Parker Donald Westlake, under the pseudonym Richard Stark, created the character of Parker - a brutal, anti-heroic loner thief - and chronicled his adventures in 24 novels. Previous screen incarnations of Parker include, most memorably, Lee Marvin in 1967's great Point Blank. Now, alas, Jason Statham takes over the role, so you know what you're gonna get with him. It's an action film, involving robbery and revenge, and it may be worth noting that early scenes are set in and take place at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus. Jennifer Lopez has the lead female role, so there's bound to be some booty shots. Nick Nolte and Michael Chiklis growl the villain roles. Somewhat perfunctory, the first critical reviews are saying. Still...
(Yes)
Movie 43 Even after seeing the preview, I can't say that I have any idea what this movie is about. It looks like an "outrageous," "offensive," comedic take on the Valentine's Day films, with numerous storylines going on and one of the most impressive casts ever assembled: Richard Gere, Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Anna Faris, Emma Stone, Chris Pratt, Kristen Bell, Justin Long, Uma Thurman, Halle Berry, Elizabeth Banks, Bobby Cannavale, Seann William Scott, Stephen Merchant, Gerard Butler, Kate Bosworth, Terrence Howard, Chloe Moretz, Josh Duhamel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Greg Kinnear, Dennis Quaid, and Common. Oh, yeah, and Snooki. A variety of writers and twelve directors (including Brett Ratner, Peter Farrelly, and Elizabeth Banks).
(Yes)
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters Why, Jeremy Renner, why? It seems Hansel and Gretel - yes, Hansel and Gretel! - are now grown up witch hunters, scouring the world for... I'll just stop there.
*
Nice ending to the season of Parenthood - though I'm curious as to why, for the second year in a row, the season ends in January. If this does prove to be the end of the series, it was a solid way to go out. Lead writer and series developer Jason Katims doesn't seem to have any luck with his shows. Way back to when he was writing for My So Called Life up to the late, great Friday Night Lights, his shows never seem to rope in the audiences they deserve and seem to constantly teeter on the brink of cancellation.
*
On this day in 1862, Edith Wharton was born to an upper-class family in New York. Here are five bits of biographical information you may or may not know about the Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist:
- Her parents were products of high society and inherited wealth. Family members and relatives had made fortunes in shipping and banking, among other ventures. Edith was taught by a governess and spent six years of her childhood in Europe.
- At the age of twenty-three, she married a man of leisure, Edward Robbins, who never shared her artistic sensibilities or interests. After thirty years of an unhappy marriage, she divorced and stayed in Europe for good, where they had been living.
- She traveled to Europe yearly as an adult, France and Italy, and settled in France permanently in 1907. She loved hanging out in artist circles in Paris and had an affair with a journalist friend of Henry James.
- She was a fierce advocate of the Allied Cause during WWI. She reported for the American press, aided refugees from France and Belgium, created schools and hostels for women, helped create employment opportunities for women.
- She died in France in 1937, and is best remembered for the layered world of material and class distinction in her fiction: 1905's sterling The House of Mirth; 1911's novella Ethan Frome; and 1920's Pulitzer-winning The Age of Innocence. Summer (1917), a short novel about sexual awakening, was assigned-reading in a college English class - what a book!
(http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/wharton/whar3.htm was a big help with the Wharton information.)
Images courtesy of:
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