious that there is some other key point that they’re holding back and when it too is revealed, too late in the story to be of any importance, it’s dropped as passing nugget that doesn’t play into anything that’s come before; it’s a failed “Gotcha!” moment and a missed opportunity because the implications of what’s revealed would have made a much better premise for a movie.

Would you like to know more…?

An oddly compelling reason to never buy a Honda, but also an interesting commentary on how our ‘hero’ has gone from a stolen 1961 Ferrari to a leased 2012 CRV. Superbowl, I hate you even more than usual. I’m off to palette cleanse on the real Ferris Too, Alexander Payne’s Election (The last time Matthew Broderick didn’t phone it in.)

I admit I’m biased (but I love this!):

Shooting the MGM Opening Logo:

Would you like to know more…?