Okay, it should be noted at the top that director Rod Lurie’s op-ed against the more-in-the-news-than-ever Nikki Finke is running on Sharon Waxman’s website, The Wrap, and that Waxman and Finke have been at each other’s throats, it seems, for a while now.  The dust on that journalist cat fight was kicked up once again […]

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Michael Cieply, writing at The Carpetbagger (which, if you haven’t been aware, has been transformed into a year-round film blog at The New York Times rather than solely focusing on the awards season), has put up brief addressing a few titles that, as of yet, have no U.S. distributor but are very much on the […]

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I first heard about Kevin Macdonald’s plans to adapt Rosemary Sutcliff’s “The Eagle of the Ninth” way back in 2006 when I sat down for a lunch interview with screenwriter Jeremy Brock (who co-wrote Macdonald’s “The Last King of Scotland”).  The machinery being what it is in this town, you have to wait until a […]

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Except maybe the occasional president. And, okay, a reality-TV contest or two. But film awards — no. As spectacularly wrong as organizations like the Academy, and the odd critics’ groups, can get it sometimes, nobody can rival the collective movie-going public for sheer cluelessness when it comes to determining the best of the art form. […]

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I mentioned last week that I had reservations about Richard Curtis’s new comedy “The Boat That Rocked,” which opens here in the UK on Friday. Every inch of the film’s marketing thus far (and there’s been a lot of it) gives me the impression of a talented team trying aggressively hard to have fun, but […]

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It’s taken a full day for me to get around to posting an appreciation of the late Maurice Jarre, who died yesterday at the age of 84.  Most will note his exemplary work on classics such as “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago,” “A Passage to India” and “Witness.”  Indeed they should. The esteemed composer landed […]

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Lots of TV talk lately.  It happens, I guess, but I’ve been biting my nails waiting on the fate of NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” for a while now.  When the network gave up on it I thanked my lucky stars I could see it exclusively on DirecTV, but NBC has been re-running that third season […]

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My consistent disinterest in anything Sam Raimi has ever touched aside (“Spider-Man 2” and maybe “For Love of the Game” excepted), why do I hate every inch of this “Drag Me To Hell” trailer?  Is it the choice to force Allison Lohman into the role of a leading lady I can buy (which I can’t)?  […]

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After the respective five-year gaps following “Three Kings” and “I Heart Huckabees,” it’s nice to see David O. Russell with a couple of irons in the fire. (Well, nice if you’re a fan at least — which I am.) With his long-delayed comedy “Nailed” (which has endured various financial troubles) finally due later this year, […]

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“Monsters vs. Aliens” came storming out of the gate with a $58.2 million opening this weekend. That comes from an ultra-wide 4,104 theaters, the fourth-widest release ever for a non-sequel, and that’s enough to top the debuts of “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and every other DreamWorks animated non-sequel aside from “Kung Fu Panda.” It also handily beats […]

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My wife has often called film my heroin, as I confess to be more than just a little bit addicted. When not watching and writing about cinema, I can usually be found either in our family room in the winter months or on the deck by the pool in the summer with the latest new […]

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With TV on the mind, did anyone else give up on “Kings” after the second episode? Truth is, the pilot didn’t grab me like I thought it would. Despite an allegiance to anything Ian McShane commits himself to, I can’t go along with this one anymore. A bit inflated beyond it’s own means, and yet, […]

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A while back a friend turned me onto the CW’s “Supernatural,” a series I never really had much of an interest in given a certain admitted bias against the network’s high-sheen programming. I figured it was piggy-backing on the success of “Buffy” and “Angel,” shows that never appealed to me, and the beefcake, vanilla nature […]

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FYI, we changed servers last night, so if you notice any hiccups, bear with us.

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Over a month after Sean Penn defeated Mickey Rourke in what was possibly the tightest acting race in recent memory, Cinematical’s Jeffrey Anderson has come up with an interesting take on how the outcome may actually benefit Rourke, and indeed “The Wrestler.” In short, he says, losing the Oscar allows them to retain their edge: […]

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Hope Davis’s recent complaint about the issue of Hollywood ageism, prompted by being offered characters well over her actual age, seems to have struck a bit of a chord this week. The Guardian’s discussion of the matter was also recently picked up on in the New York Times, while Cinematical contributed to the discussion by […]

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Am I the only one who had completely forgotten that “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” was even coming out in two weeks’ time? Read into that what you will, but you’d expect the adaptation of a novel as successful and widely beloved as Michael (“Wonder Boys”) Chabon’s 1988 debut to be a bigger deal. Still, that’s […]

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Jeff Wells got the following from a tipster following yesterday’s news that the Oscars will be bumped a few weeks to avoid the 2010 Winter Olympics: The reason for the new Oscar date…is that a lot of the below-the-line [guys] who work the Oscars will be working the opening and closing Olympic ceremonies in Vancouver […]

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