Martin Short
Date of birth
26th March, 1950
Occupation
Actor
Sex
Male
Height
1.71
David Letterman Comes Out Of Retirement Just To Mock Donald Trump
By Stephanie Chase in Movies / TV / Theatre on 13 July 2015
If the Donald has done any good, it’s bringing the former ‘Late Show’ host out of hiding.
Former ‘Late Show’ host David Letterman came out of retirement on Friday night, to make a very special appearance onstage with comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short in San Antonio, Texas. Martin and Short are currently on the road with their stage show, A Very Stupid Conversation…With Music and invited Letterman to share his thoughts on Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
"Back in Hollywood, we met at a Scientology mixer and they have been so kind and so generous to invite me here to this beautiful city,” 68 year old Letterman told the crowd. "I am so happy to be out of the house. I retired and I had no regrets—none. I was happy. I was complacent. I was satisfied. I was content. And then a couple of days ago, Donald Trump said he was running for president. I have made the biggest mistake of my life, ladies and gentlemen.”
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Kathleen Marshall and Martin Short - 2015 Williamstown Theatre Festival benefit held at City Winery - Arrivals at City Winery, - New York, New York, United States - Monday 9th February 2015
Inherent Vice Review
By Rich Cline
Good
Like the Thomas Pynchon novel it's based on, this film remains infuriatingly evasive as its central mystery deepens. Also like Pynchon, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is more interested in characters than plot, expertly orchestrating a lively cast in a series of raucous scenes. That these moments never quite add up to a coherent bigger story may feel unsatisfying, but the groovy 1970s vibe is infectious, and there's a lot of fun to be had in watching these actors play around with the rambling dialogue and nutty interaction.
It's set in 1970 Los Angeles, where private investigator Doc (Joaquin Phoenix) is a stoner who'd rather not work at all. Then he agrees to help his ex-girlfriend Shasta (Katherine Waterston) find her missing property developer boyfriend Mickey (Eric Roberts). But this immediately puts him on a collision course with his long-time nemesis, Detective Bjornsen (James Brolin), a frozen-banana loving tough-guy cop known as Bigfoot. And the deeper Doc gets into the case, the more confusing it gets. Not only is the presumed-dead Coy (Owen Wilson) very much alive, but it's unclear whether a key clue about Golden Fang refers to a boat or a secret dental society. And suspiciously, Doc's DA friend Penny (Reese Witherspoon) always seems to be one step ahead of him on the case.
Anderson opens the film with a blinding flood of information and then simply never allows us to catch up, so like Doc we can't quite get a grip on what's actually going on. This effectively makes us feel as stoned as he is, bewildered by the way even the simplest revelations seem to contradict each other. But even as everything gets increasingly confusing, Anderson writes and directs scenes with a vivid intensity that's both hilariously entertaining and darkly involving. Each sequence carries a powerful punch, giving the superb cast plenty of quirky details to work with.
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Inherent Vice - Extended Trailer
Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) is a simple man. When he's not abusing illicit substances, he's solving crimes as a private investigator - although those two do sometimes overlap. But as the 1960s breath their dying breath, Doc's life is going to get perhaps a little too interesting for his liking. When his ex-girlfriend shows up one day, Doc finds himself unable to stay unintegrated with the 70s, as his new employer and former lover has him tracking down her new boyfriend and trying to thwart the plans of his wife and HER boyfriend. And if that wasn't complicated enough for him, there's something to do with a mysterious 'Golden Fang'. It's gonna be one hell of a decade.
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Owen Wilson Reveals 'Inherent Vice' Is Laced With Paranoia
By Holly Williams in Movies / TV / Theatre on 10 December 2014
Paranoid comedy 'Inherent Vice' unites Owen Wilson and Joaquin Phoenix.
'Inherent Vice' may be an absurd comedy with a rather complicated premise, but it could prove to have one of Owen Wilson's more serious roles, as he takes on a Coy Harlingen; a government informer with some big trust issues.
Joaquin Phoenix is Doc Sportello in the Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel; a private investigator forced to get involved in a case he'd rather walk away from when his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend and his wife and her lover get embroiled in a kidnapping scheme. Sound complicated? That's why he needs Coy. 'I'm the guy who's helping Doc to understand what's going on', Wilson explains. 'Except I'm not able to ever really shed too much light on it so all our scenes have this mysterious quality to it, fringed with paranoia'.
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Inherent Vice Trailer
Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) is a private investigator living in Los Angeles during the tail end of the 1960s. When his ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) reappears one day, she drags him into a complex series of events which will shatter his calm and quite life, and force him into a dangerously hilarious game involving murderous loan sharks, surfers, hustlers, dopers and the mysterious 'Golden Fang'. Her request, such as it is, is to help her new boyfriend, Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts) from a plot by his wife Sloane (Serena Scott Thomas) and her boyfriend which will send Wolfmaan to the 'loony bin'. As if that wasn't complex enough, things are only going to get worse for Sportello, as the 70s are fast approaching and ready to turn his life upside down.
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Legends Of Oz: Dorothy's Return Review
By Rich Cline
Good
Despite substandard animation, this brightly coloured sequel has a strong enough sense of both its story and characters to hold the audience's attention. And kids might not mind the quality, as they are re-introduced to classic characters in an all-new adventure based on the book Dorothy of Oz by Roger S Baum (great-grandson of L Frank).
It starts the morning after Dorothy (voiced by Lea Michele) gets back home to Kansas after her iconic adventure. Her panicky friends Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion (Dan Aykroyd, Kelsey Grammer and James Belushi) summon her back to Oz, where considerable time has passed while a crazed Jester (Martin Short) kidnaps good witch Glinda (Bernadette Peters) so he and his army of flying monkeys can launch their reign of terror. On her long journey back to Emerald City, Dorothy has a series of adventures with Wiser the owl (Oliver Platt), Marshal Mallow (Hugh Dancy), the China Princess (Megan Hilty) and the old tree Tugg (Patrick Stewart), who all help her take on the Jester.
Yes, the plot is rather simplistic (the Jester merely seems evil for evil's sake), but the real problem is that the animation is badly under-developed. Characters are painfully thin, with no gravity to them at all, which makes it impossible for them to properly interact visually. Fortunately there are some clever touches to the design work, such as the way everything in Oz looks battered and broken, which adds a badly needed dark edge to the otherwise sunny silliness.
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The Wind Rises Review
By Rich Cline
Essential
For what he has said will be his final film, animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki tackles a controversial biopic that could just as easily have been shot in live action. It's as if he's challenging filmmakers to use their imaginations and make the best movies they can make in whatever way they can. And the result is utterly magical, transcending the touchy subject matter to tell a story about the purity of creativity.
Based on the life of aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, this Oscar-nominated film opens in the 1920s when young Jiro (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the English version) decides to study aeronautics because his poor eyesight won't let him become a pilot. So he dreams of designing the perfect plane, and his inventive approach catches the attention of Mitsubishi, which assigns him to a secret military project working with Japan's allies in Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Jiro meets Nahoko (Emily Blunt) and they fall for each other as she struggles to recover from tuberculosis and he grapples with the moral issues of designing a beautiful plane that will be used to kill people in wartime.
Clearly this isn't the kind of animated movie Hollywood would ever produce: it's packed with complex characters who don't always do the right thing, and it takes a perspective that requires sympathy with someone who could be considered a historical villain. But Miyazaki tells the story exquisitely, animating the scenes with such inventiveness that it's impossible not to get lost in the breathtaking imagery. Scenes are also packed with lively side characters, including Jiro's bulldog-like boss (Martin Short), a more grounded colleague (John Krazinski) and a suspicious foreigner (Werner Herzog) who seems to be following Jiro.
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The Wind Rises Trailer
Jiro Horikoshi is an aeronautical engineer whose childhood was filled with dreams about becoming a pilot. His poor vision meant that he would never realise his ambition, but he is encouraged to keep up his passion by Italian plane designer Caproni. Resolving to design aircrafts instead of fly them, Jiro studies the art at university, during which time he meets an attractive young woman named Naoko. Their relationship was born out of the dangerous circumstances of the Great Kanto Earthquake, throughout which they helped one another off a fast moving train. As their life together progresses, Naoko falls ill and Jiro struggles to bring in a regular income. He must succeed in the challenge of building the most exquisitely beautiful aeroplane in the world in order to get back on his feet, as his career could be the only thing he has left.
'The Wind Rises' is romantic, heart-wrenching animated adventure directed and written by the Oscar winning Hayao Miyazaki ('Spirited Away', 'Princess Mononoke', 'Howl's Moving Castle'). This Japanese drama, loosely based on Tatsuo Hori's 1936 short story 'The Wind Has Risen', features the voices of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci in the English version. It is due for release in the UK on May 9th 2014.
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Legends Of Oz: Dorothy's Return - Teaser Trailer
Dorothy Gale is barely back in her Tornado-ravaged hometown in Kansas five minutes than she is whisked off over the rainbow back to the topsy-turvy land of Oz once more to rescue her friends, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Glinda, and the rest of Oz's innocent residents from a terrible peril. At the helm of this new evil is the Jester, more frightening than funny, who plans to turn the leaders of Oz into puppets controlled for his own nefarious means. Along the way Dorothy and her beloved dog Toto meets a string of new and unusual characters including Wiser the Owl, China Princess, Marshal Mallow and former tree Tugg the Tugboat, as she sets off on another exhilarating adventure to find her friends.
'Legends Of Oz: Dorothy's Return' is a new animated fantasy based on both L. Frank Baum's 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' and his great-grandson Roger Stanton Baum's sequel 'Dorothy of Oz'. It has been directed by Will Finn ('The Road to El Dorado') and Dan St. Pierre ('Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey') and written by Adam Balsam, Randi Barnes ('Imagination Movers') and Barry Glasser ('Skateboy') with a film score by Oscar nominated singer Bryan Adams. This enchanting family movie with hit the US on May 9th 2014.
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Tom Hanks, Liza Minnelli, Elaine Stritch, Bernadette Peters and Martin Short - Opening night of 'Elaine Stritch At The Carlyle: Movin' Over And Out' at the Cafe Carlyle - Reception - New York City, United States - Tuesday 2nd April 2013
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted Review
By Rich Cline
OK
Instead of developing the characters or situations for comedy gold, the filmmakers instead just crank up the chaos. So while some scenes are both funny and visually impressive, this second sequel is simply too inane to make us hope there will be a part 4. Very young kids may be distracted by the hectic pacing and hyperactive characters, but everyone else will quickly be bored by the nonstop mayhem, simply because there's nothing interesting going on.
Anxious lion Alex (Stiller), chatty zebra Marty (Rock), nerdy giraffe Melman (Schwimmer) and silly hippo Gloria (Smith) are living a Lion King-style existence in Africa, although their only hope for escape has just flown away. Namely, the brainy penguins and their monkey assistants. So our heroes follow them to Monaco, where they all end up on the run from the notorious animal control agent Dubois (McDormand). They run straight into a failing circus, which they set out to bring back to its glory days so they can catch the eye of an American promoter and go home to New York. To do this means working with the current circus acts: sultry cheetah Gia (Chastain), dorky sea lion Stefano (Short) and tetchy tiger Vitaly (Cranston).
The circus premise lets the filmmakers have a lot of visual fun with the characters, most notably in a riotously colourful Cirque du Soleil-on-acid performance in London. But the plot makes no sense at all (if they can get to Monaco, surely they could get to New York, right?), and there are so many new characters that the central quartet feels almost sidelined. Especially since they've also wedged in an under-developed romance for the lemur king (Baron Cohen). Yes, it's all over the place, and being busy is not the same thing as being clever or funny.
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