Review: Over Her Dead Body Has Some Good Laughs
All hail Paul Rudd! You give him something lukewarm like Over Her Dead Body and he’ll enliven it with charming sarcasm and impeccable comedic instincts. Of course, he has Eva Longoria working hard to undermine everything he does, flopping around frantically while he delights in understatement, but I think he eventually outweighs her.Rudd plays Henry, a veterinarian whose bridezilla fiancee, Kate (Longoria), is killed on their wedding day. Why he loved such a b-word in the first place is a mystery, and so is his moping that continues for a year afterward. His layabout sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) is concerned.
“You don’t smile, and you never leave your apartment,” she says.
“I like my apartment,” he replies. “Nobody hassles me when I don’t smile there.”
At last Chloe drags him to a psychic to see if they can contact Kate and get some closure. The psychic is Ashley (Lake Bell), a pretty young thing who is also a part-time caterer. (The film very awkwardly presents this information by showing her kitchen full of food and an assistant helping to cook it, not telling us until much later WHY all that food is there.) Henry is sarcastic about the whole psychic thing, but he goes along with it for his sister’s sake — plus, he kind of likes Ashley.
When the seance is ineffective, Chloe conspires with Ashley to trick Henry into moving on with his life. She gives Ashley Kate’s diary, with instructions to use the information in it to pretend she has contacted the dead woman. This turns out to be unnecessary, though: Kate’s spirit actually shows up and starts harassing Ashley, whom she correctly believes has a crush on Henry.
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Review: Rambo is Big Goofy Fun
I don’t know how you could purchase a ticket to Rambo and not know what you are getting in to. I mean, it’s Rambo. If you’re expecting some sort of actual narrative or decent dialogue you’re barking up the wrong tree. But if you want to watch John frickin’ Rambo do his thing, with plenty of killing and gunplay in the mix… well, you’re going to be a happy camper here.Burma is the locale for the fourth edition of the Rambo saga. For the sake of simplicity let’s call the Burma bad guys the “bad guys” and the Burma good guys the “Karen Rebels.” The Karen Rebels are actually a real deal rebel group. You can Google them and read all about them; so Sly isn’t just making this stuff up as he goes along. However, the main point of placing Rambo in Burma is to give him that handy jungle locale and plenty of baddies to “interact” with. It all kicks off when missionaries enlist Rambo’s help in going upriver to deliver medicine and bibles to the rebels. But something goes wrong. DEAD WRONG.
Sorry, that just felt right. Anyway, Rambo faces off against a few hundred bad dudes – I’m not going to ruin that for you. Sly looks older, yeah, but still super juiced up and in better shape than 99.9% of the humans in the world. What I’m saying here is that he pulls it off. He has a giant head and he doesn’t talk much but he’s still completely and utterly badass.
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Review: Untraceable is World Class Terrible
Whew boy, is this movie awful. To think that a group of people got together to make this — without any realization of the miserable mess that it is… well, you sort of have to hand it to them. Everyone could use that sort of delusion in their life. I envision the team in the screening room nodding their and heads thinking, “We’ve got it!” Fellas, you didn’t get it. Trust me.Untraceable revolves around the life of FBI agent Jennifer Marsh (played by an exhausted looking Diane Lane). She works the night shift in the cybercrimes division, tracking credit card thieves and the like. She comes across a website that threatens to kill a kitten live on streaming video and we’re off. Nobody cares about the kitten, but of course the nastiness escalates and eventually bigger prey are involved. Though I couldn’t possibly spoil this movie for you, I’ll stick by my lifelong quest to avoid reviews that are only plot recaps and just move on.
What goes wrong? So, so much. Colin Hanks would have been fine as Lane’s partner but his character is written so oddly that you never really warm to him. The Portland FBI office that Lane works in seems to be staffed mostly by the learning disabled and logical problem after logical problem presents itself only to be ignored. The premise of the movie is an online killer — and the more people tune in to his online killing means the quicker the person dies. But the reasonable implications of that are never really considered. Who, for instance, could host 17 million concurrent video streams off their laptop? A vague reference is made to the genius of the killer but unless his dad is Joe YouTube the whole thing seems to be crazy improbable. Sure, I’m supposed to suspend disbelief for the sake of the movie, but when your central theme is how crazy and mean-spirited the Internet is than you’d better at least pay some attention to the details. Otherwise you just look like a fool.
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Review: Cloverfield is Big Fun at the Theater
The film-it-yourself YouTube generation has inspired its first monster movie in Cloverfield, a short, intense, and scary flick that plays out the way Godzilla would have if it had been shot with a bystander’s camcorder.That is the central conceit of the film, which was produced by J.J. Abrams (mastermind of TV’s Lost), written by frequent collaborator Drew Goddard, and directed by Matt Reeves. Someone is videotaping the events at a going-away party for a friend when a giant something-or-other attacks the city. We see only what the video camera sees, the footage apparently having been discovered by rescuers or clean-up crews after the fact.
Call it a gimmick if you must, but it works. Since we only know what the camera-wielder and his friends know, we’re as terrified and nervous as they are. The scenario calls for naturalistic, improvised-sounding dialogue, too, which is rendered with complete authenticity by the small group of mostly unknown actors. In short, there is very little about the film to suggest it’s not exactly what it claims to be. If it weren’t for the dearth of news reports about New York City being attacked by a giant monster, you’d accept the film as a documentary.
The footage comes from a night in May when a group of twentysomethings are celebrating their friend Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and his new job in Japan. Rob’s brother Jason (Mike Vogel) has thrown the party and put their comic-relief pal Hud (T.J. Miller) in charge of getting video testimonials from everyone. Jason’s girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas) is there; so is a girl named Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) whom Hud has a crush on — and so is Beth (Odette Yustman), Rob’s long-time friend and one-time hookup who has shown up at the party with another guy.
With those basic relationships established, we get to the heart of things when explosions and fires suddenly rock lower Manhattan. Through Hud’s camera we see panic in the streets as buildings collapse and the Statue of Liberty’s head comes soaring in from the harbor. Hud continues to film as much as he can, realizing immediately that people will want a document of this.
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Candid Thoughts on Paris’ New Movie
In the year 1597, a little known English playwright by the name of William Shakespeare published a poorly received romantic comedy titled Romeo and Juliet (which has systematically been remade time and again). Contained in this oft forgotten work of fiction was the phrase, “A plague o’ both your houses!” How prophetic it seems now that those words have finally come to fruition. Here we stand as a nation divided, and on both our houses comes the plague of another romantic comedy. This one, starring Paris Hilton. And it’s called ever so eloquently, The Hottie and the Nottie. I’ll bet Shakespeare is kicking himself that he hadn’t thought of that first. Little known piece of trivia: when Shakespeare spoke of plagues, he was often referring to Hilton directly.
See if this description grabs you, culled from the movie’s own website:
Nate Cooper has been smitten with Cristabel Abbott since he first laid eyes on her at the impressionable age of six. In the intervening years, there have been other women in Nate’s life, but none who could measure up to Cristabel. Convinced Cristabel is the only girl for him, Nate decides to move back to L.A. and track her down. The good news: she’s still single and stunning. The bad news: there’s a reason she’s still single. Cristabel’s still best friends with the same ugly little girl from first grade, June Phigg. And Cristabel simply refuses to leave dear June home alone. Determined to spend as much time as possible with Cristabel, Nate sets out to find a boyfriend for June. But guys all flee at the sight of her, and it hits him: June needs a makeover. As Nate and June become friends and she emerges from her cocoon, Nate slowly realizes that the girl of his dreams may not be the hottie at all…
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Visiting actress Mia Farrow says she’s ‘bewildered’ by Cambodian ban on Darfur ceremony
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) American actress Mia Farrow said she was bewildered by the Cambodian government’s attempt to block a ceremony at a former Khmer Rouge prison intended to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
“It’s pretty harsh to be against a ceremony that honors the victims of Darfur and genocide survivors everywhere,” Farrow said in an interview Saturday. “Frankly, I’m a little bewildered.”
Farrow said she and other activists were determined to press ahead with the Sunday ceremony at the Khmer Rouge’s infamous Tuol Sleng torture facility, and would hold it outside the former prison’s gates if police block them from entering.
Farrow, who is working with the U.S.-based advocacy group Dream for Darfur, traveled to Cambodia to stage a mock Olympic torch-lighting ceremony at the former prison. The ceremony aims to send a message to China host of the 2008 Olympics and one of Sudan’s major trading partners to press Khartoum to end abuses in Darfur.
China has strong economic ties with both Sudan and Cambodia.
The Cambodian government said days ago it would prevent the 62-year-old actress from going through with the ceremony because the group had “a political agenda against China” and was holding the event for political rather than humanitarian reasons.
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A Different ‘Sunshine’ at Sundance
There’s more “Sunshine” at Sundance.
Two years after “Little Miss Sunshine” stormed out of the film festival to earn nearly $60 million and two Oscars, another comedic drama seems to be trying to follow in its footsteps.
Like its predecessor, “Sunshine Cleaning” revolves around a quirky family with communication problems, stars Alan Arkin as a grandpa encouraging a cute kid to succeed and features a sun-drenched Albuquerque, N.M. setting.
A broken-down car gets stuck on the roadside in one key scene, calling to mind the problematic VW bus of “Little Miss Sunshine.” In both films, an abundance of perky music propels the narrative.
Noting the loud buzz around “Sunshine Cleaning,” festival director Geoffrey Gilmore cautioned the premiere-night audience, “This isn’t the other ‘Sunshine.'”
Despite eminently likable stars Emily Blunt and Amy Adams, “Sunshine Cleaning” is much darker than the 2006 movie. At the premiere, audiences laughed for about the first 20 minutes, settled in for downward-spiraling drama that took up the majority of the movie, then laughed again in the last few minutes.
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Lohan to Visit Morgue As Punishment
Lindsay Lohan is about to see dead people.
In June, the 21-year-old actress will visit a morgue as part of her punishment for misdemeanor drunken driving.
“She’s gonna see bodies. We’ll have anywhere from 20 to 25 people in the class and she’s treated like any other individual,” Los Angeles County Coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said Friday.
Lohan’s attorney, Blair Berk, appeared at a hearing Thursday to report to a judge on Lohan’s progress toward fulfilling the terms of her plea bargain. The actress was not required to appear.
Lohan has completed her rehabilitation and served 80 hours of community service with the American Red Cross, Berk said Friday.
Lohan was arrested twice last year on DUI charges and pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges. She served 84 minutes in jail as part of the plea deal.
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Wrap-Up of Entertainment Quotes
“Our hope is that all of the players involved will lock themselves in a room and not come out until they finish. We want this to be done.” George Clooney, on the Hollywood writers strike.
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“Somebody needs to step up and get this young woman into some quality care and I do not apologize one whit, not one second, for trying to make that happen.” “Dr. Phil” McGraw, responding to critics who said he crossed the line by making public statements after visiting Britney Spears in the hospital last week.
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“The writers! The guys on the fourth floor with the opium bongs, playing Guitar Hero all day! I find that a bit of a stretch.” An in-character Stephen Colbert, refusing to concede that his writing staff now on strike were required to provide his “commentaries” on “The Colbert Report.”
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Honorary Mayor of Hollywood Dies at 84
Johnny Grant, the avuncular honorary mayor of Hollywood who traveled the world as Tinseltown’s No. 1 cheerleader for more than a half-century, has died. He was 84.
Grant died just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, apparently of natural causes, said Officer Jason Lee. Grant was found dead on a bed in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Lee said.
Grant was perhaps best known as the jolly host alongside more than 500 celebrities he inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The lifelong bachelor lived in a 14th-floor suite at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
Grant’s mission in life was bringing the Tinseltown story to everyone. He hosted red carpet Oscar arrivals and Walk of Fame festivities, appeared in bit parts in movies, and produced Hollywood’s annual Christmas Parade.
“I feel I have been the luckiest guy in the world,” he often said. “It’s been a pretty good ride.”
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