Here's a sample of what I've been thinking about:
Baseball + Guinea Pigs = Promotional Gold for Disney
As Grandad use to say, "There ain't nothin' that goes together like baseball and guinea pigs!" Of course, Grandad suffered from a traumatic brain injury. And he wasn't actually my grandfather. But that's a story for another time.
THR reports that Major League Baseball has unveiled "its most comprehensive promotional sponsorship arrangement with a movie to date" -- a possible million free tickets to the Walt Disney Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer 3-D comedy G-Force, slated to open July 24. (Read More ...)
Mia Farrow Shows Support for Darfur, Skips Lunch
It's hard to be both a liberal and a curmudgeon. Because there are inevitably times when my left-leaning, bleeding heart sensibilities crash headlong into my misanthropy, resulting in an explosion of shattered optimism and blazing antipathy.
Let me put it this way: You remember that highway scene in Final Destination 2, when the cop spills coffee on his lap, and then a log falls off the logging truck and bounces through the windshield of his police car ... (Read more ...)
Cinematical Seven: Great Cross-Genre Horror Films
Why is it that so many horror movies look exactly the same as every other horror movie? It doesn't have to be so -- this week's new DVD releases include a straight-to-video gem called The Burrowers about a post-Civil War rescue party, looking for a kidnapped family in the Dakota Territories, who discover that something more horrible than Indians snatched the locals.
It's a beautifully shot, intelligent film that owes more to John Ford's The Searchers or to Terence Malick than to modern scare flicks, and a brilliant example of cross-genre horror. The film got a little play at small film fests, where it was well received. But most of us have had to wait for DVD to discover that it even exists, which is a shame. (Read more ...)
Paul "Bugsy Malone" Williams Takes the Reins as ASCAP Prez
Attention, musicians: Little Enos is now in charge of your copyright. Yee-ha!
Yep, singer-songwriter-actor-short person Paul Williams has been elected President and Chairman of the Board of ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), making him the first alumnus of Smokey and the Bandit to head up a major show-biz trade organization. Well, that we know of, anyway.
As a songwriter, Williams penned "Evergreen" (from A Star is Born), "The Rainbow Connection" (The Muppet Movie), and the score for Bugsy Malone. He also wrote hits for some of the biggest artists in the music industry ... (Read more ...)
Duckie Turns 44: Happy Birthday, Jon Cryer
It pains me to realize that Jon Cryer is 44 years old today. I had a similar reaction a few years ago, when I discovered that Robert Carradine was playing the father on Lizzie McGuire -- there's just no way I could wrap my brain around the idea of Revenge of the Nerds' Lewis Skolnick as a suburban dad. Also, this meant that I, myself, was therefore old enough to be the parent of a teenager, and that's wrong in oh, so many ways.
So it's with mixed emotions that I wish a happy birthday to Jon Cryer. Once I get past my own not-inconsiderable baggage, I'm able to to say without a shred of irony that I adore him. (Read more ...)
