the wild bunch Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you're like me, then you have no shortage of classic films to catch up on, and if you're like me, you can't exactly fork the dough over for every special edition issued for said films (and if you're like me, then you abuse parallel sentence structure like nobody's business). Thankfully, Turner Classic Movies and Warner Bros. have teamed up to offer a good fifteen discs with four movies on each of them for about twenty to twenty-five bucks apiece.

Casablanca, Gigi, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Philadelphia Story, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Searchers, Singin' in the Rain, The Wild Bunch, The Dirty Dozen, The Maltese Falcon and much more -- not too shabby, huh? And here I used to think that Warner Home Video was handiest for Stallone-themed packs (because some of us haven't seen Over the Top, okay?).

Between this and their recent initiative to provide custom-burned copies of archival titles, Warners seems to be doing the most of any studio to preserve their library and make it widely available. For about $20, you could get a movie that few people have, or four movies that you ought to own anyway -- or you could just get several copies of Demolition Man. Priorities, people.

Just in case audiences are too weighed down by her turn in the uber drama My Sister's Keeper, Abigail Breslin, the wonder of Little Miss Sunshine, is adding three more films to her roster.

Variety reports that the young actress has signed on for a role in Gore Verbinski's Rango, plus voice gigs in The Wild Bunch and possibly Zombieland. You might remember that Rango involves Johnny Depp playing a household pet who sets out to discover his true self. There's no word on who Breslin would play, but since she's starring opposite the pirate dynamo, I imagine that it would be either a fellow pet itching for an adventure, or a young girl who doesn't want her pet to run off on a mission of self discovery.

But beyond that, there's the voice role of the lead in The Wild Bunch, which isn't a gun-toting remake, but rather an animated film about some common wildflowers and plants that are attacked by pesky, genetically modified cornstalks. And finally, Breslin is in negotiations to join the horror comedy Zombieland. If she signs on the dotted line, she'll play one of the con-artist sisters (along with Emma Stone) who comes across two men itching to fight the zombies -- Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg.

With this mix, Breslin should continue a pretty stellar career for a young thing -- one that mixes lucrative mainstream work with some rather charming alternative fare. It's not so easy to transcend the world of Olive, but Abigail is doing a heck of a job!

You know how it is on Valentine's Day, if you're not involved with (or married to) anyone. You try to avoid those annoying radio and TV commercials about how the men need to show their love by buying the women in their lives all kinds of fancy things. You attempt to make plans with friends, but they're all hoping for something romantic or planning to mope about their lack of romance. Maybe you join the Anti-Valentine's League, maybe you just try to ignore it all until the hype is over.

But there you are on Valentine's Day night with no plans, and naturally you gravitate toward the time-tested entertainment method of sitting in front of the TV with a good movie. Pizza and/or ice cream might also be part of the viewing process. For years, I liked to curl up with a thin-crust pizza from the local pizza joint, a pint of that Ben and Jerry's ice cream with the chunks of brownies in it, some Dr. Pepper (to be tres Agnes Gooch about it) and my favorite Valentine's movie, Some Like It Hot. After all, it is set around the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, so it's a delightfully sideways hat tip to the holiday. Plus, that glorious last line. But maybe you're in a different mindset on February 14. Here's a list of movies to cover whatever kind of mood might strike you that night, as you ponder which movie you want to spend St. Valentine's Day with.

Oscar-winning actor Ernest Borgnine turned 90 today. Yes, he's still alive, and he's still working. But he would like to be working more. He told the Associated Press this week that few people are interested in hiring him, mostly because they don't know he's still around. If you look at his listing on the IMDb, though, you'll see that the actor is far from unemployed. Sure, he hasn't done anything high profile in decades, but when prompted for his opinion of the movies of today, he acted as though nothing is currently worth his talent.

His attitude seems ballsy even for a player of tough guy roles in The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch and From Here to Eternity. But maybe because I grew up associating Borgnine first with Super Fuzz and then with The Poseidon Adventure, I can't entirely believe that he's spent the past thirty years looking for substantial parts. There had to be an opportunity for a comeback in there somewhere. But if there hasn't been, there is still time for one great swansong. For 90, he seems healthy enough. Considering two of the four movies he liked in 2006 were directed by Clint Eastwood, I would just like to put it out there that Borgnine needs a significant role in Clint's next picture.

Stepping into David Ayer's hotel room, for the first time in my life I felt as if I was shaking hands with a screenwriter who could literally snap me in half without even flinching. It's not that he's muscular, menacing or intimidating -- in fact, he's none of those things. However, as my eyes met his, I could tell the man had traveled (mentally and physically) to some dangerous places. And, although he managed to survive a tough childhood, going on to become one of the most sought-after screenwriters in Hollywood, his gritty past was written all over his face.

While I was a big fan of Ayer's script for Training Day (a film which saw Denzel Washington take home an Oscar for Best Actor), as well as interested in talking about his directorial debut Harsh Times (opening this Friday), I really wanted to know more about Ayer, and what attracted him to such dark, rough material. Here's a guy who grew up on the streets of South Central, Los Angeles, who somehow found a way to escape by joining the Navy and then wound up writing Hollywood screenplays. How does that happen? Well, I did my best to find out ...

Cinematical: What was it about the story and the idea behind Harsh Times that made you so determined to get this thing made? I know you took out a mortgage on your home to finance it yourself -- I mean, what was about it that spoke to you that way?

David Ayer: Well, I wanted to direct and I wrote it with the intention to direct. I know the world, I know the characters and I know how to do it right. And there's also a uniqueness to it because it's so personal and I knew I could really duplicate some of what I've seen in my experiences and thoughts. I couldn't hand it over to someone else, and it was just time for me to direct -- it was time for the career change. I believed in it. It was a Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab Script, and we ended up doing a table reading at the silent movie theater for like 350 people. People were crying at the end, and I'm like okay -- this is a movie. I have no doubt now, this thing could be a movie. So I was just determined to get it to the screen.