2011 Lebowski Fest Has "The Big Lebowski" Cast Reunion

In celebration of The Big Lebowski Limited Edition Blu-ray™ debuting on Aug 16th, join Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore + T Bone Burnett for a very special evening celebrating all things Lebowski on August 16, 2011 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. The date will also mark the launch of Jeff Bridges' self-titled album.

The evening will include a special Q & A with Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore and T Bone Burnett, as well as a screening of the film and other festivities.

2011 marks 10 years of beautiful tradition with Lebowski Fest and Universal Studios Home Entertainment has teamed up to bring the Achievers the pop-culture event of the century! This limited seating event at the historic Hammerstein Ballroom will be the ultimate celebration of all things Lebowski.

Tickets are now on sale on Ticketmaster at http://www.ticketmaster.com/The-Big-Lebowski-tickets/artist/14764

Mark it 10!

For more information, please visit http://www.lebowskifest.com/.

Review: Danny Trejo Revealed in "Champion"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Champion (2005)
Running time: 81 minutes (1 hour, 21 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Joe Eckardt
WRITER: Cecily Gambrell
PRODUCERS: Joe Eckardt and Cecily Gambrell
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Vitaly Bokser, Dana Gonzales, and Daniel S. Haas
EDITORS: Joe Eckardt and Joseph Lorigo

DOCUMENTARY – Biography/Interview

Starring: Danny Trejo, Cecily Gambrell, Edward Bunker, Steve Buscemi, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, and Robert Rodriguez

His body covered in tattoos, actor Danny Trejo has appeared in such films as Desperado, Con Air, and Spy Kids. Trejo is mostly known for playing tough guys, criminals, and villains. You’ll recognize him when you see him, and you may not be surprised to learn that Trejo has a past that includes substance abuse, drug dealing, and prison.

There is another side to Trejo. His troubled childhood, which included drug addiction, armed robbery, and extensive prison time, eventually led him to a career as a counselor, where his vocation became helping people who are struggling with alcohol, drugs, and gang-banging. That in turn led Trejo into acting, beginning with work in the 1985 film Runaway Train. The 2005 documentary Champion offers an intimate and detailed look at Trejo’s life and journey and includes testimonials from actors Steve Buscemi, Dennis Hopper, and Val Kilmer, among others.

The first hour of Champion mainly deals with Trejo’s troubled youth and a 20-year period from the 1950s to the late 1960s in which Trejo beat up people and/or robbed them, while selling drugs and doing time in juvenile and prison facilities. Although interesting, some of this first hour is repetitive or dry and slows the film. Then, Champion has a Saul-to-St. Paul moment and seems to suddenly open up, revealing the man who has a great big heart and a drive to help people. Champion is not a traditional documentary; in fact, it is essentially one long interview film. What the film ultimately documents is an inspirational story of how far up someone can come from being so down. Watch it and understand why Danny Trejo is indeed a champion.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, February 11, 2011

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17th Screen Actors Guild Awards Television Category Winners - Complete List

The complete list of recipients of the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® in the television categories:

PRIMETIME TELEVISION

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
AL PACINO / Jack Kevorkian – “YOU DON’T KNOW JACK” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
CLAIRE DANES / Temple Grandin – “TEMPLE GRANDIN” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
STEVE BUSCEMI / Nucky Thompson – “BOARDWALK EMPIRE” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
JULIANNA MARGULIES / Alicia Florrick – “THE GOOD WIFE” (CBS)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
ALEC BALDWIN / Jack Donaghy - “30 ROCK” (NBC)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
BETTY WHITE / Elka Ostrovsky – “HOT IN CLEVELAND” (TV Land)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO)

GREG ANTONACCI / Johnny Torrio
STEVE BUSCEMI / Nucky Thompson
DABNEY COLEMAN / Commodore Louis Kaestner
PAZ DE LA HUERTA / Lucy Danzinger
STEPHEN GRAHAM / Al Capone
ANTHONY LACIURA / Eddie Kessler
KELLY MACDONALD / Margaret Schroeder
GRETCHEN MOL / Gillian Darmody
ALEKSA PALLADINO / Angela Darmody
VINCENT PIAZZA / Lucky Luciano
MICHAEL PITT / Jimmy Darmody
MICHAEL SHANNON / Agent Nelson Van Alden
PAUL SPARKS / Mickey Doyle
MICHAEL STUHLBARG / Arnold Rothstein
ERIK WEINER / Agent Sebso
SHEA WHIGHAM / Sheriff Elias Thompson

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
MODERN FAMILY (ABC)

JULIE BOWEN / Claire Dunphy
TY BURRELL / Phil Dunphy
JESSE TYLER FERGUSON / Mitchell Pritchett
NOLAN GOULD / Luke Dunphy
SARAH HYLAND / Haley Dunphy
ED O’NEILL / Jay Pritchett
RICO RODRIGUEZ / Manny Delgado
ERIC STONESTREET / Cameron Tucker
SOFIA VERGARA / Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
ARIEL WINTER / Alex Dunphy

SAG HONORS FOR STUNT ENSEMBLES

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series
TRUE BLOOD (HBO)

NOTE: The "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Awards" go to the primary cast members.
 

"Grown Ups" a Stunted Buddy Comedy

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Grown Ups (2010)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for crude material including suggestive references, language and some male rear nudity
DIRECTOR: Dennis Dugan
WRITERS: Adam Sandler and Fred Wolf
PRODUCERS: Jack Giarraputo and Adam Sandler
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Theo van de Sande
EDITOR: Tom Costain

COMEDY

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Joyce Van Patten, Ebony Jo-Ann, Di Quon, Steve Buscemi, Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, Madison Riley, Jamie Chung, and Ashley Loren

Adam Sandler’s recent summer comedy, Grown Ups, may seem like a family comedy, but it isn’t. There certainly are plenty of laughs for parents and their children, but this is an all-star, buddy-comedy aimed at Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers who are fans of Sandler and his comedian/comic actor friends: Chris Rock, Kevin James, Rob Schneider, and David Spade.

Grown Ups is the story of five childhood pals who reunite after 30 years to mourn the passing of their old basketball coach, “Buzzer” (Blake Clark). Most of them are husbands and fathers, but their families have never met. The leader of the friends is Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler), a high-powered Hollywood agent, who is married to Roxanne (Salma Hayek), a sexy fashion designer. Eric Lamonsoff (Kevin James) is a businessman married to a lovely wife, Sally (Maria Bello), who still breastfeeds their four-year-old son. Kurt McKenzie (Chris Rock) is a henpecked, stay-at-home dad whose wife, Deanne (Maya Rudolph), is the primary breadwinner. Rob Hilliard (Rob Schneider) is a thrice-divorced vegan married to a woman, Gloria (Joyce Van Patten) who is much older than him. Marcus Higgins (David Space) is merely a lazy womanizer.

Over the 4th of July weekend, these five men return to New England and gather at a lake house where they quickly reconnect. However, the great outdoors may test and/or strengthen the bonds of family and friendship in ways they never expect.

Grown Ups has cute child actors playing the children and good-looking (even sexy, especially the case of Salma Hayek) actresses playing the wives and older daughters, but this is about the quintet of Sandler, James, Rock, Schneider, and Spade. There are some good moments of family comedy, slapstick comedy, and raunchy comedy, but the focus is this modern day version of a “Rat Pack” movie. Grown Ups is aimed at the fans of the five stars, but even their fans will quickly realize that this is not their best work.

Grown Ups is an amiable comedy, but is nothing special. It is a domestic comedy with little, if anything, of substance to say about its middle-aged characters. I don’t know what to make of this film, but I suppose that because I like the stars I should be happy to get this gathering of pals. OK, I like it. Although as quality goes, Grown Ups is pretty bland and average, and the grade I give it reflects that I like these guys.

5 of 10
B-

Monday, January 03, 2011

Review: "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" Dumb and Eloquent

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 144 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)
Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for crude sexual content throughout, nudity, language, and drug references
DIRECTOR: Dennis Dugan
WRITERS: Barry Fanaro and Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor; from a treatment by Lew Gallo
PRODUCERS: Michael Bostick, James D. Brubaker, Jack Giarraputo, Adam Sandler, and Tom Shadyac
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Semler
EDITOR: Jeff Gourson

COMEDY

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Dan Aykroyd, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Nicholas Turturro, Nick Swardson, Blake Clark, Mary Pat Gleason, Cole Morgan, Shelby Adamowsky, and Robert Smigel; also Rob Schneider and David Spade

In I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, two guys’ guys pose as gay lovers in order for one of the men to make sure his children get his insurance benefits.

New York City firemen Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler) and Larry Valentine (Kevin James) are the pride of their fire station. Loyal to the core, they’ll do anything for each other, but after Larry saves Chuck’s life, Chuck is about to find out just how much owing his buddy will cost him. When widower Larry realizes that civil service red tape might keep his children, Eric (Cole Morgan) and Tori (Shelby Adamowsky), from getting his life insurance benefits, he knows that one of the ways to insure his children’s financial future is to get married.

Still deeply mourning his late wife, Larry hasn’t dated since her death or really moved on from that tragedy. A newspaper article gives him a crazy idea – domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples, so he asks Chuck to pose as his live-in gay lover. Chuck, however, has a vigorous sex life as a heterosexual and often entertains several women at a time, and wants no part of Larry’s plan. But he owes Larry. After the friends start posing as love-struck newlyweds, nosey city bureaucrat, Clinton Fitzer (Steve Buscemi), starts to investigate the alleged relationship, so the buddies are forced to present a genuine picture of domestic bliss. After the boys hire a lawyer that specializes in their situation, Chuck falls hard for their sexy attorney, Alex McDonough (Jessica Biel), and his lust just might reveal his and Larry’s secret.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is a somewhat badly made, broad comedy, but it sure is funny. The writers seem to have written a flimsy script that simply plays up to the numerous possibilities for comic misunderstanding this concept offers. It’s not lacking in cleverness so much as it is overly abundant in crassness and gross-out humor. That crudeness is actually personified more in Ving Rhames’ Fred G. Duncan, a sort of Mandingo as giant, threatening homo, than it is in Adam Sandler’s Chuck, who is a self-admitted “whore.” In fact, neither Sandler nor Kevin James is anywhere near doing his best work. As for Biel, her body is still a wonderland, and we get to see quite a bit of it.

Although this movie comes across as a rutting goat, where I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry actually beats the low expectations that many had for it is in the film’s not-too-preachy attitude about acceptance of gays and the gay lifestyle. The filmmakers and their stars, Sandler and Kevin, vigorously assault anti-gay sentiment, gay-bashing, and gay slurs wherever they find it. The film also offers generous samples of gay clubs, drag queens, and flashy dancing.

On the other hand, the film does offer several brief scenes that reveal the not-fun-side of being a gay couple. Quite frankly, it’s uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch Chuck and Larry’s friends and colleagues suddenly become quite skittish about their old friends once they discover that the duo is a gay couple. Even worse is to watch the people that Larry knows from his children’s school, sports leagues, and the Boy Scouts suddenly remove his name from participation lists. It’s almost as if he died.

How this mixture of raunch and gross can have positive messages about family and acceptance of others is a mystery. That the filmmakers made a bad movie so funny and entertaining is an even deeper mystery.

6 of 10
B

Friday, December 28, 2007

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Review: "Desperado" Both Beautiful and Brutal

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 65 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Desperado (1995)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence, a strong sex sequence, and language
DIRECTOR/WRITER/EDITOR: Robert Rodriguez
PRODUCERS: Bill Borden and Robert Rodriguez
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Guillermo Navarro

ACTION/WESTERN with elements of crime

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Joaquim de Almeida, Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, Carlos Gomez, Quentin Tarantino, Tito Larriva, Carlos Gallardo, Albert Michel, Jr., and Danny Trejo

Robert Rodriguez followed up his ultra-low budget independent thriller, El Mariachi, with the larger-budgeted ($7 million, which is low by Hollywood standards) Desperado. The film is a slightly re-imagined sequel. El Mariachi is now played by Antonio Banderas, replacing Carlos Gallardo, who played the character in the original film and who does make a cameo appearance here. This time the no-named musician (we do learn his name by the end of the film) is stalking Bucho (Joaquim de Almeida), the last Mexican drug lord with connections to the death of his girlfriend (as seen in the first film). He meets Carolina (Salma Hayek), a beautiful bookstore owner and falls in love with her while also taking on a small army of Bucho’s henchmen in a small, dusty border town. El Mariachi learns, however, that Bucho has a strong link to his past.

Some described Robert Rodriguez’s poetic way of presenting violence in this movie to the cinematic styles of John Woo and Sam Peckinpah, and the shoot-‘em-ups in Desperado are indeed eye candy, especially the violence in the first hour of this film. This first half of the film sparkles with black comedy, acerbic wit, and violent slapstick, but as the film goes on, it begins to list. The romantic scenes are dry and are only road bumps in the narrative. Whereas El Mariachi was short and tightly efficient, Desperado is a bit long and a little padded. Still, the combination of Guillermo Navarro’s warmly hued photography and Rodriguez’s visual acumen make for a beautiful, brutal, ballet of film violence, proving that violence does indeed look good on film, if the director knows what he’s doing. And with each movie, Rodriguez proves to be a natural born moviemaker.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, May 16, 2005

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"Monsters, Inc." a Fantastic Monster Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 18 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux


Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Running time: 92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
DIRECTORS: Peter Docter with David Silverman and Lee Unkrich
WRITERS: Andrew Stanton and Dan Gerson with additional screenplay material from Robert Baird, Rhett Reese and Jonathan Roberts, from a story by Peter Docter, Jill Culton, Ralph Eggleston, and Jeff Pidgeon
PRODUCER: Darla K. Anderson
EDITORS: Robert Grahamjones and Jim Stewart
COMPOSER: Randy Newman
Academy Award winner

ANIMATION/COMEDY/FANTASY/FAMILY

Starring: (voice) John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Bob Peterson, John Ratzenberger, Frank Oz, Dan Gerson, Steve Susskind, and Bonnie Hunt

Monsters, Inc. is the fourth collaboration between computer animation studio Pixar and Walt Disney, a match made in heaven that has already produced three brilliant films: Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2. Monsters was a safe bet to be a hit, which it is, and it was also a safe bet to be a darned good movie, which it certainly is.

Monsters, Inc. is a utility company that generates its power from the screams of children. James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) is the company’s top scream maker, but during an attempt to help his partner Michael “Mike” Wazowski (Billy Crystal), Sully accidentally lets a human child into the building and all heck breaks loose. Although they depend on children for the power to run their world, monsters are afraid of children. The child, whom Sulley names “Boo” (Mary Gibbs) touches Sulley’s heart, and he’s determined to return her to her bedroom before harm comes to her in the form of Sulley’s chief rival, Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi).

Monsters employs the same formula that made the previous Disney/Pixar films huge successes. The personable voice talent comes in the form of Goodman and Crystal, who are capable, but are not as engaging as Tom Hands and Tim Allen in the Toy Story films; their performances are closer to the work of Dave Foley in A Bug’s Life. Buscemi, as Boggs, brings a venom filled performance that drips menace much in the manner Kevin Spacey did in A Bug’s Life.

The animation is nice, but the pastel-like tones are often dull in the film. The design of the citizens of Monstropolis, the home city of Monsters, Inc. is, at times, inventive, and at other times, rather ordinary. Most of the creatures seemed to have come straight out of cheap Saturday morning animation.

Where the film really scores is its script and direction. The film is a bit slow in its setup of the story, but the slowness does allow the story to indulge in the idiosyncrasies of its characters. The writers and directors build the tension with a slow burn, the film explodes into an old-fashioned barnburner with a rousing chases that rivals the best of cinema. The movie has the kind of action movie adrenaline hit that you’d get when Indiana Jones chased the trucks in Raiders of the Lost Ark or the pod race in Star Wars Episode One: the Phantom Menace. Pixar gave is previous films the same edge of the seat chase and rescue, which made the film a thrill ride for all ages.

With its sentimental and beautiful ending, Monsters, Inc. easily overcomes any reservations that anyone might have about it. Once again Disney/Pixar has produced a picture worthy of end of year best film lists. Awards usually ignore such films because they’re only animation, and, after all, cartoons are for kids. But the truth is in the result; don’t cheat yourself of this fine movie.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2002 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Music, Original Song” (Randy Newman for the song "If I Didn't Have You"); 3 nominations: “Best Animated Feature” (Pete Docter and John Lasseter), “Best Music, Original Score” (Randy Newman), and “Best Sound Editing” (Gary Rydstrom and Michael Silvers)
2002 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “BAFTA Children's Award Best Feature Film” (Darla K. Anderson, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Daniel Gerson)