Cinematical

• Cinematical Seven: Good Ideas for Bad Shakespeare Sequels
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Cinematical Seven, Remakes and Sequels

  
  
  

  William Shakespeare left many of his plays appallingly open ended. Look at Malvolio in Twelfth Night -- he storms off, swearing revenge, and no one seems unduly concerned. Don John the Bastard in Much Ado About Nothing is left unpunished until the weddings are over, and probably escaped once his brother's back was turned. All's Well That Ends Well does anything but end well, with Bertram demanding a DNA test of his wife Helena. But even the most bloody and tragic endings have a little bit of wiggle room -- and as this week's Hamlet 2 proves, all you need...
  



• Cinematical Seven: Movies to Watch While Stuck in an Airport
  

  Filed under: Action, Classics, Comedy, Cinematical Seven

  
  
  
  Can everyone guess where I am right now, and what I'm doing? I'm very thankful that the New Orleans airport has free wireless available while I wait for an airplane crew to show up for my flight, so I can return to sunny Austin. In the meantime, I have a laptop and Internet access and a stack of DVDs to watch. I am prepared. I can watch movies indefinitely if necessary, especially if I can get Hulu or Netflix's Watch Instantly cranked up.
  
  I have a few suggestions for packing / purchasing / (legally) downloading...
  



• Cinematical Seven: The Best of Robert Downey Jr.
  

  Filed under: Cinematical Seven

  
  
  A few years back everyone was going crazy with the "re-discovery" of Johnny Depp -- just because the longtime performer scored a hit with a big-budget blockbuster. But movie geeks who grew up in the '80s and '90s were left a little bit confused by all the buzz. "Uh," we mused, "Johnny Depp's been kicking ass for over two decades now, and it takes the BOX OFFICE to tell us he's so cool??" And this summer it's Mr. Robert Downey Jr. After his powerful one-two punch of Iron Man and Tropic Thunder (and the Oscar-friendly The Soloist right around the corner), everyone seems to be falling...
  



• Cinematical Seven: Roles That Made Us Love Anna Faris
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Cinematical Seven

  

  Despite having starred in a series of spoofs that have together raked in over $400 million on the domestic front, it still doesn't feel like Anna Faris is quite the household name she deserves to be. All dollar signs aside, this comedienne has that endearing mix of whip-smart comic timing, goofy mugging, general hotness (what?), and a sense of self-awareness in even her ditziest roles. Time will only tell if tomorrow's release of The House Bunny will formally launch her into the ranks of, say, Reese Witherspoon after Legally Blonde, but even if she doesn't, here's at least seven reasons why...
  




• Cinematical Seven: Romantic Comedies Worth Watching
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Fandom, Cinematical Seven

  
  
  Without fail, at least once a month I peruse my DVD collection looking for a solid film focused on a female star -- a film where the woman is smart and successful, a film that focuses on something other than her romantic foibles. It's like I think wishing for there to be more films that fit "The Rule" will create a whole slew of new selections in my library. If only ... But there aren't a horde of these films to pick from, so that often means picking something of the romantic variety, often with a side of comedy.
  



• Cinematical Seven: Olympic Movies You've Never Seen
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Drama, Sports, Cinematical Seven

  
  
  
  
  When the 1932 Olympics hit LA, it began a long history of synergy between the games and the movie business. That synergy led to Zhang Yimou, China's answer to William Wyler, who gave the recent opening ceremony all due pageantry. Over the years, the Olympics contributed to the movies, foaling movie stars by the ton. The games were a casting call whenever one needed someone as chunky as a wrestler or as slender as a swimmer, or Tarzan, who I guess is a combo of swimmer and wrestler. My favorite will always be Harold "Oddjob" Sakata, silver medalist...
  



• Cinematical Seven: Seven Men Gone Too Soon
  

  Filed under: Obits, Cinematical Seven, Lists

  
  
  For me, it started with the deaths of comedic greats like Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason. Death had become real and tangible, making the world and showbusiness finite. Since then, the numbers have gradually increased. We're slowly walking into the period where memorials and tributes aren't relegated to actors before our time, but to the names and faces that shaped our views of entertainment -- the people who we have spent so much time with on the big screen, and within the comfort of our own homes.
  
  But we're not just losing people to age. 2008 has been a heavy year for Hollywood,...
  



• Cinematical Seven: More Than One Woman ... (The Bechdel Rule)
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Gay & Lesbian, Independent, Cinematical Seven

  
  
  
  The other day, a blog entry from the cinetrix about "The Rule" evoked a flood of memories from my love-movies-hate-the-patriarchy college days. In 1989, my then-roommate's then-girlfriend showed me a comic strip from the series Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel. The strip was called "The Rule" and it was about a character who explained that she only went to movies that met three criteria:
  
  1. Two of the characters had to be women --
  2. Who talked with each other --
  3. About something other than a man.



• Cinematical Seven: Stupid Things Last Men on Earth Do
  

  Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Cinematical Seven

  
  
  By: Peter Martin (original publish date: December 12, 2007)
  
  (With the Cine-staff off on a late-July mini-vacation, we thought it'd be fun to bring you some of our favorite pieces from years past. Enjoy!)
  
  As a longtime science fiction aficionado with a weakness for special effects, Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend is catnip to me. That doesn't mean I won't be watching with a critical eye, though. I've accumulated a long list of pet peeves about the way that "last man on earth" stories are told,...
  



• Cinematical Seven: Actors Who Could Play Siblings, etc.
  

  Filed under: Fandom, Cinematical Seven, Nicole Kidman

  
  
  Occasionally Hollywood cobbles together random members of the A-list to play family members on film, even if their genes obviously come from opposite ends of the earth. If the actors are good enough or if the chemistry is there, sometimes the combo can work, such as Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman as brothers in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead or Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor in Cassandra's Dream. Other times, it stretches credibility, such as Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman in The Darjeeling Limited. My all-time favorite oddball casting is...