miercuri, 24 mai 2023

RIP Tina Turner

The Acid Queen, Dame of Rock'n Roll is gone... Tina Turner was 83, living in Swizerland and retired a long time now...


There's an  doc on her on hbomax, Tina (2021), her life in 5 acts.

From Ike & Tina, the Phil Spector years, to The Rolling Stones-she was the one who taught Mick Jagger how to dance-, to Tommy and Private Dancer (composed by Mark Knopfler, 1984) to doing one of my top James Bond songs is GoldenEye (1995), sang by her, composed by Bono and The Edge.

She was also Aunty Entity in the third Mad Max film from 1985, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome.

Biopic What's Love Got To Do With It in 1993 with Angela Bassett.

obit in The Guardian here

I’m so saddened by the passing of my wonderful friend Tina Turner. She was truly an enormously talented performer and singer. She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.

marți, 23 mai 2023

RIP Ray Stevenson

The (literally) big (and tall) (Northern) Irishman Ray Stevenson (1m 91) died on May 21st, in Ischia Italy, causes undisclosed (yet). He was supposed to shoot there the Italian flick Cassino in Ischia as Nic Cassino, a film that seemed interesting. 

Stevenson would've been 59 in just four days...:(

He was Frank Castle in The Punisher: War Zone, version of 2008, Porthos in The Three Musketeers, version of 2011, Danny Green in Kill the Irishman, Volstagg in three Thor movies, Redridge in The Book of Eli, DC in The Outpost, Gruner in Cold Skin. All tough guys, some of them too tough to not be played with some dry Irish humor. He was also the super-evil Scott Buxton in last year's Indian mega-hit RRR (that can be seen on Netflix).

He did a lot of TV, from Rome (Titus Pullo) to Black Sails (Blackbeard), Vikings, the new Das Boot and his last part will be the Disney+ Star Wars spin off, Ahsoka, that comes out in August- in which he is the baddie Baylan Skoll.

tributes here













sâmbătă, 20 mai 2023

RIP Rick Dalton

Tarantino posted on his Video Archives twitter account that Rick Dalton, his fictional actor, (anti) hero from Once Upon A Time in Hollywood had died. He would've been 90. 

He wrote a biography of the actor, entitled The Films of Rick Dalton. One of them, featuring Cliff Booth in the 80's is The Fireman (a trilogy, no less!!, produced of course by Cannon!), which sounds like a rip-off (homage?) of The Exterminator (1980) and its sequel, Exterminator 2 (1984), both with Robert Ginty,  ;). Is that where the flamethrower of McClusky came by, or was it from Le Vieux Fusil;) ?


Rest in peace, Rick...;)

more here

https://deadline.com/2023/05/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-star-rick-dalton-dead-quentin-tarantino-declares-1235373860/


Rick passed away peacefully in his home in Hawaii and is survived by his wife Francesca.


(so, that one was a keeper ;)

https://the-video-archives-podcast-with-quentin-tarantino-and-roger.simplecast.com/episodes/day-of-the-dalton-pt-1-the-marshal-of-madrid-manhunter-NJWVhg9w

vineri, 19 mai 2023

RIP Jim Brown

First time I saw him on The Dirty Dozen (1966), part of that band of misfit bastards that 

Last time I saw him on 100 Rifles (1969), together with Raquel Welch in what was then a very risquee affair. 

100 Rifles can be seen on youtube here.

Now I caught-up with the heist film from 1968 The Split, one of his first leading roles. 

Jim Brown was a great NFL player, the first one to swap the field for Hollywood. He died on May 18th (same day as Helmut Berger) of natural causes. Jim Brown was 87. 

Acting highlights:

Dark of the Sun (1968) aka The Mercenaries

Ice Station Zebra (1968)

El Condor (1970) can be watched on youtube here. with Lee Van Cleef

Slaughter (1972) and its sequel Slaughter's Big Rip-off (1973)-blaxploitation

blaxploitation classic: Three the Hard Way (1974) with Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly

Take a Hard Ride (1975) one more time with Lee Van Cleef, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly

Fingers (1978), James Toback's maligned underrated and still unknown masterpiece.

The Running Man, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Mars Attacks!, Any Given Sunday, Small Soldiers (voice).