Posts Tagged ‘movies’
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, September 18th, 2008
There’s nothing better than a good movie trailer. In the doldrums of the cinematic season like we are now, it’s refreshing to look at the things that will come out, instead of ruminating on the dreck out now. (Three words: “The House Bunny.”) So here are a few links to some trailer-y goodness. No popcorn included.
“The Changeling,” directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie, has more Oscar buzz than a statuette stuck in a bees’ nest. Watching this may convince you, too, with Jolie looking award-worthy as a distraught mom whose son goes missing, the wrong kid is returned to her, and she goes up against the L.A. law in 1928. And come on – Dirty Harry’s directing the thing!
I mentioned “Role Models” in a post last month when its first trailer hit. Now, here is the “red band” trailer for the new comedy starring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott and perhaps the funniest kid ever. Warning: It does contain some saucy language so listen to it with the ol’ headphones on, unless you have a really cool boss.
Charlie Kaufman’s “Adaptation” blew my mind, as did “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and his latest is “Synecdoche, New York,” starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a theater director who decides to put on the play of his life – quite literally, in fact. The trailer shows that there’s much more to it on the inside, with alternate realities, existential dialogue and nuanced characters. Bad or good, it’ll definitely be interesting.
This “red band” trailer for “Sex Drive” showcases the humor – both high- and lowbrow- of the throwback to 1980s sex comedies, as two dudes head out on a search for a cyber-babe in a stolen 1969 “Judge” GTO. And here’s a hilarious clip from the flick, featuring Seth Green as an Amish “outlaw.” Good stuff. (Thanks to Warren for the find.)
The new “Mummy” flick seemed to show that Brendan Fraser is still somewhat relevant, and “Inkheart,” based on the popular children’s book by Cornelia Funke, may keep him there. This trailer is visually exciting and teasing, and it only hints at the plot – fables come to life when a bookbinder (Fraser) reads aloud from a magical tome – instead of giving it all away. Plus, the cast is spot on, with Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Paul Bettany and Andy “Don’t call me Gollum” Serkis.
That’s it for now. We’ll have some more in the next couple of weeks. What movie can you not wait for this fall? Spill it in the comments or send email to novapoppin@gmail.com. And for the video of the week, here is something for fans of “The Office”:
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, September 12th, 2008
It’s the weekend! This week has gone by slooooooow. My weekend will consist of hanging out with friends on Saturday, and then a double feature of goodness on Sunday, watching the Redskins take on the New Orleans Saints and then hitting the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly for “The Dark Knight” (third time!). If there’s anything great going on you know of this weekend, drop some knowledge in the comments or email novapoppin@gmail.com.
One movie I’ve been waiting for a while to see comes out today: the Coen brothers’ quirky comedy, “Burn After Reading.” A departure from the siblings’ last flick, the Oscar-winning drama “No Country for Old Man,” this one is more along the lines of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” but with feds. Brad Pitt is the goofy gym employee who stumbles across a CD that contains the memoir of an ex-CIA official (John Malkovich) and with his equally inept co-worker (Frances McDormand), decides to blackmail them and get the Russians involved in a grand caper. “Michael Clayton” stars George Clooney and Tilda Swinton are also around for the shenanigans debuting at the Cinema Arts Theatre, as are the Euro-comedy “I Served the King of England” and the estrogen-filled drama “The Women,” a remake of a 1939 Joan Crawford flick with Annette Bening, Meg Ryan, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Bette Midler and Candice Bergen. Also at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Fairfax movie house is the penultimate meeting of the 2008 Cinema Arts Theatre Film Club, which screens indie and foreign films before they’re released. Hosted by former Washington Post and Washington Times movie critic Gary Arnold, the mystery movie this Sunday will also include a Q&A with the director! Boosh!
For the small screen, hoping to rebound from a poor theatrical run, “Speed Racer” takes off on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, with Emile Hirsch as the title dude and Matthew Fox as enigmatic Racer X in the Wachowskis’ adaptation of the old cartoon. The BBC sci-fi show “Torchwood” gets its second season released, a boon for the “Doctor Who” and cult fans out there. And if you’re unfamiliar with their awesomeness, definitely hit your nearest cash machine to get the first seasons of “Pushing Daisies” and the nerd-friendly “Chuck.”
Have a great weekend everyone!
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, September 5th, 2008
TGIF and whatnot! It’s been a short week – gotta love those – and time again to start planning for the weekend. My plans include seeing my nearby Stone Bridge Bulldogs take on Robinson – the only team that beat the defending state champs last year – in a high school tete a tete tonight (if the hurricane stays away) and then taking my mom to a movie for her b-day tomorrow. If you have any weekend suggestions for the rest of the NoVa Pop Nation, spill the beans in the comments section or email novapoppin@gmail.com.
It’s truly the down season at the movies, with all but one new release: Nicolas Cage plays a hitman with a heart in the actioner “Bangkok Dangerous.” Used to be, Nic Cage in an action film would get my attention – “The Rock” is one of the best in the genre, you know – but now it just gets a “meh” reaction from me. Instead of the mainstream, this may be the weekend to expand the cinematic boundaries and try out the nonstop-Bollywood theater, Loehmann Twin Cinemas in Falls Church. Perhaps “Bride and Prejudice” sparked an interest in you for those most popular of Indian flicks. Try “Rock On,” about a Hindi rock band whose members happen upon each other 10 years after the broke up for a whole new try at the music biz, or “Singh is Kinng,” a Sikh comedy of Shakespearean errors about a Punjabi dude named Happy who accidentally becomes king of the underworld.
In the DVD world, three Thursday night shows get releases so you can round out your collection – the fantastic “Smallville – The Complete Seventh Season,” the McDreamy-licious “Grey’s Anatomy: The Complete Fourth Season” and the hip “Ugly Betty: The Complete Second Season.” “Saturday Night Live” junkies will want to check out the comedy “Baby Mama” with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, while Quentin Tarantino’s epic “Kill Bill” debuts on Blu-ray with the classic “Volume 1″ and vastly inferior “Volume 2.” And for those who live by the sage advice of the Dude, the Coen brothers’ cult hit “The Big Lebowski” gets the 10th anniversary limited-edition treatment in collectible bowling ball packaging. The Brian abides.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Is Scarlett the color of love?
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, August 15th, 2008
It’s finally Friday and the weekend! It’s been a long week for me, and I’ve got a busy weekend for sure: reservations at Georgia Brown’s downtown tomorrow night, giving blood in the afternoon before rockin’ out at Mayhem Fest at Nissan Pavilion on Sunday. What are your plans this weekend? Anything going on that NoVa Pop Nation as a whole doesn’t know about? Drop some knowledge in the comments, or hit me up on email at novapoppin@gmail.com.
On to the movies, as some of you are assumably making some cinematic plans. “Tropic Thunder” is amazing, hilarious and downright wrong in most every way so that’s a must-see. Woody Allen’s got a new movie out, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” that’s making some headlines, too, with a makeout session between Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson, who’s making her third straight appearance in a Woody flick (after “Match Point” and “Scoop”). Oh yeah, recent Oscar winner Javier Bardem’s in it as well, starring as a Spaniard who gets involved in a love triangle with two women on vacation, which then becomes a love trapezoid when his ex-wife enters the picture. Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax is reeling this as well as “Transsiberian,” an international thriller directed by Brad Anderson (“The Machinist”) starring Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer as a couple who befriends the wrong passengers on their train. “Vicky” and “Transsiberian” are also playing at AMC Shirlington 7 in Arlington, as well as the family-friendly comedy “Henry Poole is Here,” with Luke Wilson as a guy who tries to hide away from the world in the middle-class L.A. ‘Burbs and discovers a new world next door with a divorcee and her precocious daughter.
Looking at the small screen, HBO’s well-done and engaging “Recount,” with Kevin Spacey and Denis Leary in the middle of the 2000 presidential election drama in Florida, gets a DVD release on Tuesday. The first season of “Terminator – The Sarah Chronicle Chronicles” was surprisingly good so to get you ready for the second starting next month, pick this up – and if you’ve got an HD TV, get the Blu-ray version, as all the stuff blowing up will pop that much more. And as much as I hate to admit it to the entire Internet … “Gossip Girl” is one heck of a guilty pleasure. Catch the complete first season if you like teenage trainwrecks, flighty rich parents and the geeky kid getting the hot girl (and then messing it up, then getting her back, then her messing it up, etc.)
Have great weekend, and I’ll see y’all back here on Monday!
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, August 8th, 2008
We’ve looked at books, music, crude drawings of teen girls and band geeks this week, and now let’s turn our attention to the screen with Friday Flicks. We’ll focus mostly on indie movies and what’s coming out the next Tuesday, and maybe even look at the occasional major release. (Some NoVa Poppers may, like me, be all about the animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” coming out next week. I’m hoping for a midnight showing on Thursday!)
The stoner comedy “Pineapple Express” has seen decent reviews so far, but no release gets higher this week than “Man on Wire.” The documentary follows the ballsy Frenchman Phillippe Petit, his obsession with the World Trade Center and his ensuing, death-defying act of walking between both towers on an illegally placed wire in 1974. He went from rooftop to rooftop, but what’s almost as impressive is what he had to do to get up there in the first place. The doc, which also makes for a mini-tribute to the grandiosity of those fallen skyscrapers, opens at the Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax, as does the psychological French thriller “Tell No One.” And at the AMC Loews Shirlington 7 in Arlington, the drama “Bottle Shock” stars Bill Pullman as an ex-attorney out to make the world’s perfect chardonnay, but in the meantime runs into financial trouble and has to repair the relationship with his estranged son (played by Chris Pine, who is Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming “Star Trek” film). Alan Rickman’s very bushy moustache may be worth the price of admission alone.
The DVD release list is highlighted by three TV shows on Tuesday: “The Wire – The Complete Fifth Season” wraps up the acclaimed HBO crime series with a focus on the Baltimore Sun, and of course Dominic West’s McNulty straddling the line between good cop and bad cop; “South Park – The Complete Eleventh Season” is the funniest volume yet, with the priceless “Imaginationland” trilogy and the “Guitar Queer-o” episode; and the third season of “Prison Break” hits on standard and Blu-ray DVD with a strike-shortened 13 episodes and Wentworth Miller in the pokey, needing to be broken out.
Have a great weekend! Let us know what’s up - email novapoppin@gmail.com.
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, August 7th, 2008
It’s almost the end of the first week of NoVa Pop! Today is the premiere of Pop-pourri, where I want you – yes, you, Mr. I’m Pretending to Work But Reading This Awesome Blog – to be very much involved. I want y’all to feel like this is your forum, too, where you can suggest things and get info and make it all organic and such. So ask questions, make suggestions, tell us what you want other NoVa Poppers to know and we’ll post ‘em in Pop-pourri on Thursdays. The email is novapoppin@gmail.com – learn it, love it, become one with it.
The great thing about the world of pop culture is the amount of STUFF there is. Especially to buy. So today, let’s look at a couple things you can purchase – and something you won’t want to miss at your local theater tonight.
The week’s leading sports story has been obvious: the ongoing soap opera of one Brett Favre, the Green Bay Packers quarterback who’s like a broken thermostat when it comes to retirement. Well, this just in: He ain’t a Packer anymore. (I wonder if he caused this much drama on the set of “There’s Something About Mary.”) Late last night, he was traded to the New York Jets, and they must have had their marketing crew working overtime because within an hour after the trade, a No. 4 Favre Jets jersey was available online. If you’re a Jets superfan, or you just want to stick it to your Packer-loving ex, go get yourself one here. More locally, another recently traded, future Hall of Famer has his new jersey available, too: Redskins defensive lineman – and ballroom dancer – Jason Taylor. Go get yours at one of the Redskins stores in the area – such as Dulles Town Center or Fair Oaks Mall – or hit the Skins’ online store. (Also this season, profits from any Sean Taylor merchandise sold online or in stores will be donated to the Sean Taylor Memorial Trust Fund.)
Based in Fairfax, ThinkGeek is the one-stop shop for most any pop-culture nerd. They have some great “Star Wars” shirts, such as this Marc Ecko-inspired top I’ve been known to rock once or thrice, but perhaps the cutest items in their catalog is their series of plush microbes. At 8 bucks each, you can get your own cuddly version of the Plague, toxic mold, chicken pox, malaria and other, nastier viruses and diseases. Or give your loved one the flu. It’s all good!
I admit it: I was a TOTAL band geek back in the day, marching tuba when I was in high school at Jefferson and then at UNC. And one of the things I always meant to do was join a drum corps – in other words, a “professional” marching band without flutes, clarinets and saxophones, made up mostly of college kids. Well, it’s time again for all local band geeks to unite – at the movie theater! Drum Corps International is having its annual championships this weekend in Indiana, and they’ll be showing the top 15 corps at theaters all over the area tonight at 6 p.m. Check out “DCI 2008: Big, Loud & Live 5″ at the following cinemas: AMC Hoffman 22 (Alexandria), Ballston Commons 12 (Arlington), Fairfax Towne Center (Fairfax), AMC Tysons Corner 16 (McLean) and Lee Highway Multiplex (Merrifield). You can buy your tickets online for $18 – which is a pretty good deal for more than five hours of musical motion. The uncannily precise Cavaliers and classically bombastic Phantom Regiment will be favorites going in, but you can’t count out the uber-cool defending champs, the Blue Devils. (They’re like the Tom Brady of drum corps.) In case you still have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a taste of what you’ll see:
Where on the Web for Videos and Teen Girl Squad
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
Web Wednesday is here and I’ve got some cool and sometimes quirky web sites for y’all to check out. If any of you loyal NoVa Poppers run across a great viral video or a site that left you on the floor (or, in cyber-speak, made you ROFL), send the link to novapoppin@gmail.com. I’m always looking for something to keep me entertained through the day, and this way, we can share it with fellow readers. Everybody wins!
Speaking of videos, keeping YouTube, Hulu, Veoh and all these other sites straight takes a good amount of time. Well, consider yourself freed up – from flash video games to online movies, OVGuide keeps it all organized! There are more than 2,100 sites on the guide, widgets keep you apprised of what’s buzzworthy and what people are watching, and offers a comprehensive search engine. For video mavens, it’s a must-favorite on your browser.
MTV.com has the new trailer here for the comedy “Role Models,” starring Seann William Scott (where the heck has he been?), the always-funny Paul Rudd and McLovin himself, Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Energy drink reps sign up for a Big Brother program – I think you can figure out the hilarity from there. The flick opens Nov. 14.
If you don’t know of “Teen Girl Squad,” go here now. Seriously. I’ll wait. From the dudes who brought you Homestar Runner and the charismatic Lucha Libre email guru Strong Bad, these very crude drawings of high school angst are priceless. The latest episode finds our four heroines studying for finals (“Hyper Fill in the Blank Barrage” was always my weakness, too) and trying to win boys on Yearbook Day. WOOT!
Premiering Sept. 7, HBO’s new series “True Blood” chronicles vampires down yonder in Louisiana and is based on the works of Charlaine Harris. The official site has new pages of a prequel comic book up every Wednesday, a store where you can get shirts and whatnot, and such other viral goodness as a vampire news site and a human/vampire dating service.
If you haven’t heard, there’s this little thing called the Olympics starting Friday. And sure, there’s about 147 trabillion cable channels that will be showing coverage of the events, but most will be taped (since the Summer Games are going on in China, and not around these parts). Thankfully, NBC is here to give us 2,200 hours of streaming broadband international sportage here. You know, if you can’t wait for all that exhaustive dressage coverage.
And here’s the video of the week, courtesy of well-dressed British funnyman Eddie Izzard: