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hathaway and hardy dark knight 300x221 Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy in Dark Knight Rises

Possible spin-off: Hathaway and Hardy Meet Frankenstein.

After months, nay, years of furious speculation on the part of jaded entertainment journalists and overweight comic nerds, Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy have been confirmed to work with director Christopher Nolan on the final installment of his Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. Hardy recently worked with Nolan on the mind-bending smash hit Inception last summer, and he’ll portray Bane, one of Batman’s more “formidable” archenemies. Hathaway will reprise the role of Catwoman, made famous in the original Batman films by Michelle Pfeiffer. Now that the rumors can finally be put to rest, it’s safe to say that all parties involved can agree on one thing: Anne Hathaway might not re-vitalize the role completely (a la Heath Ledger and the Joker), but she’s much prettier than Katie Holmes or Maggie Gyllenhaal. That’s enough for a start.

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january jones golden globes 209x300 The 2011 Golden Globe Winners

Insert your own "January Jones and her Golden Globes" joke here.

Why do people watch award shows? Is it not enough to watch beautiful actors and actresses onscreen? Do people really want to see them dressed up in designer clothes, politely clapping and getting quietly drunk on free booze? Well, at least the Golden Globes showcased Ricky Gervais again this year; he’s easily one of the most entertaining presenters in Hollywood. By “best”, of course, one means that he drank a lot of beer and told some pretty off-color jokes that made all of the buzzed celebrities uncomfortable. Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt took the brunt of Gervais’ zingers. The other stand-out winners were Chris Colfer, who won Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series for his work on Glee, and favorite-to-win-it-all The Social Network. It would be meaningless to go through all of the other award winners, so just enjoy the picture of January Jones’ hotness to the left and let’s all move on with our lives.

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cave of forgotten dreams 300x229 Cave of Forgotten Dreams Trailer

When Herzog stares into the abyss...the abyss coughs uncomfortably under the scrutiny of his gaze.

Few directors as accomplished, respected, weird, and German as Werner Herzog. He’s probably most well-known for being shot with an Airsoft Rifle during an interview, Grizzly Man, and his incredibly unique voice-overs. His new documentary is called Cave of Forgotten Dreams, and it is a 3D exploration of ancient caves in France that primitive man once carved ornate, beautiful pictures into before it was eventually abandoned. The Chauvet caves are in France, and they house the oldest pictorial representations in the world that still remain in their natural setting. As we all know, 3D makes history and art way, way more fun. It certainly worked for the Jackass guys. Have a good weekend!

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battle los angeles full trailer 300x195 Battle: Los Angeles   Full Trailer

"Negative, Ghost Rider. Pattern is full for Marines-fighting-aliens movies."

It’s one of the oldest formulas in cinema: Marines fight invading alien force. Michelle Rodriguez looks gritty as the female Marine, and says something really gritty and sarcastic as they prepare to engage the enemies. We triumph in the end. A lot of snarky critics are already scoffing at this Independence Day style popcorn flick, but why do so many entertainment people scoff at these kinds of films? Is it because the average viewer doesn’t appreciate the fact that they’re always so derivative, devoid of any semblance of originality, and increasingly hard to enjoy because of the shaky suspension of disbelief? Depending on your expectations, watching some satellite-dish-looking alien spaceships blowing up Hollywood might actually seem like a good thing. Plenty of Miami Heat and Boston Celtics fans would relish the ray-gun destruction of the Staples Center, so maybe this will find a good audience. Check out the full Battle Los Angeles trailer and judge for yourself.

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burning palms 300x209 Burning Palms Trailer

Someone wore Ugg boots to the party...the horror...THE HORROR.

Burning Palms is such a good movie that the producers didn’t even have to release a trailer until a couple days before it came out. Clearly! It also tackles a fairly original, avant garde topic: morally bankrupt behavior in Los Angeles, which is typically a haven for upstanding citizens from all walks of life. There’s some pretty taboo subject matter here, but it’s unclear whether or not the movie will turn into anything other than a character study in the Bret Easton Elis vein. On the plus side, it has the smoking hot Zoe Saldana and Paz Vega in the cast, and it’s a pretty good bet that they’re going to be doing salacious things onscreen at some point. Check out the Burning Palms trailer and see for yourself.

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kill the irishman 300x230 Kill the Irishman Trailer

Ray Stevenson as Danny Greene: "I will definitely NOT die in this film. Nope. Don't read my Wikipedia page, though."

Say “top o’ the mornin’” to the new trailer for the feel-good Mafia gangland murder film of the year, Kill the Irishman. Also, please excuse the stupid and hackneyed Irish pun. The movie’s got a catchy title, if nothing else. The film sports a varied and experienced cast of actors well-traversed in the crime genre, particularly the inimitable Christopher Walken. (Although, so very many people have tried to imitate him and mostly failed.) To make sure the movie wasn’t too awesome, the producers wisely chose to allow Stephen Baldwin to sneak into the film as well. The “Irishman” mentioned in the title is based on a real-life wiseguy named Danny Greene. Greene’s parents immigrated to Cleveland in the 1930s from Ireland; unfortunately, Greene’s mother died shortly after his birth, his father started drinking heavily, and he ended up in a Roman Catholic orphanage. Like many orphans, he had a very tough time growing up, constantly acting out and getting in fights, despite the fact that he was pretty athletically gifted. His imposing stature, brutal moral sense, and gift for organization made Greene an ideal candidate as a Labor union boss in Cleveland during the 1970s. These traits also made him seem like a loathsome and/or fearsome jerk in the eyes of many workers. Eventually, Greene ended up crossing paths with the Italian mafia just as a boss named Frank Brancato, and the movie tells Greene’s story as an FBI informant with humor and violence.  Check out the Kill the Irishman trailer on Break.

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peter postlethwaite 300x243 Peter Postlethwaite, Actor, Dies at 64

Postlethwaite made something great even out of minor roles, such as his menacing turn as a gangland florist in "The Town".

As far as well-known and recognizable character actors go, Peter Postlethwaite had a look and talent that was incredibly memorable. The British-born actor surely endured many encounters in real life of the “Hey, you’re that guy from that thing” variety, but he also had a varied and illustrious career. He died in Shropshire, England on Sunday, making his passing the first well-known celebrity death of 2011. Other than that grim distinction, Postlethwaite will be best remembered for his roles in big budget flicks such as Amistad, The Lost World, Inception, Romeo + Juliet and most recently The Town. With his imposing face and deep voice, Postlethwaite was most well-known for playing tough guys and criminals, a man not to be trifled with. Steven Spielberg once called him “the best actor in the world,” but his only moment Academy approval came in 1993 when he was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for his role as Daniel Day Lewis’ father in the aptly named In the Name of the Father. Postlethwaite had been fighting cancer for several years.

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your majesty green band 300x231 Your Highness Green Band Trailer, Natalie Portmans Butt

Who needs the holy grail, anyway?

David Gordon Greene truly is the king of kings for getting Natalie Portman’s scantily clad booty so prominently featured in his new flick Your Majesty, starring James Franco and Danny McBride. What? Wes Anderson already gave us Portman’s but fully naked? Why wasn’t that national news? Stupid liberal media. Anyway, the talented threesome hope to put the tired fantasy genre on its scaly dragon head by throwing in more modern zingers and plenty of sex jokes, dirty language, and hopefully as much half-naked Portman as possible. Franco and McBride created some pretty sweet chemistry in Pineapple Express, so here’s hoping that this one turns out to be fun. If you hate fantasy movies but still want to give this one a chance when it finally comes out, just watch the ending of the final Lord of the Ring movie; anything is better than a soppy hobbit love note that lasts forty-five minutes longer than it should have.

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the mechanic trailer 300x209 The Mechanic Trailer

Ben Foster ruins somebody's day in "The Mechanic" trailer.

Fear not, internet denizens, Morgan Freeman is not dead and Jason Statham is still making movies about being an expert killing machine.  In The Mechanic, Statham plays a role that was very similar to the one he played in The Transporter films: he’s a trained assassin that has to impart his knowledge about offing people in hand-to-hand combat as well as through other conventional means, to a man who secretly has a connection to one of his earlier victims. Things are not what they seem, it’s just business, etc. The usually excellent Ben Foster (most notable from his badass performance in 3:10 to Yuma and the dreadful X-Men: The Last Stand) plays the man learning Statham’s trade, and they seem to have very tense chemistry in The Mechanic trailer.

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mark zuckerberg 225x300 Mark Zuckerberg   Times Person of the Year

Zuckerberg on the cover of Time Magazine. Obligatory "Simpsons" quote: "My GOD, you're greasy."

Mark Zuckerberg gets a movie made about him and all of a sudden he’s hot stuff? Then again, creating and solidifying a social media service that has made an indelible and inarguable impact in the way that over five hundred million people use the internet and share information about their daily lives might have influenced the Time Person of the Year editors’ decision. At 26, Zuckerberg is the world’s youngest billionaire–at least on paper. His fortune is based on current valuations of his shares in Facebook, which is easily valued over $10 billion. The Social Network did seem to paint him as a bit of a disconnected, spiteful, awkward tech genius, but no one can really tell whether or not that’s accurate. Zuckerberg certainly did try to dispel that characterization after he pledged $100 million to Newark Public Schools, as well as agreeing to a membership in the billionaire philanthropy club called “The Giving Pledge” with other obscenely wealthy guys like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Despite all of the speculation and innovation, partly co-opted and partly of his own design, all of the attention lavished upon the wealthy geek was probably enough to make him person of the year, anyway.

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