The Screening Room

If you're home tonight, Bravo is running a marathon of its "100 Scariest Movie Moments" all day. There are five installments, followed by the two-part "Even Scarier Movie Moments." The last full run starts at 5 p.m. CST.

It's like the Cliff's Notes version of the horror classics. But be warned: You will be spoiled mercilessly for anything you haven't seen. Twist endings are given away, complete with scenes from the movies. Oldboy is completely ruined for me. Then again, I'm pretty sure I've now seen more than enough of Last House on the Left. Also, this series does not shy away from the gore. You may find yourself yelling at the screen "You did NOT just show me that!" (This was no way to start my morning.)

Check out the full list here. I use it to make sure I flip the channel before The Ring segment starts.

As a self-proclaimed chicken when it comes to horror and gore, what do you think is one horror flick that cannot be missed?

Russell Crowe made an interesting comment about American Gangster in an interview with co-star Denzel Washington in the Nov. 2 issue of 'Entertainment Weekly':

EW: There's already Oscar buzz around American Gangster and your performances. Is it hard not to get invested in it when you hear that?
WASHINGTON: What are you going to do? There's no Oscar gym you go to to get in Oscar shape. There's not much you can do about it. If you get invited to the show, you go. The work is done. You know what? It beats a sharp stick in the eye that people are talking about it. That's gravy.
CROWE: Let's not discourage people from going to see it, though.
WASHINGTON: By saying it's Oscar-worthy?
CROWE: I think it just gets into a ho-hum thing. ...

We all saw it coming
There are certain signs that fall has arrived: leaves changing colors, weather turning cooler. Add to that list a Saw movie topping the box office. Saw IV rang up $31.8 million in its opening weekend, marking the third straight year a film from the franchise has topped the charts. The original Saw lost out to another horror film, The Grudge, on Halloween weekend 2004.

Screen shot of IMDb.com

IMDb.com really really wants you to know that Twin Peaks is out on DVD tomorrow.

Like, really.

Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie opens November 2, the first major project from the man who brought us one of the seminal comedies of the 90s. So what has he been up to in the nine years since Seinfeld left the air, and what made Bee Movie the project to get him off the couch? He stopped through Dallas earlier this month to explain all of that and more.

Video: Watch Jerry Seinfeld answers questions at the "red carpet" before showing part of his new movie Bee Movie earlier this month at NorthPark Centre.

Life after Gigli? Apparently so. (Courtesy)

Yeah, yeah, I know: IMDb.com. I'm saying off the top of your head. Cheating is only for the SATs.

Let's hear it. I'll get you started with my seven:

Gigli
El Cantante
Out of Sight
The Wedding Planner
Selena
Maid in Manhattan
Anaconda

Gangsta macks: Crowe and Washington hit the scene next week (Universal Pictures)

But let's take a peek into the next couple of weeks. Next Friday delivers American Gangster, Ridley Scott's epic cat-and-mouse look at Harlem crime lord Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) and Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), the Jersey cop who gradually grew hip to Lucas' clout. Not your thing? Then try Bee Movie, the new animated baby of Jerry Seinfeld.

Things stay hot and heavy the following week with the Coen Bros.' No Country for Old Men and Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs. After that there's really not a dull slate the rest of the year.

So have patience, oh moviegoers. The cavalry is on the way.

First feast, now famine. After 12 new films opened this week, only five new flicks hit the screens this week in Dallas. With Halloween less than a week away, one of them must be Saw IV. But you can also choose from Dan in Real Life (B), Bella (C), Music Within (B+) and Park. Comment and let the world know: which flick gets your $10+ this week?

Bella star Eduardo Verástegui and director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde will appear at various screenings of the movie in Dallas on Saturday and Sunday. The movie (which I have not seen) carries a strong pro-life message and has received quite a push from the Dallas Diocese of late, including a letter of recommendation from new Bishop Kevin Farrell. If you are interested in attending any of the screenings with the filmmakers, go to www.prolifedallas.org for showtimes and tickets.

This just in from the Lone Star Film Society:

Fort Worth native T Bone Burnett has agreed to be the chair of the honorary board of the Lone Star Film Society and attend the inaugural Lone Star International Film Festival Nov. 7-11 in Downtown Fort Worth.
Burnett, a Fort Worth native who began producing Texas blues, country and rock and roll records in 1965, still works as a producer and recording artist. One of his most recent projects was serving as composer and music producer for the 2001 Coen Brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou? He scored the film and produced the soundtrack, which sold 9 million copies.
He took home four Grammy Awards in 2002. Since then, Burnett has been involved in the soundtracks for several films, including Cold Mountain and A Mighty Wind.
For more information about upcoming summer events, visit www.lonestarfilmsociety.com.

In search of bite
The vampire tale 30 Days of Night may have come out on top with $16 million, but it also had the honor of leading another lackluster weekend that saw box office receipts trail last year for the fifth straight week. The fact that the reissued The Nightmare Before Christmas scored the highest per-screen average of any film in the top 20 should tip you off that this is an underwhelming time at the box office.

Have you ever gotten sucked into a movie you catch on cable?

I got caught up in American Me, starring Edward James Olmos. It's a good movie the same way Sleepers is a good movie. It gives you a look at life so far removed from what many might consider normal but that you happens every day. Somewhere. It's chilling and fascinating.

See it if you haven't (Criterion)

Aside from the glorious restored HD transfer, Criterion's new two-disc set offers a bevy of goodies, including a pair of provocative video essays: Jonathan Rosenbaum's Breathless as Criticism, a knowing look at the film's many cultural references and threads of commentary; and Mark Rappaport's Jean Seberg, a snapshot of the tragic star who became an American-in-Paris icon selling the New York Herald Tribune in Breathless. No one can match Criterion's ability to present a portable master class on a vital piece of film history.

Hard out here for a vamp: 30 Days of Night (Columbia Pictures)

Meanwhile, I did my part to deprive the cinemaconomy by watching movies at home. The highlights: L'Atalante , Jean Vigo's magical story of conflicting newlyweds on a honeymoon barge; and Who Gets to Call it Art?, the 2006 doc on legendary Met curator Henry Geldzahler. It's a must-see that exposes the fallacy of the "modern art is a sham" argument, and a nice warm-up for the upcoming My Kid Could Paint That, opening here Nov. 2.

Yeah, fine, go spend a day drowning in the torture porn that is the Saw franchise.
We've talked a lot around here about scary movies. And its the Halloween season, so that's understandable. But we're forgetting a very important genre: horror humor. Okay, fine maybe it's not a *real* genre, but there are some great "scary" movies out there that deserve a little love.

So talk to me: What "horror" movie gets your funny bone? I'll start:

Young Frankenstein (1974):
   Inga: Werewolf!
   Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Werewolf?
   Igor: There.
   Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: What?
   Igor: There, wolf. There, castle.
   Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Why are you talking that way.
   Igor: I thought you wanted to.
   Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: No, I don't want to.
   Igor: Suit yourself. I'm easy.

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975):
   Frank: Do you think I made a mistake splitting his brain between the two of them?

Shaun of the Dead (2004):
   Ed: Who died and made you king of the zombies?

Joey Bishop, the stone-faced comedian who found success in nightclubs, television and movies but became most famous as a member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack, has died at 89.

He was the group's last surviving member. Peter Lawford died in 1984, Sammy Davis Jr. in 1990, Dean Martin in 1995, and Sinatra in 1998.

Continue reading the story.

You can also read a terrific 1998 interview that's chock-full of Joeyisms.

Here's a classic Joey Bishop line from the Los Angeles Times' obituary:

While opening for Sinatra at the Copacabana in New York in 1954, Bishop was in the middle of his act when Marilyn Monroe walked in wearing a floor-length, white ermine coat. Bishop waited for her to be seated before saying, “Marilyn, I told you to wait in the truck.”

So I finally saw Michael Clayton -- which I really enjoyed. And I was struck by the icy baddie played by Tilda Swinton whom I had last seen as the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Which made me think a coupla things -- that if the White Witch were transposed into our world, yes, I could see her as the heartless head of an amoral company AND if Tilda doesn't get something warmer to play soon, audiences are just going to assume she bleeds icicles.

LONDON — British actress Deborah Kerr, who shared one of cinema's most
famous kisses with Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity, has died, her agent said Thursday. She was 86.

Read the report.

Tell us: What is your favorite Deborah Kerr film? (I'm partial to The King and I.)

Tyler takes the lead
Who needs Madea? Certainly not Tyler Perry, as the playwright/director put his most famous character in storage for Why Did I Get Married? but still managed to grab $21 million at the box office. Mr. Perry also didn’t need critics, as Married didn’t screen in advance and didn’t seem to suffer for it, either.

Our man Clint: Ch-ch-Changeling (Warner Bros.)

Thus spake the Reporter:

The story follows a woman (Jolie) whose son goes missing in 1920s Los Angeles. The police return the wrong child and the woman is thrown into an insane asylum for disagreeing with the LAPD. When it seems that her real son has been murdered by a child serial killer and the child returned admits to fraud, she takes her case to the city council and takes down the mayor, the police chief and several corrupt officers, concurrently sparking changes in the insanity legislation.

Good times. Changeling is due to be released by Universal and Imagine in 2008.

Deborah Fleck reports on a luncheon she attended yesterday in Last Colinas with special guest Sherry Lansing:

Sherry Lansing said she wanted to be in the movies since she was 12 years old. But when she shared her dream with friends, they laughed at her. No one from the south side of Chicago knew anyone in the movies.

But now they do. Ms. Lansing became the first woman to head a major Hollywood studio, 20th Century-Fox, and she’s produced a string of successful movies, including the highest grossing film ever, Titantic.

Despite all the Black Dahlia hate being spread on this blog, I went into it with open mind. I'm a James Ellroy fan, and his book was great.

The movie, alas, was not. Eeverything was so disconnected. I spent a lot of time going, "Wait. What?" Not even Josh Hartnet's hard-boiled voiceovers helped. Instead of making the movie make sense, all it did was make me think, "Shut up, you so did not know that either, Bucky."

My other problem: Hilary Swank as a sex symbol.

Who could resist Clive Owen? Certainly not Cate Blanchett's Virgin Queen (Universal Pictures)

And those of you looking for a grade on Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?: The playwright is notorious for not screening his films in advance (who needs critics when you have a loyal following?), so best check back tomorrow.

Who's seeing what this weekend and why? Or, if these six can't tempt you, what are you watching in the comfort of your own home? Besides football - or hockey, in my case - obvs.

Check the New York Daily News item about Brian De Palma crying censorship against Mark Cuban, whose HDNet produced De Palma's new Iraq movie Redacted. Cuban was promptly defended by Eamonn Bowles, president of Cuban and Todd Wagner's Magnolia Pictures.

Cuban and Wagner get a shout-out of a less contentious variety in David Carr's astute piece in today's New York Times (you know, the non-tabloid NY paper) about the glut of pretigious fall films.

Courtesy

and will end with two more. That's what we call "full circle." Which is appropriate, because we're talking about Stargate. Specifically, Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series, which crossed our desk this week. Actually, "thudded heavily onto" might be more appropriate because this set of all 10 season is nearly 8x8x8. And heavy.

So what does it offer? ...

There’s a tear in my career
Here’s betting the bars were full on Sunday night in Hollywood. Just about everything that opened in wide release failed to live up to expectations, led by The Heartbreak Kid. The reteaming of Ben Stiller and the Farrelly Brothers netted just $14 million for a film expected to earn $20 million to $25 million during its opening weekend. Instead, The Game Plan gladly stepped in, retaining the title with another $16.6 million. Overall, the box office was down a third straight week — this time by 35 percent. Blame it on the warm weather.

Having gorged on movies last week, I decided to do something wacky this weekend and see a play. Which happens to be the basis for one of my favorite movies. I can't go into a lot of detail on Sunday afternoon's preview performance of Dallas Theater Center's Glengarry Glen Ross; it doesn't officially open until Tuesday, and our esteemed Lawson Taitte will have plenty of insight to offer. But I did enjoy myself, and this is one of the few times I can be like Lawson and compare it to the New York production, in which Liev Schreiber dazzled by underplaying Ricky Roma. One thing that fans of the film should know before setting out for DTC's production: don't look for Alec Baldwin's great "Always be Closing" scene. It was written exclusively for the movie.

The question for you, oh blog reader: what is your favorite David Mamet film (directed by, written by or both)? I'm partial to Glengarry, as friends who have heard me quote it ad infinitum can attest, but I also love me some House of Games, which I believe towers over Mamet's similar but more ambitious con artist yarn The Spanish Prisoner. Most underrated, and, on the surface, least Mamet-like: The Winslow Boy. Thoughts?

Westerns are making a come back on the big screen this fall with 3:10 to Yuma and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. So tell us: What do you love about Westerns?

Ang Lee and Tony Leung proceed with 'Caution' (Focus Features)

"It’s more scary for me than portraying American gay cowboys," the Taiwanese director told me at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. "From a woman’s point of view, it’s the national spirit that you’re somehow violating. The sexuality is very shocking, and patriotism is huge in China. But that makes it more attractive to me. If it doesn’t let go of you, you just have to do it and see what it’s like."

Lust, Caution opens today at the Dallas Angelika, and will expand to the Plano location next Friday.

Frontier fame: Brad Pitt in Assassination (Warner Brothers)

As you might expect, the irony isn't lost on Pitt, whose personal life blares from the covers of gossip rags on a weekly basis.

"There’s no question I’m going to get a kick out of that part of it from firsthand experience," says Pitt by phone. (Sorry ladies, I don't have his number). "There’s the celebrity, and then there’s the human who gets up and brushes his teeth and washes his face and scrounges for coffee."

Stay through the credits or he'll hit you with a red folder: George Clooney and Sydney Pollack in MichaelClayton (Warner Brothers)

Anyway, one thing I didn't get to in my Michael Clayton review: the wonderfully minimalist end credits, which appear silently on screen as George Clooney rides in the back of a cab. Credits are too often used in a utilitarian manner to supply, well, the credits. But in the right hands they become art. Alfred Hitchcock and Saul Bass certainly knew this, and the result was the dazzling graphic presentation at the beginning of Psycho. Two other favorites come to mind: The mod, art deco-inspired stick figure vignettes at the start of Catch Me if You Can; and the sleek, ad-savvy opener to AMC's fine Madison Avenue drama Mad Men.

Tell us: Is there a credit sequence - opening or ending - that has stuck in your mind and transcended the actual show?

Among the many great things about movies: you can watch them almost anywhere. Lately I've taken to bellying up to the bar at Cosmos, the Lakewood watering hole with the retro decor, and partaking in whatever DVD they've picked from their vast library to show on the TV. (Last night: The Usual Suspects. Never gets old). There's something about the mix of closed captioning and random barrrom chatter that I find soothing. I guess the beer helps as well.

Anyone else have a weird place where they like to watch?

A touchdown on the opening drive
The Game Plan easily rushed past the competition last weekend, earning $22.95 million and an easy No. 1. Going into the weekend, it was thought that The Kingdom would make a run for the top spot, but the Jamie Foxx action thriller trailed Plan by more than $5 million.

Jerry Seinfeld and the directors of Bee Movie stopped in the AMC Northpark on Tuesday night to show several clips from the animated film, which Mr. Seinfeld co-wrote and stars in. The 53-year-old comedian says he chose Dallas to be part of the 10-city promotional tour because it is a stop where he always was well-received during his early days working the comedy circuit. And what does he think of when he comes to Texas? "I remember when I first came here seeing places selling 'Genuine Texas Cowchips.' The Texan's enthusiasm for Texas is kind of a mystery to me," he says, though he's quick to add he feels the same way about New York.
Bee Movie opens in theaters on Nov. 2

Women in Film.Dallas will host the 6th Annual Chick Flicks Film Festival on Thursday night at the Dallas Angelika. The highlight of this year’s fest is Room 10, Jennifer Aniston’s directorial debut starring Robin Wright Penn. The event starts at 6 p.m. with a cocktail hour at Spike in Mockingbird Station and the first screening begins at 7. Tickets are $8 for WIF.Dallas members, $10 for non-members. Go to www.wifdallas.org for more details.

Behavior at movie theaters has steadily declined the last few years as more and more viewers seem convinced they're sitting in their living rooms. But the boorishness reached a new low, at least for me, at Monday night's word of mouth screening of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford at the Angelika.

The following people need to stay home and watch wrestling:

The idiot with the pager that went off every ten minutes.

The model parent with the crying baby. (Not that I care about your baby; I just don't need to hear it cry).

The clown down front who yelled "Holla!" every time someone got shot.

The laughing hyenas who somehow thought this thing was a comedy.

The problems were compounded by the film's tricky tone - this is a essentially an art western, and a long one at that; it doesn't have any of the usual prescribed action beats that guide reactions. So that excuses some of the laughers. The rest of you: go watch Good Luck Chuck again and leave us alone. Just because a movie is free doesn't mean you get to ruin it for those who actually want to pay attention.

So: what kind of theater behavior makes you want to go Cartman and demand everyone respect your authority?

Saturday night I was at the Angelika Dallas to see In the Shadow of the Moon, and I couldn't help but notice that there were far more teens and college-age folks there than normal. Turns out they were all seeing Across the Universe, as both Saturday night shows sold out. I would have thought that a movie centered around Beatles songs would have had a stong Boomer following, but you've never seen so many youngsters in Beatles garb as were at the Angelika on Saturday. Made me feel kinda old as I headed into Shadow, but I comforted myself with the knowledge that I had already seen Universe at Toronto...