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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:30:31 -0800

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 my picks below, you can also add Priceless starring Audrey Tautou and Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson to your queue.

Wall-E
Squee! Pixar's Wall-E is out on DVD! The more I think about this movie, the more I'm impressed with what the creators managed to pull off. First of all, they managed to make a desolate, post-apocalyptic Earth seem like the ideal setting for a love story that will give anyone with a pulse the warm fuzzies. They also managed to give a robot that can't really speak the most adorable, expressive puppy-dog eyes this world has ever known. It's quite the feat, and if you weren't able to catch this gem in the theater, you might want to bring it home ASAP.

Even if you did see this on the big screen, the DVD has plenty of special features that have me pretty excited as well. They include: several all-new animated shorts, deleted scenes, a ride through space with Wall-E, and a feature on the history of Pixar.

Two more coming up, so read more.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
This second installment of the Traveling Pants franchise made me a convert. There was just something about the sequel that captivated me, and I'm excited to re-watch it in the comfort of my own home. Maybe it's because I could better relate to the girls now that they're out of high school and thrust into a more adult world that offers up new complications. Or it could be the bounty of handsome men cast as love interests to the ladies. Either way, it's quality entertainment.

Specials include a featurette titled "Go Jump Off a Cliff: How the Exhilarating Final Sequence - Not Originally in the Script - was Inspired by Fan Reaction to the First Movie," additional scenes, and a gag reel.

Tropic Thunder
Gather up your least politically correct friends and settle in for some belly laughs (as well as awkward and uncomfortable moments) with this DVD. Tropic Thunder, directed by Ben Stiller, follows a bunch of actors (nearly every Hollywood stereotype is represented here) who head out to make a Vietnam War movie that quickly gets out of control. For the most part, the satire is funny, though there are head-scratching moments to be sure.

I have a feeling the behind-the-scenes features might be as funny as - if not funnier than - the actual movie. They include a featurette titled "Blowing S#%t Up," deleted and extended scenes, and an alternate ending.

Nicolas Cage Tops a Slow Weekend Box Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:45:46 -0700

Well, the Fall movie season came in with a whimper. According to Variety, "The first weekend after Labor Day is always sluggish, but this year the frame was affected by the start of the NFL football season and was particularly dreary." Bangkok Dangerous came in at No. 1, but it only earned an estimated $7.8 million and narrowly beat Tropic Thunder, which earned an estimated $7.5 million.

The House Bunny came in third place, followed by The Dark Knight in fourth and Don Cheadle's thriller Traitor in fifth place. Interestingly, Hamlet 2, which received major buzz at this year's Sundance Film Festival, is not doing too well in theaters and has only grossed an estimated $4.3 million over the two weekends it's been out.

Kind of a bummer of a weekend, but don't worry-next week The Women and Burn After Reading hit theaters! Who's excited?

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Box Office: Tropic Thunder Wins Again

BuzzSugar — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:00:50 -0700

Labor Day weekend officially signals the close of the Summer box office season, and this year's ended on, as Variety described it, "a whimper" as opposed to a bang. Tropic Thunder landed in the top spot for the third weekend in a row, pulling in an estimated $14.3 million over four days. The second spot went to Babylon A.D. which earned an estimated $12 million. The Dark Knight came in at No. 3, surpassing the $500 million mark on Sunday.

Traitor starring Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce opened this weekend and came in fifth place with $10 million, just behind The House Bunny, which came in No. 4 with $10.2 million.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Tropic Thunder Is No. 1 For the Second Week in a Row

BuzzSugar — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:15:55 -0700

Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder won the top spot at the box office for the second weekend in a row, earning an estimated $16.1 million. This makes Tropic Thunder, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight the only movies to have stayed at No. 1 for two consecutive weeks this Summer (so that's two major box office winners for Robert Downey Jr.!).

Following closely behind in the No. 2 spot was The House Bunny, which earned an estimated $15.1 million its first weekend out. Coming in third was the Death Race remake with about $12.3 million. In fourth place was The Dark Knight, followed by Star Wars: The Clone Wars at No. 5.

I didn't think the Rainn Wilson comedy The Rocker would do very well, but I'm surprised to see how badly it did. The comedy failed to crack the top 10 and only earned about $2.7 million.

Hamlet 2, which was all the rage at Sundance this year, had a limited release and brought in an estimated $435,294. The offbeat comedy will have a wider release this Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Box Office: Tropic Thunder Takes the Top Spot

BuzzSugar — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:00:37 -0700

Even though Tropic Thunder is technically No. 1 this weekend, The Dark Knight is still being called the biggest winner because it is "the second highest grossing pic of all time after Titanic domestically." Ben Stiller's comedy earned an estimated $26 million while the Batman sequel took in $16.7 million and has a total gross of $471.5 million.

The rest of the top 10 was shaken up a bit as well this weekend: Star Wars: The Clone Wars came in third place, followed by the horror flick Mirrors at No. 4 and Pineapple Express rounded out the top five.

Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona opened this weekend at No. 10, and the new 3-D animated flick Fly Me to the Moon came in at No. 11.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

How Well Do You Know Robert Downey Jr.?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:30:02 -0700

If I had to give Robert Downey Jr. a Hollywood nickname it would be "enigma" because he has been a puzzling and contradictory force. By now everyone knows the story of his professional ascent (nominated for Oscars and such) and descent (arrests, a lot of booze, drugs, etc.). And while his talent has never been disputed, his personal antics have left many wondering if he would ever truly fulfill his enormous potential, or if his self-destructive tendencies would sabotage his work.

And then came Summer 2008. Iron Man was a huge hit and he's earning good reviews for his comedic, slightly controversial role in Tropic Thunder, out this week. So, in honor of RDJ's return to grace, I challenge you to a quiz!

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Tropic Thunder: Clever and Explosive

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:30:10 -0700

I never really thought I'd say a Ben Stiller comedy was genuinely smart and funny, but here I am, saying just that. It's partly the talented cast and partly Stiller's collaborator on the film, Justin Theroux, but whatever the cause, Tropic Thunder is a hilarious movie that doesn't completely rely on gross-out humor or cheap shots for laughs. The entire thing exists to comment on the hypocrisy, egotism, delusional sense of self-importance and backward moral codes of the people who keep the Hollywood machine churning. And it's all set against the backdrop of one of the most serious film genres: the war movie.

Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a has-been action star who hopes that the filming of the war movie Tropic Thunder will restart his fading career. Soon, however, the film's director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) decides to drop the film's stars into the middle of the jungle to get some "grittier" footage. The group of actors includes the Australian Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), an Academy darling who has surgically changed his skin color to play a black character, an actual black actor named Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), newbie actor Kevin Sandusky (the beloved Apatownian Jay Baruchel) and goofball comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black). The men find themselves in a real combat situation, and it takes them a while to realize that they're not actually on a controlled movie set. The whole thing is a series of jokes, explosions and gunfire, resulting in a kind of giant comedic spectacle. Those are just the basics, though, so read more.

One of the most talked-about things with this movie, Robert Downey Jr.'s brownface and portrayal of a black man is remarkably well-done. The insane offensiveness is placed squarely on the actor Kirk Lazarus's ignorance and ambition to nab yet another Academy Award. Every time this is played for laughs, it's done so at Kirk's expense. What's even better, he butts heads with the actual black man of the group, Alpa Chino, who voices reasonable arguments against Kirk's outrageous actions and is met with hilariously misguided justifications from Kirk. And Alpa Chino is never actually OK with the whole thing, hinting that though the filmmakers use this brownface device for laughs, they never take it so lightly as to imply that it's a genuinely OK thing to do.

By contrast, the jokes revolving around Stiller's character playing a mentally challenged person are less carefully done. Sure, we're supposed to be laughing at the Tugg's self-centered idea that doing this kind of role will earn him an Oscar, but in the scenes with "Simple Jack" we're not laughing at the actor's misguidedness, we're laughing at his impression of a mentally challenged person. I guess it comes down to how comfortable you are with that sort of thing. I do believe the intention was to comment on Stiller's character, and I'm not saying the film is mean-spirited, because I don't think it is. It just doesn't make me feel good to laugh at Stiller's impression of a retarded person.

There are many happy surprises in the movie, not the least of which is Tom Cruise as abusive studio mogul Les Grossman. He's incredibly good at playing an over-the-top abhorrent human being. Similarly, Matthew McConaughey's performance as Tugg's well-meaning but shallow agent is completely hysterical (there's something satisfying about such a pretty man embracing such a goofy, ridiculous role). There are also funny movie-within-movie moments that are actually quite meta, like when Stiller's character thinks an actual severed head is a prop and plays with it: his character thinks it's a prop, and in real-life we know it's a prop, but in the world of the movie it's an actual head that his character thinks is a prop. . . which it is, but it's not supposed to be. . . See? It's actually weirdly smart.

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Controversial Comedic Movies

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:30:41 -0700

Some of the best comedy provocatively pushes the envelope, and when done well, it can allow us to not take life too seriously. But sometimes it can go really wrong, and feel less like a keen observation and more just mean-spirited. There is a thin line that certain comedic movies walk between hilarious and offensive. As Tropic Thunder, with all its controversies, hits the theaters, I was reminded of other comedies in recent years that were met with some protest. Controversy doesn't always affect ticket sales, though sometimes over-the-line comedy seems to influence the way a movie is received. To see some examples, just hit "Start." Source

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Have You Ever Boycotted a Movie?

BuzzSugar — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:30:03 -0700

According to the New York Times, the upcoming Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder will be boycotted by "a coalition of disabilities groups" who object to what they say is "the movie’s open ridicule of the intellectually disabled."
The article continues:

A particular sore point has been the film's repeated use of the term "retard" in referring to a character, Simple Jack, who is played by Mr. Stiller in a subplot about an actor who chases an Oscar by portraying a mindless dolt. Mr. Shriver said that he had also begun to ask members of Congress for a resolution condemning what he called the movie’s “hate speech."

Have you ever refused to see a movie because you objected to the content?

Photo courtesy of Paramount

Movie Preview: Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:30:35 -0700

With Tropic Thunder, director Ben Stiller and his cast of comedic actors attempt to poke holes in the movie industry, spoofing everything from iconic action heroes to the embarrassing obnoxiousness of professional comedians to racial stereotypes facing non-white actors. It has a lot of potential for humor. But is it funny? Eh. Kinda.

Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. - that's Downey in the middle up there, wearing makeup to look like a black man - play vain, clueless actors shooting a big-budget war movie who inadvertently find themselves in an actual war zone and have to become real soldiers. Parts of the trailer make me chuckle, though a lot of it's just OK. Also, I'm a little torn on the use of black face in spoofing Hollywood. Then again, if anyone's going to do something like that, Robert Downey Jr. is probably our best bet.

Tropic Thunder opens August 15. To check out the trailer, read more.

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