Happy almost Labor Day weekend, everybody! Here’s to celebrating work by taking a day off! And when you’re done grilling burgers and drinking too much and getting inappropriately handsy with a neighbor, there’s nothing like settling in for an evening’s entertainment — perhaps with a holiday-appropriate “workplace” movie. We’ve taken a look at a few of our favorite employment-based pictures, and given some thought to which cinematic protagonists we might like to share our quarters with. Check them out after the jump, and add your own in the comments.
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Okay, we’ll say it: We’re tired of superhero movies. The saturation point has long passed. Thanks to the success of the Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and X-Men franchises, it now seems that any caped hero who ever appeared in the pages of a comic book is a worthwhile subject for a major motion picture — in spite of the fact that, with the exception of the films mentioned above (and not even all of them — how ya doin’, X-Men: The Last Stand) and a few scattered others, most comic book movies are downright putrid.
So please, please, bear that bias in mind when we tell you that, much to our chagrin, the new trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger looks awesome. Director Joe Johnston’s ’40s visual scheme is delicious (the trailer immediately brings The Rocketeer to mind — which, wouldn’t you know it, was directed by Joe Johnston), Chris Evans is looking more and more credible (pull this off, Chris, and you’re forgiven for those Fantastic Four movies), and how about this supporting cast? Tommy Lee Jones? Stanley Tucci? Hugo Weaving? Sign us up! Check out the full trailer after the jump, and let us know if you agree in the comments.
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In Burlesque, which is kind of like Christina Aguilera’s Crossroads or Glitter, except for the fact that it’s been almost a decade since those seemed like a good idea, she plays an aspiring dancer at a Hollywood club which is run by Cher. With lines like, “When you are putting your make-up, it’s like you’re an artist, but instead of painting on canvas, you’re painting a face,” it promises to be just as bad as we were hoping it was — kind of like a supersized Pussycat Dolls video. Oh, and for some reason Stanley Tucci is in it. Enjoy!
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1. Goldman Sachs has instituted a ban on swearing in electronic messages that encompasses emails, instant messages, and texts from company phones. [via NYO]
2. Forget Jessica Simpson or Justin Timberlake — Diddy says that he wants to replace Simon Cowell as a judge on American Idol because of the awesome salary. [via TV Squad]
3. You can watch the first episode of Showtime‘s new cancer drama The Big C, which stars Laura Linney and premieres August 16 at 10:30pm, for free online right now. [via Vulture]
4. Meryl Streep and Tina Fey in a mother/daughter comedy that’s directed by Stanley Tucci? We don’t even know the storyline, and we’re sold! [via THR]
5. Steve Carell makes a lot of fat jokes in the latest installment of Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis… and it ends in tears. [via The Daily What]
Bonus link: E-books article drinking game
A few months back we pored over the trailer for Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lovely Bones. The film, which stars fifteen-year-old Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon (the murdered main character who narrates the story from heaven), Stanley Tucci as the local pervert/murderer, and Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon as her parents and grandmother respectively, looked promising. It was going to be scored by Brian Eno!
And now there’s this: a two out of five stars from Xan Brooks of the Guardian. His main issue is that Jackson leaves “the murder unseen and the rape unmentioned” in order to make the film palatable to mainstream audiences. We find this interesting as just last week we read that the director was adding more violence and suffering to the film after test audiences were “unsatisfied with the fate of one character.” We’re going to take a wild guess and say the scenes involve Tucci.
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1. It’s allegedly full steam ahead for the MTV drug-intervention reality series that DJ AM worked on before his death. [via THR]
2. Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart are suing Gawker for more than $1 million and demanding that they pull down the couple’s sexy tape. [via The Daily Beast]
3. Stanley Tucci, Cher, and Christina Aguilera will star in Burlesque, a big screen musical to be directed by Steve Antin. [via Variety]
4. Michelle Phillips says that daughter Mackenzie is lying about the incestuous affair with her father. [via Showbiz 411]
5. Lily Allen has quit her battle against illegal downloaders… and the music industry. [via NME]
Bonus link: The Most Controversial Magazine Covers of All Time
