News didn’t break so much as trickle out this morning here in Hollywood that Nicolas Cage has agreed to play Al Capone in The Untouchables: Capone Rising, Brian De Palma’s prequel to his Summer 1987 smash. As I dealt with deafening construction outside my window while trying to decipher the dulcet tones of Antonio Banderas … Continue reading
Enjoy your blockbuster respite this weekend, folks, ‘cuz the summer movie onslaught picks up again next Friday with the heavily hyped release of Shrek the Third. For fans of the first two movies, Shrek the Third delivers more of the same and reacquaints you with all of your favorite characters: Shrek, Donkey, Puss-in-Boots, Fiona, Prince … Continue reading
Okay, James Wolcott. I’ll see your "lean cut Giacometti sculpture with a lone wolf aura" and raise you "the apotheosis of wounded American manhood in an era when being a man was anathema to the national mood". I can’t win here because I had to click through to your linked picture of a Giacometti sculpture; … Continue reading
Jack Valenti may be dead, but the MPAA’s draconian practices are not; as of today, the organization will view the smoking of cigarettes in movies as a determining factor in their already screwy ratings system. This decision has been a long time coming, particularly for an industry based in a state that’s led the way … Continue reading
One of my new favorite Chewers, Vader Bee, did the good work for CHUD this morning. He attended the Paramount/Dreamworks Building Wrap Unveiling for Transformers, where the official spokesman of the impossible-to-please Transfans, Tattoo from The Big Boy Morning Show on Power 106, was expected to give the Michael Bay action extravaganza his blessing, thus … Continue reading
Being woefully ignorant of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, I’m not going to hazard a guess as to what this early-in-the-game New Line sizzle reel bodes for The Golden Compass. Is it as impressive as the early peeks at Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings? Of course not. Is it attempting that kind … Continue reading
(Screw invisi-text; spoilers for a movie you may not have seen ahead!) I’m a sucker for animals, but I generally hate movies about animals even if they’re well made. When Paul Mazursky’s very good Harry and Tonto was released to DVD last year, I loathed having to rewatch it because, for all the nice character … Continue reading
I had no strong feelings one way or another about Terminator 3; though many of us expected a disaster, director Jonathan Mostow delivered a reasonably entertaining action movie capped by a nihilistic finale that was refreshingly out of place in a major Hollywood blockbuster. As a refutation of the bittersweet but generally upbeat Shane ending … Continue reading
Mark it down: today is the day Transfans came ’round on Michael Bay’s Transformers. Yes, the Transfans, those recalcitrant defenders of all things transforming (and, according to a recent Pew study, the most wedgied fanbase in geekdom), are finally getting things to break their way. Though they’ve howled in disgust at unrecognizable character designs, organized … 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