New Movies Opening This Weekend:
Warm Bodies It was only a matter of time before we got treated to a zombie rom-com. Nicholas Hoult, the awkward-adorable boy from About a Boy, is the zombie who runs across a girl, his Juliet (played by Teresa Palmer). There are reputedly more laughs and romantic moments than scary ones, which is fine by me. John Malkovich and Dave Franco co-star.
Bullet to the Head What is this, 1989? Two weeks ago we get a new Schwarzenegger movie, two weeks from now we get a new Die Hard, now we receive a new Stallone movie. Critics are saying this one's a little above-average, mostly due to the crafty direction of action vet Walter Hill. Stallone, or the heavily Botoxed, immobile-faced version of Sly, plays a New Orleans hitman who joins forces with a Washington D.C. cop to go after some bad guys. I'll pass.
Stand-Up Guys Al Pacino plus Christopher Walken + Alan Arkin should equal a decent movie, right? Alas, don't be so sure, critics say. Pacino's a recently-released ex-con who meets up with his best friend (Walken) for a night of reminiscing - and Viagra jokes, no less. Walken, however, is faced with an impossible dilemma: he must off Al before the morning comes. Fisher Steven directs. Julianna Marguiles co-stars.
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Happy Birthday, Zane Grey!
On this date in 1872, one of the most popular authors of Westerns - one of the inventors of the genre, really - was born in Zanesville, Ohio. His most famous novel was 1912's Riders of the Purple Sage, a Western that deals, in one of it storylines, with a woman's attempts to escape Mormonism. As a teen, Grey was a semi-professional baseball player and earned a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where he also studied (with noted indifference) dentistry, the field his father wanted him to go into. He and his wife Dolly (who was both a homemaker and his editor/agent) had three children.
The success of his writings enabled Zane and his family to move west permanently to Altadena, California. Zane, who also had a hunting lodge in Arizona, was a noted fisherman and traversed the world deep sea-fishing. His pursuits were Hemingway-esque as well, as Zane traveled all over, even as far as Tahiti, seeking out adventures to write about and serialize in books and magazines.
He died of heart failure at the age of sixty-seven in 1939. He left behind close to 100 books.
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I've been lacking lately in keeping up with my ongoing list of the 500 Greatest Performances of All Time. That said, here is the latest entry for the list:
Henry Thomas
as Elliott in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Arguably the greatest performance by a child actor in the history of movies, Thomas' indelible work as the full-of-wonder Elliott is warm and natural, curious and funny - and, ultimately, heartbreaking. Which makes you ponder: What did Henry Thomas ever really do after this? In the 31 years since the Spielberg classic, the 41-year old Thomas' work consists of roles I hardly remember him in. Outside of Legends of the Fall, who can recall him in Dear John? Gangs of New York? Was he really in the TV movie adaptation of the aforementioned Riders of the Purple Sage? Did you see him as young Norman Bates in Psycho IV? Me neither.
Oh, well, I'm sure he's living just fine.
Tomorrow, I'll unveil my 50 Favorite Books of All Time.
Thanks to http://www.zgws.org/zgbio.php for the info.
Thanks to http://www.experiencefilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/warm_bodies.jpg
and http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BdOmKJhWzng/TmjIMhPetQI/AAAAAAAABG0/hbOavPC8_yo/s1600/et7.jpg
for the images...
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