Two Big I Am Interviews with Producer/Actor Robert Fucilla

The Big I Am tells the story of a crime world underling who suddenly gets put in charge of the family.  It’s the producing debut of Robert Fucilla (Bonded by Blood, Shank) who also acts in the film.  In this interview with Screen Jabber, Fucilla discusses the notoriously disaster-laden shoot, the pressures of being a producer, and his entree into the world of acting.  If you’d like to hear his voice, he discusses a lot of the same stuff (in more detail) in this interview from the Chris and Phil Present podcast.  Interview starts at about the halfway mark.

The Big I Am also stars Leo Gregory, Vincent Regan, Michael Madsen, Steven Berkoff, and Paul Kaye.  It’s available now.

Trailer is NSFW.

Generally Meh Reviews for Role/Play

Role/Play, the new romantic comedy from writer/director Rob Williams (Make the Yuletide Gay) is getting a tepid response from critics.  In the film, a recently outed soap opera star (Steve Callahan) goes to a resort and meets a gay marriage activist (Matthew Montgomery) headed for divorce and the usual fighting with and falling for each other ensues.

eFilmCritc’s Charles Tatum gives the film two stars, stating:

“Williams’ direction is as static as his screenplay, which seems more like an aborted stage production than a filmed comedy-drama . . . Both main characters discuss the price of fame ad nauseum, and I was eventually turned off by the whining quality of some of the klunky dialogue.”

As part of a dual review with BearCity, Jonathan Youster of Sound on Sight cites both films as evidence of the sorry state of gay romantic comedies:

“However, for whatever merit they may have, the films unfortunately come wrapped in such formulaic scripts and pedestrian execution that the finished products are, at best, passable date movies, and, at worst, guilty of committing what is an unforgivable sin for any movie, gay or straight: being bland and dull.”

This Week in Texas’ Duane Simolke has kinder words for the film, saying, “Even amid the fighting, the chemistry between real-life couple Montgomery and Callahan comes through on the screen. They both work well as romantic leads,” while admitting, “In a few spots, those debates drown out the natural rhythms of story-telling, and the two lovers sound like they’re reading essays out loud, instead of carrying on a conversation.”

Oh, and it has Jim J. Bullock.

Violent Blue Interview: Director Gregory Hatanaka

Director Gregory Hatanaka’s latest film, Violent Blue, tells the twisted tale of a music school teacher (Silvia Suvadova) who is held captive by her ex-husband (Nick Mancuso). In an interview with Los Angeles Asian American Movie Examiner’s Ed Moy, Hatanaka discusses his inspiration for the film, and his attempt “to fuse the elements of an arthouse film together with that of a martial arts picture.” He also mentions casting Mancuso based, in part, on his work in Nightwing, but I’ll always remember him as Stingray. Anyone? Anyone?

Violent Blue is available now.

Glorious 39 Interviews: Bill Nighy, Romola Garai

Two curiously unedited (there are cell phone interruptions and everything) video interviews with the stars of English WWII-era thriller Glorious 39 on Tribute Movies, one with Romola Garai, who plays the lead, and one with Bill Nighy who plays her father (for the third time, by his count).  The film centers on mysterious events surrounding an upper crust British family on the eve of World War II.  The film also stars Julie Christie, Christopher Lee, David Tennant, Jeremy Northam, and Juno Temple, who plays Nighy’s daughter for only the second time here.

Watch the Bill Nighy interview.

Watch the Romola Garai interview.

Glorious 39 arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on February 15th.

Bonded By Blood: The Straight2DVD Review

Bonded by Blood chronicles the rise and fall of The Essex Boys, brutal British drug dealers who reigned over the local trade in the mid-90′s.  This is not the first time their story has been told.  Essex Boys, with a considerably higher profile cast that included Sean Bean, Alex Kingston, and Tom Wilkinson, went straight-to-DVD in the States in 2001, but if Rotten Tomatoes is any indication, this version is much, much better.

The film opens with the assassination of Darren Nicholls (Adam Deacon) who, in flashback, we see become a low level operative in the criminal underworld.  He meets two of the major players, Mickey Steele (Vincent Regan) and Patrick Tate (Tamer Hassan) in prison, and when he gets out he goes to work for Steele, who controls the ports that allow Tate and his compatriots Tony Tucker (Terry Stone) and Craig Rolfe (Neil Maskell) to import all sorts of drugs to a network of British nightclubs.  All seems well until a romantic conflict drives a wedge between Steele and an increasingly violent and unpredictable Tate.  Nothing surprising if you’ve ever seen a crime drama ensues.

Which is not to say that Bonded by Blood isn’t entertaining.  The true crime feel is palpable—an exciting, voyeruestic glimpse of the lavish-yet-grimy world of scumbags who do what they want when they want.  And the performances are all top-notch.  Hassan in particular seems to find the relish his character takes in bad behavior while still revealing glimpses of the insecurity beneath.

Sacha Bennett’s direction is kinetic without becoming unfocused, bolstered by a techno-driven, pulse-pounding soundtrack.  The screenplay, co-written by Bennet and Graeme Muir, keeps the pace moving while still taking a moment here and there to help us get to the know the men behind the brutes.

While Bonded by Blood never really elevates the genre to the levels of art mastered by Scorsese and Coppola, or even Meirelles and Audiard, it still delivers a satisfying, if by-the-numbers, retelling of a violent chapter in British criminal history.

By the way, if you have any aversion to the c-word, avoid this movie at all costs. It is repeated as much as the f-word is in Goodfellas.  It is in it so much that there is a special feature devoted to it on the DVD.  Fair warning.

Bonded by Blood arrives on DVD and iTunes on February 1st.

IFC Unveils Top 10 Straight-to-DVD Titles of 2010

Remember how I said the Straight-to-DVD Movie Awards were the only non-theatrical kudos out there? Funny story. Turns out IFC has been giving out their ten best direct-to-video picks for five years running. Here’s their latest, which features nary a U.S. title. This might not be too surprising, as the barrier for entry into the theatrical market for foreign films is higher than that for domestic flicks, meaning more good films from over there get missed than from over here. Still, we managed to make it into the honorable mentions with Searchers 2.0.

Read the full list.

I Am Coming to a Church Near You

On Sunday (10/10/10), Fox is screening the spiritual drama I Am in over 2,500 churches nationwide.  The list of churches, who were able to register to become hosts for the screenings via the film’s website, can be found here.  The film, described on the site as “most often described as a ‘Faith-based Crash‘” centers on a ten Angelinos struggling with the Ten Commandments with help from the eponymous character (Tomas Boykin), another name for God (translation of Yahweh, if you’re keeping score).  I Am arrives on DVD November 2nd.  If you can’t wait that long, find a church bookstore, they’ll be there starting October 12th.

Ip Man: The Straight2DVD Review

Ip Man tells the story of the eponymous Wing Chun master who resisted the Japanese occupation of China during World War II.  As the film begins, Ip (Donnie Yen) is already an accomplished martial artist living in Foshan, a Chinese city known for its skilled kung fu practitioners.  We are introduced to his humble personality and formidable prowess through a friendly encounter with a martial arts master looking for a sparring session and a not-so-friendly encounter with an out-of-towner looking to bully his way into opening a martial arts school in Foshan.  Neither of these episodes present Ip with challenges he can’t handle, but when Japan invades China, displacing civilians and decimating the economy, he finds himself scraping together a living to support his family just like the rest of his countrymen.  When a local Japanese general (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) sends for Chinese warriors to spar with his Japanese students, Ip declines until circumstances stir his outrage.

Yen projects a quiet stoicism in his depiction of Ip, while calling upon a seething intensity when it counts.  The supporting performances are equally solid, including Lynn Hung as his long-suffering wife, and Lam Ka-tung, a conflicted friend of Ip’s who becomes a translator for the Japanese and is accused of being a traitor by his community.

Like the somewhat similar Fearless, this story of political resistance through martial arts competition is told with economy and skill.  Director Wilson Yip (Kill Zone, Flash Point) and screenwriter Edmond Wong employ lean, mean storytelling to avoid sentimentalizing the drama.  The film also happens to be one of the best looking straight-to-DVD titles of the year.  Cinematographer Sing-Pui O draws war-torn city streets and combat rings with a painterly touch that evokes a historical document.

Tying it all together are some of the best kung fu sequences in recent memory.  Action director Sammo Hung (yes, that Sammo Hung) and martial arts coordinator Tony Leung Siu Hung create some of the most unadorned yet compelling (not to mention blisteringly fast) fight scenes of Yen’s storied career.

Ip Man is a must for all martial arts cinema enthusiasts, and worth a look for anyone interested in a little known (at least in the West) slice of history.

How a Paper Clip Led to Corbin Bernsen’s Latest Writing/Directing Gig

Remember that guy who traded up from one paper clip to a house?  Well, the penultimate step in that transfer involved a role in a feature film given out by Corbin Bernsen (in exchange for a snow globe.  The man likes his snow globes.)  Paper Clip Guy (also known as Kyle MacDonald) traded his role in Bernsen’s writer/directorial debut Donna on Demand to the town of Kipling, Saskatchewan, who gave him the house in return.  How that trade turned into Corbin Bernsen’s latest writer/directorial effort, Rust, is the subject of one of the most fascinating about pages of any film website in recent memory.  Read the whole story.

Rust tells the tale of a pastor (Bernsen) who, having lost his faith, returns to his hometown only to find that a great tragedy has been blamed on a man whom he increasingly suspects is innocent.  The film is the first release of his recently formed production company.  It arrives October 5th.

Bernsen recently wrapped his writing/directing/acting gig, 25 Hill, which features his Psych co-star Timothy Omundson.

Colin Firth, Ben Barnes Talk Dorian Gray

Here’s a ton of video from Dorian Gray, director Oliver Parker’s adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel, starring Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian) and Colin Firth.  This is Parker’s third foray into Wilde.  Previously he helmed An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest (he also directed Kenneth Branagh and Laurence Fishburne in Othello).  Film also stars Ben Chaplin and Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona).

First up, here’s an interview with the lead, Ben Barnes:

And now his co-star, Colin Firth:

Behind-the-scenes, featuring Barnes’ Stewie impersonation:

And, of course, the trailer:

Gray had a theatrical release in Britain but just this week went straight-to-DVD in the States.

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