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Film

The 50 Greatest Movie Villains of All Time

By Jason Bailey on

The true nature of Star Trek Into Darkness’s villain has become perhaps the Internet’s worst-kept secret, but don’t worry — you’ll not have it spoiled here. Suffice it to say that the film’s antagonist is fiercely intelligent, physically brutal, and hellbent on revenge. In other words, this is a great movie villain. But what makes a truly memorable one? Sifting through the scores of iconic movie bad guys and girls reveals that villainy comes in all shapes, sizes, and levels of intensity; ranking them against each other is a tall order, but your Flavorwire was willing to give it a… Read More

Film

The 10 Best Movies About Lovers on the Run

By Jason Bailey on

Good news for cinephiles: the kind folks at Criterion were kind enough to restore and release (on DVD and Blu-ray, along with the expected goody basket of bonus features) Terrence Malick’s Badlands, which is out this week. It’s mostly notable as Malick’s debut feature, but it was also a cornerstone picture of one of cinema’s most durable subgenres: the “lovers on the run” movie, in which an attractive young couple hits the road, fleeing their unfortunate crimes (and/or committing more), with the law in hot pursuit. If you’re in the mood for a marathon, we’ve got a few suggestions after the jump. … Read More

Film

15 Acclaimed Actors Who Look Nothing Like the Famous People They Played

By Julia Pugachevsky on

Earlier this week, we learned that BBC4 is set to release its own take on the doomed romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton — and fans are already complaining that Helena Bonham Carter, whose been cast as Liz, doesn’t look enough like her. But that doesn’t mean the six-time Golden Globe nominee and winner of Emmy, SAG, and BAFTA awards is doomed to fail at capturing the screen vixen’s famous fire. In fact, there’s plenty of precedent for actors who looked nothing like the real-life icons they portrayed nonetheless managing to convince us. These 15 actors may have presented a challenge for their films’ makeup departments, but they also turned in performances no lookalike could have matched. … Read More

Film

The Most Notorious Actor/Director Feuds in Movie History

By Jason Bailey on

A couple of weeks back, we spotlighted a few of the most fruitful and (presumably) harmonious filmmaker/actor collaborations in moviedom. But as we all know, filmmakers can also be a prickly lot, and the recent (mostly tabloid) coverage of director Kevin Smith’s recent swipes at his Cop Out star Bruce Willis (more on that below) got us thinking about some of the less cordial actor/director relationships. We’ve assembled some of the more contentious ones for your reading pleasure after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 of the Best Worst Movies

By Alison Nastasi on

Plan 9 from Outer Space from cult director Ed Wood hit Blu-ray this week. The film has famously been dubbed the worst movie ever made. We can’t help but admire the low budget filmmaker’s ability to craft an alien invasion — a charming feat considering his lack of resources (cardboard cutouts and model-kits on strings abound), amateur cast, and weirdly intercut footage of Bela Lugosi who posthumously starred in the sci-fi schlockfest. In celebration of all the best, worst movies out there, we wanted to examine a few other favorites. It’s all subjective, but these are a couple of standouts that managed to be entertaining despite the odds. Share your picks below, and let us know if you approve of ours in the comments section. … Read More

Film

Oscar’s Most Insane, Illogical Award Choices

By Jason Bailey on

This year’s Academy Awards are just around the corner (well, okay, they’re still a week and a half away, so it’s more like around the corner, down a little, second door on the left), and while we can’t help but get a little excited about Hollywood’s big night, we’re also being very careful to keep our expectations in check. We’ve already lamented the many worthwhile films and performances that were unduly snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the nominations phase; when Sunday the 26th rolls around, you can bet the farm that the AMPAS will confound us again by making at least a couple of spectacularly bone-headed choices. There’s a long and storied history of the Oscar simply going to the wrong damn person or movie, countless cases where a peek back at the list of nominees and the eventual winner provokes confusion, rage, or at the very least, a bit of head-scratching. After the jump, we’ve gathered ten of the most egregious examples. … Read More

Celebrity

10 Actors Who’ve Portrayed Other Famous Actors

By Kirthana Ramisetti on

Michelle Williams is already getting Oscar buzz for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, which opens in theaters this Wednesday. “She channels every facet of the legend’s persona — her seductiveness, her neuroses, her candle-in-the-wind vulnerability and sometimes breathtaking naïveté — while keeping her feet planted firmly on the ground,” writes Rene Rodriguez at the Miami Herald. “Williams makes Monroe simultaneously seem larger than life and heartbreakingly human.” Even critics less impressed with the film as a whole — like Ronnie Scheib at Variety or David Rooney at Hollywood Reporter — seem enamored of her performance.

But Williams is just one of many actors who have portrayed iconic stars — some to universal acclaim, and others to widespread derision. Click through as we examine some of the most noteworthy examples. … Read More

Film

The Most Shameless Paycheck Performances in Cinema History

By Jason Bailey on

We don’t know about you, but we’ve already got our tickets for Killer Elite, which hits theaters — presumably with a roundhouse kick — this Friday. See Jason Statham kicking ass while tied to a chair! Thrill to the most ill-advised facial hair of Clive Owen’s career! Groove to the straight-faced use of Scorpions’ “Rock You Like a Hurricane!” (I know we’ve harped on this, but seriously, that’s what makes it the year’s funniest trailer.) And, most of all, calculate how much coin once-respected “actor’s actor” Robert DeNiro pocketed for appearing in this swill!

Actors make movies for many reasons: to stretch their skills, to work with admired co-stars or filmmakers, to help tell a story that they believe has value. And, sometimes, they make a movie for a nice chunk of cheddar. Mr. DeNiro, for one, has certainly had no qualms — particularly over the last decade or so — with lending his well-regarded talents to several projects that were in no danger of contributing to his Oscar shelf; in honor of his latest payday performance, let’s take a look at ten of his fellow thespians, and the depths to which they’ve traveled for a few extra zeros. … Read More

Film

Three Art-House Movies That Might Erase Your Memory of High School Musical 3

By Caroline Stanley on

After HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR tickled our cerebral cortex with its realistic depiction of an inflatable beefcake’s heartwarming journey through the public-school system, we fell into a deep funk.

What sort of visual stimuli would we consume as we awaited the release of HSM4: Community College?

The answer: better movies.

Although current multiplex lineups aren’t exactly chockablock with mid-career Bergmans, salvation lies ahead for those willing to have a little patience. Three art-house flicks from filmmakers we hold dear are in production right this minute, all guaranteed to earn cryptically worded acclaim from film snobs the world over.

Put on your most pretentious spectacles and see what you have to look forward to after the jump. … Read More