Martin Scorsese, whose directorial style in the world of cinema has placed him in the absolute pantheon of some of the all-time greats past or present, celebrates his 70th birthday today!

The works of Scorsese are held in the highest regard, the running themes for the most part of his still on-going filmography have points mired in guilt and ultimate salvation through redemption, mostly by way of extreme violence or some sort of characterization which breaks down (lifts up as?) naked, exposed as shameless or triumphant, but in its uncomfortably organic foundations. Themes of alpha males in trouble, or self-abuse that manifests itself to the destruction of themselves and characters around them, usually done for the most part in an Italian-American milieu. Scorsese never makes things easy, he never makes watching his films easy, in fact quite the contrary, when one embarks on watching one of his works they have not seen before, there’s always a backburner with the reminder that a Scorsese production is going to get jarring, it’s going to get intense, it is going to be visual and with the upmost respect and passion for filmmaking as an art as well as taking care of its narratives. With a Scorsese film, with a Scorsese production, whether the end result is satisfying or not, and the entire Scorsese filmography for certain has peak high and valley low all over it, there’s still going to be an instant stamp on it, a branding that only this Italian-American pioneer has mastered in his own right.

Red Lights
Blu-ray l DVD
DIRECTOR: Rodrigo Cortes
WRITER: Rodrigo Cortes
STARRING: Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver, Elizabeth Olsen, Robert De Niro, Toby Jones
Millennium Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: October 2, 2012

As a fan of director Rodrigo Cortes‘s last film, Buried, which used some extremely crafty filmmaking techniques that allowed it to take place entirely inside of a coffin with Ryan Reynolds, I was very much intrigued by his next movie, Red Lights.

The movie is a psychological thriller in the truest sense, following Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy)—a pair of paranormal researchers who have become quite masterful in revealing the scam that is mind readers and clairvoyants and mediums and the like using “red lights,” the subtle tricks used to sell their so called abilities.

A happy 69th birthday today to one of the most revered, intense, influential, and inspiring actors of his or any generation, Robert De Niro. For over 4 decades now, the actor has been delighting fans and peers alike with an approach to his craft that’s mostly mired in a method style, a naturalistic, realistic approach to his many memorable characters.

The son of an artist and sculptor in his mom and dad, he was born in the bohemian Greenwich Village on August 17, 1943. After appearing as the Cowardly Lion in a school stage production of The Wizard of Oz at age 10, De Niro dropped out of school a few years later to follow that muse and study acting, which he did at the esteemed Stella Adler Conservatory as well as with possibly the chief mentor at that time to his generation of actors, Lee Strasberg and his Actor’s Studio.

The stars of the two greatest modern boxing movie epics could be getting in the ring for a cinematic heavyweight clash. Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro, the respective stars of the Oscar-winners Rocky and Raging Bull, are both in negotiations to star in Grudge Match for Warner Bros. This would mark the second time the two Italian-American film legends have appeared in a movie together, the first being the 1997 James Mangold-directed crime drama Cop Land (pictured above).

According to Lucas Shaw at The Wrap, Stallone and De Niro would play “two aging boxers who plan one final match against one another.”

Limitless
Netflix Streaming
DVD | Blu-Ray
Directed by Neil Burger
Screenplay written by Leslie Dixon
Based on The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn
Starring Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel, Johnny Whitworth
Rogue Pictures
Originally Released: March 18, 2011

Limitless is a science fiction wolf in a sheep’s clothing of a thriller. At first glance, its twists and turns evoke a deep thriller feel, but its basis lies in the realm of sci-fi. Bradley Cooper plays Eddie Morra, a struggling author dealing with a frustrating inability to focus on his new novel, competing with an overwhelming urge for procrastination. But a chance meeting with an old acquaintance will revolutionize everything.