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I Voted for GORE!, Reviews of Movies We've Actually Seen, Taste the Reading Rainbow
Shutter Island: A Whirlwind Boat Tour of Great Actors and Classic FilmsIt could be argued that many of Martin Scorsese's most famous characters are raving lunatics. Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. Jake La Motta from Raging Bull. Jimmy Conway from Goodfellas. Max Cady from Cape Fear. Basically, anybody played by Robert De Niro. I kept hoping for a De Niro cameo in the prison for the criminally insane that provides the setting for Scorsese's latest movie, but alas, no. I had to make do with other cameos, namely several all-too-short appearances by the amazing cast of character actors Scorsese has assembled to populate the 1950s nightmare world he's created. The story itself is a real potboiler, as well, but the plot is less important than the look of the film and the (often brief) performances Scorsese gets from his cast, not to mention the startling fact that Max Von Sydow is still alive. How old is this guy?
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Looking to class things up in your DVD collection this week? Well, some very impressive titles come out today that will make you look like King or Queen of the frickin' Cinema. There's also some stuff that may actually be entertaining, like James Bond having sex with Sarah Connor, but, hey, whatever floats your boat.
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Camera... Action Jackson!, Lights, Reviews of Movies We've Actually Seen, Sci-Fidelity
Inception: The Action/Sci-Fi/Heist Movie You've Been Dreaming OfPositive buzz for Inception shot into the stratosphere with the very first reviews, and since then the response to the movie has been overwhelmingly good. But there's also been a small backlash against what some see as a long, confusing, ponderous film. And maybe it is long, at two and a half hours, but that's slightly shorter than director Christopher Nolan's last, The Dark Knight, and there's a lot more here to chew on. Too much to chew? Perhaps, but I'd rather have an excess than not enough, and this movie certainly gives you plenty to look at while you're chewing.
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Always wanted to plant one on Angelina Jolie? Have dreams of sucking face with Leonardo DiCaprio? If you the opportunity ever arises, you may want to pass and let your wildest dreams stay just that. In Touch Weekly got the skinny on making out with a number of celebs from their co-stars, and if these actors are to be believed, not a single one was a pleasant experience. (In Touch tells you to pick up a copy of their newest mag on newsstands to read the full listing, but fear not dear readers, Defamer has them all in gory detail.)
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Stupid Cinematic Celebrity Sayings, The Casting Conch, You Got Comic Book in My Movie
... Or is This Will Smith's Next Box Office-Crushing Film?After Marvel announced they would be doing a Captain America movie, a lot of casting rumors started to get bandied about, and Marvel themselves reportedly said that they wouldn't mind seeing Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio in the role. While those two certainly fit Cap's blonde, blue-eyed pedigree (and have the acting chops that make fanboys happy), a new rumor has just shot out of the mill that combines acting chops with a lesser-known take on Cap to form an explosive piece of news that everyone will soon be talking about. The role of Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty, was supposedly offered to Will Smith.
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Forbes' list of Hollywood's best paid actors was released this week, and even in this shit economy the boys of the big screen are certainly not hurting for cash. The girls aren't hurting either, but no woman managed to break the top ten in earning. My get-paid-less-for-doing-the-same-job-in-Tinsel-Town bitch session will commence in the break room here at Moviefile headquarters around 12:30, but in the meantime, I'll skip right to the top earners.
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Animation Desensitization, Foreign Relations, Script From the Headlines!, We Call Do-Over
Leonardo DiCaprio Unrolls Ninja Scroll Anime as Live-Action MovieLeonardo DiCaprio is an anime hoarder. Not only does his production company, Appian Way, have the classic Japanese animated film Akira set up at Warner Bros. as a two-movie live-action epic, Appian has now set another classic anime up at Warners: Ninja Scroll. The gory, over-the-top period film, which pits a vagabond ninja against the super-powered assassins known as the Eight Demons of Kimon, will be written by Watchmen screenwriter Alex Tse. Leonardo DiCaprio will not appear in it, thank God.
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Director Ridley Scott's latest, a jet-setting espionage thriller set in the thick of the current Middle Eastern conflicts, is many things. Sometimes it's an action movie, sometimes it's a political movie, at times it's a workplace dramedy -- the boss/employee tension between Russell Crowe's and Leonardo DiCaprio's CIA agent characters is surprisingly relatable, with the two playing their own game of Spy vs. Spy throughout the film. It dips its toes in the waters of moral complexity, but doesn't stay there very long, and it even tries to find time to tell a love story, but doesn't stay there very long, either. The film would feel confused, but the storytelling is not directionless, per se -- more ambitious, really, and I think it tries much harder than most Hollywood films on the subject not to take a side on the issue. It opens with the W.H. Auden quote, "Those to whom evil is done do evil in return." And that's exactly what happens throughout the story. We're evil. They're evil. Our allies in the Middle East desperately trying to hold on to their wealth are evil. And the people who aren't evil are the ones who suffer most.
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Cue the distinctive strains of the Twilight Zone theme! According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio's production company Appian Way are in the early stages of seeking material for a feature take on one or more episodes from the classic TV series." They mean the classic classic series with the smooth intros from writer and Zone mastermind Rod Serling, and not the more recent attempts to revive the show for TV. Nor are they "seeking to remake an episodic movie," referring to the 1983 film that comprised four separate stories and made me a just little bit scared of ambulance drivers. And Dan Aykroyd. And Creedence Clearwater Revival.
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Camera... Action Jackson!, Lights, Taste the Reading Rainbow, The Casting Conch
DiCaprio Doesn't Fear the Reaper for Next RoleI'll probably be disowned by everyone I know for saying this, but I think Leonardo DiCaprio is overrated. By no means am I saying that he's not a decent actor -- he can hold his own -- but I've never really thought the guy could transform himself into other people. He can emote with the best of them, and the man can deliver a line, but whenever I see him onscreen, I see Leonardo DiCaprio, not whatever character he's playing. Then again, I was sitting in the very front row directly in front of the air conditioner output when I went to see Titanic, which got coincidentally frigid right about the time Jack was freezing to death in the water, which made for a seriously miserable movie experience, so maybe I have a DiCaprio mental block. Anyway, whenever Leonardo decides on a role, it's always big news, and his latest pick is no exception.
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