I have a new tag line for ABC's DAY BREAK: "What if you could live one day over and over again and it happened to be the day you watched GROUNDHOG DAY?"Denmark has a GREAT new way to get motorists to adhere to the speed limits. I like this so much better than radar guns.
I loved CASINO ROYALE and will offer my thoughts on Monday.
Saw the trailer for ROCKY BALBOA. Everyone in the theatre laughed and booed. When is Stallone going to give it up? It's sad already. Like watching 80 year old Paul Anka sing "Puppy Love".
Robert Altman was one of the great American directors. He never won an Oscar for directing. And yet Kevin Costner has. Maybe next year for PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION had some laughs but was nowhere near WAITING FOR GUFFMAN or BEST IN SHOW. The Christopher Guest movies have become sketches that are stretched out to the point of Joan River's skin. And am I the only one who finds Eugene Levy one-note and tiresome?
O.J. Simpson said he was doing the new book and reprehensible special for "blood money", to provide for his children financially. Yeah, it's all for the kids. The man's in the holiday spirit already!
Guess I'm not the only one who didn't love THE FOUNTAIN. Neither did the LA Times. Yes, there are some critics who praised it (not many) but I chose to focus on this one.
You will not find me in a mall from now until January 2nd. And not in a Target until February.
TV LAND has announced its 100 greatest TV lines. The medium should be proud. Included are: "Aaay!" (Fonzie, Happy Days), "Bam!" (Emeril), "De plane! De plane!" (Fantasy Island), "Denny Crane" (Boston Legal), "Heh heh..." (Beavis & Butthead), "Holy crap!" (Everybody Loves Raymond), and my favorite, "Oh, my nose!" (Marcia Brady, The Brady Bunch. Oh, and Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech is also included.
STRANGER THAN FICTION is fun while you're watching it. Then you go home and realize NONE of this made any sense. But you could say the same thing for THE BIG SLEEP. I'd recommend both.
Spotted in Westwood: a giant Hummer with a handicap placard.
Michael Richards should never speak unless Larry David writes his dialogue. He can apologize all he wants. He's an idiot. And not funny.
God, I'm sick of turkey.
Of course GROUNDHOG DAY was at least funny, and didn't have someone beaten or shot, or beaten AND shot, every four and a half minutes. On the other hand, it didn't have a half-nude Taye Diggs every 20 minutes either, so DAYBREAK isn't all bad. At least Harriet from STUDIO 60 never shows up.
ReplyDeleteRobert Altman was as good as they get, but he won't get an Oscar for PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, nor should he. One of the best ways to honor his memory is to forget that movie, along with QUINTET. And without him, we might never have had AFTERM*A*S*H.
Yes, OJ's blood money was for his kids ("Here's the money I made from killing your Mom. Happy legacy, kids."), except he's already spent it.
So did you write any of TV Land's top 100 lines? (Obviously not the moronic choices you quoted.)
BTW, "God, I'm sick of turkey." should be TVLand's slogan.
I think that there's a fascinating story to be told with both Rocky Balboa and Indy 4. Now, of course, that's not to say that either will deal with the interesting issues.
ReplyDeleteThere are real similiarities to be drawn with the characters to the actors that play them. These are men who were young, verile, and able to sumount the insurmountable, and conquer what crossed their path. But now they can't. Now they're simply not those men. What's left when your age has taken not just your youth, but everything that defined your life?
Rocky Balboa has nothing left when his fight is gone. What does he do when all that he ever lived for has been stripped of him by time? Does Indy continue to teach, without the ability to go out on his adventures? What does he do when the real joy in his life is gone? How does he cope? What else is there for him, and what does he find that he can choose to define the rest of his life?
Stallone has made a career out of being a physical star. He's made his money and his fame by being able to perform in action movies. He's 60. What's left now? Isn't his story just like Rocky's? What can they do now? Can they find meaning still? Does he figure out that perhaps that was never really what was important? Or does he realize that he really has nothing left but memories of a time when anything was possible. Harrison Ford was The Fugitive on the run, he was smuggling cargo as Han Solo, and he was being chased by boulders as Indiana Jones. What now? He's a great actor, but he was an amazing adventurer, like Indy. What's left now? Can he prove that maybe that wasn't what was so great about him after all, or does he show that that's all he ever was, and when his strength as faded, he sees (and so do we) that he was only one layer, and that he'll never experience that feeling of importance again?
I really think there's a lot to be told in stories about people who had defined their lives by their physical abilities, and what they choose to do with what's left of their bodies, and whether they're ever able to cope with the loss of what was once all they had to live for.
But maybe that's just me.
And maybe the movies won't deal with any of that.
I loved Casino Royale too, and look forward to your comments on it. I have no intention of seeing the Fountain, but I am disappointed to read your lukewarm comments on "For Your Consideration" - I have it on my pitifully short "movies currently in the theaters to see" list. . . oh well, I'm going to stay home and watch my netflix dvd of Daniel Craig in Layer Cake instead
ReplyDeleteI think Rambo IV: Now He's In Indonesia! is already in production, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI rather liked the idea he had in the mid90s with Rambo infiltrating militias.
They should put Michael Richards in a reality show. Call it "The Amazing Racist"
ReplyDeleteDoes it seem like Catherine O'Hara and
ReplyDeleteFred Willard are the "funny" middle age couple in every freaking movie made these days? I could be just sticking my big toe into dementia but it seems like every animated movie I watch has them in it.
/exaggerated for effect but you get the point.
There should be some profound analysis, hopefully even a book or tv show, on what was the deal made with the devil to produce Second City TV, and was the payback the postSCTV careers of Levy, Moranis, Candy, Short.. well MOST of them in fact.
ReplyDeleteSCTV remains one of the best DVD box sets, aging in a good way, which for comedy is hard. No one would watching it then would have predicated the parts don't equal the whole, but sadly the proof really is in the cinema afterwards.
They are all intelligent, able to deliver, could improvise - and on a low, Canadian budget! Levy was one of the top players as well.
What happened indeed...
I heard that Robert Altman's funeral was quite nice.
ReplyDeleteHe had two eulogists.
They talked over each other.
In great anticipation we went to see "For Your Consideration" since "Best of Show" and "Waiting for Guffman" were two of our favorites. What a huge disappointment! The movies was only 1 hour 20 minutes long...like you said...a stretched out sketch. The only laughs from the audience was whenever someone said a yiddish word! Can't believe we didn't wait until it was on Netflix!
ReplyDeleteCasino Royale - loved it. I was impressed with Daniel Craig even though I didn't think I would. He seemed to take the role seriously and really worked it. I like the new direction they've taken with the Bond series, although the movie isn't perfect. And I surprisingly felt the run time wasn't too long even though the flick is over 2 hours. A Definite Recommend. I saw the flick in Palm Springs and there people laughed and booed at the Rocky Balboa trailer, too. Does anyone really care about that franchise anymore?
ReplyDeleteScribe
You're not wrong about Levy. The more he creeps past shtick the worse he gets. In A Mighty Wind he was terrible, he should have come with a fast forward button.
ReplyDeleteGadfly and I think alike. On Bill Crider's blog a few days ago I reacted to his Altman death notice by saying Altman had some poignant last words but no one knows what they are because everyone in the room was talking at the time.
ReplyDeleteIf you think the Times' "Fountain" review was bad, sould have seen the Friday, yes, Wall Street Journal's. Ken liked it more than they did.
ReplyDeleteI found FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION toothless and flat.
ReplyDeleteand do you know how I knew how awful it was going to be from the very first minute? The opening plays to the instrumental version of Hurray for Hollywood (the full vocal version closes the movie). And that pretty much establishes the originality and wit levels for the whole movie.
(I mean really. No one involved in the entire production could think of something less hacky?)
My audience almost didn't laugh at all--and yeah the yiddishisms were the only thing they agreed onFor my part I laughed every time Jennifer Coolidge opened her mouth (with the odd exception of her scene with R Gervais which was flat).
When the movie went to black for credits, the 2 people sitting next to us simultaneously blew out air through their upper lip.
Classy to bring up Altman, since newspaper reports say that he was not happy with the TV series MASH. Of course Richard Hooker was not pleased with the Movie version of his book Mash.
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