Friday, June 26, 2009

Links Run Amok

Hollywood Reporter I guess turnabout is fair play and Hollywood is always remaking Asian films. Zhang Yimou is going to remake the Coen Bros debut film Blood Simple. Er... good luck
Bright Lights After Dark reminds us that not everyone loves the legendary Pauline Kael as a critic. 'She didn't "get" the 60s' is the claim here.
Socialite Life Harrison Ford and Rachel McAdams to co-star in Morning Glory (not a remake of the Katharine Hepburn Oscar winner
Empire Watchmen getting rereleased... and it's even longer now? (gulp)
Topless Robot remembers the geek side of Farrah Fawcett's career
Twitch Audition, one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, is getting a 10th anniversary DVD edition with extras


Splash Page fan made Spider-Man 4 posters. Eliza Dushku as the Black Cat? Yes, please
Mike Lynch 200 characters from Dick Tracy. Does anyone besides me wish the movie version had had a sequel?
Billy Loves Stu Brad Pitt (Cutting Class) and the vagaries of fame

More takes on the Oscar's Best Picture nominee doubling
AV Club pros & cons
Nick's Flick Picks with charts of what 1999-2008 might have looked like. We should probably do this here at some point. So many projects!
Movies Kick Ass 'Oscar Should Wait'
Risky Business Oscar's Decathlon

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen reviews > Transformers Revenge of the Fallen
Kim Morgan suggests that Bay is an idiot savant surrealist. She thinks he needs to embrace/realize it
James Rocchi "And no, I can't shut my brain off and have fun, anymore than I could rip out my tongue and enjoy a meal, because my brain is where I feel fun."
Peter Bradshaw "like watching paint dry while getting hit over the head with a frying pan"
Timothy Brayton Robots in Disgust
Cinematical absurdities they love

9 comments:

Jason Adams said...

I can't believe you watched Audition, Nathaniel. How the hell did that ever happen?

NATHANIEL R said...

it was the reviews.

i couldn't resist when i kept hearing masterpiece.

but yeah. it freaked me right out of my skin for days.

adelutza said...

re:Pauline Kael. She might have not had the same opinions on films as C. Jerry Kutner ( the author of the post over at Bright Lights After Dark) but for sure I've heard of her. Not so much about the above mentioned Mr. Kutner. I'd be very curious to read a review of Last Year at Marienbad by Mr. Kutner and see what Pauline Kael didn't get and he did.

NATHANIEL R said...

i'm always fascinated by reactions to Pauline Kael, be they pro or con. Great writer but some of her opinions are so maddening -- i am very anti-Kael when it comes to West Side Story for instance ;)

adelutza said...

I understand Nate, I am too, that is not the problem. I have a problem with people who just make afirmations without any arguments. I mean, if you're going to say "she didn't het the 60's" give some arguments. Just enumertaing a few film she didn't like it's not an argument .

Wayne B. said...

Pauline Kael - Went and borrowed "For Keeps" a few days ago from the library. Haven't started reading it yet, its kind of intimidating with its 1000+ pages. The only critics whose work I've read before is Ebert and Nathaniel, how's Kael?

Cinesnatch said...

Are Ford and McAdams playing love interests? Gross.

Cinesnatch said...

Even though I didn't "get" her (as she proved with lambasting some of my favorite films at the time, as we were generations apart), in college, I loved reading old reviews of hers.

I read a Q&A with Pauline Kael at the back of a magazine in late 1997 (Premiere? EW?) I was so HUNGRY, I drank up every word. She apparently didn't know what all the "fuss" was over Demi Moore (I didn't know either and I believe time has vindicated us) and Brad Pitt (Well, "Seven Years in Tibet" just came out and we were only months away from "Meet Joe Black"). It just goes to show that she could be on the mark on one hand and not the best prognosticator on the other.

I will always lament that she retired ONE week before the release of my favorite movie of all time ("The Silence of the Lambs.") [I'm assuming; I remember digging through old periodicals and the last review I could find of hers in TNY was in early Feb '91) How I would have loved to have read that (I'm sure she would have had at least a few positive things to say about it.)

Cinesnatch said...

Maybe it was Newsweek (that Q&A). She did say something very cool. "Titanic" had just come out. She said something to the effect of, "how could i begrudge someone for thinking Titanic was the best picture ever made ... that would make me a twit." I don't think she said twit.