Various rantings on movies, books about movies, and other things to do with movies
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Play review – “The Boys” by Gordon Graham
Book review – “The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood” by Joe Eszterhas
“By” Joe Eszterhas is a bit rich – it really should be “edited by”. Oh, OK, there is some original material, about a chapter’s worth, where Joe suggests what sort of routine to use to write a screenplay, and gives some advice about what to do. But most of this book consists of him quoting others, in particular others about Hollywood, especially screenwriting – William Goldman is quoted extensively, so is Robert McKee (who Eszterhas sometimes makes fun of, sometimes seems to approve what McKee says), also John Gregory Dunne’s Monster, the autobiographies of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Swifty Lazar, the books of William Froug, other books on screenwriting, Phil Noyce’s book.
This is an irritatingly lazy book. Eszterhas already wrote a brilliantly entertaining memoir on his life and career, Hollywood Animal (material from which he re-hashes here). Why another one? It must have been the money. He hasn’t had a screenplay credit since he moved back to Cleveland, is what why? But his books have sold well.
Reading this you can’t shake the feeling that part of Eszterhas wishes he could wind the clock back to the early 90s, when he was still smoking and drinking and making millions with his spec scripts (many of which had basically the same plot: person falls in love with person so obviously guilty of murders that they must be innocent and they turn out to be guilty) and bragging about being a great family man by living in Marin County and commuting to Hollywood, rooting around on his wife pretty much non-stop, including with Sharon Stone, telling execs to get stuffed, writing blockbusters, making records. Since then he got re-married (he says he’s faithful), had a new family, quit smoking after a bout of cancer, moved from LA, returned to prose – but he keeps looking back at Old Joe with one suspects a touch of wistfulness.
Movie review – “50 First Dates” (2001) ***1/2
(A note on re-watching this years late - the ending really got to me again, with Barrymore waking up to find herself on a yacht in the Arctic with a husband and little daughter plus her dad along... brought a tear to my eye. Maybe I'm getting old.)
Movie review - “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” (1999) ***
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Plenty of bright moments, though: the emergence of a new star in Mini-Me, the stunning beauty of Heather Graham (backed by some sexy as hell outfits she is perhaps the most gorgerous heroine in 90s cinema – though her voice clangs a bit), Will Ferrell’s death scene, Dr Evil telling Austin he is his father, Dr Evil playing ‘God was One of Us’ on the piano for no reason (how will we explain that joke to future generations), the Alan Parsons Project, Austin finding his own clone incredibly sexy. Lots of fun.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Movie Review - "They Drive by Night" (1940) ***1/2
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Book review – “Goldwyn” by A Scott Berg
Solid bio of the famous film producer, whose reputation has perhaps ebbed a bit these days – he was a legend in his life time, but the pinnacle film of his career, The Best Years of Their Lives, is not well remembered comparatively, especially for a film that was once the second biggest hit of all time. (Interestingly, it came out in 1946, a year that was Hollywood's most successful in terms of admissions and the high water mark of the classical system commercially - 1939 was the high water mark critically.)
The subtitle for this book really should have been “survivor” – Goldwyn just simply gusted it out, despite setbacks, despite being fired an amazing number of times. A refugee, he made a name as a salesman and arrived in Hollywood right at the beginning but took forever to really make a name (for a variety of reasons, one of which was his desire for independence). He eventually struck gold when he found William Wyler, the ideal director for him.
Goldwyn was a risk taker, hard worker, and he made his own luck. He was also a major dag, very human. He married well (eventually) to actor Frances Howard, who seems to brought a lot to him but to have slightly resented him (she loved her gay best friend director George Cukor). Worth a read.
Book review – “Lindbergh” by A Scott Berg
The book is full of interesting info: Lindbergh’s grandfather was a Swedish politician who went to the States because of a sex scandal, Lindy crashed his planes a large number of times when an air mail pilot, the silly things America did in response to his fame (movie offers, etc).
It is impossible not to be swept away by the saga of the flight, or to feel devastated by the story of the kidnapping (Hauptmann here seems very guilty – I think there is such a big Hauptmann-is-innocent push because there is a segment of the population who think everyone charged with a crime is innocent especially if they’re an outsider, just like there’s a segment who think that everyone is guilty especially if they’re an outsider). It is also impossible not to feel fury at Lindbergh’s idiotic stance prior to the US’s entry in World War Two: his pompous ‘principled’ stands were just idiotic in my view, his refusal to see the Nazis as worse than other regimes and stance of the Jews beggars belief, even without hindsight (what about the purges of 1938, you idiot?) After reading about this, quite frankly this idiot deserved all the abuse he received. Lindbergh was a genius with planes, flying and gizmos – he was an idiot when it came to people and common sense politics. Did all that time in the air warp his brain, give him a lofty view? He forgot the world is made up of people. Lindbergh did redeem himself with his war service (which included shooting down some Japanese planes) and his environmental work after the war.
Berg’s biography enjoyed access to the Lindbergh family papers and is very thorough. Lindbergh comes across as a very real person, as does his wife Anne (she was a best selling author, and an idiot about isolationism, too, though not as part; their marriage was interspersed with long periods of separation and affairs by her and possibly him). For the most part it is enthralling – his background (grandad left Sweden due to a sex scandal, parents unhappy marriage, dad was a politician involved in shonky land deals, mum was a bit of a nutter, no friends), early flying career (lots of crashes and bailing out), the Atlantic crossing (very romantic, even now to read about it – one person in a simple plane going such a long way… no wonder the world was captivated), dealing with incredible fame (which he seemed to do very well), marriage to Anne, the kidnapping, leaving America, Europe, back in the US and America First, war service. The stuff after the war was probably the least interesting, though still quite striking. There are probably too many pages devoted to Lindbergh arranging his own funeral.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Movie review – “The Brides of Fu Manchu” (1966) ** ½
Sequel to The Face of Fu Machu is similarly pacey courtesy of some energetic Don Sharp direction and also starts with a wham – Fu Manchu and his sidekick daughter arrange for a hypnotized girl to girl drop a kidnap victim in a pool of snakes.
Fu Manchu is back and looking for world domination, this time courtesy of a death ray. He’s kidnapping daughters of scientists to help him.
I found it a bit confusing to be honest, with lots of different people chasing henchmen, and hechmen trying to kidnap people – heroes and villains tended to look alike (Fu Manchu spends most of his time in his cave, a different actor plays Neyland Smith). I lost track of who was who - the actors needed to wear different costumes or have different coloured hair or something. Flies along, spiffing climax.
Movie review – “The Blob” (1958) **1/2
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Camp factor aside, this is an entirely decent movie: the basic idea is effective, McQueen is charismatic in the lead, the townsfolk-not-believing-the-teenagers angle works well (and helped the film perform well at the box office over the years), the story’s structure is solid (hillbilly dies, then doctor, climaxing with final attack); there is even a touch of Rebel without a Cause in a McQueen run-in with some hot rodders.
There are problems: McQueen aside the performances range from the mediocre to the poor (the leading lady is especially bland but the adults are not much better), the tone is inconsistent, and the handling could have been more inspired (for instance the final attack with the blob closing in on McQueen could have been really special). But the film, like the Blob itself, is hard to attack – you can shoot at it, poor petrol on it, but it only gets bigger.
Book review – “Russell Crowe: A Life” by Gaynor Wylie
Book review – “United Artists: the Company the Changed the Film Industry” by Tino Balio
Monday, October 23, 2006
Book review – “In Good Company” by Lyn Wallis
Movie review – “A Letter to Three Wives” (1949) ***1/2
Book review – “Ava Gardner: Love is Everything” by Lee Server
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Ava Gardner’s life was an odd one – a North Carolina farm kid, the sixth in her family, she got her break by looks and looks alone: visiting her sister in New York, a photo was taken of her, which was seen by an MGM talent scout, who arranged to have her tested. Normally one would say the rest is history, but it wasn’t – she languished for years under contract, despite being one of the most stunning women on the planet (everyone remarks in the book how films never did justice to her), despite having relationships with three of the most famous men on the planet (Mickey Rooney, Howard Hughes, Artie Shaw).
What made Ava run? She obviously liked sex and alcohol – the former was something she seems to have been made for (she made every man who came into contact with her something of a nervous blabbering wreck, even Frank Sinatra - with the possible exception of Artie Shaw), the latter helped cover her insecurities, and then she simply got hooked. She was simply sex on legs, something her films convey but obviously was nothing compared to real life. My first impressions of her were from 70s disaster films, were she wasn’t much chop – but check her out in those late 40s films – she’s amazing.
Server has a great deal of affection for his subject, who seems like she was mad but a great deal of fun, especially after only a few drinks; he points out that she behaved very badly on set in the 60s (her professionalism seemed to vanish over night once she was free of a long term MGM contract). She was so crazy even the Spaniards got sick of her (she lived there for a time). She calmed down towards the end of the decade but still lived pretty hard towards the end.
Server is a skilled writer, and he is at home with this world of alcohol, tough attitudes and European exile. Rooney, Sinatra and the bullfighter come across pretty well, too (Rooney is exactly as you’d imagine he would be like – a sex-mad ball of energy); Shaw comes across as a prig, as does Joe Mankiewicz.
Interestingly, the most serious men in Ava’s life – Rooney, Shaw, Hughes, Sinatra, the bullfighter – were all legends in their own fields: maybe you needed to be famous to have the confidence to have a crack at Ava (though later in life it seemed to be enough to simply be young and handsome). I didn’t think Frank Sinatra was the great love of her life – I think she was the great passionate love of his, he was devoted, but she fobbed him off; she did like to think of him, but I think she enjoyed the emotion of suffering more than any real love (they had plenty of opportunities to get back together and never really used them – I think they enjoyed being ex’s too much).
Ava was a shy girl who, gradually, with the aid of alcohol and some innate thing in her character, learned to embrace her own legend and ended up living the life of Ava Gardner – which was, like a Tennessee Williams character, really, only in a Williams comedy rather than a tragedy.
Movie review – “The Departed” (2006) ***1/2
I would count this as maybe 70% masterpiece – Scorsese in fine flourishing form, cranking up the Rolling Stones on the soundtrack as he tackles gangsters again. There’s extra energy this time in that the action takes place in Boston, not New York/Las Vegas, and the characters as Irish, not Italian. Everyone talks like a Kennedy (or I should say “tawks”), and it gives it all freshness – I can’t recall a crime piece set in Boston, it seems a violent crime riddled place. (I picked up on the class stuff from my short time in Boston – outside the beautiful marble halls and manicured lawns of Harvard there were scores, literally scores, of homeless beggars on street corners – and what’s more articulate homeless beggars).
The Boston setting seems to have acted as a tonic for two locals, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg, both better than in anything else I have seen them. Damon is an actor of limited resource, but does well in parts which require him to play someone who tries really, really hard (eg Ripley, Jason Bourne) – so he suits playing a cop who is in the pocket of Jack Nicholson; getting to act in a Boston accent may explain why he is so relaxed and energetic.
Wahlberg is sensational as the incredibly rude and insensitive undercover cop – indeed, such a strong character that his absence is keenly felt in the last 20 minutes or so of the film (I didn’t believe he would be absent for so long – he might make an ideal sequel, though).
Martin Sheen adds some cuddly, kindly President Bartlett-type gravitas as a kindly cop; Alec Baldwin is brilliant as a bad-joke-cracking cop. Also very good is the girl, very sexy and engaging (though the fact she is linked to both Damon and di Caprio is a little bit of a stretch). Leo di Caprio at first is a bit irritating to be honest – he doesn’t look at all like a cop – but as his character goes progressively bonkers he gets better.
Jack Nicholson strides through the film like, well, Jack Nicholson – he may have been a bit more effective on a tighter leash, I didn’t quite buy him as a crime lord for some reason (he just seemed to be Jack Nicholson), but for all that he remains a charismatic performer, and the film is less strong without him in it.
The script has plenty of twists and turns and terrific dialogue; it also has some genuine surprises, although there were some deserved titters from the audience towards the end. It does go on for a bit – some scenes seem to be put in just for scenes – and there is another 20 minutes after the big climax. I never saw Internal Affairs but it seems like it comes from Hong Kong cinema, with that high body count, operatic feel and doses of sappiness.
The most vivid thing I took away from the film: the Howard Shore music, particularly the thumping sound of beats in the background during dialogue scenes.
Movie review – “The First Men in the Moon” (1964) **1/2
Films which imagined the moon landing before it happened seem to have become a bit obscure, eg Countdown, this one. It starts with a UN mission landing on the moon – where they discover to their surprise a Union Jack. It turns out a trio of Britons made the journey in 1899.
It is a bright idea and in the film is hard to dislike, with its Victorian era setting and Ray Harryhausen special effects, not to mention fact that it is a medium budget 60s English sci fi film with an American lead female actor (what can I say? I like the genre).
Lionel Jeffries’ mad scientist character is a little over the top at times, and I didn’t quite warm to Edward Judd’s hero – a bit of a thug, which is true to Wells’ original intentions but doesn’t really make him sympathetic.. I kind of wish they’d had a different ending, which didn’t imply the humans wiped out the aliens with their cold. The script seemed to need a sub plot when they arrive on the moon – another character, a love triangle, or something. It sort of goes interesting-encounter-then-another-interesting-encounter-then-another-interesting-encounter. The special effects are charming.
Peter Finch has a cameo as the bailiff – I didn’t recognize him first time I saw the film.
Movie review – “Cannonball” (1976) **
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There are a bunch of good things about the film: some solid stunts, charismatic David Carradine in the lead as the tortured hero, the stunning Veronica Hamel as the love interest, portly Carl Gottleib as a racer who cheats by flying the way, Robert Carradine as a surfer, Mary Woronov and her two female sex pot co-drivers, Pau Bartel (director and co-writer) as a signing crook.
But so much of it is undeveloped: the relationship of Carradine and his idiot mate (who is hardly worth suffering for), the relationship of Carradine and his traitorous brother Dick Miller (Carradine’s final action to not stamp his ticket makes no sense – it seems like try-hard 70s hipness), Carradine and his on-road rival. The film is a bit of a mess, and a disappointment considering the talent involved.
There are delights for film buffs: small roles played by Roger Corman, Jonathan Kaplan and Martin Scorsese, Joe Dante (before he became a director, when he was a New World editor) as a nerdy car fan, a cameo from Sly Stallone, biographers Joe McBride and Todd McCarthy as reporters at the end, small role from legendary producer-to-be Don Simpson (who also co wrote the film). Director-to-be Chuck Russell worked on second unit.
Movie review – “Elizabethtown” (2005) **
Friday, October 20, 2006
Movie review - "North to Alaska" (1960) ***
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This movie is very much in that vein, with the added bonus of a fresh setting, the 1900 Alaskan Gold Rush. Stewart Granger plays Duke's buddy, though it isn't much of a role; Capucine is great fun as the prostitute Wayne takes back to Alaska to console Granger (I heard that producer Charles Feldman foisted Capucine on 20th Century Fox because she was his mistress, but she's terrific and a gifted comic actor, something she later confirmed in The Pink Panther); Fabian plays Granger's lecherous younger brother (he's pretty decent, too - sings a song, gets thrown in the water twice by Wayne, and has a funny scene where he drunkenly tries to seduce Capucine); Ernie Kovacs plays a conman.
The production of this film was erratic due to strikes and an uncompleted script, but it works, helped by some sumptuous locations and on-form cast. It bogs down in the second half with everyone panting after Capucine but there are memorable moments: the brawls, the jaunty theme song, Wayne Capucine meeting and first date to a lumberjack picnic (a touching romance, and it really works).
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Book review - "Tom Cruise" by Robert Sellars
Movie review - "The Sons of Katie Elder" (1965) ***
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This one has great colour, a terrific title and concept, plus a great John Wayne entrance - his mother's funeral, he stands in the distance amongst some boulders. Right on, Duke!
It's good to see Dean Martin as his brother and George Kennedy as a hired gun (all hired guns look as though they will wimp out against the Duke and so does Kennedy but he's an enjoyable presence).
I enjoyed this, but it had a surprising amount of flaws - it goes on a bit (almost two hours), saves most of its action until the end, the youngest elder (Mike Anderson Jnr in a role meant for Tommy Kirk before he was sacked for being on drugs) is a little cliched "why can't I be a gunfighter", the fourth brother (Earl Holliman) isn't given any character so when he dies you feel nothing, there isn't quite enough story to sustain the running time, the female lead is negligible.
But it is such a terrific idea with the added bonus that all the sons are guilty about neglecting mum, and Wayne is in fine form. Dennis Hopper strikes sparks, too, as a coward.
Movie review - "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) ****
Pleasantly non-American in flavour, with an enjoyable imperial throwback as Bond tries to stop a war between China and Britain over Hong Kong (ever notice how captains of ships that sink in the opening reel are always played by the same sort of dashing middle aged actor?), a crack at Americans not being up on intelligence.
Pierce is in decent form, as the mission is serious business - I don't think he's as interested in nookie as other Bonds, but its an attitude that suits here. For instance, I believe he and Michelle Yeoh have an attraction for each other, and a great deal of respect, but you kind of get the impression they only go to bed together (or seem to be about to) out of convention. Yeoh is a star, Terri Hatcher fine, the evil German henchman Gotto Otz suitably nasty (perhaps too nasty - I wished he had more of a come uppance).
I wasn't quite in love with Jonathan Pryce's villain - I love him as an actor, he seems to be hitting all the right buttons, but it's not quite there. Don't know why - maybe he's physically a bit too small, he needed something else - a steel claw, a natty outfit, something. Ricky Jay's computer genius is too cuddly for a baddy. Dud theme song - really awful, wrecks some very fine credits. But it was sweep, excitement, romance, intrigue - a superior Bond.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Book review - "Rowan Atkinson" by Bruce Dessau
But it offers a solid concise analysis of Atkinson's life and career: well-off rural upbringing, decent school, three years at uni in the north, then Oxford and stardom very quickly. Atkinson's face has been his fortune but he also worked very hard and was fortunate in his collaborators (esp Richard Curtis).
I remember first seeing him in Never Say Never Again - he was obviously a star. I also remember seeing him in a short film A Moment in Time which ran at some cinemas. They were planning vehicles for Atkinson on tv out of uni - how different had he been Australian.
Little of the real Atkinson comes through - he's shy, retiring, serious, likes to break things down economically like the engineer he is. Some useful reminders, like the fact that the first Blackadder was a bit of a flop and he flopped on Broadway.
Movie review - Bond#13 - "Octopussy" (1983) ****1/2
The film has everything: a spectacular and funny opening credit sequence (set in Cuba - it doesn't really connect to the main action); a plot which involves nuclear war and smuggling; exotic locations (the first set in India, leading to some tremendous production value); an engaging sidekick for Bond (Vijay Armitaj, who seems like a nice bloke and whose death really upset me); a beautiful Bond girl "appetizer" for Bond to bed before heading for the main course (Kristina Wayborn); an all female island of Amazons led by a beautiful thief (Maude Adams); some terrific henchmen (the twin knife throwers and Kabir Bedi); a nasty, clever, suave villain (Louis Jourdan, who was at his best playing villains); some neat gadgets; Q getting involved by going on location; a nasty Russian (Steven Berkoff) to counterbalance the nice ones; chases on planes, trains and automobiles; a lush John Barry score; a lovely Rita Coolidge theme song; some actual James Bond stories from Fleming are incorporated quite cleverly; a dead double O agent.
They really get it right for featuring Roger Moore, playing to his strengths: jokes, romance, a leading lady whose age suits him, British aplomb (he felt a bit more "Raj" than Sean Connery so he suits India).
Friday, October 13, 2006
Movie review - "A Man's Gotta Do" (2003) *
Movie review - "Waiting for Guffman" (1996) ***
Many cute moments: I particularly loved Corky St Clair's shop at the end. The stakes are a little frustrating: unlike Spinal Tap where the stakes were real, and Best in Show where they were actually going to win the competition, here the dreams are too silly: there is no chance they will ever go to Broadway, when they are disappointing its more irritating than anything else (if only it had been something they had a real chance of achieving... a grant or something).
Movie review - "Tiger Bay" (1959) ***
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It's a little wonder Mills became a star and was put under contract to Disney; few films have better conveyed the lack of, well, morality amongst children - this character would have fitted in just fine with the Lord of the Flies gang.
The fact that the Poles are so hotheaded and emotional is a little debit. John Mills is in it too.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Movie review - "The Break Up" (2006) ***
This film was propelled to a hit gross mostly I'm guessing on the basis of its "elements': real life Hollywood couple Vince Vaughan and Jen Aniston, a title and topic referring to Jen's recent break up with Brad. It still gets marks for being an unconventional rom com - its more of a dramedy. And they actually break up.
It starts off strongly, with some inter-couple arguments that really struck close to home. Around 30 minutes in, though, you felt the lack of some sort of story apart from the break up - it needed a "coat hanger" plot like the Pigeon sisters in the Odd Couple. But at the end it gets triple points for not selling out.
The alternate ending indicates that test audiences must have wanted some hope that they'd get back together, dumping the new partners - it must have hurt director Peyton Reed though to drop the acapella version of 'Over the Rainbow'. Some familiar faces in the support cast (the guy who plays Vaughan's younger brother is undercast) and loving views of Chicago.
Book review - "Sean Penn" by Richard T Kelly
Having said that, I think Penn's career deserves a book. He proves that if you have talent and taste and work hard, you don't need hits to survive as an in-demand actor - indeed, Penn has retained his street cred (yet to sell out yet) - if he did he would enjoy a massive pay cheque. Penn was born into a Hollywood family - yet he found he had to move to New York to get his career going (he couldn't get arrested as they say in LA despite his dad being a top TV director, but once he moved to New York he scored a juicy role in a showy play which got him Taps).
He became one of the leaders of the Brat Pack, becoming immortal with Fast Times at Ridgemount High (Penn talked about this in a retrospective doco on the film which gives him a lot of points in my book); he then starred in a series of films which all seemed to flop but which earned him good reviews. Marriage to Madonna kicked him up into the fame stratosphere, as did his tendency to beat up photographers.
His temper, habit of fighting with directors and poor box office standing almost got him blacklisted, but he had his fans such as Mike Medavoy at Orion (who put him in Colours, a big hit). Penn divorced Madonna and had a high profile relationship with Robin Wright. He quit acting to direct, but returned to acting and is enjoying a high profile run - although something like The Interpreter shows why he'll never be a big star: when he shows pain he shows real pain, not Hollywood film star light pain. It also shows why he'll always have a career: so many people want to work with him and he's really talented. Penn is a wanker - but a sincere, talented wanker.
There is probably a bit too much in this book from actors about acting - actors tend to flatter their colleagues in interviews. While it is interesting to hear how Penn attacks a role, we hear a bit too much of it. And did we need to hear so much from Bono? Would have liked to have heard what he thought about being in Team America.
Book review - "Rex Harrison: Fatal Charm" by Alexander Walker
From Walker's longer picture it seems this was entirely accurate - he gave full reign to his nastiness, something inherent in most stars but which Harrison seemed to let flourish in himself because it was entirely consistent with his star persona.
I would argue Rex was never really a film star - maybe in the post war period briefly, where he was under contract to Fox and made films like Anna and The King, but even in his 1960s post My Fair Lady hey day all his films flopped (Agony and the Ecstasy, Dr Doolittle, Staircase, etc) - it's interesting that most of these films were made for Fox, too, under the Zanuck II regime; the Zanucks lost a lot of dough under Harrison.
On stage it was a different story; Harrison was a star, one of the biggest. I was unaware he turned his career around after the Carole Landis story with a stage hit, Anne of a Thousand Days, and he continued to return to the stage throughout his career.
A notable feature of Rex's life was his love life and Walker divides up the book into sections according to wives a la Henry VIII - his wives ranged from casual (1st wife Constance), to the no-nonsense but long-suffering (2nd wife Lili Palmer), to the madcap (3rd Kay Kendall) and the simply mad (4th Rachel Roberts), to the suspiciously nice probably because she co operated with the biographer (5th Elizabeth Harris) to the murky because she didn't (6th wife Marcia).
The dramas of Rex's career, particularly with Kay, Rachel and Carole, make this an engrossing read, with mean, miserly yet still suffering Rex at the centre a worthy protagonist. Idea for a play: set at Rex's Italian villa - follow the path of several wives, Lili, Kay, Rachel and Elizabeth (he had to leave it during the latter's time because the servants got all communist and bolshie and started demanding more money.)
Saturday, October 07, 2006
TV series review - "Entourage: Season 2" ****
I like how Ari continually reminds E he bought the lottery ticket - which he did, and its good the show recognises it. It's also good how the show pokes fun of the movie industry, but affectionately - like The Devil Wears Prada does with the fashion industry. Holly Valance has a sexy-as role in episode 2. Mandy Moore is a good sport again in a not particularly flattering role as herself. Love Richard Schiff's bit, too. Being in an entourage must be so much fun!!
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Book review - "Natasha" by Gavin Lambert
Thoughts on Jersey Girl
Kevin Smith's party line on why Jersey Girl flopped at the box office is that it was due to the casting of Ben Affleck and J Lo. I believe they've got nothing to do with it, the reason for the film's failure were other things: Affleck acting like a wanker when his wife is dying (even trying to stop the doctor from operating on her!!!), non believable plot twists (would he really be exorcised from the PR community for one brain melt down just after his wife died? Even so weren't his skills transferrable to other areas? Surely he could get something a step up from construction worker?), lack of personal feeling of the topic (the daughter character in the film was several years older than his one in real life), the selfishness of all the characters.
The failure of the film lies with Smith. But one can blame him for shifting the blame - repeat something enough and it gets believed and he's got to raise money for his films somehow.
TV series - "Entourage" - Season 1 ****
Movie review - "Bounce" (2001) **
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Book review - "All Things Must Pass" by Marc Shapiro
Harrison's 70s career continued his rise - he wasn't really as big as Lennon McCartney, but he had the biggest success in comparison with what he'd done with the Beatles. His out put tended to be erratic - a few good albums followed by a dud or two. But he always managed to turn things around eg in the late 80s with the Jeff Lynn collaboration. He also seemed to be the Beatle who broke the mould most often in his solo career - becoming a genuine Hare Krishna (i.e. sticking at it), becoming a movie mogul, forming super groups, raising money via concerts over a decade before Live Aid.
I had the impression Harrison was one of the more stable Beatles, he always seemed so dry and down to earth with his taste in Monty Python (I figured he got his weirdness out of his system by being into gurus) - but this book reveals he was prone to drugs and groupies with the best of them, especially in the early 70s and mid 80s. He even rooted Maureen Starr when she was married to Ringo. Harrison comes across here as a paradox: a generally hard worker who however had his head in the clouds when it came to business matters, and could be gripped with apathy on occasion (eg when his wife was falling for Eric Clapton); a good friend who slept with his friend's wives (eg Ringo); an honest man who ripped off "My Sweet Lord" - not just unintentionally as the famous case states, but intentionally, from a session musician which this book claims.
Harrison's life was so rich and varied this book seems a bit "skim deep" at best - it really flies through, and constantly feels underdone. It can be read in something like an hour and a half and feels a little under researched, with a lot of reliance on reporting of rumours. Harrison's live keeps it lively though and it will do til a better one comes along.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Play review - "Cause Celebre" by Terence Rattigan
Movie review - "Kenny" (2006) ***1/2
Movie review - "Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" (2006) ***1/2
Now and then the film seemed to jar - John C Reilly seemed to take over Ferrell's life a bit quickly, and I didn't believe Ferrell would be a pit mechanic without having thought of being a racing car driver. Funniest bits for me were one offs: the names of the kids (who incidentally have a few too many lines), Ferrell's birth, the cougar.