When it comes to ideal mates, it’s easy to get caught up in the pretty people on screen. After all, who can be satisfied with Mr. Darcy on the page when you can watch him right in front of you, swelling violins and all? For me, my ideal fictional mate was always a cross between Han Solo (the cocky bantering) and Mr. Knightley (played by Jeremy Northam) from Emma (I literally wanted to transcribe his proposal and hand it to my husband-to-be, saying “Read this. Don’t even come up with your own.”). Now, if I just wanted to pick a fictional date (not a mate), one of those flings you know won’t last, I would easily pick Jack Foley from Out of Sight. Or Doug Ross from ER. (Or maybe just anybody played by George Clooney). Read more…
In celebration of the DVD release of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Amazon.com, Dreamworks Animation, and the San Diego Zoo have teamed up to bring you the Escape to Africa Elephant Cam (above).
Bad weather? No Zoo in your town? Grab the kids and sit back and watch the elephants of the San Diego Zoo live.
Will Two Lovers be the final big-screen perfomance of Joaquin Phoenix? I hope not. But he has said that he’s done acting, and that he is a (wait for it) rapper now. We’ll see. If Two Lovers is goodbye, it’s not a bad way to go. He plays a man torn between Gwyneth Paltrow (Miss Wow) and Vinessa Shaw (Miss Right), bringing his trademark complexity and passion to the role. The film, which got some love at Cannes last year, hits U.S. theaters in February. But you can see it now — only at Amazon Video On Demand. Just click here, and enjoy. I’m also attaching a video about the movie, featuring interviews with Shaw and director James Gray (We Own the Night).
So I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Academy Award nominee (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) DonCheadle about his new movie, Traitor, an international thriller/action film set against a puzzle of covert espionage operations. (Yup, good stuff.) He talked about how the film came about, what it’s like both producing and acting, and his love of Meet The Press. Of course I couldn’t resist asking him about the possibility of another Ocean’s film - and despite the fact that he probably gets asked that all the time, he was a good sport to my novice interviewing skills.
Check out Traitor on DVD and Blu-ray, and listen to the interview. Thanks Don!
If the Oscars are the main course, the SAG Awards the salad and the Golden Globes the drinks and appetizer, the Critics’ Choice Awards are like the bread basket. If you’re hungry for something it’s fine to nibble on, but once the rest of the courses come in you’re most likely to forget its existence.
Still, with the Globes three days away, I’m hungry, so I watched. Some highlights:
Because of Slumdog Millionaire’s multiple wins, we got to hear that really catchy dance number “Jaiho” a total of five times.
I was amused by the addition of the “house band” Rooney (fronted by Robert Schwartzman, son of Talia Shire, brother of Jason, nephew of Coppola), who got to translate A-Ha’s “Take on Me” into walk-on music for Amy Adams and the “Rocky” theme for Dustin Hoffman. Wonder if the stars got to suggest their own cues?
I got slightly teared up when the room, filled to the brim with A-listers, stood up for Heath Ledger when he posthumously won Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight, with his black-and-white mug filling the screens.
What a dismay that Kate Winslet, always the bridesmaid, finally won an award (Best Supporting Actress for The Reader) but was not there to accept. If she loses all the other awards this season we’ll have been deprived of seeing her finally give an acceptance speech.
In a surprise, Meryl Streep (Doubt, who was not present) and Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) tied for Best Actress. Hathaway, who exclaimed, “I know how to not be nominated for awards!” In what may or may not have been a reference to her tumultuous personal year, she tearfully thanked her dad “for showing me that there are good men in this world.”
Sean Penn was nowhere to be found during the first award (Best Ensemble) which went to his film Milk. (”He’s parking the car,” joked his co-stars Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin, who were on hand to accept) He was, however, there at the end to accept Best Actor. “At heart, this was a beauty contest so I had an advantage,” he said to his fellow nominees, who included Brad Pitt, Clint Eastwood, Mickey Rourke, and Richard Jenkins.
Big movies on your big-screen TV — without waiting for a download. Pinch me. Or better yet, get me a Roku box, ’cause that’s what it provides. I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love their Roku. (Though they tend to know the little black bit of goodness as “the Netflix box.”) The word is out, however, as of today: Soon, it will be an Amazon Video On Demand box too. Just think of it as a great way to enjoy new-release movies like Hancock or Tropic Thunder as well as more than 40,000 other movies and TV shows — no subscription required and commercial-free. (You can also access any Amazon Video On Demand stuff you already own.) I’ve been lucky enough to try out an early version of Amazon VOD on Roku, and I have that TiVo feeling — you know, the “how did I ever live without this” sensation. Can’t wait ’til you get to try it out!
To escape the redundancy of the week, I often find solace in film. So I have decided it might be a good idea to review movies watched over the weekend. I’m always looking for something new and different to watch and we all know how difficult that can be so we should do what we can to share suggestions.
This weekend I watched three movies; Sunshine, Equilibrium, and Baby Momma. Oh yeah and The Golden Compass (again) but only because someone else made me watch it.
Sunshine - Weird but interesting. Needed a bit more plot development. It’s about a team of astronauts sent to shoot a nuclear bomb into the sun to restart it (since it’s dying). The team sent before them has gone missing… and you probably get the picture - team disagrees on pivotal decision, decision results in issues and finding creepy things, etc. Worth a watching if you like movies such as Solaris.
Equilibrium - Think Matrix raw. Christian Bale, Taye Diggs - awesome fight scenes, more real-life but still impossible. Good story line.
Baby Momma - Way less funny than the previews.
Golden Compass - Completely disappointing if you have read the book (as usual)
This weekend I plan to watch all horror movies in honor of Halloween. More quick and dirty reviews to come.
Mention and review
The secretary
The Company of Men
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