In Drillbit Taylor (which opens tomorrow), three kids hire a low-budget bodyguard (Owen Wilson) to help protect them from the school's bully. This got us thinking: What are some of the great on-screen bullies? Those kids you just love to root against because they're written extremely well, offer up top-notch performances and/or remind you of someone from your past. A bully is different from your average movie villain -- they don't tend to carry lethal weapons, or run with a group of deadly terrorists. These are just regular kids with a little too much power thrown their way. Your run-of-the-mill Hollywood bully usually hangs with a group of about two of three of the same sex; guys or girls who don't have many lines, and serve only to make the main bully appear tougher.
Ideally, a great movie bully should have one or more of the following: 1) At least three classic lines. 2) A memorable downfall. 3) Hottie girlfriend or boyfriend. 4.) A name that just says it all.
We put our heads together and came up with seven of the greatest bullies on film. Check them out after the jump ...
Calm down, they aren't filming Back to the Future IV in Manhattan's meat-packing district. But what they are filming there, or were filming a week or so ago anyway, is a music video for an R&B artist named o'Neal McKnight that will feature both Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown and the DeLorean, to boot. Apparently this McKnight guy is a "huge fan" of the BTTF series and was somehow able to talk Lloyd into reprising his character to create a BTTF-themed video for his hit song, "Check Your Coat." Donning the fright-hair and jacket and tool belt for the first time in a long time, Lloyd as Doc Brown encounters McKnight, who is playing a coat-check clerk, and "the duo leap into the past and future, giving McKnight a glimpse into his life and relationship with a beautiful lady whom he meets while at the dance club." BTTF.com has a bunch of photos from the shoot as well as video and a detailed account of the goings on, and it's actually quite interesting to look at.
I'm not all that surprised that Lloyd would don the outfit again, frankly -- he's never struck me as an actor who is a) all that choosy in terms of what he does or b) one who is likely to avoid his most famous creation. In fact, I'd wager that if there were any opportunity at all to continue the adventures of Doc Brown on the big screen, he'd be there in a heartbeat. Never gonna happen, of course. Robert Zemeckis and Co. have said until they're blue in the face that they are not interested in continuing the series -- they would never want to and Universal would never be interested in doing future installments that would have to be sans-Marty. Oh wait ... Zemeckis is Mr. Motion Capture now ... hmmm ... interesting.
Forget the Oscars, the new list is up of the 25 films inducted into the Library of Congress's National Film Board for 2007. Since 1992, the Library has been taking up 25 worthwhile films a year for preservation. Early reports focus on the more well-known, deserving films: Back to the Future (above), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Oklahoma!, and Grand Hotel. Also on the list is 12 Angry Men, an early one by Before the Devil Knows Your Dead's Sidney Lumet, and the George Stevens/Laurence Olivier Wuthering Heights.Dances With Wolves and Days of Heaven, two American-as-all-get-out films, will now be safe in the vaults down in Culpeper, Virginia.
Let's have a look at some of the more obscure names on the list, though. One of my all time favorites is going in: the ultra-low-budget noir In A Lonely Place, with Humphrey Bogart in his best performance -- and yes, I saw Casablanca --- as the rageball screenwriter Dixon Steele, whose drinking problem may have led to murder. Peege(1972) is Randall Kleiser's thesis film at USC film school. John Waters' favorite director (according to the book Shock Value) is better known for The Blue Lagoon, Grease and Big Top Pee Wee. His short about a blind grandmother taken to the old folk's home, is supposed to be in a different class from his subsequent work.
From Lebanon, Kentucky, Our Day is only 12 minutes long; it's amateur filmmaker Wallace Kelly's account of his family between the 1930s and the 1950s. The 1926 Harry Langdon/Frank Capra The Strong Man is terrific. The once popular Langdon is a very odd moon-man comedian who anticipates everyone from Bill Murray to Bugs Bunny. And there's two experimental films being honored: 1969's Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son by Ken Jacobs. "An autopsy of the cinematic experience," raves Scott MacDonald in his new book Canyon Cinema); here, the avant-garde filmmaker revises a primitive 1905 film. He does to a movie what later samplers and rappers would do to old ballads. Glimpse of the Garden (1957) by Marie Menken is just that: a view of her garden and of the bird life therein. It's a fleeting moment preserved for 50 years..and now, we hope, for much longer than that.
I don't know why everyone keeps referring to 17-- the Zac Efron movie in which a 40-year-old guy is suddenly a teen again -- as Bigin reverse. Or, as The Hollywood Reporter writes today: "turns the concept of Big on its head." I guess nobody remembers the George Burns-becomes-Charlie Schlatter comedy 18 Again!Either that or it's simply easier to reference Big because it's a million times more well-known. Anyway, there's another movie 17 will make people think of: Back to the Future. Apparently, Efron's character (aka Matthew Perry's character as a teen) becomes the object of a crush -- from his own daughter! Playing the poor girl, who obviously doesn't realize her own Electra complex, is Michelle Trachtenberg. Also joining the cast, which includes Leslie Mann as Efron/Perry's wife and Trachtenberg's mom, is Melora Hardin ("Jan" on TV's The Office) as a high school principal.
So here's what I find strange about the new plot revelation: how is it the daughter doesn't recognize her own father as a young man? Hasn't everyone seen photos of their parents from when they were younger? At least with Back to the Future, in Lea Thompson's defense she hadn't yet birthed Michael J. Fox, and she had no way of ever having seen his face before he traveled back in time and became the object of her desires. In both scenarios, it is pretty gross to think about seriously. According to the main plot synopsis for 17, the reason Efron/Perry enrolls in high school is to be closer to his kids (hey, another movie this reminds me of: Mrs. Doubtfire). I guess he truly gets his wish in a terribly sick sort of way. Production on 17 begins this month.
Inspired by my last From the Editor's Desk (in which I somewhat ripped off a line from Good Will Hunting and used it during an argument in a shoe store), I decided to continue the geeky movie theme by sharing with you the geekiest movie-related thing I've ever done and then asking for your stories as well. A few months before I got married, I was shooting the sh*t with my best friend when he realized that my wedding date just happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of a very special (yet fictional) moment in movie history. I was getting hitched on November 4th, 2005 -- and at midnight, on November 5th, 2005, it would be exactly fifty years to the day since Marty McFly first arrived in the year 1955. On that day, you'll remember, Doc slipped on a toilet bowl while hanging a clock and envisioned the flux capacitor. Additionally, Marty pushed his father out of the way, was hit by his grandfather's car and attempted to avoid plenty of sexual advances from his young teenage mother.
If I was forced at gunpoint to reveal my favorite movie of all time (and that's really the only way I'd ever pick one movie), then Back to the Future would most likely be my choice. So since my wedding reception would carry over into November 5th, I knew I needed to do something to celebrate. Not only that, but I needed to convince my future wife (who had been waiting for this day her entire life) that including a nod to Back to the Future during our wedding would not be lame and/or make us look like fools in front of 200 other people. But when she saw how much it meant to me, she allowed me to do something special -- something only hardcore BTTF fans would pick up and appreciate. That said, at exactly midnight, with no formal announcement made, my wedding band played Earth Angel and Johnny B Good back-to-back. And as a glided past my best friend on the dance floor, we briefly looked away from our partners and gave each other an all-knowing nod. It was awesome.
To me, nothing defines my awkward childhood better than those irresistible 80's movie tunes. Back in the day, before I saved up my hard-earned cash to purchase the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack on a cassette tape (true story), I would take my boom box, hold it up to the TV and record the songs like that. Some of the time you'd even hear the actors' dialogue pop in -- but I didn't care; if that was the only way to get The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News right that second, so be it. There were loads of songs to choose from while writing this list, and I was tempted to include two from the same movie on several occasions (Footloose, to give one example), but in the end I decided to go with the songs that meant the most to me. The songs I would sing in the shower when I knew my parents weren't home. The songs that showed up at a certain point, kicked tons of ass, and defined a movie. So, without dragging this on any further, I present to you Seven Great 80s Soundtrack Songs ...
Don't You Forget About Me (Simple Minds), The Breakfast Club -- Perhaps the most memorable for any angst-ridden teenager trying to sort out their feelings about high school and the opposite sex, this song and this movie helped define a generation. When the time finally comes in the film for this song to be played, you feel like you've gone through such an emotional journey with the characters -- all of whom found their lives change forever over the course of one, long weekend detention session. Who knows if they ever remained friends after that; if their brief chats in the hallway progressively got shorter and eventually became friendly nods until, finally, they graduated, moved on with their lives, raised families and that whole experience became a distant memory. If it wasn't for that song, The Breakfast Club might have gone the same route -- and instead of becoming a classic, it may have gotten lost amidst a long list of films you remember from time to time, but quite often forget. -- Most Quotable Line: Don't you forget about me.
Danny Barcelona(c.1930-2007) - Drummer for Louis Armstrong who appears in Jazz on a Summer's Day and When the Boys Meet the Girls. He died of complications from cancer April 1, in Monterey Park, California. (Starbulletin)
Ariel Clark(1984-2007) - Son of director Bob Clark, who appears in his father's Baby Geniuses, My Summer Story (aka It Runs in the Family) and I'll Remember April. He died with his father in a car crash April 4. (LA Times)
Bob Clark(1941-2007) - Director of A Christmas Story, Porky's and Baby Geniuses. See my full obit here.
Luigi Comencini(1916-2007) - Italian filmmaker who directed Incompreso (Misunderstood), Don Camillo in Moscow and The Scopone Game. He died April 6. (AP)
Angus Duncan(1936-2007) - Actor who appears in Marlowe, The Magic Sword and Going Ape! He died of cancer March 22. (LA Times)
John Flynn(c.1931-2007) - Director of Out for Justice, Lock Up, Brainscan and Rolling Thunder. He died April 4. (Greencine)
Char Fontane(1952-2007) - Actress who appears in The Punisher (1989) and who was daughter of singer Tony Fontane. She died April 1, in Marietta, Georgia. (Ventura County Star)
Jay Koch(1926-2007) - Former NYPD sergeant who won a Ronald Reagan look-a-like contest in 1980. He impersonated the President in Back to the Future II, Hot Shots! Part Deux and Panther, in which he played Reagan as Governor of California. He died of heart failure March 19, in Port Hueneme, California. (LA Times)
Calvin Lockhart(1932-2007) - Actor (pictured) who played the villains in Cotton Comes to Harlem and Uptown Saturday Night. He also appears in Myra Breckinridge, Predator 2, Coming to America, Wild at Heart and Let's Do it Again, in which he played 'Biggie Smalls'. He died from complications of a stroke March 29, in Nassau, Bahamas. (IMDb)
Salem Ludwig(1915-2007) - Actor who appears in Endless Love, Heartburn, Unfaithful, The Object of My Affection and The Savages, which just premiered at Sundance. He died April 1. (Playbill)
The Browncoats strike again! The wacky fans of Joss Whedon'sFirefly television series, and its feature film spin-off, Serenity, are continuing to show their strength on the internet, as SFX Magazine has declaredSerenity the winner of an online poll, in which readers voted for the best science fiction film. This should be a big blow to George Lucas, whose Star Warshad certainly been the sci-fi fan favorite for most of the last three decades. Star Wars came in 2nd place with only 28% of the votes compared to Serenity's 61%. There was also a sad turnout for fans of Spielberg, Verhoeven and Star Trek, none of whom/which made the grade this time around. The winners, in order after Star Wars, are Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes(1968 version, I hope), The Matrix, Alien, Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator and Back to the Future.
Lucas and his Star Wars franchise also fared badly in CNN's list of best and worst movie battles. Not only did no Star Wars film make it into the best ten, but two of the films held spots in the worst. The Battle of Endor, with its Ewoks, from Return of the Jedi and the Battle of Naboo, with its Jar-Jar, from The Phantom Menace are grouped alongside awful sequences from King Arthur, Duneand Pearl Harbor. Also among the worst, though, is a sequence from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which also features two battles in the best of group. Fortunately for Spielberg and Verhoeven, one film each of theirs was also highlighted among the greatest battle scenes of all time, which was topped by the helicopter attack from Francis Ford Coppola'sApocalypse Now.
The comedy villain is one of the trickiest characters to pull off. Too often, the villain's scenes are there simply to further the "plot," which, in a lot of comedies, is pretty inconsequential. If a comedy even has a true villain, and many don't, scenes focusing on him or her usually drain the movie of life and make the audience eager to get back to the laughs. But a smart comedy creates a villain every bit as funny as the hero(es). Below are my favorite movie slimeballs, in order of release date. I'd love to hear some of yours.
One of the best traits for a comedy villain to have is that he or she is an "Enemy of Fun." You've met people like this. They hate fun. They hate people who have fun. Dean Wormer is a perfect example. In fact, unlike the other bad guys on this list, you can't imagine Wormer ever having had fun at any point in his life. Smileless, humorless, joyless...but hilarious. The crusty, bitter dean is almost a requirement for college movies, and you can feel Wormer's influence in every flick of its type released since. You certainly wouldn't have Dean Pritchard in Old School without Wormer. Animal House is a movie brimming over with jerks, Doug Neidermeyer would have made a perfectly good choice here, too -- frat guys always make great villains. But you've got to have some sympathy for that dude-- he got killed in Vietnam by his own troops.
Best Line: "The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me."
Stopping just short of actually chewing on pieces of scenery, Knight's work in Caddyshack is a masterpiece of taking it over the top. A master of the slow burn, the man is made of simmering anger and rage. Knight more than holds his own against three incredible comedians: Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, and Chevy Chase in his prime. In a lesser movie, Judge Smails would be a generic authority figure, enabling the three comedy stars to do their riffs around him and act out against him. But Knight's Judge is a worthy opponent, and manages to grab just as many laughs as the goofballs. Every bit as influential as Dean Wormer, you can draw a straight line from Judge Smails to say, Shooter McGavin.
Best Line: "I've sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber. Didn't want to do it. I felt I owed it to them."
Anyone else annoyed at the fact that McG calls himself McG? Man, it's these little things that bother me ... and most of the time I have no idea why. In a recent interview with Coming Soon, the We Are Marshall director talked about one of the more (fascinating? ridiculous?) projects his name is currently attached to -- a movie based on Hot Wheels. Ya know, those toy cars you grew up with?
While IMDB lists him as director, McG admitted he will only be producing (gee, I wonder why?) saying, "... it doesn't feel right for me as a director at this time." No sh*t, really? Is that just his way of saying, "There's no way in hell I would jeopardize my entire career on a movie about friggin' Hot Wheels?" McG, whose birth name is Joseph McGinty Nichol (see, the things you learn on Cinematical ... ), also divulged a bit of plot for the film: "We just have a take on that, it's the story of a kid trying to reconcile with his father. It's a kid who steals his dad's race car and ends up going through a sort of "Back to the Future" portal into this world, and he has to reconcile his relationship with his father." Seeing as he threw Back to the Future in there, it seems the race car might really be ... a time machine! Wait, perhaps McG will tell us what this all has to do with, ya know, Hot Wheels: "It's very "Stand by Me", and it should be a good family movie."
Wait, Stand by Me is about a group of kids who find a dead body? So, according to McG, it's Back to the Future meets Stand by Me ... but based on Hot Wheels, the toy. Is it just me, or are you a little dazed and confused right about now? When asked whether it was important to get Hot Wheels in theaters before Speed Racer, he wasn't sure -- the project is still in development (hell?). More on Hot Wheels as it hits the net ...
First up, Edward Burns will be writing a drama set in the fashion world alongside wife Christy Turlington. (Seeing as Burns' last few indie pics were huge flops, perhaps his eye for relationship-type material will garner more attention on the small screen.) Based on an idea of Spielbergs, we're not sure if this has anything to do with another project Spiel-God was interested in -- that one was supposedly written by Rod Lurie and revolved around the "glitzy New York media world." Did Spielberg change it to the "glitzy New York fashion world" and simply bring on Burns to ruin it for him? If it goes to pilot, Burns will also direct. Fantastic.
The second project is based off a script by Scott Gemmill, and its main characters are two American physicists in WWII who discover a way to travel into the future and subsequently come to 2007 in an attempt to aid the war effort ... as well as get into Paris Hilton's pants. (That last part I made up, though everyone knows how kinky those physicists are ... ) However, the film Back to the Future wasn't around in the forties, and so the men soon realize that traveling back and forth can and will affect the space-time continuum. Sounds wonderful ... now give us Indy 4!
It's either that, or save the clock tower, it's your choice. Granted, if you help save the clock tower, then future generations may forget when it was struck by lightning, and of course that'll strand Marty McFly in the past forever, but we digress.
There is a massive and mind-bogglingly complete Back to the Future timeline on Wikipedia that is the effort of some seriously fanatical fans. It details events that were cut from the original scripts (for instance, did you know that Doc Brown and Marty met in 1983 when Marty showed up to sweep the Doc's garage?), the animated series, and meticulous picking apart of the films themselves. It's a real labor of love, and it's in danger.
Wikipedia has some pretty strict policies regarding verifiability, and that leaves the BTTF timeline somewhere between limbo and a hard place. Check out the discussion page where people are chiming in on whether to keep the article or not. So far is a resounding "keep it!" but if you want to give your own opinion on the matter, roll up your sleeves and dive right in. Wikipedia is by the people, for the people.
My two cents on the matter is "keep it." But it goes a bit deeper than that. I've probably seen Back to the Future at least 20 times, and it's ingrained into the folds of my brain (perhaps that explains a lot). This timeline is really an amazing work of fans that detail everything you could possibly want to know about the history of Mill Hill Valley, Doc Brown, the McFly clan, and anything that even comes close to being touched on in the films (Pepsi Free? Invented in 1955, thank you very much). It's a tribute to the appeal of these movies, and a great demonstration of how fans can keep something alive long after the last bits of popcorn have been swept up.
Whenever I think about actors running for office, I think about Back to the Future, specifically Doc Brown's shocked response when Marty tells him that Ronald Reagan is President of the United States in 1985. "Then who's vice president?" asks Doc, "Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jane Wymann is the first lady. And Jack Benny is secretary of the Treasury." It's a little joke that is so perfect, I wouldn't be surprised if Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis revolved the entire script based on that one scenario of trying to explain to someone from the past that a B-movie actor has become the head of the nation.
Nowadays the idea of actors becoming politicians isn't as funny, because there have been so many in office. From the very famous Arnold Schwarzenegger to the lesser known Fred Thompson, they are/were mayors, governors, senators, diplomats, you name it. Apart from those who actually run and/or are elected, there are a number of celebrities with political interests that don't include holding office. Actors such as Warren Beatty, George Clooney and Sean Penn continually gain media attention for their activist campaigns and charity work, and are constantly asked about their desire to run in the future. Just yesterday, Clooney had to remind us that, we "don't want (him) in office," while appearing at an event for his Batman & Robin co-star, Schwarzenegger. Meanwhile, Sean Penn, who plays a politician in his latest film, All the King's Men, and who is controversially known for his liberal politics, recently stated that he also has no desire to run. Of course, this probably won't stop reporters from asking again in the future.
I wonder if the media obsession with politically minded celebrities will ever quit. Will it last until actors no longer hint at being interested? And did all this begin after Reagan took his seat as Governor of California? The thing is, stars of old would probably have made better officials than those of today. The difference is that reporters are now concerned with getting the most controversial scoop possible. But the scary part is the people would more than likely vote a celebrity into office than the best candidate, and for that reason, the star who knows his political limits, and stays within them, is doing the best possible service to his country.
Continuity is one of the most difficult things to manage on a film. A script supervisor is always on set making sure everything in the shooting script or screenplay is covered on film, and also making sure continuity errors (the things that become "goofs" in a film's IMDb listing) are avoided -- or, more realistically, kept to a minimum. Usually this requires meticulous note-taking and careful observation of actors appearances, placement of props, set decoration and other such details. The importance of continuity is best exhibited in a film like Back to the Future Part II, which not only had to maintain its own continuity, but also work with the continuity of the original Back to the Future, since it revisits many of that first film's settings, scenes and shots.
I've always wanted to play the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" sequences of both films at the same time to see how well Robert Zemeckis did with the continuity, but I didn't care enough to buy another VCR or DVD player. Fortunately, however, the internet keeps making dreams come true, and now we can see a split screen showing both films, and check to see how they match up. A guy named Matthew Muhl did the job for us and synced up the 15-minute-long section of the films, and it appears the makers of the sequel were mostly spot on, with the few exceptions being performance based (watch Lea Thompson as she tells Marty that George will drive her home). The two films aren't time-exact, but movies rarely represent real time, so that isn't an error on the part of the filmmakers.
The script supervisors on BTTF2 were Marion Tumen and Alan Greedy -- perhaps they should have been given a special Oscar for continuity.
Yes, the following story deals with a man having sex with a horse. Yes, it was that slow of a news day. Seattle filmmaker Robinson Devor has begun shooting a documentary based on popular story from 2005 in which a man from Enumclaw died after having sex with a horse. We first reported on this story waaaaaay back in October, but now, it seems, things are gearing up. Devor, who premiered his last film Police Beat at Sundance last year, hopes to debut In the Forest There is Every Kind of Bird at Sundance in 2007.
As I've mentioned before, with Pirates of the Caribbean 2 landing in just a few days, Johnny Depp is all over the news this week. According to Contact Music, Stephen Cannell is looking to revive his 21 Jump Street series and turn it into a feature film starring none other than Johnny Depp. You'll remember Depp played Officer Tom Hansen on the original television series, but left the show on bad terms. However, the actor recently said he's keen to bring back the character, but only he gets to play him a certain way. Depp says, "He's out of his mind. He's really old now. But he thinks that he's really young. That I would love to do."
Awhile back, we told you how a huge sneaker fan was desperately trying to get Nike to produce those cool futuristic sneakers Marty Mcfly wears in Back to the Future 2 and sell them to the public. Only one pair has ever existed and they were worn by Michael J. Fox in the film. Well, now that the petition has gathered up over 20,000 signatures, Canadian Ron Al Cabino** has partnered up with an unnamed New York media mogul in the attempt to create a TV campaign to help his cause. Not for nothing, but the jacket Fox wore was so much cooler. Oh, and what about the hovercraft -- how about they make one of those?
**(Thanks, Al Cabino, for emailing to let us know your name is Al, NOT Ron. -eds.)
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Forget the Oscars, the 
I don't know why everyone keeps referring to 
Inspired by 
Danny Barcelona
The Browncoats strike again! The 
Anyone else annoyed at the fact that 
Hey, we finally know why 
It's either that, or save the clock tower, it's your choice. Granted, if you help save the clock tower, then future generations may forget when it was struck by lightning, and of course that'll strand Marty McFly in the past forever, but we digress.
Whenever I think about actors running for office, I think about 
Continuity is one of the most difficult things to manage on a film. A script supervisor is always on set making sure everything in the shooting script or screenplay is covered on film, and also making sure continuity errors (the things that become "goofs" in a film's IMDb listing) are avoided -- or, more realistically, kept to a minimum. Usually this requires meticulous note-taking and careful observation of actors appearances, placement of props, set decoration and other such details. The importance of continuity is best exhibited in a film like 
Odds and ends from a very slow Monday:
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SCOOP: Spider-Man 4 and 5 Might be Shot at the Same Time!
Cinematical Seven: Disney's Awesome Live-Action Kid Adventures
