The last time Justin Timberlake released an album was in 2006. But make no mistake, J.T. can still sing, as evidenced in this ‘Friends With Benefits’ Unscripted interview where he performs a medley of his favorite ’90s jams (from R. Kelly’s ‘Bump N’ Grind’ to Milli Vanilli’s ‘Girl You Know It’s True’). And just in case you think he’s looking to get back into music, Timberlake also does a hilarious impression of his co-star, Mila Kunis.
As for Mila herself, she reveals a favorite nickname her friend gave her as well as why you should go out and see ‘Friends With Benefits.’
Moviefone is headed to Sundance! Well, technically, I, along with my esteemed editor, Michael Hogan, are headed to the Sundance Film Festival. I’m equally excited and scared about this year’s festival — excited because there are a lot of movies that I want to see; scared because, as a first time attendee, I have zero idea what I’m doing. (If you happen to be at Sundance and you see a very confused looking person that’s about to cry, that’s me.) So, for the next few days, expect an onslaught of updates that will range anywhere from maniacal glee to raw terror.
With that in mind, here are seven movies that I hope I get to see. I say “hope” because the chances are better than not that I’ll be buried in a snow-covered roadside ditch, or something, before I ever make it to a theater. Though, if the fates allow, here’s what I am looking forward to watching.
(Then again, I’m also the one who was looking forward to “Green Lantern” and “Battle: Los Angeles,” so take these with a grain of salt.)
“Wish You Were Here”
Joel Edgerton was great in the sadly overlooked “Warrior.” In “Wish You Were Here,” he plays Dave, part of a group of Sydney residents on vacation in Cambodia when one of them disappears. Told partially in flashbacks, the memories of the missing friend, Jeremy, by each group member differ considerably. You know what? Whatever. With a lot of these movies, I can only go with what’s written in the media guide. I like Edgerton and I want to see him act again.
“John Dies at the End”
This movie is about drugs and aliens and Paul Giamatti is in it. Based on the popular web series… again, this movie is about drugs and aliens and Paul Giamatti is in it — I’m sold.
“Red Hook Summer”
My favorite Spike Lee movie is “25th Hour.” There’s so much depth in that movie. Now, I’ve heard “Red Hook Summer” being compared to Lee’s early work like “Do the Right Thing.” If Lee can combine the raw emotion of his early work, with the experience, skill and depth of “25th Hour”… well, it’s this potential that has me excited.
“Predisposed”
(When you read this, please read it with the knowledge that I have wiped clean all memories from my mind that “30 Minutes or Less” ever existed.)
In his first film since, “The Social Network,” Jesse Eisenberg plays a young musician on his way to an important audition who becomes sidetracked by his addict mother (Melissa Leo) and two drug dealers (Tracy Morgan and Isaiah Whitlock Jr.). So, yes, this is on my list because I really do want to see a movie starring Jesse Eisenberg, Melissa Leo, Tracy Morgan and Isaiah Whitlock Jr.
“Celeste and Jesse Forever”
Andy Samberg and Rashida Jones play former high school sweethearts that are going through a very friendly divorce. More than anything, I want to see Andy Samberg in a starring role in something other than “Hot Rod.” Nothing against “Hot Rod,” but that’s a movie that can’t be described as “outside of Andy Samberg’s comfort zone.” Samberg has been on “SNL” since 2005 and this will be a big test as to what Samberg’s post-”SNL” career will look like.
“Red Lights”
I love “Buried.” I guess during 2010′s award’s season, there was only room for one, “I’m stuck in a confined space” movie and “127 Hours” won that battle. Regardless, the director of “Buried,” Rodrigo Cortes, follows up his “Ryan Reynolds in a box” movie with a film about paranormal activity hoaxes starring Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy and Robert De Niro.
“Liberal Arts”
OK, so this is my wildcard that I’m hoping doesn’t come back to haunt me. First of all, I loved Elizabeth Olsen in “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” I didn’t love Josh Radnor’s prior film, “happythankyoumoreplease,” but, I do think there was an interesting movie in there, somewhere. As far as I know, “Liberal Arts,” a story about a depressed man who returns to his alma matter to give a speech doesn’t involve any actions that could be viewed as kidnapping a child. So, again, I have hope.
Mike Ryan is the senior writer for Moviefone. He has written for Wired Magazine, VanityFair.com, GQ.com, New York Magazine and Movieline. He likes Star Wars a lot. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter
While the World War II adventure “Red Tails” boasts a cast of young, breakout actors taking center stage as the historic Tuskegee Airmen, the flyboys find themselves backed by a now-veteran screen star: Academy Award-winning Cuba Gooding Jr. He may always be connected with his iconic “Show me the money!” performance in “Jerry Maguire,” but “Red Tails” offered Gooding a chance to make a new type of movie for young black audiences — and the once-and-forever Rod Tidwell jumped at the chance to be a part of film history.
Moviefone spoke with Gooding about the importance of “Red Tails,” the lessons he has learned in his post-Oscar career and the unique comparison that James Earl Jones made about his new movie.
Can I call you Cuba, or do you prefer Mr. Gooding?
My mama calls me Cuba, you can call me Cuba.
Well as long as it’s OK with your mom. This is actually the second time you’ve done a story regarding the Tuskegee Airmen. What excited you about returning to this story?
Any time I have an opportunity to tell a tale that spreads the word on African-Americans’ involvement in any war effort — be it World War II, the Civil War — I jump at the chance. When I did the first one, I didn’t even know who the Tuskegee Airmen were. I was embarrassed. Twenty-two year old guy who just finished your education, who didn’t know that there were black fighter pilots? I felt like an idiot. Here I am, 2009, hearing that George Lucas is telling this tale again and people don’t know? It was a mission of mine to get involved. The fact that he paid his own money to produce it and has spent years getting every shot right, this is a godsend here. These are the roles that you wait out all the other bullshit roles to do. [Laughs]
What was it like being on set with George Lucas?
The first day I’m filming with him there, they were setting up this shot — a big shot. I have this big speech to give. I’ve done it two or three times, and I wandered back to the monitors and he walks up to me and he just starts talking to me. I can’t even remember what he said at first, it was just really arbitrary, and I said something like, “Yeah, it’s funny, it’s different than working with Stormtroopers or something.” And he starts telling me the story about the first time he was working on the Death Star in a garage somewhere. I noticed over his shoulder and over to the right and left of him, all the crew stopped what they were doing, to lean in and listen to him. We spent five minutes listening to him tell this story; he stopped that whole set with one story. He starts saying anything about anything in his past and people listen. They can act like they’re not listening, but they stop what they’re doing.
Three years he’s been painting this movie with these dog fights, working on these sequences. These planes: it really feels like you’re in the sky, watching this movie.
Lucas’ style is evident in ‘Red Tails.’
I look at it like the black answer to “Indiana Jones.” That was a dated period piece. That was an action piece, and I’m telling you when you’re sitting in the theater, you feel like you’re flying the planes. We had this screening in Chicago, and [afterward] I had dinner with James Earl Jones. We were telling him we don’t know how this is going to play foreign. He whispers, “It’s ‘Star Wars’ for black people.” I go, “Really?” He goes, “Man, the cockpit scenes alone, the kids did alright.” [Laughs] And he’s absolutely right! You feel like you’re shooting the Death Star, and the Stormtroopers are shooting you. Well, these are Nazis. Same thing.
Now that you’ve got some perspective on Hollywood, what lessons did you take away from being a young Oscar winner — and what would you impart to other young actors caught up in that race?
Just enjoy the craft. A lot times awards gets you away from what you’re here to do. I spent a year just traveling and doing appearances and speaking to kids but if I could do anything more, I would have said “yes” to more projects and just continue to act. To a lot of these young guys winning these awards: don’t sanctify yourself too much. Don’t put too much worth on it, just work man. That’s what I’ve been doing of late. Just getting back to enjoying working, creating characters.
You seem to enjoy working on military stories. What are the challenges of those types of characters, where you’re trying to be respectful but also dramatic?
Ha! You just gave me a job description, bro! That’s the juice. I can do a movie where they put a gun to my head and I jump off a building and shoot the bad guys. And I’ve done enough of those lately, right? But, when I get to tell a story of a real guy, there’s such a heightened sense of things. I have to be his truth. If you screw this up, you don’t just screw up your performance, you screw up his tale. It’s the roles I seek out to do. The real life stories.
We’ve been screening this movie, Terrence [Howard] and I have been traveling for George for the past three months, screening it at the Pentagon, Colorado Springs at the Air Academy with all the cadets. We went to a football game that was great: Army vs. Air Force. Every time we show up, these screenings are surprising because there’s always real airmen there. So you’ve got these ninety-year-old black men sitting there and they don’t talk much. The screen comes up and the movie starts, and I’m nervous as hell because now I’m being judged by the real men. Did I screw up? Did I tell the truth? Are they going to say, “We were never like that”? I look down in the darkened theater and I notice that their shoulders are moving back to back, and one of the airman’s got his fist balled in front of him, and he’s going, “down hard left, down hard right.” He’s in the cockpit again! I’m like, “Oh my goodness!” That’s why we do what we do, right there. It’s like, “Wow, everybody in the theater right now is with him, flying that airplane.” It’s great.
You can kiss exotic locales and weekend jaunts of “James Bond” goodbye — they’ve had to economize, too.
Before you shout “the economy, amirite?!” take this news with a grain of salt (like you should will all British press rumors regarding James Bond): due to budgetary constraints, the newest Bond film, “Skyfall,” has had to downsize from filming in six countries to just one, according to reports.
As The Guardian points out, ever so elegantly, “‘Quantum of Solace’ was such a catastrophic wet fart,” audiences were promised — by way of a spiffy new director (Sam Mendes) and a first rate cast — a kind of retribution. But these reports that indicate the film will be a modest and measured production are, well, maybe a let down.
Reportedly, “Skyfall” will shoot in Turkey, and reproduction will be constructed for the rest of the locales. Additionally, the budget cuts now mean that a good deal of the film will be set in the seaside resort town of Bognor Regis, on the southeast coast of England. This is apparently very funny and significant to the British — “This isn’t a joke, apparently” — but means very little stateside.
[via The Guardian]
“Haywire,” Steven Soderberg’s new espionage movie about double-crossed government contractors (it’s quite a bit more exciting than I just made it sound), hits theaters this weekend. There is a lot going on in “Haywire,” starting with the interesting decision to cast Gina Carano, an MMA fighter, as the lead character. There’s so much going on, in fact, that we decided an obsessive chat with Hollywood.com’s Matt Patches was necessary. (Spoiler alert, obviously.)
Mike: I’m an idiot. I thought “The Grey” was coming out this weekend.
Matt: January is an amorphous cloud of movies: They all come out this weekend. None of them come out this weekend.
Mike: Maybe we should just leave this conversation at that.
Matt: Ha ha.
Mike: Does that mean that you didn’t like “Haywire”?
Matt: No, I did like “Haywire.” It’s not revelatory in a way that clears the fog of January. But it’s solid entertainment that I happened to catch. After “Joyful Noise,” it’s “Citizen Kane.”
Mike: Do you want to know what I found interesting about “Haywire”? Ewan McGregor’s hair.
Matt: What stands out? I can’t remember it exactly … was it streaked blonde? Frosted? It was doucheier than normal, which was fitting.
Mike: It was REALLY short on the sides, but kind of long on top. He looked a little like Vanilla Ice.
Matt: I think honing in on this detail defines you as a person. Ninety minutes of Gina Carano punching, kicking and tearing guys apart and all you can recall is Ewan McGregor’s hairdo.
Mike: Well, it bugged me.
Matt: But it was fitting.
Mike: When I was in high school, there was a guy that had a haircut similar to McGregor’s. His nickname was Vanilla Mike.
Matt: Are we talking about you but you’re pretending it’s someone else?
Mike: I wish. OK, so, Gina Carano punching, kicking and tearing guys apart. Did you enjoy that?
Matt: I did. I found out Gina Carano was an MMA fighter before the movie so I went in thinking this was going to be like “The Girlfriend Experience” with more sucker-punching. That’s pretty much what it is, but I can confidently say Carano is a better actress than Sasha Grey. And a better actress than anyone in the movie “Sucker Punch.”
Mike: I think she was definitely serviceable as an actress. Here’s my question: Where does she go from here? I fear that there’s a future of action movies for her that get progressively worse.
Matt: Uwe Boll has been trying to get her number for the past two weeks.
Mike: I would bet money that’s true.
Matt: No, I think she has better prospects, thanks to her knack for actually looking like a badass. No offense to the “Underworld” or the “Resident Evil” movies, but with leading ladies that barely speak/emote, Carano wouldn’t have to do much to nab her own franchise. And she can actually do the stunts, which makes “Haywire” a thousand times more exciting. Plus, her acting was enjoyable too. I didn’t cringe when she said things. That was my biggest fear. But I don’t know if that’s Steven Soderbergh’s tender love and care
Mike: As opposed to when Antonio Banderas said something?
Matt: That was more gargling water, right? Or growling? I didn’t realize he had lines.
Mike: Matt Singer [of IFC] was sitting next to me at the screening that I was at and he laughed uncontrollably every time Banderas said a word.
Matt: It was nice to have solid actors in the ensemble parts, but they seem more like a marketing ploy. Banderas didn’t do anything, but he can solidly stroke a beard. Michael Douglas is great at sounding angry. Michael Fassbender looks good when clobbered in the nose. But that didn’t distract me. Carano was interesting enough. Amazingly. OK, I’m kind of in love with Gina Carano now. I should stop dancing around it.
Mike: You really are. I’m going to Photoshop your face, in place of Fassbender’s, stuck in her leg crunch. You will be smiling. Also: I have no doubt that the real Gina Carano would have no problem putting a pillow over someone’s head and firing a round into it.
Matt: “Haywire” is a documentary.
Mike: They just followed her around. “Just do whatever it is you do, Gina.” “I’m going to kill Michael Fassbender.” “OK, great.”
Matt: I’ve heard there’s a six-hour cut that as a lot more walking, eating and sleeping. Do you think anyone is going to see “Haywire”? Will it spur more women-centric action movies?
Mike: That’s a good question. I’m not sure if people will see it or not. They did see “Contraband”! And I wasn’t expecting that. Steven Soderbergh movies are odd in that they seem to just kind of come and go in the theaters. Though, I think this is his most Soderbergh-y film.
Matt: Really? What is Soderbergh-y?
Mike: Like, if someone said, “Hey, direct a Soderbergh parody/tribute,” that movie would be “Haywire.” The “cool” music. The way the scenes were filmed. The unknown as the lead, surrounded by famous people that come in and out of the movie. I mean that as a compliment, by the way.
Matt: The reason he’s retiring after his next two movies is so he can figure out how to make a new kind of movie. That’s going to be difficult considering people can describe his style as “Soderbergh-y.” And I agree, I’m always ready for an injection of cool courtesy of Steven Soderbergh.
Mike: There’s your pull quote: “An Injection of Cool” — Matt Patches, Hollywood.com You should submit that. That’s a great quote. Or, “I’m in Love with Gina Carano.” Either one works.
Matt: Do they take pull photos? Like a picture of Gina Carano choking me while I smile? And then just my name at the bottom. That’s what I want on the back of the future Blu-ray cover.
Mike: Bill Paxton plays Gina Carano’s father. I’m not sure I’m comfortable living in a world in which Bill Paxton plays “the old man.” What happened to the young, “Which makes you my new best friend” guy from “Titanic”?
Matt: He’s not old, he just has a mustache. And I like old Bill Paxton. He’s even more wise and powerful than before. He was always goofy when he was younger. Now he’s come into his own.
Mike: In “Weird Science” he was mean. OK, so: did the plot hold up for you? You’re satisfied?
Matt: I am. “Haywire” is pretty “by the books” when it comes to its spy-story setup, but with all the talented folks running the show, I had a lot of fun. I should say I found it satisfyingly confusing, in a “Michael Clayton” sort of way. I don’t always need to know what’s going on in a movie. I don’t always need it to make sense. But as long as it thinks it knows it makes sense, I’m usually on board.
Mike: What didn’t make sense?
Matt: I don’t know, there are four or five wheeling-and-dealing scenes between random military groups that I didn’t think were that well explained. Lots of talking on the phone talking about backstabbing. Do you think everything concerning Antonio Banderas/Michael Douglas/Ewan McGregor/Michael Fassbender/Random European Dude/Korean Journalist made 100 percent sense?
Mike: Of course not. I thought Michael Douglas was a bad guy. But then he’s not. And poor Channing Tatum is the not-especially-intelligent-assassin with a heart of gold.
Matt: I was pretty high on him in this movie too.
Mike: And Fassbender is MI6 and knows this is all a set up, but goes along with it. I wonder if he knows James Bond.
Matt: Maybe they went to “Skyfall” together.
Mike: Maybe James Bond is waiting for Michael Fassbender by the pool. But he doesn’t show up because Gina Carano shot Fassbender in the head.
Matt: No wonder he was alone in that image!
Mike: He looks very forlorn. Perhaps the title should be “Crestfallen.” Because he lost his friend. OK, last question: Did you like the ending?
Matt: The beach fight between Ewan McGregor and Gina Carano is brilliant. And satisfying. So, yes. I guess I did.
Mike: I’m not a big fan of, “Oh, my foot is caught in the rocks.” Which we see in movies TWICE this month. Which both lead to a drowning. But I did like the fight. I liked all of the fights.
Matt: I didn’t know Ewan McGregor was capable of that kind of action. I bet that’s why his hair was so crazy. It was fighting hair. We’ve never seen that before.
Mike: Um, “The Phantom Menace”? He defeated Darth Maul.
Matt: Yeah, but he wasn’t throwing punches. He was throwing Force punches. That requires a different haircut. Different Hairchlorians.
Mike: “Hairchlorians.” I feel we should end on that.
Matt Patches is the film editor at Hollywood.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
Mike Ryan is the senior writer for Moviefone. He has written for Wired Magazine, VanityFair.com, GQ.com, New York Magazine and Movieline. He likes Star Wars a lot. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter