1. Apparently Aretha Franklin was the first guest to arrive at Sarah Jessica Parker’s $40,000-a-head Barack Obama fundraising dinner last night, and decided to leave after only 20 minutes. Gawker is calling it “a big diva move,” but given the fact that she’s 70 years old, maybe she was just tired.
2. Tony-nominated… Read More
Welcome to Flavorpill’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. This week, we’ve got the likes of Matt Damon, Clint Eastwood, Warren Beatty, Alec Baldwin, Mila Kunis, Jason Bateman, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Jane Lynch, Paul Rudd, Kristen Stewart, Jessica Alba, and Jesse Eisenberg; check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More
Though it was considered a possibly tough sell upon its original theatrical release last December (due to the, shall we say, tricky PR challenges presented by star Tom Cruise), we probably don’t have to do much at this point to sell you on Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, the fourth (and best) of the series, out today on DVD and Blu-ray. But if you’re still unconvinced, it is worth reiterating that not only is the picture a smooth, confident, masterfully executed spy thriller, but it contains one of the single finest action sequences we’ve ever seen (below). Contemplating the weight of that statement got us thinking about some of the other contenders; in the interest of brevity, we decided to confine ourselves to films released in the current century. After the jump, take a look at some of our favorite recent action sequences, and be sure to add your own in the comments. … Read More
Backlash is a funny thing. It’s always been present in popular culture, but it feels as though it’s become particularly prominent over the past few years, an unavoidable step in any celebrated film, band, book, or television show’s penetration into the cultural landscape: first comes critical acclaim, then financial success, then ubiquity, and then the inevitable backlash from those who object (or who have turned, perhaps because of said popularity and/or ubiquity). Sometimes, the pendulum swings back and the backlash fades — but often, the negative connotation is what sticks, and that’s what becomes the lasting perception.
This week’s 3D rerelease of Titanic got us thinking about backlash, and how often we find ourselves defending movies that were, at least in the beginning, critical and popular hits, but have since fallen out of public favor. Thus, we’ve collected ten movies that the worm turned on — but that we’re standing by, damnit, and we’ll tell you why. Check them out after the jump, and add your own in the comments. … Read More
This week’s must-see DVD for film fans is Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, Alex Stapleton’s wickedly enjoyable documentary profile of Roger Corman, the B-movie master whose exploitation movies launched half the moviemakers and movie stars of the ’70s. One of the film’s highlights is Jack Nicholson’s remembrances of his first movie roles, including his debut performance in The Little Shop of Horrors (which Corman shot in all of two days). Nicholson’s story got us thinking about other stars and their first movie roles, so we put together this quick video essay with a peek at some other famous film debuts. Check out our latest video essay after the jump. … Read More
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
Rampart, Owen Moverman’s tough urban drama featuring Woody Harrelson as a somewhat less than principled LA police officer, goes into limited release tomorrow (following a brief Oscar-qualification run in November), and while the movie itself is pretty good, we must take some exception to its bold poster and trailer tag line: “The most corrupt cop you’ve ever seen on screen.” Well, that is a might tall claim. After the jump, we’ll run down ten previous movie cops who could give Harrelson’s Dave Brown a run for his money. … Read More
1. Ladies and gentlemen, this just might be the funniest My Little Pony-related correction that The New York Times has ever issued. [via The Daily What]
2. Hot British actor of the moment Benedict Cumberbatch (who you might recognize from recent roles in War Horse or the BBC’s Sherlock) has come… Read More
As the year winds to a close, you’ve seen plenty of “best of 2011″ lists — and we’ve certainly contributed a few of our own to the mix. Wading through them can lead to a sense of fatigue; yes, we liked The Artist and Hugo and The Descendants and The Tree of Life just fine too, but it feels like we’re reading praise for all the same movies and performances, everywhere we look. So, late in the “best of” season, we wanted to take a moment to spotlight a few films and actors who, we feel, are getting overlooked in the year-end shuffle. Our picks are after the jump; yours (we hope) will join in the comments. … Read More
Today at Flavorpill, this supercut of 40 TV Christmas moments reminded us that Saved by the Bell once did its very own rendition of A Christmas Carol – and Slater was Tiny Tim. We found McSweeney’s “Jingle Bells FAQ” illuminating. We thought it was very sweet that Jonathan Ames bought Bored to… Read More
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