James Gandolfini

Gone far too young at 51, Gandolfini has meant a great deal to me since I discovered him as a teenage character actor. there isn't much I could say that isn't covered in his episode of Inside the Actor's Studio, embedded below.

He was in Italy on vacation in advance of a planned appearance and masterclass at the Taormina Film Festival.  He leaves behind a wife and an infant daughter. He had a pile of projects in the hopper. Deadline's Mike Fleming has written a wonderful piece about his years following and covering Gandolfini.

We've lost a great actor and a good man, based on everything said by anyone I know who worked with him in any capacity.

We've also lost one of the greatest actors to repeatedly work with (and be championed by) Tony Scott.

If you missed Not Fade Away  last year, or have never seen The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, In the Loop, or especially The Last Castle , you can't go wrong with any of them. If you only know him from The Sopranos , you may not be fully aware of the broad range of nuance and humanity found across his entire filmography. I'm most selfishly sad that I never saw him perform on stage. If there exists a bootleg of him in God of Carnage , I don't have nor know about it.  

A tremendously sad, left-field bit of tragedy hit yesterday. The acting world is a dimmer place ever since. 

Daily Grab 57: A Boy on a Bike

My Tony and Ridley Scott series begins very soon. This is from Tony Scott's debut feature, Loving Memory. It's available on all-region Blu-ray from the BFI. This edition includes early short films from both Tony and Ridley, and is the focus of the first installment in "Scott Freed".

A Bygone Breed

I introduced my wife to The Last Boy Scout last night, since she enjoyed her first look at the Lethal Weapon series so much. We blew through that two-years-delayed Blu-ray collection a few weeks ago. I grew up on action movies (both the excellent ones like Boy Scout and the direct to video diaspora). As much as I remember the best ones fondly, I find that I haven't rewatched many of my favorites in years and years. Things like that run through my head when I'm in front of the $5/$6/$7/$8 Blu-ray rack/bin/table at the store. I wish there were some sort of extras at all for this movie and others like it (commentary, featurette, whatever), but alas, the new concept of an "extra feature" is a second movie like Last Man Standing. HOnestly, if the "extra is an underappreciated Walter Hill movie I've only seen on cable...maybe that just as good, if not better.

Talking at the Movies: Domino

"Oh, shit, do I need a smoke."
-after the movie, after a friend asked the guy what he wanted to go do

"How do all those people hit all that C4 with bullets and none of it explodes?"

"Dude, it's just a fucking movie, relax. Who cares?"

"I care."
-two guys debating whether or not everyone should have died at one point

"Oh my God do I wanna do that Puerto Rican guy. Ay papi."

"Isn't he Venezuelan?"

"Nah, he's Cuban, man."
-some hispanic girls just as the credits rolled

"He shot him in the arm. Twice."

"That guy's lying."

"Oh, shit, she was naked, bro."
-our audience narrator

"Should I add Chinegro to the list, or Hispasian?"
-a friend commenting on the race/ethnicity choices in the post-show report he was filling out