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Spaceballs On Blu-Ray: 25 Years Later, The Schwartz Is Still Strong In Mel Brooks’ Star Wars Spoof

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

A long time ago in a culture far removed from this one — 1987 to be exact — cinematic satirist Mel Brooks took on box-office game changer George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise and didn’t end up in the Hollywood equivalent of a Sarlacc Pit. Substituting the Schwartz for the Force,  Yogurt for Yoda and Pizza The Hutt for Jabba, Brooks gave us Spaceballs and made us laugh harder (intentionally) than Jar Jar Binks ever did. To celebrate the movie’s 25th anniversary, Sony has released a commemorative Blu-Ray edition that mostly does justice to this comedy gem. The Film: Spaceballs (1987) Why It’s An Inessential Essential: Although Life Stinks (1991) was Mel Brooks’ last sturdy feature, the often gut-bustingly funny Spaceballs  was his last really inspired comedy. Like many of Brooks’ earlier films, Spaceballs spoofs generic and genre cliches. In this case, the director aimed his blaster at science fiction and fantasy films, Star Wars in particular. Viewed 25 years after its theatrical release, Spaceballs  suffers from lopsided structure and occasional laziness, but the movie repeatedly breaks down the fourth wall with such zeal and absurd charm that it’s impossible to resist. (It’s worth noting that the movie was released during the heyday of the Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd ABC comedy series Moonlighting , which was heralded for doing the same.) A large part of  the movie’s giddy appeal is its game cast, led by SCTV Jedi the late John Candy and Rick Moranis.  Candy plays the Wookiee-like Barf and Moranis is particularly hilarious as the clutzy, over-compensating Darth Vader spoof, Dark Helmet — a puny man topped by enormous circumcised headgear. As ringmaster of this circus, Brooks (who also appears in the movie as both President Skroob and  Yogurt)  is at a point in his career where he’s starting to toss things against the wall out of sheer desperation. And because he’s working with talented comedians and co-writers, most of what he throws sticks. The move is a collection of blisteringly strange and funny sketches, such as the one where Helmet fantasizes about seducing Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) while playing with a set of action figures that includes an even tinier facsimile of himself and the Druish princess. Brooks’ wise-ass, Brecht-by-way-of-Vaudeville sensibility is at the core of the movie’s cantankerous, Yiddish sensibility, and though some of the yucks feel a tad musty, the movie is never tedious. Riffs on cash-in sequels, “Moichandizing” and “turning off the movie” demonstrate that, at that point in his career, Brooks’ cultural comedy mojo was still working. Indeed, Spaceballs doesn’t just hold up as a laugh riot. It’s still highly quotable right down to the characters’ names. (Yogurt! Pizza The Hutt!).  “May the Schwartz be with you” still provokes laughter after all these years,  as does Barf’s “Funny, she doesn’t look Druish” comment about Princess Vespa.  And when the Spaceballs and Dark Helmet land on the Planet of the Apes, one of its denizens grouses; “Oh shit, there goes the planet.” How the Blu-Ray Edition Makes the Case for the Film:   The best special features on Sony’s25th anniversary release are the least serious ones. New interviews with a doddering and-haughty Brooks don’t contribute much. (“We were looking for a new genre to destroy,” he exclaims at one point). Much more satisfying is a very funny list of continuity errors in the film, including, a scene in which Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers playing a droid even bitchier than Anthony Daniels’ C-3P0) appears to stop leaving a trail behind her in one desert scene. The film’s gag audio commentary tracks are also suitably ridiculous. One is in “Mawgese,” presumably the native language of Barf, another, in “Dinkese,” the mother tongue of the Jawa-esque Dink Dinks. Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray edition does not markedly improve the picture quality that was found on the 2005 DVD release of Spaceballs .  There are still notable visual blemishes, including artifacts that resulted from poor video compression. Still, the dual Blu-Ray/DVD package is worth buying if only because the menus included on the new DVD release are more interactive and the features they include are more impressive than the last time around. Other Trivia: The new 25th anniversary Spaceballs Blu-Ray is loaded with new special features. If you’re a dedicated Mel Brooks fan — even one who lost faith or interest after Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It — you’ll probably get a big kick out of the jokey introduction he recorded to the film’s original trailer. Brooks’ audio commentary track is also worthy, even if he is more than a little full of himself after the wild (and not entirely deserved) multi-platform success of The Producers . Compared to the meager 2005 DVD release, which came with a making-of featurette and a skimpy souvenir booklet, Sony’s 25th anniversary Blu-Ray release is a much more comprehensive presentation of the film. Simon Abrams is a NY-based freelance film critic whose work has appeared in The Village Voice, Time Out New York , Vulture and Esquire . Additionally, some people like his writing, which he collects a t Extended Cut . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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Spaceballs On Blu-Ray: 25 Years Later, The Schwartz Is Still Strong In Mel Brooks’ Star Wars Spoof

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Spaceballs On Blu-Ray: 25 Years Later, The Schwartz Is Still Strong In Mel Brooks’ Star Wars Spoof

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

A long time ago in a culture far removed from this one — 1987 to be exact — cinematic satirist Mel Brooks took on box-office game changer George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise and didn’t end up in the Hollywood equivalent of a Sarlacc Pit. Substituting the Schwartz for the Force,  Yogurt for Yoda and Pizza The Hutt for Jabba, Brooks gave us Spaceballs and made us laugh harder (intentionally) than Jar Jar Binks ever did. To celebrate the movie’s 25th anniversary, Sony has released a commemorative Blu-Ray edition that mostly does justice to this comedy gem. The Film: Spaceballs (1987) Why It’s An Inessential Essential: Although Life Stinks (1991) was Mel Brooks’ last sturdy feature, the often gut-bustingly funny Spaceballs  was his last really inspired comedy. Like many of Brooks’ earlier films, Spaceballs spoofs generic and genre cliches. In this case, the director aimed his blaster at science fiction and fantasy films, Star Wars in particular. Viewed 25 years after its theatrical release, Spaceballs  suffers from lopsided structure and occasional laziness, but the movie repeatedly breaks down the fourth wall with such zeal and absurd charm that it’s impossible to resist. (It’s worth noting that the movie was released during the heyday of the Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd ABC comedy series Moonlighting , which was heralded for doing the same.) A large part of  the movie’s giddy appeal is its game cast, led by SCTV Jedi the late John Candy and Rick Moranis.  Candy plays the Wookiee-like Barf and Moranis is particularly hilarious as the clutzy, over-compensating Darth Vader spoof, Dark Helmet — a puny man topped by enormous circumcised headgear. As ringmaster of this circus, Brooks (who also appears in the movie as both President Skroob and  Yogurt)  is at a point in his career where he’s starting to toss things against the wall out of sheer desperation. And because he’s working with talented comedians and co-writers, most of what he throws sticks. The move is a collection of blisteringly strange and funny sketches, such as the one where Helmet fantasizes about seducing Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) while playing with a set of action figures that includes an even tinier facsimile of himself and the Druish princess. Brooks’ wise-ass, Brecht-by-way-of-Vaudeville sensibility is at the core of the movie’s cantankerous, Yiddish sensibility, and though some of the yucks feel a tad musty, the movie is never tedious. Riffs on cash-in sequels, “Moichandizing” and “turning off the movie” demonstrate that, at that point in his career, Brooks’ cultural comedy mojo was still working. Indeed, Spaceballs doesn’t just hold up as a laugh riot. It’s still highly quotable right down to the characters’ names. (Yogurt! Pizza The Hutt!).  “May the Schwartz be with you” still provokes laughter after all these years,  as does Barf’s “Funny, she doesn’t look Druish” comment about Princess Vespa.  And when the Spaceballs and Dark Helmet land on the Planet of the Apes, one of its denizens grouses; “Oh shit, there goes the planet.” How the Blu-Ray Edition Makes the Case for the Film:   The best special features on Sony’s25th anniversary release are the least serious ones. New interviews with a doddering and-haughty Brooks don’t contribute much. (“We were looking for a new genre to destroy,” he exclaims at one point). Much more satisfying is a very funny list of continuity errors in the film, including, a scene in which Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers playing a droid even bitchier than Anthony Daniels’ C-3P0) appears to stop leaving a trail behind her in one desert scene. The film’s gag audio commentary tracks are also suitably ridiculous. One is in “Mawgese,” presumably the native language of Barf, another, in “Dinkese,” the mother tongue of the Jawa-esque Dink Dinks. Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray edition does not markedly improve the picture quality that was found on the 2005 DVD release of Spaceballs .  There are still notable visual blemishes, including artifacts that resulted from poor video compression. Still, the dual Blu-Ray/DVD package is worth buying if only because the menus included on the new DVD release are more interactive and the features they include are more impressive than the last time around. Other Trivia: The new 25th anniversary Spaceballs Blu-Ray is loaded with new special features. If you’re a dedicated Mel Brooks fan — even one who lost faith or interest after Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It — you’ll probably get a big kick out of the jokey introduction he recorded to the film’s original trailer. Brooks’ audio commentary track is also worthy, even if he is more than a little full of himself after the wild (and not entirely deserved) multi-platform success of The Producers . Compared to the meager 2005 DVD release, which came with a making-of featurette and a skimpy souvenir booklet, Sony’s 25th anniversary Blu-Ray release is a much more comprehensive presentation of the film. Simon Abrams is a NY-based freelance film critic whose work has appeared in The Village Voice, Time Out New York , Vulture and Esquire . Additionally, some people like his writing, which he collects a t Extended Cut . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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Spaceballs On Blu-Ray: 25 Years Later, The Schwartz Is Still Strong In Mel Brooks’ Star Wars Spoof

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Julie Delpy Unleashes More Tongue Lashing In 2 Days In New York

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Filmmaker and actress Julie Delpy won accolades at the Berlin International Film Festival back in 2007 with her hilarious 2 Days In Paris , in which she starred opposite Adam Goldberg as a couple who stop off in Paris for a short visit, staying with her parents en route back to the U.S. Delpy, who wrote and directed the feature that did solid numbers in release jiggered the formula for a sequel, 2 Days In New York , which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January. This time, she stars opposite Chris Rock , and similarly to Paris her family factors into the dialog-heavy plot that’s riddled with eccentricity, social commentary and crazy mishaps. In the film, Delpy’s character Marion is now living with her boyfriend Mingus (Chris Rock) in a New York apartment with their cat and two children from their previous relationships. Marion’s father (played by her real-life dad, Albert Delpy), her sister and her over the top boyfriend suddenly decide to pay a visit from France, unleashing another 48 hours of family drama. Similarly to 2 Days In Paris , Marion’s family is sometimes unnervingly open in their discussions about sexuality and other topics most would consider crosses social boundaries. The French-American cultural disconnect only amplifies the gulf and the result is laugh out loud funny. Julie Delpy and Chris Rock chatted with ML about the film at Sundance. Initially Rock was about to leave, but sat down for a few minutes before heading out of Park City. Delpy, who first acted in none other than French-Swiss maestro Jean-Luc Godard’s Détective in 1985 and has since gone on to do many roles including Before Sunset , has since taken on the director’s hat herself and is a steadfast filmmaking convert. She talks about making films outside the studio system, though she said she’d like to try it sometime and would consider it another welcome challenge. In fact, she would like to try almost everything – almost… Similarly to 2 Days In Paris , you pulled together financing through Europe, can a dialog-driven film exist within Hollywood or is this the only way to put together a film like your latest, 2 Days In New York ? Julie Delpy: I never even thought of going to a studio. It’s just the way I do things. I put the financing together through a European financing system and it’s not easy – it’s a struggle. It might be easier in a way to go to a studio Chris Rock: I think it depends on who you are as a filmmaker. JD: I’m sure if it was through a studio, I wouldn’t be able to do this film exactly the way it is. Though I’m not really sure because I’ve never really been approached by a studio. I’m not sure if they know who I am or know I’m a filmmaker. They don’t even know I’m an actress – trust me [laughs]. CR: I think it depends on who you are as a filmmaker determines how much control you will have and, you know, if you want more control, you’re better off not going through a studio, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. JD: Some things in this movie may not have been their whole thing. They may have wanted a different ending, though honestly, I don’t know what they would want because I haven’t worked with them. For me, I just do it in the way I know how. How did you both come together for this project? CR: I saw 2 Days in Paris and I Loo-oooved 2 Days in Paris . JD: I’d seen his work and have always loved his work. I met him briefly once and he stuck in my mind. The minute I thought of doing a sequel to 2 Days in Paris , I knew I was going to be in a relationship with Mingus who is going to be Chris Rock, so he just came to my mind How has this contrasted with your most recent work Chris? CR: It’s fun, but the French thing – you have to get used to the fact you don’t understand what people around you are saying, but other than that it wasn’t much different than any other movie. I found working with the star and director was easy because you’re always talking to the boss. It’s harder when you’re talking to different people about different things. Because normally when you’re doing a movie, the star is kind-of half-way the director anyway… If the star doesn’t like what’s happening, you’re going to do what the star wants 90% of the time anyway. I hope I get to work with more star-directors… I read that when you were writing this story, you said you wanted to build on “real ground,” what did you mean by that? JD: I spent a lot of time with [Krzysztof] Kieslowski after we did White (1994) talking about movies and writing and everything. He’d tell me that I’m such a movie buff and I was obsessed. He’d tell me, ‘I haven’t seen this, or I haven’t seen that,’ and I’d say, ‘what have you seen?’ and he’d tell me, ‘real life.’ And that stuck with me. What can be more true than take some truth and build something from that. Obsession with death for instance – so something like that – and build from there into a story. 2 Days in New York is grounded in reality. There’s a couple with kids re-constructed and brought together… [ Chris Rock is pulled out of the room at this point and they say their good byes ] [ Continuing ]: I like to base my stories on simple things. It could have been a drama, but I love comedy so that’s what I did. But for this, I like to incorporate things that I know. So in it, I talk about my mother’s death. She actually passed away three years ago. She was in 2 Days in Paris and she was a wonderful actress. So she couldn’t be in this film obviously, so I had to find a way to talk about it… Your father is in this film as he was, of course, in 2 Days in Paris. Are his antics in the film similar to how he is in real-life? Yeah he’s very crazy. He’s very funny and very light, but also a very profound person. He’s not a superficial person at all. He’s fun and he likes to laugh and loves life, but he also has profound problems. He’s not happy all the time, but if we’re at a festival and the film’s playing well then we’re all happy. For me it was great to write parts for my parents in the first film and in this film for my father. It’s wonderful to be able to do that. They gave me so much by exposing me to film. My father gave me directing education through his past direction of plays. They gave me so much, so I’m glad I could give back a little bit. He keys a Hummer in this film in one memorable NYC street scene, and I was thinking it’s his almost child-like rebellious way of perhaps lashing out about global warming… Yeah exactly, that is a stand on global warming. Is he like that in real life? No, but my dad hates cars. They’re all over the place in Paris and they park on sidewalks and have no respect. As he ever keyed a car? No, but he’s joked about it for years so I let him have his fantasy in the film. I mean, I hate cars too. I live in L.A. so of course I have a car, but it’s the only real way we have for transport. But we’re polluting every moment of the day and we’ll pay for it. We’ll be gone [some day]… But Earth will be ok, but it’ll shake us out. So what do you think about Sequels? What about a 2 Days in L.A. or 2 Days in Tokyo ? I think the franchise is going to stop there. I’m not a James Bond kind of girl. I think it stops here at 2 Days in New York . But I’d certainly like to direct more films and will if given the opportunity to do it…I have a lot of friends who are directors and they call me to ask if I’d like to be in them – people like Richard Linklater etc. or maybe not someone who’s my friend but just someone I really like, but I think my first desire is filmmaking. What other kinds of stories do you want to do? Everything. Just everything from sci-fi to dramas – but maybe not sports movies. It’s not that I don’t like sports movies, but it’s just that I don’t get it. I don’t really understand sports, but everything else I’d like to do. I’d like to do a thriller, though I don’t know if I’d be good at it, but I’d like to try it. Maybe it’s pretentious and I’m crazy and all that, but I think I will do a thriller one day. It’s such a struggle to make movies. With this movie, we stopped two weeks before we started shooting and the film fell apart and then we put it all back together and then four weeks into the shoot we stopped. It was really, really hard. Was it harder than 2 Days in Paris ? In a way it was. There was more money involved with shooting in New York. I thought Paris would be more expensive. No, Paris is much less expensive. New York is… I think $3 million went into trucks, so I mean it’s really expensive. I mean like basically it’s very very expensive. And it’s fine if you have the money, and we had the money, but when the money fell apart at the last minute, it was just drama. It was the most painful experience to think you’re about to shoot and then everything just stops. Would you consider going a different route when tackling some of the other stories and genres you’re interested in doing down the line – maybe even the studios? I think I would do it if given the opportunity. But I’m also interested in working within limitations. I have limitations with my films which is typically major financial limitations, but having a studio tell you what to do would be a limitation too, but it would be manageable. I think the only thing that’s not manageable is death. People dying or people who are sick is not manageable. Everything else is nothing. You know I consider in life, people in movies lose perspective because it becomes so important… I’m not like that. It’s life, there are people dying around you, there’s craziness – that’s serious. A studio telling me what to do, that’s manageable. That’s just a boss telling you what to do and that’s fine, I’ll do my best within my limitation… So if that opportunity came along, then you’d do it? Yes, it’s almost fun to me, it would be a fun thing to do.

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Julie Delpy Unleashes More Tongue Lashing In 2 Days In New York

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Julie Delpy Unleashes More Tongue Lashing In 2 Days In New York

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Filmmaker and actress Julie Delpy won accolades at the Berlin International Film Festival back in 2007 with her hilarious 2 Days In Paris , in which she starred opposite Adam Goldberg as a couple who stop off in Paris for a short visit, staying with her parents en route back to the U.S. Delpy, who wrote and directed the feature that did solid numbers in release jiggered the formula for a sequel, 2 Days In New York , which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January. This time, she stars opposite Chris Rock , and similarly to Paris her family factors into the dialog-heavy plot that’s riddled with eccentricity, social commentary and crazy mishaps. In the film, Delpy’s character Marion is now living with her boyfriend Mingus (Chris Rock) in a New York apartment with their cat and two children from their previous relationships. Marion’s father (played by her real-life dad, Albert Delpy), her sister and her over the top boyfriend suddenly decide to pay a visit from France, unleashing another 48 hours of family drama. Similarly to 2 Days In Paris , Marion’s family is sometimes unnervingly open in their discussions about sexuality and other topics most would consider crosses social boundaries. The French-American cultural disconnect only amplifies the gulf and the result is laugh out loud funny. Julie Delpy and Chris Rock chatted with ML about the film at Sundance. Initially Rock was about to leave, but sat down for a few minutes before heading out of Park City. Delpy, who first acted in none other than French-Swiss maestro Jean-Luc Godard’s Détective in 1985 and has since gone on to do many roles including Before Sunset , has since taken on the director’s hat herself and is a steadfast filmmaking convert. She talks about making films outside the studio system, though she said she’d like to try it sometime and would consider it another welcome challenge. In fact, she would like to try almost everything – almost… Similarly to 2 Days In Paris , you pulled together financing through Europe, can a dialog-driven film exist within Hollywood or is this the only way to put together a film like your latest, 2 Days In New York ? Julie Delpy: I never even thought of going to a studio. It’s just the way I do things. I put the financing together through a European financing system and it’s not easy – it’s a struggle. It might be easier in a way to go to a studio Chris Rock: I think it depends on who you are as a filmmaker. JD: I’m sure if it was through a studio, I wouldn’t be able to do this film exactly the way it is. Though I’m not really sure because I’ve never really been approached by a studio. I’m not sure if they know who I am or know I’m a filmmaker. They don’t even know I’m an actress – trust me [laughs]. CR: I think it depends on who you are as a filmmaker determines how much control you will have and, you know, if you want more control, you’re better off not going through a studio, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. JD: Some things in this movie may not have been their whole thing. They may have wanted a different ending, though honestly, I don’t know what they would want because I haven’t worked with them. For me, I just do it in the way I know how. How did you both come together for this project? CR: I saw 2 Days in Paris and I Loo-oooved 2 Days in Paris . JD: I’d seen his work and have always loved his work. I met him briefly once and he stuck in my mind. The minute I thought of doing a sequel to 2 Days in Paris , I knew I was going to be in a relationship with Mingus who is going to be Chris Rock, so he just came to my mind How has this contrasted with your most recent work Chris? CR: It’s fun, but the French thing – you have to get used to the fact you don’t understand what people around you are saying, but other than that it wasn’t much different than any other movie. I found working with the star and director was easy because you’re always talking to the boss. It’s harder when you’re talking to different people about different things. Because normally when you’re doing a movie, the star is kind-of half-way the director anyway… If the star doesn’t like what’s happening, you’re going to do what the star wants 90% of the time anyway. I hope I get to work with more star-directors… I read that when you were writing this story, you said you wanted to build on “real ground,” what did you mean by that? JD: I spent a lot of time with [Krzysztof] Kieslowski after we did White (1994) talking about movies and writing and everything. He’d tell me that I’m such a movie buff and I was obsessed. He’d tell me, ‘I haven’t seen this, or I haven’t seen that,’ and I’d say, ‘what have you seen?’ and he’d tell me, ‘real life.’ And that stuck with me. What can be more true than take some truth and build something from that. Obsession with death for instance – so something like that – and build from there into a story. 2 Days in New York is grounded in reality. There’s a couple with kids re-constructed and brought together… [ Chris Rock is pulled out of the room at this point and they say their good byes ] [ Continuing ]: I like to base my stories on simple things. It could have been a drama, but I love comedy so that’s what I did. But for this, I like to incorporate things that I know. So in it, I talk about my mother’s death. She actually passed away three years ago. She was in 2 Days in Paris and she was a wonderful actress. So she couldn’t be in this film obviously, so I had to find a way to talk about it… Your father is in this film as he was, of course, in 2 Days in Paris. Are his antics in the film similar to how he is in real-life? Yeah he’s very crazy. He’s very funny and very light, but also a very profound person. He’s not a superficial person at all. He’s fun and he likes to laugh and loves life, but he also has profound problems. He’s not happy all the time, but if we’re at a festival and the film’s playing well then we’re all happy. For me it was great to write parts for my parents in the first film and in this film for my father. It’s wonderful to be able to do that. They gave me so much by exposing me to film. My father gave me directing education through his past direction of plays. They gave me so much, so I’m glad I could give back a little bit. He keys a Hummer in this film in one memorable NYC street scene, and I was thinking it’s his almost child-like rebellious way of perhaps lashing out about global warming… Yeah exactly, that is a stand on global warming. Is he like that in real life? No, but my dad hates cars. They’re all over the place in Paris and they park on sidewalks and have no respect. As he ever keyed a car? No, but he’s joked about it for years so I let him have his fantasy in the film. I mean, I hate cars too. I live in L.A. so of course I have a car, but it’s the only real way we have for transport. But we’re polluting every moment of the day and we’ll pay for it. We’ll be gone [some day]… But Earth will be ok, but it’ll shake us out. So what do you think about Sequels? What about a 2 Days in L.A. or 2 Days in Tokyo ? I think the franchise is going to stop there. I’m not a James Bond kind of girl. I think it stops here at 2 Days in New York . But I’d certainly like to direct more films and will if given the opportunity to do it…I have a lot of friends who are directors and they call me to ask if I’d like to be in them – people like Richard Linklater etc. or maybe not someone who’s my friend but just someone I really like, but I think my first desire is filmmaking. What other kinds of stories do you want to do? Everything. Just everything from sci-fi to dramas – but maybe not sports movies. It’s not that I don’t like sports movies, but it’s just that I don’t get it. I don’t really understand sports, but everything else I’d like to do. I’d like to do a thriller, though I don’t know if I’d be good at it, but I’d like to try it. Maybe it’s pretentious and I’m crazy and all that, but I think I will do a thriller one day. It’s such a struggle to make movies. With this movie, we stopped two weeks before we started shooting and the film fell apart and then we put it all back together and then four weeks into the shoot we stopped. It was really, really hard. Was it harder than 2 Days in Paris ? In a way it was. There was more money involved with shooting in New York. I thought Paris would be more expensive. No, Paris is much less expensive. New York is… I think $3 million went into trucks, so I mean it’s really expensive. I mean like basically it’s very very expensive. And it’s fine if you have the money, and we had the money, but when the money fell apart at the last minute, it was just drama. It was the most painful experience to think you’re about to shoot and then everything just stops. Would you consider going a different route when tackling some of the other stories and genres you’re interested in doing down the line – maybe even the studios? I think I would do it if given the opportunity. But I’m also interested in working within limitations. I have limitations with my films which is typically major financial limitations, but having a studio tell you what to do would be a limitation too, but it would be manageable. I think the only thing that’s not manageable is death. People dying or people who are sick is not manageable. Everything else is nothing. You know I consider in life, people in movies lose perspective because it becomes so important… I’m not like that. It’s life, there are people dying around you, there’s craziness – that’s serious. A studio telling me what to do, that’s manageable. That’s just a boss telling you what to do and that’s fine, I’ll do my best within my limitation… So if that opportunity came along, then you’d do it? Yes, it’s almost fun to me, it would be a fun thing to do.

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Julie Delpy Unleashes More Tongue Lashing In 2 Days In New York

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Lindsay Lohan Gets Into ANOTHER Car Accident

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but: Lindsay Lohan got into a car accident yesterday. No injuries occurred as a result of the fender bender and no tow trucks were needed, but Lohan reportedly got into her black Porsche after a shopping spree in Beverly Hills… only to then hit a stopped vehicle on Sunset Boulevard a short while later. “We were sitting at a light and somebody hit us,” a passenger in the other car told TMZ, adding that some dude with Lindsay left his phone number and apologized before driving off with the crash-prone actress. As for Lindsay’s driving history… she got into an accident in November 2006; and then another one two weeks later; there was also an incident in January 2010 , although she was not behind the wheel for it. Lindsay was also hospitalized just last month after her brakes supposedly failed and she collided with a truck.

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‘Newsroom’: Five Reasons To Watch

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

New HBO series stars Jeff Daniels and is penned by ‘Social Network’ and ‘West Wing’ writer Aaron Sorkin. By Kara Warner Jeff Daniels in “The Newsroom” Photo: HBO is on quite a roll with its Sunday night programming. In the wake of TV series success stories like “The Sopranos,” “True Blood,” “Game of Thrones,” “Veep” and “Girls,” the award-winning cable network has developed and debuted yet another buzzworthy show, “Newsroom.” Why is it buzzworthy? Because it’s written and created by Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy winner Aaron Sorkin and it’s a television show about television, specifically the behind-the-scenes drama involved in the production of a nightly news show. The major characters include a hotheaded and egocentric anchor ( Jeff Daniels ), his strong-willed-yet-soothing executive producer and ex-girlfriend (Emily Mortimer), their jovial and bourbon-loving boss (Sam Waterston), and the idealistic newbie (Alison Pill) who’s dating a senior producer. There’s much to love and hate judging from the mixed reviews from critics, but we’re totally hooked. Here are five things to love about “Newsroom.” Sorkin Speak Aaron Sorkin didn’t win a Best Screenplay Oscar for “The Social Network” or Emmys galore for “The West Wing” for nothing. The man can write the heck out of dialogue. Say what you will about the pretentiousness, preaching and politics involved in an action-packed pilot that calls out America (and the mainstream media) for not being as good as it can be, but Sorkin moves things along at a crackling clip complete with pop-culture references from sources ranging from Twitter to Don Quixote. Going Back to the Future “Newsroom” is set in 2010 and the first episode revolves around the news of the BP oil spill. The show’s unique setting allows Sorkin to write around, and in some ways re-write, history, giving the “News Night” team the fictionalized plotline of being the only major news program to dedicate considerable airtime to early reports. Each episode will deal with fictionalized perspectives on memorable real-life news events and how they were reported. Inside Baseball Sorkin loves his behind-the-scenes-style stories — see his previous shows “Sports Night,” “The West Wing” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” In setting a show around something with which we’re all familiar (TV news, the White House) on a superficial level and then adding a healthy dose of interpersonal drama that everyone goes through at their respective places of work, Sorkin piques interest quite effectively. With “Newsroom,” the majority of the population can relate to watching TV news at some point in their lives, and Sorkin is using that to his advantage to draw in the audience as well as challenge them to think more critically about what they watch. We shouldn’t have to point out that it’s all a highly romanticized version of the real story, but there you have it. Jeff Daniels Although his comedic brilliance in “Dumb and Dumber” will live on forever, Daniels’ equally special skills as a dramatic actor are on full display in playing “News Night” anchor Will McAvoy. He is arrogant and self-obsessed, moody and unpredictable, which might all come off as a bland stereotype were the role in less adept hands than Daniels’. In short, McAvoy isn’t all bark and bite and blowhard. There are finely flawed layers to slowly peel away as we greet new sides of his character in each episode. Sam Waterston (and Other Support Cast) It would be a disservice to lump all of the other castmembers into one brief blurb, so this week’s “Newsroom” MVP award goes to Sam Waterston for bringing wit and lasting charm to the character of OG newsman Charlie Skinner. There’s a lot to like about Skinner since he’s the big bad boss making sure “News Night” continues to exist, in the process not firing the overly opinionated anchor, and re-hiring said anchor’s former flame. He clearly has a backbone, integrity and an eye for talent, even if that eye is frequently blurry from day drinking.

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Stars hit Sunset Tower Hotel — Hollywood.TV

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

http://www.youtube.com/v/PdKW9nzmhwY?version=3&f=user_uploads&app=youtube_gdata

Hollywood.TV is your source for all the latest celebrity news, gossip and videos of your favorite stars! bit.ly – Click to Subscribe! Facebook.com – Become a Fan! Twitter.com – Follow Us! Nina Dobrev and Rachel Leigh Cook were spotted at Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood and both ladies looked beautiful as always! Nina greeted all her fans that waited to catch a glimpse of the “Vampire Diaries” star. While, Rachel Leigh Cook chatted with the paparazzi and even made sure they did not run into a tree! Rachel is so caring!Hollywood.TV is the global leader in capturing celebrity breaking news as it happens. We cover all the major Hollywood events including The Golden Globes, The Oscars, The Screen Actors Guild Awards, The Grammy’s, The Emmy’s and the American Music Awards, as well as all the red carpet movie premiers in Los Angeles and New York. HTV is on the streets 24/7, at all the industry events and invited by the stars to cover their every move in Hollywood, New York and Miami. Hollywood.TV is currently the third most viewed reporter channel on www.youtube.com YouTube with almost 400 million views, and our footage is seen worldwide! Tune in daily for all the latest Hollywood news on www.hollywood.tv and http like us on Facebook! 7C895A4B

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REVIEW: Diane Keaton Loses Her Dog — and the Plot — in Darling Companion

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

There’s too much people and not enough dog in Lawrence Kasdan’s Darling Companion , and even if you prefer people to dogs, that’s a serious problem. It would be bad enough that Kasdan squanders the gifts of two of his lead actors, Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline, in this aimless, tedious and sometimes downright ridiculous comedy-drama about a fractured family brought closer by unusual circumstances. But he does a disservice to an even more striking face: That of a mutt whom Keaton’s character rescues from the edge of the highway, an elegant, spirited creature she dubs — what else? — Freeway. I had high hopes for Darling Companion in its early moments, particularly a scene in which Keaton’s Beth gives Freeway a bath. She’s just returned from getting him checked out at the vet’s, but hasn’t yet broken the news to her uptight surgeon husband Joseph (Kline) that the dog is going to stay. Watching Keaton as she kneels by the bathtub massaging shampoo into the pup’s fur — the attention clearly sends him straight into seventh heaven — brings with it a certain elemental joy. For this moment at least, Keaton’s expressive radiance has met its match: There’s so much life in both of them that you’d never imagine how far downhill things could go from there. But boy, do they. Written by Kasdan and his wife, Meg Kasdan, the script for Darling Companion dispatches with the dog early on (temporarily) to clear the way for a picture filled with husband-and-wife squabbling, the constant nattering of annoying future-in-laws, the airing of various neuroses and, I kid you not, heaps of faux-mystic wisdom from a beautiful Romany psychic. This is how it all plays out: As Joseph and Beth are recovering from the wedding of their daughter (Elisabeth Moss) to the vet who treated Freeway after his rescue (Jay Ali), Joseph takes the dog for a walk on a trail near the couple’s rustic-luxe Rocky Mountain retreat (as if we didn’t already have enough reasons to hate them). Freeway spots a deer and takes off in pursuit; distracted by one of his Very Important Surgeon cell-phone calls, Joseph fails to coax the dog back. Spoiler alert: Dog lovers will want to know that Freeway does come back, but not until practically the very last frame of the movie, by which time even his exuberant wagging tail is too late to save it. Most of Darling Companion is used up in the search for the dog, during which time the poor fellow becomes completely beside the point. Joseph and Beth are forced to get to know their future brother-in-law, Russell (Richard Jenkins), who has greatly charmed his fiancée-to-be, Joseph’s sister, Penny (Dianne Wiest), but who also seems to be a bit of a wheeler-dealer. Meanwhile, Bryan (Mark Duplass), Joseph’s nephew, who also works with him in his surgical practice, becomes entranced with the caretaker of Joseph and Beth’s vacation house, the exotic, with a capital E, Carmen (Ayelet Zurer). Carmen keeps getting psychic visions of Freeway’s whereabouts, and she sends the family out, in various permutations, based on the locations derived from this rather faulty sixth-sense GPS system. And in the end, guess what? Everybody likes and understands one another better, thanks to a lost dog and a Gypsy Mary Poppins. Darling Companion is all about how we need to keep changing and growing as we get older, which is somewhat ironic considering that as a director, Kasdan seems frozen in time – although we desperately need more movies for grown-ups, lukewarm reheats of The Big Chill aren’t going to do it. Most of a potentially terrific cast is wasted here: Wiest plays the same sweet, neurotic eye-crinkler she’s portrayed so many times she could do it in her sleep. Kline, generally wonderful at playing only semi-likable characters, doesn’t illuminate any corners of Joseph’s personality that might make you feel anything for the guy. Only Keaton, waving her arms and exhorting all those around her to please help her find her dog, makes any sense. Beth’s priorities are unquestionably sound. It’s the movie around her that loses its way. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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The Sly, Underrated Greatness of Roger Corman’s Night Call Nurses

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The Film : Night Call Nurses (1972), available on DVD in the new set Roger Corman’s Cult Classics: The Nurses Collection via Shout! Factory . Why it’s an Inessential Essential : The respectability gap between director Jonathan Kaplan’s recent and early-career work is pretty striking. Today, Kaplan works primarily in TV: He served as a co-executive producer for both E.R. and Without a Trace , and has also directed eight episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit , two episodes of Brothers and Sisters and 40 episodes of E.R. But when Kaplan started his filmmaking career, he made sleazy but surprisingly sturdy exploitation pics like Truck Turner (1974), in which Isaac Hayes plays a bounty hunter that is very attached to beer and his cat, and The Slams (1973), a prison flick starring Jim Brown. Now Night Call Nurses , Kaplan’s 1972 directorial debut, has just been reissued in a new collection highlighting four nursesploitation pics produced by schlockmeister Roger Corman. Kaplan’s film is easily the best one in the set — and also a good indicator of Kaplan’s then-nascent talent. Make no mistake, the longevity of Night Call Nurses — a natural moneymaker for Corman — is largely attributable to Kaplan’s experimental direction. As Kaplan explains in the featurette “Anatomy of a Nurse Film,” Nurses ‘ plot is a variation on a formula that Corman swiped from Valley of the Dolls , another film that follows three female protagonists. A trio of nurses test their respective comfort zones: Barbara (Patty Byrne) has a unfulfilling affair with her group therapy psychiatrist while Janis (Alana Stewart) has a fling with a speed-addicted former patient and Sandra (Mittie Lawrence) helps a Black Panther-type convict meet up with his fellow radicals. All three girls are defined via exploitation-friendly character types: Barbara’s the uptight one, Janis is the flirty and free-spirited blonde and Sandra’s the politically motivated black girl. I hesitate to call these girls walking stereotypes, because Kaplan does a good job of contextualizing their titillating and character-defining concerns. One guy trips balls and imagines that he has mirror tiles for hands while a woman kneels before a big red crucifix before throwing herself off a roof (upon impact, we see a porcelain doll’s head crack open). Through these dynamic and trippy scenes, both of which were shot using handheld cameras, Kaplan vividly and quickly the hallucinatory, drug and sex-fueled haze that his characters are trying to define themselves in. Night Call Nurses is atmospheric and visually accomplished, making it a satisfying morsel of junk-food cinema. How the DVD/Blu-ray Makes the Case for the Film : Kaplan’s very forthcoming about the production history of Night Call Nurses in an interview featurette called “Anatomy of a Nurse Film.” He insists on discussing the film as collaboration between Corman and himself. He explains that Corman called Kaplan late one night and offered him the directing gig based on Martin Scorsese’s recommendation. Once he’d accepted the job, Corman was apparently very loose with Kaplan. The only rules Corman laid down was that the picture should be done shooting in 13 days and that T&A must be shot in a certain way, presumably to get past censors. “‘Frontal nudity from the waist up, total nudity from behind (no pubic hair),'” Kaplan says for Corman. Kaplan also explains that working with Corman was a great filmmaking education: “That was the last guy I worked with who ever understood what a director really does.” Which doesn’t mean that Kaplan glosses over Corman’s infamous tendency of cutting budgetary corners. According to Kaplan, Corman’s advice to him was: “‘Ask your cinematographer how long to make it beautiful, how long to make it passable and how long to get an image? And then just get the image.” Kaplan clearly settled for something between “passable” and “beautiful.” And he did it all on a microscopic budget of $75,000, too! Other Interesting Trivia : One of the funnier anecdotes Kaplan relates about working with Corman is his story about trying to convince Stewart to do her big nude scene after she became tentatively skittish. Corman apparently told Kaplan to go to the stretch of Sunset Boulevard called “The Stroll” and hire the “skankiest hooker” that he could find. Kaplan was then told to introduce the prostitute to Stewart as the actress’s body double with the expectation that Stewart would then volunteer to do her own stunts. Kaplan was uncomfortable driving, however, and he failed to convince Roger’s wife Julie Corman to accompany him to the Stroll. So they just talked Stewart into doing the nude scenes without hiring a professional sex worker. It’s probably safe to assume that Kaplan’s never had to do anything so risque for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. PREVIOUS INESSENTIAL ESSENTIALS The Last Temptation of Christ The Sitter Citizen Ruth The Broken Tower Dogville Simon Abrams is a NY-based freelance film critic whose work has been featured in outlets like The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Vulture and Esquire. Additionally, some people like his writing, which he collects at Extended Cut .

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Lindzi Cox: Happiest Bachelor Castoff Ever!

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Lindzi Cox acts like she got away with something. The Bachelor runner-up, who Ben Flajnik rejected in favor of MODEL Courtney Robertson on this month’s season finale, is all smiles these days, as if she dodged a bullet. When she departed, Lindz did so with an interesting parting shot, telling Ben that he could call her if (and when) everything unraveled with finacee Courtney. She meant it as a joke, though, and from the looks of it, she’s content to move on and forget, more or less, that anything ever happened with Ben. Lindzi Cox on Good Morning America Jilted as she may be, the Seattle resident who rode in on a horse has ridden off into the sunset on a high note, and is about as happy as a girl can be. No bad blood toward Ben Flajnik and Courtney Robertson , no ill will toward the show, no wondering what might have been … and no looking back. Safe to say Lindzi Cox is the real winner here?

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