Saturday, September 29, 2018 at 12:05PM by Nathaniel R
click to embiggen
Thoughts as they came without self-censorship:
Since he's wearing winged shoes we expect him to float up into the sky during a musical sequence, like a queer Mercules auditoning for the Griffiths Observatory number in La La Land...
Thursday, March 17, 2016 at 9:21AM Josh reporting on much Harrison Ford news. Ford has long since solidified himself as one of cinema’s most iconic megastars. Following the triple whammy of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Blade Runner in the early 80’s, Harrison Ford received top billing for every film he was in until Morning Glory in 2010. That’s nearly 3 decades of leading man status. The last decade hasn’t been the series of hits he’s accustomed to with epic flops like Paranoia, Cowboys and Aliens, and Ender’s Game. Which is why we’re heading back to the 80’s and revisiting peak Ford.
The big news this week is he’s once again returning as Indiana Jones for the 5th time. If you’ve already ruined a legacy with an abysmal 4th film, why not just keep making money off it? He’ll be 77 by the time it hits our screen, and whilst age shouldn’t be a restriction on kicking ass on screen, wouldn’t it be nice to see the same for our beloved actresses? Julie Christie is only one year older than Ford. Are you listening Tomb Raider reboot? With Spielberg back, this will be as much a trip down nostalgia lane as it was seeing Ford re-treading the deck of the Millennium Falcon in The Force Awakens last year.
With the increasingly cinematically adventurous and fascinating Denis Villeneuve at the helm of the Blade Runner sequel Ford is also returning to, there’s every chance we could be in store for a fresh look at the vivid world Scott created in the 80’s. That imagined future was so realised and dynamic, it leaves the story very open for new ambitious directions. So far rumours indicate that Ryan Gosling will actually be the lead, with Ford’s Deckard supporting in a way to anchor it to the universe we know.
The last bit of Ford related news this week is that the casting for the young Han Solo in the Star Wars spin off has been narrowed down to three. Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Alden Ehrenreich, who stole Hail, Caesar! from the rest of a stunning cast, Jack Reynor best known for Transformers: The Age of Who Cares (but solid in indies), and Taron Egerton whose charisma and scientifically perfect jawline made an impactful debut in Kingsman. This unfortunately leaves out contender Emory Cohen who made everyone in the world disappointed in their spouses in comparison to him via Brooklyn.
Are you still a passenger in the Ford car? Is the upcoming deluge of Ford reboots a Harris-ment to your childhood? Have I gone too far with these weak at best Harrison Ford puns? Let us know in the comments!
Friday, February 26, 2016 at 5:00PM 
Eric here for the new Hugh Jackman. Eddie the Eagle tells the true-life story of Michael “Eddie” Edwards, who became the first skier to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping in 1988. The comic spin: Eddie is not really an athlete, or a particularly good skier. But he’s a dreamer! And tenacious!
Even if this weren’t a true story, you’d know from the first few scenes where it was headed. Director Dexter Fletcher doesn’t have any aspiration higher than to make you feel good, but he has a just-pluckier-than-sitcom sensibility that feels predictably right for this genre. He delivers the kind of film that studio executives love, where nothing is challenging and all the characters fall into their respective stereotypes (including groan-inducing taunting foreign competitors and the horny middle-aged female bar owner.!)
Where the filmmakers got it right, and very very lucky, is with their two leads. Externally, Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) overplays the comedy with a bit too many Zellwegarian face scrunches, but internally he has a surefooted instinct for the joke and knows how to keep things surprising with his captivating capriciousness. For this film the latter goes a long way. Jackman has essentially no character on the page, but he plays it as if nobody told him he’s in a mediocre movie. One of Jackman’s secret weapons as a movie star is that he always knows exactly what is required of him in any given film. Here he just needs to loan out his star wattage to add credibility and look great in jeans; he supplies both with sweet aplomb.
Even though this movie has low ambitions, which it achieves with low success, it’s tough to be mad at it. There are enough bright lines of dialogue to make you wish there were more, plus a bouncy score that salutes 80s comedies (until it veers towards standard, Feel-This-Way scoring). The film may be as subversive as a Norman Rockwell painting, but when Egerton and Jackman walk towards each other flapping their wings, there’s a pleasant little high.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 7:28AM Manuel here. 2015 may be over but 2015 lists won’t stop for another week or two. This one comes courtesy of IMDB. In their own words, “the rising stars on this list experienced the largest increase in their best weekly STARmeter ranking in 2015 as compared to 2014.” If you’re like me and had to confirm what an actor’s STARmeter is, know that it basically calculates people’s awareness:
The primary measure is who and what people are looking at on IMDb.”
Testament of Youth co-stars make the 2015 list
It’s a fascinating list if one that skews young, white, and television-heavy. I have to admit I could only easily identify half the list and those are primarily the ones in the thick of awards conversation. From the 10 listed, we have 2 Golden Globe nominees, and 3 SAG-nominated actors.
Unsurprisingly, the list is full of pretty faces that you’ll recognize from established TV tentpoles like Fear the Walking Dead, buzzy Netflix series like Narcos, Orange is the New Black, Sense8, as well as big box office hits like Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Straight Outta Compton. Of course, 2015's “It girl”/ hardest working actress Alicia Vikander makes the list though she’s probably lower than we’d all have wagered. A reminder, perhaps, that prestige “rising stars” can sometimes exist in their own little critical bubble. [More...]
Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 11:00AM 
Michael C here with a question: When did it stop mattering if the hero saves the day?
Recently, it seems as long as the protagonist gives it the old college try that’s good enough to get rounded up to a victory. If a few thousand innocents die before he gets the job done, eh, nobody’s perfect. I started noticing this trend right around the time Man of Steel had to be careful to keep the piles of dead Metropolitans out of frame while Superman kissed Lois Lane on a pile of rubble.
Now we have Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service which ups the ante by not only having the hero fail to stop the villain from causing an outbreak of mass violence, but by lingering lovingly on the mayhem, including a mother who is brainwashed into attempting to murder her own baby. With previous examples of this trend, one could chalk it up to blockbuster inflation, with each movie trying to top its predecessors until the implications of all that destruction became unavoidable. With Kingsman, however, it feels like the showing of true colors, dropping the pretense that the film is about anything more than unashamedly reveling in a mass bloodletting. Vile stuff.
I realize I risk coming off as a prude and a scold by taking to task a film which wants only to be giddy escapist entertainment. [More...]
