Month: October 2010

LFM Mini-Review: Better Dead Than Red

By Jason Apuzzo. THE PITCH: Ex-CIA operative Bruce Willis reunites with fellow Agency veterans Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich (?) and Helen Mirren (?!) to take on a ruthless band of CIA bureaucrats, defense contractors and a murderous U.S. Vice President – all while trading gunfire and inane, TV-level banter.

THE SKINNY: What does one say about a film that climaxes with the ‘heroic’ shooting of: a female CIA official, a U.S. Vice President, and a defense contractor (played with smug brio by Richard Dreyfuss)? Red is an ugly, puerile, unfunny, ham-fisted pastiche of every straight-to-video/garbage action film ever made during the 80s-90s – except this particular film is lacquered with a sickening anti-Americanism that most of those films lacked. Only attend this film if the idea of watching Bruce Willis mug at the camera for two hours sounds appealing to you, and your politics are somewhere to the left of Édgar Ramírez’s.

John Malkovich, attempting to be funny.

WHAT WORKS:

• The cameo by Ernest Borgnine.

• Absolutely nothing else.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK:

• Watching Bruce Willis mug at the camera for two hours, acting as if we’re back in the late 80s and there’s still something manly and charming about him.

• Depicting the CIA as more murderous and amoral than the KGB, Al Qaeda and the Waffen SS combined.

• Watching Richard Dreyfuss – looking bloated and with a fake tan – preen and strut in a snarky caricature of an American defense contractor, when really he looks like a guy who should just be pushing a broom at a Miami deli.

• Watching an American Vice President – with ambitions for even higher office – depicted as a murderer of women and children, a self-absorbed swine who uses the CIA as a personal assassin squad. Not even Biden deserves that.

BOTTOM LINE:

My understanding is that a new technology has been developed whereby celluloid film prints can be recycled into polyester clothing. My strong suggestion would be to use the 3,500 or so existing prints of Red to clothe the children of Guatemala – assuming they don’t mind wearing polyester. If not, it seems to me that the film could perhaps be re-printed onto soft tissue rolls, and used for other purposes.

One final point: with ‘Hollywood conservatives’ like Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone so eager to knock their own country in this way, who needs Hollywood liberals?

Posted on October 15th, 2010 at 4:09pm.

Top Gun Sequel on the Way?

By Jason Apuzzo. New York Magazine’s Vulture blog is becoming the place for scoops these days, and today they’ve got a whopper. Apparently Larry Ellison’s son David wants to finance a reteaming of Tom Cruise (in a limited, cameo-esque role), Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer on a Top Gun sequel. The screenwriter on this would apparently be Oscar-winner Christopher McQuarrie, who just wrote The Tourist and also wrote Valkyrie for Cruise. As a side note, David Ellison is currently helping to finance Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 4.

Cruise on The Bike.

I think this is a great idea, if executed properly. For those of you who weren’t around back then, Top Gun was the the movie from the 80s that romanticized American military life (without having to demonize any particular enemy nation). I personally know a guy who, I strongly suspect, was pulled into life in Naval aviation – and beach volleyball – at least in part due to this film. And who could blame him? Between the girls, the Kawasakis and the volleyball, it painted a pretty appealing picture of serving your country while flying jets in San Diego. [Whatever happened to Berlin, by the way?]

If it isn’t already obvious, folks, the 80s are mounting a major comeback these days – with Obama’s indirect help, I strongly suspect. A Wall Street sequel just came out; even Back to the Future is getting re-released this month, for goodness sake.

As a side note here: this is the Tom Cruise I miss, the guy in the shades on the motorcycle flying jets for his country – not the couch-jumping oddity we’ve come to know.

Obviously we’ll be keeping an eye on this one. Fun footnote here: years ago when I was in high school I was hanging out on the Paramount lot one day while Tony Scott was in post-production on one of his films. His Kawasaki – the one Cruise rides in the film – was parked in the lot. When nobody was looking, I hopped on. 🙂 Awesome.

I’ve just got to know just one thing about this sequel: will they be bringing back Iceman?

Posted on October 14, 2010 at 10:57am.

Anti-Islamic Terror Documentary Killing in the Name Up for Oscar Consideration

By Jason Apuzzo. The Wrap is reporting today that the anti-Islamic terror documentary Killing in the Name has been shortlisted for Academy Awards consideration. I’ve embedded the trailer for the film above – take a look.

Here below is how the film is described on its Facebook page:

“Four years ago, Ashraf Al-Khaled and his bride were celebrating what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives, when an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber walked into their wedding and blew himself up, killing both of their fathers in front of their eyes. The couple lost 27 members of their family that day.

“It’s a sad fact that stories like Ashraf’s pepper the news almost daily. In the last 5 years, over 88,000 people have been killed or injured in terrorist attacks worldwide. The majority, like Ashraf, were Muslims.

“How can someone be so robbed of their humanity that they happily commit mass murder and suicide? It’s one of the fundamental human questions of our era, one that has haunted Ashraf since his wedding day, and what is now driving him to rise from horrific tragedy to take an unprecedented step – breaking the silence in the Muslim community on this taboo subject by speaking out against terrorism.

“KILLING IN THE NAME follows Ashraf in his quest to speak with victims and perpetrators, and expose the true costs of terrorism. From a jihadi recruiter for Al-Qaeda, the group responsible for bombing his wedding, to an Islamic militant behind one of the world’s worst terrorist attacks, to a madrassa filled with young boys ready to fulfill the duty of jihad, Ashraf takes us on a harrowing journey around the world to see if one man can speak truth to terror, and begin to turn the global tide.

“At times chilling and moving, terrifying and hopeful, KILLING IN THE NAME is a far- reaching and necessary first step in tackling what is arguably the most pressing issue of our age. As Ashraf puts it, ‘If we can’t even talk about it, this terror will never end.'”

We’ll keep an eye on this story, and we wish the filmmakers the very best with this project.

Posted on October 14th, 2010 at 9:34am.

The New ‘Edgy’ Snow White, The New Ten Commandments, More Alien News & Hollywood Round-up, 10/14

Daft Punk does the music for "Tron: Legacy."

By Jason Apuzzo. • All of the big  news today is on the Sci-Fi/Alien Invasion Front. Apparently the screenwriter on Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel turned in his script to Fox, and the Suits were pleased; and, what’s more, the Suits supposedly want Natalie Portman to play the lead role, a character described as “a female Colonial Marine general.” Uugh. Portman’s shrill, abrasive performance in the Star Wars prequels was easily their biggest problem – not Jar Jar Binks. Mercifully, we also learn today that someone else – Noomi Rapace, star of the Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – is similarly in the running for the lead. My prediction is that Scott would go with Rapace, as she seems edgier – and would probably be less expensive than Portman for this 3D-native film that Fox apparently wants to keep in the $150-$160 million range. Also: supposedly the script reads more PG-13 than R-rated, which also made the Suits happy – albeit perhaps not Scott. We’ll see. This whole thing could still blow up and go nowhere.

The new, 'edgy' Snow White?

• Are you aware that there are three competing Snow White projects in Hollywood right now? The latest apparently involves director Tarsem Singh (of Jennifer Lopez’ dreadful The Cell), who’s just been offered what is described as “an ‘edgy’ and comedic look at the original Brothers Grimm story.” This would be the one to put Natalie Portman in; I suggest having her whine about having to clean up after the Seven Dwarves.

• In other Alien Invasion news, Luc Besson is apparently returning to the sci-fi genre, with a large-scale project that “he’s planning on shooting in 2012 and 2013 for a release in 2013 or 2014.” Supposedly he’s already at work designing creatures for this project, and he’s also saying that James Cameron’s recent innovations (one assumes 3D here) were a large part of his motivation to return to sci-fi. Very interesting. Also: actor Morgan Freeman is saying that he and David Fincher still very much want to adapt Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi ‘alien encounter’ masterpiece Rendezvous with Rama – and that they want to do it in 3D. I think that’s a marvelous idea – and long overdue, frankly. It would be an absolutely perfect project for 3D. Also: there’s a new featurette out on I Am Number 4 (a forthcoming teen alien invasion flick) that pretty much gives away the whole movie, which I’d actually already lost interest in due to the trailer. And finally: there’s a very interesting, semi-spoilerific interview out with the Strause brothers of Skyline, in which they detail how they’ve managed to create a large-scale alien invasion movie on an ultra-low indie budget – and how the freedom associated with indie filmmaking has made them even less eager to work though the studio system. They’re also already planning a sequel! Good for them. This is really amazing stuff – and gives you a little glimpse at filmmaking’s future, I suspect. There are also some interesting new pics out from the film, and I’ve put one below. Remember that this film was made for under $10 million; Peter Jackson, take note.

From "Skyline."

• In related Sci-Fi news, the Tron marketing bonanza has begun. Disney already has a theme park attraction in the works, the new Daft Punk Tron album is coming, and a teaser for the new Pirates of the Caribbean film (which will similarly unspool in 3D and in IMAX) will apparently be attached to the Tron prints when the film debuts in December. I certainly hope the film is good, with all this happening … and in other sci-fi news: Steven Spielberg’s huge Terra Nova TV series is apparently running into major cost overruns; NBC’s Obamaphillic The Event is slipping in the ratings (while Hawaii Five-O soars); and Aint It Cool News is running a glowing review of J.W. Rinzler’s new book, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back. I’m very eager to read that book.

Charlton Heston in "The Ten Commandments."

• In Classic Movie News, Paramount is about to debut a new, digitally restored ‘roadshow’ version of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 masterpiece, The Ten Commandments – a longer version that apparently hasn’t been seen since the film’s debut! This is fantastic news, although the LA Times article on the subject is frustratingly short on details. What are the new/extended scenes?! I hope this reaches DVD/Blu-ray soon. We showed what was then the best existing print of The Ten Commandments at the 2005 Liberty Film Festival. [I still remember that print sitting in my living room – I think I hugged it.] Cast member Lisa Mitchell introduced the film that night, and what a thrill that was. I can’t wait to see this ‘new’ version of a great classic. In other classic movie news: there’s a new book out that delves into the romance on- and off-screen between Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, probably the best romantic pair the movies have ever produced.

• On the Political Front, Aaron Sorkin recently addressed concerns over The Social Network’s misogynistic depiction of women. His excuse basically boils down to: they’re geeks, so what do you expect? The explanation doesn’t fly. Sorkin’s film doesn’t critique misogyny so much as revel in it. Tacking on a female lawyer with a brain at the end of the film hardly makes up for that. Elsewhere, Obama recently met with the kids from Waiting for Superman, and also with Clooney (re: Darfur). He should’ve met with both of them at the same time – I think Clooney dropped out of Northern Kentucky. Elsewhere: Clint Eastwood says that Joaquin Phoenix will not be appearing in his J. Edgar Hoover biopic (although DiCaprio will be); Paul Giamatti will be playing Ben Bernanke, Billy Crudup will be playing Timothy Geithner and Ed Asner will be playing Warren Buffett (?!) in Libertas reader Curtis Hanson’s Too Big to Fail for HBO; and, finally, Clint Howard – brother of Ron, and star of some of my favorite Roger Corman flicks – advises young Hollywood conservatives to exercise caution when speaking their minds. I respect Clint’s opinion on this, but it’s for exactly this reason that so many of us choose to avoid the Hollywood system altogether and work independently – so that we can exercise our free speech rights. No Hollywood career is worth sacrificing those for.

Kardashian settles for silver.

• In franchise news, George Miller says that heavy seasonal rains in the Australian Outback were actually the cause of the Mad Max: Fury Road delays. Elsewhere, the projected $500 million budget for the two Hobbit films will apparently be the largest movie budgets ever (in unadjusted dollars), assuming those films are greenlit. Is this really a good idea for MGM, which is presumably trying to exit from bankruptcy? Anybody remember how Peter Jackson’s King Kong turned out? Hint: it underperformed. Elsewhere, the more recent Harry Potter films will apparently be getting the 3D treatment after all, once those films hit Blu-ray; and Inception’s Tom Hardy will apparently be joining the cast of Christopher Nolan’s new Batman film.

• The Playboy Mansion recently hosted a charity event to benefit our wounded warriors. The event featured motorcycles and Playmates, as well as a live auction of limited edition Playboy centerfolds and a prop gun once used by John Wayne. Honestly, I can’t think of a more patriotic way to spend one’s weekend outside of hunting Taliban.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … in a sign of how bad Obama’s economy is, Kim Kardashian recently posed nude for W Magazine covered only in silver. In a better economy she clearly would have been covered in gold …

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.

Posted on October 13th, 2010 at 6:52pm.

Fresh Video: North Korea’s Largest Military Parade Ever + Kim Jong Il’s Heir Apparent

By Jason Apuzzo. Images often capture events more descriptively than words. The UK Guardian’s Dan Chung has done some great video reporting from Asia in recent years, and we wanted to show you some fresh video footage from him of a massive North Korean military parade – supposedly the nation’s largest ever – that was recently held in order to ‘introduce’ Kim Jong-il’s heir apparent , Kim Jong-un. This was Kim Jong-un’s most public appearance since being named as North Korea’s next leader.

Among the proclamations made at this parade was the following:

Ri Yong Ho, chief of the general staff of the North Korean army, said at the event: “If the US imperialists and their followers infringe on our sovereignty and dignity even slightly, we will blow up the stronghold of their aggression with a merciless and righteous retaliatory strike by mobilising all physical means, including self-defensive nuclear deterrent force, and achieve the historic task of unification.”

Take a look at the video above. Two words come to mind: farcical … and chilling.

Posted on October 13th,2010 at 11:38am.

A Reasonable Nobel Season

Mario Vargas Llosa.

By David Ross. Mario Vargas Llosa has won the Nobel Prize in literature — a laudable, long overdue selection — and Chinese democratic activist Liu Xiaobo has won the Peace Prize. This was an unusually reasonable and gratifying Nobel season. The Nobel establishment was evidently trying to perform emergency reconstructive surgery on its own reputation after giving President Obama the Peace Prize.

Vladimir Nabokov.

I read Vargas Llosa’s The War of the End of the World (1981) twenty-five years ago. I was a fifteen-year-old intern in the Washington office of Congressman Bill Gradison (R-Ohio). One of my fellow interns lent the book to me. I was enraptured. The plot long ago evaporated from memory, but I still have certain tableaux fixed in my mind; I still recall a certain mood of welling apocalyptic energy. I haven’t read Vargas Llosa in the intervening decades, but I have long meant to give his work a further try. I now have my impetus.

Vargas Llosa is a rare conservative among winners of the literature prize. The Nobel committee has notoriously blackballed conservatives and non-progressives since the 1960s. Pound, Borges, Nabokov, and Updike had undeniable claims on the prize but were all criminally denied. Solzhenitsyn and Saul Bellow were the exceptions to the rule. Note however that the committee’s official commendation of Vargas Llosa exudes academic left-wingery (“for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat”) as if to make clear that the committee observed the usual bien pensant considerations. “Cartography of structures of power” may be the clumsiest phrase ever employed by the Nobel committee, and that’s saying a good deal: some of its commendations read like thesis statements plucked from overly earnest high school term papers.

There were, admittedly, reasons to snub Pound, but the snubbing of Borges and Nabokov was an outrage against intellectual honesty. Updike had two strikes against him: he was an non-self-loathing American and he was a quiet conservative (see his brilliant essay “On Not Being a Dove” here). He was the only haute-novelist who did not vocally oppose the Vietnam War, and he consistently defended the religious sensibility against the galloping secularism of the age. When the Twin Towers were struck he did not, like Susan Sontag, rail against American imperialism, but wrote in a mood of deep and genuine heartbreak (here). Other Americans whom the Nobel committee has ignored, in order of victimization:

  • Wallace Stevens
  • Thomas Pynchon
  • Marianne Moore
  • William Carlos Williams
  • Tennessee Williams
  • Philip Roth
  • Richard Wilbur
  • Norman Mailer
  • Edmund Wilson
  • Cynthia Ozick
  • John Barth

Had she lived into middle age and realized her great genius, Flannery O’Connor would have been another conservative whom the Nobel committee could have boasted of snubbing.

The Wall Street Journal comments on Vargas Llosa’s ascension (here) and interviews the Nobel hero (here). Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker sends fluttering our way the usual clever nothings (here).

[UPDATE: Read here how Swedish leftists are apparently outraged that Llosa won the award, because he isn’t “one of us.” Thanks to LFM’s Patricia Ducey for the heads-up.]

Posted on October 13th, 2010 at 9:06am.