On the one hand this can be seen as a testament to the fact that Gibson is not marketable to American audiences anymore. On the other hand this is exactly where the movie industry is heading as filmmakers seem to be finding alternative means to releasing their own films (i.e. Kevin Smith taking “Red State” on the road and selling it with the winning addition of a live Q & A segment).

Looks like the old Mel is back and ready for action. “Get the Gringo” probably never had a shot in the current movie market. It seems way old school and not in an ironic sort of way. It looks like a film Gibson completed in the ’90s (minus the grey hair) and has been storing away for some time. The film should have anyone desperate for some “man- fiction” ready to take a ride this May when it hits … well … your television.

Big Hollywood published my piece a while back about the film’s first poster, back when the film was called “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” Seems “Get the Gringo” is a more down and dirty name and sounds more like a Steven Seagal picture than a Gibson one. Nevertheless, seeing Gibson going all “Grand Theft Auto” kill shot with that pistol and throwing around his dry voice and his too playful to be sardonic grin like they were candy has me almost as excited as when I heard Clint Eastwood mutter, “get off my lawn” in the great “Gran Torino.”

Get excited folks. After all, it looks a little better than that last Roman Polanski flick no one noticed.

ANOTHER REASON TO LOVE ROBERT DOWNEY JR.

Found this at Hollywood Elsewhere:

I’d so much rather be doing this than some little indie movie that everyone says is fantastic and it kinda sucks and is boring.

Now that I’m back home and have room to spread out my DVD collection again, I’ve been going through the actual physical cases as I organize. It’s been a trip down memory lane, and what has most struck me is how many independent films from the 1990s I purchased and still love. Over the last ten years, though, that indie movement (with rare exceptions) is an embarrassment of pretension, nihilism, pseudo-edginess, and horribly self-conscious acting. Because most of the small studios that produced these films are gone or have been swallowed up by the majors, instead of a movement it’s now a “genre” and therefore a parody of its once glorious and interesting self.

‘JAWS,’ UNIVERSAL CLASSIC HORROR FILMS SET FOR 2012 BLU-RAY RELEASE

Something to look forward to:

Easily the most important news of 2011 is The Digital Bits landing early word that Universal Home Entertainment is slotting Steven Spielberg’s classic 1975 summer blockbuster Jaws for a Blu-ray release on August 14, 2012. Spielberg told AICN earlier this year that the release (thankfully) won’t be amended (like he did with E.T.) in any way leaving in all wires and other visible bruises.

There’s really nothing all that wrong with cleaning up an old film’s special effects, especially wires and the like. The wires holding up the Martian ships in my DVD copy of the original “War of the Words” are pretty distracting. Imagine how much worse the Blu-ray will be. The problem is the slippery slope of intrusive alterations, so a complete hands-off approach is probably better.

In even better news, Universal has announced the release of their classic monster films in a Blu-ray box set. If done right, and I have no doubt it will be, that will be the must-own of the year.

BOOK REVIEW: ‘STEVE MCQUEEN: THE ACTOR AND HIS FILMS’

Most coffee table-type movie books that I have encountered are extravagantly made featuring glorious photographs, but very little substance. However, Steve McQueen: The Actor and His Films is not only handsomely produced featuring over 1,000 rare B&W and color photographs, but also contains an in-depth analysis of all of McQueen’s movies listed chronologically. This does not mean McQueen’s life is ignored. The writers expertly weave in the actor’s life journey into each chapter. Reading about his childhood early on clarifies his actions and behavior as an adult such as his legendary insecurities and his determination not to be bested by anyone, particularly a co-star.

‘BRIDESMAIDS’ A SERIOUS OSCAR CONTENDER? UNIVERSAL CHIEFS SAY YES

Pete Hammond:

If anyone were to have told you back on May 13 when Universal’s raunchy female comedy, Bridesmaids opened that we would seriously be discussing its Best Picture Oscar nomination prospects a week before Christmas, the status of their mental health would been called into question. But even though it remains a long shot Oscar pundits are online actively debating its Best Pic potential. Universal is ratcheting up its campaign with an eye on the prize it never dared dream about, and kudos for the Judd Apatow produced film directed by Paul Feig keep piling up as this awards season gets curiouser and curiouser.

No doubt, “Bridesmaids” is a very good film, but the fact that “very good” is now enough to qualify for any kind of serious Best Picture talk says something about the quality of films today. 1989 saw the release of “Batman,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Lethal Weapon 2,” “Honey I Shrunk the Kids,” “Parenthood,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Christmas Vacation,” “Uncle Buck,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” “Dead Calm,” “Enemies, A Love Story,” “Black Rain,” “The ‘Burbs,” “License to Kill,” “Lean on Me,” “Do the Right Thing,” “Cousins,” “Say Anything,” “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” and “The Abyss.” I would argue that any one of those is better than “Bridesmaids” — and not a single one was nominated for Best Picture.

We used to just expect movies to be as good as “Bridesmaids,” but now we’re so impressed by something that doesn’t completely blow, we’re talking Best Picture.

How depressing.

OUCH: ‘EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY’ CLOSE REVIEW

Film School Rejects:

Remember those trailers for Stephen Daldry‘s adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that we all cringed at? Well, how could you forget – they stick with you in a very off-putting way. Disappointingly, most of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close replicates that experience. Daldry’s a fine filmmaker, and with a script from Eric Roth – a writer who’s delivered his fair share of modern classics – one should expect more from their collaboration.

Sometimes I worry that I’m too cynical when it comes to Hollywood, that my politics cloud my judgment, or worse, that I’m getting too old to see what others see. When I dislike almost every movie that comes out and roll my eyes upon learning about what’s coming next, I worry that it’s me. But then I read the above and feel better. Whew, someone else also hated those awful, goddamn trailers.

Maybe I’m not yet the get-off-my-lawn guy yet; maybe I’m not a hundred.

MIXED ‘WAR HORSE’ REVIEW:

This is interesting:

However, the film has a curious, mismatched pace to it, almost uneven as it tries to decide on how it wants be received – something replicated in its bizarre mix of real-life exposure and Gone With The Wind-styled, super-chroma-boosted cinematography. Rather than marrying the various key scenes in the film, including the charge of the cavalry, a shocking execution and a reality-defying gallop through No Man’s Land, the pockets of lighter relief seem to both trivialise and detract from the sombre but striking messages that, say, Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan are known and respected for. These moments also highlight irrelevant narrative padding, such as the extensive French-farmer-and-granddaughter domestic scenes that might provide a respite from the muddy trenches and a way to tie up loose ends in the finale, but merely digress from more important matters.

One of my biggest problems with “Indy 4″ was the narrative structure, which was jarring. We’re here and now we’re here and now we’re here. The story had no flow and my brain kept having to catch up, which, of course, takes you out of the film.

MEL GIBSON TO HOST MAD MAX EVENT IN HOLLYWOOD

All three of the futuristic films will be screened at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles next month as part of the American Cinematheque tribute.

THERE WILL ONLY BE 8 OSCAR BEST-PICTURE NOMINEES — HERE’S WHY

What a mess:

Under the Oscar system, the race is immediately narrowed to those 33 films; every other movie is out of the running, no matter how many second- or third-place votes it received.

Once the initial count was made, the number of votes required to guarantee a nomination was determined. This is done by dividing the number of votes by 11, and then adding one (or if the result is not a whole number, adding whatever fraction is needed to make it one).

Example: If 250 members had voted, 23 votes would have guaranteed a nomination, because it would be impossible for more than 10 films to receive that many votes.

Got that?

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

“Margin Call” (2011) — Which I am hoping to review later today.

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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINKTACULAR

TODAY ONLY: ‘PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN’ FOUR-MOVIE COLLECTION — $76.49

HARRISON FORD AND ABIGAIL BRESLIN JOIN THE CAST OF ‘ENDER’S GAME‘

A NEW ‘SPARTACUS: VENGEANCE’ TRAILER HAS ARRIVED

2011′S BEST FILMS YOU’VE POSSIBLY NEVER HEARD OF

12 FORGOTTEN FAMILY HOLIDAY MOVIES

THE TOP 10 TRAILERS OF 2011

10 ROCK AND METAL CHRISTMAS ALBUMS

FIRST OFFICIAL IMAGE RELEASED OF THE RECENTLY WRAPPED ‘CLOUD ATLAS‘

10 BEST SHORT SUPPORTING PERFORMANCES OF 2011

DID THIS MAN DESTROY THE MOVIES?

DAVID FINCHER DISCUSSES HIS SPIDER-MAN MOVIE THAT NEVER WAS

LISTEN TO HOWARD SHORE’S STUNNING ‘HUGO’ SCORE

INFOGRAPHIC: THE ‘DR. WHO’ TIMELINE

WATCH THE MANY WAYS MOVIE AND TV CHARACTERS DRAMATICALLY QUIT THEIR JOBS

10 UNDER-APPRECIATED SHOWS TO BINGE ON DURING HOLIDAY RERUNS

TV’S BEST, AND WORST, OF 2011

‘HARDCORE PAWN’ SETS TRUTV NETWORK RECORD WITH 2.7 MILLION VIEWERS

11 NON-CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS MOVIE MOMENTS

MANOS: ‘THE HANDS OF FATE’: RESTORING THE OPPOSITE OF A MASTERPIECE

NEXT ‘STAR TREK’ ADVENTURE: NO ORIGINAL CAST MEMBERS

REVELATIONS FROM EDGAR WRIGHT’S FILM FESTIVAL AT THE NEW BEVERLY

‘AMERICAN HORROR STORY’ SEASON 1 FINALE REVIEW & DISCUSSION

THE LOST ART OF THE SEQUEL HOOK

‘DRAGON TATTOO’ AND OTHER FEEL-BAD HOLIDAY MOVIES

25 FACTS ABOUT ‘SAY ANYTHING‘

BILL MURRAY REPORTEDLY HATES ‘GHOSTBUSTERS 3′ SCRIPT

THE 9 MOST DISAPPOINTING VIDEOGAMES OF 2011

TOP 10 SILENT COMEDIANS

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CLASSIC PICK FOR FRIDAY,  DECEMBER 23

TCM:

11:00 AM  EST: Christmas Carol, A (1938) –  In this adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic tale, an elderly miser learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve. Dir: Edwin L. Marin Cast:  Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart. BW-69 mins, TV-G, CC.

Each of the well-known “Christmas Carol” adaptations has a single element that trumps the others. The 1951 version has the startling cinematography of a true ghost story and delves deeper into Scrooge’s background. The 1984 version has George C. Scott, who plays Scrooge perfectly straight, which makes the redemption scene the most poignant. What I love most about today’s pick, MGM’s 1938 offering, is the gorgeous production design and Gene Lockhart’s marvelously sympathetic portrayal of Bob Cratchit. The spirit of Christmas is alive and glowing in each and every shot, and you feel as though you’ve been dropped into one of those porcelain villages.

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Please send comments, suggestions and tips to jnolte@breitbart.com or Twitter @NolteNC.

The poster shows Gibson holding a gun like the action star he is. The film poster comes complete with a ’90s tag line – “Plan Your Getaway” – and is promoted as being from the producers of two great action pictures (“Apocalypto” and “Braveheart”). If this poster doesn’t get you excited for a cool prison escape shoot ‘em up then nothing will.

Well, actually if it doesn’t get you excited that’s probably because you’re looking forward to the next Michael Moore propaganda piece or Roman Polanski feature.

Anyway, now that us important people are alone, here’s what the film is about: “Gibson plays a career criminal who finds himself locked up in a Mexican prison and learns to survive thanks to the help of a 9 year-old boy.” Say what? That sounds almost as strange as “The Beaver,” Gibson’s last foray into acting.

Maybe that’s what’s so cool about this film project – and about Gibson.

The very strange title choice and weird plot go hand in hand with Gibson’s offbeat talent. I mean, this is the guy who turned “The Passion of the Christ” into a smash with his own money when everyone in Hollywood had denied for years that a Bible-themed film could be a financial success (let alone a film so violent and spoken in a different language). This is also the guy who made “Apocalypto,” a film in the Mayan language about a civilization most knew nothing about with no stars. He simply turned it into one of the best action films of the last decade.

Gibson’s talent as an artist comes from the fact that he’s so offbeat. And as for the recent comments that have gotten him in trouble (and kicked out of “The Hangover: Part II” … what a shame) … you’d have to be a sucker to believe that this guy is a racist or the misogynistic creep the liberal media has made him out to be.

Those allegations are based on comments he made while he was heavily intoxicated and during a private phone call (which clearly there was context to that we did not know and, quite frankly should not know). Yet, a man like Polanski rapes an underage girl and goes on the run for decades and is given a Best Director Academy Award? Explain that one to me.

No? I’ll explain it. Gibson’s persona (which many believe to lean towards the right) and his eclectic films never fit into the Hollywood mold. Polanski’s movies always did. He’s the European liberal filmmaker. That’s like gold to ignorant naïve actors and actresses. Meanwhile, Gibson is the openly religious guy who turned Jesus Christ into a movie star and prefers the violent clash between good and evil for his movies as opposed to films about devil children and people who play pianos.

Hollywood and its ilk can flock to see the new Polanski flick (this year, it’s “Carnage”) as they take a break from sleeping and protesting on public property. I don’t care. You can catch me waiting for the new Gibson action flick. Because to me, he’s still the action star he was 10 to 15 years ago and light years ahead of directors like Polanski.

Box Office Analysis:

1. Puss In Boots $33M – With a total of take $75.5 after two weeks on a $130M budget, DreamWorks is probably feeling better after what looked like a weak opening. Still, this will have to make somewhere close to $300M to break even, and that’s a long ways off.

2. Tower Heist: $25.1M — If that cast (Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Matthew Broderick, Dave Chappelle, Tea Leoni, and Casey Affleck) can’t open a high-concept comedy/thriller this close to the holidays, no wonder Hollywood is worrying about… everything. This was supposed to be a no-brainer.

3. Harold and Kumar 3D: $13M — Opened below its predecessor, which means that this is likely the last big screen entry into what was never a hugely popular but still profitable franchise.

4. Paranormal Activity 3: $8.5M — A five million dollar budgeted creeper has already made $95 million without a single “bankable” star.

7. Real Steel: $3.4M – Only $79M after 5 weeks.

8. The Rum Diary $3M — Did Hollywood really think all the stoners who get high to their ”Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas” DVDs would turn this $45M film into a hit?

10. Moneyball: $1.9M — Everyone who saw this loves it, the reviews are through the roof, and it’s going to top out at right around $70M. Maybe there really is a disturbance in the box office force.

11. The Three Musketeers: $1.7M — $75M budget plus $18M take in two weeks equals disaster.

In other box office news: Foreign Box Office: ‘Tintin’ Takes No. 1 Spot for Second Straight Weekend to Jump $100 Mil

‘Margin Call’ Performing Well Theatrically Despite VOD Release

Hmmm…?

The Wall Street drama debuted in 56 theaters upon its release three weeks ago and simultaneously became available to cable subscribers who wanted to watch the picture from the comfort of their own homes. The movie has since expanded to 178 theaters and has raked in $2.5 million since its opening, according to an estimate from distributor Roadside Attractions.

Because video-on-demand results lag about a week behind theatrical ticket sale figures, Roadside will not be releasing any VOD data until December. However, the distribution company’s co-president Howard Cohen wrote in an email that “based literally on the first three days of VOD, which is all we have, my sense is that a comparable number of sales were made on VOD as movie tickets sold in the same three days.

Sign of things to come, I’m sure of it.

After that disappointing opener, you have to wonder if Universal isn’t kicking themselves right now for allowing crybaby theatre owners to muscle them into giving up on the idea of releasing “Tower Heist” on VOD in select areas three weeks after its theatrical release.  Now they have no extra revenue streams. They have to count on the old ones, and the old ones are giving everyone ulcers.

Bruce Vilanch Out?; Eddie Murphy’s Writing Team New to Oscar

This is a relief and long overdue.

Roger Ebert Warns of ‘At the Movies’ Cancellation: ‘We Need an Angel’

Right now Ebert pays for the program and gives it to public television for free.

If the most famous critic of his time can’t make this work, who can?

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SCOTTD’S EPIC LINK-TACULAR

DIMENSION ACQUIRES RIGHTS TO MICHAEL KEATON THRILLER ‘PENTHOUSE NORTH‘

DANA CARVEY TO REPLACE REGIS

LEGENDARY PICTURES ACQUIRES SPECTRAL, DESCRIBED AS A “GRITTY ‘GHOSTBUSTERS’”

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER LAYS OFF CRITIC KIRK HONEYCUTT

FROM JAMES BOND TO HARRY POTTER: CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF PINEWOOD STUDIOS

LINDSAY LOHAN CHECKS INTO AND OUT OF JAIL

WHY THE ‘ASSASSIN’S CREED’ MOVIE DEAL HAS SHOCKED HOLLYWOOD

THE SEARCH FOR JOHN MCCLANE’S SON NARROWED DOWN TO FOUR ACTORS

COMPOSER HANS ZIMMER NEEDS YOUR HELP FOR ‘THE DARK KNIGHT RISES‘

5 POTENTIAL VILLAINS FOR THE ‘CAPTAIN AMERICA’ SEQUEL

HUNTER S. THOMPSON ON FILM: A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE GONZO

CELEBRATING THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF WONDER WOMAN

NOVEMBER 5TH: THE DAY DOC BROWN INVENTED TIME TRAVEL!

THE 30 MOST REWATCHABLE MOVIES OF THE MODERN ERA

AMERICANS HAVE SPENT $5 BILLION ON ZOMBIES AND ZOMBIE-RELATED PARAPHERNALIA

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Apocalypto (2006) — Whatever you might think of Mel Gibson as a human being, this story of an ancient Mayan hunter captured for human sacrifice while his pregnant wife and young son await his rescue from a pit is one of the best directed films of the decade.

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CLASSIC PICK FOR TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8

Starting at 8pm, TCM hosts a John Wayne marathon: Rio Lobo (1970), McLintock! (1963), The Searchers (1956), and How the West Was Won (1962).

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--Please send tips/suggestions/requests/complaints to jnolte@breitbart.com

Why?

Premeditated, homicidal radioactive poisoning.

Such an assassination by a personalized nuclear weapon has only one notable precedent, and that is the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London. Since Litvinenko died under British protection, and the producers of ‘Edge of Darkness‘ come from a BBC television series, one can’t possibly deny these connections between fiction and fact.

However, the mainstream press and Wikipedia seem deliberately deaf, dumb, and blind to the obvious. For them, the radioactivity theme is an “environmental issue.”

BBC’s most recent attention to the Death of Alexander Litvinenko as a dissident of neo-Soviet Russia, September 12, 2011, is here.

Not only is Vladimir Putin implicated in this murder, but the book on Litvinenko’s assassination, authored by Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko, the widow of Alexander, stresses the strong connection between Putin and one of his major benefactors, George Soros.

Hmmm …

The brevity of Wikipedia’s attention to the book and Wikipedia’s dismissal of the Goldfarb/Livinenko point of view is profoundly unconvincing. A major disagreement between the likes of Putin and his former benefactor, Boris Berezovsky, is not only likely but, in light of Putin’s undeniably dictatorial reign over Russia, inevitable.

To what extent the ‘Edge of Darkness’ producers, typically to the left of the American political center, wished to deflect the issue of what amounts to the “atomic assassination” of Alexander Litvinenko is open to highly divisive interpretation.

The ‘Edge of Darkness’ film undeniably maligns the American government, American politicians and — with the Jay Saunders character betraying Gibson, his fellow detective — it also stains American law enforcement. The film clearly intends to deflect the attention from England and onto America. It seems to intentionally blur the growing headlines of Russia’s refusal to deport the two Russian suspects in the murder of Litvinenko.

Not unexpectedly, ‘Edge of Darkness’’s very French concoction of a film noir anti-hero, Jedburgh (performed with icily charming brilliance by Ray Winstone), is the only British presence on the screen. Robert De Niro had been scheduled for the role but withdrew due to “artistic differences.” England is exonerated totally by the surprising climax. The American establishment and its weapons industry is revealed as entirely at fault for the rather Kamikaze fates of both the Gibson and Winstone characters.

Hmmm, indeed.

Marina Litvinenko has admitted that her husband was a British spy. Here’s the possible scenario, if indeed Putin was behind “the atomic poisoning story that will not go away.”

“Leave this message on the doorstep of the entire world, but particularly in the parlors of Russian dissidents, in exile and otherwise: protesting anything within Russia can bring terminally nauseating results!”

We, as they say, “read you loud ‘n clear, sir!!”

Why did Mel Gibson, a devout Catholic, do this exceedingly evasive spin on the death of Litvinenko? Perhaps he thought someone might speak about these obvious connections?

Or perhaps, since Litvinenko performed a sudden and most likely a death-bed conversion to Islam, the translation from Russian homicidal policies to America’s corrupt “State Capitalism” seemed appropriate to Gibson.

The film gets my B+ rating, if only for the myriad questions it raises in my mind. It also introduced me to the most disarming new film personality I’ve seen in quite awhile: Bojana Novakovic as Gibson’s daughter, Emma. Hers is and all-too-brief and breathtakingly un-self-conscious appearance in a film filled with so much “serious acting.”

Gibson’s career reads like a Shakespearian Tragedy.  After becoming arguably the biggest star in Hollywood he began displaying his hubris, spewing hatred against different ethnic groups, much of it against the Jews (or as he has called them “oven dodgers”). Gibson’s hatred nearly destroyed his career turning him into at best a b-player.  But announced last week, Gibson successfully wrangled funding for a big Hollywood project withy Warner Brothers.  He will be producing and possibly directing and starring in a movie based on Jewish history, the story of Judah Maccabee.

This is not the first time Gibson has tackled Jewish History, just the first time he’s attempted it in film. In 2004, Gibson was interviewed by Peggy Noonan for Readers Digest.  Noonan asked Gibson if he believed the Holocaust happened. He answered by questioning the number of Jews slaughtered by the Nazi’s and seemed to downplay the Holocaust as a Jewish experience. 

“I mean when the war was over they said it was 12 million. Then it was six. Now it’s four. I mean it’s that kind of numbers game. I mean war is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. Many people lost their lives. In the Ukraine, several million people starved to death between 1932 and 1933. During the last century 20 million people died in the Soviet Union. Okay? It’s horrible.” 

These are just a few of many anti-Jewish acts made by Gibson, the most famous of which occurred during a drunk driving arrest in 2006 when he kept screaming “f***ing Jews” and  later stated that “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”  

So should Gibson’s Antisemitism prevent him from making a movie about the Maccabees? Well that’s kind of a hypothetical question because it was Gibson who brought the picture to Warner Brothers. It won’t be made without him. But is it the right thing for Warners to do, and once it is made should Jews consider seeing the movie?

Rabbi Marvin Heir, founder and dean of Los Angeles’s Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, voiced his displeasure in statements to The Hollywood Reporter and predicted that Jews should stay home.

“Warner Bros. is making a terrible mistake,” Hier says, adding, “most of the people that are going to come to a film about Judah Maccabee are the Jewish community. Surely they know the Jewish communities are not going to come to this film.”

I am not as sure as Rabbi Hier. As a people, Jews are quick to forgive. Israel considers Palestinian Authority President Abbas a moderate despite the fact that he was one of the people responsible for the Sbarro bombing, American Jews still support Barack Obama despite his anti-Israel policies. In the end, the good Rabbi is likely to be disappointed to learn how many Jews  see the movie.

More than his anti-Semitic history, I am not sure that Gibson has the background to appreciate the real story of the Maccabees. Gibson is a passionate member of the Catholic Traditionalist movement, a minority Catholic sect that rejects the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1964-65 — in particular the abolition of the Latin Mass. Part of the traditional Latin Mass that Gibson so fiercely believes in is about the conversion of the Jews. The prayer reads: “Let us pray also for the Jews, that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ.” It also refers to their “blindness” and prays for them to be “delivered from their darkness.”

This is a direct conflict with the story of the Maccabees who fought against conversion. Only part of the Hanukah story was the Maccabees fight for getting the Greeks out of Israel, and the cleansing and dedication of the Temple. The Maccabees fought a civil war against other Jews. Judah and the boys were fighting Jews who had turned away from their faith by combining it with Greek/Hellenistic practices (or in some cases abandoning the Jewish faith totally).  The resulting assimilation caused a loss of Jewish faith and tradition, and finally laws against practicing Jewish ritual.

Sadly, in many way’s this story about a war against assimilation of the Jewish people has become the most assimilated of Jewish holidays.  Too many treat this holiday as a “Jewish Christmas,” the exact opposite of what the Maccabee story is all about.

The reason I don’t believe Gibson is qualified to produce, direct and possibly star in a movie about Judah Maccabee is not his love or hatred for the Jewish people, but the fact that his view of the Catholic faith argues Jews should be cured so they can accept Christ — and that is the exact opposite of the Maccabee story.

Mel Gibson is entitled to his religious belief, that’s not the issue.  The real question is:  based on his religious beliefs could Mel Gibson do the story of the Maccabees justice? Personally, I do not see how a man who prays that Jews convert can do a movie about a civil war waged to prevent Jews from losing their faith.

Mel Gibson’s decision to make a biopic of the Jewish religious icon Judah Maccabee is the latest twist in the star’s long, tortured history with the Jewish community.

In a May 2003 interview with National Catholic Reporter Jesuit Fr. William J. Fulco, who translated the script into Aramaic and Latin, assured the nervous Jewish community, “In no way do I experience it as offensive to Jews or anyone else.”

But as Gibson began to screen the film to selected Catholic and Jewish leaders, accusations of anti-Semitism sounded louder and louder in the media. Unhappy with the film’s tone towards the Jewish people and their culpability in the crucifixion of Jesus, leaders such as New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Eventually, Twentieth Century Fox passed on picking up the film, now titled The Passion of the Christ and it was distributed by indie company, Newmarket Films.

Full story here.

DHD:

This subject matter is a decided departure for the filmmaker famous for directing The Passion of the Christ. But in a way the subject matter is in his wheelhouse: Maccabee is a close cousin to William Wallace, leader of the Scottish rebellion against the British in Braveheart, the film that brought Gibson two Oscars: for Best Picture and Best Director. Gibson last directed Apocalypto about the Mayan civilization and a tribesman who escapes human sacrifice and saves his family. While Gibson has experienced tremendous success as a producer and director, his recent star turn in front of the camera in The Beaver was a box office failure even though it received a rousing ovation at this past Cannes Film Festival.

This new deal also marks a major return to filmmaking for Joe Eszterhas, once Hollywood’s highest paid screenwriter for pics like Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge, and Flashdance. His credits also include two films that focused on Jewish themes: the 1987 Betrayed, which starred Debra Winger as an undercover FBI agent probing white supremacists, and 1989’s Music Box, which starred Jessica Lange whose Hungarian immigrant father is accused of engaging in atrocities during World War II. … 

In recent years, Eszterhas stepped away from Hollywood, moved to Cleveland, overcame cancer, and focused on writing books instead of films. Both he and Gibson have had their share of travails, and make an unexpected and intriguing pairing on an unexpected and intriguing subject.

Much more here.

Eszterhas and Gibson are poster boys for tortured artistic souls — which, for whatever reason, is often part of the perfect recipe for great art.

If nothing else, this should be interesting.

It’s hard to pin down exactly what films qualify for this category – one list of doomsday movies includes dozens of very different films, with plots ranging from the world blowing up to society suddenly changing dramatically into something unfamiliar, dystopian, and creepy.  A documentary about the last two-and-a-half years would qualify as the latter.

From the Cold War nuke paranoia of Fail Safe (1964) to the “Oh s***, it’s a comet” catastrophes envisioned by flicks like Deep Impact (1998), they run the gamut.  Sometimes society is teetering – think California – and sometimes it has fallen completely into the abyss – think Detroit.

But at their best, these movies show us something about ourselves and about enduring truths, challenging our intellects and asking vital questions about the nature of man.  But mostly they’re just cool and fun to watch.

And sometimes they are Zardoz (1974).  This is an utterly insane 70’s freakshow starring Sean Connery that can best be described as what it must be like to party with Anthony Weiner and Eric Massa in Thailand with an endless supply of bad Woodstock acid and a substantial NEA performance art grant.  Gotta respect any movie that offers the straight-faced line, “The gun is good, the penis is evil.”  

Now, here is my list of the Top 10.  I accept that haters are gonna hate – and nit-pick about the cosmic question of “what IS an apocalypse film? – so, like it or lump it, these are mine in descending order.  They aren’t all great – they are all worth a watch on some Sunday afternoon after the Democrats have yakked about their ruinous policy preferences on the Sunday morning shows and gotten you thinking about disasters:

10. Soylent Green (1973):  In the late 60s and 70s, Charlton Heston was the Hollywood honey badger, in that he just didn’t care what crazy movies he made, and as a result he was pretty badass.  He made several end-of-the-world flicks, including The Omega Man (1971) and another one that promises to appear later on this list.  If you were a kid in the 70s, back when the broadcast networks showed movies, you’d be up watching Heston because he was always in something that kicked ass.

Here, the world hasn’t fully ended but it’s pretty screwed up.  The environment is wrecked and people are living packed together like sweaty sardines because of over-population.  There’s also a small cadre of the super-wealthy living the high life – sort of like Al Gore’s life would be if he still lived like a Persian emperor as he does now but if he wasn’t full of shit about global warming.

Just remember – Soylent Green is people!

9. Escape From New York (1979):   Call me Snake.  Here, New York City has become a giant prison and Snake Plissken has to go in and rescue the kidnapped President.  The President in the film is a snooty, dissembling tool with delusions of competence.  You may fill in your own comment here: _____________________.

Yeah, EFNY is probably technically not an apocalypse film, but you’re technically not paying me for my opinions so you’ll take what’s given to you and like it.  This is a cool flick, made on a shoestring yet looking like a million bucks.  Check out the edgy electronic score too – director John Carpenter composed it himself.  There’s also a lump in the throat moment – the twin towers of the World Trade Center play a key role.

Oh, and yeah – there’s a heapin’ helpin’ of Borgnine!

8.  The Last Man on Earth (1964):  This is a Vincent Price movie, filmed in Italy for like $25 and change, that is everything the Will Smith, big-budget crap-fest remake I Am Legend (2007) was not – like “good” and “interesting” and “not stupid.”

You can see the inspiration for the zombie films that would follow as Price, a still-human survivor of a terrible plague, battles hordes of shambling vampires.  The black-and-white cinematography makes the whole world alien and creepy.  It’s pretty disturbing.  Check out this hard-to-find cult classic.

7.  28 Days Later (2003) and 28 Weeks Later (2007):  A couple of zombie/disease hybrids, these are quite different films.  The first is small in scale and personal, the second large scale and much more big-picture.  Both involve horrifically violent beasts terrorizing the normal people of England, and as such are difficult to distinguish from the news.

Both suffer from a weird anti-military bias.  The first has the survivors stumbling on a bunch of soldiers who go nuts and lose all discipline in about 30 days.  That seems a bit quick.  The second has the protagonists, through gross stupidity, ignore the military’s strict and, frankly, smart rules and thereby cause the infection to break out again.  When the military moves to, you know, kill the mad, blood-crazed zombies, we’re supposed to feel bad for the protagonists WHO CAUSED IT TO HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE BY BEING IDIOTS.  Yeah, like our liberal overlords, the filmmakers blame the competent.

But these flaws are exceeded by haunting imagery of an empty England and by the total lack of sentimentality by the filmmakers.  Also, the first film’s scenes of the survivors trying to fight off hordes of zombies with rakes and bats is a powerful reminder the importance of the Second Amendment.  They’ll take my gun when they pry it out of my cold, living dead hand.

6. Logan’s Run (1976):  This one is loads of fun.  Hot girls, cool guns, a bright color palette for the space-age fashions the characters model – yeah, what more could a real man want?  Well, a coherent story and special effects that weren’t developed in a garage would be nice, but no matter – Logan’s Run is a great ride.

The post-apocalyptic world is kept at bay by giant domes built long before by the long-forgotten ancestors of the pleasure-seeking, hedonistic and crypto-fascist young people.  They not only don’t trust anyone over 30, they either get the oldsters to perform what seems to be a fatal anti-gravity interpretive dance or shoot them for defying the government.  No one works; everything is provided for them.  It’s a city of parasites under absolute control.  It sounds like a liberal fantasy; you expect Al Gore to waddle out and berate everyone else for selfishly whining about having to die at one score and ten and then heading off to his 60^thbirthday party.

The highlight is when Michael York tells what is apparently Will Ferrell in his earliest role to “Run, runner!”  The remake will be released in 2014, which is awesome because remakes are always better than the original…

5.  Panic in the Year Zero (1962):  This little-known flick focuses on a family on vacation in the country when a nuclear war breaks out.  It’s awesome not because of special effects or a big budget but because of its small scale – the family and a few outsiders are the majority of the focus.  Things get brutal quickly, and our heroes do too.  It’s a nice reminder about why every citizen should take full advantage of the Founder’s wisdom in enacting our Second Amendment.  You better be ready to protect yourself or you will be supplying goods and services – all kinds of services, as this surprisingly frank for its day film shows – to the savages.  The survivors will be those who aren’t burdened by a distorted liberal view of morality that requires them to crawl defenseless before others.

Ray Milland is the father – it’s somewhat jarring to see a guy as the hero who looks like a regular adult instead of the kind of manscaped, metrosexual TV man-children we usually see on-screen today.  This one actually should be remade (watch it and tell me you couldn’t see Big Hollywood’s own Adam Baldwin as the father), but sadly its tough-minded moral message would fly totally over the heads of today’s Hollywood executive doofus contingent.

4. A Boy and His Dog (1975):  Sold as “a rather kinky tale of survival,” this hot mess of a movie – it has a pre-Crockett Don Johnson and nary a Tubbs in sight – is, like many of these, truly a ’70s artifact.

It’s just weird, with freaky survivors, a psychic talking terrier, and other strange stuff.  The highlight is the last scene where Don keeps his pimp hand strong.  I suggest drinking before watching it.  And during.  And after.

3.  Dawn of the Dead (1978) and (2004):  Similar and far superior to the 28 films, the original and the remake are definitive zombie and definitive apocalypse movies.  Interestingly, both also track the media and its response to the world-wide zombie meltdown – those are some of the most interesting and scariest scenes.  You see the world falling apart, and that’s almost as frightening as the monsters themselves.

Visually, the 2004 remake is as smooth as the 1978 original was ragged.  I have aesthetic objections to running zombies, and the jarring editing is annoying, but the remake is very, very creepy and very, very bleak.  But the original is an amazing document of the 1970s.  People who did not live through that decade think of it as disco music and leisure suits.  It was, as we see here, really a time of linoleum, fluorescent lights, and JC Penney stores.  There is no sparkle to the Pittsburgh suburbs where this was filmed – and no sparkle to the places where 99.999% of Americans lived in the 70s.  No movie feels to me more like those years than DotD.

George Romero was always a terrible filmmaker.  He lucked into a classic with Night of the Living Dead and with this one too – just look at the total pieces of crap his subsequent films all were.  Here, though, his education movie background is perfect for this story.  It’s shot like a film you might see in your science class in junior high in 1977.  And it totally works.

As a story, though, it really is genius.  Put aside all the nonsense, post-release interpretation by shiftless university assistant professors about how this movie is really a powerful critique of consumerism.  What a load of revisionist crap.  Romero clearly thought, “It’d be pretty cool for some survivors to hole-up in a mall with M16s and blast some zombies and maybe some bikers too!”  And it is.

2. The Planet of the Apes (1968):  Forget the silly sequels and the remakes, reboots, and retreads of recent years – the original is where it’s at.  Heston is back, and as if being the head of the NRA wasn’t enough to solidify as America’s greatest hero after Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan, then he nails it with this incredibly cheesy, utterly unforgettable classic.

Featuring one of the Top Ten twist endings of all time, this Rod Serling-penned flick is one of the most entertaining movies ever made.  I dare you to start watching and try to stop – you can’t.  You’ll just sit there, mouthing the great lines along with the movie.  Now get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty liberals!

1. Mad Max (1979) and The Road Warrior (1982):

While the exact pole position of the other films might be subject to some small amount of debate, this one is not.  The Road Warrior is not only one of the greatest apocalyptic films ever but one of the best movies ever, period.  Let’s start with the amazing – and scarily relevant – opening narration:

Their leaders talked and talked and talked but nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled the cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear.

Gee, sound like any Western civilizations you know?  Totally unrelated – my short-term investment advice is to buy ammo.

Mad Max, the first of the series, takes place at the tail end of the disintegration of society; there are still some remnants of order left, mostly in the form of an incredibly young and incredibly non-psychotic Mel Gibson. It’s hard to watch Mel of three decades ago with the knowledge of his recent decline – you keep expecting him to turn to the camera and blame society’s collapse on “the Jews” and his uppity girlfriend.

Its wild chases and Aussie B-movie vibe made it a drive-in favorite back when, well, there were still drive-ins.  But its sequel The Road Warrior took it to a whole new level of action and Campbellian archetypal awesomeness.  Certainly, it has one of the great movie openings of all time as the camera backs out of the V8 Interceptor’s roaring supercharger intake.

What makes these movies great (I’m going to ignore the Thunderdome sequel) is not just the world they imagine, or the bizarre characters (freaky Wez, the creepy Humungous, the dentally challenged Gyro Captain), or even the unparalleled action scenes – the chase at the end of Road Warrior is probably the most consistently exciting half-hour in movies.  Like all these movies, they are at their best when they reveal and critique our society’s own assumptions – especially stupid liberal ones.

These are intensely conservative films.  In Mad Max, Max is a force for order – even when all order collapses and he takes matters into his own hands.  In The Road Warrior, Max is totally burned out until he realizes that civilization is worth defending.  But not all the survivors feel that way – despite their leader Papagallo’s speech about the need to defend themselves and their future from the barbarian horde, a fair chunk of the band wants to surrender, preferring the lies of the Humungous over the reality of defending themselves.  It’s always astonishing how some people are so eager to submit to tyrants.

As the Humungous explains to the less cunning Wez, “Fear is our ally.”  He relies on cowardice and moral weakness among the defenders of civilization to bring them down – as do our enemies today, with the eager assistance of their fellow travelers.  It is no coincidence that The Road Warrior came out during the height of the Soviet-blessed disarmament movement of the early 80s, where gutless, half-witted “peace” activists would have turned us over to history’s greatest murderers if not for the courage of Reagan, Thatcher and the millions of regular Americans and others who believed in peace through strength, not peace through surrender.

The Road Warrior shows us that civilization is worth defending, and that it can only be defended with force, not cowardice-masking bumpersticker pieties about coexisting and violence-never-solving-anything.  The sacrifice of Papagallo and (almost) Max – which mirror those of our real-life warriors of the past and present – show that courage and honor are our most powerful weapons.  Note that I use the word “our” deliberately – The Road Warrior is about Western Civilization in the face of barbarity, and its lessons are as vital today – and as lost on weak-willed, pacifist losers – as they were nearly 30 years ago.

Post-apocalyptic films show us a great deal about our society by showing us what happens when critical components of it are removed.  Sadly, some of these films today look less like science fiction and more like documentaries.  But the ones listed here are all worth checking out – even Zardoz, which has the advantage of freaking you out without showing up on drug tests.

And I again repeat my short-term investment advice for dealing when the Humungous and Co. show up – buy ammo.  No one in human history has ever complained about having too much ammo when it hit the fan.

Gibson plays Walter Black, a hopelessly depressed man, whose level of self-loathing has forced his wife, Meredith (Jodie Foster), to kick him out of the house.  In a drunken haze, Walter find a beaver hand-puppet in a dumpster and takes it to his hotel.  Walter attempts suicide in a moment of desperation, but is put off by the cockney accented voice of the beaver puppet, which proclaims is out to save his life.  Hiding behind his newfound beaver puppet persona, he returns to life with confidence and swagger, though it causes confusion and frustration to those closest to him.  Meanwhile, Walter’s awkward son, Porter (Anton Yelchin), makes money writing papers for kids a school.  When the silently troubled head cheerleader at his school (Jennifer Lawrence) approaches him to write her graduation speech, he’s forced to face his own family issues while trying to help her tackle her own demons as well.

The Beaver has one of the most bizarre, interesting, and beautiful performances of Mel Gibson’s career.  The vast majority of the film is spent with the actor in beaver-mode, as he skillfully belts out a cockney accent, along with perfect puppeteering to go with it.  One could be forgiven for mistaking Mel’s accent for the voice of Ray Winstone.  Gibson hides behind the puppet in what seems to be a defense mechanism in the movie’s toughest scenes, even when the film delves into truly strange territory, the man sells everything that’s going on with his performance.

Where The Beaver falters slightly is in the subplot with Porter.  This portion of the movie is where it gets a bit too indie-cute, as Porter obsesses over the tics and mannerisms he shares with his father and posts them on his wall.  His relationship with Jennifer Lawrence’s former street-artist turned valedictorian cheerleader rings false on paper, though Yelchin and Lawrence do a great job of selling this silly concept, which somehow seems more implausible than the idea of a grown man communicating through a beaver hand-puppet.

As far as the special features go, the Blu-ray offers a commentary track by Jodie Foster, two deleted scenes with optional commentary, and a short making-of documentary.  When it comes to supplements, the main thing I want is a commentary track, unfortunately all commentaries are not created equal.  Older films and releases from Criterion often have interesting and insightful commentaries to go with them, however commentaries for newer movies are often recorded before the film is released.  What you usually get is a track that has the filmmakers and actors still in press-junket mode, they haven’t gained the distance from the film to properly talk about it, as the movie hasn’t had a life with the audience yet.  Foster’s commentary track isn’t worthless like these tracks usually are, but it’s not terribly insightful beyond a few interesting tidbits about the performances and production design.  Those expecting Foster to talk about Gibson’s personal life need not apply, as it is never brought up, which is to be expected.

The making-of is a standard, short-form doc that explores various elements of the movie quickly and efficiently.  It’s the sort of promo documentary you expect from new movies, it has a few cool bits to impart but doesn’t really enhance the movie.  I’ve never been a fan of deleted scenes, usually they’re sliced out for a reason, and here it’s easy to see why they were cut.  The commentary by Foster on them briefly explains why they were cut, though she never calls them what they truly are: bad scenes.  But who can blame her?

The Beaver is one of those interesting-yet-flawed oddities, one I’d recommend to everyone with a big asterisk.  The presence of Mel Gibson will no doubt put off most, given how his popularity has fallen like a stone lately.  I would ask those who boycott the work of Gibson to ask themselves if they have no problem watching the films of Roman Polanski.  If the answer is “yes,” then congratulations, you’re a morally inconsistent person, and it’s time to rethink and  realign that moral compass when it comes to your pop-culture consumption.  Love him or hate him, Gibson’s performance in this movie says a lot about him in terms of where he is in his career.  It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here, if anywhere at all.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Other Noteworthy Releases

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold: Morgan Spurlock returns with another documentary where he is the center of attention, rather than the subject he is supposedly documenting.  The idea of financing a movie purely on product placement while calling attention to the role of advertising in media is a rich one, but Spurlock’s movies never go deeper than his affable hipster personality.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Troll Hunter: This foreign fantasy/horror faux-documentary has gotten some great buzz, while found footage movie are everywhere today, somehow throwing giant trolls in the mix colors me interested.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Win Win: Starring Paul Giamatti, this is the new film by Tom McCarthy, the guy known for understated dramas like The Station Agent and The Visitor.  Christian Toto gave it a postive review.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Blitz: Jason Statham teams up with Paddy Considine in this gritty buddy-cop film.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Swingers: The indie cult classic comes to Blu-ray, not that I feel the urge to see it in high-def.  I love this movie, but I’ll hang on to my DVD.

Available on Blu-ray

Rounders: John Dahl’s card-sharp movie starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton is an underrated late-nineties offering well worth seeing.  It comes out on Blu-ray this week.

Available on Blu-ray

Secret Sunshine: South Korean cinema has been getting a lot of notice on the international stage lately, however it’s mostly the genre flicks like Oldboy and The Good, The Bad, The Weird that get all the buzz.  This nuanced drama by Lee Chang-Dong is a welcome change of tone in terms of what we’re getting from South Korea on our side of the Pacific.  Available from Criterion.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD

The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara: This box set of Kurahara’s work is being released under Criterion’s Eclipse imprint.  This collects the director’s eclectic output from the sixties, which included his adaptation of Yukio Mishima’s Thirst For Love.

Available on DVD

Roger Corman’s Cult Classics – Sword and Sorcery Collection: This set includes four eighties sword & sorcery flicks produced by Corman, including Deathtalker, Deathstalker II, Barbarian Queen, and The Sorceress & The Barbarian Queen.

Available on DVD

Roger Corman’s Cult Classics – Women in Cages: Corman was well known for producing these sorts of odd sexploitation movies, this set includes The Big Bird Cage, Big Doll House, and Women in Cages.  The first two were directed by Jack Hill, who was known for doing fun blaxploitation movies like Coffy and Foxy Brown.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD

This post originally appeared over at Parcbench