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12 articles from 2008

3 October 2008 12:31 AM, PDT | From GetTheBigPicture.net | See recent Get The Big Picture news

Appaloosa

Starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, and Renee Zellweger

Directed by Ed Harris

Rated R

What’s left for the western? Hollywood has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the genre for over a century, technically longer than the American West itself existed in the format depicted so often on screen, and seen again in Ed Harris’ new film, Appaloosa.

The good guys wear white era has forever shattered by John Ford’s The Searchers, which perfected the art of the morally ambiguous hero in the cowboy movie. More important modifications were made in the 1960s with the Sergio Leone movies, The Wild Bunch, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Clint Eastwood’s westerns have their own distinct arc, running from High Plains Drifter to the savagery of Josey Wales to the ultimate redemption in The Unforgiven of both the western hero and the western in general.

Colin Boyd

18 September 2008 1:05 PM, PDT | From avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news

The Western as a genre is long dead—at least in the sense that the old stories of bringing order to lawlessness (or lawlessness to the unsettled territories) have been played out in countless iterations, and only a strong, original vision can make a fresh impression. In other words, it's become a director's game in the years since Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch laid the genre to bloody rest, and those without the chops of, say, Robert Altman (McCabe & Mrs. Miller), Sergio Leone (Once Upon A Time In The West), or Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven) shouldn't bother. Any traditional oater won't do. In the early going, Appaloosa does an efficient job of establishing the tense standoff between lawmen-for-hire Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, and a tyrannical rancher (an extravagantly sinister Jeremy Irons), who holds an entire New Mexico town under his thumb. In the face of threats—first latent, then direct—from.

Scott Tobias

8 September 2008 12:26 AM, PDT | From Rope Of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news

Hideaki Ito in Sukiyaki Western Django

Photo: First Look Pictures I can't say I expected a lot from Sukiyaki Western Django, but with the ultra-violent auteur Takashi Miike directing a spaghetti western with all the elements of Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah and Akria Kurosawa in tow with an element of the absurd holding together a mish-mash of William Shakespeare there was no way I was going to miss it. Unfortunately this film won't knock your socks off, but it will definitely find its way into the unique catalog of films filed away in your brain. Miike is best known for such films as Audition and Ichi the Killer along with his flair for blood and gore. As someone not at all knowledgeable when it comes to Miike's body of work I won't be able to compare this to anything on those terms, but it's not really necessary. This isn't a

Brad Brevet

3 September 2008 2:00 PM, PDT | From Spout.com | See recent Spout news

Ever since the great Italian director Sergio Leone rode into town, it's been clear that the Western is not solely the domain of American filmmakers. Leone's Spaghetti Westerns boosted Clint Eastwood's career and forever changed the genre. A new film from Korea, what many are calling a Kimchi Western, may change the genre once again. Kim Ji-Woon's The Good, the Bad, and the Weird is in many ways an homage to Leone's The Goo ...

Kevin Buist

2 September 2008 12:08 AM, PDT | From firstshowing.net | See recent FirstShowing.net news

As a finale to the Telluride Film Festival and as my last screening, I saw The Good, The Bad, and The Weird, an immensely fun and absurdly badass Asian spaghetti western. I've been anxiously awaiting an opportunity to see this film ever since I first caught the trailer back in May. After finally seeing it, I can definitely say it delivers so much more than I expected. This film is playing at every big festival - Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Toronto, and Fantastic Fest - and that should tell you a bit more than just that it's a great festival film - it's a fantastic cinematic experience as well. Although I enjoyed the culture and storytelling in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, I had an exceptionally fun time watching this. The Good, The Bad, and The Weird is an exciting fusion of Asian spaghetti westerns, Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad,

Alex Billington

28 August 2008 6:03 PM, PDT | From Cinematical.com | See recent Cinematical news

By chance, two Takashi Miike movies, Dead or Alive and Audition, opened in my town with in a week of one another in 2001. It was pretty eye opening seeing the huge difference between them, the speedy carnage of the former and the slow suspense of the latter, and I became an instant fan. Since then I've managed to track down just six more Miike movies, and in that same time he has made over forty (including videos and TV shows). The speed of his production fits perfectly with the personality of his movies. They're often nonsensical; I couldn't make heads or tails of two of his more recent pictures, Gozu and The Great Yokai War. And they're very definitely energetic, verging on crazy. He reminds me of the great German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who cranked out over 40 movies and TV shows in less than 15 years and died at the

Jeffrey M. Anderson

25 August 2008 8:09 AM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Neil Pedley

This week's new films include the Western going Eastern, a couple of exotic music docs, Cinderella stories for girls and for boys and Vin Diesel attempting to walk, chew gum and shoot people -- all at the same time.

"Babylon A.D."

Second chances all around in this stylish cyberpunk romp that sees "La Haine" director Mathieu Kassovitz take another bite at the mainstream cherry after stumbling with his last detour into Hollywood, the Halle Berry clunker "Gothika." Vin Diesel, who passed on "Hitman" for this, also gets another shot at a potential franchise after eliciting a collective yawn with his Neo-lite performance in "The Chronicles of Riddick." After a troubled shoot fraught with budget overruns and uncooperative weather, Diesel has the bigger challenge on his hands as Toorop, a mercenary charged with trying to save the world with a snowboard while escorting a genetically altered young woman

Neil Pedley

8 August 2008 12:35 AM, PDT | From toxicshock.tv | See recent toxicshock news

Check out the latest red band movie trailer from “Hell Ride” presented by Quentin Tarantino (Grindhouse) by director Larry Bishop and starring and starring Dennis Hopper, Michael Madsen, Larry Bishop and Vinnie Jones. Synopsis: Hell Ride is a raucous throwback to the days of the Sergio Leone spaghetti western, with a heaping helping of testosterone-fueled chopper action thrown into the mix. Writer/director Larry Bishop takes on a third role as Pistolero, head honcho of the Victors, a group of bad ass bikers who are out to avenge the murder of one of their members at the hands of the 666ers, a rival gang whose actions live up to their hellish moniker. Along with his cohorts, the Gent (deviously portrayed by Michael [...]

Brian Corder

7 August 2008 9:59 PM, PDT | From NYPost.com | See recent New York Post news

If you enjoy foulmouth dialogue mixed with sex, violence, bikes, badass bikers, boobs, babes, booze, brawling, broken noses and broken promises - then the Quentin Tarantino-produced "Hell Ride" should make you one happy guy.

I say "guy" because unless you are one (preferably about 26), chances are good that "Hell Ride" won't be on your date-movie list. Unless, that is, you happen to be a psycho killer - or are dating one.

It is, as the promotional material says, a "throwback to the Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns," but here

By LINDA STASI

7 August 2008 6:52 PM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Aaron Hillis

Born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey, Larry Bishop (son of Rat Pack comic Joey Bishop) began his acting career after high school, working in comedy with friends like Rob Reiner and Richard Dreyfuss. Though he's guest-starred on TV sitcoms like "Laverne & Shirley," "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Barney Miller," Bishop is far better known for being a drive-in theater badass, appearing as an American International Pictures contract player in wild-and-wooly biker flicks like 1968's "The Savage Seven" and 1971's "Chrome and Hot Leather." On an acting hiatus after 1983 (more on that later), Bishop returned to the screen in the mid-'90s with new credits to his name, writing the script for "Underworld" and making his directorial debut, "Mad Dog Time."

Enter exploitation film guru Quentin Tarantino. Understandably a fan of Bishop's Aip years, Tarantino cast him in a bit part for the second volume of "Kill Bill,

Aaron Hillis

28 July 2008 10:28 AM, PDT | From TwitchFilm.net | See recent Twitch news

We’ve been tracking the progress of Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro’s Brazilian zombie picture Beyond the Grave for a good while now, and why not? When you’ve got the same effects crew doing your make up as handled the latest from the legendary Coffin Joe and are citing the likes of Jodorowsky and Sergio Leone as key visual influences there is lots of reason for hope. Well, the full trailer for the film has just arrived and while it definitely shows it’s budget limits a little bit this thing looks like some bloodily impressive stuff. Not content to do ‘just another zombie movie’ Pinheiro builds his film around a cop tracking a serial killer in a world that just happens to be in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. And those visual influences? The Leone is definitely there and I see a lot of Dick Tracy style

Todd Brown

10 July 2008 8:56 AM, PDT | From toxicshock.tv | See recent toxicshock news

Watch the latest movie trailer from the upcoming film “Hell Ride” presented by Quentin Tarantino (Grindhouse) by director Larry Bishop and starring and starring Dennis Hopper, Michael Madsen, Larry Bishop and Vinnie Jones. Synopsis: Hell Ride is a raucous throwback to the days of the Sergio Leone spaghetti western, with a heaping helping of testosterone-fueled chopper action thrown into the mix. Writer/director Larry Bishop takes on a third role as Pistolero, head honcho of the Victors, a group of bad ass bikers who are out to avenge the murder of one of their members at the hands of the 666ers, a rival gang whose actions live up to their hellish moniker. Along with his cohorts, the Gent (deviously portrayed by Michael [...]

Brian Corder

12 articles from 2008