Tag Archives: movies

March 11, 2011 · 5:23 pm

Sarah Palin: “Grit My Teeth” Over HBO Film – Washington DC RNC | Examiner.com

This should be fun…

I just don’t know if someone as smart as Julianne Moore can play someone as dumb as Sarah Palin.

This will truly be a test of how great an actress she really is….

RNC DC Examiner reported earlier this week that HBO is planning a film on the 2008 John McCain-Sarah Palin presidential campaign:

But Palin will not be the beneficiary of any revenue nor is she certain to be enamored by the performance. The network has decided to adapt the 2008 campaign book “Game Change” into an original film.

Academy Award nominated Julianne Moore will play the role of Sarah Palin. The book by Time’s Mark Halperin and New York magazine’s John Heilemann does not feature a faltering image of Pain and, if anything, the then governor is reported to be entirely clueless about basic historical and geographical facts, and somewhat erratic.

The book, Game Change, describes the former Governor of Alaska as having wild mood swings caused by her sudden rise to fame and describes her at one point as being in a ‘catatonic stupor’. […] According to the book, it was then that Steve Schmidt, Republican campaign chief, turned to the experts he had recruited and said: ‘You guys have a lot of work to do. She doesn’t know anything.’ (Daily Mail.)

The author presciently added, If the film follows the lines of the book on which its based, Palin and her supporters may soon be feuding with HBO over what will be a critical presentation of the Republican.

In Palin’s first statement about the film it is clear that the former Alaska governor is wary about what portrait HBO may present. Jokingly Palin said, “Well, I am all about job creation, and I guess I could provide some of these gals who pretend like they’re me some job security.” But then added that she’ll watch the film with great reservations: “I’ll just grit my teeth and bear whatever comes what may with that movie.”

via Sarah Palin: “Grit My Teeth” Over HBO Film – Washington DC RNC | Examiner.com.

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Tagged as movies, politics, Sarah Palin, television

March 2, 2011 · 7:29 pm

Source: Anne Hathaway, James Franco “Hate Each Other” – UsMagazine.com

The endless night begets an endless chain of stories…

I still love them both…

But friends don’t let friends work with bad writers…

Someone should have stopped them!

I still expect them to each be winners one day…

No winners here!

A source tells Us Weekly that Anne Hathaway, 28, and James Franco grew to “hate each other” as they rehearsed to host the Oscars Feb. 27.

“She had to provide all the energy — he was just phoning it in,” says a second insider. (“James seemed in his own little world,” during the Oscar telecast, says another source. “Producers were pissed.”)

In fact, as UsMagazine.com reported Monday, after the awards, Franco, 32, skipped his own party at L.A.’s The Writer’s Room.

“He went immediately back to NYC because he was pissed about how the show went,” adds a third source.

Franco’s rep responds, “This is absolutely not true,” while Hathaway’s rep says, “Anne had a wonderful experience with him.”

Still, fans should expect a new MC in 2012. Insiders say both Hugh Jackman and Billy Crystal want the gig again.

More: Source: Anne Hathaway, James Franco “Hate Each Other” – Movies, TV & Music – UsMagazine.com.

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Tagged as movies, Oscars, television

March 1, 2011 · 6:37 pm

Scott Mendelson: Oscar 2011: Don’t Blame James Franco and Anne Hathaway, Blame the Writers

Excellent article on Sunday’s Oscar fiasco…

This is exactly what I was saying during the show…

All the writers and producers of this year’s show should be bared for life from participating in future Oscar telecasts….

James Franco and Anne Hathaway did what they could with what they had where they were, to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt.

They just didn’t have much to work with….

Last year, I wrote a post-Oscar essay that got me quoted in Time Magazine. This year I have no such profundities to offer. But let me simply say that while this truly was the worst Oscar telecast in at least as long as I’ve been watching (since I was just short of 12-years-old in 1992), the blame lies not with the hosts, but with the material. Many have commented that James Franco all but started the show with a stunning display of apathy and disinterest. While we can all joke about whether he was stoned, or whether he was thinking about one of the 6,000 other activities he is currently involved in, the truth may be much simpler: Franco probably saw the material that had been written for him and Ms. Hathaway, and he damnwell knew he was in for a rough ride. So while Franco seemingly tuned out, Hathaway did the opposite, going absolutely for-broke, refusing to go down without a fight. But while Anne Hathaway and James Franco are excellent actors (and their hosting last night does not change that), not everyone can make lemonade out of lemons.

For whatever reason, the writers of Sunday night’s events seemed to think that everyone’s favorite part of an awards show is the part where two mismatched presenters ramble through poorly-scripted banter and make painful attempts to appear charming and flirtatious. Because, with few exceptions, the entire show was one piece of awkward banter after another. The whole show reeked of older writers attempting to appeal to younger viewers, with little-to-no idea how to do that. Because if there is anything that young kids love, it’s being pandered or condescended to. No, awkward references to smart-phone apps, Auto-Tunes, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and “the Internet” are not going to appear hip/cool to the young kids. And bringing Halle Berry onstage to memorialize Lena Horne is only to make it that much more noticeable that not a single minority was nominated for a major award last night. And spoiling the finales of several nominated films (True Grit, Toy Story 3, The King’s Speech) doesn’t inspire viewers to check those films out later. You want to try appealing to the young kids, first of all, try not leaving Corey Haim off your “In Memoriam” tribute. Second of all, and this gets me back to my original point, try giving the kids an entertaining show with jokes that were actually clever and reward those who actually followed the movie business with any amount of verve.

MORE: Scott Mendelson: Oscar 2011: Don’t Blame James Franco and Anne Hathaway, Blame the Writers.

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February 27, 2011 · 2:12 pm

Older Audience Makes Its Presence Known at the Movies – NYTimes.com

Great article in the New York Times….

I fear I am now part of this “older” audience, whether I like it or not, but I hope Hollywood is rethinking their products.

We love to go to the movies, but there is often nothing to go see. Then they dump all the good movies at one time, at the end of the year, for Oscar consideration and we end up missing some we would love to have seen.

I the movie moguls will take this to heart and release more quality films throughout the year.

Then maybe the theaters will clean their floors and offer decent concessions we might consider buying…

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood and older Americans have never had much use for each other. The 50-plus crowd doesn’t go to opening weekends or buy popcorn; a youth-obsessed Hollywood has happily ignored them.

But in the last few months an older audience has made a startling reassertion of its multiplex power. “True Grit,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Fighter,” “Black Swan” — all movies in contention for a clutch of Oscars on Sunday — have all been surprise hits at the box office.

And they have all been powered by people for whom 3-D means wearing glasses over glasses, and “Twilight” sounds vaguely threatening.

Hollywood, slower than almost any other industry to market to baby boomers, may be getting a glimpse of its graying future. While the percentage of moviegoers in the older population remains relatively small, the actual number of older moviegoers is growing explosively — up 67 percent since 1995, according to GfK MRI, a media research firm.

And the first of the 78 million baby boomers are hitting retirement age with some leisure hours to fill and a long-dormant love affair with movies.

“There is an older audience that is growing, and it’s an underserved audience, which makes for an obvious and important opportunity,” said Nancy Utley, co-president of Fox Searchlight, whose “Black Swan” has sold over $100 million at the North American box office. If the core audience for a particular film is over 50, she noted, “that’s now a gigantic core.”

There are glimmers of a shift. Aging action stars; theaters with adult fare, like better food; reserved seating; and, most important, movies like “The Social Network” and “The King’s Speech” that have become hits based on wit and storytelling, not special effects.

Theaters have long favored younger consumers in part because older moviegoers tend to skip the concession counter, where theaters make most of their money. The imbalance between young and old grew more pronounced over the last decade as theater chains, suffering the after-effects of overbuilding, cut back on maintenance.

Much More: Older Audience Makes Its Presence Known at the Movies – NYTimes.com.

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Tagged as Baby Boomers, Boomers, entertainment, movies

February 24, 2011 · 7:46 pm

Judy Garland: I’m Still Here

There’s nothing like a really good Female Impersonator giving a great performance as a Hollywood legend to lift your spirits and ease you toward the weekend….

The incomparable Jim Bailey singing a song Judy Garland didn’t live to sing- but should have!

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Tagged as broadway, Drag, Female Impersonator, I'm Still Here, Jim Bailey, judy garland, movies

July 11, 2010 · 10:55 pm

A Great Vampire Movie: “Let the Right One In”

We just finished watching this weeks episode of “True Blood”, a show I just love. It’s the only TV show I watch. It reminded me of a conversation we had earlier today about Vampire Movies. Which made me want to mention “Let the Right One In.”

This is a truly great vampire film. I think it’s Swedish. It’s about a little girl vampire and it is mesmerizing. This is no “Twilight”. It’s very much a moody art film that draws you in slowly, but completely. They are making a U.S. version for release later this year, but I can’t imagine it will be as good as the original.

“Let the Right One In” is out on DVD and I strongly recommend you Netflix it or even buy it…

Here are a long and a short trailer:

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Tagged as Film, Foreign Film, movies, Vampires

July 11, 2010 · 5:20 pm

Why is “To Kill a Mockingbird” Being Attacked?

This is an intriguing article by Jesse Kornbluth on the Huffington Post…Here is an excerpt with the link to the full article at the bottom:

I never thought I’d see the day when the lawyer who argued Brown v. Topeka Board of Education before the Supreme Court and went on to be the first African-American to sit on that Court would have his career reduced to that most dreaded of all contemporary labels: “activist.”

I never thought I’d see the day when you can legally carry concealed weapons into airports and bars and — my sweet Lord! — churches.

I never thought I’d see the day when allegedly smart adults would tell me that America’s poor were so powerful that, given the chance to own real estate, they bought so many houses they couldn’t afford that they tanked the economy of almost every country in the world.

But then I never thought I’d see the day when “To Kill A Mockingbird” — a novel that has inspired readers for half a century — would be derided as a book about “the limitations of liberalism” (by Malcolm Gladwell, no less, in The New Yorker, of all places) and “a sugar-coated myth of Alabama’s past” with a hero who’s “a repository of cracker-barrel epigrams” (by Allen Barra, in the Wall Street Journal)

But as we approach July 11th — the 50th anniversary of the publication of “To Kill a Mockingbird” (to buy the paperback from Amazon, click here; shamefully, there is no Kindle edition) — it’s probably not surprising that we’re seeing one of America’s best-loved books criticized for its “politics.”

via Jesse Kornbluth: ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Anniversary: On Its 50th Birthday, Why Is ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Being Attacked? (VIDEO).

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Tagged as Books, movies, politics, the south

July 11, 2010 · 4:59 pm

Letters to Juliet

We just returned from seeing “Letters to Juliet”. If you are looking for a light, romantic movie with great Italian scenery, I would highly recommend this film.

It’s predictable and sweet, but a lovely way to spend the afternoon. And Vanessa Redgrave is just luminous.

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Tagged as entertainment, Franco Nero, Italy, movies, Vanessa Redgrave

July 7, 2010 · 11:06 pm

Valley of the Dolls

A video tribute to one of my favorite trashy movies.

It’s so bad, it’s wonderful.

I can’t count the times I’ve seen it…

There was as much drama off-screen as on…Judy Garland was supposed to play the Susan Hayward part of Helen Lawson, but could not be coaxed out of her dressing room. She had already recorded the songs and done the costume screen tests.

Rumor had it, Neely O’Hara was based on Garland and Helen Lawson was based on Ethel Merman.

And, of course, it was Sharon Tate’s most famous film. Released just a year or so before she was tragically murdered by the Manson Family.

And it’s a perfect visual representation of late 1960’s fashion.

I remember having a fit because my parents would not take me to the theatre to see it when it first came out. I was then about 10 years old…

What more can I say?

Here are some clips: