Tag: Joe Pesci

Geekscape Movie Review: The Irishman

by MCDave

Martin Scorsese, it’s a name that will long outlast any of us thanks to nearly five decades of directing must-watch movies. He’s reached a rare status where every new film is an absolute spectacle. And after a brief theatrical stint to, in essence, qualify for the Academy Awards, Netflix is the proud host of Scorsese’s latest tour de force, The Irishman. This three-and-a-half-hour-long epic represents a more mature examination of the gangster genre, a territory very familiar to the director, but one he’s usually drawn to for the wild and reckless aspects of the lifestyle. Yet, that’s not Scorsese’s intent with The Irishman, here he journeys into the loneliness and isolation of the few who are, dare I say, lucky enough to survive a lifetime of double-crossings. It’s a bold and ambitious endeavor for the filmmaker, but one he still manages to handle exceptionally well, even if The Irishman fails to stand up to Scorsese’s best.

Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) is a hard-working World War II vet whose life is forever changed when he befriends the notorious mobster, Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci). Frank’s comfort with killing, largely in part to his time in the war, makes him a natural fit as a hitman for the Bufalino crime family. Frank’s close ties with Russell eventually set him a collision course with the outspoken labor union leader, Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), and the two men immediately become close allies. Their friendship lasts for many years, that is, until Hoffa gets in over his head with Russell Bufalino and other “made men” who demand the deadly services of Frank Sheeran one last time.

The Irishman attempts to bite off more than it can chew. Scorsese swings big, banking on an emotional conclusion that never really hits home the way it’s intended. With that being said, Scorsese still delivers a superbly crafted film that boasts phenomenal technical achievements and a pair of outstanding supporting turns. First, the widely discussed de-aging effect that’s used in the film is very impressive and executed at a never-before-seen level, making Scorsese’s firm dependence on the technique something that could very well change the way movies are made going forward. Now, onto the towering performances from Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Both offer their finest work in decades and each do it in a completely different manner. Pacino’s turn is showier as he mimics the brash and animated demeanor of Jimmy Hoffa with immense precision. It’s a loud role that demands your attention, and for this reason it’s more likely to stand out when harkening back to the film. Conversely, Joe Pesci delivers a slick and subtle performance, magnificently detailed and remarkably nuanced. Both men are completely worthy of Oscar Nominations, although I wouldn’t necessarily say the same for lead actor Robert De Niro whose dry and soulless approach makes for a rather uninspiring central character. I, personally, felt no connection whatsoever with the character of Frank Sheeran and this is the driving force behind Scorsese’s whiff at an emotional conclusion to the film. And while I left the theater feeling unmoved and slightly disappointed in The Irishman as a whole, the film is still a strong feature that races along with a driving force that keeps you fully engaged up until the pivotal onscreen moment when we’re given Scorsese’s interpretation of Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance. My suggestion would be to slightly temper your expectations before strapping in and enjoying another wild and worthwhile ride courtesy of a true cinematic genius.

GRADE: 4/5

Geekscape Roundtable: Geekscape’s Favourite Action Movies!

by GeekscapeStaff

The Expendables 2 is out this Friday and we are already getting details about a third installment in the franchise. So, right now we here at Geekscape are on an adrenaline high and what better time than now to tell you guys what our favorite action flicks are. So lets get into it!

Andy Breeding – I cannot resist Rush Hour 2. The comedic chemistry between Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan is amazing on how well it works. Every joke is well delivered and makes me laugh every time. With Jackie Chan, you know you are getting awesome fight choreography right from the start. For someone in his condition, he still took the risks that most people would make a stunt person do while they would sit off in their trailer eating a ham sandwich.

 

Thrill Murray – I considered abstaining from this activity because the parameters are obscenely vague. IMDB lists 23,103 films as residing within the action genre. Fortunately, 23,102 of those movies are irrelevant because DIE HARD.

 

Allisonnnnn – Chronicles Of Riddick. We have an underground jail on a planet whose sunrise is akin to a nuclear explosion inside an EZ-Bake Oven, a cult of ass-kicking fanatics in H.R. Giger inspired armor, and Vin Diesel constantly flexing those manly arms of his as he lays waste to his enemies. Oh, and Karl Urban: Sex God Extraordinaire, being hotter than any mortal man has a right to be. Seriously, in the Director’s Cut, the things he gets up to with Thandie Newton… I’ll be fanning myself for weeks.

 

UncannyShawnMadden – This is a hard one to decide on. I narrowed it down to a list of five movies (three of which starred Jean-Claude Van Damme) but when it came down to it I had to join Jack Burton on the Pork Chop Express. Big Trouble In Little China had everything you could possibly want out of an action flick. Okay. You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we’re not back by dawn… call the president.

 

Shane O’Hare – My favorite action movie has to be Shoot ‘Em Up. Not only is the entire plot given to you in the title it can easily describe half the movies out there in the Action genre! From the very beginning it is in your face crazy fun. The term “creative kills” is perfect for this film, when one of the first deaths is caused by a carrot!

 

Scott Alminiana – My favorite action movie has got to be Lethal Weapon 2. It took everything great about the first one and cranked it to 11. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover have perfect chemistry as Riggs and Murtaugh. The addition of Joe Pesci’s Leo Getz is fantastic. He’s got some of the best lines in the entire movie “They FUCK YOU at the drive-thru, okay? They FUCK YOU at the drive-thru!” and he steals every scene he’s in. Anytime Lethal Weapon 2 is on I will sit and watch it waiting for bad guy Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland) to say “diplomatic immunity” so that I can crack my neck along with Murtaugh and say “it’s just been revoked!”

Molly Mahan – Kill Bill, to me, is the greatest love story of my generation, and a truly amazing action film that happens to be led by a woman (hell yeah!). Tarantino—love him or hate him—knows how to make a film. It’s a classic revenge story, which I am a sucker for, with amazing fight sequences—the 30-minute ballet between the Bride and the Crazy 88s at the climax of volume 1 and the battle between the two blonde assassins in volume 2 shine particularly bright in my mind—and the characters have depth, not just of purpose but emotional awareness that isn’t always apparent in the genre. When we come to the end of The Bride’s journey and see her interact with Bill, there is always a part of me that wishes they can get back together and work it out (no matter how foolish or big of a let down it would be after four hours of watching her roaring rampage of revenge). But despite the basic premise, their relationship isn’t the only one that we see on display. The love she has for her daughter, the disdain and respect each of her opponents and former colleagues have for her are all evident. The layers that every character has is pretty remarkable. You could see each of them headlining their own film if they had to, or a comic book run. In the end, Kill Bill doesn’t force me to change my knickers as often as the trailer for Expendables 2 does, but it makes my heart sing. And that is something remarkable.

 

Jonathan – I think anyone who reads this site is expecting me to put a Van Damme movie here but I’m going to take the opportunity to share my love for another action film, probably one of the most revered in the genre: John Woo’s 1989 film The Killer, starring Chow Yun Fat, Danny Lee and Sally Yeh. This was the only movie poster that I had in my room all 4 years of college and not a week went by that I didn’t watch at least a few scenes from it. I could still watch it every week today. The plot is simple and has been done before. A conscientious hitman (Chow Yun Fat), pained by a hit gone wrong and blinding an innocent woman (Sally Yeh), swears to retire. But he takes one last job in order to pay to make things right. And in a classic modern-noir fashion, that was one job too many. Not only are his ex-employers on his tail to wipe him out but so is a driven cop (Danny Lee), intent on bringing him to justice. Some prefer Woo’s Hollywood calling cards of Hard Boiled and A Better Tomorrow 2 or the more gray area’d A Better Tomorrow but The Killer is where Woo really put his stamp on the genre, complete with slow motion doves, antagonists finding a common respect in a ballet of bloodshed and a dangerous men with moral codes. This movie influenced a wave of 90s action filmmakers, from Rodriguez to Tarantino, and forever reinvigorated a genre that had been exhausted by the end of the 80s. Throw any action film you want at it, The Killer still stands towards the top. And if it’s any consolation, John Woo did end up making a Van Damme film, 1993’s Hard Target.

Top 10 Worst Actors-Turned-Musicians

by Noel Nocciolo

When I first heard Scarlett Johansson’s debut album, “Anywhere I Lay My Head”, it got me thinking about how many other actors there were out there who made records. Well, there were a lot. So, I trudged through quite a few to compile this list for you. These are the worst of the worst. The repeat offenders. These songs make you wonder what the hell is going on in the recording industry, and then realize that it’s full of a lot of people who take themselves, and their singing abilities, far too seriously. Feel free to thank me later. (Seriously, this was a painful undertaking – let’s talk musical bullets…)

#10. Milla Jovovich – She lands in spot #10 on this list because her voice isn’t terrible. In fact, at some notes it can be almost pretty. However her music for the most part is an almost comical Ukranian pop. Now, I certainly understand this given her roots; but it doesn’t make for compelling music outside of her home country. Another aspect of her musical talents that is almost comical is the music video for her lone single “Gentlemen Who Fell”. The expression she makes at some points in the video made me laugh like a mad woman…her eyes almost bulge from her face, Total Recall style. And what’s with the grim reaper character? Milla is a beautiful, talented woman…she’s just not a musician.

 

 

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eSCFAxxCO7Q 

#9. Russell Crowe – Yes, Russell Crowe is in a band, well was…errr….is? The actor’s most recent band is The Ordinary Fear of God; however back in the 90’s he was the front-man for 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. However sultry and smooth Crowe’s voice may be on screen, it doesn’t translate that well to music. He isn’t able to hit a lot of notes, and the ones he does hit he can’t actually hold for any length of time. It’s a good thing that almost nobody heard his music, otherwise it might have tainted his career!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lIwKkF50tMc&feature=related


#8. Bruce Willis – Willis released three albums during his career, the first two were in the 80’s and the latest, “Classic Bruce Willis” in 2001. For some reason, as bad as his albums were, I feel inclined to not give Willis too much hell about it. Here’s why:

He seems like a pretty stand up guy in personal matters of his life. Let’s take for example his divorce from Demi Moore. The pair never fought in public and have acted like adults and friends throughout the entire ordeal. Also, Willis’ career is the stuff that dreams are made of. And finally, he’s managed to stay alive and important in Hollywood since 1980…that is a very remarkable feat to accomplish in an extremely fickle business. Now, don’t get me wrong, the man is not a singer (please, please never buy his music) and his albums are absolutely terrible – but he didn’t sell himself out as much as let’s say… Hasselhoff.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=C8mL_QM6jEU&feature=related

#7. Jennifer Love Hewitt – She broke out into the music scene around the same time that she started garnering moderate successes within her acting career…and her music is bad enough to be on this list. For some reason she made it big in Asia, so record companies let her continue to put out music; needless to say, she didn’t have too much commercial success in the US. She is talented enough to help write her own music, but it’s so damn syrupy-sweet and sugar-coated that it makes you want to gag and leaves you grasping for water. Her voice rubs me the same way. I feel as though I could get diabetes from listening to more than one song. I know a lot of people with diabetes and I don’t want to get that from a song.

And she, like the other women on this list, runs the risk of appearing to be selling not only her vocals, but her body as well. Alas, little Jenn Love’s musical pitfalls haven’t hurt her career in the least; as she continues to grace the covers of men’s magazines flaunted as a sex-symbol and has managed to stay afloat with an acting career that, while not Oscar worthy, is quite consistent.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IiNRBijQ2XU

#6. Jennifer Lopez – It is a fact that JLo can dance and sometimes she can even act; but what she cannot do is sing. The diva’s songs fall terribly short when she doesn’t have someone like Nas or P. Diddy to help her through and it seems as though she can only hit one note. Thanks to a large budget and friends in good places, her beats aren’t too awful, but the writing is ridiculous:

“I stay grounded as the amounts roll in…I’m down to Earth like this…”

I somehow think most of America might disagree. She sings these lines while wearing nothing but high heels, red lipstick and a fur coat. Her songs constantly speak of how she came from humble beginnings to finally make it big in the business, but let’s all be serious…she hasn’t been “Jenny From The Block” in a long long time, so who exactly is she trying to convince? Her music videos beg one question- what exactly is she trying to put on the market? I get the feeling that it’s not her vocal stylings….

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iyZr0xBUR_E

#5. Keanu Reeves – Given that the actor has only one look (and it’s nowhere near as good as Blue Steel) what could we really ever expect from his band? Dogstar released their first album in 1996, shortly after Reeves’ film success with Speed. The band was never really commercially successful and it’s really no surprise at all. They tried to play on the grunge/ alternative rock movement that was making waves in the 90’s…but with some odd cover songs plucked from previous decades. The vocalist cannot sing…he sounds as though he is in pain when trying to do so, and the songs are boring and bland. I realize that even movie stars need to have hobbies, but why do we have to be subjected to them?

Link: No one should have to look at (or listen to) Keanu any more than necessary.

#4. Scarlett Johansson – You would think that it would be enough for one person to be both Woody Allen’s “muse” and one of the most beautiful women on the planet…not for Scarlett Johansson; she had to record an album too! I really wanted to like her record, and I swear I tried to do so, but it just wasn’t going to happen. So not only did Scarlett give herself the difficult task of recording said album, she decided that the material was going to be solely Tom Waits cover songs. This is really where she went wrong. Her voice, though smoky and sexy on screen, isn’t nearly complex enough on this album…instead it falls abruptly flat. She never came close to rekindling the fire that Waits had, even though it sounds like she really tried to. The whole thing sounds like something anyone could whip up with Garage Band – this album does not sound like a major label debut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_27vvvStXI

#3. Steven Seagal – Ok, really. How the hell did Seagal get a record contract? Who is seeing his movies and listening to his music? I don’t get it. Where does someone get the idea that Seagal should even record an album in the first place? The “singer”, and I use that term very loosely here, struggles heavily through the vocals on both records released: “Mojo Priest” and “Songs From The Crystal Cave”- album titles that sound more like awful movies that he starred in. Seagal is heavily backed with decent musicians, so if you do decide to listen to his music, please don’t confuse the two. The worst part about the whole endeavor is that he seems to take himself seriously…trying to play guitar and sing…which seems to just be too big a feat for him to tackle – and this time he doesn’t have his stunt double.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7Qw5bKTBQE4

#2. Joe Pesci – Ok, Who didn’t love “My Cousin Vinny”? Really…classic movie. However, it seems that Joe Pesci just couldn’t let it go. About six years after “Vinny” premiered, Pesci recorded one of the worst albums ever, “Vincent Laguardia Gambini Sings Just For You”, a stereotypical and cliche homage to his character in the film. For some inane reason every song on the disc is explicit (Did they really think cursing would add something to this record?). It’s hard not to laugh as Pesci basically talks his way through the entirety, spouting nonsense such as

“I’m a wiseguy…

[insert Mr. Rogers theme song melody]

lovely day in the neighborhood

lovely day in the neighborhood

for a drive by”.

Not only can Pesci not sing…nor does he really even attempt to, but I sincerely hope that whoever wrote the lyrics for this record has never worked since. This album has no redeeming qualities and it makes you sit back and wonder how hard it really is to get a record deal with Sony.

Shortened-edited version of a song…this is really all anyone should ever have to sit through. It’s so bad, you have to watch it…maybe that’s its appeal…hmmm….

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TTKGO20nxNs

#1. David Hasselhoff- Yes, Germans know beer and yes, they know cars…but what they don’t have a clue about is music – apparently. Enter David Hasselhoff – huge in Germany, ridiculed in every other western country. This guy has recorded more albums that I originally thought, and I knew he had at least a few under his belt. Hasselhoff was clearly not meant to be a singer. He shifts between a pseudo sexy whisper and a wailing cry more than KITT shifted gears. He’s mostly off key and sounds like he is taking his singing as seriously as he did his character on Baywatch. His songs all sound like they were recorded on an old Casio keyboard with crappy 90’s sound effects strewn throughout for good measure. Even more cheesy, however, are his music videos…check out “Hooked on a Feeling” for a strong belly laugh (it totally makes you understand his desire to drink). The only time I want to be watching David is when he is on his floor eating burgers and breaking promises 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQVlVHsFF8

There are a few actors who sing and don’t actually suck. Yes, there are exceptions to the general rule. Here are some honorable mentions:

Will Smith – I don’t think he deserves a Grammy or anything, but he can sing and his songs have good rhythm. He’s very pop meets safe hip-hop, but he still deserves the airplay he got. Unarguably, Smith is a better actor than musician, but the man seems to be able to do anything with at least some charisma.

She + Him- Zoey Deschanel’s indie rock project is actually good. Everyone who saw Elf knows the girl can sing, but this album proves she’s got a little more soul than other cookie cutter groups.

30 Seconds to Mars – I think I would have less of a problem with this band if Jared Leto had less of an ego – we can wish can’t we? But, in all honesty, their songs are decent and commercially viable. And it doesn’t hurt that Leto isn’t exactly ugly. They certainly don’t deserve to be on the other part of this list…yet.