"Nighthawks (1981)" - Forever Cinematic Review

John Badham on THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS AND MOTOR KINGS

The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars & Motor Kings MOVIE REVIEW

LADY SINGS THE BLUES (1972) Diana Ross, Billie Dee Williams, Richard Pryor

Mahogany (1975) Diana Ross. Billy Dee Williams,

Idiot's Retribution

Apparently this is not on his own youtube channel.  I've checked that.

But this is at least eye-opening in terms of how a ranting villain speaks.



When a high school student is forced to write a monologue and then

perform it as an assignment, chances are it will sound a lot like this.



The attempt at maniacal laughter is especially like bad acting, but the

whole halting, flat approach makes me reconsider my harsh opinion

of actorly rants I've seen.  Maybe they were realistic after all.



Or maybe this twerp didn't get enough slaps upside the head.

X-Men Days of Future Past - thoughts after show

Apparently the character I could not identify from the post-credit bonus scene was Apocalypse who will be featured in the next film X-Men: Apocalypse.

Talking to a Wall 2: Courses and coverage

Painfully Bad Wonder Woman - 1967 Pilot

One of the worst 5-minute segments I have ever seen.  Just keep in mind that

a professional TV producer once thought this was okay.  It botches the

character completely and imposes on it whatever dated cobwebs were

tangling up the brain of the writer.  I don't know what they were thinking.

You will never get that five minutes back.  This is NOT the WW I

grew up watching, which may have been corny but was also right.

Says it all WHEN WILL THE BASS DROP? (ft. Lil Jon)

HUGS (feat. Pharrell)

The Lonely Island - SEMICOLON (feat. Solange) LYRICS VIDEO

Spike Lee addresses racist LA Clippers Owner Donald Sterling

You know something? When Anderson Cooper interviewed Mr. Sterling the old guy said something like, "I don't talk about people. I talk about ideas." Which makes me think of the axiom that has been a popular meme, characterizing the sort of people who think about one or the other. If this guy can claim as much, it throws the whole idea into question.

Dump Truck Directing - Gordon Willis - Craft Truck - Through The Lens

video blog Talking to a Wall begins

Occasionally I will throw one of these on-line, mostly random spiels about film making. From the perspective of a low-profile director clawing his way along.

What might Jaws: The Indianapolis be like?

Below is a scene from the original Jaws, a speech Robert Shaw edited down from a monologue mostly John Milius contributed. The story of the USS Indianapolis has been dramatized a couple of times, but there has been speculation over the years of whether Universal might dare make another Jaws movie with this as a core story, serving as a prequel to the original. The first concern might be poor taste - an intense movie giving us what we THINK we want, actually showing what the character Quint is talking about in the scene. They do, after all, tell screenwriters "show, don't tell," despite this monologue being an excellent example of telling that has been earned in the context of an otherwise very visual movie. As a moviegoer, I might welcome this prequel flick. (And by the way, no, I would have zero interest in seeing a %100 historical film about the subject as a substitute.) What I expect is that it will all hinge on the casting of a 19 year old actor who evokes Robert Shaw to a shocking extent, modulated for youth and minus minus much of the edge the story will create in his life. He would be the lynch pin, and our involvement would largely be about tracking his arc from a practical joking but team-player and believer patriot all the way to grizzled atheist where I expect he will see a very decent young father or someone else worthy of survival get killed right behind him as he waits for his turn to be lifted from the water. I expect the poster will have multiple versions of the Jaws logo (for which I have an aversion) ascending toward little soldiers floating above. I expect the Jaws theme would be used. I expect that these days digital technology can manipulate shots of real sharks and integrate them. I would also like them to be bold enough to include a shark that looks just like the original Bruce, with jowls where the hinges were kept, and perhaps insinuate that this is the same shark that will sink the Orca years later. That would be a Hollywood wink that a purist might not like, but that is the kind of flick I think would be appreciated by Jaws fans. One temptation I'm on the fence about is whether they should have the Captain receive information that the Russians have made progress into Japan and that it is not necessary to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which has been recently publicized as hidden history by Oliver Stone. They didn't have to use the bomb, but the White House decided it should be a demonstration of strength because now they wanted to keep Russia in line. But even if the movie sticks to the most dramatic structure, with Quint in each scene (he could of course overhead a cable being read), it would be worth doing. The issue of truncating a long ordeal of weeks of survival in the ocean into two hours or less might be a directorial challenge, but also an opportunity. Personally, I would use the old Passion of the Christ structure and punctuate the horror with flashbacks of better times and perhaps what kind of life Quint had up to that point, maybe living in Amity. Then he can try to impart something or motivate a fellow sailor to keep awake or to not be afraid.