Review: "The Last Boy Scout" is Still Cool (Happy B'day, Tony Scott)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Last Boy Scout (1991)
Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Tony Scott
WRITERS: Shane Black; from a story by Shane Black and Greg Hicks
PRODUCERS: Joel Silver and Michael Levy
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ward Russell
EDITORS: Stuart Baird, Mark Goldblatt, and Mark Helfrich

ACTION/CRIME/DRAMA with elements of comedy

Starring: Bruce Willis, Damon Wayans, Noble Willingham, Chelsea Field, Taylor Negron, Danielle Harris, Halle Berry, Bruce McGill, Chelcie Ross, Joe Santos, Bill Medley, Verne Lundquist, Dick Butkus, Lynn Swann, Billy Blanks, Morris Chestnut, Badja Djola, and Eddie Griffin

As the 1990’s opened, the skyrocketing budget of Hollywood film productions was the story about which the entertainment news media couldn’t stop talking. The Bruce Willis headliner, The Last Boy Scout, was the talk of the town from the moment screenwriter, Shane Black, became the first person to sell a script for one million dollars, which he did with The Last Boy Scout Script. After the Hudson Hawk debacle, which saw that super expensive flick, also starring Willis, become a box office dud (although it’s one of my favorite movies), The Last Boy Scout looked like another over-priced dud. However, released during the 1991 holiday season, it became a modest hit, grossing just under $60 million against an estimated production budget of about that much.

Willis is Joseph Cornelius Hallenbeck, Joe for short, a disgraced Secret Service agent who now moonlights as a private detective – a down and out, cynical private dick. Damon Wayans is James Alexander Dix, Jimmy Dix for short, a disgraced former MVP quarterback for the pro football team, the L.A. Stallions, thrown out of the league because he gambled. They meet when Joe accepts a job acting as a bodyguard for Jimmy’s girl friend Cory (Halle Berry), a stripper who dates rich men.

When Cory is murdered in a gangland style hit and a friend of Joe’s is killed by a car bomb, the two come together to solve the murders. What they discover is that both their former employers: Senator Calvin Baynard (Chelcie Ross) who got Joe fired and Sheldon “Shelly” Marcone (Noble Willingham) who owns the Stallions, are united in a shady and deadly deal to legalize gambling on professional football. What Joe and Jimmy find themselves in is a deadly game of life and death that is as bone-crushing and bruising as any football game, and it’s a game that also comes with bullets flying.

The script by Shane Black, who reinvented the cop-buddy action flick with his script for Lethal Weapon, penned a script for The Last Boy Scout that is all over the place. Set in Los Angeles, it shows his love for Raymond Chandler’s private eye stories, but this is more a crime drama than a film noir-ish detective tale. It’s a violent action comedy, and buddy action flick like 48 Hours, in which two men are forced into the situation of being partners and have a hard time warming up to one another.

Besides, it’s genre pedigree, the script is mostly haphazard, as it tries to shoehorn serious human drama into a violent detective/conspiracy framework. The movie jumps around a lot. Sometimes, it’s a melodramatic tale of a broken family. Sometimes, it’s a high-octane action comedy. Sometimes, it’s a shootout picture. Then, it’s a drama again, but a few minutes later, someone has to be shot in the head. A few minutes later, everyone has jokes.

What makes this movie work, ultimately, is director Tony Scott. Riding high off such late 80’s action hits as Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II, he was one of Hollywood’s very top action directors, but he was (and still is) an all-around, very skilled filmmaker. Scott is the one who makes just about every one of Black’s genre conventions work. The film comes together slowly, but when it does, it’s with a bang. By the end, The Last Boy Scout is fun and exciting, with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor because Black is somewhat spoofing the sub-genre he helped to create. Shamelessly and gratuitously violent, it’s the gun violence that keeps this from being an exceptional film.

Willis and Wayans have tolerable film chemistry, and like the film, it takes a bit for them to warm up to each other and get in synch. When all comes together, it’s a doozy – rollicking, hilarious fun for men who love movies. Their performances, like this movie, aren’t worthy of a long-cinematic memory, but when the appetite calls for an action flick, there are worse choices… much worse.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

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Third "Transformers" Movie Has Special 3D and IMAX Advanced Showings

“TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON” TO OPEN EXCLUSIVELY IN 3D AND IMAX AT 9PM ON TUESDAY, JUNE 28TH

HOLLYWOOD, CA (June 17, 2011) – Paramount Pictures announced today it will open Michael Bay’s TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON exclusively at 3D and IMAX locations across the country beginning at 9PM local time on Tuesday, June 28th, allowing moviegoers nationwide to be among the first to see the latest installment in the hit franchise, and the first to be shot in 3D. The movie will open wide beginning at 12AM on June 29th.

“Michael Bay has created an incredibly engaging and immersive 3D experience with this latest movie, one that will undoubtedly be among the most entertaining movie going experiences of the summer,” said Paramount’s Vice Chairman Rob Moore. “Providing fans an opportunity to see it early in 3D is a great way to kick off the movie’s opening.”

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is directed by Michael Bay, written by Ehren Kruger and produced by Don Murphy & Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce. The executive producers are Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, Brian Goldner and Mark Vahradian. When a mysterious event from Earth’s past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to Earth so big that the Transformers alone will not be able to save us. The movie stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Patrick Dempsey, Kevin Dunn, Julie White with John Malkovich and Frances McDormand. © 2011 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

HASBRO, TRANSFORMERS and all related characters are trademarks of Hasbro. © 2011 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved.

For more information, go to http://www.transformersmovie.com/

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About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group and Paramount Television & Digital Distribution.

Review: "The Others" is Simply a Great Scary Movie (Happy B'day, Nicole Kidman)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 35 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Others (2001)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic elements and frightening moments
WRITER/DIRECTOR/COMPOSER: Alejandro Amenábar
PRODUCERS: Fernando Bovvaira, José Luis Cuerda, and Sunmin Park
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Javier Aguirresarobe
EDITOR: Nacho Ruiz Capillas
BAFTA Award nominee

HORROR/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Eric Sykes, Elaine Cassidy, and Renée Asherson

The bump in the night, the shadows and the dark spaces, and the thrill of dark atmospherics is back in Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others. Amenabar’s 1997 Spanish language film Abres los ojos (Open Your Eyes) was remade by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky, starring the ex-spouse of this film’s star.

Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge!) lives in a darkened old home with her two photosensitive children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). After three new servants arrive, Grace begins to suspect that her house is haunted. Ms. Bertha Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), who seems to be the leader of the three, seems at first sympathetic to Grace’s fears, but as time goes, she and the other two come to regard, at least on the surface, Grace as problematic. The atmosphere becomes increasingly one of pure dread and fear, and much of the happenings are not what they seem.

The Others recalls Henry James short novel, The Turn of the Screw, but just that little fact can throw the viewer off the scent of who “the others” are. This film is actually closer, in its sense of mystery, to one of its horror and scary movie contemporaries, which shall remain unnamed.

Eschewing high tech special effects, Amenabar summons the spirit of Hitchcock, juxtaposing light and shadow and using shadow and space, fog atmosphere, quiet and the absence of sound, and those little bumps in the other room – everything that recalls older horror films before computer-generated imagery (CGI) stole imagination. The terror doesn’t come from a madman or monster stalking the characters. It is very much about what is and isn’t there and reality and the state of mind.

The acting by the entire cast is very good. The cast makes the audience play along with the terror and suspense, and this movie is as much a drama and a thriller as it is a horror film. The film industry needs an Amenabar. As long as the human element of filmmaking, of the hands on approach, remains his hallmark, we will be in good stead. It is a rare treat, and something like it won’t come around often, at least outside of the cable channel like Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and American Movie Classics (AMC). We can, however, enjoy The Others, this movie that deals with the fantastic and the supernatural without the aid of a hundred special effects.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2002 BAFTA Awards: 2 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Nicole Kidman) and “Best Screenplay – Original” (Alejandro Amenábar)

2002 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Nicole Kidman)

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Review: "Client 9" Digs into Eliot Spitzer Scandal

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – R some sexual material, nudity and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Alex Gibney
PRODUCERS: Maiken Baird, Alex Gibney, Jedd Wider, and Todd Wider
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Maryse Alberti
EDITORS: Plummy Tucker with Alison Amron
COMPOSER: Peter Nashel

DOCUMENTARY – Politics

Starring: Eliot Spitzer, Wayne Barrett, Joe Bruno, David Brown, Darren Dopp, Peter Elkind, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, Noreen Harrington, Ken Langone, Roger Stone, Cecil Suwal, Hulbert Waldroup, and Wrenn Schmidt

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer is a 2010 documentary film from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side). Client 9 takes an in-depth look at the rise and fall of Eliot Spitzer, former State Attorney General and Governor of New York. The film includes an interview with Spitzer, who was elected as the 54th governor of New York in 2006 and later resigned when he was exposed as being involved in a high-priced prostitution ring.

The film reveals Spitzer’s beginnings as a crusading state’s Attorney General who went after Wall Street, big banks, and big insurance companies for fraud, predatory lending, price fixing, etc. Then, Client 9 chronicles his downfall by interviewing the key players, including Spitzer’s Wall Street adversaries (such as Hank Greenberg and Ken Lagone) and political enemies, (like Joe Bruno). Gibney also talks to some of the people behind Emperors Club VIP, the high-priced escort service from which Spitzer obtained call girls. The film also looks the crusade that defined Spitzer’s public and professional life – fighting corruption on Wall Street and in New York state politics. This film also suggests that shadowy and powerful figures from Wall Street and Albany (the state capitol) likely played a part in revealing Spitzer’s patronization of high-priced prostitutes.

In some ways, Client 9 is less about Spitzer than about the corruption against which he crusaded, particularly corruption on Wall Street. Even the Emperors Club, which provided Spitzer with call girls, is connected to Wall Street because it services some of the financial industry’s big players. Although Spitzer does participate in this documentary, the former governor turned cable television pundit is careful, even guarded about what he says, which is understandable, but this reticence ends up making him an ensemble player in what should be a starring role in his melodrama.

The film does offer startling insight into the way the U.S. Justice Department prosecutes crimes involving politicians. Also, the press and news media, which is obsessed with sex and scandal and overly reliant (by my estimation) on tips and leaks that offer salacious details, doesn’t come out looking too good.

Compared to Gibney’s other films, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer isn’t great, but it is good. Ultimately, it barely skims the surface of the darkness behind Spitzer and the institutions and people behind his rise and especially his fall.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

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Review: Colorful "Green Lantern" Film is Also a Bit Dim

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 50 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux


Green Lantern (2011)
Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action
DIRECTOR: Martin Campbell
WRITERS: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim, and Michael Goldenberg; from a screen story by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, and Marc Guggenheim (based upon the characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics)
PRODUCERS: Greg Berlanti and Donald De Line
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dion Beebe
EDITOR: Stuart Baird
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard

SUPERHERO/SCI-FI/ACTION with elements of drama

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Taika Waititi, Temuera Morrison, Angela Bassett, Tim Robbins, Jay O. Sanders, and (voices) Clancy Brown, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Geoffrey Rush

Green Lantern is a 2011 superhero movie, and it is the fourth movie this year featuring a character that originated or made extensive appearances in comic books. Green Lantern has enough entertaining science fiction action and superhero theatrics, but not enough to hide the fact that the characters are either lame and onscreen too much or cool and onscreen too little.

First, some history: Green Lantern is a comic book superhero that first appeared in All-American Comics #16 (cover dated July 1940). The original version of Green Lantern was created by Bill Finger, the writer who essentially co-created Batman (but who doesn’t get official credit for that) and artist Martin Nodell. The original or “Golden Age” version of Green Lantern stopped appearing in comics by 1951.

In 1959, the modern version of Green Lantern, a space age and science fantasy revamp of the character, first appeared in the comic book, Showcase #22 (cover dated September-October 1959), in a story from writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane. This modern or “Silver Age” version of character is the one that stars in the new film, Green Lantern.

Green Lantern the movie focuses on brash test pilot, Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). Jordan’s bravado and recklessness has gotten him into trouble with his employer, Ferris Aircraft, and the company’s Vice-President, Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), who is also Hal’s girlfriend. However, his strong-willed nature brings him to the attention of the alien, Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison), who is a Green Lantern. The Green Lantern Corps is an intergalactic police force that uses the “green essence of willpower” to keep peace. Their power is focused through a green power ring.

Sur is mortally wounded in a battle with Parallax (Clancy Brown), the ultimate being of fear, whom Sur defeated and imprisoned long ago. Sur’s ring chooses Jordan as a worthy successor, but Sur’s fellow Green Lanterns do not find Jordan worthy. Jordan is the first human to become a Green Lantern, and Thaal Sinestro (Mark Strong), something of a leader among the Corps, quickly and brutally tests Jordan, leading the new Lantern to also doubt why the ring chose him. He will, however, have no choice but to be a Green Lantern. Parallax is coming to Earth to take revenge against Hal Jordan because he is Abin Sur’s successor and to destroy Earth because it is Jordan’s home.

Early in Green Lantern, the movie’s soundtrack (music and sound) is so loud that it is hard to understand what the characters are saying. At times, this movie is merely a sound and light show that occasionally dazzles, while generally assaulting your hearing. But I suspect this sort of thing will appeal to children, especially boys, who will like the noise and the special effects, which range from striking to embarrassingly second-rate.

Young viewers are the ones unlikely to notice the thinly written drama and how good actors play laughable, pathetic characters. Here, are some examples: Peter Sarsgaard as the comical bad guy Hector Hammond; Tim Robbins as Robert Hammond, an empty suit politician and Hector’s awful father; Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, who is the standard action movie hero arm-candy/cheerleader [Belief in yourself! Sniff Sniff. You can do it, my brave hero man]; and poor, always under-utilized Angela Bassett as the generic government flunky, Dr. Amanda Waller. Then, there is Mark Strong, who builds Sinestro into an intriguing character and worthy rival of Jordan’s Green Lantern, only to see the character reduced to speechmaking.

I like Ryan Reynolds, with his physique that looks like it was molded to be an action figure, but I don’t buy him as a test pilot or superhero. With his big teeth, seemingly sculpted by a dentist who really wanted to be an artist, Reynolds looks like he should be a junior executive in some corporate sales division.

With so much going against it, Green Lantern actually entertains with its big superhero set pieces and action sequences. On the other hand, the movie grinds to a halt whenever the actors pretend to be people instead of superheroes and strange beings. It’s this mixture of fun, goofy superhero action and tedious character drama that makes Green Lantern average at best. This movie needs to be a lavish sci-fi adventure (the goofy), but it doesn’t need the derivative character motivation and conflict [Daddy was mean to me! I can’t conquer my self-doubt and fear]. Green Lantern works in fits and starts. Sometimes, it impresses; sometimes, it is clunky and ineffective.

5 of 10
C+

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Academy Changes "Best Picture" Oscar Rules

Academy Builds Surprise Into Best Picture Rules

Beverly Hills, CA (June 14, 2011) - The governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted on Tuesday (6/14) to add a new twist to the 2011 Best Picture competition, and a new element of surprise to its annual nominations announcement. The Board voted to institute a system that will now produce anywhere between 5 and 10 nominees in the category. That number won’t be announced until the Best Picture nominees themselves are revealed at the January nominations announcement.

“With the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers, we’ve been looking not just at what happened over the past two years, but at what would have happened if we had been selecting 10 nominees for the past 10 years,” explained Academy President Tom Sherak, who noted that it was retiring Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis who recommended the change, first to Sherak and incoming CEO Dawn Hudson and then to the governors.

During the period studied, the average percentage of first place votes received by the top vote-getting movie was 20.5. After much analysis by Academy officials, it was determined that 5 percent of first place votes should be the minimum in order to receive a nomination, resulting in a slate of anywhere from 5 to 10 movies.

“In studying the data, what stood out was that Academy members had regularly shown a strong admiration for more than five movies,” said Davis. “A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn’t feel an obligation to round out the number.”

If this system had been in effect from 2001 to 2008 (before the expansion to a slate of 10), there would have been years that yielded 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 nominees.

The final round of voting for Best Picture will continue to employ the preferential system, regardless of the number of nominees, to ensure that the winning picture has the endorsement of more than half of the voters.

Other rules changes approved by the Board include:

In the Animated Feature Film category, the need for the Board to vote to “activate” the category each year was eliminated, though a minimum number of eligible releases – eight – is still required for a competitive category. Additionally, the Short Films and Feature Animation branch recommended, and the Board approved, refinements to the number of possible nominees in the Animated Feature category. In any year in which 8 to 12 animated features are released, either 2 or 3 of them may be nominated. When 13 to 15 films are released, a maximum of 4 may be nominated, and when 16 or more animated features are released, a maximum of 5 may be nominated.

In the Visual Effects category, the “bakeoff” at which the nominees are determined will expand from 7 to 10 contenders. The increase in the number of participants is related to a change made last year in which the number of films nominated in the Vsual Effects category was increased from 3 to 5.

Previously, the Board approved changes to the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short category rules that now put those categories’ eligibility periods in line with the calendar year, and thus with most other awards categories. The change means that for the 84th Academy Awards® cycle only, the eligibility period is more than 12 months; it is from September 1, 2010, to December 31, 2011.

Other modifications of the 84th Academy Awards rules include normal date changes and minor “housekeeping” changes.

Rules are reviewed annually by individual branch and category committees. The Awards Rules Committee then reviews all proposed changes before presenting its recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors for approval.

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar® presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide

New People Screens "Linda Linda Linda" for Japanese Recovery

NEW PEOPLE CONTINUES JAPANESE DISASTER RECOVERY FUNDRAISING EFFORTS WITH SPECIAL NEW FILM SERIES

Rock-n-Roll Drama LINDA LINDA LINDA Kicks Off A New Series Of Monthly Film Screenings To Benefit Reconstruction And Recovery Efforts

NEW PEOPLE, the nation’s only entertainment complex dedicated to Japanese popular culture, continues to drive Bay Area fundraising efforts for ongoing Japanese disaster relief and reconstruction. The venue has just announced the kick-off off a summer-long series of monthly benefit film screenings that launches on Friday, June 24th at 7:00pm with the critically acclaimed teenage rock-and-roll drama, LINDA LINDA LINDA.

Come sing, come dance, and come help Japan! Suggested donation is $10.00. Tickets and more information are available at: http://www.newpeopleworld.com/films. NEW PEOPLE is located in the heart of San Francisco’s Japantown at 1746 Post St.

100% of net proceeds will be donated to EARTH DAY TOKYO TOWER of Japan. Earth Day Tokyo Tower Volunteer Center began its activities in response to tremendous tsunami and earthquake devastation that ravaged Northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. The group sends organized groups of volunteers into devastated areas to assist with clean-up, make food, hold events for children, sets up food courts, and more.

LINDA LINDA LINDA was directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita and follows an all-girl high school rock band after an untimely break-up. Only three days before their high school festival, guitarist Kei (Yu Kashii), drummer Kyoto (Aki Maeda of Battle Royale), and bassist Nozumi (Shiori Sekine) must recruit a new lead vocalist for their band. They choose an unlikely Korean exchange student Son (Doona Bae of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), even though her comprehension of Japanese is a bit rough! It’s a race against time as the group struggles to learn three tunes for the festival’s rock concert — including a classic '80s punk-pop song by the famous Japanese group The Blue Hearts called “Linda Linda.” The film notably offers a soundtrack by ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and a cameo by punk rock legends The Ramones. LINDA LINDA LINDA is also available on DVD from NEW PEOPLE Entertainment.


About NEW PEOPLE, Inc.
Based in San Francisco, California, NEW PEOPLE, Inc. (http://www.newpeopleworld.com/) offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan through its unique entertainment destination as well as through licensing and distribution of selective Japanese films. NEW PEOPLE Entertainment (http://www.newpeopleent.com/), a film division of NEW PEOPLE, Inc. strives to offer the most entertaining motion pictures straight from the "Kingdom of Pop" for audiences of all ages, especially the manga and anime generation, in North America. Some titles include DEATH NOTE, GANTZ, KAMIKAZE GIRLS, and THE TASTE OF TEA.