Tag Archives: Michelle Williams

Podcast

MOV123: “He’s Almost Too Gay To Function”

It’s all about girl power in this in this reel of COL Movies, where the boys start off by going back in time to review the Tina Fey written gem, “Mean Girls”. After getting schooled (get it?), they catch back up with Alice for some more ass-kicking as she tries to take down the Umbrella Corporation for the 5th time in “Resident Evil: Retribution”. From there, we’re off somewhere over the rainbow with James Franco and a triumvirate of extremely talented female actors as the witches in Sam Raimi’s “Oz: The Great and Powerful”. In news, “The Hobbit” trilogy goes real time, Joss Whedon talks about why he isn’t exactly thrilled about “Avengers 2”, and the Looney Tunes are coming back to the big screen. It’s the 123rd reel of COL Movies…”He’s almost too gay to function”

[display_podcast]

News:

Recent Facebook Likes:

The Past: Mean Girls (2004)
Rotten Tomatoes 83% Fresh; 66% Audience

[asa]B001QU9RTS[/asa]

Director: Mark Waters

Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey

Trivia:

  • Nearly earned an R rating for explicit, risqué gags and jokes which were subsequently cut.
  • In the book upon which the movie is based, the most popular girl in a school is given the title “Queen Bee”. In the movie, the character who fits that description is named Regina – “queen” in Latin.
  • Amy Poehler who plays Mrs. George is only seven years older than her on screen daughter Rachel McAdams (Regina George).
  • Although the movie was not filmed in the rich north suburbs of Chicago known as the ‘North Shore’ (where it is said to take place), several real places in the area are mentioned. These include Old Orchard Mall in Skokie, Illinois (although the scene was filmed at Sherway Gardens in Etobicoke, Ontario), Walker Brothers Pancake House (the gift certificates at the end have the restaurant’s real logo), and Northwestern University. In addition, a deleted scene featured on the DVD mentions Hecky’s, a real barbecue restaurant in Evanston, Illinois. School scenes were filmed at Lincoln Park High School, Chicago. Exterior shots of the school were of Etobicoke Collegiate Institute, Etobicoke, as well as hallway scenes. Some scenes also filmed at a lake front park in Lincoln Park, Chicago.
  • Though set on the North Shore of Chicago, the film was mostly shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute and Malvern Collegiate Institute. Notable landmarks include the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall and Sherway Gardens.
  • Kevin Gnapoor’s phone number on his business card uses the North Shore’s real area code, 847.
  • Amanda Seyfried, who plays Karen in the film, was initially supposed to play Cady, but producer Lorne Michaels thought she would be better as the “dumb girl”.
  • Initially, Lindsay Lohan was cast as Regina, but decided to play the “nice girl” so the public wouldn’t base her real personality on Regina’s. Rachel McAdams was chosen to play the “mean girl” because “only nice girls can play mean girls” according to the producer.
  • Tim Meadows broke his hand before shooting and had to wear a cast, so the explanation that his character Mr. Duvall had carpal tunnel was added.
  • Lacey Chabert was the first and only choice for the role of Gretchen.
  • In the scene where Cady was asked if her “muffin was buttered”, the line was originally going to be, “Is your cherry popped?” The same goes for the girl who “made out with a hot dog” this was going to be “masturbated with a hot dog”. These were omitted in order for the film to gain a PG 13+ rating instead of a R
  • This movie is based upon the book “Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence” by Rosalind Wiseman, even though it is a non-fiction parental self-help guide with no narrative at all.
  • In the scene where Christmas candy canes are being distributed in the classroom Damien, dressed in a Santa suit, reads out the name Glenn Cocco, a good friend of Tina Fey.
  • Tina Fey and Amy Poehler coached Rajiv Surendra on how to rap for his on-screen performance in the school’s Winter Talent Show.
  • Cady’s mom gets tenure at Northwestern, which is Ana Gasteyer’s alma mater in real life.
  • Producer Tina Fey confessed that, when casting the film, she liked Jonathan Bennett (Aaron Samuels) because “he looked like Jimmy Fallon”.
  • The skirts for the Christmas talent show are made of plastic; the costume designer says they were made of that fabric to “represent the Plastics”.
  • The character Mrs. Norbury was named after a German teacher at Upper Darby High School, where Tina Fey attended.
  • The scene in which Cady walks in on Jason and Gretchen kissing at her party is much different in the first draft of the script. Originally, she walks in on Gretchen performing oral sex on Jason (no nudity, nothing graphic), but this was subsequently cut from the final print in order to achieve a PG-13 rating
  • Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams play characters who attend the same school and are in the same grade, in spite of the 8 year age difference between the two actresses.
  • In the math class Kevin gives Cady his card. It says, KEVIN GNAPOOR MATH ENTHUSIAST/BAD-ASS M.C. 847-555-2148
  • Ashley Tisdale auditioned for Karen Smith.
  • Lizzy Caplan’s character was named Janis Ian as an homage to musician Janis Ian, the first Saturday Night Live musical guest (alongside Billy Preston). Ian’s song “At Seventeen” which can be heard playing in the background when the girls are fighting at Regina’s house. Other characters bullying Caplan’s character persistently call her a lesbian throughout the movie; the real Janis Ian is an out lesbian.
  • Lizzy Caplan was at first considered too pretty for Janis, to which Fey felt a “Kelly Osbourne-like actress” was necessary, but Caplan was picked for being the “most energetic”.
  • Rachel McAdams wore a blonde wig while filming the movie.
  • Cady gets very excited at the dance when she “actually recognizes” one of the songs being played. That song is “Built This Way,” which was performed and co-written by London-born singer-songwriter and DJ Samantha Ronson. About four years after the release of this movie, and after several years of press speculation, Lindsay Lohan and Ronson acknowledged they were in a romantic relationship.
  • The main character, played by Lindsay Lohan, is named “Cady”, which has a common pronunciation (“Katie”) but an uncommon spelling for an American girl’s first name. In keeping with the film’s theme of female empowerment, it is the same spelling as the birth last name of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an 18th-century pioneer in the American Women’s Rights movement.
  • When Tina Fey planned to adapt Queen Bees and Wannabes into a film, she didn’t realize it was a guidebook with no fictional narrative. She feared she’d backed herself into a corner after finalizing the deal with Paramount.
  • Tina Fey envisioned backgrounds for all of the characters. If any of the actors had questions about their characters she could fill in the blanks for them.
  • The casting department searched through four cities to find the right actor to play Damien.
  • Unusual among Mark Waters-directed films in that there are no supernatural elements in the plot.
  • In her autobiography, ‘Bossypants’, Tina Fey says that she named the character Damian after “TV Guide” writer Damian Holbrook, who has been her friend since they met as teens in a summer theater workshop in their Pennsylvania hometown.
  • Cady’s friend Janis Ian is likely related to Janis Ian, the singer of “At Seventeen,” a song about realizing at age 17 the beautiful are favored. “I learned the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens … and those of us with ravaged faces, lacking in the social graces, desperately remained at home, inventing lovers on the phone.” The song is also playing in the scene when Karen tells Cady that she has a “fifth sense … It’s like ESPN or something.”
  • In its opening weekend, the film grossed $24,432,195 in 2,839 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office. It was the best Lohan film debut at number one. By the end of its run, Mean Girls grossed $86,058,055 domestically and $42,984,816 internationally, totaling $129,042,871 worldwide.

Talking Points:

  • Inevitable comparison to Heathers
  • The use of the internal thoughts
  • The bus
  • The Burn Book
  • The backhanded compliments during the intervention

What We Learned:

  • Foot cream smells like peppermint
  • Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it
  • Everyone in Africa knows Swedish
  • Friends who secretly hate you are called “fraitors”
  • Homeschoolers are freaks
  • Jumbo tampons are helpful when you have a heavy flow and wide-set vagina
  • Don’t have sex because you’ll get pregnant and die
  • That is so fetch!

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: I was surprised by how much I didn’t run and hide for this movie. The quotient was so low and the writing so clever, how can you not like it? I loved it, watch it now.
Ray: Can you believe I’ve never seen this before? I really thought it was funny, and of course it’s set in the North Shore of Chicago, so what’s not to like? It’s definitely reminiscent of Heathers, just not as dark.
Steve: A great update of Heathers, with Tina Fey intelligence. Great characters, smart writing, and solid acting from a young cast, as well as some memorable cameos from SNL greats. Definitely worth watching and reminiscing about the good…um…maybe just days of high school.

The Present: Resident Evil: Retribution
Rotten Tomatoes 29% Rotten; 60% Audience

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Michelle Rodriguez, Aryana Engineer, Bingbing Li, Boris Kudjoe

Trivia:

  • Jensen Ackles was considered for the role of Leon S. Kennedy, but the role later went to Johann Urb.
  • The first movie of the series not to feature undead dogs.
  • The role of Becky was not considered to be hearing-impaired, but after an outstanding audition, the role was later given to Aryana Engineer.
  • During the car chase scene from the Las Plagas/Zombie infected Russian army the music playing during this scene is titled ‘Phantom Chase’ by tomandandy. This song particularly references music from the original Resident Evil (1996) video game. The name of the song that is referenced is ‘Second Floor Mansion’.
  • After the release of Resident Evil: Afterlife, director Paul W. S. Anderson was in discussion with Screen Gems of filming a fifth and sixth film back to back. But Anderson later decided to just focus on Retribution. Anderson explains that a sixth film will only be made based on the success of Retribution and will most likely be the finale of the series.
  • An element from Resident Evil 4, a parasite called Las Plagas plays a part in the film and allows the undead to “run around, ride motorbikes, and shoot machine guns.”
  • An action scene inspired by Resident Evil 5 where the characters are driving a Hummer while being chased by zombies is featured, but for the film the Hummer was changed to a Rolls Royce Phantom.
  • The film’s fight sequences were influenced by Asian cinema. “We watched a lot of Thai movies this time around because of the movies (Powell) has done” says Anderson. “He did The Last Samurai as well. He has worked with a lot of Japanese stuntmen and he has worked with a lot of Hong Kong stuntmen. But we felt the area that hadn’t been mined by western cinema much was that whole kind of high impact Thai style of fighting. So we just watched a lot of action sequences from a lot of Thai movies. There were moves and just a general feel that we thought we could infuse the movie with. You know, that kind of bone crunch where you really feel the impact. We tried to bring that into the movie, which is also good for 3D because obviously 3D makes it harder to sell those kind of fake phony punches because you see the distance between the fist and the face. So that kind of Thai style of fighting where you actually make contact is a lot stronger.”
  • Filming locations included Toronto at Cinespace’s Kipling studio facility,[5] Times Square in New York City, Tokyo, and Red Square in Moscow.
  • On October 11, a platform collapsed during the second day of filming and injured 16 people on the set. According to Toronto police, ten people were taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. Injuries included bruises and broken bones. Emergency workers had a difficult time determining which injuries were real since the people were dressed in zombie costumes with fake blood.
  • The streets of Red Square were cleared for a day and background filming was done in the Russian subway after it was cleared for five hours. Most of the streets were built into sets. The car chase scene was filmed in late November in Moscow.
  • The music group Tomandandy, who performed the Afterlife score, returned to score Retribution. Anderson explains that the score for this film will be a progression of Afterlife, stating that he “wants to kind of mesh their more electronic stuff with an orchestra this time. It still has that cool tomandandy feel, but it has a more epic scope to it.”
  • The first teaser trailer of the film, was attached to Underworld Awakening and released in January 2012, featuring product placement promoting Sony products such as the Xperia phone, the PlayStation Vita and the Tablet S before transitioning into a post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C., with Alice standing on the roof of the White House.
  • A viral website umbrellacorporation.net supposedly informed about Umbrella’s on a recruitment tour all over the world searching for “great minds to help them advance”. On several occasions, a video of Alice (Milla Jovovich) shows up, telling you not to trust Umbrella.
  • On August 10, 2012, a group of 27 people dressed as zombies “invaded” the Shibuya shopping district and handed out leaflets to promote the film.
  • Resident Evil: Retribution had its world premiere in Japan (where it’s retitled Biohazard V: Retribution) on September 3 and had its release worldwide on September 14th.

Talking Points:

  • Felt like a clip show right before the end of a reality series

Critic Notes:

  • Positives: While the director explains all at the end, it’s clear the big full blown nutty days are still to come; Anderson knows how to do a great fight sequence
  • Negatives: Same old, same old; got tired of the slo-mo; flimsy plot structure; “apparently zombie hordes have taken over the world, but there is an endless supply of black leather unitards”; At last, we thought Alice might say “we survived”, but alas no.

What We Learned:

  • This is Alice…and it’s her world
  • When trying to escape a zombie menace, go into the dark subway tunnels
  • Rain’s sister is not very nice
  • Clones wear leather unitards

Trailer:

Recommendations :
Jeff: Well this is a first, Usually I’m pretty good with an RE movie. It does something interesting and I enjoy myself. . . . this . . . didn’t. For the first time I’m just tired of Resident Evil Movies and they are going to do another one. Thanks, Paul WS Anderson but you need to stop. Right now. No more cliffhangers at the end of movies. This is enough.
Ray: This just confirms me suspicions that every single one of these movies since the first one has been made for the sole purpose of masturbating Japanese fans. The dialogue was delivered horribly, the acting was..not even passable, but it you take this and watch the dialogue from the very first resident evil games.. it’s almost exactly the same… I’d stay away unless you are a crazy die hard fan.. oh and everyone tells me skip the 3D
Steve: Kind of a best of the best moments from the previous films, so it had a “clip show” feel. While it isn’t Shakespeare, it’s good for what it is and the fight scenes were fricken awesome! Michelle Rodriguez ‘roiding up to right two guys and the fight between Alice and Jill were both pretty damn epic. Honestly, I was really hoping they would end it…but I guess we’ll have to wait and see if there will actually be a 6th installment.

The Future: Oz: The Great and Powerful

Release: March 8, 2013

Director: Sam Raimi

Starring: Mila Kunis, James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz

Summary:

Sam Raimi’s film is set before the events of the 1939 film and the original book. When Oscar Diggs a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking… that is until he meets the witches Theodora, Evanora, and Glinda who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity, and even a bit of wizardry, Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.

Talking Points:

  • Robert Downey, Jr. was Raimi’s first choice for the part of Oz. When Downey declined, Johnny Depp was linked to the role. By the end of February 2011, James Franco was in final negotiations to star in this film. This is the first time that Franco and Raimi have worked together following the conclusion of the Spider-Man trilogy.
  • Principal photography with 3D cameras for Oz: The Great and Powerful began July 2011 in Pontiac, Michigan.
  • The script was written by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire with Joe Roth serving as a producer. In an interview, director Sam Raimi stated that Kapner used information about the Wizard from L. Frank Baum’s books, but the film will also “nod lovingly” to the 1939 classic film.

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: Honestly, I don’t have much to say about this. It’s a Prequel to The Wiz but for some reason they decided not to get another Richard Prior, I really don’t see why? In any case, looks fun, but it’s looking so different than The Wiz.
Ray: I’m super excited to see this… I’ve always thought that even though it would be sacrilege to do it, one movie I’ve always thought would be worthy of a modern remake was Wizard of Oz, glad they went the prequel route so they don’t really have to commit to messing with that until this proves to be a success… I’m excited to see it. Franco is riding high in my head since Planet of the Apes.
Steve: Comes off way more “fantastical” than the original movie. It will be interesting to see how they interplay the original mythology in the prequel. The female cast of witches seems like a solid group of actors, so I hope that Franco holds his own and doesn’t just act like he’s high the whole time.

The Past: Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo

[asa]B000089739[/asa]

The Present: Dredd

The Future: Gayby

Download Podcast
Alternate Download

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast

MOV111: “Oh my god… they were right. I’m a homo.”

The boys start off this week’s show with another Pride Month flick – the colorful and provocative “But I’m a Cheerleader”. They transition from hyper colors to dark and brooding when they head to the theater to check out the historically revisionist novel brought to life in “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”. In trailer-land, they chat about the “super-hero-ization” of some famous childhood legends in “Rise of the Guardians”. In movie news, there’s some talk about a Marvel animated film, Tron’s director nabs another band to score his new flick, and we’ve got some more Batman stuff to chat about. It’s the 111th reel of COL Movies…”Oh my god…they were right. I’m a homo.”

[display_podcast]

News:

Recent Facebook Likes: Mark and Grizz

The Past: But I’m A Cheerleader (1999)
Rotten Tomatoes: 34% Rotten; 73% Audience

[asa]B00009MEB8[/asa]

Director: Jamie Babbit

Staring: Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Michelle Williams

Trivia:

  • Cathy Moriarty asks a character if she wants to be a “raging bull-dyke.” Moriarty received an Oscar nomination for her role in Raging Bull.
  • The song that Rock is dancing to, is “Party Train” by RuPaul. RuPaul plays Mike, one of the counselors, in this film.
  • Melanie Lynskey was Jamie Babbit’s first choice to play Hilary after the director had seen her in Heavenly Creatures and Ever After: A Cinderella Story. Additionally, Lynskey had already worked with Natasha Lyonne (Megan) in Detroit Rock City.
  • Graham’s tattoo is the Chinese character for “star”.
  • When originally submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America rating board, But I’m a Cheerleader received an NC-17 rating. In order to get a commercially-viable R rating, Babbit removed a two second shot of Graham’s hand sweeping Megan’s clothed body, a camera pan up Megan’s body when she is masturbating, and a comment that Megan “ate Graham out” (slang for cunnilingus).
  • Babbit was interviewed by Kirby Dick for his 2006 documentary film This Film Is Not Yet Rated. A critique of the MPAA’s rating system, it suggests that films with homosexual content are treated more stringently than those with only heterosexual content, and that scenes of female sexuality draw harsher criticism from the board than those of male sexuality.

Talking Points:

  • General reactions?
  • Any favorite characters?
  • Trailer – red band (MPAA)

Critic Notes

  • Positives: Funny; Not a great movie, but one that will resonate with the cult movie fans
  • Negatives: Heavy handed satire; Wasted the talent of the stars

What We Learned:

  • Only lesbians eat tofu
  • Brainwashing someone is so much harder after college
  • Being born in France makes you gay
  • Foreplay is for sissys
  • real men go in, unload, and pull out

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: I’ve always loved this movie. It shows the absurdity of the so called “Sexual reorientation” programs. It also deals with people’s denial of being gay and all in good fun too. Seeing RuPaul not in drag was a little weird despite that fact that she . . . he had a spectacular performance. It’s weird calling RuPaul a he. Anyway, this is definitely proof that he . . . she . . can act, so stay away from Starrbooty. The rest of the cast was fantastic and I have nothing bad to say about this movie. You should see it. Damn, I’m having deja vu again.
Ray: A fun campy romp of a film that sometimes delves into serious territory. A great watch if you can look past the made for video look and production values.
Steve: Definitely not for everyone, but fun for what it’s worth! I never actually got Natasha as the lead – she just seems to be odd for me the entire movie.

Add To Flickchart

The Present: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Rotten Tomatoes: 35% Rotten; 62% Audience

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Starring: Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell, Dominic Cooper

Trivia:

  • Tom Hardy was approached for the title role of Lincoln, but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts with The Dark Knight Rises. Later, Eric Bana, Timothy Olyphant, Adrien Brody, Josh Lucas, James D’Arcy and Oliver Jackson-Cohen were considered to play the role before Benjamin Walker was cast.
  • Joaquin Phoenix was the first choice for the role of Henry Sturgess, but turned it down.
  • Robin McLeavy was considered to play Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd, and was later cast as Lincoln’s mother Nancy.
  • The film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was first announced in March 2010 when Tim Burton and Bekmambetov, paired to purchase film rights and to finance its development themselves. The book’s author, Seth Grahame-Smith, was hired to write the script

Talking Points:

  • Tone? Too Serious? Not Serious enough?
  • I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word Illinois said so many times in one movie.
  • The “vampires”

Critic Notes

  • Positives: Imaginative and fun…it is what it is, so just enjoy it; Sure it’s full of questionable taste and choices, but it’s entertaining
  • Negatives: It tried way too hard to be serious and failed; Style over substance; Just a fail

What We Learned:

  • Common looking people are the best in the world, that’s why God makes so many of them.
  • Only the living can kill the dead
  • Plant your feet and stand firm, the only question is where to plant your feet.

Trailer:

Recommendations :
Jeff: I’m going to have to agree with the critics more on this one but not completely. It definite was not a good movie but I still enjoyed myself. Not sure how it compares to the book but this is a definite streamer for sure.
Ray: An example of style over substance… but that would be assuming that there was any substance to begin with. I feel like I could have watched this whole movie with the sound off and probably had a better time.
Steve: A fun excursion. It wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be, so I just turned off the brain and watched for all of the pretty colors and fight scenes.

The Future: Rise of the Guardians

Release: November 21, 2012

Director: Peter Ramsey

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Isla Fisher

Summary:

The film revolves around a group of guardians – Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, The Sandman, and Tooth Fairy joining forces along with Jack Frost when The Bogeyman enacts a plan to bring “total darkness” into the world by destroying the hopes and dreams of children everywhere.

Talking Points:

  • Santa as a Russian with tats?
  • Guillermo Del Toro?

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: I’m completely on board for this movie. Santa Claus looks built. I suppose the fantasy of them all from when I was a child just makes me all giggly interested in this. Bring it!
Ray: Honestly? Do I really need to tell you my excitement levels? Bring on November!
Steve: Wow…what a retelling of tales we all grew up with. This will be very interesting!

The Past:

[asa]B003ZSJ212[/asa]

The Present:

The Future:

Download Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcast

MOV056: “I Wish I Knew How To Quit You.”

This week the boys continue their celebration of pride month by traveling back to 2005 to watch 3 time Academy Award winner “Brokeback Mountain” Is it more than just that “Gay Cowboy Movie”? Or was Jeff’s dismissal of all the movie Hype warranted? In The Present we go back to the 1960’s to dissect X-Men: First Class, does the film jump to the head of the class or is it the first summer movie dud? Then Swing with us out of the trees and into the future as we talk about the upcoming Rise of The Planet of the apes do these damn dirty apes do the franchise reboot justice? All this and news about The Fighter 2, Romeo and Juliet, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, And a possible Tarantino / DiCaprio collaboration? All this and more on this 56th reel of COL Movies.

News:

The Past: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Rotten Tomatoes: 87% Fresh; 77% Audience

[asa]B00005JOFQ[/asa]

Director: Ang Lee

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Randy Quaid

Trivia:

  • According to reports, Heath Ledger nearly broke co-star Jake Gyllenhaal’s nose while filming a kissing scene.
  • According to an interview that Heath Ledger gave to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Steven Rea, there was a sequence that was filmed for the movie in which Jack and Ennis help some hippies get their car out of a river. According to Ledger, the scene took three days to shoot and was disliked almost immediately by everyone involved. The scene was written by James Schamus as an attempt to show Jack and Ennis in a heroic situation, but it does not appear in Annie Proulx’s original short story, the published screenplay, or the final cut of the movie.
  • There were 75 visual effects shots created for the film by the Canadian house Buzz Image Group. Of these, 15 were of CGI sheep. The film called for about 2,500 sheep, but only 700 were on-set, necessitating the additional woolly creations. Also created for the film were sky replacements, set additions, erasures and the hail in the hailstorm
  • Ang Lee struggled continually with the sheep during the shoot. Apparently sheep don’t drink from running water, only ponds and dams. Ang tried all day to get the sheep to drink from a stream, but they wouldn’t oblige. He had to give up on the shot. Also, American sheep carry a bacteria/virus that Canadian sheep don’t possess. The film’s scene where two herds of sheep become mixed up had some nightmarish real-life parallels, as the Canadian government had expressly warned them of dire consequences if they caused any disease to spread to the local animals from the south-of-the-border variety.
  • According to producer James Schamus, the movie cost so little to make that it recouped its cost during its first week of limited release.
  • Banned in China because homosexuality is considered a taboo subject there.
  • Over 90% of the footage was shot within 70 feet of a road
  • Among the actors considered for the male leads were Josh Hartnett, Colin Farrell, Matt Damon, Billy Crudup, and Ben Affleck.
  • Heath Ledger was only four years older than Kate Mara, who played his daughter Alma Jr. in the movie’s last scenes (for most of the movie, Alma Jr. was played by younger baby and child actresses; Mara only played her as an older teen once the Ledger character was supposed to be in his 40s).
  • The shirts worn by the 2 actors that feature prominently in the film were sold on eBay in February 2006 for $101,100. The buyer, film historian and collector Tom Gregory, called them “the ruby slippers of our time”. In 2009, Gregory lent the shirts to The Autry National Center of the American West, a Los Angeles museum that seeks “to explore the experiences and perceptions of the diverse peoples of the American West.” Their exhibition of the shirts is part of their larger attempt to examine representations of the Western LGBT experience in history and fiction.
  • The poster for the film was deliberately styled to resemble another romantic epic, James Cameron’s Titanic (1997).
  • In March 2006 Randy Quaid filed a lawsuit against Focus Features alleging that the company had misled him into thinking that Brokeback Mountain (2005) was a low budget, art-house film with no prospect of making money. He saw this as a ruse to get him to lower his salary. At the time of the lawsuit, the film had earned more than $160 million. Quaid dropped the lawsuit in May, seemingly after Focus agreed to pay him a bonus. Focus, however, denied that any such payment ever took place, and Focus spokeswoman Adriene Bowles was quoted as saying, “the circumstances of him dropping the suit are as mysterious as the circumstances under which he filed his claim.”
  • Universal made the rare decision to release the film on DVD when it was still playing in theaters. It was also the first film to be released as a DVD and a download on the same day.

Talking Points:

  • Snubbed at the Oscars?
  • Take on the ending – Was what happened to Jack real or just what Ennis imagined.
  • were they gay cowboy’s? or bi cowboys?
  • Anyone know a gay guy named Ennis?

What We’ve Learned:

  • If your gonna be a sheep Herder, best you develop a taste for beans
  • The only point of riding rodeo is the money
  • Rodeo cowboys are all fuckups
  • You dont have to know what the Pentecost is in order to believe in it
  • Spit works….

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: I really don’t see what all the fuss was about. This movie was boring to me. I can’t really give it a recommendation either either good or bad. It was just boring.
Ray: Beautiful photography, and a heart breaking performance from Heath Ledger that can only be described as “Once in a generation” I think this is a beautifully told modern day western that makes me cry every time I watch it.
Steve: Despite being slow (like The Way Back slow), it’s an interesting take on people coming to terms with who they are in a society who teaches them they have to be something else. Makes you think.

The Present: X-Men: First Class (2011)

Rotten Tomatoes: 85% Fresh; 88% Audience

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence

Trivia:

  • A telepathic battle between Professor X and Emma Frost was going to be in the film, but upon the release of Inception (2010) the concept was scrapped.
  • To prepare for his role as Erik Lensherr, Michael Fassbender studied Sir Ian McKellen’s performance as Lensherr in the previous X-Films, but also looked through the comics as he decided to make his own version of Magneto: “You want to respect what someone else has done, especially because the fan base really liked what Ian has done with it. But while I could have gone and studied him as a young man and brought that to the performance, I don’t think Matthew is very interested in that. So I’m just going my own way and working with whatever is in the comic books and the script.”
  • The filmmakers had only two choices for the role of Sebastian Shaw: Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon. They decided to go with Bacon as he was American and seemed more menacing than Firth.
  • This is the second time that January Jones has been cast in 1962 opposite an actor with a pork based name. The first was in “Mad Men” (2007) opposite John Hamm and then this alongside Kevin Bacon

Talking Points:

  • Anyone ready for a X-Men film that doesn’t have Magneto in it?
  • Kevin Bacon – I had no Idea the man was in the movie until I saw it!

What We Learned:

  • Mutation Is groovy
  • Sexy Lingerie can get you in anywhere
  • True Focus Lies somewhere between Rage and Serenity
  • I’m a mutant and I’m proud – where’s my parade?

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: This was a very refreshing prequel for the X-Men Movies. I felt a very different style to this compared to the previous films which was . . . . well . . . refreshing. Go see it.
Ray: Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this film.. went in with LOW expectations and got my ass kicked. This is a promising start to the summer movie season!
Steve: I wasn’t sure about the film’s style, but I did enjoy the movie overall. I like origin stories like this – I don’t need a 2 hour one on a single character. Kept me interested.

The Future: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (8/5/2011)

Director: Rupert Wyatt

Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto

Trivia:

  • The film is not based on any specific plotline from the original series, but instead takes elements from the earlier movies to create an original origin story.
  • In a segment of a video blog post, director Rupert Wyatt commented on the originality of the plot: “This is part of the mythology and it should be seen as that. It’s not a continuation of the other films; it’s an original story. It does satisfy the people who enjoy those films. The point of this film is to achieve that and to bring that fan base into this film exactly like Batman [Begins].”
  • Director Rupert Wyatt commented: “I think we’re ending with certain questions, which is quite exciting. To me, I can think of all sorts of sequels to this film, but this is just the beginning.”
  • Screenwriter and producer Rick Jaffa has also stated that Rise of the Planet of the Apes will feature several clues as to future sequels: “I hope that we’re building a platform for future films. We’re trying to plant a lot of the seeds for a lot of the things you are talking about in terms of the different apes and so forth.”
  • According to Rick Jaffa, a version of the spaceship from the 1968 Planet of the Apes will be featured under the name Icarus in Rise of the Planet of the Apes as a hint to a possible sequel.
  • Unlike previous films in the franchise, the apes in the film will be created digitally using CGI technology, by Weta Digital.
  • Filming began in July 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Filming also headed to San Francisco, California, and around O’ahu, Hawaii.

Talking Points:

  • Another reboot! After the abortion that was the last attempt at a reboot.. are you ready for this one?
  • CGI monkeys… good or bad?

Summary: An origin story set in present day San Francisco, where man’s own experiments with genetic engineering lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy.

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: It’s looking good. Really don’t have any expectations for it, just would like to see it.
Ray: Feeling rather indifferent about this one, I’m a big fan of the Heston era apes movies…
Steve: Not sure about this one…I think I get the purpose, but where the hell do all the apes come from to be in the city? That was a big-ass zoo!

Coming Attractions

The Past
[asa]B000V6LSW2[/asa]

The Present

The Future

Download Podcast

Podcast: Play in new window | Download