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

By Daniel Falconer in Movies / TV / Theatre on 18 May 2017

The actor will be playing the former President of the United States of America.

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.

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'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.

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'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.

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At Any Price Trailer

Henry Whipple is a highly respected farmer in the world of agriculture and thinks of little else other than expanding his three generation old farming land in Iowa. After watching his favourite son Grant fly the nest as a football star, he does his best to push his youngest son Dean into the family business, understanding that the empire will be lost if he doesn't take on the responsibility. However, Dean has other things on his mind; he wants to be a professional car racer and is already a champion on his local circuit. He is determined to prove his sceptical father wrong by reaching the racing heights of ARCA and NASCAR. Henry, meanwhile, faces big business troubles when his farm is investigated by GMO corn company Liberty Seeds; his whole career hangs in the balance, but he must learn that if he doesn't change the way he is, it won't be the only thing he loses.

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"New York Feels Like A Constant Film Set": Will Hurricane Sandy Inspire Movies?

By Lorna Greville in Movies / TV / Theatre on 31 October 2012

Dennis Quaid Jake Gyllenhaal

Postmodern life has deigned that we receive the world through a media lens. Very little of what we encounter do we take at face value, rather everything is realised and equated with what we've seen on a screen. For those of us outside Hurricane Sandy it's difficult to understand the scale nor the emotion that must be present, but as the Sun has reported it's like "[waking] up in a disaster movie". This is nothing new because "When you live in New York, it feels like you're constantly on a film set," as the Annette Witherage further stated.

Sandy has already been related to one disaster movie - The Day After Tomorrow which starred Jake Gyllenhaal as Dennis Quaid. A still from the film has already been exploited. The image was of the Statue of Liberty engulfed in waves; it sent its own waves of fear regarding the immense power of the storm, but it was later realised to be a hoax. The LA Times has also likened it to Life of Pi, which follows a boy stranded on a raft in the ocean when an enormous storm hits. Sandy has been touted as the disaster that tweeted, as accounts of the event is being circulated via the social networking site quicker than anywhere else. Sandy was never going to be able to keep out of the spotlight and as the disaster hits one of the most iconic cities of the world, let alone just America, the movie potential will also be something of a talking point in Hollywood. Flight 93 and United 93 are two movies that were made about the events as they transpired on 9/11, and this year has seen the release of one of the first Hurricane Katrina movies, Beasts of the Southern Wild.

With a reported 48 people's lives claimed by Sandy, a film with even a fraction of the beauty and tenderness present in Beasts of the Southern Wild would be a beautiful tribute to the storm that has already stormed the media.

Legion Trailer

Watch the trailer for Legion

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Pandorum Trailer

Watch the trailer for Pandorum

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In Good Company Review

By Chris Barsanti

OK

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.

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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.

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The Alamo Review

By Rob Blackwelder

OK

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.

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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.

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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.

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The Day After Tomorrow Review

By Rob Blackwelder

OK

"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.

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