The Playlist

Review: 'Admission' With Tina Fey & Paul Rudd A Low-Stakes Drama Mixed With Toothless Social Satire

  • By Gabe Toro
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  • March 19, 2013 9:57 AM
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  • 1 Comment
Some people don’t seem to realize that the type of stories being told in film needs to change. Small-scale tales of middlebrow intimacy and minor dramatic conflict used to have a home in the cinemas, where they would play to audiences who didn’t have a surplus of entertainment options. Today, the problem isn’t that these stories are no longer relevant commercially or creatively -- they still are -- but that they lack the incisive filmmakers necessary to guide them properly to the big screen. Case in point: Paul Weitz’s toothless, sleepy “Admission,” which portrays the topsy-turvy life of a Princeton admissions officer who has to cope with widening standards and new methods of evaluation in regards to new students.

Bill Condon Combining 'Breaking Dawn' Movies For Single Extended Cut & 10 Things Learned About 'Breaking Dawn Pt. 2'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • November 15, 2012 11:01 AM
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  • 2 Comments
In just a few hours, the final "Twilight" movie will hit theaters. With an impressively speedy five movies in four years, audiences have seen teen Bella (Kristen Stewart) fall for a mysterious new classmate, Edward (Robert Pattinson), stop him from committing suicide, fight off an army of newborn vampires led by the evil Victoria, get married, have a baby, and transform into a vampire herself.

Homophobe Much? What’s With All The Effeminate, Fey (And Often Blonde) Villains In Hollywood?

  • By The Playlist Staff
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  • November 8, 2012 12:01 PM
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  • 48 Comments
Effeminate, campy, queenish villains in Hollywood aren't exactly a new thing. Examples go as far back as say, Claude Rains' bad guy in "The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938), Peter Lorre as the delicate Mr. Cairo in “The Maltese Falcon,” (his business cards are gardenia-scented for crying out loud), Conrad Veidt as the SS villain in “Casablanca,” and Charles Laughton in “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1935), and can be these types can be found in plenty of eras (Vernon Wells as the leathery, Pillsbury Doughboy-esque villain in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s "Commando" is sort of known as the plump Freddie Mercury of action movie villains).

Barry Pepper, Michael Sheen & Amanda Peet Also Cut From Terrence Malick's 'To The Wonder'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • August 29, 2012 1:21 PM
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  • 8 Comments
Following yesterday's news that Rachel Weisz had been dropped from Terrence Malick's upcoming "To the Wonder," in sorta obvious news, it has now been confirmed that Barry Pepper, Michael Sheen and Amanda Peet have also had their parts sliced out of the film.

Watch: Bella & Edward Are The Same Temperature Now In Teaser Trailer For 'Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • June 20, 2012 7:30 AM
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  • 15 Comments
Well, the honeymoon's out of the way, the baby's been born, and now the marriage of Bella & Edward (Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson), the lead characters of the "Twilight" franchise, is going the same way as many other marriages -- into a series of fights. However, it's not the newlyweds who are arguing; it's the new Mr. & Mrs Cullen, along with Edward's family, and Jacob's pack of werewolves, against vampire authority the Volturi, who believe that their child Renesmee is an abomination, and needs to be destroyed. Which is all a long-winded way of saying that the first full teaser trailer for "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part Two" has arrived (to coincide with Edward's 111th birthday: you people do know he's a fictional character, right?), and it looks like it has the biggest scope of the series so far.

Terrence Malick's Untitled Romance Now Called 'To The Wonder,' Lands R Rating

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • May 15, 2012 9:06 AM
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  • 8 Comments
It was just a couple of weeks ago that we wondered if we were going to be seeing Terrence Malick's then-untitled romance starring (deep breath) Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Javier Bardem, Barry Pepper, Michael Sheen and Amanda Peet before the end of the year. And at the time, the answer was: who knew? The enigmatic director keeps to himself and likes to continually tinker, but with two more movies gearing up this year in the formerly titled "Lawless" and "Knight Of Cups," we hoped that meant this one was finally nearing the finish line. And it appears that's the case.

Michael Sheen Joins Paul Weitz's 'Admission' With Paul Rudd & Tina Fey

  • By Joe Cunningham
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  • April 27, 2012 11:41 AM
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  • 2 Comments
While the fourth season of NBC’s “30 Rock” was arguably its weakest, one of the highlights was Michael Sheen’s four episode arc as Wesley Snipes – Liz Lemon’s boyfriend who she kind of hated. So for anyone who enjoyed seeing Tina Fey and Michael Sheen together as a couple on screen will be pleased to hear that they’ll be together once again in “Admission.”

Armie Hammer, Ben Kingsley, John Malkovich, Michael Sheen & Teresa Palmer Join Crime Thriller 'Cut Bank'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • April 24, 2012 12:39 PM
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  • 1 Comment
Landing a script on the Black List doesn't necessarily mean your movie will get made right away (please see the forever-developing "Prisoners" as a hot script stuck at the starting gates) but it does mean that when the ball gets rolling, top talent is going to swarm. And for Roberto Patino, his 2009 script for "Cut Bank" has rounded up a helluva cast.

Hammer Films Lining Up 'The Quiet One' With Michael Sheen Eyed To Lead & Jack The Ripper Tale 'Gaslight'

  • By Benjamin Wright
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  • February 9, 2012 10:40 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Once a go-to institution for screams in the horror world, Hammer Films had a fine output of chillers from the late ‘50s to the mid ‘70s, which included the classic string of monster films in which actor Christopher Lee re-imagined iconic characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy. Then in the late '70s and ‘80s, right as Americans were starting to favor gory slashers like “Friday the 13th” and brutal horror films like “Last House on the Left” and the original “I Spit On Your Grave” to name a few, the fog strewn atmospherics of Hammer Films didn’t seem quite so scary any more. As of late the company has seen a resurgence of sorts, proudly putting out Matt Reeves’ excellent “Let Me In” and the predictable but atmospheric and entertaining “The Woman in Black” this past weekend, along with a few forgettable titles like “Wake Wood” and “The Resident.” Current co-chairman of Exclusive Media Guy East, Nigel Sinclair, along with Hammer Films CEO Simon Oakes, understand that their banner carries a certain amount of prestige and they seem to be heading in the right direction on a number of future projects.

Awesome Explosion: Michael Sheen & Lizzy Caplan To Star In Showtime Series 'Masters Of Sex'

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • February 2, 2012 5:00 PM
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  • 1 Comment
Is this going to be another case of Paul Bettany missing the boat? The actor famously passed on "The King's Speech" (to spend time with his family), and of course, the movie won a bunch of Oscars and became a box office hit. At the beginning of the year, Bettany exited from the developing Showtime series "Masters Of Sex"-- could this be another decision that will bite him in the ass?

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