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Can you believe it's been almost 20 years since The Bodyguard came out? Whitney Houston was a youngish 29, and not yet crazy, and Kevin Costner played the man hired to keep the threatened pop singer safe. Well, now plans to remake the movie have resurfaced, and Warner Bros. is looking to cast an international pop star in the lead role. While Rihanna was suggested for the part almost two years ago, nobody is attached to this new iteration, so we thought we'd envision how the story might be tailored to today's biggest stars, and who might be hired to protect them.
When MGM plunged into financial peril recently, the seemingly indestructible James Bond franchise was temporarily put on hold; it seems to be back on track now, with Daniel Craig returning for a third time as the super-spy, but perhaps some new blood would put the franchise (and MGM) on stronger financial footing? (Remember, Timothy Dalton only got two films, too.) Someone young, popular, maybe with the initials "J.B."... Hey, what about Justin Bieber? The kid is already everywhere, he's got plenty of good years left in him, and he's got some dance moves that could maybe come in useful in a parkour chase through a construction site. Plus, the title of his new concert film, Never Say Never, is already practically a James Bond title. We've plotted out his stint on the Bond franchise for the next decade
As the world mourns the loss of Undercovers on television (not really, nobody's mourning), others are getting ready to celebrate new undercover antics on the big screen. No, it's not the long-awaited sequel to 2002's Undercover Brother, although that would admittedly be awesome. No, it's the newest Miley Cyrus movie, So Undercover, in which she plays a "tough, street-smart private eye" who infiltrates a college sorority. First of all, OMG. Second of all, let's just break down why this is so fantastic.
Given that this movie stars Kick-Ass's Aaron Johnson, is directed by a conceptual artist and is about one of the biggest rock icons in the world, you'd think Nowhere Boy would be a much more interesting film than it is. Not that I was expecting bloody brawls, creative editing or overtly shocking behavior, but this portrait of John Lennon as a young man is mostly a tame period piece about a boy in 1950s England who wants to be Elvis Presley. At no point do we get the impression that Lennon is particularly special at all -- just lucky and very, very determined. And while his upbringing was certainly nontraditional, it's hardly as shocking or controversial as the movie seems to want us to think it is.
Are things about to get a little weird at your local cineplex? Famed song parodist, TV geek and MTV personality "Weird" Al Yankovic, who wrote and starred in the cult comedy UHF back in 1989, has a new movie in the works. He wrote it for Cartoon Network, but the channel has recently pulled the plug on all movie projects, leaving Weird Al with a script and a dream. Could the comedic genius (you heard us) end up in theaters again? We certainly hope so, because UHF is frickin' hilarious. Here are my ten favorite things about the film.
New editions of Dirty Dancing and Doctor Zhivago? Finally, the long-awaited bookends to our "romance in times of class struggle" collection! Nobody puts Larissa Feodorovna Antipova in a corner!
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? And by that, we mean, which came first: Kristen Stewart getting the role of angsty rocker Joan Jett in The Runaways, or Stewart dressing and pouting like an angsty rocker at awards shows? Whether the role made the woman or the woman made the role, it would require some research to answer, but you can't deny that Stewart plays the part of the misfit Jett well, and is part of a decent cast that inhabits this simple, familiar, drug-addled tale of a rock-and-roll rise and fall. You can probably guess at everything that will happen, even if you don't know the story of the Runaways (an all-girl punk group that included Jett and Lita Ford), because it seems like a well-worn path for successful bands: struggle, success, drugs, breakup. But as long as you don't need a particularly engaging story, this long music video is beautifully shot and the characters all look sufficiently bad-ass for the movie's sole purpose: to chronicle how much the Runaways rocked.
Band/Movie Soundtrack Pairings We Want More Than AC/DC and Iron Man 2
Jon Favreau must really like AC/DC. Or, more likely, the band's blistering guitar rock, violent lyrics and electrically inspired name simply make them perfect candidates to provide the entire soundtrack to Iron Man 2. Rockers providing soundtracks is nothing new, but rather than featuring all-new songs, like Queen did for Highlander and Daft Punk is doing for Tron, the AC/DC soundtrack will be a "greatest hits" collection, including some of their best-known anthems from as far back as 1976. (The promo video is set to 1980's "Shoot to Thrill.") With this in mind, we looked at other tentpole films slated for this year and picked the bands (and solo artists) with suitable back catalogs to provide all of the music for each movie.
Jeff Bridges is a national treasure. The sheer variety of roles he's played -- computer nerd (Tron), alien (Starman), shock jock (The Fisher King), gunslinger (Wild Bill), businessman (Iron Man) -- has proven him to be an invaluable asset for any movie, one that keeps getting better with age. And his latest role, while reminiscent of past performances, demonstrates how he can immerse himself in a character, especially one that's incredibly unflattering.
This Is It was an eye opener in many ways. Not only did it show us an extremely bare-bones version of what might have become the most spectacular concert series in the history of music, it also showed us a still-phenomenal Michael Jackson taking a hands-on approach to bring the music and performance up to the level he wanted. Granted, we would have liked to hear him sing a little bit more (most of his songs he barely oralized, in order to conserve his voice and perfect his moves), but we did hear and see a few things that shone a little light on the man and his methods.
MOST RECENT POSTS
Singers We'd Like to See in the Bodyguard Remake, and the Men Who Guard Them
Never Say Never: Should Justin Bieber Be the Next James Bond?
Miley Cyrus is Going So Undercover, and I'm So There
Nowhere Boy: Stranded Between Rock-and-Roll Epic and Lifetime Movie
10 Things We Love About Weird Al's UHF
I Want My DVD: Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Runaways: The Role Kristen Stewart Was Born to Play
Band/Movie Soundtrack Pairings We Want More Than AC/DC and Iron Man 2
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