This week we go down the rabbit hole in connection with Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland to bring you a discussion of the film Mirrormask. We get right into it and discuss many other films that share Alice in Wonderland themes. We also bring you a Dictator Club Double Shot, and recommend some more Alice-type films to watching in our Further Dictations segment.
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In this special bonus episode, we bring you our choices for what movies should win at the 82nd Academy Awards. We run through every category except for the short films and give you our opinions on what we want to win, what we think will win, and other great films that failed to get a nomination. So strap yourselves in for 80 minutes and find out what we choose and where we think the Academy will get it right or veer off course.
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Last month (February 16th, 2010), Warner Bros. Home Video released one of the most comprehensive DVD box sets ever. Clint Eastwood: 35 Films 35 Years at Warner Bros. It’s a glorious set that includes every film Clint Eastwood has ever made at the Warner Bros. studio. The list of films is staggering:
Where Eagles Dare, 1968
Kelly’s Heroes, 1970
Dirty Harry, 1971
Magnum Force, 1973
The Enforcer, 1975
The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976
The Gauntlet, 1977
Every Which Way but Loose, 1978
Bronco Billy, 1980
Any Which Way You Can, 1980
Honkytonk Man, 1982
Firefox, 1982
Sudden Impact, 1983
City Heat, 1984
Tightrope, 1984
Pale Rider, 1985
Heartbreak Ridge, 1986
Bird, 1988
The Dead Pool, 1988
Pink Cadillac, 1989
White Hunter, Black Heart, 1990
The Rookie, 1990
Unforgiven, 1992
A Perfect World, 1993
The Bridges of Madison County, 1995
Absolute Power, 1997
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 1997
True Crime, 1999
Space Cowboys, 2000
Blood Work, 2002
Mystic River, 2003
Million Dollar Baby, 2004
Letters from Iwo Jima, 2006
Gran Torino, 2008
As you can see, the list of films Eastwood produced at Warners is easily one of the largest, most varied, and most successful partnerships ever between an actor/director and a studio. Along with those 34 films listed, the box set arrives with a short documentary in tow called The Eastwood Factor, directed by Richard Schickel.
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This week on the Movie Dictator Club podcast, we investigate the release of Kevin Smith's new film, Cop Out. Where does the investigation lead? To the 1989 buddy cop comedy, Collision Course, starring Jay Leno and Pat Morita! We also discuss what movies we've seen in the past week, and give some Buddy Cop Further Dictations.
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I warn you up front, if you have not seen Martin Scorsese’s film, Shutter Island, this article will spoil the ending and potentially ruin any initial experience you might have with the film. That said, if you haven’t seen the film yet and you do choose to read this article I don’t think it will lessen the perceived quality of the film, and in some ways it might help you more fully appreciate the fine story craft on display right from the get-go.
Shutter Island was released last Friday to positive audience response and the highest opening weekend box office of any Scorsese-directed feature. Strangely, the film barely got a pass from the critical community. Many commented on the impeccable filmmaking employed by Scorsese, but it seems that many also dismissed the film as a piece of genre fluff with a cheap twist ending. Unfortunately this dismissal ignores the incredibly deep character study at work in Shutter Island, and the twist is simply the key to unlocking our main character’s disturbed psychological state.
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This week on the Movie Dictator Club, Chuck Canzoneri makes Corey Atad watch Guillermo Del Toro’s thematic predecessor to Pan’s Labyrinth: The Devil’s Backbone. We also take a look at what we’ve been watching over the last week and then recommend some more movie to check out related to The Devil’s Backbone and Shutter Island.
I’d also like to apologize for the problematic audio this episode. There were unforeseen recording issues and the result is a loft of clicking and popping. But stick with us and we promise work on the issue for our next episode.
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Introducing the the new official podcast of TheReelists.com, Movie Dictator Club. Each week Chuck Canzoneri and Corey Atad will bring you an in-depth review of a film related to the week’s big release. We’ll parse cinema’s vast back catalog to force each other to watch films we didn’t originally like, haven’t ever seen, or wouldn’t dare watch otherwise.
This week we venture in the mind of a post-Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola to watch Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The question is, will we survive the journey?
We’ll also bring you our Further Dictations. This week’s topic? Classic Monster Movies.
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If an Alfred Hitchcock film doesn’t involve a body, violence or the threat of violence it may as well not be a Hitchcock film. Thus is the case with The Farmer’s Wife, Hitchcock’s attempt at a silent comedy without a taste of the dark or macabre. There’s nothing wrong with a lighthearted comedy, but what would possess anyone to give a man as cynically dry as Alfred Hitchcock this kind of material?]]>
Somewhere in the distance a timer is counting down. Why? Because in about a week’s time it appears that the masses will finally be able to break free from the slew of uninteresting wide releases Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island is finally unleashed. However, that does not mean the three wide releases this week are without their points of interest, and it certainly seems like each and every demographic is being targeted before Leo sweeps in to win them all over.
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I know little about Indian cinema. For a brief instant in middle school there was a Bollywood phase during a TCM marathon. Mostly I am glad to hear that the popularity of big bright musicals are alive and well in India, however The World of Apu doesn’t fall under that category.]]>