Taut, economical and fast-moving, Roger Donaldson‘s The Bank Job (Lionsgate, 3.7) is the best heist film I’ve seen in a long while. I don’t want to blow a gasket over this thing because it’s just a good British popcorn film, but entertainments of this sort — tight, tough, well-honed — are few and far between.

I’m starting to think it’s Donaldson’s best film since (no exaggeration) No Way Out. And by my sights it’s the first quality film that Jason Statham‘s ever made. Sometimes I think he’s the new Steve McQueen and sometimes not, but now I finally respect the guy.
The film is based on a real rip-off that happened in London in 1971, known as the “

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Audiences don’t go to period costume dramas about famous people for absolute historical accuracy, but most of us, I think, want something that feels genuinely “of the period.” As with any film, we don’t want to feel as if actors are pretending to be characters or that the illusion we’re watching wouldn’t have happened without gaffers and lights and costumes and cameras and microphones. We want (most of us, anyway) to believe in a real-deal immersion — an organic sense that we’re literally visiting the past by way of Hollywood panache and a souped-up time-machine.

The Other Boleyn Girl, which opens today, is partly interested in achieving this effect. It does a decent job with costumes, sets and whatnot, and for the most part the performances are quite good. Its main order of business, though, is fulfilling the...

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A fantastic five-week Film Forum series celebrating the 90th anniversary of United Artists — March 28th to May 1st. I own 75% of these films on DVD; the likelihood that they’ll look better at the FF (even with the promise of new prints) than they do on my Sony flat-screen is not high. But I love the thought of under-30s catching and enjoying Kiss Me Deadly or Red River or Night of the Hunter or Manhattan or Tom Jones or Orphans of the Storm or Douglas Fairbanks‘ Robin Hood for the first time during this series.

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The source of yesterday’s rumor about a DVD of Ken Russell‘s The Devils coming out in May was Warner Home Video’s own online/business website, which is called WHV Direct. The information, however, was a “mistake,” according to WHV exec publicity director Ronnee Sass. She explained that right now “there are absolutely no plans to put out The Devils in ’08,” although the title may make an appearance down the road.

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That “easy” $25 million that Semi-Pro was expected to earn yesterday has swollen into $40 million-plus, in the view of Fantasy Moguls‘ Steve Mason.

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“When I began reviewing and seeing everything, I was warned by a veteran critic that for every movie that would inspire me, nine would drain my soul. I thought, ‘He just doesn’t like movies as much as I do.’
“Some 6,000 screenings later, I’d say he had the ratio about right. But those exceptions — that Pulp Fiction, that Raiders of the Lost Ark, that No Country for Old Men — kept my glass half-full and the passion alive.” — from a farewell piece by N.Y. Daily News critic Jack Mathews, who’s downshifting and off to Oregon.

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A new HD Iron Man trailer is up at MySpace’s Trailer Park.

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Michelle Obama “often refers to what she calls the ‘fear bomb‘ that was used against her husband in his [2004] Senate race, as rivals questioned whether someone with his name could be elected,” wrote NBC’s Mike Memoli earlier today from Canton, Ohio.
“Today she acknowledged that it is happening again in his presidential race, and said it’s an example of why America can’t wait for a leader like him to be elected.
“‘They threw in the obvious, ultimate fear bomb,’ Obama said of her husband’s 2004 Senate race. ‘We’re even hearing [that] now…when all else fails, be afraid of his name, and what that could stand for, because it’s different.’ She said rivals use innuendo to play on fears. ‘Just as they’re saying it...

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An excellent early ’70s Walter Matthau double-bill at the Aero on Thursday, March 6th — Don Siegel‘s Charley Varrick and Joseph Sargent‘s The Taking of Pelham 123.

original Pelham lobby poster

Every now and then I rouse myself and just drive over there and line up and buy a ticket to these shows because the Aero has very high-level sound and projection standards. On top of which these films looked gritty and run-down when they were new so there won’t be any of the disappointment I always find when I go to showings of newly struck or restored films at theatres like this — disappointing because they always look much better on a DVD or Blu-ray flat-screen presentation.

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No important reason for running this Burn After Reading shot of costars George Clooney and Frances McDormand. I was recently sent those John Malkovich-attacking-Richard Jenkins-with- an-axe photos from a guy with IMDB Pro, but I liked this one better. I read the Coen Brothers‘ script several months ago and had a good time with it. The movie I directed and saw in my head as I read it was very sharp and funny. It’ll debut at the Cannes Film Festival on 5.14.08 and open theatrically in the US on 9.26.08.

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If I could make every last clear-plastic takeout container disappear from the face of the earth by waving my hand, I would do that. Is there anyone who doesn’t hate these things? Who doesn’t wince at that sharp loud sound that happens when you try to compress or scrunch them into a garbage can? Who doesn’t find them generally irritating and pointless and just awful? Styrofoam sandwich-and-potato-salad containers are nearly as bad, but at least they aren’t so noisy.

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There’s been a quiet unconfirmed leak that Warner Home Video is finally releasing Ken Russell‘s The Devils (’71) on DVD on May 20th. Update: Warner Bros. video spokesperson Carl Samrock told me around 6 pm that there are “no plans to release The Devils per WHV.”

A cult favorite that conveys a very dark and weird vibe, The Devils is a brilliant but extremely perverse historical fantasy about medieval political persecution that starred Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave.
I was told earlier this afternoon that the DVD would run 111 minutes, which would be eight minutes longer than the 103 minute...

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“We were kind of in a slump until I was dancing on the show. My poll numbers skyrocketed after that. Everybody saw me bust a move on Ellen, that’s all it took.” — Sen. Barack Obama to Ellen Degeneres on her show today (which was taped yesterday?). Here’s the original dancing clip from last October. The guy can cut a rug. Gotta give him that.

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The independent entity known as New Line Cinema since the late ’60s is, in a sense, no more. The curtain came down today on the company that Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne built and ran for four decades when Time Warner announced that it will become a unit of Warners, maintaining separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations.

Okay, but hasn’t New Line been operating as an independent unit of WB ever since its owner, Turner Broadcasting System, merged with Time Warner in 1996? What’s going to be different in a specific, physical managerial way?
Shaye and Lynne are out, but will staffers continue to operate out of the New Line offices at 116 No. Robertson? Or will the whole operation move over to the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank? Are there going to be massive staff whackings? Whomever...

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Esquire‘s Jozen Cummings posted a story yesterday morning about how HBO’s decision to put out “episodes on demand” of The Wire is leading to plot spoilers getting around. (Any spoiler whiners out there who don’t know what he’s referring to should stop reading this item right now.)

Michael K. Williams, a.k.a. “Omar Little” in HBO’s The Wire

“In about two weeks, The Wire — HBO’s critically-acclaimed, gritty drama about Baltimore’s drug trade and how it intersects with union labor, media, and education — will end for good,” Cummings writes. “But instead of speculating on how the show’s...

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Whatever happened to Kenneth Lonergan‘s Margaret, a drama shot in 2005 with Anna Paquin, Matt Damon and Mark Ruffalo in the lead roles? Produced by Scott Rudin and Sydney Pollack and exec produced by Anthony Minghella, it’s said to be still in the cutting room with plans to get it out sometime this year. A CHUD article posted today by Jeremy Smith sifts through various quotes, reports and indications.

Matt Damon, Anna Pacquin in Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret

I for one am scared by this IMDB synopsis, which makes the film sound like a mopey downer about coping with guilt. I’m...

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Which Semi-Pro review do you trust? The semi-dismissive one called “Only Half Bad” by the Village Voice‘s Robert Wilonsky or the friendly valentine written by Variety‘s Joe Leydon? Or does the truth of it lie somewhere in between?

Paul Newman (l.) in George Roy Hil’s Slap Shot

“Semi-Pro‘s much better than Blades of Glory,” writes Wilonsky, “which wasn’t nearly as good as Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which was a little better than Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, which was almost...

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A big tracking bump for Will Ferrell‘s Semi-Pro since Tuesday’s numbers were posted: it was previously running at a modest 67,35 and 8, but today it’s running at 73, 40 and 23. The young-male first choice figure is about 30. Definitely the weekend’s #1 film with an easy $25 million, and it’s just another dumb Gorilla Nation sports comedy….right?
The Other Boleyn Girl was at 49, 33 and 7 on Tuesday, but it’s now 56, 33 and 13 — among women the first-choice numbers are about 20. It’ll come in second right behind Ferrell. On Tuesday Penelope was running at a so-so 52, 25 and 5; today’s it’s up to 60, 28 and 9.
Roland...

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San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle ran a brave piece last Sunday. He admitted he hadn’t seen Blade Runner, To Kill a Mockingbird, Young Frankenstein, 2001: A Space Odyssey and An Affair to Remember, and then declared he’d watched all five on DVD and then reviewed them. He half-panned Young Frankenstein and almost totally shredded 2001, admitting “there’s something to be said for the movie’s adventurous subject matter and its vision of the future” but nonetheless calling it “virtually unwatchable, a boring, impenetrable experience that I’m glad to finally have behind me.”

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Please re-read this William F. Buckley review of The Lives of Others, posted on the National Review site on 5.23.07. I’ve never felt so close to Buckley over my entire life as I did reading this just now. I need to face the fact that on levels I chose not to consider before, Buckley was a kind of beautiful man in addition to being a beautiful writer.

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DVD Beaver screen captures from the theatrical version of Criterion’s new 4-disc Last Emperor box set, which hit DVD stores yesterday. As usual, an excellent assessment of the visual quality of this and past versions is provided.

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McCain: “I am told that Senator Obama would come back to Iraq if al-Qaida established a base [there]. I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. It’s called ‘al-Qaida in Iraq.”
Obama: “I have some news for John McCain. There was no such thing as al-Qaida in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq. They took their eye off the people who were responsible for 9/11 and that would be al-Qaida in Afghanistan, that is stronger now than at any time since 2001.”

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There’s a new story/photo album piece by USA Today‘s Suzie Woz (a.k.a., Susan Wloszczyna) about Richard Kelly‘s The Box, and the plot details she’s revealed make it sound like the basic Richard Matheson story (which is more or less “The Monkey’s Paw” with variations) has been heavily collateralized.

It takes place in 1976, for one thing. (Why?) James Marsden‘s character works for NASA and has co-workers who wear plaid pants. Marsden is working on the Viking mission to Mars. (Who gives a shit about NASA space missions? The Box is supposed to be a...

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The bottom line concerning Gavin O’Connor‘s all-but-abandoned Pride and Glory — a New Line film that co-chairman and co-CEO Bob Shaye doesn’t like and has decided not to distribute this year, bumping it into ’09 — is that the film might have a chance to come out this year if and when Shaye and co-honcho Michael Lynne get the boot from their owner-bosses at Warner Bros.
DHD’s Nikki Finke reported yesterday that Shaye and Lynne “may find out out as soon as this week what will happen to New Line Cinema and their expiring employment contracts at the movie studio they co-founded 40 years ago.”
Variety‘s...

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L.A. Times columnist Patrick Goldstein has assembled the smartest and most creative suggestions for how to fix the Oscar show that I’ve read anywhere. I’ve listed a few, but it can all be boiled down to three words — fire Gil Cates. He’s too old to get with the 21st Century program and needs to be put out to pasture — simple. Bring in a producer who’s younger and fresher and more alive-in-the-moment. Somebody in their 60s, I mean.
(1) “Although I’m sure it will cause a firestorm inside the academy, the technical awards — sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, makeup and costume design — have to go,” Goldstein writes. “No one outside of the academy wants to hear acceptance speeches from people they’ve never heard of, no matter how...

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“The [Oscar telecast] ratings are going to drop a bit more each year because the Oscar show reflects the cares and passions of industry-ites (filmmakers, distributors, academy members, press, web savants) who at least pretend to care about movies that emotionally engage or arouse or deliver insights about the human experience.
“Unfortunately, this is pretty much what the Gorilla Nation people in the malls — the ones who just want to watch stuff like Transformers or the Hannah Montana concert movie and who basically prefer films that provide surface thrills or happy-pill highs — do not want to see as a rule. (Although they will occasionally.)
“The only way a big audience will come back is if some movie version of a Barack Obama comes along, and that’s not very...

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MCN’s David Poland voted for a grand total of 7 correct Oscar calls in the final Gurus of Gold chart. Out of 21 categories, that is. (MCN doesn’t include doc short, live action short or animated short.) Poland also missed 4 of the top 8 categories including such no-brainers as Best Picture and Original Screenplay. He went with Tony Gilroy and Michael Clayton instead of Diablo Cody and No Country for Old Men.

This doesn’t precisely fortify the legend of the Poland Curse (i.e., any Best Picture he gets behind big-time will lose) because Poland didn’t push all that rigorously for Michael Clayton, or not as hard as he campaigned for Dreamgirls and Munich. But it does tend to support the idea that Poland, a...

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“There will be plenty of eulogies from people who knew William F. Buckley better than I did — and certainly from those who agreed with him more than I did,” Time‘s Joe Klein has written. “But he was an honest man, an actual conservative — who, in the end, was quietly appalled by George W. Bush’s radicalism, in Iraq and when it came to the federal budget.
“He was a lovely writer, of course. His book, The Unmaking of a Mayor, an account of his own wry run for mayor of New York in 1965, is not only hilarious but also an early — and accurate — critique of the political correctness, unionized sclerosis and wasteful bureaucracy that almost killed the world’s greatest city in the 1960s and 1970s. He was an excellent man. My condolences to all the Buckleys.”
...

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Sarah Silverman‘s “I’m f—ing Matt Damon” video was inspired stuff, and then came Jimmy Kimmel‘s “I’m f—ing Ben Affleck,” a tit-for-tat that was even more hilarious. But that’s enough, I think.

Meaning that “I’m f—ing Seth Rogen”, a video in the exact same vein that may have been the creative brainchild of Zack and Miri Make a Porno costar Elizabeth Banks (and not director Kevin Smith) doesn’t make it. It’s too imitative...

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It’s commonly known that Valkyrie director Bryan Singer had wanted to direct the long-in-development Harvey Milk biopic called The Mayor of Castro Street for producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, based on a revised script by Chris McQuarrie. But as Variety‘s Anne Thompson reported two or three weeks ago, that project has been abandoned. Zadan and/or Meron confirmed this during a producer’s panel at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Thompson has told me.
Now comes an item in the Portland-area publication Willamette Week that Gus Van Sant, director of as currently-rolling Harvey Milk biopic called Milk, has “extended an ‘olive branch’ to Singer by enticing him to make a cameo appearance in the film, which has Sean...

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