Category: Feature Film Review

Lew Ritter: It’s All Your Fault, Larry Brody!

It’s All Your Fault, Larry:
How to Turn a Screenplay into a World Class (I Hope) Novel
by Lew Ritter

You may remember my name. I contributed articles to TVWriter™ from 2015-2017. But I’ll understand if you don’t.

In 2013, before I became a contributor, I wrote a television script called Turbulence and entered it into Larry Brody’s People’s Pilot Contest.

It did well the first time, winding up somewhere in the middle of the scripts submissions, so I made some changes and entered it again. The second time, it received Semi-Finalist status. read article

Why is Everybody Hating on Doctor Dolittle?

Marketers control the world these days…at least that’s how it often seems. Here’s a marketer’s perception of the failure of the latest version of Dr. Dolittle to grace our local cinema’s. And not just any marketer, Seth Godin, whose wisdom in the eyes of this TVWriter™ minion knoweth no bounds.

The Dolittle effect

by Seth Godin

Why is the new Dolittle movie so bad? Savaged by critics and viewers, it had:

  • One of the most bankable movie stars in the world
  • A story that had previously been the basis of two hit movies
  • The best CGI houses in the world
  • Unlimited time and money

I think the best way to understand why it failed is to look at the reasons above. Ironically, it’s these assets and lack of constraints that created the circumstances that allowed the movie to become a turkey. read article

Early predictions for the 2020 Oscar nominations

It may seem mystifying to some people, and gratifying to others, but in spite of the fact that ratings for the awards show are down, a hell of a lot of folks are interested in who and what gets each year’s Oscars.

We here at TVWriter™ are interested as well, although some might say it’s because we have a horse we hope will be in the race. That’s the upcoming film, 1917, written by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, directed by that very same Mr. Mendes,  and executive-produced by Jeb Brody and Ricardo Marco Budé. (Regular visitors to this site probably will understand one of the references here. If not, well, no worries.)

Where were we? Oh, right. Here: Because of the widespread interest, we’re proud to bring you the following predictions for Oscar noms. “Action!” read article

Bruce Lee Was My Friend, and Tarantino’s Movie Disrespects Him

NOTE FROM LB: I didn’t know Bruce Lee, but many of my friends did.

Hey, what can I say? I used to hang out with martial artists. My martial artist friends were all good guys as well as world champions, and they made me feel safe. In many ways it was like being around superheroes.

Yeah, I was very young back then. read article

Diana Vacc sees “The Founder”

by Diana Vaccarelli

—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT—

Last week, I watched The Founder, a film I found accidentally, through a friend. It follows the life story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), who took a local fast food eatery owned by a couple of brothers and turned it into the world’s largest restaurant. (McDonald’s is a restaurant, isn’t it? Even though healthy eaters might not agree?)

THE GOOD: read article