Trailers From Hell

Even a bad movie can have a great trailer.

I stumbled upon this fun web site via Mr. Peel's Sardine Liqueur blog's links of interest. Trailers From Hell offers a wonderful revival and nostalgic look back at old movie trailers. With commentary done by real film folk (John Landis, Rod Lurie, Joe Dante, David DeCoteau, Larry Karaszewski, and others), it's a tribute to film of all kinds (well... from the good to camp to Grindhouse variety, that is). And they present new content (a new old trailer) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I think this site has it all, except an RSS or Atom feed for those of us who use aggregators the site feed is labeled The TFH RSS Feed (under Coming Soon...) [thanks, Tom Edgar]. Anyway, take a look:

Response to The Mist

Earlier today, one of my favorite bloggers, Nordette Adams, posted a very good, fun and insightful piece that examines spoilers (and the need of warning of their existence) for those who write about books or movies on the web. And I agree with many things she has to say concerning the storylines/expectations of genres and series. Plus, it has a very funny Buffy meets Twilight vid that's worth seeing. However, she brought up an item that caused me to react on a written work:

Remember Stephen King's movie/story The Mist? Despite it being horror, despite it being King, people were still pissed because they wanted a more pleasant, hopeful ending, a Hollywood ending.

This article has been updated and moved to my current blog, which can be found here.

"Yeah, it's about four hundred grand."

Though I had noted it awhile back, I hadn't viewed the very underrated 1972 neo noir film, Hickey & Boggs, in a few years. Even though I have both the VHS and the horrid DVD versions of this Bill Cosby and Robert Culp movie (in nowhere near their I Spy modes), I hadn't played either in awhile. But luckily, Corey at The Drowning Machine spotted (paraphrasing) 'the paean Duane Swierczynski penned to the film at Secret Dead Blog'--I highly recommend their insights on this film. And that led to the free Fancast link for the film from a post commenter (which Corey cited, as well). So yesterday, I finally had a couple of hours to myself to watch this on my laptop via the site stream. The film, with Culp directing a Walter Hill screenplay (both excellent), gets better with each viewing. No kidding. I also pick up new items of note each time I watch it. If I can piggyback onto Duane's and Corey's stream of consciousness, I'd like to mention some of these here (spoiler warning for those of you who haven't seen this gem):

• when the two P.I.'s get to take in a hot dog meal together, it's at the world famous (at least for us Angelenos) Pink's - and I'm pretty sure the last time I was there with the kids I did note Bill Cosby's picture up on their wall of fame (and look what I found on their web site)
  
• the pint of liquor Boggs takes a periodic swig from is Dewar's White Label Scotch blend (not that I was ever a drinker of any note, but I use to be a stock person at a liquor store a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away)
  
• the parking section for the setup and shoot-out at Dodger Stadium was number 32--which is an athlete number of note, especially for L.A. sports fans: Koufax, Magic, Bill Walton (UCLA), Marcus Allen (as a L.A. Raider), and the pre-notorious O.J. But, that was long ago and that parking lot has changed some--that section # no longer exists
  
• the early 60's cars for each of our antihero P.I.'s are a perfect symbol for their down-on-their-luck and out-of-fashion status within the story and this genre in the 70's: Hickey's white Chevy II and Boggs' blue T-Bird (both in beat-to-hell vintage condition)
  
• when Boggs seeks a replacement vehicle (and it's the exact same car), the used sales lot he buys it at is not a actual one: the filmmakers used the same Inglewood Oil Field that's been used in many a movie shoot (i.e., the Victory Motel for L.A. Confidential); even author Robert Crais used the location for the climatic shoot-out in his book, Sunset Express
  
• lastly, the closing title sequence is a perfect one for this film (in the contrastingly somber tradition of film noir): after Boggs (smartly) picks up the fence's untraceable money and trudges after his partner, the camera beautifully tracks right as it follows the survivors into the background of the setting sun--while in the foreground the lens gathers in the juxtaposed deadly wreckage of the story's other principle characters, who are now strewn about the beach
  

I really hope one day the legal tangle that's keeping this great film from a proper DVD release gets straightened out. Film and noir fans should see it on a disc with a remastered picture and the extras it deserves. The free stream of this movie, though it has commercial breaks, is the full theatrical release and is a pretty pristine print. Playing it on full screen mode softened it only a mild bit. What's interesting is Amazon is now offering H & B on their Video on Demand service for rent or purchase. So maybe this film is starting to get the attention it warrants. Either way, I'd like to send a big thank you to Corey for sending me Duane's post and to Terrill Lee Lankford for listing the Fancast link in his keen comment.

Note: a great looking print of Hickey & Boggs is now on

(click to go to it)

BTW, the title of this post is a portion of dialogue - Boggs' earlier answer to his partner Hickey's lament:

It's not about anything.

Oh, yes it is, Hickey. Yes it is.

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Too Funny...

Varying Degrees of Tastiness

After viewing some of what's out there in Summer Movies during the past week, I feel the need to mention what actually worth consuming, IMO:

I'd Spit It Back, If I Could

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - this has to be my most despised movie of the summer (so far). Having sat through the first movie two years ago with my son, and being too old for this Hasbro toy line to really care, it was just okay (in that Michael Bay, actiony kinda of way). However, that first movie now seems like classic cinema compared to this monstrosity (I'm actually checking for signs of the Apocalypse since it's making money hand over fist). Where do we begin? Loud, long, chaotic, offensive (especially for the adults taking their kids to this for the inappropriate language and its promotion of the worst of racial stereotypes for two new autobot characters), and for having Steven Spielberg totaling forgetting his responsibilities as an Executive Producer to deliver something he could be proud of and have his name associated with it. And I really hate it that my son absolutely loved this--where did I go wrong as a parent!!!

Tasteless: As In It Has Almost No Flavor

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - I'm beginning to think if it has a colon anywhere in the title, you should be suspicious. Ever since Pixar began its long line of quality animation films, others have tried to get in on the genre with movies of their own. 20th Century Fox has to be third in line (behind Dreamworks) in regards to what they put out. The first Ice Age was cute, not great (I mean, who could have imagined Dennis Leary doing safe voice work in a kid's movie). But, its subsequent sequels have been going down in quality and concept. I'm with critic A.O. Scott on this one:

But the idea that a hot, verdant land, populated by giant lizards and carnivorous plants, might have lain hidden beneath the glacial, prehistoric ice — I’m sorry, but that’s just idiotic.

It has its moments, namely anytime the swashbuckling Buck is on screen (voiced by Simon Pegg), but it definitely is not worth getting excited over.

Tasty

The Proposal - right up front, I'm a Sandra Bullock fan. Most of the time, her smart and sexy persona and timing in a romantic comedy are impecable. And here, she returns to what she does best. I'll just point you over to Pop Culture Nerd's review of it since she's already said it, and said it well. I'll just add that the wife of Jesse James is mighty impressive in an hysterical nude scene in this film, and worth seeing just for that alone.


The Hurt Locker - Kathyn Bigelow always makes the most interesting of action films (whether they are great or not, they are never boring). From Near Dark to Point Break to K19, The Widowmaker, the woman is a hell of a director. And this one is one hell of a film. Intense, gut twisting suspenseful, and evocative--THL is memorable. I think it is likely to go down as the first film of the Iraqi War that's worth experiencing. But, I warn you now. The director makes use of hand held camera techniques in the film, and its inherent motion. Not since Peter Berg's The Kingdom have I gotten motion sick like I did with this one. Now if someone could only have her teach Michael Bay how its done, the nausea would be worth it.

Tastiest

Public Enemies - out of this partial list of Summer Movies, this film was it for me. Michael Mann is a master of the crime genre, and he breaks new digital ground here with his film centered upon John Dillinger and the rise of Hoover's FBI. Johnny Depp gives a subtle but great performance as the Depression-era outlaw. But, this is still Mann's film and he details with his usual care an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's non-fiction book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34. And though past gangster crime films have been the territory of B pictures, this is one A level film. I can't say it better than L.A. Times critic Kenneth Turan does:

"Public Enemies' " title, though taken from Bryan Burrough’s history of Depression era crime, offers uncanny -- and deceptive -- echoes of one of the iconic gangster films of the period, William Wellman's "The Public Enemy," which starred an incandescent James Cagney as a hooligan so hard-boiled he shocked American by squeezing a grapefruit into girlfriend Mae Clarke's face.

But if Cagney is all exuberant, anarchic energy, Johnny Depp’s Dillinger is just the opposite. There is a formal, almost existential quality about his fatalistic portrayal of the scourge of the Midwest, more "Le Samourai" than "White Heat," more Alain Delon cool than Cagney hot.

Something tells me that I'll be adding another Mann film to annual viewing list...