Review: ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ Summer’s Greatest Movie?

Some guys never seem to catch a break in life. Lance Clayton is one of them. 

In “World’s Greatest Dad,” the recently-released, extremely dark and sometimes perverse new comedy from writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait (we know, we’re just as surprised as you), Clayton (Robin Williams) is the epitome of the put-upon, browbeaten modern middle-class American man. He’s a high-school poetry teacher with hardly any students, a girlfriend who’s afraid to be seen in public with him, and a son named Kyle (played with an amazing level of scorn by Daryl Sabara) who surely must rank as the foulest, most awful teenager in the history of movies. 

Lance does have dreams of greatness, however. In fact, he’s in the middle of sending off his fifth novel for agent consideration, even though he’s never been published before. But ** SPOILER ALERT ** one night, after finding his son dead from a bout of autoerotic asphyxiation that occurred while watching porn on this computer, Lance suddenly feels a unique burst of inspiration: in order to cover up the shame of his son’s actual cause of death, he moves Kyle’s body, re-hangs him in his closet and writes the perfect suicide note so that the policeman who finds him will think that it was just another, normal teenage suicide.  (more…)

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Tags: Bobcat Goldthwait, Daryl Sabara, oscar, Robin Williams, “World’s Greatest Dad”
Posted Sep 12th 2009 at 10:44 am in Reviews | 21902217 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/09/12/review-world%e2%80%99s-greatest-dad-summer%e2%80%99s-greatest-movie/Review%3A+%27World%E2%80%99s+Greatest+Dad%27+Summer%E2%80%99s+Greatest+Movie%3F2009-09-12+17%3A44%3A36Carl+Kozlowski

At 25, ‘The Karate Kid’ Still Packs a Punch

Looking back at The Karate Kid (1984), which turned twenty-five years old this week, a thought keeps recurring.

Wow. . . Avildsen made it work twice.

John G. Avildsen is, in some ways, a director of little distinction when compared with well-known marquee names like Spielberg, Scorsese, Nolan, and Tarantino. The vast majority of his movies are utterly forgotten by the average filmgoer — indeed, he’s been nominated for Worst Director at The Razzies three times. And yet, like Victor Fleming decades earlier with his twin successes The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind (both 1939 — read a great recent article on Fleming here), Avildsen has twice punched way above his weight, netting himself an Oscar for Best Director and giving birth to some of the most memorable moments in motion picture history. (more…)

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Tags: "Cruel Summer", "Sweep the Leg", Andrew Shue, Asians in Hollywood, Bananarama
Posted Jun 24th 2009 at 6:50 am in Entertainment | 1663063 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/06/24/at-25-the-karate-kid-still-packs-a-punch/At+25%2C+%27The+Karate+Kid%27+Still+Packs+a+Punch2009-06-24+13%3A50%3A07Leo+Grin

Ed McMahon – When Late Night Television Was Young

Picture it.  After passing through the Pearly Gates, Ed McMahon spots his long time friend and TV partner.  With a wide grin and outstretched arms, he greets him. “Heeere’s Johnny!” The affable, genial, self-described “Second Banana” to Johnny Carson on the “Tonight Show,” has passed away at age 86.

In a November 2007 radio interview I did on The Andrea Shea King Show with McMahon to talk about his then newly published book “When Television Was Young, Live, Spontaneous and in Living Black and White,” we talked about his life, and what it was like to share the NBC “Tonight Show” set with The King of Late Night.

McMahon was dealing with a bout of layrngitis, but it didn’t stop him from opening the interview with the famous words that announced to American viewers it was time for their eagerly anticipated nightly entertainment — “Heeere’s Johnny!” (more…)

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Tags: bette midler, Ed Ames, Ed McMahon, johnny carson, Robin Williams
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 at 12:20 pm in Classic Hollywood, Featured Story | 1673468 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/asking/2009/06/23/ed-mcmahon-when-late-night-television-was-young/Ed+McMahon+-+When+Late+Night+Television+Was+Young2009-06-23+19%3A20%3A26Andrea+Shea+King

‘Avenue Q’ Can’t Get Over George Bush

What do you do when you lose a punchline? While Will Ferrell and Robin Williams try to squeeze every last joke out of an administration that left office over a month ago, Late Night hosts struggle to find something funny about the new guy. (In other news, Rich Little is still doing an impression of Richard Nixon.)

Two weeks ago, I did a story about how the Broadway show “Avenue Q” held a contest to find a lyric as funny as “George Bush is only for now.” Calls to the theater assured me that keeping the lyric Presidential wasn’t even an option. Your Mother in Law, This Show, Prop. 8 and Recession were the lines the producers were hoping to pay off. (more…)

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Tags: "Avenue Q", Avenue Q lyric contest, Rich Little, Robin Williams, will ferrell
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 7:47 am in Entertainment, Politics | 7247869 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/tslagle/2009/03/06/avenue-q-update/%27Avenue+Q%27+Can%27t+Get+Over+George+Bush2009-03-06+15%3A47%3A27Tim+Slagle