Its official, folks – Christian “It’s F***ing Distracting” Bale and his “Terminator Salvation” action extravaganza was not only beaten by “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” at the box office this past weekend, but was soundly spanked like a whiny, petulant child, which, in Bale’s case, might be somewhat true. And thus it can now be etched in stone: The Fandango Five can suck it. NATM: BOTS, as it’s called by text messengers everywhere, earned a weekend gross …
Month: May 2009
The Fandango Five tried to make me look like a cotton-headed-ninny-muggins on Friday with the irrelevant tidbit that “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” was number four in online ticket sales leading into the weekend, hence giving the impression it wouldn’t come close to touching “Terminator Salvation” for the top spot, and maybe would even be trumped by “Star Trek” or “Angels & Demons.” But, see, here’s the thing: I am never wrong! So, with great humility I …
Eeek! So much for everyone fawning over Quentin Tarantino’s supposed greatest screenplay ever, i.e. the oft-reported on “Inglourious Basterds.” Word out of the Cannes Film Festival is mixed and RottenTomatoes.com has the movie at 57% on the Tomatoemeter, with 14 reviews posted (eight fresh, six rotten). And don’t think those snooty French filmgoers and their love of aberrant sex and all things boring have this film painted into a corner. No, sir, our beloved American critics are pooping on this …
While Inglorious Basterds delights and revels in things I think most human beings should find repugnant, I’m going all apologist after viewing the “Jail Break” clip below. Between the irreverent entry and playful zing of Brad Pitt’s introduction of the Basterds to the legendary Ennio Marricone’s bouncy score, it’s hard not to feel a little twinge of fun, film-geek anticipation at Quentin Tarantino’s deft play for attention. Tarantino– you bastalonie. Fire Roth as your spokesperson, because now I’m listening. For …
If you have any memory of the 80’s, you’ll remember NBC’s lizards-disguised-as-humans-have-come-to-enslave-the-planet TV mini-series: V. A high-production sci-fi adventure allegory min-series that spawned Independence Day’s massive spaceship hovering over cities imagery, V had most boys forgetting about Star Wars for a while and peeling silly putty off their faces, making “Wsssshhh-Zew” laser sounds and not even thinking twice about abberant behavior with a hot lizard. V remains surprisingly solid on revisit some 26 years later, but has always been a …
McG, aka Joseph McGinty, the director of Terminator Salvation, was recently quoted in Entertainment Weekly saying that with Terminator Salvation, he’s ready to be judged by his work rather than his nickname. Of course, that’s exactly how he’s always been judged, it’s just that Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angel’s 2 and We Are Marshall made his nickname a really easy target. Unfortunately for McG, Terminator Salvation isn’t going to improve anything. With the latest Terminator installment, McG proves he’s a stylist, …
Christian Bale (“The Dark Knight”) gained some undesired press this past winter when an audio clip of him having a nuclear meltdown on the set of “Terminator Salvation” aired on TV, radio and spread to every corner of the web. Meltdowns on movie sets happen all the time, so I’m sure Mr. Bale probably felt like he’d been de-pantsed and punched in the netherregions by the public, who months earlier were lauding him for his performance in “The Dark Knight.” …
Quentin Tarantino and the cast of “Inglorious Basterds” are at the Cannes Film Festival and early buzz from Roger Ebert and CNN seems to be good, especially if you’re someone who isn’t keen on brutal violence pasted on the silver screen just for kicks. It seems this Tarantino film has more talking than gore, of course this is also a war movie and sometimes war violence is treated with kid gloves because, well, it’s war. And war is hell. And …
Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar may not have a lot of notoriety outside certain film circles, but his work tends to get picked up by Hollywood and subjected to Americanized remakes. You can thank him for the surreal Vanilla Sky and the spooky The Others– both if which he wrote, one of which he directed (The Others). Alejandro’s latest (English spoken) film, the toga’d and sandalized Agora, which debuted at Cannes this week, stars Oscar winner Racheal Weisz and is all …
It’s Tuesday, which means the shelves of your local digital entertainment purveyor are freshly stocked with the latest DVD/Blu Ray releases– aka- a great way to spend yourself into the poorhouse. One of the larger releases today (besides the eyeball impalation-fest My Bloody Valentine) is Valkyrie. Riddled with delays and production anxiety over Tom Cruise cooties and Bryan Singer’s post-Superman Returns fallout, the film had a modest run in spite of the drama and saw moderate success. However, I know …