A gangster named Frank Lopez in Scarface. A toy company CEO in Big. A priest. A wise man. A dozen cops. Two dozen other gangster roles. For over 64 years and 230 different movies and television roles, Robert Loggia was a face of cinema you couldn’t forget. General Grey in Independence Day! Loggia played three different characters on the 1970’s series, The Rockford Files. Charlie’s Angels. Starsky and Hutch.You name it and Loggia played it.
He was FBI agent Nick Mancuso for over 20 episodes. He was Coach Wally Rig in the Scott Bakula football cult classic, Necessary Roughness. Loggia, after five hard years of battling Alzheimer’s Disease, passed away Friday at the age of 85 years young. He earned every one of them and his work in the land of make believe to live on for decades. You can watch his movies on Netflix tonight if you wanted. He wasn’t in it for the fame and glitz. Loggia was a true actor. A worker. Hard edged and passionate.
Born and raised in New York City, Loggia broke into acting at the age of 21 years old and did more than four projects per year. Like Christopher Walken, he didn’t care what the role was. He just did it and did it well. In a way you would remember. No one will ever forget Loggia’s raspy laugh and street wide smile and cackle. It was a signature part of every role he played.
He never stopped working. In 2015, he had four releases planned and has three incomplete films slated for post production as this is typed. The only thing that could have kept Loggia off a set was his lovely wife Audrey, whom he was married to since 1982. What St. Louis and Missouri film fans may not know is that Loggia graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a journalism degree in 1951, the year he started acting. He served in the army and spent time on Broadway.
Nothing scared Loggia when it came to life or film. He was a month shy of his 86th birthday when he passed. The film world owes a debt to him. How many actors can you think of have acted in over 200 films or TV shows? How many have played in so many and elevated every single one they were in?
Loggia was a classic face of film, someone you see and smile knowing that the part he is playing will be played with fierce attention to detail and the authenticity that a film fan covets.
Stop by Netflix tonight and watch these Loggia aided films. Wide Awake, Over the Top, or the holiday film, An Evergreen Christmas.
The sweet isn’t as sweet without the bitter my fellow Kingdom on Audience addicts. In order to taste the top, you have to know what dirt on your nostrils feels like. In the second to last hour of this furiously entertaining and poignant season of the Direct TV series, fights are won lives change and are lost. This episode was about great acting. Underrated acting. You won’t hear about it at the awards ceremony because it’s MMA, but it needs to be appreciated.
If you haven’t watched it yet, stop reading now. The rest of you, wrap your hands and follow me into the steamer.
The episode opens with Alvey Kulina rubbing and cocking his weapons. The same guns he bought in “New Money” back on October 14th now look to be going back. Is he trying to make a way for Lisa to come home? You bet. He is undoing all the suck in his life that has added up in Season 2. Did it work? Of course..not.
LISA IS MOVING TO SF
After a tense breakfast with Alvey(Frank Grillo), Lisa(the lovely and glowing Kiele Sanchez) is taking the unborn son of the man to San Francisco for the birth and for perhaps longer. This has been felt for several episodes. A woman trying to raise another kid around the maniac arena of MMA, drugs, drama, and constant pressure. Maybe getting away to SF is for the best. The aftershock of this decision make any optimistic twist in these final two hours a mere tease of happiness.
Lisa’s scene with Jay in the locker room is so well played by Sanchez and Tucker. She tries to make it okay in her mind that leaving won’t hurt him and as he shreds the pounds for a title fight, he insists that the little Kulina is top priority right now. Of all the men on this show right now, Jay is looking out the most for Lisa’s needs. The look Sanchez gives Jay spells out the pain she feels. Tucker, as charismatic as a wrecking ball with eyes, is excellent here. He’s a gifted dude.
ALICIA GETS A CAR AND SHAME
Remember that sweet and bitter thing? It’s best not to celebrate a new car from an energy drink company after winning an exhibition fight. Alicia gets the keys to a brand new Mustang and freaks out like it’s her sweet 16. Granted, she nearly got mugged in her sleep three hours ago, but still, on a cut day it’s best to smile, fist pump and go back inside. Mendez is so up and down it’s hard to know where her story is going. Nate(Nick Jonas) has to talk her down and tell her to respect the house. Lisa tells her to give the car back so she can actually get paid. Sweet. Bitter. Hand in hand.
CHRISTINA CLEANING UP OR GOING DOWN?
A week after watching Jay inject himself with heroin and seeing her world come crashing down, Christina needs her own place. An apartment looks great but with the competitive market(1700 per month for that!!) and her history, the chances of her getting the place are remote. So she tries to play the sexy and beauty part, only to be rebuffed by the realtor, who is an ugly despicable type but isn’t being rude with his requirements. Christina is an ex-junkie without much work stability. Escort service doesn’t look good on a past work slot even in 2015. When she goes to Alvey to co-sign, he turns her down. Without being able to look at Jay and getting denied, things are looking down for her. Way down.
RYAN SEEKS PEACE/DOESN’T GET IT
It’s cut day for Wheeler and he’s a bottle of nerves with a bent cap. Matt Lauria allows his expressions to do the heavy lifting in this episode. Pretty much every episode. Whether it’s him on a bike in the sauna trying to cut six pounds or talking to his dad about his latest condition or begging Keith to be quiet on fight day, Lauria needs the least amount of words to dominate a scene. When Lisa tells him she is leaving, what viewers thought was gone this season(his feelings for her) reawaken after they embrace. Lauria, clenching his face and neck like a sniper would pull on the hammer of his rifle, is the epitome of intensity. These actors know the only way to become these characters is to suck it ALL in. So good and well trained.
JAY GETS HIS SHOT
The colorful yet reckless Kulina has been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. He’s watched his brother Nate get three fights and Ryan Wheeler carry a belt after leaving jail. He’s the guy at the party holding the keg for others to fill with beer. Now it’s his turn to get a taste. The man picked most likely to screw it all up is chomping at the bit and after finally cutting the weight and making 145, he climbs into the ring an angry man. Who cares who he is facing but there is a belt at stake and a shot at redemption for a man as reckless as he is talented. Seeing Tucker whisk through a warmup to the underrated whiskey drunk sounds of Spottiswoode’s “Blaze of Glory” is so well done and taunt. Instead of leveling the audience with hard rock or metal, Creator Byron Balasco has the confidence to toss an acoustic misery track into the pre-fight mix reel. Bless you, o’bearded one.
What happens? After nearly tapping out in the first round, Jay takes Alvey’s advice and knocks his challenger out with a cold knee to the jaw. He’s a champion. Finally. The emotion between Frank Grillo and Jonathan Tucker in this scene is so genuine you forget there are cameras around. Kingdom has a way of pulling you in so close that the stink, sweat and grit from these characters rubs off on you. It doesn’t fake a thing. Alvey told him he would fail and Jay proved him wrong. The entire time, the joker grin on Tucker’s face tells the entire story and Alvey just eats it. His son is a champion. Alvey is shellshocked that it’s Jay and not Nate. How life deals your cards is only half the battle friendos. Gotta take em and fight.
Sweet and the bitter. While Jay was warming up before the fight, Christina, at the end of her rope, was prepping to a dose of heroin. A big dose. A song played in my head. Sweet Child O’Mine. Any TV fan knew what was coming. She was going to OD while Jay fought for the title. The sweet isn’t as sweet without the bitter. The devil is a block behind happiness at all times. Jay tries to call his mom after the win and gets nothing. Back at home, the camera pans to a lifeless Christina right before the end credits roll.
Ladies and gentlemen, prepare for the boat to be rocked. Jay will most likely blame Alvey for not helping his mom but as the old lion said, she does this to herself. It’s a cycle for addicts. They fall into bad habits, rely on easy shortcuts and eventually slam into a brick wall of adversity. They are a stinky pair of underwear to society. None of this matters to Jay. She’s his mother. He won the belt but lost his mother. All in one hour. That’s life. As Rocky Balboa urged his kid, nobody hits harder than life.
Extra Rounds:
~Adored the rambling about cold vacations, good food and big boobs between Ryan and Jay in the sauna. Comic relief.
~Poor Keith doesn’t understand sports. You can’t talk to a pitcher on his day to throw. Same for fighters.
~MVP this season goes to Kiele Sanchez. She is REALLY pregnant and handling all these kids. Did I mention she is gorgeous? Wow. Remember when she fought Milla Jovavich in The Perfect Getaway? She was Timothy Olyphant’s girlfriend in that film. Olyphant would go on to play Raylan Givens in Justified and have a showdown with Tucker’s Boon in the season finale. Sanchez also starred in Purge: Anarchy with Grillo. World just shrunk a bit. Love you Kiele.
~Thank you Joanna Going for being a force of nature as Christina. You were a storm cloud, pocket of light and loose cannon all in one. What a performance.
~What happens in Wheeler’s fight? He has to win because a title fight with Jay would be the driving force behind Season 3. Right? We shall see.
Unwrap your hands, take a lap and see you next week for the Kingdom Season 2 finale.
“Maybe Gotham and I share the same opinion. We have a bad history with freaks who dress like clowns.”
The tense face-off between Bruce Wayne(Ben Affleck) and Clark Kent(Henry Cavill) is the best part of this new slice of footage from 2016’s mega blockbuster, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. This is the big swing from DC in its response to Marvel, who has taken over the superhero movie scene the past few years. If David S. Goyer’s script has the juice of this verbal face-off, not even the erratic inconsistent filmmaking style of Zach Snyder can mess it up.
For all the people who hated Man of Steel’s over the top finale, where Sup and General Zod’s fight leveled a city, that is the exact definition of the thorn stuck in Wayne/Batman’s side as this movie opens up. The carnage in MOS’finale also leveled a Wayne Enterprises building, killing several of Wayne’s employees and friends. This makes Wayne question the new alien in town, someone who has the power to destroy it as much as nurture and protect it.
The new footage also introduces in depth other key players like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor as well as a new villain, Doomsday. Any Superman comic book collector knows what the presence of this beast signifies. In the comics, he killed DC’s hero. His place in the movie seems to eventually align Bat and Sup each other instead of against each other.
It should be fun watching the human Wayne take on the otherworldly Superman. At the heart of these films is the ideals of each hero and how the heroism can lead to more death. It begs the question that is hammered down so well in the Captain America films. Are they heroes or vigilantes?
Wild theory time. Here’s something I’d love to see happen. Morgan Freeman makes an uncredited cameo as Lucius Fox at the beginning of this film and in a scene that evokes 9/11, is talking to Wayne when the Wayne Tower is struck by Superman and Zod. Fox is killed in the wreckage and that personally spikes Wayne’s anger. Just an idea that Snyder and Goyer could be hiding up their sleeve. Or Lois Lane(Amy Adams) being killed in wreckage by Doomsday and Wayne making a quip towards Superman, saying “now you know how it feels to lose someone you love to another’s madness”. Something sets Kent off into a mad descent of anger. The possibilities in this DC film universe shaping flick spring out in a number of directions.
I can’t get enough of Affleck’s Wayne/Bat. He is the perfect guy at this particular age to play this character in this story. An older, wearier and angrier hero who doesn’t trust what this new alien brings to the table.
This movie could be incredibly good or overstuffed. It’s hard to not think about Spider Man when you see all these characters at once. Then again, Joss Whedon pulled it off with Avengers so it’s not impossible.
Are you pumped for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?
Certain movies knock you down so hard that upon leaving the theater, you can’t properly describe them. Instead, you are full of emotion, vigor and a need to tell as many people about what you just saw in a dark room with a few others. Spotlight, Tom McCarthy’s renegade tour de force, is one of those experiences. A film so powerful, important and straight on the dose that it will remove you from a comfortable position and place you down in an nostalgic zone that viewers must have felt in 1976 upon leaving Sidney Lumet’s Network in Alan J. Pakula’s All The Presidents Men. As if something was brought to your attention.
Spotlight is a film about hardcore relentless journalism and the pursuit of a truth few saw worth finding. An incredible true story that needs to be told and appreciated. I often think about the lack of knowledge we as a nation would have without journalists digging deep into the dark crevices where they aren’t allowed or told not to look. Like detectives without guns and only armed with their badge of honor, reporters have to chase down injustice and truth with all their will and place their name on top of all of it like a flag in land conquered by no one.
Back in 2002, the Boston Globe went after the Catholic Church for covering up years of sexual molestation from a number of priests. A special reporting team, aka Spotlight, was given the job by new editor in chief Marty Baron(Liev Schreiber, tearing into his best cinematic role in over a decade). The team was led by Walter “Robby” Robinson(Michael Keaton) and comprised of Sasha Pfeiffer(Rachel McAdams), Mike Rezendes(Mark Ruffalo) and Matt Carroll(Brian d’Arcy James). Their boss was Ben Bradbury(John Slattery), a guy who protected them while sheltering them from any potential blowback and showed them how long the leash was for a story.
Baron, a stoic newcomer from Miami at the time, wanted to tackle something that had been swept under the rug years ago by the Metro division. A case about molestation in the church. Taking a swing at the church was like shoving Goliath in the street and challenging him to a fight. It wasn’t about right or wrong with the church. It was about who had the guts to stand up against them and not just turn away when an advisor tells them the problem is only coming from “a few bad apples”. You wouldn’t let the police get away with something terrible if it was just a few bad people, so why the church. Baron’s greatest strength was not caring who he angered or the amount of feathers that he ruffled. He wanted to give something back to the readers. Spotlight, facing a push back everywhere, relentlessly investigates this story and finds a hidden horror that was being covered up to protect people who broke so many rules and violated so many that looking away was advised over standing up.
McCarthy has a dream cast. In addition to Schreiber, Keaton really tears into the role of Robby, a man who dictates where his team looks, reaches or pushes. It’s so gratifying to see this gifted actor tackling roles like Birdman and Spotlight that bring out all his greatest gifts as an actor. He doesn’t overplay the role but like the others here, just gives it the right amount of juice to forget you are watching an actor and believe that you are being transported back to the real event.
McAdams has worked a lot in the past two years, but only here does she find a project worthy of her talents. She may finish her career as a woman who never got the proper role to garner her an Oscar but she is an underrated actress. She gives you the two essential qualities of a journalist here. Strength and speed. She’s very good.
Many moviegoers may not know James, who has done a ton of TV work, both large and small but never received a part that had this much weight. He fits perfectly into the cast of familiar faces, with his 1970’s look and stature as the member of the group who did the digging and made sure the ground beneath Spotlight wouldn’t crumble. I am not sure he needs to work a lot more, but he is excellent here.
The best here may come from Mark Ruffalo, playing the ferocious truth seeking reporter Mike Rezendes. The other actors change their way of speaking a little and adapt a mannerism, but Ruffalo dives headfirst into this guy who didn’t eat much, sleep enough or gave his family the kind of attention that he donated to the lost souls in his columns. He is like Vincent Hanna in Heat, a man who doesn’t know how to do barbecues or ballgames yet only chase down the story. Ruffalo has been on fire lately, dominating Foxcatcher, Begin Again, HBO’s A Normal Heart or a weird indie like Infinitely Polar Bear. Talk about a guy who can’t miss and also mixes in the fun with Bruce Banner in Avengers. Here, playing Rezendes, Ruffalo is a human gas leak for all the people who wish the church was protected. He won’t stop and Ruffalo doesn’t leave anything on the table with his performance.
John Slattery will always remind me of Roger Sterling, but that doesn’t mean he can’t take a full step in a role and push something great across to the audience. Playing the guy who wanted to say No more than Baron, Slattery is a glass case of nerves that slowly shatters. Stanley Tucci also puts in good work as a lawyer who assists Rezendes.
Spotlight, like last year’s Kill The Messenger, deserves your attention. It’s not just about being entertained. It’s about learning a little about a great moment in American journalism while being entertained by actors you know and love yet haven’t seen this particular way yet. It’s about a scandal that was conveniently sleeping under a rug until a team of reporters made it right and went after it. The effect of this investigation elicited a Pulitzer Prize and hundreds of investigations into churches that stretched across the globe. In a modern age where the newspaper is dying, Spotlight is an old school kick of powerful nostalgia and a reminder that nothing is sexier in an office than fearless reporting.
It doesn’t get more timely than this, folks. Every time you go to the movies, it’s like betting on a race horse. Which one will give you the most bang for your buck? Which one is worth staking? Spotlight is a film that doesn’t just deserve your time and money. It deserves your attention after the lights up. It will start a conversation that may shake you a bit but leave knowing that what you just saw was vital to the human spirit.
It’s Thanksgiving and since we all know the importance of being thankful for the family that surround our dinner tables every November, we need to remember the talent that surrounds us in this city. It’s not all greatness or flat failure but the dying of the light is far from us in this great town. Here are 12 people or things to be thankful for in St. Louis sports. In no logical order…
Alex Pietrangelo
The young captain of the St. Louis Blues is a workhouse and under-appreciated in this city(even from me in the past). He may not score a ton of goals and has problems finding the net with his shot at times(how easy is it really?), but Pietro is the backbone of this team. He faces the top line of the opposition for 30 minutes every game and has played in 97% of the games for the past six seasons. He may show up on every trade fan forum, but they just don’t get it. Be thankful for this kid. He’s only 25 by the way.
Matt Carpenter
He scared us last season with his swoon at the plate, but in the end he led the team in vital areas like home runs, on base percentage and versatile awesomeness. The only thing that can stop this guy is his own intensity and drive. Carpenter’s career .828 OPS and 128 OPS+ is very very good.
Vladimir Tarasenko
You may see defenders get in this Russian’s way but it doesn’t matter. He is awesome. He fits that word to a tee. Every time Vladimir hits the ice, the other team goes on high alert. I asked for a game changer two years ago and got one in this kid. He’s freakishly lethal with the puck and also knows how to dish it to his teammates. He also has a smart head on his shoulders. He’s ours for a long time. Stan Kroenke can take our Rams but he can’t take Tarasenko.
Yadier Molina
His bat is declining and his thumb has betrayed him two seasons in a row, but he is still the most important player on this team. He won his 8th Gold Glove this past season and did it with a patch work staff and ever changing crew in front of him. The world knows he is a God and he meets the hype. His bat may not slug much, but it can still produce runs when needed. Yadier is getting older. Father time is undefeated but Molina isn’t done yet. He has a few more seasons left in him. He also threw out Billy Hamilton this season. Props.
Adam Wainwright
The horse went missing for most of the 2015 season, but wasn’t it so essential when he returned in late September. It’s an arguably theory of whether a team plays harder for a certain pitcher but the Cards definitely rest easier behind the mound with Waino out there. He’s still a potent competitor and has been slowed by unique injuries(Tommy John, Achilles) the past two extended DL stops. Expect a robust season from him in 2016. For those who think he can’t do it, revisit his last full season in 2014.
David Backes
Should he be captain? Should he be traded? Please. Backes is still an essential asset to the Blues. He is a leader of men, a trusted ally and someone these guys look up to. He can still score 25 goals and play the top line minutes against the fiercest opponent. He has underrated hands for a big guy and kills penalties as good as anyone. Is his spot on this team guaranteed next year? Who knows? Stop complaining and appreciate.
Todd Gurley
Remember when people couldn’t figure out why the Rams drafted Gurley? Yeah, me too. Out of all the misery on the Rams offense this season, Gurley has been a positive. He leaps over defenders. He runs through a block better than most. He has an offday and still finds the end zone. When he’s on, the man carries the team on his back. Gurley is a reason to want the Rams to stay. He will only get better with age. Looking like a sneaky steal from the Rams 2015 draft.
Jake Allen
The young goaltender isn’t making Ken Hitchcock’s choices in net too hard this season. While Brian Elliott deserves more starts, it’s hard to deny what Allen brings to the ice. He’s got a unique talent and an ability to make huge saves. Seven games this season, he has posted a save % of .950 or greater. He is atop the leaderboard in shutouts. He is the future(and the present) of this team’s face in net. Get used to it.
Robert Quinn
A sack artist isn’t too easy to find. Anybody can rush the corner and grab a few. Players like Quinn change the other team’s game plan and affect the entire field. Take him away and the team operates differently. His loss has been felt this month and that is because Quinn is one of the best pass rushers in the NFL. He’s collected 50 sacks and 16 forced fumbles in just 47 starts. He’s also 25. Be thankful.
Aaron Donald
This guy is a beast and is so young and raw. He doesn’t just deny the run game. He abolishes it on every snap. Together with Michael Brockers, Chris Long and Quinn, Donald gives the Rams the best front four in the NFL. A worthy defender capable of big plays and a big part of this team’s future.
Matt Holliday
He is like David Backes to Cards fans. Trade him? Move him? Do this. Do that. Holliday’s 73 games in 2015 were the least amount of games in the regular season in the Stillwater, Oklahoma native’s long career. For the people who complain about home runs and RBI, please don’t forget OPS. As in on base percentage and slugging percentage combined. Holliday’s last three full season OPS’ are .877, 879, and .811. He’s still got a lot of value to this team.
Carlos Martinez
El Gallo to most fans, Martinez went from “maybe 5 inning starter” to probable ace in one season. He was dynamite on the road or at home, and was mean to hitters with runners in scoring position. His injury at the end of September hurt the team the most. Soon enough, Martinez will lead this rotation. He’s something else.
I probably forgot some players. Maybe I didn’t. Either way, be thankful for these 12. Have some turkey, smile a bit and enjoy the family.
Cinemax’s hit series, Banshee, is deep into its fourth season and over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a chance to spin the random question dial with Hoon Lee, who plays the show’s most popular character in Job, the cross-dressing stylistic computer hacking criminal. Job may look like a sidekick to central protagonist Lucas Hood(Antony Starr), but he is a one man wrecking crew. He can break a man down with a wise crack, hack his computer and dish him a kick to the face or slowly form a death stare.
Instead of engaging Lee in the usual interview where scribes and actors volley routine questions and answers at each other, I went the other direction. I asked him quick random questions. Banshee addicts and normal entertainment junkies can dig these answers.
Buffa:If you weren’t an actor, you’d be….
Hoon Lee: Unemployed.
Buffa: Which is more challenging? Theater or TV/Film?
Lee: Trick question. Completely dependent on the project and the team. Strong material and good people make for short, satisfying days. Weak material and jerks can make an 8 hour day feel like a week in detention.
Buffa: Favorite movie of all time?
Lee: Oh come on!
Buffa: If you can’t get your coffee at _____, you will go insane.
Lee: Partial to Not Just Coffee in Charlotte with a nod to upcoming Hex Coffee. In New York, I like Birch Coffee. In Pittsburgh I liked Zeke’s, Constellation and Espresso a Mano – there was a lot of good coffee in Pittsburgh.
Buffa: Better food, Charlotte or Pittsburgh?
Lee: Charlotte. Good Food on Montford is tough to beat.
Buffa: Favorite episode of Banshee(most proud or likely to watch as a fan)?
Lee: I loved The Truth About Unicorns. It took courage to put that episode out there and let the show be more than it had been. I also really enjoyed the season finale for S1 as it’s one of the few times I got to play with a lot of the rest of the cast.
Buffa: When you are drinking, you are having a ______.
Lee: cookie as well.
Buffa: Best part about playing Job?
Lee: The excitement and support of the fans. They embraced this character in a way I couldn’t have anticipated and it carried me for the entire run of the show. It could have gone a completely different way and made for a rough four seasons.
Buffa: One character on Banshee you won’t want to mess with?
Lee: Hood. Dude fights with everything he’s got.
Buffa: You are on a plane and can go anywhere. Where do you direct the pilot?
Lee: Home.
Buffa: Did you keep anything from the Banshee set? If so, what?
Lee: A few articles of clothing and the back of my set chair. First time I ever had one of those.
Buffa: Star Wars: Fanatic or “what gives”?
Lee: I almost cried when I saw the first trailer.
I’ve talked to Hoon twice now and this different kind of interview is just another reason why the Banshee cast is different from most TV show groups. Every Friday night when the show comes on, they hop on Twitter and interact with fans. I mean, really interact. They care and dedicate themselves to building a bridge between performer and viewer. It’s a real treat. Come back this winter for more random question interviews with celebs, athletes and people down the street. You never know who you may get to know tomorrow. Today, it was Hoon Lee.
Banshee returns on Cinemax for its fourth and final season in exactly two months. January 29th. You can catch up via Max Go right now. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Jessica Jones doesn’t like people much. Jones drinks bourbon like a fish and only eats after a long night of bed breaking sex. She doesn’t care what you think. She doesn’t care for costumes. She is a cynical loner who has no need for heroism worship. Best of all, she kicks butt, takes it well and keeps on coming back for more. Jones is the first truly relatable superhero.
No offense to the world’s greatest heroes, but as much as the world can adore the more popular Marvel toughies, it’s hard to stand next to them as equals. I couldn’t drink a super serum today and become Captain America. When I get mad, I don’t shred my clothes and become a gigantic green rage monster. Tony Stark isn’t superpowered but his bank account sure is. Thor isn’t even human. While Black Widow is human enough, they don’t make look that way in Avengers films.
Jones, as played by the tough and witty yet vulnerable well of sorrow Krysten Ritter, is just another lady looking for work from the first time we see her on screen in the new Netflix series. She is taking pictures of a cheating husband for a stash of cash as a very good private investigator. Soon enough, we find out she can manhandle people and easily pick up furniture. Okay, so she is kind of superhuman when it comes to strength but the show never lets that distract from the main chunk of meat of the plot.
The thing is, Jones used to fight crime. She tried to do the right thing but when she ran into a manipulating mind controlling baddie called Kilgrave(David Tennant, channeling Tom Hiddleston’s Loki here with his devilish portrayal here), something terrible happened and she went off the radar. Someone died and she didn’t feel like being a hero anymore. A somebody that wanted to be a nobody.
She’s having a good old time being empty and full of cheap whiskey until Kilgrave returns to send her a message in the form of a missing young woman. The search for her and resulting find sets off a cat and mouse chase between Jones and Kilgrave, pulling her back into the world of a man who broke her years ago.
Jones’ sister Trish(Rachael Taylor), a popular talk show host, gets involved with the hunt and Taylor and Ritter have amazing chemistry as sisters. The writers pay careful attention to all the subplots in this show and the characters are anything but cardboard cutouts.
The major find and standout here is Mike Colter, otherwise known to TV fans as Lamont Bishop from CBS’s The Good Wife. He has a true breakout role here as Luke Cage, the love interest in Jessica’s life that eventually gets sucked into the Kilgrave hunt. A loner with impenetrable skin and superhuman strength, Cage shares a lot in common with Jessica, the least of which being a freak among normal’s. Here is a superhero who puts on a t-shirt and jeans and is ready to rock. He will instantly become a hero to millions of men across the world. Best of all, Colter has found himself a role that he was born to play. He doesn’t overplay the complexities of Cage and has a lot of fun with the action sequences.
Ritter and Tennant are perfectly matched here. Ritter is a veteran actress who most TV addicts know as Aaron Paul’s doomed girlfriend on Breaking Bad. She tosses everything you think you know about her and produces a signature role here as the centerpiece of the action. She doesn’t overdo the dramatic parts of Jones or treat the role too light. It’s a well balanced and fully realized performance that sets the 33 year old up for a long run. Just like Colter, she has scuffled around Hollywood in supporting or bit parts. Now she is at the front of the line, thanks to Marvel’s once again beautiful casting.
Tennant has a whole lotta fun as the bad here, a man who can tell you to shoot yourself or walk off the ledge of a building. When we first see him, he walks into a family’s apartment and promptly orders them around. He tells the kids to hide in the closet and pee in their pants while demanding the wife to feed him. Draped in a purple suit, he is a seemingly feeble man who you don’t realize his power until its too late. The actor, like the rest of the cast, doesn’t overplay the role even when it begs him to try.
The rest of the body of this show’s cast is well filled out. Carrie Anne Moss, Will Traval,Clarke Peters, Eka Darville, Robin Weigert and Erin Moriarty are all very good here, filling out parts with nuanced work instead of campy foreplay.
The show is uncompromising and goes in a number of directions. Right when you think it’s tapped for a certain direction, it pivots out and moves elsewhere. There are many great moments, such as a romantic tryst involving a moving bus. A room full of cops pointing guns at each other. An interrogation device that grows more thrilling by the moment. These people don’t need suits to exhibit their powers. Their own given bodies are painful enough reminders of the damage they can hide and the war they can wage.
Like Daredevil before it, Jessica Jones uses its 13 hours to fully flesh out a story while also introducing and building characters viewers will want to see more of. Colter’s Cage is getting his own show in 2016. Jones will most likely show up in that series. Both will come around future Marvel projects. Kevin Feige and company have composed a seamless system of original character construction. They put out the flames of a terribly failed cinematic attempt of Daredevil but going bare bones with Charlie Cox and telling a true origin tale. With Jones, they have finally delivered a female superhero worth rooting for and getting close to.
All thanks to the wonderful work from creator Melissa Rosenberg and her gifted group of actors. The fight choreography is extremely well done as well, never moving the camera too quick or getting too close to the action. It’s more of an adrenaline placement of action than a nervy twitch. Seeing Jones and Cage toss people around like rag dolls never gets old because it’s handled realistically. Well, as realistic as watching a nurse try to administer meds to Cage and having the needle get bent in half on top of his skin or him taking a circle saw to his abdomen to prove a point.
Jessica Jones mixes real world terrors and fears with the geeky Marvel superhero fun we have come to expect. Daredevil started something original and cool earlier this year. This new series improves upon that show and raises the bar. When Daredevil returns this summer and introduces Jon Bernthal’s take on Frank Castle, the engine will keep on roaring.
In case you forgot, all 13 episodes went live on November 20th. No waiting. No sitting around for six days. I won’t just recommend you watch Jessica Jones. I’ll urge you to. It’s extremely well done and you don’t have to know a single thing about these comic book characters. It’s better if you meet them like a stranger on the street. A stranger that can toss you a couple of blocks if they wanted to.
It’s once again time for Kristen Ashly and Dan Buffa to go head to head in popular topics. One man. One woman. One topic. This week, it’s guilty pleasures. What do you watch and kind of feel bad about afterwards? What do you eat and wish you hadn’t done so? Is it something else? Do you like plaid shirts or turtlenecks or that polka dot dress or shirt? What is it?
Buffa- 1980’s and early 1990’s action films.
Little dialogue, little logic and lots of one liners, muscles and bad special effects powered action. Fist crackling fun. I am talking Robocop. Commando. Lock up. Cobra. Double Impact. Lionheart. Out for Justice. Showdown in Little Tokyo. Soak it up ladies and gents. They don’t make them like they used to, and for the most part that’s a good thing.
Remember Out for Justice. Sure you don’t. The bar scene where Steven Seagal walks in, covered in black and rocking a pony tail, looking for William Forsyth’s Richie. Clean shaven (facial hair was petrified to grow on that face) and moving like a jungle cat, Seagal stalks the place before kicking the shit out of everybody in sight. Check it out.
I don’t know what it is about these films, but I eat them up like skittles. As Seagal says in the clip, maybe it’s my need to impose my will on my fantasies. How one man can walk into a room, talk tough, and back it up with an ass whopping few men can handle. He didn’t need bulging muscles either. Just a well-known mastery of many martial arts. Did I mention the man wore all black? Fear and common sense are the only things that could stop Seagal and even they failed miserably.
Commando. Arnold in his heyday. A one man army looking for his daughter and stopping at nothing until he got his girl back. It’s 85 minutes that seems like 25 because all Arnold (who also doesn’t need a beard to be tough) does is find people, beat them up and collect guns and one liners along the way. “Let off some steam, Bennett!” So good.
What was better than Jean Claude Van Damme back in the day? Two Van Dammes! Try out Double Impact, where twin brothers from Belgium with knots on their foreheads dish out leg kicks like pizza at a parlor on Friday night.
Cobra. Under-appreciated Stallone classics. Sly’s cop in Cobra didn’t utter more than 10 words but he had a cool pistol with a…guess what…cobra on it and he wore an incredibly heavy trench coat and rocked a little stubble. What else did a man need in 1986?
They don’t make them that hot anymore. Special effects, box office needs, superheroes and the need for remakes have drowned out the glorious days of a movie simply about “one man, one job and one line required in the alphabet”. It’s a dead ship that must be revisited from time to time. Watch one of these movies and make a cheap Jack’s frozen pizza while you do it. Drink a six-pack of cheap beer too, like Stag or Steel Reserve.
Kristen- Taylor Swift
Yeah, I can hear you grumbling. I don’t care.
Taylor, born in Wyomissing, PA, moved to Nashville at the young age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She did just that. She became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift’s self-titled debut album in 2006 shot her to the top of stardom. Her third single, “Our Song,” made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number one song on the Hot Country Songs chart.
Her second album, Fearless, became the best-selling album of 2009 in the United States. The album won four Grammy Awards, making Swift the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Swift’s third and fourth albums, 2010’s Speak Now and 2012’s Red, both sold more than one million copies within the first week of their U.S release.
As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Swift’s other achievements include seven Grammy Awards, 22 Billboard Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, eight Academy of Country Music Awards, and one Brit Award. She is one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 40 million albums—including 27.1 million in the U.S.—and 130 million single downloads.
The facts speak for themselves. Sure, most of her record sales were due to her ever growing crowd of tween fans, but that crowd is arguably the biggest track buying group, anyways.
Personally, her music speaks to me. She’s a few years younger than me, but I went through similar trials and tribulations. Every girl in her teens and early 20s likely will. Her music is classic, timeless, and ever evolving. Yet, her message never changes: women and girls have needs and wants, and you should listen to them. Her style is also classic and timeless. She’s tall, blonde, lovely, and rocks red lips like no other. She always reminds me of the movie starlets from the early years, with no regret. Just look:
Her personal life is pretty public, and critics and haters often bash her for that reason. But really, who hasn’t had a roller coaster of a love life? Who hasn’t made dumb decisions they later regretted, especially at such a young age? Throw the first stone.
I’m not the only one who thinks she’s talented, and her songs catchy. Artists like Bill Withers, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Jon Bon Jovi, and Lindsey Buckingham have all sung her praises, stating she’s sure to stick around for a long time. How can you argue with any of them? You can’t. Just try. No, really.
If you ever get the pleasure of seeing me cruise around town, just watch for the song I’m singing at the top of my lungs: guarantee it’s a Swift.
Kristen Ashly contributes to Up All Night News. Follow on Twitter @KristenAshly.
“Guys like me don’t get rich. They get by with bloody knuckles.”-Alvey Kulina
When episode 208 of Kingdom opens, Alvey Kulina(Frank Grillo) is talking to his shrink but he could just be talking to himself in a mirror. At some point in life, we figure out that we are who we are. Nothing is changing. A person can’t be rewired to act differently. Alvey is faced with these facts as Lisa has been gone for weeks, staying in her dad’s condo with the pregnancy entering its final stages. What is a fighter when everything outside the ring has been taken away. He has his fists and need to impose his will on whoever comes into his path. Luckily this week, Alvey has Alicia(Natalie Martinez) to train and prepare for her big exhibition fight.
Alicia’s big debut was just one of many big moments this week on Kingdom. With every hour that passes by, creator Byron Balasco seems to be loading up for the big punch and in this hour, he unleashes a deadly hook to viewers with the Jay Kulina(Jonathan Tucker)/Christina(Joanna Going) story line.
The Jay/Christina subplot has been simmering since late season 1 when the kid pulled his mom off the streets and cleaned her up. Their relationship is built on a foundation of trust but what happens when that trust is betrayed. Christina quit her job at Patty Palace weeks ago and hasn’t told Jay. She also hasn’t told him that she is working as an escort again. She also hasn’t let him in on the whopper of a revelation that she is using drugs again, shooting heroin into her foot. When Jay and Ryan Wheeler(Matt Lauria) are having their day off party, Mac(Mac Brandt) tells the wild Kulina to go get some food and why not grab some burgers from a place where your mom works.(Not that Jamal would have allowed free food to leave that joint). When Jay catches up with the audience and goes back to the house to find the hidden drugs Christina has stashed, the Jonathan Tucker show takes over. Allow me to explain…
TV shows with ensemble casts rarely find time to showcase each and every member of their cast. Kingdom executes this to perfection. Every actor feels lived in, real and breathing. There are no caricatures on Navy Street and this climatic moment proves it. Tucker is a live wire entertainer with more speeds than most actors. He can be a sinner, saint, and joker all inside one take. However, we’ve never seen him dig this deep. He starts the episode out giving a tense Alicia a massage, nearly hurts Ryan in the ring, and helps wrestle a depressed and philandering Nate(Nick Jonas, swollen emotionally and physically for perhaps the entire season) out of bed for a little party. He’s happy on the outside but quietly waging war on himself on the inside, trying to make weight for a big fight, stay out of trouble and enjoy himself while being lovestruck. However, the Christina betrayal sets something off inside him. An explosion. The look in Jay’s eyes as he desperately asks everyone to leave his house so he can deal with his mother is heartbreaking and brilliantly played.
The Scene of the Year! Tucker and Going are masterful in this scene. She comes home to a quiet house where Jay is waiting. Here, the audience thinks he will just bitch her out and take her to rehab. Like every other fucking show on television. He does her seven steps worse. He is going to shoot himself with drugs and flip the script. Instead of him cleaning up her mess, she will have to care for him as he is under the influence of one of the deadliest drugs on the market. You may see Jay and friends snort cocaine like its going out of style, but shooting drugs into your system is where the overdoses happen and serious damage occur. Jay knows this and punishes Christina by hurting himself. He is taking the beast that stalks his mom around and taking it for a ride. This is the scene of the year for me. So far.
Why Do You Fight? Elsewhere on Navy Street as the Kulina’s deal with internal infrastructure maintenance, Alicia is losing it before her big fight. After a training session with Alvey that reveals a back injury and a walk along Venice Beach that reveals the lack of drive Alicia has for stepping into the ring. In order to truly be great in MMA or Boxing, you have to want it and be able to pinpoint the exact reason why. You don’t get punched in the face in order to pay the bills. In the Grillo Greatness moment of the week, he tells Alicia he fights because he likes to hurt people, beating them up and stealing their identity. The only thing missing from Grillo’s speech as Daniel Day Lewis’ legendary milk shake line from There Will Be Blood. Alvey knows why. Jay and Ryan know why they fight. Nate and Alicia….they don’t. Not yet.
Before it’s time to take the ring, Alicia is really losing it. She is crying. Exhibition or not, the nerves before a fight are unique. It’s not like getting into a fight on a street. That’s all instinct. Fighting for a living is like seeing the bully in the first class at school and telling them you will fight after school. For the next six hours, you boil inside and figure all the possible outcomes. That is Alicia. She has rage, talent and potential but once you climb into the ring, as Alvey said at the top of the hour, it’s you all alone in this world.
After a little Alvey pushing, Alicia climbs into the ring. I’ve said before Grillo says fuck better than any actor out there, including DeNiro. Well, watch the locker room scene between him and Martinez and you will get his best impression of DeNiro. When Alicia says she can’t do it, Grillo cocks his head, turns it and delivers the best Bobby D impression, intentional or not. It’s beautiful. Go watch it again and come back here to finish the cap.
Alicia doesn’t just win the fight. She destroys the other woman. Martinez’s authenticity, like Grillo’s. shines through here. A kickboxer in real life who moves like a ninja with swag and attitude, she survives a tough first round and is born inside the octagon. When she scores the takedown of a lifetime and pounds on her opponent before Joe Daddy calls it, everything changes. She has an endorsement deal, a future in fighting and apparently no need for Ryan Wheeler shenanigans any longer. After the fight, she tells a drunk drugged up yet alert Wheeler that it’s over.
The dudes on this show aren’t having a good season my friends.
What else happened?
~In the Keith moment of the week, he catches a pair of pool side kids playing TMZ hawks, recording Ryan have some fun with cocaine. He catches them and tosses the phone. He may not be put together like everybody else, but Keith is a useful guy when it comes to avocado farms, drinking, and paparazzi.
~Lisa’s pregnancy hits a wall when she has to go in for extra tests to see if there is a concern with the baby. She misses Alicia’s fight but leaves Alvey a message that it is a boy and that the Maker of Men has struck again. There’s hope for these two yet.
~Wheeler goes off about Alvey devoting a whole day to Alicia and while it may seem like nothing, this may come into play later with the result of Ryan’s fight. There’s a simmering boil inside Lauria during every episode that is set to explode but let me tell you it won’t be a gym mirror he damages this time.
~Every episode features a Grillo training session. Forget Billy Blanks and any other trainer you can find. Just watch Grillo work. He’s trained in gyms of all kinds and lives and breathes this environment like a second layer of skin. He’s a joy to watch.
There are two hours left ladies and gents. Fireworks have gone off but more await. Are you ready? With success comes a heightened state of desire. Will it burn down the Kulina bridge? December will reveal it all. There are no winter breaks on Kingdom. It is coming at you every week. If you are behind, catch up on Itunes, Amazon, Audience on demand or Uverse on demand. Do it. Think later. Just watch.
Every obsession with a TV show starts with a plunge. There are shows you watch and like, but do other stuff while it plays. There are shows that captivate you for the entire hour. I watched this hour of Kingdom in one prolonged death stare. My phone, a dark room, an open window and a lack of fluids. After every hour, I work out. This show will make you want to work out, hit something or show passion. It connects. Try it out.
(Originally posted on Up All Night News this summer)
Movie remakes? Can’t kill them and can’t avoid them. They are the new plague in Hollywood and their consistency is as absolute as their aggression.
In the first of many segments, fellow UAN scribe Kristen Ashly and I will tackle groundbreaking topics and things that men and women usually differ on. The worst thing a man can hear is “well, a woman wouldn’t say or think that”. Well guess what, that goes out the window in this brand new Up All Night edition because here, a man AND a woman get to weigh in on pop culture debates, historical conundrums or shit that basically makes you step back and think about. The DH in baseball. Women roles in Hollywood. If the world ends, who do we want leading us to safety? The stout reliance of Chuck Norris, or the unsure yet passionate bow and arrow carrying, sharp-witted Jennifer Lawrence? Kristen is as sharp as it gets, and we will tackle it all.
First up, movie remakes in Hollywood. Good, bad or plain ugly? With the new trailer for Point Break‘s remake spreading around the net, this seemed like a timely battle to partake in.
Buffa’s Take on Remakes
They suck. 99 percent of the time they don’t work, fail to connect with audiences old and new, and are a general mistake. Remakes are a painful reminder of Hollywood’s inability to create original interesting material. They can’t seem to find writers with good scripts or they look for the almighty dollar. How long before Beverly Hills Cop is remade with Kevin Hart or Indiana Jones is brought back with Chris Pine slapping the whip? Grow up and reach deep, power suits of Make Believe Land. Stop selling out and making tired old drivel. Stop walking into the bank and getting money out of that account. Create a new one. Fans may not get it at first but they will appreciate the new content eventually.
Point Break is a sad reminder of Hollywood’s reluctance to produce original content. The first trailer inspires me to walk out to the theater on opening day, grab one of those cool little one sheets of the poster and whip my ass with it. Why touch a movie made in 1991 by Kathyrn Bigelow that still resonates today as one of the best crime thrillers? Why make Patrick Swayze twist and turn in his grave and tarnish one of Keanu Reeves’ best roles? I feel like sending Gary Busey (so good in the original), who is stuck in a nutcracker haze these days, to the screening just to act weird and make everyone uncomfortable at the premiere. This remake is unneeded. I am not old in saying that. Hollywood’s tactics of making money are getting old. It’s sickening. Also, the guy playing Keanu Reeves’ part couldn’t act his way out of a box. Seriously, it’s nasty bad. Watch for yourself.
Kristen, what do you think? Are you ready for a remake of Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, and Candyman?
Kristen’s Take on Remakes
Alright, I’m going to play devil’s advocate here, a little.
It’s fair to say most film remakes are absolute garbage. You can’t turn on the television, or visit a movie theater, without seeing some classic movie turned into a steaming pile of crap. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, for example. Whole generations, yes, multiple generations, grew up on that film. Gene Wilder was the perfect cast for a creepy candy extraordinaire. Then, Tim Burton crawls out from under his rock, and creates Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He couldn’t even get the name right. I love Johnny Depp, in most roles. This turd nugget was too much, though. Who knew you could make a movie worse than a novel about a man who kills off children one-by-one? Another example: Footloose. If any director in their right mind thought they could do better than an 80’s Kevin Bacon, they were insane. And yet, they decided to make a new version anyways. The actors, the script, the dancing: terrible. I am embarrassed to admit I even watched it.
But, there’s a reason why people grab at remakes. It’s the same reason why studios adapt novels into movies. We have the imagination of children. We want to know what a classic movie or novel would look like if we had full reign. Sometimes, the script and plot is exactly the same, like in the case of True Grit. But studios want to see the movie with newer special effects, with a different cast. I can understand, to an extent, why remakes are so popular.
They don’t always fail. Some are better than the original. Take The Departed, for instance. Most people didn’t even know that movie was a remake. It’s a remake of the trilogy Internal Affairs. Martin Scorsese, the genius that he his, took his best actors, created a stellar script, added some insane music choices, and built a gem. Or even TheManchurian Candidate. The original was okay, and followed the novel closely, but the Denzel Washington version was time relevant, and well scripted.
The truth is, just like movie tastes, remakes should be judged on a case-by-case basis. It wouldn’t be fair to compare The Departed to Footloose.
There you have it folks. Two minds. One Man. One Woman. One Topic.
Dose of Buffa 