chazz palminteri Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Something about Yonkers Joe bugged me.

Don't get me wrong; it was a very well-made and well-acted film, with a very touching story about fathers, sons, and the difficulties of raising special needs kids. It's got two stars, Chazz Palminteri and Christine Lahti, that give their usual solid performances. And it even has a story that's got some nice tension and is emotionally satisfying.

But something bugged me. And I couldn't put my finger on why until the very end, but when I did, it made my discomfort crystal clear: This guy's a crook. Why should I care about him at all?

Who doesn't love Screen Media Films? Without them, we wouldn't be able to rent The Karate Dog, featuring the voice of Chevy Chase, or the spoof Disaster! The Movie, with the voices of all of Mötley Crüe. Okay, so they don't just distribute bad straight-to-video titles -- they also allow us to see the mediocre directorial offerings of Kevin Bacon and Chazz Palminteri. And they must be doing something right, because they have a great distribution deal with Universal Home Entertainment, and now they also have enough money to expand.

This week, at Sundance, Screen Media will debut its new theatrical division. The company has distributed films to theaters before, such as Bacon's Loverboy, but never on a big scale. Their first release will be Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas, a comedy that Scott saw at SXSW last year (he called it "one of the more colorful surprises" of the fest). They apparently will also be distributing Weirdsville, which premieres next week at Slamdance.

Anyway, this is mostly important news for any filmmakers out there in Park City who can't seem to find a good deal. Look for the Screen Media reps. You could be in the same library as The 12 Dogs of Christmas! And if you think you're better than that, just remember the photo above, because surely Jon Voight once thought he was better too.

If you are the kind of person who gets a little sick of all the good cheer at this time of year, then you just might be in the mood for a little more "coal in your stocking." That is when the downer Christmas movie gets its chance to shine. Most holiday flicks are all about making you feel good about family and Christmas and all that good stuff, but some films decide to go the other route and make you feel so damn awful about what you're watching that suddenly a burnt turkey and a family fight at the dinner table don't seem so bad.

Here are some of what I think are the most depressing holiday movies. If nothing else, at least they remind us it could always get worse. ...

One Magic Christmas (1985)
This movie is all about the guilt. In a long line of films that are meant to make you feel guilty about all of the overspending and extravagance of the holidays, One Magic Christmas stands out. It follows a poor family with no hope of a Christmas in sight, as the mom (Mary Steenburgen) works too hard and has lost her joy in the season. Sure enough, a Christmas angel (in the creepy form of Harry Dean Stanton) shows her the error of her ways. Throw in the extra plot lines of a kidnapping, a shooting and a drowning, and you have yourself one heck of a depressing Christmas flick.

It's been a while since we've had some news on Arthur and the Minimoys, save a trailer. Wait, Invisibles. No, Minimoys. Is anyone else getting a Sorcerer-vs-Philosopher flashback? To recap, the film is based on Arthur and the Minimoys, a book written by Luc Besson himself. In the book, Arthur and his grandmother are facing eviction, suffering in the absence of his grandfather, who is missing. After discovering one of his grandfather's drawings of a red-haired princess, he travels to the land of Minimoys in an attempt to save his family.

A mixture of live-action and computer graphics, Martha Fischer previously reported on the interesting cast that contains the voices of pop music icons Madonna and David Bowie. Now it's time to add a whole mess of non-musical names to the list. There are the funny men, like Jason Bateman and Jimmy Fallon, but there are also a whole slew of actors known for their macho image. With the likes of Harvey Keitel, Chazz Palminteri and Robert De Niro also in the film, do the Minimoys have their own collection of mini-mobsters?

Now that Besson is retiring from filmmaking, this could very well be his last directorial effort in the feature film world. If you're trying to get in all the Besson you can before he commits himself to a life of civic work and youth groups, you can also catch the Luc-penned Taxi 4 next year, although the third sequel to a franchise hardly seems like the right send-off to the man who made Leon. Arthur and the Minimoys will enjoy a limited release on December 15, and grab a larger release in the new year.

Regardless of how you want to classify the next few months (Fall? Autumn? That time when the kids finally go back to school?), this year's Best Picture (candidates/winners) will most likely debut in theaters between now and Christmas. For those of you looking for some sort of intelligence boost after a summer full of dumb, dumber and dumbest, fear not -- Hollywood is sending a slew of wonderful-looking flicks our way.

In order to celebrate this joyous time of year, we here at Cinematical have decided to share with you the films we're most looking forward to. What films do our writers want to see make a big splash in theaters this fall? Stay tuned all this week to find out. In the meantime, how about I kick things off with ...

The Departed -- Director Martin Scorsese teams up once again with Leonardo DiCaprio (his newest muse) in this remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Add to that a cast that includes Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and, well, I'm totally sold. Pic tells of the battle between Massachusetts police and an Irish-American gang. When each plants a mole on the other's turf, things become hairy and worlds are sure to collide. Seeing as I'm a Scorsese nut, The Departed marks my most anticipated film of the fall. This cops and robbers tale hits theaters on October 6 and currently has a trailer online for you to watch.

• Bukowski: Born in to This - There is a morbidly fascinating fly-on-the-wall vibe that pervades John Dullaghan's profile of the late Beat writer Charles Bukowski, a base familiarity that parallels the Ham On Rye author's own inimitable hard-lived life and style. Epic in scope (and length), first-time director Dullaghan compiles dozens of meticulously screened hours of archival footage, coupling the best of it with new interviews with Bukowski survivors to present a terrifically real character study of a little-studied real character. The watchable Chuck-alike Happy Hour, starring Anthony LaPaglia as a booze-addled writer, is also just out.

New Line has put the first six minutes of the upcoming Paul Walker flick, Running Scared, online for your viewing pleasure before the film hits February 24th. Because of the violence, nudity and foul language, the footage is restricted and so you first must register your email, birth-date and password before moving forward, meaning those of you under the age of consent are out of luck here.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the opening sequence. With its creative editing and gritty look, this one appears to have some legs on it. Written and directed by Wayne Kramer (The Cooler), Paul Walker plays a low level mob guy in charge of disposing of the "hot"weapons after a hit. However, when his son and friend stumble upon one of the weapons used in a cop shooting, the friend takes it and uses it to kill his abusive stepfather. From there it falls on Walker to correct the entire situation or else he won't live to see the next day.

If you're on the fence with this one, I'd suggest checking out the footage before making a decision. Well, unless you're one of those people who like to go in cold. Running Scared also stars Chazz Palminteri, Vera Farmiga and up-and-comer Cameron Bright.