RIP Vincent Pastore

Pussy is no more...Vincent Pastore played most famously Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on the HBO drama series The Sopranos, for which he got a Screen Actors Guild Award. 

He was also in Scorsese's Goodfellas and the HBO film Gotti. He was 80...

Cape Fear (2026)

Beware !!! (literally stay away from this Fake Fear)

Max Cady is Back ! And this time he is Javier Bardem with a goat-e and Udo Kier type of Blue Eyes -actually Green lenses!)

The new Cape Fear is here...on Apple Tv + (premiered June 5th) 

Episodes 1 and 2 were cool and atmospheric, but  will it have enough breath to do Ten ?

we'll see...

well, now it's over and what was originally published on June 8th overstayed its welcome -as expected !!! here are the August 1st conclusions of this bloated overbearing season !

Bardem, best thing about him, his Panama hat (which he took from Mitchum's Cady, but Mitchum had a cooler one-and in black and white)- does not get even close to his Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men or even the blonde eyed psycho Silva from Skyfall. No my faved, his best psycho and most fun is the one from Perdita Durango, Romeo !. Basically Bardem is ripping off De Niro's Max Cady at a nec plus ultra grand guignol style. Efficient but pastiche...

Very little from the original book John D. MacDonald's The Executioners (1957) stays on.

Also not much of the 1962 J. Lee Thompson original adaptation as Cape Fear in glorious Black and White.

cool tittle lettering, cool ideas from the Scorsese 1991 remake and homage (the shots on the negative, camera moves), and most of all the music stays the same. Bernard Herrmann's score, now redone by Jeff Russo. This is the only asset imo, I think I watched it for the score alone, this being one of the best I ever heard, and tops some of Herrmann's work with Hitchcock. 

Exec prod by Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and showrunner Nick Antosca.

Wasted Ted Levine and Ron Perlman in the obvious baddie daddy roles. 

***

1st episode, 'Fingers and Toes' directed by Norwegian Morten Tyldum (Headhunters, Passengers). 

Ep. 2 'Why Would I Want to Hurt You?' directed by  S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones, Madame Web), features a cameo by screenwiter Wesley Strick (who wrote the 1991 remake of CF).

Ep. no. 3 on June 12th:  Phantom Sensations

already feeling the nausea

Ep. 4 Pierced. June 19th.

some lgbtq happens before the two daughters. 

ep.5 Faith -June 26.

loss of breath, mambojambo and a sinister Juliette Lewis. 

Ep. 6 Possum -July 3rd.

that's when I feel like quiting, don't really wanna see how they're gonna mangle this beyond belief. 

Ep. 7: Mongrel -July 10th

by episode seven it's becoming such a grand guignol caricature with storytelling of a bad telenovela,  I switched it of. They take a road trip and ouch, and the soundtracks goes from BOC's Don't Fear the Reaper to Alice Cooper's Eighteen. 

Ep. 8 ∙ Los tiempos de Dios son Perfectos -July 17. Telenovellas quickens. 

Ep. 9- The Scar -July 24. More mambojambo, rednecks and swamps. We don't need a bigger boat ;)

Ep. 10: The Executioners. July 31th. Hurricane arrives. Leaving open season two ? C'mon !!!

2 out of 5, 4 out of 10 !

The Boys from Brazil (1978)

The Boys from Brazil was first a book by Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby), published in 1976. Great page-turner thriller, very risque, mixing real characters with preposterous fiction !

1978, ITC-producer Sir Lew Grade makes the movie adaptation.

The great Franklin J. Schaffner directs. And he gets an 11 Mill. $ budget and a Grade (sic) A cast.

Gregory Peck is Joseph Mengele, playing totally against type, his only Villain in his filmography. His take on Mengele is fierce, mean spirited and dead serious. He man is evil, the Doctor is mad. But Peck plays it straight and dresses sharply, in white suits, with a stilleto moustache. It's definitely one of the top performances of his amazing career.

Peck said afterwards, "I felt, Laurence Olivier felt, friends of mine like Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon felt, that I was good in this part. Some critics seem unwilling to accept actors when they break what they think is the mold or the image.”

A frail Laurence Olivier (who just had his kidney stones removed!) is Ezra Liberman, the nazi hunter modelled after Simon Wiesenthal.  Olivier's physicality helps him tremendously fot the part, you can feel his pain and suffering. Both Peck and Olivier deliver really copious accents. Olivier was nominated for an Oscar for best actor, one of the film's three Oscar nods (editing and music too).

James Mason supports as colonel Seibert, as do a bunch of great actors known from war and spy films, 

Walter Gottel (general Gogol in the Moore Bond films), Wolfgang Preiss, Michael Gough, Bruno Ganz, Denholm Elliott, most interesting is young Steve Guttenberg playing a Jewish young journalist who discovers the Praguayan Nazi plot. Lily Palmer, Uta Hagen and Anne Meara have small but important parts and the young boy, Jeremy Black as the uncanny blue-eyed adolescent with multiple incarnations. 

The plot itself it's so far out, it's great. And it's played so serious and grave, also it's very avant garde re Cloning, the Macguffin of the film.

Jerry Goldsmith  delivers another great score for Schaffner, they colllaborated on seven films. This one is based half on an Austrian waltz, half on Martial menacing music.

Cinematography in 1.85.1 by Henri Decae, legendary & over versatile French DOP (Bob le flammbeur, Les 400 coups, Le Clan des siciliens, Le Cercle Rouge, Day for Night, Le Professionel), in one of the few English language films he ever did (together with The Light at the Edge of the World, Bobby Deerfield, Two People, Operation Daybreak,  The Island and Exposed).  

Locations are Brazil, Paraguay, London, Austria (Vienna), Germany, Sweden and the US. The production went to Portugal instead and the principal unit never set foot in the USA. 

The opening is great, mysterious, after the majestic music turns into menacing sounds, and the opening credits are on black, there is no dialogue for the first 16 minutes.

I must've seen this film every decade of my life, 1st time in 1981-82 on Communist Romanian television when I was in the 6th or &th grade, impromptu and incognito, on a Sunday night, presented as "film artistic", on the the QT. We were so impressed the next day in school, the ones who saw it, by a sheer mistake, as the film was totally smuggled that night, one of those -push it in films-mainly when comrade Ceausescu was visiting abroad. Thanks again whoever put that on that night. A few years later, in high school I got upon the book, in French ! Started to clumsily translate it, I think I got done the 1st chapter, then of course gave up. The book might've been transalted in Romanian after 1990, I don't know.

One big find was the ITC DVD I got in the early 2000's, wasn't a great copy but still...And last time I watched it in 2020, in the pandemic, catching up with Schaffner's Lionheart and Sphynx. 

There were many different versions, the film was cut over 20 minutes for TV from the original 2h05 running time and many cuts didn't have the original ending with Jeremy Black in the photo dark room, which adds value to the concept. It also empathies the role of the braclet of animal claws that Mengele brought with him from Brazil, a small detail and metaphor addes to the subtext.

Now they are reamaking the book (and film) into a 5 episodes miniseries for Netflix that will probably stream next year. Peter Morgan is the showrunenr and Jeremy Strong is the nazi hunter. August Diehl plays Mengele but it shall be no longer Mengele, they renamed him, after his exceptional turn of the charcter in thw recent The Dissapaerence of Joseph Mengele, in which the Ira Levin novel and the film are mentioned !

  

4 out of 5 / 8 out of 10 !

Maligned on his opening time, criticised and satirised as the "nazi revival" genre was tiring (The Odessa Filre, Marathon Man, later on The Formula) the film stands tall the test of time, anchored in the two key performances, the clash between two old men, obsessed, a lot of psychology that was brought by Peck and Olivier, happy to work together for one time only, the markings of the a great director, the music and atmosphere. 

****

Best review I found about the making of and the motivations of Scahaffner, Peck taking part in it, the choice of the filming format and locations here.

Fargo (1996)– 30 Years Later

 Romanian version here. 

The first time I saw Fargo was on VHS at Nae Caranfil's home. It was a memorable evening for all of us who were there. Some time had already passed since the premiere, the film had become famous (we're talking about the pre-download era, when films were still hard to get hold of), we were all devoted Coen Brothers fans, and we passionately debated the story and the mise-en-scène in a way that nowadays only happens in the excitement surrounding premieres or film festivals.

Oddly enough, Fargo was never released theatrically in Romania, so the TIFF.25 screening was a royal treat, giving you the chance to see it the way it should be seen.

Its premiere was at Cannes, in the Official Competition, where Joel Coen won the Best Director Award. Then came the Oscars (2 awards from 7 nominations). It was the Coens' Academy Award (everyone knows they direct together, although Ethan is officially credited as producer), the Best Picture of the year, and Frances McDormand's first Oscar (Best Actress—she has three now!). Who had ever seen a pregnant police heroine wearing a Siberian-style earflap hat?

Fargo- thirty years later: an absolute cult film and an ultra-influential one (#185 on the IMDb Top 250). Its biggest admirer: Noah Hawley, who in 2014 created the TV series Fargo, whose first season is directly connected to the original while also retelling it. Five seasons inspired by the Fargo universe have been produced—an anthology unlike anything television had ever seen.

The poster is brilliant, embroided on a hoop, with the words "A homespun murder story" stitched in red. The title comes from the town of Fargo, North Dakota, on the border with Minnesota, where the events are supposed to take place, marketed as a true story—but of course that's another Coen Brothers gimmick, and everything is invented. It's winter, there's a blizzard, there's snow, and the South Dakota/Minnesota accents are absolutely wonderful. All the characters have Nordic names, just like the origins of the area's inhabitants (Gustafson, Gunderson, Lundegaard). William H. Macy is a sad and utterly pathetic figure, the car salesman who sets an absurd domino effect in motion.

Two of the Coens' longtime collaborators make a major contribution to this unique universe. Roger Deakins' cinematography condenses this immense white landscape, while Carter Burwell's score adds a sense of space and drama; it was later used as the theme for the television series.

But without the Steve Buscemi/Peter Stormare tandem, the film would be in vain...

"I'm going crazy down there at the lake." Ja.

Alin Ludu Dumbravă

This article was published in Aperitiff | June 12, 2026 

Spider-Noir (2026)

"With No Power Comes No Resposibility"

The Nicolas Cage is back with something cool in black and white (and color) but I'd rather see it Noir as in the title, Spider-Noir. Premieres May 27th on Amazon Prime as in in collaboration with Sony, who's only Marvel character they got rights too...

I published this in February 2026 but since I can't go back to the post to-date I republished it today !

From the looks it's more of a Sin City / Frank Miller, The Spirit / Will Eisner. And The Shadow. 

Breendan Gleeson is the villain.

Hopefully this will rock, as game based Fallout TV series did, or DC / HBO recently two interesting spinoffs, The Penguin and The Peacemaker and Marvel/ Disney did mega meta Wonder Man.

July 15th Updates:

Well, I saw it all 8 episodes and gotta say I switched from B & W to color, gorgeous colors that is. Advertised as "Authentic Black and White,” or “True Hue Full Color.”  ! It's a pity to see this as simplistic as Black and White when the costumes, sets and cinematography are doing their best in Color. Cues to Edward Hopper and Lily Furedi, as well to Roy Lichenstein.

The whole thing happens in 1933's New York city and it develops slowly. I mean I was about to give up as a pastische of private dicks and some fanatstic elements underveloped until episode Four !

Alos took me a while to settle with Nic Cage's style here. He is channelling all sorts of Noir heroes, from Humphrey Bogart to Edward J. Robinson and James Cagney, in his voice and manierisms. His Ben Reilly alchy PI is funny, dark, and bitter sweet all at once, swinging from cynical and satirical tones to looney tunes overtones.

Interview with Cage in Esquire.  

It is his 1st foray into TV, or TV series, which he said he'll never do. Glad he did. After voicing the character Noir (Spider, not the Noir from The Boys ;), in the Spider-verse animated film in 2018 he was asked to do this and the whole project changed completely with Cage on board (also budgetwise!). 

Great title sequence and opening song, Saving Grace sung by Kirby, Bond like tune. Plus swingin' songs of the period (Dream a Little Dream of Me), Lil Jun Li as Cat Hardy, the singer femme fatale from the Alcove Club. 

The series ends with Amy Winhouse's You're No Good, which, these days is covered by The Rolling Stones on their new Foreign Tongues album. 

Spider-Nor is nominated for 11 Emmy Awards but none for Cage's acting chops. Liked best his de-aging acting in the WW1 flashbacks and Spider transformations.

Jack Huston is as always good as Flint Marko (aka The Sandman) and Andy Robinson (Scorpiooo?!!!) shows up, I kept asking myself why does that guy look so familliar. Gleeson's Mr. Silvermane is used more as a McGuffin, and there is a smart black journalist named Robbie Robertson (a cool Lamorne Morrison) who works at that age's Daily Buggle. There's also references of the films and the shows of that day and age. 

RIP Sam Neill

New Zeelander hero (but born in Northen Ireland)  Sam Neill has gome away at 78.

Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park series for most, but great in Possession (1981), his 1st major European part, his 1st American important part in 1990's The Hunt for the Red October. That came after his intense performance in  Oz director's Phillip Noyce's excellent triangle thriller, Dead Calm (1989). 

He could've been James Bond but he skipped it...

One of his carrers best: John Trent in John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1994). 

Also great villain for another John Carpenter flick, Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992).

Great villainy also in Event Horizon, The Piano. 

TV best: season 2 of Peaky Blinders.

Also great parts in Oz and NZ films as  Taika Waikiki's Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) and The Hunter (2011). 

 "I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him. Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world."

-Steven Spielberg-

Sam Neill had his own vineyard and wine, Two Paddocks. 

https://www.twopaddocks.com/

His last interview in The Guardian here.

And in the Australian Guardian, a top of his best 20 roles, Top 3 mentioned also here. 

Masters of the Universe (2026)

 'Here we are ...with the Princes, ups, with the Masters of the Universe...'

Unexpected or more so after abysymal BO performace and Reviews. Definetly not a film for 2026. A combo of Flash Gordon and Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 1), overlong (2h20 !!!; really?), some good humor and  sexual innueundos in a PG fare, a dumbo Skeletor (unrecognizable Jared Lato with weird accent and Dr. Evil laughter does his bet job in many years here). 

Camila Mendes as Teela is hot, Idris Elba supports bravely, Roboto is voiced by Kristen Wiig, James Purefoy is the King Randor, Morena Maccarin (the) sorceress in white and the lead Adam/He-Man- Nicholas Galitzine is funny and charismatic, also Alison Brie is fun as witchy Evil-Lyn.

Coming from a line of legendary toys (that I was never fammilar with), cartoons and comics which I never saw my only reference was the 1987 very B and B budget cult film of the same name and franchise (it was a Golan-Globus Cannon production).  More so than then, this film doesn't take itself seriosusly for an even odd moment, it knows it's silly and plays it straight on. 

Added value: the score is Fabulous, Power Rock pounding heroic symphonica metallic, another great one from Daniel Pemberton, one chord to rule'm all, Queen style, even features a Highlander song and puns, plus a clone Queen song by The Darkness and surely the sound was familliar because yes, the guitarist it's Brian May !!! That in itself raises the bar (and the volume) one notch (and a star of my review here). A Dolph Lundgren cameo (hero of the 1987 version) makes it even more tongue in cheeck. For the grown-up children ;)

3 stars out of 5, 6 out of 10 !!!

Backrooms (2026)

 Backrooms. 

Impressive.

Most impressive if you count the director, Kane Parsons is 20 years old ! It's based on his youtube found footage series & Kane Pixels. 

To be seen and appreciated in a cinema !!! Really !

Plot description: After a therapist's patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, she must venture into the unknown to save him.

I saw it tonite., and the theater was packed with teenagers. They knew the backstories, the innerworld of the film, the odds and inns. I guess it's one of the reasons Backdoors has a great thetrical run, the best of A24 til now (overpassing Civil War ). 

Totally psychedelic & psychotronic, some M.C. Escher angles and tricks, reminding recent Exit 8, and some other cool mindf*cks, Cosmatos' Beyond the Black Rainbow, Tarsem's The Cell, Cube, Us, Severance office sets  (actually inspired by the Backwoods originals) and Twin Peas Black Lodge landscape and soundscape, even shades of Eraserhead. 

Imdb suggests you see thse movies before seeing this. I guess you can also do that afterwards. 

The production /set design is all practical, was built as a maze. And the colors (yellowish) and the lightning. Widescreen cinematpgraphy mixed with video formats.

Could've been more claustrophobic, and it has some weaknesses, clumsiness, confusing ideas, also starts too slow and it's too long, but still, as I wrote above, Impressive.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is Clark, the Alone Man, the furniture shop `Architect` and Renate Reinsve (fresh from Oscar's Sentimental Value and Cannes fare, Fjord) is Mary, a shrink whose book Window of self is a also a clue. Mrk Duplass is the Third Man, as a scientist with a more complicated backstory...

A sort of Malice in Wonderland occurs. Some RMI too, or not ? 

And there is also a clue from a classic film and tale/book, The Neverending Story...

Anyhu, I hope a new serious genre Director was born...

Horror had a great (Theatrical too) run recently, with (i'm mentioning my chouces here): Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsummer, Beau is Afraid, Eddigton), Ti West (In the Valley of Violence, The Sacrament, X, Pearl, Maxxine), Osgood Perkins (exec. producer here- Longlegs, The Monkey), Damian McCarthy (Caveat, Oddity, Hokum),  Zach Cregger (Barbarian, Weapons), Tilman Singer (Luz, Cuckoo), Charlie Polinger (The Plague), and feminin fare too, Coralie Fargeat (The Substance), Julia Ducournau (Raw, Titane, Alpha)...

I just hope this will not start another weak franchise as I just saw a whole video about the backstory of the Backrooms here...

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

Sound design and soundtrack wise, kudos, this song from Boards of Canada on the closing credits was the highlight. 

https://pitchfork.com/news/boards-of-canada-soundtrack-backrooms-end-credits/

also a Klaus Doldinger song in it too (Moonchild). 

Cliff Booth is back !!!

Cliff Booth aka Brad Pitt, the stuntman from Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood is back in the new Netflix film  The Adventures of Cliff Booth, written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher !!!

Timothy Olyphant is also back as western TV actor James Stacy (Lancer).

Here's the teaser trailer. Coming soon this year !!!

Golden Globes 2026 Awards (#83)

 all nominations here. 

watching them live on Voyo for the 1st time, interesting to see the breaks without commercials, really, some candid scenes. Even saw Sean Penn smoking at the table !!! And monsieur Cannes, Thierry Fremaux, talking cordially to Guillermo Del Toro ! And later on to Sean Penn. 

Venue: the Beverly Hilton Hotel

presenter: Nikki Glaser -her second year-decent jokes &, including Epstein list and a Spinal tap nod at the end of show.

article here

best of on M. Short and S. Martin "proof that in this industry you are never too old to need (making) Money"

 before this were given

Cecil B de Mille Award to Helen Mirren -

Carol Burnett Award-Sarah  Jessica Parker

Awards:

Supporting actress (out of 6):Teyana Taylor / One Battle After Another

uber surprised, emotional, crying

supporting actor: Stellan Skarsgård / Sentimental Value, best speech-

"cinema should be seen in the cinemas" SS, not Spielberg but Stellan Skarsgard

best actor comedy / musical- Timothée Chalamet -5 noms

Song: K-Pop-Demon Hunters

score: Ludwig Gorranson -Sinners

screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson -One Battle After Another

New category: 

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement: Sinners (surprising, I would also give it to Weapons)

Directing: PTA -One Battle After Another

Animation: K-Pop Demon Hunters

Best Motion Picture - Non-English Language-O Agente secreto/ The Secret Agent (Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

Best Performance by a Female Actor- Musical or Comedy-Rose Byrne -really, this category ? / If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Best actress now retitled "Female Actor " drama: Jesse Buckley -Hamnet 

Best actor "male actor"/ drama (out of 6): Wagner Moura -The Secret Agent 

Best Picture: musical/comedy: One Battle After Another 

Best Picture: drama: Hamnet

TV

Noah Willey -The Pitt

Jean Smart-Hacks

Owen Cooper-Makes History at 16 as Youngest Golden Globe Winner for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series-in Adolescence

Seth Rogen -The Studio /comedy / surrealy this happens mostly like in episode 8 of the show where exec Matt Remick (Rogen) is pushing for one at the Golden Globes 

best actor miniseries: Stephen Graham -Adolescence

Michelle Willams-Dying for Sex -not there

supporting: Erin Doherty -Adolescence 

best actress / drama: Rhea Seehorn-Pluribus (predicatably, and she was very emotional)

Best Drama: The Pitt (HBO)

Best comedy/musical: The Studio (Apple tv) -on my Top 5 series of 2025

Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television: Adolescence (netflix, 4 wins out of Five !!!)

*

Stand-up comedy: Ricky Gervais -Mortality (Gervais not present!) 

*

Podcasts -seriously ?

 - Good Hang with Amy Poehler

the Big winners:

#OneBattleAfterAnother #sinners #Hamnet #Adolescence #ThePitt/#TheStudio

Top series 2025

Saw a horrible amonut of series/tv series, some new, some renewed, some cancelled, some I quit...

Mayor of Kingstown s04 -4 -toughest yet, Lennie James, Richard Brake, Eddie Falco, Laura Benanti.

The Iris Affair -miniseries- 8 eps  big fsss. Tom Hollander good. 

The Last Frontier -should've quit  

got back to Slow Horses s2 1/2 -5 -Gary Oldman getting more and more Legend !

Down Cemetery Gates -loses steam after ep. 4

The White Lotus s03 - -best yet-Walton Goggins, Scott Glenn, Parker Posey. 

It: Welcome to Derry -quit 

Task  sez. 1 not much

Duster 1 sez. cancelled , was kinda fun

Subteran 1 sez. oy vey

Landman s. 1 ep.7-10 / sez 2 ep. 1-5 (in Top Series 2024, contd. in 2026)

The Lowdown 8 eps - Tulsa noir on the songs of J.J.Cale, Ethan Hawke as jouranlist Lee Raybon gets beaten up all the time. Created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs). 

Pluribus s01 -Vince Gilligan is moving way to slow...

Peacemaker s02 -even better than season One. 

The Studio  1 season-10 eps., Seth Rodgen's satire is hit and miss but the episodes are short and Bryan Carnston as Griffin Mill is a blast !

Dept. Q  sez 1, 9 eps. (renewed) -the Sweedish series of thriller books  by Jussi Adler-Olsen get new (Scott Frank for Netflix)  and way too slow treatment with Matthew Goode as Carl Morck.  

The Last of Us -season 3. All gets weak after Pedro Pascal is no more. 

Monster The Ed Gein Story (sez 3 -8 eps) -see below

Walking Dead-New York -quit 

Alien: Earth s 1  -they did some good, and then they did some real bad. Continuing to mix the Weyland Yutanis with the Blad Runners, Prometheus, Timothy Olyphant's android Kirsch is a hoot !

Paradise season 1 (renewed) -cool idea of post apocalyptic city under a dome. 

Dope Thief  sez. 1  -Ridley Scott produced and directed the first episode. Based on a true story. 

Black Rabbit -miniseries 8 eps.  See review here. 

Your friends and Neighbours sez. 1. Jon Hamm steals. 

oh, and Moldova's Gangster and fiend, Plaha, 10 episode political thriller with Iulian Postelnicu as Plaha, written and directed by Igor Cobilianski

*****************

Revelation of the Year:

Monster The Ed Gein Story (Netflix). Ian Brennan writer, Max Wrinler director. 8 eps. miniseries.

Movies mix with the legacy of serial killers -from Psycho to Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Silence of the Lambs. Clever post-modern choices. Plus Ilsa Koch and the Nazis ! But a truly great performance form Charlie Hunnam. And Tom Hollander is Alfred Hitchcock. Even Mindhunter returns in ep. 8. Too much grand guignol as always but way way upper than the other 2 seasons (the 2nd I quit watching...)

Why is though Ed Gein made so sympathetic and a victim, "mother's boy" ? 

Top 5

Peacemaker s.2 -hbo max

Mayor of Kingstown s.4 -skyshowtime/paramount +

The Studio  -apple+

White Lotus s.3 -hbo max 

The Lowdown -fx / hulu 

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 

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`.

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. 

RIP Terence Stamp

Mouring one of the greatest British Icons, made big by Italian cinema and American popcorn (und more).  Terence Stamp was 87. He was Toby Dammitt in Fellini's sketch of Poe's omnibus Histoires Extrraordinaires/ Spirits of the Dead. He was in Pasolini's Teorema, as he was general Zod ;). 

He won best actor in Cannes in 1965 for The Collector.

From his film debut in Billy Budd (1962, where he received his onbly Oscar nomination) to his last bit in Last Night in Soho (2021) he was a cool, silent, sometimes very menacing presence. 

For me it was at most fun as the perverted host of the short-lived series The Hunger (1997-98).

Other highlights: Modesty Blaise, The Hit, The Limey (featuring Poor Cow).

1st ime I saw him as a kid as the badguy Wazir in the Clive Donner's Thief of Baghdad (1978,  actually a made for TV film).

Stand-out, Australian The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), which can be seen streaming now on HBO Max.

Far from the Madding Crowd indeed...

RIP Ozzy Osbourne

....somehow weird and macabre that my last post was Back to the Beginning about OZZY and his celebration...now Ozzy has left the building...I think happier than before this last fantastic gig...

RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Sweet Prince (of Darkness also;), the Man, The Legend, the History of Heavy Metal Incarnate...saw him with Black Sabbath in Sofia and Solo in Bucharest. He was a good (and more than virtual friend of mine since 8th grade, faithful during his eighties excess (with a soft spot for the Randy Rhoades tragedy, the Alamo showdown, the Sharon incidents and the Bat kill) , his 90's comeback (No More Tears and Ozzmosis), and the 2000's Sabbath Reunions and peace agreements. I even watched some of The Osbournes, who made him really a star in the US. In my first Doc and Roll festival in Brasov back in 2014 we showed a great doc about him,  God Bless Ozzy Osbourne –2011, after which screening even my mom liked him ;) (they were born the same day... )

...oddly just two days ago I was listening to his penultimatealbum, Ordinary Man . One of my Top albums of 2020. It's an album marked by death and loss, ike Sabbath's The End (2016). His last was Patient No. 9 in 2022, featuring the late now Jeff Beck. 

End of an Era. Full Point. 

As he was a fan of John Lennon, the Working Class Hero song would've suited him (Ozzy had a cover of Lennon's signature song on his cover album Under Cover from 2005)...

                                                      

                                                 "Mama, I'm coming Home".....................as he played it in Birmingham too...

RIP Lalo Schifrin

waiting for this to happen for a while :(, I mean Lalo Schifrin was 93, he was retired for a while, after the The Hidden Dove (2018) his last score, not a notable one. He was one of the last great ones, only John Williams survives that Golden generation (Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, etc).

The Argentinian Piano man is foremost responsible of the Mission; Impossible theme. Six times Oscar nominated, no win :(: Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Fox (1968), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The Amityville Horror (1979) and The Sting II (1983) and for the song “People Alone” from The Competition (1980). Honorary Oscar in 2018.

His signature is on Bullitt, Mannix, Enter the Dragon, The Eagle has Landed, Dirty Harry, and its sequels, from Magnum Force to The Enforcer, the three Rush Hour films. Close collaborator of Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood. Also did the music for Carlos Saura's Tango and many jazz collaboations, with Ray Charles in 1965's Norman Jewison's The Cincinnati Kid.

obit in the Hollywood Reporter 

The last film I saw with his music now (catch-up) is The Mean Season (1985), a thriller with Kurt Russell and Richard Jordan. 

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)

When you have a 400 mill. $ budget you can make the best and bigger film ever made. 

But instead you make a bloated overbearing part 2 to an enuff bloated Mission: Impossible 7: Dead Reckoning (my review here), film that came out in 2023 and disappointed bigtime performing. Keep in mind that movie cost 300 Mill. $ to make. That film was 2h43, this one is 2h49. Add the running times, 'cos basically it's the same film, and it's an almost 6 hours film which could've easily be told in 2hrs. 

so, part 8 it is. No more Dead Reckoning part 2 but A grand finale, as they promised to spare us to do more. The Final Reckoning.  hopefully last.

It's all Tom Cruise. Tom cruise on a plane, TC running (doing what he does best!), TC underwater, TC fighting, TC, TC, TC. 1st Mission was a masterpiece, done by Brian De Palma with the help of 4 screenwriters working their heads off. Then John Woo made TC the coolest there is. Then the next two films, meh. When Chirstopher McQuarrie, screenwriter of The Usual Suspects and attached director to Tom Cruise, took the Mission on its fifth installament it was a cool update. Hitchcock, opera set-up, more paranoia and a lot more running. Rogue Nation was good, Fallout (the 6th) was even better. Plus they were linked. But M:I 8 wants to link all Missions, especially to the original. So, Kitteridge is now the chief of CIA and you get to see that Shea Wigham is the son of Jon Voight (c'mon) and Rolf Saxon shows up 29 years later as William Donloe, from M:I 1996. Actually that was cool, cos it takes a funny line which is a Brian De Plama trademark wink and puts it into the film's reality. In act 3 the film looks like a poor pastiche of Indiana Jones, all geared up in a cave looking to kill The Entity (worst villain of 'em all if you ask me). The plot is ludicrous and it's repeated every ten minutes, every person speaking one at the time, no ever overlapping, like you're in grade A in school. Also an over-the-top pounding soundtrack which replaces Lorne Balfe with his disciples, two eager newcomers (Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey), and they fill the space completely, no scene should not have music and booming sound effects. Plus ADHD editing and curved camera shots. And TC running , oh yeah, did I mention that again? 

Well the world's fate depends on him more than it ever did of James Bond, Indy or Jack Ryan. He's the JC figure, the only one that can saves it. "It is written" (in the script I guess in Italics...)

Also a film made with the support of Department of Defense that gave these people airplane carriers so they can quote from Tom Gun, doesn't impresses me. The dooming feel these days it's not from AI but from the top of the White House and his omonim in Moscow. 

3 out of 5, 6 out of 10 !

*the rating would be even lower if it wouldn't be for the impressive underwater sequence and the plane stunt. Remember, a movie star acts and entertains, we don't go to the movies to see them doing superhuman stunts we don't care about. It's called Moviemagic and movie tricks are doing that, you don't have to sell every film you're in piloting your own, driving fast motorcycles. You're no Steve Mc Queen...

a good review writing what I think also in The Detroit News: Mission Failed. 

RIP Joe Don Baker

He was sheriff Bufford Pusser, Walking Tall. He was Bond's enemy (in The Living Daylights), then he was Bond's friend (GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies). He played mostly tough guys. Last time I re-saw him in Charlie Varrick (Don Siegel, 1974), where he played a ruthless psychotic killer. 

Joe Don Baker was 89.  He died on May 7th 2025.  

Obit in The Hollywood Reporter.