Author: Bob Westal (Page 187 of 265)

Writer guy Bob Westal was literally born in Hollywood and has commented on the worlds of movies, popular culture, politics, and food ever since. His interest in cocktails is more recent, but he made up for lost time with hundreds of “Drink of the Week” blog posts for Bullz-Eye. In addition to writing and editing, Bob also talks a lot.

Sir Christopher Lee, CBE, in a musical mood

October 31, 2009 /

He’s got an awe-inspiring 266 credits listed on his IMDb c.v. Nevertheless, finding good embeddable clips for Christopher Lee, one of the most beloved yet also underrated actors of the 20th and 21st centuries, hasn’t exactly been easy. Sad, considering how much enjoyment he’s given audiences, how many good movies he’s enlivened, and how many mediocre-to-godawful ones he’s come darn close to saving single-handedly. However, in honor of his well deserved knighthood today, we have what we have. And they both involve music.

My personal favorite Christopher Lee movie, and I think his as well, is 1973’s “The Wicker Man.” Below in a great scene which, for reasons much too complicated to go into here, is deleted from the most commonly seen version. In it, Lee as the avuncular and dangerous pagan Lord Summerisle takes part in a ritual with Britt Ekland as the local high priestess of sexuality. He also recites some poetry by Walt Whitman, as Edward Woodward’s repressed “Christian copper” tries to get to some sleep, snails make more snails, and Peter Giovanni sings the hauntingly erotic “Gently Johnny.”

The Wicker Man – Gently Johnny

batcountry84 | MySpace Video

Lee actually sings — quite well — in “The Wicker Man” but that can’t be found. So, moving with warp speed from the sublime to the completely ridiculous, I found this incredibly strange number featuring a full-throated Lee from “The Return of Captain Invincible,” an ultra-ultra-obscure very pre-“Dr. Horrible”  1983 superhero musical starring Alan Arkin and Lee, with music by a number of people including Richard O’Brien of “Rocky Horror” fame. In it, a villainous Sir Christopher sings of a subject of my own interest — cocktails. Always, a gentleman of taste.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, Sci-Fi Movies

Friday film news dump, pre-Halloween edition

October 30, 2009 /

christopherlee

So much going on today that, unless my Google Reader is lying to me, not a single one of the many film sites and blogs on my list of usual suspects has mentioned that Christopher freaking Lee was knighted today. (I, however, will be paying my respects in the next post.)

Meanwhile….

* The biggest news of the day was expected, I guess. The New York offices of the once might mini-major Miramax, founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein and since sold off to Disney, have been closed and the annual slate of films significantly downsized. In addition, the division’s “prexy” Daniel Battsek is stepping down, though he is supposed to be supervising the consolidation of the NYC and L.A. offices through January and no replacement has been set. Not surprising in tough times for “small” films. Anne Thompson partially blames what you might call movie mission creep, among other factors.

The main problem with the studio sub-divisions that are being slashed if not eliminated is that they simply don’t return enough on investment. They inevitably drift away from small-scale divisions that push low-budget films into more ambitious upscale operations with more employees and more overhead. With growth comes bigger budgets, more P & A, wider releases, more grandiose Oscar campaigns and often, smaller profits.

Her entire piece is definitely worth a look as she mentions how even some seemingly successful award pictures as “There Will Be Blood” and “Doubt” became money losers or earned less than you might think due to marketing costs and award campaigns.

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Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Dramas, News, Sci-Fi Movies

“This Is It” is it

October 29, 2009 /

This week’s box office preview is going to be pretty thin because essentially nothing is happening in the way of major new releases, except for Michael Jackson’s last hurrah, and that’s been out since Tuesday.

Michael Jackson in

“This Is It” has already earned about $20 million worldwide and been declared a disappointment by Nikki Finke. She reports that most expect roughly a $50 million domestic five day total.

Overall, expectations are not too huge for this weekend and the usual trade-paper prognosticators are taking the day off. For one thing, with Halloween falling on a Saturday this year, a lot of folks we’ll be scaring themselves in places other than the multiplex, including watching scary movies at home where its cheaper and excess imbibing, etc. is less problematic.

Woody Harrelson in On the other hand, it’ll be fun to see how “Paranormal Activity,” “Zombieland” and even “Saw VI” fair over the holiday. In addition, the fun/scary sounding eighties-style horror flick, available since October 1 via video on demand, called “House of the Devil” is only going to be in three theaters according to Box Office Mojo, but still may enjoy a bit of a Halloween bump.

Other than that, the closest thing to a major new release this weekend is “The Boondock Saints II: All Saint’s Day,” which will be released into 68 theaters by Sony’s Apparition arm. A couple of weeks back, the outstanding “Black Dynamite” was released by the same outfit and it is currently teetering on the edge of complete box office oblivion (if you’re anyway near a theater showing it — go now!), so let’s say I have less than complete confidence in their releasing strategy.

With a rather crappy 23% Rotten Tomatoes rating, Troy Duffy’s “sub-Tarantino” testostafest may do better based on the cult notoriety of the original film, but it sure doesn’t sound like it will break out much beyond the hardcore fans of the original. Certainly, when the best pull quotes RT can muster is a defensive “Personally, I loved it” and a disarming “I find enough to keep me in a satiated stupor here,” enthusiasm seeems muted. On the other hand, “The Boondocks Saints” itself only has a 16% RT “fresh” rating as compared to 79% for “Overnight,” the unmaking-of documentary about it writer-director. As I’ve learned in countless video store conversations with guys under thirty, there is a market for this thing.

bds-pic1

Action Movies, Documentaries, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, News

New “Avatar” trailer and a big marketing push

October 29, 2009 /

Yes, the new trailer for James Cameron’s long awaited 3-D CGI laden extravaganza, “Avatar,” is out, it’s longish for a trailer (3.5 minutes) and it’s got more plot details. (H/t Drew McWeeny)

Fox is also in the process of making a big deal by showing the trailer in front of what probably actually is the largest live crowd ever to see a trailer on apparently the largest video screen extant by showing it at the new 800,000 seat Cowboy Stadium in Texas on November 1st before the Cowboys play the Seattle Seahawks. It will also be broadcast to millions more on Fox NFL Sunday and bolstered by commercials for the movie during the game.

As for my reaction: I don’t know where the music is from, but I hope it’s not the actual soundtrack because I think it’s awful. The plot strikes me as an space opera variation on “Dances with Wolves,” but that could work — or not. Also, I’m not hugely impressed with the CGI look, but who knows how I’ll feel about it when I see it properly. Time will tell.

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, News, TV

Possibly the most lax “movie moment,” ever (Updated)

October 28, 2009 /

[UPDATE: As I wrote this, I somehow mistook a nearly 2.5 year old post for one written yesterday morning. I guess I was more punchy than I ever realized….a lax post, indeed!]

So, yesterday one morning in April of 2007, Will Harris wrote about this rather relaxed “WKRP in Cincinnati” fan blog — so much so the writer forgot about the release of the second season DVD until it had been out for two days. Actually, though, I can relate. For one thing, it’s hard to get excited about a DVD where they couldn’t even get musical clearance for a few notes of “Fly Me to the Moon” to preserve one of the show’s signature gags. And I, too, have let certain of my fandoms slide over the years.

There were other aspects of the blog Will mentioned, however, including a seemingly random discussion of the relative cuteness/hotness of “girl next door” characters, radio producer Baily Quarters (Jan Smithers) and Kaylee (Jewel Staite), the adorable, sex-positive space-freighter engineer on the entirely unrelated space opera, “Firefly,” and then in its movie continuation, “Serenity.” As I wrote in comments, it’s a tough call for me — both Bailey and Kaylee (both names end in “e” sounds!) are entirely my “type.” On the other hand, there was never a “WKRP” movie, so that leaves only one choice in terms of clips.

I’m feeling pretty lax myself right now. Here’s tonight’s movie moment. All ten seconds of it.

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, TV Comedies, TV Sci-Fi

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