70% of Woody Allen's Top 10 Films Were Released in the 1970s

Can Tim Burton's Alice Beat His Charlie

Can Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland beat Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the box office?  Even if it does that doesn't mean it will make a profit from its theatrical release - making the DVD sales critical to profitability.  Now that distributor Disney has announced a shortened window between the theatrical and DVD release to increase DVD sales, theater owners are revolting.  Per a recent Los Angeles Times blog, two of the U.K.'s three major cinema chains currently have no plans to show Alice in any of their theaters.

Alice in Wonderland - Again

• PRINTED BOOK, 1865
• CEL ANIMATION MOVIE, 1951
• LIVE ACTION/ ANIMATION/ 3-D MOVIE, 2010

Alice in Wonderland, 1951 was one of the Walt Disney Company's least successful animation movies taking in less than 15% of the all-release domestic box office of Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs.  With the Tim Burton directed version scheduled for a March 5, 2010 release, it looks like Disney may get it right this time around.

The story of Alice's adventures were first told by the Oxford mathematician Charles Dodgson to Alice Liddel, the daughter of the head of Dodgson's college, then published in novel form in 1865 under the author's pseudonym Lewis Carroll.  The Disney 1951 film followed the adventures in the book centered around Alice as a young girl. Now age 19, can Alice go back down the rabbit hole and have it be as much fun as the book?

More information on Dodgson, including his fascination with young girls, is available at victorianweb, the website started by Brown University's Professor George P. Landow.

Romantic Movies For Valentine's Day

1.  Titanic, 1997
2.  The Graduate, 1967
3.  Ghost, 1990
4.  An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982
5.  A Star is Born, 1976
6.  The Twilight Saga: New Moon, 2009
7.  Jerry Maguire, 1996
8.  Frenchman's Creek, 1944
9.  A Guy Named Joe, 1943
10. Twilight, 2008
11. The Way We Were, 1973
12. The Electric Horseman, 1979
13. Out of Africa, 1985
14. Ryan's Daughter, 1970
15. Homecoming, 1948
16. Raintree Country, 1957
17. The African Queen, 1951
18. Three Coins in the Fountain, 1954
19. Slumdog Millionarie, 2008
20. The V.I.P.'s, 1963

Olympic Skiing - Downhill Racer Skiing Movie

According to Rotten Tomatoes,  Roger Ebert, in 2004 voted Downhill Racer, 1969 "The best movie ever made about sports -- without really being about sports at all."  The film stars Robert Redford and Gene Hackman.  With the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics just around the corner, maybe it's time to revisit this classic film.


I first met Michael in 1974 when I moved north to Marin County from La Jolla to work for Lucasfilm.  He had an office in the same office/house I was in and was working on Smile, which released in1975.  I always enjoyed him and his films and was sad when he died way too young in 2001.

Photo of Michael Ritchie and his daughter Lauren was taken by me at a 4th of July picnic at Skywalker Ranch, 1981

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