By MICK LaSALLE, San Francisco Chronicle Movie Critic
Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" is one of the all-time exalted examples of an actor meeting a character and of each redeeming the other.
The movie has the simplicity and confidence of a Johnny Cash song: We recognize all the shopworn elements, and yet the ballad still has the power to take audiences to a real emotional and philosophical place. To call "The Wrestler" a formula movie would be to misunderstand it. This is an homage to formula, a knowing treatment that's loving rather than cynical. This is ritual, and yet one that centers around someone we've never quite seen before: a fake warrior - a down-on-his-luck wrestler - who has something truly heroic inside of him.
In playing this role, Rourke does something that actors rarely do: He lets himself be seen, completely. He puts his life and his body out there for inspection. Rourke's naked face, with its destruction and equally painful-to-look-at reconstruction, gives him a kind of monster/god power. He knows what he is, and he gives us, the audience, the gift of himself with an ease that's more than ease, with an equanimity that's partly his and partly the character's. This equanimity feels special, and rather like spiritual grace.
Director Darren Aronofsky and screenwriter Robert D. Siegel provide the setting for this performance, and the result is some kind of true American poem. Take the scene in which the wrestler lies in his forlorn mobile home, reading a paperback, with his streaming hair pinned up in an offstage bun. The theatrically riveting detail in this still life is as poignant as anything movies can show you. You can feel the cold beauty of the scrubby East Coast woods surrounding the trailer park, and though it's just a trailer, it feels like a man's home. There's a glimpse of sky, and kids play outside. This is not squalid, just poor. "The Wrestler" presents life without talking down to it.
continue the review at… http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/25/DDEJ14U023.DTL
I have both a Netflix account and a Gold Xbox Live membership, which allows me (with the nxe) to stream videos via my Netflix instant queque through the Xbox. It's really cool and convenient. It's like having a entire catalogue of films available to to you at a split second. No waiting on mail. Just last night I watched the old Sam Fuller film, I Shot Jesse James and today I'll probably watch a couple more. The quality was actually very good in High Definition. Maybe not quite as good as DVD and not up to par with Blu-Ray of course, but who cares. I think streaming movies will be a hot trend and probably see more success than the tangible format of Blu-Ray.
There's been lots of news about this floating online. Some films are still not available, but there is one hell of a selection regardless.
Paul Newman died of cancer this past weekend. He was 83 years old. Most of you have heard by now, but I've been too busy to post it until now. Apparently he found out he had cancer late last year/early this year - in that time frame. Cancer gets the best of them. 83 is very old, but he was active until the end. If I'm right, Cars was his last film and that was with a voice over since it's animated.
As you all know he's been involved in many different things besides acting. And if you didn't know then surely you know now because it's been all over the newspapers and the internet in each story. I've never been a race or car fan, but that's one endevour Newman had a lot of passion for. He's also donated lots of money to charity and is famous for that as well. Certainly he had a lot of money, but he donated a large percentage of what he had. I've always been of the opinion that if I had $10 million parting with half of it would still leave me with more money that what I've actually ever have so what's the big deal… well you know rich people. Paul Newman never seemed to fit that mold of "rich celebrity."
But I'm a film fan and I know him from what I've seen of him in movies. My favorite of course is easily The Hustler.
At 91 years old Ernest Borgnine is still alive and kicking… Ernest who? Well you probably know the face better than the name, but he's been in so much, it'd be hard not to recognized him. He seems like a very likeable person on screen, so I imagine he'd be great in person to chill with or have a drink with or whatever. That said, he's played his fair share of villains.
But hell, 91 years old! I just got to thinking about this recently, wondering if he was still around and he is. He's been in so many movies, many classics from many decades. Marty, Johnny Guitar, The Wild Bunch, From Here to Eternity, Escape from New York, Ice Station Zebra(where he played a Russian), Bad Day at Black Rock, and many others. Funny how over 50 years ago, the large boned and portly Borgnine looked like he could have keeled over and died of a heart attack any second, but yet here we are 2008 and he keeps on tickin'.
So share the love for this wonderful actor and screen personality and talk about some of your favorite films and moments of his on film.
One of my favorite moments of his happens in the first half hour of The Wild Bunch as they're fleeing from the law and bounty hunters to Mexico. When asked if they should give a fallen compadre a proper burial, Borgnine offers a bit of logic by suggesting, "I think the boys are right. I'd like to say a few words for the dear, dead departed. And maybe a few hymns'd be in order. Followed by a church supper. With a choir!" Classic.
I might go watch iWanted in the theaters. From what I've read about it, it looks to be an action film that's entertaining more than it is stupid. Plus I admit I'm a fan of Angelina Jolie (minus the idiotic Tomb Raider garbage). The story is a bit silly, but aren't these things always? Morgan Freeman and Terence Stamp are also in the film to give it a bit of a classic appeal, though I admit it does get old seeing Morgan Freeman stuck in the rut of the old wise sage type of role. Why don't we see him play an old homeless drug addict man stuck living off of whatever he can and whoever he can, with tattered clothing and a grizzled beard? Nah, not anytime soon. He's doomed to be typecast, as he has been for the past 10 years. Too bad.
I was reading Roger Ebert's review of the film. He gave it a 3/4, which isn't too bad. As did James B., the other reviewer I usually read material of. Ebert mentioned that the plot reminded him of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," but then possed the question of whoever reads that great short story nowadays anyway? Well I do, and so do my students in Short Stories class.
I was on my way home from Alicia's house this morning and I heard the news on NPR. Struck me kind of hard, because I've always liked George Carlin and have always wondered in my mind how such an outspoken athiest and criticizing of religion will face death, since God and the afterlife are always linked together. They had a decent eulogy for him and of course mentioned the "Seven words you can't say," bit.
My first recollection of George Carlin was when I was seven or eight years old and saw Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Rufus stood out to me. It was only several years later did I realize he was a comedian. I haven't heard a great deal of his stuff, but I love what I've listened to. My favorite has been the "God does this, God does that… and he loves you?" bit. I always thought he was clever and appreciated his look and style. Maybe not as revolutionary and envelope pushing as Lenny Bruce, but right up there.
Everyone knows the work of Stan Winston even if you don't know the name. Stan Winston is the special effects genious who's designed make-up work and visual effects on films such as The Terminator, Aliens, Edward Scissorhands, Jurassic Park, Interview With the Vampire, A.I., and many others. I think my personal favorite of his designs and creations would be from The Thing. Some of his stuff in that movie is absolutely brutal.
It's very sad to see him go, especially since we're becoming more dependent on computers for visual effects. I always enjoyed his live flesh creations, or rather tangible creations and animatronics that exist in the real world and aren't just generated pixelated images. There's something to be said for that. The film world will suffer without him.
The opening scenes of Will Smith driving through an empty Manhattan, stalking a herd of elk, were magnificent. CGI was put to decent use there in terms of the city, while the animals themselves remained disappointing. Especially so when a lion lunges at its prey. But that's probably my biggest complaint with I Am Legend, the CGI animated virus victims, ala vampires. It's very difficult for me to take a film seriously when our star is going against computer pixels. It was a huge complaint with me for Gollum to be in CGI in The Two Towers and CGI villains make me think of cheap cartoonish faire such as The Mummy films. The virus victims in I Am Legend, put a serious dent in the film. I have read they were originally to be actors, which would have been a better choice. The filmmakers should have went the route of Danny Boyle with 28 Days Later, a vastly superior film with the same basic content, only taking place in London and not necessarily based on the novel of Richard Matheson, but clearly inspired by it. Speaking of which I have not read the novel, but I have seen the Vincent Price film, The Last Man on Earth. A decent film, but like I said, I think 28 Days Later goes beyond anything in that film or this film, in showing the cynicism of the survivors. I had no problem with Will Smith, but I don't think he can maintain a film by being the predominate person on screen for a majority of film's running time. Nothing against Will Smith, but that's something few actors can do. I appreciate the narration of the flashbacks and being persistent with what triggers them. I also think it was wise to give Will Smith a companion in the form of the dog, so he has someone else to interact with. I don't think Will Smith is a strong enough actor to hold the screen by himself without interacting with anything. The hype and critical reception the film received I just don't get. There are aspects I enjoyed by I don't think it's anything new or fresh that is deserving of the acclaim it's received. Don't let me get off track here. I recommend the film for the concept, creating a believably empty New York City, the narrative style, and the dark ambiguous ending.
Sydney Pollack died of cancer a few days ago. He was of course a famous director and actor. A couple of his major films include Out of Africa, The Firm, and Tootsie.
He's a very good director. I especially enjoy The Yakuza, Jerimiah Johnson, and The Swimmer. My favorite film that he's directed is They Shoot Horses Don't They?. I think it's a marvelous film and one of those movies that really touches a nerve.
I remember him most for his performance in Eyes Wide Shut and being a host on TCM's "The Essentials." He always had a very professional and straightfoward tone about him. At least with his mannerism and way of speaking. He reminded me of the way a doctor talks when he tells you that you're very sick, but doesn't beat around the bush about it.
I've heard a lot about this film recently, how it's going to be a big hit and all. This years top animated feature. To me it doesn't look that interesting. WALL-E the robot actually reminds me of Johnny-5 from Short Circuit. Was he meant to look like that?
The whole movie sounds a bit meh, and E.T.ish to me.
Charlton Heston is an actor I liked quite a bit. He died on Saturday night actually, I guess I was hoping someone else would post the story, but that's fine. Of course I enjoy Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, and Planet of the Apes which are by far the movies he'll be most remembered for. I also love him in Touch of Evil, despite the fact that he plays a Mexican. He'll always be loved by me also as the violence prone, "manly" cowboy in The Big Country and Will Penny is another great western he was in.
News has been circulating on the death of HD DVD for a while now, and really heated up last week with reports that online rental giant Netflix would only be stocking Blu-Ray discs in their rental inventory. Wal-mart dropping the HD DVD format on Friday, and Best Buy implying they would be recommending Blu-ray discs, but continuing to carry both formats, added fuel to the fire. Engadget is now reporting, “Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March”.
Reuter’s had reported on this over the weekend, so most people were already aware that HD DVD has officially lost to Blu-Ray in the Format War.
With everyone storing more and more on virtual drives online which can be available wirelessly anywhere you go, and having large capacity home servers available in their own home wireless networks, it seems the HD DVD media may not even take off as a viable data storage option.
Sorry to the early adopters and supporters of HD DVD, but there is no mention of credit towards their machines. That’s what happens with technology. It’s a chance you take when you buy it early.
No word yet on what Microsoft will do with their Xbox drives, now that the format has lost and Blu-Ray is a Sony creation, currently available in the Playstation 3.
With the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull coming in a few months, how about a look at the Indiana Jones 4 scripts that weren’t.
Minnesota native Vince Flynn signs a deal to bring his book series revolving around fictional character Mitch Rapp, a counterterrorism operative, to the big screen. There are currently 8 books in the series.
Dominic Monaghan 
