LA Confidential

Overloaded In L.A.

By James Bartlett

There's an absolute overload of movies in the theatres right now, and despite my best intentions I am starting to get caught up in the rush to see some of the bigger ones, or at least some of the ones that are being vaunted for the Oscars.

So far though, things have been disappointing - this week my better half and I saw Stranger Than Fiction starring Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson, and For Your Consideration, the latest from Christopher Guest and his regular team (they're the ones behind Waiting For Guffman, A Mighty Wind and other mockumentaries).

Sadly though, they were both disappointing. Stranger Than Fiction never managed to keep a complete tone in being either a tragedy or comedy, and it had a real lack of consistency in the story. For Your Consideration was certainly amusing in parts, but unlike director Guest's others efforts, which featured characters being very sincere about what they were doing (which made it all the more funny), this one was a straight narrative story, and consequently didn't work as well.

There must have been lots of material cut too, as many things didn't seem to make sense. Moreover, taking the mickey out of Hollywood is hardly difficult, since everyone is fake in Hollywood anyway. This week we're hoping for better luck when we see more of the big contenders - we'll let you know how they turn out.

Still, there were a couple of movie star moments over the weekend: first off we saw Randy Quaid (you've seen him in the TV mini-series "Elvis" alongside Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Brokeback Mountain, Kingpin, Independence Day and others) lining up to buy a ticket in the same theater where we saw For Your Consideration - he's surprisingly tall.

In the movie itself, there was a scene where the character played by Parker Posey, was having breakfast. It was in a funky 60s/70s diner place called "Swingers" on Beverly Boulevard, which is where I am starting part-time work this week, helping them out in their office. I had no idea it would be on the big screen the week before I started working there! Not only that, it's a pretty cool place to have lunch and has the slogan "ass, cash or grass, nobody eats for free".

Staying with awards, last year Robert Altman received an honorary Oscar for his lifetimes' work, and during his speech he revealed that he had had a heart transplant some years before, and this week the legendary maverick director died of cancer aged 81. His movie output was regular but often weird, although he has left a number of excellent films that any director would be proud to be associated with including M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Short Cuts and Gosford Park.

On the other side of the coin, we recently saw a revival screening of Brewster McCloud, which was very, very weird. His trademark improvisation, moving camerawork and overlapping dialogue influenced many great directors and made him the favorite of an endless list of actors. It's rather depressing to know he won't be around any more. Also shuffling off the mortal coil this week was French actor Philippe Noiret, perhaps best known for his role as the gruff, mustachioed film projectionist in Cinema Paradiso, one of my favorite movies of all time. RIP both of them.

News from Ireland doesn't make the Los Angeles Times very often, but this week they did cover the extraordinary actions of convicted Loyalist murderer Michael Stone, who tried to storm into the Stormont building with a gun, knife and some crudely made bombs. It was an unbelievable sight, and I can only hope his actions add more weight to the vital need for all parties involved in the Peace Process to make sure that things progress quickly and equally.

Hollywood was in Ireland this week though as one of the biggest movie stars of them all, Al Pacino, made his first visit to the Emerald Isle to research his latest film project on Oscar Wilde. While he was in Dublin, he was awarded an honorary patronage of Trinity College's Philosophical Society and received a standing ovation from the audience.

Pacino has traveled to France and Ireland while researching a new film documentary, Salomaybe, about the Dublin-born writer. He had previously appeared as King Herod in Wilde's play Salome on Broadway, and was drawn to Dublin after developing an interest in his work.

Godfather legend Al was obviously taken with the Fair City, as he said: "(This is) my first visit to this country, to this beautiful great city Dublin. It has made the connection to Wilde and Salome more real, more complete." He will also be speaking to some lucky students about Wilde's time as an undergraduate at the college.

This upcoming week my better half and I are celebrating our Anniversary - it's five years since we met in Ireland - and we are spending the night at the Shangri-La Hotel in Santa Monica, which is where Woody Allen always stays on his infrequent trips to La La Land.

Perhaps when we are there we can take advantage of a new innovation that was revealed in the beachside city this week. Parking is always a nightmare there, and now the council has revealed the latest weapon to help drivers: a website that that offers real time (every 5 seconds) information on available parking spaces in downtown structures and beach lots around the popular Third Street Promenade.

That's all very well, but how does that help visitors, unless they have wireless access or a handheld/Blackberry mobile device that can link to the website? Still, it's the trend - Beverly Hills is looking to do the same, as are other places around town. Staying in the handset/online area, it was announced this week that Kevin Smith, the rotund and bearded director of cult movies Clerks and Chasing Amy - and one of the infamous Jay and Silent Bob duo, is running a course at UCLA that teaches new filmmakers the art of making very short movies - "mobisodes" especially for the cell phone, iPod and internet market. For someone who doesn't have a cell phone and spends too much time in front of a computer already, the idea of watching movies on either screen now appeals even less - it's just more movies that no one is going to see.

There are other things that people aren't going to see too - fewer Americans are visiting the country's National Parks, including the most famous of them all, Yosemite in California. It's been on a downward slide for nearly a decade, but the men in charge think that people don't want to camp outside any more, and are doing their best to try and fight the trend - including (of course) the development of a Pocket Ranger video game that can be downloaded to iPods.

Still, there was big news this week for some of nature's biggest fans - bird watchers. At Red Hill Marina near Calipatria in Imperial County, a respected watcher saw a Ross's gull. It breeds primarily in Siberia or Greenland and shouldn't of been there, but thanks to the marvels (this time) of the internet and cell phones, there were soon more bird fans there to witness and record the sighting.

It was a first for California - a "crown jewel"- and the furthest south that particular bird has ever been seen. Some people drove for over 10 hours to see it and around 150 lucky people did catch sight of it before it disappeared, having only spent a day in the California late-November sunshine.

At the Box Office this weekend, those Happy Feet penguins once again beat the odds and managed to hold of Daniel Craig as the new 007, although the animated movie managed a take of just under $38m, a very strong showing, against Casino Royale's $31m.

Déjà Vu, the latest action thriller starting Denzel Washington and directed by Tony Scott must have been disappointed with an opening take of £20.8m at #3.Everything else is a long way back, and it's flopsville for writer/director Emilio Estevez's Bobby Kennedy multi-story epic Bobby it seems, despite a huge star cast.