Upon leaving J. Edgar, neither my buddy nor I could nail down the point of what we just watched. Was it a hard look at the man? The film takes a vague stance on Hoover’s actions, and there’s not a very well-defined character arc—Hoover starts out as a stiff prima donna and ends up pretty much the same. And it’s certainly not an action flick.

The best I can surmise is that it’s a look at the relationships of someone who closed himself off from all human contact. Maybe that’s the reason the film’s titled “J. Edgar”–the first name is closed off while the second is used. There’s a lingering shot of the first time Hoover signs his name as such, so it’s obviously important, but then again the context is Hoover opening a new account in a men’s clothing shop. Anybody’s guess.

Hoover is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, using a slightly affected accent that’s not quite convincing but isn’t distracting. He goes through a number of emotions, and I suppose plays that part well, but I think the weakness is in the writing: He’s just not a very compelling character. Of course he’s underplayed and quiet—that’s the point, right? But even a dull character well played is still a dull character.

Continue Reading →

For the record, I don’t know all that much about the early years of the infamous J. Edgar Hoover. I do know that he helped make the FBI what it is today but also had some other, more secret, proclivities that make him a rather controversial figure in history.

So, it makes sense that someone like Clint Eastwood, who likes complicated characters and to explore the “grey area” of morality, would take on a biopic about the late FBI director. That’s exactly what he’s done and cast Leonardo DiCaprio as the man himself.

Today, Warner Bros released the theatrical trailer for the film and in it we get a good look at DiCaprio’s portrayal of Hoover as well as some insight into the movie itself. Gotta say, and not really surprised here, it looks good.

Check it out for yourself after the break. J. Edgar, which in addition to DiCaprio features Naomi Watts, Josh Lucas, Armie Hammer, Dermot Mulroney, Lea Thompson and Judi Dench, hits theaters on November 9.

Continue Reading →

Letters from Iwo Jima was Clint Eastwood’s follow up to Flags of Our Fathers as told through the Japanese defender’s perspective. Ken Watanabe stars as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who was the man responsible for defending Iwo Jima from the American invasion. Kazunari Ninomiya stars as PFC. Saigo, a conscripted baker who doesn’t want to fight, and wants to return home to his wife and new child.

The film is told through a series of flash forwards and flashbacks such as Flags, and shows the struggle many Japanese soldiers faced while preparing the island for the upcoming invasion by the American Marines portrayed in the first film.

Letters From Iwo Jima is most noted for being the most realistic portrayal of Japanese combatants in a World War II before. Eastwood uses his direction to show a picture which shows the struggles the Japanese faced in preparing themselves for certain death. Of all the characters in the film, both Saigo (Ninomiya) and Kuribayashi (Watanabe) know that this is a fight that they can’t win.

When Kuribayashi arrives on Iwo he is amazed to see how unprepared his forces are in meeting the American threat. Kuribayashi begins transforming Mt. Suribachi into an impregnable fortress that will prove fatal for the American invaders. He also has his men prepare bunker complexes, pillboxes, blockhouses, and many earth covered structures to keep the Americans from gaining a foothold inland from the water’s edge.

Continue Reading →

This week’s pick is Clint Eastwood’s World War II masterpiece Flags of Our Fathers that depicts the famous flag raising on Mt. Suribachi on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The film stars Ryan Phillippe (Navy Corpman 2^nd class John “Doc” Bradley), Jesse Bradford (Corporal Rene Gagnon), Paul Walker (Sgt. Hank Hansen), and Robert Patrick (Col. Chandler Johnson).

The film is told through a series of flash-forwards and flashbacks, through the three remaining men who were responsible for the flag raising which helped to raise America’s morale as the Pacific war raged on with no foreseeable end in sight. The seven Marines that are the focal point of the film begin their training at Camp Tarawa in Hawaii with mountain climbing and other P.T. drills.

As they set sail towards their destination, it is revealed that the target in question is the Japanese held island of Iwo Jima, which sits just seven hundred miles away from the Japanese mainland.

During a debriefing, the company commander, Captain Severance (McDonough) tells the men that they will meet stiff enemy resistance than ever before because Iwo is Japanese soil and its defenders will fight to the last man in order to prevent the Americans from gaining a closer foothold toward Japan.

Continue Reading →

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are again joined by Joe Dilworth of Pop Culture Zoo to discuss all manner of new and recurring topics. This goes far better than expected.

This week those include HBO’s Game of Thrones, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Avengers, Batman: The Dark Night Rises casting and more. In addition, they talked about  the next Superman movie, Superman Returns, Captain America and the Nazis, triumphant trio and the tragic passing of Sarah-Jane herself, Doctor Who actress Elisabeth Sladen.

Of course, your hosts also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of the movie Fortress, Joe’s pick of the upcoming new season of Doctor Who and Chris’ pick of the classic 70′s film Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

If there is one truth that is universal to every human being, it is that we are all going to die someday.  For some people that is a terrifying prospect, for others it is just another stop on life’s journey.  Whatever your beliefs are, I think that all people have innate curiosity about what happens when we die.  After all, no one knows for sure.

I’m sure it is no coincidence that Clint Eastwood has turned to this subject matter at this point in his life. The man is 80 years old.  He’s likely had more than a fleeting thought about his own mortality.

Hereafter juggles three distinct storylines throughout the movie until they converge in a neat and tidy package at the end of the movie. The film doesn’t even give you a moment to get settled in your seat before you are subjected to  a gut-churning Tsunami action sequence.

It’s one of the most amazing set pieces I’ve ever seen.  It is terrifying and fantastically realistic, and it will leave you a slack-jawed mess.

Marie (Cécile De France from High Tension) is a successful French news reporter with her own show.  She is on vacation with her boyfriend (who happens to be the producer of her show) when the Tsunami hits.  She has been buying souvenirs for her boyfriend’s children in the marketplace.  As the giant wave starts bearing down upon the market, everyone starts running for their lives.

Continue Reading →

1986′s Where Eagles Dare is a World War II spy/action film which is based on Alistair MacLean’s novel about a group of allied commandos who must break into an impregnable German fortress in the Bavarian Alps and rescue an American General who has vital information concerning plans for the “second front.” They must free him before the Germans can extract this information and change the the course of the war.

Richard Burton (Maj. John Smith), Clint Eastwood (Lt. Morris Schaffer), Mary Ure (Mary Elison), & Ingrid Pitt (Heidi) are the commando squad sent to free the General and uncover a conspiracy involving not only who they were sent to rescue, but what they were really sent to do. Brian G. Hutton (Kelly’s Heroes), directs with amazing style and non stop action with a screenplay adapted by MacLean himself.

The one thing that I have always loved about the film besides the cinematography, and the Ron Goodwin score is that you’re always cold while watching it. When the commandos first parachute into the Alps, they come down during a snow storm and discover that one of their own had his neck broken in the drop.

You instantly feel as if you are there in the snow with them, almost like Sam Peckinpah’s sandy desert landscapes in The Wild Bunch. Smith carefully inspects the injury and discovers that the break was caused by the butt of a rifle or some other weapon. Smith now realizes that one if not several in the group may be possible German agents sent to make sure that the mission fails.

Continue Reading →

With President’s Day weekend behind us it’s now time to think about some late Valentine’s Day presents. In case you want to pick up something extra for your valentine or you completely forgot to get something at all, a great movie on Blu-ray or DVD makes a perfect gift. Fortunately, there’s some new ones coming out this week just in time.

Among this week’s selection we’re interested in are new to Blu-ray movies such as Law Abiding Citizen, Halo Legends, the Dirty Harry Collection, Contempt, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and debut of TV series Barnaby Jones and the latest installment of Cannon. Also, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (pictured above with Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro) gets the 20th Anniversary treatment with a new Blu-ray release.

Movies

Black Dynamite ~ Michael Jai White (Blu-ray and DVD)

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever ~ Michael Bowen, Rider Strong (Blu-ray and DVD)

Contempt ~ Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang (Blu-ray)

Dirty Harry Collection (Dirty Harry / Magnum Force / The Enforcer / Sudden Impact / The Dead Pool) ~ Clint Eastwood (Blu-ray and DVD)

Goodfellas (20th Anniversary Edition) ~ Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci (Blu-ray)

Continue Reading →

Kelly’s Heroes is a war film that has all the great elements of an old fashion, rousing epic that keeps your attention all the way through. Set in the late summer of 1944 as the allies swept across occupied France, Kelly (played by the ever cool Clint Eastwood) and his squad of screwball infantry men find out that the Germans are holding over sixteen million dollars worth of gold bars in a bank thirty miles behind enemy lines.

Tired of the politics of infantry life and the gross inefficiency of their Captain, Kelly and the rest of the squad run by tough sergeant ‘Big Joe’ (Telly Savalas), cook up a scheme to go behind the lines with three M-4 Sherman tanks to rob the bank. As the movie poster states: “They set out to rob a bank and damn near won a war instead.”

With Kelly’s Heroes, Eastwood began his second collaboration with director Brian G. Hutton, who had directed him a year earlier in the highly successful Where Eagles Dare (1969) — a movie which solidified Eastwood’s status as a major box office star. What makes Kelly’s Heroes such an interesting film is the fact that it was made in 1970 as the U.S. was beginning to downsize its presence in Vietnam.

Continue Reading →

Welcome to another Western Wednesdays. Today is the very special installment that I promised last week in which I would reveal my favorite Western, the one that not even The Searchers can dethrone.  Yes, my love belongs unreservedly to The Outlaw Josey Wales.

As popular legend goes, Clint Eastwood wasn’t respected as a director until Unforgiven. A hard look at his directorial credits through the 1970s and 1980s can speak as to why. But I believe The Outlaw Josey Wales was a really notable moment of his career, and it’s perplexing why he didn’t enjoy the kind of watershed approval he did in 1993.

I imagine it’s because he promptly went and made The Gauntlet. Sadly, Josey Wales kicked off a very dark period of his career that it’s polite to ignore, and if you know your tabloid romances, you know why. But would it have happened if his career had been reversed, and he won all his Oscar gold for Josey Wales? Would he have taken himself a little more seriously and avoided Pink Cadillac? I’d like to think so.

Of course, that lament implies Josey Wales was a failure, which it wasn’t. But it didn’t receive any Oscar nominations beyond one for its soundtrack.  Roger Ebert even recognized it as an unusual and revisionist Western, but I don’t think that critical consensus or popular culture ever followed suit.

Continue Reading →

Well, it is the first box office recap of 2010, and it looks like I’ll be dropping  the “B” word, as in “Billion.”  Avatar sailed over the billion dollar mark in only its third week in release. Thanks to this worldwide total, it now sits comfortably at the  number four position of highest grossing movies of all time, right behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

It has already exceeded the total that took The Dark Knight its entire theatrical run to achieve, and Avatar has shown no signs of  slowing down. The movie dropped less than 10% from last weekend and made $68.3 Million, bringing its domestic total to over $352 Million.

There was plenty of box office love to go around this weekend, and several movies did exceptionally well. Sherlock Holmes added another $38.3 Million to its two week total, which now stands at over $140.7 Million. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel made $36.6 Million, for an impressive two week cumulative of $157.3 Million.

The adult comedy It’s Complicated only dropped  15% from its Christmas weekend opening, and racked up $18.7 Million for a strong fourth place. Fifth place went to The Blind Side, which has been in the top ten for over seven weeks now. It actually increased its total 10% over last weekend, and has made over $209 Million now.

Continue Reading →

Today’s Wednesday Western comes to you courtesy of a namedrop by the big man himself, Clint Eastwood.  If Eastwood casually says The Ox-Bow Incident is a really good Western,  you have to drop what you’re doing and watch it.   (Considering it’s only one hour long, it’s pretty easy to find some time to do it!)

I can see why Eastwood likes Ox-Bow.  There are shades of Hang ‘Em High and Unforgiven in it. It’s the kind of film that reminds me why I was so eager to explore this genre. We all tend to classify Westerns as rousing shoot-em-ups and masculine swagger, but there are a lot of dark, bitter stories hidden among the John Ford panoramas. Even this film is often billed as a Henry Fonda movie about cattle rustlers, giving the impression that it’ll be a classic horse opera.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is a haunting morality play that takes the glamor out of posses and deputies, emphasizes the danger of a mob, and makes you think twice about rooting for Wild West justice.  While Eastwood has been credited as “killing” the Western with Unforgiven, I think The Ox-Bow Incident should have done it back in 1943.

Continue Reading →