I’m only posting this because I feel obliged to give folks who are actively excited over Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight their 307th glimpse of Heath Ledger as The Joker. Little has changed since our first impression; he still looks vaguely like the The Crow, and we still haven’t heard him say a fucking word. … Continue reading
At first blush, United International Pictures unceremoniously kiboshing the Japanese release of Evan Almighty doesn’t seem like the greatest news in the world for Steve Carell. Pretty much every major studio release gets a shot at the Japanese market. They got Suspect Zero, for cryin’ out loud. And yet there is a positive side to … Continue reading
I’ll admit it: I am completely incapable of understanding other cultures, races, ethnicities and creeds without a white surrogate. I am frightened by the other. They smell different. They eat loudly. They lambada. Thankfully, Hollywood feels the same way. For example, when they deign to diagnose, say, the extremely naughty conflict diamond trade in Sierra … Continue reading
Managing one’s expectations for Robert Zemeckis’s performance capture rendition of Beowulf is easy: just recall the front-to-back awfulness of The Polar Express! That film was Zemeckis at his autopilot worst. Though a technical marvel and occasionally thrilling amusement park ride if viewed in IMAX 3-D (pity the suckers who suffered through it in 2-D), The … Continue reading
Had the below clip of Cate Blanchett inhabiting the body of a twenty-four-year-old Bob Dylan following the troubadour’s electric transgression at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival appeared before I began categorizing the year’s remaining films, I would’ve bumped Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There up to "Sure Thing" status. Because something is happening here, and I … Continue reading
For a while there, it looked as though 2007 was gearing up to be one of the worst movie years in film history. Typically, a couple of difficult-to-market gems turn up in February or March, but, this year, it was all dross: the studio stuff (Ghost Rider, Wild Hogs, Norbit, Epic Movie, etc.) was wretched … Continue reading
From the looks of the below-embedded trailer, 20th Century Fox’s The Dark is Rising will mark the studio’s second failed attempt to launch a fantasy franchise in as many years. As with Eragon, the culprit is a dearth of genuine enthusiasm for the material; this is yet another "all-ages" picture more interested in hitting quadrants … Continue reading
Since one of my friends is an idiot who watches more television than Billy Baldwin in Sliver ("Get a life!"), I got hooked on American Idol during the 2005 season, which boasted what may have been the most talented class of finalists in the show’s history. Of course, the winner was some prematurely graying jackass … Continue reading
For today and maybe today only, I’m going to stow the negative attitude and say something nice about Indiana Jones 4: it’s pretty goddamn cool to see the world’s toughest professor shooting us the ol’ constipated glare for the first time in eighteen years. And while I don’t know for sure what’s got his attention … Continue reading
Peter Jackson’s casting on The Lovely Bones has been note perfect thus far (what with Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling snagging the crucial parental roles), so I’m going to trust him on thirteen-year-old Ms. Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon (and we’ll be seeing Ronan very soon as the daughter of Michelle Pfeiffer in Amy Heckerling’s … Continue reading