In five decades, James Bond has racked up many feats from babes to bombs, but one figure 007 hasn’t charmed is Oscar, though that will begin to change this year. 007 will receive a full tribute at the 85th Academy Awards.
[Related: Steven Spielberg Hoped To Direct James Bond - But Got A 'No']
Oscar organizers will fete the franchise in celebration of its 50th anniversary during the telecast on Sunday February 24th. The original secret British operative was played by Sean Connery, starting with Dr. No in 1962. Connery stayed on for five Bond films when the mantle was handed off for one film to George Lazenby for 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Service before returning to Connery for 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, Since then Roger Moore took on the role for seven installments, followed by Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.
Daniel Craig is 007’s latest manifestation with three features under his belt, including the franchise’s latest and most successful film yet, Skyfall, which became the 14th film to hit the $1 billion mark in its worldwide theatrical run.
Despite not being a big seducer of Oscar, Bond has scored some wins over the decades, including seven nominations and two wins. Goldfinger (1964) won a Best Effects, Sound Effects Academy Award and 1965’s Thunderball took another for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects.
Noted Oscar telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron: “We are very happy to include a special sequence on our show saluting the Bond films on their 50th birthday. Starting with Dr. No back in 1962, the 007 movies have become the longest-running motion picture franchise in history and a beloved global phenomenon.”
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn. massacre, the national conversation has included no lack of conjecture that the media we consume is to blame for the violence. Most famously, NRA second-in-command Wayne Lapierre’s Dec. 21 speech in Washington, D.C. featured a lengthy segment in which he pointed the finger at video games and movies and singled out a number of decades-old films as particularly culpable. Lapierre was roundly mocked for his tone-deaf diatribe, but he was hardly unique. Numerous public figures on the right and left have gone out of their way to make certain we spend more time talking about Quentin Tarantino and Natural Born Killers than about access to assault weapons.
Is all this talk of violent media having an effect on the public at large? A poll conducted by The Hollywood Reporter suggests that it is., but only barely. The survey, conducted with pollster Penn Shoen Berland, asked “consumers of movies and television” how their opinions regarding violent media had been affected by the Sandy Hook shootings. The findings are inconsistent, but they reveal interesting information about the mind of film and TV fans. Among them:
* 60 percent of respondents still believe mental illness is the primary cause of mass killings.
* 44 percent of parents polled said that the shootings made them “more aware” of how much violence is in the media their kids enjoy.
* 46 percent of all respondents felt Hollywood should make fewer violent movies. When only parents are considered, the number jumps to 54%.
* Women were more than twice as likely as men to call for fewer violent films.
* Only 6 percent of respondents said they want more violent films to be produced.
* 70 percent of respondents older than…
Full Story »Scoring more than $160 million in three weeks to become China’s highest-grossing domestic film ever, Lost in Thailand is a boisterous, joyously hokey comedy that connects with auds through its explicit desire to please. Helmed by lead actor Xu Zheng, the $2.2 million-budgeted follow-up to 2010’s modest hit Lost on Journey is unexpectedly well honed for a debut feature. Peppering this feel-good road movie with the perkier thrills of a cat-and-mouse chase, Xu draws sparks from a talented comic trio cast as three Beijingers on an accident-prone journey to Chiangmai. Boffo B.O. should stoke offshore ancillary interest.
Having clocked nearly 30 million admissions (it’s poised to challenge China’s two top-grossing films, Avatar and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, this lightweight entertainment is no masterpiece, but has proven a refreshing antidote to the year-end glut of blockbusters.
Written and directed by Hong Kong duo Raymond Yip and Manfred Wong, Lost on Journey starred Xu and Wang Baoqiang in an odd-couple road pic modeled on Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Relocated to a foreign country, the sequel sacrifices its predecessor’s strong regional color for broader attitude and greater narrative whimsy. Playing new characters, Xu and Wang retain the oddball dynamic they had as men of different class and values, but the plot devices that bring them together feel more scripted. Thankfully, this is offset by the decision to bring character actor Huang Bo into the mix (he previously teamed with Xu in Crazy Stone and Crazy Racer), creating a more complex synergy.
An energy-company exec who helped develop a miracle fuel called Supergas, Xu Lang (Xu) is determined to secure the patent before his colleague Gao Bo (Huang) does, and he tries to track down reclusive prexy Zhou to buy out his stake. When Xu…
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Combine a kind heart and the power of social networking and sometimes, the proverbial mountain will go to Muhammad. That was the case recently when director J.J. Abrams granted a dying cancer patient the chance to see Star Trek Into Darkness months before the feature is set to head into theaters.
[Related: New 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Teaser: The Wrath Of Cumberbatch?]
Abrams learned of the man’s wish last week on link-sharing site Reddit. A user identified as ideeeyut detailed how his 41-year old Trekkie friend, who has leukemia and other health issues, headed out to a screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hoping to catch a ten-minute preview of the upcoming Star Trek film. The theater, however, did not play the preview, which is showing in most theaters.
The disappointment lead Daniel’s friend to give a “passionate plea” via Reddit for help to allow Daniel to see the film, according to CNET via Deadline. After the request hit Reddit, the story found its way onto a number of Trek and geek sites, leading one user to tweet the story to J.J. Abrams and other working on the film, leading to Abrams telephoning Daniel up about setting plans for a personal preview.
Ideeyut went back to Reddit a few days later, quoting Daniel’s wife who said, “We saw it and we enjoyed it immensely as a film and as a gesture.” She said further that she hoped the message would spotlight the “heartfelt message of giving.”
Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 17th.
It’s been tough to know what to expect from the forthcoming remake of Sam Raimi’s horror classic Evil Dead, but let the first trailer put your mind to rest — or, really, unrest: This is good, old-fashioned, red-band terror that manages to evoke the spirit of the original film (evil book unleashes spirits in a cabin in the woods; nothing good comes of it) with all new kinds of messed up, squishy images to keep you awake at night.
Gone is the safe, comforting distance created by low budget 1980s effects work and Bruce Campbell’s cult status-worthy antics; with its new “heroine” (Jane Levy) and gang of fresh meat soon-to-be-victims and some fantastically icky gore shots, this ain’t your grandpa’s Evil Dead.
Fede Alvarez is in the director’s chair on the April 12 release, while Raimi and Campbell are onboard as producers. Take a look at the redband trailer below and chime in with your verdict, and good luck keeping your dinner down/fending off visions of creepy tongue-splitting possessed girls in your nightmares tonight.
Synopsis:
In the much anticipated remake of the 1981 cult-hit horror film, five twenty-something friends become holed up in a remote cabin. When they discover a Book of the Dead, they unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival.
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Let’s kick off the new year with lady-killers of two different generations: Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson retains his seductive abilities in a very different kind of role, while Dean Martin gets embroiled in a 1960s sex farce. Both movies are thoroughly entertaining, but they’re also about as polar-opposite as it gets, making them the perfect antipodes for my first column of 2013.
HIGH: Cosmopolis (EOne; $24.98 DVD, $29.98 Blu-Ray)
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Written and directed by David Cronenberg, based on the novel by Don DeLillo; starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Mathieu Amalric, Jay Baruchel
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Wall Street whiz kid Eric Packer (Pattinson) just wants to drive across New York City in his thoroughly tricked-out white limozeen (as Dolly Parton might call it) to get a haircut from his childhood barber. But between a presidential visit, anarchist riots and mysterious death threats, Packer spends most of the day hosting an assortment of visitors (from mistresses to business associates bearing bad news) in the car, exiting occasionally to share a series of elliptical conversations with his sexually-frustrated wife over meals. Is he doomed? Is the universe coming to an end? Anything can happen in this moody mix of Last Year at Marienbad via The Bonfire of the Vanities.
WHY IT’S SCHMANCY: Cosmopolis would make a perfect double feature with another Cronenberg literary adaptation, Crash; they both revolve around cars (and the juncture of man and machine) and everyone speaks in that whispery monotone that either makes you cock an ear toward the screen or storm out in irritation. This new film may test your patience with its seeming indifference to things like…
Full Story »Colin Farrell is back in another sure-to-be-very-good film that will probably not do so well at the box office, the upcoming revenge thriller Dead Man Down, directed by Niels Arden Oplev.
Farrell plays a mob hitman blackmailed by a disfigured young woman (Noomi Rapace) interested in procuring his services to exact revenge on the man who cut up her face. That man happens to be a crime lord played by Terrence Howard, and naturally we can expect a lot of seething menace and angry looks between him and Farrell before things come to a head.
The first trailer for Dead Man Down has been released. Here’s a look:
This is Oplev’s first film since directing the 2009 original version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. That film was objectively awesom, and history will remember it as vastly superior to Fincher’s 2011 remake. Given Oplev’s record, the excellent cast, and the fact that it looks like we’re getting the In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths Collin Farrell instead of the Total Recall Colin Farrell, I have a hard time imagining that this will suck. Unfortunately, while the trailer is sufficiently moody and violent, it makes Dead Man Down feel like a billion other hitman-finds-redemption movies.
Still, the cover of Shine On You Crazy Diamond is kind of amazing, even if it doesn’t displace The Scissor Sisters from the list of greatest of all Pink Floyd covers.
Dead Man Down comes out March 8.
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George Lucas apparently has much atoning to do for his decision to sell LucasFilm to Disney. The Star Wars creator and film mogul comes in for a heavy tweaking in the list of 10 Celebrity New Year’s Resolutions posted by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s Funny or Die website.
The resolution, one of 10 posted by A General Nonchalance, does not exactly suggest that hopes are running high for Disney’s reboot of the Star Wars franchise.
Not all of the resolutions are movie-related. But those that do have a connection to film, however tenuous, are:
That doesn’t sound so much like a resolution as it does large-scale fantasy fulfillment for potential Baby Goose stalkers out there.
Meanwhile, Katy Perry’s “credibility” and Meryl Streep’s “modesty” are also in the crosshairs.
Funny stuff, but the post left me wanting more. So, I invite all you wicked wits out there who read Movieline to submit your own movie-related barbs in the comments section. For instance, I could see Russell Crowe resolving:
“More time menacing public with phones. Less time assaulting them with my singing.”
Your turn.
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We all know producers can be a bunch of real, ah, prickly people. They kind of have to be, since their job, so long as it’s their actual job and not just a title given to them because they invested a couple of mil into the production, is to make sure everything goes smoothly, the film stays within budget, and the money isn’t wasted on limos when it could be wasted instead on expensive CG effects that look completely dated within 3 years*. As a result, these guys tend to be blunt as hell and not afraid to hurt some mothaf*ckin’ feelings when they rolling deep through the movie hood, as it were.
Take Joel Silver, the famously take-no-prisoners producer of the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard films.** Screenwriter Doug Richardson, the guy who Wrote Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and Bad Boys, has shared a story from the making of Die Hard over on his official site, and it’s a most triumphant example of producer due diligence at the expense of expensive furniture you’ll ever hear.
Remember the scene in Die Hard when the roof of Nakatomi Plaza explodes, and the penthouse lobby and fountain area is completely trashed? You might have noticed there’s an expensive looking couch in that scene; You might have also noticed that it appears to survive the initial explosion, only to show up seconds later completely aflame. There’s a reason for that — the couch wasn’t just expensive looking, it actually cost $5,000 back in 1988 which in today’s money is about 5 trillion dollars.*** Apparently, the scene drew cheers and high fives from everyone on the crew after they pulled it off during the shoot; except for Silver that is, whose eagle-eyed penny-pinching…
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You might have heard the shocking news that Django Unchained features copious use of the word ‘nigger’. I know! I can’t understand why a film set in the antebellum South, featuring numerous unrepentant slaveowners, during a time when black people were considered barely human as a matter of course, would have so many n-bombs. Sure, the word is almost exclusively spoken by villains or by black people to refer to themselves, and sure, it is one of the few aspects of the film that is 100% historically accurate, but come on. How rude of Quentin Tarantino to include it and make the harsh depiction of the slavery era even more uncomfortable.
I’m kidding, the fake controversy is incredibly stupid1, and feels to me like the rush to blame movies and video games for terrible acts of public violence, because that’s easier than actually facing our demons head-on2. Maybe that’s why Samuel L. Jackson had a bit of fun during an interview with FOX Houston’s film critic Jake Hamilton over the issue. About 14 minutes into the the video below, Hamilton started to ask Jackson about the controversy, and this happened:
I feel for Hamilton of course. His refusal to use the word and stir up a hornet’s nest of both real and fake outrage is understandable, but of course, it’s just a word. I would hope we’re at a place where we can use it in context – like I did here – without anyone mistaking you for a racist. Perhaps Jackson’s position that the taboo just gives the word more power is the correct one. Either way, this was hilarious.
What do you think, readers? Sound off in comments.
1. Speaking of stupid, we’re not giving Drudge hits, but surely you read
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