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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:30:23 -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.

The Wrestler
I said it in my list of must haves for April and I'll say it again: In addition to being a touching film with an astounding performance by Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler is one of those rare movies that a diverse group of adults can agree to see together. There's something for everyone, really: Action, romance, some tearjerking, etc.

The movie follows an aging professional wrestler with a ton of regrets. He tries to take control of his life, however, when he befriends an exotic dancer (Marisa Tomei) and attempts to make peace with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood).

In addition to earning all kinds of nominations during awards season, the movie contains one of my favorite scenes of the year. Special features include a featurette titled "Within the Ring: A No-Holds-Barred One-on-One With Wrestlers and Filmmakers" and music videos (presumably featuring Bruce Springsteen).

Two more up next, so read more.

Frost/Nixon
Director Ron Howard successfully adapts for the screen a Peter Morgan play (Morgan wrote the screenplay for this movie as well) that portrays President Nixon's infamous interview with journalist/TV personality David Frost.

The movie follows Frost (played by Michael Sheen, reprising his stage role) on his journey to get the disgraced former President (Frank Langella, who also originated the role on stage) on television to face questioning about his involvement in Watergate. It's a duel between two giant egos where only one can really win, and the filmmakers take creative liberties filling in the backstory to the famous historical event.

Special features include deleted scenes, "The Making of Frost/Nixon," footage from the real interview, and commentary with Director Ron Howard.

Notorious
Notorious is a biopic based on the life of rap legend Christopher Wallace, a.k.a Notorious B.I.G., who was killed in his early 20s in a drive-by shooting.

Newly discovered actor and hip hop artist Jamal Woolard delivers a standout debut performance as the rapper, and is surrounded by other strong performances of well-known personalities (dead and alive). Naturi Naughton plays the pint-sized, naughty girl Lil Kim and Derek Luke does a great job channeling Sean "Puffy" Combs, as does Anthony Mackie as the late Tupac Shakur.

Special features include commentary with director George Tillman Jr., co-screenwriter Reggie Rock Bythewood and co-screenwriter Cheo Hodari, as well as commentary with Biggie's mom Voletta Wallace, Biggie's co-manager Wayne Barrow, and Biggie's co-manager Mark Pitts.

Frost/Nixon: A Solid and Entertaining Talkathon

BuzzSugar — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:30:01 -0800

Doubt and Frost/Nixon have a lot in common: Both are stage-to-screen adaptations, both are receiving a lot of awards buzz, and neither has a particularly compelling visual story to tell. Instead, the drama lies in the words people are saying. I've heard both of these movies referred to as "grown-up" cinema, which is probably apt given that it takes a pretty mature attention span to fully appreciate them.

All this might sound a bit boring but Frost/Nixon actually ends up being just the opposite. Playwright/screenwriter Peter Morgan is proving to be an expert at lifting the curtain on some of history's most intriguing leaders and applying his imagination to the factual outlines of their lives (he also wrote The Queen and The Last King of Scotland). To see why I think Morgan - with the help of director Ron Howard - has created another smart and absorbing movie, read more.

Frost/Nixon revisits some familiar cinematic ground with Richard Nixon. The disgraced thirty-seventh President of the United States has come to symbolize so many things and is often regarded as a deeply flawed, morally-challenged, Machiavellian caricature of himself. That's fun stuff for dramatists! It's no wonder everyone from Oliver Stone to Gene Hackman has tackled the man. Heck, there's even a book called Nixon at the Movies. But Morgan, Howard and Co. tell a new story with this movie, a story of the president's post-resignation TV inquisition by the most unlikely journalist/TV personality.

Frost (played by Michael Sheen reprising his stage role) is the underdog in this scenario who will take numerous punches while interviewing President Nixon (Frank Langella, who also originated the role on stage). Langella's Nixon is giant and lumbering and doesn't bear all that much resemblance to the actual guy. The power of his performance lies in the way he conveys the complexities and emotions of a man who was practically kicked out of the White House.

Frost sets out to resuscitate his career by getting Nixon to sit down for a multi-session television interview with the metaphorical death blow being when he corners the president into giving the American people the confession of guilt he'd thus far avoided. Frost and his research team (played with humor and charm by Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, and the super cute Matthew Macfadyen) come up against all kinds of obstacles in between each sit-down - including getting someone to pay for and air the interview. Meanwhile, Nixon's intellect and question-dodging abilities prove to be formidable, giving this talkfest most of its nail-biting moments.

In retrospect it's amazing that so much talking between two men about familiar events can lend itself to such a natural dramatic arc. This is a well-matched duel between two giant egos. Both are in it for something but only one can triumph. Nixon is a tough beast to slay, but just when you think Frost is down, you can bet (as is the case in most movies based on a match like this) the little guy will eventually rally. All in all, it's a smart movie that manages to get your adrenaline pumping with lots of words.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures

Box Office: The Day the Earth Earned a Lot of Money

BuzzSugar — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:30:45 -0800

The Day the Earth Stood Still may not have been a critical hit but it is now officially a box office success, earning $31 million over the weekend and topping Four Christmases, which slid into second place. Twilight, Bolt, and Australia followed in third, fourth, and fifth places respectively.

Meanwhile, Variety is reporting that smaller, independent films "delivered one of the best weekends ever for the specialty box office." Movies like Doubt, The Reader and Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino all enjoyed strong debuts, while movies like Milk and Frost/Nixon continue to draw good sized audiences in theaters.

Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox

First Glance: Frost/Nixon – See It or Skip It?

PopSugarUK — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:00:00 -0700

Here's your first glance at Frost/Nixon, a movie depicting the series of television interviews between British TV stalwart Sir David Frost and President Nixon, after Watergate. The film will premiere at the London Film Festival in October, and will be released in UK cinemas in January 2009. It has a great cast including Sam Rockwell, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon and Matthew Macfadyen, and was directed by Ron Howard. It looks pretty fascinating to me, but I want to know what you think. Will you see it or skip it?

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Movie Preview: Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon

BuzzSugar — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:45:47 -0700

"There's a reason they called him Tricky Dick."

The international trailer for the new Ron Howard movie, Frost/Nixon, has arrived and from what I can tell it looks pretty amazing. Based on the well-received play of the same title by Peter Morgan (the same man who wrote the script for The Queen), the movie chronicles the true story of a series of televised interviews Nixon gave to British journalist David Frost in 1977. Both lead actors in the movie played the same roles on the stage: Frank Langella as Nixon and Michael Sheen as Frost.

This is a really good trailer and I'm trying to figure out what's so gripping. Obviously the story is an interesting one but it doesn't look like it's presented in an overly simplistic way, and I get the sense that the shades of grey that defined this moment in time are handled with care. Also, the cast looks stellar. Langella appears to be pulling off Nixon just fine, Sheen already has me pinned to my seat, and then throw in Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt and Rebecca Hall and I'm sold.

If you want to learn more about the play, check out this interesting clip of The Charlie Rose show. The movie opens December 5 (hopefully) and to check out the trailer for yourself, read more.

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Couples Night at the Opening of Frost / Nixon

PopSugar — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:04:26 -0700

Frost/Nixon, the historic play about interviews that took place between David Frost and Richard Nixon doesn't exactly seem very romantic but it definitely drew a coupley crowd. Claire Danes came out to the Broadway opening with her fairly new man Hugh Dancy and Kim Cattrall has seen better days but she still has a boy toy to keep her young at heart. Naomi and Liev are always at Broadway openings so it's no surprise that they made an appearance. Naomi doesn't seem to be showing as much as she was last week at the Tom Ford Boutique opening but it's probably just the dress. At least it looks like they are enjoying their nights out while they can!

For more pics including Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein and more just read more

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Images include Harvey Weinstein, Claire Danes, Hugh Dancy, Jane Krakowski, Kevin Spacey, Kim Cattrall and Alan Wyse, Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts, Sarah Ferguson, Sir David Frost and family

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Oscars 2009: The Nominations!

PopSugarUK — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:14:19 -0800

The nominations for the 81st Academy Awards have just been announced in Hollywood, with The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button heading up the nominees with thirteen nominations!

Slumdog Millionaire matched Doubt with ten nominations each, Kate Winslet has been nominated for Best Actress, and on the anniversary of Heath Ledger's death, he's been awarded a posthumous nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

So without further ado, check out all the nominees!

Best Picture -
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

To see the rest of the nominations, just read more

Best Actor -
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Actress -
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Best Director -
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant - Milk

Best Supporting Actress -
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Taraji P Henson - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin - Milk
Robert Downey Jr - Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon - Revolutionary Road

Best Foreign Language Film -
Revanch - Austria
The Class - France
The Baader Meinhof Complex - Germany
Departures - Japan
Waltz With Bashir - Israel

Best Animated Feature Film -
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Best Adapted Screenplay -
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Original Screenplay -
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Wall-E
In Bruges
Frozen River

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Sugar Bits – Ne-Yo's Number One

PopSugarUK — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:10:00 -0700

Ne-Yo has taken the number one spot in the singles chart from Coldplay. Chris Martin et al remain number one in the album charts. – BBC
Frost/Nixon has been chosen to open the London Film Festival this year. – Times
It's over for another year: The Verve closed the Glastonbury Festival last night. – NME
Sienna Miller is apparently dating Matthew Rhys's co-star in Brothers And Sisters, Balthazar Getty. – The Sun
Jerry Springer, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden made appearances in a school show for charity. – Daily Mail
Ben Kinsella, the brother of ex-Eastenders star Brooke, was fatally stabbed in London on Sunday. – BBC
More sad news: stunning 20 year old model Ruslana Korshunova has fallen to her death from a New York apartment building. It's thought she ended her own life. Our thoughts are with her friends and family, as well as the family and friends of Ben Kinsella. – Daily Mail

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Frost/Nixon Kicks Off The London Film Festival 2008!

PopSugarUK — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

A screening of new movie Frost/Nixon was the focus of the gala opening of the London Film Festival 2008 last night. The film is based upon Sir David Frost's interviews with US president Richard Nixon in 1977, and Sir David was one of the guests at the event last night, posing for photos with the actor who plays him in the Ron Howard-directed movie, Michael Sheen. Sir David said it had been a landmark moment in his life, interviewing this man who was "going towards his mea culpa", and Michael spoke about playing Sir David on the red carpet, explaining:

"David Frost is not a character... more of a way of life, so I started to get worried when I found it more enjoyable being him than I did being me. So now I'm starting to kind of de-Frost, come out of character and let it go."

Other stars of the movie, such as Frank Langella (who plays Nixon), Matthew Macfadyen, Kevin Bacon and Oliver Platt also helped celebrate the movie last night and kick off the film festival with a bang. A little glamour was provided to the boys' evening out by Keeley Hawes, who looked beautiful in her puffball dress.

Don't forget to enter our awesome film-related competition, and stay tuned for all the details and photos from the London Film Festival over the next two weeks.

To see more photos from last night's screening, just read more.

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16/10/08 London Film Festival Gala Opening - Frost/Nixon

PopSugarUK — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:29:58 -0700

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