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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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Mystery Men On Blu-ray: The Anti-Dark Knight Rises?

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

A caped crusader. A city wiped clean of criminals. A madman with a doomsday device who terrorizes the populace until average citizen heroes step forward to help save the day. Batman? Nope! On the heels of The Dark Knight Rises , Movieline takes a look back at 1999’s Mystery Men , new to Blu-ray, in the latest installment of Inessential Essentials . The film: Mystery Men (1999) Why It’s an Inessential Essential: Based on characters by comics creator Bob Burden, Mystery Men is an anomalously charming and amiably goofy superhero film. The film is very much a product of the creative chaos that ensued after Hollywood executives realized comic book properties like Batman could make a mint at the box office. But with many more duds than hits on their hands, execs were apparently clueless about what they should adapt and how to do it. It’s not only strange that a movie with characters as alienating-ly campy as the ones in Mystery Men ever got made — it’s even freakier to note that the film is actually pretty funny. So while mass audiences didn’t know what to make of the film when it was initially released, the film can now be enjoyed as a more than welcome antidote to the recent trend of self-serious but mostly drab superhero films. Mystery Men was co-produced by Dark Horse Comics publisher and creator Michael Richardson, the man responsible for turning such comic book properties as Tank Girl (1995) and The Mask (1994) into half-baked films. It was directed by Kinka Usher, making a big leap from being the assistant camera operator on such films as the 1987 Kato Kaelin vehicle Beach Fever (Usher would not go on to direct any other movies after Mystery Men , not even short films). Usher clearly directed the film in the style of the Joel Schumacher Batman movies; he makes frequent use of campy Dutch angles, crash zooms and first person POV shots, like the one where we see Ben Stiller being attacked by Geoffrey Rush’s character — from the perspective of Rush’s extended pinky. To call this film’s success as a comedy anomalous would be putting it very diplomatically. In the film, a group of wannabe superheroes that mostly don’t seem to have any real powers band together to fight the nefarious disco-obsessed Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush, who had just won an Oscar for Shine two years before Mystery Men was made). Now that Frankenstein has kidnapped the all-powerful Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), the only people that can stop him are the then-unnamed group of heroes: Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), a tantrum-throwing wimp who isn’t very strong; The Shoveler (William H. Macy), a middle-class father and a guy that fights crime with a shovel; and the Blue Raja (Hank Azaria), an adenoidal mama’s boy who pretends to be a British mystic and uses flatware as projectile weapons (mainly forks and spoons). To defeat Frankenstein, the team has to hire some new members, including the gaseous Spleen (Paul Reubens) and the haunted-bowling-ball-chucking Bowler (Janeane Garofalo). It’s a fittingly unusual line-up for a rather odd film. By today’s standards, Mystery Men is seriously dated. For starters, Smashmouth’s “Allstar” is used twice as a song cue. But it’s also often disarmingly eccentric, as in the scene where Tom Waits, who plays a mad scientist, shows off his arsenal of weird weapons (including the Blame Thrower), or the one where Wes Studi’s enigmatic, platitude-slinging hero The Sphinx trains the titular heroes (“To learn my teachings, I must first teach you how to learn”). All of the characters are also endearingly neurotic, like Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell, of Keenan and Kel fame), a teenage loser who can only turn invisible when nobody else is looking at him, or Garofalo’s Bowler, a woman whose dead father nags her even from beyond the grave. Filmed on a reported $68 million budget, Mystery Men only grossed $33.4 million worldwide but went on to earn something of a cult status. How the Blu-Ray Makes the Case for the Movie: You can appreciate just how bizarre Mystery Men is just from watching the Spotlight on Location featurette, which makes it seem like the film’s production was pretty manic. For instance, Stiller reveals that the film’s cast were working with an improv-reliant script. “We’re always coming up with ideas, which is the fun thing about…” Stiller says, comically pausing to look around him and finishing his thought, ” not having a script.” Garofalo and Stiller both joke about the fact that they had little confidence in Usher. “I’m only doing this for the money,” she teases. “Kinka doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doin’. He hasn’t directed a movie before.” Even nice guy Greg Kinnear chimes in: “I describe [ Mystery Men ] as…a cartoon gone horribly, horribly wrong.” But Usher got results; even the film’s deleted scenes, like the one where Waits macks on a blue-haired retiree by telling her that he’s actually a doctor, are pretty funny. Other Trivia: In a rather thoughtful special feature, Burden shares a detailed history of his original comic book characters through interviews conducted before the film’s release. It’s especially funny to note that the character of the Shoveler was originally armed with King Arthur’s singing shovel, which was sentient and talked in “Middle English.” Also, apparently, Danny DeVito was supposed to not only direct the film at one point but play the Shoveler, too. Burden is also quoted in a Comics Buyer’s Guide interview as saying that he didn’t write the characters with modern actors in mind. “Originally, as I envisioned them, the Mystery Men were characters like Ernest Borgnine and Vic Tayback — all Mike Ditka-type guys. The only current star I could’ve seen as a Mystery Man would’ve been Steve Buscemi from Fargo .” Previously: Reconsidering Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia 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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Jodie Foster On Her Elysium Character, Socially-Conscious Themes, and Today’s Femme-Driven Blockbusters

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Jodie Foster returns to the screen – and to sci-fi – in next spring’s Elysium , the latest from District 9 director Neill Blomkamp. Speaking with Movieline today at her first-ever Comic-Con , Foster described the dystopian future of the film, in which she plays a methodical bureaucrat controlling the “border” of an artificially-created space station (a character now named Delacourt – so take note, internet ). The movie-loving polymath also waxed ecstatic about her one-time Panic Room co-star Kristen Stewart, Beasts of the Southern Wild , and her current obsession: HBO’s True Blood . Elysium takes place in a future in which overpopulation has driven the privileged to take up residence on a man-made space station while the poor remain on Earth; contrary to early reports, Foster says her character is named Minister Delacourt, a government official of French descent committed to keeping the “have-nots” out of paradise. There’s been some secrecy surrounding Elysium’s plot, but we now have a synopsis and some additional hints at what to expect. How would you now describe the film and what it’s really about? In the future, the haves and have nots have become more polarized; there are fewer and fewer haves and more “nots,” and the Earth has devolved. A few incredibly rich and powerful people have created their own habitat. It’s about the battle between those two worlds. Your character could be described as the antagonist of Elysium , correct? Yeah, she’s the antagonist. She’s the minister, she’s the person who controls who gets to come in and who doesn’t. She’s methodical, her antagonism has a point. Where is she coming from? She’s French! I speak a little French in there. This is an international place, obviously – there are people that come from all over the earth to be there. It does harken a bit back to the European history and this idea that there was something worth holding onto, something in our past and aristocratic past with class distinctions. She’s very hell bent on saying there’s a lot about the way that it was that’s better than it is now. Between the imagery that we’ve seen and the themes within Elysium it seems to be of a piece with Neill’s previous film, District 9 . Yeah, it has a grittiness to it – more than half, I think 70 percent of the movie has this incredible grittiness, this romantic degradation. Did you get to immerse yourself very much in that on set given that your character is more of a bureaucrat? I’m in the polished world! Our world is very sterile and very inorganic. They’re trying to create a fake organic habitat, but it’s not organic. There’s a bit of viral marketing on the Comic-Con convention floor in the guise of a futuristic Elysium border agent. What issues does Elysium address in its undercurrent of social commentary? Immigration’s a big one. There’s increasing class separation in the world – what’s to become of the Earth when we’ve destroyed our planet, and where are we going to go after that? What initially sold you on this project and this role when you first spoke with Neill? It’s a great script, and him, honestly. I think he’s an incredibly talented director, and a lot of it is conscious but a lot of it is unconscious, too. I think he’s at this really interesting place in his life where he’s old enough and experienced enough to know how to tell the story, but also young enough to understand that there are things that he cares about that he doesn’t entirely understand. The fact that Secretary Rhodes is a woman – Her name is Delacourt now! They changed it. Minister Delacourt. The press kit must be wrong! Are you telling me that everything you read on the internet is not necessarily true? That’s right! Shocking! So, Delacourt – she’s a woman, and the main antagonist here, which is in itself a rarity. Do you feel that the genre world allows for more progressive characterizations of women? I don’t know about that. I’m not sure that’s true. Was the character always written as a woman? It pretty much was. I mean, that’s an interesting idea. But I think genre films, because they have to, usually paint things much more in black and white, whether it’s women or not women, because the storytelling in ways is a lot more primitive. If you look at recent films for example, you see a string of big-screen heroine tales – Kristen Stewart as Snow White, for example. Which I loved! I loved it. To be so bold and so emotional, I just thought she was terrific. They were both great; Charlize Theron was fantastic. I really loved it, and I did not expect to like it. I didn’t think I was going to care, but it really got me. Do you get out to see movies much? Yeah, I go with my kids. I see all the big ones with my kids, but the smaller ones I tend to see on the small screen. I just went to see this movie yesterday that’s just unbelievable called Beasts of the Southern Wild . It’s a life-changing movie. Talk about complexity. That whole ending part, I loved it. I loved her. That’s another recent film revolving around a young heroine – add that to Snow White and The Hunger Games and they’re all stories about young women following the hero’s journey as the Chosen One. That’s right, and that’s always been the domain of men. I remember feeling that about Silence of the Lambs ; you look at that character and it’s a quintessential archetypal character. The young boy has to go find the panacea and they have to go through the Forest of Experience and meet gnomes and demons along the way and then slay them, and then he finds out in some way the things he didn’t know about himself were actually the demons that he had to slay… it’s always been reserved for men, and that’s changing. When you look at Hunger Games , there’s a lot to like, but I will say the thing I liked the most about The Hunger Games was seeing a woman in the number 1 point of view as the protagonist who changes and finds her strength, who you’re rooting for, and who saves the men – it’s fantastic. I’m so happy for her. A few years ago there was word that you wanted to make your own science fiction film. It didn’t work out! I do lots of things and develop lots of movies that don’t get made. It’s hard making personal films and the kinds of movies I like to make – very verbal, intelligent films – are hard to get off the ground. Because we’re here at Comic-Con where fandom is celebrated, are there any geek properties that you’re way, way into? I love True Blood . Are you into vampire stories in general? I like them all – zombies, all those stories. I just like A) that he does it with humor and that the writing is so good, and I think the characters are so fantastic. I just love them. Elysium hits theaters March 1, 2013. Read more from Comic-Con 2012 here. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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Studio Offers Tom Cruise Moral Support, Warner Bros. Plans a Comic-Con Extra: Biz Break

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

In Tuesday morning’s round up of news briefs, Paramount offered kind words for Tom Cruise. Warner Bros is readying an outdoor free Comic-Con experience coinciding with the event; The Amazing Spider-Man is poised to do record box office domestically with its Tuesday release; The Butler adds an additional cast member and Fandango eyes a record quarter. Warner Bros Entertainment to Present Free Extra at Comic-Con All six Batmobiles will be on hand for a free outdoor entertainment festival noted by Warner Bros. Entertainment, dubbed Extra at Comic-Con . The venue will take place in San Diego’s Bayfront Park July 12 – 14 coinciding with Comic-Con International: San Diego. The centerpiece will be The Extra Stage featuring Q&As, live performances, screenings and talent interviews hosted by entertainment magazine Extra . The event will also feature a Lord of the Rings video game showcase. For more information, visit their site . Around the ‘net… Amazing Spider-Man Box Office Preview: $120M-plus Possible Indications put Spider-Man at $120M over the six day debut beginning Tuesday when it opens in the U.S. The 3-D movie has already made over $50M in 13 overseas markets over the weekend, THR reports . Paramount Offers Support to Tom Cruise Following Divorce Announcement The studio spoke up for the star of its upcoming movie Jack Reacher saying in a statement: “His ability to make a great movie… is the thing moviegoers remember above all else…Tom is a huge movie star for the right reason. He’s a very talented actor whose movies have entertained millions of fans,” BBC reports . The Butler Adds Colman Domingo to Cast Domingo will play a White House butler in the film directed by Lee Daniels and starts shooting later this month in New Orleans. The film is based on the life of Eugene Allen, a White House servant who worked over the period of eight administrations, played by Forest Whitaker. Also in the film are Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack, Alan Rickman and Jane Fonda who will play Nancy Reagan, Deadline reports . Fandango Foresees Best Quarter Ever The online ticketer will likely announce Tuesday that its second quarter will be the best in its 12 year history with ticket sales up 28% from the same period last year, while traffic increased 26%, Deadline reports .

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Inessential Essentials: Re-considering Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The film: Insomnia (2002) Why It’s an Inessential Essential: Last week, Warner Brothers released a Blu Ray box set of British director Christopher Nolan ‘s films. Looking at the box set (other titles include: Memento , Batman Begins , The Dark Knight and Inception ), one is reminded of Nolan’s celebrity status as one of the most instantly recognizable filmmakers working today. Which makes it difficult to imagine a film that might be considered obscure or in need of reconsideration. But the clear outlier in the Christopher Nolan Director’s Collection is Insomnia , Nolan’s remake of the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name. As a remake and an adaptation, Nolan’s film isn’t as strong as it should be. But as a self-sufficient work, Nolan’s version is a modest success. The film’s chase and actions scenes alone are some of the best in his filmography, filmed with a confidence and an eerie atmosphere that stand out in his impressive, if inconsistent, body of work. It’s worth owning this box set, in other words, because it gives you a good picture of how the filmmaker takes his technical skill and polish and applied it to a number of disparate subjects and settings. The narrative and psychological underpinnings of  Insomnia are, typical of Nolan, basic to the point of being crude. His characters are not psychologically complex but they are all to some extent thoughtful and sophisticated, and Insomnia protagonist Will Dormer is no exception to that rule. Al Pacino plays Dormer, a burnt-out L.A. police investigator that used to be a big hot-shot but is now just a has-been. Dormer’s the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation, so he heads to Alaska to help look for a killer – and winds up accidentally fatally shooting his partner. Most of Insomnia ‘s surprisingly brisk two-hour runtime is spent watching Will fall apart and forming a precarious bond with Walter Finch (Robin Williams), the murderer Dormer originally set out to catch. How the Blu Ray Makes the Case for the Film:  In the director’s commentary track and an interview he recorded with Pacino, Nolan talks a bit about his creative process and inadvertently reveals why Insomnia is as good as it is. Being a left-brain thinker, Nolan deconstructs the way he shot the film in his audio commentary by addressing scenes within the order they were shot. This is pretty striking since this does not gives you an idea of the importance Nolan placed on certain scenes (two days to shoot the high school interrogation scene!) but how filmmakers work out of continuity and have to quickly form a rapport with actors. Insomnia is after all as successful as it is because of the atmosphere Nolan creates, and that’s not just a matter of slick mechanical direction of scenes but also of his actors. Some of what Nolan says is a bit hard to swallow, like when idly ponders, “I think Al was appreciative of getting to start with some physical action.” And while one should not be surprised to hear him talk passionately about “cross-cutting action,” it is interesting to hear him talk about the way that he establishes his relatively advanced technical skills as a filmmaker to accentuate the film’s human element. The weaker, more over-reaching psychological talking points in Hillary Seitz’s screenplay are made stronger by Nolan’s eye for detail, and you can tell why in the way that he talks about Pacino’s body language in close-up and his use of “small camera moves” to capture Dormer’s “virtuosity.” The human element at the heart of Insomnia may not be as strong as it should be, but by the standards established by Nolan’s films, it’s pretty strong. It should be noted however that while none of the special features in the Christopher Nolan Director’s Collection are exclusive to the set, save for a booklet and some glossy photo stills, there are a number of interesting and enlightening features on the other film’s Blu Rays, too. The “Batman: Unmasked: The Psychology of The Dark Knight” featurette on The Dark Knight is especially worthwhile, as is the inclusion of Jonathan Nolan’s script for Memento Mori , the short film that preceded Memento . Other Trivia: Speaking of continuity editing, it’s kind of neat to hear Pacino name-drop and talk about collaborating with everyone including, “Francis [Ford Coppola],” “[Sidney] Lumet,” and “Bobby De Niro.” These experiences really color his working with Nolan, especially when Pacino talks about how heart-broken Coppola was when working on some unnamed picture because the film’s shooting day was over (it was past 6pm, according to Pacino). Pacino found the Godfather director in tears in a cemetery, lamenting, “They won’t give me another set-up!” This is especially funny in light of how Nolan just finished talking a little about how much of a director’s job is a matter of “covering” his actors, thereby ensuring that he gets everything he needs so that he can later assemble it all in the editing room. 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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Emily Blunt May Do Prada Sequel, Prometheus & Hunger Games Stars Head to South: Biz Break

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

In Tuesday evening’s round up of news briefs, Emily Blunt teased she would consider the second Devil Wears Prada under one condition. Also, the Austin Film Festival added details on its October event while Outfest rounds out its upcoming edition next month. The Avengers passes a domestic high water mark and Catherine Keener is set for role opposite Mark Ruffalo. Austin Film Festival Unveils First Round of Panels D.C. vs. Marvel, Hollywood Horror Stories, Crowd Funding Your Indie Film and Writing for Video games are among the topics that will be discussed at the 19th Austin Film Festival taking place October 18 – 25. Among this year’s participants so far are Shane Black ( Iron Man 3), Paul Feig ( Bridesmaids ), Saca Gervasi ( Anvil: The Story of Anvil ), Michael Green ( The Green Lantern ), and Damon Lindelof ( Prometheus ). For more details, visit the festival’s website . Outfest 2012 Adds to its 30th Edititon Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival will screen a never before seen episode of ABC’s comedy Happy Endings with cast members and creators present. Also added to the festival’s line up is Eytan Fox’s acclaimed Israeli film, Yossi , the sequel to the director’s hit Yossi and Jagger . Around the ‘net… Avengers Passes $600M in U.S. The mega-hit crossed the $600 million mark in the domestic box office. It is currently number three in the world in the box office and it has yet to open in Japan, Deadline reports . Catherine Keener Joins Mark Ruffalo in Can a song Save Your Life? Keener will play Mark Ruffalo’s estranged wife in the drama directed by Once filmmaker John Carney. She joins Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Hailee Steinfeld and Adam Levine on board the project, THR reports . Emily Blunt May Be In for Another Devil Wears Prada She said she “might be interested” in another go around playing Miranda Priestly’s spirited assistant Emily Charlton in the sequel to the comes-drama. She noted that Meryl Streep said she’d do it if she didn’t have to lose the “f***king weight,” and agreed. Huff Post reports . Prometheus and The Hunger Games Stars Set for Indie Son of the South Rafe Spall ( Prometheus ) and Jacqueline Emerson ( The Hunger Games ) will star in the new indie drama by Barry Alexander Brown with Spike Lee on board to executive produce. Based on Bob Zellner’s autobiography chronicling the author’s life in Alabama where he grew up as a son of a minister and a grandson of a KKK member before joining the Civil Rights movement, Variety reports .

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Gone Too Soon: “Bling” Writer Erica Kennedy Dead At 42

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

We’ve lost another young talented sister too young. Via The Root.com : Erica Kennedy, an author and blogger best known for popular novels Feminista and Bling, has died. She resided in Miami Beach, Florida and was 42 years old at the time of her death, according to a family member. Additional details on the circumstances are not available yet. A former fashion publicist, Kennedy started her writing career as a special correspondent for the New York Daily News. She went on to write about fashion and entertainment for magazines such as Vibe, In Style, Paper and Elle UK, according to her website. In 2004 she published a satire on the high stakes world of hip-hop with her debut novel Bling, which went on to become a New York Times best-seller. Five years later she released her second novel, Feminista, a story about smart, modern women. Fellow author Rebecca Walker interviewed Kennedy for The Root in 2009. We remember reading Ms. Kennedy’s book “Bling” and thoroughly enjoying it. So sad. May she rest in peace. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her friends and family. Photo Via TheFrisky.com

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‘True Blood’ Season Five: The Reviews Are In!

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Critics agree the show is worthy summer entertainment but find the plot lacking focus. By Fallon Prinzivalli Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard and Lucy Griffiths in season five of “True Blood” Photo: Lacey Terrell/ HBO Our favorite fantastical creatures from Bon Temps return Sunday night (June 10) with the season-five premiere of HBO’s “True Blood.” The previous season left off with Sookie professing love for both Eric and Bill while ultimately choosing herself over either lover. Alcide uncovered a giant hole in a cement parking lot, leading us to believe we haven’t heard the last of Russell Edgington. And in the final sequence before the credits, Debbie meant to unload a round of lead into Sookie, but Tara jumped in the way and had half her head blown off. Along with hopefully revealing whether Sookie’s BFF survived the blast or not, the latest season brings vampire authority in the form of “Law and Order: SVU” star Christopher Meloni, who comes to restore order in the blood-sucking community. Here’s what critics are saying about the season’s opener. The Story “The first four episodes of Season 5 recently sent out to critics reflect what’s wrong with the most recent seasons of the HBO drama: they lack focus. The plot, which is based in part on Charlaine Harris’s novels, zigzags in so many different directions that it often seems as though there are no less than 10 separate television shows existing side by side within ‘True Blood.’ While the early seasons of the show wisely focused on a few main characters … the show’s success at creating vivid and engaging supporting characters has also been its downfall. Rather than allow these characters to exist on the periphery where they might thrive, Alan Ball and his writing staff have forced them front and center, which means that each season now needs to incorporate storylines for the entire cast, which now numbers in the several dozen. The result is a jumble of unrelated storylines that lack cohesion and a strong throughline. (Last season gave us witches, disembodied spirits, shifters, shamans, and faeries, all vying for control of the story.) With almost every character off doing his or her own thing, there’s a distinct lack of unity in the narrative, something keenly felt in the haphazard and unsatisfying fourth season, and that feeling continues into Season 5.” — Jace Lacob, The Daily Beast The Authority “Five seasons ago, I publicly declared my undying hatred of all things ‘True Blood.’ … [But Season 5 has] added a new element that makes it something I can finally (I’m sorry) sink my teeth into. They’ve added politics as blood sport. Authority has come to town, boys and gargoyles. … On next week’s episode, the new Guardian, Roman, head of the Authority, is introduced and it’s none other than Christopher Meloni. We still have vamp SVUs, so he’s pledged to root out and bring the ‘Sanguinistas,’ who believe God created humans as a food source for vamps, to heel.” — Linda Stasi, New York Post Kristin Bauer van Straten’s Pam “As usual, Pam gets the best lines. When she enters Sookie’s blood-soaked kitchen to find Sookie killed Debbie Pelt in retaliation for shooting Tara, Pam observes, ‘Color me impressed. You know how to party.’ Later, after aiding Sookie’s efforts, Pam declares, ‘I’m wearing a Wal-Mart sweatshirt for you all. If that’s not a demonstration of team spirit, I don’t know what is.’ ” — Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The Final Word, Pro-Con Style “As always on a show that tends to be messy in all senses of the word, plots and characters tumble into each other and sometimes threaten to push each other right off the screen. Immediately after tying up last year’s plot strings (by the end of the first hour, you’ll know the fate of Rutina Wesley’s Tara), ‘True’ launches into multiple new crises, led by the horrifying and welcome return of Denis O’Hare’s Russell Edgington. The stories are not all equal, but most more than carry their weight, and all are laced with both humor and the writer’s respect for dramatic consequences. Put them together, and you get summer TV at its witty, riveting best. Come on in; the ‘Blood’ is fine.” — Robert Bianco, USA Today “Silly doesn’t even begin to describe most of what goes on in the first few episodes, which include a veiled shout-out to former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, an enormous wink involving the folk standard ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ and, as always, an unruly number of subplots. And yet, like an addiction to free-range hemoglobin, there’s something undeniably compelling about the characters, human and otherwise, in a series whose plotting grows more twisted every year. It doesn’t hurt that this season’s new blood includes characters played by Christopher Meloni (‘Law & Order: SVU’) and Tina Majorino (‘Big Love’). But this is reportedly creator Alan Ball’s final year as showrunner, and if everything truly has a season, it might be time to think about putting a stake through ‘True Blood’ before it begins to seem more undead than alive.” — Ellen Gray, Philadelphia Daily News Related Videos MTV After Hours With Josh Horowitz

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‘True Blood’ Season Five: The Reviews Are In!

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Beyonce, Lil Wayne Inspire NiRe AllDai’s ‘Boss-Bitch-Behavior’

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

‘Beyonc

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Gotham City Gets Stormy in New Dark Knight Rises Character Posters

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The Dark Knight Rises blitz charges on as WB unveils a set of new character posters to whet your appetite for destruction. Get a peek at Bane, Catwoman and Batman posing dramatically in the dark and dreary elements as these new posters encourage you, dear Bat-fan, to RISE . (To the challenge? No, to the megaplex!) Bonus: Here’s another set of slightly less rise -able Batman-Bane-Catwoman character posters. I like the way Anne Hathaway’s masked Catwoman sits atop her cycle, head tilted in repose. Is she sad? Is she even awake? WE DON’T KNOW! The Dark Knight Rises ends the legend or whatever on July 20. [via Yahoo ]

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Gotham City Gets Stormy in New Dark Knight Rises Character Posters

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