Movies

The end of the world is coming and if Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost et al have any say in the matter we'll all be too drunk to notice. Yup, the third collaboration from the team behind Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz is on the way and on the heels of the recent UK trailer there is now also a new - and very much different - US trailer to entice you.Twenty years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hellbent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year-old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

They can remember it for you wholesale, and they do. At some point, we licensed our pop cultural nostalgia to a handful of multinational conglomerates (well, to be fair, they always owned the licenses) and now they're selling them back to us - though, I guess, not at wholesale, but rather at a horrible markup that is tallied in both dollars and broken hearts. The reboot, the prequel-sequel, the Further Installments Of... this train ride has been chugging along for a while, but bouncing around the vapid hall of mirrors of Star Trek Into Darkness, I began to wonder if it isn't time to get off. We can, appropriately enough, blame The Phantom Menace for all this; appropriately because a) most people blame The Phantom... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

J.C. Chandor avoids the sophomore slump with an impressively spare, nearly dialogue-free stranded-at-sea drama starring a superb Robert Redford.

Here is the second guest contribution for Moon in the Gutter's Sofia Coppola Tribute Month. This great piece on Lost in Translation comes from J.D. Lafrance, the terrific writer on film who runs the essential Radiator Heaven. Thanks so much to J.D. for contributing this excellent piece on Sofia's crowning achievement. It's an honor to share it here... Lost in Translation-J.D. Lafrance, 2013- In 1999, Sofia Coppola made her feature film directorial debut with the spellbinding adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel, The Virgin Suicides. The film was a modest hit and heralded the young director as an emerging talent. Her follow-up was a much more personal project, written while she was going through a rough spot in her marriage and inspired by time she had spent in Japan trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She poured out her feelings of loneliness and confusion and the result was Lost in Translation (2003), an independent film starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as two lonely people who meet in a posh Tokyo hotel and bond over insomnia and absent spouses. Coppola’s film is a fascinating fusion of the chatty meet-cute between two people in a foreign country from Before Sunrise (1995) with the stylish existential ennui of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000). It was a surprise hit, striking a chord with many who identified with the romantic longing that developed between the two main characters. Lost in Translationreceived numerous awards and critical praise while also establishing Coppola as a major talent. With the first appearance of Bob Harris (Bill Murray), Coppola conveys that disorienting feeling of arriving in a strange place while being jetlagged. In this case, it is the neon-drenched urban sprawl that is Tokyo. He’s making a whiskey commercial instead of being at home where his wife is redecorating his study. Bob is also missing his son’s birthday and doesn’t seem all that upset about it; or rather he’s resigned himself to it. One gets the feeling that he’d rather be thousands of miles away than with his family. He’s an aging action movie star who has probably spent most of his time on movie sets. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is staying at the same hotel with her photographer husband John (Giovanni Ribisi). Much like Bob, she can’t sleep and stays behind in the hotel while he runs off on photo shoots with a band. We get some insight into how she’s feeling when the young woman calls a friend back in the United States. They start with the usual idle chit-chat, but pretty soon she’s choking back tears and blurts out, “I don’t know who I married,” before quickly ending the conversation so she can cry. It is an incredibly vulnerable moment that Scarlett Johansson conveys so well. All the feelings that have been bubbling under the surface finally come out. We’re never quite sure the source of marital strife between her and John, but it is probably getting married too young and that he is always busy while she follows him from job to job. Bob bravely soldiers on through the commercial, but it isn’t made easy by his translator who is not telling him exactly what the director wants. Coppola doesn’t use any subtitles during this scene so that we are as bewildered and frustrated as Bob. Like Charlotte, he is unhappy; tired of pimping whisky and is eager to leave the country as soon as possible. That night, he takes refuge in the hotel bar where the house band (an ex-pat. group rather amusingly named Sausalito) performs a bad cover of “Scarborough Fair,” much to his and Charlotte’s bemusement, who is there with John. She buys Bob a drink and they exchange a nod of acknowledgement from across the room, but don’t actually meet. This is the beginning of relationship that develops between these two lonely people who feel lost in Japan and find solace in each other’s company. As the film progresses, we get additional insight into the Charlotte and John’s relationship. Her feelings of estrangement a

Here’s the second trailer (well, the first US one) for Edgar Wright‘s new film The World’s End. Five friends (played by Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, and Eddie Marsan) reunite to complete the epic bar crawl they never manage to finish twenty years ago. But things are different, and it isn’t just because they’re older, and (probably not) wiser. There’s something genuinely wrong in their old hometown. As it turns out, the town has been taken over by… well, just watch the trailer. Rosamund Pike also has a big role in the film that caps off the (very) loose trilogy of films that began with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This trailer suggests that The World’s End has the same zing as those two films, but with a hell of a lot more going on in the effects department. Wright doesn’t need the effects, because he can make something lively and entertaining with just two people sitting in an empty room, but it does look like he’s having a grand time with the action. Yahoo has the trailer. The World’s End opens in the UK on July 19 and in the US on August 23. Director Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite for a third film following the successes “Shaun of the Dead” (2004) and “Hot Fuzz” (2007). In “The World’s End,” 20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hellbent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by Gary King (Simon Pegg), a 40-year-old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their hometown and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub – The World’s End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s. Reaching The World’s End is the least of their worries. “Barmageddon Begins” in Two New Posters for ‘The World’s End;’ Plus Edgar Wright Answers Twitter Questions‘The World’s End’ International Teaser Trailer: A Sci-Fi Conclusion to the Three Flavors Cornetto TrilogySequel Bits: ‘The Hobbit’, ‘The World’s End’, ‘The Muppets… Again’, ‘The Hangover III’, ‘Anchorman 2’First Official Look: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, and More in Edgar Wright’s ‘The World’s End’Rosamund Pike Joins Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at ‘The World’s End’Relive the Production of Edgar Wright’s ‘Shaun Of The Dead’ Through Daily Set Images

Despite its popularity in basic-cable environs from Bravo to Spike, the business-makeover genre has a mixed track record on broadcast networks. Fox seeks to bring its reality brand to the format by framing its latest summer fill-in “Does Someone Have to Go?” as an ostensibly relatable speculative proposition: If given the chance to ax someone... Read more »

Two recent high-profile HBO movies, “Phil Spector” and now the Liberace tell-all “Behind the Candelabra,” each touch upon a theme that should possess special resonance around Hollywood – namely, an aging man who can’t trust hangers-on to love him for himself, as opposed to his money and power. Admittedly, the protagonists in the two films... Read more »

The Tonys will remain with the network that has broadcast them for the past 35 years.

Ken Jeong may often play a lunatic on both big and small screen, but in person it's quite disarming to see just how calm and considerate he comes across. While he got his big screen start in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, Jeong's real breakthrough was taking a small-on-paper role of Chow in the first Hangover film and ratcheting things up many, many notches from the character on the page. Between Chow and his Señor Chang / Kevin role on Community, Jeong has established himself as a fearless, unique comedic actor unafraid to throw himself completely into the characters he plays.The third Hangover film provides an epic, worthy finale for the Wolf Pack, with Ken Jeong's Chow again stealing the show in his inimitable way.... [Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Remember when we all felt some vague relief while we briefly thought that Disney had pulled the new, sexy Merida due to protests. Brave creator, Brenda Chapman, called Merida's makeover "atrocious" and the petition to get rid of the new Merida received over 229,000 signatures. That is a huge amount of signatures. People are pissed.However, that wasn't really the case. A Disney spokesperson said that the new Merida would be on a limited line of products, and the original Merida would be on other Brave products. Even though both Meridas will exist, Disney is continuing to defend the makeover. Can you imagine what a parent will have to go through in a store looking for the "movie" Merida vs. the "princess" Merida? And then the conversation that will ensue?And considering from the picture above from Target's "Ultimate Disney Princess collection", which makes Merida look even more like a weird, skinny, and alien-esque, we believe this is a completely unhealthy representation for girls to look up to. Disney is still being irresponsible about this whole calamity. But they are focused on money, and princesses who look like weird, skinny aliens sell. And what Disney has displayed through this whole incident is the exact way to take a potential game changing role model for girls in the entertainment business and take away everything that made her special.Here's the thing we realized: Disney doesn't give a fuck. And that's hugely depressing. Update: Disney Defends Controversial Merida Makeover (Parade) Guess Which Disney Princess This Is (Jezebel)