Robert Redford is angry about the current state of Hollywood.

Why doesn’t the government subsidize artists and bring edgy, envelope pushing fair to the masses, cries Redford.

Redford shared his State of the Movie Union thoughts this week during the kick off to his successful Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. An event which began as a way to give power to independent films is now a place where major deals go down, sizable swag gets handed out and some of the biggest movie stars on the planet huddle to seize their next film roles.

As the founder of the festival, which showcases and gives opportunities to independent filmmakers, Redford hit at politicians who prefer to help big budget studios that toe conservative lines and present little risk….

Redford continued his attack, alluding to state-sponsored film funds in Europe and other countries that help filmmakers produce their movies, despite potentially risque messages.

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‘LADY AND THE TRAMP’ ARRIVES ON BLU-RAY FEBRUARY 7

The link above is a hi-def clip from the upcoming Diamond Edition, which will be a three-pack that includes a Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy.

‘TRANSFORMERS’ FANS REJOICE

Coming Jan 31:

The 7-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Trilogy includes all three films in high definition, Transformers: Dark of the Moon in high definition 3D, more than 10 hours of bonus material, as well as a plaque of movie images signed by director Michael Bay.  Disc specifications are as follows:

·         Two-disc Special Edition Blu-ray of Transformers presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

·         Two-disc Special Edition Blu-ray of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

·         Three-disc Combo Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray of Transformers: Dark of the Moon presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, English 5.1 Discrete Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Discrete Surround Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

2011: THE RISE OF VIDEO ON DEMAND

This is a big deal:

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The more things change in Hollywood – CGI, franchises based on toys and Taylor Lautner, movie star – the more things stay the same. Like the fact that women are poorly represented in front of the camera, and the situation is far worse behind it.

The LA Times reports a new study by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism uncovered some alarmingly consistent trends in the film industry:

In a survey of the top 100-grossing movies of 2009 — including “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,’ “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” – researchers found that 32.8% of the 4,342 speaking characters were female and 67.2% were male, a percentage identical to that of the top-grossing movies of 2008 …

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Former MTV mainstay Kurt Loder still loves music, but these days you’re more likely to read him pontificating about “The Twilight Saga” than Lady Gaga.

Movies, says Loder, film critic for Reason.com, are “fresh material to me, in a way that music somehow isn’t. It’s tangible. It’s up on the screen.”

Loder’s movie commentaries – witty, wise and full of admiration on the rare occasions when the stars align to yield a great film – can now be held in your hand thanks to a new collection.

“The Good, the Bad and the God-Awful: 21^st Century Movie Reviews” lets Loder opine on Hollywood’s recent movie releases. Loder slams “Australia,” praises “In Bruges” and puts more journalistic muscle into his take down of Michael Moore’s “Sicko” than most of his peers.

“Some movies are so appalling you wonder what went wrong … who said, ‘this is really good, let’s put it out,’” he says.

“The Good, the Bad and the God-Awful” compiles reviews into themes – like Schlockbusters (expensive flops), The Land That Laughs Forgot (comic duds) and Funtime (hilarious romps). He even dedicates an entire chapter to Nicolas Cage (“one of the great without-a-net highfliers of our time”). Loder may be most fond of Looking for Love, the section dedicated to great films still searching for an appreciative audience – like indie darling “The Brothers Bloom.”

Loder’s prose is prickly when the situation demands it, but he’s not a curmudgeon taking undue pleasure excoriating mediocre films. He also insists he’s a movie reviewer, not a film critic.

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DIXIE CHICKS’ VH1 STORYTELLERS AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 29

What are Dixie Chicks again?

All I seem to remember are three mouthy narcissists who were so desperate for attention they posed nude on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and then had a flop documentary made about them that portrayed the pampered multi-millionaires as victims of their own wildly stupid use of free speech.

Those Dixie Chicks?

Can I get a “whoa whatever”?

BREAKING: ZACHARY QUINTO IS STILL GAY

We have now entered day two of Zachary Quinto being gay. Rumor has it, he will still be gay tomorrow and possibly through the end of the week. Obviously this means that everything he does is more important than it was last week and it is now our duty to ooh and ahh over the profundity of everything He Who Is Above Using Capital Letters says.

Such an inspiration.

And why didn’t someone tell me that being gay suddenly makes everything you do so precious and important–you know, when there was still time for that information to do me some good?

HERESY: ‘TWILIGHT’ STARS JOIN IMMORTALS AT GRAUMAN’S CHINESE THEATRE

“Bloody Disgusting” has this exactly right. Over 80-plus years only around 250 recipients have been honored with immortality at Grauman’s and to have these three–who have done nothing other than star in a popular franchise–join is like having some one-hit wonder enter the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.

I love movies but, man alive, do I hate pop culture.

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Be sure to go listen to the latest episode of the HomeVideodrome podcast, where Jim Dirkes and I go off on tangents about Don Dokken, the horror that is the new sit-com Whitney, and how iTunes & NetFlix think we have crappy taste.  Of course, we also talk about movies, good, bad, and stupid.  So, go forth, listen, and enjoy!

Carlos was one of my favorite films of 2010, Olivier Assayas’s cracking chronicle of the career of notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal is as entertaining as thrillers get, all 339 minutes of it.  Split into three episodes that serve as a whole, Carlos moves along at a brilliant clip, especially given its length.  The only bit where it slows down is towards the very end, which feels like a function of the actual true-story, more so than stretchy writing.

Assayas takes the time needed to flesh out Carlos as a character, doing a brilliant job of depicting the on-the-run lifestyle held by wanted terrorist.  The way Assayas approaches Carlos as a character makes his film the antithesis of Steven Soderbergh’s intellectually dishonest Che, a similarly ambitious film that covers a similar figure (and is also available on Criterion).  Assayas depicts Carlos as a terrible man who does terrible things, but is fully realized on the screen as a human being, as opposed to the filmmaker’s idea of what Carlos should be.  This is a stark contrast to Soderbergh’s Che, in which he depicts the murderer-turned-left-wing folk hero as a wise holy man who can do no wrong, especially in the film’s second part The Guerrilla.

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–DVD SALES DOWN 18.3% IN 2011; ITUNES DOMINATES DIGITAL MOVIE SALES–

Interesting Variety article, that for some reason isn’t behind their suicidal paywall.  Bottom line is that even though digital sales are picking up, they only make up a fraction of a market still dominated by physical DVDs — and that market is crashing. People are now renting and doing so through cheap retailers like Netflix and Redbox (as Blockbuster lowers their prices almost daily in order to stay alive).

If Hollywood wants to boost their sales biz, I have three suggestions:

1. Make better movies. The crap coming out now is not the kind of experience anyone wants to relive. Furthermore, the move towards 3D probably isn’t helping. That’s a THEATRE experience, not a living room experience. A huge theatre screen, super-duper theatre sound, and 3D might salvage a lousy movie for some people, but at home it’s just a lousy movie for all people.

2. For the love of all that’s holy, lower your prices — especially on the download side. Why in the world should we pay $15 for the digital download of a movie that we have to store on our own hard drive? Why should we pay that kind of money for an item no one had to manufacture, package, or ship? We might as well rent or buy the disc or wait six weeks and buy it as good as new from the Blockbuster previously-viewed bin.

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In 1962, John F. Kennedy noted that “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…” However, according to “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” the actual reason we went to the moon was to investigate a “Transformer” crash-landing there. Unfortunately, the film’s focus on rewriting history is one of the very few good things about the third installment in this tired series.

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Both this installment and the “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” have made me question my enjoyment of the original. I’ve seen “Transformers” since it arrived in theaters but now that I’ve seen the sequels it spawned, it’s hard to explain how the filmmakers went so wrong in what could have been a fun and exciting series. Both sequels  are overlong affairs, completely devoid of excitement or intrigue.

“Dark of the Moon” begins with a strong action sequence in space showing the battle for Cybertron. With 3D glasses, this battle and several other action sequences are impressive. Reminiscent of the battle sequence from the original “Star Wars,” this scene shows what can be done with the use of strong special effects and 3D.

Soon enough, the story begins rewriting history. Intermixed with clips of actors playing Presidents Nixon and Kennedy, real footage shows the former presidents talk about our nation’s first trip to the moon but the film argues that our goals on the moon were far different than what was stated publicly. Like in “X-Men,” an alternate reality is created using real-life events to supplement the story and in both stories, this alternate history lesson works well. Unfortunately, neither the strong special effects or rewriting history can overcome the story’s shortcomings.

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Whenever I’m accused of carrying water for conservative-leaning films, my best defense is always “Transformers 2,” which I ranked as number 1,2, and 3 in my list of the five worst films of that year. Love me some Michael Bay for making the Obama administration part of the problem and treating the United States Military with the respect it deserves, but…

And I’m a Michael Bay defender. Other other than the shaky-cam, I didn’t hate the first one, but it’s no exaggeration for me to say that sitting through the sequel was the most purely painful cinema-going experience of my life  … and I’ve seen “Grace is Gone.”

Bay and his star Shia Le-what’s-his-name have both fessed up to the awfulness of part 2 and have a pretty valid excuse for where it all went so wrong, the writer’s strike. So let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and trust they’ve learned from their mistakes.

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The two highest-grossing movies in the United States from 2009 were “Avatar” and “Transformers 2.” The special effects and the anticipation before both films helped propel these films to earn hundreds of  millions of dollars. Much of the media coverage about both films (especially “Avatar”) focused on their special effects rather than their stories. With that in mind, one of the unfortunate legacies of 2009 at the movies may be that strong stories and great characters are seen as no match for visual excitement at the box office.

At the end of December 2009, Yahoo compiled a list of the top grossing movies of the year domestically. (Because the list came out in December, “Transformers 2” is featured as the highest grossing movie of the year, rather than “Avatar.”) The Yahoo list featured four sequels, one franchise revival (“Star Trek”), and one James Cameron movie about a planet with blue aliens on it. That latter film, along with “Transformers 2,” will not likely be remembered for its story or its characters, a disappointing realization for moviegoers who want great stories to go along with grand special effects. (more…)

It’s been a year since George W. Bush left office.  Do you miss him yet?  

I do.  

For all his foibles – utter inability to explain his policies to the American public, bending over backwards for bipartisanship with Democrats, foolish bailouts – Bush was a president who understood the battle between good and evil in our current war on Islamofascism, even if he wouldn’t call the war by its proper name. 

And Bush’s clarity had a measurable impact on our film culture.  Leaving aside the obvious mirror images (the success of 24 or Taken, e.g.), the Bush Administration saw a rash of huge blockbusters dealing with the dichotomy between good and evil, and the necessity of fighting evil with every resource at our disposal.  

The single top earner of the Bush Administration was The Dark Knight, a very thinly veiled defense of Bush tactics in the war on terror.  No better speech on the motivation for terror can be found in movies than Michael Caine’s assertion as Alfred that “some people just want to watch the world burn.”   (more…)

Even bad or marginal films can offer stand-alone scenes that stand out. Here are my ten favorites from last year:

1. Up – Married Life Montage: Four of the most memorable and moving minutes you’ll ever see. Most montages and flashbacks of this sort focus on what David Zucker lampooned so well in the “Naked Gun” films: the run-on-the-beach type of stuff. Director Pete Docter not only captured the harsh realities of life with a miscarriage and the tragedy of growing old, but also the small everyday moments that later become the most poignant. Docter’s real accomplishment, though, was in setting the early bar so high with these heartrending few minutes and then living up to them for the next 90. 

2. Inglourious Basterds –  Once Upon a Time… In Nazi-Occupied France:  After “Death Proof” I worried that one our great directors had started to buy into his own fanboy press that he could do no wrong. But the “Basterds” opening scene with “The Jew Hunter,” SS Officer Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz —  who must win the Oscar), psychologically destroying a French farmer, not only unnerved me completely but eased all my fears regarding Mr. Tarantino. (more…)

Actor and comedian Sammy Petrillo passed away over the weekend.  Who is Sammy Petrillo?  Good question.  I wasn’t familiar with him either when I heard the news, but after a few minutes on Al Gore’s Internet I found out a lot.

Sammy was a Bronx born actor and comedian who had some minor success in the 1950s.  He took his physical similarity to Jerry Lewis and ran with it.  He became known as the “fake Jerry Lewis” after creating an onstage and onscreen persona that mimicked Lewis’ shtick.  He even went as far as to hook up with a Dean Martinesque straight man named Duke Mitchell.  The real Jerry Lewis wasn’t amused and even went so far as to intimidate others in Hollywood not to feature Petrillo on their shows and bullied Vegas venues into blackballing his act. 

Most reboots are epic fails.

The point of bringing up Petrillo (besides encouraging you to watch his funny performance in “Bela Lugosi meets the Brooklyn Gorilla” on YouTube) is to illustrate that the “trend” of ripoffs, remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings is nothing new. Take it from me, the guy who shamelessly made “Transmorphers,” remakes and ripoffs are part of Hollywood history.  What is more depressing is the fact that re-imagining and remakes are also part of the political culture.

Our society has a sort of “political amnesia”; forcing us to repeat the same economic and policy mistakes every thirty years or so.  What else is the Obama administration but a “remake” of the Clinton administration (with almost half the original cast!)?  You can almost hear the pitch meeting.  “It’s FDR meets Clinton!  We reboot the franchise.  We forget about the Carter episode just like we pretended that Superman III and IV never happened.” (more…)

What does Voltron, Gumby, “Gods of War III” and Bone have in common? Nothing and everything. This is the great cultural collision that occurs at the San Diego Comic-con. I moved into my booth as all of the exhibitors to the world’s most popular cultural event prepares to overwhelm, nay, smother an unsuspecting public when the doors open.

The last ten or so years has seen a deliberate migration of Hollywood into what used to be a convention to celebrate just comics. A general sense of grumbling can be heard from the true comic fans who resent the beautiful rich crowd carpet-bagging onto Will Eisner’s turf. But what many don’t realize is that this has contributed to the mainstreaming of comics into the rest of culture. With entertainment’s money comes stability of the comics medium, a broadening of a market, more books sold, artists, writers, publishers and bookstores able to stay alive a little longer this is good for our tribe. (more…)

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Megan Fox recently stated that her solution to a real life evil Transformer invasion would be to negotiate and ask, “instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America?”

I also found these quotes from Ms. Fox:

“I don’t want to have to go on talk shows and pull out every single S.A.T. word I’ve ever learned, to prove, like, ‘Take me seriously, I am intelligent, I can speak.’ I don’t want to have to do that. I resent having to prove that I’m not a retard.”

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The “Terminator” films are about the takeover of the world by machines, and unfortunately the series has itself manifested that phenomenon, being increasingly taken over by special effects and action sequences at the expense of identifiable human concerns.

Terminator Salvation, the fourth film in the apocalyptic action series, is heavy on action and sensational visual effects, but weak on the things that originally made this series so popular. It will please audience members who don’t expect too much from it.

Terminator Salvation is the first in the series without Arnold Schwarzenegger as a primary character, and the series has moved increasingly away from the personal, intimate approach of the first installment (in which the fate of Sarah Connor was at the center of the story and her relationship with Kyle Reese is at the forefront). (more…)

I make silly, fun movies.  Stuff you pick up at your local Blockbuster or watch on the Sci-fi Channel.  I’ve always said that most of my films, because of budget limitations, end up being “two star” movies, but with a six pack and some friends, they become exceedingly enjoyable experiences.

One source of endless enjoyment for me and my co-workers is watching how the various buyers (DVD, television, and international) market the films.  The trailers, posters, and commercials  are wildly different depending on who the intended audience is.  As an example, in the U.S. my latest film is called “Chrome Angels.” It’s a sci-fi/action/comedy about a female biker gang that runs into a town populated by evil cyborgs. At the Cannes Film Market, the distributor is calling it “Cyborg Conquest.”  The trailer and poster don’t even reference female bikers, motorcycles, or comedy.  They, instead, are selling it as a serious action film centered on CGI cyborgs that don’t actually appear in the film. (more…)

“The Fast and the Furious” came out of nowhere in 2001 to make a ton of money, spawn a franchise and I’d say for about two years afterwards I practically wore out the DVD. That little street-racing melodrama aimed for a target and squarely hit the bull’s-eye. It is everything it wanted to be; a perfect genre grinder.  Predictably abysmal sequels soon followed: “2 Fast 2 Furious” (2003), weighed down with director John Singleton’s smug approach to racial issues and over- the-top CGI, couldn’t even deliver the racing thrills, and 2006’s “Tokyo Drift” (2006) took the muscle out of “muscle car” with a miscast Lucas Black, an otherwise solid actor, in the lead.

Hoping to reboot, the new “Fast & Furious” reunites the four main players from the original and is so stripped down and back to basics the title refuses to make room for even a “the” or an “and.” Within thirty minutes the story credibly and effortlessly reunites the cast (hat tip to the screenwriters for that) and a simple revenge plot is set up to allow for at least five major racing sequences, a couple of which are alone worth the price of admission. (more…)

Although America is suffering through its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, there is no recession in the movie business. Led by the Warner Bros reboot of Friday the Thirteenth and a couple of surprisingly strong chick flicks, Hollywood’s top twelve grossing movies may grab a combined $201.5M over the long President’s Day weekend holiday, which marks an all-time best for the annual 4-day movie-going bonanza.

TOP GROSSING PRESIDENT’S WEEKENDS FOR HOLLYWOOD
- combined gross of top 12 films -
1. 2009 – $201.5M (estimated)
2. 2007 – $167.8M
3. 2008 – $141.1M
4. 2003 – $141M
5. 2005 – $137.1M

Director Marcus Nispel (2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) and the Platinum Dunes production company have gotten the all-new Friday the Thirteenth off to a spectacular $19.3M opening day. That could translate to a well-above-expectations $47M by Tuesday morning. The new Jason restart quickly follows the Platinum Dunes success of The Unborn, released on January 9 to a $19.8M 3-day take. That David D. Goyer written and directed genre pic was made for just $16M, and The Unborn has generated an estimated $42M in the US.

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