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Opening Shots Pop Quiz: Answers

Here goes. For the time being, I'm just going to offer up the answers to the Opening Shots Pop Quiz, without further elaboration or analysis in most cases -- because these shots are so great they deserve full Opening Shots…

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Opening Shots: 'Choose Me'

View image View image View image It starts in the dark with a swirl of strings and then a blast of brass as the screen explodes into vivid neon pink. No movie has ever announced itself with a more sexually…

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Prescient words of wisdom from Cary Grant

"When I find myself in a position like this, I ask myself: 'What would General Motors do?' And then I do the opposite!" -- Johnny Case (Cary Grant) in "Holiday" (1938). Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart, based on the play…

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Opening Shots: 'Scarecrow'

View image View image From Leonard Maltin: The one that first comes to mind is from a film I fell in love with thirty-some years ago, "Scarecrow," directed by Jerry Schatzberg and shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. I revisited it when…

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Seventh inning stretch-marks?

Bobble this. It's a very special Tom Cruise Night when the California League Lake Elsinore Storm face the High Desert Mavericks this evening (Friday) at 7:05, PDT. The Los Angeles Times reports: Besides giving away a Cruise bobblehead — make…

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Looking at screens

What was I thinking? David Poland sent me this funny picture (of me) that he took during a panel discussion at Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival in May, called "Not Playing at a Theatre Near You." It is clear that…

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Opening Shots Quiz 2: Answers

"I am your host! Und sagen..." Here they are, eleven of the most famous opening shots in movie history, plus a bonus that I threw in just because I like it. Prepare to smack your head and say, "D'oh! I…

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Repeatable pleasures

"Barry Lyndon": Let's begin again... Some great (and maybe not-so-great) movies reward repeated viewings; others you may savor only once or twice. The newly redesigned Slate.com has asked several movie people what movies they've seen most often. (On my own…

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Opening Shots update & lexicon

I still have plenty of excellent Opening Shots submissions to edit and post -- and I'm doing my best to get frame grabs to accompany them whenever I can. (Quiz answers coming soon, too.) To no one's surprise, "Star Wars"…