An HE commenter recently claimed to have attended a 1978 LACMA screening of the original version of Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (‘56) — the version that (a) had no narration track and (b) ended with Kevin McCarthy howling “you’re next!” to the camera.
So I asked the great Joe Dante, who quickly lanced the balloon.
So much for that urban legend.
All driver’s licenses include a photo of the licensee, right? So where’s the Connecticut DMV snapshot of Marilyn Monroe Miller on her 1958 license? And why doesn’t it list her specific address (232 Tophet Road in Roxbury, an historic home she shared with husband Arthur Miller)? Just listing the road won’t do. And “M. M. Miller”? C’mon.
The 66-year-old document will soon be auctioned in Wilton, and the highest bid so far is $12K.
If I was actively bidding at the forthcoming event I would do so in the spirit of North by Northwest’s Roger Thornhill. “12 dollars!” I would call out. The perplexed auctioneer would ask, “Don’t you mean $12 thousand, sir?” Casual HE reply: “No, no, I meant $12 dollars…that’s more than it’s worth.”
Opening today as legions of Bob Marley fans watch with flagging spirits and drooping eyelids.
Remember that moment in Goodfellas when Joe Pesci shoves an ice pick into the back of the head of Chuck Low‘s “Morrie” Kessler, the hugely obnoxious wig guy who was part of the Lufthansa heist? And Morrie goes “ahrgggghhh“?
That’s what happened this afternoon to Madame Web on Rotten Tomatoes. Not to mention Metacritic.
The Sasquatch makeup is pretty good, I have to say. I’m pretty sure I can spot Jesse Eisenberg under the stringy hair and prosthetics but I can’t identify Riley Keough. (Her name accompanies an image of one of the beasts, but I can’t “see” her.) The other two actors are Nathan Zellner and Christophe Zajac-Denek.
Sundance, Berlin, SXSW…Bleecker Street will release Sasquatch Sunset on April 12th.
Variety‘s Rebecca Rubin posted on 1.19.24:
I was never into Playstation and I certainly didn’t pay attention to Spyro the Dragon, a 1998 platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. (25 years ago!) But during a word game a few years ago my chronic hearing problem resulted in my sincere mispronouncing of the name as “Spyro the Jacket.”
The kids laughed at me and still bring it up on occasion, but let me explain something. Nonsensical as it sounds, Spyro the Jacket is better than Spyro the Dragon. A meme that makes no sense but at the same time transcends and in fact leapfrogs over the original.
Sometimes life flips on its side and bingo You have to be able to say “of course! and turn on a dime. Odd accidents sometimes open the doors of opportunity.
Spyro the Jacket isn’t just “better” than that Clinton-era Playstation game — it’s 10 to 15 times better. If I could afford it I would create a logo and manufacture “Spyro the Jacket” T-shirts and, yes, jackets.
I wasn’t paying attention to this “Dunkin’ The Dunking” ad during the Super Bowl…
1:40 mark:
Teenager to Ben Affleck: “Jennifer Lopez‘s husband…that’s cool.”
Affleck to teenager: “I had an influence myself.”
Teenager: “So what do you do?”
Affleck: “Aahhh, I do some…acting and writing and directing of movies, which were a kind of longform entertainment popular in the…20th Century.”
Jennifer Lopez is 54 (born on 7.24.69) and she doesn’t look a day under 32. Ben is 51…no biggie.
The expression on Mark Ruffalo‘s face in this Zodiac interrogation scene…his expression alone in this 5 minute, 48-second scene is ten to fifteen times better than his whole performance in Poor Things. Better in that it conveys an immense amount of information…he doesn’t move a muscle but his face is quaking with emotion and arousal and implication.
And that vaguely moaning, faintly growling sound we hear as the suspicion factor begins to build…fascinating. And the watch.
My God, what a brilliant film Zodiac is! All four guys in this scene are note perfect — Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Elias Koteas, John Carroll Lynch.
Plus Ruffalo is at least 20 to 25 pounds lighter in Zodiac than he is in Poor Things so there’s that also.
14:33 mark: “One thing we know for certain is this — we have two candidates who are chronologically outside the norm of anyone who has run for the presidency in this country, in the history if this country. They are the oldest people ever to run ever to run for president, breaking by only four years the record that they [themselves] set in 2020. They are objectively old…[and] are both stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world.
“What’s crazy is thinking that we’re the ones, as voters, who must silence our concerns and criticisms. It is the candidate’s job to assuage concerns, not the voter’s job not to mention them.”
16:30 mark: “Look at me. Look what time hath wrought. [Stewart is 61.] Look at this. Give the kids the treat of a lunar surface here. I’m 20 years younger than [Biden and Trump]…this. Look at this. They wish.”
Talk about a total Barbie promotion. Looking to influence voters much, guys? It would have been a lot crazier and more visually exciting if this ad had used a Poor Things template…think of it. Jimmy Kimmel‘s head attached to the body of a golden retriever, stuff like that. But I do have to say that, once again, America Ferrara brings it with a rant about how difficult is is to be an Oscar host.
Funniest bit comes when Ryan Gosling says “that’s not gonna happen” regarding his chances of winning the Best Supporting Actor race…Downey Downey Downey.
Why didn’t they get Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie to participate?
The snow is thick and icy and slippery…love it as long as I don’t slip and fall and bruise my ribs like I did in the Sierras a few years ago. This is the kind of Hollywood snowfall you dream about…the kind of snowfall tailor-made for a horsedrawn sleigh with jingling bells…a snowfall straight out of The Magnificent Ambersons.
