film – Page 6 – Looking to God

Letty

Posted on November 6, 2013November 8, 2013 by Jack Flacco

Super charged, super fast, amped up on speed—Letty Ortiz—the babe with the attitude runs wild this week on Women Who Wow Wednesday.

Let’s face it, The Fast and the Furious movie franchise does not win awards, but what it lacks in praises by the academy it more than makes up in heart-pounding, adrenalin-soaked, action-packed racing sequences. The photography is a blur, the editing is jarring, and the shear thrill of its biting score burns tread marks around the competition of wannabe imposters.

Inspired by an article focusing on street racing in the 2000s, The Fast and the Furious torched the box office, raking in $207 Million on a production budget of $38 Million. It shot to #1 throughout North America in 2,628 theaters on opening weekend. Even then, the film had the markings of a juggernaut series few would reminisce in disputing.

Among the players stands Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), a bulk of a man tearing like thunder on four wheels. A highjacker. A family man. He’s the guy who the cops have been looking for a long time. Next, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), the cop. He’s the guy sent in to bring Dominic to justice. Then, there’s Letty (Michelle Rodriquez), the strong one.

How can I describe Letty without giving up the whole story? She loves speed. And she loves the thrill of the chase. Give her a choice between staying at home watching the kids and cranking the juice on her NOS (Nitrous Oxcide Systems) tank—she has no trouble playing with the big boys and their cars. Homemaker status is so not her.

Playing Dominic’s love interest, she compliments his brazen risk taking with her own brand of gambling. Her street racing status flourished in her teens, carrying her to a god-like status with her admiring peers. Nothing Dominic can do that Letty can’t match. They are equals on every level. The perfect pair of crazed drivers no one should mess with on the road.

Is she tough? Yeah, you can say that. Let her tell you in her own words:

Letty: You want a piece of ass? go to Hollywood Boulevard. You want an adrenaline rush? that’ll be two large.

Is she lighthearted? You can say that too:

Letty: [to Dom] You look a bit tired. I think you should go upstairs and give me a massage.

What does Dominic’s sister think of her?

Mia: Letty grew up just down the street. She was into cars since she was like ten years old. Dom always had her attention. Then she turned sixteen…
Brian: And she had Dom’s attention.
Mia: Yeah, it’s funny how that works out.

A guru mechanic. A bona fide tough girl who takes no flack from anyone. Letty would make an excellent warrior, fighting alongside in a zombie apocalypse.

Nice to dream, isn’t it?

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, now on sale.

Have you seen any of The Fast and the Furious movies? What did you think of Letty?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Charlotte

Posted on August 21, 2013August 22, 2013 by Jack Flacco

In the early part of the year when I first began my Women Who Wow Wednesday feature, I concentrated my efforts on kick-ass women. If you ever wondered about Ellen Ripley, Hit-Girl, The Bride and Mathilda, they’re all there waiting for your craving eyes. As the months went on, however, I noticed a subtle change. Rather than focus only on women who physically can beat the willies out of their enemies, I’ve also chosen to write about women who are kick-ass in heart, style and grace. Take a look at my posts for Debra Barone, Adrian, Rose, and Scarlett O’Hara.

Enter Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), who I’m sure doesn’t even have a last name in the movie Lost in Translation. At least I didn’t catch one, I’m sure of it. She’s stuck in a hotel room in the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku, Tokyo while her photographer husband is on assignment shooting who knows what. She passes the time staring blankly out her 56th floor window to the Japanese skyline. There’s a lot to see when you’re lonely.

Bob Harris (Bill Murray) makes his appearance soon after. A film entourage greets him in the lobby speaking nothing but Japanese. With certainty, something’s bound to get lost in translation. He’s twice Charlotte’s age, married, kids, and almost there as a favor for his agent who can’t get him a gig anywhere else. No one says he’s done, but the implication is there, given his stint working in a whiskey commercial in Japan.

They first notice each other in a cramped elevator filled with Japanese businessmen. They don’t say much. She smiles, yet continues with her day. It isn’t until they catch eyes once again in the hotel’s New York Bar located on 52nd floor that they wonder how weirdly coincidental life is. It’s late in the evening, he leaves, paying his tab, and she stays with her husband, laughing with friends.

Lost in Translation's Charlotte — Lost in Translation’s Charlotte

As the clock hits 4:20 AM, unable to sleep, Charlotte dives under the covers with her husband, but he grumbles something and tells her to go to sleep. In another room, four floors below, Bob lays awake sitting on his bed in a daze. A fax comes in from his wife in America asking him which shelves he wants in his study. Renovations, I suppose.

The next night, at 3:00 AM, again Charlotte can’t sleep. She finds herself at the bar as Bob remains seated, lost in his thoughts. He notices her. They strike up a conversation. He talks about his wife needing space. She talks about her husband’s work. They get to the marriage questions. She’s been married two years, and he says he’s got her beat at twenty-five years. In that brief moment she jokes about him experiencing a mid-life crisis and wonders if he had purchased a Porsche yet. He’s thinking about it, of course. He asks her what she plans to do with her life. She says philosophy—she doesn’t know what to do with it, but she can certainly think about it a lot. They click their glasses wishing they both could sleep.

So that’s how Charlotte meets Bob, in a bar, fifty-two floors above the Japanese skyline. It doesn’t end there, by any means. It’s only the beginning. You see, Charlotte represents a woman lost in life making a connection with someone who awakens her ambition to better herself. Someone who speaks to her soul. Not in an emotional or sexual sense. More on a deep, intellectual and spiritual level. Whatever she may have felt before meeting him hadn’t disappeared. It still lays there dormant, waiting. Yet he introduces something in her life, something of substance she craved.

He doesn’t ignore her.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.

Have you seen Lost in Translation? What did you think of Charlotte’s friendship with Bob?

Monday Mayhem

Fast Zombies

Posted on June 24, 2013June 24, 2013 by Jack Flacco

Now that World War Z is part of movie history, perhaps this is a good time to have a heart to heart talk. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything if I were to ask a simple question. Some folks might have their opinions, and quite frankly, I’m interested in hearing what those opinions are. After all, I write my Monday Mayhem series hoping to understand what you, the audience, finds exciting about zombies.

Therefore, without further delay, here’s my question: What do you think of fast zombies?

You didn’t really think I’d pass up the opportunity to discuss these speed demons, did you? They’re a terror to the masses. They flock like birds evading a predator. Only, they are the predators. I would find it horrifying if one would come after me. But fifty? A hundred? A thousand? Time to bring out the big guns.

As many of you probably know, and if you’ve read me long enough, I’m a lover of old school zombies. I enjoy seeing them lurch, drag, lumber their way from one corridor to the next in close proximity to where humans become their main dish. Not much goes on in their deteriorating puss sacks except for a few thoughts, which is possibly instinct anyway. Where’s the food? Need the food. Eat food. It would be quite a challenge when two of these belly suckers have their victim trapped, one at the foot of the stairs as another makes its way down, all the while the victim says their prayers, smack dab in the middle, of course.

I suppose the reason for these slow encounters in the past had to do with how Hollywood shot zombies back then. Unless A-list stars took top billing in projects, budgets for these films remained as close to a shoestring as possible. Even more so, if a movie did have an A-list star attached to the project, the film wouldn’t guarantee a heavy reliance on special effects to get their point across. The audience was different back in the Sixties and Seventies, folks could sit through a two and a half hour movie where the characters do nothing but talk.

To pile more stuff on the DNR table, technology back then did not permit super-fast zombies to exist either. So even if a smart producer were to have said they could see zombies that could sprint the streets and crash into trucks like stampeding elephants, studios wouldn’t know how to present such a scenario. They would have needed the imagination of Steven Spielberg to aid in the quest to bring these creatures to life. But Spielberg was too busy making sharks look larger than life than to worry about making zombies fast.

Brad vs. The Zombie (photo credit: Plan B)

Anyway, that’s my two-paragraph Hollywood history lesson I didn’t mean to write yet appeared in an edited stream of consciousness writing session. What was my point again? Oh, yes. I like slow zombies.

Then I Am Legend made its debut. Already I hear the sharpening of the knives. Yes, I know these creatures are vampires—in. the. book. The movie however, makes no distinction. The audience can look at these creatures as vampires. Alternatively, they can look at them as zombies. It’s entirely open for interpretation. Nevertheless, the point being, these creatures are super-fast, able to crash into cars with very little damage to themselves, and leap, dash, plummet in bounds. Not much different from the zombies in World War Z, right?

Now, I have to admit something. I like fast zombies too. I think, hadn’t it been for today’s special effects, fast zombies wouldn’t have been possible. Stories with these undead involve being out in the open with them chasing after you. Hollywood has the technology to do it now. And, well, I’m kind of embracing it knowing there’s an infinitely vast potential of story left to watch from the movie studios featuring these rambunctious creatures.

Those are my thoughts on the subject.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.

What do you think of fast zombies?

Women Who Wow Wednesday

Black Widow

Posted on June 12, 2013June 12, 2013 by Jack Flacco

Making her first appearance in the film Iron Man 2 as Natalia “Natasha” Alianovna Romanova, also known as Natasha Romanoff, and reappearing in The Avengers, Black Widow dominates the screen as the female superhero with a dark history.

Past Women Who Wow Wednesday posts have focused on female characters that could empower women into becoming better in whatever position life has given them. But after having thoroughly researched Black Widow’s record, this writer is at odds with placing this woman on a pedestal.

What can one say of Black Widow’s behavior that in some form or another wouldn’t cause someone to cringe? Definitely not the following:

In Ultimate Marvel, Romanova is a former KGB spy and assassin
Genetic or cybernetic implants make her a formidable combatant
The woman is known for killing her ex-husbands
Responsible for the death of Hawkeye’s wife and children
Publicly revealed Bruce Banner’s connection to the Hulk
Collaborated with the Liberators in their invasion of the U.S.

There’s more, yet that would involve divulging major plot points in Black Widow’s history. Suffice it to say she leaves much to be desired on the honor and trustworthiness scale.

However, when she appears in Iron Man 2, she’s Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson), Stark Industries’ replacement for personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) who moves into the company’s CEO position. No one knows what to make of the redhead until S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury reveals Natalie Rushman is covert operative Natasha Romanoff, planted to monitor Iron Man, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). You see, Tony’s dying, and she needs to keep him from harm’s way. Natasha also injects Tony with a special serum to slow the palladium poisoning he’s been experiencing due to his use of the arc reactor that keeps him alive.

In the movie The Avengers, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind where Black Widow’s loyalty lies. From the very first frame, we see her in a quandary. A Russian general is about to interrogate Natasha as three soldiers stand in the wings. She dispatches them whole—tied up, no less. The information flows from the general’s mouth.

Yeah, but can anyone trust her? Nick Fury can. He trusts her with the most important assignment of all—bringing in Bruce Banner. No other Avenger can do what she can. Nick doesn’t trust anyone else to do what she can. One wrong move and Bruce turns into the big green guy. No doubt, she did it. She brought him in without a fight.

Once on the helicarrier, her next assignment gets more complex. Interrogate Loki. What’s your plan? Of course she didn’t ask the direct question. Through subterfuge and ploy, Natasha discovers Loki’s nefarious design to deploy Hulk to do his dirty work. One problem, though: When Bruce Banner does turn into the big green guy, Natasha is the only one to delay the inevitable—the absolute destruction of the ship.

When the final battle occurs in New York City, Black Widow’s the only one who understands someone has to close the portal spewing the Chitauri upon the earth. Iron Man’s pathetic attempt at brutal stoppage does not work. Thankfully, she follows through with her genius plan and saves the city from destruction.

No matter what her past, Black Widow has redeemed herself with The Avengers.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.

Have you seen The Avengers? What did you think of it? Do you know of Black Widow’s past?

Freedom Friday

Village Global

Posted on June 7, 2013November 8, 2013 by Jack Flacco

I tend to save Freedom Friday for the day I post about stuff that goes on in my life, observations, food, you know, stuff. Today’s no different. Let me tell you what my wife and I had the privilege of attending last Sunday. Thrilling doesn’t even cover it.

In April, Evert Houston, an Executive Producer at Blue Flame Collective, a Toronto-based film production community he co-founded along with Executive Producer Oliver Ward, approached me about one of my photos I had taken a few years back of the Monument to Multiculturalism in Toronto. He was thinking of using the shot for their Village Global short film festival advertisements, itinerary and such.

Of course you know what pops into my head first. How much? But as he went on to describe the film festival and how it represented the unique multicultural diversity Toronto has to offer, I thought to myself, there’s no way I’d pass up a chance to be part of this growing community of artists with the common goal of celebrating the city’s rich ethnicity.

I stopped him mid-sentence and said, “I’ll give you the answer you’re looking for. Yes.”

From there, my wife and I received a personal invitation to attend the exclusive premier of twelve short films presented by Blue Flame Collective in the heart of Toronto on June 2nd.

The festival was by invitation only. We had no problem getting in since our name was on the list. Associate Producer and actress Farah Merani greeted us with an incredibly warm smile, then introduced us to actress Janice Giles who gave us a quick orientation of the area. It was so much fun meeting them knowing we’d see them shortly on the big screen.

My wife managed to grab a seat close to where the hustle and bustle took place. I found it exciting to hear the conversations around me about projects, future projects, and plain ol’ banter going on. Seated next us was Justin Sanchez, Writer / Producer / Director and star of the short film The Lingering. Later in the intermission, I expressed to him my deepest admiration of his work.

I won’t get into all the films we saw because there were a dozen in all, but I will say this: all of them were unique in their own way. The ones that stood out the most to me were We Each Have Our Armies by Bobby Del Rio, about the trials of an interracial relationship, and Just a Prayer by Farah Merani, about a woman’s personal struggle with the choices she makes in life. Each had controversial themes. Each presented a surprising resolution to their conflicts.

As mentioned, the event had a dozen films in all. Six presented, then after a short intermission, the final six closed the festival. We stayed for the whole thing, enjoying the talent Toronto had to offer.

You know, it’s wonderful to live near an area rich in culture and diversity. It’s even more wonderful when that culture and diversity reflects in the art of film.

I would like to thank Evert Houston for his invitation and for the opportunity to meet face to face. My wife and I definitely had a lot of fun.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.

Have you ever been to a film festival in Toronto? What was it like?

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: