Yes that’s right – New Years just happened like, a week ago… counting down, people count down on New Years… that’s the point, and it’s as close as I can get to writing about something that relates to the holidays, and it’s way late. And while I first thought to do this because of the end of 2011, it actually turned out to be a fun list to think about. How do you judge the intensity of a ticking clock? It’s not always how close the characters came to zero – sometimes it’s about the process itself, getting to inevitability, fighting time.

It’s rather like life, and the knowledge that being on this world is a sort of countdown. Every year is another tick of the clock, leading every one of us to the same inescapable conclusion. So uh… Happy New Year! …Here’s a list counting down countdowns.

10. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind – An Entire Relationship

Because of the delightfully surreal execution of this story, it’s very easy to think of this film as not containing any kind of countdown. There’s no ticking clock to be nervously watched and there’s no concrete zero hour – this is the only example on this list where an amount of time isn’t being counted down, but rather an entire relationship’s worth of memories as they are systematically degraded from a man’s brain during one night of sleep.

The tension from this comes from the man’s refusal to allow the memories to slip away as he desperately attempts to somehow stop the process from happening. As the memories roll back farther and farther to the day he first met the women he loves, the noose begins to tighten. The intensity does grow considerably as we watch the very last memory he has of the relationship literally fall apart around him.

9. Ringu/The Ring – Seven Days

I have a special place in my heart for both Ringu and the American remake The Ring, so instead of choosing one or the other I went ahead and combined the two. The countdown of seven days may not be the most intense countdown in a film, but it’s probably the most horrific in its outcome and mysteriousness surrounding it. It’s a wonderful example of modernized folklore – you watch what looks like it could be any student film in any college anywhere ever on an unlabeled videocassette and then you get a call that, when answered, whispers two words: seven days.

Personally, in most cases when I watch experimental black and white films I tend to want to die right away. The only way to stop your demise is to make a copy and show the tape to someone else, which seems like a challenge even for when these movies were made – I wonder if seeding a torrent of it would count.

8. Nick Of Time – One Hour, Fourteen Minutes

Thank the lord for 90s political action/suspense films! Why is it that we’ve suddenly become a society of people that think it’s too silly to have a murder mystery that takes place in the White House or an action film where the President is the hero? What happened in 2000 that we shamed ourselves out of that? This film is centered on a character played by Johnny Depp whose daughter is kidnapped by Christopher Walken and will be killed unless he assassinates a governor in the next 74 minutes.

Of course our assassin-to-be knows that he essentially has to choose between his life, as he will surely not survive such an ordeal, or the life of his daughter, who is being held in a van. As he stalls for time and attempts to alert the governor’s bodyguards he finds out, to his despair, that the bodyguards are the very same people who have kidnapped his daughter under the orders of the governor’s very own husband! Seriously – 90s political action/suspense, you can’t beat that shit.

7. The Dark Knight – Roughly Twenty Minutes

So the Joker has pretty much sent Gotham into an full-blown frenzy – while all the bridges and evacuation routes have been blocked off due to his threats of repercussion, two ferries have managed to make their way across the river and out of town. One of these boats houses Gotham’s biggest and baddest criminals, and the other contains your average bunch of civilians. Sure enough, this situation takes a rather bad turn as the Joker remotely hijacks both ferries with instructions that he has rigged them with explosives as well as given each boat the means to detonate the other, and if neither boat is ablaze by midnight than he will blow them both.

It’s a rather foul plot that takes the kill or be killed scenario to a whole new level of mass-murder. For the next 20 or so minutes we have the pleasure of watching both boats try to figure out a fair way to make the decision between dying innocent or living guilty, and knowing that at any moment their neighboring vessel just might make the decision for them. It’s a hell of a sequence.

6. Aliens – Four Hours

Alright – you’re on a remote planet and you’ve effectively sealed yourself off from the giant acidic two-mouthed space demons that happen to also be inhabiting the planet with you – time to take it easy for a while and find a way to be rescued right? Well – too bad because everything is going to blow up in four hours – that means that you now have to actually find a way to escape this grotesque planet before you are either vaporized or brutally torn up by a bunch of walking nightmares. Good thing you have Bishop, that’s for damn sure, because I’m not sure you would be able to convince anyone else to Shawshank their way through pipes in order to retrieve the ship that will get you the hell out of there.

To make matters worse Ripley loses the only character in the film that really isn’t allowed to die, Newt. More hits the fan as Ripley searches for Newt and gets way more than she bargained for in the form of an alien queen, and suddenly this becomes both a race against time and a more literal race against a giant egg-laying monster. Nothing makes my muscles tighten more than listening to that bitch computer voice counting down the minutes left to reach “minimum safe distance.”

5. The Andromeda Strain – Five Minutes

This is going back a bit – in this Michael Crichton novel turned film our government discovers a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that essentially turns blood into freaking powder. They bring the organism, as well as the few surviving specimens, to a secret underground lab in the middle of Nevada (where else?) where it is studied five levels down in what has to be the most overly sanitary environment imaginable. The fail safe to the whole lab is naturally a big hunk of nuke buried under the entire thing and set to detonate five minutes after there is any kind of containment problem – after all, they really don’t want to destroy the entire human race. There is only one way to stop the countdown once it starts, a single key that has been given to a single individual – in this case one of our main characters, Dr. Hall.

Before the five minutes are over he must insert the key one of several locations around the lab, which is exactly what he has to do when such a breach occurs not long after the scientists have discovered that a nuclear explosion will only make the organism, which feeds off energy, stronger. This scene cuts it way close as the doctor has to climb through a secure area guarded by freaking lasers in order to get to an insertion point. Got to love the days when lasers were a thing you could put in movies with a straight face.

4. The Fifth Element – One Hour, Fifty-Seven Minutes

The moment when Corbin Dallas learns from the president that he has one hour and fifty-seven minutes to save the planet Earth is also the moment we get to hear one of the best Bruce Willis action quotes out there: “I’ll call you back in two hours.” Alright, perhaps it’s not the best of the best but it’s a decent one – it’s in the top twenty. The worst part about this countdown to oblivion is that there is nothing that they can do to stop it until the last five minutes, when the heroes of the film arrive at the temple in which they must insert four element stones into specific spots and then figure out how to “open” them.

When they learn that each stone is opened with its own specific element we are then treated to what is probably the most gut wrenching cinematic moments out there when the fate of Earth comes down to a single matchstick. As if that isn’t awful enough, in the last minute, after they have set up this machine, Corbin must convince a despondent and damaged Lilu that the world is, in fact, worth saving. Holy hell – the entire human race dependent on a Bruce Willis action movie character talking about his feelings – we’re doomed!

3. Run Lola Run – Twenty Minutes

It’s hard to think of a way to ever pull off a film like this ever again. The entire film is one big countdown as Lola attempts to acquire 100,000 marks that her boyfriend needs in order to pay off a crime boss. Not only is this entire film structured around time in the sense that it is a race against it, but it also uses time as a method of showing us just how big of a difference the little things make by going through three different versions of the same series of events surrounding Lola’s mad dash to save her man. Each version starts with just one variation: Lola’s reaction to an initial obstacle, a vicious dog. Depending on her reaction she finds herself either going faster or slower, reaching locations and events at different points in time and drastically changing the ultimate outcome. What makes this work so well is that the manner in which this dog affects her also mirrors the way she handles future situations emotionally – and it’s only when she masters that one situation is she able to master everything else.

2. Back To The Future – Eight Minutes

Dear god, did Marty really have to change his clothes before going back to 1985? I ask that every time I see the final clock tower scene that, without fail, still makes me nervous to watch. I mean, it’s a bolt of lightening – there is no wiggle room. And not only does Marty have to hit 88 at the right moment, but also at the right freaking place on the road – seriously what are the damn odds that they could pull that off first try? Also… why didn’t Doc just attach a really long cable from the tower to the DeLorean that uncoiled or something while it drove away? Why did they have to do that hook thingy? Whatever – it’s awesome. Then of course, as if there isn’t enough going on, Doc has to nearly kill himself trying to plug those cables in on the top of the tower while hanging from a giant clock – way to use symbolism, guys.

1. The Hurt Locker – Two Minutes

Sorry. Look, I was trying to judge this purely on countdown movies or scenes that made me tense to watch, not on how un-depressing the scene was. It’s hard to end this with such a terrible scene – but I mean, did you see it? If you didn’t than go watch the movie, if you did and want to see it again, here it is:

Those two minutes last forever, and every time I hope that they are going to get the guy out of that thing. It’s such a dark situation because you know just by looking at the device that two minutes is nowhere near enough time – but the fact that James doesn’t even see that as a possibility is both inspiring to watch and incredibly sad when he is finally forced to give up and apologizes to the man who is about to explode in front of everybody. It ranks as the most intense countdowns because it is truly inescapable from the moment the clock starts. Wow, dark. If it helps – The director of this film, Kathryn Bigelow, also directed Point Break with Keanu Reeves… so that’s… that’s kind of silly right? This year is already starting awkward.

Just days after Paramount announced that they’re (shockingly!) going ahead with a fourth installment in their runaway scare-em-up success Paranormal Activity franchise comes word that Paranormal Activity 3 co-directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are back on board to direct. The pair took on PA3 after the success of their “documentary” Catfish, and while that film has certainly had its own share of speculation as to its veracity, the pair’s ability to present fiction as fact (or vice versa) helped make the third Paranormal Activity the best (and most inventive) yet.

The fourth film is already slated to hit theaters on October 19, 2012, continuing the franchise’s established tradition of a pre-Halloween opening (the first film was the only one to not occupy a similar release date), effectively stealing the thunder of the Saw franchise now and forever.

Our pals over at /Film took this opportunity to speculate about what the next Paranormal Activity would entail, positing that “the story of Paranormal Activity 4 will likely go one of two ways. Either it can go back in the past and show why Katie and Kristi’s grandmother got all wacky or it can jump ahead (something I felt the third film was lacking) and explain what is going on with the now possessed Katie and her nephew, who she’s kidnapped from her dead sister.” Those ideas just got my gears turning for what I want to see in the next installment.

While I think both ideas are certainly possible, after enduring PA3 (and endured it, I did, screaming and clutching my way through it like one of those people on their viral marketing ads), I was most interested in what happened to Katie and Kristi after the events of PA3, but before PA1 and PA2. When we leave them (spoilers!) at the end of PA3, they’re in the care of their witchy old grandmother and (we can only assume) her crazy cohorts. PA1 and PA2 chronicle the girls in their twenties, and though they make mention of not quite remembering their childhoods, that’s a quick and dirty explanation that seems a bit shined-on. Clearly, a bunch of other stuff happened between their childhoods and their young adulthoods and, if it was anything like what we’ve already seen, it was insane. Also – anyone remember all that stuff about how Katie and Kristi’s childhood home burnt down? All those charred pictures that pop up in both PA1 and PA2? When exactly did that happen? I’d watch the heck out of that.

But while I’d be most interested in seeing more childhood Katie and Kristi, Germain at /Film also makes mention of some fun, new ways to use the found footage angle of the film, particularly if the film did focus on “current-day” Katie, asking “if Katie is possessed out in the world, how would several weeks of her creepy actions be captured? That will be the task of the screenwriters and Joost/Schulman to decide but one friend of mine (I’d give you credit but I forget which one) had a brilliant suggestion: police interrogation footage.” That ain’t bad.

In any case, the third Paranormal Activity was far and away my favorite of the films, and I remain a dedicated fan of Catfish, so I am quite eager to hear where Joost and Schulman plan to take their next film. I am slightly less looking forward to making a total ass out of myself in the theater as I mewl my way through another viewing, however. [Bloody Disgusting, via /Film]

After the somewhat bizarre casting of up-and-comer Liam Hemsworth in The Expendables 2, a sequel to a film that was seemingly created just to give aging action stars something to do, it should come as little surprise that Thor’s little brother is slowly being styled into more of an action man. But it’s still a bit of an eye-opener that the actor is now set to star alongside no less than The Rock himself. Sorry, “Dwayne Johnson.”

Deadline Toledo reports that Hemsworth is about to close a deal, with Johnson currently negotiating for his role, in indie Empire State. Written by Adam Mazer (Breach, You Don’t Know Jack), the film was once titled The Sentry Keep, and is “based on the true story of a 1982 NYC armored car company robbery thought at the time to be the largest cash heist in U.S. history.” And while that sounds interesting enough, and while the casting of a pretty boy like Hemsworth and a bonafide action star like Johnson only further that interest, what’s most compelling about this story is who is directing it.

Dito Montiel. I guess there are second chances in Hollywood. Montiel is perhaps best known for his feature debut, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. Based loosely on his own life, Montiel wrote and directed the film, which starred Robert Downey Jr., Shia LaBeouf, and Channing Tatum (in what I continue to view as Tatum’s finest performance, hands down). A gritty and nostalgic look back at a tough young life, Saints was a fine first film and it seemed to signal a promising career for Montiel. Next up was Fighting, Montiel’s second pairing with Tatum, a lackluster flick about the underground fighting circuit. Not as fiery or gritty or bold as Saints, it could have simply represented a sophomore slump.

And then came The Son of No One. Another Channing Tatum-starrer, the film premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it swiftly became a punchline to any and all jokes about crappy Sundance flicks. The film routinely faced walk-outs, and laughs were reported throughout its runtime – too bad, considering it was meant to be a gritty (of course!) cop drama. The film was eventually released in November, and only stuck around for two weeks in ten theaters, making a dismal $30,000 domestically. Thirty thousand. That’s not a typo.

Could Empire State reestablish Montiel as a director to watch? Possibly. It will be the first time the director works from someone else’s script, and the attachment of a rising star like Hemsworth and an established name like Johnson add heft to the production. We’ll see.

Hemsworth will next be seen in The Hunger Games as Gale Hawthorne, the tougher of lead Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) two suitors. Johnson is (thankfully) signed on for the next two Fast and Furious films, after his kick-ass turn in Fast Five (gimme the vegetables), and will also star in Journey 2, keeping up with his family-friendly sensibilities. Empire State is set to start filming in April. [via The Playlist]

The Writers Guild of America has released the nominees for their Writer’s Guild Awards today, and while there’s certainly some room for quibbling as far as their choices go, the screenplays they’ve nominated in their film categories are at least a diverse array of projects. There’s something here for everyone.

I balked at these choices a bit on first glance, they’d left off many of my favorite films of the year. But after thinking about what was missing for a few seconds I started to realize that a lot of the films I really loved over the course of 2011 relied more on mood and photography than they did their screenplays. In my mind, there was no real superstar script this year, like Inception and The Social Network last year. I loved things like Drive and Shame, but did their greatness really lie in their screenplays?

Still, I can think of a handful of things that I would have liked to have seen included that weren’t. As far as original screenplays go, I think a film like Warrior was a master of structure, and is more deserving than something like Bridesmaids, which was a fairly generic comedy plot and which probably relied largely on improvisation for its humor. And I really miss a nomination for something like The Skin I Live In when it comes to the adapted screenplay section; especially when they’ve nominated a film like The Help, which cannot name writing as one of its strengths. Check out the list, and more ruminations, after the break.

Original Screenplay

50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment

Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Studios

Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics

Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight

Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures

Adapted Screenplay

The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne andNat Faxon & Jim Rash; Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemming; Fox Searchlight

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian; Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, originally published by Norstedts; Columbia Pictures

The Help, Screenplay by Tate Taylor; Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett; DreamWorks Pictures

Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan; Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Paramount Pictures

Moneyball, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin; Based on the book by Michael Lewis; Columbia Pictures

Documentary Screenplay

Better This World, Written by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega; Loteria Films

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Written by Marshall Curry and Matthew Hamachek; Oscilloscope Pictures

Nostalgia for the Light, Written by Patricio Guzmán; Icarus Films

Pina, Screenplay by Wim Wenders; Sundance Selects

Position Among the Stars, Script by Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, Leonard Retel Helmrich; HBO Documentary Films

Senna, Written by Manish Pandey; Producers Distribution Agency

Like I said earlier, there’s something here for everybody. I enjoyed Woody Allen’s writing on Midnight in Paris quite a bit, and am definitely pulling for him to get the win. And though I thought The Descendants started out a little bit clunky and relied too much on voiceover narration in its first act, it’s a film that got better as it went on and eventually won me over completely. I wouldn’t mind seeing it get some recognition for how its script subtly handled some potentially melodramatic material.

And as far as the documentary category goes, I haven’t seen many of the nominees, but who can deny the great work that went into making Senna? What do you think? Which screenplays nominated are your favorites, and who do you like that got left off the list?

The live-action adaptation of the legendary manga and anime property Akira has had one of the rockiest roads to the big screen of any movie I can remember. There is a lot of disagreement out there about what a Hollywood version of Akira should look like, but I think the one thing everyone can agree on is that nothing Warner Bros. has tried to do with the property so far has come close to hitting the mark. Back when Albert Hughes was still going to direct the project there were fan gripes about the film being forced into a PG-13 rating, after Hughes left the project everyone was left to complain about a new director and a slashed budget, and I don’t think anybody has been thrilled with any of the casting that has been done.

But, finally, the time for tears may be over. Heat Vision is reporting that a stop has been put to all work on the project. Offices are closing, talent is being sent home, and the whole thing is being re-thought. Director Jaume Collet-Serra and producers Jennifer Kiloran Davisson and Andrew Lazar will spend the next couple weeks ironing out issues with the script and trying to once again cut the budget, this time from the $90m range down to the $60 or $70m range, so that deals can be made with more actors. As of now, Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) is the only name that they’ve been able to secure, with actors like Kristen Stewart, Ken Watanabe, and Helena Bonham Carter still in deal-making limbo.

If such lofty goals are not met over the course of the next few weeks, there is a chance that the entire project could be cancelled indefinitely. And, let’s be honest here, that’s got to be the end point that we’re all rooting for. This thing has been compromised from the start, whether monetarily, content-wise, as far as the creators behind the scenes go, or even when looking at the actors they’ve signed. Instead of trying to continually piece a broken project back together with duct tape and glue, it would probably be better to put the Akira source material back on the shelf and try to revisit it at a later date when doing the whole thing right might be more feasible. With the team they have in place now, and the approach they’ve been taking to the material, the whole thing has always just felt like a disaster. Why burn so many calories trying to push a potential flop into theaters?

That’s just my whole take on the situation though, and I definitely can’t count myself among the Akira fanatics. Is there anybody out there still rooting for this project to happen with this script and these people involved?

Back in October, word first broke about the Wachowski siblings‘s upcoming sci-fi epic, Jupiter Ascending. It’s apparently the next project they’ll work on after they finish up their adaptation of Cloud Atlas, and while not much is known about the specifics, it’s said to be a concept with serious franchise potential.

As everyone knows, the best way to launch a franchise is to cast big actors in your lead roles. You can come up with all of the revolutionary ideas and breakthrough filmmaking techniques in the world and there is no guarantee that anyone will ever see what you’ve done, but if you stick Will Smith in the middle of all your hard work, success is pretty much a guarantee. To that end, the Wachowskis want to start their casting process off by locking up Natalie Portman.

According to a report from 24 Frames, the Black Swan actress is being actively recruited by the Wachowskis’s people, and so far she’s shown quite a bit of interest in taking the role. The big potential of this casting is that this would be the first acting job Portman would be taking after her gigantic, career-making Oscar win for her work in Black Swan. A new baby forced her into a sort of acting hiatus, and this would be her first chance to follow up the great work she did in that film.

One has to wonder if the shine will still be on Portman as an actress so long after her win, however. Most mainstream audiences might not even know that she took a break from acting, because over the course of the past year she has had pre-pregnancy performances hit theaters in films like Thor, Your Highness, and No Strings Attached, none of which went very far toward impressing anybody. Might the film-going world have already given up on the idea of Black Swan being a big career turning point for the actress? And does Portman’s Oscar even speak to any inherent quality in the Wachowskis’ script anyway? She was perfectly fine making boatloads of crappy movies before her Oscar win, who’s to say that she’s being more choosy about which roles she takes now?

Either way, I’m sure it’s exciting news for quite a few people to hear that the Wachowskis are diving back into the deep end of the science fiction pool and coming out with some new movies. Despite some disappointments that came after, The Matrix is still a watershed release that inspired a generation of film fans.

Things are starting to look up for screenwriter Michael Dillberti. Not only did his screenplay 30 Minutes or Less get made into a pretty high profile comedy last year, but another one of his scripts, Little White Corvette, made it onto this year’s Black List. The list’s description of the movie reads as follows: “A down and out brother and sister go to Miami to sell a duffel bag of cocaine that they found in the trunk of a corvette left them by their dead father.” Sounds like it has some potential, especially when you factor in that the script already has Emma Stone attached to star. She’s had a year even better than Dillberti’s, starring in the wildly successful The Help and just finishing shooting on superhero tentpole picture The Amazing Spider-Man, and apparently she’s been interested in doing something with Little White Corvette for quite a while now.

This script definitely wasn’t going to sit out there in limbo for too long given its Black List credentials and its red hot star, so it should come as no surprise that Deadline Frontenac is reporting it’s been picked up by GK films for a cool million smackeroos. Shooting is said to be scheduled for late next summer, when Stone has a hole in her busy schedule of being awesome. The next step in the process should be finding a director and casting the role of the brother, so I guess we can let the speculation begin on that front. In my fantasy scenario I think I’ll choose her Superbad director Greg Motolla to sit behind the camera… and is one of those redhead kids from Pete & Pete available to play the brother?

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly collection of links and things that will make you smile, make you think and perhaps aid you in getting to that restful state known as deep sleep. Either way, it’s always a pretty fun read.

We begin tonight with a new image from Pixar’s Brave, a film I placed on my shortlist as one of the 5 most anticipated movies of the year on my triumphant return to Reject Radio this week. This one shows Princess Merida and her family. There’s so much red hair…

Kathryn Bigelow’s Bin Laden film is filling up with cast, including an official confirmation of Joel Edgerton in a leading role, with the likes of Jessica Chastain, Edgar Ramirez and Mark Strong in negotiations to join the supporting cast. The appropriate reaction is “wow,” dear reader.

Tonight we feature art from a designer named Deadly Mike, who has created this absolutely deadly cool poster for Attack the Block, one of 2011′s best movies by a long shot. When asked whether or not this was the best poster for their movie, the cast of ATTB undoubtedly responded with “Allow It.” And we agree. (Note: If anyone finds a place where I can score a print of this, you just let me know… I want one.)

If you’ve been following the developments around SOPA as close as those of us in the blogging community, you will find Steve Blank’s article Why the Movie Industry Can’t Innovate and the Result is SOPA.

In an equally serious and culturally important article, Pajiba’s infinitely attractive editoriess Joanna Robinson tickles our — um — fancies with Busting Out All Over: The Twelve Hottest Babes in Corsets. It’s a well-rounded list. Get it?

The Wrap explores What Ails Hollywood, with six movie experts weighing in to present ideas for how Hollywood can come back in the age of digital, declining domestic attendance and DVD sales, and rampant piracy. Here’s an idea: let Christopher Nolan direct everything.

The folks at the LA Times have an interview and feature on the Oscar hopeful short film Time Freak, which looks like the kind of short we’d show in Short Film of the Day, because it sounds awesome.

We close tonight with Battlestar Galactica: The RPG. Because why not…

Everyone is currently lining up to fictionally kill the mass-murdering asshole Osama Bin Laden (South Park) for Kathryn Bigelow. It’s obviously a wonderful opportunity for actors to work with the Oscar winner, especially considering how Jeremy Renner’s career blew up after defusing bombs for her. The good news is that all the names that are signing on the line happen to be worth their weight in statues.

According to Deadline Destry, Jessica Chastain might continue her dominance with the now-untitled project alongside Mark Strong and Edgar Ramirez (Carlos). Meanwhile, Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) is now confirmed, and Joel Edgerton is double confirmed. Bringing on Chastain, Strong and Ramirez would be a strong move for the production.

Bigelow is of course re-teaming with writer/producer Mark Boal for a project that will most likely be controversial due to the subject matter. They’re currently slated for a December release (a date conspicuously after the Presidential election). It’s possible that the date might be moved back due to a congressional investigation into whether the production was given information it wasn’t supposed to have, but December is what to watch for currently. And all of it sounds fantastic. The big question is how star-spangled this thing can get.

Movies presented in real-time are a sort of rarity. High Noon and Rope jump to the mind immediately, and they’re fantastic, but there are also a handful of films that never got past the concept as pure gimmick. However, it’s always been interesting to guess at what the appeal of taking away the possibility of jumping forward or back in time really is. One obvious trick, is the creation of suspense. A constantly ticking clock that the audience is physically aware of.

That seems to be alive and well for Sundance favorite Silent House which features Sundance favorite Elizabeth Olsen. It comes from Open Water creators Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, and tells the story of a young woman and her father who are stuck inside a home where a noise continues to grow louder and louder. It’s based off the Uruguayan movie from Gustavo Hernandez that Rob was not a big fan of.

Gimmick-based or not, the trailer here is pretty damned limp. It’s composed almost entirely of shots of Olsen breathing heavily and then a poorly shot “thing of some sort” grabbing her? Not grabbing her? Hard to say. Check it out for yourself:

This piece of marketing makes the movie look like it’s composed of nothing but these types of shots. Granted, context is huge for creating tension, but there’s got to be something more to the story than running, being in the dark, and being possibly grabbed by something that’s impossible to see. Or, maybe Olsen is good enough to pull something like that off. Who knows.

As for this, it’s fairly unimpressive. Hopefully the movie, which hits March 9, will prove to be better.

What say you?

Take a gander at what the conceptual artists for The Avengers have dreamed up for the team of superheroes to fly around in and what Iron Man will be flying next to. It’s unclear which artist is directly responsible for the design of the Quinjet, or how Coming Soon got the image off of a Russian website, but here it is nonetheless, and the look is spot on.

The really cool part of this addition to the film, for those whose noses are buried in comic books, is that it opens the door to introduce Black Panther as a character since his design firm was the one that created the jet. Will he make an appearance? Or at least be mentioned? A role for Panther hasn’t been announced, but Marvel has always enjoyed leaving surprises up their spandex sleeves. Of course, the movie could also leave the designing up to Stark Enterprises, or it might simply be a toy the government had made for the Avenger Initiative. Time will tell, but this looks damned cool.

MOD, or manufacturing on demand, means studios and labels don’t have to press the DVD until you order it. MGM’s Limited Edition Collection and the Warner Archive Collection are the two big names in the MOD game right now, and each month they make dozens of titles available on DVD for the very first time. And The MOD Quad will take a look at as many of them as we can handle on a semi-irregular basis.

Which will probably average out to some number divisible by four.

Highlights this installment include Act of Vengeance, Top Banana, The Quatermass Experiment, and the little person gangster flick, Little Cigars.

* The discs are manufactured using the best source materials available and they’re strictly no-frills affairs, so the quality varies between releases. But remember, in many cases this may be the only opportunity to own these titles on DVD.

Act of Vengeance (1974, MGM)
Directed by Robert Kelljchian; stars some folks you won’t recognize

Five women are raped by the same hockey mask & jumpsuit-wearing prick who likes to make them sing “Jingle Bells” throughout the assault. When the police fail to catch the guy and don’t even appear to be trying all that hard the girls form an anti-rape club. Their goal is education, self defense, and support for other victims. Soon they’re targeting would-be rapists and pimps with blue dye, crotch kicks and beat downs. What they don’t know though is that their rapist is still watching over them waiting for the chance to strike again.

The Australian title for this little slice of seventies exploitation is Rape Squad, and that should really tell you exactly what to expect. The opening assault is pretty rough, and the dialogue is definitely of the variety you won’t find in movies today. There are some laughs to be found in the more over-the-top moments, but the film still manages a bit of menace thanks to the rapist’s costume and demeanor. It’s not a bad movie within the confines of the genre although the ending is more than a little underwhelming.

Little Cigars (1973, MGM)
Directed by Chris Christenberry; stars Angel Tompkins

A gaggle of midgets who perform comedically-weak stage routines as a diversion while fleecing their audience meet a tall, blond con-girl (Angel Tompkins) who joins them in their escalating crime spree. The expected romantic entanglements and jealousies follow, but the real trouble starts when her past catches up with both her and her newfound business partners.

This is an odd little flick toys with a slapsticky approach once in a while but that otherwise maintains a fairly straight forward style in its tale of diminutive gangsters and their blond moll. Tompkins is good fun, and the lead cigar, Billy Curtis, is an engaging and wily performer, but the others feel like they were chosen more for their appearance than acting ability. Still, the film is an interesting diversion and even gets fairly serious towards the end when the drama and mayhem are ratcheted up a bit. The highlight is probably Curtis kicking ass in a bar though.

The Quatermass Experiment (1955, MGM)
Directed by Val Guest; stars Jack Warner

A manned spacecraft returns to Earth unexpectedly but only one of the three astronauts have survived. The other two have seemingly disintegrated, something that understandably concerns the government agents and scientists assigned to the situation. Soon the survivor begins showing odd behaviors and a creeping menace begins threatening humanity. It’s up to Professor Quatermass to stop this alien invasion (of sorts) and save mankind.

There are actually a handful of Quatermass films made through the 50s and 60s, by which I mean three, and this is the first. It’s a pretty solid little horror/sci-fi thriller with a surprising amount of atmosphere and dread for a mid-fifties film. The plot device of an astronaut who returns to Earth with a terrifying secret (ie an alien visitor or alteration) has been done many times since in films like The Incredible Melting Man and The Astronaut’s Wife, and this is easily one of the better examples thanks in large part to the writing.

Top Banana (1954, MGM)
Directed by Alfred E. Green; stars Phil Silvers, Rose Marie

Jerry Biffle (Phil Silvers) is the self-described “funniest man on television” whose show begins to sink in the ratings with a key demographic. The producers convince him to find a female co-star to bring back women viewers, but while she’s intended to be a love interest for Jerry she actually falls for one of the show’s singers offstage. Chaos and hilarity reportedly ensue.

This is a filmed adaptation of a popular stage play/musical, but instead of actually adapting it into a feature film the film makers simply pointed a camera at the stage. Okay, maybe they made some other minor changes, but if so it’s not enough to make this feel like an actual movie. Instead it looks, feels and plays like a stage show from the fifties… complete with vaudevillian jokes that no one under the age of seventy will appreciate. One of the high points is seeing a young Jack Albertson (Willy WOnka & the Chocolate Factory) as one of Jerry’s writers. Did I say one of the high points? Sorry, I meant the only high point.

Catch up with The MOD Quad here.

Yes, January is a graveyard. Lots of dead bodies just getting dumped left and right A) to fill up the space and B) because some of these studios have dead bodies just laying around not making money. Such is the case with The Devil Inside, the only film getting a broad release this weekend. It doesn’t take a genius – thank God – to pick up on the fact that Mission: Impossible and Sherlock Holmes will be topping the box office once again. It’s that surefire longevity these December releases have noticed doing its best. A mockumentary about exorcisms that some studio decided to pick up won’t make much noise. But let’s see just how well it could do, shall we?

BIG HITTERS

The Devil Inside was picked up by Paramount to make a quick buck, and that’s probably the only thing they can expect. Sure, it’s in style to put out a movie about exorcisms. We seem to be getting at least one a year. It’s also en vogue to have a found footage horror flick to try to siphon off some of that Paranormal Activity ocean of cash. Those two factors alone – yes, The Devil Inside is more a mockumentary than a movie about found footage, but when the shaky cam kicks in, no one really cares what you call it – will give The Devil Inside enough juice to top over $10m. It could got as high as $15m this weekend, but those expectation are pretty grand. As far as January releases go, it will be coming in around average. That $11-12m range is pretty predictable when it comes to horror movies released in January. Not enough to make people take notice, but big enough for Paramount to justify getting it off their shelves.

Two words. Cat. Exorcism. You’re welcome:

Yeah, we know. It’s easy to throw up a YouTube clip of cats. So we’re giving you a twofer. Here, for you studying needs before you head out and watch The Devil Inside, is The Exorcist told in 60 seconds using clay:

FAMILIARITIES

So much for the new stuff. How about we talk about old stuff for a bit. First up, it’s a clear victory this weekend for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. With every movie actually going up in ticket sales last weekend, the numbers will be dipping back down now, possibly harder than normal. However, the rankings will pretty much be the same down the line. Ghost Protocol has already stepped past $400m worldwide, putting it ahead of Mission: Impossible III, and $150m away from becoming the biggest moneymaker of the franchise. That’s a lofty goal, but it is possible with little competition in the way of blockbuster films hitting any time soon.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is another clear winner in this long trek across January. It’s pulled in $247.4m worldwide and will surely break past $250m before the weekend even begins. It’s still a long way from matching 2009′s Sherlock Holmes‘ success. That movie ended with $209m domestic, $524m worlwide in its pockets. While A Game of Shadows doesn’t look to be a dud for Warner Brothers, the idea of a third Holmes and Watson adventure might not be the brightest subject for a while.

The first of the “Oscar hopefuls that get a limited release in December but opens wider in January” hits this weekend. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy expands to just over 800 theaters. With the good buzz it’s been getting as well as the per theater average it’s been able to generate these past few weeks, it will surely find itself somewhere in the top 10. Most likely, it will come in either in the 9th or 10th spot with around $4m.

Everything else is business as usual. New Year’s Eve is still playing in over 2000 theaters, and the world is probably going to end before the years is out, so smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

LITTLE OPENERS

Opening in limited release are Beneath the Darkness opening in select cities, Norwegian Wood opening in New York City and Washington DC, Roadie opening in New York City, and In the Land of Blood and Honey opening in New York City and L.A.

Here’s how the weekend is shaping up:

1. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – $23.4m (-38.8%)
2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $11.5m (-44.5%)
3. The Devil Inside – $11.2m NEW
4. War Horse – $9.1m (-36.8%)
5. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – $8.4m (-42.9%)
6. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked – $7.7m (-52.7%)
7. We Bought a Zoo – $7m (-46.4%)
8. The Adventures of Tintin – $6.7m (-41.1%)
9. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy -$3.8m Expanded to 809 theaters
10. New Year’s Eve – $2.9m (-52.7%)

Why Watch? A great story is being told all the time, right under your feet. And because you’ve always wanted to go where you were told not to.

With this doc, director Andrew Wonder lives up to his name. He joined forces with urban explorer Steve Duncan to dig around the New York subway system where mere mortals aren’t meant to go. “The following was filmed without consent or permits from the New York City Transit Authority,” pretty well sums up the attitude, and there’s certainly a rush of the illegal right at the beginning, but the overall feel is one of grungy beauty that’s there if we dare to view it. Absolutely phenomenal work here.

What does it cost? Just 27 minutes of your time.

Trust us. You have time for more short films.

The folks at the SoundWorks Collection have published yet another one of their excellent exposés on the audible world of Hollywood’s finest products. They’ve long been a bastion of quality exploration into the behind the scenes world of cinema magic. They also talk to some pretty talented people. In this case, they talk The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with the likes of Composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Sound Re-recording Mixer Michael Semanick, and Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, and Supervising Sound Editor Ren Klyce. These are the folks who have brought a world of sound to the cold, death-filled landscape to David Fincher’s re-adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s popular novel. Because for every dark, broody story about violence against cats and pale women, there must be an industrial soundtrack.

Watch the SoundWorks Collection’s exploration of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo below:

Find more over at The SoundWorks Collection.

Once again utilizing his low budget sensibilities and a few friendly faces, writer/director/producer/actor Ed Burns has crafted an impressive adult dramedy that feels blissfully familiar (and awkwardly familial). Newlyweds is a semi-documentary style film that relies almost solely on the talents of its cast – a true ensemble made up of Burns as Buzzy, the cocksure fitness instructor on his second marriage; Caitlin Fitzgerald as his sweetly sarcastic wife Katie; Kerry Bishé (seen above) as his self-destructive sister Linda; Marsha Dietlein as his opinionated sister-in-law Marsha; and Max Baker as Marsha’s perverted old husband (in his second outing as a character named Max for an Ed Burns film).

Buzzy and Katie are the kind of couple you want to be best friends with. They’re pragmatic and funny, obviously looking at life through the sober and absurd lens that their first marriages afforded them. They are tonal opposites of Marsha and Max whose 18 years together have given them emotional crow’s feet and an aggressive bitterness that doesn’t make them flinch when it starts gnashing its teeth in public.

They could be representations of different stages and styles of relationships as a means to put on display the human fragility of latching yourself on to another human being for “the rest of your life.” Or, you know, they could just be real people. Which is more likely.

On that front, Burns is deft at delivering true-to-life situations without collapsing into the soap operatic. Everything that pushes the story forward lives in that odd category labeled “everyday drama.” Linda, like The Joker by way of Woody Allen, is a tornado of hysterics (who flew to New York to convince an old boyfriend to leave his wife for her), but nothing she does seems alien. She’s the friend/relative that everyone has – self-centric and keenly unaware that her actions have a destructive effect on the people around her. Of course, Burns mines this for all the yelling and laughter it’s worth without ever hitting an false note.

Furthermore, this is a thoroughly talkative movie – one crafted by Burns and honed by actors who clearly live within the skin of each character. Just as there are no bombastic elements to the plot, there are also no caricatures in the cast. The one who comes closest to being a cartoon is Dara (Dara Coleman), Katie’s starving artist ex-husband who does everything at a gut level. Fortunately, even he is rounded out (after a hilarious bit where he tries to explain his womanizing while flirting with real New York women walking past him as they filmed).

And therein lies part of the beauty of the picture. The realism is astounding. Burns and company have created a moving family portrait that hits home, drops its bags in your guest bedroom, and refuses to leave. The strength of the writing and the actors is at the heart of it all, but New York City is allowed to breathe its own street-swept air into every frame. Due credit goes to Burns and DP William Rexer for not being complacent with the shot selection in a dialogue-heavy flick. It’s consistently visually interesting while the line delivery does its magic.

So it’s sharp, intimate, and realistic, but it also suffers from the same thing all word-driven movies do: a flatter landscape. Each scene is structurally the same – two or more people talking to each other – which can get monotonous no matter how interesting everything is. If there is a downside, it’s certainly that. Fortunately, there’s an energy here that crackles as the stakes for Katie and Buzzy get higher, and as they further realize their own shortcomings along with the promiscuous pitfalls of being married to your loved one’s family and past. What’s truly great is the level of uncertainty that comes from a clear willingness to allow characters to make bold decisions that can change who they are drastically. By the midway mark, the confident couple we met in the beginning is not nearly as steady, being bombarded by external forces that remind consistently that marriage is insanely hard to get right.

While not jaw-dropping, it’s the kind of movie to write home about because dramedy made specifically for adults is a rarity these days. Even rarer are the ones that are made this well. Newlyweds is an exceptional film that relies on the basics and gets them right.

The Upside: Solid filmmaking from an indie veteran and a strong ensemble who understands how real people think and act. It also thankfully has nothing to do with Jessica Simpson or Nick Lachey.

The Downside: A repetitive structure (by nature), and an overall effect that hits like a baseball bat but doesn’t light any fireworks.

On the Side: Burns made the film for $9,000 and updated his fans regularly on production methods using Twitter. It’s available currently on Video On Demand and iTunes with a limited release on January 13th.

We all love The Boondock Saints? Right? Right? Guys? Where you going? Look, I’m fully aware of the animosity for this film, especially its writer/director, Troy Duffy. Hell, even the DVD is annoying me right this second with this “You wouldn’t steal a car, so why steal movies” PSA. But there’s a point in everyone’s life where you have to realize bad filmmakers like talking about their film just as much as the geniuses. So we’re gonna let Mr. Duffy speak, and we’re gonna be taking detailed notes as to what he has to say.

Yes, this one comes with the decade long-backlash. And I’m sure Troy Duffy’s commentary here is going to be filled with all kinds of insightful anecdotes about crafting the film, honing the story so its concise yet layered. I’m sure there isn’t going to be anything on this commentary track that puts Troy Duffy in an angelic light. And, in case you didn’t catch it, I put the sarcastic tone on the word “angelic.” So here is everything we learned from Mr. Troy “Overnight” Duffy’s commentary track for The Boondock Saints.

That damn PSA is still going by the way. Don’t steal, folks.

The Boondock Saints (1999)

Commentators: Troy Duffy (writer, director, headliner of The Boondock Saints formerly known as The Brood)

• The commentary starts “My name is Troy Duffy. I wrote and directed The Boondock Saints.” God, what an egotist. He just can’t stop talking about himself. Okay, all kidding aside, I’m not even going to count this as an item, and I won’t be asserting Duffy’s egotism unless otherwise provoked. I think the man’s attitude has already been well documented.
• Because of the violence in the film, Duffy had a hard time finding a church that would actually let him shoot within. The church in the opening scene is the Union Methodist Church in Boston. Those Methodists. They’re so laid back.
• Duffy comments he received a 2-page letter from the Archdiocese of Toronto calling him the “spawn of Satan” and that the script for this film was an “instrument of his destruction.” Archdiocese generally make the best critics.
• It was important to have the brother dynamic strong between Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery. He wanted to hire two actors who looked like they could be brothers, and the opening scene in the church is designed to make it obvious these two are brothers before they even utter a word of dialogue.
• “Money is always a huge concern in independent filmmaking,” says Duffy before stating they had around $5-6 million for the film. Duffy also says this amount of money, when it comes to making a film, is basically “You’re on your own money.”
• “There I am,” says Duffy when the A Troy Duffy Film card comes up. I’m not commenting.
• David Della Rocco, who plays Rocco, was a friend of Duffy’s from the director’s days of owning a bar in Boston. Duffy liked his personality so much that he wrote him into the screenplay as a character. Rocco had tried making it in Hollywood but was unsuccessful. “I convinced him to come back,” says Duffy. Yes, the four credits he has on IMDB, The Boondock Saints II: All Saint’s Day being one of them, proves that.
• Duffy points himself in the film out twice in a matter of 20 seconds. “Quite fetching,” he says about himself. I’m really not trying to make the claim that this man is egotistical. The way he speaks is doing the job just fine for me. Another mention, “And there is a shameless plug for me,” comes up when the “Written and Directed by Troy Duffy” credits comes up. That should be about it. We’ll see.
• It was Duffy’s original intention to have Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” playing when Willem Dafoe‘s character, Paul Smecker, arrives in an early scene. According to Duffy they wanted roughly $17 million for the rights to 30 seconds. There’s that “You’re on your own money” working its magic again. Duffy also mentions he wanted The Beatles playing in the scene where the brothers are buying heavy weaponry. They, too, wanted $17 million. It’s a common asking price.
• Dafoe told Duffy that he was the first first-time director he’d ever worked with. The director refers to their first meeting as “two kids in a sandbox” in terms of coming up with ideas for the character. A quick glance at IMDB shows that what Dafoe told him is absolutely true if you don’t count short films. It’s probably not important enough to put in the time and effort of fully proving/disproving that.
• Duffy wanted Reedus and Flanery to come up with a “kill switch,” the moment their character decides they’re going to get out of a situation no matter what they had to do. It’s indicated by a slow motion shot of Reedus looking aggravated.
• Duffy notes showing the company, I’m assuming Franchise Pictures at this point, dailies of Flanery’s character, Connor, throwing the toilet off the side of the building. The company was upset that the whole thing was in slow motion, and Duffy says he almost got fired because of it. He mentions he and editor Bill DeRonde did a quick edit job on the scene and included the techno music that’s in the film now, and everything worked out. Duffy is completely right in that regard. Techno makes pretty much everything better.
• To make it look legit that Reedus’ character, Murphy, was picking up and carrying Connor, the director told Flanery not to help Reedus in any way. Reedus had to jog out of the alley with dead weight of about 180 pounds on his shoulder.
• Billy Connolly’s voice-over work for the scene with Connor and Murphy’s dream sequence in jail was recorded while the comic was on the road in Australia. Duffy sent him the lines and recorded them over the phone.
• Duffy brings up his reasoning behind casting Ron Jeremy. “Chances are you both know who he is,” Duffy says envisioning a couple watching The Boondock Saints together, “but are you gonna talk about it afterwards?” So that was his reason for casting Ron Jeremy. I guess that makes sense?
• The idea of racial humor comes up in the scene where Rocco tells a particularly racist joke. “I figure if it’s funny, screw you,” retorts Duffy. Okay, so stop me if you’ve heard the one about the bartender who screwed up his million dollar picture deal with Miramax.
• Duffy wanted to make the Paul Smecker character gay to put even more of an emphasis with how at odds he was with the rest of the cops in the film. It also serves to make an even stronger point later on in the film when Smecker is seen as a genius investigator in the other cop’s eyes. The Boston cops he is working with know he’s gay, but it’s become a non-issue. Duffy also anecdotes about a friend of his who was a closeted homosexual and who came out of the closet after watching The Boondock Saints. The Boondock Saints: Bridging gaps since 1999, mostly 2000.
• The scene in the penthouse shoot-out took up a nice sized bulk of the film’s money. However, when Dafoe came to set, he mentioned to Duffy that the “spacing” of the set was an issue. The actor wasn’t sure where he should be walking. Duffy came up with the idea of Dafoe walking on the back of the couch, as well as performing the Riverdance, on the fly.
• The prayer the brothers say before killing their victims is not in the Bible. It’s something Duffy wrote for the film. His dad helped.
• Duffy goes into what it’s like to be a first-time film maker. He mentions how, when you’re on a set as director for the first time, every member of the cast and crew is looking at you to prove yourself. Duffy mentions how much fun working on The Boondock Saints was, but he also mentions the sense of guidance or worth is always in question on a first-timer until the times comes that he says, “Action.” “Somehow in the difficulty of it lies the magic of it,” he says.
• The director brings up an anecdote from after the film was completed and released. He was on his balcony smoking when a little black girl walked by, saw the poster for The Boondock Saints on Duffy’s wall, and asked if he had anything to do with it. The director was stunned, since the girl was completely out of the film’s intended demographic. So let that be a lesson to all you parents out there. Don’t let your kids ask strange men about posters on their walls. Also this story is extremely suspect. I’m trying to give Duffy the benefit of the doubt here, but I don’t even believe he smokes at this point.
• The story of the little girl segues into what happened with the film’s distribution. Here we go. Duffy notes the industry screening for the film happened a few weeks after the shootings at Columbine. Movies like The Basketball Diaries and The Matrix were being shown on the news every day as examples of violence in film. “Boondock didn’t have a chance,” says Duffy. He says the film was essentially blacklisted from American theaters. I would just like to mention another film that came out a week after The Boondock Saints. Scream 3. I think that film makes my argument for me. Also The Matrix made $171 million domestic. So, if you want to believe Columbine ruined The Boondock Saints‘ chances for box office success, by all means. Go ahead.

• On the upside of things, it’s not all Duffy complaining about how poorly the film did in theaters. He mentions how ecstatic he was when The Boondock Saints became a cult hit, the idea of fans of the movie importing it from other countries just for the chance of watching it. It’s here where Duffy thanks all of the fans of the film. I borrowed my DVD from my girlfriend, Mr. Duffy, but you’re welcome.
• Duffy apologizes to the cat that gets shot in the film. I’m assuming that was all special effects, but the apology makes it questionable. About the scene, though, it was thrown in because of a relationship he had with a woman who had four cats. “This is the only scene in here that’s very self indulgent on my part.” No comment.
• Duffy recollects going to a bar with Rocco during production. There was a girl working there who Rocco really liked. As chance would have it, this girl was a huge Willem Dafoe fan, and Rocco ended up getting Dafoe into the bar. When she saw him, the girl was very excited and began asking him for an autograph. Dafoe, always the smoothie, told the girl he’d give her an autograph if it was okay with Rocco. I like this story, because I like Rocco. There’s also a story about a bunch of people from the film going paintballing.
• Duffy goes into how the script went from sitting on his computer to getting him meetings with big studios to produce it. He ran into a friend of his who was in the business who decided to take the script back with him after he had read it. According to Duffy, The Boondock Saints stood out from the hundreds of screenplays that get read every day. It really was an overnight situation. Hence the name of the documentary. “Rather than knowing some studio exec, it’s best to just trust somebody who’s smart and has your best interests at heart.”
• There was evidently a lot of ad-libbing going on during filming. “A director can have all the vision in the world, but it’s the actors that are gonna pull it off for you,” says Duffy. He realized during filming that no matter what kind of vision he had for each, particular character, it was the actors who took charge, who were so close to the character, that they molded them for themselves. Strangely enough, every character Ron Jeremy plays is a porn star. You ever notice that?
• The concept of independent filmmaking comes up again and how most of the filmmakers working today – today being the early 2000s when this commentary track was recorded – are doing it like Duffy did it on The Boondock Saints, little budget, no time, and you have to be working to get the shot at all times. Duffy notes one day where they had to get 35 setups in one day of filming, a ridiculously high number on a bigger budgeted film. He also notes the camaraderie on set and the system they had to instill that ultimately ensured completion of the film was even possible.
• The scene between Dafoe and the three cops – who Duffy refers to as The Three Stooges – assisting him in the diner was the first day of filming for Dafoe. It’s worth mentioning, because of the dynamic of the group of those four men and how it changes from their earlier scenes. They’re more disheveled and worn out from the investigation, but there’s a comfort between the three cops and Dafoe’s character.
• Il Duce’s prison number, 6570534, was Duffy’s phone number at the time. The number is not in service now.
• Duffy recalls meeting Billy Connolly for the role of Il Duce. Connolly, always the more jovial of characters, wanted to play the “baddie.” Duffy also recollects days shooting on the street where Connolly would entertain the cast, crew, and spectators with comedy bits. On more than one occasion, Duffy had to pull the comedian away from performing so he could do his scene.
• When the Saints bust into the mobster’s house, Duffy intended to have “5 to 1″ by The Doors playing. Again, $17 million. According to Duffy, “5 to 1″ fit perfectly into this scene. The length of the song ran exactly the length of the scene they had cut. Sadly, no one had $17 million laying around.
• Duffy mentions he did a “John Woo rip-off” for the shootout between the brothers and Il Duce. He liked the idea of dropping out all the sound and only having music play while so much violence and action was going on visually. He then specifies Face/Off and the “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” shootout. I don’t consider myself an expert, but John Woo had much better movies to rip off than Face/Off. Seriously, man. Throw some doves in next time.
• Duffy notes how politics didn’t keep the film out of theaters in Asia, but he more pointedly mentions the shot of Rocco’s cut off finger laying on the ground brought up a much different reaction over there. In Japan audiences laughed at the finger. In America they cringed. I’d say it has something to do with the Yakuza, but I don’t know enough about it to comment. I mean, I’m not laughing at the Yakuza. I just…best just to move on.
• The initial premise for The Boondock Saints came when Duffy and his brother, Taylor, were living in a run-down apartment complex. Duffy notes the drugs and guns that constantly came through the building and how he and his brother always fantasized about doing something about it. “Not that we’ve ever killed anybody, because we certainly have not…to the best of your knowledge.” Oh, that Troy Duffy cracks me up with his crazy antics about back in the day when he was a vigilante.
• 1:23:40 – Duffy gets angry. The comparisons made by critics and other commentators of Duffy and other directors like Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie comes up. Duffy notes that The Boondock Saints was finished before Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels hit theaters. “Tarantino’s another story,” Duffy says. He feels Tarantino “reinvented cool,” but also mentions certain elements of Pulp Fiction may have subconsciously influenced The Boondock Saints. He also notes the films Tarantino had been influenced by for his films. “So what? We’re creators. We go and do these things to the best of our ability. There are similarities, and there are differences. Everybody’s going to have their own opinion about it, but I guess it could be worse, you know?”
• The man playing the priest was an actor named Jimmy Tingle. Later in the scene where Willem Dafoe dresses as a woman, Duffy mentions the time he first showed the scene to Tingle, who said, “Oh, I know that girl. She’s from Boston.”
• The director would periodically trick his actors into getting angry for a scene. He would call them names before shooting to attain the level of anger he needed in them for the scene. So, now he’s ripping off Friedkin. Nice.
• The end credits, which lay over a series of news clips asking people about the Boondock Saints, mostly consists of Duffy just naming names. These are people you’ll never meet. These are people you’ll never think about again after watching this. I understand the director’s desire to give them all credit, but do we really want to sit through it? It’s like an acceptance speech, and not a good one. He does end up thanking the fans of the film for all their support, so you can’t say he doesn’t end on a humble note.

Best in Commentary

“When you’re doing an independent film it’s like you gotta get it. You’ve got no time. You’ve got no money. You just gotta move, move, move, move, move.”

“I’m sick of not getting my $8 worth when I go and see a flick.”

Final Thoughts

There’s a lot of up and down in the Troy Duffy commentary for The Boondock Saints. As you can see, there were 39 items to be noted. There was also a lot of name dropping – not the celebrity kind, the “Oh, there’s my best friend, Tommy” kind. That’s nothing, though, compared to the amount of time he spends simply pointing out what is going on in the film. We’re watching the film, Troy. We know what we’re seeing. He will occasionally go into some of the subtext he intends or the random story of the day they did that shot. Most of it, however, is  play-by-play.

All in all, not a bad commentary. Yes, he does dip into egotism here and there. “This is working for me” during one particular shot he liked made me flinch. But, for the most part, it could be a whole lot worse. After hearing the man speak for two hours, I understand why Miramax dropped him so hard, but I also get the idea he has the potential to grow as a filmmaker. Of course, that potential brought us Boondock Saints II, but we’ll disregard that for now.

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There are a few things you can expect from a Cameron Crowe film – beautiful people, emotional speeches, memorable quotes and moving music. Crowe’s latest film, We Bought a Zoo, has all these elements plus a score by Sigur Rós front man, Jónsi Birgisson. This choice was a bit of a departure for Crowe who usually fills his films with music from various bands, singers and songwriters and while Crowe still has songs from different artists in We Bought a Zoo (Tom Petty, Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan, to name a few), the musical focus and backbone is mainly provided by Jónsi whose music is more about the impression of sounds rather than impact of lyrics.

With a background in music, Crowe has never been one to place whichever song happens to be in the Top 40 throughout his films, instead making conscious choices in his musical selections to create films that are as memorable for their soundtracks as they are for their characters and stories. This attention to musical detail has created iconic moments such as Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) holding a boom box over his head blasting Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” in Say Anything to a road trip set to a very specific play list in Elizabethtown to a film all about the world of music in Almost Famous.

Rather than only utilize a soundtrack of bands and artists Crowe turned to Jónsi to create a score that is both ethereal and transcendent, but also rooted in the feelings and emotions classic of a Crowe soundtrack. Other than a few tracks from his solo album Go (“Boy Lilikoi,” “Sinking Friendships” and “Go Do”) and a Sigur Rós track (“Hoppípolla”), Jónsi created all new music for the film, with Crowe even jumping in to help write one of the more lyrically driven tracks, “Gathering Stories.” While this is Jónsi’s first time scoring for film, his ambient musical style is a natural fit to play behind scenes on the big screen.

The songs range from upbeat (“Go Do”) to slightly more melancholic (“Ævin Enda” and “Whole Made Of Pieces”) to hopeful (“First Day”), working to cover the range of emotions felt and dealt with throughout the film making the soundtrack not only a wonderful compilation (if you are a fan of this style of music), but also a true companion to the film. “We Bought a Zoo” even incorporates near animal-like sounds within the track, working as a nice call-back to the quieter moments in the film when you can hear the zoo and begin to understand what it means to live surrounded by all those animals.

We Bought a Zoo is a bit different from Crowe’s past endeavors and this shines through in the music as well. Still heartfelt and filled with real characters (Matt Damon’s Benjamin finally having it out with his son and Scarlett Johansson’s Kelly not suddenly forgetting about her passion for the animals in the face of new relationships), it is a story that is a bit out of the ordinary rather than one dealing with slightly more relatable subjects such as relationships (Singles) or life crises (Jerry Maguire) so these different musical choices not only fit, but also help string the narrative together.

Certainly a film’s impact is different for each person watching it and I am not proposing that everyone who goes and sees We Bought A Zoo needs to do so with Kleenex in hand, but the combination of real human moments (and some pretty adorable animals) that are hard not to care about then set to Jónsi’s transcendent tracks make it difficult to not feel at least some emotional impact. Of course Crowe and Jónsi are not the first to use music to help an audience feel certain emotions within a film (that is pretty much what music in film is there to do), but Jónsi’s unique brand of music helped to make this particular story feel almost magical. And for a story about a suddenly single father who decides to buy a zoo (I mean, a zoo) to raise his two kids on, you need to feel a little bit of magic.

This soundtrack is available through Columbia Records.

1. “Why Not?” – Jónsi
2. “Ævin Enda” – Jónsi
3. “Boy Lilikoi” – Jónsi
4. “Sun” – Jónsi
5. “Brambles” – Jónsi
6. “Sinking Friendships” – Jónsi
7. “We Bought a Zoo” – Jónsi
8. “Hoppípolla” – Sigur Rós
9. “Snærisendar” – Jónsi
10. “Sink Ships” – Jónsi
11. “Go Do” – Jónsi
12. “Whole Made Of Pieces” – Jónsi
13. “Humming” – Jónsi
14. “First Day” – Jónsi
15. “Gathering Stories” – Jónsi

What did you think of the music in We Bought a Zoo? Were you a fan of Jónsi or Sigur Rós before hearing them in this film?

The Mayans, the wise race of ancients who created hot cocoa, set December 21st, 2012 as the end date of their Calendar, which the intelligent and logical amongst us know signifies the day the world will end, presumably at 12:21:12am, Mountain Time. From now until zero date, we will explore the 50 films you need to watch before the entire world perishes. We don’t have much time, so be content, be prepared, be entertained.

The Film: A Boy and His Dog (1975)

The Plot: Vic (Don Johnson) and his telepathic dog Blood scavenge the ruins of America, eking out a simple life while hunting for food, sex, and the new American dream of not dying a horrible death after World War IV. Their journey soon leads Vic to a seemingly perfect underground society, complete with food, picnics, Americana, and ladies that don’t need to be struck on the face to sleep with you, but Blood smells something is amiss.

The Review: A Boy and his Dog is based on a short novella by Harlan Ellison and, as a film, it wasn’t all that well received, but in later years it developed a strong cult following. There are plenty of reasons to hate the film, namely that it’s alarmingly misogynistic, but much of the stuff one might hate can be loved in another light. This isn’t Schindler’s List or a serious drama meant to challenge your brain, rather it’s a smart, sarcastic look at a potential future. If you try to take this film seriously, you might be offended, but if you view it as a parody of society, it works very well.

The film is hilarious and unpredictable, one of the wackiest apocalyptic movies I can think of. Every bit of gritty grimness of Mad Max is present here, but presented in such a way that shocks and awes you while making you chuckle where you shouldn’t. Vic’s entire life is spent learning valuable life lessons from the incredibly mature Blood, while using his canine friend to hunt down females for copulation. Blood is most definitely the leader of the group and Don Johnson portrays a convincingly idiotic 18-year-old kid, lost in a lost world, but one content to live amongst the chaos. Blood, however, wants more – the Promised Land, a paradise he heard of from a police dog.

Like many post-apocalyptic films, the new world is a dangerous place, but perhaps more dangerous still are the people who want to create a safe, “new” world that clings to the ideology of the past, at any cost, which is in many ways worse than being thrown to the wild. You could easily read the 50s Americana subterranean community that clings to parades, flags, and ice cream, as some statement on conservative Americanism. Would that mean then the liberals are the above ground mutants? I don’t know.

Check your serious shoes at the door and give A Boy and his Dog a shot. It features a handsome young Don Johnson and Blood sounds like a concerned Mr. Feeny. It’s a ridiculous look at the apocalypse with one hell of an ending – just like you’ll have, on 12/21/12.

The Life Lesson: I’m going to reveal this caveat early in our Countdown to the End list – you might not actually die on December 12th. It may take several days or weeks for you to die after the world most definitely ends, during which time you may be thrust into an apocalyptic setting where dogs communicate telepathically, robots patrol the underground, and rape is the new national past time.

This is the one film that can prepare you for all of that, all while teaching you an even more important survival lesson: true friendship is one of the most important things in life. A good friend will always be there for you, will wait for you, and the woman you lust after can’t hold a candle to that.

But why spend 91 minutes watching this film when you only have 505,000 minutes left alive?

Precisely because you’re going to die in an absurd manner. I’m pretty sure the world ends when a giant dragon bird descends from space, so you might as well watch a movie about a telepathic dog that teaches you a few survival skills and teaches you that a true friend is more valuable than any brief love interest in a surprisingly poignant way.

Nearly thirteen years after The Blair Witch Project introduced the concept of “found footage” films to mainstream audiences while simultaneously harnessing the power of the burgeoning Internet to launch a massively successful viral campaign that hinged on audiences buying into the “truth” behind the film, the found fauxtage horror genre continues to chug almost unstoppably along. Unstoppably, that is, until The Devil Inside, the latest on-the-cheap pick-up from Paramount Insurge, the studio’s indie genre label formed after the massive success of the Paranormal Activity films. Like the PA films, The Devil Inside was made for little money by some scrappy filmmakers (writer Matthew Peterman and director and co-writer William Brent Bell), but unlike the PA films, The Devil Inside is almost totally void of originality, style, or even genuine scares, and we can only hope that it doesn’t spawn any of its own sequels.

The film follows twentysomething Isabella Rossi (played with reasonable pluck by Fernanda Andrade), an American whose mother (Suzan Crowley) murdered three people when she was just a tot. After the murders, Maria Rossi was sent to an asylum in Italy indefinitely, a move by the government and the Catholic church that somehow never struck Isabella as questionable or weird. The Italian shuffle makes more sense, however, when Isabella’s father finally fesses up that Maria killed those three people (all clergy-people from her own church) in the middle of an exorcism. An exorcism being performed on her. Gasp. Unfortunately, within days of her pops breaking the news, Isabella’s dad drops dead, so she does what any reasonable child of a possible demon-possessed murderer would do – she hooks up with a documentary filmmaker and heads off to Italy to uncover the secrets of both exorcism in general and her mother specifically.

If you’re wondering just how Isabella finds a documentary filmmaker (Ionut Grama, portraying every negative stereotype of a documentary filmmaker with grating and eye-popping anti-talent) or how she gets access to the “exorcism school” she goes to in Italy or how she manages to take a camera and a cameraman everywhere she goes or how she even comes to involve the two priests (Simon Quarterman and Evan Helmuth) who eventually reveal to her their on-the-side exorcism business or even really just who the hell that blind nun is that is slapped all over every bit of marketing for The Devil Inside, well, you’re out of luck. None of those questions will be answered by the film, but just about every bit of “important” information will be shoved down your throat (you can almost imagine the points in the script that are highlighted – multiple demonic possession, transference of demons, cameras in the car).

While another horror film would make up for all that shoddy plotting and characterization and exposition with, at the very least, some vaguely competent scares, The Devil Inside does no such thing. If you’ve seen a trailer or a television spot for the film, you’ve seen its every scare – and in a more well put-together fashion no less, as the film itself is crushingly boring and free of any type of terror, save the occasional (and wildly unoriginal) jump scare. A film about exorcisms and murders and demons should be jammed with fear-inducing sequences, but aside from a possessed girl who can twist her joints (if you’ve ever seen a contortionist at work, there’s not much to shock here) and a couple of moments of anticipation, there’s precious little to fear in The Devil Inside. It’s a horror film that postures as such – packed with screaming and bad fake blood and crazy eyes and flickering lights as a means to convey what should be terrifying and what is very much not.

The film also never establishes a firm style for itself – opening with police footage and news reel from the night of the murders, segueing into documentary-style interviews, before just giving way to standard found footage tropes (shaky cam! cameras somehow everywhere! running!). Whereas the faux-doc stuff has a kernel of the compelling to it, Bell and Peterman chuck that take on things pretty quickly, turning The Devil Inside into standard issue fauxtage product, a knock-off of something that was already not quite original to begin with.

Yet, worst of all, when Bell and Peterman attempt to ratchet up the intensity, their inability to write or lens a truly scary or even competent horror film becomes completely unavoidable, as the film crumbles into laughably weak plotting and dialogue. For a film about exorcisms and demonic possession, it’s boggling just how often one or more of the main characters will yell “what is happening?!” (well, probably, a demonic possession) or scream “what should we do?!” (geez, you should probably perform an exorcism). It’s as if the film’s own makers have forgotten just what they were attempting to craft – which is fortunate enough, as most filmgoers will similarly forget this dead boring, devilishly uninventive, and hellishly unoriginal film the moment they walk out of the theater.

The Upside: Somewhat well-acted by the three leads. And, yup, that’s it.

The Downside: Frequently just flat-out boring, there are no new or inventive scares, “important” bits of information are ham-fistedly announced, a number of elements don’t make a lick of sense, and it doesn’t add a damn thing to the found footage genre.

On the Side: The film’s non-ending is already getting a shocking amount of bad buzz online. Promo screenings for the film (promo meaning free) were plagued by boos from the audience, genre fans who should love stuff like this simply by design. If niche fans don’t like it, what hope does the film have? (Let’s pray for none.)