Trash, art, and the movies.
And yet another film in enters the category of “Remakes That Should Not Have Been.” It took three writers, Steve Martin, Michael Saltzman and Len Blum, to put together a bland remake of the relatively unfunny Blake Edwards 1963 original. Before I forget, there’s a second category this film falls into…
Granted, immediately upon the success of “Brokeback Mountain” I surmised that every studio would be chomping at the bit to exploit every conceivable plot involving a gay relationship. If you think for even a second that “Imagine Me and You” comes remotely close to capitalizing on the success of “Brokeback Mountain,” then you’re not just mistaken — you’ve missed every American romantic comedy in…
The names John Cobb, Malcolm Campbell, Mickey Thomas, Craig Breedlove and Richard Noble mean so much to so few people. Perhaps even fewer know of Burt Munro, who in 1967 set a class speed record for motorcycles under 1000cc at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. Munro’s accomplishments are notable, but at the height of the space program were quite possibly overshadowed by the test pilots of Edwards Air Force Base, and…
Who is Melquiades Estrada? Is he the sum of his parts? Is one man’s memory of this migrant worker true to who he really was? There are a number of films that examine the differences between seeming and being, but this one handles its subject in a style similar to Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill,” Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” and Gaspar…
Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) wakes up to a world of, from her point of view, numerous couples immersed in the amorous splendor of Valentine’s Day. This could be a film about how the minority female power-businesswoman needs to take a long vacation from her dry, corporate existence, and wind up somewhere in the Caribbean with some smoldering hot…
Bree Osborne (Felicity Huffman) is the kind of woman who, well, isn’t entirely a woman… yet. “This is the voice I want to use,” she says, repeating words from an instructional cassette, but in a quivering male voice — attempting to sound more feminine. She works as a telemarketer for Home Shopping Club, and regularly seeks the counsel and encouragement of her therapist and friend…
There’s only one purpose behind a sequel like this: money. Let’s assume for a second, however, that I care about how much money a film makes. Why would I make, more or less, the same film twice? Have I completely run out of ideas? There are plenty of writers in Hollywood pitching their ideas to studios. So why this? Well, that’s quite simple. It’s easier to…
In April of 1607, as the history books remind us, Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) and and the Virginia Company—under a grant from King Charles I—settled to colonize what is now Jamestown, Virginia. As far as I know, that’s where the similarities end. As Jennifer Hemmingsen of Indian Country Today notes, historians seem to agree there was no romance between John Smith and Pocahantas. However, I’m not interested in judging the historical accuracy of films as I view all films as essentially derivative in one way…