By: debbie lynn elias Within a day or two after screening SOUTHLAND TALES, localite Richard Kelly’s “love story to Los Angeles” and particularly Venice and Santa Monica, as is customary, one of the film’s publicists contacted me for my initial thoughts on the film. I say to you now what
By: debbie lynn elias Swinging into theaters and kicking off the “summer” movie season this weekend is everyone’s favorite webspinner, Spider-Man. Weaving a web of thrills, over-the-top and out-of-this-world CGI effects and three – count ‘em – three super villains to defeat, not to mention personal demons, and dealing with
By: debbie lynn elias First, I must apologize to my new friend Toby Wilkins who took a back seat to AFI with my delayed release of this review. Second, I have to say CONGRATULATIONS as SPLINTER walked away with six top awards last week at Screamfest 2008, including Best Picture
By: debbie lynn elias Returning to the big screen this week are the world’s best loved, pint-sized spies, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara as Carmen and Juni Cortez, in “Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams.” Also along for the ride are the senior members of the Cortez spy
By: debbie lynn elias Space. The final frontier. These are the beginning voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Bodly going where no one has dared go before, JJ Abrams takes the bridge and helms this much anticipated “prequel” to one of the most successful franchises in film and tv history (not
By: debbie lynn elias I have long admired the talent and performances of Frank Langella but never moreso than now. As 70 year old novelist Leonard Schiller, Langella lifts the already superlative emotion generated by novelist Brian Morton’s Pen/Faulkner award-nominated novel STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING to ethereal heights. With
By: debbie lynn elias As many of you know, I love war movies. From the early classics like “A Guy Named Joe” to “Thirty Second Over Tokyo” to “Back to Bataan” to “Commandos Strike at Dawn” to “The Longest Day” right on up to “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Great
By: debbie lynn elias I am often asked who are some of my favorite directors. That’s a tough question as the list is constantly changing, covering so many different genres and 100 years of film. But, as in life itself, the cream always rises to the top and without batting
By: debbie lynn elias In 1979, Stephen Sondheim set Broadway afire with the prolific and deliciously macabre musical SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. An instant hit (of course, what isn’t by Sondheim), this satiric tale of madness and murder was set during the Industrial Revolution replete with
By: debbie lynn elias Kevin Costner is this generation’s Jimmy Stewart. He is an everyman. An affable, amiable and likeable guy with a killer smile. A guy who relates to the common folk. He is also a multi-talented filmmaker and actor who embodies the very best that Hollywood has to
