Fireproof

The most financially successful American independent movie of 2008 didn’t premiere at Sundance, didn’t earn any Academy Award nominations, and didn’t amass honorable mentions on dozens of Ten Best lists. But none of that really mattered: Fireproof – the latest small-budget act of faith by Sherwood Pictures, an indie production company operated by pastors Alex and Stephen Kendrick of the Sherwood Church in Albany, Ga. – grossed $33 million without ever playing in more than 1,000 U.S. theaters at the same time.

To put that figure in context: It’s more than the combined gross of the critically acclaimed, Oscar-nominated indies Frozen River, The Visitor, In Bruges and Rachel Getting Married.

What makes this surprise success story all the more extraordinary is that, much like Flywheel (2003) and Facing the Giants (2006), two previous Sherwood productions, Fireproof is a faith-based drama made with a mostly volunteer cast and crew, aimed squarely, but by no means exclusively, at moviegoers who value churchgoing over trend-spotting.

Former teen idol and sitcom star Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) gives a genuinely compelling lead performance as Caleb, a work-obsessed firefighter on the verge of divorce from his neglected wife. Can this marriage be saved? Only if Caleb takes the advice of his born-again father and commits to "The Love Dare" -- not a TV game show, as its name might imply, but a 40-day, Bible-inspired program designed to help spouses restore frayed ties.

Cameron, an evangelical Christian who also has starred in movies based on the Rapture-themed Left Behind novels, remains eager to spread the good word about Fireproof. Just in time for this week’s release of the movie on home video, he recently answered a few burning questions about the improbably hot property. My interview is here.

Punching the Clown

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the recent Slamdance Film Festival, Punching the Clown -- no, not a sequel to Spanking the Monkey -- is modestly amusing as an extremely mild send-up of dream-chasing, networking and character-assassinating on various levels of the L.A. music scene. You can read my Variety review here.

John Cassavetes: The Lost Interview

I am not going to lie and say I am anything but ridiculously proud of this piece in the new issue of MovieMaker.

Guilty pleasure alert: Double Dragon

Tonight on the Encore Action cable network: Double Dragon, a brash and scrappy 1994 B-movie -- loosely based on the enduringly popular video game -- that emphasizes slaphappy jokiness over bone-crunching mayhem. As I noted in my original review, the movie gains a lot from the genial exuberance of lead actors Scott Wolf and Mark Dacascos, who behave as though their semi-heroic characters -- martial-arts champs in the 2007 city of "New Angeles" -- aren't too many rungs above Beavis and Butt-Head on the evolutionary ladder. And Robert Patrick is a genuine hoot as the villanous Shuko, a billionaire business tycoon with an unbridled ego and a high-rise, two-tone hairdo. Pop some popcorn, turn up the sound and enjoy the cheese.

Life imitates art, not

Looks like Mickey Rourke won't be involved with Wrestlemania 25 after all. Or is this new announcement just a ruse to lull Chris Jericho into a false sense of security?

Leonardo DiCaprio: The hits just keep on coming

So far, I have gotten 22,429 hits for this 1997 interview. I don't know whether to be grateful or (after reading some of the comments) scared.

Flashback: 1985

Way, way back when newspapers were making money, and could afford promotional TV ads for their star writers, this Houston Post spot got some heavy rotation -- even on the big Astrodome screens during Astros games! -- throughout the Greater Houston Area, circa 1985. And yes, that really is the great Jack Riley of The Bob Newhart Show applying prickly wit to burst my overinflated ego. (Again: Thanks to Robert Clark.)

Flashback: Me on Countdown

June 1, 2004: The grass was greener, the skies were bluer, friends were truer, my beard was fuller. And, best of all, I enjoyed a career highpoint as a talking head for Countdown With Keith Olbermann. (The burning issue of the day: The Day After Tomorrow.) It's been all downhill for me ever since.

(P.S: Once again, my thanks to producer Robert Clark.)

Life imitates art

Fresh from his triumph in The Wrestler -- and, maybe, just a few weeks after an Oscar victory -- Mickey Rourke will take on Chris Jericho here in Houston at Wrestlemania 25. It is, quite literally, front-page news in today's Houston Chronicle. (Hat tip to Ken Hoffman.) Speaking as someone who saw Rourke in a different kind of ring years ago while profiling him during the location shooting of Homeboy, I would say this: Don't bet against Randy the Ram.

Be careful what you wish for

Mad Magazine suggests our new POTUS may only just now be finding out what he's gotten himself into. Looks as though, like Lloyd Bridges, he picked a bad time to stop smoking.

The axe keeps falling, the toll keeps mounting

Two esteemed colleagues -- Anne Thompson and Michael Jones -- are among the newly decommissioned in the wake of layoffs at Variety. To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson's oft-quoted remark about the Nixon Era: Now is a good time to keep your head down.

From Frost/Nixon to Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Michael Sheen has appeared in all three of the Underworld movies, but I'd be willing to bet most people who know him best as either David Frost (Frost/Nixon) or Tony Blair (The Queen) have no idea that he's been moonlighting as a werewolf -- excuse me, a Lycan -- in this horror-flick franchise. He's actually the hero of the latest entry -- Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, opening today at theaters and drive-ins everywhere -- and I give him his fair props in my Variety review. But I couldn't help thinking while watching the movie: I wonder how long it'll take for some Photoshop-savvy Internet jokester to design a new Frost/Nixon poster with Sheen as a snarling lycanthrope -- and Frank Langella as Dracula?


(Or, maybe better, Langella as Skeletor from Masters of the Universe?

Preview: New in Town

I've been an appreciative fan of Renee Zellweger for a long time -- ever since I first really noticed her in Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (a.k.a. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation) -- so it pains me to say that her latest movie, New in Town, isn't every good, and she's not very good in the lead role. It doesn't help much that, throughout most of the first act of this formulaic rom-com, she moves around like she's got a fireplace utensil positioned in a lower body cavity. (This is meant to indicate she's uptight and uncomfortable -- get it? -- as a Miami-based exec assigned to run a small-town Minnesota food-processing plant.) And it helps even less that the rest of the movie is numbingly predictable and instantly forgettable. You can read my Variety review here.

First impressions of Oscar

Wish I’d had the balls to predict yesterday – or even last week – that I didn’t think The Dark Knight would make the Best Picture final five. I know full well that anything I say now will sound like a self-serving attempt to seem prescient – or, worse, will be dismissed as a great big fat lie – but I simply didn’t feel the image-conscious Academy ever would honor what I’m sure many older (and not-so-older) members still view as a comic-book movie.

On the other hand, the Academy voters have evidenced a fair degree of nerviness for nominating Robert Downey Jr. for a performance sure to generate another round of strident complaints from humorless blockheads about “racial insensitivity,” “ethnic stereotyping,” and blah, blah, blah. And props to the Academy for not buying that “Best Supporting Actress” crap regarding Kate Winslet in The Reader.

Right off the top of my head, I’d say the front-runners in the top categories right now are: Slumdog Millionaire (my personal favorite among the top five), Danny Boyle, Mickey Rourke (barring a Frank Langella surge), Anne Hathaway, Heath Ledger (of course) and Viola Davis. But, of course, I could be wrong.

By the way: To keep the Oscarcast ratings pumped up, will the Academy delay the bound-to-be-emotional announcement of Best Supporting Actor until the final half-hour of the show?

Update: After a closer look at the complete list of nominations, I'd like to add: I'm surprised -- and, yes, I won't lie, a bit disappointed -- that Clint Eastwood wasn't nominated for Gran Torino. But major props to the Documentary Branch for remembering, and honoring, Trouble the Water.

Razzies

One day before nominations for those other awards are announced, the folks who give out the Golden Raspberry Awards are weighing in with their dishonorable mentions. And the bad news is harsh enough to almost make you feel sorry for Mike Myers. Almost.

And in this corner, wearing the green trunks and the fur-lined parka...

Karina Longworth reports that things are getting a mite testy in Park City.

Update: Anne Thompson has more info. So far, no confirmation of rumors about a rematch in Las Vegas.

The whole world was watching

For newspapers throughout the world, yesterday's Inauguration was front-page news. Here is a collection of those front pages. A sobering thought: How many of these papers will still be around on Inauguration Day 2013?

Happy anniversary to Office Space

Can it really already be ten years since Office Space first entered our collective pop-culture consciousness? Gosh, it seems like only yesterday when I fearlessly forecast in Variety a new trend: "Friday happy-hour get-togethers topped off with visits to multiplexes for repeat viewings" of writer-director Mike Judge's uproarious satirical comedy about white-collar wage-slavery...

Well, OK, I was bit off the mark way back then. But never mind: Even though it was a box-office under-achiever during its initial theatrical release, Office Space has remained enduringly popular as a top-selling DVD and cult-fave cable-TV offering. And now, to celebrate its tenth anniversary, this contemporary classic is returning to the scene of the crime -- i.e., Austin, Texas, where it was filmed -- for a special one-time-only screening event Feb. 8 at the city's historic Paramount Theatre. Co-sponsored by SXSW and Fantastic Fest, the shindig -- tied to the Feb. 3 Blu-Ray release of Office Space -- will include special appearances by Judge and yet-to-be-announced members of the cast and crew. You can order advance tickets here or here. And you can get updated info on the screening here. But please keep in mind: If you attend, don't you dare touch anybody else's stapler. At least, not unless they ask you to.

Slamdance: Spooner

A pleasant mix of meet-cute romance and off-the-wall quirkiness, Spooner is the latest in a sign-of-the-times subgenre, another contemporary comedy about an underemployed thirtysomething who needs to fall in love before he's finally ready to move out of his parents' home. An atypically understated Matthew Lillard strikes the right balance of "hey, dude!" amiability and anxious self-awareness as Herman Spooner, an aimless and unambitious smalltown used car salesman whose life seems permanently stuck in neutral. Whether he's ready or not, however, he'll soon have to at least begin to lift himself out of his rut: His loving but not infinitely patient parents (Christopher McDonald, Kate Burton) have set the absolute deadline of his 30th birthday -- just a few days away -- for him to vacate the family home.

You can read my Variety review of Spooner here.

Yes he is

Ladies and gentlemen, the 44th President of the United States. God bless America.