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What to Rent: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:30:00 PST

If you feel like bumming around this week, I have the perfect couch potato companion: new DVD releases! Here are my three picks, but Sorority Row and Everybody's Fine also hit shelves today if you want to add them to your queue.

The Informant!

Part crime caper, part silly comedy, The Informant! stars Matt Damon as the bumbling vice president of a major agricultural corporation who goes undercover with the FBI to expose the company's shady price-fixing. Damon's mustache and his inner ramblings are good for laughs - and he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance - but I was left scratching my head over the jumbled plot towards the middle of the movie. Maybe it'd be easier to follow a second time around?

Extras include deleted scenes.

77%

The September Issue

Giving us an insider look into the secret world of Vogue, The September Issue is full of flashbulbs, celebrities, gorgeous gowns, and (somewhat surprisingly), heart. Yes, we get to see the infamous Anna Wintour without her trademark glasses, but I admittedly fell even more in love with her coworker, friend, and nemesis Grace Coddington. The film is style and substance – and a great watch for the weekend.

Extras include 90 minutes of extra footage, including Wintour putting together the high profile Met Ball.

84%

One more release when you

The Box

Richard Kelly's thriller The Box stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a suburban couple in the '70s who are offered a million dollars if they press a button - causing the death of a stranger. The movie's premise and Kelly's direction have a lot of promise, but the mass of loose ends, bad dialogue, and cheesy scares didn't satisfy me. However, Kelly's debut Donnie Darko found its audience on DVD, so The Box could as well.

Extras include a featurette with Richard Matheson who wrote the short story "Button, Button" on which the movie is based.

44%

Watch, Pass or Rent Movie Reviews: Precious, A Christmas Carol, The Box and The Men Who Stare at Goats!

BuzzSugar — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:00:24 PST

We have an exciting new weekend video feature - our PopSugar Rush Watch, Pass or Rent Movie Reviews! This week we're giving you the bottom line on Precious, The Box, A Christmas Carol and The Men Who Stare at Goats. Check it out now and let us know what you think in the comments!

Dev, Freida, and Emily Red Carpet; Weekend Movie Reviews of Precious, Xmas Carol, the Box, and Goats!

Molly — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:30:00 PST

It's the weekend, which means it's time for our PopSugar Rush Watch, Pass, or Rent Movie Reviews! We're looking at Precious, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and The Box. Plus, we were on the red carpet at last night's BAFTA awards, so check out Emily Blunt, Dev Patel, and Freida Pinto! There's Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, and more. Watch the PopSugar Rush Weekend Edition now!

Dev, Freida, and Emily, Weekend Movie Reviews of Precious, Carol, The Box, and Men Who Stare at Goats!

Molly — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:34:28 PST

It's the weekend which mean it's time for our PopSugar Rush Watch, Pass, or Rent Movie Reviews! We're looking at Precious, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and The Box. Plus, we were on the red carpet at last night's BAFTA awards, so check out Emily Blunt, Dev Patel, and Freida Pinto! There's Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, and more. Watch the PopSugar Rush Weekend Edition now!

Rihanna Details the Attack, Freida & Dev's Red Carpet Rendezvous, & Miley Talks SATC

PopSugarTV — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:33:05 PST

Rihanna shares painful details from the night Chris Brown physically attacked her, Freida Pinto and Dev Patel go hand-in-hand down the British Academy Film and Television Awards red carpet, and Miley Cyrus comments on Kim Cattrall's fabulous figure!

What Movie Will You Check Out at the Theaters This Weekend?

PopSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:38:38 PST

It's a big weekend at the box office, with many new films hitting the big screen. The highly anticipated drama Precious will compete alongside Cameron Diaz's thriller The Box, while Jim Carrey's version of A Christmas Carol brings some holiday fun. Finally, George Clooney's The Men Who Stare at Goats offers a few laughs. So, tell us - which movie will you check out?

The Box: An Inadequate Package to Unwrap

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:30:56 PST

I so wanted The Box to be a worthy successor to Donnie Darko, director Richard Kelly's first film and much-appreciated cult fave. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly get my wish.

The Box is a highly stylized, good-looking thriller, from the retro 1976 Virginia setting to the Barbie and Ken looks of leads Cameron Diaz and James Marsden. They play husband and wife Arthur and Norma Lewis, who run into a bit of a financial jam when a strange opportunity conveniently presents itself. A creepy, disfigured man (Frank Langella) offers them a million dollars if they push a button inside a box - but a stranger will die if they do.

Kelly has all the right elements and the creativity to give us a hip, entertaining thriller, but there are a number of blatant missteps that make the movie unsatisfying. To see more about what I mean, just

Kelly puts his stamp on everything, namely the constant eerie atmosphere and the random sinister characters (apparently an old person standing still in the road is his trademark). Though many questioned the casting of Cameron Diaz and her requisite Virginia accent, there was a similar doubt when Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze were cast in Darko, and it ended up working. With Diaz, it's not that I would say that she nailed the part, but that the accent and greater aspects of the plot are very campy. And I like campy, but I don't know if that's what the film is going for.

If you're not taking it seriously, the movie is a pretty good time, with some frightening scenes and jumps. There are also many parts that are supposed to be creepy, but they're so labored that they come out as funny. Like, laugh out loud in the theater funny. I wouldn't call that a failure, I'd just invoke the term I used before: campy.

The major problem the movie runs into is when it begins exploring these sci-fi and supernatural angles, which end up being red herrings. For instance, much is made of Arthur's job at NASA and Mars, which made me think we were in for a weird, wild sci-fi ride. I was ready to embrace something really out there (I'm a big David Lynch fan, after all), but you don't really get it. There are so many elements that are introduced but never followed to a conclusion, so you're left shrugging your shoulders when the movie ends. It's even more perplexing because the mystery of The Box itself is explained, but you're left with all these details that went nowhere, in retrospect. It's one thing to leave things open-ended, but you have to give the audience something to work with.

Honestly, if you're a Kelly fan, you'll probably find it enjoyable. But if you want complete resolution, I'd wait for the director's cut.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Watch, Pass, or Rent: Box, Goats, Precious, & Christmas

PopSugarTV — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:01:00 PST

In PopSugar Rush's Watch, Pass, or Rent, hear why our editors say to pass on Cameron Diaz's The Box, rent George Clooney's The Men Who Stare at Goats, and watch Precious and A Christmas Carol.

Rihanna Opens Up About Assault, Stripper Claims Affair With Josh, & Cameron Plays Charades!

PopSugarTV — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:46:00 PST

Rihanna admits she left Chris Brown after the assault to send the right message to fans, a stripper says she had a one-night stand with Josh Duhamel, and Cameron Diaz beats Jimmy Fallon at charades! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook for all the latest celebrity gossip!

Cameron Premieres Her Box and Opens Up About Life

Molly — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 PST

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden hit the red carpet together in NYC last night at the premiere of their movie The Box. It hits theaters this weekend, though the buzz has been pretty quiet for the scary looking film with its chic '70s interiors. Cameron has been busy up in Boston filming Knight and Day with Tom Cruise, but she took a break to talk to Parade about her new film. Here are highlights:

On life and being confident: "I don't have to prove anything to anybody. I know who I am. I have my own sense of myself. And the things that I do, I do for myself and to challenge myself and to have my own experience. I'm in a completely different place in my life now and I'm very comfortable where I'm at. I'm looking forward to the future. I'm looking forward to this afternoon and tomorrow and the next day and a month from now."
On being self-deprecating: "I don't think that self-deprecation is healthy for people. I think you should have a healthy relationship with yourself. We all have our up days and our down days. But I'm not going to walk through this world hating myself because somebody doesn't like me or doesn't think I'm pretty or that I should be ashamed that people think that I'm pretty. How am I going to live my life trying to figure out what everybody else feels about me? All I can do is know how I feel about myself."
On heartbreak: "Oftentimes, the way that we learn is to have our heart broken. As many times as we fall in love, our heart gets broken. But heartbreak is always a part of life, from not making a team in your favorite sport to your parents having a fight. Life is full of ups and downs. You can't know happiness without sadness and vice versa. The great thing about getting older is you become wiser and you gain knowledge and you grow. There's nothing wrong with that. That's a wonderful thing."

For more photos from the premiere just

View 10 Photos ›