Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Urban Crime Movies and Classic Gangster Movies

After watching King of New York and Menace II Society I knew I wanted to make urban crime movies. In my mind that meant showing a darker side of life where corrupt and cynical characters existed in more populated areas. I wanted to pay homage to director's like Abel Ferrara and The Hughes Brothers. Then I watched State of Grace directed by Phil Joanou and saw how diverse the urban crime genre was. I was fired up to join the action. I hoped urban crime movie fans to mention Sid Kali, The Hughes Brothers, Abel Ferrara, and Hype Williams in the same conversation. Hasn't happened yet, but hey it's not over either.

It was a long journey under the Slice of Americana Films banner started in 2005 to 2006 when I could finally make my first movie Consignment a Sid Kali film released by Maverick Entertainment Group. I was motivated to make this solid smaller budget urban crime movie. The cast was a United Nations of actors and crew. My Co-Producer from the East Coast and I was a West Coast native. Then I heard by using urban to describe Consignment that it would be labeled a race-specific movie. That sounded crazy to me. We were making a gritty urban crime movie aimed at any viewer that liked gangster movies. I personally would label Howard Hawks original Scarface and the Brian De Palma Scarface both as urban.

To me urban crime movies are a new wave of classic gangster movies showing the dark and seedy side of life to viewers. Gangster movies have been showing the dark and seedy side of life to viewers for years. The stories have tough characters hardened by a life of crime. Violence and murder are the most commonly used tools to gain respect, power, and money. Gangster movies show a rainbow of criminal activity like drug dealing, robbery, extortion, murder for hire, racketeering, and human trafficking. Name an illicit business and it's probably been shown in a gangster movie. The darker side of life has always captivated some movie viewers. It might be because everyone has a choice to be a John Q. Citizen or a Public Enemy outside of the law.

Lighting up the big screen in the 30's was The Public Enemy starring James Cagney as Tom Powers and directed by William Wellman. This about a young gangsters rise in the criminal underworld during the murderous prohibition era. Aside from the fact it is a hard boiled story and social commentary it has some larger than life characters like a gangster's gangster Tom Powers and street hoodlum Putty Nose. A point of controversy for it's era was character Tom Powers smashing a grapefruit in his girlfriend's face. Also coming out in that era was Little Caesar (1931) starring all time bag guy actor Edward G. Robinson as snarling psychopath Rico and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Little Caesar is story of ambitious gangster Rico's rapid rise and fall in the criminal underworld. The cool thing is the focus of the movie is on the character flaws of Rico aka Little Caesar instead of the action going on around him. This movie has been called the mother of modern gangster movies.

Menace II Society (1993) starring Tyrin Turner as Caine and Larenz Tate as larger than life O-Dog was directed by The Hughes Brothers. This gangster movie brought viewers into the rough and tumble streets of the inner city. This intense urban crime drama is about the struggles Caine deals with leaving in a housing project and selling drugs. Everything about the story had heart.

Belly (1998) starring DMX as Buns and NAS as Sincere was directed by Hype Williams. This urban gangster movie was a take on director Brian De Palma's Scarface. It was an urban epic that stretched from the mean streets of New York to the slums of Jamaica. Hype Williams did a great job with the look and direction of Belly. It had some awesome shoot outs and action. It was a large scale movie that rivals some of the biggest Hollywood crime movies in style. The story is about the gangster lifestyle of drug dealing, armed robbery, and illicit money Buns and Sincere are deep into. Buns gets into some trouble that leads him into a life changing moment with the Nation of Islam. Sincere gets tired of the crime and is drawn to his African roots.

There's a whole new wave of filmmakers making urban crime movies. Filmmaker Robert Arevalo did a hell of a job on Mexican Bloodbath. An urban crime movie shot in Mexico. Filmmaker Mike O'Dea is going to deliver Code of Silence better known as Townies - an authentic Irish mob movie. It's going to be shot in Somerville, Massachusetts or in that area. Mexico or Massachusetts both movies are urban to me.

Slice Of Americana Films

In With Thieves
Slice Of Americana Films was formed in 2005 by Sid Kali to produce quality urban movies.



DVD Rental Service - Simple and Convenient

Watching movies is perhaps the most common mode of entertainment in the present day world. Or in other words it can also be said that it is the most popular medium of providing entertainment to everybody. But, today people are trapped in the rat race of doing something or the other for their living. As a result, they are unable to take out any time for some recreation. Even then there are people who are regular theater-goers, and do not want to miss out on the new releases. But there are also a lot of other people who love to watch movies but are simply unable to squeeze out sufficient time from their hectic schedules. Catering to such people, the DVD rental service is indeed a great welcome. This gives them the space to watch their favorite movies as and when they wish to. They are spared of the pain of standing in the long queues in the movie theaters.

Today, with the fast progressing technology, people are now open to a lot of options. Instead of going all the way to the local DVD rental shops, they can now simply place their order in the several online DVD rental services and wait for a little to be able to watch their favorite movies. They are either charged monthly even annually and they are free to borrow as many number of DVDs they want to. Besides, the absence of a late fee is like an icing on the cake. People can keep the DVDs as long as they want. Thus, renting DVDs through online is a very viable and flexible option today.

Apart from DVDs of movies, other kinds of DVDs like that of games, music or even any television series are also available. People can both visit their local DVD rental shops and look out for the ones that they are looking for or place their orders online. In the case games, renting the DVDs of games is a profitable option on the part of the consumer as buying them can really be highly expensive. However, by renting DVDs, people can not only enjoy playing their favorite games but also keep them for long and complete playing them as per their wish and convenience.

Thus, the whole idea of DVD rental service is very useful and convenient. Its popularity is ever increasing. The phenomenal response that it has got by now is indicative of an even more successful future ahead.

DVD rental Canada - DVDLink.ca offers more than 10,000 DVD titles, new release movies, TV shows on DVD, Blu-Ray and games rental online with no late fees.


Get the Ultimate Enthusiasm of Movies With Latest Action Movies

When it comes to the perfect source of entertainment which possesses the capability to capture the majority of attention of an individual then of course the name of movies will come on the front list. A movie is nothing but depiction of a particular story or several stories within a particular time. These are categorised into different genre, including comedy, thriller, action, science fiction (sci-fi) and so on. Here we will discuss about different aspects of the action movies.

One will find the perfect combination of thrill and amusements in such categories of film. Such come with different kinds of action sequels, including marshal art, kung fu, karate, wrestling and so on. These are produced by using advanced technology to show the real thrill of movies. There are plenty of digital tricks and techniques involved into such, most of which are done through computer. Apart from that, there are also complex action techniques involved into such films. For such reasons, the budget of these films are usually stay much higher than other films. Some of the popular films under this category of all the times are Mission Impossible II, X-Man, Matrix and so on.

Along with superb cinematography and mind blowing editing, another remarkable feature which is usually found in most of the popular action movies is the refreshingly vibrant sound effect. It has been noticed that in most of the action movies, the sound effects used are truly awesome which enhance the enthusiasm of viewing the film.

Among all the factors of the action movies, the most noticeable factor is the special effects used in these. To give a real feeling of the action scenes, the directors of these films use technically highly advanced effects. Now, with the advancement of both computer hardware and software technology, these are now made through the computer.

Under the sun-genre of action films, there are three categories fall which include Die Hard Scenario, Heroic bloodshed and Girls with guns. Some of the popular directors of such films are Rideley Scott, The Wachowski Brothers, Hard Boiled and John Woo. Among the action heroes, some of the world-wide famous names include Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Actually the era of such films had started in the early 80's with the introduction of these starts. Within a very short time, they have successfully created a cage in the hearts of millions of people all over the world. Then the movie lovers had seen both romance and action acting of Tom Cruise. His large box office hit Misson Impossible series have won millions of hearts and made him an action hero. The discussion about such films will remain incomplete without talking about the female starts. Among all, the most notifying actress of this genre of film is Angellina Jolie, who has offered several action movies to the film lovers.

So, from the above discussion one thing is quite clear that the action movies are all about the films whose stories are told by action, rather than dialogue. If you are a such film lover and want to spend your weekend with your family then you can go for some of the latest action movies of this era include, John Rammbo, X-Men, Ghost Rider and so on.

Alden Jerry is an author of Xpert4u a Price comparison site that provides the relevant information on various Games, electronics and mobile phones products. Latest Action Movies and Latest Movies.