R.I.P. Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)

"Somewhere in my strange career, someone has liked something." - Dennis Hopper 





Sadly, iconic actor/director Dennis Hopper lost his battle with prostate cancer Saturday morning. Every obituary will understandably point to his breakthrough milestone EASY RIDER (1969), but I'm sure most people who would read this blog know he had a ginormous crazy career spanning almost 6 decades. 




 Impressively IMDb lists over 200 film and television appearances in nearly every genre. In 1986 alone he appeared in HOOSIERS, BLUE VELVET, RIVER'S EDGE, and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, and from the looks of it that was a typical year for the man as he worked constantly until his illness got the best of him - 6 movies in 2008, 26 episodes of Crash 2008-09, and a couple of upcoming projects (THE LAST FILM FESTIVAL, ALPHA AND OMEGA) set for later this year.

A career so vast is difficult to cherry pick from, especially since he had so many bit parts in major movies - his roles in friend James Dean's movies REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) and GIANT (1956) for example - and also because a few films he directed are unavailable on DVD these days - THE LAST MOVIE (1971) and OUT OF THE BLUE (1980). That said these are my picks for:





10 Essential (And Available) Dennis Hopper Performances





1. EASY RIDER (Dir. Dennis Hopper, 1969)






When I said every obit would highlight this as Hopper's most acclaimed achievement I wasn't saying I wouldn't also. It's inescapable as a classic counterculture event of a movie that helped kick off the "New Hollywood" movement of the late '60s/early '70s. It also solidified the long-haired mustached hippie wiseacre persona that Hopper would return to a number of times throughout his acting career. 




 Concerning a couple of drug dealers (Hopper and Peter Fonda) who make a huge score and set out on their motorcycles to go, in the words of the film's tagline, "looking for America", EASY RIDER is very dated with clumsy artistic cuts, redneck stereotypes, and a cringe-inducing psychedelic trip sequence, but Hopper's glee while riding through Monument Valley out over the sunset on his chopper is infectious. In those moments, which were innovative in their use of rock song scoring, the film's theme of freedom lets its freak flag fly the highest. 





2. BLUE VELVET (Dir. David Lynch, 1986)






Frank Booth, a Nitrous Oxide inhaling sexual deviant, was considered a comeback role for Hopper who had gone through more than one wilderness period in the years since EASY RIDER and the failure of its follow-up THE LAST MOVIE. Booth was scary and a bit funny at the same time; the manner in which he menaces nice boy Kyle MacLachlan being a twisted yet beautiful example: "Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!" The part won Hopper a few Critics' Association awards and in 2008 was voted #54 in Premiere Magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time."




3. APOCALYPSE NOW
(Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) Credited as "Photojournalist" and only given a small amount of screen-time in the final reel, Hopper is one of the most memorable elements of Coppola's seminal sprawling Vietnam epic. His cryptic speeches like this one still resonate 30 years later:

"This is dialectics. It's very simple dialectics. One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out in space without, like, you know, with fractions - what are you gonna land on, one quarter, three eighths - what are you gonna do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics, okay? Dialectic logic is there's only love or hate, you either love somebody or you hate them."

Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz then angrily hurls a book at Hopper in a moment that doesn't feel scripted.







4. HOOSIERS (Dir. David Anspaugh, 1986) As I mentioned earlier, 1986 was a banner year for Hopper. His roles in BLUE VELVET, RIVER'S EDGE, and this Oscar nominated turn as the basketball supporting town drunk had him unstoppably on the comeback trail. It's a folksy formulaic sports film about underdogs triumphing against all odds, but Hopper's gutsy edge is no small part of the film's abundant charms.


5. TRUE ROMANCE (Dir. Tony Scott, 1993)





Another small but juicy part as the ex cop father of Christian Slater who has a scene stealing showdown with mobster Christopher Walken. You can watch the scene, scripted by Quentin Tarantino, in all its almost 10 minute glory entitled "Sicilians" here on YouTube.







6. CARRIED AWAY (Dir. Bruno Barreto, 1996) It's a LOLITA-ish tale of forbidden love in which timeworn clichés litter the landscape, but Hopper's layered performance as a bored small town schoolteacher who has an extended fling with one of his students (Amy Locane) is one of his finest. His measured thoughtful presence comes through in scene after scene facing off with Locane, Amy Irving, Hal Holbrook, and Gary Busey. Maybe not an overlooked gem, but Hopper's solid work makes it well worth watching. Be warned though, it may contain more Hopper than you want to see - mind you, I'm talking full frontal nudity. 





7. RIVER'S EDGE (Dir. Tim Hunter, 1986)


Another from 1986, this harrowing teen drama had Hopper as Feck, a drug-dealing one-legged hermit who, like many of his characters, hijacks the movie from its stars every time he appears. For Hopper though, it wasn't hard with lines like: "I killed a girl, it was no accident. Put a gun to the back of her head and blew her brains right out the front. I was in love."


8. FLASHBACK (Dir. Franco Amurri, 1990) Some may scoff at Hopper's self mocking role in a fairly lightweight comedy being given a spot on this list, but I've had a soft spot in my heart for his work here since I saw the film in the theaters 20 years ago. As a once famous aging hippie radical who turns the tables on a Federal Agent played by Keifer Sutherland, Hopper seems to be having a lot of fun with the familiar material that heavily references EASY RIDER. 




 The pair would square off a decade later on the popular TV series 24 with Sutherland playing a very different kind of FBI agent and Hopper as a Ukrainian mastermind behind the deadly scenes of season 1. Flashing back to FLASHBACK - Hopper tells Sutherland that: "The 90's are going to make the '60s look like the '50s." Of course, that didn't turn out to be the case, but as an idealistic art student at a theater in Atlanta back in 1990 I remember believing, or at least wishing, it would be. Watch the trailer here.







9. The Twilight Zone - "He's Alive"
(Dir. Stuart Rosenberg, 1963) In an hour long episode of the classic sci fi/fantasy anthology that isn't rerun as much as the half hour ones, Hopper plays a street corner neo Nazi who starts to get winning advice from a mysterious stranger in the shadows. We can guess a long time before the reveal (one of the main minuses of the hour long format) that this stranger is Hitler, but it still displays that the young Hopper had talent to burn. And burn it up he did. Here's a 10 minute edit of the episode somebody made and put up on YouTube.

10. SPEED (Dir. Jan de Bont, 1994) I figured this list wouldn't be complete without one of Hopper's late period makeover roles as a mainstream action movie villain. As the evil extortionist that rigs a bus to explode if it drops below 50 MPH, Hopper's scenery chewing is a thing of unhinged bug-eyed beauty. He played very similar bad guy roles in SUPER MARIO BROS. and WATERWORLD, but SPEED wins out simply because a lot more people have seen it.

Hardly a definitive list, but a solid one that I stand by. Even with his large filmography that will take a lifetime to catch up with, Hopper will be sorely missed. 




 R.I.P. Dennis Hopper. 





More later...

The Human Centipede (Saturday, May 29, 2010) (47)

The Human Centipede is one of the most shocking and disgusting movies I've ever seen and at the same time, one of the most elegantly conceived and presented films of recent memory. It is a disgusting thriller, and not for the timid, but it is much more than the typical gross-out blood-and-guts horror flick you might find at the local cineplex.

The story begins typically with two young, hot American sorority girls on vacation in Germany. One night they go looking for some hot dance club, when their car breaks down on the side of the road (of course). They go searching for help and come to a beautiful modern house set in a remote forest. Inside is a crazy doctor, a surgeon who spent his career separating conjoined twins, who now is looking to spice up his life by connecting three people ass-to-mouth in one long "human centipede". The idea is totally gross, yes, but it is presented with respect and a bit of a wink.

Of course the two women are imprisoned in the doc's basement laboratory along with an equally unlucky Japanese man. When one of the women tries to escape, she is caught by the doctor and told that she will be the "middle section" of the centipede - unable to escape because she has one person on either side of her.

The film is beautifully directed by Tom Six and shot by Goof de Koning (both Dutch, I think). (Six's IMDb profile is hilarous, saying he collects AK-47s, eats curry every day and loves Klaus Kinski). The house is stark white and off-puttingly modern with a lab that is antiseptic, medical and isolated.

More than anything is the wonderful horror created by the situation. Not just is it shocking to think of your mouth connected to someones anus (so you have to eat their shit), but then, what happens if they die and you're suck to the ass of a dead person. OK, this is clearly something that normal people don't think about, but it's hilarious and shocking in the context of the film nonetheless.

Despite its Dutch/German production, most of the film is in English (with the two girls speaking English and the doctor speaking English to his three captives). Brilliantly, the head of the centipede is the Japanese guy, so he is able to scream and cry in his own language, making the film marketable in Japan, where gross-out horror is super popular.

By far the worst part of the film - the most unfortunate part - is the silly American slasher opening 15 minutes. It begins exactly like any other dumb American slasher flick would open (with two hotties getting into a bad situation). One could argue that Six is merely starting with something that we know in order to twist it into something we don't know - but I think it's just simply dumb. The elegance and respect throughout the rest of the film make the first few scenes seem especially silly.

Stars: 2.5 of 4

North Face (Friday, May 28, 2010) (46)

North Face is a German movie about the push to get to the top of the Eiger mountain by means of the northern side, the hardest climb in the Alps. The film takes place in 1935 after the Nazis are already in control of Germany. Some mysterious group of people, some mix of Nazis and journalists, decide that if a German team can summit the mountain before others, it will be a sign of Aryan might - especially ahead of the Berlin Olympics of 1936.

One duo, found by a Berlin newspaper, are two country boys who are amateur but accomplished hikers, who seem to be screwing around in some official capacity in the Nazi army. By the time they are convinced to go try the hike, there is another team of Austrians who are also making a go at it.

The two groups begin together and our German pair are clearly the more experienced and better team. At some point, the Austrians get into trouble that could foil the bids of both teams.

My main problem with this film is that it's really boring, it moves very slowly for an "action/adventure" film and there are too many characters with too silly sub-plots. I guess we're supposed to like the German guys because they're nice and friendly and don't seem to be Nazi party members. For a movie set in 1935 Germany (OK, Switzerland), Nazis are almost not present at all (the only real Nazi stand ins are the Austrians, who seem more interested in their Aryan heritage than the German guys.)

But there are layers and layers of ridiculous story lines and relationships. There is no need for a newspaper to be involved in this (even if it's historically true, I don't really care and it feels totally like an add-on to the story). What's worse, the main journalist is a young woman who is a childhood friend of the climbers. There are suggestions of a sexual affair between her and one of the guys, but this too goes nowhere. Then there's the woman's editor who makes untoward advances at her... as if I cared about her chastity in the first place.

All I really want is a story about two guys hiking up a mountain, and due to bad planning of others and bad weather, they had a hard time doing it. I didn't need all the other stuff. I mean don't show me Nazis and then suggest that a successful climb would be good for German propaganda and then do nothing with that (I mean I can't even get a single scene with Goebbels in it?! C'mon!).

Beyond this, the characters are really boring (I think that's actually part of the point. They're simple, boring guys who love climbing mountains. They are not political and don't care about the propaganda) and the technical parts of the film (the photography, music, editing) seem banal (even as beautiful as shooting in snow generally looks onscreen, this is just trite and unimpressive).

Director and co-writer Philipp Stölzl does a really lousy job of making me care at all about what is going on with the hike or the ridiculous sub-plot about the journalists off the mountain. It's basically a lot of snow and frostbite with some dull action scenes (that might have been shot on a sound-stage) and a mess of a story.

Stars: 1 of 4

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP: The Film Babble Blog Review

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

(Dir. Banksy, 2010)

The identity of the infamous British graffiti artist Banksy is unknown to the public at large. Here he appears in his own film, a documentary narrated by Rhys Ifans, wearing a hood with his face darkened, and his voice altered by computer.

Banksy, sounding a bit like Karl Pilkington from The Ricky Gervais Show, isn't here to talk about himself though, he and many other renowned artists including Shepard Fairey (creator of the Barack Obama "Hope" poster) and Invader are on hand to discuss the curious case of Thierry Guetta.








The French born Guetta began his journey into the heart of art as a videographer. Always armed with a video camera, he taped street artists for years. The first half of this film contains tons of fun footage of various artists creating art all around their towns with stencils, stickers, tiles, or whatever works and some instances where they have to run from approaching cops. Guetta records everything he sees so his colleague Banksy encourages him to make a film out of it all.



The resulting film Guetta edits is a bombastic choppy unwatchable fiasco that even makes Banksy question his friend's mental health. Banksy offers to take the footage and see what he can do with it - which, of course, is the documentary we've got here - while Guetta decides to try his hand at making street art of his own. Almost immediately Guetta dubs himself Mr. Brainwash and starts putting together a mammoth gallery show called "Life Is Beautiful" in L.A. in the summer of 2008. He somehow has created canvas after canvas of art heavily derived from the screen prints of Andy Warhol, but also from much of his friends work.



This is where some chin scratching comes in about the pink elephant in the room (BTW Mr. Brainwash's exhibit actually features an actual pink elephant in the room) - is this odd man's work a massive put-on at the expense of the entire art market? Is Banksy not just an observer but a co-conspirator, possibly the mastermind of this ruse? One critic (Jeannette Catsoulis, NYTimes) even went so far to call this film a "prankumentary," but no matter what you call it, it provides more fascination than frustration at its riddles.



EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP is a vital addition to the genre of docs including MY KID COULD PAINT THAT and WHO THE #amp;amp;% IS JACKSON POLLACK that question the experts and expense of the world of fine and not so fine art. That is if you consider it a real documentary - I do because even the most fact driven documentaries can't help but have some fiction somewhere in their packaging.



If this one is the joke on its subject some think it is, it's still a worthy visual document; the movie equivalent of great graffiti. And it's a very good joke too. 


More later...

Old Partner (2009) (Thursday, May 27, 2010) (227)

Old Partner is a very sweet and small South Korean documentary about an old man who lives on a poor rural farm and has a 40-year old cow who still helps him tend his crops. The man deeply loves and trusts the animal and does not want to believe that his old friend might die soon.

There is not much in this movie and it is very slow moving, but it is delightful. The man smiles all the time and has a generally positive view of the world. It's another interesting view of life in South Korea outside of the major cities (along with Treeless Mountain from last year and the break dancing documentary from a few years ago, Planet B-Boy), which is frequently very poor and desperate. Director Lee Chung-Ryoul does a very nice job making a peaceful movie about a peaceful man. It might be a bit too slow for some, but I liked it OK.

Stars: 2 of 4

Serious Series Addiction Part 3: Breaking Bad, Treme, And The End Of Lost,

It's time to talk about TV shows again. As I've said before, though this is a film blog I do from time to time babble about television programs that I've been keeping up with. So let's get to them:

Breaking Bad






I had watched this show off and on before, but became hooked on it recently in its extremely strong 3rd season. 



AMC's intense yet darkly humored drama involves Bryan Cranston, best known previously as the dad on Malcolm In The Middle, as a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.



To provide for his pregnant wife (Anna Gunn) and his son (RJ Mitte) who suffers from cerebral palsy, he turns to a life of crime: producing and selling methamphetamine.



As a former student of Cranston's living a sordid existence as a drug dealer, Aaron Paul is enlisted as a partner in the dangerous yet highly profitable endeavor. 



Dean Norris as Cranston's crusty brother-in-law just happens to be a DEA agent close on their trail though he is unaware of their identity. There's also trouble with a Mexican drug cartel, along with strife at home and much in-fighting between Cranston and Paul.



Set in the orange hued world of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad has the urgency and scope of many movies. Cranston's performance is a study in edgy power; one minute he's a measured man of reason - the next an exasperated kook, a time bomb waiting to go off. His clashes with Paul, his strained talks with his wife, and his stoical business manner give the show a forceful fluidity as it goes from searing scene to scene.



Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show) was added in the second season as a sleazy lawyer and he shows up quite a bit in the third season which is a nice funny touch to the proceedings. 



Although one can probably pick it up at any point, I'd recommend renting it and watching from the beginning. The first and second seasons are available on DVD and Blu ray; the third should be soon after it finishes its run on June 13th. 



Treme

David Simon and Eric Overmyer's follow-up to The Wire has many similarities to that seminal series.

It's a web of story threads concerning a complicated culture, it examines sociopolitical themes, and it features a few of the same players: Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters among them.

But don't get me wrong - it's a very different animal in one major way: music. Treme is bursting at the seams with the rich sounds of New Orleans jazz.

Three months after hurricane Katrina, we are thrown into the aftermath from nearly every angle. The hurting viewpoints of struggling musicians, frustrated restaurant owners, civil rights workers, and outspoken citizens blanket the battered city, but the bands play on.

Along with The Wire's Pierce as trombonist Antoine Batiste and Clarke as a Mardi Gras Indian tribe leader trying to bring his people home, we've got Steve Zahn as a slacker singer songwriter, Kim Dickens as a cook based on famed chef Susan Spicer, Khandi Alexander as a bar owner who is also Pierce's ex-wife, Melissa Leo as cynical lawyer, and John Goodman as Leo's husband - an opinionated college professor and author who has just discovered YouTube in its 2005 infancy as a forum for his anger fueled rants.



Oh yeah, there's also a young couple - Michiel Huisman on keyboards and Lucia Micalelli on violin - who try to make their living from street performances. Treme is absorbing viewing that swiftly juggles all those characters and their scenarios in an intoxicating fashion. 



One feels like they are really getting the flavor of New Orleans through these people and the well chosen locations. It oversteps contrivances and keeps your feet tapping throughout each episode. I'm not sure that it alone is worth subscribing to HBO for, but it definitely deserves a place in your Netflix queue. Happily it's been renewed for a second season. 



Lost: "The End"

As I've documented here before, I began watching the vastly popular island castaway drama Lost in January of this year on Netflix Instant while pedaling on my exercise bike. 

I pedaled though all 5 seasons until I was caught up with the sixth and enjoying it all immensely from my sweaty bikeseat - though there were some dull or tedious patches here and there.

The bike made me feel like I could pedal fast through the stupidity then race on to the next one.

Up until the last handful of episodes I hadn't had the experience of waiting week to week to see what happens like the folks who were there from the beginning in 2004. 

Those seem to be the people who are complaining about the just aired finale on blogs, message boards, or status updates all over the internets. Their complaints being that the mythology wasn't satisfied with a lot of questions unanswered.

I can't imagine how I could spoil it for anybody who hasn't watched the show so I'll just say that it was simply about the characters' fate - principally Jack's (Matthew Fox) - rather than the particulars of their journey.

I would have liked to have some questions answered too - the 4 toed statue for one - but, like the end of The Sopranos did, it's growing on me.

If you have Netflix Instant - it's a great way to watch the show because you don't have to deal with waiting on individual discs. I can completely understand folks being discouraged at the prospect of 121 episodes and the bitching from the online minions about its conclusion, but I didn't find it to be a waste of time at all. 

Maybe though, that's the Dharma Initiative beer talking. That's all for TV for now - back to the movies, that is until the 4th season of Mad Men premieres. Then be sure to expect another post about serious series addiction. 

More later...

Adab-ı Muaşeret film izle

Filmin Türü :       Romantik, Komedi
Orijinal Adı :     Adab-ı Muaşeret
Yapımcı Firma :     Yerli Film
Yapım Yılı :     2009
Yapım Ülkesi :     Türkiye
Orijinal Dili :     Türkçe
Dağıtıcı Firma :     Medyavizyon
Vizyon Tarihi :     15.05.2009
Filmin Konusu : Aykut, annesini kaybetmelerinin ardından öğretmen babasının üstüne daha da fazla düşmesiyle iyice bunalmıştır. Bir de okul ve şehir değiştirme zorunda kalınca hayatında bambaşka bir kapı aralanır. Ara tatilde konakladıkları otelde kısa bir an gördüğü güzeller güzeli kızla yolları, babasının ve kendisinin yeni okulunda kesişecektir. Zeynep, beş kızdan oluşan “Adab-ı Muaşeret” adlı kızlar çetesinin lideridir.
İyi seyirler...

Tosun Paşa film izle

Yönetmen :      Kartal Tibet
Senaryo :     Yavuz Turgul
Oyuncular :     Kemal Sunal, Müjde Ar, Şener Şen, Adile Naşit, Ayşen Gruda
Filmin Türü :     Komedi
Orijinal Adı :     Tosun Paşa
Yapımcı Firma :     Arzu Film
Yapım Yılı :     1976
Yapım Ülkesi :     Türkiye
Orijinal Dili :     Türkçe
Film Hakkında : Kartal Tibet in yönetmenliğini yaptıgı ve Kemal Sunal, Müjde Ar, Şener Şen, Adile Naşit, Ayşen Gruda gibi usta oyuncuların bu filmde bulunduğu süper bir komedi filmi. Zaten izlemeyeniniz elbetteki yoktur...
Filmin Konusu : Tellioğulları ile Seferoğulları iki düşman ailedir. İki ailenin de ortak amacı |Yeşil Vadi’ye sahip olmaktır. Yeşil Vadi’ye sahip olmak için Kumandan Daver’e başvururlar ama bir sonuç alamazlar. Bu arada Daver Bey’in kızına (M.Ar) hem Tellioğullarının reisi hem de Seferioğulları’ndan Suphi talip olunca ortalık karışır. Bu iş için Tosun Paşa’dan (K.Sunal) yardım isterler. Tosun Paşa işleri kendi yöntemleri ile çözmeye çalışır ta ki gerçek Tosun Paşa ortaya çıkana dek.

İyi seyirler..

Daddy Longlegs (Sunday, May 23, 2010) (44)

Daddy Longlegs is a nice little drama about a loser, Lenny, living in New York City. After a divorce, he has lost custody of his two young sons (both under 10-years old) and only sees them once in awhile. He's a projectionist in a movie theater in New York and lives in a tiny, filthy apartment somewhere on the West Side. He loves his kids immensely and relishes the time he gets to spend with them. He's a good man and a good, loving father, but he can't get his life in order and screws things up when trying to do right by his kids.

The movie is totally small and has a wonderful independent feeling, looking totally homemade and rough throughout. This is actually a really nice thing, as it feels much more honest that lots of other stuff that might come out with a similar storyline. (I can just imagine a big Hollywood movie, along the lines of Mr. Mom, about a can't-do-right dad who gets into silly quagmires while spending time with his kids. Kevin James would be in the movie. Vomit.)

The real heart and soul of the film is Ronald Bronstein who beautifully plays Lenny. He comes off as a freak, but also a good guy you could see being a friend. As he constantly messes things up he realizes it right away and feels guilty about each instance immediately. He responds wonderfully and naturally to the two boys (Frey and Sage Renaldo) and seems to really honestly like and get along with them.

There is an overall grittiness to the film that I really appreciate. Something about the film stock and the dark, yellowish-brown color of the whole picture makes it look like a film from the 1980s (maybe this is a play on Mr. Mom, I don't know - it could be).

By far the most frustrating thing for me as a New York movie-goer and movie theater patron is a sequence where Lenny has to look after his sons and work the projection booth at the same time. The booth seems to be upstairs in a corporate-type building (who knows, some office building - maybe the hall of a mid-town screening room). The cut-away to the kids in the theater watching the movie is in the Walter Reade theater at Lincoln Center. Finally when the kids go outside and create craziness on the sidewalk, they're in front of the Cinema Village theater. This is really not a big issue, but is frustrating for an anal-retentive location-obsessed person like myself.

But this is the only real "problem" with the movie. It's a lovely little piece and nice to see a non-mumblecore independent film being made today (outside the normal means of production). It's very sweet and upbeat, and brothers Ben and Josh Safdie (who co-wrote and co-directed it) deserve a ton of credit for making such a solid, simple movie.

Stars: 3 of 4

Ondine (Saturday, May 22, 2010) (43)

Ondine is a nice little movie by Neil Jordan about an Irish fisherman, Syracuse (played by Colin Farrell), who pulls a woman out of the sea in one of his nets. She is not forthcoming about who she is or why she was in the water and insists on staying out of the way of the locals in town.

Syracuse, known as Circus by his friends for his penchant for wildness, is a devoted father who has been struggling to kick alcohol and improve his life. He and his wife are divorced and she is in much worse shape than he is. He's a good, likable man and is very good father. His daughter Annie, physically disabled and in a wheelchair, decides that the woman, Ondine, is a silkie, a Scots-Irish folklorish mermaid-like lady who lives between humans and the ocean. Through the film it becomes more and more unclear whether she is some sort of magical creature or just a woman who fell in the water.

The movie is very nice and simple. The best thing about it is how Jordan never really lets us know the truth about Ondine (until the end). We recognize that this world is very real and supernatural stuff probably doesn't happen in it, but Annie is very convincing and for awhile it's the best option we have. I really like this mystery and how it is played. It's not insulting us - but showing how the people of this small coastal town are in a position (economically, culturally) that such an idea might be conceivable.

Colin Farrell is really great in this role. He is respectful to Ondine from the moment he meets her (and considering his boozing past, it's nice to see that he treats this gorgeous woman with such class). His character struggles with his sobriety, but he is clearly the most constant force in his daughter's life (she lives with her more drunk mother).

Ondine is played by Alicja Bachleda who is, again, beautiful and very convincing. I like that Jordan decided to have the character enjoy playing along with the mystery and not telling people what she really is. There's a wink-wink to her performance as she thinks the uncertainty about her humanness/silkieness is fun.

At worst, the film is a bit too slow and very small. There is nothing really brilliant about this, but also nothing bad either. I think having Annie in a wheelchair is unnecessary and silly, but whatever. It is a fun little real-world fairy tale and very nicely executed by Jordan.

Stars: 2.5 of 4

Holy Rollers (Saturday, May 22, 2010) (42)

I will admit that I went to this movie because I thought the trailer was ridiculous and terrible. Jesse Eisenberg, the lead actor, looks like he's wearing a terrible wig (though after watching the film, I do think it's his real hair) and the story looked silly and over-earnest. I was basically not wrong at all. This is a ridiculous movie that tries too hard to make me give a crap about an utterly boring story.

Eisenberg plays Sam Gold, a Hasidic kid in his late teens/early twenties living in his parents' house in Brooklyn in the late 1990s (I think it takes place in Williamsburg, though it's never really clear - which is one of the many problems with the film. I guess it could be Crown Heights, but I don't think so). Sam is rather bored with his life and looking ahead to marrying the neighborhood hottie (who he, of course, can't speak to because, well, they're Orthodox and all) and ultimately becoming a rabbi or taking over his father's fabric store on the Lower East Side.

His best friend and next door neighbor is Leon, a super gooddie-two-shoes who is the star of the rabinical class they take together. Leon's brother Yosef is a misfit and soon recruits Sam into his business of smuggling extasy from Amsterdam into the the U.S.

At some point Sam is making more money than he knows what to do with, has lost the chance of a good marriage, has been kicked out of the house by his family and has become much more successful at drug running than he ever would have been, had he gone down a good path.

I guess the tension throughout the film is based around the split between Sam's Orthodox religion and the free, modernness of his life style - including pushing drugs that specifically lead to sexual liberation. The problem I had with this dichotomy is that Sam never comes across as all that serious a Hasid in the first place. He does not want to become a rabbi - that's what his parents want him to do - he wants to work for his father in the secular world. He screws around in his Yeshiva class. He's smart and knows talmudic stuff, because he's a smart guy, but he's never really seems like a true believer.

What you get, then, is a guy who is basically just going into an illegal business - and doing well at it. So what? Why is that interesting to watch? I never really saw that he was all that regretful that he was doing what he was doing. He was much more interested in the new crazy lifestyle he was leading and the new access he had to sex and women.

It really seems that he is only incidentally Hasidic - that that is not really a relevant part of his character. Before he gets involved in the drugs, he does the things he supposed to do and says the things he's supposed to say, but we never really get a view of why that the Hasidic lifestyle is bad or good - or anything. That he is Hasidic is almost a punch-line it's so irrelevant to the events of the story.

Some details don't make much sense to me - and really hurt my connection to the story. For reasons that I couldn't figure out, Sam's family only speak in perfect English to one another. I can say from living near Hasids for awhile in Brooklyn that most that I see on the subway speak Yiddish to one another or some other Eastern European language. When they speak English, it is with a pretty thick accent (as English is their second or third language). That Sam's family at the dinner table sounds exactly like my family at the dinner table is weird.

And then there's the hair. I am sure that Jesse Eisenberg's payas were his own and not clip-on, but they are terrible. I guess this happens with curly-haired Jews (I'm sure I would have bad payas too), but these really looked like a joke. Also - is Jesse unable to grow facial hair? At what point to hassids start growning beards? Jesse remained baby-faced through the whole thing which felt weird even if it isn't.

The film is slow and dull throughout with a very predictible and uninteresting storyline. At no point was I interested in an emotional level to the story or worried that one thing or another would happen to Sam. On top of everything the execution of the film is sloppy. Director Kevin Asch and writer Antonio Macia really do a bad job with this one. It's not even fun to watch and laugh a the hair-dos. I't just boring.

Stars: 1 of 4

Kabuslar Evi: Karanlıktan Gelen film izle

Filmin Adı: Kabuslar Evi: Karanlıktan Gelen
Yönetmen :      Uluç Bayraktar

Senaryo :     Çağan Irmak
Oyuncular :     Tolga Karel, Rıza Kocaoğlu, Serap Çağlar, Beril Şenvarol, Özhan Sargın
Filmin Türü :     Gizem, Korku
Orijinal Adı :     Kabuslar Evi: Karanlıktan Gelen
Yapımcı Firma :     Avşar Film
Yapım Yılı :     2006
Yapım Ülkesi :     Türkiye
Orijinal Dili :     Türkçe
Filmin Süresi :     79 dakika
Film Hakkında : Gizemli ve korkulu bir dünyada kendinizi bulmaya hazır olun. Türk yapımı güzel bir korku filmi olmuş.
Filmin Konusu : Kerem (Rıza Kocaoğlu) bir yandan babasının ilgisizliği, öte yandan annesinin aşırı ilgili ve bunaltıcı tavırlarıyla boğuşmakta olan sıradan bir gençtir. Annesi Füsun (Serap Sağlar) ve kız kardeşi Ceren’le (Beril Şenvarol) çıktıkları yolculuk başına gelecek tuhaf olayların sadece başlangıcıdır. Yolculuğun son durağı olan evde onu bekleyen biri vardır. Karanlıktan gelen(Tolga Karel)... Karanlıktan gelen,Kerem’e ya yaşamın sırrını çözecek anahtarı verecek ya da onu yok edecektir.

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Ned Kelly film izle

Türü: Biyografi / Dram / Western

Yönetmen: Gregor Jordan
Senaryo: John M. Mcdonagh
Oyuncular: Orlando Bloom, Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Browning
Film Hakkında: Ned Kelly filmi western türünde bir filmdir. Gerçek bir hayat hikayesinden alınmıştır.
Filmin Konusu: Kelly, kardeşi Dan ve başka 2 adamla birlikte bir çete kurar. Kuzeybatı Victoria’da yaşayan Kelly’nin yakalanmasına kadar 1878′den itibaren 2 yıl boyunca bir çok soygun düzenlerler. Bir bankayı soyan ve kendilerini tutuklamaya çalışan 3 polisi öldüren çete Glenrowan’daki bir kulübe giderler. Polis dolu treni raydan çıkarmayı planlayan çetenin planı, bir öğretmenin trendekileri uyarmasıyla bozulur.
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Yoksul film izle

Yönetmeni: Zeki Ökten
Senaryo: Umur Bugay
Türü: Dram , Komedi , Deneysel , Duygusal
Ülke: Türkiye
Süresi: 71 71 dk.
Film Hakkında: 1986 yapımı bir Kemal Sunal klasiği. Eminimki bor çoğunuz. usta oyuncu olan Kemal Sunal'ın tüm filmlerini sıkılmadan izliyordur.
Filmin Konusu: Büyük bir işhanında çaycı olarak çalışan Yoksul  tecrübeli, saf ve iyi niyetli bir adamdır. Çay ocağının sahibi Süleyman onun iyi niyetinden her konuda yararlanmaktadır. Aynı işhanında tekstil atölyesinde çalışan aşık olduğu kız da Yoksulun temiz duygularıyla oynamakta ve ondan ödenmeyen borçlar almaktadır. Bir gün bir işyeri sahibi olan Kerim Bey Yoksula nasıl davranması gerektiği hakkında öğüt verir. Yoksulun yaşadığı bu olaylar çok sıradan gözükse de aslında tüm rolleri değiştirecek bir güce sahiptir.
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Çanakkale Geçilemedi belgesel izle

Yapım:2005 ~ Avustralya, İngiltere, İrlanda, Türkiye, YeniZelanda
Tür:Belgesel, Savaş
Yönetmen:Wain Fimeri
Senaryo:Wain Fimeri
Yapımcı:Tony Wright
Görüntü Yönetmeni:Jaems Grant
Müzik:Dale Cornelius
Süre:1 saat 30 dk.
Film Hakkında:Çanakkale destanını anlatan güzel bir belgesel olmuş. O günün şartlarını savaşın konumunu bu belgesel sayesinde daha iyi anlayacaksınız...
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MACGRUBER: The Film Babble Blog Review

MACGRUBER (Dir. Jorma Taccone, 2010)



MacGruber! Making a movie out of a flimsy SNL sketch!

MacGruber! Which will most likely be clobbered by SHREK FOREVER AFTER's opening weekend grosses!

MacGruber! His movie actually doesn't suck!

MacGruber!!!!!

The first film derived from a Saturday Night Live sketch in a decade (the last being 2000's THE LADIES MAN) accomplishes something surprising - it's much better than the sketches on which it's based.

With a few exceptions, like when Betty White famously appeared as MacGruber's grandmother earlier this month, I've found the sketches to be irritatingly repetitive. They always concern a countdown in a control room in which Will Forte's MacGyver take off fails to halt a bomb's detonation because of whatever neurosis of the week he's dealing with.

Of course, you can't make an entire movie out of repeatedly blowing up the hero so borrowing heavily from the 80's action movie handbook we get a something resembling a plot. Which is - the ridiculously over decorated special operative MacGruber is called out of retirement because his arch nemesis, named...wait for it...Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), has stolen a nuclear warhead and threatens to, in his words, "turn Washington D.C. into a pile of ash."

Brought back into action by the always welcome Powers Boothe as Col. James Faith, the mulleted MacGruber assembles a team of beefed up "American heroes with over 100 years of combined combat experience." The early fate of this team is one of the better jokes in the film so I'll just say MacGruber has to make do with Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) as his second in command, and Forte's fellow SNL-er Kristen Wiig as Vicki St. Elmo who is just as stuck in the '80s hairstyle and fashion-wise as our uber-unlikely hero.

There's a back story involving Kilmer's killing of MacGruber's fiancee (Maya Rudolph) 10 years previous which ups the stakes - MacGruber threatens Kilmer with his signature "throat rip" among other, uh, unsavory things. Apart from that it's what you'd expect, not that that's a bad thing, from an over the top action comedy directed and co-written by one of the minds behind SNL digital shorts like "Lazy Sunday." It's a hard R with more F-bombs than actual bombs, scads of crude juvenile humor, and the most hilarious sex scene since TEAM AMERICA.

By no means a comic masterpiece since it's a little too sloppy and choppy to qualify; MACGRUBER is funnier than it has a right to be.

Forte's fearless gusto - which means he'll even go nude for a laugh - and his mock egotistical line readings make for a performance that's maybe not a tour de force, but certainly a minor comedic triumph.

As his meek but eager love interest, Wiig registers much more favorably than in her recent blank slate roles such as EXTRACT, WHIP IT, and DATE NIGHT. This is sort of odd due to the purposely shallow nature of Wiig's character, yet she has some of the funniest bits in the film.





Kilmer comes off beautifully as the oily bad guy in Euro trash threads sporting a slimy smirk. It's the kind of role he's perfect for as it tweaks his former 80's it boy status and gives him big artillery backdrops to chew on.



Phillippe, apart from some celery silliness which I won't spoil, plays his role straight as if he's in an actual action movie and that's the right idea.



True satire movie-wise is hard to come by these days so don't really expect any of it in MACGRUBER. It has spoofery in its genes, but it's more content to exist in the margins of immature buffoonery.



For folks looking for a mindless summertime diversion with more than its share of decent jokes, it should do just fine.


More later...

A ay film izle

Yönetmen : Reha Erdem
Senaryo Yazarı : Reha Erdem
Tür : Dram , Psikolojik
Ülke : Türkiye
Süre : 100 100 dk.
Film Hakkında : Filmi izlemedim ama gerçekten ilginç bir konusu var.
Yönetmenliğini Reha Ertem yapıyor...
Filmin Konusu : 12 yaşlarında olan Yekta geleneklerinden ve aile köşkünden kopamayan halası ile yaşamaktadır. Adada yaşayan ve İngilizce hocası olan diğer halası Yekta'yı bu kopuk ve asosyal hayattan kurtarmak için yanına almak ister. Ancak Yekta annesinin birgün köşke geri döneceğine inandığından istememektedir.
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Oğlum Jack - My Boy Jack film izle

 

Filmin Türü : Savaş , Dram , Biyografi
Yönetmen : Brian Kirk
Senaryo : David Haig
Vizyon Tarihi : 20 Nisan 2008 (USA)
Süre : 95 Dk.
Oyuncular : David Haig, Daniel Radcliffe, Kim Cattrall, Kim Cattrall, Carey Mulligan, Julian Wadham, Martin McCann, Richard Dormer, Rúaidhrí Conroy
Film Hakkında : Film hakkında ne söylenebilir ki.. Filmi izleyip birşeyler kapmamız bize bilgi verecek tarzda bir yapıt olmuş.  Film İlgiltere'de 1. Dünya Savaşı'nı konu alıyor.
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DO IT AGAIN: The Film Babble Blog Review

DO IT AGAIN: ONE MAN'S QUEST TO REUNITE THE KINKS

(Dir. Robert Patton-Spruill, 2010)

I wrote about this film briefly before in my coverage of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival last month, but I thought that it deserved more blogspace because #1: it is currently making the film fest rounds in hopes of finding a buyer, and #2 because it’s truly a wonderful film. Boston Globe reporter and writer of a few children’s books, Geoff Edgers, turns what could’ve been another conversational throwaway – “hey, wouldn’t it be great if I could personally get my favorite band back together?” – into a funny visual diary of his said crazy yet understandable quest.

Director Robert Patton-Spruill follows Edgers around as he makes phone calls, takes interviews, and neurotically obsesses over whether this is a worthwhile project. The object of his obsession is the rock band The Kinks, a band thought to be in the third tier after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in terms of the 60’s British Invasion. 

The Kinks haven’t recorded or toured since the mid 90’s with infamous tales of sibling rivalry between the brothers Ray and Dave Davies being the suspected cause of their split after 32 years together.

Edgers, with his easy going charisma, breaks this down for us with clips, photos, and song snippets, but the title makes it clear that this is no band bio doc. That’s just background for Edgers’ quasi adventure that would definitely be a lot shorter if he was able to get Ray Davies on the phone right off the bat. Instead he goes to visit with Kinks influenced musicians including Robyn Hitchcock, Paul Weller (The Jam), and Peter Buck (R.E.M.). There’s a side gimmick to Edger’s premise, he tries to get these participants to sing a Kinks song with him.

Winding in and out of these interviews are bits of Edgers in mind numbing proof reading sessions at his newspaper gig and sulking as he discusses finances with his wife. Maybe, as some have said, these are the motions of a mid life crisis, but Edgers appears to know this and his enthusiasm and sense of humor overcomes this concern.

Filmed on a ladder as he’s cleaning the gutters of his roof, Edgers complains about subpar bands that have reunited: “Styx, Flock of Seagulls, the fucking Eagles!” His disgust is amusing, yet moving - who hasn’t been pissed off at overflowing mediocrity while quality art is often hiding in obscurity. “Man, the Eagles!” Edgers says again, still cleaning out the rooting leaves from his roof's gutter.

The film is packed with Kinks songs so if you don’t know them going in, you’re sure to have somewhat of an appreciation for them when you leave. Several of the interviewees refuse to sing along with Edgers, but Zooey Deschanel, Robyn Hitchcock, and Sting are game so loose charming versions of such classics as "You Really Got Me", "Set Me Free", "David Watts, and "Waterloo Sunset" are performed.

In a moment of desperation, when Ray Davies proves grandly elusive, Edgers flies to England to attend a Kinks convention at which the front man has been known to make surprise appearances. To go on further would be a Spoiler! – don’t get me wrong, one should know going in that Edgers doesn’t reunite the Kinks, but he does score an incredibly touching interview with a key player that puts his quest into perspective.

Edgers may go down in pop culture history as the biggest Kinks fan ever for this effort, which I bet he’d love, but there’s a lot more going on here. There’s an inspiring lesson about abandoning fear and focusing on one dream – no matter how impossible or stupid others may tell you it is. DO IT AGAIN is a delicious documentary that usurps the Michael Moore model of a one man mission movie to make something more personal and then rock out with it. It’s also the one documentary I demand to see a sequel to – I mean, the quest has just begun - right, Geoff?

Postnote: I should say that I’m a huge Kinks fan which makes me a bit biased here, but still think many will get a lot out of this film. Also, unlike writer and star Geoff Edgers, I actually saw the Kinks live back in 1993 at Rocky’s - a sports bar in Charlotte N.C. (!) Edgers told me he had a recording of this show in his collection - with hope one day he’ll make me a copy.

More later...