Courtesy of Ace of Spades comes the most reviled, most wretched “holiday special” ever produced. First, here’s the Vanity Fair article to give you the entire ugly background: In the summer of 1978, Bruce Vilanch had a bad feeling about the Star Wars television special he’d been hired to write. A veteran of the comedy […]
This remains my favorite Christmas movie (yes, even over “A Christmas Story”). It is a musical version of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”, starring Albert Finney in the title role. I am not alone in my praise for this movie; note that of the 406(!) customer reviews for it at Amazon, 366 (90%) give it 5 […]
[UPDATED 2134 MDT: Uh, corrected David Zucker’s last name. Thanks, Kevin!] [UPDATED 1604 MDT: Got an Ace-o-lanche going on, with other links coming in — welcome all! Also made a few minor edits.] The Devil, the proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked. — Sir Thomas More I went into “An American Carol” with guarded […]
Not many marriages last 50 years, particulary not in Hollywood, and especially not when both parties are well-known actors. But Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward managed that on a very public stage, and the montage of clips below gives you an idea of the fire in the dance: Hat tip to American Digest. ..bruce w..
I’m sure Paul Newman had his flaws — we all do — but for someone to be successful in at least three different endeavors — acting, racing, and raising $175 million for charity — and to always keep a normal-sized head (Newman refused to sign autographs, not out of ego but because signing autographs seemed […]
Actually, it’s hard to write much of a review without giving away key plot points, so this first part will be brief (and spoilers listed below). Truly an outstanding film. Not perfect (see the spoilers section), but every bit as tense, intelligent, and morally complex as the crime dramas that regularly get Oscar nominations. Put […]
No, not the movie itself — I haven’t seen it yet, though I do have tickets for Friday night. It’s the movie’s title: “The Dark Knight”. It’s not “Batman: The Dark Knight” or worse yet “Batman II: The Dark Knight” (though I guess technically you’d have to call it “Batman VI: The Dark Knight”). It’s […]
You could probably devise an interesting psychological profiling test around a person’s favorite Pixar film; mine happens to be “The Incredibles”, so make of that what you will. What is telling is that Pixar has yet to make either a bad or an unsuccessful movie, a pretty stunning achievement given the river of diluted sludge […]
Oh, for things that might have been. I saw “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” on opening day, and — for all the grumblings that I’ve seen in other reviews — I actually liked it. Shia LaBeouf wasn’t as bad as I feared, and it was a joy seeing Karen Allen — […]
OK, I wrote an initial review after watching Part 1 of A&E’s miniseries, “The Andromeda Strain”. It was goofy and heavy-handed in its political agenda, but was still a bit fun, and I was waiting to see how Part 2 went. So now I’ve watched Part 2, which (IMHO) descended from goofiness into full-blown stupidity. […]
