I don’t care if you’re already sick of the blogosphere’s fawning, today is Ryan Gosling ‘s birthday and that is practically an internet holiday. (Not to mention an actual one. Shout out to the veterans out there.) And unlike you Gosling latecomers out there who jumped on the Baby Goose train after The Notebook , some of us have been faithful fans for almost two decades now, and that kind of lifelong dedication warrants an entire post full of internet videos, okay? So for all my fellow Goslingheads out there I’d like to take a trip back in time to when Baby Goose was not an actual baby, but a pre-pubescent star in the making. A bright shining star who loved that smooth, smooth ’90s R&B. Let’s rewind to his youth and ours. Let’s take it back to the Mickey Mouse Club . Because when I think Ryan Gosling, I think Jodeci: …and Boyz II Men: …and this sweet denim vest: … and answering Mouse Mail with JC Chasez: … and his hometown of Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, “the place where most of the stuff is happening”: … and his early flair for comedy: … and that one time he and Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake and Xtina passed notes in class: … and how he and Justin Timberlake should do a buddy comedy together now that they’re both hot Hollywood properties even though they never seem to hang out in public, and what’s up with that because weren’t they like totally MMC besties? But when it comes to that patented Gosling “Hey Girl” touch, let’s skip ahead a few years to the teenagers-on-a-boat series Breaker High to witness the Baby Goose’s effortless sigh-inducing charms. There’s no doubt about it: Gosling had “Hey girl” down to a science long before “Hey girl” became a thing. You’re welcome, world. If you need me I’ll be working on my art, AKA this . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
It is no surprise that Oliver Stone is an Obama supporter, but he is giving out equal criticism to both candidates for not discussing climate change in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which lashed the Northeast this week. Stone is promoting his documentary series The Untold History of the United States and a new book. “I was a little disappointed at the third debate when neither of them talked about climate control and the nature of the situation on Earth,” Stone said during an interview with the Huffington Post . “I think there’s kind of a weird statement coming right after … this is a punishment … Mother Nature cannot be ignored. That’s all I thought about.” Stone said that his Showtime documentary miniseries – which tracks the reasons behind the Cold War, President Harry Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan and changes in America’s role since the fall of Communism – has been one of the most arduous projects he’s undertaken, calling it “love work.” The series is accompanied by a book of the same title, co-written by Peter Kuznick, a history professor at American University. Stone spent $1 million of his own money on the $5 million project, which will be shown in ten episodes. “There’s this attitude that we ‘deserve’ to be in charge,” Stone said. “I don’t believe in that … We act as if we have this right of kingship — we act as tyrants.” “We learn the history of the victors,” added Kuznick. “We learn this triumphant version of history, that the United States is the shining city on the hill.” Stone said that The History of the United States may have once aired on PBS, but the public television network has become too scared to take it on. “They’re so politicized they can’t say anything – they’re scared of their own shadow,” he said adding, “”this Pro-American experience type stuff, where it has to be about America and America has to be the point of making the movie.” [ Source: Huffington Post ]
You’re a procrastinator. You waited until the last moment to figure out your Halloween costume, and now you need ideas, fast — preferably ones that will impress your fellow movie nerds. Fear not! Here are 9 easy-ish cinephile-ready costumes inspired by some of this year’s most memorable films… CLOUD ATLAS What do six interconnected characters in six time periods spanning from the 19th century Pacific to the future where Tom Hanks speaks the true-true have in common, despite wildly divergent costumes and fake noses and whatnot? THAT BIRTHMARK. Draw on your own Cloud Atlas comet mark of the Chosen One anywhere – your shoulder, the back of your head, your left butt cheek — and you’re set. The best part: You can literally look like anyone and it still works. Just whatever you do, do not attempt futuristic Asianface . PITCH PERFECT Here’s a group costume for you and 5-6 of your multi-culti friends: Dress campus casual and walk around in a pack all night singing pop songs a cappella and challenging random strangers to riff-offs while shouting Pitch Perfect -isms like “Aca-awesome!” SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS To channel Colin Farrell or any of his eccentric cast mates in Martin McDonagh ‘s madcap crime comedy, all you really need is one key accessory: A Shih Tzu. Carry the pooch around all night and you’re set. Bonus if you do it in a Christopher Walken accent . If you happen to resemble Tom Waits , a white bunny is a lot less costly to procure. THE MASTER Joaquin Phoenix ‘s hunched, feral Freddie Quell can be achieved with just the right attire, posture, and off-kilter touch of insanity. Start with a button-down shirt tucked into pants pulled up to an Ed Grimley-level and slouch your shoulders forward. Carry a few makeshift beakers and jars with you and wherever you go, mix a batch of your special potions from assorted household liquids while pacing and licking windows. And voila ! SKYFALL If you’re a dapper dan who happens to have a Tom Ford fitted suit pressed and hanging in the closet, Halloween’s a cinch: Dress to the nines, grab a Heineken, and spend the evening fixing your cufflink like a boss . PROMETHEUS Don’t have a futuristic space suit lying around the house? No worries, ladies. Strip down to a white bandeau bra and panties, spatter yourself with black creature goop and run around screaming as if there’s a giant space monster right behind you. Lug around a decapitated mannequin head for extra emphasis. You might be cold, but you’ll be the baddest lady in the universe. MAGIC MIKE Fellas can get in on the scantily-clad action too, although the women of the world may prefer it if you have Channing Tatum’s abs and sense of rhythm. Maybe a speedo-vest-cowboy hat combination, a la Matthew McConaughey? Or a g-string, for those who dare? Bring along a boombox and have Ginuwine’s “Pony” queued up. You might even make some cash in the process. THE COMEDY Don your trust-fund hipster polo and boat shoes and walk around making a joke of everything a la Tim Heidecker (of Tim and Eric fame) in the new pic The Comedy ; singing the infectious mantra “No no tip” will really tie the outfit together, although anyone who hasn’t yet seen the movie will just think you’re a giant douche. THE GREY Fish a dirty long-sleeved thermal out of the laundry, smear a few smudges of fake blood on your face, and tape broken minibar bottles to your fists and you’re prepped for action, Liam Neeson-style . Plus: You get to drink the contents of those minibar bottles first, and you’ll be ready for any wolves that may cross your path. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Having labeled the 1990 sci-fi Total Recall “ cheesy ,” it was only a matter of time before the makers of this summer’s lackluster Colin Farrell-starring remake had the tables turned on them by Paul Verhoeven , the original film’s director. And so, Friday at a sold-out screening of the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Verhoeven seized the opportunity for a little payback, a good-natured gleam in his eye. “Colin Farrell called it in an interview ‘kitschy,’” he declared with a smile. “So I dare to say that his version was not good.” Verhoeven revisited the making of the film over 22 years ago over the course of an hourlong Q&A, joined by screenwriters Ron Shusett, who first optioned Dick’s short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” and co-scripted Total Recall and Alien with the late Dan O’Bannon, and Gary Goldman, who came on to help flesh out a third act and penned many of the film’s memorable one-liners. The trio shared memories of the film’s long journey to the screen, the difficulty in adapting a writer as brilliant as Philip K. Dick, and the unique challenges and benefits of writing for a star like Schwarzenegger. Scroll down for these and more highlights from the evening, including Verhoeven’s favorite scene! Why he cast Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct ! The connection between Total Recall and Alien ! (Plus: an update on his Winter Queen adaptation, which was to star Milla Jovovich but, he says, “fell into the wrong hands.”) 1. VERHOEVEN ON THE TOTAL RECALL REMAKE “Arnold being there made the movie a little light, and I think that’s very important for these Philip Dick stories,” he said. “I think if it would have been done in a straight way, I’m not so sure that it would have worked – at least, not at that time. And recently [in the Total Recall remake], it did not. I get to say that because the producer of the new one said that this was cheesy or something. And Colin Farrell called it in an interview ‘kitschy.’ So I dare to say that his version was not good.” 2. THE LONG ROAD TO TOTAL RECALL A notoriously long and troubled development saw Total Recall nearly derailed many times, as Shusett recalled. “Sets were being built in Germany, in Australia, and Mexico City — all over the world — and being cancelled. At that time it was the most expensive movie ever made… it was cancelled so many times that when I asked if they would save it, they said the only way we could do this was if we called it Partial Recall .” Once Schwarzenegger signed on, he lent his star power to supporting collaborators behind the scenes. Shusett, who’d written and was producing the project, was nearly removed from the film until Schwarzenegger stepped in on his behalf; the actor also handpicked Verhoeven to direct, as the filmmaker remembered. “Arnold picked me,” said Verhoeven. “Arnold was after this project for a long time… they had started to shoot in Australia and then [Dino De Laurentiis’] company fell apart and went bankrupt. Then Arnold convinced Mario Kassar of Carolco to buy the script out of the bankruptcy. And at the same time he said to Mario, ‘I want Paul Verhoeven because I have seen RoboCop .'” Even with Verhoeven onboard, the script was missing a conclusion. “I felt that something had to happen in the third act that would also be also a little bit philosophical or ambiguous or something, but that was not there,” he said. “And I really got scared – there were like 40 drafts where it was not solved. I thought, it’s unsolvable! It can’t be done! But I had signed already.” 3. THE PHILIP K. DICK CHALLENGE “The other Philip Dick movies all failed for one reason,” declared Shusett. “He’s so brilliant with his set up, he paints you into a corner, he has no ending, there’s barely a second act, and if you don’t match his brilliance with a third act the audience is disappointed. You have to go to extreme length, talent and luck, and come up with an ending that’s worthy of his brilliant set up. That’s why it took six years to get a third act!” Verhoeven’s ambiguous ending leaves open both possibilities that Quaid is either experiencing real life or a fantasy. “I felt that it should be both. I thought in retrospect this is probably the first post-modern film,” said Verhoeven, adding that “the producer of the new one asked me [if it’s real or not]. I said no it’s both, and he said, ‘That’s nonsense.’” 4. SHARON STONE: FROM LORI TO BASIC INSTINCT “For me, casting Sharon was very handy because I started to realize during the shoot what she could do,” revealed Verhoeven. “There’s this beautiful moment when they kick the shit out of [Schwarzenegger] and Rachel [Ticotin] comes out of the elevator and starts shooting. Sharon is on the ground and looks at Arnold … and it was exactly these 5, 6 seconds that made me decide to take Sharon Stone for Basic Instinct . It was based on the fact that she could do that so fast and so believable and she is so mean and so nice and charming, one after the other, that I thought she would be perfect for Basic Instinct .” 5. THE REAL LIFE INSPIRATION FOR RICHTER’S DEATH As a child, Verhoeven played in an elevator that he briefly thought might cut off his legs as he dangled them over the side. He exorcised his lingering horror at the thought by condemning Michael Ironside’s Richter to death by elevator amputation. “I often think about it; I would have been without legs.” 6. VERHOEVEN’S FAVORITE SCENE “I came to the scene that is still one of my favorite scenes, the Dr. Edgemar scene with Roy Brocksmith, who comes to Arnold on Mars and says what we see in him, ‘You are not here.’ I thought that was such a fascinating scene to dare to do that, to say something to the audience that they have been looking at something that is completely not true, and then prove to them that it’s true again.” 7. PAUL VERHOEVEN’S CRUSADE , STARRING ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Verhoeven spoke fondly of Crusade , the famously never-produced period epic that would have reunited Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger in 1993. “We tried very hard when we were setting up The Crusades. The script was written by Walon Green, and we were supposed to shoot it then Carolco went into Chapter 11 and the movie was never made. Certainly Ridley Scott did Kingdom of Heaven but it was, again, with Arnold, a lighter version of The Crusades but very critical of the Christians.” 8. ABOUT WRITING FOR/DIRECTING ARNOLD… The Quaid character was originally written as an accountant, but that idea (not to mention the suggestion that he could pass as an everyman) went out the window when Schwarzenegger was cast. “It seemed completely ridiculous,” Verhoeven said. “We realized we had to give him a completely different job. Jackhammer worker. We adapted everything to Arnold because I felt that you could not go around Arnold!” “We wrote it like he was just an ordinary Joe, like Jeff Bridges, one of the earlier persons who was going to do it,” said Shusett. “And you don’t know he’s a super agent but Suddenly he’s believable – so he could be a nerd, and not. But we realized everybody knows Arnold’s going to be the real secret agent … but if you can get it made, it turns your mind around.” “In retrospect,” Verhoeven added, “I’m very happy that Arnold was forced upon me.” 9. TOTAL RECALL AND ALIEN Schusett took the audience back a few decades to tell the story of how Total Recall and Alien sprang from a moment of mutual writer’s block between him and Dan O’Bannon. “He said a lot of people want to be writers – he was very blunt and could cut you down in a minute, but he was always truthful,” Schusett laughed, remembering his initial meeting with O’Bannon. “‘Can you show me something you’ve written?’ I went home and gave him something I wrote, a spec script. He said, ‘You’re good – come on over, I have a proposition for you: I can help you finish this if you can help me finish this .’ And he pulled out this thing, he had 29 pages written. He said, ‘You can’t take it with you because I don’t know you and I don’t trust you yet, sit down here and read it.’ And I sat down and read it, and it was the first 29 pages of Alien . I said ‘This is brilliant.’ He said, ‘Yeah – and I’m stuck. What I see in you, I think you’ve got a good enough mind to help me make it work. So I’ll help you fix Total Recall and make it a reality, at least the script, and you help me fix Alien .’ And that day, both movies were born.” BONUS: THE WINTER QUEEN IS DEAD Verhoeven explained why the adaptation of Boris Akunin’s Russian novel he was producing is no longer happening. ” The Winter Queen fell into the wrong hands, so it will not be made,” he said. “I think the time might have passed for this kind of lightness that was in the movie – nowadays everything is so hard and serious. It would have been a very light adventure story at the end of the 19th century, Russians – I mean, played by Americans or English [laughs] but I don’t think that’s going to be made, no. I would have loved to do that five years ago.” Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The new Arrested Development installment starts filming this week, according to Deadline , more than six years after the beloved comedy was kicked off the air. We Bluth family loyalists have tried to keep the faith through the long years of false hope and thwarted movie speculation, and finally our patience has been rewarded. The Netflix series, which will set up an Arrested Development movie , has already done the heavy lifting of getting all of the actors, narrator-producer Ron Howard and series creator Mitch Hurwitz back in one place for at least part of the time. But that’s only one dealbreaker for fans. Here are nine more things the Arrested Development follow-up must include. 1. Getting back from Cabo Presumably Michael, George Michael and George, Sr. have spent the past six years hiding in Cabo from the rest of their family, establishing a Mexican arm of the Bluth banana stand empire while paying off the authorities to ignore their black-market cornballer business . But if they haven’t, we’d better see some explanation of how and why they decided to go back and how Michael got pulled back into his family’s drama. Perhaps this airport-set first look from the series’ start of filming, Tweeted by Jason Bateman himself, is a clue? First day. Away we go… http://t.co/ci8rXy78 — Jason Bateman (@batemanjason) August 07, 2012 2. Resolution for “Les Cousins Dangereux” When last we saw kissing cousins George Michael and Maeby, they had just discovered that her mother was adopted, making their forbidden flirtation almost OK. Then George Michael fled the country. Oh, and remember that time they accidentally got married? Here’s hoping those two crazy non-relatives finally make it work. 3. Incest is best George Michael and Maeby might be the show’s most palatable quasi-incestuous couple, but Arrested Development didn’t stop there with the inappropriately close family ties. Lucille’s relationship with “ Motherboy ” Buster was … codependent at best, even before Buster dated her friend, “Lucille 2.” And is it wrong that, ever since we found out that Lindsay was adopted, I’ve secretly kind of hoped that she and Michael end up together? But even putting the incest mostly aside, I’m hoping the new series follows Michael’s motto of … 4. “Family first.” My biggest hesitation with the Netflix series is that each episode will focus mostly on one character, “although some episodes may feature multiple characters,” Deadline reports. It’s understandable for casting and scheduling purposes, but the best parts of Arrested Development were watching the Bluths come together before tearing each other apart, over and over again. Even if it’s just two more yacht parties opening and closing the series, let’s hope that Hurwitz can get his scattered cast back in one place long enough to film a few good ensemble scenes. 5. George Bluth’s white-collar crime I am so very sad that the Bluth patriarch, ex-con and real-estate mogul for Saddam Hussein, was off the air during the financial crisis. Think of the missed opportunities for a Bluth Bank! I’ll be disappointed if George hasn’t bumbled into running at least one Ponzi scheme in the interim. 6. Tobias I don’t love the character, but the sexually confused never-nude was the vehicle for some of Arrested Development ’s funniest running gags. I can’t pick just one I want to see resurrected now — the denim cutoffs? “I just blue myself”? His life as an “analrapist”? At the very least, I’m hoping that recent current events and the Bluth family’s competitively-dysfunctional chicken dances come together for some quality Chick-fil-A jokes. 7. “The Final Countdown” Six years later, every time I hear the opening riff of this song in the background of sports event, I still expect to see GOB Bluth jump up on stage and screw up one of his “illusions.” You can’t not use “The Final Countdown” in any new Arrested Development project. That would be making a huge mistake. 8. All the guest stars Amy Poehler should be in everything, ever, and I hope she supports husband Will Arnett by reprising her role as GOB’s wife. But from Charlize Theron and Liza Minnelli to Carl Weathers and Judge Reinhold, Arrested Development always had the best roster of random guest stars, and I hope we see most of them again. 9. Inside-Hollywood baseball Arrested Development was never too worried about biting the hand that fed it, especially once Fox put it out to pasture, or wryly breaking the fourth wall to tell viewers about its chances for resurrection. (“HBO is not going to want us. What are we going to do now?” “Well, I think it’s Showtime.”) I expect lots more snarky industry in-jokes, up to and including … Bonus: “Next time, on Arrested Development .” Narrator Ron Howard always ended an Arrested Development episode by promising us more to come. Now the Netflix series takes us one step closer to the much-anticipated, long-delayed movie. By the time Howard records his final voiceover for the last Netflix episode’s coda, let’s hope he’s got even more concrete plans to share with us. Maria Aspan is a writer living in New York whose work has appeared in The New York Times , Reuters and American Banker . She Tweets and Tumbls . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
I went to see Prometheus over the weekend, and like many of you, I was disappointed (to put it lightly). Although a technical achievement in every way, the narrative and characters left much to be desired. The mystery I wanted solved was not the black goo or the Engineers — it was how the creative team of Ridley Scott , Damon Lindelof , and Jon Spaihts could produce a movie with such rudimentary mistakes . There have been casts of Scream movies with more intelligence than this lineup of characters. The connective tissue between the film’s big set pieces felt as if plucked from a Random Idea Generator program online; even the mythology was mucked up as the film dissolved into a by-the-book sci-fi thriller by the end. Baffled, I thought about the simple brilliance of 1979’s Alien . The 1970s were a fertile time for Hollywood. What we consider to be some of the greatest movies ever came from the “New Hollywood” era, including Scott’s Alien and works by the likes of Coppola, Kubrick, Altman, and more; these were directors who were the first wave of “film buffs” who emerged from university film programs having studied and loved the medium for years. They were awed and inspired by cinema, and introduced fresh technologies and darker and more subversive subject matter to wider audiences for the first time under a creative freedom Hollywood hasn’t allowed since. But all eras come to an end, and not every great director has a perfect score (except maybe Scorsese and Hitchcock). Even if Prometheus didn’t disappoint you, chances are one of these movies from nine New Hollywood filmmakers did. 9. Ridley Scott’s Hannibal (2001), Robin Hood (2010), and Prometheus (2012) There are two kinds of Ridley Scott camps: Those who think Scott is a middlebrow director with mediocre titles that appeal to AMPAS voters only, and those who believe Alien and Blade Runner constitute a lifetime pass. That’s not to say Scott isn’t an accomplished and respectable director even today. Prometheus is his most technically beautiful film in ages, and Matchstick Men and Kingdom of Heaven are underrated achievements. But let’s face it: Prometheus is a narrative mess, his Robin Hood was a bafflingly bland Russell Crowe vehicle that famously massacred a fabulous spec script that was intended to tell the Sheriff of Nottingham’s story, and… well, just watch Scott talk up Hannibal in this commentary track clip. — 8. Robert Altman’s Dr. T. and the Women (2000) Not inherently a bad movie, Altman’s Dr. T. and the Women is often delightful, but a bit too broad and soapy for the man behind MASH and Nashville . As an unconventional rom-com, Altman’s film retains much of the director’s trademark style, with charm and emphasis on character relationships over plot — obviously, since a magical tornado comes out of nowhere at the end to wipe slates clean. — 7. Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate (1999) From the director who brought you Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown comes The Ninth Gate , starring a subdued Johnny Depp, who seems perpetually in danger of getting hit by cars, and Emmanuelle Seigner, delivering roundhouse kicks to baddies and floating down staircases. Like Altman’s Dr. T. , this isn’t Polanski hitting an extreme low — he’s just not hitting any highs, either. The film’s production values go a long way to delivering an elegant yet creepy atmosphere, but the business of the horror-fantasy plot falls deeper and deeper into absurdity with generic thriller frights. — 6. Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars (2000) and The Black Dahlia (2006) You could also probably slide 1998’s Snake Eyes into this lineup to prove a point that, like Prometheus , no matter how technically capable you are as a visual director, sometimes the narratives just don’t measure up. Black Dahlia also carried the negative weight of bizarre miscasting (Hilary Swank, I’m looking at you), while Mission to Mars succumbs to shallow writing and absence of thrills. Snake Eyes , for what it’s worth, tries to cover up mediocrity and frustratingly silly webs of intrigue under an abundance of style and visual prowess. Movies are a sensory experience, and if what you’re hearing doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter if what you’re seeing is the most beautiful image ever shot. — 5. John Schlesinger’s The Next Best Thing (2000) This is the man who directed Midnight Cowboy , Sunday Bloody Sunday , and Marathon Man . Obviously we can chalk this one up to the Madonna poison she obviously secretes onto every set she steps foot on. Right? — Continued on page 2…
Stop. Collaborate and listen. Ice is back with a brand new invention. No, really! He is. Rob Van Winkle, who you know as ‘90s rap sensation Vanilla Ice, has a major role in this summer’s new Adam Sandler comedy That’s My Boy , in which he plays himself, Vanilla Ice. The set-up: Donny Berger (Sandler) became famous in the ‘80s for having an affair with his hot teacher. Donny knew Ice from the flash in the pan/has-been circuit, and goes back to hang out with Ice when he reunites with the grown son ( Andy Samberg ) he fathered. Winkle joined the stars of That’s My Boy at a press conference over the weekend, and he stole the panel right from Sandler and Samberg. He’s still dropping mad rhymes, and they’re full of wisdom from his 20 years of growing up and self-reflection on the Vanilla Ice days. We could all take a lesson from Vanilla Ice, so start with some of these. 1. No slippin’ on your pimpin’. “You keep your hustle tight and you never get caught slippin’ on your pimpin’,” Winkle said when the panel was asked how they deal with failures in their careers. Our takeaway is that he has not been slippin’ on his pimpin’, since Winkle keeps working, even on reality shows like Surreal Life and Celebrity Bull Riding . “If you get caught slippin’ on your pimpin’ you’re up sh*t creek without a paddle.” 2. Well, just in case you need that paddle… If you end up paddle-less in a creek, all is not lost. “Learn how to swim through the trenches and get to the other side and when you get there it’ll be paradise for you. I was in the trenches, trying to get to the other side. Sh*t creek, I found a paddle. [Sandler] helped me with the other paddle and here we are.” 3. Embrace the past. “We are who we are because of who we were, which I had to accept, and there’s a little truth to that,” Winkle said when we asked if he’s always thinking in deep wisdom and mad rhymes. 4. Look to the future. “Yesterday’s history, tomorrow is a mystery,” Winkle said when asked if this movie comeback could lead to a Cool As Ice 2. Not only would a Cool as Ice sequel be awesome, it’s also good advice in general. “Take it day by day, man. Get in where you fit in and enjoy the ride. You never know about it.” 5. These mad rhymes matter. These slogans kept the press laughing, but Winkle explained he truly uses them to get through life. “That’s one thing I’ve learned, I live off these little phrases. It’s not all jokes, but these little phrases, they’re more valuable than thousands of dollars worth of therapy to me. They make sense.” 6. Love yourself. “Be yourself, enjoy yourself,” was another one of Winkle’s life lessons. More specifically, find the place that’s right for you, whether it’s rapping or starring in an Adam Sandler movie. “I just get in where I fit in.” 7. Be happy. In a genre of music that can often spiral into anger and violence, positivity is important. “Show me a smile and I’ll show you one back. They’re contagious. So, it works for me. Stay positive, good things happen. Look where I’m at.” 8. Mind the company you keep. It also matters who you let in your life. The Sandler crew was good for Winkle, but be careful of your entourage. “Show me who your friends are and I’ll show you who you are. Karma, believe in it. It’s real. It comes back to you.” 9. Listen to your mother (and word to her!) Since the film is about an embarrassing parent, the panel was asked what they learned from their parents. Winkle shared his mother’s lesson. Maybe mad wisdom runs in the family. “My mom always told me, ‘Act smarter than you are. Always know where your exit is in case you get into too much trouble.’” To borrow from the immortal popular words of Mr. Van Winkle: If there was a problem, yo, he’ll solve it. That’s My Boy opens June 15.
As if you didn’t already have enough reason to be afraid of the coming megabudgeted cash-in that is Men in Black 3 , here comes the sequel’s poppy theme song, courtesy of rapper Pitbull and not franchise star/Fresh Prince Will Smith . Oh, it gets worse: “My 19-year-old daughter turned me on to Pitbull,” explained director Barry Sonnenfeld (via NME). “I’m thrilled that he wrote such a great song for our movie that totally gets it.” If this monstrosity “totally gets it,” we’re all screwed. Hit the jump to listen and find out why. Where do I even begin… How about by listing, in no particular order, the 9 worst, most idiotic and insufferable and insulting parts of this future hit single, which already inexplicably has 2,000 likes on Facebook and has virtually nothing to do with the movie itself? 1. The co-opting of Mickey & Sylvia’s “Love is Strange” AKA that song from Dirty Dancing that Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze crawled across the floor to which now sounds like that horrid Fatboy Slim “Brimful of Asha” remix. 2. Someone wrote these lyrics: “Excuse me, baby/Yeah, you baby/You’re groovy baby/let’s make a movie baby…” 3. Pitbull’s spoken intro , in which he claims to be “reporting live from Cape Canaveral.” YES OF COURSE YOU ARE. 4. ” Black suits, white shirts, black glasses with a matching tie/like Agent J or Agent K and I wish the whole world would… ” And aliens and dress socks and I wish the whole world would, too. You know. 5. ” I’m trying to make a billion out of fifteen cents. ” Oh, the crass commercialization of perverting an iconic rap line about desperate street hustling into a throwaway lyric in your blockbuster tie-in pop-rap ditty. It is hard to be legit and still pay your rent, isn’t it Pitbull? 6. ” Give credit where credit is due/ Know that I don’t give a number two . ” Worst. Line. Ever. You get credit for that for always. 7. At last, some words of truth: “To understand the future we have to go back in time…” Like to before I ever heard this song? Is that possible?? You see, in the movie Will Smith’s Agent J has to go back to the 1960s to save Agent K and, um, learn things. About the future. Clearly Pitbull was only given the Men in Black 3 synopsis to go off of while writing this. 8. Something something “Ray Charles.” Because why not? 9. ” Let’s save the world/Men in Black/I know y’all understand. ” Nope, I do not. At all. Sigh. Who else needs a palate cleanser? Here, this should suffice: “Back in Time” is credited to songwriters Armando C. Perez (Pitbull), Marc Kinchen, Adrian Trejo and Urales Vargas. Men in Black 3 is in theaters May 25. [via Coming Soon ]
The notorious embargo on David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has officially been lifted, and thus you can expect a frenzied film-culture commentariat to weigh in with raves, rumblings and other reactions all day. Things are no different here, where a few first impressions are making the rounds.
“They’ve given us a special dispensation… to have lung cancer.” So quipped director Bruce Robinson, joining Johnny Depp and the assembled cast of this weekend’s Hunter S. Thompson adaptation The Rum Diary for a late morning presser the other week at the swanky Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Things kicked things off, appropriately enough, with a cloud of cigar smoke that hung in the air like the ghost of Thompson himself — whom Robinson insisted was in the room, watching the entire proceedings.
