Tom Is Tom

The Top Gun: Maverick trailer dropped last week at ComicCon in San Diego.

Tom Cruise appears to be back. And in fabulous shape.

Even with the world situation the way it is, we all need some kickass summer escapism.

And if the script gives a nod to the passage of time, with drones and the like,so much the better.

It will likely rule the June 26, 2020 weekend.

And in the name of pop culture history, here is the trailer for the original 1986 film:





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Apollo 11: 50 Years Ago This Weekend

Now anyone that knows me well knows that I am a huge fan of good old 70 mm film. I still find  watching digital images in a movie theatre somewhat disconcerting, like watching a movie on your really good TV at home.

Brief but true story. About ten years ago I went to a Classics Series screening of Casablanca on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I wondered how they were able to get either such a good and clear film print of that 1942 classic. Or even if it had been on a then-new DLP hard drive, that would have been cool. The times...they are a-changin' and all that.

But no.

It was neither of the two.

Because the one guy who was presumably responsible for button-starting the 11 or 12 drives...oops I mean films was running late. And so what we got at the end of Casablanca was...a Blu-Ray menu.

"Shit...I could have watched this at home," one guy (not me) said.

Kinda kills the mood all right.

That's why I'm excited to be seeing Apollo 11 in IMAX, using meticulously preserved 70 mm film covering all aspects of the historic Apollo 11 mission that launched 50 years ago this weekend.

It seems nothing short of miraculous that director Todd Douglas Miller and CNN Films were able to find and put this footage together, and prepare it for IMAX exhibition with the help of teams of technicians.

What must it have been like to be part of a world captivated by wonder, watching the impossible exactly 50 years ago?

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Holy Chicken!

You would think it would be almost impossible to go back to the Super Size Me well that director Morgan Spurlock explored in the early 2000s.

But he has found a way.

By asking a simple question:

Just how healthy is all that fast food chicken we now eat?

And would a fast food restaurant which is totally honest about its food's content and nutritional value actually survive?

These questions appear to be addressed by Spurlock with the same probing wit and sense of humor he used in Super Size Me.

Should be interesting when the film drops on September 13, in theatres and digital.

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Joker Stands Alone

The Joker looks good

Real good.

For those who thought that Joaquin Phoenix's acting career was over with his "rapping", captured so brilliantly in Casey Affleck's 2010 "documentary" I'm Still Here":





 Dude just needed a break man...whew!

Joaquin definitely proves that he is indeed still here with his portrayal as The Joker, initially a goofy soul who slowly descends into madness.

And here's the thing...

The movie stands alone.

It's not tied to anything.

We can enjoy it on its own merits.

Hallelujah brothers and sisters!

Just like 2017's similarly brilliant Logan:



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Long Live The Princess Bride!

It has come to my attention through a friend's Facebook wall that there are many many people out there who have not seen The Princess Bride, a 1987 cult classic. So I am posting it here as a public service, to further the betterment and continuation of pop culture.

Because it is pretty damn cool.


Here are five cool facts about The Princess Bride:

1) It started life as a novel by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman.

2) The adventures of Wesley and Buttercup were originally bedtime stories Goldman told his daughters.

3) Before it was released by 20th Century Fox on September 25, 1987 in a lowly nine theatres, it was set up with at least three different studios. Two of these said yes to developing it on Friday...and either shut down or changed management on Monday.

4) On its release in those nine theatres, it made a paltry $206, 243 (per Box Office Mojo), eventually grossing $30,857,814 in 803 theatres after it was widely released on October 9. Absolutely catastrophic numbers in today's movie culture, where a $300 million worldwide gross for a superhero film is considered a "failure". Yet it is remembered and beloved by its many devotees 32 years later, thanks to its rediscovery on home video, which is where I first saw it, on a rainy day in High Prairie, Alberta

Are you listening, Hollywood?

And most importantly, despite creating a rich cinematic "universe" over its 98 minutes, and also despite rock-solid chemistry between stars Cary Elwes and Robin Wright as Wesley and Buttercup, no one at the studio expected to make multiple sequels, and as far as my memory serves, audiences weren't clamoring for one either. Neither the leads nor anyone in the films were signed to Marvel slave contracts, like poor Robert Downey Jr. (I know he isn't poor. But...you know. Deep in your heart, you know. And he knows too.)

Because movie fans were happy to lose themselves in a movie 98 minutes at a time.

And that was enough.

Aside from a video game in 2008, which featured voice work by Robin Wright as Buttercup, Mandy Patinkin as Inigo, and Wallace Shawn as Vizzini:




Are you listening Hollywood?

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First Blood Last Blood

Sylvester \Stallone created the indelible character of John Rambo after captivating audiences with Rocky Balboa. The first installment, First Blood, was actually filmed in Vancouver and released in 1982. The original cut  was very dialogue-heavy and almost three hours long. But Stallone explained in a recent Howard Stern interview that he made the decision to cut out most of his lines and concentrate on the action, which turned out to be a wise decision. Silence can communicate a hell of a lot more than words if handled right, which director Ted Kotcheff does.





Now 37 years later, Stallone brings John Rambo full circle by bringing him home to America, after stops in Cambodia, Afghanistan and Burma in the intervening films. It will be interesting to see how much of the current political climate finds its way into Matthew Cirulnick's script, if at all.


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