The Screengrab : predator

Stan Winston, 1946--2008

Phil Nugent — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Stan Winston, one of Hollywood's reigning special makeup and visual effects virtuosos and, as anyone who ever saw him on TV or crossed paths with him at a convention can testify, one of the most likable fellows in his field, died Sunday at his Malibu home at age 62, ending a long struggle with multiple myeloma. Born in 1946, Winston graduated from the University of Virginia, where he studied sculpture and painting, before heading to California in 1968 with ambitions to make it as an actor. Instead, he landed at Disney as a makeup apprentice. In 1972, he founded Stan Winston Studio, the first of a string of companies that would eventually include Stan Winston Digital and Digital Domain (co-founded with Scott Ross). He proceeded to immediately attract attention for his work in television, including his memorable work on the TV movies Gargoyles, where he encased Bernie Casey in Satanic makeup, and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, where he aged Cicely Tyson a hundred years. (He won Emmys for both programs.) In the mid-1970s he began developing special makeup and effects for movies, gradually working his way up from such films as Mansion of the Doomed and the blaxsploitation non-classic Dr. Black and Mr. White to John Carpenter's The Thing (where he stepped in to assist an overworked and exhausted Rob Bottin), Aliens, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park, all of which won him Academy Awards. Other notable credits included Predator, Batman Returns, Congo, A. I., Edward Scissorhands, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Galaxy Quest,, and most recently Iron Man. He also directed the 1988 horror picture Pumpkinhead and the Michael Jackson music video slash psychodrama Ghosts.

Video of the Day: Requiem

John Constantine — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:33:00 GMT

If you went to the movies or watched television this past summer, chances are you’ve heard a Guyz Nite song. These comedy-rockers managed a little bit of non-Youtube notoriety thanks to their John McClane tribute song “Die Hard” being part of promotions for Live Free or Die Hard. This video comes from Guyz Nite’s metal incarnation, Holy Light of Demon. It is the funniest, and most accurate, song you will hear about aliens and predators today. Probably tomorrow too.

The Top Ten Action Heroes Who Deserve A Comeback, Part 2

Peter Smith — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:00:00 GMT

5. Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Predator

When it comes to sheer coolness, few action movies can top John McTiernan's Predator. The uncomplicated tale of a Special Forces unit being stalked by an alien trophy hunter has little time to waste on anything that doesn't involve an explosion. Though the Predators themselves have returned to the screen several times (most recently in this year's Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem), Dutch Schaefer has yet to be granted a rematch with the beasts. The role of the wisecracking soldier who transforms into an instinct-driven animal is one of the roles that put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map. The sooner his political career ends, the sooner Arnold can get back to doing what he does best — punching extraterrestrials in the face.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoRHcyf3lv0

4. Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), Escape from New York

John Carpenter's Escape From New York is set in a bleak near-future in which Manhattan is a prison colony. The film is a bare-bones affair with little budget for flashy set-pieces, which may be why the film's fans feel so much affection for megacool antihero Snake Plissken. In 1980, Kurt Russell was best known for Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, and his portrayal of the grim Plissken changed the trajectory of his entire career. The 1995 remaquel Escape From LA is oft-mocked, but it's both more showy and more fun. Its conclusion follows the nihilism of the bad-guy action hero to its furthest extreme: Plissken single-handedly destroys civilization and plunges the world back to the Stone Age. It's a great setup for further adventures in an even wilder setting, and with Russell riding a wave of newfound respect after Grindhouse, the time is ripe for Plissken to return.

3. William Bonney/Billy the Kid (Emilio Estevez), Young Guns

Jack Torrance and Hannibal Lecter are certainly great screen maniacs, but for my money, one of the greatest psychopaths in film history is Emilio Estevez's Billy the Kid. In this flashy revisionist western, Billy turns a gang of would-be heroes into a group of coldblooded killers. He takes obvious glee in bloodshed, often toying with his victims before pulling the trigger. His stated reason for killing his first victim: "He was hackin' on me." The framing sequence of Young Guns 2 reveals that Billy survived well into the twentieth century, so there's plenty of room for continuing adventures.

2. Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal), Under Siege

For a brief period in the early '90s, Steven Seagal was the king of the action flick. In 1992, following a string of generically-titled bloodbaths, he made the best film of his career: Under Siege. Much of the film's charm comes from its over-the-top villains, portrayed by Gary Busey and Tommy Lee Jones, whose scheme to hijack a soon-to-be-decommissioned battleship comes straight from the Bond villain playbook. But the film's real strength is Steven Seagal's ebullient performance as Casey Ryback, a demoted Navy SEAL serving out his term as a cook — "a lowly, lowly cook." Ryback is calm about the hijacked ship; he only gets really angry when Busey insults his cooking. Seagal's films never stopped being fun, but he's never had another character anywhere near as entertaining as Ryback.

1. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), Dirty Harry

With Dirty Harry, Don Siegel created the standard by which action films would be judged for decades to come. The film's story of a copy whose hunt for a serial killer is hampered by red tape and the Bill of Rights led to four sequels and a legion of imitators. Subsequent action heroes owe a lot to Harry, from Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal's gruff whispers to Axel Foley and Popeye Doyle's refusal to play by the rules. In the years since The Dead Pool, the fifth and final Dirty Harry film, Clint Eastwood has gained a reputation for both sophistication and simplicity, both as an actor and a director. A return to the character of Callahan would almost certainly become a meditation of the nature of violence and the lingering ghosts of past carnage. But it would also be fucking awesome. There are rumors that Eastwood has retired from acting, but for the sake of action films past, present, and future, Dirty Harry deserves a swansong.

Read PART 1.

Aliens vs. Predator 2: Scenes from a Mall

Peter Smith — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:00:00 GMT

Aliens. Predator. Sporting goods department. It's nice to see that, instead of trying to honor once-respected franchises with abysmal scripts and PG-13-friendly violence, AVP 2 directors the Strause Brothers are aiming for "brazenly ridiculous". All this clip is missing is Genghis Khan riding a skateboard. — John Constantine