Noticias

Cinderella Man is an inspiring underdog story with a stellar cast that includes Russell Crowe and Rene Zellweger. The film follows real-life boxer James J. Braddock as he navigates the Great Depression and makes a triumphant return to the ring. The supporting cast, including Paul Giamatti and Craig Bierko, delivers standout performances that enhance the compelling story.

Cinderella Man is a hugely popular boxing movie that took the world by storm in 2005, but many of the actors involved have gone on to carve unique careers for themselves and star in plenty more recognizable projects. The story follows a former boxer named James J. Braddock, whose life is turned upside-down by the Great Depression and hes forced to get into the ring once more. Its one of the most inspiring movies about underdogs in recent memory, and the story has managed to stay relevant for almost two decades.

The A-list cast...

Humphrey Bogart is one of Hollywood's most legendary icons. From the world-weary Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1943) to the cold-hearted Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941), Bogart brought an uncanny mix of sad-eyed cynicism and moral fortitude to each role he played. Those same qualities are on display in his final film, The Harder They Fall (1956), a gritty noir about corruption in the sport of boxing. Cinematographer Burnett Guffey earned an Oscar nomination for his raw, unflinching look at the brutality of boxing. His dynamic camera angles and suffocating closeups of the in-ring action clearly influenced the intense fight scenes in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980). Boxing fans will also love seeing former heavyweight champions Jersey Joe Walcott and Max Baer in supporting roles. However, even with the dazzling camera work and notable cameos, the film's true marquee attraction is Bogart delivering another classic performance in the face of tragic personal circumstances.

"The Beverly Hillbillies" is the platonic ideal of a high-concept sitcom hook. At its essence, it's simply "Poor folks get stinking rich and move to Beverly Hills." That's probably all CBS needed to hear from creator Paul Henning, who, between 1962 and 1971, exploited this simple premise to the tune of nine seasons and 274 episodes. During this span, "The Beverly Hillbillies" was one of the top-rated shows on TV.

How could such a simple premise, which was never really tweaked, sustain a series for nearly a decade? This question perpetually flummoxed the nation's TV critics, who generally loathed the show, but anyone who gorged on "The Beverly Hillbillies" throughout their formative couch potato years (during its initial run or via syndication) knows the answer is obvious: it's the cast, stupid.

Buddy Ebsen was perfect casting as Jed Clampett, a gentleman of the Ozarks who accidentally discovers oil on his Missouri mountain land...

This pandemic has brought on challenging times, especially in the medical field, and City of Hope is facing it head-on with an end-of-the-year auction of celebrity treasures.

City of Hope, a world-renowned independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases, has announced the inaugural Celebrity Sale 4 Hope, a virtual shopping opportunity to bid on unique collectible items and personal memorabilia donated from a wide variety of notable names from the worlds of film, TV, stage, music, sports and more. Sale 4 Hope will begin with a VIP preview event on Tuesday, Nov. 17, hosted by “Will & Grace” star Eric McCormack and featuring appearances by actor Craig Bierko, Grammy-winning songwriter Kuk Harrell, model/actress/philanthropist Megan Pormer, actor/country music artist John Schneider and City of Hope’s Linda Malkas, Ph.D., the M.T. & B.A. Ahmadinia Professor in Molecular Oncology.

Tickets can be purchased to attend...

Humphrey Bogart movies: ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘High Sierra’ (Image: Most famous Humphrey Bogart quote: ‘The stuff that dreams are made of’ from ‘The Maltese Falcon’) (See previous post: “Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall Movies.”) Besides 1948, 1941 was another great year for Humphrey Bogart — one also featuring a movie with the word “Sierra” in the title. Indeed, that was when Bogart became a major star thanks to Raoul Walsh’s High Sierra and John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon. In the former, Bogart plays an ex-con who falls in love with top-billed Ida Lupino — though both are outacted by ingénue-with-a-heart-of-tin Joan Leslie. In the latter, Bogart plays Dashiel Hammett’s private detective Sam Spade, trying to discover the fate of the titular object; along the way, he is outacted by just about every other cast member, from Mary Astor’s is-she-for-real dame-in-distress to Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominee Sydney Greenstreet. John Huston...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated recently on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe in 2011 and he has asked me to write a regular monthly movie-related column. This month’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat is written as if it’s 1949, the year Joe Besser starred with Abbott and Costello in the comedy Africa Speaks. We are publishing several Joe Besser articles in this issue to help promote the upcoming Joe Besser Film Festival which will...

“Boxing,” Eddie Muller affirmed, “is noir.” In the early 1930s between the demise of Jack Dempsey as heavyweight champion of the world and the ascension of Joe Louis as heavyweight champion of the world, a couple of enterprising gangsters on the East Coast—Paul John (“Frankie”) Carbo and Frank (“Blinky”) Palermo (“I’m not making these names up,” Muller assured us)—attempted to take control of all the boxing rings by basically determining who would and would not fight for the championship fights that were being held in the greater New York area. Their great contribution to boxing was the creation of heavyweight champion Primo Carnera, a circus strongman that Carbo and Palermo had their hooks into who they basically led by a leash to the heavyweight championship of the world. Mark Robson’s The Harder They Fall is the fictionalized account of the Primo Carnera scandal.

In keeping with...

In boxing lore, there have been few comeback stories as inspirational as the precipitous fall and equally dramatic ascension of Depression-era fighter James J. Braddock.

Appropriately dubbed the Cinderella Man by Damon Runyon, Braddock and his change of fortune provided a shred of hope for the hard-knock lives and times of his fellow working-class Americans.

Reuniting with his A Beautiful Mind star, Ron Howard and Russell Crowe bring the Braddock story to vivid life in a superbly acted, beautifully shot, highly engaging drama that ranks as one of Howard's best efforts.

It's certainly the first studio release of the year that could rightfully lay claim to any early Oscar buzz. The picture not only boasts a winning ensemble, with equally terrific performances from on-a-roll Paul Giamatti and Renee Zellweger, but it also is a technical knockout, steeped in period atmosphere that practically reeks of authenticity.

But while it doesn't flinch from the lower-key, darker recesses of the era, it still manages to hit the necessary, audience-grabbing posts. Even with all those traditionally male-skewing boxing sequences, there's also a strong emphasis on home and family that will ensure Cinderella Man is an equal-opportunity draw, in turn giving Universal a Seabiscuit-sized happily ever after at the boxoffice.

The screenplay, credited to Cliff Hollingsworth and A Beautiful Mind's Akiva Goldsman, picks up on Crowe's Braddock in the throes of a promising career. The New Jersey-based Bulldog of Bergen, known for a healthy tenacious streak and a formidable right hand, was on his way to the big time when a badly broken right hand and a consequential defeat at the hands of light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran sent his career into a downward spiral.

Of course, the fact that his bad-luck streak happens to coincide with the stock-market crash of 1929 only exacerbates matters, and Braddock soon finds himself unable to make ends meet for wife Mae (Zellweger) and his three kids.

Drowning in debt and facing the prospect of a New Jersey winter without heat in their drab basement apartment, Braddock is not above begging when his old, indefatigable manager Joe Gould (Giamatti) shows up offering him a one-shot chance at redemption.

Deemed too old and too hungry to step back in the ring, Braddock surprises the skeptics, and himself for that matter, by knocking out his rising-star opponent with the help of a newly discovered hook developed logging all those hours of dock work.

Soon, Braddock finds himself back on track and carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of struggling average Joes on his shoulders. But an impending face-off against world heavyweight champ Max Baer, who already has killed two men in the ring, raises the stakes considerably for Braddock and his family.

Always a stickler for period detail, Howard outdoes himself here. Working with production designer Wynn Thomas and costume designer Daniel Orlandi, he evokes the time and place right down to the faces of the smallest bit players.

When the power is cut in Jim and Mae's flat in the dead of winter, Salvatore Totino's ever-probing camera captures each stifled breath, and thanks to the meticulously re-created surroundings (using Toronto's empty Maple Leaf Gardens as a credible substitute for the old Madison Square Garden Bowl), you almost can catch a whiff of the smoke and sweat and desperation.

But the picture's greatest effect is Crowe. With his head cocked to one side almost in anticipation of the blows that will come his way both in and out of the ring, he makes Braddock an introspective everyman who might be down but never is completely out for the count.

Giamatti, who just keeps getting better, brings a never-say-die urgency to the role of Braddock's scrappy manager, while Zellweger takes what could have been a thankless role and gives it her own indelible imprint.

There's also good work from Bruce McGill as a cigar-chomping boxing promoter, Paddy Considine as a co-worker of Braddock's who doesn't fare quite so well and Craig Bierko as a taunting Baer.

Putting the finishing touches on this thoroughly satisfying production is Thomas Newman's elegant score, which, like everything else here, never strains for cheap sentiment.

Cinderella Man

Universal

Universal Pictures, Miramax Films and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production in association with Parkway Prods.

Credits:

Director: Ron Howard

Screenwriters: Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman

Story: Cliff Hollingsworth

Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Penny Marshall

Executive producer: Todd Hallowell

Director of photography: Salvatore Totino

Production designer: Wynn Thomas

Editors: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley

Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi

Music: Thomas Newman

Cast:

Jim Braddock: Russell Crowe

Mae Braddock: Renee Zellweger

Joe Gould: Paul Giamatti

Max Baer: Craig Bierko

Mike Wilson: Paddy Considine

Jimmy Johnston: Bruce McGill

Ford Bond: David Huband

MPAA rating PG-13

Running time -- 144 minutes...

In boxing lore, there have been few comeback stories as inspirational as the precipitous fall and equally dramatic ascension of Depression-era fighter James J. Braddock.

Appropriately dubbed the Cinderella Man by Damon Runyon, Braddock and his change of fortune provided a shred of hope for the hard-knock lives and times of his fellow working-class Americans.

Reuniting with his A Beautiful Mind star, Ron Howard and Russell Crowe bring the Braddock story to vivid life in a superbly acted, beautifully shot, highly engaging drama that ranks as one of Howard's best efforts.

It's certainly the first studio release of the year that could rightfully lay claim to any early Oscar buzz. The picture not only boasts a winning ensemble, with equally terrific performances from on-a-roll Paul Giamatti and Renee Zellweger, but it also is a technical knockout, steeped in period atmosphere that practically reeks of authenticity.

But while it doesn't flinch from the lower-key, darker recesses of the era, it still manages to hit the necessary, audience-grabbing posts. Even with all those traditionally male-skewing boxing sequences, there's also a strong emphasis on home and family that will ensure Cinderella Man is an equal-opportunity draw, in turn giving Universal a Seabiscuit-sized happily ever after at the boxoffice.

The screenplay, credited to Cliff Hollingsworth and A Beautiful Mind's Akiva Goldsman, picks up on Crowe's Braddock in the throes of a promising career. The New Jersey-based Bulldog of Bergen, known for a healthy tenacious streak and a formidable right hand, was on his way to the big time when a badly broken right hand and a consequential defeat at the hands of light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran sent his career into a downward spiral.

Of course, the fact that his bad-luck streak happens to coincide with the stock-market crash of 1929 only exacerbates matters, and Braddock soon finds himself unable to make ends meet for wife Mae (Zellweger) and his three kids.

Drowning in debt and facing the prospect of a New Jersey winter without heat in their drab basement apartment, Braddock is not above begging when his old, indefatigable manager Joe Gould (Giamatti) shows up offering him a one-shot chance at redemption.

Deemed too old and too hungry to step back in the ring, Braddock surprises the skeptics, and himself for that matter, by knocking out his rising-star opponent with the help of a newly discovered hook developed logging all those hours of dock work.

Soon, Braddock finds himself back on track and carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of struggling average Joes on his shoulders. But an impending face-off against world heavyweight champ Max Baer, who already has killed two men in the ring, raises the stakes considerably for Braddock and his family.

Always a stickler for period detail, Howard outdoes himself here. Working with production designer Wynn Thomas and costume designer Daniel Orlandi, he evokes the time and place right down to the faces of the smallest bit players.

When the power is cut in Jim and Mae's flat in the dead of winter, Salvatore Totino's ever-probing camera captures each stifled breath, and thanks to the meticulously re-created surroundings (using Toronto's empty Maple Leaf Gardens as a credible substitute for the old Madison Square Garden Bowl), you almost can catch a whiff of the smoke and sweat and desperation.

But the picture's greatest effect is Crowe. With his head cocked to one side almost in anticipation of the blows that will come his way both in and out of the ring, he makes Braddock an introspective everyman who might be down but never is completely out for the count.

Giamatti, who just keeps getting better, brings a never-say-die urgency to the role of Braddock's scrappy manager, while Zellweger takes what could have been a thankless role and gives it her own indelible imprint.

There's also good work from Bruce McGill as a cigar-chomping boxing promoter, Paddy Considine as a co-worker of Braddock's who doesn't fare quite so well and Craig Bierko as a taunting Baer.

Putting the finishing touches on this thoroughly satisfying production is Thomas Newman's elegant score, which, like everything else here, never strains for cheap sentiment.

Cinderella Man

Universal

Universal Pictures, Miramax Films and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production in association with Parkway Prods.

Credits:

Director: Ron Howard

Screenwriters: Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman

Story: Cliff Hollingsworth

Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Penny Marshall

Executive producer: Todd Hallowell

Director of photography: Salvatore Totino

Production designer: Wynn Thomas

Editors: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley

Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi

Music: Thomas Newman

Cast:

Jim Braddock: Russell Crowe

Mae Braddock: Renee Zellweger

Joe Gould: Paul Giamatti

Max Baer: Craig Bierko

Mike Wilson: Paddy Considine

Jimmy Johnston: Bruce McGill

Ford Bond: David Huband

MPAA rating PG-13

Running time -- 144 minutes...

Russell Crowe has slammed his Cinderella Man co-star Craig Bierko for claiming he deliberately blanked him on the Canadian set of the boxing movie. Bierko, who plays German fighter Max Baer in the new film, recently voiced his surprise that he hardly knows Crowe, despite working alongside him for a month. He said, "I don't know him from Adam. There was literally not a single moment where I felt like we were actually bonding, or having a conversation." But Crowe blames the distance between them on the quality of Bierko's acting. He says, "Craig Bierko has an imagination. His recollection of the experience is significantly different from anyone else's. I spent my 40th birthday party on a satellite connection with my wife and child in Australia. Sorry I didn't invite Craig. I didn't think it was relevant. The fact is, he hadn't done enough work and he had to be drilled and drilled, and brought up to where we needed him to be - because if Max Baer isn't frightening and isn't capable, then we don't have much of a movie. Craig has never been in this kind of situation before. It has never been required of him to put this much work and this much of himself into a role. He didn't realize what he was getting into... He realized afterwards."...

Craig Bierko is in negotiations to step into the ring with Russell Crowe for Universal Pictures/Miramax Films' period boxing movie Cinderella Man. Ron Howard is directing and producing, along with Brian Grazer and Penny Marshall. Cinderella tells the tale of real-life heavyweight boxing champ Jim Braddock, to be played by Crowe. During the 1930s, Braddock was an aging boxer who made a comeback while trying to provide for his family during the Great Depression. Bierko is in talks to play Max Baer, Braddock's toughest challenger, a world heavyweight champion renowned for having killed two men in the ring. The script is written by Akiva Goldsman. Bierko's credits include The Thirteenth Floor, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the recent Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. He is repped by CAA, Jill Littman of Handprint Entertainment and attorney Craig Jacobson from Hansen, Jacobson, Teller & Hoberman.