The list of candidates for the 2020 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors election is now out, with the winner in each branch being chosen directly from these entries rather than whittling it down to four finalists in each, as has been done previously. The list of candidates is made up of qualified AMPAS members who actually submit themselves.
Also new this year in the streamlined timetable, as Deadline exclusively reported May 16. The winners for the 17 open slots on the 54-member board will be chosen by preferential balloting, just like Best Picture race at the Oscars. Voting begins Monday and ballots are due back June 5.
The actors branch is the largest in the Academy and it also has drawn the biggest field of contenders for the one spot that is up. Incumbent governor Whoopi Goldberg is running for re-election against past governor Ed Begley Jr. vying to return to the board.
Also new this year in the streamlined timetable, as Deadline exclusively reported May 16. The winners for the 17 open slots on the 54-member board will be chosen by preferential balloting, just like Best Picture race at the Oscars. Voting begins Monday and ballots are due back June 5.
The actors branch is the largest in the Academy and it also has drawn the biggest field of contenders for the one spot that is up. Incumbent governor Whoopi Goldberg is running for re-election against past governor Ed Begley Jr. vying to return to the board.
- 5/29/2020
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Whoopi Goldberg will be facing 18 other actors who want her seat on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors, the Academy revealed to its members on Friday.
The Academy posted the list of candidates for the board from all 17 of its branches, with incumbent Actors Branch governor Goldberg going up against a slate of challengers that includes past governor Ed Begley Jr., as well as Richard Dreyfuss, James and Stacy Keach, Tim Matheson, Joe Pantoliano, Lou Diamond Phillips and Rita Wilson, whose husband, Tom Hanks, served on the board for many years.
Other branches whose contenders hit double digits included Cinematographers (12), Directors (13), Executives (12), Producers (16), Sound (10) and Visual Effects (10).
But the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch, in which incumbent Kathryn Blondell was ineligible to run again, has only a single candidate, Linda Flowers.
Also Read: Oscars Board Election Has New Rules - But Expect the Same Old Results
Blondell,...
The Academy posted the list of candidates for the board from all 17 of its branches, with incumbent Actors Branch governor Goldberg going up against a slate of challengers that includes past governor Ed Begley Jr., as well as Richard Dreyfuss, James and Stacy Keach, Tim Matheson, Joe Pantoliano, Lou Diamond Phillips and Rita Wilson, whose husband, Tom Hanks, served on the board for many years.
Other branches whose contenders hit double digits included Cinematographers (12), Directors (13), Executives (12), Producers (16), Sound (10) and Visual Effects (10).
But the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch, in which incumbent Kathryn Blondell was ineligible to run again, has only a single candidate, Linda Flowers.
Also Read: Oscars Board Election Has New Rules - But Expect the Same Old Results
Blondell,...
- 5/29/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The list of candidates for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2020-2021 Board of Governors has been unveiled to members.
Voting begins on June 1 and ends on June 5.
Candidates run for three-year terms with a maximum of three terms. Each branch has three seats on the board. Only one of those seats is open each year because terms are staggered.
The candidates were posted on the Academy members’ portal on Friday afternoon. Below is the complete list (divided by branch) of those running for spots on the board.
Actors
Michael Lee Aday
Ed Begley, Jr.
Robert Carradine
Nicolas Coster
Colman Domingo
Richard Dreyfuss
Spencer Garrett
Bruce Glover
Whoopi Goldberg (incumbent)
James Keach
Stacy Keach
Peter Wong
Jodi Long
Tim Matheson
Joe Pantoliano
Lou Diamond Phillips
Andrea Riseborough
Andrew Stevens
Rita Wilson
Casting Directors
Kerry Barden
Richard Hicks
Margery Simkin
Debra Zane
Cinematographers
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Richard P. Crudo
Svetlana Cvetko...
Voting begins on June 1 and ends on June 5.
Candidates run for three-year terms with a maximum of three terms. Each branch has three seats on the board. Only one of those seats is open each year because terms are staggered.
The candidates were posted on the Academy members’ portal on Friday afternoon. Below is the complete list (divided by branch) of those running for spots on the board.
Actors
Michael Lee Aday
Ed Begley, Jr.
Robert Carradine
Nicolas Coster
Colman Domingo
Richard Dreyfuss
Spencer Garrett
Bruce Glover
Whoopi Goldberg (incumbent)
James Keach
Stacy Keach
Peter Wong
Jodi Long
Tim Matheson
Joe Pantoliano
Lou Diamond Phillips
Andrea Riseborough
Andrew Stevens
Rita Wilson
Casting Directors
Kerry Barden
Richard Hicks
Margery Simkin
Debra Zane
Cinematographers
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Richard P. Crudo
Svetlana Cvetko...
- 5/29/2020
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
Gonzalo “Chalo” Gonzalez-Rubio died March 20 at Verdugo Hospital in Glendale of complications from a bacterial infection. He was 95.
The close associate of Sam Peckinpah worked as a prop master and graduated to film roles, including in 2006’s Sundance award-winning “Quinceanera.”
Producer Katy Haber, a Peckinpah associate from 1970 to 1977 used a military term to say: “Wherever Sam was, so was Chalo. Chalo had Sam’s 6 as they say.”
David Weddle, author of “If They Move… Kill ‘Em! The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah,” writes: “Chalo Gonzalez played a pivotal role in the making of an American masterpiece, ‘The Wild Bunch.’ He was involved in all aspects of the production and was trusted implicitly by the film’s director, Sam Peckinpah. It was Chalo who advocated that the movie should be shot in Parras, Mexico, near the sites of several pivotal battles of the Mexican Revolution. This was one of the...
The close associate of Sam Peckinpah worked as a prop master and graduated to film roles, including in 2006’s Sundance award-winning “Quinceanera.”
Producer Katy Haber, a Peckinpah associate from 1970 to 1977 used a military term to say: “Wherever Sam was, so was Chalo. Chalo had Sam’s 6 as they say.”
David Weddle, author of “If They Move… Kill ‘Em! The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah,” writes: “Chalo Gonzalez played a pivotal role in the making of an American masterpiece, ‘The Wild Bunch.’ He was involved in all aspects of the production and was trusted implicitly by the film’s director, Sam Peckinpah. It was Chalo who advocated that the movie should be shot in Parras, Mexico, near the sites of several pivotal battles of the Mexican Revolution. This was one of the...
- 3/27/2020
- by Edgar Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Coming off one of its most contentious years in history, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences has sent out its list of candidates for its Board of Governors elections late this month.
The Board of Governors directs the Academy’s strategic vision, preserves the organization’s financial health, and assures the fulfillment of its mission.
Governors attend 6-8 board meetings annually (in person or by video conference when out of town). Each Governor also serves on one board oversight committee and their branch’s executive committee, and they are expected to represent their branch at numerous Academy events through the year.
Governors have fiduciary responsibilities imposed by state law to serve the Academy’s best interests, by acting with responsibility and care when approving annual goals presented by management, as well as major policies concerning governance.
CEO Dawn Hudson oversees a staff of more than 300 who conduct the Academy’s day-to-day business.
The Board of Governors directs the Academy’s strategic vision, preserves the organization’s financial health, and assures the fulfillment of its mission.
Governors attend 6-8 board meetings annually (in person or by video conference when out of town). Each Governor also serves on one board oversight committee and their branch’s executive committee, and they are expected to represent their branch at numerous Academy events through the year.
Governors have fiduciary responsibilities imposed by state law to serve the Academy’s best interests, by acting with responsibility and care when approving annual goals presented by management, as well as major policies concerning governance.
CEO Dawn Hudson oversees a staff of more than 300 who conduct the Academy’s day-to-day business.
- 5/10/2019
- by Michael Cieply and Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Cinema Retro mourns the passing of our friend and colleague Nick Redman, film historian and Oscar-nominated documentary maker as well as recognized scholar of the works of Sam Peckinpah. Nick passed away after a long illness we all had hoped he would prevail over. The film industry has lost a major champion of classic cinema. Nick and Brian Jamieson were the founders of Twilight Time, the boutique video label that puts out first rate limited editions of retro movie classics. Nick and Paul Seydor were nominated for documentary Oscars for their 1996 film "The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage". Our heartfelt condolences go out to Nick's wife Julie Kirgo.
The world is a sadder place today.
The world is a sadder place today.
- 1/20/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Sam Peckinpah was a fine director of actors when the material was right, and his first collaboration with Steve McQueen is an shaded character study about a rodeo family dealing with changing times. Joe Don Baker and Ben Johnson shine, but the movie belongs to Ida Lupino and Robert Preston.
Junior Bonner
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / Special Edition / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Steve McQueen, Robert Preston, Ida Lupino, Joe Don Baker, Ben Johnson, Mary Murphy, Dub Taylor, Don ‘Red’ Barry, Bill McKinney.
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Film Editors: Frank Santillo, Robert L. Wolfe
Second Unit Director: Frank Kowalski
Bud Hurlbud: Special Effects
Original Music: Jerry Fielding
Written by Jeb Rosebrook
Produced by Joe Wizan
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
I suppose there were plenty of successful rodeo-themed westerns back in the day, perhaps the kind interrupted by a cowboy song every ten minutes or so.
Junior Bonner
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / Special Edition / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Steve McQueen, Robert Preston, Ida Lupino, Joe Don Baker, Ben Johnson, Mary Murphy, Dub Taylor, Don ‘Red’ Barry, Bill McKinney.
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Film Editors: Frank Santillo, Robert L. Wolfe
Second Unit Director: Frank Kowalski
Bud Hurlbud: Special Effects
Original Music: Jerry Fielding
Written by Jeb Rosebrook
Produced by Joe Wizan
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
I suppose there were plenty of successful rodeo-themed westerns back in the day, perhaps the kind interrupted by a cowboy song every ten minutes or so.
- 10/17/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Easily the most mellow of the films of Sam Peckinpah, this relatively gentle western fable sees Jason Robards discovering water where it ain’t, and establishing his private little way station paradise, complete with lover Stella Stevens and eccentric preacher David Warner. Some of the slapstick is sticky but the sexist bawdy humor is too cute to offend . . . and Peckinpah-phobes will be surprised to learn that the movie is in part a musical.
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1970 / 1:85 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date June 6, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring Jason Robards Jr., Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, Peter Whitney, Gene Evans, William Mims, Kathleen Freeman, Susan O’Connell, Vaughn Taylor, Max Evans, James Anderson.
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Art Direction: Leroy Coleman
Film Editor: Frank Santillo, Lou Lombardo
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by John Crawford and Edmund Penney
Produced by Sam Peckinpah...
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1970 / 1:85 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date June 6, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring Jason Robards Jr., Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, Peter Whitney, Gene Evans, William Mims, Kathleen Freeman, Susan O’Connell, Vaughn Taylor, Max Evans, James Anderson.
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Art Direction: Leroy Coleman
Film Editor: Frank Santillo, Lou Lombardo
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by John Crawford and Edmund Penney
Produced by Sam Peckinpah...
- 5/29/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Before he became the flag bearer for cinema violence, Sam Peckinpah made his reputation with this unique western, a marvelous rumination on ethics, morality and personal responsibility. MGM all but threw it away in the summer of 1962 but it immediately became a critical favorite.
Ride the High Country
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date April 4, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley, Ron Starr, Edgar Buchanan, R.G. Armstrong, Jenie Jackson, James Drury, L.Q. Jones, John Anderson, John Davis Chandler, Warren Oates.
Cinematography Lucien Ballard
Art Direction Leroy Coleman, George W. Davis
Film Editor Frank Santillo
Original Music George Bassman
Written by N.B. Stone Jr.
Produced by Richard E. Lyons
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
MGM’s western Ride the High Country put Sam Peckinpah on the map with critics and the foreign cinema literati — although it didn’t do big box office when new,...
Ride the High Country
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date April 4, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley, Ron Starr, Edgar Buchanan, R.G. Armstrong, Jenie Jackson, James Drury, L.Q. Jones, John Anderson, John Davis Chandler, Warren Oates.
Cinematography Lucien Ballard
Art Direction Leroy Coleman, George W. Davis
Film Editor Frank Santillo
Original Music George Bassman
Written by N.B. Stone Jr.
Produced by Richard E. Lyons
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
MGM’s western Ride the High Country put Sam Peckinpah on the map with critics and the foreign cinema literati — although it didn’t do big box office when new,...
- 4/4/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By Darren Allison
Attending a film festival in the mid-seventies, Sam Peckinpah was once questioned about how the studios regularly bastardised his vision, his intension and more specifically, if he would ever be able to make a ''pure Peckinpah'' picture. He replied, '’I did 'Alfredo Garcia' and I did it exactly the way I wanted to. Good or bad, like it or not, that was my film.''
The overall narrative for Alfredo Garcia is neither complicated nor convoluted. Warren Oates plays Bennie, a simple pianist residing in a squalid barroom in Mexico. He is approached by two no-nonsense Americans (Robert Webber and Gig Young) who are attempting to track down Alfredo Garcia. The womanising Garcia is the man responsible for the pregnancy of Theresa (Janine Maldonado) the teenage daughter of a powerful Mexican boss El Jefe (Emilio Fernández). In a display of power, El Jefe offers...
Attending a film festival in the mid-seventies, Sam Peckinpah was once questioned about how the studios regularly bastardised his vision, his intension and more specifically, if he would ever be able to make a ''pure Peckinpah'' picture. He replied, '’I did 'Alfredo Garcia' and I did it exactly the way I wanted to. Good or bad, like it or not, that was my film.''
The overall narrative for Alfredo Garcia is neither complicated nor convoluted. Warren Oates plays Bennie, a simple pianist residing in a squalid barroom in Mexico. He is approached by two no-nonsense Americans (Robert Webber and Gig Young) who are attempting to track down Alfredo Garcia. The womanising Garcia is the man responsible for the pregnancy of Theresa (Janine Maldonado) the teenage daughter of a powerful Mexican boss El Jefe (Emilio Fernández). In a display of power, El Jefe offers...
- 3/8/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
By John M. Whalen
Back in the 1950s, before he became a legend, filmmaker Sam Peckinpah (“The Wild Bunch,” “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,” and “The Killer Elite”) wrote scripts for TV westerns, including “Gunsmoke,” “The Rifleman,” and “Tombstone Territory.” His reputation grew and in 1957 he wrote his first screenplay entitled “The Glory Guys” which was based on Hoffman Birney’s novel, “The Dice of God.” The book was a fictional account of Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, with all names changed. The script went unproduced for almost eight years, and in the meantime Sam had moved on, directing features including “The Deadly Companions” (1960), “Ride the High Country” (1962) and “Major Dundee” (1965).
You would think that with that growing resume, Peckinpah would have been able to direct anything he wanted to, but such was far from the case. “Bloody Sam,” as he was called, affectionately by his fans,...
Back in the 1950s, before he became a legend, filmmaker Sam Peckinpah (“The Wild Bunch,” “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,” and “The Killer Elite”) wrote scripts for TV westerns, including “Gunsmoke,” “The Rifleman,” and “Tombstone Territory.” His reputation grew and in 1957 he wrote his first screenplay entitled “The Glory Guys” which was based on Hoffman Birney’s novel, “The Dice of God.” The book was a fictional account of Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, with all names changed. The script went unproduced for almost eight years, and in the meantime Sam had moved on, directing features including “The Deadly Companions” (1960), “Ride the High Country” (1962) and “Major Dundee” (1965).
You would think that with that growing resume, Peckinpah would have been able to direct anything he wanted to, but such was far from the case. “Bloody Sam,” as he was called, affectionately by his fans,...
- 12/30/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
I have a back file of reader notes asking for a Blu-ray for John Huston’s Moby Dick, and more pointedly, wondering what will be done with its strange color scheme. I wasn’t expecting miracles, but this new Twilight Time disc should make the purists happy – it has approximated the film’s original, heavily muted color scheme.
Moby Dick
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1956 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, James Robertson Justice,
Harry Andrews, Orson Welles, Bernard Miles, Mervyn Johns, Noel Purcell, Frederick Ledebur
Cinematography Oswald Morris
Art Direction Ralph W. Brinton
Film Editor Russell Lloyd
Original Music Philip Sainton
Writing credits Ray Bradbury and John Huston
Produced and Directed by John Huston
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Talk about a picture with a renewed reputation… in its day John Huston’s Moby Dick was not considered a success,...
Moby Dick
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1956 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, James Robertson Justice,
Harry Andrews, Orson Welles, Bernard Miles, Mervyn Johns, Noel Purcell, Frederick Ledebur
Cinematography Oswald Morris
Art Direction Ralph W. Brinton
Film Editor Russell Lloyd
Original Music Philip Sainton
Writing credits Ray Bradbury and John Huston
Produced and Directed by John Huston
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Talk about a picture with a renewed reputation… in its day John Huston’s Moby Dick was not considered a success,...
- 11/26/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
An Encore Edition. Peckinpah's macabre South of the border shoot 'em up is back for a second limited edition, with a new commentary. It's still a picture sure to separate the Peckinpah lovers from the auteur tourists - it's grisly, grim and resolutely exploitative, but also has about it a streak of grimy honesty. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia Blu-ray Twilight Time Encore Edition 1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date September, 2016 / available through Screen Archives Entertainment / 29.95 Starring Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Robert Webber, Gig Young, Helmut Dantine, Emilio Fernández, Kris Kristofferson, Chano Urueta, Jorge Russek, Enrique Lucero, Janine Maldonado, Richard Bright, Sharon Peckinpah, Garner Simmons. Cinematography Álex Phillips Jr. Art Direction Agustín Ituarte Film Editors Garth Craven, Dennis E. Dolan, Sergio Ortega, Robbe Roberts Original Music Jerry Fielding Written by Sam Peckinpah, Gordon T. Dawson, Frank Kowalski Produced by Martin Baum, Helmut Dantine, Gordon T. Dawson Directed by...
- 10/4/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Do you like my choice of leading image? 'We're the Glory Guys! Eee-Yow!' What is surely the most generic cavalry western of all time is actually from a screenplay by Sam Peckinpah. Twilight Time's extras have a lot to say about that, and so does Savant. The Glory Guys Blu-ray Twilight Time 1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date September 6, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95 Starring Tom Tryon, Harve Presnell, Senta Berger, James Caan, Andrew Duggan, Slim Pickens, Peter Breck, Jeanne Cooper, Michael Anderson Jr., Adam Williams, Wayne Rogers, Michael Forest, Paul Birch, Stephen Chase, Claudio Brook. Cinematography James Wong Howe Cinematography Ernst R. (Tom) Rolf, Melvin Shapiro Original Music Riz Ortolani Written by Sam Peckinpah from the novel by Hoffman Birney Produced by Arthur Gardner, Arnold Laven, Jules V. Levy Directed by Arnold Laven
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Glory Guys is as generic and standard-issue...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Glory Guys is as generic and standard-issue...
- 9/5/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Delmer Daves' easygoing cattle drive western can't make an action hero out of Jack Lemmon, but with fine work from co-star Glenn Ford it presents a thoughtful anti-myth: no glorious rescues or noble gunfights, and the demure maiden doesn't wait for the handsome cowboy hero. With Brian Donlevy (excellent) and Anna Kashf. Cowboy Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1958 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Ship Date February 9, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Anna Kashfi, Brian Donlevy, Strother Martin, Dick York, Victor Manuel Mendoza, Richard Jaeckel, King Donovan Cinematography Charles Lawton Jr. Production Designer Cary Odell Film Editor Al Clark, William A. Lyon Original Music George Duning Written by Edmund H. North and, originally uncredited Dalton Trumbo from a book by Frank Harris Produced by Julian Blaustein Directed by Delmer Daves
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Not Delmer Daves' best Western, but a rather good movie, Cowboy...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Not Delmer Daves' best Western, but a rather good movie, Cowboy...
- 2/27/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Sam Peckinpah’s elegiac farewell to the western genre evokes the death of the old west by relentlessly killing off its character actors. Another troubled production released in a truncated version which has been supplanted by two re-edited variants. But in any condition it’s a melancholy, beautiful movie. An exhaustive accounting of the brouhaha is chronicled in Paul Seydor’s The Authentic Death and Contentious Afterlife of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. And a detailed comparison of the different cuts can be found here.
- 11/30/2015
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Blu-ray Release Date: June 10, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Burt Lancaster in The Train
John Frankenheimer’s (The Manchurian Candidate, Seconds) crackling 1964 action war thriller The Train finally makes its Blu-ray debut on its 50th anniversary courtesy of Twilight Time.
The Train stars Burt Lancaster (Sweet Smell of Success) as a workaday World War II-era French trainman charged with ensuring that a cargo of irreplaceable French art—the pride and heritage of his nation—is not allowed to leave France, despite the machinations of a Nazi officer (Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons) determined to steal these great works for Germany.
Sounds a bit Monuments Men-ish, doesn’t it?
Also starring Jeanne Moreau (La Notte) and Michel Simon (L’Atalante), and featuring compelling black-and-white cinematography by Jean Tournier and Walter Wottitz and a thrilling score by Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia), The Train remains one of the icons of Sixties cinema.
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Burt Lancaster in The Train
John Frankenheimer’s (The Manchurian Candidate, Seconds) crackling 1964 action war thriller The Train finally makes its Blu-ray debut on its 50th anniversary courtesy of Twilight Time.
The Train stars Burt Lancaster (Sweet Smell of Success) as a workaday World War II-era French trainman charged with ensuring that a cargo of irreplaceable French art—the pride and heritage of his nation—is not allowed to leave France, despite the machinations of a Nazi officer (Paul Scofield, A Man for All Seasons) determined to steal these great works for Germany.
Sounds a bit Monuments Men-ish, doesn’t it?
Also starring Jeanne Moreau (La Notte) and Michel Simon (L’Atalante), and featuring compelling black-and-white cinematography by Jean Tournier and Walter Wottitz and a thrilling score by Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia), The Train remains one of the icons of Sixties cinema.
- 5/23/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Blu-ray Release Date: March 11, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Warren Oates goes for broke in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
Reviled on its release in 1974, Sam Peckinpah’s (The Wild Bunch) nihilistic yet poetic action-accented crime drama Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is today considered to be a masterwork of the filmmaker and leading man Warren Oates (Badlands).
Oates portrays Bennie, a wastrel sometime piano player lost in the wilds of Mexico. He and his beautiful, tragic lover Elita (Isela Vega) stumble across one last, perilous chance at happiness: in order to claim more money than they’ve ever dreamed of, all they have to do is retrieve the head of a wanted man. But the path to their ultimate escape is littered with dangers—some, of course, of the fatal variety.
Special features on the Blu-ray release of this cult favorite include an isolated soundtrack...
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Warren Oates goes for broke in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
Reviled on its release in 1974, Sam Peckinpah’s (The Wild Bunch) nihilistic yet poetic action-accented crime drama Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is today considered to be a masterwork of the filmmaker and leading man Warren Oates (Badlands).
Oates portrays Bennie, a wastrel sometime piano player lost in the wilds of Mexico. He and his beautiful, tragic lover Elita (Isela Vega) stumble across one last, perilous chance at happiness: in order to claim more money than they’ve ever dreamed of, all they have to do is retrieve the head of a wanted man. But the path to their ultimate escape is littered with dangers—some, of course, of the fatal variety.
Special features on the Blu-ray release of this cult favorite include an isolated soundtrack...
- 3/13/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
By Lee Pfeiffer
Twilight Time has released the 2005 restored version of Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee as on Blu-ray, providing both the "improved" version of the film along with the controversial original cut. Peckinpah had won respect as a fine director of TV Westerns and his 1962 feature film, Ride the High Country, earned critical praise, particularly in Europe. Columbia hired Peckinpah to direct his first big budget film, Major Dundee, which top-lined two big stars: Charlton Heston and Richard Harris. As would prove to be the case throughout his career, Peckinpah's fiercely independent nature, combined with his propensity for snaring defeat from the jaws of victory, found him over his head on the production even before shooting started. Filmed in some inhospitable areas of Mexico, Peckinpah began shooting before the script was finalized (always a recipe for disaster). Midway through the film, Columbia was going to fire him for going...
Twilight Time has released the 2005 restored version of Sam Peckinpah's Major Dundee as on Blu-ray, providing both the "improved" version of the film along with the controversial original cut. Peckinpah had won respect as a fine director of TV Westerns and his 1962 feature film, Ride the High Country, earned critical praise, particularly in Europe. Columbia hired Peckinpah to direct his first big budget film, Major Dundee, which top-lined two big stars: Charlton Heston and Richard Harris. As would prove to be the case throughout his career, Peckinpah's fiercely independent nature, combined with his propensity for snaring defeat from the jaws of victory, found him over his head on the production even before shooting started. Filmed in some inhospitable areas of Mexico, Peckinpah began shooting before the script was finalized (always a recipe for disaster). Midway through the film, Columbia was going to fire him for going...
- 8/19/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Straw Dogs
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, Del Henney, David Warner | Written by Sam Peckinpah, David Zelag Goodman | Directed by Sam Peckinpah
I have a confession to make. I had, until slotting the new Blu-ray from Studio Canal into my player, never seen Straw Dogs. I was always an Expose fan, and (unwisely it turns out) thought that Peckinpah’s film would pale in comparison. Plus I’m a stickler for seeing films uncut… And as you may know, the film hasn’t been available uncut in the UK until very recently.
For those that aren’t familiar with the film, it tells the story of quiet American mathematician David Sumner (Hoffman) and his British-born wife Amy (George) who relocate to Amy’s rural English hometown in an attempt to flee the violent social unrest brewing in the Us. However the social unrest of the Us is replaced...
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, Del Henney, David Warner | Written by Sam Peckinpah, David Zelag Goodman | Directed by Sam Peckinpah
I have a confession to make. I had, until slotting the new Blu-ray from Studio Canal into my player, never seen Straw Dogs. I was always an Expose fan, and (unwisely it turns out) thought that Peckinpah’s film would pale in comparison. Plus I’m a stickler for seeing films uncut… And as you may know, the film hasn’t been available uncut in the UK until very recently.
For those that aren’t familiar with the film, it tells the story of quiet American mathematician David Sumner (Hoffman) and his British-born wife Amy (George) who relocate to Amy’s rural English hometown in an attempt to flee the violent social unrest brewing in the Us. However the social unrest of the Us is replaced...
- 10/28/2011
- by Phil
- Nerdly
The Film
As is now custom on the heels of a remake, it’s time for a remastered Blu-ray release of a classic movie – in this case Straw Dogs, which has been remade to a poor critical reception by director Rod Lurie. The 1971 thriller – which deals with challenging themes of violence and repression - remains a difficult film from controversial director Sam Peckinpah.
Dustin Hoffman stars as David Sumner, a nebbish and aloof American teacher, who moves to rural England to live with his British wife Amy (Susan George). Despite longing to leave behind the violence and chaos of life in the states, it soon becomes clear that conflict exists even in a quiet corner of jolly old England, as the pair become targeted by a local group of roguish roustabouts – whom leer over Amy and play tricks on David for being an outsider.
As things become progressively worse, the...
As is now custom on the heels of a remake, it’s time for a remastered Blu-ray release of a classic movie – in this case Straw Dogs, which has been remade to a poor critical reception by director Rod Lurie. The 1971 thriller – which deals with challenging themes of violence and repression - remains a difficult film from controversial director Sam Peckinpah.
Dustin Hoffman stars as David Sumner, a nebbish and aloof American teacher, who moves to rural England to live with his British wife Amy (Susan George). Despite longing to leave behind the violence and chaos of life in the states, it soon becomes clear that conflict exists even in a quiet corner of jolly old England, as the pair become targeted by a local group of roguish roustabouts – whom leer over Amy and play tricks on David for being an outsider.
As things become progressively worse, the...
- 10/24/2011
- by Stephen Leigh
- Obsessed with Film
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Because I Said So". Like the architectural-wonder cakes Diane Keaton's character constructs in "Because I Said So", the film is a stylishly gooey piece of work that demands to be oohed and aahed over. With its magazine-spread interiors and pretty dresses, this romantic comedy about a meddling mom and her unlucky-in-love youngest daughter might get what it wants. Using a recipe overloaded with adorable, too reliant on slapstick and spiced up with "modern" ideas about sex, the movie is as predictable as a crowd-pleaser can get. But crowds are likely to be pleased nonetheless, especially women who connect with its pat observations about the mother-daughter bond.
It's dispiriting to see a great actress like Keaton buying into this nonsense with such gusto. Still, as Daphne, the control-freak cake entrepreneur nearing her 60th birthday, she's the closest thing to a three-dimensional person in the film. Mandy Moore is an appealing performer, but ultimately she can't turn Milly, the object of Daphne's pathological concern, into more than a collection of comely pouts and tantrums.
The script by Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson, two of the writers of 1998's "Stepmom", is a compendium of cliches. Chief among these is the montage of comical interviewees -- that overused shorthand for L-O-S-E-R that parades across the screen for our condescending enjoyment, a succession of inadequate candidates for a job or a date. In this case, the would-be boyfriends are interviewed not by their potential mate but by her mother. Having placed an online ad, "Mother looking for life partner for daughter" (have more menacing words ever been printed?), Daphne holds court in a hotel lobby bar, driven to drink by the bad and the ugly. The good arrive, too. Jason, Tom Everett Scott) is an architect -- the movie occupation du jour, signaling financially successful and creative -- and Daphne couldn't be more thrilled. There's also bystander Johnny (Gabriel Macht), a musician working in the bar. He observes Daphne with interest, and for a moment it seems this might turn into a younger man/older woman romance. But against Daphne's wishes, the faux bohemian guitarist (he wears a fedora and vest) pursues Milly, a caterer with a snorting laugh not unlike Annie Hall's. After an inventive meet-cute with Johnny involving static cling, Milly finds herself dating both him and Jason.
Who Milly will end up with is as obvious as the contrasts between the two men. Johnny's the single father of a precocious boy (Ty Panitz), and they live with his single dad (Stephen Collins) in a fashionably cluttered house on the Venice canals. Against all that humanity, Jason lives in minimalist splendor and takes Milly to sleek downtown eateries. The dream-date deck is stacked. When Milly accidentally breaks one of Jason's family heirlooms, he gets a bit testy, the brute. But Johnny is all hugs and forgiveness after the accident-prone caterer shatters a plate that he probably got on sale at Pier 1.
Still, they're both decent guys, and what's a girl to do but sleep with both of them? The film pushes a cheery attitude toward sex, complete with cell-phone conference calls about uncircumcised penises between Daphne, Milly and her two married sisters. The sole characteristic of middle sis Mae (Piper Perabo) is her love of sex. It's clear from the get-go that Daphne's sense of urgency over Milly's love life is really about her own regrets as a single woman, but the script milks the notion for all its cheap, orgasm-centric psychology.
Director Michael Lehmann ("Heathers"), who keeps the story moving if not believable, isn't above using Daphne's pet dog for frequent reaction shots. Director of photography Julio Macat showcases L.A. dream locales -- not counting a woeful Korean spa scene -- while the creations of production designer Sharon Seymour and costume designer Shay Cunliffe have pizzazz but never feel lived-in. David Kitay's music score aids and abets the script in pushing emotional buttons.
Amongst the cardboard-cutout supporting characters, Lauren Graham brings a welcome deadpan sensibility to the overeager proceedings as oldest sibling Maggie, a wry psychologist.
BECAUSE I SAID SO
Universal Pictures
A Universal Pictures and Gold Circle Films presentation
Credits:
Director: Michael Lehmann
Screenwriters: Karen Leigh Hopkins, Jessie Nelson
Producers: Paul Brooks, Jessie Nelson
Executive producers: Scott Niemeyer, Norm Waitt, Michael Flynn
Director of photography: Julio Macat
Production designer: Sharon Seymour
Music: David Kitay
Co-producer: Wendy Rhoads
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Editors: Paul Seydor, Troy Takaki
Cast:
Daphne: Diane Keaton
Milly: Mandy Moore
Johnny: Gabriel Macht
Jason: Tom Everett Scott
Maggie: Lauren Graham
Mae: Piper Perabo
Joe: Stephen Collins
Lionel: Ty Panitz
Running time -- 101 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
It's dispiriting to see a great actress like Keaton buying into this nonsense with such gusto. Still, as Daphne, the control-freak cake entrepreneur nearing her 60th birthday, she's the closest thing to a three-dimensional person in the film. Mandy Moore is an appealing performer, but ultimately she can't turn Milly, the object of Daphne's pathological concern, into more than a collection of comely pouts and tantrums.
The script by Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson, two of the writers of 1998's "Stepmom", is a compendium of cliches. Chief among these is the montage of comical interviewees -- that overused shorthand for L-O-S-E-R that parades across the screen for our condescending enjoyment, a succession of inadequate candidates for a job or a date. In this case, the would-be boyfriends are interviewed not by their potential mate but by her mother. Having placed an online ad, "Mother looking for life partner for daughter" (have more menacing words ever been printed?), Daphne holds court in a hotel lobby bar, driven to drink by the bad and the ugly. The good arrive, too. Jason, Tom Everett Scott) is an architect -- the movie occupation du jour, signaling financially successful and creative -- and Daphne couldn't be more thrilled. There's also bystander Johnny (Gabriel Macht), a musician working in the bar. He observes Daphne with interest, and for a moment it seems this might turn into a younger man/older woman romance. But against Daphne's wishes, the faux bohemian guitarist (he wears a fedora and vest) pursues Milly, a caterer with a snorting laugh not unlike Annie Hall's. After an inventive meet-cute with Johnny involving static cling, Milly finds herself dating both him and Jason.
Who Milly will end up with is as obvious as the contrasts between the two men. Johnny's the single father of a precocious boy (Ty Panitz), and they live with his single dad (Stephen Collins) in a fashionably cluttered house on the Venice canals. Against all that humanity, Jason lives in minimalist splendor and takes Milly to sleek downtown eateries. The dream-date deck is stacked. When Milly accidentally breaks one of Jason's family heirlooms, he gets a bit testy, the brute. But Johnny is all hugs and forgiveness after the accident-prone caterer shatters a plate that he probably got on sale at Pier 1.
Still, they're both decent guys, and what's a girl to do but sleep with both of them? The film pushes a cheery attitude toward sex, complete with cell-phone conference calls about uncircumcised penises between Daphne, Milly and her two married sisters. The sole characteristic of middle sis Mae (Piper Perabo) is her love of sex. It's clear from the get-go that Daphne's sense of urgency over Milly's love life is really about her own regrets as a single woman, but the script milks the notion for all its cheap, orgasm-centric psychology.
Director Michael Lehmann ("Heathers"), who keeps the story moving if not believable, isn't above using Daphne's pet dog for frequent reaction shots. Director of photography Julio Macat showcases L.A. dream locales -- not counting a woeful Korean spa scene -- while the creations of production designer Sharon Seymour and costume designer Shay Cunliffe have pizzazz but never feel lived-in. David Kitay's music score aids and abets the script in pushing emotional buttons.
Amongst the cardboard-cutout supporting characters, Lauren Graham brings a welcome deadpan sensibility to the overeager proceedings as oldest sibling Maggie, a wry psychologist.
BECAUSE I SAID SO
Universal Pictures
A Universal Pictures and Gold Circle Films presentation
Credits:
Director: Michael Lehmann
Screenwriters: Karen Leigh Hopkins, Jessie Nelson
Producers: Paul Brooks, Jessie Nelson
Executive producers: Scott Niemeyer, Norm Waitt, Michael Flynn
Director of photography: Julio Macat
Production designer: Sharon Seymour
Music: David Kitay
Co-producer: Wendy Rhoads
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Editors: Paul Seydor, Troy Takaki
Cast:
Daphne: Diane Keaton
Milly: Mandy Moore
Johnny: Gabriel Macht
Jason: Tom Everett Scott
Maggie: Lauren Graham
Mae: Piper Perabo
Joe: Stephen Collins
Lionel: Ty Panitz
Running time -- 101 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Like the architectural-wonder cakes Diane Keaton's character constructs in "Because I Said So", the film is a stylishly gooey piece of work that demands to be oohed and aahed over. With its magazine-spread interiors and pretty dresses, this romantic comedy about a meddling mom and her unlucky-in-love youngest daughter might get what it wants. Using a recipe overloaded with adorable, too reliant on slapstick and spiced up with "modern" ideas about sex, the movie is as predictable as a crowd-pleaser can get. But crowds are likely to be pleased nonetheless, especially women who connect with its pat observations about the mother-daughter bond.
It's dispiriting to see a great actress like Keaton buying into this nonsense with such gusto. Still, as Daphne, the control-freak cake entrepreneur nearing her 60th birthday, she's the closest thing to a three-dimensional person in the film. Mandy Moore is an appealing performer, but ultimately she can't turn Milly, the object of Daphne's pathological concern, into more than a collection of comely pouts and tantrums.
The script by Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson, two of the writers of 1998's "Stepmom", is a compendium of cliches. Chief among these is the montage of comical interviewees -- that overused shorthand for L-O-S-E-R that parades across the screen for our condescending enjoyment, a succession of inadequate candidates for a job or a date. In this case, the would-be boyfriends are interviewed not by their potential mate but by her mother. Having placed an online ad, "Mother looking for life partner for daughter" (have more menacing words ever been printed?), Daphne holds court in a hotel lobby bar, driven to drink by the bad and the ugly.The good arrive, too. Jason, Tom Everett Scott) is an architect -- the movie occupation du jour, signaling financially successful and creative -- and Daphne couldn't be more thrilled. There's also bystander Johnny (Gabriel Macht), a musician working in the bar. He observes Daphne with interest, and for a moment it seems this might turn into a younger man/older woman romance. But against Daphne's wishes, the faux bohemian guitarist (he wears a fedora and vest) pursues Milly, a caterer with a snorting laugh not unlike Annie Hall's. After an inventive meet-cute with Johnny involving static cling, Milly finds herself dating both him and Jason.
Who Milly will end up with is as obvious as the contrasts between the two men. Johnny's the single father of a precocious boy (Ty Panitz), and they live with his single dad (Stephen Collins) in a fashionably cluttered house on the Venice canals. Against all that humanity, Jason lives in minimalist splendor and takes Milly to sleek downtown eateries. The dream-date deck is stacked. When Milly accidentally breaks one of Jason's family heirlooms, he gets a bit testy, the brute. But Johnny is all hugs and forgiveness after the accident-prone caterer shatters a plate that he probably got on sale at Pier 1.
Still, they're both decent guys, and what's a girl to do but sleep with both of them? The film pushes a cheery attitude toward sex, complete with cell-phone conference calls about uncircumcised penises between Daphne, Milly and her two married sisters. The sole characteristic of middle sis Mae (Piper Perabo) is her love of sex. It's clear from the get-go that Daphne's sense of urgency over Milly's love life is really about her own regrets as a single woman, but the script milks the notion for all its cheap, orgasm-centric psychology.
Director Michael Lehmann ("Heathers"), who keeps the story moving if not believable, isn't above using Daphne's pet dog for frequent reaction shots. Director of photography Julio Macat showcases L.A. dream locales -- not counting a woeful Korean spa scene -- while the creations of production designer Sharon Seymour and costume designer Shay Cunliffe have pizzazz but never feel lived-in. David Kitay's music score aids and abets the script in pushing emotional buttons.
Amongst the cardboard-cutout supporting characters, Lauren Graham brings a welcome deadpan sensibility to the overeager proceedings as oldest sibling Maggie, a wry psychologist.
BECAUSE I SAID SO
Universal Pictures
A Universal Pictures and Gold Circle Films presentation
Credits:
Director: Michael Lehmann
Screenwriters: Karen Leigh Hopkins, Jessie Nelson
Producers: Paul Brooks, Jessie Nelson
Executive producers: Scott Niemeyer, Norm Waitt, Michael Flynn
Director of photography: Julio Macat
Production designer: Sharon Seymour
Music: David Kitay
Co-producer: Wendy Rhoads
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Editors: Paul Seydor, Troy Takaki
Cast:
Daphne: Diane Keaton
Milly: Mandy Moore
Johnny: Gabriel Macht
Jason: Tom Everett Scott
Maggie: Lauren Graham
Mae: Piper Perabo
Joe: Stephen Collins
Lionel: Ty Panitz
Running time -- 101 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
It's dispiriting to see a great actress like Keaton buying into this nonsense with such gusto. Still, as Daphne, the control-freak cake entrepreneur nearing her 60th birthday, she's the closest thing to a three-dimensional person in the film. Mandy Moore is an appealing performer, but ultimately she can't turn Milly, the object of Daphne's pathological concern, into more than a collection of comely pouts and tantrums.
The script by Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson, two of the writers of 1998's "Stepmom", is a compendium of cliches. Chief among these is the montage of comical interviewees -- that overused shorthand for L-O-S-E-R that parades across the screen for our condescending enjoyment, a succession of inadequate candidates for a job or a date. In this case, the would-be boyfriends are interviewed not by their potential mate but by her mother. Having placed an online ad, "Mother looking for life partner for daughter" (have more menacing words ever been printed?), Daphne holds court in a hotel lobby bar, driven to drink by the bad and the ugly.The good arrive, too. Jason, Tom Everett Scott) is an architect -- the movie occupation du jour, signaling financially successful and creative -- and Daphne couldn't be more thrilled. There's also bystander Johnny (Gabriel Macht), a musician working in the bar. He observes Daphne with interest, and for a moment it seems this might turn into a younger man/older woman romance. But against Daphne's wishes, the faux bohemian guitarist (he wears a fedora and vest) pursues Milly, a caterer with a snorting laugh not unlike Annie Hall's. After an inventive meet-cute with Johnny involving static cling, Milly finds herself dating both him and Jason.
Who Milly will end up with is as obvious as the contrasts between the two men. Johnny's the single father of a precocious boy (Ty Panitz), and they live with his single dad (Stephen Collins) in a fashionably cluttered house on the Venice canals. Against all that humanity, Jason lives in minimalist splendor and takes Milly to sleek downtown eateries. The dream-date deck is stacked. When Milly accidentally breaks one of Jason's family heirlooms, he gets a bit testy, the brute. But Johnny is all hugs and forgiveness after the accident-prone caterer shatters a plate that he probably got on sale at Pier 1.
Still, they're both decent guys, and what's a girl to do but sleep with both of them? The film pushes a cheery attitude toward sex, complete with cell-phone conference calls about uncircumcised penises between Daphne, Milly and her two married sisters. The sole characteristic of middle sis Mae (Piper Perabo) is her love of sex. It's clear from the get-go that Daphne's sense of urgency over Milly's love life is really about her own regrets as a single woman, but the script milks the notion for all its cheap, orgasm-centric psychology.
Director Michael Lehmann ("Heathers"), who keeps the story moving if not believable, isn't above using Daphne's pet dog for frequent reaction shots. Director of photography Julio Macat showcases L.A. dream locales -- not counting a woeful Korean spa scene -- while the creations of production designer Sharon Seymour and costume designer Shay Cunliffe have pizzazz but never feel lived-in. David Kitay's music score aids and abets the script in pushing emotional buttons.
Amongst the cardboard-cutout supporting characters, Lauren Graham brings a welcome deadpan sensibility to the overeager proceedings as oldest sibling Maggie, a wry psychologist.
BECAUSE I SAID SO
Universal Pictures
A Universal Pictures and Gold Circle Films presentation
Credits:
Director: Michael Lehmann
Screenwriters: Karen Leigh Hopkins, Jessie Nelson
Producers: Paul Brooks, Jessie Nelson
Executive producers: Scott Niemeyer, Norm Waitt, Michael Flynn
Director of photography: Julio Macat
Production designer: Sharon Seymour
Music: David Kitay
Co-producer: Wendy Rhoads
Costume designer: Shay Cunliffe
Editors: Paul Seydor, Troy Takaki
Cast:
Daphne: Diane Keaton
Milly: Mandy Moore
Johnny: Gabriel Macht
Jason: Tom Everett Scott
Maggie: Lauren Graham
Mae: Piper Perabo
Joe: Stephen Collins
Lionel: Ty Panitz
Running time -- 101 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Ron Shelton is not just a student of boxing; he has also written or directed such outstanding movies about Americans playing sports as "The Best of Times", "Bull Durham" and "White Men Can't Jump". So one experiences "Play It to the Bone" starring Woody Harrelson, Antonio Banderas and Lolita Davidovich with deep disappointment.
On the road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for a boxing match, the movie gets sidetracked into a muddled character study long on dialogue and short on real writing. By the time the movie arrives at the actual bout, audiences may be too weary to care about the match despite some exciting fight footage.
You won't get good odds on the boxoffice prospects for "Bone". The film's opportunities in ancillary markets are long shots as well.
The key to any character study is to have characters worthy of study. Why Shelton fails this test may be found in a line in the media notes that states "Bone" wrapped photography about six months from the time Shelton began to write his script. Haste is not always a friend to the writing process.
Indeed, Shelton's script, nearly two-thirds of which consists of three characters trapped in a Vegas-bound car bickering with one another, plays more like a sketch for a movie rather than a screenplay. It's all back story, with the only action jammed into the final minutes.
Two out-of-work boxers and best buddies, Vince (Harrelson) and Cesar (Banderas), get the chance of a lifetime -- well, to be accurate, the second chance of a lifetime -- when they are offered the undercard of a Mike Tyson bout in Vegas. The catch -- they gotta be in Vegas for the match that night.
Unaccountably, they choose to drive with wannabe entrepreneur Grace (Davidovich), Cesar's current girlfriend and Vince's ex, in her lime green 1972 Olds 442 convertible. Something about those long desert stretches causes all three to unburden themselves about their past lives (details of which one would assume the three intimate friends already know by heart).
Amid recollections of failed title shots and relationships, the three misfits quarrel incessantly, covering and recovering the same ground with a grinding relentlessness. One learns that Vince has become a Jesus freak complete with hallucinations. Cesar allows that following his last bout he experimented with homosexuality. Grace, who chooses this trip to break up with Cesar, referees the two men's quarrels until an oversexed hitchhiker, played with energy by Lucy Liu, throws off the car's dynamics.
Arriving in Vegas, the trio encounters a host of boxing types -- shady promoters (Tom Sizemore and Robert Wagner), a shyster lawyer (Jack Carter) and various hangers-on -- all cliches of cliches. But finally, the film gets to the main event.
The initial rounds produce the movie's most exciting sequences. But gradually, in blow after blow of the gory fight, even these sequences become repetitive and implausible. Sheldon won't even allow his aging warriors to get weary and dance away from punches. They enter the 10th round nearly as energetic as the first.
The actors' training pays off though, with each moving like a genuine boxer. Banderas, however, slouches rather badly throughout the film as if favoring a back injury.
Shelton has loaded ringside with celebrities (Kevin Costner, Wesley Snipes, James Woods), renowned promoters, cutmen, sports commentators and former champ George Foreman to give the match the feeling it's the genuine article. Mark Vargo's photography and Paul Seydor's editing are exceptional. But Shelton, who clearly cares about this world and its people, regrettably never finds a way to let the audience share in that concern.
PLAY IT TO THE BONE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures in association
with Shanghai'd Films
Producer Stephen Chin
Screenwriter-director Ron Shelton
Executive producer David Lester
Director of photography Mark Vargo
Production designer Claire Jenora Bowin
Music Alex Wurman
Costume designer Kathryn Morrison
Editor Paul Seydor
Color/stereo
Cast:
Vince Woody Harrelson
Cesar Antonio Banderas
Grace Lolita Davidovich
Joe Domino Tom Sizemore
Hank Goody Robert Wagner
Lia Lucy Liu
Artie Richard Masur
Cappie Caplan Willie Garson
Rudy Cylk Cozart
Dante Solomon Jack Carter
Running time -- 124 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
On the road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for a boxing match, the movie gets sidetracked into a muddled character study long on dialogue and short on real writing. By the time the movie arrives at the actual bout, audiences may be too weary to care about the match despite some exciting fight footage.
You won't get good odds on the boxoffice prospects for "Bone". The film's opportunities in ancillary markets are long shots as well.
The key to any character study is to have characters worthy of study. Why Shelton fails this test may be found in a line in the media notes that states "Bone" wrapped photography about six months from the time Shelton began to write his script. Haste is not always a friend to the writing process.
Indeed, Shelton's script, nearly two-thirds of which consists of three characters trapped in a Vegas-bound car bickering with one another, plays more like a sketch for a movie rather than a screenplay. It's all back story, with the only action jammed into the final minutes.
Two out-of-work boxers and best buddies, Vince (Harrelson) and Cesar (Banderas), get the chance of a lifetime -- well, to be accurate, the second chance of a lifetime -- when they are offered the undercard of a Mike Tyson bout in Vegas. The catch -- they gotta be in Vegas for the match that night.
Unaccountably, they choose to drive with wannabe entrepreneur Grace (Davidovich), Cesar's current girlfriend and Vince's ex, in her lime green 1972 Olds 442 convertible. Something about those long desert stretches causes all three to unburden themselves about their past lives (details of which one would assume the three intimate friends already know by heart).
Amid recollections of failed title shots and relationships, the three misfits quarrel incessantly, covering and recovering the same ground with a grinding relentlessness. One learns that Vince has become a Jesus freak complete with hallucinations. Cesar allows that following his last bout he experimented with homosexuality. Grace, who chooses this trip to break up with Cesar, referees the two men's quarrels until an oversexed hitchhiker, played with energy by Lucy Liu, throws off the car's dynamics.
Arriving in Vegas, the trio encounters a host of boxing types -- shady promoters (Tom Sizemore and Robert Wagner), a shyster lawyer (Jack Carter) and various hangers-on -- all cliches of cliches. But finally, the film gets to the main event.
The initial rounds produce the movie's most exciting sequences. But gradually, in blow after blow of the gory fight, even these sequences become repetitive and implausible. Sheldon won't even allow his aging warriors to get weary and dance away from punches. They enter the 10th round nearly as energetic as the first.
The actors' training pays off though, with each moving like a genuine boxer. Banderas, however, slouches rather badly throughout the film as if favoring a back injury.
Shelton has loaded ringside with celebrities (Kevin Costner, Wesley Snipes, James Woods), renowned promoters, cutmen, sports commentators and former champ George Foreman to give the match the feeling it's the genuine article. Mark Vargo's photography and Paul Seydor's editing are exceptional. But Shelton, who clearly cares about this world and its people, regrettably never finds a way to let the audience share in that concern.
PLAY IT TO THE BONE
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures in association
with Shanghai'd Films
Producer Stephen Chin
Screenwriter-director Ron Shelton
Executive producer David Lester
Director of photography Mark Vargo
Production designer Claire Jenora Bowin
Music Alex Wurman
Costume designer Kathryn Morrison
Editor Paul Seydor
Color/stereo
Cast:
Vince Woody Harrelson
Cesar Antonio Banderas
Grace Lolita Davidovich
Joe Domino Tom Sizemore
Hank Goody Robert Wagner
Lia Lucy Liu
Artie Richard Masur
Cappie Caplan Willie Garson
Rudy Cylk Cozart
Dante Solomon Jack Carter
Running time -- 124 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 12/22/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.