'Star Wars' Fans Line Up at Wrong Theater
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - One group of loyal "Star Wars" fans are hoping The Force is on their side.
Followers of George Lucas' sci-fi saga began lining up outside Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theater on Saturday, April 2, despite the fact that "Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" won't be showing there, reports the AP.
Instead, 20th Century Fox has booked the ArcLight theater, which is about a mile east of Grauman's for the historic showing of the final installment of the beloved series.
The fans haven't made a mistake, though. They insist that "Episode III" should screen at the Chinese since the first film, 1977's "A New Hope," made its premiere there. In addition, rumors in 1999 and 2002 that previous "Star Wars" films weren't showing at the historic Hollywood landmark were unfounded.
"We've heard all this before," says fan Sarah Sprague. "This is still the epicenter for 'Star Wars' fans. For the big iconic pictures of the 1970s, people lining up were here."
Moreover, fans feel that the ArcLight's practice of allowing moviegoers to purchase tickets and reserve specific seats online negates the true dedication of lining up. Although Fox and ArcLight haven't finalized their deal, the studio insists they won't be screening the film at the Chinese.
In January, Seattle resident Jeff Twieden became the first person in the country to begin the final "Star Wars" vigil on the sidewalk outside his local theater in preparation for the Thursday, May 19th worldwide release.
The highly anticipated "Episode III" is set two years into the Clone Wars, when Chancellor Palpatine, with the help of his clone army and Sith Warriors, prepares to rid the galaxy of the Jedis in order to declare himself Emperor of the Galactic Empire. Anakin Skywalker will also make his final descent into evil, becoming the heavy-breathing, helmeted Darth Vader.
THE NAME IS BOND
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Sean Connery set to reprise his role as James Bond one last time for Electronic Arts' upcoming videogame based on the 007 adventure From Russia with Love.
Vicki Gabereau tapes final episode of Gemini-winning talk show
TORONTO (CP) - Eight years. One thousand episodes. More than 3,000 guests.
With that, CTV's Gemini-winning Vicki Gabereau taped her final show in Vancouver on Wednesday, to air April 13. Some of her favourite guests from the past were on hand for the finale, including Jann Arden, Michael Buble and Brent Butt.
Diana Krall and Elvis Costello also taped a surprise greeting.
"I'm not retiring, just moving on to the next thing," Gabereau said of her 30-year career in the business. "I'll take the summer to think about what I want to do, but moving to Las Vegas and advancing my career as a fan dancer is definitely one of my options."
Gabereau, 58, known as the Queen of Talk, began her daytime show in 1997. She's also been a radio host and is a published author.
CTV will continue to air encore episodes.
Solo Springsteen Ready To Tour
Bruce Springsteen will begin a solo acoustic tour April 25 in Detroit, in support of his upcoming Columbia album, "Devils & Dust." The first North American leg of the tour will play 2,500- to 5,000-seat theaters and theater configurations in arenas through May 20 in Boston, to be followed by a European run that begins May 24 in Dublin.
The Boss will finish in Europe on June 25 in Stockholm, with more North American dates likely. "Our hope is that sometime by the fall we will come back to the U.S. and make some additional appearances in our biggest Bruce markets," longtime Springsteen manager Jon Landau tells Billboard.com.
Initially, the plan is to quickly showcase the new album, due April 26. "Bruce has a beautiful new CD that we're very excited about and we want to get out and show the colors right off, touching base with as many cities as we can conveniently do," Landau reports.
Ticket prices are still being finalized, but Landau says they will be in the $85 range for the premium seats. Springsteen last toured solo in support of the 1995 album "The Ghost of Tom Joad." On that outing, he played only acoustic guitar and harmonica; this time around, Springsteen will also play some piano, Landau says.
"Bruce is rehearsing the show right now, creating a very specific perspective for it," Landau says. "As is always the case with Bruce, the set will evolve right up until the last show." Tickets for some shows go on sale this weekend.
Landau says the new album "has a combination of rock music and acoustic music, but as a body of work we thought that the intimacy of the solo show wound up best serving the CD as a whole. The full rock version of some of the new songs is sure to be part of the next E Street Band tour."
On Monday (April 4), Springsteen taped an episode of the occasional VH1 series "Storytellers" at the new Two River Theatre in Red Bank, N.J. He previewed the title track of "Devils & Dust," as well as "Jesus Was an Only Son," and touched on material from across his career, including "Thunder Road," "Brilliant Disguise" and "The Rising." The broadcast premiere is scheduled for April 23.
Here are Springsteen's tour dates:
April 25: Detroit (Fox Theatre)
April 28: Dallas (Nokia Theatre)
April 30: Phoenix (Glendale Arena)
May 2-3: Los Angeles (Pantages Theatre)
May 5: Oakland, Calif. (Oakland Theatre)
May 7: Denver (Convention Theatre)
May 10: St. Paul, Minn. (Xcel Energy Center)
May 11: Chicago (Rosemont Theatre)
May 14: Fairfax, Va. (Patriot Center)
May 15: Cleveland (CSU Convocation Center)
May 17: Philadelphia (Tower Theatre)
May 19: East Rutherford, N.J. (The Theater at Continental Airlines Arena)
May 20: Boston (Orpheum Theatre)
May 24: Dublin (the Point)
May 27-28: London (Royal Albert Hall)
May 30: Brussels (Forest Nationale)
June 1: Barcelona (Pavello Olimpic Badalona)
June 2: Madrid (Palacio de Deportes)
June 4: Bologna, Italy (Palamalaguti Arena)
June 6: Rome (Palalottomatica Arena)
June 7: Milan (Milan Forum)
June 11: Hamburg (Color Line Arena)
June 12: Berlin (ICC)
June 13: Munich (Olympia Hall)
June 15: Frankfurt, Germany (Festhalle)
June 16: Dusseldorf, Germany (Phillipshalle)
June 19: Rotterdam, Holland (Ahoy)
June 20: Paris (Bercy)
June 22: Copenhagen (Forum)
June 23: Gothenberg, Sweden (Scandinavium)
June 25: Stockholm (Hovet)
The Couch Potato Report - April 6th, 2005
This week The Couch Potato Report features one movie that is actually better than I say it is and one that is even worse than I say it is.
The film SIDEWAYS was nominated for five Academy Awards - including Best Picture - and it won for Best Original Screenplay.
It actually earned Best Picture honors from movie critics in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, London, Toronto, San Francisco, Washington and Boston.
Plus, it was named to the top 10 lists of more than 350 critics lists including the American Film Institute, The National Board of Review, and Rolling Stone and Newsweek magazines, amongst others.
So if a film is proclaimed to be that good by that many people and groups, then it has to be good, right?
Well no, not always.
But in this case, SIDEWAYS is that good.
SIDEWAYS deserves all of the attention it received earlier this year during the movie Awards season, and it deserves your time now that it is available on video and DVD.
This is a superb film.
Paul Giamatti is Miles, a struggling novelist and wine connoisseur who takes his best friend on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party.
Miles just wants to golf, taste wine and hang out with his friend. But his friend would rather sow some proverbial wild oats before walking down the aisle.
The friend is the comedic side of the film while Giamatti's Miles is the movie's heart.
Miles starts to spend time with a recently divorced waitress and every single one of their moments together are spectacular!
The scenes are well written and well acted and even though it is a movie, it seems as if they are two real people talking to each other.
Virginia Madsen plays the waitress and she is wonderful!
I still think she deserved to win the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
SIDEWAYS explores life's failures, struggles, and the lowered expectations of mid-life. But more importantly, it is a movie full of real people, living real lives.
So add me to the list those who recommend SIDEWAYS. It is a superb movie.
Prior to the release of his latest film SPANGLISH last December, the career of write director James L. Brooks was also superb.
Prior to last December, her had yet to make a misstep.
Brooks had worked on the classic television shows MY THREE SONS, THAT GIRL and THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, before creating THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, TAXI and developing THE SIMPSONS.
His films include the superb BROADCAST NEWS, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and AS GOOD AS IT GETS.
Like I said, prior to the release of SPANGLISH last December, his career was superb and he had yet to suffer a misstep.
Then came SPANGLISH.
In the movie the very beautiful Paz Vega plays a Mexican woman who moves to Los Angeles to become the housekeeper for the wealthy, and troubled, Clasky family.
Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni are the head of the family, and they have too many problems to list.
But their main problem is the fact that he is a loving and supportive parent to their two kids, and she is...well, not so much.
Oh, and the housekeeper doesn't speak English, but her daughter does. Of course, the daughter doesn't always translate everything word for word.
Now all of that sounds pretty promising, doesn't it? I'll sure thought it did and with James L. Brooks behind it, I watched it thinking it would be a film that was a witty and perceptive collision of cultures and values.
Instead, it is just long, uninteresting and a huge misstep for James L. Brooks.
Admittedly, Paz Vega is beautiful to look at, plus Brooks did get a great performance out of Sandler and kept him away from his trademark work in HAPPY GILMORE and THE WEDDING SINGER.
And yes, Téa Leoni is as reliable as ever, Cloris Leachman is hilarious as Leoni's mother and Sarah Steele is a stand out as Bernice, Sandler and Leoni's daughter.
But those good things don't add up to anything special and SPANGLISH is a movie that isn't worth the time you will invest in it.
It isn't horrible, but it certainly isn't good either.
But, on the other hand, SIDEWAYS is good. In fact it is superb!!
So now we have the superb SIDEWAYS, the mediocre SPANGLISH and now we add the very bad ELEKTRA to the mix.
After the modest success of the comic book movie DAREDEVIL in 2003 a decision was made to spin off the very interesting supporting character ELEKTRA into her own film.
Great idea, bad film.
Jennifer Garner from TV's ALIAS reprises her role as Elektra, and in the film she is a hired assassin.
Admittedly, Elektra is just a variation on the character that Garner plays every week on TV, but the difference is the TV show is well written, well acted and full of action.
ELEKTRA is none of those things.
Yes, sure, Jennifer Garner looks great, and if that is reason enough for you to sit through this bad movie, then enjoy.
Personally, while I enjoyed looking at Jennifer Garner, I hated watching the movie she was in.
ELEKTRA is a waste of your time, but along with SPANGLISH and SIDEWAYS, it is also available in stores now.
COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT
OCEAN'S TWLEVE is the less than enjoyable sequel to the all-star remake of OCEAN'S ELEVEN. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts are all back on screen, but even with their star power this film is hard to watch.
HOTEL RWANDA is hard to watch as well, but for different reasons. Don Cheadle plays a hotel owner who offers shelter for refugees in Rwanda during the genocide of the mid-1990's.
In THE WOODSMAN Kevin Bacon gives a great performance as a flawed man who is attempting to rejoin society. Due to its subject matter, it too is a very difficult film to watch, but the acting is superb.
I'm Dan Reynish and I will have more on THE WOODSMAN, HOTEL RWANDA and OCEAN'S TWLEVE in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next week on The Couch!