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Gone Baby Gone Team Gears Up for Next Drama: The Blade Itself

BuzzSugar — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:30:27 -0700

Ben Affleck and Co. will again team up to produce another crime thriller, though this time they're abandoning the Afflecks' beloved Boston and relocating to Chicago. Like Affleck's last project Gone Baby Gone, this one's based on a gritty crime novel, Marcus Sakey's debut tome The Blade Itself.

The story follows "two Chicago childhood friends who made their reputation committing petty crimes as kids before choosing different paths in life. When they are reunited years later, one is forced to decide how far he will go to protect the secrets of his past."

Esquire named Sakey's novel one of the five best reads of 2007. So, whaddya say, readers? Shall I put The Blade Itself on the list of future titles to read for the Buzz Book Club?

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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:30:00 -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 the titles below you can view the thriller We Own the Night starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg. Also on DVD today is Romance and Cigarettes, a musical that's definitely not for the High School Musical set.

Gone Baby Gone
For his directorial debut, Ben Affleck brings together a talented ensemble cast that includes his brother Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Amy Ryan. The film is set in the Affleck brothers' hometown of Boston and is adapted from a novel by the author of another dark Boston tale, Mystic River.

Casey plays Patrick Kenzie, a private detective hired to help bring home a missing 4-year-old girl. In the process, he discovers a complex and disturbing underworld based on the broken dreams of families living in one of the country's toughest neighborhoods.

Relative newcomer Amy Ryan earned herself an Oscar nomination for her portrayal as the little girl's drug addict mother, and our very own Boston native Molly really enjoyed this heart wrenching flick so it's a pretty safe bet for your Netflix queue.

A little depressing? Two more lovey titles are next so read more.

No Reservations
It's often the charming, warmhearted little films like No Reservations that slip off peoples' radars in the summer movie season due to the noise that giant big-name mega-blockbusters make that time of year. If you missed this sweet romance starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhart I highly recommend warming up some delicious treats and settling in for the night with this movie that I really enjoyed.

Based on the the German film Mostly Martha, the movie follows a hard-hearted top chef, Kate (Zeta Jones) whose sister dies suddenly, leaving Kate's little niece (an adorable Abigail Breslin) now resting in her care. As Kate struggles to adapt to parenthood, she also soon finds herself involved with the new chef in her kitchen (Eckhart). Special features include a Marc Summers visit to the set to talk to the film's stars for an episode on his Food Network Series.

Why Did I Get Married
Tyler Perry sets aside his alter-ego Madea, but preserves his keen ability to create relatable characters in this drama exploring the ins and outs of married life. The movie stars Perry himself, along with Malik Yoba, Sharon Leal, Michael Jai White, Denise Boutte, Lamman Rucker and music hit-makers Janet Jackson and Jill Scott.

Based on one of Perry's plays, Why Did I Get Married? follows a group of married friends that gather in a mountaintop resort to confront their various marital issues. Perry's trademark melodrama and preachiness combined with a more serious subject matter proved to be a very potent mix that really hit home with audiences.

Gone Baby Gone: Good Baby Great

Molly — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:34:32 -0700

Note: After much pleading, Buzz let me go see this movie to review. Thanks, Buzz!

As a Boston area native, movies about the city usually fall within two distinct categories. There are movies about the city’s academia - Good Will Hunting. And there are movies about the gritty parts of the town - a la Mystic River or even Boondock Saints. At this point, Ben and Casey Affleck have seen, lived and made movies on both side of this off Boston dichotomy (most famously in the first example), but I’m happy to say that their foray into the serious, Gone Baby Gone, is more than a success. From the first five minutes on, GBG is a movie wrought with moral dilemmas, seedy characters, and lies told for questionable reasons. None of these are easy to put into film without being heavy handed, but thanks to an excellent cast, script, and in Ben’s able hands, they created a gut wrenching and, ultimately, great movie.

Being that the movie is based on another of Dennis Lehane’s novels (with a vaguely similar story line, and a punch-in-the-gut ending), it will suffer from the constant comparisons to Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. Luckily, Ben's first effort at directing can withstand those criticisms, even if he's not yet Eastwood. Or, to be fair, dealing with a cast of Eastwood proportions. That being said, one of the best things that Ben had going for him was his actors, especially his brother Casey.

To read the rest of my review just read more

Time and time again, Ben has asserted that he gave the role to the best actor, who just happened to be his brother. But he was also in the unique (and fortuitous) position for Casey to be one of the first actors to come to mind for the lead character. Casey's crackling voice and boyishly handsome face are perfect for the role. He plays Patrick Kenzie, a private detective hired by the aunt of a missing 4-year-old girl, whose quest to bring the child back home uncovers sides of his city and its people that anyone would be loathe to admit exist.

Smaller roles taken on by greats like Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, embattled police chief and detective respectively, are stand-out performances in the movie, but the ladies hold their own, too. Relative newcomers like Michelle Monaghan, who plays Patrick's girlfriend/partner and Amy Ryan, who plays the drug addict mother of the missing girl, each bring their own well-constructed intricacies to the story.

The acting carries the movie, but the script provides an excellent vehicle for the complicated and multi-dimensional characters to shine. Or, as the case may be, not shine at all. As with Lehane's other book, this movie deals with the lengths that people will go to do what they feel is right and the vast, gaping gray areas of morality it can create. Bringing children into the mix takes a depressing look at society and makes it utterly heart wrenching. And at times, completely sickening. Honestly, parents of young kids be warned - it may be hard to watch.

The only real downfall of the movie is that the story is sometimes too complicated for its own good. After leaving the theater if I were asked to repeat the whole plot, I would surely get a bit muddled somewhere in the middle. It's not enough to ruin the movie, thankfully, and considering the film's strong points, it's easily forgivable.

Walking out of the theater, you will feel like the wind got knocked out of you. Just like in life, there are no real answers of right vs. wrong and morality changes depending on who you ask. Thankfully (and I will say that I've been rooting for Ben the whole time), Gone Baby Gone takes this difficult subject matter and manages to succeed, above and beyond my wildest expectations.

Photos Courtesy Miramax

Buzz News Roundup, 9/14

BuzzSugar — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:29:28 -0700

Ben Affleck's directorial debut, the thriller Gone, Baby, Gone, is being pulled from U.K. theaters in light of the kidnapping of British girl Madeleine McCann, Variety reports.
Those nutty "Jericho" fans really made their mark: CBS is using peanuts to market the show's first-season DVDs, Variety reports.
Ricky Gervais will write and star in his own comedic movie titled This Side of Truth, writes Zap2It.
Billboard has the news that Aretha Franklin's next album - releasing Nov. 13 - will include two never-before-heard tracks.
"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" will start its fifth season in October with a "Straight Guy Pageant," the Futon Critic reports.
The Austin City Limits music festival kicked off today, Pitchfork reports.
Bummer: "The IT Crowd," NBC's midseason nerd comedy, might never make it on the air, Zap2it writes.
TV Guide reports that soap star Morgan Fairchild will play herself on "Men in Trees."

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Grey's Anatomy Rundown, "Invest in Love"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:30:14 -0800

This week I felt like Grey's Anatomy is finally getting back on track. The episode has a very sad central focus, as Arizona faces the inevitable loss of a young patient, but was nicely rounded out with the usual relationship issues, comic relief, and a few sweet moments.

For more Grey's fun, check out the Grey's Anatomy McAddicts group in the Buzz Community. To get into the money matters, the L-bombs, and the shirtless Karev from this week, just read more.

This week's episode belongs to Arizona, as she takes a few of the surgeons into the "magical" world of pediatrics. She introduces Yang, Hunt, and Avery to Wallace - a 10-year-old patient with a nutritional disorder that's kept him in the hospital for 7 months. Thanks to her particularly sweet bedside manner and close relationship with Wallace, his parents offer to donate $25 million to the hospital. But when his condition worsens, Wallace's parents and the chief put pressure on Arizona to perform a surgery she doesn't feel comfortable with - and she ends up losing Wallace on his 11th birthday. There is one saving grace though, and that's the "I love you" exchange that happens between Arizona and Callie after Arizona runs out on her own surprise party.
The tension continues for Cristina and Owen, and Cristina's obsession with performing a surgery finally takes hold of her when she goes against Owen's orders and performs in the OR. It leads to a big fight for the two (which according to Meredith means Owen loves Cristina), but causes Avery to take notice of Cristina. They share a kiss at Arizona's surprise party, but Cristina pushes him off, saying that she's "involved." Somehow, I don't think this is the end of Avery's little crush.
As if things couldn't get any worse for Alex with Izzie gone, he gets slammed with $200,000 worth of her medical bills. He takes his anger out on Reid, who finally admits to Avery that she has a crush on Alex. Alex sweetly cares for a baby he thinks is about to die, and manages to coddle her back to health (shirtless, no less). I loved the jokes about the softer side of Karev (specifically Derek asking if Karev is lactating yet), and was even more impressed with Reid's persistence, even as Alex continues to snap at her and complain about Izzie.

What'd you think of this week's episode? Are you excited for next week's Izzie return and Kim Raver introduction? How long before Karev and Reid finally get it on?