Like a pregnancy test or gas station sushi, Mother's Day can go one of two ways: pleasantly surprising or life-changingly traumatic. With that holiday quickly approaching, Movieline has compiled five matriarchs on television today that will make your mother's judgmental sniping almost palpable. So order an edible arrangement for the woman who birthed you and thank JC you didn't have to grow up with one of these ladies.
With less than a month until the underrated Bonnie Hunt Show drops off the air and four months until the Oprah Winfrey Show's grand finale, the daytime talk show landscape is about to undergo a dramatic shift. Rosie O'Donnell is reportedly returning to the genre to create a show on her terms and give Ellen DeGeneres a run for her money. Meanwhile, other networks are in various stages of of preparation for daytime programs starring Julie Chen, Tori Spelling and Fran Drescher. But before they tape their pilot or race out for a test run this summer, the ladies best study the mistakes made by the gabbers whose daytime forays fizzled out in one season or less.
I've never been much of a believer that Anchorman 2 would happen. It had its window around 2006 or so; now the economics don't work and the global box office prospects are underwhelming. Nevertheless, where there's a will, there's a way to overcome a reported $30 million budget gap between Paramount and the film's high-wattage producers and stars. Some tough, serious cuts and considerations will be required, though. Read on for a a few recommendations that spring immediately to mind; as always, your own are welcome in the comments.
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Tonight, MTV premieres its sixth and final season of The Hills, an iteration that the network has mercilessly teased as the franchise's cattiest and teariest yet. But before we waste an entire season hoping that Speidi divorces, Audrina finds a boyfriend that is not a complete parasite and a cast member battles an actual addiction that is not plastic surgery-related, let's remember back, way back, to when the show had a heart. Cue the milky dissolve.
Ten years after Survivor first aired, the craze of reality-competition still hasn't plateaued in terms of sheer ingenuity or fervor. What's just begun, however, is formal appreciation of the reality-competition host. The Emmys began awarding reality emcees only in 2008, meaning an entire televised profession is unaware of its greatest practitioners. That's why Movieline is stepping in to rank the 10 greatest reality-competition hosts working today, from chef skewerers to tribal council tribunals. Our No. 1 gives an unforgettable performance.
Attending the Iron Man 2 press conference today, I couldn't help but notice how much it played like the kind of press conference Tony Stark would throw in the film. Holding court was Robert Downey Jr, who cracked one-liners every time someone tried to ask him a serious question, and on either side of him were Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jon Favreau (who also plays body man Happy Hogan in the film) reprising their movie roles and doing their best to rein him in. With that in mind, then, here are the 9 best quotes the press was able to get out of Downey Jr:
Who's ready for the new Sex and the City 2 trailer, which plunks Carrie Bradshaw and company right where you knew their destinies would always take them: Abu... Dhabi? What? Forget it. Sometimes you just know when something stinks, and I would sooner tattoo my eyelids than watch this effing thing. In fact, I can think of a million other things I would do before I watched a frame of this garish, overextended, ovary-tickling twaddle. For starters:
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I chuckled earlier when I read about the flickering flame of hope kept alive by Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, who insists that the property could be resurrected as a feature film on a semi-regular basis. He's not the only one who regularly flogs a filmic pipe dream, though. Here are 9 projects in perpetual development that film bloggers love to write about, but will probably never get a greenlight:
You have to feel a little bit bad for the Easter Bunny. Unlike Santa Claus, he doesn't bring people presents. And unlike the Tooth Fairy, he doesn't get to dispense money. But that doesn't mean he has to be such a jerk. All the Easter Bunny does is hide eggs around the house like a College Humor prankster. Where's the fun in that? This maligned bunny is just one in a long line of annoying and off-putting leporids. Read on for five other bunnies even worse than the Easter Bunny.
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It's been a rough month for Bruce Willis, substance-wise. While promoting Cop Out on Good Morning America last month, the blazed actor could barely keep his eyes open for Robin Roberts. And then just last night, a journalist ran down the smashed actor at the Hornets/Lakers game, shoved a microphone in his face and asked him about March Madness and New Orleans music. Can't a world-famous celebrity enjoy a night of boozy revelry without a follow-up interview?
After the jump, Movieline recalls a few other stars who didn't let a little thing like promotional obligations get in the way of a good buzz.
Screenwriter apologies may or may not develop into a hot new Hollywood trend, but the recent mea culpas from Monster House's Dan Harmon and Battlefield Earth's J.D. Shapiro suggest a simmering remorse among many of the town's schlock-scribes. Nevertheless, Harmon and Shapiro's contrition seems a little... off. Like, those big checks you get upon starting and completing a studio project? They're not for the work -- one's a down payment on your pride, and the other buys your silence. What would really be impressive if the screenwriters of misconceived labors of "love" or otherwise auteurist fare came out and said, "Well, I effed that one up. Sorry about that!" Read on for a few recommended trailblazers of this movement, and by all means suggest your own in the comments.
Nobody wants to see a couple busted up, and nobody but the other man/woman rejoices if/when it does. With that in mind, it's hard to know what the Hollywood media establishment thinks it will get out of asking celebrities for deep, profound and/or revelatory insights about the break-up process beyond, of course, "Well, that sucks." And, "I wish them only the best." The ongoing Sandra Bullock/Jesse James imbroglio (now upgraded to "separated," according to those definitive arbiters of marital status at IMDB) hasn't proven to break the cycle, but only accelerate it furiously from zero to LOL in seconds flat. After the jump, find the five least essential messages of support for Sandy (with helpful translations from PR-ese) in a time when, really, she'd probably just rather her friends -- from Betty White to Mo'Nique -- just please let it die already.
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There's nothing like a crop of summer movies to meet your quota of explosions after a particularly dry Oscar season, but what of this year, when the percussion-heavy The Hurt Locker took Best Picture? It's time for Movieline's annual dissection of the best explosions as seen in this year's summer movie trailers, and if these flicks hope to outdo Hurt Locker, they've got a lot of ground to make up. Here are 6 of the most explosive contenders:
To build anticipation for Friday's debut of the first Tron: Legacy trailer, Disney has made available to the film's Facebook fans this incredibly exciting image, suitable for framing, using as wallpaper, or just squinting at and going, "Huh?" And yet, amazingly enough, it's not even close to being the lamest film still ever released. What is? Here are some leading candidates:
According to Kevin Smith, it wasn't easy to direct Bruce Willis while making Cop Out, since Willis had played the smirking cop so often in his career that he felt he knew the character (and his own movie star persona) better than Smith did. Certainly, Willis has worked in cinematic law enforcement a number of times, but has he played more cop roles than all his peers? Movieline decided to find out by doing a little bit of resume-skimming for some of today's top actors.
The rules? The star has to be alive, sequels count (since they contribute to the perception that the actor often plays a cop), and we're focusing on regular cop cops, not military men or federal employees like ATF or CIA agents. Here's what we found:
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