The Valley Wire - 11/14/2008 Column

Hollywood Holiday Movie Guide
By Mary Beth Gentle

The holiday movies have arrived and this year Hollywood’s gift basket is filled to the brim with tales of Vampires, stories to capture a child’s imagination, a ‘Yes man’ and an epic love story. And those are just the ones that have this cube dweller eager to escape the holiday madness and hide out in the local Cineplex. Every weekend from now until the end of the year there will be a slew of movies making their debut. From the mainstream movie fare to the Oscar contenders this year has a lot of entertainment to offer.

November starts the season off early with family fun in Madagascar 2, outrageous comedy in Role Models, action-adventure with James Bond in Quantum of Solace and an early Oscar entry with The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas. But, for me, the first big weekend of Holiday Movies comes on the weekend of November 21st with the release of a Walt Disney Pictures family film 3D event called Bolt and the highly anticipated film adaptation of the much loved book, Twilight.

Bolt hits 2D film Screens and where available Digital 3D Screens with a lot of anticipation. From what I have heard around town, this one sounds like it is going to be a hit and defiantly worth checking out, especially if you have access to theatre with 3D. Bolt tells the story of a pampered pouch that is also the star of a TV show about a ‘Super-Dog’. The twist here is that Bolt thinks he really is that Super-Dog and the actress that plays Penny, his young owner, really is his owner. So, when the season ends in a cliffhanger leaving Penny in dire straights, Bolt carries on the mission of his character to save Penny. With the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus, we are taken on a journey with Bolt and his furry friends as a little dog discovers what true heroes really are.

Twilight is the next big release of the season and one I can’t wait to see. In fact, I have already bought my ticket for a sneak screening a day early! For anyone who has not caught the Twilight fever and read the book, this is a story of forbidden love between Bella, a seventeen-year-old girl and Edward, a forever young and handsome Vampire. There are millions of teenage girls and their mothers who have read the book and are standing by anxiously awaiting its release. The trick for this release will be to see if they can capture more than just their core audience. And with the amount of press I have seen on this one, they certainly are trying.

When seventeen-year-old Bella Swan moves to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks Washington, she never expects to come face to face with mysterious and amazingly handsome Edward Cullen. Everyone, including Edward, warns Bella to stay away, but Bella cannot. As she is drawn further into her obsession of Edward, Bella soon discovers his and his family’s secret, they are vampires. Vampires that try really hard not to eat people, but vampires nonetheless. Knowing that being in his company can only lead to danger, love-smitten Edward tries to stay away from Bella, but their bond is too strong. And before long, Bella does fall into danger and it will be up to Edward to save her. To me, Twilight sounds like built-in movie fun, even if I hadn’t read the book.

And finally November’s offering of Holiday fare comes to a close on November 26th with the release of the Epic love story, Australia. This one re-teams Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann with actress Nicole Kidman. The story unfolds in the outback of Northern Australia during World War II when a rich English aristocrat, Kidman, joins forces with a rough around the edges Australian cattle herder, Hugh Jackman, to save her cattle ranch from a takeover. Along the way they must survive an attack from the Japanese forces and come to terms with their growing attraction for each other, the result being a Hollywood Epic that I can’t wait to see. This is the kind of movie that promises adventure, romance and I’m sure a little heartbreak and from everything I have seen it looks sure to deliver.

Most of the big Oscar contenders will make themselves known in December and this year is no different with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s Revolutionary Road, Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt and Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Those are just a few of the growing list of December releases that hope to capture the Academy’s attention. But, two of the December Releases that have stood out to me as, again, good fun and a chance to escape the Holiday madness, are Jim Carrey’s Yes Man and Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories. Yes Man is the first one up, releasing to the big screen on December 19th. Based on the book by Danny Wallace, Yes Man tells the story of a man who decides to change his life by saying ‘Yes’ to everything that comes his way. By unleashing the power of yes into his life Jim Carrey’s character, Carl Allen, changes his life in many surprising and amazing ways. One look at the trailer and I added this to my list of must see fun Holiday movies. It looks to be classic Jim Carrey outrageous comedy with, I’m hoping, a little heart mixed in.

And finally, to be released on Christmas Day, is Adam Sandler’s, Bedtime Stories. This one is sure to capture the imagination in this family comedy of a Hotel handyman, Sandler, whose life changes when the elaborate bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to magically come to life. When he attempts to turn this mysterious phenomenon into financial gain for himself by weaving his own good fortune into his stories, his niece and nephew also add their own twists to the tales, turning his life upside down. Maybe it’s because I tell stories to my two nephews all the time, or maybe it’s because I just can’t help laughing at Adam Sandler’s antics, but this one looks like it might be worth a trip to the theatre over the holiday season.

So, as the Holiday madness of Turkey dinners and hours of shopping descend on our lives, just remember that we can all find a little solace in the aroma of popcorn and the slurp of a good Icee at our local theatres this Holiday movie season. Happy Holiday movie watching from the Hollywood cubicle.

The Valley Wire - 10/17/2008 Column

Hollywood Travels the Hard Times
By Mary Beth Gentle

Hollywood is preparing to travel the hard financial times ahead. They are making cuts and reviewing budgets. They are no different than any other big business and cannot escape the effects of the current financial crisis. In fact, Hollywood could hardly be called a newcomer to hard times. It has survived many turbulent financial periods over the years, including the Great Depression. Because no matter how hard the times get, the American public still wants to be entertained, which means Hollywood will survive. And no movie reflects this sentiment better than the Preston Sturges 1941 classic, Sullivan’s Travels.

The movie follows a young and naïve Hollywood director, John ‘Sully’ Sullivan, and his desire to make a film about the troubles of the poor and downtrodden. He decides to leave behind the comforts of his mansion, his swimming pool and his bank account to go out into the real world and experience life among the masses. Can you imagine if the CEO of one of the Fortune 500 companies or a Hollywood mogul of today decided to do that?

I, for one, cannot. Especially when my view from the Hollywood cubicle is that of the Senior Executives walking the hallways and shaking their heads at the plight of their stock options while they monitor the tumbling market on their Blackberry’s. Of course, those of us in the Hollywood cubicles have never seen a stock option, so we are not as dramatic about the effects of the current situation, we just know that our already tight budgets are going to have to get a little tighter.

In my little corner of the Hollywood cubicle world, we have decided to start brown bagging our lunches. Although, I’m sure it will do nothing for our ‘Hollywood Hipster’ images, it will keep our checkbooks out of the red. It may not be hip to sit in the corner of the commissary with a brown bag lunch, but who knows, maybe we will start a trend because we can’t be the only cubicle dwellers trying to save a buck in these hard times.

But, even if our brown bag lunches get a little leaner and times get a little tougher, the one thing we know we can count on is that Hollywood will see us through the hard times by keeping us entertained. This is the lesson John ‘Sully’ Sullivan learned on his travels. His journey took him to a point where he has lost his money, his freedom, his identity, his health and his pride. Incarcerated in a prison work camp he learned the importance of laughter one evening when he and his fellow prisoners were allowed to watch a Walt Disney Cartoon. It was there, surrounded by the poor and downtrodden that he had so desperately wanted to understand, that John ‘Sully’ Sullivan realized that even though he had lost everything, he still had the ability to laugh. He saw the true power of laughter first hand.

I think the opening dedication in Sullivan’s Travels says it all, “To the memory of those who made us laugh: the motley mountebanks, the clowns, the buffoons, in all times and in all nations, whose efforts have lightened our burden a little, this picture is affectionately dedicated.” So when the gas prices go on the rise again or the scrimping and saving to make ends meet starts to wear thin, just remember that laughter may be the best medicine. Take in a movie, tune into a sitcom or if you haven’t seen it yet rent Sullivan’s Travels and escape the hard times for just a little while.