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What to Netflix: Weekend Edition!

BuzzSugar — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 13:30:58 -0800

Usually the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays, but there are a handful of big releases out today so I thought I'd alert you. Today, just like I do each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I'm sorting through the best of the batch to suggest some additions for your queue.

The Duchess
I'm glad this sumptuous movie is out on DVD because it's so beautiful to look at. The costumes in this period drama starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes are gorgeous and the rest of the movie is pretty good too.

Knightley plays Georgiana, wife of William Cavendish (Fiennes), the Duke of Devonshire. While their relationship grows bitter in private, Georgiana starts to become quite popular in public and immerses herself in the world of politics and high society. As her husband puts other women between them, Georgiana finds herself falling in love with a young politician, Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper). However, the threat of scandal proves too great for the Duke and Duchess, and a relationship with Charles is forbidden.

Special features include a featurette titled, "Georgiana in Her Own Words," the making of the movie, and a costume diary.

Two more up next so read more.

Ghost Town
Aw, Ricky Gervais. This comedy wasn't the smash hit that someone of his talent deserves but it's an easygoing and sometimes bittersweet comedy all the same.

Gervais plays dentist Bertram Pincus, an ornery, solitary man who comes out of a medical procedure to discover that he died briefly during it. His momentary death gives him the ability to see people who have died but who are still hanging out on Earth because they have unfinished business. One such restless soul is Frank (Greg Kinnear) who needs Bertram to prevent Frank's widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni), from remarrying. This is a good pick for something to watch with the family if you're still hanging around with them til the New Year.

Special features include commentary from Gervais and the making of the movie.

Eagle Eye
This is one of the most intense-looking DVD covers I've seen in awhile. In fact it's kind of stressing me out, which is about the right vibe for this movie. I actually thought this movie was rather thrilling, even if the actual stuff going on in the plot is a wee bit preposterous.

Shia LaBeouf plays Jerry Shaw, a slacker with low ambitions and little money. The sudden death of his estranged twin brother Ethan sets off a series of baffling occurrences for Jerry, starting with a strange woman contacting him on the phone just as he's being set up to look like a terrorist. Oh, this is only the beginning, though! Michelle Monaghan is also in this movie and she and LaBeouf make a surprisingly adorable onscreen pair.

Special features include a gag reel and a photo gallery.

Wahlberg Feels No Payne at the Box Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:30:34 -0700

Mark Wahlberg had a good weekend. His movie Max Payne was No. 1 at the box office, with an estimated $18 million. Plus, it looks like he made nice with Andy Samberg, after things got tense last week.

Second place turned out to be what Variety calls a "photo finish" between those dancing dogs and The Secret Life of Bees. Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua just barely eked out a second place finish its third weekend in theaters with an estimated $11.2 million with Bees close behind with about $11.1 million.

Oliver Stone's biopic W also did well, coming in at No. 4 with an estimated $10.6 million its first weekend out followed by Eagle Eye at No. 5.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Box Office: It's a Chihuahua World and We're Just Living in It

BuzzSugar — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 08:30:48 -0700

If the photo below were a Caption It contest based on this weekend's box office results, my entry would go something like: "Well Leo, there's no easy way to say this so I'm just going to come out with it. We got beat by the little talking dogs. Beat bad."

That's right, Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua was No. 1 for the second weekend in a row followed by the horror flick Quarantine. Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, which came in third, was expected to do much better "based on its star power alone" but the combination of mediocre reviews and the fact that audiences continue to eschew Iraq War-related movies probably worked against a successful opening weekend. Eagle Eye and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist rounded out the top five respectively.

The new sports film The Express came in at No. 6 followed by Nights in Rodanthe, Appaloosa, The Duchess, and City of Ember at No. 10.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Chihuahua's Bark Is Loud at the Box Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:30:31 -0700

You know, the reviews for Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua were not as bad as I thought they might be, so that coupled with the fact that it's a family film meant that the movie about little talking dogs took the No. 1 spot at the box office over the weekend. The top dogs brought in a seriously impressive $29 million. That's about the same amount that Eagle Eye earned last weekend. This weekend, the Shia LaBeouf action-thriller came in second place.

Meanwhile, some smaller movies (a.k.a. "specialty films") also did well. Both Bill Maher's documentary Religulous and Anne Hathaway's Rachel Getting Married had terrific opening weekends. This was especially striking as "three of the new wide releases didn’t even crack the top 10 chart," including Flash of Genius, Blindness, and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

Finally, both Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Appaloosa enjoyed solid debuts, coming in third and fifth respectively. Lots of options this weekend! Which one did you see? (And come on, you can admit it if it was the chihuahua movie - this is a safe place.)

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Eagle Eye Soars at Box Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:30:36 -0700

Shia LaBeouf proves he's box office gold once again with the No. 1 movie this weekend, Eagle Eye, also starring Michelle Monaghan and directed by D.J. Caruso. The action-thriller performed well with an estimated $29.2 million, making it the fourth-best September debut ever. In second place with an estimated $13. 6 million came the Nicholas Sparks tearjerker Nights in Rodanthe.

Lakeview Terrace came in third place, and to my great surprise Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron (yes, you read that right), came in at No. 4. The Christian-themed flick narrowly beat Burn After Reading, which came in fifth. Who would have ever guessed that Mr. Cameron would join Mr. LaBeouf as two of the big stars of the weekend?

Spike Lee's World War II epic Miracle at St. Anna suffered from disappointing reviews (including my own) and paid for it at the box office, coming in at No. 9.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Eagle Eye: Absurd . . . ly Fun

BuzzSugar — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:30:28 -0700

The story of Big Brother watching and controlling all of the helpless citizens in Eagle Eye might be more effective if it weren't quite so preposterous. That said, this movie intends to thrill and entertain, and it succeeds on all counts. It holds your attention with all the plot twists and the bombardment of explosions, the kind of explosions that make a certain audience cheer. Eagle Eye will probably not be an award-winner, but it's great for when you want to totally escape with a loud, ridiculous, big ol' Hollywood popcorn flick.

For starters, the two leads are seriously likable. I so enjoy watching Michelle Monaghan in pretty much anything (even crap like Made of Honor) because she seems so comfortable on screen. She's like someone we all might know. Not average, really, but familiar in a comforting way - smart, nurturing, sweet, tough. And Shia LaBeouf is utterly adorable in this film. It doesn't ask much of him, but he delivers nicely nonetheless. He plays Jerry Shaw, a slacker living in Chicago and having trouble making ends meet. The sudden death of his estranged twin brother Ethan sets off a series of baffling occurrences for Jerry, starting with a strange woman contacting him on the phone just as he's being set up to look like a terrorist. Oh, this is only the beginning, though, so read more.

It turns out the strange woman is forcing Jerry to do her bidding or else get caught by the authorities. As long as he does what she says, he's safe from the police who have plenty of (planted) evidence to lock Jerry away for good. Single mother Rachel Holloman has been similarly summoned by this woman, and she and Jerry are thrown together on a crazy, mysterious chase at the instruction of a disembodied voice which, unbelievably, is able to manipulate any form of technology (making signs flash instructions to Jerry, turning all the traffic lights to green so they can rush through them, etc.) in order to speed up their journey and confound the police and FBI who are hot on their trail.
The woman's voice leads the two straight into an actual terrorist plot, an act of revenge for an impulsive and wrongful bombing of innocent people by the US. What follows is a convoluted string of twists, turns, and (usually) death-defying stunts, and all for what? The answer is pretty silly, but I won't spoil it for you here.

People always say that there's no original story left in Hollywood and that it all depends on how filmmakers reassemble old ideas. Eagle Eye completely borrows from other movies and churns out clichéd moments left and right. And yet, that doesn't diminish the fact that it's still compelling to find out how this technology controls and manipulates these humans, and how the humans desperately try to win anyway.

There's an attempt at some kind of political statement with this movie, but it doesn't quite make it. And that's fine. At some point you understand that this is pure entertainment and nothing else. It's one of those times when you can resign yourself to the silliness of it all and be swept away in the zooming car chases and frantic search for answers, or not. It's not artful, by any means, but as far as action movies go, it's not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Do You Think Shia Should Take More Non-Action Roles?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:30:48 -0700

As Eagle Eye approaches, I got to thinking that the only thing young Shia LaBeouf has been up to since hitting the big time has been action movies. The former Even Stevens cutie got a huge break in the Summer blockbuster Transformers, acted alongside film legends in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, moved on to Eagle Eye, and has been working on the second Transformers movie all Summer.

If there are things going "boom!" Shia's there. But maybe he should try another drama (like A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints) or something in which he's not sweating and running from enemies. What do you think? Do you like him in action flicks and should he stick with them?

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First Look: Shia LaBeouf in Eagle Eye

BuzzSugar — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:50:39 -0700

Woah. The teaser trailer for Eagle Eye is dark and intense right off the bat, as Shia LaBeouf's character Jerry is immediately set up to look like a criminal, though he's actually innocent. The FBI doesn't believe him, of course, and now it appears that the people who set him up have further plans. Actually, it looks like they "own" him now. According to the plot description, he meets up with a single mother (played by Michelle Monaghan, who doesn't appear in this teaser) and they learn that they're both being framed as terrorists.

Scary! Disturbia director D.J. Caruso is back to put us at the edge of our seats again - and returning with cute Shia LaBeouf to boot. Eagle Eye opens in theaters September 26, so to check out the teaser trailer, read more.

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Link Time! 1/8

BuzzSugar — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:30:59 -0800

SlashFilm finds a San Francisco street artist posing a key question: Do you prefer shoot-em-up star Rambo, or 19th-century French poet Rimbaud?
Popwatch has a call to action to stop Jessica Simpson's country album from happening.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's return to the air makes TV Squad wonder: What's the going definition of "writing" these days, anyway?
When MTV Movies Blog chatted with director David Fincher he revealed his plans to turn Fight Club into a musical.
Pop Candy shares a way to win a chance to see the Lipstick Jungle premiere early - plus free lipstick.
Pop has photos from the set of Eagle Eye, the thriller that is reuniting Shia LaBeouf with his Disturbia director D.J. Caruso.
Check out Stereogum for Moby's latest video for the song "Alice."
TV Filter spreads the good news that all of Lost is now available online for free!
CasaSugar lets us tour Parker Posey's old apartment - without stalking her!
Idolator already has a contender for the worst album cover of 2008.

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Rosario Dawson's Descent and More

BuzzSugar — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:42:31 -0700

As it is with George Clooney, it seems I can't peruse entertainment websites or magazines these days without seeing something new about Rosario Dawson. Today I've rounded up the top three items - including the new teaser trailer for her movie Descent, which premiered earlier this year at Tribeca - circulating the film world about Ms. Dawson.

1. Dawson has been cast alongside Shia LaBeouf in Eagle Eye, the next thriller on Distrubia director DJ Caruso's list of projects. She mentioned to MTV that she had signed on for the movie, though she gave no specifics about her role. In a separate interview Caruso "would only say that 'she is going to play a character named Zoey.'"

2. Though Kevin Smith seems to think otherwise, Dawson will not, in fact, be starring in Smith's next "bawdy sex comedy" Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Dawson was rumored to be a part of the movie from the beginning, but apparently the production dates conflict with those of Eagle Eye. About Porno, she says, "It’s going to be a really interesting film. I don’t think I’m going to be a part of it. He wrote it for me, but I’m just signing on to do [Eagle Eye] and that’s going to be shooting from November to March."

3. In Descent, Dawson plays a bright and attractive college student who vows revenge on the man who rapes her. You can watch the new teaser trailer for Descent if you read more

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