Game of Death (out this week from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) is a fairly run-of-the-mill straight-to-DVD action flick featuring Wesley Snipes as a CIA tough guy who's been targeted for assassination by a couple of rogue agents who want him out of the picture so they can commit an elaborate robbery. But it's not a total loss, since one of those rogue agents is played by none other than Zoe Bell, who captured the hearts of genre fans everywhere when she taught us how to do the "ship's mast" in the Death Proof segment of Grindhouse.
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Not that you doubted Emily Blunt's taste in the first place, but her preference in cinema is decidedly first-rate. Following my interview her to discuss her new film Gnomeo and Juliet, Emily agreed to play Movieline's favorite parlor game, My Favorite Scene. Will her selection be better than Darren Criss' Casablanca scene or JJ Abrams' slow-motion classic from Rear Window? You'll be delighted to know Blunt's pick is much grittier than both.
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Earlier this week, Movieline sat down with Anne Heche to discuss her role in this weekend's limited release, Cedar Rapids. At one point the discussion turned to how she chooses her roles now compared to the past, and that's when Heche confessed a certain decision that sticks with her to this day. (Hint: It's not Six Days Seven Nights.)
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Channing Tatum may be the brawny face of this week's Roman period adventure The Eagle, but British actor Jamie Bell is its scrappy, spirited conscience. As Esca, a Scottish slave guiding Tatum's Roman centurion through hostile territory on a mission of honor, Bell flirts with an ominous ambiguity that easily makes him the most watchable performer on the screen. And when you're sharing said screen with Donald Sutherland, Mark Strong, and Channing Tatum's abs, that's really saying something.
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Ed Helms is noticeably more anxious than the last time we spoke. In 2009, Helms was promoting his supporting role in a little film The Hangover -- a film which you'll recall went on to become the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all-time. Back then, Helms was just a co-star; now he's both the lead and executive producer on Cedar Rapids, a Sundance favorite about a mild-mannered insurance man from Wisconsin who heads to Cedar Rapids and has more than a few life-changing experiences. As the saying goes, "What happens in Cedar Rapids, stays in Cedar Rapids."
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From where she's sitting -- literally, high above the rafters -- T.V. Carpio must finally feel like she's found her calling. The multitalented actress has taken a circuitous and almost accidental route to stardom, turning in stints as a would-be Olympian, a Law & Order guest star, and a professional dancer along the way, but currently she's poised to make her name in the biggest, riskiest manner imaginable: As the female lead in Julie Taymor's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
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Emily Blunt is used to playing thorny characters who eventually endear audiences with fragility. Her newest role -- that of the lovestruck Juliet in the Shakespeare-twisting animated tale Gnomeo and Juliet -- is the opposite: an easygoing gal whose determination shines as the movie progresses. Yes, she's a computer-animated garden gnome in a movie about feuding garden gnome families (with an Elton John soundtrack), but she still bears the Capulet stubbornness that builds one scene at a time.
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Whatever you think you know about 90210 star Shenae Grimes probably doesn't tell the whole story. The 21-year-old actress -- who rose to fame in Canada as star of Degrassi: The Next Generation before being cast on The CW teen drama -- is more concerned with finding something that stimulates her intelligence than just the next paycheck role. That means she'll cameo in Scream 4, but balance that bit of mainstream pop with the indie film Sugar, about homeless kids in Los Angeles. That is, if she's not planning to direct her next short film or coming up with documentary ideas.
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It's rare that an Internet star and self-described theater junkie can be called "debonair," but 23-year-old Glee heartthrob Darren Criss fits the bill. The San Francisco native catapulted to offline fame with a suave rendition of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" during Glee's "Never Been Kissed" episode, and two months later, he shares an EW cover with co-star Chris Colfer. Just shy of Glee's big post-Super Bowl episode this Sunday, we caught up with Criss to discuss his character Blaine, ambitions, and the movie scene he loves most.
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If you read Movieline's recent interview with Nikita's Maggie Q, you'll recall that she rules. She's candid, savvy, and most of all, not afraid to get what she wants. When I asked Ms. Q to identify her favorite film moment of all-time, she also didn't disappoint. The 31-year-old star picked the raunchiest, aurally accurate sex scene I've ever seen. NSFW, to be sure, but click ahead to hear the story behind the action star's favorite moment in cinematic coitus.
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Best known for his character work on Deadwood and in the indie charmer Me and You and Everyone We Know, John Hawkes earned raves for his quietly menacing performance as the volatile, meth-addicted Teardrop in Debra Granik's Winter's Bone. In addition to nabbing Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay, the Ozarks noir notched an Oscar nod for Hawkes -- his first -- who will vie for Best Supporting Actor against the likes of Christian Bale, Geoffrey Rush, Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner.
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In Mark Pellington's divisive Sundance entry I Melt With You, Jeremy Piven plays a hard-partying Ari Gold-type reuniting for one crazy weekend with three college besties (Thomas Jane, Christian McKay, and Rob Lowe). But Pellington's psychological thriller is much darker than its Hangover-esque premise suggests, and as it takes the turns that alienated many critics in Park City, Piven plumbs intensely complex emotional depths. He spoke with Movieline about the polarizing film, his anti-Ari Gold roots, and -- why not? -- Miley Cyrus.
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Kevin Smith made waves in Park City by buying his own controversial horror pic, Red State, and announcing his impending retirement from directing, but buzz continued to build around his next (and allegedly final) film, Hit Somebody. The 1970s-set hockey pic, named after a Warren Zevon song, will reunite Red State cast members Michael Parks, Nicholas Braun, Michael Angarano, and Kyle Gallner, the recent Verge interviewee who also starred in the Sundance entry Little Birds. Movieline caught up with Gallner to ask: How did Smith recruit him for a second go-round?
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If the breakout debuts of Ryan Kwanten, Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas, and Teresa Palmer introduced a new generation of young Australian actors to Hollywood, the arrival of 22-year-old newcomer Rhys Wakefield marks the full-fledged Aussie Invasion. The young star of this week's 3D underwater actioner Sanctum, who plays a 17-year-old cave diver trying to survive and get along with his estranged father, moved to Los Angeles last week, has already worked with the highest-grossing filmmaker of all time (executive producer James Cameron), and, like a pro, has learned to keep mum on the high-profile scripts he's got piled up at home.
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Better late than never to become an Academy darling. Just ask Jeff Bridges: At 61, the actor has followed his Oscar-winning role as a raggedy, washed-up country singer in Crazy Heart with another Oscar-nominated turn as the raggedy, wasted Rooster Cogburn in the Coen brothers' True Grit. It's a part with an awards heritage of its own -- John Wayne won his only Oscar playing the gruff US Marshal in the 1969 adaptation of the Charles Portis novel -- yet one Bridges inhabits with his customary, blown-out swagger that is at once classic and utterly modern.
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