Videos

The Two-Minute Verdict

Eclipse_trailer_2mv_top.jpgKim Masters wrote something yesterday about how Taylor Lautner may soon usurp the role of Twilight franchise mascot from Robert Pattinson — if he hasn’t done so already. It seemed a little unlikely to me, if only because Pattinson’s the one among them who can actually act when provided any halfway-decent material. But between all the broody portent and LOLZ-y line readings, there’s something kind of touching about Lautner in the first trailer for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

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RIP

corey_haim_decisions2-1.jpgThe Corey Haim filmography that began with the 1984 family drama Firstborn will end next month with Decisions, the last movie Haim completed before he collapsed and died of an accidental drug overdose today at age 38. His IMDB page shows a host of others in pre-production, but Haim rolled film on this one last November in L.A. with director Jensen LeFlore. As the clip below hints, you might say it’s slightly flawed. But as the movie’s executive producer implied, it’s not Haim’s fault.

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The Ten-Second Verdict

taylorlautnereclipse.jpgThe full, 90-second teaser for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is due tomorrow, but why not tease the teaser with a 10-second version today? Here’s what you get: two full lines, one of which is a howler. Shots of the Pacific Northwest! Bella and Edward on a bed, not in a bed. And, of course, the Taylor Lautner torso. Sadly, no one is marrying vampire babies or cracking rib bones yet. Give it time, kids. Give. It. Time.

VERDICT: If they’re going to tease tomorrow’s trailer, I’m going to tease tomorrow’s verdict. Oh, who am I kidding: I loved it so much, I don’t want to have sex with it til marriage.

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Interviews

miko_titans_top.jpgLet’s return now to Movieline’s roving video powerhouse Carly Steel, who had the happy fortune recently to catch up with Clash of the Titans co-star Izabella Miko. The actress plays the film’s Athena, goddess of wisdom and war — and apparently the repository for a massive python that Miko wasn’t quite ready to share the screen (and especially her shoulders) with. But that was just the beginning of her animal problems. Carly gets the full story from Miko — along with an appeal for environmentally conscious single men with a spare $100,000 lying around — after the jump.

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Watch This

andyrichterleno.jpgThough he’s still technically an NBC employee thanks to the magical, snafu-inducing language of network contracts, Andy Richter co-hosted Live! With Regis and Kelly today and took full advantage of the platform. “Do you have any ill feelings toward NBC or Jay?” Kelly Ripa asked him. Short answer: Um, yes! Slightly longer answer: “It’s very frustrating when someone says… ‘I’m going to hand this over’…and then doesn’t,” he said. “Multimillionaires are always being forced to do things they don’t want to do.” Longest answer: the full clip, after the jump.

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The 2-Minute Verdict

trontrailer.jpgFor the first, mostly irrelevant analog minute of the new Tron: Legacy trailer, a familiar-looking man with a voice for luxury car commercials delivers big news to a younger man in his 20s: he was paged the night before by the boy’s long-missing father. This is shocking for a number of reasons, not the least of which being the fact that someone in 2010 can still get paged. A motorcycle voyage to Flynn’s Arcade, a mysterious portal to the unknown … do you see where all this is leading? Precisely! Academy Award® winner Jeff Bridges is still being held against his will by an evil, blacklight-abusing microprocessing regime, and only his son can get save him, after 93 minutes of Light Cycle races, Ultimate Identity Disk tournaments, and Michael Sheen showing off his wicked Air Guitar Hero moves in an outfit even gayer than the one he wore in New Moon!

Verdict: My memory stick just involuntarily uploaded.

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The Two-Minute Verdict

Jimmy Kimmel welcomed the blue-tied Robert Downey Jr. to his post-Oscar special Sunday night, where the actor unveiled the latest trailer for Iron Man 2. I’m just going to slap a huge SPOILER ALERT on this because everything that can possibly be good about the movie — Downey’s wan heroism, his chemistry with Don Cheadle and Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell turning the villain knob to 11, new outfits and gadgets, guitar wankery beneath roaring gunfire, etc. etc — is all given away right here in under three minutes. Oh, and look: Scarlett Johansson! And her stunt double! This is filthy!

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The Two-Minute Verdict

runawayswaterpistol.jpgAfter an energetic but brief blast of a teaser, Apparition has released the full trailer for The Runaways, and it’s much closer to the tone of the movie than that first clip — they even added appropriately Quaaluded Dakota Fanning narration to drive home that “drowsy rock movie dream” vibe. What else is there? Would you settle for some underage lesbian shenanigans?

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Watch This

chatroustewart.jpgIf you’ve not yet experienced the internet phenomenon that is Chatroullette.com, a sort of Metropolitan Museum of Self-Diddling and Guys Looking for Breasts you can access for free online, you might want to join Jon Stewart on his guided tour. Along his encounters, Jon runs into countless other journalists covering the same beat (Brian Williams’ was investigating the site as part of NBC Nightly News’s ongoing series, Felched By America), Daily Show correspondent and noted Nintendo-addict Jason Jones, and other surprises we won’t give away here. Strangely absent from the proceedings? Sen. Roy Ashburn. Enjoy!

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Watch This

smokey_best_picture.jpgIn a shocking bit of interspecial backlash, an intransigent rabbit named Smokey begs to differ that Inglourious Basterds is “the thing that happened in cinema this year.” In fact, the real thing that happened in cinema this year is that a rabbit has more of a clue than our psychic pals and much of the Hollywood establishment about what will win the Best Picture Oscar come Sunday. Maybe it’s just Smokey’s savant-like understanding of the preferential ballot, or maybe he took Nicolas Chartier’s impassioned e-mails to heart — it really could be anything. But this is as informed and credible an Oscar forecast as any we’ve yet seen at Movieline HQ, so consider yourself advised. That said, Smokey also chose David Carradine as a dark horse on my “In Memoriam” Montage Pool ballot, so grain of salt, etc. Click through for the most adorable Oscar prognostication ever.

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