Last year, 'The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story' entertained audiences across the globe, bringing an incredible roster of actors to the small screen for the first season of a new anthology series from executive producer Ryan Murphy. Adapting the real-life infamous O. J. Simpson murder trial and based on the 1997 book 'The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson' by Jeffrey Toobin, the season won nine Emmy Awards and a pair of Golden Globes. It's fair to say it was a huge success.

Ryan Murphy has added Dennis Quaid to his 'Katrina' cast

With all of that in mind, Murphy has been taking his time in bringing the show's second season to viewers, with the series not set to air at any point this year, instead with two seasons hitting the small screen in 2018. The first of those will be 'Katrina: American Crime Story' with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Sarah Paulson amongst the returning cast. This week however, a new face has been added to the 'Katrina' cast members.

Continue reading: Dennis Quaid Will Play George W. Bush In 'Katrina: American Crime Story'

'A Dog's Purpose' Producer Blasts The AHA And PETA In 'Abuse' Statement

By Holly Williams in Movies / TV / Theatre on 24 January 2017

Dennis Quaid

Gavin Polone condemns the actions of almost everyone in article denying animal cruelty.

Last week, a video surfaced from the set of Lasse Hallstrom's latest movie 'A Dog's Purpose' seemingly showing a dog being forced into running water against its will and subsequently going under. Some members of the cast and crew who were not present during the incident expressed anger over the clip, but producer Gavin Polone has unveiled an article explaining exactly what happened.

Dennis Quaid stars in 'A Dog's Purpose'

After the clip appeared on TMZ, PETA called for a boycott of the movie. A statement from Amblin Productions saw them insist that the German Shepherd in question, named Hercules, was not harmed in the stunt and suffered no lasting trauma. However, star Josh Gad, director Lasse Hallstrom and producer Gavin Polone all commented that they were disturbed by what they saw, regardless of the story behind it.

Continue reading: 'A Dog's Purpose' Producer Blasts The AHA And PETA In 'Abuse' Statement

'A Dog's Purpose' Under Fire Over Alleged Animal Cruelty On Set

By Holly Williams in Movies / TV / Theatre on 19 January 2017

Lasse Hallstrom Josh Gad Dennis Quaid

PETA and the movie's director express anger over leaked video.

Animal lovers and PETA have reacted with anger after a dog was seen apparently being forced into a stream of running water on the set of Dennis Quaid's new film 'A Dog's Purpose'. Producers from the movie have since denied that the animal was forced to do anything during filming.

Lasse Hallstrom 'disturbed' by video from the filming of his movie 'A Dog's Purpose'

In the forthcoming comedy drama 'A Dog's Purpose', one canine soul explores his various existences as different breeds of dogs with different owners and a range of purposes. Based on the 2010 novel of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron, it has been directed by Oscar nominated Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström.

Continue reading: 'A Dog's Purpose' Under Fire Over Alleged Animal Cruelty On Set

Truth Review

Excellent

That generic title obscures a surprisingly complex exploration of the real-life events surrounding the fall of iconic American newscaster Dan Rather in 2004. And while the film's script is rather talky (it's like Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom crossed with George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck), it's strongly made point is too important to ignore. And it features yet another storming, intelligent performance from Cate Blanchett.

She plays Mary Mapes, a producer at the classic CBS news programme 60 Minutes, who just a few months before the 2004 presidential election is working on a story about incumbent George W. Bush's shady National Guard service during the Vietnam War. She has an ace team of investigators (including Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid and Elisabeth Moss), plus the nation's top news anchor Rather (Robert Redford). But after the story airs, Mary is attacked with questions about the authenticity of a series of memos that trace irregularities in Bush's service record. Her boss (Bruce Greenwood) applies plenty of pressure as the controversy gains more traction than the story itself. And the media storm that follows catches everyone by surprise.

This account is based on Mapes' own memoir about these events, which gives the film a personal, as opposed to journalistic, tone. It hints heavily at both government and corporate efforts to discredit the story, putting Mapes and her entire team in an impossible situation. The film also makes it clear that those memos were indeed real, and that the controversy was actually just misdirection. What brings this to life is the revelatory acting from the ensemble cast, led beautifully by Blanchett, who gives Mary a passion for the truth that's fuelled by her inner demons. And the entire supporting cast adds layers of wit and insight, although Redford kind of relaxes on his easy charm as the engaged, engaging Rather.

Continue reading: Truth Review

Zac Efron And Heather Graham Star In At Any Price (Video)

By Hayley Avron in Movies / TV / Theatre on 22 January 2013

Zac Efron Heather Graham Dennis Quaid Ramin Bahrani

Zac Efron and Heather Graham star in At Any Price, the story of a farming family facing unexpected pressures, which in turn, puts a strain on the relationship between father and son. the son is played by Zac Efron – best known for his role in High School Musical but now carving out a more serious acting path. The father and mother of the farming family are played by Dennis Quaid and Kim Dickens respectively.

Watch the clip from At Any Price

Continue reading: Zac Efron And Heather Graham Star In At Any Price (Video)

At Any Price Trailer

Henry Whipple is an ambitious farmer with high hopes for his promising agricultural family business. His son Dean, however, wants to be a professional racing driver and already looks set to be a huge star with his sport earning him numerous awards. With the Whipple business under threat of breaking down with no heir to carry it on, tensions arise in the household as Henry struggles to put his family's interests before the welfare of his company. Things get even more serious when crisis arises in the business with the threat of exposure that could cost him and his family everything they have including each other.

'At Any Price' is an intense family drama directed and co-produced by Ramin Bahrani ('Goodbye Solo', 'Man Push Cart', 'Chop Shop') following his research into technologically-advancing agricultural businesses in the American Midwest. He also co-wrote the movie with Hallie Elizabeth Newton in her screenwriting debut. It is set to be a touching flick challenging the ethics of these businesses and questioning the happiness of the families involved and has so far been screened at the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival and the Venice International Film Festival. It will be released in cinemas later in 2013.

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Continue: At Any Price Trailer

The Words Trailer

Rory Jansen is a young writer who is failing to achieve any kind of literary recognition and is on the edge of giving up as he and his wife Dora struggle to pay the bills. One day, as a kind gesture, Dora buys Rory an antique looking leather case in which he later discovers a collection of papers detailing a highly compelling and well written novel. In a moment of utter desperation and thoughtlessness, Rory copies the story and gets it published under his own name finally achieving the recognition and success he so craved. It's only a matter of time before he gets found out and he begins to realise how many people's lives he has affected by his one moment of stupidity. He must face the consequences for stealing the work of another writer and find a way to fix everything.

Continue: The Words Trailer

What To Expect When You're Expecting Review

By Rich Cline

Weak

The odd moment of honest drama or genuinely witty humour catches us completely off guard, because this is one of those resolutely bland Hollywood star machines that bears no resemblance to the real world at all.

In Atlanta, TV fitness guru Jules (Diaz) is about to reveal that she's pregnant by her celebrity dance show partner Evan (Morrison). Meanwhile, Holly and Alex (Lopez and Santoro) are looking into adoption even though they're not sure they're ready; Wendy and Gary (Banks and Falcone) are finally expecting after trying for years, only to be upstaged by Gary's dad (Quaid) and his much younger wife (Decker); and food truck operators Rosie and Marco (Kendrick and Crawford) rekindle their teen romance with unexpected results.

Continue reading: What To Expect When You're Expecting Review

What To Expect When You're Expecting Trailer

What to Expect When You're Expecting is a comic adaptation of the New York Times' bestselling pregnancy advice book of the same name. The film centres around five couples whose lives are turned upside down when they learn of their forthcoming parenthood. Whilst Jules and Evan (a fitness guru and a dance show star, respectively) struggle to fit the demands of pregnancy into a busy showbiz lifestyle, the author Wendy finds herself in a spin when her body is held hostage by her rampant pregnancy hormones. Meanwhile, Wendy's husband Gary finds himself competing with his own father, who is expecting twins with his much-younger partner Skyler.

Continue: What To Expect When You're Expecting Trailer

Footloose Review

By Rich Cline

Very Good

A surprisingly faithful remake of the iconic 1984 hit, this crowd-pleasing romp finds some intriguing present-day resonance without pushing it too hard.

Instead, it centres on the interpersonal drama and exhilarating dance moves.

After his mother dies, Boston teen Ren (Wormald) moves to small-town Bomont to live with his aunt and uncle (Dickens and McKinnon). Teens here are prohibited from dancing due to a tragedy three years earlier, so Ren is soon at loggerheads with the local minister (Quaid), whose daughter Ariel (Hough) is a wild child with a redneck boyfriend (Flueger) and an eye for Ren. As Ren deals with his own issues, he teams up with new friends Willard and Woody (Teller and Blain) to take on the system.

Continue reading: Footloose Review

Soul Surfer Trailer

Thirteen year old Bethany Hamilton loves to surf; she comes from a family of surfers, so there is nothing more she likes doing then catching some waves, in Hawaii, where she lives. When not surfing, she likes hanging out with her friends and flirting with guys, like any other teen her age.

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Footloose Trailer

Ren McCormack moves to Beaumont, Tennessee from Boston. He soon becomes friends with a boy named Willard, who tells him that the council has banned dancing and loud music, due to a tragic accident a few years' prior involving teenagers after a night out.

Continue: Footloose Trailer

Smart People Trailer

Smart People
Clips

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Far From Heaven Review

By Christopher Null

Excellent

Todd Haynes must have a thing for torturing poor Julianne Moore, and what'd she ever do to him?

First she was reduced to an allergic-to-everything blob of flesh in Safe. Now she's emotionally torn asunder as her husband goes gay and the only man she can turn to happens to be black.

Continue reading: Far From Heaven Review

In Good Company Review

By Chris Barsanti

It's one of those nightmare scenarios of which feel-good stories are made: Dan Foreman (Dennis Quaid), middle-aged family man and top sales guy at a big, Sports Illustrated-like magazine, gets thrown for a loop when his company is bought and he gets demoted to make room for Carter Duryea (Topher Grace), some whiz kid half his age. Oh, and his daughter wants to transfer from SUNY to the much more expensive NYU. Oh, and that night when he gets home, his wife tells him she's pregnant. At first it seems that In Good Company is not going to go for the feel-good resolution in which lessons are learned, lives are improved, and everybody fades into a happy sunset... but then it does, and it's hard not to feel cheated.

Whatever else may be said, this film is the work of consummate professionals, and that doesn't mean it's soulless but competent hackwork. Writer/director Paul Weitz showed with his wonderful, glowing adaptation of Nick Hornby's About a Boy that he could tell heartwarming stories that didn't insult the mind and could inject just enough acidity into a romance to keep a movie from flopping into a messy, Love, Actually-style mess. The directing and writing here are superbly crisp, and one really couldn't ask for better performances, both from the stars and supporting cast.

Continue reading: In Good Company Review

The Right Stuff Review

By Christopher Null

Extraordinary

Fortuitous time for The Right Stuff to hit DVD, when the American space program is nearing rock bottom in the court of public opinion.

Based on Tom Wolfe's novel (though heavily inspired by the truth), The Right Stuff follows the formative years of the space race, from 1947 to 1963, when it was us vs. the Russians. The film begins as we first punch through Mach 1 in experimental aircraft and ends with seventh and final Mercury astronaut blasting off.

Continue reading: The Right Stuff Review

The Alamo Review

By Rob Blackwelder

If you want to remember the Alamo, the latest feature film version of the Texas fort's famous last stand may not be much help.

A beautifully produced but relatively bloodless (literally and figuratively) Hollywood rendering of the 1836 siege on San Antonio by tyrannical General Santa Anna, who was determined to recapture the territory for Mexico, it's a movie more concerned with details like Jim Bowie's terminal case of consumption than it is with the historical context of its story and its legendary characters.

In this movie, Bowie (Jason Patric) the frontier adventurer and volunteer army colonel is presented as little more than an infamous "knife fighter" haunted by his wife's death. Newspaper publisher, lawyer and militiaman Lt. Col. William B. Travis (Patrick Wilson) is just a determined dandy with questioned military skills (questioned mostly by Bowie) who rises to the occasion as temporary commander of these now-fortified grounds surrounding an unfinished mission. David "Davey" Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) is a fiddle-playing former senator made famous by a stage play written about something he once did while wearing a coonskin hat -- and why he's even at the Alamo isn't entirely clear.

Continue reading: The Alamo Review

Any Given Sunday Review

By Rob Blackwelder

Good

There's only about 22 minutes of plot in "Any Given Sunday," Oliver Stone's innovative, bone-crunching ballet of sound and fury football, so lets get that out of the way right now:

Al Pacino stars as the embattled, old-school coach of a fictitious pro football team. Cameron Diaz, is the willful, profit-zealous daughter of the franchise's recently deceased owner. Jamie Foxx is a hotshot young quarterback whose know-it-all attitude and colossal ego threaten team unity. He's just replaced the injured, aging, Elway-esque veteran QB Dennis Quaid, whose compound back injury has spelled curtains for his career -- if only his ruthlessly ambitious, harpy of a wife (Lauren Holly) would accept that fact.

During the last two minutes of the fourth quarter of the Big Playoff Game that serves as the film's climax, each of these characters (especially the selfish ones) will have an epiphany about what's really important in their lives.

Continue reading: Any Given Sunday Review

Traffic Review

By Rob Blackwelder

Weak

"Traffic" is a socially and politically grandstanding soap opera about the narcotics trade and the futility of the "war on drugs." It's a film about how that war is propagated by bureaucratic demagogues in the United States government, not because they think they can stem the flow of illegal substances but because they think saying they want to is a way to win elections.

OK. Point taken.

"Traffic" is also gritty and realistic feat of cinematic logistics, following no less than 15 major characters (and more than 50 speaking parts) through several complex, well-acted storylines about all sides of the drug trade -- from kingpins to cops to policy wonks to addicts. So my hat is off to the picture's ever-brilliant director, Steven Soderbergh ("Erin Brockovich"), who certainly does a fine juggling act, involving the audience in every story on a personal level.

Continue reading: Traffic Review

The Day After Tomorrow Review

By Rob Blackwelder

"The Day After Tomorrow" isn't quite the disaster of a disaster flick I thought it would be.

Don't get me wrong -- it's bad in a way only $150-million movies with awe-inspiring special effects can be bad. It's riddled with nonsensical pseudo-science, saddled with supposedly brainy characters (climatologists, high-school science whizzes) who nonetheless haven't a scrap of common sense, and stuffed with stock characters designed for the kind of instant sympathy (or instant comic relief) that doesn't require actually giving them a personality.

But for popcorn munching and smart-remarking during a bargain matinee, it's a bad movie worth the price of admission.

Continue reading: The Day After Tomorrow Review

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Dennis Quaid