News & Notes Inside the Week in Film

Director David R. Ellis Retrospective 1952-2012

Stop calling David R. Ellis the director of Snakes on a Plane and start calling him what he was: the most badass second unit director in Hollywood.

by Chris Neumer

Director David R. Ellis passed away this week at the age of 60.  And every story reporting this fact has had basically the same headline: Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis dies.  Every.  Single.  Story.  Reporting.  This.The articles then go on to mention two other points: 1) that Ellis also directed Shark Night 3D, Final Destination 2 and Asylum, and 2) He started his career as a stuntman before becoming a director.

Reading these write-ups, it is incredibly easy to get the impression that there is nothing particularly special about Ellis and his standing in Hollywood.  He directed several wretchedly horrible horror films and did some stunt work.  I mean, how special is that?  Frankly, with these articles, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to think that Ellis was the Brian Scalabrine of directors; a hustler without much real talent.  And this is the saddest part of it all because Ellis has been impacting movies in amazing and almost unparalleled ways for about 20 years.  He has made bad movies tolerable, good movies great and caused numerous audiences to walk out of the theater gushing about the scenes he worked on.  Why?  Because David R. Ellis is one of the most badass second unit directors ever to have graced the film industry.

Unlike, say, being one of the most badass key grips or location managers, second unit directors have a genuine impact on the way the on-screen action turns out.  The first unit handles all matters involving the stars, the second unit handles pick ups and, more notably, most major action sequences.  And it was in the latter that Ellis succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.  Think of any jaw-droppingly amazing and destructive car chase  of the last twenty years and it’s a good bet that Ellis had something to do with it.  That ambush in Clear and Present Danger?  Ellis’ handiwork.  The opening of Final Destination 2?  Ellis again.  That extended highway chase scene in The Matrix: Reloaded?  Yup, Ellis.

Ellis also had an ability and affinity for working with water.  He not only directed the second unit for Waterworld, but headed back to sea (or the water tank) a few short years to film the action sequences for both Deep Blue Sea, The Perfect Storm and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Shooting action scenes for movies is a much different beast than shooting dramatic scenes.  For safety reasons, working on action scenes is far more precise than if you’re simply filming a scene between two people talking at a coffee shop.  The workload for complex stunts also tends to increase at an exponential level.  Shoot a car crashing into a telephone pole and it’s hard.  Shoot a car crashing into a telephone pole and then getting slammed into by a semi-tractor trailer that then explodes?  Fifteen times harder.  And Ellis absolutely excelled at these sequences.  His specialized work on The Matrix: Reloaded, Waterworld and Final Destination 2 actually gave those otherwise poor or middling films talking points.

I enjoyed the technical precision of Final Destination 2’s opening car crash scene so much so that I tracked down Ellis to speak to him about it (you can read the interview here).  He was a true scholar and a gentleman.  He was eager to talk to someone in me who understood and appreciated the technical aspects of filmmaking and shined a light on several very interesting techniques that he employed to make the sequence look even better, my favorite of which was setting up a blue screen on location so that the light from that plate would exactly match the background plate’s light.

So when you read about Ellis, don’t focus on the part where he was at the helm of Snakes on the Plane, focus instead on the fact that he was one of the best second unit directors ever to work in Hollywood.  Ellis was a true film industry institution and will be sorely missed.

 

She’s the Opposite of Polish

A random assortment of connected facts and epiphanies ending in this: there is an actress with a seven letter last name that has one consonant in it: Afifi Alaouie

by Chris Neumer

One of the few jokes I know, like and can tell my mother is this: an elderly Polish man goes to the optometrist for his annual eye checkup.  The optometrist pulls down an eye chart and asks the old man to read it for him.  The old man looks at it and starts reciting, “K, R, G, Z, K, X, R, S.”  The optometrist is very impressed by this and says, “It’s fantastic that you can read that.”  The old man laughs and says, “Read it?  I know him.”

Thanks to a series of six palatalizations,* an alphabet that contains 45 characters (35 of which are consonants) and a series of linguistic rules that are completely antithetical to the rules of English, it’s not only possible for Polish words to contain a series of 8 consonants in a row, but somewhat common.  As an aside, this makes Polish an incredibly hard language for a lot of people to sound out and, as a result, there are numerous message boards where posters argue how to correctly pronounce Polish words.  I found a heated debate going on about whether the name “Szczygiel” is pronounced ‘Seagull’ or ‘Sh-Chi-giew’.  I hope it’s ‘Seagull’ because I don’t even know how to pronounce the pronounciation of the second.

* This is a complex linguistic terms that can be read about at length here.

All of this is an incredibly long-winded way of getting me to my actual point, which is that there is an actress out there whose last name is seven letters long and contains one consonant.  Say hello to Afifi Alaouie.

I first took notice of Alaouie—who is often simply credited as ‘Afifi’—in Under Siege 2.  In that film, she plays the female mercenary who shoots Steven Seagal in the shoulder with a sniper rifle.*  It was, also, Alaouie’s largest role to date.  This is particularly impressive given that I don’t believe she had any dialogue in the movie.  Of course, this is what happens when almost every character you play is listed in the cast by title, not name.  Alaouie started out as ‘Go-Go Dancer’, worked up to ‘Shay’, hit the role of ‘Female Mercenary’, ‘Amelia B’, ‘60s Model’, ‘Beautiful Woman’ and finally ‘Model’.

More impressive still, Alaouie’s on Facebook and eminently searchable.  For some reason, you just don’t think of Brad Pitt or Channing Tatum as being on Facebook, but trust me, they are.  Celebrities use gmail just like everyone else.

 

Fon Fun

You can now pay $200 to watch live TV on your phone.  Worse yet, someone, somewhere thinks this is progress.

by Chris Neumer

I happen to notice a lot of little things in everyday life that a lot of other people don’t see.  When I mention these little things in conversation—I find it interesting when companies use the copperplate font*—the people to whom I’m speaking tend to think I’m complaining.  This is a problem for me because it reduces the impact that my actual complaints have.

* The stupid person’s idea of a ‘smart’ font

It may sound extremely obvious, but technology has been improving rapidly for the last twenty years.  Things that weren’t even being dreamed of when I was in high school are now taken for granted; the concept of an iPhone was so far outside the realm of possibility in 1989, it’s scary.  In spite of this rapid progression of technology, for some reason, the screens on which people are watching things (read: movies and/or TV shows) are consistently getting smaller.

I can easily understand how having a cell phone that doesn’t weigh four pounds is an immense positive.  When I was in high school, the cell phone that I carried around was actually attached to a bag; it was very cleverly called “the bag phone”.  Suffice it to say, the phones that American radio operators used when invading Normandy Beach were smaller than the phone I utilized in 1993.  However, selling the merits of being able to watch TV on a screen that is not even two inches wide?  I cannot fathom this.  Yet this is precisely what made headlines recently.

For a roughly $200 fee, people will be able to watch live television shows on their cell phones.  Who.  The.  Hell.  Wants.  To.  Watch.  Live.  Television.  On.  Their.  Cell.  Phone?

Before you start to give me some weird scenario where someone might have no choice but to watch TV on their phone, think about this: we now have Tivo, Slingboxes and Hulu.com. Those are programs/devices/web-sites that allow a person to, deep breath, record television shows for later, watch live television on one’s laptop or watch a recent episode of a show online. I just learned that we also have an application available that allows you to program your Tivo from our cell phones.  Is there any possible reason that a sane person would pay $200 a year to get the right to watch TV on the smallest screen they could possibly find?  More to the point, how is this progress?

In the fifties, people went out to see movies on the biggest screens imaginable.  Almost-IMAX sized screens that showed the latest films in their finest form.  Now, people sit on cramped subway cars watching episodes of Modern Family and American Dad on a screen that is significantly smaller than the size of your palm.  Oh, and you have to pay $200 to watch that TV show on the miniature screen too.

The only question surrounding this product release is how prominently the copperplate font is used in the marketing campaign.

 

The Photo of the Week

Donut Sprinkles

*This* is what now constitutes sprinkles at Dunkin’ Donuts.

The 5 Things I Learned This Week

Fascinatingly true things to broaden your mind

 

1) The acronym for the European Organization for Nuclear Research is CERN.

2) The two major differences between reptiles and amphibians are: 1) when reptiles hatch, they are smaller versions of the adult while amphibians are water dependent larva; think tadpoles. And 2) reptiles have scales and amphibians have skin that is sticky or wet to the touch.

3) Brett Ratner and Roman Polanski are friends. This is one unusual pairing.

4) Vincent Gallo’s name is mentioned seven times on the DVD box for The Brown Bunny.

5) Kentucky Fried Chicken is owned by a company called Yum Brands Inc.

 

 

This Week’s Stories

New Releases

Dredd

THE PLAYERS: Starring Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, and Lena Headey; written by Alex Garland; directed by Pete Travis;  Released by Lionsgate. Rated R.

THE PLOT: A futuristic cop/judge lays down the law on a drug dealing gang.

THE SKINNY:
– Let’s look at the signs of a failure here.  September theatrical release?  Check.  A remake? Check.  A remake of a horrible Sylvester Stallone movie?  Check.  A remake of a horrible Sylvester Stallone movie that itself flopped hard when it was released?  Check.  No name lead?  Check (And yes, Karl Urban is a no name lead).
+ Dredd is a surprisingly good B-movie.
– However, Dredd is only good as a B-movie.  There are so many footnotes and asterisks necessary to recommend this film to people, it’s probably best to hire a secretary before doing so.
– This film features a crime boss, Ma-Ma, who sells the drug Slo-Mo.  Yes, Ma-Ma’s Slo-Mo.
+ The concept of Slo-Mo is a pretty damn good one, on par with the ‘drug’ in Strange Days, playback.  Slo-Mo gives its users the illusion that time is passing in slow-motion at 1% of normal speed.  This is pretty cool, even if it was just created so that director Pete Travis could have a reason to shoot lots of slow-motion action.  I can’t be the only one wanting a documentary on fake movie drugs, can I?
– Dredd reminded me of RoboCop 2 a lot more than any film ever should.

YES, IT’S TRUE: Karl Urban has never played the lead in a film that has grossed over a hundred million worldwide.

Frankenweenie

FRANKENWEENIETHE PLAYERS: Starring Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, and Guy Pearce; written by John August; directed by Tim Burton. Released by Disney. Rated PG.

THE PLOT: A young boy causes trouble when he conducts an experiment to bring his dog back to life.

THE SKINNY:
– Tim Burton’s track record hasn’t exactly been good lately.  His last three projects have been Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (as a producer), Dark Shadows and Alice in Wonderland.  Coupled with Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks!, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and you’re looking at a great visual director without a whole lot of discernment when it comes to story…
+ … But man, what a great visual director Burton is.  His movies are, dare I say, positively pretty.
+ This is an incredibly sweet story about a boy who loves his dog so much, he tries to (and succeeds) in bringing him back from the dead.
– However, people who don’t like to have dogs killed in their movies are going to have a major issue with Frankenweenie.  The titular dog, Sparky, gets killed, by my count, at least three different times.
+/- This film is black/white.
– While watching Frankenweenie, it was hard to look at the lead character, Victor, and not think of The Corpse Bride’s lead character… who was also named Victor.  In my eyes, the two looked way too much alike to not cause some level of confusion.

YES, IT’S TRUE: This is the first film Tim Burton has directed since Big Fish (2003) that hasn’t featured Johnny Depp.

Guns, Girls and Gambling

THE PLAYERS: Starring Gary Oldman, Christian Slater, and Helena Mattsson; written by and directed by Michael Winnick. Released by Universal.  Rated R.

THE PLOT: An odd assortment of characters compete to retrieve a stolen Indian artifact.

THE SKINNY:
+ It is about guns, girls and gambling.
– You can’t find a trailer for this on Imdb.com… only the complete movie.
+ This movie is about a high stakes poker tournament played by Elvis impersonators.  The impersonators include Gary Oldman, Christian Slater, Tony Cox and Chris Kattan, amongst others.  Yes, there is a black, little person Elvis impersonator.
– Slater is the film’s lead and has gotten, um, 40% more Slater-y since you last saw him.  It’s not a good thing.
– Features Dane Cook in a supporting role.
+ Helena Mattsson is 2013’s version of Natasha Henstridge.  At first I said this as a joke, then I saw that Mattsson has appeared in the Species series as well as Nikita.
+ Guns, Girls and Gambling is exactly the type of movie that it is.  This may sound both obvious and stupid, but Guns, Girls and Gambling stays true to its roots: it’s a guy’s movie with action, comedy and hot chicks making out with each other.  If Maxim made a movie featuring Slater, it’d look a lot like this film.

YES, IT’S TRUE: There are an estimated 200 million guns, 154 million women, and 1500 casinos in the United States.

Stolen

THE PLAYERS:  Starring Nicholas Cage, Malin Akerman, and Josh Lucas; written by David Guggenheim; directed by Simon West.  Released by Millennium Films.  Rated R.

THE PLOT: Recently released from jail, a thief is forced to rob a bank to pay the ransom for his kidnapped daughter.

THE SKINNY:
+ At this point in time, anything that Nicolas Cage does should qualify as performance art.  Good, bad or Bad Lieutenant, you know you’re in for a treat.  Throw in Josh Lucas doing his best-in-the-business psycho thing and Stolen has the potential to be an over-the-top gem.
– Of course, that is usually simply code for: this movie blows.
+ Not enough is made of how fucking awesome of an action director Simon West is.  Maybe he doesn’t do drama or comedy or dialogue or exposition or tell a story that well, but when it comes to blowing stuff up and people punching each other, West is the crème de la crème.
– STUDIO EXECUTIVE ONE: Hey, what if we make a movie just like Taken only we call it Nabbed?
STUDIO EXECUTIVE TWO: No, that sounds ridiculous.  Hollywood gets a bad reputation for doing stuff like that.  Not only would late night talk show hosts have a field day with that, but we’d lose even more credibility in the eyes of housewives in Iowa and deservedly so.
STUDIO EXECUTIVE ONE: What if we call it Stolen?
STUDIO EXECUTIVE TWO: Now you’re talking!

YES, IT’S TRUE: Nicolas Cage has ten films currently in pre-production stages.

 

The New Releases were written by Chris Neumer and Kevin Withers