L.A. Times - Entertainment News

An uneasy ride with Dennis Hopper
Opening day: 'Sex' and 'Shrek' looking good while 'Persia' struggles
'Karate Kid' update breaks down some Chinese walls
'Dad Camp': Reality TV as social service
Horror auteur George A. Romero talks about his latest zombie-fest
Indie Focus: In 'Agora,' a faceoff between faith and science
Working Hollywood: Josh West, 'Shrek' digital modeler, is an ogre specialist
Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone's wild West
New this week on DVD: 'Alice in Wonderland'

Posted: 29 May 2010 03:41 PM PDT

Appreciation: A writer's 10-year relationship with Hopper revealed a serious careerist who tenaciously managed his sobriety.

Opening day: 'Sex' and 'Shrek' looking good while 'Persia' struggles

Posted: 29 May 2010 06:24 PM PDT

Friday's box office results saw "Sex and the City 2" and "Shrek Forever After" both headed for solid if not sensational Memorial Day weekend performances.

'Karate Kid' update breaks down some Chinese walls

Posted: 30 May 2010 12:00 AM PDT

The biggest modern movie co-production between a U.S. studio and China had access to spectacular locations under censors' watchful eye.

For years, Sony Pictures considered—and then decided against—updating "The Karate Kid," its beloved 1984 family film about a browbeaten kid (Ralph Macchio) with a single mom and the enigmatic martial arts coach (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita) who teaches the boy how to believe in himself, catch a fly with chopsticks and kick some bully butt along the way.

'Dad Camp': Reality TV as social service

Posted: 30 May 2010 12:00 AM PDT

The VH1 series tries to prepare a group of young, immature dads-to-be for fatherhood.

"Dad Camp" opens with a dash of bad faith. On the new VH1 series, six expecting couples participate in a month-long therapy program in which the men are psychologically and emotionally retrained in hopes of becoming better fathers.

Horror auteur George A. Romero talks about his latest zombie-fest

Posted: 30 May 2010 12:00 AM PDT

The horror auteur talks about his latest zombie-fest, 'Survival of the Dead,' and how the series has managed to stay alive so long.

With "Survival of the Dead," horror auteur George A. Romero, 70, resurrects the series that began more than 40 years ago with the game-changing zombie film "Night of the Living Dead." The Toronto-based writer/director passed through Los Angeles promoting his sixth "… of the Dead" movie, now in theaters.

Indie Focus: In 'Agora,' a faceoff between faith and science

Posted: 30 May 2010 12:00 AM PDT

Alejandro Amenábar's film, starring Rachel Weisz, is something of an adventure film about ideas.

Something of an action film for intellectuals, in that it focuses on sectarian power struggles and violence stemming in part from scientific inquiry, Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar's "Agora" tells the story of the conflict between pagans and the growing ranks of Christian believers as they wrestle for control over the 4th century city of Alexandria.

Working Hollywood: Josh West, 'Shrek' digital modeler, is an ogre specialist

Posted: 30 May 2010 12:00 AM PDT

'Shrek Forever After's' new villain, Rumpelstiltskin, and 3-D photography challenge the head of DreamWorks' digital modeling department.

Shrek would be far thinner — paper thin, in fact — if it weren't for Josh West, head of the digital modeling department on the fourth installment of the blockbuster franchise. Early in the process, West and his team took 2-D drawings of the characters, props and sets and transformed them into 3-D computer models.

Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone's wild West

Posted: 30 May 2010 12:00 AM PDT

'The Man With No Name Trilogy' revisits three mid-'60s films, this time in Blu-ray.

There is no middle ground in Sergio Leone's West. His magisterial, half-mad westerns deal in sweeping long shots and incandescent close-ups, but he has little use for the comfortable medium shot that French cinéastes call the "plan américain ." The all-or-nothing approach was dictated in part by the limitations of Techniscope, the cut-rate widescreen process that made it difficult to focus on the middle distance. But Leone was given to extremes in any case, a tendency that comes to glorious fruition over the course of the films in MGM's "The Man With No Name Trilogy," to be released this week on Blu-ray.