Jeffrey Wells The Criterion people think they’re being cute by dropping unsubtle hints about their upcoming Friends of Eddie Coyle DVD, which was a done deal months ago. The drawing obviously alludes to the masks worn by Alex Rocco‘s gang in the opening North Shore robbery. The CC guys felt obliged to add the word “Beantown” to the caption. Quit screwing around and release the DVD already.
Everything is stalling and falling apart financially, the entertainment world is clearly feeling the bite and SAG is pushing for a strike after how many months of talking and soft-shoe shuffling to no end? Now they’re striking?
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button “is brilliant and beautiful and beguiling and any other adulatory adjective you can chuck at a movie,” writes Empire blogger Nev Pierce.
“It makes you consider the world anew…at least for a moment (but probably for a lot longer). It is about love, yes, and it is about Death: an event as inevitable as the rising of the sun, as the turning of the Earth. To put it schmaltzily — in a way the film itself would never countenance — it says the grave need not triumph over your day today. Grasp the now. Live in each moment. Take a hand and hold it.”
A N.Y. Times audio interview with the Washington Post‘s Peter Baker covering the back-story about Hillary Clinton‘s decision to accept the Secretary of State post under president Barack Obama .
Here’s a Daily Beast article by Ana Marie Cox about all the establishment righties who favor the Clinton appointment.
Conventional wisdom earlier this week had Twilight doing $55 to $60 million this weekend. Variety‘s Anne Thompson wrote on Thursday that the weekend gross “could exceed $50 million.” Then a friend at Thursday’s Revolutionary Road screening predicted $70 million and I said, “You think so? With just girls?”
Turns out she was right. Fantasy Moguls‘ Steve Mason is reporting a $33 million Friday haul (including Thursday’s midnight showings) and a projected $70 million haul by Sunday evening. A separate studio estimate puts the weekend total at $83 million, counting the Thursday midnight shows, although that’s probably high.
“The smart money follows the 3-day Sex & the City formula,” Mason writes, “with $22.1 million Saturday, down about 33% Friday-to-Saturday, followed by a 30% Saturday-to-Sunday dip to a possible $15.4 million. That would bring the weekend haul to an impressive $70.58 million.”
At Friday’s Revolutionary Road after-party at 21, the legendary old-time haunt on West 52nd Street that, for me, will always summon memories of the backroom scene between Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis in Sweet Smell of Success. Funded by Paramount Vantage, the event was another Peggy Siegal special.
HE reaction #1 and #2.
Spoiler alert: If there’s one problem facing Darren Aronofsky‘s The Wrestler in terms of older Academy viewers (i.e., 50-plus), it’s probably the scene involving metal staples. I say this as an admirer of this scalding character drama, and as a major supporter of Mickey Rourke‘s shot at landing a Best Actor nomination. But without going into specifics, the scene I’m alluding to didn’t draw me in or win me over by any stretch. It’s just a speed-bump thing so I recovered and moved on, but the memory of it…wow.
New York‘s “Vulture” guys have offered 28 reasons why Twilight the movie is better than Twilight the book[s]. In other words, one of the most hardboiled, cynical-minded, showbiz-covering blog teams in the western hemisphere likes it also. See what’s happening here?
$48 dollars to listen to Peter Bogdanovich talk to Jerry Lewis at the Times Center (242 West 41st Street) tomorrow night? I’ve spoken to Lewis (once) and read many interviews with him, and he’s always seemed a little too snippy and smug about everything. And I’m wondering, no offense, if it’s worth paying nearly $50 bills to hear him talk. If you’re going to go off the cliff with jacked-up prices why not charge $78 or $68? Why not $90? I’m not getting a sense of proportion. Order tickets online or by phone at 718.784.4520.
