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Buzz In: Did You Make Entertainment-Related Resolutions?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:30:22 -0800

With the start of 2009 comes the chance to make another batch of New Year's resolutions (here's hoping you haven't already broken yours!). Every year, I find that a few of my resolutions are entertainment related, and this year is no exception. In 2009, I resolve to see all the Oscar-nominated movies before the Oscars, keep a list of all the books I read, and delete programs from my DVR if I haven't watched them within a month. What about you?

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Movie Preview: Ben Stiller Plays It Straight in Greenberg

BuzzSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:30:41 -0800

I have a love/hate relationship with Ben Stiller movies. Over the years, I've grown tired of seeing him in the same everyman role again and again (with a few exceptions, like There's Something About Mary), but every now and then he throws a curve ball that pulls me back in. Greenberg already looks like one of the latter films.

The upcoming indie movie from The Squid and the Whale director Noah Baumbach follows Roger Greenberg, a middle-aged New Yorker who heads to LA and decides to "do nothing" in an attempt to figure out his life. The movie looks like it could be a tearjerker, but maybe that's just because LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" is playing in the background. (The band's James Murphy lends a few new songs to the movie). Rhys Ifans is Roger's best friend while Greta Gerwig is the woman he befriends and beds. If you're ready to see Stiller take a break from slapstick, check out the trailer when you read more.

Aziz Ansari Gets Three Thumbs Up From Judd Apatow

BuzzSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:30:03 -0800

Am I asleep? Because this sounds like a match made in heaven - Judd Apatow (along with Universal Pictures) has just picked up not one, not two, but three comedies starring Aziz Ansari. The yet-to-be-written ideas were pitched by the Parks and Recreation star as well as Jason Woliner, who is on board to direct. So what kind of hijinks are in store? Here's the rundown:

Project No.1: For now, it's called Let's Do This, and it's about two guys who work for a motivational speaking company and a road trip. Sounds familiar, but still has potential to be very funny.
Project No. 2: In this one, Ansari will play an astronaut (already hilarious) who has to clear his reputation by heading back to outer space.
Project No. 3: The three projects are unrelated, but the third one is actually a spinoff of Apatow's Funny People, focusing on Ansari's character Randy.

When asked about the pitches, Ansari quipped, "We didn’t expect all three to work. We had a breakfast meeting with Judd and pitched them. We were like, 'Which one do you like?’ He wanted all three.' We are hesitant to say too much about our ideas. A few years ago, we announced our new idea about a film where the world ended in the year 2014. We have since had to stop developing this movie."

Are you looking forward to seeing Ansari join Apatow's band of merry comics? Which project sounds most promising to you?

Are You Excited About Avatar?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:30:54 -0800

Rabid fans everywhere have been waiting for the release of James Cameron's Avatar literally for years, and now there are just a few weeks to go. Back at Comic-Con, I got a long look at the movie, and I have to admit it that I wanted more after 30 minutes of footage. On the other hand, many of my friends and co-workers seem disinterested in the project entirely, especially with so many other anticipated movies hitting the theaters in December (more on that later this week). Check out a new clip below, and tell me where you stand - are you excited about Avatar?

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:30:00 -0800

It's Tuesday, so you know what that means - new DVD releases just in time for the Thanksgiving break! I've already shared some fresh music picks, but here are three movies to add to your Netflix queue for the weekend.

Funny People

Adam Sandler plays a comedian who tries to turn his life around and befriend a past love (Leslie Mann) after being diagnosed with a blood disorder; Seth Rogen steps in as his idealistic assistant. Both men turn in solid performances in Funny People, and there are laughs, even though this is way more serious than director Judd Apatow's previous work. One of my complaints in the theater was that it was much too long, but that's the good thing about DVDs - you can always hit pause and go back later.

The single disc version includes a gag reel and a feature commentary with Apatow, Rogen, and Sandler. (Normally I don't watch with the commentary on, but in this case, I might just tune in for their wise cracks.) The special two-disc collector's version is loaded with extras, including a 13-year old Seth Rogen doing stand-up!

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Two more DVD releases to check out when you read more.

Four Christmases

I love Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, and while they don't necessarily have any sparks in Four Christmases, they still serve up a cute comedy. The pair star as a couple stuck visiting four sets of relatives around the holidays - his mom, her mom, his dad, her dad. And while it's not the funniest or most charming film that either actor has done, I still had a few laughs, especially thanks to the supporting cast of quirky characters (Jon Favreau and Kristin Chenoweth in particular). Even if it doesn't stack up against the classics in my holiday movie faceoff, it's worth trying if you're looking to get into the spirit of the season.

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Angels and Demons

Tom Hanks fans have Angels and Demons to look forward to. The actor is incredibly long-winded in the follow-up film to The DaVinci Code, but at least he's no longer sporting that ridiculous bouffant hairdo. This time, Robert Langdon tries to save the Vatican from an ancient group known as the Illuminati. Personally, I was bored by the first half when I saw the film in theaters, but the second part is actually fun - so if you catch it at home, you may want to fast forward a bit to get to the good stuff.

Special features include behind-the-scenes featurettes.

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What to Download: New Music Today

BuzzSugar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:17 -0800

Welcome to a very special Monday edition of What to Download! Instead of Tuesday, all the hot music releases are happening today. In addition to the dance-floor-ready releases I've handpicked below, Shakira's She Wolf also dropped today.

Good girl gone bad makes good: Rihanna has had a tough year, but if her release of Rated R is any indication, she's ready to pick herself up and be back on top - of the charts, at least. Considering her last album gave us modern classic "Umbrella," I've been trying to sniff out this year's mega-hit. "Hard" probably comes the closest, but while it's catchy, this isn't a candy-coated pop musing. Sounding weary but more mature, Rihanna brings a darkness with her singles, particularly on "Wait Your Turn," probably my favorite on the album. Speaking of dark, "Russian Roulette," a stirring ballad, conjures up gun metaphors for love. Its heaviness, along with the album's, may or may not translate to chart success, but it's a tough, brave declaration that Rihanna isn't going anywhere.

Feel the fame all over again:The Fame Monster is the re-issue of Lady Gaga's debut album The Fame, but has enough new tracks on it to justify all the buzz around it. You'd have to be fighting it pretty hard to not have heard "Bad Romance" - the track and its great hook are exactly what I like to hear from Gaga. But I think the real winner here is going to be "Telephone" - featuring the only diva fierce enough to go head to head with Gaga: Beyonce. If you still need more fuel for your dance party, play "Monster" a few times and you'll be spinning around your room in no time.

See one more new release when you read more.

Worship your glam idol: Kris Allen may have won American Idol, but Adam Lambert is your rock king. For Your Entertainment is as glittery and fun as its crazy cover promises. I've been loving the bouncy, sexy title track since Lambert performed it in his scandalous AMA performance. Swaggering glam rock track "Strut" is more of the same fun, and the fabulously '80s "Music Again" features the capable vocalist hitting high notes like a modern Freddie Mercury.

Link Time! New Moon Director Chris Weitz Has a New Project

BuzzSugar — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:30:52 -0800

New Moon director Chris Weitz reveals his next film, titled The Gardener - Cinematical
Who was the most over-the-top on the AMAs stage? - PopSugar
ABC halts Cougar Town due to a "private family matter" for Courteney Cox - HitFix
Here's a sneak peek at the final episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 - People
Taking a page from Kevin James's resume, TLC is doing a new show about mall cops - TV Squad
Behind the scenes of Avatar - Rotten Tomatoes
Will the Grammys let Lady Gaga compete for Best New Artist? Pretty, pretty please! - Rock & Roll Daily
What's really based on true life and what was just made up in The Blind Side - Moviefone
Parks and Recreation's Aziz Ansari on his favorite music growing up - Pitchfork
Kat Dennings joins the Thor cast - MTV Splash Page
The top five turkeys on TV - as in failures, not the bird - The TV Addict
Heroes stars reveal what they're thankful for this year - TV.com

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

Buzz-Worthy Video: Sneak Peek at Chuck Season 3!

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:30:24 -0800

I was so excited yesterday to learn that Chuck's third season premiere has been scheduled - and it's less than two months away. Still, the big two-hour kickoff can't come soon enough for me, especially after last year's epic finale. If you feel my pain, then you need to check out this sneak peek at the upcoming season. Zach Levi (sporting a new, shorter 'do) presents a very sweet message thanking his fans for all their support before showing a brand-new clip.

Even though Chuck has been given an upgrade, he's just as goofy and lovable as ever. Casey and Sarah are back undercover as our hero tries to play debonair once again - only this time he's actually got a few skills. We also get a taste for that famous sexual tension between Chuck and Sarah. I'm already counting the days so to check it out just read more.

Photo courtesy of NBC

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