Category: Movie Comedies (Page 57 of 195)

Happy movie Father’s Day

June 20, 2010 / Bob Westal

I’ve been keeping busy and seeing some very good films at the Los Angeles Film Festival, not to mention honoring today’s holiday, but with this week’s predictably huge new major release, “Toy Story 3” ($109 million says Nikki Finke), and the impressive early limited release success of “Cyrus (a boffo over $45,000 per screen says Box Office Mojo’s chart), both reflect on odd ways on the parental experience and this mash-up seems to bring it all together.

Best wishes to all the dads out there. Just remember this, if you find yourself cutting off your son’s hand with a laser weapon, something has gone badly wrong. For the rest of you, good work.

Also, just FYI, I did see the “Cyrus” premiere at LAFF on Friday night and, if anything, I’m even more enthusiastic about the film than Jason Zingale is in his review, especially regarding Jonah Hill‘s performance, which I think may be award-worthy. More on that to come, I imagine.

Movie posting from me will continue to be light and erratic for a bit, but nevertheless watch this space.

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Cyrus Jonah Hill Los Angeles Film Festival Toy Story 3

Midweek movie news, and then…

June 17, 2010 / Bob Westal

After tonight, I’ll be taking a break from the daily blogging grind for just a bit. That means I’ll be out completely for a couple of days at least and then you may see a post here and there and then, suddenly, I’ll be back like I was never gone in the first place, probably towards the tail end of the month. So, this will have to hold you for a little while.

* As of tonight, corporate raider Carl Icahn appears to be a majority stockholder in Lionsgate.

* I’ve never been a fan of the seventies movie of the silly seventies film version of “Logan’s Run,” but with Carl Erik Rinsch directing, my interest in the new film perked up considerably. Now, Alex Garland — who wrote and produced the not-entirely-unrelated upcoming version of “Never Let Me Go” which I discussed yesterday — has jumped on board, making it even more interesting. Better, they’re approaching it as a new version of the book, not a remake of the film. In the 1976 film, by the way, no one in the futuristic society was permitted to live past 30. In the novel, it was 21.

* Sam Raimi has been confirmed as the director of “Oz: The Great and Powerful.” Apparently Robert Downey, Jr., who just formed a new company with his producer wife, Susan Downey, is the most likely Oz at this point.

* Be sure and check out Will Harris’s terrific interview with one of the best, Isabella Rossellini. Easily one of the most fascinating actresses of the last thirty years or so, with quite a backstory behind her. Don’t miss it.

*Though Ms. Rossellini seems perfectly at home in a very humorous way with her fifty-something status, that is not really always the case for actresses. This month’s conversation between Jason Bellamy and Ed Howard at the House Next Door underlines that point as the cinephile thinkers discuss two of Hollywood’s greatest show-biz based films, “Sunset Boulevard” and “All About Eve,” both released in 1950 and both dealing with actresses who struggling with this whole passage of time thing.

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

Alex Garland Alien All About Eve Allen Barra Bagman Carl Erik Rinsch Carl Icahn Casino Jack Casino Jack and the United States of Money Cloud Atlas Dennis Cozzalio Gimme Shelter Glenn Kenny Headlines Hitchcock Isabella Rossellini Jim Thompson Joe Carnahan Karina Longworth L.A. Weekly Leo the Lion Lionsgate Logan's Run Los Angeles Film Festival Mannequin 2: On the Move Michael Winterbottom Miley Cyrus Narc Never Let Me Go Nikki Finke Oz the Great and Powerful Peter Brunette Psycho Ridley Scott Robert Downey Jr.Sam Raimi Scorsese Sunset Boulevard Susan Downey The Killer Inside Me Tom Tyker Wachowskis White Elephant Blogathon

Movie news for now people

June 14, 2010 / Bob Westal

Get hip, hepcats and hepkitties.

* Somewhere between a rumor an an actual story, the ‘net geek movie item of today has to have been the flurry of speculation around the notion of Harry Potter director David Yates taking on the two-film directing gig on “The Hobbit” recently vacated by Guillermo del Toro. The Playlist claims to know that Yates has actually been offered the position though, even if true, in Hollywood there are a millions slips twixt cup and lip, so to speak, and the fun debates over who would be available and appropriate for the job continue. My first response was that Yates, a highly competent craftsman, wasn’t really enough of a visionary for the gig but, considering that del Toro and Peter Jackson remain pretty deeply involved, perhaps they’ve got visionaries enough on that project.

* On a somewhat similar note, Robert Rodriguez has possibly been offered a shot at directing a Deadpool movie. Since I missed the Wolverine movie and haven’t read Marvel Comics in a very long time, I have no idea what this actually means. I’ll learn.

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3-D An Inconvenient Truth Apparition Atlas Shrugged Atlas Shrugged movie Ayn Rand Big Hollywood Bob Bernay Christopher Nolan Countdown to Zero David Yates Deadpool Don Knotts Enchanted Guillermo del Toro Harry Potter Headlines Inglourious Basterds Kevin Lima Lawrence Bender Libertas Lucy Walker Marvel Comics New Beverly Theater Queen Noor Queen Noor of Jordan Robert Rodriguez Rupert Murdoch The Hobbit The Incredible Mr. Limpet Zack Galifiankis

Rock ‘n Roll High School

June 14, 2010 / Bob Westal

Ultra-canny low-budget producer Roger Corman originally wanted to make “Disco High School.” Thank the rock gods hipper heads prevailed. Directed by Allan Arkush with assists from Jerry Zucker and Joe Dante, 1979’s “Rock ‘n Roll High School” is the cartoonish tale of the literally explosive results of the arrival of original punk rockers The Ramones at Vince Lombardi High. Free spirited hipster Riff Randle (P.J. Soles) and her straight-arrow best pal Kate Rambeau (Dey Young) must evade fun-hating Principal Togar (Mary Woronov) if they are to party down with two-chord musical geniuses Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Marky Ramone. Meanwhile, besotted but romantically inept football player Tom Roberts (Vincent Van Patten) enlists the aid of strangely suave ultra-dork entrepreneur Eaglebauer (Clint Howard) to woo Riff, unaware that the bespectacled but equally adorable Kate is the one carrying a torch for him.

It’s even sillier and messier than it sounds, but it all comes together, more or less, because of the likable chaos fostered by Arkush, a dominating performance by actress/performance artist Woronov who gets the film’s best lines — “Does your mother know you’re Ramones?” — a generally amazing cast, and, most of all, the music and presence of the aforementioned Ramones, three of its four members now sadly deceased. Featuring lots of performance footage — alas, in very low-fi monophonic sound — this is a big, sloppy kiss to the rock and roll spirit. It may not be the funniest comedy ever made, but it’s close enough for punk.

Click to buy “Rock and Roll High School”

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Allan Arkush Clint Howard Dee Dee Ramone Dey Young Disco High School Eaglebauer Jerry Zucker Joe Dante Joey Ramone Kate Rambeau Marky Ramone Mary Woronov P.J. Soles Principal Togar Riff Randle Rock 'n Roll High School Rock 'n Roll High School review Roger Corman the Ramones Tom Roberts Vince Lombardi High Vincent Van Patten

The box office kung-fu of “The Karate Kid” proves strong; “The A-Team” does B-grade business

June 13, 2010 / Bob Westal

It’s probably not a completely original thought of mine and it’s obviously a vast oversimplification, but it’s always seemed to me that what audiences really seem to want is more of the same, but different. If something is too unfamiliar, only a limited portion of viewers will be adventurous enough to try out a brand new movie flavor. If it’s too familiar, on the other hand, it’s kind of a bore, at best.

That formula has apparently been in full effect this weekend as a film which put a few gentle twists on a very familiar property prospered at the box office. A second movie — in terms of marketing, at any rate — was an apparent carbon copy of its source material, notwithstanding a new cast, more violence, and a bigger budget (too much bigger, probably). That film will prove vastly less profitable, at best.