CNN picks upon my recent lament that we see too few comic pairings these days. Forget about Hope & Crosby … we’re lucky to get two films starring Ferrell and Reilly. And lets face it Ferrell and Reilly hardly sounds as sweet as either Abbott & Costello or Cheech & Chong.
The CNN article suggests we’re too cynical to swallow these kinds of pairings. Not buying that argument. Audiences gulp down every half-hearted sequel and reboot, so why would a re-pairing give us pause? I suspect ego and the modern budgetary considerations are mostly to blame. Abbott & Costello cranked out a bunch of films on the cheap, but today even a simple comedy costs millions to make. And that’s before the stars’ salaries kick in.
We may have to wait a long time for the next Laurel & Hardy to emerge.
Television movies from my youth fell into two categories. You had the classics (”Roots,” “The Day After”) and then you had everything else (”You Name the Fatal Illness” flicks and cheesy melodramas).
“The Executioner’s Song” clearly fell into the former slot. Just re-watched the film courtesy of a new director’s cut DVD release (Aug. 5).
Tommy Lee Jones stars as Gary Gilmore, a charismatic killer whose death sentence brought capital punishment back into the headlines in the 1970s. Rosanna Arquette, who I spoke with this week for an upcoming feature, plays his love interest.
it’s a terrific film that hasn’t aged a whit. Jones is flat-out brilliant, and it’s no shock he earned an Emmy for his portrayal. Arquette is nearly as good as the oh, so forgiving girl who couldn’t stop loving a killer.
“Song” doesn’t take hard sides on the death penalty debate. It shows Gilmore’s flickering humanity as well as the full extent of his depraved acts.
Michael Sheen proved so memorable as Tony Blair in “The Queen” you wouldn’t blink if he appeared on the BBC to give a speech in character.
Turns out it wasn’t the first time the actor stepped inside the former Prime Minister’s shoes. In “The Deal,” Sheen plays a younger, hungrier Blair in the years before the Labor Party regained power. The film originally aired on British television four-plus years ago, but the production values and acting scream big screen.
The big draw here, however, isn’t just Sheen’s uncanny performance. David Morrissey, who I first saw scrapping with Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct 2,” creates a memorably precise version of current Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It’s the tougher role to play, but Morrissey more than nails it.
I review “The Deal,” out today on DVD, over at Donne Tempo.
(Photo: Michael Sheen and David Morrissey play dueling British politicians in “The Deal,” now out on DVD)
It’s only a matter of time before any superhero who ever graced a comic book will have a movie to call his or her own.
Just not Captain America. Please.
If memory serves, Captain America was killed off a little while back in the comics. Superheroes tend not to stay dead long, though, witness Superman’s return from beyond the grave. But I can’t imagine what the current minds in Hollywood would do to the star spangled hero.
Oh, wait … here’s one screenwriter (”Watchmen” scribe David Hayter) who can. Be afraid. (hat tip: Dirty Harry). [click to continue...]
The indie smash “Napoleon Dynamite” left me with cultural whiplash. What the heck is everybody laughing at?
Still, it launched the one-note career of star Jon Heder and proved a difficult mojo to Xerox (”Eagle vs. Shark” sure did try, though).
Now, a new film by a young writer/director/star is trying to capture that “ND” spirit. It’s got the title right, that’s for sure.
“HottieBoombaLottie” which recently screened at the LA Film Festival, follows a quirky young lad with a Wolverine style ‘do. Already, it’s got our attention. Here’s The Hollywood Reporter’s take on the film. [click to continue...]
Entertainment Weekly is the one entertainment pub I can’t live without. Its comprehensive look at Hollywood and beyond is essential reading, even on the rare occasion it cranks out a clunker issue.
And it routinely prints blistering stories that few other outlets can match, like a recent feature on Mike Myers’ mercurial mindset in the runup to “The Love Guru.”
It’s also one of the few entertainment outlets that doesn’t rub its liberalism in your face. Oh, it’s in there - the great film critic Owen Gleiberman is an unabashed liberal and it shows - but it’s not the kind of ideological nonsense that other mags spew out.
But … [click to continue...]
Even the best Tim Burton films have their fair share of imperfections. Did Kim Basinger really have to scream roughly 1,000 times during 1989’s “Batman?” And couldn’t Johnny Depp’s performance in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” not remind us so vividly of the dethroned King of Pop?
Finding the flaws in Burton’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” takes a much sharper eye.
The musical, now available on DVD, lets Burton luxuriate in all his cinematic flourishes without sacrificing the source material’s bleak tone. Depp, Burton’s most reliable muse, is a revelation as the titular barber. We knew he could act, but even Depp himself didn’t know he could sing with such conviction. [click to continue...]
Impossible to watch “Eagle vs. Shark” without thinking about “Napoleon Dynamite.” “ND” introduced us to some inspired characters, but it felt like the filmmakers concocted these misfits just so we could laugh at, not with, them.
“Eagle” takes that bizarre brand of moviemaking to the Nth degree. Lily (Loren Horsley) has a big crush on uber-nerd Jarrod (Jemaine Clement), but their relationship is derailed by Jarrod’s quest for revenge against his high school bully. It’s all about as forced as the smile on an Oscar nominee’s face when someone else’s name gets called. Horsely would be lovely if only she stopped tugging her face to the side, but she gives Lily an inner strength without which the whole movie would crumble. [click to continue...]
Film humor can come from some pretty strange places. The great “Raising Arizona” finds humor in stealing a toddler from a family who has “more than they can handle.”
Sometimes even Dane Cook makes us laugh.
So it’s refreshing to see director Tamara Jenkins’ “The Savages” wring humor out of the darkness between two siblings and their dying pappy. [click to continue...]
Director Rati Oneli grew up in Russia at a time when Western movies were verboten and his family discouraged any thoughts of becoming an artist. So he became one anyway.
His short film “Theo” is an official selection at the Ace Film Festival in New York. “Theo’s” festival debut will be at 8 p.m.. Sept. 5. WWTW talked with Oneli recently about his film roots … and his future.
WWTW: Tell me a little bit about your background. Was filmmaking always a goal? Any important lessons you learned along the way?
I was born in a small country called Georgia, which was part of the Soviet Union then. My parents were more intellectually than artistically inclined. My mom is a doctor and my dad has a PhD in chemistry so their vision of my future consisted of a clear and defined profession that could lead to a successful career. I had a different inclination – I wanted to write, but I was always discouraged from it. I know they wished me well, but it sort of distorted my understanding of my own inner world. Now I know you can’t teach a left-handed person to write with a right hand, which actually was a policy in the Soviet Union – everyone had to be right handed and everyone had to be the same.
WWTW: Talk about your short film “Theo.” What drove you to this project? Did it evolve during the shoot? What do you hope viewers will walk away with after seeing it. [click to continue...]
