Winter Movie Preview -- Part Three

Live from New York City!  Here's the wrap-up on my Winter Movie Preview.  Safe traveling today, everybody.  Look good for the X-Ray.

TRUE GRIT – Remake of old John Wayne movie. But it’s by the Coen Brothers so it strays somewhat from the original. In the new version, it’s set in a Jewish neighborhood in Minnesota.

THE WAY BACK – Just in time for a white Christmas, a film set in a Soviet gulag.

I LOVE YOU, PHILLIP MORRIS – When a movie has been held from release for several years, that’s usually a clue. Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are gay lovers. The studio has big concerns that the audience won’t accept Carrey in this role – not as a homosexual but in a drama.

SOMEWHERE – Stephen Dorff as a hard-living actor living alone until his 11-year-old daughter shows up on his doorstep. Didn’t James Brooks already make this movie? I’LL DO ANYTHING.

HOW DO YOU KNOW – This one is by James Brooks. A rom-com driven by intelligence and characterization; not studio formula or juvenile humor. So prospects are iffy.

SEASON OF THE WITCH – Nick Cage is a 14th Century knight who must escort a young witch to her trial. Townspeople with pitchforks he can deal with, along with dragons, and the Black Plague. But then he encounters Endora and she is PISSED.

BARNEY’S VERSION – Paul Giamatti as an irascible TV producer and his larger-than-life dad, Dustin Hoffman. It’s set over three decades. Based on the novel. It sounds very intriguing, even if it is released in January. Usually January is the dumping ground for duds.

THE DILEMMA – Schnazzy title.  Vince Vaughn must decide whether to tell his best friend, Kevin James, that his wife is cheating. Didn’t they do this on KING OF QUEENS... twenty times? But there is justice. Kevin James is doing movies. Lea Remini is now on THE TALK.

THE GREEN HORNET – Seth Rogen as a superhero. No, really.


FRANKIE & ALICE – Halle Berry’s shameless quest for an Oscar continues. This time she’s a stripper with multiple personalities. The good news is it’s like getting lap dances from eight girls at once!

NO STRINGS ATTACHED – Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman just want to be Fuck Buddies. I bet he falls in love with her and his guy friends tell him not to. January, people.

Winter Movie Preview -- Part Two

As the Levines wing to Gotham for Thanksgiving, here are more movies being unleashed upon you this holiday season.  Part One was yesterday.

TANGLED – It’s really Rapunzel but Disney is afraid that any mention of a fairy tale will hurt boxoffice business for this animated film. Up next is a remake of SLEEPING BEAUTY to be called FEMALE ON THE ROOFIE.

MADE IN DAGENHAM – Sally Hawkins in a British NORMA RAE. Make sure you ask for Dental Coverage, Sal.

THE COMPANY MEN – Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones are two white-collar guys whose lives are destroyed when they are fired. Heartbreaking scene where they’ve sunk so low they’re watching THE TALK.

THE NEXT THREE DAYS – Russell Crowe plans to spring his wife out of prison. And then cheat on her.


FASTER – The Rock in yet another cry vengeance movie. Come on, Dwayne. You’re better than this! You should be in…

THE TEMPEST – co-starring with Helen Mirren in this Shakespeare classic. Or at least…

YOGI BEAR

THE NUTCRACKER IN 3D – As if that alone won’t scare the crap out of little kids, it stars Nathan Lane.

LOVE & OTHER DRUGS – Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in a rom-com with an incredibly novel premise: Yeah, they fall in love but here’s the amazing twist – at first they don’t like each other! And wait! There’s more! The originality continues! Viagra jokes!

LITTE FOCKERS – MEET THE PARENTS sequel. I can’t think of a movie in the last ten years I’ve wanted to see less.

Tomorrow, the conclusion of the Winter Movie Preview.  

Winter Movie Preview -- Part One

As we head into the holiday season, here's my annual Winter Movie Preview.  To be fair, I have not personally seen all of these.  Actually, I haven't seen any of them.  But that never stops me from having an opinion.  

THE TOURIST – Angelina Jolie almost ruins a guy’s life. The role she was born to play.

BURLESQUE – Cher, who now has become Jack Lord with hair extensions, and Christina Aguilera team for a movie musical. Sounds like CABARET without Nazis.

COUNTRY STRONG – Gwyneth Paltrow as a country-western singer. Doing her big hit, “I’ll love you tomorrow if you cleanse tonight”.

BLUE VALENTINE – Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling in a gut-wreching drama about a failing marriage. Gwyneth Paltrow recommends salads and smoothies but that won’t save it.

TRON: LEGACY – Imagine the original with a better script and effects. Now that Jeff Bridges has his Oscar, he’s willing to go back and make fun stuff.

BLACK SWAN – Natalie Portman in the ballet. This is why every Jewish mother enrolls their daughters into dance class whether they like it or not.

THE KING’S SPEECH – Getting amazing buzz. Colin Firth as stuttering King George VI. “Abadee, abadee, abadee, th-th-th-that’s an Oscar, folks!”

THE FIGHTER – Every actor who wants to be De Niro has to do his boxing picture. This is Mark Wahlberg’s.

ALL GOOD THINGS – Ryan Gosling suspected of killing his wife. Might be the sequel to BLUE VALENTINE.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 1 – Just cause the book was 700 pages doesn’t mean the title has to be.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER – And that’s the short version. Original title: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER AND THE DAWN OF THE SON OF THE BRIDE OF THE RETURN OF THE REVENGE OF THE TERROR OF THE ATTACK OF THE EVIL, MUTANT, HELLBOUND, FLESH-EATING SUBHUMANOID ZOMBIFIED LIVING DEAD, PART 3

The Winter Movie Preview continues tomorrow...

A holiday tradition: My Thanksgiving Travel Tips

The Thanksgiving holiday is the peak travel weekend of the year (in America. The rest of the world could give a rat’s ass about Thanksgiving.) So as a public service, here again -- and with a few additions -- are some travel tips. I'll be flying to New York on Tuesday so next year I should have five or ten more tips learned the hard way. 

Leave for the airport NOW. Don't wait until the day of.

Bring no luggage. Wearing the same clothes for a week is a small price to pay. Plus, the airlines now charge you for check-in luggage AND blankets. Pretty soon pressurized air will also be extra.

Southwest has no reserved seating. Get in one of the latter groups boarding. You don’t want to be one of the first to sit then watch as fifty people glance at the empty seat next to you, then to you, and decide to sit somewhere else. Even in the last row.

If you have children under the age of five tell your relatives one has an ear ache and make everyone come to YOU.

Those people in the Stand-By line – those are the same people who think they can get rich selling Amway products, and the Tooth Fairy really exists. Don’t fly Stand-By unless you like sleeping in airport terminals for five days.

If you rent from Hertz plan on a two hour wait just to get your car. Unless you’re one of their “preferred” customers in which case allow only one hour.

When rental car companies recommend you use premium gasoline put in regular. It’s cheaper, it’ll run just fine, and it’s not your car.

Before you pull off the road to a Chuck E. Cheese for lunch, remember their namesake is a rat.

Three words of advice if you’re driving a long distance: Sirius/XM satellite radio. You can hear Jimmy Buffet on fifty different channels.

Air travelers: avoid O’Hare. Better to land in Dallas, even if your destination is Chicago.

If you’re dropping someone off at the airport don’t even think you’ll be able to stop. Have your travelers practice the tuck and roll from a moving car. The first couple of times they’ll bounce but by the fourth or fifth try they should have it down.

Watch the DVD of HOSTEL on your laptop. The bigger the screen, the better.

There’s more legroom in Exit rows. When the flight attendants ask if you are willing to help out in case of emergency just say yes. Like it’s going to make a big difference anyway if you crash.

There are NO bargains in the Sky Mall magazine.

When you’re stuck in St. Louis and all flights are grounded (and trust me, you WILL be), grab lunch at JBucks.

If you’re flying on an airline that doesn’t have reserved seating never sit next to anyone whose already eating or reading the Sarah Palin alibiography.

Before you fly to New York and have to negotiate JFK just remember – the parade is on TV. And it’s the same friggin' balloons as last year. The only difference is that the stars of NBC’s big new hit from last year, KATH & KIM, won’t be there (thank God).

Never pay to see an in-flight movie starring Debra Messing.

Put a big strip of duct tape on your luggage so you’ll recognize it easily. And it makes a nice fashion statement.

If you’re flying with small children see if there’s such a thing as “Flintstones Valium”.

In-flight alcoholic beverages are expensive. Better to drink heavily at the airport before boarding.

And finally, watch PLANES, TRAINS, & AUTOMOBILES again and think of it as a “best” case scenario.

Happy trails to you all.

What I'm thankful for

Besides my family, here are some of the things I’m thankful for this year.

Rebecca Hall
Vin Scully
The Good Wife
Jon Stewart
Richbroradio.com
My daughter is not dating a vampire
Don Draper
New Yorker cartoons
Opening Day
The iPhone
Great Big Radio
Rachel Maddow
A one-cent residual for MASH
Paul Rudd
Hulu.com
Hula dancers
Hawaiian sunsets
papayas
Bob’s Big Boy
That yellow line in football
Spam filters
Improv class
HD
DVD screeners
Mix CD’s
GPS
Pdf files
MLB.COM
Marty Brennaman
Thongs
Fireworks
Steven Moffat
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Colbert
Steve Martin
The Joker
Joe Torre
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Louis Black
The Beatles
The few remaining bookstores
Facebook
The Onion
Hoffmania
Latkas
The Writers Guild Foundation
Talkradio 790 KABC
Peter Luger's steak sauce
Manhattan Transfer
In Treatment
Dinah Washington
Denzel Washington
Disneyland
Dexter
Diablo Cody

Patton Oswalt
Lawry’s
The Bilko box set
Pixar
Gates Brothers' BBQ
Aaron Sorkin
Coffee Bean Ice Blendeds
Tallulah Moorehead
Netflix
Jon Miller
Twitter
The Crab Cooker
Brian Wilson
Benihana’s
Jenna Fischer
Wifi
Modern Family
Ricky Gervais
Safeco Field
Christina Applegate
Channels 5,6,7,8, and 73 on XM
Milk Duds
Earl Pomerantz
Amy Winehouse (when she’s out of jail/rehab/the hospital)
Cassell’s hamburgers
The bcc. feature
Red carpet shows
Eric Nadel
Jennifer Grey’s dancing
Confederacy of Dunces
Blu-Ray
Amoeba Records
Martini shots
Mel’s Drive-In
Moonlight Serenade by Sinatra
Baseball-Reference.com
Fellow bloggers
Our troops
YOU

Care to add your own?

Wanna earn some good Karma points?

I’m a big believer in PAY IT FORWARD. I was extremely fortunate to have made it as a writer. And even more fortunate to have mentors who were the comedy writer’s equivalent of the Justice League of America – Larry Gelbart, Jim Brooks, Allan Burns, Gene Reynolds, the Charles Brothers. I don’t know how I got so lucky. In a past life I must’ve been Gandhi or the guy who invented asthma inhalers or something.

I feel strongly that I have a responsibility to help and encourage young writers the way others encouraged me. Okay, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but I’ll be honest, I don’t want to see crap when I sit down to watch television.

But it’s one of the reasons for this blog. In addition to providing me a forum for ranting and pissing off Woody Allen fans, I love that I can offer writing advice and maybe save you from making some of the same stupid rookie mistakes I made (and sometimes still make). And I happily offer it for free.

Well… almost free. (I bet you saw that coming.)

The Writers Guild Foundation is a marvelous organization, designed for the sole purpose of giving back. They encourage disadvantaged students to stay in school, promote the work of writers in the community, maintain an extraordinary library that preserves the heritage of writers (hey, they even have a few of our scripts in there), work with returning military veterans, and stage classes and lectures featuring A-list screenwriters and showrunners.

I invite you all to join me in supporting the Writers Guild Foundation. You can learn more about it here. Sometimes writers need more than words.

Thank you.

The true tale of Tom Tuttle of Tacoma

Back from Seattle. Sorry I was there for so short a time. Would love to have met some of you readers from the area. Next time for sure! Anyway, here are some Friday questions, the first one involving the state of Washington and Washington State.

Gary asks:

How did the character of Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington come to life? What inspired you to make him a Wazzu grad?  Great character and so very well played by Mr. Candy.

We wanted someone really earnest, really gung-ho middle-America, but we didn’t want him to be from the Midwest. That seemed too cliché. So we figured that the Pacific Northwest would give us those same qualities. As originally envisioned, he talked really fast, so we thought giving him a name with alliteration would help the actor build up a head of steam. Hence, Tom Tuttle. And to continue the alliteration we made him from Tacoma. As for which college he went to, we researched fight songs and really liked Washington State’s. And the fight song plays a part in the movie so it was sort of important.

John Candy did a sensational job. We were afraid when he was hired that he would change a lot of stuff – like I said, it was written for a wiry somewhat hyper guy little guy – but John did the dialogue verbatim. God, I loved that man!

From Simon H.:

Were you and your writing partner ever approached to work on "Taxi"? I always thought it was one of the greatest shows in Television history, and certainly one of the most under-appreciated. Given that you worked on "Cheers" while "Taxi" was still on the air, I'm surprised you and David Isaacs never had a chance to write for it.

We were approached several times. For the first few years of the show we had exclusive development deals with other studios and couldn’t. And the last year of TAXI was the first year of CHEERS, which we co-produced. Sam Simon & Ken Estin of TAXI graciously invited us to write an episode and we would have LOVED TO, but the CHEERS staff was very small and we needed to write as many episodes of that as we could.

Like you, I think TAXI is one of the finest situation comedies of all-time. But it is very different from today’s hit comedies, and I don’t know if today’s viewers would respond to the slower pace and more character-oriented stories they did on TAXI.  I'm hoping the would.  Or at least would give it a chance.  They may discover that it's a way better show than they thought.


Jim S wonders:

You said that in the past both you and your longtime writing partner David have written stories alone.


How is that different than writing with a partner? What are the fears and how do you compensate for the input from the partner?

Well, it’s much lonelier writing by yourself. And if your car is in the shop there’s no one to pick you up.

But seriously, a good partnership can make the process easier and much more fun. It's certainly more social.  But a bad partnership can be like WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF meets GROUNDHOG DAY.

We split up one assignment a season and wrote the two acts separately just so we would feel confident that we could write on our own if we had to. We stayed partners out of choice, not dependency.

You compensate by just trying to fill in the gaps yourself. The big problem I find when I write by myself is that if I’m stuck I tend to go down one road and try to find the solution there. A partner might suggest an alternate path. And so I have to really force myself to just step back and think, “What else could I do here? What other direction might I take?”

With comedy especially, you have to rely on your own judgment more when you’re writing solo. There’s no one to bounce jokes off of.

As for fears, there’s really only one. Will you learn from this exercise that your partner has all the talent and you’re just a fraud? What was gratifying and a huge relief was that when David and I put our two acts together you really couldn’t tell who wrote what.  So we're both frauds.

And finally, from Richard Y:

When watching at home and the 'set-up' for the reveal is made and the camera pulls back for the character punch line, we, sitting in our couches at home get the joke and laugh when we see the wide shot - along with the studio audience. NOW, the studio audience already sees the reveal as it is already on stage in some instances. How is the studio laughter controlled?

If it involves a sight gag we’ll often have screens set up in front of the set and just remove them just before we’re ready to shoot. We’ll record the audience’s reaction and slot that in the appropriate place.

But if it’s a wardrobe thing, or as you say, contingent on a camera reveal, you sometimes have to do a little borrowing from the laugh track.  Or you pre-shoot the scene and show it back to the audience so they are reacting as if sitting on their couches.   But we've found you get a greater response from just about anything if you do it live in front of them, even if it means spoiling the reveal.

We have to always remember, we’re making these shows for the millions of viewers, not the two-hundred folks in the bleachers.

Yes, some jokes won’t have the impact they should but on the other hand, studio audiences love seeing all the behind-the-scenes stuff. And they do have monitors. So they can watch and see what we’re going for. They may miss a few laughs but they don’t feel cheated.

With the reveal already exposed to the studio audience how do you get them to laugh as is they just saw it like it is to be seen at home?

I’ll be 1000% honest. We ask them to. Just like for pick-ups and reshooting entire scenes. We ask them to help us out and pretend they’re seeing this for the first time and laugh just as loud. And for those who didn’t laugh the first time, we’re giving them a second chance.

What’s your question?