In this weekend's Larry Crowne, Tom Hanks plays a hardworking retail employee who is laid off suddenly because he doesn't have a college degree. How did Hanks transform himself from a smooth-talking cross-dresser named Buffy to a dorky community college student who dresses in Dockers and crosses campus on a scooter?
True story: "[T]here's a spray-tanned John Malkovich going real big; an absolutely bonkers physical comedy endurance routine from Ken Jeong; Frances McDormand vacillating between phone-in and terrifying commitment as a chief spook; a big and effortlessly campy John Turturro splatter-painting of a performance. That is a lot of actors trying things without much supervision and, to be fair, they're all winners in the losing battle of man versus machine." [The Awl]
In 2007, a dapper young star named Shia LaBeouf appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair next to an interesting caption: "Can Hollywood Turn 21-Year-Old Shia LaBeouf Into the Next Tom Hanks?" Provocative. Of course, LaBeouf's career shifted from that of a Hanks-ian, potential Oscar nominee to the domain of a de rigueur action star. The youngster may not have followed Vanity Fair's wish list since starring in the first Transformers film, but maybe he scored a more interesting feat -- becoming our generation's Michael J. Fox.
As hard as this may be to believe for some of you, it appears the critics love (or maybe the correct term is "hate less") Michael Bay more than Tom Hanks. At least when it comes to Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Larry Crowne. The Hanks-directed comedy has been raked through the coals in reviews, and currently sports an even lower Rotten Tomatoes rating than Dark of the Moon. Perhaps it needed more Autobots. Ahead, the 9 most scathing critical responses to Larry Crowne.
Steven Soderbergh is retiring. Eventually. Of course, before he does ride off into the sunset the Oscar winning director will release five films: Contagion (recently moved up to early September), Haywire, Magic Mike, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Liberace. In other words: there's plenty of Soderbergh left, cinephiles! The second of his final five films to hit theaters is Haywire, and a first image from the action thriller has hit the Internet. Say hello to MMA fighter Gina Carano... and her Uzi.
Also in this Friday (Friday!) edition of The Broadsheet: Vince Vaughn could join Neighborhood Watch... the synopsis for Prometheus tells you nothing... the best movie trailer of the last calendar year is effing special... and more ahead.
Every month at Movieline, we collect the best interviews, smartest features, and most compelling reviews we've produced, and curate them in one easy-to-use table of contents called the Virtual Newsstand, which pays tribute to our print magazine history. Here's the Virtual Newsstand for June 2011.
Fourth of July Weekend is upon us, which means Movieline's Dept. of Box-Office Forensics has broken out its holiday formulas for our customary run through the week's new releases. And with one already out and two in the offing -- plus a bottleneck of June releases showing off their staying power -- it's a tough one to predict. But let us persevere -- to the Forecast!
Take note, nerds: Francis Ford Coppola is about to invade your favorite geek event of the year. The director will bring his latest film, Twixt, to showcase at the July convention, where he'll integrate live music by Dan Deacon to demonstrate the project's boundary-pushing interactive presentation. What treats are in store for lucky Con-goers?
Big news for Thor fans: Marvel Studios is committing to a sequel for the hammer-carrying superhero due in theaters summer 2013. While Chris Hemsworth will return as the title character, director Kenneth Branagh will not be overseeing the new production.
Today in WTF: Indie darlings Florence + the Machine -- whom I lovingly call Tori Amos and the Evanescence -- visited the spectacular Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando on Thursday. They're performing at the Hard Rock at Universal CityWalk tonight, but the important thing is that someone took a picture of the group slurping Butterbeer and touring the premises. It's all a little too much wizardry for me.
You read that right: Stephen Bannon, whose Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated has drawn critical ire across the aisles, says an uncut version of his film will be released on demand following its PG-13 theatrical release July 15. The new cut will depict even more of the dastardly violence and vulgarity the former Alaska governor/vice presidential candidate has suffered during her rise in the public eye, including "crucifixions, lynching and suicides" sourced from social media. Pulling a classic double dip! Looks like Hollywood and its hateful methods aren't all despicable, eh?[THR]
With less than a month until Captain America: First Avenger hits theaters, U.S. moviegoers have been pummeled with nearly every variety of Captain America poster and promo art under the shield-shaped sun: the Dunkin' Donuts-sponsored kind, the violence against Hitler kind, the character kind, the dirt-rain kind, the Herculean jawline kind and, as of Thursday, the international kind. Let's see how the overseas variety stacks up against a slew of American First Avenger posters.
Movieline trivia: We really like Brooklyn Decker! She's smart, cool, unpretentious, and now she's going to add a necessary blast of down-to-earthiness to director Kirk Jones' What to Expect When You're Expecting, playing a wife who "sails through her pregnancy with twins, much to the consternation of her friends." Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez co-star, and I'm looking forward to their consternation. Shine on, Brooklyn! Shine on! [Deadline]
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