anniversary Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm not known to be the sentimental type, but occasionally even I can get a little choked up (and trust me it can come at the oddest times). Well, the other night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon I had one of those moments when that goofy little girl I used to be and the goofy grown woman I am today came together to watch Eric Idle perform Always Look on The Bright Side of Life with Fallon's house band, The Roots -- who to my delight joined in on the trademark whistling refrain. The troupe was on Late Night to celebrate their NY Reunion show to mark the 40th anniversary of the comedy troupe and to promote the Pythonathon on IFC this Sunday.

Watching The Life of Brian as a child guaranteed that most of the jokes went right over my head, but it's effect was lasting, and I was never able to look at my Sunday school lessons the same way again. The flick was even charged with blasphemy when it was originally released, but over time has been recognized as one of the best British comedies ever made.

It's been a long time (30 years to be more precise) since Idle and Chapman climbed up on those crosses for the final musical number in the story of Brian, but when I watched this clip it didn't matter, and I was right back to being that little geeky girl I used to (and probably always will) be.

After the jump: Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin. Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow...

My first post was about Jon Voigt being cast as Pope John Paul II and is so dull that I'm not bothering to link it. In fact, most of my August 2005 posts were fairly routine, except for one early post about the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund. That year, one of the grant recipients was a 12-year-old Austin filmmaker, Emily Hagins, for her horror film Pathogen. Emily is now 16 and just held a private showing of her second feature film, The Retelling.

The first post I wrote that grabbed a lot of attention was about a website that tried the Benny and Joon method of making grilled-cheese sandwiches. "Cooking with Johnny Depp" attracted many fans of the actor ... and possibly a few fans of grilled cheese.

It all started a few days ago, when Ain't It Cool News posted a YouTube clip of what they reported was the new credit sequence to the Blade Runner: Ultimate Edition. Since then, AICN has killed the link, but you can't keep a good rumor down, and now Big Screen Little Screen is hosting a link to the rumored title sequence -- they also didn't promise that it would be there long, so if you are curious, you might want to check it out sooner rather than later. While purists would probably prefer the original opening, if these are the credits, they would be a nice addition to some of the promised updates for the definitive cut of the film, such as the Joanna Cassidy re-shoots director Ridley Scott had planned. Then again, if it turns out this clip is fan-created or maybe just some manufactured buzz, that's okay too -- a little harmless speculation never hurt.

Even twenty-five years after the release of the film, Blade Runner is still considered one of the best sci-fi movies ever made, but over the years, there have been numerous theories about why the film was initially a commercial failure -- and the answer is obviously still up for debate. The release of the ultra-deluxe DVD set this fall will hopefully be timed with a limited re-release of the film, so let's keep our fingers crossed that it's not just wishful thinking on all our parts. There have been some rumblings about a BR announcement during the upcoming ComicCon event, so stay tuned to our coverage of the festivities to find out if we get the good news.

It's hard to believe that it has been fifteen years since Oliver Stone released The Doors. The film had already been made available on DVD, but Lionsgate has announced that they will release a special edition DVD of the film this December, just in time for Christmas. What makes it a special edition? Well, nothing mind-blowing but there is an additional forty-three minutes of footage -- just think of all the shots we missed out on of half-naked spirit guides wandering in the desert. Other features include a one-on-one interview with Stone, and three extra documentaries on the phenomenon of Jim Morrison and The Doors.

Other than a spot-on impersonation of Morrison by Val Kilmer, there was really not much in Stone's film for someone who wasn't already a Doors fan. Considering Oliver Stone was never a filmmaker to let his perspective lay in the background -- usually he's too busy beating you over the head with it, it seemed strange to watch a Stone film that didn't have much to say. I always thought that a biopic should tell audiences something they didn't already know about a famous figure, and The Doors seemed like a re-enactment of the iconography of Morrison. There wasn't much there to surprise audiences; well, unless you count the surprise of Meg Ryan not embarrassing herself in one of her few dramatic roles. ...

[via JoBlo.com]