Overhead in an IM window at Movieline HQ just minutes ago:
seth: are you ready to sh*t your pants?
stv: ugh not again! [20-second pause] LOL. pants sh*t. mission accomplished
seth: i seriously want season tickets to the Alaska Nanooks. can i post this?
stv: did that polar bear just blow up the earth?
seth: that polar bear is so hellbent he just lit himself on fire
We're definitely fans of Mike Stoklasa, the meandering YouTube critic who expertly julienned The Phantom Menace a month ago, but Stoklasa's newest video isn't necessarily up to that high water mark. This time, the critic takes on Avatar, and whether he was hemmed in by available footage or the lack of time and distance, Stoklasa's case against the movie isn't particularly gut-busting (and there certainly are quite a few things in Avatar that could come in for a razzing). Still, it's nice to see an Avatar-prompted viral video in a world that has surprisingly few of them; isn't it a little odd that the internet seemed to be buzzing more about the movie before it came out than after it took the all-time box office crown? Both parts of Stoklasa's takedown, after the jump:
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Lionsgate and Tyler Perry have unveiled the final trailer for their sequel to the director's hit Why Did I Get Married?, cannily (if nonsensically) entitled Why Did I Get Married, Too? You might recall the original teaser from November, a wild mood swing of a preview blending urban romance, island ennui and the pulsating psychosis of every thriller made since about 1984. The new trailer downgrades the storm warning a bit, foreshadowing much of the same relationship carnage while withholding the slapped-in-the-face-with-taglines feeling that accompanied the original. In other words, expect all the fierce drama -- plus a wigged-out Janet Jackson -- with none of the migraine.
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Nearly a year and a half ago, HBO announced that it was teaming up with Judd Apatow and Funny or Die creators Will Ferrell, Chris Henchy and Adam McKay, for a ten episode series called Funny or Die Presents. And finally, Will Ferrell & Co. have released the trailer for their sketch comedy orgy, which features no less than two dozen comedians (count them!), a classic FoD bit (Drunk History), Wayne Newton and at least one hawk. Click through for the insane result.
The ageless Paul Reubens has resurrected Pee-wee's Playhouse as a live stage show at LA's Club Nokia, but for you nostalgia heads who don't live on the left coast, enjoy this timely video Reubens just put out where he, Conky, Magic Screen and the gang ponder Apple's new iPad. (Conky makes some great points!) If it seems a little incongruous to hear the old gang talking about such a modern product, let me give you a little warning: In the stage show, Miss Yvonne comes bearing Bumpits. Here's the clip:
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The teaser trailer was released today for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (oh, they're really going with that title?) and you can watch it over on IMDb. What will you find there? An incongruously rockin' soundtrack, Carey Mulligan, an 80's cell phone joke, Shia LaBeouf riding a motorcycle (apparently, they're not just for Megan Fox to lean suggestively over anymore!), and an assumption that the younger generation knows who the hell Gordon Gekko is. That said...it kind of looks like fun trash? If greed is good, then what's greedily resuscitating a dated, dormant property? I dunno, I'm already programming the Wall Street 2/Basic Instinct 2 double feature.
VERDICT: Interested. [IMDb]
With only 24 hours until The Oprah Winfrey Show airs the first interview with Jay Leno since NBC's sloppy Tonight Show mishandling, Harpo Productions has finally released a video preview of the segment. Surprisingly, a laid back Leno admits that calling Conan during the late night bloodbath did not seem like the right thing to do. (But wrestling the 11:35 PM time slot from Conan's hands did?) Click through to see the entire 40 second clip and decide whether Leno is still NBC's Maritime Disaster Hero or the Hitler of Late Night.
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For a while now, there have been some video outtakes of the old Siskel & Ebert program floating around, but Urlesque's compilation of the best moments is still a fun, bracing mid-day treat. It's good to be reminded that well before he discovered Twitter and stuck his tongue out at Avatar, Roger Ebert was the master of the withering, witty takedown. Ebert's at Sundance this week -- we'll soon see if he intends to eviscerate any of the closing films with the gusto he brought to a grammatically deficient Gene Siskel. Video below:
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Sometimes, you're a 63-year-old, newly single sex symbol, and you just want to let loose. Ping-pong? Sure, that's an outlet. Spanking pig-men while dressed as a naughty teacher? What a way to bring about catharsis! At least, that's if we go by Susan Sarandon, who smacked men's asses with a ruler last night while on stage with the band Of Montreal in New York. Question: Does this make her a furry? The video is below:
One of the more intriguing, entertaining documentaries of this year's Sundance Film Festival, Smash His Camera tracks the life's work of self-described "paparazzo superstar" Ron Galella. Perhaps best known for relentlessly hunting Jackie Kennedy Onassis and her family (until a judge issued a restraining order that stands against Galella to this day) and once incurring a Marlon Brando knuckle sandwich that knocked out five of his teeth, Galella was also a dedicated tracker of Sundance founder Robert Redford. The film features a certain level of détente between Galella and Redford -- enough so that the shutterbug actually gets close enough to hand Redford his latest book -- but it definitely wasn't always that way. Click through for Redford's somewhat lengthy, wholly fascinating story about the lengths Galella used to go to to get his shot -- and the lengths Redford went to to dodge him. Also: Galella's exclusive response to Movieline!
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Claustrophobes beware! Buried premiered late Friday night at Sundance, with its entire cast on hand to discuss the harrowing tale of an abducted American struggling to escape his burial in the Iraq desert. And by "entire cast," I mean Ryan Reynolds, who spends the film's entire 94 minutes in a pine box with little aid but a cell phone, a lighter and his oxygen-deprived wits. In a video after the jump, Reynolds explained the process of developing (and surviving) his twisted one-man show with director Rodrigo Cortés.
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It's Jan. 21 in Park City, where Robert Redford saw his shadow and thus ushered in another in another 10 days of the Sundance Film Festival. The actor/producer/director/festival potentate this afternoon hosted his customary State of Sundance Address for a typically packed house at the Egyptian Theater -- his first such opening-day appearance that anyone here can remember without former fest director Geoffrey Gilmore at his side. But the past was way past for Redford and Gilmore's successor John Cooper (above left), both of whom spoke of Sundance's mandate to push beyond the mythology, glitz and snow -- and, candidly, Gilmore himself -- in the new decade ahead.
Chosen earlier this week as one of the likeliest subjects of a Sundance 2010 bidding war, Buried has a new trailer featuring pretty much exactly what we expected: Ryan Reynolds underground, in a box. It also appears to answer a key question we had going into the film's premiere tomorrow in Park City -- to wit, if the whole film is set in a coffin beneath the surface of the Iraqi desert, how and when do Reynolds's co-stars appear? That spoilerish theory (and the video) in a special Two-Minute Verdict after the jump.
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The Weinsteins may have moved Pirahna 3D to August thanks to dire, Nine-related straits, but at least a trailer has surfaced that gives a taste of the campy action. What's on display? Elisabeth Shue's biceps, Eli Roth's cameo, and a whole bunch of bikini-clad extras, including one whose piranha-eaten rear sets the film in motion. Dive in!
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Edgar Wright's massively anticipated Scott Pilgrim vs. the World had a preview screening Tuesday night in Las Vegas, soiling a perfectly good multiplex auditorium with the aromatic enthusiasm of a lucky fanboy/girl contingent. Reviews trickled online overnight, emphasizing that the graphic-novel adaptation was unfinished and that many of the big, flamy visual effects had yet to be fully rendered -- which of course was hardly reason for concern for those in attendance, who stammered their reactions into a video review you'll find after the jump. Spoiler alert: They really liked it!
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