Brave Director Mark Andrews Talks to Google
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Posted on June 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm
We’ve got something for everyone on DVD and Blu-Ray this week. First, there’s the 2012 Oscar winner for Best Picture (and Best Director, Best Actor, Best Score, and Best Costumes), The Artist, the silent, black and white movie about a star of the silent films who has a problem adjusting to the sound era. It is rated PG-13 for a “a disturbing image and a crude gesture” but is suitable for most middle schoolers and up. Then one of the wildest, raunchiest, and all-around funniest comedies of the year, the very R-rated 21 Jump Street, inspired by the television series that made Johnny Depp a star and featuring Depp in an hilarious cameo. The Blu-Ray has some great extras, including deleted scenes and features. And one of the most purely delightful family movies of the year is Mirror Mirror, with Lily Collins as Snow White and Julia Roberts as her evil stepmother.
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 3:02 pm
Tonight is the premiere of the new HBO series “The Newsroom,” written by Aaron Sorkin, Oscar-winning scripter of “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “The Social Network,” “A Few Good Men,” and the television series “The West Wing.” I am a big fan of his series Sports Night, starring Josh Charles (“The Good Wife”), Peter Krause (“Parenthood”), and Felicity Huffman (“Desperate Housewives”). People often notice Sorkin’s “crackling” hyper-articulate dialogue, but what I love is the spacious and generous humanity of his characters. In one of my favorite “Sports Nights” scenes, Jeremy, a new employee, explains to his boss that he is embarrassed at having fainted on an assignment to cover a deer-hunting expedition.
JEREMY (Joshua Malina)
Not fitting in is how qualified people
lose jobs.
ISAAC (Robert Guillaume)
Yeah, but a lot of time it’s how
people end up working here. You had an
obligation to tell us how you felt.
Partly because I don’t like getting a
phone call saying I’ve put one of my
people in the hospital. But mostly
because when you feel that strongly
about something you have a
responsibility to try and change my
mind. Jeremy, did you think I was
gonna fire you ’cause you made a
convincing argument? It’s taken me a
lot of years but I’ve come around to
this: If you’re dumb, surround
yourself with smart people.
If you’re smart, surround yourself
with smart people who disagree with
you. I’m an awfully smart man and Mark
Sabath is an idiot. He had you and he
blew it. You’ve gotta trust us. Fit in
on your own time, when you come to
work for me you show up to play.
(BEAT) I’m going home.
You don’t know us very well. So if
it’s hard trusting us at the
beginning, maybe it’ll help a little
to know that we trust you. G’night.
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:05 am
I’m thrilled to have two copies of Chicken Little & More Zany Animal Stories to give away. Scholastic’s wonderful series always has the best in children’s literature, gently animated and beautifully read. This latest in the series includes:
CHICKEN LITTLE (Written and illustrated by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley, narrated by Walter Mayes) A bold and colorful retelling of a classic tale! Children will delight as a crazy-eyed chicken and all his panicked friends try to run away from a falling sky.
THE GREAT WHITE MAN-EATING SHARK (Written by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jonathan Allen) Norvin, a boy who closely resembles a shark, uses his talents to scare away all the swimmers at Caramel Cove except for the one female shark in love. Help!
THE THREE-LEGGED CAT (Written by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jonathan Allen) Mrs. Gimble’s peg-leg cat, Tom, is taken for a hat and a ride atop her rascally roving brother’s bald head in this hilarious tale of mistaken identity.
DOOBY DOOBY MOO (Written by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin, narrated by Randy Travis) While Farmer Brown tries to figure out what the animals are up to, Duck is determined to enter the talent show contest and win!
To enter: Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Chicken Little in the subject line and tell me about your favorite hat (I hope it wasn’t a three-legged cat!). Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only.) I will pick a winner on July 1, 2012. Good luck!
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 4:05 pm
It Had to Be Us is an ebook romance by “Elizabeth and Harry Lawrence,” the pen names of Betty Jo Tucker of Movie Addict Headquarters and her husband. In a blog post on Coffee Time Romance, Tucker writes:
Where can you find a heartfelt true love story, some yummy recipes and over 20 reviews of favorite romantic movies – all in one package? Only in the Amazon Kindle version of It Had to Be Us by Harry & Elizabeth Lawrence, the pen names my hubby and I used in writing this award-winning romantic memoir.
About those romantic films, I know many can be highly predictable and not very entertaining, but my hubby and I have a lot of favorites, and in our award-winning romantic memoir we’ve included my reviews of several excellent ones. It was fun compiling our list of favorites, even though we frequently disagreed while making the selections!
She lists 13 of her favorites, including well-loved favorites like the Kiera Knightly version of Pride & Prejudice, and under-appreciated gems like Music and Lyrics, The Fountain, and Return to Me.