KGB Productions

My younger son wanted to see this, and he was counting the days to see this film, so we went and saw the film.  I wasn't expecting anything great, but I did want to see my youngest happy so off we went.  The thing is that I had read all the reviews saying that the film was weak and predictable.  I have two boys one older and one younger who also attended, and both enjoyed the film , but not as much as my youngest.  I like to see things through my boys eyes.  It gives me a different perspective, and I enjoyed the movie a bit more seeing it as my boys see it. Now that being said is this a good film?  It depends on who is the audience.  I feel the film is better suited to younger audience's then older ones, and that's not it's problem.  Some of the visuals in this film are really stunning.  The story is predictable, but the film has a moral, and for its younger audience its okay.  The moral is that we win by sticking together.  It...

I am always interested in movies about making movies.  Maybe it's because I want to see how others suffer for their art, or maybe it's just plain curiosity. But after watching ten minutes of " Journey to Planet X "  I got hooked. The film is about Eric Swain and Troy Bernier who are scientists by day and amateur filmmakers by night. In the film we see their work from the past and it is very amateur like, but the work has heart. It's Swain's and Bernier's can do attitude which is refreshing and inspiring.  In the film they are making a more ambitious short entitled "Planet X"and the documentary is all about how they do it.  All the good and the bad of filmmaking is seen in this making of film, and middle way through the film you find yourself rooting for these guys. The documentary goes through the whole process of our two hero's making their film from preproduction to post, and we get to see how the actual film develops.  Both Eric and ...

Rick Springfield is a unique musician.  In this documentary we are shown Rick Springfield and his fans.  The problem with the documentary is that I enjoyed seeing Rick Springfield perform, and even listening to his devoted fans, but the film doesn't know what it wants to be.  A fandom film explaining why his fans love him, and go out of there way and see him, or that of the artist himself. I really took away the hard work Springfield puts into his concerts and his performances.  He really is a working mans musician.  He seems like a really ordinary person who had fame thrust upon him, and then disappeared for awhile.  Springfield still produces new material, and tours heavily, but it's the fans that the filmmakers seem to be interested in and yet they do a poor job at getting into the heart of that.  The filmmakers focus on only a handful of fans, and don't really get to the heart of why Springfield is so popular with them.  We do see how ha...

Okay it's the holidays and you want a feel good flick, or you just want to laugh out loud with others.  Then sit back and watch " What to Expect when Expecting ".  Going into this film I totally thought "chick flick", but hold on there buddy there is some stuff in here that isn't all that bad.  First off I have to say Chris Rock steals the movie for me.  What part is scripted and what parts are all Rock is to be debated, but honestly he made me laugh, and he was quite good in it.  Could it be Rock is softening with age?  He still retains his humor in this film, but he lets some zingers out that make you laugh out loud. The ensemble cast is pretty good, and Jenifer Lopez who gives a beautiful performance in the film.  I swear she had me welling up tears at the end, but I won't swear to it.  I also have to say that Ms Lopez looks so beautiful, and she seems to really put her heart and soul into her performance.  The cast does a good job ...

  Okay I have to get this off my chest.  I finally saw the movie " Cabin in the Woods ", and I have to say I was very interested in seeing it, but it totally let me down in the end.  The movie has great production value, and even some interesting casting.   Especially Richard Jenkins , who I think should have gotten the academy award for his performance in "The Visitor ", but I digress.  Even putting in Bradley Whitford in this film doesn't help it.  I do like the scenes between Whitley and Jenkins, but again putting A list actors in a B type movie does not help it.   It does make it memorable, but only because the actors are really good, and you can see that their having fun with their performances. It's a typical teenagers or in this case college roommate's and friends weekend away from civilization when things go horrible wrong.  The twist to this is this, and this is a SPOILER ALERT.  The victims are part of a test and th...

   It seems that this week a few well known entertainment celebrities have passed on.  For this one I wanted to celebrate Mr. O'Toole's work, and try to persuade some readers to see some of his work that the critics have failed to talk about.  Most of the news agencies have all done tributes to this great actor, but they always forget other works that need to be talked about and I'm here to remind others that there is a a number of Mr. O'Toole's films that need to be seen.  So let's start with the first. Of course there is " Lawrence of Arabia" , a film directed by none other then the famous director David Lean.   Not only is O'Toole's performance brilliant, but the film is epic in scope.  Alone for the photography the film is an interesting piece of cinema.   His performance is outstanding, and watching it one feels for his character.  But let's go on to other movies that O'Toole was in that aren't mentioned, but should be. ...

 While at the CCW expo I saw a lot of cameras with a lot of lenses on them.  We always talk about a pristine image, and one that is detailed, but a GOOD lens is what can make the difference.  Are lenses expensive?  They can be and the good ones usually are, but for us cinema obsessed people renting a good lens is something cinematographers do constantly.  But there are a whole host of lenses to choice from, and which one will be right for your project is not always an easy answer. But your in luck.  A classmate of mine has just written a pretty good tutorial about lenses.  I suggest you pop on over and get schooled.  Remember an image is as good as the lens it is being seen through, so when talking about 4K you'll want a GOOD lens in front of your camera to catch all the detail of the scene.  The best lens to give you a variety of different shots would be a zoom lens.  I'm a lover of good prime lenses, but zooms have saved my bac...

   So this week I was at the content & communications conference here in New York .  The conference is always interesting and somewhat informative.  Usually each year there are themes, and this year it seemed all about 4K.  Last year there were a lot of panels for 3D, and this year not a peep about 3D.  I always knew 3D was a fad, and would not catch on.  It's all about consumers voting with their pocket book, and 3D never had a chance. 4K on the other hand is another story.  It's all about product, and what will drive 4K will be content, and will that content be worth seeing in 4K.  Right now consumers are pretty happy with their flat panel screens of various sizes.  At one time the bigger the screen the higher the price, but not so today.  LED panel screens are the rage, and they reproduce HD content really well.  But the thing is no broadcaster is broadcasting in 1080, and so we're not truly seeing HD.   ...

 I know didn't I already write an entry on Bukowski ?  Yes, but there is so much about him that I think a review of the DVD " Born into this " is something worth noting.  Released in 2003 and directed by John Dullaghan the documentary is worth seeing if you know nothing of the man and his work.  The film is also pretty much a warts and all about Bukowski.  The good and the bad, and as the filmmaker says in the film it was just as well that Bukowski never saw it because some of the footage would have made Bukowski uncomfortable.   Seeing this footage shows us how Bukowski is such an interesting and worth while artist and a one of a kind.  His wife Linda Lee Bukowski gave the film it's blessing and the filmmaker worked real close with his wife and had access to a lot of footage that Charles Bukowski left behind. The most interesting documentaries show us the human condition good and bad.  After all we all have things in our closet that...

So it's been a pretty quiet here.  I get that way sometimes.  I think we all do.  One evaluates oneself and thinks and wonders where am I or who am I?   I've been receding into Charles Bukowski. work.  I've always been an admirer of the man and his work.  But I began reading his novels and have even started reading some of his many poems, and have become invigorated by his words.  I started with the novel " Post Office " and have so far finished three of his novels, and am waiting to read more of his works.  This all comes courtesy of my local library, but I was impressed on the many works they did have of Bukowski's work.  I even picked up a documentary called " Bukowski: Born into This ", and it was a very revelatory film about the man. I've also read " Hollywood " which was his novel about the making of the film "Barfly" , which I also viewed.  I have to say I have a new respect for the film, and after seeing it aga...

I was watching the other day the movie Chaplin with Robert Downey Jr . as Chaplin.  The film was okay, but what really got me to thinking about Chaplin  was how much of an innovator he was.  I had to take a class about the silent era in college, and though I was no film studies connoisseur back then I did admire and even learn a few things from the masters.  In fact I've come to the conclusion that cinema has not changed much since the silent era.  Sure there is sound and with sound comes dialogue, but telling a story with pictures only was as basic as it got, and to consider that filmmaking was in its infancy back then and it was all being developed seemed exciting.  I became a fan of Buster Keaton, but I'd admired Chaplin very much.  His movie " The Kid " was the one that did it for me.  In it Chaplin as the Tramp finds a child on the streets, and he is forced to raise the boy.  The bond that the two develop is heartwarming, and will tu...

Frankenstein's Army is a cleaver horror film that uses the found footage concept to tell a story about a lost Russian unit that comes across a secret Nazi lab where the journal of Dr. Victor Frankenstein is being translated into gruesome experiments.  The film is directed by Richard Raaphorst and Mr Raaphorst does a good job with what little he has.  I was unfamiliar with Raaphorst work so I enlisted a friend who knew of his work.  Mr. Raaphorst was the individual who did a fake trailer of a film entitled " Worst Case Scenario ".  The clip went viral and was nominated for the best trailer, no movie , at the golden trailer award.  Frankenstein's Army is a movie with some of the ideas Raaphorst presented in his trailer " Worst Case Scenario" video . Shot in Prague, in the Czech Republic the film uses it's location to maximum effect.It was shot in an old abandoned mine.  I was fascinated on how the film came about, and since this is Raaphorst's ...

I had been waiting to see this film for some time.  After reading Linda Lovelace's books "Ordeal" and " Out of Bondage " I was mortified by what she experienced and what she went through.  It wasn't until I met the lady at a convention that I had a chance to talk with her for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Some critics point to Lovelace's appearances at these conventions as her being a hypocrite and that her experiences were all a lie.  I only spoke to her for a little while, and she was pleasant and I addressed her as Ms Marchiano since that was her name now.  She told me to call her Linda, and she really seemed genuine.  She talked about her children, and I saw how much she was committed to them.  I believe it was this that drove her to provide for her family, and why she would resurfaced as Linda Lovelace. So how was the movie?  Seeing this film is hard.  Especially if you've read the book "Ordeal".  It's well written and written wit...

To start with my wife and I are fans of the first movie, and so Reds 2 was an inevitable for us to see, and I have to say that Reds 2 is a good popcorn movie.   Bruce Willis , John Malkovich , Mary-Louis Parker , and Helen Mirren are all back as our favorite retired but extremely dangerous assassins.  Even though the movie has it's funny parts it doesn't work as well as the original movie did.  Malkovich and Willis are the anchors to this story.  Their banter between each other is hilarious, and it really works.  It is when the story goes into Frank's (Willis) relationship with Sarah (Parker) that the story seems to drag.  In the beginning of the movie we see that Frank and Sarah are trying to have a normal life, and it's killing Frank, but he loves Sarah so he does what most normal people do and not kill anyone.  The movie is funny, but it jumps around from one location to another as our hero's try to piece together why everyone connected to a pro...

Dennis Farina passed away Monday Morning in Scottsdale Arizona.  Mr. Farina was born in Chicago, and became a Chicago police officer for 18 years in the cities Burglary division.  It was while Mr Farina was a consultant for Michael Mann's film entitled "Thief" that Mann gave him a brief role in the movie. Farina continued to do parts while he was a police officer in the Chicago theater scene.  It wasn't until Mann cast Farina as a lead in his series "Crime Story" that Farina made the full transition to actor. He later played many different parts.  Some as police officers and other as mobsters.  Farina was a life long cubs fan, and he eventually took the part of Detective Joe Fontana on the series of Law & Order. I was always enamoured by Mr. Farina's style of acting.  He was a natural, and you could see he was having fun.  He did a stint on a show called "In-Laws" which showed his comic timing, and how well he did in comedy...

So it's July 4th week-end, and what's more American then going to the movies, and so we did.  I'm a big fan of the first movie, and I have to say I loved the whole story.  Having said that I was a bit disappointed by the 2nd film.  That's not to say that I hated it.  I enjoyed seeing the film with my family, and we all laughed at bits in the film, but it is no where near the movie the first one is. Why is that?  Why was I a bit disappointed at the film?  Simply put it was the story.  They were on the right track.  After all our main character Gru is now out of the super villain business because he has his new family that he loves.  Making him a superhero is the right thing to do, but the story seemed to be too simplistic.  The movie did have some cute elements in the story which is one thing that made the first film so endearing, but it all seemed forced which is sad since you would think that Universal Studios would give more thoug...

I just had to go see World War Z being an avid "zombie" genre film fan.  I had never read the book by Max Brooks , about eyewitnesses account of the zombie outbreak, but I have read a few chapters here and there and what I read seemed interesting.  What the movie does is compile all those survivors accounts into one character's view of the outbreak.  Gerry Lane played by Brad Pitt is a former employee of the UN's health organization.  He is seen in the first scene of the movie making breakfast for his family.  He has two daughters, and a wife, and we find out that he quit his job due to what it was doing to him.  But that is latter on in the movie, and in the beginning of the movie we see Pitt interacting with his family while making breakfast.  We hear on the radio and on the TV that things are happening in the world, but like all news with a 24 hour cycle it is background noise to the characters.  For us the audience we all know that someth...

I just found out that Jim Kelly passed away yesterday.  Jim Kelly starred along with Bruce Lee in "Enter the Dragon", and after seeing that I was completely hooked on Jim Kelly's performance.  He made everything look easy and he exuded coolness like no one else.  His films include "Three the Hard way", Black Samson, Black Samurai, and Black Belt Jones.   After several more films Jim Kelly left acting and became a professional tennis player.on the USTA  senior man's circuit. He will be missed.

So for Father's day we all went to see "The Man of Steel".  I have always been a BIG Superman fan, and remember seeing the old episodes of Superman on the TV while I was growing up.  So I was anxious to see this new one.  I have to say that I wasn't disappointed at seeing it.  Now I do remember when Superman came out while I was a teenager.  The two Superman movies were something special for me, and Christopher Reeve was a very special Superman.  But I always wondered what happened to Superman during his teenage years.  Sure I read the Superboy comic books as a child, but in those he just seemed like a Superman who was just younger.  In "The Man of Steel" Superman is seen more human.  He is conflicted about who he is and what he is.  The flashbacks of him and his Earth dad Pa Kent is touching and revealing.  After all could not have Superman been bad.  Could he have used his powers for evil instead of good, and this movie ex...

Yesterday I heard that we lost another great writer.   Richard Matheson was a writer of over 25 novels and countless short stories.  He was a big influence in my life because I was introduced to him through the old Twilight Zone episodes.  He wrote one of my favorite novels " I am Legend " which has been made into several movies.  " Nightmare at 20,000 feet " and the episode called "Steel" were two of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes.  He was what writers needed to aspire to.  What Mr. Matheson wrote and conveyed in a 30 minute episode no one has yet to come as close to perfecting.  His writing touched you like no one elses could.  He brought humanity into his stories, and he certainly was prolific with the work he produced. Not only did he produce great work but he influenced others such Stephen King, George Romero , and Anne Rice just to name a few. He will be missed, and all I can say is thank you Mr. Matheson for the great work you...

Here in Philly and the surrounding area there are a group of people I admire and hope to work with some day.  They were on a panel about film making at a gaming con.  They mention some things that I think is relevant and true, so give it a listen it's worth hearing.

I've been researching and looking into DSLR filmmaking.  There are many cameras to do this.  The Canon 5D is one of those films, but I wanted to look into the Nikon side of DSLR. The below clip was shot with a Nikon D800.  I've already come to the conclusion that the Nikon d600 has too  many problems and is not good for the average filmmaker.  It has a problem with low light, aliasing, and it can only be used for 20 to 30 minutes of continuous filming. It seems that the Nikon D800 has fixed those problems.  More on what I find out and what the D800 can do.  In the meantime here is a film that was shot with the D800.  You be the judge.

  After seeing Star Trek Into the Darkness I have to say that the franchise seems to be in good hands.  Being a fan of the series, and the movies I was a little worried about re-vamping the franchise, but all those worries were for nothing.  The creators of the new Star Trek seem to respect and admire its past while giving us a new future.  What Star Trek is about hope.  Hope that man gets it right after all it's screw ups and that the human race does makes it to the stars and becomes a catalyst for hope in the universe.  That's the big picture of course.  What Star Trek is also about and what makes it a phenomenon is its all about relationships.  The crew of the Enterprise is like a big family and the two centered in that family is the relationship between Spock and Kirk.  It is these two characters that make the adventure of Star Trek so endearing to its fans.  In the old series William Shatner , and Leonard Nimoy were two sides...

Okay this is my last Godard review for awhile.  Since I read the book: "Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard" I wanted to review some of his films to get a better rounded view of Godard.  First was Breathless, and now "Weekend".  Weekend is considered Godard's last film of the 60's. He would eventually come back to movie making in 1972, but till then Godard was as he said "finished with cinema".  The end of Week-end even states this in the end credits. To tell you that it was a difficult movie to get through is an understatement.  Not that it is a bad movie.  It's far from that.  Weekend is one of Godard's darkest films, and it really reminded me of  certain other films about the end of the world, but what Godard does which other filmmakers do not is to include sociopolitical undercurrents within the story.  The film is about consumerism, and breakdown of civilization into savagery.   Our main characters Corin...

So I did get a chance to see "the Iceman" starring Michael Shannon, and directed by Ariel Vromen .  The story is based on a true story about a man who was a contract killer for the mob.  But that is over simplifying the film or the subject matter.  The movie is based on the book : The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer. The film is also based on the HBO documentary called " Conversations with a Killer ". The man's name was Richard Kuklinski and he was a contract killer.  He claimed to have killed over hundred people, but some authorities say that his body count is much more since Kuklinski was also a sociopath.  I have to say that the film gives a chilling account on how he preformed the murders and how he lead a dual life as a family man and a killer.   Michael Shannon gives a wonderful performance as Kuklinski, and the movie is all on him.  But the supporting characters here also need their due.   Winona Ryder , Rob...