I love this ad that still pops up on Filmcritic.com from time to time (as it did today):
I don’t so much mind promoting the competition… but Joel Siegel died over a year ago. I expect what he “has to say about the latest movies” will be very little indeed.
Really, really wonderful. Really.
Gotta keep up appearances! Yeah! Keep ‘em up! No, higher! Higher! There ya go! Higher! A little higher!
The Wall Street Journal has an insightful (yet complicated) story about the new economics of Hollywood, and it doesn’t bode well.
The gist: Hollywood was flush with big money a few years ago, and started pumping out movies like crazy. 2006 and 2007 both saw some 600 films released theatrically. That’s insane.
The problem is no one wanted to go see 600 films, and even well-reviewed stuff like Son of Rambow failed dismally at the box office, lost in the shuffle among the blockbusters and dozens of competitors. Now having learned a lesson, Hollywood is dumping truckloads of movies into the direct-to-DVD market. (The Meg Ryan starrer My Mom’s New Boyfriend is the prime example in the piece.)
The upshot: Expect fewer theatrical releases over the next few years and way more DVDs.
Check out the full story if you want some insight into how Hollywood works. (Hint: Not very well.)
Blame Indy for this one.
What’s the sequel you least want to see next year? No, not Superman 5, but close: Lethal Weapon 5 is reportedly now in talks… the story following (of course) that one final case these aging stars have to solve before retiring.
Danny Glover is currently 62 years old. (Here’s a picture from 2003!)
He's gettin' too old for this shit.
The AP dutifully mourns the passing of Ebert and Roeper from the television airwaves. Our own Chris Barsanti weighs in on why it was the Internet that buried the duo, and Norm Schrager talks about what we might expect from their replacements.