Bradley Cooper’s past comes back to haunt him in The Silver Linings Playbook. Check out what’s playing at the movie theatre that serves as a backdrop for an emotional confrontation between Cooper and co-star Jennifer Lawrence. It’s Midnight Meat Train, a pre-stardom cult curio in Cooper’s career. It’s a nifty visual in-joke — perpetrated by Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell — that may escape those unfamiliar with Cooper's oeuvre or are too wrapped up in the intense scene to notice. After the jump you'll find a representative sampling of some you may have missed and things to watch and listen for so you don’t. more »
Lindsay Lohan does not read reviews of her performances, according to TMZ, which is a smart move when it comes to her much-publicized turn as Elizabeth Taylor in the Lifetime movie, Liz & Dick. The picture, which chronicles Taylor's tempestuous love affair with Richard Burton, doesn't air until Nov. 25, and already critics are carving into Lohan like she's a Thanksgiving turkey. more »
Yes, Mara Jade, it's possible for Harrison Ford to be "open to the idea" of reprising his role as Han Solo in Disney's Star Wars Episode VII and still hate the character, as Movieline noted back in 2010. The key here is that the actor may finally get the opportunity to kill off the character that has bedeviled him throughout his auspicious career, which is something he wanted back in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. more »
Someone involved in the making of Cloud Atlas is a fan of Elvis Costello. In the story thread where publisher Timothy Cavendish (Jim Broadbent) and a group of like-minded seniors plot their escape from the old-folks home where they've been imprisoned, the woman of the group, actress Amanda Walker, introduces herself in one scene as "Veronica Costello." That alone might not be enough to make a case for Elvis worship, but soon after the introduction the group of conspirators make a toast to "Trust." more »
Just two quick observations about Joss Whedon's Zomney political ad, which has gotten plenty of coverage elsewhere. The video has a lot of smart, funny lines in it, but it's tough to beat the filmmaker's observation that: "The 1 percent will no longer be the very rich. It will be the very fast." more »
The political action committee that opposes the National Geographic Channel's cablecast of Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden is seeking grass-roots donations to runs its anti-Obama 'Bump in the Road' ad during the telecast, according to an email making the rounds. more »
If human cloning has begun, I'd like to wager some money that Tom Hanks is an early adopter. The actor has been everywhere over the last week, making the media rounds to promote his latest picture, the ambitious Cloud Atlas, and his friend Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln as well. more »
In 1992 Jean-Claude Van Damme was sitting in a splits kick astride the world. The former body building champion and genuine full-contact karate knockout artist (19-1, with 18 KO’s) was riding a string of high-kicking lo-fi gems to his first big-budget affair: the unexpected Roland Emmerich sci-fi hit, Universal Soldier. The film’s $102-million worldwide haul caught the attention of major studios, and faster than a jumping wheel kick, a three-picture deal worth a reported $36 million was steadied in front of the Belgium-born ballerino like a pre-cut breakboard. more »
The Evil Dead Red Band trailer has arrived, and it turns out to be the same one that had audiences at NY Comic-Con screaming in their seats (and, apparently, leaking it on the web). If you can stomach it, make sure to hang tight for the tongue-slicing scene at the end. It will make you talk funny for hours. more »
With the first Iron Man 3 trailer premiering on Tuesday, Disney whet franchise fans' appetites by releasing a 17-second teaser trailer and poster for the latest installment of the metallic Marvel superhero saga. The trailer is one of those blink-and-you-miss-it deals that raises more questions than it answers, but, based on the movie-trailer-foreshadowing course I took in college, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) will be in some definite danger come May. more »
Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel, who passed away overnight at the age of 60 after battling cancer, defined the character of Emmanuelle as much as it defined her four-decade film career. With her first appearance as the doe-eyed sensual adventuress and 1970s softcore icon in 1974's Emmanuelle, Kristel became synonymous with the character, which, in turn, became shorthand for an entire genre of art-house erotica: gauzy, softly lit tales of women exploring their own sexual curiosity in exotic lands and pushing the boundaries of social conventions. Without Emmanuelle and Kristel, would we even have EL James' 50 Shades of Grey?
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South Park is either getting seriously meta, or bizarrely free-associative in its advanced age. The beginning of Wednesday night's new episode of the Comedy Central series saw the relentlessly cheerful and naively optimistic character Butters Stotch become a pint-sized rageaholic that is initially attributed to his Hawaiian roots, but later turns out to be about the charmed life of Ben Affleck. more »
A surge of intrigue rippled through the blogosphere this week when a rumor hit, sourced from the barest of suggestions (a secondhand casting breakdown), that Michael Bay's fourth and allegedly final outing with the Transformers series might revolve around the rarest of Bay creatures: A female heroine. Sad, yes — Bay's filmography is so male-driven, his portfolio so stacked with binders full of supermodel-hot leading ladies, that even the slightest move toward gender equality in Bay's work force warrants an onslaught of hopeful speculation.
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This week television's probing procedural Law & Order: SVU ripped inspiration from the headlines — or rather, the bestseller list — with a case involving the assault of the author of a Fifty Shades of Grey-style novel. (Starring My Girl's Anna Chlumsky!) But what's the takeaway here? What's L&O:SVU really trying to say to E.L. James?
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Ridley Scott knows how to keep the world talking about Prometheus. With the release of the film on Blu-Ray and DVD on Tuesday, much of the conversation about this very engaging movie has centered on how earlier versions of the script were more closely connected to the Alien franchise. (Facehuggers, chestbursters and xenomorphs, oh my!) But a new infographic that's getting attention on the web puts the spotlight on the weaponized black goo that's stored on the Engineers' space ship. more »
