‘The Outsiders’ 25th anniversary

Posted on September 10, 2008 at 8:00 am

Last week, I wrote about movies with all-star casts. Some movies have all-star casts — retrospectively. When they are made, the actors are not well known but soon afterward many or most of them become superstars. One classic example is a movie that is (incredibly) celebrating its 25th anniversary, “The Outsiders.”
One of three movies based on books by teen favorite author S. E. Hinton to be filmed in 1982-83, “The Outsiders” is the story of rival gangs the Greasers and the Socs (for “socials”). Director Francis Ford Coppola, who also cast a group of future superstars in “The Godfther,” put together an extraordinarily talented collection of young actors including Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Maccio, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estavez, and Diane Lane. Hinton herself appears briefly as a nurse and Coppola’s daughter Sofia, who would become famous behind the camera for “Lost in Translation,” appears as a child.

Forbidden Kingdom

Posted on September 9, 2008 at 6:00 pm

forbidden%20kingdom.jpg It’s not a good movie, but it is a lot of fun. It’s a fantasy with three things going for it: it does not take itself too seriously, it does take the action scenes seriously, and it includes both of the most popular martial arts movie stars working today, Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Michael Angarano plays Jason, a generic loner-teen role that does not give him a chance to show off the impeccable comic timing he displayed as Elliot in “Will and Grace.” He seems to spend most of his time hanging out in Chinatown, renting kung fu movies and talking to Old Hop the ancient proprietor of the pawnshop (Jackie Chan under old-age make-up). When some bullies attack them, Hop hands Jason the mysterious staff and asks him to return it to its rightful owner. And Jason wakes up in ancient China. He quickly figures out how to understand Chinese, and meets up with Lu Yan, a tipsy immortal (Chan, in a nod to his early “Drunken Master” hits). They embark on a journey to return the staff to its owner, the Monkey King (Jet Li), who has been turned into a statue by the evil Jade Warlord. And they are joined by Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei), who plans to kill the Jade Warlord to avenge the death of her parents, and Silent Monk (Li again), who first has to fight Lu Yan just because that is why we all bought tickets. “We can kill each other when it’s over,” they agree, deciding to work together to help Jason return the staff to the Monkey King.

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Action/Adventure Fantasy

Contest: Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre

Posted on September 9, 2008 at 11:01 am

sleeping beautyjpg From 1982-1987 actress Shelly Duvall produced and hosted a series of fairy tales on Showtime, starring some of Hollywood’s top performers. Christopher Reeve and Matthew Broderick played very charming princes, and princesses included Bernadette Peters as Sleeping Beauty, Susan Sarandon as Beauty, and “Flashdance’s” Jennifer Beals as Cinderella. The costumes and sets were low-budget but very creative, inspired in part by the classic fairy tale illustrations of Maxfield Parrish and Howard Pyle.
The series has just been re-released on DVD and I have FOUR copies to give away! This is such a special prize I want to make sure everyone has a chance to participate. So post a comment, telling me which is your family’s favorite fairy tale and why. The most imaginative and creative responses submitted by the end of the day Sept 30 will win the box set of the complete Faerie Tale Theatre series. U.S. addresses only, please. I look forward to hearing from you!
Legal stuff and full details:

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Baby Mama

Posted on September 9, 2008 at 8:00 am

“Baby Mama” is not just smart, warm, funny, and romantic, it is an especially welcome dose of XX chromosome humor in an Apatow-flooded XY era.

Tina Fey (“30 Rock”) plays Kate, a single woman who has achieved a great deal of professional success as an executive in an organic food company but at age 37 finds herself overcome with longing for a baby. When her doctor (John Hodgman, the PC in Mac commercials) tells her that it is almost impossible for her to have a child, she hires a surrogate (“Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler as Angie). Shortly after she becomes pregnant, Angie leaves her husband and Kate, worried about Angie’s health and hygiene habits, eager to share the prenatal experience, and something of a micro-manager, invites her to move in. Think The Odd Couple with Lamaze class. We know that as must always happen in movies Kate will teach Angie about responsibility and Angie will teach Kate to loosen up and have a little fun. But it is done with a light touch and a sense of humor about itself, Fey and Poehler have an easy warmth and chemistry, and it feels good to see a buddy comedy about women.

Writer/director Michael McCullers (of “Austin Powers” and neglected gem Undercover Brother) wisely lets the characters lead the story, avoiding the usual wacky plot contrivances. Kate continues to be very successful at her job, and when Angie meets Kate’s boss, there are none of those tiresome and painful mix-ups/inadvertent insults/clumsy accidents that have to be corrected so that everyone can agree how much happier they are. Even better, McCullers fills the screen with top comic talent so that every encounter Kate and Angie have is, well, pregnant with possibilities that, well, deliver. Sigourney Weaver is magnificent as Chaffee Bicknell, the steely operator of the surrogacy company. When Kate expresses surprise at the $100,000 price tag — “It costs more to have someone born than to have someone killed,” Bicknell purrs sympathetically without losing a beat “It takes longer.”

Dax Shepard is unabashedly trashy as Angie’s husband (“common law!”), Maura Tierney adds warmth as Kate’s sister, and the always-impeccable Holland Taylor is right on target as their mother. Two poor choices in character design are saved by two superb choices in casting — Greg Kinnear somehow makes a dumb running joke about how his juice bar is nothing like the nationwide chain sound not all all whiny but somehow slightly mystified in a confident but sensitive way. And Will Forte as Kate’s ex elevates some sub-par dialogue about his perfect life. Other SNL-ers include Siobhan Fallon Hogan as the birthing instructor whose speech impediment just makes her sound even more inclusive and elemental and Fred Armisen as a stroller salesman. The wonderful Romany Malco is a highlight as Kate’s doorman. And I won’t spoil the surprise and give away the name of the star who shows up as Kate’s boss, who says things like “I am going to reward you with five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact.” I’ll just say he’s a great choice and does justice to that gray ponytail.

Fey is terrific; we’re on her side all the way. But it is worth seeing the movie a second time just to watch Poehler. As we first see her nervously dropping a little curtsy to the doorman on her way into Kate’s building, we understand that she is someone who may have had no education or opportunity but who has some sense of a bigger world than the one she has known. In one of her best scenes, she pretends to be Kate’s sister and we can see her mind working as she tries very hard to do what she thinks will be most supportive of Kate but also begins to get a different sense of her own capabilities and possibilities. Like Angie, this movie has some surprising depth and heart.

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More on Language from the Las Vegas Review-Journal

Posted on September 8, 2008 at 2:25 pm

“Language packs a punch in culture,” says a column by Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter John Przybys about the debate over Tropic Thunder.
Przybys and I had a long talk about this subject and he quoted me in the column:

Nell Minow, who writes “Movie Mom,” a column on Beliefnet.com in which she evaluates movies from a parent’s perspective, argues that protesters’ ire is misdirected.
“Tropic Thunder” doesn’t lampoon the disabled, Minow said during a recent phone interview, but, rather, the self-absorption of Hollywood and actors who offer one-dimensional portrayals of the disabled and then congratulate themselves for it.
“As a person with disabled family members and whose first job was working with what we then called the ‘retarded,’ I’ve been appalled at movies that get all kinds of critical praise, like ‘I Am Sam’ and ‘Forrest Gump,’ because I think they’re terrible portrayals of disabled characters,” Minow said.
“Too often in movies, the disabled aspect is the character’s defining trait,” Minow continued, and disabled characters exist only to “inspire people and/or give (other characters) an important lesson about compassion. That’s about it, and this is wrong. Disabled people are interesting human beings who’ve got really interesting stories to tell.”
In “Tropic Thunder,” the word “retard” is used to “show something about the person who said it,” Minow said, and the film makes “a very trenchant and powerful argument in favor of the disabled being treated well by showing that the person who didn’t understand was a nincompoop.”
Similarly, even as Downey plays a white actor who darkens his skin to play a black character, the film is “very intelligent in giving the actual black character the power and moral weight in the movie,” Minow said.