Reviews Archive for November, 2011

Wilmington on Movies: Red Desert

  Red Desert (Four Stars) Italy; Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964       Red Desert — Michelangelo Antonioni’s first feature in color, and a landmark of ‘60s Italian cinema — is a hypnotic portrait of a neurotic woman, Guiliana (played by the director’s then muse/lover, Monica Vitti), whose psyche begins to disintegrate in the bleak terrain of the…

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Wilmington on DVD. The Rest: The Change-Up, 13, Bolt

  “The Change-Up” (Two Stars) U.S.: David Dobkin, 2011 (Universal) The Change-Up, a big star body-swap comedy starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, is a movie that begins with baby poop jokes and climaxes with its two “heroes” urinating together in a public fountain, before an audience. And you can almost hear the moviemakers yelling at each…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic. Park Row.

   Park Row (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.: Samuel Fuller, 1952 (MGM Limited Edition Collection) Sam Fuller, one of the toughest of the tough guy auteur/directors, is best known for his two-fisted war movies (The Big Red One) and his hard-as-nails film noirs (Pickup on South Street). But the show he often called his best…

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The DVD Wrapup: Harry Potter, Better Tomorrow, Atlas Shrugged, Identification of a Woman, In a Glass Cage, Blue Velvet, Sleeping Beauty …

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2: Blu-ray Any attempt to provide a concise synopsis of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” would require spoiling surprises that have been gestating for 14 years. Longtime fans of the amazing series of movies and books probably will have already seen the finale, however, and…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Box Set. Raffaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas.

  Raffaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas (Four Discs) (Three and a Half Stars) Italy: Raffaello Matarazzo’s, 1949-1955 (Criterion Collection) Eclipse One of the great pleasures of covering a DVD beat is opening another Eclipse set from Criterion, especially if, as in this case — a four disc box of postwar romantic melodramas directed by the lesser known…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: New. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two” (Three and a Half Stars) U.S./U.K.; David Yates, 2011 (Warner Bros.) Part I. Hallows Eve  All fine things must come to an end, and so finally has the Harry Potter series: the books first of all, and now the movies, climaxing at last in a final explosion, a…

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Wilmington on Movies: A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

  A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.: Todd Strauss-Schulson (2011)  Comedy sometimes thrives on taboos transgressed and sacred cows slaughtered, and very few cows are left standing after the irreverent and cheerfully offensive bad taste orgy that is A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. The movie, a comedy…

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Wilmington on Movies: Tower Heist

  Tower Heist (Two and a Half Stars) U. S.: Brett Ratner, 2011   Tower Heist. Wheww! That was one hell of a movie. Hell of a movie! Brett Ratner: Rush Hour! Rush Hour 2!!. Rush Hour 3!!! He‘s one moviemaker who can really make a movie move. Didn’t ya think?   Are you kidding me?…

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Wilmington on DVDs: The Rest. Water for Elephants, The Last Mountain, Rare Exports/Santa Claus Conquers the Martians; Haunted Summer; Sands of the Kalahari; The Man in the Net

Water for Elephants  (Three Stars) U.S.: Francis Lawrence, 2011 Water for Elephants is an old-fashioned romantic picture done in new-fangled ways, and it‘s so good for such a long time, that it seems a shame, at the end, to feel so let down by it. But that’s how it goes… Director Francis Lawrence’s show, co-starring…

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The DVD Wrapup: Cars 2, Tabloid, Crazy Stupid Love, Water for Elephants, Snow Flower Trespass, Phantom of Opera …

Cars 2: Blu-ray If you loved the first “Cars,” which rolled off the Pixar production line in 2006, it’s better than even money that you’ll enjoy “Cars 2.” If not, the sequel probably won’t change your mind. You either dig anthropomorphic automobiles or you don’t. Neither am I’m sure kids will care to sit through…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Box Sets. Toy Story Ultimate Toy Box Collection;Toy Story 3D Trilogy

The Toy Story Ultimate Toy Box Collection (Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D/DVD/Digital) (10 discs) (Four Stars) U.S.: John Lasseter/Lee Unkrich, 1995-2010 (Walt Disney Video) The Toy Story 3D Trilogy (Blu-ray 3D) (Three Discs) (Four Stars) U.S.: John Lasseter/Lee Unkrich, 1995-1999-2010 (Walt Disney Video)   The Great American Feature Cartoon Trilogy, The Godfather Trilogy of feature cartoons actually (see below),…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: New. Crazy, Stupid, Love

“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.: Glenn Ficara & John Requa, 2011 1. Crazy, Crazy, Stupid, Love. That’s the name of the new Steve Carell-Ryan Gosling-Julianne Moore romantic comedy, from the directorial team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You, Phillip Morris), and the title actually does consist of those three…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Blu-ray. Cars 2

Cars 2 (Also Blu-ray) (Three and a Half Stars) U. S.: John Lasseter (co-director Brad Lewis), 2011 (Walt Disney) Cars 2 is another Pixar feature cartoon for kids, adults, old people and everyone in between — especially if they have a crush on post-‘50s car culture. I don’t, but I could feel the curious, obsessive auto-loving…

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Reviews

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Ophelia, Ambition, Werewolf in Girls' Dorm, Byleth, Humble Pie, Good Omens, Yellowstone …More

rohit aggarwal on: The DVD Wrapup: Ophelia, Ambition, Werewolf in Girls' Dorm, Byleth, Humble Pie, Good Omens, Yellowstone …More

https://bestwatches.club/ on: The DVD Wrapup: Diamonds of the Night, School of Life, Red Room, Witch/Hagazussa, Tito & the Birds, Keoma, Andre’s Gospel, Noir

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Sleep With Anger, Ralph Wrecks Internet, Liz & Blue Bird, Hannah Grace, Unseen, Jupiter's Moon, Legally Blonde, Willard, Bang … More

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Bumblebee, Ginsburg, Buster, Silent Voice, Nazi Junkies, Prisoner, Golden Vampires, Highway Rat, Terra Formars, No Alternative … More

GDA on: The DVD Wrapup: Bumblebee, Ginsburg, Buster, Silent Voice, Nazi Junkies, Prisoner, Golden Vampires, Highway Rat, Terra Formars, No Alternative … More

Larry K on: The DVD Wrapup: Sleep With Anger, Ralph Wrecks Internet, Liz & Blue Bird, Hannah Grace, Unseen, Jupiter's Moon, Legally Blonde, Willard, Bang … More

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Shoplifters, Front Runner, Nobody’s Fool, Peppermint Soda, Haunted Hospital, Valentine, Possum, Mermaid, Guilty, Antonio Lopez, 4 Weddings … More

gwehan on: The DVD Wrapup: Shoplifters, Front Runner, Nobody’s Fool, Peppermint Soda, Haunted Hospital, Valentine, Possum, Mermaid, Guilty, Antonio Lopez, 4 Weddings … More

Gary J Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Peppermint, Wild Boys, Un Traductor, Await Instructions, Lizzie, Coby, Afghan Love Story, Elizabeth Harvest, Brutal, Holiday Horror, Sound & Fury … More

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon