The Good Lie is titled after the lies in Huckleberry Finn, the type of lie that is a lie for the greater good, even if lying is wrong. The Good Lie, the movie, has a small opening this weekend in under 500 theaters and will hopefully begin to slowly expand to more theaters with it’s poster of smiling Reese Witherspoon’s head miraculously floating over an African desert. The poster for The Good Lie and the trailer for The Good Lie are, themselves, actual good lies because what looks like The Blind Side but with Reese Witherspoon is not, instead it’s one of those movies that will be shown to our children in school.
You remember the type of movie I’m talking about: you have a substitute or your teacher got a little ahead in the lesson plan or you have a half-holiday day so the class gets...
You remember the type of movie I’m talking about: you have a substitute or your teacher got a little ahead in the lesson plan or you have a half-holiday day so the class gets...
- 10/3/2014
- by Da7e
- LRMonline.com
Boasting a killer title, Classics Mutilated (Idw Publishing; available now) is a brilliant concept about combining public domain chestnuts with the horror and sci-fi genre. Imagine Captain Ahab in a battle to the death with a Wendigo creature or Huckleberry Finn being chased by a Lovecraftian monster? Editor Jeff Conner offers a list of superb storytellers (Lezli Robyn, Chris Ryall, The Crow’s John Shirley and The Drive-in’s Joe R. Lansdale) contributing to 13 original and highly entertaining stories.
- 12/24/2010
- by [email protected] (Jorge Solis)
- Fangoria
On September 3, 1981, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas brought Bernard Sabath's The Boys of Autumn for a trial run to Marines Memorial Theatre, San Francisco. A "what-if" tale about the reunion of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn 50 years after their infamous adventures on the Mississippi, Lancaster played Henry Finnegan (Huck, of course) and Douglas his old friend Thomas Gray (Sawyer). Having retired from vaudeville, Tom Sawyer--who has been using the stage name of Thomas Gray--returns to his home in the South searching for his boyhood friend Huckleberry Finn. The play was directed by Tom Moore and ran for four weeks (some sources say six) and reunited Lancaster and Douglas for their seventh collaboration after previously starring together in six films: I Walk Alone (1948), Gunfight at the Ok Corral (1957), The Devil's Disciple (1959), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), and the made-for-tv Victory at Entebbe (1976). They would work together...
- 11/16/2010
- Screen Anarchy
No doubt looking to capitalize on the burgeoning trend of melding classic literature and historical figures with horror (i.e., Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), now America's 32nd President will be getting in on the monster fighting action in Fdr: American Badass.
Actor Garrett Brawith will make his directorial debut helming this rewriting of history from comedy writer Ross Patterson that sees Franklin Delano Roosevelt slaying werewolves, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito with his weaponized custom wheelchair. Shooting of Fdr: American Badass begins in December.
Makes you wonder where this trend will go next. Teddy Roosevelt hunting Sasquatch? Ben Franklin reimagined as Dr. Frankenstein? Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn rafting the Mississippi River fighting a Great White Shark? Billy the Kid vs. Dracula?
Oh, right, they've already done that last one.
- The Foywonder
Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Actor Garrett Brawith will make his directorial debut helming this rewriting of history from comedy writer Ross Patterson that sees Franklin Delano Roosevelt slaying werewolves, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito with his weaponized custom wheelchair. Shooting of Fdr: American Badass begins in December.
Makes you wonder where this trend will go next. Teddy Roosevelt hunting Sasquatch? Ben Franklin reimagined as Dr. Frankenstein? Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn rafting the Mississippi River fighting a Great White Shark? Billy the Kid vs. Dracula?
Oh, right, they've already done that last one.
- The Foywonder
Visit The Evilshop @ Amazon!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
- 11/3/2010
- by Foywonder
- DreadCentral.com
New York's Rochester city school district has added 50 Cent's "From Pieces to Weight" book to its recommended reading list for kids during the summer months, despite that the rapper is known for glorifying drugs, sex and violence. "Our kids are already going through hell and already killing each other and killing us and the killing the community and we don't need anymore of the violence," said Reverend Marlowe Washington, chairman of the literacy movement. "If you don't read that book to your kid then why would you tell my kid to read it?" A group of librarians reviewed the titles and chose books that would interest students, stir debate and encourage conversation. But some parents feel the book promotes a lifestyle they are trying to keep their children away from. "Some of the books that we cherish today were banned a few years ago. '1984' was banned, 'Huckleberry Finn' was banned,...
- 9/28/2010
- WorstPreviews.com
Easy A
Anyone who has seen Demi Moore’s remake of “The Scarlett Letter” would cringe if told Emma Stone was doing another version. Terrible experiences have a way of lingering in the recesses of the mind, only to terrorize once you enter the theatre. You can relax. This modern version of Hawthorne’s classic constantly refers to the original and takes quite a few swipes at Demi Moore’s rendition of Hester Prim. Easy A is silly fare, rife with the left coast progressively liberal mantra.
The film begins with nifty graphics incorporated into the background scenery. The technique continues during the end credits. I really like the technique, though I must admit it’s not original. It started with the TV series “Fringe” and then migrated to other shows, including “Warehouse 13”. It’s still neat, though, and it looks even better on the big screen.
Halfway through the movie,...
Anyone who has seen Demi Moore’s remake of “The Scarlett Letter” would cringe if told Emma Stone was doing another version. Terrible experiences have a way of lingering in the recesses of the mind, only to terrorize once you enter the theatre. You can relax. This modern version of Hawthorne’s classic constantly refers to the original and takes quite a few swipes at Demi Moore’s rendition of Hester Prim. Easy A is silly fare, rife with the left coast progressively liberal mantra.
The film begins with nifty graphics incorporated into the background scenery. The technique continues during the end credits. I really like the technique, though I must admit it’s not original. It started with the TV series “Fringe” and then migrated to other shows, including “Warehouse 13”. It’s still neat, though, and it looks even better on the big screen.
Halfway through the movie,...
- 9/17/2010
- by filmcritic3
- Examiner Movies Channel
If they had their choice, 63.1% of people would value "a great video game" over Huckleberry Finn. That's the result of a completely unscientific survey I conducted in two places: Twitter, and my recent blog about video games.
The choice approached the abstract, because I didn't specify they had to play the game or read the novel. Like all web-based surveys, this one is a 100% accurate representation of whoever chose to vote, for whatever reason, whoever they were. In theory, no one could vote twice.
I'm publishing the meaningless result as an excuse to discuss a few of my own notions. I would have voted for Huckleberry Finn. In fact, I recently told a reader that if forced to choose, I would sacrifice every video game in existence for the works of Shakespeare and not give it a moment's thought. Such mental experiments are folly. It's likely that if we ever...
The choice approached the abstract, because I didn't specify they had to play the game or read the novel. Like all web-based surveys, this one is a 100% accurate representation of whoever chose to vote, for whatever reason, whoever they were. In theory, no one could vote twice.
I'm publishing the meaningless result as an excuse to discuss a few of my own notions. I would have voted for Huckleberry Finn. In fact, I recently told a reader that if forced to choose, I would sacrifice every video game in existence for the works of Shakespeare and not give it a moment's thought. Such mental experiments are folly. It's likely that if we ever...
- 7/7/2010
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
I was a fool for mentioning video games in the first place. I would never express an opinion on a movie I hadn't seen. Yet I declared as an axiom that video games can never be Art. I still believe this, but I should never have said so. Some opinions are best kept to yourself.
At this moment, 4,547 comments have rained down upon me for that blog entry. I'm informed by Wayne Hepner, who turned them into a text file: "It's more than Anna Karenina, David Copperfield and The Brothers Karamazov." I would rather have reread all three than vet that thread. Still, they were a good set of comments for the most part. Perhaps 300 supported my position. The rest were united in opposition.
If you assume I received a lot of cretinous comments from gamers, you would be wrong. I probably killed no more than a dozen. What you...
At this moment, 4,547 comments have rained down upon me for that blog entry. I'm informed by Wayne Hepner, who turned them into a text file: "It's more than Anna Karenina, David Copperfield and The Brothers Karamazov." I would rather have reread all three than vet that thread. Still, they were a good set of comments for the most part. Perhaps 300 supported my position. The rest were united in opposition.
If you assume I received a lot of cretinous comments from gamers, you would be wrong. I probably killed no more than a dozen. What you...
- 7/2/2010
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
For an author who published little, J. D. Salinger had immense influence on successive generations. His literary creation Holden Caulfield became the American Everyboy, a Huckleberry Finn for baby boomers and beyond. Salinger succeeded in encapsulating adolescent distance from the adult world. It was a literary feat he seemed incapable or reluctant to repeat. Secretive to the point of paranoia, he became a brooding, beguiling enigma, a one-book wonder, the Garbo of the printed word.
read more...
read more...
- 2/4/2010
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Johnny Depp lost his bid to film The Carbon Diaries books by London teacher Saci Lloyd when she picked the BBC instead
Not many sixth-form teachers from east London can claim to have said "No" to Johnny Depp, but Saci Lloyd is getting used to her double life. By day, she teaches A-level students at an inner-city college: by night, she is one of Britain's most successful crusading authors.
Her first book, The Carbon Diaries 2015, shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards last year, already has a slavish following among teenagers in this country and in America. The futuristic story introduced the world to a hapless new heroine, Laura Brown, a figure who now threatens to become as potent in the entertainment industry as Harry Potter.
Depp's film-making company, Infinitum Nihil, was negotiating in the run-up to Christmas for the right to make a screen version of the book, but Lloyd...
Not many sixth-form teachers from east London can claim to have said "No" to Johnny Depp, but Saci Lloyd is getting used to her double life. By day, she teaches A-level students at an inner-city college: by night, she is one of Britain's most successful crusading authors.
Her first book, The Carbon Diaries 2015, shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards last year, already has a slavish following among teenagers in this country and in America. The futuristic story introduced the world to a hapless new heroine, Laura Brown, a figure who now threatens to become as potent in the entertainment industry as Harry Potter.
Depp's film-making company, Infinitum Nihil, was negotiating in the run-up to Christmas for the right to make a screen version of the book, but Lloyd...
- 1/18/2010
- by Vanessa Thorpe
- The Guardian - Film News
So, if you do a quickie scan of the ol' Amazon these days, you're going to notice an entire trend of classics being B-movied for our appreciation. The Wizard of Oz -- with zombies. Huckleberry Finn -- with zombies. I like zombies, but c'mon. "So You Think You Can America's Got Zombies." Let the trend end. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies wasn't even that fucking great. What I can best say about Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is that at least it's not more fucking zombies. Aside from that .... yeah, bring on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. At least that seems a little original.
I like what Winters did with the overall mythology. Essentially, the world's been flooded and all the aquatic creatures have become bloodthirsty and violent. Not just squids and giant sharks, but actually guppies and catfish and such. So all of Britain has actually become a series of islands,...
I like what Winters did with the overall mythology. Essentially, the world's been flooded and all the aquatic creatures have become bloodthirsty and violent. Not just squids and giant sharks, but actually guppies and catfish and such. So all of Britain has actually become a series of islands,...
- 1/17/2010
- by Dustin Rowles
"Synecdoche, New York" is the best film of the decade. It intends no less than to evoke the strategies we use to live our lives. After beginning my first viewing in confusion, I began to glimpse its purpose and by the end was eager to see it again, then once again, and I am not finished. Charlie Kaufman understands how I live my life, and I suppose his own, and I suspect most of us. Faced with the bewildering demands of time, space, emotion, morality, lust, greed, hope, dreams, dreads and faiths, we build compartments in our minds. It is a way of seeming sane.
The mind is a concern in all his screenplays, but in "Synecdoche" (2008), his first film as a director, he makes it his subject, and what huge ambition that demonstrates. He's like a
novelist who wants to get it all into the first book in case he never publishes another.
The mind is a concern in all his screenplays, but in "Synecdoche" (2008), his first film as a director, he makes it his subject, and what huge ambition that demonstrates. He's like a
novelist who wants to get it all into the first book in case he never publishes another.
- 1/2/2010
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
As a director and producer, Lee Daniels has never shied away from addressing abuse and racism (Monster's Ball), pedophilia (The Woodsman), abuse and incest (Shadowboxer). With his latest film, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, he takes incest on again. Daniels says the film helped him purge some of the demons from his difficult childhood. The film, which won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, has been critically acclaimed for its rawness but also its ability to inspire and uplift. Daniels hopes that this film will allow him to move on to brighter topics and genres, including a musical.
By Lorenza Muñoz
How did you come across the novel?
A friend of mine gave me the book. It takes a lot to shock me. I remember feeling so sad and yet so elevated and uplifted. I was frightened and yet happy. But...
By Lorenza Muñoz
How did you come across the novel?
A friend of mine gave me the book. It takes a lot to shock me. I remember feeling so sad and yet so elevated and uplifted. I was frightened and yet happy. But...
- 10/13/2009
- by maint
- Film Independent
But don't forget: you and I reached this conclusion nearly 50 years ago, in the Union, over a cup of coffee, listening to the chimes of Altgeld Hall. So we beat on...
That cup of coffee in the Union cemented one of my oldest friendships. Bill Nack was sports editor of The Daily Illini the year I was editor. He was the editor the next year. He married the Urbana girl I dated in high school. I never made it to first base. By that time, I think he may have been able to slide into second and was taking a risky lead and keeping an eye on the pitcher. We had a lot of fun on the Daily Illini. This was in the days before ripping stuff off the web. He insisted on running stories about every major horse race. We had only one photo of a horse. We used it for every winner.
That cup of coffee in the Union cemented one of my oldest friendships. Bill Nack was sports editor of The Daily Illini the year I was editor. He was the editor the next year. He married the Urbana girl I dated in high school. I never made it to first base. By that time, I think he may have been able to slide into second and was taking a risky lead and keeping an eye on the pitcher. We had a lot of fun on the Daily Illini. This was in the days before ripping stuff off the web. He insisted on running stories about every major horse race. We had only one photo of a horse. We used it for every winner.
- 12/10/2008
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.