When you have to keep an obsessive eye on film, music, books, visual art, television, the Internet, and all other manner of popular culture, something eventually has to give, and for us — well, for this author, anyway — it’s sports. An almost-complete disinterest in professional and collegiate sporting events can make one feel a bit of an outcast (and it certainly makes for a confusing Facebook feed; apparently some guy who’s really into Jesus won something important on Sunday?), but after faking it through high school and college, I can’t pretend to care anymore. Maybe it makes me a pencil-necked geek, but the idea of spending three hours watching a football going to and fro — particularly when there are still Hitchcock movies I haven’t seen — is simply unacceptable.
However, many of the same film fans who are patently disinterested in a Sunday afternoon of TV sports will gladly spend that same time planted in front of a sports-themed movie — basically the same thing, albeit with better camera angles and a scripted ending. (And the angles are the only difference in a wrestling movie, HA HA!) And that’s fine with this viewer; as I told a friend after its release, “I’d watch football every week if it looked like Any Given Sunday.” But cinephiles more sport-phobic than I (and they’re out there!) might prefer films that keep the game play squarely off-screen. In honor of today’s DVD release of Moneyball, one of the best of the bunch, we offer ten genuinely good movies about sports that are notable for their minimal sports action. Check them out after the jump, and add your own in the comments.
Now that talking head Kelly Ripa is all alone on the former Live! with Regis and Kelly after television vet Regis Philbin recently retired, the network is filling the empty chair with a few guest co-hosts. The list of names includes actor Jerry O’Connell — who is currently starring in Broadway’s Seminar. Firefly’s Nathan Fillion and Glee’s Jane Lynch will be guests for the episode, which airs the day after Thanksgiving. Dancing with the Stars finalist Derek Hough co-hosts on December 5, and funnyman Jonah Hill on December 6. The Superbad actor will have a chance to speak with Sarah Jessica Parker, amongst others — which promises to be highly amusing. Singer Josh Groban takes the reins from December 7 to 9, and will perhaps talk shop with good ol’ Neil Diamond who is scheduled to appear. Will one of these fellas be filling in permanently? If so, does that mean some of you will actually start watching the show? [via Deadline]
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. We’ve got six new trailers this week, including new vehicles for The Rock, Kristen Stewart, and Jonah Hill (and an old one for Eddie Murphy); check ‘em out after the jump. Read More »
In case you couldn’t tell from the recent slew of familiar ’80s storylines, Hollywood loves its remakes. Hoping to cash in on your nostalgia, we’ve seen reboots of everything from Footloose to The Thing this year alone. Back in 2008, however, everyone cocked an eyebrow when news broke that Superbad‘s Jonah Hill was going to write and produce a re-telling of TV drama 21 Jump Street. Yes, that show — one of Fox’s first successes about baby-faced cops Johnny Depp, Richard Grieco, and friends who went undercover as high school students where they busted drug baddies and more. The first trailer for the film has arrived, and if you had any doubts about the movie before, it’s probably safe to shelve them now: the three-minute long clip is hilarious. Hit the jump for our thoughts and a peek at the red band trailer.
There are an abundance of reasons to put “see Moneyball” on your weekend to-do list: First film since Capote from director Bennett Miller; Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillan adapting a Michael Lewis book; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robin Wright, and Chris Pratt (aka Andy Dwyer) in supporting roles; the baby blues of one William Bradley Pitt. And then there is our old friend Jonah Hill, who has taken the opportunity here to make the leap we’ve come to expect from any comedic performer of note: the transition to “serious acting.”
Now from the looks of the trailer, it doesn’t appear that Hill is exactly doing Hamlet — Moneyball is a fast, witty, seriocomic drama, allowing Hill some comedic opportunities within a larger and more serious context. That is one way to go; there are others. After the jump, join us for a look at the strategies that Hill’s predecessors adopted in making their move towards drama, and how they fared.
Ah, fall. The fall movie season is when we film lovers do our very best to shake off a summer’s supply of Transformers, ‘80s remakes, and wilted comic book heroes, and open our arms to the “prestige pictures”: the smart movies for grown-ups that studios trot out as close to Oscar time as possible, so that they can pretend like these are the kind of movies they make all year long.
Of course, those studios still have bills to pay, so it would be a mistake to presume that quality and intellect will be the sole flavor of the season. Too often, your fall movie previews tend to focus on the most promising releases, as though Oscar bait is all we’re going to see this autumn. Make no mistake: there will still be plenty of dumb comedies, mindless action, and copious amounts of 3-D. So in order to present the most complete picture of fall 2011 at the cinemas, we’ve assembled a comprehensive list of the major fall releases, good and bad alike. Of course, that’s quite a big list of movies, so we’ve boiled our comments down to the basics: who’s in it, what it is, who it’s for, and if we’re in or out. Break out your calendars and join us after the jump.
There’s not much to celebrate about the end of summer, but at least we can look forward to the end of re-runs and a new crop of fall TV shows. While they don’t all look like winners, and several will surely be canceled within the first few weeks of the season, quite a few series have caught our eye. Now that The TV Addict has put together a helpful calendar of premiere dates, this seems like a good time to count down our top 10 most anticipated shows debuting in September and October. Check them out and tell us what you’ll be watching after the jump.
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. This week, we’ve got ten new ones — taken as a group, a rather eclectic mix of styles and subjects indicating that the summer movie season is drawing to a close. Check ‘em all out after the jump.
Yesterday, we took a look at NBC’s new sitcom slate. We found plenty to like and plenty to groan over. And while we’re not quite as enamored of Fox’s current sitcoms line-up, we can’t deny that they’re still the gold standard as far as cartoons for grown-ups are concerned. The network has signed up four new comedy series, half live-action and half animated. The class of 2011 includes new vehicles for Zooey Deschanel, Jaime Pressly, and Jonah Hill, as well as the small-screen return of Napoleon Dynamite. We rate the (vaguely hipster-oriented) shows from least to most promising, based on their promo videos, after the jump.
1. Yesterday Google gave all of its employees $1,000 cash “holiday bonuses” and 2011 salary increases of at least 10%. Are you jealous? [via Business Insider]
2. Cosby Show alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner will appear in an upcoming episode of Community as Andre, the ex-husband of Shirley. Do you think this character will be dyslexic, like Theo Huxtable? [via EW]
3. The creative team behind The Hills and Jersey Shore have reportedly approached Jennifer Aniston about having her own reality series. [via Contact Music]
4. A black-and-white Coke bottle on canvas by Andy Warhol sold for $35.36 million yesterday at Sotheby’s contemporary and post-war art auction — that’s $10 million more than they were expecting it to fetch. [via Yahoo!]
5. Channing Tatum is in negotiations to join Jonah Hill in the cast of 21 Jump Street remake. We’re guessing he’ll play Johnny Depp’s old part from the TV series. [via Deadline]
