Results tagged “johnc”

Prestige filmmakers take note: If you want the Times critics to really love you, what you need to do is put the fear in them. At least it worked for Tim Burton; his adaptation of Steven Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd gave reviewer A.O. Scott nightmares. And for that, Scott deems the film “close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme – I am tempted to say evil – genius.” (Current Rotten Tomato rating: 88% fresh.) One big question was whether the non-singing actors cast in the film would be able to pull it off; according to Burton the film is almost 90 sung. Well, it worked for Scott:

Johnny Depp’s voice is harsh and thin, but amazingly forceful. He brings the unpolished urgency of rock ’n’ roll to an idiom accustomed to more refinement., and in doing so awakens the violence of Mr. Sondheim’s lyrics and melodies.

We remember Z100 fondly. It was our morning listen for much of elementary school, and for better or worse, has stuck to the same broadcasting formula for all this time. The annual Jingle Ball is a fun tradition, if for nothing else, as a convenient year end recap of all the biggest pop hits of the year we might have missed. Getting all these names together for one night only is no easy feat. They had your Fall Out Boys and Backstreet Boys, Alisha Keys and Avril Levine, Timbaland's bizarre soft-rock crossover protégées and many more. They all got a slot to perform their one hit wonders to the obsessed, shrieking masses. The biggest story coming out of the concert may have been the state of Ashley Tisdale's schnoz, but the music itself was a perfect storm of mainstream glitz that just seems fitting for this crazy season. (pic via Z100.com)

On what would have been his wedding day, Sean Bell's friends and family, as well as other activists, politicians, and members of the community, held a vigil/protest/rally for Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield. Bell was killed during a confrontation with the police after his bachelor party at the Queens strip club Kalua Lounge on Saturday morning. Guzman and Benefield were injured and remain in the hospital. The police fired 50 shots in less than a half minute on the friends' car; the three men were unarmed. An undercurrent of the shooting is race: The three men were black and Hispanic, while there were two white, two black and one Hispanic police officers.

Looking ahead to this week's movie options, there's a few indie-sized pics and one massive, Super Big Gulp-sized car racing comedy. Ordinarily Gothamist is all about championing the cinematic little guy, but when it's this goofy, yet earnest we say go for the excess.

The former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, former deputy secretary of state under Reagan, and Pataki contributor John C. Whitehead will resign from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the World Trade Center rebuilding organization, today. Whitehead was placed in the role of LMDC chairman by Pataki four years ago, and has had a lot of troubles, given the issues with WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein, government officials, government agencies and victims' families all squabbling. Whitehead said, "This is the toughest leadership job I've ever had. We've accomplished a lot. Lower Manhattan is a very different animal today than even before 9/11. I wish there weren't as many problems right now. But I'm 84, and I need to be relieved." We're on the fence about Whitehead - he's Pataki flunky, but the WTC rebuilding has been a terrible mess and you can't pin it just on Whitehead.

Gothamist saw the trailer for the new Jennifer Connelly movie, Dark Water. Basically, she finds an apartment (with the help of John C. Reilly, a fellow tenant) in what looks like one of those huge NYC apartment buildings that are so big and nondescript, they look like projects, and moves in with her daughter, even though the elevator is freaky. She proclaims it perfect, but, of course, that's when the scary stuff happens: Leaky ceiling that reveals a flooded apartment above her - that hasn't occupied! Read the description at Yahoo Movies, and see the trailer at the Touchstone site. What Gothamist wants to know is hasn't she seen Panic Room? Or even Duplex? Buying a living space in NYC is never charmed - especially not when you're in a movie written by the same guy who wrote The Ring. Gothamist chortled our way through the trailer, but we might see it - IMDB says it filmed at Roosevelt Island and there seem to be some cool aerials of the city.

Big casting news this week on Broadway as Denzel Washington is announced as Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The big-screen box office king hasn't been sighted on the Great White Way since 1988, when he appeared in the show Checkers. Playbill reports that the show will be opening in March at the Belasco. The current tenant is Dracula, which is struggling to stay alive and should probably see a closing notice posted imminently.

Learn more about the Segway. Also learn about arguing your desk appearance ticket (aka DAT) from the People's Law Collective and a law firm. Gothamist on riding a segway in the city. And Kansas Congressman Dennis Moore has a picture with Segway inventor Dean Kamen; Congress was looking into using Segways for police beats and postal delivery.