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1-20 of 28 articles from 2009 « Prev | Next »
The 10 most underrated movies of the decade
22 December 2009 2:24 AM, PST
| The Guardian - Film News
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As the noughties tick down, let's shine a belated spotlight on the films that never got their due at release in the past 10 years
With the mood of reflection common to all year-ends magnified by this being the close of a decade, the list-loving world of film is awash with rundowns of the finest moments of not just 2009 but the entire noughties. In this very spot, you'll have already seen the Guardian's crack team reveal the first 90 titles of their golden hundred, with the final 10 being unveiled over the days ahead. But in the spirit of fair play, I thought it might also be worth drafting a top 10 of a slightly different nature – not the decade's best per se, but it's most underrated.
In short, what with this being the season of goodwill and so on, it might be apt to briefly pick out in the spotlight those films that
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- Danny Leigh
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Jennifer Aniston may be Adam Sandler's 'Pretend Wife'
8 December 2009 10:11 PM, PST
| Zap2It - From Inside the Box
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Jennifer Aniston is apparently just that into Adam Sandler.
Aniston is in talks to join Sandler's in-development comedy "Pretend Wife" -- formerly "Holiday in Hawaii" -- according to The Hollywood Reporter.
While details are being kept under wraps, the title kinda gives away the plot. We figure on Sandler somehow hiring Aniston's character to act as his wife in order to impress some sort of authority figure.
The pressing question is: Does this mean Aniston is slumming it in a typical Sandler manchild love story? Or is Sandler using Aniston's rather higher cachet to try his hand again at a "Punch-Drunk Love"-type highbrow romance?
Sandler's Happy Madison company will produce.
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Related:
Jennifer Aniston sings, kisses and tells on 'Ellen'
Gerard Butler reveals romances with Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz
Adam Sandler will play 'Jack
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- editorial@zap2it.com
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The Most Romantic Exchange of All the Aughts
8 December 2009 10:15 AM, PST
| FilmExperience
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Ja from Mnpp here, chiming in with what I consider to be what that there title proclaims: the most romantic exchange of the Aughts. It came at us in 2002, the year Nat's literally just finished giving some love to and has moved on from. But Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love refuses to be pigeon-holed with such small simple concepts as time! All is fluid in the land of Barry Egan's erratic brain. Anyway, that exchange:
Barry: I'm lookin' at your face and I just wanna smash it. I just wanna fuckin' smash it with a sledgehammer and squeeze it. You're so pretty.
Lena: I want to chew your face, and I want to scoop out your eyes and I want to eat them and chew them and suck on them.
Barry: Ok. This is funny. This is nice.
If Eternal Sunshine hadn't come along two years later, PTA's
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- JA
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Master reunites Pt Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman
4 December 2009 3:32 AM, PST
| The Guardian - Film News
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Religious drama set in 1950s America will be fifth collaboration between director of There Will Be Blood and Oscar-winning actor
Director Paul Thomas Anderson will reunite with actor Philip Seymour Hoffman on Master, a religious drama set in 1950s America.
Hoffman acted in Anderson's debut feature Hard Eight back in 1996 and took supporting roles in Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love. Master marks their fifth collaboration.
The film will star Hoffman as an intellectual in the mould of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, who sets up a successful faith-based organisation. Variety reports that the tale focuses on the relationship between "the master" and his pupil – a young drifter who joins the group and then starts to doubt its ideals and ambitions.
Master looks likely to be backed by Universal, although the studio has yet to officially green-light its estimated $35m (£21m) budget.
Anderson's last film, There Will Be Blood, showcased
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- Xan Brooks
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Pt Anderson’s Next Film is About Scientology
3 December 2009 8:00 PM, PST
| newsinfilm.com
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Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of such brilliant films as There Will Be Blood and Magnolia, has announced his next film. Tentatively titled The Master, the period drama will focus on a “master of ceremonies” or a charismatic intellectual who creates his own religion in 1952.
The great Philip Seymour Hoffman is set to star in the Universal-produced project, re-teaming with Anderson after supporting roles in four of his films, including Punch-Drunk Love and Boogie Nights. As if I needed another reason to be pumped about PTA behind the camera, Psh is in front of it.
The story focuses on the relationship between the Master and Freddie, a twentysomething drifter and his second in command when establishing the religion. As the faith grows in popularity, Freddie questions his Master and the belief system. The right hand man is uncast.
Variety deliberately points out the film does not scrutinize self-started churches like Scientology or the Mormons,
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- Jeff Leins
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Paul Thomas Anderson And Philip Seymour Hoffman Find Religion
2 December 2009 11:25 PM, PST
| LatinoReview
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Paul Thomas Anderson is working on his follow-up to There Will be Blood. And this time he's tackling religion organizations with the help of Philip Seymour Hoffman. More from the trades:"There Will Be Blood" writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is working on his next project, a period drama to star Philip Seymour Hoffman as a founder of a new religious organization in the 1950s. The project is set up at Universal, which will make a decision about whether to greenlight the pic, with a $35 million budget, once Anderson delivers a finished script.Hoffman, who has played supporting roles in most of Anderson's past films, this time will be at the center, playing "the Master," as in "master of ceremonies," a charismatic intellectual who hatches a faith-based organization that begins to catch on in America in 1952. The core is the relationship between the Master and Freddie, a twentysomething drifter who becomes the leader's lieutenant.
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Philip Seymour Hoffman Cast in Paul Thomas Anderson's Next
2 December 2009 10:34 PM, PST
| firstshowing.net
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While this vastly talented duo has worked together before on previous films like Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love, director Paul Thomas Anderson has never given Philip Seymour Hoffman the leading role in any of his films. All that changes as Variety reports tonight that Anderson has finally cast Hoffman in the lead role of his upcoming yet-to-be-titled drama that follows the exploits of a founder of a new religious organization in the 1950's. While the project is set up at Universal, the greenlight and a $35 million budget is still pending a final draft of the script, to be turned in imminently by Anderson himself.
In the film Hoffman will be playing The Master, as in master of ceremonies, "a charismatic intellectual who hatches a faith-based organization that begins to catch on in America in 1952." The core of the film is the relationship between the Master and Freddie, a
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- Ethan Anderton
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Paul Thomas Anderson Announces Next Film, Starts His Own Religion
2 December 2009 8:32 PM, PST
| Cinematical
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Rejoice! It's time for Paul Thomas Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman to work together again. After Sydney, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love, Variety reports that the two are teaming up for a new feature about a man who creates his own religion. But don't celebrate too much -- this news is still in the early stages. Anderson is said to be planning to submit a finished script to Universal, who will then decide whether or not they will greenlight it (um, yes please). And, the trade couldn't get comment from the studio, or either man's reps.
But here's what we do know. Should this go into production, there will be a $35 million price tag with Hoffman finally getting center stage playing "the Master" (as in master of ceremonies), a charismatic man who starts "a faith-based organization" in the 1950s. He teams up with a twentysomething drifter named Freddie
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- Monika Bartyzel
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Adam Sandler plays both Jack and Jill. Can an Oscar nomination be far behind?
28 October 2009 9:57 PM, PDT
| Corona's Coming Attractions
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This month's new Adam Sandler movie project to report is officially classified as set with the romantic comedy genre. Since I am such a huge fan of Mr. Sandler's material, especially the movies where he acts like an emotionally stunted man-child (oh wait, that's nearly all* Adam Sandler movies! Silly me!), I can't let it slip by my attention about the facts concerning his new project, Jack and Jill.
Variety's Tatiana Siegel, who's more polite in holding back any derision she has for Sandler, spills some facts about the movie but doesn't have more of the movie's premise save for the factoid that the SNL-er will be playing both the Jack and the Jill twin brother and sister roles in the film. How the rest of the film is shaped storywise remains a mystery for now, much like the fate of Amelia Earhart, the location of Jimmy Hoffa and
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- Patrick Sauriol
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Adam Sandler Will Play Both Jack and Jill in a Jack and Jill Movie
28 October 2009 9:46 AM, PDT
| firstshowing.net
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Adam Sandler has fallen into a relatively diverse career. After his star-making turn on "Saturday Night Live," I've enjoyed his immature comedic stylings in films like Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, but it's Sandler's performances in Reign Over Me, Punch-Drunk Love (a personal favorite) and recently Funny People which have commanded my respect in showing he can do much more than silly voices and sudden bursts into angry fits of rage. But it looks like Sandler is navigating back into more comedic grounds as Variety announces he will take on twin roles as the twin siblings in the romantic comedy Jack and Jill.
Of course Sandler will be producing under his Happy Madison banner with longtime partner Jack Giarraputo, but no word on who will be directing the script written by Steve Koren (Bruce Almighty) who has worked with Sandler since his days back at "SNL" and on films like Click.
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- Ethan Anderton
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Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis Team Up for 'Golden Suicides'
14 October 2009 10:00 AM, PDT
| MTV Movies Blog
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One remade Hitchcock's "Psycho," the other wrote the novel "American Psycho." and they each often explore screwed up young characters, but otherwise Oscar-nominated filmmaker Gus Van Sant ("Milk") and author Bret Easton Ellis ("Less Than Zero") have little in common. The most significant contrast between them is that Van Sant's characters tend to have good souls, while Ellis' seem to have no souls at all. This makes it all the more exciting and curious to see how the duo collaborates on a script about the tragic true story of artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake.
The lovers, who both ended their lives in 2007, were not household names, but they were important figures in the art world, and they both made contributions to cinema. Duncan, one of the first designers of video games for girls, made an animated short titled "The History of Glamour" (watch it here), and Blake did the
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- Christopher Campbell
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Top Ten Working American Directors
7 October 2009 2:18 AM, PDT
| Rope of Silicon
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Top Ten Working American Directors
A list like this is tricky to the point of madness. However, I'm going to save you the trouble by saying it right here, right now: Most of the choices on this list are obvious. There's a reason why certain names continually pop up whenever conversation drifts toward great American films. So there. I said it.
Yet, how do you weigh the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, a genius who delivered some of the all-time greatest films, but fizzled out 25 or so years ago, against a filmmaker like Woody Allen who has worked consistently for decades churning out both brilliant gems and disposable time wasters? How do you compare either of these directors against an auteur such as Spike Jonze who has only opened two films so far, but both are masterpieces?
In the end I just went with my gut. I knew there were
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- David Frank
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Loaded with bonus features The Taking of Pelham 123 storms to DVD and Blu-ray
23 August 2009 1:05 PM, PDT
| Monsters and Critics
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Superstars Denzel Washington and John Travolta are set to collide when director Tony Scott.s thriller The Taking of Pelham 123 arrives on DVD and Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on November 3rd for the suggested retail price of $39.95 (Blu-ray) and $28.96 (DVD). A remake of the 1974 suspense classic, based on a 1973 novel by Jon Godey, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 sees Washington (Best Actor: Training Day, 2001; Best Supporting Actor: Glory, 1989) teamed with John Turturro (Transformers, O Brother, Where Art Thou) to battle against Travolta (Basic, Swordfish) and Luis Guzmán (War, Punch-Drunk Love) in a heart-pounding story full of action, thrills and suspense deep inside the New York Subway system.
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- Patrick Luce
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North American box office: ‘Funny People’ not laughing so much
5 August 2009 10:19 AM, PDT
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If you consider that Funny People is actually a drama, and not a comedy, it opened pretty well compared to other Adam Sandler dramas -- Reign Over Me opened to only about $7 million in 2007, and Punch-Drunk Love to only $367,203 in 2002 (though that was on only 5 screens, for a whopping per-screen average of $73,440; Reign’s was $4,464, and Funny People’s is $7,535). If you consider that Judd Apatow made his name with mainstream audiences with raunchy comedies, and that this film was marketed as a comedy, it’s a pretty poor opening. When you consider that likely most of the audience who turned up for the film thought they were getting another Apatow comedy, we’re probably gonna see this take a huge drop next weekend. Can I predict? I’m gonna save 70 percent.
Half-Blood Prince hung on fairly well this weekend thanks in large part to its arrive on IMAX screens.
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- MaryAnn Johanson
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‘Funny People’ makes $23.4 million: Will it cover the budget during run?
2 August 2009 1:20 PM, PDT
| ReelLoop.com
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Not so funny for Universal
Despite rapid-fire penis jokes, a third act collapse and a rather melancholy theme, spit-wad shooter and sometime director Judd Apatow’s latest tour de fart, Funny People, landed at the No.1 position with an estimated $23.4 million.
Starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen, Funny People still has some room to grow if it wants to catch its astounding $75-$100 million budget during its theatrical run. (See, that’s what happens when you have Paul Reiser stop by for a cameo. The payroll goes through the roof.) Look at the studio projections (low-$20 million to the mid-$30 million) and Universal may have been gambling on Funny People having a Hangover-like run. Time will tell.
This also marks Sandler’s worst comedy debut since 2000’s Little Nicky. Yet compared to the Happy Gilmore star’s more serious films (Punch-Drunk Love, Spanglish… Going Overboard), Funny People was a weiner winner.
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- Erik Buckman
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Box Office Report: 'Funny People' laughs to No. 1 with $23.4 mil
2 August 2009 11:03 AM, PDT
| EW - Hollywood Insider.com
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It was a glass half-full, glass half-empty kind of weekend at the box office for Funny People, writer-director Judd Apatow's comedic meditation on fame, humor, life, and death. According to figures from Hollywood.com Box Office, it opened at the top spot with an estimated $23.4 million, better than Apatow's The 40 Year-Old Virgin ($21.4 million) -- hence, the glass is half full. But that figure is far lower than the debut for Apatow's Knocked Up ($30.7 million), and it's the worst opening for a comedy for star Adam Sander since his 2000 turkey Little Nicky -- hence, the glass is half empty. Of course, Funny People was billed more as a thoughtful dramedy than a balls-out Sandler laugh-fest, and when matched against the opening frames for Sandler's serious efforts Reign Over Me, Spanglish, and Punch-Drunk Love, Funny People is far and away the winner -- and the glass is half full again.
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- Adam B. Vary
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Funny People Review
31 July 2009 10:51 PM, PDT
| newsinfilm.com
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After You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, I thought I was done with the collaborations of former roommates Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow. Having tried Sandler’s silly style, I guess the partnership thought maybe they should try something for adults this time. The result is Funny People, an odd mixture of depth, laughs, loneliness, and ambition that perhaps works out too much material in its 149 minutes.
Never one for brevity, Apatow directs another rambling movie about relationships that delivers plenty of laughs but could use an edit from an impartial party. What starts out as a smart comedy for fans of funny and centers on revelations stemming from a leukemia diagnosis turns into a meandering subplot about lost love. While most movies usually span three acts of arching development, this one goes halfsies on terminal illness (actually quite Funny) and the importance of close relationships (there’s your People). However,
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- Jeff Leins
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Funny People | Review
31 July 2009 6:56 PM, PDT
| SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
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Director: Judd Apatow
Writer(s): Judd Apatow
Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman
George (Adam Sandler) is not much different from the real-life Sandler. After enjoying countless years of success as a comedian and movie star, George appears to have already reached the pinnacle of his career. There is no place to go but down. Unfortunately, that is not the least of his worries. George has been diagnosed with a rare and fatal strand of leukemia, in other words George has also already reached the pinnacle of his life (and for all you God-fearing people out there – he is destined to go down to hell).
After George performs a pitiful routine at the local stand-up comedy club, Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) takes the stage and immediately pounces on his predecessor’s pathetic performance. George lingers in the audience long enough to suffer
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- Don Simpson
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[Movie Review] Funny People
30 July 2009 4:00 PM, PDT
| JustPressPlay.net
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Even in its flaws and near-failure, there's something mighty impressive about Funny People. It's indulgent, for sure, but how can it not be, with this kind navel-gazing premise? This is Judd Apatow's dissection of Hollywood's comedy world, and he does so thoroughly, depicting in rich observational detail the many different paths "funny people" can take to achieve success in showbiz. In a performance that would no doubt color his future films, Adam Sandler plays a character very close to himself that paints an unflattering picture of his own career so far.
There's a lot of pent-up anger in Sandler's performance, so much so that it's enough to carry the 2 hour 26 minutes running time by itself. His self-pity is repetitive, but nonetheless fascinating and in-depth, like a sorry schlub version of Charles Foster Kane. As George Simmons, a comic-turned-movie star dying from a rare form of leukemia, Sandler destroys the
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- Arya Ponto
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July 31: DVD alternatives to this weekend’s multiplex offerings
30 July 2009 3:29 PM, PDT
| www.flickfilosopher.com
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We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but Adam Sandler dying of some awful disease isn’t your idea of a good time. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on Monday, “Hey, did you see that movie about Adam Sandler dying of that awful disease?” you can reply, “No, I prefer Adam Sandler repressed and depressed rather than outrageous and lonely. That’s so much more fun.”
Instead Of: Funny People, Judd Apatow’s new film, which isn’t at all the comedy it’s being marketed as, about a standup comedian and movie star (Adam Sandler) who discovers he’s dying, and tries to change his big-fat-jerk ways with the help of an up-and-coming comic (Seth Rogen)...
Watch: Martin Scorsese’s 1983 film The King of Comedy,
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- MaryAnn Johanson
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