Ask Me a Question: Heat w/ Mann, Pacino, DeNiro & Nolan

As you know, Heat is one of my all time favorite movies. So I was absolutely heartbroken to see that an Academy anniversary screening premiere of a new 4K restoration with writer/director Michael Mann and stars Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro attending came out of nowhere and sold out instantly. As someone who has attended so many awesome screenings and now put on my own special events, missing this seemed like a punch in the gut. A near meeting Jean-Claude Van Damme level of VienDammage influence. Not enough of a punch to go line up hours ahead of time to try and stand by but you know what I mean. But some eagle eyed #MovieBros alerted me that a block of tickets had gone back on sale, probably from Academy members who had to cancel. I quickly swooped up a pair for a cool $10 bucks, informed my other Heat loving friends and before you knew it, we had near front row seats at the Academy's theater in Beverly Hills.

The evening's program exploded with names added to the night like Val Kilmer, Diane Venora, Mykelti Williamson, editor William Goldenberg, producer Art Linson, director of photography Dante Spinottie and many more. I think there were 12-15 guests on stage by the end of the night. The movie, about highly skilled and experienced thieves and detectives still plays incredibly. At 3 hours long we get all the twists and turns of both professional crews yet I could keep watching another 3 hours. Everyone in the cast is immaculate but it's Pacino's quiet then screaming Detective Hanna that is just so Damme memorable. During the Q&A, Pacino shared that it was a secret that his character chipped cocaine which lead to some of his hilarious outbursts. Christopher Nolan is an open worshiper of the film, just watch The Dark Knight if you need evidence, and more or less fanboy'd out as moderator talking technical aspects with Mann, who in turn rattled off the exact number of shooting days and locations with no hesitation.

This is the second time we've seen Pacino and he was a riot as usual but he needed a little warming up. DeNiro didn't help as he literally is his cold and quiet onscreen persona and just shrugged about getting involved with the film basically thinking it would be great based off Mann's script and previous work. After a bit of reminiscing from the rest of the panel, Pacino started to remember more and in one story, he and Mann thought Williamson, hot off of Forest Gump should have won an Oscar but didn't, so they paid out of pocket to get him in their film. Pacino also delivered the greatest line of the night and possibly of the quarter when he summed up getting involved with the film as "it's New Year's Eve, I want to get into something...". Val Kilmer was a surprise, after years of battling throat cancer rumors and weight loss, he looks slim but in good spirits but when he started talking, it sounded like he was doing a Marlon Brando impression as he was fighting a swollen tongue. Walking out I spotted co-star William Fichter and chit chatted with Danny Trejo and wondered where Tom Sizemore was. A movie magical night.

Grudgement Day: Whiplash

Being a movie lover people assume I follow the Oscars but I actually think they're kinda bullshit.  Why?  Because I don't have the tastes of a 70 year old white man, the presiding demographic in the Academy.  Of course their choices for Best Picture are usually easy to spot in the sense of a movie having some social merit, being based on a true story, being about stuffy British people or an underdog fighting for a cause.  Men lose weight or change their image to play against type and women get fat to ugly themselves up.  Blockbusters are usually left in the cold and if you want any chance of winning, you've got to hit the campaign trail attending special events, taking out ads and making sure there's suitable heat to your project.  In 2008, The Dark Knight made a mint at the box office and won critics over but the superhero film via Michael Mann's Heat was left without a 2009 Best Picture nomination.  Why?  Because it was about Batman and the Joker.  In a bid to make it look like they weren't entirely out of sync with the movie going public, The Academy opened up the number of Best Pic nominations from 5 to 10 in 2010.  While a movie about long established comic book heroes in costume wasn't celebrated, James Cameron's tall blue aliens would as Avatar picked up 9 nominations.  Go figure.

This year I enjoyed Birdman and The Imitation Game but one extremely undeserving Best Picture nominee really ruffled my feathers, the music drama Whiplash.  Made for a few million bucks by usual horror and genre label Blumhouse, Whip follows young wanna be drumming prodigy Andrew Neimann (Miles Teller) and his physically and emotionally abusive instructor Terrence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons).  We see Neimann try to balance life, love and his drive for greatness as he's berated, slapped and pushed by Fletcher.  Pretty typical underdog stuff, right?  Suffice to say, I thought this movie was bullshit.  I didn't even want to finish it. First off, I don't understand the appeal of Teller.  Some compare him to a young John Cusack because they're white and have the same kind of chin but Cusack at least had a quirky likeability in Say Anything, Better Off Dead and later Con Air, Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity.  Teller just comes off as blank and forced to me.  Simmons, the likeable supporting actor from films like Juno, Spider-Man and I Love You, Man gets the showy role as the loud, abusive teacher.  He insults students for being fat, homosexual and stupid but strangely doesn't go racist.  If you're going to make him a total asshole why not have some balls and make him an asshole to EVERYONE?  Remember The Departed where all Boston cops and crooks were racist, homophobic and misogynist?  It won Best Picture.  Why exactly is playing an outright prick that impressive?  Because Simmons is usually a nice guy and here he plays an asshole?  That's notable?  Please.

Then don't get me started on how uneven this film is.  SPOILERS.  From Teller's character being this driven young man who practices long into the night, literally bleeding for his passion but then can't wake up on time for his big break.  Or the competition scene where he puts down the music folder to buy a drink and it gets stolen.  Who the fuck stole the folder?!  It's oh so convenient as it gives him the chance to step up but give me a fucking break.  At least show one of the other competing bands stealing it or reveal that Fletcher took it to teach someone a lesson.  But nope, nada.  Bullshit.  Then there's his uneven character who starts out as quiet, meek and awkward for the first act.  Then all of a sudden turns into The Social Network's Mark Zuckerberg and has a stinging one liner for everyone at the dinner table who minimizes his musical aspirations.  We never see that version of the character again.  How about the next competition where his bus gets delayed, he rents a car, forgets his stuff at the dealer, goes back then gets hits by a semi?!  Fletcher keeps harping about not letting the students fuck up his chances of winning competitions but he certainly puts them into compromising positions every chance he gets.  And how about that ending where Fletcher sets Neimann up during a prestigious show by giving him the wrong music, thus making the young drummer look foolish in front of an audience that could make or break his future career.  You're telling me that Fletcher is willing to risk the futures of the ENTIRE band to take his revenge on one kid?  Then of course Neimann picks himself up and goes into a show stopping drum solo that earns Fletcher's respect.  Just what the fuck man.  END SPOILERS.

I was quite surprised at the backlash Christopher Nolan's Interstellar received this year.  For some reason people thought it was going to be some kind of defining documentary on space travel when it's still a frigging movie that preserved the history of cinema and had ambition to spare.  Perhaps it reached too far and wasn't quite successful in blending the science and cinema but you had to admire the effort and the experience.  Did you see Nightcrawler?  What a terrific performance by Jake Gllynehaal as a creepy, funny and driven young man in the world of shock journalism.   Even that crazy Korean flick Snowpiercer was an unsettling, off the wall yet oddly charming observation of class told in a unique way.  With films like that overlooked for shit like Whiplash, it's just another reminder as to why I don't get into the Oscars.  Movies are supposed to be at their best entertaining, educational, emotional, enlightening, intriguing and/or inspirational.  I got none of those from this flick. Frustrating, man.

Captain America Two-sday

Get it?  Cause Captain America: The Winter Soldier hits home video today?  You don't get it...Amazon sent me a note about the release, looks like they patched things up with Disney as the two companies had been fighting about something so Cap wasn't available for pre-order.  I used to be a real stickler for bonus features and it seems like every outlet has some exclusive special feature.  I remember Best Buy including an extra disk of interviews for Inglorious Basterds while Target always has exclusive content as well.  For Cap, Target is offering an additional making of with their 3D/2D Blu-Ray and Digital Copy while Amazon has the standard edition for $5 more.  Looks like I'll be taking a trip to Target during lunch...Remember when Star Trek: Into Darkness had exclusive content spread across Best Buy, Target and iTunes releases?  Yeah, pretty bullshit if you ask me.

Anyways, Winter Soldier ended it's theatrical run with a spectacular $260 million take in the U.S. and over $700 million worldwide.  Marvel announced they would release part III on May 6th, 2016 which put it head to head with DC's Batman VS Superman/Justice League movie primer.  DC finally relented and moved giving Cap the lucrative first weekend of summer to himself.  After Winter Soldier's well executed if not wholly groundbreaking story of a political thriller with comic book heroes, rumors are swirling that the third installment will continue in the same vein with returning directors Joe and Anthony Russo.  The guys at Marvel are the smartest dudes in the room right now so I hope they'll remember how Iron Man II turned out when they just gave audiences more of what they liked in the original, i.e. their worst film to date that.  I always refer to it as Iron Man 1.5 since nothing new in terms of scope, storytelling or tone was really introduced.  At the time Marvel was still chasing DC's unexpected success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  While BB was like a ninja movie meets detective story, it's sequel was more or less a serious, character driven take on Heat, the classic 90's Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro flick about professional cops and thieves.  The sequel was bigger, darker, more detailed and dramatic.  Meanwhile, Iron Man II gave us nothing new stylistically and again pitted Shellhead against a variation of himself, this time with sparkly whips and some drones to destroy, yawn...

With SHIELD more or less destroyed in part II, here's hoping that Cap III doesn't get stuck being the vessel for the further adventures of a bunch of random ass characters and TV show.  Sure Nick Fury, Black Widow and The Falcon all fit in quite nicely but you don't see Thor or Iron Man having to share their movies with so many other characters.

Shot on the streets in my home state of Ohio's Cleveland, I got kind of giddy in the theater when I thought Fury's car was actually going to take off like it does in the comics...

Gotta Drank! Kate Mantilini

Ever seen the movie Heat?  One of it's many notable moments is a showdown between acting legends Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, playing the best of the best in law enforcement and professional criminal.  Tracking down DeNiro's crew, Pacino asks him to coffee where the two men discuss the path of their existence, their calling and the destruction it wreaks on their personal lives and what will happen when they come face to face in an unfriendly confrontation.  Michael Mann filmed Heat all over Los Angeles and used Kate Mantilini's on Wilshire in Beverly Hills for the historic scene.  We stumbled into Kate's one random Sunday afternoon on our way back from Anaheim's WonderCon in April.  The first thing that caught my eye was a drink dubbed "Table 24" in honor of the scene from Heat.  Realizing we were in the restaurant where the scene filmed, I got suddenly giddy and sent a text to some other fans of the film that a piece of it's production was literally next door to us for the last 5 years.  On your way out is a large framed photo of the two stars filming the scene.  It was pretty empty on that Sunday afternoon but we went back with some Heat aficionados to celebrate the film (and were seated next to 24) and the fact that Kate's is closing after 30 some years as a Beverly Hills landmark.  Unable to come to terms with rising rent costs, management has decided to shutter it's doors and focus on their remaining Woodland Hills location.  The joint is upscale American fare with crowd favorites like Macaroni and Cheese, Chicken Pot Pie and Meatloaf along side a decent sized Brunch menu.  The Table 24 is a Scotch based citrus medley complete with huge square of ice and blackberry garnish which got me feeling a little happy after one and a half of them...

Kate Mantilini's closes it's doors in Beverly Hills for good on Saturday, 6.14.14.  Get there!

That's the discipline:

Vernal Viewing: The Raid 2

Having just expanded across the United States and playing in 954 theaters, The Raid 2 comes riding a festival and word of mouth hype train following the success of 2011's fan favorite, The Raid:  Redemption.  Picking up after the events of it's predecessor, hero cop and badass fighter Rama (Iko Uwais) is recruited to go deep cover in a bid to take down high levels of organized crime.  A 2 year stint in prison gets him next to the son of a feared crime boss and upon release, Rama goes to work for the family.  Aggressive expansion, ambitious purpose, turf war with Yakuza and lots and lots of violence ensues.

As an action movie and martial arts fan, The Raid 2 left me with conflicted feelings.  Somewhere, in this 140 minute running time is a 95 minute classic.  Like many films today, The Raid 2 suffers from in my opinion, being too Damme long and thinking that an extended run time will equal more gravitas.  From the 2.5 hour indulgence Django Unchained, the nothing much happens Hunger Games:  Catching Fire, five endings Divergent to this, there's a fine line between trying to build an epic and just plain pummeling your audience with low key fluff intended to hype the ending.  The last hour is fantastic, if they could have set up the film faster then moved into the final showdown(s), I think you would have had something really special.

Writer/Director Gareth Evans and team again deliver some truly awe inspiring, jaw dropping, cringe inducing, holy shit action set pieces involving cars, fisticuffs, machetes, baseball bats, hammers and more on the streets, in a muddy prison yard, a subway car and warehouses with plenty of broken limbs, maimed bodies and bloody aftermath galore.  What Evans is able to capture practically is impressive, you never feel like you're watching green screen or stunt doubles or unable to tell what's happening.  Many of the hand to hand sequences are done in long takes with the action clearly discernible.  While elaborate choreography is on full display, I feel a lack of simple technical physical prowess is missing.  Nary a high kick is thrown but there's the tired, "front kick while leaning back and yelling" for days.  While we don't live in an age where high kicking specimens Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White or Jean-Claude Van Damme can headline theatrical films, I missed their acrobatic muscular grace.

For a film this long, there just isn't enough story to sustain the space between action sequences.  They might have been aiming to make a gritty, urban, organized crime epic but it's not like we're talking the layered nuance of Heat or The Godfather here.  The beats are very familiar and expected, simply highlighted by brutal, brutal action scenes that for me, were almost too much.  That was the problem Jackie Chan had in trying to break the Western audience, he was all about the action but we just can't handle that much action with no story or characters, no matter how flimsy.  When Chan blended comedy with action, POW! we got enjoyable romps Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon.  Action without context or care is pointless.  Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, JCVD, Stallone and Arnold all had personality and charisma.  They were put into simple situations as underdogs and fought their way out.  Deep down we knew they were going to win but we still rooted for them and took the journey with them.  Here, Rama's story and characterization is nearly non-existent.  We don't really care if he busts these guys or makes it back to his wife and kid who are thrown in to remind us that he's fighting for something.  He's already been gone for 2 years, what's a few more months?

Violence in film has always been a hot topic and while it may sound hypocritical that I found one movie too violent than another, I walked away from The Raid 2 thinking, that was too much and feeling a little dirty.  While Lee, Van Damme and Arnold's antics inspired me to become a better and more well rounded person.  Just the changing of the seasons, I suppose.

Sunday driving:

Hot Damme! Heat

While Manhunter helped spark a Hannibal themed week, it also took me back into the land of writer/director Michael Mann.  Responsible for some absolutely terrific films like Thief, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider and Collateral while his continued descent into near docudrama/High Definition filmmaking has yielded star-studded, almost home movie like features Miami Vice and Public Enemies.  While still working on film, Mann gave us a cops and robbers tale of epic proportions in Heat.  Epic in it's casting:  Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi, Natalie Portman, William Fichtner with musicians turned thespians Tone Loc and Henry Rollins.  Epic in it's production:  the entire film was shot utilizing 65 locations around Los Angeles without one manufactured set or stage.  And epic in it's detailed depiction of the lives of well trained, seasoned professionals on both sides of the law and the inherent violence that can ensue.  The film is steeped in gritty procedural facts with an air of authenticity that comes from copious research and perfectionist execution.

After 1981's Thief, Mann rewrote his script to Heat and asked Walter Hill (Hard Times, The Warriors) to direct, who declined.  Before lensing 1986's Manhunter, Mann was still trying to produce but not direct Heat.  In 1989, Mann reworked his script and turned it into the TV movie, L.A. Takedown.  After the success of 1992's The Last of the Mohicans, Mann turned his attention back to Heat and with 6 months of prep time, went about creating his arguably most masterful work.

If you've seen Heat, you probably remember the bank heist scene midway into the film.  There, DeNiro's crew have made it out of a bank with millions in cash while Pacino's posse from the Major Crimes Unit finally catches them in the act.  What follows is a harrowing, intense and LOUD showdown between professional thieves and their law abiding pursuers.  Always one for keeping it real, Mann based much of the film on real life cases, criminals and officers of the law he had encountered through his career.  Mann himself spent months going on patrol with seasoned detectives and put his actors through the same rigorous and detailed regimens to prepare for the film with mandatory ridealongs, gun training, etc.  The bank scene was shot in downtown Los Angeles and has inspired future fare from the Michael Biehn/Sammo Hung Hong Kong actioner Dragon Squad to last week's Captain America:  The Winter Soldier.

To Live and Die on the Streets of L.A.:

Hot Damme! Screaming Al Pacino

Not too long ago, I checked out Stand Up Guys on Netflix.  It was a cute and funny "wise guys get old" flick with Al Pacino as a freshly released hood who has just finished serving 28 years for a job gone bad.  Christopher Walken co-stars as Pacino's best friend who picks him up and is also burdened with the job of killing Pacino as the son of a local crime boss was off'd in the botched heist all those years ago and said crime boss is still plenty pissed about it.  Alan Arkin shows up briefly as another member of their gang and the old timers relive their glory days of "kicking ass and chewing gum" while familiarizing themselves with modern things like Viagra and super charged sports cars.  Pacino was looking pretty worn out here and his signature screaming seemed to be replaced by a too tired to shout performance.

Growing up, the 3 seminal Pacino flicks in my viewing life were Dick Tracy, Scent of a Woman and Heat.  30 years ago, Pacino was all about the screaming and nobody did it better than him.  Nobody could alternate periods of calm reflection with bursts of discontented rage as powerfully or as imitable as Pacino.  Whenever I get fed up with someone's incompetence, I just want to channel my inner Big Boy Caprice from Dick Tracy and scream: "I'm looking for generals; what do I got?  Foot soldiers!"  Or when someone can't get their shit together, I can't help but want to send them a YouTube video of Pacino as Lt. Vincent Hanna in Heat yelling:  "Don't waste my mother fucking time!"

That brings us to Scent of a Woman, a flick that was on often in my VHS filled household as a kid.  I hadn't seen it in years before inheriting it on DVD recently.  I was shocked at the films running length of 2 hours and 37 minutes.  What do you even remember about that movie?  Young Phillip Seymour Hoffman (View in Peace) convincingly playing a rich douche bag.  Pacino always yelling at Chris O'Donnell while simultaneously teaching him about life and saying "hoo-ah" a lot.  The Tango scene.  The Ferrari test drive.  And finally, Screaming Al defending O'Donnell in a crowded lecture hall that ends with a standing ovation.

Rewinding a bit, 1992's Scent of a Woman is the story of young Charles Sims (O'Donnell), a prep school student from Oregon studying at an expensive and prestigious establishment in New England.  One night, Sims and another student witness some classmates setting up a prank on their head master.  Unwilling to snitch and offered a bribe, Sims is given the weekend to decide if he's going to rat or be expelled.  Meanwhile, Sims takes a Thanksgiving weekend job tending blind and retired veteran, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade (Pacino), a cantankerous man who drinks and smokes all day while making those around him miserable.  Slade has a plan to fly to New York first class, have an agreeable meal, see his brother, make love to a beautiful woman and to end the holiday, blow his brains out. 

I remembered Pacino being funny in an "asshole but not a fucking asshole" kind of way but he really is hard to like yet incredibly easy to watch.  He loves booze, woman and shocking people while masking his loneliness and self loathing.  By the end of the weekend of course, Slade doesn't kill himself, he and Sims have formed a bond and with the help of Slade's defense, Sims is neither expelled nor forced to snitch.  Based on an Italian novel and a film from 1974, Woman was directed by Martin Brest of Beverly Hills Cop fame and while leisurely, never comes off as overlong or bloated.  It's a beautiful film and come award time, was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Writing for Bo Goldman and won Pacino his first and only Oscar out of 8 nominations. 

Brest's next at bats wouldn't be so successful as 1998's Meet Joe Black, a story of Death coming to earth and falling in love, somehow managed to push the 3 hour mark while inexplicably costing $90 million bucks with nary a special f/x battle scene or exotic, hard to reach location in sight.  Then there was 2003's Gigli which, I'm sure you heard of in a negative context but never seen.  Suffice it to say, the flick didn't do well and Ben Affleck is only now coming out of the funk it helped induce.  However, I saw part of it on cable one night and laughed my ass off at Affleck's performance, he's truly a funny dude.  Pacino would follow up his award winning performance with solid turns in Heat, The Insider and Any Given Sunday before popping up as the villain in 2007's Ocean's Thirteen.  O'Donnell went on to play Robin in two Batman movies before "strapping on the nitro" for Vertical Limit and now makes a ton of cash hanging out with L.L. Cool J on TV juggernaut, NCIS:  Los Angeles.

The one and only: