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Buzz News Roundup, 7/31

BuzzSugar — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:30:55 -0700

Amy Poehler will anchor a couple of episodes of Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday to promote Parks and Recreation. - Entertainment Weekly
Matthew McConaughey and Eva Mendes are in talks to star in the drama Southbound. - ComingSoon
Russell Crowe will star in The Next Three Days, the adaptation of the 2008 French film Pour Elle, for Crash director Paul Haggis. - Variety
Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, and Carter Jenkins have joined the all-star cast of Garry Marshall's romantic comedy Valentine's Day. - The Hollywood Reporter
House executive producer David Shore is working on a remake of The Rockford Files for NBC. - Variety
Ridley Scott is reportedly confirmed to direct the Alien prequel. - Entertainment Weekly
Kimberly Peirce, the award-winning filmmaker behind Boys Don't Cry, is working with Judd Apatow on an "untitled romantic sex comedy." - ComingSoon
Christopher Gorham will join Piper Perabo in USA's Covert Affairs, while Donal Logue will star in FX's Terriers. - The Hollywood Reporter
Ron Howard is in talks to direct The Parsifal Mosaic, an adaptation of the espionage thriller by The Bourne Identity author Robert Ludlum. - Variety

The Spirit: A Flashy Story Lacking Soul

BuzzSugar — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 13:30:50 -0800

From dime-store digests to lush graphic novels, the comic-book genre has fully established itself as part of high culture. Along with the literary upgrade have come equally artful films, including The Dark Knight and Sin City. But for all its highbrow hopes, The Spirit plays like a B movie.

Written and directed by Frank Miller of Sin City and 300 fame, The Spirit is no Sin City or even the less cerebral 300. As both artful sketch and pure entertainment, The Spirit is lacking. For all the highs and lows, read more.

With its black-and-white brushstroke canvas and film-noir narration, The Spirit starts with promise. In cahoots with the local cops, the Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is a slain policeman turned subdued superhero and ladies man who feels indebted to keep watch over his city.

Our hero has a campy rivalry with the requisite villain, a theatrical mad scientist known as the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) with a genetically engineered posse of doofus henchman. When one brute gets killed off, Octopus and his evil assistant (Scarlett Johansson) just make more, all in pursuit of an urn containing the blood of Heracles that the Octopus needs to secure his immortality.

The plot is fairly simple. Yet with each new character who is introduced- a devoted doctor smitten with the Spirit, an angel of death draped in a sparkly veil, a jewel thief who is the Spirit's childhood love (Eva Mendes) - the movie gets ever more spiritless. Despite its loftiest constructs, mythic undertones, and bizarre Nazi imagery, The Spirit is almost cool but mostly just awkward. The aesthetics look impressive, but the tone is all off. It's like the comic-book film equivalent of a one-camera sitcom without a laugh track that just isn't funny enough.

Photos Courtesy of Lionsgate

The Women: Not Fizzy, Just Empty

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:34:00 -0700

Philosophically, the very existence of The Women is something that makes me cheer. As its title suggests, it's a movie full of only women - and many of them "women of a certain age," at that. Director and screenwriter Diane English spent years trying to steer her remake of George Cukor's 1939 classic to the screen, and I respect and admire her determination. A powerful remake of The Women could have sent yet another signal that moviegoers want to see women on screen in all their beautiful, imperfect, daffy, lovable, clueless, fantastic glory.

On screen, though, The Women disappoints to an almost depressing degree. It's not an outright disaster; there are good moments from nearly everyone in the gigantic cast. But it's not screwball enough to honor its '30s movie heritage, not clever enough to make for a fun night out at the theater. And its own message on women is utterly conflicted, threatening to undermine the potential positive impact of bringing an all-female movie to the big screen.

Meg Ryan stars as Mary Haines, whose life comes complete with adorable daughter, fabulous luncheons, and blooming garden she planted herself. If there are cracks in that shiny veneer, she'd hardly notice; as a friend, Alex (Jada Pinkett Smith), points out, she's too busy filling them in. So it knocks her flat when she finds out - thanks to her gossipy manicurist (Debi Mazar) - that her husband is having an affair with the Saks perfume "spritzer girl" (Eva Mendes). That betrayal would be bad enough, but before long, there's another one, courtesy of her best friend Sylvie (Annette Bening), who sells out Mary to save her own floundering career. The Women does fine with that broad sketch of a plot. It's in the details that the movie loses its footing, so read more.

Some of the movie's issues lie in the direction, which isn't confident enough to pull off some of the more screwball elements. English also doesn't seem to know how to use Bette Midler, who has a brief cameo that is delightful to watch but doesn't contribute much to the story, and Debra Messing and Smith are hardly in the movie. The whole look of the film is flat - understandable given its relatively small budget, but far from engaging for a viewer.

What The Women gets right is Mary's devastation at Sylvie's betrayal; losing her husband wouldn't have been so bad if the whole mess hadn't taken her friend along with it. The few scenes with the friends together are a treat, especially when they're plotting their confrontation of (and revenge against) the spritzer girl. Mendes basically just has to act hot and stupid, and she does that well. And Candice Bergen is amusing as Mary's mother, who dispenses advice that seems to be from another era.

Or is it? The Women seems confused about its own thoughts on women's roles. And while I can live with the ultimate outcome of Mary's journey to find herself (though I thought it was far too easy and predictable), what I can't condone is the movie's treatment of Mary's daughter Molly, who is basically a living representation of Why Women Hate Themselves. In her first scene, she tells Mary she's on a diet because she's fat; Mary laughs it off . Over the course of the movie, she starts smoking to keep from eating, burns tampons because she hates being a girl, and laments that she doesn't understand why magazine editors like Sylvie send such mixed signals to women. Sylvie's ultimate response when confronted with all of Molly's baggage? "I'm a hypocrite. Life is complicated."

That's all?

Sadly, that empty, cop-out response is far too apt a metaphor for The Women as a whole.

Photos courtesy of Picturehouse

The Spirit Gets a New Trailer

BuzzSugar — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:00:39 -0700

The new trailer for the upcoming film The Spirit brings fans of Sin City back to the world of Frank Miller and his surreal,
noir-ish style. The description of the plot (based on a popular comic by Will Eisner) on IMDB is this: "Rookie cop Denny Colt returns from the beyond as The Spirit, a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces in Central City."

In the trailer we find a man in a Zorro-like mask (Because I Said So's Gabriel Macht) being tormented by the hot women in his world who all seem to want to have sex with him. . . or something. But apparently, this is a bad thing. And then Samuel L. Jackson storms across the screen in several crazy get-ups that include something of a Nazi uniform.

In other words: It's probably just the thing you'd expect from this director and I think his fans will be pleased.

The movie also stars Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, and Jaime King and will be released in theaters on December 25. To see the new trailer for yourself, read more.

Source

Next Herzog Project to Star Ghost Rider Duo, Mendes and Cage

BuzzSugar — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:40:15 -0700

The wildly talented German director Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn, Grizzly Man, Little Dieter Needs to Fly) has tapped the Ghost Rider leads for his next project, a remake of Bad Lieutenant. The original 1992 film has this description on Netflix:

Winner of an Independent Spirit Award (Harvey Keitel for Best Male Lead), director Abel Ferarra's gritty, visceral crime drama puts an out-of-control police lieutenant (Keitel) on a collision course with disaster. A survivor of the streets, this junkie, thief and killer comes face to face with his own sordid past. Although he's exploited young girls for sex, he's forced to confront his private demons when he investigates the rape of a nun.

Herzog's "reimagined" version will star Eva Mendes and Nicolas Cage with, I'm assuming, Eva Mendes playing the nun. I gotta say, this casting makes me scratch my head a bit. Herzog worked with Christian Bale and Steve Zahn on Rescue Dawn and made an incredible film. It seems like he could have gotten some better talent for this movie, but hey, maybe he sees something in Cage and Mendes that we haven't been able to see yet.

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Movie Preview: The Women Starring. . . Lots of Women

BuzzSugar — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:30:48 -0700

I was interested in this remake of the 1939 film The Women when there was initial casting news about it (Debra Messing, Annette Bening, Meg Ryan, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes, Candace Bergen, etc. etc.), but after the incredible success of the Sex and the City movie, I'm even more excited about the opportunities for movies directed at a female audience. If nothing else the SATC movie might have indicated to filmmakers and studios that (hello!) it's possible to actually have a female-centric film do well at the box office. In other words: women can be valuable audience members, too, you know.

Anyway, from the new trailer it looks like there's The Woman (Meg Ryan) and all her girlfriends discover that there's The Other Woman (Eva Mendes) but the women don't know how to tell her about this other woman. True to the original, there don't appear to be any men in the movie. This new trailer isn't phenomenal, but it still looks like a reasonably funny movie about female friendship (and rivalry).

The Women opens September 12. To check out the trailer and tell me what you think, read more.

Buzz News Roundup, 5/7

BuzzSugar — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:34:59 -0700

Oxygen's Talk Sex with Sue is ending this week, but its sassy 77-year-old host promises she'll keep giving lectures, the Associated Press reports.
AMC has renewed Breaking Bad for a 13-episode second season, writes the Hollywood Reporter.
According to Variety, Eva Mendes, Josh Hartnett and Ben Kingsley will topline Queen of the South (La reina del sur), an adaptation of the bestselling novel by Spanish author Arturo Perez Reverte.
The Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have broken off talks without a contract, raising new fears about an actors' strike, TV Guide reports.
Madonna scored her seventh career No. 1 album this week, Billboard reports, with Mariah Carey coming in at No. 2 and Leona Lewis at No. 3.
Ugly Betty plans to move production from LA to New York City next season, writes Zap2it.
Samantha Morton and Woody Harrelson have joined Ben Foster and Jena Malone for the movie The Messenger, Variety writes.

Photo courtesy of Oxygen

We Own the Night: Hardly New York's Finest

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:30:00 -0700

I wandered into We Own the Night expecting stellar performances that would rescue an otherwise so-so movie. And though the movie was definitely so-so (really, a few notches below), I can't blame the actors. After all, the script - riddled with clichés and sorely lacking any dramatic tension - didn't give the typically talented performers anything to work with.

Set in late '80s Brooklyn and Queens, We Own the Night stars Joaquin Phoenix as Bobby Green, the manager of a wildly popular mega-club. His real name is Grusinsky, and his dad, Burt (Robert Duvall), and brother Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) are devoted servants of the NYPD. But taking up his mother's maiden name keeps Bobby's background from interfering with his hobbies, such as recreational cocaine use and hanging with his hot girlfriend, Amada (Eva Mendes).

But guess what? Dad and Joseph are investigating a drug ring run by a Russian mobster who frequents Bobby's club, and they want Bobby to help smoke him out. The plot reads vaguely like The Departed, but the similarities end there, so read more

Bobby has no interest in being a rat, until his brother is shot and injured by the mobsters. Then he decides to go undercover to capture the bad guy, and the action unfolds from there.

Unlike The Departed and many other gripping police dramas, We Own the Night is neither gripping nor dramatic. The familial bonds that are supposedly so central to the story are hardly felt, since we learn very little about the characters or their motivations. The plot progresses in a very predictable arc, and for anyone who doesn't find it predictable, there is a lot of obvious foreshadowing to help us along.

Mostly, the movie, though unconventional, is disappointingly dull; it feels like an amateur filmmaker trying to make a serious movie. Thankfully, a few elements rise above mediocrity: Director James Gray does an excellent job of visually capturing the bleak but indulgent mood of the New York drug scene in 1988, and a climactic car-chase scene through the blinding rain is expertly crafted. Otherwise, We Own the Night comes dangerously close to made-for-TV fare.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Buzz News Roundup, 8/22

BuzzSugar — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:30:53 -0700

Paul "Pee-Wee" Reubens will guest-star on ABC's "Pushing Daisies," TV Guide reports. Meanwhile, Aidan Quinn is headed to "Canterbury's Law" to play Julianna Margulies' husband.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Eva Mendes will be playing a femme fatale with "dangerous curves" in the Frank Miller movie Will Eisner's The Spirit.
Ventriloquist Terry Fator has won "America's Got Talent," the Associated Press reports.
Variety reports that Tim Allen will write and star in a Disney comedy titled Brothers about a racially mixed pair of adopted brothers who are framed for a crime.
Billboard reports that the soundtrack to High School Musical 2 is No. 1 on The Billboard 200.
Margaret Nagle, creator of Lifetime's original series "Side Order of Life," has sold her movie script New York State of Mind, a fantastical love story filmed entirely in New York, reports ComingSoon.
"Nip/Tuck" creator Ryan Murphy is creating a pilot for FX about the life of a man who decides to get a sex change, Zap2it reports.
E! Online states that Lily Allen will not be performing at this year's MTV Video Music Awards due to problems with her American work visa.
Ice Cube and Fred Durst are making an inspirational sports movie titled Comeback, Variety says.
A Seattle woman punched a man to prevent him from singing Coldplay's "Yellow" at a karaoke bar, NME reports.

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Who Should Play the Lead in the Female Scarface?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:31:53 -0700

Variety is reporting today that a director has been named for Queen of the South, a female-led adaptation of Scarface set in Spain. Though casting has not yet begun, three actresses are reportedly circling the juicy role: Eva Mendes, Jennifer Lopez and Penelope Cruz.
According to the article, the "story revolves around a Mexican woman who escapes to Spain after her drug mule boyfriend is killed, then becomes a drug kingpin and seeks revenge for her boyfriend's murderers."

To me, this sounds awesome. I'm sick of gangster movies relegating women to the roles of backstabbing girlfriends or dim-witted victims. As for the leading lady for Queen, which of these actresses can you see playing the part Al Pacino made so memorable? Who can wield a crazy gun screaming one of my favorite movie lines ever ("Say hullo to my little friend!")?

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