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Do You Like Renee Zellweger Better in Dramas or Comedies?

BuzzSugar — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:30:27 -0700

I never thought about it until now but Renee Zellweger has had a pretty colorful career so far, having taken a few heavy, dramatic roles (Cold Mountain, Cinderella Man) as well as some very, very silly ones (Bridget Jones, Down With Love). The trailer for her latest film, My One and Only, feels vaguely familiar. Her character seems similar to her role as the sassy journalist in Leatherheads with dashes of drama queen Roxy in Chicago. Truth be told, I might be tiring of seeing her play this kind of role.

What do you think? Is she best-suited for comedies, or should she try for more dramatic roles?

Love It or Leave It: My One and Only Starring Renee Zellweger

BuzzSugar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:30:01 -0700

In My One and Only, Renee Zellweger stars as Ann Devereaux, a charming but mercurial society lady who leaves her cheating husband and takes to the road with her young sons (one of whom, it turns out, grows up to be the actor George Hamilton). The movie's tagline is "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Husbands," that seems to be an appropriate description for Ann's journey, as she meets and discards (or is discarded by) men of all stripes. Kevin Bacon, Chris Noth, Eric McCormack, and Steven Weber also star. Check out the trailer below and tell me: Will you be rushing to theaters for this one on Aug. 21? Or would you rather skip it?

A Third Bridget Jones Movie: Yay or Nay?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:15:09 -0700

In some ways, I'm a little surprised that there hasn't been a third Bridget Jones movie yet since Hollywood seems more keen on making remakes and sequels than producing original material. We're only now hearing news of another movie centered around that zany Bridget Jones, and this one probably won't even go into production until the end of next year.

The third, untitled movie will again star Renee Zellweger in the title role and unsurprisingly, after trying to untangle all the messes in her romantic life, this next story will probably focus on her desire to have a baby: "It will likely be based on the weekly columns author Helen Fielding wrote in 2005 for British newspaper the Independent in which Bridget, now in her 40s, attempts to have a baby before it's too late."

I still watch Bridget Jones's Diary from time to time (usually around the holidays!) but, to be completely honest, I truly hate the sequel, Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason. Then again, sometimes the third movie is actually better than the second. I'm open to the idea. What do you think of a third Bridget Jones movie?

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:30:01 -0700

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to my selections below, you can also add Jessica Biel's Powder Blue to your queue, along with the first season of Designing Women.

New in Town
Renée Zellweger stars in this quirky romantic comedy as Lucy Hill, a tough Miami executive who is sent to take over a processing plant located in the frozen tundra of New Ulm, MN. Lucy is supposed to lay off a bunch of employees, but the longer she's in town the more she sees how devastating her actions would be to the people of New Ulm who have been so gosh darn nice to her. The plight of the townfolk is given voice through the local ~~hottie~~ union rep, Ted (Harry Connick Jr.), who has lots of initial contempt for the new lady in town and sees Lucy as a corporate stooge. Until, of course . . . he doesn't.

This isn't the best thing you'll ever see but it's fun enough for a little movie romance on the couch. Special features include featurettes titled "The Folk Art of Scrap Booking" and "Pudding's Delicious Role," along with deleted scenes and audio commentary with cast and crew.

18%

One more up next so read more.

The Closer: Season Four
I haven't watched The Closer in a little while so I'll definitely be adding this to my queue. There are lots of fans of this show out there so I'll leave the season's description to some folks who know better than I (Netflix): "L.A.'s top high-priority homicide detective, Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick), returns to tackle more intriguing cases, such as the reappearance of a wanted psychopath, while trying to maintain her relationship with her fiancé, Fritz (Jon Tenney). This exciting and powerful fourth season blazes onto the screen as a murdered body is discovered in fire-ravaged Griffith Park."

Special features include unaired scenes, observational tips from an FBI interrogator, a gag reel and a featurette titled, "A Day in the Life of a Homicide Detective: Series star Corey Reynolds rides along with retired LAPD detective Mike Berchem."

Box Office: Audiences Taken With Taken

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 07:00:40 -0800

Liam Neeson's thriller Taken scored the top spot at the box office this weekend, which according to Variety, proves that "male-driven pics can open successfully on Super Bowl weekend." Last year Miley Cyrus brought her magic to the big screen over Super Bowl weekend and broke records.

Meanwhile, Paul Blart: Mall Cop continues to do well and dropped to the No. 2 spot after two weeks in first place. People love this movie! Elizabeth Banks's horror flick, The Uninvited, came in No. 3 followed by Hotel for Dogs and Gran Torino.

Finally, New in Town, the romantic comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. had a disappointing (though not unexpected) debut at No. 8, only earning an estimated $6.8 million.

Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

New in Town: Lovin' in the Cold

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:30:40 -0800

New in Town is packed with a lot of bad, wrong-headed moves including small-town stereotypes, predictability, conventionality, and in one bizarre scene, hard nipples. Despite a talented and likable cast with wonderful character actors like J.K. Simmons and Frances Conroy, this romantic comedy was probably doomed from the start due to a script that can't decide if it wants to be Fargo, Norma Ray, or Working Girl.

That said, there is something in this movie that no script can write in and that's some honest-to-goodness chemistry between the two leads. Maybe I'm a sucker for Harry Connick Jr., maybe it's rare to witness some genuine onscreen sparks, or maybe I've been suffering too long from generic rom-com fatigue. Whatever the reason, I couldn't help but get a moderate case of the warm fuzzies after watching it.

To see some more of my thoughts on New in Town, read more.

Renée Zellweger plays Lucy Hill, a tough Miami executive at some kind of food-making corporation who storms around in sky-high heels as if they were running shoes. We see Lucy at a meeting full of suits and jogging on the shore, but beyond that we don't really get any more insight into her character, which is one of the problems with this script. It makes it difficult later on to sympathize with her or even to understand why she does some of the things she does when she has to take over a processing plant located in the frozen tundra of New Ulm, Minnesota.

Lucy is sent to lay off a bunch of employees, but the longer she's in town the more she sees how devastating her actions would be to the people of New Ulm who have been so gosh darn nice to her. The plight of the town folks is given voice through the local union rep, Ted (Harry Connick Jr.), who has lots of initial contempt for the new lady in town and sees Lucy as a corporate stooge. Until, of course . . . he doesn't.

There are lots of tiresome homespun-isms by the sweet, down-to-earth townspeople, as well as much scrap-booking and tapioca-making, stuff like that. And at first Zellweger plays Lucy as a stiff "ice queen" (another extreme stereotype this movie can claim: that of the callous, powerful working woman). But once things heat up between her and Ted, she warms up and the performance takes on a more natural, playful tone. If fact, it's right in the middle that the characters emerge as more than caricatures and things get charming. Lucy is especially fun to root for midway through because she's smart and determined and also hilariously out of place on dates with Ted. The bottom line is that there is plenty to roll your eyes at, including an ending that's silly and syrupy, but I'll admit it: I laughed and I wanted these two opposite lovebirds to be together forever.

Photos courtesy of Lionsgate

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:30:35 -0800

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to the selections below, you can also add Kevin Costner's Swing Vote to your queue.

Brideshead Revisited
Here's a movie I never got around to seeing in '08, which makes it my favorite kind of new DVD release! This lavishly costumed period drama starring the wonderful Emma Thompson sort of gives me an Atonement vibe except it didn't get nearly as much critical or box office attention.

Based on the bestselling novel, the movie follows "the memoirs of Captain Charles Ryder who is stationed at Brideshead Castle during WWII and remembers his involvement with the owners of the Brideshead estate: The aristocratic yet Catholic Flyte family and in particular brother and sister Sebastian and Julia."

Special features include deleted scenes, filmmakers' audio commentary, and a segment titled "The World of Brideshead."

Two more up next, so read more.

Appaloosa
I enjoy a Western every now and again and Appaloosa, directed by and starring Ed Harris, is a good one. Harris plays Virgil Cole, a man who, along with his partner Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), makes a living off the lawless frontier by helping out towns overrun with criminal activity. Things get complicated when a gal (Renee Zellweger) appears right as they're in the middle of sweeping the bad guys out of town.

It's a good-looking, sometimes funny movie with some great acting and, of course, shoot-em-ups. I recommend bringing this one home.

Special features include additional scenes and commentary by Harris and screenwriter/producer Robert Knott.

Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys
This recent Tyler Perry flick has a large and impressive ensemble cast that includes Kathy Bates, Sanaa Lathan, Alfre Woodard, Rockmond Dunbar and Benjamin Button's Taraji P. Henson. Like other Perry movies, The Family That Preys looks to be heavy on the familial melodrama that, according to Netflix, centers on "a pair of friends - wealthy socialite Charlotte (Academy Award winner Kathy Bates) and working-class Alice (Alfre Woodard) - whose families stand to be ripped apart by greed and scandal."

DVD extras include special featurettes titled "Two Families, Two Legends," "Preying in the Big Easy," "Casting the Family," and "Delving Into the Diner."

Movie Preview: Renée Zellweger Is New in Town

BuzzSugar — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:31:48 -0800

The trailer for the romantic comedy New in Town, starring Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr., seems to tell the whole story, and it looks like a predictable story at that. As the plot description states, "Renée Zellweger stars as a Miami-based consultant whose latest assignment, to restructure a manufacturing plant in small-town Minnesota, causes her to reconsider her professional and personal objectives once she settles into her new life."

And yet, if it's so predictable, why did I laugh out loud a few times while watching the trailer? There's something kind of adorable and funny about this movie, and I'm actually excited to see it. New in Town (which was previously titled Chilled in Miami) opens Jan. 30. To check out the trailer, read more.

Appaloosa: Solid Entertainment But Could Have Been More

BuzzSugar — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:33:32 -0700

Appaloosa is a totally passable and - to my surprise - fun (and funny) Western movie. I'm amazed Ed Harris, the star/director/co-writer of the film, hasn't played more gunslingers, because his face was built for it. Under the shadow of a wide-brimmed hat, his skin looks believably weathered and creased, his bone structure sturdy and chiseled. By contrast, Harris's costar, Viggo Mortensen, is not what I think of when I think "cowboy." He's long and lean and hardly recognizable under a strange (but probably historically accurate) haircut and facial hair. His character drags around one of those giant long-barreled shotguns as opposed to expertly twirling a smaller one out of his holster.

The pair make a fine acting duo; they have an easy chemistry I could watch all night long. Beyond that, Appaloosa tells a well-thought-out story. But unlike Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven or last year's remake of 3:10 to Yuma, there is no new cinematic ground being broken here. For the most part, it's simply a traditional Western, which - depending on your outlook - can either be a great way to spend a night at the movies or a teensy bit disappointing. To see what I mean, just read more.

Harris plays Virgil Cole, a man who makes a living off the lawless frontier by helping out towns overrun with criminal activity. When we first meet Virgil and his deputy, Everett Hitch (Mortensen), it's clear the two men have known each other for a while; they're the Old West dude-equivalent of BFFs. They can read each other's body language, complete each other's sentences, and are committed to having each other's backs. It's touching and pretty cute without ever being silly. Not even the charms of a new gal in town, Allie French (Renee Zellweger), can shake up the loyalty between the friends.

They arrive in Appaloosa, New Mexico, at the request of the business leaders there to help rid the town of a criminal menace named Randall Bragg (played by Jeremy Irons, sporting a strange American accent). Irons plays evil eloquently, and it suits his character well, but it's hard to get over seeing him in cowboy boots in this dusty town. Physically, he doesn't move like the others; it's hard to tell if this is inspired casting or just weird. Anyway, Virgil, in order to get the job done, declares himself the top law dog, and from there the stage is set for a showdown of some sort in a coral.

To Harris's credit, what could have been a totally predicable movie is not. Zellweger's Allie is one of the most interesting, complicated female characters I've seen in the genre, and just when you think you know the outcome of a given scene, the plot twists and turns in unexpected ways. To that end, it's a great ride. On the negative side, lots of little moments wrapped up in those twists are never really explored or given much weight. There's a moment near the beginning when all the fun cowboy stuff abruptly ends and Harris's character beats the crap out of someone for no good reason. We've warmed up to the guy only to learn he's a live wire with an ambiguous sense of justice. It's intriguing but glossed over. Digging in to his psyche is the kind of thing that could have made this movie great, but as it is, it's just a darn good story come to life by darn good actors.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Movie Preview: Appaloosa

BuzzSugar — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:30:25 -0700

Appaloosa hasn't really been on my radar since the casting news was first announced over a year ago, which I find odd, especially since it stars some pretty big names, is directed by Ed Harris, and looks all Western epic-y. By contrast, we've had to see every new photo and poster and trailer for Australia as that film has been in production - and that one's coming out two months after this one. So, I find the lack of Appaloosa awareness to be strange.

Then again, the trailer's not totally fascinating. It's a dusty, dramatic Western. There are manly men (Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Jeremy Irons) and guns and a brief flash or two of a woman's face (Renee Zellweger). The plot description states, "Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow."

My favorite thing is the tagline on the movie's official website: "Feelings get you killed."

Is the fact that we haven't heard much about this a bad thing? Not necessarily. But I'm still a little puzzled. Appaloosa opens in limited release Sept. 17 before its wide release Oct. 3. To check out the trailer, read more.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.