Film Fatale

I'm not the only one who's bewildered by the criss crossing time lines (loops?) of THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and the first two TERMINATOR movies. (I guess we're supposed to put T3 out of our minds, as though it didn't happen. But it did: I saw it.)

Todd Seavey leaps into the the whole time travel issue in this timely essay. By Seavey's count,

"(ignoring comic books and other spin-off material), there have been at least three Terminator timelines (though I’m using the term “timeline” loosely, since the general implication in the Terminator universe is that there is, strictly speaking, only one timeline and that it undergoes changes.... —this all quickly gets absurd if the time travelers of 2032 have potentially unlimited power to keep going back and changing things — Terminator quickly becomes Groundhog Day, or at least becomes that bit from Family Guy where Peter keeps going back in time and screwing up his first date with Lois."

Go ahead.

Geek out with him. He's a smart guy. He's done this before with the STAR WARS films and the fictional universes of the films, tv specials and books.

I'm happily trapped in the 1970s with the time-travelling (or comatose and dreaming) hero of LIFE ON MARS.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everything that the movie DOMINO should have been, and all the bail bond parts of JACKIE BROWN -- but with tough dames instead of tough Robert Forster: that's Court TV's new reality series BOUNTY GIRLS, my new TV obsession.

How cool are these bounty hunters, the four wily Miami women of Sunshine State Bail Bonds? On their recent visit to NBC's Today show, they demonstrated the art of taking down a suspect -- or somebody who's bugging you.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 06:50 PM | Permalink

For female readers of crime fiction, there's one name who got you hooked: Nancy Drew. Sleuth (a cool word for detective). Titian haired (you had to look that one up).

A brainy girl with a keen sense of adventure -- "as sharp as Miss Marple and as brave as Emma Peel - all while navigating the perils of girlhood. For 75 years and in dozens of books, graphic novels and video games, she has never failed to crack a case or outwit a villain.

That's why casting the title role in the big-screen NANCY DREW opening Friday, was key: beyond her titian hair and penny loafers, everybody has a different idea of just who Nancy is and how she should look."

Warner Bros. new NANCY DREW (with Nickelodeon-minted starlet Emma Roberts) is fine-tuned for the 'tween girls who'd like to think they're the first to discover their crime-solving heroine, and their big sisters, moms and grandmothers who've been enjoying the books for decades. Opening this weekend against FANTASTIC FOUR: SILVER SURFER and the kickass DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE, this kind of teen-girl adventure won't be a blockbuster. But it will make a movie star out of young Roberts.

I doubt that her young fans will appreciate the comparison, but her Nancy Drew -- transported by the screenwriters from River Heights, U.S.A. to Los Angeles -- does more serious, nuts and bolts private investigating than a Raymond Chandler hero.

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 09:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thank you, David Poland and Defamer, for the video link of the week: the recorded-off-the-monitor horror movies from the set of I HEART HUCKABEES.

And you thought your workplace was stressful. Check out the quick-to-boil comments of actress Lily Tomlin, who's baffled and pissed off by the directions of screamer boss - writer/director David O. Russell (whose Mr. Spacely of Spacely Sprockets demeanor was extensively chronicled by Sharon Waxman in TK). As Mark Lisanti recalls, Russell, who'd given Waxman the run of his set, promptly went apeshit on the ace New York Times reporter when her account of the making of Huckabees appeared in a seasonal film preview issue. His main complaint was that the material would appear only in book form. As if he'd have come off better there.

While I can't help but feel sorry for everyone who's seen and heard in these clips, there's something really admirable in the way the other crew members and the three actors -- Dustin Hoffman, Mark Wahlberg, and Isabelle Huppert -- deal with what's going on.

Continue reading "How Isabelle Huppert Deals With On-Set Stress" »

Posted by Justine_FilmFatale at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)