The first trailer for the remake of another classic horror film — Stephen King’s Carrie — is out, and it’s looking anemic compared to the bloody and blood-curdling promotional campaign that Evil Dead has waged over the last several months. Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce is certainly capable of bringing something original to this story, but, based on the trailer, I don’t see it. The only new twist I detect appears to be that Carrie’s traumatic first encounter with menstruation is going to end up on the Internet thanks to a cell-phone wielding mean girl in the scene. The rest of the action in this clip appears to copy the plot of Brian De Palma’s original 1976 adaptation without upping the fright factor. There’s another factor to consider that a reader raised the last time I wrote about this movie : Even beneath a an awful haircut, Carrie star Chloe Grace Moretz’s beauty shines through, which makes it difficult to believe that she could be a weird pariah in high school. What do you think? Let me know in the comments section. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
I’ve never been much of an obituary-writing guy, but Roger Ebert deserves to be celebrated. So, rather than add to the hundreds of thousands of words that are about to be spent reexamining his remarkable life and career following his death today, I’m going to make one observation about his contribution to movie culture and then leave you with a clip that, I hope, will make you smile when you think of him. My introduction to Ebert, and his equally mouthy partner in movie criticism, Gene Siskel , came via their thoroughly enjoyable syndicated television show At The Movies , which began as a PBS series in 1975, Sneak Previews , and eventually became Siskel and Ebert and The Movies from 1986 until 1999. (The year Siskel died.) And though I’m quite aware that a) these guys were operating on television and b) blog culture was a long way off, there’s a real argument to be made that Siskel and Ebert are the real forefathers of the movie blog culture that exists today. Siskel and Ebert: Proto-Movie Bloggers Each week, they candidly curated a subjective list of movies that were opening that week. They told the television audience which films were worth seeing and why, which ones should be ignored, and which movies were worth actively seeking out at the video store if they weren’t shown at the local cinema. And, by the way, their thumbs up or down system of rating movies was the proto-Rotten Tomatoes . As Roadside Attractions tweeted on Thursday afternoon: “Siskel & Ebert almost single-thumbedly made Hoop Dreams a thing. If they’d never done anything else, they’d still be indie film legends.” Siskel and Ebert lavished attention on obscure movies; they taught their audience how to look at crowd pleasers with a critical eye, and they fought and bickered with each other in a way that made great television. Their TV show had all of the elements of a great blog: curation, information, perspective and entertainment. And they did it better than a lot of bloggers are doing it now. Rest in peace, Roger Ebert. You, too, Gene Siskel. This is how I’ll remember you: bickering brilliantly like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Siskel and Ebert At Each Other’s Throats Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Until today, I associated Huey Lewis’ name with two thoughts: 1) He was the musical artist behind some of the most annoying pop hits of the 1980s; and 2) he showed his penis in Robert Altman’s 1993 film Short Cuts . But now that I’ve seen him in this Funny or Die American Psycho parody clip, I’m seriously considering forgiving him for giving me a decade-long headache and adding him to my list of secret geniuses. The clip is a real mind-fuck: it’s satirizes a scene that satirized Lewis’ music in a movie that satirized 1980s commercialism and greed, and it also stars master parodist (and longtime secret genius) Weird Al Yankovic in the victim role originally played by Jared Leto . (I’ve included it below for the sake of comparison.) How’s that for meta? Lewis’ aping of Christian Bale’ s performance, while the original scene plays on a TV right next to him, is particularly impressive, and I love Yankovic’s crack about the newspapers covering the floor. And the coup de gras is that the clip is used to promote the back catalogs of both artists. The Funny or Die clip features “I Want A New Drug,” off Lewis’ most successful album, Sports , which turns 30 in September. That single spawned Yankovic’s “I Want A New Duck,” which was not one of his best, and, well, let’s just say he pays for his sins. I swear, you could build an New York University Tisch School of the Arts class around deconstructing this clip. The other secret genius involved in this enterprise: Funny or Die director/editor PatB , who also did the very funny “Oscar’s Best Handjob Award” video, which I’ve posted at the bottom. I hope there’s a feature in this guy’s future. WATCH: Huey Lewis Kills In American Psycho Parody WATCH: American Psycho : The Original Pat B: Oscar’s Best Handjob [ Funny or Die ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
With Fede Alvarez’s remake of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead about to hit theaters on Friday, it’s a good time to take the Hot Tub Time Machine back to 1979 when rotary dial phones were still common and the Oz The Great and Powerful director was just an aspiring filmmaker with an idea for a bloody and original horror film. Movies.com has unearthed Within The Woods ¬ to be confused with Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods — the 30-minute proof-of-concept short that Raimi used to raise money to produce his 1981 horror classic, The Evil Dead. Before you click play, make sure you’re in a receptive and patient mood. This clip looks like it was bootlegged from a pre-cable TV tuned in to a particularly weak UHF station. (Remember those?) But if you can get in the right frame of mind to watch it, it’s pretty cool to see Bruce Campbell looking bespectacled and nerdy (as opposed to the Vegas Elvis impersonator he’s become) and to witness Raimi’s early promise as a filmmaker. The scene where heroine Ellen Sandweiss uses Campbell’s severed hand, which holds a knife, to dispatch him is a nice touch, although the scene where she repeatedly slams a door on a friend who’s she’s accidentally stabbed veers into unintentional comedy. (By the way, Sandweiss appeared as a quadling in Oz .) What do you think of the movie? Better yet, what do you think of the rotary-dial phone that appears near the end. Mwa-ha-ha-ha! [ Movieweb via Movies.com ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
All-natural blonde babe Betsy Rue is permanently burned into the memories of Skin Fans everywhere thanks to her scorching hot nude debut in My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009). A film featuring a full MINUTE AND A HALF scene of totally naked Betsy running from a murderous madman. So spec-rack-ular, so ass-tonishing was the moment, that she nabbed herself an award for Best 3D Nudity at Mr. Skin’s 11th Annual Anatomy Awards . She’s also brought her charms to plenty of hit boob tube series including CSI, 90210, Bones, True Blood , and the perennial skin favorite Femme Fatale s . Now Betsy is playing a porn star opposite Mad Men ‘s Jay Paulson in the upcoming thriller Lucky Bastard (2013), and it looks like we’ll be the lucky ones considering the MPAA just handed down a rare NC-17 rating for the flick. Betsy graciously took some time to talk to Mr. Skin about her sexy new role and her philosophy on nude scenes : Read the Skinterview after the jump!
A recent production still from Iron Man 3 shows that movie’s presumed main villain, the Mandarin , in a kind of evil Stevie Nicks “Stand Back” pose with what appears to be a translucent cape or tapestry draped from him. And right now, I’m obsessed with the text that’s on it. Earlier this month, I wrote about director Shane Black ‘s comparison of Ben Kingsley’s character to Marlon Brando’s portrayal of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now as “a guy who’s gone off the reservation” and is “incorporating all these different symbols and iconography into his worldview.” The above photo offers some clues into that worldview, and despite Black’s comment (contained in that same post) about the Mandarin’s “obsession with Sun Tzu and ancient arts of warfare,” the writing on that cape points to the Bible and a bastardization of American capitalism. In other words, the Mandarin’s name may evoke the Far East, but, in the above photo, he’s surrounded by text and images more frequently associated with the far right. The Far East Vs. The Far Right Whether that fabric is an item of clothing or some type of banner, aspects of it resemble the typeface and designs found on American dollars. Instead of “In God We Trust,” however, the Mandarin’s motto appears to be “In Chaos We Trust.” There’s no clear depiction of that saying, but if you look at the circular design on the right side of the fabric, you can make out “In Chao…” while “Trust” can be seen on the circular design to the left. (That’s assuming symmetry, by the way.) Is He Referencing The Bible? Also, on the left side of the fabric is a partially obscured hand-scrawled phrase that appears to be “redeemed through blood” (and may be written in blood, given its color). That phrase is commonly used in writings about the Bible and often refers back to the Tenth Book of the New Testament, Ephesians 1:7 : “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” (That’s from the New American Standard Version of the good book. ) In its Biblical usage, the redemptive blood belongs to the martyred Jesus Christ, but it’s unclear whether the Mandarin sees himself as a Christ figure or whether he’s twisted the phrase into something much more nefarious that requires a lot of blood to be spilled before his idea of redemption can occur. If there are any Marvel Comics-loving Biblical scholars or GOP pundits out there who can shed more light on these clues, please enlighten me in the comments section below. More on the Mandarin: WATCH: The Mandarin Isn’t Talking Funny Anymore ‘Iron Man 3’ Director Spills On The Mandarin & He Sounds Like….Mike Ovitz? Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Justin Bieber wears black, red, and drop-crotch pants at the 2012 American Music Awards.Photo: Getty Images Justin Bieber set pretty high style standards. Read the original here: Justin Bieber's 2012 American Music Awards Style Is All Black, Red …
It’s happening. The news cycle is about to lap itself. The 85th Annual Academy Awards have barely ended, and no good movies have even come out yet this year, but rumors are already circling about who will host next year’s ceremony. The good news is: the rumors are about Justin Timberlake ! According to our friends at Movie Fanatic, Timberlake may host the Oscars next year. While the JT hosting rumor is just that, a rumor, it makes perfect sense. I mean, JT is one of the least divisive celebrities out there. His publicists should win a “Pubby” for making him so universally beloved. Not to mention, we know that the talented actor/musician can handle hosting live TV. Just this Month JT made his fifth appearance hosting Saturday Night Live . Timberlake is the kind of person who could easily become a perennial Oscar Host a la Bob Hope or Billy Crystal. What do you think? Is JT cut out to host the Oscars? Yes, what a great choice! No, he should stick to singing! View Poll »
Whether Benedict Cumberbatch is Robert April, Khan or some other canon character entirely, he’s going to be awesomely evil judging from this new international Star Trek Into Darkness trailer. He’s also going to speak in a measured and lordly British accent that will surely have him competing with Ben Kingsley’s the Mandarin for Affected Villain Voice of 2013. That said, he does get some good lines in this clip. My favorite: “I will walk over your cold corpses,” although the “I am better” exchange with Kirk is pretty effective, too. There’s plenty to look at in this trailer, including glimpses of Peter Weller in an alarming hairstyle, Alice Eve in black lingerie and some white-knuckle space-travel scenes: Kirk and crew thread the needle in a shuttle and the video climaxes with some new shots of that starship — hard to tell if it’s the Enterprise — making an unplanned water landing on Earth. More on Star Trek Into Darkness : New ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ Photos: To Boldly Go Where Every Man Has A Thousand-Yard Stare ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’: Benedict Cumberbatch’s Identity Revealed? WATCH: Spock And Uhura Steal A Kiss In Action-Packed ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ Video Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
“Everyone knows amnesia is bollocks,” snarls one of the thugs in Trance . Hypnotism, on the other hand, is fair game in this brash, beyond-belief psychothriller from director Danny Boyle , who seizes on a script co-written by Joe Ahearne and longtime Boyle collaborator John Hodge as a chance to play elaborate mind games with fans of his early work. A trippy variation on the dream-within-a-dream movie, Boyle’s return-to-form crimer constantly challenges what auds think they know, but neglects to establish why they should care. The pic’s flashy style, plus its stark violence and nudity, ought to transfix male genre auds. More of a conceptual exercise than a conventional film noir, Trance demonstrates Boyle’s determination to continue to overcome seemingly impossible filmmaking challenges. After painting himself out of a physical corner with 127 Hours , the director now confronts a psychic obstacle in attempting to tell a complex genre movie from within the confines of one person’s consciousness — even as others noodle with the same character’s subconscious. A charismatic, yet miscast James McAvoy plays the mark, a clean-scrubbed auction-house employee named Simon who snaps into action during the attempted theft of a Goya painting. Back in the day, all it took was a bit of muscle and some nerve to rob art from auction, Simon explains in a stretch of Scottish-lilted, direct-address narration that not only recalls Hodge’s earlier scripts ( Shallow Grave , Trainspotting ), but suggests a younger, softer-edged Ewan McGregor . To whom is Simon speaking: The audience? A hypnotist? The cops? Doesn’t matter. The film takes place mostly in Simon’s head, so it’s his experience auds see unfolding. After establishing how staff have been trained to protect the auction-house assets in the prologue, Simon springs the pic’s first twist: He was the caper’s inside man. Problem is, after removing the Goya from its frame, he sustained a blow to the head, and the crucial memory of where he stashed the painting is beyond his reach. Torture doesn’t work to bring it back, so underworld tough guy Franck ( Vincent Cassel , terrifically unpredictable) suggests hypnotism, allowing Simon to pick his own mesmerist. He opts for Elizabeth Lamb, played by Rosario Dawson , whose sultry power over men makes plausible how easily her character manages to put Simon under. While neither the film nor its goons puts any stock in amnesia, both encourage a willing suspension of disbelief when it comes to far more elaborate feats of mind-control. In that respect, Boyle seems to be asking whether he too can play the hypnotist. Using dynamic, visual storytelling, slick cutting and a propulsive electronic score, can he successfully convince rational auds to buy into an increasingly far-fetched story? The stunt works for a time. On Simon’s second session with Elizabeth, she pounces, demanding to see the men who put him up to this — and offering her services for a share in the prize, should they find the painting. It’s at this point in the film that things start to get really weird, as the narrative starts to fold back on itself, blurring the lines between reality and the hypothetical. Each time Elizabeth puts Simon in trance, she takes him to a new location in his mind, making it increasingly difficult for auds to tell fantasy from memory from lived experience. As Simon’s sense of danger grows, these scenes become more fragmented and violent, which allows the pic to introduce and instantly erase shocking homicidal behavior, but puts a strain on McAvoy, who seems too nice to harbor such demons. Boyle has cited Nicolas Roeg as an influence on the film’s disorienting style, and sure enough, Trance shares the jagged subjectivity of Performance and Don’t Look Now , along with the director’s raw treatment of anger and arousal. The deeper things go, the kinkier they get, as Elizabeth finds herself seducing both Franck and Simon — but are these fantasies real or projections of their jealous imaginations? They’re certainly real enough for audiences, who won’t soon forget the sight of a denuded Dawson, or the erotic art history lesson that explains her carefully sculpted appearance. Superficial pleasures aside, however, the convoluted script jumps and dodges so often, it soon loses the thread of its own story. This isn’t Inception , where layers of experience are nested neatly one inside the next, but rather a frittata, its ingredients distinguishable only by the various hyper-saturated colors that seem to define each scene. The lost painting is just the first of multiple MacGuffins, after which Simon’s missing memory becomes the thing they all so desperately need to recover. And then, quite abruptly, Simon finds himself on the margins, and Elizabeth takes centerstage — an opportunity for which Dawson proves more than ready — leading to a succession of reversals that seem a bit too dependent on enormous gaps in logic only half-excused by the pic’s record-skip storytelling style. With all its trickery, the film presents a sexy distraction, but proves a mind is a terrible thing to waste. More on Trance : Train In Vain Spotting: Danny Boyle Picks His Favorite Clash Albums − And Disses Phish
