The Film Buzz

Here at The Film Buzz we like to celebrate films that are worthy of praise and adoration, however from time to time, we like to equally slate those films that are just too atrocious to by-pass.

Prior to the massively awaited Oscars on 22nd February, look what we found circulating web-space: a list of the “Anti-Oscars” - awards honouring the worst actors, actresses, screen-writers, directors and films this past year.

WORST PICTURE

Disaster Movie
The Happening
The Hottie and the Nottie
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
The Love Guru
Meet the Spartans

WORST ACTOR

Larry the Cable Guy, Witless Protection
Eddie Murphy, Meet Dave
Mike Myers, The Love Guru
Al Pacino, 88 Minutes and Righteous Kill
Mark Wahlberg, The Happening and Max Payne

WORST ACTRESS

Jessica Alba, The Eye and The Love Guru
The cast of The Women (Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Meg Ryan)
Cameron Diaz, What Happens in Vegas
Paris Hilton, The Hottie and the Nottie
Kate Hudson, Fools’ Gold and My Best Friend’s Girl

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Uwe Boll (as himself), Uwe Boll’s Postal
Pierce Brosnan, Mamma Mia!
Ben Kingsley, The Love Guru and The Wackness
Burt Reynolds, Deal and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Verne Troyer, The Love Guru and Uwe Boll’s Postal

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Carmen Electra, Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans
Paris Hilton, Repo: The Genetic Opera
Kim Kardashian, Disaster Movie
Jenny McCarthy, Witless Protection
Leelee Sobieski, 88 Minutes and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

WORST SCREEN COUPLE

Uwe Boll and Any Actor, Camera or Screenplay
Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, What Happens in Vegas
Paris Hilton and either Christin Lakin or Joel David Moore, The Hottie and the Nottie
Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy, Witless Protection
Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murphy, Meet Dave

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF OR SEQUEL

The Day the Earth Blowed Up Real Good
Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Speed Racer
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

WORST DIRECTOR

Uwe Boll, 1968: Tunnel Rats, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale and Uwe Boll’s Postal
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans
Tom Putnam, The Hottie and the Nottie
Marco Schnabel, The Love Guru
M. Night Shyamalan, The Happening

WORST SCREENPLAY

Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans
The Happening
The Hottie and the Nottie
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
The Love Guru

WORST CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Uwe Boll

I’ve been unfortunate enough to have seen The Hottie and the Nottie – which was tragically appalling – an insult to film itself. In between guffawing at Paris’ apparent attempt at acting, I was cringing for her co-star Joel Moore, poor girl.

How unfortunate have you been? How many of these Anti-Oscar winning films have you seen?

Think you’re just like Ryan Bingham from “Up in the Air” and prefer to travel light i.e. without any companions? Or are you happy firmly rooted to the ground surrounded by friends?

Take Bingham’s personality quiz to find out!

Chloe is a very intriguing Drama/Thriller that caught my eye – starring Julianne Moore (Children of Men), Liam Neeson (Taken) and Amanda Seyfried (Jennifer’s Body).

Julianne Moore stars as Catherine alongisde Liam Neeson who plays David as the “perfectly married couple” with a teenage son but when David misses a flight and his surprise birthday party – Catherine starts to suspect that there is more than meets the eye. Her imagination runs wild with thoughts of David cheating on her and she decides to hire an escort to test his loyalty. Catherine employs attractive young Chloe and directs her encounters with David and Chloe reports back exactly what goes down in those encounters. However, as the meetings multiply, descriptions get more graphic and things start to get very out of control…

Directed by Atom Egoyan who previously brought us Where the Truth Lies (2005), you are fore-warned that the sexual scenes are going to be of graphic nature, however fear not, it’s not trashy porn material – we are reassured that the eroticism is tastefully done.

If that doesn’t persuade you to see this erotic thriller – Julianne Moore gives a truly excellent performance whilst Amanda Seyfried is absolutely stunning as the steamy “seductress” – 100 times better than her performance in Jennifer’s Body.

The Film Buzz Anticipation Rating: 7/10

UK Release Date: March 26th 2010

Director: Atom Egoyan

Writer: Erin Cressida Wilson (screenplay), Anne Fontaine

Links: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes

Giant food chain Tesco have announced today that they will be starting to make films.

In a joint venture with new media company Amber Entertainment (set up by the people who started New Line Cinema), Tesco will be making films from books by best selling authors. At the top of that author list is mega author Jackie Collins. Negotiations are under way for the rights of books by authors Jacqueline Wilson (The Tracey Beaker Series) and Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials).

The first film to go into production will be Collins ‘Paris Connections‘. Which is about to start shooting in France.

So will Tesco be trying to take on the big guns? Well no.

Tesco say they have no interest in the creative process and are focusing soleley on getting the cash in the pockets, plus marketing those DVDs. These films will be straight-to-DVD but Tesco will have exclusive rights to the film, just like they did previously with films such as ‘Merry Madagascar‘ which they sold over the christmas period.

Looks like Tesco are well on their way to world domination.

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Looks like the low-budget turned supernatural sensation Paranormal Activity wants to do it again.

The sequel to the hugely successful Paranormal Activity 1 is slated for release on October 22nd 2010, just in time for Halloween, how smart!

Have they even started filming for it yet? But then again, it can’t take long filming 90 minutes of shadows, jolting and swinging chandeliers with a hand-held camera?

Only kidding, I can only be too pleased after immensely enjoying the first one, I’m looking forward to the volume of scares and plot development in this sequel.

Are you excited about the sequel?

If you didn’t catch who was nominated for what, read up on our post here.

Sunday night saw a fresh round-up of this year’s gong-winners for Golden Globes 2010, here’s the list of the well-deserved guys and girls:

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:

Mo’Nique – Precious

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical:

Toni Collette – The United States of Tara

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

John Lithgow – Dexter

Best Animated Feature Film:

Up

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama:

Michael C. Hall – Dexter

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama:

Julianna Margulies – The Good Wife

Best Original Song – Motion Picture:

“The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)” – Crazy Heart

Best Original Score – Motion Picture:

Michael Giacchino – Up

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Grey Gardens

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical:

Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Kevin Bacon – Taking Chance

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Drew Barrymore – Grey Gardens

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture:

Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner – Up In The Air

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Comedy Or Musical:

Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock

Best Foreign Language Film:

The White Ribbon

Best Television Series – Drama:

Mad Men

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television:

Chloë Sevigny – Big Love

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture:

Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Director – Motion Picture:

James Cameron – Avatar

Best Television Series – Comedy Or Musical:

Glee

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy:

The Hangover

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama:

Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy Or Musical:

Robert Downey Jr. – Sherlock Holmes

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama:

Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart

Best Motion Picture – Drama:

Avatar

I am personally a huge fan of Dexter so I’m really glad Michael C. Hall gained recognition for that awesome show.

Up winning Best Animation – damn right!

The Hangover was definitely comedy of the year and Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes was just perfect.

Avatar – Best Motion Picture – by 1000 light years, hell yeah.

What do you think of the winners? Are they all well-deserved or should some have gone home empty-handed?

The Film Buzz Official Review

The Road is yet another apocalyptic tale from the never-ending flow of miserable stories/previews of our world “as we know it” ending. Differing from 2012 and Knowing, The Road is a dark, chilling drama/thriller that is gritty and depressing rather than a colourful, action-packed adventure, and is actually based on the book of the same name by Cormac McCarthy.

The Plot

Fans of the book will be pleased to know that the film plot sticks very closely to the book’s – a nameless father and son are among the last remaining survivors on Earth after an unexplained tragedy and as the pair head south, they encounter many problems including man-eating cannibals. Nice. The plot is minimal and doesn’t overload you with technicalities, rather it examines the relationship between a man and his son, and their struggle for sheer survival.

Starring critically-acclaimed Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings series) as nameless man and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the boy, both of which are nominated for numerous acting awards. The film itself is being vigorously nominated for best cinematography, screenplay etc.

The Thoughts

This film is definitely depressing, dark, bleak and weary. Do not watch if you are already suffering from depression, however mild. Because I found this film extremely depressing and not in an entertaining/worthwhile way. Not that depression should ever be entertaining or worthwhile, but it wasn’t something I felt I needed to go through. I’ll admit the acting was exceptional and the relationship between man and son is touching but that wasn’t enough to hold my interest – particularly as my brain felt like it was going through a strainer the whole time – ouch. The landscapes photography was impressive though, and if anything this film has done a great job in capturing McCarthy’s vision of a cold and bone-chilling Earth.

However miserable it makes you feel, The Road will still leave it’s mark in reminding us what we’re in store for if we abuse Mother Earth any more, like many apocalyptic films preceding it.

The Film Buzz Review Rating: 5/10

UK Release Date: January 8th 2010

Director: John Hillcoat

Writer: Cormac McCarthy(novel), Joe Penhall (adaptation)

Links: IMDB, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes

Death at a Funeral is a remake of the 2007 comedy of the same name. This new version has African-Americanized Dean Craig’s script from 3 years ago (plus this new one looks as though they had a slightly larger budget). Check out the trailer below for the remake of this comedy.

I confess I never got round to seeing the original, but I distinctly remember seeing trailers popping up here and there for the 2007 version, If I recall correctly I remember thinking Death at a Funeral (2007) looked like a quaint little English comedy that I would get round to watching someday.

Death at a Funeral stars comedian Chris ‘take him with a pinch of salt’ Rock, Zoe Saldana, James Marsden, Luke Wilson and the other guy in Bad Boys Martin Lawrence, at a funeral for their family member that goes awry when family secrets are exposed. I had my doubts but the trailer makes it look like a right laugh, here’s hoping all the funny bits weren’t in the trailer.

The Film Buzz Anticipation Rating: 6.5/10

UK Release Date: 4th June 2010

Director: Neil LaBute

Writer: Dean Craig

Links: IMDB, Official Site

The Spider-man franchise that was given a kick start at the beginning of the naughties made box office history. Raking in over a cool $2 Billion worldwide for all three films,  it’s no wonder the movie bosses over at Sony Pictures and Marvel don’t want to let this little gem get away. In recent news it has been confirmed that there will be a fourth Spider- man film to be released in 2012, Tobey Maguire who played the webbed slinger for the last 3 films has stepped down as Peter Parker.

Maguire, on leaving the Spider-man says he was “proud of what we accomplished with the Spider-man franchise over the last decade“. Also leaving is Sam Raimi director of the last 3 films. Raimi called working on the Spider-man films “an experience of a lifetime“.

The next Spider-man film will be focusing on the teenager Peter Parker (Spider-man). So a new cast and crew are on the way. Wonder who’ll they’ll pick as the new Peter Parker?

On a side note both Maguire and Raimi have at least a dozen productions between them currently in the works. Look out for Maguire in Brothers later this month in which a young man comforts the wife and children of his brother who is missing in Afghanistan. Maguire plays the missing brother which has earned him one or two award nominations, Maguire stars alongside Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) and Jake Gyllenhall (Zodiac). Raimi will be directing the film Warcraft based on the popular  video game series. Warcraft is set for release in 2011.

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Blake Lively one of the the stars of teen show Gossip Girl has landed the role as Green Lantern’s love interest in the upcoming Green Lantern Film.

Lively will be playing Carol Ferris, who in the DC Comics was the vice president of her father’s aircraft company. Ferris was also Green Lantern’s love interest and was also Star Sapphire who ended up battling Green Lantern several times but was always defeated by him. Ryan Reynolds will be playing the role of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.

Lively will also be starring in Ben Affleck’s next  film The Town as Krista. The Town will be directed by Affleck, who also co-adapted the screenplay from the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan. The Town is about four men who are thieves and friends who are being hunted by an FBI agent. We’ll update you with news on this project as we get it, but The Town is set for release in September 2010.

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