BuzzSugar

Bad Lieutenant: Good Cop Gone Nuts

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:30:49 -0800

Nicolas Cage has said, "There's a very fine line between Method actor and schizophrenic." In Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, he teeters that line maniacally, with an ever-increasing slur and crooked swagger. Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating a drug-related murder and his personal threshold for cocaine and heroin.

The first news of Bad Lieutenant was puzzling: famously extreme director Werner Herzog re-imagining a 1992 cult movie, also called Bad Lieutenant, but shifting the action to New Orleans and casting Nic Cage in the Harvey Keitel role opposite his Ghost Rider costar Eva Mendes. Weird.

But in fact, Bad Lieutenant is Herzog's second surprisingly accessible movie in as many years, following 2007's Rescue Dawn. And Cage is brilliant in a role seemingly made for him, so read more.

The noirish, pulpy, desperate, and often hilarious film opens with a good deed: McDonagh dives into a Katrina-flooded jail cell to save a prisoner's life, in the process injuring his back and subsequently getting hooked on Vicodin and then far harder drugs.

As a degenerate cop in a washed-out city, Cage makes Denzel Washington's Training Day villain look like a Boy Scout. He slithers through the streets, confiscating drugs to snort with his prostitute girlfriend (Mendes), hooking up with a drug kingpin played by Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner, and fending off a rising tide of self-created trouble. "Being courteous is really getting in the way of my progress," he croaks before one of his more disturbing moral lapses.

In post-Katrina New Orleans, Herzog has found the perfect setting. He never lets the city look pretty or even charmingly decayed, and he populates it with iguanas and alligators and snakes and fish. At every turn, McDonagh is confronted by cold-blooded animals, as he careens between the call of duty and the cold-blooded instinct of his addiction. It's impossible to ignore the reptilian symbolism, and the effect is perfectly bizarre. Despite its darkest moments, Bad Lieutenant is a remarkably good trip.

Photos Courtesy First Look Studios

Link Time! Adam Lambert Goes Glittery For His Album Cover

BuzzSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:30:50 -0700

Behold: Adam Lambert's glitzy album cover - Best Week Ever
Will you see This Is It today? - PopSugar
Friday Night Lights premieres on DirecTV tonight - Hit Fix
Take a look at the best movies of the 1940s - Moviefone
Hooked on the bloodsuckers? Check out the 25 best reviewed vampire movies - Rotten Tomatoes
Lisa Kudrow will make an appearance on Cougar Town - Zap2it
Go behind the scenes with Spike Jonze and Kanye West - Pitchfork
Val Kilmer and Emmanuelle Chriqui will star in the upcoming film Georgia - Movieline
Family Guy is too raunchy for Microsoft - TV.Com

Link Time! 7/22

BuzzSugar — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:30:08 -0700

Cinematical wonders if male movie reviewers are sexist when it comes to reviewing Mamma Mia!
GiveMeMyRemote has a clip from the recent Daily Show episode in which Ed Helms made a reappearance.
Stereogum tells us about a new track by Cold War Kids, "Something Is Not Right With Me."
According to MTV Movies Blog, Val Kilmer claims he invented Austin Powers's "Mini Me."
Katie Couric has said that sexism is more common than racism, and Brooke Hogan is not helping this matter at all; CitizenSugar has the scoop.
Popwatch says that fake book, Love Letters of Great Men, actually will be available in bookstores soon.
TV With MeeVee continues to investigate all the seasons of The X-Files in anticipation of this weekend's new movie.
Pitchfork's "review" of the latest album by Black Kids cracks me up.

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Buzz News Roundup, 2/8

BuzzSugar — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:30:00 -0800

Martin Scorsese will focus on Bob Marley for his next music documentary, writes Variety.
Yael Naim - the singer from the MacBook Air commercials - will have her album released in the U.S. in March, Billboard reports.
ComingSoon has the news that Uma Thurman will play Nanny in the feature film version of Eloise in Paris.
SalesGenie will be dropping the Chinese panda ad after viewers who saw it during the Super Bowl complained it was offensive, The New York Times reports.
Woody Allen will cast Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood in his next project, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Not surprisingly, Zap2it reports that kids these days are into Shrek and Miley Cyrus, at least according to the Kids Choice Awards nominations.
Val Kilmer will replace Will Arnett as the voice of KITT in Knight Rider, Variety reports.
Dominic Monaghan has been cast in a psychological thriller titled Pet, writes ComingSoon.
Disney World is getting an American Idol-themed attraction, writes Hollywood Reporter.

Source and source

Movie Night: Geeks Rule

BuzzSugar — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:33:50 -0700

Recommending the "Freaks and Geeks" DVDs earlier today got me thinking about movies in which the geeks triumph or in which the underdogs have their day. I checked with my girl GeekSugar and she recommended a few of her favorite "geeks rule" movies, so for this week's Movie Night, check out these titles that are Geek recommended, Buzz approved.

Goonies
This is one of the best movies to watch for those heartwarming "geeks rule" moments. Mikey and Brandon Walsh (um, not the Brandon Walsh from "90210," but that's a funny crossover) are determined to save their neighborhood from the big, bad meanies about to build a golf course near their homes. Together with their buddies Chunk, Andy, Mouth, Stef, and Data, the brothers set off to find the hidden fortune as marked on One-Eyed Willie's treasure map. Adventure ensues, along with Chunk's Truffle Shuffle dance and plenty of Sloth bonding.

Two more if you read more

Revenge of the Nerds
The ringleader of this "genre" of films, Revenge of the Nerds is the ultimate geek revenge fantasy. It was such a success (having struck a chord in many a moviegoer, perhaps) it spawned a second movie and two more TV sequels. The original movie pits the nerds against the jocks as the endearingly geeky Gilbert and Lewis embark on their first year at college. The two awkward guys grow sick of the Alpha Beta frat boys' taunts, so they team up with Pointdexter and Booger, pool their high-tech sensibilities and take their geeky revenge.

Real Genius
The hottie genius slacker. The child prodigy. The weird guy named Lazlo who lives in the steam tunnels. What unites this motley crew, of course, is geekdom. Val Kilmer, in probably the most brilliant comedic performance of his career, stars as Chris Knight, a scientist working on a laser project with his fellow students. When the nerds realize their professor has sinister intentions, they set out to prevent the laser from getting into the wrong hands, with the help of some unforgettable one-liners and the world's largest bowl of Jiffy Pop.