Ready or not, here Oscar season comes. Or maybe, as for so many films this time of year, the operative phrase is "worthy or not." That's the judgment facing Trucker, the microbudget indie that has corralled early awards-season hype for star Michelle Monaghan on the basis of a couple early festival raves and a distributor ballsy enough to say, "Yes, we want an Oscar." But first it has to convince audiences to see it, which I'm not terribly sure this Trucker's new trailer [ahem] is going to accomplish.
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This morning, 5,000 rabid Whitney Houston fans gathered in Central Park for what was hoped to be the second rising of the soul diva. Good Morning America hyped her I Look to You promotional performance, the first in seven years, as an event to remember by playing a Houston career-retrospective on their Times Square screen on loop. With fans gathered from all corners of the world and bedazzled "We love you Whitney!" posters in place, Whitney took the stage for a four-song concert that could only be described as underwhelming.
Despite her cracking voice (when there was a voice at all), Houston's ardent supporters wildly applauded throughout, proving that either they couldn't hear the songs over their own cheering or that their love is unconditional. Judge for yourself after the jump.
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Once your premium cable series has exhausted human-trafficking plotlines, auto-erotic asphyxiation jokes and jerk sock monologues, you might as well buckle up for several months of agonizing brainstorming sessions. Just ask Jenji Kohan & Co., who were faced with this challenge when dreaming up the fifth season of Weeds, which concluded last night. Miraculously, Kohan's writers successfully ransacked their unconscious (or corrupt plot generator) so that Nancy Botwin's camp could endure the strangest, most morally bankrupt season yet. In honor of this accomplishment, we offer you the nine most bizarre Weeds scenes from season five.
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The two Bens' bodies haven't even cooled yet after last month's At the Movies massacre, but Disney has wasted no time reinvigorating its brand with new hosts A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips. And by "reinvigorating," I basically mean "putting two ink-stained schlubs through a series of glamourpuss motions just this side of a Michael Bay lingerie ad." See the sultry-ish video after the jump.
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You know, Marvel wasn't always such a coveted, multi-billion-dollar Hollywood property. It wasn't so long ago that getting a live-action Fantastic Four adaptation -- let alone a whole franchise reboot -- made by a studio was like pulling teeth, and the pre-Fox rights-holders had to resort to the most desperate of measures to ensure their opportunity did not go to waste. After the jump, relive the D-grade agony and ecstasy of the as-yet-unreleased 1994 adaptation spearheaded by schlockmeister Roger Corman, along with a bit of historical background from Movieline's resident Cold Case expert Michael Adams.
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Lost in the hubbub of Quentin Tarantino's recent Jason Biggs veneration was that Tarantino's list of the greatest recent movies included two by Korean director Bong Joon-Ho: Memories of Murder and The Host. Everyone loved The Host, right? Well, yes, which made my not loving it all the more alien. Now, Bong's got a new movie out, and Magnolia's announced distribution. Can the trailer woo even my Bong-skeptical heart?
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Director Alejandro Amenábar (The Others) isn't necessarily doing himself a favor by naming his new Rachel Weisz film Agora, and all it takes is a wave of bad reviews bearing the headline "Agora-phobic" to see why. Does the new, full trailer do a better job of selling the movie?
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George Clooney and Grant Heslov's collaborations to date have proven to be pretty hit or miss -- which bodes well for The Men Who Stare at Goats, Heslov's feature-directing debut whose new trailer either has all the film's jokes squeezed into 2:19 or at least promises a sharp absurdist satire worthy of your anticipation. Either way, what else have you got to do this morning besides watch it?
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Literary revolutionary, beat icon, heroin addict, wife-shooter, gun-lover, homosexual: I think it's safe to say that without William S. Burroughs, there would be no Jonas Brothers. Now a trailer has surfaced for William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, the "first and only posthumous documentary" on the writer from Chicago-based BulletProof Film.
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There is a circle of hell in which a Biblical giant throws sinners into a fiery pit, sacrifices them to a six-winged beast and then straps their charred remains down to await Satan Himself, who arrives carrying the latest Gossip Girl bonus features DVD. He silently inserts the disc into a Craigslist-purchased TV/DVD combo player and walks out as the said sinner is subjected to an eternity of Leighton Meester breaking into baby voices each time she flubs a line. Fortunately for the forever-damned, Gossip Girl recently released ten minutes of season two bloopers, providing fresh Blake Lively giggles, cellphone ring-interrupted shots and Pilates-related Freudian slips to echo against the caves of hell until the end of time.
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Vogue editor Anna Wintour debuted her talk show personality last night on The Late Show With David Letterman. After shuffling onstage in her trademark sunglasses to Paul Shaffer's jazzy rendition of Dance to the Music, Wintour whipped off the shades, planted herself next to Dave and then...sat stiffly through a pleasantly restrained back and forth with the Late Show host.
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Back when all we had were eyewitness reports to go on, we figured that the trailer for Inception, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight follow-up, would strongly call to mind The Matrix by featuring an acrobatic, gravity-defying hallway fight scene. Now that the trailer's been released today, though, we can't stop thinking about Jurassic Park.
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The other day, when I laid eyes upon the first picture from Youth in Revolt, I begged for a costume designer to dirty Michael Cera up a little, slap on a leather jacket, or at least do something to prod Cera from his current streak of roles as hoodie-clad milquetoasts. Little did I realize that all he needed was a wispy mustache!
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What fragrance does the Dark Sith Lord like to shpritz beneath his helmet after a long day of choking recalcitrant Imperial captains? Why, Lacoste Challenge, of course! Recalling his teleporting Jumper character, watch now as Hayden Christensen springs through the air to snatch the bottle bearing the familiar alligator logo, then lands almost instantaneously in a kiddie pool filled with hundred-dollar bills atop the Sphinx's head.
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With only a teaser to go on until now -- in which he announced a grassroots campaign to coax small-currency donations out of captive movie audiences to feed the distended bellies of corporate CEOs who've fallen upon hard times -- it's about time a real trailer for Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story surfaced.
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