Tag: Jon Lovitz

2nd Annual BEVERLY HILLS FILM, TV & NEW MEDIA FESTIVAL

The Beverly Hills Film, TV & New Media Festival line-up of star-studded red carpet premieres, panels and honorary award recipients have been announced by Festival Director Donna Spangler. After an exceptional debut last year, this international event continues to be a true celebration of established and emerging talent and technologies in film, television and new media running from October 20-27, 2011.

The Opening Night Honorary Awards Ceremony will take place Thursday, Oct. 20 at the Roosevelt Hotel (7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood) benefiting The Finaza Foundation. Celebrity honorees and attendees include Cam Gigandet (Twilight), Kristin Bauer (True Blood), Drew Powell (Straw Dogs), Aldis Hodge (Leverage), Isabel Lucas (Transformers), Jena Malone (Sucker Punch), Josh Lawson (The Wedding Party), Missi Pyle, Maurice Benard, Michael Caulfield, Jon Lovitz, Morgan Fairchild, Tom Arnold, Janice Dickinson, Amber Benson, Martyn Lawrence-Bullard, Kelly Osborne and Ru Paul.

Red carpet arrivals will begin at 8 p.m. on a GoGreenSolar-litcarpet, with the Honorary Awards Ceremony at 9 p.m. followed by mixing and mingling until midnight. Entertainment will be provided by DJ and award-winning actress Caroline D’Amore.

“We are thrilled to again bring this vibrant festival to Beverly Hills,” said Festival Director, Donna Spangler. “After last year’s phenomenal success which exceeded all our expectations, we know this is the ideal location for our festival to discover, showcase, and celebrate the work of today’s up-and-comers, established professionals and tomorrow’s industry leaders.”

Screenings take place at Laemmle Music Hall 3 Theatre, 9036 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. The competitive screenings exhibit an international selection of short- and long-form works that exhibit strong personal visions combined with the highest standards of creative excellence and technical achievement.

The Industry Panel will take place from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Roxbury Park Auditorium (471 S. Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills) and will feature leading experts from the film, television and new media worlds.

 

FESTIVAL HIGHTLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Walk A Mile in My Pradas (Opening Night Film)
A Little Christmas Magic Causes Two Coworkers With Contrasting Lifestyles To Switch Sexual Orientations. Cast: Nathaniel Marston, Tom Archdeacon, Tom Arnold, Mike Starr, Dee Wallace, Kirsten Lea, Emrhys Cooper. Directed by Joey Sylvester. 88 min. Comedy. USA.

Five Star Day (Closing Night Film)
One man’s journey to disprove the theory of astrology leads him to answer some bigger question about life, love, fate and destiny. Cast: Jena Malone, Cam Gigandet. Directed by Danny Buday. 90 min. Drama. USA

Mysteria (World Premiere)
A once famous and now a washed-up Hollywood screenwriter fights to finish his latest script with an unrealistic deadline. He finds himself in the center of a murder investigation. Cast: Robert Miano, Danny Glover, Billy Zane, Martin Landau, Michael Rooker. Directed by Lucius C. Kuert. 90 min. Mystery. USA.

The Wedding Party (West Coast Premiere)
A sexy romantic comedy about the Thompson Family, whose individual love lives range from deviant to delicious to downright desperate. Up to his eyeballs in debt, the youngest son Steve, agrees to marry a Russian girl for cash. Cast: Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), Josh Lawson, Adam Zwar, Essie Davis, Geoff Paine, Nadine Garner.Directed by Amanda Jane. 97 min. Australia.

Brutal (World Premiere)
Four friends pay the ultimate price when they seek revenge against a low-level Gangster. Cast: David Dastmalchian (The Dark Knight), Kevin Corrigan (Pineapple Express), Peter Greene (Pulp Fiction), Arthur Nascarella (Sopranos), Federico Castelluccio (Sopranos), Mark Love, Angelo Bonsignore, Jeremy Luc, Krista Ayne. Directed by Kamal Ahmed (The Jerky Boys). 90 min. Mob/Crime. USA.

Father vs. Son
A comedy centered around a newly divorced guy (Wolff) who moves in with his son (Dean) and joins him on the singles scene. Cast: Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family), Josh Dean, Heather Stephens (Lost Highway), Paul Wolff, Cameron Goodman (90210, How to Make It in America). Directed by Joe Ballarini. 97 min. Comedy. USA.

Review: CASINO JACK

You can’t always go by your first impressions. When the story of uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff first hit the news, the media seemed to rejoice in having a hiss-able bad guy. The cable news channels loved running the video of his “perp walk” complete with wardrobe by Boris Badenov ( matching black fedora and trench coat ). Early last year we got to know more of the full story with Alex Gibney’s documentary CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY.  And now the feature drama based on the true story of D.C. corruption has arrived at movie theatres: George Hickenlooper’s CASINO JACK with Kevin Spacey in the title role. With this telling we learn much more about the real man behind the scandals ( and late night TV monologue jokes).

The film opens with a tribute to the first few minutes of RAGING BULL. Abramoff stares into a mirror and recites a list of personal triumphs (“I work out every day!”) He’s almost giving himself a pep talk. Flash back several years to Jack’s job as a confident, ambitious hot-shot at a Washington lobbying firm and his life at home with his kids and devoted wife Pam (Kelly Preston). With the help of his right hand man, Michael Scanlon (Barry Pepper), Jack gets involved with a Native American owned casino much to the ire of Bernie Sprauge (Graham Greene). Soon Jack expands his money flow by buying into an off-shore cruise ship casino. He decides to enlist an old buddy, Adam Kinan (Jon Lovitz) as his front man, so as to keep his name clean. The money’s soon flowing as Jack is able to buy off politicians who pave the way for these shady operations. Jack forms his own “consulting” firm and decides to open up a high class restaurant,a deli and build a children’s sports complex. It’s not long before greed causes everything to unravel. Thanks to Bernie and Scanlon’s ex-girlfriend Emily (Rachel Lefevre), law enforcement starts investigating and Jack’s powerful pals like Tom DeLay (Spencer Garrett) cannot halt the wheels of justice.

CASINO JACK attempts to walk a fine line between being a slapstick comedy and a scathing indictment of D.C. corruption. It’s fairly even handed in its portrait of business as usual with members of both political parties grabbing up those cash stuffed envelopes. There’s some terrific acting on display here. This film shows a Kevin Spacey we don’t see much of at the movies. He juggles heavy dramatic scenes ( the mirror pep talk, a verbal smack-down with a former boss, domestic turmoil as the feds move in) with great comic sequences. The real Abramoff is a big movie buff ( he produced the Dolph Lungrin action flick RED SCORPION), so he peppers his speech with many film references. This gives Spacey the chance to show off the impressionist skills he generally uses in his talk show appearances. At one point he imagines a court room scene with John McCain turning into the finale of …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. Spacey gets great support from Pepper who goes from brash, go-getter to a crying informant when taken into custody. I’m not sure if the casting of SNL funnyman Jon Lovitz works.He’s given a brief chance to show his dramatic range, but soon he’s playing a variation of the sleazy crook we’ve seen in many other films and TV appearances. We also see the final film performance of the fine character actor Maury Chaykin unfortunately underused as a pasta-slurping hit man caricature.

Speaking of finals, unfortunately CASINO JACK  is the final film of the gifted director George Hickenlooper. The fine performances mentioned above are due to his skills in working with actors. Although the tone of the film is inconsistent in spots, the pacing and staging of scenes are first rate and never dull. After nearly twenty years of making dramas and documentaries, this film is his finest work. His untimely death last October at age 47 makes one wonder what masterpieces he would have given us. Fortunately this last work is an enlightening, entertaining look at a man who was much more than what we saw on the news.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Watch The New Trailer For CASINO JACK

Here’s the full length trailer for CASINO JACK starring Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper and (yea!) Jon Lovitz.

Synopsis:

CASINO JACK stars Kevin Spacey as Jack Abramoff, a man hell-bent on acquiring all that the good life has to offer, resorting to awe-inspiring levels of conning, scheming and fraudulent antics to get what he wants. Inspired by true events that are too over-the-top for even the wildest imaginations to conjure, Jack parlays his clout over some of the world’s most powerful men with the goal of creating a personal empire of wealth and influence. When Jack and his business partner (Barry Pepper) enlist a mob-connected buddy (Jon Lovitz) to help with one of their illegal schemes, they soon find themselves in over their heads, entrenched in a world of mafia assassins, murder and a scandal that spins so out of control that it makes worldwide headlines.

The film also stars Kelly Preston and Rachelle Lefevre, and is directed by George Hickenlooper (FACTORY GIRL, THE MAN FROM ELYSIAN FIELDS).

CASINO JACK will be in theaters on December 29, 2010. Like it on Facebook here.