Film Archives

October 3, 2003

Requiem for a Dream (review w/spoilers)

I haven't absorbed the movie Requiem for a Dream in enough detail to give a thorough review, but I can give some impressions of it from two viewings. The primary feeling I got from the movie is hopelessness. There is no redemption in RFAD. From the first moments of the film, you know that the lives of its characters are sad and wretched, and the strong impression that they won't be going anywhere but down is quickly validated. This is a terrific movie nonetheless, and I think if you can handle the subject material and some graphic scenes of violence and sex (especially towards the end), you can't help but carry this movie with you. Both Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly do great work, but Ellen Burstyn really walks off with this movie. Maybe it's because hers is the most sympathetic character and her destruction is so unbearably sad, but...

October 4, 2003

Alex Kingston -- Airhead

I don't know who the hell Alex Kingston is, but she gets a royal Fisking over at Give War A Chance. Kingston is apparently one of those spoiled Hollywood brats who think that the First Amendment provides freedom of criticism, or in other words, free speech for me but not for thee. What a joke. I'm glad Emily had the time for this. Nice job....

October 15, 2003

I Owe Ed Asner a Partial Apology

This demonstrates a problem with blogging -- when a source turns out to be incorrect, you wind up having to apologize to people you'd rather not. If you scroll to the bottom of Kevin McCullough's partial retraction, you'll see that Ed Asner was not expressing admiration for Stalin and was in fact quite open about putting him on the same plane as Hitler: "Well, you know something, they've played Hitler, nobody has ever really touched Stalin, it just occurred to me. It's not because I am a liberal or anything like that. Stalin is one big damn mystery, I wonder why nobody has tried it? Many people, you know, speak of the fact that he killed more people than Hitler – why does nobody touch him? It's strange. So, and he was about my size, my height – with a wig I probably could do it." In fact, in his...

November 16, 2003

Movie Review: Auto Focus (2002)

What an odd film; it plays like a twisted version of Rock Star without the third act. If it weren't a true story, you'd almost suspect it was written by Focus on the Family as an R-rated Afternoon Special-sort of cautionary tale. Don't peek at nudie magazines because this could happen to you! Greg Kinnear plays Bob Crane, the star of "Hogan's Heroes" whose TV success haunted him until his murder in Phoenix in the mid-70s. Kinnear is excellent, as is Willem Dafoe as John Carpenter, the man whose sycophantic friendship allowed Crane to give free reign to the worst of his sexual demons by supplying him with the video equipment and the girls to keep a constant party rolling. Where most movies of this type use drugs or alcohol as the addiction, Auto Focus uses sex and pornography. The entire movie centers on the sick relationship between Crane and...

December 13, 2003

The Countdown Begins

Folks, we are at T-minus 83 hours and counting until the official release of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the final installment in the trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and already considered by many to be the finest epic ever filmed. In honor of such an achievement, I am planning on sacrificing an entire day off at work on the 17th so that I can get in early and see it on the first day of release. Yes, I am willing to eat up a personal day (which I would otherwise lose in exactly two weeks from that date anyway) just for the ability to get in ahead of 95% of the general public -- and also to avoid the crowds of children that may be at the later shows. So far as I know, school is still in on the 17th. If any of my...

December 14, 2003

A Silly Lord of the Rings Analogy for Today

Today's capture reminded me of a scene from Tolkien, although it's not the Lord of the Rings, it's from The Silmarillion. I suppose it may be a bit silly to use this as a reference to Saddam Hussein, but it sounds oddly familiar to his capture. This passage comes from the chapter titled Of The Voyage of Earendil and describes the capture of Morgoth, who was Sauron's leader during the First Age of Middle Earth: ... and all of the pits of Morgoth were broken and unroofed, and the might of the Valar descended into the deeps of the earth. There Morgoth stood at last at bay, and yet unvaliant. He fled into the deepest of his mines, and sued for peace and pardon; but his feet were hewn from under him, and he was hurled upon his face. Then he was bound with the chain Angainor which he had...

December 15, 2003

Return Of The King Wins NY Award

As we continue to count down to the wide release of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on Wednesday, the film has been selected for a prestigious award more commonly given to indies: Normally a champion of arty, independent fare, the New York Film Critics Circle on Monday chose "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" as the top film of 2003. The three-hour-plus epic, which is the final part of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novels, is a sweeping spectacle of computer-generated imagery — and it couldn't be more different from the rest of the films the group honored. Ever since the release of the first installment, The Fellowship of the Ring, speculation has abounded that Peter Jackson and his trilogy would get no serious Oscar consideration until all of the films were released and could be...

December 16, 2003

I Am Not This Bad

On the final evening of the countdown to the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, I looked around the Internet for a good tie-in to wind it all up. I found out that the producers of the film are into scientific research, specifically regarding bladder capacity: For would-be Hobbits, Elves and wizards, it was a can't-miss opportunity. Die-hard "Lord of the Rings" fans enjoyed "Trilogy Tuesday," a back-to-back-to-back marathon of all three films, including the first public screenings of the third and final movie, "The Return of the King." ... Ordinary moviegoers, though, may feel daunted by the New Line Cinema trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen and Sean Astin. It began with the "extended edition" of "The Fellowship of the Ring" from noon to 3:30 p.m. "The Two Towers," also in extended form, was to follow...

December 17, 2003

20 Good Ways to Get Beat Up Today

Spacekickers has a list of 20 things you can do to amuse yourself and embarrass your friends when you see The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King today when it opens. Go read the whole thing, but these are the two that made me laugh my tucchus off: 15. In TTT when the Ents decide to march to war, stand up and shout "RUN FOREST, RUN!" 20. Come to the premiere dressed as Frankenfurter and wander around looking terribly confused. See you at the early show! (via Hugh Hewitt)...

Review: The Return of the King

For those who have not read the books, this review may contain spoilers; read at your caution. After taking the day off from work, and from blogging for the most part, I went to the first showing (in daylight hours) of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Peter Jackson's final installment of the trilogy. And all I can say is ... Brilliant. Brilliant. And brilliant. Jackson moves at three speeds interchangeably throughout the movie: slow and pensive, normal and tense, and breackneck action. Tolkien's books are full of action -- enormous battles, hand-to-hand combat, desperate rides at great speed ... and you could probably make a two-hour movie of the last book if you just concentrated on that, and never would have to worry about pacing at all. But LotR is more than just a book about war; it's about philosophy, about fear, about love, about...

January 25, 2004

Hugh Hewitt Reviews 'The Passion of the Christ'

Hugh Hewitt posts a lengthy review of the new and controversial Mel Gibson movie, The Passion of the Christ (no permalink yet). Hugh's enthusiasm for this film is evident in this review, as it was in his radio show on Friday night: The Passion of the Christ is a phenomenal work of art; a moving and inspiring film that will certainly be shown again and again for generations to come. Though I am a follower of Jesus Christ, I do not believe that one needs to be a believer in the divinity of Christ to appreciate the majesty of the movie and its extraordinary commitment to authenticity and an objective recounting of the story of the passion and death of Christ as relayed through the Gospels. I have wondered how well Gibson would adhere to history in the Passion story. After all, his previous efforts at historical cinema fell somewhat...

January 27, 2004

Lord of the Rings Gets 11 Oscar Nominations

Now onto the real election news -- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King has snagged 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director: Along with best picture and director, the nominations for "Return of the King" included original score and song, visual effects, film editing and adapted screenplay for the script based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic. "Return of the King" led last weekend's Golden Globes with four wins, including best dramatic picture and director, and its broad critical and fan support give the film the inside track at the Oscars. No word on acting nominations as yet. To no one's surprise, however, Renee Zellweger received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her terrific performance in Cold Mountain, one that likely will be rewarded with a win. UPDATE: No acting nominations, despite great performances in supporting roles. I guess a picture gets to be considered...

Someone Stop Sandler!

Lovers of classic 1970s films, especially sports films, may need extra blood-pressure medicine after reading this item on Adam Sandler's latest project: Adam Sandler will star in a remake of the 1974 Burt Reynolds comedy "The Longest Yard," the story of a former football player turned convict who challenges prison guards to a game. Adam Sandler -- remaking one of the icons of men's films? I ask you, how many of you can see Sandler as even an adequate replacement for Burt Reynolds? Sandler must be hallucinating, which would explain his Mr. Deeds remake, too. I don't believe that someone can ruin a classic movie by remaking it poorly -- after all, the original movie still remains -- but you can certainly insult its standing by making stupid casting decisions. One could hardly get more foolish than by casting Sandler as a hardened and corrupt NFL quarterback who stands up...

February 16, 2004

Unnecessary Awards, Unnecessary Columns

Writing in today's LA Times, William Kowinski decries the existence of separate acting awards at the Oscars based on gender: After all, there is no award for the best screenplay by a woman. Sofia Coppola wasn't nominated as best female director. There's no award for a best picture by a woman producer. Why are there separate acting awards divided by gender? There doesn't appear to be anything about acting skill that is gender-specific. In fact, many women insist on being called actors and bristle at the designation of "actress" because they believe it to be demeaning, like the term "authoress." A writer is a writer, and an actor is an actor. Aren't these gender-designated categories just relics of a less-enlightened time? There are no separate categories based on race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual preference or any other element of diversity. Why not best performance by a Latino in a leading...

Gibson Defends The Passion of the Christ

Mel Gibson appeared on a special Primetime Special Edition, interviewed by Diane Sawyer about his soon-to-be-released film, The Passion of the Christ, to both publicize the movie and to explain it. Gibson appeared along with panels of Christian and Jewish scholars to debate points of theology and intent in Gibson's vision of the last twelve hours of the temporal life of Jesus. I have not yet seen the film (which opens next week, on Ash Wednesday), but I do plan on seeing it as soon as I can, especially after seeing Sawyer's interview. Gibson, who looked uncomfortable throughout the show, still appeared to answer as honestly as he could, being charming perhaps even despite himself, especially when he claimed that he was thinking about pitching his tent next to the WMDs, so that "no one could find me". The only time he looked angry instead of uncomfortable was when the...

February 23, 2004

CBS Decries Exploitation? Oh, Please!

CBS's Andy Rooney apparently doesn't like Mel Gibson or his latest movie, The Passion of the Christ. How Rooney has made up his mind without actually seeing the film may strike some as odd, but Rooney has it from a good source that it stinks -- God is Andy's stringer, you see: I heard from God just the other night. God always seems to call at night. "Andrew," God said to me. He always calls me "Andrew." I like that. ... As far as Mel Gibson goes, I haven't seen his movie, 'The Passion of the Christ,' because it hasn't opened up here yet. But I did catch Gibson being interviewed by Diane Sawyer. I did something right when I came up with her, didn't I, added God. Anyway, as I was saying, Mel is a real nut case. What in the world was I thinking when I created him?...

February 29, 2004

The Envelope for Pushing The Envelope Goes To ...

I will be live-blogging the Academy Awards tonight, and it appears that this will be a long, long night -- the Academy has removed speech restrictions for the Oscar winners for the first time in recent memory. Odd, don't you think, or perhaps the Presidential election has something to do with it? 7:25 - Catching the pre-awards show, and it's as lame as ever. I felt sorry for Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger, who were cursed to sit on either side of Billy Bush and forced to respond to his inane non-question commentary. As if that wasn't bad enough, he then re-enacted the "Uma-Oprah" debacle from several years back. I'm sure that the Academy appreciates that walk down Memory Lane ... 7:35 - The opening sequence rocked! Loved the elephant stepping on Michael Moore as he protested the Battle of Gondor, and Jack Nicholson made a great Gandalf. Seriously. Somehow,...

March 7, 2004

Passion of the Christ: Brutal, Brilliant Art

After two weeks of release, I finally went to see Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ this afternoon. Until now, all I had done was read some of the reviews, both professional and in the blogosphere, as well as the various interviews from some of the principals like Gibson and Jim Caviezel, who plays Jesus. I have also kept up with some of the attacks on the movie, Gibson, and his motivations, such as Andy Rooney's late last month. Now that I have seen the film, I understand the passion about the Passion. Either a viewer will love this film or hate it; there is little room for middle ground, and that's precisely the point. One of the images in the film that stuck with me the most -- one that is present in most of the advertising as well -- is a slow-motion shot of Jesus drawing a...

March 10, 2004

Dump the MPAA Ratings Systems, Please

In a statement that has gathered way too much attention already, an anti-smoking activist has challenged Hollywood to consider tobacco use when assigning MPAA ratings: If Nicolas Cage lights a cigarette in a movie, Hollywood's ratings board should respond as if he used a profanity, according to authors of a new study that criticizes glamorous images of smoking in movies rated for children under 17. Nearly 80 percent of movies rated PG-13 feature some form of tobacco use, while 50 percent of G and PG rated films depict smoking, said Stanton Glantz, co-author of the study, which examined 775 U.S. movies over the past five years. "No one is saying there should never be any smoking in the movies," Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said Tuesday at a press conference at Hollywood High School. "What we're simply asking for is that smoking be...

March 15, 2004

Mel Gibson Discovers Hollywood's Religion: Money

After the incredible success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, it's not a big surprise that the same Hollywood Establishment that has shunned Gibson and his movie are considering how to cash in on the audience he's discovered: The movie's box-office success has been chewed over in studio staff meetings and at pricey watering holes all over Hollywood, echoed in interviews with numerous executives in the last week. In marketing departments the film is regarded as pure genius; its director, Mel Gibson, is credited with stoking a controversy that yanked the film from the margins of the culture to center stage, presenting it as a must-see. There is little doubt at the studios that the movie will affect decision making in the short and the long term. Some predict, as one result, a wave of New Testament-themed movies or more religious films in general. Actually, I think that...

April 3, 2004

Sex Being Marked Down for Clearance

In a rebuttal to the adage "sex sells,", the London Telegraph reports on a new study that demonstrates a lower box-office return on films that have explicit sexuality: A new study has found that films containing explicit sex or nudity do much worse at the box office, earning nearly 40 per cent less on average than more wholesome movies. An analysis of 1,120 cinematic releases over the past four years has shown that films without sex scenes, such as Disney's Finding Nemo or Toy Story 2, earned an average of $41.1 million (22.3 million), while films with sex have grossed 38 per cent less with an average of $16.7 million. In 2003, the final year of the study, the gap was even wider, with films without sex earning more than double those with explicit scenes. Hollywood has long been concerned with a gradual decline in box-office sales, and this may...

April 24, 2004

NASA Panic Over Disaster Movie Gives Hollywood Too Much Credit

Tomorrow's New York Times features a story on a too-typical example of bureaucratic mountain-making from molehills, as NASA at first gagged its scientists from commenting on an upcoming movie that shows global warming causing a new Ice Age -- in five days: In "The Day After Tomorrow," a $125 million disaster film that is to open on May 28, global warming from accumulating smokestack and tailpipe gases sets off an instant ice age. Few climate experts think such a prospect is likely, especially in the near future. But the prospect that moviegoers will be alarmed enough to blame the Bush administration for inattention to climate change has stirred alarm at the space agency, scientists there say. "No one from NASA is to do interviews or otherwise comment on anything having to do with" the film, said the April 1 message, which was sent by Goddard's top press officer. "Any news...

May 5, 2004

Disney to Moore: Drop Dead

Michael Moore and Disney subsidiary Miramax found out that the Mouse meant what it said when it earlier told Miramax that it would not allow any Disney companies to distribute Moore's new film, Fahrenheit 911: Disney executives indicated that they would not budge from their position forbidding Miramax to be the distributor of the film in North America. Overseas rights have been sold to a number of companies, executives said. "We advised both the agent and Miramax in May of 2003 that the film would not be distributed by Miramax," said Zenia Mucha, a company spokeswoman, referring to Mr. Moore's agent. "That decision stands." Typically for Moore's team, his agent tried to blame the Bush administrations (George and Jeb) for Disney's decision, claiming that Disney chief Michael Eisner told him that the distribution deal would endanger tax breaks at the federal and state (Florida) level: "Michael Eisner asked me not...

May 6, 2004

Moore to Disney: Thanks For The Ride

The London Independent reports in tomorrow's edition that Michael Moore, instead of being a victim of evil, corporate America in the form of the Disney Corporation, instead lied about Disney's intentions to promote his film as well a an illusion of martyrdom: Less than 24 hours after accusing the Walt Disney Company of pulling the plug on his latest documentary in a blatant attempt at political censorship, the rabble-rousing film-maker Michael Moore has admitted he knew a year ago that Disney had no intention of distributing it. ... In an indignant letter to his supporters, Moore said he had learnt only on Monday that Disney had put the kibosh on distributing the film, which has been financed by the semi-independent Disney subsidiary Miramax. But in the CNN interview he said: "Almost a year ago, after we'd started making the film, the chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner, told my agent he...

May 16, 2004

The Magical World of Michael Moore

Michael Moore, whose new film Fahrenheit 911 was rejected by Disney over a year ago for distribution, continues to claim that Disney actually refused to distribute the film due to pressure from a "top Republican" in the White House: The White House tried to halt the making and release of Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 9/11, the film-maker alleged in Cannes on Sunday. The director told a Cannes audience the Bush administration wanted to keep the film off screens in the run-up to November's US election. ... He has given no evidence to substantiate his allegations, but said "someone connected to the White House" and a "top Republican" had put pressure on film companies not to release the film. The BBC fails to note the London Independent's report from two weeks ago, Moore knowingly lied about Disney in order to promote his new film: Less than 24 hours after accusing...

May 19, 2004

Nine Songs, Plus A Tap Dance

The Guardian (UK) reports on a controversial new film, Nine Songs, being released in Britain, and its lead actress who took Method acting to a level not seen anywhere else except ... er, California? You could, perhaps, have seen it all coming. Or maybe not, if you were a 21-year-old with no significant acting roles to your name. What is clear is that Margo Stilley, the female lead in Michael Winterbottom's film Nine Songs - already famous as the most sexually explicit film in the history of mainstream British cinema - is at the centre of an almighty media ruckus. On Tuesday, tabloid headlines gleefully announced the arrival of the "Muckiest Film Ever" and the "Rudest Film Ever to Hit Our Cinemas". By yesterday Fleet Street's finest had caught up with friends and family in Stilley's native North Carolina. "Mother of Beauty in 'Real Sex' Film Shocker Prays For Her...

May 25, 2004

Day After Tomorrow: "Lies Cloaked As Science"

USA Today published an op-ed piece by Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute (via Drudge), that reviews the science in the upcoming disaster flick The Day After Tomorrow and finds it ridiculous and impossible: Global warming causes the Gulf Stream to shut down. This current normally brings tropical warmth northward and makes Europe much more comfortable than it should be at its northerly latitude. The heat stays stuck in the tropics, the polar regions get colder, and the atmosphere suddenly flips over in a "superstorm." The frigid stratosphere trades places with our habitable troposphere, and in a matter of days, an ice age ensues. Temperatures drop 100 degrees an hour in Canada. Hurricanes ravage Belfast. Folks in Japan are clobbered by bowling-ball-size hailstones. If we had only listened to concerned scientists and stopped global warming when we could. Each one of these phenomena is...

June 9, 2004

Stupidity In Marketing

Let's say you want to promote a new film -- or, more accurately, a new remake of a classic sci-fi thriller that probably should have been left alone. Seeing as how the film stars top-drawer talent, including the beautiful Nicole Kidman in a lead role as well as Bette Midler and Glenn Close, how would you go about attracting people to the box office? Would you try to show us a sexy Nicole, or some scenes with Close, Midler, or perhaps Christopher Walken or Matthew Broderick? I'd bet you wouldn't strip Condoleezza Rice to the waist and put Hillary Clinton in a swimsuit holding a plate of cookies: Some people are saying the way Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice are portrayed in an ad for the new "Stepford Wives" film is distasteful, even outrageous. The spot shows an image of Rice made to look nude from the waist up, and...

June 30, 2004

Even His Supporters Agree: Michael Moore Lies

Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek reporters who regularly pen the magazine's Terror Watch column, reviews the major distortions of Michael Moore's new "documentary" Fahrenheit-9/11. Even though Isikoff and Hosenball express sympathy for Moore's efforts in building criticism of the Bush administration, they acknowledge that most of Moore's major criticisms are nothing but a tissue of lies. In a moment of journalistic understatement, the subtitle of their Newsweek article is "Some of the main points in Fahrenheit 9/11 really arent very fair at all". To start, F-9/11 makes the extraordinary claim that the Saudis have given the Bush family over $1.4 billion since the early 1990s, effectively buying them off in a sweetheart deal with the Carlyle Group and defense contractor BDM. Moore took the information from a book written by Craig Unger that is often referenced (incompletely) by conspiracy theorists on the Left, and Moore obviously did little research...

July 24, 2004

And They Should Know

Reader Mark Warner points me to this Washington Post article that details the Polish reaction to the launch of Fahrenheit 9/11 in their country. [Lazy day, today, Captain? -- I prefer to think of it as being responsive to the CQ community...] The Poles are unimpressed with Michael Moore's film, as they get a strange sense of deja vu: "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened Friday in Poland - a U.S. ally in Iraq - with some critics comparing director Michael Moore's style to totalitarian propaganda. ... A critic for Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest daily newspaper, condemned the movie as a "foul pamphlet" too biased to be considered a documentary and said it reminded him of methods used by Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. "In criticizing Moore, I have to admit that he has certain abilities - Leni Riefenstahl had them too," reviewer Jacek Szczerba said. The Rzeczpospolita newspaper wrote that, "Michael Moore...

July 28, 2004

Will His Performance Lack Energy?

During most of his professional life, the world hailed Lord Laurence Olivier as one of the greatest actors on stage and screen, and Olivier remained remarkably prolific right to the end of his life. Now the London Guardian reports that he will launch a great comeback, a neat trick for a man who's been dead for fifteen years. First-time filmmaker Kerry Conran cast the dead actor in support of Jude Law and Gwenyth Paltrow as a holographic villain: In September, however, Olivier will break much more remarkable ground. Fifteen years after his death, he is due to feature as one of the billed stars of the Paramount film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. ... Law is quoted by the AP news agency: "He plays my nemesis. And he's referred to throughout the movie so you know eventually you're going to get to see this bad guy. It builds...

August 4, 2004

The Face Of Evil?

While so many of us are focused on elections and Islamofascist terrorists, many of our younger citizens await the next cinematic installment of the wildly popular fiction series that focuses on a battle between good and evil. Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire has been filming all summer without any indication who would portray the corporeal evil that haunts Harry and his friends, Lord Voldemort. At one point, practically every British actor who hadn't yet appeared in the series was rumored to have been cast in the role, including -- laughably -- Rowan Atkinson, better known as Mr. Bean. Now Warner Bros. has finally announced who will fill the robe of the character so evil that witches and wizards avoid speaking his name, a man whose very face inspires fear and dread. Ralph Fiennes? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has been named. Ralph Fiennes, who played memorable evil guys in "Red Dragon" and...

August 17, 2004

And At The End, They Shot Spider Again For Old Times

How would you feel if these guys all got together at an Italian restaurant while you were the waiter? As long as Joe Pesci wasn't around, at least you wouldn't worry about getting a bottle upside the head as a tip: The theme of the night was "breaking bread, not legs" when some of the cast and filmmakers of "Goodfellas" reunited for a traditional sit-down dinner Monday night. Ray Liotta, Paul Sorvino and real-life mob informant Henry Hill whose gangland experiences inspired the story showed up to gobble baked ziti, swap stories, sing some Italian opera and recall director Martin Scorsese's acclaimed mob movie. If you haven't seen it, Goodfellas is really one of the best Mafia pictures ever made -- less artistic than the Godfather series, but more realistic in its depiction of organized crime. Rather than indulge in a false romance about gangsters and codes of...

October 17, 2004

Movie Review: Therese

The First Mate and I went out to church this afternoon and followed Mass with a screening of the new movie Threse, the biopic of the Catholic saint nicknamed "The Little Flower". The FM had looked forward to the movie opening in our area as Threse is the saint which she admires the most -- an unassuming young girl whose saintliness expressed itself in the many small acts of faith she did. I'd like to say lots of nice things about this film, whose heart definitely is in the right place. The filmmakers treat their subject quite respectfully -- in fact, too much so, to the extent that the film fails to work. Threse lost her mother when she was very little, and as a result wound up being doted upon by her entire family. She became a bit spoiled, as youngest children often are, and a bit willful. At...

December 17, 2004

Hollywood (Finally) Goes To War

The Guardian (UK) reports in today's edition that Harrison Ford has signed onto a project depicting the Battle of Fallujah based on a book coming out in the spring. This film would be the first Hollywood has produced that looks at the Iraq War, an odd omission noted by several prominent entertainment figures including Roger L. Simon: Hollywood has joined the war. Universal Pictures announced yesterday that it is to make The Battle for Falluja. To prove it is serious, it has enlisted Indiana Jones himself, actor Harrison Ford, to help defeat the insurgency. The film - Hollywood's first foray into the second Iraq conflict - is due to go into production next year and will be based on a yet-to-be-finished book, No True Glory: The Battle for Falluja by Bing West, a former marine, politician and now war correspondent. The movie and book take as their starting point the...

January 9, 2005

My Own ... My Verrrrry Long ... My Precious

Today our family will put aside our labors for a long-planned event, one that has my daughter-in-law, her sister and her sister's boyfriend and I giddy with anticipation. Now that we have all three Lord of the Rings director's cut releases, we plan on watching all three in a row today, starting at 10 am today. We think that the day should last around 12 hours of hobbits, Elves, Nazgul, and the One Ring that binds them all. I plan on live-blogging from time to time to let you know the effects of intense Tolkien on an otherwise sane mind. Keep checking back in! Oh, by the way -- the First Mate disputes the "already sane mind" part of that last statement, and insists that the Rings marathon provides prima facie proof. I report, you decide ......

Live-Blogging The Lord Of The Rings Marathon

11:23 - We're deep into the Fellowship of the Ring now, and the Fellowship of the Marathon are all in rapt attention. One of our number decided to take a pass (my naturally sensible daughter-in-law), but the three true fans still hang in there. Right now we're hearing about the Hobbit habits of second breakfasts and "elevensies", while Frodo makes his way to Weathertop. The First Mate has wisely avoided coming downstairs to the home theater since the beginning... 11:57 - Intermission, which means that Arwen and Aragorn are speaking Elvish to each other with choruses of sopranos in the background. It's a good thing, too, because I'm noticing some hair growing on the top of my bare feet. Andy just pointed out that all of the good guys in the movies -- at least the main ones -- have blue eyes. Some of that was accomplished digitally by director...

January 17, 2005

Movie Review: The Aviator

The First Mate and I took my sister to see the new Martin Scorsese film, The Aviator, which wangled a couple of Golden Globes last night. (Actually, in the interest of full disclosure, my sister took us.) The long-anticipated film looks at the life of Howard Hughes, the aviation pioneer and noted eccentric whose life cast a long shadow in the movie, aviation, defense, and financial industries. While I have a lot of admiration for the attempt, I think The Aviator is fundamentally flawed, if still entertaining. First, the film only looks at a 20-year period of Hughes' life, from 1927 when he began work on Hell's Angels to 1947, when he flew the Spruce Goose across the water in Los Angeles. He never even mentions RKO, the studio owned by Hughes from 1948 to 1955. That narrow focus disappointed me, as it shortchanged the impact that Hughes had on...

January 23, 2005

In The Face Of Evil: Reagan Retrospective Coming To DVD

Stacy Harp at Media Soul has launched a new initiative to market the upcoming DVD release of In The Face Of Evil, a 2004 documentary on Ronald Reagan. She's gathering a network of bloggers to publicize and sell the DVD to its readership. I have yet to see the documentary (full disclosure: I'm getting a complimentary copy), but I do look forward to it. I think that the mainstream media has ignored the Reagan legacy, and independent conservative documentarians will probably be the only way Reagan and his presidency gets any kind of realistic overview. Keep checking in at Media Soul. I'll let you know about the documentary when I get a chance to watch it....

January 25, 2005

Who Knew The Oscars Were More Balanced Than The Media?

The AMPAS announced the Oscar nominations this morning, and ironically enough, neither film championed by the right and left got nominated for Best Picture. The Passion of the Christ wound up with three nominations, for best score, cinematography, and make-up. Fahrenheit 9/11 got nada, spurned by the Academy after Michael Moore deliberately held the film out of the feature-length documentary category. Who knew the Academy was so balanced in their approach?...

February 5, 2005

Ossie Davis, RIP

One of the classiest presences on film and stage passed away yesterday. Ossie Davis, husband to Ruby Dee and together two of the most visible campaigners for civil rights during those most turbulent years, died at 87 of natural causes in a Miami hotel room: Ossie Davis, whose rich baritone and elegant, unshakable bearing made him a giant of the stage, screen and the civil rights movement often in tandem with his wife, Ruby Dee has died. He was 87. Davis was found dead Friday in his hotel room in Miami Beach, Fla., according to officials there. He was making a film, Retirement, said Arminda Thomas, who works in his New Rochelle office and confirmed the death. Miami Beach police spokesman Bobby Hernandez said Davis grandson called shortly before 7 a.m. when Davis would not open the door to his room at the Shore Club Hotel. Davis was...

February 27, 2005

Live Blog: The Academy Awards

I will be live-blogging the Academy Awards tonight on this post, so if you're looking for running commentary to spice up the broadcast, look no farther. I also intend to do a little bit of regular blogging during the broadcast. Be back at 7:30 PM CT! ... 7:20 - Why live-blog the Oscars? I'm looking more towards political idiocy rather than the choices made for the awards. I'm banking on Chris Rock to say something stupid -- probably several things -- and on at least a few winners to go after the Bush administration. I just want to capture it for posterity when it happens. I don't have any favorites among the films this year, unlike last year, when I wanted nothing less than a sweep for Lord of the Rings -- and got it! 7:30 - They start on time with an intro from Dustin Hoffman. They're not going...

February 28, 2005

La Shawn: Chris Rock "Ignorant And Vulgar"

La Shawn Barber has some words for Chris Rock and the idiots who decided he'd make a good host for the Academy Awards last night. As I wrote during my live blog, the only classy moments came during the tribute to the people who had passed away last year, especially the tribute to Johnny Carson, which reminded everyone above drinking age what the Oscars missed so terribly last night. La Shawn has more specific objections: Under Hollywoods de facto affirmative action policy, this is what they come up with. Such behavior would be unacceptable for anyone else, but when a black big-mouth does it, people snicker. Theyre not really laughing with him; theyre laughing at him, but hes too busy clowning to the know the difference. They couldnt find a dignified black person, one who exuded grace and charm, for the occasion? Or one who wouldnt dream of playing to...

March 25, 2005

Ah, Those Darned "Perceptions"! (Updated!)

The new president of the MPAA met with Christian Toto of the Washington Times to discuss the challenges of replacing the only other man to hold that position, Jack Valenti, in the changed political climate in which Hollywood finds itself. Dan Glickman, former Agriculture Secretary under Bill Clinton, acknowledged that working with two Republican-controlled branches of government would present some difficulties, but it seems the first hurdle for Glickman might be reality instead: The president of the Motion Picture Association of America says Hollywood must build a bridge to the Republican-controlled Congress in order to deflate perceptions of a liberal bias. ... "There's no question in the general world there's the perception that the entertainment community is to the left of the country as a whole," Mr. Glickman told editors and reporters at The Washington Times yesterday. "I've got to build bridges with the people who run the show." The...

April 30, 2005

Movie Review: Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Last night, I went to a film opening for the first time in years to see the new version of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. The books have long been a favorite of mine; I've read and re-read the five-book trilogy enough times that the characters are easily recalled from memory, as well as my own personal characterizations of them. Unlike most books, however, a film version of HGG would necessarily mean making a more coherent narrative in order to be successfuly -- so I went to the cinema knowing that the film would take certain license with the original material. I was not disappointed. ** SPOILERS BELOW! ** Now, fans must understand that the film version takes liberties with many elements of the books. In fact, when I say that the movie takes liberties, I mean that if the film version dated your sister, not only would you be...

May 22, 2005

Movie Review: Revenge Of The Sith (Spoilers!)

After spending the day cleaning out the office and the garage -- and really not finishing either after several hours, which should tell you all you need to know about the scale of the job -- I went out with my son and daughter-in-law to see Star Wars, Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. The First Mate begged off, since she felt tired out from the day and also since she's successfully avoided experiencing any of the six Star Wars movies up to now, and didn't want to lose her perfect record. ** SPOILERS ** Plenty of bloggers have already commented on this film, and I've read their reviews, which helped in keeping my expectations in check going in. Because of that, and the fact that the last two movies had so many problems, I wound up pleasantly surprised by RotS. The movie starts at a fast pace, with the...

June 28, 2005

Lords Of The Bling

When New Line Cinema announced that it had committed to a three-picture deal with a relatively unknown director from New Zealand to bring the epic Lord Of The Rings to the screen, people wondered whether New Line management had lost its mind. Estimates of the budget ran to $450 million, a huge investment for any film project, especially for a genre series -- a genre which had disappointed Hollywood and the box office on many previous occasions. Peter Jackson and New Line wound up winning the gamble, making three of the most successful films ever, commercially and artistically, and generating billions in revenue. Now success appears to have brought out the worst in everyone, as so often happens in Hollywood. Jackson filed suit against New Line for cooking its books to keep millions of dollars it owes to Jackson under the terms of its deal: What if Frodo Baggins, instead...

July 9, 2005

Spielberg To Exploit Black September In Iraqi War Protest Film?

The Telegraph reports that Steven Spielberg has started filming a new movie about the terrorist attack on the 1972 Olympics in Munich, in which Palestinian terrorists murdered eleven Israeli athletes. Spielberg has shrouded the project in secrecy. However, Hugh Davies reports that one of the consultants for the project has tipped off the Israelis that the film will concentrate on the Mossad's actions in going after the terrorist planners in the attack's aftermath rather than the attacks themselves: The material is so delicate that the project, which is being filmed in Malta, is shrouded in secrecy. For while movies like 1977's Raid on Entebbe, starring Peter Finch and Horst Buchholz, portray Israel in a heroic stance, the new picture is about the misgivings of Golda Meir, the then Israeli prime minister, as agents from Mossad tracked down the perpetrators. ... The climax will show how the Israeli operatives, tired after...

August 21, 2005

Movie Review: The Great Raid

The First Mate and I decided that we would follow the recommendations of our friends in the blogosphere and see The Great Raid. The R-rated war film tells the largely-unknown story behind the raid on the Japanese POW camp near Cabanatuan in the Phillipines. By January 1945, the Japanese had begun to understand that the war had mostly been lost. The American advance had finally included Luzon, and even the bushido code of the Japanese fighters could not withstand the American Marines and soldiers that clawed their way onto island after island, dismembering the vast Japanese empire that they had thought would never fall. In response, the Japanese started liquidating POW camps, afraid that their POW practices would get exposed, risking war-crimes trials for their entire leadership. The opening sequence shows 150 American POWs getting burned to death by a Japanese death squad charged with eliminating any witnesses to their...

September 3, 2005

Six Degrees Of Kim Coates

The Northern Alliance Radio Network will broadcast live from the Minnesota State Fair today and tomorrow, from noon to 3 pm. We'll be at AM 1280 The Patriot's booth on the south side of the fairgrounds, just across from the horticulture building. If you're not at the Fair or even in the Twin Cities, you can still catch us on The Patriot's webstream. We'll talk politics, but we have a lot of other events scheduled for these two broadcasts. Last week, James Lileks joined us for an hour, always one of the highlights of our State Fair broadcasts. James and I share a love of film, but even more specifically, we both drive our spouses insane with an appreciation for really bad movies. James and I talked a bit about this curious predilection, and I've been thinking about it since then. I believe I may have found the key to...

September 5, 2005

Movie Review: The Constant Gardener (Spoilers!)

I decided to take a break from all of the storm-related blogging I'd been doing this weekend, as well as the NARN shows that occupied all of the last two weekends, and take the First Mate out to dinner and a movie this evening. We don't see too many first-run movies; the excellent The Great Raid was the last we saw before tonight. I hoped for an extension of the winning streak with The Constant Gardener, about which I had read nothing. However, with Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz in the leads and a solid supporting cast, and a story by John Le Carr, the prospects looked good for another good film. Boy, did I miss that bet by a mile. Here There Be Spoilers. Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Pass. The Constant Gardener takes a clichd and hackneyed plot about eeeevil pharmaceutical companies and chops it into an almost-unintelligible...

September 7, 2005

Hollywood's Great Constant

My new Weekly Standard column, "Hollywood's Great Constant", talks about the odd relationship between the film industry and reality. No, it doesn't address Barbra Streisand and her politics, but the films themselves and how they address reality -- and the reactions of the film critics to the presentation of fact and fiction. I note the critical spanking given to The Great Raid for its realistic and harrowing depiction of the brutal treatment given POWs and Filipinos during Japanese occupation, and compare it to the critics who celebrated the farcical distortions present in The Constant Gardener: One might argue that The Constant Gardener should be forgiven its sins, since it is a work of fiction. Many film critics shun this line of argument. Over 90 percent of critics give it positive reviews and their approbation ties directly to their perception of The Constant Gardiner as a film which addresses reality, not...

September 28, 2005

Movie Review: Serenity

The distribution partners for the new film Serenity, the sequel to the short-lived television series Firefly, have decided to embrace the blogosphere in order to promote its movie. They asked bloggers to set up pre-release screenings across America (or to attend previously scheduled screenings) for free as long as the bloggers agreed to write about the film on their blogs. They did not demand or even suggest that the blog reviews be positive or encouraging, just to write something. One might assume that Universal might have taken this approach for one of two reasons. The first motive that occurred to me was that the studio did not have confidence that Serenity would score with traditional critics and wanted to bypass them, which would indicate a poor effort. The other option was that the studio didn't have confidence that a sci-fi film based on a failed TV series qould find an...

November 6, 2005

Movie Review: Shopgirl

Now that the FM's health has improved somewhat, I thought it would be a good time to go see a movie. One of the more difficult choices, though, is whether any movie really generates enough interest to spend the time and money on seeing it in the theaters. Most of the time, they appear to rehash the same ground that other films have already covered. One film, however, looked unusual enough to get us into the theater -- Shopgirl, based on a novella written by one of its stars, Steve Martin, whose work I have always enjoyed. ** Some Spoilers -- Beware ** Clair Danes stars as Mirabelle, a clerk at Saks working the glove counter who moved to Los Angeles to pursue an art career and find love. At the beginning of the film, neither appear to have shown much promise. She meets Jeremy, played by Jason Schwartzman, a...

November 12, 2005

Riders Of The Mark!

Hugh says he's a Numenorean. For my part I am ... Rohirrim To which race of Middle Earth do you belong? brought to you by Quizilla I'm guessing Mitch is a Wild Man of the Plains. John Hinderaker would be a Dwarf, I'm almost positive ......

November 27, 2005

The Secrets Of Hollywood

Four years after 9/11 and almost three years after America deposed one of the most vicious and genocidal tyrants of the 20th century, Hollywood finally has decided to make a movie about the Iraq War that actually depicts the US forces as the protagonists. Does this news come from the American media? No, we get to find out about it from the UK, and Michelle Malkin: ANGERED by negative portrayals of the conflict in Iraq, Bruce Willis, the Hollywood star, is to make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy. It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul. ... He is expected to base the film on the writings of the independent blogger...

December 22, 2005

Spielberg's Munich Another Appeasement?

FrontPage Magazine reviews the new Spielberg film Munich, which Steven Spielberg based on the discredited book Vengeance, and finds it offensively appeasing towards the terrorists who murdered eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games. FPM reports that the movie appears to want to create an allegory between the Israeli effort at eradicating terrorism back then and our efforts today in Iraq and elsewhere: Like the book on which it’s based, Munich is long, boring, and filled with fakery. ... Spielberg’s Mossad agents cry and brood a lot, unsure of themselves and why they are pursuing terrorists. Been there, seen that before – in the left-wing Israeli film Walk on Water. But it bears little resemblance to the real Mossad agents who hunted the terrorists. They were not metrosexual, sensitive guys – as badly as Spielberg and Kushner would like them to be. Like Golda Meir, they could not have...

December 23, 2005

Movie Review: Munich

After giving the matter quite a bit of thought, I finally decided to see Munich at the theaters in order to make up my own mind about the film and the controversy that surrounds it. The film, which informs the audience that it was "Inspired By True Events", takes the bare bones of the Munich massacre and the Israeli intelligence operation which followed against the Black September organization which plotted it and turns it into ... well, an interesting if ultimately bankrupt morality play. ** Some Spoilers! ** On its most facile level, Munich is a gripping film. Had it been based on complete fiction -- if Spielberg had had the sense to manufacture a hypothetical instead of hijacking history and twisting it -- then it might have even had a valid point to make. Spielberg has lost nothing as a film director in a technical sense, and apart from...

December 27, 2005

Did Munich Bomb At The Box Office?

Debbie Schlussel, whose opinion of Munich mirrors my own, announced on her blog today that the Spielberg film flopped on its first release weekend, coming in twelfth at the box office in limited release. Intrigued, I took a look at the numbers Debbie references -- but alas, Debbie is mistaken. True, Munich wound up at #12, but the film only got shown on 532 screens. (I was actually lucky to catch it in my neighborhood with that kind of release.) Its per-screen average comes in around $3,000 for Christmas and the day after, which would make it more lucrative than King Kong and only second to Casanova for the week. Does that mean that it's a blockbuster? Not hardly; we need to wait to see what happens when it goes into wide release to see if that average holds up, and for how long. The strategy behind the limited release...

February 2, 2006

Why Helmets Should Be Worn While Motorcycling

Michelle Malkin, Jim Geraghty, and Debbie Schlussel note the release of a new Turkish film that depicts American soldiers as mass murderers and Jews as organ thieves. This wouldn't come as much of a surprise, except that two American actors went halfway around the world to participate in this disgraceful epoch: In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother. They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison - where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv. ... The movie's American stars are Billy Zane, who plays a self-professed "peacekeeper sent by God," and Gary Busey as the Jewish-American doctor....

February 19, 2006

Movie Review: 'Date Movie"

Today is our 12th anniversary, and I wanted to take the FM out of the house for a while, even though she's not feeling too well at the moment. We decided to go to the movies, where she could relax and hopefully get a couple of laughs. The only comedy playing around us that showed at the right time was Date Movie, advertised rather charmingly as written by "2 of the 6 writers of Scary Movie!" Figuring the FM could use a couple of laughs, even cheap ones, we decided to see it. I'm still waiting for my laughs. The film stars the highly likable but poorly-managed Allison Hanigan, who debuted in the Dan Aykroyd-Kim Basinger stinker My Stepmother Is An Alien and hit the big time with the American Pie movies and the cult favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. She teams up with Adam Campbell to satirize a...

March 5, 2006

Adam Cohen Tries Humor

Adam Cohen tries his hand at ironic farce in today's New York Times op-ed page in previewing tonight's Oscar presentations. He writes that -- wait, I have to wipe the tears from my eyes -- the Academy Awards have a history of avoiding politics! This year's best picture nominees include a gay cowboy movie, and one about racial conflict in contemporary Los Angeles. There's a movie about the cycle of violence in the Middle East; one about a writer whose homosexuality, if not his journalistic ethics, is treated sympathetically; and one about a crusading TV newsman who took on a right-wing demagogue. These films have something in common besides small budgets and low box office: left-of-center approaches to some of the day's most controversial issues. Hollywood rallying to the liberal cause may sound like non-news. As a Democratic friend said with a shrug when the nominations were announced, the Academy...

Academy Awards Live Blog

I will be continuing the CQ tradition of live-blogging the Academy Awards tonight, starting at 7 pm CT, or perhaps a little before to catch the pre-event reporting. None of the films competing really engaged me at all last year, and a couple of them -- Munich, especially -- I'll be actively rooting against. This year I'm in it for the cynicism. Keep checking on this post for live-blog updates! 6:21 PM CT - Okay, I'm watching the pre-show show, which seems like attending pre-meeting meetings at work, except less entertaining. I just saw Keanu Reeves do an interview along with Sandra Bullock and utter all of three syllables. The next interview with three film critics had more energy than Reeves. 6:23 - Some commenters wonder why I should bother live-blogging the Oscars. I've been watching this show for over 25 years, and at least this makes me think I'm...

March 6, 2006

Turan: Hollywood Isn't Liberal Enough

Kenneth Turan is angry that Oscar didn't anoint Brokeback Mountain as its Best Picture winner, and he's certain he knows why it didn't -- all that latent homophobia running around Hollywood. It couldn't be anything else ... right, Kenneth? Sometimes you win by losing, and nothing has proved what a powerful, taboo-breaking, necessary film "Brokeback Mountain" was more than its loss Sunday night to "Crash" in the Oscar best picture category. Despite all the magazine covers it graced, despite all the red-state theaters it made good money in, despite (or maybe because of) all the jokes late-night talk show hosts made about it, you could not take the pulse of the industry without realizing that this film made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable. More than any other of the nominated films, "Brokeback Mountain" was the one people told me they really didn't feel like seeing, didn't really get, didn't...

April 22, 2006

Movie Review: Thank You For Smoking

We decided to go out to see a movie this evening, and instead of going for some cheap escapism, we chose the political satire Thank You For Smoking, a viciously hilarious and twisted look at lobbying and the tobacco industry. This movie has been out for quite a while, and while most of those who are inclined to see it probably already have, the rest should consider it. Aaron Eckhart plays Nick Naylor, a ruthless tobacco industry flack who tells himself that he argues for the defenseless. The movie starts out with a skin-crawling sequence where his character appears on a Joan Lunden talk show along with a teenager dying of cancer and manages to charm the kid into shaking hands with him while the audience shifts from visibile hostility to acceptance. Needless to say, this kind of talent allows Naylor to make a very comfortable living. Unfortunately, a desire...

April 30, 2006

Movie Review: United 93 ** Spoilers **

Most CQ readers know that I love films, and I often see provocative movies for the purpose of evaluating them. Munich was one such film that I probably would not have bothered to see otherwise, at least not in the theaters. Oddly, I felt the same trepidation with United 93, but for completely different reasons. I had no real fear that the movie had been politically skewed; I just wasn't eager to relive the attacks of 9/11. Nevertheless, this afternoon the First Mate and I both attended the matinee at our local theater, and while we both were glad to have seen it, we also won't see it again soon. Paul Greengrass, who wrote and directed the film, should be commended for his brilliant documentary style and his decision to avoid using well-known actors. People may recognize one or two of the cast from other films, especially David Rasche, who...

July 8, 2006

Will Stone Screw Up 9/11?

When Oliver Stone first announced that he would make a film about the events of 9/11, many expressed concern and even outrage over the prospect. Stone has made a habit of both politicizing his movies and increasingly relying on strange cinematographic effects to distract from the subject matter. Any Given Sunday probably provides the best example in his later work of the latter criticism; my IMDB review can be read here. The Observer reports that Stone finds himself the center of criticism once again -- but for reasons that have nothing to do with politics or competence: Despite Stone's insistence that his days of deliberate provocation are behind him, World Trade Center, which opens in US cinemas next month and in the UK on 29 September, has divided the public, critics and academics ahead of its release. The film, which stars Nicolas Cage as John McLoughlin, one of two New...

August 13, 2006

Movie Review: World Trade Center

When I first heard that Oliver Stone planned on making a film about 9/11, I admit that I had misgivings -- big misgivings. Not only did I worry about his predilection for conspiracy theories and bad history, but also about his style of filmmaking -- showy, pretentious, egotistical, and distracting. His previous full-length cinematic efforts, Alexander and Any Given Sunday, provided excellent examples of Stone at or near his worst, and the subject of 9/11 had plenty of potential for further mischief. Fortunately, Stone put all of the nonsense away for World Trade Center. He allows to the story of John McGloughlin and Will Jimeno, two Port Authority police officers, tell itself. Stone gives his best directorial effort since Wall Street, keeping the trick photography and weird editing on the workbence and instead gives us a taut, touching, and strangely spiritual film. McGloughlin and Jimeno go into the towers in...

August 16, 2006

Hollywood Hates Terrorism?

At least a few celebrities in Hollywood have decided to support the war on terror and call terrorists what they are, according to an advertisement a number of them took out in the Los Angeles Times. Tomorrow's edition will carry a full-page ad denouncing terrorism and supporting democracy, carrying some notable signatures: "We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas," the ad reads. "If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die. "We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs." ... The actors listed included: Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt. Directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann,...

August 23, 2006

Now We Know Why Comedy Central Put 'Trapped' Back In Rotation

Viacom has cut its ties with Tom Cruise, and done so in an unusually public manner. CEO Sumner Redstone cited Cruise's odd public behavior and controversial statements regarding Scientology and psychiatry as reasons that Viacom unit Paramount Pictures severed the relationship with Cruise's production company: Paramount Pictures will end its longstanding relationship with Cruise/Wagner Productions, actor Tom Cruise's production company, citing his erratic behavior, according to a report published Tuesday. Sumner Redstone, CEO of Paramount owner Viacom, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that Cruise's controversial behavior over the last year - including advocating for Scientology and denouncing the use of antidepressant drugs - was the cause for the move. The movie company is concerned that Cruise's behavior hurt his most recent film, "Mission: Impossible 3," said the report. "As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Redstone was...

August 30, 2006

Movie Review: Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West

During last weekend's appearances at the Minnesota State Fair, I met Vince Muzik of Minnesotans Against Terrorism, who told me of a new feature-length documentary MAT had assisted in producing. He agreed to send me a copy of the film on DVD for an opportunity to preview it ahead of its Minneapolis premiere next week, and we watched it tonight. Based on Vince's casual introduction of it at the fair, I didn't know what to expect from Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West, the film produced by Wayne Kopping and Raphael Shore. It actually is quite an impressive production. Obsession, according to IMDB, had its release last year and has won several film festival awards, notably the Best Feature Film at the Liberty Film Festival and awards in Houston and Newport Beach festivals as well. Kopping's previous effort, Relentless: The Struggle For Peace In The Middle East, provided a...

August 31, 2006

An Unhealthy Fixation

I have often written about the fixation that the Left has on George Bush as a type of illness, which some name Bush Derangement Syndrome. This fixation leads some to blame Bush for all of the world's ills and to consider him more dangerous than terrorists, a nuclear-armed Iran, and just about anything else. It's this kind of thinking that led British filmmakers to create a fantasy-docudrama in which Bush gets assassinated in Chicago (via Hot Air and Michelle Malkin): This is the dramatic moment when President George Bush is gunned down by a sniper after a public address at a hotel, in a gripping new docudrama soon to be aired on TV. Set around October 2007, President Bush is assassinated as he leaves the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago. Death of a President, shot in the style of a retrospective documentary, looks at the effect the assassination of Bush has...

November 23, 2006

Movie Review: Casino Royale

I've always been a mild fan of the James Bond films. I think this comes from the state of the series when I got old enough to see them in the cinema; Sean Connery had given way to Roger Moore by then, and the series had grown cartoonish and self-effacing. Only later did I watch Connery master the role, and then see Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan tackle it in a serious manner, and I discovered the fun of Bond. Nevertheless, the fatal flaw of all the films came from their formulaic focus on sexy women and technogadgets rather than a believable plot or characters made out of more than cardboard. In Casino Royale, however, the producers have hit the Reset button, almost literally. Daniel Craig makes his first appearance as Bond, replacing the excellent Pierce Brosnan, and the producers said they wanted to rethink the Bond approach with this...

December 1, 2006

Movie Review: The Nativity Story

One of the more anticipated films for us this season has been The Nativity Story, which the First Mate had first known from listening to Relevant Radio. New Line Cinema, which produced Lord of the Rings, goes for another epic story, but in this case they focus less on the epic nature of the Nativity and more on the human story behind it. The story starts with Herod's order to slay every firstborn male child in Bethlehem, and the images are grim, chaotic, and dark. Herod, played with some ferocity by the outstanding Ciaran Hinds (Rome's Julius Caesar), makes it clear with almost every syllable that he will not brook a rival to his power, prophecy or no. He intends on ruling his adopted people -- Herod was an Arab, not born a Jew -- until his final breath, as his son Antipas notes. After that, the film returns us...

January 19, 2007

Hang 'Em High

No, this isn't another post about Saddam Hussein. Last night, I decided to relax and watch an old movie that happened to be on at just the right time, Clint Eastwood's Hang 'Em High. This was Eastwood's first film at his Malpaso production company, an attempt to create an American "spaghetti western" of the kind that Sergio Leone had made so successfully. While it's easy to dismiss Eastwood's early career in Westerns as cartoonish and overly stylized, Hang 'Em High deserves more consideration as an early Eastwood masterpiece. It starts off as a simple vengeance story. Eastwood, as Jed Cooper, gets lynched by mistake when a party of vigilantes mistakes him for a criminal. After being rescued, he is determined to find the men responsible for his near hanging and becomes a lawman to do it legally. However, he wants them brought to justice, which means the court of Judge...

Movie Review: Children Of Men

I took half a day off from work today to take the First Mate home from the hospital and then get her to her regularly scheduled dialysis treatment. When I dropped her off inside the center, she teased me about what I would do with the unexpected few hours of free time, saying that she figured I'd spend the time blogging, "as usual". I told her that I might take the opportunity to do something different, perhaps even take in a movie. I should have stuck with the FM's suggestion. ** SPOILERS ** The movie that best fit my free time was one that had flown under my radar, a grim apocalyptic movie called Children of Men by Alfonso Cuarón. The film features a fine cast, mostly British except for Julianne Moore as the leader of a terrorist group known as the Fishes, and she doesn't stick around too long....

February 17, 2007

The Proper Way To Celebrate The Oscars

As CQ readers know, I like to watch the Oscars just to keep up with the outrageous commentary and the silly politics that always accompany the awards. I've live-blogged the ceremonies the last two years, mostly just for the fun of indulging in some snark. This year, however, I have a better option -- and so do you. Michael Medved will come to the luxurious Saint Paul Hotel for a banquet dinner and running commentary for the Oscars on Sunday, February 25th. I'll be live-blogging from the hotel, but if you're in town, you should join us there for the best possible Oscar experience. Tickets are on sale now at The Patriot at the above link -- and they will go fast. And, for those of you who read down this far into this post, I have a surprise. We will give away a pair of tickets on the show...

February 24, 2007

Movie Review: Amazing Grace

We're in the middle of the biggest snowstorm of the year, perhaps of the last few years, but I wanted to make sure I saw the film Amazing Grace as soon as it opened in our area. I had heard almost nothing about the movie before its opening last night, except that it purported to tell the true story of hymn that I love. I had some familiarity with the story of how the song came to be written and thought it would make a grand story for the screen. However, I was wrong -- about the plot of the film. The genesis of the song is mostly ignored for the more gripping story of the man who fought slavery in Great Britain over the long course of his life, and if anything, this seems more fitting than my original notion. The film succeeds in combining faith, history, politics, and...

February 25, 2007

A Quiet Night With Oscar

Originally, I planned to attend the Oscar festivities with Michael Medved and AM 1280 The Patriot this evening at the beautiful Saint Paul, one of the classiest hotels in the world. However, I had to clear my driveway twice today after the big snowstorms that hit the Twin Cities this weekend. I tweaked my back a little, just enough to convince me that resting it tonight makes the most sense. I apologize to my friends and listeners here who I'd hoped to see, but I'll be sure to make it to the next event. However, I still plan on live-blogging the Oscars, so keep checking back on this post. We'll have lots of fun with the pomp and pompousness that comes with the Academy Awards, and by the time the evening's over, we'll all feel like giving 30-second acceptance speeches in which we thank everyone we ever met in our...

June 10, 2007

Movie Review: Knocked Up

Some movies lose the audience in the first ten minutes, with unrealistic characterization and uncomfortable plot points. Knocked Up comes close to doing that by presenting us with perhaps the most ineligible bachelors seen yet on screen. However, if people wait out the first half-hour of the movie, it develops into something rather touching, in its own way. ** Spoilers -- be warned! ** Knocked Up tells a story about the consequences of one's actions and poor decisions. Katherine Heigl ("Gray's Anatomy") plays Alison Scott, a young woman with a future in television. She finds out that E! wants to make her an on-camera talent, and she goes out to a hot nightclub with her sister Debbie, a frustrated thirtysomething wife and mother played by Leslie Mann. She hooks up with Ben Stone at the club (played by 40 Year Old Virgin supporting actor Seth Rogan) and celebrates a little...

June 14, 2007

Do As I Say, Hollywood Style

Angelina Jolie has begun promoting her new film, A Mighty Heart, which tells the story of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Last night's premiere benefitted the anti-censorship organization Reporters Without Borders, but Jolie's approach to interviews on behalf of the film seems more reminiscent of the tinpot dictators that the organization fights (via Memeorandum): Reporters from most major media outlets balked Wednesday when they were presented with an agreement drawn up by Jolie's Hollywood lawyer Robert Offer. The contract closely dictated the terms of all interviews. Reporters were asked to agree to "not ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships. In the event Interviewer does ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships, Ms. Jolie will have the right to immediately terminate the interview and leave." The agreement also required that "the interview may only be used to promote the Picture. In no event may...

July 4, 2007

A Cinematic Fourth

I hope that all of the CQ community has had or is having a wonderful Fourth with their families. This year, the First Mate and I decided to celebrate a little differently. Last year, when both of us had major health problems, we went to the town's parade and a family brunch, but this year, we went to the movies to beat the humidity and heat. We did an a la carte double feature today. The first movie we saw was Evan Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty, starring Steve Carell as a newsman-turned-Congressman. In this movie, Morgan Freeman returns as God to instruct Carell to build an ark. Carell turns into Noah,and his family has to decide whether to stand by him -- and the multitude of animals that follow Carell. It's an entertaining movie, not terribly challenging but with some heart. The politics of it are tiresomely predictable;...

A Cinematic Fourth

I hope that all of the CQ community has had or is having a wonderful Fourth with their families. This year, the First Mate and I decided to celebrate a little differently. Last year, when both of us had major health problems, we went to the town's parade and a family brunch, but this year, we went to the movies to beat the humidity and heat. We did an a la carte double feature today. The first movie we saw was Evan Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty, starring Steve Carell as a newsman-turned-Congressman. In this movie, Morgan Freeman returns as God to instruct Carell to build an ark. Carell turns into Noah,and his family has to decide whether to stand by him -- and the multitude of animals that follow Carell. It's an entertaining movie, not terribly challenging but with some heart. The politics of it are tiresomely predictable;...

August 17, 2007

Who Killed Steven Seagal's Career?

Steven Seagal has had a strange odyssey through Hollywood. He exploded on the scene in 1988, in his self-produced Above the Law after six years of serving as a martial-arts consultant in films. Seagal made a string of largely similar films over the next fifteen years, usually with names that fit "Steven Seagal Is --" above the title, such as "Steven Seagal Is -- Out For Justice!" Most of these films were self-produced, and most of them featured a martial-arts master delivering justice in his own very special way. Eventually, audiences found other action films and stars, leaving Seagal behind. However, Seagal contends that the real murderer of his career isn't changing tastes or even the butler, but the FBI: According to Seagal, it's the FBI's fault that he now stars in low-budget movies that go straight to video. And he wants an apology from the bureau. The 56-year-old pony-tailed...

October 20, 2007

What The Hollywood Writers Strike Will Mean

The Writers Guild has authorized a strike against Hollywood studios if they cannot get an acceptable contract by the end of this month. Over 90% of the voting members of the union supported a walkout over the structure of residual payments from DVD and other ancillary markets. The studios will need to rush their current productions: The strike vote is the latest development in a month that has been filled with increasingly heated rhetoric from both the WGA and the AMPTP. On Tuesday, the AMPTP offered the first olive branch in the ongoing negotiations by withdrawing a contentious proposal to revamp the way studios make residual payments to writers. Residuals are continuous payments that are issued when movies or television shows are sold in ancillary markets like DVD. Should the WGA call a strike on Nov. 1, the frantic race to make as many movies and television shows before a...

October 26, 2007

In The Valley Of Ennui

Hollywood came under criticism since 9/11 for ignoring the war on terror, going out of its way to avoid making films that tell stories of American fortitude. With a few exceptions like United 93 and World Trade Center, the cinema remained devoid of any meaningful representation of the war. That changed this year, but not for the better, as Hollywood instead began churning out politically-motivated anti-war films. Given the supposed anti-war mood of the nation, it sounded like a sure bet for financial success and a critical slap at the military and Bush administration. Fortunately, Hollywood appears to have lost its bet (via Instapundit): It doesn't matter how many Oscar winners are in front of or behind the camera — audiences are proving to be conscientious objectors when it comes to this fall's surge of antiwar and anti-Bush films. Both "In the Valley of Elah" and, more recently, "Rendition" drew...

November 14, 2007

How Many People Care About The Writers Guild Strike?

The Writers Guild went on strike earlier this month, suspending television and film production in Hollywood while they tussle with the studios over residual payments. So far, this has received significant coverage in the media, and today, Newsweek offers one writer the opportunity to explain the reason the writers walked off the job. What Douglas McGrath fails to provide is a reason to care about the issue: When video came into being, a new accommodation was made, allowing a small residual for tapes and then DVDs. I am not being hyperbolic when I say "small." For a DVD sold for $19.99, we are paid 4 cents. To put that in perspective, that means that to pay for one tank of gas, a writer needs to sell 1,500 DVDs. To put it another way, it's a penny less than if we returned an empty can of Coke. We negotiated this formula...

Writers Guild Strike: Another Perspective

Shawna Benson wrote a lengthy comment on my previous post -- and in many ways a better argument than Douglas McGrath made in Newsweek or Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post. I'm going to highlight it as its own post. I'm dismayed that so many people lack understanding of the issues involved. I am a conservative living in Hollywood, an aspiring TV writer, and believe me, I'm no union lover. But, consider the following: * Not every writer sells work every year. Yes, there is the MBA (Minimum Basic Agreement) for works sold to studios, and many writers make more than the MBA on a screenplay sale, but often that screenplay is the result of a year or more in writing. The contracted minimum for a screenplay today is between $53,000 and $99,000. TV writers, who often only write one or two scripts in a season, can make up to...

November 24, 2007

Movie Review: Enchanted

What would happen if a Disney princess got unceremoniously dropped into real life? As the grandfather of a five-year-old girl who practically lives in Disney Princess motif, I have to admit the thought crossed my mind more than once. It also crossed minds at Disney, and the new film Enchanted and its cast fulfills most of the promise of the premise. *** A few mild spoilers exist in this review. *** Minnesota-based Amy Adams plays Giselle, a very limited young lady from an enchanted-forest cottage who only dreams of True Love's Kiss. James Marsden plays her equally benighted young prince, Prince Edward. When Edward's wicked stepmother Narissa (voiced and played deliciously by Susan Sarandon) reckons that the marriage of the two will strip her of her crown, she pushes Giselle down a wishing well that sends her out of a New York City manhole -- and into the path of...

November 28, 2007

Hollywood's Messaging Meltdown

Hollywood studios have offered Americans a steady diet of antiwar messaging, but Americans aren't biting. Major releases have tallied less than independent documentaries in US theaters, while family fare and more mainstream films profit from their collapse. Investors Business Daily wonders whether Hollywood has gotten the message on messaging: Why doesn't Hollywood cut to the chase the next time it wants to insult the public with a new war-on-terror film and just call it "Bombs Away"? As movies depicting U.S. troops as bad guys and terrorists as sensitive, misunderstood souls continue to crank out, the industry needs to take its puny box office returns as a wake-up call from the public. Despite top star billings, big-foot directors, the best publicity money can buy and critical acclaim, the public just isn't biting. The problem is the content. "Redacted," gave us the Christmasy theme of Iraqi rape starring U.S. troops as rapists....

December 12, 2007

Maybe It Would Just Last An Hour

The writers' strike grinds on in Hollywood, with no end in sight for the work stoppage in the entertainment industry. As the days pass, some wonder whether the strike will affect the Oscars -- and if so, what the effect will be. What would an Academy Awards show do without writers? No official cancellation announcements have been made, but with three prominent award shows just around the corner -- the Golden Globes airs in January, the Grammy's in early February and the Academy Awards just a few weeks later -- industry insiders have been speculating about how the shows will air without a team of writers in place to craft the monologues and introductions. Former head writer for the Oscars Bruce Vilanch told Variety that an Academy Awards ceremony sans writers would certainly make for interesting -- if not dull -- television. "There might be an Oscar show, but I...

January 15, 2008

Idiocracy

Tired of the political season already? Need a break from the seriousness and the foolishness? If you're looking for a few laughs and you don't care whether they're lowbrow, try renting Idiocracy or catching it on cable. From the creator of "Beavis & Butthead" and "King of the Hill", Idiocracy tells the story about a very average man who gets inadvertently thrust forward five hundred years, when the entire planet has become ... well, pretty damned stupid. How did that happen? Here's the beginning of the film, which explains it: This is no Citizen Kane or even There's Something About Mary, but its depiction of politics in 2505 will leave you in tears from laughter, and perhaps with some sense of familiarity. It may not take 500 years for that particular part of the dystopian view to become reality....

January 21, 2008

Gunny Scarlett

In the credit-where-credit's-due department, give a cheer for Scarlett Johansson, the Hollywood film actress and Bush-administration critic. She shelved her political positions in order to brighten the day for a lucky group of Marines, and got a set of stripes for her visit: If anyone has wondered what can make a battle hardened Marine act like a love-struck high-schooler, the answer is simple—a meet and greet with Scarlett Johansson. The 23-year-old bombshell met with nearly 600 service members at Camp Buehring, Kuwait Jan. 20 during her five-day United Service Organizations (USO) tour to the Gulf region. Hundreds of Marines and sailors from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit put on their best smiles as they waited anxiously to get a glimpse of the Hollywood actress. “I’m a huge Scarlett fan,” said Lance Cpl. Nathan Long, a calibration technician with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 166 (REIN), 11th MEU. “When I found out...

February 9, 2008

Expelled: The Movie

The bloggers at CPAC received an invitation to screen a new documentary on academic intolerance called Expelled: The Movie this evening. The documentary features Ben Stein on a quest to understand the near-hysteria caused by scientists who so much as broach the idea of intelligent design in papers or in research. It follows Stein as he interviews professors denied tenure, editors fired, and journalists shunned for touching the subject even at its most innocuous levels. Before discussing my feelings about the film, which is still in post-production and will not go into release until April, I should explain my approach to the ID/evolution debate. I believe evolution is demonstrably proven in enough examples to say that its effect on variation in species cannot be denied. The example I used tonight in discussing this with another viewer (certainly not the only example) is antibiotic effects on bacteria. Antibiotics that kill 99%...

February 11, 2008

Bye, Bye, Roy

Roy Scheider passed away yesterday after a lengthy bout with multiple myeloma. At seventy-five, Scheider had proven his mettle on both stage and screen, and as both leading man and character actor. He was 75 years old: Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Mr. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Seimer, said. Mr. Scheider’s rangy figure, gaunt face and emotional openness made him particularly appealing in everyman roles, most famously as the agonized police chief of “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg’s 1975 breakthrough hit, about a New England resort town haunted by the knowledge that a killer shark is preying on...