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3 articles from 2009

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Clooney's 'Men Who Stare at Goats' Fun But Forgettable

5 November 2009 9:25 PM, PST | CinemaSpy | See recent CinemaSpy news »

At times, The Men Who Stare at Goats seems like it could be a minor entry in the Coen brothers’ filmography. Quirky dialogue and a few Coens alumni—George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Stephen Root—populate the film, and it certainly veers toward the surreal. Though the movie gets a few laughs with its absurdist humor and winks at the audience, it never reaches the inspired lunacy of the Coens’ previous work, or even approaches the heights of similar war satires such as Three Kings and Catch-22.

Despite elements that make it seem more science fiction than non-fiction, the debut from actor/writer Grant Heslov is based on Jon Ronson’s factual book. Ewan McGregor employs a slightly distracting American accent to play Bob Wilton, an Ann Arbor journalist. In investigating a routine story, he interviews Gus Lacey (Root). At first, Lacey's stories about life as a psychic spy seem crazy, »

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Playing it Straight

7 April 2009 6:31 PM, PDT | AfterElton.com | See recent AfterElton.com news »

While Sean Penn’s recent Best Actor Oscar win for Milk helped bring Harvey Milk’s message to a wide audience — both from the increased visibility of the film and from Penn’s moving acceptance speech — the occasion marked another instance of a Hollywood tradition: a gay character played by a heterosexual actor.

Penn, like Tom Hanks (Philadelphia [1993]) and William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman [1985]) before him, was praised for his “bravery” for taking on the role and even — eek! — kissing another man.

Gay actors, on the other hand, get no such credit for playing gay roles; let’s not forget the year that Rupert Everett’s hilarious supporting turn in My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) was ignored by the Academy, with the implication that queer thespians need merely show up to play queer characters, with no actual acting involved. (To add insult to injury, that same year saw »

- dennis

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Oh, Who Will Direct the New 'Fockers' Flick?

20 February 2009 5:03 PM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

Looks like the third entry in the endless mirth-fest that is the Fockers franchise will need a new director. According to the Risky Biz blog, mega-successful comedy helmer Jay Roach will Not be returning to direct (as he did on the amusing Meet the Parents and the execrable Meet the Fockers), although screenwriter John Hamburg will be returning to stretch this single gag into a full trilogy.

The blog mentions a few possible candidates in David Wain (Role Models), Peyton Reed (Down With Love), and Paul Weitz (About a Boy), but c'mon: A high-end tripod could probably direct this big-screen sitcom schtick. Plus this looks to be a comedy version of the Mummy franchise: Same director for Parts 1 and 2, and then in comes a new guy and ... somehow things get even worse. I'm guessing Meet the Little Focker (or whatever they're calling it) will go to Adam Shankman or Howard Deutch »

- Scott Weinberg

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2009 | 2006 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002

3 articles from 2009

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