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.
Of all the birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects in nature’s creation, I have to say that owls would be among the last ones I’d think to build an animated fantasy/adventure around. They strike me as being singularly inexpressive creatures, even if they can crane their necks almost as far as young Regan in “The Exorcist.”
True, Pixar has shown you can make way-better-than-decent films about even inanimate objects more than once. This isn’t Pixar, however. It’s director Zack Snyder (“300,” “Watchmen“) taking his first foray into family fare with an adaptation of the first three books in a popular young adult fantasy series. Overall, especially after taking a look at the excerpts below, I share the mixed feelings of Topless Robot’s resident wiesenheimer Rob Bricken re: “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole,” but in the spirit of fair play, I’ll let Snyder try to explain why this movie will be cooler-than-cool and made of awesome.
Crackle is offering up the entirety of what I’m pretty sure will stand as the greatest revisionist film about Robin Hood ever made. Directed by the underrated Richard Lester (“A Hard Day’s Night,” among many others) and with a knockout, if not 100% taut, screenplay by James Goldman (‘The Lion in Winter”), this clearly post-Vietnam view of Robin Hood is bitter and comic and bracingly cynical about the bloodthirsty nature of power, while being ravishingly romantic about true love. It helped solidify Sean Connery’s post-Bond career and started a late career comeback for 47 year-old Audrey Hepburn, more moving than ever. Since this was the mid-seventies, Robert Shaw was the villain — though Richard Harris’s genocidal Lionheart wasn’t exactly nice — and was absolutely perfect as a badass Sheriff of Nottingham. Imperfect, perhaps, but all in all, pretty hard to top.
If you just want a taste right now, here’s a slightly corny trailer that will give you some idea of what you’re in for.
H/t to my currently blog-less friend Zayne for this one.
No time to waste and, fortunately, it’s a bit slower than usual tonight.
* I admit it, a lot of the financial/stock market terminology used in Carl Icahn’s letter to Lionsgate stockholders, as carried by Nikki Finke and summarized by THR, eludes me. However, the gist seems to be that it’s all out war now.
* I was out covering the red carpet at the Mike Nichols AFI tribute last night — you’ll be seeing something about it here closer to when the show will actually air in a couple of weeks. Although I had the opportunity to speak very briefly with some genuinely great people, I was a bit disappointed there was no opportunity to watch the presentation on CCTV while I was there. Still, looks like the show that’ll air on TV Land should be something.
* As an English major and someone who has actually read Cervantes, Joel Silver’s apparent approach to “Don Quixote” — which is not to be confused with Terry Gilliam’s ever-dicey “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” — makes me want to slash my wrists just a little.
* Some better news, also from the Playlist, which is that uninhobbited Guillermo del Toro is going back to his vampiric roots and doing a Van Helsing film that will, it safe to say, be much better than the last one, if it ever happens.
* Speaking of good directors who could use a gig, the Vulture claims that Sam Raimi has been offered the gig on the “Wizard of Oz” prequel, “Oz, the Great and Powerful.” I’ve no idea if it’s true, of course, but I’m reasonably sure he’d do a better and more imaginative job than either Sam Mendes or Adam Shankman, which is not really a knock on them.
* Re: talk of a “Taken” sequel. I know the movie did well, but I have a feeling that Liam Neeson just wants to keep working right now.
* Jim Emerson examines the notion of the movies that killed the movies, in the sense that sometimes the success of a particular film, or a type of film, you personally dislike a great deal can make a person actually loose interest in all films that come after, to some degree or another. For Francois Truffuat, it was 1962’s “Dr. No.” Yes, the first James Bond flick. Of course, his own career was really just still starting.
As Jason Zingale points out in his upbeat review of “The Karate Kid,” Jaden Smith, who’ll be 12 next month, was 11 year’s younger when he filmed his starring role in the new version than the original star, Ralph Macchio. And if, like me, you have to scratch your head when you wonder where Macchio has been since “My Cousin Vinny,” well there’s an explanation.
Well, at least there’s an explanation for why he still looks like he’s just about ready to get out of college despite being three years older than his “Vinny” costar (Marisa Tomei, I mean). It’s possibly related to the fact, against all good Hollywood tradition, he’s been married to the same woman for 23 years, has raised two kids without public incident, and has an apparently clean criminal record. It’s a clear conscience. A very clear conscience. An extremely clear conscience…
