This spec spot puts us smack dab in a penitentiary with guards watching prisoners as they are let out of their cells for some recreation in the yard. We see inmates playing basketball, doing pushups, lifting weights, “socializing” and perhaps capering, with one guard in particular casting a suspicious eye on the proceedings.
Then an agile prisoner, who clearly has something up his figurative sleeve, makes an acrobatic leap, catapulting himself through the air to snatch the cap off the head of the vigilant guard without his knowing. Next we see this convict wearing the cap and what looks like an official guard’s uniform. The con saunters out the security gate with the sentry there assuming that the properly garbed man he sees in profile is indeed a guard.
It turns out that the prisoner gained his freedom by using a Pentel Pen to color one-half of this shirt (the half facing the sentry) a dark guard uniform blue. A Pentel pen is tucked in the shirt’s front pocket.
A parting super reads, “Free your creativity with Pentel Pens.”
TJ Hall of greatguns: usa, Santa Monica, directed, edited and co-wrote (with Ben Nott, a creative at Droga5, New York) “The Big House.” The DP was James Kniest.
Review: Director Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked”
It's the ultimate celebrity redemption tour, two decades in the making. In the annals of pop culture, few characters have undergone an image makeover quite like the Wicked Witch of the West.
Oh, she may have been vengeful and scary in "The Wizard of Oz." But something changed — like, REALLY changed — on the way from the yellow brick road to the Great White Way. Since 2003, crowds have packed nightly into "Wicked" at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre to cheer as the green-skinned, misunderstood Elphaba rises up on her broomstick to belt "Defying Gravity," that enduring girl-power anthem.
How many people have seen "Wicked"? Rudimentary math suggests more than 15 million on Broadway alone. And now we have "Wicked" the movie, director Jon M. Chu's lavish, faithful, impeccably crafted (and nearly three-hour) ode to this origin story of Elphaba and her (eventual) bestie — Glinda, the very good and very blonde. Welcome to Hollywood, ladies.
Before we get to what this movie does well (Those big numbers! Those costumes!), just a couple thornier issues to ponder. Will this "Wicked," powered by a soulful Cynthia Erivo (owner of one of the best singing voices on the planet) and a sprightly, comedic, hair-tossing Ariana Grande, turn even musical theater haters into lovers?
Tricky question. Some people just don't buy into the musical thing, and they should be allowed to live freely amongst us. But if people breaking into song delights rather than flummoxes you, if elaborate dance numbers in village squares and fantastical nightclubs and emerald-hued cities make perfect sense to you, and especially if you already love "Wicked," well then, you will likely love this film. If it feels like they made the best "Wicked" movie money could buy — well, it's... Read More