Tag Archives: Movies

Gorgeous lady of the week — Rachel Weisz

rachel-weisz-03

The lovely Rachel Weisz is no mere pretty face… but what a face it is. A Cambridge graduate, Weisz has been a hard working theater professional as much as a glamorous Hollywood ingenue, earning critical praise for her acting on stage in major works by Noel Coward, Neil Labute and Tennessee Williams, including the hyper-demanding role of Blanche DuBois.

rachel weisz-2

With her long dark brown hair and glittering hazel eyes, as well as readily apparent wit and intelligence, Weisz first came to wide popular attention with her role in 1999’s special effects blockbuster The Mummy alongside Brendan Fraser. But she soon moved on from such popcorn fare to more demanding roles in Beautiful Creatures and, most impressively, as the impassioned activist and wife of Ralph Fiennes’ diplomat facing danger from a rogue pharmaceutical company in the splendid le Carré adaptation, The Constant Gardener. Her complex and fiery portrayal of Tessa Quayle won her the 2005 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award and announced that a major talent had arrived.

rachel weisz-1

After living with indie director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, The Wrestler) for about a decade the couple split and Ms. Weisz began dating Daniel Craig. The two were married in a quiet ceremony in 2011 and reside in New York City and London. So dream on, fellas–it’s going to be pretty hard to tempt this extraordinarily lovely and talented lady away from James Bond himself. But who doesn’t like a challenge?

Rachel-Weisz-4

 

Motorsport Movies: Rush vs. Grand Prix

RUSH-poster-new

Ron Howard’s Formula One blockbuster Rush opened this past weekend across the country to generally very positive reviews from the critics and rather lackluster box office receipts. Most people, particularly Hollywood cognoscenti, will take that to mean that straight up racing films remain box office poison and that films about the Euro-centric world of F1 are particularly lethal. The thinking will be that unless you have Paul Walker and Vin Diesel blowing things up and destroying the bad guys in stolen hot rods while crashing them into jet liners, the general public is just not going to go to a straight racing movie no matter the high profile director or the technical virtuosity on display amongst all that vroom vroom.

That’s all fine and good but the real issue is: Is Rush any good as a racing film, period? One can make a cult classic that does not attract great popular success and yet still have made something special, exciting and valuable to the cult itself. To truly evaluate Rush one has to compare it with arguably the only other really good racing film Hollywood has ever made, John Frankenheimer’s 1966 Grand Prix. (Obviously, the documentary Senna is indisputably fantastic but we are talking dramatized portrayals). Unfortunately it has to be said that in comparison Rush falls short, not on narrative but on the basis of visceral excitement.

Looking at footage from the two films is instructive of the difference between them. The trailer for Rush:

Continue reading

Gorgeous Lady of the Week- Olivia Wilde

Not only does 29-year-old actress Olivia Wilde possess the sexiest cat eyes in Hollywood and a killer smile, but the native New Yorker is damn funny as well. Just check out The Incredible Burt Wonderstone to watch Olivia easily holding her own with the likes of Steve Carell & Steve Buscemi.

Olivia-Wilde-Bikini

While this accomplished actress really broke through with big budget high concept wannabe blockbusters like Tron: Legacy and Cowboys & Aliens, one can easily see her moving towards more substantial work. This lovely lady has the complete package: brains, beauty and a winning personality. If she keeps working hard at her craft and doesn’t coast on her looks alone, we foresee her as one of the best in the game one day soon.

Unfortunately for us other fellows, Ms. Wilde is currently engaged to funny man Jason Sedeikis. Which proves that sometimes you can get pretty far with the ladies if you can make them laugh. Now where do I sign up for that improv class at UCB again?

Olivia-Wilde-2

Olivia’s Wikipedia page is here and her IMDb profile is here.