July 4th weekend is typically reserved for huge blockbuster releases, particularly those starring Will Smith and/or showcasing America as a force not to be messed with (against aliens or the British). Very, very rarely does an independent release even bother trying to go up against the studios during the big holiday. For example, the only option for an American indie we have this weekend is IFC’s wrong-holidayed I Hate Valentine’s Day, which is uneventfully the second Nia Vardalos movie in a month. And this year we don’t even have the usual sort of event movie debuting on July 4th weekend. There’s just Public Enemies and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Boring.

Isn’t it ironic that independent films can’t open on Independence Day? It would make sense for there to be a number of good U.S.-produced indies opening this week, going up against the big guys with their American spirit (including their disregard for broad, worldwide marketability) and evidence of the American Dream come true. Wondering if there have ever been great independents released at this time of year, we took at look at the last 30 years of cinema and found only a few significant titles.

See what little (American) films bucked the 4th of July weekend release system after the jump:
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Before seeing Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s new crime film Public Enemies, we decided to check out an earlier portrayal of the infamous bank robber, Lawrence Tierney in Dillinger. The 1945 picture is a bit disappointing in terms of bank jobs, which are mostly shown in quick succession during a montage. There is one interesting robbery, but technically it’s an armored truck heist (also, having been shot by Fritz Lang for an earlier film, the scene doesn’t quite fit the rest of the movie). From what we hear, the robberies in Public Enemies aren’t that much more memorable, even if they do resemble an MGM musical, which is a shame considering how clever the real Dillinger was.

We definitely prefer a clever criminal and a clever plan when it comes to bank robber movies. Otherwise it’s just yet another taut thriller or slapstick comedy involving a tunnel dig from the bakery/bathhouse/chicken restaurant/luggage store/etc. next door. So we’ve come up with ten favorite bank jobs that involve originality and a successful getaway (a plan isn’t that clever if it doesn’t work). There have been hundreds of bank robberies throughout film history so if we’ve forgotten something really clever, inform/remind us of the movie in the comments. We’ve purposefully excluded armed vehicle, stagecoach and train robberies, though, so stick specifically to internal bank jobs.
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Are you tired of all the false rumors of celebrity deaths (today it was Rick Astley)? And are you tired of all the jokes that Michael Jackson is really still alive somewhere, hanging out with Tupac, JFK and Elvis? So are we, but we thought we’d take both the obnoxious death hoax trend and the idea that MJ faked it so he could live in peace and out of debt as inspiration for something more worthwhile: a discussion of favorite false deaths in movies.

The device is quite popular, especially in thrillers and horror flicks, and it can be employed as a plot starter or in a twist ending. James Bond has done it, as has Sherlock Holmes. Whether someone fakes his/her own death or is simply mistaken for dead, the actual deed or the ultimate reveal can end up terrific cinema. In fact, it was very difficult for us to narrow our favorites down to ten. It’s a shame we had to leave out memorable scenes from Heathers, Hero and many other movies. Certainly you’ll disagree with some of our exclusions, too, so feel free to name them in the comments section.

Just beware; there may be SPOILERS after the jump:
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Apparently three-time Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer has been relegated to playing only “cougars.” The slang term has been used heavily to describe the actress’ latest character, a Parisian courtesan who has an affair with a pretty boy half her age (Rupert Friend). But just prior to appearing in Chéri, which reunites her with the Dangerous Liaisons writer-director team-up of Christopher Hampton and Stephen Frears, Pfeiffer starred in two direct-to-video releases in which she similarly ends up with a much younger guy. In Amy Heckerling’s I Could Never Be Your Woman she falls for Paul Rudd, while in Personal Effects she has an affair with Ashton Kutcher (ironic since Heckerling’s film takes shots at Kutcher’s marriage to real-life “cougar” Demi Moore).

The term “cougar” has some negative connotations, which is a shame given all the movies we see in which an older man romances a younger woman and think nothing of it. But it’s good to see Pfeiffer still getting work at her age (51), especially in roles celebrating the idea that older women can still be desirable. And in our opinion she’s every bit as desirable as she was at age 25, when she broke through with her sexy appearance in Scarface.

Below we spotlight ten other actresses/characters who’ve shown us that aging women can still be very attractive to young men.
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In Coppola’s house on Broadway. Outside the wind is howling, whipping the laurel bushes. The sailboats in the bay are lying almost flat, the waves sharp-contoured and restless. The Alcatraz Light is flashing signals, in broad daylight. None of my friends is here. It is hard to buckle down to work, to shoulder this heavy burden of dreams. Only books provide some measure of comfort.

The NYTimes.com has published an excerpt of Werner Herzog’s Conquest of the Useless, his diary of the making of Fitzcarraldo.

We feel really bad about spotlighting Michael Jackson in three spots on our “Creepiest Kids’ Movies List” yesterday. If we had known he was going to die of cardiac arrest within hours of that post’s publication, we would have maybe limited his presence to one included film, if any at all.

To make up for the dishonor, we now would like to spotlight the connection he had to cinema through his collaborations with great filmmakers. Due to his talent, success and financial status, he was able to work with a number of important directors, both in movies and in music videos. Some were already prominent when MJ hired them; others were strictly music videomakers who would go on to significant feature filmmaking careers. Some collaborations were also better than others, so we’ve ranked them in order from worst to best.
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This post has been updated to reflect the fact that Michael Jackson, according to all major media outlets, has died.

Earlier today, David Poland wrote a post titled Death is the Ultimate Disinfectant, in which he noted that most of those memorializing Farrah Fawcett (whose death was announced earlier today) have conveniently chosen to forget “more than a decade of bad public behavior and questions about mental health.” One can only imagine what kind of “disinfectant” will be needed in the coming days, now that it has been confirmed that Michael Jackson has indeed died.

Though mainstream media outlets initially reported that the performer (and, arguably, the inspiration for the kind of gawking that the modern gossip monster has risen to accommodate) had gone into cardiac arrest, the LA Times, and virtually everyone else, are now reporting that Michael Jackson has died. MSNBC announced the news by breaking into a report about how, just last week, Jackson was training with Lou Ferrigno.

Last fall, I wrote a piece on Michael Jackson Thrill the World, an event Alamo Drafthouse in Austin that combined a boozy sing-a-long to Jackson’s epic videos with a “Thriller” dance lesson. As, I wrote then, “Watch three or more Michael Jackson videos back-to-back-to-back and, whatever you think of the man or his music, it’s impossible to deny that no pop star has ever really tried to top him in terms of sheer scope. And even when he’s very, very bad, he’s compelling.” On that note, let’s revisit one of his many collaborations with legendary filmmakers after the jump.
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After a long, highly-publicized battle, Farrah Fawcett has succumbed to cancer at the age of 62. Though unquestionably better known for her tabloid-fodder love life and five-decade-spanning career in TV, Fawcett’s filmography includes a remarkable number of camp and cult classics. See clips of her work in Logan’s Run, Myra Breckinridge and Stanley Donen’s Saturn 3 after the jump.

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Earlier this week we got our first look at Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, including character portraits of the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both played by Matt Lucas). And like most people who saw the images, we believe that this version of the Lewis Carroll classic may end up being too creepy for moviegoers in general, let alone for children.

In response to the promotional pics, a number of people (and blogs) began discussions of disturbing and scarring kids’ movies. So, to join in the fun we’ve compiled a list of our own picks for creepiest flicks made for children. It took a lot for us to be freaked out by a film when we were young (most horror movies didn’t phase us), but each of these titles gives us nightmares still.
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I literally have not owned a video game console in 20 years (I got bored with my Sega Genesis very quickly), but I was about ready to finally get one after hearing this news: Lars von Trier’s controversial new Cannes-winning sensation Antichrist is being adapted into a first-person video game called Eden. Fortunately, I probably won’t need a Wii or Xbox or whatever the kids are playing with these days, since the game will apparently work on my PC (the only game I’ve ever played on my computer is Solitaire). Not much plot is know about this game except that it will feature the voice of Willem Dafoe, will take place after the events in the film and “invites players to confront their fears.” So, I guess that means there could actually be genital mutilation involved, since ejaculating blood is definitely a fear of mine.

This tie-in makes me hope other Von Trier films will get their own video games. The Element of Crime should be the easiest to adapt, but here’s some other ideas: In Breaking the Waves you have to sleep with sailors and then tell your husband about it. In Epidemic you’re the doctor in the film within the film trying to cure an epidemic that you ironically are also spreading. In The Boss of it All you’re an actor pretending to be a company boss without the staff figuring out they’re being duped. And, of course, Dancer in the Dark would be a hybrid game: part first-person shooter in which you have to kill cops trying to steal your savings; part Dance Dance Revoution-type music video game.

Check out what other film blogs are saying about the video game after the jump:

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In Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, Larry David plays what most people refer to as “the Woody Role.” This means that he’s filling in for Allen, who for whatever reason is showing up less and less in his films these days. But the Woody Role isn’t merely about a substitute actor starring in place of Allen, it’s often also about that performer channeling the Woody character, that neurotic persona that too many viewers believe is Allen’s true self (as if he’s simply playing himself onscreen in what are also believed to be generally autobiographical works).

David’s performance as “Boris Yelnikoff” in Whatever is not completely Woodyesque, but only because David has his own familiar neurotic onscreen persona that is very separate from — though sometimes complimentary to — Allen’s. And yet he does still come across as a Woody proxy due to the fact that he’s speaking (ranting) dialogue written by Allen rather than improvised (as in Curb Your Enthusiasm).

A number of other actors have served as Woody surrogates, some better and some worse, including a few unofficial proxies in films/series not written or directed by Allen. We list them in order from bad to best after the jump.
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The latest movie-related Trending Topic on Twitter is #nicerfilmtitles. That’s “nicer film titles” (not “nice firm titties”), and it’s basically a meme for coming up with alternative names for movies so that they seem a little friendlier and wholesome in their content. But since 140 characters aren’t enough for users to include synopses for their contributions, we’ve selected 10 favorites (so far) and elaborated on the story details.
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Nerds for 1930s horror (myself included) have cause to both cry and rejoice today. Bad news first: Universal has announced plans to remake Bride of Frankenstein, James Whale’s 1936 masterpiece, with The Illusionist’s Neil Berger in talks to write/direct. Berger’s probably not the worst choice in the world, but I think I speak for all concerned fans when I say that Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science” video was remake enough.

In much better news: Lou Lumenick alerts us to the October release of the Karloff and Lugosi Horror Classics DVD box set, which includes the first DVD release of my favorite horror film of the 1930s, Michael Curtiz’s The Walking Dead, starring Karloff as a pianist who is wrongly executed and then brought back to life. Yay!

Barack Obama gave a speech to the American Medical Association yesterday in an attempt to get the organization’s members on board with his plans for healthcare reform. The president’s appearance alone may have been good for his cause, given that it was the first such address to the AMA in 26 years, but many doctors are apparently still skeptical of the government’s ideas and how they’ll actually work.

Meanwhile, the issue of healthcare reform continues to be a difficult topic in Congress, and the road to legislation is sure to be long and filled with much debate. So, to help Washington in the process, or at least to keep the politicians sane with a little entertainment, we’ve come up with a little healthcare movie marathon.

The ten films selected are admittedly more left-leaning in their potential influence, but that’s not necessarily a political move on our part. We simply chose titles we like, and maybe it just so happens that we like movies that show charity as good, greed as evil and healthcare as a right that all humans should be afforded.

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