laugh-in Tagged Articles at Cinematical
RIP: Reel Important People -- May 27, 2008
Filed under: Obits », Harry Potter »
Joseph Pevney (1911-2008) - Director, Actor - Directed James Cagney as Lon Chaney in Man of a Thousand Faces, Boris Karloff in The Strange Door, Debbie Reynolds in Tammy and the Bachelor, Frank Sinatra in Meet Danny Wilson, Joan Crawford in Female on the Beach, Martin and Lewis in 3 Ring Circus, which he also co-wrote, and Rock Hudson in Back to God's Country, Shakedown, Air Cadet, 1951's Iron Man and Twilight for the Gods. Beginning in the '60s, he mostly directed for television, including a number of episodes of Star Trek. Prior to directing, he acted in films noir of the '40s, including Robert Rossen's Body and Soul and Jules Dassin's Thieves' Highway. He died May 24 in Palm Desert, California. (The Desert Sun)
- Sydney Pollack (1934-2008) - Oscar-winning Director, Producer, Actor - Won two Academy Awards for directing and producing Out of Africa and was nominated for directing and producing Tootsie and for directing They Shoot Horses, Don't They and for producing Michael Clayton. For more on his career and death, read Eric's full post.
- Del Ankers (1916-2008) - Cinematographer, Photographer - Shot the early Jim Henson shorts Wilson's Meats Meeting Film #1 and Wilson's Meats Meeting Film #2 and appears as himself in the former. He also shot Henson's actual Wilson's Meats commercials. He died May 15 in Great Falls, Virginia. (Washington Post)
New On DVD - Date Movie, Freedomland, Winter Passing
Filed under: New Releases », DVD Reviews », New on DVD », Home Entertainment », Columns »
• Date Movie - Nowhere in the formula "Comedy = Tragedy + Time" does "Cruelty" figure in, something that this caca-palooza -- "from 2 of the 6 writers of Scary Movie" -- sets out to correct from the very first scene. When they introduce us to morbidly obese Julia Jones (Alyson Hannigan), it is with ridicule as they paint her as a hideous beast that makes men vomit and turn gay. Of course, when we remember that 2 of the 6 writers of Scary Movie were Wayans Brothers, whose stock in trade is that kind of cruelty, it makes sense (even if these are another two writers.)
A parody of romantic comedies like Bridget Jones's Diary, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Hitch, this lame spoof goes for the easy laugh almost every time, beating to death with a golf club every gag with the subtlety of, well ... someone who beats someone else to death with a golf club. The "13" in the movie's "PG-13" rating would seem to be either a limit for either I.Q. or emotional age, as the movie's show pieces are either juvenile blue bits or have something to do with either poop, pee, puke or pus (the dreaded "4 P's"). Putting gifted comic actors like Fred Willard and Jennifer Coolidge in this stinky mess makes them both stinky by association, though as time goes by, the whole lot of them will only be guilty of contributing to a vast background of white noise that we will have learned to filter out when we grow up. Presently #64 on the IMDB's Bottom 100 of all time.
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