Posts Tagged ‘Ben Stiller’

Best surprise: With song/dance man Hugh Jackman as host, surprise presenters, and funny gag bits, the Oscar’s was one of the most entertaining it’s been in a long time. (Ratings were even up 6 percent from last year’s telecast.)

Worst surprise: Chances are you won your office pool because just about no surprise winners threw off our ballots. “Slumdog Millionaire” cleaned up winning 8 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay as predicted, and Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger, and Penélope Cruz won as expected. The biggest upset was Sean Penn winning Best Actor over Mickey Rourke, but really we all knew it was between the two anyway.

Worst use of presenting the Best Pictures:  Up until the last ten minutes of the show, you wouldn’t even know which films were nominated for Best Picture, and isn’t this what the night was really all about? Instead of showcasing clips throughout the night like usual, the clips were only shown right before the award was handed out. Even worse, they were intermingled with previous films that have similar themes making the clips confusing and taking attention away from the nominees.

Best presentation of movies: The montages of film genres recapping the best of 2008 were done so in great pop culture fashion. Coldplay’s “Lovers in Japan” played to the great romance flicks, Wall-E the adorable robot found a tape of the best animation movies, and the hilarious James Franco and Seth Rogen reprised their “Pineapple Express” roles as they watched DVDs of the funniest comedies.

Worst use of presenting the Best Songs: The song nominees, which are usually played in their entirety throughout the night, also weren’t given their full due. The two “Slumdog Millionaire” songs and “Wall-E” song were shortened and played one after the other. We all knew “Jai Ho” was going to win, but “Wall-E” should have been given it’s own set piece rather than making John Legend sing with “Slumdog’s” Indian back-up dancers and drummers.

Best use of presenting awards: Rather than randomly presenting awards, the telecast walked the audience through the making of a movie starting with the screenwriting process to art direction to editing. Stars associated with the category was also a nice touch like action hero Will Smith presenting Best Visual Effects and Sound Mixing and “Religious” filmmaker Bill Maher presenting Best Documentary.

Best presenters: Steve Martin and Tina Fey presented the screenplay awards humorously (“Don’t fall in love with me” Martin stoically told a googly eyed Fey) and controversially (poking fun at Hollywood-favorite Scientology). And don’t forget about Ben Stiller who delivered a dead-on impression of Joaquin Phoenix’s bizarre appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman” while presenting with Natalie Portman. It would have been even funnier though if it wasn’t just parodied at the previous night’s Independent Spirit Awards.

Best use of presenters: Keeping most of the identities of the presenters top-secret beforehand made for a more exciting show because you never knew who was going to come out next. Hello Will Smith, hello Reese Witherspoon!

Worst use of presenters: While it was fun seeing past winners like Nicole Kidman, Robert De Niro, and Christopher Walken, presenting the nominees, it came off too self-congratulatory. Instead of comments like “You really nailed it” and Marion Cotillard clasping her hands together cooing “Thank you” to Winslet, let’s see some clips instead. Most viewers at home haven’t seen all the movies, so it’d be more interesting to see the performances for which they’re nominated. 

Best acceptance speech: Instead of the director or co-stars accepting on his behalf, the acceptance of Heath Ledger’s Oscar by his family was much more touching. “Tonight we are choosing to be happy and celebrate what he has achieved,” his mother, Sally Bell, said.

Funniest acceptance speeches: Where to begin? First there’s Phillipe Petit, the subject of the documentary, “Man on Wire,” who not only balanced the Oscar on his chin, he also made a coin disappear.  Then the Japanese director of the Best Animated Short, “Kunio Kato thanked Mr. Roboto.” Finally, Best Director, Danny Boyle, bounced up and down in homage of Tigger for his children.  

Worst camera shots: Awkward alert… Not only did Jennifer Aniston have to present an award mere feet away from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the camera cut away to Brangelina twice! At least Jolie and Pitt made nice and weren’t giving dirty looks.

Best use of teeny boppers: While baby faced stars like Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Robert Pattinson, and Amanda Seyfried presented and performed on stage to most likely draw in the younger audience, their presence was downplayed and didn’t make the Oscars feel like the Teen Choice Awards.

Best secret talent: Anne Hathaway showed off her really good voice in her pretend-impromptu song and dance number with Jackman. Look out Beyoncé. Maybe you won’t be needed next year.

Here are the winners of the major categories:

Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”

Best Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”

Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”

Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Most well known and beloved actors and actresses in Hollywood have worked hard for their A-List status. But what types of mundane, low budget movie dues did these famous faces have to pay in their past?

Tom Cruise – Cruise and Brooke Shields made “Endless Love” in 1981. If the title isn’t corny enough, the reviews will surely keep you away. Variety says, “’Endless Love’ is a manipulative tale of a doomed romance which careens repeatedly between the credible and the ridiculous.” In 1983 Cruise made “Losin’ It” – a teenage rebel film where 4 friends travel to Mexico to party and are joined by a woman seeking a quickie divorce. One review says, “This doesn’t sound like much and it isn’t…” Luckily, “Risky Business” was Cruise’s next movie.

Viggo Mortensen – 1987’s “Salvation!: Have You Said Your Prayers Today?” stars Mortensen as a controlling husband questioning the credibility of his wife’s favorite television evangelist. The tagline is great, “SEX. POWER. MONEY. It’s all in the name of God!” Siskel & Ebert describe it as “boring,” “cliché,” “uninteresting” and state the performances are “wooden.” “Fresh Horses” (1988) is about a college educated engaged man that falls for a country girl who is supposedly 20 year old. Its tagline – “Love doesn’t have to last a lifetime.” And it doesn’t for “Horses” also staring two brat packers and Ben Stiller.

Joe Pesci – “Moonwalker” made in 1988 is a Michael Jackson film. Pesci plays the villain wanting to get kids hooked on drugs. Filled with kids (eek!) and dance sequences, this movie does not add credibility to Pesci’s resume. Another flop is “Betsy’s Wedding” where three very different families are brought together to plan a wedding for Betsy. Roger Ebert says, “…there’s nothing compelling here.”

Kirsten Dunst – Her first credited movie was “The Bonfire of the Vanities” which also starred Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith. Don’t let that fool you, a critic from Variety says, “The Bonfire of the Vanities is a misfire of inanities.” The only nominations it received were Razzies. “Greedy” is another big name film that flopped. A Washington Post reviewer states, “Their best hope is that “Greedy” will vanish quickly from public view.” Fortunately, Dunst’s next film was “Interview with the Vampire.”

Sandra Bullock – 1987’s “Hangmen” is the first movie credit for Bullock. The film’s tagline is terrible – “In this world no one is innocent, and if you want to live, you’ve got to beat the Hangmen.” It’s practically untraceable, which is not a good sign. 1989 brought “Religion, Inc.” about “Seeing God on TV inspires a New York adman to form a new religion based on greed, with a janitor.” One IMDB user states “Perhaps the worst movie ever made. “The Vanishing” (1993) is about a boyfriend’s search for his abducted girlfriend. Grossing a little $14,543,394, a Washington Post critic says the film, “merely leaves us stupefied, gasping for relief.”

Julianne Moore – Her first movie credit is “sLaughterhouse II.” And then “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” described as “a lame effort.” “The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag” is said to be “Death by Mediocrity” by the Washington Post, “Stupid title, stupid movie,” by the Austin Chronicles, receives a 3.6 out of 10 rating on Rotten Tomatoes and only grossed $3,721,911. “Body of Evidence” (1993) receives a half star from the Chicago Sun Times, 1 star from ReelViews, and a 2.3 of 10 rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It gets worse. The tagline is “An act of love, or an act of murder?” This one should just be locked up and forgotten about it seems.

Diane Lane and Richard Gere teamed up once again for “Nights in Rodanthe,” which opened last weekend, but they’re not the only actors who can’t get enough of working with each other. From present day to Old Hollywood couples – and even some silly boys in between- here’s a look back at some of our favorite on-screen pairs.

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy: This classic old Hollywood duo was off-screen and on-screen couples. In their nine films together, including Woman of the Year and Adam’s Rib, they became notorious for their battle-of-the-sexes theme.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton: Doing things just once was clearly not enough for Taylor and Burton. Not only did they marry twice, they appeared in 12 movies together some of which include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cleopatra and The Taming of the Shrew.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire: Rumor has it they hated each other off-screen, but you couldn’t tell from watching them dance away in their ten musicals they made together including Top Hat and Shall We Dance.

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks: If Hanks wasn’t married to Rita Wilson, he should be married to Ryan. Time and time again America’s sweethearts have made us all believe in fairy tale endings with their undeniable chemistry in Joe Versus the Volcano, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail.

Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler: Whether she’s a waitress and he’s a heartbroken wedding singer in the 80s themed The Wedding Singer or she has short-term memory loss and he has to romance her every day in 50 First Dates, Barrymore and Sandler are the cutest and funniest recurring couple.

Diane Lane and Richard Gere: Three movies, three very different roles. They were young musicians in love during the jazz age in The Cotton Club, a suburban couple in a troubled marriage in Unfaithful and two middle-aged strangers who strike up a romance in Nights in Rodanthe.  

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson: Who says the movie’s best on-screen couples have to be a man and a woman? These silly real life best friends have made us laugh again and again in The Cable Guy, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, Night at the Museum, The Royal Tenenbaums, Starsky & Hutch and Zoolander.

Julia Roberts and George Clooney: Hollywood’s current classiest actors have made one of Hollywood’s current classiest couples in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and all three Ocean’s movies.

Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton: Film icons like Nicholson and Keaton were bound to end up in some movies together during their long reigns in Hollywood. They played a couple in the romantic comedy, Something’s Gotta Give and starred together in Warren Beatty’s epic Reds.

Sorry to put a damper on things for you Shrekkies out there, but those “Could-it-be-true?” rumors of Tom Cruise lending his voice to lovable Shrek’s upcoming flick, “Shrek Goes Forth,” are just that: rumors.

The blogosphere was inundated with “sources” who swore that Cruise was considering the role. And the situation really got out of hand once the mainstream media validated it.

NOT SO, says Cruise, whose next project looks like a film with buddy Ben Stiller. Seriously. In any event the Shrek thing is out…at least for now. That’s the rumor anyway.

At least two groups are protesting Tropic Thunder, the soon-to-be released spoof starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., and Jack Black.

The Special Olympics and the American Association of People with Disabilities, along with other organizations, say the movie uses a disparaging term to describe individuals challenged by mental disabilities, apparently referring to the term “Simple Jack” to describe Stiller’s character, an actor who plays the role of a mentally disabled character.

Earlier promos and tag lines read, “Once there was a retard.” But Dreamworks pulled that line because of complaints from several advocacy groups. Dreamworks reps say there will be no additional changes or cuts to the film, due in theaters this week.

Robert Downey Jr. wears blackface for a new role in “Tropic Thunder” – something not new in Hollywood.

Robert Downey Jr. has played some high profile roles: Armored superhero Iron Man, silent film star Charlie Chaplin and British sleuth Sherlock Holmes in the upcoming Guy Ritchie film. Now in the new comedy “Tropic Thunder” he plays a black man. What’s so noteworthy about that? Well, he’s white.

In the film opening August 13, he plays an Oscar-winning actor cast in a big-budget Vietnam War movie. So you see, Downey isn’t playing a black man. He’s playing a white actor playing a role originally written for a black actor. But is a white guy appearing in blackface racist? Controversial?

Downey and Ben Stiller, the film’s co-writer and director, think satire. Stiller told Entertainment Weekly that he and Downey “always focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African-Americans.”

So far there’s been no uproar from early screening goers or moral outrage from Al Sharpton. In fact, Stiller told EW that he was relieved at the positive reaction from black audience members after screening a rough cut of the film. “It seems people really embrace it,” he said. Downey’s black co-star Brandon T. Jackson also embraced Downey’s portrayal.

“When I first read the script, I was like, ‘What? Black face?’ But when I saw him (Downey Jr.) (act) he, like, became a black man. To be honest, he played a black dude better than anybody I’ve seen!” Jackson told starpulse.com.

A white actor wearing blackface isn’t new to Hollywood. Old Hollywood actors Judy Garland, Joan Crawford and Shirley Temple to contemporary stars Sarah Silverman, Billy Crystal and Angelina Jolie have all performed in blackface. Fred Armisen (of Venezuelan and Japanese descent) even plays Barack Obama on “Saturday Night Live.”

The newest Hollywood actor to don blackface isn’t worried his performance is disrespectful. “At the end of the day, it’s always about how well you commit to the character,” Downey told EW. “If I didn’t feel it was morally sound, or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I’m just C. Thomas Howell in , I would’ve stayed home.”

Here are 10 movies that aren’t even out yet, but are already creating that infamous buzz.

1. Watchmen – The next in line of comic books adapted to film series, Watchmen was “all the rage” at Comic Con.  Set in 1985, but in an alternative USA, this graphic novel series is supposed to take apart what is normally thought of when it comes to superheroes.  Set to release March 6, 2009.

2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – I recently wrapped up reading the 6th book in J.K. Rowling’s series and it was terrific.  A lot of the energy surrounding this episode of H.P. is that it takes a darker look into the enemy’s youth as well as saying some goodbyes.  Set to release November 21, 2008.

3. W – An unconventional look at life through our 43rd President’s eyes. To be released while the real George W. Bush is still in office, it’s the “will it make fun of the President or support him” question that has people talking. Directed by Oliver Stone and starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Thandie Newton, Ellen Burstyn, Richard Dreyfuss and James Cromwell.   This is gonna be one hot topic of a film. Set to release October 29, 2008.

4. Angels & Demons – The book before “The Da Vinci Code”, Dan Brown’s Vatican City novel is hitting theaters soon.  No one is forgetting the controversies of “The Da Vinci Code” and this edition possess more challenges because it actually takes place in Vatican City as well as on the grounds itself.  Tom Hanks, Ron Howard and Ewan McGregor team up to bring us another mystery. Set to Release May 15, 2009.

5. Twilight – If you haven’t heard of the novels by Stephanie Meyer yet then you officially live under a rock. The teenage vampire saga is receiving a lot of attention from not only the MTV crowd, but the VH1-ers as well. The series, made up of 4 books, has been on the New York Times Best Seller list for over 40 weeks.  Set to release December 12, 2008.

6. Eagle Eye – Shia LaBeouf is a guy suddenly thrown into a deadly version of a scavenger hunt by some mysterious woman on the phone watching every move he and Michelle Monaghan make.  And I have a sneaking feeling there will be a twist no one is expecting.  Set to release September 26, 2008.

7. Terminator Salvation – As if Christian Bale doesn’t have enough on his plate, people are already talking about his next movie where he plays the boy the Terminator was sent to save.  Set to release May 22, 2009.

8. X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Adding on to the X-Men series, but in a different way, is the story of Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman.  Set to release May 1, 2009.

9. Tropic Thunder – Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. are the reasons why audiences will fall out of their seats for this movie. Also starring Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, Tobey Maguire, Mickey Rooney, Nick Nolte and Bill Hader.  Set to release August 15, 2008.

10. Australia – People are talking about the chemistry and steamy love scenes between two native Australians, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman (looks like he’s going to have a busy year!) in a war film about their homeland.  Set to release November 14, 2008.