"In the movie Wall Street I play Gordon Gekko, a greedy corporate executive who cheated to profit while innocent investors lost their savings. The movie was fiction, but the problem is real." And with that, Michael Douglas stumps for the FBI in a new public service announcement warning investors against financial misdeeds. If Gordon Gekko himself says greed is no longer good, it must be true. Fraudsters, beware!
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Late night host Jimmy Kimmel's tradition of filming a post-Oscar movie-related spoof continued Sunday night with a "trailer" for Movie: The Movie, the ultimate star-studded epic to end all epics. In addition to featuring a host of stars, from Taylor Lautner to Helen Mirren to Tyler Perry (er, "Daniel Day-Lewis as Tyler Perry as George Washington"), the Kimmel-produced gag covered just about every genre and trope known to the movies. I give it a few years before some suit turns this into a reality.
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Any great awards show monologue skewers the nominees and sets the tone for the festivities to come, and this weekend's awards tour didn't disappoint -- if you were watching the Film Independent Spirit Awards and not the Oscars, that is. Host Seth Rogen trumped Billy Crystal the day before the Academy Awards when he roasted Hollywood's brightest along with Spirit Award nominees (like "creepy" -- and apparently good humored -- Michael Shannon). As for Rogen's best joke? It's got to be a toss up between his Ratner snipe ("Without awards season we wouldn't know how much of a horrible bigot Brett Ratner is") and his Lars von Trier hiding-in-Argentina bit. Hit the jump to watch the magic.
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Forget John Carter's controversial budget woes and terrible tracking for a minute; Wrath of the Titans has been threatening to be the first big biff of 2012 since it was announced, thanks largely to its poorly received predecessor, Clash of the Titans. The sequel's initial Marilyn Manson-themed trailer didn't help, either, but Warner Bros. have thankfully tightened things (and stopped lingering on Sam Worthington's Kenny Powers 'do) for a new trailer that actually promises some fantastic CG creature work. Bring on the lava monster thingy!
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Another Oscars promo video, another vain attempt to show some personality and pep by the Academy; this time around the Oscars have tapped Mike Myers to do an uppity butler type straight out of the discards of the Austin Powers supporting character brainstorming boards, who teaches Oscar winner Kevin Kline the proper way to hold his statuette. If this kind of humor tickles you silly and makes you set your TV calendar for Sunday, then hold on to your pants and chill a few cans of Ensure!
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By many accounts -- okay, mostly just the filmmakers' -- this week's commando pic Act of Valor marks a new kind of filmmaking on account of it's a Navy SEALS actioner starring real active duty soldiers that takes the viewer along on a near-firsthand experience of what it's like to fight terrorists and baddies. From the looks of the film's new redband featurette this means audiences will get to see what it looks and sounds like to drop dome shots left and right in the heat of battle, because nothing says "valor" better than shooting strangers in the head with automatic weapons.
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Festival darling Brit Marling burst onto the scene last summer with the sci-fi indie Another Earth (and will be seen in the upcoming fiscal thriller Arbitrage opposite Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon), but her turn as a mysterious cult leader in this April's Sound of My Voice is the more impressive introduction to the charismatic up and comer. Hit the jump to watch the first 10 minutes of Sound of My Voice, courtesy of Fox Searchlight, and see for yourself.
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That's not a metaphor -- in the sea-bound thriller Dark Tide, Halle Berry makes her return to the spotlight as a diving expert convinced to come face to face once again with the kinds of Jaws-esque sharks that traumatized her years ago. This means the one-time Bond girl's back in a bikini, if you care about that kind of thing. Watch the trailer after the jump and decide if this is going to re-energize Berry's career.
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Three pretty young friends find themselves trapped by a shadowy stranger -- in an ATM vestibule! -- in David Brooks' directorial debut, ATM. Get a glimpse of the single-location thriller, from the writer of Buried, in an exclusive clip and new images.
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When I first heard Taylor Swift's Hunger Games soundtrack single, the twangy country ballad "Safe & Sound," I wasn't so keen on how Swifty channeled teen heroine Katniss Everdeen, T-Bone Burnett's support or no. (I did, however, dig the gentle melodics of country folk duo The Civil Wars, who back Swift on the song and share songwriting credits with her and Burnett.) Now the music video for the single has debuted, a dreamy nature-themed joint that lovingly follows Swift as she traipses barefoot around the woods sharing meaningful glances with deer and twigs.
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It was only a matter of time, really; we've got FDR fighting werewolves and Abe Lincoln staking vampires, why not resurrect Osama bin Laden from the dead so Western heroes can kill him off again? This time around it's a bunch of soldiers -- excuse me, hunky, apparently manscaped soldiers -- hunting the zombified bin Laden as he leads an army of flesh-eating terrorists towards a zombie apocalypse in Osombie. Yep, someone went there. Too soon?
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Look, I don't know about you but I've often wondered what Phil Lord and Chris Miller's excellent animated tale Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs would look like as live-action film. I mean come on, an ice cream snow day? How can we make this happen, world?! Well, one enterprising filmmaker went ahead and actually managed to recreate Cloudy using live actors and some fantastic CG work, nailing details like spray on shoes and the Jell-O mansion with impressive panache. (One glaring exception: Where is Steve??) Watch the short, created by Megasteakman for Virgin Radio's 2012 Fake Film Contest, and throw 'em a vote for making the streets rain with ginormous, terrifying, and deliciously realistic-looking donuts.
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Lana Del Rey's 15 minutes may be nearing their end (she did just postpone her tour after tanking on SNL), but she's got one last charge towards relevance up her sleeve; just check out her new jam inspired by The Hunger Games called, simply, "Hunger Games." So Lana. So Katniss. "This District smells like rat piss/My name is Katniss/I play the Hunger Gaaaaames..."
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As previewed earlier today for select audiences around the globe, here's Sony's brand spankin' new theatrical trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man. (Find my full detailed Spider-Man preview Q&A recap, including descriptions of the sizzle reel that has not yet been released, here.) Take a look and weigh in, Spidey fans -- is this the version of the Marvel superhero we both need and deserve?
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Everyone's talking about the epic Chrysler spot broadcast just after the Super Bowl halftime show, directed by David Gordon Green and featuring Clint Eastwood tottering down a dark tunnel before emerging to exhort our country back to unity, pride and general greatness, hopefully behind the wheel of a Chrysler. "It's halftime in America," the actor-filmmaker announced, rousing millions of viewers nationwide. Stirring stuff -- but how does it stand up against Eastwood's previous commercial and PSA work? Let's investigate.
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