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Gabriel Over the White House

Film Nerd Terrorists on YouTube
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"In an email exchange this week with John Damer-a regular FilmCouch listener–he mentioned a movie called Gabriel Over the White House. Just go to this movie’s Wikipedia page, and a movie-dork acid will start to fill your stomach. William Randolph Hearst made a movie where there’s a gangster driveby of the White House and the President predicts last week’s bailout plan?!?!?! You must see it. You start searching for the DVD and, probably, wind up at Amazon.com. There you’ll find a few secondary vendors selling VHS copies of the movie for over $100. Your heart sinks. A little more digging reveals there’s no copy at the local library. For the more Internet immersed, you may try Archive.org hoping the copyright expired and it’s now in the public domain. No luck. MGM still holds the rights. But there’s a guerrilla spirit of VHS movie collectors out there who won’t let baby be put in the corner. YouTube is the current battleground in getting hard-to-find movies released, and John Damer ha ... " [More]

American History X

Porno, Not Sex. Clip of the Day
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Seth Rogen & Elizabeth Banks In “This Is Not Sex” Directed By Tony Kaye from Mean Magazine on Vimeo. It’s a tired gag, but filmmaker Tony Kaye (American History X) has fun with the “it’s not what you think” shtick and manages to make it work better than normal. However, whether it’s actually thanks to him or to the ever-lovable Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen is unclear. What is clear, at least, is that this promotional video for Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno is probably too good for the feature film it’s linked to. Kaye is the one who should be releasing his eighth movie, while Smith should be the one making experimental non-commercials for him. The other thing I have to say about any promotional materials for Zack and Miri is this: more Darryl Robinson! That man is comedy gold, and while the poo in the toilet joke in the trailers is funny, it’s mostly Robinson’s bits that have me interested in this movie. And I hate the idea of wanting to see another Kevin Smith flick a ... " [More]

Taxi Driver

Working Girls (and Boy): Our Fi ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"From the turn-of-the-century Northwest to seedy 70’s NYC, from an 80’s morgue to 90’s Japan to the modern-day midwest, the oldest profession in the world is onscreen to stay. Here are five timeless performances that are worth the peep show. Julie Christie as Constance Miller in Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller Julie Christie is exhilarating in her Oscar-nominated turn as the smart and sexy Constance Miller, a no-nonsense businesswoman in the wild and wicked Northwest who just happens to be in the business of selling sex. In fact, it’s Warren Beatty’s dream chaser John McCabe who is the bimbo to Miller’s sly fox. Like a whore himself, he needs the professional madam’s charms and chops to make a living more than she needs him as a partner in their bordello/tavern venture. Sex-positive feminism at its finest. Jodie Foster as Iris Steensma in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver Oscar loves hookers. Astonishingly wise and mature beyond her years, Jodie Foster delivers an Academy Aw ... " [More]

Bad Lieutenant

Bad Lieutenant Remake Still Spa ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Hell hath no fury like Abel Ferrara underpaid for his intellectual property. In an lengthy interview with Nick Dawson for the FILMMAKER Blog (pegged to the long-awaited US first run of Ferrara’s 2005 film Mary, which starts at Anthology Film Archives on Friday), the filmmaker has more complaints about the Nicolas Cage-starring, Werner Herzog-directed remake of Bad Lieutenant. The big problem seems to be that rather than offer Ferrara and his crew a big (or, biggish), Ed Pressman and the producers of the remake simply paid Ferrara “twenty grand” and shut him out. My favorite quotes from the interview, taken out of context: “I can’t believe Nic Cage is trying to play that part. I mean, if the kid needed the money… It’s like Harvey Keitel said, “If the guy needed the money, if he came to us and said, ‘My career’s on the rocks,’ I’d cut him a break.” “I’m not doing the prequel to Aguirre: the Wrath of God, OK? Let me put it that way.” “Give us $8 million, we’ll come up with something. ... " [More]

Of All The Things

Of All The Things at Stranger T ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Standing in front of a packed crowd at the IFC Center last night before the SXSW-presented New York City premiere of his doc Of All The Things, Jody Lambert contemplated his good fortune. “To have Janet Pierson introduce the movie, to be part of Stranger Than Fiction, to have John Pierson send you an email…it’s kind of like Bonertown, USA.” To say that there were boners all around might be an exaggeration, but Lambert’s goofy, feel-good film definitely pleased the crowd. Jody’s father Dennis Lambert is the songwriter and/or producer of dozens of mainstream pop-rock hits, from “Baby Come Back” (after the screening, Lambert noted that its use in Swiffer commercials has been “very lucrative”) to “Ain’t No Woman” to (my personal favorite) “Do The Freddie.” After spending twenty-plus years writing hits for other artists, eventually Lambert moved down to Boca Raton to start a new life with a new wife and daughter, and a new career as a real estate agent. But “Bags and Things”, the solo a ... " [More]

The Dark Knight

Musical Actors: Five Recastings ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Forget about Don Cheadle replacing Terence Howard as James Rhodes / War Machine in Iron Man II, which smells a lot like the “we’ll threaten to replace Tobey Maguire with Jake Gyllenhaal” tactic that Sony used for Spider-Man II –– Hollywood has been doing this for years. It was bad enough back in the days of television with Dick Sargent replacing Dick York in Bewitched, but now it’s becoming pretty commonplace for producers to replace actors in iconic roles. Although now it’s more common due to monetary concerns, which seems to be what has taken Howard out of the War Machine suit, it’s also common to see an actor ankle a role because they don’t like the source material, or the direction the character is taking. We’ve put together several different re-castings, which all happened for a variety of reasons: money, dissatisfaction with the script, test audience reactions, and actors just growing tired of playing the same character. Check them out after the break. Alec Baldwin –> Harri ... " [More]

Muppet Movie for Adults. Trade ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Not that adults can’t already appreciate Muppet movies enough as they are, but The Jim Henson Co. has a new film in the works that will primarily be for grown-ups. Described as being a little Avenue Q mixed with a little L.A. Confidential and Pulp Fiction, the movie will be set in a world where humans and puppets co-exist (umm, like any other Muppet movie, uh huh), in which the latter are considered second-class citizens (still kind of like any other Muppet movie) and become victim to a series of murders (ok, there’s the adult part). Titled The Happyland Murders, this seemingly Muppets version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit will be directed by Brian Henson (The Muppet Christmas Carol). This should be the year to debut hot political films, not announce them, but Fox Searchlight has reportedly acquired the rights to Allen Raymond’s memoir How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative, which has been adapted and will be directed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass). The boys of ... " [More]

Gods of the Plague

Kim’s Video Looking For A Home ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"New York gentrification moves faster than video format extinction. Kim’s Video on Avenue A shut down while I was in grad school at NYU, and that made it hard enough to find VHS copies of older films that hadn’t yet been released on DVD (and hasn’t that space gone through like three cheesy bars since Kim’s lost their lease? Please advise.) Later, I ended up buying a bunch of those tapes (including Fassbinder’s Gods of the Plague and Herzog’s Where the Green Ants Dream) at Mondo Kim’s on Saint Marks. Now, that Kim’s location is getting ready to move, and they’re unloading their library of 55,000 video rentals in the process. A couple of local eye witnesses have sent in reports of a flyer that’s being passed out at the store (Ray Pride has posted a scan), advertising Mr. Kim’s search for “institutions, schools, businesses or individuals who can accomodate Kim’s full line of film collection.” Apparently, they want to keep the collection intact; in fact, the stated mandates for parties ... " [More]

The Passion of The Christ

10 Best Political Passion Projects
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Oliver Stone has long been synonymous with political passion projects, but his latest film, W., may be his most ambitious effort yet, if only because of how quickly the thing came together and got made. Now the serio-comic biopic about our sitting president is about to hit theaters, less than ten months after anyone had heard of its inception, and it’s getting a number of favorable reviews, will possibly rule the box office this weekend, and could even garner an Oscar nomination for Josh Brolin, who portrays the man with the titular initial, George W. Bush. But not all political passion projects are quite as successful as W. is expected to be. Some such films have been banned, while some have simply failed to acquire an audience on more democratic grounds, whether in terms of box office, critical or awards recognition. Yet regardless of the reception of a political passion project, either at the time of release (or intended release) or decades later, it may be regarded as an achiev ... " [More]

Monty Python and the Sarah Pali ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"What’s better than hearing from young, generally apolitical American movie actors on their opinions regarding the presidential election? Hearing from old, generally funny British movie actors on their opinions regarding the election. I’m not sure what is so interesting about John Cleese talking smack about Sarah Palin, but it’s become a very popular clip, despite the fact that it’s just Cleese chatting and not, as I wish he was, presenting an anarchic parody sketch featuring a talking parrot intended to represent the vice presidential candidate. Perhaps the Monty Python gang could have written something as silly as the McCain/Palin campaign, but I’d much rather see proof of that than hear about it. So why am I featuring the clip today? Well, perhaps in anticipation of W., this will just be a week filled with celebrity endorsement videos. No, I’d rather not, especially since a lot of them, like the Hayden Panettiere ad on FunnyorDie.com are not even a little bit amusing. Besides, ye ... " [More]

Cargo 200

Cargo 200 on YouTube
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"This might be the least safe-for-work thing I’ve ever blogged. Cargo 200, Alexei Balabanov’s gruesome indictment of Russian devolution circa 1984 which was one of my favorite films from this year’s Fantastic Fest (it also played Telluride and Toronto in 2007), is available for viewing in nine parts on YouTube. This is either the best way to watch this film or the worst. As I noted in my review, one of the best things about Cargo is its slow build –– it takes forever for anything actually disturbing to happen, but then once shit goes bad, it just gets worse and worse and worse –– and the power of the mounting revulsion might get lost if you’re watching it in chunks. That said, you also have the option to either skip, or skip directly towards, the really, really sick stuff. For the record, that gets started in part four. It gets much, much worse in part seven. Enjoy! Originally posted on:SpoutBlog " [More]

I Am Legend

The Zombie Next Door: The Scien ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Two weeks ago I wrote a list of five doomsday films ranked by plausibility. The response to this piece made me realize that I overlooked the most pressing apocalyptic threat of all: zombies. The onslaught of the living dead has been a mainstay of horror cinema for decades, beginning with the Bela Lugosi vehicle White Zombie in 1932. Over the following years zombies popped up in movies as one of many monstrous villains, often filling the minion role. It wasn’t until George Romero’s groundbreaking 1968 film Night of the Living Dead that the idea of a zombie apocalypse was introduced. Romero’s cannibalistic zombies have since become the archetype used in countless films, books, and video games. The cause of the virulent plague of the walking dead varies, however. Everything from spiritual curses, viruses, chemical weapons, and alien microorganisms have been used to explain the origin of zombies. Below the jump we examine the real-world evidence behind some of these threats, and which ... " [More]