Kiss Me Deadly Directed by: Robert Aldrich Written by: Mickey Spillane (story), A.I. Bezzerides (screenplay) Starring: Ralph Meeker, Maxine Cooper, Albert Dekker, Gaby Rodgers Cinematography by: Ernest Laszio Music by: Frank DeVol Release: May 18, 1955 “Va-va-voom! Pow pow!” Those words may encapsulate the masculine, grunting energy of Kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich’s noir masterpiece, better than any of the film’s most striking images or its myriad other memorable lines of dialogue. After all, if you want to understand what makes Mike Hammer tick, you only need to look as far as the cars he drives; they’re the sleek, muscular sort of vehicles most men covet and can only dream of owning…
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Off the Shelf…'Wreck-It Ralph'
Disney and director Rich Moore’s fantastic arcade themed adventure blazes to life on this solid 3D Blu-Ray release. Had you not seen this fun filled adventure in theaters, along with the now Oscar-winning short film Paperman, and manage to see Wreck-It Ralph blind and with no knowledge of its source of origination, you might be inclined to credit the film to Pixar. And while that wouldn’t be an unreasonable guess, you’d be wrong. Ralph has all the bearings of Pixar at its finest, yet Rich Moore’s first feature length effort comes to us from none other than the Mouse House itself. Arriving six months after the release of Brave, Ralph gives weight to the theory that both…
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G-S-T Review…Jack The Giant Slayer
There’s so much that’s so wrong with Jack the Giant Slayer that it’s difficult to know where to begin. Once upon a time, Bryan Singer actually made a pair of good movies in the 90s before churning out mediocre superhero movies and historical thrillers in the aughts. Somewhere in that timeline he also fell in with Peter Jackson, but you don’t need to pay attention to history to figure that one out; you just need to watch Jack the Giant Slayer, although I wouldn’t recommend it. Maybe the worst crime here, or at least the hardest to fathom, is that somebody in a boardroom actually thought that the concept of a fantasy reinterpretation…
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The Oscars: Post-Script
Strange that days after this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, I feel like I have little to say about it. As it happens– as it usually does– there’s plenty to be said about the honors meted out to the slender sample size of 2012’s “best”, but dishing about the process is exhausting and nearly futile in the tidal wave of faux-analysis that invariably follows every Oscar presentation. (And actual, respectable analysis. Not all analyses are made equal.) That’s to say nothing of the baggage that we all bring to the AMPAS’s annual self-congratulatory shindig and the conflicting frustration and indifference many of us feel toward them; put another way, it’s hard…
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G-S-T Review…Snitch
The nicest thing that can be said about Snitch, the film that commences Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s movie year, is that it’s no The Tooth Fairy. If we search for a silver lining, too, we can also rationalize that it can only be uphill from here. (And then we can cross our fingers.) Several years ago I might have opined that nobody really knew how best to utilize Johnson’s myriad talents, from his sense of humor to his obvious physicality, but even then I would have been lying; if you need to see the People’s Champion at his best, just watch The Other Guys or The Rundown and marvel at…
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CBS Films Gets "Inside Llewyn Davis"
CBS Films recently put out a press release proudly announcing their acquisition of Inside Llewyn Davis, the latest film from the much-lauded Coen brothers. The news may be better for CBS Films than for the Coens’ admirers and patrons; movie division of CBS Corporation hasn’t exactly been successful, showing more failures (The Mechanic, Beastly, Extraordinary Measures) than genuine winners. However, the company’s fortunes have begun to turn around in the last year or so thanks to The Woman in Black and Seven Psychopaths, both of which enjoyed better critical receptions and either broke even (as in the case of the latter) or turned into not-insignificant hits (as in the case…
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Sam Mendes Could Be Bonded To The Next 007 Movie
Somebody at either Eon Productions or MGM must have some potent persuasive talents: Sam Mendes, despite expressing sentiment to the contrary, may end up at the helm of the next James Bond picture after all. The rumor comes right from an article in The Daily Mail, which suggests that Mendes has been “75%” convinced to take the wheel for Bond 24, and that pre-production could start by the end of this year or the start of 2014. The deciding factors? Whether the project will fit into Mendes’ busy theater schedule (he’s directing King Lear at the National Theatre next January, and he’s assembling a musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate…
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G-S-T Review…Beautiful Creatures
If Warm Bodies is a sly mockery of everything Stephanie Meyer started when she wrote Twilight and assisted in its transition from novel to screen, then what can we make of Beautiful Creatures? The lesson here, I think, is that not every post-Twilight YA movie will improve on the formula; in point of fact, some of them will wallow in it. Beautiful Creatures, lacking all of the heart and wit Levine brought to his own spin on the young adult blueprint, blithely tumbles into the latter category; it’s almost impossible to enjoy even on a trashy, so-bad-it’s-good level, though bless Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson for trying to bring the film to that sort of plateau.…
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Off the Shelf…’Oldboy’
(Note: I’ve never made my love for Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy a secret, and I’ve never actually sat down and reviewed it in full. I’ve written pieces about it before, but only in context with what the movie means to me as a critic and cineaste. In light of my recent rediscovery of my love for Korean film, I’m going to correct that omission, so please enjoy this piece of effusive praise for what remains my all-time favorite movie.) Amidst its graphic violence, stunning visual palette, titanic performances, and vibrant, multi-toned soundtrack, the greatest pleasure of Oldboy lies in its enigmatic complexion. It is a masculine, macho thriller, a tragedy of…
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Sweet UK Trailer…'Monsters University'
Well, this is a pleasant early-morning, post-blizzard (for you North Easterners!) treat. I’m still not sold on a return trip to the Monsters, Inc. universe, but it’s hard for me to watch the full trailer for Pixar’s prequel to that picture, the inventively titled Monsters University, without cracking a partial smile. But don’t take my word for it– have a look yourself and see what you think of the animation giant’s latest: Unlike the promo material we’ve seen for the film in the last few months or so, this trailer introduces the vague outlines of plot to the project. Given that we already know how things turn out between Sully…