Out of Focus

Somehow I missed this when it was first reported by E! Online in January, but inclusion in today’s Variety (sub. req’d) makes it more real anyway: “Many meetings, meals and plane tickets later, the producing trio have finally announced their team to make Elle Woods sing and dance in a Broadway musical.”

That’s right kids … if a really disappointing and stupid sequel and a failed TV-pilot weren’t enough, now you can look forward to Legally Blonde, the Musical! Don’t get me wrong; I liked the original movie as much as the next guy … or girl. Whatever. It was frothy fun with a cleverly written, if not terribly complex, script. But there is really no reason whatsoever that this should go forward as a musical.

As I mentioned the other day, there’s this relatively new and not-so-relatively annoying trend right now of adapting films into stage musicals. The reasoning is simple: it’s much more of a sure thing to take successful mass entertainment, transform it and sell it as something completely new. With the Broadway stage where any investment is a big one without any certainty of recoupment, that kind of name, or rather brand, recognition is important. It won’t guarantee a success by any means (anyone remember Big: The Musical or — no I’m not kidding — Carrie: The Musical?), but it sure as hell helps.

But people, please. Let’s show some discretion. The pending creators of this version of Legally Blonde are the same people who made Thoroughly Modern Millie, which is about to close after it’s nearly two year run and six Tony wins. Millie was a thoroughly enjoyable show, but it wasn’t anything special, and it too was an adaptation of a film made in 1967 starring Julie Andrews. But that film was already a musical, and it wasn’t anything special either.

It’s one thing to reinvent The Full Monty or the original The Little Shop of Horrors, or to extend the natural musical comedy tendencies of something like The Producers. I even was able to accept a little bit of Footloose: The Musical — although it was pretty bad. But I really couldn’t care any less about seeing Elle Woods sing while holding her yappy dog wearing a pink boa — apparently because he’s gay, according to said previously-mentioned sequel.

And back to that E! story, that goes double for Rocky.

Before I take it upon myself to ignore the rest of the wall-to-wall Reagan coverage, there are a couple movie-related bits of Regan-info I thought I’d pass along. Also, I have a question maybe someone can answer that I consider even more perplexing than the one which troubled me for so many years: how the hell do they get the cream into the middle of a Twinkie. (For those of you worried, I’ve discovered the answer, although it’s still damn hard to believe!)

First, you should take a look at Richard Corliss’ article from the current Time Magazine. Corliss provides a pretty good overview of “His Days in Hollywood, paying special attention to his role as second banana.

In 1966, movie mogul Jack Warner returned from a European trip to hear that an actor who used to work for him was running for Governor of California. “No, no,” Warner famously said. “Jimmy Stewart for Governor. Ronald Reagan for Best Friend.” Second lead. Second best. Best friend. Genial loser. That was Reagan throughout his 15-year tenure at Warner Bros. and in most of his films.

It’s interesting to consider what might have happened had Reagan become a bigger star. As Corliss also mentions in the lede:

In early 1942 Reagan was announced for a lead role, with his frequent co-star Ann Sheridan, in a film of the play Everyone Comes to Rick’s. After a round of Hollywood-casting roulette, Warner made the film without Reagan or Sheridan. They called it Casablanca.

Casablanca would have obviously been a much different film without Bogie and Bergman, and probably not as big a hit or as good a film since Reagan and Sheridan were lesser actors, or at least less-iconic.

But if Reagan had been a bigger Hollywood star, truly a Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney or Errol Flynn type, or a Glenn Ford or Edmond O’Brien even, he never would have had to escape to television, and without General Electric Theater and his traveling to GE factories around the country, one has to wonder if he might have been content as president of the Screen Actors Guild or if he even would have taken on a position such as that. That’s not to say Reagan wasn’t always political, but it wasn’t until he started speaking, primarily as a pitchman for GE, and taking very public anti-Communist stances in the 50s that the powers-that-be came to him to run for political office.

Of course, Reagan was never going to be a huge star. His greatest strength as a politician was his amiability, and the same could be said for his talent as an actor. Reagan had that unexplainable screen presence, but not much else. It’s not that he was ever a bad actor; he just wasn’t an exceptional one either.

But don’t take my word for it. As they’re wont to do, TCM has dedicated all of their programming today and through the night to movies featuring Reagan. (Shockingly, there’s no Knute Rockne, All American.) They will show one of his better films, Kings Row at 8 PM, followed by the Raoul Walsh 1942 war film Desperate Journey, one of three times Reagan co-starred with Errol Flynn. (Tangentially, I’m always fascinated with WWII films that were shot during the earlier years of US involvement in the war. It’s difficult to remember that everything we now know about the Nazis and the outcome of WWII was still a mystery and unfolding as these films were being produced and released. What a different experience it must have been for moviegoers in 1942.)

So take a look if you want to see what all the fuss wasn’t about, and why Doc Brown’s disbelief when Marty McFly mentions that Ronald Reagan is the president in 1985 was so appropriate. (“Ronald Reagan? The actor? Who’s Vice President? Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jane Wyman is the first lady.” — Nancy must have loved that one!)

Finally, a question for everyone — what is it with these thousands of people braving the heat and humidity of the Washington Mall in order to walk by a casket with a flag draped over it. I’d call it morbid, but it’s not even because what are they looking at? There’s something off about it. Especially since, what if he’s not even in there. Oh, I’m not doubting that he’s dead, and he’s obviously been through the Six Feet Under treatment (how great would it be if Alan Ball was able to quickly change the opening death of the new season to Reagan?), but seriously. It’s a box. And a flag. And it’s just weird to me, regardless of who the person is.

“Deeming his ‘personal life’ off-limits, Marc Anthony dodged questions Tuesday about whether he and Jennifer Lopez (news) got married this past weekend.”

Uhm … Marc … did she drug you or something? I mean, we’ve seen the pictures. (From The Sun via Defamer and Stereogum.) At a certain point, isn’t denying or no comment-ing just a little bit absurd. Scratch that. No little bit about it. It’s utterly ridiculous. Your “personal life” may be “off-limits,” but why not give that answer after simply saying, “Yes we did, but really, I’d prefer to keep my personal life private.” Especially when you’re also wearing a new wedding band while performing on national TV just weeks after your well-publicized divorce.

On May 31, I saw this post on defamer.com, and I worried that the good ol’ days of porn in Times Square were definitely gone for good, but that the jackasses in LA were still enjoying a nice billboard for some erotic entertainment when driving down the Sunset Strip.

How happy was I to discover earlier today that my worries were completely unfounded. Walking home from work, up Seventh Avenue in the mid-40s, what did I see but the very same Jenna Jameson movie advertised above one of the few remaining “gentlemen’s clubs” in the Times Square area. I thought it only appropriate that my very first photo posted to this blog be a photo of that billboard. (Click photos to make larger.)

Actually, more interesting to me was comparing the billboard for the obviously soon-to-be porn classic The Masseuse with the billboard that lives right next to it. Which movie will actually be better? I might be placing my bets on Jenna!

And is it just me, or should the tag line on the I, Robot billboard seem almost more appropriate for Jenna’s movie, and vice-versa.

I wanted to do my own part to honor J. Lo’s wedding to the recently divorced Marc Anthony, and what with the cinetrix throwing fuel on the flame of Starz!’s “double-dog dare,” I thought what better way to celebrate the wedding and pending divorce of these two lovebirds by seeing living proof of why Bennifer could never have worked.

That’s right kids: I sat through Gigli. That’s the kind of public service you get here at Out of Focus. I sacrificed two hours of my life for your reading pleasure.

Actually, I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t seen Gigli previously since I am a voting member of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation. And I must say, I went into my Gigli experience expecting all the hype to be just that. There were some remarkably atrocious movies last year, and I throw 2 Fast, 2 Furious, Bad Boys II and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at the very top of that list. Still, after now seeing Gigli, I can whole-heartedly agree that the film, Bennifer and most importantly writer-director Martin Brest wholeheartedly deserved their Razzie dis-honors!

Ben and Jen exhibit no chemistry at all, and Affleck is simply laughable as a mob heavy. But the real reason this movie has not one redeeming moment falls in the lap of one of the top hacks working today, and that’s Mr. Brest. Brest wasn’t so terrible with his earlier hits Beverly Hills Cop and Midnight Run, but I’m willing to bet those movies worked more due to their talented casts and Brest staying out of the way. With both Scent of a Woman and Meet Joe Black, he started to exhibit a propensity for making really overlong movies. Clocking in at 3 hours, Meet Joe Black was in desperate need of an editor to stop me from wanting to jump into the screen and walk off with Joe/Brad Pitt a/k/a Death. The movie was absolutely terrible, but it had a good movie hidden underneath.

Gigli is only two hours, but like Meet Joe Black and the underwhelming Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino‘s life achievement Oscar not-withstanding, it was still a good hour to 90 minutes too long.

The cinetrix provides a brief example (scroll to end of post) of how ludicrous the dialogue is in Gigli, but as a further public service, I took it upon myself to transcribe the dialogue of the following scene which truly presents in a neat little package everything that is wrong with this movie.

Continue reading “IN CELEBRATION OF THE NUPTIALS”

On the flip side of my hedged but laudatory Reagan comments (at least, that’s what they were meant to be), some additional views via Alternet.

The first paying particular attention to how all the plaudits placed upon Reagan in the current news coverage deals with his personality more than his achievements. “Today, as the media pours out its tributes, as the Washington Post lavishes over 10,000 words, as Senator John Kerry praises good old Ronnie to the skies, much of the commentary is about personality, almost all of it is laudatory, and I have been unable to find one mention of hostages in Iran.”

Also, more critical and unflinching, even: “66 (Unflattering) Things About Ronald Reagan”

I’m nowhere near as good at this as TMFTML, but …

“Of course, a woman must attract a man’s attention, but not so much as to overstep norms and arouse not business-like but only animal instincts.”

First of all, I’m a registered democrat, and I sit firmly on the left side of that central divide, albeit not teetering on the edge ready to fall-off the seesaw. I voted for Gore, I plan to vote for Kerry, and the current administration utterly terrifies me. With that in mind, watching the coverage of Ronald Reagan’s death this weekend was fascinating, and there was a little part of me that said to myself, I wish he was our president now rather than the guy we’ve got.

My grandfather was actually a very staunch Republican which was odd for a Jew living in San Francisco. In fact, odd may not be strong enough a word. It was virtually unheard of. He was a big supporter of Reagan and California politicians such as George Deukmajian and Pete Wilson. (If he were still alive, I would love to know how he feels about Gov. Terminator.) I’m sure I missed many a fascinating political argument between my grandfather and my father and his siblings during Vietnam and Watergate (being not-quite three when Nixon resigned, my memories are fuzzy), especially concerning Reagan’s conduct as then Governor of California.

Ideologically, there’s very little that Reagan preached with which I agree, but watching the coverage, I was reminded that he was the kind of politician whom I could respect — at least as far as any politician is respectable. George W. came into office with his famous pledge of being a “uniter, not a divider,” yet almost immediately he managed to create, or at least help propagate, a greater schism between the parties than had existed in a long while, maybe ever. Reagan, on the other hand, if he was a master at anything was a master at being likable, and even his most ferocious political enemies always seemed to like him. His relationship with then Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil is legendary: the two were bitter political rivals yet reportedly they got along famously when governing was not the issue at hand. And while George W. “won” by the narrowest of margins because the country seems to be split ideologically, Reagan won, and then won again four years later, because he actually attracted an entirely new demographic, a group so large, it was given its own name: the Reagan Democrats.

60 Minutes dedicated all but Andy Rooney’s segment of last night’s show to remembering Reagan, and there were two clips that particularly struck me.

Continue reading “I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M MOVED TO WRITE THIS POST, BUT NEVERTHELESS, R.I.P. GIPPER”

I wouldn’t believe it generally, but sometimes I suppose I can be far more cynical than necessary. I realize I’ve suddenly been writing (relatively) a lot about the Tony Awards, and considering that said prize covers an even smaller amount of important theater than the Oscars cover film, I almost feel like I’ve been mentioning them more than they deserve. But since I’ve been bemoaning the pending Tony sweep by Wicked over what is in my opinion the best new musical I’ve seen in at least the last five years, I was obviously incredibly surprised that the show which features stars made of felt and songs with titles such as “Schadenfreude,” “If You Were Gay,” “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” “The Internet Is For Porn” and “I Wish I Could Go Back to College” would win the prize for Best Musical. But tonight, Avenue Q was in fact the little David that beat the big, powerful, commercial Goliath. (Seriously, if you’re in New York, go see the show. I’ve yet to give this recommendation to anyone and not have them love it. And if you’re not, thankfully this win will help guarantee a national tour, so enjoy it when it comes to your town.)

Continue reading “WHO KNEW ANTOINETTE LIKED THE FULL PUPPET NUDITY?”

• Not sure how I missed it for so long, but if you want to read some smart writing about film (debateable since you’re presently visiting this site), you should definitely check out The High Sign. I found it today thanks to Cynthia, who recommended the site’s review of Troy, which I should note is cleverly written in pseudo Homeric blank verse. I’m also particularly fond of the author’s insights on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, still my favorite film of the year.
• Eisner speaks, and both Variety (subscription req’d) and indieWIRE (no subscription req’d so go here!) were there. He made som choice comments on several subjects. My favorite is his response to questions regarding the future of the relationship between Disney and Miramax. I’m sure in the ongoing talks over the Weinstein Brothers contracts, I’m not sure which of these comments will help more. The one behind Door #1: “… Miramax is a 100% owned entity of the Walk Disney Company and that’s the way we treat it, and by the way, we like it.” Or, is it what’s behind Door #2, Mike? “They were a little boutique making independent films, they are now more of a major spending a lot more money and these and are ongoing conversations, friendly conversations, with the management of Miramax.” (Both quotes from the indieWIRE story.) I’m guessing Harvey and Bob are really excited by the characterization that if it was not for Disney, Miramax would just be “a little boutique.” Of course, Eisner’s mouth and regular ability to alienate his company’s top assets are responsible for the fact that Pixar will be leaving the Disney stable, even if he “won’t believe (Disney’s relationship with Pixar) is over until it’s over.” (from the Variety story)

• Also in Variety, “John Lithgow will headline Broadway tuner Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” Lithgow will apparently play the role handled by Michael Caine opposite Norbert Leo Butz (known to Broadway theater-goers, if not the rest of the country, and currently starring in Wicked) in the Steve Martin role. Lithgow is a phenomenal actor, and he won a Tony for taking the lead in another even more truly classic film to be adapted into a musical, Sweet Smell of Success. The show had a talented pedigree of creators with John Guare writing the book and Marvin Hamlisch handling the music. It received horrible reviews, and I never saw it because Tony not-withstanding, the damn thing closed in just three months. Here’s hoping Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is given better treatment. On the positive side, David Yazbeck is writing the music and lyrics while Jack O’Brien directs. They are the same people responsible for the quite wonderful adaptation of The Full Monty that played The Great White Way for nearly two years and, for all I know, is still out on tour. They did justice to the film (maybe even bettering it in places), although they did have Terrence McNally writing their book on that one while Jeffrey Lane will handle those duties here.

• Reacting to a cover story in LA Weekly, GreenCine Daily briefly but intelligently ponders the current state of/mourning over the American independent film movement and the recent rise in popularity of documentaries. With all of that in mind, I think I might try to get to Control Room today down at Film Forum.