New Years Miracle

It came out Monday that Michael Douglas is now cancer-free, pending monthly checkups and some medical housekeeping.

A few years ago, I might have said, "Great! Now he can go back to making tons of movies!".

But now, I just hope he works on whatever's in the pipeline (including a Liberace biopic), and spends lots of time golfing with friends and family.

MTMG

Point Taken

You didn't believe what I said about Elvis Mitchell? Here's the video evidence...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k0VzogmVTc

MTMG

Bye Bye, Elvis Mitchell!!!

So Elvis Mitchell is out as the new At The Movies co-host. He will be replaced by 24-year old Russian Chicago Reader contributor Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, who also writes for the movie website Mubi.

I sense that like Dick Clark before him, Ebert is in a baton-passing mood. And if he's thinking of the forseeable future of his brand, he's going to want to leave it to someone who has the fire and passion for movies that his late partner Gene Siskel had. For in all its incarnations, the At The Movies franchise was about two professional colleagues who engaged in lively discussion aimed at people who only wanted to know what movies to spend their hard-earned money on.

I know that Mr. Mitchell is also a professional, as evidenced by his TCM show Under The Influence and a KCRW podcast The Treatment. He has written for The New York Times, and has authored several books. But I have a strong feeling that his idea of a good time is to get together with a bunch of pipe-smoking academics and discuss subtext, mise-en-scene, and artistic influences. Not the stuff At The Movies is made of, I'm afraid.

I also seem to remember that on the one time I saw Mitchell during Ebert's Year of Rotating Cohosts prior to the selection of Richard Roeper, Elvis and Roger not only didn't have unanimous thumbs for anything, but Mitchell's only defenses were in the esoteric terms described above.

And call me crazy, but Elvis, whose home base these days is in sunny Los Angeles, didn't look all that thrilled to be in windy, snowy Chicago, where Ebert has written and broadcast from his entire 43-year career. It would be at least a four-day-six-movie-a-week commute for Elvis. And I don't think he'd be up to it.

Best of luck to Ignatiy and Christy on January 21 (Check PBS listings for times). And do check out Elvis Mitchell's shows. They are good if you like movers and shakers, influences, and occasional anecdotes.

Have a great night!

MTMG

Elvis Movie Musings: What Might Have Been

I have a feeling that The King would have made a outstanding actor, given that two people he admired, Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum, wouldn't have put up with the post-Blue Hawaii shit the Colonel saddled Elvis with. Can you imagine him as Mitchum's brother in Thunder Road? Or how about the Kris Kristofferson part in the 1976 Streisand version of A Star is Born?

Both almost happened.

But Mitchum couldn't believe that Elvis had to actually ask the Colonel permission, and the ol' lizard got into a tizzy because Barbra would get billing over Elvis, thereby robbing his client of his one chance to save his career...and maybe his life.

Check out King Creole if you doubt me.

I'm just saying.

On a happier note, happy belated 76th birthday Elvis!

MTMG

One of the greats. They just don`t make em like George anymore, and this actually charted for him in 1980. Thanks for the memories sir!

MTMG

Happy New Year!!!

I didn`t go anywhere or do anything that special, because I was paying (and still am) for overindulging on Christmas. But I did take the opportunity for some PVR catchup. Here are some short takes:

Napoleon Dynamite - God! White boys with afros! Vote for Pedro aside, it`s a drunken SNL sketch. Yes, I know it made $44 million, and I applaud Jon Heder for his scruples and clean living, but I still really miss John Hughes.

Road House - Fun formulaic fluff from the 80s starring Patrick Swayze as Dalton, a seen-it-all bouncer who takes out the trash and romances lady doctor Kelly Preston. The thing about Swayze was that, no matter how anemic the script, the man never phoned in a role. He always brought his charisma and lifeforce to it, if sometimes only by force of will. And even if you think he peaked with `Nobody puts Baby in a corner`, you can always view it as an extended tribute to the late great Jeff Healey.

More tomorrow. Have a great night!

MTMG