Downfall Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's not exactly original for someone to use this clip from the 2004 film Downfall and change around the dialogue. We've seen it countless times before, with the most recent being Hitler's reaction to the death of Michael Jackson. But the videos are only as good as the person writing the dialogue, and I'm sorry if you don't agree with me here -- but this one just cracked me the hell up.

In the video after the jump, watch as Hitler freaks out over the failure of James Cameron's Avatar trailer, comparing it to The Land Before Time 3 (among other things) with lines like, "He should have left the remake of Ferngully: The Last Rainforest to Lucas!" Thankfully not everyone is hating on Avatar as much as Hitler, and as our own William Goss and Jessica Barnes recently reported, the sneak preview footage in 3D was pretty fantastic to watch.

Will Avatar turn out to be the bomb Hitler thinks it is? Or will it redeem itself by wowing audiences in theaters this December 18? Guess we'll see ... but in the meantime, check out Hitler's hilarious Avatar reaction after the jump.

• Bloodrayne - Teutonic terror Uwe Boll directs movies no more than gravity directs objects to Earth. His grasp of pithy things like story and character development is nearly non-existent, and his penchant for adapting video games has earned him a reputation as a sort of idiot savant (only without the savant part), kind of like if the kid on the porch in Deliverance only knew how to play the riff that Vanilla Ice nicked from Queen's "Under Pressure". His latest, a shameless Blade ripoff about a half-human, half-vampire avenger (Kristianna Loken), is miscast, barely written and staged with the skill of a spastic with cataracts. Currently residing on the IMDB's Bottom 100 (at #34), it and Boll's rotting body of work have elevated the oeuvre of Ed Wood, whose non-charting Plan 9 From Outer Space was once considered the worst film ever made, to common hack status. At least the inclusion of the free PC version of the Bloodrayne 2 video game will help soothe buyer remorse.
 

Bernd Eichinger, the writer-producer whose masterful Downfall broke the long-held German taboo against the portrayal of Adolf Hitler on the big screen, will be undertaking another source of national shame for his next project. According to Variety, Eichinger is currently working with writer Stefan Aust on an adaptation of the latter's Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, an examination of the 1970s terrorist group (also known as the Red Army Faction, or RAF) that has been described as "the most important standard work for the history of the left-revolutionary terrorism in Germany."

Though Eichinger spent nearly two decades in total on Downfall, he says the Baader Meinhof project is coming along with surprising speed, and feels the film will be made "in the foreseeable future." The producer suggests that the immediacy of this new film's subject matter may make it ultimately even more controversial than his Hitler work, if only because "This is a chapter in German history that's not really been dealt with and a lot of historical facts are only being discovered or disclosed now."

Eichinger has a LOT on his plate right now and is notorious for his slow script-development, so it's anyone's guess when Baader Meinhof will start shooting. That said, however, given the depth and seriousness of Downfall, he seems to be the prefect man to undertake this issue, and his effort will probably be well worth the wait.

The London Film Critics' Circle handed out its annual awards last night and, shock of shocks, they gave best picture to Brokeback Mountain, and best director to - guess who - Ang Lee. The award for best screenplay, though, went to Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco for Crash, giving the film yet another boost heading into the Oscar ceremony.

Refreshingly, however, several of the Circle's other awards were given to people who have been largely ignored by American critical organizations. Though no one has yet seen fit to name King Kong best actor, his costar Naomi Watts took home the best actress award, while the consistently astounding German actor Bruno Ganz was recognized for his performance as Adolf Hitler in Downfall, which was also named best foreign film. Meanwhile, in the Brits Only! acting categories, The Constant Gardener costars Ralph Fiennes and Oscar nominee and Golden Globe-winner Rachel Weisz took home the trophies.