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Movie Preview: Ed Norton and Ed Norton in Leaves of Grass

BuzzSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:30:00 -0800

That double Ed Norton in the title is not a typo; Leaves of Grass stars the talented actor in a dual role, as polar opposite twin brothers.

As twins, Norton really goes for it - one twin, Bill, is straight-laced, while the other, Brady, is a mulleted hick with a heavy Southern accent. I've missed Norton's presence, but I'm wondering if this is going to a be an amazing acting opportunity or an embarrassing diversion for him. Joining him in the cast sans outrageous accents is Keri Russell, Susan Sarandon, and Richard Dreyfuss. It's a little hard to tell the tone of the movie from the trailer; it's been described as a comedic thriller, but I can't tell if it wants to be Adaptation or Joe Dirt.

To see the trailer, just read more.

Buzz News Roundup, 8/26

BuzzSugar — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:30:19 -0700

It looks like Susan Sarandon will be joining the cast of Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2. - Entertainment Weekly
This week's episode of True Blood was the first HBO series episode to top five million viewers since the finale of The Sopranos drew 11.9 million two years ago. - Variety
Columbia Pictures has hired screenwriters Adam Fierro and Glen Mazzara to write Hancock 2, the sequel to the Will Smith superhero movie. - ComingSoon
A movie is in the works about the life of Brian Epstein, who discovered and managed the Beatles from 1961 through 1967, when he died of a drug overdose at 32. - Variety
Kate Gosselin will fill in for Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View on Sept. 14 and 15. - AP
The next Batman movie may be shot entirely in IMAX format. - ComingSoon
The Who guitarist Pete Townshend is planning another musical, this one titled Floss. - Reuters
FX has picked up the dramatic series March to Madness, all about the glory and the seedy side of college basketball, from executive producer Don Cheadle. - Broadcasting & Cable

Movie Preview: Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:40:49 -0700

If you've read the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, you'll know that it's a heartwrenching, mysterious tale about family, death - and whatever comes after death. Peter Jackson's film adaptation has been a point of discussion ever since it was announced over two years ago, from the casting choices to the question of how to adapt a story like this, which regularly blurs the line between reality and the supernatural. Jackson's 1994 movie Heavenly Creatures does this very thing as well, which made him a good choice for this particular challenge.

The new trailer for the film, which opens Dec. 11, starts out tender and soft before building to a tense and chilling crescendo. Atonement's Saoirse Ronan plays Susie Salmon, a young teen who narrates the story after she's been murdered. She observes her family as they try to piece together what happened to her, and it's all a big tangle of scariness, sadness, and aching sweetness. To watch the trailer, click here.

Sarandon, Goodman Join Pacino in HBO's Dr. Kevorkian Movie

BuzzSugar — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:30:54 -0700

HBO Films' biopic of Jack Kevorkian, You Don't Know Jack, already has its Dr. Kevorkian in Al Pacino. Now Pacino has castmates in Susan Sarandon and John Goodman. The biopic is loosely based on the book Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia. Goodman will play one of the authors of the book, Noel Nicol, Kevorkian's friend and co-worker whose "medical training as a corpsman and laboratory technician enabled him to assist Kevorkian on many occasions, while his laboratory supply company often provided materials for Kevorkian's efforts."

Meanwhile, Susan Sarandon will play Hemlock Society activist Janet Good "who becomes one of Jack's staunchest supporters, working side by side with him to make humane suicide available to the terminally ill and suffering. After she is herself diagnosed with terminal cancer, she avails herself of Kevorkian's services, choosing her own time to die, surrounded by her friends and loved ones."

Sarandon and Goodman already starred together in last year's Speed Racer, though this project will obviously be quite the drastic departure from that one. It is good to see great actors getting some substantial roles, though I'm awaiting this particular project with a mixture of curiosity and anxiety.

Are you interested in seeing a Dr. Kevorkian biopic?

Link Time! 1/27

BuzzSugar — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:30:39 -0800

Something to ponder: Do we want a Charlie's Angels 3? - Cinematical
Susan Sarandon is also coming to ER in the same episode as George Clooney. - Watch With Kristin
Spike Lee plans to use James Brown's real voice - not Wesley Snipes's - in his biopic of the Godfather of Soul. - MTV Movies Blog
The Once couple's band, The Swell Season, will continue on even though their dating relationship is over. - Hollywood Insider
What series (like, say, Lord of the Rings) do you revisit over and over? - Popwatch
Check out the veggie sex PETA ad that NBC pulled from its Super Bowl lineup. - TV Squad
How does Gossip Girl love LG? Let us count the ways. - geeksugar
We can now hear Scarlett Johansson's cover of Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye,", which will be featured on the soundtrack for He's Just Not That Into You. - Stereogum

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2009 Sundance Spotlight: The Greatest, Good Hair, and Mystery Team

BuzzSugar — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:25:44 -0800

While I won't be heading down to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival this year, I will be sorting through the humongous pile of festival entries to share with you some of the films I think look most promising. From quirky documentaries to talented young filmmaker debuts to a potential runaway hit, Sundance is filled with entertainment possibilities. Here are today's selections:

Good Hair
It's impossible not to feel a little emotional listening to Chris Rock describe how the idea for this documentary came about. In the video clip below, he says that despite how much he tells his daughter how beautiful she is every day, she still cried to him once, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" Troubled by this, Rock "committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl's head!" He himself claims this might be the best movie he's ever made. Intriguing? I'd say so.

To check out the comedian talking about his project, plus the lowdown on two other Sundance movies, read more.

The Greatest
Starring Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon (that's them, making out in the ocean!), The Greatest marks the debut of a young filmmaker and screenwriter, Shana Feste, and follows a family coping with the sudden death of their teenage son. Newcomer Carey Mulligan plays the girlfriend of the son who shows up to further complicate the grieving process for the parents. There's some buzz about both Brosnan's and Sarandon's performances as well as talk that this could be a "career-launching" role for Mulligan. Check her out in a scene with Susan Sarandon:

Mystery Team
Bookmark this trailer as "not suitable for work" due to language but make sure to check it out because it's pretty hilarious. Mystery Team stars a bunch of sketch comedy guys (who also wrote, directed, and produced the film) and follows a group of kid detectives that no one takes seriously. Some of the dialogue reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite but the rest of the movie seems like something all its own. Here's the preview:

Photos and The Greatest clip courtesy of Sundance

Buzz Brainteaser

BuzzSugar — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:30:40 -0800

Welcome to Buzz Brainteaser, the trivia feature on BuzzSugar! Every weekday I'll test your knowledge about TV shows, music, and movies. If you enter in the correct answer, you win points! Susan Sarandon has been nominated for five Academy Awards and has won one. For her role in what movie did Susan Sarandon win an Academy Award?

Speed Racer: One Long Hangover

BuzzSugar — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:31:25 -0700

My eyeballs hurt. My head hurts. I feel tired. Watching Speed Racer has me feeling all the nastiness of a hangover but without any of the hard-partying fun. I tried coming up with other analogies for the experience of seeing this nauseating, candy-colored whirlpool of a movie, with most of my attempts having to do with sugar, dizziness and a resultant sad, empty feeling, but it appears that most other reviews have already done the legwork in this regard.

Some of the descriptions with which I most heartily agree include the following:

From MSNBC's Alonso Duralde:
"Imagine someone pouring hot, melted Starburst candies into your corneas, and you just begin to approximate the experience of Speed Racer, an ice-cream headache of a movie."
From The New Yorker's Anthony Lane:
"The entire movie, indeed, is what Tom Wolfe would call a Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, complete with achingly blue skies, customized deserts, fantastical mountains, and everything from Goodman’s shirt to Ricci’s fingernails daubed in lollipop hues; it makes the world of Pee-wee Herman look like Anselm Kiefer. So how did this rainbow of velocity end up bleached of fun?"
From Film Journal International's Frank Lovece:
"It's all a bombastic mishmash that makes you feel like you've been stuffed inside a kaleidoscope and shaken for two hours."
From The New York Observer's Rex Reed:
"I can sit through just about anything, but I draw the line at two hours and 15 minutes of fuchsia vomit. To suffer through this kind of hell, movie critics deserve combat pay."
And my very favorite, from New York Magazine's David Edelstein:
"The film is like a nightmare in which you’re trapped in an arcade with screens on all sides and no eyelids."

So, you're probably getting the picture, but still, read more.

Speed Racer tells a fairly convoluted story of greed, the evils of capitalism, family and car racing. Speed is a boy (played by Emile Hirsch) whose sole interest is driving a race car. He idolized his brother Rex until Rex apparently brought shame to the sport and died in a fiery crash. Now Speed loyally races for his father's motor company and he ignites the rage of crazy corporate tycoon Royalton (Roger Allam) when he refuses to race for the Royalton company. Royalton is a shady organization that forces its racers to cheat and demolishes anyone who threatens to beat one of their own, since a Royalton loss would bring down Royalton stock value. See? There is a whole subplot about stocks! I'm not even a kid and I was so bored by so much of this film.

The performances are more or less fine (I think?) given the situation, though the actors often appear to be cracking under the immense strain to breathe real life into a world that literally doesn't exist around them. Clocking in at two hours and 15 minutes, this assault on the senses is way too long to hold the brief attention span of a child, and it's frankly just not enjoyable for adults. So, aside from the visuals (which are cool for about twenty minutes, but what to do with the last 115?), I frankly can't recommend seeing this movie. There's just no point.

To see the trailer and more videos from Speed Racer, check out movies.ivillage.com.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:30:00 -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 the titles below, Guy Ritchie's Revolver and Southland Tales starring Justin Timberlake, The Rock, and Sarah Michelle Gellar are also available today.

Enchanted
Is it just me or does it feel like we've been waiting for this movie to come out on DVD for forever? Enchanted is a treat for anyone who grew up loving those good old-fashioned animated Disney films (remember life before Pixar?). I truly enjoyed this trip down Disney Memory Lane and I know a lot of you did, too. The movie, starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon, and James Marsden is a wonderfully fun twist on the classic princess tale.

The story centers around Giselle (Adams), an amalgamation of Disney heroines from the days of yore who lives in a land called Andalasia. Giselle's chief concerns are marrying Prince Edward (Marsden), singing, and dancing with forest creatures. Edward's stepmother (Sarandon) is unhappy with Gisele and Edward's relationship, and she uses her evil magic to boot Giselle out of the animated world and into real-world Times Square. Once there, Giselle's simple, optimistic outlook on life is challenged by a force much darker and more cynical than any evil witch: a New York divorce attorney (Dempsey).

This DVD comes with lots of special featurettes including bloopers, a glimpse behind the creation of Andalasia, and extra shorts about Pip's (Giselle's trusty chipmunk friend) adventures.

More romance and adventure coming out this week, so read more.

I am Legend
I Am Legend was hit or miss with folks when it came out, but now that it's on DVD it's the kind of movie that will do the trick if you're looking to kick back and be entertained by some action. Plus, it's Will Smith and he's always good entertainment.

The film is based on Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel and follows Robert Neville (Smith), one of the few people who survives a virus that nearly renders humanity extinct. Robert's not alone however, there is another group of people, the infecteds, who have turned into "the night seekers." These scary things are like vampires/zombies that go around at night trying to infect surviving humans. Robert, a scientist, is working hard to find a cure for the disease before the creepies can get him. Thus, this sci-fi thriller takes you through a suspenseful race against time.

Special features include four animated comics as well as bonus material "exploring the history and current status of life-threatening viral infections."

Love in the Time of Cholera
I'm a big fan of Gabriel García Márquez’s wonderful 1985 novel Love in the Time of Cholera, as are many, but when I heard it was being adapted to film I had a hard time figuring out how that would work. In the book, plot isn't necessarily the driving force so much as the long, gorgeous sentences and the poetic feeling of the exquisite torture of longing for something you love. Like many, this film slipped off my radar and I still haven't been able to see this story brought to life onscreen.

I'm adding this to my queue partly out of curiosity, but also because the Oscar-winning super dreamy Javier Bardem stars as Florentino Ariza, a young man who falls hard (seriously, he loves her forever) for Fermina Daza (played by Giovanna Mezzogiorno). The film is directed by Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and Funeral) and was filmed in Columbia. Add it all up and this is one romantic drama I'm excited to get lost in at home.

Trippy New Trailer For Speed Racer

BuzzSugar — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 11:30:00 -0800

I have to say, Emile Hirsch was totally right when he told me during our interview that the Wachowski siblings' high-octane family action movie Speed Racer would be "pretty kooky. Pretty groovy. Very psychedelic." Indeed, the new trailer for the film, in theaters May 9, looks like a candy-colored trip. I got a little dizzy watching it, but it's also pretty darn cool looking.

To make things more interesting, the cast is awesome, from Susan Sarandon to Matthew Fox to John Goodman. I'm not too precious about the old Speed Racer cartoon series, so I'll be curious to find out how the Wachowski siblings have updated it for modern moviegoers. To check out the crazy trailer for Speed Racer, read more

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