Among my top 3 actresses is none other than the great Jodie Foster. A woman who has been making movies for over 25 years and turns out a terrific performance time and time again. Just look at her filmography and it realy is astonishing if you remember her character in each and every role.

     So reading an interview with her over at USA Today, I’m not at all surprised by her brash, opinionated ideas of life and movies. However, she made some weird statement that did surprise me a bit. She criticized Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers for what she considers “glorified sadism.” Whether you like the film or not (I do), she obviously completely missed the point of what the film was trying to say if she thought it glorified sadism.

     She then moves on to one of my favorite and one of the most entertaining pictures of 2005, Sin City, which she claims she turned off during the viewing.

“That was so painfully cartoonish I was offended,” says Foster, the mother of two, young boys. “I don’t know how you enjoy or laugh about a child abduction and molestation. What part of that sentence is funny? I can’t get beyond that. I don’t know if everyone understands the impact of a movie’s message.”

     Again, I remember young Nancy Callahan being abducted and it is Bruce Willis who must rescue her. But I don’t really remember her being molested, and even if she was, I’m sure I wasn’t laughing about it or thinking it was funny. And the “cartoonish” comment turns me off a bit as the movie was based of a comic book. Duh. I don’t really think the film makes light of, or glorifies this story idea any more than any film noir picture of the 50’s and 60s does it? Sure, there’s more language and comic book violence, but how does that make it more “offensive” in the way in which she describes?

     Hey I get it, the movie might not be everyone’s cup of tea; but to say it glorifies or makes light of child molestation goes a bit far. Also, this coming from the woman who starred in Silence of the Lambs. There was FAR MORE sick shit in that movie than in Sin City. I guess I’m just puzzled by some of her statements. Anyone care to clear it up for me? I love Jodie Foster, but these statements don’t seem educated or even correct to me.

     Now, I am FAR from being a Harry Potter fan. None of the films have done anything for me (although I haven’t seen the Cuarron one yet, and I’ve heard good things) and certainly wasn’t about to waste money on the last or the next one.

     However, I do like neat-o DVD sets like the upcoming Blade Runner super special edition. And although I won’t be purchasing this Harry Potter extravaganzza, I’m sure Potter fans are about shiting hemselves with excitement. And I have to admit, it does look pretty cool…

click for larger image

     Set includes Harry Potters Years 1-5, a Harry Potter DVD game Hogwarts Challenge, along with a bonus disc containing over 2 hours of enhanced content, an exclusive “Harry Potter’s Bookmark Collection”, and collectible trading cards. Retail is $119.97 SRP.

I think everyone has probably noticed by now that I have not posted as much as usual during the past two weeks. There are a couple of reasons. First I’ve been working on something that I can not really talk about yet (I saying that because it makes everyone wonder), I either bruised or cracked a rib last week goofing off (don’t worry other than pain and a lack of feeling like sitting at a desk typing I’m fine) but more importantly I’m finding myself somewhat bored with most “regular” movie news. Sure I could post about Toby Maquire and Robotech but really other sites have already covered it well enough or I could provide a link to the new Iron Man trailer but every movie site has already done that. What I really need is a shot in the arm when it comes to my movie reading right now. That is why I’m posting this post, no I’m not going to quit posting news and my opinions but what I would like is for people to point me to their favourite non-mainstream movie sites. My favourite is Twitch but I’m sure there are others out there. So come on everyone help me out and point me to some cool sites about independent and foreign film please.

     One of the movies I’m looking forward to most this fall is Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution. A short while ago it just won the Golden Lion (or best film) at the Venice Film festival even though some of the reviews have been pretty poor. Kurt even called it the “largest disappointment” at TIFF so far. There is just something about a movie that splits the audience that really makes it interesting for me. The last time a movie was like this for me was The Fountain. I thought the Fountain was one of the best movies of 2006 but it could have just as easily been something I hated.

     I guess in my mind I just love the uncertainty of it. So far Kurt has been spot on with his recommendations. Every movie that he has posted on his blog I have really enjoyed so will this be the first one where I think he is wrong. I hope so but I’ll probably have to wait a while to find out. I have a feeling the NC-17 rating means that I am not going to see this until it comes out on DVD next year sometime. I’m curious have the poor reviews convinced anyone to not watch Lust, Caution or is everyone here still willing to give it a shot?

     Shia LeBeouf gave away the news while at the MTV VMAs on Sunday evening. The new title, confirmed by IndianaJones.com, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Although I guess I would hav liked something with a bit more brevity, I think the title fits in with the rest of the series. Besides, the title is of little consequence. I’m far more interested in the actual film. That will determine Indy’s worth.

     What do you guys think? Like the title?

This is a feature to celebrate all the actors who appear in movies all over the place, and you can recognise them from different things but you don’t quite remember their name. So in other words actors who have a recognisable face and are primarily cast in supporting roles but don’t really get much attention otherwise.

Now this is an actor that everyone will recognise from at least one film. He is a great actor who I don’t think has ever had a leading role in a film and instead fills up supporting roles all over the place (and he does it every well I might add). You may recognise him from the following:

The Shawshank Redemption - He played the evil bastard prison guard, remember?

The Hurricane - Similar to his role in the previous film (in fact the same role as a prison guard) but this time he played a polar opposite in the kindness spectrum.

Starship Troopers - He always plays people in authority or power. Here he plays “Sergeant Zim”.

Highlander - Along with Shawshank this will be the one that most people remember him from. He played the evil and very intimidating “Kurgan”.

There are plenty others that I haven’t mentioned (feel free to comment about them). I think this is an actor who should be given a lead role in something just to see if he could pull it off. By my reckoning he could do it with ease.

Like the “Films That Deserved Better” feature I have started this will be another that will I will post on every few days or so. The bottom paragraph will be posted every time I do a post about this just to remind you all of what it’s about.

This is a feature to celebrate all the actors who appear in movies all over the place, and you can recognise them from different things but you don’t quite remember their name. So in other words actors who have a recognisable face and are primarily cast in supporting roles but don’t really get much attention otherwise.

     This is old news I know (very old in fact) but I just came across it and just had to do a post about it. It’s the original, sort of ‘teaser’ trailer for what is arguable the best horror film of all time (notice I said arguable), Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. This trailer is almost as creepy as the actual film itself (and it in fact shows a certain scene from the film in extended form). Take a look below and be prepared to be creeped out.

 Cinecast Episode 60 [127:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thanks to Marina from MadAboutMovies.net for filling in for Kurt while he’s on a movie crusade at TIFF
this episode:
Halloween, 2 Days in Paris, Festival madness, DVDs and multiple tangents…

Unwrap the complete Show Notes by clicking on this link…

Read the rest of this entry »

     Well, this Thursday is anyway. Maybe you can find them at Apple and put them on those brand spanking new iPods that were released yesterday. Damn those are sweet. But I digress. Here are 3 trailers that I saw for the first time today. Some of them might be old, but I just found them and felt I should post them up for others’ delight. Have a gander and let us know what you think…

     As you know, I’m not a big fan of the horror genre, but the good ones usually relly are pretty good. Hatchet (IMDb) is a film that’s been talked about a lot lately and I’ve heard a lot of good things about (though not from our Cinecast co-host, Kurt, who apparently hated it). Judge for yourself though, as Movieweb has released some exclusive clips of the film and also interviews with some of the cast members (including Robert Englund) and director. I’ll post the clips here, but you can go over to MovieWeb if you’d like to see the interviews as well.

see the rest of the clips after the unwrap…
Read the rest of this entry »

     Probably my favorite mini-series of all time was “V”. For all you kids out there, a mini-series was a multi-evening movie that was usually a pretty special thing back when we only had 4 or 5 channels to choose from.

     Anyway, “V” was a 4 or 5 night event in which aliens show up over planet earth and look remarkably like us. They promise us technology and medicine and a better way of life. But we soon find out that they’re really carnivorous reptilians and their real goal is to enslave humans and steal all of the water from our planet. A small band of resistance fighters catch on to the aliens’ plan and decide to strike back. Marc Singer (i.e. The Beastmaster) leads the pack. Along with Robert Englund, Faye Grant and the full awesomeness of Michael Ironside. It’s very similar to 1996 Independence Day (ID4)… or more accurately ID4 is similar to V. Since “V” was so awesome and was such a phenomenon, this is maybe partly why I like ID4 so much.

     After the mini-series finale, there was a short lived TV series based on the same idea that totally reaked ass. The show was cancelled and the phenom died off. Over the years though, ideas and propositions for TV and films have bubbled up here and there, then die off just as quickly as they were conceived.

     So now, almost 25 years later, Vic over at ScreenRant is reporting that a book is due to hit shelves in a couple of months entitled “V:The Second Generation” and is based off the ideas and scripts that sprang up from the aforementioned spin-off.

from ScreenRant:

The most interesting part? It remains listed as “currently being developed for TV” and, after contacting Kenneth Johnson, it appears there’s some truth in this. When asked whether a big-screen production or perhaps a straight-to-DVD release may be on the cards, Johnson confirmed “all options are open and we are pursuing them” but that straight-to-DVD is “unlikely” due to “the high production cost”.

     Now first off, I am all about this. I’ve been waiting for V to return for many years and it sort of did in the way of ID4. But that was that. I have heard rumors of a sequel to ID4, but nothing has ever come to fruition. As much as I look foreward to this though, it won’t be as cool as it was when I was 8 and without badass Marc Singer and Michael Ironside, it just won’t be the same. Still, I’m itching to see how it works out. And on the other hand, who’s to say Singer and Ironside couldn’t return. They’re not that old. Of course, it will all depend on the substance and story arc of the novel I guess. I’ll be reading when this thing hits shelves on Nov. 7.

links:
Wikipedia article on V
IMDb profile for “V”
IMDb profile for “V: The Final Battle”
DVD available at Amazon
V: The Second Generation (novel)

     In an interview I just found from a few days ago that John Cusack gave with The Guardian UK, he claims he’s only made 10 good movies. He doesn’t list what they are, but he says, “I’m sure you know which ones they are. The ones that suck I tend to blank out. It’s like I never even made them.”

     First off, I love John Cusack. Even if the film he’s in sucks, I like him in them. Here’s a list of movies I like that star (or at least co-star) John Cusack. Let’s see if it’s more than 10.

Better off Dead
Eight Men Out
Say Anything
Grosse Pointe Blank
Con-Air (guilty pleasure)
The Thin Red Line
Being John Malkovich
High Fidelity
1408

And these films rocked, but don’t really count because he was barely in them: Stand By Me, Sixteen Candles, Broadcast News and The Journey of Natty Gann.

     So that’s nine on my list, wow. He’s about right with his 10 number! Of course he knows his career better than anyone I suppose. Still, there are a few movies in his filmography I have yet to see (e.g. Bullets Over Broadway or The Grifters, is that any good?). So I’m sure there are some more films that are maybe decent. Plus, I suppose cases could be made for films like City Hall, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil or The Road to Wellville. But even so, give or take a couple of films, he pretty much hit the nail on the head with 10 good films (out of about 40 starring roles). “But that’s fine. Ten is a good batting average, don’t you think?” he said.

     Basically the interview is him discussing 1408 (MP review), since that was recently released in he UK. Putting all that info aside, here are some other interesting tid-bits Cusack had in the interview regading his career in general:

“I suppose I have a certain thing I do well that people seem to like. Not everyone likes it, of course. The guy in the Guardian last week certainly didn’t. So there you go,” he smiles. “Some people like it, other people don’t.”

re: Sure Thing, Say Anything, High Fidelity: “I’m aware of the affection those characters inspired. I feel close to Lloyd in Say Anything. He was like a super-interesting version of me. Only I’m not as good as him. Whatever part of me is romantic and optimistic, I reached into that to play Lloyd. Of course, now it’s all gone. Now I’m just bitter.”

“People who offer me work,” he says. “There’s this brand that they think I am, and I get sent stuff that corresponds to that. I have to do it. It’s not like there are 10 projects on offer at any one time, and six of them are brilliant. No one cares. The movies have got more corporate, they’re making fewer movies in general, and those they are making are all $200-$300m tent-pole releases that eat up all the oxygen.”

Then he says seriously, “I think I’m pretty brave, I’ll take risks. I can look at my career and point to the movies that were risky. Being John Malkovich worked out great, so people tend to forget what a risk it was - first-time writer, first-time director and so on. I read that screenplay four years before it got made. I’d said to my agents: ‘Show me scripts that are fantastic and crazy.’ I love getting up on that tightrope. I wish I could do it more, but I have to balance what I want to do with what people want me to do.”

     After all that, there’s another “risk” movie Cusack has coming that should gain him some attention in the actors critics circles out there. It’s called Grace is Gone and not only won the audience choice award at Sundance this year, but looks extremely emotional, heartfelt, beautiful and best of all, Cusack looks to be amazing in it. You can check out the trailer below.

     We’ve mentioned this film before, but it bears repeating now that it has screened for some critics. The Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There premiered yesterday at the Venice Film Festival and apparently has critics raving. Consider this on my most anticipated list for fall 2007. It’s got Oscar bait written all over it and most inviting for me, is the unorthodox cast of characters to play Dylan at various stages of his life: Bale, Ledger, Gere, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin.

…a black actor in his early teens, Marcus Carl Franklin, plays the musician as he arrives as an unknown in New York at the age of 20, while 57-year-old Richard Gere represents him at the age of 32. Heath Ledger and British actors Christian Bale and Ben Whishaw take on other periods.

     Most intriguing to me of the six actors to play Dylan in the film, is the spectacular Cate Blanchet. There is some early Oscar talk already about Blanchett’s performance and of that I have no doubt. The director, Todd Haynes, recently did a press interview, and here are a couple things he had to say via The Guardian:

…the representation of Dylan in the mid-60s was always meant to be played by a woman. “I felt it was the only way to resurrect the true strangeness of Dylan’s physical being in 1966, which I felt had lost its historical shock value over the years.

Cate was scared; she told me many times that this was a very scary challenge for her. It took her a long time to commit to it … I told her it’s good to be terrified, that you’re taking a risk and sometimes that’s really when the surprises happen. I guess it at least convinced her to give it a shot.”

     The film mixes black-and-white footage with colour sequences and real news footage of American protests in the 1960s and scenes from the Vietnam war. Richard Gere (57), who is playing Bob Dylan at age 32, describes the script as “bizarre.” Sign me up! Here’s a clip of Blanchet as Dylan (followed by the teaser trailer in the unwrap link):

for the teaser, click here…
UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     Normally I don’t go for these pre- released clips of a movie, as I like to walk into a theater totally fresh. But since I don’t give a wet fart about the plot or story of the Saw franchise anymore, I took a gander at this obviously illegal, online, 5 minute clip of the movie that was shown at comic-con a couple weeks back. Because I’m a sick little boy, I just like to see the individual kill scenes in the movies, so I had no problem watching this one. Sorry if this is old news, but I thought you might think it’s worth a look.

this clip has obviously not passed post production yet, but you get the idea.

     I had heard of this film a long time ago but had totally forgotten about it. Then I came across the poster for it (shown below) and decided to see if there was anything else released for it. And sure enough there is already a trailer online (also shown below). I think this looks like a lot of fun, check it out:

     Like I said I think this looks like a lot of fun. Everything about it is just so cute and adorable (I’m guessing that’s what they are aiming for) and the trailer put a big smile on my face. This is now firmly on my most anticipated list, it’s nice to see a film like this every once in a while (I really hope they don’t go too far down the cheesy, “aimed totally at the kids” road). I hope it’s one that all age groups can appreciate in different ways.

On a side note does anyone else think these two things?:

1. This should be directed by Tim Burton.

2. The character Hoffman plays, looks more suited to someone like Christopher Walken.

Anyway I can’t wait for this.

This feature post is basically to put films in the spotlight a bit that didn’t do well at the box office but that ended up actually being very good. Later they might have found their home on DVD and became a success there and yet for some reason they just weren’t appreciated as much as they deserved to be in theatres.

     This had to be one of the under-appreciated films that I was going to mention. My all time favourite film after Pulp Fiction, it is one of those films that found it’s home primarily in the UK (after it totally failed in the US at the Box Office) but even that success wasn’t much of a success at all. The film only made just over 4 Million dollars worldwide (but I am guessing DVD sales made up for that as that’s where it was most appreciated)! This is within no means a “hidden gem” as everyone has at least heard of Donnie Darko. But what it is one hell of a movie, one that gets discussion and debates going; quite rare with movies nowadays. And yet people either decided to just ignore it in favour of bigger budget stuff or most people just didn’t get it. Thankfully it is appreciated worldwide now as much as it deserves to be.

“Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?” 

     I just came across this interview, over at MTV.com, with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe where they talk about the very much anticipated movie 3:10 To Yuma. The interview is insightful, particularly into the relationship between the two actors and why they decided to do this film in particular. Here is a excerpt, which is the funniest part of the interview:

MTV: I can only assume that the two of you are as fascinated watching each other act as we in the audience are …

Crowe: [He glances at Bale with a grin.] I was fascinated watching you work!

Bale: We would just be stunned! Stunned into silence looking at each other!

Crowe: I was a stunned mullet.

Bale: [Sarcastically pretending he’s on set] “Oh, I’m sorry, was that my line? I didn’t realize. I was so stunned by your performance.”

You can read the rest of the interview here