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Britney's Exes Get New Gigs, John Travolta's Emotional Testimony and Jessica Simpson Misses Her Daisy

Molly — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:12:02 -0700

Today's PopSugar Rush has our take on Glee's latest success! Plus, video of John Travolta in the Bahamas and Jessica Simpson fielding questions about Daisy. Plus, check out what Britney's exes Justin Timberlake and Kevin Federline are up to in their exciting new projects. Watch PopSugar Rush now!

The Taking of Pelham 123: The Taking of Our Time, 104 Minutes

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:30:58 -0700

I wanted The Taking of Pelham 123 to be great, or at least kinda fun - full of thrills and interesting characters with a few little one-liners tossed in. Expecting too much? Maybe. But I was disappointed nonetheless because it turns out this movie is predictable and forgettable. It managed to keep my attention for a while, but mostly it's just blah.

For the most part, what you see in the trailers is what you get, in terms of plot: A crazy guy who wants to be called Ryder (John Travolta) hijacks a subway car in New York and he demands millions of dollars in exchange for the hostages' lives. He tells the dispatcher, Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), that the mayor (played a sleazy New Yorker to a "T") has one hour to get Ryder the money and for every minute they're late after the hour, he's going to kill a hostage. Ryder becomes attached to Garber and he forces Garber's secrets to come to light during their interactions, which everyone in the Garber's room can hear - including his boss and the mayor of New York. Ultimately Ryder wants Garber to deliver the money personally, and then we wait to see whether or not Garber can stop Ryder from continuing on with his plans once he gets the money. For more of my thoughts, read more.

In attempts to make up for the lack of drama, or to fill in the gaps between the few genuinely tense moments, director Tony Scott favors fast-paced montages of crowded subway platforms and general New York "hustle and bustle." Zooming camera shots, blurry quick-moving figures alternate with "dramatic" slow-motion and close-ups on grim faces, all set to loud tunes like "99 Problems." Because, you know, Ryder is a tough guy. This is a tough guy's game because Jay-Z says so. At first, this distracts us from the fact that we don't really care much about this story, but that wears off as the movie wears on.

Denzel Washington often brings an elegance and gracefulness to his characters, and he always exhibits a calm control over his performances. We're supposed to like Walter Garber, and we do, but this entire thriller can't rest on this particular average Joe's shoulders, no matter how nicely Washington presents him. Garber's not all that compelling. Supposedly providing the jolts of craziness (and therefore, in this case, entertainment), is John Travolta who gets a few really good lines in but who mostly seems like he's impersonating a crazy person rather than inhabiting an actual character.

Theoretically this should be an excellent Summer movie - digestible, intriguing, exciting. But I can't recommend this for a theater-going experience. It'll probably be a pretty solid rental, if you're quite bored. I wanted to be swept up in the mystery of it all (why is Ryder doing this? How will he pull it off? How will they stop him?) and the tension of the situation, but really, it's a silly movie. In order to get swept up, I'd have to be able to take the movie seriously and it just wouldn't let me do that.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Movie Preview: The Taking of Pelham 123

BuzzSugar — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:30:04 -0800

In The Taking of Pelham 123, Denzel Washington plays city employee Zachary Garber who gets tangled up in a dangerous hostage situation when armed men take over a subway train and try to negotiate money in exchange for releasing the trapped New Yorkers. John Travolta plays the mean mastermind behind the whole thing who gets to know Zachary Garber fairly well during their little back-and-forth.

Have you seen the original 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw? The trailer for this remake is pretty heart-poundingly intense, actually. I'm curious to see this come June 12. What about you?

To check out the trailer, read more.

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Movie News: Vampires, Legends, Oprah, Tonto, and More

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:30:01 -0700

It's a busy time for Tinseltown:

Another 20-something city girl: Anne Hathaway will play the lead role in the film version of a book I really enjoyed: The Opposite of Love. The movie is about "a commitment-phobic attorney who finds her well-constructed life coming apart at the seams when she rebuffs her ready-for-marriage boyfriend."
Before I was legend: Well, it's official - Will Smith will reprise his role as Dr. Robert Neville in an I Am Legend prequel. This movie "will cover the final days of humanity in New York City before a man-made virus creates a plague that wipes out the population, leaving Neville alone with the mutated inhabitants."
What's the latest in vampire news, Buzz?: Funny you should ask! Cloverfield director Matt Reeves's next project is a "vampire tale" titled Let the Right One In, a remake of a Swedish film about "a young boy who befriends a female neighbor who moves to town." I bet she's not your ordinary neighbor.
More vampires, not so much movie related: Mostly I'm just excited about this news because it's about Guillermo del Toro (yay!!) who "is collaborating with crime author Chuck Hogan on a trilogy of vampire novels, starting next Summer with The Strain. I love that guy (del Toro, not Chuck Hogan).

Depp, Oprah, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers news if you read more.

Disney just loves Johnny Depp, but then again, who doesn't? Along with taking on the role of the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Disney announced that Johnny Depp will also star in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and he will star as Tonto in The Lone Ranger.
O, that voice! In more Disney news, Oprah Winfrey will give voice to Eudora in the New Orleans-set animated princess movie, The Princess and the Frog.
Wondering what Jonathan Rhys Meyers is up to these days? Well, I'll tell ya. Meyers is teaming up with John Travolta in the thriller From Paris With Love. The story follows "a young embassy worker and an American secret agent who cross paths while working on a high-risk mission in Paris." Travolta, though? Really?

Source and source

James Gandolfini Goes From Mob Boss to NYC Mayor for Pelham Remake

BuzzSugar — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:33:21 -0700

Everybody's favorite TV mob boss appears to have turned over a new leaf. James Gandolfini has been cast to play the NYC mayor in director Tony Scott's remake of the 1974 thriller The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three. He joins Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Variety has more:

Gandolfini will plays a pol under incredible pressure to end a crisis when a packed subway car is ransomed by a criminal (Travolta) and his gang.

So, from the Bada-Bing strip club to city hall, I'd say Gandolfini's doing pretty well for himself, wouldn't you? I look forward to seeing how Scott plans to update this movie, though I have a long time to wait: Pelham most likely won't be released until Fall 2009.

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Hairspray: Massively Fun

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:50:43 -0700

What with all the racial tensions, weight issues and societal crises, Hairspray was the most fun I’ve had in a theater in a very long time. It is virtually impossible to watch this newest film version of Hairspray without laughing and wanting to get up and dance. In fact, if you don't crack a smile at least once during this super high-energy, teenage fun fest, I might wonder if your heart were still beating at all.

This rock-n-roll high school musical is full of the energy and tensions of the 1960s when hair was shellacked high and dancing was a daily teenage pastime. As a high school kid in Baltimore, the "pleasantly plump" Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) longs to be on The Corny Collins show, a local TV dance program, but when she goes to the open try-outs with her loyal friend Penny (the lollipop-sucking jail bait Amanda Bynes), she's cruelly turned away by the evil station manager, Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her equally heinous daughter Amber (Brittany Snow). Back at school Tracy gets sent to detention - which seems to double as a kind of night club - and befriends a bunch of black kids, in particular the smooth Seaweed (Elijah Kelley) who teaches Tracy some fancy new moves. That's certainly not the end, though, so read more

Forcing her way onto The Corny Collins show one afternoon, Tracy catches the eye of Corny himself (James Marsden) with her newfound moves and is placed as a regular on the show. Once there, Tracy attempts to get The Corny Collins show to be integrated all the time, rather than the one day a week when black kids are allowed to dance. This leads to a heap of trouble with the station - and then with the police. The whole thing ends, of course, with a spectacular ensemble number. Through it all, there are a lot of songs about weight, and lessons about race relations abound. Yet all these heavy issues (no pun intended) are made lighter by all the smiling, bopping and belting, in classic musical fashion.

The one (gigantic) sore spot in this whole outrageous production is John Travolta playing Tracy's mother, Edna Turnblad. In this role, Travolta is constantly giving the audience a chubby-eyed wink, so uncomfortable and outlandish in his fat suit and muumuus it made me squirm in uneasiness for him. He makes a mockery of the role of Edna and therefore of all of Edna's issues: her insecurities and eventual triumphant ownership over her weight are rendered meaningless in Travolta's performance. He comes across as a buffoonish caricature not of a large woman, but of a human being in general.

Aside from that, the rest of the cast is delicious. Nikki Blonsky has an infectious light-filled presence onscreen and a great, big voice to go with it. Zac Efron is completely adorable as - big stretch here - a somewhat narcissistic teen idol. Queen Latifah does her relaxed-yet-powerful thing, James Marsden is magnificently cheesy as Corny, and Allison Janney is hilarious as Penny's crazy, Bible-thumping mother. Amanda Bynes herself gets many of the funniest lines in the movie, and supplies the appropriate amount of cutesy naivete. Hopefully you'll get a lively audience like I did, one that cheers, laughs and claps as though the actors are there to hear the praise. This really is a fantastic musical, presenting real issues while simultaneously providing a raucous and heartfelt good time.

Recast Grease and Win a Prize!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:30:00 -0700

Every Wednesday on BuzzSugar, I post a Recast challenge, where I ask you to choose new actors for a classic TV show or movie. The reader who submits the best cast wins a BuzzSugar t-shirt!

This summer we have one beloved film-turned-musical-turned-remade-film, Hairspray, and recently heard news about another in the works: Footloose. Following along that theme (and using another of your suggestions), let's just say Grease were being remade and needed present-day actors (and let's face it, it's only a matter of time).

Who would you cast in those roles? You don't need to know if the actors can actually sing, just if they seem right for the roles. And please no reality show contestants from "You're the One That I Want"!
Leave your entry in the comment section below, and I'll pick one winner to feature Tuesday, July 24, complete with a "new" cast photo. To see a list of characters to recast and a photo of the BuzzSugar t-shirt, read more

Characters to recast:
Sandy (Olivia Newton John)
Danny (John Travolta)
Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing)
Frenchy (DiDi Conn)
Kenickie (Jeff Conaway)
Principal McGee (Eve Arden)

The BuzzSugar t-shirt

Movie Preview: Hairspray

BuzzSugar — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:31:01 -0700

Surely you're aware that Hairspray opens nationwide this Friday, that it was directed by Adam Shankman and stars Nikki Blonsky (both of whom I interviewed!), and that it features John Travolta wearing women's clothing and heavyset prosthetics. So, yeah, there's a lot going on with this movie. Based more on the stage musical than on John Waters' original 1988 film, this summer's Hairspray retains the same storyline: During the racially charged 1960s, the lovable Tracy Turnblad (Blonsky) takes Baltimore by storm when she not only makes it onto the local teen dance show, The Corny Collins Show, but strives to integrate the show as well. The movie also stars Queen Latifah, Allison Janney, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer, Amanda Bynes, Brittany Snow and the adorable Zac Efron. Check out my full review this Friday, and if you haven't seen the toe-tappingly fun trailer, you can watch it if you read more

Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema

Buzz Interview: Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky and Adam Shankman

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:44:39 -0700

I recently sat down with Hairspray director/choreographer Adam Shankman and the star of the show, Nikki Blonsky, to discuss their film adaptation of the Broadway musical (which was itself a stage adaptation of John Waters' original 1988 movie). You'll hear more of my thoughts on the movie next week, though for the purposes of this interview I'll tell you I think this movie promises to be a major summer hit. Being a fan of John Waters' original, I was wary of this version but it turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable.

In the brief time we spent together, I didn't get to hear nearly enough from Miss Blonsky, the sweet 18-year-old who positively lights up the screen with her excitement and charm. Director Adam Shankman - who was a guest judge this week on "So You Think You Can Dance" - comes off as a passionate guy who likes to chat. A lot. Check it out:

On the topic of this version of Hairspray vs. John Waters' film:
ADAM: I was not concerned about competing with John’s movie because John Waters made me feel like this was my own baby. He was just like a proud grandfather in that he would support me no matter what. He’s just such a generous man. And I did not want to go away from it too much. We had lunch in Baltimore and he drove me to the neighborhood where he shot the movie and where the characters actually lived...and nothing’s changed! None of it, none of it’s changed since that period, since he made the movie... I felt like we were approaching it in a really unique way… I really broke it apart and I really made it my own.

There was a lot more to say, so read more

On the topic of Shankman's passion for Hairspray:
ADAM: You know what, [I feel so passionate about Hairspray] because I think I feel like Tracy. I feel like an outsider who never understood the word "can't," but that hovered over my head because of certain things, like being gay. I was Jewish in a heavily non-Jewish neighborhood, I was strangely handicapped even though I was like, this white kid born into an upper-middle-class family, so I came to realize that in our own really weird ways, what we are bonded by is that we are all somehow minorities. Which is why I don’t understand how fear in our country, and prejudice, exist.

And besides, what other musical has this kind of music that has so much power, so much energy, so much positivity, and is so goofy but is about something so real, and so relevant, and frankly, totally ripped from the headlines right now - with Don Imus, Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington, I mean we are still living in a climate of prejudice…The idea that I have the opportunity to make a movie that portrays racists as idiots was something that I felt strongly to do.

On searching for someone to play Tracy:
ADAM: I said from the beginning I needed a teenager playing the part of Tracy because I will not have any dishonesty about Tracy. And that is the tradition - that Edna is always a man and Tracy is always a newcomer and I was not going to shy away from that. Whoever was going to play Tracy had to be totally unencumbered by judgments. She had to be the shiny new face of courage and honesty. And I ended up finding this heavenly creature who is literally, exactly what Tracy is: working class, really pretty, plus-size and proud of it. I mean she sees no sexual lines no color lines, whatever, you know, literally no judgment. And the level of confidence that I saw in her audition was mind-blowing. And so you know when everybody else joined the cast they became a little bit intimidated, oddly, by her, because she has no pretense. And no baggage and no nothing.

On the other cast members:
ADAM: Everyone just kind of brought their A-game... Oh, and by the way everybody kind of ended up becoming who they were, you know, their characters, in a truly charming way. John became very maternal with [Nikki]. Michelle [Pfeiffer] really wanted to make sure everything was okay, you know she was white-knuckling it during some of those numbers sometimes. Amanda [Bynes] is a total goofball. And Queen Latifah - a one-woman NAACP. Christopher Walken - a walking joke shop. Oh, Zac Efron, teen idol, imagine! The only two people who are literally nothing like their characters are Brittany [Snow] and Allison [Janney]. Those are miraculous performances because they have absolutely zero in common with their characters… Jimmy [Marsden] is the corniest person on the planet.

On casting Nikki Blonsky in the role of Tracy:
ADAM: I was determined that [Tracy] was going to be young. And she was going to be somebody I wasn’t going to have to pad. And it was going to be somebody very pretty, and who could sing the crap out of the material.

Nikki read about it online, the audition, it was an open call, and she...submitted the tape and... I loved her. I couldn’t believe how sweet and real and innocent and like, her eyes were all over the place with excitement, and she was heavier, a lot heavier than she is now and... she just oozed confidence. Finally I was like, ‘You guys, it’s her.’

On Nikki's experience working on Hairspray:
NIKKI: I had the greatest time.

ADAM: If there had been 28 hours a day for her to shoot, she would have done it.

NIKKI (to Adam): Well, I mean, you took me out of this normal environment. I know what it’s like to work, you know, a part-time job [at Coldstone Creamery], get paid literally nothing and then have taxes taken out. So, I know what it’s like to be scrubbing toilets and scraping dried ice cream off the counter. And when I came into this I was just like, 'Oh my God, this is everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I just have to prove to them that they made the right choice. I’m going to give them everything that they want - and more.' 'Cause I was just determined to give them what they asked for.

On casting John Travolta, and how Hairspray rounds out his trio of musical movies: Grease (set in the 1950s), Saturday Night Fever (set in the 1970s) and now Hairspray (set in the 1960s):
ADAM: Unfortunately, I didn’t cast... he was being talked to before I got involved. What I was excited about, with the idea of him doing it, was all that – and then with including Michelle in there, you know, with Grease 2 and all that, it’s crazy. And I think what makes this all the same is that rock-n-roll musical, you know, they’re all similar in that way with the unabashed zeal, unapologetic breaking into song. We just went for it headlong in a way that was celebrant.

On what's next for Nikki:
NIKKI: I pray to continue in film, I’ve gotten the film bug, I would love it. I have just had the most amazing experience.

ADAM: She has a great relationship with the camera, that’s not something she could learn or buy, that’s the 'It' factor, you know? I think when we started out I had the camera this close to her and she didn't even blink. I am telling you, half that board (points to the giant cast poster for Hairspray) - and I’m not gonna tell you who - you start moving that camera close and they start moving away. [Nikki] was just like, 'What do you want me to do?' I think she should do more movies.

NIKKI: I want to do more movies, I mean that’s what I want to do. Maybe someday if I have the hunger to go to Broadway, maybe originate a role, that would be cool.

ADAM: I’ll say.

NIKKI: But I want to, right now, stick with more films.

A joke is made about remaking Pink Flamingos next:
ADAM: No, no, no. Why would you remake a John Waters just to remake it? It was the music that made us want to do this.

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Link Time! 7/5

BuzzSugar — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:15:12 -0700

The Film Experience's hottie of the week is James Marsden (of Hairspray, among other things) whom I think is underused and highly attractive.
MTV's Movie Blog has a chat with John Travolta and Robin Williams about a movie they're doing together called Old Dogs.
Cinematical reports on the rumor that Jim Carrey and director Robert Zemeckis teaming up to make A Christmas Carol utilizing the same animation used in The Polar Express and the upcoming Beowulf.
The TV Addict has video of the "Battlestar Galactica" panel at Sci Fi's digital press tour.
I missed the anti-drug commercial that features a talking dog, so I'm glad BestWeekEver posted it.

Speaking of commercials, You Ain't No Picasso finds video of a couple of ads featuring songs by Feist and Architecture in Helsinki.
TV Squad tells us how to get a sneak peek of the new Ken Burns documentary, The War.
BellaSugar looks at Joan Jett's beauty with attitude.
Idolator wants to know what the soundtrack was for your local fireworks display.

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