June 13, 2008

Crossing the Bridge

I haven't seen it, but have heard great things about this documentary about the modern Turkish music scene. Tonight on Sundance at 10:00 P.M. I'm firing up the DVR....

May 14, 2008

Ashton Kutcher and the Cougar Effect

Why is Ashton Kutcher's career on the upswing? Maybe because his leading ladies are more mature?...

March 25, 2008

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Yesterday, I saw this movie directed by Sidney Lumet and starring a wonderful cast of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke (at his best), Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney. It is one of the most relentlessly downbeat movies I've ever seen....

February 13, 2008

If They Picked the Winners

Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips weigh in on who they think should win the Oscars. For some reasons, this show is on the Web only. It looks like a regular Ebert & Roeper show, but unforunately is interrupted by commercials...

October 30, 2007

Inside Inside Inside

James Lipton interviews himself and likes what he sees!...

October 29, 2007

Heroes of the Writers Strike

What will writers do if the Guild strikes?...

August 26, 2007

The King of Kong

Last night, I saw a wonderful documentary about the two top Donkey Kong players in the world. The trailer might look like the film ridicules the players, and there are many laughs in the movie. But dang it if, by...

August 11, 2007

Movie Pulchritude Morphing

Beauty through the cinematic era. [Thanks to Mark Evanier]...

May 17, 2007

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

Here's a keeper from YouTube....

March 08, 2007

Why Has There Been No Sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Rich Drees has the answer on FilmBuffsOnLine....

February 28, 2007

The Fugly Women Review the Oscars

Go Fug Yourself is its usual witty self in the annual Oscar rundown. Any description of an outfit that starts with "Even though your skirt looks like an enormous cartoon fish vomiting up its own membranes, we appreciate..." has got...

February 25, 2007

Oscar Predictions

I predict that a bunch of my predictions this year will be wrong. Oh sure, there are some prohibitive favorites in the major categories. It will be a shocker if Helen Mirren doesn't win for "The Queen," Jennifer Hudson for...

February 23, 2007

Oscar Telecast Spoilers

Crack TV critic Aaron Barnhart, proprietor of TVBarn, linked to an article by Nikki Finke that reveals many secrets about Sunday's telecast. This could be an interesting Oscars....

December 23, 2006

Stationery Movies

For those who love quizzes. And movies. And stationery....

November 29, 2006

RinkWorks

Don't have time to watch movies these days? How about a movie-a-minute? A book-a-minute can save you even more time. Plenty of other stuff to check out at RinkWorks, and I especially recommend the All Movie Talk, a weekly podcast...

November 18, 2006

I Thought Daniel Craig Was James Bond

But evidently I was wrong....

August 13, 2006

Hair Makes the Woman Redux

I just received this email from Ahree Lee, director and star of the film featured in my last blog: I'm flattered that you enjoyed my film enough to feature it on your blog. However, the version on YouTube that you...

August 10, 2006

Hair Makes the Woman

Imagine taking a photo of your face in the same position every day for three years, and then assembling a video of each photo in quick succession. That's what Ahree Lee has done in less than one minute's worth of...

July 28, 2006

Little Miss Sunshine

This comedy opened in major cities on Wednesday, and will be rolling out throughout the country, I'm quite sure, because it's hard to believe it won't be a huge hit on the Indy circuit. I saw it today and pretty...

March 06, 2006

Oscar Ramblings

Yikes, I forgot to post my Oscar picks. In all the categories, I only missed four this year. Twice, I picked Narnia for technical awards that King Kong won. I missed for Best Song (although I think if a fourth...

February 03, 2006

Documentary Alert!

Tonight, debuting on Discovery, check out what some critics consider the best documentary of the year, Grizzly Man, Warner Herzog's film about Timothy Treadwell, who lived, and died, with grizzlies. Not for the squeamish....

January 10, 2006

Oscar Nominations

Think you know how the Oscar nomination process works? We're betting that you don't. [Thanks to Brian Rose]...

December 08, 2005

The Carpetbagger

New York Times reporter David Carr has just launched The Carpetbagger, a blog chronicling the race to the Oscars. Carr portrays himself as a newcomer to the madness (he is) but the site is full of fun links. This is...

November 04, 2005

Farce of the Penguins

Is nothing sacred?...

October 15, 2005

A Great Night for Art Movies on TV

The broadcast networks have conceded failure on Saturday nights. Viewer levels are so low that NBC, CBS, and ABC have chosen to play reruns (of course, Fox is airing the baseball playoffs). As a result, the premium cable networks have...

October 11, 2005

We Have a New Bond!

And, praise be, it ain't Colin Farrell....

August 27, 2005

Best Reason To Stay Home on a Saturday Night

Dodgeball makes its TV debut on Cinemax tonight, 10:00 P.M. E.S.T. If you avoided Dodgeball in theaters because it sounded dumb, your instincts were only partly right. It is dumb. It's also hilarious....

August 22, 2005

Bright Leaves

May I recommend a film that I haven't seen? The PBS documentary series, POV, has snagged the broadcast premiere of Bright Leaves, the documentary about tobacco directed by Ross McElwee. Don't expect a Michael Moore-type polemic against the industry, but...

July 02, 2005

Separated At Birth

Went to see Batman Begins last night and I highly recommend it, even if it isn't without flaws. The cast is wonderful. There were a couple of actors who I recognized immediately but couldn't place. I couldn't recognize Gary Oldman,...

June 30, 2005

War of the Worlds vs. Scientology

In the latest Village Voice, Jessica Winter writes about the intersection of Scientology, Tom Cruise, and a little movie directed by Steven Spielberg....

June 25, 2005

The Education of Shelby Knox

It's been awhile since I've seen a documentary as uplifting and entertaining as The Education of Shelby Knox, which aired this week on the PBS series, POV, in many cities. The summary on the POV website puts it perfectly: "A...

May 24, 2005

Not On Cruise Control

Oprah Winfrey is a talented broadcaster, and often can be an incisive and tough interviewer, but put her in front of a star and she is horrifying. Yesterday, she engaged in her usual kissfest with Tom Cruise. Of course, T.C....

February 27, 2005

Oscars

This is an unusual year. In the major categories, only Jamie Foxx is a prohibitive favorite, and even this is rare (usually, when an actor is nominated for best actor and best supporting actor, he wins the supporting prize, but...

February 04, 2005

Query Letters

When I worked at NBC-TV, I read more than a few horrendous pitches for television shows. After I left NBC and worked on the proposals for what became my first two books, I did a little consulting and read even...

February 02, 2005

Eurotrip

I love a smart dumb comedy, and thanks to a tip from my nephew, Michael, I checked out 2004's Eurotrip, a surprisingly funny and eccentric movie in the Road Trip/American Pie genre (but much better than either, in my estimation)....

January 27, 2005

Movie Club with John Ridley

Just what we need. Another television show with folks sitting around talking about movies. In this case, we do. None of the four regular critics on this American Movie Classics show will displace Roger Ebert as a TV critic, but...

January 24, 2005

Festival Dailies

This week, The Sundance Channel offers daily coverage of this year's Sundance Film Festival, starting tonight through Saturday at 9:00 P.M. E.S.T. While you're tuned to the Sundance Channel, you might want to check out Control Room, Jehane Noujaim's controversial...

January 18, 2005

R.I.P. Ruth Warrick

A great woman died at her home on January 15. Ruth Warrick gained fame for playing the wife of Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, and in television for an amazing 35-year run on All My Children. Here is today's New...

January 14, 2005

In Good Company

Check out this charming comedy from director Paul Weitz (About a Boy, American Pie), featuring a stellar cast in a gentle satire about ageism and megacorporations. Topher Grace is sensational (as he was in a lesser movie, Win a Date...

December 25, 2004

Two Documentaries Worth Checking Out

I just watched The Other Final, a modest and charming film about a football match between the two lowest-ranked countries in the Federation of International Football Association standings (numbers 202 and 203): Bhutan and Montserrat. The Other Final will be...

December 21, 2004

Two Movie Masterpieces

Two of my all-time favorite movies are on TV in the next 24 hours. Turner Movie Classics is featuring an eight-movie tribute to George Stevens, who directed his share of classics (Gunga Din, Woman of the Year), but his greatest...

December 13, 2004

The Shop Around the Corner

Why is it so difficult to make a good romantic comedy in the 21st century? In 1940, director Ernst Lubitsch got it right with The Shop Around the Corner, which is playing tonight on Turner Classic Movie. Watch Jimmy Stewart...

December 05, 2004

Closer

In a previous entry, I mentioned how much I loved a one-minute promotional spot for Mike Nichols' new movie, Closer. As expected, the full movie couldn't live up to the promise of the advertisement. Closer can't shed its theatrical roots,...

Oh, About that Henry Rollins Movie Show on IFC...

Never mind....

December 04, 2004

Henry's Film Corner

It's been awhile since Ebert & Roeper have had any significant competition in the TV movie-talk arena. Tonight, on the Independent Film Channel, rock star (?) Henry Rollins hosts Henry's Film Corner. Might be worth checking out....

November 22, 2004

My Architect

My favorite movie of 2003 was a documentary. I enjoyed two other documentaries that were also nominated for an Academy Award for best feature, Capturing the Friedmans and Fog of War, but My Architect is the documentary that has stayed...

November 21, 2004

Kinsey

I highly recommend Kinsey, the newly-released movie about the famed sex researcher. Kinsey somehow avoids the reverential tone that afflicts most biopics. Although I have a few quibbles with the film's treatment of Kinsey, the film is buoyed by wonderful...

October 21, 2004

Team America

I was mildly disappointed with Team America, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's satire about American foreign policy, Hollywood's sanctimoniousness, puppetry, and most of all, bad action-adventure movies (Jerry Bruckheimer has more to fear from this movie than George W). The...