The folks behind the St. Louis Black Film Festival Presents a Classic Black Film Festival for Black History Month at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) each Thursday in February. Last year the St. Louis Black Film Festival presented a series of new films by black filmmakers, but this year are going back into the vaults and digging out some vintage cinema for audiences with an interest in black history to enjoy on the big screen.

This offerings for this Thursday, February 9th are CARMEN JONES at 5pm and CAR WASH at 7pm.

CARMEN JONES (1954) was produced and directed by Otto Preminger from Oscar Hammerstein’s update of the Bizet opera. It stars Dorothy Dandridge as the title character, a free-spirited, free-loving parachute factory worker whose romantic entanglement with conflicted Joe(Harry Belafonte), who’s engaged to sweet Cindy Lou and about to go into pilot training for the Korean War, kicks off one of the most unique movie musicals in history. The music is definitely a highlight of CARMEN JONES, with memorable songs that include Dat’s Love, Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum, Card Song, Stan’ Up and Fight, and Dat’s Our Man. Familiar faces in supporting roles include Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll and Brock Peters. Dandridge received on Oscar nomination as Best Actress – the first time such a nod was given to a black woman in this category.

CAR WASH (1976) is a very funny, lively and engaging comedy that tells of the day in the life of a close-knit group of black employees who work at a Los Angeles car wash, sort of a black AMERICAN GRAFFITI.With Bill Duke as an angry Muslim, Ivan Dixon as a wise, hard-working parolee, Sully Boyar as the harried owner, Franklyn Ajaye as an amiable dreamer, Tracy Reed as a sweet waitress, Antonio Fargas as a flamboyant homosexual, Lorraine Gary as a stuck-up upper class white lady, Jack Kehoe as an affable cowboy, Pepe Serna as a jovial Hispanic, George Carlin as a flaky cab driver, Lauren Jones as a sad hooker, Professor Irwin Corey as a middle-aged guy who’s mistaken for a pot bottle bomber, Garrett Morris as a jivey hipster, Melanie Mayron as the sexy cashier, Tim Thomerson as a handsome hunk, Richard Pryor as slick hustler reverend Daddy Rich, and the Pointer Sisters as Daddy Rich’s gospel singers, CAR WASH has a great ensemble cast, a loose, funky script that left room for improvisation and a memorable (nonstop) pulsating disco/soul soundtrack which makes the film not only a funny and pleasant diversion, but a document of its’ era.

So head to Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) this Thursday to take in some black film history during Black History Month. The St. Louis Black Film Festival continues with IMITATION OF LIFE and COOLEY HIGH on Feb. 16; and A RAISIN IN THE SUN and SUPERFLY on Feb. 23. Stay tuned here at We Are Movie Geeks for details on those films.

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman February 1st, 2012

It looks like Hammer Horror really is back. THE WOMAN IN BLACK, the new ghost story from the rebooted Hammer studios, made over 21 million dollars in the U.S. this past weekend. This is exciting news to the many fans of the British studio, which produced so many wonderful horror films in the ‘50’s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. THE WOMAN IN BLACK is not the first film from the new Hammer, but it is the first of their films to adopt the period gothic formula of old, and its success bodes well for the studio. Hammer is the specialty genre label of its parent company, Exclusive Media.  Simon Oakes is Vice-Chairman of Exclusive Media Group and President & CEO of Hammer. He led the acquisition and recapitalization of Hammer in 2007. Nigel Sinclair is Co-Chairman and CEO of Exclusive Media, one of the industry’s leading independent production and distribution companies. Mr. Oakes and Mr.Sinclair took the time from their schedules to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about THE WOMAN IN BLACK and the future of Hammer Horror.

We Are Movie Geeks: The trailer for THE WOMAN IN BLACK makes it look like a gothic horror film in the grand tradition of the House of Hammer, certainly more than THE RESIDENT or LET ME IN. Do you think that production designer Kave Quinn was consciously trying to make this film look like a vintage Hammer production?

Simon Oakes: Good question. I think the material lent itself to that sort of production design and I’m very pleased that you raised the point of production design because I think that Kave is extremely talented and created an incredible world and when you see the movie I think you’ll see that. Everybody who has read the book, which has been a best seller for 25 years, has a sense of what Eel March House looks like, and the play has been running in England for 22 years, so that’s what we were up against. People had used their imagination . But yes, the book is a pastiche of all gothic horror of the 19th century and it’s all about material that lends itself to that, just as with LET ME IN when we had to recreate a world that was America in the 1980′s.

WAMG: You mentioned Eel March House, which in the trailer looks wonderfully scary. Was that a set that was built or did you actually find that house somewhere?

SO: There’s always a bit of cheating going on in the process as you know. The actual house is real. We found it up the East coast of England in Peterborough at the end of a causeway so that was all real. The house was all real, but we built the interiors.

WAMG: What made James Watkins the right director for THE WOMAN IN BLACK ?

Nigel Sinclair: I think what James revealed as a director was his visual acuity, his ability to understand the mood and emotion of a moment and how a human being who was experiencing what Daniel was experiencing would not need a lot of massive visual cues, just a combination of sound and light and a sensory reaction to things which, I hate to call it Hitchcockian, but it is. I think that his talents range from production design to sound design to directing his actors and understanding his story. The scenario of this tale makes it an incredible powerful story.

SO: You’re right. I think James needs to be credited on two levels. One is that he’s a technician and that he worked carefully in building his team everything from the costume and makeup to cameraman so he basically covered all of the options in terms of production for the film. Secondly, he has a sensibility about the genre and he knows that if you don’t care about the characters, then you don’t have a great horror movie, so he wasn’t shy about having the jumps and the scares and the fear and the suspense but at the same time he made sure that you’re rooting for Daniel’s character Arthur, that you actually care about him and his family and why he’s doing what he’s doing. You never once question why he’s puttuing himself in jeopardy as opposed to just getting the hell out of there. And that’s the skill that James has, understating the genre but at the same time saying “Let’s care about the story”.

WAMG: And James Watkins had made EDEN LAKE in 2008 which was a very scary film.

SO: Of course, a very good film.

WAMG: You have a built-in audience for THE WOMAN IN BLACK with the casting of Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur. Was the role offered to him or did he audition? How did he get this role?

NS: Well Simon know Daniel’s agent very well and we had been discussing internally how powerful we thought Daniel was in his legendary performances in the Potter films. We thought he demonstrated tremendous range, which is a quality we were looking for with THE WOMAN IN BLACK and we got the script to Daniel and he read it on a plane ride to New York and he told his agent that he’d like to do this movie and meet the director.

WAMG: Daniel Radcliffe is 22 years old yet in THE WOMAN IN BLACK  he’s playing the widowed father of a 5-year old son. Was the script adjusted at all to accommodate this younger actor?

NS: No, not really. The original script was written specifically toward the description in the original novella, but we took the view that he would be in his twenties. People had children younger in those days so it was conceivable and believable that he could be that character. It was a good question, because Daniel’s first thought was that he liked the script and wanted the part but he needed to be convinced as well that he could do this. James Watkins met Daniel in Los Angeles right after Daniel had read the script and convinced him that he could pull it off. When that was decided, everything else fell into place quite easily.

WAMG: How was Daniel Radcliffe to work with?

NS: There’s an old word to use to describe people like him and that is trooper. He was amazing.

SO: Daniel’s reputation is that he’s had this character and he’s grown in to extraordinary fame and prosperity and he wears it well. With some people, that could drive them over the edge, but not Daniel. He’s got a very nice personality, he’s generous, and very conscious and aware of his great opportunities.

NS: On the last day of shooting his part. Simon got on old Hammer poster from the original DRACULA from 1957 and presented it Daniel, which was a fitting gift to give to someone who has everything. On his last day, he brought everybody up to the top of the stpes, the gaffers and the crew, and said “When I left Potter, I wondered what kind of world I was jumping in to and you all have become my new family. You’ve taken me into your heart and protected me and we’ve made this movie together and I can’t image a more magic way to go next after Potter”, and it was very touching.

WAMG: Do you think Daniel Radcliffe had any familiarity with the vintage Hammer films?

NS: Oh yes, he was a Hammer fan, that’s why this worked for him. He knew all about Hammer which is why he was so excited about Simon getting him that poster. Daniel is quite a cinephile. He’s up on movies, he knows a lot about films, he comes from a film family and I can saw that he thought helping rebuild Hammer for the 21^st century was something he wanted to be part of and looking at the press he did on London for the premiere last week, he went to great lengths to describe how proud he was to be part of relaunching this great British film label.

WAMG: Was there ever talk of a cameo for Christopher Lee in THE WOMAN IN BLACK?

SO: No, not this one. Christopher worked with us on THE RESIDENT, and he’s amazing.

WAMG: Were you both Hammer horror fans as younger men? Were you able to see the Hammer classics on the big screen when they were new?

SO: Tragically yes, we’re both old enough to remember those films when they first came out. They had a huge impact on me. I’m often asked what my favorite is and I used to love the Quatermass series. They were incredible and scary and ahead of their time. And the early Hammer Frankenstein films as well.

WAMG: Now that you’ve acquired and recapitalized the Hammer brand, do you control all the old Hammer titles?

SO: Exclusive Media, which is our group  that Nigel and I are a part of, our holding company owns Hammer and all the rights and titles to some 300 movies. Some were produced with long-term distribution rights with other studios.  Some we have the direct distribution rights for ourselves. Literally everybody involved with the Hammer films, meaning Warner Brothers, Fox, Sony have become conscious of their  part in the legacy of filmmaking and we recently  announced an initiative to restore  all of the Hammer library materials to a very high standard. We’ve found that every singe of these distributors , who are all forthright corporate people, all chipped with contributions and we’re doing a restoration of Hammer materials than any film historian would be excited about. That, we feel, is testimony to this long tradition.

WAMG: Any plans on remaking any of the classic Hammer titles and which ones would you like to see remade?

NS: We certainly are looking at a rebooting of Quatermass, I don’t think there’s any problem in saying that. The character, as opposed to the film. I don’t think there’s anything else actually on the line here that we can talk about now. I love Quatermass, I also love the Hitchcock-like Hammer such as SCREAM OF FEAR that Hammer made in the early ‘60s. I love FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN, that’s a favorite Hammer film, oh there were so many.

WAMG: Good luck with THE WOMAN IN BLACK and thanks for taking the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks.

He was the silver screen’s first zombie and now he’s dead for real. George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) was not technically the first zombie movie, but it was the first to present the living dead in the way that we know and love. Bill Hinzman played what’s known as “The Graveyard Zombie”, the flesh-eating, slow-moving ghoul who attacks Barbara (Judith O’Dea) and her brother in the iconic film’s opening minutes. Hinzman was a staple on the horror movie convention circuit and would often dress up in ratty clothes and zombie makeup to pose with his many fans. I had the pleasure of interviewing Hinzman onstage at the Kitbuilders Monstrous Weekend convention here in St. Louis three years ago and at midnight, I screened a 16mm print of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD which he sat and watched  with us. Bill Hinzman had a few other roles in horror films including a bit in Romero’s THE CRAZIES (1974) as well as straight-to-video schlock such as SANTA CLAWS (1988). In 1988, Hinzman wrote, directed, and co-starred in FLESHEATER where he (sorta) reprised his role from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. There have been dolls, busts, and model kits of the “The Graveyard Zombie”, the brief role that cemented Bill Hinzman’s place in cult movie immortality. He died today of cancer at age 76.

A very serious and respected actor leaves behind a stellar body of work. Ben Gazzara worked with John Cassavetes five times and appeared in ROAD HOUSE and THE BIG LEBOWSKI. I especially liked his take on Al Capone in the Corman-produced CAPONE in 1975 and his murderous stripclub owner Cosmo Vitelli in Cassavetes’s edgy thriller THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE in 1976. He had pancreatic cancer.

From The New York Times:

Ben Gazzara, an intense actor whose long career included playing Brick in the original Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway, roles in influential films by John Cassavetes and work with several generations of top Hollywood directors, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 81. The cause was pancreatic cancer, his lawyer, Jay Julien, said. Mr. Gazzara lived in Manhattan.

Mr. Gazzara studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in Manhattan, where the careers of stars like Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger were shaped, and like them he had a visceral presence. It earned him regular work across half a century, not only onstage — his last Broadway appearance was in the revival of Awake and Sing  in 2006 — but in dozens of movies and all sorts of television shows, including the starring role in the 1960s series Run For Your Life.

If Mr. Gazzara never achieved Brando’s stature, that was partly because of a certain laissez-faire approach to his career: an early suspicion of film, a reluctance to go after desirable roles.

“When I became hot, so to speak, in the theater, I got a lot of offers,” he said in a 1998 interview on “Charlie Rose.” “I won’t tell you the pictures I turned down because you would say, ‘You are a fool.’ And I was a fool.”……………….

Read the rest HERE

Though best known as a pioneer in the straight-to-cable softcore sex industry with his long-running Showtime series Red Shoe Diaries, Zalman King began his long career as an actor and had several interesting cult film credits. Born Zalman King Lefkowitz, King began his career acting on TV in the ’60s. In 1978, King starred in BLUE SUNSHINE,  a weird ‘Hippies Revenge’ shocker from director Jeff Lieberman about Stanford University students who drop bad acid resulting in 10-year delayed homicidal freakouts. In TRIP WITH THE TEACHER (1974), King played the scuzzy leader of a group of bikers who terrorize a group of female students after their bus breaks down in the desert. Other notable acting credits included the Corman ALIEN knockoff GALAXY OF TERROR (1981) and the bizarre Jesus conspiracy film THE PASSOVER PLOT (1976).

With a wiry, intense persona as an actor, Zalman King excelled in villain roles, but went behind the camera beginning in 1988  with his directorial debut TWO MOON JUNCTION, a cliche-ridden, R-Rated  bodice ripper. With copious amounts of female flesh and overheated melodrama, it was a huge hit and King adapted that steamy erotic  formula to the rest of his output which included the controversial WILD ORCHIDS (1989) starring Mickey Rourke. In 1992, King created Showtime’s sexy cable series, Red Shoe Diaries starring a pre-X Files David Duchovny. The show ran 5 seasons. King Died February 3rd of cancer at age 69.

Stanford University students ate a batch of bad acid and 10 years later are like freakin’-out, man..

BIG MIRACLE is an outstanding new family film. It’s inspired by the true story of an Alaskan shore town where three whales got stuck in a pack of ice in 1988. The story begins with Adam Carlson (John Krasinski), a reporter for an Anchorage TV station who’s spending time in Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost city in the U.S. Adam has recently broken up with his Greenpeace activist girlfriend, Rachel Kramer (Drew Barrymore), so he spends much of his time watching satellite news feeds and befriending Nathan (Ahmaogak Sweeney), a young boy from the local Inupiat tribe. While filming a story about Nathan’s ice bike, Adam discovers a family of three gray whales (given the Flinstonian monikers Wilma, Fred, and Bam-Bam) that have become trapped in a small opening in the freezing ice that is preventing them from travelling five more miles to a waterway that they need to migrate and survive the winter. Adam submits his footage of their plight to his station and it soon goes viral (or as ‘viral’ as things could go in 1988 – which means lines of dialog like “Brokaw loves this sort of thing!”) Soon, the whole world is closely following the crisis, but the hole is getting smaller, the baby whale is injured, and things are looking grave for the big mammals. The village becomes a circus. Journalists compete for on-air time, campaign promises are made, deals are brokered, and local hotel and diner prices skyrocket. (The ‘carnival has come to town’ media circus that results reminded me of a Disneyfied version of Billy Wilder’s ACE IN THE HOLE).

I had low expectations going into BIG MIRACLE. The trailer made it look like Drew Barrymore was the central human character and she indeed plays the Greenpeace warrior as the sort of slightly unhinged squeaky wheel that you can’t stand being around but have to admit gets things done. She’s introduced crashing a board meeting with her screeching bullhorn but as the movie takes shape, it’s clear that she’s just one of many, many characters that will be involved in this international drama. There’s the feeble Alaska Governor (Stephen Root), at first dismissive of the whale’s dilemma but quickly convinced to do the right thing. There’s the greedy oil company exec (Ted Danson) eager to exploit the region’s resources but who recognizes a public relations coup when he sees one. There are the Inupiat tribesmen who initially want to harvest the whales but have a change of heart. In D.C., there’s outgoing President Ronald Reagan’s aide (Vinessa Shaw) who’s quick to turn the crisis to the benefit of Vice President Bush’s upcoming election, and there’s even a glimpse or two of ol’ Ronnie himself (played sorta off-screen). There’s a pair of goofy Minnesotans (James LeGros and Rob Riggle ) with FARGO accents and an unlikely ice-melting invention, a hotshot National Guard pilot (Dermot Mulroney), a take-charge Soviet ship captain (Mark Ivinur), an on-site whale authority (Tim Blake Nelson), an ambitious but blonde female reporter (Kristen Bell) with a co-worker (John Michael Higgins) desperate to upstage her, and more. It’s a big, ambitious cast of characters and it’s very clever how they manage to squeeze in a cameo by a young Sarah Palin (and no, she’s not holding a harpoon!)

There’s a lot going on with all of these characters in BIG MIRACLE and what’s most impressive is how director (and St. Louis native) Ken Kwapis deftly navigates the logistics of this huge cast spread over different parts of the globe. If this movie had been made 40 years ago, Irwin Allen might have directed it. That Kwapis masterfully turns all the moving parts into a cohesive narrative with the excitement and momentum he generates is no small miracle itself and it doesn’t hurt that he’s working with a smart script by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler. The acting is strong across the board with a standout being Ted Danson’s drill-happy ‘J.W. McGraw’. There’s a terrific early scene where he listens to his wife’s (Kathy Baker) sneaky advice on turning the crisis into his own PR advantage while claiming the idea is his own. BIG MIRACLE has a formula that’s obvious but it doesn’t go exactly where you think it will. It’s sappy and manipulative at times but it is a movie about saving whales, so attacking it for being a tad cloying would be missing the point. The sentiment runs thick and deep but it’s an intrinsic part of what BIG MIRACLE is, so check it at the door, bucko!

“You’re not as easy to hate as I thought,” Barrymore’s Greenpeacenick tells Danson’s cowboy hat near the end of BIG MIRACLE and his answer: “Neither are you”. This is the type of mawkish exchange that, in a lesser film, would result in audible eye-rolling but, thanks to Kwapis, and a strong script, it’s a perfectly fitting moment and I dare even the most jaded cynic not to shed a tear of admiration for this BIG MIRACLE. I was surprised how enjoyable I found it and I give it a very strong recommendation.

4 1/2 of 5 Stars

We like to celebrate the great Hollywood tough guys at Super-8 Movie Madness and this February’s show is no exception. We’ve had Super-8 CHARLES BRONSON Movie Madness and Super-8 LEE MARVIN Movie Madness and on Tuesday February 7th at The Way Out Club we’ll be keeping up the tradition with SUPER-8 CLINT EASTWOOD MOVIE MADNESS !!!

That’s right; we’ll be showing condensed (18 minute) versions of several of Clint Eastwood’s greatest films on Super-8 sound film projected on a big screen. Here’s the Clint line-up: ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ, WHERE EAGLES DARE, THE EIGER SANCTION, and a 35-minute cut of HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER. We’ll also show 8-minute version of two films that Clint made early appearances in: REVENGE OF THE CREATURE and TARANTULA. Then we’ll haul out our 16mm projector and screen a 16mm print of an episode of the ’60s TV series RAWHIDE starring Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates.

Other (non-Eastwood) films screening on February 7th are: NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST, W.C. Fields in MUCH ADO ABOUT GOLF, Tim Burton’s VINCENT, and the 1955 sci-fier THE CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN.

Cover charge is a mere $3.00 and the show begins at 8pm. We’ll have Clint Eastwood trivia with prizes, and, as usual, there will be lots of posters and T-Shirts and stuff given away. The Way Out Club is located at 2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis (corner of Jefferson and Gravois). There are yummy Way-Out pizzas available for only $8.00.

Psychoplasmics !

The guys at Destroy the Brain.com are taking their tongues out of their cheeks this month with their Late Night Grindhouse choice: David Cronenberg’s 1979 horror film THE BROOD,a spine-tingler of the most chilling kind.

Dr. Hal Raglan (The late Oliver Reed) is a controversial psychologist, his work is designed to help release the disturbed emotions in his patients. His star patient Nola (Samantha Eggar) is keep in isolation but her negative emotions are more troubled than expected. Her husband Frank (Art Hindle) suspects that his daughter Candice (Cindy Hinds) is hurt and abused by her mother on visitation days. Frank thinks that Dr. Raglan odd therapy is nothing more than a fraud. He needs proof to destroy his creditability but Frank slowly discovers, there is some brutal murders happening. It seems to happen, when Nola vents her fury during her sessions with Dr. Raglan. Frank needs to discover the truth, what is behind these disturbing killings.

Cronenberg conceived THE BROOD as a metaphor on divorce and wrote the film following the tumultuous divorce and child-custody battle he waged against his first wife. THE BROOD is brilliant early Cronenberg, stuffed with sexual obsessions and social criticism. Creepy mutant killer children may represent manifestations of rage but all this psychobabble makes THE BROOD sound heavier than it is. Gorehounds and fans of Late Night Grindhouse’s usual twisted sensibilities will find more than enough inspired, bloody, sickening, and outright ridiculous shenanigans in THE BROOD to keep them entertained. You may not laugh at THE BROOD like you do at some of the other Late Night Grindhouse choices, but you will be scared!

THE BROOD is a primo slice of ’80s horror and this weekend St. Louisans are lucky to have a chance to see it in its big screen glory as part of the Destroy the Brain monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series. It will be screened midnights in a 35mm print at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Avenue) this Friday and Saturday (February 3rd and 4th). The pre-show begins at 11:30.

What better way to celebrate Black History Month than takein some vintage films about the black experience?

The folks behind the St. Louis Black Film Festival Presents a Classic Black Film Festival for Black History Month at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) each Thursday in February. Last year the St. Louis Black Film Festival presented a series of new films by black filmmakers, but this year are going back into the vaults and digging out some vintage cinema for audiences with an interest in black history to enjoy on the big screen.

The event kicks off tonight, February 2nd, at the Tivoli Theater at 5pm with the 1943 classic STORMY WEATHER, about the relationship between an aspiring dancer (Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson) and a popular songstress (Lena Horne). Robinson was the world’s preeminent tap dancer of his day, and is remembered for his appearances with Shirley Temple in four of her 1930s films. Ms Horne, whose signature song was the movie’s title tune, had a long stage and screen career and died in May of 2010. Famed black musicians Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, and the amazing Nicholas Brothers (whose eye-popping “Jumpin Jive” dance number was done in one take) all make appearances in STORMY WEATHER and the dance choreography is by Katherine Dunham, the dancer instructor, songwriter, author, educator, and activist from East St. Louis who died in 2006.

John Shaft is the ultimate in suave black detectives and STORMY WEATHER will be followed tonight by the original SHAFT at 7pm. Shaft is the cat who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about in Gordon Parks’ 1971 action film that was not the first ’70s Blaxploitation film but, with its iconic, Oscar winning theme music by Isaac Hayes, was the most influential. SHAFT is a fast-paced and savvy detective story involving a private eye (Richard Roundtree) and the police department in a power struggle between a black mobster (Moses Gunn) and the Mafia to control the drug, prostitution and numbers racket in Harlem. Roundtree would go on to play Shaft in two sequels and a TV series.

The other screenings this month are “Carmen Jones” and “Car Wash” on Feb. 9; “Imitation of Life” and “Cooley High” on Feb. 16; and “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Superfly” on Feb. 23. Stay tuned here at We Are Movie Geeks for details on those films.

Giants Fans! Patriots Fans! Football Fans ! Why watch the Superbowl alone at home this Sunday, February 5th, when you can catch it with a group of fellow gridiron junkies on the big screen? Landmark’s Tivoli Theater at 6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop is hosting the Superbowl in their big 400+ seat auditorium this Sunday. Admission is free, the game will be projected in Hi-Def, and the doors will open at 4pm for the pre-game show. I know what you’re thinking: “Hey isn’t the Tivoli legally not allowed to sell beer on Sunday?”….Well, normally that’s the case but University City is going to make an exception for this special event and allow beer and wine sales. Now there’s no excuse! And did we mention it’s free?!?!  We hope to see you at the Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in U. City) this Sunday for the Superbowl on the big screen!!

A coming-of-age story about gender identity set in those awkward prepubescent years, TOMBOY is a well-intentioned, but slight and forgettable French drama. It’s the story of 10-year-old Laure (Zoe Heran), the new kid in a small town, who with her scrawny physique and cropped hair, passes as a boy among her new peers. At first life is good for Laure, who now goes by “Mikael”. She fits in, excelling at soccer, fighting, and spitting. Her younger sister goes along with the charade, excited about having a tough and protective older “brother”. Suspicions soon arise amongst her new friends and Laure must face the consequences of her deception.

TOMBOY does not have much interesting to say about sexuality, or even about adolescence. It won the Teddy Award for the Best Gay or Lesbian film at the Berlin Film Festival yet it’s not at all about budding lesbianism. It’s more about a girl who wants to participate in  boy’s sports than it is about some sort of journey of sexual awakening into young womanhood. Laure may be somewhat androgynous in appearance but so are a lot of 10-year old girls. Most of the drama in TOMBOY comes from observing Laure/Mikael’s day-to-day struggle of maintaining the ruse to her increasingly suspicious friends, sort of like a serious and slow French version of that ’80s chestnut JUST ONE OF THE GUYS. She sculpts a penis out of Play-dough to stuff into her swimsuit and sneaks off behind a tree to pee alone when all the guys on her soccer team go on the field. There’s the predictable first kiss with local girl Lisa (Jeanne Disson) and the eventual unveiling of Laure’s secret.

Insightful and sensitive, there are things to like in TOMBOY. Zoe Heran’s lead performance is brave and real and is to be commended. She’s got a natural quiet quality that Hollywood child actors don’t seem to possess. At 80 minutes, TOMBOY is pretty to look at and not exactly dull but it never engages either. With a minimalist approach, writer-director Celine Sciamma has made an amiable but inert film with an excess of silent closeups that drag out a whole lot of nothing in a way French films are known for. If French cinema is your bag, you may dig this TOMBOY, but I can’t recommend it to the casual moviegoer.

2 1/2 of 5 Stars

TOMBOY opens in St. Louis today, January 27th, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater

His was an extremely familiar face to TV watchers in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. James Farentino had a handful of interesting big screen credits, most notably the lead in Dan O’Bannon’s cult shocker DEAD AND BURIED (1981) and the odd WWII sci-fier THE FINAL COUNTDOWN (1980). Farentino was married to Michelle Lee and Elizabeth Ashley but in 1992 was criminally charged with stalking Frank Sinatra’s daughter (never a good idea). A dependable actor, James Farentino died of heart failure yesterday in Los Angeles.
From The Los Angeles Times:

Actor James Farentino, whose private life was sometimes as dramatic as the roles he played in theater and on television, died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 73 and had suffered from a lengthy illness, said family spokesman Bob Palmer.

Best known for his TV work, Farentino was one of the last contract performers with Universal Studios in the 1960s. His nearly 100 roles included recurring appearances in such series as “The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, “Dynasty”, “Blue Thunder” and “Police Story.”

Born Feb. 24, 1938, in New York City, the son of a clothing designer trained for the stage at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before launching his career with a 1961 Broadway appearance in “Night of the Iguana.” His film roles included “The Pad and How to Use It” (1966), “Me, Natalie” (1969) and “The Final Countdown” (1980). His most recent credit was in the 2006 TV movie “Drive/II.”……………….

Read the rest HERE

“I am the first hideously deformed monster hero of super human size & strength to come from New Jersey, they call me the Toxic Avenger.”

Tromaville is coming to St. Louis! There will be Toxic B-Movie Madness at The Way Out Club this Friday, January 27th at the fabulous Way Out Club in St. Louis. It’s TROMA NIGHT, the first monthly show of movies from those lunatics at Troma Films. The first exciting event will kick off with a TOXIE TRIPLE FEATURE! That’s right; the first three films in the TOXIC AVENGER series will be shown on our large screen at The Way Out. That would be THE TOXIC AVENGER (1984), THE TOXIC AVENGER PART 2 (1989), and THE TOXIC AVENGER PART 3: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE (1989) which chronicle the adventures of a mild-mannered, scrawny janitor who turns into a thundering, muscular hero out for justice, morality, and a bit of sex. ADMISSION IS FREE! The show starts at 9pm on Friday, January 27th so join us for bad films, good films, good people, gory films, Toxic Avenger trivia with door prizes, lots of cold beer and drinks, and yummy Way Out pizzas available for only $8. Did we mention that ADMISSION IS FREE? See you at The Way Out (2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis) this Friday night! Doors open at 8pm – The movies start at 8:30

RED TAILS seems to be a Hollywood war movie on its surface, but it offers much more than the expected action sequences. It’s the story of The Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots who fought in World War II as part of a Fighter and Bombardment escort Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps. At the time, the American military was racially segregated and these black soldiers were subject to much discrimination, both within and outside the army. Before President Truman integrated the armed forces, black pilots were given the most rundown planes (“from Uncle Sam’s junkyard”), the fewest promotions, and the most dangerous (or boring) assignments. Despite these adversities, they trained and flew with distinction. Throughout the course of the RED TAILS they must overcome not only the racism, but also conflicts in their own trust and tragic losses amongst friends. It’s square, old-fashioned melodramatic entertainment to be dure, but is it good? Put simply, RED TAILS is worth seeing for its astonishing special effects sequences alone – the aerial battles achieved using a mixture of replica planes and seamless CGI imagery are excitingly staged and nothing short of spectacular. It’s when the film is grounded, which is way too often, that the film fumbles.
Set in Italy near the end of the war, RED TAILS focuses on a handful of the members of 332nd fighter group. Front and center are life-long friends Marty “Easy” Julian (Nate Parker), the hard-drinking squadron leader and reckless daredevil Joe “Lightning” Little played by David Oyelowo (all the flyers have nicknames). Then there’s Major Stance (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who doesn’t get to fly but does get to smoke a pipe and make a lot of motivating speeches and Colonel Bullard (Terrence Howrad) who doesn’t fly either but does get to show up his superior office (Bryan Cranston) who’s constantly expressing doubts that black (or “negro”, as they prefer to be called here) fliers are capable of operating aircrafts, following orders, or much else. The supporting cast includes Method Man as the guitar-picking pilot Sticks, Leslie Odom as Winky who has a funny voice, and Tristan Wilds as “Junior”, a baby-face pilot who hates his nickname and may or may not be ready for battle

Way too much of RED TAILS is spent on an unlikely romance between Lightning and Sophia, a gorgeous Italian resident of the picture-perfect villa near their base that develops after he spots her hanging clothes on her roof. It’s dubious that when Lightning enters a white officers’ club, he’s immediately called the ‘N-Word’, yet when he and Sophia walk in the open hand-in-hand expressing their love for each other (though they don’t speak the same language), not a head turns. This overvisited, underwritten love story is the least successful aspect of the film. Less time is given to an 11th hour subplot where Junior is shot down, captured, sent to a Nazi POW camp, digs a tunnel, and escapes, an mini-adventure given maybe five minutes of screen time.

But then the cast and the conventional, humdrum narrative isn’t the real draw of RED TAILS. The planes – and the resultant close-quarter, high-flying carnage- is the main selling point and it’s where RED TAILS soars. The myriad computer-generated dogfights are very well choreographed and rendered, and all of the tactics and flight movements seemed very realistic. I especially liked when the pilots exchanged menacing glares at the Germans, or (so it seems) one German in particular, a nasty, scarfaced devil nicknamed “Pretty Boy” (even the villains have nicknames!) who gets the films juiciest (subtitled) lines: “Show no mercy!” (yeah, that’s a problem with movie Nazis – they show too much mercy!) and my favorite: “Die, you foolish Africans!”. It’s the action scenes that have the realism and the energy that the rest of RED TAILS lacks and they are the only reason to recommend the film.

RED TAILS is produced by George Lucas’ Lucasfilms and it’s the first movie made by this studio since 1994′s RADIOLAND MURDERS which doesn’t involve either the Star Wars or Indiana Jones franchises. Lucas claims he has long tried to make this film and griped on the Daily Show that he had trouble finding a distributor because of…..(you guessed it) ….Hollywood RACISM! (this from the guy who created Jar Jar Binks). Tyler Perry or the producers of THE HELP may disagree but RED TAILS is an expensive-looking film, the story’s been filmed before(HBO’s THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN in 1995) and it’s not particularly good, so if it bombs, Hollywood will be even less likely to invest in big pictures with all-black casts. Lucas, who has pledged that this will be his last motion picture, claims “I’m making a movie about Heroes not a movie about Victims”, yet he misses the irony in portraying himself as one.

3 of 5 Stars

Two insufferable hours of sanctimonious Hollywood mush, EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE topped my “Ten Worst” of 2011 because it aimed so high and had so far to fall. It’s easy to dump on a lame comedy like JACK AND JILL, but EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE, a self-important look at one boy’s experience with the 9-11 tragedy, is a picture obviously tailor-made for Academy Award consideration, but it’s a crass sap-a-thon (or sappy crapathon) that indulges to the hilt every obnoxious feel-good quality imaginable, a saccharine nightmare that you may find yourself trapped in should you not heed my warning: ….It’s simply the worst….movie…..ever!

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE tells the story of 12-year-old Oskar Schell, whose father was killed in the 9-11 tragedy. Oskar’s Jewish jeweler dad (Tom Hanks) is shown in flashbacks trying to focus his socially-challenged son’s mind by sending him on scavenger hunts, coming up with clever oxymorons, and making up stories together of a sixth New York City borough that floated away leaving Central Park in its place. Then came the morning of 9/11/2001, or ask Oskar continually calls it: “the worst day”. He was let out of school early that day and returned to his family’s empty apartment to listen to six messages left on the answering machine – the voice of his doomed dad trapped on the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center. A year after the tragedy Oskar discovers a key hidden in a vase in an envelope labeled “Black”. Perhaps it’s the key to a black door or a black box? No, Oskar immediately determines it’s a name and decides to visit every one of the thousands of folk surnamed “Black” in the New York telephone directory. This leads to a quest across the five boroughs, visiting every address – on foot, for poor Oskar is too neurotic for public transportation – to see if they have the lock the key fits so he can receive that one last message he’s sure his dad left (I’m not sure why he didn’t just pick up the phone and call these people). So begins the kid’s journey, traipsing around New York City, knocking on doors of stranger’s homes while his mother sits at home and mopes, unaware of what her son is up to. The first “Black” he confronts is a weepy woman in mid-divorce (Viola Davis), who gives Oskar a snack and gets a kiss on her cheek. Oskar gathers the various Black’s stories and glues them along with photographs in a research journal.

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE is one of those movies where the plot is doled out incrementally. It feeds you the story like a mystery. What’s wrong with this kid? Why is he hounding these people? What’s the deal with all those flashbacks? Sadly, it seems the reason for this mystery is to disguise the fact that the story never goes anywhere interesting. At one point, Oskar is joined on his journey by an old man known as “The Renter” who is living in the nearby apartment of his paternal grandmother (Zoe Caldwell). He has a secret identity you may not guess if you sleep through the film’s first half, and is played by Max Von Sydow. The Renter is cursed with that movie construct of being mute (I’m pretty sure mutes only exists in movies – I’m 50 years old and have never actually met one) so to help communicate with the boy, he has the words Yes and No tattooed on the palms of his hands. I’m not sure why the hell he can’t just nod his head for yes or shake his head his head for no like anyone else, but then we wouldn’t get to see him dramatically raise his right hand to answer Oskar’s constant badgering  in the affirmative. He does this a lot! Then there are the scenes when the answer is No, so he forlornly looks at the boy and gravely raises his other hand. He does this a lot too before he abruptly exits the film (probably to go get his next tattoo: one that reads “Shut the Fuck Up Kid!“).

Thomas Horn plays young Oskar, who’s in every scene, and gives what may be the whiniest, most precocious and unpleasant performance by a child actor in cinema history. Horn was actually found after winning on Kid’s Jeopardy (because I guess hiring someone with actual acting experience to carry their expensive prestige production would have made too much sense), so not only is he a brat, he’s a know-it-all brat who’s constantly throwing out references to his phobias and whimsical trivia (“If the sun were to explode, you wouldn’t even know about it for eight minutes” ) like a disagreeable version of the kid from JERRY MAGUIRE. Horn knits his brow and talks at length with a voice that’s always getting increasingly shrill. The script throws out a couple of references to autism or Aspergers to try to explain away the kid’s oh-what-I-wouldn’t-give-for-a-tranquilizer-gun abrasiveness but those excuses don’t make the two hours we have to spend with him any more bearable. Actually, it looks as though the filmmakers must not think he’s irritating enough, so they hand him a tambourine to carry around throughout the film. I guess the instrument is supposed to relax him, but it makes an already insufferable character one who you just want to knock down and stomp on his neck.

Hanks does his nice guy/perfect dad shtick in a handful of flashback scenes but his absurd casting here is clearly a box-office ploy because really, when I think Jewish New York jewelry merchant I know I picture Forrest Gump (what’s next for Hanks? Fiddler on the Roof?). As Oskar’s mom, Sandra Bullock isn’t given much to do except act miserable and bitter, and who could blame her? Not only has she lost her husband, but she’s now stuck by herself raising this tambourine-toting hellion that she clearly doesn’t love and her circumstance makes you start to think her husband was the lucky one. Only John Goodman, in an amusing cameo as a gruff doorman, escapes with his dignity intact because he’s the only one who treats the kid in a realistic way (by mostly ignoring him).

Alexandre Desplat’s tinkly overburdened score swells up to make it appear as if we’re being profoundly touched but EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE comes off as trying way too hard, and thus it never gets under your skin or into your heart. If the film had been better constructed and better directed, I still doubt it would have worked. When EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE made our “Top Ten Worst” list last week here at We Are Movie Geeks, a reader comment noted that we should be “ashamed” for including it. Because of the Holocaust-like enormity of the event, must every film on the subject of 9/11 be treated with a hushed reverence? Would only a heartless cynic dump on such a good-hearted film? No, it made the list because it’s a bad movie and it really wouldn’t have changed the plot much if Oskar’s dad had been killed by a mugger or run over by a train or died of cancer, nor would the boy’s grief have been any less profound, so it’s the filmmakers who should be ashamed (assuming there’s shame to go around) of exploiting the 9-11 tragedy and using it as the background for such an appallingly manipulative tear-jerker. UNITED 93 and Oliver Stone’s WORLD TRADE CENTER were two outstanding films on the subject, but they focused on very specific events of that day. EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSED supposedly is about the bigger picture, yet it’s a movie that cravenly attempts to wring tears from scenes of a young boy’s father falling to his death from the Twin Towers. To extract meaningful drama out of mass tragedy requires skill, depth and authentic sensitivity instead of gimmicks, treacly music and an over reliance on cliches. I have nothing against sentiment, but it must be earned. EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE is ill-conceived, poorly written and badly directed drama, a muddle-headed treatment of serious issues capped with some really weird, stupefying plot twists.

(SPOILERS ALERT! The next paragraph reveals major plot points)

You may be interested in where Oskar’s quest with the key will lead but it’s never resolved. Turns out the very first Black home that Oskar visited (the one with the crying Viola Davis) was the correct one after all and when he finally goes back and confronts her husband (Jeffrey Wright), Mr. Black indeed recognizes the key. Turns out it was left to him by his father, and it may solve some mystery between that father and son, two men who we’ve never been introduced to! So Oskar hands the key over to Mr. Black, he’s on his way and that’s the end of the puzzle! Maybe something heavy is resolved for this Mr. Black, but certainly not for the audience. If that isn’t bad enough, EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE adds one final dumbfounding twist; Turns out Oskar’s mom has stumbled across his busy scrapbooks and has figured out exactly what her son has been up to all day. No responsible mother would let her son wander around New York alone going into strange homes in a fruitless search, would she? Well, this one would, but not only does she keep her discovery to herself, she too begins cruising around the city visiting all the Blacks, a step ahead of her child (I guess this is to make sure his subsequent journey is safe – I’m not sure – my shaking head was buried in my hands by this time). At one point, a dimwitted slobbery guy hugs her 14 times. This is supposed to be a heartwarming moment until you realize that she must be aware that this drooling perv will soon be embracing her little boy. What a smart, caring mother.

(END OF SPOILERS)

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE joins PATCH ADAMS, PAY IT FORWARD, and SEVEN POUNDS in a gummy helping of self-righteous drivel smothered by an overdose of sickly sentimentality – avoid like your life depended on it and if you do see it, don’t say you weren’t warned. EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE is the worst movie of this – or any -  year.

0 of 5 Stars

A compact, conclusive primer on the criminality and rise of the Nazi party, NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY, is actually a recovered documentary from 1948 written and directed by the late Stuart Schulberg (brother of Budd, the writer of ON THE WATERFRONT) that, though U.S.-sponsored, was never released in this country. Thought lost for many years, Schulberg’s daughter Sandra Schulberg and her fellow documentarian Josh Waletzky have now restored the film using a decent print that they discovered with the help of the German Bundesarchiv (Germany’s National Archive, headquartered in Berlin). Enlisting the vocal talents of actor Liev Schreiber, the narration has been re-recorded, this time in English and the result is an interesting documentary that combines footage of the trial of Hitler’s commanders who survived the war – Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher, etc. with a concise flashback history of the rise and fall of the Nazi Party. The result is a film that never sheds new light on the subject  but I’m sure  was quite eye-opening when it was made just three years after World War Two ended.

The Nuremberg Trials were a series of International military tribunals hosted in a World Court at the Palace of Justice in the city of Nuremberg Germany in 1946 . They were held by the conquering Allied forces of World War II, and were most famous for the prosecution of the leaders of the defeated Nazi Party. NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY covers a lot in 80 minutes, starting in 1945 with the opening statements of Justice Robert H. Jackson, was one of four lead Allied prosecutors in the Nuremberg trial. These defendants were accused of “Crimes against Peace of the World” and were considered living symbols of arrogance and cruelty. The film shows archival footage to illustrate exactly what the Nazis did, in chronological order, without much exploration of why they did it. The history lesson begins with the burning of the Reichstag building, the assembly location of the German Parliament in 1933, which was the Nazi’s pretext for seizing power which they continued to do for the next decade through fraud, deceit, intimidation, and coercion. Under the Third Reich, Germany soon left the League of Nations, enacted compulsive military service, and its factories began churning out the tools of war. They eventually annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia by making their leaders offers they couldn’t refuse, making it easier to conquer Poland and set off the global conflict that would become the Second World War.

Nothing’s new in NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY, especially to WWII buffs, but it’s an informative and well-illustrated overview and the footage, especially the Holocaust atrocity stuff that dominates the second half, still packs a dramatic punch. It’s skillful in its editing, smartly jumping to the trial footage at the right moments to keep things in context. The defendants are shown smoking and some are holding their heads in their hands while the blasphemies they are accused of are read aloud including crimes involving the use of slave labor and “The Final Solution”. NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY was suppressed by our government not because Americans were too squeamish about the death camp footage but because by the time it was completed in 1948, we were enemies with the Soviets, while the film shows us still as allies. At a time when politicians were nurturing a fear of Communism, the film became a political hot potato, thus a victim of the Cold War. NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY would make a good background-providing companion piece to JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG, a 1961 drama starring Burt Lancaster and Spencer Tracy that was a dramatization of the later trial of some judges who used their offices to conduct Nazi sterilization and cleansing policies. While not as moving and or as affecting as some of the many Holocaust docs, NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY still drives home the horror and the justice that transpired over six decades ago, half a world away, and is recommended.

4 of 5 Stars

NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY Opens today in St. Louis at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater

Interview conducted by Tom Stockman January 9th, 2012

Though disarming in appearance, actor Kurtwood Smith’s two best-known big-screen roles are memorable villains. He was the psychotic Clarence in ROBOCOP in 1988 and played a very different scoundrel the next year in DEAD POET’S SOCIETY where he was the unforgettable  Mr. Perry, the overbearing bully father of aspiring actor Neil (played by Robert Sean Leonard) who meets a tragic end. He played a comedy variation on that role as the conservative, tough-loving dad on the TV sitcom That ‘70’s Show from 1998 to 2006. Smith’s other credits include FLASHPOINT, RAMBO III, TO DIE FOR, DEEP IMPACT, and roles on both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He can currently be seen on the TV series Chaos. The Disney classic DEAD POET’S SOCIETY has been digitally restored and presented for the first time in Blu-ray High Definition this week, and We Are Movie Geeks spoke to Kurtwood Smith about the film.

We Are Movie Geeks: When you filmed DEAD POET’S SOCIETY did you realize you were making a classic?

Kurtwood Smith: I didn’t realize we were making a classic but I knew that, with Peter Weir directing, that we were making a very good film. There were so many talented people involved. Tom Schulman the writer, and of course Robin and these young actors Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke and, in particular Josh Charles. Those guys were really really talented so I knew we had a good chance of making an excellent movie.

WAMG: How did you get the role as Mr. Perry in DEAD POET’S SOCIETY?

KS: They sent the script to my agent and wanted to know if I was interested. They started out asking me if I was interested in either the part of the father or of the headmaster (eventually played by Norman Lloyd). I said I was, and then it fell apart. Peter Weir was not connected with it at the time. Then about a year later they came back and said that Peter Weir was going to direct this so I went in and read the scene for Peter and we filmed it. That was the only time I had the director do the filming of the audition himself. We talked at length about the role and then a couple of weeks later I got it.

WAMG: What was Robin Williams like?

KS: I knew Robin from before. I had worked with him doing Theater in Marin County and I’d seen him on and off over the years. I only had two scenes with him in the movie and one of those was cut. Peter had cut it and put it back in, then cut it out again. It was a scene after Neil’s funeral . We decided it was redundant and cut it.

WAMG: Have you worked with Robin Williams since then?

KS: No, I’ve seen him and seen his stage shows and recently saw him in New York in the play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and we caught up a bit, but that’s the only film we made together.

WAMG: Let’s talk about the character you played in DEAD POET’S SOCIETY, Mr. Perry. Why did Mr. Perry have such a hard time with his son Neil wanting to be an actor?

KS: I think Mr. Perry thought that sort of life would be a waste. Peter Weir and I decided that, as far as Mr. Perry’s back story went, we were determined that the character be understandable. He didn’t know how to express it but he obviously loved his son and was determined that his son was going to take advantage of the advantages given him and do something with his life. Obviously Mr. Perry struggled throughout his life and he saw, as most parents do today, going into theater as a very chancy, difficult future so he was determined his son wasn’t going to waste his life that way.

WAMG: Could you relate to Neil Perry? What did your family think of your chosen profession?

KS: My family was fine with my acting career, as long as I went to college.

WAMG: Did you discourage or encourage your daughter Laurel from becoming an actress?

KS: I didn’t encourage her because I know it’s a difficult thing but at the same time it would have been improper of me to discourage her. I stressed that I wanted her to get an education and graduate from college. Then it was up to her, and she’s made it work. She does mostly commercials now.

WAMG: At the end of the day, do you think Mr. Perry blames Mr. Keating for his son’s death or does he recognize his own bullying?

KS: If we had left that scene in that I mentioned, you wouldn’t have aslked the question because it’s still clear in that scene that he blames Mr. Keating but obviously in that kind of situation he would have had to know responsible. Whether or not he’s willing to accept that, given the kind of guy that he is, he wouldn’t accept that. It would be a hard thing for him to admit.

WAMG: Were there any other scenes in DEAD POET SOCIETY featuring you as Mr. Perry that were cut out besides the one you mentioned?

KS: That’s the only one I remember. There were some scenes that were cut from the script when Peter Weir took it over. In the original script, Mr. Perry drags his son off the stage while he’s performing Midsummer Nights Dream, but we all agreed that was over the top. But I don’t recall any other scenes being shot and then cut, but that’s over 25 years ago so, who knows.

(At this point in the interview, a rep from Disney breaks in the phone line and lets me know I have only one more question left ! I haven’t even brought up ROBOCOP or any of Mr. Smith’s many great film roles – oh well – one last question:)

WAMG: Were you in THE DEER HUNTER (the IMDB has him listed as “POW in Cage ” Uncredited -Unconfirmed)?

KS: No, I was not in THE DEER HUNTER but I keep hearing that I was. I really need to go back and watch that film again and see why everyone thinks I’m in there.

WAMG: Good luck with the Blu-ray release of DEAD POET’S SOCIETY and with your future projects and thanks for talking to We Are Movie Geeks.

KS: My pleasure, thank you.

The We Are Movie Geeks Blu-ray review of DEAD POET’S SOCIETY can be found HERE

The We Are Movie Geeks interview with Kurtwood Smith, who played Mr. Perry in DEAD POET’S SOCIETY, can be found HERE.

The beloved 1987 Disney drama DEAD POETS SOCIETY has graduated to Blu-ray, and to the film’s many, many fans, the new hi-def transfer is going to be a godsend. The first thing you’ll notice is that the colors are stunningly vibrant and deep. The subject did not lend itself to a wealth of coloring in the film, but every color handled by the transfer is vivid and perfectly saturated. The blue skies and reds that appear throughout the film look very good. In perfect contrast to the brightly lit interiors and exteriors are the more darkly lit scenes which feature deep black levels and never lose any detail. The film does have a few moments of film grain, but the general condition of the source materials results in the best the film has looked since it was new. Here’s a rundown of the Blu-ray’s extras: First there is a 28-minute featurette entitled “Dead Poet’s Society: A Look Back”, featuring current interviews with actors Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Melora Walters, Kurtwood Smith, Dylan Kussman, Allelon Ruggiero, and Norman Lloyd (who plunged from the Statue of Liberty in Hitchcock’s SABOTEUR in 1942 and turns 98 this year). Williams is conspicuously absent. Most talk about how excited they were to work with director Peter Weir but it’s interesting to hear what they have to say and see how they look now. It’s noteable how few of these young actors, Ethan Hawke being the exception, went on to bigscreen stardom. Robert Sean Leonard had a few good roles but faded and Josh Charles is a familiar face but while other adolescent ensemble films from this period, TAPS, THE OUTSIDERS, SCHOOL TIES, were breeding grounds for many of today’s stars, not DEAD POETS SOCIETY. There is also a very good feature-length commentary by director Peter Weir, writer Tom Schulman and Cinematographer John Seale. It’s laid-back and dry, but packed with great insights and anecdotes. The men don’t speak over each other and sound as though they were recorded separately. Weir and Seale are both old-school masters and it’s inspiring to hear what they have to say about the making of this film, as well as movies in general. Schulman gives some insights as to why the story developed the way it did. “Raw Takes” shows some raw footage of a scene that wasn’t included in the final film showing Robin Williams’ Mr. Keating attending one of the meetings of the Dead Poets Society after the performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream and leading the boys to a frozen waterfall in the woods. Two brief documentaries round out the extras: “A Master of Sound: Alan Splet” is an 11-minute tribute to the late sound man. Peter Weir is joined by David Lynch, who had also collaborated with him and they discuss the influences and impact he made on the filmmakers he worked with. It’s a nice tribute. “Cinematography Master Class” is a 21-minute clip from a television show (Produced by the Australian Film, Television and Radio School) illustrating how cinematographer John Seale lit the dorm room scenes for different seasons and times of the movie. It’s very technical but may interest some.

I recall strongly disliking DEAD POETS SOCIETY when it was new and I had not seen it again until I watched the new Blu-ray release this week. I remember finding it overly pious, full of platitudes, a shameless attempt to pander to an adolescent audience. At the time I thought Robin Williams shtick was so grating (though it’s low key compared to some of the stuff he would do over the next decade). Watching it again with a less-cynical eye, the movie has aged well and is much better than I remember. It’s a familiar story told with obvious care and craftsmanship and it clearly influenced a lot of subsequent, inferior films.  The ending, with the boys standing on their chairs and applauding Williams’s Mr. Keating, is still an eye-roller, wreaking more of manipulation than it does of truth, but the film on balance is sincere and extremely well-written (it won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar).

Most of the extras on the disc are carried over from the 2006 “Special Edition” DVD. When the film was aired on the USA Network in the early 1990’s, it was padded with some deleted scenes, which are not included on this Blu-ray so, despite the great transfer and a solid set of extras, this is still not the last word on DEAD POETS SOCIETY. I’m happy to finally admit that DEAD POETS SOCIETY is a touching, involving drama with a series of great performances and moving moments so by all means, if you’re a fan of the film, seize the day and buy the Blu-ray.

For many, including myself, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is still the crowning glory of Disney’s animated films. It marked a high point for the pairing of the studio’s great animation team with songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. The story boasted the shape and sound of a Broadway musical – which is exactly what it became several years later. Nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1991, the film won the awards for best score and best song. Re-issued in the Imax format with and extra number (“Human Again”) in 2004, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST has now received the retro-fitted 3D treatment and opens in theaters today.

The question: is it worth plunking down ten dollars or more (plus the three buck 3D surcharge) to see a movie we’ve all owned on video for years? Disney’s motivations may be somewhat less than altruistic. This is, after all, a relatively cheap way to cash in on a premade product (and they’ve taken that extra song back out!), but leave your cynicism at the door for this time the answer is a resounding yes! The joy in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST has always been the detail applied to both the animation and the characterizations with a smooth blending of early computer-enhancement and hand-drawn animation that created astonishing texture and depth. As for the 3D effects, they’re an asset, well-suited perfectly, unexpectedly so, to the animation of the original film (something I would not have said about last year’s THE LION KING 3D conversion). Purists may say the 3D effects don’t add to the experience, but even they would have to admit that they don’t detract from it.

Disney has added a gut-busting, sight-gag-jammed  cartoon to the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST re-release, “Tangled Ever After”, a six-minute sequel to TANGLED. Rapunzel’s marrying Flynn, with her horse Maximus and pet chameleon Pascal responsible for the wedding rings until disaster strikes. Chain reaction ring-tossing high-jinks outside the castle walls ensue in the short film which will have you rolling on the floor. I’m always willing to decry the wallet-busting tactics of studios who force 3D on audiences already paying too much for a movie ticket. To charge us an outrageous fee, they need to provide not just a film, but an experience. Fortunately, the 3D re-release of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is an event that meets that standard.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

THE IRON LADY is a biography of Margaret Thatcher,  the first woman elected prime minister of England (1979 – 1990). She led the country out of a recession, led a war in defense of the British Falkland Islands, confronted unions and the influence of the then Soviet Union which earned her the nickname of “Iron Lady”.  A staunch conservative, Ms Thatcher is one of the most divisive figures in 20th century politics and, despite her many accomplishments, despised by the feminist left.  Director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan have made a movie about her flashback-riddled dementia while their subject is still alive, a bold move that had many of her supporters worried that, especially with the casting of Hollywood liberal Meryl Streep in the lead, would result in a blasphemous hatchet job. But the film is more admiring and considerate than I expected, hedging in its politics, but that’s part of the problem with the film. It’s not a left-wing mudslinger (or a fawning conservative glorification), but it may have been more lively if it were. Getting worked up is more fun than being bored. THE IRON LADY is a straightforward academic bio that touches all the bases of her life but is never particularly insightful or profound. Streep is amazing in the role, but she’s better than the material.

THE IRON LADY presents Margaret Thatcher in current day as an aging (she’s currently 86), lonely widow, declining in health and doddering around her London home chatting with the ghost of her late husband Dennis (a cheery Jim Broadbent). She’s tended to by her daughter Carol (Olivia Colman) and a cadre of assistants who help schedule her occasional dinner appearances and photo-ops. Her life is told through a series of flashbacks, an episodic tour of career highlights that squeezes every major event in her life into a sort of colorful montage. The best scenes are these flashbacks, with Alexandra Roach briefly playing Thatcher as a young grocer’s daughter muscling her way into the male-dominated field of politics. All the capstones of her reign are all presented; an historic miners’ strike, the Falkands war, and her kinship with Ronald Reagan. But those sequences are too brief as THE IRON LADY is always in a hurry to jump ahead to the present, frail Thatcher, as if eager to show off Streep’s startlingly life-like old-age make-up.

American filmgoers, especially younger ones with no context of this woman, simply may not find her story interesting enough to spend two hours watching her wander about confused in her nightgown and reminiscing about her life, a repetitive framing device that gets old. Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher is an example of acting at its finest. Made up to look remarkably like Ms Thatcher, Streep also has her voice and movements down to a near-science. Lest it sound like she is just doing a great impersonation instead of a full-fledged performance, it should be noted that Streep digs deep enough to uncover a flawed but dignified woman with a sympathetic soul. Despite its flaws THE IRON LADY is a worthwhile biography that deserves to be sought out if you have any interest in the last word on one of the 20th century’s most famous and influential women. The ultimate vision of Thatcher in THE IRON LADY – a vision Streep puts into a superbly rounded shape – is as a tough old broad, a warrior who’ll go to her death defending the decisions she made for the country she served.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars