Results tagged “jacknicholson”

Christopher Nolan's second episode in the relaunch of the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight, takes a daring turn towards embracing a darker, bleaker vision of the masked vigilante and his increasingly odd rogues gallery of adversaries. Batman Begins did a good job of saving the Bruce Wayne/Batman character from the travesties that Joel Schumacher rained down upon our hero, excised the remaining camp from previous cinematic versions, and rebuilt Batman to more accurately reflect the darker tone of the original comics.

Sometimes things align at just the proper moment: the Siskel is wrapping up a restropective of the master filmmaker, who passed away peacefully Monday evening. As it so happens the last screening in the series is Thursday, when The Passenger with Jack Nicholson will be shown. The film ends with one of the most amazing, haunting sequences in film history. It's well worth catching on the big screen. His death, coming so close on...

As far as predictions go, it looks like we were pretty darn prescient. Sort of. The awards were indeed spread far and wide among many films.

No sooner had Chicagoist read this article in NewCity on the art of the celebrity musical side project than we found ourselves at a party on Saturday night arguing the merits of both William Shatner’s cover of Pulp’s “Common People” and Leonard Nimoy’s treatment of “Both Sides Now.” Shatner's ditty was one of our favorite tracks from last year (and revived the spoken-words-as-singing technique popularized by Jack Nicholson in the movie version of Tommy) and it’s hard not to get a little choked up imagining Spock warbling Joni Mitchell’s lament of lost love at the end of that one Trek episode where he gets a girlfriend. (Well, it’s not hard if you’re a raving geek like Chicagoist).

When Chicagoist was growing up, we begged our parents to buy us a pair of parachute pants because we thought they were so cool. Nevermind that they looked ridiculous on us and didn’t fit quite right; we proudly wore them to school and were mocked openly by our classmates. We were reminded of that traumatic childhood moment this week when Oscar producer Gil Cates was forced to respond to comments Chris Rock made in Entertainment Weekly about the Oscars being “idiotic” and “a fashion show.” Cates assured the masses that Rock’s comments were just “humorous digs.” You know, the Academy got uptight when Letterman did that whole Uma/Oprah thing a few years back. So we’re wondering what the reaction will be if Rock calls Jack Nicholson “Ol’ Dirty Cracker.” But hey it’s all part of keeping it “hip-hop loose.” Yeah, that always works real well.

Directed with plenty of style by a pre-exiled Roman Polanski, Chinatown is one of best examples of contemporary film noir, and Hollywood moviemaking, done right. It has everything Chicagoist could want: a hard-boiled Jack Nicholson performance, a screenplay (by a pre-Mission: Impossible Deux Robert Towne) that writing guru Syd Field maintains is a model of perfect construction, kid-who-stayed-in-the-picture Robert Evans as producer, and a cameo by Polanski himself. It plays tonight as part of the Gene Siskel Film Center�s series on the masterful (if downright creepy) director, which has upcoming screenings of Repulsion, Rosemary�s Baby, Frantic, and most excitingly, the director�s cut of The Fearless Vampire Killers. The theatre�s website description of that last one notes, �With a dazzling blend of movieland kitsch and Eastern European lore, Polanski creates a fairy tale full of slapstick humor and poignancy, enhanced by his own picaresque performance as the innocent in love.� Movieland kitsch, Eastern European lore, slapstick humor, AND poignancy? Chicagoist knows what we�re doing this Saturday at 6.