Only Warren Ellis could come up with a concept like that. Willy Wonka. Underground. Gene Pervert. It reads like excellent music.
Same folks who did the Grant Morrison film, Talking With Gods, are working on an Ellis doc called Captured Ghosts.
I never expected his voice to sound like that. Thought it would be rather gravelly and rough.
Label as “must see” cinema.
Is it just me or is the following video, Anne Hathaway’s stunt double in full, skin tight Catwoman uniform from The Dark Knight Rises shoot, the most erotic piece of spoilerish set video ever recorded?
The inquiries about this story are becoming somewhat relentless so I present it to you here to make it a bit easier to find.
HOLLYWOOD – He was a trusted, valued member of the Justice League of America. He stood beside such awesome figures as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern in that mythic panthoen of heroes and, with the use of his awesome ability to control devastatingly powerful wind funnels, helped save the world time after time. His beginnings were humble, however, and his is the story of a tortured soul, warring against terrible odds and bitter adversity to better himself and his adopted world, striving for nothing more or less than the simple humanity that we all take for granted. It is a grand tale, a sweeping epic, full of love, loss and heroism, tragedy and triumph and android angst gone wild…full article.
I’m starting to feel like we are fast approaching a sort of Geek Singularity right now. The Peak of Geekness lies before our very eyes, ready to blossom in it’s sci-fi/superhero/fantasy fullness. There are many signs that this is the case but allow me to list a few from my own Inner Geek’s Perspective.
These past few weeks are a great example for me. We have seen:
Trailers for Dark Knight Rises, John Carter (a.k.a. Warlord of Mars), and, today, The Avengers, have appeared online as, seemingly, all of the adored heroes of my childhood are coming to life. The Avengers was my favorite comic as a kid. Of Burroughs’ creations, John Carter was the one I adored the most, thanks not only to the magnificent adventures but those gorgeous Frazetta covers. Batman, as realized by Christopher Nolan, is another dream come true.
It’s amazing what we have seen in recent years, really. A faithful adaptation of Watchmen. Sin City. The Marvel films, most of which are wonderful fun, have the right spirit in them. Folks are finally respecting creators’ visions when they adapt material. Hell, there was even an attempt at another comics favorite of mine, Green Lantern, however middling it ended up. Another Superman is on the horizon, as well as Sin City 2 and a host of other fascinating projects.
I’ve always said that, if I could go back to 1977 and bring forward in time that little boy and show him what’s happening now he fucking die on the spot of some sort of astonished overload of shocked pleasure. Laid out on the floor with an ear to ear smile in front a 46″ HD TV showing the Iron Man Blu-ray, an iPad full of sci-books and comics in one hand and a PS3 controller in the other.
It goes on, to the fantastical realms. Game of Thrones has shown us just how adult and edgy great Fantasy can be. If you like it a bit sappier, the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions are now on Blu-ray and you won’t believe how fucking good they look, my friends. I have in hand the latest tome from George R.R. Martin, I should mention, as well. A Dance With Dragons clocks in at about 1000 pages and I can’t wait to devour it. Joe Abercrombie looks interesting and Richard Morgan owes us the sequel to Steel Remains.
In television, Doctor Who is going as strong as ever. In sci-filiterature, Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds and Neal Asher continue producing the hard space opera of my dreams. In comics, Mark Millar, Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis are regularly taking superheroes where they have never gone before.
It’s a veritable bounty of Geek Goodness. I’m wallowing in Geek Gluttony.
It’s almost too much. Almost.
I can’t tell you how much I am going to enjoy it all. The truth is, I’ve never quite grown up. Those of you who know me know that I have no need for an “inner child” as the child remains very much on the surface with me. I Like to have a good time and my imagination, thankfully, has never died and festered like some folks my age. It burns still, open to new and different magic, like that wide eyed kid who stood in line for Star Wars in 1977 and had his world forever changed as his eyes were opened wide to strange new ones. Just like that kid devouring all those Marvel Comics in their four-color, newsprint splendour back then. Just like that kid reading Dune for the first time.
Here I sit, all these years later, still hungry for more.
Bring it on, I say.
I paid ten buck to see X-Men First Class tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great film. However, I would have felt my money well spent before the opening credits after seeing the trailer for David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Pulse pounding, mesmerizing, astonishinly good. Featuring an incredible cover of my favorite Zeppelin tune, Immigrant Song, done by Trent Reznor and Karen O. It draws you toward the screen more than the powerful hands of Magneto over could.
Do yourself a favor and go experience both in a darkened theatre. If you can’t, turn off all your lights, put on some headphones with the volume cranked up and watch it here. It’s worth a goddamned look, believe me.
There is an art to the Trailer. Some folks are very good at it. Sometimes, often, a well done trailer might be even better than the film it’s selling. I’m thinking that might be the case with Green Lantern. It was almost the case with Watchmen, which featured, up to now, the greatest trailer I’d ever seen.
Fucking blown out of the water tonight, folks.
Here’s an ambitious project. I was surprised recently to find out, via twitter, that these boys were still in business and quite impressed by the sheer bloody-mindedness that is driving their production. The market for a 3D animated Cerebus film be utterly non-existent by the standards of even the smallest of independent films. No, this seems to be a genuine labour of love by one Oliver Simonsen, quite obviously as dedicated a Cerebus fan as might exist. I fully admit, after seeing their beginnings a while back, I doubted they would be able to sustain the effort but I was completely, and now quite happily, wrong as hell.
Those of you who know me, know of my own admiration of Dave Sim’s masterwork, itself a testiment to sheer bloody-mindedness. A 300 issue epic that took nearly three decades to produce, the entirety of it written by Sim and illustrated by he and his longtime artistic partner Gerhard, who produced some of the most amazingly detailed pen and ink backgrounds that the world of comics art has ever seen.
You have to admire Simonsen’s talent and effort, as witnessed in the teaser below.
Is that not a bit drool-worthy for an old school Cerebus fan? He’s got the expressions down. The voice of Elrod, the animation of Lord Julius. Obviously they remember Sim’s contention that Cerebus’ voice would sound like George C. Scott, as well. It’s just great fun to see that all come to life.
He’s come this far, so it’s likely he’ll see this through and I, for one, cannot wait to see the final results. Any of you interested, be sure to let Oliver know that his work is appreciated. Keep it up, sir.
Also online these days is CerebusTV, a streaming broadcast about all things Aardvark, which lists Sim himself as an executive producer. New episodes, of which there are now 50 or so, are featured each Friday at 10 pm.
Rutger Hauer in Hobo With A Shotgun.
A homeless man with an edge moves into a crime ridden town and decides someone needs to clean up the streets the only way that someone knows how.
With Pump Action.
Early running for Movie of the Year based simply on the Concept, Title and that it’s A Fucking Hobo With A Shotgun.
I admit, I don’t often pay much attention to The Academy Awards, anyway, but this year, as they have failed to recognize The Dark Knight as one of the best films of the year, and Christopher Nolan as one of the best directors, they have finally and officially invalidated themselves as a legitimate institution. At last, any nagging desire to tune into the broadcast, even to tie up some loose ends in various Celebrity Death Pools I’m in, will be completely dead and buried. I’m not even going to watch to see if Wolverine might go into berserker mode while hosting and do a snikt! on Frank Langella’s ass.
I don’t even care who else was nominated, folks. I don’t want to hear it. Benjamin Buttplug? Shove it up there sideways. Scumbag Millionaire? It’s the feel good fucktard of the year. Do I really want to see Kate Winslet soil herself on national television? Maybe but it’s still not worth giving even five minutes of my time to this farce.
Let’s be honest, the Oscars have been irrelevant for a long, long time, ignoring any film outside a genre or subject matter they consider acceptable, failing to recognize anything that might seem remotely dangerous or politically incorrect, focusing on dreary costume epics and feel good films and the odd indie with just the right amound of industry buzz.
Now, by failing to properly reward the most effective and stunning pieces of filmmaking the art has seen in decades, they have officially made the entire proceedings pointless, boring and lacking even the smallest shred of credibility.
Join me, if you will, in failing utterly, from this point on, to pay attention to anything associated with the event, it’s results or the broadcast thereof. And if anyone wants to disagree with your stance or gets annoyed with your miltant disgust, just give them your best crooked, maniacal stare and ask them one question.
“Why so serious?”
This one’s for Chris Casino.
The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a sort of “Macho Man” Randy Savage type professional wrestler in the late stages of a once illustrious career, and directed by Darren Aronofsky, is a powerful film. Possessed of a majestic brutality, a keening sense of sadness and bloody passion, it is an absorbing, fascinating and emotional work that draws the viewer into a world they might otherwise have never considered but, once glimpsed, are completely unable to turn away from.
It is not just a film for wrestling fans, certainly, but one would imagine that those of that ilk who watch it will not be disappointed. The depiction of the “sport” seems amazingly well done, from the fight sequences to the behind-the-scenes insight as we’re allowed to watch the atheletes interact before and after the events. The violence is graphic and, to those not familiar with this sort of entertainment, is an eye-opening window into the physical sacrifices participants are willing to endure for the sake of entertainment.
That, aside from the very human portrait of a man with some very sympathetic flaws, may be the most affecting part of the film. It gives you the sense that these men, in some cases at least, are willing to suffer almost anything for the sake of the performance. In one instance, for example, while participating in an extreme wrestling event, The Ram actually allows staples shot into his body, glass embedded in his back, barbed wire to tear him apart. The blood seems very real in such scenes and one feels a grim fascination with just how far these men are willing to go for their audience.
That, as I said, is only one aspect of the film. The other is the story of the man behind the performer as he attempts to grasp the ending of his career as he knows it and the shambles he’s made out of his life in the process. At once hanging on to the glories of a distant past while dealing with some deep regrets concerning the relationships in his life, most notably his estranged daughter. Rourke handles it all with a deft, profound emotionality that suggests the character’s plight is not entirely unlike his own at various points in his life, something he has admitted in interviews. The results are intensely affecting in a way not seen from the actor since, perhaps, Barfly.
The only issue I had with the film at all, and I know the actual creators of it had little to do with this, was a poster I saw that said “Witness the ressurection of Mickey Rourke”. I’m sorry, was that someone else playing Marv in Sin City, embodying the pure heroic insanity of that character to a glorious pinpoint accuracy that gave any reader of the comic a cast iron boner just to see it?
Mickey Rourke, for all his faults, has become an old warrior of an actor; beat-up, jaded, seen-it-all. Like Marv there’s nothing left that Hollywood or any aspect of the film industry can throw at him that can kill him. Like The Ram he comes before us at this stage of his career bloodied but unbowed, knowing full well his capabilities and how to use them most effectively. How to bare his soul to his audience and make them live through his eyes.
Which is exactly what he does in The Wrestler, making it one of the most compelling film experiences in recent memory.
Oh, and Marisa Tomei is topless in the film nearly constantly, which doesn’t hurt a flick.
Just saying.
I should probably, in good conscience, amend the name of this category to read Best of 2008: Movies (That I’ve Seen). I am notoriously slow at getting around to seeing newly released films in theaters. It’s not just because I hate crowds, and hate crowded theaters even more, but that there just isn’t enough time to get out there and see them all. Especially films rush-released late in the year in order to qualify for the Oscars, which I despise. To expect anyone to get out there during the madness of the holiday crunch and see four or five deadly serious films, all starring Kate Winslet, that they can critically consider the merits of is pure, indefensible madness. And they wonder why no one takes the Academy Awards seriously anymore.
Luckily, there may or may not be such a thing as a Screener Copy, which may or may not be made available to interested parties. Not that I have any idea where such things come from or how one might be able to aquire a copy of such a thing, should it actually exist but, well. They might be a helpful thing for a guy becoming more and more psychotically adverse to leaving his heavily fortified bunker. I’m just saying.
Anyway, here are my top five films for 2008 (that I’ve bothered to watch).
5. Tropic Thunder
Full credit to Ben Stiller on this one. His career choices have not always been brilliant of late (though the list of actors unmanned by a Jennifer Aniston date movie is long and illustrious) but I’ve always believed that this was a guy who understood The Funny. Tropic Thunder, in the way it mercilessly and hilariously skewers Stiller’s own habitat and livelihood, is as whippingly good as it gets for a film of that high a profile. Robert Downey Jr. is pure, scene-gobbling goodness as the self-important Kirk Lazarus but it’s the script that really earns the rewards here. Crude, daring and spot on, it’s an impressive comedy in all aspects and, one has to admit, genuine laughs can be very hard to find on the big screen sometimes with the fluff and drivel Hollywood regularly produces. Stiller obviously understands that notion quite well, thankfully, and this film is the gleeful result.
4. Iron Man
I enjoyed the hell out of this one, I fully admit it. It’s not Godfather II, I know, it’s popcorn fare but it’s just done so well and, especially in the eyes of comic book lovers, it hits the mark that so many other superhero films have missed. I’m someone who counts the David Micheline/John Romita Jr./Bob Layton run on Iron Man as not only a defining take on the character but an important building block in the evolution of serious, adult comic book storytelling. Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr.’s effort here seems to bring out the same feel of those stories, giving us a deeply flawed yet brilliant, self-confident hero who operates the gold and red suit like it’s a ferrari. It’s the right approach and it wasn’t until I saw Favreau on Iconoclasts with Tony Hawk and heard some of his thoughts about making the film that I really appreciated what he did. He understood his responsibilities to the character and the fans implicity, as well as the importance of the film’s success to the viability of Marvel’s film studio. With all that in tow, he delivered a fantastic, funny, entertaining, can’t take your eyes off it movie experience. No easy task but it is accomplished here with style.
3. Burn After Reading
This is very much an essential Coen Brothers film, if not quite exactly in the same way last year’s much heralded, and completely brilliant, No Country For Old Men was. It may, in fact, have more in common with a film like Fargo in that it sneaks up on you in some very subtle ways. You think at first that you’re watching a rather broad, almost light comedy effort, something you might excuse the Coens for considering some of the weighty elements in their previous film. Brad Pitt and John Malkovitch’s characters embody polar opposites and the scenes in which they interact with one another are utterly hilarious. It isn’t until late in the film, when things take a decidedly dark turn, that the viewer realizes they have been watching something more than they thought all along. Within the increasingly black comedy there is woven a thread that implores us to examine the very human motivations of these characters, the weaknessed and faults that bring them to the completion of their respective journeys. When you start to really see just what it is that drives George Clooney’s obsessive, paranoid philanderer, you almost feel dirty for him. In the end, the film is another subtle and sublime commentary on the human condition, warts and all, and, as such, is about as entertaining as can be in the process. Should we expect any less from the Coens at this point? I think not.
2. Religulous
Bill Maher’s anti-religion documentary is not actually as bitter and scathing as I thought it might be, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The topic of religion is a difficult one, especially in America, as can be seen in one of the opening scenes when an angry truck-driver, just clueing in to the potential direction of the film he’s agreed to be in, angrily stands up and leaves, shaking a fist at the notion anyone might doubt “his god”. Maher responds quietly to the remaining group, almost apologetically, “I’m just asking questions.” That sort of sets the tone for the rest of the film as he goes from place to place, simply asking questions that force people to actually think about and defend some of the more absurd notions proposed by religion and accepted as fact by so many. There is much insight gained on the journey and there are laughs aplenty. Highlights being the moral disrobing of an wealthy televangelist claiming that Jesus never spoke against the rich, an adorably odd Vatican priest who seems to be throwing up his hands with Catholic heirarchy and the way the church operates. There’s also a nice bit where Bill gets high with a stoner in Amsterdam who accidentally sets his own hair on fire, but I digress. The final scenes in the film are powerful and incisive as Maher makes the essential connection between religion’s fatal obsession with apocalypse and the ability that has, when infused into an unthinking populace, to allow humanity to resign itself to it’s doomed fate without any effort to avert it. “Religion must die for mankind to live,” he tells us. Amen to that, brother.
1. The Dark Knight
What more can really be said about this masterpeice that hasn’t been already? Surely anyone reading this has seen it, possibly multiple times, and understands what a profound peice of filmmaking this is. From the amazing IMAX photography, to the breakneck pace and the razor sharp script, the amazing sound design elements and Heath Ledger’s life defining performance, it’s all in place and placed perfectly. This is a film that will last forever and will sustain viewing after viewing over the years and hold up easily under future scrutinization. This is filmmaking on a grand, awe-inspiring scope that also contains enough subtle human elements and sheer intelligence to make it something truly profound to watch. It’s epic, it’s essential, it’s iconic. All that and more and that’s why it’s the Best of 2008.
Word.
