Gary Oldman can play just about anyone in any era, and play it well. He’s a little like Sir Ben Kingsley that way.
Now, Oldman is playing Winston Churchill for Joe Wright’s biopic, Darkest Hour, and the first image of him in full makeup and costume is pretty stunning. Believe it or not, this isn’t actually Winston Churchill, it’s Gary Oldman:
You can sorta see Gary Oldman somewhere in there, but wow is this an impressive makeup job. As for the movie itself, here’s the synopsis:
Within days of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill must face one of his most turbulent and defining trials: exploring a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or standing firm to fight for the ideals, liberty and freedom of a nation. As the unstoppable Nazi forces roll across Western Europe and the threat of invasion is imminent, and with an unprepared public, a skeptical King, and his own party plotting against him, Churchill must withstand his darkest hour, rally a nation, and attempt to change the course of world history.
This is Joe Wright’s bounce back project after the Pan debacle, and if Gary Oldman is on board he’s already two steps forward.
Although the recently released Wonder Woman trailer features music from Junkie XL, he will not be composing the film. Instead, Rupert Gregson-Williams is set to score the project, according to a recent report from Theplaylist.
“I am working on Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ “Wonder Woman,” which looks amazing!”
I’m not too familiar with Williams’ work, so it will be interesting to see what he brings to the table; an original score is truly an important piece in the puzzle of crafting a quality film. Although I wasn’t a fan of BvS as a whole. its music is incredible, so it’s unfortunate to hear that Junkie XL isn’t working on this DCEU film too.
“Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.”
See Gal Gadot as Diana Prince when Wonder Woman hits theaters on July 2, 2017.
‘Doctor Strange’ opens up in the US markets this week, the film has brought in $87.7M so far on the international front. The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a sitting at a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, but what does Monkeys Fighting Robots think of the film?
Listen to two nerds debate the merits of cinema, sorcery, and shenanigans. Matt loves ‘Doctor Strange,’ EJ does not, and the podcast goes downhill from there.
Strap yourself in buckaroos! Episode 98 of the Monkeys Fighting Robots podcast is here.
Do you want to be our SUPER-FAN of the week? All you have to do is comment on this podcast to be eligible.
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About the Monkeys Fighting Robots Podcast:
A Gen Xer and a Millennial debate the latest topics in pop culture. One guy is a filmmaker and the other is a journalist, but both are nerds. We make your slowest days at work better. Hosts, Matthew Sardo and EJ Moreno.
Never heard of Matt Sardo? For starters, he made the Kessel Run in less than 11 parsecs. Prior to that, he gave Doc Brown the idea for the flux capacitor and led the Resistance to victory over SkyNet – all while sipping a finely crafted IPA. As a radio host, he’s interviewed celebrities, athletes and everyone in between. He’s covered everything from the Super Bowl to Comic-Con.
Who is EJ Moreno? Is he a trained physician? No. Is he a former Miss Universe contestant? Possibly. But what we know for sure is he’s a writer, filmmaker, and pop culture enthusiast. Since film school, EJ has written & directed several short films. He’s used his passion of filmmaking to become a movie critic for MonkeysFightingRobots.com.
The red band trailer for the film adaptation of Daniel Clowes’ graphic novel, Wilson, has been released. The original book used a series of one-page comic strips to tell a longer tale of a misanthrope and perpetual loner Wilson, as he navigates through life, constantly at odds with everything around him. Published in 2010, it was also Clowes’ first work that was not serialized as single issues first. Judging from the trailer, the movie seems to have a more straightforward narrative, but the Clowes sense of humor appears intact. Previous Clowes adaptations includeGhost World and Art School Confidential.
Wilson stars Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern, and Isabella Amara, and is directed by Craig Johnson (Skeleton Twins) with a script by Daniel Clowes himself. The film is produced by Fox Searchlight. It is scheduled to premier March 24, 2017.
Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool has in recent years become one of Marvel Comics’ most popular costumed heroes. The Tarantino-level of gore and particular brand of humour that grace the pages of Deadpool comics, and now two major motion pictures (one much better than the other), are big draws for Marvel fans. But beyond his Spidey-like humour and his Elektra-like swordplay, Deadpool’s uniqueness among Marvel characters is a product of his self-awareness. In other words, Deadpool understands he’s a comic book character. One wonders, then, how he felt about being uprooted from his 21st-century life and replanted in 1953, as he was in Adam Glass, Mike Benson, and Laurence Campbell‘s Deadpool Pulp.
Deadpool Pulp: Comparable Series
The Marvels Project,Truth: Red, White, & Black,Sub-Mariner: The Depths and the Marvel Noir line come to mind as series comparable with Deadpool Pulp’s gritty interpretation. Aside from the five series’ similar settings, their realistic and often hopeless representations of the era they investigate are what set them apart from other series and one-shots set in the ’40s and ’50s.
Deadpool Pulp: Super-Cameos
I’m not going to give away much about who appears in this mini-series. After all, Deadpool Pulp hit the shelves a little less than seven years ago. It’s worth noting, though, that, at least according to the Marvel Database wiki, Deadpool Pulp is the first and only story set in Earth-10310. This means that Deadpool Pulp is separate from both the Earth-616 and the Marvel Noir, Earth-90214, universes. So, alternate reality versions of everybody are up for grabs … including a character whose name rhymes with “Mabel”.
“So my body forms an ‘X’ on this cover, wanna’ make something of it?”
Deadpool Pulp: The Plot
Deadpool Pulp’s version of its titular character doesn’t have super-powers. His immortality notwithstanding, though, this Deadpool, who also goes by Wade Wilson, is still a killing machine. This Deadpool is an arguably sane CIA contractor. His current mission, hunt down a rogue agent who stole an experimental nuclear briefcase bomb.
Deadpool eventually learns of a conspiracy that could shatter the tentative peace between the American and Soviet governments. Investigating this conspiracy takes Deadpool to Cuba where he learns the truth of his origin.
Deadpool Pulp’s story-line is well situated in a pulp-themed mini-series. It presents several pulp/noir themes, like the femme fatale, the friend/conspirator, manipulation, and insanity.
Deadpool Pulp: The Art
“I’m Ingrediento, part man and part pimento!”
This mini-series’ covers have an almost geometrical quality to them. The art inside, though, with its low and smoky lighting, is appropriately reminiscent of ’50s pulp illustrations and film noir. Its well-textured backgrounds provide context and a feeling of reality in a mini-series I had expected to be silly, rather than cynical.
I expected Deadpool Pulp to be more along the lines of the “Marvex the Super Robot” one-shot from 2009’s All Select Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1. For those who haven’t read the Marvex one-shot, I’ll sum it up by noting that the story’s villain is a sentient sandwich.
This mini-series showed readers a great pulp/film noir story-line, reminiscent of 1955’s Kiss Me Deadly. But, it didn’t lean on Deadpool’s self-awareness in any meaningful way. This mini-series’ only nod to Deadpool’s unique perspective is its use of multiple inner monologue boxes. Deadpool’s competing personalities are there in force. However, the creative team never engaged in a metaliterary investigation of what Deadpool thought about life in the ’50s. Nor were there any quips about page gutters, panel sizes, or issue numbers.
Instead, it seems self-awareness is particular to the Earth-616 version of Deadpool. And, although some may say self-awareness is Deadpool’s best quality, it was refreshing to see a slightly more heroic and romantic version of the Merc with a Mouth.
A diabolical villain is one of the essential components of a James Bond movie. Without one (or several in certain cases), the film does what Bond never will: die.
This is a list of Bond’s arch enemies. It runs the gamut from scorned scientists to gold smugglers; double-agents to psychopathic businessmen. They’re here based on an unscientific scale of menace, threat, and memorability. Points are taken off for ridiculousness.
33) ARIS KRISTATOS (For Your Eyes Only – 1981)
This guy’s about as threatening as a CPA with a bendy straw. Kristatos (Julian Glover) is a Greek businessman in bed with the Soviets. The Commies task Kristatos with recovering the ATAC, a British intelligence device similar to the Lektor Decoder in From Russia With Love. Kristatos sits around a lot with his legs crossed, drinking and playing people off each other.
32) GEORGI KOSKOV (The Living Daylights – 1987)
Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe) is the Soviet Russian equivalent of a 1980’s yuppie. James Bond (Timothy Dalton) is sent to retrieve this defecting Soviet General, who’s really not defecting. If not for Krabbe’s performance, this character wouldn’t make a blip on the Bond villain radar. Yet, due to his whirlwind performance, the character is rather mesmerizing.
31) NICK NACK (The Man with the Golden Gun – 1974)
“I may be small, but I never forget!”
The dwarf assistant/bodyguard to the film’s main villain Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). In the beginning, Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize) is sort of menacing, especially his French-accented voice echoing throughout Scaramanga’s funhouse. As the movie progresses, Nick Nack’s exploits become more infantile and comical. The culmination of which is Bond (Roger Moore) trapping the feisty thug in a suitcase. Yikes.
30) GUSTAV GRAVES (Die Another Day – 2002)
“Plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead.”
You might need a flow chart for this one. Graves (Toby Stephens) is a philanthropic Brit who is really the supposedly dead North Korean General Zao. If your brain hurts trying to understand that, yours isn’t the only one. Zao is thought dead after a skirmish with Bond (Pierce Brosnon) during a prisoner exchange, but actually survives. Using some kind of party mask with psychedelic lights in it, Zao alters his facial appearance to look like a Caucasian Londoner. From there, he assumes the identity of never-sleeping adventurer Gustav Graves. This horseshit is made smellier only by his devious plot: to launch a diamond-encrusted satellite into space that can harness the power of the sun’s heat. And from where does he attempt such an endeavor? On an iceberg! Because ice and heat gel so well.
29) BRAD WHITAKER (The Living Daylights – 1987)
“You had your eight, now I’ll have my eighty!”
Doesn’t say much for the villains of this movie if they both appear in the bottom five on this list. Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) is a gun smuggler with a Napoleon complex who literally drops into the plot out of no where. Our engrossing spy epic is dead. It’s now a story about weapon smuggling. Baker relishes Whitaker’s craziness, as evident in his performance. Would’ve been nice to see him have more to do.
28) DOMINIC GREENE (Quantum of Solace – 2008)
The most Peter Lorre-looking baddie. Greene (Mathieu Amalric) is a environment-friendly businessman who wants the land rights to a newly discovered underground lake which he plans to exploit to the local Bolivians, who are suffering a massive drought. If not for Greene’s psychotic ballet with an axe in the third act, he wouldn’t even be here.
27) KARL STROMBERG (The Spy Who Loved Me – 1977)
“Down here, there is beauty. There is ugliness. And there is death.”
Curt Jurgens plays this shipping magnate who prefers fish to people. His plan: play America and the Soviets off each other to initiate World War III which will wipe everybody out. After that, he will rebuild society in an underwater city. Stromberg doesn’t see much action, but his plan is evilly ambitious. Plus he’s got webbed-hands. He takes a bullet to his coral reef and dies. In the script, Bond’s quip was “ballseye”, but it was ultimately dropped.
26) KAMAL KHAN (Octopussy – 1983)
“You have an annoying habit of surviving, Mr. Bond.”
Another one who doesn’t pose much of a physical threat to Bond (Moore), but he’s certainly tenacious as hell. Louis Jourdan plays this exiled prince involved with the Soviets and smuggling. He’s poised and calculating, making him a very cerebral threat. Plus he hunts Bond through the jungles of India from atop an elephant. Pretty badass.
25) SIR HUGO DRAX (Moonraker – 1979)
“Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him.”
Remember folks, never cheat at card games. Especially if you’re a millionaire who plans on gassing the world to death from your space station-city where you will create an ultra-race of humans. Didn’t work for Hitler, and it didn’t work for Drax (Michael Lonsdale). On the upside, he is sucked out into space. Maybe he can tangle with the alien that hunted Sigourney Weaver.
24) DR. KANANGA/MR. BIG (Live and Let Die – 1973)
“Ingenious!”
The great Yaphet Kotto plays this Caribbean prime minister who moonlights as a drug lord. He believes in the powers of voodoo and the mystical insight of his fortune-teller, Solitaire (Jane Seymore). As Kananga, he ships his drugs to America. As Mr. Big, he sells them. Kananga should be higher up on the list, but his death scene destroys his menace. Bond (Moore) shoves an expanding gas pellet down Kanaga’s throat. The villain turns into a skin-balloon, rockets to the ceiling of his underground lair, and explodes against a stalactite. Is this a James Bond movie or a Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoon? Pitiful.
Fun fact: the Kananga name comes from an alligator farm the producers found while scouting locations in Haiti. The farm, and its ominous warning sign (“trespassers will be eaten”), make it into the film.
23) MR. WINT & MR. KIDD (Diamonds Are Forever – 1971)
“If at first you don’t succeed, Mr. Kidd–“
“Try, try again, Mr. Wint.”
Donald Glover and Putter Smith play this team of gay assassins. So far, they’re the only male homosexual characters in the franchise. Not counting Raoul Silva in Skyfall (who knows what gets him going). Wint and Kidd are quite formidable because they’re always lurking in the background, indirectly causing mayhem. Because of this, they go unnoticed until the last scene. During it, Bond (Sean Connery) sets Kidd on fire and attaches an explosive to Wint before tossing him overboard.
Fun fact: Bruce Glover is the father of Crispin Glover, who plays George McFly in Back To The Future. Small world.
22) MAX ZORIN (A View To A Kill – 1985)
“You two have joined forces? That simplifies things.”
Christopher Walken as Zorin is one of the few highlights of this movie. Zorin is a Nazi test-tube-baby-experiment gone awry who grows up to be a microchip-manufacturing industrialist. He plans to cause an earthquake along the San Andreas Fault which will cause a lake to drain and flood Silicon Valley, destroying his competition, which will allow him to corner the market on the electronic devices. Zorin’s joyous, doomed laughter atop the Golden Gate Bridge is something to hear.
21) VICTOR “RENARD” ZOKAS (The World Is Not Enough – 1999)
Scottish actor Robert Carlyle plays this former KGB agent turned terrorist. Years prior to the start of the movie, Renard kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy oil magnate and holds her for ransom. An MI6 agent shoots Renard, but instead of the bullet killing him, it lodges in Renard’s brain, which shuts down his ability to experience pain. In the end, he’s just a piece of ass to the movie’s main villain, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau).
20) ELLIOT CARVER (Tomorrow Never Dies – 1997)
“There’s no news like bad news.”
“Let the mayhem begin!”
With dialogue like that, there’s no way you cannot like this guy. Jonathan Pryce plays this media mogul who wants to start a war between the United State and China to (get this) increase his TV ratings and newspaper circulation. This plot has more believability now than it did the year the movie hit theaters.
19) MR. WHITE (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, SPECTRE – 2006-2015)
“You’re trying to stop us, and you don’t even know who we are!”
Jesper Christensen plays this weasel who is catalyst for everything that occurs in the Daniel Craig James Bond movies. In Casino Royale, White is a financier for an unnamed terrorist organization. One movie later, that organization is revealed to be Quantum. Two movies later, the real name of the company is revealed: SPECTRE.
18) DR. NO (Goldfinger (I keed!) Dr. No – 1962)
“East, west, just points of the compass; each as stupid as the other. I’m a member of SPECTRE… The Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion.”
Joseph Wiseman plays the very first Bond villain. He is an agent of SPECTRE who sets up a base in Jamaica to topple American rockets launching from Cape Canaveral. Again, not much of a physical threat, but his dinner time exchange with Bond (Connery) is sinisterly memorable. Plus he’s hands are claws, a unfortunate side effect from working with radioactive material.
Fun fact 1: In the original script, Dr. No was the name of a monkey who sat on the bad guy’s shoulder.
Fun fact 2: Bond author Ian Fleming asked his friend, notable playwright Noel Coward, to play Dr. No. Coward sent Fleming a note saying: “Dear Ian: In answer to your question about Dr. No, the answer is no, no, no.”
17) BORIS GRISHENKO (GoldenEye – 1995)
“I am invincible!”
Alan Cumming is most famous for playing the Emcee in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret, but his role as Boris is just as memorable. Boris is a Russian computer programmer who betrays his country and friends to help Alec Trevelyn (Sean Bean) use the GoldenEye satellite to steal money from the Bank of England. He’s obnoxious, arrogant, and pretentious – all great traits for a Bond villain.
16) ELEKTRA KING (The World Is Not Enough – 1999)
“There’s no point in living if you can’t feel alive!”
Sophie Marceau plays the franchise’s first female lead villain. Elektra teams up with her kidnapper Renard to enact revenge on MI6 and her father. Quite the manipulative brat.
15) DARIO (Licence To Kill – 1989)
“You’re dead.”
Long before he won an Oscar, Benicio del Toro played this sadistic henchman with a switchblade. Dario likes nothing more than to kill, an act in which he takes great pleasure. His death is one of the franchise’s most gruesome: falling into a giant shredding machine.
14) FRANZ SANCHEZ (Licence To Kill – 1989)
Robert Davi plays this psychotic drug lord with a penchant for iguanas. Sanchez is one of Bond’s most ruthless enemies. Early in the movie, Sanchez feeds Bond’s long-time friend CIA agent Felix Leiter (David Heddison) to a shark. Bond (Dalton) find’s Felix’s mutilated (yet alive) body, with a note stuffed in his mouth that reads: “He disagreed with something that ate him.” Bond burns him to a crisp using a silver lighter, which Felix gave him as a present for being Best Man at his wedding.
13) FRANCISCO SCARAMANGA (The Man with the Golden Gun – 1974)
“I never miss, Mr. Bond.”
The great Christopher Lee portrays this expensive hitman. For one million dollars, Scaramanga will kill anyone you want. When a golden bullet with “007” engraved on it reaches MI6, Bond (Moore) sets out to find who hired Scaramanga, then kill the assassin before he puts one in Bond’s skull. The air of mystery surrounding Scaramanga is a welcome buffer against some of the plot’s buffoonery. Outside of Bond, Scaramanga has the coolest gadget in the franchise: a golden gun that can be broken down into three ordinary components: a lighter, a pen, and a cigarette case.
Fun fact: Lee is Bond author Ian Fleming’s cousin.
12) FIONA VOLPE (Thunderball – 1965)
“James Bond, who only has to make love to a woman and she starts to hear heavenly choir singing. She repents and immediately returns to the side of right and virtue. But not this one.”
Luciana Paluzzi plays the original bad bitch of the franchise. She’s a seductress who cozies up to a NATO Commander in order to kill him and help steal two atomic weapons for SPECTRE. Every future villainous Bond Girl is patterned after her.
11) EMILIO LARGO (Thunderball – 1965)
“My dear, you thought to be a little too clever; and now you are caught!”
SPECTRE’s second-in-command. Adolfo Celi picked up this novel at an airport earlier in the same day he was cast. Largo is the ruthless, calculating architect behind a plot to steal two atomic weapons from NATO and use them to hold the world ransom. One of the most ambitious undertakings in the franchise. Largo’s fight with Bond (Connery) aboard the Disco Volante yacht is claustrophobic and brutal.
10) ROSA KLEBB (From Russia With Love – 1963)
“If you do you will be SHOT!”
Stage actress Lotte Lenya plays this Soviet/SPECTRE double agent with lesbian tendencies. Klebb is one of many cogs in a plot to kill Bond (Connery) for the death of Dr. No. Her task is to find the hitman and the unsuspecting broad who will lead Bond to his doom. She puts up a helluva fight with a pair of poison-tipped shoes.
9) JAWS (The Spy Who Loved Me – 1977, Moonraker – 1979)
“Well, here’s to us.”
That’s Jaws’ only line of dialogue in the two movies in which he appears. Richard Kiel plays this 7’2” assassin who kills people with titanium teeth. Jaws stalking Bond (Moore) and Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) around the Great Pyramids is unsettlingly scary. In his second appearance, Jaws becomes comic relief. Especially cringe-worthy is when he flaps his arms after falling out of an airplane without a parachute. Way to dumb down a great character.
8) ODDJOB (Goldfinger – 1964)
The first legendary henchman. Harold Sakata (Tosh Togo) plays this mute bodyguard to Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe). Oddjob suffocates a girl by coating her in gold paint, crushes a golf ball with his bare hands, and wears a razor-brimmed bowler hat. He uses the hat to decapitate one of Bond’s allies. When he tries to do the same thing to Bond (Connery) inside Fort Knox, Bond electrocutes him dead.
Fun fact: Sakata represented the United States in weightlifting during the 1948 Olympic Games.
7) RAOUL SILVA/TIEGO RODRIGUEZ (Skyfall – 2012)
Javier Bardem plays Silva, one of the most memorable and psychotic villains in the franchise. After years in seclusion, Silva wages an all-out war to destroy M (Judi Dench), who he believes betrayed him during his time as an MI6 operative. Held captive, Silva decides to kill himself instead of leaking government secrets. The cyanide capsule he ingests backfires. Instead of killing him, is burns away the insides of his skull. His ruse to get himself captured just to gain access to MI6 headquarters is executed more elegantly by the Joker (Heath Ledger) in The Dark Knight, but it still works here. Silva caressing Bond’s thighs is skin-crawling and adds so much to the character.
6) XENIA ONATOPP (GoldenEye – 1995)
“I had to ventilate someone.”
Famke Janssen launched her career after playing this Russian psycho-hitwoman who’s method of killing involves crushing a man to death between her legs! What a way to go. Possibly the most iconic modern day Bond Girl. Actress Sela Ward auditioned to play Xenia, but her age (she was in her 40s at the time) was a hindrance. The most recent Bond movie featured a female love interest in her 50s. Times change.
5) ALEC TREVELYN (GoldenEye – 1995)
“I may as well ask you for a vodka martini for all the women you’ve rescued. Or all the dead ones you failed to protect.”
Every bit Bond’s equal. Why? Because he’s 006! In a 1986 operation, Bond and Trevelyn (Sean Bean) infiltrate a Soviet dam. Their plan goes wrong and Trevelyn is seemingly killed. Years later, Bond learns that Trevelyn is still alive, operating a crime syndicate under the identity of Janus. Trevelyn’s betrayal of Bond is nothing compared to how the British government betrayed his parents. They were Lienz Cossacks who fought with the British against the Nazis. After the war, England turned them back over to Russian dictator Lenin who had them executed. Revenge is Trevelyn’s objective, but he never achieves it. Bean dies, just like he does in every one of his movies.
4) DONALD “RED” GRANT (From Russia With Love – 1963)
Robert Shaw (Quint from Jaws) plays this SPECTRE hitman. Grant is sent to protect Bond (Connery) until he posses the Lektor Decoder machine. Once Bond has the machine, Grant is to kill him and hand it over to SPECTRE. Grant doesn’t utter a single word until he makes contact with Bond aboard the Orient Express. Bond and Grant’s claustrophobic fight inside Bond’s cabin is one of the best in the history of film.
3) LE CHIFFRE (Casino Royale – 2006)
“You are funny, Mr. Bond.”
The minute Mads Mikkelsen first appears we understand his character is a calculating machine of a human, in total control of everything he does. As Le Chiffre’s plan unravels, so does he. Desperation takes over. But by that point, Le Chiffre is marked for death.
His plan is simple: sponsor a high stakes poker game in Montenegro in a desperate bid to get SPECTRE’s money back. Unfortunately for Le Chiffre, Bond wipes him out.
This character is a brilliant adaptation from the character in the novel. He’s a genius with numbers, an asthmatic, and nearly tortures Bond to death by beating him with the balled-up end of an industrial rope. You’re almost sorry for Le Chiffre when his plan disintegrates. Almost. Very memorable.
2) ERNST STAVRO BLOFELD
You Only Live Twice – 1967 (Donald Pleasance) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – 1969 (Telly Savalas) Diamonds Are Forever – 1971 (Charles Gray) SPECTRE – 2015 (Christoph Waltz)
“Yes, give him his cigarettes. It won’t be the nicotine that kills you, Mr. Bond.”
Yes, Blofeld appears in From Russia With Love and Thunderball with his white cat, but he wasn’t the main protagonist until 1967. His plots for world domination range from trying to start World War III between the United States and Russia by stealing their space capsules; brainwashing an army of beautiful women to disperse a virus that will wipe out the world’s livestock and botany; launch a diamond-encrusted satellite that can destroy any target on earth if a ransom isn’t paid; to just plain old revenge on Bond. Blofeld even kills Bond’s wife! Either with hair or without, he’s insidious.
1) AURIC GOLDFINGER (Goldfinger – 1964)
“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!”
It has to be Gert Frobe as Goldfinger. He’s the archetype for every Bond villain that follows him. Goldfinger is a smuggler obsessed with… Gold! He hatches a scheme to detonate an “atomic device” inside Fort Knox, making the United States gold supply radioactive (and therefore unusable) for 58 years, which will increase the value of his own gold. No Bond villain in the franchise takes more joy in criminal activity than Goldfinger, and it’s a delight to watch.
That’s it! Every main Bond villain in their place of importance. The plot for Bond 25 is still being worked on right now, although there’s no doubt it will feature an antagonist worthy of James Bond.
We are still pretty far away from Shane Black’s The Predator, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it, right?
Olivia Munn has joined the cast, alongside James Franco, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The report says Munn will be playing the very generic “scientist” opposite Franco and Boyd Holbrook (Narcos), who is replacing Benicio Del Toro as a Special Forces commando.
As for the story itself, little is known aside from the setting for The Predator: suburbia?
Plot details are being kept under wraps but this is known: the story plunks the deadly alien hunter, who audiences have seen fight in jungles, concrete jungles, frozen wastelands and alien planets, in the harsh environment of … suburbia.
Soccer moms beware! The Predator is in the middle of pre-production with a scheduled February 8, 2018 (it feels like a hundred years away) release date. Black is directing and wrote the script with longtime buddy Fred Dekker – the two worked together on Monster Squad way back in the day.
Stay tuned for more details. Like, hopefully confirmation that Old-Man Dutch will appear in some capacity.
It seems us Dark Tower fans will have to wait a little bit longer for the film’s premiere, reports Entertainment Weekly. Originally scheduled for February 2017, the movie has now been pushed back into the summer. No specific details have been given. Principal photography was completed in July, so perhaps the delay is due to the extensive post-production needed to finish the fantasy film. A television series, reportedly based on the fourth book in the seriesWizard and Glass, is also expected to help finish the story after the movie’s release. The film has had a long history of starts and stops, with many attempts at production by J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard.
The Dark Tower, based on a series of novels by Stephen King, details the heroic quest of Roland Deschain, the last Gunslinger of his land, who along with a young boy from our Earth named Jake, attempts to stop the evil Man In Black from destroying the Dark Tower and eradicating all reality with it.
The film stars Idris Elba as Roland, Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black, and Tom Taylor as Jake Chamber . The cast also includes Jackie Earle Haley, Franz Kranz, Abby Lee Kershaw, Claudia Kim, Michael Barberi, Jose Zuniga, Alex McGregor, De-Wet Nagel, and Nicholas Hamilton. It is directed by Nikolaj Arcel and produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Media Rights Capital.
Neil Patrick Harris nails the Count Olaf look in this trailer for Netlifx’ A Series of Unfortunate Events. I had completely forgotten this was going to be a thing in 2017, but this trailer gives off a pretty fun vibe:
After the Baudelaire parents die in a terrible fire, the Baudelaire orphans search for their families secrets and get them and their fortune away from the terrible grasp of the sinister Count Olaf as he moves with them between different gaurdians in desquise.
NPH looks awesome, and goes a long way to help erase the memory of that Jim Carrey movie… kidding. Carrey’s movie was fine, but not good enough to kickstart the franchise they wanted.
This version of A Series of Unfortunate Events is an 8-episode Netflix series, so it’ll have more breathing room. There’s a ton of talent scattered in this version, including Bernadette Peters, Aasif Mandvi, Joan Cusack, among others. Also, Barry Sonnenfeld is directing alongside Mark Palansky, which explains the cool Addams Family movie vibe to the visuals.
A Series of Unfortunate Events releases on January 13 on Netflix.
The Cubs gnawed the faces off of the Cleveland Indians in a World Series destined to break at least one curse. The Windy City is a gorgeous place that’s starred as the setting of many great films. In honor of the Cubs winning in seven games, here are seven great films made in Chicago!
The Blues Brothers – 1980
Born on Saturday Night Live, the Blues Brothers are characters created by legendary comedians Dan Akroyd and John Belushi. From comedy sketch to several music albums later, the duo featured in this raucous buddy comedy directed by John Landis. The Blues Brothers is one of the wildest rides in and around Chicago committed to film.
Did you know that the greatest movie about ditching school is also a science fiction film? Ferris Bueller is a time-controlling imp who gives viewers of a tour of Chicago in record time. The adventures are legendary in pop culture. Director John Hughes and star Matthew Broderick created a timeless comedy classic about seizing the day, friendship, and more.
The Untouchables is about mafia kingpin Al Capone and all his murderous antics in 1930s Chicago. It’s directed by Brian De Palma and stars Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert DeNiro and Billy Drago. If you consider yourself a pop culture addict and don’t know who Billy Drago is then, you know nothing! The Untouchables is a fantastic film that will likely be rebooted sooner or later.
The comedy hit of its time and one of the highest grossing ever, Home Alone made a star of Macauly Caulkin. If you don’t know the story by now, little Kevin McAllister is left home alone by his super-neglectful parents. Two criminals played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, who have been targeting the house, attempt to get inside only to meet the many traps set by Kevin.
“It was a one-armed man!” Harrison Ford stars in the Oscar-nominated action movie directed by Andrew Davis. The Fugitive is the rare combination of a high-stakes action thriller and smart character drama. It’s also the film on this list that is most unabashedly Chicago, even including the green river during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Arguably the most visually stunning movie on this list. Road to Perdition brings to life the richly drawn graphic novel by Max Allan Collins to create a film that’s absorbing. Tom Hanks and a star-studded cast including Jude Law, Daniel Craig, and legend Paul Newman feature in a movie about fathers, sons, and the ties that bind. Director Sam Mendes dresses the character drama as a mob movie with all the tension and violence that goes with it.
The second chapter in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is widely considered as one of the greatest comic book movies ever. I’m not here to debate that. Though the movie takes place in fictional Gotham, the actual filming took place in Chicago, and Nolan uses the traditional and modern angles of the city’s buildings to take us to another world where heroes face phyrric victories.
Extra Inning (aka Honorable Mention): Barbershop – 2002
Who knew a comedy about a barbershop in South Chicago could be so much fun? Director Tim Story leads Ice Cube (for the first of their now three films together) and a cast that includes Queen Latifah, Cedric the Entertainer, and Anthony Anderson. The film is a lot more heartwarming that it needed with a funny story about friends and family. It even spawned a four-movie cinematic universe!
This guy’s about as threatening as a CPA with a bendy straw. Kristatos (Julian Glover) is a Greek businessman in bed with the Soviets. The Commies task Kristatos with recovering the ATAC, a British intelligence device similar to the Lektor Decoder in From Russia With Love. Kristatos sits around a lot with his legs crossed, drinking and playing people off each other.
Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe) is the Soviet Russian equivalent of a 1980’s yuppie. James Bond (Timothy Dalton) is sent to retrieve this defecting Soviet General, who’s really not defecting. If not for Krabbe’s performance, this character wouldn’t make a blip on the Bond villain radar. Yet, due to his whirlwind performance, the character is rather mesmerizing.
“I may be small, but I never forget!”
“Plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead.”
“You had your eight, now I’ll have my eighty!”
The most Peter Lorre-looking baddie. Greene (Mathieu Amalric) is a environment-friendly businessman who wants the land rights to a newly discovered underground lake which he plans to exploit to the local Bolivians, who are suffering a massive drought. If not for Greene’s psychotic ballet with an axe in the third act, he wouldn’t even be here.
“Down here, there is beauty. There is ugliness. And there is death.”
“You have an annoying habit of surviving, Mr. Bond.”
“Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him.”
“Ingenious!”
“If at first you don’t succeed, Mr. Kidd–“
“You two have joined forces? That simplifies things.”
Scottish actor Robert Carlyle plays this former KGB agent turned terrorist. Years prior to the start of the movie, Renard kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy oil magnate and holds her for ransom. An MI6 agent shoots Renard, but instead of the bullet killing him, it lodges in Renard’s brain, which shuts down his ability to experience pain. In the end, he’s just a piece of ass to the movie’s main villain, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau).
“There’s no news like bad news.”
“You’re trying to stop us, and you don’t even know who we are!”
“East, west, just points of the compass; each as stupid as the other. I’m a member of SPECTRE… The Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion.”
“I am invincible!”
“There’s no point in living if you can’t feel alive!”
“You’re dead.”
Robert Davi plays this psychotic drug lord with a penchant for iguanas. Sanchez is one of Bond’s most ruthless enemies. Early in the movie, Sanchez feeds Bond’s long-time friend CIA agent Felix Leiter (David Heddison) to a shark. Bond (Dalton) find’s Felix’s mutilated (yet alive) body, with a note stuffed in his mouth that reads: “He disagreed with something that ate him.” Bond burns him to a crisp using a silver lighter, which Felix gave him as a present for being Best Man at his wedding.
“I never miss, Mr. Bond.”
“James Bond, who only has to make love to a woman and she starts to hear heavenly choir singing. She repents and immediately returns to the side of right and virtue. But not this one.”
“My dear, you thought to be a little too clever; and now you are caught!”
“If you do you will be SHOT!”
“Well, here’s to us.”
The first legendary henchman. Harold Sakata (Tosh Togo) plays this mute bodyguard to Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe). Oddjob suffocates a girl by coating her in gold paint, crushes a golf ball with his bare hands, and wears a razor-brimmed bowler hat. He uses the hat to decapitate one of Bond’s allies. When he tries to do the same thing to Bond (Connery) inside Fort Knox, Bond electrocutes him dead.
“I may as well ask you for a vodka martini for all the women you’ve rescued. Or all the dead ones you failed to protect.”
Robert Shaw (Quint from Jaws) plays this SPECTRE hitman. Grant is sent to protect Bond (Connery) until he posses the Lektor Decoder machine. Once Bond has the machine, Grant is to kill him and hand it over to SPECTRE. Grant doesn’t utter a single word until he makes contact with Bond aboard the Orient Express. Bond and Grant’s claustrophobic fight inside Bond’s cabin is one of the best in the history of film.
“You are funny, Mr. Bond.”
“Yes, give him his cigarettes. It won’t be the nicotine that kills you, Mr. Bond.”
Born on Saturday Night Live, the Blues Brothers are characters created by legendary comedians Dan Akroyd and John Belushi. From comedy sketch to several music albums later, the duo featured in this raucous buddy comedy directed by John Landis. The Blues Brothers is one of the wildest rides in and around Chicago committed to film.
Did you know that the greatest movie about ditching school is also a science fiction film? Ferris Bueller is a time-controlling imp who gives viewers of a tour of Chicago in record time. The adventures are legendary in pop culture. Director John Hughes and star Matthew Broderick created a timeless comedy classic about seizing the day, friendship, and more.
The Untouchables is about mafia kingpin Al Capone and all his murderous antics in 1930s Chicago. It’s directed by Brian De Palma and stars Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert DeNiro and Billy Drago. If you consider yourself a pop culture addict and don’t know who Billy Drago is then, you know nothing! The Untouchables is a fantastic film that will likely be rebooted sooner or later.
The comedy hit of its time and one of the highest grossing ever, Home Alone made a star of Macauly Caulkin. If you don’t know the story by now, little Kevin McAllister is left home alone by his super-neglectful parents. Two criminals played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, who have been targeting the house, attempt to get inside only to meet the many traps set by Kevin.
“It was a one-armed man!” Harrison Ford stars in the Oscar-nominated action movie directed by Andrew Davis. The Fugitive is the rare combination of a high-stakes action thriller and smart character drama. It’s also the film on this list that is most unabashedly Chicago, even including the green river during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
Arguably the most visually stunning movie on this list. Road to Perdition brings to life the richly drawn graphic novel by Max Allan Collins to create a film that’s absorbing. Tom Hanks and a star-studded cast including Jude Law, Daniel Craig, and legend Paul Newman feature in a movie about fathers, sons, and the ties that bind. Director Sam Mendes dresses the character drama as a mob movie with all the tension and violence that goes with it.
The second chapter in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is widely considered as one of the greatest comic book movies ever. I’m not here to debate that. Though the movie takes place in fictional Gotham, the actual filming took place in Chicago, and Nolan uses the traditional and modern angles of the city’s buildings to take us to another world where heroes face phyrric victories.
Who knew a comedy about a barbershop in South Chicago could be so much fun? Director Tim Story leads Ice Cube (for the first of their now three films together) and a cast that includes Queen Latifah, Cedric the Entertainer, and Anthony Anderson. The film is a lot more heartwarming that it needed with a funny story about friends and family. It even spawned a four-movie cinematic universe!