Advertisements

Tag Archive: Clint Eastwood


Buttercup, Batman, Barbossa, Buddy, Bond and more–Prop Store lines up giant entertainment memorabilia auction for September

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
September 13, 2017

For more than six years we at borg.com have been covering entertainment memorabilia auctions–sales of not merely replicas or mass-produced collectibles, but the real objects seen on film–rare or even one-of-a-kind costumes created by award-winning Hollywood costume designers, detailed props created by production crew, model vehicles created by special effects departments like Industrial Light and Magic, prosthetics created by famous makeup artists, set decoration, concept art, and much more.  Amassing a wide variety of artifacts from classic and more recent film and television history, London and Los Angeles-based Prop Store is hosting its annual auction later this month.  Known for its consignment of some of the most well-known and iconic screen-used props and costumes, Prop Store’s ultimate museum collectibles auction will be open for bidding from anyone, and items will be available at estimates for both beginning collectors and those with deeper pockets.

The Prop Store Live Auction: Treasures from Film and Television will be auctioning off approximately 600 items.  You’ll find the following movies and TV shows represented and more:  3:10 to Yuma (2007), 300, Aliens, Back to the Future films, Blade Runner, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Chronicles of Narnia films, Elysium, Enemy Mine, Excalibur, The Fifth Element, Gladiator, The Goonies, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Jason and the Argonauts, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the Indiana Jones films, Iron Man, the James Bond films, Judge Dredd (1995), the Jurassic Park films, Kick-Ass 2, Kingsman: the Secret Service, Lifeforce, Looper, The Lost Boys, The Martian, The Matrix, Men in Black III, Mission: Impossible (1996), The Mummy (1999), Patton, Pirates of the Caribbean series, Predators, the Rocky films, Saving Private Ryan, Scarface, Serenity, Shaun of the Dead, Shawshank Redemption, Sherlock Holmes (2009), Star Trek franchise, Star Wars franchise, Starship Troopers, Superman films, Terminator films, The Three Musketeers (1993), Tropic Thunder, Troy, True Grit, Underworld: Evolution, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Willow, The Wolfman (2010), World War Z, and the X-Men films.

You can flip through the auction house’s hefty 360-page catalog, or start with a look at what we selected as the best 50 of the lots–what we predict as the most sought-after by collectors and those that represent some of fandom’s favorite sci-fi and fantasy classics and modern favorites.

  • Industrial Light and Magic 17 3/4-inch Rebel Y-Wing filming model from Return of the Jedi
  • Sark (David Warner) Grid costume from the original Tron (1982)
  • Julie Newmar’s Catwoman costume and Burgess Meredith Penguin hat from the classic Batman TV series
  • Buttercup (Robin Wright) Fire Swamp red dress from The Princess Bride
  • Chekov (Walter Koenig) “nuclear wessels” costume, Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) costume, and Sulu (George Takei) double shirt from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  • Full crew set of costumes (Malcolm, Zoe, Wash, Jayne, Inara, Kaylee, River, Book, and Simon) from Serenity (sold as individual costume lots)
  • Jack Nicholson purple Joker costume, plus separate coat and hat, from Batman (1989)
  • Enterprise-D 48-inch “pyro” model from Star Trek: The Next Generation
  • Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) stunt shotgun from Unforgiven
  • Star-lord helmet from Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Thor (Chris Hemsworth) Mjolnir hammer from Thor

  • Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II jumpsuits made for Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman
  • Witch-king of Angmar crown from The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
  • Val Kilmer Batman suit and cowl from Batman Forever
  • Maverick (Tom Cruise) flight suit from Top Gun
  • Geoffrey Rush Captain Barbossa costume from the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, Curse of the Black Pearl

And there are so many more.  Like…

Continue reading →

Advertisements
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Read More & Comment

Django Unchained and the formula for a Western to win Oscar

Filed under: Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix — Leave a comment
January 26, 2013

Django Unchained - Still A

By C.J. Bunce

How does a Western get nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award in 2013? As recently as two years ago the remake of True Grit was nominated for Best Picture and nine other nominations—but did not net a single win.  But would it have been nominated if it hadn’t been directed by the quirky directing duo of Joel and Ethan Coen?  Five years earlier Brokeback Mountain, a film with a Western—or at least a cowboy– theme was also nominated for Best Picture, winning three of eight nominations.  It took director Ang Lee and a completely non-Western plot for that to happen.  Then you have to go back to Unforgiven in 1992, which actually won Best Picture and four of nine of its nominations, to find the last major, critically acclaimed Western.

What made Unforgiven win?  Certainly by supplying one of the two most popular Western actors of all time as the film’s lead helped, even if it was one of his more bland performances, with Clint Eastwood also serving as director. (Yes, John Wayne still remains the #1 most popular Western actor ever).  But more importantly, like the few notable Westerns since, it had a very non-standard plot for a Western.  With its gunfighter-turns-farmer-turns-gunfighter-one-last-time story, it was basically a dark sequel to John Wayne’s Angel and the Badman.  You could keep going—back to Dances with Wolves in 1990, an example of the “epic Western” which seemed to reward the director and acting efforts of rising star Kevin Costner more than the movie as a Western genre masterpiece.  Or back to Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid in 1969, probably the last classic era Western to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, winning five awards, including a key win for the script by William Goldman.  Then go back to the also-quirky Cat Ballou in 1965 starring Jane Fonda—the rare Western notable for featuring a female lead.

Going back even further gets you into the classic era of Westerns, and throws you into the strange era of “epic Westerns” getting recognized by the Academy.  These were movies that in hindsight are really not as well done as many smaller pictures of the period, but their huge all-star casts and expensive sets made the films hard to ignore, such as How the West Was Won, The Alamo, and Giant.  Surprisingly you have to look back to the adaptation of Louis L’Amour’s Hondo starring John Wayne in 1953 to get back to the era of the “hero Western” as recipient of an Academy nod, a film up there with Shane and High Noon as successful and admired Westerns receiving acclaim by the Academy.

Schultz and Django

But if you put aside the classic Western and look at what has been selected by the Academy since the 1960s it makes a lot of sense that Quentin Tarentino’s Django Unchained is not only a Best Picture nominee this year, but a real contender for the win.  Set in the South two years before the Civil War, the film follows a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) whose past owners lead him to meet up with German-born, dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz).  Schultz’s next target is the wanted-dead-or-alive Brittle brothers, and only Django can help him literally recognize his bounty.  Schultz serves as mentor in survival and pursuit skills for Django who is squarely focused on rescuing long-lost wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington).  The search ultimately leads to a more complicated than necessary scheme to buy Broomhilda from infamous plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), if only his loyal house slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) will not stand in the way.

So what is the formula for a successful Western in the 21st century and why should Django Unchained make the cut?

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Read More & Comment

First look–Clint Eastwood, retired from acting, returns for a baseball movie

Filed under: Movies — Leave a comment
August 26, 2012

A bit of a theme this past week here at borg.com was big-time action hero mega-stars and their choice of roles in their later years.  We first discussed Arnold Schwarzenegger and compared him to John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in light if his new film The Last Stand.  Then we compared Arnold with Sylvester Stallone in light of his new film Bullet to the Head.  Unless you’re a believer in the future of film with old movie stars as in Connie Willis’s award-winning novel Remake, we won’t be seeing any “new” John Wayne movies anytime soon.  So now we return to Clint Eastwood, in light of his September 2012 release, Trouble with the Curve.

Although the fictional Trouble with the Curve is about a famous baseball scout at the end of his career, it’s hard to say whether this will be anything like the ultimate baseball scouting movie, last year’s Moneyball.  The inclusion of Amy Adams character as Eastwood’s character’s daughter, and an apparent possible relationship between her and the baseball target played by Justin Timberlake, makes this a look a lot more romance in a baseball setting than a typical baseball flick.  That said, with baseball movies there is no typical baseball flick.

And this one seems pretty sappy, unless the trailer is totally mischaracterizing this “dad dumps daughter/daughter tries to get daddy back” plotline.  And heaping on the sap is the Phillip Phillips song “Home.”  This is bad timing for that song if you’re this writer.  I had to sit through watched the song performed live at this year’s All Star baseball game, and then we were inundated with it as one of the U.S. Olympic team’s theme songs during NBC’s coverage, over and over and over.  Now it’s that drippy song permeating through this trailer.  It’s a nice song.  But enough already.

The interesting tidbit about this movie is that Clint Eastwood retired from acting after his successful film Gran Torino.  Yet something about this one caused him to return to starring roles.  Maybe because he had never been in a baseball movie?  Hopefully we’ll be surprised and this one will compare to past baseball movies that gave a little tug to the emotions, like Field of Dreams and The Natural, and even Moneyball. 

Here is the trailer for the film:

Trouble with the Curve hits theaters September 21, 2012.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Tags: , , , , , ,
Comment

G.I. Joe, Avengers, Ferris Bueller and Star Wars top Super Bowl ads

Filed under: Con Culture, Movies, Sci-Fi Café, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
February 6, 2012

If you’re like me and you didn’t spend the day watching the Super Bowl but you still want to know what good ads you missed, never fear as we at borg.com spent the day either: (1) watching the 8th annual Animal Planet Puppy Bowl, (2) working around the house, (3) surfing the Web, and/or (4) spending the day outside, BUT we kept the DVR recording so we could zip through the game for some good genre ads.  And in no particular order here are some ads you won’t want to miss:

1.  I’ve seen billboards for weeks now advertising the return of Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace in a 3D edition, but had no idea this was just the first of the six films to be released in 3D versions and coming back to the big screen.   Personally I will probably go to Attack of the Clones and the original trilogy to “see them again for the first time” as the ads used to say (what does that mean, anyway?).  No one really wants to see pod races in 3D, do they?  Mark Hamill mentioned the possibility of a release of the original trilogy in 3D last summer.  Here’s today’s new promo:

2.  If you’re a fan of comic book movies, whether or not you’re particularly a fan of Marvel Comics characters you will no doubt get your money’s worth when we finally get to see a whole gang of superheroes in one film this May when Avengers: Assemble finally hits theaters.  Great things about this ad: more Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the Hulk as part of the team, and more Iron Man than we’ve seen in past trailers.  Check it out:

3.  It is unlikely to get me to go out and buy a Honda CRV but if you’re like me and always wondered what happened to Ferris Bueller after he had his famous day off back in the 1980s, the closest thing we’ll likely see to a sequel is right here:

4.  We previewed the new G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie earlier here and here at borg.com (it made our most eagerly awaited films of 2012 list along with Avengers: Assemble).  This is a quicker ad but it confirms what we’d heard and hoped for, that Bruce Willis would be playing the original G.I. Joe, Captain Joe Colton:

5.  Volkswagen had fun with Star Wars references again this year.  If you’ve ever lived with or seen a greyhound in person you’ll totally understand the reference to these guys looking like AT-ATs from The Empire Strikes Back (The Bark Side):

6.  Volkswagen also went to great lengths in their other Star Wars-related Super Bowl commercial (those Animal Planet Puppy Bowl fans will love the first part, too!).  Isn’t it time for a TV series taking place in that old “hive of scum and villainy”?

Honorable mention for Clint Eastwood fans:

7.  If you just miss Clint Eastwood playing Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood talking tough may just be enough for you, as he talks over this pro-Detroit ad that aired at half-time at today’s game.  Is it just me or does his line “The world’s going to hear the roar of our engines” sound like Sean Connery talking about his nuclear submarine’s silent propulsion system in The Hunt for Red October?:

BTW, for Animal Planet fans, there were several good animal ads this year so go to this link at hulu.com to check them out.

C.J. Bunce

Editor

borg.com

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Comment

DC Comics chalks up another win with All-Star Western #1

Filed under: Comics & Books — 1 Comment
October 7, 2011

Review by C.J. Bunce

I like western movies.  I like the sounds of the Old West, the cattle, the clinking of spurs as the two guys slowly meet up in the center of the old western town.  I like epic western soundtracks and I like slow guitar soundtracks, and theme songs that sometimes tell a familiar story.   I also have read a little Louis L’Amour and love his writing and descriptions.  I’ve never thought of picking up a comic book about the Old West, mainly because they don’t make ’em anymore.

I almost didn’t pick up All-Star Western #1, one of DC Comics’s New 52 line.  Mostly because it had the crazy looking Jonah Hex on the cover.  All I knew of Hex was watching a bit of the Jonah Hex movie, which for whatever reason I didn’t finish on video.  But somehow (fate?) it ended up in my pull list.  I have read a super western-ish book recently called El Diablo: The Haunted Horseman, by Jai Nitz, Ande Parks, and Phil Hester, that was just awesome (to be reviewed here later on).  Intrigued by the idea of a current western comic in the midst of the Justice League superheroes, I read it first from the stack.

From a literary standpoint there is almost an unending supply of reasons to check this one out.

Unusual Setting

One would think a western comic took place in the Old West.  This takes place in Gotham city in the 1880s, which in my mind is more Old East.  The drawings have a nice old-time feel to them.  The colors offer more than just sepia tones.  There’s a little Mike Mignola and P. Craig Russell’s Gotham by Gaslight feel here for sure.  A good thing, as I wished that book had turned into its own series.

Narration

The narrator is none other than the founder of Gotham’s own Arkham Asylum, Doctor Arkham himself.  Arkham is our narrator, and he’s a bit odd.  His character, his mannerisms, and his creepiness might remind you of Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker in Otto Preminger’s Laura.  A further creepy scene may also make you think he’s a bit of Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Familiar But Reliable Plot

To get us into this world quickly, the plot seems to be a mix of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and a Jack the Ripper tale.  Pacing is reminscent of Alan Moore’s From Hell.  There’s also a bit of the outcast element of Danny Glover’s Mal in Silverado.  There’s a medical aspect of the 19th century as well, the sleuthing of an early Detective Comics of sorts, but again, familiar because of the similar treatment in From Hell.  The art here, however, is a lot more stylish and evocative.  The only downside will be if this continues to be just another Jack the Ripper story.  Too many stories end up there.

The Archetype Western Anti-Hero

Not only does the half-mangled faced Jonah Hex play the anti-hero, he talks a bit like Clint Eastwood mixed with Sam Elliott.  Hex’s confederate uniform really brings you back to Sam Elliot’s performance as Dal Traven in Louis L’Amour’s The Shadow Riders, but there is also a little of Elliott’s Ghost Rider’s Caretaker mixed with The Golden Compass’s Lee Scoresby.  To get me to conjure any incarnation of Sam Elliott in your character is a win in my book.  But then again there’s a spin on Eastwood’s Stranger from High Plains Drifter, as you can see the whole town of Gotham closing in on Dr. Arkham and Hex after only the 24th page.  Who would have thought Jonah Hex could be so cool?

If you want something truly different, pick up this book.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comment
%d bloggers like this: