Movieline's Dept. of Interspecies Intimacy was busier than ever Tuesday, first with its close read of a torrid horse/cow love affair and then... this, from Jennifer Garner's visit last night to The Late Show with David Letterman. It's often just a lazy-ish figure of speech to accompany the kind of raconteurial excess that follows with an observation like, "There are no words." But you know what? When it comes down to a perk overdose that began with Garner preaching swimsuit modesty and ended with the actress sharing details of that time an aroused dolphin came on her foot, well, yeah. There are no words. Click through for the video.
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Remember that old-school HBO intro from the '80s, the one where you swooped over a model city then flew into the night sky, and a shiny HBO starship came flying at you, and Rocky victory music started playing and MULTICOLOR DISCO LIGHTS SPUN AROUND AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW IF YOU WANTED TO GET FUNKY TO THE FLASHDANCE SOUNDTRACK OR WATCH MAKING LOVE FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME WHEN YOUR PARENTS THOUGHT YOU WERE DOING HOMEWORK IN THE BASEMENT??? So do I. Anyway -- here's a fascinating documentary on how they did it. These HBO intro-making guys were totally insane -- like, Wes Anderson- knitting-a-tiny-sweater-for-a-bunny-rabbit-accountant-using-two-sewing-needles insane! These guys were busily crafting little model hookers and miniscule shrubberies for three months! Why can't everything be pre-CGI? Sure, it would take longer, but we'd have eensy-weensy hookers on our meticulously crafted street corners before enjoying some uncensored premium cable entertainment, and that is a good thing! [via @RoddySwearngin]
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After stirring festival crowds at Sundance and elsewhere over the last year, the recently Oscar-nominated animated short film Logorama has finally made its debut online. No one was sure if and/or when this day would ever come, if only because the nature of the short -- set in a world composed entirely of unlicensed corporate logos -- opened itself up to more than 2,500 potential lawsuits from the represented brands. (What, McDonald's might not approve of Ronald McDonald as a psychopathic, potty-mouthed fugitive?) And for all anyone knows, the two NSFW clips after the jump still might disappear shortly -- which is all the more reason to get a look now and find the David Fincher cameo hiding in plain sight.
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Budweiser's long history of Super Bowl commercials featuring its Clydesdale horses is confusing enough (how does this sell beer, anyway?) without the weirdly homoerotic overtones of this year's ad. You know the one: A young steer and a Clydesdale pony meet cute one day on a pasture. Divided by a long white fence, they trot, play and nuzzle to the extent they can before they're separated by the horse's beer-hauling boot camp, or whatever sad social imperative Budweiser has imposed on the animal this time around. They're reunited three years later -- fully grown and both prone to slo-mo, soft-focus flashbacks of frolicsome youth. "Nothing comes between friends," one observer says to another as the steer, all massive horns and defiance, busts through the barrier to be with its Clydesdale pal now leading the Budweiser stagecoach. "Especially fences," replies another.
Friends? Fences? Seriously? Sorry, fellas, this looks like a little more than friends. Judge (and vote) for yourself after the jump.
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The minds at Movieline are reeling today after a tipster sent us a collaboration between Oscar-nominated exes James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow that we never knew existed: a 1988 music video called "Reach" that Cameron directed for Bill Paxton's short-lived rock band Martini Ranch (!), in which he cast imminent wife and future Hurt Locker director Bigelow as a sexy, Wild West gunslinger. Look, we know that description alone is enough to whet your appetite, so do you need me to say that this INCREDIBLY, DELICIOUSLY 80's music video also features "credited whistler" Judge Reinhold, lady-bodybuilder beefcake, a capuchin monkey, anachronistic computers for some reason, and cameos from Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Jenette Goldstein, and Adrian Pasdar? Just watch and be blown away:
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How did Travel Channel host Anthony Bourdain woo the reclusive Bill Murray into appearing on his No Reservations series? No one will ever know. But that is not where the WTF moments end judging by this recently released promo, in which Murray ponders the "meaning of it all," that drunk-golf carting incident in Stockholm and the possibility of warding off pirates from an ammo-loaded PT boat -- all over a cowboy ribeye.
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Before his USA drama White Collar became a big hit this past season, Matthew Bomer was a former soap actor with a couple of TV credits and one very big brush with fame: He'd been cast as Superman when Brett Ratner was attached to direct the project in 2003, but when Ratner fell out and Bryan Singer stepped in, Bomer was nixed. At least this Japanese Prius commercial (dug up by the folks at ONTD) lets Bomer finally don the tights and take to the air to a soaring, insanely expensive John Williams score. Enjoy, and ponder what would have been:
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Everything was going so well for Mel Gibson in his return to acting after eight years away -- or at least it was until Tuesday, when for some unknown reason Gibson appeared on Chicago TV to talk up Edge of Darkness and ultimately be ambushed by a host who put the "entertainment" back in "entertainment reporter." Gibson, bless his heart, wasn't standing for it, wincing at mentions of his troubled past before finally signing off with a grudging A-word salute. Click through for the video.
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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
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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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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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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:
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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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Hey, it's Boardwalk Empire, everybody! Based on Nelson Johnson's Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City , created by Terence Winter, who won multiple Emmys for his work on The Sopranos (he shared one nomination with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner), and boasting a pilot directed by Martin Scorsese, it's an impossibly well-pedigreed Prohibition epic set against the backdrop of the original Jersey Shore. Hey look -- it's Flapper Snooki. Everyone wave hello to Flapper Snooki!
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