Established in 2016, the Seattle Film Critics Society (SFCS) says that it is dedicated to supporting local productions and festivals, enhancing public education, awareness, and appreciation of cinema, and strengthening the bonds of critical dialogue as it pertains to the cinematic arts. The group seeks to highlight the best films produced each year–both by the major studios and independent filmmakers–and share our love of cinema with Seattle-area residents. The group is made of a robust network of film critics and reviewers in Seattle and surrounding areas of Washington State. The society is represented by members in print, radio, television and online mediums.
The nominations for the 2016 SFCS Awards were announced Wednesday, December 21, 2016. The winners will be announced Thursday, January 5, 2017.
2016 SFCS Award nominations:
BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR:
13TH (Netflix)
ARRIVAL (Paramount)
ELLE (Sony Pictures Classics)
THE HANDMAIDEN (Amazon Studios/Magnolia Pictures)
HELL OR HIGH WATER (CBS Films)
JACKIE (Fox Searchlight)
LA LA LAND (Lionsgate)
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (Amazon Studios/Roadside Attractions)
MOONLIGHT (A24)
THE WITCH (A24)
BEST DIRECTOR:
Damien Chazelle – La La Land
Robert Eggers – The Witch
Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
Paul Verhoeven – Elle
Denis Villeneuve – Arrival
BEST ACTOR in a LEADING ROLE:
Casey Affleck – Manchester By The Sea
Ryan Gosling – La La Land
Logan Lerman – Indignation
Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington – Fences
BEST ACTRESS in a LEADING ROLE:
Amy Adams – Arrival
Kate Beckinsale – Love & Friendship
Isabelle Huppert – Elle
Natalie Portman – Jackie
Emma Stone – La La Land
BEST ACTOR in a SUPPORTING ROLE:
Mahershala Ali– Moonlight
Jeff Bridges – Hell Or High Water
Kyle Chandler – Manchester By The Sea
John Goodman – 10 Cloverfield Lane
Lucas Hedges – Manchester By The Sea
BEST ACTRESS in a SUPPORTING ROLE:
Viola Davis – Fences
Lily Gladstone – Certain Women
Naomie Harris – Moonlight
Kate McKinnon – Ghostbusters
Michelle Williams – Manchester By The Sea
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST:
Captain Fantastic
Hell Or High Water
Fences
Manchester By The Sea
Moonlight
BEST SCREENPLAY:
Arrival – Eric Heisserer
Hell Or High Water – Taylor Sheridan
La La Land – Damien Chazelle
Manchester By The Sea – Kenneth Lonergan
Moonlight – Barry Jenkins and Tarell McCraney
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:
Finding Dory – Andrew Stanton, director; Angus MacLane, co-director
Kubo And The Two Strings – Travis Knight, director
Moana – Ron Clements and John Musker, directors
Tower – Keith Maitland, director
Zootopia – Byron Howard and Rich Moore, directors; Jared Bush, co-director.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Elle – Paul Verhoeven, director
The Handmaiden – Park Chan-wook, director
The Innocents – Anne Fontaine, director
Under The Shadow – Babak Anvari, director
The Wailing – Na Hong-jin, director
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
13th – Ava DuVernay, director
Cameraperson – Kirsten Johnson, director
O.J.: Made In America – Ezra Edelman, director
Tickled – David Farrier, Dylan Reeve, directors
Weiner – Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, directors
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Arrival – Bradford Young
Jackie – Stéphane Fontaine
La La Land – Linus Sandgren
Moonlight – James Laxton
The Witch – Jarin Blaschke
BEST COSTUME DESIGN:
The Handmaiden – Cho Sang-kyung
Jackie – Madeline Fontaine
La La Land – Mary Zophres
Love & Friendship – Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh
The Witch – Linda Muir
BEST FILM EDITING:
Arrival – Joe Walker
Cameraperson – Nels Bangerter, David Teague
Hell Or High Water – Jake Roberts
La La Land – Tom Cross
Moonlight – Nat Sanders, Joi McMillon
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
Arrival – Jóhann Jóhannsson
Jackie – Mica Levi
La La Land – Justin Hurwitz
Moonlight – Nicholas Britell
Swiss Army Man – Andy Hull, Robert McDowell
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:
Arrival – Patrice Vermette (production designer); Paul Hotte (key decorator)
The Handmaiden – Ryu Seong-hee
Jackie – Jean Rabasse (production designer); Véronique Melery (set decorator)
La La Land – David Wasco (production designer); Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (set decorator)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Doug Chiang, Neil Lamont (production designers); Lee Sandales (set decorator)
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
Arrival – Louis Morin
Captain America: Civil War – Dan DeLeeuw, Dan Sudick, Russell Earl, Greg Steele
Doctor Strange – Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Richard Bluff, Vince Cerelli
The Jungle Book – Robert Legato, Andrew R. Jones, Adam Valdez, Dan Lemmon
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel, Neil Corbould
BEST YOUTH PERFORMANCE (18 years of age or younger upon start of filming):
Alex Hibbert – Moonlight
Royalty Hightower – The Fits
Sunny Pawar – Lion
Harvey Scrimshaw – The Witch
Anya Taylor-Joy – The Witch
BEST VILLAIN:
Darcy Banker – Green Room – portrayed by Patrick Stewart
Black Phillip – The Witch – portrayed by Charlie and voiced by Wahab Chaudary
Orson Krennic – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn
Norman Nordstrom (a/k/a ‘The Blind Man’) – Don’t Breathe – portrayed by Stephen Lang
Howard Stambler – 10 Cloverfield Lane – portrayed by John Goodman
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Showing posts with label Paul Verhoeven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Verhoeven. Show all posts
Friday, December 30, 2016
2016 Seattle Film Critics Society Award Nominations Announced
Labels:
2016,
animation news,
Ava DuVernay,
Barry Jenkins,
Critics,
Documentary News,
International Cinema News,
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movie news,
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Wednesday, November 23, 2016
2016 European Film Award Nominations Announced
The European Film Awards recognize
excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are are
presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy and are
given in over ten categories, of which the most important is
“European Film,” the best film of the year award. The European
Film Awards are restricted to European cinema and European producers,
directors, and actors.
On Friday, November 5, 2016, the
nominations for the 29th European Film Awards were announced in
Seville, Spain. The EFA, in collaboration with the European Film
Academy and EFA Productions, honor the greatest achievements in
European cinema at the 2016 European Film Awards on December 10, 2016
in Wroclaw, Poland.
2016 / 29th European Film Awards
nominations:
BEST EUROPEAN FILM
“Elle,” (Paul Verhoeven, France,
Germany)
“I, Daniel Blake,” (Ken Loach,
U.K., France)
“Julieta,” (Pedro Almodóvar,
Spain)
“Room,” (Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland,
Canada)
“Toni Erdmann,” (Maren Ade,
Germany, Austria)
BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR
Paul Verhoeven
Cristian Mungiu, (“Graduation,”
Romania, France, Belgium)
Ken Loach
Pedro Almodóvar
Maren Ade, (“Toni Erdmann”)
BEST EUROPEAN ACTOR
Rolf Lassgård, (“A Man Called Ove”)
Hugh Grant, (“Florence Foster
Jenkins”)
Dave Johns, (“Blake”)
Burghart Klaußner, (“The People vs.
Fritz Bauer”)
Peter Simonischek, (“Erdmann”)
Javier Cámara, (“Truman”)
BEST EUROPEAN ACTRESS
Isabelle Huppert, (“Elle”)
Emma Suárez & Adriana Ugarte,
(“Julieta”)
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, (“Like
Crazy”)
Trine Dyrholm, (“The Commune”)
Sandra Hüller, (“Toni Erdmann”)
BEST EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER
Cristian Mungiu, (“Graduation”)
Paul Laverty, (“Blake”)
Emma Donoghue, (“Room”)
Maren Ade, (“Toni Erdmann”)
Tomasz Wasilewski, (“United States of
Love”)
BEST EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY
“The Land Of The Enlightened,”
(Pieter-Jan De Pue, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands)
“21 X New York,” (Piotr
Stasik,Poland)
“Mr. Gaga,” (Tomer Heymann, Israel,
Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands)
“S is for Stanley – 30 Years At The
Wheel For Stanley Kubrick,” (Alex Infascelli, Italy)
“A Family Affair,” (Tom Fassaert,
the Netherlands, Belgium)
“Fire At Sea,” (Gianfranco Rosi,
Italy, France)
BEST EUROPEAN ANIMATED FEATURE
“My Life as a Zucchini,” (Claude
Barras, France, Switzerland)
“Psiconautas, the forgotten
children,” (Pedro Rivero, Alberto Vázquez, Spain)
“The Red Turtle” (Michael Dudok de
Wit, Japan, France, Belgium)
BEST EUROPEAN COMEDY
“A Man Called Ove,” (Hannes Holm,
Sweden, Norway)
“Look Who’s Back;” (David Wnendt,
Germany)
“La Vache,” (Mohamed Hamidi,
France)
FIPRESCI PRIZE – BEST EUROPEAN
DISCOVERY
“Dogs,” (Bogdan Mirica, France,
Romania, Bulgaria, Qatar)
“Liebmann” (Jules Herrmann,
Germany)
“Sand Storm,” (Elite Zexer, Israel)
“The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli
Mäki,” (Juho Kuosmanen, Finland, Sweden, Germany)
“Thirst,” (Svetla Tsotsorkova,
Bulgaria)
EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY FILM AWARD
“Fire at Sea,” (Gianfranco Rosi,
Italy, France)
“Graduation”
“I, Daniel Blake”
“The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli
Mäki”
“Toni Erdmann”
BEST EUROPEAN SHORT
“The Wall”
“Edmond”
“The Goodbye”
“90 Degrees North”
“We All Love The Sea Shore”
“In The Distance”
“A Man Returned”
“Small Talk”
“I’m Not From Here”
“Home”
“The Fullness Of Time (Romance)”
“Limbo”
“Amalimbo”
“9 Days – From My Window In Aleppo”
Lifetime Achievement Award: Jean-Claude
Carrière
Achievement in World Cinema Award:
Pierce Brosnan
Young Audience Award: Émilie Deleuze -
Miss Impossible
---------------------
Labels:
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Ken Loach,
movie awards,
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Paul Verhoeven,
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press release,
Short Films
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Review: Original "Robocop" Still an Amazing Film
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 32 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux
Robocop (1987)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven
WRITERS: Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner
PRODUCER: Arne Schmidt
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jost Vacano (D.o.P.) with Sol Negrin
EDITOR: Frank J. Urioste
COMPOSER: Basil Poledouris
Academy Award winner
SCI-FI/CRIME/ACTION
Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, Felton Perry, Paul McCrane, Jesse Goins, Del Zamora, Steve Minh, Ken Page, and Laird Stuart
Some believe that “standing the test of time” is a mark that a work of fiction, entertainment, art, etc. is of the highest-quality, most important, or just plain good. Of course, for some people, the best stories get better with age.
Robocop is a 1987 science fiction, crime, and action film from director Paul Verhoeven. Twenty-seven years later, Robocop is still a fantastic film, and maybe even better now than it was when it was first released. The film is set in a dystopia, a near-future version of Detroit, Michigan and focuses on a policeman who returns from the dead as a powerful cyborg cop that might be the future of law enforcement.
Robocop opens in the future and finds Detroit beset by crime and on the verge of collapse because of rampant crime and a severe financial crisis. To keep the city alive, the mayor signs a deal with Omni Consumer Products (OCP). The deal allows OCP to take over the Detroit Metropolitan Police Department and to also build a high-end real estate development called “Delta City,” by demolishing rundown sections of Detroit.
Meanwhile, Alex J. Murphy (Peter Weller) arrives at Police Precinct Metro West as a transfer from a precinct that is much nicer than the busy and troubled Metro West. Not long after his arrival, Murphy and his partner, Officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen), confront a vicious criminal gang. Murphy is killed in the line of duty, but OCP revives him as a cyborg – part man and mostly machine. Murphy is now “RoboCop,” the future of law enforcement, but this future is haunted by submerged memories of his past life.
With Robocop, writers Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner wrote one of the smartest and best screenplays in the history of science fiction films. Robocop includes themes regarding corporate greed and corruption, identity, mass media, urban decay and gentrification, among many. The film is clever in the way it satirizes a news media that trivializes even the most serious and tragic events (murder, natural disasters, civil unrest), turning them into junk news for “entertainment consumers.” At the time of Robocop’s release, television news was already coming under heavy criticism for being “infotainment.” Robocop was dead-on in predicting where television news was headed, as current real-world TV news is, in many ways, like what Robocop depicts.
Watching Robocop for the first time in ages, I noticed that the film is stylistically like a Western. Thematically, Robocop bears a resemblance to Westerns that focus on the lone lawman, fighting against a corrupt system and the vilest bad guys. This film is also similar to Westerns that focus on a good guy returning from near-death or grave injury to deliver payback to the evil-doers that hurt him. Basil Poledouris driving and colorful score for this film is the perfect musical accompaniment for scenes featuring RoboCop when he is man on a mission.
And Robocop is simply a damn good movie. Compared to his other films, director Paul Verhoeven delivers a film that is clean and straightforward. He relies on the screenplay to be clever and complicated, while his direction is sparse and matter-of-fact. The result is a science fiction movie that looks more like a crime film and cop action movie than it does a film about the future. In fact, Robocop seems less a prediction of the future and more like a message from the actual future.
This film has a number of good performances, but Peter Weller stands out. He plays Murphy as being barely noticeable as a person, but Weller employs mechanical affectations to turn RoboCop into a magnetic personality. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and Weller left me wanting more of Robocop, the movie and, indeed, the man.
9 of 10
A+
Saturday, July 12, 2014
NOTES:
1988 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win “Special Achievement Award” (Stephen Hunter Flick and John Pospisil for sound effects editing); 2 nominations: “Best Sound” (Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, Aaron Rochin, and Robert Wald), and “Best Film Editing” (Frank J. Urioste)
1989 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Make Up Artist” (Carla Palmer) and “Best Special Effects” (Rob Bottin, Phil Tippett, Peter Kuran, and Rocco Gioffre)
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Robocop (1987)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven
WRITERS: Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner
PRODUCER: Arne Schmidt
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jost Vacano (D.o.P.) with Sol Negrin
EDITOR: Frank J. Urioste
COMPOSER: Basil Poledouris
Academy Award winner
SCI-FI/CRIME/ACTION
Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, Felton Perry, Paul McCrane, Jesse Goins, Del Zamora, Steve Minh, Ken Page, and Laird Stuart
Some believe that “standing the test of time” is a mark that a work of fiction, entertainment, art, etc. is of the highest-quality, most important, or just plain good. Of course, for some people, the best stories get better with age.
Robocop is a 1987 science fiction, crime, and action film from director Paul Verhoeven. Twenty-seven years later, Robocop is still a fantastic film, and maybe even better now than it was when it was first released. The film is set in a dystopia, a near-future version of Detroit, Michigan and focuses on a policeman who returns from the dead as a powerful cyborg cop that might be the future of law enforcement.
Robocop opens in the future and finds Detroit beset by crime and on the verge of collapse because of rampant crime and a severe financial crisis. To keep the city alive, the mayor signs a deal with Omni Consumer Products (OCP). The deal allows OCP to take over the Detroit Metropolitan Police Department and to also build a high-end real estate development called “Delta City,” by demolishing rundown sections of Detroit.
Meanwhile, Alex J. Murphy (Peter Weller) arrives at Police Precinct Metro West as a transfer from a precinct that is much nicer than the busy and troubled Metro West. Not long after his arrival, Murphy and his partner, Officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen), confront a vicious criminal gang. Murphy is killed in the line of duty, but OCP revives him as a cyborg – part man and mostly machine. Murphy is now “RoboCop,” the future of law enforcement, but this future is haunted by submerged memories of his past life.
With Robocop, writers Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner wrote one of the smartest and best screenplays in the history of science fiction films. Robocop includes themes regarding corporate greed and corruption, identity, mass media, urban decay and gentrification, among many. The film is clever in the way it satirizes a news media that trivializes even the most serious and tragic events (murder, natural disasters, civil unrest), turning them into junk news for “entertainment consumers.” At the time of Robocop’s release, television news was already coming under heavy criticism for being “infotainment.” Robocop was dead-on in predicting where television news was headed, as current real-world TV news is, in many ways, like what Robocop depicts.
Watching Robocop for the first time in ages, I noticed that the film is stylistically like a Western. Thematically, Robocop bears a resemblance to Westerns that focus on the lone lawman, fighting against a corrupt system and the vilest bad guys. This film is also similar to Westerns that focus on a good guy returning from near-death or grave injury to deliver payback to the evil-doers that hurt him. Basil Poledouris driving and colorful score for this film is the perfect musical accompaniment for scenes featuring RoboCop when he is man on a mission.
And Robocop is simply a damn good movie. Compared to his other films, director Paul Verhoeven delivers a film that is clean and straightforward. He relies on the screenplay to be clever and complicated, while his direction is sparse and matter-of-fact. The result is a science fiction movie that looks more like a crime film and cop action movie than it does a film about the future. In fact, Robocop seems less a prediction of the future and more like a message from the actual future.
This film has a number of good performances, but Peter Weller stands out. He plays Murphy as being barely noticeable as a person, but Weller employs mechanical affectations to turn RoboCop into a magnetic personality. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, and Weller left me wanting more of Robocop, the movie and, indeed, the man.
9 of 10
A+
Saturday, July 12, 2014
NOTES:
1988 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win “Special Achievement Award” (Stephen Hunter Flick and John Pospisil for sound effects editing); 2 nominations: “Best Sound” (Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, Aaron Rochin, and Robert Wald), and “Best Film Editing” (Frank J. Urioste)
1989 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Make Up Artist” (Carla Palmer) and “Best Special Effects” (Rob Bottin, Phil Tippett, Peter Kuran, and Rocco Gioffre)
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Labels:
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Action,
BAFTA nominee,
Crime,
Movie review,
Orion Pictures,
Oscar winner,
Paul Verhoeven,
sci-fi
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Review: "Basic Instinct" is Still a Killer (Happy B'day, Sharon Stone)
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 129 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux
Basic Instinct (1992)
Running time: 123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and sensuality and for drug use and language
DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven
WRITER: Joe Eszterhas
PRODUCER: Alan Marshall
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jan De Bont, A.S.C.
EDITOR: Frank J. Urioste, A.C.E.
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith
Academy Award nominee
THRILLER/CRIME/MYSTERY
Starring: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Denis Arndt, Leilani Sarelle, Bruce A. Young, Chelcie Ross, Dorothy Malone, Wayne Knight, and Daniel von Bargen
The subject of this movie review is Basic Instinct, a 1992 erotic thriller and mystery film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by the great Joe Eszterhas. The film follows a police detective in charge of the investigation of a brutal murder and a beautiful and seductive woman who could be involved.
Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is a tough, but vulnerable San Francisco detective – vulnerable because he’s under the watchful eye of Internal Affairs after he’d shot and killed some tourists during a pursuit of suspects. Nick has also complicated his life by having intimate relations with the therapist, Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), his bosses are making him see.
The story begins after a prominent community member is found bound and brutally murdered (stabbed with an ice pick) in his blood-soaked bed. Nick’s life and job get even more convoluted when he and his partner, Gus Moran (George Dzundza), are assigned to be the lead detectives in the case. The prime suspect is Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a cold, calculating, and beautiful novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite. Catherine takes an immediate interest in Nick and delves into his past, but is she using him for reference in her new novel or is she dragging Nick into an even more dangerous game. As the bodies pile up, Nick wonders if a jealous rival of Catherine’s or of his and Catherine’s relationship is out to frame her… and kill him. Or is Catherine behind all the murders?
Basic Instinct was one of the most talked about and controversial movies of 1992. Protests from gay rights groups marred the film’s production shoot after the script was leaked and it was learn that all the murder suspects in the film were lesbian characters. When the film was finally released, Basic Instinct’s explicit sex, tawdry subject matter, and riveting crime plot made it one of the year’s biggest box office hits and the poster child for those who believed sex and violence in Hollywood films had finally crossed too many lines.
But the film was good… no, great. Hot sex, hot girls, beautiful locations in San Francisco and the surrounding area, swanky sets, multiple plausible murder suspects, and a cop nearly out of his mind chasing hot ass – Basic Instinct was and still is a thoroughly delightful adult thriller. Director Paul Verhoeven created a murder mystery in the tradition of films such as Out of the Past and Murder, My Sweet. If Basic Instinct weren’t a color film, it would be a modern Film-Noir classic.
There were good performances all around, and the best were Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone’s. The duo had great screen chemistry, and Ms. Stone played the part for all it was worth, making her a top-billed, highly paid actress for the next few years. Rarely had there been so much sexual tension, distrust, dishonesty, and brazenness between a screen couple that couldn’t stop “being” with one another, and Douglas coolly played the role on the way to solidifying his position as an A-list actor.
One element that was absolutely necessary in making Basic Instinct such a sexy thriller is the Oscar-nominated score (Best Music, Original Score) by the late Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004). Haunting and alluring, it helps the film capture some of the screen magic of crime films from the golden age of Hollywood. Goldsmith also provided the right musical themes and rhythms to go with Michael and Sharon’s pummel-your-partner love scenes.
8 of 10
A
NOTES:
1993 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Film Editing” (Frank J. Urioste) and “Best Music, Original Score” (Jerry Goldsmith)
1993 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Jerry Goldsmith) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Sharon Stone)
1992 Cannes Film Festival: 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Jerry Goldsmith)
1993 Razzie Awards: 3 nominations: “Worst Actor” (Michael Douglas, also for Shining Through -1992), “Worst New Star” ("Sharon Stone's 'Tribute to Theodore Cleaver'"), and “Worst Supporting Actress” (Jeanne Tripplehorn)
Basic Instinct (1992)
Running time: 123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and sensuality and for drug use and language
DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven
WRITER: Joe Eszterhas
PRODUCER: Alan Marshall
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jan De Bont, A.S.C.
EDITOR: Frank J. Urioste, A.C.E.
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith
Academy Award nominee
THRILLER/CRIME/MYSTERY
Starring: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Denis Arndt, Leilani Sarelle, Bruce A. Young, Chelcie Ross, Dorothy Malone, Wayne Knight, and Daniel von Bargen
The subject of this movie review is Basic Instinct, a 1992 erotic thriller and mystery film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by the great Joe Eszterhas. The film follows a police detective in charge of the investigation of a brutal murder and a beautiful and seductive woman who could be involved.
Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is a tough, but vulnerable San Francisco detective – vulnerable because he’s under the watchful eye of Internal Affairs after he’d shot and killed some tourists during a pursuit of suspects. Nick has also complicated his life by having intimate relations with the therapist, Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), his bosses are making him see.
The story begins after a prominent community member is found bound and brutally murdered (stabbed with an ice pick) in his blood-soaked bed. Nick’s life and job get even more convoluted when he and his partner, Gus Moran (George Dzundza), are assigned to be the lead detectives in the case. The prime suspect is Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a cold, calculating, and beautiful novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite. Catherine takes an immediate interest in Nick and delves into his past, but is she using him for reference in her new novel or is she dragging Nick into an even more dangerous game. As the bodies pile up, Nick wonders if a jealous rival of Catherine’s or of his and Catherine’s relationship is out to frame her… and kill him. Or is Catherine behind all the murders?
Basic Instinct was one of the most talked about and controversial movies of 1992. Protests from gay rights groups marred the film’s production shoot after the script was leaked and it was learn that all the murder suspects in the film were lesbian characters. When the film was finally released, Basic Instinct’s explicit sex, tawdry subject matter, and riveting crime plot made it one of the year’s biggest box office hits and the poster child for those who believed sex and violence in Hollywood films had finally crossed too many lines.
But the film was good… no, great. Hot sex, hot girls, beautiful locations in San Francisco and the surrounding area, swanky sets, multiple plausible murder suspects, and a cop nearly out of his mind chasing hot ass – Basic Instinct was and still is a thoroughly delightful adult thriller. Director Paul Verhoeven created a murder mystery in the tradition of films such as Out of the Past and Murder, My Sweet. If Basic Instinct weren’t a color film, it would be a modern Film-Noir classic.
There were good performances all around, and the best were Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone’s. The duo had great screen chemistry, and Ms. Stone played the part for all it was worth, making her a top-billed, highly paid actress for the next few years. Rarely had there been so much sexual tension, distrust, dishonesty, and brazenness between a screen couple that couldn’t stop “being” with one another, and Douglas coolly played the role on the way to solidifying his position as an A-list actor.
One element that was absolutely necessary in making Basic Instinct such a sexy thriller is the Oscar-nominated score (Best Music, Original Score) by the late Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004). Haunting and alluring, it helps the film capture some of the screen magic of crime films from the golden age of Hollywood. Goldsmith also provided the right musical themes and rhythms to go with Michael and Sharon’s pummel-your-partner love scenes.
8 of 10
A
NOTES:
1993 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Film Editing” (Frank J. Urioste) and “Best Music, Original Score” (Jerry Goldsmith)
1993 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Jerry Goldsmith) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Sharon Stone)
1992 Cannes Film Festival: 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Jerry Goldsmith)
1993 Razzie Awards: 3 nominations: “Worst Actor” (Michael Douglas, also for Shining Through -1992), “Worst New Star” ("Sharon Stone's 'Tribute to Theodore Cleaver'"), and “Worst Supporting Actress” (Jeanne Tripplehorn)
------------------------------
Labels:
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Friday, August 3, 2012
Original "Total Recall" Still a Total Beast
TRASH IN MY EYE No. 64 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux
Total Recall (1990)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven
WRITERS: Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, and Gary Goldman; from a screen story by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and Jon Povill (inspired by the short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Buzz Feitshans and Ronald Shusett
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jost Vacano
EDITORS: Carlos Puente and Frank J. Urioste
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith
Academy Award winner
SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mel Johnson, Jr., and Michael Champion
The subject of this movie review is Total Recall, a 1990 science fiction action film from director Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film is loosely based upon Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” which was first published in 1966. The film follows a man who accidentally has memories dredged up of a life he apparently had on Mars, which only gets him marked for death.
Total Recall opens on Earth in the year 2084. Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a construction worker who yearns for more in his life. He is also troubled by dreams of Mars; in fact, he is obsessed with going to Mars. His wife, Lori (Sharon Stone), wants a different vacation, so Quaid decides to get a vacation to Mars in a unique way. He goes to a company called “Rekall,” which promises to implant memories of a virtual vacation. These false memories will seem just like real memories to Quaid.
However, something goes terribly wrong during the procedure to implant the memories in Quaid’s brain. Suddenly, his visit to Rekall is apparently the reason gun-toting men, led by the ruthless Richter (Michael Ironside), want to kill him. Quaid discovers that he has to get to Mars – for real this time – as soon as he can, because all the answers to his shattered memories are there… he hopes.
I believe that the Dutch-born filmmaker, Paul Verhoeven, does not get enough credit as a terrific director. This is because the amount of violence in his film is seen as excessive by some critics. Indeed, Verhoeven’s science fiction films, Robocop (1987) and Starship Troopers (1997), both contain copious amounts of violence, some of it so intense and gory that it made me cringe when I first watched these films.
However, there is also a strong undercurrent of humor in Verhoeven’s science fiction films. Some of it is black humor, but some of it mocks militarized institutions, such as corporations (Robocop), governments (Starship Troopers), and governments that are really corporations, as in Total Recall. Verhoeven and his screenwriters find absurdity in how such institutions are singularly focused on their goals and treat their employees, as well as others who get in their way, as expendable. This film is practically a metaphor for our modern resource wars and for people like the Neocons (best exemplified by former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and mustachioed toad-humper, John Bolton).
Total Recall also received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects, which is usually a competitive award, but not in 1991. The special effects for the other films in the visual effects category simply did not match up to the effects in Total Recall. Thus, the committee that oversees this award for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) simply gave the award to Total Recall and named the other films as runners-up rather than as nominees. Honestly, Total Recall’s effects still look very good, and even the dated elements, such as the animatronics that are supposed to replicate heads and bodies of many of the characters, look good.
People probably remember Total Recall as an “Arnold Schwarzenegger movie,” and, in a way, it is. His film persona dominates the narrative and the action, and even 22 years later, his performance here reveals why, for a period, he was the biggest action movie star in the world and probably the world’s biggest movie star for most of that time.
Total Recall, however, is more than just Schwarzenegger. There are a number of good supporting performances, especially Michael Champion as Richter’s acerbic right-hand man, Helm. Also, Rachel Ticotin as Melina is one of the few actresses to play a partner to one of Schwarzenegger’s characters and not disappear in the shadow that Arnold’s personality and presence cast.
When I first saw Total Recall 22 years ago, I was lukewarm about it. I seem to remember that Meryl Streep was publicly critical of it. I think that I am more open-minded about movies now, and I have also learned not to view every film in a strictly literal manner. Perhaps, that is why I now think Total Recall is a science fiction movie classic, even if I didn’t think that two decades ago.
8 of 10
A
NOTES:
1991 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Special Achievement Award: (Eric Brevig, Rob Bottin Tim McGovern, Alex Funke for visual effects) [The other films in this category were listed as runners-up instead of as nominees: Back to the Future Part III, Dick Tracy, and Ghost.]; 2 nominations: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Stephen Hunter Flick) and “Best Sound” (Nelson Stoll, Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, and Aaron Rochin)
1991 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Special Visual Effects” (To the whole special visual effects production team)
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Total Recall (1990)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven
WRITERS: Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, and Gary Goldman; from a screen story by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon and Jon Povill (inspired by the short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Buzz Feitshans and Ronald Shusett
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jost Vacano
EDITORS: Carlos Puente and Frank J. Urioste
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith
Academy Award winner
SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mel Johnson, Jr., and Michael Champion
The subject of this movie review is Total Recall, a 1990 science fiction action film from director Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The film is loosely based upon Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” which was first published in 1966. The film follows a man who accidentally has memories dredged up of a life he apparently had on Mars, which only gets him marked for death.
Total Recall opens on Earth in the year 2084. Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a construction worker who yearns for more in his life. He is also troubled by dreams of Mars; in fact, he is obsessed with going to Mars. His wife, Lori (Sharon Stone), wants a different vacation, so Quaid decides to get a vacation to Mars in a unique way. He goes to a company called “Rekall,” which promises to implant memories of a virtual vacation. These false memories will seem just like real memories to Quaid.
However, something goes terribly wrong during the procedure to implant the memories in Quaid’s brain. Suddenly, his visit to Rekall is apparently the reason gun-toting men, led by the ruthless Richter (Michael Ironside), want to kill him. Quaid discovers that he has to get to Mars – for real this time – as soon as he can, because all the answers to his shattered memories are there… he hopes.
I believe that the Dutch-born filmmaker, Paul Verhoeven, does not get enough credit as a terrific director. This is because the amount of violence in his film is seen as excessive by some critics. Indeed, Verhoeven’s science fiction films, Robocop (1987) and Starship Troopers (1997), both contain copious amounts of violence, some of it so intense and gory that it made me cringe when I first watched these films.
However, there is also a strong undercurrent of humor in Verhoeven’s science fiction films. Some of it is black humor, but some of it mocks militarized institutions, such as corporations (Robocop), governments (Starship Troopers), and governments that are really corporations, as in Total Recall. Verhoeven and his screenwriters find absurdity in how such institutions are singularly focused on their goals and treat their employees, as well as others who get in their way, as expendable. This film is practically a metaphor for our modern resource wars and for people like the Neocons (best exemplified by former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and mustachioed toad-humper, John Bolton).
Total Recall also received a Special Achievement Academy Award for its visual effects, which is usually a competitive award, but not in 1991. The special effects for the other films in the visual effects category simply did not match up to the effects in Total Recall. Thus, the committee that oversees this award for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) simply gave the award to Total Recall and named the other films as runners-up rather than as nominees. Honestly, Total Recall’s effects still look very good, and even the dated elements, such as the animatronics that are supposed to replicate heads and bodies of many of the characters, look good.
People probably remember Total Recall as an “Arnold Schwarzenegger movie,” and, in a way, it is. His film persona dominates the narrative and the action, and even 22 years later, his performance here reveals why, for a period, he was the biggest action movie star in the world and probably the world’s biggest movie star for most of that time.
Total Recall, however, is more than just Schwarzenegger. There are a number of good supporting performances, especially Michael Champion as Richter’s acerbic right-hand man, Helm. Also, Rachel Ticotin as Melina is one of the few actresses to play a partner to one of Schwarzenegger’s characters and not disappear in the shadow that Arnold’s personality and presence cast.
When I first saw Total Recall 22 years ago, I was lukewarm about it. I seem to remember that Meryl Streep was publicly critical of it. I think that I am more open-minded about movies now, and I have also learned not to view every film in a strictly literal manner. Perhaps, that is why I now think Total Recall is a science fiction movie classic, even if I didn’t think that two decades ago.
8 of 10
A
NOTES:
1991 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Special Achievement Award: (Eric Brevig, Rob Bottin Tim McGovern, Alex Funke for visual effects) [The other films in this category were listed as runners-up instead of as nominees: Back to the Future Part III, Dick Tracy, and Ghost.]; 2 nominations: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Stephen Hunter Flick) and “Best Sound” (Nelson Stoll, Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, and Aaron Rochin)
1991 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Special Visual Effects” (To the whole special visual effects production team)
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Labels:
1990,
Action,
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
BAFTA nominee,
Movie review,
Oscar winner,
Paul Verhoeven,
Philip K. Dick,
sci-fi,
Sharon Stone,
short story adaptation
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