Author: Bob Westal (Page 221 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.

Sticks and stones

August 11, 2009 / Bob Westal

“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” director Stephen Sommers, from an interview with Michael Fleming:

I don’t think the mainstream critics are relevant here, they have criticized themselves into irrelevancy.

I make the kind of movies critics love to hate. They love dark and depressing movies…All the internet movie haters love this movie.

These critics have become a dying breed, and part of it is how much more vicious and personal they’ve become. They attack the directors, personally.

Glenn Kenny has some wise words on the whole “wither the critics/wither the kids” thing.

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, News, Reviews, Sci-Fi Movies

critics G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Stephen Sommers

Michael Jackson movie deal finalized

August 10, 2009 / Bob Westal

I’m sure I’ll be seeing the film, but something about this makes me feel unclean, and I’m not even sure exactly why. I’m sure it’ll be a hell of a show.

I certainly can’t disagree with Nikki Finke’s characterization below:

Randy Phillips, president and CEO of AEG Live, ghoulishly boasted to The Associated Press he had “more than 100 hours of footage that could be turned into live albums, a movie and a pay-per-view special. He was our partner in life and now he’s our partner in death.”

Some of the footage will be in 3-D. According to Variety, like the unpresented Jackson show, the film will be directed by Kenny Ortega (“High School Musical,” “Newsies.”)

Documentaries, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, News

final show Kenny Ortega Michael Jackson Randy Phillips This Is It

The definition of a slow Monday morning in Hollywood

August 10, 2009 / Bob Westal

We’ve only got news on one remake, one sequel, and few odd cultural jeremiads on the same theme.

* I’ve just barely finished my decades-long personal boycott of the original, and now there they’re talking about a remake of John Milius’s “Red Dawn”. The 1984 film may seem a bit quaint now that it’s old enough to be ready to finish grad school but at the time it seemed to me an irresponsible act of cultural provocation with potentially catastrophic impact if people took it too seriously. Fortunately, few did and most took its absurd plot about a Soviet land invasion as the balderdash that it was. Back then, Republicans and Democrats alike knew that World War III would last about 90 minutes and result in the destruction of most everyone and everything. (This was before the tinfoil ~~hate~~ hat era of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.)

As political propaganda, the prior year’s “War Games” proved far more effective and possibly even affected movie-bred President Reagan’s thinking on the topic as well. In any case, a film about a Chinese-Russian co-invasion (don’t they still hate each other?) seems just bizarre now and, again, pretty much impossible — assuming it doesn’t end with something very close to complete annihilation.

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

A.O. Scott Dracula Frank Langella Glenn Beck John Ford John Milius Kathryn Bigelow Mark Boal Paddy Chayefsky Red Dawn Richard Nixon Roger Ebert Sarah Palin Stanley Kubrick The Hurt Locker Wall Street 2 War Games

One last TCA Televisionary Movie Moment

August 9, 2009 / Bob Westal

Since the TCA wraps today, I though I’d also wrap up my series of television related clips with the most obvious possible movie moment about the power of television, from the most obvious possible television related movie.

Ladies and gentlemen, with the cooperation of Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet, Peter Finch as Howard Beale is terribly irked, and he is no longer going to accept the usual state of affairs. In other words…

Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, External TV, Movie Dramas, Movies, TV

Howard Beale I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more Network Paddy Chayefsky Peter Finch Sidney Lumet

Box office victory for “G.I. Joe”; “Julie and Julia” attracts many ladies of a certain age

August 9, 2009 / Bob Westal

Not a lot of big surprises at this weekend’s box office. “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” apparently did even better than some expected in the “flyover” or “heartland” areas (this is supposedly where “real Americans live,” which is nice to know as a coastal fictitious American). As per the trades, it made an estimated $56.2 million this weekend, several million better than $45-50 million number I repeated last time.

For those of us (me!) seeking a cloud in Paramount’s silver lining, Nikki Finke does offer that the studio actually predicted a round $60 million earlier and that the film’s $175 million budget is just a tad on the high side. (That’s a minimum of 17 smallish budget studio films that could have been made for the same price tag.)

Finke has some doubts that the movie will hit $300 million or be profitable all on its own, though merchandising here is obviously a possible financial bonanza for toy maker Hasbro. She also has some doubts about the foreign market in light of sentiment abroad opposed to U.S. militarism. It might be tempting to say then, that Barack Obama is the best friend Paramount has here, but Finke points out that “G.I. Joe” came in at #2 in Australia, once the third most enthusiastic member of “the coalition of the willing” under Bush-esque rightwinger John Howard. She also expects it to be blown out of the water by the apparently entirely non-brainless “District 9” next weekend. I never thought I’d say this, but from Nikki Finke’s mouth to God’s ears.

Meanwhile, the culinographic “Julie and Julia” also performed pretty much precisely according to expectation and pulled in a satisfactorily satiating estimate of $20.1. According to a “rival exec” Finke quotes, the dual memoir dramedy had one of the oldest demographics he or she had ever seen, which I guess makes sense considering you have to be over a certain age to have watched Julia Child regularly on television. Finke also says the audience was almost exclusively female, despite the fact that we all like food that tastes good. In any case, those whose dating preferences includes middle-aged and older women now know their next film-going destination.