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Category Archives: “Entertainment”

Film Critic Gets Slammed by Studio for Positive Review of Its Movie

Sorta. Seems the New Yorker published David Denby’s two-thumbs-up take on David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a tad early for the taste of Scott Rudin, one of the film’s producers:

[Y]ou simply have to be good for your word. Your seeing the movie was conditional on your honoring the embargo, which you agreed to do. The needs of the magazine cannot trump your word. The fact that the review is good is immaterial, as I suspect you know. You’ve very badly damaged the movie by doing this, and I could not in good conscience invite you to see another movie of mine again, Daldry or otherwise. I can’t ignore this, and I expect that you wouldn’t either if the situation were reversed. I’m really not interested in why you did this except that you did — and you must at least own that, purely and simply, you broke your word to us and that that is a deeply lousy and immoral thing to have done.

Early screenings are sometimes opened to critics on the condition that they embargo their reviews until a certain date, even if the reviews are good. Often the filmmakers are still tinkering at the time of the screenings, and the review may be based on a version of the film that audiences will never see.

Denby has a point, but Rudin is right. The New Yorker critic agreed to play by the rules and he didn’t, and not just because there’s a bottleneck of “adult” films at the end of the year and the magazine had tight deadlines. He also wanted to be one of the first critics out there with a word on an eagerly anticipated thriller, a re-visioning of the bestselling Stieg Larsson novel that had already been terrifyingly adapted for the screen by Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev.

Oh well. Denby can always stand on line opening day like the rest of the 99 percent…

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Posted by Anthony Sacramone on December 6, 2011 in "Entertainment"

Woody Allen

21 Nov

When I was a teen, there were two books I carried on my personal person wherever I went: Woody Allen’s Getting Even and Without Feathers. The absurd verbal ingenuity and contrasting conceptual portraits were incomparable, and paid dividends with repeated readings.

His stand-up act, captured in the two-record set Woody Allen: The Nightclub Years, enjoys more original, brilliant self-deprecating one-liners than most comics could pay for in a lifetime, and I played the grooves off those albums through my high school years. (Recently, I found a paper I wrote in high school on Allen’s worldview as advanced in his humor. I got an A-; I lost some credit for not quoting other authors and critics sufficiently.)

The first Woody Allen film I remember seeing was Take the Money and Run, which ran as part of a double feature with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’s Smarter Brother. Anyone who could even conceive of a guy playing a cello in a marching band was destined to be someone who would have a seminal influence on my life. Other favorites include, predictably, Love and Death, Bananas, Play It Again Sam, Annie Hall, and Radio Days. Films that grew on me over time include Small Time Crooks, Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Hollywood Ending, and Scoop. Two films I absolutely despise are Deconstructing Harry and Whatever Works. The nihilism is acrid.

The most overrated: Hannah and Her Sisters, an opinion that will get you thrown out of some of the best bagel shops on the Upper West Side.

I would eventually come to blanch at his uncharacteristically simple-minded and cliched view of religion, as a mere anodyne solution to the anxiety produced by the realization of our mortality, as well as the aforementioned nihilism, which Allen uses to rationalize almost any kind of behavior among his characters so long as it helps them get through their night terrors. (Of course, he could also parody mercilessly the phony philosophizing and intellectual pretensions of his New York and Hollywood peers.)

I say all this as an introduction to the PBS two-part American Masters documentary on the former Allen Stewart Konigsberg. What makes this film so interesting is that Allen played an integral role in its production (as did his sister, to whom he has remained quite devoted, and his many co-stars). The stuff about his early life, rise to fame and acclaim, and writing process are well worth your time if you count any of his films among your favorites.

Part One aired last night, and Part Two airs tonight at 9.

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Posted by Anthony Sacramone on November 21, 2011 in "Entertainment"

Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah’ to Finally Set Sail

05 Oct

So the director of Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, The Fountain, Black Swan, and my personal favorite, Pi, has the $100+ million from Paramount that he needs to bring the story of Noah to the Big Screen:

“Since I was a kid, I have been moved and inspired by the story of Noah and his family’s journey,” Aronofsky said in a statement. “The imaginations of countless generations have sparked to this epic story of faith. It’s my hope that I can present a window into Noah’s passion and perseverance for the silver screen.”

He’s looking to cast Christian Bale as the biblical patriarch, which is actually kind of cool.

Previous Noahs have included John Huston in his own faithful The Bible, which I saw once as a kid and never forgot. There is also Steve Carell’s sorta kinda turn in the miserably stupid Evan Almighty.

Aronofsky is an interesting guy. I wasn’t crazy about The Fountain, which came off as one of those incomprehensible vanity projects every director has locked away in his head that should probably stay there. I thought The Wrestler trite, which is to say, overrated, although I enjoyed Mickey Rourke’s performance very much. I was able to glean some interesting law-gospel distinctions from Black Swan, although I have a feeling I will look back at that film in a few years and go “What in the world was I thinking?”

I always like to peruse a director’s credits and see if there is some thematic through-line. For example, other than the fact that the aforementioned John Huston enjoyed grand tales, the classics, there isn’t a lot that ties his work together, even visually. Orson Welles, on the other hand, was fascinated by the mystery behind the Big Man — whether it was Charles Foster Kane, Othello, Don Quixote, Falstaff, Mr. Arkadin, even a lousy cop like Hank Quinlan. Who are these people, really? What drives them? It was as if he was trying to answer the question people had about Welles himself.

Aronofsky seems fascinated with obsessive types: from the numbers-mad recluse in Pi to the drug-addicted souls in Requiem to the scientist driven to save his dying wife in The Fountain to the lost and lonely wrestler who can see only one road before him to the perfection-haunted ballet dancer in Black Swan.

I too love the monomaniac — the chess master, the mad scientist, the artist driven to finish his masterwork — which is why I will always plunk down my nickel to see something with Aronofsky’s name above the title, even though I have been disappointed in the past.

And now we have Noah to look forward to: the story of a man who is convinced God has spoken to him and will let nothing stand in the way of his fulfilling the divine command to build the ark despite the scoffers and sunny skies. Sort of like a talented film director with an idea no one else really gets.

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Posted by Anthony Sacramone on October 5, 2011 in "Entertainment", Bags and Bags of Dough

How Does Mr. Bean Find Vicars? He Turns Left at the Millennium Bridge.

02 Oct

Rowan Atkinson, of Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and Johnny English fame, is not known for doing many interviews, so when he finally does relent, fans pick over the syllables for something revealing or amusing.

Well, Atkinson spoke with the Times of London recently and had this to say about Church of England vicars:

I used to think that the vicars that I played . . . were unreasonable satires on well-meaning individuals but, actually, so many of the clerics that I’ve met, particularly the Church of England clerics, are people of such extraordinary smugness and arrogance and conceitedness who are extraordinarily presumptuous about the significance of their position in society. Increasingly, I believe that all the mud that Richard Curtis and I threw at them through endless sketches that we’ve done is more than deserved.

Now I think Atkinson’s a brilliant comic actor, and his Thin Blue Line remains an all-time favorite. But Rowan, come back to us: What is the bloody point of being C of E if you can’t be smug, arrogant, and conceited? What were you expecting? Charity, humility, and circumspection? Those are the Methodists, you silly git!

I mean…

I did like one of the replies to Atkinson’s critique:

The Priest-in-Charge of Mr Atkinson’s parish in Northamptonshire is the Rt Revd John Flack. He said on Wednesday that he had never seen the comedian in church, and that to visit him would be difficult, as he lives behind high-security gates. “But I have written, inviting him to have a talk. I look forward to hearing from him.”

And good luck with that.

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Posted by Anthony Sacramone on October 2, 2011 in "Entertainment", My Hat Is Bigger Than Your Hat

Ghostbusters Meets Caddyshack

28 Sep

I knew that’d get your attention. One of my favorite fun sites, io9, has collected in one post a litany of “embarrassing” scenes edited out of some very successful movies.

Start streaming them and you’ll learn why they never made the final cut real fast. But there’s one I think is pretty funny, and was probably cut because it was a little too wink-wink cute — this one with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray as hobos in the original Ghostbusters:

Also: The first Terminator 2 video, of Arnold learning to smile, was also probably too endearing for the otherwise dehumanizing tone of that piledriver of an interminably over-caffeinated B-picture prison-break movie:

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Posted by Anthony Sacramone on September 28, 2011 in "Entertainment", Hobos Are Our Friends, I Think I Know That Guy

Christie to ‘Jersey Shore’: It Would Be So Nice if You Weren’t Here

27 Sep

So I just found my candidate for president, assuming he runs:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cut $420,000 in tax credits Monday that would have gone to 495 Productions, the company responsible for bringing the escapades of “Pauly D” and “The Situation” to the masses via MTV.

Christie has two concerns: He doesn’t care for the tax credit program, and he really doesn’t like how Jersey Shore depicts the state.

And that means no more “Snooki subsidy.”

“I am duty-bound to ensure that taxpayers are not footing a $420,000 bill for a project which does nothing more than perpetuate misconceptions about the state and its citizens,” Christie said in a statement.

That’s not all. The governor also has what his office called “long held, serious concerns” about the value of the entire New Jersey Film Tax Credit Transfer Program, a $10 million effort designed to bring more film and television production to the state.

Here’s hoping the governor doesn’t have a massive coronary between now and November 2012. Paisan, leave the cannolis, take the gun!

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Posted by Anthony Sacramone on September 27, 2011 in "Entertainment", Your Tax Dollars at Work

Strange Arabic Script on Bottom of Southwest Planes Turns Out to Be Note Greenlighting ‘Whitney’

23 Sep

So this cryptic Arabic-looking writing was discovered on the undercarriage of Southwest Airlines 737 jets. It was only discovered once the engines were turned on and the plane’s belly was warmed up, as the writing was done in “invisible paint”:

In a statement to KNX 1070 radio, Southwest said it is working with authorities to uncover who was behind the ‘vandalism’, but added that currently it is not clear how many people are involved.

Southwest also said the writings did not imply any safety issues.

Despite an FBI investigation into the writings, the trend has increased in recent weeks.

The “writing” looks more like the cave paintings of Altamira though not as cute. And why is it so difficult to translate? Does no one in the FBI read Arabic? Or did they scare all the Arab speakers off? Are we certain it even is Arabic? It could just be gibberish that some knothead assumed was Arabic because it was secret and menacing (for that matter, it could have been a teacher’s note; I do believe I can make out the word “boisterous,” which I used to get a lot).

If it does turn out to be a prank by some brain-damaged employee, I dare say the union will come to his defense and negotiate a nice severance package.

What is truly indefensible, though, were last night’s episodes of The Office and the debut of Whitney. Now The Office was already past its sell-by date, but making Andy Bernard the office manager and — Ta Da! — Robert California some now-you-see-him-now-you-don’t CEO figure was obviously the result of gag fatigue. (I hope they intend to make better use of James Spader than they did last night.)

Maybe they should really go out with a bang and end the season, and the series, with a Christmas special. Or maybe a Halloween special. Or maybe in mid-episode next week. (A for-real preggers Jenna Fischer looks like she’d rather be anywhere but on that set anymore, like she’d be happy to just pack up her grip and walk off the set, get into her car, and drive off the lot, as those mockumentary cameras follow her down Wiltshire Blvd.)

As for Whitney, the commercials we were bombarded with throughout August looked like we could be in for some Laverne Di Fazio-type wackadoodle mayhem, with just a touch of Dharma & Greg and updated for the 21st century. It turned out to be another sex-obsessed drone of a witless piece of crap bomb with characters who could not die fast enough. Talk about trying too hard. And what exactly it was they were trying to do in the first place is a question that would make the Oracle cry. (A French maid’s getup? Really? You do know that the French make you clean up after yourself now, don’t you?)

But don’t let that stop you from watching it. I don’t want to influence you.

I was also disappointed with my much-beloved Big Bang Theory. The writers are beginning to rehash a lot of the same gags and scenarios, and the bed-play banter is taking on an increasingly Two and a Half Men tone, which is never good. Also, the endless “Will Penny and Leonard finally get back together?” business is beyond tired: its moribund. And Penny’s hemorrhoid commercial? That joke was stale in 1983.

Some concepts have only so much yuck in them. It’s easy to forget how difficult it is to keep material fresh given how long American TV seasons are, compared with, say, Britcom “series.” The IT Crowd, another A-fave, is six episodes and done, whereas American shows have 22 episodes a year to churn out, so is it any secret why they begin to feel assembly line-ish?

I DVR’d Parks & Recreation. Here’s hoping for better news on that front.

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Posted by Anthony Sacramone on September 23, 2011 in "Entertainment", Please Spare Us and We'll Be Your Very Bestest Friend, Please Stop Saying Jennifer Aniston Is Dull

Kim Jong-Il’s Godzilla Movies. Yeah, Like You’re Not Interested Now.

22 Sep

Funny how I never came across this in any of the film-history books I’ve read over the years:

Long before his father’s death in 1994, Kim Jong Il played supervisor to the North Korean movie industry. As such, he made sure each production served double duty as both art form and propaganda-dispersion vehicle. Per his instructions, the nation’s cinematic output consisted of films illuminating themes such as North Korea’s fantastic military strength and what horrible people the Japanese are. It was the perfect job for a cinephile like Kim, whose personal movie collection reportedly features thousands of titles, including favorites “Friday the 13th,” “Rambo,” and anything starring Elizabeth Taylor or Sean Connery. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Anthony Sacramone on September 22, 2011 in "Entertainment", This Is So Not Good

Leonardo DiCaprio Is J. Edgar Hoover

21 Sep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOrvBdruAGU

Clint Eastwood directs, and so it will be interesting to see the take on this guy.

Also coming up, Warren Beatty is returning to the big screen with a biopic of … Howard Hughes. Wasn’t there a Howard Hughes movie by a major director and big star already, and recently?