February 28, 2007
Would You Believe . . . ?
Get Smart, the occasionally brilliant Mel Brooks–created Bond spoof from the 1960s, is due to hit the big screen. (We will forget the execrable The Nude Bomb.)
With Steve Carell as Smart and Alan Arkin as the longsuffering Chief, there are definite possibilities for gut-splitting risibility.
But Anne Hathaway as 99? Why not the vow-breakingly loverly Kate Bosworth?
Ach!
With Steve Carell as Smart and Alan Arkin as the longsuffering Chief, there are definite possibilities for gut-splitting risibility.
But Anne Hathaway as 99? Why not the vow-breakingly loverly Kate Bosworth?
Ach!
February 26, 2007
Another Disaster for James Cameron
As if screaming "I'm King of the World" at the Oscars way back when wasn't embarrassing enough, James Cameron, helmsman of the world's biggest blockbuster, Titanic, is producing yet another disaster epic: a documentary on the "tomb of Jesus" for the Discovery Channel.
So the director of True Lies is now bringing to the small screen a Big Lie. I am trembling in my mucklucks . . .
This tomb, a collection of various and sundry bones, was discovered twenty years ago, but it is only now that Hollywood has gotten involved that 2,000 years of Christian belief is set to be tossed on the trash heap of history.
Oh how the heathen rage . . .
Update: Amy Welborn has an excellent post on this topic.
So the director of True Lies is now bringing to the small screen a Big Lie. I am trembling in my mucklucks . . .
This tomb, a collection of various and sundry bones, was discovered twenty years ago, but it is only now that Hollywood has gotten involved that 2,000 years of Christian belief is set to be tossed on the trash heap of history.
Oh how the heathen rage . . .
Update: Amy Welborn has an excellent post on this topic.
Becket Returns to the Big Screen
If you have never seen this classic depiction of the struggle between church and state (actually, church and king), you do not know what you are missing. Both O'Toole and Burton are at their heartiest—and who made a better king than the man who mastered Henry II not once but twice? (See O'Toole's somewhat different interpretation of Henry in The Lion in Winter.)
tonsure tip: Past the Popcorn, via Gospelcom.net.
tonsure tip: Past the Popcorn, via Gospelcom.net.
Scorsese Finally Scores
The Oscars were the typical bore. Frankly, I fell fast asleep sometime during Ennio Morricone's speech. (Although, admittedly, Mr. Morricone's scores should be ranked with those of Bernard Hermann, John Williams, and Howard Shore.)
But at least we were not subjected to the ensemble cast of Little Miss Sunshine jumping onstage to do a striptease.
Did Alan Arkin truly deserve his Oscar? He has given some very funny performances in the past (think The In-Laws), but for a few minutes of screen time as a dirty old man? Better Djimon Hounsou or Mark Walhberg...
Al Gore won an Oscar. Well, at least he finally won something...
And someone break out a lager for Deutschland! The Lives of Others beat out crowd favorite Pan's Labyrinth for Best Foreign-Language Film!
The rest was predictable, although I thought they would surely reward Adriana Barraza. (In the interest of full disclosure: I have not seen Dreamgirls, and so cannot assess whether Jennifer Hudson was deserving of her Oscar.)
As for the host, Ellen DeGeneres: She was not awful. She was not good; but she was not awful. When are they going to get Gilbert Gottfried to host? I promise you, that will be the last Oscar broadcast ever...
But at least we were not subjected to the ensemble cast of Little Miss Sunshine jumping onstage to do a striptease.
Did Alan Arkin truly deserve his Oscar? He has given some very funny performances in the past (think The In-Laws), but for a few minutes of screen time as a dirty old man? Better Djimon Hounsou or Mark Walhberg...
Al Gore won an Oscar. Well, at least he finally won something...
And someone break out a lager for Deutschland! The Lives of Others beat out crowd favorite Pan's Labyrinth for Best Foreign-Language Film!
The rest was predictable, although I thought they would surely reward Adriana Barraza. (In the interest of full disclosure: I have not seen Dreamgirls, and so cannot assess whether Jennifer Hudson was deserving of her Oscar.)
As for the host, Ellen DeGeneres: She was not awful. She was not good; but she was not awful. When are they going to get Gilbert Gottfried to host? I promise you, that will be the last Oscar broadcast ever...
February 13, 2007
I Am Ethel Merman's Love Child
St. Charles Place informs me that I am scheduled to be a merman in the next life.
I have no idea what this means. Are my sins so great, so beyond the grace of Almighty God, that I am doomed to spend eternity as half a fish? Is this some special place in hell? I thought hell was divided into three parts: one part for Satan and his miserable minions, one part for those who have spurned God and devoted themselves to idols, and one part for the creators of The View.
This is the most abominable thing I have encountered since the halibut steak at Lucky Louie's Phish or Swim.
I have no idea what this means. Are my sins so great, so beyond the grace of Almighty God, that I am doomed to spend eternity as half a fish? Is this some special place in hell? I thought hell was divided into three parts: one part for Satan and his miserable minions, one part for those who have spurned God and devoted themselves to idols, and one part for the creators of The View.
This is the most abominable thing I have encountered since the halibut steak at Lucky Louie's Phish or Swim.
Boys 2 Men
Had it been Tom Cruise and almost anybody else, I would have thought, Hah? But with the inimitable Ben Stiller as sidekick, this updating of the classic Hardy Boys sleuthing series could prove quite enjoyable.
February 06, 2007
I Have a Feeling I Am Being Insulted ...
...but I cannot figure out how! (At the very least, this is blasphemy . . . I think . . .)
February 03, 2007
Screwtape Hits the Big Screen!
Yes: First it was The Chronicles of Narnia. Now The Screwtape Letters—C.S. Lewis' often-imitated but never equalled epistolary masterpiece—is coming to a theater near you at some point in the not-too-distant future, God willing.
Who should play Screwtape? Jack Nicholson? Willem Dafoe (who I almost literally ran into while shopping at some Manhattan foodery recently; seems a most pleasant chap in real life)? No, we must go with a Brit (but please—not Ian McKellan!).
How about we stir up a Sir: Sir Anthony Hopkins? Sir Ben Kingsley? Of course, the very un-Sir John Cleese is the voice of Screwtape in the audio version, done several years ago.
Will his nephew, Wormwood, be portrayed? Will someone have the audacity to write return letters, from Wormwood to Screwtape, which, in the book, are only inferred from Screwtape's replies?
I am happy to know that Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis' stepson, will be one of the producers of the film, and hopefully will keep the production true to the vision of the finest Christian apologist of the twentieth century (even though not a Lutheran!).
Who should play Screwtape? Jack Nicholson? Willem Dafoe (who I almost literally ran into while shopping at some Manhattan foodery recently; seems a most pleasant chap in real life)? No, we must go with a Brit (but please—not Ian McKellan!).
How about we stir up a Sir: Sir Anthony Hopkins? Sir Ben Kingsley? Of course, the very un-Sir John Cleese is the voice of Screwtape in the audio version, done several years ago.
Will his nephew, Wormwood, be portrayed? Will someone have the audacity to write return letters, from Wormwood to Screwtape, which, in the book, are only inferred from Screwtape's replies?
I am happy to know that Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis' stepson, will be one of the producers of the film, and hopefully will keep the production true to the vision of the finest Christian apologist of the twentieth century (even though not a Lutheran!).
