Apes Will Rise!!!

Loved it.
This summer, movies rock!!


That's actually something cool about franchises -it took 43 years to get another GREAT Planet of the Apes movie, but we got one.
Worth the wait.
What an incredibly entertaining film, and a great addition to the canon. Sooo impressed... I was laughing out loud at the ingenuity of this team - lot of smart decisions in there.

The Uncanny Valley: It'll be WETA who crosses it before Cameron - that's fer sure.
Feels weird and amazing that I liked a purely CG character a helluva lot more than Green Lantern this year, but it wasn't the effects at the core...
WRITING!!!! ...it's still kind of important, dummies...
..and this Apes movie is well fucking written.

That I loved the character of Caesar still has me reeling - I hope I can write a fictional character so well someday. Hats off to Andy Serkis for topping Gollum - there's a lot to the physical presence of these sci-fi creations, and he's in control, boy ...how the hell does an ape have better body language than most of the "superheroes" in their own films?
He looks dramatic, and pensive ...real.

TBC

Captain America: The First Avenger

Holy fuck, I loved this movie...
...and despite it's title, it doesn't feel like an ad for another one. I like that.

Loved Little Steve Rogers...

Captain America is a very long standing Marvel comic book character, and though he's been on the screen before, it was never done like this.
This is the story of a 90 lb weakling who wants to make a difference - a man who was born a hero.
The first third... "Steve becomes a soldier" is perfect.
This is the key to good entertainment, kids - make me care before you bring out the special effects...
And they are special - really nice looking film.

Chris Evans' "young Steve Rogers" is a great performance. I suspect he had to limit his movement for the digital effects - he seemed controlled but so earnest ...wow, I didn't appreciate how rich these characters could be in full flesh and blood. I would have watched a whole movie about that little weakling - why? ..because he's a fuckin' great character.

In fact, the GRENADE is one of the best "character" moments I've ever seen in any movie. LOVE IT.

Joe Johnston is really good at that nice soft vision of the past - his WW2 is like Band of Brothers for kids. But the most noticeable element of this whole project is how much love went into it, for lack of a better word. These guys love this character as much as I do - as much as millions of kids for years and years have - it really shows.
Tommy Lee Jones is great - most I've enjoyed him in a long time. He seemed like he was having fun.
Hayley Atwell is lovely and reminds me of another Hayley I know...
Couple o' tear-jerkin' scenes, boy.
His line after the big event, so to speak - I don't care if you like superheroes or not - it's just great writing, and kudos to the writers they're borrowing from. Years of Cap stories inform this screenplay, with a lot of the Ultimates mixed in ...impressive synthesis storytelling.

Bucky's a surprise. I love the character but it's tough to pull off a kid beside a Super-Soldier. Fantastic interpretation of the "sidekick" role - more like two soldiers at war - just excellent. There's a brilliant montage towards the end - where everyone shines, and the inspiration of this hero is obvious.
Dum-Dum Duggan is great, and I suspect Neal McDonough is in there as the original Cap consideration.

Dominic Cooper's Howard Stark was another pleasant surprise, and what an impressive world the Marvel filmmakers have brought together. The idea of Tony's Dad way back might've sounded hokey but it's so charming. They're creating Marvel history up on the big screen. Out of a wonderfully comic-heavy childhood, this is stuff I'm really happy to see - invested storytelling.
Kinda sad to me that of the four "superhero flics" this summer, three were Marvel, and the other one - well, I wanted to like Green Lantern. He's a great character.

Then there's The RED SKULL.
He's Cap's Joker, and such a fun cat - I mean, Nazis are the perfect villain bar none, but a skull-headed one - c'mon? He's awesome - just look at any Cap comics - the Red Skull is always up to something fucked-up.
Hugo Weaving plays him as a genius weirdo - and on that note,  the Werner Herzog accent is a blast - subtle and hilarious.
 ...and though I'm not so much a fan of the rubber face, it was handled really well - that slipping eye...
But his design - Brilliant - absolutely nailed it.
Took about 30 years to see Cap and his nemesis duke it out properly on the big screen for this kid.
Worth the wait this was..

...and dead?
Ahhhh, ha ha ha ha haaaa....
The Red Skull never dies - he's the toughest bad guy in either of the big stables...

Captain America: The First Avenger is tight entertaining movie. The overall design is charming but totally epic - comic-booky, but cutting edge storytelling.
It has twice the heart of most of these "superhero" flics, amidst a perfectly paced World War II actioner - I'll watch it plenty, I suspect.
I went to see it again this afternoon.

It's too bad the GLUT of superhero flics seems to have killed this one.
It's really really good.

Well, turns out CAP made a fair bit - good, I'd love to see a part 2..
A.

Carl Kolchak ...Johnny Depp?

Well, that might just work.
Kolchak is up there with Swamp Thing for this cat/dork...

I fucking love Carl Kolchak ..just do.
I could question why, but I already know. It's Darren McGavin - he's got the tone of the character built in to his own - he's stubborn, smart, and undoubtedly aggravating. I bet he could drive people nuts - a well trained actor, who knew what he wanted to do, but often foiled by dummies...
...and a Kolchak show could have been sooo good.
Don't get me wrong - I love the TV show, but not because it's brilliant - it boasts a few really cool episodes, but it's difficulties on the studio side led to too many compromises, and just one short season.
No, it was the original film - a TV movie called The Night Stalker(1972) that hooked both the studio(which got huge ratings and they ordered another one immediately) and myself. Now, granted I saw it in rerun, but it was such a weird experience that I told friends about it for years.
It was another late friday with Dad, and I joined the movie a few minutes in. It looked cool - that old seventies mystery look, and the lead was ...odd, I guess is the best way to put it - I remember it struck me how bumbly he was - but I was engaged by him ...by his investigation - who was this "Kolchak", and what kind of killer was he chasing?
I was pretty freaked-out when it turned out to be a vampire - in modern day!! What was going on? What a cool story...
This was my one time experience with Kolchak but thanks to The X-Files(creators love of it) I'd find it all eventually.

What an intro.
Check out the music/tone change...

The 1st movie is great - 2nd is almost as good, and the series, though formulaic, has a few really good episodes - a couple are screenplay material fer sure...
It all looks great, and he's just so much fun.

Sooo, could someone be the new Kolchak? Guess that depends...
I didn't think anyone could be the "New Captain Kirk" but it worked(ST'09).
Really well, in fact - been a long time since I was stoked for the next Star Trek flic, but JJ Abrams - he just "gets" it...
Smart guy, and young Chris Pine ...again - he "got" it. Don't play William Shatner - play a young Captain Kirk.
...such a frickin' good movie.

Women love Johnny Depp - good-looking, funny, charming - superstar actor/zillionaire...
But everyone knows it's the quirky that makes him JD...
...and it's quirky that made Carl Kolchak.
CK is a smart character but goofy for sure and Darren McGavin wasn't afraid to be goofy - the idea is to do it well - really really well, and who does anyone think of first for well-executed weirdos?
The one thing I'd bet on is that JD loves the character if he does it, and that's what these "re-imaginings" need most - genuine love for the original material.

The film is only in the development part so who knows what'll happen but if Jack Sparrow does play Carl Kolchak - cool - bring it on.
Only One Question Remains:
Who will play Tony Vincenzo?

A.

The Night Gallery

I'd heard about it for years..
Rod Serling's The Night Gallery...

Picked up Season 2 the other day and dove right in. Wow, what a cool show...

It opens with the ever charming and somewhat creepy, Mr. Serling inviting us into the Night Gallery - a museum of pictures ...pictures that tell 1000 stories. Love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9pToHSFdwk

I Love UNIVERSAL, and professionally - if I ever do make real films in the real world, I've got to work for Universal.
I suppose I'll always be obsessed with this period - My first ten years on earth are the seventies, and peripherally I was soaking up a fair bit. I only had one Kolchak night but it stayed with me 'til I found it all again recently.

Carl Kolchak is up there with Swamp Thing for this kid, but that's for another post, and God love Universal for all of the horror under their umbrella...

But back to the NG..
It's the format that gets me - it's loose ..it feels organic - that freedom that only occurred in the late '60's/early '70's - The freedom of a visionary, and of experimentation...
This is what the 1970's is for me.

Then there's the quality of it - great actors on good sets - not the same cheapy feel of so many anthology shows...

It's the work of an Auteur ...and that, again is what the 70's is all about.

Going to watch plenty then return...
...and chat details. Go watch The Night Gallery - Trust me.

The T E R M I N A T O R

It's Father's Day today, and more than any other film, this is the one that makes me think of my Dad.

Why, Arthur(as if anyone cares)?

Because I watched it with him first. Simple.
Had never seen it before and do believe Dad suggested it when it debuted on TV late one friday night. We'd often end up quietly "watching"* a movie together in those days ...pre-girlfriends and booze, but post-toys(mostly).

*Watching - I don't think my Father knew how The Terminator, First Blood, or Jaws actually end..
I was his second favorite movie-watching-companion - the first being a good nap.

The Film:
Terminator is up on Artie's ol' shortlist of SUPER*WATCHED*FILMS.
And having mulled on why I like this specific movie so much, I've come to an interesting point with it.

I think it's an expanded CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER...
James Cameron's interpretation of Harlan Ellison's work, or rather the heart of it.
"You're crazy" I can hear my half dozen followers saying...

Hear me out: Are they both not stories of people from different time periods falling in love, not being able to be together, and doing the "right" thing in a somewhat sad nihilistic ending?
No coincidence that Ellison is mentioned in the Terminator credits - But it's not so much the mechanized antagonists Cameron borrowed, as the tone ...I truly believe the place both stories came from is one in the same.
Ellison claims his story "Soldier" was the inspiration, but that concept seems more to have informed T2. Some claim "Demon with a Glass Hand" but I suspect it's City on the Edge of Forever that was actually Cameron's biggest influence, along with a perhaps subconscious desire to tell an Ellison-esque tale. Who could blame him? Ellison is apparently an asshole, but a brilliant one, with an extraordinary grasp of truly human storytelling. Undeniable.

"That's a good question, Mr.Spock - how much Ellison is in The Terminator?"

They say a film is only as good as it's villain - well, this one is named for the bad guy, and quite the bad guy he is. Schwarzenegger's weird intensity and extremely limited dialogue make every second of screentime count - he's fantastic, and it'll always be my favorite Arnie role. He has a physical impatience built into the efficiency of the character that seems to disappear in the sequels. It's his coolest performance - he "feels" unstoppable ..inhuman ...frightening, and that cyborg chase scene - I was mad at my father for falling asleep before that sequence - I was 14 ..maybe 15, and it scared me shitless.

And then there's that "classic" phrase... you know the one.
Who hasn't said those three words? Only Mr. Burns' "Exxxxcellent" might be better known in pop-language, but who can really say?

...and what a way to get that audience association - This robot is has been built by someone specifically to kill you, and you are noone special..
..Or are you? Maybe your the future president, or maybe his mother - endless possibilities, and very clever storytelling, especially in the paradoxical "Father" equation of the film. Is fatherhood and it's importance not a central theme here? Is Skynet not the child of a "father-based society" having outgrown it's own father? ...not unlike Roy Batty in Blade Runner.

Opening this apocalyptic tale far in the future, then telling it one single night in our time - ONE NIGHT - that's the whole film.. Brilliant.

The Terminator is one of the purest narratives I've ever seen. From first frame to last, it never stops moving - I love that.
Shot in 1984, I'm still hard pressed to find films now that move the camera nearly as much. I don't think Spielberg used a dolly once in Indy 4. Facts being facts, James Cameron was a genius at this point, and only Aliens could challenge Terminator for the best thing he's ever done ...and being a sequel I guess it really can't. Ha haa..

For what it is, it's perfect.
Rare thing...

...I'll be back.

the summer of SUPER 8...

I thought I was going to see a Steven Spielberg film by J.J. Abrams.
Nope.

It is a movie for us(my generation) ..and about us.
Set in the summer of 1979, Super 8 offers a sci-fi mystery, with a heartfelt human story, as it follows a group of teenagers who set out to make a super 8 horror film in their Ohio steel-mill town.

More than a sense of wonderment in the viewer is the sense of it in the film - letting us watch us is essentially what I got out of Super 8. It just took a bit to figure it out..
It really is "wonderment" up on that screen, and the true love for Steven Spielberg's early work - that "feeling" that was pervasive through his films and so many he produced. Fact is, there's far more respect for SS's early career than in than in his own recent Indy 4. It's a love affair with small people sharing big adventures whilst surrounded by dubious adults.
Watching these kids, it's hard not to feel young again.

It's not perfect. I think I was hoping for a more intriguing story, and at moments it feels like E.T. mashed in with The Thing ...but boy, if your going to slam a couple films together to make a 70's/80's homage ...why not go with the best eh?

Super 8 is a very personal film for something so pedigreed, if you will.
Sooo I'm going to go AGAIN today ...and let it sink in a little more.

I think I kinda liked it actually...