Director Craig Gillespie has had an interesting career. After making his debut with the indie film Lars and the Real Girl, episodic television work ensued, followed by a contretemps over the studio comedy Mr. Woodcock, starring Seann William Scott, Susan Sarandon and Billy Bob Thornton that saw him removed from the project. His latest film is the adaptation/reboot of 1985’s horror-comedy Fright Night, starring Anton Yelchin as a Las Vegas high school kid who finds out his new neighbor (Colin Farrell) is actually a vampire. I recently had the chance to talk to Gillespie one-on-one about what attracted him to Fright Night, what he thought about shooting the movie in 3-D, and his next film, the genre mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Again, it’s all over at ShockYa, so click here for the full, fun read.
Daily Archives: August 23, 2011
Jason Momoa Talks Conan the Barbarian
Jason Momoa has the biceps, vocal timbre and alpha-male attitude to seemingly carve out a successful career as an action movie hero. But before his commercial audition with the public in Conan the Barbarian, his leading man debut, there comes something even more potentially nervousness-inducing — the requisite pre-release juggernaut of press commitments. Momoa recently made his debut on The Tonight Show, chatting cars with host Jay Leno (he favors an old Cadillac) and suffering the characteristic new-guest embarrassment of having an old clip from early in his career (in this case, from Baywatch) pulled out and showcased. Amidst a packed itinerary that necessitated some rescheduling, he recently graced me with some one-on-one time, to chat about Conan, his family, how he now feels without dreadlocks, and the project he hopes to (someday) make his directorial debut. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the fun read.
Sexy Pirates
So, is Sexy Pirates related to the billion-dollar Disney franchise… like, a spin-off with a bunch of lesbian swashbucklers? No, alas. Or is it related to the adult film spoofs of same franchise? Nope, not that either. Instead, Sexy Pirates actually predates all of those efforts; it’s the American title of a softcore effort from Joe D’Amato, in which a bit of nudity, sex and catfights are commingled with a bunch of costumed sword-play.
The story centers on Sir Francis Hamilton (Menyhert Rene Balog-Dutambe), an ambassador of King Charles II, who has to go to Jamaica to sign a peace treaty with the loathed French government. On the way, his ship is attacked by a bunch of savage pirates, and his wife (former Penthouse Pet and Hungarian hardcore starlet Anita Rinaldi) is asked to pay a huge ransom for his safe return. Gathering up a huge crew of her own, however, she sets sail for revenge.
D’Amato is… what’s the most polite word for hack, again? Prolific, that’s right. The director of over 200 movies, from regular narrative to hardcore costume genre dramas and everything in between, D’Amato is a shooter, meaning he’s not precious or particular about much of anything. That fact certainly shows here. Yet if the acting and story are of dubious quality, the settings and staging are at least legit. The chief problem is that Sexy Pirates, in which women occasionally traipse around in the spirit of “nudie cuties” of yesteryear, has neither the action and spirit to satisfy a mainstream audience, nor the content to sate more prurient interests. It’s a tweener — fairly impressively lensed by Piero Montanari, but nowhere near rousing enough to elicit hearty bellows of, “Yo, ho ho!”
Housed in a regular plastic Amaray case, Sexy Pirates comes to DVD presented in 1.33:1 full screen, with an Italian language mono Dolby digital 2.0 audio track, on a region-free disc. The optional English subtitles are rife with spelling and grammatical errors. Apart from the obligatory chapter stops, there are no supplemental bonus features. Nevertheless, to order the DVD, click here. D+ (Movie) D+ (Disc)