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Even though visionary writer-director Quentin Tarantino is arguably at the height of his career right now, with his latest movie, the Western-set-in-the-Deep South Django Unchained, both a commercial success — at $138 million and counting it is his highest-grossing North American release — and a critical favorite — it's nominated for five Academy Awards (on top of the Golden Globe it earned him for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture) — he is no less a controversial and divisive filmmaker today than when his first movie debuted back in 1992. Fellow filmmaker and frequent Tarantino critic Spike Lee is one of the most vocal opponents of his latest movie, saying Django Unchained is "disrespectful" of the history of slavery (though he admitted that he hasn't seen the movie and has no intention of seeing it). Other important figures in the black community have come out in support of the movie, however, such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, who applauded Django Unchained, saying that it captured "the cultural, physical and psychological pain" of slavery.
If you're one of the many for whom Django Unchained was an introduction to the violent, cool, hyper-realistic world of Quentin Tarantino cinema and now you are wondering what you've been missing all of these years (or, conversely, you hated it and want some more fuel to heap on the Tarantino fire), we've put together a list of movies that can help you become more knowledgeable of the style and language of his movies. We're not promising that you're going to love all of the movies on the list or get all of his cultural and cinematic references, but, in less than eight hours' time, you will be able to hold your own the next time Tarantino's name pops up in conversation.
Let's do it! Both barrels blazing! >> Posted 01.22.13 by BrentJS -
"Revenge is never a straight line. It’s a forest. And like a forest it’s easy to lose your way… To get lost… To forget where you came in."
Enter a vast cinematic world that feels very much like our own, but hyperrealistic — groovy, violent, romantic, frightening and filled with characters so interesting that even the most dastardly of them can be relatable, even likeable. The only rule in this world is that revenge can and will be served, be it at the end of a legendary samurai's sword or in a hail of double-barreled justice.
Oooh, that’s a bingo! >> Posted 11.20.12 by BrentJS -
Sure, this year the Academy has removed the cheesy Best Song performances and implemented a backstage Thank-You Cam to try to move the festivities along. But that's hardly enough to guarantee a rousing viewing experience.
Forget the ballots, we've got a better game to keep the evening and your party lively (although we wouldn't skip the full bar). Print our 2010 Awards BINGO cards and markers. Standard, Four Corners, Blackout — how you choose to play is up to you. That said, we recommend one rule change: To make a winning card official, the player must yell out "That's a BINGO!" in a thick-German accent.
Posted 02.23.10 by reelz -
This morning, nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards were announced at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California. Leading the 2009 race are Avatar and The Hurt Locker, each with nine nominations, including Best Picture.
The eight other movies in this year's expanded Best Picture race are The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, and Up in the Air.
To find out what other movies and people received nods from the Academy, see the complete list of 2009 Oscar Nominees.
Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will host the awards show on Sunday, March 7, 2010.
Posted 02.02.10 by reelz -
The Hurt Locker was the big winner when the National Society of Film Critics announced their awards for the movies of 2009. The Iraq War drama took home Best Picture, Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, and Best Actor for Jeremy Renner, who plays a soldier addicted to the adrenaline rush of disarming landmines.
If history is any indication, this may be bad news for the movie's Oscar chances. In 40-plus years, the only movies that have ever won Best Picture from both the NSFC and the Academy are Annie Hall, Unforgiven, Schindler's List, and Million Dollar Baby. The match-up is better, however, for the director and actor categories, so Bigelow and Renner may be soild contenders when the Oscar nominations are announced on February 2.
The Best Actress award went to Yolande Moreau for her performance as French artist Séraphine Louis in the biopic Seraphine. Christoph Waltz and Paul Schneider split the Best Supporting Actor award for their work in Inglourious Basterds and Bright Star, respectively. Mo'Nique took home Best Supporting Actress for Precious, while Joel Coen and Ethan Coen received Best Screenplay honors for A Serious Man.
Posted 01.05.10 by reelz -
Fans who would like another Inglourious Basterds may get their wish ... eventually. Writer/director Quentin Tarantino told NY Magazine that he's written 40 pages of a Basterds prequel, though he plans to make a "smaller, less epic" movie first. Tarantino wouldn't reveal much about the proposed project, other than that it would be in a "different genre entirely" from Basterds. Tarantino is hoping he can finish that script in about five or six months.
Tarantino was fresh from a foreign press tour for Basterds, where, even in Germany, the movie won over audiences.
When Germans are watching World War II movies, they're used to cringing. Why they make themselves endure it, I don't know. That is just the way it is for them, and they expect that that's the way it's going to be. And they're always forced to look at it from the guilt perspective.
[It's a] World War II movie, and nothing's going to f**king change that. But, as [Basterds] goes on, all of a sudden, that starts dropping away, and they actually got caught up in the story. And they're really caught up in the story — it starts getting really funny. And it gets laughs. And all of a sudden, you have a German audience watching a movie about World War II — and they're allowed to laugh! They're allowed to enjoy it! And the fantasy [of assasinating Hitler] is just as much their fantasy as anybody else's.
In Israel, however, the audience was more openly enthusiastic.
So now, in Israel, I'm watching the film, and we get into the theater sequence. And literally, not when Hitler gets killed, but when you hear Shoshanna's [Melanie Laurent] voice say, "This is the face of Jewish vengeance," the whole theater just erupted in applause. I think there were two guys that started it, but everyone jumped in. And you know something? It was violent. It was scary. There was violence in that cheer. It wasn't like cheering Indiana Jones. There was something bloodcurdling about it. I don't want to overstate it, but there was an edge to it. There was violence in it ... there was blood in the air, which was wild. It was a wild thing to experience. It was a great experience, and it was real.
Posted 12.26.09 by Ryan -
The first major awards show of the season is just weeks away. On Friday, January 15, the 15th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards will be broadcast live on VH1 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. This week the nominees were announced.
The Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest movie critics organization in the United States and Canada, bestows the awards. Nominees, especially winners, often bring home Academy Awards. Here is a glimpse at the best of the batch — movies that have earned an 85+ rating.
Posted 12.17.09 by reelz -
In a recent interview with MTV, Quentin Tarantino said that one of the inspirations for his latest film, Inglourious Basterds, was the Marvel Comics series Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. With that in mind, the similarities between the two become evident, if only on the surface: Both Tarantino's movie and the Marvel comic feature elite soldiers fighting the Nazis behind enemy lines during WWII. Apparently, that's not Tarantino's only connection to comic books and comic book movies.
In a newly released excerpt of the MTV interview, Tarantino admitted to having been "a big comic book fan" in his 20s and said that he could have directed a movie based on a popular DC Comics character.
I was offered the Green Lantern. Not since it's been a script, but just like, "Hey we own the Green Lantern. Would you like it?"
Tarantino said that he has "kind of outgrown" his interest in comic books, and that if he were to direct a comic book movie it would not be based on an existing character.
I'm a writer. I'd want to use my imagination and not have to fight with geeks' memories of how this character should be and, "Oh, I cast an actor as opposed to a bodybuilder" or "it's not as good as the way [DC Comics artist] Neal Adams drew him." If I were to do something like that, I would want the fun of coming up with the superhero myself.
Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment are currently in pre-production on Green Lantern, with Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) attached to direct. Actor Ryan Reynolds will portray Hal Jordan, a fearless experimental test pilot chosen to wield the power ring of the the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps.
Posted 12.04.09 by BrentJS -
It's been two years since Eli Roth directed a feature, but he's kept busy on the side with writing, producing, and acting. After his recent appearance as Sgt. Donny Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Roth is returning to horror, the genre that made him famous with his Cabin Fever and Hostel movies. He's also readying himself to take on science fiction.
At the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico, Roth announced that he is finishing a script for a new sci-fi movie called Endangered Species, which he also plans to direct. He also mentioned that he's writing and directing a feature-length version of his Thanksgiving mock-horror trailer that appeared in Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse double-feature. Roth said that he needed the time away from directing to revive his creativity.
I haven't been this excited since the first Hostel. I had to divorce myself from the [Hostel] project 100% to free up my brain for other things.
Posted 10.18.09 by BrentJS -
Christoph Waltz, the evil Nazi from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, is getting another villainous role — in The Green Hornet, according to Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog.
Waltz's slimy, yet playful, performance in Basterds is likely what brought the 52-year-old into the limelight, and and it's perfect for director Michel Gondry's action-comedy aesthetic.
Recent reporting had pegged actor Nicolas Cage as the lead villain for the movie, only described as a "gangster villain." But it seems this latest news has put him out of the film for good.
Posted 09.14.09 by reelz