The Weather Channel announced earlier this week that they are adding feature movies to their programming diet of forecast updates. First up is "The Perfect Storm." We've taken it upon ourselves to program some movies for a few other cablers. 1. Fox News Channel — Depending on your point of view, the Murdoch-Ailes news network is either a platform for dangerously cynical demagogues or...
Peter Bart of Variety informs us that the movie Red Dawn is going to be remade. He liked it even less than Carol and I did. I think I remember us leaving after about forty-five minutes or so. The jingoism was loud, clumsy and inane. Bart explains what happened: Peter Bart: MGM, for example, is recrafting a curious ’80s movie called "Red Dawn," and I can’t quite figure out why....
The Story: Marlon Brando was fat. That was the problem. You look at the planned shooting script of "Apocalypse Now," and that ending just blows you away. It would have been a battle extravaganza, tinged with LSD and morphine, and protagonists warring against both sides. That's what John Milius was looking for—a big, beautiful blow-out of a night fighting scene, not unlike the big cavalry...
With Patrick Swayze's passing, it's tempting to eulogize him for his role in Red Dawn. I liked Mr. Swayze as an actor and he was certainly very successful at it. But so what? I often like Alec Baldwin's acting and he is very successful too. Politically though, I despise Baldwin and he will rue the day if we ever meet. Patrick Swayze was a licensed pilot with an instrument rating. There is an accomplishment...
TOM CRUISE's adopted son has landed a role in the remake of the movie that helped propel the late PATRICK SWAYZE to stardom.Connor Cruise, 14, will join Watchmen star...
continuing the eighties theme that seems to be creeping up round my ankles like so much neon sewage here, i’ll pay a brief musical tribute in this spare five minutes to one of the decades sterling performers. three things i dug about swayzees career: john milius’ demented p(r)opaganda piece, red dawn the mad genius of next of kins [...]
Fox News and other media outlets are reporting the death of actor Patrick Swayze: After a very long and public battle with pancreatic cancer, actor Patrick Swayze died at home Monday with his family and friends at his side. He was 57. Swayze, who was diagnosed in January 2008, defied the odds in many ways – living for more than a year-and-half with this extremely deadly form of cancer. During...
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a very, very busy man. Having shot the thriller The Resident earlier this year, Dean Morgan moved immediately into production of the DC/Vertigo comic book adaptation The Losers , currently shooting in Puerto Rico. Now word comes from the actor himself that he'll be taking a role in the upcoming remake of the 1984 John Milius cult classic, Red Dawn . "I'm jumping back in,"...
The momentum behind writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn---a talent of significant interest for many of our staff---is culminating into numerous "man's man"-sounding projects. The Dane auteur behind the Pusher Trilogy and this winter's rollicking Bronson remains attached to direct Keanu Reeves in Jeckyl, a big-budget take on Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde, that would introduce him to the domestic...
This Distracted Globe has announced that its first ever carnival — The Class of ’84 Blogathon — will convene Monday, October 26, 2009. On this date, anyone with a website is invited to post their thoughts on a movie released in 1984. The registrar’s office has released the names of those scheduled to participate and the [...]