I read Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park” in 1992 and was absolutely mesmerized by the novel. I couldn’t get enough Crichton after finishing my first techno-thriller. Since then I’ve enjoyed almost every one of Crichton’s novels (“Next” and “Congo” are my least favorite) and was terribly sad to learn of his death from cancer last year. I’d love to keep reading his works. And I got a little giddy today when I saw this headline in Variety: Michael Crichton Legacy Lives …
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I did a little rearranging of the old Netflix queue over the weekend. See, we have free HBO, Starzz and Encore for three months, so, while I’m not a huge TV guy, I’ve been surfing and catching movies on cable that presently reside in my NQ. Here is my current top 10. What’s in yours? Doubt The Day the Earth Stood Still Donkey Punch Redacted Right at Your Door Married Life From Hell Punisher: War Zone Vicky Christina Barcelona Flesh+Blood
I missed out on the whole Fame fever thing when it debuted in 1980 and second-debuted in 1982 with a five-year run on TV . I just couldn’t get behind all that random singing and dancing and random toe-touching jump splits of joy. Lame. 28 years later, Fame’s done got itself a remake releasing too soon. Yes, Fame is going to live forever. Who knows if the toe-touching jump splits of joy are gone, but you can bet your booty …
11 years ago, Saving Private Ryan singlehandedly reignited interest in all things WW II and set the History Channel up with a sweet gig of nonstop WWII programming. The predictable Hollywood WW II glut ensued and things cooled off a bit– especially after middling returns on Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers duology. In the mean time, Red Tails*, a George Lucas-produced project based on the overshadowed story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the only group of African-American pilots who flew …
Disney may have the happiest slice of Anaheim real estate on earth (hear, hear!), a family-friendly empire always willing to shovel cash into its coffers and a surefire marketing machine that prints its own license to make money, but Disney’s also got some serious, swinging chutzpah. If they want you to take a permanent ride on their heavily subsidized bandwagon of Blu-Ray technology, by Walt’s ghost, you’re gonna do it. Take Snow White for example. Disney animation’s first feature length …
I predicted “Monsters vs. Aliens” would whoop booty this weekend, but it looks like Vin and Paul had other plans. Not only did “Fast and Furious” win the box office, but it earned over $72 million. I guess there are way more clueless, hotrod driving punks in America than I had previously thought. And for the curious, “Monsters vs. Aliens” nabbed $33 million for second place, everything else was left weeping and sniffling below $10 million.
I’ll make no apologies. I’m an ardent defender of Michael Bay’s filmography. Yes he’s known as a cocky, volatile potty mouth who subsidizes the cochlear implant industry with big, dumb action movies– and all with the prettiest feathered hair you’ve ever seen this side of The Max. But when explosions and flying chunks of debris demand star treatment–when you need a sunset silhouetted money shot–Michael Bay refuses to disappoint. So put your Pearl Harbor hatred down and back away from …
We didn’t really cover much of the “Oooooo! Someone’s in double-dutch!!” that was the X-Men Origins: Wolverine internet leak. You know, the unprecedented full feature, major-tentpole-leak-a-month-before-it-hit-theaters X-Men Origins: Wolverine internet leak? The one that had 20th Century Fox calling up the FBI, threatening major jail time and promising it was only an “early version” (i.e.- if you think it sucks, we’ve got our butts covered just long enough to delay any potential bad word of mouth). Still, it happened. And …