Top 5 Scary Movies

On this oh so dark and creepy night our thoughts turn to the terrors that often wait for us in a darkened movie theater. The desire for movie makers to make scary flicks is as old as our own masochistic wish to be terrified in a room full of other trembling souls gripping the arms of our theater chairs waiting for it to be over! So as the wind rattles the door frame, unexplained creaking is heard upstairs and the electricity suddenly goes off let's run down my top 5 scary movies of all time.

Number 5 - Event Horizon (1997)

This was basically a flick about things going horribly wrong in space with a supernatural twist ... nice! The plot centers on a rescue crew that board a spaceship that has just returned from a black hole and they quickly find out they should have stayed home! Starring Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne this was a real surprise chiller as I had never really thought space thrillers were all that scary before. Without a familiar setting (i.e Earth) I always assumed a space movie would be too fantastical to be scary, well I was wrong! I went to see this one with my better half who is normally way braver than me when it comes to the horror/supernatural genre but even she seemed to walk a little closer as we made our way through a dimly lit multiplex parking lot! Scare Rating: ****

Number 4 - The Exorcist (1973)

I was 6 when this movie opened and shocked the world so I had to wait until my teen years to hear Linda Blair's potty mouth and watch her regurgitating pea soup all over the place. I watched this with a group of other teenagers and so everyone was trying their best not to appear scared including my own Oscar worthy performance. Watched today you might say it lacks subtlety but when this film opened ambulances had to be called to carry traumatized moviegoers out of the theater! It really makes the list for the influence it had on so many horror movies made in later years and even after all this time if watched alone on a dark stormy night you will know you are most certainly not watching a rom-com! Scare Rating: ***

Number 3 - The Omen (1976)

The seventies sure knew how to scare us! This classic was the first of a series of films based on the devils son being born on earth and rising to power. The sequels were respectable efforts, The Omen II being particularly worthy, but it was the original that packed the biggest punch. The casting director was a genius to pick Harvey Stephens as a young Damian Thorn. Who knew a kid that age could look so creepy! This was a classic example of a movies sound effects really ramping up the tension and in the seventies filmmakers had a penchant for including sudden discordant sounds which increased the creep-factor so well. Scare Rating: ****

Number 2 - The Ring (2002)

What a corker this one was. The trailer for this flick got me so nervous I had to wait until I was on a plane to watch it! The pitch itself seemed somewhat silly to me, a videotape that caused the death of the viewer one week after watching it (maybe it was a video of Talladega Nights!) but the execution of the movie was anything but silly. With Naomi Watts as an excellent lead set against the gloomy backdrop of a grey Pacific Northwest this was an intelligent and genuinely frightening movie experience. Once was quite enough for me to at least say I have seen it! Scare Rating: *****

Number 1 - The Blair Witch Project (1999)

It turns out that on Millennium Eve it wasn't Y2K that was freaking everyone out but the age old fear of being lost in the woods after dark! I saw this movie in New York on a sunny September afternoon and my oh my did it have an effect on me. The docu-drama style of the film made it all the scarier for me as you slowly saw three perfectly normal individuals unravel as they slowly become aware something is going very badly wrong on their outdoor adventure. Ignoring all the marketing nonsense that went along with the flick leading to some to actually believing that this happened in real life (get a grip people!) it was hands down the scariest movie experience I have ever had. Now we all know that this is a love it or hate it movie with some people in my camp and others dismissing it as barely a thriller. Well for me this was the ultimate in horror movies as the supernatural always creeps me out more than horror involving gore and violence. If you haven't seen this go and rent the DVD now and get ready for the creepiest/scariest final scene of a movie ever! Scare Rating: *****

Happy Halloween!

Top 5 Scary Movies

Doctor Who Star Quits

In an announcement that shocked sci-fi nerds everywhere (including me!) David Tennant yesterday told the world of his plans to leave the role of Doctor Who at the end of 2009. He told the world via live video link to this years ITV (rival British network to the BBC) National Television Awards .

In an emotional address Tennant spoke of his love for the role:

"When Doctor Who returns in 2010 it won't be with me," he told shocked fans. "Now don't make me cry," he added. "I love this part, and I love this show so much that if I don't take a deep breath and move on now I never will, and you'll be wheeling me out of the Tardis in my bath chair."

He is the 10th actor to take on the most famous character in British Sci-fi (the show premiered on the BBC back in November 1963) and after the franchise stumbled in the 90s it was revived by Russel Davies with actor Christopher Eccleston breathing life into the the role for just one season in 2005. Tennant took over in the summer of that same year and quickly rose to become one of the most popular Doctors along with the classic 70s performances given by Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.

It's hard to overstate the effect this show has had on generations of British youth including your own Big and Small Screen Blogger (Tom Baker was my favorite!). In fact one of the best moments I have shared with my family was on a visit back to the UK while watching Tennant playing the Doctor with my 8 year old nephew ... heart warming stuff indeed.

 

While it will be sad to see him go every fan who grew up with the show will no doubt be excited to see the 'regeneration' into a new Doctor. I am sure the betting has begun on who will be number 11 ... stay tuned!

Doctor Who Star Quits

Alan Arkin - A Great Actor Making Great Choices

If you missed Alan Arkin's Oscar winning performance in Little Miss Sunshine last year then stop what you are doing and go out and rent the DVD now! Arkin has had a varied acting working regularly from the mid sixties  career from  early career appearances in 1966's The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming (for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor) and 1970's Catch 22 to three more modern flicks and personal favorites of mine, the incomparable Glengarry Glen Ross, the underrated So I Married An Axe Murder and of course Little Miss Sunshine.

Arkin was born in 1030s Brooklyn, New York and was the son of a family of Jewish intellectuals from Germany and Russia. In 1946 the family moved to Los Angeles later Arkin ended up as a singer in a children's folk group called The Babysitters.  Moving into film in the late 50s Arkin has became a regular if not a star of the Big Screen and now we are about to see him in Sunshine Cleaning with Amy Adams.

Its not the most common of movie premises, mother starts a crime scene clean-up business to send her son to a better school, but from the trailer below it looks like it might be worth marking your calender for March 13th 2009:

Alan Arkin - A Great Actor Making Great Choices

Colin Farrell - Style Alert

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Colin Farrell attends the Rome Film Festival with a shocking barnet!

Colin Farrell - Style Alert

Movie Review - Amal

This was one of those movies that you go in knowing nothing about it and suddenly two hours have passed and you have had rewarding cinematic experience.

Amal is the name of the lead character, Amal Kumar, a poor auto- rickshaw driver in Delhi who unwittingly gives a ride to a hotel millionaire who ends up leaving him his entire estate. Naturally things are not as easy as that and the family of the rich hotel mogul conspire to alter the changed will of their father.

This movie reaffirms your belief that there is more to life than the constant desire for wealth and the characters are wonderfully written with warmth while staying grounded in reality and not slipping into sentimental gloop even when one of the story lines involves hospitalized child.  

Rupinder Nagra owns the character of Amal. Watching him on screen you truly forget you are watching an actor playing a role as his performance is so natural and the dialogue (even with subtitles) so believable.

We also get the pleasure of watching Roshan Seth, a face you might recognize from movies including Proof, Monsoon Wedding, Missippippi Masala, Slipstream, My Beautiful Laundrette and of course his role as Pandit Nehru in Ghandi. His character Suresh is tasked with going out into Delhi and finding Amal to give him the news of what has been left to him but having worked with the millionaire for 25 years and sacrificed so much for his business can he live with all the money going to a complete stranger?

This film was a festival favorite at the Scottsdale Film Festival where it won the public's vote for Best Festival Film and it also opened the sixth annual Indian Film Festival in Los Angeles this year. Check this movie out, you will be glad you did.

Rating: ****

Movie Review - Amal

Meeting John Travolta

It is rare indeed that my day job in the travel industry ever puts me in front of the Hollywood elite but on Monday the stars aligned and I came face to face with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.

The occasion was the North American Qantas Airways launch of the latest king of the skies, the Airbus A380. I was invited to Los Angeles International airport to take a two hour flight up over San Francisco and back in order to experience the very latest in commercial aviation. Back in 2002 John Travolta became an 'ambassador at large' for Qantas Airways formalizing his love affair with aviation and his pilot credentials:

"I'm undertaking this tour to extend the hand of friendship -- to reach out, to cross borders, make contact, rekindle friendships and make new friends. That's why I've teamed up with Qantas, an airline which embodies the spirit of Australia and the spirit of friendship. I've always admired the Qantas safety record and culture and I've been attracted to its values of quality, openness and friendliness."

Talking about how his enthusiasm for aviation began:

"I was the baby of the family," he said. "In the late '50s, Ellen was off to college and then off to shows. All through the early '60s, she was still traveling quite a bit. Whether it was her, my other sister or my mother, I would say goodbye to them at the airport. Finally, in 1962, at 8 years old, I got my own flight on a National Airlines DC-6. That was the beginning of the reality of flying for me. Up to that point, it was all observing. I just loved it."

Travolta and Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa both spoke at the inaugural ceremony before the actual flight and then John and Olivia Newton John accompanied industry and press on the two hour flight. I have never met a Hollywood star before but both Travolta and Newton John were very accommodating with requests for photos and autographs on board. It was a great PR success for the airline and a rare brush with a world so often only accessible on the Big or Small Screen.

Here is a snap of Danny Zuko/Vincent Vega/Tony Manero and your very own blogger!

For more photos of the day click here.

Meeting John Travolta

Lohan Booted from Betty

Lindsay Lohan has been cut from Ugly Betty to the extent that even scenes already shot for future episodes will be taken out. According to various reports Lohan wanted to play 'herself' which wasn't going to work on a show like Betty. Why the producers invited her on the show in the first place is a mystery, can she really still bring an audience even after she has become such a parody of herself?

Ugly Betty won the Emmy in 2007 for Outstanding Comedy Series and this year America Ferrera and Vanessa Williams won lead actress and supporting actress respectively in a Comedy Series.

I can't comment subjectively on the show's quality as I have never sat through a whole episode but they are clearly doing something right (appearances by Victoria Beckham aside).

Lohan Booted from Betty

Movie Review - Swing Vote

Bud Johnston is a small town guy who is down on his luck having just been laid off. Living in a trailer with his daughter he suddenly becomes the lone voter that will decide the presidential election (heaven forbid!)

Kevin Costner does a capable job in this flick playing a working man down on his luck but the real star of this movie is 12 year old Madeline Carroll who plays his daughter Molly. Bringing a performance that seems way beyond her 12 years this kid really can act! The interaction between her and Costner comes across as genuine and she gives a touchingly real feel to many scenes particularly one when her character Molly is reunited with her mother.

There is a ludicrously strong supporting cast in this movie including Dennis Hopper and Kelsey Grammar who play the two presidential candidates trying too woo Costner for his deciding vote. We also get to have the pleasure of watching Judge Reinhold, Nathan Lane, George Lopez, Stanley Tucci and a host of celebs playing themselves, Aaron Brown (so that's where he went!), Arianna Huffington, Bill Maher (Hoorah!), Larry King, Campbell Brown, Tucker Carlson, James Carville and even Willie Nelson. 

Its a lightweight and easy going Friday night film but its a good topical rental so near to the actual US election. 

Rating: ***

Movie Review - Swing Vote

Childhood Hero?

Say it ain't so.

I read today that my teen hero, Ozzy Osbourne, is now considering a family variety show with Sharon and the kids to air on Fox this winter. I grew up worshipping the Godfather of metal, going to his gigs and playing his LPs as loud as my parents would let me and to see Ozzy go from stumbling around his Beverly Hills mansions on MTV to this is almost intolerable (one imagines it is also very likely to be unwatchable!).

I am too nauseaus to carry on so I will let TV.com take it from here:

In the early '70s, no one would have predicted that bat-biting Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne would be in line to host a family-friendly variety show on television. But then again, no one pegged him for a reality television star, either.

Osbourne, whose career and popularity was revitalized and introduced to a whole new audience with MTV's The Osbournes, is heading back to television, and this time we may see the former heavy metal man do some singing and dancing.

Fox outbid other networks for The Osbournes: Loud and Dangerous (working title), a throwback to the old variety shows of yesteryear, reports TVWeek. The project will see Ozzy joined by the rest of his Osbournes costars, including wife Sharon (currently a judge on America's Got Talent) and kids Kelly (how'd that recording career go?) and Jack.

Like variety shows from the golden era of television, Loud and Dangerous will combine sketches, competitions, and, God willing, song and dance numbers. One source has compared it to the hugely popular Spanish-language variety show Sabado Gigante, except replace "Ay Caramba!" with incoherent nonsense.

Fox Alternative Entertainment president Mike Darnell has been looking to dabble in the variety genre for some time now, but has been waiting for the right hosts to really give it some punch.

"You could see them doing musical performances," Darnell said of the Osbourne family. "You could see them doing sketches and being very funny, maybe laughing their way through them. Even when they do things that seem nostalgic, it will come off as modern and edgy."

Fox has made a six-episode commitment to the show, and will likely launch it in the winter, with a possibility of partnering it with American Idol. Idol's FremantleMedia North America will produce. 

Prediction: Dire.

Childhood Hero?

Blogging from Chicago O'Hare Airport

Here I am again at another airport waiting to board my second delayed flight of the day (what luck!) and I am thinking about how airports and commercial aviation has appeared in movies over the years. Of course the most famous movies have to be the Airport series of disaster flicks that started back in 1970 and even featured a Concorde version in Airport '79. The movies may look very dated now and the dramatic themes antiquated but the original 1970 film had some pretty big names including Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin.

On the (much!) lighter side of aviation movies there are the classic Airplane movies with the 1980 original introducing us to Ted Striker, a hilarious turn by Lloyd Bridges and of course everyone being called Shirley! There was no Airplane 3 as suggested by a teaser clip at the end of the 1982 sequel and maybe it was a good idea to stop before the magic wore off.

Many other flicks have classic aviation and airport moments including the McCallister family running for their flight (filmed here in O'Hare) and leaving Macauley Culkin Home Alone in 1990. Let's not forget the very average Die Hard 2 where Bruce Willis battles terrorists from Washington Dulles Airport ably assisted by NYPD Blue's Andy Sipowicz himself ... Dennis Franz (who didn't love Sippers!). Finally there are some clangers set in airports and the worst of a bad bunch has to be 2006's Unaccompanied Minors, a movie so terrible Daddy Daycare was probably better ... I haven't see either nor will I! What was Lewis Black thinking when he took that job?!

The fascination with aviation in movies will likely never end but with the way the industry is going these days it is less and less about the glamor of travel!

Blogging from Chicago O'Hare Airport

Will Ferrell Back as Bush in SNL

Will Ferrell Back as Bush in SNL

On the Set of Six Feet Under

OK so I wasn't actually on the set of my favorite show of all time but back in August I was in Los Angeles for the weekend and drove over to 2302 W 25th Street (just south of I10 and Koreatown) to visit the actual house used in all the exterior shots of the show. It was a bit of a fan thing for me to do and I am not usually prone to going that far in my TV obsessions but I was in town anyway and figured why not. Well I can tell you it was a pretty weird experience driving up (in a blue Prius a la Claire in the last scene of the shows final episode) to the house that you know so well from TV and it was exactly the same (minus the Fisher and Sons Funeral Home sign)!Here are a couple of snaps I took for posterity!

The House

The driveway and a shot of David's/Nate & Lisa's/Claire's Pad!

The house itself is actually lived in by some lucky people so if you are visiting please be respectful of this fact. If you want to make them an offer on the home (if I had the $$$ I would!) click here to find out what it will cost you.

On the Set of Six Feet Under

Ron Howard Turns Back Time for Obama

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Ron Howard Turns Back Time for Obama

Vintage Film Festival

You have film festivals in Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Telluride, London, New York and also Cobourg & Port Hope, Ontario (that's Canada to you and me)!

The Vintage Film Festival was started 16 years ago by a group of movie enthusiasts who were busy restoring Cobourg native Marie Dressler's house and figured why not start a festival featuring movies starring Dressler. This idea grew into the present day festival that shows flicks made before 1945 and are shown in Victoria Hall, Cobourg and the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope.

There are some classics this in this years festival including The Pearl Of Death starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Frank Capra's Lady for a Day. More information on the flicks showing can be found here.

Vintage Film Festival

Dexter Renewed

Great news just in from Showtime is that Dexter will be picked up by Showtime for at least an additional two seasons which would mean Michael C Hall's friendly slasher will have a minimum 5 season lifespan.

If you have watched the show already you may have noticed that Dexter's boat that he uses to dump his victims in the sea is named 'Slice of Life' ... chuckle, chuckle!

You may want to check out the novel which served as inspiration for the show, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.

Dexter Renewed

Push

Some are calling this the sleeper hit of 2009 although I have to think that creating buzz and hype a year before it's release isn't exactly going to make it a sleeper.

Push is a Paul McGuigan helmed sci-fi caper which centers around people with Telekentic powers, you know, making the remote land in your hand from across the room and magically transporting beer from the fridge to the couch! McGuigan directed what was a very average British Mob flick, Gangster No 1 in 2000 so hopefully he will be upping his game for this movie. It stars Chris Evans (Cellular, Fantastic Four, Sunshine) and Dakota Fanning (Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, Charlotte's Web) as the good guys teaming up to beat the dark agents of a secret government agency.

I am not sold yet even after watching the trailer, maybe you will be. Check it out:

 

Push

The Return of Quentin Tarantino

The creator of Pulp Fiction, one of the movies that defined mid nineties cinema, is back behind the camera again filming another WWII flick (I told you they were in vogue!). Inglourious Basterds is due next year and stars Mr Angelina Jolie himself Bradley Pitt.

According to IMDB the plot goes something like this:

During World War II a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

It will be interesting to see if Pitt can channel his inner 'basterd' playing the Nazi-hunter out for vengeance. If he can, and I think we saw a glimpse of a potentially much grittier Brad Pitt in Babel, then he might well be a genius casting by Tarantino (let's not forget what Pulp Fiction did for John Travolta - who, just to digress momentarily, I met today ... more of that later in the week!). 

Tarantino certainly isn't concerned with output as he has only directed five movies in the last 14 years and so I hope he is going to come out with another one for the ages and recapture the magic that created Reservoir Dogs (the only movie ever to make me leave a theater due to nausea over the 'ear' scene) and Pulp Fiction. I wasn't really a fan of the Kill Bill movies as they seemed contrived to me, over-stylized and frankly somewhat pointless. That said maybe just getting David Carradine and Darryl Hannah back up on the big screen was a good enough reason to make the two volumes.

One thing about Tarantino that you have to admire is his absolute unwavering love of talking pictures. I am a fan but my oh my is he a fan, the fervor that grips him when he is talking about anything cinematic is positively, well, fervent!

P.S Wasn't Babel a fantastic movie?!

The Return of Quentin Tarantino

Weekend Box Office

Weekend Estimate

October 17, 2008 - October 19, 2008 (*millions)

 

Max Payne - $17,639,849

Beverly Hills Chihuahua - $11,422,425

Secret Life Of Bees, The - $10,527,799

W. - $10,505,668

Eagle Eye - $7,029,718

Body Of Lies - $6,824,259

Quarantine - $6,084,580

Nick And Norah's Infinite Playlist - $3,693,384

Sex Drive - $3,607,164

Nights In Rodanthe - $2,657,440

Weekend Box Office

TV Show Opening Credits

One of the few draw backs of the Tivo/DVR era is that we often skip past opening credits of our favorite shows. The theme and tone of a show can be set in the first minute or two each week and often they are what linger in our minds long after the various plotlines have been forgotten.Here are three of my favorites, two modern day shows and a classic blast from the past!

Dexter

True Blood

And all the way from the 1970's ... The Six Million Dollar Man!

TV Show Opening Credits

Sarah Palin on SNL

This is funny but Palin is still scary.

Sarah Palin on SNL

Movie Review - Righteous Kill

Well if you ever had high hopes for a movie then this would surely be the one. Pairing two acting legends in a crime flick generates a level of hype and expectation that you could never realistically expect to meet. This movie proved that theory and then some.

It's not that it was a particularly bad film but such excitement has been generated over the one scene where DeNiro and Pacino met in Michael Mann's 1995 heist flick Heat that their first movie as dual leads would have to be pretty special to give the audience what they wanted. 

So the movie pairs up veteran cops, DeNiro & Pacino and pits them in an IAD, serial killer type of investigation against the young bucks of Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo. The plot is pretty standard fare and supported by 50 Cent playing an unnecessary small role as local club owner (he was not convincing as an actor) and a decent performance by Entourage's own Carla Gugino. There is the obligatory twist at the climax of the flick but by this point you are somewhat disengaged in the movie and have spent most of the 101 minutes wondering what kind of movie this could have been with a top drawer director in charge with a better script.

I read in some paper recently that the movie got a one star review which was too harsh. Just watching DeNiro and Pacino share a screen means you have to start from two stars but really this is a 2.5 for me. Ehh, I will be generous, let's add another half just because they are such legends!

Rating: ***

P.S How about that Promo Poster - they look like the Kray Twins!

Movie Review - Righteous Kill

In Memorium - Guillaume Depardieu

Son of actor Gerard Depardieu, Guillaume Depardieu died in Paris on October 13th from complications due to a sudden onset of pneumoniua. 

Guillaume Depardieu won the Cesar award for most promising young actor in 1996 but his life took a turn for the worse in 2003 when he lost his leg to amputation after a motorcycle accident.

The three films that he was best know for were Les Apprentis, De La Guerre and Versailles.

He is survived by his father, his mother, a sister, a half-sister and a daughter.

In Memorium - Guillaume Depardieu

Forest Whitaker - Vote!

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker drops in on the Detroit MI office of the Obama campaign much to the delight of all concerned!

Along with the rest of the world I marvelled at the Oscar winning performance Whitaker gave in 2006's Last King of Scotland playing the bonkers dictator Idi Amin. However it is his TV performances that I seem to have enjoyed the most. The two characters he played on ER and The Shield, while different in circumstance were troubled individuals always seemingly on the edge of reason. The scenes from the sixth season of The Shield between Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and Lt Kavanaugh (Whitaker) were some of the best in the shows history.

Forest Whitaker - Vote!

New Star Trek Images Released

Due in 2009 JJ Abram's is producing and directing the re-imagined Star Trek.

New Star Trek Images Released

Australia - The Movie

Who doesn't love the movies of Baz Luhrmann? I am a fan of the three movies he has directed:

1992 - Strictly Ballroom

1996 - Romeo & Juliet

2001 - Moulin Rouge

Now comes Australia which is set to open next month. I must admit a historical sweeping epic across the outback of Australia from any other director wouldn't have me rushing to the multiplex but a Baz directed filme is hard to resist. You wonder why he has directed so little in 16 years but maybe he is just very picky, I am certainly not complaining but it's a little like your favorite band or artist taking forever to release their next album (yes Kate Bush, I am talking to you!)

This flick took forever to make and according to IMDB 15 babies were born to cast and crew during the shoot (talk about a fertile set!) including one to Nicole herself. The movie was filmed in various Australian locations including Bowen in Queensland. I wonder if Bowens population of 7,500 are ready for a more visitors as it seems prior to this movie coming out the big draw in town was a Big Mango ... crikey!

So I will certainly be there on Thanksgiving weekend or soon after if for nothing else to see one of the best commercials for Australia since Paul Hogan put 'another shrimp on the barbie'!

Australia - The Movie

Sneak Peek of Tonight's Life on Mars

Sneak Peek of Tonight's Life on Mars

Ripley vs Palin?

One of my favorite women characters in the movies is Ripley from the Alien franchise. Played by the excellent Sigourney Weaver she is one of the strongest female characters in the sci-fi universe. Now if only she were real perhaps she could reprise her role and deal with the current Republican V.P nominee to whom reason and logic are clearly 'alien' concepts (sorry but you knew that one was coming!).

The Huffington Post reports:

Sigourney Weaver is not a fan of VP candidate Sarah Palin. Speaking to TV Guide about her upcoming guest spot on Eli Stone, on which she'll play a therapist, Weaver said, "I actually have a therapist. She's very smart and we try not to talk about politics because we're both incensed about Sarah Palin."

Earlier this week at an event Sigourney Weaver told the press, "I don't feel she represents me in any way. She's in a skirt, that's about it."

Eli Stone with Weaver debuts Tuesday, October 14th at 10pm.

Ripley vs Palin?

Why Kevin Smith Made 'Porno'

From CNN:

Kevin Smith likes to watch porn online, not to get his jollies but to marvel at how extreme the art of exhibitionist sex can be.

"I'm a morning porn peruser, and not for the titillation factor. I just find it interesting," said Smith, whose latest comedy is "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," the tale of best friends shooting their own skin flick to dig themselves out of debt. "I'll go read Google news, I'll go read Guardian UK, go read our Web site, and then if I've got nothing else, I will just peruse the porn sites, because it's an ever-expanding world."

"Just when you see the most outlandish clip you could ever see, somebody introduces something new. I just check in periodically just to see how far porn has gone in my absence," Smith said after screening "Zack and Miri" for The Associated Press at his Los Angeles home last week.

Debuting October 31, "Zack and Miri" stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as lifelong buddies who have shared an apartment for years but never considered each other as potential mates.

Writer-director Smith -- whose films include "Clerks," "Dogma" and "Chasing Amy" -- has taken two people who have yet to realize they're a couple and cast them into a sweet little romance -- with a whole lot of sex and swearing.

Profanity is almost a given for Smith, whose characters barrage one another with four-letter words.

"It turns some people off but that's how mostly everybody I know speaks," Smith said. "It's kind of strange. Whenever somebody goes, 'That offends me,' I'm like, wow, what kind of weird, opposite bizarro frame of mind do you live in? Cursing is just so second nature, you don't even think of it as cursing any more. It's just your lexicon."

At the outset of the new film, Rogen's Zack and Banks' Miri have known each other so long and so well that they're almost like siblings. The twenty-something slackers blissfully share a dumpy apartment on which they're far behind on the rent and utility bills. When the electricity is turned off in the middle of winter, they burn their unpaid bills in a garbage can for heat.

A chance encounter with a gay porn actor (Justin Long) gives Zack the notion that they could make their own sex flick to pay off their debts. When he and Miri add up how much money they could clear from one dirty movie, they wonder why everyone isn't busy making porn.

"Because other people have options and dignity," Zack concludes.

They recruit an amateur cast and crew to make their porno, among them "Clerks" co-star Jeff Anderson as "cinematographer" and Jason Mewes -- Jay to Smith's Silent Bob, the pair of stoners in most of his movies -- as a well-endowed "actor."

The cast also includes Craig Robinson as Zack's co-worker and producer, "Superman Returns" star Brandon Routh as Long's lover, and former adult-film star Traci Lords and current porn queen Katie Morgan.

The porn shoot becomes something of a loving, though lewd, re-creation of how Smith made his debut film, "Clerks," at the New Jersey convenience store at which he worked.

"Basically, it's a dressed-up version of making your first film. It just happens to be a porn film," Smith said.

Just like "Clerks," "Zack and Miri" initially was hit with an NC-17 tag by the ratings board of the Motion Picture Association of America. That rating prohibits anyone younger than 17 from seeing a movie.

Smith nipped and tucked the key objectionable segment, a comically over-the-top sex scene between Mewes and Morgan. But the ratings board held to the NC-17 designation, which Smith later got knocked down to an R rating after stating his case to the MPAA appeals board.

With the exception of one tender, tame sex scene, the porn action in "Zack and Miri" was meant to be outrageous, a commentary on the impossibly silly deeds in real skin flicks, Smith said.

"It's not titillating in the least. It's comedic," Smith said. "If you're turned on by this, then we didn't do our job very well."

Why Kevin Smith Made 'Porno'

Favorite Promo Posters #5 - Quarantine

This movie only opened this weekend but led the US box office with grosses of $5.4m. It stars Dexter's own Jennifer Carpenter (who somewhat uncomfortably is dating her on screen co star/brother Michael C Hall) and this poster is one of the most arresting horror movie images I have seen in sometime.

Favorite Promo Posters #5 - Quarantine

Entertainment Tonight Flies Qantas

On Monday I was lucky enough to fly on the first US flight of the new Qantas Super Jumbo Airliner from Airbus, the huge A380.  There were a ton of travel industry people on board plus various journalists and TV types all sharing this historic 2 hour flight from Los Angeles up over San Francisco and back. I will share some photos I took later in the week (including when the Big & Small Screen meets John Travolta!) but for now here's Mark Steines from Entertainment Tonight enjoying a very comfortable First Class Seat!

Entertainment Tonight Flies Qantas

Sherlock Holmes - New Pics Released

Following up on last months post announcing the new Guy Richie helmed Sherlock Holmes flick, here are new 'hot off the press' stills of Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law from the flick. Victorian era fisticuffs are sure to ensue!

Sherlock Holmes - New Pics Released

Rock Of Love Loser Gets Show

Move over New York, there is a new classy lady (ahem) looking for a date on a VH1 reality show. Daisy who lost to Amber on the second series of the hilarious Rock Of Love now has her own dating show and is asking for audition tapes.

http://daisyoflovecasting.com/

You know you want to!

Rock Of Love Loser Gets Show

The Aliens of V Return

Not sure about this one. V was the 'Aliens invade earth' show that originally aired in the mid eighties and always looked to me like an offshoot of Falcon Crest or another of those shows from that decades many turkeys. ABC are behind the return, tsk tsk, and it looks like  4400 (never watched it) co-creator Scott Peters has been drafted in to write the new show.

I think I will pass, life is way too short for this kind of drivel even for a TV-Head like me.

The Aliens of V Return

Movie Review - Happy-Go-Lucky

My first Guest Blogger filed this post from the recent 2008 Scottsdale Film Festival:

He shoots, he scores… 

…Yep, Mike Leigh has, as they say, done it again. I am already a huge fan of Mr. Leigh’s work, one of my fav flicks being Nuts In May - I cannot eat a raw mushroom without thinking of Candice Marie And Keith.  His films have everything I enjoy, from the none movie set way they are shot, realistic characters and a realistic slice of English life, and a story that can mean nothing or everything depending on your interpretation.  Anyhoo, on to the review.   

Happy-Go-Lucky, what an absolute gem of a film. The opening credits are just how they should be, with our main character Poppy cycling around London Town with a smile on her face, hair blowing in the wind and just giving us a sense of a bright, sunny day.  Most days in Poppy’s life are bright and sunny to her.  I must admit the first couple of scenes I wondered how I was going to put up with this constant cheery disposition for two hours, but by the end of it I wished I could live in Poppy’s world if only for a day or two.  Yes, she is cheery but it feels real – she’s an intelligent, responsible woman who’s happy with the choices she’s made in her life and happy with where she is in her life.  Sally Hawkins does a fantastic job in making Poppy endearing and believable. 

Another major character in this film is Scott, the driving instructor, played by Eddie Marsan. What a brilliant, brilliant performance.  From the moment he appears you are just waiting for him to explode ... you won’t be disappointed, the moment comes and it’s how the moment should be. Scott is a man with his anger just simmering away, a conspiracy theory for most things, he was never really loved as a child and in the words of Mike Leigh “probably never had a cuddle in his life”. 

I could gabble on and on for another few pages or so about Happy-Go-Lucky and the characters you’ll meet, but I want to move on to the post-film Q & A session with director Mike Leigh that I was privileged to attend. After “meeting” him and listening his A’s to the Q’s you totally understand why his films are the way they are. He has no airs and graces, is extremely down to earth and there is nothing Hollywood about him. How refreshing. It was fascinating to hear him explain how the whole process of his filmmaking comes about. Leigh starts a project with a feeling and an idea of the kind of story he wants to tell (for Happy-Go-Lucky he was aiming to make an anti-miserable film. He succeeded.) He doesn’t start with a script or a definite story outlined, instead he starts by gathering the actors he’s hoping to work with and just has a conversation for six months throwing around ideas and developing the characters. During these six months the actors will improvise the scenes trying out different dialogue, words, feelings and then from there the film develops. Genius.  

I loved, loved, loved this film. I loved it’s authentic English feel (not everyone in London lives in Notting Hill and speaks like Hugh Grant or Keira Knightly, Ugh.), I loved the simplicity of the story and depth of characters. And I loved how happy and uplifted I felt after peeping this flick.   

Mrs. to The Big and Small Screen Mr. Reporting live from Phoenix, Arizona.

Rating: *****

Movie Review - Happy-Go-Lucky