(I watched this as a part of my intro to film class)
This is Steven Spielberg's very first feature length film, way before he won your hearts with E.T. and made Jewish people badasses in Munich . Dennis Weaver (Gunsmoke) stars as an ordinary man traveling along the highway who finds himself in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with the driver of a gas tanker. Did it continue in the Spielbergian tradition of rocking my world?
If you've never heard of Duel before, that's because it was a TV movie in the early 70's. The plot probably sounds familiar as the 2003 Paul Walker/Steve Zahn movie Joyride is pretty much a complete ripoff of this. Nevertheless, it's a historic film for introducing Spielberg's immense talents as a filmmaker. The screenplay is from Richard Matheson, who wrote the novel "I Am Legend", which was adapted into the 2007 Will Smith blockbuster of the same name.
Duel is essentially a really long car chase. Dennis Weaver, in all his 70's porn star glory, seriously pisses off a truck driver by passing him on the highway. He spends the rest of the movie driving away from him at high speeds. Spielberg maintains suspense for a while with his uniquely awesome camera placement, but as expected, this grows tiresome. I was on the edge of my seat until the final 15 minutes, when I started to realize that I really wanted this movie to end. There's a limit to how much 80 mph driving a man can stand until he needs to see an explosion. I feel like my mind is numbed from watching intense vehicle carnage in movies like Death Race, so I can't appreciate the simple one-on-one car action seen in Duel .
The only real dialogue in this movie comes from Weaver's internal ramblings. Like any rational person, he can't understand why this driver is so hell-bent on killing him. For a film like this, character development is unnecessary and there's hardly any. There's an interesting interval in a diner which displays Weaver's paranoia. Otherwise, it's just shot after shot of two cars engaging in a modern day Wild West gunfight, complete with tumbleweeds rolling along the ground.
Unless you are a devoted fan of Spielberg, don't bother with this. It has some pretty neat direction but it's nothing more than an above-average made for TV movie.
** out of ****
Enjoy your egg whites.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Death by Semi - Duel (1971) Review
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Billions of Blue Blistering Barnacles! A Tintin Movie!
Remember this guy?
Well, he's coming to the big screen in 2011, courtesy of a couple of dudes named Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. What kind of mediocre talent would work with these hacks? Let's take a look...
For those unfamiliar with comic books about Belgian reporters, the guy with the weird hair is Tintin. He and his dog Snowy had some pretty amazing adventures in the comic strips printed between 1923 and 1976. You may also remember him from the equally cool cartoon series that aired on Nickelodeon in the 90's. Basically, Tintin went around the world foiling bad guys in Egypt, China, Tibet, Palestine, Peru, and other locales. The comics and cartoons were a nice mix of humor and surprisingly hardcore action.
Watching this theme again sure does make me happy.
So Tintin is getting a three picture deal. The first will be directed by Spielberg. Peter Jackson will take over the second. The thought of these two working together is a dream come true. The third director is to be determined, but I have my fingers crossed for Quentin Tarantino.
Even better is the team they complied to write the script. The headliner is Edgar Wright, who you may remember from rocking your world with his screenplay/direction of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz . He's joined by Doctor Who scribe Stephen Moffat and some guy named Joe Cornish. Both Moffat and Wright are brilliant at combining thrills and comedy, which is the essence of every Tintin adventure.
And oh yeah, it's going to be a motion-capture 3D film. Just like Beowulf and The Polar Express . Hopefully the technology will improve in the next few years...
The Cast
Tintin is Jamie Bell. of Billy Eliot and Defiance .
Captain Haddock, his foul-mouthed best friend will be played by Andy Serkis. Serkis already used motion capture to play Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series, so he knows what's up.
Doppelganger detectives Thomson and Thompson will be played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the leads in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz . Even though they look nothing like each other. To me, it doesn't matter because Pegg and Frost are the best comedy duo since Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.
The new 007, Daniel Craig, will make an appearance has the villain of the film, a pirate named Red Rackham. I couldn't find a picture of Red Rackham but he shows up at 0:35 in the video above. Since we know Rackham will be featured, it can be assumed that the first picture will follow the Tintin classics The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure .
The cast is rounded out by one of my personal favorite actors, Mackenzie Crook. He's great as Gareth Keenan in the UK version of The Office but he's more famous as the pirate with a wooden eye in the Pirates trilogy.
I haven't been this excited for a movie since Indiana Jones 4. I've been reading Tintin for as long as I have been able to read. We have pretty much the entire collection (except Tintin in Tibet ) at my house. And now Spielberg, Jackson, and Edgar Wright are working on it? There is a god. Plus, George Lucas isn't around to screw things up. Unless he's the third director. Ye gads...
I will leave you with a classic Gareth moment.
