Happy Birthday Leonard Nimoy

I absolutely adore this guy. If memory serves me right I believe I first saw him in Columbo and then later in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
It's his 80s birthday today, congratulation Leonard.

Lived long: Check
Prospered: Check

I will hereby celebrate by listing my favourite Leonard Nimoy characters.

Kovack from Baffeled

A cheesy lovable guy in a cheesy lovable film with a storyline of supernatural quality which makes no sense.
Actually the film Baffled was a pilot for a series that was never made. It was like the X-files of the seventies, just with the main characters being sweet instead of distant (sorry Mulder and Scully but, well).

As mentioned the story of Baffled was hard to follow but it had other qualities like pretty locations, some simple but clever editing, a creative "psychic vision" scene and the main couples (Nimoy & Susan Hampshire) joyful behaviour. They like addressing each other by saying their full names, which sounds a bit poetic at times.

Oh yes and I like this poster.

Dr. Barry Mayfield from Columbo

One cold opportunist that schemes a murder so clever that I wish he would have gotten away with it. Ooops, no this wasn't a spoiler, Columbo is a detective show where you learn who the murderer is before the investigation. I'm glad Nimoy got a murderer part in it, maybe it's not flattering but he was perfect. Mayfield also belongs to the exclusive club of villains that made the always so kind Lt. Columbo loose his temper.
I also like the name Mayfield, it's the first and only time I've heard that name.

Miller from Catlow

Talking about cold, this guy, Miller, takes the prize. A bounty hunter who seems to solely exist for the cause of making the life of our hero and anti-hero more difficult. Miller's goal is to hunt down Catlow (Yul Brynner), a funny wisecracking cattle thief.

Miller comes off as somebody who doesn't give a shit of whoever might be around him, he only sees his target. He doesn't give a shit about the beautiful woman who tries to seduce him, he doesn't give shit about the sheriff who needs his help (Miller just makes matters worse), he doesn't even give a shit that he has to battle Catlow naked, he's like a Western version of T-1000 (Wait an minute, Yul Brynner anyone?).
So to all of you who expect Nimoy to only do emotionless cold characters Miller is the ultimate.

Dr. David Kibner from Invasion of the Bodysnatchers

 Aliens are taking over people's life while the original person withers to dust. They are hard to detect, so who to trust?

I dare say this is a great character because he has made fans of the film scratch their heads for decades now. Did we ever see the human being David Kibner or was he something else from the very beginning? 
His behaviour and uttering confuse throughout the film. He's a good trusted friend of the main protagonist Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland). He is introduced before he enters the screen by Matthew talking about how Kibner is a understanding and brilliant psychologist. Through Matthew the viewer get the idea of Kibner as a patient listener, so when he finally shows up something seems chillingly wrong.

I have to hand it both to the actors and the writers, they convey paranoia perfectly. The lines that the characters are saying combined with their behavior keeps the viewers on edge, never sure who to trust. This is especially empathized through Nimoy's David Kibner. 

William Bell from Fringe

We follow the Fringe team lead by FBI's Olivia Dunam, a troubled character with a strange past. She teams up with Peter Bishop, a guy with an even stranger past, Peter's father the brilliant but mentally compromised scientist Walter Bishop and his assistant.
It's John Noble as Walter Bishop that made this show worth watching for me. Crazy scientists are nothing new but John Nobel's performance is funny and sensitive. Walter is easy to care about.
With Walter the story of William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) surface, a story of a long and complicated friendship.

As with Kibner, William Bell is not shown when introduced to the show and, boy, this character must have one of the longest introduction since Mrs. Columbo.
It takes a season of the Fringe team talking about him before he actually shows up. After that long I felt like interviewing the character. My first question would be: Why are you blaming everything on poor lovely Walter?
A bit blunt I know but I couldn't help but feeling that Bell got away way too easily, he always came off as justified and he made wonderful Walter feel very bad. (Sigh, Walter my heart is bleeding for you.)
Having said that I have to be fair and mention that Bell did care greatly for Walter and in later episodes, well I won't spoil, so lets say he made sure Walter will get all the help he needs.

Paris from Mission:Impossible

According to the man himself he was first fascinated by the idea of playing an Impossible Force agent. With the character Paris there was the possibility to be different characters in every episode. Paris was like every Mission:Impossible agent, darn efficient and a 100% loyal to his team (except when being brainwashed). He was one of these agents that was a trouble magnet but it's not a surprise since he had to socialize a lot with bad guys. Being a magician was his everyday occupation, an expert of disguise while being in the team.
Sadly Nimoy got bored of the character realizing that Paris was more an idea than a full fleshed personality. Still Paris was an important member of the team, quick thinker, he seemed to have some humour but didn't show any joy over their foes grim demises. There were some episodes where Paris got to show some of his personality but mostly he played the part of others.
Like with most of the Impossible Force agents Paris was easy to like.     

Mr. Spock from Star Trek

In the future a Federation starship will be on a five years mission exploring new worlds and civilizations. Lead by an hot captain who looses his shirt all the time and a stern first officer who has left his home-planet Vulcan to join the Federation fleet, adventures were set every week.

Oooooohhh, this is so obvious that it's obscene. Couldn't I've come up with something more original? The answer is NO.
There's no coming past this, Mr. Spock is not a Science Fiction icon for nothing.
For one this character survived cranky Paramount executives which believed his devilish appearance would put the viewers off. Oh how wrong they were. Mr. Spock went from a supposedly minor background character to a favourite in no time. The male viewers wanted to be him and the female viewers wanted to...well...you know.

Pointy eared, freaky eyebrows and seemingly emotionless Spock gave the insight from someone who observed humans with an alien eye. Even though he was half human on his mother side, he considered himself a Vulcan but realized soon that his mixed origin was a battle of it's own.

Another reason for this character to be on top of this list is how carefully and beautiful done his development of personality went. Spock could seem cold and stubborn but he was also artistic and most important philosophical. Through the years Spock's view on life changed without loosing his values but incorporated them into new observations and learning. The change was wonderful and may I say logical.
He became well rounded and even though his appearance is a bit unusual, after all this years he is like a real person.

Happy Birthday Leonard Nimoy.

Happy Brithday William Shatner!!!!

Famous for his striking style of acting, mystical hair (Read about it here) and speaking like Every. Word. Is. Its. Own. Sentence. William Shatner is one of the most entertaining actor I've seen on screen.

Except from Star Trek I haven't watched much else of Mr. Shatner's work. Here's my favourites.

 INCUBUS.

A film that I found hard to forget is "Incubus" from 1966. What a strange film. It's shot in black and white and the language throughout the film is Esperanto which gives it a European artsy Bergman feel to it.

STAR TREK.

Colourful and one of the most long-lived and famous science fiction shows to grace television. Half of the fun watching this is because of William Shatner, he's ridiculous and hot at the same time, how is that possible?

BOSTON LEGAL.

DENNY CRANE!!! Do I need to add more? This law-show is a lot of fun but isn't afraid to raise controversial questions. It's entertaining and provocative with one of the provoking elements being William Shatner's Denny Crane.

So congratulation with your 80s birthday William Shatner.  

Work in progress.

I'm trying to find the inspiration and will to do art-work again. I used to be very eager when I was younger but struggle to keep the interest.
I have a decent start here, works as a background. I think I'm going to leave the clean lines and shading. I need to add something, so that have to be my next step, I'm not sure what yet.

I'm not a spiritual person so I'm going to avoid making this into a "walk towards the light" image.

Another image I'm working on. This is inspired by a story I'm writing. I guess it's obvious I'm into Science Fiction. Sometimes when the writing goes stale it helps to draw an image that shows the idea of the story. This doesn't make much sense to other viewers I know but it helps arranging my thoughts.

This image takes forever. It might look easy but adding all those shaded blocks is tiring work. This is also inspired from the story I'm writing.



Here is another image that I started this week. When I start drawing I mostly have no idea what the finished result will look like. I'm looking forward to see how it will end. Those two heads started out in a desert landscape. I thought that was too much of an cliché, so I changed the surroundings. It's bland right now, the room needs furniture, details and shading. 

I've been watching that mathematician guy. Part 1.

By coincidence I got a peek of the latest Law & Order: Criminal Intent opening and recognized Jeff Goldblum as one of the detectives.
I had no idea the guy had ever been in a series so I took a look at his IMDB page. I then realized that I hadn't really watched many of his films at all. He kind of always stuck me as an eccentric supporting actor. To me he's best known as the mathematician guy Ian Malcom from Jurassic Park. 
So with that in mind it's time for me to take a deep dive into Jeff Goldblum's work, learn about his acting abilities and find my favourite characters, films and the answer to the question: "can he really act?"

First some general Goldblum knowledge:
He's known for his unusual speech pattern, pauses in funny places, stutters now and then, often puts "uhms" and "aaaahhs" in his sentences. He's known to play nerdy scientists but that is a small part of the types he has portrayed. He has, may I say, a beautifully  expressive face, almost to the extent of cartoony. This together with erratic behaviour, nervous rants, piano playing, hand waving and a soft voice is all known as.... 

And if you think he has attained this acting style by many years of increasing eccentricity......

....Wwwwwhat?! How dare you! My acting has always been this refined.

  

First I'll have a look at the characters.

"Aaaahh.... I'm too stoned to decipher that."

Bob in Dallas 362

I can't even try to imagine how tired and bored Scott Caan must have been when he came up with this character's name. It's so unsuitable, Goldblum doesn't look like a Bob, there's nothing Bob about him.

Why this guy?
Apart from the distraction of his name, Bob appears to be a very pleasant character. His situation is a bit awkward since he's the therapist for the troubled lead but also the lover of his client's mother. Funny thing is, everybody are okay with that.
Judging by his home his economy is good and he's well mannered, so he's like a safe haven. 

You know, when I entered your place I became instantly dizzy for some reason.

I felt like adding this snapshot.

Even though he's happily stoned and laid-back he's aware of his challenging situation in keeping confidentiality. He has only one little outburst and even then he comes off as nice. Bob is overall just a sweetie-pie with a very stable personality. He's like plush and the other characters are lucky to have him around. 

Very lucky indeed :)

The film Dallas 362 is okay. There's some neat stylistic choices in some scenes but the story itself about troubled friendship didn't really draw me in. 

"I've NEVER expected metal ships."   

 Jack Bellicec in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

A group of San Francisco resident friends discover that the world is in the process of being taken over by aliens. Every person in the city is duplicated by a new born alien copy, the original withers and crumbles to dust.

  
Why this guy?

His rant at a book party illustrates perfectly why I find this character a blast. 

Watch out, this one is bitter:

He is so bitter that tears flow from his eyes. 

It's awkward and childlike which make me 

wonder about his upbringing. 

I guess his dream wasn't to work at a mud-bath.

"Carl, go take a walk in the rain."

Agent Fulbright in Fay Grim.

Quite a humourless CIA agent, Fulbright, is on a constant hunt after a mysterious guy named Henry Fool. Latter wrote some books that functions as plot devices in a story about espionage. 

The film insists that there's something fishy about Fulbright, it comes down to the truth about the books and the fact that he was in Afghanistan at the same time as Henry. 

"Fay Grim" is a sequel to "Henry Fool" which was a different type of movie.

Well, what do I care what you think of me.

Why this guy?

Goldblum is acting serious and intense in a farce that plays out like a thriller but shows to be nothing but a farce. The plot is so messy to follow that I wonder if it was ever meant to be understood at all. 

Frankly I doubt that Goldblum had any idea of what half of the character's lines meant, but he is completely convincing as someone with knowledge and determination. He doesn't flinch away for a second from the deadpan act.  

He's all business, he's blatantly rude to his partner, he doesn't seem to like anybody, he get's easily annoyed and acts like he's under a lot of stress. 

At the end of the film I couldn't help feeling sad for him. He wasn't given any redeeming qualities but still I can't see that he deserved what was getting to him. It was like the writer didn't give him a chance.  

Did this man have a life at all?

Uptight and lonely.

"My way is simpler. I was just gonna shoot you once in the forehead and then go home. "

Mickey Holliday in Mad Dog Time.

Brass balls you say. Prove it!

Suave and swaggering, acting like he's at the top of the game. He knows he's in trouble because Vic's getting out of the loony bin, Mick has been entertaining the girlfriend of Vic and the whole mobster community can't wait for Mickey Holliday's demise.
Everyone seem to want him dead, one foe nuttier than the first one. Mickey has to constantly prove himself in duels and intrigues. They all have a hope that Vic will make sure Mickey will end up in an early grave but just to be sure they keep challenging him. Bullets flies and blood flow.
When it comes to Vic Mickey has an ace up his sleeve, only he knows where Vic's pregnant girlfriend Grace is.     

This room is very popular.

Why this guy?
This is one of the most controlled Goldblum performances I've seen and that's in a over-the-top parody of gangster movies. He could easily have done a classic nervous Goldblum in this film but clearly it's not what the director wanted. Mickey is the most normal character in a gallery of stereotypes. He does his best to keep an stern face but you can see underneath he's dead out scared. Goldblum acts carefully on a fine line opposite extremely caricatured characters.

Freshly out of the loony bin, yay.

It has gotten some beating from critics (yeah I'm looking at you Ebert) but from my point of view it's an entertaining film. Even though most of the characters are absurd it's not impossible to not care about some of them. The surroundings are few but rich. I love the Art Deco styled club and the mahogany furniture.

I dedicate this silver gun to Gabriel Byrne for the most ridiculous performance ever.

"I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake."

Seth Brundle in The Fly.

David Cronenberg is known for his gory but elegant studies of the flesh (hey this sounds disgusting already). This is what the film is, disgusting but I love Cronenberg's nasty imagination. In his hands the gore turns poetic and interesting. The Fly has the themes that is well know material for Cronenberg fans, metamorphosis, horror that emerge from within, mutation, disintegration of the body and recreation. The film is a remake but it belongs to the rare collection of good remakes.

Seth Brundle has achieved what others have dreamt about, he has constructed teleportation devices. All they need is some tweaking to work properly..... uh oh.

Animal abuse, part of Seth's job.

Why this guy?

Seth Brundle has one sympathetic character trait, he's a brilliant scientist. Unfortunately for him his jealousy and impatience devours his ability to think rationally. One drunken hazed trip in the transporter together with a uninvited fly brings the result of..... something that wanna make me puke.   

Granted Seth goes through a slow metamorphosis after the insect fusions with him, so he's not hideous in the very beginning. It doesn't take long though before it's obvious his body has started to rot giving nutriment for what's developing underneath his skin. 

His reaction and feelings fluctuates from anger, persistence, fright, sadness to acceptance and excitement. "It wants to... turn me into something else. That's not too terrible is it? Most people would give anything to be turned into something else." 

It's sad, that is the film's intention. Between the gore it plays out as a tragedy as Seth's girlfriend has to witness his disintegration without being able to help him.       

Goldblum must have been a great sport for doing this, he doesn't only make Quasimodo look hot in comparison, but it must have been tiring sitting in the make-up chair for ages. Both physical and acting wise is he a catch for this part. He works perfectly in the role as a eager scientist who turns sexually aggressive and he's surprisingly insect like already early on.    

 

More to come....