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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.

Box Office: Simpsons Rake In Lots of D'Oh

BuzzSugar — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:30:00 -0700

Looks like Bart, Homer, Marge and the gang aren't just small-screen superstars anymore. The Simpsons Movie pulled in an estimated $71.8 million - the third-highest opening ever for an animated movie, behind only the two latest installments of the Shrek series - to run away with the weekend box office title. According to the Hollywood Reporter, that's well above the industry's highest expectations. Springfield must be so proud.

The cartoon family bumped I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry down to the No. 2 spot with about $19 million in sales. Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix stayed strong at No. 3 with $17 million and is now on pace to become the highest-grossing film franchise in worldwide box office history, topping Star Wars and the James Bond movies. Hairspray, meanwhile, grabbed another $15.5 million to capture the No. 4 spot.

Pleasant surprise No Reservations edged out Transformers for No. 5 with about $11.7 million (Transformers brought in $11.5 million). The weekend's other much-discussed new release, the Lindsay Lohan film I Know Who Killed Me, sneaked into the top 10, bringing in $3.4 million to finish at No. 9.

The Simpsons might not want to get too comfy on that couch atop the box office rankings, though. Next weekend, a man named Jason Bourne is coming to town.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

No Reservations: A Pleasant Surprise

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:30:00 -0700

In No Reservations, Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Kate, a hard-headed, controlling chef who refuses to let people into her heart. Going into the screening for No Reservations, I felt a little bit like Kate - prematurely wary that this movie would leave me feeling burned, so to speak. To my astonishment, it wormed its way into my heart by the end, gentle and sweet as a raspberry sorbet.

The sentimental drama (which is a remake of the German film Mostly Martha) begins with Kate talking to her therapist - about food. She's been ordered to see a therapist by her boss, the no-nonsense (but exceedingly accommodating with customers) restaurant manager Paula (Patricia Clarkson). As the story unfolds, we sporadically attend therapy along with Kate, who gradually opens up to her therapist. Structuring the story around these visits is a seemingly simplistic device that works exceptionally well to make the audience feel safe and satisfied. This way, there's a definite progression we can make with Kate as she begins to trust her therapist - along with herself. Yet therapy isn't the only aspect to this movie, so read more

Early in the movie Kate's sister Christine dies suddenly and Kate's niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin, who is so honest and adorable it just breaks your heart in half) is left in her care. Meanwhile, to Kate's deep dismay, a handsome new sous chef named Nick (Aaron Eckhart) is hired at the restaurant. Yet before long, Nick's infectious joie de vivre takes hold of everyone - even little Zoe, who seems to blossom in his presence.

As the story continues, Kate's icy resolve starts to melt, but the predictable trap of characters too easily changing to resolve the story's conflicts doesn't ensnare these characters, refreshingly. Kate, while tender and more patient in the end, is still Kate and still has a lot to learn about Zoe and about being a parent. Aaron Eckhart is ridiculously endearing as Nick, his character a little on the one-dimensional side, but down-to-earth enough to leave viewers wholeheartedly rooting for him to succeed with Kate.

With the exception of some montages full of contrived "bonding" images (Nick, Kate and Zoe riding a three-seater bike, for starters), the tender relationship between a grieving child and her overwhelmed aunt resounds with surprising truthfulness. Every trite, overused moment or line is tempered by the honesty of their relationship. I had plenty of reservations about this movie from watching the misleading trailer, but now that I've seen it, take my advice and don't hold back from seeing No Reservations. And if you're hungry afterward, Yum can show you how to make Kate's famous scallops with saffron sauce.

Movie Preview: No Reservations

BuzzSugar — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 08:36:42 -0700

In No Reservations, Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Kate, a perfectionistic chef who becomes responsible for her young niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin) after Zoe's mother tragically dies. Meanwhile, a hot new sous chef (Aaron Eckhart) starts to move in on Kate's territory and, I'm assuming, her heart. YumSugar, PartySugar and I are going to see this together this week, so here's hoping we don't end up gagging on the massive amounts of cheese this movie seems to be serving up (i.e. "I wish there was a cookbook for life!"). Check back for my review this Friday July 27 when the movie opens, and in the meantime you can check out the trailer if you read more

Source

Separated at Birth: Revolutionary Road vs. Reservation Road

BuzzSugar — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:21:30 -0700

There has been much buzz surrounding the project that is bringing Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet back together for the first time since Titanic, a family drama based on a 1961 novel titled Revolutionary Road. Yet there's another movie that comes out this fall with a similar title which is also set in suburban Connecticut! Titled Reservation Road and also based on a novel, the thriller can easily be confused with Revolutionary Road, so I've devised a handy-dandy chart to help keep them straight:

Title	Original Author and Publication Date	Setting	Premise	Road Significance	Stars	Release Date
Revolutionary Road	Richard Yates, December 1961	Mid-1950s suburban Connecticut	Young parents April and Frank Wheeler struggle with the confines of suburban life and the repressive social atmosphere.	Revolutionary Road is where the Wheelers live.	Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon	Fall/Winter 2008
Reservation Road	John Burnham Schwartz, October 1999	Modern-day suburban Connecticut	The story revolves around one grieving father’s hunt for his son’s killer while another father begins to drown in his own guilt.	Reservation Road is the site of the boy’s death.	Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connolly, Mira Sorvino, Elle Fanning	October 19, 2007

I've read both books and they're each worthy of a read before the film versions hit theaters. Between the two, however, I'd more recommend Revolutionary Road for its rich writing, depth and startling peek into the private life of a 20-something couple during a fascinating bygone era (the 1950s). Reservation Road is also a terrific read as a gripping, poignant page-turner. Both are roads you should wander down.

First Look: Reservation Road

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:18:19 -0700

After outlining the differences between Reservation Road and Revolutionary Road yesterday, you should be all set and ready to watch this trailer for the one of the road-themed movies coming out this fall: Reservation Road. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Mira Sorvino and Jennifer Connolly, Reservation Road is a quiet thriller set in suburban Connecticut.

After his son is killed by a hit-and-run accident, Ethan (Phoenix) goes on a manhunt to find the person who was behind the wheel. Little does he know that the person he's sniffing out lives in the same town and has a young son himself. Trying to come to terms with the incident, Dwight (Ruffalo) falls down a spiral of guilt while Ethan gets closer and closer to sniffing out his son's killer.

The book reads like a creepy, heart-wrenching film, so it should be fairly simple to adapt for screen, though the trailer leaves much to be desired. The movie opens October 19, so to watch the preview, read more

Source

Reservation Road: So Much Potential, Yet Boring

Molly — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:35:33 -0700

Note: Another one from me. I'm on a roll today.

Ever since I read the book Reservation Road a few years back, I thought it would make an excellent movie. I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw the cast - Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Connelly (and personal favorite, Elle Fanning). Unfortunately, I walked out of the theater disappointed. Not because it didn't live up to the book (really, what does?), but because it just wasn't particularly great.

The premise of the story is simple: Ethan and Grace Learner (Joaquin and Jennifer) are driving home on a windy local road on a mid-October evening with their two children. They stop for gas and when their son jumps out to release his caught fireflies, he is killed in a hit and run. Driving the car is Dwight Arno (Mark) who is rushing his young son back to his mother after a Red Sox game. After he hits the boy, which wakes up his sleeping son, he pauses. He makes eye contact for a second with Ethan, and then makes the split second decision to drive away and tell his son they just hit a log. It's an intense opening for the movie - and it's well done. The emotions are all there for the first 20 minutes. Ethan's sadness contrasted with Dwight's huge moral and ethical dilemma. Sadly, the movie cannot sustain the level of intensity they reach in the beginning. Not even close. To read the rest of my review just read more

From there, the movie sets up a series of coincidences that bring these two men together. Ethan's daughter Emma (Elle) takes piano lessons from Dwight's ex-wife (Sorvino). Ethan hires Dwight as the lawyer dealing with the case of his son's death. All of this seems to be leading up to some huge dramatic climax, or realization, or showdown, but the film lags too much for the viewer to even care all that much about what is coming next.

Joaquin, who always seems to be wrestling his own demons, plays the broken grieving father well, right down to the unhealthy obsession with finding his son's killer. I could have done without the internet chat room aspect, but I guess that was part of what was added as they adapted the movie to take place in 2004. Speaking of that recentering, here's a slightly off-topic but good example as to how this movie missed the boat regarding emotion: The movie takes place as the Red Sox were making their historic World Series run, and Dwight and his son are supposed to be avid fans. Yet, at no point are they at all excited. In fact, it seems so thrilling it might just put them to sleep. It's a bit nitpicky, I know, but it's indicative of the larger problem with the movie. There's just not enough feeling.

Jennifer Connelly is convincing as the mourning mother, but then again we all know that she can play sad like the best of 'em. In fact, that's pretty much her calling card these days. It breaks my heart a little bit to say, but the weak link in the cast was Mark Ruffalo. As endearing as he is, I'm not sure that he has the chops (or maybe this just isn't the right role) to play a character so amazingly burdened by his own guilt that he has a hard time functioning.

None of this is to say that it's a bad movie. It's a perfectly adequate movie, but with the stellar cast and interesting story, it could have been so much more.

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:30:00 -0700

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 also rent Reservation Road (not to be confused with Revolutionary Road), and Leonardo DiCaprio's global warming warning, The 11th Hour.

There Will Be Blood
This April is a great month for renting DVDs because a new stellar, Oscar-nominated film seems to come out every week. Today's release is the stirring Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece, There Will Be Blood. The film is loosely based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! and follows the story of an ambitious oil man, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he becomes one of those famed self-made American magnates, a la William Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.

If you haven't heard by now that this film is both visually stunning and soul-stirring, and that Daniel Day-Lewis gives the Oscar-winning performance of the year, then you've had a very distracting year. I stuck this movie on my April must-haves list not only because of its classic story of greed vs. compassion, but also because Day-Lewis only seems to emerge to knock one out of the park every five years or so, which in Hollywood years can seem like a lifetime. You'll want to own this one to get you through to 2013 when he's had enough of shoe-making on the Italian Coast or something and decides to show the rest of those amateurs how it's done. Again.

For two more titles that couldn't be more different than each other, read more.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
2007 truly was the year of Judd Apatow, though admittedly this spoof on the musician biopic he co-wrote was probably his weakest submission. While it was hard to recommend paying theater prices for this film, it is a perfectly serviceable at-home rental.

Starring John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox, a rocker with secrets (shocker!), the film pokes fun at movies like Ray and Walk the Line and takes many prisoners, sparing neither Bob Dylan nor the Beatles (in a hilarious scene starring Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin Long, and Jason Schwartzman as the Fab Four). While it drags in some parts, Reilly is great in this role and the whole thing is more or less a good time.

Special features include deleted and extended scenes and featurettes titled, "The Music of Walk Hard", and "The Real Dewey Cox."

Lions for Lambs
First of all, the stars of this movie need to have a serious talk with the DVD cover-art people. How is it possible to airbrush Robert Redford so that he looks utterly unattractive? And that's one highly arched brow on Meryl Streep. Anyway, don't let the cover distract you from this serious meditation on the nature of current American politics.

While I realize many are turned off by movies about the current war in Iraq, I think this film, directed by Robert Redford, gives us a lot of food for thought. More talking than action, I thought this might have worked better as a play than a movie, but it's still a highly worthwhile watch. Most intriguing are the questions Redford brings up about young people who, he asserts, seem to feel disaffected amidst these turbulent times. All three performances are fine (Tom Cruise is particularly good as a smarmy congressman), but most importantly it gets you thinking and might spur on good debate.

Special features include audio commentary by Robert Redford and a making-of featurette.

TV Tonight: Nick Lachey Hosts The Sing-Off

BuzzSugar — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:30:25 -0800

I don't know about you guys, but I'm already finding a big gaping hole in my nightly schedule where my favorite shows used to be. Usually this time of year is reserved for watching holiday movies on TV and catching up on shows that are on hiatus, but I'm itching for something new - which is why I just might check out The Sing-Off tonight on NBC.

I know what you're thinking, and I wasn't that jazzed about the idea of the show right away either. I mean, first of all: Nick Lachey. Secondly, it just seems so obvious that NBC is trying to capitalize on the success of Glee. Then I watched the promos and remembered the reason why I fell in love with the gleeks in the first place - I can't resist a little a cappella singing and dancing, especially with a mix of music that covers classics and current hits (you can check out tonight's set list here).

Even if it won't replace Glee, The Sing-Off might be enough to make me forget about it for a week. The show airs tonight, Tuesday, and Wednesday, with the big finale on December 21st. Will you tune in?

To see a few promos, just read more.

Photo courtesy of NBC

Movie Preview: Tina Fey and Steve Carell in Date Night

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:30:01 -0800

I freaked out a little (OK a lot) when it was announced that Tina Fey and Steve Carell would play a married couple in the comedy Date Night. Well, the trailer is here, and I'm still enthusiastic about it - though I wasn't expecting it to be so action-adventure-y.

The movie revolves around a single night out for typically bored (but atypically hilarious) married couple Claire and Phil Foster. When they take another couple's dinner reservation, their romantic evening turns into an issue of mistaken identity, and they spend the night running from trouble. While I'm not thrilled by the setup, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in this first preview, including some amazing appearances from Mark Wahlberg and James Franco.

To check out the trailer, just read more.

Date Night comes out April 9, 2010.