Entries Tagged 'Movies' ↓

→ Don LaFontaine R.I.P.

Good ol’ Saul Bass. Designer of some of the best logos ever, such as Bell Telephone, AT&T, Quaker Oats, Dixie, and Continental Airlines, he’s probably best known for his movie posters and title sequences, particularly the mid-century classics which include Hitchcock’s Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho.

Kinetic typography was Bass’s thing, and was revolutionary at the time. Bass’s use of kinetic typography has influenced countless pieces of work over the decades (one of my favorites examples would be the title sequence for Catch Me If You Can), and is an entire area of study. A few years ago I attended a seminar that included a session on the Art of Film Titles, a field with standards set by Saul Bass. My notes from that seminar are here.

Here’s a great video of Bass discussing his movie title sequences:

“My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.”
– Saul Bass

Here’s something I haven’t done before: attempt to review a movie before seeing it. Here goes.

When it comes to Hollywood movies, we’ve become so inundated with relentless marketing that many of us have become numb to the whole thing. From Taco Bell commercials to Web banner campaigns to every piece of merchandising imaginable, an aggressively marketed movie is so common that it all eventually becomes noise. A marketed film doesn’t make it a good film, and for me and others, it can actually have the opposite effect of what’s intended: the more marketed a film is, the less inclined we are to care about seeing it.

But we need to be careful not to rob ourselves of a good thing by our own jadedness. If we were to discard all heavily marketed films and regard them as garbage, we can easily throw the baby out with the bath water and miss out on some genuinely fantastic projects that fall through the cracks of our attention span. Sometimes it takes a bit of work — word of mouth — by believers in the project to separate it from the noise and have it noticed by like-minded people who would enjoy it.

Enter: Tropic Thunder.

The marketing for this one has gone through the roof. A couple weeks ago I was at a party, and the studio had a Tropic Thunder booth. They were handing out stickers, pins, cups, and all sorts of merch. Yet still, as usual, I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention. Looked like just another watchable Ben Stiller summer comedy.

Yesterday I got a couple texts from some bros who are coordinating a rally for us this week. Looks like Tropic Thunder’s gonna be the flick we’re gonna see, so I jumped on over to the official site to have a closer look at what we’re in for.

After spending some time checking out the Characters section of the site, then following the link to the Facebook page, and finally following the links to the individual Web sites of each character, I’ve realized that Tropic Thunder may very well be the funniest thing I will ever see.

And it’s high concept. Here’s the premise, from what I gather:

A Vietnam veteran, played by Nick Nolte, wrote an autobiographical book about his Nam experience. His story was purchased by a Hollywood studio, and is now being adapted to a star-studded big-budget action film called Tropic Thunder. The story, with Nolte’s character “Four Leaf” at the helm, follows a platoon of American soldiers through the muddy battlefields of Vietnam in 1969. While the film crew is in the middle of production, things go awry, and they find themselves in real-life combat.

The adapted novel boasts a cast of characters from all over the archetype map, from the bona fide action star to the Australian award-winner to the comedian to the hip-hop artist crossing over into acting. Each actor hired on for the production has his own Web site, which includes a biography, filmography, and links to other projects they’re associated with.

This Tropic Thunder thing is a blast of parody and satire, with a unique layer of humor that is so smart it’s bringing me to tears. Before seeing the film, I’ve been spending a bit of time indulging in the online set-up. And it is KILLING ME. The whole shebang is a clinic in character development, giving us an extraordinary familiarity with characters before even watching the movie. Such a rare thing. Back in 1999, a similar technique was used in The Blair Witch Project, but outside of remakes and adaptations, I can’t think of many films that have been set up so thoroughly with online supplements.

I can’t wait to see the film. I’m going in with high expectations, so logic tells me I could only be disappointed. But from what I’ve gotten out of the online set-up, I’ve already gotten my money’s worth.

Below are some notable sites to visit before you see the film. Pay attention to the small details. Killer writing:

The Tropic Thunder official site is a good start: http://tropicthunder.com

Then familiarize yourself with:

Tugg Speedman (don’t miss his favorite charity)
Official site: http://tuggspeedman.com
The Scorcher VI movie site in which he stars: http://www.scorchermovie.com

Kirk Lazarus
Official site: http://www.kirklazarus.com
The Satan’s Alley movie site in which he played an award-winning role: http://www.satansalley.com

Jeff Portnoy
Official site: http://www.jeffportnoy.com
The Fatties sequel movie site in which he stars: http://www.fatties2.com

Cody Keith Underwood (Special Effects expert; don’t miss his previous work)
Official site: http://www.codyeffects.com

Alpa Chino
Official site: http://www.alpa-chino.com

Kevin Sandusky
Check out his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/kevinsandusky

It seems Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are” has come to a screeching halt.

The script got good early reviews. But for months the Web has been pulsing with rumors and in-depth accounts that when Jonze had a research screening last December, kids in the audience were crying and fleeing the theater–not exactly the reaction the studio had hoped for.

Mmmm. Cult classic. Now I really wanna see it. Before it’s “fixed”. YouTube leaks, anyone?

I’ve been noticing my head turning every time I see one of the posters or billboards for the upcoming film, The Dark Knight. This one is KILLIN.

I smell a cult classic. And as for Heath’s Joker, can you say Most Popular Halloween Costume of the Year?

I just finished Dan Brown’s novel Angels & Demons, a twisting thriller taking us from New England to Switzerland, ultimately leading to the dark underbelly of Rome. Like The Da Vinci Code, the tale follows symbologist Robert Langdon on an adventure comprised of history, art, science, religion, fantasy, delicious irony, and facts, some of which are pretty bizarre. Among them would be the middle finger of Galileo, preserved with other artifacts at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy.

Galileo’s finger is on display at the Museo di Storia del Scienza in Italy. The finger was detached from Galileo’s body by Anton Francesco Gori (Florence, 1691-1757, literate and antiquary) on 12 March 1737 when Galileo’s remains were transferred from a small closet next to the chapel of Saints Cosmas and Damian to the main body of the church of Santa Croce where a mausoleum had been built by Vincenzo Viviani. Subsequently the finger was acquired by Angelo M. Bandini, the librarian of the Biblioteca Laurenziana and was exhibited for a long period in this library. Then, in 1841, it was brought to the Tribuna di Galileo, which had just been opened in the Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale on the via Romana. Along with the instruments of the Medici and Lorraine dynasties, it eventually became the property of the Museo di Storia del la Scienza.

Look out for Ron Howard’s film adaptation of Angels & Demons in 2009, which will again include Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. Ayelet Zurer (perfect choice!) will play Vittoria Vetra, and Ewan McGregor will become the late Pope’s understudy, Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca. What a character. Could be the role of a lifetime. I look forward to that performance.

PS: At the risk of trapping him in Typecast Corner, I would like to nominate Javier Bardem as the Hassassin.

It’s now been over a year and a half — which I regard as three six-month sessions — that I’ve been living alone. Logistically speaking, anyway. I haven’t lived alone since I was twenty-two years old. Almost seventeen years. Finding myself in this solitary situation has been exactly that: a process of finding myself. This main course of self-discovery has also come with a complimentary bowl of soup laced with loneliness, a few dashes of anxiety, some spooky deja vu, plenty of boredom, and good old-fashioned depression. All served piping hot to me at my table for one. =continued=

Synopses of flicks
Wrapped up in seven haiku.
I’m so digging this.

Yes. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova rightfully won Best Original Song at the Oscars last night for “Falling Slowly”, one of the excellent songs in their little gem, Once.

Just as steam became blowing out of my ears when they cut Marketa off before she could say a word, they decently brought her back after the commercial break and gave her the floor. It was my favorite Oscar moment since Cuba Gooding Junior’s speech last decade. Honesty always appears so much brighter when set against a backdrop of plastic.

Exactly what I wanted — and suspected — after watching Pan’s Labyrinth on my birthday last year. Called it.

PS: I’ve been waiting for this one for thirty years.

Steven Spielberg, eat your heart out. Three graphic designers created D-Day in a few days on a shoestring budget with some powerful tools and a little ingenuity.

Andreas and I figure we should recreate Woodstock in the same manner. We’ll just set up a camera and smoke a joint in about six hundred different spots.