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Box Office: Angels and Demons Is No. 1

BuzzSugar — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:15:54 -0700

The film adaptation of Dan Brown's bestselling novel, Angels and Demons starring Tom Hanks, is a global sensation after earning an estimated $104.3 million at the international box office over the weekend.

Here in the US the holy thriller swiped the top spot from Star Trek, which still performed strongly, coming in at No. 2 with an estimated $43 million domestically. According to Variety, positive word-of-mouth thanks to stellar reviews is probably the reason Star Trek continues to be quite the box office powerhouse.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and Obsessed rounded out the rest of the box office top five coming in third, fourth, and fifth respectively.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Caption It: Which Caption Should Win?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:30:54 -0700

This picture from Ghosts of Girlfriends Past inspired some hilarious captions:

But as you know, there can only be one winner. Here are your finalists:

"Wait! That's not Kate Hudson! I ALWAYS star with Kate Hudson! What'd you
do with Kate, you monster?????"
"Wait, before you start let me take off my shirt!"
"If you just stay still and ignore him he'll get himself another rom-com
soon."
Minister: "Excuse me, sir, this is not the appropriate place for freeze
tag."

Time to vote!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Box Office: Trek Hits No. 1 at Warp Speed

BuzzSugar — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:30:33 -0700

J.J. Abrams' reboot of Star Trek was a smash success this weekend with an estimated $76.5 million (including $4 million Thursday night), taking the top spot at the box office (though not surpassing X-Men Origins: Wolverine's opening weekend take of $85 million, as so many of you thought it would). This was "the biggest Trek opening yet, soaring past the previous high of Star Trek: First Contact, which started at $30.7 million or the equivalent of over $50 million adjusted for ticket price inflation."

Meanwhile Wolverine "wilted to an X-Men franchise low" in the wake of Star Trek, coming in at No. 2 with an estimated $27 million. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past took the third spot, followed by Obsessed and 17 Again in fourth and fifth place.

Sounds like good word of mouth quickly spread about Star Trek. Were you swayed by the stellar (ha, ha) reviews? Did you head out to see it?

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Caption It!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:15:10 -0700

Welcome to the Caption It game on BuzzSugar! Every Wednesday, I'll post a photo still from a TV show or movie here and challenge you to think of the most hilarious caption possible. I'll announce the finalists the following Tuesday, and you'll get to vote for the best caption!

First, let's wrap up last week's challenge. At the time I wrote this post, Whiplash was winning the poll by a healthy margin with this caption:

I call this one "the Montag."

Now on to this week's wedding-themed challenge from Ghosts of Girlfriends Past:

Leave your captions in the comment space below before 5 p.m. PDT on Monday, May 11, to be considered for a spot in the voting round. Have fun!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Box Office: Wolverine Slashes the Competition

BuzzSugar — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:24:17 -0700

Summer movie season has officially arrived, folks, and it looks like American audiences were ready for it. Hugh Jackman's X-Men Origins: Wolverine easily took the No. 1 spot over the weekend and grossed an estimated $87 million. This is good news for X-Men fans because the success of Wolverine is a "key victory for Fox, Marvel Entertainment and star Hugh Jackman, since it likely keeps the franchise alive." Woohoo!

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past also did solid business over the weekend and came in second place with an estimated $15.3 million. The top five was rounded out by Obsessed, 17 Again, and Monsters vs. Aliens in third, fourth, and fifth place respectively.

Were you one of the millions who saw Wolverine? Do you agree with the reviews?

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: Formulaic and Forgettable

BuzzSugar — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:30:25 -0700

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past might as well be titled Wedding Planner's Failure to Lose a Guy in Fools Gold of Girlfriends Past, because it's nothing we haven't seen before from Matthew McConaughey.

The actor is a global star with actual talent and loads of charm (he's fun in Dazed and Confused and dreamily charismatic in A Time to Kill). Yet, for some reason, he has spent the past decade or so skating by in major-studio films that all pretty much resemble each other. Typically, the only thing that varies from one reductive and formulaic McConaughey rom-com to another is his leading lady. Every so often, another actress steps in for stalwart Kate Hudson to portray the generic straight woman to his man-child cad.

It's been disappointing to see a guy who possesses the very elusive "it" factor squander it, but now he's actually getting on my nerves. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past indicates that whatever it was that made his smarmy characters a little lovable is now completely tapped out. To see what I mean, read more.

McConaughey seems so icky and lecherous in this movie that you forget how good looking he is. Even his Texas accent, once so adorable to me, can't save him . . . because his character is supposed to be from the East Coast! That's just lazy. But maybe this will be a wake-up call that the time has come for McConaughey to shake it up a bit and do something unexpected (that doesn't involve surfers). Or not.

Anyway, the movie's concept has some potential: I kind of like the idea of using supernatural intervention, a la Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, to reform a toxic bachelor. In fact, with a different script, this could have resulted in a witty romp, especially if it had a charming, Clooney-esque type at its center. Instead, we meet Connor Mead, a high-flying fashion photographer who in the span of about 15 minutes breaks up with three women simultaneously via video chat and sexually humiliates a character played by Christina Milian, who naturally digs that kind of thing and proceeds to hop onto his lap in her underwear. Romantic, huh?

The only evidence that Connor has a heart is his affection and commitment to his brother, whose wedding he attends despite his distaste for marriage. Once there, he wreaks havoc in a most unfunny way and is downright mean teasing his ex-girlfriend - I mean, one true love - Jenny, played by Jennifer Garner (who looks both adorable and embarrassed to be in this movie). Eventually, Connor gets a visit from the best part of this movie: his sexist and dead Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas). Yes, Uncle Wayne has come to warn Connor that being a d-bag and not finding love results in an empty funeral. Douglas is a treat to have on screen and could teach McConaughey some things about how to play a slimy misogynist with verve.

Garner's Jenny is good with the psychoanalyzing one-liners, and the actress has good timing. Jenny's supposed to be the kind of sharp, down-to-earth, quick-witted woman who's happy to call Connor and Uncle Wayne on their crap. In another, much-better movie, it would feel good watching this lady level the spray-tanned himbos of the world with cutting rhetoric. However, this time around, I kept thinking, "Lady, don't waste your brain power on this jerk." By the end, when their inevitable kiss comes, all I could think was, "Lady, don't waste your kisses and heart and future and life on this jerk!"

McConaughey succeeds at making his character deplorable but fails at infusing his performance with anything redeeming or sympathetic. If he doesn't change, he undermines the movie's entire premise - predictable as it may be - which asks: can this d-bag change and get the girl? And that echoes another question: can McConaughey ever recapture what once made him so special? Sadly, I think the answer to both at this point is: who cares?

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Movie Preview: McConaughey, Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:30:13 -0800

I wonder how many times we'll have to see a womanizing d-bag figure out what love is really about before the whole storyline is retired. In Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, obviously a spoof (or something) on A Christmas Carol, Matthew McConaughey plays a seemingly heinous human being who has been with what appears to be a thousand women. A ghost played by Emma Stone talks to him about his past girlfriends and, along with two other ghosts, ultimately points him in the direction of the one he let get away (or, more accurately, the one he could not run away from quickly enough), played by Jennifer Garner. Lemme guess: She takes back the d-bag even though she still knows he's a d-bag. But as a kid he said he'd keep her picture forever, so it all makes sense.

Except that it doesn't. Michael Douglas also stars as a phantom trying to help this dude find love. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past opens May 1. To please share in my experience of watching this trailer, read more.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Matthew McConaughey Has Girlfriends Past

BuzzSugar — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:31:24 -0700

It's like Cassanova meets Mr. Scrooge.
Mean Girls director Mark Waters is next working on a comedy titled The Ghost of Girlfriends Past, according to the MTV Movies Blog. Says Waters, "It's a take-off on 'A Christmas Carol,' about a guy who sleeps with lots of women and breaks their hearts...He basically has a magical comeuppance on Christmas, where he learns the error of his ways like Scrooge. It’s Scrooge, but with hot chicks."

And who's playing such a heartbreaker? This guy!
Yup, that's right - Matthew McConaughey will yet again play the sleazy, smarmy womanizer who learns his lesson in the end. I know he cleans up real good, but I wonder how grungy he could get before Hollywood stops calling on him to play these roles.

Source

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:30:19 -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. Check out this week's picks!

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
I admittedly wasn't a fan of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past when it came out in theaters, but it may be worth considering if you're in the mood for a romantic comedy that doesn't make you think too much. The premise: When playboy Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) attends his brother's wedding, he runs into his first love Jenny (Jennifer Garner), setting off a Christmas Carol-like chain of events, complete with ghosts. Yes, the plot's contrived and Connor is incredibly smarmy, but I enjoyed the supporting cast of characters, especially Emma Stone as an 80's ghost with a bad perm and Michael Douglas as Connor's Lothario uncle.

27%

Two more up next, so read more.

Observe and Report
Observe and Report follows a self-important, semi-delusional mall security cop (Seth Rogen) who flips out when he realizes he may not become a police officer - or win over the makeup counter girl of his dreams (Anna Faris). When I first reviewed it, I was surprised by how dark the film turned out to be for a Rogen and Faris comedy. Still, it does have a few laugh-worthy moments, and Rogen fans will probably want to add this to their must-see list.

51%

Lymelife
Set in the 1970s, Lymelife is an ensemble drama that follows two families in a Long Island neighborhood dealing with a Lyme disease scare. It boasts a decent ensemble cast, including Cynthia Nixon, Alec Baldwin, and Timothy Hutton, but Rory Culkin (yes, Macaulay's brother) is the heart of the film as a 15-year-old struggling in the midst of messed-up chaos. (Emma Roberts also turns in a memorable performance as his crush.) The reviews were mixed when the film released in theaters, but if twisted suburbia is your thing (i.e., American Beauty or The Ice Storm), then Lymelife is worth checking out. Bonus material includes an alternate ending.

54%