Welcome back to a very special holiday edition of Movieline's Weekend Forecast! Actually there is nothing that special about it besides the fact that it's on Thursday and features perhaps the most whiplash-inducing swing of good-to-bad multiplex fare of any week in recent memory. But therein lies the happy news: There is good stuff to see here! But how much money will it make? To the Forecast!
It looks like a teaser and a full trailer for the new teen-alien-thriller series I Am Number Four were not enough. Now we've got a new "extended look," which seems like it should show us a new angle of the movie that those non-extended looks just couldn't cram in. Right?
Everyone who has been complaining that Steve Martin isn't funny anymore or talks too much about art might want to check out his Twitter feed, which he is constantly updating this week from jury duty. For example: "REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: defendant looks like a murderer. GUILTY. Waiting for opening remarks." Then later: "REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: guy I thought was up for murder turns out to be defense attorney. I bet he murdered someone anyway."
It's the day before Christmas Eve, and if you're anything like me, you're probably wondering, "Hey! What will be the next quirky and still totally by-the-book comedy with an almost-famous cast to be marketed as an indie film, complete with a Sundance premiere?" Well, just in time for your consideration, here is the trailer for Cedar Rapids, in which Ed Helms plays a naive man who leaves his small town for the first time only to be schooled in the ways of getting drunk, screwing and fighting by the wacky John C. Reilly.
· Paula Abdul's new dance competition series Live to Dance premieres Jan. 4 on CBS. Judging by this new preview, the MC Skat Kat colleague remains in fine, mumble-y form. [TV Guide]
Martin Scorsese's gothic psychological thriller Shutter Island grossed $294 million worldwide, remains on the awards-season bubble, and persists at year's end as a divisive critical flashpoint. So why is it among L.A. Times critic Betsy Sharkey's most "overlooked" films of 2010? "Director Martin Scorsese's dark and devious brain tease is as much a conversation as a movie," Sharkey writes. "[...] Instead of tying up loose ends, he keeps unraveling them so by the time he drops the big one, you should be good for hours of post-cinema parsing. See it with a friend." Funny, I thought we all... had? Anyway, I'm curious: Help me help you help her understand. [LAT]
Thank goodness for the BBC Archives. Unearthed in conjunction with the release of The King's Speech comes the actual climax of the film (spoiler?): King George IV's country-rallying speech on the eve of World War II in 1939. How does the famously public-speaking-averse king sound on these dusty recordings? Like some combination of Tweety Bird and Bill Nighy at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, naturally!
I lost count somewhere around 12, or it might have been 13. There's a certain punch-drunkness that follows the words "Beat Dat Beat," to say nothing of the dizzying haze accompanying MTV's official confirmation of a Jersey Shore spinoff featuring Pauly D. Kudos to anyone who can get through the last paragraph standing up.
As the year closes and I recover from yet another staggeringly bad movie we love, I'm happy to share my dreams for a brighter tomorrow. 2010 was tolerable, but 2011 is poised to give us a Neve Campbell revival, more Logo Network supremacy, and the Oprahcalypse. I'm game.
· How long before Dan Harmon plans a theme episode around the idea that Abed, Jeff, Troy, Annie, Britta, Shirley and Pierce become superheroes? Probably not very long. Click ahead to see your favorite Greendale Students drawn as The Avengers (Pierce Smash!) and then stick around for more Buzz Break.
Movieline HQ has been abuzz this week with year-end celebrations. The best of the best culture had to offer in this year has all been accounted for, and we've even offered you some picks for the (hopefully) best entertainment options on the horizon in 2011. With the New Year in mind, here's a monthly breakdown of twelve movies that should definitely be on your radar in the next 365 days.
There's probably no good reason to read any movie critic's Top 10 list, but lots of people -- including myself -- read them anyway. Let's not be falsely modest about it: It's an honor to be able to compile a list and to have a place, online or otherwise, to moor it. But everyone who cares about movies has his or her own private list, posted online or not, which may include some or all of the usual suspects in a given year (like The Social Network or The King's Speech, pictures which lots of people, though not all people, seem to love) as well as a selection of fiercely protected personal favorites.
Wondering what other Broadway actors think of the rash of injuries that have occurred during preview performances of Julie Taymor's seemingly cursed Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark? "They should put Julie Taymor in jail for assault!" wrote Rent star Adam Pascal on his Facebook page. "I know what its like to fall and get hurt in front of 2,000 people. It's no fun, but at least it was the one time it happened. I hope whoever was hurt is ok and sues the sh*t out of Julie, Bono, Edge and every other a*shole who invested in that steaming pile of actor crippling sh*t!" Well, then.
Ready for some shocking monetary figures that will put your $9/hour filing paychecks to shame? According to Forbes, Leonardo DiCaprio grossed $1.1 billion at the global box office in 2011 thanks to the fearsome twosome of Shutter Island and Inception. Okay, maybe DiCaprio's perch on top of this year's highest-grossing list is not that shocking. What is surprising, though, is which young actress finished just behind the actor, grossing over $1 billion. Any guesses?
Asking what films I've seen recently is a good way to wipe my brain clean. Once, in a job interview where it was clear the answer would determine my fate, all I could come up with was Calendar Girls, which would have been a poor choice even as a recent release, which it was not. Tabulation is not a strong suit. Rubrics wear me out. A recent report on people with brains like databases with total recall made me itch, and yet the chemistry made sense: An abundance of adrenaline caused ordinary events to imprint in their memories the way only extraordinary events -- or even amazing shots, bravura scenes, and other bits of movie magic -- do for the rest of us.
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