Oct

LA Movie Moguls Clash Over Winslet’s Nazi Film

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Forget Batman vs. the Joker, or Sarah Palin vs. Joe Biden. The most enthralling head-to-head dust-up this year is the latest round in the epic battle between movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and producer Scott Rudin, two of Hollywood’s most ruthless characters.

Weinstein and Rudin, who are rumoured to have hated each other for years, have been quarrelling over when to release the movie The Reader, which they are co-producing. The film, starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, is expected to be a major Oscar contender next February.

The dispute has been characterised by public arguments, threats of legal action, a leaked email making an allegation that Weinstein tried to harass a famous Hollywood figure on his deathbed, and a reckless, million-dollar personal bet by Weinstein.

Weinstein wants The Reader, directed by British director Stephen Daldry, released this year, so it can qualify for the Oscars. The film, adapted by David Hare from a novel by Bernard Schlink, is about an adolescent boy who falls in love with a much older woman, only to discover she is a Nazi war criminal. It is the kind of difficult, literary film that will need Oscar nominations to become a hit. But Rudin wanted to push the release date into next year so that Daldry could have more time to finish post production. Daldry is facing another deadline he is also directing the Broadway version of Billy Elliott: the Musical which opens on 13 November.

Insiders believe the row between Weinstein and Rudin is a Hollywood grudge match that neither wants to be seen to lose. Friends of Rudin believe it is fuelled by Weinstein’s urgent need to get money flowing into his new company. Weinstein’s supporters believe Rudin wanted to push The Reader into next year because he doesn’t want it to compete at Oscar time with two other films he is producing, Doubt, starring Meryl Streep, and Revolutionary Road, which stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and is directed by Winslet’s husband, Sam Mendes.

‘The feud is over,’ wrote the Los Angeles Times, optimistically. Weinstein and Rudin ‘have put all the bad blood behind them’. But within just a few hours, internet journalist Nikke Finke had released a leaked email written by Rudin which claimed that Weinstein had ‘harassed’ the Oscar-winning director and producer Sydney Pollack, an executive producer on The Reader, ‘on his deathbed until the family asked him to stop’, in an effort to speed up release of the film. Pollack died of cancer in May.

The Reader is the kind of highbrow literary adaptation that has proved an Oscar-winning gold mine for both Weinstein and Rudin in the past. From the late 1990s Weinstein’s company Miramax seemed to have a lock on the Oscars, with films including Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient and Chicago. But Weinstein was often accused of buying Oscars with expensive marketing campaigns and of bullying directors.

More recently, the run of success has petered out. Since Weinstein and his brother Bob were forced to sell Miramax, the company they founded, to Disney, and set up the Weinstein Company in 2005, they have struggled to recapture their Oscar-winning and money-making form.

That has led people in Hollywood to wonder whether Weinstein, who became known as Harvey Scissorhands for his penchant for recutting movies, had lost his aggressive mojo.

‘I miss the old Harvey, the cinema carnival barker whose passion for film was often indistinguishable from his paranoia, abusive behaviour and vitriol,’ Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times lamented last year. And as Weinstein’s Oscar star waned, Rudin’s waxed. Earlier this year two films Rudin was involved in producing competed for Oscars: No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood

Amid all the unseemly acrimony, there is a silver lining for Weinstein fans. However damaging the rows may be for production of The Reader, they have at least thrilled Hollywood insiders, who are claiming that at last the ‘old Harvey’ is back albeit a million dollars lighter.

Tags: aim, amp, disney, films, harvey weinstein, hollywood, ins, leonardo dicaprio, mojo, money, movie, novel, release date, shakespeare in love, weinstein co

A Week Of Digital Movies

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To celebrate the digital movie-making revolution, a week-long festival showcasing the innovative work of independent filmmakers, both local and foreign, will begin tonight at Robinsons Movieworld in Robinsons Galleria, Ortigas, Quezon City.

The opening event, which will begin at 6 p.m. tonight, will be an hour-long film concert featuring excerpts from silent short films of Filipino filmmakers Lav Diaz, Roxlee and Kidlat Tahimik. Music will be provided live by indie band The Brockas.

The other foreign movies that will be screened during the festival are: Re-Defining Video and Head Trauma from the US, Honor De Cavalleria from Spain, Yves from France, The Sun and The Moon from the UK, and A Prima Vista from Austria.

Before each screening, the movie will be explained to the audiences by a local filmmaker. Among these speakers are Ato Bautista, Jeffrey Jeturian, Jim Libiran, Auraeus Solito, Adolf Alix, Raya Martin, Sherad Anthony Sanchez, Ditsi Carolino, Manny Montelibano and John Torres.

Tags: filmmakers, films, ins, movie, short films

The Best Rambo(w) Movie of the Year is now on DVD

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Earlier this year, Sylvester Stallone brought one of his most popular characters back to the big screen in Rambo. Although I found some kind of sick delight in the film’s ultra-gory climactic shoot-out, the film on the whole was largely the disaster I expected it to be.

Fortunately, although his action days seem to be past numbered, John Rambo has managed to inspire one of the year’s most delightful comedies.

Son of Rambow is a British comedy about a couple of young lads who are inspired by the original Rambo film, First Blood, to make their own version. Will (Bill Milner) has been raised in the strict Plymouth Brethren tradition and is not allowed to watch movies or television. He compromises by having a far-reaching imagination, painting his fantasies on the walls of the school’s bathroom stalls. Lee Carter (Will Poulter), meanwhile, is a troublemaker raised by his irresponsible brother who makes him into his servant. Together, these two boys form an unlikely friendship and escape whenever possible to shoot footage of their movie about the son of Rambo’s adventure to save his father from the clutches of the evil scarecrow.

The film is full of laughs from start to finish, but is also effective in providing an element of pathos thanks to a fairly serious twist the film takes in its final act and the challenges presented to the strong religious beliefs of Will’s family. There’s also the conflict generated by a flashy French exchange student who dresses like a cross between Michael Jackson and Rufio from Hook who comes in and anoints himself the film’s new star.

The film was inspired by director Garth Jennings’ own experiences of seeing First Blood as a kid in the 1980s, just as home video equipment was becoming readily available to the public. Whereas there are many filmmakers nowadays who make new films that were inspired by films they saw as a kid, I like how Jennings went a different direction recreating the joy any kid can experience in acting out their favorite movies.

Tags: 80s, clutches, edy, elf, filmmakers, films, ins, movie, nfl, plymouth, sylvester stallone, television, watch movie

Perky Anna Faris of ‘Scary Movie’ series makes ‘House Bunny’ funny

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Just in time for back-to-school comes “The House Bunny,” which won’t teach you anything new or useful, but it will prepare you for sorority rush.

Well, its depiction of Greek life isn’t all that accurate either, but that’s beside the point. The entire purpose of this late-summer comedy is to serve as a showcase for Anna Faris, star of the “Scary Movie” franchise, whose sunny disposition and solid comic timing make “The House Bunny” a whole lot more enjoyable than it ought to be.

Yes, you’ve seen it all before. It’s essentially a female remake of “Revenge of the Nerds,” with a script from “Legally Blonde” writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, so it contains the same type of facetious humour as that 2001 hit. Faris, in all her ditsy glory, functions as a descendant from a long line of supposedly dumb blondes (which includes Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods and extends back to Judy Holliday’s Billie Dawn and beyond), but she’s so unafraid of going for the big, goofy laugh at her own expense that she makes this familiar role her own.

Faris stars as Shelley, a perky Playboy bunny who gets kicked out of Hef’s mansion and becomes the house mother for Zeta Alpha Zeta, a sorority full of misfits. Actually “full” is stretching it, since the Zetas only have seven members, and they need to come up with 30 pledges to avoid being kicked off campus and having the mean-girl Phi Iota Mus take over their house.

Emma Stone (”Superbad, “The Rocker”) continues to establish an engaging presence as the sorority’s brainy leader - the Anthony Edwards figure, if you will. Kat Dennings gets some good lines as the resident feminist, who’s initially appalled by Shelley’s suggestions but eventually gives in when she realizes she likes her newfound attention.

But the importance of being hot and popular can’t be the moral here - certainly not in Hollywood - and so Shelley must undergo a makeover of her own, for her brain. The ever-likable Colin Hanks (as in son-of-Tom, and he looks eerily more like his dad with each film he makes) co-stars as the first nice guy ever to show an interest in Shelley, which discombobulates her even further.

Rumer Willis (as in daughter-of-Bruce-and-Demi) and “American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee don’t get much to do as a couple of fellow Zeta sisters. They’re both literally constricted - Willis’ character wears a metal body brace, while McPhee’s has an unexpected pregnancy. Not much comedy gold there.

But there’s more on the celebrity cameo front. Matt Leinart and Shaquille O’Neal appear as themselves, partying at the Playboy mansion, with Hugh Hefner and the “Girls Next Door” - Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson - making a few appearances, as well. You know, just to ground the movie in reality. Two and a half stars out of four.

Tags: amp, edy, emma, fellow, franchise, hollywood, humour, ins, movie, nancy, presence, scary movie, superbad

Dinner and the movie “Bottle Shock”

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Whatever you think of “Bottle Shock,” you have to admit this new movie has generated some fun tie-ins, like this one in Rosemont on Saturday involving Bogart’s Bar & Grill, Muvico-Rosemont 18 Theaters and Sam’s Wines and Spirits.

Here’s the deal: A four-course dinner provided by Bogart’s, wine pairings from Sam’s, and the movie from Muvico. It’s all easier than it sounds since the restaurant, part of the Levy Restaurants group, is inside the movie theater. Oh, and you get complimentary valet parking, plus popcorn and wine for the movie.

Wine from Chateau Montelena, the California winery central to the “Bottle Shock” story, will be among those poured.

Tags: amp, bogart, california winery, chateau montelena, complimentary valet, course dinner, ins, levy restaurants, movie theater, muvico rosemont 18, popcorn and wine, rosemont, shock, theaters, valet parking, wine pairings, wines and spirits

Cars that became movie stars

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The early 20th century saw the beginnings of mass car production, with vehicles no longer just the playthings of rich enthusiasts anyone could aspire to own one.

Movies, meanwhile, were changing from a fairground novelty into the mass entertainment that is familiar to all today.

It should be no surprise that, from the Keystone Kops to The Fast And The Furious, the movies have shown a fascination for cars that has lasted for more than a century.

Perhaps cars in the movies have something of a split personality. On one hand, cars represent our dreams of freedom, the ability to do what we want, when we want. And on the other hand, cars represent our nightmares - a place where we can be completely alone and vulnerable.

Stratton picks two key movies to illustrate this. The first is one of the greatest road movies, Vanishing Point (1971), a film briefly banned in Australia. The story of a car delivery driver on an insane high-speed drive across the desert for a trivial bet, it celebrates everything that is uplifting about the open road.

The second is Depression-era classic The Grapes Of Wrath (1940). Stratton cites “its amazing images of lines of cars, so heavily overladen with furniture and God knows what else, on the way to what [the drivers] believe is a new life in California”.

Car chases have featured in the movies from the days of silent films but two events in the 1960s were to lay the basis for the car chase as we know it. The advent of muscle cars, such as the Ford Mustang, meant cars were becoming not just powerful but also manoeuvrable. And movie cameras, so bulky in the 1950s, were becoming smaller, so could be attached to the vehicles.

But a worrying development for true lovers of the movie car chase is the increased use of computer-generated images. Chases in films such as The Matrix Reloaded or I, Robot feel more like watching a video game than the visceral experience of old. Hats off, then, to the Bourne films, for doing all the driving stunts for real.

Movies at their best, whether they are set in the past, present or future, use universal characters to tell enduring stories about our lives today - and cars are part of that landscape.

Tags: 1950s, films, fly, landscape, movie, novel, road movie, video game

Roeper to part ways with ‘At the Movies’ after 8 years

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“Over the last two seasons, as Roger has bravely coped with his medical issues, I’ve continued the show with a number of guest co-hosts, from celebrities such as Jay Leno, Harold Ramis and John Mellencamp, to critics such as A.O. Scott of the New York Times and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune. It’s never been the same without Roger, but I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and I’m grateful to all the co-hosts who stepped in and to the viewers that stayed loyal to the show.

“My last episode of ‘At the Movies’ will air the weekend of Aug. 16th-17th. I wish Disney the best of luck with their new show, whatever form it may take. In the meantime, it is my intention to proceed elsewhere with my ninth year as the co-host of a movie review show that honors the standards established by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert more than 30 years ago. I will be free to share the details on that program in the near future.”

Tags: amp, disney, movie, movie review, new york times

AMC tests dinner-and-a-movie concepts in Olathe

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The Kansas City-based theater company will turn one wing of the theater into several food-and-movie concepts with seat-side service, AMC said in a Monday release. Construction began Monday and should conclude in October for the test model.

“Our concept builds off many of the differentiated food and beverage offerings that we have provided at several of our theatres over the years and takes it to the next level,” AMC CEO Peter Brown said in the release.

Eight Fork & Screen auditoriums will offer casual dining, including appetizers, sandwiches, entrees, desserts, alcoholic drinks and traditional theater concessions. Three Cinema Suites auditoriums will offer upscale dining with reserved seating, an expanded menu and plush recliners. Both concepts are for guests 18 or older and minors accompanied by a guardian.

MacGuffins will be a bar and lounge area where guests can wait before or after movies.

AMC isn’t yet publicly sharing what ticket prices in the new auditoriums will be, he said.

An Atlanta theater that has offered in-theater dining for about 12 years began testing the MacGuffins and Fork & Screen concepts this month, Scott said.

Tags: amp, ceo, concessions, movie, rage

Ward wallops Ravelo to move one step closer to title shot

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Andre Ward is always referred to as the lone gold medal winner for the U.S. boxing team in the 2004 Olympic Games. He will need to win a world championship before he can make that accomplishment a footnote to his name.

Ward took a step closer to making that happen when he demolished Jerson Ravelo, a 2000 Olympian with the Dominican boxing team, at the Royal Watler Cruise Terminal on Friday. Ward scored a devastating eighth round TKO against Ravelo, dropping Ravelo to his knees and then face forward to the canvas with a short left hand followed by a quick right. Ravelo made it up by the count of eight, but he was unsteady on his feet.

As Ward charged in to continue his assault, a white towel flew in from Ravelo’s corner. Referee Steve Smoger had his back turned to the towel coming into the ring, but he reacted just as quickly to step in and protect Ravelo from further injury, stopping the fight at 2:37 of Round 8 to give Ward his sixth straight knockout victory since moving up to the super middleweight division last year.

Ravelo, who was a member of the 2000 Dominican Olympic boxing team, never seemed to get in a rhythm against the faster Ward. And even though he had a height and reach advantage, Ravelo never pressed it. Instead, he kept getting popped by Ward’s pop shots.

Ward briefly switched to a southpaw stance in the fifth round, hoping to catch Ravelo off guard because he knew that Ravelo had been stopped previously by a lefty. But after Ward found it easy to land the right hand from the orthodox stance, he didn’t do it anymore.

By the seventh round, Ravelo, who has broken his right hand five times in his career and had it surgically repaired three times, looked exhausted. His mouth was open and he was gasping for air. It seemed only a matter of time before Ward would catch up to him.

“All I wanted to do was get back home and lay my belt at the feet of my wife and daughter,” he said.

If he continues to fight the way he did against Ravelo last night, Ward, 24, will soon be laying some bigger and better hardware at the feet of his two queens.

In other key fights on the undercard, Wayne McCullough, a former bantamweight and featherweight world champion, called it quits for good after his corner stopped his fight against Juan Ruiz after the sixth round.

McCullough was taking a lot of shots from Ruiz, but he seemed to be giving as good as he was getting. Two of the judges had McCullough ahead at the time of the stoppage. Judge Jose Rivera had it 58-57 and Judge Nelson Vazquez had it 58-56 for McCullough, while Judge Roberto Ramirez had it 56-58 for Ruiz.

Heavyweight contender “Fast” Eddie Chambers started slow against Raphael Butler. But once Chambers got rolling and let his hands go he made quick work of Butler, scoring an impressive TKO victory at 2:23 of the sixth round. Chambers stunned Butler with a left to the jaw and quickly followed it with another barrage of punches, finally sending Butler through the second rope and sprawled onto the ring apron with a big right.

The way that Chambers stopped Butler, who outweighed him by 33 pounds, was a measure of redemption for the way that he lost to Alexander Povetkin in his last fight. The match against Povetkin was especially painful because it was an IBF title eliminator.

Tags: 2004 olympic games, accomplishment, amp, andre ward, canvas, cruise terminal, fly, footnote, gold medal winner, knees, knockout, left hand, lefty, matter of time, olympic boxing team, pop shots, rage, referee, southpaw stance, super middleweight, vet, watler

Hulk mean when green - with good guy’s heart

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Sequels are so 20th century. So are remakes. What we’re getting now are do-overs. Two years ago we got a new “Superman.” Next month we get “The Dark Knight,” which will be the second in a new series of “Batman” movies. Even an old-schooler like Sylvester Stallone got into the spirit earlier this year, with a second movie called “Rambo.” The reason this can be done is the target audience for these movies is so young that a few years in the past feels to them like ancient history.

But at least they got this do-over right. “The Incredible Hulk,” the second adaptation this decade of the Marvel comic-book story, is a big improvement over 2003’s “Hulk,” which was directed by Ang Lee. He tried to make a thinking person’s action movie, but ended up with a film suffering from multiple-personality syndrome, part dull and earnest, part mindless and violent. “The Incredible Hulk,” by contrast, embraces its identity as a sci-fi-summer-action-blockbuster extravaganza. Along the way, it actually comes close to finding the balance that Lee was looking for.

But Bruce is a man on the run. He may want to slip beneath the radar and live with his condition until he can be cured, but the U.S. government - in the person of General Ross (William Hurt) - has other ideas. The Army wants to study Bruce and figure out the science behind what’s happening to him, so as to create other Hulks. They want to weaponize the Hulk technology.

“The Incredible Hulk” is a chase movie, in a sense, but it’s not all about running. There are quiet interludes and genuinely poignant moments that don’t feel forced or phony but organic to the study. The movie benefits from an unguarded purity of essence that Liv Tyler brings to the role of Betty, Bruce’s ex-girlfriend and true love; and Norton grounds the whole movie in his matter-of-fact understanding of Bruce’s predicament. He plays him as stoic, realistic and full of regrets that he has learned to ignore just to get through the day. A key moment comes early in the movie, in which Bruce, following a Hulk episode, wakes up almost naked in Guatemala. It could have been a joke scene. It’s not. It could have been overplayed for sympathy. It isn’t. He’s just a man with a problem, and we sympathize.

Credit must go to Norton (who also co-wrote the screenplay) but also to director Louis Leterrier, for his intelligent sense of proportion. Here there’s no disconnect between the Hulk and Bruce. They are still the same man, and Leterrier keeps reminding us gently of Bruce’s physical vulnerability, through shots such as the one of Norton’s white, thin back, as he lay exhausted. His strain is almost unbearable.

Meanwhile, casually, almost incidentally, a fairly serious idea slips through. This Hulk technology could set broken bones in minutes. It could regenerate cells. It could reverse spinal injury and maybe cure cancer, and yet what would happen if such technology existed? Picture armies of Hulks, all killing each other.

Tags: ang lee, betty bruce, blockbuster, comic book story, dark knight, finding the balance, gover, hulk, hulks, incredible hulk, interludes, liv tyler, man on the run, movie, multiple personality syndrome, new superman, poignant moments, schooler, sci fi, screenplay, sequels, spirit, sylvester stallone, target audience

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LA Movie Moguls Clash Over Winslet’s Nazi Film

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A Week Of Digital Movies

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The Best Rambo(w) Movie of the Year is now on DVD

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Perky Anna Faris of ‘Scary Movie’ series makes ‘House Bunny’ funny

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Dinner and the movie “Bottle Shock”

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Cars that became movie stars

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Roeper to part ways with ‘At the Movies’ after 8 years

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AMC tests dinner-and-a-movie concepts in Olathe

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Ward wallops Ravelo to move one step closer to title shot

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Hulk mean when green - with good guy’s heart

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