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June 2009
Alamo honcho taps film production
The Alamo Drafthouse is getting into the producing racket — or at least the Alamo’s co-founder Tim League is. League, also co-founder of Fantastic Fest, is putting his name as executive producer on a new “slacker revenge movie” called “Red, White and Blue,” directed by Simon Rumley (“The Living and the Dead”).
The film is in production in Austin and stars Noah Taylor (“Shine,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”), Amanda Fuller (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Marc Senter (“Cabin Fever 2”).
Rumley’s film “The Living and the Dead” was a smash at Fantastic Fest, where it won five awards. Producers say to expect “Red, White and Blue” to be a deep-dish Austin effort, with favorite local spots and local extras.
They also say: “An unashamedly tough and uncompromising movie, ‘Red White & Blue’ is a fearlessly frank, gut-wrenching romance and a merciless exploration of the futility of violence. Like Rumley’s ‘The Living and the Dead’ before it, the movie — with its casual nudity and scenes of extreme violence — is no doubt destined for controversy.”
Sweet.
Senter, Rumley, Fuller, League and Taylor, posing badd-like
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Noteworthy DVDs released 6/30/09
OTHER TOP PICKS
“Lookin’ to Get Out” (Warner Bros.): Star and producer Jon Voight has championed this never-before-seen edit of the late-career comedy by Hal Ashby (“Harold & Maude,” “Being There”), swearing it restores a director’s vision badly mangled by the original distributor.
“Eastbound & Down” Season 1 & “Entourage” Season 5 (HBO): The HBO debut of love him/hate him funnyman Danny McBride’s quirky series shares a release date with the latest installment of the cable channel’s most guilty pleasure, which happily hasn’t been derailed by costar Jeremy Piven’s little sushi problem.
“Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience” (Walt Disney): The performance film from Disney’s mega-stars is available in both video formats, but only the Blu-ray version offers the theatrical 3-D experience.
NEW ON BLU-RAY
“Flawless” (Magnolia)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“Dark Streets” (Sony); “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li,” “12 Rounds” (Fox); “Two Lovers” (Magnolia)
BEST OF TV
“Ali On Ali: The Lost Interviews,” “Swiss Family Robinson” Complete Series (Image); “Apollo 11” (Acorn Media); “The IT Crowd” Season 2 (MPI); “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” Season 2 (Lions Gate); “Stargate: Atlantis” Season 5 (MGM)
DOCUMENTARIES
“Kamp Katrina” (Carnivalesque); “RiP! A Remix Manifesto” (Disinformation)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“Los Bastardos” (Kino); “Tokyo!” (Liberation)
FROM THE VAULTS
“British Cinema: Renown Pictures Crime & Noir” (VCI); “M. Butterfly” (Warner Bros.)
STRAIGHT(ISH) TO VIDEO
“The Education of Charlie Banks,” directed by Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst (Anchor Bay); “The Human Contract,” directed by Jada Pinkett Smith (Sony)
CULT CORNER
“Door Into Silence,” “Fulci Frenzy” (Severin); “Header” (Synapse); “Kaidan” (Lions Gate); “Women In Prison” (Shock-O-Rama)
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Virginia Shahan, owner of Alamo set, dies
Virginia Shahan, widow of rancher Happy Shahan, who owned the movie set called Alamo Village, has died at 93, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
Even though she became known as owner of the ranch that held the replica of the Alamo, she had lifelong ties to ranching. She was born on a ranch in Edwards County and later lived on a ranch in Kinney County, the newspaper said.
To read the rest of the obituary, follow this link:
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Ten — 10!! — best picture nominations
Writing with the terseness of bad news we wish we never heard, Variety reports this:
There will be 10 best picture nominees starting with the 82nd Oscar ceremony, skedded for March 7, at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. The announcement was made Wednesday morning at AMPAS headquarters in BevHills by Acad prez Sid Ganis. Oscar noms will be unveiled Feb. 2.
Of course, the tradition is five best picture nominees, but we think even that tidy figure is, in many years, too high. Ten nominees comically dilutes the value of a nomination by advancing a group-hug inclusiveness. Many of us at year’s end grapple with filling out our Top 10 lists, so expect some pretty iffy noms in the newly expanded pool. We smell the rank stink of marketing minds.
Thinking about this, what do you think are early contenders for best picture noms next year, especially with 10 titles allowed? Off the top of my itty-bitty head, I’m thinking “Up” (which I have yet to see), “The Hurt Locker” (the best film I’ve seen in ‘09), possibly “Star Trek” and surely “The Hangover” (we jest).
And the Oscar for Best Dumb Decision goes to …
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Coen brothers double feature on Thursday and Friday
The dark quirkiness of the Coen brothers will be on full display this week at the Paramount Theatre as its Summer Film Series shows “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski.”
“Fargo” screens at 7 p.m. Thursday and 9:50 p.m. Friday, and “The Big Lebowski” will be screening at 9:25 p.m. Thursday and 7:45 p.m. Friday.
Both are double features, so one ticket will get you both.
Tickets are $7 in advance and $8 at the door, at 713 Congress Ave.
As every Coen brothers fan knows, 1996’s “Fargo” was widely hailed upon its release, with Frances McDormand winning the Oscar for best actress and Joel and Ethan Coen taking home the original screenplay award.
McDormand stars as an intrepid police chief, Marge Gunderson, who’s investigating the arranged kidnapping of a woman by her troubled husband (William Macy). He needs the ransom money, and his wife’s father is wealthy. But the plan goes awry, and Marge is on the trail.
Two years later, the Coens released “The Big Lebowski,” which wasn’t nearly as critically acclaimed as “Fargo.” But it has gone on to become a cult film.
Jeff Bridges stars as the Dude, a Los Angeles slacker who’s the victim of mistaken identity. When some gangsters show up at his home and pee on his rug, the Dude is mightily disturbed.
After all, that rug really tied the room together.
It turns out that the gangsters had the Dude mixed up with yet another Lebowski in L.A., a millionaire far removed from the Dude’s regular bowling-alley environs. So the Dude goes to the rich guy’s home in search of restitution. In the process, he becomes mixed up in a kidnapping scheme, a few nihilists and all sorts of unsavory characters.
Bridges makes the Dude come alive, but he has plenty of help in carrying the movie from trusty sidekicks Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi).
The Coen Brothers, who rarely try to explain their movies, have actually acknowledged that this effort is an homage to classic Hollywood hard-boiled mysteries, most notably “The Big Sleep” of 1946 with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. It has about as many twists as the original, which still is regarded as a head-scratcher.
For more information, check out www.austintheatre.org.
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Noteworthy DVDs released 6/23/09
PICK OF THE WEEK
“My Dinner with Andr´” and “Last Year at Marienbad” (Criterion): Two archetypes of arthouse cinema get the Criterion treatment this week: the first, a hyper-brainy slice of urban narcissism consisting solely of two people talking; the latter, an inscrutable French puzzle-film full of ambiguous symbols, impossibly crisp visuals, and characters with names like “X” and “A.”
OTHER TOP PICKS
“Waltz With Bashir” (Sony): One of last year’s most praised films uses animation to enliven a documentary account of filmmaker Ari Folman’s experience as a soldier in Lebanon during the early ’80s.
“High Hopes” (BFS): Critics’ darling Mike Leigh made the jump from British TV productions to big screen renown with this partially improvised 1988 ensemble piece.
“Jesus’ Son” (Lions Gate): Billy Crudup stars in this 1999 adaptation of Denis Johnson’s celebrated book.
“At the Death House Door” (Facets): The latest doc from the makers of “Hoop Dreams” profiles a chaplain at the Huntsville prison who, after overseeing nearly 100 executions, became an opponent of capital punishment.
NEW ON BLU-RAY
“American Gangster,” “Casino,” “Eastern Promises” (Universal)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“The Code” (First Look); “Confessions of a Shopaholic” (Walt Disney); “Inkheart” (New Line); “Mr. Troop Mom” (Warner Bros.); “Phoebe In Wonderland” (Image); “The Pink Panther 2” (MGM)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“Diary of a Suicide” (Facets)
FROM THE VAULTS
“The Don Is Dead,” 1973, starring Anthony Quinn (Universal)
DOCUMENTARIES
“Fema City” (Vanguard); “Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine” (Zeitgeist); “Our City Dreams” (First Run Pictures); “Pick Up The Mic” (Chicago Independent)
CULT CORNER
“Monster Squad,” the goofy ’70s TV show (Virgil Films)
KIDS’ STUFF
“Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection” (Warner Bros.)
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Open letter from Richard Linklater
Rick Linklater has posted an open letter at the Austin Film Society site, which you can read HERE.
It concerns the Austin Studios and the small donnybrook brewing about THIS ISSUE.
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Adrianne Palicki, ‘Drake & Josh’ actor, join ‘Red Dawn’ remake
Peck plays the Charlie Sheen role while statuesque Palicki steps into Jennifer Grey’s (likely smaller) shoes.
The movie’s due out Sept. 24, 2010.
WOLVERINES!
(Photo by Omar L. Gallaga, AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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New Central Texas rep named for TXMPA
Local producer, filmmaker and ubiquitous film guy about town Paul Alvarado-Dykstra has been elected the new Central Texas Representative of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance for the period of 2009 — 2011.
Shelly Schriber was elected as Alvarado-Dykstra’s Alternate, he tells us.
Congrats to both. More about Paul right HERE.
Paul Alvarado-Dykstra
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Noteworthy DVDs released 6/16/09
TOP PICKS
“The Diary of Anne Frank” (Fox): The grade-school literary fave got a ’50s movie adaptation courtesy of director George Stevens, who was then fresh from “Shane” and “Giant.”
“The Seventh Seal,” “Bergman Island” (Criterion): Criterion reissues one of the first titles they put on DVD, with both a two-disc standard DVD and a very welcome Blu-ray; “Island,” a recent doc, is available packaged with the reissue or as a standalone disc.
“Strange One” (Sony): The feature-film debut of Ben Gazzara, set in a military school, is remembered for homosexual overtones considered quite daring in 1957.
“My Breakfast with Blassie” (MVD): Beating Criterion’s “My Dinner With André” into stores by a week, this cult favorite finds Andy Kaufman hanging out in a diner with pro wrestler Classy Freddie Blassie. No Algonquin references here, folks, but plenty of bizarro energy.
“Scott Walker: 30th Century Man” (Oscilloscope): One of pop music’s great mysterious introverts gets his documentary due.
NEW ON BLU-RAY
“Dr. Strangelove,” Ghostbusters” (Sony); “Generation Kill,” “John Adams” (HBO); “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” “Lost” Seasons 1 and 2, “Miracle” (Walt Disney); “Kickboxer” (Lions Gate); “Spaceballs” (MGM); Three “Visions of…” titles, focused on France, Italy and the British Isles (Acorn Media)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail” (Lions Gate); “What Goes Up” (Sony)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“L’Important C’Est D’Aimer” (Mondo Vision)
DOCUMENTARIES
“Morning Light” (Walt Disney); “Nerdcore Rising” (Virgil Films)
BEST OF TV
“Burn Notice” Season 2, “Family Guy” Season 7, “Saving Grace” Season 2 (Fox); “Everwood” Season 2, “Tom and Jerry’s Greatest Chases, Vol. 2” (Warner Bros.); “House of Payne” Season 4 (Lions Gate); Four “Nature” titles: “America,” “Kilauea - Mountain of Fire,” “The Dragon Chronicles,” “The Wolf That Changed America” (Questar); “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” Season 2 (Walt Disney); “The Three Stooges Collection” (1949-1951) (Sony); “Transformers” Season 1 (Shout! Factory)
REISSUE/REPACKAGE
“Essential Art House Vol. 3” (Criterion); Four “Friday the 13th” flicks, including “A New Beginning,” “Jason Lives,” “The Final Chapter,” and this year’s remake.
STRAIGHT(ISH) TO VIDEO
“Body Armour” (Image); “The Cell 2” (New Line)
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New tenant at Austin Studios raises eyebrows
Austin Studios is glowing about its possible new tenant Soundcheck Austin, which is in negotiations to ink a five-year lease on Stage 4. Soundcheck Austin specializes in ” full production rehearsal, tour prep services, set and equipment storage, cartage and backline” for bands.
Not everyone is so sanguine about it, despite the fact that the Studios need the business badly during a harsh filmmaking drought.
“In recent days the Austin Film Society has learned that this move has brought consternation to members of the local film community, from UPMs to craft guild members,” say Studio honchos.
“The concern we hear is that now that film incentives are in place, Austin’s film crew is finally going to get some business, only to lose a key facility that gives Austin a competitive edge when fighting for business, and makes it a pleasure to film in Austin.”
Ergo, they are holding an open forum from 11 a.m. to noon Thursday, June 25 at the Austin Film Society/Austin Studios campus, 1901 E. 51st St. (Phone: 322-0145)
RSVP for the forum HERE.
Read the Film Society’s FAQ about Soundcheck Austin HERE.
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A Texas indie wants your vote
It’s always nice to champion homegrown talent, so go vote now for Texas filmmaker Robbie Pickering’s movie “Natural Selection” in the Netflix Find Your Voice Film Competition.
Contestants have posted three-minute clips of their projects, and you can vote by going to the site and watching Pickering’s clip. Ten clips have been selected as semi-finalists. The winner gets more than $350,000 to finish their feature film.
“Natural Selection” — starring lanky DJ Qualls and produced by Paul Jensen and Brion Hambel — is the only Texas flick in the bunch.
The top five vote-getters move to the finals and are then judged by the likes of Josh Brolin and John Sayles for the big prize.
View and vote right HERE.
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48-Hour Film Project ready to roll
You get two days. To make one movie. Two days.
That’d be the now legendary 48-Hour Film Project, presented by Austin’s beloved Reel Women and happening the weekend of June 19 — 21. This is the eighth year RW is sponsoring the now global event.
They’re expecting 36 teams to compete, so enroll now right HERE. There you can also learn rules and details about the contest, in which filmmakers write, shoot, edit and score a short in 48 hours.
In other film contest news, Austin filmmakers Bradley Jackson, Russell Groves and Andrew Lee are vying for a $100,000 grand prize in the Doorpost Film Project, having advanced to the final round.
Their comedy “The Biggest Weakness” — which you can watch HERE — garnered enough votes from industry pros and interested Web viewers to move to the finals, one of 10 finalists out of 100 selected films.
More about Doorpost HERE.
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Noteworthy DVDs released 6/9/09
PICK OF THE WEEK
“Woodstock” Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner Bros.): You can’t get the whole “3 Days of Peace and Music” on home video, but a four-hour cut of the famous concert film should last you a while. This new version offers 18 new live performances, including material from the Grateful Dead, who unbelievably were not included in the original film. Also available on Blu-ray.
OTHER TOP PICKS
“Crawford” (Virgil Films): David Modigliani’s doc about Dubya’s briefly adopted hometown gets wider distribution this week, thanks to the company that just released Richard Linklater’s “Inning By Inning.”
“Gran Torino” (Warner Bros.): Clint Eastwood directs himself in what is reportedly to be his final acting role — that of a edgy old dude quick to point guns at people. It’s a stretch.
“The Jack Lemmon Film Collection” (Sony): A handful of lesser-known Lemmons, including: “Phffft!,” “Operation Mad Ball,” “The Notorious Landlady,” “Under the Yum Yum Tree,” and “Good Neighbor Sam”
NEW ON BLU-RAY
“Fatal Attraction,” “Indecent Proposal” (Paramount); “Predator 2,” “The Siege” (Fox)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“Fired Up,” “The International” (Sony)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“Goddess” (Image)
DOCUMENTARIES
“Home” (2009) (Fox)
BEST OF TV
“The Cleaner” Season 1, “Perry Mason” Season 4, Vol. 1 (Paramount); “Father Knows Best” Season 3 (Shout! Factory); “The Norman Lear Collection,” “The Shield” Season 7 (Sony); “Open All Hours” Complete Series (BBC); “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Best-of (Warner Bros.); “Z Rock” (Anchor Bay)
STRAIGHT(ISH) TO VIDEO
Harrison Ford and Ashley Judd in “Crossing Over” (Weinstein Co.); Alan Rickman in “Nobel Son” (Fox); Ray Liotta and Forest Whitaker in “Powder Blue” (Image); Sarah Jessica-Parker and Beau Bridges in “Spinning Into Butter” (Universal)
KIDS’ STUFF
“Bob the Builder: Truck Teamwork,” “Care Bears: Tell-Tale Tummies” (Lions Gate); “Wonder Pets!: Ollie’s Slumber Party” (Paramount); “Shaun the Sheep: Sheep on the Loose” (Lions Gate)
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It’s tacky and tacky. Also: It’s tacky.
This press release just shambled, stupidly, across our desk:
“Shaolin Cardio Kick Boxing” Workout Starring Legendary Actor and Martial Arts Expert David Carradine Coming to DVD for the First Time on Sept. 8, 2009
(MMD Newswire) June 8, 2009 — A martial arts based workout featuring Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor David Carradine entitled “David Carradine’s Shaolin Cardio Kick Boxing is coming to DVD for the first time through BayView Entertainment. Martial Arts expert Carradine utilizes the natural, simple, and graceful movements of the Shaolin Five Animals into a cardio workout routine that thoroughly strengthens the entire body. The DVD has a suggested retail price of $19.99 and will be available in stores throughout the country …
Man dies, cash register ca-chings.
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What I’m watching
Wherein our movie critic periodically shares what DVDs he’s been viewing in his spare time …
- “The Strange One” (1957; Jack Garfein): Most notable for being the first film of both Ben Gazzara and George Peppard, this offbeat drama has Gazzara playing a raging jerk in a Southern military academy, who takes his malicious hazing of underclassmen too far. It’s based on Calder Willingham’s play, and feels stagy and literary. It’s fascinating and frustrating, mostly for Gazzara’s compellingly obnoxious performance. Newly out on DVD.
- “Galaxy Quest” (1999; Dean Parisot): A small cult of fans has bloomed around this novel comedy, which shows what happens when the cast of a “Star Trek”-like TV show is mistaken for real space cowboys by admiring aliens. As the head of the cast — the Cptn. Kirk role — Tim Allen is surprisingly smooth and funny. For some of us, he’s a revelation. He can act! (For more on this note, see David Mamet’s “Red Belt.” Allen is terrific.) A pleasant, inventive diversion.
- “My Dinner with Andre” (1981; Louis Malle): Two smart guys having dinner for almost two hours. Talking. The whole time. About themselves. This impossibly eccentric classic of arthouse cinema, starring Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, is a small miracle. It tinkles with insights about art and life and being. With Louis Malle’s silky, invisible direction and Gregory’s plummy tones, it puts you under its logorrheic spell. Now out on a two-disc set from the Criterion Collection.
“Story of Women” (1988; Claude Chabrol): The fine Isabelle Huppert plays an illegal, back-room abortionist in Occupied France during WWII. As much a portrait of a woman forced to compromise herself in dire times, Chabrol’s film, based on actual events, is a condemnation of the Nazi regime specifically and benighted minds in general.
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‘Order of Myths’ at iTunes
“The Order of Myths” by part-time Austin filmmaker Margaret Brown is now available at iTunes for rental or purchase. The acclaimed documentary, which won an Independent Spirit Award and heaps of praise, looks at racial divisions during Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. Find it HERE.
Movies pop out of Texas as from a jack-in-the-box, and the tiny-budget, Texas-made comedy “Funny Books” is one you might’ve missed in the flurry.
No more. Set in a comic book shop and made by UT grads, “Funny Books” gets a special screening at 8 p.m. June 26 at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex (1156 Hargrave St.).
Producer Twitchy Dolphin Flix (fine name, that) calls its second feature a “comedy told by comic fans for comic fans and non-fans alike. The movie features a cast of four-color characters as they navigate the outrageous customers and hilarious situations found on any given Wednesday in the friendly, neighborhood comic store.”
Sounds rather “Clerks”-y.
Get tickets and watch the film’s trailer HERE.
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Local director makes film that ‘Matters’
Austin filmmaker Angela Torres Camarena’s short film is only one of 12 that’s been picked for the ninth annual Media That Matters Film Festival. The New York-based fest “showcases short films that inspire audiences to think, laugh and take action on today’s most pressing social issues.”
Camarena’s film chronicles the struggles of five siblings in America after their mother is deported to Mexico. Watch it HERE.
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David Carradine dies
More obit here.
Here’s my interview with Carradine from the set of the Austin-made comedy “Homo Erectus” (which has since been renamed “Stoned Age”). It took place in November 2005.
David Carradine has long skinny legs that are stretched out like bamboo poles, naked, knobby, porpoise-smooth. They are exposed from the ankle to way up the thigh, several unsettling inches past the tan line to scary areas that make one’s eyes avert in a violent spasm. He looks supremely relaxed and casual, sunk deep in a chair with those bare legs leveled at the floor, elbow propped on an arm rest to keep the cigarette in his fingers close to his faintly duckish lips.
“This is only half of it,” Carradine says with a swell of pride. “I throw fur on top of it all.” He points to a heap of fake black fur on the floor of his actor’s trailer, which rests on the magnificently dusty moonscape of a limestone quarry in North Austin. Scenes from the movie “Homo Erectus” are being shot here, one of the film’s many locations, including Hamilton Pool and Enchanted Rock, that suggests prehistoric landscapes. (A limestone quarry? How very “Flintstones.”)
“And in the movie my hair is sticking straight up like this,” says Carradine, teasing out long, wild gray-blond strands to make a static-electric blast. “Out to here.”
What are you going to do when playing a caveman but go with it? Carradine seems to be having fun with the role of Mookoo, the blustering chief of his cave tribe. His son Ishbo, who is goading his species to evolve, is played by a Woody Allenish Adam Rifkin, the film’s writer and director. Talia Shire plays Carradine’s cave-wife and Ali Larter (“Legally Blonde”) plays Rifkin’s elusive dream girl. “Homo Erectus” is the third low-budget feature produced by the University of Texas Film Institute and its for-profit arm, Burnt Orange Productions.
Carradine’s last major role was the title villain in Quentin Tarantino’s martial-arts revenge opus “Kill Bill,” the success of which hurled the actor back into public view after a disappearance that seemed to have lasted decades. Actually, it did last decades. His most recent watchable film before “Kill Bill” was the Jesse James western “The Long Riders,” co-starring his brothers Keith and Robert. That was 1980.
“Playing in ‘Kill Bill’ helped,” Carradine says. “Up until then everyone was saying ‘Grasshopper.’ Now everyone says ‘Bill.’ “
Climbing into Carradine’s trailer, one is swallowed in a rich fog from his English Ovals, fancy, filterless cigarettes he lights the way some people pop peanuts. He has the grainy rasp and paper-bag flesh of a smoker and the gruff pluck of someone turning 69 on Thursday.
“He’s so fit!” says Carolyn Pfeiffer, head of Burnt Orange, on the set of “Homo Erectus.” “He’s doing lots of action scenes. Right now they’re shooting a battle. I wish I knew his secret.”
Carradine doesn’t rise or offer a hand when a visitor enters. He produces a flask from a leather satchel, takes a quick nip, puts it back. Smoke twists from his mouth and nostrils.
He took the caveman movie because he didn’t have anything else to do. Script unseen, he accepted the part, saying “Why not?” Eventually, he read Rifkin’s screenplay.
“It’s genius. It’s half-way between Monty Python and Quentin Tarantino,” Carradine says. “It’s full of philosophy while being funny.”
Gazing over Carradine’s extensive career in B bilge and drive-in titillations, it’s apparent the actor might take a lot of roles before reading the script. A magazine once dubbed him the “Most Working Actor in the Universe” because he made 19 movies in 18 months. “Actually,” Carradine says, “they missed a couple.”
Like Michael Caine if he made mostly genre and exploitation flicks, Carradine can’t say no. A dependable character actor, much like his famous father John, Carradine loves to work, and needs the money. He knows he’s made irrevocable rubbish. Many of his movies are exiled straight to cable and video.
But there have been significant movies. He was the lead in Martin Scorsese’s 1972 Hollywood debut “Boxcar Bertha,” played Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby’s “Bound for Glory” and co-starred in Roger Corman’s cult favorite “Death Race 2000.”
“I have made 112 feature movies,” Carradine says. “Some of them were great and some were phenomenal: ‘Bound for Glory,’ ‘The Long Riders.’ What about the one I did for Ingmar Bergman (‘The Serpent’s Egg’)? What other American actor can say they starred in a Bergman film?
“I always thought I should do everything,” including keeping up his longtime roots-rock band Soul Dogs, he says. “But you do movies that are straight to video, the studios don’t want you. So I’ve always been catch as catch can. I’ve turned down stuff that is odious to me. But if it’s at all interesting I tend to do it. It’s not always about the money. I just like to work.”
But sometimes it is about the money.
“I went through a period when I was trying to get out of a hassle with the IRS, and I said the way I’m going to do it is by taking every role and make enough money to pay them off,” he says. “It didn’t work. I’ve just about got rid of them.”
Despite “low-tide moments,” Carradine kept working. “I thought, What am I going to do to get out of this? I’m going to wind up like Zsa Zsa Gabor.”
Eventually Tarantino, known to revive atrophied careers, wrote a prime piece for Carradine, whom Tarantino plainly idolized. “Kill Bill” sparked Carradine’s comeback. “Homo Erectus,” he hopes, will fuel the momentum.
“This is going to be a very hot little movie. It’s really cheap but we’re doing it right. It’s going to look like it cost a lot more than it did. And I managed to get paid pretty well,” he says.
“I mean, hey, I’m living in a big house with a lot of land around it. I have a clay tennis court. I’m driving a Ferrari. I have no complaints whatsoever.”
He crosses his naked legs. Smoke seeps from a grin.
“I think people have woken up to the fact that I’m still around and that I can still kick (bleep).”
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We got ‘Lost’ at the Alamo last night
Harry Knowles and the Ain’t-It-Cool-News crew threw a “Land of the Lost” bash Tuesday night at the Alamo South, and brought in director Brad Siberling, composer Michael Giacchino and half of the legendary kids-show team, Marty Krofft.
Knowles and the audience asked them questions for about 25 minutes before the screening, then the film’s stars Will Ferrell and Danny McBride provided a funny video introduction addressed to the special Austin premiere.
They apologized for not being there, then took it back, expressing relief at not having to schlep all the way to Austin. Ferrell referred to the audience as “Ain’t-It-Coolios” and mocked Siberling and pals for “kissing the (blank)” of Knowles, that “red-haired geek bastard.”
The movie? Oh. It sucked.
They said no cameras were allowed, so I have no photos of the event, though I took some afterward of other singular elements of the evening.
The special (and delicious) Alamo menu — which will be integrated into the regular menu, I’m told — featured Fried Sleestak with Chaka Sauce (amazingly yummy fried beer-battered alligator pieces with green curry dipping sauce); Prime-ate Ribs (grilled baby back ribs with an Altrusian pineapple glaze); Grumpy Wings (chicken wings with a hot and spicy T-rex bite); and Pterodactyl Eggs (cream cheese-filled deep fried jalapeno peppers). Plus, drink specials included the Chaka-tini (a tart mix of 42 Below Kiwifruit vodka, limoncello and melon liqueur).
Attendees also received a free Chaka backpack that, in its freakish hideousness, is inappropriate for adults and children:
Be afraid. Completely, entirely horrified …
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Noteworthy DVDs released 6/2/09
PICK OF THE WEEK
“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” (New Video): Okay, it’s not a full-length feature, but this goofy riff on superheroes and supervillans — with some pretty great show tunes thrown in for fun — is a cult favorite more worthwhile than many of creator Joss Whedon’s more famous shows.
OTHER TOP PICKS
“Nature’s Most Amazing Events” (BBC): For the surprising number of “Planet Earth” addicts out there, BBC offers this nature’s-splendors follow-up, complete with plummy narration by David Attenborough and high-def visuals.
“Revolutionary Road” (Paramount): The feel-bad movie of last year, this difficult but worthwhile tale of marital strife is enough to erase nostalgic memories of Kate and Leo in “Titanic.”
“Eddie Murphy: Delirious” (Anchor Bay): Remember when Eddie Murphy was hilarious, and anything but safe for a family film? Here’s proof you didn’t invent those memories.
NEW ON BLU-RAY
“Air Force One,” “Glory” (Sony); “Bruce Almighty,” “Fletch” (Universal); “Dark Blue,” “Roadhouse,” “To Live and Die In L.A.” (MGM)
FRESH FROM THE MULTIPLEX
“Defiance” (Paramount); “He’s Just Not That Into You” (New Line); “The International” (Sony); “Spring Breakdown” (Warner Bros.)
ARTHOUSE/FOREIGN
“Henry Hills: Selected Films (1977-2008)” (Tzadik)
DOCUMENTARIES
“Ernesto Che Guevara: The Bolivian Diary” (Alive Mind); “Fillmore: The Last Days” (Rhino); “Inning By Inning: A Portrait of a Coach” (Virgil Films)
BEST OF TV
“The Complete Abbott and Costello Show” (Passport Video); “Highlander: The Animated Series” Complete Series (Image); “Prison Break” Final Season (Fox); “Quincy, M.E.” Season 3 (Universal); “Sesame Street: Elmo and Abby’s Birthday Fun” (Genius); “Weeds” Season 4 (Lions Gate)
CULT CORNER
“Drive-In Classics Collection” (Image); “Grindhouse Double Feature: Punk Rock / Pleasure Palace” (Secret Key); “Shaw Bros. Legendary Heroes” (Image); “Shinobi No Mono 4: Siege” (AnimEigo)
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