Lorelei Lee’s g ot the porn world all tied up, and now she’s out to make Hollywood her bitch! Sorry, couldn’t resist. Anyway, Lorelei (left, presumably reading her story notes) is one of the most popular BDSM models on the ‘net, and after receiving a Master’s in Creative Writing from NYU, she’s branching out with Cherry , a new movie based on her original screenplay. And she’s been quite successful so far, netting big-name stars like Heather Graham and James Franco to star in the film, which premieres this weekend at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival . Cherry stars nudecomer Ashley Hinsaw as Angelina, a vulnerable young woman who escapes her abusive parents and finds personal and sexual empowerment in the world of porn. Guiding Angelina on her road to flesh-flick fulfillment are her sleazy lawyer beau (Franco), a lipstick-lesbian XXX director (Graham), and her sexually repressed best friend ( Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame). Cherry has received mixed reviews from critics, but The Hollywood Reporter cites ” fierce lesbian breakup sex ” between Heather and her girlfriend and “enough skin to net a Cinemax sale” from Ashley…and that’s enough Cherry to make Mr. Skin pop! See more from Lorelei Lee and Heather Graham right here at MrSkin.com
Lorelei Lee’s g ot the porn world all tied up, and now she’s out to make Hollywood her bitch! Sorry, couldn’t resist. Anyway, Lorelei (left, presumably reading her story notes) is one of the most popular BDSM models on the ‘net, and after receiving a Master’s in Creative Writing from NYU, she’s branching out with Cherry , a new movie based on her original screenplay. And she’s been quite successful so far, netting big-name stars like Heather Graham and James Franco to star in the film, which premieres this weekend at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival . Cherry stars nudecomer Ashley Hinsaw as Angelina, a vulnerable young woman who escapes her abusive parents and finds personal and sexual empowerment in the world of porn. Guiding Angelina on her road to flesh-flick fulfillment are her sleazy lawyer beau (Franco), a lipstick-lesbian XXX director (Graham), and her sexually repressed best friend ( Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame). Cherry has received mixed reviews from critics, but The Hollywood Reporter cites ” fierce lesbian breakup sex ” between Heather and her girlfriend and “enough skin to net a Cinemax sale” from Ashley…and that’s enough Cherry to make Mr. Skin pop! See more from Lorelei Lee and Heather Graham right here at MrSkin.com
Critics aren’t buying into the love triangle between Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy. By Kara Warner Tom Hardy and Chris Pine in “This Means War” Photo: 20th Century Fox “This Means War” has all the makings of a perfect romantic comedy/ action flick, including the very attractive and high-caliber stars Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy, the capable direction of McG, comic relief from Chelsea Handler and a script from the guys whose combined talents have brought us “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Role Models” and “Just Go With It.” The story revolves around two best friends and highly skilled CIA agents who fall in love with the same woman and go to war with each other in an effort to win her heart. We imagine the filmmakers set out to make a fun, if only slightly farfetched, popcorn flick, but the critical masses couldn’t seem to suspend their disbelief. The film has a 30 percent Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes . Read on as we fight through the “This Means War” reviews! The Story “Having great-looking stars who have the added bonus of actually being able to act makes the noisy romp “This Means War” more tolerable that it ought to be. It’s essentially a love-triangle version of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” rendered even more bombastic in the hands of “Charlie’s Angels” director McG. (Simon Kinberg, who wrote the 2005 film that spawned Brangelina, shares script credit here with Timothy Dowling.) So you’ve got your sport utility vehicles tumbling in slow motion, your gravity-defying shootouts and your obligatory explosions galore. Naturally, the premise is the most high-concept, contrived confection: Two CIA agents (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) who happen to be best friends also happen to fall in love with the same woman (Reese Witherspoon), who has no idea these guys know each other. They promise their shared pursuit won’t ruin their friendship, but good luck with all that.” — Christy Lemire, The Associated Press The Bromance Factor “The relationship that truly sizzles — from the sentiment to the satire — is the one between FDR (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy), with Pine and Hardy pulling off one of the better bromances in recent memory. … Hardy (“Inception”) and Pine (“Star Trek”) are the heart of the film — proving to be excellent opposing sides of the same coin. Both balance their characters’ cynicism with a certain sweetness, their chemistry fairly crackling, electrifying the screen almost any time they’re sharing it, whether taking down a bad guy or squabbling about who is more lovable (it’s a tossup). With Lauren, on the other hand, they are basically gentlemen, so not electrifying.” — Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times The Suspension of Disbelief Factor, or Lack Therof “And in the film’s opening minutes, it feels as if that might be the desired effect: It’s loaded with overblown action chestnuts like from-the-hip gunplay, people dangling from the sides of skyscrapers and a gruff commanding officer. (That would be Angela Bassett, who shows up periodically to growl at her charges in a role that might have been hilarious had anyone thought to write anything legitimately funny for her.) But a good parody takes a finesse that isn’t in the vocabulary of McG, a bargain-basement Michael Bay more concerned with cool than coherence. Instead we get utter nonsense like a video store with a database that conveniently includes customer photos for the CIA to tap into. (Related: These characters are, in 2012, going to a video store?) In another scene, FDR wrestles on the floor with a small dog that has just attacked him, as Lauren stands 5 feet away, oblivious. The Farrelly brothers should sue the producers not for stealing the scene outright from ‘There’s Something About Mary,’ but for imitating it so badly.” — Ian Buckwalter, NPR The Final Word “Part spy caper, part buddy picture, part romantic comedy, part raunchy-girl-talk sex farce, This Means War has been assembled with all the haphazardness of an amateur science experiment. The project was directed by the amped-up industry go-getter McG (Charlie’s Angels), and it’s had a long trial-and-error history. The initial script dates back a century — or at least about a decade — and the string of famous guys who didn’t take the dual lead male roles reportedly includes Bradley Cooper, Seth Rogen, Sam Worthington, and, stretching even further back, Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence. All this fiddling and fumbling shows on the screen. And yet, and yet … I confess I enjoyed everything that’s all over the place about the finished product. ‘This Means War’ may have been hammered together by brute Hollywood force, but there’s this going for it: It’s game to throw in anything that’ll keep the motor running.” — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly Check out everything we’ve got on “This Means War.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV First: This Means War Related Photos ‘This Means War’: A Look At Past Sexy Secret Agents
Critics aren’t buying into the love triangle between Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy. By Kara Warner Tom Hardy and Chris Pine in “This Means War” Photo: 20th Century Fox “This Means War” has all the makings of a perfect romantic comedy/ action flick, including the very attractive and high-caliber stars Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy, the capable direction of McG, comic relief from Chelsea Handler and a script from the guys whose combined talents have brought us “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Role Models” and “Just Go With It.” The story revolves around two best friends and highly skilled CIA agents who fall in love with the same woman and go to war with each other in an effort to win her heart. We imagine the filmmakers set out to make a fun, if only slightly farfetched, popcorn flick, but the critical masses couldn’t seem to suspend their disbelief. The film has a 30 percent Fresh Rating on Rotten Tomatoes . Read on as we fight through the “This Means War” reviews! The Story “Having great-looking stars who have the added bonus of actually being able to act makes the noisy romp “This Means War” more tolerable that it ought to be. It’s essentially a love-triangle version of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” rendered even more bombastic in the hands of “Charlie’s Angels” director McG. (Simon Kinberg, who wrote the 2005 film that spawned Brangelina, shares script credit here with Timothy Dowling.) So you’ve got your sport utility vehicles tumbling in slow motion, your gravity-defying shootouts and your obligatory explosions galore. Naturally, the premise is the most high-concept, contrived confection: Two CIA agents (Chris Pine and Tom Hardy) who happen to be best friends also happen to fall in love with the same woman (Reese Witherspoon), who has no idea these guys know each other. They promise their shared pursuit won’t ruin their friendship, but good luck with all that.” — Christy Lemire, The Associated Press The Bromance Factor “The relationship that truly sizzles — from the sentiment to the satire — is the one between FDR (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy), with Pine and Hardy pulling off one of the better bromances in recent memory. … Hardy (“Inception”) and Pine (“Star Trek”) are the heart of the film — proving to be excellent opposing sides of the same coin. Both balance their characters’ cynicism with a certain sweetness, their chemistry fairly crackling, electrifying the screen almost any time they’re sharing it, whether taking down a bad guy or squabbling about who is more lovable (it’s a tossup). With Lauren, on the other hand, they are basically gentlemen, so not electrifying.” — Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times The Suspension of Disbelief Factor, or Lack Therof “And in the film’s opening minutes, it feels as if that might be the desired effect: It’s loaded with overblown action chestnuts like from-the-hip gunplay, people dangling from the sides of skyscrapers and a gruff commanding officer. (That would be Angela Bassett, who shows up periodically to growl at her charges in a role that might have been hilarious had anyone thought to write anything legitimately funny for her.) But a good parody takes a finesse that isn’t in the vocabulary of McG, a bargain-basement Michael Bay more concerned with cool than coherence. Instead we get utter nonsense like a video store with a database that conveniently includes customer photos for the CIA to tap into. (Related: These characters are, in 2012, going to a video store?) In another scene, FDR wrestles on the floor with a small dog that has just attacked him, as Lauren stands 5 feet away, oblivious. The Farrelly brothers should sue the producers not for stealing the scene outright from ‘There’s Something About Mary,’ but for imitating it so badly.” — Ian Buckwalter, NPR The Final Word “Part spy caper, part buddy picture, part romantic comedy, part raunchy-girl-talk sex farce, This Means War has been assembled with all the haphazardness of an amateur science experiment. The project was directed by the amped-up industry go-getter McG (Charlie’s Angels), and it’s had a long trial-and-error history. The initial script dates back a century — or at least about a decade — and the string of famous guys who didn’t take the dual lead male roles reportedly includes Bradley Cooper, Seth Rogen, Sam Worthington, and, stretching even further back, Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence. All this fiddling and fumbling shows on the screen. And yet, and yet … I confess I enjoyed everything that’s all over the place about the finished product. ‘This Means War’ may have been hammered together by brute Hollywood force, but there’s this going for it: It’s game to throw in anything that’ll keep the motor running.” — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly Check out everything we’ve got on “This Means War.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV First: This Means War Related Photos ‘This Means War’: A Look At Past Sexy Secret Agents
Reese Witherspoon has a new film out (follow this link for a This Means War movie review ), but another topic she discussed today was more interesting. The 35-year-old actress went on Ellen to promote the film, but went on to talk about meeting Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton last summer! “Somebody called me and said we’re having a really small fundraiser would you want to come over and meet the Prince and Princess? I was like, Yes.” It gets better. Check a clip of Reese’s interview with Ellen below: Reese Witherspoon on Ellen “I must have tried on like six outfits. I’m meeting a princess. You don’t understand … You have to be wearing the right outfit and the whole thing.” The Oscar winner continued: “I don’t know, maybe we can be friends. She was really nice. She was just lovely. She’s so composed. She seems like such a lady. I think it’s so nice nowadays to see someone with such composure who carries herself so beautifully. Call me. Call me anytime!” Sounds like someone’s smitten! Not that we can blame her. Reese was later presented a Mr. T Chia Pet by Ellen. No idea why, but that’s awesome.
I wanted to believe James Cameron &mdash I really did! &mdash but it turns out that the 3-D conversion of his megahit Titanic is not only the craven cash grab we all feared, but it’s also a visually drab re-rendering of an otherwise extraordinary technical achievement. Womp wooomp . Paramount and Fox reportedly hosted a few dozen sold-out Valentine’s Day previews of the film, to which press elites like Roger Ebert and David Poland were invited for their reactions. (My invitation must have been lost in the mail, but hey, I had a hot date with Linsanity that night anyway.) And how about those reactions! First Ebert , who gives Titanic a thorough and conscientious second-over before getting to the takeaway we’re all waiting for: Cameron has justly been praised for being one of the few directors to use 3D usefully, in Avatar . But Titanic was not shot for 3D, and just as you cannot gild a pig, you cannot make 2D into 3D. There’s more to it than that. 3D causes a noticeable loss in the brightness coming from the screen. Some say as much as 20 percent. If you saw an ordinary film dimmed that much, you might complain to the management. Here you’re supposed to be grateful you had the opportunity to pay a surcharge for this defacement. If you’re alert to it, you’ll notice that many shots and sequences in this version are not in 3D at all, but remain in 2D. If you take off your glasses, they’ll pop off the screen with dramatically improved brightness. I know why the film is in 3D. It’s to justify the extra charge. That’s a shabby way to treat a masterpiece. ” Welllll ,” the skeptic says, “Ebert’s never liked 3-D.” Fair enough! So — take it away, Mr. Poland : I was happy that when we got to the theater, it turned out not to be IMAX 3D. Those glasses are ridiculous and I have only had one or two happy experiences with that specific format. (I quite like IMAX and don’t always dislike 3D.) So I didn’t get irritated by having the glasses on as we watched the hours of film roll by. However… I found myself wanting to take the glasses off repeatedly. And here is why: it’s like watching the movie through a filter. Call it darkness, call it clarity… call it what you like. But for me, especially on Titanic , the slight facial fur and occasional acne under the make-up on Kate Winslet and the small pock marks on Leonardo DiCaprio’s face are a part of the intimacy of the movie. The movie takes such painstaking efforts to get every detail right… I want to see them, including the imperfections. And with those glasses on, I could not. Some might be happy not to see detail… to have the image smoothed out even more. But not me. These people are beautiful. Their imperfections are beautiful. Anyway, this will make a fortune and quite possibly be your next reason for never going to the movies again , so… yeah. Mark your calendars . Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
‘I used my understanding of show business and sort of magnified that to get a clear-cut vision of Seneca,’ Wes Bentley tells MTV News. By Kara Warner with reporting by Josh Horowitz Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane in “The Hunger Games” Photo: Lionsgate On Thursday, we treated our fellow “Hunger Games” fans to a fun and candid discussion with star Wes Bentley about his character’s curiously shaped beard and how its unique design and personality enhanced Bentley’s performance in the film as game master Seneca Crane. Now we have yet another snippet from that interview, in which we tackle some more serious issues, like what secretive scenes Bentley was most excited to film, as well as what kind of Seneca Crane we’ll see on the big screen come opening day, March 23. “It was all of it for me,” Bentley told MTV News about what scenes he was most eager to film. “I was curious to get on set and see what was going on. It was secret for everybody, so to get on and see what the look was and how it was feeling, I was excited to be a part of it every day.” The “American Beauty” actor admitted that because author Suzanne Collins doesn’t provide a meaty character arc for Crane, he wasn’t exactly sure how they were going to interpret him for the film. “For anyone who reads the books, he’s not mentioned much in the books, mostly because it’s told from Katniss’ first-person perspective, so I had no idea what kind of angle we were going to take on it, and I really didn’t have an idea until I got to set,” Bentley said. “[Director] Gary [Ross] had such a clear idea of it that it made it easy to dig into.” Bentley was hesitant to describe his version of Crane in detail, but after a bit of prodding, he did reveal that he took a few cues from his experiences in Hollywood to flesh out Crane’s persona a bit. “The idea of him was a flashier idea than what you would think. He’s more a flashy producer,” Bentley said. “I’m still a tech-y kind of guy, still a producer at heart, so I used my understanding of show business and sort of magnified that to get a clear-cut vision of Seneca. “He goes big. He’s all about the show,” he added about Crane’s all-for-the-sake-of-the-Games showmanship. “I went as far as I could without [going over the top], but what he’s about in his show is flashy, his look is very flashy, but he still tried to play it like he’s a cool cat.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Hunger Games’
I’m thrilled and honored to welcome you to the first of several virtual roundtables featuring Oscar’s nominee class of 2012 — commencing today with those behind the five films nominated for Best Documentary Feature. They are (in alphabetical order):
Shooting on Lovelace has wrapped in Los Angeles, and along with a sneak preview of Amanda Seyfried in character as Linda Lovelace (left), a new New York Times article about the production tells us a little of what to expect from the porn biopic. Unlike Inferno , which has been described as an unrelentingly dark bummer-fest by star Malin Akerman , the stars of Lovelace say they’re bringing more of a Boogie Nights vibe to their movie. Adrian Brody , who plays real-life Lovelace co-star Harry Reems , says his sex scenes with Amanda Seyfried are “ by far the lightest, silliest stuff in the movie, ” which he describes as “more ‘ American Pie ’ than it is Lars von Trier .” Seyfried herself seems similarly upbeat about the (literal and figurative) exposure that the film will bring her, as noted by the NYT reporter: “‘This film is really, I feel, the beginning of something else for me,’ said the actress, who was un-self-consciously sporting a frilly, translucent white dress that showed off a bit more than her silhouette.” Nice! A happy, naked Amanda is a happy Mr. Skin…and Amanda wants to bring Linda some posthumous happiness, too: “I’d want to make her happy,” she said. “That’s first and foremost what I’d want. I’d want to make her happy if she were alive today.” Feel the love with Amanda Seyfried nude right here at MrSkin.com
The underdog candidate for this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, Undefeated is, fittingly, about an underdog sports team, a group of kids from an underfunded urban school for whom football provides some desperately needed structure as well as a possible route to a better life. There’s good reason the Weinstein Company reportedly coughed up seven figures for distribution and remake rights to the film — Undefeated is Friday Night Lights meets The Blind Side in nonfiction form, examining issues of class and race through the lens of its ragtag athletics program while also reinforcing American mythos of bootstrapping, hard work and community. Its triumphs are bittersweet, but they’re irresistible. That title isn’t literal, however; there are definite losses over the course of the single hard-fought, promising high school football season this film follows, and it’s still one of the best years the North Memphis Manassas Tigers have ever had. Bill Courtney is Undefeated ‘s center, a ruddy-faced, sweaty white guy who serves as volunteer coach at the mostly (if not entirely) black school. We first see him lecturing his team about how their ranks have been decimated by drop-outs, shootings and arrests: “Most coaches, that would be a career’s worth of crap to deal with. That sums up the last two weeks for me.” Bill has a family of his own and a flooring company to run, but coaching is his great love, and the depth of his investment in it and his sincere faith in the potential saving power of football make his gruff character easy to latch on to. He looks to be the closest thing most of the young men he works with have to a male authority figure in their lives, fathers out of the picture, and they latch on to his devotion and to the expectations he has of them with a quiet hunger. Undefeated also follows three of Courtney’s players through the year. The talented, good-natured O.C. Brown stands a good chance of getting a football scholarship if he can pulls his grades up. Montrail Brown, who goes by “Money,” is a good student working towards college until an injury on the field derails him and destroys his confidence. And Chavis Daniels arrives back on the team after a stint in juvie, and has alarming rage issues to manage. The Tigers have never won a playoff game, and they’re so underfunded that they used to raise money by traveling to play other schools for pay as an easy win. Over their season they face teams that are obviously more upscale (and ones whose racial make-up is very different) as well as teams that aren’t — one game against another Memphis school ends with the police on field shooing the boys back onto their bus to head off a potential brawl with the opposing school. Despite some early setbacks, the Tigers are having a good year, and as the team wends its way to a possible playoff spot the film starts to shine as it delves into the personal lives of its players. O.C. is going to become unrecruitable if his academics don’t improve, but tutors won’t go to the neighborhood where he lives with his grandmother, so another (white) coach takes him in a few days a week, O.C. moving into the coach’s comfy suburban set-up with his wife and kids. The matter-of-factness with which this and a later act of startling generosity are done make them heartwrenching, but also provide a reminder of how difficult things like paying for college or getting better at classwork can be without outside help. Money struggles to find motivation to keep going with school after a knee injury possibly ends his season, and flirts with dropping out. Chavis, the most haunting character, seems to have no filter on his emotions, rage seething up without warning and dissipating just as quickly. He chooses the number “0” for himself because he claims he has no sense, and has a clash with another player based on nothing at all. But he keeps coming back, gets off suspension, finds a place for himself on the team, realizing he needs football and has to change if he wants to be allowed to stay with it. “I’ll die for you tonight,” he tells Bill when he’s put in the game, and you believe him. Aside from what looked like a few technical snags in terms of color, Undefeated ‘s look is fluid and vital. It’s shot vérité style, but still finds moments for nods to studio magic — a circling camera around a hugging Bill and O.C. toward the end is unadulterated, completely effective Hollywood. Directed and edited by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin (the pair collaborated previously on 2008’s Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong ), the film finds romance in its images of the sport, from the boys walking off the field at sunset to the battles under the bright lights to a close-up that lingers on the Manassas temporary tattoo one player has fixed to his cheek. Undefeated doesn’t have the epic, years-spanning arc of Hoop Dreams , but it finds in its season some unfeigned resonance that, like tears during that final embrace on the field, can’t be eluded. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
