The large-scale destructiveness he has previously wrecked upon public and private property (including entire cities), Michael Bay visits on the human body in Pain & Gain, a pulverizing steroidal farce based on a bizarre-but-true kidnapping-and-murder case. Suggesting Fargo by way of the Three Stooges, Bay’s latest certainly proves that the Transformers auteur does have something more than jacked-up robots on his mind: specifically, jacked-up muscle men who will stop at nothing to achieve their deeply twisted notion of the American dream. With a very fine ensemble cast recruited to play an array of overtly despicable characters, this unapologetically vulgar, sometimes quite funny, often stomach-churning bacchanal will surely prove too extreme for great swathes of the multiplex crowd. But the marquee value of topliners Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, plus the pic’s reportedly modest $25 million pricetag, spells more gain than pain for Paramount’s box office pecs. more »
Mark Wahlberg jumps back into action as an ex-cop out for justice in this week's Broken City, which sees him face off against none other than Russell Crowe as a crooked politician Crowe describes as "part Queens, and part Wall Street." After the jump, watch as Wahlberg talks up the Allen Hughes-helmed potboiler, what brings him back to the gritty action well time and time again, and the big-screen face-off with Crowe that was 15 years in the making.
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If you loathe Transformers-Michael Bay but have a soft spot for the Bay who made not one, but two Bad Boyses, then the first trailer for his true crime pic Pain & Gain is going to push all the right buttons: Beefy macho men, fast cars, a slick Miami setting, Mark Wahlberg hitting that Dirk Diggler sweet spot of dumb overconfidence, and everyone's favorite muscleman, The Rock... it's enough to make the truly disturbing real life saga of a gang of bodybuilding thugs-turned-killers who bungled their way through unspeakable acts of torture and murder into a feelgood American Dream antihero tale!
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Mark Wahlberg: The new Shia LaBeouf? Michael Bay and Paramount announced Thursday that Wahlberg, who stars in Bay's real life crime pic Pain & Gain, will lead the franchise sequel Transformers 4. "An actor of his caliber is the perfect guy to re-invigorate the franchise and carry on the Transformers’ legacy," said Bay in a statement.
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In her new memoir My Mother Was Nuts, actress-comedienne-filmmaker Penny Marshall writes of her remarkable life: Growing up the youngest of three in The Bronx, she had a daughter followed brother Garry into showbiz, got famous as one-half of Laverne & Shirley, got married twice, got divorced twice, opened her home to friends like John Belushi, Carrie Fisher, Steven Spielberg, and Robert De Niro, and became the first female director to break the $100 million mark with 1988's Big, also notching films like Awakenings, A League Of Their Own, Renaissance Man, and The Preacher's Wife along the way.
Ringing Movieline to discuss her baldly honest, often hilarious memoir — which also reveals darker times, recreational drug use, an abortion, an on-set miscarriage — Marshall explained why she set out to write her life story to begin with: "You want to set the record straight on certain things, because there are so many rumors."
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In Monday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, Sundance Institute, the group behind the annual Sundance Film Festival, announced details about its summer producing labs; Anthony Mackie may join the Captain America sequel; And, superhero comedy Alter Egos is set for Kevin Smith series.
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If you’ve seen the red band trailer for Ted, in which Mark Wahlberg plays a grown man whose best friend is his talking teddy bear, you may think you’ve seen the whole thing: Beware the comedy trailer that’s so packed with hilarity that you just know it’s cobbled from the best bits in the movie. But miraculously, Ted manages to sustain itself.
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Deadline reports that Paula Patton is in talks to star with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg in 2 Guns, a crime pic directed by Contraband's Baltasar Kormakur based on the graphic novel by Stephen Grant "about a DEA agent and an undercover naval intelligence officer who unwittingly investigate each other as each steals mob money." Patton will play Washington's love interest, though I feel like they've already been here before... or maybe I just have DEJA VU. HONK! Yeeeeah. Sigh. [Deadline]
While filming Michael Bay's next non-Transformers pic Pain & Gain, based on the bizarre, freaky real life story of a band of Florida bodybuilders who committed a heinous series of crimes in the '90s, star Mark Wahlberg put on quite the show for peeping photographers. Clad in workout gear and some very short shorts, he gave us quite the memorable first look at the modest little $20 million black comedy, as you can see after the jump.
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Usually we celebrate birthdays 'round these parts with a look at someone's best screen work. But pop icon Justin Bieber has only a guest turn on CSI and his hit concert doc Justin Bieber: Never Say Never under his newly notched cinematic belt -- so far. Still, he's got plans to break into acting with a handful of projects on the horizon, so in honor of the Biebster's 18th birthday, let's predict what the future may hold for the doe-eyed Canadian crooner as he adds "actor" to his resume in earnest.
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A slightly above-average weekend at the box office abated further talks of a moviegoing slump (for now), with a proven star and a buffed-out Disney classic teaming up in the top two. Mission: Impossible continued its formidable hold, meanwhile, barely suppressing a certain Joyful Noise. Your Weekend Receipts are here.
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Savvier and less cartoonish than those posters of Mark Wahlberg with stacks of cash taped to his famous torso might have you believe, Contraband is a remake of the 2008 Icelandic smuggling thriller Reykjavík-Rotterdam, directed by the original's star, Baltasar Kormákur. The action's been transported to New Orleans-Panama City, the goods upgraded from bootlegged liquor to counterfeit cash, and the whole enterprise daubed with some Hollywood gloss, but it's still an obligingly tense, scruffy addition to the one-last-crime genre.
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Remember Oscar season 2010-11? Remember we had to keep caring about The Fighter? I can't believe how long we had to care about The Fighter. For me it was the Cold Mountain of 2011. The louder you squawked, the better your Oscar chances. Did you wave your hands frantically a lot of the time? Did you steal your accent from an SNL table read? See you at the dais. Anyway, I'm still sore with Mark Wahlberg, and I'm approaching the international trailer for his new movie Contraband with that rancor. It comes out in January, so it has to be laughable. Let's laugh.
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Did you guys realize that Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale were starring in a little heist movie called Contraband? Me neither, but that's probably because Universal has quietly scheduled the film, from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, for a quiet box office death release next January. But we're going to need something to watch during that winter wasteland month so let's take a look and see if super-angry Mark Wahlberg, his abs, and and Kate Beckinsale undressing for the camera can't motivate us to buy tickets.
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Get your tastebuds ready for the ultimate Wahlberg fan culinary experience; famous brothers Mark and Donnie, along with their chef sibling Paul, have secured trademark rights to sell "Wahlburgers" at a new Boston-area burger joint called, what else? Wahlburgers. I'll take mine with a side of NKOTBBQ sauce and Funky Bunch fries! But wait, there's more -- next year the brothers will open a pizza place as well. Drop your Wahlberg-related pizzeria name suggestions below. [Boston Globe via E! Online]
