In its five-year history the G. I. Film Festival does its best to feature a big Hollywood premiere appropriate to their mandate of films that portray military men and women in a positive light. Not easy when Hollywood mostly churns out anti-military propaganda that caters to know-nothings in the industry, who don’t want to upset the Los Angeles-New York-D.C. ultra liberal “artist” status quo.

Ironclad, this year’s big Hollywood-style film, was a stroke of genius that carries an Alamo-like message of fighting for the common man’s freedom. This beautifully shot and acted $20 million feature with spectacular sword-crashing is set against the background of the bloody aftermath of the signing of England’s much earlier version of our U.S. Constitution – the Magna Carta. The film more than delivers the goods to both historical-epic buffs and Conan the Barbarian action fans.

Festival co-founder Brandon Millett recognized the similarities between the story and our own defense of individual freedom. “We are delighted this epic masterpiece will premiere before our Armed Forces at the G.I. Film Festival.”

Despite a reasonable, but not large budget, and thanks to English director Jonathan English and American producer Rick Benattar’s talents, the film looks more like a $75 million epic. Ironclad features the destruction of a full-sized Welsh castle and in-your-face, true-to-life, bone crunching medieval action.

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#15: The Ring (2002)

“What about the person we show it too? What happens to them?”

As we reach the heart of my top ten you’re going to discover that (for the most part) the purer the horror the more satisfied I am. Films that end on a mystery solved/ danger over/group hug beat, like “The Sixth Sense,” make for splendid ghost stories but lack something in The Department of True Horror. And most films that try to fool you into thinking that you may now exhale and roam about the cabin, simply don’t work. You see the final “shock” coming a mile away.  Then there’s director Gore Verbinski’s relentlessly creepy and atmospheric remake of the Japanese horror film “Ringu” (1998) which, thanks to a very well-crafted piece of misdirection, succeeds where so many others fail with what you might call its fourth act; a stunner of a final plot turn that leaves you a little breathless.

It sounds like an urban legend (and a hokey concept for a movie), one of those tales teenagers tell to scare one another. Out there somewhere is a VHS tape of what would otherwise come off as a pretentious short art film if not for the fact that when it’s over your phone rings and someone informs you that your life expectancy has just been reduced to seven days. When the legend becomes fact for Rachel Keller’s (Naomi Watts) teen-aged niece, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reporter sets out to uncover a mystery she’s sure will involve something worldly (like drugs) but instead finds herself embroiled in an enthralling, supernatural puzzle involving, among other things, insanity, horses that commit suicide, and an unsettling little girl named Samara who might have been killed by her own mother.

Watts is superb carrying the film all on her own lovely shoulders. As the stakes steadily increase and as time runs out, Rachel is never anything less than capable and resourceful – only a step or two ahead of the audience (as it should be). Nothing contrived occurs to artificially move the plot and best of all, Rachel never does anything stupid. She’s a formidable protagonist and Ehren Kruger’s intelligent screenplay doesn’t let her down.   (more…)

“Roman Polanski is a French citizen, a renowned international artist now facing extradition. This extradition, if it takes place, will be heavy in consequences and will take away his freedom. Filmmakers, actors, producers and technicians – everyone involved in international filmmaking – want him to know that he has their support and friendship.” – From the petition to free director Roman Polanski.

Jafar Panahi

“Every possible way has been used for breaking his spirit. He is deprived of his basic and legal rights. Can all of this be called anything but torture? Does a regime have the right to treat one of its artistic elite so shamefully and inhumanely on the basis of a film that has not yet been made?”  -  Taherah Saeedi, wife of renowned Iranian New Wave filmmaker Jafar Panahi, on her husband’s arrest and imprisonment in Tehran.

On September 27, 2009, famed Hollywood film director Roman Polanski was arrested on arrival at Zurich Airport by Swiss authorities on a 31-year-old L.A. warrant for the 1977 drugging and raping of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer, now 45. A huge swath of the liberal leftist Hollywood establishment wasted no time in leaping into action over the Swiss authorities’ dismaying breach of social justice and inhuman treatment vis-a-vis director/child rapist Polanski. Over 100 well-known filmmakers and A-list celebrities signed a petition of outrage demanding Mr. Polanski’s immediate release. (more…)

A great performance sticks with you long after you’ve scraped the theater floor-gum off your Keds.  But too often, professional drama geeks and mainstream media critics will bestow their blessing on freaky, idiosyncratic performances that hew to the party line *(cough) Heath Ledger (cough) Brokeback Mountain (cough)*, leaving the rest of us to scratch our collective heads.  If that was good, we wonder, how bad do you have to be to be bad?

What follows is a list of the Top 10 performances of the last quarter century.  It focuses on lead roles, or at least substantial ones – no cameos, thank you.  Interestingly, there are no straight comic performances here, and many of the roles are villains.  And it is also focused on movies people have actually heard of. 

So, this is not an exhaustive list – it overlooks plenty of great performances.  But it is my list and based on my criteria alone – and I’m sure I’ll hear about my myriad defects of insight, taste, breeding and general mental competence in the comments.  For example, Daniel Day Lewis is missing because I decided not to invest three hours into There Will Be Blood (2007) since after seeing the “I drink your milkshake!” clip I just can’t take it seriously.  (more…)

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Dreamworks Animation have definitively proven that Digital 3-D is a blockbuster format. Not only has Monsters vs. Aliens seized a monstrous $58.2M in opening weekend ticket sales, Real-D (the technology provider) and Dreamworks have revealed that $25M or so of that gross was generated specifically from 3-D and IMAX 3-D. Fox is reporting that fully 43% of the total take was from the estimated 2,218 Digital 3-D screens.

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS tore up the box office this weekend - especially in 3-D

That means that the Per Screen Average for the movie in 3-D was about $11,700, while the 4,800 or so traditional 35MM 2-D engagements had a Per Theatre of just an estimated $4,780. Exhibitors who figured out a way to overcome the credit crunch and pay the estimated $100,000 to convert a traditional theatre into one that can show Digital 3-D made a killing this weekend.

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