Janusz Kaminski: Oscar win bolsters Columbia
Janusz Kaminski has a brother for 5-year-old Oscar. His name is . . . Oscar. The Columbia College graduate won his second Academy Award Sunday night for best cinematography for “Saving Private Ryan.”
Category: Film
“Hands On A Hard Body”
There’s a certain cruelty to these type of contests that the filmmakers don’t address. It’s easy to understand why poor people would want to win a car. But why do sponsors feel the need to humiliate and torture them this way? Surely there must be a better, more humane way to get themselves publicity and give away an automobile.
Wes Anderson: The bus stops here
Three years ago, Wes Anderson was an unknown writer-director winning praise for his charming, offbeat feature film “Bottle Rocket.” These days, he’s traveling on a bright yellow tour bus promoting his latest picture, “Rushmore,” which opens Friday. (Anderson prefers not to fly.) And check this out. The soft-spoken Anderson has groupies.
Viggo Mortensen: Sensitive side of `Psycho’
Viggo Mortensen is relating a tale that involves Vince Vaughn, a butcher knife and the threat of bodily harm. But, oddly enough, the actor isn’t describing the shooting of his latest film, “Psycho.” He’s remembering a country music concert. “Vince and I went to see Buck Owens one night after we had finished that day’s shoot [for “Psycho”],” Mortensen said during a call from his Los Angeles home. “I had gotten one of the `Psycho’ knives to give to Buck as a present ’cause it was his birthday. They wanted us to give it to him on stage that night. “So we bumbled our way through our speech to Buck. He opened the box and saw the knife, and the fiddler started making the “eek eek eek” [noise from the shower scene]. Buck got all excited and started posing as a damsel in distress. Then he began chasing Dwight Yoakam all around the stage with the knife. I don’t think he realized it was real.”
Dino-MIGHT! IMAX brings “T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous” to life
The three-dimensional Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs in “T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous” look like they could throttle the dickens out of the ones depicted in “Jurassic Park.” The visuals in “T-Rex” are so amazing that a story line isn’t even necessary. But the screenwriters came up with a plot that – while not totally original – works as an effective tool to educate viewers as it entertains.
Greek Town adds charm to locally shot “Do You Wanna Dance?”
Shot in Chicago in 18 days, “Do You Wanna Dance?” is a delightful little sleeper that captures the richness of the city as it tells the story of a dancer forced to serve community service in tightly knit Greek Town. Never mind the goofy title, which implies a giddy, mindless romp.
“Mysteries of Egypt” explores the wonders of Egypt’s ancient history
“No land on Earth possesses more wonder than Egypt,” narrator Omar Sharif notes in “Mysteries of Egypt,” the latest Omnimax film to play at the Museum of Science and Industry. And the film certainly plays up some of those wonders: the ancient Pyramids, King Tutankhamen’s sacred tomb and the glorious, winding stretch of the Nile. But what the movie lacks is the excitement and splendor of previous Omnimax films such as the superb “Everest.”
“Six-String Samurai”: Movie will just `String’ you along
Imagine that the Russians took over America in 1957, nirvana is a place called Lost Vegas and the leader of the Western world is Elvis Presley. When he dies in 1997, every guitar-playing, sword-swinging maverick worth his weight in blue suede shoes heads to Vegas to become the next King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a shady character in the aptly named “Knock Off.”
You have seen “Knock Off” before. And you didn’t like it then, either. Sure, it may have had a different title and maybe a Dolph Lundgren or a Brandon Lee in the starring role instead of Jean-Claude Van Damme. But the premise has always been the same: The charming, vaguely shady hero is caught in a web of deceit where no one is what they claim to be. (In Van Damme’s case, that would be an actor.)
Sound tracking
Movie soundtracks have become music to record companies’ ears. Once studios discovered that popular music from such artists as Simon and Garfunkel and the BeeGees could help sell a film, the lush orchestral scores that were the high-water mark of the ’50s all but disappeared. These days, soundtracks have become far more than promotional tools for hyping a movie. They are thriving independently of the films that spawn them to become a force on the album charts – with some even outliving their big screen brethren.