It seems like The Last Airbender has at least 99 problems -- excruciatingly bad 3D, thuddingly clumsy dialogue, sub-Jake Lloydian acting and more -- but should the color of its cast really be one of them? When io9 proffered Community actor Donald Glover as a possible new Spider-Man, the internet seized on it as its new favorite meme. Sure, Glover is black while Peter Parker in the movies, TV shows and comic books has always been white, but Glover is hilarious, as Spidey should be, and could have easily played the part. So why was this move lauded while Airbender has been met with protests and picket lines?
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By now you've no doubt heard that Andrew Garfield has been cast as Peter Parker in Sony's blockbuster reboot of Spider-Man. And sure, huzzah. Despite only appearing in a handful of movies -- many of which you've never seen nor heard of -- the buzz surrounding Garfield is that he's a legitimate actor with impressive chops that recall whatever '70s icon you're in the mood for recalling. Never mind that he's playing Spider-Man and not Hamlet or that Tobey Maguire was a legitimate actor too. This is a new day for comic book characters everywhere! It's just -- excuse me for being contrarian to the rest of the Internet, but: Isn't Garfield entirely too old for this?
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Marvel comics maven Brian Michael Bendis wondered if -- in light of recent headlines -- Signs was cursed. And seriously, between the critical drubbing of The Last Airbender and the latest allegations of racism levied against Mel Gibson, all that was missing from yesterday's news cycle was a story about Joaquin Phoenix falling asleep on David Letterman's front lawn while wearing a chicken suit. What happened here? Will the 2002 blockbuster go down in history alongside Diff'rent Strokes and the Curse of the Billy Goat as a creepy ghost story of coincidence? Ahead, Movieline throws some garlic around its neck and investigates.
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In an interview with the New York Times, Robert Pattinson admitted he's suffering from a bit of Twilight-fatigue and that "it can get a little boring. The good news is that the whole thing is done in seven months." I'm sure poor R-Pattz will be beset on both sides for such a candid comment. At one end he'll get it from die-hard Twilight fans who will brook no insults -- real or imagined -- directed towards their beloved series of books, movies and plush duvet sets. On the other side will be all those who find it difficult to empathize with an incredibly good-looking actor who has the starring role in a billion-dollar movie series and no shortage of job offers. But come on: Don't you feel just the teensiest bit sorry for Robert Pattinson?
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Aside from the brief blip of Toy Story 2 in 1999, it seemed that Pixar was a company averse to creating sequels; now, though, they're positively swamped by them. Toy Story 3. Cars 2. A second installment of Monsters Inc. And now, while Toy Story 3 had been commonly regarded as the end of that franchise, director Lee Unkrich is reopening the door. "We know that people love the characters, love Woody and Buzz, and would hate to say good-bye to them completely," Unkrich told MSN. "I don't know that there would ever be a '[Toy Story] 4.' We don't have any plans for one -- but we are trying to find ways to keep the characters alive. We have announced we're going to do a short film in front of Cars 2 that uses the Toy Story characters. We're going to keep them alive; they're not going away forever."
What I'm saying is... maybe they should?
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Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's final black-and-white film and his most hailed overall, turns 50 today. God love the spooky thing! It's stark, slick, and full of chilling nuances that came to define highbrow horror cinema, but the abject popularity of Psycho always had more to do with its explosive release in 1960 than its place in the Hitchcock canon. Filmgoers were famously shocked by the the early death of the marquee star, not to mention the revelation of Norman Bates's true character at the movie's climax, but while those qualities are fun, they don't make for Hitchcock's greatest film. In fact, when you break down most of Psycho's best assets, you realize that other Hitch movies did them better, smarter, and cooler. Join us as we hack at Psycho and defend the Master of Suspense's other works for all eternity.
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This weekend's groundbreakingly unfunny episode of Saturday Night Live spawned a new straw man in the seven year old argument "Why is Lorne Michaels's sketch show so disappointing?" Usually the only two parties indicted are the non-Kristin Wiig/Bill Hader castmembers and the writers, but following January Jones's particularly stiff night headlining Studio 8H, some online reviewers and ardent SNL fans placed the blame squarely on Betty Draper's dainty shoulders. The truth is that no matter how much Jones left to be desired in an SNL host, the precautions that Seth Meyers & Co. usually take for its model-turned-actress, athlete or pop star hosts, went egregiously ignored.
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Last week's South Park was a stupid episode about how the boys wanted to call Harley riders "faggots," and how much they (read: Matt and Trey) love that word and how "let's face it, people will never stop using the word fag because it's just too fun to say!" By the end of the episode, the word has been spoken and written hundreds of times, the boys never apologize, the gay community is cool with it, and the town of South Park officially reclaims the word "faggot" for the people and deem it OK for use. The only problem with that is that the word "faggot" is the gay equivalent of the n-word, and it's not OK to use, ever, even when there's no gay people around to hear it. It's the word that almost invariably accompanies fatal gay bashings and other hate-fueled criminal acts, and condoning it condones homophobia, no matter how cleverly you've done your etymological research and learned it once meant a bundle of sticks. South Park are a*sholes for basically telling their audience it's cool to go around using it. So f*ck you for that, South Park.
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As ratings for The Jay Leno Show continue to tumble like ugly, airport-colored marbles in Ker-Plunk, NBC poses a single solution: Blame things! According to USA Today's quote from NBC TV chief Jeff Gaspin, the show's worsening ratings can be attributed to NBC's other programming, and not its precious, denim-shirted stand-up comic. "The issue is not Jay. It's our lead-in to Jay. Jay Leno is still the right strategy if our 8-to-10 (lineup) is stronger."
Forget that Jay Leno's Tonight Show was preceded every night for 16 years by local news, where, I guess, Chicago shootings and Los Angeles wildfires tucked in viewers for a night of Linda Tripp jokes. There's a case to be made for each night's Jay Leno Show lead-in, even (perhaps especially) the ones that are starting off with less-than-must-see episodes.
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Kanye West has already survived his fare share of public meltdowns, but last night's Taylor Swift acceptance speech hijacking might be the one stunt from which the rap star won't recover. His VMA interruption enraged fans and celebrities, who immediately aligned themselves with the fragile, flaxen-haired victim (really, the only side to take if you ever want to work again in Hollywood or share Swift's wide fan base). But Kanye has done too much for music, South Park plot lines and late night monologue jokes to disappear after one VMA stunt gone wrong. So just how can the freshly-branded Swift Kicker, Taylor Stomper, and the breaker of delicate MTV dreams reclaim grace -- and more importantly, how long will it take?
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When you think about it, it's kind of amazing that Michael Cera -- with his unlikely, tentative screen presence -- has become a famous movie star. Still, that hasn't stopped a host of bloggers and entertainment pundits from declaring in recent months that Cera's star power is already on the wane. "He plays the same character every time!" they crow. "Year One sucked! He held up the Arrested Development movie! And what's up with all those hoodies all the time? Michael Cera is over -- let the backlash begin!"
Slowly but surely, that online Cera coup has gained strength. In a few days, though, I think they'll have their work cut out for them.
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Wheel of Fortune is A&W Root Beer. A Werther's Original. As long as it stays on the air (which should be forever, considering how it consistently ranks among the highest-rated syndicated television), Wheel will be a quaint comfort object that never alters its formula, save a few label adjustments. Its emcee, Pat Sajak, has not been so consistent since he took Wheel's helm from Chuck Woolery in 1983. He was awkward to start, but as the show progressed, Sajak eased into a snappy, sunny routine undercut by some of the drollest, bizarre one-liners in recent TV. Could the funniest (and sourest) man on TV be the face of parent-approved daytime programming?
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A little while back, I advanced the idea that seeing Megan Fox act might ruin the image I had of her as a delightful, quotable ingenue with a sense of humor. At the time, I was yet to see the new Transformers movie -- or any Megan Fox film at all, few as there have been -- and when I finally did, my worst fears were realized. Her tinny voice was lost amidst the explosions, her ass was given more screen time than her face, and when she was sharing a shot with another actor yet had no dialogue herself (a frequent situation), she appeared dead-eyed, like she'd already mentally checked out of the scene.
All this is to say that I didn't expect to find myself writing a defense of Megan Fox's acting abilities just two short months later.
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Last month at Comic-Con, I overheard a journalist asking Jon Favreau whether the script for Iron Man 2 was even close to complete when they started shooting. "No," Favreau readily admitted. "But they never are on movies like this."
While that's true of most action tentpoles, which are hurriedly written and rewritten until the very end of shooting, I can think of at least one mega-director who wouldn't dream of going into production without a finished script: James Cameron. Aside from his directorial debut, Cameron's written every one of the film's he's directed (and even some he hasn't, like Strange Days). In the wake of Titanic, and as we kick off Avatar Day, I've seen people toss around the idea that Cameron's scripting is his biggest weakness. I'd argue quite the opposite: Cameron is one of the smartest screenwriters we've got.
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It didn't take much reading between the lines of my Land of the Lost coverage over the past few days to deduce my feelings about it. But now that the embargo is up, let's make this official: I liked Land of the Lost. I quite liked it. This probably instantly tags me as some of kind of review leper, left to gather my appendages and join the other smattering of pro-Lost outcasts (Roger Ebert among them) penned in quarantine camps on the far outskirts of the critical community. So be it.
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