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Bad Lieutenant: Good Cop Gone Nuts

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:30:49 -0800

Nicolas Cage has said, "There's a very fine line between Method actor and schizophrenic." In Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, he teeters that line maniacally, with an ever-increasing slur and crooked swagger. Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating a drug-related murder and his personal threshold for cocaine and heroin.

The first news of Bad Lieutenant was puzzling: famously extreme director Werner Herzog re-imagining a 1992 cult movie, also called Bad Lieutenant, but shifting the action to New Orleans and casting Nic Cage in the Harvey Keitel role opposite his Ghost Rider costar Eva Mendes. Weird.

But in fact, Bad Lieutenant is Herzog's second surprisingly accessible movie in as many years, following 2007's Rescue Dawn. And Cage is brilliant in a role seemingly made for him, so read more.

The noirish, pulpy, desperate, and often hilarious film opens with a good deed: McDonagh dives into a Katrina-flooded jail cell to save a prisoner's life, in the process injuring his back and subsequently getting hooked on Vicodin and then far harder drugs.

As a degenerate cop in a washed-out city, Cage makes Denzel Washington's Training Day villain look like a Boy Scout. He slithers through the streets, confiscating drugs to snort with his prostitute girlfriend (Mendes), hooking up with a drug kingpin played by Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner, and fending off a rising tide of self-created trouble. "Being courteous is really getting in the way of my progress," he croaks before one of his more disturbing moral lapses.

In post-Katrina New Orleans, Herzog has found the perfect setting. He never lets the city look pretty or even charmingly decayed, and he populates it with iguanas and alligators and snakes and fish. At every turn, McDonagh is confronted by cold-blooded animals, as he careens between the call of duty and the cold-blooded instinct of his addiction. It's impossible to ignore the reptilian symbolism, and the effect is perfectly bizarre. Despite its darkest moments, Bad Lieutenant is a remarkably good trip.

Photos Courtesy First Look Studios

The Blind Side: An Unexpected Delight

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:30:42 -0800

It's not that the trailer for The Blind Side isn't compelling; the problem is that it combines Sandra Bullock's twangiest, most-over-the top lines with a heartrending song, which makes it seem schlocky. That's exactly what I expected from the movie, but I have to admit that I was wrong - to my surprise, I found it to be a sentimental gem that's actually quite restrained.

The Blind Side is the true story (based on Michael Lewis's book) of NFL player Michael Oher, who grew up in Memphis's projects with his drug-addicted mother and landed in and out of foster homes. He ended up in a fancy private school and in the home of a wealthy family, the Touhys, led by tough-talking Leigh Anne (Bullock). The weaving of Michael's newfound life in the movie is effective, with sweet bits of humor and just enough emotion.

To see what I liked about the film, just read more.

The movie is full of many surprises: first, it looks like it's going to be mainly about football, but it's not all sports. There is proper attention given to Michael's life before he's taken in and the development of the relationships between the Touhy family members and Michael.

Another nice thing is how smoothly Bullock slides into her role. It's not just her wardrobe and hair that transforms her into the high-maintenance Southern matriarch; her manner as the tough mom who's not completely comfortable showing emotion is very natural - not what I'd expect from the laid-back actress.

Quinton Aaron is also impressive as a sad-eyed orphan turned well-adjusted student and son over the course of the movie. It's not an incredibly complex performance, but his teddy bear presence is irresistible. The supporting players are equally as enjoyable: Tim McGraw, whom I didn't expect much from, is charming, while the Touhy children win you over with their affection for their new brother. The late addition of Kathy Bates (whose role is basically an extended cameo) is hardly needed to bolster the movie, but she adds a nice touch as well.

At two hours and six minutes, the movie is a little too long; director John Lee Hancock seemed intent on fitting in nearly every detail of Michael's journey. Then again, at the end you're rewarded with the payoff: footage and photos of the real-life Touhys and Michael. It's an emotionally satisfying ending to a movie that makes no apologies for being so uplifting.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

New Moon: Better Than Twilight

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0800

Let's be honest: for most of you, it doesn't matter what I - or any critics for that matter - have to say about New Moon, the incredibly anticipated sequel to last year's Twilight. The film started breaking box office records before it was even released, and audiences will flock to the theaters for weeks to come. On the plus side, a ticket to New Moon is a win even if you're not a Twihard - provided that you know what you're getting into.

New Moon is not incredibly acted, and it doesn't boast impressive dialogue or larger-than-life special effects. But it's not trying to be the Best Picture of the Year, so I can only critique it for what it is: a fantasy movie about a love triangle between a werewolf, a vampire, and a teenage girl. To see what I mean, just read more.

The movie picks up a few months after where Twilight left off. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is blissfully in love but she can't fight her insecurities about growing older than her perpetually seventeen vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). All Bella wants for her eighteenth birthday is for Edward to change her into a bloodsucker, but a close call with his brother drives Edward to break up with Bella and leave town instead.

The drama following Bella's abandonment is everything we remember from high school heartbreak, from Bella's night terrors to the glazed over look in her eye. The anguish and pain are easily seen on Stewart's face, and her innermost thoughts are revealed to the audience through letters to Edward's sister Alice that will never be sent. After months of moping, Bella finally starts to open up to Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a family friend. As Bella struggles to find hope in a life without Edward, her friendship is complicated by Jacob's romantic feelings for Bella and made worse when Jacob discovers that he's a werewolf (and an enemy to all vampires).

The surprise of the movie is Lautner's performance. We've seen and heard about those muscles countless times before, but he also packs enough charm and charisma into his Jacob that you truly see him as more than just Bella's unrelenting admirer / best friend. He presents himself as a viable suitor for Bella's heart, and it's hard not to root for him against Robert Pattinson's wooden (albeit handsome) Edward. Stewart and Pattinson have chemistry to spare in Twilight, but in New Moon, Bella's relationship with Jacob seems hopeful and comfortable while her scenes with Edward are mostly awkward and frankly not as much fun to watch.

The movie belongs to Stewart and Lautner, but their melodrama is balanced out by the characters who pad out the cast. Yes, we meet the wolf pack and the Volturi, but for the most part the Forks residents and beyond make for some much-needed comic relief. The downside is that while it's funnier than what you'd expect, not all of the laughs are intentional (a scene where Jacob's temper rivals that of The Incredible Hulk comes to mind).

It doesn't take more than a grain of salt to appreciate New Moon for what it is - a film that stays true to its origin and delivers the necessary elements to ensure that you'll be back when the next installment of the franchise comes our way.

Photos courtesy of Summit Entertainment

Movie Preview: Amy Adams in Leap Year

BuzzSugar — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:30:04 -0800

You can rarely accuse a romantic comedy of being original, and the set up for Leap Year is no different. Amy Adams stars as Anna, a woman who's waiting for her boyfriend (Adam Scott) to propose when she learns that according to Irish tradition, women are "allowed" to propose to men on February 29, leap day. She chases him to Dublin and when she's diverted to Wales, meets a handsome stranger (Matthew Goode) who makes her rethink her scheme and relationship. Stop groaning.

I know the movie sounds cliche and sexist, yet I can't dismiss anything with Adams in it - her charm is just too powerful! Seriously, though, amid the mildly offensive plot details and too-familiar setting (how many times have we seen that stuck-in-the-road-while-cows-cross scene?), Adams still shines along with her freakishly dreamy foil, Matthew Goode. Take a look at the trailer to see for yourself, and watch out for a small bit from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Kaitlin Olson, when you read more.

Leap Year comes out January 8, 2010.

FlashForward Breakdown, "The Gift"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:30:48 -0800

On this week's episode of FlashForward, we get some of those big payoffs that Sonya Walger promised. While the main characters' most important relationships grow more tense, the FBI agents learn more about the blue-hand situation, and the end of the episode has two very big twists.

There's plenty of excitement to discuss, so to get into it, just read more.

Call me Al: We don't learn much about Al in the first handful of episodes of the season, but boy do we get an eyeful and an earful this week. Turns out Al's flash-forward is a lot more jarring than just a dead bird - it's followed up with a phone call revealing that a still-mysterious chain of events ends in Al "accidentally" killing a mother of two. Throughout the episode Al seems to have a laid-back, collected demeanor (even when he opts in for a game of Russian roulette), but inside he's a mess. In the end, Al is so overcome with grief about having a death on his hands, that he decides to "change the game" and commits suicide. I have to admit, as heartbreaking as that scene is, I was kind of glad Al went through with it - just to prove that the flash-forwards aren't necessarily the future. Everything is changed now, the paths can be adjusted, and both Mark and Demetri realize this as they head home to their significant others. Now that they believe the visions can be adjusted, I can't wait to see what else they try to do to throw their visions off course.

My blue heaven: Following up on Demetri and Al's scavenger hunt to find the "blue hands," the fun continues this week as the FBI agents discover that the blue hands are actually a "death club," with meetings set up all over the country for people like Demetri who didn't see a flash-forward ("living ghosts"). It kind of reminded me of Fight Club, though Mark defines it as a "book club with bullets." The guys are hilarious in their street clothes headed to the party, though what they find inside is pretty horrific. After a quick game of Russian roulette, the guys enter what can only be defined as a torture den - people who believe they are going to die doing all kinds of creepy things to each other. I have to say, if I was one of those "living ghosts" I think I'd either be trying to do all the fun things I never got to do before - or I'd just want to get it over with. Why anyone would want to be tortured when he or she is already tormented by the idea of their inevitable death is beyond me.

Blast from the past: Aaron gets a visit from Mike, a friend and solider who served at the same time as Aaron's daughter Tracy. Mike passes on a Swiss Army knife to Aaron, a good-luck charm that Tracy wanted her dad to have should anything happen to her. Aaron is overjoyed since the knife also appeared in his vision, though Mike isn't exactly receptive to the notion that Tracy is still alive. He explains to Aaron that he watched Tracy die (though hello! He didn't even check to see if she was breathing), but surprise! Tracy is sitting in Aaron's kitchen at the end of the episode.

Other plot points:

As tensions rise between Demetri and Zoey, Demetri finally admits to Zoey that he didn't have a flash-forward and is going to die. Zoey refuses to accept it, insisting that should could feel Demetri in her vision and that nothing's been decided yet. Demetri seems skeptical about choosing Zoey's side to "hope" for the best, but after Al's suicide, he seems to have warmed up to the idea that he can change his fate.

Like Demetri, Al's death is a wake-up call for Mark. After suffering problems with Olivia (how sad is it when Charlie catches him crying?) he runs home and embraces her sweetly.

Instead of helping out at the church, Nicole lands a gig volunteering at Olivia's hospital. We learn that she speaks Japanese pretty will, and now is helping Bryce try to find the mysterious Japanese woman from his vision. Will this somehow lead to Nicole's scary vision? Is she sticking her nose where it doesn't belong?

What did you think of this week's episode? Do you think other characters will try to "change the game," too?

Buzz-Worthy Video: Happy Birthday, Say Anything!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:30:48 -0800

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the beloved film Say Anything. To commemorate the milestone (and its special DVD release), a hoard of guys dressed up as Lloyd Dobler swarmed various areas of New York City to re-create the famous scene set to Peter Gabriel's "Your Eyes." (You know the one - Lloyd wants to win back Diane, so he stands outside of her house with a boombox over his head.)

While these guys can't possibly compare to the original, lovable underdog Dobler (John Cusack), they still make for a pretty charming YouTube video. I only wish I had been there to see them live! Check it out when you read more.

Who Should Play Frank Sinatra in Martin Scorsese's Biopic?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:57:25 -0700

And then there were three. Back in May I asked you all who you would choose to play Frank Sinatra in the upcoming biopic, and Martin Scorsese reportedly has narrowed it down to Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and George Clooney. Apparently Scorsese's first choice is his muse DiCaprio, while Universal Pictures would like to see Depp in the role.

As for Clooney - he's the top pick for Tina Sinatra, who would like the movie to focus more on the more charming side of her father's personality rather than the more gritty aspects of his life. Rest assured that whoever snags the role won't have to sing - the music will feature Sinatra's original voice. So between these three guys, tell me - who should play Frank Sinatra in Martin Scorsese's biopic?

What to Download: New Music Today

BuzzSugar — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:30:32 -0700

It's Tuesday, which means that not only is your Netflix queue getting a shot in the arm, so is your iPod: I've checked out today's new music releases and have some advice for you on what you should download today.

Hipster Halloween Party: I'm pretty shocked by how much I'm enjoying the self-titled debut album from Dead Man's Bones, AKA the band that Ryan Gosling is in. The "goth-folk" concept sounds too campy to work; Gosling and his bandmate Zach Shields have compiled an entire album of creepy-themed tracks, finding inspiration in zombies and werewolves. It sounds ridiculous, but their stroke of genius is adding the Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children's Choir. As backup singers, the kids' voices are sweet and catchy, especially on Flowers Grow Out of My Grave. My other favorites are the charm-filled, retro-sounding My Body's a Zombie For You and Pa Pa Power, where Gosling's '50s-toned voice plays off the backing of the young voices.

Spill it: I was eagerly awaiting Built to Spill's latest album, There Is No Enemy, and I'm not disappointed; so far I like it more than their last effort from three years ago, You in Reverse. Enemy is more in the upbeat-yet-deep vein of 1999's Keep it Like a Secret (maybe my favorite BTS album). Lose yourself in Hindsight and Aisle 13, but if you're craving a lilting, classic BTS jam, cue up Things Fall Apart.

See one more release when you read more.

A girl and her guitar: Brandi Carlile hit the pop culture jackpot when songs from her last album The Story were featured on Grey's Anatomy several times. Now she's back with her third album, Give Up the Ghost, and her emotional folk will probably get her back on the show: Dreams ramps up from a slow ballad to heavy rocker, while That Year and Before it Breaks are worthy of a Mer-Der cryfest.

A Serious Man: Seriously Hard To Wrap Your Head Around

BuzzSugar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:00:10 -0700

I like the Coen brothers. I loved No Country For Old Men, I still enjoy quoting Frances McDormand lines from Fargo - I even appreciated their most recent project, Burn After Reading despite lukewarm reviews. So I went into A Serious Man with high expectations. Perhaps a bit too high.

The Coens go incredibly dark and thought-provoking this time around, and unfortunately without any big-named stars attached like Clooney a la Reading or O Brother, Where Art Thou?, A Serious Man probably won't live on as one of their more memorable films for viewers. In fact, many people will probably feel put off by it. To see what I mean, read more

A Serious Man opens like a horror movie, which isn't surprising given the Coen's propensity for heavy themes (and often a few stab wounds) in their stories. The music is a big player, creating tension that doesn't let up for the audience even when the screen goes to black. But the antagonizing score fits well within the nightmare existence of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a professor and devoted family man in '60s suburbia. First, his wife announces that she's leaving him for a touchy-feely close-talker; his unemployed brother spends entire 24-hour periods in his bathroom; and one of his foreign students is threatening to sue him. Really, the only thrill Gopnik ever gets in life is when his neighbor Mrs. Samsky sunbathes nude.

Poor Gopnik is a wound-up guy, and you feel for him and with him. (It's true; I had to decompress after this movie.) His world is spiraling out of control, so he seeks out three rabbis for a solution. Does Gopnik get the enlightenment he seeks? Not exactly, and neither do we as the audience.

There's not a single bad thing I can say about any of the actors. Each one was believable and charmingly offbeat in their role. The Coens are brilliant with character nuances - even some of the small two-minute parts managed to get laughs - but the larger picture just seemed murky from the get-go. The first five minutes of the film starts with a man in a village who accidentally invites a ghost home for dinner. It's all in Yiddish with subtitles, and it's almost like watching a stand-alone play, but I'm still not sure what it had to do with the rest of the plot, other than the Jewish religion and setting a dismal tone. So right away I felt semiconfused, but entertained nonetheless - which is pretty much how the duration of it went for me.

The film does have some great scenes - I loved the interaction between Gopnik and his foreign student, and his wife's new boyfriend Si is particularly funny - but trying to piece it together is a bit like banging your head against the wall (just like in the movie's trailer). I get that Gopnik's life sucks, but other than that, it's hard to tell exactly what we're supposed to glean from the story. I think that was sort of the point the Coens were trying to make - Gopnik doesn't get the answers he seeks, and neither do we.

Go see it if you're a hardcore Coenaholic, and enjoy the funny scenes without trying to analyze it too much. But if you prefer to dissect your movies, I'd say rent this one at home, because you may need to watch it twice.

What movies are you seeing this weekend? Review them in our Movie Review Group!

Photos courtesy of Focus Features

Zombieland: The Feel-Good Zombie Flick of the Year

TresSugar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:30:23 -0700

A Note From Buzz: With so many new movies this week, my friend Très was nice enough to apply her scary-movie expertise to review the box office's newest zombie flick.

In the United States of Zombieland, zombies outnumber people. A mad-cow tainted burger tipped the population in favor of the drooling, limping, and grunting set, and now zombies roam a crashed-car littered, empty-minimall-blighted zombiescape.

Columbus (Adventureland's Jesse Eisenberg), the virginal antihero of horror-comedy Zombieland, has learned to survive this zombie apocalypse by keeping a list of necessary survival skills. Rule #1? Cardio. If you don't want zombies gnawing on you like an hors d'oeuvre, you'd better be fast and limber. In addition, beware of bathrooms, practice the "double tap" (make sure your zombie's actually dead after you kill him), and don't be a hero. (Regarding this last rule - some rules were made to be broken.)

When Columbus meets up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a swaggering cowboy type with a penchant for tank-like cars, shotguns, and Twinkies, and the spitfire sister duo of Wichita (Emma Stone) and Arkansas (Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin), Zombieland takes off like a scary/fun amusement park ride. To find out what happens on this motley crew's wild road trip from hell, read more

There's something funny about zombies and the zombie genre, and in his first feature film, director Ruben Fleischer plays their comic possibilities to the hilt. Zombies don't have what you'd call well-rounded personalities; they're pretty predictable. They have bad attitudes, come out of nowhere, grunt, and see all nonzombies as food to feast on. They're the perfect foil (or straight men, even) to a cast of characters with more than enough personality to make up for the zombies' boorish one dimensionality.

Take nebbishy Columbus. The world changed for him, he tells us in an early voice-over, when a pretty neighbor he calls #406, asks to stay over because a crazed homeless man tries to bite her. Sadly, although she falls asleep on Columbus's shoulder, she wakes up as a rabid zombie and begins chasing him around his apartment, forcing him to repeatedly knock her over the head with a toilet lid. "The first time I let a girl in my life," deadpans Columbus, "and she tries to eat me."

This kind of witty dialogue abounds in Zombieland, and although fans of gore and violence against zombies will be more than satisfied (Tallahassee's scenes of zombie-killing, especially, have a Tarantinoesque choreography to them), it's really the mismatched goofball characters and how they bond and evolve, surprisingly, that hold the film together. A hilarious cameo from Bill Murray in the Beverly Hills sequence of Zombieland, also, is practically worth the price of admission.

Harrelson chews the scenery as Tallahassee, but as we find out, part of the reason he's hell-bent on killing zombies is because they took away his baby boy. As for the sisters, tough-girl Wichita just wants to take care of her little sister Arkansas (who, as a good shot, doesn't seem to need much help), but a beautiful girl has needs, too, and before long she develops feelings for Columbus. Will he or won't he finally be able to live out his nerd-boy fantasy of brushing the hair over a girl's ear?

You probably know the answer to that question, but just because Zombieland adheres to certain formulas doesn't mean that it doesn't revive them in witty ways. Although the zombie-killing gore fest may not be for everyone, Zombieland's amazing visuals, charming characters, and witty dialogue may leave a goofy grin on your face as you leave the theater.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures