herbiehancock

"Next" left me asking a lot of questions. First: how did they get Julianne Moore? She's totally slumming in this high-concept low-rent sci-fi Nic Flick. Five writers couldn't make sense of a premise that Philip K. Dick introduced in "The Golden Man": a guy has the power to see a few minutes into his future. Nic Cage's Frank Cadillac uses this power for a meager living as a Vegas magician. His ability is akin to keeping his thumb in the last page of a choose-your-own-adventure book. He can see what will happen, and if it doesn't work out for him, change his course of action. It's an interesting premise, but it's mostly used as a bad gag - like a series of misfired pickup lines until he gets it right. Rather than explore the positives and negatives of this limited power, writer Gary Goldman and his team turn him into a cowardly superhero. At times he's heroic - he stops a casino robbery - but mostly he's slovenly and unmotivated. A ...

There are trailers for two auto-themed sequels on the IMDb homepage right now. Guess which one looks more tolerable. Fast Five Cars 2 They may both start with the same "futuristic text" sound, but Fast Five exudes far more action, heart, thrills,  humor and charm (thanks to Luda and The Rock) than Cars 2. Cars 2 matches with almost as many guns/explosions and two unfortunately contrived potty gags. Cars was a misstep for Pixar. Cars 2 looks like a wreck.

It's time for the 3rd Annual G Dazzle Oscar Contest! Submit your predictions for the 2011 Academy Awards to win some totally (or moderately) awesome prizes and swag! To win, simply submit your answers in the comments field below for EVERY category - The winner has the most correct picks out of all 24 categories. REMEMBER: This isn't who you think should win - it's who you think will win. You don't even need to see the movies. There's no accounting for taste with the Academy! Make sure you post under a specific name ( no anonymous ) so I can contact you if you win. You can copy and paste the list below or type in your guess for each category. Answers are due by NOON , Sunday, February 27. The awards ceremony begins at 5 p.m. that day. Listen to The G Dazzle Theme Hour on KRFH.net at 5 p.m. PST for a round up of Oscar scores, songs and the year's should-have-beens. Visit the official Academy website for more information. They also have a list of the nominees and...

This up-do gets 10/10 Nics

School started and now my leisure time is slipping away faster than this bottle of wine. I'm falling behind on My Year Of Nic, but I've managed to squeeze in two Nic Flicks. 'Crazy Eyes' Leto. Lord Of War - An implausibly entertaining "biopic." LOW follows the "Blow" model of stuffing a trillion stories into one narrative. Is he a loving father, caring brother and devoted husband? Or is he a genocidal sociopath? Don't wonder. LOW is all about pretty African landscapes, Central Park skylines and badass motherf***ing weapons. I should have hated LOW, but the only truly bothersome aspect is Jared Leto. He plays a sniveling cokehead like a sniveling cokehead (he puts "Requiem For a Dream" on his resume, obviously). But it was largely enjoyable. Ethan Hawke is great and Nic makes good use of his tough-but-distant family man. Lord Of War Nics - 5/10 Rumble Fish -  OK, confession time. I have not seen "The Godfather." But am I qualif...

OK, yeah. You're reading a declared Nic Cage supporter. But "Season of the Witch,"  currently at 4% on Rotten Tomatoes , is not a 4% movie. It's sins are obvious: fuzzy CGI, hammy acting, and bad dialogue, usually culminating in atrocious one liners. But the movie is camp. It's supposed to be overacted and it's not supposed to be taken seriously. Yes, the wolves looked terrible, and the act v twist was incomprehensible, but the bridge scene felt genuinely thrilling and the landscapes were pretty. The makeup and costumes were solid. Nic's hair is good. And Ron Perlman's in it. What more do you want? Some movies rated higher than "Season of the Witch" on Rotten Tomatoes: "Gigli" - 7% "Big Momma's House 2" - 6% "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector" - 5% Oh, and " Bangkok Dangerous " - 9% No fucking way was "Bangkok Dangerous" better than "Season of the Witch." Season of the Witch ...

"Knowing" was a welcome follow-up to "Bangkok Dangerous." Not Cage's best, but a solid thriller. The philosophical scope of the picture was too high-minded, but it's a fun watch if you don't revisit plot holes. "Knowing" has the best end-of-the-world visual effects I've ever seen, primarily because they approached the scene with simplicity. Cage is good in it, if a little understated. Following a crucial discovery, Nic's character is subject to an explosive surprise, that's filmed with an impressive long shot. Knowing - 2009 6/10 Nics

I fought a strong urge to fast forward through the final act of "Bangkok Dangerous." I'm willing to sacrifice substance for style - especially for an action movie - but BK has little of either. I can't compare it to the original, Thai version, from the same directing duo, the Brothers Pang. Nic Cage plays a lifelong hit man who decides to call it quits after one last job. It's predictable, and maybe that's why the filmmakers make some bizarre choices. Cage's conscience is stirred by a romantic but sterile relationship with a Thai deaf-mute store clerk. She's remarkably adept at reading lips - in English - but the date scenes are strangely one sided. As far as action - it's rote, quiet and boring. An gondola shootout/chase on a crowded river is the only scene that has any color, tension or originality. Cage's character possesses the superhuman traits of an action hero (never getting hit by the thousands of bullets fired at him), but none of the...

A perennial sucker for year-end top ten lists, I will bombard you with a few of my own. First up: noteworthy film villains of 2010: 18. Dieter Von Cunth - "MacGruber" - Terrible name; hilarious send-up of 80s action baddies. How can you not like Val Kilmer? 17. Lotso - Don't let his looks fool you; the arch-villain of "Toy Story 3" is the most bloodcurdling of the series. The replaced and forgotten teddy bear's story is sad, his anger understandable. But his toy gulag is run without sympathy and any heart that he threatens to show is quickly snuffed. "Toy Story 3" contains one of the most tense and unforgiving scenes in any kid's movie. 15-16. Lorenzo/Sweet Tee - "Lottery Ticket" - Lorenzo's no Deebo, but he makes a good meathead bad-boy to Bow Wow's "lucky" scapegoat. But Sweet Tee's the guy that gave me chills - a too-slick fat-cat who keeps the projects under his thumb.   12-14. Boggis, Bunce and Bean ...

Aside from the illustrious webpage you're gazing at now, there are quite a few great websites for film buffs. Here are some of my favorites: IMDB is the go-to site for film information. It's almost always accurate and has great cross-referencing for the who-what-when-where's. Rotten Tomatoes is a "meta-critic" style site that aggregates professional and amateur reviewers into a nice tidy score. They have some good features and it's a great place to compare professional critics' opinions. VideoETA shows DVD release dates. It's super useful at my work and when you are holding your breath for the next season of Mad Men to come out. The AV Club is the Onion's sister publication with game, music, TV, book and movie reviews. They have cool pop culture features like their weekly "inventory" where they come up with pop culture ephemera fitting a certain theme: i.e. " 14 Cases of Actors Getting Cut Entirely From Notable Films ." Cool s...

Shane Acker's first feature, '9', set expectations high. The trailer teased a dark and adult animated world. The cast was laudable and intriguing. And Tim Burton's name was plastered all over it... As you may have realized by now, I'm not a fan of producer credits being displayed so prominently in movie marketing. Not that it's a new practice. But Tim Burton must be the most egregiously over-credited filmmaker in Hollywood. And I'm sick of it. That's a whole other column though . So does '9' live up to its premise? Unfortunately, no. For one, the voice talent is wasted. The film is light on dialogue, and it comes across as expository rather than illuminating. The actors don't have a chance to establish personalities for their characters and don't stand out, aside from Christopher Plummer as 1. (That was Martin Landau? Whaaa?!) We're thrust into the story, awakening with the title character, 9, and the film sets out to unravel the mys...

It's Friday night and you know what that means---it's time to dance! See how many of these scenes look familiar to you.

Disclaimer: I haven't cared for a Tim Burton movie since 1994's Ed Wood, which was excellent . So every new project he does puts me on edge. Which brings me to his latest project, yet another remake of a often retold and re-imagined story-- Alice in Wonderland. While I might have been excited about the prospect of TB doing this 15 years ago, it seems all too apropos for a guy who I see as creatively spent and riding the coattails of his quirky early years. What better material than Alice, right? But these early peeks look like they've just taken the same old Alice imagery and CGI-ed it up. Not that there's anything wrong with the classic blue-dress Alice or chubby-cheeked flowers, but if they couldn't find something more groundbreaking, why bother? Check out the pictures here. I think that modern Burton has more say in the production design of his films, to their detriment. Without Henry Selick (the real brains behind A Nightmare Before Christmas) and Bill Boes (who...

Anything missing?

So I'm bending the rules here, but It's been a while since I talked about filming locations. I discovered this one while at work tonight. Rhyolite, Nevada : Home of --not surprisingly-- quite a few movie scenes, most of them too obscure to mention. Rhyolite's a ghost town east of Death Valley. It's beautifully austere, or vice-versa, and I can see why it's ideal for filmmakers. I visited Rhyolite last year while traveling to Las Vegas with my Dad, so it's coincidental that it should come up tonight while watching Six-String Samurai . One of the first scenes in 6SS is shot in the old Cook Bank building, which I immediately recognized from my trip. If you've seen the film, it's the bar where "Buddy" meets the Red Elvises and fights the bowling ball gang. It's all a bit ironic because I hadn't seen 6SS since about 2000, but in the last three weeks I've come across people watching it all over the place. If you haven't seen it, it...

I can't get into most superstar actors. I can't get beyond their real life persona. Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Denzel Washington are just too damn recognizable. But once in a while an actor strikes you in the heart with an arrow that is inescapable. Nicolas Cage is the best worst actor in Hollywood. He makes it really hard for me to like him, but his Adaptations, Con Airs and Face/offs shine beyond his 8mm and Wickermans. National Treasure is good - nay - it is awesome. There, I said it.

I just read The Buzzing, by Jim Knipfel, who apparently writes a column for the NY Press. It was a Christmas gift from my Aunt who finds gently used copies of cool books at her local library for the family each gift season. It's a light, predictable read for the most part, but it suffered from one of my least favorite tendencies in entertainment that's been popular for at least 15 years now. Quentin Tarantino popularized a dialogue style that was fast and fresh, and thick with pop culture references. "Madonna" scene in Reservoir Dogs... Awesome. "Elvis vs. Beatles" in Pulp Fiction.... Good enough. But recently I've been feeling insulted by this insistence by writers to insert their personal favorite "obscure" taste into their work. That's my biggest gripe with Tarantino lately. In "Death Proof" it's all "Nice one, Zatoichi" and "Vanishing Point is the best movie ever." Barf. That kind of writing is soooo ex...

Meagan "Mego" Gonzaga! (the crowd goes apeshit!) Congratulations Meagan! You correctly guessed 15 of the 25 categories, effectively blowing the competition out of the water. Most impressive. You also got 6 of 7 of the so-called major awards, only missing Lead Actor. Your prize will be in the mail soon!

I realize that Chronicle piece I linked earlier was a travel article, but I felt like the scope of it was kind of strange. In L.A. they mention specific hotels but the only specific city in Humboldt they mention is Ferndale, which has been filmed in multiple times. I'll kick off my own list now with travel-ability considered. Owens Valley : Tons of westerns filmed here from the 20's to the 70's from most major cowboy serial stars. Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, were basically permanent residents. The Alabama Hills (pictured) rank with monument valley in iconic western locations. The Owens Valley is super gorgeous with the Sierra Nevadas to the west and the Inyo Mountains to the east. Its proximity to L.A. and rugged terrain made it a popular go-to location for Hollywood. Bogey's movie "High Sierra" was filmed in Lone Pine (located under Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous U.S.) . Filoli : Fight, love, live was the inspiration ...

Humboldt shout-out. Not a particularly exciting article ('5 California places where movies were made' might be the worst headline I've ever read) but HumCo ranks. (Also, "holy crap they shoot movies in L.A.?") Humboldt's prominence might be growing with Mary Cruse as our new film commissioner. We shall see. I'll try to make a better list in the future...