BuzzSugar

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:30:50 -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 my picks below, you can also bring home the comedy Step Brothers today.

X-Files: I Want to Believe
Rejoice, X-Files fans: The most recent addition to the beloved sci-fi saga has arrived on DVD. The movie didn't receive stellar reviews but I don't think that will matter to those who are looking forward to seeing Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) get back on a case together. This mystery involves a missing FBI agent and a psychic priest (played by Billy Connolly). Amanda Peet also appears in the movie as a young agent.

Special features include audio commentary by show creators/movie collaborators Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, a special makeup effects featurette, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.

Two more good ones up next, so read more.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Is there anything more fun than curling up in a blanket with a Narnia movie and something yummy to sip on? I don't think so. I saw this in the theaters and while I had some nits to pick with it, it's hard not to succumb to the magic and whimsy of this favorite childhood book coming to life on the screen. Another pro for me? That the guy playing Prince Caspian, Ben Barnes, is way cuter than I even imagined the good prince to be.

Special features include audio commentary with director Andrew Adamson, bloopers, deleted scenes, and an in-depth look at the talking animals and walking trees that make up the magical world of Narnia.

Wanted
Wanted stars James McAvoy who plays poor, spineless Wesley, an accountant with major anxiety issues who meets Fox (Angelina Jolie), a hot lady who tells him his recently deceased father was actually a talented member of an assassins circle known as The Fraternity. The Fraternity's leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman) recruits Wesley into the ring to go after his father's murderer. What follows is a movie full of guns, blood, and bullets, all of which is now yours to take home to watch in the comfort of your own home.

Special features include extended scenes and a look at the making of the film's special effects.

Box Office: Hellboy and Friends Kick Box Office Butt

BuzzSugar — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:15:15 -0700

Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army won the weekend box office with an estimated $35.9 million, not only handily beating the current competition, but also surpassing the first Hellboy's opening weekend earnings ($23.2 million). Yippee! I'm happy for that ragtag group of superheroes.

On the other end of the spectrum was Meet Dave, which Variety described as "one of the worst opening grosses ever for an Eddie Murphy pic." The details are even more painful. Consider this: It cost $60 million to make Meet Dave and it only earned an estimated $5.3 million over the weekend. That's not a pretty picture.

Hancock remained a draw (fun aside: at the movie theater over the weekend, a group of young boys sped past me while one yelled, "Hurry up! I don't want to miss a single second of Hancock!"), coming in second place, followed by the 3-D action flick Journey to the Center of the Earth. Pixar's Wall-E came in at No. 4 followed by Wanted to round out the top five.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

Hancock Is a Box Office Superhero

BuzzSugar — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:30:27 -0700

A surprise to no one (but still a delight to me, since I find this Will Smith movie to be pretty fun), Hancock won the crown at the box office over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. According to Variety, the movie "is the eighth Smith film in a row to open at No. 1 domestically, as well as his fifth - and most successful - Fourth of July outing." It is also Smith's second-biggest opening after the record-breaking opening of I Am Legend in December. Over the long holiday weekend (5.5 days), Hancock raked in approximately $107.3 million.

So, in case anyone doubted it before, Will Smith = box office gold.

Elsewhere in the top five box office hits, Wall-E stepped into second place over the weekend, followed by Wanted and then Get Smart. Kung Fu Panda rounded out the group in fifth place. Kit Kittredge came in at No. 8, performing less well than studios had hoped.

Within the indie market, The Wackness did exceptionally well in its per-location average, and the Dr. Hunter S. Thompson documentary, Gonzo, also "enjoyed a solid debut."

Next weekend will bring us yet another movie deemed "male-skewing" by Variety: Hellboy II: The Golden Army (though I not-so-secretly cannot wait to see it!). Overall (with the exception of Wall-E), it looks like next weekend's top five at the box office will be pretty "male-skewing" (Hellboy II, Hancock, Wanted and Get Smart, with The Incredible Hulk still not too far behind).

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Box Office: Cuteness Will Always Triumph

BuzzSugar — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:30:12 -0700

The cutest robot to hit the screen in a long time, Wall-E, proved irresistible to audiences over the weekend, earning the top spot at the box office with an estimated $62.5 million. According to Variety, this is the third best opening for a Pixar film after The Incredibles ($70.5 million) and Finding Nemo ($70.2 million).

The Angelina Jolie-James McAvoy action flick Wanted nabbed the No. 2 spot with a respectable $51 million, and Get Smart stayed strong in the third spot earning $20 million over the weekend.

While most had adorable robots on the brain this weekend, some were still looking for some big panda fun and kept Kung Fu Panda going strong at No. 4, beating The Incredible Hulk which landed in the fifth spot.

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Wanted: Overflowing With Blood, Bullets, Testosterone

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:36:31 -0700

A few things Wanted is not: quiet or steadily shot. It's also not all that enjoyable. But then again, I'm surely not the target audience for this film. Watching the early trailers for the movie I was initially intrigued by the visuals - the way you can see every shard of glass as someone leaps out a window, for example. But the repetition of the same old thing - no matter how cool at first - gets tiresome, as is the case with the visuals (and the gratuitous violence) in Wanted. Often set to loud, racing music (or loud, brooding music), much of the movie would be better used in 3-minute segments on MTV (or whichever channel actually plays music videos).

James McAvoy plays poor, spineless Wesley, an accountant with major anxiety issues who is full of self-loathing, perhaps due to being walked over all the time. His boss is a heinously abusive woman, his coworker is sleeping with his girlfriend (who's also heinously abusive), and he just lets it all happen to him. Then he meets Fox (Angelina Jolie), a hot lady who tells him his heretofore absent father was actually a talented member of an assassins circle known as The Fraternity and was recently killed by a rogue member of the group. The Fraternity's leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman) recruits Wesley into the ring because Wesley has special assassin abilities and they need him to go after his father's murderer. What follows is a story of the unlikely pipsqueak "everyman" becoming an action hero by being as violent as possible. For more on this, read more.

The bottom line of the mostly weak story is that men can't be happy or in control of their lives unless they are violent. True, in this case Wesley doesn't even remotely stand up for himself in the beginning, and people should try not to be doormats. But Wesley learning to toughen up and be a man means getting horribly beaten (though nothing a warm, magical bath can't cure!) and then learning how to brutalize and kill others without that pesky conscience weighing in. And not that it's unusual in this genre, but women are barely included - oh, except for the smoking Hottie McFierce whose name in this case hilariously says it all (Fox) and who exists to slither around killing people and somehow beating Wesley to a pulp with her matchstick arms.

The gore is, I guess, supposed to be so preposterous that it's almost funny, which has been known to happen, like in Shoot 'Em Up. Or perhaps it's meant to be stylistic, in the vein of Kill Bill. But there's something insanely off about the violence in this movie, as though it means not just to entertain but to provoke people to be violent themselves. It's so sexy! Look how hot Angelina Jolie is! Don't you want to be like Angelina Jolie, or be the kind of guy who gets Angelina Jolie to respect him? Being a man - being a strong person in general - is achieved only through violence and aggression, and the visuals, the music, the pumping adrenaline coursing through James McAvoy make it all appear seductive, easy, and fun.

Oh, and we get to watch rats full of peanut butter explode. Yeah. Rats full of peanut butter.

I would say it's not slow-moving because the story clips along swiftly, but director Timur Bekmambetov seems extraordinarily obsessed with slow-motion, and the movie is probably about 20 minutes total if all those slowed-down moments of brutality and bullets slicing through air were run at normal speed. In truth, Wanted is pretty long for what it is: a testosterone-fueled bloodbath with a cute protagonist.

Source

Buzz News Roundup, 12/7

BuzzSugar — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:33:35 -0800

The James McAvoy-Angelina Jolie action flick Wanted has moved release dates from March to June 27, writes ComingSoon.
Johnny Depp will star in a Depression-era crime drama titled Public Enemies, Variety reports.
Some scheduling notes: Fox has renewed Don't Forget the Lyrics, writes Zap2it; Medium is headed to Monday nights, according to Variety; and The Futon Critic says ABC will start airing a tournament-style game show called The Duel.
A group of documentary directors will team up to make a documentary based on the bestselling book Freakonomics, writes Variety.
According to Hollywood Reporter, Zach Gilford will star opposite Alexis Bledel in the comedy The Post-Grad Survival Guide.
Reuters has the news that Michelle Williams will play the wife of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Scorsese's film Shutter Island.
ComingSoon reports that five more actors have joined the cast of Judd Apatow's next comedy Year One, including David Cross and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
Want Reba McEntire's Valentine's Day album? You'll have to buy it at Hallmark, Billboard reports.
Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson will star together in a wedding-themed comedy Bride Wars, according to Zap2It.

Source

Rewind: This Week's Buzz

BuzzSugar — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 07:00:00 -0700

How well do you remember My So-Called Life? Take my quiz and find out. Also, you can now purchase the series on DVD. I've got some old clips from the show to remind you of its angsty awesomeness.
American Gangster is an excellent film, and the music in it is great. You can get a taste of the soundtrack here.
October is over, but you can still go back and check out all my Breast Cancer Awareness Month posts. Then check out what I simply must have this November.
I know you could never truly choose, but if you absolutely had to, who do you like better, Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?
I've got some highlights from the Office convention! Also, there's talk of an Office spin-off. Do you think that's a good idea or a bad idea?
Check out Blake Lewis' new song "Break Anotha." It's actually... not too bad.
NBC's green-themed week of programming will take place next week, November 4-10. Here's what this means for all your favorite NBC shows.
Trailers to check out this week: James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie in Wanted, Katie Holmes, Queen Latifah and Diane Keaton in Mad Money.
If you could recast Who's the Boss with new actors, who would you pick?

Movie Preview: Wanted

BuzzSugar — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:34:51 -0700

Just this week we got ahold of some stills from the James McAvoy/Angelina Jolie/Morgan Freeman action movie Wanted, and now there's a full-length trailer to go along with them. If nothing else, this movie is impeccably cast. Angelina does her usual catlike sexy action star thing while Morgan Freeman is all-knowing and no-nonsense. James McAvoy looks good (as usual) playing the inexperienced guy who becomes an unlikely assassin, following in his father's footsteps.

The trailer is visually awesome, and I like that Freeman provides dramatic voiceover
as we watch Wesley (McAvoy) get schooled in the ways of this "fraternity of assassins." Wanted opens March 28, 2008. To check out the trailer, read more

Wanted - Trailer
Uploaded by Jinx-fr

Source

Photos Pop Up for Wanted, Starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy

BuzzSugar — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:56:50 -0700

It doesn't open until March 28, 2008 but the new photo stills from the film Wanted have piqued my interest in the film in a big way. In particular, I'm talking about this crazy image with the shattering glass and David O'Hara's face which I find to be awful and completely mesmerizing all at once.

The stills are from Empire and they feature some pretty great - and greatly attractive - actors, like James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. The movie follows Wesley (McAvoy) who finds out his father is an assassin. Then, "when his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father's old organization and trained by a man named Sloan (Freeman) to follow in his dad's footsteps."

To check out the rest of the images from Wanted, read more

View 5 Photos ›

Jolie Staying Busy With Wanted

BuzzSugar — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:58:53 -0700

Just last week, Angelina Jolie said she wanted to spend some time as a stay-at-home mom with her ever-expanding brood. But it seems turning down movie roles is not her strong suit. After signing on for Clint Eastwood's next movie, The Changeling, which begins shooting this Fall, the actress has also agreed to star in Wanted, an action film based on a graphic novel.

The movie, which begins shooting in Eastern Europe in May, also stars James McAvoy (Last King of Scotland) and Morgan Freeman and will be directed by Kazakh filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov. According to Variety:

McAvoy will play a young man who discovers his father is an assassin, only to learn shortly thereafter that his dad has been murdered. The youth is drafted to follow in his father's footsteps. Jolie will play an assassin who teaches the ropes to the wannabe killer.

Script was originated by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, and Jolie took the role after a rewrite by Dean Georgaris ("Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life") to tailor the character for her.

Well, I guess if a role is written just for you, it's tough to turn it down. And I guess if the Jolie-Pitts really want to adopt an entire soccer team, they're gonna need a little extra cash. At the very least, the movie sounds pretty cool, don't you think?

Source