Archive: May 2009 (31-40 of 467)

May 28 2009 05:33 PM ET

'Bad Lieutenant': Best worst trailer of the year so far?

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The news that Werner Herzog was remaking Abel Ferrara’s 1992 controversial cop drama Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage in the Harvey Keitel role raised a lot of questions. First among them: "Why on earth is Werner Herzog remaking Abel Ferrara’s 1992 controversial cop drama Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage in the Harvey Keitel role?" Don’t get me wrong. Herzog is among my favorite directors. Indeed, it is the originality of his style and vision that makes it so odd he would do a remake like this. Also, as the man is hardly synonymous with boffo box office, who would have thought it was a good idea to give him the reins rather than someone like Tony Scott? The decision of Nicolas Cage to step into Keitel’s shoes is less surprising. After all, he thought remaking The Wicker Man was a good idea! One person that definitely did not agree with this project was Ferrara himself, who told Filmmaker Magazine Herzog could "burn in hell."

A trailer for Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant just hit the Internet and, well, I’m not sure what to say really. Yes, it looks terrible. But in a way that really, really makes me want to see it. There’s just something about a crazed, wildly overacting Nicolas Cage smoking crack and depriving an old woman of her oxygen supply that somehow adds up to a must-watch as far as I’m concerned. Or it’s possible that I may have gone completely insane.

Take a look and tell us what you think.

May 28 2009 05:12 PM ET

'What Not to Wear': Mayim Bialik to blossom on the season premiere

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TLC’s What Not to Wear returns for a new season May 29, with its first celebrity fashion victim — Blossom star Mayim Bialik. You may think that Stacy and Clinton will go easy on her (Clinton does, after all, refer to her as "TV royalty" in the tease below), but it’s tough love as usual: When Mayim begs to keep the purple cardigan that she wore on an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, they make her dance for it. That, sadly, is not in the clip below, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Also, I can tell you that Mayim’s pre-makeover wardrobe includes at least one blouse that she wore on Blossom. Yes, good times will be had by all. But mostly by Stacy and Clinton…

Are we all still loving What Not to Wear? Have you ever found youself attracted to Clinton? And is there a "royal" (code for "gettable") celeb you’d like to nominate for the show?

May 28 2009 05:04 PM ET

Elsewhere on EW.com today...

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May 28 2009 04:51 PM ET

DreamWorks doing 'Kung Fu Panda,' 'Madagascar,' and 'Shrek' sequels: Which are you most excited about?

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Kungfupanda_lDreamWorks Animation just announced a huge slate of upcoming projects, and true to company form, it’s littered with sequels. Among them, I’d have to say the Kung Fu Panda follow-up sounds the best. First, it has a truly awesome subtitle: The Kaboom of Doom. Second, the original was the first DreamWorks film in ages to truly feel fresh. Not only was it visually stunning, but it had rousing action scenes, a heartwarming and only slightly saccharine message and, best of all, a truly memorable character: Po, the pudgy Panda perfectly matched with the voice of Jack Black. And oh yeah, it was actually pretty darn funny. Sample quote: "It is said that his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness!" So, bring it on, DreamWorks.

I also don’t mind a third Madagascar (the first two are light and breezy and completely harmless), but a fourth Shrek? And a Puss in Boots spinoff, to boot? (Zing?) The green ogre has overstayed his welcome — by far. What was once lively and original has become a pale mockery of itself. I honestly could not tell you the plot of the third Shrek, minus some vague recollections of a punkish prat character voiced by Justin Timberlake.

Lest you say the company keeps repeating itself, DreamWorks did announce some new projects as well, the most promising of which is called Guardians and involves Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy banding together to save the world. Think of it as The Incredibles, only with Holiday mascots. It sounds fun.

So, PopWatchers, which sequel are you most excited about? What franchise does DreamWorks need to put the kibosh on? And with Pixar’s gloriously-reviewed Up opening tomorrow, all of these projects sound totally uninspired in comparison, no?

May 28 2009 04:18 PM ET

'Doctor Who': The end is nigh?

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I happened to be visiting my British homeland during the first season of the revamped Doctor Who and caught an episode at a friend’s house. "It’s really good," my chum told me beforehand, adding "It’s so good I usually start crying with joy." "What an idiot," thought I. And yet within minutes there we both were sitting on the sofa (or "couch", if you will) moist-eyed with the sheer thrill that a sci fi show we loved so much as kids had been resurrected in such fantastic fashion. (I should also probably add that, for reasons which need not detain us here, said couch had once belonged to Simon Pegg from Star Trek, Shaun of the Dead and Doctor Who itself. In retrospect it seems a miracle we didn’t create some sort of nerdishness-fuelled black hole.)

Christopher Eccleston played the Doctor in that first season but for the last few years he has been portrayed in brilliant and eccentric fashion by David Tennant. Alas, Tennant recently retired from the role which is a huge blow and if his replacement Matt Smith is even half as good he will be doing well. The good news? According to Variety BBC America have picked up the rights to screen the last five Tennant-starring Who specials. The first, which is called "The Next Doctor", will be shown on June 27. I caught the show back in the UK last Christmas and it is quite a corker thanks in large part to guest star David Morrissey. A great British actor Morrissey is best known in the UK for his role in the original TV version of State of Play though sadly here he is best known for being That-Dude-In-Basic-Instinct-2.

Check out the UK BBC trailer below and tell us how excited you are (or not!) for Tennant’s Who curtain call(s).

May 28 2009 04:07 PM ET

'Star Trek' knit meerkat dolls: Why didn't we think of this?

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Meerkat_trekThey’re dolls. In the shape of meerkats. Made of knitted yarn. Dressed up like Star Trek characters. Any questions?

Wait, I have a few. Who knits meerkats? What do meerkats have to do with Star Trek? Why was it important for the maker to note that the meerkats "wear Federation emblems (not yet a communicator)"? If the meerkat in the photo is supposedly Bones, "administering a trioxide compound to Jim Kirk who is hyperventilating after realising Uhura prefers Spock", then why isn’t he even looking at Kirk? And why is Uhura standing idly by? I’ve read that meerkats exhibit altruistic behavior, but this sure isn’t convincing me. And where did Uhura get her little bling box? Do they have a Zales kiosk on the Enterprise?

Go ahead and leave your responses in the comments. And don’t forget to answer the biggest question of them all: Would you actually buy this?

May 28 2009 03:26 PM ET

Adventures in DVR-ing: Home predator; Jay Leno

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Leno_predatorThis image isn’t mean, right? We’re not making an editorial comment or anything. It was just there on the DVR. Things happen! Conveniently, it gives us the chance to plug today’s EW.com photo gallery of 14 Classic Jay Leno Moments on the ‘Tonight Show’ — from asking Hugh Grant what the hell he was thinking, to showcasing a troupe of dancing Judge Lance Itos, to chatting up the cast of Cheers while they were too drunk after their series finale to realize they were on live TV.

Are you watching Leno’s last week on the air in the (somewhat maddening) 11:35 p.m. to 12:37 a.m. time slot? How much will you miss him when he doesn’t go away?

May 28 2009 01:30 PM ET

'Mental': Josh Wolk's Pop Culture Club is ready to give its diagnosis

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Mental_lWelcome back to the Pop Culture Club. A quick explanation for those who are new to this page: I pick a viewing assignment each week, and we meet back here to discuss it on the following Thursday, all while pretending to be doing our actual jobs. Got it? Let’s begin!

I’m going to begin this post with a game. What do these three things have in common?
1. Eating a sandwich with a slice of bologna and a slice of yellow cardboard.
2. Putting on sun-tan lotion, getting a beach chair, and going out to sit in your garage.
3. Watching Mental.

The answer? All of these things are, in theory, similar to things that I like, but in practice are really, really terrible.

The painfully derivative Mental was like Communist surplus House: A brilliant doctor with very unorthodox methods makes his anal coworkers splutter and his tightly wound female supervisor get all hot and bothered between her threats to bring said doc up on charges. Everything was House-y, right down to the two attractive residents fighting an inevitable attraction. It seemed like an oversight that Dr. Mental (Chris Vance) had full use of all four limbs and no drug addiction.

But here was my biggest problem: Dr. Mental is a terrible psychiatrist. (Yes, I know his name was Jack Gallagher, but that name is so appropriately generic that whenever I type it I fall into a deep sleep.) In the writers’ urge to make him unorthodox, they have him making decisions that make no therapeutic sense at all. Let’s note three:

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May 28 2009 12:00 PM ET

Must List poll: What's the Must action flick face-off of the summer?

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Now that our Must List polling underway (did you remember to vote in yesterday’s poll: What is the best reality-competition TV show of the summer?) we want to keep the ball rolling with our next category, action movie face-offs! You know, those deliriously fun battle royales between good and evil that have us cheering from our seats (or sometimes, watching through our fingers). Was it renegade Kirk (Chris Pine) going toe-to-toe with Nero (Eric Bana) in Star Trek? Was it the epic war of sideburns (that was what they were fighting over, right?) between Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Sabertooth (Liev Schrieber) in X-Men Origins: Wolverine that got you fired up? Or does the horn-locking in Terminator Salvation and The Taking of Pelham 123 have you psyched? Pick a side and let’s have a clean fight!

May 28 2009 10:00 AM ET

Quote of the Day: Doctor's orders edition

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Housenotwitter_l"I think if people were able to take these 140 characters and develop apoetic Western form — a haiku of our own in which all human existencecould be compressed into those 140 characters — that would be asatisfying thing, but that’s not what I see when I read them" — Hugh Laurie, regarding Twitter

(You’re following EWPopWatch on Twitter, right? OMG Twitter!)

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