Born on the Fourth of July

Throwback Sundays this week is featured today, Memorial Day, as we remember Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July. This film features what is arguably Tom Cruise's greatest performance.

For the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert said, "BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY is one of those films that steps correctly in the opening moments and then never steps wrongly. Nothing Tom Cruise has done will prepare you for what he has done in BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY."

For Rolling Stone Magazine, Peter Travers wrote, "Tom Cruise gives an astounding, deeply felt performance. Together Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise do more than show what happened to Ron Kovic. Their fervent, consistently gripping film shows why it still urgently matters."

UPTOWN Premiere After-Party Announced

The after-party for June 2nd's East Coast Premiere of Uptown has been announced. After the screening is over, we will spill over into the Arlo & Esme bar (A & E) on 42 E. 1st St., which is around the corner from Anthology Film Archives, where the film will be playing. The film begins at 8:00 pm, and with Q & A, should have us leaving the venue at around 9:45 into the bar. The drink specials for the night are $3 Budweisers, $5 House Drinks!

Story:

Single Manhattan resident Ben (Chris Riquinha) finds his romantic tendencies driving him in the direction of a relationship, even though he likes all the advantages of remaining unattached. But just how likely is it that he and Isabel (Meissa Hampton), an unhappily married woman, will wind up together even though they experience a near-magnetic draw to each other?

About the Film:

Using 2 digital cameras, only available light and no permits, Brian Ackley's award-winning debut feature, was produced by One Way or Another Productions in 8 days on location in New York City. The film has been reviewed well by several bloggers and critics, including Jen Johans, James Wegg , and Richard Propes. It has screened in the UK and had its west coast premiere in Seattle in October 2009. It has won LSU Cinema Club's Best Actress Award at the Outhouse Film Festival in Baton Rouge, LA for Meissa Hampton's performance as "Isabel," and also the Honorable Mention Award at the Twin Rivers Media Festival in Asheville, NC.

The Premiere:

Uptown is having its East Coast Premiere here in NYC at the Anthology Film Archives on June 2nd, @ 8:00 pm as part of the NewFilmmakers Spring Series 2010.



The Trailer:



www.uptownfilm.com

Reel of the Week: Galen Howard

Our Reel of the Week belongs to Galen Howard, a very intense, talented actor.

The Puppeteer

The Puppeteer

Dir: Richard Johnson
GoldenTiger Productions and Joystick Films

The Charl(y)ie Factor Screens in Baltimore

Short film starring Jace Nicole The Charl(y)ie Factor, for which she was nominated for Best Actress, is playing in Baltimore tomorrow night. Richard Johnson's highly inventive short film will be screened along with 9 others.

Info HERE

Sexy Returns to New York

SEXY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL RETURNS TO...

NEW YORK

Thursday 1st of July 2010
Doors open 6:45pm

The Monkey West NYC
12th Floor. 37 W. 26th Street, New York
www.monkeywest.com
T 212.481.1601

Sexy Shorts:
7:15pm

The Body Watchers (6)

Teat Beat of Sex (4)
The Housetaurant (15)

Wet Dreams (4)

Crazy in the Night (13)
Saferty First! The Rise of Women (45)

+ Q&A with filmmakers

Short Break

Sexy Feature:
9:15pm

Can’t Complain, a film by our friend Corey Williams

(also starring our very own Jace Nicole!)
(88 mins)+ Q&A with filmmakers & cast

Tickets are $10 available at the door, limited seats pls reserve by emailing info@sexyfilmfest.com

Send/Forward to your friends! Thanks guys!

Tom Reviews "Bitch Slap"

Tom's Corner

Bitch Slap
(2010, Rick Jacobson, director)

I really don't understand some people's sexual fetishes. I mean, yeah, we all have our particular buttons that once pressed, get us going, but some things just don't strike me or most other people as sexy. I've never been turned on by women doing hard labor...you know, digging holes, stuff like that. Riding a woman like a horse? Nope, not getting me going. Two women fighting has never even gotten a teeny rise out of me. Ditto to chicks holding large firearms. And those guys who pose photos of women in order to make said women look like they are giantesses? That one I really don't get. “Bitch Slap” is full of those things that just don't titillate me, but seem to be intended to (except the giantess thing; that one just really makes me wonder...does ANYONE really get off to that?). In fact, the movie barely entertains.

Our story is focused around three women: Hel (Erin Cummings) is a ball-busting businesswoman...or is she? Trixie (Julia Voth) is a bubble-headed stripper...or is she? And lastly Camero (America Olivo), a drug popping crazy-ass ex-con with anger management issues...or is...ok, that's exactly what she is. They are apparently searching for 200 million dollars worth of diamonds that were obtained by Gage (Michael Hurst, who along with appearances by Kevin Sorbo, Lucy Lawless, and Renee O'Connor, makes this movie a reunion of the stars of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess), possibly from mythical crime figure Pinky. Pinky is a big bad boogieman of the underworld, a person who kills all adversaries and has never been seen. It may surprise you to learn that one of the three women is Pinky...unless you've seen “The Usual Suspects,” of course, since that's where this oh-so-shocking turn of events was stolen from. Unlike that movie, though, this one offers no intelligent sub-text or psychological thrills.

Parts of this movie DO invoke old hair metal videos though, with the girls digging to what sounds like someone trying to recapture that sleazy ol' Sunset Strip sound. I half expected to see Slash playing guitar in the background, cigarette dangling out of his mouth, as Axl wails. But the music isn't even at that level. No, for this movie, at least for one song, we get a group that calls themselves the Eagles of Death Metal. Yup, you did not read that wrong. This group's name, at least to me, means this is the way that the Eagles would sound like if Don Fucking Henley played death metal. Well fuck, sounds like a way to make a buck. Think I'll start a band called the Air Supply of Gangster Rap. We'll see how the fuck that goes, ok?

Unbeknownst to all three, as well as the audience, they and Gage were all involved in the big barn dance...er...shoot-out at the Glory Hole Casino. You'll find out about this, and everything else, for that matter, in a series of movie interrupting flashbacks. Where has Deputy Fuchs seen Trixie before? There's a Flashback! for that. How did any of the characters meet? There's a Flashback! for that. And nearly every single one of these flashbacks were shot on green screen. Hell, the desert trailer where Gage stows his goods was the only thing NOT on green screen. This film is a classic example of a filmmaker who can't have the characters tell each other anything. Every tiny little detail of their past that comes up and may be important must be shown in a flashback. It gets...painful. How painful?



This is Flashback. She is a character from DC Comic's “separate but equal” Milestone universe. She has the power to turn back time a few seconds. Even SHE would be annoyed by the amount of flashbacks in this movie and she was a damned crackhead.

So, what have we learned today? Why, several things: Sexual fetishes are confusing. No one is who they say they are. The Eagles of Death Metal need a new name. “Bitch Slap” is not a very good movie. Lesson over. Go watch something good.

- Tom Trombley