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Ishtar
(May, 1987)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (OOP)
(Ross, 1976)
The Devils
(Russell, 1974)
The Pirates of Penzance
(Papp/Leach, 1983)
The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Reader Submissions
1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs (OOP)
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

January 8

Bitch Slap

Waiting for Armageddon

Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

January 22

Drool

Extraordinary Measures

The Girl on the Train

Dream Team

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I once had a dispute with a guy over the proper role of a Hollywood columnist-commentator. He felt that columnists should basically be receiver-responders -- that they should only write about what the entertainment community puts before them. Baaaah. That's obviously part of the game, I said, but he was thinking too passively. A go-getter columnist should also adopt the mentality of a senior vp of creative affairs for the entire entertainment industry. Come up with new ideas, approve or disapprove of scripts, and so on.

Jeff Goldblum, Chris Walken

All to explain that during a recent phone interview with Adam Resurrected star Jeff Goldblum, I hit upon a great idea for a movie he would absolutely shine in. Not that Goldblum doesn't give a rich and savory performance in Adam -- he does. But he needs to star in a vehicle that won't get in the way of his naturally smooth charm. He's never quite been in such a film. And he's in a prime condition right now. And the clock is ticking.

I'm thinking about a kind of remake -- call it a revisiting -- of My Dinner with Andre costarring Goldblum and Christopher Walken. Two older guys of roughly the same generation (Walken is a little bit older) shooting the shit over dinner for 90 minutes or so in midtown Manhattan. Can anyone think of a more entertaining pure-talk proposition? Both are seasoned charisma machines with live-wire personalities and smart-ass urban attitudes. And both have great voices and signature speaking styles.

The thing that triggered the idea was Goldblum telling me during our chat that he knows, likes and gets along well with Walken.

If I had the power and influence I would sit down with these guys and come up with some kind of fictional-situational backstory that could be discussed and picked through during their long chat, and then get them to sit down for a week's worth of conversation. Shoot it on high-def video, cut the best passages together, and you'd have a great chit-chat movie. I for one would pay to see this. I have a feeling it would be a very popular DVD title. Everybody knows these two guys and what they're about. And it wouldn't cost very much to make.

If not Goldblum and Walken, who would be a bigger attraction?

Wait...how about a short series of films about famous actors sitting down together and just yapping away? A DVD package of five or six, say. Maybe an HBO series.

Seven Pounds Tops Stinkers << previous | next >>Fincher WIthin

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on January 6, 2009 at 11:14 AM

comment #1

Rich S. says ...

I would love to see Nicholson sit down with Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern or Peter Fonda and listen to them just shoot the shit over the late sixties, when they were moving from Roger Corman to Easy Rider to the mainstream. Scorsese and Coppola could get in on it, too. That Roger Corman pipeline is unmatched.

Posted by Rich S. at January 6, 2009 12:12 PM

comment #2

Breedlove says ...

I love this idea, Jeff. I say Geoffrey Rush and Tom Wilkinson for the sequel. Or how about Frances Mcdormand and the Coens. But I like your choices.

Posted by Breedlove at January 6, 2009 12:27 PM

comment #3

Geoff says ...

Awesome idea. In fact, I know plenty of guys in their early 20's who would easily shell out some dough to see those two together.

Walken and Goldblum would have made a great vignette in Coffee and Cigarettes.

Posted by Geoff at January 6, 2009 12:34 PM

comment #4

MikeSchaeferSF says ...

You've just decribed that Jon Favreau show on IFC, "Dinner for Five".

Posted by MikeSchaeferSF at January 6, 2009 12:37 PM

comment #5

Josh Massey says ...

Why go fictional? I'd much rather see Walken and Goldblum as themselves.

Posted by Josh Massey at January 6, 2009 12:39 PM

comment #6

PCP_Patriots says ...

I think Jeff's pairing is actually brilliant. Two quirky guys with really interesting mannerisms talking about who knows what! That's actually really pretty cool!

On other scenarios:

What about Robert Duval and Jon Voight? A bit less quirky but two guys that would seem to get a really good vibe in such a film I'd say.

Or how about 2 women? Something like Angelica Huston and Anne Archer maybe?

Or the more obscure: Christopher Plummer and Philip Baker Hall.

Posted by PCP_Patriots at January 6, 2009 12:42 PM

comment #7

Wiggumx says ...

It's also similar to "Iconoclasts" on IFC.

I could watch "Dinner for Five" all day long.

Posted by Wiggumx at January 6, 2009 12:42 PM

comment #8

Jeffrey Overstreet says ...

Wells wrote:
"But he needs to star in a vehicle that won't get in the way of his naturally smooth charm. He's never quite been in such a film."

Wells, when was the last time you watched "The Tall Guy", with Goldblum, Atkinson, and Emma Thompson? It's still my favorite Goldblum film, a sorely underrated comedy, and the most uproarious thing Emma Thompson's ever done. I think it might fit the description of a "vehicle that won't get in the way of his naturally smooth charm."

Posted by Jeffrey Overstreet at January 6, 2009 1:02 PM

comment #9

Midwest Doug says ...

Hell, I just want an aging buddy road trip movie with Jeff Bridges and Kurt Russell.

Posted by Midwest Doug at January 6, 2009 1:09 PM

comment #10

Breedlove says ...

Bill Murray and Sam Shepherd...

Posted by Breedlove at January 6, 2009 1:21 PM

comment #11

Nick Rogers says ...

I'd love to see Ricky Gervais and Alec Baldwin in a comedy together.

Posted by Nick Rogers at January 6, 2009 1:27 PM

comment #12

Edward says ...

Great idea. Thanks for mentioning "My Dinner With Andre;" one of the great film experiences ever.

Posted by Edward at January 6, 2009 1:44 PM

comment #13

Breedlove says ...

Damn Nick that's a good one.

Posted by Breedlove at January 6, 2009 1:49 PM

comment #14

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

Jeff Goldblum and Steve Buscemi.

or Steve Buscemi and Paul Giamatti.

Yep, I love those guys :-)

Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk at January 6, 2009 1:53 PM

comment #15

televisiontears says ...

Without a doubt, DeafBrownTrashPunk ftw (the Buscemi/Giamatti pairing, that is). What I wouldn't give to see that...

Posted by televisiontears at January 6, 2009 2:02 PM

comment #16

Bix B-Roll says ...

Let's throw James Woods into the mix and have all three reprise their roles in 80s David Cronenberg films.

Jeremy Irons can play tag-team waiters.

Posted by Bix B-Roll at January 6, 2009 2:16 PM

comment #17

MilkMan says ...

David Patrick Kelly and James Russo, both having already consumed two double espressos each, eat lunch at Carrows.

Fred Ward and Ed Harris cooking an Elk over an open fire somewhere in Wyoming.

Klaus Kinski and Ken Ogata at Clifton's Cafeteria. Both bring translators with them and it's the translators who end up getting in a fistfight.

David Lynch and Werner Herzog share a milkshake at the Van Nuys Cafe 50s.

Robert Blake and Gary Busey share a hanglider.

Posted by MilkMan at January 6, 2009 2:25 PM

comment #18

RennyForRealHarlin says ...

Nick Nolte and Gary Busey sitting by a fire place.

Posted by RennyForRealHarlin at January 6, 2009 2:54 PM

comment #19

shepherd123456 says ...

Jennifer Connelly and Elisha Cuthbert, trapped in a sauna, door locked from the outside, and we keep on slowly turning up the heat and piping in some kind of gaseous ecstasy.

Posted by shepherd123456 at January 6, 2009 2:59 PM

comment #20