One of my favourite days of the year

One of my favourite days of the year is the day the Oscar nominations come out. True the Golden Globes are done so you sort of get a hint of what could happen, but the Oscars are the true barometer of movie awards.

Before getting into the actual awards, a couple of immediate reactions. Firstly, The Dark Knight was shut out of the major awards (ie Best Picture, Best Director). This is a shock. Easily one of the best films of the year, the idea that it got shunned but yet another Holocaust film (The Reader) is among the nominees shows that Academy voters have no guts. Secondly, Kate Winslet won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for Revolutionary Road and won a Supporting Actress Golden Globe for The Reader. However, in the Oscars, she only got nominated for one...and that was for Best Actress...for The Reader. And finally, Bruce Springsteen did not get nominated for Best Song with The Wrestler...even though he won a Golden Globe for that. And there were only three nominees for Best Song when the category usually has five! Let's get to the categories.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams – Doubt
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler

Even though Woody Allen films have a history of garnering Oscars for Actresses (Dianne Weist, Diane Keaton) I don't think Penelope Cruz has a shot. My pick will go to Amy Adams for Doubt. Doubt is one of those talky films that the Academy loves. Amy Adams, cute, white, multi-talented, stage-trained is the perfect candidate. Personally, Marisa Tomei had the best performance of this category as a bitter, aging stripper in The Wrestler was perfect. But considering she has already won an Oscar for My Cousin Vinny and got nominated for a pretty nothing role in In The Bedroom, she has already got enough recognition.

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin – Milk
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight (posthumous)
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road

We could talk about the greatness of Downey's amazing comedic performance in Tropic Thunder. He may be one of the most intriguing actors or our generation. We could talk about Josh Brolin and his amazing comeback. But really this award is going to Heath Ledger and his groundbreaking performance The Dark Knight. The kind of performance like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington or Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind that will still be discussed 50 years from now. Him winning this award was finalized upon his death almost one year ago from today.

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – The Reader

Angelina Jolie or Meryl Streep "yawn". So take those two out of the mix. Homicide: Life On The Street's Melissa Leo is a perfect example of "It was just a pleasure to be nominated". Anne Hathaway, really? Does anyone think she should have win an Academy Award before Glenn Close ever does? This is Winslet's category to lose. As stated earlier, she has already won two Golden Globes this year...that should be good enough for one win in the Oscars.

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

Like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, this Oscar was predetermined months ago. Mickey Rourke, originally the heir apparent to Robert DeNiro in the late 70s/early 80s fell off the cinematic map with bad films, an entrance into boxing and serious drug abuse. If he does not win this award....it will be the most shocking Oscar loss since Denzel Washington (Malcolm X) lost to Al Pacino (A Scent Of A Woman).

Best Director
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant – Milk

Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

I still don't understand how these are two seperate categories. The director is directly involved in the overall look of the film. How can a film be good enough to win best picture but not best director. But that is a conversation for another day. To me this is a pick 'em. It will probably go to Slumdog Millionaire as they won Golden Globes in that category. The winners should be the unnominated The Dark Knight along with director Christopher Nolan. Darren Aranofsky and The Wrestler should also be among the nominees.

Top 5 Mickey Rourke films
1. Diner
2. The Wrestler
3. Body Heat
4. Angel Heart
5. Sin City

...And Dennis Dugan owes me 13 hours and 23 minutes

I am just having the worst of luck with movies. However, this is clearly self inflicted pain because I can't imagine what I was thinking in seeing the "comedy" I Know Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.

Where do I start? Lets go with the director Dennis Dugan. This guy has never! NEVER! Never made a funny movie. It started with Problem Child and never got better. His career is littered with crap like Beverly Hills Ninja, The Benchwarmers and the upcoming You Don't Mess With Zohan. Take a look at the trailer and ask yourself, does this really look funny? Is there a real possibility of humour in the films' obvious storyline?




I hate to blame an actor for a movie, since there are so many others involved (screenwriters, producer, director etc.) but clearly Sandler just doesn't get it. He has no interest in being in quality films, he'd rather be in ones with the easy laughs. Anytime he is in a film that doesn't go for the easy laughs, they are usually good films. The three I have in mind are Punch Drunk Love, Spanglish and Reign Over Me. None of these films are all that taxing for Sandler, they are certainly in his range...but his resume is still littered with too many Anger Managements, Little Nickys and 50 First Dates.

My next issue is regarding Sandler's co-star in the film Kevin James (you know him from King Of Queens). Once again, he is the best part of a film that spends too much time with a more famous co-star. His first big movie was Hitch, starring Will Smith. James' character is a hapless loser who uses a romance coach in order to woo a sexy society woman. THAT storyline is interesting and was funny. But we also are forcefed Smith's story about having to woo Eva Mendes complete with physical humour such as him accidentally kicking her off a Sea-Doo and him having a ridiculous reaction to a seafood allergy.

With Chuck & Larry, James' storyline is about a widowed father of two who is forced to extreme methods in order to have insurance to protect his kids if anything happens to him in the line of duty (he is a fireman). All the while still mourning his wife, keeping all of her clothes and not wanting anyone to sleep on her side of the bed. THAT storyline is interesting. But instead, we get a movie that mainly focuses on Sandler as a womanizing fireman forced to pretend to be married to James in order to help James with his insurance issues.

The most disarming aspect of the movie is that one of the writers listed is Alexander Payne (you know his scripts for Election, Sideways and About Schmidt). His contribution was actually an early screenplay for Chuck & Larry. According to some websites, Payne has since criticized the film calling it "Sandler-ized".

A note on two of the secondary characters, first Jessica Biel as the couple's lawyer Alex McDonough. Her character is supposed to be smart enough to be a lawyer but dumb enough to ask Sandler's character (who she believes to be gay) to touch her breasts to convince him they are real.

Even worse, Rob Schneider as a japanese minister who marries Chuck and Larry. Why the asian community is not storming the production company that made this film is shocking. Schneider, who is part filipino, gives the most embarrassingly racist performance since Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

Wow, I forgot Ving Rhames is in it as well. Clearly he owes a lot of people money and that was the only reason he would take on this film. His performance as a large firefighter who decides to come out of the closet because of Chuck & Larry is just uncomfortable for anyone to watch.

Top 5 Ving Rhames films
1. Out Of Sight
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Mission: Impossible
4. Rosewood
5. Dave

Why Micheal Bay Now Owes Me 12 And A Half Hours Of My Life

So I rented Transformers this weekend. Why, because I am an idiot. Yet again, I rent a movie directed by Michael Bay, yet again I hate it.

The title of this blog entry is that Michael Bay owes me 12 and a half hours of my life because he still hasn't paid me back for Armageddon, Pearl Harbour, Bad Boys II and The Island. But Transformers just put me over the edge. It is boring, silly, ridiculous and features a career embarrasing performance by John Turturro.

I used to compare all bad movies to Independance Day. "Hey faithful narrator, did you see Saw III? Oh yeah, I'd reply, it's bad but its not Independance Day bad". Or, hey faithful narrator did you see that lame comedy with Kevin Kline and Tom Selleck? Yes, it is like the Independance Day of comedies."

I will know change that to Transformers-bad.

Admittedly, I was not in on the Transformers-wave. I think I was a touch too old when they were popular. Just sort of at the cusp of my teenage-hood. The biggest problem with the film is the same problem as was with the Alien versus Predator movies and The X-Men franchise (especially the first one). You have these alien life forms...and there are good ones and there are bad ones. And they are fighting each other. And regular humans are caught in the middle. This does not allow any empathy to be given to our human heroes by the audience. It just amps up the level of ridiculousness so that you just don't care about the people and who wins and who loses.

And why Jon Voight decided to do another Michael Bay film after he was already in the god-awful Pearl Harbour is beyond me. Actually, I just answered my own question. Jon Voight stopped caring years ago. He was in the sequel, THE SEQUEL to Baby Geniuses called Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. A film so bad that it actually received a 0% from film critics on the website Rotten Tomatoes. And he was in the film version of Bratz. No need to say more about that.

Top 5 Jon Voight films
1. Midnight Cowboy
2. Deliverence
3. Mission: Impossible
4. Runaway Train
5. Rosewood

I get that Michael Bay really doesn't care what I think about his movies. His first film, Bad Boys, I love. I own the DVD. It's funny, it has cool action scenes and a top notch bad guy. His second film, The Rock, has a lot of what prevents Bay from making a good film. Stupid, silly, over-the-top action scenes. However, Nicolas Cage saves the movie with a really bizarre performance that seems out of place in an action movie but actually works. But everything after is just loud, noisy, vain and trite.

About the best thing Michael Bay has been involved with in the last 10 years is this Verizon commercial from last year.

Death of an Icon

So with the recent death of Charlton Heston, where does he deserve to belong among the list of the great Hollywood stars?

This is an actor who in the 50s and 60s, worked with every great director from William Wyler to Orson Welles. An actor who became the go-to guy for dozens of epic films from Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments to El Cid and 55 Days At Peking.

I am going to go ahead and say it, Charlton Heston was one of the greatest actors of the 50s and 60s. Simple as that. He wasn't the most talented, he wasn't the most skilled but he knew how to choose quality films and even if he was miscast...he could still pull it off and make you believe he was British, American or Mexican. He was a gutsy actor who knew how to use his limited talents to their utmost.

Sure, as he got older, he became less picky. The Planet Of The Apes works only because of the script and the Apes films that followed but Soylent Green may be one of the worst sci-fi films ever made and The Omega Man is almost laughable.

It is just too bad that his work in the latter part of his career along with his affiliation with the NRA had really reduced his importance in Hollywood. Hopefully after his death, people will revisit the early part of his career.

5 Great Charlton Heston Scenes

1. Ben-Hur (the chariot scene)



2. Touch Of Evil (the great opening crane shot all done in one take)




3. The Planet Of The Apes (have to include that famous final scene)



4. The Ten Commandments (the parting of the Red Sea)



5. Wayne's World 2 (no, I am not kidding-this is a fitting tribute)

Nothing perfect about this Perfect Stranger

Did you ever see a movie so bad that it actually made you hate movies for the next month? I have a feeling that is what I will be suffering after spending Sunday night watching the film Perfect Stranger with Bruce Willis and Halle Berry.

When I say Sunday night...I actually mean Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. Not that it is a long movie...I just needed a break after about half an hour because the film was just so horrible.

Before I get into the film...let's talk about Halle Berry. Is there an actress with worse movie choices than her? Is there a more overrated actress on the planet than her?

Looking at her filmography...she has done so many bad films that I had actually forgotten some. She was in The Flintstones! We all know about the disaster Catwoman was. A film that tanked so badly that the plans for a spin off of her character "Jinx Johnson" from the James Bond film Die Another Day were nixed.


Top 5 Worst Halle Berry Films
1. Perfect Stranger
2. The Flintstones
3. The Rich Man's Wife
4. Gothika
5. Swordfish

Getting back to Perfect Stranger...I knew going in this was going to be a bad film. The trailer for the film is so confusing, you really don't know what the film is about. And after seeing the movie, I realize this is the most manipulative trailer I have ever seen. There are parts edited to make it look like it is part of one scene which aren't even close to being true.



The first problem with the film is the first 20 minutes. Berry plays an investigative journalist and the writer of the film clearly has no concept of how journalism works. I never understand this, films that get the art of journalism wrong. Do the writers/producers/directs not understand that these films are seen and written about BY film critics who also happen to be known as JOURNALISTS! If you want a guarantee that your film is going to be trashed by the critics...get journalism wrong...films critics will lambaste you.

The biggest problem with the film is the last 20 minutes. Basically one of 5 people could be the killer. And the choice of the killer is so arbitrary it is like the name was picked out of a hat. There is then a 10 minute long voiceover by one of the characters explaining how this person was the killer. The obvious reason for this voiceover is to explain why that person was the killer because no intelligent thinking audience member would believe it.

And the final scene...the height of ridiculousness...the killer has to kill the only other person who knows the truth. And after that person is killed, the final shot is of a heretofore unseen neighbour who has obviously witnessed the whole thing. Like they are setting up a sequel or something.

The problem is that I have reviewed this film like it's a "so bad it's good" type of thing. No...it really IS that bad. Don't worry, I have taken steps as your faithful narrator to contact the Academy and demand they rescind Berry's Academy Award that she received for Monsters Ball. It is a little service I am happy to offer.

Enough is enough

So it all started with Sarah Silverman's video tribute to her boyfriend late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel called I'm F--cking Matt Damon. It was funny and cute.




After the Acadamy Awards on Sunday...Jimmy Kimmel broadcasted his response entitled I'm F--king Ben Affleck. Though it is funny and filled with crazy cameos...the swearing that is being beeped out is so prevelant, you can barely hear the song. But you have to love the We Are The World vibe to it.



And now others in Hollywood are jumping on the bandwagon. Stars Seth Rogan (you know him from Knocked Up and the 40 Year Old Virgin) and Elizabeth Banks (the lovely Beth from The 40 Year Old Virgin) have teamed up for a video called I'm F--king Seth Rogan. Seriously, enough IS enough. According to wikipedia, this was allegedly put together by director M. Night Shyamalan.



Rogan and Banks are currently filming a new Kevin Smith-directed opus entitled Zack & Miri Make A Porno. So really, as opposed to being a spoof, this really ends up being an early promo for this movie that is scheduled to be released later in 2008. Smith, who desperately needs a hit film as his last hit film was probably Dogma in 1999 certainly could use the advanced hype.

Top 5 Kevin Smith films
1. Clerks
(it is going to be a stretch to finish this list)
2. Chasing Amy
3. Mallrats
4. Dogma
5. Jersey Girl

My weekend...and other shenanigans

So it was Super Bowl weekend and time for Jayman's annual Super Bowl/Chili party. Unfortunately as all members of the Jayman clan were sick, the party was cancelled. I took the opportunity to watch a screener of the Academy Award nominated film Juno.

As a quick review, let me say simply that it is the funniest, most surprising and most heartfelt movie of the year. As most people know, it is about a spunky 16 year old girl who finds herself pregnant. Now picture the kind of scenes you would imagine in a film with that subject matter. Trust me, none of those scenes will actually go as you would imagine.

The script is the most surprising aspect. The characters of her father and step mother are not what you expect. They are played, against type, by JK Simmons (you know him from Oz and the Spiderman movies) and Allison Janney (you know her from The West Wing). It is the kind of movie that I wish I could watch again without remembering that I had seen it before.

Of course, this film is not for everyone. I love this really negative review from DVD Talk.

Interestingly enough, it is the the third of the 5 Best Picture nominees that I have seen this year (the others being No Country For Old Men and Michael Clayton). It is the first time since 1994 that I have seen that many of the Best Picture nominees prior to the Academy Awards. If you don't remember 1994, that was one of the best years for the Academy Awards in decades. The nominees for best picture were The Shawshank Redemption, Quiz Show, Pulp Fiction, Four Weddings And A Funeral and the eventual winner Forrest Gump.

Other things I watched on the weekend included this tribute that comedienne Sarah Silverman gave to her boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel to commemorate the 5th anniversary of his talk show. She sung a song called I'm F--cking Matt Damon.



If you don't know, this is part of an ongoing fued between Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel. People magazine has outlined the details of this ongoing fued including clips.

Top 5 Matt Damon Films
1. The Bourne Identity
2. The Departed
3. Ocean's Eleven
4. The Talented Mr. Ripley
5. Saving Private Ryan

Anyway, these are things I did as opposed to watching the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, it means I missed some great pop culture moments like the new video by Paula Abdul that was aired during the game's pre-game hoopla...



Tom Petty believing it was still the 80s as his half time show set list included three songs from his 1989 solo album along with the band's big hit from their debut album from 1976. To make matters worse, he has been accused of lip synchinc during that show. Makes this quote of his from a 1978 Chicago Tribune interview a little more interesting...

"I just want us to stay honest, and keep making honest records. To me, an honest record is one that you feel the artist believes in, one in which the artist actually means what he's singing. A lot of people have an image that isn't really them. But I think kids know when that happens. They can tell when it's jive. I don't want to start slagging people and naming names, but everybody knows that rock and roll got very boring the last few years."

And finally, FOX is in trouble for using the Arcade Fire song No Cars Go during the pre-game broadcast. Oh, and apparently the heavily favoured Patriots lost to the Giants during the actual football game. It was buried there within the 14 hours of football programming this past sunday.

Well, I guess the good news is the writers strike looks to be over soon. Finally, it should give me something more to write about.

The once and future king of independant movies

I don't know what happened with director Edward Burns. He, along with Tarantino and others represented the new wave of independant film directors.

His 1995 debut film The Brothers McMullen won the grand jury prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. It ended up being released by 20th Century Fox and grossed over $20 million at the box office making it one of the most profitable independant films of all time.

The film about three Irish American brothers struggling between adolescence and growing up. Sure, it is well worn territory, but the script was brilliant. When one of the brothers' girlfriend tells him that she wants them to break up so they can have some new experiences and new ideas...the brother's reply is "I don't need any new ideas, I am confused enough already".

Like John Cassavetes, Burns started getting work in larger films in order to finance the films he was directing. Some were good (Saving Private Ryan), some were bad (Life Or Something Like It) and some were ugly (A Sound Of Thunder).

Top 5 John Cassavetes Films that he did not direct
1. The Dirty Dozen
2. Rosemary's Baby
3. Whose Life Is It Anyways?
4. Two Minute Warning
5. Brass Target

The thing is, after the release of MacMullen and its bigger budget follow up She's The One, Burns really fell off the radar. The thing is, he has continued to direct but his films do not get the press. Some of them I have never heard of. I will spend the next couple of weeks catching up on these films.

The Brothers McMullen (1995)

visit videodetective.com for more info

She's The One (1996)

visit videodetective.com for more info

No Looking Back (1998)

visit videodetective.com for more info

Sidewalks Of New York (2001)

visit videodetective.com for more info

Ash Wednesday (2002)

visit videodetective.com for more info

Looking For Kitty (2004)

visit videodetective.com for more info

The Groomsmen (2006)

visit videodetective.com for more info

Purple Violets (2007)

The beginning of the end

Not this is news, but it is fair to say that Tom Cruise did not have a good weekend. His new movie Lions For Lambs is getting lambasted by critics (according to the website Rotten Tomatoes-26% of film critics gave this movie a positive review).

In its opening weekend, it finished as the fourth highest grossing film, just ahead of Dan In Real Life, a film which had been released two weeks earlier than Lions For Lambs.

The blame for Lions For Lambs is probably not solely Cruise'. According to Philadelphia Weekly film critic Sean Burns, he seems to blame director Robert Redford. The opening paragraph of his review spells it out,

"Robert Redford has directed a great movie about a nation losing its sense of purpose, a savage indictment of our increasingly bought-and-paid-for mass media, and a cutting depiction of our country’s core values ebbing away while a curiously indifferent American public remains too lazy and distracted to even bother noticing. Unfortunately, the movie I’m talking about was called Quiz Show, and Redford made it 13 years ago."

However, the film's lack of success shows that Mr. Cruise is no longer bulletproof. A film is not going to open well just because of Cruise's presence.

As Lambs tanked at the box office, the trailer for Cruise's next film Valkyrie. Instead of me analyzing it for you, take a look for yourself.



So let me understand. This is a film about a group of Germans attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The first problem is a lack of drama...let me skip to the ending for you...the plot doesn't succeed. Secondly, what is with the accents. Tom Cruise has an accent that makes me think he thinks he is filming Mission Impossible 4 and he is surrounded by british actors, mostly speaking with their natural accents which makes it even more confusing. I am not saying the film should be in german with subtitles...but at least attempt to help me suspend my disbelief by having everyone have german accents. Or have everyone use British Accents. At least make it consistent. This could end up being the best example of dueling accents since the Hunt For Red October where Sean Connery had a Scottish-Russian accent, Tim Curry had a British-Russian accent and Sam Neil had a Australian-Russian accent. That film was a mess!

Top 5 Worst Accents in a movie
1. Richard Gere in Sommersby (I don't think he actually is trying an accent here but since co-stars Jodie Foster, Bill Pullman et al are speaking with slight english accents, Gere's fresh-off-the-New-York-subway sounds jarring)
2. Richard Gere in The Jackal (Okay, here he attempted an accent and it is god awful)
3. Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker's Dracula (Bad actor in a movie way out of his element)
4. Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (Some people may say this should be #1 but I disagree. Clearly he gave up on the accent halfway through filming as some scenes he attempts it, while others, he doesn't even try. The bigger issue with this film is that co-stars Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater think the film is a drama, Alan Rickman thinks it is a comedy and Costner thinks it is an action film. Bad directing is the biggest issue with this film)
5. Chris O'Donnell in Circle of Friends (Apparently there were no Irish actors for this part. They tried to hide the fact that O'Donnell couldn't do the accent by making all of his sentences really short. That way he only needed to keep the accent for 2 or 3 words. Any longer, he would have lost it)

Cruise has seemed to have the perfect film career. He was lucky to have an iconic film moment in Risky Business (dancing in his underwear to Bob Seger's Old Time Rock 'n Roll). He then parlayed that into a film career that made him look like a serious actor without having to do any of the lifting. His filmography is filled with movies co-starring much better actors such as The Color Of Money, Rainman and Magnolia. With Valkyrie, he has no one to lean on...hopefully this will be enough to peel back the curtain for film fans and help them realize Cruise does not deserve to be one of the most popular film stars of all time.

Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind

So, as you probably realize, I have been a little preoccupied with westerns lately. I watched Tombstone again this past weekend and was just blown away by the cast.

As everyone remembers, the most famous characters Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are played by Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer respectively. But, do you remember that Earp's other two brothers Morgan and Virgil are played by Bill Paxton and Sam Elliott? That was probably the most inspired bit of casting I have ever seen.

But it is the casting of the smaller roles that fascinates me about Tombstone.

Powers Boothe as Curly Bill Brocius. One of the so-called leader of the "cowboys", recognized as one of the first groups of organized crime in the United States. Booth's performance is both frightening and funny. Rather ironic that Boothe would end up playing Cy Tolliver in the western HBO series Deadwood over 10 years later. As Curly Bill, Boothe gives probably the most frenetic performance of his career. His roles are usually limited to politicians, statesmen and other type leaders. He really gets to let loose in Tombstone.

Micheal Biehn as Johnny Ringo. If Brocius' battle was with Wyatt Earp, Ringo's battle was with Doc Holliday. Biehn plays Ringo with a quiet menace. Smart but still skilled with a gun. It is the juiciest role of Biehn's career. His only other noteworthy performaces were in James Cameron films' The Terminator and Aliens.

Dana Delaney as Josephine Marcus. Delaney, a lovely actress whose best known role was on the Vietnam War era drama China Beach. However, she is perfectly cast in Tombstone playing a stage actress who is ahead of her time when it comes to thoughts of sex and marriage. She seems a little out of sorts with the other female performances in the film but based on her character...she is perfectly cast.

Even the minor roles are interestingly cast as Micheal Rooker plays an ex-Cowboy who joins forces with the Earp's Sherman McMasters. Jason Priestley, yes THAT Jason Priestley, plays deputy sheriff Billy Breckinridge. He plays him as a short, fey intellectual type. Like Delaney, it seems like strange casting but it works. What is even more interesting is future Academy Award nominees Billy Bob Thornton and Thomas Haden Church have small, memorable roles.

Like all movies surrounding Wyatt Earp, the meatiest role is Doc Holliday. Smart, quick with a gun, with a thick southern accent all the while dying from tuberculosis...it is the Hamlet of the Western genre.

Top 5 actors to have played Doc Holliday

1. Kirk Douglas (The Gunfight At The OK Corrall)

2. Jason Robards (The Hour Of The Gun)

3. Dennis Quaid (Wyatt Earp)

4. Victor Mature (My Darling Clementine)

5. Cesar Romero (Frontier Marshall)

Some other interesting facts re: actors who have played Doc Holliday. Both Quaid brothers (Randy and Dennis) have played him. Two actors who played Batman have played him (Adam West and Val Kilmer).

I mention Dennis Quaid's performance as Holliday in the Kevin Costner film Wyatt Earp. That performance is about the best thing about that overly long film and really kickstarted the second half of Quaid's career which had stalled in the early 90s.

Costner himself, originally was going to star as Wyatt Earp in Tombstone. He had been working with original Tombstone director Kevin Jarre but they disagreed on the film's focus. Costner wanted more of a life story of Wyatt Earp while Jarre was more interested in an action film set in Tombstone. Costner went off to make the film Wyatt Earp while the studio signed Kurt Russell for Tombstone.

But the drama didn't stop there as Jarre was soon fired as director because he refused to cut down on the screenplay. Sylvester Stallone then suggested George P. Cosmatos who had directed Rambo: First Blood Part II. However, in the years since, it has become clear that it was actually Russell who finished directing the film and was giving Cosmatos a shot list for the next day's filming each night.

For more info on the drama of the filming of Tombstone, check out this article.

Even more interesting, if you want to read about all the inaccuracies in the film Tombstone, check out this article.

Hail, hail...the conqeror

As I am sure I have written before, I am not a fan of the western genre. As a matter of fact, I prefer comedies that spoof Western cliches like Blazing Saddles and Support Your Local Sherriff more than actual great westerns.

This goes the same for classic westerns as it does for more modern ones. People talk about how great John Wayne classics such as She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, True Grit or Rio Bravo. I just don't get them as being "must sees".

Though if you want a must see John Wayne movie, consider the 1956 film The Conquerer. Are you sitting down, in this film, Wayne plays mongolian warrior Genghis Khan. Think about that for a second. Genghis Khan!!!! And this wasn't one of those he was contractually obligated to play this role, Wayne apparently read the script and lobbied for the starring role. Here is an excerpt from the film from youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRIgOp20kIc

What's even funnier, this one reviewer says the casting of Wayne is not the worst part of the movie. Check out his review for more details. The legend of this film has become even larger due to the fact that it was filmed in St. George, Utah, downwind of the US government's nuclear testing facility. Even after the six week shoot, producer Howard Hughes had 60 tons of that sand taken to Hollywood so they could do re-shoots. By 1984, 91 members of the cast and crew had developed cancer with over half that number dying from that cancer including all the principal actors from the film.

Top 5 favourite classic westerns

1. Winchester '73

2. High Noon

3. The Searchers

4. Shane

5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance

Ironically, the point of this blog entry was to talk about the 1993 western Tombstone. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked talking about John Wayne so Tombstone will have to wait until tomorrow.

My Saturday night was the Pitts

I should also be writing about my Toronto Film Fest experience last night. J-Mac, myself, Jayman and his wife all went to see The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford at the Elgin Theatre. The film stars Brad Pitt and rumours were that he would be at the screening.

As we walked north on Yonge Street to get into the theatre, the street was closed and there were literally thousands of people lined up. Some were just crazed fans, some were real paparazzi, some were lined up to get tickets, some were lined up because they had tickets and some were just trying to find the subway entrance.

If you don't know the Elgin Theatre, it is actually two theatres in one. The main floor is the Elgin Theatre. On the top floor is a smaller theatre called the Winter Garden Theatre.

Even though we were practically next door to the theatre, we were directed to walk east one block, north one block, west one block and south one block just to lineup to get in. Once there, we were directed toward two different lineups, one for people who have VISA gold cards and one for people who don't. Theoretically, the people with cards, would be allowed in first.

As we navigate these two lines, limos are driving up to the theatre

I know we are all to appreciate all the volunteers at the Toronto Film Festival. At every screening I have ever been, there is always a time where you are supposed to applaud all the volunteers. After last night, I really wonder why. Despite the fact that this festival has been going on for over 10 years, they clearly were not ready for the throngs that were there last night.

Top 5 encounters witnessed with TIFF volunteers Saturday night.

1. People leaving the 7 pm showing at the Winter Garden theatre were being let out on Victoria Street and were directed through an alley back on to Yonge Street. As they walked got on Younge Street, a volunteer told them they can't come that way. They crowd said, they were told to come that way so she lets them through. Then another volunteer comes by to stop those same people. I thought a riot was going to start.

2. The volunteer directed us to stay in this one lineup as we had our gold cards while others had to go in the other lineup. However, the couple behind us indicated they "forgot their card". To which the volunteer replied, "you should be alright".

3. While standing in that same lineup, we saw people behind us walk ahead. But they were not coming back! So Jayman and I walked up to see what was going on. First off, the lineup we were in was not really a lineup. It was mostly people standing along a barricade hoping to catch a glimpse of famous actors who really couldn't give two shits whether they were there or not.

4. As we are now standing in front of the theatre, convincing a volunteer that she should let us in...she starts explaining to me that we will be allowed in shortly. She explained she is simply allowing all the VIPs in first. I told her about the two lines we were forced into that clearly have no disbanded and that the volunteers up the street do not know about this change.

She replied those volunteers "don't know anything"...she could see I am about to lose my mind so she quickly added "because it is too noisy and they can't hear anything on the headset.

5. Finally, we are inside and are rushing to get good seats. It appears to be not a problem as everyone who is coming in is still trying to catch a glimpse of Brad or one of the other famous actors. A volunteer sees me and says, "Elgin Theatre? Right up these stairs." I start walking that way when J-Mac stops me. "Where are you going, the Elgin is this way!". To which the volunteer responds, "Elgin? Oh yeah...it IS that way." Shouldn't she know this as she is inside that building????

It turns out there were a number of famous people there...Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle. Despite rumours to the contrary....there was no George Clooney.

The movie itself, you ask? Long, longer and longest. Seriously, close to three hours. And seriously, it felt like a Terrence Malick film. Not much action but damn everything looks great. So much so, that Malick should sue. Pitt's performance is one of his best ever but the real revelation is Casey Affleck as Robert Ford. The film is almost more about him than Pitt's portrayel of Jesse James.

The film has the feel of a Ken Burns documentary. And I mean that in the good way. A narrator discusses what occurs with the feel of someone looking back at history as opposed to being a true period piece. However, instead of showing pictures or reading letters from that time, the movie keeps the action going.

Ironically, the film details what fame was like in the late 1800s. The eventual killer of Jesse James (the aforementioned Ford-I am not giving anything away-check out the title of the movie) spent his life being fascinated by both the legend and the actual persona of Jesse James. The film also spends time in the aftermath of James' death and how Ford handled that fame.

If you are looking for a film that shows the hows and whys behind Jesse James...this is not the film for you. It starts just before James' last train robbery and what happens after. If you want the whole Jesse James' story...I recommend the 1939 Tyrone Power film Jesse James.

As I said, the film is long. Funnily enough, the director, when he introduced the film at the festival said, it was "long and slow". Everyone laughed like he was making a joke. After watching it...he was actually warning us.

music and movies

We all know of the marriage of music and movies. It started with the use of Bill Haley & The Comets in the film Blackboard Jungle. The use of that music helped jump start a music genre for the masses.

AOL has a list of the 77 best uses of pop music in film. Check out the link as the list includes youtube links of the scene in the film where the music was used or the video itself.

The list is pretty good as it includes obvious classic rock nods like Lou Reed's Perfect Day in Trainspotting as well as newer stuff like the use of the Shins' song New Slang in the 2004 film Garden State.

The list does include the bizarre inclusion of BJ Thomas' Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. I like the film but the use of that song in a turn-of-the century film is one of the weirdest use of music in the history of film.

I won't talk about the #1 song on the list but I completely disagree. It was a song I loved but after it was included in that film, I have never been able to listen to it since.

As you can see from the picture I have included in this entry. #1 should have been Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes in the film Say Anything. It is high on the list...but not enough.

Top 5 Peter Gabriel songs
1. Family Snapshot
2. Shaking The Tree
3. Solsbury Hill
4. Games Without Frontiers
5. Party Man (with the Worldbeaters)

More of Moore

The trailer for the new Michael Moore documentary Sicko is now available on line. The film, set to be released at the end of June, is in the words of Moore, "Sicko is a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on Earth."

From the trailer, you can see that Moore is at his muckracking/populist best. Scenes include him on a boat outside of the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp with a number of rescue workers from the 9/11 tragedy who are unable to afford medical treatment while the terrorists who are inprisoned there are able to get it free.

The film also includes Moore's trips to Canada, France and the UK to find out why those countries health systems are so much better than the one in the United States.

The trailer also makes effective use of the Rolling Stones' song Street Fighting Man. A song Rod Stewart also did a great version of on his debut album An Old Raincoat Will Never Let You Down.

Top 5 Rod Stewart albums
1. Every Picture Tells A Story
2. Gasoline Alley
3. An Old Raincoat Will Never Let You Down
4. A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse (with the Faces)
5. Ooh La La (with the Faces)

It is an interesting time for Michael Moore because a lot of the right wing media has spent the last number of years trashing him as a quack who releases slanted documentaries with a left wing agenda. Much effort was done to discredit his earlier docs Bowling For Columbine and Farenheit 9/11. Though I thought some of the 9/11 was a bit too slanted and did not have the brilliant impact of Columbine, Moore is still the most important documentary filmmaker of our generation. And so what if his films have a slant, that's why people make documentaries. To tell a story the way THEY see it. And those two films are the highest grossing documentaries in the history of film. So someone is watching them.

Moore's latest controversy, according to wikipedia, relates to some of the filming he did for Sicko. The Office of Foreign Assets Control informed Moore that he was the subject of a civil investigation stemming from the filmmaker's March trip to Cuba. In the letter to Moore, a Treasury official noted that the department had no record of Moore obtaining a license that authorized him to "engage in travel-related transactions involving Cuba," alleging that Moore violated the United States embargo against Cuba.

A master copy of the film is being held outside the U.S. in case American authorities attempt to seize the film as part of the criminal investigation against Moore that arose from taking American 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba for medical treatment.

American justice?

I know I am going to get trashed for this but there is something I am not able to bend my mind around. OJ Simpson is free but Paris Hilton is going to jail for 45 days.

Look, I admit to having a soft spot for her. I don't know why. Yes she is only famous for being famous. Yes she probably released that sex tape with her and Rick Solaman. Yes she can't sing and can't act. Yes she has one look and other than that she isn't that good looking. Blah, blah, blah. She is simply taking advantage of celebrity driven society we live in. You don't like it. Stop watching Entertainment Tonight.

If you don't know what I am talking about, Hilton has been sentanced to 45 days in jail for violating the terms of her probation by driving with a suspended licence. Apparently, she was confused as she thought she could drive to work, but nothing else.

The fireworks began right after the sentance was handed down as Hilton's mother Kathy Hilton yelled out to the prosecutors, "You're pathetic". And then sarcastically added, "can I have your autograph?".

Hilton then fired her long time publicist (a man who should win awards for being able to keep Hilton in the limelight for so long) Elliot Mintz. He has since been rehired. Her legal team have appealed the 45 day sentance. And here's the best part, Hilton has asked California governer Arnold Schwarzenegger for a pardon for her sentance.

Top 5 Worst Schwarzenegger films
1. Hercules In New York
2. Junior
3. Jingle All The Way
4. Raw Deal
5. Batman & Robin

So, to review, Paris Hilton going to jail for driving with a suspended licence. OJ Simpson, convicted in a civil court of the wrongful deaths of his ex-wife and her friend, out free.

And speaking of Simpson, he was in the news recently as well. He was in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby this past weekend. With a group of 12 at an upscale steakhouse, the owner asked Simpson to leave his restaurant because "he is sickened by the attention Simpson still attracts.

Stop me if you've heard this before but Simpson's attorney says the incident was about race and intended to go after the restaurant for refusing to serve his client. I want to say something funny here but no words are coming to me. God bless America.

V stands for a very good sci-fi list

Entertainment Weekly has produced a list of the Top 25 Sci Fi Movies/TV shows of the last 25 years. The list isn't completely obvious as you would expect. Most of the usual candidates are there but there are many surprises as well.

Films like Galaxy Quest can be found along side TV series such as Battlestar Galactica. I won't ruin the surprise but #1 is rather shocking.

The biggest surprise falls right in the #25 slot, the 1983 TV mini-series V. If you are too young to remember, it was about these friendly human looking aliens who came to earth for some chemicals and water for their dying planet. In exchange, they are willing to share some of their technology with the people of earth.

However, an intrepid cameraman (played by Marc Singer) hops aboard one of the alien ships and sees the aliens for what they really are. A bunch of rodent eating, mask wearing lizards bent on the destruction of our planet. The scene with head baddie Diana (played by Jane Badler) eating a giant guinea pig whole took on new meaning when I watched the series again back in the 90s. But that's another story altogether.

V was originally a two part mini-series. A three part follow up mini-series called V: The Final Battle came in 1984. An actual television series followed in 1984-1985. However, lack of budget sank the series rather quickly. In the years following, many rumours have indicated news of a further series for V but nothing concrete is in the offing.

The biggest star to come out of the V series was Robert Englund. Out of respect to him...

Top 5 Nightmare On Elm Street Films
1. A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
2. A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
3. A Nightmare On Elm Street
4. A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
5. Freddy vs. Jason

I have had it with these motherfucking movies on this motherfucking TV!

I will first start off this blog entry with an apology. Not for not posting in a while, I was in Chicago last week and didn't have time. No this apology is for having written a blog entries about the film Snakes On A Plane on August 23rd, August 14th and August 10th.

I watched Snakes On A Plane last week and look, it's a bad movie. I don't mean it so bad it's good or a movie that you can revel in its badness like a warm blanket. I mean, it's bad. It's awful. It's painful. It doesn't make sense. The special effects are ridiculous. It's predictable. The characters are badly written. The tacked on sex and gore was pathetic. How they found someone to land the plane is completely unbelievable. The "shocker" near the end of the film hinted at something that could have been a good twist but instead just led to a predictable ending.

I know what you are thinking, yes, it was supposed to be a B-movie so what should I expect. However, take a movie like 1990's Tremors with Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. A b-movie plot with an A list actor. It's funny, it's simple and it is an enjoyable watch. It won't change your life but at least it will keep you entertained for two hours.

And my Samuel L. Jackson pain did not simply end with Snakes On A Plane. In our hotel room, getting ready to meet some friends for dinner, J-Mac and I watched The Man with Jackson and Eugene Levy. Yes, you knew it was going to be bad. But it's level of bad-ness is actually shocking. It's not funny. Plain and simple. Clearly Samuel L. Jackson needs someone to read scripts for him. His onscreen personality is just not enough to make a film good.

Top 5 Eugene Levy films

1. Best In Show

2. American Pie

3. Splash

4. Waiting For Guffman

5. Bringing Down The House (bad movie but Levy was funny in it)

Ironically, I decided to watch Snakes On A Plane, 24 hours prior to being on a plane myself. I did end up having my own little airport drama. I arrived two hours prior to my flight to Chicago only to find my flight had been cancelled. Instead of flying out at noon, I was scheduled to fly out at 4 pm. So, what does one do at an airport for 6 hours? I could have left but there is nothing to do around the airport. Plus, I could not check in my baggage unless I actually checked in myself so I would have to carry my luggage around with me. I decided to check in and enjoy all the immenities that were there.

Let me tell you, the ammenities at Pearson Airport suck! With the exception of Cleveland, Toronto has the worst airport in North America. Okay, I've never been to the airport in Cleveland, that was an obscure reference from Beverly Hills Cop. Anyway, the food is awful there. The beer choices are all Molson products and way overpriced.

The highlight was watching all of the Toronto Raptors come through to fly off to New Jersey. I was sitting on a bench in a rather quiet area of the airport when they started filing through one by one. Sam Mitchell was first and I yelled out to him, "hey coach, good luck in Jersey." I didn't say anything to the players but I watched Joey Graham have a funny encounter. These airport workers ran up to him and asked, "are you Chris Bosh?" He nicely replied no and explained that Chris was a couple minutes behind him. Rest assured they look nothing alike. Anyway, the would be autograph seekers looked disappointed and did not even ask poor Joey for his autograph.

Raines' Reign

So I spent my Thursday night watching the new Jeff Goldblum show Raines. I thought it was amazing. At first glance, it feels a little Sixth Sense-ish with a dash of Ghost Whisperer. But it's much better than that.

Quirky actor Jeff Goldblum plays a police detective named Michael Raines who is able to talk to the dead victims. However, this is not like a cop version of Ghost Whisperer (whose success continues to confound me). He is able to "talk" to the victims. But seeing these victims is part of his own mental issues. He isn't really able to talk to them, they are a figment of his imagination and are unable to give him any information that he doesn't already know. And, as he learns more about them, they begin to evolve. For instance, in last night's pilot, he later found out that the victim was from Texas. From that point on, the character of the victim started speaking with a texan accent.

The show has a good pedigree with the producer being Graham Yost who previously helmed the underrated and quick cancelled cop drama Boomtown. The pilot itself was directed by Shawshank Redemption writer/director Frank Darabont. Here is an interview with Yost and Goldblum from the website comingsoon.com.

Goldblum seems to be one those you either hate him or love him type actors. My sister absolutely hates him. I honestly used to hate him as well. His one line as an pretentious partygoer talking on the phone with his guru in the film Annie Hall still makes me laugh. He says, "I forgot my mantra". Anytime J-Mac and I are at a party filled with pretentious people I say that line to her. Well, it makes me laugh anyway.

His style of acting where he talks in short sentances with long pauses but speaks each of those sentances really fast always makes me laugh. It has a weird rhythm that takes getting used to but once I saw him in The Lost World: Jurassic Park II I was hooked on him as an actor. The way he reads that line when they first arrive at that second island and everyone starts oohing and ahhing at the dinosaurs. He says "Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming." Best line from any Jurassic Park film.

Top 5 Jeff Goldblum films
1. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
2. The Fly
3. Deep Cover
4. The Tall Guy
5. Lush Life

So Raines is currently airing in ER's slot on Thursday night at 10 pm for the first two weeks. It will then move to its regular slot of 9 pm on Friday nights. Things aren't looking good for the show as NBC's original order of 13 episodes was shortened to 7 episodes three months before the show debuted but you never know. As a lead in for Law & Order, it could end up doing well.

Rain's Reign

I have a music theory, well, not "theory" like I can actually read and understand music theory but an actual theory about music. No bad song has the word "rain" in the title. Or should I say, I have never heard a song with the word rain in the title that I didn't like.

Prince's Purple Rain, Led Zeppelin's The Rain Song, CCR's Who'll Stop The Rain and Have You Ever Seen Rain, Bob Dylan's Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall or even Bryan Ferry's cover of that same song, Phil Collins' I Wish It Would Rain, Guns 'n Roses' November Rain, Garbage's I'm Only Happen When It Rains, Elvis Presley's Kentucky Rain, Eurythmics' Here Comes The Rain Again, Bruce Hornsby's Mandolin Rain, Blind Melon's No Rain, Eddie Rabbit's I Love The Rainy Night, The Carpenters' Rainy Days And Mondays, Bobby Darin's Rain On My Parade even songs I should hate like Milli Vanilli's Blame It On The Rain or The Weather Girls' It's Raining Men are songs I don't completely get disgusted by.

Why am I talking about rain? Well, the trailer for the Adam Sandler's new film Reign Over Me is out and the movie looks like it is one of his good movies. I honestly think Sandler is a smart actor. What he does best as an actor is pick films where his character has this barely simmering rage that may or may not come to the surface. The problem is that sometimes his films border on silly (hello Billy Madison, Little Nicky, Big Daddy etc) and sometimes he picks a film with a good director and a good cast and the film can border on brilliant (hello Punch Drunk Love).

Top 5 Adam Sandler Films

1. Punch Drunk Love

2. Spanglish

3. Bulletproof

4. The Wedding Singer

5. Happy Gilmore (I guess, ask me tomorrow I will have a different #5 as I am really not a fan of any of his other films)

The speech of Tom Joad

USA Today's Pop Candy blog included a link to the Top 10 Movie speeches of all time. The page even includes youtube links to those speeches so you can judge for yourself. I agree with some of them (ie Samuel Jackson's path of the righteous man from Pulp Fiction), disagree with others (ie Ewen McGregor's Choose Life speech from Trainspotting) and am bored with others (ie Clint Eastwood's do you feel lucky speech from Dirty Harry). Plus I still wonder how Micheal Douglas' speech at the end of The American President isn't on that list.

Since the list only features one movie prior to the 70s, it really isn't all that impressive. Not that I am a big fan of old movies. J-Mac has been busy watching the new Turner Movie Channel and AMC which appears to be showing nothing but old movies lately. Sometimes I'll watch as Citizen Kane was on this morning. But sometimes, I'd rather not like when My Man Godfrey was on last night. I like to think I am a movie buff but sometimes old movies are filled with racism that may have been okay when originally filmed but watching it now, just makes me cringe. Plus, a lot of times, the secondary actors are sometimes really week. And really take away from the power of the movie.

Anyway, getting back to talking about movie speeches. Here is my personal top 5 movie speeches.

1. Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wke1RBvcNQ

"I'll be all around in the dark. I'll be ever'-where - wherever you can look. Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad - I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise, and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too."

2. Jimmy Stewart, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_LS-RZNSBY

Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here. You just have to see them again...You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked. Well, I'm not licked. And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even if this room gets filled with lies like these; and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me.

3. Vivien Leigh, Gone With The Wind

As God is my witness, as God is my witness, they're not going to lick me! I'm going to live through this, and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again - no, nor any of my folks! If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill, as God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.

4. Humphrey Bogart, Casablanca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP_gs9uTc6s

Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now. Here's looking at you, kid.

5. Edward G. Robinson, Double Indemnity

Why, they've got 10 volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poisons, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by types of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth. Suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from steamboats. But Mr. Norton, of all the cases on record, there's not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train.

With apologies to Ben Johnson's ode to a past love during the 1971 film The Last Picture Show. It probably would be in my top 5 but I tried to list only films made prior to 1970.