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What to Rent: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:30:00 PDT

It's Oscar DVD Tuesday! That's right, all of the featured new releases today are films that were nominated for at least one Academy Award. So you can feel very cultured as you're popping your popcorn and settling in to your sofa with one of these flicks.

Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges won the best actor Oscar for his role as Bad Blake, a grizzled, alcoholic country singer whose poor life choices have led to a life of playing bowling allies. Things change for him a bit when a journalist (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who was also nominated) comes to interview him, and winds up falling for him.

Colin Farrell has a memorable cameo as Bad's protege, but don't be fooled: this movie is all about Jeff. DVD extras include some deleted scenes and alternate music takes.

92%

The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold's heartbreaking novel gets an adaptation at the hands of director Peter Jackson, who succeeds at getting good performances from his actors. Saoirse Ronan stars as Susie, a murdered 14-year-old girl who watches her family grieve from the afterlife. Where he fails is in the depiction of her "in-between," which is both cartoonish and disturbing. Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz are her impassioned parents, and Stanley Tucci plays the creep who kills her in the part that nabbed him a supporting actor nomination.

There are no DVD extras, though the Blu-ray disc has a production diary from Jackson.

32%

To see one more release, just

The Young Victoria

In this beautiful, lush period piece, Emily Blunt stars as the pre-coronation Queen Victoria. It's a historical drama depicting the events in her early life, but the real draw is in the romance between her and Prince Albert, played skillfully by Rupert Friend (whose gorgeous looks certainly don't hurt anything). I loved the movie, and was surprised when Emily Blunt wasn't nominated for an Oscar, but the costumes did manage to finagle an award.

In the DVD extras, you'll find a commentary, a making-of featurette and a highlight of the real Queen.

75%

Box Office: Avatar Wins the Top Spot Yet Again

BuzzSugar — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:00:45 PST

I feel like a broken record by this point, but Avatar earned the No. 1 spot at the box office again this week, raking in $36 million to add to its growing total. Coming in second place with only half that was Legion, starring Paul Bettany, which debuted with $18.2 million.

Denzel Washington's The Book of Eli followed close behind with $17 million in its second week in theaters, while new family flick The Tooth Fairy saw $14 million. Finishing out the top five was The Lovely Bones with $8.8 million.

Looks like the majority of audiences agreed with you to pass on Extraordinary Measures. The Harrison Ford feel-good movie bowed with a disappointing $7 million for seventh place.

Box Office: Avatar Leaps Into Its Fifth Week at No. 1

BuzzSugar — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:45:00 PST

Looks like there is no stopping Avatar! The film had a very good weekend - not only did it take home record-breaking wins at the Critics' Choice Awards and two Golden Globes, it also took the top spot at the box office with $41.3 million. Thanks to the new sales figures, the movie is closing in on the $500 million mark domestically (and getting closer to unseating Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time).

In second place was newcomer The Book of Eli with $31.6 million, followed by The Lovely Bones with $17 million.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and Sherlock Holmes continued to hold on to their places in the top five, earning $11.5 million for fourth place and $9.8 million for fifth place, respectively.

Watch, Pass, or Rent: The Lovely Bones & The Book of Eli

PopSugarTV — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:01:00 PST

Hear whether or not our editors think you should check out The Lovely Bones and The Book of Eli in theaters this weekend.

Exclusive Golden Globes Sneak Peek, Mark Talks New Baby, and Our Lovely Bones, Book of Eli Reviews!

Molly — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:00:59 PST

The 2010 Golden Globe Awards are on Sunday, and we're gearing up with a sneak peek from the show's executive producer! Plus, Jenna Dewan, Maria Bello, and more tell us what movies they are rooting for. Mark Wahlberg reveals that his newborn daughter won't be their, last and we have our reviews of The Lovely Bones and Book of Eli. Watch the PopSugar Rush weekend edition for all that and more!

Jenna Gives Golden Globe Picks, Mark Talks More Babies, & Jessica's Chicken Encounter

PopSugarTV — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:58:20 PST

Jenna Dewan is just one of the celebrities telling us who she wants to see win a Golden Globe [no bold needed] award on Sunday, Mark Wahlberg is tired now that baby Grace has arrived but may have more kids, and Jessica Biel keeps her cool when a chicken relieves itself on her shoulder!

The Lovely Bones: A Fractured Fairy Tale

Shannon Vestal — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:30:00 PST

I've long questioned Hollywood's desire to bring Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones to the big screen. The book itself delicately straddles tragedy and beauty in its first-person account of a 14-year-old girl who is murdered and watches her family's unraveling from Heaven. Though I held out hope that Peter Jackson would be able to balance the same themes, it was all for naught: his big-screen version of The Lovely Bones is ambitious, but irredeemably disturbing.

I'd heard that Jackson left out the fact that his main character, Susie Salmon (played by Saoirse Ronan), is raped in the book, and that the murder occurs offscreen, which made a certain amount of sense - it's not necessary to show either to convince you that her ordeal is terrifying. But after seeing the film, it baffles me that Jackson chose to include other grisly scenes and imagery. What's even more questionable is the portrayal of Susie's "in-between" - her purgatory on the way to Heaven that's sometimes a perfect world and other times hellish.

Had Jackson chosen instead to focus on the ordeal of the Salmon family after Susie's departure - the most compelling part of the movie - I think he would have had a chance at making something more powerful. To see what I mean, just

Susie's cartoonish in-between detracts from the performances of her family members back on earth, particularly Mark Wahlberg's. As her anguished father who is coping with Susie's murder by hunting for clues, Wahlberg impresses more than costar Stanley Tucci, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for the role. Tucci's portrayal of Mr. Harvey, I'm sad to say, goes over the top - with his obvious wig, facial prosthetics and unintentionally goofy laugh, it borders on caricature.

Susan Sarandon appears solely to steal scenes as the family's pill-popping, boozehound Grandma, imparting a lightness on the film that Susie's world tries for, but fails to convey. Indeed, when the focus shifts away from the supernatural to document the fissures that afflict the Salmon family, we get somewhere. Just as quickly, though, those scenes of substance are pulled away from you, and we're back to Susie's confounding half-life.

Instead of spending so much time on a nightmarish land of CGI, Jackson should have worried more about giving the characters more satisfying scenes of closure - that's what would have made the audience feel better about Susie's fate.

Photo courtesy of Dreamworks

Which Books Should Never Have Been Made Into Movies?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:30:00 PST

I read Alice Sebold's tragic novel The Lovely Bones when it came out in 2002 and loved it; so why was I so nervous to hear that Peter Jackson was adapting the book into a movie two years ago? I didn't know how the central act - Susie Salmon's rape and murder - would be handled onscreen.

The film is being released tomorrow and it sounds like my fears might have been justified - some early reviews complain that the central crimes have been toned down for the film version. It's not that I want to see these graphic scenes, but it seems wrong to neglect the horrific events the book hinges on. In fact, I would just as well have not seen this novel adapted at all given the highly sensitive subject matter.

This happens a lot - we all have gripes about filmmakers changing aspects of books for their cinematic counterparts, but what about when it's not just an aspect - what about entire books that should have never made it to the big screen? It's hard cramming hundreds of pages into two hours; it's even more difficult translating certain aspects that may only work on the page. In recent years, the adaptations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Time Traveler's Wife disappointed me so much. It wasn't that I thought the films could have been different, it's that I thought that perhaps they never should have been turned into movies at all. Tell me: are there any books that you thought should never have been adapted?

Stars Show Off Their Lovely Bones With Possibly Pattinson

PopSugar — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:00:34 PST

The stars of The Lovely Bones hit the red carpet last night for their LA premiere. Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan, and Rose McIver were decked out alongside director Peter Jackson, while the film's executive producer, Steven Spielberg, went casual in his baseball cap. Superman star Brandon Routh turned out with wife Courtney Ford, who you might recognize from her role on this season of Dexter. Mark Wahlberg was able to attend last week's screening in NYC, but he missed this one due to his commitments back on the East Coast. One leading man who might have been in attendance was Robert Pattinson - Vampire Diaries star Katerina Graham twittered about seeing him but if he was there, he went undetected by photographers.

To see lots more of the stars on the red carpet, just

View 70 Photos ›

Images include: Susan Sarandon, Michael Imperioli, Christian Ashdale, Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan, Rose McIver, Andrew James Allen, Stanley Tucci, Aly Michalka, Katerina Graham, AJ Michalka, Peter Jackson, Katie Jackson, Antonio Sabato Jr, Brandon Routh, Courtney Ford, Cheryl Moana, Steven Spielberg, Lea Thompson, Zoey Deutch, Katerina Graham, Jack Robbins, Stefania Owen, Matt Dallas

Mark, Saoirse and Susan Are Lovely at Their Bones Premiere

Molly — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:00:00 PST

Mark Wahlberg led the way at a screening of The Lovely Bones in NYC last night. He was joined by his costars including Saoirse Ronan, who has grown up so much since Atonement, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Christian Ashdale and Rose McIver. The movie has been a long time coming and has another week to go before it hits theaters December 11. Mark has been hard at work on The Other Guys with Will Ferrell for the past few months, but now it's time for some promotional work as a star of the film as well as half of one of our favorite newlywedded couples of 2009.

For more photos from The Lovely Bones premiere, just

View 10 Photos ›

Images include: Helena Christensen, Peter Jackson, Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Rose McIver, Michael Imperioli.