And the Oscar for best body slam goes to...

In “See No Evil,” Glen Jacobs plays Jacob Goodnight, a psychopath picking off teenagers stuck in a run down hotel. Wrestling fans know Jacobs better as Kane, the WWE “Big Red Monster,” a 7-foot tall behemoth with some anger management issues. Playing a meathook-wielding maniac may not be much of stretch for Jacobs, but wrestlers-turned-actors aren’t often asked to play against type. Still, there have been some memorable big screen turns by denizens of the ring. At the sound of the bell, our Ten Favorite Cinematic Performances by Wrestlers!

10) Hulk Hogan in “Rocky III” (1982)
The ultimate 80s wrestler has appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, but in all honesty, he never seemed to hone his instrument. Acting just ain’t the Hulkster’s strong suit. So, we’re skipping such misfires as “Santa With Muscles” (1996) and “Suburban Commando” (1991) in favor of Hogan’s appearance in the third “Rocky” film, just because the character he played was called “Thunderlips.”

9) El Santo in “Santo y Blue Demon Contra Dracula y el Hombre Lobo” (1971)
Choosing just one El Santo film from an oeuvre of over 50 is like trying to find the best lobster in the tank. One may be slightly better than the rest, but they all pretty much taste the same and they’ll all snap at you before you drop ‘em in boiling water. Our simile may be ridiculous, but so were the movies of Mexican wrestling icon El Santo (Rodolfo Guzman Huerta), pitting him against monsters, aliens, robots and other super villains over a period of three decades. For your consideration, we’ll arbitrarily select “Santo y Blue Demon Contra Dracula y el Hombre Lobo” (“Santo and the Blue Demon Versus Dracula and his friend the Wolfman”) because it’s a great title and it’s available on DVD! ¡Viva el Santo!!

8) Terry Funk and Cowboy Bob Orton in “Road House” (1989)
We’re listing both of these wrestlers’ roles in Patrick Swayze’s anti-classic, “Road House” because how can you pick one nuanced performance over the other? As the bouncer with a bad attitude, Terry Funk channels the misdirected passion of Montgomery Clift! And as... uh... another big dude who likes to fight, Cowboy Bob Orton recalls the simmering angst of a young Brando! Remember, kids, “pain don’t hurt,” even when someone’s pulling on your mullet and forcing you to listen to Jeff Healey!

7) André the Giant in “Conan the Destroyer” (1984)
We know what you’re thinking: “What about ‘The Princess Bride?’” Call us heartless, but that film is a bit too saccharine for our taste. We much prefer watching the seven foot tall André “the Giant” Roussimoff in his uncredited role as the horned monster Dagoth, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Conan the Destroyer.” (But our favorite André role is, of course, the bionic Bigfoot from TV’s “The Six Million Dollar Man.”)

6) Jerry Lawler in “Man on the Moon” (1999)
This bio-pic about Andy Kaufman (played by Jim Carrey) recreates one of the legendary comedian’s most notorious moments, an on-air battle with pro wrestler Jerry Lawler (playing himself). In the early ‘80s, Kaufman, the self-proclaimed “Inter-Gender wrestling champion of the world” would wrestle any woman, invariably beating her, hurling insults about feminine inferiority. Feeling that Kaufman was likewise mocking the sport, wrestler Jerry Lawler began a very public bashing of the comedian, baiting him into a match that ended with a series of crippling, illegal pile-drivers. Some months later, the two enemies appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, where verbal sparring turned into head slapping and coffee throwing. Only years after Kaufman’s untimely death from cancer was it revealed that the whole rivalry was a set-up, a grand bit of performance art, perhaps the greatest acting job ever by a wrestler.

5) Mike Mazurki in “Night and the City” (1950)
Actor / wrestler Mike Mazurki appeared as a tough guy in hundreds of movies and TV shows including such classics as “Some Like it Hot” (1959) and “the Big Sleep” (1946). But he tapped into some disturbing depths as a character called “the Strangler” in the film noir classic, “Night and the City.” This dark tale of a London hustler out to fix the underground wrestling world contains one of the most violent fight scenes put to film up till that time, and with his harsh, craggy exterior, Mazurki invokes little sympathy from the audience. It’s a brutal performance.

4) Tor Johnson in “Bride of the Monster” (1955)
Tor Johnson, the 300-lb Swedish wrestler-turned-horror -mask has become best known as one of Ed Wood’s stock performers. Who can forget him as Inspector Clay, struggling with his lines BEFORE becoming a zombie in “Plan 9 from Outer Space” (1959)? But we prefer his defining role as Lobo, the lumbering assistant to mad scientists in three films, the “best” being “Bride of the Monster.” Johnson bumps into flimsy sets, endures whippings by Dr. Varnoff (Lugosi) and pines for a Lois-Laney reporter (obsessively rubbing her fur hat), all dressed like a refugee from Burning Man. Pure evil genius. (In a bit of inspired casting, wrestler George “the Animal” Steele played Johnson in Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic “Ed Wood.”)

3) The Rock in “Be Cool” (2004)
Perhaps poised to be the first wrestler-turned-actor with some true marquee value, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s film roles have been mostly testosterone-laden. In movies like “The Scorpion King” (2002), “Walking Tall” (2004) and “Doom” (2005), Johnson gives his WWE fans just what they expect. But in “Be Cool,” the Rock shocked everyone with a truly hilarious performance as Elliot, a gay bodyguard with dreams of stardom. In fact, most critics pointed out Johnson as the sole bright point in the disappointing sequel to “Get Shorty,” outshining co-stars John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Vince Vaughn.

2) Lenny Montana in “The Godfather” (1972)
It’s a tiny part in a massive epic, but the awkward performance of wrestler Lenny Montana as Corleone family enforcer Luca Brasi has become one of the iconic parts of that film. Flattered to be invited to the wedding of Don Corleone’s daughter, Luca sits and practices his short speech of gratitude, slightly frightening Michael Corleone’s (Al Pacino) new girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton). When Luca meets a garroted end at the hands of the Tattaglia family, a message is sent to the Corleones that’s begets one of the classic movie lines of all time: “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.”

1) “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in “They Live” (1988)
Co-written and directed by John Carpenter, “They Live” is one of the last truly great B-Movies. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper stars as Nada, a construction worker who discovers a pair of sunglasses that allows him to see through the disguises of aliens hidden among us; Aliens who are taking over the world through subliminal messages planted everywhere. Seemingly innocuous advertising impels the mindless masses to “Submit to Authority” and “Consume”. The metaphor is as subtle as Piper’s acting, but it all works, thanks to a snappy script and some simple yet really creepy effects. One of the best film commentaries on the Reagan era.

It’s all part of the act: wrestlers are larger than life, their public personae sometimes the polar opposite of their actual personalities. With this kind of intensive method acting, wrestlers may well be perfectly suited to transition from the ring to the screen. We may not see Triple H in “Brokeback Mountain II,” but with The Rock tapped to bring “Johnny Bravo” to life, it seems as if fewer holds are being barred. So to speak.

POSTSCRIPT November 2010:
The super-swanky THEY LIVE poster pictured to the right was done by Bob Fingerman for an art show of movie posters reinterpreted that I curated. Thanks, Bob!
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ORIGINALLY POSTED in REWIND on MTV.COM, May 2006

Comic Book Movies Aren’t Just for Kids Anymore!

We’re in the midst of what’s been dubbed the Golden Age of Comic Book Movies, with talented directors like Christopher Nolan (“Memento,” “Batman Begins”), Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain,” “Hulk”) and Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects,” “X-Men,” “Superman Returns”) helming big budget versions of funnybook superheroes. But many people don’t realize that some highly acclaimed NON-genre films of the past decade or so have likewise been based on comics.... they just don’t star costumed do-gooders. In honor of “Art School Confidential” (the second film by Terry Zwigoff to adapt pages from the Fantagraphics comic book, Eightball), we thought we’d take a look at some comic book movies WITHOUT gigantic special effects, fast food tie-ins or yellow spandex.

Terry Zwigoff’s first cinematic dip into the alt-comix world was the 1994 biopic, “Crumb,” a searingly personal portrait of legendary underground cartoonist R. Crumb. In 2001, Zwigoff directed an adaptation of a work by one of Crumb’s true heirs.

Based on a serial from Dan Clowes’ Eightball, “Ghost World” tells the tale of Enid (Thora Birch), a disaffected outsider struggling to figure out life after high school. She feels a growing distance from her only friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), who slips into a mundane “normal” life of retailing and renting. On top of that, Enid fumbles with a crush on the cute boy at the convenience store and her well meaning, but clueless father is reuniting with a despised ex-girlfriend. When a mean prank twists into a complicated friendship with a middle aged, alienated record collector named Seymour (Steve Buscemi), Enid is further forced to take a hard look at the shifting but omnipresent expectations levelled upon us by society, family and friends. Peppered with genius bits of snark and irony, “Ghost World,” with its plethora of unpleasant characters and metaphorically ambiguous ending, is the perfect film for anyone (teenage or adult) who can’t relate to the cinematic worlds of John Hughes or Amy Heckerling.

2002 saw the release of “Road to Perdition,” based on a 1998 graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner. Tom Hanks stars as Michael Sullivan, a Depression-era gangster whose 12 year old son is threatened after witnessing a mob murder. Forced to choose between “family” and family, Sullivan and son flee Chicago, hitman Harlen Maguire (Jude Law) close behind. Directed by Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”), the film’s period setting, languorous pace and muted color scheme seems antithetical to what audiences usually think of “comic book movies,” which may be why many people are shocked to discover the film’s source.

2003’s “American Splendor” may not be about a superhero (although Superman, Green Lantern and Batman make a cameo in the opening), but the movie wears its comic book origins on its sleeve in a truly unique way. The story of Cleveland file clerk / misanthrope Harvey Pekar is told in a combination of dramatization (with the always great Paul Giamatti as Harvey), documentary and animated recreations of excerpts from Pekar’s autobiographical comic books. This sometimes overlapping patchwork structure would seem on paper (ha) difficult to make work, but directors Shari Springer-Berman and Robert Pulcinin’s film flows beautifully and may be the most affecting comic book adaptation ever (all due respect to “The Punisher”).

The term “comic book violence” is usually used to indicate brutality without consequence; People survive explosions, gunfights and massive beatings with barely a scratch. Conversely, those who inflict harm on others mostly do so casually and with impunity. So it’s ironic that last year’s “A History of Violence,” an intensely harrowing look at its impact and effects, is based on a 1997 graphic novel by John Wagner (co-creator of Judge Dredd) and Vince Locke.

When small town family man Nick Stall (Viggo Mortenson) is forced to kill two men attempting to rob his diner, it brings a storm of unwanted publicity. Soon, Nick and his family find themselves terrorized by some black suited gangsters from back east. It turns out “Nick” used to be “Joey Cusack,” a vicious Philadelphia mob enforcer who left town and crafted a new identity for himself decades earlier (completely unbeknownst to his subsequent family). Suddenly, Nick / Joey has to fight (figuratively and literally) to hang on to the life he’s created for himself, and it gets ugly.

Director David Cronenberg is known for unsettling imagery, from the exploding heads of “Scanners” (1981) and vomit-drop of “The Fly” (1986) to the bloody car-wreck sex of “Crash” (1996). But with “A History of Violence,” Cronenberg forces the audience to confront our morbid fascination with seeing others get hurt. The visceral, shocking results of the violent acts in the film may be the kind of thing we WANT to see in a movie... but by showing how those actions truly and deeply affect the characters involved (on both sides), they’re given far, far more weight than the body count in, for example, “The Matrix.” This often-misunderstood and underrated film is one of those rare pieces of art that’s impossible to shake off. A masterpiece.

YES, you heard us! A comic book movie! A masterpiece! Of course, we’d use the same term to describe 1978’s “Superman: the Movie” and even 2003’s “X2: X-Men United.” If the stigma that used to be ascribed to comic books IS finally fading, then perhaps we’ll see more non-genre adaptations. Cameras are currently rolling on “300,” based on the Frank Miller (“The Dark Knight Returns,” “Sin City”) graphic novel about the ancient Greek Battle of Thermopylae.

But there are lots of untapped comics that would make great movies... The seminal graphic novels of Will Eisner about Jewish life, Bob Fingerman’s “Beg the Question,” Jaime Hernandez’ “Locas” tales from “Love and Rockets” and Craig Thompson’s “Blankets” are just a few examples. To paraphrase an old line, “Comic book MOVIES.... aren’t just for kids anymore!”
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ORIGINALLY POSTED in REWIND on MTV.COM, April 2006

Just a sweet Christian gal in a ball gag

In Mary Harron’s bio-pic, Gretchen Mol plays ‘50s pin-up queen “The Notorious Bettie Page,” a sweet Christian southern gal whose photos and films have become icons of that era. Whether posing nude, as a jungle queen or even bound and gagged, Bettie Page brought an entirely new attitude to sexuality... she made it seem, well, natural.

Bettie (sometimes spelled “Betty”) Page had dreams of becoming an actress, but partially because of her pronounced and unshakable southern accent, mainstream Hollywood was not her destiny. Modeling, however, was another story. “Discovered” by an amateur photographer who was part of the “camera clubs” of the 1950s, Bettie quickly became a pin-up superstar, and what started as simple cheesecake soon evolved into more risqué shoots involving light bondage and fetish lingerie.

What made Bettie stand out from the other pin-ups of her time was that she seemed completely approachable, even sweet. Her smile was warm and inviting, even when she was holding a whip and teetering on six inch heels.

The photos led to a number of nudie and bondage films with names like “Teaserama” and “Varietease.” Bear in mind, there was never any sex in these films, and their burlesque-style dancing that was considered so scandalous fifty years ago is tame compared to the bumps and grinds that models do in bafflingly incongruous commercials for radial tires today. But the 1950s were a repressive era, and a Senate investigation into pornography, coupled with Bettie’s increasing devotion to God, led to her retirement in 1957. And that was the last anyone heard of Bettie Page... for a while.

In the 1980s, the cult of Bettie began to surface. As the rebelliousness of 50s style and music begat a retro subculture in the Reagan years, artists and hipsters rediscovered this mysterious beauty. In 1982, cartoonist Dave Stevens began a series called “The Rocketeer,” about a 1930s stunt pilot named Cliff Secord who discovers a rocket pack that he uses to battle the forces of evil. In the comic, Cliff has a girlfriend named Betty, a saucy pin-up model who bears more than a passing resemblance to Bettie Page. In fact, she looks exactly like her (despite the time period being almost two decades early).

Stevens is generally credited with bringing Bettie into the mainstream, but when the comic was adapted into a movie in 1991, “Betty” was toned down a bit, turned into “Jenny,” now a struggling Hollywood actress. At least they cast the part right. Jennifer Connelly, in addition to resembling Bettie, perfectly captured the combination of sweetness and sensuality, the girl next door, but almost too beautiful to be real.

As Bettie’s legend grew, so did questions as to her fate. Ironically, as a cottage industry of Bettie merchandise, artwork by Olivia de Berardinis and tribute sites (featuring new pin-up queens like Dita Von Teese, Bernie Dexter and Heidi Van Horne) propagated, the real Bettie had no idea. Part of the reason was she had been institutionalized following an assault on her landlady during a massive bout of depression. When she emerged in 1994, Bettie discovered that she had become more famous than ever (Uma Thurman’s black wig in “Pulp Fiction” that year was no doubt inspired by Bettie’s famous black bangs).

Rumors of a movie about Bettie’s life have been circulating Hollywood for over a decade. At various times, Liv Tyler, Charlize Theron, Rose McGowan and Hilary Swank were mentioned as being contenders to bring Bettie to life on the big screen.

In 1998, Christa Campbell played Bettie (without dialogue) in dramatized scenes for “The E! True Hollywood Story: From Pinup to Sex Queen: Betty Page,” bringing the “Dark Marilyn” further into the mainstream.

2004’s straight-to-video “Bettie Page: Dark Angel,” directed by Nico B., stars Paige Richards as the pin-up queen in a film that ostensibly chronicles the tail end of Bettie’s career. Melodramatic, stiffly-acted scenes of a frustrated Bettie quitting the biz in are only half the story; The rest of the movie is comprised of painstaking recreations of some of Bettie’s short striptease and bondage films. In some ways akin to Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake of “Psycho,” “Dark Angel” comes across as more of an sycophantic exercise than anything else.

Bettie’s greatest legacy is that she made sexuality feel natural, even when it strayed outside of the mainstream. She was comfortable with herself, even if she didn’t wholly embrace all of her subject matter. 50 year old photos of Bettie seem fresh and modern because of her ease. By embracing her own sexuality with grace and ease, Bettie Page became not only a sexual icon but a feminist one as well.

Whether or not “The Notorious Bettie Page” is a hit, it’s one more step towards Bettie taking her rightful place in the pop culture pantheon alongside James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley as the true icon of the 50s that she is.
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ORIGINALLY POSTED in REWIND on MTV.COM, April 2006