"Drive" - So-So film

So I saw "Drive." OK, film. I was disappointed in that it was more plot than action. Similar to the "action films" of the 70s. Almost all the action scenes are in the trailer.

After a nice opening, about the first third of the movie was plot development. I kept waiting for something to happen (I know I'm losing the movie when I start looking at my watch in the dark). Now the action scenes were pretty well directed when they occurred. And it does get a bit violent a few times.

I also liked Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman. They play great bad guys. I'm not a fan of Ryan Gosling, and as far as I was concerned his portrayal of a laconic, loner hero was lacking the star power of a Steve McQueen, et. al.

All in all, a good story, but not quite what I was looking for.

A film watcher's companion: IMDb

So I decided to watch Spartacus Saturday, and is my wont, I checked the trivia section of Internet Movie Database before viewing. I found a some very interesting pieces of trivia.

First, Kirk Douglas made the movie because he wasn't selected to play the title role in Ben-Hur (He was offered but turned down the role of Messala - now THAT would have been interesting!). Needless to say, he was miffed. His ego demanded that he make a biblical epic that he could be the lead, hence, Spartacus, of which he was Executive Producer. "June 2008 (it was) Ranked #5 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre 'Epic'".

And the "snails and oysters seduction attempt" dialog between Lawrence Olivier and Tony Curtis was not in the original release as "The Powers That Be" thought it was too suggestive. Homosexual inference and all that. When it was decided to put the dialog in the restored version, the soundtrack was lost, so they needed to have the dialog dubbed. Curtis was still alive, so he did his part. Unfortunately, Lord Larry had died. However, his wife, Joan Plowright, remembered that Anthony Hopkins did a great impression of Olivier so they asked him to do the dubbing, and he did!

Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted earlier during the McCarthy hearings, did the screenplay (Douglas insisted he be given full credit, much to the chagrin of uber right-winger John Wayne). Trumbo made a "sly dig" at the whole blacklisting thing with Olivier's line, "In every city and province, the list of the disloyal have been compiled."

In the restored version, they also added some more violent scenes that were left out of the original release. One is the lopping off of a Roman's arm by having an amputee put on a prosthetic device to be chopped off. The amputee actor was a man by the name of Bill Raisch. An just who is he? Two years later, he would be the one-armed man Dr. Richard Kimble hunted in The Fugitive TV series.

This last piece of trivia is great. The movie was George Kennedy's unbilled film debut. His role? He was one of the men who stood up and said "I'm Spartacus!" I was so looking forward to that moment as I watched the film, and it was great seeing George in a biblical garb, even though it was only about two seconds! Funny stuff...

I really enjoyed viewing it again, especially with the great bits of trivia I got from IMDb.

My all-time favorite movie scenes

I wrote this back in 2006 on the old TV Guide web site. They still are my all-time favorite, even five years later! I hope they get you thinking of those all-time scenes that are personal to you (Warning: some spoilers!):

What are my 10 favorite, best scenes of all time? The films may or may not be all-timers; however, most of them border on the great.

1. “West Side Story” – When Tony and Maria meet in the gym, the surrounding scene blurs and they begin to dance to a syncopated version of “Maria.” This chokes me up every time I see it. Now this is love at first sight!

2. “2001 – A Space Odyssey” – The Bone-Into-The-Space-Station transition. What a way to leap forward into the storyline. It just reeks of symbolism and all sorts of things.

3. “Alien” – The Chest Burst. I saw this on opening day in Westwood with a full crowd, and nobody, I mean nobody, knew that was coming. Everyone was screaming. They had to pry me off the ceiling!

4. “The Usual Suspects” – The shattered saucer/teacup. Then the cut to the notice board. Wham! I like to pride myself that I can figure endings out pretty well, but that one totally blind-sided me.

5. “Psycho” – The you-know-what. Janet Leigh was one of my first infatuations as a kid, and I was absolutely horrified and totally unprepared for it. This is the truth…I had a family friend who refused to take a shower for years after that film came out.

6. “Forbidden Planet” – The monster attacking the force field fence. I was young, but the combination of the animated creature and the roaring sound effect had me riveted to my seat. I still get chills when I see the scene remembering all those years ago.

7. “Dr. Strangelove, Or…” – Slim Pickens ridin’ the Highway to Hell. I was 14, the Cold War was at its height, and that image was so outrageous, and I would have never thought of that vision in a million years.

8. “It’s a Wonderful Life” – The ending when George realizes all the friends he has. The singing of “Auld Lang Syne” and George saying “Attaboy, Clarence!” gets me misty every time! This is my second favorite film of all time.

9. “Reservoir Dogs” – The torture scene – I will never hear “Stuck in the Middle with You” quite the same way again.

10. “Jaws” – “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” ‘Nuff said.

Cowboys and Aliens - a fun film

So...a quickie review. I saw Cowboys and Aliens on opening day. I love Science Fiction and Westerns. Sounds like a good combo to me!

I was glad it was a straightforward film. Not any kind of camp. It had most of the cliches that the two genres can produce. But I must admit it was fun seeing Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig playing it straight and having to fight the nasty aliens. Not a classic by any means. It entertained me, and that's all I ask.

Speaking of "camp," one of my biggest disappointments was the TV debut of Batman is the 1960s. I was a BIG DC comics fan (had a subscription to Superman), and I couldn't WAIT for the new Batman series to debut. Was I crestfallen when it turned out to be jumpy "campy fun," instead of a straightforward show. Holy Bummer, Batman!

Unfortunately, the big hit Batman became affected my other TV show at the time, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The first season was a great fun semi-serious rip off of the James Bond films that were floating around, but after Batman became a craze, the second and third seasons of U.N.C.L.E. jumped on the bandwagon. I was not amused...

Sadly, TV actors now shilling products in character

I was catching up on some of the TV series I watch, and yesterday I viewed last Sunday's "The Glades." Much to my amazement two characters were getting into a car, and one of the actors (I'll save him the embarrassment of naming him) said something to the effect of, "Oh, this is the new Kia Optima. I love this car! It's got a sun roof..." and so on. Unsurprisingly, the next commercial break had a Kia Optima spot. The episode was entitled "Gibtown" if you want to see it yourself.

Now I know we have to suffer through various types of product placements when watching a TV show (can of a certain soda brand on the table, Apple computer, etc.), but this really goes beyond the pale!

What scares me is that once something like this happens, it's just a matter of time when the actors will be shilling brands all through the show. I can see it now:

"Don't you DARE spritz me with that can of Reddi-Whip with real cream!"
"Care for a Bud Light, which has great taste but it's less filling?"
"Son, how's that iPad workin' for you with your school studies?"
"Damn, I missed my favorite show, 'Burn Notice'!"

You get the point. I do remember many years ago reading that the future will bring us the technology to point at various items on the TV screen during the show (possibly with some kind of laser pointer) such as a piece of furniture or character's clothing, a dialog balloon will popup with the details of the item and its price, and you can buy the item at that instant. Now that's impulse buying!

Of course, this is a corollary to my post regarding women who HAVE to buy Princess Kate's wedding dress. Sadly, the masses just need to have what the celebrities are either wearing or shilling.

I wonder how it goes when the purchaser talks with a friend or neighbor. "Look, Marge, I'm wearing what Piper Perabo wore in last week's episode of 'Covert Affairs'! Isn't it just DIVINE?!?!

Exactly what does a Hollywood/TV Producer do?

I was watching the season premier of "Leverage," and I was amazed at how many "Co-Executive Producers" there were. So, of course, it aroused my curiosity as to exactly what all these producer titles were about. I did a little digging and came up with these definitions from a How Stuff Works web article entitled How Movie Producers Work.

Executive Producer -- Supervises one or more producers as they perform their duties for one or more films. The executive producer may represent the film studio and keep watch over the producer to make sure the movie is within budget and being made the way the studio wants. Or the title may be given as a symbolic gesture or to give a movie visibility. George Clooney, for example, was listed as executive producer for "Far from Heaven" (2002) to generate publicity, but didn't spend any time on the set, according to the film's producer Christine Vachon.

Associate Producer -- Handles certain aspects of production, as assigned by the producer. Usually the associate producer has worked through all three stages of the production, from preproduction to post-production. Sometimes the associate producer title is given as a courtesy title to a key backer of the film who does not have a major role in producing the film.

Assistant Producer -- Works on tasks assigned by the associate producer.

Co-Producer -- Shares producer responsibilities as a team or group with other producers. One producer may take on creative responsibilities while another handles business functions. Or one of the producers may be a major investor who is not directly involved in the movie production. Or a co-producer may have brought the script or the film's star to the production.

Supervising Producer -- Oversees one or more producers as they perform some or all of their duties. The supervising producer may take the place of an executive producer or work for the executive producer.

Coordinating Producer -- Coordinates the work of several producers to create a unified end result. Coordinating producers are valuable when a studio produces several related films, as with "Spiderman," or particularly when two related films are being produced at the same time, as with the two sequels to "The Pirates of the Caribbean."

Line Producer -- Handles the physical aspects of a movie's production and usually is not involved in decision-making regarding creative issues. This is the person who oversees the budget and day-to-day activities during filming. In addition to making sure the movie stays on budget and on target, the line producer handles any crises that may occur.

Almost as many producers as Carter has pills! And if you remember where that phrase came from, you've been on this planet quite a while...

The article runs several pages, and I recommend it as a good way to start to understand what producers do, how the great ones got started, etc. If you're a TV or movie buff, this is a worthwhile read. Besides, it might pique your interest enough for you to become the next great producer!

Lord of the Rings Extended Edition: A great experience!

I just marathoned (if that's not a word, it should be) the new Lord of the Rings Extended Edition on Blu-ray. It was fantastic! I have a 47" HDTV 3D screen along with a high-end sound system. I can't say enough how great it was.

I watched "Fellowship" Friday night and spent the entire morning and early afternoon on Saturday viewing "Two Towers" and "Return." Tons of fun! It was really great getting lost in the world of Middle Earth.

I recommend you getting this fifteen(!) disc set if you're any kind of a movie buff. It's going for $69.99 on Amazon or at Best Buy. You can also download digital copies as well.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Why do women HAVE TO HAVE a celeb's dress?

I find it very odd that people are so wrapped up in...oh, I guess...for a lack of a better phrase..."Keeping up with the Jones's." I was watching Kira Phillips on CNN yesterday morning, and she was chatting with CNN London anchor Zain Verjee regarding Prince William and Kate Middleton's visit to the Wimbledon tennis championship.

Phillips mentioned that once Kate was shown on TV, her dress sold out in 30 minutes! Say what?!?! I just don't get it. Why do women around the world HAVE TO HAVE the same dress as a celebrity? Are they insecure, vapid, stupid or a combination of the three?

I remember channel surfing right after William and Kate's wedding and there was a news(?) piece about designer houses scrambling around, immediately creating (drawing and cutting) the same (I understand super secret) wedding dress that Middleton wore in order to sell them post haste. WTF? I wonder how many dresses were sold.

Don't these women have lives? They HAVE TO HAVE the same dress as Middleton?? Puh-Leeze...

TV Tubes? Say what?

I wrote this five years ago on the old TV Guide web site, where you could post your own personal thoughts. I thought I'd share it now on my own blog:

As a Baby Boomer, I get asked questions by those much younger than I that are quite bemusing. For example, where I work we have a few 18- and 19-year-olds around. One day, a group of us were talking about TV shows, and one of the 18-year-olds looked me directly in the eye, and, with all sincerity, asked me if there was TV way back when I was a young lad. Man…that one hurt! I pointed out to the “Whippersnapper” (not surprisingly, he didn’t understand that word) that not only did we have TV but we had the rotary telephone, too.

Now I admit that those early days could be considered the “Dark Ages” of TV viewing. If the reader of this Blog is over 40, the following adventure will be a trip down memory lane. If under 40 or thereabouts, keep in mind that we were the pioneers of this newfangled medium and please enjoy what we had to go through to watch our favorite programs. Also, this was very serious business back then…

There were two controls/knobs that were very important on the old black and white TVs. The first was the “Horizontal Hold.” Every now and then the picture would warp like you were looking at a person doing the hula in one direction through a Fun House Crazy Mirror. Bizarre! The “HH” would straighten it out with a little tweaking. The other knob was the “Vertical Hold.” The nightmare would begin with a solid black bar across the bottom of the screen slowly get fatter until suddenly it would flip up to the top of the screen. Soon it would flip faster and faster. This was known as the picture “rolling.” The “VH” helped stop that.

When neither knob would work, we had one last gasp to fix it before taking it to…“The TV Repairman.” We would have to check the tubes. That’s right…”tubes.” As in transparent glass cylinders of various sizes with weird wiring/plating inside and prongs poking out on the outside. Now tubes were used in TVs and Radios before integrated circuits and all sorts of other high tech electronics were even thought of. Unfortunately, they had this nasty tendency to burn out frequently. So when the TV began to appear as if looking through a Black and White kaleidoscope while peaking on one’s favorite drug, the family’s job was to find the “mysteriously malfunctioning tube.”

Our TV, like a lot of others, was a console as wide as a dresser and about thigh to waist high. To the right of the TV was the phonograph with our Frank Sinatra, Al Martino, Patty Page and Kaye Starr LP albums (large, plastic discs with a hole in the middle that played at 33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute) stored. To the left was the reel-to-reel tape player that had all our heavy (long hair) classical tapes. (A quick trivia question for the old-timers: how many grooves did the average LP have on one side? Answer below…)

So Dad and I lifted one side of the console and pulled it away from the wall. The back of the TV was covered with holed press-board secured by at least 100 screws. The butt of the picture tube protruded in the center.

After unscrewing all 100 screws, we then had access to the tubes seated on the socket board. Of course, the picture tube was also exposed. Now, all of us know thousands of words, but most of them we know not from where we learned them originally. There was one word, however, that every baby boomer first learned re the picture tube…and that word was “implode.” Dad would say, “Don’t mess with the picture tube, Dave, it might IMPLODE!”

“’Implode?’ What’s that?”
“Well, the picture tube has a vacuum…”
“Vacuum?? Isn’t that what Mom does to the fl-“
“Not that kind of vacuum. Oh, never mind. The tube collapses inward if broken or cracked.”
“I’m outta here! Later, Dad.”
“Yeah…right, son…Just don’t break the tube!”
“Oh…OK”
“Also, be especially careful not to touch the any of the wiring as it might electrocute you.”
“But it’s unplugged…do you mean if I –“
“DON’TTOUCHTHATITWILLKILLYOU!!!!!”
“Oh…ok.”

So now we have to pull all the tubes from the multi-socketed socket board (except the Picture Tube). If we were lucky, there was a diagram indicating which tube went to which socket. If not, we had to mark each socket with the number of the tube that went there.

So I had my White Owl cigar box of TV tubes and went to the Rexall’s Drug Store with Dad. Now back in those days you would enter the drug store and there was a counter in which the back wall was a huge multitude of boxes of new Sylvania TV tubes for sale. At the end of the counter was the dreaded “Tube Tester.” It was about chest high and had at least 7,239 different sized sockets on it.

In the back center was this speedometer-like needle with the left side all red and the right side all green. The trick was to look at the chart containing a list of thousands of tubes above the device for the number of the tube you were testing. It would then tell you which socket number to put it in. Once seated, you had to wait while the tube warmed up and then watch the needle s-l-o-w-l-y going from left to right, red to green. If it ended in the green area the tube was good, if it stayed in the red, it was bad. Of course, most of the time the needle landed right in the white in-between area so Dad and I would have endless debates on the tubes being good or bad.

So I put one tube in after another until finally, Murphy’s Law took over and, sure enough, I put the next to the last tube (the one that looked liked it had been tied on the end of a stick at a marshmallow roast) in socket #5,491, and, lo and behold, it didn’t get out of the red. Eureka! Bad, Bad Tube! Tube number S2485U. The clerk pulled the new tube out of the “Great Wall of Tubes” at the back of the counter, we paid for it and merrily went our way home.

We inserted all the tubes back in the socket board, carefully avoiding touching the “dreaded” TV Tube, and put the press-board backing on with only two screws (for quicker removal next burn out). We held our breath…and…Whoopee! “Bonanza” in all its pristine glory!

So I learned two things that day…the definition of “implode,” and electricity somehow leaps from the wall socket to the plug on the floor to electrocute you. Oh, and Little Joe’s mother died…

The trivia answer:

The average number of grooves on one side of an LP record is…..

One!

Lakers destroyed the "Magic" I felt for them

On Len Berman's "Top 5 Sports Stories" today, his number two, sadly, was something I unfortunately agree with:

2. Classless

Maybe the most embarrassing performance in Lakers history. Not only didn't they show up for game four against Dallas, then they turned into thugs. Back to back ejections in the fourth quarter. For years you always used the words Lakers and class in the same sentence. But I guess that only applies when a team is winning. There's such a thing as being a graceful loser. Not this bunch. They're just a bunch of losers. Good riddance.

I've been a Laker fan since the 60s. I've always loved them as the great players have come and gone. Yesterday's despicable performances by Lamar Odom and especially Andrew Bynum were absolutely mind-numbing for me.

Bynum's explanation?

"We were getting embarrassed, they were breaking us down. So I just fouled somebody," Bynum said after the game. "I was just kind of salty about being embarrassed. ... For me, it was embarrassing to have the smallest guy on the court keep running down the lane and making shots."

So he was being "salty." Great. He could have destroyed J.J. Barea's career with that shot to the ribs. Oh, right, he was just being "salty." Pathetic.

Some of the Magic (pun intended) has been taken out of me re the Lakers. I'm not sure I'll ever appreciate the Lakers the way I had until yesterday. From class to classless. They say one major screw up will take away 20 "attaboys." The Lakers have a lot of "attaboys" (definitely more than twenty!) to get me back to the way I appreciated them before this egregious game.

They better trade Bynum and Odom pronto. Ron Artest can accompany them as well. I don't want thugs on my Laker team. I'd rather see them lose than play the game like yesterday. I want a team with class.

Whatever happened to that quaint word "Sportsmanship"?

Battle: Los Angeles - a quick review

I saw "Battle: Los Angeles" last Friday. I have only three things to say about it:

1. Great Marine recruiting tool (I would love to see what kind of a bump in Marine recruits that will occur in the next couple of weeks). Hoorah!

2. I HATE extreme closeups and the "shaky camera" technique throughout a movie. Is that supposed to be some kind of auteur film experience? For me, this definitely gets in the way of my film enjoyment. Bleh!

3. Too much haziness (i.e., smoke-filled scenes).

What with the unending "shake-and-haze," I felt I was being subjected to artsy-fartsy film making rather than a straightforward, fun SciFi movie.

Aging male stars get the young women

So I went to the first showing of Unknown starring Liam Neeson on Friday. Now I'm not here to give a review, though I did like it, but not as much as Neeson's Taken. I confess that my main interest in films these days is action/adventure, SciFi and the like, so I'm sure that I favor these types of films probably a lot more than the average film-goer.

What I want to bring up is the age difference between the male and female actors. I couldn't help but notice that both female leads were a lot younger than their male counterparts. I even went to the Internet Movie Database to check it out.

The top five male actors were all born earlier than 1963 ( Neeson - 1952, Aidan Quinn - 1959, Bruno Ganz - 1941, Frank Langella - 1948, and Sebastian Koch - 1962.

Both female leads were born in the 70s: Diane Kruger - 1976 and January Jones - 1978.

If ever this was an example of age discrimination for women, this is it. I mean really. 58-year-old Neeson "married" to 33-year-old Jones? That's a 25-year difference in age. You mean to tell me that there are no actresses much nearer to Neeson's age that could have played the role? I don't think so.

It seems the "ideal" lead roles are mid- to late-50s male actors and early to mid-30s females. Let me guess: the younger men will go to see the hottie 30s babes and the females will go to see the "rugged" manly males. If I looked hard enough (which I won't - it's too depressing), I would find movies in which the male leads are in their forties and the females in their mid 20s. Really sad.

Now I realize that this age discrimination has been around the movie industry practically since its inception. One can go back to Bogart (born 1899) and Bacall (born 1922), a difference of 23 years.

I'm sure one can go even further back, but I'll let the reader of this post research it, if he or she is of a mind.

I realize that in real life there are relationships that have such age differences. But I would bet that it's not the norm (which it is in Hollywood films). I would also hazard an educated guess that the percentage of the December/May "romances" are directly proportional to how wealthy the male is (Think Hugh Hefner, for example).

The sad part is I just don't see this going away. I really feel bad for those women actors who have cracked the forty years of age barrier. I can sure understand their fear of being marginalized in the film industry.

I'm rooting (vainly, I know) for "Inception"

Of the ten Best Picture nominees, I have seen “Inception,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Social Network,” “True Grit” and “Winter’s Bone.” I have to say that the one I enjoyed most and believe to be the best is “Inception.”

For me, “Inception” had it all. It made me think, and I had to pay attention to the film just to keep the plot right in my head. Not too many films do that these days. I loved the special effects as well. I also enjoyed being kept off balance as to what is or is not reality. I plead guilty to being a Science Fiction fan as well.

Of the supposedly two frontrunners, “The King’s Speech” and “The Social Network,” I preferred the latter. I had a chance to see both within a 24-hour period, and I must say that I was enthralled with “The Social Network.” “The King’s Speech” is a terrific film, but I really got off on the snappy dialog and music in “The Social Network.” I really hope that Aaron Sorkin wins for Best Writing.

I am not weighing in on the historical accuracy of either production. I’m just looking at it from what I experienced. I do admit that my vocation is in computers so I did like the modest computer geek speak that “The Social Network” presented.

I liked "True Grit," but I didn’t see anything that warranted a Best Picture nomination. It’s a good film and I would recommend anyone to see it, but it just didn’t float my boat. I also enjoyed "Winter’s Bone," but that kind of story isn’t really my cup of tea.

I’m now down to seeing no-brainer action/chase films (“Red,” “The Mechanic,” “Taken,” etc.). I went through the serious film viewer stage many, many moons ago, but now I just want to go see a movie and forgo the serious stuff.

Believe me; I only went to see “Inception” because of the SciFi angle, and I do like Christopher Nolan’s earlier stuff (“The Prestige,” “The Dark Knight” and “Memento”).

What with “The King’s Speech” raking in the Producers Guild and Screen Actors Guild awards, one has to believe that the “Best Picture” award is in the can.