Tag: Movies
‘The Hangover’ Gets Bollywoodized
by Eva Holland | 07.29.09 | 4:18 PM ET
Publicity still via IGN Here’s an unexpected bit of cross-cultural synergy. This summer’s funniest travel movie involving a Vegas bachelor party, Mike Tyson, and a tiger—OK, OK, this summer’s only travel movie involving all of the above—is getting its very own Bollywood remake.
After he had time to think it over, Get the Big Picture’s Colin Boyd decided he approves. “You’ve seen ‘The Hangover,’ right? It’s full of non sequiturs from Mike Tyson to the chicken to the tiger in the bathroom to the baby to the missing tooth,” he writes. “And where better to find humorous non sequiturs than Bollywood?”
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Yahoo! BuzzSam Neill: ‘You Can’t Beat a Flat Bed’
by Eva Holland | 07.23.09 | 12:34 PM ET
Publicity still from "Jurassic Park" via Hollywood.com The Kiwi actor, best known for his roles in “The Piano” and “Jurassic Park,” recently shared some funny and thoughtful travel reflections with the Independent. Among the highlights? Neill looks for “a sense of enquiry and wonder” in his travel companions, he finds grand old hotels “uncomfortable, patronising and with hideous furniture,” and he firmly believes that a first-class reclining seat is worth it on the red-eye: “You can’t beat a flat bed. It’s hardly a profound thought, but if you can sleep on a plane, you can function at the other end ... I know I should be waxing lyrical about other cultures, but the bed takes precedence, I’m afraid.”
Travel Movies: Road Tripping in Search of ... Something
by Eva Holland | 07.22.09 | 4:54 PM ET
We’ve paid tribute in the past to our favorite travel race movies—road trip flicks where it’s all about getting there. But there’s another breed of road trip movie, too, where the driver is looking for something bigger, more meaningful, than an interstate thrill. “Easy Rider” is a good example: Its tagline reads, “A man went looking for America. And couldn’t find it anywhere…”
With the famous motorcycle movie celebrating its 40th anniversary this month, I thought it was about time to call out a few of my favorites from the sub-genre.
Travel Movie Watch: ‘A Perfect Getaway’
by Eva Holland | 07.22.09 | 11:38 AM ET
Beautiful people murdering each other on an isolated Hawaiian hiking trail: What’s not to like?
“A Perfect Getaway” opens August 7.
Happy 40th Birthday, ‘Easy Rider’
by Eva Holland | 07.21.09 | 5:21 PM ET
The road trip classic celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, and even though I’ve had my differences with the movie I didn’t want to miss the chance for a birthday shout-out.
“Easy Rider” has a couple of the key ingredients for a great road trip movie (and, for that matter, a great road trip) in spades: delectable scenery for the vicarious traveler, and plenty of contemplative fireside chats between driving sequences—the sorts of conversations that you’d find around a hostel common room, or share with your Couchsurfing host. It’s not a perfect movie, but it helped to define and then spread the idea of finding freedom on the open road. For that, I’m grateful.
Here are a couple of favorite scenes:
Travel Movie Watch: ‘Julie and Julia’
by Eva Holland | 07.21.09 | 2:19 PM ET
Here’s a promising one. “Julie and Julia” tells the story of Julia Child’s years as a Parisian expat, when she first tackled French cuisine, alongside the story of New York City blogger Julie Powell, who spent a year attempting every recipe in Child’s classic, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Meryl Streep plays Child—who was recently included in our list of ten inspirational women travelers—while Amy Adams takes on Powell. On top of the promising cast, Nora Ephron wrote and directed—cue the jokes about a recipe for success.
How About a ‘Harry Potter’ Holiday?
by Eva Holland | 07.15.09 | 12:06 PM ET
Photo of Alnwick Castle by Eva Holland It’s that time of year again: The sixth installment in the world-dominating series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, hits theaters this week. The Telegraph has compiled a list of the best Harry Potter landmarks for fan pilgrimages, with mixed results. The specifics are fine—Alnwick Castle as Hogwarts, Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross and so on—but the list also includes whole countries merely mentioned, not visited, in the books. Are there really any Potter fans crazy enough to visit Norway just because it’s the natural habitat of the Norwegian Ridgeback dragon?
12 Great Summer Vacation Movies
by Eva Holland, Eli Ellison | 07.10.09 | 10:31 AM ET
Eva Holland and Eli Ellison missed out on some prime tanning time to dig up the finest summer travel flicks
Travel Movie Watch: ‘Soul Power’
by Eva Holland | 07.09.09 | 12:37 PM ET
Most folks have heard of the Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s 1974 showdown in Kinshasa, but the accompanying concert—in which James Brown was one of several starring acts—is less well remembered. Now, though, Brown’s time in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) is the focus of a new documentary, “Soul Power.”
A Short History of Landmarks Exploding on Film
by Eva Holland | 07.07.09 | 4:17 PM ET
In honor of the summer blockbuster, Slate looks back, via video slideshow, at Hollywood’s penchant for blowing up major landmarks over the years. There’s some social context included—the impact of 9/11 on the disaster movie, for instance—in between the video clips, and writer Keith Phipps also teases out some rules for the genre. My favorite? “When a city is in jeopardy, its most famous landmarks fall prey first. Aliens and natural disasters always target the Golden Gate Bridge, never the Bay Bridge.”
Always the bridesmaid, huh, Bay Bridge? As a Canadian, I can relate. We inevitably get overlooked when the aliens invade.
America on Film: ‘50 Movies for 50 States’
by Eva Holland | 07.07.09 | 12:47 PM ET
Here’s one more leftover tidbit from the just-past holiday weekend: the film fanatics over at Rotten Tomatoes have put together a list of 50 movies for 50 states, in which each selection “features something special about the geography, history, or people of a particular state.”
Some picks are obvious (“Rocky” for Pennsylvania, “Oklahoma!” for Oklahoma) while others link movies and places that I never realized were connected (who knew “Fight Club” was set in Delaware?), but all contribute to a compelling whole. If you’re skeptical about a pick, chances are the description will convince you. Here’s a sample, justifying “Napoleon Dynamite” as the Idaho pick:
Travel Movie Watch: ‘Couples Retreat’
by Eva Holland | 07.06.09 | 9:42 AM ET
Here’s the set-up: A husband and wife facing marital troubles convince their three best couple-friends to take off on an all-inclusive vacation—the catch is, they’ve booked into a marriage counseling resort. Jason Bateman, Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau are among the stars. Check out the trailer—this one has some comic potential, no?
Australia’s Prime Minister: ‘Hotter Than Obama’
by Eva Holland | 06.29.09 | 7:05 PM ET
Publicity still via IGN That was the verdict from Bruno, comedian Sasha Baron Cohen’s gay Austrian alter ego, during a visit to Sydney for his movie‘s Australian premiere. Said the ostensible fashion TV reporter after meeting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: “That guy is like, uber-cute. I thought Obama was like the hottest guy in the world until I met Kevin.”
Ooh. Them’s fighting words, Bruno. President Obama, care to respond?
R.I.P. Farrah Fawcett
by Eva Holland | 06.25.09 | 4:05 PM ET
REUTERS/Staff The actress has died at 62 after a three-year battle with cancer. Among many other roles, she starred in the cross-country road trip race movie, The Cannonball Run.
Travel Movie Endings, Good and Bad
by Eva Holland | 06.19.09 | 11:46 AM ET
What do you do, as a pack of popular movie bloggers, when your popular movie blog gets the axe? If you’re Nerve.com’s Screengrab team you go out in style, with a list of the best and worst movie endings of all time.
A couple of beloved travel movies made the list—Screengrabber Andrew Osborne takes aim at the “slap-dash” conclusion to “Easy Rider,” while he praises one of my all-time favorites, “Before Sunset,” for its sublime final moments: “Delpy does a shuffling little dance. Hawke sinks into the couch with a silly grin on his face. And we all learn that the most romantic words of all are not ‘I love you’—they’re ‘Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.’” Amen. And so long, Screengrab.
Canadian Road Trip Candy: ‘One Week’ on DVD
by Eva Holland | 06.18.09 | 4:53 PM ET
Remember One Week, aka Canada’s “Into the Wild”? Well, the movie may never have made it to U.S. theaters, but it landed on DVD this week—and while I wouldn’t count on it being stocked at your local Blockbuster, I can confirm that Netflix is on the ball.
But is it worth a rental? I caught it on an Air Canada flight a few weeks back and had mixed feelings.
‘Away We Go’ in Search of Literary Street Cred?
by Eva Holland | 06.18.09 | 1:23 PM ET
Publicity still via IGN The Book Bench takes a saucy look at “Away We Go,” the Sam Mendes-directed, Eggers/Vida-penned flick that recently got the World Hum Travel Movie Club treatment.
Writes blogger Jenna Krajeski: “Mendes ruined his reputation around the library when he suffocated Richard Yates’s masterpiece [“Revolutionary Road”] on the silver screen. Is he trying to win back his literary cred?” Or, she wonders, did the two novelists throw the game deliberately in the name of the printed page? “Perhaps there’s no better way to prove that novelists should stick to writing novels than to have two skilled fiction writers fail at writing for the movies.” Ouch.
Another Morning After: ‘Hangover’ Sequel en Route
by Eva Holland | 06.17.09 | 12:49 PM ET
Lovers of film and travel, fear not: If “The Hangover”—you know, the one about the messy/hilarious aftermath of a Vegas boys’ getaway?—left you wanting more, you don’t have long to wait. A sequel, with star Bradley Cooper signed on, is already in the works. It’s a likely bet for box office success—Cooper’s only concern, apparently, is how they’ll top the first installment. “We’ve gotta go to space or something,” a skeptical Popwrap blogger quotes him as saying.
Sure, Bradley. Logistical issues aside, space certainly tops Vegas. Or you could just go to Macau.
Can a Taxi Man Make a Subway Movie?
by Eva Holland | 06.17.09 | 11:04 AM ET
There’s a surprising tidbit in the Slate review of “The Taking of Pelham 123,” the Denzel/Travolta-starring remake of a ’70s subway-thriller classic. Turns out, director Tony Scott never actually rides the New York subway. Or, almost never: “Well, when I say never, I mean maybe once or twice quite drunk at night, when I couldn’t find a taxi.” Right.
Political Iran on Film
by Eva Holland | 06.16.09 | 10:32 AM ET
Foreign Policy has a timely list of movies “that have stirred the country’s politics over the years.” The selections span four decades, from the Shah’s day to the present, and could be great fodder for some armchair traveling—for this week, probably the only sort of travel that’s advisable to Iran.