In this installment of the Two-Minute Verdict, we contemplate Steven Soderbergh and Warner Bros.'s attempt to sell you a story of corporate malfeasance, investigative intrigue, corn-centric scandal, and prodigious 21st-century greed. Oh -- and a doughy, bumbling Matt Damon. The results are mixed.
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Project Runway's long, litigious journey from Bravo birthplace to its new home at Lifetime Television for Decidedly Un-Ferosh Women ends on August 20th, when the fashion design contest debuts its sixth season. In order to ease their audience into the proceedings, the cable network created a promotional campaign that tweaks, ever-so-unsubtly, the image of Runway as a show made by and for Bluefly-wall-accessorizing BravoGays™.
The trailer has just been released for Couples Retreat, a comedy about skilled improvisational actors and the perfectly taut bikini bodies who love them. With a cast that includes Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, and Jason Bateman, one might expect a comedy built on wild, manic riffing and off-kilter observations. So why is the trailer cut together as though the film's merely an island-set version of the typical schlub/hot wife sitcom?
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We'll admit to having had a knee-jerk reaction to some of the early teaser footage released by Disney of their forthcoming and much-ballyhooed return to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog, which struck us as hopping a little too close to the outdated-caricature pond for our tastes.
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In a week when Michael Jackson and Michael Bay share top billing in the zeitgeist, it seems only fitting that some overlap of the two would soon emerge to blow everyone's minds. Leave it to a Movieline tipster to find the Rosetta Stone, pointing us back to that glorious day in 1988 when Jackson's film Moonwalker featured the King of Pop in an epic, bittersweet transition from man to machine, saving the world from Joe Pesci and defending Sean Lennon's (among others') innocence in the process. If you've got about 10 minutes -- and for this kind of milestone, you'd better -- grab some Kleenex and flash back with us after the jump.
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This installment of Movieline's Two-Minute Verdict has a look at the trailer for The Invention of Lying, Ricky Gervais's forthcoming comedy about one man who discovers the secret to survival in a world where truth runs roughshod over love, careers and other fragile relationships: The lie. Which obviously looked all right on paper, but is it actually of use (read: funny) in practice? Should I be honest?
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It's recruiting season again at the Church of Scientology, where three stylish new TV spots make all the drama of life -- including love, chocolate and "kids on trampolines" -- seem insurmountable without the aid of a gauzy camera filter and, I presume, a dogeared copy of Dianetics on your nightstand. But is Hollywood's greatest indigenous religion pushing the wrong message? Are paper clips really a gateway office supply to OT-VIII glory? Judge for yourself and join the debate after the jump.
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The Oscar season tends to be reliably biopic-heavy, but is Mira Nair's Amelia flying in at the end of a trend? The suddenly expanded crop of potential Best Picture nominees is actually an eclectic group for once, and virtually nowhere to be found is the usual childhood flashback-triggered story of an entire, famous life. Now, Fox Searchlight has released the trailer for Amelia, and amidst an upcoming slate of splashy musicals, soccer dramas, and harrowing urban masterpieces, this conventional story of the famed aviatrix looks a little square.
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Yesterday was not a good day -- not a good day for anyone, but particularly not a good day for guerrilla character comics with massive movie premieres at the Chinese Theater that blocked access to the Walk of Fame star of the victim of the most shocking and monumental musical icon death since John Lennon's. Add to that fact that the movie itself had a scene in which the victim's sister is humiliated for comedy bloodsport, edited out at the eleventh hour, and you start seeing why Sacha Baron Cohen was so subdued on last night's The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
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The King of Pop is dead. Long live the King of Pop! As I'm too distressed to work, as I'm sure you are too, I thought we could celebrate Michael together with something from his prime: 3-D Disney parks cinematic odyssey Captain EO -- which, many tend to forget, was one of Francis Ford Coppola's lesser-heralded works. That's Angelica Huston as the licorice-tangled Supreme Leader ordering EO and his crew to be turned into trash cans, before Michael saves the day by singing "We Are Here To Change The World" and shooting purple lasers out of his wrists. Captain EO premiered at EPCOT September 12, 1986 and had its last public showing at Disneyland Park Paris on August 17, 1998. Goodbye, Michael. There will never be another you. I wish it all had a happier ending.
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Videogum posted a trailer that's been making the rounds -- Sarah Silverman tweeted about it recently, and it really started to catch fire -- for a film called Gooby, but which has affectionately been dubbed Pedobear: The Movie by the YouTube commenting community.
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The first trailer for The Box debuted late Wednesday, featuring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and Frank Langella in all their '70s-era period splendor. Another nod to the old days might be found in director Richard Kelly's liberal use of just about every shot, technique and theme he could borrow from The Shining. But in a good way! Sort of.
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· He brought tears to my eyes, and will do the same for you.
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So a demi-Vulcan is walking his dog with his buddies -- a walking steak and a butcher, no big whoop -- and the dog goes after some paparazzi, causing the demi-Vulcan to take a tumble and get very upset. Got it? Now, you could enjoy this clip for what it is -- a delightful bit of impromptu celebrity Dada theater -- or you can be like me, and seek answers:
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The first teaser for M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender is live, and it seems to confirm a dirty little secret currently unfolding in the backwoods of Pennsylvania: Manoj is back! (I think.)
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