Most audiences will have to wait until this spring to glimpse Twilight vamp Robert Pattinson as a rascally womanizer in the period drama Bel Ami, but select lucky Belgian fans got a chance to screen the film early this week. Since the trades have yet to pass judgment, let's take a look at what the netizens had to say in their Bel Ami fan reviews: "Amazing!" "Stunning!" "A little bit psycho!" And, oh my -- "sexy thrusting!" More waxing poetic over RPattz's heavenly buttcrack (and oh yeah, his performance) after the jump.
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Big news from the swords-and-sandals prequel front! And by "big," I mean, "Warner Bros. spent roughly .00000005 of its budget on the follow-up to 300 registering a domain for a title that may or may not be final but Jesus Christ it is slow out there so let's talk about it anyway because it's got kind of a ring to it and in any case five is a lot of syllables for a 10-letter word, don't you think?"
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Among the many stream of consciousness topics Kanye West brain-dumped in his epic Twitter session Wednesday night -- his professional frustrations, his fashion aspirations, his new design company aimed at picking up where Steve Jobs left off -- was a brief mention of one curious film project in particular. "I was just discussing becoming the creative director for the Jetson [sic] movie and..." Wait, WHAT? The Jetsons, as in the long-gestating live-action Jetsons movie? And Kanye would have a hand in making this happen? Mr. West, you've got my attention now.
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Say what you will about Armond White, at least the iconoclast film critic is a conversation-starter. Over at CityArts White has posted his annual "Better-Than" list, in which he pairs seemingly disparate films of the year to show you why the movies you love/think are great are, in fact, vastly overrated. Example: " Jack and Jill > The Descendants," White insists, in a clear trouncing of "humility" over "sanctity." "Adam Sandler’s affectionate, very broad ethnic satire defies Alexander Payne’s smug denial of America’s ethnic history," he writes. Don't stop there, Armond!
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MMA star Gina Carano makes her action heroine debut this month in Steven Soderbergh's spy revenge pic Haywire, which bone-crunched its way into moviegoer hearts during AFI Fest. Can't wait to see Carano put a beat down on just about every leading man (Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender) whose path she crosses? Submit a 10-word review of any Soderbergh film to enter to win a pair of tickets to Thursday's Los Angeles premiere.
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The annual critical powwow that is Slate's Movie Club is currently underway, with that site's Dana Stevens leading a conversation between a redoubtable quartet also including Michael Phillips, Dan Kois and Movieline's own Stephanie Zacharek. What's on the agenda?
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Anyone who tells you that receiving a tattoo like the dragon design occupying a quarter of Rooney Mara's back in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will not hurt is a liar. Nevertheless, he's a competitively priced liar, according to a new survey of tattoo artists asked the simple question: "How much would it cost to buy a dragon tattoo?"
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Let's play a little game of Would You Rather, felony crime edition: Would you rather sit through all of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, or have a naked man flash your children from the first row of a movie theater? That's the conundrum some parents were faced with last weekend in a Chicago area multiplex when one Edward L. Brown interrupted an afternoon showing of the latest Fox chipmunk sequel. Details inside! (And it only gets weirder!)
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The best-known Hollywood swordsman this side of Warren Beatty passed away on New Year's Day: Bob Anderson, an Olympic fencer who once wounded Errol Flynn on set and whose subsequent swordfight choreography spanned 60 years and such franchises as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings and the James Bond series, is dead at the age of 89. Wind up your day rewatching a few of his finest battles.
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Maybe the apocalypse is nigh: News Corporation kingpin Rupert Murdoch rang in 2012 on Twitter, dashing off his appreciation for in-house treats ("Great oped inWSJ [sic] today on Ron Paul. Huge appeal of libertarian message"), urban atmospherics ("NY cold and empty, even central park. Nice!") and, naturally, the movies of Fox and its subsidiaries. Good news: The Descendants scored some much-needed awards love! Bad news: Said love came from a man who extolled equivalent appreciation for We Bought a Zoo.
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Dear family Movieliners, it is with a heavy heart that I inform you that after three lovely years together -- spent dissecting nearly every James Franco General Hospital performance, evaluating Sylvester Stallone's shirtless evolution onscreen and trying desperately to make sense out of the Adam Sandler Box Office Paradox -- I am setting sail for a new horizon.
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When it all boils down to it, Gwyneth Paltrow, Oscar-winning actress-megamillionaire celebrity-Gleek-blogger extraordinaire, is just like us: She is so getting wasted on New Year's Eve. Sure, her morning-after hangover advice includes words like "quinoa" and "Turkish Hammam," but still! Gwyneth's advice is mostly medically sensible-sounding, though I can't promise your pocketbooks will appreciate these fancy tricks. Get her five best tips (*as parsed by your helpful Movieline editors) after the jump so you can battle the blinding, alcohol-induced post-binge blahs in grand Paltrow fashion come Sunday morning.
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Sad news for the fans of Katy Perry and Russell Brand's marriage: The pop star who provided the voice of Smurfette and her Get Him to the Greek husband have filed for divorce after just 14 months of wedlock. Now repeat after me: I will not let this Hollywood divorce ruin my New Year's Eve. I will not let this Hollywood divorce ruin my New Year's Eve.
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You can call me Shirley. It’s fine.
Everything about writing a final post for Movieline is overwhelming, so bear with me as I wrap my head around how wonderful and challenging an experience I’ve had writing for this site for two and a half years. And what the hell? Let’s watch my favorite movie scene of all time too.
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The year is drawing to a close, which means that it is time to start thinking about all the things you did not accomplish in 2011. (That Ghostbusters 3 script? Still unread. That copycat Wedding Crashers crime you committed in college? Still unresolved in court.) But before you do that, let's take a look back at some of my favorite Movieline stories that punctuated this remarkably unproductive calendar year.
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