Simon Pegg and Nick Frost became known to most nerds on this side of the Atlantic for their first feature-length collaboration with writer-director Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead. This week, for the first time ever, Pegg and Frost are starring together in a feature with none of Wright’s input – the Greg Mottola-directed Paul. On this episode of Sound on Sight, Rick, Al and Mike will take on Mottola’s movie and take a look back at the last Pegg/Frost joint, the action-movie homage Hot Fuzz.

Playlist:

Supergrass – Caught by the Fuzz

B52′S – Planet Claire

John Spencer and the Elegant Too – Here Comes The Fuzz

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One of the biggest box office draws in the world from the 1970s through the early 1990s, actor, writer, director and producer Sylvester Stallone combined sheer physical brawn with a touch of vulnerability in two major movie franchises – the Academy Award-winning Rocky and its five sequels, as well as the ultra-violent Rambo quartet. Frequently attacked by critics for his acting and movie choices, Stallone has survived several major career eclipses, only to come back, much like Rocky Balboa, time and time again as the pop cultural icon that he most definitely was. Today on Sound On Sight, we will take a look back at his career as an actor, director and writer.

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Playlist:

Sigh – Ecstatic Transformation

Arcade Fire – Sprawl 2

Metric – Black Sheep

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It’s entirely possible that no one has ever crossed over from the realm of pop music into film more thoroughly than Mark Wahlberg. Back in the days when he was fronting Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, it might have been hard to believe that he’d grow to be one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars, as well as one of its most persistent oddballs. This week he stars opposite Will Ferrell in the Adam McKay-helmed comedy The Other Guys, and we’ll be reviewing it alongside two very different Wahlberg flicks, avid O. Russell’s philosophical comedy I Heart Huckabees and the 1996 family-values thriller Fear.

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Playlist:

Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch – Good Vibrations
Sonic Youth – Stalker
Belle and Sebastian – White Collar Boy
Jon Brion – Be True to Yourself

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Is there a more versatile oddball working in front of the camera than Tilda Swinton? Though she’s probably still best known as the sweaty corporate stooge in Michael Clayton, the role that earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, but she’s been getting steady work since the mid-80s, specializing in Euro arthouse, with occasional diversions into mainstream fare like Constantine and the Narnia series. This special will focus on three completely divergent roles that nevertheless all fall well within the “arthouse” bracket: Sally Potter’s 1992 Virginia Woolf adaptation Orlando, which has just been releleased in select US theaters; Erick Zonca’s Julia, in which she portrays an incorrigible alcoholic who mounts a madcap child kidnapping; and, currently in theaters here in Montreal, the lush Italian family drama I am Love, in which she plays a wealthy matriarch who embarks on an illicit affair.

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Playlist:

Cougar – Rhinelander
Patrick Wolf – Oblivion (ft. Tilda Swinton)
Elliott Smith – Pretty (Ugly Before)
Electrelane – The Valleys

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A little under two weeks ago, legendary Hollywood iconoclast and all-around shit-disturber Dennis Hopper passed away. His life and career saw epic peaks and valleys – he rose to auteur status early in life thanks to the landmark road movie Easy Rider, which he co-wrote, co-starred in, and directed, but he also suffered with a long bout of drug addiction and directorial disasters. It wasn’t until the mid-80s, after cleaning up his act, that he once again became a valued onscreen presence, starting with David Lynch’s 1986 breakthrough Blue Velvet. Tonight, we’ll be looking at both of those films, as well as another movie from Hopper’s ’80s comeback, Tim Hunter’s The River’s Edge.

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Music Playlist

Roy Orbison – In Dreams
Jimi Hendrix – If 6 Was 9
Ketty Lester – Love Letters
The Wipers – When It’s Over

He’s been nominated for four Academy Awards, and by Tuesday morning, in all likelihood, it’ll be five, but Jeff Bridges isn’t necessarily thought of as a prestige figure. That may change thanks to the release of Crazy Heart, in which he plays a broken-down, aging country star. To celebrate Bridges’ coming into critical favor, Al, Mariko and Simon will be looking at that film, as well as his breakout film – Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971), as well as John Carpenter’s alien love story Starman (1984).

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Yes, he was the punchline of about a quarter-million Tonight Show jokes. But Michael Jackson’s stop-on-a-dime dance moves and sensual soprano have influenced generations of musicians, dancers and entertainers, and the man was so much more than what the tabloids made him out to be. One of entertainment’s greatest icons, he was incredibly gifted, and like most gifted individuals he was an equally troubled genius who kept us captivated at his most dazzling, and at his most appalling moments. The New York Times once described him as one of the six most famous people on the planet. I’d like to up the ante:  he was the most famous person on the planet. He influenced artists ranging from Justin Timberlake to Madonna, and genres from rock to pop to R&B to even rap. No other artist has been as unifying. On Episode 130 of Sound On Sight we will examine Michael in film, discuss his legendary music videos review his films and remember a legend.

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Two weeks ago, cult film icon David Carradine passed away, so we thought it appropriate to put together a little tribute to the man. While most contemporary viewers know him as Uma Thurman’s titular target in Kill Bill, he had a long and varied career stretching back several decades. He became known in the 1970s principally for his role in TV’s “Kung Fu,” but soon broke out into the film world with a string of prominent roles in offbeat projects; we’ll take a look at three of them – Martin Scorcese’s early film “Boxcar Bertha;” and two films by cult director Paul Bartel, “Cannonball!” and, of course, “Death Race 2000.”

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The late eighties and early nineties were the golden age of American martial arts action films. Which, of course, means that it was a cinematic dark age for anyone who doesn’t drunk-drive pick-up trucks while listening to Toby Keith CDs. Cheap and easy to produce, 80s movies like Above the Law and China O’Brien didn’t need scripts longer than a paragraph’s worth of block printing, provided they had a roundhouse kick and a blond woman being put in her place. And it was at that time that Jean-Claude Van Damme, the Muscles from Brussels, was king. After a string of big screen hits, however, Van Damme disappeared into the world of direct-to-DVD releases. But last year’s JCVD, an inventive crime film that casts Van Damme as himself, promises, or perhaps threatens, a comeback for the Belgian action star. Tonight, Sound on Sight takes a look at JCVD, as well as six of Van Damme’s other action films. Remember, we watch these movies so you don’t have to.

Episode 114 -Part 1

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Episode 114 – Part 2

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“Exqusite and with a sense of innocence, Audrey Hepburn was a rare actress for her time, compared to the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Mae West. Audrey was far from the volumptuos, typical hollywood movie star, she was a pleasant, petite woman with an enchanting Anglo-European accent, big doe-like eyes, a long swan neck, demure smile, melodious voice, charismatic manner, and perfect wardrobe. Audrey was also very modest, describing herself as an actress that didn’t have much technique because she never learned to act. Her own acting technique, such as it was, simply consisted of hard work, intense concentration – and instinct.

Life. Puppies. Pillows. Smiles. If you enjoy any of these things, even intermittently, you probably like at least one film starring the lovely and talented Audrey Hepburn, who was both a committed philanthropist and a consistently charming performer. In this episode we take a look at two of her most successful films – 1961′s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and 1963′s “Charade,” as well as one of her more obscure films, the 1967 thriller “Wait Until Dark.”

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“I thought my talent would transcend my outspokenness. I was wrong. I’m willing to give them 100 per cent this time. I just want a second chance at Hollywood.”

Mickey Rourke

Mickey Rourke has had quite a career. He has moved back and forth from boxer to actor, and back again. Rourke has been called many things by many people, but conventional has never been one of the adjectives used to describe him. Tune into our first of a two part special on the man himself.

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Paul Newman wasn’t just an Oscar-winning movie star and director, he was a philanthropist, practical joke player, and award-winning race car driver.

The roles he chose were immortalized by his outstanding performances in films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Hustler, The Sting, The Verdict, The Color of Money. He was an electric Mt. Rushmore with a thousand twinklers behind his bright blue eyes

Here is the first of a two part special on the man himself.