Robert Duvall Page 2

The Judge Throws Its Hat Into The Awards Ring

By Rich Cline in Movies / TV / Theatre on 17 October 2014

There are a lot of performances that are gathering momentum in the run-up to awards season this year, and then there's The Judge, currently in cinemas in the US and UK.

Clearly determined to be a contender, this film is carefully designed to showcase the work of stars Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. Of course, Downey has been Oscar nominated before, for Chaplin (1992) and Tropic Thunder (2008). Duvall won Best Actor for Tender Mercies (1983) and has been nominated five other times.

Downey Jr. and Duvall in The Judge

Yet while both of them give it their all in The Judge, the film perhaps isn't a strong enough film to gain much traction among those who are predicting this year's race. The current leaders in the Best Actor race are considered to be Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Michael Keaton (Birdman), Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and Steve Carell (Foxcatcher). Duvall has a slightly better chance to get a nod for Supporting Actor, although the favourites are J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Edward Norton (Birdman), Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher) and Ethan Hawke (Boyhood).

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Video - Robert Duvall Appears On 'The Late Night Show With David Letterman' Before Taking A Verbal Swipe At Stephen Colbert - Pt2

Robert Duvall, the legendary actor who appeared in 'The Godfather' movies and 'Apocalypse Now', was photographed arriving at and leaving the 'Late Night Show with David Letterman'. While on the show, Duvall commented on Letterman's upcoming departure from the show, and replacement by Stephen Colbert.

Continue: Video - Robert Duvall Appears On 'The Late Night Show With David Letterman' Before Taking A Verbal Swipe At Stephen Colbert - Pt2

'The Judge' Is Formulaic, Contrived And Very, Very Entertaining

By Michael West in Movies / TV / Theatre on 05 September 2014

Robert Downey Jr Robert Duvall Leighton Meester Vera Farmiga

'The Judge' opened the Toronto Film Festival to a lukewarm reception from critics.

Robert Downey Jr was the star name on the opening night of the Toronto Film Festival even if his latest film, The Judge, hadn't exactly drummed up a mountain of anticipation. David Dobkin's drama stars Downey Jr as a lawyer who returns home when his father, a judge, is implicated as a murder suspect.

Robert Downey Jr [L] and Robert Duvall [R] in 'THe Judge'

The Judge features a hugely accomplished supporting cast including Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D'Onofrio, Billy Bob Thornton and Leighton Meester and for the most part the ensemble keep things entertaining, at least.

Continue reading: 'The Judge' Is Formulaic, Contrived And Very, Very Entertaining

Jane Mansfield's Car Sees The Directorial Return Of Billy Bob Thornton

By Nick Hill in Movies / TV / Theatre on 12 September 2013

Billy Bob Thornton Robert Duvall

Billy Bob Thronton makes his directorial return with the southern post war drama Jane Mansfield's Car.

Billy Bob Thornton makes his return behind the camera in new drama 'Jane Mansfield's Car' - his first since 2001's 'Daddy and Them'.

The film, set in Alabama 1969, depicts the story of a family of brothers, the Caldwell brothers, who are torn apart by the experiences they each received whilst at war. The three Cardwell brothers are World War II veterans, and their father, played by Robert Duvall, is a World War I patriarch. The younger brothers are played by Kevin Bacon, Thornton and Robert Patrick.

Billy Bob Thornton makes his directing comback with Jane Mansfield's Car

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Billy Bob Thornton On His Return To Filmmaking: "If You Hold Back, People Aren't Going To Believe You."

By Lauren James in Movies / TV / Theatre on 12 September 2013

Billy Bob Thornton Angelina Jolie Brad Pitt Robert Duvall

The actor talks fame, family, and why he no longer wears a blood necklace.

You may not have heard from actor Billy Bob Thornton for a while; he featured heavily in the press who documented his marriage to Angelina Jolie at the turn of the millennium but now is scarcely seen or heard of in comparison. "My life is pretty much the way it's always been, except I'm not in a celebrity relationship," Thornton explains in an interview with USA Today, adding "And I feel pretty good about that. I don't miss it."

Billy Bob Thornton
These Days, Billy Bob Enjoys Life Outside The Media Glare.

What he doesn't miss is the scrutiny and press hounding that accompanied his relationship with Jolie, who is now firmly coupled with Brad Pitt. The pair, who divorced in 2003, didn't exactly help sedate the press by choosing to wear vials of each other's blood around the necks. Now, the Armageddon actor has settled into a life outside the media glare but has managed to maintain his career and raise a family: an enviable accomplishment for an A-list actor who still resides in Los Angeles.

Continue reading: Billy Bob Thornton On His Return To Filmmaking: "If You Hold Back, People Aren't Going To Believe You."

Pictures: Tom Cruise Makes Action Hero Exit From Jack Reacher Premiere Featuring Rosamund Pike, Nicole Scherzinger And Tom Hardy

By Contributor in Movies / TV / Theatre on 11 December 2012

Tom Cruise Rosamund Pike Robert Duvall Nicole Scherzinger Lewis Hamilton Tom Hardy

Tom Cruise, Jack Reacher Premiere

Tom Cruise at the Jack Reacher premiere in London. The 5'7 star has come under fire for playing a character 6'2 in book form

As tall as he draws his posture, there's no way Tom Cruise is anywhere near the height of six foot two that the eponymous character he plays in Jack Reacher is in the original book written by Lee Child. Yet it's Cruise who was given the role for the forthcoming film adaptation and, to be fair to him, he took it with the blessing of Child. Both were in attendance for the film's premiere in London last night (December 10) alongside the rest of the cast including Rosamund Pike and Robert Duvall, whilst director Christopher McQuarrie also put an appearance in.

Continue reading: Pictures: Tom Cruise Makes Action Hero Exit From Jack Reacher Premiere Featuring Rosamund Pike, Nicole Scherzinger And Tom Hardy

Jack Reacher Trailer

Opening on a terrified-looking man in a hospital bed, we are immediately informed that Jack Reacher is a, "kind of cop", but doesn't care about proof or the law, only what's right. From the word go, we ca see that Reacher is not a man to be trifled with.

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Apocalypse Now Redux Review

By Rich Cline

Essential

Just issued on a remastered DVD, Coppola's 1979 masterpiece gets the director's cut treatment in this Redux version, as 49 minutes of previously edited footage are reinserted to bring the film in line with the director's original vision.

And the result is stunning, making an astonishing film even more powerful ...

but changing it completely in the process.

Continue reading: Apocalypse Now Redux Review

Get Low Review

By Rich Cline

Extraordinary

Not only is this film elegantly shot, with a gorgeous sense both of internal textures and wide-open spaces, but it also features knockout performances from an especially fine cast while exploring serious issues from a refreshingly low-key perspective.

After the death of a friend, mysterious hermit Felix Bush (Duvall) decides it's time to get low, put his affairs in order. So he hires the local undertakers (Murray and Black) to throw a funeral party before he dies. While this will help him clear the air, it also undermines the dangerous reputation that's guaranteed his privacy for so long. It also means confronting a dear old friend Mattie (Spacek) about a dark event from their past. And more importantly, making peace with himself.

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Crazy Heart Trailer

Watch the trailer for Crazy Heart

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We Own The Night Review

By Jesse Hassenger

OK

James Gray has assembled what looks and sounds like a good, smart thriller with We Own the Night: a strong cast, serious aspirations, a specific time and place (Brooklyn, 1988). The story is shopworn, but not without dramatic potential: Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play brothers on the opposite-ish sides of the law; Joseph (Wahlberg) has followed in the footsteps of their father (Robert Duvall) and joined the NYPD while Bobby (Phoenix) rebels by running a seedy nightclub. With a drug dealer inching into Bobby's territory, he's forced to reconsider his loyalties.

Meanwhile, the movie forces me to reconsider my own, because it spends a lot more time seeming like a good movie than actually being one. For a film with such an ominous, encompassing title, We Own the Night is content to skim the surface of the NYPD, lacking the obsessive attention to detail that distinguishes other crime-heavy glimpses into bygone American eras as diverse as Gangs of New York, Zodiac, or The Assassination of the Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Even Night's period details feel half-assed and incidental, like background songs that sound more like bits of '90s soundtracks to '80s-set movies instead of 1988 itself. In fact, though an early subtitle says so, the year doesn't even seem to be 1988 in particular but a vague, amorphous "eighties," Wedding Singer style.

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Apocalypse Now Review

By Christopher Null

Essential

In the grand tradition of movies that explore the reality that is the Vietnam War, one film stands out -- for defying reality.

Martin Sheen stars as Captain Willard, sent upriver in war-torn 'Nam to "terminate, with extreme prejudice" one Colonel Kurtz (Brando), a former green beret who has gone primal all the way in Cambodia and has taken on the guise of a god to the local people of the area.

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Thank You For Smoking Review

By Annette Cardwell

Excellent

Striding up alongside such great anti-heroes as Tony Soprano and Scarface comes Nick Naylor, a silver-tongued lobbyist with such a tremendous gift for gab that he actually successfully defends the tobacco industry. And as much as you probably think cigarette makers are evil, you'll find yourself - as with all anti-heroes - actually rooting for this scumbag.

Why? Well, besides star Aaron Eckhart's flawlessly sumptuous performance as Naylor, I'll just quote a line from Naylor himself: "The beauty of argument is that if you argue correctly, you're never wrong." In the end, Nick Naylor is not just right; he's unquestionably the most passionate, most seductive man on the screen, and everyone else just looks limp and dull beside him.

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Secondhand Lions Review

By Sean O'Connell

OK

Like a similar creature that patrols a certain Yellow Brick Road, Tim McCanlies' Secondhand Lions is in dire need of a shot of courage. It's scary to think of how much better this king of the jungle could've been had it possessed the sharp teeth of its animal namesake and took a serious bite out of the plump themes of family greed, lost love and misspent youth. What we're left with are recycled kitten swipes taken by a family-friendly charmer that's content to coast by on the casting coup of landing Michael Caine and Robert Duvall under one cinematic roof.

Shy, bookish, and firmly implanted in his social shell, young Walter (Haley Joel Osment) receives a wake-up call when he's unceremoniously dumped off with his two great uncles Garth (Caine) and Hub (Duvall). It could be for a few days but might be for a few months, his mother (Kyra Sedgwick) tells him. Oh, and the two eccentric curmudgeons reportedly are millionaires, so if Walter can figure out where they're stashing their money before mom returns, all the better.

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The Godfather: Part II Review

By Christopher Null

Extraordinary

The inimitable Godfather story continues in The Godfather Part II.

Unlike many critics, I don't feel the sequel has the weight of the original -- many feel it to be better than the first film -- but it certainly is a necessary and extremely good follow-up, adding a wealth of information about "the family" that only serves to enhance the experience of the original movie. The problem, of course, is how could you measure up to The Godfather? The truly memorable scenes from the series -- the spilling cart of oranges, the horse's head, Michael's vengeance in the Italian restaurant, "an offer he couldn't refuse" -- are all found in the original, not here (or at best, they are simply repeated in the sequel). Godfather 2's most memorable moments -- the Senator's private meeting with Michael ("My offer is this: Nothing."), the denouement of Fredo -- pale in comparison. Well, not exactly pale, but you can't say that Godfather 2 is as good as Numero Uno.

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La Peste Review

By Christopher Null

OK

A South American city (presumably Buenos Aires, home town of director Luis Puenzo) gets a little visit by the Bubonic Plague fairy, and all hell breaks loose. Well, sorta. La Peste is actually a pretty sleepy little drama, much in keeping with the dread-packed Camus novel it's based on. Existentialist ennui aside, the story of an American doctor doing his time in a strange land doesn't hold much promise. Puenzo's political commentary gets muddled in with this, and the whole thing becomes a movie with two heads, neither of them compelling.

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A Family Thing Review

By Christopher Null

OK

This review is not going to win me many new friends. Already, the gushing praise has begun, and it appears A Family Thing is going to be a regular Critic's Darling. I have little doubt that momentum will give the film the best reviews of the year to date, and I have an equal suspicion that few people are going to see it.

Best described as Driving Miss Daisy 2, A Family Thing is a way-way-melodramatic picture about an aging, backwards, racist, Arkansas hick, Earl Pilcher (Robert Duvall). Earl's mother, on her death bed, writes him a letter, telling Earl that in reality, she was not his mother at all, that his real mother was a black woman, and that she died having him in childbirth. Mom #2 implores him to seek out his half-brother in Chicago, for reasons never really explained.

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The Handmaid's Tale Review

By Christopher Null

Very Good

Margaret Atwood's highly regarded novel came to the screen in 1990 in an uneven yet still gripping production (newly released on DVD). Natasha Richardson makes perhaps the biggest impact in her career as Offred, the "handmaid" at the center of a dystopic future where ultra-right wing factions are in control of the government, martial law rules, and biological agents have rendered 99% of women sterile. Those women who are still fertile and have been convicted of some crime, however ridiculous, become handmaids, stripped from their lives and sentenced to service the remaining rich and powerful, whose wives can't conceive children.

Offred finds herself at the mercy of a good-natured but subtly manipulative commander (Robert Duvall) and his faded-star wife Serena Joy (Faye Dunaway). And soon enough she slips her way into an underground aiming to overthrow the fascist regime.

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Deep Impact Review

By Christopher Null

Very Good

I admit it. I'm a sap for the touchy-feely business sometimes.

Deep Impact makes no apologies for being a sob-fest. I mean, how else do you smash a comet into the earth without killing off a few hundred million people, and breaking a few hearts in the process? As the first disaster-from-space film of the year, Deep Impact sets the bar at an interesting level. It's not an action film, although it has action elements. It's not a thriller, although suspense is in the mix. It's more a drama than anything else, the main story lines being a reporter (Téa Leoni) estranged from her father, a young astronomer (Wood) who finds he can't abandon his girlfriend, and a codgery astronaut (Robert Duvall) who gains acceptance among a younger crew.

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The 6th Day Review

By Rob Blackwelder

Weak

Underneath "The 6th Day's" Schwarzenegger schmaltz of expensive explosions, showpiece stunts and utterly extraneous jet-helicopter chases, there's an intelligent cautionary thriller about science run amuck which has been trampled to death.

Taking place in a future that is "sooner than you think" -- a high-gloss world of virtual girlfriends, self-driving cars and illegal cloning -- the plot is basically a rehash of "Total Recall" in which Arnold plays a seemingly average joe whose life is turned upside-down by the cogs of a giant conspiracy.

Schwarzenegger is Adam Gibson, an oh-so-suburban dad who owns a souped-up helicopter charter service. On the day he's been hired to drop a paranoid billionaire (Tony Goldwyn) on a mountain top for a day of skiing, Adam switches chopper duties with his business partner (Michael Rapaport) so he can go to the mall and get a RePet -- a genetic copy of the family dog -- before his daughter finds out the critter died.

Continue reading: The 6th Day Review

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