Fridany Night Film Fix: Wedding Crashers Redux

Friday Night Film Fest: The Dark Crystal

I was just catching up on some of my favorite blogs when I ran across this post. Memory lane. Ahh I do love thee. In honor of Disney Afternoon Cartoon's I am featuring a Disney film for FNFF. It's no ordinary Disney flick however...scary, sad and dark, no Little Mermaid here.
You can watch the entire film on YouTube if you so desire.

In a faraway world a mighty astronomical event is about to occur,
the Great Conjunction of the planet's Three Suns. At this time, the
cruel Skeksis who rule this world from the castle of the Dark Crystal
are frightened to learn that an ancient prophecy may be coming true:
A survivor of the Gelfling, an elfin race they thought they had
destroyed, is seeking to restore the missing shard of the Dark Crystal
before the moment of the Great Conjunction, thus ending the tyranny of
the Skeksis. Hidden in the valley of the urRu, young Jen the Gelfling
has been raised by a tribe of mystics and knows little of the world
outside, but know his Master's dying words have charged him with his
mission to find the lost shard before it is too late. Traveling
through many strange places and encountering many extraordinary
beings, Jen races against time to unravel the mystery of his quest and
save his world from the forces of evil.

Friday Film Feature: Grindhouse

This one's not out yet but if the movie was able to breakup the marriage of Rodriguez and his wife of 16 years, not to mention him ditching five kids, all for Rose McGowen you know it's got to be good or at least pretty f'd up.
Plus two movies for the price of one? Hells yeah. Now I won't feel so bad paying $16/ticket.


Grindhouse is a 2007 film. In the United States, the film is presented as a double feature of two full-length segments, one being a zombie film, Planet Terror, written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, and the other being a slasher film, Death Proof, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, with faux trailers advertising fictional films preceding each segment. In much of the rest of the world, the film will be split in two and each feature will be released separately.

The idea for Grindhouse came to Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino when Tarantino would set up screenings of double features, complete with trailers preceding and between the films. "[Tarantino] would have some trailers and a movie, and then some more trailers and a second movie," remembers Rodriguez. "I thought, 'We have to re-create this experience for people and show them a double feature like this.' The double feature just came to mind [from] us wanting to re-create that experience."
The film's name originates from the American term for theaters that would play "all the exploitation genres: kung fu, horror, Italian horror—also known as giallo—sexploitation, the "good old boy" redneck car-chase movies, blaxploitation, spaghetti Westerns—all those risible genres that were released in the 70s." According to Rodriguez, "The posters were much better than the movies, but we're actually making something that lives up to the posters."
Rodriguez first came up with the idea for Planet Terror during the production of The Faculty. "I remember telling Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett, all these young actors, that zombie movies were dead and hadn't been around in a while, but that I thought they were going to come back in a big way because they’d been gone for so long," recalls Rodriguez. "I said, 'We've got to be there first.' I had [a script] I’d started writing. It was about 30 pages, and I said to them, 'There are characters for all of you to play.' We got all excited about it, and then I didn't know where to go with it. The introduction was about as far as I'd gotten, and then I got onto other movies. Sure enough, the zombie [movie] invasion happened and they all came back again, and I was like, 'Ah, I knew that I should've made my zombie film.'" The story was reapproached when Tarantino and Rodriguez developed the idea for Grindhouse.
During the time Planet Terror began to come together, Tarantino developed the story of Death Proof. Tarantino was fascinated by the way stuntmen would "death-proof" their cars so they can be driven headfirst into a brick wall at 60 mph and still protect the driver—as long as he's in the driver's seat. This inspired Tarantino to create a slasher film featuring a deranged stuntman who stalks and murders sexy young women with his "death-proof" car. Tarantino remembers, "I realized I couldn't do a straight slasher film, because with the exception of women-in-prison films, there is no other genre quite as rigid. And if you break that up, you aren't really doing it anymore. It's inorganic, so I realized—let me take the structure of a slasher film and just do what I do. My version is going to be fucked up and disjointed, but it seemingly uses the structure of a slasher film, hopefully against you."
According to Rodriguez, "[Tarantino] had an idea and a complete vision for it right away when he first talked about it. He started to tell me the story and said, 'It's got this death-proof car in it.' I said, 'You have to call it Death Proof.' I helped title the movie, but that's it."
I don't think there have been any good car chases since I started making films in '92—to me, the last terrific car chase was in Terminator 2. And Final Destination 2 had a magnificent car action piece. In between that, not a lot. Every time a stunt happens, there's twelve cameras and they use every angle for Avid editing, but I don't feel it in my stomach. It's just action."


Check out Grindhouse.

Friday Film Feature

I am starting a new segment today on Chef's Widow called Friday Film Feature. The Chef & I watch so many films together so I thought I would do something with that.

When the chef & I started dating in high school, our love of films (and weed) is really what brought us together. I remember going to Blockbuster at 15 with him and picking out the craziest most avant garde film we could find. Back then we were way more adventurous in our taste, although some of the movies we professed our love for were really cheese.

Now we have become horror guru's. We have become obsessed with gore and campy violence. Although the film I am recommending today is definitely not in that genre.


Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man
First of all, this documentary focuses on a concert that was a tribute to Leonard Cohen, an artist and a poet that has been influential to countless others. This Sidney concert gathered a lot of talent that came together to celebrate his music. Lian Lunson, an Australian director, has taken the best tracks of the historical presentation that mixes well with the man it's paying homage to. Let the viewer be clear that for a better picture of who this man is and what he has done in his life, it will not be found in this movie. For that, anyone interested in Cohen's life must go somewhere else because of the limitations this medium had.

The life of Leonard Cohen is examined briefly as an on camera interview with him at his Los Angeles home. Several biographical bits of information are revealed during that conversation, but of course, it only covers the highlights of his life in sketchy details. One gets to know, for instance, about his early life in Montreal. The death of the father when Cohen was nine. His New York stay, at the legendary Chelsea Hotel, home of the cool people that influenced a whole generation. Then one learns about Mr. Cohen's introduction to Zen Buddhism and his becoming a monk.

A curious note arises from the lips of Leonard Cohen's lips about being a notorious ladies' man, something he was always notorious for, and yet, how far from the truth it was. There is also a moment in which the poet reads for our benefit the introduction he prepared for one of his books being translated into Chinese, a culture that always fascinated him.

The concert itself is an excellent way to hear Leonard Cohen's songs as others interpret them. Rufus Wainwright sings three numbers to great effect. Antony makes a poignant appearance belting "If It Be Your Will", all tics and mannerisms, yet making the song seem new. Nick Cave has also two good moments interpreting "I'm Your Man", and "Suzanne", two of the songs closely associated with Mr. Cohen. Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen who back up most of the songs, are perfect in "Anthem". Martha Wainwright's take on "The Traitor" has a different edge when she sings it, yet it's one of the highlights of the evening.

The best is left for last. Bono, and Edge, who have been praising Mr. Cohen throughout the film come together to back him as he sings his "Tower of Song" in his own inimitable style. It shows a lot of generosity on his part leaving his own material to be reexamined by a younger generation that clearly loves him.

Lian Lunson shows she had the right idea in how to bring the concert into a movie that gives relevance to a man that had it all, Leonard Cohen.