Latest news with #BobHoskins
RTÉ News
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Amongst the Wolves director Mark O'Connor picks the must-see crime films that you may not have seen
"There's been a lot of films that have had an influence on me," says director Mark O'Connor by way of understatement as he sees his latest, Amongst the Wolves, arrive in cinemas. Watch: The trailer for Amongst the Wolves. The Dubliner joins RTÉ Entertainment via Zoom to pick the crime movies that have shaped his work but that he feels have been overlooked by a new generation - or are still stuck on the to-see lists of older viewers. " Bicycle Thieves was a huge film, but that's a different genre," the Cardboard Gangsters director continues as he lists off his influences. "The French New Wave, Italian neo-realism, and British cinema of Alan Clarke, Ken Loach's films. Films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - massive influence, love that film. So believable, so realistic. And then, of course, Shane Meadows's movies in the UK like This Is England and A Room for Romeo Brass." But with time tight (and a gun to his head), O'Connor picks these films from the crime genre: City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund, 2002) "You need more than guts to be a good gangster. You need ideas." The slums of Rio de Janeiro are the setting for this quadruple-Oscar-nominated tour de force. And when you get your breath back, there's a spin-off series and film - both called City of Men. Mark O'Connor: When City of God came out, it had a big impact on me. The way it was directed, the way it was shot, the pacing. It was very fast and energetic, and I loved that. It was so real, like, so believable. I know they cast kids from the favelas for that, some of them were involved in different stuff. That film definitely had an influence on me as a filmmaker. The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie, 1980) "It's my manor!" Bob Hoskins's big-screen breakout gave the crime genre one of its most iconic characters in Harold Shand, the London mobster whose empire comes crashing down over an Easter weekend. Helen Mirren is superb as Shand's other half, Victoria, and a young Pierce Brosnan makes his big-screen debut. Forty-five years on, The Long Good Friday's ending still ranks with cinema's best. Mark O'Connor: I think it's overlooked! Bob Hoskins's performance is amazing. It's so powerful, and it's just a real old-school crime film, like, classy crime film. It feels dated but in a good way. There's a big Irish connection in it with Pierce Brosnan at the end. And it's a great shot at the end, that last shot... The camera picks up so much, I've come to realise that over the years. The smallest details really, really matter. "You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets." The film that announced Martin Scorsese to the wider world was also a portent of what was to come from Robert De Niro - burning up the screen here as loose(est) cannon John 'Johnny Boy' Civello. Harvey Keitel plays Charlie Cappa, the mob protégé torn between the demands of his boss Uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), his feelings for his epileptic girlfriend Teresa (Amy Robinson), and his bond with childhood pal Johnny Boy. Mark O'Connor: I don't think that many people have seen it. Obviously, cinephiles and film people would have seen it, but that would be a definite one [that deserves a wider audience]. It's the mafia on the street level and just so Italian. I actually think it's probably Scorsese's most authentic film. Goodfellas is incredible, but I just think with Mean Streets there's an element of truth there that's just entwined in it. You can't replicate that unless you've lived in Little Italy. An unbelievable performance from De Niro. He's so wild and just raw - and unhinged! White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949) "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" White Heat marked James Cagney's return to Warner Bros after going out on his own - and he was back with a bang! Shamefully overlooked for an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, Cagney's performance as mammy-obsessed psychotic gangster Arthur 'Cody' Jarrett has influenced countless others in the decades since. Need another reason? Well, White Heat also has two of the best scenes in cinema history. Mark O'Connor: I was a big fan of the black-and-white gangster films. I used to have loads of VHS tapes and I had all those films. But if I was to choose one, you'd have to say White Heat. It's brilliant - Cody's relationship with his mother and everything. And that ending... Imagine if that was nowadays with the proper colour and sound?! James Cagney was an amazing actor. Humphrey Bogart was an amazing actor in his own way as well. He was such a smart and intelligent actor, but Cagney was the raw kind. La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) "How you fall doesn't matter, it's how you land." The landmark French movie that saw writer-director Mathieu Kassovitz win Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival also set a new standard in urban storytelling. La Haine (Hatred) follows pals Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) over a day and night as the hand of fate guides them to an unforgettable conclusion. Mark O'Connor: It's quite well known, but then again, it's not well known! It's 30 years ago and a lot of people nowadays wouldn't know it. Again, any film person's going to know it. That had a big influence on me. It was the performances - Vincent Cassel, it was him. I just thought he was amazing in that. He was kind of like a cardboard gangster in a way. I know myself and John Connors, that was a big influence on us when we talked about Cardboard Gangsters. I think the cinematography is really good in it. It's a very structured film in terms of the framing. It's not like Mean Streets, which is just kind of wild and loose and handheld. There are some amazing shots in there - the trumpet shot where they're standing on the balcony where you track in and you zoom out. The music as well, the whole hip-hop thing, was brilliant. And then the riots as a backdrop - love that. I love when you have a backdrop to a movie, something else going on in the background. Dead Presidents (The Hughes Brothers, 1995) "Well, that's Uncle Sam for you, baby. Money to burn." After their blistering debut Menace II Society, brothers Albert and Allen Hughes aimed for the epic with their next film. It's the story of Anthony Curtis (Menace II Society star Larenz Tate) who leaves Brooklyn for a tour of duty in Vietnam and then sees all the dominoes fall when he comes home. A great supporting cast includes Keith David, Chris Tucker, N'Bushe Wright, and future Sopranos stars Michael Imperioli and Tony Sirico. Mark O'Connor: Menace II Society is a brilliant film, but Dead Presidents is amazing. That's one that people need to see and I think that's probably a better film than Menace II Society. The soundtrack is amazing; it's got this soul vibe and funky grooves from the Seventies. Menace II Society was so raw and I think it sparked a lot of the other ones (movies), but I prefer probably Dead Presidents, just for the authenticity in some way. "I like the stink of the streets. It makes me feel good." Sergio Leone's final film is also the last part of his Once Upon a Time Trilogy, after Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Duck, You Sucker! (1971). Based on the Harry Grey novel The Hoods, it charts decades of US history through the lives of David 'Noodles' Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and Maximilian 'Max' Bercovicz (James Woods) - corner boys who become kingpins. Leone's original version was 269 minutes long. A 229-minute version was shown at Cannes in 1984 with a restored 251-minute version screening at the festival in 2012. Because of rights issues, the wait for the original 269-minute version continues to this day. Whatever you do, make sure you don't watch the hacked 139-minute version that was released in the US in 1984. Mark O'Connor: It's pretty well known, but I don't think that many people think of it [compared to The Godfather ]. Once Upon a Time in America is so epic and so nostalgic as well, there's something so incredibly powerful [about that]. It's about time and it's really sad. You're seeing De Niro's character's life flash before his eyes. He looks back on when he was a kid and now it's all gone - he's a very old man. There's something about time with me as well, it's just so tragic in some way. I find it hard to look at old photographs of my kids because I just get so nostalgic and sad. Looking back at my own films? Ah, I don't care about them! As he signs out of one Zoom interview to go to another, O'Connor says of his latest, Amongst the Wolves: "We made it for 16 grand and we're getting a release all around Ireland. It's going to be opening in the cinemas in America as well. It's so amazing for the cast and crew. Our producer, Jeff O'Toole, put the 16 grand in. [I was] Pulling in massive favours, cast and crew that were just so, so giving of their time. We wrote it in six months, shot it in 15 days, post-production two months. We had it done in less than a year. Sometimes you can literally spend three years on developing a script and it gets very, very frustrating where you're trying to find finance. We just said, 'Let's go and do this!'"
CNA
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
Commentary: Why film adaptations of popular video games often fall flat
ONTARIO: Video game adaptations are having a moment. On television, shows like HBO's The Last of Us and Amazon Prime's Fallout – each based on popular game franchises – have been gigantic hits. On the big screen, 2023's The Super Mario Bros Movie broke box office records, and at the time of writing, A Minecraft Movie looks to be well on its way to generating US$1 billion in ticket sales. With these recent successes, it can be hard to remember that movie adaptations of video games have historically been notoriously bad, typically failing to win over audiences and critics alike. My first experience with adaptation disappointment came from the 1993 adaptation of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros, starring Hollywood legend Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as his brother, Luigi. The film was a flop, garnering a 35 on aggregate site Metacritic and failing to break even at the box office. Curiously, the film looked nothing like the games, opting for a gritty, noir aesthetic and swapping out the cutesy enemies with horrifying monsters. Movie studio executives can perhaps be forgiven for trying to capitalise on the popularity of video games. With billions of players worldwide and a market valuation surpassing Hollywood and the music industry combined, video games are seemingly low-hanging fruit for commercial success. So why, with a few notable exceptions notwithstanding, are video game adaptations so difficult to pull off? THE PROBLEM WITH ADAPTATIONS One key issue is that video games and movies are two very different media with different functions and different representational strengths and weaknesses. At their most basic, video games are meant to be interactive. They provide players with goals to achieve and challenges to overcome through some combination of strategy, skill and luck. Sometimes, these goals and challenges are clear and direct. When a player sees a Goomba approach in Super Mario Bros, for example, they must press a button to jump on its head and defeat it; otherwise, the player takes damage and may have to start the level again. Other times, the goals and challenges are less direct. In open-world or 'sandbox' games like Minecraft, players are given a high degree of freedom in how they interact with the game world. There are ways to 'win' in Minecraft, but the true pleasure of the game lies in giving players freedom to explore a vast world and create unique structures, villages, or even functional computers. Interacting with a game world – its goals, rules and aesthetics – is a fundamentally distinct process from watching a film or reading a novel. Minecraft's motto of 'Create. Explore. Survive' is not readily applicable in media like film and books, though these media have experimented with interactivity too. GAME WORLDS ON THE BIG SCREEN So why have adaptations like The Super Mario Bros Movie and A Minecraft Movie been successful, at least commercially? Part of the reason is that these are massive franchises with instant brand recognition. Even people who do not play video games know who Mario is, and Minecraft is among the most popular games of all time. However, as we have seen with recent unsuccessful adaptations like Warcraft and Borderlands, brand recognition alone is not sufficient. One reason why The Super Mario Bros Movie and A Minecraft Movie have done well is that they get the 'feel' of their respective worlds right. When Mario transports into the Mushroom Kingdom in the 2023 film, it looks and sounds like the Mushroom Kingdom players encounter in the games. The colours, shapes and sounds in the film closely match the colours, shapes, and sounds in the games. The Goombas look like Goombas, the power-ups look like power-ups and the film retains the whimsical nature of the games. Although the radical freedom afforded to players of Minecraft is difficult to replicate in a film, A Minecraft Movie nevertheless retains the look, sound and feel of the game. The Creepers look and behave like Creepers and the Piglins look and behave like Piglins. When Steve (played by Jack Black) first learns to build his first structures, the audience watches as he joyfully creates whatever he can imagine, gradually learning to build larger and more complex structures, just as players do in the game. Finally, it should be noted that while these films were commercial successes, they have failed to win over critics. On Metacritic, The Super Mario Bros Movie sits at 46 (though the user score is a healthy 8.2) while A Minecraft Movie has a similarly paltry 45. As the Los Angeles Times puts it in their review, 'A Minecraft Movie is a block of big dumb fun'. So no, it is unlikely the film will win an Oscar for best picture. But its ability to capture the essence of Minecraft is clearly enough for audiences, many of whom have spent countless hours exploring virtual mines, fending off zombies and creating their own fantastical worlds.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘A Thousand Blows': Stephen Graham on his physical transformation for huge new role
Stephen Graham has opened up on the dramatic physical transformation he underwent for his leading role in new drama A Thousand Blows. The acclaimed new Disney+ drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is set in Victorian London and sees Graham star as bare-knuckle fighter Sugar Goodson, whose status is threatened when newcomer Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) arrives in the capital from Jamaica. The pair's rivalry is at the front and centre, but Erin Doherty also stars Mary Carr, the queen of the Forty Elephants, a real-life all female shoplifting ring who targeted shops in the city at the time. Graham is the physical shape of his life for the role, after undergoing a strict six month training regime to portray the bruising and brooding fighter. 'I had six months ahead of the project starting so I spent that whole time getting into shape. It was a case of 5 days a meal, lots of protein, clean carbs, steak, broccoli and all that stuff,' he told Rolling Stone UK. 'I had a great trainer and a great boxing coach so we really worked hard on that. I'm not the tallest of people either so we wanted to make me look like a bit of a bulldog.' As for specific inspirations, Graham explained how he studied the fights of Mike Tyson and legendary bareknuckle fighter Lenny 'The Guvnor' McLean. 'The brutality and the strength, that explosion he brought to a fight,' said Graham of McLean. 'We tried to combine both of those techniques and then take that into the fight for me. Lenny's a very interesting one because he was a huge man and I'm not, but that's the beauty of cinema. Making you look like you're 10 times bigger than you actually are. It was just the way I hold my shoulders or the physicality.' Graham, who said he's managed to maintain the strict health regime, also explained how the celebrated physicality of hard-men actors such as the late Bob Hoskins and Ray Winstone informed his take on the character. 'Bob Hoskins is one of my all time heroes and it's the same with Ray Winstone,' he explained. 'So I watched a lot of their stuff and watched their physicality and what they bring to their roles. Because Sugar is a million miles away from me, I wear my heart on my sleeve and I'm very open, but with Sugar me and Steve had some really interesting conversations right at the very beginning and I wanted play that man of old that we don't see anymore. 'Most actors are like magpies, so I learned a lot from watching those people again and taking little bits because there's only so many notes on a piano. They're the reasons why I wanted to be an actor in the first place.' And as for the world of the show, Graham explained that the expansive set – which dropped the stars right into the heart of Victorian London. 'I'm basically a grown up Mr Benn,' Graham joked. 'I go to the shop and put my clothes on and I'm in this world. It was amazing, it was really was, but the attention to detail was incredible. It was a feat we don't normally see in this country. It's the kind of thing that you normally see in America, so to be able to walk around it and be a part of it and breathe it in was just amazing. It made our job very easy.'
