| My films are for a universal audience: Madhur Bhandarkar | | Posted Thursday, February 01, 2007 2:55:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | He could well be termed as one of the pioneers of the Bollywood 'New Age Cinema' in the new millennium with his films like 'Chandni Bar', 'Satta', 'Page 3' and 'Corporate' reflecting a 'slice of life' and, at the same time, incorporating elements of commercial cinema. His critics may dismiss him as a filmmaker for the classes but two-time National Award winner Madhur Bhandarkar insists that his films are meant for all kinds of audiences be it the masses or the classes. ''While it is true that all my films, from 'Chandni Bar' to 'Satta' to 'Page 3' to 'Corporate' have been drawn from real life, I have, at the same time, taken care to add a lot of fiction to the storylines in a bid to add a commercial touch to the real life stories. .... | |
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| | | Gather family for one of three classic films | | Posted Sunday, December 17, 2006 12:57:13 PM by Blog57 Team | | "Nemo" is a new classic. The story has an earnest fish searching for his son. That allows room for the humor and warmth we expect from a Pixar animated film. "Wonderful Life" is an old classic. "Elf" is no classic, but it's fun. Will Ferrell brings dignity to the role of a guy who has just learned he's not an elf. Other choices include: "Charlie and Lola," 10:30 a.m., Disney Channel. Lola is a thoroughly charming, animated character. Here, she frets that Christmas has disappeared from her Advent calendar. "Santa Baby" (2006, 1 p.m.), "Christmas in Boston" (2005, 3 p.m.) and "Three Days" (2001), 5 p.m.), ABC Family. Here are reruns of three cable films. "Santa Baby" is a solid comedy; "Three Days" is a drama. "Christmas in Boston" is a light romantic comedy. "Dead and Deader," 8-10 p.m., Sci Fi Channel.... | |
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| | | Jack Palance, dead at 87: Hollywood's favorite tough won his Oscar for comedy | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 6:54:10 PM by Blog57 Team | | LOS ANGELES -- Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned to comedy at 70 with his Oscar-winning self-parody in "City Slickers," died Friday. Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, a aid spokesman said. His family gave his age as 87. When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor in 1992 he delighted viewers by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups . "That's nothing, really," he said slyly. "As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not." Oscar host Billy Crystal then turned the moment into a running joke, making increasingly outlandish remarks about Palance's accomplishments.... | |
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| | | ROBERT BUTLER COMMENTARY: DON T MISS THE BOAT IN FILM DELUGE | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 11:03:11 AM by Blog57 Team | | When there are so many good films on local screens that moviegoers despair of seeing them all, Oscar season has officially begun. Do you run out this weekend and see "Borat" (because it's hard to have a water cooler conversation if you haven't)? Or do you instead invest your time and money in "Flags of Our Fathers," which might not be around much longer? Tough decisions. But I'm here to help. Below I've listed eight movies in theaters that, in my estimation, are probably going to be competing for Oscars. They've been arranged in the order you should see them. Please note that this isn't about the relative merits of the films. It's simply about creating a plan of action that will allow you to see as many potential Oscar contenders as you can before the movies leave town.... | |
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| | | U.S. and A. provides prime fodder for Borat's ingenious comedy | | Posted Sunday, November 05, 2006 3:07:18 AM by Blog57 Team | | Rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content, including graphic nudity and language; starring Sacha Baron Cohen; directed by Larry Charles; opening Friday at University Place 8 in Carbondale."Borat" is unquestionably, honestly, literally the funniest film I have ever seen.Conceptually brilliant and fearlessly executed, it rewrites the rules of screen comedy, presenting something never before seen on film: a gene-splice of Andy Kaufman's high-wire character humor and caught-on-the-street pranks from "Punk'd."The title character is a gangly, mustachioed Kazakh TV journalist traveling across "US and A," the nation he excitedly calls "greatest country in the world." What he finds in unstaged interviews with unsuspecting citizens is stranger than fiction, and pants-wettingly riotous. Some viewers will find their sensitivities too roughly handled, but even if you dislike it, you will find "Borat" to be a threshold experience.... | |
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| | | Leconte film finds "Friends" in U.S | | Posted Tuesday, October 31, 2006 10:55:20 PM by Blog57 Team | | NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - IFC Films has acquired all U.S. rights to Patrice Leconte's French comedy "My Best Friend" (Mon meilleur ami), starring Daniel Auteuil. The feature, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, follows an unlikable antique dealer (Auteuil) who falsely claims to have a best friend. When his skeptical business partner (Julie Gayet) doubts he has any at all and challenges him to arrange an introduction, he frantically seeks out the help of an outgoing taxi driver (Dany Boon) to learn how to make a friend. IFC, which said the film would "appeal to the masses," will release the film next year. Leconte's films have been a proven draw in a tough domestic market for foreign films. His credits include 1989's "Monsieur Hire," 1996's "Ridicule" and 2004's "Intimate Strangers" (Confidences trop intimes).... | |
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| | | Ask 411 Movies for 10.30.06: All Hollow’s Evil! | | Posted Monday, October 30, 2006 1:03:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | Actress Jane Wyatt died last Monday of natural causes. She was 96. Wyatt is best remembered as the wife and mother of "Father Knows Best." She won Emmys for her work on the show for three straight seasons. Wyatt also played another iconic mother to that of Mr. Spock in the Star Trek films and series. Her film work includes Lost Horizon, Gentleman's Agreement, None But the Lonely Heart, Great Expectations, The Kansan, Hurricane Smith, Pitfall, Our Very Own and My Blue Heaven. I went with some friends to see Chuck Mangione last week. He's a jazz artist best known for the hit "Feels So Good." "King of the Hill" fans know him as the spokesman for Meglo Mart. He did the theme song for The Cannonball Run, which I'm disappointed he didn't do. But he did do the overture from The Children of Sanchez, a 1978 Anthony Quinn movie.... | |
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| | | Art house films | | Posted Friday, October 27, 2006 2:58:06 PM by Blog57 Team | | From 1955 to 1959, O. Winston Link photographed the last of the steam-powered locomotives on the Norfolk & Western Rail Road. He shot his black-and-white views at night with huge banks of flash bulbs. Documenting the end of an era, this New Yorker picked vantages where locomotives chugged past '50s small-town Americana. British director Paul Yule profiled Link, who died in 2001, in a previous documentary, "Trains That Passed in the Night" (1990). The art market for Link's prints is never mentioned there, but Yule's follow-up film is filled with prices, invoices, receipts, court transcripts, darkroom ledgers, phone messages, e-Bay stings, and prison interviews. "The Photographer, His Wife, Her Lover" reconstructs Link's last years with his wife Conchita, who is a peripheral character in his earlier film.... | |
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| | | New on DVD | | Posted Monday, October 23, 2006 2:55:09 PM by Blog57 Team | | NACHO LIBRE (2006, Paramount, PG, $30) -- Even Jerry Lewis would have been hard-pressed to save this one-joke comedy about a Mexican monastery cook (Jack Black) moonlighting as a wrestler to raise money for impoverished orphans. The movie manages to go a few rounds on the sight of the boisterous Black in mustache, mask and blue stretchy pants. But Black winds up being pinned down by a flick that doesn't have a clue what to do with such a big-hearted buffoon. Extras: commentary by Black, deleted scenes and five featurettes. .... | |
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| | | Spelling Bee deserves an A | | Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 10:56:06 AM by Blog57 Team | | First Spellbound, then Akeelah and the Bee, and now this sweetheart of a musical comedy, the Tony Award-winning The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - all proving what a lot of really weird words there are in English, and what a lot of lovable, and weird, kids know how to spell them. Like those films, Spelling Bee is about winning and losing without becoming a loser. The show, at the Merriam through Sunday, divides its time between the characters - their back stories, their worries, their wishes, most of which are revealed in song - and the spelling bee itself. Each of the six contestants comes to the microphone, is given a word to spell, asks for its definition, then asks the vice principal to use it in a sentence. These sentences are the funniest part of the show.... | |
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