January, 2010 Archive
Irv Slifkin | In the Star's Trailer, Movie Buzz
Just in from Toronto and contemplating a workout and rest before a DVD signing of his movie The Marine 2 at a local music/movie shop, Ted DiBiase feels a cold may be coming on.
For this reason, he supplements the generously portioned cheeseburger he orders in a Philadelphia hotel restaurant with a big bowl of chicken noodle soup.
A few sips in, he decides it’s just what the doctor ordered. Automatic penicillin for a guy with a tough schedule and a plan to head out of Philly in a day, destined for Minnesota, where freezing weather will greet him for another DVD signing and an appearance grappling in Minneapolis on the nationally televised wrestling program Monday Night Raw.
DiBiase, 28, is a third-generation wrestler, so he’s aware of the grind all too well. “This schedule is actually more grueling,” says DiBiase between spoonfuls of the hearty elixir. “When I’m home I get to the gym every day for at least an hour. I used to train longer, but you don’t want to overdo it. If you do one hour of constant training, put the headphones on and get into the zone, that should be it.”
Read More »
Irv Slifkin | Staff Notes
Flo and Eddie are to the music business like Kevin Bacon is to the movie business. There seems to be six degrees separating the duo from anyone—and everyone—else in the industry.
Flo—AKA Mark Volman—and Eddie—AKA Howard Kaylan--were just a couple of New York-born, SoCal-raised high school friends who made a big splash in the ‘60s as the guiding forces of the Turtles.
When they were very young, they had a host of hummable, hit pop tunes: “Happy Together,” “Elenore,” “I Only Wanna Be with You,” “You Showed Me,” and a cover of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe.” Kaylan and Volman stuck together when the group disbanded, joining Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention for a few albums (and the movie 200 Motels), and billing themselves as the Phlorescent Leach and Eddie. After parting ways with the Mothers, they truncated the name to Flo and Eddie and became background vocal specialists, lending their talents to classic tunes as diverse as T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart.” They also performed with a diverse stable of artists like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Ray Manzarek, Stephen Stills, Alice Cooper, Sammy Hagar and the Psychedelic Furs. In their spare time, the guys wrote and performed music for the animated favorites The Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake. They also supplied the voices, the screenplay and the music for the Bakshi-esque animated film Dirty Duck.
Read More »
Jason Marcewicz | Create-A-Caption
You know the drill. Below is a classic movie photo with Jason’s caption.
You’re encouraged to leave your own suggestion in the comment section below!
“I do like exchanging letters, Sandra. But postage has gone up again.
Can’t you just IM me? Or go to my Facebook page? Or send tweets…?”
George D. Allen | Staff Notes
I axed for it. And what a thrill the answer was yes!
With a scheduled debut of January 18, we at Movies Unlimited/MovieFanFare will become regular contributors on the new Famous Monsters of Filmland website. We’ll be offering freshly dug up MovieFrightFare videos featuring our own Ghouly Irv as well as some (hopefully) entertaining and enlightening articles about the old and new classics of the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres, and the people who make them possible. This opportunity is especially rewarding for me, as I was an avid young reader of the magazine during its print run, and can trace the breadth of my appreciation for classic horror in part to the monstrous amount of fun packed inside every issue.
How many “children of Famous Monsters of Filmland” are out there?
Read More »
Jerry Frebowitz | New Releases This Week
New DVD Releases for this week include the extremely tense Iraq War thriller, The Hurt Locker and another "Medea" outing from Tyler Perry, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, where he wrote, directed, and co-starred plus two remakes slither their way to DVD: Fame and Halloween II. Also available for the first time on home video is a pair of serious musical dramas from the 1960s starring high profile musical performers in rare dramatic roles -- A Man Called Adam stars Sammy Davis, Jr as a trumpeter spiriling out of control and Ballad In Blue stars Ray Charles as himself, trying to help a young blind boy.
Read More »
Jay Steinberg | This Week in Film History
January 10, 1914: With Mack Sennett's instruction to Charlie Chaplin to "get into a comedy make-up," the legendary "Little Tramp" is born.
January 10, 1923: The "Hollywoodland" sign is dedicated. It was built on the Hollywood Hills to promote sales of homes in Beachwood Canyon.
January 10, 1924: Columbia Pictures Corporation, formerly CBC Film Sales, is founded by brothers Harry and Jack Cohn, and Joseph Brandt.
Read More »
Irv Slifkin | In the Star's Trailer, Movie Buzz
A friend asked his 14-year-old daughter’s pals who their favorite male actors were. Surprisingly enough, the answers ranged from Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg to Alan Rickman (!) to Sean Bean (!?). Not surprisingly, another name mentioned was Michael Cera.
The last name was not a stunning revelation, because Cera has won a spot with young audiences for his portrayals of befuddled teenagers trying to find their way to adulthood—and discovering romance in the process—in such films as Superbad, Juno and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. Before he scored with those efforts in theaters, he was admired by a small but devoted cult of followers for his portrayal of George Michael Bluth, a frozen banana stand manager obsessed with his female cousin, in the Ron Howard-produced dysfunctional family TV sitcom Arrested Development. Additionally, the Canadian-born actor has been writing, directing and starring in the Internet-based series “Clark and Michael,” a “fictional reality” inside-Hollywood show in which he stars with pal and fellow actor Clark Duke (Sex Drive).
Read More »
George D. Allen | Staff Notes
There are movies that can start conversations (Citizen Kane, Eraserhead, The Sixth Sense), movies that can end conversations (Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom, Fahrenheit 9/11, perhaps the entire oeuvre of Michael Bay), and movies that are simply about conversations.
I hold a special place in my movie-watching heart for films that truly emphasize the spoken word as much as the powerful image. The pure theatricality of the material is immensely appealing to me, the wrenching of the inherently more visual craft of filmmaking in one way or another towards something approximating the experience of live theater.
Read More »
Gary Cahall | Scene Stealers
It is, to borrow a phrase from one of his better-known movie roles, "inconceivable" that filmgoers of all ages aren't familiar with at least the voice, if not the leprechaun-like face, of comedic mainstay Wallace Shawn. Fans of art films know him as a favorite cast member for the likes of Woody Allen and Alan Rudolph, Gen-Xers remember him as the scheming Vizzini in The Princess Bride or as debate teacher Mr. Hall in Clueless, and kids will recognize his voice as that of Rex, the not-so-terrifying Tyrannosaurus from the Toy Story films. Acting, however, is just one part of Shawn's mutli-faceted career.
Read More »
Gary Cahall | Staff Notes
Author’s Note: The following is a work of speculative fiction, using the names of real people and semi-real movies. Please don’t look for any of the films described below because—except for Change of Habit—they do not exist in this form. Click here for information on Elvis's actual body of work.
It’s one of downtown Memphis’s biggest annual events: the Christmas Day charity dinner and impromptu concert by the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, at 3 Kings 3, the Beale Street restaurant/nightclub he co-owns with two other local "monarchs," legendary bluesman B.B. King and pro wrestling icon Jerry “the King” Lawler. Last month’s gathering was one of the more significant in recent memory, however, as a tanned and fit Presley announced that, in light of his upcoming 75th birthday, he was retiring from acting on TV and the big screen in order to spend more time with his family. With Elvis’s 50-year film career coming to a (permanent?) close, let’s take a look at what he dubbed his "second chapter," the period since 1973. It began in the wake of personal turmoil and an unexpected death, and it led to renewed box office success, critical acclaim...and derision, and a trio of Academy Award nominations.
Read More »
2 Comments »
