Casting By (2012)

Director: Tom Donahue

Composer:Leigh Roberts

Starring: Marion Dougherty, Lynn Stalmaster, Woody Allen, Edward Asner, Ned Beatty, Peter Bogdanovich, Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Ronny Cox, Mel Gibson, Robert De Niro, Richard Donner, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, etc., etc., etc.

More info: IMDb

Plot: The surprising, never-before-told tale of the indispensable yet unsung Casting Director - Iconoclasts whose keen eye, exquisite taste and gut instincts redefined Hollywood.

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I've got to start by saying how much of a dick Taylor Hackford is.  I realize I probably just shot myself in the foot and made sure that I'll never work in Hollywood again but after watching this, let's face, this guy's an asshole. Did you know that there is no Academy Award category for casting which is the only title card role to not have a category?  Hackford loves that and his belittling of that job is obscene as it is stupid.  After sitting through this excellent 89 minute documentary you come away with an awful lot.  Marion Dougherty is a truly amazing woman.  A casting director can make or break a film. A good CD can make a director's job much easier and audiences more grateful (although they might not realize it.  Oh, and Taylor Hackford is an asshat.  This picture mainly profiles Dougherty but other CDs are interviewed as well as a Brinks truckload of great actors who got their start in pictures because of her and her uncanny ability to see something in actors what others might not and she stood by her decisions.  A lot of those people are in this picture to give testament and thanks for her role in their careers.  Make sure you stay through the credits.  Burt Young brought me to tears.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.

The Vicar of Dibley (1994-2007) TV series

Starring:  (regular cast) Dawn French, James Fleet, Trevor Peacock, Gary Waldhorn, Roger Lloyd Pack, Emma Chambers, John Bluthal, and guest spots from Richard Armitage, Peter Capaldi, Johnny Depp, Richard Griffiths, Miranda Hart, Sting, Sarah Ferguson, Sean Bean, Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Saunders and Emma Watson

More info: IMDb

Plot:  A boisterous female minister comes to serve in an eccentrically conservative small town's church.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably.

I don't think I've covered a TV series on this blog.  Despite the staggering number of films I see annually, I also watch a lot of TV shows (usually after they've finished their broadcast runs).  There's no reason not to talk about them when I finish a series so here we go.

It's damn ridiculous that Netflix has most every episode (you'll have to go to YouTube to find the Comic Relief episodes) except for the first one which sets up the show.  WTF?  I know, right?  Anyway, I tried to watch this years ago and didn't laugh at all which surprised me as I dig French and I love British comedy TV.  Well, I finally gave it another go and I'm glad I stuck with it.  Dawn French needs to have my babies.  She's hilarious and touching as are the actors and characters that surround her in this series.  The people behind this show made this small village feel very much like a place that you'd want to either live or at least spend some time there.  There were some surprises like when one of the elder in the main cast comes out of the closet.  It was very touching how that was handled as almost a throwaway without dwelling on it.  It's hilarious how, during the series, every male regular proposes to her.  It's always funny but there's a lot of heart behind their intentions.  It's a series that made me laugh an awful lot and also tear up.  I couldn't have done either without everything in the show coming together with wonderful performances to pull me into it.  I cared about all of these characters and I'm glad I got to spend some time with them.

Each series/season has an overall story arc with lots of B-stories.  They naturally all tidy up nicely by the end and the series finale was very satisfying and very well played.  Some of the characters do ridiculously stupid things but it's all for laughs, of course, so the low brow humor that sneaks in doesn't ruin the show.  It plays nicely in the context of the situtaion.


The entire DVD set recently dropped to $30 on Amazon and I had to pass.  I binge-watched everything in a couple of weeks and I couldn't think of pulling the trigger just yet.  It's like you just finished eating a hearty meal when someone asks what you want for lunch tomorrow.  Too soon.

The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

Director: Grant Heslov

Writers: Peter Heslov, Jon Ronson

Composer: Rolfe Kent

Starring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Lang, Robert Patrick, Waleed Zuaiter, Stephen Root, Glenn Morshower, Nick Offerman, Tim Griffin

More info: IMDb

Tagline: No goats. No glory.

Plot:  A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Probably Not.

It looks and feels like a Coen Bros. movie and a good one at that.  That's quite a compliment.  George Clooney is hilarious.  He often has that wide-eyed O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000) thing going on that just tickles me to death.  Geez, just look at the cast. Jeff Bridges is hilarious, Kevin Spacey is hilarious.  I've used that word a lot already but is the movie hilarious?  It's got some great laugh out loud moments but it's not a solid 2.3 laughs per minute like you'd think it should be but it is pretty fun. It's sometimes quirky but what helps bring the funny is that it's largely true.  The names have been changed but some of the people and a lot of the situations are totally real.  The Anchor Bay DVD will give you more details with the extras like a 12-minute featurette with the real guys telling their story (fun), a 7-minute featurette that gives you the usual cast & crew interviews with lots of clips from the film, 4 minutes of deleted scenes, the anamorphic widescreen theatrical trailer and trailers for other Anchor Bay films & TV shows.

U-571 (2000)

Director: Jonathan Mostow

Writers: Jonathan Mostow, Sam Montgomery, David Ayer

Composer: Richard Marvin

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, David Keith, Thomas Kretschmann, Jake Weber, Jack Noseworthy, Tom Guiry, Will Estes, Terrence 'T.C.' Carson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: You won't come up for air until it's over!

Plot: A German submarine is boarded by disguised American submariners trying to capture their Enigma cipher machine.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I saw this in the theater, later on DVD and finally, last night, on Blu-ray and I'm done with this one.  It doesn't get better with each viewing but worse.  Not only is this picture LOADED with gross historical inaccuracies, but it's got a few little things that don't make sense like the open shelves on the sub not having lips to prevent things from falling off them, Tyler (McConaughey) standing topside on the sub looking at the destroyer that's actively firing on them, shit like that.  Now, the action is good.  I really like how the large cat and mouse chase goes on and on in the final third of the picture.  It's well-directed, edited and so on and I would recommend seeing the picture just for that but there's just enough of the bothersome stuff that gets in the way that will now, after having seen it three times in fifteen years, get in the way of me seeing it again.  Maybe in thirty years I'll give it another go but for now I think this one is behind me and DAS BOOT (1981) is waiting for that fourth go 'round.  The Universal Blu-ray looks great but there are no extras (!!!) except for a digital copy which the package says may or may not work after 2012.  

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson

Composer: Peter Dasent

Starring: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana Kent, Clive Merrison, Simon O'Connor, Jed Brophy, Peter Elliott, Gilbert Goldie

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The true story of a crime that shocked a nation.

Plot: Two girls have an intense fantasy life; their parents, concerned the fantasy is too intense, separate them, and the girls take revenge.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah, twice is fine.

I first watched this in the months leading up to Peter Jackson's first LOTR movie 'cause I wanted to see what this guy did that was so special to go from low budget horror to this film to the gargantuan LOTR trilogy.  Great flick, this one.  I like it a little more now than I did 15 years ago. It's playful, the relationship between the two girls is cute and infectious and the story takes us on a natural and understandable path that leads to murder and the murder is cringe-worthy even if you don't get to see it full on.  Dasent's score is beautiful and it's ideal for the picture.  The performances are strong, too, as is everything else. It's a well-crafted drama that spends nearly the entire film building the relationship between these girls and creating the atmosphere that justifies (in their minds only) their actions.  Fascinating and engaging pretty much sum this up.  The nearly bare bones Mirimax DVD has a nice anamorphic widescreen print but the extras are weak as you only get a trailer for this film and for BACKFLASH, TEACHING MRS. TINGLE, SHIPPING NEWS, PNERO and one that features a best of Mirimax which is them just trumpeting how good they are, all of which are fullscreen. 

The Mighty Quinn (1989)

Director: Carl Schenkel

Writers: A.H.Z. Carr, Hampton Fancher

Composer: Anne Dudley

Starring: Denzel Washington, James Fox, Mimi Rogers, M. Emmet Walsh, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Art Evans, Esther Rolle, Norman Beaton, Alex Colon, Robert Townsend, Keye Luke

More info: IMDb

Tagline: THE CHIEF OF POLICE AND THE CHIEF SUSPECT. They know each other too well to let a little thing like murder get in their way.

Plot: When police officer Xavier Quinn's childhood friend, Maubee, becomes associated with murder and a briefcase full of ten thousand dollar bills, The Mighty Quinn must clear his name. Or try to catch him, which could be even trickier.



My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Hmmmm.  It's a pleasant film with Denzel as a likable lead as usual.  The Jamaican location shooting is a nice getaway from the usual crime picture.   Walsh is fun and despicable as usual.  I liked the DR. NO (1963) nod with the three blind guys.  That was cute.  Quinn's (Washington) detective work feels 75% complete, as if there were some scenes cut that filled out more of the investigation. But then there's some thinly-veiled filler like with a scene where Quinn plays piano and sings.  It's funny how he suddenly loses his Jamaican accent.  It was a nice little scene but it distracted us from the investigation.  Once he's back on the hunt the film doesn't let up as if the film makers had gotten lazy and suddenly realized what they were there to do. Still, fans of Denzel or Walsh will dig it.  Rogers isn't in the picture much despite third billing and Townsend maybe has ten minutes of screen time and he's on the damn poster.  He's mostly there to deliver some much needed exposition on what really went down.  Oh, and what a bad poster, too.  It looks like it's a silly comedy.  There is some humor in this but it's not what the poster pretends to be (thankfully). The MGM DVD sports a non-anamorphic widescreen print with the sole extra being the original theatrical trailer.

The Longest Yard (1974)

Director: Robert Aldrich

Writers: Tracy Keenan Wynn, Albert S. Ruddy

Composer: Frank De Vol

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter, Michael Conrad, James Hampton, Harry Caesar, John Steadman, Charles Tyner, Mike Henry, Jim Nicholson, Bernadette Peters, Pervis Atkins, Tony Cacciotti, Anitra Ford, Michael Fox, Joe Kapp, Richard Kiel

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's Survival of the Fiercest and Funniest

Plot: A football player-turned-convict organizes a team of inmates to play against a team of prison guards. His dilemma is that the warden asks him to throw the game in return for an early release

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again? YES!

Probably about every 8 or so years I'll forget how great this flick is and slap it in for a reminder.  Probably this is my favorite sports film.  Reynolds oozes with charisma.  He's so damn likable it's not even funny.  Eddie Albert is an amazing actor, too.  This guy can go from charming as a peach to ruthless mother fucker on the turn of a dime.  Hell, the whole damn cast (and what a cast!!!) is outstanding.  Director Aldrich (just look at this guy's credits) did an outstanding job.  You can almost feel the heat on the chain gang.  The game in the last act looks like a legit game and they had cameras there to shoot it.  It's expertly edited and there is enough humor scattered about to keep things moving along and from being considered a comedy.  It's a sports prison drama with some laughs along the way.  This is a great film no matter how you slice it.

The Paramount DVD has a great looking anamorphic widescreen image with a few extras including a commentary from Burt Reynolds and writer/producer Albert Ruddy, two 11-minute featurettes with some of the cast et al on making the film, an "exclusive look" at the 2005 OK remake, the original theatrical trailer (anamorphic widescreen) and 7 minutes of previews (fullscreen and non-anamorphic wide) for guy-related shows and movies.  I can do without the horseshit that doesn't pertain to the '74 film but then I don't have to watch it.