Archive for the ‘Film’ Category
50 Years of Bond – great video montage
After some complaints that the Academy Award show video tribute to Bond was lacklustre (missing key dialogue, visual effects heavy) Kees van Dijkhuizen Jr has come up with the above much more fitting tribute for celebrating 50 years of a celluloid legend.
Eagerly awaiting “Skyfall” Blu Ray release. Have to say Adele’s song looked and sounded so much better in the cinema during the opening credits than the strange lighting/ocean/smoke pop sensory video may lead you to think on TV.
“The Hobbit”, well glad I saw you but please do not come back again.
Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog
Follow @JPSargeant78
Post Apocalypse
Glad you made it 
Related blog: The Hobbit
New Scientist: End of the world is not a threat, but an opportunity
Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog
Follow @JPSargeant78
The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey
I finished reading the Dune series by Frank Herbert in my first year at University. The Lord of the Rings films were being shot, and Arthur C Clarke compared Dune to LOTR – so I wanted to be ahead and read the book before the motion picture was released. Thankfully a friend recommended reading The Hobbit first. It opened up another fantasy world adding to the literary landscape that was expanding for me. As the nights continue drawing in, I recommend reading them in front of a roaring fire. Pipe or spice coffee optional.
So while people are excited about the new bond film Skyfall, I’m quietly looking forward to the Shire returning to the big screen. Wetting the appetite for the small folk Empire magazine are covering with a choice of 3D covers.
Ian McKellen is blogging again and will be covering his experiences of shooting in 3D and the 48 frames per second (twice the normal speed) experience.
When is Religulous Out in the UK?
Right now no one can say when Religulous is coming out here in the UK, though the film is out in the US right now:
What about here? Argh!
Not been anticipating a film this much for sometime. Well maybe Righteous Kill which I saw yesterday (which if it did not have Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in would not drag my sorry ass to the pictures). The guys just make it worth paying the money to see but when it comes out on DVD I will pass till it is on sale. My advice: make sure you get Heat instead.
Paul Newman dies
Hollywood legend Paul Newman has died of cancer at the age of 83, his spokeswoman has confirmed.
The blue-eyed star of films like Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid had died at home on Friday surrounded by family and close friends, said Jeff Sanderson.
Newman was nominated for an Oscar 10 times, winning the best actor trophy in 1987 for The Color Of Money.
His Butch Cassidy co-star Robert Redford led tributes, saying: “I have lost a real friend.”
“There is a point where feelings go beyond words,” he added.
“My life – and this country – is better for his being in it.”
Retired
In May 2007, Newman said he was giving up acting because he could no longer perform to the best of his ability.
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SELECT FILMOGRAPHY
 The Silver Chalice, 1955
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958
The Hustler, 1961
Hud, 1963
Cool Hand Luke, 1967 (pictured)
Rachel Rachel (director), 1968
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969
The Sting, 1973
The Towering Inferno, 1974
Absence of Malice, 1981
The Verdict, 1982
The Color of Money, 1986
Nobody’s Fool, 1994
Road to Perdition, 2002
Cars (voice), 2006
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“I’m not able to work any more… at the level that I would want to,” he told US broadcaster ABC.
“You start to lose your memory, you start to lose your confidence, you start to lose your invention.
“So I think that’s pretty much a closed book for me.”
Earlier this year, he pulled out of directing a stage production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men in Connecticut because of unspecified health problems.
Sam Mendes, who directed Newman in 2002′s Road To Perdition, said the actor was “an extraordinary man in every respect”.
“The thing I remember the most about him is his total lack of ego and his lack of entourage and his lack of hangers-on.
“He demanded to be seen as a working actor and not a movie star.”
Broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson, who interviewed Newman for a documentary, said the star had been “a real giant of the cinema”.
“He was the link between the great time of Hollywood, the Cary Grant and people like that, and Tom Cruise,” he told BBC News.
“He fills the gap between the two, and fills it in a most extraordinary, dominant manner.”
Hit films
Although his handsome looks and piercing blue eyes made him an ideal romantic lead, Newman often played rebels, tough guys and losers.
“I was always a character actor,” he once said. “I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.”
The star won a total of three Oscars
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He appeared in some 60 movies, including Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, The Sting and Hud.
Along the way, he worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood – including Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall and Tom Hanks.
He also appeared with his wife, Joanne Woodward, in several films including Long Hot Summer and Paris Blues. The star later directed his wife in movies such as Rachel, Rachel and The Glass Menagerie.
But his most famous screen partner was undoubtedly Robert Redford, his sidekick in both Butch Cassidy and The Sting.
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YOUR MEMORIES
 His acting skills will be missed, his films will be watched endlessly  Maggie Jones, Cheltenham, UK
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In addition to his Academy Award for best actor, he was given an honorary Oscar in 1986 “in recognition of his many and memorable compelling screen performances and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft”.
In 1994, he won a third Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his charitable work.
His philanthropic efforts included the establishment of summer camps for children who suffered from life-threatening illnesses.
He also donated profits from his Newman’s Own food range to a number of charitable organisations.
Newman became a professional racing driver and took second place at Le Mans in 1979
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Newman’s last film role was as the voice of Doc Hudson, one of the most famous racing cars in history, in the Pixar animation Cars.
It was perhaps a fitting epitaph for the actor, who had a lifelong fascination with the sport – and put his film career on hold in the 1970s to become a professional racing driver.
He is survived by his wife, five children, two grandsons and his older brother Arthur.
Reposted from BBC News
The West Wing and some books
Having watched Bristol Rovers cause an upset by beating Southampton 1-0 in the FA Cup 5th Round, it was time to get some much needed supplies for the big game later on; Manchester United v Arsenal.
Having stepped outside my house ready to walk to the local supermarket the bus came by, running late as usual and I changed my plans and caught a ride into town. There I decided to do some quick shopping then pick up my mountain bike from work, back to supermarket then home for the game.
To that end I got 3 for 2 on these books:
Barack Obama: The Audacity of Hope (an attempt to find out what he stands for)
Martin Goodman: Rome and Jerusalem – The Clash of Ancient Civilisations (the book I chose for free)
John Gribbin: The Universe A Biography (14 billion years in just over 200 pages)
I also purchased The West Wing Season 2. I am very behind on TV, and have been catching up on shows (House and The Sopranos). Anyway I was impressed especially with the writing and characterization. Martin Sheen’s performance especially and for reasons that you may guess this scene caught my eye and I managed to track it down on YouTube (Bible quotes at a homophobic radio call in presenter).
Enjoy!
Incidentally Man Utd thrashed Arsenal 4 – 0.
The Golden Compass
Harry Potter is in detention, and the kids are stuck in Narnia. The Hobbits can stay underground. There is another story on the silver screen and it is pure gold, with a sense of direction that means that I am anticipating the other two films eagerly.
Phillip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials has been taken on by New Line Cinema and Northern Lights the first book published in 1995 has just been released at a cinema near you under the American title The Golden Compass. Like Roald Dahl, Pullman spent time in a shed at the bottom of the garden writing at a slow methodical rate that would be the envy of any paper pushing bureaucrat – three pages a day.
The story itself has the ingredients that bring together something that would make you want to stay behind in his classes when he used to teach English and make up a tale to entertain and educate the class. From a street urchins idea of children, with a famous five type tendency, and a romantic depiction of a parallel Oxford universe the real new big idea is that souls rather than being a force unseen are depicted by a daemon that takes on an animal shape by your side. It reflects your personality and you are interconnected – one cannot live without the other.
Yet the way Pullman has woven this story together I was spell bound. Rarely do I want to read the book after I see the film (usually I try to read the book first rather than the other way round). Yet I now know what I want to read for Christmas. In Pullman there is a grand story teller – a higher accolade than a children’s writer – for all generations.
There has been a fuss by some religious groups. Having watched the film there is nothing there which is anti-religious, though if religious people find themselves identifying with the bad guys than that says something about them. Even with my secular take on things what I saw was an epic tale of freedom over tyranny of thought, exploration over stay at home, bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, friendship over personal safety. And what appeals to children most of all – the ability to make a difference in an adult world.
So do watch the film and find your way to the cinema. For more on Pullman there is a good cover story in intelligent life Winter 2007 edition well worth a read (published by The Economist).
