Category: Movie Comedies (Page 176 of 195)

That Elaine Hendrix is so darned nice…

January 26, 2008 /

Given how busy the holidays were, you may or may not have even noticed when I posted a review of “The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas,” but if you did, you might recall that I allotted a fair amount of the text to assuring people that the short skirts worn by Marilyn Munster – played by Elaine Hendrix, seen to your left – were just about enough reason to check out the film, even though it didn’t feature any of the original cast.

At the time, I dropped Ms. Hendrix an E-mail, asking if she could offer any reminiscences from her experience on the flick, but I didn’t hear anything and, well, I didn’t lose any sleep over it. Again, holidays are busy, people get caught up in their own goings-on, not a big deal.

Last night, however, I got a very belated but also very apologetic response from Elaine:

Oh, darn it, Will. I get these e-mails so late, and it doesn’t look like my assistant responded. I would have loved to give you some info on it. Please keep (my publicist) in the loop, and we’ll do the same with you for upcoming projects. I hope you were kind to “Marilyn” in the review. 🙂

It was a great project for 3 reasons –

1. Befriending Ann Magnuson
2. Shooting in Australia
3. Working on yet another cult classic franchise.

Thank you! Hope all is well.

Happy new year,

Elaine

Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, External TV, Movie Comedies, Movie DVDs, Movies, TV, TV Comedies, TV DVDs

Well, there’s an hour and a half of Bullz-Eye’s time saved.

January 25, 2008 /

It’s not like we were planning to force anyone to endure “Meet the Spartans,” anyway – I mean, even the people on staff who we don’t like shouldn’t have to be subjected any film that features the tagline “From the makers of ‘Date Movie’ and ‘Epic Movie'” – but if you really feared that you might be missing out on something good, let Brian Orndorf at DVD Review set you straight.

External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, Reviews

Oscars ’08: The show must go on

January 22, 2008 /

The Academy Award nominees were released this morning, and if nothing else, they only further proved just how worthless this year’s Golden Globes really were. Most of the categories filled out as expected, but there were a few surprises, including Best Picture and Best Director nods for “Juno,” a Best Actor nod for Tommy Lee Jones, and Sean Penn’s crapfest “Into the Wild” getting almost completely shut out; save for the deserved nomination of Hal Holbrook in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Check out the nominees in all of the major categories, and then click below to read the full list. I’ve also attached stars to my predicted winners, so come back and let me know what you think.

BEST PICTURE
“Atonement”
“Juno”
“Michael Clayton”
(*) “No Country for Old Men”
“There Will Be Blood”

BEST DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel (“The Diving Bell & the Butterfly”)
Jason Reitman (“Juno”)
Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”)
(*) Joel and Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men”)
Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood”)

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney (“Michael Clayton”)
(*) Daniel Day-Lewis (“There Will Be Blood”)
Johnny Depp (“Sweeney Todd”)
Viggo Mortensen (“Eastern Promises”)
Tommy Lee Jones (“In the Valley of Elah”)

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”)
Julie Christie (“Away from Her”)
Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”)
Laura Linney (“The Savages”)
(*) Ellen Page (“Juno”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck (“The Assassination of Jesse James”)
(*) Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men”)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (“Charlie Wilson’s War”)
Hal Holbrook (“Into the Wild”)
Tom Wilkinson (“Michael Clayton”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett (“I’m Not There”)
Ruby Dee (“American Gangster”)
Saoirse Ronan (“Atonement”)
(*) Amy Ryan (“Gone Baby Gone”)
Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton”)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton (“Atonement”)
Sarah Polley (“Away from Her”)
Ronald Harwood (“The Diving Bell & the Butterfly”)
(*) Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men”)
Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood”)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
(*) Diablo Cody (“Juno”)
Nancy Oliver (“Lars and the Real Girl”)
Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”)
Brad Bird (“Ratatouille”)
Tamara Jenkins (“The Savages”)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Beaufort” (Israel)
(*) “The Counterfeiters” (Austria)
“Katyn” (Poland)
“Mongol” (Kazakhstan)
“12” (Russia)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Persepolis”
(*) “Ratatouille”
“Surf’s Up”

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
“American Gangster”
“Atonement”
“The Golden Compass”
(*) “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
“There Will Be Blood”

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins (“The Assassination of Jesse James”)
Seamus McGarvey (“Atonement”)
Janusz Kaminski (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”)
(*) Roger Deakins (“No Country for Old Men”)
Robert Elswit (“There Will Be Blood”)

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Albert Wolsky (“Across the Universe”)
Jacqueline Durran (“Atonement”)
(*) Alexandra Byrne (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”)
Marit Allen (“La Vie en Rose”)
Colleen Atwood (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“No End in Sight”
“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”
(*) “Sicko”
“Taxi to the Dark Side”
“War/Dance”

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
Christopher Rouse (“The Bourne Ultimatum”)
Juliette Welfling (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”)
Jay Cassidy (“Into the Wild”)
(*) Roderick Jaynes (“No Country for Old Men”)
Dylan Tichenor (“There Will Be Blood”)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
(*) Dario Marianelli (“Atonement”)
Alberto Iglesias (“The Kite Runner”)
James Newton Howard (“Michael Clayton”)
Michael Giacchino (“Ratatouille”)
Marco Beltrami (“3:10 to Yuma”)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
(*) “Falling Slowly” (“Once”)
“Happy Working Song” (“Enchanted”)
“So Close” (“Enchanted”)
“That’s How You Know” (“Enchanted”)
“Raise It Up” (“August Rush”)

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
“La Vie en Rose”
“Norbit”
(*) “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
“The Bourne Ultimatum”
“No Country for Old Men”
“Ratatouille”
“3:10 to Yuma”
(*) “Transformers”

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
“The Bourne Ultimatum”
“No Country for Old Men”
“Ratatouille”
“There Will Be Blood”
(*) “Transformers”

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
“The Golden Compass”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”
(*) “Transformers”

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Was Axel Foley gay?

January 17, 2008 /

Bill Simmons (a.k.a. “The Sports Guy”) writes for ESPN, but occasionally his column delves into the entertainment world. Here’s his theory about Axel Foley (of the “Beverly Hills Cop” trilogy), and whether or not he was gay.

During breaks in the Skins-Hawks game, I was flicking over to “Beverly Hills Cop” on one of the HD channels, and maybe it was seeing Jenny Summers’ come-hither smirk in high definition for the first time, but how did I never notice the smoldering sexual tension in the scene when Axel brings his old friend Jenny back to his Beverly Hills hotel room and she lays down on his bed and bats her eyelashes at him for a couple of minutes? For God’s sake, she did everything but take her clothes off and assume the missionary position, and yet Axel was more interested in ordering room service for Taggart and Rosewood. I don’t get it.

Which leads me to my $64,000 question: Was Axel Foley secretly gay?

In the first two “Cop” movies (I refuse to admit that “Cop 3” happened), Axel didn’t have a girlfriend, and we never saw him hook up with a single girl. In “Cop 1,” he convincingly pretended to be Victor Maitlin’s lover in a public restaurant. In “Cop 2,” he ruined what could have been a fantastic time for his buddies at the Playboy Mansion by starting a fight for no real reason with a suspected bank robber. In “Cop 1,” he made Taggart and Rosewood follow him to a strip joint, almost like he was overcompensating, then spent more time looking around the club than looking at the girls. In both “Cop” movies, he ably served as a platonic friend for Jenny and Lt. Bogomil’s daughter (without ever making a move on either of them); he clicked with two obviously gay characters (the ones played by Damon Wayans and Bronson Pinchot); and he loved playing a perverse cat-and-mouse game with Taggart and Rosewood (two guys). And he was willing to risk his job and his life to avenge the murder of his old “buddy” Mikey, who just happened to be coming back to “crash” at Axel’s apartment on the night he was murdered. We’re sure Axel Foley was straight? We’re sure?

Of course, he forgot the biggest clue of all – banana in the tailpipe.

External Entertainment, External Movies, Humor, Movie Comedies, Movies

With 4 days ’til Christmas, a publicist sent to me…

December 21, 2007 /

…Stalking Santa.

What’s that strange taste in my mouth? By God, I think it’s the taste of a clean palate!

After two days of less than stellar Christmas flicks (and, boy, is that an understatement), I’ve stumbled upon a new film which – dare I say it? – has the potential to become a cult classic…and, for once, it’s not because it’s so awful that its sheer badness has earned it kitsch value, a la “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.”

“Stalking Santa” is a mockumentary about Dr. Lloyd Darrow (Simon Taylor), a man who’s on an obsessive quest to confirm or deny the existence of Santa Claus, even if it involves risking a Christmas morning devoid of presents. In a twist which will amuse fans of the classic ’70s series, “In Search Of,” the narration is done by the inestimable William Shatner, who provides details about Darrow’s investigations, as well as other self-proclaimed “Santologists,” with absolutely no hint that it’s all completely fictional. Shatner’s deadly-serious delivery turns the most ridiculous claims into hilarity, such as his discussion of a wax cylinder that captured a voice during a seance which, when played backwards, reveals the words, “Ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas,” or the shot of an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic which bears a striking resemblance to Kris Kringle himself. (Politically correct or not, I laughed out loud when they showed artwork of a chubby Asian fellow sitting in a lotus position and gave it the identifier of “Buddah Craus.”)

Lloyd reportedly has many supporters in his quest, but the truth is, it’s really just him and his college intern, Clarence (Daryn Tufts), who, uh, probably isn’t getting actual college credit for his work. Lloyd’s the president and CEO of an organization known as Tangible Evidence, Real Discoveries…and don’t think he doesn’t get shit for that acronym. He’s a family man, and his kids are a little uncertain about his quest, which you’d expect, since it might mean they don’t get any presents. In particular, his son is sick of his schoolmates’ tauntings, but his lovely and pregnant wife Kylie (Sierra Squires) is behind him, even though there’s no humor in her laugh when she comments that “Santology” isn’t exactly something you get paid for. (The line is followed by a shot of her working in a fast food restaurant as the family breadwinner.)

Yes, it’s easy to dismiss the entire concept of the film with a wave of the hand and a quick uttering of “there IS no Santa Claus, the end,” but only a Scrooge would do that. (Right, David?) But, seriously, this is a really funny concept that’s taken to hilarious heights and looks professional enough that, at least in appearance, it could fit onto TLC or The Discovery Channel without a second thought, especially the faux archival footage which suggests a government conspiracy to keep the existence of Santa under wraps so as not to disturb the world economy. Yeah, it descends too far into total ridiculousness on occasion (the idea that the Sphinx originally had antlers like a reindeer fell completely flat), but what keeps it working is the fact that virtually everyone believes Lloyd’s a complete nutjob…because, of course, everyone knows there’s no Santa Claus…right?

Right?

RIGHT?!?!?

(P.S. Santa, I totally know you’re real, so I’m sure you’ve chalked this up to creative license and have in no way removed that copy of the 5-disc “Blade Runner” set from your sleigh.)

Doc of the Day, Documentaries, External Entertainment, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie DVDs, Movies, Reviews

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