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The Hobbit Trailer

I almost wish they would release the whole film in trailer-sized bites so I didn't have to wait until Dec. 2012. Hopefully the Mayans won't destroy the world before the movie comes out. Damn Mayans. Selfish, self-centered people with a stupid calender. No pretty girl pictures on it—anywhere. Did you notice?

h/t: Thissitehere

Tom Ruegger's Wonderful Life

Cartoonatics takes a personal look back at Frank Capra's Christmas classic, It's A Wonderful Life. A great film and one I can identify with as a guy who once thought life really cranked up someplace other than where I was. Go read and remember.

Image: downtherabbithole

'Let's Kill Uncle' and Other Fine Films

Imagine a filmmaker roaming the Great Plains, filming in small towns and cities across Nebraska and Kansas; filming with little thought to continuity or quality; but casting locals as actors in a melodrama shot, written and directed by the same man who demands room and board for a month while he completes his latest opus.

There you have the life of Argentinian 'Ed Wood' Daniel Burmeister, a one-man, movie-makin' machine who shows little signs of slowing down. Read more here.

h/t: WSJ; Image: PoeForward.com

Nate Ruegger Nabs Gold

Nate Ruegger's Another Life continues racking up the film festival kudos. At Worldfest Houston International Film and Video Fest, Nate's offering won Gold for Best Original Dramatic Short.

Coming up next: the Newport Beach Film Festival.

It's a long slog through the festival circuit, but you meet people, pick up some press, and show you've got the persistence and talent to play ball in a bigger stadium. Keep going, Nate.

Review: Atlas Shrugged

No one loved the original Clash of the Titans more than I. (Except for the golden mechanical owl. I constructed one after seeing the film just to destroy it utterly.) So when I saw a title with the Greek Titan Atlas, I was all in. Alas, neither old-fashioned stop-motion animation or state-of-the-art CGI could save this film. In fact, we have two films: the story of a woman tycoon running a railroad surrounded by incompetence and government meddling interwoven with the tale of a Titan holding the world on his back as punishment for revolting against the Olympian gods. (At some point I hoped the films would intersect and Atlas would drop the world on a train like a beach ball, shrug, then lift the Earth back on his shoulders. But that was wishful thinking.) Clearly Atlas was aware of events in the train story. More often than you'd think possible, the film CUT TO a CLOSE SHOT of Atlas who would look TO CAMERA, shrug and say something along the lines of "So who takes trains anymore?"

Emotional scenes where Dagny Taggart, (Taylor Schilling) fights to keep her company afloat were undercut by annoying ZIP PANS to Atlas, portrayed by screen newcomer Leemon Waddle. At one point, Atlas breaks into a full blown Yiddish accent saying, "You think a railroad is tough? The world you should try holding some time. Oy gevalt!"

Maybe it worked in the screenplay, but presenting the audience with Titan cutaways made me wish for a golden mechanical owl. And that's never happened before. Rated Two Stars for filming in color and English. (Image: flickr.com)

Extra Finished

Extra work—did it myself back in the day—now is losing out to technology. No, not green screens but the inflatables. No water breaks, no sack lunches, no long lines outside Costume. Rumor has it they're already in talks with SAG.
via Ace of Spades

Review: Battle: Los Angeles

This bittersweet romance set before the backdrop of an alien invasion promises much but delivers little. The "battle" is metaphorical, fought between a retiring Marine Staff Sergeant (Aaron Eckhardt) and a Hispanic woman (Michelle Rodriguez) who has come to America to be CFO of a large corporation. She grows bitter after her dream is foiled by a lack of education, knowledge of standard accounting practices, and the inability to speak English. Blaming Eckhardt, Rodriguez shuns him as we watch Los Angeles bombarded by alien war craft. The city's destruction represents the implosion of a relationship collapsing under the weight of failed expectations and unfulfilled desire.

Director Jonathan Liebesman turned often to static master shots followed by long slow pans of LA, letting the camera demonstrate that the search for understanding and passion are endless and futile. In the climatic scene, Liebesman used a locked medium shot of the two characters eating flan. Without touching the camera, Liebesman let the actors convey with action—the pensive holding of a spoon or the irritated sip of espresso—that all was finished—except for the flan, which the Staff Sergeant took back to his unit.

In the end we're left to wonder how the characters met, what they needed, and why they were eating dessert and breaking up in the middle of an invasion. I would rate this two stars out of five for the patient, unhurried pace of the film and the excellent use of flan in a supporting role. (Image: IMDb)

Another Life in D.C.

Nate Ruegger's film continues to draw attention in a positive way.

'Another Life' Lives On

Speaking of Nate Ruegger, his film has found another festival. Stop by Another Life for more updates on...Another Life.

Good On All Sides

I hate hearing that some star I like is a real butt-head off camera. Thankfully, that was not the case with the late Leslie Nielsen. As he once said in Police Squad:

"Life is risk. Getting up in the morning, crossing the street, putting your face in a fan." (Photo: Chris Malafronte)

A Road Not Taken by E.T.

Many endings were contemplated for E.T. The one depicted here would have led the character of Elliot down a different path. But director Spielberg chose a less European direction. (Image: Yurock)

Binky the Doormat

It all comes out at the bar.

via bryan10983

Russian Flick Kills Cow

Saw a Netflix film last night called Come and See. Set in Russia during World War II, the movie follows a peasant teenager who volunteers for the Soviet partisans. Directed by Russian Elem Klimov, we observe the protagonist's journey over several weeks as he transforms from a smiling, eager-to-please young fellow into a hollowed out wreck whose actions often inadvertently lead to the death of others. Sound effects levels were uneven as if certain ones had been hastily added in post. The ending was lame and the director allowed actors to address the camera in such a way that you felt they were talking to a camera and not another character. But the movie had its moments.

One scene had our protagonist and another partisan steal a cow. Leading the placid beast across a field at dusk, they are suddenly caught in the light of a flare. A German machine gun opens fire, tracers zipping through the fading light. Our protagonist hits the dirt, but his friend is killed while the cow goes on munching grass, oblivious to rounds whizzing past.

With night approaching, the cow wanders back toward the barn from which it was stolen. Our teen partisan stops the animal and leads it back across the field. The movement draws another flare and a second, more prolonged machine gun burst. This time the cow is hit. It falls, drags itself on front legs, topples on its side and lows in agony as it tries to rise. Hiding behind the riddled animal, the terrified teen watches the cow's eye rolling in pain, too stupid to know its been shot; too dumb to know its almost finished.

Somehow the slaying of a harmless animal effectively captured the ugliness of war in a way that horrid deaths to characters good and bad failed to do.

Though made in 1985, Come and See presents the cow's last words as "Eat Mor Chikin."

I think someone tampered with the film.
(Photo: Wickipedia)

Nate Ruegger Report

Another Life slides into the Big Easy Film Festival. Keep stacking 'em up, Nate.

Link to Broke MGM Story

Troubles at the studio that brought you the Merry Old Land of Oz.

Another Life Lives

Nate Ruegger continues to stack up kudos for his film, Another Life.

Link to Hobbit Troubles

The Hobbit continues its uphill battle toward production.

Cthulhu Con A'Coming

A film festival devoted entirely to all things Lovecraft. This weekend in LA and October 1 - 3 in Portland. Having just sold a Lovecraft-inspired short story to Necrotic Tissue, I'm thinking of heading down there and hobnobbing with my fellow Lovecraftians. The event motto is: "The only festival that understands." Ieeeee to that.

via Mike M. on Facebook
Video: mikeboas

Review: Machete

A breathtaking film, Machete is director Robert Rodriguez homage to beloved children’s tale Charlotte’s Web. Set in the southwest, the film employs the subtle storytelling and layered characterizations that have built Rodriguez’s reputation as the David Lean of Texas. Teen heartthrob Danny Trejo portrays Machete, a blade-packing, Wilbur-like character. Forced to move about like a runt pig in order to remain alive, Machete lives on the allegorical chopping block. In a deft choice, Rodriguez crafts a web of racism and corruption that only Machete can slice. Rotten Senator McLaughlin (Robert DeNiro) is the anti-Charlotte. He is assisted by Michael Booth (Jeff Fahey), a hate-filled businessman who kills illegal immigrants and grinds their bones into bone powder. But Machete has his own Templeton the Rat—Shé (Rebecca Rodriguez). Shé is a taco-truck driving revolutionary who hopes to reclaim Texas for Mexico. Once back in the right hands, Texas will be transformed into a paradise, modeled after the Swiss-like order and civic honesty of Tijuana. Rich with themes of loyalty and undying friendship, Machete, not surprisingly, includes a scene at the Texas State Fair. There, Machete wins a blue ribbon for throwing knives at a spinning target on which is tied a pretty girl in tights (Lindsay Lohan). I believe E.B. White would heartily approve.