Moviefone Editorial

Tag: nick-nolte

  • Does ‘A Walk In the Woods’ Get Lost? Here’s What Critics Say

    Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson! Talk about a star-studded cast!

    But to the dismay of critics, even these A-listers can’t save “A Walk In the Woods,” the Ken Kwapis-directed action film about a renown travel writer (Redford)’s decision to take a 2,200 hike with a troubled former friend (Nolte) who leads them both on a wild adventure.

    The acting in the film – which is given only a 47 percent Rotten Tomatoes score – is predictably praised by critics. But the movie is panned for being somewhat flat, with occasional memorable moments.

    “As [Redford] hooks up with his alcoholic, overweight frenemy Stephen Katz, the point of the movie, and their journey, becomes less clear. This isn’t a bad thing. The real point of the movie is watching Redford and Nolte together, and too much plot would have cut into the curmudgeon time.” — Peter Hartlaub, SFGate.com

    “Redford, meanwhile, is nearly 80 … He is, as people often reminded, way too old for the journey. It creates an odd dissonance between the character and the scenario, which almost elevates the films to a level of high fantasy. The nature of this fantasy is boringly feel-good and aspirational. ‘A Walk in the Woods’ feels like a self-help movie by proxy. Watching it, we’re supposed be inspired by the pluck and resolve of Redford’s Bryson, while awed by the rapturous Appalachian scenery.” — John Semley, TheGlobeandMail.com

    But there are those who argue the acting is enough to make it all worth seeing.

    “‘A Walk in the Woods’ is just about as soothing as it sounds — a funny, contemplative consideration of what can and should be done in life brought into focus by two wily veteran actors who, like the characters they play, are obviously not ready to give up the ghost … In ‘A Walk in the Woods’ they show what true cinematic chemistry is all about without appearing to be acting at all.” — Tom Long, The Detroit News

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  • Robert Redford and Nick Nolte Are a ‘Fun Team’

    Not many duos are often compared to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, but “A Walk in the Woods” director Ken Kwapis found an unlikely dynamic pairing in his stars Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.

    “The day we did our wardrobe tests where we put backpacks on them and had them put on different clothes, I could tell, just watching them together, that they were going to be a fun team,” Kwapis tells Made in Hollywood.

    In the biopic, 79-year-old Redford brings to life the story of travel writer Bill Bryson’s journey, based on the 1998 book that shares the movie title, that stretched from Georgia to Maine with a long-lost friend, played by Nolte.

    “A Walk in the Woods” costars Emma Thompson and Mary Steenburgen, opening Friday.

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  • Nick Nolte’s 5 Favorite Movies

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    Nick Nolte has been acting since 1969 and was nominated for an Academy Award three times, so you could say he’s had a pretty successful career. Now, Nolte is teaming up with another Hollywood legend, Robert Redford, for “A Walk in the Woods.”

    To celebrate his new film, Nolte told us what his five favorite movies ever were.
    2015 Sundance Film Festival Portraits - Day 2

  • Robert Redford Takes a Hike in First ‘A Walk in the Woods’ Trailer

    Even Robert Redford knows that, if you’re going to go on a 2,100-mile hike, then the best person to get camping advice from is Ron Swanson.

    In this exclusive trailer for “A Walk in the Woods,” based on the acclaimed novel by Bill Bryson, Redford plays Bryson as he and an estranged friend (Nick Nolte) attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Many laughs ensue, especially when Nick Offerman shows up playing a sporting goods store clerk who shows Redford some camping essentials.

    A Walk in the Woods – Trailer 1

    A Walk in the Woods Movie trailer is here!

    Posted by Moviefone on Wednesday, May 27, 2015

    The Oscar-winner, last seen in Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” spent at least a decade trying to bring the popular book to the big screen — a book he (ironically) discovered before going on a trip himself.

    “My wife and I were going on vacation, and there was this book sitting on my desk that had sat there for some while,” Redford said. He went on to say that he had yet to read it because the cover reminded him of “another one of those environmental books” he often receives.

    “[But] I took it along, I read it, and it was the first time I could remember laughing out loud so many times while reading a book.”

    If the trailer is any indication, the author’s unique brand of humor is alive and well in “Woods” — and Redford wouldn’t have it any other way.

    “I like comedy that has some wit attached to it, and Bryson had that,” Redford said. “…Bryson skirts this line between just on the edge of sarcasm, what I would call sardonic humor, but it’s funny, it’s witty, but it’s also got a level of sophistication.”

    “Woods,” which also stars Emma Thompson, hits theaters Labor Day Weekend.

  • Adam Sandler Lines Up All-Star Cast for His Netflix Movie ‘Ridiculous 6’


    When Adam Sandler secured his lucrative deal with Netflix, it was unclear what the first project from this groundbreaking union would be. Well, The Wrap is reporting that the first film will be Sandler’s long-gestating western comedy “Ridiculous 6.” What’s more, the site is reporting that Sandler has lined up an all-star cast. Apparently, with his first Netflix outing, Sandler wants to go big.

    “Ridiculous 6,” co-written by Sandler and regular collaborator Tim Herlihy, will star Blake Shelton, Whitney Cummings, Luke Wilson, Steve Zahn, Nick Nolte, Danny Trejo, Chris Parnell, Lavell Crawford and returning Sandler favorites Steve Buscemi, Rob Schneider (so I guess he patched up whatever beef he had with Sandler that kept him out of “Grown Ups 2”), Dan Aykroyd, Nick Swardson, Terry Crews, John Lovitz and Vanilla Ice. Whew, that’s a lot of people.

    What’s somewhat more iffy about the project is the fact that it’s a comedic western, with the title an obvious riff on “The Magnificent Seven” (itself a western take on Akira Kurosawa’s immortal “Seven Samurai”). This must have been the reason it had such a long and problematic production history, having first been developed at Sony before moving on to Paramount, who too reached an impasse with the expensive and unproven genre.

    This project seems even riskier coming so closely after “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” Seth MacFarlane’s costly bomb that was also a western comedy. Still, “A Million Ways to Die in the West” didn’t have Vanilla Ice playing Mark Twain or Blake Shelton playing Wyatt Earp… So we’re willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt, especially since we presumably won’t have to pay for it, it will just appear on our Playstation 3 in 8 months (or whenever it comes out).

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