Friday, December 19, 2025
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Box Office: Equally Awful “Snake Eyes” and “Old” Make $1.5 Million in Previews, Have Rotten Reviews

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It’s not going to be a celebratory weekend at the box office.

The new films — “Snake Eyes” and “Old” — each made $1.5 million in previews Thursday night.

They are poorly reviewed– they’re bad movies in different ways. “Snake Eyes,” which I haven’t seen, scored a 40 on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics derided it.

“Old,” directed by M. Night Shyamalan, got a higher number — 56– which is still pretty bad.

I watched “Old” two nights ago and was seriously shocked how terrible it was. The cast is excellent, it’s not their fault. They are all terrific actors including Gael Garcia Bernal, Rufus Sewell, Vicki Krieps, Ken Leung from “Lost,” and Alex Wolff.

The problem is the premise and how cheap it all looks. They’re all on a Fantasy Island vacation. The manager sends them to a special beach where they are trapped. They can’t leave. Indeed, the guy who drops them off is Shyamalan himself in his Hitchcock role.

Immediately bad things happen, and I don’t mean sunburn. A dead woman floats up from the water. The three children in the group suddenly start aging, which means the actors playing them get switched out. Vicky Krieps’ character suddenly has a tumor that must be removed, which is insane. One of the quickly grown girls becomes pregnant (immaculate conception) and gives birth.

All the adults start aging. One of them gets dementia. But really, it’s the studio executives who greenlit this thing who had dementia. The story is banal, rote, uninteresting. It’s also cheap cheap cheap. Most of it takes place on the beach. There are no sets. There’s minimal special effects. The actors get points for trying to sell what is basically an acting class, trying to convince the audience something is happening.

Credit goes to the make up artists and lighting directors. They’ve worked overtime to make this silliness convincing. But really, if you’ve seen the TV series, “Lost,” this is tame stuff with even less explanation. At the end, Shyamalan attempts to explain what’s happened, but there’s no twist, no big revelation. You just wonder why you wasted your time.

Shymalan’s movies, other than “The Sixth Sense,” simply elude me. Almost all of them are the Emperor’s New Clothes, a lot of hype amounting to not much.

Kanye West’s Record Label Stays Mum on Release Date of “Donda,” Same Thing Happened One Year Ago This Week

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Def Jam Records has no idea what the deal is with Kanye West‘s Donda album.

This morning they sent out a press release saying only that Kanye had “unveiled” the album last night at  sold out listening party.

Other than that there was no word about when or if the album would ever be released.

There’s something on the release about Kanye beating the Beatles or some nonsense. LOL. Don’t get me started.

It’s possible this is a seasonal disorder for Kanye. He did the same thing last year almost to the day– announced the album’s release and then nothing happened.  Read here and here.

Kanye also said last September — he may not recall — that he wouldn’t release any more music until his contracts with Sony and Universal were up. Anyone remember that?

 

 

Kanye Tagged for Ridiculous Overpriced Snack Bar at Non Listening Party: 40 Bucks for a Hot Dog

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Kanye West‘s disastrous non listening party tonight featured a ridiculous over priced snack bar.

Forty bucks for a kosher hot dog? Sixty five bucks for an assorted snack basket? Fifty dollars for chicken tenders?

Did people actually spend this money for this crap food? Unbelievable. And very Trumpian, really! And in the end, no album was released.

It’s not even clear if there was a whole album ready for release. As you’ll see in my later items, Kanye did the exact same thing one year ago this week. He promised a “Donda” album, made a big PR splash, offered cover art and track lists, and nothing came of it. It may be some kind of seasonal bipolar disorder.

As for the snacks, what a fool believes…and yes there is a sucker born every minute…

Deja Vu: Kanye West Lures Fans to Atlanta Stadium, Arrives an Hour Late, and Doesn’t Release Promised Album

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The Kanye West listening party is over. Nothing happened. The fans were duped.

The album promised, called “Donda,” was not released. Thousands packed Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, many for free.

West was an hour late arriving. When he did, the album — or something — was played so loudly that no one could hear the lyrics, according to observers.

Kanye appeared and stood in the center of the stadium field wearing an orange snow suit jacket. The field was covered in white, as if it were fake snow.


Will there be an album? Donde esta Donda? Or was this just a big bipolar ego adventure? There’s a sucker born every minute.

Kanye West Gave Away 5,000 Seats for Listening Party to Fill Stadium, Hundreds Remain Unsold

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Tonight’s listening party in Atlanta for Kanye West’s new album will be an interesting mixed audience.

Some of the fans will have paid a couple hundred bucks for seats. Thousands are going for free.

To ensure a full looking Mercedes Benz Stadium, Kanye’s said to have given away 5,000 tickets to students. Will they go? Why not? It’s free!

The reason for this largesse is because tickets didn’t sell well. There are still hundreds of seats for sale, maybe up to a thousand. Only a small portion of the stadium is being used for the “Donda” listening event.

The “Donda” show will be broadcast on Apple Radio, bypassing Jay Z’s Tidal service where Kanye was an original partner. The album drops at midnight for those who are waiting for the full experience.

AM Round Up: Rolling Stones Hit the Road, Anne Hathway’s Criminal BF Upset, Adrienne Warren’s “Tina” Tony Victory Lap, “Dune” Director Gets TIFF Award

A lot of things are going on this morning…

THE ROLLING STONES, THE WORLD’S GREATEST ROCK AND ROLL BAND are hitting the road. Beginning September 26th they’ve got a bunch of west coast and midwest dates for their “No Filter” tour. Pandemic be damned!  No East Coast this time, but they are playing the New Orleans Jazz Festival on October 13th. God bless the Stones who I am sure are all vaccinated. Eric Clapton may not go near them! (PS The tour is sponsored by something called the Alliance for Lifetime Income, which is what you’ll need after paying for these tickets. Kidding! They are so worth it! )

ANNE HATHAWAY‘s ex con criminal ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri is sad because the Oscar winner stopped talking to him years ago after he was arrested for fraud. LOL. Follieri lied to everyone and solicited $50 million saying he was going to buy unused churches from the US Archdiocese. Raffaello kept the money instead. The scheme was called the Vati-con. He got five years in the pokey. He’s lucky Hathaway just stopped talking to him. Hathaway’s dad is a lawyer, for god’s sake. I think this shows great restraint and courage on her part. She went on to marry a great guy and have two kids. Leave her alone.

DENIS VILLENEUVE, director of the new “Dune,” is one of four people who will get special awards in September at the Toronto International Film Festival. His other films include “Sicaro,” “Blade Runner 2049,” and “Arrival” (which I loved). He’s also Canadian, so that helps. The other honoree announced today is one of the most acclaimed Indigenous directors in the world, Alanis Obomsawin. Congrats to both! 

ADRIENNE WARREN will return to play Tina Turner in “Tina: The Musical” in October for a short victory lap.  Presumably she’s going to win the 2020 Tony Award on September 26th for this work. She’s extraordinary in the role and she’s had to wait a long time for that gold statue! Who will replace her after this run? Those are tough wigs to fill!

’60s and 70’s MUSIC is all over the charts. So we’re excited that PETER ASHER of Peter & Gordon fame is coming to City Winery July 26th and 27th with Kate Taylor (James’s Sister Kate) and famed musician Leland Sklar. They’re playing The Loft upstairs at CW while Darlene Love and Marc Cohn are the downstairs acts on the respective nights. Does City Winery have overnight packages? We’ll just sleep there!

Pop singer HALSEY is reportedly mad at Allure Magazine. Why? Pronouns! I’ve seen this problem, too, with Demi Lovato. We love and respect these artists but the pronoun conundrum goes against all standards of English. So journalists and editors have a problem because it’s ingrained in us. Doesn’t mean we don’t get it. “They” is plural and makes no sense. So we’ll have to watch the pronouns and just use nouns like ‘gifted artist’ or ‘talented singer.’

 

 

Review: Bob Balaban Directs East Hampton All Stars (Mercedes Ruehl, Susie Essman Included) in Night of Cool Plays

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Begging the question: is it too soon to laugh about the pandemic year, 2020? A collection of short plays by masterful playwrights, did just that in a one-nighter at Guild Hall.

‘Some of the actors are serious,” warned Bob Balaban, a tad nervous as he greeted giggle-ready well-wishers. “I hope you like this experiment.” Under his fine direction, Paul Hecht, Susie Essman, Talia Balsam, Mercedes Ruehl, Isaac Mizrahi, and Ben Shenkman performed works by Sarah Ruhl, Lynn Grossman, Jon Robin Baitz, Paul Rudnick, Simon Rich, and R. G. Masons.

The pairings were perfect: In Rudnick’s “Play Bills,” Mizrahi camps his quarantine, imagining Hugh Jackman, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Nathan Lane coming to his apartment to sing for him, a collision of Broadway talents vying to perform. Ruehl stole it in Jon Robin Baitz’ contribution, “All the Old Familiar Places,” as a woman desperate for contact, and vital Yves St. Laurent gloss, in an eternal loop with the pharmacy’s phone voice recording. Who could play that unseen role? Balaban, of course. Did the order go through? The pandemic may have pushed this woman over the brink, but this engagement with the automated world finished the job. Who among us has not suffered that?

The coup de grace came with Ben Shenkman’s stand-up in “Lenny T” by R. G. Masons: he and some buddies had been together for their standard golf group. One died in the early COVID sweep. The others tested positive, sickened, and survived, telling jokes and pondering subjects too taboo for merriment. You can joke about the Holocaust, for example, but not about Anne Frank. He tells a joke about the Holocaust. Everyone laughs. And sure enough, just as you think the sacred is safe, he lands the Anne Frank one: Just imagine if Anne Frank had social media, it would have changed her life.

Balaban’s worries about a disappointed audience were for naught: documentarians Chris Hegedus and Nancy Buirski were happy for a night out, and Laurie Anderson who would be conversing onstage the next day with Julian Schnabel attended—let’s just say, it felt like all was well at the John Drew Theater. A good time was had by all.

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Globes, Still with No Black Members, Feature Interview with Anti-Abortion Filmmaker and Pariah Nick Loeb

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The Hollywood Foreign Press is truly trying to commit suicide.

The still have no Black members after months of scandal. They’ve lost their TV show, 200 publicity firms have turned against them, and their TV production company’s parent is trying to buy them out.

You’d think they’d get the message that the clock is ticking on their era. It’s almost over.

But now they’re featuring an interview with Nick Loeb, Hollywood pariah and producer-actor of anti-abortion movie literally no one wants to hear about.

The writer, HFPA member Kirpi Uimonen Ballesteros, has protected Tweets. But the Golden Globes website has Tweeted out a link to her feature on their website. The actual interview with Loeb is by HFPA journalist Michele Manelis.

Loeb is the ex boyfriend of Hollywood actress Sofia Vergara. He pursued her relentlessly and fruitlessly though the court to get access to fertilized eggs the two had frozen for possible future use. Loeb actually thought he could have children with Vergara after they broke up and wouldn’t stop until the court finally shut him down.

He’s the son of John Loeb, a former Ambassador, who has unlimited funds from decades of family wealth. Other than “Roe v. Wade,” Loeb’s anti-abortion film starring right winger Jon Voight, his main accomplishment in life is merchandising a failed condiment called Onion Crunch.

Manelis’s conversation with Loeb would seem like the wrong topping on the wrong meal. It’s not like “Roe v. Wade” was well received. It has a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was barely released and made no money. Its cast includes other pariahs Stacey Dash, Tomi Lahren, Milo Yiannopoulos.

One reviewer, Joey Magidson, wrote: “Roe v. Wade is not just sure to be the worst film of 2021, it’s among the worst of the past several years. Barely a movie, it’s not even coherent as conservative propaganda.”

But this is who the HFPA is featuring on their site. Good luck, and good night.

 

Eric Clapton, Ex Heroin Addict, Singer of “Cocaine,” Will Cancel Shows Where Venues Require Vaccinations

All the drugs have finally burned out Eric Clapton’s brain cells.

The singer who had a hit with the song, “Cocaine,” says he’ll cancel shows at venues that require vaccinations.

He is completely nuts at this point. This is from a former heroin addict, of all things. He has never been what we’d call a health nut.

But Clapton’s obstinate criticism of the vaccines is dangerous. Some people actually listen to him. Or are influenced by him. They should not be. We can appreciate Clapton’s musicianship without taking anything he says seriously.

He actually sent out a message reading: “Following the PMs announcement I feel honour bound to make my own: I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present. Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show”

Please get vaccinated. Do not go to any large music shows unless everyone is required to proof of vaccination. This is not a joke. What a shame that Clapton has turned out to be so stupid.

Kennedy Center Plans Big December Show Honoring Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels, Justino Diaz

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The Kennedy Center Honors will have a big TV show this December. They’ve chosen four inductees who guarantee huge ratings on CBS.

The honorees are Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels and opera singer Justino Diaz.

The first four will make sure the CBS show, taping December 5th, will garner massive numbers two weeks later when it’s broadcast.

Gordy changed the culture with Motown. They could do a whole show on just him. Stevie, Smokey, and Diana could be on the show. Crazy.

Joni Mitchell is ‘in’ this year. Every female singer will line up to do a tribute to her.

Ditto Bette Midler. Who won’t want to sing “The Rose,” “From a Distance,” and so on? Plus, there’s Bette’s Hollywood film career. She’s the only film star on this year’s docket.

Lorne Michaels– the whole “SNL” gang, starting with Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon are likely to show up, not to mention Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, etc. Huge.

So what a show! And then they’ve thrown in an opera singer just to seem smart. No one really knows Diaz, but they will when the show airs.

Congrats to the newest class. And to the Kennedy Center, you’ve finally got a ratings grabber!