Interviews – @Cinefille

Five Great Movies According to My Dad

For Father’s Day, I asked my dad to talk about his five favorite movies and he was up to the challenge.

First there are some basics you should know about my father. He is a slightly bitter retired man who spends his nights watching the Nightly Business Report and the Newshour with Jim Lehrer. Since his retirement, he has taken up biking, playing solitaire, and occasionally woodworking. He hails from the Bronx and speaks with a fairly heavy New York accent. He loves Trisha Yearwood, Shania Twain, and Martina McBride, which makes no sense because he is from the Bronx. He has worked at a liquor store, an ice cream cart, a fish market and as a freight elevator operator. (But I won’t tell you which one had questionable mob ties.) He loves our cat, Salem, more than his four children combined (“Salem is the only one in this family who doesn’t bother me”). He hates lima beans and loves a good cannoli. In sum, my dad is ridiculous.

Our interview took place in my parents bedroom right before they went to bed. They were not too pleased that I bothered them. My mom tried to ignore us but she couldn’t resist interjecting some colorful commentary every now and then. After the interview I told my dad that he was about to blow up on the Internet. He replied, “Yeah. Whatever.”

So here they are. Enjoy and Happy Father’s Day! Continue reading “Five Great Movies According to My Dad”

Did Herzog Just Say Radioactive Albino Crocodiles?

“Sir, if I may. I want to party with you Cowboy.” – Stephen Colbert

My hardcore crush on German director Werner Herzog continues. The Cave of Forgotten Dreams director appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss the documentary. Please discuss the Manhattan phonebook with me every day, Werner.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

And about those crocodiles. I didn’t go into the radioactive albino crocodiles in my review of Cave of Forgotten Dreams because they were way too creepy for me to ever want to think about them again.

Happy Earth Day! Avatar Gets A Release Date

Mark your calendars. Avatar has a release date and it is April 22 – Earth Day. For director James Cameron this date makes perfect sense because of the film’s “Save the Planet” message. But there is a catch. Avatar will only be available in 2D. The small screen certainly won’t benefit Avatar and having seen it in 2D, I can tell you that Avatar in 2D is easily one of the worst movies ever made.

How do you think Avatar will fare on DVD? Will it break DVD sales records as well?

And in case you haven’t seen this interview with James Cameron, he answers questions about Avatar and the future of 3D.

Fire up the colortinis: Craig Ferguson interviews Stephen Fry

“Sit back, fire up the colortinis, and watch the pictures as they fly through the air.” – Tom Snyder

Last night Craig Ferguson proved why he is the best late night host on television. For one night only Ferguson removed the audience and had a one-on-one interview with Stephen Fry. It’s not a revolutionary idea. As Ferguson points out in his monologue, Larry King and Charlie Rose do this every night. So why bring it to The Late Late Show? After watching the Late Night wars unfold, Ferguson wanted to bring Late Night back to its roots, so to speak.

Tom Snyder, who preceded Craig Kilborn as host of The Late Late Show, would do the show every night with no audience and just talk to people. In his monologue, Ferguson talked about the kinship with audience (who as he points out, found the show on their own) and he asks the audience to indulge him for one night.

Indulge we did. Watch the video to see pure brilliance unfold.

Katherine Heigl: A Cautionary Tale

Katherine Heigl is busy promoting The Ugly Truth, which is already being deemed as one pretty bad romantic comedy. She appeared on The Late Show earlier in the week and discussed this movie as well as Grey’s Anatomy and her Mexican dog.

What an irritating interview.

I’m so sorry Katherine Heigl that you have to lay in a pretend coma for 17 hours a day. Imagine how rough it would be if you weren’t working at all? By the way, if she keeps up her diva antics, she probably won’t be working on Grey’s much longer.

I’m not the only person who is over Heigl and her seemingly bad attitude. This article in Newsweek, called Why is Katherine Heigl So Annoying?, tries to determine why the television star’s star has dimmed so quickly.