A short week at Movieline calls for a short Week in Review, so let's just go ahead and jump on in. Tune in this weekend for more coverage of the Toronto Film Festival and, as always, scintillating news and commentary from Dixon Gaines. The rest of the gang will be back Monday. Toodles!
· Some of us grew up on the video game classic Street Fighter II and are offended by its cinematic legacy: First came 1994's scathingly received Jean Claude Van Damme version and just a couple years ago there was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Noted Mamma Mia auditioner Chris Klein, who played Detective Charlie Nash in the latter film, may have been (diplomatic pause) a little hammy in it. Here's every line he uttered in the movie. I guarantee Van Damme will seem subtle in comparison. [Videogum]
Am I the only one who finds the strength to get out of bed every morning simply because Mrs. LaRusso from The Karate Kid is back in our lives? Randee Heller -- who played Daniel's mom in the '80s classic and can currently be seen as Don Draper's new office-affair-repellent-and-racist secretary, Ms. Blankenship, on Mad Men -- spoke to Vulture today and revealed (to the delight of Karate Kid fans the world over) that she's still in contact with her former screen son, Ralph Macchio. "We've been hooking up over e-mails and texting each other ever since the Karate Kid remake," she said. "[I]t's always, 'Hi, mom!' He calls me mom." Aw. [Vulture]
Did you hear that sound? It was Jeremy Renner's phone ringing with yet another movie offer. In the span of a year, The Hurt Locker star has gone from being a somewhat recognizable character actor to an Oscar nominee with pick of the Hollywood litter. Good for him and all, but damn -- how many projects is Renner actually going to star in? Below, Movieline flips through Renner's increasingly marked up calendar and helps you figure it all out.
Hollywood was in a precarious position in the months and years following Sept. 11, 2001: Completely ignore the event and a filmmaker might seem callous or, at the very least, out of touch. Center an entire film around the tragedy and that same filmmaker could be accused of being exploitative. The industry obviously had to respond, but it had to be done right. There's quite a difference between good filmmaking and a 9/11 reference only for the sake of tugging at already existing emotional strings (I'm talking to you, Remember Me). It's cheap. Though, some were done very well. We assembled a few examples of films over the last nine years which went about addressing those events of 2001 in a unique, thoughtful or poignant way.
With all this talk about Marc Webb's bigscreen Spider-Man reboot, you may have forgotten that Julie Taymor is still working on her troubled Broadway adaptation of the property, Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. After seeing her costumes, though, you'll never forget it again.
· Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams appear on the new W cover looking like Enrique Iglesias and... a scarcely familiar face, respectively. They're promoting their new film Blue Valentine and the democratization of dreaminess and little forehead kisses. Just like FDR used to. Click through for more Buzz Break.
Twitter may be going great for ex-SNLer Jenny Slate, but it hasn't been quite as helpful to Amanda Bynes, whose erratic, 140-character tweets about retiring and unretiring caused some to furrow their brows in concern. Finally, Bynes has done what she should have done a long time ago: She deleted her account, and now @chicky is no more. Amanda, Miley Cyrus will be leading a support group at the Brentwood rec center at 2pm. There will be free tea. [Buzzfeed via Videogum]
You just can't keep a good franchise down. Less than a month after At the Movies shuffled off televisions, Roger Ebert is reviving the brand name he made famous. The new version of the show -- entitled Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies -- will be hosted by AP film critic Christy Lemire and NPR critic Elvis Mitchell, with contributions from Kim Morgan, Omar Moore and Ebert himself. At the Movies will air on WTTW in Chicago and other PBS stations around the country starting in January 2011. [Roger Ebert]
Viral marketing gone haywire or simply a case of an actor losing himself inside the skin of a character? Yesterday, CBS offered the first living proof of Justin Bieber's acting prowess as a bombing suspect in their all-too-brief promo for the season premiere of CSI. Today, though, comes word that maybe the music superstar took his role as a police-attacking rogue ("I was just gonna scare the cops... not blow them up!") a bit too far.
This marks a sad state of affairs for the world: A global language survey determined that the words "BP Spillcam," "dysfunctional" (associated with Modern Family) and "Guido" were the most used words of the 2009-2010 television season. The survey used a math formula to track words and phrases used in print and electronic media. Other popular choices included "Lady Gaga," "rude" (associated with Simon Cowell) and "Asperger's Syndrome." Better luck next year, Glee and Oprah. [Reuters]
With the unsettling I'm Still Here hitting theaters today, it's time to remember that Joaquin Phoenix is actually an actor. Or something. Perfectly pegged to his return to the spotlight -- funny how these things work, right? -- THR has published a rundown of all the near misses Phoenix has had over the course of the last year. Apparently his retirement from acting was also fake. Try to feign your surprise.
Let the deals begin! At the Toronto International Film Festival, The Weinstein Company has just purchased the U.S. distribution rights for Sarah's Key, a decades-spanning Holocaust drama based on the best-seller by Tatiana De Rosnay. Meanwhile, ATO Pictures announced that they'll be distributing Casino Jack, the George Hickenlooper film starring Kevin Spacey as disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Look for that one to hit theaters in December. [Deadline, MCN]
After a nearly two-and-a-half month hiatus, the gifted and beloved NY Times critic Manohla Dargis returns today with a pair of reviews, including a steadfastly tolerant glimpse at Joaquin Phoenix's otherwise intolerable I'm Still Here: "Much of the movie involves Mr. Phoenix's having, or more likely pantomiming, a meltdown, for which he puts on a really good show," she notes, describing the star's rejection of celebrity and rebirth as a rapper. "But the programmatic nature of his antics strongly suggests that he is self-consciously playing a role in a narrative, one that isn't simply about him." This calls for a toast! Coffee mugs up... [NYT]
Also in this morning's Hollywood Ink: Jeremy Renner circles another project... John McTiernan lines up his next film (possible jail sentence be damned!)... and slightly more ahead.
FILM NEWS 
