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Great Movies With Embarrassingly Bad DVD Art

By Jason Bailey on

You can’t judge a book by its cover, as we’ve recently discovered with not only books, but also music. That holds true with film as well — not just with movie posters, which have their own problematic elements, but when it comes time to sell you the movie in physical form. For years, DVD distributors have uglified some of our favorite movies — often even eschewing the classy and striking movie posters for Photoshopped, Frankensteined monstrosities of their own making, designed to move units at all costs. We’ve assembled some of the ugliest and most terrifying DVD images for movies we actually like — and provided their original posters as well, just so you can see how far they can fall. … Read More

Film

How ‘Star Wars’ Killed Smart Sci-Fi Cinema

By Jason Bailey on

In the opening sequence of Oblivion, the voice of Tom Cruise (playing the film’s protagonist, Commander Jack Harper) creeps onto the soundtrack and painstakingly explains the precise details of the film’s backstory. The year is 2077. The Earth is all but abandoned. An alien population known as Scavengers (Scavs for short) invaded the moon, which in turn nearly destroyed the earth. Most humans have moved to a space station. Drones and technicians like Harper roam the earth, and so on and son on. A metric ton of exposition is slammed into that opening sequence, but here’s what’s peculiar: at the beginning of the second act, after Jack discovers a hibernating astronaut (Olga Kurylekno) and saves her, he sits her down and gives her the whole spiel again. Why? Is this a safeguard in case people showed up late? Do they think we didn’t get it the first time? … Read More

Film

10 Trailers That Were Better Than the Movie

By Jason Bailey on

Plenty of people grumble about trailers not delivering the movie they promise, but only one man — New Zealander J. Congdon — got Paramount Pictures to refund the cost of his Jack Reacher ticket, because the movie didn’t include the badass cliff explosion that got him to spend money on a Tom Cruise movie in the first place. In fairness to Paramount, this kind of thing happens all the time; trailers are often cut months before the picture itself is finalized, leading to all sorts of shots, jokes, and scenes that don’t show up in the finished product. It’s all part of the tricky world of film advertising, where the goal is to lure you into the theater, and not necessarily to reflect the tone, story, or (certainly) quality of the film in question. Trailer cutting is kind of an art form unto itself, which is why we so often see trailers that get us all in a tizzy, only to wander out of the movie they’re selling in a befuddled and disappointed stupor. After the jump, we look back at ten movies that were far better in two-minute form. … Read More

Film

10 Authors Who Loved the Film Adaptations of Their Books

By Jason Bailey on

Last week, we had a good laugh at the recently uncovered notes from the producers of Blade Runner, who seemed united in their hatred for the “deadly dull” sci-fi noir that would prove one of the most influential movies of the ‘80s. But it’s important to remember that some of those casually involved in the production actually liked it quite a bit — particularly Philip K. Dick, whose book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the basis of Ridley Scott’s film. And while there’s a long (and enjoyable) history of authors loathing what Hollywood does to their books, there are a few examples of writers who are utterly delighted with their page-to-film adaptations. We’ve collected them for you after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 Famous Films That Were Abandoned by Their Directors

By Jason Bailey on

Lynne Ramsay is a tremendously talented director, as anyone who has seen her films We Need to Talk About Kevin and Ratcatcher can tell you, which makes the latest ripple in her career quite a bummer: when production began Monday on her latest film, the Natalie Portman-fronted Western Jane Got a Gun, Ramsay was nowhere to be found. Deadline broke the story (so beware; that site is notoriously cozy with studio types who might have it in their interest to paint Ramsay as wildly — and litigiously — irresponsible), reporting trouble right up to the start date. Ramsay still hasn’t issued comment on the matter, but the film’s producers have already lined up a replacement in the form of Gavin O’Connor, director of Warrior and Tumbleweeds (and the pilot of The Americans). Deadline branded Ramsay’s departure a “SHOCKER,” but it’s not as rare as you’d think; despite the intense work of developing a picture and preparing it, filmmakers have frequently walked away from pictures before — or even during — production. We’ve got a few examples for you after the jump. … Read More

Film

7 Things You Didn’t Know About Harry Dean Stanton

By Jason Bailey on

AUSTIN, TX: Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, a new film by director Sophie Huber playing this week at SXSW, is not your conventional documentary profile. In its opening minutes, director Huber is heard asking, “Do you think you give something away by talking about yourself?” After a pause, Stanton croons “Blue Moon” in response. Wim Wenders, who directed him in Paris, Texas, observes that he thinks great actors use their lives in their art, not as fodder for conversation. As Huber films Stanton driving around, he asks, “Do I have any lines? I don’t want any lines. How about doing nothing? How about silence?” … Read More

Film

On Sandy Hook, Movie Violence, and 'Jack Reacher'

By Jason Bailey on

Any time there’s a senseless, random mass shooting, the responses come in waves — and senseless, random mass shootings have become so common that you can all but set your watch by those responses anymore. First, there’s shock. Then, there’s the insistence that “now is not the time” to talk about guns, or to “politicize a tragedy.” And then the anti-gun people either wait a while or don’t, and start talking about gun control, and then the pro-gun people start talking about arming everyone, and comparing outlawing guns to outlawing cars and spoons and fertilizer. And then the blaming starts: of parents, of a deficient mental health system, even (this time) the lack of men around. Alex Jones will lead the charge of tinfoil hat-sporting nutjobs claiming that the whole thing was a government operation enabling them to “come git our guns.” And, at some point in the midst of all that, it will be time to blame pop culture. … Read More

Film

10 Great Performances in Truly Terrible Movies

By Jason Bailey on

There was little reason to expect that a jukebox musical filled with so-bad-they’re-good ‘80s pop songs was going to be any good whatsoever, and true to prediction, Rock of Ages was one of the summer’s biggest dogs. It’s out tomorrow on DVD and Blu-ray, though, which exponentially increases the chances that one of your friends (the one who’s always wanting to go karaoke-ing, probably) is going to buy it and insist on having it on at some point in your friendship. Fear not: though Rock of Ages is an execrable film, it has (contrary to any and all expectations) a genuinely enjoyable and unexpectedly witty Tom Cruise performance buried underneath all the hairspray and Journey covers. Playing Stacee Jaxx, a rock star long removed from anything resembling reality, Cruise is totally credible and genuinely funny; there’s a good 20-minute stretch in the middle where they just turn the movie over to him, and it’s the only point in the entire running time where Rock of Ages actually works. As a thank-you to Mr. Cruise and all of those who make the unbearable ever-so-briefly watchable, we put together a list of a few of our favorite great performances in terrible movies; see if you agree with our picks after the jump. … Read More

Film

The Movies Hollywood Was Afraid to Make

By Jason Bailey on

Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master opens Friday in limited release — his first film in five years, though we certainly could have been waiting longer. Anderson’s oh-so-thinly-veiled portrait of a cult leader who seems an awful lot like L. Ron Hubbard knocked around Hollywood for a good long while before the writer/director finally found outside financing (more on that later); it’s one of several films — most of them related to religion, the movie industry’s primary hot button — that had to go the indie route when the major studios were afraid to touch them. After the jump, a brief history of movies Hollywood was too scared to make. … Read More

Film

The Best Dylan Cues in Movie History

By Jason Bailey on

So Bob Dyan’s got a new album out today, and while your film editor usually sticks to the movie beat, it’s not like Dylan is just a music figure, or even that vaguest of descriptions, a “pop culture icon.” He’s also an ever-present force in film and television, with his songs (as either writer or performer) appearing in nearly 400 movies and TV shows (according to IMDb). And while at least half of those are lazy filmmakers using the opening riff of Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” cover to convey the turbulence of the sixties, that’s still quite a lot of Zimmy on film — he’s been much more free with his licensing than, say, the Beatles, whose best cinematic cues we ran down a couple of months back. In honor of Dylan’s new record (always a cause for celebration), we do the same for him below — with the same rules, i.e., no covers, no straight-up performances, but scenes where the music of Mr. Dylan is spotlighted, and in turn furthers the action and mood. Our ten favorites are after the jump. … Read More