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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:30:55 -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.

Flight of the Conchords: Season Two
If ever there was a DVD set to bring home and enjoy over and over again it's one for Flight of the Conchords! This show is a neverending source of joy because Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are so very funny. Plus the songs are actually quite catchy.

In the second season of their HBO show, the two guys continue to struggle to make it in the music industry and meet the ladies of Manhattan. Some of the DVD extras include outtakes, deleted scenes, and Dave's Pawn Shop commercials.

Two more up next so read more.

The Soloist
The Soloist is an ambitious little film from Atonement director Joe Wright all about the relationship between a journalist and a homeless, mentally ill man who also happens to be a gifted Julliard-trained musician. The visually slick movie stars heavyweight actors Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx in the lead roles. Wright tries to pack a ton of stuff into one movie, so watching this one is a substantial - but worthwhile - undertaking.

Special features include audio commentary by Wright, deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, a featurette about homelessness in Los Angeles, and a peek at the real-life men who inspired this remarkable story.

54%

Obsessed
Interestingly, Obsessed and The Soloist opened over the same weekend. Obsessed was No. 1 at the box office while The Soloist was No. 4.

Though I find the whole catfight thing to be a little tired, I have to admit that the trailers for Obsessed made me chuckle. In one preview, Ali Larter's character is brutally attacking Beyonce's character and Beyonce's husband calls to ask if she's OK. Beyonce responds with something like, "I got this" and hangs up. Ha! It might be worth renting for the camp factor alone.

Here's the plot: "Derek Charles (Idris Elba) seems to have it all - including the perfect job and the perfect wife (Beyonce Knowles). But his charmed life takes on an ugly tarnish when sexy office worker Lisa Sheridan (Ali Larter) sets out to seduce and destroy him. Now, it's much more than a dangerous liaison; it's a full-blown occupational hazard. Christine Lahti and Jerry O'Connell co-star in this Fatal Attraction-style thriller from director Steve Shill."

The DVD extras seem just as entertaining as the movie and include three behind-the-scenes featurettes: "Girl Fight!" (about the stunt coordination and the actresses' thoughts on "the fun of getting to fight each other!"), "Playing Together Nicely" (about the writing of the script and the casting process), and "Dressed to Kill" (featuring costume designer Maya Lieberman).

18%

Beyonce's Box Office Surprise

BuzzSugar — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:15:34 -0700

The Beyonce Knowles thriller Obsessed topped the box office over the weekend earning an estimated $28.5 million-kind of amazing given the critical reaction wasn't pretty. Zac Efron's 17 Again came in at No. 2 followed by Fighting, another movie that debuted much better than expected.

The Soloist, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx had a somewhat disappointing debut at No. 4. and earned about $9.7 million. According to Variety, "box office observers had expected Soloist to debut in the $10 million-$12 million range. They say the pic could have been dinged by so-so reviews." Interestingly, Disney's Earth rounded out the top five, earning an estimated $8.6 million.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

The Soloist: The Lead Actors Are the High Notes

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:30:08 -0700

I'll be honest with you: If it stars Robert Downey Jr., I'm probably going to like it, at least a little. Such is the case with director Joe Wright's (Atonement) new movie, The Soloist. Honestly, I'm not sure I would like this movie as much were it not for this excellent casting choice. It's amazing, the guy never disappoints, and in this movie he is a revelation. Downey digs deep to find the humanity and nuance in this true story and knocks his performance out of the park.

His costar Jamie Foxx gets an "A" for effort for fading into his character and successfully achieving what is no doubt a difficult job: realistically portraying a mentally ill man. For the most part, this is Downey's show, though the two actors work well together to give this already sentimental movie its heart. That said, it's not without some missteps. To find out what they are, read more.

The movie's plot is made up of the kind of stuff that might be referred to as "Oscar bait." Downey plays Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, a middle-aged divorcee who appears discontent despite his relatively successful writing career. One day, Lopez meets a homeless, violin-playing schizophrenic man named Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx). He discovers that Ayers was once a talented cello player at  Juilliard, and Lopez begins writing columns about this virtuoso wandering the streets. These columns captivate the city.

Wright's visuals are slick and the movie is so stylish and pristine that the effect, at times, is emotionally alienating. He's also a little trigger-happy with the middlebrow symbolism (pigeons take flight like doves, etc.). Also, there are a lot of themes coursing through this movie - homelessness and mental illness, friendship, grace, the meaning of life, the state of the American newspaper, the virtue of commitment, the healing power of music, and on and on. Just like the freeway system in LA, Wright's movie is sprawling and congested.

So while the film itself has lofty ambitions, it's the friendship between the two men that keeps this thing grounded. The closer Lopez gets to Ayers emotionally, the more he's drawn into the world of the mentally ill who inhabit parts of the city most people choose to ignore. We spend a lot of time on skid row and witness the tragic figures who migrate to the area (real-life people from this part of LA play extras). As Lopez witnesses the reality of life on the street, it becomes harder for him to resist committing to friendship with Ayers.

Thankfully the director practices restraint here and avoids easy answers when it comes to the plight of the homeless. Instead, catharsis comes slowly in the form of the budding relationship Downey and Foxx so convincingly portray. Lopez works hard to bring music back into Ayers's life and finds out the hard way that saving someone is easier said than done. The question toward the middle of the movie becomes: how do you help someone who doesn't want to be helped? Instead of railing against a system that would let the most vulnerable among us suffer indignities on the street, the movie's central relationship is a reminder that a lot of good things begin when we simply take a second to notice each other.

Photos courtesy of Paramount

Buzz News Roundup, 2/11

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 13:30:34 -0800

The upcoming movie The Soloist is inspiring at least 174 orchestras in 46 states to participate in food drives. - AP
Showtime has renewed United States of Tara for a second season. - Variety
In other renewal news, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers and Sisters are rumored to be getting early pickups from ABC. - TV.com
Mark Valley will star in a Fox pilot called Human Target, while Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Johnston are officially cast in the Absolutely Fabulous remake. - TV Guide
Woody Allen has set Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins to star in the film he wrote and will shoot in London this Summer. - ComingSoon
Tom Cruise is in talks to star with Denzel Washington in the David Cronenberg-directed thriller The Matarese Circle. - Variety
Brad Paisley leads the Academy of Country Music Awards nominations with six nods. - AP
Sam Rockwell has joined Hilary Swank in the legal drama Betty Anne Waters. - The Hollywood Reporter

Photo courtesy of Paramount

Buzz News Roundup, 11/19

BuzzSugar — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:35:31 -0800

Legendary superhero creator Stan Lee has won the National Medal of Arts. - Washington Post
Thanks to ongoing legal wrangling, Project Runway most likely will be off the air till Spring - or beyond. - New York Times
Taylor Swift has topped this week's album sales chart, followed by David Archuleta. - Billboard
The release date for The Soloist has shifted again, this time from March 13 to April 24. - Variety
Beauty and the Geek could move to MTV. - The Hollywood Reporter
The 15 finalists for documentary film Oscar nominations have been selected. - LA Times
Patricia Heaton will star in a comedy pilot called The Middle for ABC. - Zap2it
Young adult literature is all the rage for film adaptation lately: The comedic novel Vibes about a 17-year-old cheerleader who suddenly gets the ability to read minds, and the "vampyre" series House of Night will both be made into movies. - Variety
Does nobody want the Daytime Emmy Awards? - The Hollywood Reporter
Warner Bros. will produce the movie Control-Alt-Delete, which "is described as Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure meets The Matrix." - ComingSoon

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Buzz News Roundup, 10/20

BuzzSugar — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:32:54 -0700

Though many people thought The Soloist (and its lead actors, Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.) would be up for Oscars this year, Paramount has pushed the movie's release from Nov. 21, 2008 to March 13, 2009. - Variety
Hugh Grant is bowing out of the romantic comedy Lost for Words due to differences of opinion on the script. - ComingSoon
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been picked up for a full second season. - Broadcasting and Cable
Hope Davis and John Mahoney are joining the cast of In Treatment. - Zap2it
The Grammys nominations announcement will be an hourlong TV special this year, airing Dec. 3 on CBS. - Billboard

Survivor host Jeff Probst has created a new reality show in which dying people live out their final wishes. - Entertainment Weekly
Liza Minelli is returning to Broadway for two weeks in December performing a show called Liza’s at the Palace. . ! - Variety
Luke Grimes has been cast as Ryan on Brothers and Sisters. - E! Online

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Movie Preview: RDJ and Jamie Foxx in The Soloist

BuzzSugar — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:31:26 -0700

About a year ago, when I first heard about the casting news for The Soloist, I thought it sounded similar to a movie in theaters at the time, Resurrecting the Champ. Both feature a white guy helping an exceptionally talented black homeless guy. So, I created a helpful chart pointing out some of the similarities and differences between the two movies. Resurrecting the Champ didn't do too well in box office sales (approximately $3 million total) and received a so-so critical response.

I'm sure The Soloist will find more success. Though it seems like an extremely familiar story (and not just because of the Champ), it may be aided by its director (Atonement's Joe Wright) and the two acclaimed actors at the center of it all: Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. In the real life story, RDJ plays journalist Steve Lopez who "discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a former classical music prodigy, playing his violin on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives." The drama opens Nov. 21. To check out the trailer, read more.

the soloist | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

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Separated at Birth: The Homeless Soloist vs. The Homeless Champ

BuzzSugar — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:36:25 -0700

Today there came news that Robert Downey Jr. will be starring opposite Jamie Foxx in the musician biopic The Soloist. Reading up on the movie's plot, however, it sounds awfully similar to a movie currently out in theaters that stars Josh Hartnett and Samuel L. Jackson, Resurrecting the Champ. Thus, I've made up the following chart so the two don't get too confusing:

Title	Setting	Stars	Premise	Release Date
Resurrecting the Champ	Denver	Josh Hartnett, Samuel L. Jackson, Teri Hatcher, Alan Alda	A young sportswriter (Hartnett) thinks he’s found the story of his life when he meets a homeless man (Jackson) who claims to have been thisclose to being a boxing champ in the past.	Currently in select theaters
The Soloist	Downtown Los Angeles	Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr.	”Downey will play Steve Lopez, the Los Angeles Times columnist who discovered Nathaniel Ayers, a downtown L.A. homeless man who was a skillful violinist. After learning that Ayers was a prodigy until schizophrenia made it impossible to continue, Lopez wrote columns about the musician and developed a relationship that changed both their lives.”	2009

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