ann-margret Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's the movie that just keeps on going -- just like its subject matter on a 109 degree summer's day. The Hollywood Reporter says that Ye Olde Times, which saw Jack Black and Lindsay Lohan visiting the Ren Faire has now been revamped into All's Faire in Love. It lost Black and Lohan along the way, but it's aquired Christina Ricci, Owen Benjamin, Cedric the Entertainer, Bill Engvall, and Nadine Velazquez.

The plot sounds as though it has gone an overhaul as well -- the story is now centered on Benjamin, whose shiny new drama degree has landed him a job with a Renaissance Faire theater troupe. Reduced to being their fetch boy, he meets a Faire virgin played by Ricci. That's a virgin to the Renaissance Faire, not the Shakesperean sense of "a faire virgin." But his swashbuckling colleagues aim to disrupt his budding romance.

Cedric is taking the role of Professor Shockworthy, who narrates the story in the fairy-tale style. Of the original cast, only Matthew Lillard seems to remain. Everyone else ever associated with the project has vanished, and has been replaced by Ann-Margaret and Louise Griffiths. The director job has also shifted from writer Robert A. White to Scott Marshall.

So much upheaval is rarely good for a film -- and while I adore Ricci, and find her a trade up from Lohan, it bodes ill to lose Cary Elwes (who is necessary in any film with tights) and Black. As cheesy as the premise sounds, the world of Renaissance Faire is ripe for a really good comedy. I know, I've spent too many years there. I don't know if All's Faire will be the send-up I'm looking for, but I'd like to hope it is.

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond is a forgotten screenplay* penned by Tennessee Williams. In fact, if you search Wikipedia, it doesn't even come up. It is part of a collection that was found after the playwright's death, and was subsequently published in 1984. It is now coming to the silver screen -- with a headline actress guaranteed to grab people's attention.

Continuing her attraction to almost larger-than-life casts, Lindsay Lohan will star in the feature, which also includes Chris Evans, Ellen Burstyn, David Strathairn and Ann-Margret. The script tells the story of Fisher Willow (Lohan), a 1920's debutante from Memphis with an allergy to narrow-mindedness and a habit for throwing shocks and insults. She falls for Jimmy (Evans), the poor son of an alcoholic man (Strathairn) who works for her family. Obviously, the class divide causes a strain which is further amplified when Fisher loses a diamond.

The casting seems fitting on all accounts. Lohan has made an image for herself as a shocking socialite, and she is familiar with the pressures of losing high-price jewellery, a mistake that is becoming a trend. Burstyn as the southern matriarch is a no-brainer, as is Ann-Margret as Fisher's spinster aunt. And Strathairn, well, he embodies great, gritty acting.

I see this film going one of two ways. There could be a reason no one knows about the play ... and if it's bad, it could swallow the talents of the cast. Or, it could take the Titus route. Although Titus Andronicus was a surprising choice from Shakespeare's vast collection (although one of my personal favorites), it came together in an intriguing, artsy horror fest.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

*Thank you, Derek for pointing out that this wasn't a theatrical play, but a screenplay. MB

• Æon Flux - This empty sci-fi flick's listing on IMDB.com is loaded with glowing user endorsements, leading everyone else who has seen it to believe that either drugs were involved in forming these opinions, the Pod People took these users over or an army of undercover PR lackeys is spinning overtime. This cinematic equivalent of a bronzed cow pie, an unimaginative Logan's Run pretender set 400 years in the future after a global plague, stars Charlize Theron as a rebel trying to take down the corrupt government of Bregna, the only city on Earth. From the way-lazy back story title cards and opening narration to the silly costumes to the cartoonish action sequences to the awful deadpan performances, this should be called Peed-On, Sux. Maybe Theron's mother needed an operation or something, but this is a very bad and brainless example of sci-fi, a puffed-up issue movie that ultimately offers nothing but regret. Instead, check out creator Peter Chung's original, pre-anime craze animated MTV series, which was released on DVD late last year.