Well, dear readers, Christmas is almost upon us – some dear readers are having a very white Christmas, but given that I’m in California and what with California being so trendy, we’re having a Green Christmas. Everything in California, especially Los Angeles, must be Green. We are a Green Machine here in Los Angeles, California. At least for the next few months until everyone gets tired of it and there’s a new trend for them to follow. Yesterday was quite a lovely summer day – the grass was green, the sky was blue, and I was a Jogging Jew first thing in the morning. I did three count them three miles. My darling daughter called and said she and her friend Skye would be arriving at two. So, I did some organizing, prepared the eBlast for the new releases, printed out some orders, showered, and then daughter and friend arrived and we toddled off to Hugo’s for a late lunch. They’d never been. They loved the food but the service by our waiter was embarrassingly bad and I had to get terse a couple of times to even get some acknowledgment that we were there. My usual good waitress was working the patio – she’s great and knows how to take care of her customers. They shared some papa’s eggs and some French toast, which they loved. I had pasta papa and a small Caesar salad, which was half the size it usually is. I think that I don’t need to go to Hugo’s on a Sunday ever again. After lunch, we came home and the darling daughter opened her gifts, we chatted, had a lot of laughs and then it was time for her to leave. I went and delivered a big box o’ CDs to the local dealer, and then came home via the freeway, which was terrible. There were two places within a mile of each other where there were a couple of cars and police vehicles off to the side of the road – BLOCKING NOTHING, but everyone had to behave like a moron and slow down to one mile per hour so they could gawk at cars off to the side of the road blocking nothing. Once past those spots it was fine, but unfortunately once past those spots was my off-ramp, so it didn’t matter one or even two whits. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture entitled Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, a remake of Fritz Lang’s last American film, which starred Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine, a film that, despite its low-budget, I’m very fond of. The new version was written and directed by Peter Hyams and Mr. Hyams is no Fritz Lang. In fact, Mr. Hyams isn’t even Mr. Hyams these days – he’s like some TV director who’s allowed to make movies. This film apparently was also low budget (according to one source, $25 million) and it was shot with hi-def cameras rather than on film. Therefore the look of the film right off the bat is flat and ugly and has none of the depth of actual film. Then there’s the fact that Mr. Hyams thinks he can improve upon the original plot. The original plot was very simple, and very clean, and very interesting, and very clever. But Mr. Hyams can’t have that, so he adds an entire other plot onto the plot and so suddenly nothing is clean and it becomes convoluted and standard issue Screenwriting 101, with mindless and bad car chases, bad cops trying to kill everyone in sight, and all the usual now crap. The two young leads are just like every other young actor you see – there’s no there there. They just speak the lines, the guy has the obligatory three days of beard, and the girl is plucky and sensitive and, of course, falls instantly in love on the basis of someone staring at her. Their dialogue is risible most of the time, especially the howler where the guy says “As Mark Twain said, to commit suicide in Buffalo is redundant.” Say what? I’m afraid Neil Simon said that, not Mark Twain. Note to Mr. Hyams: Have your cranium checked for gaping holes. The nominal “name” is Michael Douglas, who only has about fifteen minutes of screen time, and who, mostly because of the digital filming and flat lighting, looks embalmed. The Lang film’s final plot twist was really quite surprising, and while that same twist is kept for this version, they give you so many clews every step of the way, that it’s hardly a twist at all. All that said, I sort of enjoyed it, in a weird way, and I did like the score by David Shire, even though it was roundly lambasted as “old-fashioned” by many. I’m sure the Blu-Ray transfer replicates the flat, ugly look perfectly. Sadly, the Fritz Lang version has never been out on DVD – I think it may have come out on laserdisc, but can’t really remember.
After the movie, I read the next five scenes of the long musical – I had many notes and interestingly few of them were about NEW material – no, my notes were about the stuff that’s stayed the same – it’s just not good enough anymore, so we’ll have to talk through all that stuff and come to a meeting of the minds.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I have to be up at six in the morning to announce our new titles.
I do hope that everyone is having themselves a merry little Christmas and that you’re making the yuletide gay, even though the yuletide came out years ago. I hope everyone has chestnuts roasting on an open fire – mine are roasting on a closed fire, actually. I hope there’s not a creature stirring, not even a mouse, although I’ll soon be stirring a big humungous pot of spaghetti sauce.
Today, I’ll be up at six to announce, then I’ll try and get another couple hours of sleep, then I have a nine o’clock telephonic conversation with the East Coast co-author of the long musical, who’ll give me his notes on the first five scenes – I’ll bank those for another day. Then I have many errands and whatnot, I’ll try to jog, and then Miss Juliana A. Hansen will arrive and we’ll probably toddle off to Genghis Cohen for some Chinese food. Or maybe we’ll try a jernt in the Valley that I like. And then she has decreed that we will watch a motion picture, so watch a motion picture we shall.
Tomorrow I shop for the Do, and Wednesday I lunch with Jason Graae, and Thursday is the Doing of the Do, and Friday I go to Miss Cissy Wechter’s Christmas Partay.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do a jog, I must make the yuletide gay by singing the score to Whoop Up in its entirety, I must do errands and whatnot, and then I must sup with Miss Hansen and watch a motion picture. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your five favorite performances in a film of 2009 – by an actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and do try and make the yuletide gay.