In Contention

Tag: Arnold Schwarzenegger

  • Videos du jour

    A number of videos have been making the rounds this week, so I figured I’d consolidate.  Starting with Facebooking Aaron Sorkin’s sharp dialogue:

    (more…)

  • LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1989 and 1990

    Catch up with the idea behind this series here.

    We’re almost out of the god-awful 1980’s and into the decade where I came of age. I will say that 1989 brings my very first actual going-to-the-cinema memory, which was seeing “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” I may have gone to the movies before then, but whatever I saw wasn’t that memorable.

    As for the Oscars, “Driving Miss Daisy” won Best Picture in one of the more head-scratching results in recent memory. It’s been a trivia note ever since as the last time a film won the big prize without a Best Director nomination to back it up and it’s unlikely that the feat will be repeated any time soon.

    1990 is another frustrating year for movie nerds as Kevin Costner emerged triumphant with “Dances With Wolves” over Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas.” More notable is the outright snub of “T-U-R-T-L-E Power” in the Best Original Song race. Academy Award nominee Partners in Kryme, anyone?

    Billy Crystal presided over both ceremonies, his first of eight critically beloved times at the helm.

    So what did the Academy completely ignore?

    (more…)

  • SANTA BARBARA: Cameron honored as Modern Master

    (from left) James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger at the 25th annual Santa Barbara International Film FestivalEarlier today Jeffrey Wells was waxing on about how Santa Barbara ought to change up the order of things, the natural flow of a given tribute.  Well, tonight he got his wish.

    The evening’s Modern Master tribute in honor of “Avatar” director James Cameron — the festival’s highest honor — began on the wrong foot.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was set to present the award to his friend and three-time collaborator, but given the obviously tight schedule of a public official, his bit was going to land during the middle of the two-hour presentation.

    That information was somehow lost in translation to Cameron, who thought he was being told the actual award acceptance would happen at the beginning of the tribute, so rather than strolling over to moderator Leonard Maltin and sitting down for the usual kiss-kiss, he stopped at the podium and began speaking.

    Uh-oh.

    (more…)

  • Jay Leno’s closes a chapter on ‘The Tonight Show’

    Jay LenoI’ve been pretty hard on Jay Leno over the years. In the late night wars, he’s had neither the comedic inventiveness nor (certainly) the journalistic capacity to become must-watch TV like David Letterman and, to a lesser extent, Conan O’Brien. Even the sober Tom Snyder proved a more intriguing watch for me when he was still on CBS so many years ago.

    All of that said, I’m a bit saddened that Leno’s final episode as host of “The Tonight Show” is being recorded right now for telecast later this evening. As much as I may have preferred other late night personalities over the years, the fact remains Leno’s regular guy brand of humor carried the torch magnificently for the past 17 years. The circumstances surrounding how he landed the gig will always be suspect, but Letterman went off and became his own man, paving the way for O’Brien to make a name for himself at 12:30 and, as of Monday night, finally take up the reigns on “The Tonight Show” himself.  I wrote briefly about O’Brien’s final “Late Night” show back in February.

    O’Brien’s transition to the show was covered in-depth in an insightful New York Times Magazine piece last weekend by staffer Lynn Hirschberg. Early passages have me worried, such as writing staff ideas centered around O’Brien as an outsider in Los Angeles (his new show will be taped daily on the Universal lot). Those will only go so far, perhaps better suited to a guest host than the new face of NBC late night, and the show will need to settle into a more purposeful position sooner rather than later.

    Of course, the subtext of Hirschberg’s article is that O’Brien, like his soon-to-be time-slot competition Letterman, doesn’t have the chummy, next-door neighbor demeanor that Leno has. Therefore, the 50-year-old enterprise could be in jeopardy of losing viewership. His brand of self-deprecation struck a chord with his dorm room demographic, to be sure, but the higher brow isn’t what Leno aimed for and might not be what the “Tonight Show” audience wants. The ratings will ultimately tell the tale, but in recent years, I have found myself out-growing O’Brien’s antics. I wish him the best as he takes up the reins on Monday, but I wonder if a network desire to stay fresh will put a flagship built on it’s heritage in slight peril.

    (more…)