This week on the HomeVideodrome podcast, Hunter reviews Liam Neeson’s death-obsessed wolf-fighting-fest “The Grey,” Jim discovers “Blubberella” and extols on the greatness of “Adaptation” and the week’s releases get the usual treatment. Head on over to The Film Thugs and give it a listen.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” is the essence of crime cinema cool boiled down to its bones, combining the spartan feel of Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samourai” with the sheen of Michael Mann’s ’80s output like “Thief.” Throw in a protagonist reminiscent of Ryan O’Neill’s strong silent wheelman in Walter Hill’s “The Driver,” and you’ve got a shiny movie buff confection.

Ryan Gosling completely owns the nameless lead role, shiny scorpion jacket and all. The year Gosling had in 2011 effectively silenced his critics who wrote him off as a pretty face in “The Notebook,” with “Drive” standing at the head of the pack. His soft exterior makes his cool-yet-vicious character in “Drive” all the more potent whenever he has to stomp some poor henchman’s head in.

I love grizzled, masculine action heroes like Liam Neeson and Lee Marvin as much as the next red-blooded American, but Gosling steps up to the plate, points to the outfield, and knocks the ball straight into the spark-spewing lights. Don’t let his soft features or feathery surname fool you. Gosling brilliantly channels the brand of cool perfected by Alain Delon in Melville’s quiet heist & hitman sagas.

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There’s nothing pretty about Liam Neeson.

The Irish actor sports a disheveled nose and an accent that sounds like it belongs in a pub where the bar stools date back to the Second World War. And when Neeson puts up his dukes on screen, there’s no “Matrix”-style effects to give him cover. It’s all loping jabs and hay makers.

It’s why audiences are responding to his latest action film, “The Grey.” The film came in first over the just-wrapped weekend, earning $20 million without any big stars beyond Neeson and no existing brand to bank on. Neeson stars as a depressed sharpshooter who must survive the elements, and a hungry pack of nearby wolves, when his plane goes down in freezing terrain.

Compare the box office results for “The Grey” to the opening weekend haul of Taylor Lautner’s “Abduction” from late last year:

“The Grey” – $20 million

“Abduction” – $10.9 million

Lautner’s got Neeson by 40-odd years, and you just know Neeson doesn’t have six-pack abs like Mr. “Twilight.” Audiences didn’t care. They responded to the way Neeson goes about his business on screen. It’s never smooth or calculated, but Neeson’s characters settle scores and survive in a way that hearkens back to how male movie stars used to behave on screen.

He’s a man’s man, and that makes him a rarity in today’s Hollywood.

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James Badge Dale isn’t a household name. But he should be.

Over the past ten years, the young actor has played supporting roles in several major films and starred in one of the most acclaimed mini-series of the past decade. One of his first juicy roles occurred in 2003 when he played Chase Edmunds, a CTU agent working under the tutelage of Jack Bauer on “24.”

In 2010, Dale played a lead in the HBO mini-series, “The Pacific.” Since then, he has acted in “The Conspirator,” headlined a television program called “Rubicon” and starred alongside Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan in the critically-acclaimed film “Shame.”

His latest project, “The Grey,” finds Dale facing his own mortality alongside Oscar-nominee Liam Neeson. I recently had a chance to talk to Dale about his emotional scene in the new thriller, his work on “The Pacific” and the Oscar nomination that never arrived for Fassbender.

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What will it take to finally bring humankind together, to unite us all in respect and appreciation and a sense of shared purpose? How about a pack of vicious wolves intent on tearing us to bloody shreds? Judging by “The Grey,” director Joe Carnahan’s new deep-freeze thriller, that might do it.

The best thing about this movie is its shivery hypothermic vérité, a credit to the skill of cinematographer Masanobu Takanayagi, working under what must have been very trying conditions.

The story is set in the snow-blown wastes of Arctic Alaska, and the brutally frigid environment, with its attendant sub-zero temperatures, is vividly depicted—the actors, haloed in clouds of breath condensation, really appear to be freezing. (The picture was actually shot in northern Canada—not a tropical getaway in any event.)

The main characters are part of a group of oilfield roughnecks who were en route from their remote worksite for two weeks of R&R elsewhere when their shuttle plane took a dive into the icy tundra, leaving them suddenly either stranded or dead. Only eight men have survived. Fortunately, one of them is Liam Neeson, whose warm, hefty presence would be reassuring in any predicament. His fellow survivors are a traditionally mixed bunch: a couple of nice guys (Dermot Mulroney and Dallas Roberts), one wiseass (Frank Grillo), and one gentle fellow (Nonso Anozie) who clearly shouldn’t be making any long-range life plans.

Read the full review at Reason.com

Irish actor Liam Neeson is taking movie promotion to a new level, and he’s doing it with one eye on a worthy cause.

Neeson, the 50-something action hero behind “Taken” and the upcoming thriller “The Grey,” will be appearing on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” Jan. 16 to talk up his newest film.

He’ll also use his time in New York City to meet with two lucky fans, or at least folks lucky enough to win the eBay auction surrounding his “Late Night” appearance.

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For today’s Left, blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is an admirable figure. Director Oliver Stone called Trumbo his “hero,” while a flood of celebrities (including Gore Vidal, Brian Dennehey and Liam Neeson) have lined up to star as the screenwriter in the off-Broadway play “Trumbo.”

In a recent New York Times article, journalist David Itzkoff praises the Writers Guild for posthumously recognizing Trumbo as the true author of the screenplay for “Roman Holiday.” Both Itzkoff and the Guild saw this belated screen credit as a blow against censorship.

But missing from the award and the article is Trumbo’s own censorship efforts while a member of the American Communist Party.

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If it’s January, it must be time for Liam Neeson to start kicking butt.

The 59-year-old actor has found himself in an unlikely position – the world-weary action hero. It started with the blistering thriller ‘Taken’ and continued with the far less effective ‘Unknown.’ Both films hit theaters in January, a relatively soft spot in the movie release schedule.

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Fammke Janssen is back, which is unexpected good news. I’ve always liked her. In a sea of girls, when Hollywood delivers an actual woman, you have to be appreciative.

Coming Soon:

[Filmmaker Luc] Besson told us that Colombiana director Olivier Megaton has been using his time in Los Angeles to scout locations for the sequel to Taken, which will shoot there for a little bit, and the film itself will start production in October. He said that everyone is back for the sequel including Famke Janssen, who had a small role as Liam Neeson’s ex-wife in the first movie.

My only concern is that we might get “Taken 2: The Apology,” where what made the original such a surprise hit might be apologized for in part two. A pure revenge thriller with Islamists as the bad guys is what made the first such an unexpected smash. There are literally dozens of B-level action movies made each year with, so you have to ask yourself what set this one apart. Yes, the story was very well executed and written, but in a cinematic world of moral equivalency and joy-killing political correctness, for once we were allowed to watch good fight evil with a vengeance and without even a moment of hand-wringing.

Let’s hope the follow-up doesn’t find our hero living alone and with a tortured soul over “what he’s done.”

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Dr. Martin Harris is the main character in the new thriller “Unknown.” There are two men in the story who claim to be the “real” Dr. Harris. Liam Neeson plays the first one who is traveling to an international conference with his beautiful wife Elizabeth (January Jones). At the conference, another man claims to be the real Dr. Harris and Elizabeth is all too willing to accept him as her husband. That strange situation and the mysteries that arrive with it are all part of the allure of this suspenseful thriller.

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In “Unknown,” the original Dr. Harris (Neeson) is flying to the conference with his wife. Upon arrival, the couple accidentally leave a piece of luggage at the airport. When they arrive at their hotel, Dr. Harris realizes that his luggage is missing and returns to the airport. Before he gets there, his taxi crashes leaving Harris in a coma for several days.

When he wakes up, he returns to the hotel to find his wife. When he sees her in a crowd, she claims that she doesn’t know him. She points to another man (Aidan Quinn) and states that he is her husband. He’s the “real” Dr. Harris.  At this point, the camera closes in on Neeson’s face as the background spins behind him showing his state of disbelief. Who is the real Dr. Harris?  Who is this man posing as his replacement? Why is his wife pretending that this impostor is her real husband? The answers to these questions are slowly revealed in this taut thriller. (more…)

We live in an age where it’s almost impossible to get truly lost. Between GPS systems, the ever-growing presence of surveillance cameras, the ability to track credit-card purchases instantly around the globe, and cell-phones that can connect us via calls and texts to nearly anyplace in the civilized world, a person can feel pretty confident that they can’t ever truly lose contact with loved ones in a time of need.

But what if that sense of security suddenly disappears? And even worse, what if you can’t remember all the things that are important to you, and those around you are claiming they don’t know you either?

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That is the harrowing dilemma at the heart of the terrific new thriller “Unknown,” a film that updates classic Hitchcock thrillers like “The Man Who Knew Too Much” to the modern world but still relies on timeless foundations of solid performances, inventive writing, perfectly moody atmosphere and a reality-based sense of location that makes every moment feel all too real. And at its core is the essential idea of an Everyman who is thrust into a terrible situation and must find the inner strength and cleverness to find his way back out.

Following Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife Elizabeth (January Jones) as they go to Berlin for an important botany conference, Martin quickly finds he has to race back to the airport after forgetting a vital briefcase with classified information. He goes back so quickly that even his wife doesn’t know where he went, and when he suffers a four-day coma after a taxi accident, Martin finds that his wife claims she doesn’t know him, another man (Aidan Quinn) is claiming to be him, and that he can’t even remember what secrets he was bringing to the conference himself. He turns to his cab driver (Diane Kruger) and a former East German secret policeman to help him figure out the mystery, one that spirals ever more complexly through a series of shocking twists.

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Walden Media is the production company responsible for “Waiting for Superman,” “Amazing Grace,” “Bridge to Terabitha,” and many more titles most film-goers and especially parents are familiar with. The company is owned by Philip Anschultz who has made clear he wants the company’s output to be entertaining, but also to be life affirming and to carry a moral message. Few would argue Walden’s been successful at that and few would argue that Walden is one of the few film production companies able to make big-budgeted Christian-themed films that enjoy wide releases. Among them, the film adaptations of C.S. Lewis’ beloved and unapologetically Christian “Narnia” series.

With the third “Narnia” film, “Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” scheduled to land in 3500 theatres today a controversy developed this week that’s probably dampened the enthusiasm of more than one member of the franchise’s most enthusiastic and loyal supporters: we Christians tired of Hollywood’s relentlessly bigoted and unfair portrayal of us and our beliefs — those of us who look to the “Narnia” series as the rare and respectful allegory that lovingly portrays the beauty of our faith and what it truly stands for. 

Unfortunately, two of the main players involved in “Dawn Treader,” appear to disagree, not only with our interpretation of what the “Narnia series is all about, but also with C.S. Lewis, the creator of the source novels. Saturday we reported that Neeson, who portrays Aslan, the lion and obvious Christ figure in the story, said the following:

Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.

And Wednesday, no less than “Dawn Treader” producer Mark Johnson told the Hollywood Reporter he wasn’t sure if the “Narnia” novels were Christian:

But Dawn Treader producer Mark Johnson agrees with the, shall we say, more inclusive analysis from [Liam] Neeson, telling The Hollywood Reporter that “resurrection exists in so many different religions in one form or another, so it’s hardly exclusively Christian.”

“We don’t want to favor one group over another … whether these books are Christian, I don’t know,” Johnson added.

So what are we in for this weekend. Has Hollywood twisted “Dawn Treader” into just another touchy-feely, multicultural, PC production that pleases no one in an attempt to please everyone?

Michael Flaherty is the President and one of the co-founders of Walden Media, and was good enough to reach out to Big Hollywood for an interview to discuss the controversy and set the record straight about the film.

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[Ed. Note: As of right now we are in the process of securing an exclusive interview with one of the "Dawn Treader" producers -- who was good enough to reach out to us -- regarding the recent controvery stirred up by actor Liam Neeson and producer Mark Johnson.] 

“The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” the highly-anticipated third entry in the “Chronicles of Narnia” film series, arrives in theaters nationwide tomorrow. It continues the story of the Pevensie siblings who were previously featured in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “Prince Caspian.” I recently had the opportunity to interview Douglas Gresham, the stepson of author C.S. Lewis.

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In addition to being the stepson of the author of  ”The Chronicles of Narnia,” Gresham also served as co-producer on the previous two “Narnia” films and executive producer of “Dawn Treader.” I asked him why these stories continue to resonate today with readers and viewers alike. He noted:

It lies in the fact that we are created as a species with an inbuilt love of truth, whether it’s conscious or unconscious. When we see absolute pure truth in front of us, we recognize it and welcome it. These books and therefore these movies contain great episodes or great stories of pure truth and I think that’s why they will last as long as people read books and as long as people watch movies.

I also asked Gresham about his favorite part of making “Dawn Treader” and he told me that he enjoyed the “whole process.” He added, “I suppose for me, the best part of the movie was actually being out there and shooting it and being on the set…” He noted that his favorite part of the new movie itself is an “incredibly moving scene at the end.”

Gresham later told me what his stepfather was trying to achieve with “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:” (more…)

If you’re wondering why during the Golden Age of Hollywood, in the era of the studio system, actors were, in a word, “managed,” look no further than the below. Actors certainly didn’t like being controlled — who does? —  but part of the reason the Cary Grants, Katherine Hepburns, Barbara Stanwycks and John Waynes now live forever in the stratosphere of legend (and there was a Golden Age to begin with) is due to the fact that this kind of stupidity – the kind of stupidity that shatters images and deflates box office right along with audience anticipation — was simply not allowed:

Today’s Daily Mail:

Ahead of the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader next Thursday, Neeson said: ‘Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolises for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries.

‘That’s who Aslan stands for as well as a mentor figure for kids – that’s what he means for me.’

Neeson, 58, who grew up in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, is a practising Roman Catholic and was named after his parish priest. His actress wife Natasha Richardson died in a skiing accident in March last year.

Two years ago, he teamed up with an order of American Catholic priests to bring out a CD of spiritual meditations for Lent.

Walter Hooper, Lewis’s former secretary and a trustee of his estate, said the author would have been outraged.

‘It is nothing whatever to do with Islam,’ he said.

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Thanks to a heads-up from terrorism expert Steven Emerson and his organization IPT, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, I learned that in late July Nihad Awad, the unctuous executive director and co-founder of CAIR, gave a lecture at Jordan’s Kuta University entitled “The Experience of CAIR in Clarifying the Image of Islam in the West.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has muscled its way into being the go-to Muslim-American mouthpiece for the benefit of the lazy and complicit mainstream media – including The O’Reilly Factor, where Awad recently appeared and attempted to smear the opponents of the planned Ground Zero monument to Islamic supremacism. He works tirelessly to advance the stealth jihad agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, for which CAIR is a front group.

At Kuta, Awad spoke to students, professors, and the dean about “the international image of Islam,” which he claimed had been “subject to insult and distortions since the first Crusade.” He also presented practical steps that Muslims can follow to teach the world about Islam. (more…)

Admittedly I have never seen a television episode of the “The A-Team.” So I went into the theater not knowing the plot of the show or the film. Unfortunately, I left disappointed with an unexciting and uninspired “A-Team” that failed to bring its“A-Game.”

The movie revolves around a group of four military men who work together as a covert team. As the story begins, we are introduced to the four main characters that the film’s website refers to as a “colorful team of former Special Forces soldiers,” and notes that they are composed of its leader Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), Templeton “Face” Peck (Bradley Cooper), B.A. Baracas (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson), and H.M. “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock (Sharlto Copley). Unfortunately, none of these characters is particularly memorable, save for Hannibal Smith who is played well by Neeson.  

The film opens with the formation of the “A-Team.” Smith is attempting to rescue “Face,” a ladies man in trouble with a lady’s man, and enlists the help of Baracas, who is a complete stranger to him. To complete the rescue, the three men appropriate Murdock, a mental patient and pilot. Murdock is mentally unstable and yet the team invites him to join the group even after he lights one of them on fire. (At this point, believability burns up along with one of the character’s shirts.) (more…)

Movies based on TV shows are often some of the most painful offerings studios have to offer. Whether suffering through the big-screen versions of “The Beverly Hillbillies” or “Car 54, Where Are You?”, “My Favorite Martian” or this summer’s mega-bomb “MacGruber,” the ratio of awful adaptations to successful ones is vastly disproportional.

Of course, once in awhile, some work: “Wayne’s World,” “The Blues Brothers” and (at least financially) the “Mission: Impossible” films come to mind. But with the new film version of “The A-Team,” Fox has concocted a wildly uneven yet (at many moments) even more wildly entertaining edition of the ridiculously fun ‘80s NBC series that manages to both disappoint and enthrall action fans within the span of a rollicking two hours.

Series purists may find plenty to grouse about, as the film kicks off with a somewhat-different take on the group, having Col. Hannibal Smith (played by Liam Neeson here and George Peppard on TV) meet B.A. Baracus (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson here, and the immortal Mr. T on TV) for the first time, as he forces him to let him hitch a ride en route to saving his friend “Faceman” (Bradley Cooper here, and Dirk Benedict on TV). They are immediately at odds before bonding over their mutual Army Rangers tattoos, a trait they share with Faceman and their final member, an insane chopper pilot named “Howling Mad” Murdock (Sharlto Copley of “District 9” here, and Dwight Schultz on TV). (more…)

It’s pretty clear from the loud and explodey and awesome trailer of the upcoming A-Team remake that the script version the Sucker Punch Squad’s source obtained was a draft or two back from the final shooting script.  That’s a good thing, because the old script was a little slower, left out some treasured icons (Where’s the van!) and its B.A. Baracus had nowhere near the original show’s essential Mr. T-errificness.

So, all hail the new A-Team.  I just hope they’ve fixed the one hackey sucker punch aspect – the lame use of U.S. contractors as, once again, the villain du jour.

Now, anyone who at any point in the 1980s was unable to legally drive knows The A-Team and its mythology.  Basically, a bunch of Vietnam War commandos are falsely accused of a crime, escape from a stockade and dodge the military police while acting as soldiers of fortune.  George Peppard was their leader Hannibal Smith, Dirk Benedict was Face, the good-looking con man, Dwight Schultz was “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock, the resident wacko, and Mr. T portrayed, well, pretty much himself.

Every week they crashed a lot of cars, shot millions of bullets without ever hitting anything, made smartass remarks and issued memorable catchphrases.  This was all highly entertaining – particularly if you were a college student like me who enjoyed accepting creative drinking game challenges.  Here’s a hint – designate not just a driver but a stretcher-bearer if you dare join in a round of “Let’s Watch The A-Team and Down a Brew Whenever Something Explodes.”  (more…)

“Release the Kraken!”

If those three words don’t stir up all kinds of nostalgia for the summer of ’82 when HBO aired the original “Clash of the Titans” 9 times a day (in ’83 it was “Beastmaster,” in ’84, “Eddie and the Cruisers”), you probably shouldn’t plunk down the price of admission. What we bring to the movies plays a big role in what we get from the movies (which is why critics are absolutely useless). And if cheese and nostalgia don’t play an important role in this particular film-going choice you might find yourself a little disappointed.

Sam Worthington is Perseus, a demigod and bastard son of Zeus (Liam Neeson). He just doesn’t yet know this because as a baby a whole lot of mythology occurred that resulted in him being found by a kind fisherman and his family and raised as such. It’s only after man declares war on the gods of Olympus and his family is killed that Perseus unknowingly starts down the road towards his own destiny as he sets out for revenge against Hades (Ralph Fiennes), the god of the Underworld responsible for his family’s demise.

Hades and Zeus are estranged brothers but man’s insolence drives them to form an uneasy alliance. Zeus just wants some appreciation. Hades wants to betray Zeus and rule over everything in order to spread evil throughout humanity. The endgame involves a huge sea monster known as the Kraken. A fierce beast that we’re told can’t be killed. Man doesn’t have a chance in this war. But driven by rage, Perseus doesn’t much care. (more…)

Boy, did I ever kick a hornet’s nest with my tongue-in-cheek Archie Bunker-on-steroids BH post, “My Secret Life as a Conservative Republican.” Lefties called it Reaffirmation With Senator Smalley, which I expected. But Righties nearly wet their pants in fear, which I did not expect in the least. Where’s the pioneering spirit, self-confidence and gutter-level humor that founded this country?

People, this is OUR Fortress Hollywood! This is OUR sanctuary! Since when the hell do we care about what demagogues like Keith Olbermann think or say? Or any other mental tinfoil hat Lefties like Garofalo for that matter? It’s like Churchill worrying about Hitler calling him a fat cigar-chomping drunk! Who won that fight, and why? And who was in the right, despite all the insipid name-calling?

Time to grow a pair, people. It’s also time to raise the stakes. Now, I’ve heard from some contributors here at BH that it is really bad in Hollywood in places. That people might even lose their jobs if they spoke up like I do here. If true, that’s McCarthyism at its worst. Fortunately, that’s not my experience. I still have great relationships with people in the biz who could care less about politics. All they care about is finding great scripts or literary works to adapt, and telling great stories on film.

And that is where the battle really needs to be fought: on their playing ground. An insurgency of ideas, if you will. Example. Just under the Big Hollywood sign today, I saw the banner “TNT’s ‘The Closer’ Thrives on Strong Moral Foundation.” That PJM-linked article describes how The Closer, a show that portrays the border, the illegals situation, and even the cops themselves in very gritty and realistic fashion, is the top-rated scripted show on ad-supported cable since its inception. (more…)

He is a man with a gun. He is a killer, a slayer. Patient and gentle as he is, he is a slayer. Self-effacing, self-forgetting, still he is a killer. . . All the other stuff, the love, the democracy, the floundering into lust, is a sort of by-play. The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. — D. H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature (1923)

Every once in awhile an action film comes along that revives. That proves that — no matter how strong the political correctness of an age, no matter how pale and pathetic its notions of masculinity, no matter how much Ritalin is force-fed to little boys, no matter how many toy guns, xylophone mallets, and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots get banned from stores and playgrounds — there are certain aspects of the male soul that are inviolate, and certain primal yearnings that are evergreen. Taken (2008) is one of those films, and its release last week on DVD and Blu-ray should be heralded by lovers of all things red-blooded, hairy-chested, and morally sound.

When this movie appeared in the doldrums of Hollywood’s off-season, it was expected to die a quick death in a marketplace filled with audiences either too sophisticated or too sophomoric to respond. Modern theatergoers, the theory goes, increasingly want their “heroes” to be either brooding Abercrombie & Fitch nymphets like Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, feckless stumblebums like Ben Stiller and Paul Blart: Mall Cop’s Kevin James, quirky class cut-ups like Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp, or silly video-game tough guys like Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. When an actor does put some honest testosterone in his performance — Daniel Craig in Munich (2005), Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino (2008) — it’s inevitably to make a much larger point about violence breeding only more violence, all of it equally reprehensible, a product of way too many pesky males wreaking havoc in primitive bursts of knuckle-dragging temper. (more…)