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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 12:31:34 -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 these titles, you can now find the five-disc collector's edition of Blade Runner.

The Simpsons Movie
In case you missed one of the biggest movies of the summer, you can now enjoy The Simpsons Movie in your very own home. In the movie, one of TV's favorite bumbling dads accidentally contaminates Springfield's water supply, and the town is placed under a giant dome by the government. The Simpsons then need to figure out a way to save the day.

The extras feature an assortment of goodies, including audio commentary by various voice actors and the directors, extended and deleted scenes, and a collection of the promotional stuff they did to generate buzz for the summer release. One of these is Homer's guest monologue on The Tonight Show. Woo-hoo!

Two more titles, so read more.

Stardust
One of my December Must-Haves, Neil Gaiman's story Stardust is a fun and magical adventure. The extremely cute Charlie Cox stars as the lovestruck Tristan who promises the woman of his dreams (Sienna Miller) that he'll retrieve a fallen star for her. The star turns out to be Yvaine (Claire Danes), who is also being pursued by brothers competing to take over their father's throne and a witch (Michelle Pfeiffer) hoping to use Yvaine's heart to make her youthful. As Tristan and Yvaine elude their pursuers, they start to fall in love with each other.

The special features on this disc are your average blooper reel, making-of featurette and deleted scenes.

Once
An Irish musical, Once is one of this year's most acclaimed little movies. The film follows a blossoming relationship between a Dublin street musician ("Guy") and a migrant street hawker ("Girl") as they spend their first week together composing and recording music. Apparently, the actors themselves wrote the music they perform in the movie.

The DVD special features include audio commentary by the director and two main actors, a making-of featurette and a free musical download of the track "Falling Slowly."

BuzzSugar's Must-Haves for December

BuzzSugar — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:30:00 -0800

Welcome to BuzzSugar's monthly must-haves, where I show off a handful of the things I'm most looking forward to watching, buying, renting and reading. We're well into the holiday season now, so here are a few things I'm looking at to keep me happy and sane amid all the hustle and bustle.

To find out why "these are a few of my favorite things," read more

The Simpsons Movie - There was a ridiculous amount of anticipation for this summer's Simpsons Movie, and it certainly did not disappoint. Watch Springfield get encased in a giant dome - due to Homer's contamination of the water supply, of course - when The Simpsons Movie is released on DVD December 18.
Lost: Season Three - The third season of Lost started on a low note for me, then it took an excrutiatingly long hiatus before returning full-blast with some of the best Lost episodes ever (yeah, I said it). I simply must add this to my collection (so I can go back and pause it to find all the Easter eggs I missed first time around!) when the DVD set comes out December 11.
Kylie Minogue: X - Kylie Minogue's first post-cancer album X will be available stateside this month and I can't wait to take a listen. I already love her single "Two Hearts" and the sultry, vampy video to go along with it, so I have high hopes for the rest of the set.
Gods Behaving Badly - Even before this book was released, Ben Stiller snapped up the rights to turn it into a TV show. The book by British blogger Marie Phillips, which will be published Dec. 10, finds the 12 Greek gods living together in a London flat, eking out livings as dog walkers (Artemis) and TV psychics (Apollo). Reviews have been calling it a smart satire, and I can't wait to check it out for myself.
The Wire - The Complete Fourth Season - If you're counting down the days till the January premiere of the final season of The Wire, check out this set of the show's education-focused fourth season. Out Dec. 4, the DVD set includes all 13 episodes along with an hour-long behind-the-scenes documentary and six commentary tracks with creator David Simon and the show's cast and crew.
Stardust - Another of this summer's favorites, Stardust became an instant classic when I saw it. As fun, romantic and fantastical a tale as The Princess Bride, Stardust will have you swooning and cheering when it's released on DVD December 18.
Letters from Father Christmas - OK, so this one's hardly a new release, but it's perfect for the season. The book collects all the Christmas letters J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his children each year, beginning in the 1920s and lasting through 1943. Many of the letters are illustrated, while others chronicle the misadventures of Father Christmas' bumbling helper, North Polar Bear.

Stardust: A Grand Adventure

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:21:22 -0700

"This is the story of how Tristan becomes a man... To achieve it, he must win the heart of his one true love." From the beginning of Stardust, there is a distinct waft of The Princess Bride. The warm, old-man voice (Ian McKellan, of course) narrating the tale like a grandfather telling a bedtime story, the fantastical adventure dotted with romance and humor, and even the echoing words "his one true love" made me feel nostalgic for that magical love story of my youth.

As it happens, Stardust is a perfectly adequate Princess Bride-style tale, a bright and enthralling adventure with plenty of danger, magic and love. In the story, the aforementioned Tristan (played by the outrageously attractive Charlie Cox) is a lovestruck young man tasked with the challenge of bringing back a fallen star for the petulant, conceited object of his affections, Victoria (Sienna Miller). He meets the star, a luminescent woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes) who has landed near Tristan's sleepy village, and he determines to bring her to Victoria as proof of his adoration. That's just the tip of this fantasy iceberg, though, so read more

Meanwhile, there are others in hot pursuit of the fallen star. Lamia is (Michelle Pfeiffer) a cruel, vain witch who needs Yvaine's heart to remain young and beautiful. At the same time, the three living sons of Lord Stormhold (Peter O'Toole) seek out Yvaine in their competition to take over the throne. Together Tristan and Yvaine make their journey back to Victoria, with their followers close on their trail. They run into a supposedly cruel pirate captain (Robert DeNiro) who turns out to be quite a dandy, and a shady merchant (Ricky Gervais). During the scenes with the Lord Stormhold's living sons they are joined by the ghosts of their dead brothers, providing comedic relief in the form of a kind of haunting Greek chorus. In the end, Tristan must reexamine what it means to win the heart of his "one true love."

Of course, Stardust has some advantage over The Princess Bride when it comes to special effects helping to prop up such a fairy-tale land. The mystical world brings us candy-bright colors and video game visuals to breathlessly sweep us up in this adventure. Lamia looks at times like a statuesque testament to youth and beauty, all soft, golden hair and glittering eyes, and at other times like she was dug up from a deep grave. The performances are satisfying enough, though DeNiro makes for a very odd gay man. He seems like a straight person making fun of gay people by doing an extreme impression of what he assumes a gay man is like. I could have watched Charlie Cox for several more hours, however, so adorable are those soft brown eyes and that sweet manner.

The one annoying thing was a particular aspect of the ending, which I won't reveal here. It was as though everything could have been wrapped up quite nicely from the start if they'd just done one simple thing. It struck me as baffling, cheesy and ridiculous. I was somewhat surprised by it as well, having enjoyed the movie up until that point. Regardless of the ending, though, the movie is a splendid way to spend a couple hours in the starry, sparkly otherworld of Tristan and Yvaine.

Photos courtesy of Paramount

Do You Read the Book Before You See the Movie?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 04:30:00 -0700

I've been writing a lot about the book-to-movie adaptation of The Lovely Bones, and two other high-profile adaptations, Stardust and The Nanny Diaries, will be released this month. I always prefer to read the book half of an adaptation before I see its film counterpart, but sometimes that leads to ridiculous situations - for example, I still haven't seen Seabiscuit because I'm convinced I'll get around to the book someday. What about you?

Source and Source

BuzzSugar's Must-Haves for August

BuzzSugar — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:30:00 -0700

Welcome to the first installment of BuzzSugar's monthly must-haves, where I show off a handful of the things I'm most looking forward to watching, buying, renting and reading. Here are six goodies that I'm looking forward to in August:

To hear why these six things are at the top of my list, read more

"Friday Night Lights": The Complete First Season - one of my favorite new shows of the past TV season comes to DVD Aug. 28. The five-disc set is priced at an almost scandalous $29.99 - and many online retailers already have it for less.
Before the spooky-looking movie The Invasion (starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman) opens in theaters August 17, I'm definitely going to re-watch the 1978 zombie fright-fest on which it's based: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Just thinking about this film gives me goosebumps, so I hope the remake does the original justice. Be sure to check out the DVD's excellent commentary by director Philip Kaufman.
The New Pornographers: Challengers - This Canadian supergroup creates some of the most perfect power-pop tunes around, and I'm looking forward to strolling through the city on a late-summer day with their latest album (out Aug. 21) on my iPod.
Are you ready for the August 3 opening of The Bourne Ultimatum?! Well, with this 3-disc collection, you can say you were Bourne ready. I know that pun was hilarious, but it's time to focus: the special edition set includes both The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and a whole separate disc of extra materials.
Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight - My girl crush on Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis is well-documented, and it doesn't hurt that I've liked everything I've heard so far from the band's new album, out Aug. 21.
This month boasts two major movies that were based on books: Neil Gaiman's Stardust and The Nanny Diaries, co-written by Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus. If you haven't yet read these, check them out before Stardust opens August 10 and Diaries opens August 24 so you can see how the film versions stack up.

What Should I Ask Stardust Director Matthew Vaughn?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:15:00 -0700

The upcoming fantasy movie Stardust first caught my eye because of the stellar cast (Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, Peter O'Toole, Ricky Gervais, and many others), and because of the whimsical atmosphere conveyed in the trailer. Knowing it's based on a Neil Gaiman novel only makes me more interested in the movie, which opens August 10.

Having posted a few things about the movie, I know some of you are major Gaiman fans or are otherwise seriously anticipating the film. And now I might have the opportunity to interview Stardust director Matthew Vaughn - but aside from the obvious questions ("What was it like working with Michelle Pfeiffer/Robert DeNiro/Peter O'Toole/Ricky Gervais?"), I'm not sure what I should ask him. Help me out, Buzz readers: What are you most curious about with this project? What should I ask Matthew Vaughn?

Source

New Stardust Promos Online

BuzzSugar — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:40:35 -0700

I had no idea how much you loved Michelle Pfeiffer until so many of you chose her as your pick for a theoretical Ocean's Fourteenth. Well, the lovely, classy Michelle will be everywhere this summer between her appearances in Hairspray (opening July 20) and Stardust (opening August 10). For now, the Stardust website is featuring three new TV promos for the movie, each of which has a few more tidbits of sparkly magic.

I can't wait for this movie, what with its fantastical story, humorous wordplay and appealing special effects. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, you should watch that on the website, and then take a look at the TV spots. The third one is my personal favorite - in it we learn that one downside to playing with your magician friends is that they can make your chest droopy, just for kicks, at any time.

Which Summer Drama Are You Most Interested to See?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 03 May 2007 06:10:39 -0700

Yesterday I gave you a rundown of some of this summer's dramatic movies as Part 2 of my Summer Movie Preview. These films promise a lot of romance, death, a little violence and some salsa music. Some look better than others, though, so check out my list and tell me: Which summer drama are you excited to see?

Stardust photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Summer Movie Preview: So Much Drama

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 May 2007 05:02:07 -0700

Earlier this week I brought you glimpses of some of this summer's big-budget films and then asked you which one interested you most as the first part of my summer movie preview. Now, check out the dramatic films that promise to be most arresting.

A Mighty Heart
This story shocked and saddened me when it first appeared in the news, and while I'm not eager to relive that, A Mighty Heart seems more likely to be a tender homage to the memory of Daniel Pearl, which is important. Pearl was a journalist working in the Middle East in 2002 when he was kidnapped and ultimately beheaded, his murder recorded on videotape and sent around the Internet. A Mighty Heart chronicles his wife Mariane's (Angelina Jolie) desperate search for him when he goes missing. The film opens June 22.

Many more if you read more

Evening
This sentimental-looking drama features some of my favorite actresses: Toni Collette and Claire Danes. I can't help feeling happy when I watch Claire Danes, though I couldn't tell you why. Perhaps she'll always be Angela Chase to me. Anyway, in Evening she plays the younger version of a dying woman who reminisces to her daughters about her romantic past. The trailer is more intriguing than that description, however, so check it out before it hits theaters June 29.

Talk to Me
Wow - two actors I love and admire are in this true-story film: Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor. From the looks of the amazing trailer, Cheadle plays Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who takes over the radio airwaves - and the hearts of a city's people - during a time of social and political unrest. Yet again, Don Cheadle transforms completely into someone the world has not yet seen on screen. Start talking July 13.

Georgia Rule
This is the film that earned Lindsay Lohan reprimands from producer James Robinson for her excessive partying and unprofessional behavior. Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman are also in it. Lohan plays a rebellious girl who is forced to live with her rules-happy grandmother (Fonda). Watch the trailer before Georgia Rule opens next Friday, May 11.

I Know Who Killed Me
In other Lindsay Lohan movie news, I Know Who Killed Me comes out July 27 - and it's no Georgia Rule. Lohan plays a young woman who is kidnapped and brutalized and then returns home with an alternate personality.

Becoming Jane
Already released in the UK, Becoming Jane features Anne Hathaway in the role of Jane Austen. The story focuses on one of Austen's greatest romances - and one of her deepest heartaches. The movie's website includes the trailer, which looks delightful and sassy in the Jane Austen kind of way. Jane comes to America August 3.

No Reservations
This film may fall more fully into the "dramedy" category, as it has elements of a romantic comedy, yet the premise sounds really sad: Respected chef Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has to unexpectedly take in her niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin) after the death of Zoe's mother. The rom-com element comes in the form of the new guy at work/love interest Nick (Aaron Eckhart). The film opens July 27.

Bug
The stage play version of Bug is thoroughly creepy - and that's without special effects or jerky editing. Thinking of this in film version already has my skin crawling. Bug is a psychological thriller about an ex-military man who is slowly consumed by paranoia due to his belief that his body is bug-infested. See it May 25 with bug spray in hand.

El Cantante
I'm a little iffy about Jennifer Lopez as an actress, but maybe she'll surprise me with her magnificence in El Cantante. The movie follows real-life Latino singer Hector Lavoe (Marc Anthony) and his lady Puchi (Lopez) as they help to bring salsa music the U.S. in 1975. Watch the trailer and then see the film in theaters August 1.

Stardust
The story description for this fantasy-adventure is this: "In a countryside town bordering on a magical land, a young man makes a promise to his beloved that he'll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm."

The all-star cast includes Claire Danes, Ricky Gervais, Robert DeNiro, Sienna Miller and Michelle Pfeiffer who looks gorgeous (er, through most of the trailer anyway). Check out the highly entertaining trailer before Stardust opens August 10.

Check out the trailer:

Bug photo courtesy of Lionsgate
Stardust photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
No Reservations photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
A Mighty Heart photo courtesy of Paramount Vantage
I Know Who Killed Me photo source
Source for all other photos