Author: Bob Westal (Page 249 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.

Gekko’s Pals, Pooh, and Cozzalio, Too

June 2, 2009 /

* Nikki Finke has some big casting news, and perhaps bit of minor spoilage, on Oliver Stone’s real-world news inspired sequel to his long ago hit, “Wall Street.” It seems that Shia LaBeouf and Javier Bardem will be helping Michael Douglas — as an ex-con Gordan Gekko — illustrate the updated fiscal morality play. No mention if Charlie and Martin Sheen are going to scream at each other in an elevator again. (The great Sheen family act-off of ’87, I calls it.) As usual with Finke’s posts, avoid the comments if you don’t feeling like saying “meow” under your breath every two seconds.

* Good news for fans of 2-D animation, and parents and kids, over at Disney. Per the Hollywood Reporter, a traditional style animated edition to the “Winnie the Pooh” franchise is in the works. Aside from the fact that a CGI Pooh would be an atrocity, this is good news because 2-D animation is simply more appropriate for some projects than others – especially considering that only Pixar seems to have the knack for computer animating humans at this point.

* Around the cinephile blogs…Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule’s Dennis Cozzalio, who likes his horror at least as much as he likes his spaghetti western baseball, talks about “Drag Me to Hell” at length — and not only about his swell drive-in movie soiree last week — including some intriguing thoughts about that PG-13 rating (and an ensuing colloquy in comments, featuring…me).

Actors, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Okay, I Think That Covers Everything….

June 2, 2009 /

I’m just about the last person to dismiss a movie at its inception. As Roger Ebert says, very correctly, movies are not what they’re about, but how they are about it. But still…well, here’s what Variety has to say:

Several studios were in on the search, but Universal and Illumination Entertainment were the ones who found “Where’s Waldo?”…Warner Bros. chased the property for Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne’s Unique Features banner…U and Illumination will seek to create a movie with strong global appeal.

Now, mind you this is not for a Saturday morning animated TV series (that’s already been done), but a feature length motion picture for which, presumably, people over six all over the world will be expected to buy tickets. I’m sorry, but I don’t really see a story here. In any case, I’m pretty sure next up the big screen rights will soon be gobbled up for Kilroy, the truck mud-flaps women, and perhaps the “Hang In There” kitten, last seen in “Drag Me to Hell.”

As for a writer and a director, well, now that “Inglourious Basterds” is complete, I’ve found the perfect poster concept.

External Movies, Movies, News

SAG & Swift & Stuff

June 1, 2009 /

Steve Benen, who is the main guy at the terrific political blog of the liberal Washington Monthly, frequently posts what he calls “mini-reports,” and as someone who desperately needs an efficient verbal containment device that will discourage me from running off at the keyboard, I’m borrowing his format. You can’t copyright asterisks, can you?
Tom Hanks
* Fortunately for readers, my eyes glaze over just as quickly as yours do when you the subject is proposed union contracts. Nevertheless, the ongoing Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) vote is important stuff and I can’t completely ignore it, even if I’m utterly unsure how I’d vote if I were in the union. Furthermore, I’m still trying to figure out exactly what happened to the current president of the union, Alan Rosenberg, who I gather has been stripped of his authority by the “new majority” who favor a proposed new contract. I could go on, but I’m already experiencing a minor case of mind melt, so here are the dueling videos: For “Yes” — Tom Hanks. For “No”: a bunch of talented but far less famous folks, including Tom’s good friend Ron’s dad. And a very long, but kind of interesting comment by Justine Bateman. More of this to come, I suspect.

* Ever heard of Tom Swift? I barely have myself, but I gather he was the hero of a series of pre-“Hardy Boys” type adventures with a touch of Jules Verne about a boy inventor. With bigwigs rummaging through such relics of a more polite time in popular culture as “Tintin,” it makes sense that Hollywood (director Barry Sonnenfeld, of “Men in Black” fame, included) is taking an interest.

* Box Office Mojo has some revisions. “Terminator Salvation” beat “Drag Me to Hell” after all.

* THR likes “The Hangover”, and I could go for a Bloody Mary right about now, myself.

Actors, Actresses, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

The MTV Movie Awards…Bringing People Together

June 1, 2009 /

So, just to explain myself real briefly, for the time being you’re going to see the tiny little letters of my name a lot more often ’round these parts, as I’ll be blogging a couple of times a day, every day (or close to it), on movies and such. I’m going to try and keep things short and sweet but my record on those matters is a bit, er, mixed. It’s just very important to me that you know the whole story.

Anyhow, one interesting aspect of this gig is that I’ll be paying attention to things that before might have only gotten a cursory glance from me. Like the MTV Movie Awards.

Not surprisingly, as per Variety, “Twilight” won the most awards and “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” won stuff as well in the teeny-bopper friendly proceedings, while Andy Samberg and Will Ferrell performed a routine noting the ever increasing filmic phenomenon of movie tough guys who are so cool they refuse to look at explosions. (I haven’t seen the clip, which has already been pulled off YouTube, but that action film cliche goes back at least 13 years to “From Dusk ‘Till Dawn” and continues on into 2007’s “No Country for Old Men” and beyond I’m sure. Personally, I really would like to see Daniel Craig or Russell Crowe as a movie bomber pause to look at an explosion and go, “Wow…that’s so cool; I probably just incinerated a bunch of people, too. Sweet.”)

But none of that is the big news. That would be Sacha Baron Cohen, promoting his upcoming film starring his very, very gay character, Brüno, by doing what he always does — and his target was the rapper most frequently associated with the word “homophobia.” A video is worth a thousand words. (Via Nikki Finke.)

So, the big question is: Was the event staged and, if so, to what degree? Eminem looked genuinely surprised and angry to me and Nikki Finke’s commenters (those elusive “industry insiders” perhaps?) have theories on how some, but not all of it, might have been spontaneous. He might be an okay actor, but I don’t think his reaction, though somewhat understandable if all is as it appears, does anything for the extremely talented but seriously messed up Shady’s image, so why would he fake that? Also, if a hand-puppet could get him angry, a real Anglo-Israeli’s buttocks and barely covered private parts should really do the trick. Via MTV, Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, has already weighed in. (“I sat on Eminem’s face long before Brüno ever did.”) Any other thoughts?

Somewhat more “real” movie news coming later today.

Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Humor, Movie Comedies, Movies, News, TV, Video

Weekend Box Office: “Up” Surprises; “Drag Me to Hell” in Limbo

May 31, 2009 /

Everyone expected a big weekend for the latest from the seemingly unstoppable Pixar/Disney creative team, but who knew that an elderly human could outperform an immature robot?

Yes, despite apparently being a bit intense for the very small ones, “Up” benefited from its widely noted ability to make adults cry and then laugh a lot as well — and perhaps more pointedly from being shown in what Nikki Finke reports is a record number (over 1,500) of 3-D digital screens. It raised $68.2 million, beating “WALL-E” by about $5 million, making it the third highest grosser in Pixar’s illustrious history. (Though, as always, one should remember that ticket prices keep getting higher.) But for those who think pristine visuals and high tech sound are the only attractions, I also have reason to believe it did well at the few remaining drive-in theaters as well…but more about that in a bit.

Overall, “Family” was apparently the watchword as “Night at the Museum: The Battle of the Smithsonian,” as Brandon Gray points out, dropped what is now considered a very respectable 53.5% to net $25.5 million smackers, buoyed by those premiums for IMAX theaters, both legit and “Liemax.”

Meanwhile, there was just a slight whiff of disappointment in horrorland as the ethically fascinating creepfest “Drag Me to Hell” netted a mere $16.6 million, but Sam Raimi’s presumably lowish budget flick is not quite in the movie toilet. Variety‘s Dave McNary cites a Universal bigwig thusly:

“It was a solid start,” [distribution chief Nikki] Rocco said, who asserted that “Drag Me to Hell” should benefit in coming weeks from a slew of positive reviews.

And, word of mouth of course. Like me, right here. As mentioned in my pre-weekend b.o. post, I really did head down to the Mission Tiki Drive-In in otherwise scenically challenged Montclair, CA. Alongside seeing hordes and hordes and hordes and hordes of families scrambling to see “Up” and meeting some very, very cool fellow cinenerds (some famed far and wide, relatively speaking), I can also say that “Drag Me to Hell” is a genuine hoot. You serious horror fans should be aware that, while it has laughs, they are mostly of the nervous and ironic variety, if that makes you feel any better. I mean, God forbid if a horror movie should actually be, you know, fun — and I don’t mean Dick Cheney’s idea of fun.

Meanwhile, “Terminator Salvation” did a lackluster $16.1 million in its second weekend, meaning that McG, Christian Bale and company likely feel like they’ve been dragged to the unhappy place themselves.

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

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