YOUR GUIDE TO 88 THANKSGIVING MARATHONS AND SPECIALS
Why do people still watch television? I look at this list and all I see is the promise of endless commercials interrupted by the occasional non-commercial.
In the age of DVD and Streaming where you can program your own marathon, I wouldn’t even consider putting up with this. At best, I would DVR something so I could zip through the 13 minutes of ads found in every 30 minute program.
Today the entire “Wild Wild West” series arrives, all six seasons, and it cost me half what my cable bill used to be.
JEREMY RENNER UNVEILS KEY ‘BOURNE LEGACY’ DETAILS
I think Jeremy Renner is the best up and comer Hollywood has going right now. After “MI:4” and this “Bourne” flick, my hope is that he breaks out as a genuine star.
Renner’s a very good actor, masculine, and has that indefinable star quality about him — intelligence and a sense of unpredictable danger. What makes a star a star is what they bring to a role without having to say a word, and Renner brings a lot.
BEST THANKSGIVING MOVIE OF ALL TIME IS….
Could not agree more.
If the score wasn’t so awful it would be a masterpiece, but after dozens of screenings there are still moments where I laugh so hard I drool like a moron.
BIGGEST BOX-OFFICE TURKEYS OF 2011
Part of the problem with the movies on this list is that other than the disappointing “Cowboys and Aliens” (which I saw last night), there wasn’t anything that was all that appealing.
JASON SEGEL’S GREEN WITH ADMIRATION FOR ‘THE MUPPETS’
If I never read another story about how much Jason Segal loves the Muppets, it will be too soon.
We get it. We got it months ago. Find another angle.
A.O. SCOTT DEFENDS MODERN CINEMA:
But the other type of question — which did not always come from the elders in the crowd — was not surprising at all. Why aren’t there any good movies anymore?
It does no good to respond that, actually, there are. Providing evidence to back up that assertion — what about “Margin Call”? “Moneyball”? “Mysteries of Lisbon”? — is equally fruitless, since the question is not really a question at all, but rather a general complaint. It is widely assumed, almost to the extent of being conventional wisdom, that movies have suffered an overall decline in quality and that the exceptions are outliers, holdovers or happy accidents. The past is full of glories, whether black-and-white jewels of the old studio system (“Casablanca” and “All About Eve” come up a lot), imported treasures from the 1960s (Antonioni! Godard!) or rough diamonds from the brief splendor of the New Hollywood in the ’70s. Whatever your preferred golden age, one thing is certain: They just don’t make them like they used to.
[…]
The movies survived sound, just as they survived television, the VCR and every other terminal diagnosis. And they will survive the current upheavals as well. How can I be sure? Because 10, 20, or 50 years from now someone will certainly be complaining that they don’t make them like they used to. Which is to say, like they do right now.
Weak. Weak. Weak. And if you read the whole thing, Scott is more than a little rambling in his defense.
Granted, this is a subjective subject, but I love movies, love owning movies I love, and am pretty sure the only new movie I shelled out any money for this year was “Battle: Los Angeles.” Granted, I get screeners now and again, but I do turn down most of them and when I do take a chance, I end up giving most of those away.
The DVD sales crash isn’t all piracy. Nobody wants to own this crap.
JUDD APATOW THINKS THERE SHOULD BE A BEST COMEDY OSCAR
I’ve always thought Lou Costello deserved an Oscar. Seriously. The man was a genius and nothing like the character he created on screen. That’s acting.
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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING
Finished James Garner’s “The Garner Files,” a memoir he wrote, appropriately enough, with Jon Winkour, the author of “The Portable Curmudgeon.” Garner is a charming curmudgeon to be sure with opinions on just about everything. Like Garner’s “Rockford Files” writers, Winkour did an excellent job capturing the actor’s unique voice in the prose.
Garner’s a fascinating man but no phony and no Leftist. He’s a proud Democrat but he also loves his country, will have nothing to do with any kind of film that glorifies anarchy or criminality, and is big on tradition. One of the more memorable passages finds Garner railing against Bill Murray’s sloppy, clownish behavior at an annual golf tournament. Garner calls him a “disgrace” who should be “banned.”
Garner also makes no secret of the fact that he likes money and takes great pride in how he ran the company that produced “Rockford” with the fewest number of union employees in television at the time. And he has a sense of humor about his politics. Even though his next door neighbor, Steve McQueen, was a Republican, Garner admits he liked him anyway and then goes on to tell a hilarious story about how the childish McQueen would throw beer cans in his backyard. “Claimed he couldn’t resist because it was always so neat.” He then goes on to say: “I guess I thought of him as a younger brother. A delinquent younger brother.”
Garner is far and away my favorite television actor, someone I’ve always admired personally and so I cracked open the memoir with real trepidation. The 122 hours that make up the six seasons of the “The Rockford Files” bring me more pleasure than most anything else. The thought of having James Garner call me a racist teabagger probably would’ve made me cry. But curmudgeon or not, the man has class. This self-professed “bleeding heart liberal” served his country honorably in Korea, joined the Civil Rights movement before it became chic, and pretty much leaves it at “I don’t understand the conservative way of thinking.”
Fair enough.
Bottom line: I like James Garner more after reading “The Garner Files.”
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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINK-TACULAR
‘QUANTUM LEAP,’ ‘BUFFY,’ AND 14 OTHER THANKSGIVING EPISODES OF SCI-FI SHOWS
TOP SIX CELEBRITY HOMES FOR SALE (AND FORECLOSURE)
R.I.P. BARON MUNCHAUSEN ACTOR JOHN NEVILLE PASSES AWAY AT AGE 86
ROGER MOORE RETURNS TO TV; REFLECTS ON BOND FILMS
NBC BUYS HYBRID HUMAN-PUPPET COMEDY FROM THE JIM HENSON CO.
NETFLIX SHARES FALL TO NEW LOW
STEVEN SODERBERGH NO LONGER ATTACHED TO ‘THE MAN FROM UNCLE‘
ABC PREPARES ‘GENERAL HOSPITAL’ FOR ITS END BY KILLING OFF MAIN CHARACTER
‘JERSEY SHORE’ PRODUCER HAS ANOTHER PIECE OF CRAP SHOW IN THE WORKS
‘THE DARK KNIGHT RISES’ PICKS UP EIGHT YEARS AFTER ‘THE DARK KNIGHT’
EWAN MACGREGOR TO STAR IN PILOT FOR HBO’S ‘THE CORRECTIONS‘
FREDDIE MERCURY BIOPIC STARRING SACHA BARON COHEN TO START SHOOTING NEXT YEAR
BEST GUITARIST OF ALL TIME? HENDRIX, SAYS ROLLING STONE
YEAH, SURE IT IS: PRODUCER SAYS ‘TOMB RAIDER’ REBOOT IS “CHARACTER-ORIENTED”
SCREENWRITER AKIVA GOLDSMAN SETS UP A WESTERN DRAMA ABOUT DOC HOLLIDAY AT HBO
FOX HAS OFFICIALLY PASSED ON DAVID CRONENBERG’S SCRIPT FOR ‘THE FLY’ SEQUEL
‘BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN’ DOCUMENTARY ON EMINENT DOMAIN ABUSE SHORTLISTED FOR AN OSCAR
5 REASONS TO WATCH ‘DOWNTON ABBEY‘
A LOOK BACK AT ‘DOG DAY AFTERNOON,’ AL PACINO, AND JOHN CAZALE
FOR YOU SCREENWRITERS: WHY FICTION’S FREEST GENRES NEED ITS MOST RIGID RULES
ALSO, FOR YOU SCREENWRITERS: THE TROUBLE OF WRITING REAL LIFE VS. CLICHE
WOODY ALLEN: THE LOVABLE NIHILIST
A LOOK BACK AT CANNON FILMS’ UNMADE VERSION OF ‘CAPTAIN AMERICA‘
TALKING COMEDY WITH DIRECTOR JOHN LANDIS
TOP 10 FILMS THAT ARE LOST FOREVER
WHY ARE WE OBSESSED WITH PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION SHOWS?
FOUR R-RATED FILMS WE’RE MISSING OUT ON BECAUSE A STUDIO INSISTS ON PG-13
WHAT DID SALVADOR DALI’S ‘ALICE IN WONDERLAND’ LOOK LIKE?
THIS EXISTS: KLINGON VERSION OF ‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’ OPENS THIS FRIDAY IN CHICAGO
TEN FILMS SO BAD THEY’RE HILARIOUS
‘FARSCAPE’ AND JIM HENSON’S LASTING LEGACY
BILL MURRAY’S TOP 10 SARCASTIC REMARKS
WHY CAN’T HOLLYWOOD MAKE A DECENT FILM ABOUT MARS?
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CLASSIC PICK FOR WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22
10:00 PM EST: Lady Eve, The (1941) — A lady cardsharp tries to con an eccentric scientist only to fall for him. Dir: Preston Sturges Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn. BW-94 mins, TV-PG, CC.
Stanwyck. Yowza. One of the sexiest performances ever.
–-Please send tips/suggestions/requests/complaints to jnolte@breitbart.com
The Daily Call Sheet will return Monday morning. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
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