In Contention

Tag: The Lord of the Rings

  • The kids are NOT all right (or alright, for that matter)

    This post is so unnecessary because it is an obvious lost cause. It really shouldn’t even be enough to get a rise, but in me, it just…does.

    You know, once upon a time the MTV Movie Awards (which are voted on publicly) actually seemed to reflect an edge in America’s youth. Think about it. “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” won the MTV award for Best Picture. “Menace II Society” won the MTV award for Best Picture. “Pulp Fiction,” “Seven,” “Scream,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “The Matrix,” “Napoleon Dynamite,” etc.  Room was even made here and there for prestige pics that tapped a pop culture vein.  “A Few Good Men,” for instance, or “Titanic,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “Gladiator,” one of only two times the award matched the Academy’s choice.

    And in the last five years?  Scary.  “Wedding Crashers,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Transformers” and far and away the two worst films to win a popcorn statue: “Twilight” and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” (Why, Bill, why?)  What the hell happened to the MTV audience?  What happened to the kids’ edge?  Who are these people?

    (more…)

  • COMIC-CON: Visionaries Jackson and Cameron address the masses

    (from left) Peter Jackson and James Cameron at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con InternationalThe crowning jewel of the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, by far, has been the Entertainment Weekly-sponsored “Visionaries” panel yesterday evening, featuring filmmakers Peter Jackson and James Cameron.  So many real-world, in-the-trenches, eye-on-the-future topics were discussed that it became tedious to sit and transcribe the proceedings, so after a while I just committed myself to as many video clips as I could grab.  Though I was tweeting as much as possible.  Ditto Jeff Wells, who passed along some nice quotes throughout.

    The two talked about everything from motion-capture technology to balancing the duties of screenwriter with that of producer and director, and really, anything in between.  It was the most enlightening panel Comic-Con could have hoped for, and even the attendee questions were brighter than usual.

    Line of the evening: “It’s not a good idea to ask a woman if she wants to have another baby when she’s crowning,” which was Cameron’s response to a query about his next project.

    Much of the discussion was dedicated to the idea that these two guys constantly push the envelope, not only of what is possible in cinema, but of what a studio is willing to fund.  Cameron in particular displayed his usual maverick side when questions like this came about, at one point saying that Warner Bros. needed to “grow a pair of balls” regarding an eventual 3D release of the “Lord of the Rings” franchise.

    (more…)

  • COMIC-CON: Peter Jackson receives standing ovation at first ever Con appearance

    Peter Jackson at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con InternationalPeter Jackson made his long-awaited first trip to Comic-Con yesterday in support of Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9,” which screened to a select audience Thursday. He received the expected standing ovation by the many Ringers and Bad-Tasters in attendance.

    “This is a moment to remember for the rest of my life,” he said after snapping a few photos of the audience like a geek in heaven.

    Jackson was joined by Blomkamp and actor Sharlto Copley on stage for a discussion of the thoughtful sci-fi film. An extended trailer (that, to my mind, gave away too much of the plot’s particulars) cranked the crowd’s anticipation for the film up to 11, but I personally wish the moderator had drawn out some more insightful commentary from Copley, whom I praised to the ends of the earth after seeing his riveting performance Thursday.

    Jackson talked about the project’s genesis, being born from the ashes of his failed “Halo” project. The seeds of “District 9” can be found in Blomkamp’s short film “Alive in Joburg,” which crossed Jackson’s path when he was seeking out a helmer for “Halo.”

    “The idea was that we would produce ‘Halo,’ but from the very beginning we wanted to find a new director, someone who was fresh, original, who would bring a new spin to the film,” Jackson said. “Neill had done a couple of short movies and we were really impressed. And then ‘Halo’ died due to studio politics. We got kind of disillusioned with what happened and we thought, ‘Why don’t we try to take control of the situation,’ so we suggested the idea of working on an original idea. Keep the budget low and put this energy into a different project. So it worked out for the best.”

    (more…)

  • TCM’s top 15 most influential classic movies

    MetropolisWell, here’s something I guess.  Rope of Silicon points us to TCM’s list of the top 15 most influential “classic” films of all time.  I actually started working up such a list for the site a while back but abandoned it for whatever reason.  It was going to include all comers, though, not just classic films.  They seem to be listed in chronological order over at TCM.com.  The 15:

    “The Birth of a Nation” (1915)
    “Battleship Potemkin” (1925)
    “Metropolis” (1927)
    “42nd Street” (1933)
    “It Happened One Night” (1934)
    “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)
    “Gone with the Wind” (1939)
    “Stagecoach” (1939)
    “Citizen Kane” (1941)
    “The Bicycle Thief” (1947)
    “Rashomon” (1950)
    “The Searchers” (1956)
    “Breathless” (1959)
    “Psycho” (1960)
    “Star Wars” (1977)

    My list certainly included most of those, which are by and large hard to argue with.  “Birth,” “Battleship,” “Metropolis,” “Night,” “Snow White,” “Wind,” “Kane” and “Star Wars” were definitely included in my tally.  If we were to extend it beyond the “classic” realm, I think we’d have to include “Jurassic Park” and the “Lord of the Rings” franchise.  “Toy Story” would have to have a secure place, while “Pulp Fiction” obviously sparked a revolution some would argue had roots in “sex, lies and videotape” (also a contender for an “all-time” list).

    Since TCM’s idea of “classic” obviously stretches into the late 1970s, I think it’s rather foolish to leave off “Jaws” and/or “The Godfather” considering what they meant to big business theatrical revenue before “Star Wars” came along.  And going way back, “The Great Train Robbery” had people running from the theater screaming after the final image of a bandit firing his gun at the camera.  There’s something to be said for one of the first films to enthrall like that.

    And what about “The Jazz Singer?”  How do you leave that title off a list of “classic” cinema?  I guess it had to be narrowed to 15 but there are a couple of films on that list that could have been bumped, I think.

    Let’s put it to the readership.  Assuming an “all-time” list rather than limiting it to the classics, what would you say have been the most influential films?  I could make a mean case for “Die Hard,” but I’ll anxiously await your input.  Rattle off your lists and maybe we’ll settle things with a series of polls.

  • ‘Lovely Bones’ next year’s Oscar victor?

    Cover of The Lonely BonesKris recently took his initial stab at predicting next year’s Oscar nominees, so I thought I would join the madness by planting a flag for “The Lovely Bones.”  I read the book in three days at the suggestion of my daughter, who knows that I admire Peter Jackson and that this is his next film. On the way to my office, the train offered a quiet solitude.  I’ll never forget this book.

    The greatest tragedy a parent can suffer is losing a child.  I simply cannot imagine the pain this must cause. As the father of two beautiful girls, 17 and 9, they are the lights of my life and reason for smiling everyday. Should anything ever happen to them, they might as well throw me in the ground with them, because I would be dead.

    “The Lovely Bones” deals with the rape and murder of a young girl, who then watches her family, and her killer, from heaven for years after the event. The father suspects the next door neighbor (great instinct) while the mother cannot deal with the agony and leaves the family to forge a new life. The sister experiences something rather extraordinary that I will not give away, while the heroine grieves for her loss of family as much as they grieve for her.

    Jackson is, in my opinion, an enormously gifted filmmaker. I stand among those who believe “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy was the greatest risk in movie history, which paid off tremendously. The final film, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” is a masterpiece that deserved every single Oscar it won, the NYFCC Best Picture it won, and actually should have been nominated for a couple more. I remember the emptiness I felt after seeing the film, armed with the knowledge that the trilogy was over and there was no film to look forward to seeing next year from the director.

    (more…)

  • What is the most watched film of all time?

    It's a Wonderful LifeIt’s a question that just came to me this evening when talking with some friends.  What would you say is the most watched film of all time?  How many films would even be on that list of contenders?

    Off the top of my head I would have to consider “The Wizard of Oz” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  Maybe “Titanic,” given the givens.

    We could maybe be so bold as to propose “The Shawshank Redemption” or “The Lord of the Rings” films.  And isn’t “Finding Nemo” the best-selling DVD of all time?  I guess that means it has to be on the list.

    “The Lion King?”  “Fantasia?”  “Gone with the Wind?”  What do we think?

  • Peter Bart chats it up with Guillermo Del Toro

    Guillermo Del Toro on the set of Pan\'s LabyrinthVariety’s Peter Bart sat down recently with “Hellboy 2” director Guillermo Del Toro, presumably for the upcoming episode of AMC’s “Shootout.”

    He also has some nice pics up of the inventive filmmaker’s infamous sketchbooks, though they’re covered in watermarks.  I assume it’s all in the way of plugging Sunday’s episode (which should be a good interview…Del Toro could make even Peter Guber seem to be asking pointed questions).

    Here’s a look:

    Del Toro is a man who loves to let his imagination roam, but he is very much a serious student of film who can discourse on the craft of Hitchcock and who helps guide and promote the work of fellow Mexican filmmakers like Inaritu and Cuaron (with whom he has a production company called Cha Cha Cha). For him, movies are both a playpen and a serious business — and a superbly remunerative place to have a happy childhood.

    I’m REALLY looking forward to “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,” I must say. I was not much of a fan of the initial installment, though I could not, at the time, deny the sheer scope of imagination on display. The trailers and promotional materials for the sequel have indicated the next level of visual splendor, so much so that Cinematical’s James Rocchi said he felt as if his “imagination had eaten too much.”

    And despite my extreme distaste with much of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” franchise, I’m oddly anticipating Del Toro’s “The Hobbit” with a twisted sort of glee.

    Finally, it’s a few days old, but Jeffrey Wells recently sat down with the filmmaker (he’s always been an admirer). Have a listen.