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Observations on Todd Phillips’ “Joker” (For What It’s Worth)

by Dan Perez October 25, 2019

So, I finally got around to watching Todd Phillips’ “Joker” with my daughter last night. Having been a fan of the Batman/Joker depictions of Frank Miller in his Dark Knight comics and of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight film trilogy, I was anxious to see what appeared to be a fresh take on our beloved Joker. I’ll start with this, unlike in Nolan’s film featuring Heath Ledger as the Joker, there’s plenty of bloodshed in this film (not sure why Nolan eschews the sight of blood in his films but that’s a discussion for another day).

There are a few observations I wanted to share (and discuss) with those who have already seen it (SPOILERS below!) so if you haven’t seen it yet, go see it then come on back here to discuss it.

Let’s start with the casting of the Joker. When the film was originally announced, I wasn’t at all concerned with the casting of Joaquin Phoenix who, if you’ve seen any of his films, is one of the finest actors in the business and surely capable of delivering a memorable Joker. Which brings me to my first point…

JOAQUIN PHOENIX IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC

Ledger’s Joker was one for the ages but Phoenix’s Joker has a humanity that we can all relate to. You’ve heard it said by many a movie critic already and I concur. His performance not only depicts a man becoming unhinged due to the lack of empathy in the world around him (not to mention several shocking revelations about his own life), but Phoenix literally pulls us into Arthur Fleck’s own skin to feel it as he does. It’s a heartbreaking performance and well worth the Oscar nomination he’ll certainly get (I won’t be surprised if he finally takes one home). His performance alone makes the film worth seeing. Nuff said.

TODD PHILLIPS DELIVERS (SOMEWHAT)

My main concern when first hearing of the film was director Phillips. I mean, was the director of “Due Date”, “Starsky & Hutch” and “The Hangover” franchise really the right guy to direct the dark fairy tale that is “Joker”? Especially after Christopher Nolan did as admirable a job (minus any bloodshed) in bringing Frank Miller’s Joker (not to mention Batman) to the screen in The Dark Knight? I’m happy to announce that Phillips proved more than capable of creating a look and feel in the film that paired very well with the content. My next concern was “The Hangover” cinematographer Lawrence Sher but…

CINEMATOGRAPHER LAWRENCE SHER NAILS IT

As with Phillips, there was very little in Sher’s filmography that would lead you to believe he was capable of creating a look and feel that could rival Academy Award winner Wally Pfister’s work on the Dark Knight trilogy with Christopher Nolan. But right alongside Phoenix’s performance is Sher’s cinematography. The film is not only shot and lit beautifully but it truly captured the time, place and mood of the film. His very first Oscar nomination is surely forthcoming.

So, there’s the good. And the good is more than enough of a reason to see this film and it will certainly get a second viewing (it absolutely requires it) once it arrives on bluray but, ultimately, I wanted Joker to be an exceptional film. Alas, leaving the theater, my daughter was like, “Why so serious?” I felt more disappointment than satisfied, that’s why. Here are a few reasons…

THE FILM TRIES REALLY HARD TO MAKE US FEEL SORRY FOR FLECK

Yeah, it really does. From the opening scene, it’s clear that writers Phillips and Scott Silver want us to immediately sympathize with Fleck. The world is shitty and everyone treats Fleck very shittily while he selflessly cares for his disabled mother (not to mention trying to bring laughter and joy to the world as a comedian and making kids laugh on the bus). Not the worst thing in a film but it’s a bit of a shortcut to the final outcome, of which this film offers several.

BRUCE WAYNE’S FATHER IS REALLY AN ASSHOLE

Not the kindly wealthy father who loathed crime and injustice in past Batman film depictions. The Thomas Wayne of Joker, played with a steely gaze by Brett Cullen, is a mayoral candidate and humorless member of the 1% who flaunts his wealth in a city where poverty, unemployment and crime run rampant. After three employees of Wayne Enterprises (well dressed white males who were drunk and acting like a bunch of assholes themselves) are gunned down on the subway one night by, based on the sole eyewitness, a man wearing a clown mask, Wayne declares the killer a coward who hides behind a mask (ironic, isn’t it?) and calls those who haven’t made anything of their lives “nothing but clowns”. This, in turn, triggers a series of protests by Gotham’s far less fortunate wearing clown masks. This isn’t the slow burn ideology of “V for Vendetta” but an overnight shitstorm of chaos that grips the city and creates some convenient shortcuts for future scenes.

I won’t even bother mentioning how the young son of one of Gotham’s wealthiest and most powerful men can find himself with creepy Arthur Fleck’s fingers in his mouth or how a disheveled Arthur Fleck can easily find his way into a theater filled with the tuxedoed 1% of Gotham and then to a one-on-one confrontation with Thomas Wayne in the restroom(!). Whether or not the senior Wayne is actually Fleck’s father is debatable but what isn’t debatable is that Thomas Wayne is truly a Gordon Gekko caliber asshole. And as for Fleck slipping into that theater – what’s the deal with Gotham’s finest? See my next observation…

THE DETECTIVES IN GOTHAM CITY ARE CLUELESS

Think about 1970’s New York City (and we all know that Gotham City is really New York City, right?). Now think about three white males in suits found gunned down in the subway one night (courtesy of Fleck in a scene that was orchestrated brilliantly by Phillips and Sher) with the clown-faced killer at large. I’m just gonna assume that Gotham would put its top detectives on the case, right? Well, the two detectives (played by veteran actors Bill Camp and Shea Whigham) seem to be the most clueless Gotham has to offer.

They’ve got more than enough on Fleck (the gun, the clown mask, he’s kind of weird) to at least bring him in for questioning but never do. When they finally track him down in full Joker get-up, it leads to a chase onto another subway train but this one, however, is packed with a horde of people on their way to a rally wearing clown masks because of what the aforementioned asshole father of Bruce Wayne said on TV (another convenient shortcut by the filmmakers).

Ultimately, things go terribly wrong for the police and Fleck gets away clean but not to worry – this same guy is gonna be on Murray Franklin’s TV show later that day. That very same day. Wearing the very same outfit he was wearing when the two detectives were pursuing him. You think any cops were waiting for him when he showed up that very same day wearing the very same outfit he was wearing when the two detectives were pursuing him? No. Not one cop. No one there to arrest Fleck or to pat him down. This, of course, led to a rather unfortunate incident for Mr. Franklin. Which leads me to my next point…

ROBERT DE NIRO IS MISCAST

Are you really selling me De Niro as a warm, funny Johnny Carson-esque late night talk show host named Murray Franklin? Picture De Niro’s face then imagine his name is Murray Franklin. I ain’t buying. Surely, a tip of the hat to Scorsese and his 1983 film “King of Comedy” where De Niro plays the talentless stalker to Jerry Langford, a famous late-night TV host played by Jerry Lewis. I get the reference but it just didn’t work for me. Moreover, it made the final sequence with the Joker lose most of its impact.

But let’s stick with that for a moment, shall we? That final bloody sequence with Franklin – and the lack of any real suspense. Now, we know the Joker was gonna bring his gun to the show, right? And we sure as hell know he wasn’t gonna kill himself, right? I mean, he’s got decades of bloody confrontations with Batman ahead of him. So was there any real surprise he was gonna use Franklin’s head (or torso) as target practice? Not for me.

WHAT’S THE POINT?

And that leads me to my final sense of disappointment with the film – what was the point? Like Scorsese’s 1976 film “Taxi Driver” (which this film clearly pays homage to), Joker flirts with social themes of isolation, depression, and lack of empathy, and its dangerous effects on a fragile mind (Fleck and Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle). Fleck tries desperately to keep smiling amidst the very same hopeless (1970s New York City) environment that Bickle drove his cab through every night. His delusional relationship with a young woman (played by Zazie Beetz) who lives on his floor hits home hard (one of the finer moments of the film) and further illustrates the magnitude of Fleck’s loneliness.

In both films, Bickle and Fleck, crippled by isolation and depression, take steps to be “noticed” – to step out from underneath the overwhelming despair of their lives. Bickle attempts to assassinate a senator. When that fails, he decides to be a savior to a young prostitute in an unforgettable (and unexpected) bloody finale. Fleck, after the thrill of gunning down the three young men on the train and the notoriety that ensued because of it, decides to waste Franklin, a man he once idolized, for mocking him on his show. Were he not the Joker, one could have guessed that his plan might have been to take his own life in front of a live national TV audience (“I hope my death makes more cents than my life”). But he’s the Joker so that clearly wasn’t going to happen. So where’s the suspense?

CRIMINAL MASTERMIND?

Moreover, Fleck is a deeply disturbed individual in ways that the Dark Knight Joker isn’t. When two former co-workers of Fleck visit him in his apartment, Fleck stabs and kills one of them in a fit of rage then decides to let the other co-worker, who was always nice to him, go free – on the very day he was to appear on the Murray Franklin show(!) You think that co-worker, who just witnessed his buddy get butchered by Fleck, bothered to call the police once he hit the street? Think again. Not a smart move by Fleck considering the fact that several police officers should have been knocking on his door with guns drawn about 10 minutes after he let his co-worker go free. That in turn, would have ruined his master plan to waste Franklin (not to mention cost us his iconic dance routine on the stairs connecting Shakespeare and Anderson Avenues in the Bronx). That said, I have a really hard time picturing this Joker pulling off the elaborate heist that kicks off Nolan’s Dark Knight.

But it’s a stand-alone Joker movie, you say. I get that. But there’s still a Batman forthcoming, right? And the Joker needs to be at least crafty enough to outsmart Batman (not to mention the police) as he plots years of murder and mayhem, right? This Joker seems incapable of that sort of genius. So is it just an origin movie? Perhaps. But I really think the filmmakers were trying to say something more. Something about mental illness (“The worst part about having a mental illness is that people expect you to behave like you DON’T”)? Our current political state? Mob mentality? The evils of capitalism? The consequences of continuing to eliminate social services? Our fascination with vigilante justice (Bernard Goetz)? Phillips and Silver merely wink in those directions, talking loud but not really committing to anything with conviction.

Ultimately, the film’s message might just be that if you push a fragile mind over the edge, there may be blood on the streets. Something we know all to well in this country. Right?

What are your thoughts?

October 25, 2019

Back to the Future: Observations on Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049”

by Dan Perez October 8, 2017

written by Dan Perez

I’m rarely the kind of guy that would go see a film on its opening weekend but I made an exception for Denis Villeneuve “Blade Runner 2049“, which I went to see this past Friday in all its thunderous IMAX glory. Having seen Ridley Scott’s original “Blade Runner” as a teenager (it has become one of my Top 5 favorite films) and finding myself unusually giddy about the sequel, I feared someone might post a spoiler on social media or perhaps I might accidentally overhear someone talking about the film’s ending while satisfying a late-night blueberry pancakes craving at my local IHOP. Then I might have had to kill that person. And go to jail. I wanted to avoid that.

Having seen Villeneuve’s gritty “Sicario” and being a long-time fan of cinematographer Roger Deakins, I felt really, really good about the sequel being up to par with Scott’s original 1982 masterpiece. It was. And it wasn’t. I mean, it was an excellent film in it’s own right – a brooding, methodical film that slowly sucks you into its shadowy world; a film that surely requires (like the original) multiple views to truly appreciate. But unlike what some movie critics have stated, it does not surpass the original.

It’s actually quite unfair to compare one to the other in the first place. Two different films made by two different directors in two different times. There are many similarities, however. Villeneuve’s film, much like Scott’s, is more film noir than sci-fi and both films raise questions about reality, individuality and freedom. And they both look gorgeous. Perhaps, BR2049 will stand the test of time like Scott’s original has. We shall see. That said, here are a few SPOILER FREE observations from my viewing of “Blade Runner 2049”:

Denis Villeneuve is a Force to be Reckoned With

I’ve only seen “Sicario” (which I absolutely loved) and BR2049, but in both films, I was reminded about what Roger Ebert wrote in his review of 1967’s classic French film noir “Le Samourai” (starring Alain Delon and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville). “The movie teaches us how action is the enemy of suspense – how action releases tension, instead of building it”, Ebert wrote. “Better to wait for a whole movie for something to happen (assuming we really care whether it happens) than to sit through a film where things we don’t care about are happening constantly.”

Villeneuve understands this concept unreservedly.

After the first 20 minutes of BR2049, I was like, “When is this thing gonna kick into gear?” After about an hour, I was like a guy who had been thumbing through his Instagram stream while unknowingly standing in a giant pond of wet cement. Before I knew it, I was waist deep in it – and the cement had hardened. Make no mistake about it, this film is a slow burn. And the action, when it comes, hits you like a splash of ice water to the face.

In sharp contrast, directors like Zach Snyder, who totally butchered “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” (yeah, I’m still mad about that!) after Christopher Nolan carefully built the Batman movie brand, can learn a lot from Villeneuve (“action is the enemy of suspense”). Villeneuve, like Fincher and Scorsese, is also a director who seems comfortable in the dark, shadowy alleys of a film; he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty – I like that. This director is one to watch.

Ryan Gosling and the Failure of Harvey Keitel

Did you know that Harvey Keitel was originally cast as Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now“? Filming actually began in the Philippines with Keitel in the lead before he was fired by Coppola after a week of shooting. Copolla stated that Keitel didn’t have the “gravitas” to carry the role. That’s a little bit how I felt about Ryan Gosling in this film. I know most critics have raved about his stoic performance and I thought he did an adequate job but it felt as if he was sleep-walking through much of the first half of the film.

Moreover, he didn’t make me forget about Ford’s portrayal in the original, and that shouldn’t have been too hard as I’ve felt that Ford himself was a little out of his element in Scott’s film (that’s right, I said it). The jury will continue to deliberate on Gosling’s performance until a future viewing but in other news, newcomer Cuban actress Ana de Armas is a revelation as Gosling’s real/not real love interest. She’s an actress to watch…

Old School Visual Effects Can Still Be as Awesome as CGI

Allow me to tip my hat once again to director Villeneuve as he eschewed the common practice of “blockbuster” films over-depending on CGI effects in favor of practical camerawork and effects. “I hate green screens. It sucks out all my energy. I get depressed,” Villeneuve said in an interview for Variety. “For Blade Runner, we tried our best to do as much as possible in-camera, building everything.” I mean, there was no CGI in 1982, the year the original “Blade Runner” came out, so it would have been somewhat of a cheat to go all CGI for the sequel, right? Right. Is Zach Snyder still listening?

Roger Deakins is Actually Getting Better

After 13(!) Academy Award nominations without a win, I think it might be safe to say that the white-haired cinematographer Roger Deakins is actually getting better. I haven’t seen all his films but I’ve seen enough. Deakins reminds me in many ways of Burt Lancaster – never the best of his era but he never disappointed. I loved “Fargo” and his work with the Coen Brothers but after watching 2007’s “No Country for Old Men”, I was like, “THIS is his best work!“. Then came 2012’s “Skyfall”, “No, THIS is his best work!“. Then came 2015’s “Sicario”, “Seriously, THIS is his best work!“. And now, “Blade Runner 2049”, his best work yet. He isn’t Emmanuel Lubezki nor Janusz Kamiński but he doesn’t need to be. That said, as good as his work was in BR2049 (and it was brilliant), it still fell short of the look of the original, which brings me to my next point…

Jordan Cronenweth Absolutely Nailed it in the Original

I mean, the look of Scott’s original film would be the envy of most cinematographers if it came out today. As great as Deakins was in the sequel, the late Jordan Cronenweth‘s cinematography in the original (which won awards from the British Society of Cinematographers, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and BAFTA) still trumps it by a hair. Cronenweth explains, “[Director] Ridley Scott felt that the style of the photography in Citizen Kane most closely approached the look he wanted for Blade Runner. This included, among other things, high contrast, unusual camera angles, and the use of shafts of light.” The final sequence between Roy Batty and Deckard in Scott’s original film is still one of the most visually stunning sequences you’ll ever see.

PS – His gritty NYC cinematography in Phil Joanou’s 1990 film “State of Grace” which stars Sean Penn and the best actor of his generation, Gary Oldman, is also some of his best work (and no, I’ve never seen “Peggy Sue Got Married”). That said, here’s my next point…

Douglas Trumbull is a Friggin’ Genius

If you’re not familiar with the name, Douglas Trumbull is the man behind the visual effects of some of the greatest sci-fi films of all time: “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and oh, yeah, the original “Blade Runner”. Trumbull, as well as Richard Yuricich and David Dryer were nominated for an Academy Award in 1982 for the visual effects for “Blade Runner”, losing out to “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, a film whose effects have not aged all that well. On the flipside, the look of Scott’s “Blade Runner” still holds up today. I mean, it not only holds up, it would wipe the floor with most of the CGI-drunk summer “blockbusters” of the past 10 years. As good as BR2049 looked, that you can still compare it to a film made 35 years ago, is a credit to Scott, Trumbull and the visual effects team as well as cinematographer Cronenweth (and surely a whole lot of other people).

Harrison Ford is the Greatest Actor of ALL TIME!!!

OK, not really but how many actors have remained around long enough to resume their roles in sequels to three ground-breaking films they starred in 35+ years ago? He starred as Han Solo in 1977’s “Star Wars” and again 38(!) years later in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. He played Indiana Jones in 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (and say what you want about how good an actor Ford is, his Indiana Jones character has been often imitated, NEVER duplicated) and again 27 years later (and there’s still an untitled Indiana Jones project slated for 2020!!!) and he played Rick Deckard in 1982’s “Blade Runner” and again 35 years later. He’s also the highest grossing actor of all time with a total box office gross of almost $5 billion. Number 2 on that list? Samuel L. Jackson. However, Jackson has been in 66 more films than Ford. Yes, Ford’s career has been pretty damn amazing.

Where Have You Gone, Roy Batty?

One of the things missing from BR2049, and one of the main reasons Scott’s film was so good, was a great movie villain. Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty character was one for the ages. Despite his murderous ways, his motivation was clear (“I want more life”) and in his desire to live, to be free, he sparked something hidden inside us all. When he spares Deckard’s life at the end of the film, he shows more humanity in his last act before “expiring” than Deckard had in probably his whole adult life. In BR2049, Jared Leto looks and sounds creepy but he’s no real villain. Instead, lovely Dutch actress Sylvia Hoeks handles the role of “villain” quite well; however her motivations as the film progresses become a bit cloudy. Not a deal breaker but if we’re gonna compare one film to the other, here’s another one for the original.

Blade Runner 2049 is an Excellent Film. Period.

That’s the bottom line here. That it doesn’t quite eclipse the greatness of Scott’s original film makes it no less of a great film. I mean, after 35 years, this is as close to the look and feel of the original Blade Runner as any film has ever been. That’s quite the accomplishment. Will it attract large audiences and set box office records? Don’t think so. It’s too long and like the original, too deliberate and too gloomy for mass appreciation; people don’t like to think too much when they go see a movie (that’s why there are directors like Zach Snyder around). Furthermore, the word is out that you need to see the original to understand Villeneuve’s sequel (you really do) and that will probably set it back even further. In time, I believe it will take its place among the greatest sci-fi films (and neo noirs) ever made.

Epilogue

In the Old Testament of the bible, during the Israelites’ wanderings in the wilderness, there was an inner room called the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, a portable earthly dwelling place of God amongst the people of Israel. Whoever entered into the Holy of Holies through the thick curtain which shielded holy God from sinful man, was entering the very presence of God. In fact, anyone except the high priest who entered the Holy of Holies would die. Moreover, the high priest himself could be struck dead if he did something he was commanded not to do or if he was commanded to do something and didn’t do it.

Now, as far as sci-fi films are concerned, Scott’s “Blade Runner” is the Holy of Holies and if you pull back that thick curtain to enter that sacred room, you’d better have your heart in the right place. Villeneuve’s heart was true. And that’s something all fans of “Blade Runner” can appreciate. Go see it. Nuff said.

October 8, 2017

Blog Movie Posters [Redux]Sound and Vision

20 Alternate Movie Posters of Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”

by Dan Perez January 5, 2017

written by Dan Perez

We’re celebrating the upcoming release of release of Blade Runner 2049 in REDUX style with a collection of alternate movie posters from Ridley Scott’s original (and still eye-popping) Blade Runner. The film, an adaption of Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, polarized critics and was a box office flop when it was released in 1982 but has become a science fiction/neo-noir classic over the years.

The film stars a miscast Harrison Ford (come on, let’s just admit that already, yes?), fresh off his “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” runs, who plays officer Rick Deckard in an apocalyptic Los Angeles in the year 2019 (that year doesn’t seem so far away now, does it?). Ford, however, clashed with director Ridley Scott on the set over creative differences in Ford’s character and Scott’s perfectionist tendencies (then there was that awful voiceover). Ford wasn’t the first choice for the film either. Screenwriter Hampton Fancher envisioned Robert Mitchum as Deckard and wrote the character’s dialogue with Mitchum in mind (I can’t imagine a 65 year old Mitchum running from Roy Batty on a rooftop but I can certainly imagine him saying Deckard’s lines). Scott and the film’s producers also spent months discussing the role with Dustin Hoffman(!) before he backed out.

If you haven’t yet seen the film, go get it on blu-ray and don’t worry about the release date of 1982 – the set design and mesmerizing special effects would still wipe the floor with many of today’s CGI-drunk summer blockbusters. I mean, how many times have you heard a science fiction movie being compared to Blade Runner? I’ve included the 2049 official teaser. Enjoy the posters (clicking the posters will take you to the original source)

January 5, 2017

Blog Movie Posters [Redux]Sound and Vision

Awesome Alternate Movie Posters of 13 Ridley Scott Films

by Dan Perez October 2, 2015

written by Dan Perez

With his latest film, the already critically-acclaimed The Martian opening in theaters today, we turn the Movie Poster REDUX spotlight on acclaimed film director Ridley Scott, who appears to have made yet another triumphant return to the genre that has spawned some of his greatest work.

Born in 1937 in South Shields in the North East of England, Ridley Scott went on to study at the Royal College of Art where he shot his first film, a black and white short called Boy and Bicycle, starring both his younger brother Tony Scott (who went on to become a successful filmmaker as well) and his father (who was an officer in the Royal Engineers, a highly regarded unit of the British Army).

Scott went on to become a set designer with the BBC, leading to work on the popular television police series Z-Cars (yes, that’s a young Judi Dench!) and science fiction series Out of the Unknown (can you see the influences?).

In 1968, Ridley and Tony Scott founded Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), a film and commercial production company which produced many commercials during the 1970s, including a notable 1974 Hovis advert, Bike Round featuring the New World Symphony (Ridley Scott would also direct the iconic first advertisement for the launch of the Apple Mac in 1984).

Ridley Scott has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director on three occasions without a win (though his Gladiator film of 2000 did take home the Best Picture Award) and was knighted in the United Kingdom’s 2003 New Year Honours. “The Martian” just might bring him that elusive Best Director Oscar. Enjoy the posters…

The Duellists (1977)

{Czech Poster, 1978}

Alien (1977)

Artist > Timothy Anderson

Blade Runner (1982)

*You can see more alternate posters of this film HERE

Someone to Watch Over Me (1987)

Thelma and Louise (1991)

Gladiator (2000)

Hannibal (2001)

Black Hawk Down (2001)

American Gangster (2007)

Prometheus (2012)

The Martian (2015)

October 2, 2015

Blog Movie Posters [Redux]

12 Badass Movie Posters for “Mad Max: Fury Road” + Review

by Dan Perez May 25, 2015

written by Dan Perez

So I finally got around to seeing George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road and from the opening minutes, I knew we we were a long way from 1981’s The Road Warrior (and light years away from 1979’s Mad Max, which was great for a $1 million budget film but Miller was really just getting started). It’s as if Miller, now 70 years old and having only directed the animated Babe: Pig in the City and the Happy Feet films since 1998 (seriously!) had holed himself up in a dank musty underground cave for the past few years secretly conjuring up the gloomy imagery and loathsome characters of Fury Road (not to mention the fantastic chase sequences).

First of all, you’ve never seen a post-apocalyptic world like the one Miller introduces us to in Fury Road – it makes the sandy wasteland of “The Road Warrior” seem like Dorothy’s Kansas. But like Miller proved in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, if you give him a few bucks, he knows how to spend it. Thunderdome’s Bartertown was pretty darn creepy but Fury Road’s The Citadel is the stuff nightmares are made of (and don’t even get me started on its grotesquely disfigured leader, Immortan Joe, played by Hugh Keays-Byrne who also played the villainous Toecutter in the first “Mad Max”).

By now, you’ve probably already read the great reviews and you’ve heard those people who have seen it proclaim how awesome it is and you’ve even probably heard a bunch of so-called men’s-rights groups (Meninists!) getting their panties in a bunch over the film’s focus on its badass female lead Furiosa (played with a warrior’s ferocity by a shaved-head, one-arm Charlize Theron) and a group of fire-pissing grannies with guns that would put Ike and his Clanton gang to shame.

Max, the macho male action lead, unlike in previous films, isn’t really the hero here. In an unusual (and subtle) action movie twist, especially one of this testosterone-dominated caliber, it is Max who is often “dependent” on the female leads (this is really Theron’s movie by a mile) for his survival. If there’s a message in this movie, maybe it’s that when it comes to revolution; to abolishing long-standing “traditional” beliefs about the roles of men and women in society (represented by Immortan Joe and his minions), men and women can unite as equals and together create a new world; new beliefs. I’d like that. But that shit ain’t the truth. The truth is, you’re the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men…OK, I’m getting off track here – my bad.

Bottom line? This film doesn’t feature much of a story (Miller violently throws the viewers into a film in progress), no plot twists to chew on afterwards and very little dialogue (Tom Hardy, who plays Max and finds himself again wearing a rather uncomfortable fitting mask for about a quarter of the film, grunts and mumbles his way through most of it). What’s left is one eye-popping chase sequence after another that leaves you breathless.

Maybe it was the 17 years of frustration in getting this film made that finally unleashed the director’s pent up and brilliant imagination onto the screen. In any case, Miller, who pulled Academy award winning Australian cinematographer John Seale (The English Patient) out of retirement for this film, has created one of the most exciting and imaginative films you’re likely to ever see. The fact that the CGI was minimized (thanks to 150 stuntmen/women, which included Cirque du Soleil performers, Olympic athletes and an actor/musician named Iota) makes the film all the more remarkable.

Go see it.

Now, enjoy the latest addition to our Movie Poster REDUX series with this collection of alternate movie posters of the film (each image is linked to its source)…

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May 25, 2015

Blog It Is Written The Written Word

Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper” | For What it’s Worth

by Dan Perez February 15, 2015

written by Dan Perez

So I finally got around to seeing Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper yesterday with Mrs. Perez and I’ll admit right off the bat that I was somewhat disappointed. Not that it wasn’t a good movie – I mean if you were expecting a movie about a guy who really, really loved his country and was really, really good at killing people in Iraq with a high-powered rifle who were perceived to be the enemy of said country, then you got exactly that. Nothing more.

And therein lies the source of my disappointment. I was expecting a turkey leg and I got only a small chicken wing.

Let’s start with director Eastwood, shall we? In Chris Kyle, we have a man who specialized in a “profession” that I couldn’t even begin to understand – a sniper. Here is a man with a highly specialized skill who can kill people from great distances with a rifle. In the course of doing his “job”, he’s witness to bodies being ripped in two, brains and innards splattering against concrete and puddles of blood. So how does one sleep at night after a good day’s work much less four tours of duty in Iraq?

Eastwood never fully bothers to uncover the effects of such work on Kyle’s psyche; never takes us inside his head the way Coppola took us inside the tortured head of Capt. Willard in Apocalypse Now. As terrific as Bradley Cooper is in this film (and he does a lot with a little), he’s not much more than a one-dimensional character (“I just want to get the bad guys but if I can’t see them, I can’t shoot them”).

Eastwood also fumbles the ball on the effects Kyle’s service to his country has on his family. With the exception of a few clichéd examples (“You’re my husband, you’re the father of my children. Even when you’re here, you’re not here”), Eastwood and screenwriter Jason Hall seem unwilling to spend much time with Kyle at home, preferring to illustrate his badassery behind the scope of a rifle in the warm sunlight of Iraq. This leave Sienna Miller, who plays Kyle’s wife admirably, with a thankless and grossly underdeveloped role in the film.

Heck, I learned more about the effects of war on one of its most highly trained soldiers watching Stallone’s barely decipherable ramble at the end of First Blood (“There I flew helicopters, drove tanks, had equipment worth millions – Here I can’t even work parking cars!”) than I did from Eastwood’s kid gloves treatment of Kyle.

Then I started reading a bit about Kyle, something I hadn’t done before watching the film because I didn’t want to know too much about him – I wanted the film to surprise me. It didn’t. But what did surprise me was one notable scene in the film which did not occur in Kyle’s autobiography [SPOILER ALERT]. Let’s start with his first kill in the film, a young boy who is handed a Russian anti-tank hand grenade by his mother and sent off as a human sacrifice to toss it at an approaching Marine convoy in Fallujah. Kyle guns him down and does the same to the boy’s mother after she picks up the grenade lying beside her fallen son and also attempts to hurl it at US troops.

In Kyle’s book, this never happened. Kyle’s first confirmed kill in Fallujah was a woman who was attempting to toss a Chinese grenade (not a Russian RKG) at invading US forces. Why Eastwood felt compelled to alter the story to have the woman first pass on the grenade to a young child is a puzzling one. But then again, maybe not. Perhaps his intention was to dehumanize the Iraqi people in such a way that Kyle’s (and the US’s) subsequent actions in Iraq seem justified. I mean, when you invade another country, bomb their cities, kick in their doors in the middle of the night and deprive them of drinking water and electricity, you gotta expect you’re gonna piss off a few people, right?

Now as hard as it is for us to see ourselves as the bad guys, to many Iraqi civilians, the US was like the evil aliens taking over the world in Independence Day. So why the need to turn one of these “rebels” (and we all love rebels, right?) into a nefarious Iraqi bitch mother sending off her young son on a suicide mission to kill American soldiers just doing their job?

I guess it’s just better that way, yes? An easier pill for American film-goers to swallow especially with all we now know about the war in Iraq and its devastating effects on our soldiers as well as the Iraqi people. What it ultimately boils down to is chickenshit filmmaking. Period.

That said, Eastwood does make a few feeble attempts to illustrate the effects of the war in Iraq on our troops, on Kyle. But he seems far less willing to crack open that can of worms than he is to quickly relocate Kyle (and the audience) back to Iraq where things are far more black and white; an easier story to tell I suppose.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that PTSD affects about 20 percent of veterans who served in Iraq. That Kyle found some solace in his life helping other veterans cope with PTSD and was ultimately gunned down by a soldier he befriended who was also suffering from PTSD made this a topic the film should have spent more time on (and less on a silly cat and mouse game between Kyle and an Iraqi sniper named Mustafa).

And, again, with all we now know about the war in Iraq; the intent, the casualties, the devastation, the aftermath – Eastwood fails to express where he stands on the issue. It’s as if Eastwood never really knows what he (the film) wants to say other than that Chris Kyle was a real badass soldier who loved his country. In that he succeeded.

The film, however, is never as tense as it should have been and unlike similar cinematic observations on the effects of war (The Hurt Locker, Born on the Fourth of July, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter), left me with little to chew on upon exiting the theater. With such a complex and controversial figure as Kyle (not to mention the war in Iraq), I expected more.

Luckily I have “First Blood” on bluray.

Here’s an interesting read on the film written by Ross Caputi, a former Marine who participated in the 2nd Siege of Fallujah > American Sniper?

Here’s a History vs Hollywood post about the film.

Here’s an interesting article I came across in The Guardian American Sniper: anti-Muslim threats skyrocket in wake of film’s release

February 15, 2015

Movie Posters [Redux]

13 Chilling “Friday the 13th” Alternate Movie Posters

by Dan Perez February 13, 2015

written by Dan Perez

In recognition of Friday the 13th (the first of three in 2015), I thought a special Movie Poster REDUX featuring a few redesigned movie posters for the classic 1980 horror film “Friday the 13th” which, with its many sequels, is the highest grossing horror franchise of all-time.

Despite the fact that no hard evidence exists that would make anyone believe that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, the fear is real. There are several phobias related to the date. Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the “official” name of those who have a phobia of Friday the 13th. Oh, and Triskaidekaphobia is the phobia of the number 13.

But how did we get here? According to Phillips Stevens, Jr., associate professor of anthropology at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), “There were 13 people at the table (at the Last Supper) and the 13th was Judas. The Last Supper was on a Thursday, and the next day was Friday, the day of crucifixion. When ’13’ and Friday come together, it is a double whammy.” It’s also possible that the publication of Thomas W. Lawson’s popular novel of 1907 “Friday, the Thirteenth”, contributed to disseminating the superstition. In the novel, an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.

Surely, the “Friday the 13th” film series didn’t help (thanks, Jason!). So, enjoy the posters (clicking on the image will take you to the artist’s webpage)…and don’t lose your head this weekend, OK?

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February 13, 2015

Blog Movie Posters [Redux]

Movie Poster REDUX: The 20 Scariest Movies of All Time

by Dan Perez October 30, 2014

written by Dan Perez

It’s been a while since we threw up a new entry in our Movie Poster REDUX series but with Halloween this week, I thought it was a damn good time to do it. Came across this list of scariest movies from Entertainment Weekly and started snooping around the internet for a cool alternate poster for each film. Think I did OK – what say you?

Here’s the list starting at #20. Got a film to add? That’s what the comments section is for. Enjoy…

20) HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER by Jay Shaw < One of the great movie poster illustrators

19) AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON by Ken Taylor < One of the best in the business

18) THE OMEN by Andrzej Klimowski < One of the great Polish movie poster artists

17) NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD by Phantom City Creative

16) CARRIE by Peter Strain < Check out his other amazing posters!

15) THE EVIL DEAD by Olly Moss < More great posters by this UK based artist

14) THE THING by Thom Wulf

13) A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET by KRAKEN Graphics

12) 28 DAYS LATER by Scourgewolf

11) POLTERGEIST by Adam Rabalais

10) ROSEMARY’S BABY by Wieslaw Walkuski < Another one of the great Polish movie poster artists

9) SEVEN by SkinnyGlasses

8) PSYCHO by Laz Marquez < Plenty of cool posters here

7) HALLOWEEN by 3-DMonster

6) THE RING by drMIERZWIAK

5) JAWS by David O’Daniel < You can see more of this remarkable artist's work HERE

4) THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS by César Moreno

3) THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE by StuntmanKamil

2) THE EXORCIST by James Bousema

1) THE SHINING by Jay Shaw

Got a scary movie favorite of your own? Throw it down in the comments section…if you dare.

Happy Halloween!!!

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October 30, 2014

Blog It Is Written The Written Word

Will the Next Tom Cruise Please Stand Up?

by Dan Perez June 5, 2014

written by Dan Perez

[This is an updated version of a post I wrote and published in August, 2010 on a truly fascinating actor who I’ve come to admire and appreciate more and more every year]

Stating that a rising star is the next…whoever…isn’t something new in Hollywood. They’re always looking for the next big thing because like it or not, the stars we grow up with eventually get old, lose their spark, their charisma, their audience. Over the past few years, one of the biggest names in Hollywood, Tom Cruise, has seen somewhat of a dimming of his once bright star. His latest film, Edge of Tomorrow (which looks terrific), is set to open this week and at 51 years old, it will be a telling sign of whether Mr. Cruise still has the box-office clout he possessed over the past two decades. A very telling sign.

June 5, 2014

Movie Posters [Redux]

Movie Poster REDUX: 15 Terrifying Alternate Posters for “Godzilla”

by Dan Perez June 3, 2014

written by Dan Perez

Godzilla is one of the most recognizable symbols in Japanese popular culture worldwide and remains an important facet of Japanese films. He has been considered a filmographic metaphor for the United States (with the “-zilla” part of the name being used in vernacular language as a suffix to indicate something of exaggerate proportions). Godzilla also represented the fears that many Japanese held about the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the possibility of recurrence.

The first Godzilla film was released in 1954 and directed by Ishirō Honda who also worked with acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa during the 1980s and ’90s. The film was the eighth best-attended film in Japan that year and remains the second most-attended “Godzilla” film in Japan, behind 1962’s “King Kong vs. Godzilla”. From 1954 through 2004, there have been 28 Godzilla films produced by Toho Studios in Japan, winning 7 Japan Academy Awards over that span.

2014’s version of “Godzilla”, which has raked in over $170M at the box office since its release on May 16, is the fourth American production featuring the famous giant monster. The film has also turned in favorable reviews with critics with a 73% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With that sort of success, it appears we haven’t seen the last of this beloved creature as a sequel is already being discussed. So enjoy these alternate posters featuring our beloved ‘kaiju’ (strange creature).