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Reynolds and Faris Are Ready to Share TMI

BuzzSugar — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:30:31 -0800

Confession time: I'm kind of a sucker for Ryan Reynolds, and Just Friends is one of my guilty pleasure movies. So imagine my excitement about this morning's news that Reynolds is teaming up with Anna Faris once again for the upcoming comedy TMI. They'll play a couple who learns that "while honesty is the best policy for a relationship, 'too much information' might not be the best thing."

It already sounds like a premise we've seen before in movies like Liar Liar and The Invention of Lying, but I have faith in Reynolds's chemistry with Faris and both actors' comedic timing. On the other hand, this could definitely end up as one of those over-the-top movies that grosses you out more than it makes you laugh (I'm already predicting a fair amount of overshare about bodily functions).

Are you all for this reunion, or should Ryan Reynolds keep sticking with more serious projects (or even just ones with better titles)?

Ryan Reynolds to Dress in Drag?!

BuzzSugar — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:30:18 -0700

Dude looks like a lady! Ryan Reynolds is one of Hollywood's hottest men, but for his next film he's going to be working those good genes as . . . a woman? The star just got cast in a new rom-com where he'll play a guy who cross-dresses in order to befriend his ex and win her back.

The man-in-lipstick thing has been way overdone, so the thought of yet another film kind of makes my eyes roll. On the other hand, comedy is Reynolds's bread and butter, so I'm hoping that this one is more Tootsie, less Sorority Boys.

You've said that you prefer Reynolds in big-studio movies as opposed to indies, (and I'd personally like to see him take on Jack Ryan), but what do you think of this new project? It's probably not Oscar bait, but sounds like it could be worth a few laughs.

The Actors Behind Jack Ryan: Past, Present, Future

BuzzSugar — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:30:26 -0700

Just yesterday I was talking about how Chris Pine is blowing up after the big success of Star Trek, and his name is already making headlines again this morning. Pine will likely be the next actor to take on the role of Jack Ryan in the next film adaption of the popular Tom Clancy novels. A few actors have taken on the role in the past, and other names have been attached to the project before, so let's take a look at the evolution of Jack Ryan - with a few of my own suggestions for who could take on the role.

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Which SNL Host Are You Most Excited About?

BuzzSugar — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 12:00:06 -0700

Love her or hate her, Megan Fox is unavoidable these days, and we'll see her yet again tonight hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Most of you aren't that psyched to see her flex her comedic muscles, but the great thing about SNL is that there's always a new host just around the corner. Ryan Reynolds, Drew Barrymore, and Gerard Butler will follow Fox this season, so tell me - which of these hosts are you most excited about?

Ryan Reynolds Nabs Green Lantern Role

BuzzSugar — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:45:52 -0700

Last week, it appeared to come down to three rather different guys as options for playing the Green Lantern in Warner Bros. upcoming big-budget, "full-blown space epic": Ryan Reynolds, Bradley Cooper and Justin Timberlake. Based on my poll, the majority of you thought Reynolds would be best for the role, and it turns out, the studio agrees. Ryan Reynolds will play Green Lantern.

Reynolds is still technically in negotiations, but "if the deal is completed, it would make Reynolds the only actor to have played heroes for both Marvel and DC." Earlier this Summer he starred as Marvel character Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a role he'll reprise when Deadpool gets his own full-length movie.

According to this latest news piece, another frontrunner for the role of Green Lantern was Jared Leto. Can you imagine? I can't. Yay for more blockbustin' Ryan Reynolds!

Cooper, Reynolds, or Timberlake - Who Should Play Green Lantern?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:30:24 -0700

Apparently Warner Bros. has spent "the past five months searching for the actor to play Hal Jordan, the hot-shot Air Force pilot who is chosen by a dying alien to be his successor in an intergalactic police force known as the Green Lanterns." Now the list has shortened to three names: Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, and Justin Timberlake.

The director, one of the producers and the studio each have a different favorite among the three, and they're having a difficult time coming to an agreement. Budget may be another consideration, as Green Lantern will reportedly be "a full-blown space epic that is expected to cost between $150 million and $200 million."

Ryan Reynolds has proven he can play a comic book character; do you think Bradley Cooper or Justin Timberlake could also do well with this kind of role? Who should be cast as the Green Lantern?

Which Ryan Reynolds Do You Prefer: Blockbuster Movie Star or Indie Actor?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:30:57 -0700

Ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Reynolds is a movie star! Between his scene-stealing performance in Wolverine and the box office success of The Proposal, there's no denying his screen-king status.

But all that momentum isn't stopping him from dabbling in smaller, independent projects. He starred in this year's tiny but adorable Adventureland, and now he's just added an independent project titled Buried to his plate.

In Buried, Reynolds will play a civilian contractor who is kidnapped in Iraq and wakes up buried in a coffin in the desert. According to Variety, he took the role to "stretch his acting chops in a movie with a claustrophobic premise, and one in which he holds the screen through most of the picture."

Clearly, the man has range. But which roles do you think are best for him: big, mainstream movies or smaller, indie ones?

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The Proposal: A Predictable Journey But Funny Along the Way

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:30:12 -0700

The story in The Proposal is relatively predictable at every turn, and the basic plotline is tired at best: two people who dislike each other are forced together and feelings blossom between them (to their surprise but not ours). Even just from the previews for this movie we know where the story is going from the very beginning, but before we reach the inevitable conclusion, The Proposal offers up some cute/funny/surprising things along the way.

The story follows ice-queen publishing executive Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) who is a demanding and sometimes cruel boss to her handsome, hard-working assistant, Andrew (Ryan Reynolds). She's certainly no Miranda Priestly, but she knows that Andrew is determined to succeed at the company so when Margaret learns that she'll be deported back to Canada unless she takes some drastic measures, she uses a promotion to bribe Andrew to marry her. Nobody's quite buying this relationship, however - including the folks at the immigration office who will send Andrew to prison (and Margaret to Canada) if they find out the relationship is a sham. So, the fake lovebirds travel to Andrew's hometown in Alaska for his Gammy's (Betty White) birthday to make sure anyone who might be questioned will be able to verify that the two really are in love and getting married. All sorts of awkward and weird hijinks ensue, during which the two learn a little bit about each other and themselves. Yeah, read more.

The performances are what make this film good. Oscar Nuñez (Oscar from The Office) has a surprising role, woven delightfully into the narrative. He provides wonderful comedic relief during the more "dramatic" moments, and though he's used often, I almost wished we'd see even more of him. He was an inspired addition to an already fantastic and likable cast.

And, of course, Betty White steals a few scenes with her blithely sweet "but I'm just an old lady!" innocence - which of course masks a wicked sense of humor and mischievous streak. It's not a totally new device (the old woman who gets away with hilarious things because she's old and people underestimate her), but when Betty White does it she has such an endearing brightness you just want her to stay on screen forever. I wonder if I'll ever tire of Betty White's adorable bubbliness. I probably won't.

The first two-thirds of the movie, in which the snarky, thinly veiled disdain between our two protagonists (along with the fact that this is a professional relationship, so the usual rules of decorum that are ignored here make things even more awkward), are the most worthwhile. Or, worthwhile at all. These silly, jokey-joke moments are also the parts in which Reynolds and Bullock truly shine. They're both very comfortable with this material, and they excel at playing off one another as workplace acquaintances or even as buddies when their relationship begins to warm up. The sparky dynamic between them when they're trading barbs and trying to keep up appearances with gritted teeth is solidly entertaining. It's the real sexual chemistry that's lacking. As we come into the home stretch of the movie, all the tension, excitement, and fun of the previous hour or so comes to a screeching halt. Suddenly, words like "love" are being tossed about, as though they mean something in this situation. But while there's a clear fondness between the two characters by the end it's impossible to think of them as having deep feelings for one another.

All this doesn't negate the fact that there's some great stuff leading up to the ending. I just wish I'd had a fast-forward button for the last half-hour or so because it lags. And then we get to the credits, during which we're treated to some of the funniest parts of the whole movie. All in all, this will make the absolute best airplane movie: it's inoffensive, cute, and just entertaining enough to keep our attention.

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Well, That Was Fast: Deadpool Spinoff Now in the Works

BuzzSugar — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:30:41 -0700

I was just wondering which other character (after Wolverine and Magneto) in the X-Men universe should be the focus of an origins movie, and while the majority vote in that poll goes to Gambit, Fox has announced today that Deadpool will be the next character to get his own movie. Ryan Reynolds will reportedly reprise the role he brought to life in the recent box office hit X-Men Origins: Wolverine:

Deadpool is known as "the merc with a mouth," a character that under Reynolds lived up to his billing in Wolverine until the end, when the movie deviated from the comic book persona, imbuing him with several superpowers and sewing his mouth shut.

It is understood that Reynolds would regain the ability to mouth off, with the movie going back to the roots of the character known for his slapstick tone and propensity to break the fourth wall. The character also was disfigured in Wolverine, though it's unclear at this time how much the studio would want to mess with Reynolds' handsome mug.

"Slapstick tone?" "Reynolds' handsome mug?" I might just love it already. What do you think? Can Reynolds carry a whole movie like this on his own?

Photo courtesy of Fox

Wolverine: Fun, If You Don't Mind That It Makes No Sense

BuzzSugar — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:00:14 -0700

I'm a big fan of the first couple of X-Men movies and of the comic in general. Maybe it's the ensemble cast full of cool mutant powers or the fact that the gang of superheroes includes lots of women, but I've always found this Marvel comic to be totally entertaining - not to mention great source material for movie adaptations.

Definitely one of the better parts of this franchise so far has been Hugh Jackman's take on the surly and brutishly funny Wolverine. This isn't sissy stuff - and the machismo action star gets even more extreme in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. With favorites like Storm and Rogue long gone, we zoom back in time (way back, actually: 1845) to learn how the hot-tempered Logan came to be a lot of things: a mutant with a skeletal system reinforced by adamantium, a very angry mutant, and, in the end, a hero. It's a lot of big, blockbuster fun, as long as you don't mind plot holes you could drive an 18-wheeler through. To see the rest of my thoughts, read more.

The movie starts us out somewhere in the far Northwest Territory in Canada, where a young James Howlett (later known as Wolverine) is very sick. In the first of many head-scratching moments, there's a strange paternal mixup that results in James killing a man with his mutant claws who turns out to be his father. James and his brother, Victor (later played as an adult by Liev Schreiber), then flee to the woods. Apparently the two boys, both afflicted with mutant powers (Victor sprouts catlike claws that one character later describes as "homeless lady" fingernails), grow into men who can live a long time and choose to fight in almost every American war up until Vietnam. You might have a nagging question at this point: but I thought they were Canadian? That's the voice you're going to have to turn off to enjoy this movie.

Eventually the boys become enemies - but it's revealed that all mutants in this pre-X-Men world are simply vulnerable pawns to William Stryker (played by the excellent Danny Huston), a military man who's the friend turned foe in this flick. While this is definitely Wolverine's show (we see him fall in love, lose love, seek revenge, undergo freaky scientific experiments, etc.), he assembles a crew of friends along the way, including Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), John Wraith (will.i.am), and a very funny Wade Wison (played by Ryan Reynolds, who should have had more screen time because he's so good).

Everyone turns in great performances, but Jackman, known these days for being extremely easy on the eyes - not to mention very talented at singing and dancing - slips into the role of moody lumberjack wolfman with a surprising ease. It's awesome and - not gonna lie - extremely hot. There's a lot of talk about "counterprogramming" right now, with Ghosts of Girlfriends Past offered up this weekend as an alternative for women who aren't in the mood for a superhero movie. But for the record, Jackman is shirtless and/or naked in many scenes, and that's all the counterprogramming I need.

The movie has plot holes and logic gaps to spare. It also suffers from a lack of imagination in the fight sequences, with actors tumbling through the film like some kind of poor man's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Yet, somehow, despite those glaring flaws, this movie isn't completely brain dead and succeeds at being totally entertaining popcorn cinema. When stuff didn't make sense, my audience snickered, but then Wolverine came screaming, adamantium claws out, charging the screen, and we were jolted back into enjoying this fun flick.

Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox