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Harold Ramis

Film

Hilarious Notes on Modern Classics From Clueless Studio Executives

By Jason Bailey on

The image of non-creative types mucking about with (and screwing up) movies and television shows is nothing new — we’ve seen it in everything from Barton Fink to The Player to The Larry Sanders Show — but we got a rare opportunity to observe a real-life example of it recently, when a memorandum of notes from the suits at Tandem Productions to the makers of Blade Runner started popping up online. Those hilarious criticisms and suggestions got us wondering about other classic movies that came close to ruin thanks to studio interference. We’ll take a look at Blade Runner and several other examples after the jump. … Read More

Film

Behold: ‘Ghostbusters’ Headquarters in LEGO Form

By Jason Bailey on

We’ve gone to some pretty elaborate lengths in the name of fandom around here, but even we’re agog over the efforts of LEGO artist and Ghostbusters enthusiast Orion Pax, who spent two months studying the film, its sequel, and its animated series to create the ultimate replica of Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, and Zeddmore’s HQ. Pax went room by room and prop by prop, recreating the Ghostbusters’ New York firehouse home in painstaking detail; check out the jaw-dropping photos after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 Life Lessons from 'Groundhog Day'

By Alexander Huls on

Happy Groundhog Day! With the East Coast in the frosty clutches of cold and snow, it’s high time we turn to Punxsutawney, Pennyslyvania to see if Phil will emerge from his nook and condemn us to six more weeks of winter not. More importantly, it’s also the time of year we should take a moment to acknowledge another national institution: Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day, which happens to celebrate its 20th anniversary this month.

It’s easy to undervalue (or even dislike) Groundhog Day as a goofy high-concept comedy, a gimmicky Twilight Zone cast-off, a sideways take on It’s A Wonderful Life. It shouldn’t be. As the critics and directors (including David O. Russell) who listed it on their 2012 Sight & Sound Greatest Films ballot can attest, Groundhog Day is not only a great film, it’s a veritable treatise on life. As such, it might be cinema’s greatest self-help manual, full of invaluable lessons about both the day-to-day minutia and profound things that can make our individual existences better. … Read More

Film

Flavorpill’s Guide to Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorpill’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. This week, we’ve got films from Ryan Gosling, Colin Farrell, Keira Knightley, Mel Brooks, Bill Murray, Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Robin Williams, plus new documentaries and an ‘80s classic. Check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

Film

'Ghostbusters' Headed Back Into Theaters

By James Furbush on

This fall, there are plenty of great movies to look forward to. Surprisingly, the announcement that Ghostbusters would return to theaters in October means the sci-fi comedy classic just got bumped to the top of our list. Many of the movie’s fans were too young to see it in the theater initially, but even after… Read More

Film

10 Unrealized Book-to-Film Adaptations We’d Like to Have Seen

By Jason Bailey on

When Universal announced last year that an epic adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower was in the works, which would include a trilogy of feature films directed by Ron Howard and a two-season television series, it sounded like a massive undertaking — from both a creative and financial perspective. This week, the studio decided it was too massive and pulled the plug on the project, breaking the hearts of fanboys and King readers the world over.

From the beginning, some had wondered if Howard was the right director for the project — now, unless the filmmaker attempts to set the project up elsewhere (unlikely, as both Howard and his Imagine production company have a long history with Uni), we’ll never know. It seems that we can add The Dark Tower to the long list of proposed book-to-film adaptations by famed directors that never saw the light of day. We’ve assembled ten of them after the jump; add yours in the comments. … Read More

Fashion

12 Style Icons for Fashionable Nerds

By Daniel McGillivray on

Nerds tend to overdress — probably the result of being fussed over by mothers who they were always making “so proud.” That overdressing, though well-intentioned, frequently gets out of hand. Yesterday the New York Times’ Bits blog spoke with Kristen Slowe, a designer who’s trying to make style simpler for the geekier males among us with her new line Saboteur. Inspired by the impending fashion revolution, we decided to comb through style site Nerd Boyfriend, and came up with this list of heroes who’ve made their nerdy fashions into classics. … Read More

Web

What’s on at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds at Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we listened to seven mintues of Harold Ramis talking about Ghostbusters 3. We found out how hard  porn screenwriters work. We felt sorry for Michael Jackson’s brain. We fought over who are the greatest TV characters. We were frightened by the trailer for Peter Jackson’s District 9… Read More

Film

Harold and Humor: An Evening With the Director of Year One

By Jason Jude Chan on

In his upcoming Bible-belting farce Year One, Harold Ramis stars as Adam, an opportune role for the former ace of American comedy. Indeed, Ramis was in large part responsible (as the lead scribe) for modern comedy’s version of Original Sin, that ne plus ultra of Greek-life propaganda Animal House. On Friday night at the Times Center, the cheeky writer-director-actor regaled the audience with thirty-plus years of anecdotes and asides to hype his latest film.… Read More

Theatre

Upcoming Musicals, Movies, & TV Shows We Wish Were April Fools' Jokes

By Caroline Stanley on

According to MTV News, Harold Ramis says that plans for a Groundhog Day musical are moving forward. Contrary to popular cult opinion, we’ve always found that repetitive flick incredibly annoying, so we can only imagine what a Broadway version — especially with music from Stephen Sondheim — would do to us. Bleeding from the eyes and ears? It’s almost as silly as adapting a Green Day album for the stage. Oh wait. That one is happening too. … Read More