Reel Movie News

Opening This Weeekend: Tropic Thunder, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Mirrors

After a quiet few weeks of movie openings, four major films open across the country this weekend. Will any of them overtake The Dark Knight at the box office?

Read on for our answer...

Tropic Thunder

Stars: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr.
Quick synopsis: A satire of Hollywood, a handful of actors think they are filming a movie - but are actually involved in a war.
Prediction: We're saying it: will climb over Batman and be number-one at the box office.

Tropic Thunder SceneKirk Lazarus PictureSpeedman Picture

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Stars: Cartoons
Quick synopsis: The Grand Army of the Republic fights the New Droid Army of the Separatists.
Prediction: Only the most hardcore Star Wars fans will turn out for this animated features.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars PosterThe Clone WarsAnimated Yoda

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Stars: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson
Quick synopsis: Sexy stars meet and have romantic fun in Barcelona.
Prediction: Aimed an older audience, will make the top five at the box office.

Wooing Cristina Vicky Cristina BarcelonaVicky Cristina Barcelona Photo

Mirrors
Stars: Kiefer Sutherland
Quick synopsis: Evil mirrors threaten a family.
Prediction: Scarier than mirrors? How badly this film does at the box office.

Ben Carson In the MirrorsMirrors Photo

Reel Movie Reviews: Mirrors

ReviewsWe're gonna go out on a limb and say Mirrors won't be the film to knock The Dark Knight off of its perch atop the box office. But this horror film could still be worth a viewing.

Let's see if a handful of movie critics from around the country agree...

- While watching it won't necessarily lead to seven years of bad luck, it does make for a fairly aggravating 110 minutes... -- eFilmcritic

- It skirts along the edge of greatness, but for every one thing it does right, it does another so inconceivably wrong... -- Dread Central

Evil Mirrors

- Mirrors isn't a total wash of a horror film, but it is not unreasonable to expect more from a filmmaker who has delivered stronger, more confident works in the past... -- The Movie Boy

- It's not much of a compliment to call Mirrors "considerably better than Shutter, Pulse, or One Missed Call," but the flick is just good enough to make one wish it had shown up before those turkeys... -- FEARnet

He-Man Movie Aims for Realism

Considering the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight - super hero movies grounded in reality - you can't blame writers for trying emulate this formula.

But is it really possible for a film about He-Man?!?

Screenwriter Justin Marks, who is penning a movie about that cartoon reportedly called Grayskull, seems to think so. This is what he told MTV about his vision:

“The script is very true to the characters — we’re not talking about putting nipples on the Trapjaw suit. But we had to come up with a reason again why Trapjaw would actually not just be something that’s totally absurd, but why he would need those bionic parts added to him. Which gives a sort of sense of where [the movie] is going in some way.”

Given such a realistic base, Marks said he has more latitude in creating He-Man’s world of Eternia, adding he's free to create an epic universe unlike “anything we’ve ever seen before on a visual level.”

he-man

By the power of Grayskull, how do you make He-Man a relatable super hero?

 

Unlikely Movie Rumor of the Day: Brian Austin Green as The Riddler

With a new version of 90210 airing on The CW this fall, perhaps Brian Austin Green - who played David Silver on the original Beverly Hills, 90210 - thinks there's a huge, mainstream push for stars of the show to receive extra attention these days.

What else could make the relatively unknown actor mention himself as a candidate for the next Batman villain.

"I would love to be the Riddler," Green said to MTV. He further explained "I hope to God that they don't try to replace Heath and have the Joker. And Two-Face is gone. So they need a new villain, and the Riddler makes sense."

It does. But so does the idea of Johnny Depp taking on the role.

 

B.A.G.

Green sounded serious about his desire to play the part, however. He explained that he'd need a lot of time to prepare for it.

"That would take years of preparation. It's tough. Heath set the bar at a new level, which I think is fantastic for comic book lovers and movie lovers. He changed the face of what people expect out of those films. If you watch the old ones, I mean, they were great for what they were, having Danny Elfman's music, but this is a new level."

What do you think? Does Brian Austin Green stand any chance at portraying The Riddler? Dude is dating Megan Fox.

So he must have something going for him.

The Summer of Danny McBride

Forget The Dark Knight.

With Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder on his resume, this is the summer of Danny McBride.

"He's the guy everyone will be talking about. That guy is unstoppable," comedian Bill Hader, one of McBride's co-stars in Tropic Thunder, told USA Today.

How does McBride feel about all the attention?

"I guess it's my big summer. I don't know. I feel like I've had more eventful ones when I was a kid," he joked. "When we went to Nags Head or something."

Danny McBride Image

On a serious - but still funny - note, McBride owes all his recent screen time to The Foot Fist Way, a film he co-wrote with two film-school friends and made for about $80,000. They took it all the way to Sundance.

These days, the rising star just wrapped Land of the Lost, opposite Ferrell. Next up? Writing and shooting the HBO series East Bound and Down, about a burned-out baseball player.

"I've been writing around the clock," McBride said. "I do the same things I've always done — watch movies and play video games and just do nothing, talk about ideas and write. Kind of boring."

Rachel McAdams Speaks on Auditions, Ryan Gosling Sex Scenes

Rachel McAdams will forever be linked wirh Ryan Gosling. It's largely because these two stars have dated off and on for many years.

But it's also because they comprised the main couple in the ultimate chick flick: The Notebook.

In a recent interview with T Magazine, the beautiful actress answered a few questions about her career... and Gosling, of course.

Do you like to audition? I love auditioning. Since The Notebook and Wedding Crashers, I don’t have to audition anymore, and I miss it. You get to show your interpretation of the character. I get nervous when I don’t audition. What if they hate what I want to do?

I also like screen tests, where they put you in a room with your male co-star. They want to see if the two of you have chemistry together. There’s something wonderfully old-fashioned about a chemistry test. During a movie, chemistry is so important, and yet they just assume actors can fake their way through it. That doesn’t always work.

Rachel McAdams Picture

In The Notebook, you and Ryan Gosling had amazing chemistry. Are love scenes difficult? They’re strange. A kiss with anyone, on or off camera, can be intimidating. I’ve been kissing for nearly two decades now, and I’m always convinced I’m not doing it right. Chemistry is so important in a great kiss. You can act your way through anything, but it’s hard with a kiss. It’s much better if there’s an attraction.

Reel Movie Stars: Steve Carell

Steve Carell ImageSteve Carell was the last member officially added to the Frat Pack so it seems fitting we made him our last Frat Pack member for Reel Movie Stars.

Steve Carell's career was started bring a correspondent The Daily Show, but it truly sky rocketed thanks to his starring roles in The 40 Year Old Virgin and on the television series, The Office.

We decided to give Carell some Reel treament with 9 films, 8 pictures, and one heck of a biography.

Now for some fun Carell trivia you may not have known:

  • Was breifly a post office worker in Massachusetts where he delivered mail from his own car
  • Provides the voice of Gary in The Ambigulously Gay Duo cartoons alongside fellow The Daily Show alumn Stephen Colbert
  • While a member of the Chicago troupe The Second City, Stephen Colbert was his understudy
  • Is a skilled ice skater and played goaltender as a kid.  Still plays in a league in Los Angeles
  • Married to Nancy Walls who he met as his student in his improve class
  • His wife, Nancy, briefly played his girlfriend on the show The Office
  • Has two children, daughter Elisabeth and son John

Now enjoy this photo montage from our final Frat Packer being featured as a Reel Movie Star:

Steve Carell PhotoSteve Carell PicSteve Carell PhotographSteve Carell

Reel Movie Stars: Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller SpikesAfter just covering fellow Tropic Thunder co-star Jack Black, Reel Movie Stars is back with the film's director, Ben Stiller.

Our sixth installment of Reel Movie Stars is absolutely considering a member of the Frat Pack and is by far one of its most prolific members.

In honor of Stiller's return to the director's seat, we've gone ahead and added 22 movies to the comedian's filmography and one of the most complete biographies the Reel editors have ever put together.

But what would a Reel Movie Star blog be without some fun facts:

  • Ben Stiller has been impersonating Tom Cruise since his show, The Ben Stiller Show.  He got Cruise to star in Tropic Thunder!
  • His father Jerry Stiller played his father in The Heartbreak Kid
  • He played his father Jerry Stiller's father in The King of Queens
  • His father, Jerry, is Jewish and his mother, Anne, is Irish and converted to Jusaism before marrying Jerry.
  • Won an Emmy award for his writing on The Ben Stiller Show
  • Is Only 5'8
  • Married to Christine Taylor who he co-stared with in Zoolander, Dodgeball, and Tropic Thunder
  • Ben and Christine have two children together: daughter Ella Olivia and son Quinlin Dempsey

Now we'd like to leave you with some pictures of this amazing writer, director, and actor:

Ben Stiller Goes GreyBen Stiller SmilingBen Stiller and wife ChristineBen Stiller Photograph

Steve Carell and Tina Fey to Go on Date Night

Here's a comedic duo we can't wait to watch in action:

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are set to play a married couple in Date Night, a 20th Century Fox comedy to be directed by Shawn Levy.

According to Variety, the plot follows a couple who find their routine date night becomes much more than just dinner and a movie.

Steve Carell and Tina Fey

The starting production date is unclear at the moment, as the film must be scheduled around Carell's sitcom The Office and Fey's 30 Rock.

Levy is currently shooting Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, while Carell recently starred in Get Smart and Fey appeared in Baby Mama.

Hamlet 2 Creators Explain Casting Process

The premise for Hamlet 2 is one only writers that penned politically-incorrect films such as Dick and Team America: World Police could come up with.

Enter Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady.

They came up with the idea of Dana Marschz, a beleaguered high school drama teacher whose drama class is about to get shut down unless he can come up with a stage production that justifies its existence. The solution? A sequel to Hamlet, of course.

Below are excerpts of an interview Flemning and Brady gave to ComingSoon.net:

When you decided to make the movie, which came first, the idea of a Hamlet 2 or the character of Dana Marshz?

Fleming: The character. We kind of reverse-engineered the movie from the character. I don't know why. We were just talking and we knew we wanted a teacher, and we loved drama teacher right away, and we both loved that kind of super-enthusiastic character who wakes up and every day is a creative opportunity even in the face of no positive feedback.
Brady: It's true. He has no reason to keep going, but then he lives by a code... I always think those characters are great, it's almost like "A Confederacy of Dunces" kind of delusional character that just can't be stopped.

Dana Marschz Photo

Steve Coogan stars in Hamlet 2.

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