The Movie Doc

The Prescription: Duel (1971)

Frederic Rochefort — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:33:04 +0000

eXistenZ (1999)

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Starring: Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ian Holm, Sarah Polley and Willem Dafoe.

Last Night (1998) Movie Review: The Anti-Emmerich Movie

Frederic Rochefort — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:36:12 +0000

We’re so used to big explosions and disasters when it comes to “end of the world” scenarios. We somehow prefer looking at the physical destruction of landmarks rather than acknowledging the real human tragedy behind it all. Maybe it’s because humans by nature are afraid of the inevitability of their own demise. Destruction is ok, but death is taboo. Go figure!

In Don McKellar‘s movie, we totally ignore what causes the end of the world. Humans are about to be wiped off the planet and there seem to be no hope of survival. People have been aware for months and now they only have a few hours left. Last Night is a movie about how humans cope with fear. The fear of dying alone, of still having unaccomplished dreams, of never seeing tomorrow.

We follow a small group of people during their last hours, as they try to find a purpose to their lives in the remnants of our society. All the characters are interlinked (very much like Paul Haggis‘ Crash), which creates a familiar universe and accentuates the humanist nature of the movie. They’re each portrayed by brilliant actors: Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead, Go) plays the sister of Don McKellar‘s character. Sandra Oh (Sideways, Grey’s Anatomy) is a woman deperatly looking to reach her husband on the other side of the town. David Cronenberg cameos as Oh‘s husband, who calls old costumers to wish them well and Callum Keith Rennie (Memento, Existenz) plays a man who abandons himself to his (multiple) sexual fantasies.

Even if the movie is centered on the idea of death, Don McKellar made sure to stay away from pessimism as much as he could. In fact, Last Night‘s witty dark humor might surprise you on multiple occasions. Nobody would want to watch a movie about a bunch of depressing people just waiting to die anyway, am I right?

It is shameful that 13 years later, the filmmaker still never got the attention that he deserves for his film debut. Last Night is an exceptional independent film and definitely one of my favorite Canadian movies! The ending alone, as Pete Seeger‘s rendition of Guantanamera becomes the soundtrack of humanity’s countdown, is truly a masterful scene. It is both incredibly tragic and touching. The last 30 seconds are magical.

In the end, the movie is all about the human connection between us all.

Recommended Viewings:

32 Short Films About Glenn Gould

Smoke

Melancholia

James Bond 23 is Officially Called Skyfall

Frederic Rochefort — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:55:23 +0000

It’s confirmed: the next James Bond directed by Sam Mendes will not be titled Carte Blanche but Skyfall. It may not be the most Bond-ish title of the series, but it’s still better sounding than the awful Quantum of Solace.

Sam Mendes and his crew confirmed several other details about the movie :

The action will take place in Shanghai, Istanbul and Scotland.
Albert Finney and Ralph Fiennes joined the cast.
No singer is confirmed for the theme song. Looks like Adele might not sing it after all…
French actress Berenice Marlohe does play a Bond girl. She’s called Severin.
Naomie Harris‘ character has been confirmed as Eve. So is it Moneypenny or not?
Roger Deakins, one of the world’s best cinematographer, is on the project.

Skyfall will be the last movie out of the three picture deal that Daniel Craig signed with MGM. Although, due to the strong popularity of Casino Royale, they might extend it for a couple more.

20 Years Later: Cool As Ice

Frederic Rochefort — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:31:37 +0000

Here’s a simple rule in life: if someone/something proclaims itself as cool, that’s very uncool. For a brief moment though, during 89-90, Vanilla Ice was believed by some to be a rising star. We still don’t know on what drugs they were at the time, but his hit single ‘Ice Ice Baby‘ (or Under Pressure as some prefer to call it) was even nominated for a Grammy! Sadly, Vanilla‘s fame had to vanish because he was a character who couldn’t exist out of the early 90′s. White boys with flashy clothes and weird haircuts were already out in 1992.

Cool as Ice is the swan song of the rapper. For some reason, someone thought that he could hold a movie on his own. Judging by the Razzies and the box office performances of the time, that person was quite wrong. Maybe it also didn’t helped that the movie has been made by a freaking porn director!

Everything is so goddamn cheesy!

Although, even if David Stenn‘s script is filled with some of the worst dialogue ever written, there is something good to be found in Cool as Ice (shocking, I know). Turns out that the plot in the movie is quite simillar to David Cronenberg‘s History of Violence. Throw in Vanilla Ice, remove some of the violence and you get the same movie. The comic of History of Violence, which inspired the movie, was made in 1997! Believe it or not, Cool as Ice might have inspired a great Cronenberg movie. How do you feel about that?

Also, as surprising as it sounds, the director of photography is no other than Janusz Kaminski. Two years later, he was working with Steven Spielberg on Schindler’s List!!! He might be the only person involved in this movie who had a great career afterwards.

Abandoned Movies: The Jaws Remake and MEG

Frederic Rochefort — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 06:08:47 +0000

Ever since Jaws in 1975, it’s been proven many times that people love sharks (further proof: Shark Week). Long before Shark Night 3D, Hollywood had already been planning a return of the voracious predator on the big screen. Here are a few projects which got lost in development hell.

Very few people know that, but Jaws almost made a return on the big screen a few years ago. First, Steven Spielberg and producer Richard Zanuck thought of replacing the shark with CGI (à la E.T. or Star Wars), but both men probably came to their senses after seeing how unpopular these changes usually are with the fans. So Zanuck thought of simply remaking Jaws as an horror-comedy in 3d and hire Tracy Morgan as Hooper (obviously, we’re talking about a pre-Cop Out era). I wish I would be making this up…

The other great shark project is based on the novel Meg by Steve Alten. Unlike the Jaws remake, Meg would probably kick ass! In the very first scene, the shark fights a T-Rex. Yes, THE SHARK FIGHTS A T-REX! Meg also attacks a flying helicopter and a bunch of surfers.

Unfortunately, all of these ideas have already been exploited by the ‘Mega Shark vs…‘ series. It’s sad because it would make for a great mindless action film à la Piranha 3D. Back in the early 00′s, it was supposed to become a pretty huge blockbuster, with directors like Jan De Bont or Guillermo Del Toro considered for the project, but New Line cancelled it in 2007.

A Possible Gigantor Movie?

Frederic Rochefort — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:57:59 +0000

Damn you Michael Bay! Since Transformers all we hear about are movies about robots! If Reel Steel wasn’t enough, get ready for Voltron and now possibly a Gigantor (Tetsujin 28) movie! Idlewild‘s director Bryan Barber is pitching his big screen adaptation of the Japanese cartoon as ‘Transformers meets The Goonies’, so in other words ‘Big robots, explosions and a bunch of kids’.

Bryan Barber has lost many directing opportunities in the last few years, such as Wolverine. So this time, instead of waiting on the studios to get a second chance, he figured he could go around town and find a buyer. The project is expected to have a budget of $60 million, which is quite reasonable compared to Reel Steel (110 million) or Transformers 3 (400 million!!!).

It’s not the first time that Hollywood has been talking about Gigantor. In 1994, Fox acquired the rights to the series and hired screenwriters Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes (Double Impact, Anna & the King) to write a first draft. Since the death of Gigantor‘s creator, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the project slowly died.

Here’s the trailer of the Japanese big screen adaptation of Gigantor, enjoy:

‘Cloverfield’ Director Matt Reeves Enters ‘The Twilight Zone’

Frederic Rochefort — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 22:32:44 +0000

After teasing us with names like Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight, Inception) or Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men), Warner Bros finally chose Let Me In and Cloverfield director Matt Reeves to helm the new adaptation of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone. Unlike the first movie and the tv series, the new one won’t be an anthology, which is a little bit strange.

The screenplay, written by newcomer Jason Rothenberg is said by Deadline to be “linked to the original series mainly in that it shares that familiarly eerie feel”. Well sure, but so is pretty much anything adapted from Richard Matheson (The Box) and they don’t call it The Twilight Zone!

At least fans can be reassured by Leonardo Dicaprio‘s involvement in the project as producer. The actor often said in the past that he admires Rod Serling, so at least we know that a fan controls the project.

Warner wants to shoot the movie next summer, racing against MGM’s adaptation of Outer Limits and the recently announced Rod Serling biopic. As long as no helicopter is involved, everything should be fine.

SFTW : Internet Story (2010)

Frederic Rochefort — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 01:41:39 +0000

Written and directed by Alan Butcher (2010)

The short film is way better than most pseudo-viral stories that we’ve seen in the recent years. For a moment, the short almost fooled me.

Zorro Returns As ‘The Forging of Zorro’

Frederic Rochefort — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:58:57 +0000

Could this be the title of a new Zorro? According to What Culture, Sony has registered the domains The Forging of Zorro and Zorro: The Legend Begins. Both titles confirm that this new movie will indeed be a reboot, based on the critically acclaimed novel Zorro by Isabel Allende.

The novel tells the beginings of the young Don Diego de la Vega, son of a spanish nobleman and a Shoshone warrior, as he transforms into Zorro. Antonio Banderas is out of the picture for various reasons. Firstly, it requires a much younger actor. Secondly, the two Banderas movies weren’t about Don Diego but Don Alejandro!

Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia (screenwriters of the recently cancelled Charlie’s Angels tv reboot) are penning the screenplay, which should at the very least be better than Legend of Zorro. Although, they’re not the only ones working on a Zorro reboot. Zorro is victim of the Snow White/Frankenstein/Peter Pan-syndrome because last april, Fox have hired Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy to create a post-apocalyptic Zorro called Zorro Reborn.

Hurray for originality!