BuzzSugar

Bill Murray Joins Movie About Funeral-Staging

BuzzSugar — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:31:49 -0800

The premise for this movie is actually kind of funny (I mean, if you ignore the emotional toll this would take on your loved ones): In 1938 a Tennessee recluse named Felix "Bush" Breazeale staged his own funeral so he could be around to enjoy it.

Now the story will be adapted for the big screen, with Bill Murray and Lucas Black signed on to play partners at the funeral home. Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek are also starring in the film which has the title Get Low. But here's the super weird part: Variety claims the movie will be a "period dramatic thriller." A thriller? Really? I figured this would have more of a Waking Ned Devine-esque feel to it - dark and funny with adorable elderly guys.

It's pretty morbid stuff but then again, many people wonder what their funerals will be like. . . Right? Maybe it's just me. Of course I would never stage the thing (can you imagine?!), but I'm very curious to see a movie about someone who actually did.

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Tribeca Preview: Lake City

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:45:58 -0700

The description of this movie caught my eye largely because of the eclectic cast list: Sissy Spacek, Rebecca Romjin, Drea de Mateo, and . . . Dave Matthews. Yup, Dave "Ants Marching" Matthews. The story follows Billy (Troy Garity) and his young son Clayton who are on the run from Billy's wife's (de Mateo) drug dealer (Matthews) after his wife stiffs him and disappears. Desperate, Billy hides out at his mother's (Spacek) countryside house in Virginia where he "reconnects with his childhood friend, now a local police officer (Rebecca Romijn), and begins to confront his troubled past" in the midst of escalating threats against his family.

I love seeing Sissy Spacek still getting work, and a family drama seems best suited for her (though she is also pretty funny as Andy Samberg's mom in Hot Rod). Also, after his turn on House, I'm curious to see what Dave Matthews can do with this threatening drug-dealer role.

Frightful Friday: Carrie

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:30:00 -0700

While Carrie is probably my favorite Stephen King story ever, I also find it to be terribly sad in addition to being terrifying. Every time I watch it I'm catapulted back to those high school days when kids were so outright cruel to each other. Then again, despite the sadness in Carrie's life, this is also the ultimate revenge fantasy - what victim of a vicious high school hierarchy wouldn't want to lock her tormentors in a gym and unleash the wrath of hell on them?

The movie follows the teenage Carrie (played by Sissy Spacek with the spookiest eyes in cinematic history) who can't seem to catch a break. At school, the other students ruthlessly poke fun at the socially awkward Carrie while at home her fanatically religious mother basically screams at her for constantly sinning. Soon, Carrie discovers that she has the ability to move objects with her mind which is at first confusing, and then pretty helpful.

At the school prom, however, things take a turn for the worse. She's nominated prom queen as a horrible prank and then is further humiliated by her classmates when they douse her in pigs' blood. The rest, as they say, is horror movie history.

Hot Rod: More Like Lukewarm Rod

BuzzSugar — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 13:01:11 -0700

After meeting the funny, friendly Andy Samberg and his buddies ("The Dudes") I wanted very much to give Hot Rod a great review. But I just can't do it. Luckily, Samberg himself said once in a separate interview that he knows the movie will get bad reviews. So... woo hoo! I can write this guilt-free.

The premise of Hot Rod is pretty funny, really. Rod Kimble (Samberg) gets no respect from his surly stepfather Frank (Ian McShane). So when he learns that Frank will die unless he gets an expensive heart transplant, Rod vows to raise the money to get Frank a new heart so he can then kick his ass and prove that he's a man. Rod and his buddies cook up a plan for a fundraising event in which Rod will jump his motorbike over a bunch of buses. Montages set to '80s music ensue. That's just the plot, though, so to see what I thought of the movie, read more

Despite not having written the movie, the entire thing has the look and feel of one of Samberg and Friends' "SNL" shorts that goes on for way, way too long. It was originally written as a vehicle for Will Ferrell, and indeed it seems just like a Will Ferrell movie... without Will Ferrell. I think Will Ferrell can sell through a lot of poor scripts just on his fully committed, blithely innocent charm. Andy Samberg... not so much. It's funny that Samberg's buddy and Hot Rod director Akiva Schaffer claims to have tweaked the script to make it more appropriate to Samberg's humor because they didn't want it to be "like Samberg doing a Will Ferrell impression." Because that's exactly what it seems to be.

I enjoyed the allusions to 80s movies - all the synth music, the homages to Rad and Footloose, the wacky low-budget tone. And I love anything Isla Fisher does, though as the generic "girl" part in the movie she's insultingly underused. The focus isn't on her at all, but on these dudes and their gimmicky antics. The most entertaining and relaxed scenes are those that include "Arrested Development"'s Will Arnett whose breezy ability to play the ultimate douchebag comes in handy once again.

Andy Samberg has a great comedic mind for writing "SNL" shorts ("Dick in a Box" was hilarious, for example), but he isn't commanding enough to be the lead in a feature film. In fact, he doesn't seem particularly comfortable playing the lead in a feature film. Next time someone writes a Will Ferrell film, I hope they can get Will Ferrell to be in it.

Photos courtesy of Paramount