19 posts tagged “movies”
From Roger Ebert:
Everybody is making lists of the questions the candidates should be asked during the debates. My question would be: What's your favorite movie? As my faithful readers all know, the answer to that question says a lot about the person answering. It could be used as a screening device on a blind date.
He goes on to reveal Clinton's favorite movie- High Noon. Alright- classic western, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. Number 27 on the AFI's list of 100 great American movies. I can dig it.
George W. Bush's favorite movie of all-time? Armageddon. Seriously. That's funny/scary on so many levels!
Jen and I headed to Red Rocks last night for one of the Film on the Rocks events: a couple sets by Boulder Acoustic Society, followed by a screening of Shaun of the Dead. Since it's nearly impossible to find a ticket to a concert at Red Rocks for less than $50-$60 after TicketMonster charges, it's pretty cool to be able to go see something at this incredible venue for a mere $12 ($10 in advance at King Sooper's supermarkets).
We packed a picnic: homemade gazpacho, hummus, veggies and fruit, but forgot to bring a blanket, so our arses were a wee bit sore by the end of it- Red Rocks has horribly uncomfortable bleacher-type seating, but you're rarely sitting during a rock show! The music starts at 7, and we arrived around 8. We got to listen to a DJ spin for a bit, and I thought we had missed Boulder Acoustic Society. They did come out for a second set, and it was about what I had expected- pretty good old-timey folk revival kind of stuff. I think they'd sound a lot better in a small club.
We had noticed a few people dressed in full-on zombie costumes wandering through the crowd, which was kinda cool. Then they announced that it was time for the zombie contest. They brought all 15-20 zombies on stage, and had the crowd vote by applauding. We couldn't see them well enough from where we were sitting, but the winner won a 2-day pass to the Monolith Festival. Not bad, eh?
Here's a super high-quality photo- that's a Sylvester cartoon that preceded Shaun, and the lights of Denver in the distance:
One could argue that no sequels should ever be made (I'm talking specifically about flicks here). What are the odds that a sequel is worth watching? 10%? 5%? 1.5%
But, this one makes my blood boil:
S. Darko. Yep, a sequel to Donnie Darko. Apparently Donnie Darko creator Richard Kelly had to agree to sell a bit of his soul in order to get the original film picked up by a studio. Here's what he has to say:
I haven't read this script. I have absolutely no involvement with this production, nor will I ever be involved. I have no control over the rights from our original film, and neither I nor my producing partner Sean McKittrick stand to make any money from this film.
It looks like Patrick Swayze's battle with pancreatic cancer is going to come to a sad end soon.
Top 5 Swayze moments:
5. Roadhouse
4. Point Break
3. Red Dawn
2. Donnie Darko
1. The Chippendale's SNL skit with Chris Farley
Although I had written off the Swayz a long while back, his role as Jim Cunningham in 2001's Donnie Darko was priceless. The other day, while working on a reference question, I stumbled across a lesser-know Swayze flick- Steel Dawn. No, it's not a sequel to Red Dawn, but I have a feeling this might be his unknown masterpiece.
When I saw that the Redbox vending/rental machine a couple blocks away from our house just got stocked with the recent remake of Day of the Dead, I was all over it. I remembered reading that the recent one was supposed to be pretty cool- shot from the survivors' POV.
Well, turns out that was Diary of the Dead, George Romero's 5th installment of the series. That movie doesn't come out on DVD until May 20. What I rented was a straight-to-video hack remake of Romero's 1985 Day of the Dead. Unfortunately, this remake was nowhere near as cool as Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. The faster-moving zombies definitely make the newer additions to this genre a lot scarier, but what was truly frightening about this movie was the script and acting. I'm a sucker for zombie flicks, so I guess it wasn't a complete waste of time, but it was fairly atrocious.
Great cast- Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, Sean Penn, Robin Wright, John Turturro, a young John C Reilly...
With a script rewrite or two, and a better director, this could have been a masterpiece. I think David Chase and Martin Scorsese were influenced heavily by this movie. I know Scorsese's Oscar was the result of a Hong Kong remake, but this flick reminded me more of The Departed than Internal Affairs. In fact, The Departed would have been a better movie if Leo's character was ratting on his friends, like Penn's Terry Noonan.
Any other ideas? So far I've got:
The New York Times has a great Fall movies section, featuring a list of upcoming releases by month. This is good timing, since I just watched two really bad movies- The Number 23, with Jim Carrey, and Superman Returns. The Number 23 was one of the worst movies I've seen in a while. Superman wasn't quite as bad, but I really didn't enjoy it very much, beyond the performances of Kevin Spacey and Parker Posey. Seriously- Lex Luthor's diabolical plan was to create new land masses?
In any case, here are some of the fall movies I'm psyched to see:
Southland Tales (Nov 9)- Richard Kelly finally releases his follow-up to Donnie Darko! At this rate, the guy will direct about 5 movies in his entire career. While I'm not super excited about the cast (featuring The Rock, Justin Timberlake, and Mandy Moore), I have faith in Kelly.
There Will Be Blood (Dec 26)- Paul Thomas Anderson + Daniel-Day Lewis must = awesome, right? PTA adapts an Upton Sinclair novel this time around.
The Darjeeling Limited (Sep 29)- I think it's safe to assume that Wes Anderson peaked with Rushmore, but I'll enjoy all of his movies, even if they are just variations on a theme.
Into the WIld (Sep 21)- Sean Penn directs an adaptation of Krakauer's nonfiction book about a crazy idiot fed up with society who gives up all his material possessions and hikes into Denali National Park with only a rifle and a bag of rice. I'm sure they're going to be romanticizing Chistopher McCandless (undeservedly, IMO), but the cast is intriguing.
Beowulf (Nov 16)- If done well, this could be really cool. Robert Zemeckis is using the "performance capture" technology that was used for The Polar Express, for a flick written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery (adapted from the eipc poem, of course), featuring the voices of Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, and as Beowulf, Crispin Glover. Like I said, this might be really cool...
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Dec 21)- Tim Burton adapts the musical, featuring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Borat.
Video: Show us a movie you feel guilty for and/or would deny loving.
Submitted by Captain Manta.
In my defense, I was not exactly sober when I saw this. If I saw it again today, I probably wouldn't enjoy it. And it's the only movie from the Ernest franchise (there are NINE of them!) that I've watched.
Definitely an All-American success story, though- Jim Varney started out pitching products on tv (his first gig was adverstising an appearance by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders), and ended up riding that character to millions.
Has anyone else seen this steaming pile of moose droppings? I tend to like espionage-themed stories, and I like Robert DeNiro's directorial debut, A Bronx Tale. But this was...I can't really describe it. The movie was nearly 3 hours long, but it felt like it lasted at least 6 hours. If you haven't seen it, take my word for it, and don't. Ever.
