By Dan Skip Allen
Albert R Broccoli is the Producer of Dr. No and the rest of the James Bond franchise. He formed a business relationship with Harry Saltzman who had the rights to the books. Albert convinced him to go into business with him making movies. The rest is history. 007 has been on the big screen ever since. These films started out as small indie films and now they are considered big-budget blockbusters.
Sean Connery was the first actor to portray the suave ladies man James Bond. His favorite drink, a martini, shaken not stirred, became famous around the world where liquor is sold. Ian Fleming created this fantastic character that everyone can relate to. He flies around the world, visits luxurious places, and gets with beautiful women everywhere he goes. How could men not relate to this cool character? This is how this iconic character has lasted so long. James is called into M's office because a high-ranking member of the government has been killed in Kingston, Jamaica. He has to find out what happened to him. He finds out suspicious goings-on are happening in Crab Key. People have been reported missing and dying. A man named Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman) is up to no good. While trying to sneak onto the secret base, James runs into Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress). They both are public enemy number one. She has a bone to pick with Dr. No as well. Can 007 and Honey Ryder stop this megalomaniac from sabotaging the United States Space Program? The glitz and glamour of James Bond is something that makes him so fun and entertaining. His catchphrases like, "Bond, James Bond," are synonymous with this iconic character. The beautiful beaches and resorts in Jamaica help transport those watching to this secret world of spies and secret organizations like SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion) which are trying to take over the world. During the Cold War of the '60s, the world ate up this fantastical spy game that is the James Bond franchise. Dr. No isn't the best of the James Bond films, but it is a good start to this worldwide phenomenon known as 007. Movies were still in the phase of whitewashing, so a white man is dressed to look Asian, Dr. No. The time period is still a little old seeing as how we've got 58 years of this character. He is a little dated. That's fine though because bigger films, badder villains, and more beautiful women known as Bond Girls are on the horizon. Dr. No is just the tip of the iceberg in this fantastic franchise.
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By Dan Skip Allen
Courtroom dramas are a dime a dozen in Hollywood. A lot of them have flashy lawyers played by a who's who of Hollywood A-listers. The lawyer is usually considered the star of courtroom dramas. In the case of Primal Fear, the star lawyer in the film is Martin Vail, played by Richard Gere. He's a hot defense attorney on the news at night and the cover of magazines. The star power of Richard Gere is all a film like Primal Fear needed, but it has a hell of a lot more star power in it. The least of which is Academy Award nominee Edward Norton as Aaron Stampler.
Martin Vail (Richard Gere) is a hotshot lawyer who defends the biggest criminals in Chicago. He gets them settlements and results for himself. When an altar boy, Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton) is caught running from a murder scene at the house of a prominent priest in Chicago, Archbishop Rushman, covered in his blood. Vail zeroes in on this high-profile case. This could be the whale he's been trying to catch for his entire career. Does all the evidence point to this altar boy or is there more to this case than meets the eye? Looking back at Primal Fear is an incredible thing because of the story based on the novel by William Deihl. This is an amazing story of mistaken identity or possibly multiple personality disorder. This film has an amazing cast that all play their roles terrifically. From the prosecutor Janet Venable (Laura Linney) to the shrink Molly (Frances McDormand) to the Judge Shoat (Alfre Woodard), this cast is packed! Andre Braugher, John Maloney, Maura Tierney are just a few more names in this film that all do excellent work. The real star is Edward Norton! It's the role of a lifetime for him and he got robbed of an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Primal Fear has a great story, but it's the twist that makes it work. Gere's character has to sell his side of the story. If he does, the jury and audience can buy into the twist. This film is a classic whodunnit, but everybody already knows who done it. Or do they? The twists and turns in this film are off the wall, which makes it a great courtroom drama. This film isn't straightforward. That's a good thing because it keeps everybody on the edge of their seats throughout. All great courtroom dramas have this effect.
The director, Gregory Hoblit, takes the words of the author and puts them into capable hands: the actors'. He creates an atmosphere that the actors bring their a-game in every scene. He films the courtroom scenes with a lot of up-close shots so the viewers can see all the emotions on the actor's faces as they perform this great dialogue. All great films start with the script and the source material. This film is no different than all the rest in that regard. Primal Fear takes the classic courtroom drama and turns it on its head. It has great performances from the entire cast, but most notably from Gere and Norton. They both give career-best performances in this film. Hoblit put the camera in the right places every time including a lot of close-ups. The script is terrifically acted out by everybody involved in the film. The suspense was there every moment Norton was on screen. He gives one of the best performances ever as the altar boy with multiple personalities. This is the main reason why this film is so great!
By Dan Skip Allen
It's no secret that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were fans of the pulp serials of the early '40s and '50s. They loved the movies, don't get me wrong, but they really loved the pulp serials of Batman, Buck Rogers, Tarzan, and the like which kept them coming back week after week. The cliffhangers were almost unbearable for the duo as kids growing up on the verge of becoming filmmakers decades later. These serials were what gave Lucas the idea for Indiana Jones. With that, he got his good friend Spielberg to come along for the ride on this extraordinary adventure.
Dr. Henry Jones (Harrison Ford) is a professor for his day job, but on the weekends he goes by Indiana, whether it was the dog's name will soon be determined in later installments of the franchise. He galivants around the globe on a crazy adventure and dangerous exploits. When his friend and sometimes assistant, Dr. Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott), comes to him with the idea that the Ark of the Covenant still exists and they need to find it before the Nazis, he can't resist the chase and the danger that goes along with it. The Nazis make the perfect villain! They are set on world domination and the ark can help them get it. Like a lot of the shorts, Indiana Jones has its share of heart-pounding escapes. He also has to deal with "Snakes? Why does it have to be Snakes?" a phobia we didn't know about until that moment. Disney even adapted one of his most famous hair's-breadth escapes into a show at their theme parks. He encounters several natives and sword-wielding assassins, as well as men who turn their back on him when he needs them the most. He does have a few friends though, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) who he meets on his trip, and Sallah (John Rhys Davies) his trusty ally in far-off lands. The stage is set for an epic adventure for the ages.
Another frequent collaborator to Lucas and Spielberg is the composer of the Boston Pops, John Williams. He has done epic scores for the Star Wars movies, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial by this point in his career, six of the most famous compositions in his long and storied career as a composer. He would need to do something even greater for Indiana Jones though. It had to live up to everything he had done in the past, but bring something new to the table. He did just that. His Raiders of the Lost Ark score is one of the best he ever did. It had such a great catch to it. It was a perfect addition to this amazing film.
Harrison Ford was an established actor by this point in his career. He had a small role in American Graffiti, but his big role came when he got the no-good swindler himself, Han Solo. He brought a sense of colorful suave ladies' man to the table in the Star Wars films. He brought an entirely different side to his performance in the Indiana Jones films. He got to flex his action muscles in Raiders of the Lost Ark. This film required a lot of running and jumping which was very vigorous and hard on him. He enjoyed every moment of it though. He loved playing Indiana Jones, and it showed on screen. As a kid, I was looking for different kinds of films that I could get behind. I loved everything growing up. I'm not as old as Lucas and Spielberg so I didn't grow up on these serials as they did. I sure as hell grew up on Indiana Jones, though. I was about 7 when the first Indiana Jones film came out and I had never seen anything like it before. The action and adventure were off the charts. The acting, campy at times, was funny and cool. The score by Williams was so amazing as well. Everything combined for a great experience for me and a lot of other people I'm sure of. Forty years later Raiders of the Lost Ark stands up better than ever. Nothing like it has come since so it makes sense.
By Dan Skip Allen
In the last couple of decades, some mergers and acquisitions have been going on. Some of them are from Disney. They acquired Marvel, Pixar and just last year they made a huge move by buying 20th Century for 86 billion dollars. They got their entire library of films, Fox Searchlight, all the Marvel properties they owed, and their cable tv stations. Those were just the tip of the iceberg on all the mergers and acquisitions that have been made in recent years. The landscape of film and entertainment is always changing. With streaming becoming a huge media outlet, things will continue to change as long as people want to keep digesting it.
A few years ago, the telecommunications giant AT&T acquired Warner Media which included HBO, Warner Brothers Studios, and DC Comics, amongst others. This would help make AT&T one of the largest entertainment conglomerates in the world. It didn't last long. The COVID-19 pandemic caused some problems for AT&T and its plan to be a major player in the world of entertainment. They couldn't put their movies out in theaters. Which meant they could make the money back that they spent on making them. So as a stop-gap measure they decided to put their films on their streaming service, HBO Max. If you had this service, it would seem like a good idea. In the overall scheme of things, it's not a great business move. AT&T wasn't getting much money back by putting their films on HBO Max and in theaters at the same time. They were losing money. Also, people balked at this decision, especially some of their biggest talents such as Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve. And James Gunn said he would never work with them again. This all led to the decision last week to spin off Warner Media from AT&T. Discovery Media is to merge with Warner Media, which includes HBO/HBO Max, Warner Bros. Studios, and DC Comics for 43 billion dollars. Discovery is in the entertainment industry. They are a better fit for Warner Media. On the heels of the AT&T spin-off of Warner Media, last week came the merger of Amazon and MGM. Amazon acquired MGM for 8 billion dollars, give or take a few hundred thousand. With this acquisition also came some of the big IPs, namely 4,000 plus films including the James Bond franchise, co-owned by Eon/The Broccoli Family, the Rocky franchise, Robocop, Stargate, the Silence of the Lambs franchise, the Pink Panther franchise, and the Legally Blonde franchise. Amazon also acquired the 17,000 tv shows that MGM has created in its past. All this would help strengthen Amazon Prime which is the streaming service of Amazon. They are looking to use some of these IPs to create new shows and movies down the road. The acquisition would help strengthen Amazon in the entertainment industry which is continuing to move more and more toward streaming services. This may have been a great deal for Jeff Bezos and Amazon. With these major sales and acquisitions comes the inevitable question. What is going to happen to physical media involving these companies? With both Discovery and Amazon focusing on streaming services and theatrical releases, does physical media still have a chance with these power moves? Amazon already has a deal in place with Warner Media to sell their discs on their service Amazon Prime. The Warner Archive store is now on Amazon Prime. MGM has a huge library of shows and movies. This may lend itself to create exclusives for Amazon Prime so they get all the money, leaving Best Buy and Target out of the loop on these properties. The 4K format could really benefit from exclusive boxed sets for some of the James Bond films, Rocky, Robocop, and the others. Currently, MGM has deals in place with Criterion and Arrow Video that release physical media, but this could change with this acquisition. It may benefit everybody in the end, including Discovery who is merging with Warner Media. It would all come full circle for these companies
By Dan Skip Allen
In Hollywood, there have some great comedic duos: Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, and Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. But arguably one of the best films that have an iconic teaming is Midnight Run. The teaming of Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin is one of genius. They are two distinctly different types of actors. One is one of the best dramatic actors of all time and the other is a comedic genius. Martin Breast knew what he had with this teaming of these two complete opposites. This film and its cast turned out to be comedic gold.
Robert De Niro plays tough-nosed bounty, Hunter Jack Walsh. He is hired by Joe Pantoliano's character to find and bring a mob accountant to Los Angeles. What he didn't know on this country-long road trip is that the authorities and the mob themselves are looking for The Duke, what they call Grodin's character. If Walsh can survive this trip across the country he has to deal with the erratic personality of The Duke which is more he bargained for. This was supposed to be a simple midnight run, as the film's title suggests.
Charles Grodin has made a career of playing characters that have neurosis or neurotic personalities in his past. Characters that are put in situations he doesn't want to be in, such as the father in the Beethoven franchise or So I Married an Axe Murderer. These are the types of characters Grodin has been known for. His nervous nature is a perfect way for him to get laughs because people can relate to this kind of character. We all have a little scary cat in us at times. Gordon played into that with a lot of his characters in movies and on television.
Midnight Run is a fun movie because it has a fish out of water story involving Grodin's character. It also puts De Niro in a lot of comedic moments which at this time in his career he wasn't familiar with. He would eventually become very comfortable playing the straight man to some great comedic actors such as Ben Stiller and Billy Crystal. His teaming with Grodin though would be his first of such a nature. These two polar opposites were made for each other. They have great chemistry throughout the film. Midnight Run takes familiar tropes such as a road trip movie and runs with it. It has some great chase scenes and some first-rate action. Breast mixes in all the action and comedic moments perfectly. The relationship throughout the film between the two leads. This film has transcended its release in 1988 because it's funny, has a lot of action and the road trip aspect of it brings fans of these two legendary actors together for an entertaining and memorable film team-up. |
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