| Miss USA winner who had title stripped dies in LA By 2010-10-10T00:02:40ZLOS ANGELES (AP) -- Leona Gage, who in 1957 was named Miss USA but had the title stripped the next day when pageant officials learned she was married and a mother of two, has died in Los Angeles, her son said Saturday. She was 71.... hosted.ap.org |
Czech screenwriter Jiri Krizan dies at age 68 By 2010-10-14T14:04:40ZPRAGUE (AP) -- Jiri Krizan was expelled from high school and blocked from attending college, all because the Communists who once ran Czechoslovakia didn't like his father's politics.... hosted.ap.org |
Who's missing in action? Who inexplicably evaded capture in our top 25 list of the greatest action and war movies of all time? Your thoughts, pleaseThe action and war 25: the full listAllow me to pre-empt you. No Face/Off? No The Great Escape? No Bourne? Nothing from Bruckheimer and/or Simpson? Call this an action list?Xan Brooks wrote on Sunday that "most films are crime films". Well, even more of them are action films, which means defining an action film is a near-impossible task, especially as what constitutes an action film has changed dramatically in the past 40 or 50 years. Action used to mean adventure, meaning a task to be achieved against seemingly insuperable odds, in the face of physical danger – that's the action of The Great Escape, or the great 30s and 40s swashbucklers, or the classic Hitchcock actioners. You could go through a two-hour action movie without once seeing a notable landmark destroyed. Nowadays, action means an explosion every five minutes, collateral damage, and no heed paid to consequences (I sometimes find myself watching modern action films and wondering: If this were real life, who would be liable for all this damage? How many years would the insurance and reinsurance lawsuits drag on for?).The perfect action film should set the heart racing while still giving some food for thought – which is why Where Eagles Dare is, for me, the greatest movie in the genre. When it was made, in 1968, its stunts were as sophisticated and dangerous as anything that had been seen on screen – that jump from the cable car into the frozen river is real people, jumping from a real cable car, into a real frozen river; its twists were as ingeniously preposterous as anyone could want; and in Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood it had stars with charisma to spare, unaccompanied by the brassy self-aggrandisement modern action roles seem to demand.So what films hit you like a bullet to the gut, a kick to the head or a tonne of TNT in the basement of your metaphorical skyscraper? Do you go for gritty realism, or for pyrotechnics? For odd couples or lone gunmen? Let us know.Action and adventureMichael Hannguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Williams: Solo album 'a compromise' Robbie Williams has dismissed his last solo album as a "compromise" - and admitted his comeback single Bodies was "gibberish". feeds.breakingnews.ie |
Michael Jackson's Thriller set for big-screen resurrection This Is It director Kenny Ortega to shoot new film based on groundbreaking Thriller video and songHollywood studios are set to fight it out for the chance to produce a new film based on Michael Jackson's groundbreaking Thriller video and song. Kenny Ortega, the High School Musical director who oversaw plans for Jackson's ill-fated comeback tour and the film that chronicled rehearsals for it, This Is It, is in line to take charge of the cameras.Thriller's famous video, in which Jackson leads a horde of zombies in a frenetic, deathly dance, was famously shot by John Landis, who had perfected the special effects work on his Oscar-winning 1982 horror An American Werewolf in London a year earlier. Jackson had become enraptured by the film and engaged Landis to shoot a 14-minute promo, which is often considered the greatest pop music video of all time. It is also the best-selling example of the form, according to the Guinness World Records, having shifted more than 9m units.According to Deadline, the film version might focus on the character played in the original video by horror legend Vincent Price, who provided the narration and a rap. The Hangover's Jeremy Garelick is writing the screenplay; Thriller songwriter Rod Temperton is also involved. Studios including Summit, makers of the Twilight series, Lionsgate and Twentieth Century Fox are reportedly interested in buying the rights package for the film.Michael JacksonBen Childguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |