ScreenCrave.com » Laura Aguirre

News Roundup: Andy Samberg Addresses Harvard Graduates, ‘Katy Perry: Part Of Me’ 3D Poster, And More

Laura Aguirre — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:45:10 +0000

Andy Samberg is used to being in front of an audience, but nothing could have prepared him for this. This week, Samberg gave a speech at Harvard’s graduation ceremony to a very tough crowd, and we’ve got the video for you below. We also have the new poster for the Katy Perry: Part Of Me In 3D documentary, news that FX is developing a new show involving the incredibly talented Tim Roth, and much more after the jump.

Batman Is Insane: Unreality Magazine has made a case stating that Batman is as ‘crazy town banana pants’ as The Joker. The writer argues that Batman is “as fragile and mentally unstable as the Joker.” Check that out!
Movie Bars: If only this were actually possible [sigh]. Unreality Magazine posted an article listing six movie bars that’d be cool to go to in real life. Their list includes The Coco Bongo Club from The Mask, The Winchester from Shaun of the Dead, and The Gold Room (no, not the one in Echo Park, though they do have free tacos so…) from The Shining. Check it out.
Tim Roth TV Show: Tim Roth’s Lie To Me was a show taken before its time. But, alas, Roth is returning to television with another series. FX is developing a “bank robbery family drama” with Roth as the lead. Deadline reports that the project is described as “a drama about addiction, bank robbery, and an extreme volatile family dynamic.” The show is still in development.

Poster:

Katy Perry 3D: Check out the new poster for Katy Perry: Part Of Me. Try not to laugh.

Videos:

Relax, dude!: Lastly, watch Andy Samberg give a very hilarious speech at this year’s Harvard Graduation. It’s a 20 minute video, but worth your time. He makes impressions of Mark Zuckerberg and Mark Wahlberg and even yells, “Yale Sucks Balls.” Do check it out.

That’s the end of our round-up. Keep checking back at ScreenCrave for more entertainment news and features.

What are you excited for?

Interview: Will Smith Talks ‘MIB III,’ Coming Back To The Screen, And Future Projects

Laura Aguirre — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:14:48 +0000

Will Smith might just be the biggest movie star there is. His TV show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, made him a household name, and before his three-year hiatus he made a decade’s worth of blockbusters. Now, he’s back as Agent J in Men In Black 3. We recently got the chance to talk to Mr. Smith. He told us what he learned during his time away, why he chose to revisit the MIB franchise, and shared details about some of his future projects.

Check out our interview with Will Smith…

Your act got to be a little more serious this time around. How was that?

Did you see my acting transition? Look, I think that the surprise at the end of the movie was the thing that got everybody excited to want to make this movie. It was a little bit beyond just getting together and having some fun. It was an interesting way to tie up the series and get you all the way back to the beginning. I like that people are surprised. No one really sees that coming. Well, some people see it coming, those amongst us that are so far ahead, but it was beautiful to come back together after so many years. And even the new guy, Josh Brolin, was able to deliver on the same energy that people are used to experiencing in these movies.

Describe your chemistry with Tommy Lee Jones and how you translated it to get that same effect with Josh Brolin?

That’s what was crazy because that was all Josh Brolin. As actors, when you’re in a scene, it’s like a tennis match. You’re going back and forth. Me and Josh have very different chemistry than me and Tommy Lee Jones. And what you do as an actor is you try to find the lanes and develop the chemistry. So I was expecting to make an adjustment from Tommy Lee Jones to Josh Brolin, but Josh studied Tommy so thoroughly that it was almost identical, like just the way that the interactions were. It was absolutely stunning and it’s crazy because you don’t even notice how good his acting is because it’s so good. It feels like you’re watching Tommy Lee Jones. You don’t know that’s Josh Brolin. People thought that Tommy did the voice for the Josh Brolin character. That’s how thoroughly Josh delivered it.

Were you surprised that the story was slightly more serious this time?

Look, we’re all ten years older from the second movie and different things are important to us in our lives. We’re growing and you want to have the same kind of dumb, the same kind of silly that the first two movies had. There’s an appreciation of the silly that the comedy delivers, but it was really important for us to also have some meat to chew on and create something. Toy Story 3 did a really great job of advancing it, but also creating the underlying depth. So if you’re going into the third part of something, it was really important to deliver emotionally.

Why did you want to revisit this franchise?

The idea of a secret government organization that polices alien activity on and off planet Earth, is so unique. You don’t say that this movie is just like Men In Black. There’s nothing that’s just like Men In Black. You can look at other movies and compare them to things, but Men In Black is a very distinct, very unique thing. It’s difficult to have a fantasy comedy that works on that level. They tend to feel not smart or there is something in the DNA when it’s those two things that sort of dissipates. So for me, I was excited about the degree of difficulty. Also, I haven’t worked in three years, so I wanted to put on some shoes that I knew fit. [Laughs]

You’ve been producing though. Is it a totally different creative exercise when you produce a film that you’re not in?

I’ve been producing with the kids and with [wife] Jada [Pinkett-Smith]. I think it’s where I’m most natural, at my most natural lane. I think that the wide view of seeing everything that’s going on, and helping, and pulling people in comes very natural to me. But when you stay away from acting for a while, it’s like a muscle. You get out there and you look stupid, so it’s like you got to warm up a little bit and I’ve been away from it. The time was well-spent. There is a little bit of a blend.

I learned a lot of valuable lessons on The Karate Kid. Working on a remake is interesting in that you start with hindsight, right, so that was an interesting thing. You can spell out and see the patterns of why people cheer in a movie theater much more clearly and you get to experiment with your idea. So for me, that was very informative. And just coming back to Men In Black 3 felt like home.

Can you talk about coming back? What’s changed in the last few years?

Well, it’s a thing that I’ve been paying attention to for a lot of years. I was in Australia in 1990 with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis and they were opening Planet Hollywood. So I was out there while I was just in my first year of The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. I’m down there, I’m like, ‘Yo, this is crazy.’ So they’re sitting around and I go in there and I’m sitting there with those guys and Arnold sits there and he says to me, ‘Young man, I want you to know, you cannot be a movie star only in the United States. You’re only a movie star if they know you around the world.’ Right? And then, Bruce talked about it for a little and I was like, ‘All right.’

So they put that idea into my mind very clearly and then, from that point, that’s when I started making it a point to open new markets. We went into Russia with I, Robot, we went into Brazil, and the idea is that you create that around the world and that’s when you hold a movie star. There used to be a time where you could just have hit movies in the United States, but that’s not the case anymore. And as you can see, the world of cinema is opening up even more, so to me, it’s just about taking those laps around the world to maintain that.

Is it surreal that some of the younger generations are recognizing your early work?

You know what’s crazy for me is that The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air is the biggest thing I’ve ever done. Like when I go around, I’m the Fresh Prince everywhere in the world. People scream, ‘El Principe!’ It’s just amazing how that television show, and it was really sort of a stroke of luck, it’s because of the amount of outlets for the show that a nine-year old kid thinks it’s new. A nine year-old kid in Moscow watching the Fresh Prince thinks it’s brand new, so when I show up, it’s as if it’s brand new. So The Fresh Prince has been a huge gift for me in that sense.

Do your kids ever give you grief for some of your earlier work?

Jaden can’t figure out how people thought it was OK for me to wear the clothes I was wearing on Fresh Prince. That’s his thing. He was like, ‘Dude, that shouldn’t even be on TV.’ Willow gets it and understands. But with the kids in the house, it’s really great for me because they help me stay aware. They help me stay current, and follow trends and things like that. Even the idea of something as simple as Instagram is an entirely new outlet. It’s like the fans are consuming entertainment differently and if you miss on that, you turn into a dinosaur really quickly.

What, personally, did you learn from your time off?

It was just that, I was a child of Dallas, so I’ve dreamed about this life my entire life, right? So on Dallas, they had South Fork, the property had a name. And Sue Ellen would come to breakfast and J.R. was there and it was like the whole family and everybody worked the family business. That was my vision of my family. But I’m actually surprised that other people got their own vision. Like Willow made a huge hit record, “Whip My Hair”, then she cut her hair off. It’s like, ‘Hey! What are you doing?’ So it was like, for me, the last three years of seeing just how much everybody has their own opinion and everybody has their own ideas and everybody has their own lives that may or may not fit in my Sue Ellen vision.

What’s your favorite gadget from Men In Black III?

It has to be the time dial. Somebody needs to come up with a Time Jump app. That idea, I’ve always loved time travel. And I started, because of this movie, to actually dive into it and thinking about it and talking about it. I realized, for black people, you don’t want to do too much jumping into the past. Right now is the best it’s ever been. It was like, yeah, maybe the time dial, if can go forward with it, that would be a great thing. [Laughs]

This is your first 3D movie. How was your experience with this new technology and what did you think of the final product?

Well, my first concern with being in 3D was my ears, because I could see these things pretty much taking over the whole of the screen. But when I first saw and they were cool and it was like “Alright.” They didn’t have me looking like satellite dishes. But then, with special effects now you can see anything. There’s no limitations with special effects. In the last five or six years, there’s no limitation of what you can see on screen anymore.

It’s funny, because the same thing happened with the music business. When the music business went to digital, when you can do anything, when you can record anything, a number of tracks, as soon as it exploded, it has a weird opposite effect where it gets worse for a while, which is really strange. It’s like as soon as you get all the tools to do anything, all of a sudden, now the movies aren’t as good, and it’s like “how the hell does that happen?”

So I think we’re about to turn that corner with the 3D specifically and Men In Black. I think what [director] Barry [Sonnenfeld] did was he found the balance of not throwing things at the audience. The 3D is the screen and back, which he went for depth, which makes it more pleasing to the eye. He decided to go with the conversion. We tried to work with the actual 3D cameras, but he went with the conversion and I think it just gives you a greater opportunity to dial it in and make it more pleasurable.

How was it filming in New York?

Anytime you shoot in New York, it’s always hectic because New York actually becomes a character in the movie. But that’s an important part of the Men In Black series. We were back there, I think we shot four months in New York and then the rest was on the streets and some of the stuff was on stage.

Can you tell us anything about Uptown Saturday Night?

Uptown. Well, me and Denzel [Washington], we’re working on it, trying to get it together. That would be a great thing, considering the material has to be right to deserve all that manpower. We would try to figure it out as we got into it and see who’s more comfortable doing what. Because when I first asked Denzel, he was like, ‘I’m not funny, man.’ And I’m saying like, ‘That was funny, that you said that.’ So he was a little concerned about the comedy and I’m like, ‘Man, come on. It’s going to be fantastic.’

If you could go back in time and change the success of anything, what would it be?

The thing that I have learned in my extensive study of time travel is that if you change one thing, you change everything. So I am absolutely ecstatic about where my life is right now. I wouldn’t mess with anything. Everything I’ve experienced, everything that’s gone right or wrong in my mind has turned out to be alright. So I feel like that’s the nature of energy. I get to decide whether it’s right or wrong or good or bad. My life, as I sit here today, is absolutely perfect, so I’m messing with nothing.

Is another Bad Boys a possibility?

I love making those movies. It’s Miami, it’s the tight T-shirt, and fast cars and it’s just at this point in my career though, the material has to be right. Just because it’s a popcorn movie doesn’t mean it doesn’t have something to say. And that to me, that’s hugely important. I’m 43 and I’m probably looking at seven more years where I can run and jump a little bit and then I’m going butt and gut for the rest of my career.

Do you think you’ll do SNL anytime soon? What do you think of Jay Pharoah’s impression of you?

I met him a few months ago. He’s got Denzel down. He doesn’t exactly have me perfect. I should spend some time with him so he can get me just perfect. I’ve never done SNL, we have to figure that out. The timing’s never been perfect for that. I’ll go on there and I hear everybody say it’s great and it’s a tough week that’s fantastic. But I’ve never done it. Maybe, we’ll see, next flick.

Do you ever think that there’s a generation of kids who know you best as Willow and Jaden’s dad?

In Philly, the kids were like, ‘Mr. Willow! Mr. Willow!’ [Laughs]

Do you think it’s important to attract a younger generation?

It was very important for me, having been away that long to come back in a way that was comfortable for me, and to come back with a project that was kid-friendly. And that was something that Eddie Murphy had said to me a few years ago. He said, ‘Man, if you’re lucky enough to be in this business, every 20 years, you got to go back and get the kids. Go get the kids every 20 years.” With Dr. Dolittle and The Klumps and everything and the idea of maturing and then you go back and drop something.

And what’s great for me is that target audience is in my house, so I get the scene-by-scene, screenplay-by-screenplay, run it by the judges. Jaden is probably the one of my kids who looks at me like I’m meat, like, ‘I’m coming for you. You just have no idea. He’s looking across the dinner table at me. Jaden is extremely competitive. I tell him all the time, ‘You know what, son, listen, I’m going to teach you everything I know and you’re going to work hard and you’ll be the second biggest movie star in the world.’ [Laughs]

Men In Black III opens Friday, May 25th.

Zach Galifianakis To Star In ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’

Laura Aguirre — Thu, 24 May 2012 00:59:45 +0000

After 30 years of attempts, it’s hard to believe that John Kennedy Toole‘s comic masterpiece A Confederacy of Dunces will ever get a film adaptation. But we can dream, can’t we? Vulture reports that Zach Galifianakis has been cast to play our dearest Working Boy, Ignatius J. Reilly, with Muppets director James Bobin at the helm.

The A Confederacy of Dunces cinematic adaptation has endured a long and fatal history, with many of the actors who were set to play Ignatius dying before the project took off.

The first attempt to bring the movie to the screen was in 1982, with John Belushi in the title role. However, a few days before meeting with execs, Belushi died of a drug overdose. Projects set to star such deceased talents as John Candy and Chris Farley also, sadly, came and went. The latest attempt was about 10 years ago, when Steven Soderbergh was attached to the project with Will Ferrell set to star and, again, the project did not pan out, leaving the future of this project very uncertain, at best.

And yet, it now appears as if the adaptation is finally happening, and Galifianakis seems like the right man for the job (more so than Ferrell, anyway). Not only does he fit the physical description of Ignatius, but he’s the kind of actor that can get away with a lot and still be loved by his momma (and audiences).

The script is being written by Cedar Rapids‘ Phil Johnston, and produced by Scott Rudin and Paramount Pictures. Hopefully Galifianakis and co. are able to survive this 30-year-old curse and finally get this project off the ground.

And just for fun, here’s an Ignatius quote –

I do not understand this compulsion of mine for seeing movies; it almost seems as if movies are “in my blood.”

Yup, we can relate to that.

Do you think A Confederacy of Dunces will finally get made? Is Galifianakis the right man for the role?

‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Pushed Back To 2013 For 3D Conversion

Laura Aguirre — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:41:08 +0000

Surprising news today: Paramount has decided to push G.I. Joe: Retaliation‘s June 29th release date back a whole nine months. They’ve probably realized that in a summer filled with Avengers, bats and cats, and Ridley Scott’s aliens, their toy-based action film didn’t stand a chance. Or perhaps it was Battleship‘s box office failure that sent them into full panic mode. Either way, Retaliation will hit theaters in 2013 “for 3D conversion.”

According to Deadline, Paramount’s excuse for setting a new release date is because they want to convert the movie into 3D and do a good job at it. Apparently some of the execs there are impressed with what James Cameron was able to do with Titanic. The 3D conversion will supposedly help the movie do better overseas. Anyone else smell a bluff?

This actually comes as a very shocking surprise. Not only was the first G.I. Joe a hit (it made $300 million worldwide in 2009), but publicity for Retaliation has been in full swing for months now. We have posters, stills, trailers, etc. What this push says to fans and critics is that 3D is necessary in order to better the movie, and that without it, it’s just not good enough.

Also, why didn’t Paramount decide on 3D sooner? It’s not like 3D is a new trend. It should be obvious that this format makes more money. Tickets are $2–$3 more than regular 2D tickets. There’s something they’re not telling us.

Retaliation will hit theaters March 29, 2013.

What do you think? Are you bummed Retaliation got pushed back to 2013?

Interview: Josh Brolin Talks ‘MIB III,’ Impersonating Tommy Lee Jones And ‘Gangster Squad’

Laura Aguirre — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:24:11 +0000

In Men In Black 3, Josh Brolin plays the 1960′s version of Tommy Lee Jones‘ Agent K. His cool, charm and optimism offer a new side to a character we all knew to be otherwise grumpy. We recently got the chance to talk to Brolin. He told us why he chose to join the Men in Black, the terrifying process of impersonating Jones, and his first impression of Will Smith.

Check out our interview with Josh Brolin…

How do you go from an impression of Tommy Lee Jones to an entire performance?

It started with a bad impression that I used to do for Barry. I got to know Barry a bit through the Coens and was re doing Nick Nolte and Tommy Lee Jones, but really bad versions of them. And then somebody calls you and says, “Hey, you want to do this mega-movie and play young K for a billion people to judge?” I said, “Um, can I think about it?” It’s putting your ass on the line – especially when it’s somebody you know. I still don’t know if Tommy liked it or not.

You do get to add a smile to the performance, a smile that we hadn’t seen before.

Good. I think I’m most happy about that. I saw it in its entirety in 3D last night, which I hadn’t seen. The last time I had seen it, about 20% of the special effects were done. But I think I was most happy about that because Barry and everybody had an opinion on it. “I think he should be really happy” or “I think he should be depressed.”

And so, you’re figuring all this stuff out the whole time and at the same time, you’re playing Tommy Lee Jones. There’s a lot of hives that start to happen. I was so pleased that it seemed seamless and that’s what was so great as an experience and watching the film as objectively as I can watch it. I’m very lucky in that respect where I don’t watch a movie I’m in and go, “You’re so bad. Your nose looks so weird.” That whole cosmetic thing, I can really look back and say, “Does this work or does this not work?”

The intention was within ten minutes when you are watching the movie, you’re not watching me constantly do this Tommy thing, some kind of caricature of Tommy. I think it was really important to allow the chemistry to work and all that stuff and not do too much makeup. We did just enough, I think. And the voice goes up into that extreme lilt sometimes, but then goes back into more of a generic thing.

The voice was dead on, what was you process for that?

A torturous one. I was down in Mexico, and I went and rented a little motel room down and went on my computer and went through it. What happens is like with a play: you go, you get together, and you do the first reading. This would be very similar to this and you do the first reading of a play and it’s usually great. And then it just gets worse and worse and worse and worse and then you come back around so you feel like you’ve earned your way back to what the initial reading was. That’s what it was like.

So I went down to Mexico, and got totally frustrated, wanted to quit, wanted to call Sony and say, “You’re wasting your money doing this because I can’t do this.” You know, all the actor stuff that people go through. And then you start to go, “Oh my God, that’s one thing that sounds good.” The tough thing about Tommy is that the “u’s” will all be alike and the vowels will all be alike. When he’s doing his thing and the breathiness of all that stuff. Tommy’s all over. Tommy’s improvising his voice and it’s still cultivating into something we won’t know until later. It’s like an instrument that’s been played by nobody that somebody says, “Learn how to play this, but make an album in two months that everybody will hear.” It’s like, “Why, I can’t do that. I just started.”

Can you talk about your chemistry with Will Smith?

Chemistry with Will was either going to be there or not. I think that was just luck. You can act it. I remember acting with an actor I didn’t like so much and he says, “I feel like you don’t like me,” and I said, “I don’t have to like you. I can act it,” which wasn’t a nice thing. But the truth was I hadn’t met Will before I said yes to this, and we went into rehearsals right away. I had a lot of nerves about getting it right and listening to the iPod and having watched Men In Black fifty times and all that. But the minute I got together with Will, it was seamless and it was like, “Thank you, God, Thank you God.” And it was professional, too.

We don’t know each other personally that well. It was very professional and we were always talking about the story and how we could make a moment better and ad-libbing and going back and forth. From my point of view, I was very happy with the outcome because it was organic.

What appealed to you about this big mainstream project?

It’s not a business decision. I don’t think “I bet the audience wants to see me in Men In Black now.” It’s totally selfish and personal. I like to have fun. I’m a total goof. And honestly, as a whole, serious movies are much more fun to work on than comedies because you’re compensating for the drama, so people usually have a brilliant time. When I did Flirting With Disaster, it was one of the gnarliest movies I ever did.” Everybody was like, “Oh, my God! This is not funny, And I’m not funny. It was like “Wow, this is gnarly. I want to do dramas.” And I liked Flirting With Disaster and I saw how it came out and it was like, “Wow, it’s a great movie.” So for me, it sounds so cliché, but I just want to keep challenging myself.

My goal isn’t to do as many mega-films as I possibly can. That’s just not my own personal goal. My goal is to be on my deathbed and to look back and kind of chuckle. And I’m starting to chuckle a little bit right now. It’s a really nice feeling. Like the guy from No Country For Old Men did Men In Black, who also did Milk, who also did W. That’s a nice feeling for me.

What are you looking for from a director?

It’s different. You work with The Coens and you get nothing literally. I’ve told this story a million times, but we’re doing No Country and I would finish a scene and look at Ethan [Coen] and Ethan would be silent and that meant, “Awesome, we got it. It was amazing.” It was like, “Really, that’s it?” The first two weeks, Javier [Bardem] would go, “Oh, my God! He’s going to fire me. He hates me.” [Laughs] I’ve had the most amazing stories about Oliver [Stone] and this and that. I had an amazing experience with him. I heard Gus [Van Sant] was quiet and fragile, and I didn’t experience that at all. So I’ve been very lucky.

Directors know the biggest talent a director can have, from a actor’s standpoint, is casting. If you cast it right, they won’t have to do much. And beyond that, they know when to tweak and when not to tweak. If they feel like they have to get in and say something because they have the title of director, that’s usually a massive problem.

When did you first realize you had a gift for vocal mimicry?

When I got kicked out of class a lot, that’s when it starts, you make people laugh. And I remember the first time I ever took an acting class was in high school and it was kind of an accident and I did an improv class and I created a character and everybody laughed. So it first came in humor and it was like, wow, making people laugh is really fun, this feels right, and creating stories. I wrote from the word ‘go’. I have all my journals, still from the beginning. So writing short stories, writing poems, writing scripts, writing plays, writing that, so storytelling has been a massive thing in my life. And then, I found out you can maybe act what you’re doing, like Mike Nichols or somebody in the beginning. And I liked the prospect of that.

Everybody imagines, your dad was an actor, so you became an actor. Your dad can’t get you a job. And my dad wasn’t in a position to give me a job. He didn’t run a studio or something. My dad was trying to get his own jobs. So when I became an actor, he was like, “Are you sure you want to do that?” And now my daughter’s into it and it’s the same thing. She has much more talent than my father and I, for sure, put together. I’ve seen her on stage and she just blew my mind, but if it’s in there, it’s in there.

Did you try to stop her?

The thing is, you look at your kid and you go, “What do you want to do with your life?” And they go, “I want to be rejected my entire life.” “Go for it!” It’s not something you wish for your kids, but even in the greatest of successes, you’re always going to have people slamming you. It’s constant, especially now with the Internet and all that. But she’s got the skin, she’s got the heart, and she’s got the talent, so why not.

What surprised you about working with Will?

The first time you meet Will, he’s like, “Hey!!!” You’re like, “Wow, serious?” It’s like waiting for rehearsal and try this voice and talk about it and whatever and he’s like, “M-I-B!!!” And you go, “OK.” So that was the whole movie. It’s just funny, man. It’s like going to an insane asylum. You have Will doing that and you have Barry going (imitating nasal voice), and telling stories about his mother calling him Madison Square Garden when he’s 16. And I’m like, “There people are crazy.” I thought I was crazy, but these people are nuts, which, honestly, makes it fun because you have both sides, which I understand very well.

You can have a lot of fun and you can have a lot of fun on the set, which I think is very important, and you can also bang away and say, “Look, what’s the best story here. Let’s never get lazy about our work. The professionalism comes first and then, we can have a blast.” There’s a lot of people that just want to have a good time and there’s a lot of people that I’ve work with, not a lot, but some, that just love the title, man. They’re in Hollywood and they can get good blow or something, I don’t know. What I loved about working with Will is that he is into it. I don’t know why he didn’t work for four years, which was a choice. I thought that was pretty amazing after four years. I like to work a lot personally. I like to just keep challenging myself and all that, but maybe, that would change in the future, I don’t know.

What do you key into when you’re doing a period piece like Gangster Squad?

You know, honestly, first and foremost, I’m proud of L.A. and I’ve really tried to embrace California, hence our California skit on SNL. I try to embrace California a lot because I remember as a kid, being an actor was going to New York and studying in New York. Everybody was kind of ashamed to be from California or especially from L.A. And I really made a point about turning that around, because California is pretty fricking great, man. So this was a movie about California and about Los Angeles and I loved the idea of that first and foremost. Secondly, Sean [Penn] and I were looking to do another movie together. We really had a great time working together and we’ve been friends for a long time. We had a great time working together on Milk, so we were looking for something else.

There was a great moment I had – I was just interested in the era. It was an interesting era that I didn’t really know a lot about, and especially about Los Angeles and learning the history of Los Angeles. But my dad came to the set one day, which he usually doesn’t do. And he came on to the set where O’Meara’s house is and he’s out on the porch, and we were looking out, and it was basically one of the streets that has not changed, the houses hadn’t changed, and we put all the old cars. And my dad sat, and he usually doesn’t do this, I don’t come up to him and say, “What was it like?” Because he denies his age or whatever.

And he was sat back and for like 45 minutes, he goes, “God, I remember when your uncle got hit by a thing there,” and he was like telling me all these stories. It was like he was in a full regression. It was innocence in his eyes. And I was like, “That’s why I’m doing this film. That’s why I love this. There was an innocence, even though it was hard, it was severe, all the gun battles, all that kind of stuff, there was an innocence to it that I really, really want to experience. So I did, through my pop, as much as through the movie.

What did you think about the 3D?

I loved it because it was a new 3D that I had never seen. I talked to Barry about it. In my experience, 3D is usually very invasive. It’s like scratch and sniff, whatever it is. And I felt like it was in the movie. It made the movie more beautiful. And as Avatar was an incredible experience, it’s so surreal. There is heart, but there’s no humanity in it. You’re watching these things flying and dragons and all this and this is a very different experience. And I thought this is a better movie because it’s in 3D. And I hadn’t seen it, I hadn’t seen any 3D. And Barry was like, ‘Can you watch 12 minutes. Come on.’ And I saw the movie as an entirety, which I was very happy about.

What do you think of the Rick Baker make-up?

It’s incredible and it’s always incredible. And not that this means what you think it means and seven Academy Awards and regardless, the guy, he is the beginning and he is the end. Because when he’s not around anymore, people are only going to be doing what they’ve been taught by him or the precedents that he set. Period. And Christian Tinsley, who is my makeup guy and did the makeup for Men In Black, and did for Jonah Hex and did it for W., and did it for a lot of things, he’s going to do it for Old Boys, he’s going to do it for Labor Day. He’s an incredible guy and Rick has a lot of respect for him, which I think Christian is very happy about, but no, there’s nobody like him, truly, and what a great grounded guy, too. And he was one guy who came and gave me – compliments are weird. I got used to The Coens, so I’ve gotten used to nothing and he was very complementary on the set. It was nice.

Men In Black III opens Friday, May 25th.

Glee: Season 3 Episode 22: Goodbye – TV Review

Laura Aguirre — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:48:40 +0000

Last night’s season finale of Glee was exactly what we expected it to be, emotional and borderline tearful. It was time to say farewell to the seniors of the New Directions. Some of the kids are headed West to Hollywood, others to NYC, and a few might just stay in Lima.

Find out their fates in our review of “Goodbye”…

The Players:

Director: Brad Falchuk
Writer: Brad Falchuk
Cast: Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Heather Morris, Amber Riley, Naya Rivera, Jenna Ushkowitz, Mark Salling, Matthew Morrison, Ashley Fink, Chord Overstreet, Harry Shum, Jr., Cheyenne, Darren Criss, Jayma Mays, Jane Lynch, and Mike O’Malley

Episode Title: “Goodbye”

The William McKinley High School class of 2012 graduates, and the glee club bids adieu to its graduating seniors.

The Good:

Burt Hummel’s Graduation Gift: Mike O’Malley returned as Burt Hummel. Hooray! He’s such a delightful character, and last night, he gave us another reason to smile. His gift to Kurt was a performance of Beyonce‘s “Single Ladies.” Seeing him dance to the number, inter-cut with flashbacks of Kurt doing the same was funny and sweet.
Quinn’s Reflection: Though it doesn’t make sense that Quinn’s spine healed so quickly, we’re glad she can walk again. Especially since she continues to do selfless gestures like help Puckerman study for his History final. He needed a boost of confidence and Quinn made sure to give him that. She knew that a kiss would lift his spirits and possibly help him pass that test. And it did. There was also that conversation with Sue Sylvester. Both put their guards down and approached each other like real human beings. Quinn’s come a long way and deserves every bit of her success.
Future in the Choir Room: That moment in the choir room was surreal and heartbreaking. Only Rachel got what she wanted, while Finn and Kurt got rejected. It was a bitter dose of reality.
Goodbye Rachel Berry: Rachel’s send off to New York was downright cheesy, but also powerful. Yes, the “I have to set you free” speech from Finn was cliché, as was the moment when he ran alongside the train, but it all worked. Finchel needed to breakup. To quote Finn, both of them needed to surrender each other. Rachel is a star. If Finn kept her from her dreams, he would’ve hated himself for it later on. This is the best possible ending for them — for now.

The Bad:

The Flashbacks: There were flashbacks to old episodes throughout the finale. They were a nice touch at first. But they were so few and far between that it would have been best to leave them out. It felt inconsistent.
No Backup Plan: One of the things that’s been most bothersome this season is the lack of backup plans. Seriously, who doesn’t have a Plan B? None of them considered other options besides the first one that popped into their head. It’s unrealistic. Hello! When one door closes, another one opens. That’s the saying.

The Music:

“Forever Young,” Rod Stewart – Mr. Schue gives his tribute to the New Directions. His performance is simple and subtle, but in an affective way.
“I’ll Remember,” Madonna – Kurt says goodbye to everyone, but puts emphasis on the guys of the club.
“You Get What Your Give,” New Radicals – The seniors perform for the underclassmen in the choir room. There are no outfit changes or fancy dance numbers, just a fun and friendly performance.
“In My Life,” The Beatles – This might actually be the first time Glee covers The Beatles. Thankfully, their performance didn’t ruin the song. The juniors’ performance was full of emotion.
“Glory Days,” Bruce Springsteen – One by one, the seniors take a bow in their caps and gowns.
“Roots Before Branches,” Room For Two – The final number of the season is also Rachel Berry’s last solo. Figures.

Overall:

The best decision the writers have made all season is to end Rachel and Finn’s road to marriage. Their breakup was sudden, but properly done. That alone opens up new possibilities for next season. Overall, “Goodbye” was a touching ending to a rather emotional season.

Rating: 7.5/10

Glee will return this fall, and air Thursday nights at 9 p.m. on Fox.

Photo Gallery:

What did you think of last night’s finale?

Natalie Portman To Star In Western ‘Jane Got A Gun’

Laura Aguirre — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:07:39 +0000

Tom Cruise isn’t the only actor heading to the Old West. It seems Natalie Portman is also hopping onto the Western wagon, as the Academy Award-winning actress is set to star in a modern western titled Jane Got A Gun, to be directed by Lynne Ramsay.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Portman won’t only be starring but also producing Jane Got A Gun. The film will tell the story of a woman whose outlaw husband returns home barely alive. She has to ask an old lover to defend their farm as the husband’s gang gets closer to finish him off. No word yet on who will play the husband.

Ramsay is one of the few female directors to have achieved some success and recognition. Her latest film We Need To Talk About Kevin was hailed by critics and got an outstanding performance out of Tilda Swinton. She played a woman who had to deal with the mistakes of her son. In a similar fashion, it appears Portman’s Jane will have to deal with her husband’s faults.

Currently, Portman is working on Terence Malick’s next two movies, Lawless and Knight Of Cups. She’s also set to return as Jane Foster in Thor 2. Hopefully all goes well and Jane Got A Gun gets made soon.

Are you excited to see Portman star in a western?

Men In Black 3: Movie Review

Laura Aguirre — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:37:31 +0000

Men In Black 3 has become a blockbuster underdog, mainly because it’s the movie no one was asking for, and has to overcome a lot of bad buzz about re-shoots. It’s been 10 years since we last saw Will Smith‘s Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones‘ Agent K monitor alien activity on Earth, and the new film offers a time travel twist which introduces Josh Brolin as the new K, placing Jones in the back seat. Does MIB3 have what it takes to overcome being a little outdated and a “troubled production?”

Find out in our review of MIB3…

The Players:

Directors: Barry Sonnenfeld
Writers: Etan Cohen, David Koepp, Jeff Nathanson, Michael Soccio
Starring: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin
Cinematography: Bill Pope

The Plot:

When Agent K’s (Jones) life and the fate of the planet are put at risk, Agent J (Smith) takes it upon himself to travel back in time to right the wrongs of the future. J seeks help in an unfamiliar era, teaming up with young K (Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

The Good:

Josh Brolin As Young K: MIB3 took a risk by breaking up an iconic duo and replacing Jones with Brolin – though everything suggested that Jones’ was one of the stars of the film, his performance is basically reduced to a cameo. But the movie doesn’t suffer because of it as Brolin gives a pitch-perfect performance as young Agent K. His impersonation of Jones is uncanny but entirely his own. He displays a softer side of the character, playing K as a charming and optimistic fellow instead of the world-weary cynic of the last two films. His chemistry with Smith comes easy, and both actors play off each other well.
Time Travel: Smith’s Agent J travels back in time to the Mad Men era (or at least that’s the film’s most obvious touchstone), and it’s where the movie really takes off. The 60′s section of the film offers the film’s best moments, including a trip to Andy Warhol’s The Factory where Bill Hader gives us his best Warhol, and a surprisingly lighthearted moment of period racism when Smith’s K gets pulled over for being a black man in a fancy car. In the past we also meet a sweet and likable alien named Griffin, played by Boardwalk Empire‘s Michael Stuhlbarg. He’s a pivotal part of K and J’s mission to save the world, and gives the movie a needed spoonful of quirk.
Visuals: Visually, the film is amazing. It’s a bright, colorful and full of spectacle. And the 3D actually serves a narrative purpose – including visual jokes. In one particular funny scene, we see Nicole Scherzinger carrying a wobbling two-layer cake, intercut with closeups of her vibrating buttocks that kills. But like a lot of 3-D, these scenes are at the beginning of the movie and by the third act the 3-D isn’t as noticable.

The Bad:

Weak Bad Guy: The main troublemaker, Boris the Animal, is played by Flight of the Conchords actor/musician Jemaine Clement and he’s transformed into an unrecognizable, disgusting creature (courtesy of the amazing make-up artist Rick Baker). And though he looks great, he doesn’t really make for a memorable villain. There’s nothing beyond the make-up. He’s a plot point, and little more.
Not Memorable Enough To Make A Stink: MIB3 is better than expected, but not only is it coming 10 years late, but it’s not a movie anyone was asking to see. And once you see it, it’s hard to find the motivation for it other than “Seemingly Viable Franchise.” At this point getting the band back together isn’t enough to justify buying a ticket.

Overall:

MIB3 is better than you’d think, all things. The performances, visuals and a few of the jokes make it painless. But one does not expect to call a franchise tentpole blockbuster “diverting” (at best). And in the competitive summer marketplace, it’s just not good enough.

Rating: 6.5/10

Men In Black 3 opens in theaters Friday, May 25, 2012.

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

Are you excited for Men In Black 3?

Brad Pitt’s ‘Killing Them Softly’ Gets A Poster

Laura Aguirre — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:38:38 +0000

Brad Pitt‘s Killing Them Softly will be making its debut at the Cannes Film Festival tomorrow. We’ve already gotten a taste of the film in a clip involving Ray Liotta‘s character getting an unpleasant visit from Sam Shepard and rapper Slaine. Now, thanks to Moviefone, we’ve got a poster to go along. Check it out.

Killing Them Softly, formally known as Cogan’s Trade, is based on a novel by George V. Higgins. Pitt plays a professional enforcer named Jackie Cogan, who investigates a heist that occurs during a high stakes, mob-protected, poker game.

The cast also includes James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Scott McNairy, Ben Medelsohn and Richard Jerkins. Killing Them Softly marks director Andrew Dominik‘s return after his 2007 film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, also starring Pitt.

The poster has a minimalist design, yet somehow still feels quite violent. The smudged background paired with a revolver pointed straight at the viewer and aviators covered with United States Flag decor work well. Check out the exclusive poster below:

This is a crime drama you’re not gonna wanna miss. The film opens September 21, 2012.

What do you think of the poster? Are you excited for Killing Them Softly?

Interview: Barry Sonnenfeld Talks ‘MIB III’, Casting Josh Brolin And Technology

Laura Aguirre — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:08:42 +0000

It’s been 10 years since Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were seen battling aliens as Agents J and K. This week, the iconic duo returns in Barry Sonnenfeld‘s Men In Black III, with Josh Brolin playing a younger, slightly more optimistic version of Jones’ K. We recently got the chance to chat with director Sonnenfeld. He told us about the process of casting Brolin, why he refused to shoot in native 3D, and how technology made everything much easier for him this time around.

Check out our interview with Berry Sonnenfeld…

What was the biggest challenge on MIB III that you didn’t have in others?

Barry Sonnenfeld: Technology made it easier. It’s always the story on any movie. The hard part is getting your story together. Until you have your story, it’s really hard to finish propping a movie. It’s hard to figure out who to cast. It took us a long while to get the script right. I kept saying to Sony, “What a director needs is a script.”

One day Will [Smith], who really is my partner and best friend and ally on these movies, said, “Hey Baz, they know what a director needs. They know you need a script, we just don’t have one yet.” My wife would say, “Barry, if you tell one more person that what you need is a script, I’m going to throttle you.” The good news is that you can look at the movie that we made and not say, “Wow, it sure looks like they didn’t know what they were doing.” We got along great – Will, [Josh] Brolin, Tommy [Lee Jones] and myself.

You have a situation where the actors totally trust the director. The director loves the actors. We had a fantastic first act and we knew what our ending was suppose to be. We had a great ending. Most movies run into trouble in the second and third act when you’re writing a script. A lot of reasons that happens is you keep fixing the first act. You run out of time and you never get the second and third act right because you keep going back. I would say our biggest challenge on this movie was story. Least challenging was the casting, shooting or technology. I loved what we did with the 3D. I knew how I was going to shoot the 3D. I feel our 3D is unique to any movie you’ve ever seen in 3D. I was very confident about all that.

Did you ever worry that the project was going to fall apart?

I’m trying to think of a film I didn’t worry that it was going to fall apart. When we did Get Shorty we were ready to go, everything was set. This was after seven years of getting someone to let us make Get Shorty. No one wanted to make it. Right before we were shooting the studio said we had to lose $250,000, which was a lot on that movie, or they weren’t going to make it. There were a few days of horror on that. What I did on that movie was that I volunteered to take out what I knew was their favorite scene. I said, “We’re back on budget, we’ve taken out the scene with Ben Stiller, Gene Hackman and John Travolta.” They said that they loved that scene and we couldn’t take it out. I said, “You can’t have it.” They said, “We have to have it.” I said, “You cannot have that scene, it’s too much money.” The president said, “I’m the president of the studio, what is going to take to have that scene?” I said, “$250,000.” He said, “You got it.” [Laughs]

And by the way, the scene is not in the movie and it is the best scene, but it came out after several other scenes that were similar and the audience, I think, was getting bored. I took it out. You can see it at the end of the DVD. My point is, there were a lot of big challenges because the movie is about time-travel. What happened is we started the movie on a certain date because we wanted a) this to be Will Smith’s next movie and he was circling some other movies, and b) we didn’t know if the tax investment credit in New York State was going to continue. If we lost that, we lost tens of millions of dollars making this movie not able to be made for the right budget.

We knew we had a great first act, we knew we had a fantastic ending and we shot and went on a long hiatus. Now you’re in panic mode because you gotta start up again. I remember reading nothing but horrible stories about Titanic. I remember people going to see Titanic just to see how bad it could be. So, all these movies are hard. This movie was harder than a lot of them because there was a lot of pressure. We were reinventing a franchise and we’re doing time travel. What if we screw up and Josh Brolin is no good and the audience hates us for breaking up a fantastic and iconic duo which is Tommy and Will? That was my single biggest concern.

We never felt this was a one-hander. We always felt Will is only as funny as Tommy allows him to be. Gracie Allen-George Burns. We’re now taking Tommy out in the middle of the movie. We have to replace him with someone who feels equally perfect as Tommy, but on the other hard, isn’t Tommy. It was my suggestion to hire Brolin. The second I saw him I said, “I can’t wait to see what your head looks like in 3D.” He’s got the largest head, only second to Tommy Lee Jones of any actor in America.

It was hard. They were all hard. The only one that wasn’t hard for me was Big Trouble. 59 great nights of shooting, but it didn’t make any money. 11 days before it opened The Towers went down and we had to guys that had stolen a suitcase with a nuclear bomb so that wasn’t going to go anywhere. This one was hard, but not harder than others.

Was there ever any consideration of not casting a younger actor and maybe doing the Tron: Legacy technology by having Tommy play a younger version of himself?

Never. I felt the joy of going back in time was to make it feel like a different movie. If we had Tommy doing that it would start to feel like the other MIB movies. I think that going back in time and seeing young K and it not being played by Tommy Lee Jones was the best choice.

Did you try to direct Josh Brolin the same way you directed Tommy Lee Jones?

Well, I direct all of the actors the same way which is basically saying “flatter and faster,” except for Will where I would go, “flatter and more urgency.”

A lot of the Josh Brolin direction happened before we started. Josh and I spent a great deal of time saying that this couldn’t be an impersonation. It had to be an interpretation. What is amazing about Josh’s performance is that he looks like Tommy, he’s wearing prosthetic ears and a prosthetic nose to look a little more like Tommy, but they look very similar. If you look at Tommy when he was in his late-20s, he looks similar to Josh Brolin. Brolin can sound a great deal like Tommy. Everyone thinks Tommy has this flat voice, but it’s actually quite musical. There’s a real lilt and beauty to Tommy’s voice that you guys have probably never experienced.

The challenge for Josh and myself was to figure out to what extent is he a different guy because he’s 40 years younger and the event that changed him hasn’t happened yet. Josh and I felt it should be old Tommy, but a little bit more optimistic. Not a totally different guy, not like he’s Jerry Lewis. Before we started, some people felt the whole joy was to see a very different guy. I was very fearful that if we did that, the audience would immediately say, “I miss Tommy Lee Jones.” Brolin and I were in total agreement that there would be more optimism, but he was basically the same guy. The studio realized we had made the right decision. I do very little directing on the set. My direction is mainly about pace, syntax and urgency. I’ll just say, “Let’s do one take where you’re less mean and more amused.” I don’t go back to the chair and talk about your childhood.

Was telling Tommy that he wasn’t going to be in a large part of this movie a good experience?

I wasn’t the one to tell him. I was the one to fly down with the producers to Palm Beach and talk to him about being in the movie. Tommy’s initial reaction was that he wasn’t in the movie enough and that he loved working with Will and myself. He said, “We have a great time together.” I said, “We absolutely do, but the truth is we need to make a different movie. We don’t want to make MIB3 and it’s just another caper. We need to add something to make is very different. It’s not out you Tommy, it’s about what would work best for the film.”

After 10 years we felt we needed to re-engineer it a little bit. I was not the one to tell him. I think he’s extraordinary. I love spending time with him. I remember I was a producer on Lady Killers. I said to Joel and Ethan Coen, “You gotta hire Tommy for that role, he’d be perfect.” They were too afraid to, but I love Tommy and he loves me. I have pictures of me and Tommy smiling happily together.

Has your comfort level with technology improved?

The technology has exploded. For me, where the technology has gotten much better is in set extensions, like that we built all of Shea Stadium and we built 90% of Cape Canaveral. All those big digital set extensions you would never have done them in Men In Black I. We would have had to build them and we couldn’t have done that so that wouldn’t have been in the script. What you can do, in terms of creating worlds and all that, is fantastic. Magic is fantastic.

What still is the hardest thing is you really want actors to act to actors. You don’t want them to act to blue screen dots. I don’t like motion capture because I find it weirdly plastic and scary and spooky. I mean if I was going to do an all motion capture movie, I would just animate it. The challenges on this movie weren’t explosions, not rocket ships, but subtle things. Sometimes we use Avatar J or Avatar K in the shot and making them still feel as human as possible. That hasn’t changed.

We had a really great crew on this movie. It was all Image Works which is all owned by Sony, but that’s not the point. In spite of having a great crew, I stayed away from trying to create CG aliens interacting with actors. CG aliens can’t ad-lib, you can’t change things. What’s great about working with real actors is someone says something a certain way. One will say, “Drop dead,” while another can say, “Drop dead?” Technology has improved profoundly. I think I’ve convinced Sony that it’s actually a better way to go. We’ll see.

How does being “tech-obsessed” inform what you do? There is no state of the art anymore, it’s changing all the time.

BS: I’m not nearly the same level of “tech-obsessed” as David Fincher or James Cameron or those guys, but it sort of moves or stays the same. It does move but you still don’t want your aliens to be animated. There has been amazing stuff. What Peter Jackson did in Lord of the Rings was pretty great. There has been great stuff, but it’s unusual.

Do you keep all of the devices you review for Esquire?

No, I’ve left Esquire. After eight years I was too obsessed. I don’t keep what I review. I end up buying a lot of stuff.

Is there another one of these films in you with maybe Jaden Smith playing a young version of Will Smith?

I said to Will that we should do one when we go back and get Jaden just so I wouldn’t work with Will. [Laughs]

Can you talk about the 3D?

I think it’s the best use of 3D I’ve seen in a movie. We decided to convert. I knew we were releasing 3D. I knew we were intending to shoot in 3D. I did a series of tests with a reality rig, a pace rig, and I also shot on 35mm film and converted it. Then looked at all three.

It’s really stupid to shoot native 3D. First of all, native 3D, at the moment, the MapBox is very wide. I use wide angel lenses. When I tried to get a shot of Will Smith aiming a gun at the screen, the MapBox got in the way. The technicians are not set savvy. They are not fast. Every time you change a lens, you have to change both lenses. You have to calibrate. It’s a disaster. You can’t shoot on film, you have to shoot digital. I still prefer the look of film. When we took all the footage to release print, Rick Baker’s alien makeup didn’t look as good when you originated it on digital. It’s slower on the set. Also, here’s the other weird thing: When you shoot in native 3D, you have to choose and lock the interocular separation for that shot, which determines the depth. But since you don’t know your cutting pattern when you’re shooting, if the depth changes too much from shot to shot, people get headaches.

What 3D directors do is they have very narrow interocular separation. They put all the convergence at the screen and in most 3D movies you see, the convergence is at the screen and the 3D-ness is back there somewhere. It makes sense because Jim Cameron has reinvigorated 3D. His way of seeing is getting into a submersible, going down 7 miles and looking through a porthole at the world. I, on the other hand, am an only child. I use wide angle lenses. I want the audience close to me.

I feel, unlike Michael Bay, Michael Mann, the Scott Brothers, who use long lenses, whose movies are very handsome, very beautiful, but slightly absorbed. My feeling, from what I did with the Coen Brothers and Danny DeVito, I want to grab the audience and say “C’mon, let’s go watch this movie.” Because I use a 21mm, you unconsciously feel you are in the room with the actors. If you look at MIB3 again in 3D, I would say 80% of the movie is actually in front of the screen. If you see closeup of Will or even over the shoulders, they’re slightly in the audience. Not like we’re throwing darts at you or anything. None of that could have happened if we had shot native 3D. I feel for the way I shoot with wide lenses, on film, with the pace I want, converting was the best choice.

One last thing, when you shoot native 3D, it’s like a recording device. There’s no art to it. The amount of 3D is the amount of 3D. That’s set. The 21 mm lens shooting a closeup of Will Smith, which is what I do. Will’s ears are in Philadelphia and his nose is in Los Angeles. He’s got small ears and they are far away from the rest of his face. In 2D conversion, I actually control the depth and volume of his head in every single shot. We’re always cheating that. We’re always taking Will’s head and doing that to it. It’s imperceptible, but we knew what we were doing. We did a lot of tests. I think MIB3 is going to change the way studios and filmmakers think about how they shoot their 3D movies. You can use small rigs and shoot film, what could be more perfect than that for your movie?

How do you feel about the push for 48 frames coming out of Cinema-Con 2012?

I didn’t see it so I can’t comment on it technically. To me, anything that makes something shot on film or something that’s an art, a fantasy, look more like video, more like reality, you don’t want it. I once at a Sony store in midtown Manhattan and I was looking at something that looked like the making of Avatar, but it was Avatar. I said to salesmen, “Say is there something wrong with this television?” And the guy said, “You mean cause it looks like General Hospital?” And I said, “Yeah.” And then he presses a button that increases the refresher rate to 60. Don’t do it. It’s really this magical device that make anything turn into General Hospital.

I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment on it, except to say I like the film look. I like it looking like art. I’m not saying I’m an artist, but I do feel anything that makes anything seem more like video doesn’t sound like such a great idea to me. You might as well stay home and watch the weather channel – which is my favorite thing to do, I admit that. [Laughs]

Men In Black III opens Friday, May 25th.

Girls: Season 1 Episode 6: The Return – TV Review

Laura Aguirre — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:47:12 +0000

Last night’s episode of Girls felt like a shorter version of Tiny Furniture. “The Return” focused all its attention on Lena Dunham‘s Hannah, omitting the rest of the cast. Hannah traveled back to her hometown where she encountered lots of people from her past, much like the aforementioned film. We also saw the reappearance of her parents, played by Becky Ann Baker and Peter Scolari.

Check out our review below…

The Players:

Director: Lena Dunham
Writer: Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow
Cast: Lena Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Allison Williams

Episode Title: “The Return“

Hannah visits her parents in Michigan for their 30th anniversary. But she winds up going on a date to a fundraiser for a local family who suffered a tragic loss.

The Good:

The Return: The best part of “The Return” was seeing more of the relationship between Hannah and her parents. It’s a shame they can’t be around more often. They bring out the best and worst in their daughter. At first, she behaves like a brat, yelling at them for not understanding her life. But later, she shows signs of growth when her mother asks if she needs financial help. Hannah’s out of a job and rent is due, but she turns down the offer. That showed that she’s actually trying to take matters into her own hands.
Pep Talk: Hannah’s little pep talk before going on her date was hilarious. She tells herself, “You are from New York, therefore you are naturally interesting.” This feeling of superiority over everyone else follows Hannah throughout her date and entire visit home. It’s interesting to hear what she thinks of her high school friend’s intent to move to Hollywood and become a professional dancer. She doubts that she’ll be able to succeed in a place where she knows no one, yet she forgets that she’s struggling to be a writer in a city that doesn’t want her.
The Tolerable Adam: Adam is becoming more and more tolerable. It doesn’t bother us that he calls Hannah “kid” or that he thinks Ohio is her hometown (it’s actually Michigan). He shows honest signs of affection towards her this time around. It’s not that he’s a jerk, it’s that he’s also a young 20-something trying to figure it out.
Side Note: Peter Scolari’s impression of Woody Allen was very amusing.

The Bad:

No Marnie, Jessa, or Shoshanna: Mmmm, we don’t know how to feel about this. Dunham is a strong actress and her character is the driving force behind Girls, but this show is supposed to be about a group of friends. Without Marnie, Jessa or Shoshanna, “The Return” felt more like a short film and less like an episode of the HBO series.

Overall:

Hannah’s trip back home showed us that she’s maturing. It proves that all of her terrible experiences in New York aren’t in vain. Still, “The Return” could have used some additional spice from the show’s other three leads.

Rating: 7.5/10

Girls airs at 10:30 p.m. on HBO.

What did you think of last night’s episode?

Dan Harmon Fired From ‘Community’, Sony Hires New Showrunners

Laura Aguirre — Sat, 19 May 2012 21:18:03 +0000

It’s official, Community‘s creator, Dan Harmon, will no longer be the showrunner. His precious job is being handed over to David Guarascio and Moses Port, whose credits include Happy Endings, Aliens in America and Just Shoot Me. Harmon took to Tumblr to express his feelings over the whole situation. He’s not exactly a happy camper.

Vulture reports that Sony struck a deal with Guarascio and Port to act as new showrunners and executive producers. Sony expects Harmon to stay on as a writer and consulting producer, but based on Harmon’s reactions, there has been some serious miscommunication between him and the studio. It seems that Harmon wasn’t told about the new management, and that he found out just like the rest of us. And it’s doubtful that he’ll be sticking around to help.

Sony and Harmon’s tempestuous relationship dates back to the show’s first season. Harmon has always clashed with Sony and NBC over the show’s creative direction and style. Their concern has always been to make the show more appealing to broader audiences. Then there’s all the behind-the-scenes drama with Chevy Chase, and the writing staff changeovers throughout the years. Add to that the low ratings and Harmon’s poor management skills. We’re not surprised Harmon got booted off the show without his knowledge of it.

Community is renewed for a fourth season, but those 13 episodes are probably the last we’ll see of the show. Come to think of it, “Introduction to Finality” is probably the last true Community episode. Without Harmon, things just won’t be the same–sure, he may be a volatile showrunner, and his ratings were never great, but Community‘s quality level has always been exceptional. Goodbye paintball. Goodbye 8-bit video games. Goodbye stop-motion and clay animation. This is cruel, man. Cruel, cruel, cruel.

Below is an excerpt from Harmon’s post on his blog Dan Harmon Poops, check it out:

A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I’m sure are quite nice – actually, I have it on good authority they’re quite nice, because they once created a show and cast my good friend Jeff Davis on it, so how bad can they be.

Why’d Sony want me gone? I can’t answer that because I’ve been in as much contact with them as you have. They literally haven’t called me since the season four pickup, so their reasons for replacing me are clearly none of my business. Community is their property, I only own ten percent of it, and I kind of don’t want to hear what their complaints are because I’m sure it would hurt my feelings even more now that I’d be listening for free.

I do want to correct a couple points of spin, now that I’m free to do so:

The important one is this quote from Bob Greenblatt in which he says he’s sure I’m going to be involved somehow, something like that. That’s a misquote. I think he meant to say he’s sure cookies are yummy, because he’s never called me once in the entire duration of his employment at NBC. He didn’t call me to say he was starting to work there, he didn’t call me to say I was no longer working there and he definitely didn’t call to ask if I was going to be involved. I’m not saying it’s wrong for him to have bigger fish to fry, I’m just saying, NBC is not a credible source of All News Dan Harmon.

You may have read that I am technically “signed on,” by default, to be an executive consulting something or other – which is a relatively standard protective clause for a creator in my position. Guys like me can’t actually just be shot and left in a ditch by Skynet, we’re still allowed to have a title on the things we create and “help out,” like, I guess sharpening pencils and stuff.

However, if I actually chose to go to the office, I wouldn’t have any power there. Nobody would have to do anything I said, ever. I would be “offering” thoughts on other people’s scripts, not allowed to rewrite them, not allowed to ask anyone else to rewrite them, not allowed to say whether a single joke was funny or go near the edit bay, etc. It’s….not really the way the previous episodes got done. I was what you might call a….hands on producer. Are my….periods giving this enough….pointedness? I’m not saying you can’t make a good version of Community without me, but I am definitely saying that you can’t make my version of it unless I have the option of saying “it has to be like this or I quit” roughly 8 times a day.

The same contract also gives me the same salary and title if I spend all day masturbating and playing Prototype 2. And before you ask yourself what you would do in my situation: buy Prototype 2. It’s fucking great.

Because Prototype 2 is great, and because nobody called me, and then started hiring people to run the show, I had my assistant start packing up my office days ago. I’m sorry. I’m not saying seasons 1, 2 and 3 were my definition of perfect television, I’m just saying that whatever they’re going to do for season 4, they’re aiming to do without my help. So do not believe anyone that tells you on Monday that I quit or diminished my role so I could spend more time with my loved ones, or that I negotiated and we couldn’t come to an agreement, etc. It couldn’t be less true because, just to make this clear, literally nobody called me. Also don’t believe anyone that says I have sex with animals. And if there’s a photo of me doing it with an animal – I’m not saying one exists, I’m just saying, if one surfaces – it’s a fake. Look at the shadow. Why would it be in front of the giraffe if the sun is behind the jeep?

Where was I? Oh yeah. I’m not running Community for season 4. They replaced me. Them’s the facts.

To read Harmon’s entire reaction, head to Dan Harmon Poops.

What do you think?

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