edited by Jonathan Doyle

Mafioso (The Criterion Collection, 3.18.2008) Nino Badalamenti is a supervisor in a car manufacturing plant who hasn't taken a vacation in over two years. On his way out the door to visit his beloved childhood hometown of Sicily -- with his blonde wife and daughters -- Nino is handed a package by his boss and asked to deliver it to a powerful and influential Sicilian gangster named Don Vincenzo. Once in Sicily, Nino has a hoot seeing friends and family, but his wife has trouble fitting in and is unfairly dismissed as a snob by Nino's family. Even more worrisome, Nino finds himself entangled in an intricate web of secret mafioso dealings and is eventually sent on an unexpectedly... elaborate errand. (continued)

Upcoming

July 2

Hancock

July 3

The Whackness

July 4

Diminished Capacity

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Holding Trevor

Kabluey

We are Together

July 9

Full Battle Rattle

July 11

A Man Named Pearl

August

Eight Miles High

Garden Party

Harold

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Meet Dave

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

The Stone Angel

July 18

A Very British Gangster

Before I Forget

The Dark Knight

The Doorman

Felon

Lou Reed's Berlin

Transsiberian

July 22

Two Tickets to Paradise

July 23

Boy A

Chicago building blown up

email this story
read comments (21)
post a comment

A four-story building was blown up and incinerated in Chicago today -- at around 2 pm, or about six hours ago -- for a scene in Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight, the latest Batman movie that's been shooting in and around Chicago for the last few months. The demolition/ implosion/explosion happened at the old Brach's Candy Factory in western Chicago. The building, vacant for several years, was dressed to look like "Gotham General Hospital," blah, blah.

There is nothing in the world more boring that big explosions in action movies, but the live video footage taken today -- here's one angle, here's another -- is actually fairly cool. [Thanks for HE contributor and HollywoodChicago.com columnist Adam Fendelman for passing this along.]

"Cruising" 27 Years Later<< previous | next >>Kill the L.A. Times

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 29, 2007 at 05:58 PM

comment #1

Aladdin Sane says ...

This movie is going to be crazy.

And I'm not sure that's a good thing anymore. Multiple Batmans? Hospitals blowing up? Batman hanging by a noose? What's happening to poor Gotham?

The more I see, the more I'm unsure. Still that teaser keeps me wanting more, and all it had was voiceovers...

Still must have faith in Nolan. I hope for the best. Hopefully those involved aren't unfairly hyping it up because they're involved. After Begins, they do have a lot of grace in my books.

Posted by Aladdin Sane at August 29, 2007 06:37 PM

comment #2

Mr. Muckle says ...

I agree with you about explosions, Jeff. But once I worked as an editor (in the cleanup phase) at a former DOE plant that used to manufacture plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. Lots of film fans there (to get their minds off reality, I suppose). I mentioned during a discussion that I found explosions in film very boring. The guy said, "Oh, I find them fascinating." And I thought, oh duh, he's a bomb designer.

I dunno. Somebody must find them interesting, because they keep making them. Maybe they're cheap or something.

Posted by Mr. Muckle at August 29, 2007 06:50 PM

comment #3

Geoff says ...

Building demolitions are generally very cool to look at. Koyaanisqatsi anyone?

Posted by Geoff at August 29, 2007 06:59 PM

comment #4

Mr B says ...

I'd pretty much be happy if there were no comic book movies for a few years, and I am a comic book fan! But I think Batman Begins was far and above the best of the lot, so I trust Nolan, and hopefully he keeps it right.

Posted by Mr B at August 29, 2007 07:35 PM

comment #5

hollywoodtease says ...

Are you kidding? No explosions in a comic book movie? This may turn out to be the best comic franchise of them all.

Posted by hollywoodtease at August 29, 2007 08:49 PM

comment #6

Larry says ...

Blowing up stuff real good can be fun.

The explosion of the Death Star is one of the most satisfying moments in Star Wars.

Then there's the great digital damage at the end of Fight Club.

I bet you liked the explosion at the beginning of Children Of Men.

In any case, it's all about how it serves the plot. The problem with explosions is when they're done in place of the story.

(The cliche I've gotten tired of already is someone walking down the street and not looking back while there's an explosion behind him.)

Posted by Larry at August 29, 2007 10:52 PM

comment #7

T. Holly says ...

One movie shoots in Chicago, a guy blogs about it and suddenly he's a HE contributor.

Posted by T. Holly at August 29, 2007 11:17 PM

comment #8

BurmaShave says ...

T.Holly, either get with the fucking program or shut your fucking mouth. Kindly glance over to The Silver Spotlight on your right. Dunce.

Posted by BurmaShave at August 29, 2007 11:24 PM

comment #9

DavidF says ...

What's cool - and it's typical of all of Nolan's Batman work so far - is that they blew up an actual building when CGI would have been oh so much easier.

It's little things like that that are grounding Nolan's films in reality.

(And I don't know that BATMAN was being hung. Looked more like an effigy of Batman, but we'll see.)

Posted by DavidF at August 30, 2007 06:18 AM

comment #10

giantman says ...

I dunno, I find men passing their hands over wheat in a field, carpool scenes in traffic, soulful montages, reflective pier ponderings and other movie crap infinitely more boring than a good, plot-driven explosion.

But that's just me.

Posted by giantman at August 30, 2007 06:58 AM

comment #11

T. Holly says ...

I read more than Adam's Wikipedia entry over 12 hours ago. I wouldn't change a thing about my comment.

I prefer car wrecks to explosions. Sometimes I wish movies would depict wrecks instead of chases.

Posted by T. Holly at August 30, 2007 07:21 AM

comment #12

Spacesheik says ...

Didn't they blow up a real building in DEMOLITION MAN and LETHAL WEAPON III as well - that didn't seem to do much for those flicks.

Posted by Spacesheik at August 30, 2007 08:12 AM

comment #13

Bocephus says ...

But they did in T2, and it was awesome.

Posted by Bocephus at August 30, 2007 08:17 AM

comment #14

actionman says ...

Love the imploding while exloding look that Nolan is using here...can't wait for The Dark Knight.

some great, REAL movie explosions are:

the terrorist bombing of the hotel in Spy Game

ANY of the explosions, especially the opening one on the ferry, in Deja Vu

The mansion exploding at the end of Bad Boys 2

Cyberdine in T2

Gene Hackman's warehouse in Enemy of the State.

Come to think of it, Tony Scott really blows shit up better than anyone.

Posted by actionman at August 30, 2007 10:10 AM

comment #15

mizerock says ...

CGI explosions are boring. Do it in real life, or just go ahead and have it happen off-camera. As if explosions are essential to the plot.

And with all the money you save on hiring CGI techs, you can hire a good scriptwriter instead.

Posted by mizerock at August 30, 2007 10:18 AM

comment #16

christian says ...

it blowed up real good!

Posted by christian at August 30, 2007 10:27 AM

comment #17

iamjoe says ...

To T. Holly- There have actually been quite a few film productions in Chicago over the last few years, but The Dark Knight has been the biggest production here ever.

And its going to be great. I've been an extra in three scenes now, and I can say with extreme confidence (and without violating my confidentiality agreement!) that this film is going to be great. Nolan's track record is amazing, and his commitment to shooting on location will only add to the films quality. After watching Oldman, Eckhart, Gyllenhal, Ledger and AMH perform firsthand, and the great Wally Pfister shoot it, I can say its going to be great. The quality is there.

Posted by iamjoe at August 30, 2007 11:03 AM

comment #18

Rich S. says ...

Remember back in the day in low budget films where they'd have a plane fly behind a hill and then show a big fireball to simulate the crash? Somehow, I always preferred that to movies (like Temple of Doom) where they had a model plane crash into a model mountain.

Posted by Rich S. at August 30, 2007 11:27 AM

comment #19

Ju-osh says ...

"Come to think of it, Tony Scott really blows shit up better than anyone."

This, coupled with the fact that he uses smoke effects while lighting every scene, makes me wonder whether or not the man isn't a bit of a pyro.

Posted by Ju-osh at August 30, 2007 12:06 PM

comment #20

d.j. says ...

Yeah, action movie explosions got boring for a while. And the usually are boring nowadays due to being able to do "anything" with CG, but the real thing, like others have mentioned, has become exciting again. Can't wait for this movie.

Posted by d.j. at August 30, 2007 12:07 PM

comment #21