heaven is a playground ( film )
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there are no critic reviews yet for heaven is a playground. keep checking rotten tomatoes for updates !
parker, a legendary new york city college basketball scout was featured in a bestselling basketball book, heaven is a playground, by chicago sun - times sports columnist rick telander .
is this heaven ?
ray' s father, john, asks ray. ray replies ,
it' s iowa .
iowa ?
john says .
i could have sworn this was heaven .
is there a heaven ?
ray asks .
oh, yeah ,
john replies .
it' s the place where dreams come true .
ray, watching his wife play with their daughter on the front porch, says ,
maybe this is heaven .
paradise regained: heaven is a playground .
jordan walked out with a $ 50, 000 award in compensatory damages, the amount the jury found jordan was owed in a contract dispute with heaven corp. , the makers of
heaven is a playground ,
a basketball movie that had been intended to be jordan' s movie debut .
set in chicago, heaven is a playground is about an inner - city basketball coach and a young lawyer who set out to save a group of teen - aged boys from crime and drugs by giving them athletic scholarships and teaching them basketball .
five years before michael jordan made his acting debut opposite bugs bunny, in that exercise in synergy called'' space jam,'' a small and serious film about inner - city basketball entitled'' heaven is a playground'' quietly opened. it had no stars, no cartoons and no merchandising campaign. rather,'' heaven is a playground'' represented the decade - long effort of a first - time director to bring to the screen a classic book about one summer on the courts of brooklyn .
heaven corp. was the brainchild of randall fried, a university of southern california film school graduate, who wrote the lockhart part expressly for jordan .
jordan sought more than $ 12 million in a broad counterclaim, alleging that heaven corp. falsely informed him that it had sufficient financing for the movie. jordan' s suit alleged the heaven contract prevent him from working on other film projects .
the resulting book,'' heaven is a playground,'' fused acute sports journalism with urban - affairs reportage, setting its playground dreamers in a landscape ravaged by crime, drug abuse and gang violence. if anything, mr. telander suffered for being too prophetic. published nearly 20 years before the 1994 documentary'' hoop dreams'' became a national hit by similarly chronicling the fleeting promise of deliverance offered by inner - city basketball,'' heaven is a playground'' sold fewer than 5, 000 copies in hard - cover and has tumbled in and out of print ever since .
dean dickie, an attorney for d' ancona & pflaum who represented heaven corp. , disagreed .
despite some weaknesses as both a film and a parable ,
in a better world
is a potent provocation .
bank is one of the producers of '` heaven is a playground, '` a '` low - budget '` (i. e. , $ 2. 6 million) motion picture socked by financial and casting vicissitudes that, in a way, was 10 years in the making .
rugrats: saving the playground is a 2019 american animated direct - to - video film based on the nickelodeon animated television series, rugrats, and it is to be put on dvd and blu - ray on june 15, 2019 .
what is strange about
heaven is a playground
is how this dynamite material is defused - how the movie meanders and loses its way, drags to a halt when it should be most exciting, and goes through strange shifts in tone and style. it' s pretty clear that the filmmakers never sat down and took a cold, hard look at their script - asked themselves which way they wanted to go, and why .
regardless of how the legal matter is resolved, the story of mr. jordan' s two movies presents a parable of art and commerce and the choice one gifted athlete made between them. put another way,'' heaven is a playground'' strove toward a complex, almost literary understanding of basketball while'' space jam'' has giddily reduced it to entertainment product .
andrew wasserstrom, jury foreman and a scientist at northwestern university, said jurors were sympathetic to heaven corp. and chose not to award jordan punitive damages .
this film  the only comic book film on ebert' s official list  earned the worst picture of 2004 golden raspberry award .
and'' heaven is a playground,'' antithetical in so many ways to'' space jam,'' was a film that michael jordan was supposed to have made. for several years in the late 1980' s, he was contracted to play a featured role in the drama, but financial problems delayed the production. then in early 1990, with the money apparently in place, mr. jordan withdrew from the project .
the jury' s $ 50, 000 award to jordan on his counterclaim represented the amount of an advance heaven corp. had given jordan. later, at heaven corp.' s request, jordan returned the money so the fledgling company could use it to raise funds for the movie .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
“it was crazy to see people walking in that building, and we had been all over, ” west recalled to pucks and recreation. “it was our playground. ”
although this being a film by susanne bier, there is unfortunately a good measure of unneeded melodrama stirred in to trivialize the very important thematic concerns .
ominated for best director and original screenplay oscars and won best foreign film oscar .
due to this film being a massive box - office success, ebert chose this over spice world for the worst film of 1998 even though it has one - half of a star more than spice world. for the record, gene siskel actually liked the film and gave it a thumbs up .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
chaos is ugly, nihilistic, and cruel — a film i regret having seen. i urge you to avoid it. don' t make the mistake of thinking it' s' only' a horror film, or a slasher film. it is an exercise in heartless cruelty and it ends with careless brutality. the movie denies not only the value of life, but the possibility of hope .
jurors said they sifted through hundreds of exhibits, including bank records. they concluded that heaven corp. did not have the necessary financing for the movie by the june 30, 1989, deadline called for in the contract, a key issue that would have obligated jordan to act in the film .
for that, west had the physical maturity and the positional proficiency white and company needed. that, in turn, earned him the privilege of making his self - proclaimed “playground” out of the pond .
in mulholland drive, the 2001 film that made watts’ name. photograph: allstar / universal
a locally made feature by randall fried, adapted from rick telander' s book, about inner - city playground basketball, starring d. b. sweeney, michael warren, richard jordan, victor love, and janet julian .
the lights switch on. naomi enters the room and congratulates castiel on killing dean quickly and brutally, with no hesitation. telling him he is ready. it is then revealed that the entire floor of the warehouse is littered with multiple deans, all dead. they are in heaven or inside castiel' s mind and this was a training exercise devised by naomi .
contact briefly mentioned the heaven' s gate incident in relation to the extreme reactions of some groups to the discovery of the eti. the producers were apparently trying to make contact as timely as possible .
when grandpa lou is telling tommy, dil, chuckie, kimi, phil, lil, angelica and susie the story about how the playground in yucaipah park came to be, look around for 2 pictures of ranger frank and ranger margaret on the living room wall .
another jane austen fan realizing a dream by participating in the film is tamzin merchant. she was cast as georgiana, darcy' s sister, after writing a letter to the casting director and
the self - imposed degradation of bobby sands is the film’s climactic conclusion, and in it mcqueen puts forth his most uninhibited barrage of visual synesthesia .
a finished film after going through several others who dropped the project along the way. among the droppers was george miller of
he has a point. the speculation may never stop as to a potential d4 film. that is unless it actually happens, in which case it could pursue a two - time disney veteran with ample rink knowledge .
back to one podcast: keith poulson on developing as an actor in the ny indie film scene .
a decade after the pond, a smaller arena in vancouver posed as the lake placid rink and served as a whole new playground for the twentysomething west and company. for the u. s. - russia game that spawned the movie’s title, the canadian crowd was more out of its element than anyone .
i know it seems i have spent most of my time griping about contact the film, but i have not hesitated for a second to recommend seeing it to anyone. my complaints stem from my wish for the even better film that contact could have been. contact is more than just an above average film about finding extraterrestrial intelligence. it is a mirror on our society and our need to grow up and take personal responsibility as we emerge from the cradle called earth .
bosbok ses films is a production company based in south africa which strives to produce world class films with universal appeal as well as commercial viability. d street media pictures holds a first - look deal with bosbok ses films and served as executive producer on the film ‘background music’ and the upcoming film ‘lone hill. ’
and yet nearly every sports movie tends to elide the big moment. weirdly, it often seems to just slide by. in part, this is because the structure of the movie is usually based on the rhythm of a season and so the climax of the film is making it to the world series; there' s no time for the seven games of the world series. so, too, the world series is a kind of heaven on earth, and the movie can' t show heaven on earth, so it shows the ascension. the movie got you there: the viewer can imagine the rest (it' s better that way). watching
field of dreams ,
we really want to know what' s on the other side of the cornfield, but we never quite get there .
did it portray the detection of a transmission from an alien civilization with as much realism as can be done in a 2. 5 - hour film ?
that version of the project, like all its predecessors, failed to find studio support. then, in 1986, mr. fried acquired the rights to'' heaven,'' enabling him to direct the film. and early the next year, he began pursuing michael jordan to play a leading role as matthew lockhart, a splendid and reclusive athlete who inexplicably had walked away from a college scholarship .
©2018 mental floss, inc. all rights reserved. mental floss® is a registered trademark owned by felix dennis. urltoken is a trademark owned by felix dennis .
as for palmer' s last name, if joss is a form of joshua, then the hebrew word meaning god is my salvation certainly applies to the palmer of both the novel and the film. for god is palmer joss' vision of the ultimate truth. and the truth will set ye free - - or at least it is supposed to .
ominated for 10 oscars and won eight (film, director, adapted screenplay, editing, cinematography, original score, original song, sound mixing). won four golden globes (film, director, screenplay, score) and seven baftas (film, director, adapted screenplay, music, cinematography, editing, sound) .
these are strong story elements: a white kid from downstate illinois comes to chicago because he wants to compete against the tough black basketball players in the playground leagues. he meets a coach who has dedicated his life to coaching these athletes - helping them toward their dream of college and professional careers .
in taking his name off the film, arthur hiller has wisely distanced himself from the disaster, but on the basis of what' s on the screen i cannot, frankly, imagine any version of this film that i would want to see. the only way to save this film would be to trim 86 minutes .
there' s trouble in yucaipah. an evil business man named peter claw, is planning to tear down the playground in the park to put up a fancy clothing store, and it' s up to tommy, dil, chuckie, kimi, phil, lil, angelica and susie to save it before it' s too late .
“might do. then there are other times when you’re certain that a film’s got all the elements. and that film can actually be really good. but it can be about audiences not being open to receive an idea at that point in time. ”
flynn’s robin is a revelation in how the choice of casting the lead star can alter the entire film’s production. his athleticism, the quips and brilliant jests the script gives him, and the subtle but beautiful and emotive ways he romances de havilland’s maid marian let him quite easily own the film. and the sets, both on the studio lot in hollywood and in the forested canopy of chico, california (a better sherwood forest than sherwood forest could ever look like) are his playground. he romps, rides, skips, swings and dashes through it with all the masculine grace that only a bonafide star could achieve .
i think carl sagan would have been pleased. after all, the film was for him. like most truly great gifts, it is one we can all revel in .
for a film about space with carl sagan as its creative source and consultant, one would expect the astronomical aspects of it to be quite accurate. happily, this is the case in the majority of instances where celestial objects and events are presented. the following are some selected examples from the film. back to top
there' s little flash or surprise in bier' s latest well - shot film, but plenty of substance .
the official warner brothers contact web site. contains useful seti and exobiology information in addition to promotion of the film .
inner of alexander korda award for best british film at the baftas, and anthony asquith award for film music. nominated for six other baftas, and five oscars, of which it won two (for original song and sound editing) .
. here the role they play is almost exclusively window dressing, but it is still nice to see a real radio observatory on the big screen .
to prepare, cunningham moved into fassbender’s belfast flat, and the two actors practiced their lines 15 - 20 times a day for five days. the scene in totality is around 23 minutes long – the only time that cunningham is in the film – and after doing four takes in those five days, mcqueen took the fourth as the choice for the film, a scene the director apparently seriously considered axing several times .
a case can be made for the movie, but it would involve transforming the experience of viewing the film (which is excruciatingly boring) into something more interesting, a fable about life and death. just as a bad novel can be made into a good movie, so can a boring movie be made into a fascinating movie review .
` when a friend of mine saw a trailer of our film, he told me, 'it looks like a real movie! '` 'keith bank is saying. '` i mean, i think he expected it to be like a home camcorder with static and all. '`
the preview makers tried hard to have these films seem suspenseful and exciting, but for me they were mostly numbing and only enhanced my desire to get to the main event. and this is coming from someone who loves a good film preview, if it is done just right .
you don' t even realize anymore that that is a basketball star; you don' t even look at that ,
said arcille phillips, a juror who is a student at chicago state university .
actor john hurt is no stranger to aliens. as inquisitive astronaut kane, hurt had a close encounter of the most unpleasant kind with the main exobiological life form in the 1979 science fiction film, alien. fellow contact actor tom skerritt (david drumlin) also starred with hurt in this film, playing captain dallas of the mining starship nostromo .
the story of a man who is wrongfully executed, only to return to life as the savior of a dying world seems somewhat familiar to christians. only we’re not talking about jesus—we' re talking about the hero of the 1987 action film robocop .
during the song “summer nights, ” danny and sandy recount how they first met and started a summer fling. the line, “i saved her life, she nearly drowned, ” suggests that sandy actually did drown and the whole movie is an elaborate musical fantasy due to the lack of oxygen getting to her brain. the flying red convertible also suggests that sandy is happily being whisked away to heaven at the end of the movie .
“looking back, i know why people weren’t hiring me. i went into auditions thinking, ‘what version of me do they want? how should i shape myself in order to win them over? ’” watts was in the playground, again, only this time the chameleon act wasn’t working .
the team is, needless to say, losing. some of this is simple narrative typology: a romantic comedy can' t begin with the lovers in a happy embrace. but this goes beyond that. in film after film, it' s a sort of plague of losing streaks. we' re losing. we' re losers. we' re bums. we' re in a state of infinite regress, of existential failure. in the land of opportunity, we are anti - matter .
back on earth... dean tells cas to fight it. cas strikes him again, and again dean blocks with the tablet. cas backhands dean, grabs his forearm and breaks it. we hear the bone snap, dean drops the stone revealing the tablet within, lightning flashes and thunder rumbles. cas continues to beat him. dean' s face is bruised and bloodied. dean pleads with cas telling him they' re family, that sam and him need cas, that dean himself needs cas. in heaven naomi tells cas to choose: them or heaven. cas makes his choice and stops beating dean .
the low - budget film ultimately was made in 1991 with loyola marymount basketball star and nba player bo kimble in the lockhart part. the movie was a box office bomb. the film cost about $ 3 million to produce, about how much it has made, primarily from video distribution .
two boys attempt to define masculinity in response to their respective family dramas. this danish film is oddly both ambitious and contained. its plot centers around only two families, one wracked by divorce, the other by death, but as the two male children of these families mature, we see that they' re struggling with deep and difficult questions. what constitutes
being a man ?
what examples do fathers and mothers provide their kids? where is the line between being a disciplinarian and being a child' s friend? what are parents' roles in preventing violence? these are ambitious ethical questions the plot brings up, but as a result of the film' s reach philosophically, the plot starts to suffer when each of the film' s conflicts resolve too conveniently. overall, this is a fine, ambitious, and interesting film until its pat conclusion .
is like waiting for the bus in a city where you' re not sure they have a bus line... .
prior to the trial, circuit judge richard neville dismissed heaven corp.' s complaint against jordan' s agent, david falk, and falk' s firm at the time, proserv, saying under illinois law they were shielded from personal liability for actions taken on behalf of jordan .
the beguiling final film of late japanese animation hero satoshi kon, which has a comparable plot about “dream therapy” and does more vivid justice to how dreams actually work .
as the truck rams the car over the cliff and falls off in the final film, there is a low roar sound effect that the filmmaker included to emphasize the death of the truck. spielberg, who wanted the truck to seem
joss is a token character when he should be almost as strong as ellie. i know that contact is not exactly in religion' s court, but when you discover the depth of palmer joss in the novel, you will find how he and religious faith should have been portrayed in the film .
` 'i tried to keep the spirit of the book, '` says fried, '` and contemporize it with issues that have since become much more prominent, like drugs and the addiction to stardom in the playground culture, and i weaved in the persona of the ruthless sports agent. '`
here is a movie where the most amazing thing in the history of mankind occurs: their girlfriend is inside a man' s body. incredible! and so what is the first thing these ditzy airheads ask? they wanna look at his family jewels. these characters are too stupid to be in a movie. about half an hour into the screening the film got trapped in the projector and it caught fire; that was the good news! the bad news was the screening continued, and hardly any of the film was destroyed .
ebert & roeper review .
the golden briefcase is the driving narrative force in pulp fiction. while it’s not important to know what’s inside of the briefcase to fully enjoy the film, there have been numerous theories out there relating to the case’s contents since the movie’s initial release in 1994. although quentin tarantino has flat out said that nothing is in the briefcase and it’s merely a mcguffin, the popular belief is that crime boss marsellus wallace’s soul is inside of the briefcase .
my issue with the suicide pill is that they made the statement about it being a top secret standard issue item for astronauts since the beginning of the space program. not only is there no validity to this, but my main concern is that now viewers will come to believe that such a thing is carried onboard all manned space missions .
i sat there and i thought: life is precious, life is short, and the idiots who made this film are taking two hours of my life and robbing it from me in order to give me less than nothing! i mean, a movie like this is a crime because what it does is it robs life from people by requiring them to spend two hours having such a terrible experience happen to them... . go stand in the lobby and talk !
siskel & ebert review
, about a young man who overcomes obstacles to become a football hero. basically a guy version of a chick flick .
susanne bier is one of the greatest directors ever. simple as that. her films deal with issues, but always with a fresh perspective. in a better world has a young boy called christian who has just lost his mother, return to denmark. he joins a new school where he soon makes friends with a boy who is being bullied. christian allows his anger to take hold, and events soon spiral out of control. the theme of bullying may seem like something best saved for after school specials, but bier shows bullying in all its forms, from the playground, to grown ups, to african warlords. questioning anger, revenge, and human rights, makes this a multi - layered film which is just begging for discussion. the performances are magnificent across the board and each character has a very well structured arc. with so much going on it would be easy for the film to trip over itself, but it never does. touching, inspirational, and quite possibly life changing. in a better world could honestly make the world a better place .
released towards the end of the wave of so - called
social problem films
that spanned the late 1940s to the early 1960s, violent playground was directed by one of the genre' s most prolific practitioners, basil dearden. although the film initially comes across as a british response to the alarmist, hugely successful teen melodrama the blackboard jungle (us, 1955), james kennaway' s script was inspired by an actual experiment that was carried out in liverpool in 1949 .
i guess in a film with such a heavy influence by carl sagan and with its theme of alien contact and heavenly wonder, i did expect something more like the music i heard in cosmos. instead i was left listening to a soundtrack that for me did not necessarily distinguish itself from the many other film soundtracks i have heard over the years. and i do like a good film soundtrack. in fact it does not have to contain such elements as singles that wind up on the top 40 radio stations for the next six weeks .
i was also struck by how the soundtrack did not contain any dialog or sound effects from contact, not even the throbbing vega signal. by contrast, the soundtrack of the 1995 film apollo 13 has loads of dialog which greatly heightens the listening experience for me. i do not have to guess what was going on in that film or what feelings i am supposed to possess when i listen to that soundtrack. nor did contact' s liner notes contain anything special in terms of interesting messages, news, or other tidbits on the film. if this is a place in the film where sagan and druyan did not have much influence, it certainly shows .
rated? yes, videodrome is very highly rated indeed by david cronenberg’s fans, who point to it as one of his most sophisticated early works, representing an evolutionary leap in his imagery and ideas. i yield to no one in my admiration for cronenberg. crash is an astonishing piece of work. this, though, is half - formed. it has brilliantly icky sequences and an outstanding james woods performance. but it’s a sketch for a film, a storyboard. it doesn’t get anywhere. roger ebert called it “one of the least entertaining films ever made”, and though he had yet to see ridley scott' s kingdom of heaven when making this assessment, he had half a point. it’s a series of state - of - the - future concepts and squirmy images in serious need of urgent momentum, a destination that works .
when ellie first visited megabillionaire s. r. hadden aboard his flying home after the discovery of the message, he impressed her with his knowledge on ellie' s life. the following is a transcript of what hadden said in the film :
i have two problems with the machine and the scenario: i doubt this is what will happen when we do receive a message from space. i am also disappointed that the filmmakers copped out again when it came to crowing about contact being a
realistic
science film .
to go one step even farther, their union symbolizes the film' s desire to unite faith (joss) and science (ellie). this is yet another forced marriage that i feel is both unrealistic and unnecessary. i discuss this issue further in the section science and faith .
susanne bier' s latest meditation on grief and the boundaries of family - - which won this year' s foreign - film oscar - - is a tough piece of work, subtle in some ways, obvious in others, viscerally affecting throughout .
goodbye stranger
is a reference to the song of the same name by british rock band supertramp .
he told mtv in 2010 .
it is about a guy who gets crucified in the first 50 minutes, and then is resurrected in the next 50 minutes, and then is like the supercop of the world, but is also a jesus figure as he walks over water at the end .
verhoeven also refers to robocop as “the american jesus .
ebert would have called this the worst film of 1996, but when gene siskel also chose it for that title, they did a coin flip to determine who would actually get to denounce it. ebert lost, and went with the little indian, big city film seen in the
other hated films
list below .
the popular theory is that childs is the thing at the end of the movie. there are a few clues that point to this conclusion. one, you can’t see childs’ breath in sub - arctic weather; two, childs takes a swig from a molotov cocktail that is believed to be made by macready as a test; and three, john carpenter cues the audience with ennio morricone’s theme for the thing before the film cuts to black and the credits roll. macready smirks and quietly laughs, acknowledging that childs is the thing because he didn’t react to drinking gasoline .
in 1986 fried met keith bank, who had received an mba from northwestern and was working in real estate. '` the only thing i knew then about the movie business is that i went to one about every two weeks, '` bank says. '` but randy 's project piqued my interest, and i decided to go after it and quit my job. we formed a company called heaven corporation .
this is it — located at last and with only six weeks to spare — the worst film of 1988. last rites qualifies because it passes both acid tests: it is not only bad filmmaking, but it is offensive as well — offensive to my intelligence. many films are bad. only a few declare themselves the work of people deficient in taste, judgment, reason, tact, morality and common sense. was there no one connected with this project who read the screenplay, considered the story, evaluated the proposed film and vomited ?
the skulls is one of the great howlers, a film that bears comparison, yes, with the greek tycoon or even the scarlet letter. it' s so ludicrous in so many different ways it achieves a kind of forlorn grandeur. it' s in a category by itself .
chicago sun - times review
this is one of the issues i had with contact: is the film really about searching for eti, or a woman' s quest to regain her father and lost childhood? granted this event makes ellie a more three - dimensional character than most of the other roles in the film, but i can equally see the general audience thinking that seti is not so much about finding what is out there than what is in the human psyche. of course one of the search goals is to learn where we stand in the larger cosmos (refer to the earlier sagan quote on this subject). however, if we make every human endeavor - - especially this one - - as nothing more than yet another way to make us seem like the center of the universe again, then we have lost a very major point in searching for life beyond earth .
to answer the first question, yes, i probably would have been less disappointed with certain places in the film had i never encountered carl sagan' s novel, or most of his other works, for that matter. the novel was so rich in so many ways that the film could not be, due to its time constraints. jodie foster commented in an interview that had they followed the novel more faithfully, contact would have become a twenty - hour miniseries instead of a 2. 5 - hour film .
how to account for the fact that larry david is one of the creators of seinfeld? maybe he works well with others. i can' t easily remember a film i' ve enjoyed less. north, a comedy i hated, was at least able to inflame me with dislike. sour grapes is a movie that deserves its title: it' s puckered, deflated and vinegary. it' s a dead zone .
it’s a critical truism that ikiru, whose english translation is “to live”, is kurosawa’s “real” masterpiece, an impeccable work of contemporary humanism and rare compassion, from a director more regularly associated with blood and thunder, samurai intrigue, shakespeare interpretations and period garb. it gets praised for its philosophical grace and subtlety. let’s examine this last claim. it’s about an underappreciated middle - aged tokyo bureaucrat dying of stomach cancer, who decides to accomplish one last feat to give his life meaning, and breaks through red tape to get a children’s playground built where there was once a cesspool. he sings “life is short” while crying into the camera. the famous last shot has his ghost on a swing, gazing raptly upon what he has created .
several independent companies and charities from ireland both northern and southern picked up the film as a possible risk, but mcqueen would prove to be as talented and astonishing a debut filmmaker as an artist. his visual styling and stunning – bordering between strange beauty and vivid horror – imagery create and maintain the film, but the knowledge he applies in both his co - penned script and pieced - together situations with subtle but haunting dialogue make the subtext as engrossing as the subject. hunger is peerless in the historical drama genre, and is simply not only the most unique but best film to depict the effects of the conflicts of northern ireland since 1991’s in the name of the father .
caligula is sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash. if it is not the worst film i have ever seen, that makes it all the more shameful: people with talent allowed themselves to participate in this travesty. disgusted and unspeakably depressed, i walked out of the film after two hours of its 170 - minute length. that was on saturday night, as a line of hundreds of people stretched down lincoln ave. , waiting to pay $ 7. 50 apiece to become eyewitnesses to shame... . caligula is not good art, it is not good cinema, and it is not good porn... .' this movie,' said the lady in front of me at the drinking fountain,' is the worst piece of shit i have ever seen.'
i doubt that either david drumlin or michael kitz were meant to have symbolic names, unless a sense of irony was implied. david is hebrew for beloved one (and drumlin was hardly loved by the others, especially ellie) and michael is another hebrew word for like god. judeo - christian religion is in for quite a tumble if kitz is an accurate representation of god .
much has been made about the characters in contact, both as what they stand for and the actors who portrayed them. certainly a film starring a strong, intelligent, and independent woman is just as uncommon in hollywood as a science fiction film about aliens who are not trying to take over earth. but did contact have realistic characters, or just stereotypes to make its various points? i would have to say the answer is both. some characters are discussed primarily in the section the meaning of the names. and now to analyze... back to top
relatively few viewers, though, ever saw it.'' heaven'' opened in chicago, the home city of mr. telander and mr. fried and the site of its shoot. it generated neither the critical nor commercial support to gain national distribution and soon went onto home video. still, variety lauded the film as a'' gritty, poetic and humanistic portrait,'' and encore and home box office ultimately showed it. in a happy conjunction with the nba playoffs next spring, tnt will broadcast the film on april 22, on april 26 and on april 27 and those who see it can ponder the very different path michael jordan' s cinematic career might have taken .
you know, there is one area, though, gene [ siskel ], where this movie breaks important new ground, and this is something that movie trivia experts are going to... . yes, i am, i' m going to be funny. this is the first horror movie in which a chainsaw is used against a tree !
siskel & ebert review
patrick warburton is to voice stu pickles, replacing the late jack riley respectively .
so in the early 1980' s mr. telander began writing the film with randall fried, a partner in pickup basketball games and the winner of a student academy award for his thesis film at the university of southern california. together the men created fictional equivalents to the book' s major characters while preserving its grit and underlying tragedy. their plot largely turned on the rise and fall of truth harrison, a mercurial college star who slips into cocaine addiction just when he is on the verge of signing a lucrative pro contract .
or you could roll with it. “if you could tell a customer was kind of down, you could keep going and see what happens, ” baker said. “that happened with many customers. we would simply approach them afterwards and say, ‘we’re shooting an independent film, there’s a camera, will you kindly sign this release for us? ’ a few customers in tangerine actually made it into the final film .
hunger is not a straight - laced film, and follows no distinctly formulaic plot line until the last thirty minutes, in which the literal meaning of the title comes into play. it opens with the introduction of prison officer lohan, who gets ready in the morning before going out to start his vehicle – a moment watched with close anxiety from the parlor window by his wife – before making his way to the film’s main setting – maze prison and its inmates .
dean: okay, bottom - line it for me, bill nye. is it lethal? bill nye is a science educator best know for his tv show: bill nye the science guy .
according to the lawsuit, which was filed in 1993 by heaven corp. and sought between $ 14. 5 million and $ 16. 3 million, jordan had agreed to play the role of matthew lockhart in the movie. the movie, set in chicago, was based on a book of the same name written by chicago sun - times sports columnist rick telander, then a writer for sports illustrated .
watching the today show in a hotel room in los angeles, i saw jerry lewis being interviewed by gene shalit. jerry was convinced that the critics had it in for him. he hinted, none too subtly, that the chances were shalit would dislike the film when he saw it (shalit claimed not to have seen it already, which was an excellent ploy). in variety, id read that the critics were barred from the miami premiere of the film because, and i paraphrase, jerry lewis makes films for the masses and critics are unequipped to understand his appeal. horse manure. hardly working is one of the worst movies ever to achieve commercial release in this country, and it is no wonder it was on the shelf for two years before it saw the light of day. it is not just a bad film, it is incompetent filmmaking .
the movie is an utterly meaningless waste of time. there was no reason to produce it, except to make money, and there is no reason to see it, except to spend money. it is a dead zone, a film without interest, wit, imagination or even entertaining violence and special effects... . parents: if you encounter teenagers who say they liked this movie, do not let them date your children .
chicago sun - times review
the final moments of john carpenter’s the thing are one of the most ambiguous endings to a major hollywood movie. after a violent melee with the shape - shifting alien invader, the film’s hero macready (kurt russell) is exhausted as he re - unites with childs (keith david) and the pair wait to “see what happens. ” the question remains: is childs or macready the monster ?
to instill interest among the indifferent - to - hockey majority of the american populace, disney unquestionably needed a flare of compelling intensity in its miracle trailer. the film’s reenactment of brooks’ confrontation with the injured mcclanahan was a natural fit .
the most clearly seen character in the film is the coach, byron harper (played by michael warren of
hill street blues
). he coaches out of love of the game and the players, and otherwise supports himself by a variety of hustles, including ticket scalping .
if you’re a filmmaker, it may seem like the city is your playground. it’s not. everything costs money. every public space you want to shoot in requires permits and insurance. it all requires planning, hard work, negotiations, or simply lots of pleading. one issue that’s cropped up in multiple talks during ifp week has been this: what do you do when you want to shoot in a place of business? how do you get a bodega owner or a restauranteur or the owners of a giant mall in flushing to let you run around with cast and crew, even though they might remain open for business ?
the issue i have here is that sagan' s novel went beyond being just another action - adventure work of the genre. in many respects, until ellie and her companions (there were four additional star voyagers in the novel version) are whisked off to meet the eti who signaled from vega, the story is a fairly realistic portrayal of how humanity would deal with a message from alien beings as seen through the scientific, religious, political, cultural, and social realms. sagan got in many good points he has made about humanity and the cosmos over the years through the story. it is apparent that he wants them to be taken seriously by his readers. therefore, when we come to the realization that the milky way is not just a happenstance event, the reader could conceivably end up believing that the universe is one big testing laboratory and playground for the more advanced eti .
natural or not, the moviegoing public never got to decide. mr. jordan extended his contract without cost for two more years while mr. fried tried and failed to arrange financing for'' heaven.'' finally, in january 1990, as plans were taking shape for shooting to begin that summer, mr. jordan left the project .
the green berets simply will not do as a film about the war in vietnam. it is offensive not only to those who oppose american policy but even to those who support it. at this moment in our history, locked in the longest and one of the most controversial wars we have ever fought, what we certainly do not need is a movie depicting vietnam in terms of cowboys and indians. that is cruel and dishonest and unworthy of the thousands who have died there .
corey burton is to voice dr. lipschitz, replacing the late tony jay respectively .
kevin michael richardson is to voice randy carmichael, replacing the late ron glass respectively .
julia duffy is to voice grandma lulu pickles, replacing the late debbie reynolds respectively .
is aggressively bad, as if it wants to cause suffering to the audience. the best thing about it is that it runs for only 75 minutes... . speaking in my official capacity as a
and there is a venal, racist sports agent who wants to call all of the shots for the athletes he represents .
all this begs me to ask my original question: could a man have played ellie' s role just as well? i say yes. i know many would respond that there are more than enough white males heroes on the big screen and women need the chance to be shown a strong role model and that a career in the sciences is not the remote possibility it used to be in past decades. i agree with all this. however, this is really carl sagan' s story with all his philosophies and goals deeply entrenched in both the novel and film. remove some of the sexism comments and change the romantic partner (or get rid of the role completely) and eleanor arroway could easily become edward arroway (sagan' s middle name is edward). after all, even this deepest of the contact characters is overall a symbol of the pure scientist in search of truth. perhaps what i am hoping for is a film about sagan himself. contact was a good start, but it just scratched the surface that is carl sagan and his cosmos .
columbus encounters friendly indians, of which one — the chief' s daughter — is positioned, bare - breasted, in the center of every composition. (i believe the chief' s daughter is chosen by cup size .) columbus sails back to europe and the story is over. another columbus movie is promised us this fall.
heaven is a playground is a 1991 film based on rick telander 's book of the same name . it was written and directed by randall fried , and stars michael warren , d.b. sweeney , victor love , bo kimble , richard jordan and janet julian . telander himself has a cameo appearance in the movie . the film was released on october 4 , 1991 , by new line cinema . 
heaven is a playground is a 1991 film based on rick telander's book of the same name. it was written and directed by randall fried, and stars michael warren, d.b. sweeney, victor love, bo kimble, richard jordan and janet julian. telander himself has a cameo appearance in the movie. the film was released on october 4, 1991, by new line cinema.
heaven is a playground is a 1991 film based on rick telander's book of the same name. it was written and directed by randall fried, and stars michael warren, d.b. sweeney, victor love, bo kimble, richard jordan and janet julian. telander himself has a cameo appearance in the movie. the film was released on october 4, 1991, by new line cinema.