Shooting Gallery (movie post)
Shooting Gallery is a movie based in a world of pool hustlers, corruption, and hidden agendas. Set in New Orleans, it stars Freddie Prinze Jr as Jericho Hudson, a kid who is armed with a bag of cash and a desire to work his way into a gang of local pool players. Jericho shows off his hustler skills, catching the eye of pool hall owner Carl Bridgers (played by Ving Rhames) and gambling addict Jezebel Black (played by Roselyn Sanchez). He is accepted into their "tribe", quickly moving up the ranks to become Carl’s star player.
It’s not long before he meets corrupt cop Michael Mortensen (hello Callum!). Mort needs Jericho to set up a game against another pool player, Tenderloin Tony (Angus Macfadyen), at Carl’s place. But what Mort needs more is a tape in Carl’s possession - it shows the murder of his partner, and he will do anything to get hold of it. Cue lots of fighting, swearing, high-stakes pool games, and gunfire as each of the men battle it out for what they really want.
The IMDB page: Shooting Gallery (2005)
Written, Directed and Produced by Keoni Waxman (director of The Highwayman that Callum had a very brief scene in). Also produced by Michael Millen, John Anderson, and Freddie Prinze Jr.
Freddie is probably best known for his teen movie roles in She's All That, I Know What You Did Last Summer and the Scooby Doo movies, Golden Globe winner Ving Rhames could give Callum a run for his money in the ‘busy actor’ stakes with no less than 8 projects lined up for 2008 already. Roselyn Sanchez has had roles in the TV series Without A Trace, and long-running soap As The World Turns. Scottish actor Angus Macfadyen has been in various film and TV productions on both sides of the Atlantic, including working with Mel Gibson in Braveheart, and more recently in the Saw movies.
Cast / Characters:
Freddie Prinze Jr.
Ving Rhames
Roselyn Sanchez
Callum Keith Rennie
Devon Sawa
Angus Macfadyen
Daniel Newman
Jon Eyez
Robert Pralgo
Jericho Hudson
'Cue Ball' Carl Bridgers
Jezebel Black
Michael Mortensen
Paul the Pawn
Tenderloin Tony
Easy
Mad Boy (as Jon Thomas)
Jericho’s brother
Also Known As: Poolhall Prophets (USA) (Working Title)
Year: 2005
Runtime: 102 minutes
Country: USA
IMDB rating: 5.1/10 (with 469 votes)
Genre: Thriller
Keywords: IMDB lists no keywords
There are also no awards listed, as it hasn't even been nominated for anything.
14 user comments, mostly negative with regards to dialogue, and the lead actor.
One example:
"It had potential.. the story had legs.. Ving is always good.. everyone loves him in BABY BOY.. what makes this movie almost like going to the dentist for a root canal is Freddie.. he is so wooden that every time Ving light up I'm worried that he will burst into flames. Apart from the lead actor I dug the film.. which is weird cause he is in it a lot.. everyone loves movies about hustles and money and shady people... but it is hard to care when you wish they would just cap the lead cause his acting is giving you a headache. This is where Hollywood casts a person because of what they are worth not for what they can do and therefore they end up with a tame lame straight to video film instead of a bad mofo of a movie."
The rest of the comments are here.
Callum Quotient: 70% A lot of scenes and glorious close ups!
Pictures:
Trailer:
Some of Callum's scenes made it into the movie trailer. You can view it here, with various connection speeds to choose from.
Quotes:
- Mort: "Go around, fuckhead!"
- Mort: (Pulling Jericho off the street into a doorway) "Are you alright?"
Jericho: "Are you a cop, or a queer?"
Mort: "Yeah, I’m a cop… it’s my day job. Everybody has secrets." - Jericho: "I think maybe he’s working a double dump on you."
Mort: "Could you do me a favour? Could you speak fucking English?" - Mort: (after kicking open door of motel room) "Hope you don’t mind. It was open."
- Tenderloin Tony: "You’re a cop?"
Mort: "Sorry." (lifts hat) "Boo." - Jericho: "The one thing you learn when you hang out in a pool hall - you can’t trust anybody."
- Jericho: "Be calm, cop. Let’s end this right now."
Mort: "Abso-fuckin-lutely."
Trivia:
- Filming took place in New Orleans (and Vancouver according to IMDB), during December 2004.
- Callum’s character is the first to appear onscreen, smoking on a balcony. No surprise there. He also smokes roughly 13 times in this movie, which is almost a cig per scene. (I might have, um, counted)
- At various points in the film, words and phrases appear on the screen. The words are supposed to be pool hall lingo - but the director actually made up most of them.
- It went straight to video on it’s release in December 2005.
- Callum’s character has identity issues. ‘Timothy Mortensen’ was his name in a few early press reviews/releases, and even on the back of the currently available DVD jacket. However, in the credits, and on the card that he shows to Jericho in the actual movie, it clearly states ‘Det. Michael Mortensen: N.O.P.D’.
- Mort isn’t the only one to suffer this fate - IMDb lists Ving Rhames character as ‘Carl Bridges’, as on the DVD jacket, reviews, etc, but again, throughout the movie and in the credits, he is named ‘Bridgers’. (I don’t know the reason behind these gaffes. Maybe no one really cared what any of them were called after having to watch it? *g*)
Interesting scenes:
- The opening sequence.
- Mortensen in his car. Extreme. Close ups.
- Jericho going for a ride with Mort, and the phone call from Mort’s ex wife that interrupts their conversation.
- Mort grappling with Tenderloin Tony’s (naked) woman, handcuffing her, then carrying her to the bathroom.
- The pool scenes are interestingly shot. If you really like pool.
- The showdown in the Shooting Gallery
Do I want to show this to my parents / friends / co-workers?
Poll Shooting Gallery
Michael Mortensen - Good Cop or Bad Cop?
Poll Michael Mortensen
Does he die?
You really want to know? Are you sure? Really sure? Well, then. (highlight to read)
::Yes, he does. Well, he was a bad guy. *sigh* ::
Articles/interviews
ON LOCATION: MAYHEM TAKES TIME
Fake gunfire, real compromise.
On the late night set of an action movie in progress
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Chris Rose
For many folks around New Orleans, the only hints that a movie is setting up production in their neighborhood are those temporary signs that pop up overnight on trees and light posts saying: "No parking until Thursday." That doesn't generally elicit a Welcome Wagon response from the locals.
The makers of "Pool Hall Prophets," a brooding billiards shoot-'em-up starring Freddie Prinze Jr., decided that more aggressive notification measures were in order this month before they set up location in a former juke joint Uptown. So they leafleted the neighborhood around Wisner Playground -- the corner of Laurel and Lyons streets -- dropping off notes at each home explaining that they would be doing some late night shooting in the area and we sure do appreciate your cooperation, yada yada yada.
They also went the extra mile to explain the movie's premise, for those cinemaphiles in the hood: "It's about a street kid with a gift for shooting pool. He is a modern day Artful Dodger surviving in the Dickensian-like underground world of pool hustling and on the mean streets of the city . . . Some kids make it, but most don't."
Well, it certainly beats ". . . or you will be towed."
But the kicker on the movie memo was this: "Please note that this film has lots of action, with some simulated gunfire and stunts." Whoa. Action, bright lights, congestion and no parking -- no problem. But gunshots? What if some unsuspecting homeowner thinks it's the real thing and calls 911? What if someone has a heart attack? Or worse, what if some crank-addled neighborhood gang-bangers think someone has moved in on their turf?
The implications are staggering.
The movie notice contained the phone number of the location manager, so a meeting was quickly convened among concerned neighbors, the movie makers, city Councilwoman Renee Gill-Pratt, city film commissioner Stephanie Dupuy, and NOPD Capt. Marlin Defillo.
The movie scene in question involved a rooming house raid with a couple of guys getting shotgun blasted out of a glass door and over a balcony into the street. Because it's a relatively low-budget picture and because co-star Ving Rhames' availability was limited, they had to shoot this thing fast and therefore late into the night. Early in the morning actually.
They met, appropriately, in a nearby pool hall -- Grit's -- and hammered out a deal. The neighbors got some concessions from the filmmakers: Three nights of shooting (film) instead of the proposed four. Two nights of shooting (gunfire) instead of the proposed three.
"It's blanks," Dupuy reassured the still-skeptical residents. "Obviously." Nevertheless, the residents even managed to negotiate down the caliber of the weapons to be used in the shooting scene so the noise would not be so startling. And that's a textbook arrangement on how movie producers and John Q. Public can come to a meeting of the minds on how to get movies made in town without leaving residents resentful that the productions are bullying them around and doing whatever they dang well please. (See: "Runaway Jury," et. al.)
"This is beyond what we normally allow," Dupuy told the assembled. "We really appreciate your cooperation." And as the group of citizens sat in the dark pool hall, for the most part satisfied with their tax dollars at work, Defillo took a quick and urgent phone call, then clicked his cell off. In a moment when life collided with art, he announced to the assembled: "I have a murder," and he politely excused himself from the meeting, off to the scene of a real crime where the gunmen are not so mindful to matters of frequency and caliber. To say nothing of parking.
At the downtown, riverside corner of Lyons and Laurel stands a former honky-tonk of some renown. For a run in the early '90s, it was a late night, rock 'n' roll breakfast attraction called Beach Ball Benny's; hipsters gathered for eggs and guitars. Before that, it was Munster's, which served for years as the post-game hangout for thousands of guys who played softball at Wisner Playground across the street -- over the decades.
Now, it's hard to tell what the building regularly houses, but for "Pool Hall Prophets," it plays one of the few buildings that's not a pool hall. It's a rooming house, featured in the crucial opening and closing scenes of the movie.
For the scene in question, crew members stacked empty cardboard boxes underneath the Laurel Street balcony for the stuntmen to fall onto. Several glass doors were manufactured for use for the stuntmen to crash through before flying over the railing and into the street below.
At the first call of "Action!" shots rang out, a stuntman crashed through the glass. A set tech was pleased with the result, telling "Pool Hall Prophets" executive producer John Anderson: "He took the shot and his whole belly opened up! It was massive!"
That was the good news. The bad news was that, in crashing through the glass door modified to shatter into small, safe pieces, but real glass nevertheless the stuntman had sustained a pretty serious gash. He waved off medical treatment, the blood soaking through his sleeve serving as a viable substitute for stage blood. After several more takes, he rolled off to the emergency room, where he took 15 stitches to close it up. In the movies, just like any other sport, you gotta play hurt.
During the gunshot scene one night, two guys watched from the street with visible disappointment on their faces. They'd heard there was "simulated gunfire" afoot and came to take in the excitement. It was a bust. "That doesn't sound anything like a real gun," one said to the other, and they wandered off in search of liquor and girls. A handful of stragglers from the neighborhood, cocktails in hand, gathered each night to watch the action. The first thing they learned was how excruciatingly slow and labored is the making of a movie, and most usually drifted away after a time, retreating back to the comforts of Letterman, O'Reilly, ESPN and other salves of the night.
Another textbook lesson: Truthfully, Hollywood's a lot more exciting on screen than behind the scenes.
From here.
Excerpts from a lengthy interview Freddie Prinze Jr gave on the McDonnell-Douglas Show, on ESPN radio, in 2005.
D: Tell us about that movie you said with Vig--Ving Rhames
F: Oooh man. I made this, I've been trying to get this movie made forever, this pool hustling movie, and uh, me and,
D: What's it called again?
F: It's called Pool Hall Prophets. Um, we've been trying to get it made for years and, another director had heard about it and had another script written and they like, stole my director's idea and made this really bad version of it--which nobody saw, thank god; karma worked out for once. And then as we finally got it made with uh, Ving Rhames and myself, this pool hustling movie, it's great. It's so legitimate, and so what the pool hustling world is all about. So, we finished it, and we shot it in New Orleans, it takes place in New Orleans; there's great pool players down there. This former uh, trick shot champion named Spike was uh, was my coach and he makes some unbelievable shots in there too. And I made some pretty nasty shots, you guys would be impressed.
J: Yeah see, that's gonna be a fun movie. That's gonna be like Summer Catch, you get to play pool all day.
F: Bro, I shot pool 12 hours a day
J: There you go
D: Did you get pretty good at it? That's a tough game, I used to play it when I was a kid.
F: Yeah, yeah I got pretty good at it
D: Did you really
F: 'Cause you can't help it, man. And we had real hustlers in the movie and I'm playing pool with them all the time and they're just workin' it.
--- (listeners could call in to talk to Freddie) ---
Caller: Hey I have a question for Freddie, man. Hey is that movie you guys are making about the, the Pool Hall Prophets, you said?
F: Yeah
Caller: The, the one, the movie that got stolen or, from you guys, was that Pool Hall Junkies?
F: Yeeah, that’s the one, man. Well remembered
J: Oh you’re the guy that saw it
F: *laughs*
C: Hey if, if your movie’s half-way decent, like half as good as that one man, I’ll go see it, because I thought that was a pretty good flick. I hope yours is better
F: You’ll-you’ll dig it, man. It’s much, much better. They took a very early draft of our script and just sort of reworked it and then uh, and threw that on the screen and didn’t care much about the final product. They just put cool actors in it.
J: Well that’s nice, steal your script
F: It wasn’t mine, it was, it was the dire-writer/director’s
J: Well, what ever, yeah
F: But yeah. They, they tried to get one over on him, but yeah. Pool-you’ll, Jude, you’ll dig it, I promise.
Transcribed by 'Gen', from here.
N.O. NOW 'HOLLYWOOD SOUTH'
The movie business is not just having a fling in New Orleans. It's starting a full-fledged relationship with the local power elite.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
By Stewart Yerton, Business writer
On a recent evening, a small army of lighting, sound and camera crew gathered on Frenchmen Street in the Faubourg Marigny to shoot a scene for "Pool Hall Prophets," an independent film starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Ving Rhames and Roselyn Sanchez. In an ersatz pool hall hazy with faux cigarette smoke, muscular guys hovered around tables while women sauntered about showing plenty of leg and cleavage. Meanwhile, the camera followed Sanchez, the female lead, through the hall in a complicated, two-minute long shot that required the cameraman to make an acrobatic move from a crane to an indoor balcony.
As the film's director, Keoni Waxman, choreographed the shot, New Orleans plaintiffs lawyer Morris Bart stood nearby, watching the scene on a monitor linked to the camera. Bart is famous in New Orleans for his television commercials promising easy money for people hurt in car accidents. Now Bart has joined New Orleans's Hollywood movement, investing in motion pictures.
Officially, Bart is an executive producer on "Pool Hall Prophets," and he will have a cameo role as -- what else? -- a lawyer. Unofficially, Bart is a charismatic industry booster whose persuasive oratory powers are on full display when he waxes enthusiastic about show biz. "It's an exciting business," Bart said during a break. "It's not like any other. When it all comes together and everyone is doing their part . . . it's fantastic."
Unlike many of the movies made here during the recent boom, "Pool Hall Prophets" is a largely local production. Other producers and financiers include John Anderson, the founder of Lift Productions and its spin-off, Andertainment LLC; seasoned Hollywood producer and part-time New Orleans resident Susan Hoffman and her husband, Peter, president of Seven Arts Pictures Inc., a Los Angeles-based production and distribution company; and Advantage Capital Partners, which is providing a portion of the financing. Michael Arata, a lawyer and actor, is counsel for the project.
Excerpt from article, found here
Links
scriggle has excellent picspam :
Part 1 (spoiler warning)
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5 (spoiler warning)
c-regalis has picspam of Callum dressed in character from the 'Trick Shot' segment of the DVD extras.
Availability
The Region 1 DVD is widely available. You can get it from: Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.fr.
My two pennies: Shooting Gallery is a bit of a muddled affair. It starts off with a promising bang, and looks really good from a visual standpoint - the footage around New Orleans is beautiful - but it quickly turns into one long drawn out music video with dialogue that is confusing and at times cringe-worthy. There is unnecessary subplots like the Jericho/Jezebel love story, and Jezebel’s gambling which a. never gets explained properly and b. just takes attention away from Callum the rest of the story. I didn't really care about Jericho's situation at all. Pool is not the most exciting game either, and listening to Jericho waffle on about hustlers gets a bit boring. It might have been better if they opted to use a different sport altogether, like, um, golf for example? Kidding...
As for Callum, once again we find him playing a "bad guy". He doesn’t have to stretch himself much in the role of Mortensen but even so he still acts the pants off everyone else. (Not literally! perverts...) He also looks incredibly good, and I’d like to thank whoever put his outfits together because that hat was a stroke of genius. I just wish we'd got to see him play some pool - everyone else got to play!
The movie won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it does have lots of Callum-with-attitude in it which makes it worth the gamble at least once IMO.
Edit because I can't read my own handwritten notes. *grumbles*
As always, if anyone has any other links to add, please comment.