I have to admit that when you spend 2 weeks being in the midst of directors, actors and industry people, you kind of forget that there is a world outside of it all. But every now and then something so surreal happens that you have to just take a step back and enjoy the fact that you're in film festival land.

May I present some oddities that I've experienced in the past few days:

 

- Bumping into actor / director Gael Garcia Bernal ("Y Tu Mama Tambien", "The Motorcycle Diaries") en route to the bathroom of the Metropolitan Hotel and saying "hi" to him like I knew him (well, I know him... but only through his films, so therefore I was a total loser for forgetting our non-existant relationship).

Funnily enough, when I sat down for my meal, I saw that he kept on looking over to figure out if we did indeed know each other.  

- Watching Michael Cera ("Superbad") completely surrounded by a group of teenage girls who gave him their best flirt forward after the Juno press conference. Funnily enough, he looked totally horrified by the attention.

- Director Gus Van Sant sitting two rows in front of me watching the musical Across The Universe by himself. Fans would go up to him and say how much they loved his work, but he too looked weirded out by the attention.

Finally, I leave you with a little blind item:

Which major independant studio boss/player, notorious for being a hard edged negotiator/bully, was overheard sitting on the toilet shouting into the phone saying, "Steve, f**k you for talking to me like that"?

I was the only one in the bathroom when I heard it and thought he was saying it to me! Needless to say, I ran out pretty quickly!

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Founded by the esteemed Filipinio film director, Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz, Cinemanila held in (where else?) Manila, boasts one of the most interesting film programs every year.  Dedicated to creating connections, nurturing young Filipino talent and introducing dynamic, notable films from Asia and beyond, Cinemanila, now in it's 9th year, brought a very special guest to the Philippines to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Like most kids growing up, I wondered if my generation would ever be the ones who made the big decisions in life.  Everything was decided by grown ups.  With bad taste.  You always heard golden era hits from the 1950s on the radio, Happy Days was still considered a landmark in television, and basically nothing good was ever created before 1970.   Unless you loved disco.  Then that was the one good thing to come out of the 70s.

Now it seems that we're finally in charge.  It's true that geeks are the current ringleaders with pushing out endless adaptations of childhood heroes like THE DARK KNIGHT, SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL,WOLVERINE, THE SPIRIT, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Every pimply-faced comic book reading teenager back in the 1980s appears to be developing multi-hundred-million dollar films nowadays.

Thankfully, some of the old-school action actors/producers are also crawling back into the game.  How many of you were initially suspicious that a 52-year old Bruce Willis could strap on a shoulder holster and yippie-kai-yay his way through another DIE HARD movie?  It's almost universal opinion that  Willis kicked ass in DIE HARD 4.0, and if he could get his old bones up again a sequel would be guaranteed money.  (Rumor has it that Willis has it in his contract to work only works 4 hrs a day, so a sequel is pretty doubtful).  DH4 was a welcome return to some old-school 1980s style action.  So who's next?  Schwarzenegger -- otherwise known as the Governator -- is too busy running the state of California to partake in the revival.

That leaves only the third leg of the holy trinity of 1980s action stars, Sylvester Stallone.   He was hanging onto credibility with his TV series, "The Contender" until the surprisingly compelling ROCKY BALBOA was released this year and made people think Stallone might still have some life in him.  Striking while the iron is hot, he's now strapping on the headband, grabbing his bow and arrow (sans explosive tips, it appears) and holstering his handy gut-spilling knife.  Ladies and gentlemen, John Rambo is back.  And oh yes, there will be blood.  Oops, sorry, that's for another franchise.

Who's war is it this time?  Judging from the international sales teaser, Johnny R is living near the Burmese border when a humanitarian group asks for help to cross into Burma.  The military/junta/next-in-line-to-be-killed-by-Rambo are terrorizing the local populace in horrific ways, and these peace-loving do-gooders are going to stop them.  With no guns.  Hello?

Well, even if they did come strapped, it wouldn't seem to matter.  Next thing you know, Rambo is once again dragged back to fight someone else's war.  But you don't really care about that, do you?  You want to see the killing.  Well, here you go.  [If you're at all sensitive to violence or the least bit squeemish, check out Stevie's reports from the Toronto International Film Festival--one of the biggest film festivals in the world (probably behind only Cannes and tied with Venice or Berlin) and easily the most fun, warm and hospitable.]

International sales teaser (watch this if you're interested in the story):


Not-so-well-edited montage of action scenes (watch this if you're interested in non-stop, completely insane action):

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The remake of the classic 1957 western 3:10 to Yuma starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, rode straight into last weekend's #1 spot with a higher than expected $14.1 million box office take.

Many predicted a smaller opening only because westerns haven't proven to be box office draws in the past few years (you can expect to see more cowboy flicks to be green lit in the coming months with this films success!).

If horsebacking wasn't your cup of sandy tea, then the murderous Halloween might have been another choice. Taking in $10 million, the John Carpenter remake (see a theme here with all the remakes?) continues to hack away with it's successful run.

Rounding out the top 5 include Superbad with $7.5 million (they broke $100 million yo!), the dead on contact Shoot Em Up with $5.7 million and The Bourne Ultimatum with $5.6 million.  

This weekend we'll get the vigilantism of Jodie Foster in The Brave One and the uber violent flick Eastern Promises, reteaming Viggo Mortensen with director David Cronenberg after the success of The History Of Violence.

Come back next Monday to find out who will be #1!

 

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