Enchanted is a huge hit with the public (a five-day gross in the mid-$50 million range) and critics alike (a 93% positive Rotten Tomatoes score), and even hard-core sourpusses need to admit it has four or five scenes that succeed beautifully. But fans are turning a blind eye to an inescapable fact. The concept (four … Read more
Hillary Clinton‘s performance in the 10.30 debate made her seem vulnerable for the first time. And now Robert Novak is reporting that “an 11.6 Zogby poll of 502 likely Iowa caucus-goers showed Clinton’s lead had shrunk to three points — within the survey’s 4.5% margin of error. The narrowing, however, is mostly due to an … Read more
I meant to post the Stephen Colbert South Carolina primary decision-to-run thing earlier today, but the truth is that I’ve stopped grinning at the routine. The reason is that there’s something tiring about somebody “doing a personality” over and over. I’m not saying Colbert has become a bit like Professor Irwin Corey was in the … Read more
I’ve been sent two more reports of Jesse James dissing by Warner Bros. distribution execs — one from Las Vegas Review Journal critic Carol Cling, another from Salt Lake Tribune critic Sean Means. Cling says she received an e-mail from Phoenix-based Allied Advertising (which handles screenings etc. for the Las Vegas market) two days ago, … Read more
Yesterday brought a Borys Kit Hollywood Reporter story about Jennifer Garner being “in negotiations” to star opposite Matthew McConaughey in New Line’s Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, a Christmas Carol-ish romantic comedy about “a bachelor visited by ghosts of past and future girlfriends who endeavor to connect him with his true love.” My reaction, naturally, was … Read more
At a San Franciso Film Festival seminar last April I asked legendary editor Walter Murch (Cold Mountain, Apocalypse Now, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Talented Mr. Ripley) about machine-gun cutting in action movies, and at what point does it get to be too much? I was thinking at the time of the editing in … Read more
Laszlo Kovacs ‘ death was confirmed to me this morning by Lisa Muldowney of Creative Communication Services, which represents the American Society of Cinematographers. He died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills. On 7.18 a Hollywood Reporter story by Carolyn Giardina said that “Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, Mark Rydell, Owen Roizman and Haskell Wexler … Read more
Playboy, the Hugh Hefner biopic that Brett Ratner is supposed to direct sometime soon (next year?), is being scripted by John Hoffman, who most recently wrote Queen of the Jews, a piece about former Miss America Bess Myerson that Bill Condon will direct. This presumably means that the musical biopic approach — first attempted by … Read more
There’ve been four versions of Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol (the 1938 Hollywood version, the 1951 British version with Alistair Sim, the George C. Scott version and Scooged! with Bill Murray), and now a fifth is on the way — a digital 3D/performance capture version for the family trade with Jim Carrey as Scrooge, and … Read more
Forget the would-be significance of the American Film Institute’s refreshed list of the most powerful/important/ legendary films of all time because none exists. The AFI has been whorishly shopping its once- distinguished brand on the tube for years with best-this and best-that presentations, and none of their efforts at self-promotion signifies a damn thing (except … Read more
God, this sounds delicious! A restored 4K version of Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb will be digitally projected at Landmark’s new complex at L.A.’s Westside Pavilion, beginning on Friday, 6.15. There are few things more beautiful to the naked movieoing eye than exquisite, scratch-free, razor-sharp monochrome films, … Read more
A gathering of like-minded souls at La Pizza — Tuesday, 5.15.07, 8:40 pm. (l. to r.) Toronto Star critic Peter Howell, friendly face whose name strangely escapes due to jet-lag mind melt, Santa Barbara Film Festival director and AMPAV event booker Roger Durling (blond hair, glasses), SBFF’s Jeremy Platt, AMPAV publicist Carol Marshall, Variety columnist … Read more