Ric Roman Waugh
is a Stunt Director by profession. And
if one were to look at his filmography in the stunt department, it is enviable
to say the least. Lets call a few names
out – Gone in 60 seconds, Last Action Hero, Total Recall (WOW!!!). He has a couple of movies to his credit as a
director but Snitch wasn’t bad at all.
Showing posts with label Barry Pepper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barry Pepper. Show all posts
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Friday, 25 January 2013
Broken City
I like Allen
Hughes. And his brother Albert
Hughes. They used to direct movies as a
pair. A pair they were. Twins you see. Their last movie was The Book of Eli. They started off with a movie called Menace
II Society. I thought Eli was an OK
movie. And I haven’t seen M II S as of
now but I have heard that is also just about OK.
So why do you think I like him?
So why do you think I like him?
Sunday, 29 April 2012
Seven Pounds
There is a terminal heart patient who answers to the call of Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson). She runs a pressed wedding card business – the one that used to be run in the days of old. The one which had to be worked upon manually to set the print or the one that is semi automatic. Machines which are over 50 years old at least. She is weak but by her own claim – and I must agree to it – used to be – unauditably hot.
Then there is a a blind man who is called Ezra (Woody Harrelson). He works at a call centre for a meat packing business but is a vegan by choice and a virgin by chance. Quite a weird combination right? And an unfortunate combination which one has to accept I guess. He likes the local waitress at a café a lot but has never gotten around to tell her that in as many words. Just doesn’t have the courage.
There is a middle aged woman who has two children – a boy and a girl. She is called Connie Tepos (Elpidia Carrillo). She is a Spanish immigrant – a legal one thought. Divorced. Her current boyfriend is a no good person. He beats her up quite often. And despite the best efforts of people close to her, she refuses to report it to the cops and get her boyfriend behind bars. Sigh. The vagaries of the female mind.
What connects these three to Ben (Will Smith) who seems to be a man on the verge of a suicide and has a past that keeps flashing through his head? Is it the car crash which seems to be a fatal one? One that obviously involving 7 people whose names he keeps calling out in absolute angst. Ben visits each one of these people, representing the Internal Revenue Services, and tries to help them in some way or the other. Connie Tepos gets his house. Emily gets a relief for her tax payments. And Ezra gets a gentle push towards that waitress of his after receiving a very rude earful from Ben.
Written by Grant Nieporte, Seven Pounds is the kind of movie I should have seen at the time of release itself. And I have no clue to how I missed it. The screenplay is written extremely well to figure out the story only towards the end. While one gets reasonable clues as regards the past, one doesn’t really get clarity on the reason for Ben’s actions till the very end. The editing by Hughes Winborne and the music by Angelo Milli create an extremely haunting aura around the movie.
Full credit to director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) for giving us another poignant and heart wrenching story that has been executed to near perfection. But be forewarned that Seven Pounds could result in a lot of exercise for the lachrymal glands. That one of the best actors of our time – Will Smith – leads the cast is just an added reason to watch the movie. I have never seen Woody Harrelson in such a helpless role ever in the recent or distant past. Everyone in the cast seems to have given the movie a 100%. Even the poor Hotel owner who has to endure Ben’s nuances and the horse (read great Dane) that Ben gets along with him for a day or 2 when Emily is at the hospital. Seven Pounds easily makes the cut to anyone’s must watch list. 7.5 on 10.
Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/
Then there is a a blind man who is called Ezra (Woody Harrelson). He works at a call centre for a meat packing business but is a vegan by choice and a virgin by chance. Quite a weird combination right? And an unfortunate combination which one has to accept I guess. He likes the local waitress at a café a lot but has never gotten around to tell her that in as many words. Just doesn’t have the courage.
There is a middle aged woman who has two children – a boy and a girl. She is called Connie Tepos (Elpidia Carrillo). She is a Spanish immigrant – a legal one thought. Divorced. Her current boyfriend is a no good person. He beats her up quite often. And despite the best efforts of people close to her, she refuses to report it to the cops and get her boyfriend behind bars. Sigh. The vagaries of the female mind.
What connects these three to Ben (Will Smith) who seems to be a man on the verge of a suicide and has a past that keeps flashing through his head? Is it the car crash which seems to be a fatal one? One that obviously involving 7 people whose names he keeps calling out in absolute angst. Ben visits each one of these people, representing the Internal Revenue Services, and tries to help them in some way or the other. Connie Tepos gets his house. Emily gets a relief for her tax payments. And Ezra gets a gentle push towards that waitress of his after receiving a very rude earful from Ben.
Written by Grant Nieporte, Seven Pounds is the kind of movie I should have seen at the time of release itself. And I have no clue to how I missed it. The screenplay is written extremely well to figure out the story only towards the end. While one gets reasonable clues as regards the past, one doesn’t really get clarity on the reason for Ben’s actions till the very end. The editing by Hughes Winborne and the music by Angelo Milli create an extremely haunting aura around the movie.
Full credit to director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) for giving us another poignant and heart wrenching story that has been executed to near perfection. But be forewarned that Seven Pounds could result in a lot of exercise for the lachrymal glands. That one of the best actors of our time – Will Smith – leads the cast is just an added reason to watch the movie. I have never seen Woody Harrelson in such a helpless role ever in the recent or distant past. Everyone in the cast seems to have given the movie a 100%. Even the poor Hotel owner who has to endure Ben’s nuances and the horse (read great Dane) that Ben gets along with him for a day or 2 when Emily is at the hospital. Seven Pounds easily makes the cut to anyone’s must watch list. 7.5 on 10.
Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/
Thursday, 3 March 2011
True Grit
Its been quite a while since I have seen an authentic western. And after Jeff Bridges got his 2nd nomination for the Oscars in as many years, I was even more keen to watch True Grit. Add to it the fact that it has been directed by Joel & Ethan Coen who have very rarely put a foot wrong in most of the movies that they have given us. The combination was sufficient to get me up @ 7 am on a Saturday morning and make it to the 9 am show @ PVR Phoenix (no they are not paying me for this…. Although I do wish they would). I have to confess that I owe all of you an apology for not having posted a review in a while. Have been bitten by the cricket bug myself and didn’t go the distance to make time for putting my thoughts down for the past 4 days. Having said that, I have finally managed to and intend to get it back on track.
It is 1880 in the WWW – Wild Wild West for the un-initiated . Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a fourteen year old who finds herself in a position that most of us would not want to. Her father has just been murdered and she has to collect the body. She may be fourteen, but she is extremely strong minded and not willing to go back till she gets to the bottom of all of this. She packs her father’s body off back home on the train with a message to her mother that she will be back soon. On finding out that her father was killed over a petty fight by a wanted outlaw Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) who is out scott free, she decides to seek justice. And justice in the WWW follows only one pattern – an eye for an eye. But she also knows that the law will take its own course. If she needs a quick decision, then she needs to find a bounty hunter or a marshall who would do it for some more money (structured corruption makes it legal ). But she doesn’t have any money left with her and so has to use her intelligent ways to wriggle her late father out of a deal that he had made with a local business man and gets enough to hire the services of Reuben J “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) who is said to be a marshall who has “True Grit”. Someone who really doesn’t care much about Outlaws and would rather the world is rid of them. He has to date taken care of 23 of them and is coincidentally being tried for them in a court of law – the WWW version of dealing with Human Rights Violation. He is quite surprised when a spirited fourteen year old approaches him with an offer of a princely sum of $50 – a lot of money at that time – and reluctantly agrees to take up the search for Tom Chaney. The kid wants to join but Rooster gives her the slip and takes off with a Texas Ranger La Beouf (Matt Damon) who is also on the lookout for Chaney for shooting a senator in Texas.
True Grit is about strong performances. You would need to listen to the dialogues extremely closely since they are all in an extremely Southern accent – any further south and it would be Spanish. For most of us, it would be extremely difficult to pick up the heavily accented speech. So listen very carefully or better still watch it somewhere that has sub titles. That however doesn’t change the fact that Jeff Bridges, Matt Daman and Hailee Steinfeld have all come up with scintillating performances to say the least. And most of all Steinfeld, who with an Oscar nomination for her performance as Mattie Ross has come into Hollywood with a bang to say the least. The confidence with which she holds her own in front of two of the best actors of our time is eerie to say the least. What a way to debut I say!!! Jeff Bridges would have picked up the Oscar this time if not for one Colin Firth and another Javier Bardem. That True Grit returned home empty handed from the Oscars can be only explained by the fact that it is a damn good movie but not the best in the 10 categories that it was nominated in. But 7.5 on 10 it is an absolutely must watch. Just watch out for the accents and the pace that could be perceived as slow by some of us.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1984862489/
It is 1880 in the WWW – Wild Wild West for the un-initiated . Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a fourteen year old who finds herself in a position that most of us would not want to. Her father has just been murdered and she has to collect the body. She may be fourteen, but she is extremely strong minded and not willing to go back till she gets to the bottom of all of this. She packs her father’s body off back home on the train with a message to her mother that she will be back soon. On finding out that her father was killed over a petty fight by a wanted outlaw Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) who is out scott free, she decides to seek justice. And justice in the WWW follows only one pattern – an eye for an eye. But she also knows that the law will take its own course. If she needs a quick decision, then she needs to find a bounty hunter or a marshall who would do it for some more money (structured corruption makes it legal ). But she doesn’t have any money left with her and so has to use her intelligent ways to wriggle her late father out of a deal that he had made with a local business man and gets enough to hire the services of Reuben J “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) who is said to be a marshall who has “True Grit”. Someone who really doesn’t care much about Outlaws and would rather the world is rid of them. He has to date taken care of 23 of them and is coincidentally being tried for them in a court of law – the WWW version of dealing with Human Rights Violation. He is quite surprised when a spirited fourteen year old approaches him with an offer of a princely sum of $50 – a lot of money at that time – and reluctantly agrees to take up the search for Tom Chaney. The kid wants to join but Rooster gives her the slip and takes off with a Texas Ranger La Beouf (Matt Damon) who is also on the lookout for Chaney for shooting a senator in Texas.
True Grit is about strong performances. You would need to listen to the dialogues extremely closely since they are all in an extremely Southern accent – any further south and it would be Spanish. For most of us, it would be extremely difficult to pick up the heavily accented speech. So listen very carefully or better still watch it somewhere that has sub titles. That however doesn’t change the fact that Jeff Bridges, Matt Daman and Hailee Steinfeld have all come up with scintillating performances to say the least. And most of all Steinfeld, who with an Oscar nomination for her performance as Mattie Ross has come into Hollywood with a bang to say the least. The confidence with which she holds her own in front of two of the best actors of our time is eerie to say the least. What a way to debut I say!!! Jeff Bridges would have picked up the Oscar this time if not for one Colin Firth and another Javier Bardem. That True Grit returned home empty handed from the Oscars can be only explained by the fact that it is a damn good movie but not the best in the 10 categories that it was nominated in. But 7.5 on 10 it is an absolutely must watch. Just watch out for the accents and the pace that could be perceived as slow by some of us.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1984862489/
Thursday, 17 February 2011
25th Hour
Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton) has lived his life with his name thanks to his mother being a huge fan of Montgomery Clift. His father James (Brian Cox) wasn’t too pleased with it but doesn’t really bother with a debate with the wife. Monty loses his mother when he is 11 years old and his dad goes into a depression that drives him to alcohol. However, Monty gets into a prestigious school on a scholarship thanks to his above average intelligence. Now it is the same above average intelligence that gets him started very early in life with drugs. We are not talking about consumption – Monty is way too smart for that. We are talking about dealing. Pressures at home are increasing continuously with Dad getting into a financial mess and Monty wants to help him out. So he chooses the easiest way out that he sees at that time. Marks the beginning of a hugely successful and profitably career as a drug dealer which gets him thrown out of school but gets him into the company of Uncle Nikolai (Levan Uchaneishvili) a Russian Drug dealer who has made New York his home and Nikolai’s henchman Kostya Novotny (Tony Siragusa).
Monty seems to be doing quite well for himself not only monetarily but also on the personal front with a very hot Puerto Rican girlfriend with an exotic name – Naturelle Riviera (Rosario Dawson – who of late hasn’t been looking too hot but was quite sizzling in 2002 I guess). He continues to be close to his bum chums Frank Xavier Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) and Jacob Elinsky (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Frank is a successful broker on wall street and Jacob is a high school teacher who is lusting for a 17 year old Mary D'Annunzio (Anna Paquin). Yep its quite a warped bunch I guess. But the story is still due. Monty gets squealed upon to the DEA who raid his house only to find a kilo of narcotics and loads of cash. They try to set him up to compromise Nikolai which Monty wriggles out of. He gets 7 years in the pound in return (surprising coz he should have got 15 for a first offence with so much of narc). He is spending his last day as a free man (didn’t know you could plan your dates for going to prison but I trust Spike Lee to have done his research. Damn convenient arrangement right?) and is tearing his hair apart to figure out who gave him away.
Spike Lee weaves a slow but intriguing story primarily focused on the emotions that Monty seems to be going through and the emotions of people who are closest to him. The fear of being beaten up in prison, being degraded to the level of someone’s bitch and a host of other worries. His doubt about Naturelle being the one who gave him away. His best friends who are caught in the conflict of being there for him through the seven years or just moving on. And most of all his dad who in the hypothetical 25th hour convinces him to run away from all of this into some remote place where he cannot be traced back to ever in his life. 25th Hour is a mélange of emotions which could have been pulled off only by a director as talented and under rated as Spike Lee. Other than the fact that it was very slow, I for one could not find out any errors in the movie per se. Maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough. The acting performances were all above par making it into a movie that more than made the cut but wasn’t too brilliant over all. I give it a 6.5 on 10. Worth a dekko when u find the time.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3350397209/
Monty seems to be doing quite well for himself not only monetarily but also on the personal front with a very hot Puerto Rican girlfriend with an exotic name – Naturelle Riviera (Rosario Dawson – who of late hasn’t been looking too hot but was quite sizzling in 2002 I guess). He continues to be close to his bum chums Frank Xavier Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) and Jacob Elinsky (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Frank is a successful broker on wall street and Jacob is a high school teacher who is lusting for a 17 year old Mary D'Annunzio (Anna Paquin). Yep its quite a warped bunch I guess. But the story is still due. Monty gets squealed upon to the DEA who raid his house only to find a kilo of narcotics and loads of cash. They try to set him up to compromise Nikolai which Monty wriggles out of. He gets 7 years in the pound in return (surprising coz he should have got 15 for a first offence with so much of narc). He is spending his last day as a free man (didn’t know you could plan your dates for going to prison but I trust Spike Lee to have done his research. Damn convenient arrangement right?) and is tearing his hair apart to figure out who gave him away.
Spike Lee weaves a slow but intriguing story primarily focused on the emotions that Monty seems to be going through and the emotions of people who are closest to him. The fear of being beaten up in prison, being degraded to the level of someone’s bitch and a host of other worries. His doubt about Naturelle being the one who gave him away. His best friends who are caught in the conflict of being there for him through the seven years or just moving on. And most of all his dad who in the hypothetical 25th hour convinces him to run away from all of this into some remote place where he cannot be traced back to ever in his life. 25th Hour is a mélange of emotions which could have been pulled off only by a director as talented and under rated as Spike Lee. Other than the fact that it was very slow, I for one could not find out any errors in the movie per se. Maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough. The acting performances were all above par making it into a movie that more than made the cut but wasn’t too brilliant over all. I give it a 6.5 on 10. Worth a dekko when u find the time.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3350397209/
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