BuzzSugar

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:30:00 PDT

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, you can also rent Reservation Road (not to be confused with Revolutionary Road), and Leonardo DiCaprio's global warming warning, The 11th Hour.

There Will Be Blood
This April is a great month for renting DVDs because a new stellar, Oscar-nominated film seems to come out every week. Today's release is the stirring Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece, There Will Be Blood. The film is loosely based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! and follows the story of an ambitious oil man, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he becomes one of those famed self-made American magnates, a la William Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.

If you haven't heard by now that this film is both visually stunning and soul-stirring, and that Daniel Day-Lewis gives the Oscar-winning performance of the year, then you've had a very distracting year. I stuck this movie on my April must-haves list not only because of its classic story of greed vs. compassion, but also because Day-Lewis only seems to emerge to knock one out of the park every five years or so, which in Hollywood years can seem like a lifetime. You'll want to own this one to get you through to 2013 when he's had enough of shoe-making on the Italian Coast or something and decides to show the rest of those amateurs how it's done. Again.

For two more titles that couldn't be more different than each other,

read more. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story 2007 truly was the year of Judd Apatow, though admittedly this spoof on the musician biopic he co-wrote was probably his weakest submission. While it was hard to recommend paying theater prices for this film, it is a perfectly serviceable at-home rental. Starring John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox, a rocker with secrets (shocker!), the film pokes fun at movies like Ray and Walk the Line and takes many prisoners, sparing neither Bob Dylan nor the Beatles (in a hilarious scene starring Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin Long, and Jason Schwartzman as the Fab Four). While it drags in some parts, Reilly is great in this role and the whole thing is more or less a good time. Special features include deleted and extended scenes and featurettes titled, "The Music of Walk Hard", and "The Real Dewey Cox." Lions for Lambs First of all, the stars of this movie need to have a serious talk with the DVD cover-art people. How is it possible to airbrush Robert Redford so that he looks utterly unattractive? And that's one highly arched brow on Meryl Streep. Anyway, don't let the cover distract you from this serious meditation on the nature of current American politics. While I realize many are turned off by movies about the current war in Iraq, I think this film, directed by Robert Redford, gives us a lot of food for thought. More talking than action, I thought this might have worked better as a play than a movie, but it's still a highly worthwhile watch. Most intriguing are the questions Redford brings up about young people who, he asserts, seem to feel disaffected amidst these turbulent times. All three performances are fine (Tom Cruise is particularly good as a smarmy congressman), but most importantly it gets you thinking and might spur on good debate. Special features include audio commentary by Robert Redford and a making-of featurette.

The 11th Hour: We Are All Doomed

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:45:16 PDT

The apocalyptic documentary The 11th Hour is dreary in tone and drab in execution. It's basically a series of talking heads alternating with images of everything from industrial progress to scenes of famine to pictures of angry nature wreaking havoc on the world's helpless creatures. Every once in a while, Leonardo DiCaprio comes onscreen to try and hammer home some point, though even his involvement isn't particularly interesting. In fact, during his segments I found myself zoning out altogether.

The so-so filmmaking aside, some of what a few of the interviewees had to say is thought-provoking. Much ado is made over the wonder and beauty of the human mind - though this is quickly tempered by the assertion that the mind has been both the key to our survival and the thing that has thrown us out of balance with the rest of nature. Basically, humans made this mess and now we need to clean it up. I did find this comment particularly intriguing: "Nature has no rights today. We see nature as property. Nature needs rights, too." Specifically, our generation is critical to designing a way for the human race to coexist with nature.

These interesting tidbits are truly hard-earned, however, since the viewer has to slog through a considerable amount of doomsday moaning about the state of the environment - and our guilty placement at the very center of this sorry state. Given the kind of audience this movie will likely attract, it certainly seems to be not just preaching to the choir, but sternly lecturing and shaming the choir, too. To find out what I mean by this,

read more Indeed, shame plays a huge part in this film. By a third of the way into the documentary, I felt guilty for ever having been born into this wildly overpopulated world, since overpopulation appears to be at the core of the ecological crisis. But that's not all - elsewhere on the long list of people/things to blame for all this destruction and pain are the following: the economy, politicians, TV, industry in general, advertising, the media in general, the fishing industry, human greed, wealthy people, consumerism, American culture and more. Among the things that have resulted from all these evils are the icecaps melting (which, of course, I get), natural disasters and any number of debilitating diseases and really, suffering of all kinds. By the end of the movie I felt terribly, and like I was somehow responsible for everything from Katrina to testicular cancer. I also felt ashamed of being an active participant in the apparently cruel media... until I realized the irony of that sentiment. Here they are conveying a message via... film. And they're hoping active members of the economy (ahem, consumers) will use their dollars to see this film. Not only that, but they're using an A-list celebrity to help them carry this message to the fat, greedy, single-minded Americans they so disdain. Still, for a while after the movie ended, I was more aware of my natural surroundings, and found myself thinking more about my relationship with nature. So, since the documentary makes it sound like we're doomed to extinction anyway, I suppose it's nice to remember to enjoy nature while we're still around. Source

Do Celebrity Causes Inspire You to Do Good?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:30:00 PDT

This Friday, the Leonardo DiCaprio-narrated and -produced green documentary The 11th Hour opens in theaters. I'd bet the filmmakers, sisters Nadia Conners and Leila Connors Petersen, were pretty stoked to get a big name to endorse their film and their cause since this seems to be a good way to raise awareness.

Angelina Jolie is, of course, a huge proponent of using her celebrity for good, as is Brad Pitt, most recently with his sustainable New Orleans houses. Pitt also has some impassioned Hollywood colleagues as George Clooney and Don Cheadle continue to help the ongoing crisis in Darfur.

But does this sort of thing work to get more people involved? Do you find yourself inspired to do good deeds based on the causes that celebrities get behind?
Source

Leo Keeps The Party Going Way After The 11th Hour

PopSugar — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:01:37 PDT

After the premiere of the 11th hour Leo and his friends moved on to the after-party. Leo looked fabulously polished last night, but he claims that he doesn't waste too much time getting ready for red carpet events. He said, "How long does it take me? Usually 15 minutes, something like that,... And then it's about putting the suit on. I don't have a stylist -- usually it's my assistant who tells me to put this on and I go, 'Okay.'" He also said he won't leave home without his cell phone. Leo is always thinking about new ways to save the planet, so we're not surprised he saves water and energy by making a quick exit from his house every day.

More pics including Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth and Tobey Maguire if you read more

View 12 Photos ›

Images include Tobey Maguire, Lukas Haas, Kate Bosworth, Leonardo DiCaprio, Val Kilmer, Polly Cohen, Leila Conners Petersen, and Nadia Conners. Source

The Trailer for Leo's 11th Hour

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:45:32 PDT

Soon after this year's Oscars, I heard tell of Leonardo DiCaprio's environmentally themed documentary, and now the movie has a trailer and a release date of August 17. Back then, DiCaprio was described as "using the medium that he knows best to explore the problem of global warming by making a documentary that is almost a film... the feature-length film even tries to proffer solutions for restoring the Earth's ecosystems."

Originally posted on the movie's MySpace page, the trailer for 11th Hour includes an introduction by Leo himself followed by footage from the movie that is clearly split into two parts:
Part 1: Foreboding doomsday images and forecasts of certain apocalypse if human beings continue down their current environmentally destructive path.
Part 2: Leo and friends more cheerfully appealing to "our generation" to be the hip saviors of the natural world - set to a driving rock song. The weight of the responsibility being placed squarely on us is cushioned by the promise of heroism: "This generation gets to completely change this world."

Heavy-handedness aside, this is a grave issue and if Leo can bring some attention to it then that's great. To see the trailer for Leo's documentary, the Inconvenient Truth for Generation Y,

read more The 11th Hour

Add to My Profile | More Videos . According to the Earth Times, the hybrid-driving hunk (my words, not Earth Times')

J Lo Sees a Vegas Show With Casper as Idol Has a Disappointing Debut

Katie Henry — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:26:16 PST

Jennifer Lopez met Cirque Du Soleil stars from their show O in Las Vegas last night. She's in Sin City filming American Idol but decided to take the night off to see a show with boyfriend Casper Smart. Jennifer and Casper seem to be going strong, and he's even spoken out about their 18-year age differences. Casper tweeted, "Our ages are mere reminders of the hours logged on this earth and the precious time remaining. . . We should all honor our time here by indulging our passion and dreams. So, close your ears and open your hearts; Love and be happy!" J Lo later retweeted his sentiments to her 4.3 million followers.

American Idol returned for its 11th season on Wednesday night. However, the debut failed to post the impressive ratings seen in the past. The drop in Idol ratings isn't a complete loss, though. J Lo and her cohosts Steven Tyler, Randy Jackson, and Ryan Seacrest are still winning their primetime time slot.

6 Quick and Easy Last-Minute Holiday Gift Ideas

Jaime Richards — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:05:07 PST

The holidays have a funny way of sneaking up, but just because it's the 11th hour, doesn't mean you can't still find amazing gifts. So if you're a bit behind on your shopping list, no fret. See six quick and easy ways you can make it all come together now.

Guide to 11th-Hour Christmas Gifts

Emily Co — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:15:39 PST

The clock is ticking, and we have five more days before Christmas is upon us. If you're not totally done with buying gifts, or if you haven't even started,don't fret! Read some of my tips and suggestions to getting your holiday gift list done!

Start Now: Don't give yourself more stress and pressure to buying gifts than you have to. Nip that in the bud by starting today. Don't know where to start? Make a list and go from there.
Gift Cards: Gift cards are always a popular and easy gift, and it takes little effort to run out to the nearest Starbucks to get one! Afraid gift cards are too impersonal? Here are instructions for dressing it up in a DIY snow globe. Egift cards might be a very quick way to wrap up your Christmas shopping.
Affordable Fast Shipping: Take advantage of the next-day shipping options that won't break the bank, which some online stores are providing. Retailers like Zappos and Amazon provide the next day service for free, while Overstock will deliver it to you for free before Christmas day. Remember, these deliveries have restrictions, so remember to read the fine print!
Regifting: Consider regifting (with care!) something you’ve already received. Be sure to not make these major regifting mistakes and don’t give anything that's used or too old.

More 11th-hour tips after the jump.