Negromancer News Bits and Bites from February 7th to 13th, 2016 - Update #40

Support Leroy on Patreon.

OBITS - From YahooPolitics:  Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died, today, Saturday, February 13, 2016, at the age of 79.

---------------
MOVIES - From Variety:  French actor, Tahar Rahim, joins Harrison Ford and Anthony Hopkins in "Official Secrets."
 
--------------
MOVIES - From DenofGeek:  Release dates for... God help me... Transformers 5, 6, and 7.

---------------
TELEVISION - From TVLine: FOX has ordered a pilot for a series based on the "Lethal Weapon" movies.  Damon Wayans Sr. to star..

---------------
MOVIES - From WeGotThisCovered:  The proposed horror film, Death House, which will unite legendary horror characters like Freddie Krueger, is described as "The Expendables or horror."  It is apparently a go.

---------------
POLITICS - From RollingStone:  The magazine lists 19 great moments from the 2/11/2016 debate between Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

From WashPost:  Annotated transcript of debate.

---------------
TELEVISION - From CBSNews:  A few hints about new "Star Trek" series, set to debut in 2017.

---------------
COMICS - From CinemaBlend:  Deadpool movie writers really wish they could use the Hulk.

---------------
COMICS - From Movieweb:  Rumor has it that in "Thor 3", the villain Hela (Cate Blanchett) will kill off a major character.

---------------
BLACK LIVES MATTER - From The New York DailyNews:  Trayvon Martin would have been 21 years-old on Friday, February 5, 2016.

---------------
MOVIES - From Variety:  Michael De Luca and Scott Suber come on board as producers of the "Battlestar Galactica" movie.

---------------
POLITICS - From YahooNews:  Mrs. Beetlejuice - Carly Fiorina - suspsends presidential campagin.

---------------
BLACK LIVES MATTER - From RSN:  Texas police kill a naked black man.

---------------
OBITS - From TheWrap:  Former child actor, Tommy Kelly, died on January 25, 2016 at the age of 90.  Kelly was best known for playing the title role in the 1938 version of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."  He also appeared in a number of films including "Gone with the Wind."

---------------
MOVIES - From THR:  Johnny Depp is headlining Universal's reboot of "The Invisible Man."  Supposedly, Tom Cruise is signed to "The Mummy" reboot!

---------------
MOVIES - From RSN:  Michael Moore was in intensive care in NYC.

---------------
MOVIES - From Variety:  Thank you, God.  Charlize Theron in talks to join "Fast 8" as a villain.

---------------
WEBCOMICS - From CBB:  New Johnny Bullet - Episode 60.

From CBB:  Johnny Bullet in French - Episode 60.

From CBB:  Constant, Chp. 2 Pg. 4.

---------------
OSCAR - From Deadline:  The 2016 Oscars Nominees Luncheon photos.

---------------
ECO - From EcoWatch:  Mark Ruffalo:  "We're heading towards a national water crisis."

---------------
SPORTS - From the New York DailyNews:  Former NFL player, Bill Romanowski, makes sure that there is no doubt that he is a racist.

---------------
AWARDS - From ScreenDaily:  John Boyega and Eddie Redmayne lead BAFTA buzz ahead of awards on February 14th, 2016.

---------------
TV - From YahooTV:  "X-Files" recap - "Back in the Day is Now."

---------------
COMICS - From YouTube:  "Captain America: Civil War" Super Bowl spot.

---------------
OBITS - From Vulture:  Daniel Gerson, a Pixar screenwriter, died on Saturday, February 6, 2016 after a battle with brain cancer.  Gerson co-wrote Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University, and was apparently working on "Cars 3."

---------------
TRAILERS - From YouTube:  New trailer for "Mie & Dave Need Wedding Dates," which looks really good.

----------------
TRAILERS - From YouTube:  "X-Men: Apocalypse" the Super Bowl trailer.

TRAILERS - From YouTube:  "Independent Day: Resurgence" Super Bowl trailer.

----------------
POLITICS - From Yahoo:  Professional black people hater and firemen killer, Rudy Giuliani, whines about Beyonce's performance at Super Bowl 50.

---------------
BLACK LIVES MATTER - From Truthout:  Why are black girls and women dying in jails? Genocide, that's why.

---------------
HISTORY - From RSN:  Sirhan Sirhan is coming up for parole.

---------------
MOVIES:  From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the Super Bowl Weekend box office (7/5 to 7/7/2016) is "Kung Fu Panda 3" with an estimated take of $21 million.

---------------
CULTURE:  From Vulture:  How Richard Pryor marks the beginning of the modern comedy era.

---------------
MUSIC - From Vulture:  Beyonce dominates Super Bowl 50 halftime show... that Coldplay was head-lining.

MUSIC - From Vulture:  See Beyonce's "Formation" video.

MUSIC - From Vulture:  A guide to "Formation" music video.

---------------
MOVIES - From Vulture:  There was a controlled explosion of a bus in London for an upcoming Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan and apparently the locals were still surprised, although there was supposedly advance warning.

---------------
COMICS - From YahooTV:  Deadpool movie review - It's "the world's most violent and vulgar Bugs Bunny cartoon.

---------------
From Deadline:  2016 Directors Guild Awards announced; Alejandro G. Iñárritu repeats as outstanding director of a feature film with his win for "The Revenant." Last year, he won for directing "Birdman."

---------------
ANIMATION - From TheWrap: Here are your 43rd Annie Awards winners.

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from December 20th to 26th, 2015 - Update #23

Support Leroy on Patreon.

NEWS:

From CounterPunch:  Black lives do not matter... because nothing much else does.

---------------
From YahooNews:  The story of Santa Claus.

---------------
From Variety:  Thom Yorke posts the song they produced for the Bond movie, Spectre, which the Bond bosses rejected.  A shame really...

---------------
From YahooTech:  Quentin Tarantino names "Mad Max: Fury Road" his best film of 2015.

---------------
From TheNation:  Obama's NPR interview causes another right-wing freakout.

---------------
From THR:  Michael Moore talks about on new wave of gun violence.

---------------
From BloodyDisgusting:  Rob Zombie's upcoming film, "31" has received an NC-17 rating... for a second time.

From BloodyDisgusting:  A Rob Zombie red carpet interview.

---------------
From HitFix:  Robert DeNiro compares Jennifer Lawrence and David O'Russell's relationship to the one he has with Martin Scorsese.

---------------
From Variety:  Johnny Depp is most overpaid actor.

---------------
From HitFix:  Jennifer Lawrence is over "cool girls."

---------------
From BoxOfficeMojo:  With the weekend actual numbers announced, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" sets a record for biggest opening weekend at the global box office with a take of $529 million, which surpasses "Jurassic World" and its opening weekend global haul of $524.9 million.

---------------
From YahooMovies:  The stage play, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" debuts a middle-aged trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, with Hermione being a Black woman.

From FlickeringMyth:  Art from "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."

---------------
From BoxOfficeMojo:  The #1 movie at the 12/18 to 12/20/2015 weekend box office is "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" with an estimated take of $238 million, a record for a domestic opening weekend.  The previous record holder was Jurassic World with $208.8 million.

---------------
From YahooNews:  Channing Tatum pestered Quentin Tarantino for a month to get in "The Hateful Eight."

----------------
From WashPost:  Heroic Tennessee teen football player shot to death trying to protect three girls.


COMICS - Films and Books:

From YahooMovies:  Fans won't be disappointed by the number of characters appearing in "Avengers: Infinity War."

---------------
From Vulture:  Kurt Russell confirms that he is in talks to appear in "Guardians of the Galaxy."


STAR WARS:

From YahooNews:  John Boyega is connected to a tragic crime.

---------------
From YahooMovies:  5 super Star Wars Spoilers - the biggest bombshells (SPOILER ALERT)


TRAILERS:

From YouTube:  Deadpool Christmas trailer.

---------------
From YahooMovies:  First teaser for "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

---------------
From YouTube:  20th Century Fox's "Eddie the Eagle" with Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman.

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from October 11th to 17th, 2015 - Update #24

Support Leroy on Patreon.

NEWS:

From WeGotThisCovered:  Rosario Dawson will voice Batgirl in the LEGO Batman movie.

---------------
From IndieWire:  John Carpenter wins a plagiarism lawsuit in France against Luc Besson.  It involved the film "Lockout" starring Guy Pearce being a rip off of Carpenter's films, "Escape from New York" and "Escape from LA."

---------------
From CinemaBlend:  More on "Die Hard" prequel.

---------------
From TheWrap:  New Die Hard movie being developed.  It would feature both a young John McClane and an older one (Bruce Willis).  Len Wiseman developing...

---------------
From TheWrap:  "Godzilla vs. Kong" in 2020.

---------------
From Variety:  James Cameron's name has long been attached to a film adaptation of the manga, "Battle Angel Alita."  Now, word is that Cameron will produce and Robert Rodriguez will direct.

---------------
From IndieWire:  Johnny Depp does not want to win an Oscar... he says.  He has been nominated three times, and he says being nominated is enough.

---------------
From DigitalSpy:  The creator of the popular British television series, "Luther," is writing the remake to Escape From New York.

---------------
From InContention:  Quentin Tarantino has cut two version of "The Hateful Eight."

---------------
From Variety:  M. Night Shyamalan's low-budget career rival continues with a new thriller featuring James McAvoy.

---------------
From Deadline:  John Ridley to write and direct a film about the L.A. riots of 1992.

---------------
From IndieWire:  Guillermo del Toro's next film could be about a Mexican wrestler fighting vampire politicians.  I'm in!

---------------
From THR:  "The Martian" wins the 10/9 to 10/11/2015 weekend box office with an estimated take of $37 million.  Warner Bros.' "Pan" bombs with an estimated haul of $15.5 (against a production that cost $150 million).

---------------
From Vulture:  A "Firefly" reunion at New York Comic Con 2015.

---------------
From IMDb:  Ahead of the Season 6 debut of "The Walking Dead," a Norman Reedus exclusive.


HARD NEWS:

From TheRoot:  Two white men argue over who owes whom for gentrification.

---------------
From the AP via YahooNews:  Two reports say incompetent rookie Cleveland cop, Timothy Loehmann, was justified in killing 12-year-old, Tamir Rice.

From TheRoot:  "Reasonable..."
---------------


COMICS:

From ComicBookMovie:  Mark Ruffalo to appear as Hulk in "Thor Ragnarok."

---------------
From HitFix:  Drew McWeeny says FF to Marvel rumors are nonsense and explains why.

From DenofGeek:  Updates on the news that Marvel may have gotten the rights to the Fantastic Four back from FOX, in relation to the X-Men TV deal.

---------------
From BleedingCool:  FOX announces to television series based on the X-Men comic book franchise - one about the Hellfire Club (seen in "X-Men: First Class") and one about "Legion" (Charles Xavier's son).

---------------
From Vulture:  Paul Reubens (aka "Pee-Wee" Herman) will play the father of Oswald's "Penguin" Cobblepot on FOX's "Gotham."  Reubens also played the elder Cobblepot in Tim Burton's film, Batman Returns (1992).

---------------
From Variety:  Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad" wants to be a Marvel baddie.


MISC:

From YahooNews:  Photos seems to be only the second photographic image of Billy the Kid.

Negromancer News Bits and Bites for the Week of October 5th to 11th, 2014 - Update #14

NEWS:

From YahooCelebrity:  Robert De Niro with his rarely seen daughter, Drena De Niro.

----------------
From InformedConsent:  Juan Cole on Ben Affleck vs. Bill Maher.

----------------
From YahooCelebrity:  Stephen Collins, the veteran actor best known for his role as the dad on the late WB series, "7th Heaven," allegedly admits to molesting an underage girl.

-----------------
From HitFix via YahooTV:  Marvel's secret plan... A great article about Marvel Studio's success.  There is also some kind of hint that Sony and Marvel may occasionally come together.

-----------------
From HitFix:  William Shatner and his "Star Trek 3" (the reboot) hints.

------------------
From TheVerge:  Neil deGrasse Tyson voiced the character, Waddles the Pig, on Disney's animated series, "Gravity Falls."

------------------
From EntertainmentWeekly:  Gone Girl wins the box office for the weekend of October 3rd to 5th, 2014 with an estimated take of $38 million.  Annabelle, a spinoff from last year's surprise smash hit, The Conjuring, was a close second with an estimated $37.2 million.  Both exceeded expectations.

-------------------
From the Examiner:  Johnny Depp balding?


COMIC BOOKS - Movies and Books:

From CinemaBlend:  Marvel Comics' big 2015 is apparently "Secret Wars."

----------------
From ScreenRant:  Is Brainiac the villain revealed at the end of Batman Vs. Superman.

----------------
From YahooMovies:  Michael Keaton talks about the condition that would get him to play Batman again.

----------------
From CinemaBlend:  Fans await some kind of Marvel teaser.

----------------
From CinemaBlend:  Marvel Comics is turning 75, and ABC will broadcast a special, Marvel 75 Years: From Pulp to Pop!

-----------------
From Yahoo:  Starting in 2015, Dynamite Entertainment will start producing James Bond comic books and graphic novels.

------------------
From CinemaBlend:  Could Sony connect to Marvel's cinematic universe?

-----------------
From CinemaBlend:  Downey backtracks.

------------------
From CinemaBlend:  Marvel ain't giving FOX anymore mutants.

------------------
From YahooTV:  More Downey-Marvel Studios talk.

------------------
From YahooMovies:  Yes, there will be an "Iron Man 4," says Robert Downey, Jr.

------------------
From CinemaBlend:  Michael B. Jordan talks about the suits for the Fantastic Four reboot.

-------------------
From the Examiner:  New Ultron prop image from "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

--------------------
From CinemaBlend:  Who could be left out of "Avengers 3?"


STAR WARS:

From YahooMovies:  A cool anti-spoilers poster from the set of Episode 7.

-------------------
From io9:  More Star Wars rumors... plus some other fanboy franchise news.


OBITS:

From YahooTV:  "Saturday Night Live" veteran Jan Hooks died at the age of 57, Thursday, October 9, 2014,

-------------------
Also from YahooTV:  The best of Jan Hooks.

-------------------
From ABC News via Yahoo:  I missed the death of actor Richard Kiel, probably best known for playing the character, "Jaws," in two James Bond movies.

--------------------
From Yahoo:  Sarah Goldberg, an actress on "7th Heaven," has died at age 40.


MISC:

From Yahoo:  A rare photograph of slaves has been found.  The slaves belonged to insurrectionist General Robert E. Lee.

Negromancer News Bits and Bites for the Week of August 31st to September 6th, 2014 - Update #18

NEWS:

From Variety:  Halle Berry's upcoming thriller, "Kidnap," gets U.S. distribution through Relativity Studios - announced at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

--------------------
From EW InsideMovies:  There will be a companion series to AMC's hit, "The Walking Dead."

--------------------
From YahooMovies:  Johnny Depp's daughter, Lily-Rose, is starring in a Kevin Smith movie.  Entitled Yoga Hosers, the film also stars Smith's teen daughter, Harley Quinn Smith.  Depp also appears in the film.

-------------------
From Variety:  Michael Wright will replace Stacey Snider as CEO of DreamWorks.

--------------------
From the HuffingtonPost:  Remember The Little Rascals movie from 1994?  There has been a cast reunion.

--------------------
From TheChristianPost:  "Ghostbusters 3" gets a release date (2017), supposedly...

--------------------
From YahooCelebrity:  Actor Evan Ross married singer Ashlee Simpson on Sunday, August 31, 2014.  Ross (birth name Evan Olav Naess) is the son of legendary singer Diana Ross and shipping magnate, Arne Naess Jr.  Ross is set to appear in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Parts 1 and 2.  Simpson is the sister of singer Jessica Simpson.

------------------
From Variety:  Guardians of the Galaxy wins the four-day Labor Day weekend box office, August 29th to September 1st, 2014, with an estimated take of $22.2 million take.  It has been the #1 film at the weekend box office for three of its five weeks in release.

From TheHollywoodReporter:  Actually, I think the Emmys have been broken for a long, long time.

-----------------
From YahooMovies:  The Labor Day weekend does not have to be a dumping ground for movies expected not to perform big at the box office.

------------------
From Variety:  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is currently #1 at the foreign box office.

-------------------
From The Hollywood Reporter via YahooMovies:  Guardians of the Galaxy leads sluggish Labor Day 2014 weekend.


COMIC BOOKS - Movies and Comics:

From InternationalBusinessTimes:  Various rumors about "Captain America 3."

From EpochTimes:  New set photos from "Batman Vs. Superman."  Also Warner Bros. registers domain names the hint at the corporations next four superhero movies.  Those names include domains for Shazam, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman.

-------------------
From The Hollywood Reporter via YahooNews:  Marvel vs. DC Comics in "Super Hero September."

------------------
From CinemaBlend:  Fugly but talented actor, Benedict Cumberbatch (of whom I am not really a big fan) is apparently being considered for one of two roles in a DC Comics.  Could be the Martian Manhunter or a villain.  He was previously mentioned for Marvel's Doctor Strange movie.

--------------------
From TheWrap:  "Prison Break" stars, Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, will guest star as villains in the first season of The CW's "The Flash."

--------------------
From CinemaBlend:  Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) talks about the three Marvel characters that should have their own movies.  One of them is Black Widow.

From TheWrap:  Where is the Scarlett Johansson superhero movies, asks Jessica Chastain.

------------------
From CinemaBlend:  Apparently, J.J. Abrams was once considered as the writer/director of a Superman movie.  The changes he was allegedly to have made are a doozy.


STAR WARS:

From Mashable:  A new Star Wars Universe is born today with the release of the novel: Star Wars: A New Dawn.

--------------------
From CNN:  Filming resumes after a break caused by Harrison Ford's leg injury.

-------------------
From TheHollywoodReporter:  Episode 7 to film on tiny Irish island of Skellig Michael.

-------------------
From BBCNews:  "Game of Thrones" actor, Miltos Yerolemou, has reportedly joined the cast of Episode 7 in a small role.

-------------------
From CinemaBlend:  Check out these cool Episode 7 posters from fan artist AndrewSS7.  I wish they were the real deal.

--------------------
From CinemaBlend:  I hope Episode 7 is better with less CGI.


REVIEWS:

From the VillageVoice:  Stephanie Zacharek on The Last Days of Robin Hood with Kevin Kline and Dakota Fanning.


OBIT:

From Variety:  Joan River dies at 81 years of age

From Variety:  Andrew V. McLaglen, the director know for such westerns as McLintock! and Shenandoah, died on August 30, 2014 at the age of 94.


MISC:

From SBNation:  The Dallas Cowboys have signed Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted by an NFL team, to their practice squad.  He was cut last week by the St. Louis Rams, the team that drafted him.

Johnny Depp is Whitey Bulger in Upcoming Warner Bros. Movie

(L-r) JOHNNY DEPP as Whitey Bulger and director SCOTT COOPER on the set of the as-yet-untitled Whitey Bulger film, which has begun filming on location in Boston. Photo credit: Claire Folger

Shooting Starts on Untitled Whitey Bulger Film, Starring Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton

Scott Cooper is directing the film on location in Boston

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Principal photography is underway on the as-yet-untitled drama based on the book Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, about the infamous gangster Whitey Bulger. The film stars Oscar® nominee Johnny Depp (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Finding Neverland,” the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films) as Whitey Bulger and Joel Edgerton (“The Great Gatsby,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) as FBI Agent John Connolly. Filming began in Boston under the direction of Scott Cooper (“Out of the Furnace,” “Crazy Heart”).

The film also stars Benedict Cumberbatch (“Twelve Years a Slave”) as Whitey’s brother, Billy Bulger, who is a Massachusetts State Senator; Jesse Plemons (AMC’s “Breaking Bad”) as Whitey’s longtime partner in crime, Kevin Weeks; Sienna Miller (HBO’s “The Girl”) as Whitey’s lover, Catherine Greig; Dakota Johnson (upcoming “Fifty Shades of Grey”) as Lindsey Cyr, Whitey’s former girlfriend and mother of his only child; Rory Cochrane (“Argo”) as Steve Flemmi, another member of the Irish mob; Julianne Nicholson (“August: Osage County”) as John Connolly’s wife, Marianne; and Adam Scott (ABC’s “Parks and Recreation”) as FBI Agent Robert Fitzpatrick. Rounding out the main cast are David Harbour (“End of Watch”), Jeremy Strong (“Zero Dark Thirty”), Brad Carter (HBO’s “True Detective”), W. Earl Brown (“Draft Day”) and Corey Stoll (“The Bourne Legacy”).

Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson, John Lesher, Patrick McCormick and Scott Cooper are producing the film, with Peter Mallouk, Lauren Selig, Brett Granstaff and Gary Granstaff serving as executive producers. The screenplay is adapted from the book Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill.

In 1970s South Boston, FBI Agent John Connolly (Edgerton) persuades Irish mobster James “Whitey” Bulger (Depp) to collaborate with the FBI and eliminate a common enemy: the Italian mob. The drama tells the true story of this unholy alliance, which spiraled out of control, allowing Whitey to evade law enforcement, consolidate power, and become one of the most ruthless and powerful gangsters in Boston history.

The creative team collaborating with Cooper behind the scenes includes director of photography Masanobu Takayanagi (“Silver Linings Playbook,” “Out of the Furnace”), production designer Stefania Cella (“The Great Beauty”) and Oscar®-nominated editor David Rosenbloom (“The Insider,” “Out of the Furnace”).

The film is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation in association with Cross Creek Pictures and RatPac Entertainment, a Cross Creek Production in association with Le Grisbi Productions, and Freestate Pictures*. It will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Review: "The Lone Ranger" is a Little Bit Stranger

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Lone Ranger (2013)
Running time:  149 minutes (2 hours, 29 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, and some suggestive material
DIRECTOR:  Gore Verbinski
WRITERS:  Justine Haythe and Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio; from Justine Haythe and Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio
PRODUCERS:  Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Bojan Bazelli
EDITORS:  James Haygood and Craig Wood
COMPOSER:  Hans Zimmer
Academy Award nominee

WESTERN/ACTION with elements of fantasy

Starring:  Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale, Bryant Prince, Barry Pepper, Leon Rippy, Stephen Root, Terry Treadaway, Saginaw Grant, Joaquin Cosio, James Frain, Leonard Earl Howze, Grover Coulson, and Mason Cook.

For those who don’t know:  The Lone Ranger is a fictional character that first debuted in a radio show in late January 1933.  The Lone Ranger is a Texas Ranger who fights injustice in the American Old West with the assistance of Tonto, his Native American friend.

The radio show ran from 1933 to the mid-1950s for almost 3,000 episodes.  The character is probably best-remembered for the television series, The Lone Ranger, which aired for eight seasons (1949 to 1957) for over 200 episodes on the ABC television network.  Clayton Moore starred as the Lone Ranger, and Jay Silverheels played Tonto.  The character also made several appearance in film, the last being an infamous and unsuccessful 1981 movie.  Early in the Summer of 2013, the Lone Ranger and Tonto returned to the big screen.

The Lone Ranger is a 2013 action and Western film from producer-director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.  Starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, The Lone Ranger 2013 focuses on the earliest efforts of The Lone Ranger and Tonto to end corruption in and to bring justice to the American Old West.

[A NOTE:  Since the following review is a longish one, I’ll summarize it here.  I thoroughly enjoyed The Lone Ranger 2013, and had a blast watching it.  However, it is not a traditional Western movie, just as the Pirate of the Caribbean movies are not typical pirate movies.  The Lone Ranger is funny, but quirky.  If you look past its oddness and focus on the action, you might find it to be quite entertaining.]

The Lone Ranger opens in 1933 at a fair in San Francisco.  In a sideshow, a boy named Will (Mason Cook) just happens to meet an elderly Native American who claims to be Tonto (Johnny Depp).  Learning that Will idolizes the Lone Ranger, Tonto tells the boy the story of how he first met the legendary hero.

The story moves back to 1869.  Lawyer John Reid (Armie Hammer) returns to his hometown of Colby, Texas.  He finds the Transcontinental Railroad to be the focus of attention, but railroad tycoon, Latham Cole (Tom Wilkinson), is focused on the capture of outlaw, Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner).  John joins his brother, Texas Ranger Dan Reid (James Badge Dale), who leads the search for Cavendish and his gang.

John discovers that Native American Comanche warrior, Tonto (Johnny Depp), is also searching for Cavendish, whom the Indian believes is a creature he calls “windigo.”  Events leave John a “lone Ranger,” and he is forced join Tonto in an often-contentious but effective partnership.  But can the two new partners stop a conspiracy that is bigger and older than they may realize?

I think that the movie reviews which accompanied The Lone Ranger upon its initial theatrical release back in late June 2013 can be described as mostly negative to mixed.  I unequivocally like this movie, although I will admit that it has some flaws.  For instance, I have a question that has already been asked by other critics.  What is the target audience for The Lone Ranger?

The Lone Ranger 2013 is a Western.  It has several elements that can be found throughout the history of American Western films:  brothels, construction of a railroad, cowboys and Indians, lone lawman, outlaws, quests for redemption, revenge, and the shoot ‘em up.  However, this new Lone Ranger is nothing like The Lone Ranger television series, which was a traditional Hollywood Western aimed at a general audience and relied on stock elements that were familiar to viewers of all ages.

This movie is also a comedy and action flick as much as it is a Western, but it is not reverent about the things found in many Western movies and television programs from the 1930s to the 1950s.  The film has those big, reality-bending action scenes we have come to expect of Jerry Bruckheimer movies like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (which also stars Johnny Depp).  As a comedy, the film sometimes mocks elements and aspects associated with The Lone Ranger franchise.  Some of the dialogue and scenes in this movie have a single purpose – be funny.

The Lone Ranger 2013 is also surprisingly quirky.  It is kind of a “weird Western,” like the films, Jonah Hex and Wild Wild West (1999).  The movie has a strange mixture of imitation Native American mysticism and quasi-occultism, with a funky supernatural twist.  Much of that is tied to violence, cannibalism in particular.

I think that in order to enjoy this film, the viewer has to focus more on the basic plot, the characters, and the big action scenes and sequences and less on the setting (the post-Civil War “Old West”) and genre (the Western).  I didn’t mind that The Lone Ranger is an unusual Western film, and I certainly like the plot, characters, and action set pieces.

Also, Armie Hammer turned out to fit in this movie better than I thought he would.  Still, to me, it seems as if he can never make his character, John Reid/The Lone Ranger, escape the tremendous shadow cast by Johnny Depp’s Tonto.  Depp owns this movie, and that is a bigger problem for this movie than anything else.  It is more about Tonto than it is about The Lone Ranger.  In fact, whenever the story switched to other characters, I could feel myself chomping-at-the-bits for the movie to go back to Depp/Tonto.

I have to admit that I wish that we get a sequel to The Lone Ranger.  That is unlikely, as this movie is considered a box office disappointment and, to some, a flop.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2014 Academy Awards, USA:  2 nominations:  ‘Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling” (Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua Casny) and “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams, and John Frazier)

2014 Razzie Awards:  1 win: “Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel;” 4 nominations: “Worst Picture,” “Worst Actor” (Johnny Depp), “Worst Director” (Gore Verbinski), and “Worst Screenplay” (Ted Elliott-screen story and screenplay, Justin Haythe-screen story and screenplay, and Terry Rossio-screen story and screenplay)

Tuesday, March 04, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

2014 Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Award Winners

by Amos Semien

The 2014 Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards were held Saturday, February 15, 2014 at the historic Paramount Theater on the Paramount Studios lot.  Winners received “The Artisan” award (a statuette) for both outstanding makeup and hair styling achievements.  Two special Lifetime Achievement Awards and a Distinguished Artisan award were also presented.

Academy Award-winning Make-Up Artist Dick Smith (Amadeus) received the “Make-Up Artists Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 2014 MUAHS.  Academy Award-winner Rick Baker, who was Smith’s apprentice, presented the award.

Academy Award-winning Hair Stylist Gail Ryan received the “Hair Stylists Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 2014 MUAHS.  Academy Award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) presented the award to Ryan.  Ryan won an Oscar for her work on How the Grinch Stole Christmas (with make-up artist Rick Baker).

Johnny Depp received the “Distinguished Artisan Award.”  The Make-up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild explained the honor in the following statement:

"Johnny Depp is one of the most prominent and talented actors working today.  The award-winning characters he consistently brings to life through film are uniquely enhanced with make-up and hair stylist artistry.  Beginning with Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands in 1990, Depp repeatedly creates indelible characterizations, making it hard to imagine any other actor in these roles.  His iconic performances in Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland; and, of course, the continuing Pirates of the Caribbean series, are among the 50 plus roles he has played, which have been brought to life in partnership with his gifted make-up artists and hair stylists."

2014 Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards winners (for the year 2013):

FEATURE-LENGTH MOTION PICTURE

BEST CONTEMPORARY HAIR STYLING:
Lee Daniels’ The Butler - Candace Neal, Robert Stevenson

BEST CONTEMPORARY MAKEUP:
Prisoners - Donald Mowat, Pamela Westmore

BEST PERIOD AND/OR CHARACTER HAIRSTYLING::
American Hustle - Katherine Gordon, Michelle Johnson

BEST PERIOD AND/OR CHARACTER MAKEUP:
Dallas Buyers Club - Evelyne Noraz, Rachel Geary

BEST SPECIAL MAKE-UP EFFECTS:
Bad Grandpa - Stephen Prouty

TELEVISION and NEW MEDIA SERIES

BEST CONTEMPORARY HAIRSTYLING:
The Voice - Shawn Finch, Jerilynn Stephens

BEST CONTEMPORARY MAKEUP:
Breaking Bad - Tarra Day, Sheila Trujillo Gomez

BEST PERIOD AND/OR CHARACTER HAIRSTYLING:
Vikings - Dee Corcoran

BEST PERIOD AND/OR CHARACTER MAKEUP:
Boardwalk Empire - Michele Paris

BEST SPECIAL MAKEUP EFFECTS:
The Walking Dead - Greg Nicotero, Jake Garber

TELEVISION MOVIE or MINISERIES

BEST PERIOD AND/OR CHARACTER HAIRSTYLING:
Behind the Candelabra - Marie Larkin, Yvette Stone

BEST PERIOD AND/OR CHARACTER MAKEUP
Behind the Candelabra - Kate Biscoe, Deborah Rutherford:

THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS:
Magic Flute - Darren Jinks, Samantha Wooten, 3rd Petition Brandi Strona


COMMERCIALS

BEST CONTEMPORARY MAKEUP
Wash the Day Away (Kohler) - Tyson Fountaine, Brian Penikas

----------------------------------

Top Shelf Productions Massive $3 Sale 2013 Begins

If you have seen movies like From Hell, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and The Surrogates, you may (may not) know that they were based on comic books and graphic novels.  The publishers of those books is has an annual $3 sale, in which you can get many of their publications for $3, $1, and also half-off.

The following is the press release concerning the sale from Top Shelf Productions co-publisher, Chris Staros:

The 2013 Top Shelf Massive $3 Sale

Welcome to the 2013 Top Shelf Massive $3 Graphic Novel Sale, where you can pick up the year's greatest graphic novels at incredibly low prices by ordering direct from Top Shelf!

For the next two weeks — through Friday, September 27th — Top Shelf is having our annual $3 web sale. When you visit our site, you'll find 150+ critically acclaimed graphic novels and comics on sale — with over 100 titles marked down to just $3 & $1!

Each year Top Shelf uses this sale to help spread the word about our incredible new releases, and raise funds to “kick start” a full rollout for next year. With your help, we'll keep publishing some of the most beloved graphic novels on earth — from award-winning masters and exciting new talents (and yes, even Members of Congress!). Now's your chance to support a great independent publisher and expand your graphic novel collection at the same time.

To go directly to the list of items on sale at the Top Shelf website, just click here:

Buy here or http://www.topshelfcomix.com/specialdeals

But here are a few examples to get you started:

Slashed prices on brand-new releases and beloved perennials!
-- Slashed Prices: March, A Matter of Life, Monster on the Hill, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Nemo: Heart of Ice, God is Disappointed in You, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Lost Girls, From Hell, League Century 1910/1969/2009, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Blankets, The Underwater Welder, Any Empire, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: We Can Fix It, Blue, August Moon, Infinite Kung Fu, and more!
-- Slashed Prices: Unearthing (HC), Super Spy, Crater XV, Heck, and more!

Acclaimed graphic novels from world-class talents for $3!
-- $3 Titles: The From Hell Companion, Unearthing (SC), and more!
-- $3 Titles: The Lovely Horrible Stuff, Upside Down, The Ticking, and more!
-- $3 Titles: Ax, Voice of the Fire, The Homeland Directive, and more!
-- $3 Titles: Gingerbread Girl, Liar’s Kiss, Undeleted Scenes, and more!
-- $3 Titles: Incredible Change-Bots, Night Animals, Underwire, and more!
-- $3 Titles: Lucille, BB Wolf, Pirate Penguin, and more!

Discover a new favorite with these great $1 books!
-- $1 Titles: The Playwright,Tales of Woodsman Pete, Sulk (Vols 1/2/3), and more!
-- $1 Titles: Regards from Serbia, Lone Racer, Van Helsing's Night Off, and more!
-- $1 Titles: SuperF*ckers #1-#4, The Surrogates #1-#5, Beach Safari, and more!
-- $1 Titles: Hutch Owen, Hello Again, Okie Dokie Donuts, Yam, and more!
-- $1 Titles: The Octopi & the Ocean, Conversations #1 & #2, and more!
-- $1 Titles: Comic Diorama, The Man Who Loved Breasts, Hey Mister, and more!

Please note that Top Shelf accepts PayPal, as well as Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and Discover — all secure — and that this sale is good for retailers as well (and comic book shops will get their wholesale discount on top of these sale prices):

Buy here or http://www.topshelfcomix.com/specialdeals

And please feel free to share abd re-post this announcement, so your friends can find out about it as well!  

Your friend thru comics,
Chris Staros

Top Shelf Productions
PO Box 1282
Marietta GA 30061-1282
USA

www.topshelfcomix.com

"21 Jump Street" Good from Jump Street

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 77 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


21 Jump Street (2012)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug material, teen drinking and some violence
DIRECTORS: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
WRITERS: Michael Bacall; from a story by Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill (based on the television series created by Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell)
PRODUCER: Neal H. Moritz
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Barry Peterson (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Joel Negron
COMPOSER: Mark Mothersbaugh

COMEDY/CRIME

Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis, Dax Flame, Ellie Kemper, Chris Parnell, Holly Robinson Peete, Caroline Aaron, and Joe Chrest with Peter DeLuise and Johnny Depp

Right up front, I must say that I like Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. I haven’t seen all the movies in which each actor has appeared, but I try to see as many as I can. I don’t plan on watching two of Tatum’s biggest hits, Dear John or The Vow, unless someone pays me. No one is going to pay me to see either movie.

21 Jump Street is a crime comedy starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. The film is based on 21 Jump Street, the television series created by Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell and which aired from 1987 to 1991 on FOX and in first-run syndication (in the series’ final season). The movie follows two underachieving cops who go undercover at a high school in order to break up a drug ring.

Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) were high school classmates, but Morton the geek and Greg the cool kid weren’t friends. They became friends after they entered the police academy, where they made up for each other’s weaknesses. After graduating from the academy, they are assigned to park patrol, where they screw up so badly, they’re almost kicked off the police force.

Their last chance is a recently revived police department specialty division, 21 Jump Street, which uses youthful looking police officers to infiltrate high schools. The division head, the profanity-spewing Captain Dickson (Ice Cube), sends Morton and Greg to Sagan High. There, they must find the dealers of a new synthetic drug, H.F.S., but their ultimate goal is to find out the identity of the suppliers behind the dealers. While trying to fit in and not look like narcs, Morton and Greg learn that much has changed since their own high school days a decade ago.

21 Jump Street turned out to be much funnier than I thought it would be, and I thought that it might be a guilty pleasure or, at least, mildly amusing. There is nothing guilty about this pleasure. First, I think that it is a sarcastic send up of action comedies, especially of the buddy-cop variety, and it’s quite good at that. It is smart and dead-on about generational shifts in culture, especially concerning attitudes on identity, sexuality, and technology. Mostly, the movie seems to be about friendships: how they develop, what keeps people together, what can cause strife, etc. The dynamic of friendship between two young men, one that seems to have the potential to last a long time, plays out between the film’s jokes about demanding bosses, eccentric teachers, socially-conscious students, and a group of geeks who really want the new guy to like them.

I think 21 Jump Street works so well as a cop comedy because the relationship between Morton and Greg, with all its odds and ends, seems genuine in the context of a fictional union created for a movie. This movie is worth watching because of Morton and Greg and the way that Hill and Tatum, respectively, portray them. I liked the two enough to be very happy when I learned that a sequel to this movie is in the works.

I don’t want to make 21 Jump Street sound like a “bromance.” There is some ridiculous and crazy shit that happens in this movie, and almost all of it is very funny. It’s never over the top, even in the way Rob Riggle’s character, Mr. Walters, tries to save a special body part near the end of the film.

7 of 10
A-

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Review: Johnny Depp Shines in Dim "Dark Shadows"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 35 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Dark Shadows (2012)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITERS: Seth Grahame-Smith; story by John August and Seth Grahame-Smith (based on the television series, Dark Shadows, created by Dan Curtis)
PRODUCERS: Christi Dembrowski, Johnny Depp, David Kennedy, Graham King, and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bruno Delbonnel
EDITOR: Chris Lebenzon
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman

FANTASY/COMEDY/HORROR

Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gulliver McGrath, Ray Shirley, and Christopher Lee

Dark Shadows is a 2012 gothic horror and comedy fantasy film from director Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film is based upon Dark Shadows, a gothic horror soap opera that was created by Dan Curtis and was originally broadcast from 1966 to 1971 on ABC. Dark Shadows the film follows a vampire who returns to his ancestral home, after two centuries of imprisonment, and finds his dysfunctional descendants in need of help.

Dark Shadows begins in the mid-1700s where we meet Joshua and Naomi Collins and their young son, Barnabas, as they sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. Joshua builds a fishing empire in Maine at a town he names Collinsport. Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) grows into a wealthy playboy, who loves and leaves numerous women. His biggest mistake is to spurn the love of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), because she is a witch. Angelique puts a curse on Barnabus, turning him into a vampire, and then, has him buried alive.

Nearly 200 years later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb into the very changed world of 1972. Returning to his family’s estate, Collinwood Manor, Barnabas finds that his relatives are now dysfunctional and not as well off financially. Family matriarch, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), rules over a small group that includes her rebellious daughter, Carolyn Stoddard (Chloë Grace Moretz), and troubled, precocious nephew, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). They need Barnabas’ help, and so he begins to revive the family fortune and the family home, but an old enemy is determined to destroy them all.

Dark Shadows is a Johnny Depp movie, as directed by Tim Burton, and Depp is brilliant as always. I couldn’t get enough of his Barnabas Collins, and neither could the screenplay. This movie is so much about Barnabas that the other characters are left in Depp/Barnabas’s considerable wake. First of all, some of the supporting characters are extraneous, like young Miss Grace’s Carolyn Stoddard and Helena Bonham Carter’s Dr. Julia Hoffman; the good doctor provides some nice comic relief, which is good, because the character is otherwise useless. Some like, Pfeiffer’s Elizabeth and young Mr. McGrath’s David, are under-utilized. Everything about the witch Angelique Bouchard is forced, and so is much of Eva Green’s performance as her.

Still, this is Depp’s show, and he creates a Barnabas that is so cool, you’ll want to be his friend (in spite of the inherent danger of being pals with a vampire). In a career full of idiosyncratic characters, Barnabas is Depp’s most endearing oddball.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I often came across articles about Depp or director Tim Burton that described either man as quirky. Dark Shadows is quirky and also campy. It spoofs the melodrama of soap operas, and Depp’s droll, tongue-firmly-in-cheek comedy gives this sometimes awkward film a lot of humor and laughs, which it needs. Like all of Burton’s films, Dark Shadows has excellent production values, especially the costumes and set and art decoration. However, Dark Shadows is not only quirky, but also odd in its quality. It is partially a good Burton-Depp movie, but the rest of it is a misfire because of the poor screenwriting. The acting and directing cannot, try as they might, change that.

5 of 10
B-

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Depp, Carter Make Magic in Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 151 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) – animated
Running time: 81 minutes (1 hour, 21 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some scary images and action, and brief mild language)
DIRECTORS: Mike Johnson and Tim Burton
WRITERS: John August, Caroline Thompson, and Pamela Pettler
PRODUCER: Allison Abbate and Tim Burton
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Pete Kozachik
EDITOR: Jonathan Lucas and Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E.
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/MUSICAL/FAMILY with elements of comedy and romance

Starring: (voices) Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse, Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Michael Gough, Jane Horrocks, Enn Reitel, Deep Roy, Stephen Ballantyne, Lisa Kay, Danny Elfman

12 years ago, Tim Burton conceived and produced a fabulous stop-motion animated film, Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas (directed by Henry Selick). It remains something of a cult classic and family favorite and has spawned numerous merchandise spin offs, including several toy lines. Burton returns to stop-motion animation with the new film Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, co-directed by Mike Johnson.

Transformed from a Russian folk tale, Corpse Bride begins in a small, gloomily repressed Victorian town that is about to see the wedding of two young people who’ve never met. Canned fish tycoons, Nell and William Van Dort (voiced by Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehouse) crassly make a bid to social climb by wedding their bachelor son, Victor (voice of Johnny Depp) to old-money aristocrats.

Maudeline and Finis Everglot (voices of Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney) have an old-money aristocratic name, but are penniless. All they have left is their name and social standing and a daughter named Victoria (voice of Emily Watson). The Everglots are willing to hold their noses and grudgingly marry Victoria off to Victor, whose money will allow them to climb back into the upper reaches of society (where their ancestor, the Duke of Everglot, was). By marrying Victor to Victoria, the Van Dorts will have the requisite class to go with their enormous wealth.

Upon their first meeting, Victor and Victoria do slowly and quietly begin to fall in love, but at the wedding rehearsal, Victor continually bungles his lines. Pastor Galswells (voice of Christopher Lee), who will preside over the wedding, sends Victor away until he can manage to learn the somewhat tricky lines of his vows. Humiliated, he wanders into the dark forest that surrounds his village. Alone, he successfully recites his vows, and even goes so far as to place his wedding ring on the root of a tree as a finishing touch.

However, the root is really bony finger. Like a magic incantation, Victor’s vows and the ring resurrect the decaying corpse to which the finger belongs. Up rises the strange and strangely beautiful Corpse Bride (voice of Helena Bonham Carter) wearing the tattered remains of a wedding dress. She may have died long ago (after being mysteriously murdered on her wedding night), but her search for true love and a husband never died. She grabs Victor, mistaking him for husband and drags him beneath the earth to the Land of the Dead, a colorful and rowdy place that is the exact opposite of the dull, somber, and cold Land of the Living (known by the denizens of the Land of the Dead as upstairs).

Victor tries in vain to return to Victoria. Meanwhile, the Everglots have hastily arranged a second wedding for their daughter, to a mysterious, arrogant, and somewhat sinister stranger calling himself, Lord Barkis Bittern (voice of Richard E. Grant). With his Corpse Bride determined to hold him in the bonds of their unholy matrimony, Victor must find is way back upstairs to his true bride-to-be before Victoria is also bond by an unfortunate marriage.

First, if I had the chance, I would tell co-directors Tim Burton and Mike Johnson and their animators and other crew that their 55-week shoot during, which 109,000,440 individually animated frames were set up and filmed, resulted in a truly glorious film fairy tale. I don’t know if they think the effort was worth it, but I sure as hell do. Corpse Bride is an exuberant stop-motion, pop Gothic animated fable. Delightfully and mysteriously creepy, the film is a sweet tale of love both lost and unrequited. Corpse Bride does have the usual Burton ticks. For instance, the Land of the Dead is a fun, colorful and oddly creepy place where the dead do more that just make the best of it, while the Land of the Living is so cold and somber. The living are so reserved, grave, serious and sober, while the dead party up!

However, it all works because the film’s internal logic makes sense (with only a few exceptions). The direction and camera work (they shot the film using digital still cameras rather than film cameras) create a sense of movement and a flow in the narrative that is… well, as animated as live action film. The script captures the film’s whimsical, yet eerie nature with a narrative that is melancholy, yet filled with funny moments and also dialogue that fits right in with all the whimsy, moodiness, and dead things.

The voice cast is excellent, and I’m loathed to single anyone out. However, Helena Bonham Carter as the Corpse Bride (whose name was/is Emily) does a superb job straddling the line between macabre and sweet and between comic and menace (especially in the scene when she arrives at the Everglot estate to get “her man” back from Victoria). Still, Johnny Depp (obviously Burton’s stand-in) and Emily Watson are also very good and make their characters charming and engaging. All in all, they’re part of fine cast and crew that made Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride a great film, a must-see for lovers of animated films.

10 of 10

Friday, October 07, 2005

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (Tim Burton and Mike Johnson)

First Burton/Depp Joint, "Edward Scissorhands" is a Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITERS: Caroline Thompson; from a story by Tim Burton and Caroline Thompson
PRODUCERS: Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stefan Czapsky (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Richard Halsey
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award nominee

FANTASY/ROMANCE

Starring: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Alan Arkin, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Robert Oliveri, Conchata Ferrell, Caroline Aaron, O-Lan Jones, Dick Anthony Williams, and Vincent Price

The subject of this movie review is Edward Scissorhands, a fairy tale film from director Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp in the title role. Edward Scissorhands is the first of several films in which Burton and Depp have collaborated, including the shortly to be released Dark Shadows.

A romantic fantasy, the film opens with an elderly woman telling her granddaughter where the snow outside their window comes from (because they live in an area in which snow is not common). That story begins when a local Avon saleswoman, Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) visits a Gothic mansion that sits on a hill just outside her suburban neighborhood. She finds Edward (Tim Burton) hiding in the castle. Edward is a mechanical young man created by an old inventor (Vincent Price), and he has scissor-like contraptions where his wrists and hands should be.

Peg takes Edward home where he befriends her son, Kevin (Robert Oliveri), meets her husband, Bill (Alan Arkin), and later meets and falls in love with her teen daughter, Kim (Winona Ryder). At first Edward fits right in with the family, and the neighbors also take to him, especially after they discover that he has skills they can put to use. However, petty jealousies, simple misunderstandings, and selfish interests soon make it difficult and dangerous for both the Boggs and Edward.

Critics and movie fans have described Edward Scissorhands as Tim Burton’s most personal film. According to the 2006 book, Burton on Burton (by author Mark Salisbury), the title character of Edward Scissorhands comes out of a teenaged Burton’s feelings of isolation and also his inability to fit in and to communicate with the people in the suburb where he grew up. The more I saw of Burton and of his work, both films and illustrations, the more Edward Scissorhands’ themes of self-discovery and isolation made sense to me. I can see Burton, a Goth-type teen with his strange drawings and stranger looks, not exactly fitting in with the conformity zone that suburban areas are (at least on the surface, cause there’s no telling what goes on behind closed doors).

Seriously though, I think Edward Scissorhands goes beyond mere commentary about familiar suburban vs. rebel themes. In the film, the Boggs live in a drab suburban world that manages to make even the pastel colors that blanket the wood frame homes seem dull and boring. When Edward comes into the Boggs’ world, it isn’t so much that he is a breath of fresh air. It is that he becomes a novelty act, and he is accepted, for the most part, as long has his talents are of use to his new neighbors and as long he entertains. The black-garbed Edward is the proverbial Negro in a white bougie woodpile.

Edward, although he is a mechanical boy, has a good soul and has an open spirit. He isn’t clueless, as throughout the film, we can observe how quickly Edward learns. He has a surprising sense of humor, born of the way he can see past the façades people put forth. The problem for Edward is that he is open-minded or, at least, open to new experiences; his neighbors are not.

In this film’s last act, the neighbors reveal themselves for what they really are – a white citizens council, a lynch mob willfully ignoring any truths so that they can kill someone. They want an excuse, any excuse, to get out the torches and pitchforks. Hell, when it comes down to it, they don’t really need an excuse. It is not a coincidence that the most understanding and sympathetic person to Edward, outside the Boggs, is an African-American police officer played by the late Dick Anthony Williams (who died in February of this year.)

One can make an argument that Edward Scissorhands is Burton’s best film. For all its autobiographical elements, it is his sharpest and most satirical drama. In the context of Burton’s apparent persecuted youth, Edward Scissorhands is the revenge of the nerd that made it in spite of the haters.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1991 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Makeup” (Ve Neill and Stan Winston)

1992 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Production Design” (Bo Welch); 3 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (Colleen Atwood), “Best Make Up Artist” (Ve Neill), and “Best Special Visual Effects” (Stan Winston)

1991 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (Johnny Depp)

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows" Gets Soundtrack Release on May 8th

Danny Elfman’s Dark Shadows Original Score to Be Released May 8

Film Marks 14th Collaboration Between Composer Danny Elfman And Director Tim Burton

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--WaterTower Music will release Dark Shadows – Original Score digitally and in stores on May 8, 2012. The album features original music by Grammy Award-winning and four-time Oscar®-nominated composer Danny Elfman, which is featured in director Tim Burton’s new gothic comedy Dark Shadows.

For more than 25 years, Burton and Elfman have collaborated on some of the cinema’s most beloved and recognizable films and soundtracks, including Big Fish, for which Elfman received an Oscar® nomination; Beetlejuice; Batman; Edward Scissorhands; Sleepy Hollow; Corpse Bride; and, more recently, Alice in Wonderland.

“Tim had some specific ideas about the music on Dark Shadows,” says Elfman. “I knew that the bigger dramatic scenes would be played in a rather grand theatrical manner, but the real treat was tapping into the retro pallet Tim had imagined. He wanted something that payed homage to both the original TV series and other '70s horror genres as well. For that we kept it minimal, eerie, and atmospheric with only electronics and a few solo instruments carrying the melodies.”

Elfman has also received Oscar® nominations for his scores for Barry Sonnenfeld’s Men in Black, and Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting and Milk. Movie audiences worldwide have also heard Danny Elfman’s unique sound and style in some 80 film scores, including Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man; Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible; Martin Brest’s Midnight Run; Jon Amiel’s Sommersby; the Hughes Brothers’ Dead Presidents; Rob Marshall’s Academy® Award-winning Chicago; and Shawn Levy’s Real Steel.

In the year 1750, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin and the dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets.

Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, presents an Infinitum Nihil/GK Films/Zanuck Company production, a Tim Burton Film Dark Shadows in theaters and IMAX on May 11, 2012. “Dark Shadows” stars Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloë Grace Moretz, Bella Heathcote and Gully McGrath.

The Dark Shadows -- Original Score on WaterTower Music will be available digitally and in stores on May 8, 2012; and on the same date, WaterTower Music will also be releasing the Dark Shadows –Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, containing eleven songs from the film.

http://www.darkshadowsmovie.com/

Review: "Hugo" Captures the Magic of Movies

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

Hugo (2011)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – PG for mild thematic material, some action/peril and smoking
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
WRITER: John Logan (based on Brian Selznick’s book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret)
PRODUCERS: Johnny Depp, Tim Headington, Graham King, and Martin Scorsese
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Richardson
EDITOR: Thelma Schoonmaker
COMPOSER: Howard Shore
Academy Award winner

HISTORICAL/DRAMA/FAMILY with elements of fantasy

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, Helen McCrory, Michael Stuhlbarg, Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths, and Jude Law

Hugo is a 2011 Oscar-winning historical drama and 3D adventure film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is based upon The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a 2007 historical fiction novel by Brian Selznick. The film is about a boy who lives in the walls of a Paris train station and how he meets Georges Méliès, the real-life French film pioneer.

It is 1931, and 12-year-old Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) takes care of the clocks at the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris. He lives in the walls of the station with his uncle, Claude Cabret (Ray Winstone), an alcoholic watchmaker who is responsible for maintaining the clocks at the station and who teaches the craft to Hugo. After his uncle disappears, Hugo fends for himself, stealing food and maintaining the clocks. Hugo has also taken on a project of his late father (Jude Law), repairing a broken automaton, a mechanical man that is supposed to write after he is wound.

To repair the automaton, Hugo steals mechanical parts from an elderly toy store owner. One day, the owner, Georges Méliès (Ben Kingsley), catches Hugo and takes the boy’s notebook, which has notes and drawings for fixing the automaton. To get his notebook back, Hugo begins working for Méliès and also befriends the old man’s goddaughter, Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz). The children’s friendship and curiosity lead to a shocking revelation that might restore the spirit of a forgotten artist.

I guess that I should not be surprised that Martin Scorsese could pull off a film like Hugo – what is basically a family movie. I know that not all Scorsese’s films involve mobsters and violence, for instance, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Aviator, but his films are generally edgy adult dramas. With Hugo, however, Scorsese drives this film not only with a child’s sense of wonder and curiosity, but also with a child’s grit and determination to do what they believe is the right thing.

Scorsese’s films are successful because he gets great performances from his actors, and these performances are sometimes what make his films special (Robert De Niro in Raging Bull), or memorable (Joe Pesci in Goodfellas), or legendary (De Niro in Taxi Driver). In Hugo, the actors are so upfront emotionally that their intentions are clear to the audience. This makes the characters honest and vulnerable, in a childlike way that makes them endearing. That is why Chloë Grace Moretz’s Isabelle comes across as refreshing and intriguing rather than just being the girl character intruding in a boy’s tale.

While Ben Kingsley’s name is listed first in the credits, Asa Butterfield is the film’s star and Hugo Cabret is the lead character. Unlike some child actors who pretend more than they act, Butterfield plays Hugo with a veteran movie actor’s chops. He makes Hugo whole and believable, so much so that I lied to myself that Hugo was real boy.

Speaking of Ben Kingsley: after decades of great performances, I should not be surprised at how good he is as Georges Méliès, but I am. Kingsley is shockingly intense, even in the scenes that are relatively quiet and low key. In the scene in which Méliès tells the story of his past, Kingsley’s voice takes on a life of its own and magically transports us to Georges Méliès’ golden age.

And Hugo is magical. It is a trip into our dreams, in which the past comes to life. Most of all, Hugo reminds us of why movies are so special.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2012 Academy Awards: 5 wins: “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (Francesca Lo Schiavo-set decorator and Dante Ferretti-production designer), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Robert Richardson), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty), “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Tom Fleischman and John Midgley), and “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning); 6 nominations: “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Martin Scorsese), “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Thelma Schoonmaker), “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (Howard Shore), “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Graham King and Martin Scorsese), “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (John Logan)

2012 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Production Design” (Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo) and “Best Sound” (Tom Fleischman, Philip Stockton, John Midgley, and Eugene Gearty); 7 nominations: “Best Cinematography” (Robert Richardson), “Best Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Director” (Martin Scorsese), “Best Editing” (Thelma Schoonmaker), “Best Make Up & Hair” (Morag Ross and Jan Archibald), “Best Original Music” (Howard Shore), “Best Special Visual Effects” (Alex Henning, Robert Legato, Ben Grossmann, and Joss Williams)

2012 Golden Globes: 1 win: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Martin Scorsese); 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Howard Shore)

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

------------------------

Oscar-Nominated "Rango" Returns in Limited Engagement

PARAMOUNT TO RE-RELEASE ACADEMY AWARD®-NOMINATED “RANGO” BEGINNING THIS FRIDAY, JANUARY 27th

The now Academy Award®-nominated Rango, from director Gore Verbinski and starring the voice of Johnny Depp, saddles up for a one week limited engagement at the ArcLight Hollywood beginning this Friday, January 27th. The original animated comedy-adventure from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies a Blind Wing/GK Films Production that takes moviegoers for a hilarious and heartfelt walk in the Wild West, was this morning nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film.

Rango is the winner of the National Board of Review and Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature, while top critics’ groups around the country have declared Rango the Best Animated Film of 2011, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

The incomparable Johnny Depp voices Rango, a chameleon living as an ordinary family pet who dreams of being a fearless hero and is challenged to become just that when he inadvertently becomes the sheriff of a lawless desert town called Dirt. Story by John Logan, Gore Verbinski, and James Ward Byrkit, Written by John Logan, Directed by Gore Verbinski, the visionary behind the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Rango delighted audiences of all ages, earning more than $230 million worldwide. The film also features the voices of Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Ned Beatty, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant.


About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.