Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
The three-dimensional technology is nothing short of amazing. Forget those throwaway 3-D glasses of the past that did nothing but give you a headache. When you strap these high-tech 3-D glasses on (they perch on your head like a visor), you are transported deep into the action. (FYI: Without the headgear, the film is, in a word, blurry.)
Peter Spirer’s documentary “Rhyme & Reason” widens the focus on hip-hop, presenting it as a lifestyle that happens to include music. And by allowing the artists to narrate the piece, director Spirer manages to captivate viewers without glorifying or vilifying the controversial art form.
“Ed” is a cute movie about a minor league baseball player who learns about love, respect and self-confidence from his chimpanzee teammate. If you can’t get past this premise, don’t bother going to see the comedy, featuring “Friends” star Matt LeBlanc (as the pitcher, not the chimp), ’cause it doesn’t get any more real than that.
It wasn’t until recently that the five young actor/filmmakers who made the clever and hilarious “Bottle Rocket” learned that their producer, James L. Brooks, hated their first presentation to him. “I asked Jim, `So, what did you think of that reading we gave?’ ” said co-writer and co-star Owen Wilson, 27, one of three brothers involved in the project. “He said, `It was the worst one I ever heard in my whole life.’ ”
Jackie Chan’s stunt man has the easiest job in film. All of Chan’s action films are full of dangerous free falls, explosions and rapid-fire kung fu fighting, but the stunt man doesn’t have to participate in any of them. Chan insists on doing all the stunts himself and uses his stunt man more as a double. “I believe all the people who come to my movies buy tickets not to see the double,” said Chan. “They want to see me do everything, which is why I do all my own stunts. My double does things like run from a car into a store.”
You’re a novice Beatles fan. You could pick John Lennon and Paul McCartney out of a lineup. But you don’t know which one sang “Strawberry Fields Forever” (John). And you don’t have a clue on where to begin to get a handle on the world’s most famous musical group. What to do? Plenty. ABC’s “The Beatles Anthology” can help get you up to speed on the Fab Four’s career and chronology.
Eric Stoltz has it made. He’s a movie star (“Pulp Fiction,” “Mask,” “Rob Roy”) who has no problems making TV guest appearances (“Mad About You,” “Partners”). He’s an actor with leading-man looks who hasn’t been hampered with pretty-boy roles (OK, he did do “Some Kind of Wonderful,” but he was really young then). And his girlfriend is Bridget Fonda.
Shannen Doherty and Jeremy London (“I’ll Fly Away”) are the two big names in Kevin Smith’s latest movie, “Mallrats.” But Jason Lee is the star. Jason who? “That’s OK,” Lee said, dining on a light lunch of chicken and pasta during a recent visit to Chicago. “I haven’t been in anything.”
“Arabian Knight” is no worse than your standard Saturday-morning cartoon fare. Unfortunately, it’s also no better.
The producers of “Mortal Kombat” know that the strength of their movie is based on the actors’ abilities to execute awesome roundhouse kicks, not soliloquies. So it’s not surprising that the sci-fi action-adventure, which opened Friday and totaled $23 million nationwide over the weekend, is heavy on fight scenes, low on plot.
Ashley Judd is talking to her mother, Naomi (yes, that Naomi), on the phone when a reporter arrives for an interview at her Schiller Park hotel suite. Suffering from a sinus infection that she hasn’t been able to shake for the past week, Judd apologizes for her appearance.
“Fluke” gives new meaning to the phrase “men are dogs.” In this new adventure film, Fluke is the canine reincarnation of a man who died in a freak auto accident. Thomas Johnson (Matthew Modine) and Jeff Newman (Eric Stoltz) are best friends and business partners. After a fight, Johnson gets into a fatal car crash.
So Robert De Niro and Marisa Tomei gained weight for their movie roles. Big deal. Comet – no last name, please – easily can one-up them. The 9-year-old had his luxurious blond mane snipped and dyed murky brown, perfected a limp and convinced the casting director that he could play a 1-year-old in the new comedy “Fluke.” Oh, did we mention that Comet is a dog?
At the beginning of “Picture Bride,” a 16-year-old girl living in Tokyo is shown a picture of a handsome Japanese man who has immigrated to Hawaii. Along with the photograph, he has sent a beautiful, poetic letter that doesn’t win her heart so much as it promises her a better life than what she has now. She sends back her picture, and the two agree to marry.
This is the first time I’ve ever prefaced a film review with this tip: Trim your nails before going to see “Ride For Your Life.” The interactive film is boring to watch but fun to participate in.
The only thing super about “Super 8 1/2” is in its title. A low-budget flick that the filmmakers describe as a “faux documentary of sorts,” the movie is supposed to be to pornography what “Spinal Tap” was to heavy metal music – a witty sendup.
Russell Wong has been recognized. Best known for his role as the cruel, playboy husband in “The Joy Luck Club,” the 6-foot actor seems oblivious to the gawking female guests at the Four Seasons Hotel. He’s more interested in finishing his fruit salad and peppermint tea. Wong, who stars as Jian-Wa Chang in the syndicated series “Vanishing Son,” took a breather to chat with us during his first trip to Chicago.
The yakuza – the Japanese equivalent of the Mafia – has achieved notoriety of romantic proportions in films such as “Black Rain” and “The Yakuza.” But in his brilliantly clever “Minbo – Or The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion,” director-writer Juzu Itami presents the group as nothing more than a bunch of thugs who take pride in chopping off bits of each other’s pinkies and think nothing of hiding cockroaches in food to blackmail restaurants for hush money.
Sarah Jessica Parker has gone from being a four-eyed Square Peg to one of Hollywood’s sexiest stars. Thanks to genetics, she can shun the Stairmaster and still balance on that unfair line of being reed-thin but shapely.
Crispin Glover, a character actor, also is quite the character. He once lived in an apartment painted all black, kept an operating table rumored to have been used for gynecological exams in his living room and gave new meaning to the word “hyper” when he greeted David Letterman with a kick-boxing move that got him booted from the show.