Tag Archives: tv guide

Bill Condon on Breaking Dawn, Bella as Bride of Frankenstein and Twilight’s ‘Gay Sensibility’

Every director who’s gone through the whirlwind circus that is filming and releasing a Twilight movie eventually gets to relax and breathe a sigh of relief, but Bill Condon ( Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls ) still has miles and miles to go. Fans and critics will finally see what the Oscar-winner brings to the YA vampire franchise when The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 hits theaters Nov. 18, but if they find themselves displeased with his treatment of Stephenie Meyer’s beloved novel, it could be a tough year’s wait until Condon’s simultaneously-shot series ender ( Breaking Dawn – Part 2 ) concludes the series next fall.

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Bill Condon on Breaking Dawn, Bella as Bride of Frankenstein and Twilight’s ‘Gay Sensibility’

REVIEW: Shabby-chic Supernatural Thriller 11-11-11 So Lo-Fi It’s Almost Endearing

There’s something almost endearing about the creakily lo-fi quality of 11-11-11 , the latest feature from Darren Lynn Bousman, director of Repo! The Genetic Opera and _Saw_s II-IV. The film has the feel of something conceived and whipped together in very little time, perhaps to make its own built-in deadline. It struggles with big ideas — about the apocalypse, the changing nature of faith and, of course, how a certain date allows for the passage of possibly demonic beings between the worlds — that it can’t possibly accommodate on its small scale. It’s a film with maybe a dozen speaking parts and supernatural beings that are clearly dudes in black robes wearing rubber masks that nevertheless tries to suggest seismic spiritual changes are afoot, thanks to the events it chronicles in a beach house in Spain (a country from which I can only assume the film received funding, as there’s no other reason for it to be set there and the travel opens up problematic time zone questions).

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REVIEW: Shabby-chic Supernatural Thriller 11-11-11 So Lo-Fi It’s Almost Endearing

Henry Cavill on Immortals, Man of Steel, Surviving Tough Times and Inspiring Twilight’s Edward Cullen

Much has been made of British actor Henry Cavill ‘s abs in this week’s Immortals , or the strange, logic-defying Superman beard spied on the set of Man of Steel . Never mind that the 28-year-old actor turns in a persuasive dramatic performance in Tarsem ‘s stylized fantasy myth, playing the classic hero Theseus as an honorable peasant battling a sadistic god-hating tyrant (Mickey Rourke) with the aid of a comely priestess (Freida Pinto) and supernatural bow and arrows. But therein lies the surprise: Go to Immortals for the bloody action, or the mythological spin, or the wonderment of Tarsem’s visuals, and you’ll also get the pleasant revelation that Cavill wears leading man status like a natural.

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Henry Cavill on Immortals, Man of Steel, Surviving Tough Times and Inspiring Twilight’s Edward Cullen

REVIEW: Al Pacino Devours Otherwise Humorless Jack and Jill

Despite all of the grumpy and/or gleeful speculation that arose around the internet when it got its first glimpse of Adam Sandler donning a wig and falsies to play his own awkward twin sister, Jack and Jill is not actually the worst movie of all time. Given other recent efforts from Sandler’s Happy Madison production company, most notably Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star , it’d be hard pressed to even compete for the title of worst of the year. The film, directed by longtime Sandler collaborator Dennis Dugan and written by Steve Koren, presents an at least theoretically standard mix of slapstick, celebrity cameos and not-quite-winking sentimentality. It’s sometimes funny, but more often it’s just very strange and threaded through with hostility — at one point, during a montage that involved Jill repeatedly accidentally injuring a myopic Mexican grandmother at a picnic, the colleagues on either side of me leaned in separately to whisper, ” What is happening ?”

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REVIEW: Al Pacino Devours Otherwise Humorless Jack and Jill

Darren Aronofsky’s Anti-Meth PSAs: Requiem Redux

Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream alone might’ve been enough to scare most folks away from hard drugs for forever, but it came out all the way back in 2000, when today’s teenagers were mere toddlers. So as part of the public service program The Meth Project , which seeks to educate (or at least frighten the bejeezus out of) would-be first-time drug users, Aronofsky stepped in to direct four TV spots highlighting the nightmarish consequences of meth use. BE SCARED, KIDS.

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Darren Aronofsky’s Anti-Meth PSAs: Requiem Redux

REVIEW: Colin Farrell Slow Burns Through Smart, Stylish London Boulevard

I’m sure there are more exciting things in life than watching Colin Farrell, dressed in a sleek, dark suit, weave through the streets of London behind the wheel of a saucy black convertible, the Yardbirds’ “Heart Full of Soul” rumbling on the soundtrack. But as random weekend movie pleasures go, I’ll take it: Farrell is the star, and the unassuming center, of William Monahan’s nervy, noir-inflected thriller London Boulevard .

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REVIEW: Colin Farrell Slow Burns Through Smart, Stylish London Boulevard

AFI Fest Awards Grand Jury Prize to The Loneliest Planet

AFI Fest closes up shop today (with a very climactic showing of The Adventures of Tintin ), but before we say so long to the parking garage at Hollywood & Highland, we have one piece of business left to deal with: the awards. AFI awarded its Grand Jury Prize to Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet “for its bold exploration of societal structures and gender roles, set against a landscape that conveys both profound beauty and profound alienation.” And because Gael Garcia Bernal is adorbz. Click through for the rest of prizes and announcements.

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AFI Fest Awards Grand Jury Prize to The Loneliest Planet

Eddie Murphy is Back Already in A Thousand Words Trailer

So this whole Eddie Murphy dropping out of the Academy Awards thing has to be good for someone, right? Maybe even for Eddie Murphy and DreamWorks, who have cleverly unveiled a trailer for the long-postponed Murphy comedy A Thousand Words today, hoping that a little publicity will go a long way for what appears to be a knock-off of one of your favorite Jim Carrey titles.

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Eddie Murphy is Back Already in A Thousand Words Trailer

Tarsem on Going Mainstream with Immortals and the Race to Finish Mirror, Mirror Before Snow White

Some directors clearly have no filter and suffer for it; others choose to live altogether filter-less, playing the game their own way, on their own terms. Which is why earlier this year Movieline anointed Tarsem Singh ( The Cell, The Fall ) the honey badger of Hollywood ; an indie film talent recently gone mainstream — who wore a homemade shirt proclaiming “I’ve been media trained” at WonderCon — Tarsem’s infamously cheeky public persona might threaten to overtake his work if only his films, just three features to date counting this week’s Immortals , weren’t so distinctive and gorgeous.

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Tarsem on Going Mainstream with Immortals and the Race to Finish Mirror, Mirror Before Snow White

Count Robin Williams Out of the Oscar Host Replacement Race

“Oh, no. I’ve done that gig,” Robin Williams responded when asked by Moviefone this afternoon whether he would consider replacing Eddie Murphy as this year’s Oscar host. “Years ago I co-hosted with Alan Alda and Jane Fonda and I pretty much saw my career flash before me, before I started. So, it was like, ‘No…’ It’s a tough gig. It’s a weird night, man. It’s pretty thankless in terms of if you do great, if they say that you’re a little edgy, they say, ‘He’s cool.’ If you’re not, they’re going to go, ‘He’s timid.'” [ Moviefone ]

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Count Robin Williams Out of the Oscar Host Replacement Race