In the opening sequence of Oblivion, the voice of Tom Cruise (playing the film’s protagonist, Commander Jack Harper) creeps onto the soundtrack and painstakingly explains the precise details of the film’s backstory. The year is 2077. The Earth is all but abandoned. An alien population known as Scavengers (Scavs for short) invaded the moon, which in turn nearly destroyed the earth. Most humans have moved to a space station. Drones and technicians like Harper roam the earth, and so on and son on. A metric ton of exposition is slammed into that opening sequence, but here’s what’s peculiar: at the beginning of the second act, after Jack discovers a hibernating astronaut (Olga Kurylekno) and saves her, he sits her down and gives her the whole spiel again. Why? Is this a safeguard in case people showed up late? Do they think we didn’t get it the first time? … Read More
Morgan Freeman
Your Favorite Actors on Their Favorite Actors
The Ryan Gosling fan club is getting even more crowded. Recently, James Franco took to the Huffington Post to do what countless fans and stalkers have spent the past several years doing: writing on the Internet about Ryan Gosling. “I want to make love to this section,” Franco writes of the first, Gosling-heavy hour of The Place Beyond the Pines. “He played the role to a T. Look at the funny glasses he wears when he robs banks, green on the sides; look at the writing on the bike before he paints it black; Gosling touches, all, I’m sure of it.” Actors obsessing over actors — they’re just like us! And let’s be honest: there’s something kind of wonderful about actors and actresses who genuinely love each other’s work, and who can articulate what makes it great. So we went on the hunt for the favorite actors of some of our favorite actors, to find out who they love, who inspires them, and… Read More
Will These 10 Films Be Next Year’s Oscar Nominees?
After months of hype, after hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaigning, after endless precursor award ceremonies leading to the big night, the Oscars are over. So, what’s next? We took a look at the films slated thus far for release this fall — traditionally the time when Serious Oscar Movies are unleashed — and inventoried their Academy-friendly elements to come up with our picks for next year’s most likely… Read More
‘Argo’ and Other Forgivably False “True Story” Films
Argo, Ben Affleck’s true story of American hostage extraction by way of Hollywood fakery, hits DVD and Blu-ray today on its way to a possible Best Picture prize at Sunday night’s Oscars. But as with its fellow nominees Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln, Argo has been the object of some concern over historical accuracy, culminating in yesterday’s proclamation by Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir that “Argo doesn’t deserve the Oscar” because it “uses its basis in history and its mode of detailed realism to create something that is entirely mythological.” While Affleck’s film is certainly not our favorite of the Best Picture nominees, we’d have a hard time arguing that a film’s fast/loose play with the facts should be a disqualifying factor. In fact, plenty of pictures we’ve been rather fond of weren’t exactly slavish to historical accuracy; we’ll take a look at Argo and its “true-ish story” brethren after the jump. … Read More
Watch LGBT Group’s New Morgan Freeman-Narrated Gay Marriage Ad
We were chuffed this morning to see the premiere — on Buzzfeed, no less — of a new pro-gay marriage ad funded by the Human Rights Campaign. The 30-second slot sets out the year’s achievements on the legalization of gay marriage and promises the fulfillment of “a mandate for full equality.” It’s full of portentous rhetoric — “America stands at the dawn of a new age,” indeed — and it’s narrated in suitably portentous tones by one Morgan Freeman. We’re impressed with Freeman for doing the voiceover, and also with the HRC’s choice of narrator — after all, who better to appeal to conservative Christian types than a man who actually is God? Click through to watch, and let us know what you think. … Read More
10 Proposed Movie Sequels That We Do. Not. Want.
From Warner Brothers’ latest attempt to revive Casablanca to Searching for Keyser Soze, here’s a look at some of Hollywood’s worst sequel ideas for its greatest… Read More
10 Great Performances in Truly Terrible Movies
There was little reason to expect that a jukebox musical filled with so-bad-they’re-good ‘80s pop songs was going to be any good whatsoever, and true to prediction, Rock of Ages was one of the summer’s biggest dogs. It’s out tomorrow on DVD and Blu-ray, though, which exponentially increases the chances that one of your friends (the one who’s always wanting to go karaoke-ing, probably) is going to buy it and insist on having it on at some point in your friendship. Fear not: though Rock of Ages is an execrable film, it has (contrary to any and all expectations) a genuinely enjoyable and unexpectedly witty Tom Cruise performance buried underneath all the hairspray and Journey covers. Playing Stacee Jaxx, a rock star long removed from anything resembling reality, Cruise is totally credible and genuinely funny; there’s a good 20-minute stretch in the middle where they just turn the movie over to him, and it’s the only point in the entire running time where Rock of Ages actually works. As a thank-you to Mr. Cruise and all of those who make the unbearable ever-so-briefly watchable, we put together a list of a few of our favorite great performances in terrible movies; see if you agree with our picks after the jump. … Read More
What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office
Today at Flavorpill, we learned nine things they don’t tell you about dating an architect. We fell in love with Catroulette. We browsed a David Fincher film title retrospective. We took a peek inside celebrity closets. We read 50 Shades of Grey with “Morgan Freeman.” We… Read More
20 Nostalgia-Inducing Photo Booth Snaps of Famous People
[Editor's note: It's Labor Day, so your devoted Flavorwire team is taking a break. To keep you entertained, we're leaving you with our most popular features of the summer months. This post originally ran July 14th.] Here at Flavorpill, we love a photo booth. There’s something so satisfying (and pleasantly retro) about the art of the instant photograph, and we love the spontaneity that always seems to come from all those quick photos in succession, with only a small space to work with. But we’re not alone in our photo booth love. Actors, musicians, artists and celebrities of all kinds have also been known to step behind the cheap velvet curtain and indulge in the fun of automatic photography, and inspired by these shots of Elvis we recently spotted at Retronaut, we’ve pulled an Amélie and obsessively collected a few of the results here. … Read More
Teenage Photos of Distinguished Elderly Celebrities
We have a theory: The classier the elderly celebrity, the harder it is to imagine him or her as a teenager. For example, try to picture Maggie Smith as a high school student. Pretty hard, right? The thought of a young, wide-eyed Maggie Smith piqued our curiosity, so we went ahead and dug up teenage photos of our beloved Dame Maggie and ten of her distinguished celebrity friends. Unsurprisingly, they’re all stunning. Check ‘em out after the jump, and hit the comments to lend your thoughts. … Read More
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