Beauty vs Beast: Anna and the King

Every Monday morning I wake up excited to see what face-off Jason has challenged us with so I thank him as ever for this series.  But he's out of town so I'm filling in. Let's go with a musical since he's unlikely to pitch them. A Tony-seeking revival of The King and I is currently in previews on Broadway (we're seeing it next week!) starring Kelli O'Hara, who is The Deborah Kerr of the Tonys (she always loses). 

Whose team are you on?

Team Anna

Team King

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Yul Brynner or Deborah Kerr? All westerners who are funny, young lovers, and everyone else should vote. Does your vote change if we replace this with different actors in different adaptations (Chow Yun Fat & Jodie Foster, anyone?). Make this impossible choice and explain yourself in the comments. It's a puzzlement!

Last Week
Paul Rudd's Andy thanks you for your votes, all 57% percent of them over besting that task-master Beth (Janeane Garofalo) who made his eyes (and torso) roll in Wet Hot American Summmer to hilarious effect. He'll make out with you so long as you don't taste like burgers. We can't wait to see Beth and Andy again when this funny movie becomes a series... with the original cast no less.

SanFranCinema spoke for many when he said:

Paul Rudd has been the Object of My Affection for as long as I can remember. You'd have to be Clueless to vote against him. Paul, I Love You Man!

Review: Exodus: Gods and Kings

Michael C here to look at an embattled new wide release. 

Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings is so dead in the water, so consistently baffling in its choices, that it is difficult to know where to begin. How about the simple fact that when one is adapting the Old Testament there is no getting around God? 

Gods and Kings doesn’t go so far as to omit God altogether. The Lord is present (sort of) in the form of a petulant eight-year old child who first appears from behind the burning bush to issue vague marching orders to Moses. What Scott and his quartet of screenwriters do attempt is an end-run around the almighty in the form of an ill-considered attempt to wedge the Book of Exodus into the Batman Begins mold where all the miraculous events are brought down to Earth with realistic explanations, or at least semi-plausible interpretations.

Is God really talking to Moses or is Moses talking to himself because his exile knocked a screw loose? Does God intervene at the Red Sea or did the Jews get lucky with a fortuitous low tide? [more...]

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Beauty Break: Headdresses

I've been holding on to this picture of Sigourney Weaver as "Tuya" from Exodus for a couple of days without any idea what to say about it other than 'thank god Sigourney's signature directors still love her'. Between Ridley Scott (Alien) and James Cameron (Aliens), Lt. Ellen Ripley will always find her way back to decent roles on the big screen.

But I don't understand the casting of that movie at all. Everyone is SO white, like pasty white. Especially Joel Edgerton as Ramses. In The Ten Commandments that role went to Yul Brynner. Though Brynner was also white, a white Russian to be exact though that sounds alcoholic and we're not talking about how drunk looking at Yul makes me, he had that exotic visual flair that had Hollywood casting him in every conceivable ethnicity. Kind of the way Ben Kingsley who is Indian British is used now, only sexier.

Let's stick with the sexy.  The Film Experience loves a good headdress on the big screen. Here are some of the best.  

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Destry Links Again

Film Misery offers up "51 Movies to See Before Oscar Night". Get screening, people.
/Film details on Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive follow-up Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling and a "merciless and terrifying".... KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS. Yes, please. Holy Goddess, yes!
Know Your Meme "first world problems." hee. I wonder how James Van Der Beek feels about that dramatic acting moment always being used in these comical ways?
Guardian funny dismissal of Roland Emmerich's Anonymous

MUBI tells us what's on tap for this year' AFI fest including the classics that guest director Pedro Almodóvar programmed himself. So sad I can't be there for the 25th anniversary screening of Law of Desire; it's only my favorite Pedro! 
Cinema Blend Andy Serkis reaps seven figures for Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel. Deserved.
Liz Smith lists Hollywood's shortest marriages. Oh Rudolph Valentino... (sigh)
Towleroad a few more links and a note about this weekend's new releases 

Finally...
I must send you off to read Michael's review of Weekend at Serious Film. Michael contributes here from time to time (mostly via Unsung Heroes) but I told him last time I saw him that I was super impatient to hear his reaction as it took him way too long to see it. I love this warning to other straight dudes, commanding them to buy a ticket...

If you don't then you forfeit any right to complain when the multiplexes are filled with nothing but Garry Marshall movies named after holidays.

LOL!