ENTERTAINMENT
November 7, 2012 | By Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times Film Critic
If "Skyfall" is the new 50, James Bond is handling it remarkably well. Five decades after the first cinematic incarnation of 007, novelist Ian Fleming's agent provocateur, the spy-craft in the new film is sharper, the intrigue deeper, the beauties brighter (more brain, less bare). And yet if I'm not mistaken, there are perilous emotional peaks and valleys along with all that bloody cheek. Daniel Craig's Bond is not quite as detached, his martini not quite as dry. Even the villain, a masterfully menacing Javier Bardem, is an emotional wreck whose angst is actually explored.
ENTERTAINMENT
August 27, 2010
They gained Oscar glory working together on "American Beauty. " Now actor Kevin Spacey and British director Sam Mendes are teaming up again for a transatlantic stage production of Shakespeare's "Richard III," producers said Thursday. Spacey, 51, will play the title role in the play, which depicts the short reign of the English tyrant. Memorable feature versions starred Laurence Olivier and Ian McKellen. It will open in February 2012 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater in New York, followed by a brief international tour before playing at London's Old Vic theater in May. —Reuters Close look at WWII aircraft Bombers and torpedo planes will be the stars of the latest expansion of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, and visitors will be able to get close-up views of the war planes on elevated catwalks.
ENTERTAINMENT
January 6, 2010 | By PATRICK GOLDSTEIN
No, this isn't an April Fool's prank. According to both The Times' Hero Complex blog and the Hollywood Reporter, Sam Mendes, the wonderfully cerebral and cultured filmmaker who once upon a time won an Oscar for directing "American Beauty," is in discussions to make the new James Bond film, which could go into production as early as this June. Daniel Craig would be onboard, reprising his role as Mr. 007. While I'm also happy to see filmmakers practicing their craft, this is a bad decision in oh, so many ways, not to mention a depressing example of how hard it is for filmmakers to find any good studio material to work with.
ENTERTAINMENT
June 7, 2009 | Rachel Abramowitz
Sam Mendes compares the experience of making a small film to that of driving a small car. "It's more maneuverable and more fun.
ENTERTAINMENT
December 14, 2008 | Rachel Abramowitz, Abramowitz is a Times staff writer.
There are those who will see "Revolutionary Road," the long-awaited reteaming of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, as some deeply troubling coda to their famed cine-love in the top-grossing movie of all time, "Titanic." In that film, the duo played two dreamers whose lives are dashed by a gargantuan iceberg. In "Revolutionary Road," they repeat as dreamers, of the 1950s variety, only this time their future is sabotaged by conformity, fear and the acrid taste of self-loathing.
NEWS
December 10, 2008 | Rachel Abramowitz
Some films begin by lulling audiences gradually into their world. They seduce with imagery, sensation and sound. And then there are those like "Revolutionary Road" -- about a married couple of dreamers stranded in the conformity of the 1950s -- that open with a cold thwack in the face, with a marital spat so annihilating it makes the heart beat faster.