Videos

THE TWO-MINUTE VERDICT

BettyWhiteCleveland225.jpgAudiences may not have known what to expect when TV Land announced its first original sitcom, Hot in Cleveland — after all, this is the network that built its brand on vintage Alka-Selter commercials aired during stale episodes of Designing Women. But after seeing the first clip from Cleveland, Movieline is ready to make a bold prediction about the fate of the show and its Golden star.

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The Two-Minute Verdict

katieholmeswrecker.jpgDid Michelle Williams take the career we thought Katie Holmes was going to have? Once upon a time, Holmes was regarded as the Dawson’s Creeker with the most promise, an actress with subtlety and star power who’d certainly have a healthy life in movies after her show happened. And then, things happened. Now, Holmes is only a part-time actress, and one of her scattered few projects is The Romantics, where she goes head to head with Anna Paquin.

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WATCH THIS

StillerGalifianakis225.jpgIt is a truth universally acknowledged that the world would be a funnier place with more Zach Galifianakis. Until the comedian strikes an exclusive deal with NBC to appear on the network three-times-a-week as an ambidextrous flute player though, we’ll just have to settle for the odd big screen comedy, Arby’s sighting and new installments of his online celebrity talk show.

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The Two-Minute Verdict

boardwalk_empire_teaser_2_pitt.jpgHBO’s most expensive pilot ever, Boardwalk Empire, established its must-see creds early via affiliations with director Martin Scorsese and ex-Sopranos writer Terence Winter. Its first teaser didn’t hurt much either. So if Empire’s new teaser feels a little like it’s merely piling on the epic scale and gilded pedigree of the whole enterprise, you’re forgiven for asking it to lay off maybe just a bit.

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The Two-Minute Verdict

pride_prej_zombies_trlr.jpgApologies again for subjecting you earlier to the trailer for Iron Cross. It was for your own good, I swear — newsworthy, topical and emblematic of a larger issue at hand with bad cinema. More and more bad cinema has entitlement issues, from crummy, lazy romantic comedies worth a fraction of the $10-$12 they coax from you to overwrought dramas that barely hide their contempt for viewers. And bad cinema begets bad trailers like the one mentioned above. They can all take pointers from the admittedly NSFW preview for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, which spins camp, satire and genre comprehension into a splendid little whirlwind of publicity worth probably 1,000 times its budget. And it doesn’t even sell a movie.

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Watch This

johnnyweirorgasm.jpgOver here at Movieline, we definitely adore Johnny Weir, so I was concerned recently when the skater said he was snubbed from the Stars on Ice tour for not being “family friendly.” Then I watched last night’s episode of Be Good Johnny Weir, which climaxed with Weir finding unorthodox, orgasm-inducing uses for an electronic massager. I mean, yeah, maybe “family friendly” is just code to snub Weir based on his flaming gayitude, but it also, perhaps, is a mantra that does not encompass basic cable O-faces. I guess we won’t know for sure unless Evan Lysacek submits to the same televised situation, which I am all in favor of. Video, after the jump:

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The Two-Minute Verdict

roy_scheider_ironcross_tmv.jpgBy now you know all about the controversy surrounding Iron Cross, the handiwork of one Joshua Newton and the final film of the great Roy Scheider. Perhaps the saddest thing about the scandal afflicting this film and Variety — which allegedly buried a bad review of the film over Newton’s $400,000 ad buy and putative Oscar campaign for Scheider — is how much sturm und drang and bitter angst is being expended over something as monumentally dreadful-looking as this. Click through for your slightly-used evidence.

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The Two-Minute Verdict

Two of this year’s most anticipated movies have already finished their EPKs, and now you get to watch a little bit of ‘em. Sound good? First up, we have Predators, the Robert Rodriguez-produced reboot of the series that essentially tries to get away from the Alien vs. Predator franchise by simply ripping off Aliens, not featuring them. It’s a small but crucial difference! In the other corner, we’ve got some making-of footage from the next Twilight installment, Eclipse, and it’s actually way more involving than the film’s teaser trailer. Green-screen shenanigans, Bryce Dallas Howard’s terrible wig, people being flung all over the place, brand-new shirtless jailbait…what’s not to like?

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The Two-Minute Verdict

The trailer is out for Nicole Holofcener’s guilty comedy Please Give, and for the most part it really feels like film itself: There’s a lot of sharply observed, awkward funnytimes involving Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, and Rebecca Hall, and then it kind of just ends! Alas, there is one notable scene the trailer simply couldn’t include, and that’s the delightful opening montage of breasts being placed in a mammography tray, set to “No Shoes” by The Roches. Trust Movieline when we tell you that you have not seen this many bare boobs in a movie in the last decade. (Hey, Sony Pictures Classics, let’s put that on the poster!)

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The Two-Minute Verdict

boogieamanda.jpgA snappy U.S. trailer is making the rounds today for the upcoming film Boogie Woogie, which makes the ensemble satire look like, as Vulture notes, “Valentine’s Day but about art.” You know what doesn’t make the movie look like that? The original international trailer, which is just one hot lesbian sex scene after another, with the occasional shot of Heather Graham, Gillian Anderson, and Amanda Seyfried. (There’s just something about Seyfried, international trailers, and girl-on-girl action, isn’t there?) Movieline’s got both trailers for you. Go ahead and pick your favorite — the verdict is yours.

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