Results tagged “rogerebert”

The Gotham Awards gala run by the Independent Feature Project (IFP) will be held in Brooklyn for the first time tonight, after 17 years spent bouncing around between Roseland, Hammerstein Ballroom and Chelsea Piers. This year the independent film awards will take place on the soundstage of Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Among the thousand-plus guests expected to attend are Javier Bardem, Sean Penn, Laura Linney, Uma Thurman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Brooklyn’s...

Thanksgiving officially marks the start of the holiday movie season, and this weekend, one film seems poised to make a run for the box office crown. Enchanted, the Disney film that mixes animation and live-action to spoof its classic fairy tales, received some pretty stellar reviews. It's 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and most reviews are calling this the star-making performance of Amy Adams, who was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for Junebug...

is the project that really encouraged his brilliant madness. It's one of the greatest potential disaster stories in film making and it won Herzog a best director prize at Cannes.

(At The Wired Rave Awards, by an interested bystander at flickr)

When New York Magazine calls your film a "glossy gay remake" of La Dolce Vita, it was probably inevitable that the people who have the rights to La Dolce Vita would sue. Whoever does own the rights to La Dolce Vita (Pathe?) is suing gay porn king Michael Lucas for violating trademark laws and sullying the original Federico Fellini classic's reputation. Here's how New York described the film last year:

Lucas has been rather busy of late. There was some pesky legal business to attend to, and he just wrapped his newest film, La Dolce Vita, a glossy gay remake of Fellini’s classic that includes a “non-sex” cameo by triple-X starlet Savanna Samson. For a porn production, it’s had an unusually public profile. Photographs of Lucas and Samson cavorting in the City Hall fountain (all proper permits were obtained) made it online, raising the ire of government officials, who with the most cursory of Google searches could have avoided this problem.

We bet the city is behind the lawsuit! Lucas tells the Post, "The similarities are so little, I would say it was maybe inspired." Yeah. For starters, La Dolce Vita takes place in Rome; Luca's version is in New York! And it stars Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg, who are totally not in his film! And Nino Rota is not doing the score for the gay porn version. Plus, City Hall Fountain is like the Trevi Fountain. Finally, wasn't La Dolce Vita about debauchery anyway? But if Lucas tried to remake 8 1/2 (10"?), maybe a lawsuit is appropriate.

- And on a final non-NYC-but-big-movie-fan note, Chicagoist has a very special Get Well Roger Ebert project. Add your photograph of you giving the thumbs-up to the Get Well Roger Flickr Pool to let the recuperating critic know you care! And Roger definitely knows about it - it's on his website, too!

As we sat down to write this week's Best of the -ists post, a car blaring "21 Questions'" passed by our house. And that started us thinking about how some of the best -ist posts out there have at their hearts questions, some of which are answered, and some of which are left open. Check out the Best of the -ists from this week, and see if you agree.

MOVIE: Get a little more in depth on the whole border crossing controversy with Woodstock in the

- And the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be open on Labor Day - send your parents/ friends/ out-of-town visitors there when you need a break! Or go yourself, as you've been putting it off all summer! [Thanks, Newyorkology]

The reviews are out, and Chris Rock is getting a mixed bag of feedback for his duties as the MC of the Oscars. The NY Daily News' David Bianculli says he wasn't edgy or funny enough, Variety says his opening monologue was great (subscription required), the Hollywood Reporter says that Rock wasn't on a roll, and the Washington Post's Tom Shales says Rock was strangely lame and mean-spirited. Gothamist wonders if there's a generational divide between the reviewers, because we thought Rock was the best thing about the Oscars. It's like some of these reviewers weren't familiar with Rock's material before. At least Tim Robbins (left, photo AP), whom Chris Rock made fun of, could take a joke ... we think. As for the show, sure, it seemed to move quickly and was "well-produced," and, yes, we were happy certain people won, but since there wasn't much enthusiasm for any one nominee, the whole show was boring. And Gothamist doesn't care what Gil Cates's "producer's blog" says!

Roger Ebert gives his spoiler-filled thoughts on the controversy; Million $ Baby was his top movie of the year. The other NY Times story about Million Dollar Baby only mentioned the product placement for Clorox.

The Sweet Smell of Success plays Friday and Saturday at the Film Forum at 1:35, 5:25, 9:15. Read Andrew Sarris's review of The Sweet Smell of Success; it's also a Great Movie according to Roger Ebert.

Here's John Boorman's filmography. Hope and Glory came out in 1987, the same year as Empire of the Sun, which ostensibly is another World War II film with a young boy at the center. Gothamist has come to find Empire of the Sun one of Steven Spielberg's best works, something much more sweeping and majestic than originally thought. Check out Roger Ebert's reviews of Hope and Glory and Empire of the Sun. And we're looking forward to the U.S. release of the documentary, Gunner Palace, about soldiers at Uday Hussein's palace - it's been getting amazing buzz while at the Toronto Film Festival. Some other war movies: Dr. Strangelove, Das Boot, Ran, Grand Illusion, MASH and Three Kings.

- And the voice of the Mets, Bob Murphy dies, and Isiah Thomas continues to shore up the Knicks on Gothamist Sports

The NY Times' A.O. Scott wrote about how Harold & Kumar "revitalizes" slacker comedy while also "persuasively, and intelligently, [engaging] the social realities of contemporary multicultural America." Okay. Rotten Tomatoes says it's pretty fresh and Roger Ebert gives it three stars. And Karen at Gothamist Arts & Events saw the film and gives her thoughts (it's fun).

Wings of Desire plays tonight, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (check here for showtimes; sometimes there is just one show per day).

Scott's review of The Day After Tomorrow begins with "The Day After Tomorrow, a two-hour $125 million disaster � excuse me, I mean disaster � that opens nationwide on Friday..."

In the end, the Times wanted to reinvigorate their movie reviews, and they did that by hiring Mitchell and Scott (they weren't going to do it with Stephen Holden, bless him). Gothamist will be sad to see Elvis Mitchell leave the Times, but we're sure he'll back in some way, shape or form.

The Times' Elvis Mitchell calls The Third Man, "quite simply, one of the finest movies ever made and Roger Ebert says it most completely embodies the romance of going to the movies with its existential loss and weariness knowingness. If you're in Vienna, you can go on a Third Man Walk. The Third Man was also the inspiration for a Pinky and the Brain episode, The Third Mouse.

The big movie opening this weekend is the movie version of Starsky and Hutch starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, and Gothamist has to say, if you love Ben and Owen's chemistry (think Meet the Parents... Zoolander...), go see it (or just go because Snoop Dogg steals the film). E! Online has a great question and answer with the pair in their feature, "Guffaw and Order"; E! asked Wilson about singing the David Soul hit, "Don't Give Up On Us, Baby" (lyrics; here's a short sound file of the song):

You know, that was a choice I made, going for that soulless sound. I have to admit, when we were filming that scene and I had to sing for Carmen [Electra] and Amy [Smart], it was awkward--just seeing their expressions. You know when somebody shows you their baby, and you think the baby is not very cute but you try to smile anyway? That's how they looked. I could just see their interest in me flicker out--if it was ever there to begin with.

Also, Gothamist wants to note that Carmen Electra is a better actress than Amy Smart: When they are called to make out, Carmen really gets into it.