HollywoodandFine.com Here’s everything you need to know about what’s wrong with the movie industry today: This week, three remakes of movies that didn’t need remakes – or weren’t very good in the first place – will open on thousands of screens: “Robocop,” “Endless Love” and “About Last Night.” Having seen …
HollywoodandFine.com Awards season is a phrase that makes it sound as though everyone is armed with shotguns, combing an empty cornfield in hopes of flushing statuettes from the brush. It implies a hunt, a focused pursuit whose sole goal is to return with an armful of trophies. Awards season is …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s the time of year when critics release their lists of the year’s best films. It feels like a competitive sport – or a provocation, which all of these lists are, by nature. As in: “This is my list of the best films. If you don’t agree, you’re wrong.” …
HollywoodandFine.com I have to ask: When religious conservatives – or those with otherwise delicate sensibilities – hear the word “fuck” uttered in a movie, what happens? Do their ears start to bleed – or fall off? Does food suddenly stop tasting good and joy cease to exist? Do they feel …
HollywoodandFine.com Here’s what I loved about this year’s Emmy Awards: Well, nothing, really – I didn’t watch them. I avoid award shows like they were herpes – and they tend to spread just that easily. But there was one thing I thought of afterward that did make me smile: all …
HollywoodandFine.com I’ve posted diatribes the past few years about Comic-Con – an event I’ve never attended and never hope to. But I was going to ignore it this year. For a couple of reasons: For one thing, I feel as though I’ve made my arguments in the past. But I …
HollywoodandFine.com This was originally going to be a piece about how wrong it was for Will Smith to remake “The Wild Bunch.” But that metastasized into an idea about remakes and reboots in general. So I wound up simply writing an open letter to Smith about “The Wild Bunch” – …
HollywoodandFine.com Dear Will Smith, I read recently that you are involved in remaking Sam Peckinpah’s classic western, “The Wild Bunch.” So I’m writing this open letter, pleading with you to reconsider this unnecessary exercise. To my thinking, Peckinpah’s film is perhaps the greatest western ever made; a wider sampling of …
HollywoodandFine.com I was heartened to read that, on its opening weekend, “The Great Gatsby” did solid business, despite some unjustly vicious reviews. I was even more uplifted when I read that, in placing a strong second to “Iron Man 3,” “Gatsby” only earned one-third of its box-office take from people …
HollywoodandFine.com Over the years, I’ve developed what I refer to as the 20-minute rule. It basically says that a movie that hasn’t hooked me in the first 20 minutes probably isn’t going to. I tend to apply it most forcefully when I’m watching films at festivals or when I’m sorting …