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Film

10 Mom-Approved Movie Character Crushes

By Alison Nastasi on

Try as you might, mom won’t ever let you forget that she knows what’s best for you. In the spirit of Mother’s Day, we played matchmaker and set you up with a few film characters that mom would approve of. She only wants you to be happy. We chose ten films, guesstimated who you probably have a crush on, and then selected a character from the same movie that mom would prefer you invite over for dinner sometime. Feel free to leave your own mom-approved film character crushes in the comments section. … Read More

Television

The Best and Worst of Last Night’s ‘SNL’ with Melissa McCarthy

By Alison Nastasi on

Melissa McCarthy didn’t waste any time getting right to the funny stuff in last night’s episode of SNL, with musical guest Phoenix. She entered the stage staggering in sky-high stripper heels, face-planting in front of the band. The gag was more nuanced than we’re describing, which is what we love about the actress. You can watch it, below.

McCarthy is easily as gifted as Kristen Wiig, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and SNL’s other greatest ladies. Her commitment to a role is unwavering, and her physical comedy skills show courage and a willingness to stretch boundaries that’s on par with other uninhibited SNL all-stars like Will Ferrell and the late, great Chris Farley.

For McCarthy’s second hosting appearance, the writers leaned a little too heavily on the Bridesmaids star as the same crude and ridiculous character for nearly every sketch: the clumsy, oblivious, frumpy woman. She’s certainly adept at playing the loose canon, but just as things started to venture somewhere different, tired comedy like the food jokes — this time ham and pizza — returned. Also, where the hell were the other women? This ep felt more guy-heavy than usual. We took a look at more of the best and worst of last night’s episode after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 Supporting Characters Who Totally Deserve Their Own Movies

By Jason Bailey on

Judd Apatow’s This is 40, out this Friday, is — as its ads carefully note — a “sort-of sequel” to his 2007 hit Knocked Up. It doesn’t concern that film’s leading characters; Seth Rogen’s Ben is only mentioned in passing, and Katherine Hiegl’s Alison is absent altogether. Instead, Apatow focuses on supporting couple Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) and their two kids — played by Apatow and Mann’s real-life offspring. The idea of making a spin-off instead of a sequel is a fairly rare one; there are a few examples, like U.S. Marshalls (from The Fugitive), Get Him to the Greek (from Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Beauty Shop (from Barbershop 2) and Puss in Boots (from Shrek 2), but overall, it’s not all that common. Which is funny, because we think it’s a more interesting way to continue a franchise than the standard sequel, so after the jump, we’ve got suggestions for supporting characters we’d like to see bumped up to leads. (Warning: Some spoilers follow.) … Read More

Film

Watch the Trailer for Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy’s Buddy Cop Movie

By Caroline Stanley on

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy have to be two of the most well-liked actresses in Hollywood, so we can only imagine how overjoyed studio execs were to have them team up in The Heat, Paul Feig’s highly-anticipated followup to Bridesmaids. Instant box office success! But here’s the thing: casting two female leads in a buddy cop comedy isn’t enough to make the material feel fresh. Sure, there’s something kind of amusing about watching McCarthy threaten people with physical harm, but we were hoping for a movie with a little more edge. Instead, this looks more like Miss Congeniality 3, complete with a wacky dance number and a joke about Spanx. We can only hope that they’re saving all of the good stuff for the red band version. Click through to see for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments. … Read More

Film

Watch Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman in the Trailer for ‘Identity Thief’

By Judy Berman on

It’s not like us to get so excited about broad Hollywood comedies, but check out Identity Thief: Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy co-star as a yuppie with an androgynous name and the big-haired Florida woman who steals his identity and maxes out his credit card. After reporting the theft and missing his court date, Bateman decides to hunt down McCarthy on his own. Hilarity — including some amusingly unlikely action sequences — ensues. Aside from the joy of seeing two of our favorite comic actors play off each other, Identity Thief boasts the directing talents of Seth Gordon, who brought us not only last year’s surprisingly decent Horrible Bosses but also the wonderful video game documentary The King of Kong. The movie hits theaters February 8th. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. After facing the ire of many professional musicians, Amanda Palmer has announced that she’ll now pay the volunteer string, brass, and saxophone players who have been joining her on stage with money — not just “beer, hugs, merch, free tickets, and love.” [via ArtsBeat]

2. Best Coast is opening for Green Day… Read More

Film

This Week in Trailers: ‘This is 40,’ ‘Spider-Man,’ ‘Dark Knight,’ and More!

By Jason Bailey on

Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week’s new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two about what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. This week we’ve got the latest from Judd Apatow, the big buzz object at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and the final trailers for Nolan’s new Batman film and Marc Webb’s Spidey reboot.

Check ‘em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments. … Read More

Film

Video Essay: "Encore — More Famous Faces in their Film Debuts"

By Jason Bailey on

We had no idea everyone was so interested in seeing the first film appearances of your favorite stars when we posted our video essay “And Introducing…” a month ago, but the damn thing up and went viral, so as with anything movie-related that does well, there has to be a sequel. After the jump, you’ll find 30-plus more famous faces in their first feature films, all in just about three minutes. Enjoy! … Read More

Film

Flavorpill’s Guide to Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to the first installment of Flavorpill’s streaming movie guide, a new feature in which we’ll 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 new documentaries, a pair of spy spoofs from the star and director of The Artist, and a couple of titles we told (or showed) you about over the past couple of weeks. Check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. “What I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t… I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo… Read More