'Banshee' review: Amish should protest
THE SHOW "Banshee"WHEN|WHERE Premieres Friday at 10 p.m. on Cinemax.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT After serving 15 hard years upstate, a man (we never do learn his name) is finally released. Brooding, unshaven, violently impulsive, he has scores to settle and some stolen loot to locate. He was a master thief back in the day, and now needs to find a former accomplice -- Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevic) leading a respectable life as a wife and mom in Pennsylvania Amish country.
He heads to Banshee County and locates a bar where he witnesses the murder of the town's brand-new sheriff. Since no one has yet to lay eyes on the sheriff, he assumes his identity: Meet Banshee's newest lawman, Lucas Hood (Anthony Starr). The mayor wants him to take down Amish-born crime boss Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen). Meanwhile, there's a crime syndicate run by burly men with thick foreign accents that wants to take out Hood. The show was developed by Alan Ball, the former "Six Feet Under" and "True Blood" showrunner.
MY SAY Pop culture's current and hopefully passing obsession with the Amish (the reality series "Breaking Amish" and "Amish Mafia," the TV movie "An Amish Murder") takes an ominous turn with "Banshee," or -- if not "ominous" -- certifiably ridiculous.
This newcomer is like a cheap crime potboiler -- of the kind you bought off the rack in the good ol' days for a buck. For those hundred cents, you'd reliably get a grizzled hero fast with his fists (and the ladies), plenty of soft porn, graphic violence, implausible plotting, farcical dialogue and cliches happily pile-driving their way into other cliches. (Plus, Russian accents for the bad guys that would be rendered in prose thusly: "Ve VILL make you talk. ... Ve have VAAAAYS.") That's "Banshee" -- but also compulsively watchable, even though you may wonder what compelled you in the first place. Bonus points to New Zealand-born Starr, who's a good enough action lead to make you wonder why he's slumming it here. Demerits to the producers for turning the unsuspecting Amish into collateral damage once again.
BOTTOM LINE Check your brain at the door -- and, while you're at it, hand over your taste, judgment and sophistication, too. "Banshee" is baloney, but viewed as pure camp, there are some good action sequences and amusing moments.
GRADE C
BANSHEE Series Premiere Review
Posted January 8, 2013 by Jerome Wetzel
CINEMAX premieres a new series this Friday, January 11th at 10 p.m. Entitled BANSHEE, the show sees a man (Antony Starr, Outrageous Fortune) get out of prison after fifteen years served for thievery. Hs tracks down his partner in crime to get his fair share from the robbery that put him behind bars, only to find that she has assumed a new identity as upstanding citizen Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevic, Casiono Royale), has a family, and says that their take is long gone.
What’s a directionless guy to do in a situation like that? Drink, of course. But as he sits in Sugar Bates’ (Frankie Faison, The Wire) bar, he is drawn into a conflict that results in the death of the new sheriff. Since no one has yet seen this sheriff, and the mysterious protagonist has no where else to go, he assumes the identity of Lucas Hood, law man of the town of Banshee.
The first half of the pilot is exactly what one might expect from a Cinemax series. There is lots of action, gratuitous nudity, and gruesome injury. It’s the typical high-octane thriller, set on the small screen, rather than the big. For those tuning in just for this type of thing, the series will definitely deliver.
But as the episode plays out, BANSHEE begins to take on more of a Justified feel, a definite good thing. The man now known as Hood may be a criminal, but he has some type of moral code. He is good to Bates, and there isn’t any sense that he is a threat to Carrie. He sticks his nose in where it doesn’t belong, but only to defend those who need defending.
The town on Banshee has plenty of problems for Hood to solve. It is practically run by the ruthless Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen, Hitman), who owns a slaughterhouse, and is from an Amish family. He will be good to you if you do what he wants, and he does have affection for his father, who still lives by the old ways. But he’s not trustworthy, is a control-hungry, perverse S.O.B., and he certainly doesn’t have the public’s best interests at heart.
This sets up a typical hero story. Hood will try to clean out the corruption, while also dodging his past, which threatens to come back to haunt him. He has to deal with his new police department, especially senior office Brock (Matt Servitto, The Sopranos), who had expected to take over, and Hood has also awakened old feelings in Carrie, whose daughter, Deva (Ryann Shane, Lights Out), is probably his. So there’s a lot pulling the lead character in many directions, but we’re sure he will handle it all and do the right thing. He has to, right?
Unfortunately, this leaves a number of pilot holes. For instance, where did Hood get this sense of right and wrong? Are we expected to believe that his misdoings were in the Robin Hood vein, only stealing from those who deserve it? What would motivate a guy like that to get involved in the going-ons of a small town he knows nothing about? No good reason is given.
More importantly, how can our main character get away with becoming Lucas Hood? No one in Banshee may have met Hood yet, as he is hired remotely, but that doesn’t mean they’ve never seen him. Surely, any background check run would have included viewing pictures of the man? While the new Hood does have his friend Job (Hoon Lee, Premium Rush) work his magic on the web, isn’t this too little, too late? And how long before Hood’s family or friends come to check up on him, or google search Hood’s name to see the new face?
The cast is good. I have no complaints about any of them, who all seem fully invested, and sell their parts just fine. Starr is appropriately brooding, while Thomsen can send chills down one’s spine with the best of them. Sexy Milicevic, thankfully, actually seems like more than just eye candy, and Faison and Lee could be more than sidekicks, if the story ever calls for them to be, which it probably won’t.
Cast doesn’t matter as much, though, when it seems like BANSHEE is willing to put thrills ahead of story. That’s a shame, considering there are enough interesting elements here to build something on. That’s where it parts ways from Justified, which has the same sort of bad-boy protagonist and Western style, but relies more on believable twists that make sense and enriching back story, rather than excuses to shove steak sauce bottles into someone’s head. Maybe this is what Cinemax viewers want; the network is known for its action. But it’s not what a discerning TV viewer wants, and when it’s possible to have both, it’s a shame that the execution doesn’t quite cut it.
Banshee: Season One
by Mike LeChevallier on January 8, 2013
Cinemax's new action-drama series, Banshee, aims to capitalize on the minor triumph of the cable network's Strike Back by delivering a sparingly entertaining ex-con-impersonates-a-sheriff revenge tale that utilizes True Blood creator Alan Ball's fertile sexy-meets-gory expertise to supplement the material's lack of humanism. Dark and cheerless, with a blurred shaky-cam aesthetic that makes even the pastoral Amish countryside of Pennsylvania appear thoroughly Hollywood-ized, Banshee, much like its short-tempered antihero (played by Antony Starr, doing his best hard-edged Bradley Cooper imitation), suffers from an identity crisis. Introducing stray plotlines and ancillary characters at an accelerated pace, long before much a solidified central arc is cemented, this violent fable feels like a cadaver being pulled in a dozen different directions.
The fact that Banshee takes so long to reveal its ultimate Big Bad, the mysterious Rabbit (Ben Cross), is somewhat forgivable, as multiple color-filtered flashbacks illustrating the diamond heist that landed Starr's "master" thief in the slammer slowly build tension for the characters' inevitable bloody reunion.
In a moderately interesting deviation from the norm, the series spends the majority of its early episodes delving into the mad quirks of a more widely appealing secondary antagonist, Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), whose devious mitts orchestrate the fate of Banshee's underground dealings. The character is one of the show's most amusing diversions. He has a soft spot for the Amish community (his estranged father is among them), as well as a fetish for bedding prostitutes donning Amish garb, and his unrelenting volatility results in some of Banshee's tensest, grisliest moments, though they're too few and far between.
Where Banshee routinely excels is during its kinetic action sequences, which range from a well-staged car chase/shootout in the streets of Manhattan to a gruesome barroom melee that includes a couple of impalings, a bullet hole through a hand, and a bottle of steak sauce shoved down an unfortunate assailant's throat. These scenes all take place in the confines of the patchy pilot episode, and work as absorbing stopgaps between passages of odd dramatic meandering.
The series slides into banal case-of-the-week territory with a barnhouse rave that has kids dropping dead from a tainted batch of Proctor's designer narcotics, all the while drawing Hood closer to his former lover, who now has a husband, two children, and goes by the name Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevic). Even Carrie's angst-ridden teenage daughter, Deva (Ryann Shane), quickly becomes more developed than Hood, evolving from a snotty stereotype to a vulnerable, humane character who provides some much-needed depth to the proceedings when her boyfriend suddenly collapses from an overdose. The scene in which Deva is left buried beneath the ravers' glowsticks and waving arms, screaming at the top of her lungs for help, is demonstrative of Banshee as a whole: neither a clear message nor steady mood can be properly discerned amid the taxing commotion.
Alan Ball's 'Banshee': TV Review
The Bottom Line
Violence, sex and intrigue are all wrapped up in better-than-expected writing.The Cinemax drama comes from the "True Blood" vet and Emmy-winning "House" director Greg Yaitanes.
This review first appeared in the Jan. 18, 2013 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.It’s always a welcome sign when creatively dormant — some even might say pointless or redundant — cable channels come to life. These days, most are finding their awakening via scripted material, which can be a real gift to viewers.
Credit Cinemax, the HBO sister channel best known by its nickname “Skin-emax,” for jumping into the scripted game with Strike Back, a surprisingly entertaining drama that recently finished a successful second season and will return in 2013. (Like all channels trying to launch, or relaunch, shows, there will be misses, and Hunted, another series with fine potential, just never caught on with viewers.)
Now on Jan. 11 comes Banshee, an hourlong show about a master thief-turned-con man and his post-prison attempt to steer clear of the gangsters he betrayed in the past.
Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler created the show and enlisted True Blood’s Alan Ball to help guide the project and Emmy-winning director Greg Yaitanes (House) to set the mood and feel. In doing that, they didn’t depart too much from what Cinemax is finding to be a good formula: action, violence, sex and intrigue all wrapped up in better-than-expected writing that puts more intelligence than cliches into the process.
Banshee certainly has the potential to bust out. It features New Zealander Antony Starr (the Australian TV series Rush) as Lucas Hood, who years ago worked with a secretive and vicious Ukrainian mobster named Rabbit (Chariots of Fire’s Ben Cross) before doing something he probably shouldn’t have, hence the constant threats on his life.
After serving a 15-year stint in prison, Hood’s first priority is to track down a fellow thief and the love of his life, who’s now living in Banshee, Pa. To track her, he goes to Job (Hoon Lee), a transvestite hair salon owner by day but also a dangerous criminal who’s a com- puter hacker and expert at identity switches.
But once Hood lands in Banshee, he realizes that his old flame is now Carrie Hopewell (Ivana Milicevic), a married mother of two using an assumed name and fitting in effort- lessly around the town. Of course, it’s always a bit of a stretch when thrillers and crime stories go in for the elaborate, and in Banshee that happens when Hood’s in a small bar and meets the new sheriff of Banshee, who starts his first day after coming out from the Pacific Northwest.
A couple of thug moves later, the new sheriff is dead, and that’s when Hood assumes his identity. As sheriff, the cover gives him a place to hide out from Rabbit and his assassins as well as an opportunity to butt heads with Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen), a former Amish member and current kingpin who runs every- thing in Banshee that can turn a profit. He’s untouchable and knows it — but he doesn’t know Hood and his own brand of danger.
Yes, it can often sound like a pulp setup bound to go sideways, but Banshee ends up being taut, entertaining and smart enough, and you won’t completely turn your brain off.
Starr is intriguing, and the tone set by Tropper and Schickler hooks you immediately. Yaitanes has infused the first hour with the kind of directing that makes it feel like a movie, with big flourishes and well-constructed smaller moments. The series is shot in and around North Carolina, but the more rural elements of Pennsylvania come through distinctly to give the series a sense of place.
The writers have assembled a number of interesting characters and dole out the back- stories slowly and with an assured hand. You get the sense after five episodes of Banshee that the series is going to get deeper and better. That’s a nice promise, evidence that Cinemax is fully in the scripted game.
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20 Questions with Kelly Overton by Bethany Joy Lenz
She is deeply compassionate, thoughtful and sensitive, fueled by the passion of a true artist and a tough-as-nails determination to grab life by the you-know-what. And she's a great mom to my daughter's friend :)
You can catch Kelly in upcoming episodes of The CW's Beauty and the Beast. In the meantime, here's Ms. Overton's answers to Wish You Were Here's 20 Questions....
xo BJL
20 QUESTIONS
Were you named after anyone?
My middle name is Anne, which is my grandmother's name.
Do you like your own handwriting?
I'm not crazy about my cursive, but I love writing print. I developed a habit in high school of randomly throwing in capital letters where they don't belong and it's always stuck. Back when hand writing was the main way of corresponding as opposed to email. It was such an art, an expression and I loved being creative with it.
What would your superpower be if you could choose one?
Definitely flying...I dream about flying all the time...maybe it comes from my childhood obsession with vampires?
Are you an Optimist or Pessimist?
I lean towards pessimist but I'm optimistic that's changing!!
What do you collect?
Not a big collector now but when I was a kid I was obsessed with pencils tops...you know, pencils that had like a toy on the end instead of an eraser...I had dozens, unsharpened.
What movie would your friends be surprised that you like?
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
What are your favorite smells?
Fresh lilac. Christmas trees. Pizza. Grass....the kind you play sports on, not the other kind. Snow.
Coffee or Tea?
Definitely coffee
Wine or Beer?
Depends, but I love a cold beer.
What is the best thing you've ever eaten? (Where?)
Maoz Falafel Barcelona, Spain. And any homemade pizza made by my friend Aaron Ginsburg.
Mac or PC?
Apple baby
What are you listening to right now?
I have a hard time listening to music and simultaneously being present doing something else...music always trumps my attention...so right now I'm listening to birds chirping...
What career would you pursue in another life?
Psychology
My daughters voice, her laugh. The cello. A fire. A football game in the distance. Church bells.
What sound or noise do you hate?
Parents yelling at their kids. Snoring. A ticking clock.
Mountains or Beach?
Beach!!!
Cook or Bake?
Bake
Do you go to restaurants and movies by yourself?
Yes
What is your favorite fairy tale or childhood story?
I've always loved Peter Pan....that flying thing again :)
What would you tell the 13 year old you?
"For the love of Pete, put down the tweezers!'
* Wouldn't it be great if recently divorced Bethany Joy Lenz (Haley of One Tree Hill fame) somehow ends up on True Blood lezzing it up with pal Kelly Overton on True Blood. Talk about nudity surprise of 2013!
In Beth own words at her site:
I've been in the entertainment business for over 15 years and not a lot surprises me anymore. I've seen actors trade sex for roles, I've seen Extras on sets throw themselves at stars and producers, I've been propositioned, pressured into things I didn't want to do, I've tried to find my balance between being too stubborn and too loose, I've been inspired by Hollywood and also so disillusioned with it that I've almost quit altogether... I've seen it all. Or, at least I thought I had...
Remarkably for all her hatred of oversexualized American pop culture, Beth is a huge fan of True Blood.
All signs points to a quick return to another network show in near future but at 32...maybe just maybe Beth will be tempted to get truly sexy.
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Anne Vyalitsyna by Mariano Vivanco
from JUNIETSY DE MARCOSModel : Anne Vyalitsyna
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Lingerie magic with Mise En Cage by Pierre Dal Corso for Mise En Cage
Model: ?
“Spend a night together”: Italian photographer Maurizizo Bo and modeled by Alessia M. and Alessandra M.(?).
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10 Movie Predictions For 2013
With the release of Texas Chainsaw last weekend and Gangster Squad heading into cinemas this Thursday, it’s clear that the year in film is well under way, and with that comes a series of expectations, even prejudices, about what’s going to come our way in the next 12 months. Some of these predictions will seem obvious, some will not, and some are going to be completely wrong, informed by everything we’ve seen so far, and sure to be betrayed by either a director failing to fulfil their promise, deceptively good marketing, or even on the odd occasion a filmmaker proving us completely wrong for the better. Like any year, 2013 is going to be a rollercoaster ride of pleasant surprises, crushing disappointments, and plenty of awesome movies that we knew were going to be from the outset.
Here are 10 movie predictions for 2013.
In one of the more unexpected movie rivalries to kick off the year, 2013 sees Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger releasing movies within two weeks (or a week if you live in the UK) of one another, with Arnie’s The Last Stand dropping first, and then Sly’s Bullet to the Head slamming into cinemas on February 1st. What’s clear from the trailers for each is two very different movies; The Last Stand appears self-aware, drawing attention to Arnie’s age, and also has the novelty factor going for it, that this is the Austrian Oak’s first starring feature since his comeback. Bullet to the Head, though directed by legendary filmmaker Walter Hill, has all the look and feel of a humourless straight-to-video action flick, which instead of noting Stallone’s age, in fact seems to be pretending that he’s still about 30, and can therefore apparently stand toe-to-toe with Jason Momoa, who is almost exactly half Stallone’s age!
Given all this evidence, one suspects The Last Stand might even end up Fresh on the Tomatometer, maybe scraping around the 60% mark, whereas Bullet will likely score around 20%. Though Bullet might be a box office success, we expect the novel value of The Last Stand will ensure that Arnie trounces him financially.
There’s no doubting that A Good Day to Die Hard will be a box office hit; it features Bruce Willis returning to his signature role, for Christ’s sake! What’s more surprising is that the Die Hard series has had a pretty consistent critical reception, with the only one dropping to Rotten status being Die Hard with a Vengeance (a surprise given that it’s far better than either the second or fourth films). Still, we expect this fifth film is likely to tip the balance a little, given the so-so trailers released so far, which don’t at all give off the vibe of a Die Hard film, and instead give the impression of a relatively generic, slick action film. Director John Moore, who previously helmed the likes of the awful Max Payne, doesn’t give us much hope, nor does the uninspired casting of a bland-looking unknown as John McClane’s son.
Hopefully the action will deliver so decisively that this doesn’t matter, but I’m extremely sceptical right now. This might be an instance where low expectations are a good thing.
Hardly a revelatory prediction, albeit a bet that’s not as safe as we thought it was two or three months ago. Argo was released to overwhelming critical acclaim, and was also a modest box office success, being regarded by many critics as one of the best, if not the best film of the year. However, like ever year, there are those late-bloomers in awards season that threaten to crash the party, such as Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln, which had strong critical acclaim and are almost certain to rack up Best Picture nominations. Still, Argo continues to win many precursor awards – if perhaps not as many as it would have liked – and is regarded as an Academy-friendly mix of taut storytelling and sly humour. As a result, it’s the perfect film to win Best Picture, and at the same time cement Ben Affleck as one of the truly great modern filmmakers.
* Winning an Oscar doesn't mean you're automatically a great director. Affleck is an extremely competent film-maker but he needs to fatten his behind-the-cam resume and tackle more diverse genre before we can anoint the title of "Great" on Benny. Both Gone Baby Gone and The Town are top notch efforts but Affleck cleverly surrounds himself with best of Hollywood had to offer in technical and arts department. More importantly there is no distinctive or signature 'Affleck-ian touches' in his movies beside excellent acting and it'll be a while before we can put him on same level in annals of modern celluloid masters such as Jim Cameron and Chris Nolan. Don't forget...Alfred Hitchcock - arguably the greatest director ever in movie making history - never won an Oscar. At the moment Affleck is in Robert Redford mode but thankfully safely miles away from doing a Kevin Costner!
Here are 10 movie predictions for 2013.
10. Arnie Destroys Stallone At The Box Office
In one of the more unexpected movie rivalries to kick off the year, 2013 sees Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger releasing movies within two weeks (or a week if you live in the UK) of one another, with Arnie’s The Last Stand dropping first, and then Sly’s Bullet to the Head slamming into cinemas on February 1st. What’s clear from the trailers for each is two very different movies; The Last Stand appears self-aware, drawing attention to Arnie’s age, and also has the novelty factor going for it, that this is the Austrian Oak’s first starring feature since his comeback. Bullet to the Head, though directed by legendary filmmaker Walter Hill, has all the look and feel of a humourless straight-to-video action flick, which instead of noting Stallone’s age, in fact seems to be pretending that he’s still about 30, and can therefore apparently stand toe-to-toe with Jason Momoa, who is almost exactly half Stallone’s age!
Given all this evidence, one suspects The Last Stand might even end up Fresh on the Tomatometer, maybe scraping around the 60% mark, whereas Bullet will likely score around 20%. Though Bullet might be a box office success, we expect the novel value of The Last Stand will ensure that Arnie trounces him financially.
9. A Good Day To Die Hard Is A Critical Flop
There’s no doubting that A Good Day to Die Hard will be a box office hit; it features Bruce Willis returning to his signature role, for Christ’s sake! What’s more surprising is that the Die Hard series has had a pretty consistent critical reception, with the only one dropping to Rotten status being Die Hard with a Vengeance (a surprise given that it’s far better than either the second or fourth films). Still, we expect this fifth film is likely to tip the balance a little, given the so-so trailers released so far, which don’t at all give off the vibe of a Die Hard film, and instead give the impression of a relatively generic, slick action film. Director John Moore, who previously helmed the likes of the awful Max Payne, doesn’t give us much hope, nor does the uninspired casting of a bland-looking unknown as John McClane’s son.
Hopefully the action will deliver so decisively that this doesn’t matter, but I’m extremely sceptical right now. This might be an instance where low expectations are a good thing.
8. Argo Wins “Best Picture” At The Oscars
Hardly a revelatory prediction, albeit a bet that’s not as safe as we thought it was two or three months ago. Argo was released to overwhelming critical acclaim, and was also a modest box office success, being regarded by many critics as one of the best, if not the best film of the year. However, like ever year, there are those late-bloomers in awards season that threaten to crash the party, such as Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln, which had strong critical acclaim and are almost certain to rack up Best Picture nominations. Still, Argo continues to win many precursor awards – if perhaps not as many as it would have liked – and is regarded as an Academy-friendly mix of taut storytelling and sly humour. As a result, it’s the perfect film to win Best Picture, and at the same time cement Ben Affleck as one of the truly great modern filmmakers.
* Winning an Oscar doesn't mean you're automatically a great director. Affleck is an extremely competent film-maker but he needs to fatten his behind-the-cam resume and tackle more diverse genre before we can anoint the title of "Great" on Benny. Both Gone Baby Gone and The Town are top notch efforts but Affleck cleverly surrounds himself with best of Hollywood had to offer in technical and arts department. More importantly there is no distinctive or signature 'Affleck-ian touches' in his movies beside excellent acting and it'll be a while before we can put him on same level in annals of modern celluloid masters such as Jim Cameron and Chris Nolan. Don't forget...Alfred Hitchcock - arguably the greatest director ever in movie making history - never won an Oscar. At the moment Affleck is in Robert Redford mode but thankfully safely miles away from doing a Kevin Costner!
7. Scary Movie 5 Gets The Lowest Rotten Tomatoes Score Of The Year
One need only take one look at the freaking godawful trailer to observe how little promise it has. Now, the Scary Movie franchise has some very modest ambitions at best; the films always turn a profit, though their critical reception has ranged from 15-53% on the Tomatometer. However, all of those films at least had a few laughs – even two, the worst one – yet going by this trailer, easily the worst trailer I’ve seen for a 2013 film, it seems likely that this might wind up as the worst-reviewed film of the year, racking up maybe 2 or 3%. Granted, that’s about the same level as those pesky Friedberg and Seltzer films, and they do themselves have two films coming out this year, but with little to base those projects on, we can only go ahead and assume that they can’t possibly be worse than this, which appears to be nothing short of a train-wreck.
6. Pain And Gain Is Michael Bay’s Best-Reviewed Movie
To be fair, Michael Bay has set himself a pretty damn low bar to clear here, given that he’s one of the most reviled mainstream Hollywood filmmakers, and only one of his films has ever wound up Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes – 1996′s The Rock, which scraped a modest 67%. Bay’s films obviously aren’t designed with pandering to critics in mind, but his latest film, Pain and Gain, looks promising enough, with its mixture of high-octane thrills and surprisingly smart gags that it might actually cause critics to (at least temporarily) re-evaluate the filmmaker. With two great actors at the helm – Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg – who should play off one another extremely well, this has the chance to become Bay’s cult hit, even if there’s no chance it’s going to make the mad money of his Transformers films.
5. M. Night Shyamalan’s After Earth Flops
If any director needs a critical hit, it’s M. Night Shyamalan, who hasn’t had a success with critics and viewers since 2002′s Signs; since then, it’s been films that have made mild profits, but neither shaken up the box office nor the hearts and minds of audiences and pundits alike. His latest film, After Earth, is an ambitious science fiction blockbuster starring Will Smith and his son Jayden, but that first trailer unfortunately didn’t full me with much confidence that it’s going to be any good, instead feeling more like a vapid, lazy Avatar-lite than anything unique or exciting. Given the director’s not only poor, but down-right shambolic reputation as of late, we won’t be getting our hopes up this time; the fact that Smith has also not been too hot as of late might sink the film even financially, though we must concede that Men In Black 3 still grossed over $600m, so perhaps the Smith factor might still save the director financially, if not critically.
Again, it’s a case of low expectations really being for the best.
4. Man of Steel Is A Monster Success
Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns was a brave and ambitious take on the Superman mythos, deferring away from the more typical elements of his story and actually trying to do something different, even if the critical reception was mixed and the box office was a huge disappointment, scoring only $391m against a $209 budget. The hope with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, which is being produced by Christopher Nolan, is that the influence of Nolan – whose sombre stylings with The Dark Knight proved hugely successful – will take Supes in an entirely new direction, and going by that first trailer we’ve seen, it appears as though the film just might be that success Warner has been waiting for. Beautifully shot, and seemingly harnessing more of Snyder’s strengths than his weaknesses, this could be one of the biggest smash hits of 2013 if it lives up to even half its promise.
* I'm a rabid fan of Chris Reeve' Superman so I feel the casting of a midget Henry Cavill and a Brit to boot will rankle some traditional Supes fandom. It isn't a xenophobic rant but just bit miffed on my part. I'm fine with recent casting of foreign talents as leads in superheroes flicks but Superman should be played by an American in a way we prefer James Bond to be authentically British. Just pray Cavill won't be another George Lazenby.
3. Monsters University Restores Pixar’s Reputation
We’ve been so used to Pixar delivering masterpiece after masterpiece that their performance in the last two years has been extremely disappointing, what with the mediocre Cars 2, and then the disappointing – if decent – Brave. With the former, it felt as though Pixar only made the film for the sake of merchandising (Cars has made Pixar billions of dollars in toys), whereas the latter felt like something Disney would put out rather than Pixar (and ironically, it’s Disney who made the year’s best animated film, in Wreck-It Ralph). However, Monsters University so far looks fantastic, even if the announcement initially felt like an unnecessary prequel being forced upon us; mixing monster gags with campus tropes should make for another riotous Pixar classic, hopefully a masterpiece that lives up to the brilliance of the heartfelt original.
2. Elysium Is The Best-Reviewed Blockbuster Of 2013
Neill Blomkamp delivered one of the most audacious directorial debuts in film history with District 9, one of the greatest sci-fi films of the last decade, paralleling alien-human relations with Apartheid in South Africa, and the film won a Best Picture Oscar nomination as a result. Blomkamp has been busy working on his mysterious follow-up, Elysium, another socially conscious sci-fi that appears to allegorise immigration, as people from Earth – which is now desolate and contaminated – attempt to move to a pristine space station, while the authorities make pains to prevent this. With a top-notch cast including Matt Damon, Sharlto Copley, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga and William Fichtner, and a budget of $120m – given what Blomkamp did with $30m on District 9 – this film has some serious potential to not just be the best blockbuster of 2013, but also the best film full stop.
1. The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug Is Surprisingly Good
Though Tolkein nerds the world over might have been upset that the first instalment in The Hobbit trilogy wasn’t all that great, it might have actually served a useful function, in lowering our expectations for subsequent entries. Thus, we can all go into Part 2 with a healthy dose of scepticism rather than blind fanboy-ism, and as long as Peter Jackson listens to some of the criticisms of the first film – namely tightening up the editing, given that all the footage is presumably already in the can – then he will craft a more satisfying, less-bloasted second film. Give Martin Freeman more of a presence, and stop making ridiculous cutesy changes to the source material; if so, The Desolation of Smaug can be one of 2013′s best films (or at the very least, a damn good one).
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'Fifty Shades of Grey' screenwriter wants NC-17 rating, studio says no rating designated yet
Screenwriter Kelly Marcel recently told British newspaper The Sunday Times, “It will be rated NC-17. It will be raunchy.” Marcel also didn’t reveal who she thought would snag the prized roles of randy pair Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey featured in the hit E L James novel.
Of course an adults-only NC-17 rating would potentially mean far fewer theater goers, and Universal Pictures nipped Marcel’s fervor in the bud.
“A screenplay has not yet been written, a rating has not been designated and we have no further comment,” said a Universal spokesperson in a statement to EW.
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Brazillian model Mayara Rubik Marchi : Hugo Toni for U-Mag #100 
one of the most memorable sex scenes ever depicted on-screen. No one expected 19-years old Lisa Bonet of Cosby Show to get buck naked and indulge in graphic simulated sex, going all aye to 35-years old Mickey Rourke 'method acting' suggestion.
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Japanese Strip Clubs Face Existential Crisis in the Era of Digital Porn
Jan 9, 2013 by
In post-WWII Japan, American-style striptease clubs became a thriving part of the sex entertainment industry, but now they are facing a crisis. During the years of rapid economic growth mid-century, more than 200 of this particular type of strip revue club could be found in the metropolises and hot spring resorts of Japan, but with the end of the bubble era, the number began to fall and has kept on falling. Today, only about 20 remain. The decline is partly due to the easy availability of idol videos and internet porn, but there are also causes within the industry itself, as one reporter found out. Are Japan’s strip clubs doomed?The Pressure Towards Prostitution
“In our heyday, this place was packed to the rafters every day. You could actually hear the floors creaking. Now all you hear is the clock, most days,” laments a staff member from a club in Osaka.
Osaka is usually on the cutting edge when it comes to Japan’s sexual culture, and at one time, you could find about 20 striptease clubs in town. Now the remaining ones can be counted on one hand.
According to one writer who knows the sex industry here well, the biggest reason for the decline in strip clubs is the availability of adult videos. “A striptease is only for watching, you know. These days, on the internet, you can easily find all kinds of extreme porn to watch. So, for the same amount of money you pay for a tame striptease, you can get a more direct sexual service… well, that’s just human nature.”
In order to attract customers, strip clubs have been offering more “extreme” services, which has attracted the attention of the police. Just this September, the management staff of a famous strip club in Osaka was arrested for violating the Entertainment Business Act when a dancer was caught performing an obscene act in a private room of the club.
International Relations Have Unexpected Side Effects
Another recent trend has had a big impact on the business, and that is the worsening of Sino-Japanese relations.
According to the owner of a club in Tokyo, “Certainly, the low price of nudity in the digital age is one reason for declining customer interest, but in recent years, we’ve had large numbers of Chinese tourists, which really shored up the business. Now, with the Senkaku Islands issue and other problems, the numbers have dropped off remarkably.” One busy days, the club might have had around 200 Chinese tourists, but now the number is usually about 10-odd.
The owner added gravely, “Whether this is a passing issue with China or something that is going to drag on is really a life or death question for us.”
The Damage Done by Porn Stars as Guest Dancers
“Of course the police attention and the availability of digital porn have contributed to the decline of the industry, but there are internal causes as well,” says Masahiko Taniguchi, a photographer who has exclusively covered the strip industry for 20 years.
“On the business side, not bothering to train and develop dancers, but just booking popular porn stars has been a real problem,” he says.
“Stripping is an art form with a long history. It’s not about just showing a naked body. It’s about dancing with a sexy grace, about making people feel like the can see more than they actually can, S-and-M shows, hanadensha… These were things that you could only see at a strip club, and they fascinated clients, engaging them with two-way communication.”
Then, as adult videos rose in popularity, clubs began booking the stars and other popular sex workers as guest dancers.
“Booking a porn star is an easy way to bring in clients. But much like your average Japanese talento, they have a short shelf life. Of course, there are porn actresses that experience stripping as a kind of awakening and do their best to become a good dancer, but the majority of them lose popularity and just drift off.”
And as a result, even dancers who possess a lot of skills are kept from the stage. “One dancer I know told me her club just closed so now she has nowhere to perform. If new dancers are not brought up, then the number of true artists falls over time. And if there are fewer true artists, there won’t be fans who learn to love stripping as an art form, as there were in the past. It’s a vicious circle.”
According to Taniguchi, this trend became very noticeable around 2000, when the number of clubs closing really began to accelerate.
Back to Basics
We asked the Tokyo club owner what the industry needed to do to survive.
“Money spent in the sex industry is generally spare cash, so in tough economic times such as these, there’s not much of it. We need something that is going to make business men and the like have a beer and think ‘Hmm, that seems interesting, let’s go check it out.’ We need a star on the level of AKB48 or Momoiro Clover Z, but not one pulled in from somewhere else. We need a star of our own,” he said.
Taniguchi, however, insists that a return to stripping as performance art was the only way to go.
“Stripping is the convergence of the sex industry and the entertainment industry. Customers wonder if a performance is the real thing or just an act, and the ability to make them believe it with a look is intoxicating. That connection you get from a live performance is something you can’t get from digital porn. If we can devote ourselves to developing this craft, we may be able to survive.”
Source: Goo News
Image: Pouch
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Bizarre beauty pageants from America’s past
The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things has evidence that beauty contests used to be more imaginative affairs. Take for instance, the Miss Perfect Posture pageant with X-rayed contestants (1956), the Most Beautiful Ape pageant with contestants donning ape masks (1972) and the Sausage Queen contest (1955).Or the Miss Lovely Eyes pageant which had contestants wearing scary masks that blanked out all their facial features except for their peepers (1930). Or the pageant that searched for the best Lobster Waitress (date unknown). Quite something, aren’t they?
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Maggie Grace finds her inner strength on Broadway
NEW YORK — Maggie Grace had a scary moment during a recent matinee of "Picnic" on Broadway.
William Inge's script calls for a struggle at the end of the play between Grace's character and her onstage mother, played by Mare Winningham. The problem on this day was that Grace heard a crack during the clash.
After the curtain call, Grace couldn't contain her worry. She put her arm around Winningham and was seen urgently whispering with her co-star as the two disappeared into the wings.
"I was worried about her wrist," Grace says about 20 minutes later in her dressing room at the American Airlines Theatre, her makeup and costume still on. "She said she's OK but I was a mess backstage. I was so worried that I'd broken Mare."
It was an episode that seems to perfectly capture Grace, the rising, self-made actress who has starred on TV in "Lost" and "Californication," as Liam Neeson's daughter in the "Taken" movies and in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" films: She simply doesn't know her own strength.
MAKING RENT
Grace, 29, is by far this season's most unlikely Broadway debutante. An all-American beauty who loved community theater, she left high school outside Columbus, Ohio, at age 16 and moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as an actress.
"Statistically, I think you probably have a better chance of being killed by lightning," she says, laughing. "But I had a very real mandate every month: making rent."
She arrived in Los Angeles knowing no one and with just a back-to-school catalog on her thin resume. By her second week, she had an agent and was auditioning.
Commercials and tiny roles in TV shows piled up, "CSI: Miami" and "Law and Order: SVU" among them. "I was the professional rape victim," she says. "Fill in the procedural drama, I did it."
Years of toil as a working actress and a gypsy life – no more than three months in one place since she was 16 – led to her big break as the snobby Shannon on the first two seasons of "Lost." Then came on-screen vampires and kidnappings that paid her mortgage and now her professional stage debut on Broadway, a long hoped-for dream come true.
"I wrote it on my New Year's list every year," says Grace. "I definitely wanted to come back to the stage. It's kind of how I fell in love with this whole crazy world of playing pretend for a living."
Sam Gold, who directs Grace in "Picnic," hadn't met her before she showed up at an audition. He was blown away. "Though she looks like an ingenue, she brings a lot of strength and a sort of unique energy, passion and strength to her acting," he says.
ROOM FOR INTERPRETATION
In "Picnic," Grace plays a daughter coming of age in a small Kansas town in 1953. She's destined to marry the well-regarded boy next door when a sexy male stranger arrives and throws everyone's plans out the window.
Grace grew up with the 1955 film starring Kim Novak, even though her parents wouldn't let her see it until she was older: "It was too racy ..."
Now she shares the stage with an interesting cast, including Ellen Burstyn, Elizabeth Marvel, Reed Birney and Sebastian Stan. Grace plays a headturning blonde, but hopes it's more than that.
"It's an ingenue but I think there's a little room for interpretation," says Grace. The same could be said for her, a long-limbed beauty who turns out to be extremely thoughtful, hardworking and grounded.
She describes "Picnic" as "about the tension between individual impulse and the needs of the group and social convention." Of the playwright, she says: "Inge was never a master at innovation. He was a master of convention."
Grace fluidly uses terms like "negative space" and "symbiosis," and follows up a meeting with an email filled with insights into the work and its relevance, explaining that "in between shows my ability to conjugate verbs takes a sharp dip."
"I used to be really insecure about my self-education," she says. "I'm definitely always learning. But there's many ways to learn. There are many, many ways to always be a learner."
It has taken her 13 years, but Grace vows it will not be another 13 before she clambers back on a stage. "This will not be my last play. Mark my words. If they'll have me. Even if it's a 20-person black box theater in Chicago. If they'll have me."
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Howard Stern Compares Lena Dunham Nudity to "Rape"
by Hilton Hater
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