It has been said that good things come to those who wait. Many know the story of Gangster Squad being delayed due to the horrific shootings in Aurora, CO in July and having to reshoot a crucial scene (the original was a theater shootout). Whether that re-shot scene had anything to do with the dismal final product we will probably never know but after seeing the film they could have stood to redo the entire film. Gangster Squad is a stylistic mess of a movie that gets bogged down by trying to be every gangster film you’ve ever seen without the aspects that made those movies great. Read more on Gangster Squad (*½)…
With the New Year’s hangover slowly wearing off and few new stimulants entering circulation, there’s now ample time to catch up on the overload of awards-contending films, with the nationwide release of Zero DarkThirty finally completing the best picture category. Expect the box-office to reflect some of the film’s early critical acclaim, especially since its competing new comers, like Gangster Squadand Quartetgarner only mild curiosity in comparison.
Forgive the obvious pun, but I’ve got my money on Ralph wrecking his competition at the box office this weekend to cap off a nice week of triumphs for Disney. Robert Zemeckis is also back at it with the help of a non-animated Denzel Washington. And perhaps a little stylized kung fu from a hip-hop chameleon to feed the eclectic palate?
OK, I am the studio head and have access to two hundred million dollars. I have been asked to remake ten classics made before 1970, and attach actors to the projects to speed up the casting process. In some cases, I see more than one actor or actress in a role, and I say that. Here are the ten films I choose to remake along with the casting hopefuls. Each film can cost no more than twenty million dollars so much will be said to the actors about being involved in something very special.
Ladies and gentlemen, we come now to part 3 of the Sizing up series. This one is as close to an all-encompassing grouping of the hopefuls for Best Actor as possible (excluding some no shot contenders). I’m looking to categorize them by their assumed likelihood of a nomination come the big morning, but clearly there’s plenty of guesswork at play here as well. For my money, this is the most competitive category outside of Best Picture and possibly Best Director. There’s a bunch of top-tier contenders that all could win, let alone get nominated, so this is a bit of a top-heavy category.
Is there any question left that Sean Penn is the finest actor of his generation? Can there be any further doubt that Penn stands alongside Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, early Al Pacino and early Robert de Niro as one of the screens greatest actors? Read more on Why is Nobody Talking About Sean Penn?…
Up until he blew me away with ‘Into the Wild’ in 2007, I’d always been hit and miss with the directorial outings of Sean Penn. I appreciated him adapting a Bruce Springsteen song for ‘The Indian Runner’ (he based it on the song Highway Patrolman) more than I actually enjoyed the film, and I was lukewarm on ‘The Crossing Guard’. That being said, I do like ‘The Pledge’ quite a bit, so he’s hardly a one hit wonder in my book and I definitely can’t wait to see him tackle another project. Variety is reporting here that he’s found a new one, and it’s another film set in the harsh outdoors. After the jump you can see some details about the flick, but it sounds like a winner to me. You can find more below…
Patricia Clarkson, James Gandolfini, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, and Sean Penn stood on the stage of the Roy Thomanson Hall with director Steve Zaillian before the Gala screening of their film All the King’s Men (2006). Each had been greeted with enormous applause from the appreciative Toronto audience, Gandolfini and Penn drawing the largest ovations. Two hours later the film ended to polite applause and then almost deafening silence. As is the custom, the spot lights shone on the middle seats of the first balcony where the stars sit, allowing the stars and director to take their bow.
In the wake of the Aurora, Colorado tragedy, Warner Brothers has decided to move Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad starring Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, and Josh Brolin to January 2013.
The film, which tells the story of the LAPD trying to keep the East Coast mafia out of Los Angeles during the 40s and 50s, has been reported to have scenes of a shooting inside a movie theater. Some pundits have speculated if the move is truly based on the tragedy or was it a sign of the lack of faith in the project. Read more on Fleischer’s “Gangster Squad” moves to 2013!…
With punches, beautiful dames, bullets, and a Jay-Z sample, the trailer for Gangster Squad has arrived online! Being one of the most anticipated films coming out this year, the trailer promises a solid entry into the cops and robbers genre. The cast looks to be on their game and each actor fits well into the setting of a corrupt Los Angeles. Set in Los Angeles in 1949, Gangster Squad tells the story of “ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) who runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and–if he has his way–every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.”
While the announcement of films playing at the Cannes Film Festival did not include ‘The Gangster Squad’, a piece by The Playlist suggests that Sean Penn is coming to Cannes with a new performance, and since he only has one film in the can…well…you do the math. This could possibly make a lot of sense considering Warner Brothers recently gave its prime release date to Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’. Could the studio be planning to launch Ruben Fleischer’s flick a bit earlier than expected? Hit the jump to see my thoughts, but in short…I sure hope so.
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer Written by: Will Beall
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Giovanni Ribisi, Nick Nolte, Frank Grillo, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena, Anthony Mackie, Josh Pence, and Mireille Enos
Synopsis (from Warner Brothers): Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and—if he has his way—every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.
(SANTA MONICA, CA – January 9, 2012)
– The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) announced today that renowned actor and humanitarian Sean Penn will be presented with the fifth annual Joel Siegel Award at the 17th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards. The award will be presented by fellow actor and 13-time Critics’ Choice Award nominee George Clooney. The ceremony will air live on VH1 on Thursday, January 12 at 8:00 PM ET/PT.
Given annually, this special award pays homage to beloved “Good Morning America” film critic and BFCA member Joel Siegel, who lost his long struggle with cancer in June 2007. It seeks to honor those who understand, as Joel did, that the greatest value of celebrity is as an enhanced platform to do good works for others.
The Year-In-Review continues with some non-traditional citations on certain films and performances that did or did not make head way in 2011. What are your choices for “Limited Performance” of the year? or Most Underrated Film? or share what you thought about the Year-in-TV as I dish out my favorites in Television Drama and Comedies. Read more after jump. Read more on Year-In-Review: Editor’s Specialty Awards…
For Your Consideration: Best Actor in a Leading Role Film: “The Tree of Life” Director: Terrence Malick Writer: Terrence Malick Realistic Nominations: Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects
Oscar Scene: “Father, mother, always you wrestle inside me.”
Say what you will about Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” but many of its players gave some of the best works of the year including the young Hunter McCracken in his screen debut as “Jack.” Much of the film’s praise has gone to its direction by Terrence Malick or Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as Jack’s parents. What McCracken achieves in the film is nothing short of astounding.
In 1992 my wife and I went out to a movie, our first since the birth of our first child Aurora. We were nervous about leaving the baby with a sitter, but knew that this had to happen at some point, so we took the plunge. Sherri had always gone to the movies with me, press screenings excepted of course, and I missed having her along with me. The film was Unforgiven (1992) and two hours later we emerged from the film looking at each other as though we had eaten something bad. Neither of us liked the film very much, and voiced this to each other all the way home. But then for the next week, I could not stop thinking about the movie, the little moments, the performances, the many layers of the deceptively simplistic screenplay that contained enormous depth. Eastwood’s superb performance, Hackman’s terrifying Little Bill, all weighed on my mind. Oddly enough, Sherri had also been thinking about the film so we decided to go and give it another try.
This time we emerged from the theatre knowing we had seen one of the greatest films of all time. Perhaps it was the thought of our new baby at home in the hands of another that impacted our first viewing of the picture, perhaps we needed a different type of film for that first night out, but whatever had happened, the second time the movie hit us as it should have the first time. Read more on Re-Thinking ‘The Tree of Life’…
Admittedly Kris Tapley over at Hit Fix beat me to this, though I have been tooling around on it for a week or so.
Actors revere Eastwood. They admire the fact he does not get in their way when they are working, creating a character for him in his film. They are hired to serve his film, and they know this. Going in there is an understanding that they will show up and have the role create and be ready to work. Maybe they know he often shoots and prints rehearsals, maybe they will learn that as Meryl Streep did while shooting The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Eastwood creates a hushed set for his actors, so they have a quiet area in which to create. There is no yelling, no temper fits, no cussing someone because you can, just a well oiled machine that the actors are expect to become a part of very quickly. There is a discipline and professionalism that is simply implied and if the actor struggles with that, Eastwood deals with it. Kevin Costner found out the hard way. An Oscar winning directing himself, he pitched a fit over something silly, and stormed off to his trailer. On the spot Eastwood decided to shoot the scenes he needed with Costner’s double, over his shoulder. They had the scenes done by the time Costner returned from his tantrum at which point he very sheepishly apologized and never again let Eastwood down. As Eastwood stated to him, “I am here to shoot film, not fuck around.” And shoot film he did that day. Rarely does he do more than three takes, believing the actors do their best in the early ones, and for those actors who do not do their best in three…catch up and do it. He does deal with egos on his set, and as Sean Penn aptly said, “he is the least disappointing icon in America.”
After what seems like an eternity, Terrence Malick’s 5th film has finally reached theaters. The Tree of Life is a great many things, while also never explicitly making its ambitions clear. Is it a meditation on nature vs. nurture? Is it rumination on the universe? Is it Malick trying to understand a supreme being? Is it simply a story of a boy dealing with the loss of childhood innocence? To me, it’s all of those things, and more. The other thing that this film is, however, is incredibly flawed. Malick’s bitten off more than he can chew, and while he’s never been more gripping as a director, he’s never misfired this badly as a writer. While he brings us indelible images that I believe are some of the most beautiful ever committed to film, he also brings us a glacially paced movie that has very little in the way of a plot and ultimately thinks that it’s saying more than it actually is. Granted, the flick has a lot going for it; incredible cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki, a heart stirring score from Alexandre Desplat, a career best supporting turn from Brad Pitt, and a startlingly good debut from Hunter McCracken, but it’s also far too long, way too redundant, and ultimately designed in such a way that it invites reverence and admiration more than enjoyment. I know that I saw something special, but I also know that it’s also a disappointment and a vague misfire from the enigmatic filmmaker. In many ways, this is the cinematic equivalent of attending church…except the sermon is too self-important and ultimately unable to leave the mark on you that it intends. Read more on The Tree of Life (Multiple Reviews)…
It has been said that good things come to those who wait. Many know the story of Gangster Squad being delayed due to the horrific shootings in Aurora, CO in July and having to reshoot a crucial scene (the original was a theater shootout). Whether that re-shot scene had anything to do with the dismal final product we will probably never know but after seeing the film they could have stood to redo the entire film. Gangster Squad is a stylistic mess of a movie that gets bogged down by trying to be every gangster film you’ve ever seen without the aspects that made those movies great.
