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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.

Caption It: Which Caption Should Win?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:30:59 -0700

This week's Caption It was brought to you by Ghost Town:

Here are your finalists:

The Verizon version of "dead calls"
"Oh, I'm sorry, was I narrating an action story in my sleep again?"
"Um, I normally don't do this with an audience . . ."
After 40 years, Haley Joel Osment has finally found the lighter side of
his power, but still sees dead people.
"Wow, this hotel sure is thorough with their wake up calls!"

Thanks for chipping in your great ideas! Now it's time to vote!

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Box Office: Lakeview Terrace Wins So-So Weekend

BuzzSugar — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:00:01 -0700

Lakeview Terrace, a thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson, came in at No. 1 at the box office over the weekend and performed relatively well with an estimated $15.6 million. Second place went to the Coen brothers' comedy Burn After Reading which continues to also do well at the box office, earning an estimated $36.4 million over its first ten days.

Around the No. 3 spot on this weekend's box office report things start to look a little gloomy, starting with the Dane Cook-Kate Hudson comedy My Best Friend's Girl. The movie only earned about $8.3 million, perhaps a result of some harsh reviews (or maybe it was just the poster, as Cook whined, that drove audiences away).

The animated family film, Igor, came in fourth place followed by Righteous Kill in fifth. Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys and The Women rounded out the sixth and seventh place respectively, and a movie I enjoyed, Ghost Town, opened at No. 8.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Ghost Town: Easygoing and Sweet

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:30:22 -0700

One of the things I like best about Ghost Town is that it doesn't ask anything of you. There's no brain power required, though it's not insultingly stupid or empty. It's not hysterically funny, but it's also not crude or painfully immature. For my money, it's certainly the most easygoing - easy to enjoy, easy to forget afterward - of all the movies out in theaters right now.

It's hard to categorize this movie, since it's not a romantic comedy, necessarily. There's not a lot of romance, and while there is comedy, it's often bittersweet, due to all the dead people. Ricky 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. And now they implore Bertram to finish it for them. One such restless soul is Frank (Greg Kinnear) who needs Bertram to prevent Frank's widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni), from remarrying. The ghosts torment Bertram until he agrees to Frank's request, but as he goes about breaking up Gwen and her fiance, Bertram starts to fall for Gwen. To find out my take on it all, read more.

The cast is great, and and I especially appreciate the female characters (and the actresses behind them), who are wonderfully funny and human. Kristen Wiig is hilarious as usual, and Tea Leoni is down to earth as the romantic lead: smart, funny and emotionally confused - but not to the point of hysteria. Her character is written as a person, not some weird parody of a woman. And Leoni easily embodies this beautiful, reasonable character.

Greg Kinnear is also well-cast, and with every new role I see him in, I warm to him more. He's got an honest, affable way about him that can be so endearing. Also, he's well-suited to play a counterpart to Ricky Gervais; Kinnear's more obvious humor and openness balances nicely with Gervais's dry, wry wit. Gervais is surprisingly capable as the leading man in this big American comedy, though with this material he's significantly aided by Kinnear who brings an almost clownish relief.

For some reason, I went into this expecting to laugh more than I did and feel less than I did. It's more emotional and heartwarming than I thought it would be. For any of the movie's faults (some scenes that drag, the occasional blandness of the tone overall), everything is forgiven in the final scene - specifically the last two lines - which is so full of hard-earned poignancy, it (I'll admit it) brought on the waterworks just a little.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Caption It!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:30:55 -0700

Welcome to the Caption It game on BuzzSugar! Every other Wednesday, I'll post a photo still from a TV show or movie here and challenge you to think of the most hilarious caption possible. I'll announce the finalists the following Tuesday, and you'll get to vote for the best caption; the winner will get a fabulous BuzzSugar t-shirt!

The votes are in and the winning caption for last week's 90210 challenge has been selected:

"Hey, how do you spell 'LOL'?"

Congrats to Phil!

This week's challenge comes from the upcoming Ricky Gervais comedy, Ghost Town:

Leave your captions in the comment space below before 5 p.m. PDT on Monday, Sept. 22, to be considered for a spot in the voting round. Have fun! To see a photo of the BuzzSugar t-shirt, just read more.

The BuzzSugar t-shirt

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Movie Preview: Ricky Gervais in Ghost Town

BuzzSugar — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:30:03 -0700

In the comedy Ghost Town, Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) is "a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen (Téa Leoni)."

From the new trailer, it seems silly and surreal, and not necessarily in a good way. Man, I wish I thought this looked awesome and funny. I love Gervais and he's pretty entertaining no matter what, but I only kinda-chuckled twice watching this trailer: once because of Kristen Wiig, once from a bit about shoes. Ghost Town opens September 19. To see the trailer for yourself, read more.

Source

Kristen Wiig Lands Two More Comedic Movie Roles

BuzzSugar — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:30:00 -0700

Recently I wondered where the great comedic parts were for all the great comedic ladies in Hollywood, and many of you said you'd love to see more of the hilarious Kristen Wiig. A regular on "Saturday Night Live," Wiig was also seen in Knocked Up playing Alison's (Katherine Heigl) catty and insecure coworker. Now she has a couple more opportunities to do her hilarious thing.

In Ghost Town, Wiig will star opposite Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear. She'll play "the surgeon of Gervais' character in the David Koepp-directed comedy, which centers on a dentist (Gervais) who has a near-death experience during routine surgery and gains the ability to see dead people who ask him for help in contacting the living."

Then she'll go on to play the female lead in Pretty Bird, an indie comedy that also stars Billy Crudup and Paul Giamatti. Soon, however, we can find her in The Brothers Solomon this September, and this December's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (which also has Jenna Fischer!). I'm glad we don't have to wait too long to see this funny lady in more roles.

Source

The Vampire Diaries "162 Candles": The Good, The Bad and The Bloody

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:30:41 -0800

It's a party on this week's The Vampire Diaries for Stefan's birthday, but it's hardly a cake and merriment fest. Our broody hero finally gets a chance to smile, but of course, it's taken away from him quickly.

Ready to chat about the good, the bad, and the bloody? Watch out for spoilers when you read more.

The Good

Stefan's girl BFF Lexi comes to town to give Stefan a proper 126nd birthday party, and she's a tough-talkin', sexy badass of a vampire. Can you believe that Arielle Kebbel is the same girl who played Lindsay on Gilmore Girls? In the preview, she seemed like a rival for Stefan's affections, but that's not the case at all; she's his (literally) oldest friend and apparently brings out the fun-loving beast in Stefan (hey writers, can we please get some flashback scenes of the good times with Lexi? That would be awesome). She also talks some sense into Elena, encouraging her not to ignore her real feelings for Stefan. Amen. Did you catch that very brief shot of Stefan with his shirt off? Elena could have just seen that and been convinced, but I guess Lexi's soul mate talk works too.
Bad boy Damon proves that he's not softening like I thought he was; his diabolical master plan includes pursuing Caroline's sheriff mother and pretending to help in the vampire hunt. He also engineers the demise of yet another character (more about that in The Bloody rundown), which is heartless and shocking, to say the least.
Bonnie and her awesome Grams make an appearance, apparently having had a sleepover/feather floating lesson. Grams explains that her necklace is her talisman and it chose her, which becomes even more obvious when it also shocks Caroline when she tries to snag it back for Damon. I was disappointed when I thought that was the extent of what we'd see of Bonnie and her witchery this week - until the very end, when Bonnie has a disturbing nightmare featuring her ancestor Emily Bennett and then actually wakes up in the cemetery near the Salvatore family grave. Spooky.

The Bad

Are we supposed to be rooting for Caroline and Matt to get together? I thought it was sweet and all for Matt to take care of Caroline and cuddle her when she's drunk, but I feel like we haven't been given enough to be invested in Matt. Sure, I feel for him losing his sister, but he and Caroline are still side characters to me, so I'm not excited about their pairing quite yet.

The Bloody

I knew something was up when Damon briefly leaves the party and attacks two amorous teens so blatantly; turns out, he pins that attack and all the previous ones on Lexi, supposedly to get the hunting squad off of him and Stefan.
I gasped audibly once again during this episode when the second vampire was killed in as many weeks. Even though Vicki was a more prominent character than Lexi was, I was still completely shocked that Damon stakes her so mercilessly. I really liked her character and loved that for once, someone could overpower Damon. I have a feeling that her little domination of him in the beginning of the episode had something to do with how easily he kills her, but it's still such a horrible thing to do to Stefan. I thought that the small part of Damon that's still human harbors a love for his brother, but I can't believe how deeply he's willing to hurt him.
Heartbroken over the murder of his friend, Stefan tells Elena he has to kill Damon. Which means: vampire fight! But Stefan can't do it; he just sticks the wooden stake in Damon's torso to hurt, but not destroy, him. Well, yeah, he's a star of the show. He can't go anywhere! And Stefan wants to spare him, blah, blah, blah.

From the looks of the preview, I definitely thought this week would just be a filler episode, but it managed to keep up the pace of last week's super intense and amazing "Haunted." A couple more things to think about: Lexi brings up an interesting point - Katherine and Elena look so alike, they could be related. This is a small town with residents whose roots go deep; could they be related? It's an interesting thought. Also, the best way to end an episode is a ghostly Emily Bennett telling Bonnie "It's coming." What's coming? Ack, it's so ominous and exciting, I can't wait to find out what it means! What did you think of this week's episode? And if you want a place to talk more about the show, join Hooked on Vampire Diaries in the Buzz Community!

Photos courtesy of The CW

What to TiVo: Friday

BuzzSugar — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:50:48 -0700

ABC has repeats of Flash Forward, Modern Family, Cougar Town and a new 20/20
CBS is new with Ghost Whisperer, Medium and NUMB3RS
FOX is new with Brothers and Dollhouse
NBC is new with Law and Order and Dateline
The CW is new with Smallville and has a repeat of America's Next Top Model
E! has repeats of Kendra and Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami
TLC is new with Making Over America with Trinny and Susannah, Say Yes to the Dress and Masters of Reception
Late-night highlights include Bruce Willis on The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS; LeBron James on The Jay Leno Show on NBC; Teri Hatcher on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on NBC; and Julianna Margulies on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon