Normally when I see a trailer that I love, I break it down and then present it to you at the end. I caught up with Melissa McCarthy's new comedy, Tammy, this morning. Sure, it's just a teaser, but I laughed my ass off during this short spot. I am not even going to break it down with images or screenshots, because I just want you to bask in the glory of Melissa McCarthy.
The only thing I know about Tammy is that McCarthy stars as the title character, a woman who loses her job and discovers that her husband has been cheating on her. She goes on a road trip with her hard-drinking, foul-mouthed grandmother, played by Susan Sarandon. Susan effing Sarandon. Sarandon is not featured in the teaser, so, obviously, we have that to look forward to when the feature trailer is released.
Of course I am over the moon to learn that Idina Menzel will be performing "Let It Go" at this year's Oscars. A friend of mine sent me a joking message on Facebook asking if I was going to write something on "Frozen Central," so, naturally, I had to.
Am I the only one who would have liked to have seen a small concert dedicated to the music? I think I am. There was talk of that a few months back, but I guess they wanted Menzel and fellow nominees U2 and Pharrell Williams for the ratings. Or they just didn't want to orchestrate another event devoted to the Oscars. Who knows. I do know that I will be squealing like a little girl when Menzel starts belting it out. Geeeeet itttttt!!!
There is a video floating around of the cast of Frozen singing at a concert on Sunday night. It's probably the only time you will see them all together singing as themselves and not their characters. Ta daaaaa!!!
You know, what? I judged The Lego Movie when I saw the trailers for it. I thought it looked stupid and that it looked like another loud, lame cartoon targeted for boys and only boys. I do stand on my hatred of the title, but that's because I hate anything with the word 'movie' in the title. That's all beside the point, though. I was surprised by Lego's fast-paced story and the energy. And, yes, the unexpected heart of it all.
The movie's prologue tells of a wizard named Vitruvius (voiced by Morgan Freeman, natch) protecting a weapon called The Kragle from Lord Business (Will Ferrell, natch). Vitruvius fails to completely protect it, and he explains a prophecy about a normal person (called the Special) who will be able to find The Piece of Resistance and stop The Kragle's destruction.
Chris Pratt voices Emmet, an aw-shucks, ordinary Everyman construction worker who loves his life. Seriously. His enthusiasm for waking up in the morning and beginning his day isn't natural--even for a toy. One day, Emmet stays a big longer at the construction site and falls down a hole and discovers The Piece of Resistance. Even though he knows he shouldn't touch it...Emmet is a goober and touches it. He witnesses crazy visions and wakes up being interrogated by Good Cop/Bad Cop, voiced by Liam Neeson. He spills Lord Business's plans for world domination, and then Emmet is rescued by an emo-y, ass-kicking chick named Wildstyle. She, along with other Master Builders, are the resistance, and they think Emmet is the Special.
That's a lot of story for a movie starring tiny yellow figurines piled up in your son's room, isn't it?
The Lego Movie is like if Toy Story tossed back some Adderall and chased it with a coke-laced can of Monster. I legitimately laughed throughout the entire thing, and when it wasn't making me laugh, I was smiling. Is the fast-paced ADD speed of it too much to handle sometimes? Maybe, but the movie doesn't apologize for that. It smiles blankly at you like Emmet waiting for his morning cup of coffee.
The voice acting is so energetic and charming. I forget that Lego can get away with having all these superheroes and trademarked characters, because they have toys for all of them (that's it, right?). Will Arnett as gravely Batman and Alison Brie as Uni-Kitty, the unicorn/anime kitten creation, might be my favorite. Other characters like Wonder Woman, Superman (voiced by Channing Tatum to less) and The Green Lantern pop up. Even a shot out to Harry Potter with Dumbledoor. Whoooo!!!
Did I mention the original song "Everything is Awesome" that repeatedly gets stuck in your head? It's introduced very early on in the movie, and it might plague us all of 2014. It's so catchy...and then you want to pull out all your teeth...then you're dancing around to it...and then you know all the words! Next thing you know, you bought the entire original score off iTunes. No, seriously. I did. I'm ashamed.
The Lego Movie surprised me. It's fun and colorful and nostalgic. It winks at your childhood but makes you laugh like the adult you are. Or pretend to be.
The Academy released two new posters Thursday night for the 86th annual Academy Awards. The one above is something that I desperately need. Clocked in darkness, Oscar waits in the wings to be presented to the eager hands of industry professionals and actors alike.
All I have to say is that I desperately need to get a copy of this. It's gorgeous. The second one is below. I like them both, but I am totally in love with the one above.
Last weekend, That Awkward Moment, the boys-can-have-feelings-too comedy, came out in theaters. Starring Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller, Awkward is about a trio of guy friends who begin secretly dating girls behind each other's backs. I haven't seen it, so that's what I've gathered from random bits here and there online. It opened at the number 3 at the box office.
Yesterday, I saw a trailer for the bromantic comedy Cavemen, starring Skylar Astin. He plays a guy lovesick that his best guy friend starts dating his best girl friend, played by Camilla Belle. Much like Awkward, it looks like a piece of crap, but a thought occurred to me. Are romantic comedies now going to start starring men as the insipid leads? Are men going to run around like total assholes in search for the one girl that got away? Are the tables turning?! What the hell is going on?!
Originally, I thought I should be rejoicing. Perhaps this means something is totally changing. With movies like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire becoming the highest grossing movie of 2013 and Frozen still holding on strong, perhaps it's the girls time to rule. Maybe we are starting to see the beginning of a more gender integrated box office. I realize that both Awkward and Cavemen star mostly guys, so it's not like these movies give any really great parts to women. It appears the girls are just the fucktoys in these movies. The women probably make the men realize "a great truth about themselves" or "make the man the person they need to be." Or they could be the girls that show up and bang the dudes. I don't know! I haven't seen either of the movies to know. I am holding out hope that maybe, just maybe, 2013 was not a fluke, and we will still see more women in intelligent roles in smartly written movies.
It just appears, at least on the surface from the trailers, that finally the men are getting a taste of their own medicine. What would happen if Zac Efron or Skylar Astin were stuck in creative movie role purgatory? What if the roles were reversed and Michael B. Jordan became "American's Sweetheart" and could only get roles like in Addicted to Love, Forces of Nature, or 27 Dresses? Surely, I am not the only one that has noticed that overly formulaic rom-coms have diminished. We haven't seen Katharine Heigl posing stupidly with Gerard Butler. We haven't been bombarded with Jennifer Aniston standing next to a scruffy man recently. Give women better parts! Let the men suffer for a change!
I wouldn't wish romantic comedy hell on anyone, to be honest. Jordan is a fantastic actor (proof: Fruitvale Station). Astin is charming (see Pitch Perfect). Efron seems to have lost some of his momentum as an actor, but he got nice notices for last year's At Any Price. His transition from Disney idol to serious young actor appears to be a bit rocky, but he's still fun. And sweet Jesus, they are all nice to look at. In addition to men starring in these pieces of garbage, will we at least see some equal male nudity?! Shallow, yes, but don't even get me started on that. I am sure many a woman was hoping Leonardo DiCaprio showed as much as Margot Robbie in The Wolf of Wall Street.
I'm holding out for full frontal.
Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe these two movies just happen to be coming out near in each other. I, however, am holding out hope.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to see if Zac Efron sings into a hairbrush with his bros in a musical sequence somewhere. If it doesn't exist, it should. Or it might be coming to a theater near you.
I've been thinking a lot about the Best Original Song contender in this year's Oscar race. For some reason, it's one of my favorite categories even though the music branch seems to do whatever they want. I like consistency, and they are the least consistent branch in the Academy, it seems. Usually they nominate five songs...sometimes three...or two...or sometimes they deem something ineligible and they pull it from the roster completely. That crazy music branch!
It seemed that Frozen's "Let It Go" was the song to beat right out of the gate, but with U2's "Ordinary Love" picking up the Golden Globe could the empowerment track be in trouble? I only bring this up, because I am a huge Frozen fan, and I want to see it win in both categories that it's nominated in (Original Song and Animated Feature, respectively). Could another song stand in its way of Oscar gold? Let's take a look at the songs in the category.
"Ordinary Love" has only one win to its name at the moment, but "Let It Go" hasn't won anything yet. To be fair, the music categories aren't honored at every guild or every critics group, so the only other major awards body to give a song trophy is the Golden Globes. The Globes don't always match up with Oscar (there's that Oscar music branch again), and Globes tend to lean more towards big stars like Madonna and Sting. In the last 10 years, only 3 winners at the Golden Globes went on to win Best Original Song. I am sure I am stressing over nothing.
"Ordinary Love" is a pretty stand alone song. I didn't see Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom, so I don't know how it fits in the context of the film. It's a song you can hear on the radio. It doesn't seem, I don't think, that you need to know the film to really dig the song. That's why I worry a bit about Frozen. Is the song too specific to the story and film for people to really listen to it over and over again? It's a great anthem, and it's one of the best moments in the entire movie. I am sure I am stressing over nothing.
I would be totally cool if "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 won. It's so effing catchy! I sometimes sit at work and listen to it repeatedly without knowing that it ended. Pharrell Williams is having a great year with "Blurred Lines," "Get Lucky" and now this little diddy. I don't think it is really a threat to Frozen, but it's fun.
I like "The Moon Song" from Her. It fits the dreamy tone all the music has, and I love when Joaquin Phoenix sings it in the film. Does it have a chance? I don't think so.
To be honest, I would be fine with any of the songs winning (maybe not "Ordinary Love"), because I like all of them so much. "Alone Yet Not Alone" would have been the black sheep if it had stayed in the race, but you have to wonder who is going to get all of that song's votes now that it is out of competition?
I might be the wrong person to ask about this category, because I love Frozen so much. Then again, isn't everyone overly enamoured with it? You can't go on BuzzFeed without hearing a new story about Frozen's dominance over the world, or go on YouTube and find tons of videos. Here's a sampling, you know, in case you haven't seen them already.
Frozen sung in 25 languages...
Censored Frozen
"Despair of an Alto"
If "Let It Go" does lose on Oscar night, will riots ensue? I might throw something at the television. No lie. I just love it so much, and I think the cultural impact and love of the film will skyrocket it to win both of its categories. Do you agree?
I haven't thought much about Pompeii (IN 3D!!!) coming out later this month. I actually just wonder how Roland Emmerich missed out on directing this thing. Were there not enough historical landmarks to blow up...or...what? I will see Pompeii for this. And only this.
I only bring up this disaster/popcorn/CGI terror because of one reason. I was trolling around online, and I saw the poster that is included above. Do you guys think you could get out of the way of the FLYING MOLTEN LAVA THAT IS COMING DIRECTLY TOWARDS YOU?!?!?!?!??!?!?! At least let me buy a ticket with the morsel of a hope that there might be one tiny bit of credibility for you guys.
Moral of the story? Volcanic eruption directly behind you equals get the fuck out of dodge.
