Spaced Case

If you have never watched Spaced, it almost defies description. Simply, it is a British sitcom about Tim and Daisy, pretending to be a professional couple in order to rent a small flat. But the show is so much more than that. It transcends the limitations of a conventional television series and became a meditation on all things British, pop culture and your mid-twenties. Believe me when I say that if you’re reading my blog, Spaced is right up your alley.

Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (nee Stevenson) star as the title characters and wrote all fourteen episodes of both series. What’s remarkable about the show is that each series is written almost as a stand alone since they never knew if they would be another series. So, instead of ending with a big cliffhanger, each series ends with a more satisfying resolution. Also, every episode was directed by Edgar Wright, a rarity anywhere in television. He brings his style to Simon and Jess’s sensibilities and they created a show with a huge cult following in England and abroad. Finally, the show is available on a Region 1 DVD.

And what a DVD package it is. Not only are all the commentaries and extras from the Region 2 release included, but oh so much more. All new commentaries have been recorded for the American release with notable American fans coming into the booth. Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Diablo Cody and Matt Stone all discuss and share with Edgar, Simon and Jess on several episodes. For my money though, I like the commentaries in which Edgar is joined only by Patton Oswalt or Bil Hader. This lets them really talk more about the show instead of just branching off into other things as most Kev Smith commentaries tend to do. Patton, Bill and Edgar get to geek out over the Star Wars references, cursing and smoking on television and the lovely Daisy Steiner. There is also a feature length documentary about the making of Spaced which includes all the original cast members and key crew members, as well as a few critics and fans. Edgar, Simon and Jess revisit different locations and discuss all the hard work and fun that encapsulated the series’ run for three years.

So, what is the show all about? Simon and Jess pitched it as The Simpsons, X-Files and Northern Exposure. But, I think if you have ever wondered what a live action Family Guy might look like, imagine it with British accents and its almost as good as Spaced. Filled with references to film and television as well as cutaways, circular comedy and constant callbacks, it’s better than 30 Rock and as good as Arrested Development. Its chock full of great lines, big sequences and relatable characters. For anybody who has ever danced like a chicken, lived every week like Shark Week or used the phrase “Worst. Anything. Ever.” then you simply must see Spaced. I cannot say enough good things about this show that I am really a huge fan of it and want to give it the Big Mike Bump so that more people see it, love it and share it. Currently, BBC America is rerunning episodes nightly, so you can get a free taste of the show and I promise you, you will want to get the DVD set. It is art of the highest level, a prime example of the medium being used to transcend its means and touch the core of its audience on a very personal and intimate way. “Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, rabbits!”

It’s not finished!

It’s finished.

Coming Out of my Criterion Closet

Can I bare my soul to you, dear readers? (Yes, I am a Stephen King fan.) I have something bothering me, plaguing me. It's like Morpheus said, 'a sliver in my mind, driving me mad.'

I haven't gotten around to watching all the DVDs I own.

Sure, maybe that's not so abnormal. I mean, there's a few discs left untouched in that Marilyn Monroe box set, I don't watch the special features laden second disc on every movie and I got some Blu-Rays in anticipation of getting a Playstation 3 soon. But, there is a much more serious collection that I have been ignoring and it is time for me to do something about it.

I own the Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films Box Set.

Click on the picture to view the list of fifty films that make up this box set. I have owned it for almost two years. It represented a significant investment for me and I bought it at a point in my life in which I decided to take my films studies more seriously. To date, I have watched six films, two of which I have seen before.

Six. Barely ten percent. For shame.

I have written before about working at DVD Planet. If you don't live in the Southern California area, you should check out their website. Until the middle of next week, they are selling Criterion discs, buy one, get one free. If you don't already own at least ONE Criterion, you are missing out on the very best DVD available. The Criterion Collection is an ongoing collection of important classic and contemporary films gathered from around the world and presented in the highest technical quality with award-winning supplements. Yes, I wrote that directly from memory. So, because of DVD Planet's sale, in the past week, for less than one hundred dollars, I obtained The Red Shoes, Life of Brian, The Blob, The Killers, The Leopard, Hoop Dreams, Le Samourai and Breathless.

Now, I will not be turning my blog into an exclusive Criterion blog, for that has been done already by Matthew Dessem at the Criterion Contraption and he does so very well. No, instead I implore you to try to keep me busy. It is not a chore to sit down and watch one of these films, but I do need to set aside time to enjoy them and not watch them while checking email or doing laundry. No, that's what I got Waiting for.

Please readers, help me help you. If I don't get out one of these reviews a week, call me out on it. I need to refocus myself and get serious again. No funny schtuff. Time to get work.

12 Movies Meme

Tag! I'm it! Fletch has tagged me for his turn in the game called 12 Movies Meme, which originated from Piper at Lazy Eye Theatre. The game is simple. Pick twelve films that break into six double features and explain away. Then tag five more people. So, here are mine, in no particular order, but in the order to be played. Here are the movies of my life.

The Prestige & Bowfinger

I love movies. And these are my two favorites movies about movies. One is clearly about making movies and the other is a more cerebral look at the creative mindset of filmmakers.

North By Northwest & Children of Men

In my life, I have always felt like I'm being pursued. These are my two favorite chase movies. And I think they both have feel-good endings.

Dark Knight & Empire Strikes Back

Life isn't always sweet. Sometimes, things turn to shit before getting good again. These two films exemplify that.

Rushmore & Back to the Future

These two movies always remind me of my high school years. High school was about rejection and fear of being inadequate.

Dogfight & Stripes

These movies remind me of being in the Marines. I was a smart ass, but trying to be myself and do the right thing. Although, Jarhead is the closet film I've seen to the real thing.

Young Frankenstein & Goodfellas

Just my two favorite movies.

Now, who do I tag? Hmmm...

Alan at Daily Film Dose
The Mad Hatter at Dark of the Matinee
Jen at Jen Reviews Movies
Ibetolis at Film for the Soul
Graham at Movie et al.

Like A Midnight Cowboy

This post is part of the Film Ignorance Feature at Movies et al with a grade of 'Yep, It's A Classic.'

Watching Midnight Cowboy for the first time and taking in the historical context of the film, while people might inevitably compare it to Brokeback Mountain, I was reminded of Raging Bull. Raging Bull was made at the end of the Seventies and became regarded as one of the greatest movies of the Eighties. Likewise, Midnight Cowboy, released during the summer of love in 1969 became an indication of the direction films would take in the Seventies.

The ‘gay cowboy movie’ of my parent’s generation, Midnight Cowboy was important in many different ways, the least of which was its subject matter. Jon Voight stars as Joe Buck, a naïve young Texan who goes to New York City with dreams of becoming a male hustler. It’s not long before he realizes that it won’t be beautiful women paying him for his body, but the Jackies on Forty Second Street. Then he meets Ratso Rizzo, played by Dustin Hoffman who after scamming Joe out of money, tries to take him under his wing and manage him in the ways of the New York hustler. That’s the movie in a nutshell, with the pair becoming closer as they get more impoverished and desperate for cash.

Both Voight and Hoffman were nominated for Best Actor for their performances. Voight plays the part of the dumb hick to perfection and you can get a sense of the hungry, young actor inside, yearning to please and be accepted. This movie would catapult him from a struggling New York theatre actor to a star, like The Graduate had done for his co-star the year before. Hoffman’s role has become almost the stereotype of a New Yorker by now, but it was miles removed from Benjamin Braddock and cemented his status as a serious actor in only two years in Hollywood.

Directed by John Schlesinger, whose claim to fame had been the Julie Christie movie Darling, he made the film more personal than people knew. He was in the closet at the time and was constantly under the stress of keeping his private life private. I was struck by how he shows us clips, montages and flashes of Joe’s life in Texas and a violent event that has changed him, but we’re never told explicitly what happens. Schlesinger shows us without telling us. In a way, I could understand his motivation and he desire to share secrets with us, but holding back from giving away too much. It was this style of filmmaking that really made it remarkable to me.

The movie was released with an X rating for the sexual content and brief nudity. Eventually, it was changed to R in 1971 without having to change a frame. However, it would win the Oscar for Best Picture carrying the X rating, the only film with that distinction. It helped the fight for freedom of expression that continues to this day and also won Oscars for Best Director and Screenplay (Adapted).

I couldn’t help but notice how cyclical the movie was. In the end, Joe is basically back where he started from, geographic location notwithstanding. He is alone in a new city, but his experiences have changed him and his outlook on life. Joe didn’t change to adapt to the city, but tried to remain true to himself and while some may think he failed, I believe he succeeded by surviving and moving onto the next chapter. It almost seemed to me like the film predicted how the Seventies would go for Hollywood. After the big budget, star driven films died off to be replaced by the films of people like Schlesinger, Voight and Hoffman; the studios would eventually regain control to put out large budget, star driven movies of the Eighties. Sadly, thirty years later, Schlesinger would be reduced to directing romantic comedies for Madonna and as for Voight and Hoffman… I only have two things for you. Karate Dog and Mr. Magorium. Like a friend of mine wrote earlier this week, both of them should be ashamed of themselves. Between the two of them, they were in Midnight Cowboy, Catch-22, Straw Dogs, Deliverance, Marathon Man, Coming Home and Papillion. In the past FOUR years, they have made TWO National Treasures, Lemony Snicket, Bratz and Meet the Fockers.

For shame.

An Internal Monolouge About The Conversation

This post is in conjunction with the LAMB's Movie of the Month for July.

How does one write about a film that has been analyzed and dissected for over thirty years? Especially when the film maintains as much social and political resonance as when it was made? Can I dig too deep into a movie and make something out of nothing? Maybe Troy really is NOT an allegory for the war in Iraq and maybe The Conversation is just a movie about paranoia and the invasion of privacy. But what if it’s more?

What if the movie is trying to show me what I am becoming as a viewer, as a voyeur? What if my drive and ambition is not focused on what the movie is about, only the ‘larger picture’? What if, as Harry says, “I don’t care what they’re saying, I just want a nice, fat recording.” Could it be that I forsake the entertainment value of pictures in order to find a deeper artistic meaning, something that can satisfy me on another level that might not be intended at all? Perhaps I should just enjoy Transformers rather than debate the merits of bloodless combat and the attempt to make us identify with inanimate objects.

I have sat alone in a darkened room, and played over and over again a piece of plastic in order to find something that I believe it there, but cannot pinpoint. At times, I have become sick of perfectly good movies because I have merely spent too much time with them, albeit, by my own doing. At that point, I wonder if have become like Harry Caul. Clearly, Harry is terrific at what he does and enjoys it to a certain extent. However, he can never take full satisfaction by his accomplishments since he pushes himself to do better and distances himself personally from the subject matter.

Have I done the same? In order to try to become a better writer and critic, have I given up been entertained by entertainment and instead become obsessed with what I perceive to be underlying themes, subliminal messages and nods to current events? How can I enjoy The Dark Knight when I’m marveling at the commentary on society’s values instead of a tricked out Bat-pod? When I worry that censorship will infringe of the basic human rights to make some dick jokes? How can I think about The Conversation as a simple movie by Francis Ford Coppola and Gene Hackman when the morality and ethical questions raised by the subject matter are political fodder for our current presidential campaigns? Or whether or not Harrison Ford’s character was gay? Will it make a difference at all? Probably not.

Have I become so ensconced in my own world that I cannot let anyone in? Sure, I like going to movies by myself or with select friends, but when Harry lets people into his world, it comes crashing down. What if the same thing happens to me? What if Harry is showing me that the end result might be the destruction of my world, at my own hands, with nothing to show for any of it? Does the paranoia people perceive in Harry perhaps play as protection for actor and director? If Harry has nothing else but his work and his privacy and his work has been taken away from him, will he stop at nothing to defend his privacy? Of course, there could have never been a bug in his apartment, but that’s not enough to convince Harry. If you told me tomorrow they were going to remake North by Northwest, I would be furious until my dying day, never convinced that it would NOT happen, only waiting for it TO happen and it would be enough to push me over the edge.

Where did I go wrong? Should I have just listened? Or like Harry, should I dig deeper? Is it prudent to go looking into situations beyond your control for answers you might not like? I’m not involved in any capacity in the films I watch, except as an audience member, so why should I try to become an active participant? Why can’t I take a step back and maintain my distance as an observer? Why can’t I just call them ‘movies’ every once in awhile? Will I succumb to the same fate as Harry when I become tortured by my own thoughts and imagination and impotence to affect change in these movies and give it all up for the saxophone? Will anyone remember that I used to play the trombone in grade school? Am I getting way too existential? Do I even know what that word means? Do I sound like I do?

Will I ever enjoy movies like I did when I was young? Or has being behind the curtain and seeing the strings, learning the rope trick, the three ring trick and the disappearing coin trick jaded me to the movie magic that filmmakers are trying harder than ever to deliver to me and the masses?

Well, Dark Knight did make me feel like it was 1989 again.

Study the Seventies

Yesterday I posted a review of Mark Harris’ book, Pictures at a Revolution, about the film industry at the end of the Sixties. With so many changes going on both the world and Hollywood, the five films nominated for Best Picture in 1968 propelled American films forward into the Seventies, one of the most exciting decades in cinema. It’s my theorem that the great decades come every twenty years. The Thirties, the Fifties, the Seventies and the Nineties all have me looking forward to new movies in a few years time. Isn’t it interesting that forty years after those films, The Dark Knight is changing how we think about comic book movies, summer blockbusters and 70mm prints? But I digress…

I got Seventies on the brain so here are a few quick lists for those of you unfamiliar with the extraordinary films of that time. I’m talking about the teenagers who populate IMDB message boards and whose top ten lists include no films A) in black and white, B) older than fifty years OR C) more than two Tarantino films. So, here come some of my thoughts, in no particular order at all. Sorry, no pictures. If you’re not willing to read it all, sadly, this information is probably just what you need.

Top Five Movies from the 70’s

1. The Godfather/The Godfather Part II (1972/1974)

Sorry, but if Dark Knight reminds of us anything, it’s that these two films both stand the test of time and are almost always talked about as a pair. Brando, Pacino, DeNiro and Coppola, along with Gordon Willis, Nina Rota and many others created one of the consummate American myths.

2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

For anyone who has ever wanted to fight the system, Jack Nicholson fights for you in this movie. Whether he’s absconding mental patients for a fishing trip or watching a baseball game on a television set that isn’t even turned on, he has never been better, except in…

3. Chinatown (1974)

What can you say about this movie except that it’s like Mary Poppins. Practically perfect in everyway. Direction, acting, writing, camerawork, everything in this movie works together to achieve something that they just can’t seem to make anymore.

4. Taxi Driver (1976)

In the year of the Bicentennial, nobody had ever seen a film like this before and I don’t think we have since. Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader and Robert DeNiro collaborate to tell a very disturbing, very involving story of alienation that grows more important every time I watch it.

5. French Connection (1971)

When does an action movie win Best Picture? When it is the precursor to all modern action cop films. Billy Freidkin directs Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider with shaky hand held cams, brutally realistic dialogue and yes, one of the greatest car chases ever.

My Five Favorite Movies from the 70’s

1. Young Frankenstein (1974)

My favorite Mel Brooks film, I can watch it over and over again. Plus, Gene Hackman is in it! “Sedagive?!”

2. Star Wars (1977)

Yes, the second one is the best, but we never would have had it without the first film. And who doesn’t want to leave home and join the Rebellion?

3. Alien (1979)

This film took science fiction in a different direction from the previous movie on this list and we are all better for it. And Ridley Scott gave us Sigourney Weaver in her underwear. Thank you, Sir Ridley.

4. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

I may be slightly disturbed for wanting to watch this movie over and over, but in my formative high school years, this film grabbed me with its style, then bashed me over the head with its message. I think I am better for it.

5. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Huh. Same thing goes for this one.

Top Five Films from the 70’s You Might Not Have Seen, But You Really Should.

1. The Conversation (1974)

Don’t want to go too much into this one, but Coppola + Hackman= Awesome.

2. Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Jack Nicholson is great again as Jack Nicholson, but he’s given so much great stuff to do in this script and turns in an ‘anti-Jack performance’ like we would not see again for thirty years.

3. The Last Detail (1973)

Another great Nicholson film, showing us how great he really was. Featuring a young Randy Quaid, it doesn’t really matter. Jack spits out Robert Towne’s profanity with such venom, he might pull out that horse cock and go upside your fucking head! “I am the motherfucking shore patrol, motherfucker!”

4. Mean Streets (1973)

The good thing about this film is that it’s one of those that even if you haven’t seen it, you probably have. Martin Scorsese’s first film with Robert DeNiro and second with Harvey Keitel, it works as a matter displacement device and puts you in Marty’s neighborhood of Little Italy with Johnny Boy, pool halls and The Rolling Stones.

5. The Last Picture Show (1971)

Another one of those ‘they-don’t-make-‘em-like-they-used-to’ films, every aspect of this film is excellent. It is an American masterpiece in the European style and universal in its appeal and endurance.

Five Films that Could Not Have Happened Without the 70’s

1. Boogie Nights (1997)

2. Jackie Brown (1997)

3. The Ice Storm (1997)

4. Zodiac (2007)

5. (tie) A Decade Under the Influence (2003) AND Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (2003)

Best Actor to Come Out of the 70’s

Gene Hackman – You need only look at the dreck of the past two decades produced by his counterparts DeNiro, Nicholson and Hoffman to see that when Hackman was in danger of succumbing to the same pitfalls, he stopped making movies.

Best Actor Who Never Made it out of the 70’s

John Cazale – He only made five films, including Dog Day Afternoon and Deer Hunter, before he passed away in 1978 from cancer.

Best Director to Come Out of the 70’s

Martin Scorsese – Fuck Spielberg, Marty is still the money. Robert Altman said before he died, “When’s the last time you got excited for a movie? Besides the newest Scorsese film?”

Best Director Who Never Really Made it out of the 70’s

Peter Bogdanovich - I love this man and his ascots. Probably known now for his work on The Sopranos, Peter is an accomplished writer, director and actor who never really rebounded from his failures as well as others. Luckily for us, he still does all three of those things very well.

What do you think readers? Give me some of your opinions.

Pictures At A Revolution - Book Review

Back when I worked at DVD Planet, there were always discussions about creating a ‘Classics’ section. Customers always wanted to know where our classics were and although we had our AFI Top 100 on one wall, everyone thought we should have a separate area as well. When I was asked how I would classify a classic, I said “Any great movie before 1967.”

“Why 1967?” I was asked.

“That was the year Bonnie and Clyde came out,” I replied.

That film along with a few others, helped to usher in the ‘New Hollywood’ and my favorite era of film, the 70’s. Arthur Penn, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway,Robert Towne, Gene Hackman, as well as Mike Nichols, Dustin Hoffman, Conrad Hall, Haskell Wexler, Hal Ashby and many others were all key in making the five movies nominated for Best Picture at the 1967 Academy Awards. The stories of these productions make up Mark Harris’ Pictures At A Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood.

The book starts in 1963 with David Newman and Robert Benton coming up with an idea for a movie that would become the screenplay for Bonnie and Clyde. From there, Harris interweaves the narration through Beatty, The Graduate, 20^th Century Fox and Doctor Dolittle, Sidney Poitier and both In The Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Harris interviews almost of the people involved with the five films and they open up very candidly about the work, the times and the relationships.

For those interested in the any of the films or the stars, the book is certainly an entertaining read. It moves along at a steady pace, bouncing easily between the stories about the mostly harried shoots of all of the movies. None of the films came about easily, although some of them had deeper pockets than others to help them along with the bumps in the road. However, perhaps it’s my overgeeked brain, but for any casual film fan, whom I assume the book was written for, is probably familiar with most of the stories in the book. Whether it’s the beginning of Beatty’s near megalomaniacal producer’s ego or Hoffman direction to book a room as if he were buying condoms, most of the stories here are retreads of Hollywood legend. Faye Dunaway was flightly, Rex Harrison was an ass and both studios and filmmakers were looking to ‘push the envelope’ in terms of censorship.

However, where the book got interesting for me was in the story of both of the Poitier films. It was enlightening to read about the constant conflict of color, consciousness, creativity and criticism that circled Sidney throughout his career in the 60’s. As a minority, I could only imagine what he endured as a black icon but to discover what he faced from people within his own community was truly disheartening. Poitier struggled to find his place as an artist and an activist under the barrage of scathing remarks that he was doing very little as either or more importantly, that his weaknesses in one directly affected the other. The only comparable comparison for me is that of Tiger Woods, who dominates his field but falls under the occasional scorn of the black community that he simply ‘doesn’t do enough’ for black people, as though breaking through the glass ceiling of a sport once reserved for ‘whites only’ is not enough for one man in his lifetime. Poitier did not want to be Harry Belafonte or Martin Luther King or Jackie Robinson. Throughout all his struggles to get In The Heat of the Night made, to work through a role that battled back against stereotypes and to carry over that to the Herculean task of acting opposite Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in what would be Tracy’s final film, I gained a whole new respect for the man. And at the end of the book, when he is quoted as saying, “I made not have made peace with the times, but I have made my peace with myself,” it speaks volumes to the content of his character.

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is everything is has been hyped up to be. Any perceived flaws in the film were invisible to my eye, which may have been looking through rose colored lenses. But, I think it only speaks to the film’s story, characters and grip on my attention that I could not see past what was directly in front of me.

And I saw it in IMAX.

I know that I have helped in building this film up before even seeing it, but I can honestly say that it was the greatest movie going experience of my life. Better than seeing T2, Revenge of the Sith or The Departed. Never before have I wanted to see a film so badly and held such high expectations for it, only to have those shattered by the film giving me everything I hoped for and more. The Dark Knight delivers in ways that I have never seen in my life. It is The Godfather Part II and it is The Empire Strikes Back. It will be the film that turns the generation behind me into film makers.

I have to start with the sheer technical brilliance of the film and Christopher Nolan’s incredible job of directing. There is not a split second, not a single frame wasted in the movie’s entire run time. He directs the film brilliantly and effortlessly through the story, really making it much more of a crime drama with a few action sequences, rather than the other way around. The story informs the manner of storytelling and Nolan makes sure that we are given everything we need to understand our characters and their motivation. I used to say that Nolan is a master at what he didn’t show you. I still think its true, but he pulls the curtain away in this film and brings us even deeper into Gotham. It is true that the city becomes a character itself and for good reason. Like anyone else in the film that we are meant to care about, Gotham City is what Bruce, Harvey, Gordon and Rachel all love so much that they are fighting with their lives to protect it. The city is their home and by showing us so much of it, Nolan would have us identify with it and care about whether or not it would be burned to the ground by anarchy.

We will never be able to say enough good things about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. Yes, it is brilliant, yes, he steals the movie and yes, he deserves every award he will and will not win. I still cannot say for sure if his death has affected my judgment in anyway, but I could not take my eyes off him and marveled at his talent. I never forgot that Heath was underneath that makeup, but I did forget that he was gone. I celebrated that man’s life tonight and I think he would have preferred that to the alternative.

Everyone in the cast is outstanding, but will be overshadowed by Ledger. I’m sure they’re fine with that, but kudos to Christian Bale for giving us real heart and pathos to Bruce Wayne that are usually only reserved for scenes of him as a child. Never before has Bruce been so tortured by his deeds and so willing to pull of the cowl and lay himself bare for the good of others concerned. He is the best Bruce Wayne. Likewise, though they are given much smaller roles than the first time around, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal are superb in their roles, supporting Batman. We know that they empathize with Bruce, but cannot even come to grips with the best way to help him or to show him that he is not alone. As for Aaron Eckhart, he comes across as a revelation. He plays Harvey Two-Face as he was always meant to be. A twisted man hell bent on his own sense of justice. He is perfect, making us truly empathize with Harvey and so regretful when he becomes Gotham’s fallen white knight.

I walked out of the film slightly unsure of it. I knew that I had seen one of the greatest films I had ever seen. I knew I would be back the next day to watch it again. And I knew that Heath’s Joker had become the new Jack Sparrow. I was delighted that a huge summer blockbuster ‘comic book movie’ had not only become a masterful example of the true capacities of the medium, but had really, truly had something to say about our own world. Gotham City was a mirror of our own society and everything that was said about its citizens, about us as a people rang true to me. Sadly, I think most of this will be lost on a younger audience who will not see the forest for the trees. Nolan has been amazingly subversive in using his huge Warner Bros. franchise to explore our morality, our darker side and ourselves as well. I hope as many people go to see it as I plan to, because maybe then, they can discover the real meaning behind the title. Perhaps when we can see what we make of our heroes and the people brave enough to defend us, we can begin to change our world into one where those people can take off their masks and live a life in which the risk they put themselves in is no longer necessary.

Batman Blog-A-Thon Day 5

- Ok, so our final entries to the Batman Blog-A-Thon come from Son of Double Feature and dear jesus. Please show them some love and I want to give thanks to both of them, Blog Cabins, Dark of the Matinee, Fantastic Adventures of Furious D and He Shot Cyrus as well as good friend Alex and my brother Matt for participating in the blog-a-thon. You guys rock the casbah.

- Saw the Dark Knight, loved it, review up soon.

- If you can a chance to see it in IMAX, you must. I'm going back again tomorrow.

Who Is Batman?

This blog was written by special guest blogger Alex 'The Kid' Valencia. He grows his beard in an effort to be mistaken for Alfonso Cuaron.

As a young child, my obsessions and interest always changed. From watching Reading Rainbow to obsessing over space travel, only one thing stayed the same. My love for Batman. Unlike most of my friends I wasn’t able to watch the first Batman on the big screen nor was I able to watch the second film on the big screen. Lucky enough for me, my parents had a VCR and a VHS copy of Batman Returns which played on repeat over the next couple of years along side Beauty and the Beast (No shame in that). To this day I am one of the few people who considers the second film a superior film then the first Batman. Maybe it was the darkness, my attraction to Catwoman or the simple fact that I couldn’t believe I was watching this film without my parents covering my eyes but because of this film, my views on the Batman universe are a bit different then my fellow Batman loving friends.

Who is Batman? Surely its man extraordinaire Bruce Wayne, who holds the hard job of being a millionaire playboy and big boss at Wayne Enterprises. But who is Bruce Wayne? Bruce Wayne comes in as the most tragic figure in all comic books. Wayne joins the ranks of Hamlet (Hamlet), Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid), and Jack Bauer (24). No matter the amount of good he does, his story will not end with a happy note.

Why do we love Batman? He is a human being (sorry Superman) with no super powers like Spider Man or the X-Men. He has gadgets that would make James Bond cream in his pants. Like Tony Stark, he has power, money, and women… or is that Tony Montana? But the reason why I love Batman is not because of his wardrobe or his taste in women but his inner beast. Bruce Wayne set out to rid Gotham City of the cancer that holds the city captive, but along the way Bruce Wayne is killed and out came a demon trying to find a replacement soul.

I know what you’re saying…”Alex, wait up, but Batman is nothing but good, he doesn’t even kill the bad guys.” True my dear friends, but there are several reasons why that might be so. You could go the popular route and say he doesn’t kill because he isn’t a monster like the Joker or Bane. I, on the other hand, think he doesn’t kill because if he rids Gotham City of its plague then Batman wouldn’t exist. Batman needs Two Face, the Joker and the other villains in order to fight them and imprison them. How many times in the animated series, the comic books, and the films have the villains escaped from the Asylum. Countless times. Batman knows that they can’t be held, yet he does that same routine over and over again. Batman is addicted to fighting crime.

In the case of Batman and his villains, Batman isn’t only fighting the evils of Gotham City but fighting himself. Everyone of the villains resembles Batman in a different way. Two Face (battling with two personalities), Poison Ivy (longing to become what they pretend to be), Mr. Freeze (on a personal vendetta because of the loss of a loved one), Scarecrow (use of fear as a weapon) and Ra’s Al Ghul (fighting for the greater good); Then there is Joker, who is the complete opposite of Batman. They are like peanut butter and jelly, eggs and ham, Neo and Agent Smith; everything from their morality to their shoe size is the polar opposite. Except for one big similarity. They both need each other more then Bruce would like his parents back.

Joker has been around since the first comic came out, so the Joker and Batman were born on the same day. I see the Joker as the scariest incarnation of evil ever put on any type of media. The Joker would make Lee Marvin and Steve McQueen soil their pants. What I also love about the Joker is how much of us is in him. He is self destructive, ignores the rules/laws, and hardly does he ever think twice about his actions. To sum it up, he loves to have fun. If that doesn’t sound too complex then chew this for a while, Joker is in love with Batman…How that does that taste? The Joker would never kill Batman for the same reason why Batman won’t kill the Joker; They complete each other. Joker killed the second Robin, paralyzed Batgirl, and killed one of the wives of Commissioner Gordon in NO MAN’S LAND (to strain Batman's and Gordon's relationship) because he is jealous and doesn’t want to share the fun he’s having with Batman.

Every time I see any of the films or read the books, I see Batman as someone who doesn’t find pleasure in anything sometimes even fighting crime. But he is good at it and he knows it. Just like John McClane he knows that if he won’t do it, then no one will. That’s what makes Batman, THE BATMAN.

Batman Blog-A-Thon Day 4

- Make sure you check out the blog-a-thon entries from Fantastic Adventures of Furious D and He Shot Cyrus. Both of them have some really good stuff to say about Batman and Robin!

- Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the blog-a-thon. Matt and Alex and all my fellow LAMBs. You guys are great!

- Heard there's a line forming at the theatre, so I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball!

In Defense of Joel Schumacher

What happened? That was the question many of us asked after Batman Forever and the question we didn’t even bother with after Batman & Robin. After a marketing campaign built around a question mark, the movie provided little answers.

The two films in the Batman canon from director Joel Schumacher were regarded first as something different, moving the franchise in a lighter direction and then as an unmitigated disaster, a movie to be ignored and apologized for. While I share those feelings as well, perhaps now is the time to look back at the Schumacher films and try to figure out what really happened with the movies, from the people involved to the creative process behind them.

To place the blame squarely on Joel Schumacher is completely unfair. People judge him as a director on these films alone. Briefly, the man has made The Lost Boys, Falling Down, Tigerland and Veronica Guerin. He can be just as dark, serious and violent as Tim Burton and I think, pushes himself to try different genres and styles with his films. So, why did Schumacher turn in two movies that were less Lost Boys and more unlike anything he had done at that time? I think we can attribute that directly to Warner Bros. After the dark nature of Batman Returns, they were clearly looking for a return to the lighter feel of the Batman TV show. It has been well documented that both Burton and Michael Keaton were interested in coming back for a third film. But, the studios had concerns about getting another movie like Returns. When director Kevin Smith was brought onboard by the studio to write for their new Superman movie, he described the script they were developing as “very campy, like a Superman version of the old Batman TV show.” The studio wanted bright colors and smiling faces to put on their posters. And Schumacher gave them what they asked for, right up to the canted angles on the villains. But, he also had some creative freedom on the films and while he did ramp up the camp, he also tuned up the sexuality of the films, taking it from black latex, whips and Kim Basinger to lingerie, plunging necklines and Elle MacPherson. And yes, of course, nipples of the suits.

This is undeniably sexy.

This... not so much.

Furthermore, Warner Bros. flexed their muscle when it came to casting. They wanted huge names for their third Batman movie, the one they would have the greatest control over. Besides bringing in Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones and the hottest movie star on the planet (at the time) Jim Carrey to play the new villains, they cast Val Kilmer as Batman. They got a movie star to play a role bigger than any movie star. The casting of Keaton and later, Christian Bale tapped into the belief that an action star was not needed to play Batman, but someone who could tap into the emotional pathos of Bruce Wayne to give a performance that would gives audiences someone to care for under the cape. Which is not to say that Kilmer or George Clooney are not good actors, because both of them are very talented. But, they have larger than life personalities that most people were not able to dismiss when watching them on screen. Bruce Wayne is anything but public.

But, more importantly, maybe we should look at the stories themselves. In the third movie, by introducing the Robin character, the film had an opportunity to greatly expand on the Batman character and universe, by showing us the lighter side of Bruce. Sadly, this chance was missed. By casting Chris O’Donnell, the movie garnered zero sympathy for a twenty five year old orphan. The scripts moved away completely from the tone of the comics from Two-Face flipping his coin until he lands the desired result to using super soldier serum in completely changing the character of Bane. From skates and surfboards to the Batmobile climbing walls, even the action sequences could not suspend the belief of comic books fan, who live and die under the idea that a mask changes your facial features enough to avoid identification from loved ones. After Batman: The Animated Series had brought about a gradual change back to the tone of the books, the movies reversed course one hundred and eighty degrees from that and gave us one dimensional villains with complex costumes and dreadful dialogue. Courtesy of Akiva Goldsman, who has admittedly gotten better, the chilling villain dialogue went from “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” to “Ice to see you” and other cold weather puns.

So, the movies sucked. Who cares? Tonight at midnight all those memories will be erased. Talk to you tomorrow, same bat time, same bat blog.

Bruce Might be an Orphan, but Batman is Family

This Batman Blog-A-Thon entry is written by Matt Mendez. Here he is pictured to the right of his older, devastatingly handsome older brother, who asked not to be identified.

My brother always said that Batman was our generation’s superhero. That we were too old to be amazed by Spider-Man and too young to enjoy Superman. I tried to argue with him, but after some thinking, I realized I couldn’t. He was right.

Reruns of Batman (with Adam West) were something I grew up with. I can remember me and my brother searching them out on TV and eagerly awaiting the credits. Why the credits?? For the thrill that ran through me when Batgirl’s scooter flashed across the screen, it was like an early birthday present. My first TV crush. It’s something magical. Riddler’s riddles, the Penguin’s umbrella’s, Joker’s laugh………they are all etched in my mind and I’ll never forget them.

The original Batman movie is a huge part of my life and my relationship with my brother. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. Before “Arliss”, I knew him as Knox who got a check cut for a million dollars. Before Kim Basinger was Eminem’s mom, she was a reporter that hid film in her bra (lucky film!). No matter what anyone says about “Chinatown” or “One Flew Over” Jack will ALWAYS be the Joker to me. Like Ari Gold says “There’s the Joker, there’s Batman.” And let’s not get started on the quotes that the movie provides………when I was younger my big brother could get me to do damn near anything as long as he grabbed my shoulder, stared me straight in the face and said, “ MATT…….YOU…..are my number 1….GUY.” Kool-Aid was good as made.

And last, but not least…….the costumes. I have the distinct memory of my mom hating life come Halloween when we went as Batman and Robin. I, of course, was Robin because it was natural to follow my big brother’s lead. I had the black mask over my face and the bright yellows and reds. My brother had the utility belt and pointy ears. I know the pictures are still somewhere, but God would I be embarrassed to post them.

“I threw a rock at Batman……….It was a BIG rock.”

Batman Blog-A-Thon Day 3

- Tomorrow is the big day! Finally! Amid the frenzy surrounding Dark Knight, people may have missed the final trailer. Although long and at some points it repeats shots from earlier trailers, this final Dark Knight trailer shows some pretty impressive stuff without spoilers. Check it out.

- Make you sure you check out my brother's entry below and if you haven't already, Fletch's post over at Blog Cabins. Thanks to both of you guys, really great stuff.

- Aw, hell, I don't have anymore to write, I'm too excited! This is like the night before Christmas, except I already know what's under the tree! and it's going to be bitching!

Batman: The Animated Series

There was a time when my roommate and I would forgo a night at the bar to sit in the living room, eat pizza, have a few beers and watch Batman: The Animated Series. This was about thirteen years after the show aired and we would watch hours of episodes we saved on our DVR. My girlfriend at the time was amazed that two grown men would sit at home on a Friday night to watch cartoons. This was about three years ago and even though I’m almost thirty, I have to stop to watch when Batman is on.

The show might have been aimed for kids, but it never felt like it. It was a dark cartoon, mostly scenes taking place at night and indeed, animators drew on black paper rather than white. There was very little comedy and even the pilot was titled, “The Dark Knight’s First Night.” It was one of those fantastic, rare occasions when a product for children so seamlessly worked for adults. The series was deeply rooted in Burton’s films, from the look of Gotham City to the excellent use of Danny Elfman’s score. But, the show took itself seriously as a Batman vehicle. It presented practically the entire gamut of Batman’s villains, giving us the (now) second best representation of both Joker and Two-Face. Episodes took cues from films such as Rashomon and Last Temptation of Christ and in one Clayface episode, there are references to both A Streetcar Named Desire and Psycho inside of thirty seconds of each other. One need only look at these episode title cards to get a sense of the darker tone the series strived for.

The animated series (which never referred to itself as the animated series, simply, Batman.), even made smaller characters such as Renee Montoya and Harley Quinn part of the Batman canon. Mark Hamill played the Joker to perfection, better than Nicholson, but presumably not as amazing as Ledger. The fact that the show continues to air and that a major box set is being planned for it, speaks to the enduring legacy of the show. I love the films, but the animated series will always be close to my heart.

Batman Blog-A-Thon Day 2

- Now that The Dark Knight is releasing this week, more and more information is coming out about the film, even information about the time in between the two productions. Apparently, Warner was unsure about doing a sequel to Begins because of it's relatively modest grosses and was looking at going a different direction. Here was something they had in mind.





So, my friend Robert and I (going to TDK in IMAX on Thursday) were looking at my Lexus today and we both decided that it was both entirely feasible and not at all difficult to get a new black paint job, fix the ground effects and throw a Batman logo on the front of that bad boy. Are we serious? You will soon find out, dear readers.





- Check out Fletch's contribution to the blog-a-thon at Blog Cabins. It's a very clever piece, but then again, most things that dude writes is clever. Thanks, Fletch!


- The guys over at Digital Bits have posted their review of Dark Knight after attending a screening I missed out. It had to do with this whole deal about emails and printers, but anyways, they dug it and if you can't trust the guys at the Bits, who can you trust?

Ever Dance With the Devil in the Pale Moonlight?

I remember getting out of the car, walking up to the theatre and in front of the ticket window was the Batmobile. Not the old 60’s version, but the new, sleek, jet-black Batmobile. I didn’t know the word when I was eight, but that car was sexy. And now, as I watch Batman again, almost twenty years later, I realize the word isn’t sexy; it’s stylized.

I’m not going to dwell on the shortcomings of the film or turn this into an “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Tim Burton’s Batman” blog, but I can only talk about my memories of the movie as a kid and how I look at it now. It is one of those great movies like Temple of Doom, which should be for kids, but is decidedly not. There are plenty of campy touches especially in the sound effects with punches that sound hollow and bullets that whiz by like in an old western. But, Tim Burton being Tim Burton fought tooth and nail with the studio to make a much darker version of the Caped Crusader. From someone who admittedly never reads comic books, but was inspired by The Killing Joke, his film strikes a fine line between the personal and the professional.

Apparently, there was a huge outcry against the casting of Michael Keaton in the movie. The internet did not exist then and I don’t really remember any of it, but I can understand why people were suspicious and also, why they were satisfied. His is great as Bruce Wayne, but in all of the movies, I’ve never seen anything as compelling as Keaton trying to tell Kim Basinger that he is Batman. He captures the true essence of Wayne in the scene, wrestling with his dual identity and who he can let into his world. There wasn’t as much of that even in Begins. I have always been a big Keaton fan and to me, Batman may not always be Keaton, but Keaton will always be Batman.

"My life is really... complex."

One cannot talk about the film without talking about Jack. The Oscar winner goes over the top for this role, playing off his public persona and previous performances. But enough about Jack Palance, Jack Nicholson is the star of the film, as expressly written in his contract giving him top billing and a huge percentage of the film’s gross profit, approximately sixty million dollars. He chews through the scenery, has the best lines in the script and did I mention he made sixty million dollars off this movie? He was the definitive Joker character, but even Mark Hamill in the cartoon was better than Nicholson’s incarnation.

"Love that Joker!"

I really loved Kim Basinger in the movie and especially Robert Wuhl, as the more intrepid reporter Frank Knox. That they never brought back his character is another shortcoming of the series, right up there with not bringing back Billy Dee Williams, opting for a different three named actor to flesh out that role.

The final climax is one which never was really topped, not even in Begins. Everyone knew that Bale could beat Neeson, but in this movie, Batman is in mortal danger and having already saved the city, fights for himself. Instead, he would go on in other movies to always save someone else or, (I can’t believe I’m typing this) save Gotham City from freezing. Batman is bloodied, beat up and about to exact revenge on the man who (allegedly) killed his parents. It never got that personal again for Batman until Begins. Even in Forever, they really missed out on the parallels between Dick Grayson and Bruce that forged a real relationship and trust between the two that doesn’t exist in the film. They tried to make a big deal out of family in the fourth film, but it felt false and forced, all alliteration aside.

My thoughts kept returning to The Dark Knight though and I was struck by how many themes in this film are to be revisited in the new one. Of course, there is the obvious comparison’s between Nicholson and Ledger’s performances, but I think we can lay those to rest now. I’m talking about issues like corruption, organized crime, a love triangle and the city’s ambivalence towards Batman. Plus, you add in beefed up roles for both Alfred and Gordon, toss in secondary characters like Lucius Fox, Scarecrow, the Gordon kids, Mike Engel and more, it’s no wonder the film is almost three hours long.

As I watch the film again, I’m filled with a sense of nostalgia. It’s feeling that has permeated me lately with the impending release of The Dark Knight. Because Batman is timeless, the movies make me feel like a kid again, only this time, I’m going into it a much wiser and older kid. I can’t wait.

Batman Blog-A-Thon Day 1

- Firstly, check out Ryan McNeil's blog, Dark of the Matinee. I read his stuff all the time and in showing that great minds think alike, he's on a Bat blog binge this week as well. And I love the tricked out look for his site!

- It had to happen eventually and it finally did. Someone wrote a negative review of The Dark Knight. David Edelstein of the New York Magazine has called the film "noisy, jumbled and sadistic." The only other well known critic to be unfavorable to the film is David Denby from the New Yorker. You can read his review here in which he describes it as "constant climax; it's always in a frenzy and it goes on forever." Besides jumbled, are any of these things negative?

- A friend sent this to me today. It's a rather cool thing about a Dark Knight screening. You can read it at the link if you cannot read it well here.




All rather cool stuff indeed.

Batman: A Man For Our Time(s)

Batman. Bruce Wayne. The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. The World’s Greatest Detective. A hero with many names and a single indelible image. From 1939 up to the present day, Batman has remained in our public conscious while other super heroes has risen and fallen. Why has such a dark character become a symbol of America and more beloved and embraced than his ally, Superman?

Batman Issue #1

Why is Batman our beloved superhero? Unique in his own way, Batman has no super powers, only his physical strength and intellectual prowess. He also has a wealthy business empire, which would be considered a super power where I’m from, but throughout the years, Wayne Enterprises has always aspired to be the opposite of big business. Although the family owned corporation was based on such American success stories like the Rockefellers or the Gettys, the Waynes have always invested back in their community and sought to make their fortune off medical supplies, improved military gear and scientific innovations in various other fields. Perhaps we identify with him because Bruce Wayne is an orphan, his parents murdered before his eyes? People might think that Batman has mirrored society’s ills, but during the Sixties, Batman was more campy and colorful than ever before. It wasn’t until after Vietnam, in the mid-Seventies and throughout the Eighties that Batman returned to his roots as a vigilante crime fighter. Maybe it could be his villains? Can you name five Batman bad guys? Easy, right? I used to impress people by rattling off all four major villains from the TV series and the seven actors who portrayed them (Bonus points if you knew who played Mr. Freeze). Now, name five Spider-Man villains? Slightly more difficult. How about five Superman enemies?

I know why Batman is my favorite. Mostly it’s because of television. When the first Batman movie came out in 1989, I was eight years old. And that bat logo was everywhere that year. Never mind Underoos, there were tattoos, haircuts, glasses, everything. When I was a kid, Batman was like the Beatles. Up until and after the release of the film, the old Batman TV show was on the air, twice a day, everyday. And just like my dad twenty years before, I was there at the same bat time, same bat channel. Batman was a hero you could relate to. He accidentally became Batman. Bruce Wayne could have been any of us, anyone with a childhood trauma. But the difference between him and us, what makes him a hero is his self-sacrifice, his willingness to put himself in harm’s way and unwavering determination to make sure that nobody suffers the same fate as his own. He pulled on the cowl, stood up for himself and stood up for us. He refused to be intimidated and braved the psychologically frightening villains of Gotham City to spare the rest of us. Batman is for the people and of the people.

Batman: Year One

I have grown up with Batman and he has always seemed age appropriate as well. The first movie premiered when I was a kid and the cartoon ran for three years when I was a kid and still syndicates. And when the films took a campy turn during my high school years, I went back to discover for the first time the comics I missed when I was younger, from the Frank Miller books of the 80’s to the newer stories like The Long Halloween. By time I had grown up and gained confidence in my inner geek, Christopher Nolan has made the Batman films more relevant, believable and impressive than anything that preceded them. And all these things represent Batman to me. Kevin Conroy’s voice over a pair of white triangles on a black screen. Dave Mazzucchelli’s art running past Frank Miller’s words. Michael Keaton hanging a mugger over a ledge and letting him know who he pisses his pants for. And now, Christian Bale as the best Bruce Wayne, really giving us someone to care about under the cowl. I have often joked about accepting Batman as my personal Lord and savior. But, Batman is simply my hero and a hero worth believing and hoping in.

Christian Bale as Batman

Big Mike's Lil' Update 7/11/08

Batman Blog-A-Thon starts next week, Monday morning! Read all the details at the Official Batman Blog-A-Thon Announcment post!



That is all.

Interview With A LAMBpire - Alan Bacchus

What motivates us to write our thoughts down in cyberspace? Do all bloggers share the same passion for their subjects? To answer these questions, we must ask more, so in conjunction with the LAMB, I present the first Interview With a LAMBpire.


Alan Bacchus writes Daily Film Dose, giving you a dose of his film reviews everyday. I am a regular reader to his blog and when I had the opportunity to interview a fellow LAMB, Allan was the first choice. He was very obligating and friendly and we spoke over the phone for about thirty minutes. Based in Toronto, he takes his love of cinema very seriously, allowing it to permeate every day of his life. How, you may ask? Read on…


On your blog its says that you’re a filmmaker, critic and a writer. What’s you education in that, what’s you background?


I have a degree in economics, that’s where I started off, going into the world of business. And then, I kind of knew that I would eventually go back to film school and start a career in the film industry, so I worked for about a year and a half in the business world and then I quit my job, and went to film school, in Vancouver. That was many years ago, eight years ago. After then, I just got into the film industry, making my own short films, working for a production company and getting experience. So I didn’t actually start writing or start considering myself a writer or a critic or a blogger or anything like that until relatively recently. I was just a filmmaker exclusively until recently.


Your reviews are always very well written. They’re never too opinionated. To me, they’re very intelligent, while being accessible. The one critic who comes to my mind in those terms is Roger Ebert. Is he one of your influences?


Definitely Roger Ebert for sure, I’ve been reading his stuff for years. I saw The Happening a couple of days ago and I was writing my review of it today. And then I read Roger Ebert’s review of it. My review doesn’t even compare. His is several notches above mine. He hit the nail on the head. Exactly what I thought, we have the same opinion of the film. He just hit it on the head in ways I couldn’t. So, he’s definitely the top bar for me of film reviewers. And then, also, the reviewers at Variety, Justin Chang. I read Variety and here in Toronto, I read the Toronto Star, checking out the reviews of film.


The name of your blog says it all, Daily Film Dose. How do you do it every day?


How do I do it everyday? Basically, I do it the day before and post it. I’ll do it in the evening, I’ll do a first past, it will take me maybe half an hour, forty five minutes, depending on whether I’m feeling it, whether the words are flowing. And the day of in the morning, I have a regular full time job, I work for the Canadian Film Centre, so in the morning, before I go to work, I’ll polish it off and post it. Usually, I watch some movies during the week, but most of them are on the weekends and just keep it in my brain throughout the week and then when it comes to writing the review, it will still be relatively fresh. But I also have a few guest reviewers every couple of weeks or so, I’ll give myself a break and have a guest reviewer write something for me. But, for the most part, it’s just keeping it going and so far, I haven’t had too much writer’s block. Every once in awhile I will and then I might rely on one of my guest reviewers to write something for me. People have asked me, do you write a bunch on the weekend and post during the week? Nope, for the most part, it’s one a day. I’m literally writing one a day.


I love the variety of your posts. The first three days of June are Viva Zapata! How She Move and Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show. How do you decide what to write about?


I love variety, that’s one of my reasons why I wanted to start is that I wanted it to be kind of random. In fact, one of the inspirations was Roger Ebert’s column, his great reviews column where once a week he would review a great film whether it’s a 1920’s silent film or a film from the Eighties or something. I liked how there was a bit of randomness each week. Whatever he thinks is great will go on there and I first started writing great reviews for what I thought were great movies and I realized I’m quickly going to run out of great movies, so I sort of expanded it to any sort of movie I see. I purposely tried to keep it fresh, so it’s not as predictable. I do a lot of new releases and new release DVD’s. That’s sort of the nature of what I see. But, I try to shake it up and I do like reviewing the old movies because its stuff people haven’t seen before and it’s rediscovering old classics. It sort of broadens my own cinema viewing experiences, by watching and reviewing different films all the time.


One of the things I really like and admire about your reviews is that you can get a sense of what you like without be condescending, but even in movies you don’t think are very good, you always seem to find something to like about them.


I don’t like to be a cynic. I think I trashed 10,000 B.C. It was a terrible movie, but I’m going to re-review it. I just got it on DVD and it’s still a terrible movie but, in hindsight, there is something that is so ridiculous about that movie that is kind of fun. If you can find something fun in something that’s completely stupid, there’s something enjoyable about that. It also really depends on the environment that you see (it in). I saw In the Name of the King, the Jason Statham movie. That’s a terrible movie, but I saw that at the After Dark Film Festival here in Toronto, in a theatre with a bunch of hard core genre geeks trying to see a crappy B movie. It was hilarious, people were cheering and laughing at the bad parts, unintentionally, but it was still fun. Part of that cinema experience was being part of that thing. It also depends on what environment and what kind of mood you’re in. I don’t really like to be a cynic and another reviewer is Harry Knowles, if you read his little things, even bad movies, he’ll say something good about them. I don’t think it’s healthy to trash things completely, because it does take energy and creativity to make even a bad movie. So, I try to find a little something good in everything.


Is that like the Total Recall feature posting you did?


That’s just fun. I just had fun with that one because I just saw it recently and it’s so ridiculous. Also, with that movie, it’s a different era. If that movie was made today, it would have a different feel. Someone compared it to the new Rambo movie and that’s a good comparison because Rambo in 2008 isn’t the same as Rambo in 1988. But watching Total Recall took me back to the first time I saw it in 1990. I was just shocked.


Not to get off topic, but one of the things about Rambo, is that is a hard ‘R’ rating. Most of those 80’s franchises like Die Hard and Terminator have turned in PG-13 entries, but I have a lot of respect for Stallone keeping it old school Rambo.


I think he financed that largely out of the studio system, I think he shot it in Bulgaria or something. It was largely private financing, so he had a bit of economy in how he did it. I think that was a relatively low budget, apart from himself, there weren’t any stars, you shoot with a Bulgarian crew and next thing you know, you got a twenty million dollar movie. I think that’s probably how he got that, if he went back to whomever, he may not have that same freedom. Kudos to him for financing that film. After so many years out of the game, to come back and he directed that too. It’s pretty top notch production value and stuff. And that was a good cinema experience too. That final act where heads are exploding and machine guns, that was laughter for the crowd!


I really like your feature postings and they were actually the first things I started reading off your blog.


Those are tough because a review just kind of pours out of you, but it takes a lot of research involved for a feature posting. I would like to do them more often, but every few weeks is really what I can do.


How do you decide what becomes a feature posting? Like Spike Lee Vs. Steven Soderbergh was one of my favorites, where do you get your ideas?


I like lists, I think lists, I don’t consider myself a great writer, or even a good writer, but lists are a good way for me to organize my thoughts, so that’s usually the starting point. For Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh, it was easier for me to write an essay about those two filmmakers just by literally comparing one movie to another that were similar in genre and age. Also it’s very accessible for a reader, quickly glancing at something in a list very quick, you can just see all the items and not necessarily read everything if you don’t have time to read everything. Sometimes it’s a movie I watch that something will just pop in my head, like hey I got an idea. I watched A Passage to India, David Lean and I was like that’s his last film and that’s a really good film for a last film. And I was thinking what other great directors ended on a high note like that? And there’s actually not that many. So, I was thinking of doing another, Great Last Films of Great Directors. For Spike Lee, I think it was when I watched When The Levees Break and I was like, Spike Lee does not get the respect he deserves! Someone needs to hype him up a bit, so that’s why I did that.


It’s strange to hear you say that you’re not a good writer, because you have a book!


The book is very easy to do. I stumbled upon this website called Blurb.com and it’s just a way of self-publishing a book. It’s certainly not published. I didn’t have to pitch the project to anybody. I just uploaded all my postings to this website and downloaded the software. I just decided to, it’s like an ego project. Nobody has bought the book except me. It’s also very expensive. I just thought it was really cool. Hopefully, I’ll wind up making it like a yearly, annual thing so next year I’ll have another book, maybe a few years down the road, I’ll have a whole volume of my entries. It’s also still as raw as the blog itself, still got typos and little grammatical errors I missed over the period that I haven’t caught yet. I don’t think I can be in Barnes & Noble, it’s just a fun thing to have on my shelf right now.


You now run two blogs, Daily Film Dose and Canadian Film Dose?


I work in the Canadian film industry. Anyone who works in the Canadian film industry has their own neuroses about how to get our own films out into the world and give it more publicity and press and have it make more money. I decided to create a sister site which wouldn’t be too onerous on me, because I’m basically just transposing the same entries over to the other site. I figured over the years as I review more Canadian films it will be kind of a go-to place for people interested in Canadian films. It also came as a necessity because there aren’t any Canadian film blogs that I know of. There are no Canadian fanboys! I figured I’d try to start a trend and have a resource for people to read about films that aren’t from a newspaper or journalist or traditional critic.


Can you tell me more about the Canadian film industry, because as far as I know, and I’m sure many Americans think that Toronto and Vancouver have a thriving film industry?


We have all the infrastructure and this is something that’s been debated within the Canadian film industry for years. Canadians don’t get to see the films that we make, because, we don’t know why. Maybe they don’t have enough publicity or maybe it’s the big Hollywood films that are taking up the theatres here. No one really knows why. Some people say the quality isn’t there, some people say the theatre chains aren’t programming Canadian films. That’s never going to be solved by what I’m doing. I’m just sort of helping the cause.



The Canadian film industry is obviously very small compared to big brother next door. We have the little man syndrome, where we’re always comparing ourselves to the big guys and thinking, what can we do to break into that market? Obviously the American market is the gold standard for the world. Any filmmaker is trying to get US distribution for their films, Canadians as well. There are different opinions as to what the Canadian film industry should do, if they were to collude and work together and get our films out there to a bigger international audience. Or whether we should be making more accessible films, which are comparable to Hollywood blockbusters or we should continue making our niche films that sort of define Canadian culture in a good way. Films of Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg are very auteur driven and there are few films that are actually for the mass audiences. A film like How She Move is one of those films which was financed entirely in Canada, shot within Canada, but doesn’t feel like a Canadian movie. It looks like Step It Up or like one of those dance films, a good crowd pleasing film, which it is. That’s the sort of conundrum that’s continually going on internally here. No one really has the answers. But, I do believe that the films we make are in the three million, five million dollar range which is very small. When I do my top ten list of the year, I legitimately have one or two Canadian films that are in there, in the top ten. I think the quality is there, just got to find a way to get people to watch them.


I work for an organization called the Canadian Film Centre and it’s kind of like an advanced training institution for Canadian filmmakers. Kind of like the AFI. My department that I work for is called the Feature Film Project and we make low budget feature films for first time filmmakers. We have a budget range of about half a million dollars and I am the coordinator of that department. So, that’s what I do.


How did you find out about the LAMB?


I was looking up ‘the long take’ because I was Googling it, I was looking to see if anyone else had done any entries about long takes. I realized there was an actual blog called The Long Take, so I was like ‘Oh! I got to check this out!’ I was surfing around there and got connected to the LAMB and just found it. Creating this network of like minded bloggers is really cool.


Are there any other blogs that you read regularly?


I developed kind of a partnership with A Penny in the Well. That’s Andrew Wells, he’s a blogger from Missouri. He started commenting on my blog and I started commenting on his and we sort of continually write on each other’s blogs. A couple of months ago we actually collaborated on the posting I did of Ridley Scott’s many director’s cuts in his career. He wrote half of that and I wrote half of that and we posted each half on each other’s blogs. He’s sort of my blogger compatriot and so we always just razz each other on each other’s blog and support each other. He is definitely one of the main blogs that I read.


Any future plans for the Daily Film Dose?


I’m doing an interview with Bruce McDonald. He directed this new movie called Tracey Fragments with Ellen Page. That will be my first interview. I’ve never done an interview before. I’m curious to see how that will go and if that works out, if that’s a good venture for me, I’ll try to seek out more filmmakers to interview and create a new sort of section to the blog.

Holding Hands With Nick

Here at Big Mike's Movie Blog, we're focused on film and on balancing homos from within the system. With that philosophy in mind, today we present a review from a guest blogger.






This post was written by special guest author Nicholas "The Maz" Mazmanian. Here he is pictured in Hill Valley c. 1955.

I love Black Rain. The film is awesome in so many words, one of them being curly-mullet-action. In the film we follow tough New York cop Nick Conklin (played by Michael Douglas) and his partner Charlie (played by Andy Garcia) as they transport a high profile Japanese Yakuza thug named Sato. They lose Sato, they trail Sato, and eventually the film climaxes into what the 80’s (or Michael Bay) did best, the over the top end scene. That’s about it. No, really that about sums the film up. There are small details and such that will be discussed but in the mean time, that’s about the entire film.

Not to be confused with Chubby Rain.

That is why this film is known as Ridley’s Tony film. It has by and far one of the most formulaic plots in the vast and well aged genre of Action/Japanese/Romance/Andy Garcia playing another Italian. This film is the standard issue semi-bad cop, who is divorced and under the ever watchful eye of the law, goes out of his way and earns back his sense of do-gooding. I know what you’re thinking, “But Nick, that standard issue doesn’t sound that standard.” Please bear with me, I will list a few films who use that same old grab bag of what was listed before, Cobra, Tango and Cash, and Daylight. Yes, all of these films have Sylvester Stallone in them, but really is there any other actor who is finer at finding the character within them than Stallone? I think not.

Pulling away from the long and over done loose train of thought, Black Rain has a lot of the trappings of a Tony Scott film without Tony Scott being attached to the film. Now I love Ridley Scott, but this film feels like a watered down version of Blade Runner. For instance, if you stop the film during any of the urban transition shots at night you could mistake 1980's Tokyo for Los Angeles 2019. I think to save on production costs the film must have re-used many of the same sets. While this may seem like a bad thing, it isn’t, because it makes the film seem that much more badass. With the body count rising and the random explosions it seems like Ridley, every now and again, grabbed the phone and asked Tony, “How do should decapitate this man?”

"Brother, when are we going to make a BIG movie?"

As the film progresses and moves, I began to see that if this film were in the hands of an unknown film maker it would have easily been forgotten and moved directly to the 9pm time slot on WGN. Ridley does a great job at directing the film and making it one of the prettiest cop action films to date; and with a soundtrack done by Hans Zimmer it’s safe to say that it’s worth viewing multiple times. The amount of production values in this film is staggering and it shows, making Black Rain, The Searchers of the Action/Cop movie world.

In closing, I can say that Black Rain is easily one of my favorite popcorn films. I love to watch it when I feel the need to be Japanese. If I have one thing against the film it is if it were made twenty years earlier it would have starred Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune — and knowing that makes me sad. That and Kate Capshaw is in it. Please don’t judge the film on this final note.

The author and I.

Black Rain is available on Special Edition DVD.

One Film Review for My Brother

I have known my brother for a quarter of a century now. And during that time, there is only one film that we both immediately identify each other with. That movie is La Bamba.

As kids, there were very few movies that featured Mexican-Americans (who didn’t speak Spanish) in the lead roles. La Bamba was not only an important movie culturally, but it tells the story of sibling rivalry between two brothers. Growing up in a small community in California, Richie and Bob mirrored the two of us almost exactly or at least, our self-images of ourselves.

Richie was the younger brother, the shining golden boy. No matter what he did, he excelled at it and everyone wrapped him in love and support. But, Bob didn’t feel that same love. Bob’s story was forever intertwined with Richie’s, but could have been a movie by itself. Bob spent time in jail, had problems with alcohol and drugs and always felt slighted by his family. The simple fact was that they were two different people for being brothers. Richie was unsure about his rock-n-roll dreams and needed that constant assurance to pursue his music. Bob was far more independent with a rebellious streak. When he found his own marginal talent, it was met with indifference and outright rejection from his family. He pushed people away who tried to get close to him and his distrust kept him alone and away from his family. However, Bob was always begrudgingly proud of his younger brother and its shown in the film several times, from Bob outside the garage on his motorcycle to watching American Bandstand in the bar. The scene where Bob disrupts the concert at the hall epitomizes their relationship. Bob shows up drunk, but in good spirits to enjoy the show. A small conflict sets him off and his violent tendencies take over. Ruining the show and starting a fight that destroys the hall, Bob internalizes everything to the point that he fights back against his mother and Richie, seeking some sympathy for himself. In this way, it highlights both the positive and negative stereotypes of Mexican Americans. There is the strong sense of family first that informs the relationship between brother and brother and mother and son. I know that my brother’s favorite part is when Richie is asked what’s more important to him, his friends or his music and answers, “my family.”

Directed by Taylor Hackford, the movie features great performances from Lou Diamond Phillips, Elizabeth Pena, Rosana DeSoto and Joe Pantoliano (any movie with Joey Pants is awesome). For me, the movie will always be Esai Morales. He gives a powerhouse portrayal that should have garnered an Oscar nod. People don't know that the real Bob Morales eventually cleaned up and works as a drug counselor. I got the chance to work with Esai in television and he was a really nice guy. I told him how much my brother and I loved La Bamba as kids and he was appreciative of the fact. What I didn’t tell him was that I was grateful for the movie giving the two of us a chance to forget about our childish fights and become close to each other as brothers before that opportunity was taken from us.

Happy Birthday Matt.

Hancock, A Not-So-Super (hero) Movie

My friend and I walked out of Hancock with two very different opinions of the film. As we discussed it, we decided that he was being too negative and I was being too positive. Be that as it may, we both thought the movie was average. So, if we ended up finding middle ground, maybe we actually started out with a completely different take on the movie. And so too, I think, did the makers of Hancock.

Originally titled Tonight, He Comes, the film went through quite a few different directors’ hands including Jonathon Mostow (Terminator 3), Michael Mann and Gabriele Muccino before Peter Berg got the job. The film feels like a good stew with too many chefs as the tone and dialogue changes constantly throughout the movie, so that you’re never quite sure what they are trying to achieve, but you just know they’re missing it. Even though Akiva Goldsman is not credited as a writer the film has his trademarks all over it. Although they sometimes work splendidly like in Constantine, where everything that happens is accepted by the audience as plausible, here events and characters get brushed off and we’re left wondering why. The movie shifts from being an action R to a family PG-13, from a superhero movie to a character drama. And just when you think you knows what’s going to happen, the movie takes a last unusual turn and I was doing the classic, “But, if she… then that’s means he… how could they… what?”

The movie’s redeeming quality, saving it from being completely unwatchable, is the performance of the three leads Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman. I’ve been a Will Smith fan since the first Fresh Prince album in 1988. While I hold him in the highest regard, he is not above critique. For people who think he is infallible, I have three words; Wild, Wild West. But, Will is great in this role, trying to be darker than we all know he is not. There are shades of Mike Lowrey there, but nothing compared to his turns in Ali or I Am Legend. It’s hard not to root for Hancock, because you know, that Will Smith can be a real hero and you’re just waiting for him to do it. Charlize is not only fascinating to look at, but she has great chemistry with both Will and Jason. By time her character’s true nature is revealed, she has a lot of fun playing with it until the film’s flimsy final act. And if you’re an Arrested Development devotee like me, I dare you to watch her and Jason Bateman in bed and not think “Married, married, married!” in a British accent. Which of course brings us to the real hero of the movie, The Bateman. Long content to play the second fiddle, third in line for everything, always finishing fourth and being the fifth wheel, Bateman gets an opportunity to shine as Hancock’s PR agent. As an earnest, liberal goody two shoes out trying to make the world a better place for his son, Bateman is the real hero of the movie, giving the audience someone to identify with. Hopefully, he’ll get a chance to be in more movies like this, even though I love him in Dodgeball, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Juno, Smokin’ Aces, Necessary Roughness and The Kingdom. He’s so dreamy.

Big Mike's Lil' Update 7/4/08

It's the Fourth of July, Independence Day. So, which movie should be watched today, Independence Day or Born on the Fourth of July? Hmm...

- OK, I know not everybody loves Spaced as much as I do, but there are several events coming up this month if you do. In Los Angeles, there will be a signing at Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash followed by a screening at the Hollywood ArcLight with Edgar, Simon, Jessica and Kev Smith in attendance. Will you be as well?






- Yes, I saw Hancock, yes, a review will be forthcoming and yes, I have a man-crush on Jason Bateman. This is NOT a bromance, just a man-crush.






- Helena Bonham Carter in Terminator 4? This week has no lack of good news for me.


- I was getting ready to get into my fall/winter preview, but most of those films still don't even have one-sheets out yet, like Harry Potter. Oh well, I guess I will put if off for a few weeks.


- I'm not sure which is odder, David Gordon Green directing Pineapple Express or Huey Lewis doing the theme song? Yea, it's David Gordon Green.


- So, if it is generally held that Batman Begins is basically Batman:Year One and The Dark Knight is The Long Halloween, then would it be all bad if the next movie were based on Dark Victory? Could Bale's insistence on not bringing in Robin merely be an attempt to throw us off the trail, akin to Raimi expressing disinterest in Venom? Would a young Robin actually work for Nolan's Batman? Do you think he will shoot the third movie entirely in IMAX? What's your favorite Batman comic? Who writes him better, Kane, Miller or Loeb? Will Nolan bring in Scarlett Johansson to play Selina Kyle or fulfill my wishes/internet rumors and cast Eva Mendes instead? Or does she just play Renee Montoya? Is it possible for Dark Knight to NOT live up to the hype? Does Heath get the Oscar or just a nomination? If everybody is comparing it to Godfather II and Empire Strikes Back, can I be the first to compare it to Aliens? Have you told all your friends about the Batman Blog-A-Thon? If I got a Batman tattoo, would I get the new logo or the classic 1989? If I were Chandler Bing, could I ask anymore questions?














-Oh, and for the first question, I'm going with neither. I just got Control. Hooray for British black and white musical bio docudrama!

One Film Review for A Friend

I’ve been told that I don’t give bad reviews to movies. I think I just try to avoid bad movies. I developed my theory to treat movies like dates. Sometimes, I try to avoid the ones that I know will be completely unrewarding. However, on any other date, regardless of how it seems to be going, I never give up in the first few minutes. I stay focused on finding something interesting to get me through it. And to that extent, I decided to take a second look at The Boondock Saints.

The Boondock Saints is a cult movie for a certain type of person who compose a large number of my friends. They are the goddamn Irish. My friends that have Gaelic tattoos, spend an inordinate amount of time in pubs, love rock music with bagpipes and root for any team from Boston. The lovable, drunken, rowdy Irish. Mexican people and Irish people actually have a lot in common from their Roman Catholic faith, their predilection to alcohol, their special holidays turned into marketing bonanzas for Seagrams, close family ties and are descended from ancient cultures with a strong sense of history. Micks and spics were made to get along.

Many of those same themes are expressed in the film from the strong bond between the brothers McManus, Connor and Murphy to their strong sense of faith and Holy Mother Church. It’s that belief in duty and devotion to God that drives them to murder mobsters, pimp, drug dealers and other malcontents in the Boston area. For the life of me, I understand the appeal, but I don’t get it either. Of course, people love vigilantes, *coughBatman and I understand people’s frustrations at watching criminals go free, while they themselves are stuck in some process of the judicial system for a traffic infraction. But, it seems like the same people who embrace the spirit of the film, don’t follow to path of the McManus’ and their simple decision of action versus inaction. Of course, you won’t find me pulling on tights and battling mugger in Robinson Park either. My friend however, decided to be pro-active with her life and when she thought it needed a new direction, she was unafraid to take it and for that, I respect her.

The movie’s violence is well choreographed and the film has obvious influences from Scorsese and DePalma’s gangster movies of the past twenty years. It’s interesting to me that it was made before The Departed and I wonder if Marty watched it before he made his movie. Not that the film is on the same level (everything bows to The Departed.), but it is remarkable for first time writer/director Troy Duffy. He clearly has a vision of what he wanted the movie to be and I think he achieved it well. Made in a pre 9/11 world, the movie is eerily foreshadowing of the religion extremism that would infect our country in a few years from people with bad intentions to those with good ones. I also like what he does with the ongoing FBI investigation and how they play the scenes out simultaneously.

This brings me to my favorite part of the movie, Willem Dafoe. Never mind the fact that Duffy had the foresight to bring in a Scorsese favorite in their Scorsese homage, Dafoe is brilliant as a gay FBI investigator who starts the movie as a consummate professional and slowly becomes unhinged as he tries to figure out the identities of the killers. Playing gay, but not fruity, sensitive and still tough, Dafoe is worth the price of admission to this movie for me. He is clearly enjoying himself, getting into the character and showing us how much the character enjoys giving into his desires as well, by joining up with the brothers to share with their type of justice.

The only thing that could have made this movie better for me would have been if Billy Connolly had been given some more time and some jokes as well. But, the film does succeed on many levels, not the least of which is making a lasting film with a devoted fan base after many obstacles in its path during production. And if you want the real story on that, I recommend checking out Overnight.

And shepherds we shall be, for Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be.

This one is for you, Irish.

Wanted! Dead, but preferably Alive

I have read different places about the themes in Wanted appealing strictly to the inner man-boy fantasy in us and echoing the mood of films like The Matrix and Fight Club. Granted, while all this has some note of truth to it, it shouldn’t stop anyone from enjoying what is an over the top, exciting action movie.

James McAvoy stars as Wesley Gibson, a nobody who is actually the son of a legendary assassin of the Fraternity. Angelina Jolie enters as Fox, another assassin, trying to recruit him to find his father’s killer. What follows should be a rather mundane story filled with training montages and Wesley’s acceptance of his own powers and the burden that comes with them.

McAvoy is great as Wesley, who is more grounded in reality than people would think. If all of us were told we have a special gift and then proven that we are capable of abilities we never dreamed, what would we do? I think I would try to take his path and after shooting the wings of flies, become convinced I don’t need anything else and am ready to go after my father’s killers. Some would say that Wesley’s anxiety attacks and impotence to make change are relatable traits to identify with, thus making us root for him in his quest. At least he becomes proactive in his search for himself, unlike Zach Braff in Garden State which got an unknown number of teenagers to idolize him. Although it takes almost to the end, Wesley does take the steps to reclaim his life on his own terms, not his father’s or anyone else in society.

I’ve liked McAvoy more and more recently. Dude’s a stud. He is very good in this movie and it’s great to see he can have a more high profile career, because I like watching him act. Jolie did her usual pouty stuff. I didn’t think she was great, but she wasn’t bad either. Luckily, her stone-faced routine gave McAvoy a lot to work off of, whether he was intimidated by her or entranced. Neither Morgan Freeman or Common had too much to do until the very telegraphed and predictable third act. But, Timur Bekmambetov does do the same song, different verse in a unique enough manner to make it enjoyable and have you rooting for Wesley. Unfortunately, most of the ads for the film showed parts that you kept waiting for, so even when it seemed over, you knew it wasn’t.

Finally, I liked the overall idea behind the flick that Wesley states in the final line, “What the fuck have you done lately?” Well, Wesley, I started this blog extolling the virtues of you and your film. So, I’m not sweating it either.