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Let’s get something staight right off the bat here folks. I hate movies where I am emotionally manipulated by insincere, generic storytelling. I hate it. Stories where you just know the ending well before it happens. To those who would say “hang on Rodney, isn’t that what movies are all about? Making you get hooked into the story?”, I say “yes, that’s true, and normally I’d look at a film like Marley & Me and avoid it like the plague. Films with animals as a central character take one of two routes. A) the animal is an underdog of some sort, who has to undergo a series of trials and tribulations before proving himself worthy of praise and awards (like any movie with a horse in it), or B) the animal dies at the end and we all cry. I hate crying over animals dying, because I am a soft girly-girl, and I hate it even more when the filmmakers telegraph such an event well before it occurs.

Thats said, I don’t want to spoil this film, so let’s just say that, one way or another, by the end of this film you’ll be crying, but in a good way. Marley & Me came as a little surprise, because I hadn’t expected a whole lot. I knew the film was based on a book some guy had written (I saw it in an airport lounge while waiting at Heathrow once) and figured “right, another film based on a book…. limited appeal and badly condensed narrative… how good could it be?”. The answer to that question is, amazingly enough, quite.

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Harve Presnell - 1933-2009

The last of our updates for the day today, as we feel it’s only prudent to mention the passing of yet another screen legend, the wonderful Harve Presnell. Most of you won’t know the name, but you’ll know the voice and face if you enjoyed Saving Private Ryan.
Presnell played General George C Marshall in Ryan, who reads the letter from Abraham Lincoln to Mrs Bixby (convincing his fellow officers that the mission to save Ryan is a valid one). Presnell also starred in the stage production of Annie, as Daddy Warbucks , sang a song in Paint Your Wagon, and small roles in Fargo, Dawsons Creek and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman.
Harve Presnell was 75.

Karl Malden - 1912-2009

The sad news keeps on coming, with word coming into the office today of the passing of a Hollywood great, Karl Malden.

Malden won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in A Streetcar Named Desire in 1951, and was nominated for On The Waterfront in 1954. He appeared in dozens of films and TV series throughout his career: in film he played roles in Patton, Pollyanna, How The West Was Won, Birdman Of Alcatraz, Miracle On Ice and Nuts, while on TV appeared in The Streets Of San Fransisco, as well as a first season episode of The West Wing, in 2001. The West Wing appearance would be his last in either medium.

Malden with Streets Of San Fransisco co-star Michael Douglas

Malden was born Mladen George Sekulovich in March of 1922, in Chicago, Illinois, to Czech parents. Speaking Serbian until he left kindergarten, Maldon played a variety of roles in school plays and musicals. After anglicizing his name at age 22, he famously often found ways to insert his birth surname into various roles, including Patton and Birdman Of Alcatraz. Malden married stage actress Mona Greenburg in 1932, and they remained married until his death.

Among his Oscar wins, Malden was the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, and has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Karl Malden was 97.

Mollie Sugden - 1922-2009

For those of us who grew up watching British TV in the 70’s and 80’s,there’s hardly anybody who will be unaware of the comedic impact of Are You Being Served?, that sexually charged show about a group of department store employees and their daily battle to remain employed. Well, another of their number have passed, this time, the incredibly funny Mollie Sugden, who played the cermudgeony Mrs Slocombe. Sugden played Slocombe for over a decade, as the series lasted from 1972 to 1985. Slocombe was reknowned for her double entendre’s and conversations about her “pussy”, which invariably meant she was talking about her housecat, and was a series favourite.
Sugden reprised the character in Grace & Favour, in 1992 and 1993, when some of the Served cast reunited in a comeback series.
Sugden also appeared in a semi-regular role in Coronation Street, as well as appearances in Benny Hill, Z Cars, and The Goodies, among others.
Mollie Sugden died yesterday in Guildford, England, of undiclosed causes. She was 86.

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I have followed David Finchers directorial career for a while now, since his aborted attempt to coherently tell the story of Alien 3, when he famously stated he’d never work with Fox studios again. Since then, Fincher’s body of work has been steadily improving, and although perhaps not as commercially successful as most studio heads would like, his commitment to quality of storytelling has been second to none. From Fight Club and Se7en, as well as Panic Room and more recently Zodiac (and let’s not forget the sleeper thriller The Game, which I felt was criminally underrated) have, in my mind, catapulted Fincher from simple (yet stylish) MTV video clip director to master showman. Fincher’s cinematic ability is first rate, and after viewing this Oscar contender, I bet the guy who dumped him from Alien 3 duties is now kicking himself.

I liken Fincher to the style and passion of Robert Zemeckis, in the way in which he really uses the film medium to tell his story. Every shot of Finchers is like a painting, especially here in Benjamin Button, a film based on the F Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same name. Fincher’s deft use of cinematography, in which he flavours the period parts of the film to look like vintage material, is of the highest order, the use of lighting and shadow to really bring the characters, the tone of the film, to vivid life.

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Word came through earlier in the week that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who run and host the Oscars, have decided to allow the nomination of Best Picture category open to ten nominees, rather than the traditional five, at the next ceremony.

As far as we understand, no other category of nomination will change, only the Best Picture one. So, instead of having a closely run five-picture contest, we will now have a broad range of films from which to try and pick a winner.

Why have the Academy done this? According to official statements, it’s to make the Oscars more exciting and to allow a larger field of movies to vie for the coveted title of Best Picture. What this is, however, is a blatant attempt to prevent the same thing as happened at the last Oscars: where The Dark Knight and Pixars’s WALL-E were not nominated, and films like Revolutionary Road (which, I might add is a great film, just not as well known as TDK) got in. Much critical consternation was caused by what was considered to be an oversight on the Academy’s part, and they came in for a hammering from the fan community for it. I think the questions raised over the nominations process at that stage elicited some concern by the Academy that perhaps they were becoming out of touch with the general community.

Personally, I respond to the Academy by saying simply this: The Oscars are not (or should not be) a popularity contest. We have the MTV awards for that. The Oscars are a peer-based awards ceremony with one of the most prestigious histories of all the multitude of similar awards; the Oscars stand alone in their importance. To be nominated for an Oscar is a great honour, and to win one is, of course, the pinnacle of any actor or filmmaker’s career. Therefore, why kowtow to the commercial reality of the general population who were upset that a film about a costumed superhero didn’t get a nod at the Best Film gong. Did the film deserve an Oscar? Probably, but it wasn’t nominated.

More Oscars? Nope, just more losers!!

By opening up the number of nominations for this award, you effectively diminish the honour of being in that top echelon. The Mona Lisa is valuable because it’s a one of a kind item. If you had ten copies then it wouldn’t be worth anywhere near as much. The honour of being nominated as a film, alongside only five other films, means the quality of the films in question need to be of a significant amount. That’s not to say The Dark Knight was not as good as Revolutionary Road, or even Milk, perhaps, but many felt it was certainly deserving of recognition. But half the fun of Oscar time is the controversy, not so much who is in, but rather who is left out. There have been, traditionally, only five spots for films each year, and to open up the size of the pool is to diminish the value of being in that top five.

On the other hand, perhaps it will allow the Academy to finally get rid of that ridiculous Best Animated Film award they give out,in which there are usually only three nominees anyway. Why they had to invent a second category for animated films (aren’t they all films first, animated films second?) is beyond me: perhaps, again, to keep certain members of their community happy. If WALL-E, or Kung Fu Panda are good enough to be nominated in the Best Film category on their own merits, then why shouldn’t they? So perhaps we’ll see more Dreamworks and Pixar animated films up there alongside the latest crime thriller from Scorsese and action opus from James Cameron.

Many will say that the Academy used to use a 10 nominees process, but that stopped after the 30’s. I guess if they want to go back to that system they can, but I think it negates the honour of being in that top echelon.

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For anybody growing up during the 1980’s, it’s hard to imagine not knowing about the Transformers. Those amazing robotic automatons from the planet Cybertron, who take on the shapes of various human machines, including cars, trucks, and other miscellanea, the imagination was stirred in many a child by the potential of the concept. A Transformer could be anything, anything at all. And to have to warring halves, the friendly Autobots and the evil Decepticons, meant that you could literally “take sides” in the ongoing war between them. The Autobots, traditionally designed as cars and trucks of the modern era, had human allies, in particular Sam, a young boy who assists the giant robots in their quest to rid the universe of the evil of the Decepticons.

In 2007, director Michael Bay took on the challenge of bringing the Transformersconcept to the big screen in their first live action film. Using state-of-the-art digital effect to bring Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and Starscream to dazzling life, Transformers was a bombastic, energetic and utterly amazing adventure/action film for people of all ages, directed in true Michael Bay style. Many fans applauded Bay’s style in the film, while others bemoaned the “kiddie-friendly” storyline and dialogue: dialogue is something Bay has long been chastised for, and almost all his films contain a fair degree of cheesy moments. Transformers had it’s fair share, admittedly, however, the dialogue isn’t why you go see a movie like Transformers, heck, I’d even go so far as to say it’s not for the couple of pretty girls Bay slung at us either: no, it’s for the giant fricking robots beating the snot out of each other.

With the success of Transformers, it was a foregone conclusion that Bay would be signed up to direct the sequel, going into pre-production almost immediately the first film wrapped. And so, we have reached that amazing milestone in cinema, the first sequel. The law of sequels, particularly with anything Hollywood churns out, is that you simply repeat the previous film, making things bigger, louder, progressively upping the ante each time, until you start not making money on it. With a concept such as Transformers, there’s almost no possible way these films couldn’t make back their budget and then some: so Bay pretty much had the run of things to make whatever film he wanted.

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Michael Jackson - 1958-2009

The king is dead. Long live the King.

Today, Michael Jackson is reported to have passed away due to a heart attack sufferred in his Los Angeles home. Jackson was named “King Of Pop” during the Eighties, with many number one hits, including the Thriller album. On the film front, Jackson also appeared in The Wiz, as well as Moonwalker.

Since this story is still progressing, we will hold off on publishing further details until more is known. Keep an eye out over the weekend for a more in-depth post on this tragic story.

Michael Jackson was 50.

Today, an Angel gets her wings.

Farrah Fawcett - 1947-2009

Sad news out of Hollywood today that original Charlie’s Angelscast member, and 70’s sex symbol, Farrah Fawcett, has passed away.

Fawcett came to prominence with leading turns in the original Charlie’s Angels TV series, and in the Burt Reynolds action flick The Cannonball Run. Her sex appeal during the 70’s and 80’s saw her become a pop-culture icon, her hairstyles and dress sense achieving the same status as Jennifer Aniston during the 90’s, or Angelina Jolie in the new millennium: plenty of press inches were dedicated to her looks and style.

The original Charlie's Angels, Farrah Fawcett far left.

Fawcett was born in February 1947, and began her career doing bit roles in TV and print commercials, before being photographed in her swimsuit by freelance photographer Bruce McBroom. Before the photograph was released, Fawcett signed to star as one of three leads in the new TV series, Charlies Angels. Co-produced by Aaron Spelling, who would go on to produce Beverly Hills 90210 in the 90’s, Charlie’s Angelswould propel Fawcett to superstardom, alongside the cult status obtained by her swimsuit poster, which went on to become a pop-culture legend. Fawcett left Charlie’s Angelsafter the first season, although contractual obligations would see her return to the show in guest “cameo’s” in subsequent seasons. Her film career flagged somewhat, although appearances in seminal sci-fi hit Logan’s Run and action classic The Cannonball Run, as well as numerous television roles kept her in the public eye. her most recent high profile film effort, with minimal acclaim, was Dr T And The Women, starring Richard Gere.

Fawcett's famous swimsuit photo.

Fawcett received several award nominations throughout her career. She was nominated three times for an Emmy Award, for her roles in The Burning Bed, Small Sacrifices, and The Guardian. Big-screen success generally eluded her, however, but while her cinematic oeuvre is limited to Direct-to-video material in the main, her television work has always been fairly critically and commercially successful.

Fawcett’s personal life was somewhat marred by controversy, including a rambling, supposedly drug addled appearance on David Letterman’s The Late Show. During the late 70’s she was married to The Six Million Dollar Man’sLee Majors, although they divorced in 1982. Since 1982 she had been involved in a de facto relationship with fellow actor Ryan O’Neal. In the December 1995 issue of Playboy, Fawcett finally caved to pressure and appeared nude, following that up with another appearance in the magazine in July of ‘97, aged 50.

Glamorous Angel.

In 2006 she was diagnosed with cancer, and after a brief period of remission, she began a long battle again in 2007 when a malignant cancerous cell was discovered in the same previously diagnosed location. Fawcett filmed her battle with cancer and it was made into a documentary film, Farrah’s Story.

“God made man stronger but not necessarily more intelligent. He gave women intuition and femininity. And, used properly, that combination easily jumbles the brain of any man I’ve ever met. “
Farrah Fawcett

Farrah Fawcett was 62.

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Dreary, convoluted and “witty” exploration of love in all it’s forms, from those looking for it, to those falling out of it. This film, based on a book which was based on a line from an episode of Sex & The City, (a more groan-inducing backstory there hasn’t been!) is a rambling, unfocused example of chick-flick emptiness, with all the coherent moral fortitude of an issue of Cosmo.

In a strange twist of fate, only one of the storylines has anything to do with the title of the film, a cumbersome entity which doesn’t engender a lot of support from a male viewing audience.

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It has been rumoured that this film represents the last time Clint Eastwood will step before the cameras and act. I, for one, am upset with that, if this is the calibre of his work right now. Mr Eastwood has been around the Hollywood system for a very long time, and no doubt could have become the same jaded non-creative clone that many of his contemporaries have appeared as. Eastwood, however, has managed to carve himself a niche career as both a celebrated actor, and award winning director, including recent successes with Mystic River, Flags Of Our Fathers and Million Dollar Baby. Now, with Gran Torino, Eastwood returns to the screen with one of his most powerful performances yet: and the guy is in his 80’s! Incredible. Like a fine wine, Eastwood keeps getting better with age, although I suspect it’s got more to do with his canny ability to cast himself in roles suited to his persona than to stretch himself beyond the hard-boiled alpha male material he made his name with back during the 70’s, in films like Pale Rider and The Outlaw Josey Wales.

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Apparently, this film is based upon the first of a series of successful novels, a la Harry Potter. Unfortunately, unlike the boy wizard, Twilight as a film has neither the coherency or the depth of characters to hold up under any kind of scrutiny. Bella (Kristen Stewart) arrives at a new school, and finds herself attracted to the mysterious Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), who, as it turns out, is a vampire. And lives with a few other vampires in the woods outside of town. Edward, somehow, finds himself attracted to Bella as well, and although their human/vampire love is shunned by Edward’s family, they persist with it to the detriment of both their lives.

I have to admit, I haven’t read any of the Stephenie Meyer novels in the series on which this film is based, so I cannot compare the differences, good or bad, between the film and the book. What I can do is compare this film to good ones, so I am adequately able to determine just how mind-numbingly tepid this “blockbuster” film actually is. I watched this film from start to end, and about half way through began to wonder just how all those teenage girls could possibly find this film as good as they claim it is. I admit, as a post-30ish guy with little time for tweenage-screaming-fanaticism towards the latest Zac Ephron clone, perhaps the point of this film is lost on me in terms of how “cool” it is, rather than anything resembling quality storytelling, but for me, director Catherine Hardwicke has utterly missed the mark as a filmmaker.

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