The Running Man (2025)

The new Running Man, is not a remake pre se of the Ahnuld 1987 vehicle, but a more faithful adaptation of Stephen King as Richard Bachman novel, written in 1973, published in 1982. That novel happened in the year 2025 and actually today it happens, with the Squid Game series and a Korean Reality show named exactly Running Man. So Ben Richards is in a banal world, becoming more real every day. I mean, it's like Y-day news after the Hunger Games series and all the Tv/straming fare of this kind. 

Running man is of course influenced by Rollerball, which still stands up as one of the best film of its era (not the shitty unnecesaary reamke) it's even worse tha n its remake.

Everyone's commenting, oh, it's an Edgar Wright film. Ok, that is like a certified value for a big budget blockbuster Sf action  (110 mill. $). surely not. I was also very dispointed by Lst Night in Soho, his take in gialllos, very pretentios and shallow. The most action Wright directed was in Baby Driver, which I enjoyed most of his all films, and he's better in making quirky, funny, heartfelt little films, not Hollywood fodder.

Also Glen Powell, which I've just seen in the lastest SNL edition, can't carry the film., at all. Not a problem with the guy and he tries hard but neh.

This would've worked as a Snake Plissken adventure, like Escape fromn the Dome. I guess Wright gave a few nods to John Carpenter. 

There's also a problem with the duration which is overlong, 2h13 min, oi, the film doesn't start until we get to the show and no matter how good Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo are, they can't help much.

Also this world, used and dirty, used to cost less to produce on the screen. Here they went to Bulgaria for exteriors and day shots. Somehow doesn't look like America. The rest of it was hot at Warner Bros' studios in England.

Now for the music, unimpressive loud score by Steven Price. And as Edgar Wright ia great fan of songs to use on the soundtrack (yeah, great in Baby Driver), here most of them are wasted. Rolling Stones'  Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Sly and the Family Stone (Underdog)-on the main credits, Iggy and the Stooges (Search and Destroy), The Allman Brothers (Revival) , Miles Davis (Red China Blues) and Tom Jones (Keep on Running) on the end credits. Including a riff of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (last heard appropiately in One Battle After Another). And Jamie XX, far from my desk ;)

It's been Stephen King's year all over, from Life of Chuck to Welcome to Derry, the IT prequel that runs now on HBO MAX, MGM's The Institute series, passing through The Monkey and another Bachman opus, The Long Walk (which I liked best of these all, my review here). 

Wright's film is full of King references /Easter eggs for the eyes of King's fans and King himself, credited as an executive producer. Of course King was happy with the film, as I know his tastes in film (ex: how much he hated Kubrick's The Shining and managed to to a sequel just to get rid of that Kubrick hangover, I don't care so much about what he likes or does not cinematically...hey, what about that Maximum Overdrive? 

2 1/2 out of 5 

*I opened recently a Letterboxed account in order to write down the films I see which I hardly can here, and my "reARviews" will be isssued there. Same ratings apply. 

Todd Sharpville @Transilvania Blues Nights 14.11.25

 Communique:

Todd Sharpville se află în prima linie a scenei britanice de blues de peste 30 de ani.

Primul său album, Touch Of Your Love, a fost lansat în 1992 la Red Lightnin Records,

câștigând premiile „Cel mai bun album” și „Cel mai bun chitarist” la British Blues

Awards — o dublă distincție care a marcat începutul unei cariere internaționale

impresionante. De atunci, Todd și trupa sa au concertat în majoritatea cluburilor și

festivalurilor de blues din întreaga lume. A cântat și a înregistrat alături de artiști

legendari precum Hubert Sumlin, Joe Louis Walker, Ike Turner, Bill Wyman și Roger

Daltrey. Este recunoscut pentru tonul cald, rafinat, și pentru abordarea sa elegantă,

moștenită de la maeștri precum B.B. King și Peter Green. Printre momentele de

referință ale carierei sale se numără colaborările și jam session-urile cu Taj Mahal,

Peter Green, Little Milton, Lonnie Brooks, Duke Robillard, Little Charlie Baty, Derek

Trucks & Susan Tedeschi, Branford Marsalis, Anson Funderburgh, Lonnie Mack,

Ronnie Earl, Buckwheat Zydeco și Terence Simien.

Între 2005 și 2007, Todd Sharpville a fost invitatul special în turneele europene ale lui

Joe Cocker și Pink, deschizând totodată ultima seară a turneului de adio al lui B.B.

King la D’Coq Arena, în Luxemburg. Albumul său recent, Medication Time, a fost

lăudat de criticii britanici pentru profunzimea emoțională și maturitatea compoziției.

Un concert-eveniment în premieră națională și la Brașov, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights.

B. There & Let There B. Blues!

Un eveniment marca Transilvania Blues Nights recomandat de Rock FM și Zile și Nopți.

Sponsori: BCR, ButanGas, Dräxlmaier, Tehnic Mihor BitDatamining, Aplind

Parteneri de ospitalitate: A-Ha Bistro, Coliba Haiducilor, Brașov Old Town Apartments

14 noiembrie 2025 | ora 20:00, open doors 18:00 | Transilvania Blues Nights /Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov

 Bilete: pre-sale 120 lei până în data de 13.11.2025 | 150 lei în ziua concertului

Informații și bilete: https://www.transilvaniablues.ro/events/

Facebook event: Todd Sharpville @ Transilvania Blues Nights

*****

despre concert podcast cu Ionut Russu aici: 

Warren Zevon in the RnR Hall of Fame

 Vera Cruz was dying,,,,

finally Warren is in the rocknroll hall of fame

thanx to David Lettermann 

and to Hank Moody ;)

I love my main man beyond all BS

they did a great concert in LA to remember him, all them friends were there

The Killers played Warren's hit, Lawyers, Guns and Money

RIP Lee Tamahori

Lee Tamahori , rose to the film industry in New Zeeland, from photohrapher, to boom and sound, to tv director, gritty cult fame with Once Were Warriors in 1994...

They called him to Hollywood where he became the director of the worst James Bond in history, Die Another Day (2002).

Mullholand Falls, his neo-noir was a flop but it's worth rewatching. 

Lee Tamahori (1950 - 2025)

RIP Jack De Johnette

Jack De Johnette was one of the greatests of Jazz. Brilliant drummer and pianist, played with Miles Davis (Bitches Brew and live LPs). He was 83. 

Played in Romania at Sala Radio in Bucharest in 2016 as a trio with Ravi Coltrane on sax and Bill Garrison on bass. That same year he played also Garana Jazz Festival in the same lineup.

obit in The Guardian here 

"I think playing with Miles, with Dave Holland, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter was a very exciting period. We always couldn’t wait to get on the bandstand to see what kind of mischief we could get into.”

RIP Ace Frehley

 Ace was one of the original KISS members, left the band early, gifted guitarist, a real Ace...

He was 74...

RIP Drew Struzan

Drew Struzan, the man who designed some of the most iconic posters in the history of Movieland, for over 150 films. From the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series to Blade Runner, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and Back to the Future in the 80's, then over a new generation of filmmakers-Tim Burton-Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks, Frank Darabont-The Shawnshank Redemption, The Mist (David's paintings), The Green Mile, Guillermo Del Toro-Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth- has passed away on Oct. 13th. He was 78...

Note (grazie, LD): Legendary Italian poster art maestro Renato Casaro died on Sept. 30 at 89...He did the posters for the Leone spaghetti westerns, up to Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian (as they were Dino de Laurentiis productions). He retired in 1998 but came back in 2019, called by Quentin Tarantino to realize some "old school illustrated Western posters" ("Uccidimi Subito Ringo, disse il Gringo" aka "Kill Me Now Ringo, Said The Gringo", and "Nebraska Jim") for Italian films starring Rick Dalton, the character Leonardo DiCaprio plays in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

Struzan and Casaro have even a poster in common, for The Name of the Rose in 1986, for whom they did both posters. 

     
Struzan                                                   Casaro

Struzan also designed LP covers before film posters, including the legendary Alice Cooper's 1975 `Welcome to My Nightmare`.

In 2013, he was the subject of Erik Sharkey’s feature documentary “Drew: The Man Behind The Poster,” with interviews with collaborators like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Frank Darabont, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro. 

exhaustive obit in Variety here 

 “Drew made event art. His posters made many of our movies into destinations…and the memory of those movies and the age we were when we saw them always comes flashing back just by glancing at his iconic photorealistic imagery. In his own invented style, nobody drew like Drew.”

Steven Spielberg 

RIP Diane Keaton

I was about to write RIP Annie Hall...

Diane Keaton was 79. Except Woody Allen's muse, friend (and girlfriend) and confidante (eight films together, from 1972's Play It Again Sam, ending with Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993), she was Al Pacino's Michael Corleone's wife Kay in the three Godfathers, from fiancee to divorcee (also his girlfriend in real life), and exceptionally radicalist Louise Bryant in Warren Beatty's 1981's Reds. A very smart, intellectual. witty woman, personified best in Annie Hall (1977), character that used Keaton's manierisms, also her true family name is Hall, film that brought her an Oscar for best actress. She was also a feminist and an avant garde personality. And a great protograper (book Reservations). She never married and had two adopted kids. 

I think the last time I saw her was in Something's Gotta Give, the 2003 Nicholson weaker comedy...  She was in a lot of romantic comedies (Father of the Bride), heartfelt films  (The First Wives Club), dramas (Marvin's Room). But for me she will always be The Little Drummer Girl, in the excellent George Roy Hill film from 1984, based on the John le Carré book (not the 2018 series), where she plays a wannabe groupie terrorist, ideologically brainwashed and used, in a film that is more actualt today than Woody Allen's NY fantasies or the politics of Reds.

She as also great in Richard Brooks’  audacious drama with a sex twist, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977).

Diane Hall / Keaton was also a director, most famously for Be Unstrung Heroes (1995), she also directed Belinda Carlisle's hit video Heaven is a Place on Earth. She also produced Gus Van Sant's Elephant. She wrote memoirs thrice: “Then Again” (2011), “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty” (2015) and “Brother and Sister” (2020).

 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFI/ American Film Institute. 

Obit in Variety here. 

Tribute by Woody Allen here.

“If Huckleberry Finn was a gorgeous young woman, he’d be Keaton,” Allen remembered thinking upon first seeing her.

Play Dirty (2025)

`There are two kinds of people in this world, those who know who Shane Black is, and those who don't!. Those can dig ;) 

NALD 

Well Shane Black is back as a writer/director, this time on Amazon Prime & theirs MGM  100 mill. $ streaming extravaganza.

It's a Parker film named Play Dirty (not to be confused with the 1969 André De TothWW2 actioner, the title comes from Black's unfilmed script for Lethal Weapon 2, unseen til today -Black's most proud and gritty work, or so they say ;).

It's based on the Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake) iconic novels started in the 60's. Not one novel but `novels`. I guess they're trying to build  a franchise but this won't happen I guess cos' the film is the weakest of Black's career as a director (and that includes the reshot troubled 2018's The Predator). 

Mark Wahlberg is Parker, an obnoxious choice. He can't handle the character dark charisma and dry wit, a dangerous man with a code of its own. Stark's Parker is an Anti Hero, Steve Mc Queen would have done him justice. Or Kris Kristofferson. Even today's Brad Pitt cos' Russell Crowe's too overweight...

Robert Downey Jr. was supposed to play him but he backed off, remaining on board as a producer. Not sure even about Downey but definetly a better choice, Parker's before were Lee Marvin (Point Blank-1967- the most menacing), Jim Brown (The Split-1978, the black one), Robert Duvall (The Outfit-1973, the most aloof), Peter Coyote (Slayground-1983, the most unlikely), Mel Gibson (Payback-1999, the  coolest, but meanest to his director-check out only the Director's Cut), Jason Statham (Parker-2013, bleh..). I'm not adding two these the two Frenchie freejazzin', Made in USA (Jean Luc Godard, 1966) and Mise à Sac (Alan Cavalier, 1967).

*** (Here's an article on all the Parker films, and none until 2013 used the name Parker !!!)

Back to Play Dirty. Would've been better to play it cool tho. The film itself is a self indulgent mess, combo of action scenes, comedy and VFX gone awry.

Too many characters, too much useless plot, not a lot of chemistry between the actors. Rapper LaKeith Stanfield shines as Grofield, Stark's character that has his own novels. Would've liked more of the Thomas Jane character, and someone else for Tony Shaloub, the guy plays a caricature of the mob boss of  a ridiculous corny and cartoonish Outfit. Think a James Coburn, even in Hudson Hawk or  Kris Kristofferson (he was the boss of The Outfit in Payback, but not in the Director's Cut !!!).  Also for the Latin country (unanamed but it's Peru), some finer actors, plus Rosa Salazar as Zen is kinda unmemobrable and not at all a Femme Fatale type.

The running time (2h03) is overlong and the film loses steam in midstream.

+++The Plus:

Great score by Alan Silvestri, reminionscent of those he did for Predator and The Long Kiss Goodnight (based on Shane's script), jazzy and funk, dramatic and menacing where it needs to be. For me Silvestri's score is a great comeback to form. A bit of  007 Bond-sist swagger, Lalo Schifrin and The Taking of Pelham 123 by David Shire, the percussion points.

Also the opening credits are very cool, 60's like. They were made by Daniel Kleinman who did all the title sequences for James Bond starting with GoldenEye back in 1995. Amazingly he is not credited with imdb and Anca found this for me, thanx ! Her piece on the art of the opening credits is here. 

And here's the whole title sequence. 

Production values-high -especially the first action scene at the racing track.

The cinematography (superb 2.39:) by legendary Phillipe Rousselot (he's 80 now!), a lot of shades, shadows, reflections, in a NYC shot this time in Sydney, Australia !!!! Rousselot and Black worked together before in 2026's The Nice Guys.

Some of the wisecracks work better than the plotholes and the action. Also there are many references to Black's scripts and films, from the Christmas setting (Duh !) Lethal Weapon (the fall from the rooftop), The Long Kiss Goodnight (the House of Gretchen Mol, the chase in the snow, the scene by the water), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys, etc. Liked the Mark Cuban pun ;)

Shane Black's influences on this one are great films, from Bullit to Dirty Harry, Marathon Man to the obscure Hickey & Boggs (1972), you can check the interview here on Letterboxed. 

And another interview, exhaustive in Collider, with Black, executive producer Susan Downey and producer Jules Daly (also video). 

6 (out of 10) for fans of SB and Donald Westlake, otherwise a Fiver. 

2 1/2 to 3 out of 5.

Would've been way cooler 2 see it in a Cinema....

RIP Remo Girone

C'hiera una volta in Italy...just visited Atrani where Equalizer 3 (and Ripley) were shot and remembered that Tano Carridi was in it...aka il signore Remo Girone. Next morning I saw on the scroll on Italian Television that he died in Monte Carlo, where he lived. He was 76. The odds to be next to one of his and most iconic last filming places ? Locals we met remembered him with respect, amazed we know Tano so well. La Piovra is still Legend in bella Italia. And in Romania too. 

Girone was one of my favorite actors after seeing him in La Piovra series on Romanian Television back in 1992. We were students but we got together on Saturday nights to watch it and Girone as Tano Carridi was the most suave dark angel, a villain of cosmic (or should we say Hellish) proportions. With his perfect hairline, impeccable suits  and a quiet voice, he was always filmed in dark shadows, like the Devil incarnate. Later on I saw him in some films but somehow his third career act  came from Hollywood films: Live By Night, Ford vV. Ferrari where he played Enzo Ferrari, and Equalizer 3, as a good doctor helping Denzel. 

`Il caricato e arrivato a Praga`.

One Battle After Another (2025)

"Snap Crackle Pop"

French 75 resurges for one last call...Do you remeber the code ? "What time is it?" / It's Time for REVOlution (again ?)

One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson's biggest film to date (you dpon't wanna know the budget, out of which a quarter is Leo's salary..). Most expected and already lauded as film of the year. Sean Penn is in for an Oscar nod surely-best supposting. Di Caprio does a OUIH bit imo. He's like Rick Dalton playing the fried brains revolutionary recluse Bob Ferguson aka Ghetto" Pat. Benicio Del Toro is also superfunny as the Sensei, shades of him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas...but Sean Penn's performance as Col. Steven J. Lockjaw is surreal. One for the books !

Chase Infiniti's big screen debut as Bob and Perfidia's daughter Willa is intense. Special mention to Eric Schweig as Avanti. 

Plus the Christmas Adventurers Club, man, kudos for this one off ;)

I'd call this No Country For Any One...

It's a relentless ride, shot beautifully on 35 mm film in VistaVision (second film in this format in this century, after The Brutlalist), by Michael Bauman (his second film with PTA after Licorice Pizza), his first feature credit ! 

The film should be read through his soundtrack -I mean the overall score, again by Jonny Greenwood, his faithfull composer, this time a psychotronic overpulsating paroxistic one. I expect his Oscar next March.

The soundtrack includes great songs, from Steely Dan (Dirty Work), to Jackson Five (Ready Or Not Here I Come), Tom Petty's American Girl on the end credits (you will know why, "she was raised with Promises"), Ella Fitzgerald and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, thge classic and still subversive Gil Scott-Heron proto-rap from 1970, which plays a role also in the plot. 

Thomas Pynchon's book Vineland (1990) was the inspiration of PTA, who did a crazy looney tones political bonanza. Reminde me a lot of Eddington. It's somehow PTA's funniest film to date. Some bits reminiscent of the weed haze of Inherent Vice, his adaptation of Pynchon's other counterculture book.

There is also a big connection (and inspiration) with Gillo Pontecorvo's revolutionary classic Batle of Algiers (1966). 

Epic duration, 2h41, but it goes fast, on this one I would've liked to be even longer, more Christmas Adventureres,  Billy Goat, Beegee, Comrade Josh and Talleyrand.

The film is dedicated to Adam Somner, the legendary second unit director (Gladiator, Phantom Thread) and producer of 5 of PTA's films from There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Licorice Piza to this last, OBATA. Somner died last year in November after completing this film...

4 out of 5, 8 out of 10 !!!

*Defintely it's a film that you can revisit, plus very TODAY in the actual political climate. 

RIP Claudia Cardinale

 Claudia Cardinale...born in Tunis, died in France...Icon of Italian and International Cinema, beauty and elegance. 

The princess from The Pink Panther. a princess in Il Gatopardo, 

8 1/2, Rocco e sui fratelli, Fitzcarraldo. Fellini, Visconti, Herzog.

Great part in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, the only woman persona in his westerns.

She was honored at TIFF Cluj in 2009...

                                                              (15.04.2025-23.10.2023)

The Bride (2026)

Movie or at least Curio of next year ?

The Bride, Maggie Gyllenhaal's second film after The Lost Daughter (2021) is a revisonist retelling of Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale), with Jessie Buckley (Fargo sez, IV) as The Bride, Christian Bale as Frankenstein's Monster, and Jake Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening.

The Bride is a mix of Poor Things and Joker (Folie a deux), with elements of Public Enemies (Bale again..), Bonnie and Clyde and other goodies of the 30's era. 

Just fyi, there was another The Bride, starring Sting, Clancy Brown as the Monster aka Viktor and Jennifer Beals as "Eve", directed by Franc Roddam, in 1985.

Transilvania Blues Festival VII

 Communique:

Transilvania Blues Festival – Ediția a VII-a aduce nume mari din lumea bluesului internațional pe 26 și 27 septembrie 2025, la Club Rockstadt, Braşov

Festivalul care aduce anual în centrul României nume importante ale blues-ului internațional aniversează 7 ani de existență. Ediția din acest an propune un program care pune în valoare

diversitatea stilistică a blues-ului contemporan, de la tradiția americană la influențele europene moderne.

LINE-UP 2025:

Vineri, 26 septembrie

* Riccardo Grosso Blues Band (Italia) – Trupă apreciată pe scena europeană pentru

interpretările autentice și abordarea modernă a blues-ului clasic. Frontman-ul Riccardo

Grosso este recunoscut în Europa pentru tehnica sa rafinată la muzicuță și interpretările

expresive, care îl plasează printre cei mai apreciați artiști de blues din Italia. Prezență în

premieră în România, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues Festival.

* Sean Chambers & The Savoy Brown Rhythm Section (SUA) – Chitarist și vocalist din Florida,

cu o carieră de peste două decenii, fost membru al trupei lui Hubert Sumlin (chitaristul lui

Howlin’ Wolf). A fost inclus de revista Guitarist Magazine în topul celor mai buni 50 de

chitariști de blues din lume, iar albumele sale au intrat constant în clasamentele Billboard

Blues și Roots Music Report. Revine în România după concertul de succes susținut la

Transilvania Blues Nights pe 23 noiembrie 2023.

Sâmbătă, 27 septembrie

* Jörg Danielsen & Vienna Blues Association (Austria) – Un proiect internațional care

reunește muzicieni de top din scena vieneză și scandinavă. Jörg Danielsen este fondatorul

Vienna Blues Association și organizatorul Blues Festival Falkenstein & Austrian Blues

Challenge. Jörg Danielsen va fi prezent în premieră în Brașov, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues

Festival.

* John Primer & Giles Robson (SUA/Marea Britanie) – Două nume de referință în blues-ul mondial. John Primer, fost chitarist pentru Muddy Waters și Magic Slim, este un pilon al blues-ului tradițional din Chicago. Giles Robson, unul dintre puținii muzicieni europeni care au câștigat un Blues Music Award, completează acest duo unic. John Primer va fi prezent în premieră în Brașov, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues Festival.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transilvania Blues Festival este un proiect cultural organizat de Asociația Transilvania Arts &

Events și finanțat de Consiliul Județean Brașov.

Sponsori: BCR, ButanGas, Dräxlmaier, Tehnic Mihor BitDatamining, Aplind

Parteneri: Brașov Old Town Apartments, A-Ha Bistro, Coliba Haiducilor, Rock FM, Zile și Nopți

🎟 Bilete disponibile pe: rockstadt.ro

Ziua 1 / Ziua 2 - 125 lei (pre-sale) | 150 lei (in ziua concertului). Abonament 2 zile - 200 lei

26–27 septembrie 2025, 19:00-23:00, open doors 17:30

Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov

📅 Facebook event: TRANSILVANIA BLUES FESTIVAL – Ediția a VII-a

B. There & Let There B. Blues!!!

                                                https://www.transilvaniablues.ro

Black Rabbit (2025)

Binged this over two nights Black Rabbit, 8 episodes, New York set and well presented into it. The name of the show -miniseries of a Season, no twofers, comes from a bar / restaurant / lounge next top Brooklyn Bridge, names Black Rabbit. Intrigued me that Jude Law sings, together with Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes, they are The Black Rabbits, the fictional band in the new netflix series.

There are two Black Rabbits songs, “Turned To Black” and “Outside People,” written and produced by Albert Hammond, Jr. 

Best part of Jason Bateman's career IMO, great teaming with Jude Law as the Friedken brothers, Jake and Vince. Jake own the Black Rabbit and wants to move to The Room, Vince is an addict and a f**k up on the run, turning like a bad penny into Jack's life, worst moment, worst time...

Great supporting cast, including Troy Kutsur (Oscar winner from CODA), Abbey Lee (Oz ex model, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Neon Demon, Old), Joe Ales as Jules Zablonski, Don Harvey, Dagmara Dominczyk, many more. 

Great tense score by Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans (series Tokyo Vice, Ozark and Speak No Evil). 

Links with Ozark and The Order, Justin Kurzel (directs last 2 eps), the writers, who wrote both, Zach Baylin and Kate Susman (also producer and showrunner). 

First 2 eps directed by Bateman and 2 more by Laura Linney, his partner in the Ozark series. Two more by Ben Semanoff (also from Ozark).  Lots of Ozarks and Jude Law's The Order that led to this greenlit by netflix. Location shooting and plenty of atmosphere, noirish nightmare descent, bravura performances, I guess it won't be much loved but I appreciated it. Will be on my list of 2025 Top series. 

Iron Maiden 2026 Tour

Run for Your Lives Tour continues...

including Romania, Bucharest, Arena Nationala, 28 mai 2026.

see here my last piece on Maiden's concert in May 2025 

It will be my 12th gig, as in Shakes' The Twelve Night ;)

1. kissstadion -2003 hungary, june 2
2. stuttgart, dance of death 2003, 25 oct
3. milano a matter of life and death, 2 dec 2006
4. cotroceni, aug. 2 somewhere back in time -2008
5. cluj final frontier 2010
6. pta constitutiei 2013
7. pta constitutiei 2016
8. hills of rock plovdiv,  2018
9. romexpo senjutzu 2023
10. run for your lives papp laszlo arena 28 mai 2025
11. beaufort 3 iulie 2025

+

plus bruce dickinson spoken word feb 2000 sala radio
plus dickinson cannes chemical wedding
plus dickenson sala pal 2022 deep p symphonic

communique:

𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐥 „𝐑𝐔𝐍 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐒” 𝐥𝐚 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐍𝐚𝐭̦𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐚̆ 𝐝𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬̦𝐭𝐢, 𝐩𝐞 𝟐𝟖 𝐦𝐚𝐢 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔.

Iron Maiden își continuă turneul aniversar „Run For Your Lives”, dedicat celor 50 de ani de carieră, cu un setlist care reunește momente definitorii din istoria trupei și cu cel mai spectaculos show pus în scenă până acum.

Biletele pentru publicul general se pun în vânzare începând cu 27 septembrie, ora 11:00, la https://ironmaiden.emagic.ro/ și pe iaBilet.ro, iar pre-sale-ul pentru membrii fan clubului Iron Maiden începe pe 23 septembrie, la ora 11:00.

Clienții Emagic și iaBilet vor avea la dispoziție un presale cu acces exclusiv începând cu 24 septembrie, la ora 11:00, în baza unui cod pe care il vor primi pe email.

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES WORLD TOUR 2026

MAI
23 Atena, GRECIA – OAKA
26 Sofia, BULGARIA – Stadionul Vasil Levski
28 București, ROMÂNIA – Arena Națională
30 Bratislava, SLOVACIA – Národný Futbalový Štadión

IUNIE
02 Hanovra, GERMANIA – Heinz von Heiden Arena
10 Amsterdam, OLANDA – Ziggo Dome
17 Milano, ITALIA – San Siro Stadium
22 Paris, FRANȚA – Paris La Défense Arena
28 Lyon (Décines), FRANȚA – Groupama Stadium

IULIE
07 Lisabona, PORTUGALIA – Estádio da Luz
11 Knebworth, UK

RIP Robert Redford

Robert Redford gone where a River / rivers run through...

The Man was 89. Once ”The Golden Boy” of Hollywood...No liftings, just traces of life...

One of my top childhood heroes, he was an absolute star in that times "commie" Romania, together with Paul Newman, John Wayne and Burt Reynolds, the stars of those early 70's. RR, as a Rolls Royce of acting and old Hollywood grace and elegance. 

From early prats in Barefoot in the Park and The Chase, to stardom: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, All the President's Men, Three Days of the Condor, to his activist years and Sundance, to the last parts in All is Lost (one of my favourite RR performances), The Old Man and the Gun and last in that Marvel film (2019)...

Never won an Oscar as an actor, but as a director, in 1980 for Ordinary People. That film is now quite forgotten, but at the time it helped build an Indie genre later on. A raw model for Brad Pitt and tons of others he helped more in the capacity of director, producer and festival founder (Sundance). Even though he directed 9 feature films he will be remembered more as a Classic Movie Star. 

Downhill Racer, The Candidate, The Hot Rock, The Great Waldo Pepper, The Great Gatsby, The Electric Horseman, Jeremiah Johnson, Brubaker, The Natural.

Liked him in lesser films like Sneakers, Legal Eagles, Havana, The Last Castle, The Clearing. 

One of my favorite later parts parts of RR is Nathan Muir in Tony Scott's Spy Game (2001). His pairing with Brad Pitt as his mentor in CIA was a very touching one. 

He made serious topics like grief and political corruption resonate with the masses, in no small part because of his own star power. (The NY Times)

The Long Walk (2025)

"Walk or Die"

Francis Lawrence never struck me as an auteur director. The Long Walk is his closest to a a personal filmmaking effort.

Constantine was probably his best flick, the man directed tons and tons of music videos, a sh***y version of I Am Legend, Red Sparrow, four Hunger Games, those probably qualifying him for this film. 

Stephen King's novel The Long Walk was published in 1979 under the name Richard Bachman, same as The Running Man, Rage, etc. 

It is set in a dystopic America, as in Hunger Games or recently in Civil War, in which young men participate in a race, without stops, until one remains. Same principle as Turkey Shoot or The Running Man (which was remade this year).  You have to keep walking at 3mph, steadily. You get only three warnings, one erased per hour if you march on.

The camera moves and moves and moves all along with the protagonist. The whole film is in movement. Belgian cinematographer Jo Willems, who worked with Lawrence on his Hunger Games films and Red Sparrow shot the film anamorpically on 2.39.1. The whole thing was shot in Manitoa, Canada, for 20 mill. $. 

The ensemble young actors are convincing, it helps they are not known. They are all called by their numbers. Cooper Hoffman (#47 / Licorice Pizza), David Jonsson (#23, Alien: Romulus), Garrett Wareing (# 38/ God is a Bullet), Charlie Plummer (#5 / All the Money in the World). Mark Hammil does a career best villain as The Major. Judy Greer is the only woman in the cast, as Cooper Hoffman's mother. The racial aspect, white, black, white, white, Asian, Indian. Let's say that is not the "woke" or globalism problem, welll, no Mexicanos, hispanics. 

Problem is the language, they all swear non stop, I guess they said, oh, it's Rated R so we can swear all the time we want. But f**k every three words is gratuitous to say the least, and they all talk the same swearing game, the boys as well as the major.

Script by J.T. Mollner (Strange Darling), the lastest on a series of aborted adpatations, from George A. Romero to Frank Darabont. 

Pulsing and dramatic score by Jeremiah Fraites, end titles have a country/Americana song composed for the film by   Shaboozey & Stephen Wilson Jr.- Took a Walk (not on the soundtrack). A rendition of Oh My Darling Clementine is sung by the boys at Mile 260 !!!

Reminded me of the WW2 war films, Sidney Lumet's The Hill (1965) in particular. And as they were running, of the final run of Black Hawk Down. 

7 out of 10 / 3.5 out of 5 !!!

*would've been more but I'd cut 15 min from the 108 min. running time, it loses its rhythm and has repetitions, most of the 50 "walkers" are just extras (in King's original there were 100 participants). 

The premise is as absurd as it gets and you got to believe it, also the lenght of the march is beyond belief... 

Highest 2 Lowest (2025) .

"All Money Ain’t Good Money"   (David King)

Highest 2 Lowest is Spike Lee's reimagining of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 masterpiece High and Low, based on Ed McBain's book, The King's Ransom. It's about a kidnapping gone wrong and a moral decision and dillema of a rich man on the edge of losing all his money. The 1st act is slow as in Kurosawa'a original (the script for this is credited to the Japanese master and his collaborators, the film itself is dedicated to him).  Then the pace changes and it becomes energetic until the end. 

The film premiered in Cannes this year, out of competition (with Denzel Washington receiving an impromptu Palme d'Or for his 1st !!! visit to the Croisette) and it's an Apple+ film-for streaming with limited release in the US by A24. 

Denzel in his 5th collaboration with Spike plays a music mogul, "the best ears in the business" David King (the King from King's Ransom, in Kurosawa's film is Kingo Gondô as played by a magnificent Toshiro Mifune).  His second, friend and driver is Paul, a great restrained and dry humored performance by Jeffrey Wright.

Shot by Matthew Libatique, who went back to back in NY locations with Aronofsky's Caught Stealing (in cinemas now, go and see) in glorios widescreen. Libatique worked before with Lee on four films, including another NY flick, Inside Man .

H2L is a colorful love letter to Spike's beloved New York., Manhattan, Brookyln Bridge, Puerto Rican parade, Yankee stadium. 

Complete with 2 lengthy train /subway chases that quotes and hatsoff s Friedkin's legendary The French Connection. 

Also lots of art, from Basquiat to sports memorabilia and a lot of Muhhamed Ali stuff, to a painting entitled "Billie, Lester, Fats and Duke" by Frederick J. Brown. This painting was featured in "The Spike Lee 'Creative Sources' Exhibition" at the Brooklyn Museum. The title refers to prominent jazz musicians: Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Fats Waller, and Duke Ellington.

The soundtrack is a symphonic Howard Drossin score, then rap songs by A$AP Rocky (in the film Yung Felon) and some James Brown mean rhythms. 

The opening credits are shots of new NY buildings getting to King's skyscraper penthouse / terrace on classic musical Oklahoma's  Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', sung by Norm Lewis. A live performanced of Eddie Palmieri's Orchestra and Aiyana-Lee Anderson (as newcomer singer Sula) playing the title song (cos you goota too ;). Read comments and reviews about the worst score - I don't get if they meant the score or the songs, but personally I find the score excellent and a breakthrough-Drossin worked as an orchestrator for Spike's regular Terence Blanchard and with Lee since The 25th Hour, also with RZA and making videogames music. 

Might be Lee's most commercial film 'til Inside Man and the disastrous Oldboy and it's uneven but flavoury.

Revisited Kurosawa's film this spring and it's a timeless masterpiece! Lee's version plays more like a cover song, in color and with vivid wipes and tumult. 

6 out of 10 / 3 out of five !

Kurosawa's 1963 High and Low is a 9/10 for me ! Could've been a Ten tho ;)

Inside Man (2006) English

 Inside Man – Inside Spike Lee’s Cap

Alin Ludu Dumbravă, Șapte Seri / April 2006

"Small country, a few tables." (Gheorghe Dinică)

And no hats. I think almost every passionate cinemagoer here (a small, somewhat dysfunctional minority, like the great bustard in Bărăgan) knows Spike Lee — “that Black guy with glasses and a cap” — from that Orange Wednesday commercial, where he pitches a baseball movie. “Their colors were white and blue — can’t it be orange?” they give him a corporate cap: “Hey Spike, you forgot your hat!” Classic Orange Wednesday commercials (no, not the ones with hobbits with weird voices; no, Orange doesn’t pay me).

What was I writing? Ah, yes… Spike Lee’s cap. Hobbits. Baseball. Because here, this breed of cinema wanderer — let’s call him the inside man, like in Spike’s film, which he made after they refused to fund that other baseball movie — expects not to have the credits cut, popcorn dropped on his head, or get called by fools during the screening. He wants the film projected correctly, with care (I can already hear the muted curses of projectionists who just want peace, since “the equipment dates back to Ceaușescu”), yet he’s actually an outside man, getting roughed up regularly, like in the joke about the bear and the rabbit: “Why don’t you have a hat, man?” — Bam!

But let’s get back to Spike’s film — the second to hit our screens after 25th Hour; the guy’s been making films since the ’80s! Inside Man is his first truly commercial movie, with the biggest budget, A-list stars, studio financing and marketing. A film about (fake) heists, hostages, New Yorkers, and even… Albanians (a Romanian actress — Florina Petcu, see her photo on IMDb — plays an Albanian), without baseball or caps (Denzel wears a fedora).

With stars like Clive Owen, Denzel Washington (his fourth Spike Lee film), Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, and Willem Dafoe. A strong opening credit sequence, flawless cinematography, sharp editing, and a Terence Blanchard score. Like Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible, a commercial concession, Inside Man is intelligent, subversive, and acerbic. Add Spike Lee’s personal touch, racial undertones, and his unmistakable New Yorker flavor in the tense post-9/11 climate — humor and energy included.

More interesting for the cinemagoer than the movie about the guy in white-and-blue baseball gear. “Hey Spike, you forgot your hat!” Paraphrasing: “No hat? Take a Koprol!”

Directed by: Spike Lee
Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe

RIP Rick Davies

Rick Davies, the keyboardist of Supertramp (on Wurlitzer), and founding member in 1969, died on Sept. 6th 2025 at 81 :( 

He stayed with the band after Roger Hodgson's departure, in 1983. 

Supertramp was one of my favorite bands in the 80's, and in the 90's too, following my exposure to the vinyl of Breakfast in America (1979), which I kept and played to exhaustion. Then saw the vhs of Paris Live and later on I taped and then bought all their CD's, classic perios era. Saw only Roger Hodgson live in 2019 in Bucharest...

                                                              "Ain't Nobody But Me"

Rolling Stone obit here 

Caught Stealing (2025)

Darren Aronofsky is an arthouse favorite from Pi to The Whale, passing through The Fountain, Black Swan and The Wrestler), and this Caught Stealing might be his most commercial film yet. But that's not a bad thing. At all. 

Taking cues from the Coens and Guy Ritchie, he revisits New York of 1998 in a dark irreverent comedy thriller complete with an English Punk mohawk, a cat, Russian mobsters and two Rabbi killers. 

Written by Charlie Huston, based on his book from 2004.  It's actually the 1st book in a series of three, about the character Hank Thompson. If Caught... (great Romanian Title, Prins cu mata-n sac....NOT) is a hit. Hopefully it will and Butler will carry on. 

A major influence, as also checked is After Hours (Scorsese, 1985), see the video in the comments.

Very cool cast, including Griffin Dunne from After Hours, who could be actually the same character, Paul, Village bar owner, mentioning Lou and Andy ;), Austin Butler (his third important lead, after Elvis and The Bikeriders), Zoë Kravitz (Blink Twice), Regina King, rappers Bad Bunny & Action Bronson and brit Matt Smith. Plus the fantastic duo of Liev Schrieber and Vincent D'Onofrio. Another fantastic duo, the Russians -Nikita Kukushkin (Microbe)  and Yuri Kolokolnikov (Alexei). Also featuring Carol Kane. But the absolute highlight is Bud the Cat, played by Tonic. 

Shot by Aronofsky's regular, Matthew Libatique in 1.85: 1. Some impressive camera moves and angles, great location value, NY truly lives in every shot. Lots of graffiti dressing. Libatique shot this back to back in NY locations with Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest.

 

Songs by post-punk band Idles, score by Rob Simonsen. Including a cover of Police and Thieves, made famous by The Clash in 1976. Some Bowie references, a lot of pop culture around, all soundtrack songs here.

RIP Graham Greene

 Graham Greene, Dances with Wolves now on the other side...

Thunderheart, Wind River

Together (2025)

New entry in the Body horror genre, after the recent The Substance, this is the debut feature of writer/director Michael Shanks. Liked it more than the overrated Bring Her Back. For me the other interesting horror fodder this year include 28 Years Later and Weapons. 

Together is an ambitious little horror flick, with themes of love and obsession, about a couple that moves in a little village house, far from town, and a mysterious pit in the woods.

Dave Franco and Alison Brie are married in real life so the intimate scenes have more power, intensity and authenticity than with other actors.

Supporting is Aussie Damon Herriman (The Nightingale, OUATIH, The  Bikeriders), and when he's on screen you know something ain't right ;)

Shot in Australia in only 21 days. Debut at Sundance Film Fest in Jan. 2025. Was presented even in  Locarno film fest !

Powerful score by Cornel Wilczek. End song, Another One by Golden Suits (2016). 

The effects are good for their budget, some morph coming from The Thing and more recently Color out of Space.

7 out 10 ! 3 1/2 out of 5 !