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Julia Roberts

Pop Culture

12 Celebrities on Their First Crushes

By Jennifer Lewis on

If we remember anything from elementary school, it’s that there’s nothing quite like a first crush. It’s a truly inexplicable and unforgettable feeling… and who has more feelings than celebrities? Click through to find 12 actors and musicians discussing the somewhat bizarre apples of their childhoods’ eyes. Julia loved Abraham (yes, that one)? Janet loved Barry? Scarlett loved Jareth?! (Okay, we’re secretly with her on that… Read More

Film

The 10 Worst Moments in Oscar History

By Jason Bailey on

Who’s ready to watch Seth MacFarlane host the Oscars? Well, no matter how wrong the Family Guy creator may be for the job, he can take solace in the fact that there’s a long, rich history of terrible Oscar moments. We’ve assembled ten of the most awkward and cringe-worthy to prime you for what lies… Read More

Film

10 Romantic Movie Couples Who Were Actually Hopeless

By Jason Bailey on

Valentine’s Day is upon us, so it’s time to grit your teeth, load up your Netflix queue, and sit through a romance or two. Don’t get us wrong—they’re not all terrible, and some offer some very good advice. But too many hinge on hard-to-swallow coincidences, dated gender stereotypes, and insufferable cutesiness. What’s worse, even the good ones often ask us to buy a “happy ending” that puts together a couple who we all know isn’t going to last five minutes past the credits. After the jump, our votes for the movie couples least likely to actually make it — contrary to what the films that tell their stories insist. Be warned: minor spoilers are ahead. … Read More

Film

The Most Notorious Co-Star Feuds in Movie History

By Jason Bailey on

Everyone loves celebrity conflict, which is why we’re assuming our post a couple of weeks back on actor/filmmaker feuds generated such a huge response. It’s humanizing to see that cultural icons squabble about the same petty stuff that we do in the workplace. Performers and auteurs aren’t the only source of on-set friction however; the Hollywood history books are filled with cases of co-stars going after each other with everything they’ve got. After the jump, you’ll find a few of the most famed examples. … Read More

Film

10 of the Most Unbelievable Movie Families

By Jason Bailey on

As we mentioned in our June Indie Preview, one of our favorite movies of the month is Your Sister’s Sister, Lynn Shelton’s smart and sophisticated indie rom-com featuring Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Mark Duplass. But even great moves can have their little flaws, and one thing did nag at us a bit while watching the film: how is it that Blunt and DeWitt are sisters, but have completely different accents? Blunt speaks in her natural British (instead of adopting an American accent, as she did to match onscreen sister Amy Adams in Sunshine Cleaning), and DeWitt keeps her American accent (instead of adopting one to match Blunt’s, as Alison Brie did in The Five Year Engagement). It doesn’t ruin the movie or anything, but it did get us thinking about other movies where we didn’t completely buy the familial connection of the characters; after the jump, we’ve assembled ten of the most egregious examples. … Read More

Film

Video Essay: “How to Pull the Perfect Movie Heist”

By Jason Bailey on

Tower Heist, Brett Ratner’s late-fall heist picture, is out this week on DVD, so our latest video essay takes a look at this durable genre via a step-by-step examination of how to put a big heist together — according to the movies, anyway. We grabbed pieces from over two dozen heist movies, from here and abroad, from the 1950s to the present, and put them together to show, in seven easy steps, how to pull that one big score. (Bonus points if it’s your last big one before retiring somewhere warm.)

We’ll show you how it’s done with the help of some of our favorite directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Michael Mann, John Frankenheimer, Bryan Singer, John Huston, David Mamet, Peter Yates, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jules Dassin, Sidney Lumet, John McTiernan, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz. And check out our all-star cast: Robert DeNiro, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Marlon Brando, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Edward Norton, Julia Roberts, Michael Caine, Charlize Theron, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Keitel, Val Kilmer, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Steve Buscemi, Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Spacey, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Liotta, Danny DeVito, Michael Madsen, Stellan Skarsgård, Tom Sizemore, Vincent Cassel, Owen Wilson, Joe Pesci, Luke Wilson, Sean Connery, Guy Pearce, George Segal, Sam Rockwell, Delroy Lindo, Seth Green, Sterling Hayden, Chris Penn, Mos Def, Lawrence Tierney, Jason Statham, Jean Reno, the Muppets, and many, many more. Find out “How to Pull the Perfect Movie Heist” after the jump. … Read More

Pop Culture

Gay Best Friends in Pop Culture Who Need Better Friends

By Victoria McNally on

Despite some encouraging recent advances, gay and lesbian characters remain underrepresented in mainstream media, and the ones who do appear tend to have it pretty rough. Even in 2012, many still get assigned to the role of “Gay Best Friend Who Advises and Comforts the Straight Female Lead,” where they’re very clever and very supportive and don’t get to have personal lives of their own. The lesbians, meanwhile, always seem to be the characters that really terrible things happen to all the time. Here’s a list of some of queer best friends in pop culture who need to make some better friends. If you’ve got any you’d like to share, list them in the comments! … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Tower Heist surprised many by landing in second place at the box office in its debut weekend behind Puss in Boots; as ArtsBeat notes, this “does not bode well for the next Academy Awards,” which will reteam Eddie Murphy as the evening’s host and Brett Ratner as its producer.

2. Photographer Amy… Read More

Film

The Best Ensemble Casts in Movie History

By Jason Bailey on

Margin Call, a fact-based thriller concerning the beginning of the financial crisis, opens tomorrow with a stellar ensemble cast that includes Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker, and Mary McDonnell. (And Demi Moore. Hey, can’t win ‘em all.) Throw in last month’s Contagion (featuring Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston, Marion Cotillard, and Elliott Gould) and December’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, and Mark Strong), and this is starting to look like the Season of the Ensemble. In celebration of these smart, adult movies flush with Oscar winners and fine character performers, we’ve assembled some of our favorite big-cast ensemble movies after the jump — check it out, and throw in your own in the comments. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds In Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we learned a few things from Gawker’s guide to New York City’s 1% — specifically, the addresses of some of the world’s most powerful CEOs. We were shocked that we couldn’t remember what flavor combo made up Hi-C Ecto Cooler. We wondered if we should be worried that… Read More