caligula Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Pineapple Express
It might seem like your everyday stoner comedy, but Pineapple Express is a strange comedic beast. It was helmed by dramatic indie filmmaker David Gordon Green, it brought Huey Lewis and the News back to the world of cinema songwriting, and, of course, it gave us an excellent duo to get high with -- Seth Rogen and James Franco. Buy it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Righteous Kill
Righteous Kill is right, but not in the way that makes the eyes blaze with excitement, but the way that makes you groan in disappointment. While joining heavy weights Robert De Niro and Al Pacino was a big to-do, that was the only noteworthy piece of this police v. serial killer story. Still, it's Rob and Al, so if you're curious: Rent it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Disaster Movie
Oh, if only we could be back in the days of Airplane. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer show no signs of stopping their terrible spoof addiction, and this time it's all about disasters. Need I say more? Skip it on DVD or Blu-ray.

Hit the jump for more new releases.

Clockwise from top left: Get Smart, Transsiberian, Kung Fu Panda, Budd Boetticher Box Set, Planet of the Apes 40th Anniversary Collection.

Welcome to this week's edition of Spin-ematical, chock full of alternatives to election coverage!

Kung Fu Panda
Though some of the celebrity voices were useless, Jack Black is great, and the film itself is pleasant, good-natured, and respectful of Asian culture. Available in at least seven editions, including widescreen, full-screen, Spanish, a Christmas gift set, with and without Secrets of the Furious Five (a 20-minute short), and on Blu-ray; oddly, this doesn't release until Sunday. Buy it.

Transsiberian
Traveling by train in the dead of winter from Beijing to Moscow should be much more restful than what happens to Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer in this adventure / suspense / thriller; Ben Kingsley plays a menacing Russian detective. I'm recommending this one sight unseen because Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist) directed. Includes a 34-minute "making of"; also available on Blu-ray. Replays are inevitable. Buy it.

Get Smart
The bumbling Maxwell Smart as a generic action hero? (*sigh*) Steve Carell makes the character his own by repeating the old catchphrases without enthusiasm and proving to be far too adept for his own -- or the movie's -- good. Anne Hathaway is a very sexy spy, but Dwayne Johnson is miscast and even Alan Arkin struggles. The TV series never took itself too seriously; if only the movie had done the same. Available in widescreen and full-screen editions, as well as a two-disk version and on Blu-ray; a plethora of bonus scenes are included, notably a 5-minute "vomit reel." Ugh. Skip it.

After the jump ... Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray debuts, and Collector's Corner.

After a hunt with the likes of Warner Brothers, Universal and Working Title, Scott Rudin has nabbed the screen rights to I, Claudius, the historical novel by Robert Graves. According to Variety, this deal has been set for a whopping $2 million. See, the BBC had the rights years ago, and had turned the work into a large, 13-part miniseries back in the seventies. When the rights lapsed, Hollywood began salivating. Rudin has come out the big victor, to produce with Alison Owen (they last teamed up for The Other Boleyn Girl).

Nothing else has been set, but word has it that Disney will probably be the studio for the feature, and Leonardo DiCaprio and screenwriter William Monahan will likely sign on. The novel is about Roman Emperor Claudius, written as his secret memoir. It follows the assassination of Julius Caesar, through to Caligula's -- which should make for a good plate of politics and sauciness (although probably not as shocking as Caligula's infamous trip to starring territory). Will they go the British-as-Romans route? Or Americans as Romans? There's lots of ways this could play out, although I'm positive that with the money that's sure to be invested, it will be pretty epic no matter who ends up on the roster. Nevertheless, who would you cast?

Just when you thought the IMDb was the greatest asset to movie lovers, the site has gone and revealed itself to be less a service to the cinematic community and more of a privilege from another corporate power worried about its public image. It isn't clear when the site instituted this, but as of today the IMDb has a search filter that makes it difficult to locate some titles, specifically pornographic or otherwise sexually explicit titles. These titles include the usual XXX fare, but also include more mainstream films like John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus and Caligula, which stars Golden Globe winner Helen Mirren.

They aren't gone from the database, though. Shortbus can be found by way of Mitchell, who shows up when searched. The same goes for Caligula, which can be found in a roundabout way via its stars. But the IMDb isn't only filtering out the titles, it is also filtering out some performers who appear in adult titles. At least that's how it seems. The Rabbi Report experimented with the IMDb search and discovered that while most of the Shortbus cast doesn't show up, some large profile porn stars do show up. As further examples, I tested out the names Jenna Jameson, John Holmes and Ron Jeremy -- all were easily searched. Then I looked up The Brown Bunny and the documentary Inside Deep Throat -- neither was easily located.

First came the movie that garnered no stars from Roger Ebert. It was a classic case of too many hands in the pot. There was the Penthouse head who wanted hardcore sex, the writer struggling to keep his interpretation, the director and star who wanted to re-vamp the script, and the set designer whose grand ideas fell apart and created more chaos in the production. By the end, not even great actors could save the film.

Last year, Karina Longworth shared news of the revival of Caligula by Francesco Vezzoli, an Italian artist who once staged a performance of Veruschka knitting on a bench for days on end, or more specifically, four. The Cosmic Galerie in Paris claims that he was born in 19671 -- typo or existential birth date crisis? Perhaps being caught between '67 and '71 fuels his quirky art. In a world where fans re-think old films, Vezzoli brought one hell of a cast of stars together to make a faux trailer, specifically named – Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula.

An exercise in the deliciously inappropriate, the short film/trailer is so over-the-top that it seems real. It brings back Vidal for a brief introduction, and adds a cast that ranges from the wonderfully campy Karen Black to the Oscar-nominated Helen Mirren, who starred in the original. The clip is now on YouTube, so use our "Read" link to see it in all its glory. Remember -- this is, after all, the story of the man who might be the most sexually deviant person in history, so you must be over 18 and it's definitely NSFW. Log in to the site to confirm your age and enjoy.

 
Reader Emily has passed on a few more links re: artist Francesco Vizzoli's trailer for a remake of 70's soft-core masterpiece, Caligula. There are tons of photos at artnet, including images of stars Milla Jovovich, Helen Mirren and Gore Vidal. Actor Glenn Shadix has more photos on his blog, where he talks about his work in the film. Shadix suggests that Quentin Tarantino was cast as Caligula; as interesting as that sounds like it might be, every other source confirms that Courtney Love played the role. In his diary for ArtForum, David Rimanelli essentially makes it clear that the trailer is a stand-alone artwork (read: it advertises a feature that isn't going to be made), but still calls it Vizzoli's "best film to date." And, finally, Donatella Versace, who costumed stars as disperate as Benicio Del Toro and Karen Black (Karen Black!) for the project, discusses surmounting the challeges therein in VOGUE.