good cop bad cop

Ex-LAPD Chief Daryl Gates Still Slaying 'Em at the Movies

When you're Daryl Gates, the former Los Angeles police chief during whose 14-year term both the SWAT team and the Rodney King fiasco entered the nation's consciousness, you might edge toward a lower public profile when you hit retirement. As Rachel Abramowitz notes today, however, law-enforcement was but a mere stepping stone to putting the likes of Keanu Reeves and his director in their places on film sets: More »

defamer attractions

Avoid 'Prom Night' At All Costs (And Other Helpful Tips For Your Weekend at the Movies)

Welcome to Defamer Attractions, a new feature previewing the latest, greatest and thoroughly misadventurous in weekend moviegoing. We'll be breaking the next three days into a few key categories, including a basic rundown of "What's New," flops-to-be in "The Big Loser," one worthy indie in "The Underdog," and, "For Shut-Ins," a quick look at highlights among new DVD's. Our opinions are our own, but they're impeccable and as close to exact science as Defamer gets. We hope you'll check in weekly!

WHAT'S NEW: Slim pickings, to be sure. The latest entry in the stultifying End-of-Ideas canon, the PG-13 slasher remake Prom Night is set to take the sluggish weekend with what most observers are predicting as a $14 million weekend in wide release. The only other release set to crack the top five is the Keanu Reeves cop-bomb Street Kings, which is tanking at Rotten Tomatoes as we speak and should top out between $10-$11 million. Also opening: the Ellen Page/Thomas Haden Church/Dennis Quaid comedy Smart People; the octogenarian-punk-choir doc Young@Heart; and an English-language version of France's Oscar-nominated animated film Persepolis, with voice contributions from Catherine Deneuve and Sean Penn.

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it's a crime

James Ellroy's Problem is That He's Too Good For Scarlett Johansson

Life's not exactly what you'd call a bitch for James Ellroy, Los Angeles crime novelist extraordinaire and co-screenwriter (for the first time) of next week's Keanu Reeves/Forest Whitaker cop thriller Street Kings. Nevertheless, as evinced by today's LA Times profile, the new film is one of the few Ellroy projects — after one hit (LA Confidential) and a succession of misfires (The Black Dahlia) and lost causes (White Jazz) — for which anyone has sustained any hopes coming out of the gate.

We have our own theories about why Ellroy adaptations have yet to explode the author's cult, but we defer this morning to noted industry observer Scarlett Johansson, who seems to suggest that kids these days just don't get it:

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