6 Trailers of the Dead

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi and welcome to the latest edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation trailers! To be honest, I’m usually way too ADD to come up with (let alone maintain) any sort of theme with my trailer posts but this weekend — almost by pure chance — a theme has emerged! So, without further hold up, let us consider 6 Trailers of the Dead!

1) Night of the Living Dead (1968)

How have I done nearly a 100 of these posts without featuring the trailer for George Romero’s landmark Night of the Living Dead?

2) The Astro-Zombies (1968)

Apparently, 1968 was a big year for the dead returning to life.

3) The Majorettes (1986)

The Majorettes was directed by the late Bill Hinzman, the guy who played the Cemetary Zombie in Night of the Living Dead.

4) Dawn of the Dead (1978)

To be honest, I think I’ve already featured this trailer in an earlier post. However, there’s no way that you can start a post with Night of the Living Dead and then end it with Day of the Dead without finding some room for Dawn of the Dead in the middle.

5) Dead Heat (1988)

Wow, this looks really, really, really … not good. However, according to Wikipedia, it’s about zombies and it’s got the word “dead” in the title so it works theme-wise.

6) Day of the Dead (1985)

I’ve watched this trailer several times and those arms still make me jump every time!

A Quickie With Lisa Marie: The Ox-Bow Incident (directed by William A. Wellman)

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As part of my continuing mission of see every single movie ever nominated for best picture, I’ve been watching a lot of TCM this month. Last week, I caught the 1943 best picture nominee, The Ox-Bow Incident.

Taking place in Nevada in the 1880s, The Ox-Bow Incident is a western that examines both the mob mentality and takes on the issue of lynching. (It should be remembered that when the Ox-Bow Incident was first released, lynchings were still a regular occurrence.) Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan play two prospectors who ride into town one day and discover that everyone is on edge because there are apparently cattle rustlers about. When it’s reported that a rancher has been murdered, the townspeople form a posse and go searching for the rustlers. Realizing that until the real rustlers are caught they’ll be considered prime suspects, Fonda and Morgan join the posse. Led by Major Tetley (Frank Conroy), who falsely claims to be a Confederate veteran, the posse comes across a camp with three men. Though it quickly becomes obvious that the three men are probably innocent, the posse immediately makes plans to lynch the men. Fonda and Morgan find themselves forced to either side with the bloodthirsty posse or to stand up to the mob.

To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of Westerns. On a personal note, Some of that is because whenever anyone from up north finds out that I’m from Texas, they always ask me if I’ve ever ridden a horse. (For the record, I do not own a horse, I do not ride horses, and I’m pretty sure I’m allergic to them.) On another note, Westerns often strike me as being predictable. All of the dark strangers and the old maid school teachers and the tight-lipped gunslingers spitting tobacco all over the place — it all just makes me want to go, “Bleh!”

However, I was surprised to discover that I really enjoyed The Ox-Bow Incident. While the film’s well-intentioned message was a bit heavy-handed, director William Wellman emphasizes the psychological aspects of the story and the movie itself was well-acted by a large cast who brought a surprising amount of depth to characters who, in lesser hands, could have easily just been stereotypes. Henry Fonda and Henry Morgan were both excellent and sympathetic leads while Jane Darwell dominated the film as one of the more bloodthirsty members of the lynching party. A very young and very suave Anthony Quinn also shows up as one of the accused men. Five decades before either Quentin Tarantino or the Coen Brothers, Wellman and his cast use the standard tropes of the western genre to comment on some very real issues and the end result is a fast-paced film that succeeds in making a moral debate just as exciting as any gunfight or stampede.

Released in 1943, The Ox-Bow Incident was nominated for best picture but, ultimately, it lost to Casablanca. It’s hard to complain about any film losing to Casablanca but taken on its own terms, the Ox-Bow Incident remains an entertaining and intelligent film and one that I’m thankful that TCM gave me a chance to discover.

6 Trailers for Valentine’s Day Weekend

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Happy St. Valentine's Day

I’m running a little bit late on getting this Valentine’s weekend edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers up and running and for that, I apologize. Last night, around midnight, I found myself at Target waiting for them to start selling the latest Twilight movie…well, let’s just not go into it, okay? Instead, here’s 6 trailers for your Valentine’s weekend.

1) Valentine (2001)

Oh. My. God. This is such a bad movie! Seriously terrible. However, it is Valentine’s Day weekend…

2) My Bloody Valentine (1981)

The original.

3) My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)

The remake, which is a lot better than Avatar.

4) Emmanuelle (1974)

Valentine’s weekend is all about either celebrating romance or being alone and bitter. I’ve been told that Emmanuelle can be used for both of those purposes. “This movie will be shown only in special theaters.”

5) Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977)

Not surprisingly, Italian director Joe D’Amato put his own individual spin on Emmanuelle (or Emanuelle as he spelled it, in order to get around copyright laws). This is probably one of the more explicit trailers I’ve ever posted so keep that in mind before you watch it.

6) Superfly (1972)

This trailer isn’t connected to Valentine’s Day at all but it’s got a lot of style.

Finally, let me just say, regardless of whether you’re in love, in lust, or mired in lonely bitterness, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Scenes That I Love: “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Since February is Oscar month, I figured why not start things off with one of my favorite dance scenes of all time? When Danny Boyle won his Oscar for directing Slumdog Millionaire (which, of course, was also named the best picture of 2008), he specifically thanked choreographer Longinus Fernandes for creating the “Jai Ho” dance sequence that is used to punctuate the film’s finale. Indeed, the credit was deserved because that dance sequence not only served as a perfect coda for Boyle’s kinetic vision but it also elevated the entire film and transformed an otherwise grim little story about poverty and crime into the “feel good movie of 2008.”

To me, this scene epitomizes everything that caused me to fall in love with film in the first place.

Poll: What Movies Are You Looking Forward To Seeing In March?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, here we are. It’s the last day of the month and that means that it’s time for another poll! Yay! Last month, we asked you which films you were most looking forward to seeing in February and you can find the results here. According to the poll, February is going to be all about people rushing to the theaters so that they can see Ghost Rider.

(Personally, February will be about Chronicle for me.)

What movies are you most looking forward to seeing in March? As always, you can vote for up to four films and the poll will remain open until the final day of February.

Vote once and vote often.

Film Review: Man on a Ledge (dir. Asger Leth)

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The newly released film Man on a Ledge is about a man (played by Sam Worthington) who checks into a hotel room in New York City and then climbs out on a ledge and threatens to jump off unless a specific hostage negotiator is brought in to talk him off the ledge. We quickly discover that Worthington isn’t just a depressed jumper. Instead, he’s got a really lengthy and overly complicated back story. It turns out that he’s a former detective who used to moonlight for a venture capitalist and then one day, he was accused of stealing a priceless diamond and destroying it. This resulted in him getting sentenced to 25 years in prison but when his father is reported to have died, Worthington is released from jail for a day so he can attend the funeral. So, Worthington escapes and then ends up out on a ledge as part of a massively complicated plan to prove his innocence. His name, by the way, is Nick because people named Alvin are never the stars of action movies.

Meanwhile, the cop that Nick demands to speak with is a hardened, veteran hostage negotiator and she’s played by Elizabeth Banks. Yes, you read that correctly. Anyway, Nick asks for her because he knows that the last guy she tried to talk out of jumping apparently jumped off a bridge. Since Banks failed her last time out, her efforts to talk Nick off the ledge are cautiously observed by another detective, this one played by Edward Burns. Banks is totally and completely miscast here and she has next to no chemistry with Sam Worthington. However, she does have really good chemistry with Edward Burns. Seriously, they would make a really cute couple and I would buy any issue of Us Weekly that had them on the cover.

Meanwhile, the guy that Nick is accused of stealing from just happens to be in a building across the street where he’s conducting some sort of generically evil business deal. He’s a painfully thin, almost sickly man and, whenever he was on screen, I found myself wondering how his head managed to stay balanced on his body. At first, I thought maybe it was the Red Skull waiting for the sequel to Capt. America to start filming. However, on closer inspection, he turned out to be respected character actor Ed Harris. In this film, Harris plays a ruthless capitalist who would have gone bankrupt if not for the insurance money he got as a result of Nick supposedly destroying that diamond. Anyway, Harris appears to be enjoying playing a bad guy and he’s so over-the-top in his evil that you don’t really mind that he’s another one of those “I-should-kill-you-now-but-first-we-talk” type of villains.

Meanwhile, there’s two other people who are taking advantage of all the chaos caused by the man on the ledge to break into Harris’s building. They’re played by Jamie Bell (who looks a lot like Casey Affleck in this film) and telenova veteran Genesis Rodriguez. As you watch Bell and Rodriguez sliding down heating ducts and scaling elevator shafts, you can’t help but marvel at just how overly complicated everyone is making things. Still, Bell and Rodriguez have a lot of chemistry and they’re fun to watch.

Meanwhile, NYC television reporter (played by Kyra Sedgwick) is running around the streets of New York, asking random bystanders how they feel about the prospect of Nick jumping. Apparently, she is an old enemy of Elizabeth Banks’ though that whole plot line is dropped as soon as its brought up. Still, the audience in my theater chuckled when Sedgwick dramatically rolled her r’s while introducing herself as “Suzie Morales.”

Meanwhile, there’s a bearded guy watching Nick up on the roof and he suddenly decides to go all Occupy Wall Street on the movie’s ass and starts shouting, “Attica! Attica!” before then blaming it all on the 1%. Unfortunately, he doesn’t put on Guy Fawkes mask at any point during all of this.

Meanwhile, the entire city of New York is obsessed with the man on the ledge and, if nothing else, they all end up acting exactly the way that people who have never been to New York City (like me) assume that people in New York act. By that, I mean all the extras are all like, “Yo, Paulie! There’s some man on a ledge! Stop breaking my balls!”

Meanwhile, there’s one final twist to the film’s plot that I can’t share without spoiling the film. So, I’ll just say that it involved someone working at the hotel and I figured out the twist about 3 minutes after this character first appeared. This is one of those twists that if you can’t figure out on your own then you need to hang your head in shame. Seriously.

This film packs a lot of plot into 90 minutes of screen time and, not surprisingly, the end result is a bit of a mess. This is one of those films where every single character attempts to solve his or her problems in the most needlessly complicated and implausible way possible. Still, almost despite myself, I enjoyed Man on a Ledge. It’s just all so silly and stupid that it becomes oddly likable. The film also has two nicely done chase scenes and some of the scenes where Nick attempts to manuever about on the ledge made me go, “Agck!”

Seriously, I don’t do heights.

6 Trailers For A Saturday Afternoon

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi. It’s Saturday and that can only mean that it’s time for any edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Trailers!

1) Crater Lake Monster (1977)

This is one of those films that seems to show up in a dozen or so public domain DVD compilation packs. The “lake” in this film looks a lot like White Rock Lake and when I first saw this film, I was convinced it had actually been filmed down here in Dallas. However, I subsequently found that there actually is a Crater Lake up in Oregon. There’s no word yet on whether or not there’s any monsters living in that lake but you have to figure there would be, what with it being Oregon and all.

2) Shogun Assassin (1980)

Just the story of a single dad and his baby. Awwwwww!

3) 100 Rifles (1969)

Obviously, this was one of the many American attempts to make a Spaghetti western. “This film has a message…”

4) Soylent Green (1973)

Yes, we all know what’s in Soylent Green.

5) Xtro (1982)

Oh my God, this trailer freaks me out!

6) Scarface (1983)

Oh, stop it. I don’t care how many “respectable” actors are in the film, you know that Scarface is like totally a grindhouse film.

The 2012 Oscar Nominations

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Well, it had to happen eventually. The actual, real-life Oscar nominations were announced this morning and it’s the usual handful of good nominations surrounded by a lot of boring Bleh. I guess the big news would be the upsets that I predicted –Michael Fassbender being overlooked for Demian Bichir and David Fincher failing to get a nomination for becoming a living parody with his rehash of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. However, before you Fincherites go out to sit in the garage with the car running, you can take solace that sweet, nonthreatening Rooney Mara was nominated for turning one of the strongest female characters ever into a simpering fool.

(Please note, that my comment about Rooney Mara reflects my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the rest of the staff here at the Shattered Lens. At this site, as opposed to a certain other site that talks about awards on a daily basis, differing opinions are not only allowed but appreciated.)

Anyway, here’s a list of nominees. If a film is listed in bold print, that means that film also appears on my list of who and what I personally would have nominated. As should quickly become apparent, me and the Academy have agreed to disagree.

Best Picture
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“The Help”
“Moneyball”
“War Horse”
“The Tree of Life”

(Wow, I nominated 10 films and the Academy nominated 9 and we still only agreed on two. What upsets me about this list of nominees is that now, I’m going to have to go see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Bleh.)

Best Actor
Demian Bichir, “A Better Life”
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”
Gary Oldman, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”

(Nice to see Oldman score his first ever Oscar nomination but seriously, no Michael Fassbender? No Michael Shannon?)

Best Actress
Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis, “The Help”
Rooney Mara, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn”

(Don’t even get me started. No Charlize Theron? No Elizabeth Olsen? Did Glenn Close really look like she could pass for a man? Was Rooney Mara really all that good or were they just reacting to the fact that she’s a cute girl pretending to be troubled?)

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh, “My Week With Marilyn”
Jonah Hill, “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte, “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
Max Von Sydow, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

(I am happy to see Hill nominated and I realize that Andy Serkis was a long shot but, seriously, no Albert Brooks?)

Best Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo, “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain, “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer, “The Help”

(Yay for McCarthy! I imagine Spencer will win this one.)

Best Director
Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”
Alexander Payne, “The Descendants”
Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”

Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris”
JC Chandor, “Margin Call”
Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation”
Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, “Bridesmaids”

Best Adapted Screenplay
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxton, Jim Rash, “The Descendants”
John Logan, “Hugo”
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon, “The Ides of March”
Aaron Sorkin, Steven Zaillian, “Moneyball”
Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughn, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

(Oh yay! Another chance to hear a charming Sorkin acceptance speech. Yes, that’s sarcasm. I don’t care if he did tell his daughter to go to bed last year, every pompous ass who wins an award on television does that. And seriously, The Ides of March for best screenplay?)

Best Animated Feature
“A Cat In Paris”
“Chico & Rita”
“Kung Fu Panda 2”
“Puss in Boots”
“Rango”

(I wonder if Steven Spielberg is cursing right now? No director nomination and no Adventures of TinTin.)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Bullhead (Belgium)
Footnote (Israel)
In Darkness (Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
A Separation (Iran)

Original Score
“The Adventures of Tintin,” John Williams
“The Artist,” Ludovic Bource
“Hugo,” Howard Shore
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” Alberto Iglesias
“War Horse,” John Williams

(At the risk of sounding like I’m writing over on AwardsDaily.com, NO FILM HAD A BETTER SCORE THAN HANNA)

Best Original Song
“Man or Muppet,” The Muppets; Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
“Real in Rio,” Rio; Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown, Lyric by Siedah Garrett

(Wow! Only two nominations here! I guess they really didn’t want to have to deal with scary old Madonna showing up and I don’t blame them!)

Best Achievement in Art Direction
“The Artist”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“Hugo”
“Midnight in Paris”
“War Horse”

Best Achievement in Cinematography
“The Artist”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”

Best Achievement in Costume Design
“Anonymous”
“The Artist”
“Hugo”
“Jane Eyre”
“W.E.”

(Really? Anonymous? I guess they were really impressed with Derek Jacobi’s scarf.)

Best Documentary Feature
“Hell and Back Again”
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front”
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory”
“Pina”
“Undefeated”

(I finally saw Paradise Lost 3 last night, too late to include it on my personal list of Oscar nominees, but I strongly recommend it. It’s a truly powerful documentary.)

Best Documentary Short Subject
“The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement?”
“God Is the Bigger Elvis”
“Incident in New Baghdad”
“Saving Face”
“The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom”

Best Achievement in Film Editing
“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”

Best Achievement in Makeup
“Albert Nobbs”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“The Iron Lady”

Best Animated Short Film
Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Best Live Action Short Film
“Pentecost”
“Raju”
“The Shore”
“Time Freak”
“Tuba Atlantic”

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
“Drive”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“Hugo”
“Moneyball”
“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
“War Horse”

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2”
“Hugo”
“Real Steel”
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”

‘Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon”

So, what can I say? Obviously, with a few exceptions, I don’t agree with the Academy but that’s okay. I know what I like and I’m more than happy to leave room on the bandwagon for someone with a brain made of stone.

No Guts, No Glory: Lisa Marie Attempts To Predict The Actual Oscar Nominees

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Okay, because I love being punished (oh yes), here are my predictions for which films and performers will recieve Oscar nominations in the 6 major categories tomorrow morning. As opposed to my previous post on the Oscars, these are the films that I expect to see nominated (as opposed to who and what I personally would like to see nominated.)

Best Picture

The Artist

The Descendants

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Bleh! Not happy about this one)

The Help

Hugo

Midnight In Paris

Best Director

Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris

Michel Hazanvicius for The Artist

Alexander Payne for The Descendants

Martin Scorsese for Hugo

Tate Taylor for The Help

(Yes, I’m going out on a limb and making a random prediction for Taylor. If I’m wrong, I’ll still be 4 for 5. And if I’m right, then I’ll be a freaking genius.)

Best Actor

Demian Bichir for A Better Life

George Clooney for The Descendants

Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar

Jean Dujardin for The Aritst

Brad Pitt for Moneyball

(Yes, I am predicting that Michael Fassbender will be passed over in favor of a more politically correct nomination for Bichir. There’s always at least one brilliant performance and film that is ignored and I think that this year, it’ll be Fassbender and Shame in general.)

Best Actress

Viola Davis for The Help

Rooney Mara for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (bleh)

Meryl Streep for The Irony Lady

Tilda Swinton for We Need To Talk About Kevin

Michelle Williams for My Week With Marilyn

Best Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh for My Week With Marilyn

Albert Brooks for Drive

Jonah Hill for Moneyball

Nick Nolte for Warrior

Christopher Plummer for Beginners

Best Supporting Actress

Berenice Bejo for The Artist

Jessica Chastain for The Help

Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer for The Help

Shailene Woodley for The Descendants

What If Lisa Marie Was In Charge of the Golden Raspberry Awards

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

If you’re following the Awards ceremony, you know that two major events are coming up next week. On Tuesday, the Oscar nominations will be announced. But before that, on Monday, the Golden Raspberry Award nominations will be announced. For 32 years, the Golden Raspberries have been honoring the worst films of the year and they’ve always served as a nice counterpoint to the self-congratulatory nature of the Academy Awards.

Now, on Monday night, I’ll be posting what I would nominate if I was in charge of the Oscars but first, I’d like to show you what I’d nominate if I was solely responsible for making the Golden Raspberry nominations.

Now before anyone leaves me any pissy comments, these are not predictions. I know that these are not the actual nominations. I know that the actual Golden Raspberry nominations will probably look a lot different. These are just my individual picks.

(My “winners” are listed in bold print.)

Worst Picture

Anonymous

The Conspirator

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night

The Rum Diary

Straw Dogs

Worst Actor

Daniel Craig in Dream House, Cowboys and Aliens, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Aaron Eckhardt in Battle: Los Angeles

James Marsden in Straw Dogs

James McAvoy in The Conspirator