August 2008

Has it really been 22 years since Ferris Bueller took his eventful day off?

Yup. And since then star Matthew Broderick has found stardom on Broadway, wedded Sarah Jessica Parker and proved he had no intention of being left behind in an ’80s time warp.

But what has Broderick done for us lately?

[click to continue...]

Getting older in Hollywood doesn’t have to mean embracing freakish plastic surgery or hiding under gauzy filters.

Some actors simply have good DNA. Others embrace their wrinkles and gray hair, something much easier said than done under the paparazi microscope.

Here’s five actors who have stood tall despite their years, both physically and in their film selections.

[click to continue...]

It’s getting easier and easier to brush off the allegations made in partisan documentaries.

Docs today say some of the craziest things. But “Stealing America: Vote by Vote” got under my skin a bit.

My review at Pajamas Media shares that ambivalence. The film does all it can to insist multiple elections were either stolen or tampered with in significant ways. Some of its tactics are far from convincing, and the film should have done more reporting on several key issues. That doesn’t distract from the number of sources featured in the film who can’t be summarily dismissed.

At the least, it describes an electronic voting process fraught with potential errors, and that’s something people on both sides of the aisle should notice.

David Duchovny, who plays a sex-addict on Showtime’s “Californication,” has checked into a rehab facility for sexual addiction.

UPDATE: Mad Minerva says the news is very Kirk Lazarus. I forgot who that was, but here’s a very funny reminder.

Traitor

Cheadle on the run

Turncoat aims to hit U.S.

Thriller fizzles out

** ** **

If you’re looking for stereotypes and injustice on screen, you’ll find it no matter how little evidence there is to back your case up.

Take “Traitor,” the new film following a devout Muslim-American (Don Cheadle) who becomes a terrorist. Cheadle’s part, while not engaging enough for my tastes, is as layered as any such role can be.

He’s smart, caring and loyal to his friends. Even Cheadle’s on-screen partner, a fellow terrorist, is depicted as equally smart and cultured. The guy plays chess, for cryin’ out loud.

The terrorists’ leader likes fine wine and dresses like a western diplomat.

That wasn’t enough for Washington Post film critic Philip Kennicott.

[click to continue...]

You can’t call yourself a movie fan if you don’t get a thrill from the green screen that announces, “The following preview has been rated …”

Just not possible.

It’s even better when the trailer that follows is a hum dinger. Saw two trailers before my screening of “Traitor” tonight that fit that criteria.

“Appaloosa,” a new western starring and directed by Ed Harris, made me wanna take horse riding lessons. Harris and Viggo Mortensen, an actor who should have lived in the golden age of westerns, star in this oater about a pair of hired guns out to clean up town.

Who cares if that plot has been recycled more often than Madonna’s crucifix stage stunt?

The trailer is simply top notch.

[click to continue...]

The new thriller “Traitor” actually actually acknowledges the terrorist threat facing not just our nation but the world.

It’s ’bout time.

That’s where the good news concerning the new Don Cheadle feature ends.

[click to continue...]

“Traitor” is the story of a special ops soldier (Don Cheadle) who spends so much time tracking terrorists he becomes one of them.

So it’s a given that funnyman Steve Martin co-wrote the story.

Maybe he scribbled it all down while shooting “The PInk Panther.” He must have had time to kill between laughs.