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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:30:16 -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.

Smart People
I had high hopes for Smart People, mainly due to the stellar cast that includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Thomas Haden Church, and Dennis Quaid.

The story takes place near the Carnegie Mellon campus and centers around a family headed by a widowed professor (Quaid) who are all having a terrible time relating to each other and the outside world, despite how book smart they are. When the professor's free-spirited brother (Church) crashes into their lives they all start to thaw out a bit and discover how far a little humanity can go.

The movie didn't quite meet my expectations but it's certainly a worthwhile rental if you're looking for a few laughs and a genuinely talented ensemble cast.

Special features include interviews with the producers, cast and crew of the movie, commentary from the director and writer, a collection of outtakes, nine deleted scenes and exclusive footage from the premiere of Smart People at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Two more new options on DVD if you read more.

The Wire: Season Five
I still have not totally come to grips with the fact that this final season of The Wire was overlooked by Emmy voters. The show has spent years as one of the most consistently well reviewed shows on television, though its ratings were never high. Today the final piece of the puzzle, the show's fifth season, is out on DVD, and marks the final chapter of David Simon's epic saga about Baltimore with a critical look at the media.

The season got more criticism than most (maybe because the media had to see themselves, rather than police officers or teachers, through Simon's bleak lens), but that didn't make it any less satisfying for me. The 10 episodes wrap up many of the stories Simon and series co-creator Ed Burns had been working on for years, and even at the end, nothing about The Wire is ever too neat or tidy. Once again, the lines between good guys and bad guys end up blurred, and that's a big part of what makes the show so captivating.

Special features include "The Wire Odyssey: A Retrospective of the First Four Seasons," "The Wire: The Last Word - A Documentary Exploring the Role of the Media," and six audio commentaries with Simon and members of the cast and crew.

How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer
I just happened to read something yesterday about how difficult it is for studios to embrace and market smart movies that are for and about women, even after the huge success of Sex and the City. So, it's an interesting coincidence that an example of this phenomenon is out on DVD today. I hardly heard anything about this film, even though it received an 84% on RottenTomatoes and stars one of Hollywood's biggest young stars. What the heck?

Anyway, How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer is about three generations of Mexican women grappling with issues of romance and sexuality - at all stages of life. It looks compelling, thoughtful and relatable and I, for one, am stoked to see this. The movie stars America Ferrera, Elizabeth Peña, Lucy Gallardo, and Eliana Alexander and was screened in competition at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. (Yeah: 2005! Sheesh.)

Box Office: A Memorable Prom Weekend

BuzzSugar — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:30:38 -0700

Maybe it's that time of the year, or perhaps there was a strong nationwide desire to see a scary movie, but whatever the reason, horror flick Prom Night was crowned queen at the box office this weekend. Variety reports that the movie's $22.7 million marks the best opening for a horror picture so far this year, possibly due to the teen-friendly PG-13 rating.

Though Street Kings is loaded with bloodshed and big names like Forest Whitaker and Keanu Reeves, it was still no match for the teen screamfest, earning second place with an estimated $12 million. 21, on the other hand, is still performing well, taking the third spot with $11 million. It was followed by Nim's Island, Leatherheads, and Horton Hears a Who.

Little family comedy Smart People starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, and Dennis Quaid came in No. 7 earning about $4.2 million. The overall box office is still experiencing a slump compared to last year. I wonder if Forgetting Sarah Marshall will get more folks to the theaters next weekend?

And if you're curious about Prom Night, head over to movies.ivillage.com for the trailer and video clips.

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Smart People: Emotionally Unintelligent

BuzzSugar — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:30:08 -0700

Smart People has a lot of good stuff going for it: a great cast (including Ellen Page in the follow-up to her star-making Juno role), sharp and funny dialogue, and a studied look at familial dysfunction.

The movie takes place in a dreary Pittsburgh near the Carnegie Mellon campus and is centered around a family headed by a widowed professor given a name that could only go to a serious blow-hard: Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid). He is father to high school senior Vanessa (Page) and Carnegie Melon student/talented poet James. Lawrence, we quickly learn, also has an adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church), who's a major slacker and/or free spirit who comes to crash with the family when he's run out of money.

The story isn't the most original idea ever scripted, but if told right, it could have been a nice little movie about learning to love and appreciate the crazy nut-heads we're all dealt in life: our relatives. Unfortunately the loving and appreciating comes far too late and as a result, we end up watching a lot of seriously miserable people roam around being miserable without much point. To see what I think rescues this film from being a total Debbie Downer, read more.

The Wetherholds, save for Chuck, are, as the title suggests, extremely intelligent (in the "we wear tweed and get published in The New Yorker" kind of way) but completely emotionally withdrawn. It takes a new love interest (Sarah Jessica Parker) to begin to melt the ice around the professor's heart and the fun-loving uncle to get the family to reveal an ounce of humanity to the outside world. Thankfully, they're so darn smart that when they take verbal jabs at each other, they're witty and biting enough to make for some good laughs.

Page, in particular, plays her politically conservative, uptight character with the same smart-aleck timing as slacker-teen Juno MacGuff - so it's funny, but not an acting stretch. However, some of the best moments of this film come during her scenes with Church, who takes an interest in getting his stick-in-the-mud niece to loosen up a little. They smoke pot together, get drunk, and have some really wonderfully touching, offbeat moments of bonding that are the result of two fine actors bringing out the best in each other.

Quaid's character, on the other hand, is really quite repellent. He is withdrawn, shows zero interest in his students, takes his children for granted and is that guy who talks about himself for 45 minutes on a date without asking the woman a question. Why would any woman, much less an attractive, accomplished doctor, want to be with him?

Unfortunately, the professor doesn't begin to see the error of his ways until it's much too late and as a result, it's hard to care about him - and, by extension, his family. At least there is one character who found the Wetherholds' repressed, socially awkward personalities unpleasant and indulgent. As Chuck, Church mastered a facial expression during exchanges between these unhappy people that perfectly expressed what I as a viewer was thinking: "Man, and they call me the idiot?"

To see the trailer and more clips from Smart People check out movies.ivillage.com.

Photos courtesy of Miramax Films

BuzzSugar's Most Anticipated Spring Movies

BuzzSugar — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:30:00 -0800

The sunlight might be lasting longer and longer these days, but I'm still planning to spend time indoors at the movie theater this Spring. What is striking about the movies coming out this season is the variety: From quirky little indies that premiered at Sundance to highly anticipated blockbusters, you can check out the movies I'm most excited to view in the coming months by pressing "Start." Source

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Sundance Spotlight: Ellen Page, SJP in Smart People

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:30:19 -0800

I have been sulking ever since I couldn't into the premiere of Smart People at Sundance. The cast is fantastic and the buzz surrounding it has been good. The family dramedy stars Dennis Quaid as an acerbic widowed professor with some sassy kids (including Vanessa, played by Ellen Page) whose life gets complicated when he falls in love with his former student (Sarah Jessica Parker), and his adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church) re-enters his life.

After the jump there are a couple clips from the movie, featuring Ellen Page once again making wisecracks like someone beyond her years. I'm still sad that I didn't get to a screening for this one, but the clips help a little. To check them out, read more.

Vampire Diaries "Lost Girls": The Good, the Bad and the Bloody

BuzzSugar — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:30:36 -0700

The cat's outta the bag on this week's episode of The Vampire Diaries, but Elena isn't the only one who has a rude awakening. We also get to see the history on the lives of Stefan, Damon, and Katherine in the 1860s - and the story behind those olden-day photos.

As usual, I've picked the moments from this episode that stand out as the good, the bad, and the bloody, so to see them just (spoilers ahead!) read more.

The Good

Turns out Katherine is a triflin' friend, indeed. Not only is Stefan and Damon's first love as selfish as Stefan mentioned before, but she's actually the vampire who turns both brothers to the dark side - and against each other.
Speaking of turning people into vampires, Damon decides to give Vicki the blood transfusion of her life. Her transition is surprisingly emotional; she cries to Stefan that she remembers things now, and begs to go home. Sorry, Vick, home is not where you're headed.
One of my favorite scenes this week? The dance-like-no-one's-watching sequence for Damon and Vicki. (Except I was watching. And I loved it.) Their slow dance scene is actually pretty cute, too; until, well, Damon breaks Vicki's neck.
On second thought, maybe this Katherine was pretty smart. Living forever in a freaky threesome with Stefan and Damon? Sounds sexier than Big Love.

The Bad

Is it OK that I don't care that much about Elena dumping Stefan and being all heartbroken about it? There's just so much more excitement going on Mystic Falls than Elena finding out her potential boyfriend is a vampire. She's feeling excessively sorry for herself - it's so Bella in New Moon.
Speaking of which, the Twilight parallel gets a little too close for comfort this week with Stefan revealing his secret to Elena. In particular, the scene where he says he's been 17 since 1864 is such an echo of Twilight's "How long have you been 17?" " . . . A while" scene.

The Bloody

Um, let's briefly discuss Damon and Vicki sucking each other's blood from their wrists. It seems sexual, it feels weird. OK, that's enough.
Vampire hunting squad 0, vampires 1. After Logan shoots Stefan with a wooden bullet, Damon actually comes to the rescue for his brother. Even though he says it's because if anyone kills Stefan, it'll be him, there seems to be a little deep-seated loyalty in saving Stefan - something we glimpsed in the flashback sequence before they were undead.
Aw, Vicki's character actually made me like her this episode - the kicker was her sheepish "I'm sorry" after feeding on Logan.

Seriously, this was one of my favorite episodes so far because of the action and the flashbacks. What did you think?

Dying to talk even more about the show? Join the Hooked on Vampire Diaries in the community!

Photo courtesy of The CW

Angelina Jolie to Replace Tom Cruise in Edwin A. Salt

BuzzSugar — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:31:33 -0700

So, perhaps the name will just be Edwina Salt?
In a curious gender switch and swapping of big Hollywood names, the espionage thriller Edwin A. Salt will now feature Angelina Jolie in the starring role, as a replacement for Tom Cruise. Apparently, Jolie "took a liking" to the script.

Jolie: The extremely profitable action star.
Variety has more details on this change of events:

After Universal beefed up Jolie's role in Wanted and then marketed the action film squarely on Jolie's shoulders and watched it gross $132 million domestically, Jolie reestablished, in the wake of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, that she is the rare female who is viable in the action genre, which has been almost the exclusive domain of men.

Probably a smart move.
While I know not everyone loves Jolie, she didn't get quite as many comments as Tom Cruise did from people saying they would boycott any movie she's in. As for Cruise himself, he's rumored to be possibly starring in a comedy titled Food Fight, in which Cruise would play "a snooty New York chef who is forced to cook meals at a school cafeteria."

Source