Movie Clerks

Filed under: Cinematical Seven

Hearts, chocolates, and romantic nights symbolize Valentine’s Day. Easter has bunnies and eggs. Halloween is for pumpkins, scares, and treats. Thanksgiving brings gluttonous dinners of turkey and stuffing. Christmas is awash of presents. And New Years Eve, well, that’s all about champagne, count-downs, and parties.
There are all sorts of parties on film — from those that ring in the New Year to those that regale random celebrations. There are hootenannys of happiness, shindigs of debauchery, and gatherings of dysfunction. With all of the myriad parties that have graced the big screen, it’s a bit ridiculous to pick a top seven, so here are some of the films that come to mind when I think of cinematic celebrations:
200 Cigarettes
As we head out of the holidays and into the New Year, 200 Cigarettes has its place as a guilty pleasure of party-riffic ensemble cinema for the young eyes […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Lists, Best/Worst

Want to know a dirty little secret?
Contrary to what you’ve heard recently, critics hate writing bad reviews.
No, they’re not fun to write; they’re exhausting. No, they’re not less work than a good review; they’re more difficult. And when you love movies — which you better, as a critic — you don’t sit down in the dark before a film and think, “Boy, I hope the next two hours of my life will be wasted.” But every movie is not, in fact, good — and these were the high marks among the low points in 2007, from one critic’s highly subjective perspective.
1. The Heartbreak KidRacist, sexist, misogynist — and, even worse, not funny. The Farrelly Brothers proved their “King Midas in reverse” touch by turning a classic piece of comedy gold into a lump of trash. The only possible bright side comes in the fact […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Lists, Columns, Film Clips
On this last day of 2007, I thought I’d wrap up with a look back at the year. Although we can’t seem to get away from Hollywood’s inexplicable desire to greenlight the usual array of craptacular rom-coms, lukewarm kiddie flicks, and so-so sequels, 2007 also had a lot to be thankful for. From Sundance to Toronto, this year’s fests were packed with promising newcomers and new material from old favorites. A lot of them, unfortunately, didn’t see much distrib past the fest circuit — if you really love indie film, you just gotta hunt down the fests or wait it out until they come out on DVD.
We’re just a little over two weeks away from kicking our 2008 fest coverage with the Sundance Film Festival … Happy New Year, and here’s to hoping 2008 will be a spectactular year for film!
Hype on Overdrive: Things I’d […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Fandom, New in Theaters, Home Entertainment, George Clooney, Lists, Oscar Watch, Best/Worst

The best movie year since 1999, 2007 offered a staggering bounty of cinematic delights. I keep track of all the movies I see in a given year and give each a letter grade, “A” through “F”. Usually my Top Ten list consists of all of the “A’s” and a few “B’s.” This year, “A” pictures made up my top twenty. With so many great films, I won’t wallow through a “Worst of the Year” list, I’ll simply present you with a few that didn’t fully satisfy:
The Biggest Disappointment: The Darjeeling Limited — A Louis Vuitton commercial stretched to feature length. The Darjeeling Limited is a perfect title for the film because it makes plain what a limited filmmaker the once great Wes Anderson has become. Hey Wes, people running in slow-motion while a Kinks song plays is […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Lists, Best/Worst

I’ve already done an “official” top ten list and all that year-end movie-critic jazz, but since today’s my birthday I figured I’d spend an hour or two on a piece I’ll simply enjoy writing. Most of the solid horror sites have done their own top / bottom lists, so I thought it would make sense to try a different approach. So let’s start waaaay back in January and just tiptoe through the year in horror together. And then at the end we’ll figure out how the horror geeks were treated in 2007. (All links lead to my review of that particular film, be it from FEARnet, eFilmCritic, DVDTalk, DVD Clinic, or right here at good ol’ Cinematical.)
January!
01/02 — Snakes on a Plane arrives on DVD. “The internet” still refuses to make it a hit. (0)01/12 — Giant croc flick Primeval advertised as a serial killer […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Box Office, Exhibition, Oscar Watch

The Klingon death blade you see Diablo Cody wielding here is what she used to slay the other box-office contenders over the weekend. Juno leapfrogged from number ten — already respectable for such a small film — to number five, coming in just behind Charlie Wilson’s War and I Am Legend with an impressive $10.3 million. These numbers were enough to cause Fox Searchlight to press the big button — Juno will now expand to 2,000 screens next weekend. So far, the film about a wise-ass 16 year-old who becomes pregnant and decides to carry the baby to term and give it up for adoption, has brought in a total of $25.7 million. This puts it well on track to blow Little Miss Sunshine, its equivalent from last year, totally out of the water — LMS only brought in $59.8 million domestic total.
In […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Stars in Rewind

In the ’90s, she was the teen dream girl after stints in Party of Five and films like Can’t Hardly Wait and I Know What You Did Last Summer. These days, she’s mostly on television as a Ghost Whisperer, but according to early reports, Jennifer Love Hewitt has got a new movie in the works — She Had Brains, a Body, and the Ability to Make Men Love Her. This way-too-long-titled project is described on IMDb as “a broad comedy take on the events surrounding a hooker housewife scandal that involved many prominent members of a small Texas town.” There’s nothing quite like selling your stay-at-home body for money.
These days, she might be playing a housewife hooker, but years ago, she was all about the Barbies — more specifically, Superstar Barbie who so conveniently has outfits that change from long gowns to short […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Deals, Critical Thought, Newsstand, Politics
Is getting the Letterman show back on the air more important than keeping Hollywood’s movie writers churning out sequels? Apparently so. Before the recent side deal brokered by the WGA to put Letterman’s writers back to work — Leno can’t make such a deal because his show is owned by NBC, while Letterman’s show is owned by his own production company — Nikki Finke speculated over whether the move would cause serious rifts within the ranks of the WGA, specifically between television and film writers, and now that seems to be happening. Finke says that when the deal was being considered, she was contacted by “well-known WGA members, especially feature film writers, angry that the WGA was even contemplating such an agreement.” Now that it’s happened, she’s quoting one unnamed “successful screenwriter” who tells her “I’m going back to work. I have gotten five […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Obits, Cinematical Indie

Tab Thacker (1962-2007) - Wrestler and actor (pictured) who played Officer “House” in Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol and Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach. He also appears in Wildcats, City Heat and Melvin Van Peebles’ Identity Crisis. He died after a long illness complicated by diabetes December 28. (WRAL.com)
Jeanne Carmen (1930-2007) - B-movie actress and pinup model who appears in The Monster of Piedras Blancas and Untamed Youth. She died of lymphoma December 20, in Irving, California. (Variety)
Peter Handford (1919-2007) - Sound recordist and mixer who won a Best Sound Oscar for Out of Africa and was nominated for his work on Gorillas in the Mist. He also worked on Hope and Glory, Dangerous Liaisons, Julia, Tom Jones, Night and the City, Summertime, Murder on the Orient Express and Hitchcock’s Frenzy and Under Capricorn. He died November 6 in Suffolk, England. (Times […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Trailers and Clips
When I started at Cinematical, I had never conducted an interview before. I bought my first digital recorder with trembling hands, and in my first interview I stuttered more than Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda. But I pulled through it, didn’t embarrass myself, and got smoother with practice. What I’ve learned is that no matter how intimidating the interviewee may be, as long as you are reasonably pleasant, professional, and well-prepared, the discussion won’t go totally off the rails.
For an example of an interviewer not being well prepared and a discussion that does go totally off the rails, I direct you to this hilarious clip of a young woman (judging by the youtube comments, she’s a communications student at USC) starting an interview with John Cusack. I won’t spoil it for you, I’ll just say it’s safe for work, it’s brief, […]

Tags: Uncategorized by
No Comments »