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Posts Tagged ‘Stanley Tucci’
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
The first trailer for the highly anticipated BURLESQUE is here, featuring the much hyped screen debut of Christina Aguilera. And although many of the stars in this film have a very passionate fan base, I have to point out something about this film; it looks almost exactly like SHOWGIRLS. So much so, that I found myself snickering at it. It has an eerily similar storyline of a small town girl heading to the big city to be a dancer, where she works in a club, then gets her big break an becomes famous in that city. But that’s a generalized plot. What makes it bad is that they duplicated a lot of the little things like having her mimic the dancers while in the audience and fall for the waiter/bartender guy. The acting also looks awkward, like no one really knows what to say.
I don’t know, maybe I’m being too hard on it. Check it out and decide for yourself. The film stars Christina Aguilera, Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci, Alan Cumming, Eric Dane, Julianne Hough and Cher. Steven Antin is directing for a November 24th release date. Watch the trailer here.
Tags: Alan Cumming, christina aguilera, Eric Dane, kristen bell, movie news, Stanley Tucci
Posted in News |
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
Talk about a dynamic duo; Meryl Streep and Tina Fey have agreed to star in the upcoming comedy MOMMY AND ME, which will be directed by the underrated Stanley Tucci. The details of the plot are still unknown, but Streep and Fey will play a mother-daughter duo and the film will be a comedy. We all know Stanley Tucci the actor, but he’s directed a few movies as well, most recently in 2007 with BLIND DATE starring himself and Patricia Clarkson. But this would by far and away mark the most high profile project he’s tackled. Starring with Meryl Streep is one thing, but bossing her around on set is probably going to be a completely different ballgame for him.
Not all dynamic duos pan out to produce quality cinema, but the idea of Meryl Streep and Tina Fey together is definitely intriguing. I also like them together with an accomplished actor like Stanley Tucci. This is one to keep an eye on.
Source: Variety
Tags: Meryl Streep, movie news, Stanley Tucci, Tina Fey
Posted in News |
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Posted by: Nathan Swank
The independent film MARGIN CALL has just gained another impressive cast member in the very talented Jeremy Irons. He will play the chief executive of a financial firm. The movie will cover several characters during the first 24 hours that Wall Street nearly collapsed completely. J.C. Chandor wrote the script and will be directing.
This cast list just seems to get bigger and better. The film is already three weeks into shooting so Irons should be the final addition. He will be joining the rest of the all-star cast including, Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, Mary McDonnell and Penn Badgley. I for one am interested in the content, as I feel very uninformed on how that all went down. What better teacher than a movie.
Source: Deadline
Tags: Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Kevin Spacey, movie news, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto
Posted in News |
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
Demi Moore is the latest to join the cast of the highly relevant MARGIN CALL. The cast includes Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto and Penn Badgley. The film follows eight people during the first 24 hours of the Wall Street financial crisis. The subject matter of the film is both interesting and timely, but the longer they take to release it, the less likely they’re going to be to capitalize on recent events. It also sounds a little like THE COMPANY MEN, which is also trying to get released to coincide with the still down-trodden economy. J.C. Chandor will direct from a script he wrote.
I like the mature themes this film is going to be dealing with, but I guess my only concern is that they’re following too many people. Eight characters with equal time is a lot to focus on, so I hope they’re able to give everyone the screen time they need to tell their stories.
Source: Deadline
Tags: Demi Moore, Kevin Spacey, movie news, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto
Posted in News |
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
The CAPTAIN AMERICA casting news keeps flying in at a lightning fast pace as today we learn that Stanley Tucci will be starring as Dr. Erskine in the upcoming film. Dr. Erskine was one of the top scientists behind the project/experiment that eventually created Captain America. He joins a cast that includes Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones, Sebastian Stan, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones and most recently, Neal McDonough. Joe Johnston will be directing the film.
CAPTAIN AMERICA has the unenviable task of having to not only set up a revered superhero, but having to set up the eventual AVENGERS film. Based solely off the numerous recognizable actors and actresses they have starring in the film, I’d say they have too much going on, but I’m trying to remind myself that they kind of have to. I just hope they keep the story simple enough that audiences can connect to Steve Rogers on our way to getting ready for the AVENGERS.
Source: Marvel
Tags: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, movie news, sebastian stan, Stanley Tucci
Posted in News |
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
I have to hand it to Emma Stone, she picks some pretty good roles and always manages to add a likability to her characters that makes them enjoyable and interesting. It looks like her next film, EASY A, is more of the same. In it, she plays a high school virgin that pretends to have sex with a nerdy guy in order to boost his popularity with the jocks. When it works, other nerds from around the school start enlisting her “fake” services and pretty soon, she’s reaping the benefits and consequences for being the school slut.
It’s a pretty interesting concept, but one that requires a likable and charming lead female. That’s a good thing for Emma Stone, as she’s usually both. Will Gluck (FIRED UP!) will be directing Stone, Amanda Bynes, Stanley Tucci, Lisa Kudrow and Patricia Clarkson in the film. EASY A will be released on September 17th.
Watch the trailer here.
Tags: Amanda Bynes, Emma Stone, Lisa Kudrow, movie news, Stanley Tucci
Posted in News |
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
Whenever there’s a national tragedy, I can’t help but wonder when Hollywood will make a movie about it. Although maybe not considered a “tragedy”, the financial collapse and resulting recession of 2008 was definitely eventful enough to merit a major motion picture. It looks like director J.C. Chandor agrees as he’s set to make the film MARGIN CALL, which will cover a hectic 24 hours during the 2008 financial collapse. The film will star Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto, Carla Gugino and Stanley Tucci.
Not many actors do dialogue-heavy films better than Spacey (see BIG KAHUNA for reference) and I like the addition of Zachary Quinto to the cast (he’ll also be producing). We don’t have a lot of information about the plot right now, but if done right, this could be a great film.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Tags: Carla Gugino, Kevin Spacey, movie news, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto
Posted in News |
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Watching other people cook on television is either something you like, or just can’t understand. Before the Rachel Ray made the Food Network famous, Julia Child was the cook to watch on television. She paved the way for Ms. Ray and the Iron Chef’s of America. In general, cooking shows are for a niche market and I’m sure people may have been wary of a film that was focused on cooking, but JULIE & JULIA is more about the women and not so much the food. Although you will probably be hungry after you watch the movie.
Julie Powell (Amy Adams) decides to make a commitment by writing a blog based on her culinary experiences as she cooks her way through Julia Child’s (Meryl Streep) ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’. The movie follows her story over a year as she cooks French cuisine as well as Julia Child’s story as she writes the book and grows into the legend we know today. The film follows two stories from two women that are intertwined with food and personal growth.
I will say that the movie JULIE & JULIA is nothing like the book it was based on. In the book the character/author Julie Powell takes us through her year long journey but with more vulgarity and whininess. Thankfully, Nora Ephron understood the need to add Julia Child’s story into the plot because two hours of listening to Ms. Powell whine about cooking and having nervous breakdowns over food preparation would just be too much. However, with that said, Julia Child is no saint herself and although she was played wonderfully by Meryl Streep, she is equally annoying to watch at times. The one complaint about this film would be the characters themselves, but since their stories were given to us in short increments, the women were more tolerable to watch.
Ms. Ephron did an amazing job of balancing the film and making the two stories meld together seamlessly. The way she developed the two characters without focusing on one more than the other was perfection. She made two women come to life and made the food an important and defined character as well. The acting was also amazing and the visuals were stunning. Sets, costumes and entrees were done beautifully and everything put on the screen was a pleasure to watch and candy for the eye.
I would recommend for Ms. Streep’s performance alone. She is spot on as Julia Child and it would have been easy to watch more of her in this role. The one downfall is Julie Powell and although she accomplished a great feat (524 French recipes in 365 days is an incredible accomplishment) her character was just too whiny and if it weren’t for a portrayal from the adorable Amy Adams, this movie wouldn’t have done so well.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: JULIE AND JULIA is presented with a striking widescreen 1.85:1 transfer. This near-reference quality video makes the multitude of colors shown throughout the film pop right off the screen. Given the colors and the complexity of some of the scenes, this is one of the better video transfers I’ve seen.
Audio: The audio was also quite impressive and the 5.1 DTS-HD audio track was crystal clear.
Commentary with Writer/Director Nora Ephron: Although there are some pauses throughout the film, the commentary Nora Ephron gives is interesting to listen to. She gives a lot of little tidbits of info that are great fun. If you want another view of the film, then I would recommend watching this because listening to Ephron is a treat.
Secret Ingredients: Creating Julie & Julia (27:44):A making of featurette that wasn’t too bad. Some movie clips make their way into this segment but it’s really more behind the scene footage that’s being shown. There are a lot of good interviews from Ephron, Julie Powell as well as the producers and actors, and they give a lot of good background information. Definitely worth the watch if you liked the movie.
Family and Friends Remember Julia Child (47:39): This is a long featurette about friend and family who reminisce about their moments with Julia Child. This is good if you are a fan of Julia or are endeared by her journey, but I found it to go on a little long. There are some great stories and photos and would be a great companion to the book My Life in France.
Julia’s Kitchen (22:31): This is about the procurement of Julia’s kitchen by the Smithsonian Institution. This was a cool featurette to add to the Blu-ray, especially if you love cooking. I really enjoyed this and though it was a fascinating watch.
Cooking Lessons: Featuring Julia Child and other chefs (22:52): These are five cooking lessons from Julia Child or her associates, and they are each led by the coordinating scene from the film or another appropriate movie clip. If you’ve never seen Julia Child cook, or just enjoy watching cooking shows then these are fun to watch as they are one dish and are right to the point. Not all of them include Julia, but with each we get a bit more information about her.
There are also some Previews and a MovieIQ with Julia Child’s original recipes
Tags: Amy Adams, Blu-ray, Meryl Streep, movie reviews, Nora Ephron, Stanley Tucci
Posted in Blu-Ray Reviews, Reviews |
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Like many people, I love THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY. Peter Jackson has proven he has the capability to do anything. I will give anything he directs a shot. THE LOVELY BONES is a great, heart wrenching story that I think under the right care could be a favorite of mine. However, as emotional as it was I felt it missed pulling me over the top. I think Jackson did an OK job putting this film together but even at two and half hours I felt I was shorted on the characters. I wanted to know more.
The story is about a 14-year-old girl named Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) who is murdered by a neighbor (Stanley Tucci). She is watching over her family and killer in an in-between heavenly world, while trying to understand what happened and help her family heal.
The front half of THE LOVELY BONES was very impressive to me. I immediately jumped on board with this family. Unlike other films we get an insight into all the characters and how the murder is affecting them. We get the perspective of the mother and father and how they deal with the loss of their child. We get a little bit of the grandmother (Susan Sarandon) and how she comes to help out the family along with the younger brother and sister. We get the actual murdered girl and how she feels about the situation afterward, which is an incredibly intriguing and rarely seen point of view. But the most interesting side of this story comes from the murderer, George Harvey, played brilliantly by Stanley Tucci. He is nearly unrecognizable in this role. The methodic actions of a serial killer have rarely been seen in such a way as this is portrayed. I hope this doesn’t make me a sick man but I was thoroughly fascinated and stressed out whenever Tucci was on screen, nearly getting away or not get away with his quietly horrific actions.
So now for some of the criticisms. Ironically it’s the same as all my compliments. I was enthralled for the love and dedication the father has searching for his child’s killer. Mark Wahlberg as the father is heart wrenching, and I had more than a few scenes where I was emotionally involved really feeling that I could relate to his character and I don’t even have a daughter. Unfortunately, none of the other family members received the same amount of care and attention. Rachel Weisz as the mother really got the short end of the stick not receiving near enough screen time. And although fine in the role, Susan Sarandon as the grandmother could have been cut completely. So as much as I loved all the characters and how they dealt with the situation, not enough time was spent with each of them to keep the emotional involvement complete.
Although visually stunning, I found myself less interested in the in-between heaven world. I loved how everything that we would see in the real world would be incorporated in this heavenly world but ultimately I wish less time would have been spent there and instead dedicated to the family. There is also some miscasting in some of the 14 year olds, who looked far too old for their parts, specifically Susie’s love interest. This is also the story line that felt a little flat to me.
I really did get involved in this film and the idea of it was enough to get me emotionally invested. But it was at the end where I felt the film could have capitalized on the emotional impact of the story yet seemed to drizzle off. The perspective of the characters was interesting, but in this case the lack of focus kept this film from being great. Please forgive me Peter Jackson.
Tags: Mark Wahlberg, movie reviews, Peter Jackson, Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci
Posted in Reviews |
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Posted by: Brad Sturdivant
McSteamy himself, Eric Dane, is going to be starring alongside Christina Aguilera and Kristen Bell in the big budget musical, BURLESQUE. Dane will be playing a high-powered businessman that wants to buy the club and win Aguilera’s heart. Along with Aguilera and Bell, the film also stars Stanley Tucci and Cher.
It’s no secret that I can’t stand ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, but I actually don’t mind Eric Dane. He has absolutely nothing to work with on that show, but overall he seems like a charming enough actor. This role seems like more of the same for him, but I wonder if they’re going to let him belt out a song or two.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Tags: cher, christina aguilera, Eric Dane, kristen bell, movie news, Stanley Tucci
Posted in News |
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Posted by: Sturdy
Veronica Mars alum Kristen Bell will be playing Christina Aguilera’s rival in the upcoming film BURLESQUE. In it, Aguilera is a small town girl trying to find success in an LA burlesque club. The movie also stars Cher as a nightclub owner and Stanley Tucci as Aguilera’s mentor.
This is an interesting choice because Aguilera is a great singer/dancer, but an unproven actress while Bell is a great actress but an unproven singer/dancer. I’m interested to see how they work together onscreen. Bell is one of the better young starlets out there even though I’m not a big fan of her Heroes character. So let’s hope she can keep the whining down to a minimum.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Tags: cher, christina aguilera, kristen bell, movie musical, movie news, Stanley Tucci
Posted in News |
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
Though the Digital Generation (or whatever we’re called) is less familiar with Julia Child, for the Baby Boomers she was the dominant voice – and what a voice – in teaching gourmet cooking to the average American. Most are more familiar with Dan Akroyd’s lampooning of that voice in his classic “SNL” sketch. Back in 2002, however, a woman named Julie Powell used Julia Child’s life and cook book Mastering the Art of French Cooking to write a blog which eventually became a book and has now become the film JULIE & JULIA.
Nora Ephron took on the book (a change from her WHEN HARRY MET SALLY/ SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE rom-coms), adapting the screenplay and directing, and used it to show the parallel lives of Julia Child just learning to cook in France while traveling with her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci’s amazing at conveying subtle emotion and loving devotion throughout), and Julie Powell’s writing the blog with the support of her husband Eric, played by Chris Messina. The stories mesh effortlessly, transitioning easily from late 1940s France to 2002 Brooklyn, and in a way, though the story focuses on the two women, the importance of the men in their lives adds a romantic element that is right in Ephron’s wheelhouse.
Julie Powell is played during the first part of the film in that unique way that only Amy Adams can pull off, with likeability, intellect, and wit that instantly interest us in her blogging endeavor. However, later in the film her performance seems a bit too Meg Ryan-ish, and she loses that individuality that has already earned her three Oscar nominations. Hopefully that’s something that is held to this film due to Nora Ephron’s attachment to Ryan.
But the best performance is Meryl Streep as Julia Child, as we see her first learning cooking in France, then mastering it through sheer determination, and then putting together the book that would launch her to international stardom. Meryl Streep becomes Child in all aspects, and uses her height (she towered at 6’2”), voice and mannerisms to pull both laughs and genuine emotion from a character I honestly thought weren’t possible. Her scenes with Stanley Tucci as the supportive, loving husband are played with a loving realism that makes you believe one such loving, supportive relationship is possible, which even Julie Powell cannot emulate in the present. Hell, as far as simply conveying emotion, Streep even reads the mail as Julia in a way that makes receiving a letter an event, be they letters from prospective publishers or a note from her sister (Jane Lynch in a small role that she nails beautifully), the range she shows in even this simple task is incredible to watch. Streep is to acting what Julia Child was to food. Take notes. Write a book.
I think despite the movie’s summer release, we’re looking at another Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep, and it is her acting in this well-constructed film that takes its point total as high as it is.
Tags: Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, movie reviews, Nora Ephron, Stanley Tucci
Posted in Reviews |
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