Sunday


Naked News

Shannon Blake did the customary weekly Hollywood XPress round-up on the 11th


Check Other Crap for updates in real time, or close to it.



"Game of Thrones"

season six continued

s6e5, 1920x1080

Eline Powell





This week, movies from 2011:



No Strings Attached


No nudity in No Strings Attached (2011), just a lot of women in their underwear, including:

Abby Elliott



Lake Bell



Mollee Gray



Natalie Portman





Stefanie Scott



Vedette Lim



Some not identfied






Season of the Witch


Claire Foy is naked in Season of the Witch (2011) but not a lot can be seen.






Setup


Setup (2011) shows a woman I couldn’t identify in her underwear.







Something Borrowed


No nudity in Something Borrowed (2011) just three sexy women:

Ashley Williams



Ginnifer Goodwin



Kate Hudson





(Hudson in the deleted scenes)






Street Kings 2 - Motor City


Lots of unidentified topless strippers in Street Kings 2 - Motor City (2011).





"Tut"

e1 and e2 in 1080hd

Sibyella Deen film clip (collages below)

 







Mary Claire Fitzgerald in Envisage (2017) in 720p


Anne Dorval in Heal The Living (2016) in 720p

Layla Randle Conde in The Stone (2011)

Shannon Elizabeth in American Pie (1999) in 1080hd
1999? Wow! 18 years ago. Doesn't seem possible.
This won our very first "best nude scene of the year" poll!


Milla Jovovich and Rosario Dawson (and several others) in He Got Game (1998) in 1080hd

The years have been kind to these two, haven't they? Milla is over 40 and Rosario is 38, but they are both still capable of playing the sexy female lead. Milla posed naked after her last baby was born in 2015, and Rosario did a modest nude scene this year!

Milla

Rosario



A man is serving jail time for the murder of his wife when the warden summons him for some surprising news. Despite the serious nature of his crime, there could be a way for him to get out of prison early, because he may be able to provide something that the governor wants. The prisoner's son is the top prep school basketball player in the country, and the governor is both a huge basketball fan and a loyal alumnus of Big State University. The prisoner is given one week of supervised release to persuade his son to attend Big State. That simple and clear premise is the setting for a film that wanders off into some complicated psychological territory because the prisoner will not have an easy time persuading his son of anything. After all, he killed the boy's mother!

The prep star has problems of his own even before the unsolicited and unwanted appearance of his father. He faces the temptations of pro contracts and easy money, as well as all the pressures placed on him by having to choose from a seemingly infinite number of colleges that want him to attend. He also has to deal with scheming friends and relatives who see him as a meal ticket. He Got Game is rich with details about the life of a star high school athlete, and enhances the realism with cameo appearances from dozens of real figures in the worlds of professional and college sports, ranging from Shaq to several famous college coaches to ESPN's Robin Roberts.

The film does not follow any of the sports movie formulas. There is no convenient ending. There is no big game to win at the end. In fact, there is no real competition shown at all, except playground games and a climactic one-on-one between the convict and his son. Although this film takes place in the context of basketball, and was directed by Spike Lee, who is the Knicks' #1 fan and pal to many pro athletes, it's not really a film about basketball at all, but rather about what sports can mean in the lives of young men and their families, centering around the story of an estranged father and son on a rocky path toward reconciliation. For both of these extraordinary men, the dramatic conflict revolves around whether they will learn to "do the right thing."

I think Spike made some mistakes here.

  • Ray Allen, a real NBA stud and one of the greatest pure shooters in history (check out his free throw and 3-point shooting percentages), plays the young basketball superstar, and is distractingly stiff in some scenes. He probably should not have been asked to carry as much of the film's dramatic baggage.
  • The ending is inappropriately symbolic and mystical after a film which has taken place in the real world. It's sloppily sentimental as well.
  • Parts of the story are just plain lacking in credibility.

Set those criticisms aside. I don't want to dwell on the weaknesses of He Got Game because it's a good film which develops both the father's and the son's story in depth and with compassion. As a heartfelt movie about reconciliation, growing up, fathers and sons, and sports, He Got Game is kind of a contemporary urban version of Field of Dreams. The story is imbued with real passion for New York, and for basketball as a cultural touchstone. It is also crafted with love for the medium of film itself. Spike Lee demonstrates great mastery of film as an art form, and blends the elements of color, composition, and music magnificently. In most films, musical montages are gratuitous, but Spike uses them purposefully, to evoke a specific mood and to provide additional meaning that would otherwise take hundreds of words of voice-over.

Spike shares the honors with his ol' reliable stud hoss of an actor, Denzel Washington. What a team they have been! Spike has been known to stray too far from realistic dialogue, and in the hands of lesser actors that can cause a problem with the audience's customary suspension of disbelief, but Denzel is a writer's dream. No matter how bad a line of dialogue may be, Denzel can come up with some way to deliver it so that it seems authentic. If a line seems stilted or artificial, Denzel finds a way to hide it in the character, with irony or posturing or something else that seems genuine in the moment. The man has a gift.

Denzel and Spike? They got game.

Alexandra Paul in American Flyers (1985) in 720p