Sir Michael Caine puts you in your place and makes you stay there

[That's 'cutlery' to you, damn Yankee]

Currently Michael Caine is known for both elevating any film which he deems worthy of his innumerable and immense talents, and as that old british guy your mom would happily bang. Lately, "any film worthy of his talents" translates to "anything Chris Nolan is directing" (trust me, I used an online translation program - it's science). But Sir Caine wasn't always so lucky. Sir Caine, back in the day, used to be like any run-of-the-mill, out of work, non-SAG actor (except British), and he took whatever job would pay his bills (including the interest on that hundred grand Tisch student loan). But don't take my word for it, take some of his. And then have a good weekend.

"I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific."
-on taking a role in Jaws: The Revenge

"I am in so many movies that are on TV at 2:00 a.m. that people think I am dead."

"The best research [for playing a drunk] is being a British actor for 20 years."

"First of all, I choose the great [roles], and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent."

What a cool old dude. They should make a movie starring Patrick Stewart, Michael Caine, and Sir Ian McKellen, and call it "Sweet Old British Dudes Bro-ing Out". Then just film the three of them getting high together by the craft-services trailer and that could be the entire movie. Genius! Green-lit bitches!

I do believe something fishy's going on here...

J.J. Abram's Fringe, like most of the things to which the maestro attaches his name, has quickly risen through the ranks to become one of my guiltiest pleasures. It's not a particularly great television show, and the pseudo-science is often utter drivel (most of the time they don't even try, i.e. deja vu is actually you experiencing an alternate universe...uh, ok, sure), but sadly it's better than most of what's currently on the tube. At the very least it's an attempt at serialization in a sea of murder-of-the-week shows.

The intro theme (composed by Mr. J.J. himself) is all kinds of great. The strange thing is – I knew I’d heard it somewhere else. So I did some serious YouTube digging and finally found this:





That’s the intro theme to the short-lived 2005 ABC series, Night Stalker, which starred that dude who’s banging Charlize Theron (and then forced her star in the eye-meltingly awful The Battle for Seattle), and the lovely Gabrielle Union. A remake of the cult classic, and run by X-Files alum Frank Spotnitz, it aired just six episodes.

Now here’s the intro to Fringe:





See any similarities? Something’s not right here people. Or maybe I'm just taking crazy pills.

The Criterion Collection strikes again

The Criterion Collection is known for plucking classic films from obscurity (films often lost or available only with terrible transfers) and transforming them into beautifully packaged (and colossally expensive) DVDs. The extras aren't just added studio advertisements but enlightening documentaries containing interviews with film historians and the films’ creators, often edited with direct input from the filmmakers. There are 3-disc editions of The Battle of Algiers and Bicycle Thieves, and FOUR disc sets for some of my personal favorites, Brazil and Seven Samurai that would take an entire day to process. They’re often stuffed with beautiful booklets, and the Criterion edition for Robert Altman’s Short Cuts includes all nine Carver short stories which inspired the film. I was looking over new Criterion releases this morning when I stumbled upon this gem –


-John Huston’s Wise Blood, which stars the super-creepy Brad Dourif. I’ve never seen the film (a well reviewed late-seventies piece, based off Flannery O’Connor’s first novel), but it’s the box art that really excited me. The artist is Josh Cochran, whose portfolio is just superb (you can find more his work, along with a post on the genesis of his Blood work at his personal site: www.johncochran.net). I love the composition and contrast for the cover, and obviously a lot people feel exactly as I do since most of the items for sale on his personal website are completely sold out.