Word: hollywoodizations
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first glance, the plot seems simple: a wannabe starlet from Small Town, USA poisons her abusive husband, decapitates him, pops his head into a stay-fresh tupperware container, ditches her seven kids and takes off to Hollywood to become a TV star. It's a typical theme for a movie: carpe diem, no matter who you kill or how many lives you ruin. But set the plot during the turbulent time period of the '60s Civil Rights Movement, and the scope of the film becomes much wider and far more serious than its trailer suggests...
...accomplishes the daunting task of uniting two seemingly disparate storylines by a common cause: the fight for freedom, whether from an entire society or a controlling spouse. Crazy in Alabama juxtaposes the fallout of two murders in a small Alabama town: the killing of an abusive husband by his Hollywood-bound wife and the murder of a young African-American boy during a peaceful sit-in at the hands of the corrupt town sheriff...
...Simply put, Malkovich is no agreeable Tom Cruise heartthrob. John Malkovich is, fundamentally, creepy. (This isn't just my opinion; I have taken a poll of eight people, and seven agree. The eighth has a crush on him.) John Malkovich doesn't have any of the usual qualities of Hollywood stardom - the symmetrical, chiseled looks, the measured voice, the stolid evenness. Malkovich is bizarre by comparison, with beady eyes at inappropriate moments and a sneer of a voice which sounds more like somebody choking than talking. You can imagine this movie being born out of a stoned conversation about...
...Three to Tango is a piece of pure-grade Hollywood cotton candy. Initially light and wispy, the film goes down easily until it grows a little too sticky, a little too sweet, and a little too nausea-friendly. It's pleasantly diverting, but it's also thoroughly disposable and bound to flitter out of your mind ten minutes after leaving the theater. It's a bit of a shame, because Three to Tango could have been a sweetly agreeable bit of fluff if its story wasn't so darn predictable. The film offers up a fairly tired plot, but then...
DIED. MARTIN DAVIS, 72, creator of Paramount Communications; of a heart attack; in New York City. Former boss to Hollywood heavyweights Michael Eisner, Barry Diller and the late Brandon Tartikoff, the famously temper-prone executive took over the company from Gulf & Western in 1983--and doubled its stock value in his 11 years at its helm. Among his better-known takeover attempts: an ultimately unsuccessful bid to wrest Time Inc. (parent company of TIME) from Warner Communications...