Holiday Films Worth Watching: LOVE ACTUALLY

It's that time of year.  My second favorite next to the month of October, of course.

Here is my first choice for a Holiday Film Worth Watching.

LOVE ACTUALLY

Starring: Bill Nighy, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Laura Linny, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightly, Alan Rickman, Rodrigo Santoro, Colin Firth and many more!

Directed by: Richard Curtis

Written by: Richard Curtis

 via IMDb.com : Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

Pick this one up and enjoy with your loved ones!

Watch the Trailer!

BURLESQUE review

It takes a legend to make a star.  The Burlesque tagline on the poster tells you what the film wants to be, though I think the tagline is more an obvious play on who the two of these women are at this point in their life.  


The Good: 
 Cher is great in this role.  She owns the role of Tess, a struggling and aging club owner who possibly never got her 'shot' at fame but has managed to create an amazing place for people to develop their talents and perform!   

 Christina Aguilera does a great job in the role of the overwhelmed and wide eyed would be star.  She's surprisingly great with her first real acting role since "The Micky Mouse Club".  Most of the time she just appears on tv as herself.

 The Music is pretty terrific.  Though mostly new music, there are a few standards in there that are great to hear.  Cher has a terrific solo tune called "Last of Me".  It's really a throwback to Cher of the 80's.  It's a strong ballad and it really is intense.

 Aguilera has many songs, of course, no one can deny her talent.  Her vocals are amazing.  Loved the pop songs with the dance numbers.  Very must a music video feel but still captured the intensity in a live performance.  
 
 Stanley Tucci, Kristin Bell, Cam Gigandet and Julianne Hough are all good in their roles.
 Great Cameo's from James Brolin, Dianna Agron (TV's GLEE) and Alan Cumming.




The Bad:
The plot.  It's been done, time and time again.  Small town girl seeks big city dreams, doesn't get what she wants at first and then ends up the star.  Kind of lame but you can look past it because you're blinded by the glitz and glamor of the performances.

 I honestly can't stress the storyline enough.  I know this film was a reason to have a few terrific people get together to do a musical, but I wish they would have just made an attempt to do some original things in the film with the story.

 The minute the would be boyfriend (Cam Gigandet) tells Ali (Aguilera) that he isn't gay but he's engaged, you know exactly where this story is going.  Then she leaves his apt. in a hell of a rain storm, in LA, come on now, it barely rains in LA.  Then he picks her up from the sidewalk and carries her back to his apartment, tells her to stay for a while and they become roommates and eventually a couple with a bit of trouble.  Predictable. 




 That's truly the issues with the film, the predictability of the entire film.  Though that's not going to be a surprise or deter any of the people seeing this film.  It's really for the fans.


Overall.  If you're a Cher or Christina Aguilera fan, you will love this film.  If you enjoy Musicals, you'll enjoy this film.
This is not a think piece, it's just a fun night at the theatre.  Enjoy it.  They don't come around all that often.

Audition with help from Paula Abdul

 

Paula Abdul has stepped into the world of Internet Castings!  With her new joint venture AuditionBooth.com  is supposed to be a quick and easy way to show your talents to the leading casting directors in the world.  

 Paula gives tips on how not to audition through a few videos in her blog section.  She has years of experience in this business, so any help she can offer is a good thing.

 

 I'm always skeptical of things like this, but you never know, maybe it will work out for some actors out there.  I wish them luck on their hunt for the next job and I hope AuditionBooth.com will give them an opportunity they wouldn't normally have gotten in small town America.

 

Short Film shot on NOKIA Cell Phone!

"The Commuter" directed by the McHenry Brothers (Jackboots on Whitehall) stars Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire), Pamela Anderson (Baywatch), Charles Dance (Gosford Park) and Ed Westwick (TV's Gossip Girl).

 This comidic/action film was shot entirely on Nokia's new N8 cell phone.

 No Kidding. 
 The asking price for one of these phones is about $550.00.

Watch "The Commuter" Now!

Sony Lunches Online Casting Website

You're a fan of huge Hollywood films put out by Sony and you want to be in one?  Well looks like Sony is giving you the opportunity.  They've created their own online casting website for their films.

Face of the Fan is the way Sony is going to be casting many of their upcoming films.  They've started out with a big one, the next film in the "Underworld" series.   The first casting is for a  female 18 or older to play a Teenager.

"The Face of the Fan program enables us to source people from all over the country to find unknown talent and give them a shot at something they may not have otherwise been able to do," said Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper in a written statement. 
 

I don't know if they are struggling to get the numbers they believe films need or if they are trying to give struggling actors a chance, either way, it's interesting for a studio to do this.  I just feel horrible for the poor intern that's going to get stuck sifting through the castings coming in for these films.

I'm sure Sony will be more successful at this then many of the past companies who have tried this.   But as far as I know, there has not been a studio who has tried to cast this way.

 Have you heard of anything like this before?  Let me know?