With the year 2011 drawing to a close, the stars of Garry Marshall's New Year's Eve were a sentimental -- and cheeky -- bunch talking up the portmanteau rom-com recently in Los Angeles. "When I stopped wanting my New Year's Eve to be perfect, to ring in the New Year right, is when it started working out right," admitted Hilary Swank, seated at a podium about as long as the credit roll for the star-studded holiday pic. At the other end of the panel, Zac Efron faux-wooed co-star Michelle Pfeiffer. "You're coming out with me this year," he winked at her. "I'll show you how we do it."
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"They've given us a special dispensation... to have lung cancer." So quipped director Bruce Robinson, joining Johnny Depp and the assembled cast of this weekend's Hunter S. Thompson adaptation The Rum Diary for a late morning presser the other week at the swanky Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Things kicked things off, appropriately enough, with a cloud of cigar smoke that hung in the air like the ghost of Thompson himself -- whom Robinson insisted was in the room, watching the entire proceedings.
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DreamWorks Animation's Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots is racing into theaters on Friday, a week earlier than originally scheduled. Director Chris Miller and voice cast including Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and Zach Galifianakis joked their way through a press conference over the weekend, and Movieline was there to bring you some of the slightly more serious communiqués from the PIB team:
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This weekend, Carla Gugino and Ellen Burstyn storm the multiplex with The Mighty Macs, an inspiring action drama about how women's basketball coach Cathy Rush (Gugino) trained a small Catholic college team to unlikely victory in the '70s. In celebration of this upcoming show of cinematic she-sportsmanship, Movieline has compiled (what we consider to be) the nine best women's sports movies.
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It's here! And... it stinks. In fact, the Taylor Lautner action "thriller" Abduction was rocking that all-too-rare, Bucky Larson-esque 0-percent Rotten Tomatoes ranking ("Its Tomato score got abducted!", a witty reader advised me last night) Thursday night before a couple so-and-so's from a recklessly forgiving enterprise called "Urban Cinefile" give it a thumbs-up. But there remains plenty of bile to drizzle over your breakfast -- and the likes of Roger Ebert haven't even chimed in yet. In Movieline's grand, Friday-morning tradition, let's have a taste!
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The crowded backdrops of Star Wars movies aren't just populated by Frank Oz puppets, interns, and robots in Rick Baker makeup: There are genuine stars (and famous directors) running around there! We've pinpointed nine folks who made cameos in Star Wars films, and I'm willing to bet you couldn't catch most of these players upon first viewing. Sofia Coppola is practically hiding.
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Sad news today from the world of words: the Concise Oxford English Dictionary announced that its 12th edition would no longer include the word "threequel." (Also gone, "cassette player"; weep for the '80s.) In honor of the dearly departed "threequel" -- defined as "the third film, book, event, etc. in a series; a second sequel," it will still appear in the less concise Oxford Dictionary of English -- Movieline has assembled a list of nine great third films. Click ahead to disagree with the list!
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When The Fighter premiered last year, Lionsgate was sitting on Warrior, another "fighter" film about the deeply rooted rivalry between two working-class brothers. Directed by Gavin O'Connor (Miracle), the action drama features burgeoning stars Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy (both of whom force fed themselves chicken and trained brutally to attain realistically rock hard MMA physiques) and Nick Nolte as their recovering alcoholic father who so desperately seeks their forgiveness. In anticipation of this gritty Sept. 9 release, O'Connor and his stars Nolte, Edgerton, Hardy and Jennifer Morrison gathered Friday at the Los Angeles press conference to discuss Warrior, their upcoming big budget projects (Dark Knight Rises and The Great Gatsby) and in the case of Nolte, Katharine Hepburn's affinity for drunks and the enduring social message of his '80s Eddie Murphy comedy 48 Hours. Click through for the revelations.
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Judging from the critical consensus, it appears the latest R-rated comedy in this summer of R-rated comedies is apparently the worst. Reviews for The Change-Up are even more scathing than reviews for The Hangover Part II -- and critics hated that one. Sorry, Ryan Reynolds; it seems this is just not your summer after all. Ahead, the nine most blistering reviews of The Change-Up.
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Studio boss Jeff Robinov confirmed this week that Warner Bros. and DC Comics have every intention of exploring a sequel to Green Lantern, this despite a meager $53 million opening, a disappointing global gross around $160 million, a budget rumored to be well north of $200 million (plus $100 million in marketing) and -- insult, meet injury -- a fusillade of scathing reviews. "We had a decent opening so we learned there is an audience," Robinov told the Los Angeles TImes. "To go forward we need to make it a little edgier and darker with more emphasis on action.... And we have to find a way to balance the time the movie spends in space versus on Earth." Huh. "Edgier"? "Darker"? But how? Time to put on our Green Lantern 2 development thinking caps!
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From Transformers to G.I. Joe to this weekend's The Smurfs, children of the '80s have lost many a Saturday morning cartoon memory to the cash-grabbing clutches of the Hollywood remake machine. Plenty more are being developed into shiny, CG-smooth reboots as we speak. So let's take a moment and plea, for the sake of those that remain, that these nine beloved, totally '80s children's properties be left where they belong: In our fuzzy, warm past -- safe in the glow of yesteryear.
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In a total non-surprise, it seems many of the nation's film critics have said "smurf off" to Raja Gosnell's new animated/live-action hybrid, The Smurfs. The three-apple-high 3-D menace is currently rocking a 17 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it in league with Zookeeper as one of the worst reviewed films of the summer. If only critics had followed along with Movieline's handy review chart, all this angst would have been avoided! Ahead, the nine smurfiest smurfing reviews of The Smurfs.
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The heat wave bearing down on the United States has turned much of the eastern half of the country into a hellish furnace of death, despair and crisis. Today in New York the forecast calls for a high of 99, with the humidity pushing the heat index into triple digits with the likes of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and scores of other towns along the Eastern Seaboard. But at least we're all in this together -- and with the movies, which are rich with tales of city folks sweating out the worst seasonal crap summer has to offer. Read on and recount nine of the best.
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It's official: Lionsgate TV is adapting the 2003 Jack Nicholson-Adam Sandler comedy Anger Management into a sitcom for Charlie Sheen. In celebration of this feat, Movieline is revisiting nine other television series adapted from films with varying degrees of success. Reminisce after the jump.
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A funny thing about low-hanging fruit: it's easy to pick! As such, it's not surprising that critics are piling on the latest Kevin James vehicle, Zookeeper. The "comedy" sports an impressively poor 14 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, worse even than previous summer punching bags Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer and Green Lantern. Ahead, the nine best of the worst reviews.
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