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Tag: Andy Griffith

  • Jude Law Contributes Nothing But Full-Frontal Nudity in ‘Eden’

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    The mostly nude ‘Eden’ character Friedrich Ritter (played by the neurotic hilt by Jude Law) and his companion-bedmate (Vanessa Kirby), who eventually loses her mind. Jasin Boland

    After a dismal debut one year ago at the Toronto International Film Festival and a universal refusal of commercial release by every major film company, Ron Howard finally decided to open his dreadful, independently produced and directed film Eden with his own money. Curiosity centers on one word: “Why?”

    EDEN ★ (1/4 stars)
    Directed by: Ron Howard
    Written by: Noah Pink
    Starring: Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney
    Running time: 129 mins.

    It’s a strange, creepy departure for Howard, who grew up in the movie business, from a cute kid on Andy Griffith’s TV sitcom and family-fit movies like The Courtship of Eddie’s Father to a mature, Oscar-winning director of box office hits such as Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind. Like Steven Spielberg, his films are usually polished, coherent, and suitable for all ages. His obsession with Eden delivers none of those things, and it’s so vile, pretentious and confusing in style over substance that a lot of it is downright unwatchable. 

    Set in the years after World War I when fascism was growing in fear and chaos, it centers on a small group of obnoxious German dissidents who denounce Hitler’s allegedly civilized society and withdraw to an ugly, barren volcanic island in the Galapagos called Floriana, led by an eccentric Teutonic doctor-philosopher named Friedrich Ritter (played to the neurotic hilt by Jude Law), who spends his days glued to a broken-down typewriter writing a book about the New Order. Ritter believes the only way to save the world is to destroy the old one and create a new one. He drags along his companion-bedmate Dora (Vanessa Kirby), who writhes and jerks her way through the agony of multiple sclerosis before eventually going stark raving insane.

    Any warped would-be Nietzsche like Ritter is bound to attract supporters, so it’s just a matter of counting sheep before other followers and fans show up. Heinz Wittmer (Daniel Bruhl) and his wife Margret (Sydney Sweeney) bring along a son with tuberculosis, thinking Ritter will welcome them, but he is hostile and hateful, warning them that life on Floreana is unsurvivable. (That doesn’t begin to cover it. There’s no fresh water, and food consists of muddy roots, dead animals and wild pigs.)

    Next comes the loopy Baroness Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner Basquat (Ana de Armas) with her sexual threesome, phony accent and vicious dog Marquis de Sade. She eats only canned food, and plans to build a luxury resort hotel with whatever she can beg, borrow and steal. In what seems like an eternity, they all argue, vomit and resort to violent blows. While we watch them fall apart, Howard lays on the horror. Jude Law contributes nothing more than an abundance of full-frontal nudity because that’s what he does best in almost all of his films. There’s plenty of sex, disease and animal cruelty, while most of the cast dies from food poisoning after eating rotten chickens. But it’s really Sydney Sweeney who wins the top prize for unspeakable suffering in a long, unbearable sequence of natural childbirth without anesthesia while a pack of hungry, snarling dogs watch and wait, hoping to make a meal of the newborn placenta.

    The deadly screenplay by Noah Pink brings to the assignment zero knowledge of form, craft or discipline. No character is developed seriously or deeply enough to reach more than the most superficial surface identity. Eden is supposed to be an adventurous examination of what happens when civilization breaks down and man’s true nature is revealed, but it comes off more like one of those boring, incomprehensible Wes Anderson films that they make up, scene by scene, as they go along.

    Jude Law Contributes Nothing But Full-Frontal Nudity in ‘Eden’

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    Rex Reed

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  • Clarence Gilyard, ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Matlock’ actor, dies at 66

    Clarence Gilyard, ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Matlock’ actor, dies at 66

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    Clarence Gilyard Jr., a popular supporting actor whose credits include the blockbuster films “Die Hard” and “Top Gun” and the hit television series “Matlock” and “Walker, Texas Ranger,” has died at age 66

    NEW YORK — Clarence Gilyard Jr., a popular supporting actor whose credits include the blockbuster films “Die Hard” and “Top Gun” and the hit television series “Matlock” and “Walker, Texas Ranger,” has died at age 66.

    His death was announced this week by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he taught stage and screen acting. Additional details were not immediately available Tuesday.

    “Professor Gilyard was a beacon of light and strength for everyone around him at UNLV,” the school’s film chair, Heather Addison, said in a statement. “Whenever we asked him how he was, he would cheerfully declare that he was ‘Blessed!’ But we are truly the ones who were blessed to be his colleagues and students for so many years.”

    Gilyard was a Moses Lake, Washington, native. He had a prolific career as an actor, starting in the 1980s with appearances in “Diff’rent Strokes,” ”The Facts of Life” and other shows. He then appeared in two of the biggest movies of the decade: “Top Gun,” in which he played Sundown, a radar intercept officer, and “Die Hard,” when he was featured as a villainous computer maven whose one liners included “You didn’t bring me along for my charming personality.”

    In the 1990s, he was on the side of law enforcement in “Matlock,” playing opposite Andy Griffith, and “Walker, Texas Ranger,” which starred Chuck Norris. His other credits include “The Karate Kid: Part II,” a stage production of “Driving Miss Daisy” and an appearance alongside “Die Hard” star Bruce Willis in a commercial for DieHard batteries.

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  • Today in History: October 16, Cuban missile crisis begins

    Today in History: October 16, Cuban missile crisis begins

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    Today in History

    Today is Sunday, Oct. 16, the 289th day of 2022. There are 76 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Oct. 16, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.

    On this date:

    In 1758, American lexicographer Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut.

    In 1793, during the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was beheaded.

    In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what was then a part of western Virginia. (Ten of Brown’s men were killed and five escaped. Brown and six followers were captured; all were executed.)

    In 1934, Chinese Communists, under siege by the Nationalists, began their “long march” lasting a year from southeastern to northwestern China.

    In 1964, China set off its first atomic bomb, codenamed “596,” on the Lop Nur Test Ground.

    In 1968, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos sparked controversy at the Mexico City Olympics by giving “Black power” salutes during a victory ceremony after they’d won gold and bronze medals in the 200-meter race.

    In 1978, the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (voy-TEE’-wah) to be the new pope; he took the name John Paul II.

    In 1984, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of non-violent struggle for racial equality in South Africa.

    In 1991, a deadly shooting rampage took place in Killeen, Texas, as a gunman opened fire at a Luby’s Cafeteria, killing 23 people before taking his own life.

    In 1997, in the first known case in the United States, a Georgia woman gave birth after being implanted with previously frozen eggs.

    In 2002, President George W. Bush signed a congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq. The White House announced that North Korea had disclosed it had a nuclear weapons program.

    In 2009, agricultural officials said pigs in Minnesota had tested positive for the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, the first such cases in the U.S.

    Ten years ago: President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney met for their second debate; during the town-hall-style encounter in suburban Hempstead, New York, Obama accused Romney of favoring a “one-point plan” to help the rich at the expense of the middle class while Romney countered by saying “the middle class has been crushed over the last four years.”

    Five years ago: Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been captured and held by the Taliban for five years after walking away from his post in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to desertion and endangering his comrades. (A military judge later decided not to send him to prison.) A New Jersey man, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, was convicted of planting two pressure-cooker bombs on New York City streets, including one that injured 30 people; prosecutors said Rahimi considered himself “a soldier in a holy war against Americans.” (Rahimi was sentenced to life in prison.)

    One year ago: Seventeen missionaries from a U.S.-based organization were kidnapped in Haiti; five children were among them. (Two of the hostages were released in November for medical reasons; the remaining 15 went free in December.) An 11th-hour deal was reached, averting a strike of film and television crews that would have frozen productions in Hollywood and across the U.S. Betty Lynn, the film and television actor who was best known for her role as Barney Fife’s sweetheart Thelma Lou on “The Andy Griffith Show,” died at the age of 95.

    Today’s Birthdays: Actor-producer Tony Anthony is 85. Actor Barry Corbin is 82. Sportscaster Tim McCarver is 81. Rock musician C.F. Turner (Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is 79. Actor Suzanne Somers is 76. Rock singer-musician Bob Weir is 75. Producer-director David Zucker is 75. Record company executive Jim Ed Norman is 74. Actor Daniel Gerroll is 71. Actor Martha Smith is 70. Comedian-actor Andy Kindler is 66. Actor-director Tim Robbins is 64. Actor-musician Gary Kemp is 63. Singer-musician Bob Mould is 62. Actor Randy Vasquez is 61. Rock musician Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 60. Movie director Kenneth Lonergan is 60. Actor Christian Stolte is 60. Actor Todd Stashwick is 54. Actor Terri J. Vaughn is 53. Singer Wendy Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 53. Rock singer Chad Gray (Mudvayne) is 51. Actor Paul Sparks is 51. Actor Kellie Martin is 47. Singer John Mayer is 45. Actor Jeremy Jackson is 42. Actor Caterina Scorsone is 42. Actor Brea Grant is 41. U.S. Olympic and retired WNBA basketball star Sue Bird is 41. Actor Kyler Pettis is 30. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper is 30. Tennis star Naomi Osaka is 25.

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