Rushfield Babylon

Morgan Freeman is the first actor in entertainment history to...

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:25:00 -0400

Morgan Freeman is the first actor in entertainment history to give the right answer to a junket interview

Morgan Freeman is the first actor in entertainment history to give the right answer to a junket interview. He wins.

There are decent people walking this earth still.

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:51:26 -0400

There are decent people walking this earth still.

Apocalypse Refn! From Jeff Wells review of Nick Refn/Ryan...

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:47:20 -0400

Apocalypse Refn!

From Jeff Wells review of Nick Refn/Ryan Gosling -Drive follow-up Only God Forgives at Cannes (to take just one extremely satisfying example):

Movies really don’t get much worse than Nicholas Winding Refn‘s Only God Forgives. It’s a shit macho fantasy — hyperviolent, ethically repulsive, sad, nonsensical, deathly dull, snail-paced, idiotic, possibly woman-hating, visually suffocating, pretentious. I realize I sound like Rex Reed on one of his rants, but trust me, please — this is a defecation by an over-praised, over-indulged director who thinks anything he craps out is worthy of your time. I felt violated, shat upon, sedated, narcotized, appalled and bored stiff…Effyoueffyoueffyoueffyoueffyou, Refn…eff you and the whole Asian action-porn attitude you rode in on. You’re now a dead man in my book. Dead as Jimmy Hoffa.

Let the record show, every word of this could and should and in the case of this lone and lonely blog, was said about Drive, a self-important, superficial, hateful, piece of drivel if there ever was one. With its hipster posturing and 80’s decorations and chances to swoon over Gosling it was the cool person’s version of a Victoria’s Secret fashion show and the fact that our entire hipster establishment fell for this vapid nonsense lock, stock and hoodie only shows the the line between cool people and tweens collecting stickers has evaporated in this era. Anyhow, glad to have everyone come aboard the Refn hating bandwagon. If you find this film nightmarish, some might say, you’re getting just what you deserve, but I myself would never be so cruel.

Sam Neill Says 'Jurassic Park 4' Will Be a Reboot | Hitfix

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:32:53 -0400

Sam Neill Says 'Jurassic Park 4' Will Be a Reboot | Hitfix:

So expect:

• All the dinosaurs to be emotionally shut down because in being dinosaurs they had to kill off an essential part of their humanity.

• The Richard Attenborough character to be played by a smoldering Josh Hutcherson who uses raver technology to make the dinosaur park more rave like, but in an evil way.

• Parallels to the Debt Ceiling Crisis and the 2012 Vice Presidential debate

• Bitcoins

• The entire movie to be set at 5:45 AM

• Lots of scenes of young Jeff Goldblum’s real life, like when he was growing up and considered not going to visit the dinosaur park at all, but ultimately decided to because through a twist of fate, he decided he felt like it.

formerlydietcock: Actual headline of actual article someone was...

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:19:34 -0400

formerlydietcock:

Actual headline of actual article someone was paid to write for The Guardian (UK), presented without further comment.

Apparently alienation is a “thematic thread that runs through her work.” Who knew!?

Apparently also: “Coppola isn’t some raddled old hack with humiliation issues; she’s a major-league film-maker with an Oscar and a Golden Lion tucked under her belt.”

Always important to bear in mind. Especially as we enter Bling Ring season.

"When I reached Chequers, I wondered if the Prime Minister would ever find time to talk to me about..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 04:18:43 -0400

“

When I reached Chequers, I wondered if the Prime Minister would ever find time to talk to me about Jugoslavia…There were the films; long films, short films, comic films, serious films, sandwiched in at all hours of the day and night. The great men stood by, waiting their turn and hoping that it would not come in the early hours of the morning, a time when the ordinary mortal does not feel at his brightest, especially if he has seen three or four films in succession, but when the Prime Minister, on the contrary, seemed filled with renewed vigor of body and mind.

Towards midnight, in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, a memorable interruption took place. A message was brought in to Mr. Churchill, who gave an exclamation of surprise. Then there was a scuffle and the film was stopped. As the squawking of Donald Duck and the baying of Pluto died away, the Prime Minister rose to his feet. ‘I have just,’ he said, ‘received some very important news. Signor Mussolini has resigned.’ Then the film was switched on again.

”

- Fitzroy Maclean, Easter Approaches

When moviegoing was an event! With bumper music!

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:29:10 -0400

When moviegoing was an event! With bumper music!

Are there other things to do?

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:11:57 -0400

Are there other things to do?

Questions Overheard in Baz Luhrmann's Office

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:31:01 -0400

1. Weren’t the 20’s really just one big rave?

2. Was there Instagram in the 20’s?

3. Wasn’t the Belle Epoque really just one big rave?

4. We can get people to find Leo mysterious and powerful if he wears a white suit and brown vest, can’t we?

5. Wasn’t olde Verona really just one big rave?

6. Do we have the budget to send him to an extra month of scowling boot camp?

7. Is there enough champagne in this movie?

8. For Nick, can emotionally vacant cypher read as “soul in turmoil”?

9. Weren’t some of Fitzgerald’s novels published in 3D?

10. Does someone looking like they are 12 prevent them from being a siren?

11. Can we say it’s not based on the book but on the real Gatsby story?

12. Then can we say inspired by actual events?

13. Wasn’t the Second World War really just one big rave?

“For God’s sake, let us sit upon the groundAnd tell...

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:34:00 -0400

“For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d;
All murder’d: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour’d thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!”

When punk rock meant something.

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:17:00 -0400

When punk rock meant something.

alisonagosti: Jason and the Argonauts skeleton fight This has...

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:01:56 -0400

alisonagosti:

Jason and the Argonauts skeleton fight

This has more drama than every Michael Bay/Roland Emmerich/McG/Battle of LA/whoever combined. RIP Harryhausen, author of my childhood’s most spectacular dreams.

If any of you talk with JJ this week, please tell him I’m...

Sat, 04 May 2013 22:26:14 -0400

If any of you talk with JJ this week, please tell him I’m totally flexible on my back end.

Damn those bonny bonny banks.

Sat, 04 May 2013 01:40:00 -0400

Damn those bonny bonny banks.

Once there was one sweater to rule us all.

Fri, 03 May 2013 20:32:00 -0400

Once there was one sweater to rule us all.

HAPPY TRAILERS: The Grandmaster by Wong Kar Wai Not sure how I...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:18:00 -0400

HAPPY TRAILERS: The Grandmaster by Wong Kar Wai

Not sure how I feel about this. I’m very glad Kar Wai is back to doing more rainwork, but in general I would prefer that he stick with people gazing at each other in sadness in the rain rather than kicking each other in the rain. I’ll admit the glass breaking in the storm looks good, but I worry that this is another of the little experiments that has taken his career on this unfortunate detour in recent years. I’m all for letting a man experiment, but just walk away from the heartbreaking stories of urban ennui you do better than anyone Kar Wai!

For instance, the idea of people kicking each other in the rain sounds good, but when you get down to it, rain isn’t going to make a fight any rougher or scarier, just kind of sloshier and messier. A lot of people slipping, if you’re going to get serious about it and slipping is not the stuff of nailbiting action.

Also - that straw Panama maintains its shape awfully well in the torrential downpour. Must we throw all disbelief out the window to take this journey with Kar Wai. In the Mood for Love didn’t ask us to accept such things!

Nevertheless, I’ll be first in line.

Hollywood studio seeks Kickstarter funding for movie, everyone's cool with it. Noted billionaire Zach Braff does it, and it's an outrage.

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:46:38 -0400

Precisely. We warned about this. Issues are almost exactly the same as with Mars, but because that was a beloved cult favorite, any success was applauded. (Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell could have written million dollar checks each, same as people are saying Braff could. Yes, it would be money gone and they would get no piece of the Warners project…but wasn’t this their dream?)

Ultimately, funding a for-profit venture as a charity is weird and is a niche that has opened up thanks to a generation of useful idiots in the YAY! ERA who live to mindlessly cheer on their team - so long as their team comes in some sort of token indie garb, be they politicians or late night tv stars. The same mentality that was outraged for poor Conan not getting his talk show even as he pocketed a $40 million pay off; or who thinks sitcom stars are “on their side”…Or who supports a politician because they make slightly more than the usual nods to social media or pop stars or what have you.

Generation YAY! get ahold of yourself! You have Braff on your hands!

Goodnight, Farewell and Amen Dr. Sidney Freedman. Thank you for...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:03:07 -0400

Goodnight, Farewell and Amen Dr. Sidney Freedman. Thank you for keeping us sane through the longest Korean War America has ever known.

Happy goddamn 100 Paramount.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:31:00 -0400

Happy goddamn 100 Paramount.

"Disney’s Second Screen Live program, introduced this week at CinemaCon, encourages moviegoers to..."

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:59:00 -0400

“Disney’s Second Screen Live program, introduced this week at CinemaCon, encourages moviegoers to play interactive games on their iPads while watching a film in a theater. A home video version for select Disney Blu-Ray titles launched in 2011. “Of course you hear a lot from exhibition, ‘we don’t allow cell phones’”, Disney Exhibitor Relations VP Nancy Klueter said this morning at a CinemaCon panel on theater showmanship. “This screening would be inviting those people to bring their technology so you wouldn’t be offending them”. Disney and their exhibition partners hope the ploy will bring younger audiences back to theaters.”

- On the one hand, by even contemplating this step, Disney has now become a war criminal and becomes the duty of every lover of film or even humanity to do all they can to stop them and bring this company to its knees until they renounce this evil.

On the other hand, you can’t really blame them. When one looks at the trailers this week for the Zack Snyder Superman, the Verbinski Lone Ranger, hoopla for the Iron Man 3 upcoming release…how can we expect that audiences raised with the notion that tired, inert dreck like this is the pinnacle of Hollywood storytelling should be able to keep their devices off during them.

These films make the action spectacles of the 80’s and 90’s like Lethal Weapon 2 and Twister seem full of humanity and life. So it is very difficult on the one hand to deaden the audience’s senses with a genre that has become about nothing more than cranking up the volume and layering it over with a full-of-itself, portentous pomposity, and on the other hand tell them: no you’re not allowed to play with your toys here. You have to focus and pay attention.

Which is to say, with this generation raised on these films and glued to their devices since birth coming of age we are all doomed. Congratulations to Disney for realizing it. And for the rest of us, the best we can hope is that we can go down sword in our hand fighting them with our last breath, and die an honorable entertainment martyr’s death.

(Source)