"We’re like a percentage of something going bad somewhere. It’s terrible." Though it’s not necessarily surprising to hear someone reflecting negatively on the sorry psychological state of the nation, this cynical tone can’t help but sound awfully dissonant when it’s coming from Kevin Costner, who is inseparable in person from his amiable onscreen persona. Whether … Continue reading
Back in college, an actor friend of mine approached me to write a one-man show in which he would play Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk from the moment of his conception to his iconic home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. "Fiskie lived life the way it should be lived," he … Continue reading
When I saw this ad on the side of the bus yesterday, I thought it was a brilliant act of vandalism and cursed my lack of a camera phone. As it turns out, it’s actually legitimate. But it does underscore Fox’s difficult task in marketing a PG-13 Die Hard. Though I’m hardly representative of the … Continue reading
A lot of development dollars have undoubtedly been wasted on this remake of an adaptation of a short story reportedly loathed by its original author, but it’s the idea that counts, right? If so, I still don’t understand why James Thurber’s The Secret Life of Motherfucking Walter Mitty persists as a viable project for vain … Continue reading
Welcome to the next CHUD List. We’ve tackled our essentials list and the continued revelation of our Kills List from 2003, and now that we’ve begun the beguine, we must continue. Behold: The CHUD.com Top 50 Disappointments. A quick word on the criteria. We could very easily have spent this whole article discussing sequels and … Continue reading
In a fairly surprising move, the Venice Film Festival has announced it is in talks to host the world premiere of Robert Zemeckis’s 3-D performance capture epic Beowulf. This is odd in that it’s rare for a mainstream skewing studio release to bow so many months in advance, though Beowulf is relatively less expensive at … Continue reading
I’m not going to go overboard and declare James Gray a great filmmaker based on his Director’s Cut of The Yards as a few relatively sane folks have done; I think it’s a textured, fascinating character study, but it just misses on some level. It could be that Gray got to Mark Wahlberg too soon, … Continue reading
Three Christopher McQuarrie-related stories in one twelve-hour period? Better this than a day’s worth of Ron Bass updates. I take it you’re acquainted with Kenneth Branagh. He’s the British thespian who was threatening to become the next Laurence Olivier with Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing before Not Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Not Even Close … Continue reading
While we’re talking about squandered goodwill, now’s as good a time as any to bring up the Hughes Brothers. The directors of Menace II Society, the best hood film of the early 1990s (yes, even better than South Central), have had a rough go of it since succumbing to the sophomore slump in 1995 with … Continue reading
I received one email excoriating me for being too harsh on Chris McQuarrie’s Valkyrie. Unfortunately for the McQuarrie Defense League, it was from someone who hadn’t read the script. Look, no one’s more disappointed than me that McQuarrie’s output since The Usual Suspects has consisted of one measly movie. Though it’s not unprecedented for a … Continue reading