RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN: Movie Reviews of Rules Don’t Apply and Allied by Howard Casner
Posted: December 1, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alden Ehrenreich, Alec Baldwin, Amy Madigan, Annette Bening, Brad Pitt, Candice Bergen, Dabney Coleman, Ed Harris, Hart Bochner, Jared Harris, Lily Collins, Marion Cottilard, Martin Sheen, Matthew Broderick, Matthew Goode, Oliver Platt, Paul Schneider, Paul Sorvino, Robert Zemeckis, Rules Don’t Apply, Simon McBurney, Steven Knight, Warren Beatty | 2,304 Comments »For questions: hcasner@aol.com
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Warning: SPOILERS
Rules Don’t Apply, the latest, and from what I understand, the last film from Warren Beatty who wrote, produced and plays famous recluse Howard Hughes here, has some charming moments in the first half.
The story revolves round Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich, who has the looks, charisma, but a lot more talent than B-movie actor Audie Murphy) who is one of Hughes’s many drivers who escort one of the billionaire’s many starlets around Los Angeles. The starlet assigned to Frank is Marla Mabry (Lily Collins).
Both are quite religious (Hughes chose his drivers from church goers as a guard against them trying to bed his starlets). They say grace before meals, watch The Billy Graham Crusade on television, and attend church every Sunday. And not only do they do this unapologetically when others are around and in the streets where they might scare the horses, Beatty himself presents this spiritual side of the characters just as unapologetically. Read the rest of this entry »
POSSESSION IS 9/10ths OF THE LAW: Movie Reviews of The Wailing and The Conjuring 2 by Howard Casner
Posted: June 19, 2016 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2Days, 3Weeks, 4 Months, Audition, Bong Joon-ho, Chun Woo-hee, Frances O’Connor, Hong-jin Han, Hong-jin Na, James Wan, Jun Kunimura, Kill Bill, Madison Wolfe, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Mother, Patrick Wilson, Police: Adjective, Simon McBurney, South Korea, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Amityville Horror, The Chaser, The Conjuring 2, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Exorcist, The Host, The Wailing, Thirst, Vera Farmiga, Yellow Sea | 58 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed to our Indiegogo campaign for 15 Conversations in 10 Minutes. We did very well due to you folks. For those who weren’t able to give, keep us in your thoughts. And if you are able to contribute in the future, contact me and I’ll tell you how. I will even honor the perks on the original campaign.
I am now offering a new consultation service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00. For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you. I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
Two movies have opened of late that revolve around children being taken over by supernatural forces beyond their control. I’m sure many of you might ask, “But how can you be sure it’s not just puberty?” Well, see the films and decide for yourself.
In the last number of years, the most interesting movies have been making their way over here from two unlikely sources: the Romanian and South Korean new waves. One might suggest that one is the result of having recently thrown off the cloak of Communism and the other from living under the specter of the same. But that’s little more than speculation.
However, there is a difference in the two. While the movies we get from Romania tend to be more political and social critiques (4 Months, 3Weeks, 2Days, Police: Adjective, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), the ones from South Korea tend to be more genre focused (The Host, Thirst, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance).
Writer/director Hong-jin Han is one of the more interesting of the new set of Korean filmmakers. He started out with a psychological thriller (The Chaser, about a serial killer targeting prostitutes), and followed it up with a political thriller (Yellow Sea, about a man set up as a fall guy for an assassination, in a style worthy of Alfred Hitchcock).
His new film is of the genre horror, about a small town that becomes victim to a series of horrifying and inexplicable, and with enough blood to make Sweeny Todd proud, deaths. But is the cause a Japanese man new to the area (Jun Kunimura, known here for Kill Bill, Vol. I and II and Audition, so it’s understandable that there are those who would be of the suspicious sort); an odd, but beautiful young woman in white who appears to appear and disappear (Chun Woo-hee, who can also be seen in the wonderful Bong Joon-ho thriller, Mother); a demonic spirit; or some combination of the above. Read the rest of this entry »
CRUISING: Movie Review of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation by Howard Casner
Posted: August 9, 2015 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alec Baldwin, Barbara Bain, Christopher McQuarrie, Drew Pierce, Jeremy Renner, Martin Landau, Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Simon McBurney, Simon Pegg, Tom Cruise, Tom Hollander, Ving Rhames | 1,236 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00. For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you. I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE
Warning: SPOILERS
In watching Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the latest attempt by Tom Cruise to keep his box office status as superstar and not let his being a Scientologist be held against him, one thing that struck me is that it seemed to be violating a basic law of physics, as least physics as stated by such scientific experts as the writers of shows like Star Trek.
The basic premise of MI – RN is that there is now a mirror version of this secret espionage group that is doing everything it can to cause chaos in the world. Or as described by Ethan Hunt, our fearless leader, an anti-IMF (hold for gasps).
But if that is true, then if one IMF member comes into contact with an anti-IMF member, shouldn’t the universe be destroyed in a huge explosion?
At any rate, growing up I was a big fan of the Mission: Impossible TV series. Every Sunday (or whatever night it was, it was so long ago, I don’t remember) I was there to find out what foreign country the MI bunch were going to covertly go into and destabilize or stabilize, depending on how James Phelps’ never seen but only heard, comforting, middle American accented boss felt about them. Read the rest of this entry »
REEL MEN, REAL MEN, PART TWO: Movie review of Mr. Turner, Saint Laurent and The Theory of Everything by Howard Casner
Posted: November 25, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anthony McCarten, Bertrand Bonello, Brady Corbet, Charlie Cox, Christian McKay Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Dennis Sciama, Dick Pope, Dorothy Atkinson, Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Gaspard Ulliel, Helmut Berger, Jacqueline Durran, James Marsh, Jérémie Renier, Lea Seydoux, Louis Garrel, Marion Bailey, Martin Savage, Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner, Ruth Sheen, Saint Laurent, Simon McBurney, Stephen Hawking, Suzie Davies, The Theory of Everything, Thomas Bidegan, Timothy Spall | 26 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
I continue now with my reviews of the sudden spate of movies based on real people that are arriving late in the year because, well, we’re entering awards season, and what awards season would be complete without an overabundance of inspired by true event stories.
First up…
Early on in Mr. Turner, writer/director Mike Leigh’s latest film about the famed 19th century land- and seascape artist, his servants prepare a pig’s head for a meal.
What is so interesting about this, and the reason I draw attention to it, is that the porcine’s pate bears a remarkable resemblance to the great painter himself with the artist constantly snorting and grunting as if Babe was his mother (or father, I can’t remember whether that famed shoat was a boar or a sow).
In fact, one might say that, Timothy Spall, a member of Leigh’s stock company of actors and who plays the title character here, does one of the greatest, if not greatest, imitation of a sus scrofa domesticus I’ve ever encountered in cinematic history. If someone is planning a remake of Animal Farm, I think we have our Old Napoleon.
It may be a dubious distinction, but a distinction none the less. Read the rest of this entry »
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