Keeping It Reel Podcast #10 – The Films of Tony Scott
This week, Demetri and I look back on the filmography of director Tony Scott, who recently died on August 19th when he jumped off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles, CA. Scott’s unique visual style left an indelible mark in the cinema world, especially high-octane, frenetic action and suspense drama/thrillers. He made two movies with Tom Cruise (“Top Gun” and “Days of Thunder”), two with Gene Hackman (“Crimson Tide” and “Enemy of the State”), two with Brad Pitt (“True Romance” and “Spy Game”), three with Val Kilmer (“True Romance” and “Deja Vu”), and five with Denzel Washington (“Crimson Tide”, “Man on Fire”, Deja Vu” and “The Taking of Pelham 123” and “Unstoppable”). We recently went back and watched some of Scott’s films and in this episode you can listen along and find out what we thought of them and how they hold up.
Compliance (2012)
written by: Craig Zobel
produced by: Sophia Lin, Craig Zobel, Theo Sena, Lisa Muskat & Tyler Davidson
directed by: Craig Zobel
rating: R (for language and sexual content/nudity)
runtime: 90 min.
U.S. release date: August 24, 2012 & August 31, 2012 (limited)
It’s a busy Friday night at a franchise restaurant in suburban Ohio. The less-than-enthused staff have to deal with a long line of patrons. The harried middle-aged manager has to deal with all of it; the staff, the patrons and a call from the police. The officer on the line tells the manager that he has information confirming that a young girl working the counter has stolen money from a customer’s bag within the last couple hours. The frustrating and enraging events that occur during the rest of this particular evening is hard to believe, but we must since it is “inspired by true events”. As riveting and provocative as writer/director Craig Zobel’s film is, it would appear it is the polar opposite of a crowd-pleaser, since at least a dozen viewers walked out at the screening I attended.
This Week on DVD & Blu-ray (08-28-12)
The Five-Year Engagement (2012)
written by: Jason Segel & Nicholas Stoller
produced by: Judd Apatow, Rodney Rothman and Nicholas Stoller
directed by: Nicholas Stoller
rating: R (for sexual content, and language throughout)
runtime: 124 min.
U.S. release date: April 27, 2012
DVD/Blu-ray release: August 28. 2012
Wedding movies have their own sub-genre classification in the film industry’s rom-com genre, complete with their expected recycled formulaic plots and implausibilities. Rarely does anyone behave realistically and hardly ever do circumstances work out as they would in real life, making it a challenge for audiences to relate or even care what they are watching on-screen. Sure, some viewers may gravitate to the comfort of the conventions the genre provides, but after a while, one can watch Katherine Heigl and/or Gerald Butler fall in and out of love only so many times. Good thing we have “The Five-Year Engagement”, a movie that wears its Apatowian silliness with a goofy grin and opens with Dexy’s Midnight Runners covering “Jackie Wilson Said”. It thankfully gifts us with two realistic leads, who aren’t necessarily knock-outs but are utterly endearing, as it zigs instead of zags through familiar territory.
Keeping It Reel Podcast #9 – The Master (First Impressions)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” is easily one of the most eagerly-anticipated films of the fall season, if not the year. It opens on September 14th in limited release, but Demertri and I were able to take in a special advance screening of the film recently in Chicago. We give you our First Impressions here as well as discuss our opinions on the two films that we picked for each other for our Two For You feature. So, that’s five films covered in our 9th episode!
The Criterion Completist – Ceramic Cats and the Impermanence of Things: Reviewing the Work of Chris Marker
The film world was hit some sad news recently as we learned of the passing of French filmmaker Chris Marker on July 29th, his 91st birthday. Marker is perhaps best known for his 1962 short film “La Jetee”, but enjoyed a long and acclaimed career as a multimedia artist, film essayist and photographer. Criterion has put “La Jetee” and his other most well-known work “Sans Soleil” onto one extras-loaded disc, and since I haven’t seen “La Jetee” since my college days, I thought I’d use this week’s article to plunge into the world of Marker, and examine the legacy of this extraordinary artist.
ParaNorman 3D (2012)
written by: Chris Butler
produced by: Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
directed by: Sam Fell and Chris Butler
rating: PG (for scary action and images, thematic elements, some rude humor and language)
runtime: 92 min.
U.S. release date: August 17, 2012
While Disney and Dreamworks are busy churning out sequels to their blockbusters, other studios are working on their own niche in the animation genre. One such company is Laika, an American stop-motion animation studio out of Oregon that previously released the critically-acclaimed “Coraline” back in 2009, based on the horror/fantasy novella by Neil Gaiman. Like that film embraced a gothic and bizarre tone, “ParaNorman” is an ode to zombie B-movies and the fascination of adolescent Fangoria fans. In other words, it’s another entry from a animators who seem to feel most at home in the macabre world of not-so-kid-friendly frights. That’s something I absolutely welcome, but it can also be confusing for those who still have it in their head that a.) all animated features are for kids, and, b.) all kids must see any new animated feature released throughout the year.
This Week on DVD & Blu-ray (08-21-12)
The Expendables 2 (2012)
written by: Richard Wenk and Sylvester Stallone
produced by: Avi Lerner, Danny Lerner, Kevin King Templeton & Les Weldon
directed by: Simon West
rating: R (for strong bloody violence throughout)
runtime: 102 min.
U.S. release date: August 17, 2012
There’s a reason “The Expendables 2” has been released a mere two years after the first blockbuster movie, led by Sylvester Stallone who also co-wrote and directed the action ensemble. That’s because these guys aren’t getting any younger. It seems inconceivable and ridiculous to most people that any actors over forty (most considered past their muscle-bound heyday) would be involved in violently dispensing bad guys, but I’m not one of them. I enthusiastically admired seeing Stallone gather together a bunch of old dogs for “The Expendables” and will accept the concept barreling its way into the arena of a testosterone-fueled franchise. Simon West (who made his directorial debut with “Con-Air” and gave us “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”) is behind the wheel for this time, which actually turns out to be bigger, louder, and sillier than the last one, albeit with more wrinkles.
This Week on DVD & Blu-ray (08-14-12)
