April 4, 2015 – Hollywood Elsewhere

Ready To Cut The Cord But….

April 4, 2015 by Jeffrey Wells

I’ve been paying for regular bundled cable TV since around ’81, when I first moved into my Bank Street apartment with a half-decent income. And now it’s finally time to cut the cord and make do without regular TV, which I never watch at all. I’ve got a top-of-the-line Roku Player along with an Apple TV box (completely superfluous compared to what the Roku contains), and right now I pay for HBO but I can obviously get that straight from the horse’s mouth when I give my Time Warner channel bundle the heave-ho.

The only thing I’m reluctant to give up is my occasional check-ins with MSNBC and CNN, which aren’t as frequent as they used to be but I like the fact they they’re there. And I’m certainly going to want them around when the 2016 election kicks off in earnest…what, five or six months from now?

If only I could independently access those two channels along with the usual HBO, Showtime, Netflix, TMC, AMC, Amazon and Warner Archive, I’d be totally fine. I know it sounds ridiculous to delay on a significant monthly saving over a sentimental attachment to two news channels, but there it is. It’s the only thing holding me back.

Melancholy Passing of An Era of Frankness

April 4, 2015 by Jeffrey Wells

For whatever reason I never read Shawn Levy‘s “Rat Pack Confidential” when it came out 16 or 17 years ago, but I suddenly bought it on Amazon right after posting my review of Alex Gibney‘s All or Nothing At All, a two-night, four-hour doc about Frank Sinatra which pops tomorrow night. The old Frank magic … Read more

Comedy Stylings of Frank Milo, a.k.a. “The Money Store”

April 4, 2015 by Jeffrey Wells

Well-written, adult-angled, dryly comedic but not out-and-out funny. But at the same time romantic and middle-budgeted with stars. Ben Stiller or Seth Rogen or Will Ferrell or Kevin Hart would kill to be in a film as good as John McNaughton and Richard Price‘s Mad Dog and Glory, but low-key, character-driven dramedies are as extinct … Read more

Revenge of Chucky

April 4, 2015 by Jeffrey Wells

Yes, it’s agreed that sculptor Dave Poulin‘s statue of former Celoron resident Lucille Ball resembles an adult version of Chucky, Michael Keaton‘s snake manifestation from Beetlejuice, Conway Twitty or Steve Buscemi. The question is why is this suddenly a big weekend news story now? The butt-ugly thing has been standing there from almost the beginning of the Obama administration, and all of a sudden a “secret” Facebook posting claims it’s a problem requiring national attention? The Jamestown-based Poulin, whose artistic reputation has obviously taken a hit from this, apparently wants to be paid to replace the head while local Lucille Ball fans think he should do it for free.

(l.) Dave Poulin‘s ugly statue of Lucille Ball, which has stood in a park in Ball’s hometown of Celoron for over five years; (r.) Chucky.

American Movie Culture Is, This Morning, A Little Bit Dumber, Cruder, Lunkier….Thanks!

April 4, 2015 by Jeffrey Wells

Now that James Wan‘s Furious 7 has opened, thrilled, bludgeoned and appalled audiences nationwide, surely the HE community will stand with yours truly, Nick Pinkerton, Rene Rodriguez, Sara Stewart, Roger Moore, Mick LaSalle, Randy Cordova and others who’ve expressed varying degrees of dismay, disdain and whatever else. The critics who helped elevate Furious 7‘s Rotten Tomatoes score to 81% have done their part to enable and encourage the corporate cancer-think that has largely ignored and almost totally suppressed the notion that organic, real-world, McQueen-styled action films are coolness supreme. The 67% Metacritic score is at least somewhat less enthusiastic and a little closer to the thinking of the Godz. If anyone out there is on the team, please weigh in.