BuzzSugar

What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 06:30:25 -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. Also out this week: The Great Buck Howard, Monk: Season Seven, and Psych: Season Three.

Watchmen
Do you guys remember when it was all Watchmen hype, all the time? It seems like that went on forever and then finally the movie, based on the critically acclaimed comic book series by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore, hit theaters. And it was fun, especially for those of us who had read the book. Director Zack Snyder made a faithful adaptation, which has its benefits and drawbacks. Visually it is a feast for the eyes, especially the opening sequence, and I think it's definitely worth taking home if you didn't catch it on the big screen. The cast is pretty cool, too, and includes Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, and Patrick Wilson.

There are lots of DVD extras, like a director's cut of the film (186 minutes) on some versions, a featurette titled "The Phenomenon: The Comic That Changed Comics," and webisodes.

64%

Two more DVDS to check out if you read more.

Coraline
In my opinion, this stop-motion animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book is one of the better movies to hit theaters so far this year. It's clear that the filmmakers embarked on a painstakingly careful process to bring this strange and sometimes scary story to the big screen.

Dakota Fanning voices Coraline, a little girl who discovers an alternate version of her life - a way better and more interesting version. But when her "Other Mother" (voiced by Teri Hatcher) tries to keep her forever, Coraline must dig deep and tap into her bravery to get back home. It's immensely entertaining and I highly recommend adding this to your queue!

Special features include a featurette in which director and screenwriter Henry Selick and Coraline author Neil Gaiman take fans deeper into the intricacies of Coraline's worlds, deleted scenes, and a special making-of featurette.

88%

Pushing Daisies: Season Two
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm so bummed that ABC let this whimsical gem of a show go. Thankfully the DVD is out now so you can keep it with you forevermore. Pushing Daisies will live on in our DVD collections and our hearts!

Special features in this second season DVD set include "The Master Pie Maker" (a peek inside the mind of creator Bryan Fuller), "From Oven to Table" (bringing a script idea to life), "Secret Sweet Ingredients" (spotlight on composer Jim Dooley), and "Add a Little Magic" (a look at the show's visual effects).

What Movie Will You See in Theaters This Weekend?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:30:45 -0700

It's kind of a random time of year for movies, and I'm curious to see what audiences are in the mood for. This weekend has lots to offer, including a new animated feature, a horror flick, and some holdovers from previous weekends - including an Oscar winner.

So tell me: What, if any, movie will you see this weekend?

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Box Office: Nicolas Cage's Knowing Is No. 1

BuzzSugar — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 05:30:27 -0700

The special effects thriller Knowing handily won the box office over the weekend with an estimated $24.8 million. Meanwhile, Paul Rudd and Jason Segel's comedy I Love You, Man came in second place with an estimated $18 million, followed by Duplicity, starring Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, at No. 3.

Race to Witch Mountain slid to No. 4 after winning the top spot a week ago, while Watchmen continued its free-fall to the fifth spot, earning a total of $98.1 million since debuting three weeks ago.

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Box Office: Watchmen Gives Up Top Spot to Witch Mountain

BuzzSugar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:30:18 -0700

Last week Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter posted an open letter to fans asking them to buy more tickets to see his movie, warning that "if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again."

Well, it looks like his plea went unheeded as Watchmen slipped from the top spot, coming in at No. 2 behind Disney's family-friendly Race to Witch Mountain.

The Last House on the Left took the third spot, followed by Taken at No. 4 and Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail at No. 5.

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Box Office: Who's Watching the Watchmen? Everyone

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:30:46 -0700

Zack Snyder's long-awaited screen adaptation of Watchmen finally hit theaters over the weekend and scored the best opening of the year with an estimated $55.7 million. Apparently that's actually a bit of a disappointment to the studio which, according to Variety, "had hoped Watchmen would match, or even best, the $70.9 million domestic opening of Zack Snyder's previous film, 300, which bowed on the same weekend in 2007."

The rest of the top five at the box office was all mixed up with Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail coming in second place, followed by Taken in third, Slumdog Millionaire in fourth, and Paul Blart: Mall Cop in the fifth spot. Oh, Paul Blart. America just can't seem to quit you.

So what did you see over the weekend? Did you venture out into the world of Watchmen?

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Watchmen: Fun For Fans

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:30:33 -0800

It's obviously difficult to adapt a beloved written (and, in this case, drawn) work for the big screen - and it’s downright impossible to make an adaptation that satisfies every viewer (or certainly every megafan). I truly enjoyed reading the comic book series Watchmen by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore, and having seen the film adaptation, I don't dislike it. It's probably the best we could have asked for as far as adaptations go. And I know it's useless now to say that the work should never have been brought to film in the first place (though I do feel that way), so now that it has been made into a movie, is it any good? From a fan's perspective I say, sure, it's fine. But I don't have any other perspective to go by.

I have no idea how this movie comes across to someone who has never read the comic book series. I can't even pretend to be unbiased about this - as a fan, just seeing these characters come to life is incredibly exciting. But as a standalone movie, I can admit that it's probably not great. Essentially, it's made for the fanboys (and fangirls) and other viewers may not understand or like it. It's campy, sometimes resembling a silly soap opera, and truthfully I am hard-pressed to remember any distinct images or scenes from the movie, just a few days after seeing it. It's certainly temporary entertainment, and for some it may be frustrating to watch. For more about the movie and my take, read more.

The opening credits (which I got to see at Wondercon, awesomely) are perhaps my favorite part of the whole thing as we hear Bob Dylan's "The Times, They Are A-Changing" and go through a series of slow-motion images of what's been happening politically over the Cold War years, along with images depicting the rise and fall of masked vigilantes in the US. Originally revered as society's helpers, by the 1980s masked crime-fighters have become hated, and people want their good ol' police officers back protecting them. One "mask" is the dark outlaw Rorschach, who still wears a mask of ever-shifting ink blots over his face. Now in 1985 New York City, Rorschach notices that someone has been murdering former masked avengers one by one and he becomes determined to get to the bottom of it. Meanwhile, tensions between the US and the Soviet Union are reaching a boil and nuclear war seems imminent. The movie strings together several different stories of the various former crime-fighters while simultaneously increasing the threat of nuclear destruction within the US-Soviet conflict.

Director Zack Snyder is very faithful to the written work (though he makes some decisions to make certain scenes bigger or smaller, like a particular sex scene that seems to go on for approximately forever). So any real issues one has with the story of Watchmen or with the characters are probably issues with the source material itself and not so much with Snyder's adaptation. That said, even having read the series, the movie is way more violent than I thought it would be. At times it's that cartoonish violence that's easy to take, but some of the gore is startling. In movie form it's just gruesome.

Despite this faithfulness to the material, though, there's a weightiness and a complexity to the written work that doesn't quite come through, leaving many of the scenes to fall flat and empty. The written work is expansive and complicated and multilayered - to pare it all down to a storyline people can understand (even in the lengthy running time of approximately 162 minutes) is an insanely massive task to take on. And in attempting to do so, some parts of the book simply don’t translate well. Dr. Manhattan (a physicist who has an accident in his lab, resulting in his becoming an all-powerful blue, glowy giant being), for example, comes across as just silly and in fact, I found myself at times bored or annoyed with him. His scenes with Laurie are even more tiresome.

Perhaps unsurprisingly (but no less satisfyingly), the best moments come from Rorschach. Aside from being a fan favorite in general, Jackie Earle Haley does a marvelous job making us care about Rorschach and see him as a disturbed man with a strong sense of right and wrong. He's pitiable and a little bit frightening, too. It's easy to root for Rorschach; it's easy for the audience to want to be on his side. We know that he's a bit messed up but somehow all the more likable because of it. And the dark electricity Haley brings to the screen in each of his scenes sets the character of Rorschach apart from the rest.

And maybe I'm easily amused, but the ever-shifting mask he wears is unendingly cool to watch.

See, that's the thing. As a fan, I forgive so much. I don't know how to recommend this movie to the uninitiated - I have no idea what it looks like, or if it's worth the nearly three hours in a movie theater. But as a fan I was going to go anyway, and short of total disaster, I was probably always going to think what I think: that it's cool-looking and super satisfying to see these characters come to life.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Link Time! 3/5

BuzzSugar — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:30:27 -0800

The photo spread of comedic actors in Vanity Fair is sparking some discussion, from whether it's insulting that women go fully nude for the magazine while the men wear bodysuits, to why it's funny when men are "naked" but it's not funny when women are naked. - Jezebel and Popwatch
This reimagining of Watchmen as an '80s Saturday morning cartoon is genius. - The Onion AV Club
I kinda wish I were going to South by Southwest this year so I could see this movie, Sorry, Thanks (starring Wiley Wiggins from Dazed and Confused!). - Cinematical
Aw, I don't like it when Arcade Fire and the Flaming Lips fight! - Vulture
That's a wrap for Top Chef! Test your knowledge of the finale with this quiz. - YumSugar
Here's the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah song from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. - You Ain't No Picasso
Speaking of which, what NBC wants to know about Jimmy Fallon's early shows. - The TV Addict
Six reasons why Lie to Me might get canceled. - CliqueClack TV

Do You Buy Movie Tickets in Advance?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:30:46 -0800

I'm old enough to remember the days when buying tickets before a movie's release date meant getting in the car and going to the theater to purchase them. Which, in retrospect, seems really inconvenient. Sigh. I love the Internet.

Nowadays, the bigger the buzz around a movie the more people will rush to buy tickets in advance - especially with the convenience of getting tickets online. I have friends who bought their Watchmen tickets days ago, and apparently they're not alone. Fandango said that sales from advance tickets to the highly anticipated movie "represented 90% of its advance ticket sales for this weekend." Dang!

What do you think of buying tickets in advance? Seems like the thing to do to be absolutely sure you'll have a seat on opening day.

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BuzzSugar at WonderCon: Watchmen Takes the Stage!

BuzzSugar — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:30:07 -0800

Saturday at WonderCon started with a bang: Watchmen director Zack Snyder appeared before an extremely packed house along with his cast to reveal about 20 minutes of footage from the movie, including the opening credits.

The conversation was lively and the footage very exciting. Of course, I can't give my final opinion till I've seen the movie start to finish, but based on what I saw this weekend, it's hard for me to imagine this film stumbling too hard. I'm a huge fan of the graphic novel, so I may be a wee bit biased - though it's hard to tell if that would make me easier or harder on the film. I guess I'll know soon, but to see my thoughts on the panel and more details about the clips, read more.

The ballroom crowd went wild when, in addition to director Zack Snyder, most of the major cast members showed up on stage. They included Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Jackie Earle Haley, and Patrick Wilson.

After some chatting about the movie, Snyder announced he was showing us the first 20 minutes or so of the movie. The opening credits of Watchmen are astonishing and manage to cram in the history and back story of the movie's alternate reality, all set to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin."
We also got to see a scene of Rorschach (Haley) in prison that practically had the crowd on its feet by the end. I'll just say this: it's violent, it's kick-ass, and I think it's a taste at how satisfying seeing this graphic novel on the big screen could be.
A couple of funny moments: Morgan said that in approaching his role as The Comedian, he had to somehow make the character seem human in the midst of "killing, raping and pillaging throughout the world." Crudup said in order to make Dr. Manhattan seem distracted, he just thought of "walking on the surface of the sun and things like that."

If there's a sequel, it probably won't involve Snyder, who called such rumors "crazy talk" and added, "To me it seems impossible to even talk about. That's like a sequel to Moby Dick."
For the record, Snyder couldn't be cuter in person.
If the film does well it will almost certainly get a director's cut re-release this July. Currently, the movie is 2 hours and 43 minutes long, and the director's cut will be 3 hours and 10 minutes.
When talking about all the cuts Snyder had to make for the theatrical release, he mentioned the studio requesting less of two things: violence and Dr. Manhattan's blue, er, private areas.
Snyder also said that the companion story to the comic, Black Freighter, has been created as an animation and will be released on DVD a week after the movie hits theaters.
Dave Gibbons, the novel's illustrator, had nothing but kind words for the movie, saying "It's completely surreal" and "This is like the movie I saw in my head, and these are like the people I saw in my dreams."
Fun fact: Little Rorschach, whom we see in the opening credits, is played by Snyder's own son.

Buzz Book Club: The Conclusion of Watchmen

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:30:20 -0800

Hello, Buzz Book Club readers. I hope you enjoyed the end of Watchmen! I think it's an especially good idea to read the book before you see the movie in this case, because a huge part of the fun will be seeing how close the film gets to the look and feel of the artwork. But we'll talk about that more in a second.

First, here's a reminder of how the book club works: Every week I'll suggest chapters to complete by the next post (which, in this case, went up every Friday in February). In these weekly Book Club posts, I'll posit a few questions to prompt discussion in the comments section.

After the jump you'll find some questions that struck me as I read this section. And tune in next week for my March selection announcement.

To discuss the final section of Watchmen, in which we read from the start of chapter 10 through the end, read more.

Overall, the book got me thinking about the common themes of superhero works - and about heroes in general. After reading Watchmen, what do you think about heroes as symbols? Do we need them? Does Watchmen have a different effect on you than, say, a Superman or Iron Man story?
We don't learn much about Ozymandias until very late in the book. Do you think it's effective to hold his story back for so long? Do you think he's evil? Or just misguided?
Speaking of which, how do you feel about all of the characters by the end? Is Rorschach a noble martyr or someone whose views are too rigid to survive in society? What about Dan/Nite Owl?
The story is set in an alternate universe of 1985, with Nixon as president, and some of the political themes feel a little bit tied to that time. But overall, do you think it's still relevant today?
Do you think this book is "filmable" as a movie? What do you think the biggest challenges would be in adapting it for the screen?