The MTV Networks' inaugural Comedy Awards will honor comedians, funny TV and film actors, and even Eddie Murphy, who's set to receive the ceremony's first Comedy Icon Award, which goes to "an individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to comedy and whose impact and innovations have changed the landscape and inspired future generations of entertainers." We all know Murphy's legendary stand-up specials like Delirious and Raw, his unforgettable SNL characters such as Mr. Robinson and Velvet Jones, and his great comedies like Beverly Hills Cop and Trading Places. But Mr. Murphy also has an illustrious career of unintentionally funny moments, and we'd like to present a quintet of these quazier times.
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As if there was really any doubt, C. Thomas Howell confirmed what has been roundly speculated for months: The Lizard, played by Rhys Ifans, will be the main villain in your new, Andrew Garfield-starring superhero movie, The Amazing Spider-Man. But while the confirmation itself resolves one outstanding question, it raises another for the more casual Spider-Man fan: Who the hell is The Lizard?
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No, "Kicking in the front seat / sitting in the back seat" is not a Gwendolyn Brooks couplet about Rosa Parks; it's a key line in YouTube sensation Rebecca Black's video "Friday," which is being "hailed" as the worst song ever. Honestly? It's not that bad. A little doltish and Auto-Tuned, but nothing that another wretched spin of "Boom Boom Pow" couldn't make you forget. Rebecca Black's meteoric rise (about 20 million views, so far) makes us reflect upon other questionable phenomena in pop history, the kinds whose stories still haven't been told on the big screen. Here are five we'd like to revisit.
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In Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's new alien romp Paul, Jason Bateman co-stars as Agent Zoil, a government official with an unknown agenda who is on the hunt for the escaped alien of the title. How did Bateman go from child star to one of the go-to supporting (and sometimes lead) actors in Hollywood?
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Conventional wisdom likes to assume that Matthew McConaughey has taken his shirt off in every single one of his movies, which would lead us to assume that he does so again in his new film, The Lincoln Lawyer. True, McConaughey is not shy when it comes to going bare chested on-screen and in public, but is he really sans shirt in every one of his movies? Well, we checked each and every one of them.
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Janet Jackson, whose biggest feat in recent years was a dance single with the lyric, "I'm heavy like a first-day period," just upped the ante: She landed a deal with Lionsgate to develop and produce a film: Exciting! Especially since Ms. Jackson's music video oeuvre has enough cinematic flair to inspire her film if need be. Let's look back at Janet's music videos and pick the five that deserve silver screen adaptations. Don your golden nosechain and come along!
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Nearly fifty years after the tragic murder of Sam Cooke -- the "King of Soul," whose musical contributions and Civil Rights successes continue to inspire todat -- it looks like Hollywood is just one step closer to adapting his story into a biopic. This hesitant pace -- when it comes to one of the greatest soul singers of all time -- begs the question: "What the hell does it take to get a biopic made these days?" 25 answers to this all-important question lie ahead.
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On Monday it was announced David Lynch will direct Duran Duran's live-streaming concert on March 23, which led to a collective, "Wait, what?" across the Internet. Lynch -- known for cerebral movies like Blue Velvet and this-makes-no-sense-to-any-rational-human-being movies like Mulholland Drive -- may not seem like the go-to point man for an '80s new wave pop group like Duran Duran. Then again, you may have forgotten just how well orchestrated and bizarre some of Duran Duran's videos actually are. (Remember, this is a band that got their name from the Jane Fonda movie, Barbarella.) In preparation for whatever Lynch's version of a Duran Duran concert is going to look like (here's hoping that it takes a series of 10 clues to interpret), let's take a refresher course on five Duran Duran videos that already look like they were directed by David Lynch.
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Mark Wahlberg was serious about this, huh? Last month, the actor joked with Mario Lopez about plans for a sequel to his highly successful passion project, The Fighter -- or at least it seemed like a joke. Wahlberg has gone on record again about The Fighter 2, and like Micky Ward doesn't seem ready to back down. "I got bit by the bug, and now I'm trying to plant the idea in everyone's head that we should do -- not five or six Fighters like Rocky -- but one more because the big thing that Micky Ward was famous for was his three epic battles with Arturo Gatti," he tells EW. "So we're talking about possibly taking one more run at it." Oh, no. Won't someone stop this fight before it gets ugly?
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It's March 14, dear readers, which is better known in the math-loving community as Pi Day. In honor of this numeric holiday, please help yourself to approximately three slices of pie from our expansive pie-ffet (any kind of pie you can imagine, displayed underneath a Movieline-emblazoned sneeze guard!), and review these films that make you -- or your estranged autistic brother Raymond -- really, really love numbers.
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Friday marks the limited release of Electra Luxx, the surprisingly sweet-natured film about the adult entertainment industry. Writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez and real-life girlfriend Carla Gugino (who plays the titular porn legend) are just the latest Hollywood-types to humanize porn stars, and in honor of this momentous occasion, Movieline has compiled some of Tinseltown's other takes on the adult industry.
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If your jaw is still on the floor following the news that Julianne Moore will play Sarah Palin in Game Change, do me a favor: Pick that sucker up and help Movieline cast the rest of this guaranteed must-watch HBO telefilm! Click ahead for some ML-approved suggestions, and then cast away in the comments section.
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The great thing about the massive program at the SXSW Film Festival, which starts this week, is that it runs so deep and it takes so many chances, whether on up-and-coming directors, megastars in need of PR miracles (looking at you, Mel), or random collaborations between artists so awesome, the mere idea of them working together blows your mind (four words: Die Antwoord + Harmony Korine). But many of these folks have a lot riding on their SXSW debuts. Movieline names 10 films and filmmakers with something big prove this week in Austin.
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Good and/or dubious news: Anthony Hopkins is rumored to play Daniel Craig's foe in the next James Bond installment. Though Hopkins would no doubt bring the right amount of icy grit, this is pretty obvious casting. Let's pick (and rank!) seven worthier, less expected candidates to release henchmen at 007.
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As you no doubt read earlier, a sequel to The Expendables (Movieline approved title: More Expendable) will go ahead without star Sylvester Stallone behind the keyboard or camera -- Sly won't write or direct the second installment. But who should? Glad you asked! Ahead, the five directors who would make total sense for this unnecessary-but-probably-still-cool-in-an-action-movie-sort-of-way sequel.
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