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2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2004 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1997
1-20 of 47 articles from 2009 « Prev | Next »
Shelf Life: It's A Wonderful Life
24 December 2009 2:03 PM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
A few weeks ago, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was the subject of a "Shelf Life" column, and I was not convinced that it held up when I watched it again for the first time in probably 15 years. Suffice it to say that many readers disagreed - I'm still getting negative comments - but it made me both excited and reluctant to dive into It's a Wonderful Life, which is probably the holiday-movie genre's all-time most-beloved and venerated entry. (Personally, A Christmas Story is my favorite holiday film, but Frank Capra's black and white classic has the advantage of almost 40 years to develop a generation-spanning army of fans.)
Interestingly, I watched the film just a few years ago for the first time, and I didn't like it. For a guy who so often forewent his own plans and ambitions to help others, Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey was whiny and »
- Todd Gilchrist
The Notable Films of 2010: Part Five
23 December 2009 10:10 AM, PST | Dark Horizons | See recent Dark Horizons news »
Opens: 2010
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Sienna Miller, Max Minghella, Emma Booth, Lee Ingleby
Director: Beeban Kidron
Summary: Follows the love story of Oz editor Richard Neville and Louise Ferrier. Neville and his cohorts launch the London edition of Oz amidst the 1960s counterculture and are subsequently put on trial for distributing a sexually explicit issue.
Analysis: One of the most troubled productions in Working Title's history, 'Hippie' began development back in 1998 but failed to get beyond script stage both in 1999 and in 2002 when "Elizabeth" helmer Shekhar Kapur was attached to direct. Filming finally got underway late 2007 with director Beeban Kidron in charge and shooting seemed to proceed without issue aside from feminist author Germaine Greer being vehemently unhappy about being depicted on film.
Actually the film scored quite a bit of free press for a skinny dipping scene where full-frontal shots of actress Sienna Miller shooting the sequence »
- Garth Franklin
Last Minute Video Considerations: Clint Eastwood and Frank Sinatra
22 December 2009 5:53 AM, PST | Comicmix.com | See recent Comicmix news »
MGM Home Video has offered up thirteen different star-centered CD packs, all conveniently priced at $24.95 but savvy shoppers can find them for as little as $14.95. Each box set features four films from the studio’s vast library and neatly packages them together.
What you pay for in convenience, though, you lose in the rich DVD experience that many aficionados want from their home video. The films come with commentary and maybe the trailer but little else. So, if your recipient is a major fan of the films and/or stars, be warned.
Having said that, two that were sent for review, are pretty nice. The Clint Eastwood Star Collection offers up A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, and Hang ‘Em High. That’s 721 minutes of Clint in his spaghetti western days and the birth of a film icon. Oddly, A Fistful of Dollars »
- Robert Greenberger
The Best of the Decade: Documentaries
17 December 2009 9:30 AM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
The 2000s were a great decade for documentaries, both artistically and commercially. Four films (Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and this year's Earth and This Is It) grossed more than $100 million worldwide, with two of them even topping the $200 million mark. Meanwhile, plenty of other films, whether due to their politics or their humorous entertainment value, broke through with mainstream audiences, primarily in the arthouse circuit but also on home video. And speaking of home viewing, thanks to Netflix and free online streaming sites like SnagFilms, more and more people have access to more and more non-fiction films than ever before.
So obviously it's a tough task to narrow down all these docs for a list of the best in the last ten years. In order to spotlight some particularly deserving films (25 of them), I've decided to follow the lead of William Goss' action flick list and break these up »
- Christopher Campbell
Check out Carolyn Sills's festive film-inspired music video
16 December 2009 6:01 AM, PST | Boxwish.com | See recent BoxWish news »
We’re happy to report that in Boxwish HQ’s sleepy corner of the world (otherwise known as Surrey) it is snowing! Yes, the view outside our window looks like a veritable Christmas card and it happily matches our festive atmos inside the office, where there are Christmas tunes a-playing and post-party hangovers being nursed. And our current fave seasonal delight is the song “George Bailey” by singer/ songwriter, Carolyn Sills and chums. The infectiously catchy tune was inspired by the Frank Capra Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life and its small-town hero, George Bailey (James Stewart) and is now rivaling long-established songs by the likes of Bing Crosby, Slade and Wizard as Boxwish’s festive favourite. Hear the song and watch its music video after the jump. »
Movie Reviews: “Up In The Air”
5 December 2009 6:45 PM, PST | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »
Not a few critics are calling Up in the Air a film for our times -- while at the same time comparing it with the classic romantic comedies of the ‘30s and ‘40s by Billy Wilder, Leo McCarey, Garson Kanin, Frank Capra, Ernst Lubitch and Preston Sturges. They’re also predicting Oscar nominations for its star, George Clooney, and its writer-director, Jason Reitman. And several have designated it best picture of the year. (Indeed it is being released on the same day that the National Board of Review, the group that traditionally opens the awards season, named it the year’s best.) In the movie, George Clooney plays a “transition specialist” whose job it is to fire people for corporation executives who don’t have the stomach for such business themselves. It marks “the high-water mark in George Clooney’s career,” says Peter Howell in the Toronto Star. At the crosstown Toronto Globe and Mail, Rick Groen comments, “Clooney is made for this role.” Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post judges Clooney to be at the peak of his career. “He operates not just as an actor but also as a finely machined screen object,” she writes. But Reitman garners even more rapturous reviews. Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal says that Up in the Air, Reitman’s third feature (after Juno and Thank You for Smoking), shows him to be “a filmmaker of rare distinction.” Claudia Puig in USA Today calls him “a bona fide filmmaking talent ... a modern-day Frank Capra.” Several critics call attention to the fact that Reitman is the 32-year-old son of producer-director Ivan Reitman, whose credits include Animal House, Meatballs, Ghostbusters, Twins, and Junior. In his review of the movie, Roger Ebert notes that the younger Reitman has said that one of the questions he is most often asked in interviews is, “How does your father feel about your success?” Comments Ebert “Bursting with pride, is my guess.” »
'Up In The Air': First Class, By Kurt Loder
4 December 2009 6:09 AM, PST | MTV Movie News | See recent MTV Movie News news »
George Clooney in a high-flying classic.
Anna Kendrick and George Clooney in "Up In The Air"
Photo: Paramount Pictures
"Up in the Air," the new Jason Reitman movie, is difficult to describe. It's not a romantic comedy, although it's very funny, and romance is one of its subjects. But it's not a straight drama, either, even though it pokes around in some dark corners of contemporary life. The picture is really one of a kind. And it's virtually perfect.
George Clooney, in one of his most supple performances, plays Ryan Bingham, corporate executioner. Ryan spends his life flying around the country at the behest of downsizing companies that bring him in to break the bad news to the employees they're laying off. It's a hideous job, but Ryan loves the life. He loves the anonymous luxe of his business-hotel suites, his VIP car-rental accounts, the first-class airport lounges and the »
Jewison Lands Lifetime Achievement Award
2 December 2009 8:26 AM, PST | WENN | See recent WENN news »
In The Heat Of The Night director Norman Jewison is to be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Directors Guild of America (DGA).
The Canadian moviemaker's 1967 drama starring Sidney Poitier scored five Academy Awards, and he went on to land another three Oscars for 1971's Fiddler on the Roof.
Jewison will now follow in the footsteps of legendary directors including Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock when he is awarded the DGA's highest honour in January.
DGA President Taylor Hackford says in a statement, "He is an incredible filmmaker whose calm, affable manner belies a ferocious creative fire within. Norman well deserves to stand among the giants of cinema whom we have honored in the past."
Jewison's last big screen offering came in 2003 with The Statement, starring Sir Michael Caine. »
"Fiddler" director Jewison honored with career award
1 December 2009 11:39 AM, PST | Filmicafe | See recent Filmicafe news »
The Directors Guild of America on Tuesday named "Fiddler on the Roof" director Norman Jewison the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award to be given at a gala dinner and ceremony in January.Jewison, a 83-year-old Canadian who has three Academy Award nominations for directing, joins 32 past recipients of the honor from the influential industry organization, including Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock."He is an incredible filmmaker whose calm, affable manner belies a ferocious creative fire within," DGA President Taylor Hackford said in a statement. "Norman well deserves to stand among the giants of cinema whom we have honored in the past".Jewison's films have tackled racism, corruption and falling in love, such as "Fiddler on the Roof," a 1971 musical about Jews in pre-revolutionary Russia and 1984's "A Soldier's Story", which earned one of three DGA nominations he received." »
Movie Review: Up In The Air Soars
30 November 2009 9:06 AM, PST | Huffington Post | See recent Huffington Post news »
I've been touting Up in the Air as the year's best film since I saw it in Toronto in September -- and I still haven't seen anything that has changed my mind. With this deft, witty, smart and soulful film, writer-director Jason Reitman establishes himself as one of the most sure-handed purveyors of a certain kind of comedy, a tradition that marks him as a modern purveyor of the same cinematic tradition as Frank Capra and Preston Sturges. Up in the Air is Reitman's third feature (following 2005's Thank You for Smoking and 2007's Juno) and his most fully realized to date. His reworking of Walter Kirn's very different novel captures the sensibility that Kirn plugged into -- the subculture of the constant traveler, in pursuit of frequent-flyer miles, upgrades, perks that accrue to the loyal and regular customer. Given the lead time »
- Marshall Fine
MovieWeb's 2009 DVD Holiday Gift Guide
24 November 2009 5:51 AM, PST | MovieWeb | See recent MovieWeb news »
Black Friday is approaching, fellow readers. No, I'm not talking about some sort of economic free-fall or any apocalyptic event that we might see in 2012. I'm talking about the shopper's paradise/nightmare that is the day after Thanksgiving, where all the hot holiday items are paraded about with slashed prices galore. While this day does wonders for your pocketbook, it takes a toll on your sanity with malls full of shoppers packed in like sardines, scurrying to complete their lists. We all know how trying these times are, so we here at MovieWeb are trying to make it a little easier on our readers. No, we won't be selling Blu-ray players for under $100, but we are compiling a tidy little list of our own complete with our top DVD buys of the season. Below you'll find a comprehensive guide to all of the hot titles that will be on the shelves this season, »
It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play Opens 11/27 at the Players Club
23 November 2009 4:15 PM, PST | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »
Sometimes, it can be fun to take holiday traditions and shake them up a bit. The Players Club of Swarthmore Theater is doing just that, with a classic that most people experience every December as one of a myriad of old-time gems that roll across television screens. This year, Frank Capra's classic story about a small-town banker is hitting the stage in a pretty unusual way. It's a Wonderful Life: a Live Radio Play will open just after Thanksgiving and play through the beginning of December. »
DGA Board Member Kim Kurumada Dies
22 November 2009 1:49 PM, PST | The Wrap | See recent The Wrap news »
By the Hollywood Reporter
Kim Kurumada, a longtime DGA board member who received the guild's Frank Capra Achievement Award in January, died Thursday of esophageal cancer in Northridge, Calif. He was 64.
Kurumada worked as an assistant director on such films as "All the President's Men" (1976), "The China Syndrome" (1979) and "Urban Cowboy" (1980) and as a unit production manager on "Perfect" (1985), "Life Stinks" (1991), the telefilm "Weapons of »
- Josh Dickey
It’S A Wonderful Life Blu-ray Review
17 November 2009 1:07 PM, PST | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »
It’s A Wonderful Life is a wonderful film. Does that sound cliché? Well, too bad, because it has been voted the number one most inspiring film of all time by the American Film Institute (AFI). Frank Capra’s film holds up to the hype, and that’s a very difficult thing to live up to after so many years and years of fanfare. Broadcast every holiday season, this film is considered a “Christmas movie” though it’s not really about Christmas at all. It was continually shown during the holiday season, as the rights had fallen into public domain, so TV stations ran it endlessly during the holidays without having to pay a royalty. The aggressive broadcasts assaulted the public, happily creating several generations to take notice. Though it may have always been regarded among only film buffs as a great film, television is responsible for it its rediscovery, »
- Rob Klein
Review: Lyceum Theatre Closes Their 2009 Season with Charming Presentation of It's A Wonderful Life - A Live Radio Play
16 November 2009 4:11 PM, PST | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »
The 2009 season for the Lyceum Theatre draws to a close with It's A Wonderful Life - A Live Radio Play. This is a unique take on the familiar holiday film classic that's been reworked for the stage by Joe Landry; in this case as a radio dramatization. What's interesting to me is that it was quite common during the golden age of radio to adapt current movies for the airwaves, and that was actually done back in the 1940's with Frank Capra's timeless feature. So, you're essentially viewing a fictionalized version of an event that genuinely occurred at some point. And, it's a perfectly charming and delightful experience. »
Christmas is coming, and Disney’s getting fat
6 November 2009 2:18 AM, PST | t5m.com | See recent t5m.com news »
Christmas is a bit like the flu. You are forced to lie around all day, watch crap TV, consume lots of food you wouldn’t normally eat, and each year both seem to arrive earlier and than the last. This year I had flu fashionably early,setting the trend in July while London’s utterly loathsome and incompetent major, Boris Johnson has been bribed by Disney to switch on the Oxford Street Christmas lights purely to coincide with the release of, A Christmas Carol, this week. They even allowed the films star Jim Carrey to switch the buggers on!!!!! Yet, directed by Robert (Forest Gump , Back to the Future) Zemeckis this 3D animated adaptation of the Dickens tale is not aimed at kids of all ages. I’d say, due to it’s thoroughly creepy protagonists, nightmarish scenes of ghouls taking their jaws off and spectres chasing ol’ Scrooge through dark alleys, »
- Chris Sullivan
Lyceum Theatre Closes 2009 Season with It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
3 November 2009 4:19 PM, PST | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »
The Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre proudly presents It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, November 14 - 22. Author, Joe Landry, has inventively adapted Frank Capra's classic film to the stage, re-inventing it as a live 1940's radio broadcast. Set in fictional radio station, Wbfr, in New York City on Christmas Eve, five savvy "studio" actors employ their vocal talents and live radio sound effects to bring the familiar residents and environs of Bedford Falls to life. »
It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play opens 11/5 At American Heartland Theatre
28 October 2009 2:29 PM, PDT | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »
This holiday season a family favorite comes to life in It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, adapted by Joe Landry, at American Heartland Theatre. Opening Thursday, November 5th and running through December 27th, 2009, It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play puts a new spin on Frank Capra's holiday classic with all the heart-tugging drama, sweetness and joy of the original. »
cinemadaily | Recent Restorations Shine at MoMA
26 October 2009 8:14 AM, PDT | IndieWIRE | See recent indieWIRE news »
To Save and Project: The Seventh MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation is currently underway at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Dedicated to showcasing recently restored films, this year’s edition includes screenings of over 25 works, including a week-long run of John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence,” recent restorations of Robert Flaherty’s “Nanook of the North” and Frank Capra’s “Forbidden,” and more. “In retrospect, ‘A Woman … »
Delaware Theatre Company Announces 2009-2010 Season; Kicks Off With Fire On The Bayou 10/14
14 October 2009 2:00 AM, PDT | BroadwayWorld.com | See recent BroadwayWorld.com news »
The Delaware Theatre Company has announced their upcoming 2009-2010 Season.
Delaware Theatre Company, founded in 1979 and currently celebrating its 29th season, is one of Delaware's premier cultural institutions. In its beautiful 389-seat facility on Wilmington, Delaware's Christina Riverfront, Dtc serves over 38,000 adults and 5,000 students annually. Dtc's programming includes a mix of the classics as well as contemporary plays and musicals. Under the leadership of Producing Director Anne Marie Cammarato, Dtc is quickly becoming a home for new works, with the goal of producing a world premiere each season. Past world premieres at Dtc include Partners by Allan Katz, Stinkin' Rich by Henry Woronicz, Wake Up, Lou Riser by Kia Corthron, and Open Charge by Richard Thomsen. Dtc's artistic programming has been awarded 8 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia.
In addition to its artistic work, the Theatre's award-winning education and outreach programming includes the »
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2004 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1997
1-20 of 47 articles from 2009 « Prev | Next »
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