Director : Renny Harlin Year Of Release : 1995 Principal Cast : Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Maury Chakin, Patrick Malahide, Stan Shaw, Rex Linn, Harris Yulin. Approx Running Time : 119 Minutes Aspect Ratio : 2.40:1 Synopsis: A female pirate captain and her educated slave take on a mission to locate an enormous treasure – in order to do so, they must retrieve three parts of the map to locating it. All along, they’re pursued by the Governor of Jamaica, who seeks to stop the pirates once and for all. What we think : Rousing, crowd-pleasing pirate film is also regarded as one of Hollywood’s biggest flops – I don’t understand why, to be honest. Cutthroat Island is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Epic action, an equally epic music score by John Debney, and a touch of comic whimsy scattered throughout the B-grade characters and dialogue, make Cutthroat Island a love-it-or-hate-it pirate film: personally, I think it’s fabulous.
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You’ve all heard the stories, right? The one about how Cutthroat Island caused the closure of a major Hollywood studio, and gave the film industry pause to ever mount a Pirate-themed film ever again. Sure, Cutthroat Island cost Carolco Pictures a staggering $90m to make, and raked in a considerably underwhelming $10m in domestic gross, and yeah, the studio folded quite quickly after this, but does the negative press surrounding it make the general hatred towards it justified? Is it such a bad film? I say no, and I’m going to explain why you should enjoy it too.
Robert Sherman, the co-writer of such classic Disney tunes as Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, It’s A Small World, and Chim Chim Cher-ee, has passed away. Together with his brother Richard, Robert Sherman wrote for a number of classic Disney films, including Mary Poppins (winning a couple of Oscars), The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, as well as non-Disney projects like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Magic Of Lassie, and Charlotte’s Web (1973).
The Sherman Brothers were noticed by Walt Disney after scoring chart success with the 1958 song Tall Paul, sung by Disney Mousketeer Anette Funicello, and were signed as staff writers. While at Disney, they composed the now-infamous theme park melody, It’s A Small World (After All), as well as songs for The Sword In The Stone, before going on to Oscar glory for their work on Mary Poppins. The Sherman Brothers left Disney after Walts death, becoming freelance writers and composers, and picked up work on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – a critical failure – for MGM. Some of their other film projects included Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Slipper & The Rose, Magic Journeys and The Mighty Kong, as well as other Disney projects like The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh (1977) and 2000′s The Tigger Movie.
Robert Sherman passed away on March 5th, aged 86. His brother Richard still survives.
Welsh actor Philip Madoc has passed away. Madoc is best remembered as the lead in the Welsh TV series The Life & Times Of David Lloyd George, and his appearances in British sci-fi series Doctor Who. Madoc appeared in two Patrick Troughton serials, The Krotons (which I still have not seen) and The War Games (my personal favorite Troughton-era story, as well as a cameo in the second Doctor Who feature film (starring Peter Cushing). He later went on to appear in two Tom Baker era stories: The Brain of Morbius and The Power Of Kroll, as well as recording audio for commentaries on both Morbius and War Games.
Among his other television work included parts in Dad’s Army, The Good Life, Porridge, the pilot episode of Space: 1999, and The Goodies. His film work included roles in Operation Crossbow, The Quiller Memorandum, and Operation Daybreak.
Mr Madoc passed away on March 5th, aged 77.
Dennis Chinnery – 1926-2012
Fellow Doctor Who alum Dennis Chinnery has also passed away. The British actor appeared in an early William Hartnell serial, The Chase, as well as one of Tom Bakers best stories The Genesis Of The Daleks, as Gharman, and rounded out his Who involvement with The Twin Dilemma – a Colin Baker story. Chinnery was involved in television quite heavily, including roles in shows like Dixon Of Dock Green, Z-Cars, The Avengers, The Saint and The Prisoner. His film roles included bit-parts in The Plague of The Zombies and All The Way Up.
Star Wars legend Ralph McQuarrie has passed away. Mr McQuarrie was a conceptual designer on George Lucas’ original sci-fi trilogy, designing virtually everything from characters to sets and minutia inbetween. His influence on pop culture is profound, having designed the look of Darth Vader, C3PO and R2D2 among many others. While it is for his work on Star Wars that McQuarrie is perhaps best known today, he also worked on projects for fellow Hollywood alum Steven Spielberg, on Close Encounters Of the Third Kind, ET: The Extra Terrestrial, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, as well as the Spielberg-produced Cocoon, *batteries not included, and one of the more popular Star Trek films, The Voyage Home.
Ralph McQuarrie passed away on March 2nd, aged 82.
In the hundred or so years since film was invented and turned into a multi-billion dollar industry, plenty of ink has been spilled over lists and articles about just who has been the best – the best director, the best actor, the best musician – like humanity can’t get enough out of figuring out the most superior of our own self-importance. The Hollywood awards season seems to last the entire year, with a multitude of industry-based awards shows dominating the blogosphere and newsprint each and every month, culminating in the very pinnacle of cinematic artistic achievement, The Academy Awards. Each year, golden gongs are handed out to those folks judged by others folks to be the best in their category at what they’ve done that year. Whether those awards are warranted or not isn’t the point of this article; here, we’re going to spotlight the very best of the best – the best Actors and Actresses, the best Directors, the best Films, even the best cinematic advances of the Modern Age. What do I mean by Modern Age, you ask. Simple. Hollywood’s boom times of the 30′s and 40′s, at least prior to the War, are known today as the Golden Age, and the three decades after that could be termed the Bronze Age – with a shift into color film, multi-channel stereo and the re-invention of the Hollywood “blockbuster” away from biblical epics and sweeping melodramatic romance. The 80′s, however, when you look at films produced at that time in a reflective mood, represents a shift both artistically and stylistically in the medium of film to such a degree that I think a new “age” of Hollywood could be coined: the Modern Age. An epoch of cinema between 1980 and 2010, 30 years of both massive successes, and epic fails. The Greatest of the Modern Age series attempts to distill the best of the Modern Age into a series of opinion-based lists, and we hope you enjoy (if not disagree with) our work.
When you think of great films, quite often their greatness is established by one of three things – a great performance, a great scene, or, in this case, a great line. Dialogue makes or breaks a film, and some of the lines below truly made the films they appeared in; they’re memorable, repeatable (although not always in esteemed company) and eminently classic – they’re the greatest film lines of the last 30 years. Feel free to leave your own choices in the comments section below.
Hollywood cinematographer Bruce Surtees has passed away. Mr Surtees worked primarily with Clint Eastwood throughout his career, working his way up from operating the camera on projects like Two Mules For Sister Sara and Coogan’s Bluff, before stepping into the DOP role for Eastwood projects like Dirty Harry (directed by Don Siegel), Escape from Alcatraz (again for Siegel) and Play Misty For Me for Eastwood’s direction. Surtees worked on Eastwood classics like High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Joesy Wales, and Pale Rider. Aside from Eastwood, Surtees also worked with acclaimed director Bob Fosse on Lenny, which starred Dustin Hoffman and for which Surtees was nominated for an Oscar; he photographed The Shootist, Sudden Impact, Leadbelly, Night Moves, Beverley Hills Cop, and License to Drive, among others.
For bringing the gritty style of the 70′s and 80′s to audiences, we salute Bruce Surtees today. He passed away on Feburary 23rd, aged 74.
Director : Paul Feig Year Of Release : 2011 Principal Cast : Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Jill Clayburgh, Chris O’Dowd, Ellie Kemper, John Hamm. Approx Running Time : 130 Minutes (Unrated Edition) Aspect Ratio : 2.40:1 Synopsis: When her best friend since childhood becomes engaged, Annie’s life starts to spiral out of control when she becomes jealous of one of her friends newer, more affluent, family friends. What we think : Offbeat, uneven fem-edy with plenty of raunchy dialogue starts well enough, falters in the middle, and outstays its welcome at about the 90 minute mark. Kristen Wiig does her best to hold this together, but the flimsy story, coupled with a plethora of cliches and generic genre set-ups make Bridesmaids a hit-or-miss affair destined to remain a single-viewing experience only. Worth a look, but you won’t re-watch it.
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Just Quickly
Annie (Kristen Wiig) is asked to be the Maid of Honor at her childhood friend’s wedding – the problem is, Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is marrying into a higher social set, meaning Kristen’s poverty stricken bank account won’t be able to keep up with the expectation Jillian’s new friend Helen (Rose Byrne) puts out at ever occasion she can. Annie’s business, a bakery in Milwaukee, has gone bankrupt, leaving her with a mountain of debts, and very few prospects to improve herself. As Maid of Honor, she does all she can to keep on the cheap side with plans for Hens Nights and dresses for the big day, but Helen, who’s wealth and success drive Annie to distraction and frustrated jealousy, is intent on making Jillian’s wedding one to remember. Cue the clash of the female wills, as both Annie and Helen fight to be a “better” friend to Jillian. Bridesmaids seems to have been marketed as a female-oriented R-rated comedy in the vein of The Hangover, and although missing any quantity of naked boobies, there’s more than enough drunken, drugged-out antics to keep even the most salacious viewer at bay. Scripted by lead actress Wiig, and fellow Saturday Night Live alum Annie Mumolo, Bridesmaids isn’t an original story, nor are the characters in it original either – although this modern updating of the warring wedding participants seems quite sprightly at the outset, by the end of it all, it’s more than worn out its welcome. Wiig isn’t strong enough to really carry this film, her performance more a performance of perception than originality – the difference between her role in Paul and this, for example, indicates that she’s capable of more than Bridesmaids draws out of her.
US talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel provides a fair amount of lunacy via his show, and this little effort is no different. In the grand tradition of the great film trailers (including the deep-voiced voice-over dude), Kimmel has put together one of the greatest films ever made, and called it Movie: The Movie…. Here’s the trailer and explanation from Kimmel himself. I know, we don’t normally put up videos of funny stuff, but this was too good to pass up.
Alright. Just… alright. It’s early evening here in Australia, about 1½ hours after the Oscars ceremony took place, and I sit here a befuddled man. Yes, I’m tired because I’ve spent the day looking after my daughter whilst trying to watch the Oscars through a haze of “play toys” and “Tinker Bell” (the latter being her latest watch-it-five-times-a-day movie), and now that she’s winding down I have a moment to jot down a few thoughts about the ceremony this year. To save me trying to segue into them, I’m going to list my thoughts in bullet-point format:
Good morning folks! Well, the big day has arrived, and we’re all set and ready for this years Oscars ceremony, taking place today in Los Angeles. We’ll be updating this post after each award is revealed, so click back here and REFRESH this post every so often to see who takes home the gold!!
Best Picture – The Artist (Thomas Langmann, Producer)
Best Director – Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Best Actor – Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Best Actress – Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Best Supporting Actor – Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Best Supporting Actress – Octavia Spencer (The Help)
Best Original Screenplay – Midnight In Paris (Woody Allen)
Best Adapted Screenplay – The Descendants (Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash)
Best Animated Feature – Rango (Directed by Gore Verbinski)
Best Foreign Language Film – A Separation (From Iran) – Directed by Asghar Farhadi
Best Documentary (Short) – Saving Face (Directed by Daniel Junge & Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy)
Best Documentary (Feature) – Undefeated (TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay, Richard Middlemas)
Best Short Film (Live Action) – The Shore (Directed by Terry & Oorlagh George)
Best Short Film (Animated) – The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr Morris Lesmore (Directed by William Joyce & Brandon Oldenberg)
Best Sound Editing – Hugo (Phillip Stockton & Eugene Gearty)
Best Sound Mixing – Hugo (Tom Fleischman & John Midgely)
Best Cinematography – Hugo (Robert Richardson)
Best Film Editing – Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Angus Wall & Kirk Baxter)
Best Visual Effects – Hugo (Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, Alen Henning)
Best Original Score – Ludovic Bource (The Artist)
Best Original Song – “Man Or Muppet” – The Muppets (Composed by Bret McKenzie)
Best Costume Design – The Artist (Mark Bridges)
Best Makeup – The Iron Lady (Mark Coulier & J Roy Helland)
Best Art Decoration – Hugo (Dante Ferretti & Francesca Lo Schiavo)
