Favorite Non-Blockbuster Movies Edition

A few weeks ago, I had mentioned something about doing a blog about some of my favorite movies that are smaller movies. Sure, I love the great blockbuster. Who doesn't like a movie where the hero must protect the world from blowing up and does it with just .001 seconds left on a timer? I know I do. But I also like the smaller movies. They never seem to get the press of the bigger movies, but doesn't make them any less enjoyable. So I thought I would show you, my loyal readers, a few of my smaller favorite movies. Hopefully you will enjoy them as much as I do!

Starting with the movie Beautiful Girls. It's a comedy drama about a bunch of friends who get together for their ten year high school reunion. The more things change, the more they stay the same for these friends. The cast includes Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillion, Rosie O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, Lauren Holly, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino and a very young Natalie Portman.

Another movie about a reunion of sorts that I love is called Indian Summer. This time instead of a high school reunion, former campers return to their favorite summer camp for a week but this time as adults. Again, the campers fall into the same patterns they did as children. The cast includes Alan Arkin, Diane Lane, Bill Paxton, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Kevin Pollack, Elizabeth Perkins, and believe it or not director Sam Raimi.

The Tag line drew me in at first. "The only thing more frightening then murder... high school". The movie is called Hiding Out. Jon Cryer plays a stock broker who is called to testify against a mob boss for insider trading. The mob boss sends a hit man after him. While attempting to flee the mob boss, he is mistaken for a high school student in his cousin's school. Part action, part drama, part fish out of water movie. It co-stars Keith Coogan and Annabeth Gish. This movie is pure 1980's!

Even though the leading lady was nominated for an Oscar, I don't think that Almost Famous ever got the respect it deserved. A fifteen year old boy pretends to be a reporter for Rolling Stone in an attempt to interview a band on the road gets more then he expected on his trip. Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Zooey Deschanel, and Anna Paquin fill out the cast of this amazing movie written and directed by Cameron Crowe.

So there you have it. Four of my favorite under appreciated movies of all time. I hope they will bring you as much joy and pleasure as they have brought me over the years. Check them out and let me know what you think of them!

The Hypocritical Edition

I know this is normally an entertainment blog, but something that happened recently has kind of gotten my attention and I wanted a chance to speak about it. By now everyone knows what happened during the Boston Marathon last week. This isn't going to be about that, though I do have a lot to say about that as well. An entire city was locked down because of the attack for a few days. When the city basically reopened, there was a pre-game event at the Boston Red Sox game. During that event, Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz dropped an F bomb on National Television. I understand he was speaking from the heart and that's why the FCC didn't fine NESN for it. Now, let's say that you finally landed your dream job (or at least something that will allow you to possibly land your dream job) and you are nervous on your first day. That sounds pretty reasonable, right? I think we have all been guilty of this, right? Well, A.J. Clemente was a news anchor who finally got a chance to be on air. And what better way to start your new job then to drop an F Bomb on live TV. Not surprisingly, he was fired for it. Isn't this rather hypocritical though? I would like to hear your thoughts on this please?

Another RIP to throw out there, unfortunately. Comedian Jonathan Winters recently died. He was 87 years old. Not everyone knows the name, which is a shame. He was a very funny man that helped influence a lot of comedians in the last thirty years. He was a great improv comedian. My first memories of him was hosting a TV show about football bloopers. He was dressed as a referee. But to most people, he will be remembered as Robin Williams' son in the show Mork and Mindy.

While doing an interview for his new movie "Pain and Gain" Director Michael Bay was quoted for apologizing for his 1998 movie Armageddon. He isn't the only person I have heard apologize for the movie, or at least regret the movie. Billy Bob Thornton had said of all this movie roles, this is the one he regrets the most. He admitted to only making the movie for the paycheck. Michael Bay has now come forward to say that the quote was taken out of context and he regrets only how the movie came out because it was rushed at the end. I have heard a lot of people who trash this movie and I just don't get it. I freely admit to really enjoying this movie. Is it a perfect movie? No, not at all. But let's face it, there are a lot of movies that are not perfect. It is a great popcorn movie, regardless of the plausibility of it. Most movies are not based on anything that remotely can happen. In fact one of the reasons we go to the movies is to suspend reality. Does it make sense to send drillers to an asteroid to put a bomb it? No. But then again, a rich man dressing as a flying rodent to stop a man talking through a weird voice changer doesn't make sense either. But that didn't stop people from flocking to see Dark Knight Rises. There is no reason for a director to ever apologize for a movie.

RIP Icons Edition

They say that celebrities die in threes. Unfortunately in the last four days, they were right.

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert died this past week after a long battle with cancer. With his partner Gene Siskel and later on Richard Roeper, Ebert was by far the most famous film critic in the world. He started reviewing movies back in 1967 for the Chicago Sun-Times and has been reviewing movies ever since. There are few people in this world that loved movies as much as Roger Ebert.  He has also appeared in several movies and television shows, most times as himself. He, along with his two thumbs up, will be missed.  Here is a review he made just last year. He was 70 years old. Because he was a huge fan of the restaurant Steak N Shake, my fiancee and I ate that yesterday in honor of him.

Today we lost Annette Funicello. Along with Frankie Avalon, they were two of the original Mouseketeers. Long before there was Justin and Brtitney, there was Frankie and Annette.She was a child actress and singer.  Annette was discovered by Walt Disney himself in 1955. They continued to be partners for years, making several movies together as well. I first learned of her in a movie called Back To The Beach, also starring Avalon. She was also 70 years old.

Normally, I am only an entertainment blogger.  But there are people that just transcend certain labels. So it is my responsibility to mention that former Prime Minster of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher has also passed away today. She inspired a movie two years ago starring Meryl Streep. She was 87 years old at the time of her passing.

The Sequel Edition

How Many times do you hear that there is nothing new in Hollywood? "There are no original ideas" "There are too many sequels" "Everything is based on a book or just a pointless sequel"

I hate to be the one who breaks this to you. Sequels are nothing new. They aren't going to go away anytime soon. They are a fixture in the movie industry. And every single genre has had its big hits and terrible misses by tapping into a well that has been successful.

A perfect example is the horror genre. No one film genre has used the sequel more than the horror genre. Don't believe me? How many times can Freddy Krueger be destroyed and still come back? Apparently the number is 6. That doesn't include the spin-off Freddy vs Jason or the remake. And speaking of Jason, we have seen eight different Friday the 13th movies for him. But that's not all. What about Michael Myers? He is tied with Jason for appearances. And that's just from the original series, not including the sequel to a remake. But it's not just old horror movies that keep finding their way to the theaters. Jigsaw and his partners at Saw had seven different movies. In fact, the slogan for the movie was once something along the lines of "If it is October, it must be Saw". Paranormal Activity has only had four movies, but I am sure there will be a fifth one coming this October.

Then the other side of the spectrum from horror is the kiddie cartoons. Sequels have only been more noticeable in the last few years when it comes to cartoons, but they were always around. Think about how many Disney movie sequels went straight to VHS or DVD. But with Ice Age and Madagascar and now all the Pixar sequels that we have seen recently, you can see animators are hard at work to catch up to their live action counterparts. But then again, you have a movie like the Land Before Time which has an amazing thirteen movies in its series!

Action movies are anything but immune from the sequel treatment. They don't tend to have as many sequels, but again it depends on the series. After all John McClaine has been dying hard for five movies now. Axel Foley has been a cop in both Detroit and Los Angeles three times. Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte made 2 48 Hours movies (96 hours?). You would think Murtagh would have retired after the first Lethal Weapon movie, he was too old for that (stuff) even back then, but we saw three more movies after that! And now the big IT action series is Fast and The Furious. Pre-production for Number 7 has all ready begun.

Again, with comedies we have seen several successful franchises recently. Whether it be the Hangover movies or American Pies. But there are not nearly as many comedy franchises as all the other genres we talked about.

The Godfather is one of the most popular movies of all time. It was made back in 1972. And just two years later, there was a sequel. Then sixteen years later, it became a trilogy. I mean, seriously Hollywood? Isn't it time to revive it? And for the record, I am just kidding!

All this talk about sequels, I decided to do a little research. I started back from 1990 and moved up to 2012. I counted how many movies ended the year in the top ten that were sequels. So out of the 220 movies, 71 of them were sequels of some sorts. I'm honestly surprised that it's less than that. 1/3 of the most successful movies in the last 22 years are sequels. Only four years in that time didn't have any sequels in the top ten of that year. And I have a feeling we will see more of that with so many other sequels coming in the next five years or so!

The Curious Case of Silver Linings at The Box Office

I have made it very well known (or at least I think I have) that I support the movie "Silver Linings Playbook". From the minute I saw the trailer I thought it looked like an excellent movie. And as the weeks approached to the premiere I grew more excited for it. I have admitted that it is not my usual style of movie (a future blog about that will be coming) but I still knew that I wanted to see it. Both my girlfriend and I were waiting for the movie.

I mean who wouldn't be. It was written and directed by a previous Oscar nominee. The main character's parents were played by people who had previously been nominated, and in the case of his father actually won an Oscar. Plus it had young stars that are slowly reaching top acting statuses. And while we are at it, it featured Chris Tucker who hadn't been seen really since Rush Hour 3!

Nothing about this movie says blockbuster. Mental disease and dancing can't really compare to super hero movies these days when it comes to Box Office. So when Silver Linings started off slowly, no one was surprised. I know a few people that still haven't even heard of this movie to this day.

It only opened on sixteen screens its first weekend, grossing $ 443,003 (Figures according to IMDB). Its second weekend it expanded to three hundred sixty seven screens and grossed $ 4,383,669. These numbers are not stellar at all, especially when the movie cost approximately $21,000,000. The numbers slowly got better, but it still didn't gross nearly what it cost to make.

That all changed the morning of January 24th when Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane announced the nominees for the Oscars. By that point Silver Linings had been in the theaters for eight weeks, a time most movies start to climb down the charts and make their way to DVD retailers near you. But thanks to all those nominations, Silver Linings had a second life. According to Entertainment Weekly it grossed five million dollars that week. It was only the tenth highest grossing movie of that weekend, but the fact is it grossed 39 % higher than it did the weekend before.

And the numbers continue to rise. For a movie that only made $443,003 its opening weekend it sits on the verge of grossing $100 million dollars now, thanks to the nominations of Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Jacki Weaver and director David O. Russell and the win by Jennifer Lawrence. For most people that analyze movies, that is a good mark to have. It's something only thirty movies did in all of 2012.

Oscar 2013 Wrap Up Edition

Welcome Back to the Entertainment Guru News and Views Oscars 2013 Wrap up Edition. There were a few surprises in this year's ceremony. Which is of course always a good thing. No one wants to see it if it's completely predictable. But we will get into the winners in just a few minutes.

We will start with my thoughts on your Oscars host Seth McFarlane. I am not a fan of his TV work (ie Family Guy, American Dad, or the Cleveland Show) but I did want to see Ted and I think he has an amazing voice. For anyone that hasn't heard him, you will enjoy this. At first I was a little skeptical about him hosting the Oscars. His brand of humor doesn't fit what the Oscars stand for. If it did, Ace Ventura and Anchorman would both be Oscar winners. But after watching his performance as host, I thought he did a good job. Was it great? Was he the best Host ever? No, I don't think so. Maybe he pushed a few boundaries that didn't need to be pushed, but you have to know that the producers got exactly what they asked for with him. I think the skit with William Shatner went a little too long, but that really was my only complaint.

I fell for the rumors that they were going to have all the actors who played James Bond on the stage at the same time for the first time in history. I think that would have been a piece of cinematic history, but unfortunately that didn't happen. It is the 50 anniversary of Bond on the big screen. It would have been a nice touch, but another rumor I had heard was that Pierce Brosnan refused to do it. So I can understand not doing it if all of them weren't there.

I think that J-Law, Daniel Day-Lewis and Anne Hathaway winning were almost guaranteed to win and they did. Christoph Waltz winning was definitely a surprise to me. But not to my girlfriend Lori, but there will be more on that a little later. I liked that Argo won Best Picture. It definitely deserved it. It almost (BUT NOT QUITE) made up for the Academy not recognizing Ben Affleck as both an Actor and director.

If it was anyone else, I would have enjoyed watching them trip up on the steps. But not Jennifer Lawrence. I think she will be a multiple time winner throughout her career.

Last week I ran a contest between myself, my girlfriend Lori and a fellow blogger ThePeverettPhile. What I forgot to mention was that since there was only going to be nine categories, if it ended in a tie then if one of us was able to get Best Picture winner they would win. Well, untimely that didn't matter. So without further adieu, I give you the standings from this challenge.

In third place with a record of 5-4 was my girlfriend Lori. She correctly guessed Christoph Waltz, J-Law, Anne Hathaway and Brave (Animated Movie) and Argo

In second place was me with a 6-3 record. I guessed Daniel Day-Lewis, J-Law, Anne Hathaway, both screenplays and Brave.

So winning the first ever Entertainment Guru News and Views Oscar Prediction Challenge, Congratulations to Jason for getting 7-2 only missing Supporting Actor and Director.

After not being around for a long time, I promise that I will continue to blog!

Oscars 2013 Edition

Welcome to the return of the Entertainment Guru News and Views. It's been a long time coming (again, I know) but I am back with a much happier blog then my last one. It's Oscar season so what better reason to make my return than to talk about some of the movies I have seen that are up for a few statues. Plus I have a first ever contest for the Entertainment Guru News and Views Blog.

Watching movies that are usually up for Best Picture are not my normal cinematic viewing. I tend to watch dumb comedies or action movies with little to no plot. But my girlfriend Lori and I wanted to expand my movie horizons. So this year alone we went and saw four of the movies that are up for Best Picture. We saw Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, and Lincoln. All four are up for multiple awards this Sunday.

I enjoyed all of them, though two stood out above the rest. Acting wise, all four of the movies had great casts and not one single horrible performance. The Academy really messed up with Argo. What made Ben Affleck's performance so incredible was that he was doing double duty on both sides of the camera. Yet the Academy Of Motion Pictures failed to reward him with a nomination for either which I am still in shock about. There are a few historical inaccuracies about the movie, but some of that was for dramatic effect. No one is up in arms about it, as they are with some of the inaccuracies about Lincoln, which I find hysterical.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/02/06/connecticut-congressman-challenges-lincolns-historical-accuracy/

I am really hoping that Silver Linings Playbook does really well. It's one of those movies I secretly love. It's the kind of story that makes me want to start writing again. It combines some real dramatic moments with some great funny moments too. It's the perfect blend of a movie.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy Lincoln and Les Mis, just not as much as Silver Linings and Argo. Lincoln was just a little too dry for me. Daniel Day-Lewis completely washed himself into the character as he always does. I was glad to see James Spader as the comic relief, especially when he runs! Regardless of what people were saying about Russell Crowe's singing in Les Mis, he wasn't bad at all. It was only bad when he was singing against Hugh Jackman, but whose singing wouldn't be bad when compared to his?

As you may know I appear on The Peverett Phile as a correspondent at times so I thought I would invite Jason to my blog for the first time in an Oscar contest. Also included today is my girlfriend Lori. We picked the nine biggest categories with who we thought would win. So here we go.

My picks were: Actor Daniel Day-Lewis Supporting Actor Tommy Lee Jones Actress Jennifer Lawerence Supporting Actress Anne Hathaway Director David O. Russell Original Screenplay Django Unchained Adapted Screenplay Argo Animated Film Brave Picture Silver Linings Playbook

Lori's Picks were: Actor Hugh Jackman Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz Actress Jennifer Lawerence Supporting Actress Anne Hathaway Director Steven Spielberg Original Screenplay Moonrise Kingdom Adapted Screenplay Silver Linings Playbook Animated Film Brave Picture Argo

Jason's Picks were: Actor Daniel Day-Lewis Supporting Actor Tommy Lee Jones Actress Jennifer Lawerence Supporting Actress Anne Hathaway Director Steven Spielberg Original Screenplay Django Unchained Adapted Screenplay Argo Animated Film Brave Picture Argo/p>