To Link or Not to Link...

Gawker on Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby, just issued in a deluxe Criterion version
BBC Skyfall wins the best Bond opening ever overseas. Remember when we didn't even know if we would get any more James Bonds due to legal issues and rights and studio problems?
The Guardian on Daniel Day-Lewis' infamous ghostly father sighting all those years ago when he played Hamlet on stage (he has not returned to the stage since) 

In Contention George Clooney lines up a very starry cast for his next Oscar attack, the World War II drama Monuments Men: Craig, Blanchett, Goodman
AV Club Mike D'Angelo on the directors cut of one of my favorite films Little Shop of Horrors (1986) 
The Film Doctor 8 notes on Cloud Atlas
Cinema Blend Cloud Atlas karmic interconnectivity infographic
Towleroad Madonna visits Ellen Degeneres! 
Coming Soon Tom Cruise isn't done with the Mission: Impossible franchise yet. And here I thought they brought in Jeremy Renner to replace him. 

CHUD has a 1688 word review of the new Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning movie with 80s action icons Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren returning and refuses to say whether they walk around with asses out as they so famously did the first time. 1688 words and no time for ass? That's just mean.
Movie|Line Ugh. I was totally going to do this Grease-centric Hurricane Sandy thing but a ton of sites beat me to it. I type so fast but I don't have all the time in the world or a huge paid staff to jump on everything. BOO.
Tom & Lorenzo Mad Men filming in Hawaii, eh? Jessica Pare and Jon Hamm in cute bathing suits. Oh I have to share the photo... I can't just link!

Lovely! I've never been to Hawaii, have you? It's nice to dream of Hawaii in the aftermath of dismal, windy, grey, wet destructive Hurricane Sandy.

Review: Free Pass for "The Sessions"

This review was originally published in my column at Towleroad...

When Madonna's "Sex" book turned twenty last week, a common thread of blog coverage was 'tame by today's standards' and I wondered which new standards other people were living by that I wasn't privy to? I'm not talking about private culture -- people have been seeing strangers naked long before Grindr or easily clickable pornography -- but about mainstream entertainment. Which mainstream female celebrity has been running around aggressively in her birthday suit lately? We've hardly made great strides at accepting female sexuality since then. Proof positive: the current political debates. The male body has, on the other hand, become more commonly objectified two decades on but penis sightings are still as rare as they were in the "Sex" book and people continue to make a big flaccid point of being shocked whenever they're visually reminded of their existence... especially in the movies. Find even one article about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Eastern Promises or Shame that doesn't mention Jason Jr,  Viggo Jr. or The Fassmember; tough assignment. 

This longwinded preface isn't as off-topic as it sounds for a review of THE SESSIONS. The sexually-minded lightly funny new drama stars Oscar nominee John Hawkes (Winter's Bone) as Mark O'Brien, a paralyzed man who dreams of losing his virginity from the discomfort of his iron lung. 

more...

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Oscar Horrors: "What's This?!?" an Animated Visual FX Nominee

Here lies… The Pumpkin King of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the visual effects that made him dance.

The work of Pete Kozachik, Eric Leighton, Ariel Valesco-Shaw and Gordon Baker holds a unique place in the history of the Academy’s visual effects category. As the first – and as of 2012, the last – soley animated film to receive a nomination in this category, it earned the visual effects branch’s respect like none before or since. Oh sure, Mary Poppins and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? won the category in their respective years, but those trophies came predominantly for the way they integrated animation with live action. The Nightmare Before Christmas, however, earned its nomination for the way Henry Selick’s stop-motion universe came to life thanks to innovative camera techniques.

While many may think this film’s idea of “visual effects” lays exclusively at the floating ghosts and shape-shifting shadows that pepper Henry Selick’s visual palate, the Oscar nomination was more a reward for the way the cameras were developed with computer technology to help navigate the heavily-designed “claymation” world.

More on this 1993 Oscar Race after the jump...

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DVD Review: "What To Expect..."

What to Extract When You're Watching What to Expect When You're Expecting?

Eyes. Definitely eyes.

Hurricane Sandy Open Thread

To all our Eastern Seaboard US readers, stay safe! "Sandy" is raging toward us. Should I lose power there are are a few posts ready to be published. The storm begs a movie question... What movie scenes or entire movie sequences come to mind when you think about stormy weather? 

I mean besides Dorothy & the twister and her sudden transport to Oz... which has never and will never be bested in human movie history... especially once you include her technicolor recap of the events. Which is like the best in-movie "previously on..." moment ever.

♫  It really was no miracle.
What happened was just this. 
The wind began to switch,
the house to pitch
And suddenly the hinges started to unhitch.
Just then the Witch,
to satisfy an itch
Went flying on her broomstick,
thumbing for a hitch. ♩♪

My god, I just love that movie so much, don't you? Judy. Judy. Judy.  Any chance to think of her is welcome. Even if it means violent house threatening weather.

But oddly the first thing I thought of out in the rain today was the climax of Four Weddings and a Funeral when Andie MacDowell was all...

My brain is so weird.

Before I embarrass myself further, I'll turn it over to you. Favorite stormy movies?