Posts Tagged ‘Mickey Rourke’

  • 17 Aug

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    Cinecast Episode 179 – CGI Blood

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    Gamble returns to bestow much love on Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (SPOILERS!) and naysay anyone else in the process. The discussion gets more confusing as you go along, brevity (or coherence) is not our strong suit, Andrew was significantly disappointed by the film and Kurt does what he can to remain aloof of the whole ‘fan-culture’ thing. The conversation eventually segues into video game experience (and that is a first on this show). Also on the docket, Sly Stallone’s retro-action picture The Expendables (SPOILERS!). There is a little Roman Polanski talk and Martha’s Vineyard Green-Screening in The Ghost Writer, a revisit of Vicky Christina Barcelona as well as mucho love for Sam Rockwell in Safe Men and Matchstick Men. To complete the ‘man quadrilogy’ there is also mention of Michael Douglas’ A Solitary Man and Jeff Daniels/Ryan Reynolds comedy Paper Man.

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

    Cinecast Episode 179 [ 2:47:20 | 117.35 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_179.mp3

    ALTERNATIVE (no music track):
    http://rowthree.com/audio/cinecast_10/episode_179-alt.mp3

     
     
     
    Full show notes are under the seats…
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  • 04 Jun

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    Newest “Expendables” Trailer has Got Nothing. Nothing But Badass.

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    So this trailer hit today. Not much here really. But even the snobs gotta recognize; if you grew up in the 80s or early 90s, this movie is the ultimate in fan nostalgia fantasy. I for one am stoked. No matter how bad it’s likely to be…

     

  • 13 May

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    Cinecast Episode 166 – A Heavy Maritime Layer

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    Please give a warm welcome to Dr. James Gillham from Wherethelongtailends.com for providing a counter to our generally favorable views of The Human Centipede (SPOILERS!) – and not always fun being the one guy in the room willing to defend Scarlett Johansson – obviously stemming from a quick review from Matt Gamble on the deep existentialism of Iron Man 2. We get back into the habit of tangenting away from the focus which usually leads to good things but here ultimately ends up going back to the Star Wars saga (yes, again). Retro Hot Docs titles are finally caught up with as well as some (un)decent exploitation films of years past and coming soon. Our DVD picks this week are fairly unanimous, but give way to a nice argument about fat Alec Baldwin vs. skinny Alec Baldwin. Enjoy with a smile.

    As always, feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!

    Cinecast Episode 166 [ 2:28:34 | 102.01 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_166.mp3

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

  • 25 Feb

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    Pinto Joins Tarsem Singh’s Dawn Of War

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    I was in a pretty small minority of people who really disliked Tarsem Singh’s The Fall when it was released limitedly in the summer of ’08. On the flip side but also in the minority, I’m a pretty big fan of his first film, The Cell, starring Jennifer Lopez. Wherever you might fall with Tarsem’s (he now prefers just the first name) pictures, it’s hard to argue his visual imagination, prowess and auteur aesthetics. Personally, I am enraptured by the visuals on screen in both films. They’re like Dali paintings in motion. So I have to say, though I’m not too fond of The Fall, I really really look forward to more from Tarsem. Particularly when that next sounds sort of like the version of Clash of the Titans that I want to see.

    The project is titled Dawn Of War in which ensues a battle of the evil and powerful elder Gods of the Titans against Theseus, a young warrior who leads men and immortal gods into battle in order to save mankind. All sort of interesting news to report on this one has been popping out of the woodwork over the past couple of days.

    First, the very lovely Frieda Pinto has been cast as Phaedra, an oracle priestess who joins Theseus on his journey and who eventually weds him. I haven’t seen Pinto since 2008′s Slumdog Millionaire, so it will be interesting (and easy on the eyes) to see her on screen again. She wasn’t given all that much to do in Slumdog so I’m anxious to see if she can pull off a little bit more of a challenging role.

    Next up is news that Mickey Rourke may be in negotiations to be cast as well as a for the part of King Hyperion, the ruler of Ancient Greece who does battle with the divines. After the short clips I’ve seen for the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie and the recent news that he’ll be playing Conan’s father in that franchise’s reboot, Rourke might indeed be the perfect fit for something like this.

    Last up is a bit of a touchy subject around here. Details are being hashed out as to whether or not the film should be looked at for the possibility of being shot in 3D. While I am an advocate for the demolishing of anymore 3D pictures (please God, squash the technology), even I have to admit that Tarsem’s surreal worlds and bountifully beautiful imagery would be the one director that could make a 3D film look absolutely outstanding – far more so than the overrated Avatar at the very least. So I’m kind of torn on this subject but time will tell if he and the studio go for it or not.

    The picture is slated to begin shooting in early April, so they’ll have to make up their minds pretty quick. Either way, we might get to see more of Tarsem’s gorgeous visions in about a year’s time. Already can’t wait!

  • 08 Dec

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    Remembering a Decade…2008

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    (prologue) As we can begin to hear the death rattle of the oughts, we in the third row decided to start on this continuing series throughout 2009 that will look back at our favorite films of each of the past ten years (2000-2009). This will ultimately culminate in a “ten best/favorites of the oughts” piece sometime in early 2010.

    Well, this is just about it. Until our annual best of the year list arrives in early January that will account for all of the greatness that was 2009, this is pretty much the end of the decade. As we’ve looked back over the past 10 years it’s been fun to reminisce, discuss, bicker and compare. While this was maybe the easiest year in this series for all of the contributors to come to a consensus on, we had a little bit of trouble deciding between which of two films should be our fifth title on this list and which should be left off. In the end we decided that there is no absolute “rule” that says we have to have just five movies when remembering a year. So for our final bit of nostalgia (until our culminated list of top ten of the decade arrives), we give you six films from last year that really took our breath away – or at least gave us something to think about and remember. These six titles are how we remember 2008 taking shape.

    manonwire-head09

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  • 13 Oct

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    The A-Team movie before the A-Team movie.

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    Expendables_still

    Sure, there is now an A-Team movie moving into production (with a quite reasonable cast even.) But, really, after seeing Sly Stallone and and friends, namely this being his dream team of 80s and early 90s action stars (minus Van Damme and Segal, but plus the duo of Jason Statham and Jet Li), there is no doubt that The Expendables is what the A-Team movie should pretty much be. Remember how Hollywood blockbusters often come in pairs? Here is your 2010 pair-up. I’m betting both will be will be quite entertaining goofiness.

    “Bring it, Happy Feet!”

    Trailer is tucked under the seat.

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  • 22 Sep

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    DVD Review: The Informers

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    TheInformersOneSheet

    Director: Gregor Jordan (Buffalo Soldiers, Ned Kelly)
    Screenplay: Bret Easton Ellis, Nicholas Jarecki
    Producer: Marco Weber
    Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Jon Foster, Amber Heard, Rhys Ifans, Chris Isaak, Austin Nichols, Lou Taylor Pucci, Mel Raido, Brad Renfro
    MPAA Rating: R
    Running time: 98 min.

    1.5/

    On the surface, The Informers appears to have everything going for it: great source material, a fantastic cast, a good director so what went wrong? The film, which premiered at Sundance earlier in the year, has been universally panned and for good reason too, it’s a mess of a film with no direction and nothing to say.

    TheInformersMovieStillBased on a collection of short stories from a man infatuated with the 1980s, Ellis’ original work from which the script was based is itself a mess; a collection which was put out as a gap filler for his (at the time) continuously delayed “Glamorama.” Frankly, Ellis’ work started getting old sometime after “American Psycho” and though I can appreciate his stories, he has mined his own themes to the point of obscenity.

    It’s difficult enough to adapt a film from one book but The Informers suggests that it may be impossible to create any semblance of a film from a collection of loosely tied short stories. Robert Altman may be able to pull it off but as much as I like director Gregor Jordan’s work, he’s no Altman and as they say, the proof is in the pudding.

    So what’s the film about? If you know anything about Ellis, your guess of “excess of the 80s and the me generation” is pretty accurate. The joy of watching adaptations of Ellis’ works is seeing how different filmmakers get at that theme but Jordan fails to do get at anything beyond the surface. The film is a mess of threads and ideas varying from complete disaster to mediocre. Add in the fact that the stories run their course interspersed between each other and it’s all that more confusing. There are simply too many characters and stories to keep track of and the film would have been better served by having each story told independently of the other. Heck, this would have made a great anthology film.

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  • 23 Apr

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    Cinecast Episode 119 – Mildly Harrowing

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    Episode 119:
    Kurt and Andrew sort of return to their roots with an epic, tangential episode full of off-topic subjects and deeper discussions… and Bill Pullman. Enjoy.
    P.S. The time tracks below might be off by just a few seconds. Deal with it.

    Click the Audio Icon below to listen in:

    Cinecast Episode 119 [ 0:01 | 72.66 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

    Below the fold are the Show Notes…
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  • 06 Apr

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    Rourke Kicks Wrestler Ass at Wrestlemania

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    So that title might be a tad misleading since the clip is all of a minute long and features Mickey Rourke just bouncing around for most of the 60 seconds with one swing at the end, but it does make for goofy fun entertainment.

    It had been rumoured that perhaps Rourke would make an appearance in the ring, something which was later changed to have him as a guest announcer or something of the sort but it was pretty clear even to me, only a mild wrestling fan, that Rourke would somehow make an entrance into the ring to duke it out with *someone* and lo-and-behold, it happened.

    During the event, which took place yesterday, Rourke did manage to climb into the ring to take on Chris Jericho and with one wobbly punch, tore down the snot nosed wrestler. No word on whether head honcho Vince McMahon will extend a reprise appearance invitation to Rourke but for sheer marketing/cross promoting genius, this is stellar marketing; not to mention a whole lot of fun to watch. Enjoy the smackdown.


  • 24 Feb

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    Cinecast Episode 113 – Hats, Canes and a Shiny New Penny

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    Episode 113:
    It’s the Academy Awards (almost) all the time. From the show itself to the winners; a complete recap. A new and interesting version of the top 5 and of course DVD picks.
    Thanks for listening.

    Click the Audio Icon below to listen in:

    Cinecast Episode 113 [ 2:13:00 | 60.89 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

    Below the fold are the Show Notes…
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  • 23 Feb

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    Andrew’s Oscar Recap

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    Penélope Cruz and her trophyPenélope Cruz wins. Is there anything else that matters? Not really, but let’s talk about it anyway. First of all, Hugh Jackman.

    Well, we really didn’t see much of the host this evening. But when he was on, he was charming, graceful and even-keeled. We didn’t get a whole lot of side-splitting jokes, but we did get plenty of singing and dancing numbers (which is to be expected from a previous Tony Awards Host). The dancing number that was performed single-handedly by Jackman (well, he had plenty of help from the props crew) was loads of fun, particularly The Reader portion of the dance. Whisking Anne Hathaway from her front row seat to help with the Frost/Nixon bit worked surprisingly well too (and Anne Hathaway can sing… well!). His second dance montage didn’t do much for me, but hey, you can’t hit it out of the park every time.

    Which leads to an interesting trend that I noticed throughout tonight’s telecast: picking on the nominated films no one saw and taking loving jabs at the Academy voters a bit for not nominating more popular films such as comedies or comic book movies. I think The Dark Knight was mentioned more than once throughout the evening in a baffled sort of way. I’m a bit surprised at the awards for taking those rips in stride. But I think main-stream watchers can appreciate this and that’s who the Oscars Presentation wants/needs to attract.

    Hugh Jackman hostsSo what better way to do that than with montages. You’re probably thinking, “yeah right, another montage of 150 black and white people, 90% of whom I’ve never even heard of.” No no no, the telecast this year had a little high octane for the guys, a little relationship/romance for the ladies and some stellar animation for the kiddies. I thought this was a nice touch and added a bit of fun for everyone to the evening. For the kids, several of the top animated films of the year had clips glued together to make for a superb fun and entertaining bit of action. And speaking of action, the editing together of several great action sequences of the year was really spectacular. It started with cars and racing and shifted gears quickly to guns and explosions, to fist fights and sword fights, top notch stunt work (i.e. falling) and ended on a high note of all the jumping cars from the year’s films (Speed Racer, Wanted, Bond, Death Race, TDK, etc. etc.). And all of this edited note for note and beat for beat with… some song that fit in well with the atmosphere.

    For laughs, we had James Franco and Seth Rogen doing a bit in their Pineapple Express characterizations. If you’re a fan of those characters, you got it. If not, maybe not so much. But Franco’s Pineapple character getting a little misty-eyed over his Best actor presentersMilk character and then getting a little too touchy/feely with Rogen was a highlight of the evening. Oh and @Ben Stiller: c’mon; that gag was already done at the Independent Spirit Awards the night before.

    How about the new format this year? I for one really liked the way the presentations were made for the acting categories. Seeing five of the older actors who had won Oscars (Shirley Maclaine, Michael Douglas) give a personal “pep talk” to each of the nominees (Anne Hathaway, Sean Penn) was a really neat and original way to announce the nominees. Huge kudos to whoever came up with that idea.

    Then there’s the music, or lack thereof. The Awards needed to snip some time off of their presentaion this year and one of the more obvious ways to do that would be by cutting the music down a bit. Well, they succeeded with doing that; but instead of cutting the music all together, they mixed it into a sort of montage and all played by the Oscar orchestra. While it was some pretty music, it was also kind of slow and bogged down the flow of the show. Either keep it or cut it would be my suggestion. The straddling the fence approach didn’t really work for me. But hey, that’s just one man’s opinion.

    And of course there were all of the winners. The most surprising had to be neither The Class nor Waltz with Bashir going back to their home country with a statue. Nope; instead, a little film out of Japan (Okuribito) no one’s heard of takes the cake. I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t comment on it’s worthiness, but nevertheless it is surprising.

    The least surprising of course was Ledger’s win for the Joker. Was that not the lock of the show… maybe ever? Hardly worth mentioning it was so obvious. As was Slumdog’s sweep of almost everything it was nominated for.

    In the acting category, we all knew it would be Penn or Rourke. Both were equally deserving in my eyes, but I sure was rooting for Rourke. He’ll maybe never see that opportunity again, which is a real shame. This is a win that, no matter which way it went, could be and will be debated for years to come. Plus, we didn’t get to see a (potentially) clean version of his speech from the night before. If you didn’t see it, you need to find Kate Winslet winsit on YouTube asap. It’s entertaining stuff.

    And Kate Winslet finally gets her much deserved trophy. As much as I was rooting for Hathaway, I knew this was Winslet’s year and was prepared for that. And anyway, she has worked the hardest for it and she has been shut down year after year after year. She truly deserves this and I think everyone was happy for her – especially her dad sitting way in the back of the theater.

    Did I mention Penélope Cruz took home and Oscar? Her speech was the cutest of the night and thanking Almodóvar was a nice touch. Congrats darling!

    So I guess all in all it was a pretty good show and a real success in terms of cutting back on the time factor and bringing a little something for everyone to the table. If only the nominees had been a bit more… accurate. Keep these changes in place for next year and tweak one or two things and bring back Jackman and I think you’ve got a real crowd pleaser on your hands. Just amke sure you nominate the right films this year Mr. Gainis!

  • 09 Feb

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    Slumdog Cleans House at BAFTA 2009

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    Penelope CruzBig surprise on this headline eh? Slumdog Millionaire cleans house in Britain; winning five out of six of the categories it was nominated for, including best picture.

    Two things that baffle me: First of all, how can Slumdog Millionaire win for best film, but lose for best British film to Man on Wire? Doesn’t that mean Man on Wire is the best film – yet it’s not even nominated? Confusing. Second, I find it interesting that Kate Winslet was up against herself in the best actress category, even though her role in The Reader was clearly a supporting role. Ah well, if she had been nominated for a supporting role, it might’ve taken away from the most important winner of the night.

    See all the nominees and winners below…

    BEST FILM
    SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Christian Colson
    THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Ceán Chaffin
    FROST/NIXON – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
    MILK – Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen
    THE READER – Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti, Redmond Morris

    OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
    MAN ON WIRE – Simon Chinn, James Marsh
    HUNGER – Laura Hastings-Smith, Robin Gutch, Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh
    IN BRUGES – Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh
    MAMMA MIA! – Judy Craymer, Gary Goetzman, Phyllida Lloyd, Catherine Johnson
    SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Christian Colson, Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

    THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD: for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film
    STEVE McQUEEN (Director/Writer) – Hunger
    SIMON CHINN (Producer) – Man On Wire
    JUDY CRAYMER (Producer) – Mamma Mia!
    GARTH JENNINGS (Writer) – Son of Rambow
    SOLON PAPADOPOULOS, ROY BOULTER (Producers) – Of Time And The City

    DIRECTOR
    SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Danny Boyle
    CHANGELING – Clint Eastwood
    THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – David Fincher
    FROST/NIXON – Ron Howard
    THE READER – Stephen Daldry

    ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
    IN BRUGES – Martin McDonagh
    BURN AFTER READING – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
    CHANGELING – Joe Michael Straczynski
    I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG – Philippe Claudel
    MILK – Dustin Lance Black

    ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
    SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Simon Beaufoy
    THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Eric Roth
    FROST/NIXON – Peter Morgan
    THE READER – David Hare
    REVOLUTIONARY ROAD – Justin Haythe

    FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
    I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG – Yves Marmion, Philippe Claudel
    THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX – Bernd Eichinger, Uli Edel
    GOMORRAH – Domenico Procacci, Matteo Garrone
    PERSEPOLIS – Marc-Antoine Robert, Xavier Rigault, Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
    WALTZ WITH BASHIR – Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahlieli, Ari Folman

    ANIMATED FILM
    WALL•E – Andrew Stanton
    PERSEPOLIS – Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
    WALTZ WITH BASHIR – Ari Folman

    LEADING ACTOR
    MICKEY ROURKE – The Wrestler
    FRANK LANGELLA – Frost/Nixon
    DEV PATEL – Slumdog Millionaire
    SEAN PENN – Milk
    BRAD PITT – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    LEADING ACTRESS
    KATE WINSLET – The Reader
    ANGELINA JOLIE – Changeling
    KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS – I’ve Loved You So Long
    MERYL STREEP – Doubt
    KATE WINSLET – Revolutionary Road

    SUPPORTING ACTOR
    HEATH LEDGER – The Dark Knight
    ROBERT DOWNEY JR. – Tropic Thunder
    BRENDAN GLEESON – In Bruges
    PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN – Doubt
    BRAD PITT – Burn After Reading

    SUPPORTING ACTRESS
    PENÉLOPE CRUZ – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
    AMY ADAMS – Doubt
    FREIDA PINTO – Slumdog Millionaire
    TILDA SWINTON – Burn After Reading
    MARISA TOMEI – The Wrestler

    MUSIC
    SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – A. R. Rahman
    THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Alexandre Desplat
    THE DARK KNIGHT – Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard
    MAMMA MIA! – Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
    WALL•E – Thomas Newman

    CINEMATOGRAPHY
    SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Anthony Dod Mantle
    CHANGELING – Tom Stern
    THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Claudio Miranda
    THE DARK KNIGHT – Wally Pfister
    THE READER – Chris Menges, Roger Deakins

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