Comedians are mourning Ralphie May after the comedian died from cardiac arrest on Friday morning.
“Ralphie had been battling pneumonia and had canceled a handful of dates over the last month in an effort to recover,” May’s manager said in a statement. “Earlier this morning at a private residence in Las Vegas his body was discovered, cause of death is cardiac arrest.”
“Two days ago he won the Casino Comedian of the Year at the Global Gaming Expo and had performances throughout the remainder of 2017 as part of his residency at Harrah’s Las Vegas,” his manager continued.
Stars including Chris Rock,...
“Ralphie had been battling pneumonia and had canceled a handful of dates over the last month in an effort to recover,” May’s manager said in a statement. “Earlier this morning at a private residence in Las Vegas his body was discovered, cause of death is cardiac arrest.”
“Two days ago he won the Casino Comedian of the Year at the Global Gaming Expo and had performances throughout the remainder of 2017 as part of his residency at Harrah’s Las Vegas,” his manager continued.
Stars including Chris Rock,...
- 10/6/2017
- by Maria Pasquini
- PEOPLE.com
Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are true #friendshipgoals.
Stallone posted a portion of his speech to longtime pal (and sometimes rival) Arnold Schwarzenneger on Monday, in honor of the star's 70th birthday.
Holding the mic, Stallone compliments his friend, "You don't quit, you don't quit, and you still don't quit. It's boundless energy."
He also couldn't help but add in a little dig. "But, you've been a fantastic enemy and a better friend," he joked. "That's all I can say bro. Congratulations."
The two later hugged it out with big smiles.
One day earlier, 71-year-old Stallone shared a side by side pic on Instagram of the two stars at their buffest back in the day, adding the caption "Pre - Happy Birthday Arnold!!!! As long as you live and beyond, you're always going to be the "Big Man " who set the bar so high that it will never be surpassed, an action...
Stallone posted a portion of his speech to longtime pal (and sometimes rival) Arnold Schwarzenneger on Monday, in honor of the star's 70th birthday.
Holding the mic, Stallone compliments his friend, "You don't quit, you don't quit, and you still don't quit. It's boundless energy."
He also couldn't help but add in a little dig. "But, you've been a fantastic enemy and a better friend," he joked. "That's all I can say bro. Congratulations."
The two later hugged it out with big smiles.
One day earlier, 71-year-old Stallone shared a side by side pic on Instagram of the two stars at their buffest back in the day, adding the caption "Pre - Happy Birthday Arnold!!!! As long as you live and beyond, you're always going to be the "Big Man " who set the bar so high that it will never be surpassed, an action...
- 7/30/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
Exclusive: Company reveals debut slate of comedy, horror projects.
Fledgling UK production outfit Bad Owl Films has launched its debut slate, including two features made with India’s Cinestaan.
Ben Bond [pictured], whose credits include Killing Bono as a writer and the upcoming The Hungry as executive producer, will head up the company as creative director, alongside producer Iona Sweeney.
Former Screen Star of Tomorrow Andy Brunskill will provide consulting services.
Bond is the co-founder of commercials and TV production outfit Hoot Comedy, where Sweeney is head of broadcast. Going forward, they will continue in their positions at both companies.
Their new outfit Bad Owl Films will aim to produce between one and two feature films a year, focused on comedy and horror, with budgets in the £1-15m range.
Films on the company’s initial slate include: The Hungry, made in collaboration with Film London and Cinestaan, which is a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy Titus Andronicus and stars...
Fledgling UK production outfit Bad Owl Films has launched its debut slate, including two features made with India’s Cinestaan.
Ben Bond [pictured], whose credits include Killing Bono as a writer and the upcoming The Hungry as executive producer, will head up the company as creative director, alongside producer Iona Sweeney.
Former Screen Star of Tomorrow Andy Brunskill will provide consulting services.
Bond is the co-founder of commercials and TV production outfit Hoot Comedy, where Sweeney is head of broadcast. Going forward, they will continue in their positions at both companies.
Their new outfit Bad Owl Films will aim to produce between one and two feature films a year, focused on comedy and horror, with budgets in the £1-15m range.
Films on the company’s initial slate include: The Hungry, made in collaboration with Film London and Cinestaan, which is a retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy Titus Andronicus and stars...
- 6/29/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
After being lost in space for more than two decades, Rocko and his pals — and, you know, the Bigheads — are returning to Earth. And they’re all in for a rude awakening.
RelatedHey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie: Original Cast Will Return, Nick Confirms
Nickelodeon on Thursday officially announced that a one-hour TV special, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling, will reunite the animated series’ original voice cast as the characters adjust to life in the 21st century.
And some will adjust more successfully than others. Per the network, “Heffer and Filburt embrace every aspect of new technology, social...
RelatedHey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie: Original Cast Will Return, Nick Confirms
Nickelodeon on Thursday officially announced that a one-hour TV special, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling, will reunite the animated series’ original voice cast as the characters adjust to life in the 21st century.
And some will adjust more successfully than others. Per the network, “Heffer and Filburt embrace every aspect of new technology, social...
- 6/22/2017
- TVLine.com
Last week, Lenny Belardo seized the spotlight. Well, technically, he ordered it to be strategically switched off ... but it amounted to the same thing, as his shadowy presence was undoubtedly the star of the show. Tonight, however, The Young Pope relegated Pope Pius Xiii to the back seat and let his rebellious elders-cum-underlings take the wheel. This is where we learn what sort of men the newly crowned pontiff is up against.
Granted, it's a bit odd to say that Lenny played second fiddle in an episode stuffed this full...
Granted, it's a bit odd to say that Lenny played second fiddle in an episode stuffed this full...
- 1/23/2017
- Rollingstone.com
TORONTO -- You would not immediately think of Sean Penn for the role of Willie Stark, the powerful and hugely ambitious Southern politician around whom Robert Penn Warren's famous 1946 novel revolves. You think of a Big Man because the character was modeled after Louisiana's flamboyant governor Huey P. Long and was played in the original 1949 movie by Broderick Crawford, both stocky men. But Penn fills the screen with this cagey and cunning character, his oratory so loquacious an enemy would vote for him and a body seeming to move in several different directions with every step. In one of his greatest screen performances, Penn nails the contradictory and compelling genius of a small-time rural pol, who dreams and schemes his way to the top of a corrupt system designed to keep men like him on the outside.
This charismatic performance, surrounded by incisive turns by an all-star ensemble cast, gives furious energy to a movie that doesn't seem to know how to contain it. Writer-director Steven Zaillian's questionable solution is to fit this rambunctious portrait of unruly Southern politics in a monumental frame where Southern Gothic meets Leni Riefenstahl. Neo-classical buildings and old-money mansions tower over mere mortals or glower with oligarchic rage. Ominous darkness reaches into the corners of a screen that is as close to black-and-white as a color movie can achieve. James Horner's music thunders so melodramatically you expect lightning to fill the sky at any moment.
Audience can certainly find entertainment in this movie, so long as no one takes things too seriously. One suspects, however, that Zaillian and a vast team of producers and executive producers that includes political consultant and pundit James Carville believe they are making a serious commentary on American politics. It comes closer to kitsch. Columbia Pictures will have a job selling a movie where drawbacks nearly equal winning attributes, and its great star has never meant much at the boxoffice.
Curiously, Zaillian moves the story from the 1930s to the postwar era, apparently to let Willie Stark deliver his common-man message to integrated audiences, making it seem as if Stark/Long reached out to poor blacks as well as poor whites. He certainly never did.
This particular type of demagogue grew out of a rural region in a Southern state dominated by cigar-smoking old-boy politics of the worst sort. To defeat such men, Willie had to use their own methods against them. Thus, the idealist often worked outside the law and believed the ends always justified any means. Penn, in even Willie's earliest moments as a hick politician in a backwater town, conveys this duality. He truly believes in the hopes and aspirations of his "fellow hicks," but know he can't deliver on his promise by playing fair.
Lapsed idealist and alcoholic journalist Jack Burden (Jude Law), the novel and movie's eyes and ears, picks up on this aspect of Willie right away. From Old Southern aristocracy himself, he gloms onto Willie as a breath of fresh air blowing through smoke-filled rooms. Jack joins Willie's administration after he is elected. But when the governor is threatened by impeachment, Willie asks Jack to dig up dirt on the prominent Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins), a man who acted as father to Jack between and during his mother's (Kathy Baker) four marriages.
His reluctant sleuthing proves everyone's undoing as Jack is forced to confront his own past, including his long lost love, the daughter of a former governor, Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), and her melancholy brother Adam (Mark Ruffalo), the story's only true idealist. Meanwhile, Willis' press attache and sometime lover Sadie (Patricia Clarkson) jealously stirs the pot while Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini), a man of wide girth and low cunning, prods everyone with jabs of unimaginative pragmatism.
Subplots from the novel get shorn or abbreviated as the movie takes great leaps to get to its crucial moments. It can't afford too much subtlety, but then Willie is not a subtle guy. Nevertheless, the hammy neo-Third Reich trappings of the production design and cinematography feel disingenuous and imposed on a milieu and a political climate that produced a different kind of corruption. What you are left with then is a towering performance as Penn plays one of the great figures of 20th century American literature with a verve and vitality that is breathtaking.
This charismatic performance, surrounded by incisive turns by an all-star ensemble cast, gives furious energy to a movie that doesn't seem to know how to contain it. Writer-director Steven Zaillian's questionable solution is to fit this rambunctious portrait of unruly Southern politics in a monumental frame where Southern Gothic meets Leni Riefenstahl. Neo-classical buildings and old-money mansions tower over mere mortals or glower with oligarchic rage. Ominous darkness reaches into the corners of a screen that is as close to black-and-white as a color movie can achieve. James Horner's music thunders so melodramatically you expect lightning to fill the sky at any moment.
Audience can certainly find entertainment in this movie, so long as no one takes things too seriously. One suspects, however, that Zaillian and a vast team of producers and executive producers that includes political consultant and pundit James Carville believe they are making a serious commentary on American politics. It comes closer to kitsch. Columbia Pictures will have a job selling a movie where drawbacks nearly equal winning attributes, and its great star has never meant much at the boxoffice.
Curiously, Zaillian moves the story from the 1930s to the postwar era, apparently to let Willie Stark deliver his common-man message to integrated audiences, making it seem as if Stark/Long reached out to poor blacks as well as poor whites. He certainly never did.
This particular type of demagogue grew out of a rural region in a Southern state dominated by cigar-smoking old-boy politics of the worst sort. To defeat such men, Willie had to use their own methods against them. Thus, the idealist often worked outside the law and believed the ends always justified any means. Penn, in even Willie's earliest moments as a hick politician in a backwater town, conveys this duality. He truly believes in the hopes and aspirations of his "fellow hicks," but know he can't deliver on his promise by playing fair.
Lapsed idealist and alcoholic journalist Jack Burden (Jude Law), the novel and movie's eyes and ears, picks up on this aspect of Willie right away. From Old Southern aristocracy himself, he gloms onto Willie as a breath of fresh air blowing through smoke-filled rooms. Jack joins Willie's administration after he is elected. But when the governor is threatened by impeachment, Willie asks Jack to dig up dirt on the prominent Judge Irwin (Anthony Hopkins), a man who acted as father to Jack between and during his mother's (Kathy Baker) four marriages.
His reluctant sleuthing proves everyone's undoing as Jack is forced to confront his own past, including his long lost love, the daughter of a former governor, Anne Stanton (Kate Winslet), and her melancholy brother Adam (Mark Ruffalo), the story's only true idealist. Meanwhile, Willis' press attache and sometime lover Sadie (Patricia Clarkson) jealously stirs the pot while Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini), a man of wide girth and low cunning, prods everyone with jabs of unimaginative pragmatism.
Subplots from the novel get shorn or abbreviated as the movie takes great leaps to get to its crucial moments. It can't afford too much subtlety, but then Willie is not a subtle guy. Nevertheless, the hammy neo-Third Reich trappings of the production design and cinematography feel disingenuous and imposed on a milieu and a political climate that produced a different kind of corruption. What you are left with then is a towering performance as Penn plays one of the great figures of 20th century American literature with a verve and vitality that is breathtaking.
- 10/9/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
VENICE, Italy -- The first Pierogi Western, Summer Love is such an observant sendup of the Spaghetti variety that it falls into the trap of parody in becoming almost too serious for its own good. Shot on location in southern Poland and featuring mostly Polish actors but with English dialogue, the film is written, directed and produced by Warsaw-born first-timer Piotr Uklanski.
Screened out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, the picture will appeal to fans of Westerns and buffs who like to see movie conventions skewered.
Following the bare-bones structure of the Spaghetti Westerns, the film has the Stranger (Karel Roden) who brings the Wanted Man (Val Kilmer) into town to collect his bounty only to lose his reward in a bizarre bet with the Sheriff (Boguslaw Linda). There's the Woman (Katarzyna Figura) causing trouble and the Big Man (Krzysztof Zaleski) full of spite, and sundry other stereotypes.
Director of photography Jacek Petrycki (who has worked with Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieslowski), editor Mike Horton ("The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers") and composers Karel Holas and India Czajkowska make everything look and sound authentic.
There is plenty of violence, and lots of close-ups and strange angles as Uklanski has fun with the formula, though it's not trying to be Blazing Saddles. Typical of the filmmaker's dry sense of humor is that Kilmer, as the big Hollywood guest star, is dead throughout the picture.
Screened out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, the picture will appeal to fans of Westerns and buffs who like to see movie conventions skewered.
Following the bare-bones structure of the Spaghetti Westerns, the film has the Stranger (Karel Roden) who brings the Wanted Man (Val Kilmer) into town to collect his bounty only to lose his reward in a bizarre bet with the Sheriff (Boguslaw Linda). There's the Woman (Katarzyna Figura) causing trouble and the Big Man (Krzysztof Zaleski) full of spite, and sundry other stereotypes.
Director of photography Jacek Petrycki (who has worked with Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieslowski), editor Mike Horton ("The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers") and composers Karel Holas and India Czajkowska make everything look and sound authentic.
There is plenty of violence, and lots of close-ups and strange angles as Uklanski has fun with the formula, though it's not trying to be Blazing Saddles. Typical of the filmmaker's dry sense of humor is that Kilmer, as the big Hollywood guest star, is dead throughout the picture.
MONTREAL -- A winning follow-up to her first feature "2 Seconds", which won two awards at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival, writer-director Manon Briand's "La Turbulence des fluides" (Chaos and Desire) is the moody, beautifully executed story of an independent-minded seismologist who returns to her hometown in eastern Quebec to investigate a disturbing tidal phenomenon. Outside Canada, its commercial prospects are probably modest, but, with more festival playdates, Briand's reputation will benefit, and hopefully she'll keep turning out such high-quality work.
In addition to opening the 26th MWFF and setting a high standard for the other 25 features in the offical competition, the French-language "Turbulence" was generally embraced by festivalgoers and critics -- and managed to make one almost forget Olivier Ayache-Vidal's wild, six-minute short preceding it, which features a gun-waving member of the audience interrupting what looks like a trailer for a brainless Hollywood thriller and interacting with a scared couple onscreen.
In "Turbulence", Alice (Pascale Bussieres) was born in the small town of Baie-Comeau but has not been there in a long time. When the film opens, she's gently ending a one-night stand in Tokyo, where she works as a seismologist with a team looking for "precursor" events. At work, a report comes in that the ocean tides have stopped in the vicinity of Alice's hometown and she -- convinced that the "big one" is about to strike in Japan -- reluctantly goes to investigate.
Once in Quebec, it's impossible for her to ignore the many signs that nature and the locals are not right. It's unbearably warm for a place that has never relied on air conditioning, the tides have halted, a small child wanders the town at night in a trance, and everyone is haunted by the death of the wife of a strapping firefighting pilot, Marc (Jean-Nicolas Verreault), a year earlier.
But the unexpected reunion with old college friend Catherine (Julie Gayet), a journalist who makes no secret of her love for Alice, and late-night chats in a coffee shop run by an ex-nun (Genevieve Bujold), who remembers the lead's troublesome birth, start to chip away at Alice's professional detachment. Initially attracted to Marc, she waits a bit and then tries to have an affair, but the page of the phone book with his number is ripped out all across town.
While flirting with magic realism and loosely tying events of a personal or inconsequential nature with environmental phenomenon, "Turbulence" only stretches things a bit too far with the unexpected retrieval of a body from the ocean that should have long ago been consumed by denizens of the deep. Still, the way this is handled, as well as the climactic temblor that almost kills Alice, shows that Briand's skills as a cinematic storyteller are highly evolved.
In the lead role, Bussieres has the squinty look of a worldly woman who knows no master. The miracle of finding real love in the least expected time and place becomes the actress' task to convey, and it's a marvelous performance. French thespian Gayet is likewise delightful as the peppy girlfriend who helps Alice investigate the tides, while Bujold is perfectly cast. Also a presence that elevates the film, Verreault plays a sensitive Big Man with understated charisma. David Franco's cinematography is excellent and Richard Comeau's editing shines.
LA TURBULENCE DES FLUIDES
Studio Max Films, Europa Corp
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Manon Briand; Producers: Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal, Luc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam; Director of photography: David Franco; Production designer: Mario Hervieux; Editor: Richard Comeau; Music: Simon Clouquet, Valmont; Costume designers: Louise Gagne, Liz Vandal; Casting: Lucie Robitaille. Cast: Alice: Pascale Bussieres; Marc: Jean-Nicolas Verreault; Catherine: Julie Gayet; Colette: Genevieve Bujold.
No MPAA rating, running time 113 minutes.
In addition to opening the 26th MWFF and setting a high standard for the other 25 features in the offical competition, the French-language "Turbulence" was generally embraced by festivalgoers and critics -- and managed to make one almost forget Olivier Ayache-Vidal's wild, six-minute short preceding it, which features a gun-waving member of the audience interrupting what looks like a trailer for a brainless Hollywood thriller and interacting with a scared couple onscreen.
In "Turbulence", Alice (Pascale Bussieres) was born in the small town of Baie-Comeau but has not been there in a long time. When the film opens, she's gently ending a one-night stand in Tokyo, where she works as a seismologist with a team looking for "precursor" events. At work, a report comes in that the ocean tides have stopped in the vicinity of Alice's hometown and she -- convinced that the "big one" is about to strike in Japan -- reluctantly goes to investigate.
Once in Quebec, it's impossible for her to ignore the many signs that nature and the locals are not right. It's unbearably warm for a place that has never relied on air conditioning, the tides have halted, a small child wanders the town at night in a trance, and everyone is haunted by the death of the wife of a strapping firefighting pilot, Marc (Jean-Nicolas Verreault), a year earlier.
But the unexpected reunion with old college friend Catherine (Julie Gayet), a journalist who makes no secret of her love for Alice, and late-night chats in a coffee shop run by an ex-nun (Genevieve Bujold), who remembers the lead's troublesome birth, start to chip away at Alice's professional detachment. Initially attracted to Marc, she waits a bit and then tries to have an affair, but the page of the phone book with his number is ripped out all across town.
While flirting with magic realism and loosely tying events of a personal or inconsequential nature with environmental phenomenon, "Turbulence" only stretches things a bit too far with the unexpected retrieval of a body from the ocean that should have long ago been consumed by denizens of the deep. Still, the way this is handled, as well as the climactic temblor that almost kills Alice, shows that Briand's skills as a cinematic storyteller are highly evolved.
In the lead role, Bussieres has the squinty look of a worldly woman who knows no master. The miracle of finding real love in the least expected time and place becomes the actress' task to convey, and it's a marvelous performance. French thespian Gayet is likewise delightful as the peppy girlfriend who helps Alice investigate the tides, while Bujold is perfectly cast. Also a presence that elevates the film, Verreault plays a sensitive Big Man with understated charisma. David Franco's cinematography is excellent and Richard Comeau's editing shines.
LA TURBULENCE DES FLUIDES
Studio Max Films, Europa Corp
Credits: Screenwriter-director: Manon Briand; Producers: Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal, Luc Besson, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam; Director of photography: David Franco; Production designer: Mario Hervieux; Editor: Richard Comeau; Music: Simon Clouquet, Valmont; Costume designers: Louise Gagne, Liz Vandal; Casting: Lucie Robitaille. Cast: Alice: Pascale Bussieres; Marc: Jean-Nicolas Verreault; Catherine: Julie Gayet; Colette: Genevieve Bujold.
No MPAA rating, running time 113 minutes.
- 8/26/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Vinnie Jones is in the grip of bizarre obsessions similar to those that affected soccer star David Beckham's life. The footballer turned movie star has admitted he can't sleep until he's sure not one leaf is floating in his swimming pool. He keeps his shirts in color coordinated order and feels angry if furniture is an inch out of place. Vinnie, 35, says, "I can't go to bed until everything is spotless and in it's place." The Big Man who has moved from his native Britain into a $3 million Hollywood mansion adds, "I feel sorry for David because he is going through what I suffer from. It calms me knowing there is no crime and disorder. It makes me feel in control."...
- 12/18/2000
- WENN
The date for veteran actor Sean Connery's knighthood has been set for July 5th this year. However, the 007 star has yet to tell officials at BUCKINGHAM PALACE whether he will opt for a private audience with British royal QUEEN ELIZABETH II Yesterday, Palace officials confirmed the date for the actor known to his fans as THE Big Man...
- 3/27/2000
- WENN
In the enjoyable, raunchy "Foolish", wiry stand-up funnyman Eddie Griffin ("Armageddon") and hip-hop Big Man Master P ("I Got the Hook Up") play brothers trying to make it in the comedy business. With many sequences featuring the story-spinning Griffin on stage as the lovably cranky title character, director Dave Meyers' feature debut should score solidly among African American moviegoers.
Commercial and music video director Meyers and screenwriter/co-star Master P amiably flesh out the 84-minute Artisan release with a semi-serious plot revolving around the woes of promising club comic Miles "Foolish" Waise (Griffin), who takes pride in his "storytelling," and Quentin "Fifty Dollah" Waise (Master P), who pulls a stupid prank and becomes entangled with gangsters.
A popular attraction at a local club run by a spooky Italian (Frank Sivero), Foolish is vicious but funny and knows how to entertain a crowd. Unfortunately for his girlfriend, he is angry most of the time. She leaves him after a nasty fight, and he eventually has a falling out with Fifty, who has problems with a humorless mobster (Andrew Dice Clay).
Further complicating matters is the reappearance of Desiree (Amy Petersen), Foolish's high school lover who is dating Fifty and helping the pair start their own comedy show. While Foolish remains unlucky in love, he's further discouraged by the passing of his grandmother (Marla Gibbs). In a goofy sprinkling of mysticism, he talks to "ghosts" who tell him of the "blue light" that shines from the genuinely talented, protecting them when the blues hit.
Filmmaker-actor Bill Duke appears in an amusing scene where Foolish turns down a potential movie deal at Paramount, and "Baywatch" beauty Traci Bingham is featured in many club scenes. There are generous amounts of T&A and enough rude jokes to satisfy any fan.
While executive producer Master P is also present on the soundtrack, the film belongs to Griffin -- and the veteran of several HBO specials and UPN show "Malcolm and Eddie" can be hellaciously crude. But many of his profane rants have bite, and Griffin is quite good in nonperformance scenes. "Foolish" is directed confidently by Meyers, a Loyola Marymount alum.
FOOLISH
Artisan Entertainment
A Shooting Star Pictures production
A Master P/No Limit film
Director: Dave Meyers
Screenwriter: Master P
Producers: Jonathan Heuer, Andrew Shack
Executive producer: Master P
Director of photography: Steve Gainer
Production designer: Chuck Conner
Editor: Chris Davis
Costume designer: Jhane Isaacs
Color/stereo
Cast:
Foolish: Eddie Griffin
Fifty Dollah: Master P
Desiree: Amy Petersen
Giovanni: Frank Sivero
Charisse: Daphnee Lynn Duplaix
Odetta: Marla Gibbs
El Dorado Ron: Andrew Dice Clay
Running time -- 84 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Commercial and music video director Meyers and screenwriter/co-star Master P amiably flesh out the 84-minute Artisan release with a semi-serious plot revolving around the woes of promising club comic Miles "Foolish" Waise (Griffin), who takes pride in his "storytelling," and Quentin "Fifty Dollah" Waise (Master P), who pulls a stupid prank and becomes entangled with gangsters.
A popular attraction at a local club run by a spooky Italian (Frank Sivero), Foolish is vicious but funny and knows how to entertain a crowd. Unfortunately for his girlfriend, he is angry most of the time. She leaves him after a nasty fight, and he eventually has a falling out with Fifty, who has problems with a humorless mobster (Andrew Dice Clay).
Further complicating matters is the reappearance of Desiree (Amy Petersen), Foolish's high school lover who is dating Fifty and helping the pair start their own comedy show. While Foolish remains unlucky in love, he's further discouraged by the passing of his grandmother (Marla Gibbs). In a goofy sprinkling of mysticism, he talks to "ghosts" who tell him of the "blue light" that shines from the genuinely talented, protecting them when the blues hit.
Filmmaker-actor Bill Duke appears in an amusing scene where Foolish turns down a potential movie deal at Paramount, and "Baywatch" beauty Traci Bingham is featured in many club scenes. There are generous amounts of T&A and enough rude jokes to satisfy any fan.
While executive producer Master P is also present on the soundtrack, the film belongs to Griffin -- and the veteran of several HBO specials and UPN show "Malcolm and Eddie" can be hellaciously crude. But many of his profane rants have bite, and Griffin is quite good in nonperformance scenes. "Foolish" is directed confidently by Meyers, a Loyola Marymount alum.
FOOLISH
Artisan Entertainment
A Shooting Star Pictures production
A Master P/No Limit film
Director: Dave Meyers
Screenwriter: Master P
Producers: Jonathan Heuer, Andrew Shack
Executive producer: Master P
Director of photography: Steve Gainer
Production designer: Chuck Conner
Editor: Chris Davis
Costume designer: Jhane Isaacs
Color/stereo
Cast:
Foolish: Eddie Griffin
Fifty Dollah: Master P
Desiree: Amy Petersen
Giovanni: Frank Sivero
Charisse: Daphnee Lynn Duplaix
Odetta: Marla Gibbs
El Dorado Ron: Andrew Dice Clay
Running time -- 84 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 4/12/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Intending to do for matters of the heart what their "Trainspotting" did for drug addiction, "A Life Less Ordinary" from director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge employs the same audacious, jittery, in-your-face technique that brought the pair deserved attention.
But while there are no hard, fast rules for making romantic comedies, their version is so intent on breaking the mold that all the frantic business ultimately smothers the offbeat love story at its core despite the winning efforts of Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz as the potential couple in question.
Given the fresh, undeniable talents of all concerned, "A Life Less Ordinary", despite inspired sequences, is something of a disappointment -- an annoyingly hyper take on a Preston Sturges screwball comedy that doesn't know when to sit still.
Fidgety viewers will likely react in kind, giving the picture just moderate art house hopes.
McGregor, in a change of pace from his "Trainspotting" character, is Robert, a wimpy dreamer of a janitor who aspires to write the Great American Trash Novel.
Diaz, meanwhile, is Celine, the sassy, pampered but no-nonsense daughter of the man (Ian Holm) who runs the corporation where Robert works.
While the two wouldn't appear to be a match made in heaven, the Big Man upstairs (we're talking way upstairs) believes otherwise and dispatches a couple of wayward angels (Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo) to Earth to earn their wings by bringing the pair together by any means necessary.
But the celestial matchmakers hadn't counted on a chain of events that has resulted in Robert kidnapping Celine, and while she doesn't exactly mind the prospect of adventure in her uneventful life, Robert isn't her idea of Mr. Right.
While the film certainly has a driving energy, timing hasn't been kind. Plot-wise, it shares more than just a little with the inferior but recently released "Excess Baggage", and a whimsically choreographed karaoke bar number is unfortunately a little too reminiscent of Diaz's turn in "My Best Friend's Wedding". Her management would be wise to include an anti-karaoke clause in future contracts.
That the picture works as well as it does has much to do with the presence of Diaz (a firecracker who gets better all the time) and intriguing chameleon McGregor, who brings a charismatic sincerity to every part he plays. You want so much to see them succeed that you're willing to hold out hope for the picture to come around long after all signs would indicate otherwise.
Among the other performances, Hunter and Lindo are more odd than effective as unorthodox angels, but they aren't completely to blame. The concept has already been done to death.
Doing their usual technical best are Boyle's "Shallow Grave" and "Trainspotting" collaborators -- DP Brian Tufano, editor Masahiro Hirakubo and production designer Kave Quinn.
A LIFE LESS ORDINARY
20th Century Fox
A Figment film
Director Danny Boyle
Producer Andrew MacDonald
Screenwriter John Hodge
Director of photography Brian Tufano
Production designer Kave Quinn
Editor Masahiro Hirakubo
Costume designer Rachael Fleming
Music supervisor Randall Poster
Casting Donna Isaacson
Color/stereo
Cast:
Robert Ewan McGregor
Celine Cameron Diaz
O'Reilly Holly Hunter
Jackson Delroy Lindo
Mr. Naville Ian Holm
Mayhew Ian McNeice
Elliott Stanley Tucci
Al Tony Shalhoub
Running time -- 104 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
But while there are no hard, fast rules for making romantic comedies, their version is so intent on breaking the mold that all the frantic business ultimately smothers the offbeat love story at its core despite the winning efforts of Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz as the potential couple in question.
Given the fresh, undeniable talents of all concerned, "A Life Less Ordinary", despite inspired sequences, is something of a disappointment -- an annoyingly hyper take on a Preston Sturges screwball comedy that doesn't know when to sit still.
Fidgety viewers will likely react in kind, giving the picture just moderate art house hopes.
McGregor, in a change of pace from his "Trainspotting" character, is Robert, a wimpy dreamer of a janitor who aspires to write the Great American Trash Novel.
Diaz, meanwhile, is Celine, the sassy, pampered but no-nonsense daughter of the man (Ian Holm) who runs the corporation where Robert works.
While the two wouldn't appear to be a match made in heaven, the Big Man upstairs (we're talking way upstairs) believes otherwise and dispatches a couple of wayward angels (Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo) to Earth to earn their wings by bringing the pair together by any means necessary.
But the celestial matchmakers hadn't counted on a chain of events that has resulted in Robert kidnapping Celine, and while she doesn't exactly mind the prospect of adventure in her uneventful life, Robert isn't her idea of Mr. Right.
While the film certainly has a driving energy, timing hasn't been kind. Plot-wise, it shares more than just a little with the inferior but recently released "Excess Baggage", and a whimsically choreographed karaoke bar number is unfortunately a little too reminiscent of Diaz's turn in "My Best Friend's Wedding". Her management would be wise to include an anti-karaoke clause in future contracts.
That the picture works as well as it does has much to do with the presence of Diaz (a firecracker who gets better all the time) and intriguing chameleon McGregor, who brings a charismatic sincerity to every part he plays. You want so much to see them succeed that you're willing to hold out hope for the picture to come around long after all signs would indicate otherwise.
Among the other performances, Hunter and Lindo are more odd than effective as unorthodox angels, but they aren't completely to blame. The concept has already been done to death.
Doing their usual technical best are Boyle's "Shallow Grave" and "Trainspotting" collaborators -- DP Brian Tufano, editor Masahiro Hirakubo and production designer Kave Quinn.
A LIFE LESS ORDINARY
20th Century Fox
A Figment film
Director Danny Boyle
Producer Andrew MacDonald
Screenwriter John Hodge
Director of photography Brian Tufano
Production designer Kave Quinn
Editor Masahiro Hirakubo
Costume designer Rachael Fleming
Music supervisor Randall Poster
Casting Donna Isaacson
Color/stereo
Cast:
Robert Ewan McGregor
Celine Cameron Diaz
O'Reilly Holly Hunter
Jackson Delroy Lindo
Mr. Naville Ian Holm
Mayhew Ian McNeice
Elliott Stanley Tucci
Al Tony Shalhoub
Running time -- 104 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/13/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In a superb, award-winning performance, Judy Davis plays an Australian Communist who admits she "can't relax." Thankfully, like her, this film's nervous energy rarely flags.
The feature debut of writer-director Peter Duncan, Miramax's "Children of the Revolution" is a deliciously cracked, one-of-a-kind comedy-satire about a strong-willed woman who unexpectedly ends the life of Josef Stalin and then comes to regret perpetuating his legacy.
Prospects in the cutthroat marketplace -- despite a cheeky print advertising campaign that's attention-getting but does not always do the film justice -- are modest at best. The presence of Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill in the cast will help, but video and cable are more likely venues for this clever concoction.
At times resembling a "mock documentary," but most memorable when it takes one inside the heads and homes of Down Under revolutionaries, "Children" zeroes in on those international party members who clung to their beliefs even in the face of overwhelming evidence that Stalin murdered millions.
The set-up is swift and amusing, with fiery Joan (Davis) trying to stir up the working class in Sydney and writing letters to Stalin for advice and inspiration. One of her comrades is the affable Welch (Rush), who longs to romance her and does not pretend to endorse her every tactic or conviction. Also keeping an eye on her is a spy for the government (Neill).
In a goofy sequence, her letters to Stalin are read by adjuncts and then by the Big Man himself F. Murray Abraham), who we are told has quit smoking and is more cranky than usual. The all-powerful leader of the proletarian revolution invites her to Moscow for official party reasons, but he really wants a date.
Joan goes on the trip and is shadowed by Neill's character, who reveals he's with the KGB. She's wined and dined by Stalin and they end up in bed. Presumably in the throes of lovemaking, Stalin dies and Joan is devastated. Aroused, Nine makes a pre-emptive strike and Joan sleeps with him too before heading home.
The film continues to zoom through the next several decades as pregnant Joan marries Welch. Uncertainty about the father of the child is dispelled when the youngster, named Joe, takes delight in criminal pursuits and going to jail. As a young man, Joe (Richard Roxburgh) falls for a pretty policewoman (Rachel Griffiths), but his dark nature comes to the surface when he's sent to prison on serious charges.
Eventually Joe becomes the head of a super-union of law enforcement agencies and creates an alternative government with the goal of achieving Joan Long's dreamed-of revolution.
Davis dominates when she's on screen, but Roxburgh ("Oscar and Lucinda") is also terrific. Director Duncan skillfully uses old footage, still photos, on-screen graphics and eclectic music on the soundtrack - from Cole Porter to Sergei Prokofiev.
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
Miramax Films
Writer-director Peter Duncan
Producer Tristram Miall
Director of photography Martin McGrath
Production designer Roger Ford
Costume designer Terry Ryan
Music Nigel Westlake
Editor Simon Martin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Joan Judy Davis
Joe Richard Roxburgh
Nine Sam Neill
Welch Geoffrey Rush
Anna Rachel Griffiths
Stalin F. Murray Abraham
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The feature debut of writer-director Peter Duncan, Miramax's "Children of the Revolution" is a deliciously cracked, one-of-a-kind comedy-satire about a strong-willed woman who unexpectedly ends the life of Josef Stalin and then comes to regret perpetuating his legacy.
Prospects in the cutthroat marketplace -- despite a cheeky print advertising campaign that's attention-getting but does not always do the film justice -- are modest at best. The presence of Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill in the cast will help, but video and cable are more likely venues for this clever concoction.
At times resembling a "mock documentary," but most memorable when it takes one inside the heads and homes of Down Under revolutionaries, "Children" zeroes in on those international party members who clung to their beliefs even in the face of overwhelming evidence that Stalin murdered millions.
The set-up is swift and amusing, with fiery Joan (Davis) trying to stir up the working class in Sydney and writing letters to Stalin for advice and inspiration. One of her comrades is the affable Welch (Rush), who longs to romance her and does not pretend to endorse her every tactic or conviction. Also keeping an eye on her is a spy for the government (Neill).
In a goofy sequence, her letters to Stalin are read by adjuncts and then by the Big Man himself F. Murray Abraham), who we are told has quit smoking and is more cranky than usual. The all-powerful leader of the proletarian revolution invites her to Moscow for official party reasons, but he really wants a date.
Joan goes on the trip and is shadowed by Neill's character, who reveals he's with the KGB. She's wined and dined by Stalin and they end up in bed. Presumably in the throes of lovemaking, Stalin dies and Joan is devastated. Aroused, Nine makes a pre-emptive strike and Joan sleeps with him too before heading home.
The film continues to zoom through the next several decades as pregnant Joan marries Welch. Uncertainty about the father of the child is dispelled when the youngster, named Joe, takes delight in criminal pursuits and going to jail. As a young man, Joe (Richard Roxburgh) falls for a pretty policewoman (Rachel Griffiths), but his dark nature comes to the surface when he's sent to prison on serious charges.
Eventually Joe becomes the head of a super-union of law enforcement agencies and creates an alternative government with the goal of achieving Joan Long's dreamed-of revolution.
Davis dominates when she's on screen, but Roxburgh ("Oscar and Lucinda") is also terrific. Director Duncan skillfully uses old footage, still photos, on-screen graphics and eclectic music on the soundtrack - from Cole Porter to Sergei Prokofiev.
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
Miramax Films
Writer-director Peter Duncan
Producer Tristram Miall
Director of photography Martin McGrath
Production designer Roger Ford
Costume designer Terry Ryan
Music Nigel Westlake
Editor Simon Martin
Color/stereo
Cast:
Joan Judy Davis
Joe Richard Roxburgh
Nine Sam Neill
Welch Geoffrey Rush
Anna Rachel Griffiths
Stalin F. Murray Abraham
Running time -- 102 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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