Movie Note

I've never seen an Oliver Stone movie I particularly liked (though for some reason I have seen most of them), so I'm not planning on running out to see Alexander, but the pan it gets from Manohla Dargis in the NY Times is great fun to read. The wonderful thing about the review is that it carries all the way through to the end, including the description of the rating:
"Alexander" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). The film features a lot of graphic warfare with impaled flesh, severed limbs and disturbing images of animal cruelty. Ms. Dawson also takes her top off, which may disturb some viewers in a rather different fashion.
And from the Department of Just When You Thought Hollywood Couldn't Get Any More Stupid comes news that the great British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Brazil, Empire of the Sun, etc.) has apparently been removed from the film adaptation of the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. Why? Because the newly-hired director, Chris Weitz apparently likes to write his own scripts. Good for him. If I'd written such classics of cinema as The Nutty Professor 2 and About a Boy, I, too, would prefer myself over Tom Stoppard. (via The Literary Saloon)

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