It's pretty obvious what Movies & TV blog is about. We churn out recaps, reviews and news on the stuff that interests us.
Tony Black and Zack McGhee have been together for nearly 4 years. They spend altogether too much time watching movies and TV, and being glued to their computers. This blog combines all three at once, thereby gaining them maximum efficiency.
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Home > Blogs > Movies & TV blog > Archives > 2005 > December
We’re doing our best to do something special for the end-of-year extravaganza known as Top 10 lists, the Oscars, etc. Until then, we want to hear from you!
Feel free to answer these questions in any form you like: List ‘em off, rank ‘em, anything.
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Zack’s sick, so I’m filling in to update for him…
Turns out Brokeback Mountain will not be opening in Dayton on Jan. 6, it has once again been pushed to Jan. 13 for the Neon.
It will still open in Columbus Dec. 30 at the Drexel Gateway.
Jonathan says. “After BROKEBACK opened in 200 additional markets last week, numbers were quite mediocre. Focus, the film’s distributor, has gone back to its original strategy for smaller markets (distributors consider us quite small in terms of box office). Seems that even though there are pockets of people eagerly awaiting the film, it’s still not a blockbuster…and they believe that word-of-mouth and more aclaim will be better for Dayton.”
Sigh, I guess Daytonians will just have to venture to Columbus or wait patiently.
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It being Christmas Eve, this being a movie blog, and being that I nearly balled my eyes out at Miracle on 34th Street this morning, I came up with my ten (or so) favorite Christmas movies.
Before getting started, I want to pay lip service to the hallmark TV specials and shorts Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) and Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), which I’d put on this list if they were feature films, and which would’ve warrented spots on my Top 10 Christmas Specials of all time, if there were more than three slots filled on it.
I wanted to put John Hughes’ Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) on the list, but discerning readers will remember that it’s actually a Thanksgiving movie, so I suppose that disqualifies it.
Caveats aside, here’s the list, in descending order:
Most people see A Christmas Story (1983) at least twelve times each year — often consecutively. I’m not sure that even Citizen Kane or Vertigo would hold up under such intense scrutiny.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) is the funniest movie on this list. It captures, with equal amounts authenticity and exaggeration, the irritation and the joy of spending time with family over the holidays.
Frank Capra’s great It’s a Wonderful Life was released in 1946 — almost sixty years ago! — but it barely shows its age.
Bill Murray’s performance in Scrooged (1988) is one of his best, and the movie might be the best adaptation of A Christmas Carol yet. Terrific turns by Ghosts of Christmas David Johansen (Past) and the luminous Carol Kane (Present).
Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa is the most vulgar, crass, crude, profane Christmas movie ever made. It’s packed with laughs, but it’s also teeming with sadness.
A tie between two versions of Miracle on 34th Street. The 1947 black and white classic with Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood, and the 1994 remake with an enchanting performance by the great Sir Richard Attenborough.
If Richard Curtis’ Love Actually isn’t a response to the destruction and pain felt by the victims of terrorism and war, it certainly has become one. It’s a lovely, optimistic movie, but it also deals with heartache and loneliness. It’s also on HBO around the clock.
Alfonso Cuarón’s A Little Princess doesn’t entirely take place at Christmas, but it’s a beautiful story that captures its spirit.
The Muppet Christmas Carol is just genius. Gonzo is here to tell the story, and Rizzo is here for the food.
A tie between three movies most people wouldn’t think to watch at Christmas. Stanley Kubrick’s great Eyes Wide Shut (1999) is a movie about intimacy that takes place entirely at Christmas; others have called it a dream, but it’s more like a nightmare. Gregg Araki’s haunting Mysterious Skin (2004) is a heartbreaking story of loss and isolation, and the key to its central mystery is revealed to its characters while Christmas carolers comfort them unknowingly. Doug Liman’s fast-paced Go (1999) is an alternative pick for people whose friends are practically family.
OK, I’ve had my say. What are your favorite movies to watch over the holidays?
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23-year-old actor Brad Renfro “was arrested in a sting operation after he allegedly tried to buy heroin near downtown’s Skid Row, police said,” according to an Associated Press story.
Do you think Susan Sarandon is available to take his case?
According to police, Renfo was attempting to buy some heavy stuff from an undercover cop. This, mind you, is just a few years after he was charged with underage drinking, driving without a license and public intoxication. Those offenses violated the probation he was already on for trying to steal a yacht. That was just three years after he was charged with “possession of cocaine and marijuana, but avoided jail time in a plea deal.”
Brad, honey, you suck at this crime thing. Stick to acting, OK?
Actor Brad Renfro Arrested in Drug Sting [AP via DDN]
P.S. As a teen idol, Brad was only in three movies: The Client, The Cure and Tom and Huck, after which he did a slew of grown-up movies starting with Telling Lies in America. Is it just me, or did it seem like he was in a lot more Disney flicks than that?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: People
When I first saw the trailer for the new Johnny Knoxville comedy, The Ringer, which opens today, I thought to myself, “That’s just like that episode of ‘South Park.’”
Apparently that’s just what Ricky Blitt, the movie’s screenwriter, was afraid of. In a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly, Blitt claims he pitched the idea to “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s company several years before the “South Park” episode, “Up the Down Steroid,” aired.
Why wait until The Ringer’s release to set the record straight? “I don’t want to be known as the hack that ripped these guys off,” Blitt said.
Stone says that’s ridiculous: “I don’t have a problem with him letting people know that he didn’t rip it off. But just don’t accuse us the other way.”
‘Ringer’ of Truth [EW.com]
Who doesn’t love the year-end Voice poll? Take 7 is the most exciting awards-like thing that will happen all “season,” probably because there aren’t any actual awards, and it’s mostly made up of ballots by people with actual opinions.
One of those people is New York Press critic Armond White, who apparently doesn’t want anyone to know what his ballot looked like. See for yourself. “This ballot is unavailable by request of the critic.” Really? Then maybe the critic shouldn’t have been invited to submit one.
Just the results of the poll are up now, and all but one (cough Armond cough) of the ballots are available for viewing. The top ten, in descending order: A History of Violence, 2046, Kings and Queen, Grizzly Man, The World, Tropical Malady, The Squid and the Whale, Cache, The Holy Girl, and Last Days. Check it out. Apparently the always fascinating comments will be posted next week.
This just in from my buddy Anthony, in an e-mail entitled, “Fun on the Ranch”: “Just heard that Brokeback Mountain is coming to Columbus on Dec. 30 at the Drexel Gateway. Not coming to Dayton till Mid January.” A call to the Gateway confirms this.
Though the Neon’s website reports that Brokeback will now open there on January 6, a week earlier than its original date, January 13.
Maybe I won’t have to head off to New York after all…
Update (8:29 p.m.): The Gateway will have a special midnight showing of Brokeback on the evening of the 29th.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Movies
From the Hollywood Reporter:
The appeals board of the Classification and Ratings Board said Wednesday that it is upholding the NC-17 rating awarded “This Film is Not Yet Rated.” The docu by Kirby Dick examines the ratings board and contains a number of clips from movies that have been rated NC-17. The board attributed the rating to the fact that the movie, which will premiere next month at the Sundance Film Festival, has “some graphic sexual content.”
‘Not Yet Rated’ to stay NC-17 despite appeal
Joaquin Phoenix, star of the surprisingly stupendous Cash/Carter Cash biopic Walk the Line, will attend a screening of the movie at Folsom State Prison, where Johnny Cash recorded (of all things) At Folsom State Prison.
“John believed in the power of redemption and offered his unique gift to anyone who needed to find it within them, and in the process, he inspired millions,” Phoenix said in a statement. “I can think of no greater way to honor him than to carry on his legacy of using music to connect to all people.”
Now, I like Joaquin Phoenix. I liked Walk the Line. But I can’t help but imagine this statement being read by him in the same manner his character tried to persuade the elders to let him go in search of medicine in The Village:
My mother is unaware of reasons of my visit today. She did not give her consent or consult me in any form. The passing of little Daniel Nicholson, from illness, and other events have weighed on my thoughts. I ask permission to cross into the forbidden woods and travel to the nearest town. I will gather new medicines, and I will return. With regards to those we don’t speak of, I am certain they will let me pass. Creatures can sense emotion and fear. They will see I am pure of intention and not afraid. The end.
Joaquin Booked at Folsom State [E! via Yahoo!]
The short answer is: Roughly eight years from now.
The studios are trying to play their cards right. With smallish movies dominating awards season, and word of mouth spreading like wildfire, Dayton audiences are wondering where all the good movies are. Keeping the level of anticipation up means that studios will pull in maximum grosses with each week of expansion. (Think of it like a presidential primary — you have to keep up the momentum.) It also means people are talking about their movie — every week, during awards season. You can’t buy publicity like that, but apparently you can sell it.
Brokeback Mountain is currently playing in the top 20 markets, including the suburbs of Chicago and New York, where it’s doing surprisingly big business. It’s scheduled to open in Columbus (and probably Cincinnati) on January 6, and will finally reach Dayton on January 13. (I suppose that date could come sooner if the film continues to be so uncharacteristically successful in suburban markets.)
Other films to look forward to? Terrence Malick’s The New World, opening in New York and L.A. on Sunday, will open wide on January 13. Woody Allen’s Match Point, which opens in New York and L.A. on the 28th, doesn’t yet have a projected arrival in the Gem City. Film-fest darling The Matador opens in NY & LA on the 30th, expands on the 6th, and goes wide on the 20th. Tommy Lee Jones’ The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year (and has therefore been done for at least six months) is playing week-long, Oscar-qualifying engagements in NY & LA, and will then reopen in limited release in February. (How frustrating!) And what about Transamerica, which features Felicity Huffman in a Globe-nominated performance as a “pre-operative male-to-female transsexual?” Cross your fingers for an Oscar nod if you want to see this before DVD.
But what is there to see now? Opening Friday in Dayton are Rob Marshall’s much-maligned Memoirs of a Geisha and Steven Spielberg’s increasingly controversial Munich (a tad early, I think). So, nothing really.
P.S. NPR’s Terry Gross interviewing Tommy Lee Jones is awkwardly hilarious.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Movies
From the Hollywood Reporter:
Writers and producers for the John Wells Prods./Warner Bros. TV series are expected to gather this week to decide how to handle the remainder of the season, a studio spokeswoman said. Spencer appeared in seven of the 14 episodes of “West Wing” has completed for its sixth season as of last week, according to “West Wing” producer Warner Bros. Television. Nine of those 14 episodes have already aired; “West Wing” isn’t scheduled to air a new episode until January.
Star’s death will change ‘Wing’ story [THR]
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Now that I’ve made my picks, what do the rest of you think?
Bob stepped right up and proclaimed that The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl was the worst movie he saw all year — nay, one of the worst movies he’s ever seen. Cathy says it doesn’t seem many movies this year were worth watching.
So have at: Make your picks.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: Movies
It’s the time of year when movie-lovin’ dorks of all ages begin the careful process of selecting the cream of the crop — their favorite films from the preceding 12 months. Tragically, though this process typically affords smiles of recognition, it also tends to resuscitate seething hatred for that year’s worst moviegoing experiences, previously blocked or exorcised from memory.
My own list of films seen, tentatively ranked from best-loved to most wretched, has its share of stinkers. The ten worst:
1. Stealth (Rob Cohen) The year’s worst movie, and the only one I walked out of — quite a feat, since I saw it at a drive-in.
2 (tie). Bewitched (Nora Ephron) and Must Love Dogs (Gary David Goldberg) both squandered actors of immense talent in the service of completely misrepresenting human relationships and behavior.
4 (tie). The Amityville Horror (Andrew Douglas) and The Ring 2 (Hideo Nakata) were complete misfires that committed the greatest sin a horror movie can make: Neither was especially scary.
6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton) didn’t strike as especially terrible when I first saw it in summer, but it’s left an increasingly sour taste in my mouth.
7. Assault on Precinct 13 (Jean-François Richet) is a reductive and borderline-fascist remake of John Carpenter’s spare 1976 masterpiece.
8. Domino (Tony Scott) is an offense to all the senses, including common.
9. Fantastic Four (Tim Story) gets the appeal of superheroes dead wrong.
10. Hostage (Florent Emilio Siri) would’ve ranked higher on this list, but its saving grace is this totally awesome part where this dude gets stabbed in the face! He totally had it coming, by the way.
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Does anyone else think that Jonathan Rosenbaum’s capsule-size rave over King Kong sounds a little self-congratulatory? He spends the entire space deconstructing the movie’s (fairly sketchy) symbolism, without ever actually examining its quality.
Know of any other critics who do this?
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My Danish isn’t the best, but I think I just paid $30 (or roughly 200 kroner) for a Region 2 PAL DVD of Lars von Trier’s Manderlay.
But who can be sure?
If it does arrive at my abode some time in the near future, I’ll post instructions on “How to Order from Laserdisken Without Knowing a Single Word of Danish.” Of course, if it doesn’t, look forward to “How Not to Order from Laserdisken Without Knowing a Single Word of Danish.”
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Home video
Want to see Woody Allen’s Match Point (“for the first time in a long time, we understand why Allen is considered a master”), Terrence Malick’s The New World (“a visual tone poem orchestrated around the themes of innocence, discovery and loss”), Michael Haneke’s Caché (“a superb piece of work, made by a master of the form”), and Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (“a study of love under siege”, “morally offensive”, “pretty terrific stuff by any measure”)? Why not schedule a year-end trip to New York City? I did — today.
Yes, just before New Year’s, two or three friends and I will rent a car and drive to New York for a day of good food, sight-seeing, shopping, and moviegoing. Charges against my sanity may be leveled starting…
Now.
Edit: Maybe we’ll have time to catch Munich, too, though that opens in Dayton just a week later, so I wouldn’t think to make it a priority.
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By the way, the New York Film Critics Circle announced its awards the other day, too.
Their pick for best film? You guessed it: Brokeback Mountain. (The Neon almost simultaneously announced a date for the movie’s Dayton release: January 13.)
Beyond the predictabilty of Brokeback (though I would’ve predicted the NYFCC folks pick something different than their L.A. counterparts; it also snagged the Circle’s award for “Best Director” Ang Lee), the New York critics’ picks are far and away the most interesting this year.
Best foreign film went to Wong Kar-wai’s 2046, as did three awards to its cinematographers. Best animated film? Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. Best non-fiction film? A tie between two Werner Herzog docs: Grizzly Man and The White Diamond. Best first film? Bennett Miller’s Capote. Best screenplay? A great pick: The Squid and the Whale, by Noah Baumbach.
The Circle gave its leading performance awards to Heath Ledger for Brokeback and Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line, and its supporting awards to William Hurt and Maria Bello for their roles in A History of Violence (not a big shock from the NYFCC, but a surprise nonetheless).
The NYFCC awards have some repetition, as you can see, but they still have diversity, something that’s been missing from the awards so far this year.
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Another day, another awards list.
The mysterious National Board of Review has made its picks for the ten best of year. As previously lamented, these year-end awards are boring, and the NBR’s picks might just be the worst throughout all of this awards season. Good Night, And Good Luck. snagged the “honor” for best film, followed by nine other flicks listed in non-preferential, alphabetical order:
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
A History of Violence
Match Point
Memoirs of a Geisha
Munich
Syriana
Walk the Line
Bully for Syriana, but otherwise: Yawn.
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King Kong is three hours long, and you feel almost every minute of it — twice. It’s an entertaining movie, funny and affecting, with (mostly) brilliant effects and solid performances. But it’s just too long.
Action set pieces go on for minor eternities, a ludicrous backstory hijacks the movie’s start, and key scenes (like the famous “scream for your life” sequence) seem to have hit the cutting room floor, despite a directorial style that swims in excess.
But I liked it. Did I mention that?
The thing is, Kong is so over-hyped, and had such tremendous potential, you can’t help but feel let down by the fact that it’s merely pretty good instead of a full-blown masterpiece.
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Even if I had seen most of the movies nominated for Golden Globes this year, I might not be able to talk intelligently about them. I’m afraid we won’t know for several weeks. Just look at this rundown of Globe-nominated movies that haven’t been released in Dayton yet: Brokeback Mountain, Match Point, Memoirs of a Geisha, Transamerica, The Producers, Mrs. Henderson Presents, The Matador, The Family Stone, Breakfast on Pluto, King Kong, Munich, and four of the foreign-language nominees. So let me take this opportunity to rant about something that’s been bugging me for a few years now.
For the most part, journalists are playing up this angle after today’s annoucement of the 2005 Golden Globe nominees: “‘Brokeback’ tops indie-dominated Golden Globes.” Putting aside the blatant innuendo of that headline, let’s consider the thrust of the statement: “Indie-dominated?” Almost all of the nominees for the Globes’ two best picture categories, Best Drama and Best Comedy or Musical, were released by the “indie”-arms of major studios, if not the studios themselves. (The one exception is Transamerica, which is being released by Samuel Goldwyn, a name that’s seen better days.)
Brokeback Mountain — which led the pack with seven nominations, and just the other day was picked by the L.A. film critics as the year’s best film — is being released by Focus Features, which is owned by Universal. So was The Constant Gardener, which joins Brokeback in the Best Drama category. Other nominees for Best Drama? Good Night, And Good Luck., by Warner Independent Pictures, a division of — you guessed it — Warner Bros., which is owned by Time Warner, one of the biggest companies in the world; A History of Violence, by New Line, also owned by Time Warner; and Match Point, the new film by Woody Allen, which is the only true independent of this particular bunch, because Allen’s last few films were so terrible that no one would pay for this one. Once Match Point screened at Cannes, though, Dreamworks swooped in and snatched it up. Dreamworks, you might observe, also isn’t exactly what you’d call an independent studio, not even before it was sold last week to Paramount (which is owned by Viacom, another ginormous corporation) for $1.6 billion.
Even if Match Point could qualify as an indie film before it was picked up by a major studio (and so might a few other movies on the Globes’ nominee list), it certainly has the studio behind it now to give it the necessary awards marketing it needs. Pick up any trade publication these days, and you’ll see it littered with ads promoting films “For your consideration…” These are the new message movies that studios have dressed up and packaged for the consumption of audiences like you and me. The only difference between this audience and the 12-year-old boys to which they sell over-hyped action movies is that the 12-year-old knows he’s being sold a prepackaged product, and most “arthouse audiences” don’t. The studios are selling an indie mentality, but not indie films; these are movies designed to give you the lukewarm feeling that you’re seeing something smart, and maybe you are. But it’s the movie equivalent of Starbucks.
Now, I like Starbucks, but when I go there I don’t pretend I’m supporting my local cafe. And of course I don’t mean to suggest that these movies don’t have merit. A lot of them do. Syriana, a movie curiously absent from the Globes, was released by Warner Bros. It’s a great film that takes real chances and tackles real issues, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. A History of Violence and Good Night, And Good Luck. are other movies I liked. But let’s not pretend they’re independents. Real indie studios like Roadside Attractions and Wellspring are a dying breed. (The only one with a fighting chance might be Lions Gate, one of the smartest small studios in the history of moviemaking.) The days of Sex, Lies and Videotape are over, mostly because Hollywood recognized its merits and hired its director to make terrific entertainments like Out of Sight and Ocean’s Eleven, and given him the freedom to produce movies like Syriana.
So Hollywood’s done a good thing. But — say it with me: It’s still Hollywood.
P.S.: Just saw this on the wire: Actor Colin Farrell Treated for Dependency. Aren’t we all so surprised?
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The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has announced its annual awards. They’ve handed their top prize — their pick for 2005’s best film — to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, otherwise internationally known as That Gay Cowboy Movie. It hasn’t opened in Dayton yet (the Neon lists a “TBD” date on its website), but it opened in New York, Los Angeles and — surprise! — San Francisco this weekend. Brokeback director Ang Lee also snagged the group’s pick for Best Director.
The L.A. film critics are always boring and predictable. Philip Seymour Hoffman snags the award for Best Actor for his performance as Big Gay Truman Capote in Capote. Then, just so we don’t think all of the L.A. film critics have turned queer on us, they pick David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence as their runner-up for both best film and best director. (Though, to be honest, I felt a strange undercurrent of homoeroticism while watching that one, too.)
Here’s the full list. Like I said, boring and predictable. What do I want out of critics’ awards? Quite frankly, I want them to turn me on. I want to become so excited, so thoroughly filled with anticipation for movies so amazing, different, and otherwise overlooked, that I become physically aroused at the mere thought of seeing them. What do the L.A. film critics give us? Same old, same old.
The New York Film Critics Circle has always had a special place in my heart, though their choices aren’t usually much less cautious than their West Coast counterparts. (Last year, they picked Sideways. Boring. Predictable.) Their 2005 picks will probably be announced some time in the next week or so.
L.A. Critics Honor ‘Brokeback Mountain’ [AP via DDN]
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“Fauns, like leprechauns, are creatures in the public domain, unlike Hobbits, who are under copyright.” —Roger Ebert
Ebert gave the new movie adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a three-star recommendation.
Review: ‘Narnia’ yarn mixes magic and myth [Roger Ebert]
Find area showtimes [DDN]
A company that wasn’t even prepared to consider the buy last year is now putting the burden of risk associated with SKG on private investors.
Bully for them.
Meanwhile, Variety’s Todd McCarthy says Spielberg’s Munich is slow and lacks a point of entry for mainstream audiences and younger viewers. Sounds downright promising…
Viacom’s Paramount to Buy DreamWorks for $1.6 Billion [NYTimes.com]
From the AP:
Chris Rock won’t be back cracking wise as the host of next year’s Oscars telecast. “He is not hosting the Academy Awards,” the comedian’s publicist, Matt Labov, said Friday in a brief statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. He did not elaborate.
Labov told The New York Times that Rock didn’t want to do the show “in perpetuity” but would “like to do it again down the road.”
…
Frequently mentioned candidates include four-time host Whoopi Goldberg, two-timer Steve Martin and late-night hosts Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.
The 78th annual Academy Awards will air March 5 on ABC from Hollywood.
If it really was his decision, it’s a smart move on Rock’s part. I’m betting they go with Conan…
Chris Rock Won’t Be Hosting Oscars [AP via DDN]
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Awards
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