Gotta Party! American Cinematheque Award

Who would have thought starting a blog and hosting a Van Damme double feature would someday lead to getting invited to a black tie awards gala? Not this guy, that's for sure. But invited we were and attend we did The American Cinematheque Award gala celebrating Reese Witherspoon and Sid Grauman Award winner Jeffrey Katzenberg. Described as a mid-career award, the Cinematheque honor basically tells recipients, we like you so keep it up. Held at the same swanky Century City Hyatt where work had a conference a few years ago, we chilled in the lobby with a whiskey ginger watching many a black tuxedo clad man and formal evening gown lady arrive. Downstairs we partook in the open bar and caught up with friends while catching the likes of Jennifer Garner and Kate Hudson milling about. I spotted Nu Image/Millennium head and The Expendables producer Avi Lerner grabbing a drink and went to make a quick introduction. I had seen the guy on the streets of San Diego in 2012 after the Expendables II panel and he told me part IV is happening!

Inside it was a lovely three course meal of salad, fish and dessert and each seat came with a gift bag filled with snacks, quinoa vodka and movies from Witherspoon's filmography. In the center of the ballroom I spotted Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Aniston among others visiting Reese's table. McConaughey is a pretty intense dude with laser focus in his eyes. As the evening progressed we heard from many a Hollywood big wig as they celebrated films on the big screen through non-profit The American Cinematheque and how they're still just dreamers doing what they love. Throughout the evening speakers like Laura Dern, Jennifer's Anison and Garner, Kate Hudson, Sofia Vergara and Alexander Payne shared Witherspoon's journey to stardom along with their experiences working with her. It was all very sweet and funny of course as Witherspoon was described as a fierce, funny, loyal and terrific human being who is there for her kids, doesn't BS and wants to do the best job possible. While I don't own a tuxedo or black suit, it was fun to throw on the ol' wedding suit and the entire evening was very casual and not stuffy at all. Congratulations to Witherspoon and Katzenberg but they don't need my support. See ya at the next one!

Motivate Monday: Matthew McConaughey

Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey delivered the commencement speech to over 4,000 University of Houston students a couple of weeks ago. The eccentric actor gave a lengthy talk about life, work and expectations while sharing some great advice taken from his own experience. Costing the school an estimated $140,000 to secure his services, McCon is said to have donated his speech fee of $120,000 to his charity the Just Keep Living Foundation. JKL helps high school students feel empowered to lead active lives and make healthy choices for their future. Simple truths like:

- Be less impressed with accomplishments and be more involved in achieving
- Life is not easy, it's not fair and never will be, don't be entitled, don't be a victim
- Happiness is different than Joy, Joy is constantly happening in the moment and process
- McCon measures success in fatherhood, being a good husband, health, career and friendships
- Who you are not is as important as who you are, strip away the excess
- Turn the page, own up to mistakes, let go of guilt and regret
- Good luck and just keep living

McConaughey spoke much more in depth with examples and stories from his life and career. From the skeezy guy who likes high school girls in Dazed and Confused to a dragon slaying crazyman in Reign of Fire to an award winning actor for playing an AIDs patient, the actor shows us that the only limits are the ones we impose on ourselves. Read his speech in it's entirety over at TIME.

Fall Flicks: Interstellar

After a quiet Halloween weekend, the Fall Flicks season is about to go off with Warner Brothers' big budget, big scope, big star filled space drama Interstellar going head to head with Disney's adaptation of obscure Marvel comic book Big Hero 6.  Following the critical and commercial successes of Memento and Insomnia, filmmaker Christopher Nolan reinvented the superhero genre with Batman Begins.  For better or worse, things went gritty and prequel following the well received film and it's even more successful sequel, The Dark Knight.  While third entry The Dark Knight Rises divided audiences, Nolan and company's approach to Batman reinvigorated a franchise and set him up as one of today's premiere filmmakers.  In between Bat flicks, 2010's Inception was a deft, somewhat confusing yet wholly engrossing take on the action blockbuster with tones of old school James Bond mixed with a mind bending reality.  Now, we get Interstellar, which has been one of the most anticipated flicks I can think of since it's first trailer dropped a year ago.  Said trailer gave nothing away besides promising some big scale space shenanigans and culmination of the McConaissance as star Matthew McConaughey's transition from likeable, southern surfer dude to serious leading man and actor was now complete.

Nolan has long been a proponent of shooting on film versus digital and along with filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and J.J. Abrams, are turning the tide on the system and keeping film stock alive.  For the last 10 years, theaters have been urged by the likes of George Lucas and James Cameron and assisted by the studios and exhibitors to convert to digital projection.  The Weinstein Company and Paramount were looking to cut film print distribution completely (ironic as Paramount helped fund Interstellar) and in today's market, it's hard to find a skilled projectionist to actually screen film.  Interstellar was shot on 70mm, a stock that allows for higher resolution and brighter images, a method used in the 60's and 70's to make going to the movies more of an event with bigger screens and sound to combat the growing threat of television.  However the added cost of the system would eventually be it's downfall.  Now, the 200 theaters left in America able to project film received the flick 2 days early.

We ventured out to Hollywood's recently renovated TCL Chinese Theatre on Tuesday night to see the film.  Even though it's not a true IMAX screen, the Chinese is the largest capacity IMAX theater in the world, I believe with over 900 seats.  Touted as IMAX 70mm Film, this screening would feature "projection of the brightest, clearest images at nearly 10x the resolution of standard formats with laser-aligned digital sound and customized theatre geometry to create the most immersive movie experience in the world".  Apparently, Chris Nolan had been in to the theater several times in the last few weeks watching the film and making adjustments to the picture and sound so ensure audiences would see it as he intended.

Interstellar opens up in the near future, we're not told what year but we do know that the planet is dying and running out of food.  Dust storms are normal and dirt on everything is just a way of life.  We meet former engineer and pilot turned corn farmer Cooper (Reign of Fire's McConaughey) raising his kids Murphy and Tom with the help of grandfather Donald (Cliffhanger's Jon Lithgow).  Strange anomalies keep happening in Murphy's room with things being knocked off of shelves and we think maybe aliens are sending us signals.  Cooper ends up finding the remnants of the long thought dismantled NASA program and is asked to pilot a ship traveling into space to find worlds fit for human habitation.  I won't get too much more into it because the trailers honestly only give you a peek at what you're in store for.  But space travel, ice planets, water planets, family drama, worm holes, black holes, time streams, relativity, gravitational pulls, love and hyper sleep all follows.  Writers Christopher and Jonathon Nolan effortlessly create a world where the future is literally now.  It was kind of weird to be watching as nothing is given any build up or extra explanation, you just go with it and nothing seems that far out of bounds as it would have 20 years ago.

McCoughey is solid as Coop and is in about every single scene.  He anchors his first half performance with a burning desire to do more than farm as a man who was never given the chance to do what he excelled at.  His loving relationship with his two kids and stand offish one with his father in law create a strong launching point for his conflicted inner self to either go and try to save the world or stay back and protect his family.  Michael Caine shows up as a former professor now working for NASA and Dark Knight Rises alum Anne Hathaway plays his daughter and fellow space explorer with her usual skilled aplomb.  What I liked about Interstellar was the experience of it all.  I wasn't watching it per se, I was just wrapped up in the characters, the drama, the conflict and was never taken out of the movie as I didn't know what was going to happen next for the most part.  While I couldn't explain to you everything that happened or why it happened and the ending doesn't quite match the excitement and drama of what precedes, I felt the movie.  I felt it in my heart from the emotional drama and in my chest from the rumbling sound (which wasn't as loud as The Dark Knight IMAX where I was literally rock concert deaf afterwards).  There are so many ideas at work here, the science, the ambition, the resolution, I'm sure people will pick it apart and over analyze the film but for me, I was involved, engrossed and totally into the world created and will definitely see it again before it leaves the theater because it won't be the same at home.

San Diego Comic-Con 2014: Thursday w/ Turtles and Paramount

Hot Damme, Thursday, literally, it's hot out!  Welcome to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Thursday because it's TMNT all over the Con.  After walking the floor for a bit, I ducked into the Marriott's screening room to catch, you guessed it, 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!  A classic comic book movie before there were comic book movies, TMNT still holds up with it's deft blend of action, laughs, brotherly love, production values and Henson assisted costumes and animatronic heads.  Back on the floor I scouted out Mondo's booth and picked up their selection of Batman: The Animated Series vinyls of Clayface, The Joker, Mr. Freeze and Harley Quinn.  NECA was sold out of exclusive Pacific Rim Jaegers but may have more tomorrow.  Remember yesterday when I told you I bet I could walk right into Hall H for Paramount's 3:00PM session?  Yeah, totally did.  Even stopped to get lunch and grabbed a decent seat near the first pillars.  After Hall H welcomed Benedict Cumberbatch for DreamWorks' latest animated romp then The Dude himself Jeff Bridges showed up to talk about The Giver.  Bridges' advice for young careers was to pull a Stallone and go out and make their Rocky since anybody with a cell phone is now a filmmaker. 

After a short intermission it was time for Paramount's panel.  The guide listed no information, just a look at their upcoming slate.  Ninja Turtles was up first as a quick clip showcasing the awesome franchise going from simple sketch to the comic book, cartoon, live action movie, toy and video game empire played before TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman took the stage to somewhat surprisingly muted applause.  I'm guessing the crowd is still on the fence about the new Turtles movie as it looks like they've been "Transformer-ized" or "Bayhem-ed" with a super slick, destruction heavy trailer which I didn't mind but their borderline grotesque design and CGI appearance hasn't whet my appetite.  The producers claim to have been longtime fans and one even produced a signed photo of Kevin from 21 years ago.  Eastman says the flick is fantastic and that the producers were intent on making the best TMNT movie possible from the start 3 years ago.  A clip introducing reporter April O'Neil and the turtles rolled which was surprisingly enjoyable with a nice mix of big action and humor, mostly coming from Michelangelo's wise cracking.  Actors Megan Fox and Will Arnett were brought out with the former being a fan since childhood and the latter just being an extremely funny guy.  Another clip played showcasing another big action scene involving snow, big rigs, hummers, rocket launchers and bulletproof shells.  The voices of the Turtles was a little hard to get used to as it's Johnny Knoxville as Leonardo, Anthony Shalhoub (PAIN & GAIN!) as Splinter with Mikey sounding like a little kid and Raphael coming off as RZA. 


Some other movie about time travel was previewed before audio from Hercules filled the room and boom, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson walked onto the floor and greeted the fans before taking the stage and welcoming himself back, WWE style.  Funny, huge and seemingly happy to be there, The Rock let us know he bought out 3 theaters and would Tweet the details to attending a free screening.  Clarke Duke came out with two lovely ladies on his arms to show us a trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine 2 which looks pretty Damme funny as they're sent to the future this time around.  Then a new trailer for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar played, this one interspersing snippets from former astronauts in with the film.  Our moderator introduced a first time Comic-Con attendee, Matthew McConaughey!  The Reign of Fire star and Oscar winner looked very ruggedly handsome while explaining that he got a call from his agent to meet Chris Nolan, went to his house for a 3 hour meeting where they discussed everything except working on a film together.  A week later a script showed up and Denton Van Zan was in.  Guess we can really call it the McCONaissance now huh?  McConaughey wanted to hear Hall H's legendary hollering before describing Nolan as an original, the director might have been inspired by a Stanley Kubrick movie but his interpretation would be wholly new.  Another Comic-Con first, director of Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy Christopher Nolan walked out looking as dapper as can be.  Without giving too much away, Nolan discussed his love for science-fiction and how in his youth, becoming an astronaut was the highest career someone could aim for.  Influenced by the likes of 2001, Star Wars and Blade Runner (his favorite film), Nolan talked about making things as real as possible for the actors in terms of sets and production and using IMAX to enhance the experience. 

Next on deck is a panel on the history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the form of a new documentary as well as Hero Complex's Comic-Con soiree and maybe a movie trivia contest.

Master Cast: Reign of Fire

Parts of Hollywood will be shut down starting today in preparation of the annual Academy Awards happening on Sunday, March 2nd.  Ellen Degeneres returns as host for the second time in a year dominated by nominees based on true life events like Captain Phillips, 12 Years A Slave, The Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club and American Hustle.  Nominees for Best Actor include Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey.  This is Bale's second Oscar nomination and McConaughey's first.  Bale had previously won for his wiry, crazy and shady portrayal of boxing trainer Dicky Eklund in The Fighter.  This year sees him being praised for his performance as a fat, hair piece wearing petty criminal in American Hustle.  Matthew's McConaughssaince has been building for several years as 2011's The Lincoln Lawyer, Bernie, Killer Joe and 2012's Magic Mike showed his serious and charming sides.  His performance as HIV stricken cowboy Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club sees him shedding his Hollywood muscle and dropping some 40 pounds in a truly great destructive and desperate showcase.

Rewind 12 years and these two Best Actor nominees co-starred in the summer of 2002's awesome, post-apocalyptic, dragon fighting sci-fi/action romp, Reign of Fire.  Bale, fresh from his hilarious and villainous roles in American Psycho and Shaft plays Quinn Abercromby, leader of a struggling colony of survivors in the ash covered ruins outside of London.  Everyday is a struggle to feed and inspire the downtrodden community as many have lost hope and want to take their chances out in the wasteland.  One day, a small army arrives at their gates, led by McConaughey's bald, bearded and wild eyed Denton Van Zan, a dragon slayer who has rebuilt a military unit and come from America looking for the papa creature he believes to be the key in defeating the winged menace.  By now McConaughey had already made a splash with performances in Dazed and Confused, A Time To Kill and Amistad.  Genre fare hit and misses like U-571, Frailty and The Wedding Planner showed a varied if uneven career path in progress.

Director Rob Bowman wanted two strong actors in the leads who would be believable and able to carry the picture beyond it's computer enhanced spectacle.  Bale sports a mangy beard while McCon's shaved head and tattoos made him nearly unrecognizable.  Of course the two leaders butt heads as Quinn believes hunting dragons is suicide and that they're better off waiting them out.  Van Zan is eager to take back the sky and planet as he views Quinn's plan as nothing but a slow death.  While survival is the goal for both men, their opposing leadership styles eventually bring them to disagreement and blows, literally.  McConaughey admits to being overzealous in their one sided fight scene and headbutted Bale for real.  Bale, a consummate professional, took the blow and finished the scene but was plenty pissed afterwards.   Bale even punked McConaughey and asked if he was OK.  McConaughey responded, "Yeah, you mad bastard - I headbutted you!"  By the end of the film, both characters meet in the middle as they realize each of their methodology is flawed.  Teaming up, they defeat the fire breathing father and humanity's future looks to be back on track.

As if having two future Oscar nominated leading men weren't enough, Bowman's keen eye for casting also gives us Gerard Butler in a supporting role as Quinn's second in command, Creedy.  4 years later, Butler would star in massive hit 300 which would inspire a spate of imitator sword and sandal action movies while giving rise to a new style of Spartan-veined workouts.  Also along for the ride is 90's hot actress Izabella Scorupco, a former model and singer who popped up in Goldeneye and 2000's cheese/intense-tastic mountain climbing action flick, Vertical Limit ("Strap on the nitro.").  Here's hoping that Bale and McConaughey use their current pull in Hollywood to reunite in another flick as entertaining as Reign of Fire.

Fun Sponge Cinema: This Is 40

Once upon a time, Judd Apatow made entertaining movies.  Sure, they go on too long but The Cable Guy (underrated!), Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers and Pineapple Express among others are uniformly funny, well cast, frugally yet handsomely produced good times.  At some point, like the Farrelly Brothers, he started to get a little soft and audiences stopped caring.  Funny People, The Five Year Engagement and This Is 40 took on more realistic aspects of relationships and family and box office receipts dried up.  Why?  Because the fun had been sponged out and replaced by first world melodrama.

At least Funny People was a change of pace for Adam Sandler; the tale of a man seeking redemption and lost love in the face of possible death.  It had heart (thumps chest, Matthew McConaughey/Jean-Claude Van Damme style).  Five Year Engagement had it's fun moments as it surprisingly dealt with the conundrums of circumstance and opportunity and their sometimes negative effects on a growing relationship.

This Is 40, however, was just painful to watch.  Or rather, it was annoying to watch.  From Leslie Mann's high pitched bitching to making Paul Rudd boring (no small feat because he usually exudes weird/nice charm) to a plot that really goes nowhere and ends with, "we're all crazy and that's ok".  You couldn't have gotten to that in less than 2 hours?

The good times:

I'm a Doer! Reign of Fire's Denton Van Zan

"It's my territory.  It's your territory.  They're just renting it."

(Gravelly announcer voice) It is the year 2020, the Earth has been ravaged by dragons; the soaring, fire breathing menace of lore.  Mankind has nearly gone extinct, survivors live quietly among ruins and ash.  One man seeks to preserve life while another seeks to eradicate a species.  It is, the Reign of Fire.

"There's nothing magical about them, they're made up of a collection of organs; a mind, a heart, a liver, you take out one of these, you bring down the beast!"

I remember seeing this flick upon release on my birthday in 2002 and thinking what a ridiculous bad ass Matthew McConaughey was as the bald headed, yoked out, tatted up dragon slayer Denton Van Zan.  Christian Bale is also fine in his role as the peaceful, logical leader of a group of survivors, Quinn, but McCon took the flashier role and ran with it.  He's brash, physical and driven, like To Live and Die In LA's Richard Chance, Van Zan was one who lived by the sword and would die by the sword (or in this case, a dragon and an axe).  It was a nice departure from McConaughey who previously played nice opposite Jennifer Lopez in the rom-com, The Wedding Planner.

"Dig your own holes, die in them."

What's fun about these characters is that you know they're not going to be the reasonable voice of the picture or even make it to the end but they will invigorate those around them and force them to act.  In Reign of Fire, Van Zan's sudden appearance, dragon theories and man power demands force semi-pacifist Quinn to confront his fear of the beasts and attempt to obliterate them once and for all.  His notion that there is only one male in the species leads to an ill fated trek to London to hunt down the big daddy.  After his forces are wiped out, Van Zan realizes his full throttle, fight hard, die fast style of warfare will not advance the human race (it is good at getting the blood pumping though).  With the help of Bale's calm and collected Quinn, they sneak into London undetected and feed papa Dragon an explosive Popsicle but not before he eats Van Zan like a bug.

To prepare for the role, McConaughey says he spent two months at his ranch getting in shape by pushing a truck, wrestling with cows, lifting weights, running and boxing.  Allegedly, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself was in talks to appear in the film so it's ironically appropriate that McConaughey took a page from The Oak and played the role with physical gusto.

"Come on, big boy!"