Tag Archives: sam rockwell

RIVER FLICKS FOR GROWN-UPS: COWBOYS & ALIENS

Indiana Jones / Han Solo goes toe-to-toe with James Bond in COWBOYS & ALIENS

COWBOYS & ALIENS (Jon Favreau, 2011)
Hudson River Park, Pier 63 at 23rd St.
Thursday, August 8, dusk
www.cowboysandaliensmovie.com
www.riverflicks.com

Liberally adapted from Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel, Cowboys & Aliens is a summer popcorn slice-and-dice mash-up of just about every Western and sci-fi flick you’ve ever seen. Boasting the producing talents of Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau (who also directed), and others, the film pays tribute to its match-made-in-heaven dueling genres with references to such classic tales as The Searchers, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Unforgiven, Aliens, Blazing Saddles, War of the Worlds, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Stagecoach, Star Trek, The Magnificent Seven, Avatar, High Plains Drifter, Blade Runner, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Predator, True Grit, The Poseidon Adventure, and many more. Heck, they even throw in some zombies for good measure. In the dry, hot desert shortly after the Civil War, a stranger (Daniel Craig) with amnesia arrives in the small town of Absolution, sporting a six-shooter and a weird bracelet manacled to his left arm. Soon identified as wanted outlaw Jake Lonergan, he gets himself into trouble with Percy (Paul Dano), the bully son of wealthy cattle baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). But before Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) can turn over Jake and Percy to the federal marshals, a massive attack comes down from the sky as flying machines start blowing everything up and stealing many of the town’s residents, including María (Ana de la Reguera), wife of the weak-willed Doc (Sam Rockwell), and Percy. So sworn enemies are forced to band together, along with the mysterious Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), to figure out just how they can get their loved ones back. Sure, the meandering plot gets unhinged time and time again — it’s never a good sign when half a dozen writers are attached to the story and screenplay — and the film lacks any James Bond–like, Han Solo/Indiana Jones–esque catchphrases, but Favreau (Elf, Iron Man) manages to hold it all together just enough to make Cowboys & Aliens a fun, out-of-this-world oater, even if it should have been better. Cowboys & Aliens is screening August 8 at Hudson River Park’s Pier 63 as part of the free River Flicks for Grown-Ups series, which continues with Crazy, Stupid Love on August 15 before concluding with Horrible Bosses on August 22. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings in New York City, go here.

COWBOYS & ALIENS

Indiana Jones / Han Solo goes toe-to-toe with James Bond in COWBOYS & ALIENS

COWBOYS & ALIENS (Jon Favreau, 2011)
Opens Friday, July 29
www.cowboysandaliensmovie.com

Liberally adapted from Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel, Cowboys & Aliens is a summer popcorn slice-and-dice mash-up of just about every Western and sci-fi flick you’ve ever seen. Boasting the producing talents of Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau (who also directed), and others, the film pays tribute to its match-made-in-heaven dueling genres with references to such classic tales as The Searchers, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Unforgiven, Aliens, Blazing Saddles, War of the Worlds, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Stagecoach, Star Trek, The Magnificent Seven, Avatar, High Plains Drifter, Blade Runner, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Predator, True Grit, The Poseidon Adventure, and many more. Heck, they even throw in some zombies for good measure. In the dry, hot desert shortly after the Civil War, a stranger (Daniel Craig) with amnesia arrives in the small town of Absolution, sporting a six-shooter and a weird bracelet manacled to his left arm. Soon identified as wanted outlaw Jake Lonergan, he gets himself into trouble with Percy (Paul Dano), the bully son of wealthy cattle baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). But before Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) can turn over Jake and Percy to the federal marshals, a massive attack comes down from the sky as flying machines start blowing everything up and stealing many of the town’s residents, including María (Ana de la Reguera), wife of the weak-willed Doc (Sam Rockwell), and Percy. So sworn enemies are forced to band together, along with the mysterious Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), to figure out just how they can get their loved ones back. Sure, the meandering plot gets unhinged time and time again — it’s never a good sign when half a dozen writers are attached to the story and screenplay — and the film lacks any James Bond–like, Han Solo/Indiana Jones–esque catchphrases, but Favreau (Elf, Iron Man) manages to hold it all together just enough to make Cowboys & Aliens a fun, out-of-this-world oater, even if it should have been better.

ON STAGE WITH A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE

Sam Rockwell will discuss A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE with costars Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan at 92YTribeca

Sam Rockwell will discuss A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE with costars Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan at 92YTribeca

FEATURING SAM ROCKWELL, ANTHONY MACKIE, AND ZOE KAZAN
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Sunday, April 25, $15, 6:30
212-415-5500
www.92y.org
www.behandinginspokane.com

Martin McDonagh’s new play, A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE, a wry black comedy about a crazy man’s search for his missing hand, features the stirring all-star cast of Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Anthony Mackie, and Zoe Kazan. The show is running at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater through June 6, with tickets ranging from $61.50 to $201.50, so it’s a lot cheaper ($15) to see Rockwell, Mackie, and Kazan up close and personal at 92YTribeca on April 25, when they’ll be discussing the controversial play. In the ninety-minute production, Mackie and Kazan appear as drug-dealing lovers looking to make a quick score, while Rockwell steals the show as a curious, very odd hotel night manager. The three will go behind the scenes of the play, moderated by the New York Observer’s Jesse Oxfeld.

A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE

Carmichael (Christopher Walken) has been searching for his hand for forty-seven years in Martin McDonagh play

Carmichael (Christopher Walken) has been searching for his hand for forty-seven years in new Martin McDonagh play

Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
236 West 45th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Through June 6 (March 25 performance reviewed)
Tickets: $61.50-$201.50
www.behandinginspokane.com

For forty-seven years, a craggy, cranky man named Carmichael (Christopher Walken) has been searching for the hand that was severed from his body when he was a teenager. His obsessive hunt has led him to a fleabag hotel and Troy (Anthony Mackie) and Marilyn (Zoe Kazan), two low-level drug dealers who claim they have the missing appendage. As the three of them attempt to reach some kind of an arrangement, the hotel receptionist, Mervyn (Sam Rockwell), inserts himself into the situation after hearing a gunshot, needing to share his very strange ideas about life with these three, potentially dangerous, strangers. Written by Martin McDonagh (THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE, THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE), A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE is a wry black comedy about a different kind of love and loss.

The four-character cast is outstanding, led by Walken’s sly, brooding racist who has lost all his morals in his endless, insane quest to get back what was taken from him; Walken is particularly funny during several phone conversations he has with his mother. Mackie (THE HURT LOCKER) and Kazan (THE EXPLODING GIRL) are solid as a none-too-smart couple who are in way over the heads, but the play is anchored by Rockwell, who gives a complex, nuanced performance as the hotel employee who had wanted so much more out of what has become his miserable little life; he’s especially effective during a long monologue addressed directly at the audience, in front of the ragged curtain, that, in other hands, could have been gimmicky and disastrous. A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE might fall a notch or two below his previous work, which also includes THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN and THE PILLOWMAN, but McDonagh still manages to pull off a cool ninety-minute tale that deserves more than the sound of one hand clapping.