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Talented or tainted: Can a porn star go mainstream?
By Gavin Bevis BBC News, Derby
Keiran Lee Keiran Lee is one of the highest paid British male porn actors in the US

Over the past few weeks, movie buffs have been enjoying the new trailer for a forthcoming Lindsay Lohan film.

The Canyons, a low-budget indie production written by American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis, and due for release in the new year, has raised eyebrows for two reasons.
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    3,000 films - that's an awful lot of bad acting to try to get out of an actor's system."

Paul Schrader Director, The Canyons

Aside from the public's continuing fascination with everything Miss Lohan does, the choice of male lead has also caused something of a stir.

The role has gone to James Deen, a well-known adult star who has performed in more than 3,000 porn scenes.

Numerous adult actors have attempted to break into mainstream acting over the past five decades with varying degrees of success.

But does the decision to cast Deen, taken by the film's acclaimed director Paul Schrader - famous for writing the screenplays for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull - represent a shift in attitudes by the mainstream industry?

Derby's Keiran Lee believes so.

The 28-year-old started out filming scenes with a small Loughborough company before relocating to Los Angeles where he is now one of the highest paid British male porn actors.

But the former railway manager has set his sights on an eventual move into mainstream acting and believes conditions are now ripe for this to happen.

He said: "The good thing about the adult industry is it opens a lot of doors for going into mainstream. It's not as taboo as it used to be.
Sasha Grey, James Deen and Jenna Jameson Mainstream ambitions: Sasha Grey, James Deen and Jenna Jameson have all tried to make the move from porn to more 'respectable' roles

"It's progressed to a point now where it's like 'OK, let's put an adult star in there as well' because they have a fan base already and it creates that little bit of taboo.

"It definitely interests me. I'm quite lucky being in LA, I've got some good contacts out there."

Traditionally the only roles given to porn stars were as strippers, bikini-clad beach babes or exaggerated versions of themselves.
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Crossing over: Other adult stars who took mainstream roles

    Asia Carrera The Big Lebowski (1998) - played a porn star
    Aurora Snow and Jenna Haze Superbad (2007) - porn stars
    Nina Hartley Boogie Nights (1997) - unfaithful wife of porn producer
    Traci Lords Blade (1998) - seductive vampire | Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2009) - porn star
    Ron Jeremy Ghostbusters (1984) - extra | Killing Zoe (1994) bank concierge | The Rules of Attraction (2002) - piano player
    Rocco Siffredi Romance (1999), wife's illicit boyfriend | Anatomy of Hell (2003) - gay man who goes straight
    Riley Steele Piranha 3D (2009) - stripper
    Kobe Tai Very Bad Things (1999) - stripper

Jenna Jameson, one of the most well-known crossover adult stars, is best remembered for playing a stripping radio guest in Howard Stern biopic Private Parts.

But Lee feels James Deen's high profile casting, twinned with the much-heralded recent mainstream "breakthrough" of another adult performer, Sasha Grey, are grounds for optimism.

In 2009, Steven Soderbergh cast Grey as an escort in The Girlfriend Experience. He explained he had approached her as she did not seem to fit the mould of a stereotypically "damaged" porn actor.

Grey's performance received mixed reviews. Since then she has starred as an exaggerated version of herself in the US comedy series Entourage as well as taking a handful of smaller roles in low-budget movies.

But Gail Dines, a professor of sociology in Boston and author of the book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, argues that while the mainstream is increasingly absorbing porn imagery, it is not ready to embrace the performers themselves.

"Softcore porn has now migrated to pop culture so much of what you see in magazines, on TV and in movies mimic the images in softcore a decade or so ago. Performers on the other hand don't do so well crossing over," she said.
Steven Soderbergh and Sasha Grey Steven Soderbergh cast Sasha Grey after reading about her in a magazine

"Sasha Grey was the great hopeful for the industry because she landed a plum role but she has only had minor roles and no breakout career yet.

"Female porn performers carry with them the stigma and sleaze factor because of the sexism in the porn industry and the way women are represented as debased, dehumanised and slutty.

"Mainstream culture may be willing to tolerate some softcore porn but is not yet ready to make big stars out of female porn performers.

"Male performers may have an easier time because they can cash in on their hyper-masculinised image, but it is too soon to tell."
50 Shades suggestion

The Canyons director Paul Schrader admitted his concerns about handing a lead role to porn star Deen in an online diary entry earlier this year.

He said: "Bret [Easton Ellis] promised James that I would screen test him. I was reluctant because I thought it unlikely that I would cast him.
Paul Schrader The Canyons director Paul Schrader was reluctant to cast a porn actor

"James has made over 3,000 porn films - that's an awful lot of bad acting to try to get out of an actor's system.

"It was a revelation when James came in. He was not only solid as an actor and prepared, more importantly he had that hard-to-define charisma that draws viewers to characters on screen."

However, Schrader also told how one of his favourite actors for the female lead had lost interest in the project after being told she could be starring opposite Deen.

Production on the film has now finished with Easton Ellis so taken with Deen's performance, he suggested he should be given the lead role in the forthcoming 50 Shades of Grey adaptation.

But whether a major studio would ever be as willing as Schrader and Ellis to embrace a porn star in a lead role is still unclear.

Jordan McGrath, editor of the award-winning EatSleepLiveFilm blog, said: "I'm pretty sure there was no hope out there that Sasha Grey would ever become a breakout star because, in my eyes, it was never going to happen.
Studios 'not squeamish'

"Which, even though understandable, is a little saddening because it really doesn't matter how hard she tries, or even - as the case may be - how good she is: there isn't a studio in the world that will hire her in any project where they expect to make money.

"Talent doesn't come into it, the film industry is a business and you can't see Fox or Warner's throwing the big bucks behind an ex-pornstar.
Academy Awards stage Jordan McGrath argues we are unlikely to see an ex-pornstar picking up an Academy Award

"Will we ever see James Deen in a summer blockbuster? Never. It just can't happen."

But Jeremy Kay, US editor of film trade magazine Screen International, believes major studios will come to employ a more pragmatic attitude.

He said: "Hollywood is a business and the studios don't get squeamish about people's past lives. If the face fits, they're in and they get their chance.

"If the movie does well or audiences react positively to the actor, they could be in it for the long haul.

"Everything is dictated by how the consumers respond to the product."

Mislim da James ima veći mejnstrim potencijal nego Keiran. Da se razumemo, obojica su mi dragi, Lee je možda zapravo i lepši (svakako je viši od Jamesa) ali James ima ono nešto, čini mi se, jedni crtu all-purpose enetretainera koja ga preporučuje za mejnstrim. Potpuno mogu da ga zamislim kako šarmira publiku na kakvom talk showu, dok mi se Lee ne uklapa sasvim u tu sliku.

Pogledao sam DE ROUILLE ET D'OS Jacquesa Audiarda, film sa kojim je ispratio veliki uspeh prethodnog internacionalnog hita i art-house favorita UN PROPHETE i u određenom smislu imao je težak zadatak pred sobom - UN PROPHETE je naprosto imao izuzetno potentnu i umetnički uzbudljivu temu koja je pritom i krajnje populistička, i onda je spoj Audiardove veštine sa svim tim faktorima dovela do utiska da je reč o "neponovljivom" uspehu. Međutim, Audiard pre toga ima veliku kilometražu i nema sumnje da u njemu ima snage za kontinuitet. To je pokazao sa ovim filmom, uprkos velikim pritiscima da ide u Holivud i očekivanjima druge vrste.

DE ROUILLE ET D'OS je odlična melodrama smeštena u brutalne okolnosti kojima Audiard fino maskira zapravo vrlo jednostavnu emotivnu okosnicu svoje priče.

Mathias Schoenaerts je uspeo da za dve godine, u RUNDSKOPu i DE ROUILLE ET D'OS odigra uloge u filmovima sa dve verovatno najsnažnije scene stradanja dece. Međutim, isto tako, za dve godine je uspeo da se nametne kao izvanredna evropska zvezda sa vrlo atipičnim atribuitima totalne sirovine koja nije zarobljena u getu DTVa već uspeva da iskomunicira emociju u "ozbiljnim" filmovima. Schoenaerts je izvanredan u ovom filmu i njegov uspon deluje skoro kao pažljivo planirana strategija igranja u velikim filmovima i saradnje sa velikim rediteljima.

Marion Cotillard je takođe napravila izuzetnu ulogu a uspela je da ne bude zasejena CGI-jem koji je u njenom slučaju prilično prisutan. Njen lik uprkos dimenziji fizičkog i duhovnog bola, nikada ne biva sveden na jednu notu, i na kraju sama drama između glavnih junaka transcendira tu osnovnu, radikalnu, premisu.

Audiard je ponovo privučen svetom i podzemlja i marginalaca, i uprkos tome što ovo nije krimić, jedan deo se dešava u tom miljeu i danas zbilja niko ne ume da ga dočara tako efektno, sa osećajem entropije ali bez gubljenja fokusa.

Na planu tehničke realizacije, a to nema veze isključivo sa ozbiljnim CGI zahtevima, već i na svim nivoima DE ROUILLE ET D'OS je izuzetan rad. U tom smislu, Holivud verovatno nema ništa naročito da pruži Audiardu u ovom trenutku.

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Pogledao sam PARANORMAN Chrisa Butlera i Sam Fella. Nažalost, to mi je sve u svemu bilo jedno konfuzno i naporno iskustvo. Laika uvek ima lepo dizajnirane i tehnički fino realizovane filmove, ali PARANOMAN mi je bio neverovatno konfuzan na nivou dramaturgije, sa predugim uvodom, likovima koji se vrte u krug i nedovoljno razrađenim osnovnim sukobom. U tom smislu, sva mašta i tehnička realizacija mogu samo da deluju kao obećanje nekog boljeg filma koje ovom prilikom nije ispunjeno.

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Pogledao sam ARGO, prvi film u kome se od Bena Afflecka zaista puno očekivalo kad je reč o režiji. I rekao bih da je ovo film koji je na nivou teme izvanredno odabran kao naslov sa kojim će se probiti u holivudsku stratosferu. THE TOWN je bio konzistentniji, bez krupnih grešaka, ali bio je smešten u milje lumetovskog krimića koji je zaista potrošen kroz decenije filmova na tu temu. Ipak, bio je to izvanredan film.

S druge strane, ARGO je film sa sjajnom premisom koju je Affleck dosta fikcionalizovao, i napravio je spoj istinite priče i repertoarskog filma koja funkcioniše besprekorno sve do jedne scene koja preti da sve pokvari, i to ne zbog toga što je sama po sebi loša, štaviše sjajno je realizovana, niti zbog toga što na bilo kom nivou menja idejni predznak filma, već naprosto zato što je neuverljiva i što iskoračuje previše iz te vrlo fine igre istine i fikcije koju su scenarista Chris Terrio i reditelj Ben Affleck dotle uspeli da ispletu.

ARGO u tom smislu ima zaista old school postavku - milje je istinita priča, forma u kojoj se pripoveda je žanrovski film, i sve to pretenduje da na neki način iznese "istinu" o miljeu o kome govori. U dva navrata u štabu CIA, Affleck pravi isti kadar kao Pakula u ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN i meni je to rešenje u određenom smislu ponudilo ključ za razumevanje ovog filma. Affleckov film je na neki način film koji uzima u obzir ranije filmove ne samo kao predmet svoje priče - pošto reference na Holivud prirodno imaju značajno mesto - već i inspiraciju na nivou izraza i vrlo jasno aludira na to da će biti omaž, na barem tri nivoa - biće omaž jednom trenutku u prošlosti, jednom pogledu na film i jednom filmskom studiju a to je Warner Brothers koji je proizveo ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN što je vidljivo u prvom kadru kada umesto savremene inkarnacije WB štita ide ona koja je bila aktuelna u vreme dešavanja priče.

Ako bi se mogli tražiti neki subliminalni detalji vezani za očekivanja oko "oskara" onda upravo ta parafraza Pakulinog kadra ima jedno zanimljivo tumačenje koje sigurno nije tačno ali je krajnje geeky. Naime, u svom ready made omažu studiju Warner Brothers LE CLASSE AMERICAIN, Michel Hazanavicus, prošlogodišnji laureat u nekoliko navrata stavlja upravo taj Pakulin kadar menjanjući mu smisao kroz duhoviti dubbing. Ako imamo u vidu da je Hazanavicousov ARTIST stekao simpatije Akademije delom i zato što se bavi filmskom industrijom, a ARGO ide korak dalje, govori o patriotskoj ulozi Holivuda, onda se još više jača veza Affleck-Hazanavicus, dvojice reditelja koji su prijatno iznenadili javnost snimivši neočekivano zrele radove.

Milje u kome se ARGO dešava je baziran na laži. Jedan deo tog miljea je svet špijuna, političkih intriga, prerušavanja i sl. a drugi deo je svet filma koji je baziran na kosntantnoj borbi sa realnošću. U oba sveta su blef i pretvaranje, i sporadični nadljudski napori osnovna sredstva funkcionisanja, i Affleck uspeva da to fino poentira kroz svoja tri poteza - izbor istinite priče, vladanje žanrom i pametno akcentovanje poente.

Ono što je u rediteljskom smislu upravo i najznačajnija akrobacija koju Affleck uspeva da sprovede jeste to što on istovremeno rekonstruiše epohu i "istinitu priču" suptilno je gurajući u pravcu entertainmenta. U tom pogledu, ne čudi da ga sada zovu da radi filmove o superherojima, jako je teško postići taj spoj izrazitog osvrtanja na stvarnost i implementacije žanrovskih konvencija. A on baš to radi izuzetno vešto.

Do "greške" dolazi u završnoj fazi kada se neumitno mora povećati radna temperatura priče i tu Affleck vrlo inteligentno uspeva da na nivou uvođenja potrebnih elemenata sve učini uverljivim, ali ipak svojim "pametnim" rešenjem ne uspeva da prikrije činjenicu da je tahikardija u toj fazi filma ipak veštački indukovana od jedne tačke. Dakle, u toj fazi formalno ništa ne fali, ali u filmu koji je dotle uspevao da stvori osećaj "prave stvari" čak i kad je najlažniji, počinju da probijaju šavovi preterane artificijelnosti. Srećom film je umetnička forma koja po definiciji može da grešku pretvori u prednost ili da joj ponudi neki dublji smisao.

Zašto je do te greške došlo, naročitp ako imamo u vidu da je Affleck u prvom filmu GONE BABY GONE takođe imao "krizu kraja" ali ju je rešio u THE TOWN, jako je teško objasniti, ali svakako da ona spada u red onih mana koje se zapažaju kod dobrih filmova.

Uostalom, ARGO je priča koja zapravo koristi temu holivudske "laži" kako bi produkovala jednu novu, rafiniranu "laž" i možda je upravo taj završni pečat, to "iskakanje" iz harmonije svojevrsni dokaz da je holivudski oportunizam sa kojim se ARGO šali zapravo i dalje živ.

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Marisa Tomei is in negotiations to join Hugh Grant in the untitled Marc Lawrence rom-com project at Castle Rock Entertainment.

The story centers on an Oscar-winning British screenwriter (Hugh Grant) now creatively washed up, divorced and broke.

He takes a job teaching screenwriting at a small East Coast college, and ends up in a romance with a single mom who has gone back to school.

Shooting kicks off in New York next spring. Martin Shafer and Liz Glotzer are producing.

Source: The Wrap

Pogledao sam THE DAY Douglasa Aarniokoskog. Aarniokoski je bio štićenik Roberta Rodrigueza koji je već desetak godina da se probije u svet režije pod njegovim patronatom ili samostalno, a izgradio je jako veliki i solidan opus kao pomoćnik režije i reditelj druge ekipe. U nekoliko navrata Aarniokoski je zamenjivao reditelje na problematičnim produkcijama ali njegovi projekti poput jednog od nastavaka HIGHLANDERa ipak nisu pokazali da ima veće mogućnosti.

THE DAY je zanimljiv ali na kraju svega ipak marginalan postapokaliptični film u kome se grupa ljudi krije i beži pred grupom ljudi predatore čije namere meni nisu bile baš do kraja najjasnije, da li su oni neki kanibali ili varijacija na vampire, i zašto.

U svakom slučaju, Aarniokoski je čovek koji ima praksu i koji uspeva da sa minimalnim budžetom izvuče dosta, ali koncept kojim se služi deluje najbliže estetici filmaq BOOK OF ELI Braće Hughes, samo bez Denzela i bez te epske, vestern dimenzije. Ovde ima nešto vesterna ali više u pravcu backwoods ambijenata i kamernijih okolnosti, što u spoju sa prilično mutnim motivacijama likova rezultira zanimljivim ali ipak nezaokruženim filmom.

THE DAY u sebi na nivou realizacije ima elemenata da se izdigne iznad DTV miljea, ali ideja je previše mutna da bi izbacio Aarniokoskog tamo gde on pretenduje da bude.

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Quote from: crippled_avenger on 24-11-2012, 03:42:31
Pogledao sam ARGO, prvi film u kome se od Bena Afflecka zaista puno očekivalo kad je reč o režiji. I rekao bih da je ovo film koji je na nivou teme izvanredno odabran kao naslov sa kojim će se probiti u holivudsku stratosferu. THE TOWN je bio konzistentniji, bez krupnih grešaka, ali bio je smešten u milje lumetovskog krimića koji je zaista potrošen kroz decenije filmova na tu temu. Ipak, bio je to izvanredan film.

S druge strane, ARGO je film sa sjajnom premisom koju je Affleck dosta fikcionalizovao, i napravio je spoj istinite priče i repertoarskog filma koja funkcioniše besprekorno sve do jedne scene koja preti da sve pokvari, i to ne zbog toga što je sama po sebi loša, štaviše sjajno je realizovana, niti zbog toga što na bilo kom nivou menja idejni predznak filma, već naprosto zato što je neuverljiva i što iskoračuje previše iz te vrlo fine igre istine i fikcije koju su scenarista Chris Terrio i reditelj Ben Affleck dotle uspeli da ispletu.

ARGO u tom smislu ima zaista old school postavku - milje je istinita priča, forma u kojoj se pripoveda je žanrovski film, i sve to pretenduje da na neki način iznese "istinu" o miljeu o kome govori. U dva navrata u štabu CIA, Affleck pravi isti kadar kao Pakula u ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN i meni je to rešenje u određenom smislu ponudilo ključ za razumevanje ovog filma. Affleckov film je na neki način film koji uzima u obzir ranije filmove ne samo kao predmet svoje priče - pošto reference na Holivud prirodno imaju značajno mesto - već i inspiraciju na nivou izraza i vrlo jasno aludira na to da će biti omaž, na barem tri nivoa - biće omaž jednom trenutku u prošlosti, jednom pogledu na film i jednom filmskom studiju a to je Warner Brothers koji je proizveo ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN što je vidljivo u prvom kadru kada umesto savremene inkarnacije WB štita ide ona koja je bila aktuelna u vreme dešavanja priče.

Ako bi se mogli tražiti neki subliminalni detalji vezani za očekivanja oko "oskara" onda upravo ta parafraza Pakulinog kadra ima jedno zanimljivo tumačenje koje sigurno nije tačno ali je krajnje geeky. Naime, u svom ready made omažu studiju Warner Brothers LE CLASSE AMERICAIN, Michel Hazanavicus, prošlogodišnji laureat u nekoliko navrata stavlja upravo taj Pakulin kadar menjanjući mu smisao kroz duhoviti dubbing. Ako imamo u vidu da je Hazanavicousov ARTIST stekao simpatije Akademije delom i zato što se bavi filmskom industrijom, a ARGO ide korak dalje, govori o patriotskoj ulozi Holivuda, onda se još više jača veza Affleck-Hazanavicus, dvojice reditelja koji su prijatno iznenadili javnost snimivši neočekivano zrele radove.

Milje u kome se ARGO dešava je baziran na laži. Jedan deo tog miljea je svet špijuna, političkih intriga, prerušavanja i sl. a drugi deo je svet filma koji je baziran na kosntantnoj borbi sa realnošću. U oba sveta su blef i pretvaranje, i sporadični nadljudski napori osnovna sredstva funkcionisanja, i Affleck uspeva da to fino poentira kroz svoja tri poteza - izbor istinite priče, vladanje žanrom i pametno akcentovanje poente.

Ono što je u rediteljskom smislu upravo i najznačajnija akrobacija koju Affleck uspeva da sprovede jeste to što on istovremeno rekonstruiše epohu i "istinitu priču" suptilno je gurajući u pravcu entertainmenta. U tom pogledu, ne čudi da ga sada zovu da radi filmove o superherojima, jako je teško postići taj spoj izrazitog osvrtanja na stvarnost i implementacije žanrovskih konvencija. A on baš to radi izuzetno vešto.

Do "greške" dolazi u završnoj fazi kada se neumitno mora povećati radna temperatura priče i tu Affleck vrlo inteligentno uspeva da na nivou uvođenja potrebnih elemenata sve učini uverljivim, ali ipak svojim "pametnim" rešenjem ne uspeva da prikrije činjenicu da je tahikardija u toj fazi filma ipak veštački indukovana od jedne tačke. Dakle, u toj fazi formalno ništa ne fali, ali u filmu koji je dotle uspevao da stvori osećaj "prave stvari" čak i kad je najlažniji, počinju da probijaju šavovi preterane artificijelnosti. Srećom film je umetnička forma koja po definiciji može da grešku pretvori u prednost ili da joj ponudi neki dublji smisao.

Zašto je do te greške došlo, naročitp ako imamo u vidu da je Affleck u prvom filmu GONE BABY GONE takođe imao "krizu kraja" ali ju je rešio u THE TOWN, jako je teško objasniti, ali svakako da ona spada u red onih mana koje se zapažaju kod dobrih filmova.

Uostalom, ARGO je priča koja zapravo koristi temu holivudske "laži" kako bi produkovala jednu novu, rafiniranu "laž" i možda je upravo taj završni pečat, to "iskakanje" iz harmonije svojevrsni dokaz da je holivudski oportunizam sa kojim se ARGO šali zapravo i dalje živ.

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Da, finale filma je takvo da u njemu preteže žanrovsko rešavanje situacije, sa sve karikiranim iranskim vojnicima koji ("svi školovani u Americi i Europi", kako veli glavni junak) fascinirano gledaju u storibordove i prave pokrete rukama te onomatopeje raketnih motora i besmislenom jurnjavom kolima po pisti i u tom smislu, s obzirom na ipak prisutno stereotipiziranje braon ljudi, Argo jeste manje zadovoljavajući film od The Town koji je stvari uspeo da postavi skroz, št bi reperi rekli, realno.

Ali s druge strane, ovo jeste verovatno nešto najpoštenije što u ovom momentu Holivud uopšte može da napravi smeštanjem mizanscena u zemlju gde su braon ljudi domaći. Meni je malo nedostajalo karakterne glume kod glavnog junaka koji je više oruđe nego lik, čak i u prelomnim scenama kada odlučuje da ne ispoštuje naređenje sa vrha i da ipak ide na eksfiltraciju, ovo se rešava totalima sa poluosvetljenom figurom i teatralnim igranjem sa flašom pića, dakle skoro baletski, manje filmski nego što je moglo da bude. Ali s druge strane, dopao mi se maltene cinema verite pristup priči, veoma detaljna rekonstrukcija perioda, ukusno korišćenje dokumentarnog futidža, pa čak i ideološki jedan ipak pošten stav da se priča mala priča unutar velike, u kojoj je jasno zašto navijamo za Amerikance, ali u kojoj se ne krije zašto su Amerikanci, u velikoj priči krivi za ovo što se događa. Zanimljivo je da su na početku ti elementi bek storija ispripovedani baš kroz storibordove - Amerikancima se neprijatna premisa "istorijskog" filma prikazuje kroz filmske alatke u filmu koji govori o snimanju lažnog filma itd...

Nije razočarao Ben.

Pa da, malo mu fali da bude baš zaokružen i pojedinim deonicama kao što je intro maestralan. Taj animirani intro me je podsetio na uvod Bergovog KINGDOMa. Meni je čak manje-više taj momenat fascinacije filmom na aerodromu bio negde prihvatljiv jer je prosto "ljudski", ali su mi Mendezova odluka da prekrši naređenje (potpuno fiktivan detalj BTW) i nesposobnost Iranaca da zaustave avion bili prilično sporni. Da ne govorimo o tome da je pokušaj potere za avionom urađen tehnički odlično i totalno by the book, i on na sve to, ispoštuje potpuno logičnu reakciju odlaska u kontrolu leta, dakle ne uskrati je, ali u takvoj manipulaciji vremenom da to bude neuverljivo prekasno. Plus ne uvodi koncept da ih presretne vazduhoplovstvo (premda u teoriji mogao bi da kaže da nisu svi rodovi vojske još bili reformisani a naročito ti koji su tradicionalno jako vesternizovani...)

Uopšte, ako sad ulazimo u sitna crevca filmskog izraza, najsporniji detalj filma jeste vođenje filmskog vremena koje je malo fishy.

Da, vrlo je convenient proticanje vremena, pogotovo ako uzmemo u obzir da sve, recimo visi o telefonskom pozivu studiju u Holivudu i vremensku razliku između Kalifornije i Irana (koja je cca 12 sati), i, da, to finale je izmontirano zaista previše zgodno. No, dobro, to je naklon žanrovskom rešavanju premise, od koga se autor uglavnom uzdržavao dobar deo filma. S druge strane, zanimljiv je jak kontrast između većine glumačkog ansambla koji glumi naglašeno naturalistički sa jedne strane i sa druge strane Džona Gudmena i Alana Arkina koji su old skul Holivud ne samo po ulogama nego i po pristupu njihovom realizovanju. Šteta je što u filmu objektivno ima malo potrebe za njima na ekranu jer su mogli da naprave još bolji balans ostalim likovima koji su većinom poplašeno šutljivi.

Situacija sa telefonskim pozivom od kog zavise životi junaka a ostvaruje se/ne ostvaruje se da se ne bi zakoračilo u kadar je "istinita" na jednom intimnom nivou percepcije rada na filmu, to jeste na neki način esencija svega onoga što čini Arkina i Goodmana ali je u dramskom pogledu lobovanje.

Pogledao sam CONFESSIONS D'UN BARJO Jerome Boivina, adaptaciju Philipa K. Dicka u scenarističkoj izvedbi Jacques Audiarda i samog Boivina. Boivin i Audiard su prethodno vrlo uspešno adaptirali BAXTERa i BARJO gađa neki sličan domet, nažalost ne dobacuje toliko daleko, ali opet nije ni preterani promašaj. Nisam čitao Dickov izvornik smešten u posleratnu Kaliforniju, ali nemam problem sa načinom na koji je prebačen u Francusku. Ipak, slutim da je Kalifornija tog vremena kudikamo pitoresknija od podalpske savremen Francuske koju doduše Boivin stilizuje ali ona ipak ostaje dosta "suva". U tom pogledu, Boivin i Audiard ne definišu neku naročitu "normu" u odnosu na koju prave satiru ali ona se ipak u priličnoj meri da pretpostaviti.

Čini mi se da su osnovni problemi zbog kojih BARJO ne dobacuje do BAXTERa izuzev toga što je BAXTER idejno i emotivno snažniji, pre svega u tome što se Boivin u rediteljskom postupku pored satire dohvata i farse.

Ipak, ako imamo u vidu da je norma Dickovih adaptacija mahom visokooktanska SF akcija, BARJO spada uz SCANNER DARKLY u one adpatacije koje su zapravo bliže onome što su bili piščevi ciljevi.

Mislim da bi Dick koji je umro deset godina pre izlaska ovog filma, svakako bio zadovoljan time što je inspirisao francuske arty likove da ga ekranizuju.

* * 1/2 / * * * *

ARTILJERO Srđe Anđelića nema milosti. Traje 110 minuta i svojim diletantizmom studiozno iskušava granice gledaočeve izdržljivosti. To je sav onaj talog koji smo mislili da je ispran kada su filmovi kao što je KLIP i TILVA ROŠ počeli da reprezentuju srpsku omladinu na filmu.

U odnosu na ARTILJERO čak i ŠIŠANJE deluje kao rad Michaela Manna, minuciozno postavljeni spoj intelektualizma i vrhunski realizovanog žanra, što mislim da dovoljno ilustruje o kakvom se dnu-dna radi.

ARTILJERO na sve to, ima potpuni poremećaj pogleda na stvarnost, i to ne samo u odnosu na milje o kome govori, to je najmanje sporno. ARTILJERO je suštinski izmešten u neko vreme koje je odavno prošlo, on je osmišljen kao da će se snimiti 1995., kao da nije uveden evro, i ne samo da je reč o filmu koji izgleda kao da su snimili ljudi koji ne znaju ništa o filmu i ne znaju ništa o fudbalu, već deluje kao film koji su snimili ljudi koji ne znaju ništa ni o drugim dnevnopolitičkim događajima.

Pre svega, oni ne znaju da svoju oportunu želju da snime film koji će se dopasti Zvezdašima ne mogu da realizuju sa jednom apsurdnom, arhaičnom, nikakvom pričom koja ne odgovara ni onima koji nisu aktivni navijači ni momcima sa tribina. Jasno je da bi Delije sa Severa htele da vide nešto još luđe od KLIPA "o sebi" i da se toj želji možda ne može podići iz vizure mejnstrima, ali danas mejnstrim u Srbiji ipak podrazumeva nekakav kvalitet, ili barem neku iracionalnu dimenziju kakva krasi najvećeg zvezdaša među rediteljima Zdravka Šotru.

Ovde nema ničega, ARTILJERO je kao neki senilni redstarsploitation koji insistira na poruci a ono što nudi na idejnom planu je prilično mutno, da ne kažem neartikulisano, a na sve to, vrlo je pretenciozno iako se film stalno diči svojom nepretencioznošću.

ŠIŠANJE je barem bio film koji je svoju besmislenu ideologiju neprikriveno plasirao a ARTILJERO se stalno pravi da je diletantski pseudo-novotalasovski film ali stariji brat glavnog junaka nema ruku i Kosovo se pominje u par navrata usput kao predmet sprdnje. Ne kažem da je ŠIŠANJE bolje jer je agresivnije u svojoj ideološkoj busiji, ali ARTILJERO je daleko od nežne, nepretenciozne, naivne omladinske priče koja misli da se time može zaštiti od kritike. ARTILJERO je samo kukavički perfidan ali itekako bi voleo da progovori o Srbiji samo se plaši da se mnogima ne bi dopalo ono što želi da kaže.

Još jedan jeftini trik je nabijanje filma raznim "gradskim facama" kako bi se stvorio svojevrsni "živi zid" javnih ličnosti. To takođe deluje kao neka apsurdna, senilna kolekcija B92 faca, izvučena iz formalina kako bi reprezentovala nešto što više ne postoji, usput rušeći svako iole povoljno sećanje na njih.

ARTILJERO je nažalost slika i prilika te "pivske Druge Srbije" koja je kao isto "pametna i kul" kao i Biljana Srbljanović samo što oni piju pivo ispred dragstora, vole kung fu i gledaju fudbal. E, sada je očigledno da nisu shvatili ništa ni iz filmova ni iz prenosa koje su gledali.

ARTILJERO je film potpuno neartikulisanog izraza, u kome se sav budžetski deficit vidi, dakle neprikriven je veštinom ekipe, sa pričom koja je istovremeno jednostavna i nemoguća za praćenje i konačno sa nekoliko antologijskih gluposti koje najdirektnije devalviraju sve one vrednosti koje film želi da promoviše.

Naime, film govori o momku koji bi trebalo da bude primer huligana koji ipak voli fudbal i želi da Zvezda dobro igra. Kako bi to ostvario smatra da Nemanja Vidić treba da se vrati u Zvezdu. Pre nego što se uhvatimo za glavu nad celokupnim kretenizmom ove zamisli, hajde da je prihvatimo kao uslovnost iz FIELD OF DREAMS - "sagradi teren i on će doći". Međutim, to će se realizovati tako što če grupa Zvezdaša preobučena u Partizanovce opljačkati nekoliko zlatara, fitnes centara i kladionica. Ako zanemarimo potpuni apsurd ideje da bi na taj način oni mogli skupiti toliko novca. Ako kažemo da je to subverzivni čin, da je to neki akt građanske neposlušnosti zbog lošeg stanja u FK Crvena Zvezda - zašto to Delije rade obučeni u Grobare? To je otprilike kao da Al Kaida sruši WTC i onda podmetne to delo baskijskim separatistima? Da li su Delije toliki smutljivci da ne smeju da pokažu svoje boje na ulici ili da žele da lažno optuže Grobare?

Ako jesu, zašto su onda na kraju ipak uhapšeni počinioci koji su Delije? I zašto onda svoj odlazak u zatvor zbog pljačkanja zlatare smatraju činom vrhunske lične žrtve i emanacije zvezdaškog duha a to su uradili u tuđim bojama?

Konačno, da li je poenta filma da je zapravo pljačkanje ono najveće što navijači mogu da učine za svoj klub?

Dakle film je strašno loš a pored toga je i uvredljivo besmislen na svim nivoima.

Ovo je film u kome junak optuži policajce da "i dalje navijaju za Partizan"

Mislim da to dovoljno govori o čemu je ovde reč... Još je paradoksalnije to što u filmu neke od uloga imaju kao "pravi" navijači, veterani sa tribina, koji su valjda na neki način možda mogli da doprinesu ako ne "realističnosti" već tome da se njihov klub ne prikazuje tako pogrešno.

U svakom slučaju, ARTILJERO nije dostojan reprezent bilo čega u našem filmu. Slažem se da bi omladinski film kod nas trebalo da ima i nekog "artificijelnog" predstavnika ali ako je ARTILJERO primer toga, onda bolje ne.

Ja sam se malo iznenadio kada sam shvatio da Mjehur misli da ume da režira, ali, nakon ovog, hm, osvrta, reklo bi se da ne ume.

No, iz njega nismo saznali ono što na sve kopka: kako se Artiljero drži u odnosu na Ona voli Zvezdu?

Teško je reći. ONA VOLI ZVEZDU je više bajka, a ovo je više realizam, ali čini mi se da je ARTILJERO dosadniji, a ZVEZDA na nivou celine deplasiraniji rad.

Mrtva trka    Nego, kad ćeš se oglasiti povodom Smrti Čoveka na Balkanu? Ja znam da si ti ismijavao Sedam i po, ali ovo deluje ako ništa drugo kao smeo eksperiment sa bioskopskim filmom.

Jos ga nisam pogledao ali mislim da je 2012. godina sa filmovima kao sto su CHRONICLE i PROJECT X pokazala da je found footage konacno poceo da produkuje dobre naslove. SMRT COVEKA je prvi srpski found footage rad tako da ga nestrpljivo cekam.

Par sedmica nisam bio u bioskopu i onda se nakupilo gradivo pa sam isao sistemom eliminacije - redosled je bio baziran na proceni koji ce mi film prvi pobeci sa repertoara - samo je SKYFALL izuzetak jer je bio u terminu koji mi odgovara. U tom smislu, cini mi se da je od domacih VIR mozda urgentniji jer SMRT ide dosta dobro na blagajnama, ima 20 hiljada gledalaca...

Pogledao sam HORROR EUROPA WITH MARK GATISS. Reč je o BBC dokumentarcu u kome Mark Gatiss vodi publiku kroz svoju istoriju horor filma u kontinentalnoj Evropi, i obuhvata početke u nemačkom impresionizmu, arty ekscese u Belgiji, francusku školu u tradiciji Bopileau-Narcejac, Italijane i Špance. Manje-više sve o čemu govori ovaj jednoipočasovni dokumentarac spada u red poznatih informacija i tumačenja ljubiteljima žanra. Gatiss nema snagu Žiežeka da unutar poznatih stvari pruži nešto sveže. Međutim, sasvim je moguće da ovaj rad može biti jako zanimljiv onima kojima je namenjen, a to su gledaoci koji nisu nimalo upoznati sa tradicijom kontinentalnog evropskog horora. U tom pogledu, jedino je šteta što Gatiss nije zavirio iza Gvozdene Zavese jer je i tamo bilo zanimljivih zahvata, ali ostatak filma u principu zaista deluje ohrabrujuće za neupućene gledaoce da se malo više pozabave ovom temom. Ono što je meni zasmetalo jeste Gatissov odnos prema temi koji je istovremeno vrlo informativan a zatim gurnut u neke nevažne digresije kojima kao da pokupšava da se obrati i "obaveštenijoj" publici u čemu ne uspeva. Naravno da je fanovima zanimljivo da vide snimke ostarelih velikana ali neke diskusije, naročito recimo sa Bavinim unukom su potpuno besmislene a pojedine su simpatičnije na nivou zamisli nego u formatu u kom su plasirane.

Zero Dark Thirty: Film Review
12:02 AM PST 11/25/2012 by Todd McCarthy
The Bottom Line
The story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden builds relentlessly to a powerful end result.
Opens
Wednesday, Dec. 19 (limited)
Friday, Jan. 11 (wide) (Sony)

Kathryn Bigelow's and Mark Boal's "Hurt Locker" follow-up tells the story of the hunt for Osama bin Laden and stars Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke.

Whether you call it well-informed speculative history, docudrama re-creation or very stripped-down suspense filmmaking, Zero Dark Thirty matches form and content to pretty terrific ends. A long-arc account of the search for Osama bin Laden seen from the perspective of an almost insanely focused female CIA officer who never gives up the hunt until the prey ends up in a body bag, Kathryn Bigelow's and Mark Boal's heavily researched successor to Oscar winner The Hurt Locker will be tough for some viewers to take, not only for its early scenes of torture, including waterboarding, but due to its denial of conventional emotionalism and non-gung ho approach to cathartic revenge-taking. Films touching on 9/11, such as United 93, World Trade Center and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, have proved commercially toxic, and while this one has a "happy" ending, its rigorous, unsparing approach will inspire genuine enthusiasm among the serious, hardcore film crowd more than with the wider public.
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Even though it runs more than 2 1/2 hours, Zero Dark Thirty is so pared to essentials that even politics are eliminated; there's essentially no Bush or Cheney, no Iraq War, no Obama announcing the success of the May 2, 2011, raid on bin Laden's in-plain-sight Pakistani compound. Similarly absent is any personal life for the single-minded heroine; when it's suggested at one point that she might want to have a fling, she colorfully replies that she's not a girl who does that sort of thing. The film does question whether she gives up some of her humanity to so selflessly dedicate herself to this sole professional aim but seems to answer that, for some, this is what represents the essence of life; everything else is preparation and waiting.
Its military-jargon title referring to a state of darkness as well as to the time of 12:30 a.m., Zero Dark Thirty opens with 90 seconds or so of black screen accompanied by a soundtrack collage of emergency phone calls from people trapped in the Twin Towers; no need for the familiar visuals here. Cut to two years later, when a captured nephew of Osama bin Laden undergoes a prolonged series of brutal CIA interrogations that involve beatings, waterboarding, being bound by a dog collar and ropes and getting locked in a small wooden box. It's not the most inviting way to usher a viewer into a movie.
Then again, the hunt for bin Laden was no picnic either; it was an enormously frustrating endeavor that untold amounts of money, manpower and strategic thinking couldn't bring to a successful close for nearly a decade. The man who had engineered the deaths of some 4,000 people became a phantom, protected by forbidding geography, loyal followers and an already legendary aura.
VIDEO: New 'Zero Dark Thirty' Trailer: 'You Will Never Find' Osama bin Laden           
For a while, as the film hopscotches through the years, Boal's script appears to be structured journalistically around a series of greatest terrorist hits, so to speak: We witness the deadly outrages of a 2004 attack in Saudi Arabia, the 2005 bus and tube bombing in London, the 2008 attack on the Karachi Marriott and, the following year, a shocking breach at a secured CIA base in Afghanistan.
Connecting the dots, however, is the dogged presence of Maya (Jessica Chastain), a young, flame-haired CIA officer who barely flinches when she first witnesses torture, is described as "a killer" by a colleague and, after a close call, allows that, "I believe I was spared so I could finish the job." Boal, who dug as deeply into the classified aspects of the case as possible but seems to have been more committed to protecting the identities of those involved than even some participants have been, has said that there really is a "Maya," though details have been fudged and altered to prevent identification.
Given no backstory, links to the world outside the CIA or any interest in small talk or other subjects, Maya occasionally has a drink to unwind but otherwise seems entirely incapable of shutting down her laser-like focus of her obsession. She becomes tolerably friendly with a gregarious, chatty female colleague (the ever-wonderful Jennifer Ehle) but most of the time is the only female in the room; she knows when to hold her tongue, and her frustrations are legion, but she also finds her moments to assert herself and speak out to superiors when she suspects her contributions are being ignored, due either to her rank or because she's a woman.
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Much as she did with the equally tightly wound protagonist of The Hurt Locker, Bigelow sends Maya through a minefield, this time consisting of bureaucratic trip-wires as well as potentially fatal traps. The director also successfully creates a double-clad environment that is both eerie and threatening, that of the supposedly safe and protected enclaves of the CIA that exist within the larger context of the Muslim world. From very early on, Maya seizes on the idea that the way to eventually track down bin Laden is to identify and follow his couriers, as they will inevitably one day reveal where the Al-Qaeda leader is hiding.
As we know, she's right, but it takes years for the tactic to pay off. Even once she and her cohorts track down the long-elusive Abu Ahmad, following his vehicle through the chaotic streets of Rawalpindi is a nightmare. But after a succession of road blocks, setbacks and dead ends, Maya finally convinces herself that bin Laden is holed up in the house in Abbottabad, whereupon her convictions ascend the ladder of command to the point where the CIA director (James Gandolfini) braces himself to enter the Oval Office and recommend a stealth raid to the president.
Bigelow and Boal play a long game, moving from the brutal opening through impressively detailed but not always compelling vignettes of the CIA at work to interludes in which Maya's ferocious dedication begins to possibly play dividends and finally to the climactic 40 minutes, which lay out with extraordinary detail and precision the almost improbably successful operation that begins at Area 51 in Nevada, where we first see the amazing stealth helicopters ideally designed for such a mission, and ends with Maya identifying the body that's brought back.
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In between is an exceptionally riveting sequence done with no sense of rah-rah patriotic fervor but, rather, tremendous appreciation for the nervy way top professionals carry off a very risky job of work; Howard Hawks would have been impressed. Slipping low through mountain passes in darkness from Afghanistan to Pakistan with rotor noise muffled by special equipment, the two choppers drop off their Navy SEALs, one then crashes in the yard but, remarkably, the noise seems not to arouse any locals just yet.
The men, all wearing helmets that bizarrely feature four night vision lenses protruding from the front, proceed into the sealed-up house, breaking down doors and exploding locks as they go. Instead of rushing the place, as per usual cinematic practice, they move slowly and cautiously, room by room, killing the messenger, among others, and encountering several women and many children as they go. The tall man remains elusive, but there are still more doors to open. Still, with each minute, the danger of exposure and failure increases -- locals from the neighborhood are beginning to head toward the house -- and they still haven't found their prize. Until, finally, they do.
Because of the black-and-green, video-like quality of the night vision imagery, these momentous events possess the pictorial quality of low-budget Blair Witch/Paranormal Activity thrillers, which merely contributes further to their weirdness. And because of the deliberate pace at which the men make their way through the house, an unsettling airlessness sets in, a feeling of being suspended in time that's unlike any equivalent climactic action sequence that comes to mind.
But quite apart from its historical significance, at least the scene is here to provide a welcome catharsis, as at one time would not have been the case. The filmmakers initially embarked on this project before the bin Laden raid took place, which obviously would have resulted in an entirely different sort of film, dramatically and philosophically; without a resolution, it could hardly have helped from being an existential tale of quite substantial dimensions.
STORY: New Documents Give Details of Bigelow, Boal's Access to bin Laden Raid
As it has emerged instead, Zero Dark Thirty could well be the most impressive film Bigelow has made, as well as possibly her most personal, as one keenly feels the drive of the filmmaker channeled through the intensity of Maya's character. The film's power steadily and relentlessly builds over its long course, to a point that is terrifically imposing and unshakable.
Chastain carries the film in a way she's never been asked to do before. Denied the opportunity to provide psychological and emotional details for Maya, she nonetheless creates a character that proves indelible and deeply felt. The entire cast works in a realistic vein to fine effect.
Similarly, all the technical contributions are put at the service of full verisimilitude. Locations in Jordan and India fill in beautifully for Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Why 'Zero Dark Thirty' Is the Masterpiece of 9/11 Cinema We've Been Waiting For


"Zero Dark Thirty." "Zero Dark Thirty" fills its first minute with a harrowing black screen set to the screams of panic from distress calls during 9/11. The last time such a device was used to evoke that tragic day without relying on explicit images of burning buildings was Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which utilized reaction shots to underscore the human element of the devastation. In that context, the intimation served to resurrect the anger and shock later appropriated to start a war. Bigelow, a subtler filmmaker less driven by ideology than instinct, applies a similar approach to convey more complex reactions driving the weighty historical drama about to unfold: The utter chaos of fighting a losing battle and then clawing back to the top.

Featuring another team-up with "The Hurt Locker" screenwriter Mark Boal, Bigelow's taut depiction of the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden is a true movie of the moment. In an alternate reality where bin Laden remained at large, the filmmaker would have made "Kill Bin Laden," the earlier version of "Zero Dark Thirty" still in production when Barack Obama announced the Al Qaida's chief's death at the hands of Navy SEAL operatives in May 2011. With bin Laden still on the loose, it would remain thematically rooted in the darkness of the movie's opening moments.

Given the chance to give her story a happy ending, Bigelow smartly blankets it in shades of ambiguity. "Zero Dark Thirty" tracks a full range of emotions associated with the proverbial war on terror, from the naivete of its earliest stirrings to the spirit of vengeance that gave its apparent victory such a vital quality in the Western world. At the same time, the movie questions the certitude of the transition from despair to triumph, enabling "Zero Dark Thirty" to realize the power of its immediacy while giving the proceedings a lasting value. With ambitious young CIA agent Maya (Jessica Chastain) embodying the mixture of thrill and fury driving the hunt for bin Laden, Bigelow's engaging nail-biter avoids the pratfalls of "spiking the football," as the President described the danger of celebrating bin Laden's death. Instead, it's an opportunity to sober up.
READ MORE: 'Zero Dark Thirty' On Criticwire

From its pre-credits prologue, "Zero Dark Thirty" jumps ahead to 2004, during a stage of investigation fraught with uncertainty, when American intelligence still relied heavily on brash interrogation techniques. Set at a series of "black sites" in Pakistan and Iraq, where American intelligence subjected prisoners to waterboarding and other violent means of obtaining whatever intel they could, the story begins with Maya's arrival as a new recruit trained by a jaded interrogator (Jason Clarke) who quickly shows her the violent ropes. His brazen show of hostility toward the Al Qaeda operative in their possession mirrors the empty "America, Fuck Yeah" attitude that defined immediate post-9/11 temperaments.

"This is what defeat looks like, bro," he tells the helpless prisoner while grasping at straws. Maya, initially shocked by the situation, manages to funnel that frustration into a cunning strategy as she grows into the role of mission leader. Boal's screenplay encompasses years of events by boiling them down to Chastain's commitment to her task, which evolves past the dissolution of the U.S.'s detainee program to a diversification of the strategy that eventually allows her to drop a pin on bin Laden's whereabouts. Rarely smiling or seen in repose, she's a menacing figure of determination.

We only know enough about Maya in the moment to watch how her anger over each subsequent failure makes her stronger -- and potentially more dangerous. Her burgeoning confidence is a realization of the John Wayne fantasy that the Bush administration constantly reached for. From her routine insistence that "I'm going to kill bin Laden," she eventually gets the money quote when she speaks up in a strategy discussion about the possibilities of a raid.  "I'm the motherfucker that found this place," she says, indulging the aggression she's so frequently forced to keep pent up. Lacking certainty about bin Laden's whereabouts even in the moments leading up to that famous assault, Maya's persistence involves an aspect of religious conviction that puts a human face on the confidential processes driving modern warfare. She's a symbol with many layers.



Given its scope and undulating feelings, "Zero Dark Thirty" takes into account a series of shifting temperaments. Bigelow consolidates the past decade of 9/11 cinema with plenty of familiar ingredients, whether or not they're there on purpose. With James Gandolfini in a fleeting role as coarse CIA head Leon Panetta, the actor virtually stumbles into the room straight out of "In the Loop," Armando Ianucci's brilliant satire of the institutional dysfunction that lead the country to war.

While not a blatant satire, "Zero Dark Thirty" similarly shows the delicate balancing act involved in wartime strategy always on the brink of turning sour. In more precise terms, Bigelow's ability to dramatize modern history known to many but only truly understood by a precious few mirrors the surreal quality of Paul Greengrass' "United 93," which also managed to transform traumatic history into cinematic narrative. And from the burgeoning temperaments of post-9/11 warmongering found in the finale of Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," Boal's screenplay eventually arrives at the uneasy mindset associated with a seemingly endless battle, echoing Bigelow's own "The Hurt Locker."   

Unlike "The Hurt Locker," however, "Zero Dark Thirty" shows the cracks in planning stages outside the battle field. Boal's dialogue constantly prances between false bravado and tentative belligerence, a fascinating game of risk with echoes of "Dr. Strangelove," particularly once the Administration prevaricates over whether it's worth the effort to send troops into the home where they believe Bin Laden hides. "We don't know what we don't know," somebody says, a staggering admission that prompts the apt response, "What the fuck does that mean?"
Of course we know what they don't know, which makes the finale such a juicy epilogue after so much chatter. The movie's title refers to the 12:30am raid on the Abbotabad compound where bin Laden was discovered, and after spending over two hours demystifying the process behind that discovery, Bigelow delivers an acute realization of the mission's execution that's eerily in sync with the way it played in the popular imagination. Visually, the events unfold as a mashup of shadowy movements with flashes of green night vision. It's simultaneously predictable and tense.

Yet even as "Zero Dark Thirty" veers towards the inevitable victory march, Bigelow observes the team's swift maneuvers without valorizing them, leaving room for interpretation as to its moral certitude. Wherever you fall, the climax contains serious payoff, but then comes a final image that realizes the entire spectrum of post-9/11 trauma with hardly one word spoken. This telling coda brings us up to date with the one question Bigelow's trenchant movie can't answer: Now what?

Criticwire grade: A+

Zero Dark Thirty
By PETER DEBRUGE

Jessica Chastain stars in the Osama Bin Laden pic 'Zero Dark Thirty.'

A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures presentation of a Mark Boal/First Light/Annapurna Pictures production. Produced by Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison. Executive producers, Colin Wilson, Greg Shapiro, Ted Schipper. Co-producers, Jonathan Leven, Matthew Budman. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Screenplay, Mark Boal.
With: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Edgar Ramirez, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt, Joel Edgerton, Reda Kateb.
Running a dense two hours thirty, before credits, "Zero Dark Thirty" reunites director Kathryn Bigelow with reporter-turned-scenarist Mark Boal in re-creating the hunt for Osama bin Laden, rejecting nearly every cliche one might expect from a Hollywood treatment of the subject. Far more ambitious than "The Hurt Locker," yet nowhere near so tripwire-tense, this procedure-driven, decade-spanning docudrama nevertheless rivets for most of its running time by focusing on how one female CIA agent with a far-out hunch was instrumental in bringing down America's most wanted fugitive. Spinning the pic as a thriller, Sony could beat the 9/11-movie curse when the Dec. 19 limited release goes wide in January.
Opportunely held for release until after the presidential election had played out, "Zero Dark Thirty" arrives shrouded in nearly as much mystery as bin Laden's whereabouts before news broke that a team of Navy Seals had successfully terminated his life on May 2, 2011. The title, military-speak for half-past midnight, refers to the Al Qaeda leader's time of death, theoretically promising a flashy first-hand account of the raid itself. But Bigelow and Boal reduce the spectacular assault on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, to the last half-hour in order to dedicate the rest of the film to the lesser-known backstory.

By forcing partisan politics into the wings (President George W. Bush goes entirely unseen, while auds' only glimpse of President Obama is during a 2008 campaign interview), the filmmakers effectively give gender politics the whole stage: The pic presents the highest-profile U.S. military success in recent memory as the work of a single woman, "Maya" (Jessica Chastain), inspired by a real CIA analyst Boal discovered during his research, and presented here as the only government official convinced that bin Laden wasn't "hiding in some cave" (Bush's words), but somewhere she could find him.

Stepping up from a year busy with supporting roles, Chastain may at first seem an unusual choice for the lead. But she shows she has the chops to embody the pic's iron-nerved protag, holding her own in the testosterone-thick world of CIA black sites and top-level Washington boardrooms. She first appears as witness to a military interrogation in which a colleague resorts to extreme measures to force information from an Al Qaeda money handler (Reda Kateb).

Compared with her wild-eyed cowboy of a colleague, Dan (Jason Clarke), Maya's body language suggests a little girl, clearly uncomfortable with the waterboarding and sexual humiliation that were common practice in the morally hazy rendition era. When Dan leaves the room for a moment, the desperate prisoner tries to appeal to her humanity. She wavers for only a moment before firing back, "You can help yourself by being truthful."

Unlike, for instance, Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling in "The Silence of the Lambs," Chastain plays Maya as fragile on the outside, Kevlar-tough beneath the skin. After narrowly surviving one terrorist attack and seeing another promising lead literally blow up in a female colleague's face, Maya grits her teeth and swears, "I'm gonna smoke everybody involved in this op, and then I'm going to kill bin Laden."

Like Bigelow herself, Maya realizes that actions -- or action movies, in the director's case -- are the surest way to combat a tradition in which society doesn't believe women to be capable of getting the job done, and "Zero Dark Thirty" follows the character through every significant step along her 10-year journey to hold bin Laden accountable for 9/11. The film opens with audio of a terrified victim of the World Trade Center attack playing over a black screen and uses the emotional power that clip dredges up to fuel everything that follows.

The result is neither particularly entertaining nor especially artful, as the filmmakers take a lean, "All the President's Men"-style approach to dramatizing an investigation that took nearly a decade to bear fruit. But Boal has clearly constructed this as a more journalistic alternative to a generic gung-ho approach. The script's blood runs thick with observational detail and military jargon, skipping forward years at a time between scenes to focus on one of two types of incident.

The first concerns the slow but steady progress in Maya's investigation, which hinges on her conviction that any clues they can discover about bin Laden's courier will eventually lead them back to UBL (the military acronym for bin Laden) himself. The second type involves an ongoing series of terrorist attacks that continue to claim lives as long as bin Laden goes free (never mind that they will not stop once he's dead). Bigelow keeps her audience on its toes by alternating between the two, allowing virtually no room for subplots or superfluous character baggage beyond what's needed for the task at hand.

With its handheld camerawork, naturalistic lighting and dialogue-drowning sound design (especially heavy on ambient helicopters), the film reflects the latest fashion in cinematic realism, compromised only slightly by the bare-minimum mood setting from Alexandre Desplat's Middle East-inflected score. Chastain's presence reminds us we're watching a movie, and yet, this slight degree of self-consciousness serves to reinforce the point that it's a woman pushing the process forward.

Maya may not be made of the same stuff as her male colleagues, but that's essential to the operation's success. While those around her equivocate and refuse to take action, she sticks to her guns and keeps track, in dry-erase marker, of the bureaucratic delays since they've located bin Laden.

Finally, when the off-camera Obama gives her mission the green light, Maya stares down a pair of cocky Navy Seals (Chris Pratt and Joel Edgerton) and tells them in no uncertain terms that she has no patience for their macho B.S. Only then does Bigelow offer auds what they paid to see: a re-construction of the raid on bin Laden's compound. Virtuoso as the sequence is to behold, it lacks both the detail of Matt Bissonnette's bestselling insider memoir "No Easy Day" and the visceral immediacy of this year's earlier Seals-supported indie, "Act of Valor," as well as the satisfaction of seeing the dead bin Laden's face (also withheld by the U.S. goverment).

Dramatically speaking, the raid feels almost anti-climactic -- an epilogue to a personal crusade that ends the moment Maya is taken seriously. Still, considering how seldom female storytellers have been given a chance to operate on this scale, it's fair to let Bigelow overturn narrative expectations to some degree. The ultra-professional result may be easier to respect than enjoy, but there's no denying its power, both as a credible reimagining of what went down and a welcome example of distaff resolve prevailing in an arena traditionally dominated by men.

Camera (color), Greig Fraser; editors, Dylan Tichenor, William Goldenberg; music, Alexandre Desplat; music supervisor, John Bissell; production designer, Jeremy Hindle; supervising art director, Rod McLean; art director, Ben Collins; set decorators, Lisa Chugg, Onkar Knot; costume designer, George L. Little; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat/SDDS), Ray Beckett; sound designer, Paul N.J. Ottosson; supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer, Ottosson; stunt coordinator, Stuart Thorp; special effects supervisor, Richard Stutsman; visual effects supervisor, Chris Harvey; visual effects, Image Engine; associate producer, David A. Ticotin; assistant director, Ticotin; casting, Mark Bennett, Richard Hicks, Gail Stevens. Reviewed at Sony Studios, Culver City, Calif., Nov. 21, 2012. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 157 MIN.

Movies

Zero Dark Thirty: The Girl Who Got bin Laden

By Richard CorlissNov. 25, 2012224 Comments
     
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JONATHAN OLLEY / COLUMBIA PICTURES
Zero Dark Thirty
Year: 2012
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Actors: Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton
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In a "black site" at an undisclosed location, a CIA officer is interrogating a man suspected of having information on the courier of Osama bin Laden. The suspect, Ammar (Reda Kateb), believes he can withstand the waterboarding, the dog collar, the sleep and food deprivation, the heavy metal music  that hammers his warehouse cell 24 hours a day; he boldly asserts that "jihad will go on for a hundred years." But as his captor, Dan (Jason Clarke), patiently explains, "In the end, bro, everybody breaks. It's biology." Ammar turns to Dan's silent partner, Maya (Jessica Chastain), and cries, "Your friend is an animal. Please help me." The ordeal continues. That's diplomacy, by any means necessary.

The 9/11 attacks instantly created a new world disorder, changing the face of the enemy from cranky tyrants to a stateless ascetic with the dream of crippling infidel America. Al-Qaeda's coup also rendered the old book of counterintelligence ethics obsolete. Bribes and blackmail were still permitted, but no gentlemen or ladies needed enlist in the war on terror. The stakes were too high, as Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, the director and writer of The Hurt Locker, document in their powerhouse thriller Zero Dark Thirty. "I want targets!" shouts George (Mark Strong), a high-level CIA official, to his agents in the field. "Do your f—in' job. Bring me people to kill." At this time, Leon Panetta (James Gandolfini) is the CIA director, and Maya has been working for years to locate Mr. Big — to bring in the head of Osama bin Laden.

(MORE: TIME's Review of The Hurt Locker)

Surrounded by tattooed enforcers like Dan and upper-management toughies like George, Maya at first seems as pale and petite as a naked mole rat. When Dan is transferred back home and Maya assumes control of the interrogations, her boss warns her, "You don't want to be the last one holding the dog collar when the oversight committee comes." But Maya has developed copper callouses and steely reserve, especially after some of her closest colleagues were blown to bits in the 2009 suicide bombing at the Camp Chapman base in Afghanistan, which killed seven CIA agents. Maya believes she was spared so she could finish the job. "I'm gonna smoke everybody involved in this op," she says of the Camp Chapman attack. "And then I'm gonna kill bin Laden."

The making of Zero Dark Thirty, which opens on Dec. 19 in a few theaters before expanding in January, was an operation nearly as complex and secretive as the one that took down bin Laden. Some industry analysts, inferring that the movie was all about the May 1, 2011, SEAL Team 6 raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader, wondered why a woman had the leading role. (The raid consumes just the final fifth of the movie.) The clandestine nature of the enterprise also stoked sepulchral suspicions, both on the right and the center-left, that ZDT would be a mash note to Barack Obama, who gave the go-ahead for the raid, while George W. Bush proclaimed in 2004 that "I really just don't spend that much time on [bin Laden]" and Mitt Romney in 2007 said it was "not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person."

(PHOTOS: Navy SEALs in Action)

Before the movie had begun shooting, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd asserted that "the White House has outsourced the job of manning up the President's image to Hollywood." Peter King, the House Republican who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, promised an investigation of any aid the Obama Administration might have afforded Boal; and the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund, a political action group stocked with Tea Party Express members and ex-Bush officials involved in the Iraq war, produced a YouTube video charging the film with "dishonorable disclosures" — as if the Defense Department didn't pour millions into supplying hardware and expertise to Hollywood movies (Transformers, Act of Valor and dozens of others) and government insiders didn't routinely spill secrets to journalists like Bob Woodward. And Dowd.

For the record, Bigelow received no help from the U.S. government — no lending of aircraft or weaponry — in the depiction of the Abbottabad, Pakistan, raid or of any other military activity. And we would hope that Boal, like any investigative reporter, received knowledgeable help in getting his facts straight. Further, this is in no way a political film; it carries neither a torch for Obama (who is seen only for seconds, promising in a 2008 news clip to end waterboarding) nor the agitated imprint of an Oliver Stone film. Essentially, it's a police procedural on a grand scale.

(PHOTOS: Special Ops: A Photo History)

First and last, Zero Dark Thirty is a movie, and a damned fine one. Like Argo — which, with all due respect to director Ben Affleck and the film's many admirers, ZDT blows out of the water — it dramatizes a true-life international adventure with CIA agents as the heroes. (And it takes fewer fictional liberties with the source material than Affleck did.) In the tradition of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, Boal tracked down the particulars of a sensational exploit and, skipping the "nonfiction novel" stage, created an original screenplay that provides a streamlined timeline of the hunt for bin Laden. The word docudrama doesn't hint at Boal's achievement. This is movie journalism that snaps and stings, that purifies a decade's clamor and clutter into narrative clarity, with a salutary kick.

(MORE: TIME's Review of Argo)

It's a subject perfect for Bigelow. She has wrangled complex stories about cops (Blue Steel), undercover FBI agents (Point Break) and nuclear-submarine commanders (K19: The Widowmaker) and in the process proved herself to be one of cinema's most inventive visual strategists and field commanders — and, in a nice way, Hollywood's ballsiest director. Perched between the serene classicism of old Hollywood and the jittery crazy-cam of the Bourne era, Bigelow's style is terse and assured. There's no question which side she's on, but she allows virtually all the characters, American and Middle Eastern, their moments of reason or sympathy. In this case she is neither prosecutor nor judge — simply the sharpest, most attentive member of the jury.

In The Hurt Locker, which won Oscars for Best Director and Original Screenplay, Bigelow and Boal viewed the war on terror in a microcosm, through the eyes of a trio of bomb defusers in Iraq. ZDT is a macrocosm. Instead of a Baghdad street where an IED could explode underfoot, Maya and her colleagues tread a minefield that stretches from Kabul to Times Square. Though it focuses on the determination and resilience of Maya (who is based on a real CIA tracker), the film is a giant fresco, an imposing series of surgical strikes set in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Poland and the U.S. For a throbbing 2 hours and 40 minutes, ZDT moves through enemy territory with the speed, weight, brains and grace of a Pro Bowl NFL linebacker; it's the Lawrence Taylor of war-ops movies.

(LIST: 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium, Thus Far: The Hurt Locker, More)

With the dense dialogue spread across more than 100 speaking roles, the supporting actors could be mere information carriers, but many make excellent use of their limited screen time: Clarke as the hard-case interrogator with a Ph.D., Kateb as his victim-informer, Kyle Chandler as Maya's suave, cautious station boss, Jennifer Ehle as a warm, seen-it-all field agent and Edgar Ramirez as an operative who tracks bin Laden on an edgy ride through Islamabad. Chastain takes a while to grow into Maya's skin, but her tentativeness in the early scenes may be an accurate depiction of a young woman just out of college, enduring the growing pains of a difficult matriculation in a killer job.

As a bright young woman driven to bring down an al-Qaeda terrorist, Maya shares aspects of Claire Danes' Carrie Mathison in the Showtime series Homeland, but she lacks Carrie's defining neuroses — and much other personal biography. What are Maya's political beliefs? Who are her family and friends back home? Does she have a sex life? Doesn't matter: she is her job. In a way, Maya is the CIA equivalent of Bigelow, a strong woman who has mastered a man's game.

(MORE: Kathryn Bigelow Profile: The Front Runner)

At the end, the woman who finds bin Laden also finds an end to her sacred obsession. And eight years to the day after Bush prematurely announced it, a U.S. official has earned the right to proclaim, "Mission accomplished." So too, with this splendid sortie into cinematic reportage, can Kathryn Bigelow.

MORE: Navy Reprimands SEALs Who Spilled Secrets for Video Game



Read more: http://entertainment.time.com/2012/11/25/zero-dark-thirty-the-girl-who-got-bin-laden/#ixzz2DYAiDnPF

The decade-long manhunt for Osama Bin Laden races by in a 159-minute adrenaline-fueled chase in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, which unfolds with certainty and smart decisions on both sides of the camera. It's a rarity, a truly entertaining film that never condescends to its audience or cheapens history and truth. Zero Dark Thirty lacks the existentialist peril and high drama of Bigleow's previous, Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, but replaces those showy-but-strong elements with both tension and truth in the pursuit of drama, fiction lightly draped over fact. Despite a star-free (and talent-rich) ensemble, its box office can count on curiosity, awards-season buzz and the word-of-mouth in support of its excellent and unsentimental approach.

Zero Dark Thirty opens to the sounds of 9/11, but the script—based on both the research of journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal and other reporting—really begins at a overseas U.S. facility in 2003, where a CIA field man (Jason Clarke) gives newer hire Maya (Jessica Chastain) a quick tutorial in the nature and necessity of waterboarding. It's upsetting for both Maya and us (and Bigelow doesn't cut away to spare us the sight of this torture), but when the man being interrogated asks Maya for understanding and help, she simply says, coldly "You can help yourself ... by being truthful." And then Maya, and us, are plunged into the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, with all of the false starts and blind alleys and red herrings you would expect in the hunt for the most wanted man in the world. But Maya stays on target.

The procedural nature of Zero Dark Thirty is fleet and fascinating. Watching the film, you learn everything from how Navy SEALS open a locked door to, ironically, how the high secrecy of Bin Laden's house in Abbotabad, Pakistan is what gave it away. You don't get a lot of explanation—no one ever says any dead exposition or rehashes Wikipedia entries about the film's torrent of names and places, people and organizations—and it's nice to enjoy an American film that assumes you have intelligence and relies on it. Many early critics and Awards-watchers are already bemoaning Bigelow and Boal's just-the-facts approach as a drawback, wondering why the film refuses to incorporate the character's "backstories" or "home lives." For those voices of disapproval, let it be noted that your local cable operator can help you find The Lifetime Channel, whose style of storytelling may be more your taste.

Bigelow's films have always been about people at work: team dynamics driven by dynamic individuals, triumphs achieved through effort, failures brought about by not knowing what you're doing or why. Chastain's Maya never gets to give a big speech about being a woman in intelligence, but she mostly doesn't have to, and the film makes smart points in brief moments. Bigelow is also not afraid of darkness, or silence, or stillness; the assault on the compound, even though we know how it turned out, still plays out with the tension of held breath and pin-drop quiet in the theater.

Boal's work turns reality into fiction, protecting sources while unveiling secrets, and it serves the plot that runs between the scenes and the scenes that make the film, with notes and nuances that feel right. Much like bomb disposal in The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty is about intelligence as a job—one done by people, and one where people can make mistakes—and that like all jobs, intelligence involves co-workers you don't like, late hours, petty turf grabs and ass-covering lies, just with deadly consequences. The superb camerawork is by Greig Fraser, with Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg's editing propelling the story and focusing your attention but never forcing either. Stark and tough and smart, Zero Dark Thirty is a masterwork from a master filmmaker, a truly exceptional work that combines the questions and qualms so often found in the grey areas of the real world with the kind of storytelling and art so rarely found in the shared darkness of the movie theater.

Distributor: Sony
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Edgar Ramirez, Joel Edgerton, James Gandolfini
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Screenwriter: Mark Boal
Producers: Megan Ellison, Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow
Genre: Drama
Rating: TBD
Running time: 159 mins.
Release date: December 19, 2012

Ne sreću se često potpuni promašaji značajnih i veštih reditelja kakav je LAY THE FAVORITE Stephena Frearsa. Ovaj film je imao dva puta, jedan da ode u pravcu respektabilnog HIGH FIDELITY sa kojim deli reditelja, scenaristu i koncept All-Star podele ili da ode put radova koje kao producenti potpisuju 50 Cent sa tandemom Emmett-Furla. 50 Cent i Emmett-Furla su pretegli, iako se barem 50 Cent ne može optužiti da je imao ikakav kreativni ili glumački input.

Frears je reditelj čiji rad i danas može da donese vrhunski kvalitet a samo mali pogled unazad, u njegovu britansku fazu, pokazuje kakav je to potencijal bio, dočim je u Holivudu uglavnom takav potencijal i ostvario. Međutim, LAY THE FAVORITE je uleteo u nekom raskoraku a Frears uprkos izvanrednoj glumačkoj podeli, nije uspeo da izvuče kvalitet iz adaptacije memoara Beth Raymer, kao ni iz glumaca koji su izuzev već standardizovanog underplaya Bruce Willisa strašno podbacili. To naročito važi za Rebeccu Hall u glavnoj ulozi.

Međutim, niko sem Frearsa nije pojedinačno kriv. Osnovni problem filma je njegova sitkomasta režija, letargičan odnos prema junacima i priči, narativ koji se raspada po svim šavovima, i poznati glumci koji samo doprinose čemernom utisku jer na njihovim licima vidimo likove iz mnogo boljih filmova.

Frears do sada nije imao ovakav film koji bi najradije svi zaboravili. Međutim, šteta je što bi da je Frears bio u formi, saradnja sa njim bila koristan dodatak ovoj ekipi sa bogatim glumačkim iskustvom jer on stvarno jeste jedan od važnijih reditelja svoje epohe.

Ameri izgleda ukapirali DAY OF RECKONING>

SHOCKER: THIS 4TH—OR REALLY, 6TH—INSTALLMENT OF ULTRA VIOLENCE IS BOLD AND FRESH
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
1 COMMENT ON NOVEMBER 26, 2012 BY DAVID EHRLICH
3.5/5 RATING2.0/5 INCOME

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Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning isn't just one of the most remarkable action films of the 21st century, it also feels like one of the first. Which is especially surprising as this cut-rate slice of ultra-violence is the fourth (or sixth, depending on what you consider to be canon) installment of a franchise that epitomizes the pyrotechnic banality of '90s action movies. Initially, this saga of re-animated rival soldiers Luc Deveraux and Andrew Scott (Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren) was conceived to exploit the explosively meat-brained vogue of a bygone era, but the series—much like the two dueling beefcakes at its core—refuses to die. While The Expendables and its sequel have made half-hearted sport of their wrinkling action stars, the immortality angle of the Universal Soldier films means they refuse to acknowledge that Van Damme and Lundgren are now a combined 107 years old. Current franchise shepherd John Hyams clearly understands that his latest has to be clever and coy in order to subsist on its fading star power, and so he's reincarnated the Universal Soldier brand as an ultra-violent existential crisis. Playing like a mash-up between Enter the Void and The Raid, Day of Reckoning is an uncommonly assured slice of bargain bin cinema, as arresting to watch as it is impossible to comprehend. Immaculately directed and nearly impossible to dismiss despite its zombified pace, Day of Reckoning could prove to be a mild niche success, though VOD will be where it recoups the brunt of its $11.5-million budget.

The film's first trick is that its legendary lead actors are barely in the thing—despite headlining status, both deliver glorified cameos with Van Damme effectively getting his chance to play Colonel Kurtz. Day of Reckoning wastes little time introducing us to its proper protagonist, opening with (or, more accurately, inside) a stocky family man named John (Scott Adkins) on the worst night of his life. John's young daughter enters his bedroom in the middle of the night complaining that there are monsters in the house, and we're immediately locked into his P.O.V. as he pokes around for intruders. He looks kinda like Matthew Fox in Lost and he acts kinda like Matthew Fox in Alex Cross, and for the next 113 minutes he will serve as our avatar. We watch from behind his eyes (blinks included) as Deveraux murders his family in cold blood, and we're with him when he awakes from a coma nine months later, suffering from memory loss and hell-bent on revenge.

From there, the plot becomes willfully baffling. No attempt is made to catch us up to speed on who these jacked lunatics are or why they're prone to epileptic episodes in which they hallucinate about the bump on Jean-Claude Van Damm's forehead. It's never especially clear why Dolph Lundgren is running the world's most steroidal underground fight club, or why a vaguely Eastern European stripper decides that tagging along with these guys is a good way to spend her day off, but Hyams compensates for clarity with gravitas. Every moment of activity is muted by several of airless disquiet, the film's meticulously arch compositions and hyper-glossy sheen revitalizing and reflecting upon the testosterone cinema of yesteryear through the same warmly subversive lens that Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven looked back at the florid suburbia of Douglas Sirk. Day of Reckoning sincerely loves this stuff too much to satirize it, and the film's three major action sequences are as brutal and elegantly epic as anything the major studios have offered this year—a fight scene in a sports apparel store ends with the most vicious deathblow in recent memory.

But Day of Reckoning seems less interested in functioning as an action movie than it does as a blood-soaked simulation of pre-coded living. Many ultra-violent films present life like it's a videogame, but Day of Reckoning begins with the assumption that we're all being played. That protracted first-person opening sequence transparently deprives us of our own control, underlining the notion that free agency is a deceit. The movie is sustained by the tension that exists between John feeling like he's in control, and the fundamental knowledge that he isn't. We're repeatedly reminded that John's mind is not his own, but that information has no bearing on the choices that he makes. He understands that violence won't solve anything—just like we understand that impaling Dolph Lundgren's head with a machete won't prevent him from appearing in the next installment—but it's the only means of expression he's got. Imagine Memento's Leonard Shelby with an itchy trigger-finger, and you're halfway there. A mirror-image of Paul W.S. Anderson's similarly fascinating Resident Evil: Retribution, Day of Reckoning expresses how videogame logic reflects—not informs—contemporary culture. This is a movie about people who are created with the purpose of products, and it simulates their experience to an unnerving degree.

Ultimately, Day of Reckoning is an action movie that's stronger and smarter than most of its previous incarnations, yet so committed to its undying sense of self that it doesn't feel like anything else. It's self-serious to the extreme and loaded with laughable dialogue (the speech containing the titular line is an all-timer). Still, it's so well-crafted and loyal to its own inert insanity that you can't look away. Like The Terminator on a morphine drip, it's a rich throwback to a time when gratuitous nudity was the only kind of nudity, when being a man meant dismembering another man, and you didn't need to be able to form intelligible sentences in order qualify as a warrior-poet. The lesson of this unexpectedly potent kick of sci-fi strangeness: at the end of the day, big muscles just need to be flexed.

Distributor: Magnet Releasing/Magnolia Pictures
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Dolph Lundgren, Kristopher Van Varenberg
Director: John Hyams
Screenwriters: John Hyams, Doug Magnuson, Jon Greenhalgh
Producers: Craig Baumgarten, Moshe Diamant, Allen Shapiro
Genre: Action/Sci-fi
Rating: R for brutal bloody violence throughout, strong sexual content, graphic nudity, and language
Running time: 114 minutes
Release date: November 30, 2012

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"Safety Not Guaranteed" filmmakers of Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly have been brought onboard to rewrite the remake of the 1986 family sci-fi cult favorite "Flight of the Navigator" at Disney Pictures and Mandeville Films.

Randal Kleiser helmed the original which followed a 12 year-old boy who goes missing and re-appears eight years later having not aged a day. At the same time, an alien spacecraft crashes nearby which may explain the boy's disappearance.

Brad Copeland ("Arrested Development") was hired to pen the first draft of the remake in May 2009. Now they're re-writing it, the project will be developed as a potential directing vehicle for Trevorrow.

David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are producing.

Source: Variety

Piracy Funds Movies? Megaupload Shutdown May Have Hurt Box Office Revenues
by Charlie Schmidlin
November 26, 2012 11:19 AM

While the home theatre experience rapidly approaches a point preferable for many to the average cinema outing, the MPAA has had to work overtime in order to keep alternative options (namely illegal file-sharing) suppressed and theatre numbers up. The group struck a seemingly massive victory in January, when the popular website Megaupload -- one of many consistently used to host copyright-infringing films -- was raided and shut down, but now a new study has prompted a new focus on the action's repercussions, mainly by suggesting that it is not the download itself, but the recipient's reaction to it that makes all the difference.

Researchers from Munich School of Management and Copenhagen Business School have published a short paper entitled "Piracy and Movie Revenues: Evidence from Megaupload," and within their report lies the interesting financial aftermath of the site's demise. Amassing over a five-year period weekly data from 1344 movies in 49 countries, the team found that some films actually benefited from piracy, due to the promotion caused by gradual word of mouth after the initial download.

Noting a slight but steady change in finances across the world before and after the Megaupload shutdown -- taking into account inflation, Internet penetration and the site's popularity as well -- the researchers concluded that "the shutdown had a negative, yet in some cases insignificant effect, on [smaller films'] box office revenues." Their case then goes on to explore file sharing's role as "a mechanism to spread information about a good from consumers with zero or low willingness to pay to users with high willingness to pay."

However, before studios begin feverishly directing their promotional efforts toward torrent sites galore, the Munich team did find that with blockbusters obtaining a screen count over 500, the effect is actually opposite, having found instead a financial boost following the raids. So as much "Cabin in the Woods" and "The Avengers" differed both in Joss Whedon's involvement and eventual box-office, the film's results left to file-sharing sites predict a much more divergent result.

Still, the findings are equally controversial and illuminating of the present state of film viewership, and while there remains a great deal of extra information needed to prove Megaupload's lasting effects, the report nonetheless adds a different perspective that may give the MPAA some pause. [TorrentFreak]

"Inglourious Basterds" and "The Bourne Ultimatum" star Daniel Bruhl has finalized a deal to replace James McAvoy in the upcoming Bill Condon-directed Wikileaks movie at Dreamworks Pictures.

McAvoy had been in negotiations for the role but talks broke down due to scheduling issues with the actor's commitment to Bryan Singer's "X-Men: Days of Future Past" at Fox.

Benedict Cumberbatch ("Sherlock") remains attached to play Julian Assange, Wikileaks' founder, with Bruhl as his right-hand man Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a German tech activist who became the organization's spokesman.

His split with Assange was credited as being one of the events leading to the massive diplomatic cable leak in September 2011 and Assange's eventual downfall.

Despite reports, Laura Linney is not in negotiations nor has an offer to join the cast although there is interest in her playing a CIA intelligence officer.

Josh Singer wrote the script while Steve Golin, Michael Sugar and Bard Dorros will produce. Shooting is aiming to begin in January.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Reprizirao sam DE BATTRE MON COEUR S'EST ARRETE Jacquesa Audiarda, rimejk kultnog filma FINGERS Jamesa Tobacka. Ovde imamo zanimljiv primer reverse engineeringa. Naime, Toback je snimio zaumni arty krimić a francuski reditelj ga je učinio racionalnijim, razvio na nivou priče i realizovao u sofisticiranom glavnotokovskom maniru. Za razliku od Tobackovog filma, Audiardov je manje enigmatičan, ali je zato sigurniji i otvoreniji, bez mogućnosti da se prikriva bleferskim deonicama.

Romain Duris igra ulogu koju je u originalu imao Harvey Keitel, i donosi nešto eterično u odnosu na Keitelov metodski manir, iako je u svojoj roli vrlo konkretan, i postavljen tako da se publika identifikuje sa njim.

Pariski milje podzemlja je intrigantniji od Tobackovog njujorškog i znatno je maštovitiji u tome kako postavlja životne okolnosti glavnog junaka. Audiard i Benancquista ne dotiču Tobackov homoerotski apsekt odnosa između Harvey Keitela i Jima Browna, i u stvari najznačajnija promena na nivou značenja je to što Audiard ne koketira sa temom homoseksualnosti u svetu podzemlja, što je zanimljivoi jer je to tema koja njega zapravo izrazito zanima.

Jean Genet se kao senka uvek nadvija nad Audiarda, ali u DE BATTRE je to pre svega vezano za odnos kriminala, zločina i lepote umetničkog dela, bez istraživanja specifičnih homoerotskih naboja. Doduše, glavni junak jeste vođen svojim edipalnim traumama u neobičnom odnosu koji ima prema majci i obscenoj figuri oca. U tom pogledu, Audiard nije izneverio one koji očekuju malo perverzije kod njegovih gangstera ali nije ispratio Tobacka. Međutim, ovako složena priča ipak deluje solidnije od Tobackove jer on nikuda ne odvede odnos Keitela i Browna.

Na planu inscenacije, ponovo je reč o maestralnom ostvarenju u kome se neke od art house stilema odlično uklapaju u mejnstrim izraz.

Paradoksalno, francuski rimejk nudi priču FINGERSa u formi koja je znatno prihvatljivija ljubiteljima američkog filma.

* * * 1/2 / * * * *

The BBC are doing their level best
    to scrub any trace of Jimmy Savile
    from their archives. One notable
    deletion is Sir Jingle's episode
    of Desert Island Discs, which is
    no longer available to stream from
    the BBC website.

    At about 26 minutes in, Jimmy
    introduces a little girl in a
    wheelchair from Stoke Mandeville,
    who wanted to go on the radio and
    choose a Wham! record. Savile
    suggests if he can't have the
    record he could take the girl
    to the desert island to do his
    washing. We suppose, with
    hindsight, that doesn't sound
    quite so sweet now.

Listen:
http://bit.ly/UtJ9DJ

Pogledao sam PREMIUM RUSH, čudnu rediteljsku odluku Davida Koeppa koji je odavno zainteresovan da proširi podrućje borbe i na potpuno autorstvo, ali se do sada izražavao u znatno drugačijim formama. A STIR OF ECHOES je u tom pogldu čak bio odličan film, a nije za potcenjivanje ni TRIGGER EFFECT. Međutim, u PREMIUM RUSHu, Koepp odlučuje da realizuje jednu larrycohenovsku one-note premisu, priču o biciklistima koji rade isporuke u Njujorku i upadaju u nevolje sa trijadama i korumpiranim policajcem. Koepp je jedan od scenarista filma za koji bih razumeo da ga je prodao kao high concept script ali ne razumem poriv i da ga režira jer po nivou sadržaja, ovaj film nije ništa kompleksniji od Bessonovih produkcija sa majstorima parkoura.

Za razliku od Bessonovih parkourovaca, Koepp nema istinske akrobate u glavnim ulogama, Joseph Gordon-Levitt igra heroja i film je maksimalno oslonjen na sve trikove koje tehnika, uključujući naravno i kompjutere može da omogući tako da film nikada zapravo ne nudi efekat istinske akrobacije, vrlo je artificijelan, i verujem čak da je samo snimanje možda bilo čak i kudikamo kompleksnije i rizičnije nego što pokazuje završni proizvod.

PREMIUM RUSH je otud film koji je prejednostavan za holivudski proizvod a nema tu autentičnost prave fizičke akcije koju donose recimo azijski ili evropski majstori. Naravno, bilo je poslednjih godina i američkih filmova koji su, između ostalog, i zahvaljujući tehnologiji pomerali granice, ali PREMIUM RUSH prosto nije jedan od tih.

Koeppu treba skinuti kapu što je snimio jedan potpuno neočekivan B-film. Ali, nažalost, previše je ušuškan u okolnosti A-produkcije da bi tu B-premisu mogao pravilno da nam "proda".

* 1/2 / * * * *

Kathryn Bigelow's angular thriller Zero Dark Thirty begins and ends with events that have been seared into public memory — the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 in Abbottabad, Pakistan, two incidents that bookended a decade in which America's sense of security and place in the world were radically shaken.
The film presents the story of what happened in that dark space between.  Using a combination of whatever details screenwriter and journalist Mark Boal could turn up in his research and cautious fiction, Zero Dark Thirty details how the U.S. was finally able to track down and kill the elusive head of the organization responsible for the worst terrorist attack on our soil.
But at almost two and a half hours long — an epic running time that never seems excessive but makes you feel the stretch of the years being chronicled — the film also teases your attention away from those known events, and brings it to the gritty, exhausting and sometimes ugly work being done on the ground and the type of people who engage in it.
It's a curious thing that two of the awards season's most significant films are stealthy procedurals: Lincoln, which beneath the surface gloss of a prestige biopic is a vivid showcase of the messy, difficult means by which the amendment to outlaw slavery was passed, and Zero Dark Thirty, which is an examination of how contemporary warfare has so much more to do with information than with sending troops out into battle. Both reveal the strenuous, time-consuming and ethically complicated efforts behind their well-known achievements.
While Steven Spielberg's film uses these exertions to bring animation, prickliness and warmth to characters that could have been wax-museum distant, Bigelow's consciously holds its emotions at arm's length, where they'll be less likely to interfere with the work being done. Such is the choice made by its heroine, known only by her first name, Maya, and played by Jessica Chastain as a crisply dedicated but green CIA analyst with few other interests in her life other than tracking down bin Laden — a target she comes to fixate on as she builds experience and confidence.
Zero Dark Thirty plays out in the shrouded and unpretty backstage of the War on Terror: embassy cubicles, dusty military camps and black sites where detainees undergo "enhanced interrogation techniques" that the film does not soften. Maya arrives fresh from D.C. to witness a prisoner being worked on by Dan (Jason Clarke, slipping easily from sardonic to savage). Sleep deprivation, waterboarding, confinement boxes and beatings — Maya doesn't take easily to these techniques but doesn't shrink from them either. Soon she's ordering them herself as she searches for information about Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, rumored top al-Qaeda courier and the man she thinks is key to finding bin Laden.
The early fuss by Obama opponents who claimed the film (originally slated for an October release) would be a propagandizing election tool is laughable in context. The story starts long before Obama's arrival on the presidential stage, and his on-screen presence in a single scene, in which Maya and her colleagues watch his televised speech about America not engaging in torture, is representative, in a wincingly complicated way, of how the new administration's stance will complicate and slow what they're doing.
Zero Dark Thirty eschews the personal by design. We know nothing about Maya's background, she has little enough of a life to explore outside of her work and doesn't take to others easily. Our sense of her emerges slowly by way of Chastain's elegantly steely performance. Maya doesn't tend to let down her guard in front of others, and so our ideas about her inner life come from glimpses around its edges and through those moments when she lets things slip — from the warmth that bleeds into her interactions with her coworker and eventual friend Jessica (Jennifer Ehle) or the way she takes to writing the number of days of bureaucratic inaction on important information she uncovered on the door of her boss George's (Mark Strong) office.
Maya is suited to this life, as draining and dangerous as it is, and Chastain's physical delicacy provides stark contrast to the character's strength. She's an unconventional action heroine with an amusingly atypical (for a female lead) interest in making nice with those around her.
Like Jeremy Renner's bomb tech in The Hurt Locker, Maya hones herself to become the perfect tool for the job at hand. But Zero Dark Thirty is less interested in movie indulgences than its predecessor, which may be why its coolness makes it an easier effort to admire than to lose yourself in. Its periodic action sequences — involving two very disturbing bombings, a shootout and the raid itself, which is staged in urgent darkness and threaded with misgivings about whether or not it's a mistake — are brilliantly staged, but they're stations along the journey, to be braved, pushed past or endured.
Maya's true place is at a computer or making her case with growing conviction in a conference room as important men played by Kyle Chandler, Harold Perrineau, James Gandolfini, Mark Duplass and others are confronted by the force of her will, and the SEALs brought in to storm the compound (among them Chris Pratt, Taylor Kinney and Joel Edgerton) eye her with wary respect.
Zero Dark Thirty makes you feel every step of Maya's journey, but it's her impressive achievement and that of the film itself that we're left contemplating, not her humanity — a stunningly well-realized whole with few soft spots to latch onto.

Review: Jessica Chastain anchors the stark, uncompromising 'Zero Dark Thirty'
Kathryn Bigelow bests her Oscar-winning 'Hurt Locker' with her new film

BY DREW MCWEENY MONDAY, NOV 26, 2012 4:30 AM

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Jessica Chastain does a tremendous job as a CIA analyst at the heart of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden in 'Zero Dark Thirty'

Credit: Columbia Pictures
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I think two directors this year are following up the movies where they won Best Picture with films that I think are clearly superior to the films they won the awards for.  This is one of the reasons I think this entire season is so strange.  Politics are so clearly part of the process of what gets picked and what gets ignored that if you try to apply the filter of "deserves" or "fair" to the films you watch, you'll go crazy.  In a perfect world, it shouldn't matter what film Kathryn Bigelow made last, or what awards it won.  But because "The Hurt Locker" was the little film that could, and it did, the scrutiny this time around is on a whole new level.  Of course, she's also collaborating again with Mark Boal, the screenwriter of "The Hurt Locker," and this is also a military themed film, so they're basically setting themselves up for the comparison.

I would love for the Kathryn Bigelow who directed "The Loveless" and "Near Dark" to sit down and watch "Zero Dark Thirty," because the huge dissonance between the voices of those works would make her head explode, "Scanners"-style.  She started her career as a filmmaker whose work existed in an entirely artificial movie universe, and with "Zero Dark Thirty," it feels like she has finally reached a place where she has stripped all artifice from her approach, and she's made a film that is pure procedural, the "Zodiac" approach to the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.  I can't tell you for sure that the film has anything to do with the unvarnished truth, but I can tell you that this feels accurate.  It has an integrity to it that is bracing and adult, and it manages to deliver a major visceral experience without ever once bending to Hollywood convention.  This is a film that knows exactly what it's doing, and does it without compromise.

The film opens with a black screen and we listen to panicked radio transmissions and phone calls from September 11, 2001.  It is a very stark reminder of the emotional confusion of that morning, and we immediately jump into an interrogation sequence in which Jason Clarke (also good in this year's "Lawless" as one of the Bondurant brothers) terrorizes a suspect played by Reda Kateb while observed by a brand-new arrival in Pakistan, a CIA analyst we know only as Maya.  Jessica Chastain had a huge year last year in a wide variety of roles, but the work she does here is terrifically impressive and unadorned.  Because this isn't a traditional take on this sort of story, there's no outside relationships through which she is defined.  She is her job.  She is driven by this task she's accepted, and she isn't written as a woman first, but as an analyst first.  Yes, the film acknowledges how she would be seen in a Middle Eastern environment, and it doesn't try to paint her as some wild Dirthy Harry or overcompensate for who she is by making her hyper-masculine.  It is interesting, because in some ways, this feels like the most personal thing Bigelow has ever made, a movie about how someone can move in a world that is not used to making space to fit them and how they can succeed in that world without giving up the elements that personally define them.  Maya is smart, but not a Sherlock Holmes-style genius, and the process shown here is one that depends on perseverance, luck, and time.  And she's not out there on her own, fighting the system, the way Hollywood loves to portray people.  She is someone who does the job, who works hard, who chases every single possible lead, and the people around her are just as good at their jobs.  Clarke does a great job showing what the personal effects are on someone who is required to use torture and coercion as part of his daily tools, and Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong, James Gandolfini, and Harold Perrineau all do nice work in positions of authority, just as Scott Adkins, Joel Edgerton, and Chris Pratt all do excellent work once the film finally moves into its final stretch and we meet the SEAL team that eventually dropped the hammer on Bin Laden.  Jennifer Ehle contributes a tremendous performance as another analyst on Maya's team, and I particularly liked the way they etched their growing relationship without needing to pump up the friendship in some artificial way.

Over and over, the film dodges the easy version of a scene, and time after time, it pays off by making it feel real, observed, credible.  We all have our fascinations, things that we obsess about, and for me, the American intelligence community has long been a subject I've immersed myself in, reading everything I can.  Even so, I'm well aware that much of what intrigues me is what I can't read about, the nuts and bolts work of how intelligence is gathered, how it's sorted, how priorities are set.  "Zero Dark Thirty" plays to the CIA-nerd in me, and in a way that films like James Bond and the Bourne series can't.  Those are action films and they completely ignore reality in favor of thrills, and I'm fine with that.  That's what those movies are designed to do.  Seeing this film play it so real, then, is an unexpected pleasure.  It also occurs to me that there's something great about seeing the international face of Muslim extremism taken down by the efforts of a thoroughly modern Western woman, a clear case of ideological symbolism played in a way that makes it feel authentic.  I don't know if there's a real-life Maya, but Chastain inhabits this woman fully.  It's a very lived-in performance, and she continues to blow me away in terms of how much technical skill she exhibits as an actor, and yet how natural every choice she makes seems to be.  Chastain is one of those performers where I'm sure there's a ton of craft behind every beat of what she does, but she never appears to be "acting."

Greig Fraser's cinematography is great and grounded throughout, but there is almost no other sequence this year that I can compare to the assault on Bin Laden's compound.  Shot in no-light situations in several stretches, it is an incredibly staged sequence, tense and brutal and direct, and perhaps the single greatest expression of everything Bigelow's worked towards in the staging of action over the years.  It was obvious early on that the most important thing about an action scene for her is immersion, trying to make it feel like something experienced and not just watched, and she's pushed all sorts of stylistic technique to do that in her different films.  The first person footage in "Strange Days" is one extreme, and the hyper-kinetic work in "Point Break" pushes things in another direction.  Here, though, there's nothing she does that feels like commentary or that feels like a trick.  It is the invisible nature of her work that makes it so effective.  Like Maya, she has endured well past the point when many people might have broken, and she stands now as one of the smartest working filmmakers, someone capable of finding exactly the right voice to tell a story and telling that story without any flourish.  There's not an extra beat in the film, not a wasted scene.  This may not be like any other thriller I can name, but that's one way you can tell that Bigelow and Boal have done something special here.  This is a hollowpoint bullet of a film, and it's going to rattle around inside me for days as I reflect on it, and I look forward to seeing it again very soon.

"Zero Dark Thirty" opens in limited release on December 19, 2012 before going wider on January 11, 2013.


Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/review-jessica-chastain-anchors-the-stark-uncompromising-zero-dark-thirty#E2J3C7JAYIrRJltL.99

Pogledao sam SMRT ČOVEKA NA BALKANU Miroslava Momčilovića. To je možda i najetabliraniji film ovog scenariste i reditelja, a i pionirski primer found footage filma kod nas. Moram priznati da me prihvatanje na koje nailazi ovaj film kod publike ne čudi, u tom smislu što me od naše publike i inače ništa ne čudi. Naprosto, ovaj film uspeva da ubode to neko "opšte mesto" na kome ostaje i sa kog se ne odmiče što našoj publici godi. Uostalom, publika jako teško uspeva da utvrdi razliku između "pravog" Dušana Kovačevića i neke sedmorazredne kopije koju Momčilović nudi i prilično popunjena sala Koloseja je jako srdačno reagovala na svaki nagoveštaj humora ili psovke.

Ono što me međutim čudi jesu neverovatno velike pohvale za ovaj film koje stižu od ljudi iz esnafa, kritike, festivala, a prisutne su čak i interno među ljudima jer ovo je ostvarenje zaista prilično sumnjivo i nema mnogo argumenata kojima bi se moglo braniti.

Naravno, izbegavam teške reči jer sam iste sedmice gledao ARTILJERO, taj kolektor većine najstrašnijeg u našem filmu za šta smo bili ubeđeni da je zauvek izlučeno i zaboravljeno. Momčilović je međutim još uvek aktivan učesnik našeg kinematografskog košmara i njegov film se mora shvatiti ozbiljno. Međutim, problem je u tome što u ovom filmu nema ničega što bi trebalo shvatiti iole ozbiljno.

Scenario je na nivou silom proširene jednočinke nekog osrednje talentovanog studenta dramaturgije na prvoj godini. Višeslojnosti gotovo da nema, estetsko polazište je bazirano na pokušaju da se na neki način malo revitalizuje polaz Dušana Kovačevića, samo bez mašte, smisla za humor i veštine velikog dramatičara. Naravno, povratak ovom klasiku je legitimna strategija u našoj kinematografiji i dramaturgiji, i pokušaji toga su stalni, ali Momčilovićev domet je nažalost na nivou osrednjeg talenta sa prve godine. Ovaj film je često definisan kao "snimljeno pozorište", međutim, ovaj komad koji Momčilović naziva scenarijem ne bi nikada mogao da prođe u pozorištu, barem ne profesionalnom, ako bi ono imalo ikakve kriterijume. Dakle, ovaj film možda i jeste "snimljeno pozorište" ali ono što se pred kamerom dešava nije relevantno pozorište.

Kad je reč o found footage postupku, tu su stvari daleko kompleksnije. Naime, uvođenje web kamere kao forme trebalo da nam nešto implicira. Ali na kraju cele priče ono što imamo jeste utisak da je sve snimljeno sa jedne pozicije kamere i to je to. Naime, imamo glumce i to zvezde u svim ulogama što dakle jasno sugeriše da nije reč o nekom istinskom "dokumentarnom" materijalu. Kako onda percipirati ovaj film? Film sa zvezdama snimljen iz jedne pozicije? Zašto taj mučni koncept držati sve vreme kada već na nivou pripreme projekta odnosno na nivou glumačke podele, film nije elementarno ubedljiv?

Tome doprinosi artificijelna glumačka igra, artificijelan tekst, i sve ostalo što nas jako odvlači od bilo kakve dokumentarnosti, životnosti, hiperrealističnosti ovog igrokaza. Ako je Momčilović već intervenisao u odnosu na "realnost" na nivou teksta i glume, zašto onda nije intervenisao kad je reč o vremenu i prostoru? To bi svakako pomoglo utisku. Ovako film deluje kao da se grupa poznatih glumaca izmotava pred nekom kamerom i govori nižerazredni kovačevićevski tekst.

To sve nije neko veliko iznenađenje. Ali, iznenađuje da takav skup nedopustivih grešaka unutar odabranog koncepta može da prođe kod bilo koga ko iole zna nešto o filmu i tome kako se koji utisak postiže i konstruiše.

Popularnost ovog filma je prilično velika u odnosu na budžet i snimanje od nedelju i po dana. Međutim, to što je film profitabilan sa nekoliko desetina gledalaca ne čini ga populističkim fenomenom koji bi samim tim iskoračio izvan domena kritike. Dakle, nejasno je kako nekom profesionalcu ova vrsta glupih odluka može da bude u redu, i kako ovakav film ipak odlazi na nekakve festivale i tamo postiže neke uspehe, osim ukoliko se ne vodimo hipotezom da ljudi tamo misle kako su naši glumci naturščici i kako realnost u Srbiji zaista ovako izgleda.

Ako imamo u vidu da je deo found footage miljea koristio upravo ovaj format kako bi pokazao nekakvu tehničku usavršenost, Momčilović je izabrao ovaj koncept kako zapravo ne bi morao da ponudi bilo kakvu rediteljsku veštinu iza kamere. Ako su njegovi raniji filmovi zahvaljujući lošim intervencijama iza kamere bili manje ili veće izrugivanje profesiji, onda je SMRT ČOVEKA NA BALKANU, Momčilovićevo svesno uklanjanja iz "profesije", ali bez svesti da takva vrsta filma takođe postoji i da je ona sama po sebi formulisala neku vrstu izraza i pravila. Dakle, Momčilović je bežeći od "akademskog filma" došao negde gde takođe postoje "pravila" koja su njemu nepoznata.

Doduše, ni ne slutim na osnovu čega je neko ko je na nivou scenarija toliko konvencionalan umislio da ume da produkuje nešto što se može plasirati kao "stvarnost" i postići taj nivo ubedljivosti.

Očigledno je Momčilović uspeo da se dosta duboko integriše u establišment i da time omogući reprodukciju svoje teorije šta je želeo da postigne kao nečega što je u filmu i ostvareno.

Čini se da glumci takođe bespogovorno veruju Momčiloviću tako da svaki od likova igraju sa naročitim trudom da u karakteru nađu nešto čega zapravo nema. U tome naročito preteruje Radoslav Milenković, inače dosta solidan glumac koji se malo raspustio u poslednje vreme.

SMRT ČOVEKA NA BALKANU će svakako imati više smisla na televiziji. Štaviše, imajuči u vidu našu TV ponudu, bilo bi lepo da ima makar i ovakvih TV drama, ali to nije neki domet. Naročito ne za bioskop.

Dir: Kathryn Bigelow. US. 2012. 157mins

The US government's 10-year search for Osama bin Laden ended in success not because of lofty speeches and soaring heroics but, rather, hard work, intelligence and sheer tenacity. That's the case director Kathryn Bigelow makes rather magnificently in Zero Dark Thirty, a taut, methodical retelling of the methods that led to the terrorist's killing in May 2011 at the hands of American Navy SEALs. As a follow-up film to her Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, this true-life thriller again finds Bigelow investigating the toll taken on those engaged in warfare, but her commitment to a dispassionate, stripped-down approach results in a film whose impact sneaks up on you, leaving you blindsided by its visceral final reels.

Daringly, and successfully, Bigelow and Boal resist certain tendencies of films of this kind, eschewing the sleek, sophisticated tech-speak we're accustomed to from government operatives in the Jason Bourne movies.

Zero Dark Thirty opens in limited release on December 19 domestically before expanding across the country early in the New Year. Bigelow's connection to The Hurt Locker will attract discriminating audiences, as will the topical subject matter and rising star Jessica Chastain, who serves as the movie's emotional centre. This Sony film (in the US) should do well with critics and Academy voters alike, but those expecting a simplistic, slam-bang action movie may be turned off by the thoughtful build-up that eventually gives way to a riveting ending in which the US executes its risky assault on bin Laden's compound. But in a season when expert adult dramas like Argo and Lincoln have found box office success, Zero Dark Thirty could become a sleeper hit.

Based on extensive research, the movie (written by Hurt Locker scribe Mark Boal) stars Chastain as Maya, a young CIA agent assigned to the Middle East in the wake of the September 11 attacks who is unprepared for the lengths that her colleagues (especially Jason Clarke) will go to extract information from their prisoners. But as the years go by and her dedication to find bin Laden intensifies, she becomes a key player in uncovering the evidence that will result in his eventual killing.

Bigelow's new film can be seen as a companion piece to The Hurt Locker, which examined how a cocky bomb disposal expert became so infatuated with the danger of his job that he began to lose touch with reality away from a war zone. The danger isn't as constantly present in Zero Dark Thirty — although Maya and her colleagues do face several life-and-death moments — but this allows the filmmaker to show how the slow crawl of time eventually eats away at Maya, causing her to be tougher and more persistent in her quest to find bin Laden.

Not unlike David Fincher's Zodiac, Zero Dark Thirty subverts genre expectations, forcing us to be at times as frustrated as the characters as their years of pursuit often lead to dead ends — not to mention growing concern that all their effort will be for naught.

Daringly, and successfully, Bigelow and Boal resist certain tendencies of films of this kind, eschewing the sleek, sophisticated tech-speak we're accustomed to from government operatives in the Jason Bourne movies. (Blessedly, the filmmakers also resist the temptation to give Maya and her co-workers' intricate back-stories to explain their investment in this mission.) Instead, Zero Dark Thirty portrays the CIA and the military as consisting of dedicated, almost anonymous professionals who lack the panache we're used to from war movies and government thrillers. In this way, Bigelow avoids romanticising their service, simply letting their weary determination be their distinguishing characteristic. This isn't to say that the film fails to flesh out its main characters — it's just that Zero Dark Thirty refuses to add artificial emotional stakes to an already-compelling story.

As Maya, the young operative who finds her steeliness (and is reportedly based on a real person), Chastain gives a performance of great depth, although it's one that isn't very showy. As the years grind away, the story keeps jumping ahead in time, which runs the risk of making Zero Dark Thirty feel episodic or disjointed, but it's through Maya's gradual transformation that the movie establishes an organic through-line.

Chastain showed some inner fire in The Debt as a Mossad agent, but her Maya is a different creature entirely: a no-nonsense operative who has forgone any semblance of a personal life to get bin Laden. (Slyly, the movie hints at her shrinking ethical conflict about doing whatever's required to bring him to justice in a small scene where she chats on the phone absentmindedly while observing military footage of an enemy target being destroyed.) On occasion, Chastain can overdo Maya's hard-as-nails demeanour, but she compensates by suggesting that this woman has been so consumed by this decade-long mission that she long ago abandoned social niceties to achieve her goal.

Bigelow has made a career out of directing action-oriented thrillers (Point Break, Strange Days), but the first half of Zero Dark Thirty represents something new for her: a detective story that's almost a procedural. But her restrained, alert style serves the material well, avoiding any visual gimmicks so as to foreground the laying out of information that will eventually bring bin Laden to justice. Along the same lines, Bigelow avoids politicising her story, tellingly showing President Bush and President Obama only in brief TV clips that the movie's characters never comment on.

This approach could lead to criticism that Bigelow is, in effect, supporting the use of, say, waterboarding — which is shown in the film — but that would misunderstand her larger point about the lengths in which American intelligence went to find the mastermind behind 9/11. By refusing to editorialise, she allows us to watch these events with an objectivity that forces the viewer to decide for himself about the moral complexities. And while Zero Dark Thirty is beautifully restrained — even the bravura raid on bin Laden's compound is a model of precise, controlled moviemaking — there's no question that the film's final understated image hints at Bigelow's own complicated feelings about this lengthy manhunt.

On a technical level, Zero Dark Thirty is a marvel, especially in its handling of the compound raid. Incorporating night-vision cameras and seamless special effects, cinematographer Greig Fraser gives the sequence a realism that's quite extraordinary. Prolific composer Alexandre Desplat produces one of his sparest and most effective recent scores, underlying the tension in key moments without overpowering the visuals. And while Chastain carries the movie, her co-stars are perfectly exact in their small, crucial roles, particularly Clarke as Maya's mentor who wonders if he should abandon this bin Laden hunt before it kills him — or at least his spirits.

Production companies: Columbia Pictures, Annapurna Pictures, First Light, Mark Boal Productions

US distribution: Sony Pictures, www.sonypictures.com

Producers: Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison

Executive producers: Colin Wilson, Greg Shapiro, Ted Schipper

Screenplay: Mark Boal

Cinematography: Greig Fraser

Production design: Jeremy Hindle

Editors: Dylan Tichenor, William Goldenberg

Music: Alexandre Desplat

Website: www.zerodarkthirty-movie.com/

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Edgar Ramirez

Reprizirao sam jedan od najbitnijih filmova koji su nastali kao reakcija na Bonda a to je LE MAGNIFIQUE Philippa Le Broce iz 1973. godine. Ovaj film se može smatrati referencom iz koje su izrasli Hazanaviciusovi filmovi o agentu OSS117 koji su odstupili od proze Jeana Brucea. Hazanviciusovi filmovi su moderniji i klasu iznad ovoga što radi De Broca, međutim, iz današnje vizure, LE MAGNIFIQUE stoji kao jedan izuzetno bitan pokušaj.

Naime, LE MAGNIFIQUE je parodija na filmove o Bondu i tajnim agentima, među kojima je i rad Jean Brucea, sigurno, koji je prepleten sa jednom postmodernom postavkom da je zapravo građa o tajnom agentu deo lošeg petparačkog romana koji ispisuje glavni junak, pulp pisac. Naravno "realnost" parodije i "realnost" u kojoj živi pisac se razlikuju, i pisac kanališe dosta svojih nezadovolhjstava u likove o kojima piše.

De Broca je nasl8ućivao koje sve potencijale nosi ova premisa i on dotiče svaki od njih barem verbalno, recimo žena koja se zainteresuje za pisca pulp romana je sociolog i želi da piše studiju o njegovim pulp romanima, međutim on ne istražuje dalje temu piščevog uticaja na svest čitalaca sa niskim kriterijumima izuzev ovog nagoveštaja i piščeve svesti da utiče "na snove" ogromnog broja ljudi.

Zatim, De Broca u par navrata odlično prepliće događaje u "piščevoj realnosti" sa događajima u romanu, ali u tome nije do kraja konzistentan.

Konačno, De Broca zapravo fundamentalno dobro postavlja film kao refleksiju jedne intimne ljubavne priče na nastanak dela. Međutim, uprkos tome što je De Broca dobro "pokrio" sve aspekte svoje priče, on ih nije u dovoljnoj meri razradio. Piščeva realnost se dosta razlikuje od one u koju je smešten roman, ali opet nedovoljno - piščevi odnosi naprosto nisu u dovoljnoj meri kompleksniji od odnosa koje uspostavlja njegov pulp junak.

Međutim, iako De Broca nije snimio prvi film na ovu temu, ovo jeste neobična mešavina komercijalnog filma sa nečim uslovno rečeno pretencioznijim, odnosno sa svojevrsnim postmodernim gledištem i šteta je što film govori io dva sloja "realnosti" koja zapravo nisu dovoljno različita i što odnos koji se razrešava kroz parodično delo nije kompleksniji.

LE MAGNIFIQUE se nametnuo kao klasik i ostvario je veliki uticaj, recimo film koji referiše na De Brocu je Hladnikov UBIJ ME NEŽNO i mnogi drugi. Ono po čemu je ovaj film najznačajniji jeste oštra promena vizure koja je nekarakteristična za komercijalni film sa tako velikom zvezdom kao što je Belmondo iz tog perioda. Ovo je inače uloga koja Belmondu savršeno odgovara.

Hazanavicus se u svojim OSS117 filmovima bavio i pitanjima vezanim za narativne tehnike, naročito filmski jezik ali nije išao u pravcu uvođenja autora kao junaka. Međutim, na nivou samog preispitivanja žanrovske konvencije, njegovi 0SS 117 filmovi su otišli korak dalje od De Broce i nisu ostavili prostora za uočavanje fundamentalnih nedostataka.

* * * / * * * *

"Argo" scribe Chris Terrio and producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov are set to re-team for an untitled crime movie at Sony Pictures.

Terrio's script is described as an original story set in the world of New York criminal syndicates. Further details are being kept top secret.

"The Bourne Ultimatum" helmer Paul Greengrass is attached to direct and produce and Clooney is attached to star. Terrio recently finished the first draft of a New York-set remake of French thriller "Tell No One" at Warner Bros. Pictures.

Peter O'Brien ("Halo: Reach," "The Chancellor Manuscript") has just been hired to pen a feature adaptation of Linwood Barclay's paranoid thriller novel "Trust Your Eyes" for Warner Bros. Pictures and director Todd Phillips.

The story follows a map-obsessed schizophrenic savant who witnesses a murder in New York through a computer map program, and then convinces his brother to investigate. These impulses never end well, and the siblings find themselves smack in the center of a deadly political conspiracy. [Source: Deadline]

'Safety Not Guaranteed' scribe Derek Connolly is reportedly set to pen a new feature for Pixar and 'Day and Night' director Teddy Newton

Jedno te isto, samo napravljeno da liči na život

http://agitpop.me/?097DA4DD

Tech Support: Greig Fraser on shooting the dead of night in 'Zero Dark Thirty'
Freshly awarded by the NYFCC, the DP discusses the 'guerrilla' feel of the production

BY KRISTOPHER TAPLEY MONDAY, DEC 3, 2012 5:04 PM

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A scene from "Zero Dark Thirty"

Credit: Columbia Pictures
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One of the callbacks critics are noting vis a vis Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" is Alan J. Pakula's 1976 political thriller "All the President's Men." Both films detail the minutiae of following a process to an end and how that end impacts the psyche of a nation, never shying away from inherent narrative bogging, unfussy in their visual vocabulary. It's no surprise, then, that cinematographer Greig Fraser, who shot "Zero Dark Thirty" for Bigelow, finds such minutiae fascinating.

"I think the cinematography in 'All The President's Men' is riveting, actually," he says, calling from Pittsburgh where he's currently shooting Bennett Miller's "Foxcatcher." "It's like lots of offices and lots of fluorescents and all those things, but Gordon Willis is a master framer. He's a master lighter. He wasn't afraid to be so flat with the lighting in those offices because he knew, I think -- I mean, I'm speaking for Gordon Willis here -- but he knew that when you had the opportunity to have visual beauty then it would actually read stronger and it would be more influential in the overall feeling of the film."

Which is an interesting comment to make, seeing as the procedural whole of "Zero Dark Thirty" -- the story of one woman's nearly decade-long slog through red tape, intelligence and politics to find the location of Osama bin Laden -- eventually gives way to a gripping final act, staged with precision, arresting in its execution on every level of production. And it's not that those final moments resonate for their "beauty," but that they have such a strikingly unique visual signature compared to the rest of the film. The juxtaposition makes that final build to the raid on bin Laden's Pakistan compound at the tail-end of "Zero Dark Thirty"'s 160 minutes all the more exciting and invigorating.

Bigelow was looking for something a little more vital for the sequence. Having already settled on digital photography for the film, due to the format's sensitivity to light, the director and DP talked a lot about night light, which Fraser says is a passion of his. And they really hoped to capture that, initially.

"If you go out into the middle of the desert right now with absolutely no ambience around you, your eyes can see," he says. "On a moonless night, you can see. But it's almost like you're looking at an impressionistic painting. The rocks are soft edges and the mountains are kind of shapes on a dark horizon and tress are kind of blurry.  Things are soft. Not out of focus, but soft. It's actually quite stunning and I applaud anyone who has that ability to go out and do that because you see the world in a very different way."

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Nevertheless, it's a difficult look to capture. Shooting day for night -- the process of simulating the look of night by underexposing film shot in daylight -- was not something Bigelow wanted. The other way to approach it was to create a form of moonlight for the event, which in actuality took place on a moonless night for tactical reasons. That route, therefore, would have been inaccurate.

"This is one thing I will absolutely give credit to both Kathryn and to Mark [Boal] for," Fraser says. "Their drive to be as realistic as possible in this film. I mean, it makes life hard for technicians like myself. But Kathryn would say, 'We want to go real. We want the viewer to believe they're in bin Laden's front yard walking towards that front door as much as possible.'"

And so, ultimately, a night vision look was decided upon. The scene plays out largely in first-person perspectives from members of the SEAL Team Six squad that executed the mission. But Bigelow wanted something even more vital than the standard processes.

"There are different ways to do night vision," Fraser says. "You can shoot it for real and put a green cast on it. That's the most common way to do it. You can shoot it with a high ISO with lots of grain and a green filter. But Kathryn kind of went, 'Well, why would we do that?' And here I am cheering her on because it's the hard path. It's the path less known that we were trying to go down...to come up with something that was probably more realistic and visually more interesting than it would have been if we'd gone standard."

What they decided on was infrared lighting. But that presented its own bag of problems because infrared is a military item and the production crew would have faced difficulty importing and exporting it to and from the overseas locations. So Fraser's camera department found themselves taking the infrared LEDs from prop security cameras used by the art department in embassy scenes and mounting them to the camera (he shot on the Arri Alexa) with gaffer tape to light the sequence.

They then mounted night vision devices to the camera so that the lens could actually pick up the invisible light of the LEDs. The result is an entire sequence filmed in near-darkness (to the point that dailies would arrive for editor William Goldenberg with action that was impossible to make out to the naked eye prior to color-correction). But it had the sense of authenticity to it, which, as Fraser noted, was key for Bigelow and writer/producer Mark Boal.

Another element of the photography that had to be taken into account -- given that Fraser operates the camera himself -- was that the first-person material meant had to serve as an actor in a way. Each of the camera's movements in those moments is specific, tailored to trained military personnel.

"It's almost like robots," he says. "Like aliens. That was one of the things early on that Kathryn and I discussed in terms of the way the camera should move...[The SEALs are] experts. They know exactly what they're doing the same way you know exactly what you're doing when you sit down at the typewriter and I know exactly what I do when I get behind a camera. You still have that degree of creativity and degree of things that change in every job, but they know exactly how they're gonna behave. And we talked about the camera being the same way.

"The camera should never have felt outlandish or uncontrolled. It needs to feel human. And that, I guess, is the underlying principle of the way this camera moves. It's human but controlled. So rarely did it ever go on a dolly. It was always generally on the shoulder. There were no zooms or running. The camera always just walked – a very methodical sort of simple pace."

The cobbling together of all these elements for the sequence painted it in such stark contrast to the rest of the film's aesthetic, but it was a delight for the cinematographer, who's having a busy year with "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Killing Them Softly" in addition to "Zero Dark Thirty."

"It was very much a guerrilla-style shoot in most respects," he says, "even though it had, you know, the weight of history behind it and we had the amount of days we needed to shoot this. Still, in some ways it felt very guerrilla, like we were a team going into a situation, achieving our goals and then quickly getting out."

Still, he thinks more on that initial instinct, to capture night time the way the eye sees it, and how difficult it is to represent. But he notes the quickly evolving technology of the day, that when we first spoke three years ago about his work on "Bright Star," the Arri Alexa was still but a pipe dream. And he's hopeful that one day maybe he'll satisfy his own quest.

"Night time is an elusive thing still for us to capture in all its beauty," he says. "And, you know, you have films coming out like 'Drive,' for example, that captures amazing city nightlife in a way that hasn't been done before. And 'Collateral,' that captured this light in a very unusual sort of way. It's hard to find reference for desert night lighting. I found it really hard. And I'll keep my eye on looking because I still want to get better at that craft."

"Zero Dark Thirty" opens in limited release on December 19.


Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/tech-support-greig-fraser-on-shooting-the-dead-of-night-in-zero-dark-thirty#aTCTdGwl0Vc0DKyL.99

Quote from: crippled_avenger on 04-12-2012, 01:56:49
Jedno te isto, samo napravljeno da liči na život

http://agitpop.me/?097DA4DD

Odlicno ti ovo.

Hvala, Srbine!

Pogledao sam TIMESCAPE, rani rad Davida Twohyja iz 1992. godine. Uprkos tome što je kasnije snimio i znatno bolje ali i znatno slabije filmove, u ovom ostvarenju Twohy anticipira neke stvari koje će mu kasnije biti adut ali i mnoge mane. Adut je pre svega snažan osećaj za suspense i revitalizaciju zapleta koji kombinuju melodramu i žanrovske miteme u TWILIGHT ZONE ključu. Problem je polovičnost u svakom od ovih domena - Twohy se upadljivo slabije snalazi u svemu onom što nije akcentovao kao svoju jaču stranu, a ima i probleme na nivou strukture priče. Tako i TIMESCAPE potroši sat vremena na postavku likova i stuacije a u završnih pola sata počinje da se dotiče svog osnovnog žanrovskog gradiva u njemu ostaje sporadično štur i/ili nedorečen.

Umesto da se prvih sat vremena postavljaju prilično jasni i jednostavni odnosi među likovima, ta vrsta ekspozicije je morala ići brže kako bi već od kraja prvog čina ili polovine drugug krenulo da se dešava sve ono zbog čega se film zove TIMESCAPE. Jedan od razloga za ubrzavanje je i to što je Twohy prilično otvoreno prodao svoju "misteriju" u naslovu tako da TIMESCAPE govori o misteriji za glavnog junaka za koju Twohy očekuje da bude misterija i za gledaoce, iako ona to u osnovi nije.

Sama ideja sa putnicima kroz vreme koji dolaze na poprišta poznatih tragedija je zanimljiva, ali su putnici u ovom filmu prikazani kao mešavina horor-karikatura i suštinski benevolentnih avanturista, od kojih je ovaj sekundarni atribut svakako zanimljiviji ali nije dovoljno akcentovan. Čini mi se da je ova vrsta ambivalentnosti mogla da bude znatno bolje iskorišćena kao adut.

TIMESCAPE je adaptacija novele VINTAGE SEASON i moguće je da problemi na nivou strukture proističu iz Twohyjeve želje da ostane veran proznom izvorniku.

Jeff Daniels je odličan u glavnoj ulozi i pomaže da se film podnese u problematičnoj prvoj polovini. Twohy je u ovoj formi daleko uspešnije uspeo da se izrazi u ARRIVALu sa Charlie Sheenom.

* * 1/2 / * * * *

Novi trejler za ABCs OF DEATH, od 45. do 47. sekunda srpski predstavnik...

http://t.co/u7G8LWuT

Pogledao sam GOLGO 13 Shunye Satoa, japanski akcioni triler iz 1973. godine, nastao po stripu Takao Saita. Ovog junaka je kasnije igrao Sonny Chiba a napravljene su i animirane serije. GOLGO 13 je nastao po Saitovom scenariju i sniman je u Šahovom, pred-homeinijevskom Iranu što filmu daje jednu zanimljivu egzotičnu dimenziju a naročito je zanimljivo to što su persijski junaci nahovani na japanski. Sato je stari majstor japanskog repertoarskog filma koji se nije mnogo nametnuo kao reditelj van lokala ali mu je Toei prepuštao neke od najskupljih japanskih projekata i u ovom filmu se oseća zašto je dobijao takvo poverenje. Sato donosi nekoliko maestralnih sekvenci, a još je važnije to da se Takakura Ken nameće kao jedan validan akcioni heroj, čiji underplay ponekad dostiže granice paroksizma ali ima svoje mesto.

Nažalost, na nivou celine i zapleta GOLGO 13 nije naročito zanimljiv i Sato uspeva da ga oživi na nivou pojedinačnih situacija uprkos tome što nema snažnijeg pripovedačkog zamajca. Persijska podela je mnogo manje zanimljiva od Takakura Kena tako da ovde imamo slučaj specifičnog ugođaja kolonijalne kinematografije u kojoj kolonizovani preuzimaju ulogu kolonizatora. Takakura Ken je bio velika japanska zvezda ali je u američkim filmovima bio sidekick američkim zvezdama. Ovde on ima taj tip inferiornih sidekickova.

Skor je dosta po uzoru na špageti vesterne i čini mi se da su iranske pustinjske lokacije i uopšte priroda koja vuče na vestern inspirisali to rešenje koje se nije pokazalo kao baš najbolji put. GOLGO 13 pretenduje na kalibar koji ne uspeva da dostigne ali čini mi se da je bilo prostora da se ovaj lik barem još jednom načne sa Takakura Kenom.

* * 1/2 / * * * *

Silver Pictures has picked up the remake rights to 2004 French heist film "Le Convoyeur" which will be retitled "Cash Truck". Studio Canal is fully financing the project's development.

The story follows a father driving behind an armored car when masked gunmen try hijacking the vehicle. Stray gunfire hits the father's car, killing his son in the passenger seat.

Seeking to avenge the death and suspecting an inside job, he takes job with the armored car company.

Andrew Kevin Walker and David Ayer penned previous drafts of the remake when it was setup at Paramount and Nu Image/Millennium. A new scribe will now be brought in.

Silver and StudioCanal previously teamed on the 2011 thriller "Unknown" and the currently shooting "Non-Stop," both of which star Liam Neeson.

...eto zgodnog povoda da se još jednom reprizira LE CONVEYEUR, ali i Fleischerov ARMORED CAR ROBBERY, jer i to beše ljudski dobar flick..

Pogledao sam AL-TOO-BI: RITEON TOO BEISEU Dong Won-Kima, na zapadu poznat kao R2B: RETURN 2 BASE. Reč je južnokorejskom rip-offu TOP GUNa, koji praktično u potpunosti preuzima sve ono što je bila priča Scottovog filma i realzuje bez onog dara i veštine. R2B nije neprijatan za gledanje uprkos brojnim problemima, od onih objektivnih kao što su mlaka, i već viđena priča iz identičnog filma koji je pritom klasik i sam po sebi je dosta citiran do onih subjektivnih a vezani su za to da su belcima Azijati jako teški za razlikovanje, naročito u filmovima koji se dešavajku u vojsci i po definiciji govore o ljudima koji izgledaju i ponašaju se slično.

Dong Won-Kimova režija je glossy, glavnu ulogu igra Rain koji je snimio ovaj film pred odlazak na odsluženje vojne obaveze i verujem da je upravo ovo snimanje bilo deo tog zadatka. Slično Izraelu i u Južnoj Koreji služenje vojske traje nešto duže. R2B je propagandni gung ho film koji promoviše južnokorejsko vazduhoplovstvo i teško je poverovati da Rain i vojska nisu našli zajednički interes u ovom projektu.

U filmu Južnokorejanci ratuju sa severnokorejskim pučistima koji žele da obustave mirovne pregovore o ujedinjenju i započnu novi rat. Ponovo dakle imamo u film u kome nisu negativci "obični građani" Severne Koreje, niti državni vrh, već odmetnuti deo državne nomenklature. U tom pogledu R2B ne predstavlja Severnjake kao negativce već više kao svojevrsne žrtve manipulacije.

Rekonstrukcija severnokorejske vojske se retko viđa na filmu. U ovom je prilično neautentična. U filmu se leti Migovima i Kamov helikopterom, ali šare na njima su više proistekle iz produkcionog dizajna nego iz šare koje nose pravi severnjački Migovi koji su inače ofarbani u boje kakve bi stavio neko ko se kladio u prefarbavanje aviona i izgubio. U ovom filmu, vrlo su estetitovani, sa teget tonovima oznaka i deluje kao fetišizovan protivnik.

Nekog naročito razvijenog konflikta nema ni na jednom nivou. Pa tako i kod Severnjaka samo naziremo par likova i to su sve dosta šturo postavljeni negativci smešteni u visokoestetizovane ambijente.

Kako film ne bi otišao u preveliki neukus, iako u njemu već jeste, uvodi se sekundarni protivnik, vazduhoplovstvo SAD koje želi da samo obavi akciju umesto Južnjaka. Ipak, na kraju naravno Južnjaci uspevaju da očuvaju svoj integritet i rešavaju svoj posao sami.

R2B donosi dosta akcije u vazduhu koja je previše oslonjena na CGI tako da avioni mogu sve da rade, što kvari utisak inače solidno realizovanih vazdušnih scena. Taj CGI momenat u ovom filmu dosta pomaže, naročito jer mislim da su Migovi pretrpeli dosta intervencija animatora, ali ideje koje se tom tehniko realizuju su mahom neuverljive.

Ipak, činjenica da veliku ulogu igraju retko snamni borberni avioni F-15 i Mig-29 čini ovo zanimljivim filmom za ljubitelje avijacije.

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SKYFALLa uveoci...

http://www.citymagazine.rs/u-vazduhu/urban-flash/4179/dimitrije-vojnov-medijski-rat/