Monologue Monday: "Time To Die"

Today marked the 30th anniversary of Blade Runner, one of the most influential movies of all time. The last time I saw the picture was  5 years ago for its restored 25th anniversary . T'was quite a mindfuck to see a movie so clearly 80s looking like it just came from the lab. For the anniversary I thought I'd share this previous article on Roy Batty's famous final monologue...

Blade Runner's perfect opening shot. Human but abstract

I've lost track of the times I've seen people steal from it, particularly in the art direction/ production design world (the world that spawned auteur Ridley Scott, don'cha know?). Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the leader of a freethinking band of androids known as "replicants" is the best character in the movie. He's scary yet soulful and sympathetic... like a 21st century Frankenstein monster. [More after the jump]

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Maleficent is Coming

Production began on Maleficent (2014) today. A movie we're both totally in for and dreading for very different reasons simultaneously. Of course pre-production has long been afoot as this new photo of the incomparable Angelina Jolie as Disney's best villainess attests. Oscar nominated costume designer Anna B Sheppard (Schindler's List) has been hard at work (obviously) along with the makeup department in replicating the dangerously sharp cheekboned, horned devil look.

Angelina "Maleficent" Joliedglksg

The film will star Angelina as Maleficent and Fanning the Younger as Sleeping Beauty along with Sharlto Copley (District 9), Sam Riley (Control), some Mike Leigh regulars and Juno Temple. Most intriguing is the slightly unexpected production team which boasts Sheppard (best known for WW II era prestige dramas rather than fantasies) Dean Semler on cinematography (better known for westerns like Young Guns and Dances with Wolves than fantasies). Screenwriter Linda Woolverton who helped pen two Disney classics The Lion King and Beauty & The Beast has the script duties though we might have to worry about yet another "backstory" retelling. Doesn't anyone love the inherent mystery of iconic characters anymore? I know I do.

poll by twiigs.com

Twins: Luke & Leia

twins daily at 2:22 pm (while we're in Gemini)

Like most people of my generation I grew up with the Star Wars franchise (1977-1983. It ends there, right?) as the single most defining pop culture event of youth. I did not, however, feel any particular need to have it as a continuing Force (heh) in my life, afterwards. By the time I was a teenager I had already moved on to the collected works of dramatic actresses as The Single Most Satisfying Form of Entertainment. So I'm kind of amazed still that in any given month on the internet you can find dozens of new articles or tumblr items or deviant art sketches or nsfw riffs or ANYTHING at all about the franchise. It just doesn't stop... even after George Lucas tried to kill it cluttering up the beautifully sparse frames of the originals with merciless revisionism and CGI accessorizing.

Yet despite my lack of continued love for the franchise to end all franchises (or, more accurately, the franchise to start all franchises -- that's all we get now!) I will admit that Luke & Leia still have a very special place in my adult heart. 

More on Padmé & Darth's twins after the jump...

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Twins: The Poetry of "The Twins"

Are you enjoying the twins series? I can't tell but if not, what do you have against Geminis?

Pre-Cogs

A few days ago my mind flashed violently back to Minority Report (2002). I blame the recent screening of Prometheus (2012) since both films belong to the school of Gah!mazingly Art Directed Sci-Fi Movies that are nonetheless problematic given their collisions of greatness and "really?" moments. The other thing tying them together is one Not Entirely Human performance (Samantha Morton as "Agatha" / Michael Fassbender as "David") that is so damn enjoyable and smart that you can forgive a lot just for the pleasure of watching the actor do his or her best genre thing.

Fact: Samantha Morton and Michael Fassbender are inhumanly great actors.

Twins have always fascinated non-twins and not just from the visual double takes. Their assumed psychic connections suggest all sorts of telepathic supernatural and psycosomatic implications once you let your mind wander.  [The poetry of twins after the jump...]

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How long has it been since you've seen The Matrix?

Last weekend I decided it was time to burn through the DVD queue instead of sitting wordless at my computer. But when I opened the latest rental, The Good Fairy (1935) -- no, I can't remember why I rented it -- the disc was broken. We ended up watching The Matrix (1999) instead because when a black and white Willam Wyler / Preston Sturges comedy starring Margaret Sullavan is denied you, what other movie will do? LOL. 

Warner Bros had sent the BluRay and The Boyfriend remarked that we hadn't seen it since opening night in 1999. It seems like one of those movies we've all seen a million times but in my case that's only because it became such a pop culture staple. Not even its gobsmackingly terrible sequels could shake its grip on the zeitgeist.

The Matrix's modern blend of Alice in Wonderland, gun fetish porn, visual effects bravado, and technophobic dystopia was just what people craved in 1999 when the internet was so obviously and rapidly changing the world. It's tough to even think of a world without the web now but in the early 90s it was still something like a strange and unusual toy... unnerving even if you were hopelessly analog. Watching the movie now in 2012 is kind of a retro shock.

Six observations while watching the movie in 2012...

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