In the Shih Tzu with the Seven Psychopaths.

Seven Psychopaths, they won’t take any Shih-Tzu

Seven Psychopaths is the latest crime romp from In Bruges director Martin McDonagh. Starring the beetle browed Colin Farrell, as failed LA screen writer Marty, and Sam Rockwell as his hapless buddy Billy.

Marty gets sucked into a scheme by Billy and his partner in crime Hans, played by the crimetastic Christopher Walken, to steal and hold for ransom the prized Shih-Tzu of gangland psycho Charlie, played by Woody Harrelson. As you may imagine Charlie is non-too pleased that his prized pooch has been dog napped and responds with what might only be described as great vitriol.

Due for an American release on October 12 2012. The movie also features hilarious cameos by a bunny loving Tom Waits and precious star Gabourey Sidibe. While the glamorpuss quotinent goes off the scale with Abbie Cornish and the talented Olga Kurylenko.

The movies tagline They won’t take any Shih-Tzu gives an idea of the level of farce we are dealing with but with a cast this great it almost doesn’t matter what they do. Check out the trailer, and in case you haven’t seen Farrell in the marvelous In Bruges now is the time, this black European comedy is a Crimezine favorite.

http://www.sevenpsychopaths.com/

Crimezine thrills as LA crime flick Gangster Squad gets a release date and Crimeziners get to see an Exclusive trailer

Sean Penn Lets rip as Mickey Cohen in The Gangster Squad

http://gangstersquad.warnerbros.com/

Gangster squad has a release date Crimeziners and that date is September 7^th 2012. In case you missed Crimezines exclusive announcement of the movie that out Confidentials Ellroy, here is the essential dope— Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and—if he has his way—every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart. Crimezine cannot wait, While Sean Penn looks like a Mickey Cohen Lite, we know he will more than make up in attitude what he lacks in weight in his portrayal of the ice-cream loving crime kingpin.

Postscript: Due to the Aurora cinema slayings, The Gangster Squad release date has been delayed until January. The current trailers involve gun toting gangsters spraying a screaming  cinema audiences with gunfire… Why is there never a tooled up NRA member on hand when you need one?.

Savages: a movie by Oliver Stone

Sema Hayek and Blake Lively in Oliver Stone’s Savages

Dude, who stole my weed, my money and my girlfriend? Like, Bummer!

Here comes Savages the latest crimetastic Oliver Stone movie, based on the bestselling book by Don Winslow. Stone is a crime legend due to his involvement in such classics as Natural Born Killers,  Scarface (1983) and Midnight Express. This latest venture into the world of crime might be remembered slightly  differently however, here’s why.

Savages is a nightmare tale for every pot huffing twenty something who has ever considered getting into the drug business. Chon (Taylor Kitsch) is a trigger happy veteran with a penchant for violence, while Ben (Aaron Johnson) is a swirly haired do-gooder who likes growing Marijuana and helping little kiddies in Africa with the proceeds (seriously).

Things couldn’t be going better for the dynamic duo: they live in a swank pad in Laguna Beach, have all the weed they can handle, and enjoy a ménage a trios relationship with the gorgeous Olivia, (Blake Lively.) Like way awesome dude, but it is here that things go badly awry, when the tightly outfitted Elena, played to marvelous effect by Selma Hayek, and her assistant Lado (Benico Del Toro) kidnap the lovely O, demanding all the money and dope our young hero’s can harvest. Like Bummer dude.

Del Toro and Hayek are the real stars of this show. Del Torro who is looking like a human waxwork melting in the Socal heat these days, puts on a particularly awesome performance as the gruesome hit man Lado. There is a whole bunch of cranial splattering unpleasantness in this movie and Del Torro is usually centre stage when it happens. Hayek meanwhile, plays a big mama cartel owner with a heart, a woman who can preside over head-lopping and eye-ball popping one minute and then gets all teary because her daughter doesn’t ring her enough.

Savages is a value for money stoner romp, that goes part of the way to highlight how gruesome the real world drug trade can get south of the Mexican border, yet simultaneously glamorizes the homegrown lifestyles of stoner kingpins Ben and Chon. Del Toro calls them Cheech and Chong at one point, but these guys are strictly Bill and Ted—without the sense of humor. Bogus!

Blake lively is tousled and impossibly pretty in virtually every scene, but her character comes across as vacuous and self-absorbed. When she gets kidnapped, there is a moment when you  think the guys are actually going to replace her with a look-alike from the Laguna Beach gene pool of generic blondes. Totally non awesome!

In the real world the multi-billion dollar operations of the Mexican cartels would be untroubled by the likes of Ben and Chon, if they wanted their expertise as growers they would buy it; if they felt that they were in the way, they would kill them without mercy and their pretty little girlfriend too. But we are not dealing with the real world here Crimeziners, we are dealing with a world in which John Travolta is a corrupt Federal agent. The increasingly bloated Travolta hams it up no end, which provides an entertaining respite from our stoner hero’s.

If you are looking for an excellent adventure that lasts a couple of hours, then this is it. If you are looking for Scarface part deux, you will be disappointed. But wait a second, what’s this, a twisty-turny ending? Crimezine saw this movie as a pre-release and the Hollyweird focus groupers were out in force, chances are this movie will have had another edit before you see it. Crimezine fears that will not be enough, unless Mr. Stone can find another 45 minutes of Selma Hayek in tight dresses.

Oliver Stone doesn’t have the answers to the Marijuana question. When asked recently, he said that he, “Believes we should get the problem under medical control, rather than criminal control.” Crimezine wholeheartedly agrees.

http://www.savagesfilm.com/

Draculas Law: Crimezine favorite Humphery Bogart lawyers up from beyond the grave.

Bogart: Wore Aquascutum

Humphery Bogart’s estate has sued snooty clothing manufacturer Burberry in California, asserting violations of the actor’s right of publicity, trademark and other common law rights. Burberry has counter sued the actor’s estate in New York, asserting that it has First Amendment rights to recount its history and  show that Bogie and other dead stars wore its noirtastic raincoats.

Crimezine notes that laws enforcing rights of publicity, differ widely throughout The United States. Roughly half the states recognize these rights and most of those that do don’t actually refer to the “right of publicity” as such, but rather a category of the Right of Privacy.

In the State of California, a statute known as the Celebrities Rights Act extends the personality rights for celebrities for  70 years after death.

The law came into effect in 1985 in response to the California Supreme Court’s 1979 decision in Lugosi v. Universal Pictures. The high court decided that Dracula actor Bela Lugosi’s creepy personality rights could not pass to his heirs, like other forms of intellectual property, ruling that any rights of publicity and image terminated with Lugosi’s death. Which seems somewhat unreasonable to Crimezine, as by definition, vampires are: the living dead.

Now the California Civil Code  has a section which grants statutory post-mortem rights prohibiting the unsanctioned use of the “name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness on or in products, merchandise or goods” of any person. The dead must be happy that their legal affairs are so comprehensively protected.

A spokesperson for the Bogart brand added as a sulky addendum: Bogart wore Aquascutum anyway…  So now we know.

Whatever next Crimezine wonders; A legal battle over which brand of flavorsome smokes finally sent noirs greatest detective to meet his maker? Now that would be ridiculous, everyone knows that prior to 1950 the health-some, life-giving qualities of cigarettes were a major selling point.

Humphery Bogart had just turned 57 when he died of cancer on January 14, 1957. He weighed 80 pounds (36kg). His death was widely attributed to a life of heavy smoking and drinking. RIP Bogie Crimezine loves ya buddy.

Crimezine Loves Humphrey Bogart God of Noir

Crimezine Loves all things Bogartian

Bro: a new film with Danny Trejo

Beau Manley: unafraid of death in all its many forms

Crimezine love, love, loves Danny Trejo, anyone who was stuck in San Quentin with Eddie Bunker is all right by us. On the straight and narrow now, the shockingly hard bitten Trejo has played various versions of himself in a number of classic movies such as Robbo Rodriguez’s stunning and hilarious Machete.

Trouble with exploitation movies is they don’t get tuned up by a director  like Rodriguez—a man with an eye and ear for classic irony, you are liable to get a hideous misfire.

Such is the case with the latest Trejo movie. We are invited into a high flying thrill-ride world of Freestyle motocross, where riders Beau Manley and Colin Scummy Morrison get caught up in what is described by the studio as: A high stakes lifestyle of drugs, gangs, hot cars, sizzling women and big money. All this and our heros are expected to: Keep pace with their extreme sport. Aw, shucks, a day job too—Bummer!

Phew! It is a wonder these young men and women have time to cram for College. None of these cats and kittens are going to College however—hell no—they are taking it to the red line and beyond, into a world of baggy trousers crooked baseball caps and dialogue so cheesy you could slap it on top of a char-broiled pattie.

A brave try by writer director Nick Parada but he has done nothing more than create an R-rated version of BMX Bandits.

Word to the wise Nick, fast living is always more fun first hand.

And the winner of the ugly contest is…

http://www.brothefilm.com/

Kiss me Deadly: Crimezine thrills to a Noirtastic weekend of classic Crime at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Noir Classic: Kiss Me Deadly

Noirtastic greetings Crimeziners. Those clever cats and kittens at LACMA’s Bing Audotorium are at it again, screening a veritable plethora of pulse pounding noir classics over the next two weeks.

Star of the show: a screening of Robert Aldrich’s sensational crime classic Kiss Me Deadly, followed by The Crimson Kimono. Saturday we get Experiment in Terror followed by Criss Cross & “M”.

Those of you who want to avoid the quadruple header Sports traffic cataclysm, caused by the confluence of the Kings, Clippers, Lakers games and the street closure cycle race thrills, can make a date for 6/25/12 for The Damned Don’t Cry followed by Slightly Scarlet, then on the 26^th there is a truly spectacular triple bill showing of Murder By Contract, Nightfall and The Prowler. You lucky people.

For those Crimeziners who do not live in Los Angeles. The above mentioned movies are essential examples of 1950’s Noir at it’s best. If you have to stream just one from the internet, let it be the edgy and hard hitting Kiss Me Deadly based on the Mickey Spillane novel .

When you see it, let us know if you think Quentin Tarantino ripped of the Pandora’s box scene, where Mike Hammer opens the  box he finds in the bottom of the Hollywood gym locker and it gives of a blinding light. Coincidence or Pulp Fiction?

Sadly, many of these films are not currently available on DVD, so if you love crime and film noir, it is high time you petitioned head of the Noir Film Foundation Eddie Muller the “Czar of Noir” Tell him Crimezine sent you.

Go Lakers! RIP Mulholland resident retro hair primper Vidal Sassoon.

www.lacma.org

http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/home.html

The Samaritan: Samuel L. Jackson shows that some wrongs can never be made right

Hallelujah Crimeziners! Are you ready to see some redemption? The Samaritan is the latest

The Samaritan

Samuel L. Jackson crime vehicle. Jackson, a man who has made a career out of his biblical ability, stars as the philosophically mournful Foley, a con artist who has just completed a 25-year prison sentence for killing his partner in crime.

Foley is determined to make a fresh start, even though most of his acquaintances have moved on or died while he was incarcerated. But the past is far from dead and pretty soon Foley finds himself forced into old patterns of behaviour by his former associate’s son (Luke Kirby).

Raising the romantic stakes is the enigmatic Iris (Ruth Negga), a troubled young woman with whom Foley becomes deeply embroiled. But this is a movie about the art of the con Crimeziners and—‘A Samaritan’ is a classic scam where the Grifter pretends to assist an intended victim. So you know from the outset that nothing is as it seems.

Directed and co-written by David Weaver, a Canadian television veteran, and co-writer Elan Mastai, this is a dark and hard-hitting film, set in present-day Toronto. Jackson offers a commanding performance with able ensemble assistance. Receiving its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the The Samaritan is released May 16th by IFC Films. Crimezine recommends.

http://www.thesamaritanfilm.com/

Crimezine exclusive: Sleepless Night

Sleepless night—quite literally

Bonsoir Crimeziners, as we settle in for another pipe and slippers evening on Mulholland Drive, it is time to celebrate the craziest crime movie we have seen this year: Drugs, Kidnapping and Frenchie fist-fight craziness? It has to be International crime sensation Sleepless Night, written and Directed by Fredric Jardin the movie from Lauranne Bourrachot and Marco Cherqui of Chic Films is rapidly shaping up to be crime-house hit of the year.

Crimezine loves this movie—so good it is already being remade by Warner Brothers for the American market by producer Roy Lee, who’s big league success with crime masterpiece The Departed will certainly boost the box office.

Sleepless Night is the tale of a corrupt undercover cop Vincent (Tomer Sisley) and his bid to save his kidnapped son from the drug-lord owner of nightclub Le Tarmac. (Serge Riaboukine). Vincent is desperate, sloppy and more than a little crazy. He loses his only bargaining chip early on—a duffel bag full of cocaine that he and his corrupt partner stole from the crooks.

Vincent then spends the rest of a fraught and suspenseful night in combat with two different sets of drug dealers, two fellow officers—one who’s trying to bust him and another who’s more corrupt than he is—and assorted bouncers bartenders, and bystanders.

Stylish Cinematography from Clint Eastwood favorite Tom Stern keeps us entertained throughout, a kitchen scene where everything becomes weaponized is particularly entertaining.

So head down to the artsy part of town and be subtitle ready, you are really going to love this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI0PSJWKym4

Paramount Poobahs put the Kibosh on Puzo family prequal to The Godfather trilogy.

The Godfather—surely not? Ed

Crimezine understands there will be no horses heads delivered from Don Corleone this spring, but Paramount Pictures is taking Mario Puzo’s estate to court, in a fight to prevent publication of a prequel novel to the celebrated Godfather trilogy. OK, Crimezine knows the last film in the series was rubbish, but presumably Paramount is anxious not to compound this mistake, by sanctioning further Godfather mis-steps.

Paramount claims it bought the copyright to The Godfather in 1969 and that the estate’s plans to publish a prequel this summer infringe it. Paramount is seeking damages and an injunction against publication of the novel.

The book Family Corleone due out in July, is based on an un-filmed screenplay by Puzo, which has been tarted up for publication by the American author and playwright Ed Falco. Set in 1933, it traces Vito Corleone’s journey, as he becomes the Don of The Godfather. Announcing its publication last year, Anthony Puzo called it “true to Mario Puzo’s legacy”—the author died in 1999, aged 78—adding that it would “be cherished by all Godfather fans”.

Paramount, which made the three Godfather movies, claims it authorized only one sequel novel to The Godfather—2004’s The Godfather’s Return. The 2006 publication of a second sequel, The Godfather’s Revenge, was it claims, published without knowledge or authorization. The book received mediocre reviews and sold poorly. Paramount believes that rather than honoring the legacy of The Godfather the book tarnished it. Apparently the new legal action is an attempt to protect the integrity and reputation of The Godfather trilogy.

Paramount states that in a 1969 agreement Puzo signed away all rights to The Godfather novel except for the right to publish the original novel in book form.

Puzo wrote The Godfather when he was broke and desperate for money, once saying “I wished like hell I’d written it better”. Today, it has sold more than 21m copies.

Los Angeles lawyer Bertram Fields is quoted as saying “For Paramount to do this to Mario Puzo’s children, after the tens of millions of dollars he made for the studio is outrageous.”

Random House, which is due to publish The Family Corleone in the summer, did not comment on the legal action.