FilmRoar

While looking up information for Al Pacino I noticed he has been cast to play the part of Roy Cohn in aTV miniseries adaptation of my favorite play, Angels in America. With a strong cast that includes Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, and Jeffrey Wright it has potential to be properly handled. The original play by Tony Kushner is rich in context, subtext, and reference. It is his masterful handling of innuendo and unspoken realities that makes Angels a fascinating work of theater. It is this same intelligent handling of the controversial topics of right wing politics, sex, AIDS, homosexuality, religious repression and death that I fear may not prove viable for American television and may get whitewashed out of existence. This is a production I will have to keep my eye on.

It is Miramax’s turn and Latino Review has the details. Take a gander a first look at Kevin Smith’s new movie Jersey Girl, Chrisina Ricci’s role in Prozac Nation and many more.

Bad reviews and a dislike of Demi Moore kept me from watching G.I. Jane (1997) when it was released. I chalked this one up to “will probably never see.” Then I read a fascinating interview with Viggo Mortensen that mentioned his role as a Navy Seal training officer in this movie. The interview and the description of his role piqued my interest. A later conversation with a friend who exalted Viggo’s performance made me want to go back and give G.I. Jane a try. I am glad at my change of heart, as I found the movie well made and quite interesting.
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On Thursday I posted a news item about a quote George Lucas gave to FOX News suggesting there might be three more Star Wars movies to come. The response to the news posting got me to thinking and made me want to elaborate on this news:
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In an interview with FOXNews.com, George Lucas is quoted as saying:

“Essentially, Peter [Jackson] is making three three-hour movies out of one book,” Lucas said. “And I’m making nine two-hour movies from one book.”

Could this be a hint of more Star Wars movies to come? If they are anything like the last two, we can only pray this is a misquote.

Masterful and enchanting, To Have and Have Not (1944), sets a standard for screen chemistry that many movies since have aspired to but few have achieved. To Have was Lauren Bacall’s debut and the first of five collaborations with Humphrey Bogart (see review of The Big Sleep (1946) for their second movie together).

Director Howard Hawks said of Bacall and Bogart’s real life love affair that it was actually Bacall’s character, Marie, that Bogart had fallen for, “so she had to keep playing it the rest of her life”. The unearthly allure of Bacall as she saunters through To Have puts Hawks’ statement in context. That is not to overshadow Bogart’s impressive charisma. He is equally enchanting (and enchanted) in this, the first movie I have seen where he not only smiles, but does so regularly.

I had heard, always liked, but never seen the quote from this movie:
“… you don’t have to do anything. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow.” I am very happy to have now seen To Have and Have Not.

In keeping with the theme of “What rates a zero?”, I am happy to report that Garth over at Dark Horizons has put up his list of the ten worst films of 2002. What tops the list? Can you guess? Here goes a clue: It starts with an ‘S’ and ends with ‘wept Away’.
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