Remember when it got out that Channing Tatum had been a stripper before he was an actor? I forget if he said it in an interview or if it was Wikileaks or something, but there were alot of stories about it in the entertainment journalism and it was a big joke to everybody. But who’s laughing now, motherfuckers? Tatum found the best possible way to own that on the set of HAYWIRE when he convinced Steven Soderbergh that his experiences would make a good movie. It might’ve gone a different way if it was on the set of GI JOE and it was Stephen Sommers that ended up directing MAGIC MIKE. But Soderbergh is the guy to take any subject matter, find what’s interesting about it, bring out the innate and sometimes unknown talents of his cast, and shoot it beautifully. He’s made one of his little independent character pieces, but he threw in just enough shirtless cowboys humping stages to advertise that for the ladies.
Posts Tagged ‘Steven Soderbergh’
Magic Mike
Thursday, November 15th, 2012Haywire
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
Steven Soderbergh’s take on an action/spy thriller – built around “The Face of Women’s MMA” Gina Carano after he saw her on Strikeforce while flipping channels around – lives up to my high expectations. It’s written by Lem Dobbs and it’s like the kid sister of THE LIMEY, mixing the style of that Soderbergh classic with kind of a more upbeat ex-Marine-badass-operative-betrayed-and-on-the-run type of story. It has THE LIMEY’s sense of quiet, deliberate pace and dread and also its dry you-just-fucked-with-the-wrong-person type of humor. Of course, professional fighter Carano has different strengths as a performer than Terence Stamp does, so her movie has less emotion and more punching, kicking, choking, armbars, heads broken through furniture, foot chases, etc. Gina’s not gonna mourn the loss of the daughter she never knew, and Terence isn’t gonna climb up onto a roof. In my opinion. And it’s great to have both of them. (read the rest of this shit…)
Ladies and gentlemen, the HAYWIRE trailer
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011
First we waited for them to decide to release HAYWIRE (it’s set for January 20th), now thanks to the nerds of comics conventioning they decided to also try to advertise it. They had a panel at the San Diego Comics Club (anybody go?) so they also released the poster and the trailer online.
The trailer seems to support my theory that Steven Soderbergh + Lem (THE LIMEY) Dobbs + “The Face of Women’s MMA” Gina Carano + topnotch supporting cast + fight choreographer JJ (UNDISPUTED II) Perry = thank god they finally decided to make a real action movie and release it in theaters.
Click on the click here thing for the trailer and more comments (read the rest of this shit…)
My new most anticipated movie: KNOCKOUT
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
I’m sure most of you have heard about this one by now, but just in case: Variety reports that Steven Soderbergh’s next will be a spy movie starring mixed martial arts star Gina Carano. I never heard of her until I watched BLOOD AND BONE, and her part in that is really small, but I remember a couple of you in the comments were asking about it. Well, don’t worry, you’ll be seeing more of her than that little cameo.
The script is by Lem Dobbs, who wrote THE LIMEY, by far Soderbergh’s most badass movie. The article says it’s about “a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who is given a second chance to use her skills for constructive purposes.” In other words, xXx, but without skateboards, starring a woman and directed by one of our best instead of Rob Cohen. Wouldn’t that be great if it was “the smart xXx”?
I like most of Steve Soderbergh’s movies, even the real inaccessible ones, but I think he’s at his best when taking an artful approach to mainstream, entertainment type of movies (OUT OF SIGHT is his best, OCEAN’S 11 is fun, ERIN BROCKOVICH is way more effective than it ought to be). The article claims he wants to do “a flat out action film in the James Bond mold.” I’m sold.
Ocean’s Twelve
Friday, December 10th, 2004
OCEAN’S 12 is a sequel to OCEAN’S 11 (the 2001 version [not the movie 2001, I am referring to the year 2001, the year the movie OCEAN’S 11 was made {the remake, not the original, that is why I brought up this year thing originally}]) so this will be the sequel to my review of that movie.
It turns out that the eleven do NOT die horribly as I predicted. But their past (the other movie) does catch up with them, and the sequel is all about them doing various heists in order to pay back the money, plus interest, that they stole the first time around. So that means that Ocean’s 11 actually have a net loss across the two pictures. I mean, think about that. That’s terrible! What does that say about the current state of doing a job right? You want to do the impossible, so you bring in 11 of the greatest experts from around the world, you pull it off, you win back your ex-wife, and you have a fun time doing it. And your reward is horrendous debt and threat of life and limb. That’s how this world rewards you for ambition, talent and dedication. (read the rest of this shit…)
Solaris (2002)
Wednesday, November 27th, 2002Well that young bald man Steve Soderbergh is still on a roll. He just keeps hittin em, bam bam bam and even when they’re not a home run like THE LIMEY or OUT OF SIGHT they’re still real good. Hell, even FULL FRONTAL, he just squirted that one out like a soft ice cream, and it was pretty good ice cream too. This one is a little more of a sunday. It’s not my favorite soderbergh movie but that’s like saying “that’s not necessarily the greatest blowjob I ever got.” This guy has never made a bad movie. Go ahead, try to find one. You can’t. You would have to make a fake movie and put his name on it. But he didn’t make that one, you did. You can’t fool me. Fool me once, shame, shame, you can’t fool me.
First of all let me make it clear that I am ignorant on the topic of Solaris. I have not seen the legendarily long and boring and brilliant Russian version by Mr. Tartavsky. Also I have not read the book which is according to the credits what Mr. Soderbergh’s version is based on. But I did see this movie. So that’s my background on that one. (read the rest of this shit…)
Full Frontal
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2002
First of all you gotta realize, this is one of them movies where a well known director decides to do a loose, low budget experimental quickie type picture. For example, while making his “real” movie, the chinese water torture of an animated feature that is WAKING LIFE, Richard Linklater also spent like a day or two doing a minimalistic three-character-play-on-digital-video called TAPE that was a little easier to stomach.
In this case the director is Steven Soderbergh, and in my book he’s earned the right to do whatever the fuck he wants with a digital camera and Julia Roberts on the weekends. Not because he made two movies in the same year and was nominated best director for both (although that’s probaly something worth bragging about) but because before that he was on even more of a roll, doing OUT OF SIGHT and the 1999 Outlaw Award winner THE LIMEY right in a row. This year Soderbergh is doing a remake of SOLARIS, that russian space movie that is famous for being really long, boring and good. But first to cleanse his pallet he whipped out this little fucker that is kind of an homage (french word) to the DOGMA of ’95 movement and the new wave that the french had a while back. (read the rest of this shit…)
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