Posts Tagged ‘news’

Here at Picturenose Central, we are in shock. After a furious bidding war, we fell just $6,999,999 short of the $7 million required to publish exclusive pictures of the Pitt/Jolie twins, so instead, we have an amusing picture of a horse. We thank you for your understanding at this difficult time. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s news starts with something I found quite surprising. In this Associated Press piece on backstage.com, the late Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker in the upcoming The Dark Knight (2008) is compared (favourably) to one Mr J Nicholson’s turn in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). They even go so far as to suggest he may even be nominated posthumously for an Oscar for his efforts. Regular readers will know what a huge fan of the new Batman I am – but I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to be that good a performance. True, he was shaping up to be a very fine actor indeed and his death was a loss to cinema – but a comic-book creation? I think that’d be a first (unless of course you, the reader, know different).

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A remake to go ape over

Some films should be left alone. Cinematic history is littered with masterpieces whose reputations are unfairly tarnished by the clunkers repackaged for a later generation, remade with little or no regard for the original’s integrity, vision and soul.

The 1976 John Guillermin-updated remake of Merian C. Cooper’s 1933 classic King Kong was a perfect example of such misguided monkey business, proving that colour, big stars, bigger bangs and Dino De Laurentiis as producer can add up to something you’d rather not step in.

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Hard on Baz’s Bard

It is with great interest that I learned the Australian soap actor-turned director Baz Luhrmann has a new film coming up this year. It’s called Australia, and the early reports indicate it might be good. (Unfortunately, it wasn’t, not really – James). That’s a relief, because since Strictly Ballroom (1992), his movies have been – how can I put this – nauseating, over-produced crap.

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Normally, a 65-year-old man touting a bullwhip would be the kind of thing to make me swear off eating cheese before bedtime, but I am of course referring to the latest offering in the incredibly popular Indiana Jones series of movies. James has now seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – read his review here.

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Shit and run

It really must have seemed like a great idea at the time. Quentin Tarantino teamed up with Sin City director Robert Rodriguez for a 70s sleaze-fest double bill, Grindhouse, which combines Rodriguez’s zombie-schlock-splatter extravaganza Planet Terror (2007) with Tarantino’s offering, Death Proof, plus several fake 70s-style trailers.

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The same procedure…?

I was chatting with a German friend over lunch, and the subject of the Germans’ love of English comedy came up. This in turn led to a discussion of the phenomenon that is Dinner for One. It’s essentially a recording of an 18-minute music hall sketch, performed in English by an English actor and actress. Never heard of it? If you’re a Brit, I’m not surprised – to the best of my knowledge it has never been shown on UK television. The odd thing about it is that it is amazingly popular in countries such as Germany, Denmark, Austria and Sweden. It is always shown in the original English, and rarely (if ever) dubbed or subtitled. Every New Year’s Eve in these countries and others, the sketch is broadcast – often several times over the evening so everyone gets a chance to see it. It is as much a part of the German New Year as vomiting in a shop doorway is to the English.

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Sing-along-a-Bond?
Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The bad? OK. Amy (‘Look at me! Look at me!’) Winehouse was reported by the BBC to be involved in the production of the latest Bond outing Quantum of Solace. The good news? A couple of days later, her producer, Mark Ronson, was quoted as saying that Ms Ooh-Aren’t-I-Controversial is “not ready to make music”. Hardly surprising, really. My theory is that she’s either being a bit heavy-handed with the Columbian marching powder, or she simply can’t think of anything that rhymes with ‘solace’. Let’s face it, she’s no Sheena Easton, is she?

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A cheery title for a post, don’t you think? No? Me neither. In the interests of science and cinema, I bring you the occasional thing that is the Picturenose news feature.

First up is the new movie, Jonathan Gershfield‘s Three and Out (2008) starring Mackenzie Crook of The Office (UK) fame. In the film, Crook plays a tube driver who manages to kill two people – both suicides – while driving his train. His colleagues tell him that if he kills one more in the space of a month, the London Underground will pension him off with full pay. Naturally (well, in the sphere of cinema at least) he decides to enlist the services of a would-be suicidal accomplice to throw himself voluntarily in front of his train, thereby fulfilling both their wishes.

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