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Showing posts from July, 2013

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

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MOVIE: Mutiny on the Bounty
RELEASE DATE: 1935
DIRECTOR: Frank Lloyd
SCREENPLAY: Talbot Jennings, Jules Furthman, Carey Wilson based on the book by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
CAST: Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone

OSCARS:
Winner: Best Picture
Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role – Clark Gable
Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role – Charles Laughton
Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role – Franchot Tone
Nominated: Best Director – Frank Lloyd
Nominated: Best Film Editing
Nominated: Best Music, Score
Nominated: Best Writing, Screenplay

There have been several film adaptions of the famous novel, with big stars like Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins and Marlon Brando. Frank Lloyd’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture remains the best adaptation of this literary classic. Clark Gable plays Fletcher Christian who leads a revolt against the villainous Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, 1 year later, Bligh returns from exile to exact his revenge on his former crew. Ga…
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FORCED PERSPECTIVE, Ep.34 – Enter the Matrix, Part 2

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“Mr. Anderson…surprised to see me?”

On this VERY SPECIAL edition of FORCED PERSPECTIVE, join SportsGuy515, Adolfo, and special guest Big D, as they continue their journey into The Matrix Trilogy with a discussion on the second film in the series, The Matrix Reloaded. Finally, an answer to the age-old question: “just what in the HELL is the Architect talking about?” Plus the gang talks The Animatrix, the “Enter the Matrix” video game, As Good As It Gets vs. (500) Days of Summer, and MORE! DOWNLOAD/STREAM NOW!!!

***P.S. Those of you that are subscribed to FORCED PERSPECTIVE on ITunes received this episode early, albeit the unedited version (without the intro and outro). If you would like to keep that version, by all means, you may. But if you would like to download the finished version, simply delete the episode and re-download it from the FORCED PERSPECTIVE page on ITunes.***
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Alien (1979)

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MOVIE: Alien

RELEASE DATE: 1979
DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott

SCREENPLAY: Dan O’Bannon

CAST: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt

OSCARS:
Winner: Best Effects, Visual Effects
Nominated: Best Art Decoration/Set Decoration

To this day, this film continues to be one of the scariest horror films of all time as well as being a fantastic science-fiction epic. Not only did it win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, it also is currently in the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress and has appeared in various American Film Institute countdown lists. This film proves that genre films can also be as engaging, provocative and influential as the heaviest dramas. Originally called “Star Beast” before it went to production, Alien is about a deep-space mining crew that responds to a transmission from an unknown source on a nearby planet. Soon after arriving, a crew member goes down, and a predatory beast stalks the crew one-by-one in the confines of thei…
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The Essential Dennis Farina Watchlist

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R.I.P. Dennis Farina 1944 - 2013
Yesterday, July 22, 2013, Denis Farina passed away at the age of 69.  Farina, a famous "that guy!" actor, is a former Chicago police officer, who turned to acting in his 40s after working as a police consultant for director Michael Mann.  Farina was an entertaining character actor, known mostly for his work as tough guy cop and mobster roles.  The Essential Films presents a watchlist of his best films, in his honor:

THIEF 1981 • Michael Mann Role: Carl
Dennis' first onscreen work was for this Michael Mann film as a mob enforcer.
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MANHUNTER 1986 • Michael Mann Role: Jack Crawford
Will Graham: I gave it up! Till you showed up with pictures of two dead families, knowing God damn well that I'd imagine families three, four, five and six. Right? Jack Crawford: You're fucking right I did! And I'd do it again!
Before The Silence of the Lambs, there was Manhunter.  Chronologically it t…
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X-Men: Days of Future Past - Publicity Photo

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In 2014, the seventh X-Men film will be released in theaters: X-Men - Days of Future Past. In 2000, director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) helmed the original theatrical release of X-Men to financial and critical (especially in the comic book community) success. He followed it up with the even better X2: X-Men United in 2003. The films were cornerstones of the resurgence of the comic book film and were responsible of making Wolverine (and by extension, Hugh Jackman) a pop-culture icon. However in 2005 Singer left the series to make Superman Returns and 20th Century Fox decided not to wait for him to complete the project and hired Brett Ratner to make the third film in the franchise, X-Men: The Last Stand. While a box office hit, Last Stand, failed to reach the level of quality of its predecessors. This was followed by X-Men Origins: Wolverine which also fell short artistically.  Then, in 2011, the series got a much needed boost in the form of director Matthew Vaughn's (Stardus…
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Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

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ZERO DARK THIRTY
Kathryn Bigelow
2012 • 157 Minutes • 1.85:1 • United States
Color • English • Columbia Pictures

Cast:  Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, James Gandolfini
Screenplay: Mark Boal
Producers: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Megan Ellison
Cinematography: Greig Fraser

Awards & Honors

Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Motion Picture of the Year
Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - Jessica Chastain
Nominated: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Nominated: Best Achievement in Editing
Nominated: Best Achievement in Sound Editing

American Film Institute
Official Selection of 2012

BAFTA Awards
Nominated: Best Film
Nominated: Director
Nominated: Leading Actress - Jessica Chastain
Nominated: Original Screenplay
Nominated: Best Editing

Director's Guild of America
Nominated: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures

Golden Globes
Winner: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama - …
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Batman – Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

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BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM

Eric Radomski, Bruce Timm

1993 • 76 Minutes • 1.33:1• United States

Color • English • Warner Bros.

Voice Cast: Kevin Conroy, Dana Delany, Hart Bochner, Stacy Keach, Abe Vigoda, Mark Hammill
Screenplay: Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Martin Pasko, Michael Reaves based on characters created by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson

Producers: Benjamin Melniker, Eric Radomski, Bruce Timm

Awards & Honors

The Essential Films
Top 25 Superhero Movies – #20



Whoops! Ha! I guess the joke’s on me. You’re not Batman after all. Looks like there’s a new face in Gotham and soon his name will be all over town… to say nothing of his legs, and feet, and spleen, and head…

Batman is on the trail of a homicidal vigilante that is killing Gotham City’s top mob bosses while at the same time dealing with the re-appearance of an old love. To complicate matters: The Joker enters the fray as a wild card. Can Batman keep the Joker at bay while solving the mystery of Phantasm?

WARNING: Spoilers

After the …
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Batman on Film Part 7: The Animated Movies

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On this edition of “Batman on Film,” we’re looking at all the animated films featuring our Dark Knight hero. Now, we’ve already discussed Batman: Mask of the Phantasm in a separate feature, so we won’t discuss it here. In this article we will discuss the straight-to-video features released starting in 1998 through the current day. Note that team-up films like Superman/Batman: Public Enemies or Justice League: Doom won’t be considered as Batman is not the main focus of the film.  Here we go:
SUBZERO Boyd Kirkland 1998 • 70 Minutes
On the Forced Perspective podcasts focused on the Batman animated series, me and the crew discussed at length many of the wonderful single episodes the series produced. Chief among them was one of the first ever aired on television, “Heart of Ice.” This episode is responsible for creating the Mr. Freeze origin story that everyone accepts as canon now, and was later used in Batman & Robin.  SubZero was actually supposed to be released simultaneously with …
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