The Screengrab : michael bay

In Other Blogs Goes to Hawaii

Scott Von Doviak — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule previews the summer movie schedule. “But even with the proof, in Star Trek, that my expectations could be so fundamentally off-base, it’s still hard for me to get excited, as Entertainment Weekly insists I should, about this summer’s big-ass slate of films. I thumbed through that 'Summer Movie Preview' issue with 'all the buzz on over 80 new films' and was bored stiff by the time I turned the page into the month of July. Really, am I supposed to care that Stephen Sommers, perpetrator of Van Helsing, has a new action blockbuster based on a toy I was bored with in 1967? Am I supposed to get all squirmy with excitement at seeing shots of a sweaty Megan Fox intercut with heavy-metal images from Michael Bay’s new movie about toys I was at least 15 years too old for when they were first popular? And despite my fondness for McG and the first Charlie’s Angels feature (about as zesty and giddily exciting as any pre-fab confection could be), that new Terminator movie just looks so goddamn glum and desperate, and overly familiar.”

GreenCine Daily’s DVD of the Week is Wise Blood. “Otherworldly in its characterizations (did I forget to mention the naïve, hyperactive 18-year-old obsessed with both a shrunken mummy and some guy in a bear suit?) but too sad or realistically perverse—even during a violent act late in the film—to be written off as a grotesque carnival, Wise Blood is not the tale of redemption or maybe accidental martyrdom that the final scenes superficially symbolize. It's about the powerlessness of existence, which is both as terrifying and absurd as that sounds.”

Beyond the Multiplex argues the importance of the original Star Trek. “For me, Star Trek and the Rolling Stones, as much as they might appear to be polar opposites -- one supremely American and the other English, one Apollonian and optimistic, the other Dionysian and pessimistic -- were the cultural phenomena that made the pre-punk-rock early '70s tolerable. A person interested in those things was, prima facie, not interested in Donny Osmond or Happy Days, had conceivably read a book not required by teachers and furthermore could plausibly have access to decent weed.”

At Scanners, Jim Emerson ponders whether one bad shot can ruin a movie. “I'm not among those who think the final shot of Hal Ashby's Being There takes a marvelously sustained balancing act and kicks it to the ground. But I can understand how somebody might feel that way. But how can just one bad decision -- maybe on screen for just a second or two -- deflate a full-length motion picture? Well, roughly the same way a pinprick in a balloon can, I guess. It can puncture the thin membrane that's sustaining the thing. Without shape and purpose, there's nothing to keep it aloft any longer.”

Finally in List-o-Mania, Spoutblog offers 10 Lost Theories Inspired by the Movies. Back to the Future Part III, anyone? “When that bright flash of light ended the episode, the Losties trapped in 1977 were returned to the present time. Or, that’s what a number of the show’s fans are predicting today. But if anyone’s been paying close attention, they’ll know that Lost has taken some cues from the Back to the Future franchise this season. So, logically, by looking at that trilogy, we know that Lost must have its denouement in the 1800s, just as the BTTF series does with Part III.”

Screengrab Predicts: The Top 5 Hits of Summer 2009 (Part Two)

Andrew Osborne — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:30:00 GMT

Paul:
Looking at this summer’s would-be blockbusters, I only see two real sure-thing titles. But while this leaves a lot of question marks to those trying to predict which titles will hit big, it also leaves a lot of room to predict some potential sleeper movies to come out of nowhere, given good word of mouth and the right marketing campaign. I’m almost sure I’ll regret these hasty decisions sometime around mid-May, but that’s just part of the game, isn’t it?

3. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (June 24)

Paul:
Remember those two sure things I mentioned before? Here’s one of them: let’s not underestimate the box office prospects of Transformers, a mistake that was made by many Hollywood insiders prior to the release of the first Transformers movie. Yes, the Michael Bay name didn’t give many people hope, but audiences turned out in droves all the same thanks to a combination of eighties nostalgia and the desire to watch giant robots kicking ass. If anything, the sequel promises even more action and destruction, hopefully with less dopey humor getting in the way. Getting released just before the July 4 weekend can only help its prospects.

Nick:
Michael Bay’s Transformers made $319 million domestically in 2007. And unless Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 123 (June 12) has legs, or Michael Mann’s Public Enemies (July 1) becomes a runaway smash, there’s little slam-bang competition surrounding Fallen’s June 24th release. Consequently, there’s no reason to suspect that this more-is-better sequel – featuring a wider roster of Autobots and Decepticons, as well as mega-hottie Megan Fox – won’t be greeted with massive box-office enthusiasm.

Scott:
I don’t want this to be true, but I have to be a realist when doing these projections. Otherwise I’d have the new Jarmusch movie in this slot, and that ain’t gonna happen. Bay + LaBeouf = big box office once again.

Andrew:
Blechh.

2. STAR TREK (May 8)

Scott:
The sequel is already in the works, so you know Paramount is feeling bullish. More than four decades worth of built-in fan base can’t hurt, but even non-Trekkies are likely to be swept up by the hype, which may dwarf even William Shatner’s ego by the time this is released.

Andrew:
I noted this as one of the films I was most excited to see in 2009, even though I fully expect to be disappointed and I’m way too old for this kind of nonsense. But being a Star Trek fan is like being Catholic...it gets into your system early, and once it’s there, it’s there for good, resurfacing when you least expect it, flying in the face of all the logic and common sense you otherwise thought you had.

Nick:
Trekkies (or Trekkers, or whatever they want to be called) will turn out in droves for J.J. Abrams’ reimagining of their beloved series. So too will the uninitiated, thanks to the Mission: Impossible III director’s decision to place as great an emphasis on breathless, epic action as on franchise minutiae.

Paul:
Will old-school Trekkers be down with a reboot of their beloved franchise with an almost entirely new cast? Will non-Trek fans even care? And why do the studios continue to release their big-budget movies in the second weekend of May (a.k.a. the Speed Racer weekend), which has consistently proven to be a box-office dead zone?

1. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (July 15)

Paul:
Here’s that other sure thing. I eventually decided to make Potter my top pick for several reasons. First, the Potter-philes have been salivating over this latest installment ever since the last movie two summers ago, and the ballyhoo over the release date (pushed back from last November) has only heightened their excitement. Secondly, Half-Blood Prince appears to be the most action-packed entry in the series to date, which should be enough to bring out the more casual fans of the series who might otherwise have waited for DVD. And finally, there’s the mid-July release date, which proved so lucrative for The Dark Knight last year. With relatively little competition in the surrounding weeks, Potter should rule the latter part of the summer, and if I was a Warner exec, I’d try my damnedest to secure this weekend every year.

Nick:
It was delayed from last Fall to July 15, meaning anticipation is high. And it’s the installment in which a key figure bites the supernatural bullet. Both of those facts (as well as a PG rating) should make this sixth Harry Potter film gargantuan.

Scott:
The Potter freaks were hopping mad when Warner Bros. delayed this release last fall, but let’s not kid ourselves; all will be forgiven when it finally rolls into theaters.

Andrew:
I haven’t read the books, but I’m devoted to the film series...and I’m a grown-ass man. For my fellow adults who keep sincerely trying to convince me the books themselves are the sorts of things that adults should actually be reading, and especially for all the kids out there who grew up on J.K. Rowling’s really pretty awesome juggernaut -- I’m still totally digging the gay Dumbledore thing, for instance -- NOT seeing Half-Blood isn’t even an option. Plus, Emma Watson is no longer jailbait, so I’m now officially allowed to look at her boobies.

Click Here For The Hits (Part One), The Bombs (Part Three), The Toss-Ups (Part Four) and The Honorable Mentions (Parts Five & Six)

Contributors: Paul Clark, Nick Schager, Scott Von Doviak, Andrew Osborne

Trailer Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Paul Clark — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:00:00 GMT

OK, I’ll admit it- I was one of those fuddy-duddy critics who hated the original Transformers two summers ago, and I was dreading the release of the sequel. Yet watching this trailer, a funny feeling came over me- in short, I didn’t hate it. In fact, I think I was finally able to see what others enjoyed so much about the 2007 blockbuster. This is due in no small part to the fact that I could legitimately see what was happening- in an uncharacteristic move for the infamously antic Michael Bay, there are actually half a dozen or more shots in this trailer in which the audience actually gets the chance to appreciate what’s happening onscreen (and the efforts of the FX team) for several seconds before an edit. The other thing I appreciated about this trailer was the absence of the goony humor that made the non-Transformers scenes in the original such a chore- we don’t see Shia Labeouf riding a pink girl’s bike or have to suffer through still more shots of one of the Transformers “urinating” on John Turturro. Also, Megan Fox’s dialogue is kept to a minimum, almost certainly a good thing. What’s left is basically 2 ½ minutes of wholesale destruction and Transformers action- talk about playing to the director’s strengths. Whether all the lame crap that made me hate the 2007 movie will be present in this one too remains to be seen. But for me, Revenge of the Fallen has gone from a must-skip to a wait-and-see, which I hadn’t imagined possible. So that’s a start.

Precursors: Friday the 13th I-III

Nick Schager — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Jason Voorhees, he of the menacing hockey mask and bloodstained machete, returns to theaters this weekend in Friday the 13th, not another of the franchise’s many sequels but, rather, a “reboot” produced by Michael Bay and directed by Marcus Nispel, the team behind 2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre do-over. Recently, I braved a return to Camp Crystal Lake so that those unfamiliar with the getaway’s horrific history (or those simply in need of a refresher course) might become well-versed in Jason’s legacy and, thus, properly prepared for his latest exploits. The first of this week’s three retrospectives – in this, the weekly column formerly known as See It First – begins in 1, 2, 3…13!

Friday the 13th (1980)

The one that started it all is something of a snooze, given that it’s mainly interested in generating tension via the mystery of its camp counselor-slaughtering madman’s identity. While numerous shots of the killer’s hands dispatching the staff of Camp Crystal Lake – reopened after twelve dormant years following a 1968 twin-homicide – prove serviceable shout-outs to Dario Argento’s giallos, they hardly rise to the level of suspenseful. Still, the finale’s revelation that the psycho in question is Jason Voorhees’ mother, driven mad by her son Jason’s drowning (thanks to neglectful camp staffers), is deservedly legendary, as is the cheesy gotcha climax in which decaying Jason explodes out of the water to grab hold of sole survivor Alice (Adrienne King).

Friday the 13th Part II (1981)

Steve Minor’s sequel may not be as memorable as its predecessor, but in its employment of various tropes – its introductory dispatching of the previous film’s heroine, its recap exposition, its red-herring scares, stereotypical characters and gruesome murders – the film nonetheless helped set the ‘80s slasher flick template. A resurrected, fully grown Jason, tormented by mommy’s decapitation, is now the one who wants to kill-kill-kill, and his targets are a group of counselors-in-training situated on the shore opposite Camp Crystal Lake. They’re dull, anonymous drones, but Miner’s concluding sequence is reasonably well-executed, and his depiction of Jason as an overalls-wearing baghead in the mold of The Town That Dreaded Sundown’s villain is kinda-sorta chilling – or, least, more chilling than the regurgitated final shot of mutie Jason slo-mo snatching another would-be heroine.

Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

Though ably enhancing a protruding eyeball gag, 3-D effects don’t make this third installment tolerable. Fortunately, however, two other elements just barely do: Jason’s maiden appearance wearing his legendary goalie mask (coming at exactly the one-hour mark), and a flashback that lends some twisted verve to the otherwise torpid proceedings. In said sequence, skittish female lead Chris (Dana Kimmell) recounts how, after being slapped by her parents for arriving home late from a date, she ventured into the woods, where she was accosted by Jason – and, as director Minor none-too-subtly implies, eventually raped. Consequently, Chris’ struggle to slay Jason is cast as an emblematic teenage attempt to break free from domineering paternal abuse/control, a surprisingly intriguing undercurrent for a series predominantly concerned with gory money shots.

Click Here For Parts Two & Three

Coming Soon: 55 Remakes!

Scott Von Doviak — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Almost every weekday morning we bring you news of a new, usually ill-advised remake in the Hollywood pipeline, but a site called Den of Geek has gone the extra mile by compiling a master list of 55 movies slated for the recycle bin. “Some are finished, some have only just been announced, and one or two are rumoured,” a brief intro warns, before diving into a pigpile of retreads and rip-offs. Here are just a few of them:

Fantastic Voyage – “The 1966 classic about a submarine that’s shrunk and injected into a man’s bloodstream to try and stop a potentially fatal blood clot is on director Roland Emmerich’s slate. Cormac and Marianne Wibberley – who wrote the National Treasure movies, among others – are on script duties.”

Meatballs – “The original: directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Bill Murray. The proposed remake: potentially to be directed by John Whitesell, he who gave us Big Momma’s House 2 and Deck The Halls.” Wow, this could be even better than Meatballs 4.

Near Dark – “Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes company is behind the remake of Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 vampire flick.” Clearly Bay will not stop until he has remade every horror movie, at which point he will begin remaking his own remakes.

Angel Heart – “The Robert De Niro/Mickey Rourke horror, originally directed by Alan Parker, has been picked up by the man who used to run New Line Cinema, Michael De Luca.” Our guess is that both De Niro and Rourke are available for the remake.

If you have a strong stomach, check out the full list here.

Screengrab 2009 Preview: Paul Clark's Picks

Paul Clark — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:00:00 GMT

It’s a little risky looking forward at an entire upcoming year’s worth of releases and cherry-picking the promising-looking ones. It’s not just that many of the movies that are currently slated to come out within the next 12 months might get pushed back or shuttered altogether. It’s also the fact that as good as some movies might look on paper with their high-profile casts and extravagant budgets, they could very well end up awful. Just ask the makers of Town and Country.

That said, here (using the ever-popular “3 Up, 3 Down” format) are a handful of my most anticipated movies of 2009, along with three I’m dreading, and one wild card:

3 Up:

The Tree of Life

Marking the filmmaker’s quickest turnaround to date, Terrence Malick latest film comes a scant four years after his 2005 masterpiece The New World. That Malick has apparently decided to keep making movies is worth celebrating by itself, but that he’s finally getting around to his supposed “dream project” (which he’s allegedly been tinkering with for three decades now) is the stuff of Malick-fanboy fantasies.

Inglourious Basterds

Speaking of fanboy fantasies, it looks like Quentin Tarantino’s long-discussed World War II actioner is for real. Word from those who’ve read the script is that Basterds (Tarantino’s spelling) is all kinds of wanky, but don’t forget that people said the same about Kill Bill and Thunder Bolt Death Proof, and those turned out just fine. Not even Eli Roth’s acting could scare me away from this.

Avatar

I toyed with several choices in this spot- including Pixar’s Up and Von Trier’s Antichrist- but in the end, I kept coming back to Jim Cameron’s state-of-the-arts space opera. It’s been twelve years since Cameron made his last fiction feature (nothing you’d have heard of), and I’m plenty curious to see the project that convinced him to come back. Say what you will about his movies- there’s no denying Cameron’s technical mastery and knack for cinematic grandeur, and I’m eager to see how he pushes the envelope again this time around.

3 Down:

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Two summers ago, I hated Michael Bay’s Transformers, the movie that disproved my seemingly ironclad hypothesis that no movie that contains giant robot fights could ever be boring. After that movie’s massive box-office success, Hollywood has responded with a wave of big-screen toy/cartoon adaptations pitched to adults who really ought to know better (coming in 2012: The Jonas Brothers are Voltron!). Is there any chance this will actually be good? Don’t bet on it.

G-Force

You folks already know how I feel about this one. The only way this could’ve possibly been good would be if Robert Smigel or Trey Parker and Matt Stone were behind it, making it as bizarre as possible, but that’s not going to happen. Sorry, G-Force, but my flesh’n’fur cavies could take you all on without breaking a squeak, sassy celebrity voices or no.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Yet another sub-Sandler product from the Happy Madison crap factory. Normally, I wouldn’t bother, except that the title character’s name is too close to mine to ignore. I’m hoping this falls out of the public consciousness quickly so that I don’t have to worry about "Mall Cop" jokes for the next few years. Why couldn’t the character be “Paul Blart: Nuclear Physicist” or “Paul Blart: Vascular Surgeon?” How about “Paul Blart: World’s Greatest Film Critic?” Okay, maybe that’s pure fantasy, but I can dream, right?

Wild Card:

Sherlock Holmes

I was a fan of the Holmes series in my youth, so part of me is excited for this, not only for the cast (Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are inspired choices to play the newfangled Holmes and Watson), but also because the filmmakers are using the classic A Scandal in Bohemia story as their inspiration. So why isn’t this one of my most anticipated movies of 2009? Two words, folks- Guy Ritchie. Maybe he’ll be able to keep his tendencies toward visual noise and narrative incoherence in check this time, but if Ritchie screws the pooch on this seemingly foolproof project, I’m going to be seriously pissed.

Trailer Review: The Unborn

Paul Clark — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

You know, it was one thing when Michael Bay would only produce remakes of horror favorites like Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Friday the 13th. After all, it’s not like any self-respecting horror fan would bother with those, right? But now, it looks like Bay has broadened his production horizons to inflict crappy new properties on the genre. This time out, he’s teamed up with serial crap-monger David S. Goyer, a wildly inconsistent screenwriter turned hacky director, who previously inflicted the worst Blade movie and the terrible J-horror ripoff The Invisible on the world. But despite Goyer’s presence, Bay’s fingerprints are all over this one, with its shocking coming primarily from CGI beasties and editing tricks (oooh, Avid farts! Scary!) rather than atmosphere and skillful filmmaking. Plus there’s Gary Oldman as a rabbi, who I’m not sure I trust considering his last appearance as a man of faith. You’d think that someone with Bay’s clout in Hollywood would use his powers for good rather than evil, but then, we’re talking about Michael Bay here.

Trailer Review: Friday the 13th (Teaser)

Paul Clark — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

I’ve never been a big fan of the Friday the 13th series, since Jason is a much less interesting villain than Freddy Krueger or even Michael Myers. So I don’t really have a problem with them remaking this one since, after all, the original movies weren’t that good to begin with. That said, this doesn’t look too promising. It doesn’t help that Marcus Nispel, who previously pissed all over The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, is directing this one as well, since his tendency to over-aestheticize his movies actually makes them LESS scary. Why can’t the music video hacks Michael Bay gets to remake hit horror movies realize that elaborate production design and impeccably-lit images aren’t frightening? At least this one doesn’t claim to be “based on true events,” which in my mind places it above roughly half the big-budget horror remakes of recent years. But still, nothing about this trailer makes me even the slightest bit curious to see what else Hollywood can milk from the Jason Voorhees mythos.

DVD Digest for September 2, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

This week’s DVD Digest is highlighted by a bumper crop of new TV-on-DVD releases in conjunction with the upcoming fall season. In addition, a large number of Blu-Ray only releases and a crush of new indie films on DVD helps to smooth over the lack of a first-rate “DVD of the Week”-worthy release.

This week’s high-profile new releases on DVD include Ira Sachs’ acclaimed fifties-set drama Married Life (Sony, also Blu-Ray), the Norwegian import Reprise (Buena Vista) (click here for Bryan Whitefield’s interview with the filmmaker), and the animated direct-to-DVD Marvel feature Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (Lionsgate, also Blu-Ray). Also, in a strange coincidence, this week also brings the release of four films I caught at Columbus’ Out@Wex series of GLBT films this past spring: Jacques Nolot’s Before I Forget (Strand), the coming-of-age drama Water Lilies (Koch), the gender politics comedy Itty Bitty Titty Committee (Wolfe Video), and Lagerfeld Confidential (Koch), a documentary about the fashion designer.

This week’s slate of classics coming to DVD is highlighted by three new Fox Noir releases: Elia Kazan’s Boomerang, Jean Gabin in Moontide, and Road House (no, not that one), which includes a commentary track from Screengrab favorite Kim Morgan. Somewhat less notable is MGM’s 20th Anniversary Edition of the unholy union of Michael J. Fox and Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City.

In the TV-on-DVD department, this week brings Desperate Housewives Season 4 (Disney), Eli Stone Season 1 (Disney), Ghost Whisperer Season 3 (Paramount), It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 3 (Fox), Life Season 1 (Universal) starring the ever-underrated Damian Lewis, Supernatural Season 2 (Warner), and The Office Season 4 (Universal).

Finally, this week’s action-heavy Blu-Ray only releases include: Jet Li in Black Mask (Lionsgate), Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser (Warner), the Clint Eastwood double feature Every Which Way But Loose (Warner) and The Gauntlet (Warner), Marvel’s animated The Invincible Iron Man (Lionsgate), the killer-virus thriller Outbreak (Warner), Michael Bay’s Transformers (Paramount), and Steven Seagal ridin’ the rails in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (Warner).

Sun Rises In East, Independent Film Industry Doomed

Leonard Pierce — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Every couple of months, someone in the press gets wind of the notion that independent film -- which, to our knowledge, has never been a field people have entered with an eye towards getting rich -- is on its last legs. Lamentations ensue, and then someone pulls out the box office receipts for The Dark Knight, and everybody has a good laugh. This time around, it's National Public Radio's turn to sound the doom bell for our favorite art form.

"Chicken Little was right", screams the headline to Kim Masters' article on the last days of indie film, placing into evidence the testimony of one Mark Johnson, a big-time studio producer (Chronicles of Narnia) who also dabbles in the independents. Unable to find a distributor for his small-budget southern gothic Ballast, he and director Lance Hammer are now taking it from city to city, screening it in front of whatever audiences will pay attention. "I thought that, at the end of the day, quality would win. We would like to think that if something is made well, it ought to be able to pay for itself," says the producer, who apparently has never ever paid any attention to any aspect of our culture. Art-house executive Mark Gill points out that independent films now have a 99% chance of failure (which, we're guessing, is up from the 98% of a few years ago, or the 100% of most of Hollywood history), and warns that "You have to be very good, or great, or you will die," which should come as exciting news to all the people who made great movies and failed anyway as well as reassuring every failure in the industry that they just aren't good enough.

Don't get us wrong -- no one is more sympathetic to the Sisyphean struggle of the independent filmmaker than we are, and no one would love to see a true meritocracy in film, where Charles Burnett gets to make any movie he wants while Michael Bay has to work double shifts at the car wash to afford a new fisheye lens. But all this weeping and gnashing and grinding of teeth every few years about how this time, indie film is really and truly doomed, and if you don't make Citizen Kane the first time you step behind a camera you might as well go back behind the counter at Taco Bell not only ignores the reality that determined artists have always found new and innovative ways to get their movies made, but does a disservice to aspiring filmmakers by making things seem even more dire than they actually are.

Summer of ’78: “The Driver”

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Each Thursday this summer we’ll hop in the Screengrab time machine and jump back thirty years to see what was new and exciting at the neighborhood moviehouse this week in…The Summer of ’78!

The Driver

Release Date: July 28, 1978*

Cast: Ryan O’Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani, Ronee Blakley

The Buzz: It’s Barry Lyndon going really fast!

Keywords: Car Chase, Parking Garage, Existentialism, Pursuit, Neo Noir

The Plot: Ryan O’Neal is the titular Driver, the consummate wheelman. Bruce Dern is the Detective determined to bring him down. Isabelle Adjani is the Player, a gambler who sees the Driver’s face after a casino robbery and is brought in for questioning by the Detective. She has been paid off, however, and refuses to identify the Driver. Since he’s played by Bruce Dern, the Detective is not a by-the-book kind of guy. He sets up his own bank robbery, using two lowlifes (Glasses and Teeth) facing 10 years in prison as bait. Although he knows the Detective is onto him, the Driver wants to beat him at his own game. Car chases result. Lots of car chases. In the end, it appears the Detective has caught the Driver holding the bag, but it turns out that both men have been duped by a low-level money launderer. This is perhaps what makes the film existential, in addition to the fact that none of the characters have names and nobody besides Dern talks much.

The Test of Time: I’m surprised at myself. As a fan of car movies, '70s cinema and Walter Hill’s pre-Streets of Fire oeuvre, I really should have seen The Driver long before now. Forget about the so-called “existential” stuff; it was all cribbed from Two Lane Blacktop anyway. Walter Hill is a man of action, and he delivers some top-notch car chases here. The first one, in which the steel-nerved Driver manages to plow half a dozen cop cars into walls or over embankments, may be the best. The camera is placed right up front, either on the hood or in the front seat, and the chase unfolds in long takes – you know, so you can actually see what’s going on. (Hello, Michael Bay and company? Hello? Is this on?) My favorite scene, however (which you can watch in the clip below), is O’Neal’s “audition” for the lowlifes, in which he chauffeurs them around a parking garage, reducing their car to scrap metal in the process – then tells them he’s not going to work for them anyway. Hill uses O’Neal’s blankness to his advantage, but I couldn’t help but think as I watched it that this was a movie made for Steve McQueen. (Sure enough, checking Wikipedia this morning I see that was the plan.) Dern is very Dern, and Adjani is eye-catching, although in her first English-speaking role she matches O’Neal in the monotone department. The only real groaner comes near the end, when Dern and about 20 cops somehow materialize behind the ever-cautious and prepared O’Neal in a bus terminal, but The Driver is still a worthy entry in the annals of four-wheeled cinema.

Quotable Quote: “That's a real sad song. Only trouble is, sad songs ain't selling this year.”

2008 Equivalent: The best bet for automotive mayhem is, unfortunately, Death Race.

*Perhaps you are wondering why we’re still in July of 1978. Go check the IMDb for August 1978 releases and you’ll learn, as I have, that there aren’t many. You may think late summer is a cinematic dead zone now, but compared to ’78, it’s an embarrassment of riches. I did have plans to do Interiors (released August 2, 1978), but it was covered in last week’s 15 Films That (Almost) Could’ve Been Directed by Someone Else list. (That’s fine by me, as I was spared having to sit through Interiors again.) But rest easy, for next week we’ll have a genuine August release to enjoy.

Previously on Summer of '78: Hooper

Beyond Spike and Clint: More Filmmaker Feuds

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:30:00 GMT

It’s been a good month for filmmaker feud enthusiasts, with both the Clint Eastwood/Spike Lee dust-up and the Werner Herzog/Abel Ferrara war of words heating up simultaneously. The L.A. Times has taken the opportunity to put together their own rundown of “Directors gone wild,” reminding us of a few directorial battles of days gone by.

By an odd coincidence – or maybe kryptonite is somehow involved – two of the feuds revolve around the Man of Steel. You may recall the aborted Tim Burton version of Superman that was to star Nicolas Cage about a decade ago. Kevin Smith had penned a script for Superman Lives! (you can read it here), but Burton wanted no part of it. Later, when Burton remade Planet of the Apes, Smith accused him of ripping off the ending from one of his comic books. (Why the Clerks auteur would want to take credit for such a widely derided twist remains a mystery.) Burton disagreed, telling the New York Post, “Anyone who knows me knows I would never read a comic book. And I would especially never read anything created by Kevin Smith.” Smith has been known to sign bootleg copies of the Superman script “Fuck Tim Burton,” though he claims this is done tongue-in-cheek.

Then there’s the case of Superman II, directed by Richard Lester – unless it was directed by Richard Donner. Lester’s cut is the one most of us grew up on, but Donner – who was replaced midway through filming the sequel – recently released his own version on DVD. “Though the sequel was more highly regarded than the original Superman,” says the Times, “Lester’s follow-up Superman III was trashed, leading many fans to believe anything good in Superman II was because of Donner.”

The Times feature also includes Uwe Boll’s feuds with Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg, proving that feuds taking place entirely within the mind of Uwe Boll are eligible for the list.

Related:
Spike Strikes Back
Werner Herzog vs. Abel Ferrara: Round 2

Leonardo DiCaprio in "Pong: The Movie"?

Scott Von Doviak — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Okay, so that headline is a little misleading; we’re not trying to give Uwe Boll any ideas here, although with movies based on Monopoly (Ridley Scott is on the case) and Ouija (Who ya gonna call? Michael Bay!) in the works, a motion picture adaptation of Pong might not even be the stupidest idea of the year. But the invention of the “little game called Pong that transfixed kids in suburban rec rooms across the country and led to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of video game sales” will no doubt be dramatized in the latest effort from the biopic-crazed Leonardo DiCaprio.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, DiCaprio – who has already played Howard Hughes and Arthur Rimbaud onscreen and will soon take on Theodore Roosevelt for favorite director Martin Scorsese – will produce and star in Atari, the life story of the famed videogame company’s founder Nolan Bushnell. Even those of us who spent our formative years with joysticks in hand attempting to master Space Invaders and Yars' Revenge might be a little skeptical that Bushnell’s story could make for compelling cinema – but wait, there’s more! Bushnell is also the mastermind behind Chuck E. Cheese. With any luck, the film will explore this dark side of his character as well.

Michael Bay Tells Us to Ignore Him, He Just Wants Attention

John Constantine — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:04:00 GMT

My hero, Michael Bay? He don’t take no guff. You might think that when someone crosses into the Bay from international waters that they’d get exploded by an army of helicopters or giant robots with guns that shoot helicopters. But the Bay is all class. After being called a “fucking retard” by Uwe Boll on Youtube, one of the Bay’s acolytes went to the official Michael Bay message board and asked how he felt about it. The man’s response? “I find people who rant like that - calling shit about both me, and George Clooney - comes from someone screaming because he is not being heard. He is obviously a sad being. When you ask ‘do I care’? Not in the slightest. –M”

Sticks and stones do not break Michael Bay’s bones, Screengrabbers. Nothing breaks Michael Bay’s bones!

Kotaku? We love them for bringing us this news.

Uwe Boll: I Am the Only F**king Genius in the Whole Business

John Constantine — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:20:00 GMT

Uwe, Uwe, Uwe. You need to know that the delusion goggles you wear do nothing. As we mentioned this past Monday, Uwe Boll sent an inadvertent challenge to his haters when he said he’d cease making movies if one million people signed a petition in the interests of making him stop. After nearly 150,000 individuals with moderate to good taste signed said petition, Uwe released the following statement on Youtube. NO ONE CALLS MICHAEL BAY A FUCKING RETARD IN MY TOWN! You, sir, are damn lucky that you’re not still inviting critics to box you. I’m a biter and you better believe I would have pieces of you.

Our thanks, once again, to Cinematical for the continuing Boll coverage.

Transformers 2 Leakage Begins

John Constantine — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:32:00 GMT

You know, I’ve been sad these past few weeks. Ever since the format wars between HD-DVD and Bluray ended, I haven’t had quite so many opportunities to talk about my hero here on the ‘Grab. I’m talking, of course, about Michael Bay. Michael Bay, he with the flowingest of golden locks! Michael Bay, lover of helicopters, maker of explosions, promoter of Martin Lawrence! I have missed the tender caress of his booming, patriotic films. Thankfully, I won’t have to deal with separation anxiety any longer because the slow trickle of information leading up to the inevitable release of Transformers 2 has begun. IESB has some juicy deets on what meets more than eyes in Bay’s sequel starting with the appearance of Devastator. For those born before 1980, Devastator is a really, really big robot made out of big robots who turn into construction vehicles. He is, in short, Michael Bay’s wet dream of a special effect. Less interesting are the casting calls for human characters, of which there are many. Lord Bay himself was working on the script for this one during the dark days of the strike so I’m hoping he had the revelation that the human characters were abysmal, shallow distractions in the first movie. In all fairness though, that picture was pretty abysmal and shallow on its own.

Here's to AICN for their hawk's eyes.

Trailer Review: Iron Man (New Trailer)

John Constantine — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:18:00 GMT

It’s been said numerous times here on the internet but some truths simply cannot be overstated: Robert Downey Jr. is awesome. He is so awesome that if Michael Bay had his own Robert Downey Jr. he would tell you it was awesome and then not blow it up because it was awesome enough on its own. But, as Jon Favreau is deftly proving with each new glimpse of his upcoming Iron Man flick, Robert Downey Jr. is even more awesome when he’s the one causing things to explode. The first trailer for Iron Man had its fair share of things that go boom but this new one doubles down to great effect. There are many more special effects shots on display here as well and they look spectacular, even the CG effects looking tangible and convincing. For the first time in a long time, it looks like a summer blockbuster action brouhaha might actually be good in addition to being bombastic.

Strike 2: Electric Boogaloo

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Hollywood is always up for a fast-tracked sequel, but this is ridiculous. The dust has barely settled from the WGA strike, but that won’t stop the Screen Actors Guild from hitting the picket lines on June 30 if a new agreement can’t be reached by then. Producers are "cautiously optimistic" that the walkout won’t happen, but what tragedies might be in store for you, the movie fan, if it does?

Already Steven Spielberg has put the brakes on The Trial of the Chicago 7, which was set for an April start date. According to Variety, Spielberg will instead polish the script with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin while waiting to see if the actors’ strike develops. Other high-profile pictures are going ahead with their shooting schedules and making contingency plans should they suddenly find themselves without a cast. Terminator Salvation is proceeding under the following arrangement: "in the event of a strike, the paychecks stop, but nobody will be force majeured and everyone will get a plane ticket home from the Albuquerque set." (Force majeure is contractual gobbledegook for a clause that releases the studio from obligation in the case of natural disasters, Acts of God and, of course, strikes.)

The Da Vinci Code sequel Angels and Demons is set to roll cameras on June 5. "Director Ron Howard will spend three weeks shooting all of the film's exterior scenes. The rest of the film will be shot on Sony soundstages, where sets will wait, if necessary, until an actor's strike is over. That allowed Sony to somewhat contain the costs to halt and re-start the picture."

Michael Bay’s Transformers sequel is on the fast track, but have no fear that the script will suffer; Bay has hired three writers to handle all the plot complexity and character development such an enterprise entails. "They did a detailed outline before the writer's strike, and now they are in Michael Bay jail, holed up in a hotel and working feverishly," Bay said. "We're paying for a beautiful suite and they are getting a lot of work done. Hiring three writers was unusual, but it has been a godsend in getting us to where we need to be. Somehow you find a way to get it done."

From the picket lines to Michael Bay jail. Ah, the writer’s life.

Michael Bay and His Awesome Self

Phil Nugent — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:45:00 GMT

Question: What does Michael Bay have in common with Wes Anderson? Answer: they may be doing their most entertaining work these days not behind the camera but in front of it, sending up their images in self-parodying TV commercials. Maybe the most startling thing about this development is that, since it would boggle the mind if Bay needed the money, he's the one who must almost certainly have a sense of humor about himself. (He probably got a good laugh out of those rumors, way back when, that he was holed up in a hotel room in a state of despair over the reviews of Pearl Harbor.) Then again, maybe they're all just trying to pay homage to Martin Scorsese. John Constantine recently posted an ad here that Bay appeared in for an Australian bank, and now his latest starring role, for Verizon, has begun making the rounds:

Format Wars: The Final Countdown

John Constantine — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:47:00 GMT

This is it, ‘Grabbers. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sony’s Blu-ray high definition format is on the top rope and preparing to deliver a life ending body slam to Toshiba’s HD-DVD. After Warner Bros’ announcement back in January that they would be going Blu-ray exclusive at the start of the 2008 fiscal year, numerous retailers have been dropping their HD-DVD support. There are also telltale sales numbers to look at, with 81% of all high definition home movie sales going to Blu-ray the week ending February 10th. The veep of marketing over at Toshiba America, Jodi Sally, says they’re sticking to their guns but her comments show that Toshiba might be ready to abandon ship: "Given the market developments in the past month, Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players."

Translation? If this keeps up, we’ll start making Blu-ray players. While the Screengrab usually likes to throw a Michael Bay joke at the end of these format war pieces, we’re going to abstain. This picture does it for us.

Michael Bay is Michael Bay as Michael Bay in…

John Constantine — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:15:00 GMT

Transformers may suck, and Pearl Harbor might be an offensive piece of trash, but let it never be said that Michael Benjamin Bay doesn’t have a sense of humor about himself. Check out this genius commercial for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, in which Bay parodies himself, to perfect effect. What’s funnier than a Mad Max-style army of animatronic koalas? Michael Bay sheepishly whispering to a room full of bank executives, “I used seven helicopters.”

Freddy and the Furious Go to Cloverfield

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:30:00 GMT

Are we really sure we want the writers' strike to end? For now, it's the only thing standing between us and an unending parade of sequels and reboots. Here's the latest from the Hollywood recycle bin:

Despite its second weekend plummet at the box office, Cloverfield is still a massive hit considering its $25 million dollar budget, so it's no surprise that Variety reports a follow-up in the works. Director Matt Reeves may have to delay his "Hitchcock-style thriller" The Invisible Woman, but no doubt Paramount will make it worth his while.

Vin Diesel tells MTV, "I'm a little bit slower than the average actor that just jumps into the sequel, but I think the time has come to revisit Dom Toretto." If that character name rings no bells for you, perhaps its been a while since you've seen the first installment of The Fast and the Furious. After two largely Diesel-free sequels (the chrome-domed lunk did make a cameo appearance in Tokyo Drift), the original star is aboard for the fourth installment, as is his partner in crime. "Gotta have Paul Walker," says Diesel, who is the first person on earth to ever utter that sentence.

And then there's our main man Freddy Krueger, who already survived the seemingly fatal Freddy's Dead and either won or lost the battle of Freddy vs. Jason. (We can never remember.) Now there are reports that none other than Michael Bay is set to revive A Nightmare on Elm Street. (We'd like to suggest the title A Recurring Nightmare.) According to Zap2It, "No writers can be attached to Nightmare on Elm Street until after the strike ends, which is fine. Bay and his Platinum cohorts already have remakes of Near Dark and The Birds in various stages of preproduction for Rogue and Universal respectively."

Strike on, brothers. Strike on.

Format Wars: It’s Over! No Wait, Not Yet

John Constantine — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:36:00 GMT

The ‘Grab brought you word just last night that Sony’s Blu-ray high definition format was about to crush HD-DVD from existence come May. Fuel was added to the fire this morning when the Financial Times announced that Paramount, one of HD-DVDs strongest exclusive supporters, was moving to drop the format to join Warner Bros. in going with the stronger performing Blu-Ray from here on out. Paramount quashed the rumor almost immediately by releasing a statement to Bloomberg stating that they will continue supporting HD-DVD for the time being. Michael Bay has yet to comment on the news. The Screengrab will continue bringing you full coverage of the Format Wars, no matter how irrelevant.

Bottom Five of 2007

John Constantine — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:25:00 GMT

With The Screengrab’s overall Top Ten of 2007 going up today, it is high time we let you, the reader, know which movies we thought sucked the most in good ‘ol ’07. Here are five movies that run the gamut from so-bad-you-have-to-see-it down to my-life-is-emptier-after-that-shit. It should be noted that one of these movies actually caused the writer to scream in public for about twenty minutes about how bad it was, embarrassing editor Peter Smith while he tried to order a slice of pizza. Try to guess which one. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

#5: HITMAN (Xavier Gens, dir.)

Big and dumb are words often used to extol an action movie’s virtues. Not so with Hitman, a video game adaptation that, as far as I can tell, isn’t even about anything. It’s shocking that a movie with both a nude Olga Kurylenko and Timothy Olyphant could be this bad.

#4: TRANSFORMERS (Michael Bay, dir.)

Bravo, Michael Bay. Only you could make a movie based on a cartoon - itself little more than a half hour toy commercial - that is actually shallower than its source material. Bravo.

#3: DAN IN REAL LIFE (Peter Hedges, dir.)

Am I really supposed to feel sorry for this asshole? He lies to his motherless children, acts like a petulant child, and makes out with his brother’s girlfriend when he barely knows her. Look not to Evan Almighty for the worst Steve Carell movie of the year. It is before you.

#2: HALLOWEEN (Rob Zombie, dir.)

I checked my watch approximately sixteen times while watching Zombie’s remake of Halloween, desperate for it to be over. Whenever I pass by one of the numerous posters throughout New York City advertising the recently released Halloween: Unrated DVD, I puke a little in my mouth.

#1: SOUTHLAND TALES (Richard Kelly, dir.)

Wow. Just, wow, man. Jesus.

Format Wars: One Step Closer to the End

John Constantine — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:25:00 GMT

Movie nerds and videophiles rejoice! The world is one step closer to having a single high definition home video format. Warner Bros. delivered a crushing blow to Microsoft and Toshiba’s HD-DVD on Friday by announcing that they would release their movies exclusively on Sony’s Blu-ray format as of May 2008. Michael Bay, probably the only person on the planet who cares about such things, is reportedly uber-psyched about all those Harry Potter flicks showing up on his chosen format.

Movies We Missed: Transformers (2007)

Peter Smith — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:00:00 GMT

Wait a second, you say, what the hell do you mean a movie "we" missed? With box office tallies swelling to over $700M worldwide (pre-DVD!) it's pretty obvious that this one didn't exactly fly under the radar. But admittedly being somewhat of a film snob and guessing that many Screengrab readers and writers may fit in the same category, I thought this might just fit the bill. Who knows, without a thirteen-hour flight to sit through, I may never have discovered this effects heavy, pleasant surprise of a mega-blockbuster myself.

Why we missed it:
Director Michael Bay's last attempt, The Island, was a waste of film, not to mention millions of dollars, and would probably make many people's Top 10 "I Want My Time and Money Back" lists.

As a child of the '80s, (and a proud fan of Clash of the Titans) these all-CGI-all-the-time movies can be more nuisance and nonsense than popcorn classics.

Why we should have known:
As a child of the '80s, I should have remembered one simple fact. Transformers = AWESOME!

Why we ended up kicking ourselves:
A well-cast group of actors, led by the likable Shia LaBeouf, who carries the movie with his manic chattering and off-track humor. For men, there's the jailbait vision of Megan Fox and the fresh face of Rachael Taylor. For women there are ebony-and-ivory hunks Tyrese and Josh Duhamel. And for fans of Kangaroo Jack, there's Anthony Anderson.

The big-budget effects work much better in a story about alien robots than they do for those centered around superheroes or snakes. The Transformers themselves actually manage to integrate well with actors and real settings making for some very satisfying action sequences.

The movie rests on a simple but effective formula that seems unearthed from an '80s blueprint itself. Think Back to the Future and/or any of the countless other movies where the social nobody/nice-guy fuck-up turns out to be a lovable hero who saves the world and gets the girl, by using nerd knowledge and inner strength that nobody knew he had in him. It still works because there are more Shia LaBeoufs than Will Smiths in the world.

Why we may have been better off without it:
Believe it or not, indie stalwart John Turturro is the film's weak link as an overzealous cop.

There is probably an age cap on this one. If you were an adult when kids were playing with the toys, you probably didn't get it then, and it's unlikely you'll feel much different now. But to the film's credit, it's able to bring a young generation of fans up to date with the franchise much better than the many other movie attempts at reviving old TV favorites. (Dukes of Hazzard anyone?)

— Bryan Whitefield

Bay to Microsoft: I Do Not Approve of the Way You Transform and Roll Out

Peter Smith — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:00:00 GMT

Who doesn't love a good format war? Well, everyone. From the heated battle between phonograph cylinders and gramophone records, to VHS's head-to-head match with Betamax, it's never anything less than obnoxious and inconvenient for the average consumer. The current fracas between Toshiba's Microsoft-backed HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-ray high-definition movie formats is particularly noisome, given the ubiquity of standard DVD players and the low install base of HD televisions. Worse still are the exclusivity agreements between format holders and movie studios. Got an HD-DVD player but want a Disney movie? Too bad. We lowly movie watchers at home aren't the only ones getting annoyed. The esteemed purveyor of big-budget trash, Michael Bay, whose Transformers is only available on HD-DVD thanks to Paramount's exclusivity contract, is not only calling out the studio on his official forums but claiming that the format war itself is a sham. Bay posted, "What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100-million-dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD-DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu-Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth." What say you about the format war, Screengrabbers? Thanks to Joystiq for the spot. — John Constantine

Morning Deal Report: Scott's Stones

Peter Smith — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:00:00 GMT

Ridley Scott will direct Stones, a big-budget thriller with a new-agey, Da Vinci Code-y premise — suffice to say that the stones in question make up a kind of henge, if you will.

Breathe a sigh of relief, everybody: Transformers 2 should be unaffected by the writers' strike unless the strike lasts for several months. (Balance returns to my personal universe.)

On the other hand, Brian De Palma's Untouchables sequel may be in a bit of trouble. Well, you win some, you lose some.

Michael Paul Stevenson, the star of the legendary Troll 2, has made a documentary about its cult following called Best Worst Movie. Awesome.

— Peter Smith