#robert klein

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

Have you seen Two Weeks Notice (2002)?

Yes

No

Haven’t even heard of this movie

Voting ended onJan 24

[oldshowbiz]

[djkerr]

McHart + meeting each other's friends

TGW 05x04 Outside the Bubble

[clemsfilmdiary]

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003, Donald Petrie)

10/14-15/24

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Two Weeks Notice

Rating: PG-13

Director: Marc Lawrence

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Dana Ivey, Robert Klein, Alicia Witt, Heather Burns, David Haig, Dorian Missick, Joseph Badalucco Jr, Jonathan Dokuchitz, Veanne Cox, Janine LaManna, Iraida Polanco, Charlotte Maier, Katheryn Winnick, Jason Antoon

Release year: 2002

Genres: romance, comedy

Blurb: Dedicated environmental lawyer Lucy Kelson goes to work for billionaire George Wade as part of a deal to preserve a community centre. Indecisive and weak-willed, George grows dependent on Lucy's guidance on everything from legal matters to clothing. Exasperated, Lucy gives her notice and picks Harvard graduate June Carter as her replacement. As Lucy's time at the firm nears an end, she grows jealous of June and has second thoughts about leaving George.

[thishadoscarbuzz]

309 - Jeffrey (Patreon Selects)

We're back again with another episode chosen by one of our sponsor-tier subscribers from Patreon, this time with a bit of 1990s gay cinema! Thank you Lance for bringing us all to 1995's Jeffrey! Adapted from Paul Rudnick's Off-Broadway smash play, the concept of an "AIDS comedy" made it difficult to get produced, but ultimately unique once it reached theatre audiences. Despite playing to a limited audience on film and taking a broad comedic approach to the culture surrounding gay life in the 1990s, Patrick Stewart's performance as an interior designer diagnosed with AIDS earned some bit of buzz.

This episode, we talk about the career of Paul Rudnick and the types of gay cinema that emerged in this moment of American independent filmmaking. We also talk about Stewart's surprising lack of awards history, Bryan Batt's performance as Stewart's lover, and Christine Baranski hosting a "hoedown for AIDS."

Topics also include TikTok smash videos, "start my orange for me," and Debra Monk talking gay stuff.

The 1995 Academy Awards

Vulture's Movies Fantasy League

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[greensparty]

Marty Callner, Director of Iconic Music Videos, Concert Specials and Stand-Up Shows, Dies at 78

A 12-time Emmy nominee, he worked with acts including Cher, Garth Brooks, Aerosmith, Paul Reubens, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Britney S

Remembering Marty Callner 1947-2025

Sad news that director Marty Callner has died at 78. He directed a number of iconic music videos and countless concert and comedy TV specials.

Callner and Cook

I was lucky enough to work with him on two specials both of which aired on HBO: Dane Cook: Vicious Circle (filmed at TD Garden in Boston in 2006) and Justin Timberlake: FutureSex/LoveShow (filmed at Madison Square Garden in NYC in 2007). I was a lowly production assistant on both. I did not work closely with Mr. Callner, but it was quite a thrill to watch him working in the filming of live events, which can be unpredictable to say the least. I thought it was so cool to have my name in the credits of two Callner productions!

After starting in local news in Ohio, he made his way to directing Boston Celtics games and that background in live events got him in at the ground floor of the early days of HBO and over the last 50 years, he directed numerous comedy specials (too many to list all) for the likes of Robert Klein (considered to be the very first stand-up special), George Carlin, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Will Ferrell and Pee-Wee Herman's specials too! For concert specials he did ones for Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, The Rolling Stones, and more.

From his live music experience he was one of the biggest music video directors of the 80s and 90s, the Golden Age of Music Video if you will! Countless music videos (too many to list) but ones for Laura Branigan, Twisted Sister (he did "We're Not Gonna Take It" and more), Pat Benatar, Heart, The Scorpions, Kiss, Whitesnake (he directed the famous Tawney Kitaen-starring "Here I Go Again"), Poison, Ratt, The Cult, Cher (he directed the too-hot-to-play-before-9PM "If I Could Turn Back Time"), Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, Bon Jovi, and more! Wow - MTV from 1984-1994 would have looked very different without him.

Callner directing Steven Tyler

But, for me, it was his longtime collaboration with Aerosmith that was one of the great director / musician collaborations of all-time. He became friends with the band early in his career and he directed their videos for "Dream On", "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)", "Angel", "Rag Doll", "Love in an Elevator", "The Other Side", their "Dream On" segment of the MTV 10th Anniversary Special, "Sweet Emotion", "Livin' on the Edge", "Cryin'", "Amazing", "Crazy", and "Blind Man"! Wow - that is quite a collection and he brought their music to a whole new audience. He was also a film consultant for the Aerosmith segment in Wayne's World 2!

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Mixed Nuts (1994)

Remakes are rarely what they should be. In theory, what you should do is take a movie that’s either bad or almost but not quite there and try it again, taking the opportunity to fix the blemishes. In execution, we most often get something akin to "cloned with damaged DNA”. I haven’t seen Le père Noël est une ordure so I’m assuming Mixed Nuts is the latter because it shows promise and then builds to an ending so lame and lazy it sours the rest of the film.

In California, on Christmas Eve, Philip (Steve Martin) is the head of the suicide-prevention hotline “Lifesavers”. The organization is about to shut down thanks to the eviction notice from the landlord, Stanley (Garry Shandling). On what is sure to be Lifesavers’ last day, Philip and his co-workers Mrs. Blanche Munchnik (Madeline Kahn) & Catherine O’Shaughnessy (Rita Wilson) will have to deal with a trailer-trash couple, an annoying neighbor that loves to make up bad songs (Adam Sandler), a depressed transvestite (Liev Schreiber), angry rollerbladers (Parkey Posey and Jon Stewart) and the “Seaside Strangler”.

Directed by Nora Ephron (which she co-wrote with her sister, Delia), a fair number of jokes land - particularly if you’ve got an off-kilter sense of humor. All of the characters are so neurotic that a normal, everyday scenario would end up with tears, outrage and a gun being fired. On Christmas Eve, at a suicide-prevention hotline, in a building whose elevator is out of commission and whose tenants are all being evicted, with a serial killer on the loose, the question is how big of a mess this will become and how the weirdos will fit together. Despite all this, I swear Mixed Nuts isn’t as ridiculous as it initially sounds.

I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed the film as much as I did and I must confess that thinking back, I can only think of a few times it made me laugh. The most noteworthy element of the film is Liev Schreiber in his film debut. His character is over-the-top like there’s no tomorrow but the performance is surprisingly sensitive when the jokes simmer down. Also enjoyable are key interactions between Catherine and her callers. She’s so empathetic towards them it’s a wonder she can do her job. While this raises some questions about how the operation could’ve possibly worked and requires you to find the humor in suicidal thoughts, it just might be bizarre enough to make you smile.

The ridiculous feels-like-they’re-improptu-but-they-actually-aren’t songs courtesy of Adam Sandler’s character (who speaks in the same annoying childlike voice he chooses when he isn’t playing a fantasy version of himself), the various neuroses and escalation lunacy manage to rack up enough points for you to like the film. You're having a good time, wondering why people are so down on Mixed Nuts. Then, we get to the final act. The conclusion doesn’t come out of nowhere but that's only because someone went back once the script was finished and added hints of what was coming retroactively. It starts by making you cringe, then keeps getting worse until you’re sitting there, wondering “Did I somehow convince myself I was having fun earlier, or was the whole movie like what I'm seeing now?”.

There are a lot of big names in Mixed Nuts and they should’ve added up to a Yuletide comedy for the ages. It doesn’t live up to its potential. In fact, I’m now in the position of trying to defend a movie that I’m not even sure I enjoyed that much in hindsight. I thought of concluding this review with "Mixed Nuts is a mixed bag" but I'm filled with such doubt about the end results that I'm not sure I can even muster that statement. (December 20, 2021)