Posts Tagged ‘Josh Brolin’

  • 12 Dec

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    Trailer: Men in Black (Cubed)

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    By the time you get up to the second sequel or more, you either have to go to Europe or go back in time. It appears that Men In Black 3 has chosen the latter route. The wacky-deadpan tone of things, the signature of the series, can easily support such an easy choice; as evidenced by Josh Brolin playing a young Tommy Lee Jones in the 1960s. Does anyone have any loyalty to this franchise, or is a 3rd go-around with wacky aliens, shiny weaponry and crisp G-men suits one too many? Or in MiB speak: “Is this old and busted or new hotness?”

    The trailer is tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 15 Dec

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    Review: True Grit (2010)

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    Director: Joel and Ethan Coen (Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, A Serious Man)
    Novel: Charles Portis
    Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen
    Producers: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Scott Rudin
    Starring: Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper
    MPAA Rating: R
    Running time: 110 min.

    (3.5/5)

    Tough to go any extended length of time knowing that a Coen Brothers film is right around the corner. It is an event for most cinephiles and everything else just seems to pale in comparison with the expectations and anticipation felt by movie goers everywhere. So finally the day comes and we rush to the theater with excitement. Is it worth the wait? The short answer is yes. True Grit has all of the trappings of a Coen Brothers picture; complete with antiquated, yet somehow goofy dialogue, fabulous casting, a fun storyline (often having to do with a satchel of money or some sort of “on the run” scenario) and of course Roger Deakins. Yes, this is a worthy trip to the multi-plex this holiday season. But there are some reservations.

    It must be understood that this is not a remake of a film of the same name produced in 1968 and starring the late, great John Wayne. No, this is the Coens’ own interpretation of the novel. That said, having seen the 1968 version, one would find it difficult to not compare the two as they’re both extremely similar on many levels – neither of them deviating much from the screenplay-like dialogue of the book. So I’ll get this out of the way first: overall, I like the original version of the film better. It’s arguably not fair to compare the two movies and one should let this product stand on its own. But again, that’s difficult to do with the previous version so fresh in the mind and if I were letting it stand on its own I’d say its certainly a lesser entry into the repertoire of Joel and Ethan.
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 05 Oct

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    True Grit Poster

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    Let us continue with our love fest of the Coen’s and True Grit. Here is the fresh off the printer one sheet.

    True Grit
  • 30 Sep

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    Cinecast Episode 184 – Death Lottery

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    The 4 hour barrier is broken as The Documentary Blog’s Jay Cheel joins Kurt and Andrew on the longest Cinecast ever – you know it is even longer than the previous epic length TIFF show. What do we talk about? For starters, Kurt & Jay examine the Let The Right One In remake, Let Me In (*SPOILERS*), in painstaking detail, and how not to process American remakes of foreign language films. Next we move along for a solid hour on Never Let Me Go (*SPOILERS*) which keeps going on the vibe of comparing source material to eventual film adaptation and why you probably should not do that. More Carey Mulligan talk as Andrew skims and sums up Wall Street 2 with out spoilers. Then, a spoiler-free discussion on Catfish follows, although only Jay caught it, so it is more of a discussion on fake/faux-Documentaries, and ‘narrative-ethics’ which leads to more more talk on I’m Still Here, with a little Last Exorcism and The Blair Witch Project to round things out. Next we move along to the avant garde and barely-narrative Cannes Palme D’Or winner, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, and a lot of other films we watched: An overview of the “Middletown” documentary series, a bit of Daybreakers-Redux, a bit of Season 6 of “LOST” (you guessed it, with *SPOILERS*), and more avant garde cinema with Last Year At Marienbad. We also debate the finer points of Steve Buscemi and the cast and crew of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.” Finally (finally!) at around the 4 hour mark, our DVD picks round out a show that carried us well into the wee hours of the night recording. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoyed chatting. It may be long, but it is a solid and whip-smart show this time around, although we are biased on that front.

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

     
     

    Cinecast Episode 184 [ 4:20:01 | 148.78 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup
    To download the show directly, paste the following URL into your favorite downloader:
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_184.mp3

    ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_184-alt.mp3

     
    Full show notes are under the seats…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 23 Jun

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    Cinecast Episode 172 – pixaR

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    So sedate you could get a lullaby out its dulcet tones, this episode of the Cinecast has the podcasting players considering death and slavery and obsolescence (and Easter Eggs) in the wake of Toy Story 3. (*SPOILERS*) Gamble comes up with his best idea yet: A hard “R” Pixar animated film. The debate ensues whether it should be an adaptation (Watership Down or Animal Farm?) or a straight up original War film a la CatShit1. I hope Emeryville is listening. Jonah Hex is thrown to the wolves – particularly for wasting such an interesting supporting cast. James Mangold’s star vehicle Knight and Day is previewed as being a fun popcorn flick with a saggy final act. Also Day & Night, the Pixar short, (but not Day For Night the Truffaut film or the Curitz film Day and Night or terrorist bombing flick Day Night Day Night) is talked about, confused yet? Andrew takes back his love for Public Enemies and lavishes it instead on Soderbergh & Damon’s pontificating corporate shlub in The Informant. He is diggin naked running men and gory kills from the natives in the Criterion release of Naked Prey. Kurt finally finds a fairly consistent stretch of Lost (Season 3.5 *SPOILERS*) and is in danger of flirting with satisfaction in the show which is eating up ridiculous amounts of his time. Finally, we attempt reader mail to mixed results.

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

    Cinecast Episode 172 [ 1:51:41 | 76.69 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup



    To download the show directly, paste the following URL into your favorite downloader:
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_172.mp3

    ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_172-alt.mp3

     
     
     
    Full show notes are under the seats…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 03 Dec

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    Bookmarks for December 3rd

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    Mammoth
    • On Pixar and Finding Nemo: Teamwork, Friendship and Egalitarian Dictatorships
      “In the world of classic Disney animation, opposites commonly attract each other in a romantic way. That’s the core of the chemistry in Disney films from “Cinderella” to “The Little Mermaid” or “Aladdin.” In the world of Pixar, opposites like Marlin and Dory attract in a platonic way, as seemingly mismatched friends who have very different but very complimentary skills, and though “Finding Nemo” is ultimately a story about fathers and sons, the film’s most emotionally devastating moments are the ones that test the bonds between great friends.”
    • Coen’s True Grit to Shoot in Austin
      The deets: Release Date – 2011; cast – Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin; the story – a reboot of John Wayne’s 1969 western.
    • P.T. Anderson’s latest film is in the very early stages and at this point, it sounds like an interesting update of John Huston’s Wise Blood
      “A period drama to star Philip Seymour Hoffman as a founder of a new religious organization in the 1950s. [..] Hoffman, who has played supporting roles in most of Anderson’s past films, this time will be at the center, playing “the Master,” as in “master of ceremonies,” a charismatic intellectual who hatches a faith-based organization that begins to catch on in America in 1952. The core is the relationship between the Master and Freddie, a twentysomething drifter who becomes the leader’s lieutenant. As the faith begins to gain a fervent following, Freddie finds himself questioning the belief system he has embraced, and his mentor.”
    • Lukas Moodysson’s Mammoth Undertaking
      “I felt this was a meditative film rather than an angry film, so I was surprised by the controversy because I thought it was smooth and warm. You never really know what kind of film you’ve made until it’s finished.”
    • Totally Recalled: Your Fave ’90s Sci-Fi Flicks
      After Wired released its 50 greatest sci-fi flicks of all time, many readers cried foul and so we’ve put together a list of (not) forgotten sci-fi from the 90s
  • 11 Aug

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    Shorts Program: WORLD CINEMA

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    WorldCinema

    T this is one of those twitter things. Rope of Silicon by way of Anne Thompson by way of Scanners Blog via filmmaker Baris Azman who posted the link to the Coen Brothers’ contribution to the short film anthology Chacun son cinéma made specifically for Cannes a couple of years ago which is now up on Youtube. Curiously, this short (along with the David Lynch one, here) was left off the eventual DVD release. But it is freely available for the time being. Joy!

    It’s only a couple minutes long, and essentially Llewelyn Moss (although he is named Dan here) walking randomly into a repertory cinema and deciding whether or not to watch Jean Renoir‘s Rules of the Game or Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s Climates (FYI, my review of Climates here).

  • 25 Apr

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    Ever Closer to a Goonies Sequel

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    Goonies reuion 2001It’s been rumored for years and years: Steven Spielberg is going to continue the adventures of our favorite childhood mentors, The Goonies. A script was complete about ten years ago and Donner was going to begin shooting. Then a couple of years back there was supposedly going to be an animated series for which Data and Chunk (don’t know their real names) were approached to lend their talents with some voice work. I don’t know if this ever panned out or not (anyone? Bueller?).

    Personally I don’t ever see a live-action feature sequel happening, but I have no reason to believe that other than it seems to me that the story was already told, the kids are older than dirt now and Spielberg probably has better things to work with sitting on his proverbial plate. BUT…

    Yesterday on Corey Feldman’s blog (that’s right, I frequent Feldman’s personal site – what of it?) he talked about how much fun it was to reunite with the original cast members again (including Spielberg and Richard Donner) and how they did this big video interview for Empire Magazine’s 20th Anniversary issue. But he also dropped little hints about the cast’s hope for the franchise’ future and “hopefully it is just the start of more good Goonie things to come.”

    So then I head over to the Empire site and find a contest in which readers give their original idea of what a Goonies sequel story might be, in order to win a Goonies poster signed by the entire cast.

    And many in the internet rumor mill believe that Spielberg is using this event as a starting point to announce some major news/secret. He is guest-editing a big chunk of the Empire magazine anniversary issue, so there is hope there.

    None of this really adds up to a hill of beans; but still there is some smoke there to suggest that the prospect of a Goonies sequel isn’t comletely out of the realm of possibility. Hey, I suppose we can have hope.

  • 29 Jul

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    Terminator Salvation Comic-Con Panel Video

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    I‘ve talked at length at the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the upcoming Terminator Salvation will not only be good, but perhaps manage to restart the franchise. Then I got a little excited about the teaser trailer and now, the folks at IFC have edited together a good chunk of the panel discussion from SDCC. It’s an interesting watch and I’m particularly impressed by Anton Yelchin’s serious approach to the material and how well McG works the room. This guy is a charmer.

    Thanks to /Film for the linkage.

  • 27 Jul

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    Oliver Stone’s W. Trailer

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    A little while back, Jonathan posted the first image of Josh Brolin as President Bush. It’s safe to say that that magazine cover caused as much controversy as the announcement that button pushing Oliver Stone was behind the film about the currently US president.

    I’m tempted to think that this has disaster in the making written all over it. To begin with the film is about a president that isn’t only still alive, he’s still in power. To make matters worse, Stone hasn’t exactly been on a roll with his last few films. There’s a lot at stake here and frankly, this trailer doesn’t suggest that we’re in for anything more than initially expected: a collection of potshots at the current president. I have my issues with Bush but I’m not sure this is the best approach to the situation and though it could be fun to watch and I haven’t lost complete faith in Stone, this trailer doesn’t do anything for me.

    W. opens on October 17th.

  • 16 Jul

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    Terminator Salvation Teaser ONLINE!

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    A few weeks back I mused as to whether the upcoming Terminator Salvation film could reboot the franchise. I was hopeful but not completely sold and though the teaser for the new film is now online and looking pretty decent, I’m still not sold.

    The trailer is heavily reminiscent of the trailer for Cloverfield – shaky cam, looks like it’s cut together from handheld footage, destruction everywhere – and I was about to moan about how it was cut together from B-roll footage since we don’t get to see any of the stars but lo-and-behold, there pops Christian Bale. It’s only for a second but he’s in there.

    I’m sold.

    UPDATED with working, good quality trailer!

  • 04 Jul

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    Could A New Terminator Restart the Franchise?

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    TerminatorI recently caught the last 20 minutes of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines on TV and I was surprised by how watchable it was. The film was widely panned when it was released a few years back and I remember why, mostly because they were the same complaints I had with the film: too over the top, the effects weren’t as cutting edge as those of the previous two films but for me, the biggest drawback was that I simply didn’t buy into the characters. A surprising turn considering I like both Nick Stahl and Claire Danes and watching only the ending of the film, I was surprised by their good performances unfortunately, combined with the rest of the package, it made for a forgettable film.

    I’m not much of a fan of director McG so when news arose that the series was in line for a reboot titled Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, I simply didn’t care but over the last few months the production has added a number of pretty big players, most of them good actors, which leads me to think that perhaps this reboot idea isn’t quite so bad.

    Confirmed cast include Christian Bale, Anton Yelchin, Sam Worthington (who I really liked in Somersault (our review)), Moon Bloodgood (one of the few good things of Pathfinder), Bryce Dallas Howard and Josh Brolin is rumored to be in talks to star as the terminator. If that’s not impressive enough, news now is that Helena Bonham Carter is also in talks to star.

    Could it possibly be that writer John D. Brancato has finally written a good script? Looking at his credit list, nothing, and I mean nothing, stands out as being even entertaining, never mind actually good. But with such big names signing on, I’m willing to assume that they’ve peeked the script and are happy with what they see.

    I don’t think the franchise really needs a reboot, mostly it just needs to be left alone, but it’s an interesting universe for telling stories and it looks like this one will be looking at the origins of the battle between humans and Skynet with John Connor leading the rebellion against the world’s mechanized occupants.

    I’m still not completely sold but do admit that I’m curious to see the final line-up and if they manage to improve on number three. At this point, I think it’s useless to even hope for meeting the greatness of the first two films in the franchise though I’m always open to surprise.