THE ONLINE AUTHORITY ON MOVIES

Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the release of Die Hard. Know how much it made in it’s opening weekend? $601,851. Of course, that was from only 21 screens in 20 cities. Can you imagine an action movie like this getting such a limited debut today? Well, nobody saw the movie coming, at least not on the level we see it at today, though Fox also hoped the slower roll-out would spark buzz. A modern day take on the western, with a lot of allusion to drive that idea home, the first Die Hard sort of originated a new subgenre of the right place, right time (and wrong place, wrong time) hero that has the action drop in his lap.

It’s a real classic, one that truly needs to be added to the National Film Registry (nominate it here), thanks to its influence on the next three decades of cinema (and beyond, since even this year we had a few more Die Hard knockoffs in Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down) as well as its own distinct craftwork (especially the team of director John McTiernan, cinematographer Jan De Bont and screenwriters Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza, along with the Oscar nominated editing by Frank J. Urioste and John F. Link and the Oscar-nominated sound and visual effects, etc…) and its perfect representation of the time in which it was made (including the reflexive significance of the building it was shot at).

It’s another movie that is so memorable and consistently thrilling and funny that it’s difficult to cut it up into isolated scenes and choose only a handful of those moments. But it’s worth the effort. We stuck to scenes that can be watched online, and that means this week is almost more a list of “lines we love from Die Hard.”

Check out our picks below and let us know your own favorites.

This is another edition of Short Starts, where we present a weekly short film(s) from the start of a filmmaker or actor’s career. 

You may not think there’s anything worth knowing about the director of Red 2, which opens this Friday. But Dean Parisot, who is best known for helming Galaxy Quest, is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker. He got his start by directing two excellent, slightly surreal shorts in the 1980s, the second of which, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, won the Oscar in 1989 for Best Live Action Short. (That was a great year for short winners, by the way, as it saw Pixar’s John Lasseter receive his first with Tin Toy and documentarian Bill Guttentag win his first with You Don’t Have to Die.) Parisot shares his honor with comedian Steven Wright, who co-wrote the witty little movie with Mike Armstrong. The acceptance speech was a highlight of the year’s ceremony, in part because it was so brief and also because of Wright’s amusing comment that “we’re really glad that we cut out the other sixty minutes.”

Wright also stars in the 30-minute film as the title character, an obsessive, paranoid and shy man who begins seeing a disinterested shrink played by Rowan Atkinson. A lot of what Dennis tells the doctor in his sessions is straight out of Wright’s stand-up, his shtick involving dry ironic wordplay and absurd philosophical questions. Atkinson’s character is also seeing Dennis’s  girlfriend, who is played by Laurie Metcalf, leading to a deadly climax. The plot isn’t important so much as are the silly flashbacks and brilliant lines, like when Dennis says he wants the psychiatrist to adopt him so that when the doc asks him about his parents he can talk to him directly. It’s a well-directed short, but Wright deserves most of the credit for the film as a whole. If you (like me) love his routines, you’ll love this; if you don’t, you won’t.

Depending on where you look, Pacific Rim is either in 2nd or 3rd place at the box office this weekend. But it should make enough money to warrant a sequel, especially with international business. And those of us who are into this new original property from Guillermo del Toro are really, really into it. There’s certainly franchise potential, what with its whole background mythology (and back story, which you can find in graphic novel form). Plus it’s going to at least gross more than del Toro’s first Hellboy film, and that spawned a part II.

There’s also the fact that Legendary Pictures began moving ahead on developing Pacific Rim 2 way back in December, hiring the first film’s screenwriter, Travis Beacham, to start penning another installment. In the months since, he and del Toro have been sharing some bare bits and pieces and possible ideas for what happens next. The details are thin but these teases about the direction part 2 would go in allow for some educated guessing and speculation as to what we’d see as far as more monster and robot battles. Below I highlight some of what’s been officially said, some of what’s been drawn from those reports and some of what we’re simply hoping for with Pacific Rim 2.

If you haven’t yet seen Pacific Rim, there are spoilers to be found ahead. So get off the computer, go see it and then come back to read further.

With tons of movie and TV appearances under his belt, chances are you’ve seen Jesse Heiman before. You may not know it, though, because he’s just an extra (in The Social Network, Spider-Man, Old School and more). However, you probably do remember him by face from the Go Daddy commercial that ran during the Super Bowl this year. Heiman was the chubby nerd who got to make out with supermodel Bar Refaeli (shocking millions of viewers, although it’s rather tame compared to his threesome as “lucky party goer” in The Rules of Attraction, if you ask me). Ever since that ad, he’s been more recognized and more confident. The latter result recently got him in trouble when he went a little too far trying to kiss married Twilight actress Nikki Reed, but otherwise this is a guy who could now be on the rise as a bit player.

And the documentary Jesse Heiman: World’s Greatest Extra will be tracking him whether his fame truly grows or not. This feature film is currently in production, following a year in the life of the guy, and the filmmakers are looking for financial help via Kickstarter. It could be an interesting look at Hollywood and a little-seen side of the industry. Sure, there’s been Ricky Gervais’s Extras series and the documentary Strictly Background, which follows a number of professional film extras, but Heiman is a different breed. He’s one of the most distinct-looking individuals doing work that’s usually supposed to be for nondescript (not noticeable) faces. Does he deserve more recognition? Should World’s Greatest Extra be the movie business equivalent of 20 Feet From Stardom? I guess we’ll find out once the doc comes out, which looks to be as far off as July 2015.

This week I could have upped the number of stories to 20. It’s been that full of big news and hot trending topics and great original content. It helped that this week FSR brought two excellent new newswriters into the fold, Samantha Wilson and Adam Bellotto (who isn’t quoted this week but surely will be found on the Recap soon enough). It also helped that we’re a week away from Comic-Con and relevant teases and revelations are already trickling out.

Plus we were excited about finally seeing Pacific Rim, suddenly excited about the idea of Sharknado and feeling good about movies again with the first looks at the Oldboy remake, the latest (scary again) sequel to Child’s Play and the Tom Hanks as Walt Disney portrayal of Saving Mr. Banks. Oh and the whole Grown Ups 2 not being too terrible thing. Wait, no, nobody feels good about (or believes) that.

We’ve also gotten some great coverage of the 2013 New York Asian Film Festival from Rob. And not to ignore television ever, we posted on Bar Rescue, joke-machine sitcoms and a newbie’s viewing of The Sopranos. With all this stuff packing the pages of FSR the past seven days, you likely missed one or two posts and are in need of catching up with the following week in review.

Start your weekend right after the jump.