Dean Martin “Gives Head” to Gossip Columnist Louella Parsons!
July 26th, 2007 by Scott Marks
This enlargement of a gag (pun intended) newspaper headline “Dean Martin “Gives Head” to Louella Parsons
Filed Under Image Blog, Rants
S.O.B. / Blake Edwards (1981)
July 26th, 2007 by Scott Marks
S.O.B.
Written and Directed by Blake Edwards
Cinematography: Harry Stradling
Music by: Henry Mancini
Edited by: Ralph E. Winters
Running Time: 121 mins.
In Metrocolor & 
Rating: 
Starring: Julie Andrews
Blake Edwards’ mixture of autobiographical angst and Hollywood folklore was intended to purge the bad feelings still active a decade after the debacle of Darling Lili. The result is a hit-and-miss blend of bitterness, pitch-black comedy, silent slapstick homage, in-jokes, lots of familiar faces and even more recognizable payoffs.
Darling Lili is one of the director’s most polished and personal works. It was a Julie Andrews
Hot on the heels of spectacular studio flops like Star!, Hello Dolly and Sweet Charity, this ill-timed musical spy-spoof lost millions. Digging a deeper hole into generic oblivion, Edwards next attempted The Wild Rovers, a terrific western with William Holden and Ryan O’Neal. He had another minor film, The Carey Treatment, before returning to the Pink Panther series. Another Andrews flop (and masterpiece), The Tamarind Seed, sent the director back to the box office safety of two more Closeau projects.
The first credit after Blake Edwards’ ‘S.O.B. doesn’t go to a cast member or producer, but composer Henry Mancini. The cast won’t be announced until after the movie, and then through picture credits. The Mancini in-joke is best appreciated after the second viewing when you realize it’s a one-song soundtrack. Not since, nor after, John Williams’ minimal score for Altman’s The Long Goodbye (1973), in which even a doorbell plays the film’s theme, had a composer utilized a single melody. In Williams’ case it’s a delight to hear his inventive variations. Mancini and Edwards’ joke wears a bit thin after the umpteenth one-note rendition of Polly Wolly Doodle.
Continue reading S.O.B. / Blake Edwards (1981)
Tags: Blake Edwards, S.O.B.Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical
KPBS Film Club of the Air - July 25, 2007
July 25th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Appearing monthly on These Days, the Film Club of the Air features local film critics Beth Accomando and Scott Marks discussing films in San Diego theaters.
July 25 2007
Tom Fudge: We’re going to start today’s film club in a fairly unusual way, by talking about a movie that none of us has so far seen. I’m talking about The Simpsons Movie, which opens this weekend. For anyone who’s watched the animated TV show, the title of this one pretty well tells you what it is. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and baby Maggie take to the big screen. In this story, Homer has a pet pig whose droppings, combined with Homer’s bone-headedness, create a disaster for the town of Springfield.The Simpsons Movie opens in area theaters on Friday.
Filed Under KPBS Radio Shows
HAIRSPRAY / Adam Shankman (2007)
July 25th, 2007 by Scott Marks
Continue reading HAIRSPRAY / Adam Shankman (2007)
Tags: cinema, Divine, John Waters, PINK FLAMINGOSFiled Under Reviews, Theatrical
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 / J.J. Abrams (2006)
July 25th, 2007 by Scott Marks
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3
Directed by J. J. Abrams
Starring: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michele Monaghan and Billy Crudup
Running Time: 126 min.
Aspect Ratio:
Rating:
Here is exactly what you want to know up front: It’s much better than the DePalma and nowhere near as good as the Woo.
Scientology cover (up) boy Tom Cruise returns as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, a James Bond carbon copy minus the tux, sense of humor and penchant for hot babes. We commence in mid-action with maniacal villain Philip Seymour Hoffman brutally torturing Tom’s missus (Michele Monaghan) while the helpless hubby looks on. An offscreen gunshot aimed at Monaghan concludes the pre-credit scene and is intended to keep us guessing for six reels whether or not the bullet hit its intended target.
In flashback, the action resumes when Cruise decides to accept a mission to track down colleague Keri Russell in Berlin. Borrowing a page from Charles Bronson’s Death Wish quintet, any woman that becomes close to Cruise either dies or takes a bullet. TV’s former Felicity playing a gun-toting, kick ass action chick brings unintended chuckles to a film and star/producer that take themselves way too seriously.
Surrounded by heavyweights like Hoffman, Ving Rhames and Laurence Fishburne, whose George Serrault complexion isn’t helped by garish lighting and unflattering camera placement, Cruise’s tortured facial expressions and emotional fuming appear ludicrous. This is a brain-on-pause summer thrill ride, but judging by Cruise’s strained intensity, it might as well be Hamlet. Only when the script calls for Tom to disguise himself as the bad guy, Hoffman plays his own double, does his performance come to life.
The rest of the film is precisely what you would expect. It’s loud, loaded with car chases, explosions and Tom doing impossible stunts, the most improbable of which finds him driving a DHL truck and shopping at a 7-11.
The first two installments were commissioned to box office specialists Brian DePalma, John Woo and screenwriter Robert Towne. Cruise opted for a relative newcomer to helm the picture instead of shoveling cash to big name, behind-the-scenes talent. Less money to the writer/director means more for the star/producer.
J. J. Abrams created Felicity, Alias and Lost in addition to penning the laugh-out-loud awful Armageddon. His direction is slick and impersonal: get ‘em on, blow something up, get ‘em off and cut to the next international location. It is everything the general public wants and expects from a summer blockbuster. Consider that a warning.
Tags: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3, Tom CruiseFiled Under Reviews, Theatrical
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY / Dennis Dugan (2007)
July 24th, 2007 by Scott Marks
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY
Directed by Dennis Dugan
Written by Barry Fanaro, Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor
Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel & Dan Aykroyd
Running Time: 110 min.
Rating:
The premise makes this sound like an American remake of a decade old French comedy. Chuck (Adam Sandler) and Larry (Ralph Kramden wannabe Kevin James), two sworn heterosexuals, agree to pass as lovers in order for recently widowed Larry to collect domestic partner benefits.
Expectations were piqued higher than usual for a Sandler vehicle, particularly one directed by his stalwart lackey Dennis Dugan. The credits boasted the Academy Award-winning writers behind the runaway hit comedy Sideways (plus Barry Fanaro, former producer of The Golden Girls). Instead of an appealing buddy picture, this time they deliver an appalling butt-buddy comedy.
The writing conference probably went something like this: Three straight guys sat around a table jotting down every homophobic cliché they could recall from grade school. Sprinkle in a few pleas for tolerance and, in order to give it the “Sandler touch,” equal doses of maudlin sentimentality and brutal fisticuffs.
Continue reading I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY / Dennis Dugan (2007)
Tags: Adam Sandler, I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK LARRY, Kevin JamesFiled Under Reviews, Theatrical
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Fun Facts: The 4 Marx Brothers used to share the same prostitute and when one of them got her pregnant, they'd all split the cost of the abortion. You bet your life!
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