RIP Drew Struzan

Drew Struzan, the man who designed some of the most iconic posters in the history of Movieland, for over 150 films. From the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series to Blade Runner, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and Back to the Future in the 80's, then over a new generation of filmmakers-Tim Burton-Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks, Frank Darabont-The Shawnshank Redemption, The Mist (David's paintings), The Green Mile, Guillermo Del Toro-Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth- has passed away on Oct. 13th. He was 78...

Note (grazie, LD): Legendary Italian poster art maestro Renato Casaro died on Sept. 30 at 89...He did the posters for the Leone spaghetti westerns, up to Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian (as they were Dino de Laurentiis productions). He retired in 1998 but came back in 2019, called by Quentin Tarantino to realize some "old school illustrated Western posters" ("Uccidimi Subito Ringo, disse il Gringo" aka "Kill Me Now Ringo, Said The Gringo", and "Nebraska Jim") for Italian films starring Rick Dalton, the character Leonardo DiCaprio plays in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

Struzan and Casaro have even a poster in common, for The Name of the Rose in 1986, for whom they did both posters. 

     
Struzan                                                   Casaro

Struzan also designed LP covers before film posters, including the legendary Alice Cooper's 1975 `Welcome to My Nightmare`.

In 2013, he was the subject of Erik Sharkey’s feature documentary “Drew: The Man Behind The Poster,” with interviews with collaborators like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Frank Darabont, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro. 

exhaustive obit in Variety here 

 “Drew made event art. His posters made many of our movies into destinations…and the memory of those movies and the age we were when we saw them always comes flashing back just by glancing at his iconic photorealistic imagery. In his own invented style, nobody drew like Drew.”

Steven Spielberg 

Play Dirty (2025)

`There are two kinds of people in this world, those who know who Shane Black is, and those who don't!. Those can dig ;) 

NALD 

Well Shane Black is back as a writer/director, this time on Amazon Prime & theirs MGM  100 mill. $ streaming extravaganza.

It's a Parker film named Play Dirty (not to be confused with the 1969 André De TothWW2 actioner, the title comes from Black's unfilmed script for Lethal Weapon 2, unseen til today -Black's most proud and gritty work, or so they say ;).

It's based on the Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake) iconic novels started in the 60's. Not one novel but `novels`. I guess they're trying to build  a franchise but this won't happen I guess cos' the film is the weakest of Black's career as a director (and that includes the reshot troubled 2018's The Predator). 

Mark Wahlberg is Parker, an obnoxious choice. He can't handle the character dark charisma and dry wit, a dangerous man with a code of its own. Stark's Parker is an Anti Hero, Steve Mc Queen would have done him justice. Or Kris Kristofferson. Even today's Brad Pitt cos' Russell Crowe's too overweight...

Robert Downey Jr. was supposed to play him but he backed off, remaining on board as a producer. Not sure even about Downey but definetly a better choice, Parker's before were Lee Marvin (Point Blank-1967- the most menacing), Jim Brown (The Split-1978, the black one), Robert Duvall (The Outfit-1973, the most aloof), Peter Coyote (Slayground-1983, the most unlikely), Mel Gibson (Payback-1999, the  coolest, but meanest to his director-check out only the Director's Cut), Jason Statham (Parker-2013, bleh..). I'm not adding two these the two Frenchie freejazzin', Made in USA (Jean Luc Godard, 1966) and Mise à Sac (Alan Cavalier, 1967).

*** (Here's an article on all the Parker films, and none until 2013 used the name Parker !!!)

Back to Play Dirty. Would've been better to play it cool tho. The film itself is a self indulgent mess, combo of action scenes, comedy and VFX gone awry.

Too many characters, too much useless plot, not a lot of chemistry between the actors. Rapper LaKeith Stanfield shines as Grofield, Stark's character that has his own novels. Would've liked more of the Thomas Jane character, and someone else for Tony Shaloub, the guy plays a caricature of the mob boss of  a ridiculous corny and cartoonish Outfit. Think a James Coburn, even in Hudson Hawk or  Kris Kristofferson (he was the boss of The Outfit in Payback, but not in the Director's Cut !!!).  Also for the Latin country (unanamed but it's Peru), some finer actors, plus Rosa Salazar as Zen is kinda unmemobrable and not at all a Femme Fatale type.

The running time (2h03) is overlong and the film loses steam in midstream.

+++The Plus:

Great score by Alan Silvestri, reminionscent of those he did for Predator and The Long Kiss Goodnight (based on Shane's script), jazzy and funk, dramatic and menacing where it needs to be. For me Silvestri's score is a great comeback to form. A bit of  007 Bond-sist swagger, Lalo Schifrin and The Taking of Pelham 123 by David Shire, the percussion points.

Also the opening credits are very cool, 60's like. They were made by Daniel Kleinman who did all the title sequences for James Bond starting with GoldenEye back in 1995. Amazingly he is not credited with imdb and Anca found this for me, thanx ! Her piece on the art of the opening credits is here. 

And here's the whole title sequence. 

Production values-high -especially the first action scene at the racing track.

The cinematography (superb 2.39:) by legendary Phillipe Rousselot (he's 80 now!), a lot of shades, shadows, reflections, in a NYC shot this time in Sydney, Australia !!!! Rousselot and Black worked together before in 2026's The Nice Guys.

Some of the wisecracks work better than the plotholes and the action. Also there are many references to Black's scripts and films, from the Christmas setting (Duh !) Lethal Weapon (the fall from the rooftop), The Long Kiss Goodnight (the House of Gretchen Mol, the chase in the snow, the scene by the water), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys, etc. Liked the Mark Cuban pun ;)

Shane Black's influences on this one are great films, from Bullit to Dirty Harry, Marathon Man to the obscure Hickey & Boggs (1972), you can check the interview here on Letterboxed. 

And another interview, exhaustive in Collider, with Black, executive producer Susan Downey and producer Jules Daly (also video). 

6 (out of 10) for fans of SB and Donald Westlake, otherwise a Fiver. 

2 1/2 to 3 out of 5.

Would've been way cooler 2 see it in a Cinema....

RIP Remo Girone

C'hiera una volta in Italy...just visited Atrani where Equalizer 3 (and Ripley) were shot and remembered that Tano Carridi was in it...aka il signore Remo Girone. Next morning I saw on the scroll on Italian Television that he died in Monte Carlo, where he lived. He was 76. The odds to be next to one of his and most iconic last filming places ? Locals we met remembered him with respect, amazed we know Tano so well. La Piovra is still Legend in bella Italia. And in Romania too. 

Girone was one of my favorite actors after seeing him in La Piovra series on Romanian Television back in 1992. We were students but we got together on Saturday nights to watch it and Girone as Tano Carridi was the most suave dark angel, a villain of cosmic (or should we say Hellish) proportions. With his perfect hairline, impeccable suits  and a quiet voice, he was always filmed in dark shadows, like the Devil incarnate. Later on I saw him in some films but somehow his third career act  came from Hollywood films: Live By Night, Ford vV. Ferrari where he played Enzo Ferrari, and Equalizer 3, as a good doctor helping Denzel. 

`Il caricato e arrivato a Praga`.

Black Rabbit (2025)

Binged this over two nights Black Rabbit, 8 episodes, New York set and well presented into it. The name of the show -miniseries of a Season, no twofers, comes from a bar / restaurant / lounge next top Brooklyn Bridge, names Black Rabbit. Intrigued me that Jude Law sings, together with Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes, they are The Black Rabbits, the fictional band in the new netflix series.

There are two Black Rabbits songs, “Turned To Black” and “Outside People,” written and produced by Albert Hammond, Jr. 

Best part of Jason Bateman's career IMO, great teaming with Jude Law as the Friedken brothers, Jake and Vince. Jake own the Black Rabbit and wants to move to The Room, Vince is an addict and a f**k up on the run, turning like a bad penny into Jack's life, worst moment, worst time...

Great supporting cast, including Troy Kutsur (Oscar winner from CODA), Abbey Lee (Oz ex model, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Neon Demon, Old), Joe Ales as Jules Zablonski, Don Harvey, Dagmara Dominczyk, many more. 

Great tense score by Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans (series Tokyo Vice, Ozark and Speak No Evil). 

Links with Ozark and The Order, Justin Kurzel (directs last 2 eps), the writers, who wrote both, Zach Baylin and Kate Susman (also producer and showrunner). 

First 2 eps directed by Bateman and 2 more by Laura Linney, his partner in the Ozark series. Two more by Ben Semanoff (also from Ozark).  Lots of Ozarks and Jude Law's The Order that led to this greenlit by netflix. Location shooting and plenty of atmosphere, noirish nightmare descent, bravura performances, I guess it won't be much loved but I appreciated it. Will be on my list of 2025 Top series. 

RIP Terence Stamp

Mouring one of the greatest British Icons, made big by Italian cinema and American popcorn (und more).  Terence Stamp was 87. He was Toby Dammitt in Fellini's sketch of Poe's omnibus Histoires Extrraordinaires/ Spirits of the Dead. He was in Pasolini's Teorema, as he was general Zod ;). 

He won best actor in Cannes in 1965 for The Collector.

From his film debut in Billy Budd (1962, where he received his onbly Oscar nomination) to his last bit in Last Night in Soho (2021) he was a cool, silent, sometimes very menacing presence. 

For me it was at most fun as the perverted host of the short-lived series The Hunger (1997-98).

Other highlights: Modesty Blaise, The Hit, The Limey (featuring Poor Cow).

1st ime I saw him as a kid as the badguy Wazir in the Clive Donner's Thief of Baghdad (1978,  actually a made for TV film).

Stand-out, Australian The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), which can be seen streaming now on HBO Max.

Far from the Madding Crowd indeed...

RIP Ozzy Osbourne

....somehow weird and macabre that my last post was Back to the Beginning about OZZY and his celebration...now Ozzy has left the building...I think happier than before this last fantastic gig...

RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Sweet Prince (of Darkness also;), the Man, The Legend, the History of Heavy Metal Incarnate...saw him with Black Sabbath in Sofia and Solo in Bucharest. He was a good (and more than virtual friend of mine since 8th grade, faithful during his eighties excess (with a soft spot for the Randy Rhoades tragedy, the Alamo showdown, the Sharon incidents and the Bat kill) , his 90's comeback (No More Tears and Ozzmosis), and the 2000's Sabbath Reunions and peace agreements. I even watched some of The Osbournes, who made him really a star in the US. In my first Doc and Roll festival in Brasov back in 2014 we showed a great doc about him,  God Bless Ozzy Osbourne –2011, after which screening even my mom liked him ;) (they were born the same day... )

...oddly just two days ago I was listening to his penultimatealbum, Ordinary Man . One of my Top albums of 2020. It's an album marked by death and loss, ike Sabbath's The End (2016). His last was Patient No. 9 in 2022, featuring the late now Jeff Beck. 

End of an Era. Full Point. 

As he was a fan of John Lennon, the Working Class Hero song would've suited him (Ozzy had a cover of Lennon's signature song on his cover album Under Cover from 2005)...

                                                      

                                                 "Mama, I'm coming Home".....................as he played it in Birmingham too...

RIP Lalo Schifrin

waiting for this to happen for a while :(, I mean Lalo Schifrin was 93, he was retired for a while, after the The Hidden Dove (2018) his last score, not a notable one. He was one of the last great ones, only John Williams survives that Golden generation (Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, etc).

The Argentinian Piano man is foremost responsible of the Mission; Impossible theme. Six times Oscar nominated, no win :(: Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Fox (1968), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The Amityville Horror (1979) and The Sting II (1983) and for the song “People Alone” from The Competition (1980). Honorary Oscar in 2018.

His signature is on Bullitt, Mannix, Enter the Dragon, The Eagle has Landed, Dirty Harry, and its sequels, from Magnum Force to The Enforcer, the three Rush Hour films. Close collaborator of Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood. Also did the music for Carlos Saura's Tango and many jazz collaboations, with Ray Charles in 1965's Norman Jewison's The Cincinnati Kid.

obit in the Hollywood Reporter 

The last film I saw with his music now (catch-up) is The Mean Season (1985), a thriller with Kurt Russell and Richard Jordan. 

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

When you have a 400 mill. $ budget you can make the best and bigger film ever made. 

But instead you make a bloated overbearing part 2 to an enuff bloated Mission: Impossible 7: Dead Reckoning (my review here), film that came out in 2023 and disappointed bigtime performing. Keep in mind that movie cost 300 Mill. $ to make. That film was 2h43, this one is 2h49. Add the running times, 'cos basically it's the same film, and it's an almost 6 hours film which could've easily be told in 2hrs. 

so, part 8 it is. No more Dead Reckoning part 2 but A grand finale, as they promised to spare us to do more. The Final Reckoning.  hopefully last.

It's all Tom Cruise. Tom cruise on a plane, TC running (doing what he does best!), TC underwater, TC fighting, TC, TC, TC. 1st Mission was a masterpiece, done by Brian De Palma with the help of 4 screenwriters working their heads off. Then John Woo made TC the coolest there is. Then the next two films, meh. When Chirstopher McQuarrie, screenwriter of The Usual Suspects and attached director to Tom Cruise, took the Mission on its fifth installament it was a cool update. Hitchcock, opera set-up, more paranoia and a lot more running. Rogue Nation was good, Fallout (the 6th) was even better. Plus they were linked. But M:I 8 wants to link all Missions, especially to the original. So, Kitteridge is now the chief of CIA and you get to see that Shea Wigham is the son of Jon Voight (c'mon) and Rolf Saxon shows up 29 years later as William Donloe, from M:I 1996. Actually that was cool, cos it takes a funny line which is a Brian De Plama trademark wink and puts it into the film's reality. In act 3 the film looks like a poor pastiche of Indiana Jones, all geared up in a cave looking to kill The Entity (worst villain of 'em all if you ask me). The plot is ludicrous and it's repeated every ten minutes, every person speaking one at the time, no ever overlapping, like you're in grade A in school. Also an over-the-top pounding soundtrack which replaces Lorne Balfe with his disciples, two eager newcomers (Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey), and they fill the space completely, no scene should not have music and booming sound effects. Plus ADHD editing and curved camera shots. And TC running , oh yeah, did I mention that again? 

Well the world's fate depends on him more than it ever did of James Bond, Indy or Jack Ryan. He's the JC figure, the only one that can saves it. "It is written" (in the script I guess in Italics...)

Also a film made with the support of Department of Defense that gave these people airplane carriers so they can quote from Tom Gun, doesn't impresses me. The dooming feel these days it's not from AI but from the top of the White House and his omonim in Moscow. 

3 out of 5, 6 out of 10 !

*the rating would be even lower if it wouldn't be for the impressive underwater sequence and the plane stunt. Remember, a movie star acts and entertains, we don't go to the movies to see them doing superhuman stunts we don't care about. It's called Moviemagic and movie tricks are doing that, you don't have to sell every film you're in piloting your own, driving fast motorcycles. You're no Steve Mc Queen...

a good review writing what I think also in The Detroit News: Mission Failed. 

RIP Joe Don Baker

He was sheriff Bufford Pusser, Walking Tall. He was Bond's enemy (in The Living Daylights), then he was Bond's friend (GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies). He played mostly tough guys. Last time I re-saw him in Charlie Varrick (Don Siegel, 1974), where he played a ruthless psychotic killer. 

Joe Don Baker was 89.  He died on May 7th 2025.  

Obit in The Hollywood Reporter. 

Top series 2024

fargo season 5 (waz in between years, wrote last year)

******

Ripley (though is not a series per se, more alike a 7 hours film!) 

the day of the jackal

Sugar

The Sympathizer

The Penguin

KAOS

&

The Landman -in between years, saw just five episodes, for Billy Bob whose career best it is (Ex aqueo with Goliath ;)

Top films 2024

(wherever is a link I wrote about 'em), 

still have to see The Brutalist and some more to come. 

The top in Romanian about films in cinemas in 2024 here 

 the series of 2024 here. 

and my Top films of 2023 here. 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

# 1 across the aldmovieland: Furiosa (A Mad Max Saga)

then:

Anora- also the comedy of the year

From 2023 as seen in 2024: 

poor things
the zone of interest
bastarden
perfect days

io capitano 

The Master & Margarita

Vincent doit mourir !

Les Chambres Rouges

La Chimera

Only the River Flows

Die Theorie von Allem 

animation:
Flow

muzical:
joker folie a deux

moments of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

horror:
MadS
Cuckoo
Maxxine

Oddity

Sting

Never Let Go

& Late Night with the Devil (but from 2023) 

Thriller:

love lies bleeding
the order

Blink Twice 

American Star 

Strange Darling (production year 2023)

LaRoy, Texas (2023 also)

& more:

Civil War  

The Apprentice -best performance of 2024, Sebastian Stan (not the one from a Different Man, kind of Elephant man 2024)

The Bikeriders -flawed but still...

action but with a soul and a message (maybe too much even) but cool: Monkey Man (on that budget chapeau bas Dev Patel !!!)

Guilty pleasure film of the year: John Woo's own remake of THE KILLER

Nicolas Cage Award of the Year: Longlegs (not seen The Surfer yet)

Bonus: a grand barf for the grand guignol of The Substance (will see it again in theaters soon and conclude)-Later Edit, yep, much better, I swallowed the last 1/2 hr. ok)

Romanian film of the year:

Anul nou care nu a fost / The New Year that never Was

Documentary: 

Nasty

Mrs. Buica (from 2023, but saw in 2024)

Alice On & Off / Isabela Tent

Disappointment of the year: Megalopolis :(

Worst film of the year/cash-in: Gladiator II (again, Ridley Scott :( after Napoleon in 2023, and so on...)

 

The Day of the Jackal (2024)

 the new version got me hooked

Eddie Redmayne that's why

some woke s*it but I got over it..

waited for it to be over to comment

The Penguin (2024)

As people didn't recognize Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb (short for Oswald Cobblepot) in 2022's The Batman, now they only talk about the prostethics of the new HBO / Max series, The Penguin.  I was waiting for this and sure hope they won't f**k it up.

Under the hunchback there is a huge actor I always loved and still he does not get the reputation it deserves, Irishman Colin Farrell (just in before and after doing Banshees of Inisherin and Sugar). You can hardly notice his voice and manierisms, he looks more like Robert De Niro as Al Capone in The Untouchables than the previous Penguin incarnations, Burgess Meredith in the '60's and Danny De Vito in 1992's Batman Returns. Plus a soft spot for Robin Lord Taylor in the Gotham series. Farrell was the best thing in the 2022 Se7ven ripp-off with emo batmen & riddlers. Also John Turturo was cool but he's off.  Here Mark Strong replaces Turturro as Carmine Falcone and Clancy Brown is Sal Maroni.

Cristin Milioti (Fargo, season 2) is Sofia Falcone, the daughter of the dead Mafia Kingpin.

Oz has a tight relationship with his mother (Deirdre O'Connell), that bringing him closer to James Cagney in White Heat and Scarface, from Paul Muni to Pacino's Tony Montana. 

1st episode was good but not fantastic, and it clearly goes into the gangster noir-ish tale, no supernatural involved. Surely this being HBO, they'll talk Sopranos in connection with this. 

Music score by Nick Giacchino (Michael's son). Here's The Penguin Theme, "Scherzo for a Flightless Bird").

Ep. 1 "After Hours"- From 9 to 5 / Dolly Parton. Rita Hayworth when Oz dances with his mom. End credits song, When In Rome with "The Promise".  

Ep. 2 "Inside Man" -so/so, gangsters by the numbers. Flashback of the kid. End credits song, a cover of "Happy Together", The Turtles' 1967 song, by Floor Cry. 

Ep. 3 "Bliss", the new drug, some betrayals. "Broken Belief" by Bob Moss.  Gil Scott-Heron's bladting "Me and The Devil" on the end credits.

Ep. 4. "Cent'anni", finally Carmine Falcone flashbacks. And Sofia's Arkham story, The Hangman, & a great finale (on Sarah Vaughan's So Long, My Love-1964). The Stranglers 1981 song  "Strange Little Girl" on the end credits. 

Ep. 5. "Homecoming". By the numbers mafia biz & betrayals but an interesting finale if it follows up. The Cure -"A Forest" and St. Vincent-"Reckless". 

Ep. 6. "Gold Summit". Most boring episode, all set up and a good end shot. Credits roll on a Chris Isaak cool song, "Black Flowers" from 1998.

Ep. 7 "Top Hat". The groove is back as we flashback to Oswald's childhood and his two brothers. Cue to Top Hat, the 1935 Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical which winks also in Joker: Folie a deux (Fred Astaire again, in 1953's Band Wagon  Cut to: "Islands on a Stream" (Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton) and Yazoo's Only You. It ends badly for The Penguin. "How did you called  me?". End credits on Swans-"Lunacy". Great song. 

Ep. 8: La Grand finale. Glimpses of Selina Kyle on an envelope and Oz puts on a tux to dance. One unexpected scene (not spoiling it here but it's about Victor Aguilar). Promises of season # 2 ensure. See if Colin Farrell wants to put athe makeup again. Golden Globe/Emmy should be guaranteed.

Complete songs list here. 

Already The Peng is  #92 on IMDb TV top shows (NA: Now, 6 weeks later, it's # 70 !) . Penguin beats the Joker, mostly now with Folie a Deux being the "hate it movie of 2024"...

So, in the end The Peng is for me a 3 out of 5, 6 out of 10. 

While he mentioned that he did watch DeVito as The Penguin and “was a fan of Burgess Meredith” in the Adam West-starring 1960s “Batman” TV show, Farrell said the inspiration for his take on the character ultimately drew from darker and less comic book-infused sources, including Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso Rizzo in “Midnight Cowboy,” Robert De Niro as Al Capone in “The Untouchables” and “The Sopranos’” James Gandolfini. “All of them are in there,” Farrell said. “Like, I’ve seen ‘Untouchables’ twice, I’ve seen ‘Midnight Cowboy’ four times. Anything, as an actor, anything you ever see, any piece of music you ever hear, it all kind of meets you inside in a place that gets used, gets filtered through every single character you do in lesser or greater ways.”

(from CNN piece here)

RIP Chad McQueen

Chad McQueen was Steve McQueen's son, a motorcycle rider -motocross-and racer (Baja 1000), actor, known best from The Karate Kid film (1984) and its sequel and the B action movie Firepower (1993). He was a champion at the World Mini Grand Prix when he was  12. 

He was 63...

Obit here.

Also Steve McQueen, who died in 1980 at 50 !!! would've been, if alive, 94 this year....Just recently I re-watched The Getaway and The Thomas Crown Affair (which streams now on Max).  Soon need to see again Papillon...McQueen though lives Forever you see his films, and every moment someone does!

Steve and son during the shooting of Le Mans (1971).

When his father was filming the 1971 racing film "Le Mans," Chad would famously sit perched on his father's lap behind the wheel of a Porsche 917 reaching speeds of over 100 mph at just 10 years old.

RIP James Earl Jones

 The voice of CNN, Darth Vader, Lion King (Mufasa) & a great actor in so many films is gone...James Earl Jones was 93.

Obit detailed in People magazine.

Film debut in 1964's Dr. Strangelove. He was the evil bad guy Thulsa Doom  in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Admiral Greer, Jack Ryan's boss from The Hunt for the Red October to the two Harrison Ford movies as Ryan: Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. Last part in Coming 2 America (2021), where he reprised his part of  King Jaffa of Zamunda from the 1988 John Landis' classic.

Nominated for an Oscar for leading role in 1971 for The Great White Hope and Honorary Award in 2012.

Kaos (2024)

 Fullfill thy prophecy

or

ther will be KAOS

It might as well be the best thing on TV this year (so far...), except Ripley... 

(streaming on netflix)

brush up your Greek and drink up your Meander water, I mean yr Olympus yoghurts..

TBC...

Alien: Romulus (2024)

"ANDY: Did you hear about the claustrophobic astronaut?... He needed a little space."

In Space no one hears you laugh. Or sneeze. Or does it?

Now finally out in theaters (it was first to premiere on streaming on Hulu). Saw it last night on the avan-premiere. The lighting, sound, sound fx, music, design, all it's super well done, on an A budget (shot on the Origo studios in Budapest). But too many references and beaten paths, a lot of plants but no payoffs, and a shorter running time (15 minutes easily less instead of 119) would've helped the pacing. I would've dropped the last act-or the final bit of the third act- in setting that for another film, also the premise on the Jackson colony planet, gritty and grim, with rain, poverty and darkness reminded me of the colony in Outland (1981) or the Mars environment in Total Recall (1990).  That could've been used more imo.

Alien: Romulus is a reboot, a sequel, set on the timeline between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986), and functioning on the mythology of the Prometheus (my thoughts here) and Alien: Covenant (my thoughts here), these two movies existing now in the Alien universe before the original Alien.

Weyland-Yutani are everywhere, as is the Romulus/Remus theme (children Raised by Wolves), another theme Ridley introduced in his 2020 series that were mixing the Blade Runner android themes with the Alien Synthetic beings-that being and remaining Ridley's obsession-"More Human Than Human" (Tyrell being in the same universe as Peter Weyland's "Building better Worlds").

Uruguayan Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead 2013 remake, Don't Breathe), a good choice for directing, was chosen by Ridley who supervised the film and gave him notes. Alvarez and his buddy, Rodo Sayages (also director of Don't Breathe 2) wrote the script but took their notes and nods to all the franchise tropes.

The characters though are like pawns, younger actors, some annoying, ready to be sacrificed for the more important Directive, the WY priority. Just think of the original Alien cast and weep...Obvious cue, Rain (Cailee Spaeny from Civil War) is all and all from Ripley. 

The Andy Android (David Jonsson) is a step (& color) forward, instead of good/bad you get two chips, different sides of the same coin.

Another link to THE Alien (the 1979 film that is) is the Rook character, based on Ash, due to the Ian Holm regeneration on CGI & AI symbiosis. 

The music score, (key word: Pounding!) by Benjamin Wallfisch (partner of Hans Zimmer on Dunkirk & Blade Runner 2049, solo on It and The Flash) has the most references to the iconic score of Jerry Goldsmith for Alien, then James Horner for Aliens and Hans Gregson-Williams for Prometheus, plus a rendition of The Rheingold/Valkyrie Richard Wagner's anthem used in Alien: Covenant. 

“Dear Fede, Good luck. Good health. Good hunting. Don’t f–k up. Very best wishes, Ridley Scott.”

A great conversation between Ridley and Fede Alvarez here. Very cool.

But this is no longer (sir) Ridley's toy, neither is Fox's, its boss being now Disney (where the Alien films can now be streamed, on +!!!)  and that's Weyland-Yutani Industries in the Real world making Science Fiction just science 1.0.1. And horror tru. But No One hears whoever Scream. 

So, Romulus it's not innovative cinema but it's well done, some good practical FX, as opposed to only CGI, nice camerawork, claustrophobic widescreen (2.39: 1), Galo Olivares' 1st major credit, he did Gretel & Hansel for Osgood Perkins in 2000), and as I said lights & strobes, shadows, colors, flashes, fast movements- effective filmmaking. I reckon it will be a box office tie, at 80 million $ budget plus marketing and publicity costs this should make at least $300 mill to get a sequel.

But hey, we got one coming up ! The Alien Hulu F/X series led by Noah Hawley (the creator of Fargo series, so there's some hope ;). Streaming in 2025. 

3 out of 5, 6 out of 10 (for the qualities mentioned above). 

At least it's Rated R ;) Also, it's been Seven long years (und a Pandemic) since the last Alien film on the big screen. 

-also to be seen on the big screen. Full sound and scope. 

MaXXXine (2024)

MaXXXine ends the X trilogy, continued with prequel Pearl (2022). Of course he just made it up as he went along...

It might be Ti West's most ambitious yet, more Meta and auto-referential. Plus the whole Hollywood puns and the 80's cheesy sleazy world of addiction and decadence. It's also the most self-ironical, self-conscious film of the three, more like a parody than the others, cynical, tongue-in-cheek, movie universe based, locked & loaded.

This is an article mentioning 7 films related to MaXXXine. Psycho (again!, after Pearl) and De Palma's Body Double (complete with a Frankie Goes to Hollywood sequence !)

Adding to that Sunset Blvd., What Happened to Baby Jane, Profondo Rosso,  Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, even Chinatown... the elevator from 8 Millions Ways to Die, a showdown at the Hollywood sign...  

And that damn Alligator has a cameo, this time on the small video screen, not from Tobe Hopper but from the Sergio Martino's the Great Alligator (1979) ;)

an interview with Ti West (here's my notes on his western, In a Valley of Violence, and the cult film The Sacrament), on the Konbini video store series, about his models, references, favorite flicks here or below: 

His BFI top films list is a classical (and classy;) one.

The Sympathizer (2024)

"Nothing is more important than independence and freedom."

The Sympathizer is on Max / HBO Max. All Seven Episodes of it. And it won't be a second season. Why? That's how the book ends.

Based on Pullizer prize winning book by Vietnamese writer Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Directed by Korean master Park Chan-wook (Sympathy for Mr. & Lady Vengeance, Oldboy, Thirst, The Handmaiden, etc.), but only three episodes, created by him and Don McKellar (Last Night).

Produced by Robert Downey Jr. with his wife, Susan (Team Downey) with A24 & Rhombs Media, tough sell for HBO/Max but it's there, like Ripley was for Netflix.

The best stunt in it is Downey pulling a Dr. Strangelove, meaning he plays not one but FIVE characters, and all explosive, the exact opposite of his acting in Oppenheimer, he's all over the place (literally). 

https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a60674223/the-sympathizer-robert-downey-jr-characters/

My favourite of these characters is Niko Damianos, the director absolutely based on Francis Ford Coppola, whose film The Hamlet is a wanna-be little Apocalypse Now.  Starring an absolutely nuts Method Actor named Ryan Glenn played by a crazy unshaved David Duchovny, a mix of Nick Nolte, Lee Marvin and with a wink to Downey's own character in Tropic Thunder.

Hoa Xuande is the protagonist known as The Captain, caught between two worlds. He is also a mongrel, his father being white (The Frenchman Priest, another pose for Robert Downey Jr.), his mother Vietnamese. He is also a mole, working for the Vietcong but posing as an Intelligence officier for the South Vietnam American allied. He has to leave the country with the Southern bigshiots, seeking refugee in America after the fall of Saigon. He tells his story in many ingenious flashbacks Together with his childhood friends Bon and Man, they have a pact, "All For One and One for all". Then, things change...There's something out of Once Upon a Time In America here, especially in the last episode. 

Absolutely great score by Chan-wook Park's collaborator, Cho Young-Wuk. 

And amazingly enough, most of the film (miniseries that is still a film) is in Vietnamese (& English surely). How did a Korean direct Vietnamese actors (as far as I know Park Chan-wook works through a translator, at least that's how it went 8 years back or so when he also came to Romania to Anonimul festival-he came in Bucharest way before, at Fantasia 1st edition with his 1st film, JSA). He did Stoker in English (2013, through translator) and the mini-series of The Little Drummer Girl (2018, for AMC). 

Furiosa (2024) & cronica audio

 #furiosa 

cronica mea la Furiosa in engleza aici

si aici si aici cronica audio, via Rockland radio on HIT FM.

urmeaza cronica scrisa in #culturama nr. 7