BuzzSugar

Miley and LC on Divas Carpet, Jennifer's Body, Love Happens and Informant Reviewed, Our Emmy Picks!

Molly — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:00:34 -0700

Miley Cyrus, Lauren Conrad and Paula Abdul were three of the highlights from last night's VH1 Divas event in Brooklyn, NY and we were there to capture the red carpet footage. This weekend three big movies are hitting theaters, so watch BuzzSugar's quick reviews of each of them. Plus, it was a big week for oversized record breaking food and check out our Emmy predictions before this Sunday's show. Watch the Weekend Edition of PopSugar Rush now!

The Informant!: Funny If You Can Focus!

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:00:38 -0700

What would happen if Michael Scott were dropped into the movie Michael Clayton? If you're wondering what to expect from Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!, the visual of Michael bumbling his way through a corporate thriller is a good place to start.

The movie is campy right from the start, almost making an announcement as cheesy music plays over the neon bubble letters of the credits. There's even the rarely seen "Matt Damon IN... The Informant" - Soderbergh isn't trying to hide anything here, though the move is set in the early '90s despite the '70s ambiance. While many of the jokes hit you over the head, don't expect the key plot elements to have the same effect.

To see what I mean, just read more.

Matt Damon literally transforms himself into Mark Whitacre, the vice president of real-life lysine developing company ADM. On the surface, Whitacre fits right into the upper-middle class Midwestern stereotype; he's an overweight, mustachioed man who sits down to dinner with his wife and sons every night. In what seems to be a sudden attack of conscience, Whitacre takes it upon himself to rat out ADM's price-fixing schemes to two FBI agents (played by Scott Bakula and a straight-laced Joel McHale). The more involved Whitacre gets with the FBI, the more eager he is to help take down the company that made him rich. The agents (and the audience) quickly begin to wonder - what's in it for him?

Most of my laugh-out-loud moments came from Whitacre's inner monologue. At first his thoughts give us clues about the decisions he makes - he seems to be obsessed with John Grisham novels and conspiracy theories, so it's no surprise that he's relishing in his involvement with the FBI. As time goes on, however, his stream of consciousness shifts from wacky observations about the world at large to ways he can manipulate it to his own benefit.

Soderbergh has a solid lineup of supporting comedians (Patton Oswalt and Tony Hale also make appearances) but Matt Damon is the mastermind here. He shines through all that hair, makeup, and extra pounds to deliver a highly enjoyable performance that keeps you guessing. Damon's no stranger to comedy, but his role as Whitacre is a far cry from Stuck On You.

The movie has a sluggish start, and loses its focus towards the middle - but try not to doze off, since almost every loose end is eventually tied up. While only a manageable 108 minutes, the film still feels like it's a half hour longer than it should be. If I had been watching it at home, I may have been tempted to turn it off, which is a shame since many of the laughs and most of the excitement happens in the end.

There's fun to be had here, if you manage your expectations. This is not your typical comedy: the humor is dry, but the laughs are there - just try not to lose focus along the way.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Caption It!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:30:00 -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, give your congrats to kafarine-tin-tin, the winner of last week's challenge. She gave our So You Think You Can Dance photo this hilarious caption.

"Buffaloes. Hundreds. They're coming from the East."

And she's winning by a landslide with a whopping 69 percent of your votes. Congrats, kafarine-tin-tin! Onto this week's challenge, inspired by The Informant! Look out for my review of the movie on Friday, but for now, check out this photo of Joel McHale and see if you can think up a line to go with it.

Leave your captions in the comment space below before 5 p.m. PDT on Monday, Sept. 21 to be considered for a spot in the voting round. Have fun!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Buzz's Picks For Fall Movies: Comedies

BuzzSugar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:45:00 -0700

I've already given you previews of tons of upcoming Fall films, but now that their release dates are fast-approaching, I'm going to share my picks for the ones most worth seeing. Mark your calendar (or just write 'em in on your TV calendar!). First up, comedies.
Photos courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures, Fox Searchlight, and Sony Pictures

View Slideshow ›

Movie Preview: Matt Damon Is a Hilarious Informant

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:35:47 -0700

This trailer for the comedy The Informant has, I think, given me perma-grin. A slightly chubbier Matt Damon portrays Mark Whitacre, a real-life "Ivy League Ph.D. who was a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in the early 1990s. . . . Whitacre secretly gathered hundreds of hours of video and audio tapes over several years to present to the FBI which became one of the largest price fixing cases in history."

Damon re-teams with his Oceans Eleven (and Twelve and Thirteen) director Steven Soderbergh and his buddy George Clooney is an executive producer. It looks like, once again, Soderbergh got some great results from Damon, who is absolutely hilarious as this unlikely informant, a regular guy who has a bit of trouble being smooth and cool. But the best thing about it is that Damon plays the guy as bumbling without making him seem somehow mentally deficient. Too many actors don't seem to know how to be funny without making their characters seem stupid, but Damon makes his Mark seem intelligent as well as endearingly human.

The preview says The Informant will open in September. To check out the funny trailer, read more.

Source: IMDB

Buzz News Roundup, 4/2

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:30:16 -0700

Joel McHale and Quantum Leap actor Scott Bakula will join Matt Damon in Steven Soderbergh's comic thriller The Informant, writes Hollywood Reporter.
ComingSoon reports that Brad Pitt will produce and maybe star in The Lost City of Z, about "the search for a lost city in the Amazon."
30 Rock, Project Runway, and The Colbert Report were among the shows honored with Peabody Awards for excellence in broadcast, reports Broadcasting and Cable.
According to Variety, Dave Annable (Justin on Brothers and Sisters) has a role in Julie and Julia, the Julia Child movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.
This is pretty genius: According to Zap2it, fans of the vampire drama Moonlight are organizing a blood drive to help save their show, with 3,000 folks already pledging a pint.
The School of Theatre, Television, and Film at San Diego State University will open a Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, writes Variety.
The Hollywood Reporter has news that Ben Stiller will produce and possibly star in a film adaptation of graphic novel The Return of King Doug.
Hayden Panettiere will star in the film adaptation of the book Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, ComingSoon writes.
People reports that Jay Leno has issued an apology for his comments to Ryan Phillippe that many perceived as anti-gay.

Source and source

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)?

Talking New Moon With Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene

BuzzSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:15:50 -0800

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner may be dominating the promotional circuit right now, but they're not the only cast members with something to say about New Moon. I had the opportunity to chat with costars Kellan Lutz and Ashley Greene, aka Emmett and Alice Cullen, during their recent stopover in SF. They chatted about their characters, the vampire craze, and what it's like to be a "Twilight celebrity." Here are highlights:

On why so many people are crazy for the Twilight Saga:
Ashley: I think this film in particular is highly relatable. There are a lot of situations that people can relate to. The love story - everyone can relate to being in love or being in lust. You add the vampire, and it adds that next level fantasy. Vampires are mysterious and sensual and dangerous and unattainable. And everyone wants what they can't have. I think on another level that this came together at the perfect time. All the elements just fit, the casting was spot on, and we're in a difficult time right now with our economy. That's why you never have a drop in ticket sales because everyone wants an escape, and this movie is very much an escape from reality.
Kellan: It's a good escape but also it deals with so many situations, on so many positive notes. Just looking at it from the vampire coven to the wolf pack. It just deals with everyday issues just on bigger levels, in a way. And you have Bella as the keystone in many situations. You can just all relate from different countries to issues within the United States. It's easily relatable.

To read a lot more about working with three different directors and why they feel so lucky, just read more.

On how their portrayals of the Cullens are similar or different from the books:
Kellan: We got the jobs because we brought something new to it. You can interpret the characters each their own, but I think it's what we did alongside. Just like Kristen said - she's playing Bella but she's putting her Kristen spin on it, just like all of us are. And I think that's what's making it unique. We're still following the cheat sheets that Stephenie created by making the books, and there's Wikipedia. We have a lot of information to go off of. But I hope it's what I did in my audition that set it apart from the other guys trying out.

Ashley: I think it's mannerisms too. People do fall in love with this book, but I think part of it is that they always want more. You can't write out every human mannerism. You can imagine it, but seeing the emotion in someone's eyes and seeing them be affected it - it was kind of easy to give something to it, because we were just being people. We kinda just got lucky.
On how much more of the Cullens we can expect in the remaining movies:
Kellan: Realistically, we stick pretty close to the books. Obviously us Cullens would love to be in the books a lot more, which would mean we'd be in the movies a lot more. Talking New Moon, the scenes that the Cullens - except for Ashley, playing Alice who gets to go to Italy and be a main lead in the movie - us Cullens, we have to stick really close to the books, and the scenes that we're in are really crucial to the story, as you know - the birthday scene, the voting scene. I don't know, it was kind of a tease. Chris Weitz is such an amazing director, and for us, for myself - I only worked about a week on that movie. And it didn't even seem like I really got a taste for what it was.

Ashley: In the third film, you'll see a lot more of the Cullens because it's all of us collaborating and then getting ready to fight this war that's coming up. In the second one, my character got a much larger role because Alice is the Cullen, other than Edward, that really embraces Bella and they end up becoming best friends. In the beginning, you see her throw this huge party for Bella, and then Alice is the one who does, in fact, come back for Bella when everyone else decides to skip town. Alice is responsible for dragging Bella over to Italy, and she and I the whole time are fighting to save my brother's life. And then of course we get held up by the Volturi and stuff like that. My character got to grow a lot, which is really cool. You get to actually see the relationship develop between Bella and Alice, where in the first one you didn't. The first one was very much about the romance and showing the audience why these two people are willing to die for each other.
On working with a different director on each film:
Ashley: Each director is going to be very different. They're artists as well, and I don't think any of them are quite the same. The books, when you read them, all have very, very, different tones. So I think it's highly appropriate that we switch directors each go. The first one is very much a romance and is a very scenic, beautiful film. And Catherine's really, really great at capturing that. She's very high energy and works well in chaos and stuff like that. And it was fantastic because we didn't quite know what we were getting ourselves into, and so it was nice to have her to guide us when we were freaking out a little bit. She was just so high energy, and it was really contagious. We were sad to lose her and move on to the second film, but then we got Chris Weitz and he's the complete opposite! But great as well. He's so giving and caring and collaborative and created this atmosphere that was kind of a safe haven for us. And it was really nice because we didn't know, switching directors, if they were gonna embrace us or if they had a completely different vision than what we created in the first one. It was nice that he was right there on the same page with us. And the second one is a warmer film, even from the color scheme. The first one is very blue tones, and the second one is much richer and warmer and I think he did a great job at capturing that. And we just finished shooting with David Slade, and I think he's highly appropriate as well. He just finished shooting 30 Days of Night and Hard Candy, and they're both very dark, edgy films. And Eclipse is very much that. It's all centered around the anticipation and us getting ready to fight this huge war. We just finished filming, we haven't gotten to see much of it, but I think it's gonna be fantastic. He is, technically, the most advanced director. The angles that he shot and how he knows that tweaking something can affect a whole scene and the lenses. He was really nice to work with.
On coping with the fan effect and being a "Twilight celebrity"
Kellan: That's what blows my mind, 'cause I feel like it's really unearned in a way. The fans are making our careers. Without them, we wouldn't be working and doing the saga. There's so many times that trilogy books become a movie and the first one bombs, and then that's it. And you're always hopeful that you get to do them all. Especially since we're all in love with our characters. I love Emmett Cullen to death, he's my favorite character I've ever played. It's just so cool to have made it this far, and I think we all hope that we get to finish this series and do Breaking Dawn. This is such a blessing, it's every actor's dream to be part of something like this. It's not terribly hard either. We don't shoot halfway around the world; we don't shoot for a year of our lives. I know a lot of us have homes, we have pets, we have family. And it's really nice to shoot on the West Coast, either Portland or Vancouver, and have the chance to fly down if we need to. But it's definitely amazing to be part of something like this. And I don't think any of us knew how crazy it would be and how exhilarating it would turn out to be. Going to the premiere, really just, wow. I don't even remember it because I was really just starstruck by how many fans and signs and cameras. It felt like I was just walking through a strobe light room. It's amazing.

Ashley: I still think we can't really wrap our heads around what's going on and what's happening. We're still in the midst of filming and kept very busy from one film until the next. It's only these brief moments where you sit back and are actually able to take a breath where you go "Whoa. Wow. This is crazy." I mean, the amount of tickets they've already sold for New Moon - I'm pretty sure I can't even get a ticket if I tried to see my film in Jacksonville and it's mind boggling. We're just very lucky. I went into this film thinking "Oh my gosh, I got a job" and the it turned into the biggest break of my life. I think we all feel very blessed to be a part of this.
On how it feels to be part of Twilight fan fiction:
Kellan: It's an escape, in a way. We do live in a trivial time period right now. There's so much depression that it's kinda cool to be a part of something where people use it to be an escape. In a way that's kinda what Stephenie did -she had a dream and just elaborated on it. It became a huge success and it's really encouraging that people are doing the same and just making up this journey.

Ashley: That's why people love it so much I think. You can take it and make what you want of it. Before the demographic was teenage girls, but now it's women of every age and guys are starting to get into it, too. It's because there is that element of fantasy. If you're 8 years old you look at it one way; if you're 80 years old you look at it another. I think it's fantastic that we can draw such a huge crowd. The other thing is - it blows my mind but people are making connections over this film and over this book. there are mothers and daughters and grandmas who can all sit and talk about the same story and all fantasize about it and I think that's a really cool thing. I think it's rare.

To see all of our Twilight and New Moon coverage, check out TwilightSugar!

Box Office: Audiences Still Eating Up Meatballs

BuzzSugar — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:30:47 -0700

Dancing and Bruce Willis weren't enough to knock kid flick Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs out of this weekend's top spot at the box office. Sony's 3D Meatballs held its place for the second weekend in a row, making $24.6 million, followed by Willis's sci-fi movie Surrogates ($15 million) and Fame ($10 million), which both just opened Friday.

The Informant! came in fourth this week with $6.9 million, and Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All by Myself rounded out the top five with $4.7 million in its third week in theaters. Unfortunately, Cam Gigandet's Pandorum didn't break the top five with its debut; the space-set action movie only made $4.4 million.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Caption It: Which Caption Should Win?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:30:01 -0700

Last week's Caption It Challenge featured a pensive Joel McHale in the movie The Informant!

You sent in several great suggestions, so take a look at these funny lines and tell me which is your favorite!

"A whole box and problem still not solved. What a rip. I should've gone with Fiber One instead."
"Ah, there it is. 'Excessive consumption may have a laxative effect...'"
"Wow, these granola bars are sooo.... meaty!"
"I wonder how many of these Matt Damon actually ate to prepare?"

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.