Movies I want to see: London Boulevard

Take a look at this and tell me: Isn't Colin Farrell playing exactly the sort of character you might have expected Michael Caine to essay in the aftermath of 1971's Get Carter? (Hat-tip to Jeffrey Wells for showcasing the trailer.) Of course, I don't know if Farrell would be able to come across as badass as Caine does in what is, for my money, the most cold-blooded murder scene in movie history. Keep in mind that Jack Carter (Caine), a veteran hit man, has been searching for the folks responsible for killing his brother, a relatively straight-laced fellow, back in their home town. When he finally catches up with someone from the old neighborhood who had an indirect role in the slaying... Well, as Carter says: "You knew what I'd do, didn't you, Albert?"

Blast from the past: Michael Caine talks about Little Voice

Let me just come right out and say it: Michael Caine is, hands down, my favorite film actor. And I am such an unabashed, unashamed fan -- hell, I actually paid first-run admission prices to see The Swarm and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure -- I'm afraid whenever I interview him that I'm going to come across as some kind of moronically gushy goofus. Fortunately, as you can see in this 1998 interview, Caine is such a gracious and easygoing fellow that he always puts me at ease -- and, better still, gives me great quotes. The tape begins midway through our brief discussion of Get Carter -- which, despite its current status as a classic, was dumped into U.S. release by MGM in 1971 -- and continues as we discuss his fearless performance as a spectacularly sleazy talent agent in Little Voice.

Caine kicks ass (again)

Michael Caine once told me he viewed the hardboiled badass he played in Get Carter as "the ghost of Michael Caine" -- that is, the sort of gangster he very well could have grown up to be, given his hardscrabble childhood in a rough neighborhood of London. Judging from this report about his next movie -- which, sight unseen, sounds a bit like it might be his Gran Torino -- it looks like Caine is haunting the mean streets of his youth again.