31 posts categorized "Hollywood"

September 09, 2024

THE FALL GUY — EXTENDED CUT

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Punk heart still beating.

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ColeSmithey.comIt is only until now that an all-out action romance comedy, shamelessly celebrating stunt people and their teams of assistants, has been made.

A lot of stunt people and film crew assistants are cheering over this great movie.

Genius British screenwriter Drew Pearce provides a highly polished script, steeped in the lexicon of movie crew lingo .

 "Holster that."

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The wild stunts and over-the-top action sequences serve to accentuate bang-on performances by Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, two of the finest actors in the business.

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Ryan Gosling is redeemed for his toolishness regarding everything and anything "Barbie."

Just, Ryan, don't do it again.

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Emily Blunt is sensational as always.

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Director David Leitch ("Bullet Train"), a stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and actor, shows off his virtuosic skills with splash and fury.

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If ever there was a big screen IMAX movie to sit with your pals and eat popcorn, "The Fall Guy" is that precious movie.

The extended cut does go on a bit too long for its own good, but sometimes more is more. ColeSmithey.com

I had so much fun watching this masterfully crafted action/romance picture that I could watch it again anytime if even just for its clever dialogue, and to see Emily Blunt do her thing of course.

ColeSmithey.com

Fast, sexy, hilarious, and endlessly entertaining, "The Fall Guy" is a true masterpiece regardless of whether it's the short or long version that you see.

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Memo to the Academy, if you want greater viewership then start giving out Oscars for Stunt People.

Rated PG-13. 146 mins.

5 Stars

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

August 04, 2024

EYES OF LAURA MARS — SHOCKTOBER!

ColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.comWelcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Punk heart still beating.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

ColeSmithey.com

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ColeSmithey.comDirector Ivan Kershner (graduate of the Roger Corman school of stay-within-the-budget filmmaking), turns John Carpenter's script into a big budget Hollywood serial-killer thriller with style to spare.

Sure, "Eyes of Laura Mars" is a contrived knock-off of Italy's Giallo film genre, but there are so many cinematic gems on display that you can't help but get sucked in.

ColeSmithey.com

Photographer Helmut Newton (the father of modern photography) adds a layer of self-mocking, if overtly kinky, sexual surrealism to the narrative.

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Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway), is an edgy NYC fashion photographer making her mark. Recently, Laura has been having killer's-eye premonitions of the serial murders of her models.

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Raoul Julia gives the murder mystery a kick as Laura's troubled ex-husband Michael.

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But it's Tommy Lee Jones who rules the roost opposite one of Hollywood's most glamorous legends. Before Meryl Streep, there was Faye Dunaway.

ColeSmithey.com

Unlike most films of the Giallo genre, "Eyes of Laura" is minimalist in its use of gore. The movie also doesn't dare go so far with Dutch angles, and electropop music.

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Still a couple of super-cool Disco hits put the film's early '80s NYC locations in their proper timeline.

"Shake, shake, shake, shake your booty."

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"Eyes of Laura Mars" is a classic Hollywood movie, and a great guilty pleasure.

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This movie could just be your cinematic happy place.

Rated R. 104 mins. 3 Stars
THE BLOOD OF DRACULA
THE BLOOD OF DRACULA ColeSmithey.com THE BLOOD OF DRACULA
THE BLOOD OF DRACULA
Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

October 23, 2023

TROPIC THUNDER — SHOCKTOBER!

ColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.comWelcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

ColeSmithey.com

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ColeSmithey.comSearch and Destroy Comedy
Stiller and Company Launch More Than F-Bombs
By Cole Smithey

A heady blend of outrageous Grand Guignol comic set pieces and fast-twitch dialogue, "Tropic Thunder" walks a fine line of dangerous satire that straddles gallows humor and bawdy pop-culture inflected slapstick. In the midst of filming an "Apocalypse Now"-styled movie an overzealous crew squander a multi-million dollar explosion thereby forcing director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) to plant cameras and explosives in an area of a Southeast Asian jungle for the cast to perform a low-budget reality version of the script.

Top 10 Raunchiest Comedy Moments - Movie Review / Film Essay

Action-movie-has-been Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), goofball comedy star/heroin addict Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Aussie method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), hip-hop pretty boy Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and nerdy Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) make up the cast of war movie stereotypes. Aside from some scene-stealing by Tom Cruise as a bald and fat Hollywood producer prone to cursing a blue streak, Robert Downey Jr. owns the movie with his comically layered performance as an actor who underwent skin pigmentation treatment in order to play an African American soldier. Downey’s performance will go down in cinema history as one of the most ridiculous yet comically effective experiments of the decade.

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The movie opens with a series of hilarious parody commercials that identify each of the main "actors" involved in the film-inside-the-film. An Alpa Chino blurb for an energy drink called "Booty Sweat" goes so far into hip-hop culture’s one-track obsession for poontang as to be cathartic. A Tugg Speedman segment for his flagging "Scorcher" action movie franchise points up the futility of action flick sequels, and Jeff Portnoy’s fat/fart comedy movie series "Fatties" pokes in the ribs of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy for their efforts in that area of humor.

Amazon.com: Tropic Thunder : Robert Downey, Jr., Nick Nolte, David  Pressman, Amy Stiller, Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller, Steve Coogan, Jack Black,  Matthew McConaughey, Justin Theroux, Eric Winzenreid, Reggie Lee, Jay  Baruchel, Trieu

But it’s the sham trailer for Kirk Lazarus’ gay-themed movie "Satan’s Alley," about lust between priests in the Middle Ages, that induces howls of laughter. Tobey Maguire does cameo honors as the object of desire for Lazarus’ character, and narration by movie trailer narration specialist Don LaFontaine provides added punch to the longing stares of passion.

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The satire’s more obvious points of departure comes from movies like "Full Metal Jacket," "Rambo," and to some degree Robert Altman’s "The Player." An ironic use of archetypal war related rock songs shoots daggers at the portentous syrup of Buffalo Springfield’s "For What It’s Worth" that posits "There’s something happening here" as an objective view of a militizia-enforced society at war with itself. The outdated effect of the song is transmogrified into an irreverent post-modern joke.

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It’s a movie about the making of a war movie during an era when all bow at the altar of pop culture celebrity, making interaction between the actors hinge on experiences that are already thrice removed from reality. The brilliance of "Thunder’s" lampoonery comes across in its deeply woven threads of self-referencing character actors and deceptively offhand narrative touches that combine to form a perfect storm of comic ideas. A finely tooled supporting performance from Nick Nolte as the narcissistic Viet Nam vet on whose autobiographical book the sub-movie is based, bestows a degree of cynicism that effortlessly matches the American media’s abysmal condition.

Image gallery for Tropic Thunder - FilmAffinity

The story gets muddled as our team of impromptu soldiers attempt to rescue Tugg Speedman from his incarceration at the hand of a group of heroin purveyors led by a 12-year-old tyrant named Tran (Brandon Soo Hoo). Speedman is reduced to recreating scenes for his captors from his movie "Simple Jack," in which he played a buck-toothed retarded man. Kurk’s reprimand to Tugg for going "full retard" in a movie as a taboo that he should have known better than commit, arrives with examples from "Rain Man," "Forest Gump," and "I Am Sam." Kurt’s insider knowledge about acting rules and styles throws a bravura wink at the profession that’s wrapped up in the being of Tom Cruise’s incarnation as Hollywood mogul Les Grossman.

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The movie wraps up with Cruise doing a hip-hop-styled dance to T.I’s "U Don't Know Me" that contrasts darkly to his famous "Risky Business" underwear jig. It’s a lasting moment of sheer rebellion that puts a bow on "Tropic Thunder" as a comedy intent on searching and destroying mediocrity. It’s a movie that knows what it’s up against.

(Paramount) Rated R. 106 mins. 

4 Stars ColeSmithey.comCozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

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