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.
Following on from this morning’s post, a couple more key clips.
A brilliant 7:35 with two great comics from”Planes, Trains & Automobiles.”
And, from “Pretty in Pink (written by Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch),” just as Annie Potts tries out her Spanish on Molly Ringwald and spins a little Otis Redding, enter Duckie (Jon Cryer).
Knowing how many fans he had here and elsewhere, I thought I’d devote this Saturday to a few iconic moments. First, from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
A couple of loosely related items today:
* Via Jeff Giles, and Nikki Finke, comes this true life tale of heroic derring do by “Bourne” and “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” director Doug Liman and producer Avram Ludwig.
The event won’t hurt Liman’s personal rep, which a polite person could call “eccentric,” but this seems like a good time to mention he’s not the only Hollywood fashioner of action myths to be involved in real life heroism. Jimmy Stewart is regarded as a real-life war hero for service in World War II, where he flew over twenty combat missions and, much more recently, Werner Herzog helped River Phoenix escape from a car wreck. Okay, that’s not really on the same scale as Stewart, and it doesn’t really sound like Herzog was in any danger, but given his background, Herzog is definitely the working director I’d most want around in a dangerous situation. I’m sure there are better examples, but I can’t think of them right now.
* I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody reading this has ever heard of “Rocket Robin Hood” (actually, knowing Will Harris, he probably watched the entire run of this obscure late sixties cartoon series last Wednesday night). Steven Zeitchik reports that a new, futuristic but far more earthbound Robin Hood may be coming up, alongside the more traditional Robin Hood variation already in production directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
He’s made some great movies in past decades, but Scott has never been known for his light touch. As far as I’m concerned, he’ll have a helluva time topping this.
So says Sony and Nikki Finke.
And he can sing.
He can do the other thing, too.
I didn’t see Taiwanese pop-star turned actor/martial artist Jay Chou in “Curse of the Golden Flower,” but if he can hold his own with Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat (though I understand his Asian reviews were less supportive than English-language critics), I think he can manage Nicolas Cage‘s sure-to-be-nuts villain and Seth Rogen’s jokey Green Hornet.
Screenrant has some more.
It’s hard to tell from the wilds of deepest North Orange County, but I’m guessing that Hollywood’s in a mild state of shock following the very unexpected death of John Hughes, without a doubt one of the most influential writers and directors of the past two-and a half decades. Nevertheless, life goes on and the box office is the fact of life in the film business.
And so it is that, Lord help us all, “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” seems poised to take this coming weekend’s chase for the green fairly effortlessly. Indeed, the always jovial Carl DiOrio of The Hollywood Reporter expects something in the neighborhood of $45-50 million. As mentioned here before, the actioner hasn’t been screened for critics, an increasingly common studio ploy that is nevertheless still somewhat rare for a film as high profile as this one.
Variety‘s Pamela McClintock, though not setting any numbers out for us, remarks that the action/sci-fi flick and toy/game marketing device is:
…sparking strong interest among both young and older men, as well as some curiosity among younger femmes, according to tracking.
Why any sensible young person of either gender should be interested in this film eludes me, but I guess we’ll have to see if there’s enough insensible ones from both to make this film more than a young male bastion. I should also add that some critics in the online and foreign press have managed to somehow see the film despite Paramount’s non-screening decision, and the Rotten Tomatoes numbers are less dismal than you would expect. Still, in my estimation, the best reviews lack all conviction while the worst are filled with passionate intensity, though the rough beast we call the teenage populace will not be stopped from slouching towards the Plex-ville. (My profoundest apologies to Mr. Yeats.)
Intriguingly, while both Variety and THR say “Joe” will be deploying to 3,500 screens, Box Office Mojo has the film in over 4,000 theaters. The cinematic Powell doctrine, anyone?
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