movie Glossary
Run, Leica, Run
In thrillers, the mysterious man who takes photographs of the hero is always chased. With a few exceptions such as "Pi," he is never caught. Jaime N. Christley, Oak Harbor, Wash.
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Green Zone (R)
"Green Zone" looks at an American war in a way almost no Hollywood movie ever has: We're not the heroes, but the dupes. Its message is that Iraq's fabled "weapons of mass destruction" did not exist, and that neocons within the administration fabricated them, lied about them and were ready to kill to cover up their deception.
Remember Me (PG-13)
"Remember Me" tells a sweet enough love story, and tries to invest it with profound meaning by linking it to a coincidence. It doesn't work that way. People meet, maybe they fall in love, maybe they don't, maybe they're happy, maybe they're sad. That's life. If, let us say, a refrigerator falls out of a window and squishes one of them, that's life, too, but it's not a story many people want to see. We stand there looking at the blood seeping out from under the Kelvinator and ask with Peggy Lee, is that all there is?
The Big Lebowski (R) (1998)
"The Big Lebowski" is about an attitude, not a story. It's easy to miss that, because the story is so urgently pursued. It involves kidnapping, ransom money, a porno king, a reclusive millionaire, a runaway girl, the Malibu police, a woman who paints while nude and strapped to an overhead harness, and the last act of the disagreement between Vietnam veterans and Flower Power. It has more scenes about bowling than anything else.
Q. In "Shutter Island" I noticed something odd. About mid-way through the movie, the Leo DiCaprio character is interviewing a female patient. His partner Chuck gives her a glass of water. At first she only pantomimes drinking the water, then in the next shot you see her putting down an empty glass. When at last she leaves the table, the glass is shown half full.
HOLLYWOOD — "The Hurt Locker," a film that was made with little cash but limitless willpower, defeated the highest-grossing film in history and won the best picture Oscar here Sunday night. The director of the spine-chilling war drama, Kathryn Bigelow, became the first woman to ever win the best director Oscar. James Cameron, director of "Avatar" — and her former husband — cried all the way to the bank.
Live-tweeted from Los Angeles: 10:06 -- The Oscar acceptance speech the Academy refused to televise: http://j.mp/bwA1yo 9:55 -- Shortest Oscar story in history: ( ! > $ ) 9:52 -- http://twitpic.com/17b5ry - I would like to thank the Academy for getting me 6,575 new followers on twitter. And my drama coach, of course 9:46 -- The Dude Aboded.
For many years George Penacchio of KABC and I co-hosted the Oscar Night red carpet interviews for the ABC owned & operated stations. It was fun. It's the one night in a year of dreaded red carpet gauntlets that stars actually seem to enjoy.
Dear Readers:
Most web sites generate less income than they cost to maintain. Mine is no exception. Because I want to preserve free access to the site, I've come up with an idea I'd like to run by you. I'm announcing The Ebert Club, which will offer a group of additional attractions and conveniences for members.
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Pretty near everything Glenn Beck says strikes me as absurd, but he scored a perfect 10 when he warned his viewers against the dangers of Christianity. You already know all about it. Well, maybe not, because the usual defenders of Christianity, like James Dobson and Pat Robertson, were very quiet on the topic. Not even a peep from Pat about this man who showed every sign of having hired the best lawyers to draft his pact with Satan.
I flew home from the Oscars to find half a dozen e-mails awaiting with the same unbelievable message: Variety had fired its chief film critic, Todd McCarthy. Its spokesman was hopeful Todd and its chief theater critic, David Rooney, who was also fired, could continue to review for the paper on a free lance basis. In other words, Variety was hopeful that without a regular pay check, McCarthy would put his life on hold to do a full-time job on a piecemeal basis.
"Nobody on the web is has figured out how to make any money," I said one day before a screening at the Sundance Film Festival. I was talking to another movie critic whose reviews were also online. "My wife has," said a voice behind me. I turned around and saw a robust man in a ski sweater who seemed to be bursting with things to tell me.
Gerardo Valero, Mexico City:Recent years have seen the world's two most successful film directors in history do the unthinkable by tinkering with some of their most classic work. First up George Lucas decided to update his original "Star Wars" trilogy, I imagine with the purpose of standardizing its look with the new three films he was working on at the time.
• Michael Mirasol, ManilaPost World War II British Cinema was one of the richest periods in film history. Finally free from budget and stylistic constraints saddled during wartime, some of the greatest filmmaking talent the filmdom had arisen. John and Roy Boulting, David Lean, Laurence Olivier, and Carol Reed were just a few of the notables whose directorial prowess had struck the scene. But a pair which was the period's most prolific was Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger; The Archers.
thumbs
Linked here are reviews in recent months for which I wrote either 4 star or 3.5 star reviews. What does Two Thumbs Up mean in this context? It signifies that I believe these films are worth going out of your way to see, or that you might rent them, add them to your Netflix, Blockbuster or TiVo queues, or if they are telecast record them.
Gathered here in one convenient place are my recent reviews that awarded films Zero Stars, One-half Star, One Star, and One-and-a-half Stars. These are, generally speaking to be avoided. Sometimes I hear from readers who confess they are in the mood to watch a really bad movie on some form of video. If you are sincere, be sure to know what you're getting: A really bad movie.
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