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Link Time! 7/31

BuzzSugar — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:39:22 -0700

Remember when I was awed by Ben Kingsley's many accents? Well, Best Week Ever has mapped them all.
The John Hughes-inspired Vampire Weekend video for "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" over on Stereogum is so much fun.
The TV Addict has an interview with Shirley Manson about her upcoming acting debut in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Meanwhile, our own BellaSugar chats with Project Runway's lead stylist, Jeanie Syfu.
Want to know the latest Batman 3 rumors? Cinematical says names like "Johnny Depp" and "Philip Seymour Hoffman" are being tossed around in conjunction with characters like "Riddler" and "Penguin."
Vulture has an exhaustive history of the typically awful August movie releases.
Popwatch reports on the odd intersection of Joss Whedon fans and knitter/crocheters.
MTV Movies Blog captures the moment when Zachary Quinto first comes face-to-face with his face as Spock on the Star Trek movie poster.

Transsiberian: Spooky But Irritating

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:30:29 -0700

In select cities, a little indie thriller titled Transsiberian quietly opened over the weekend and did fairly well in the indie market (despite the long shadow cast by The Dark Knight's opening), which frankly surprises me. With some folks calling the movie "Hitchcockian" in its suspense, and featuring a cast that includes the enigmatic Emily Mortimer and a shape-shifting Ben Kingsley, I was interested in seeing it myself. But now I kinda wish I hadn't.

Emily Mortimer and Woody Harrelson play Americans Roy and Jesse, who are taking a train through Russia after completing a missionary assignment teaching English in China. Roy is your typical all-American tourist, boisterous, over-eager and naive, while Jesse has worked hard to get over her bad girl past, in which she struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. They meet another young couple, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara), who turn out to have some shady secrets of their own, and Carlos manages to rope Jesse into a dangerous world of drug trafficking. Enter the two-faced Russian cop Grinko (Ben Kingsley) who has interests in Carlos's activities extending beyond official police work. When Carlos goes missing and Jesse was the last to see him, Grinko focuses all his energies on the American couple, and the movie kinda derails from there. To see what I mean,

Buzz In: What Are the Worst On-Screen Kisses?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:00:33 -0700

After viewing The Wackness I had lots of nice overall feelings about the movie but one tiny little part of it still makes me go, "Eeesh!" And that would be the part where Mary-Kate Olsen makes out with Ben Kingsley. Yeah, that makeout session (because it's definitely more than a little peck!) gave me the opposite of warm-fuzzies inside.

The romantic pairing up of old and young, sometimes given the lovely term "May-December romance," can be kinda icky to witness. Steve Martin locking lips with Claire Danes in Shopgirl is another one that sends an uncomfortable shiver up my spine.

It's not always the age thing, though. Sometimes there's poor chemistry, or one of the actors looks like he's falling asleep during a supposedly passionate embrace. There are awkward ones, like the tongue kiss between Sarah Michelle Gellar's conniving Kathryn and Selma Blair's painfully naive Cecile in Cruel Intentions. And there's the small screen, too: How awful was that kiss between Joey and Rachel on Friends? I distinctly remember yelling at my TV, "Stop! No! This isn't right!"

Those are just a few of kisses that have made me squirm in my seat, and as Defamer recently pointed out, there's often some squirming on the set as well during these kissing scenes. What are some of the worst screen kisses you can think of?

Source and Source

Ben Kingsley Is the Man of the Hour

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:30:36 -0700

Ben Kingsley has always been a man of many faces (and accents), but lately it seems like he's popping up in every movie (and every time with a different accent). I knew he was in War, Inc. with John Cusack, and in one of my Tribeca favorites, The Wackness. And then when I checked out the trailer for Elegy (which is mesmerizing only because Penelope Cruz is so smoking hot no matter what she does), there he was again!
In addition to these recent theatrical releases, Kingsley has four films in various stages of production and four more titles in pre-production.
To check out my guide to recent and upcoming films featuring man-of-the-hour Ben Kingsley, hit "Start."

Tribeca Review: The Wackness

BuzzSugar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:30:52 -0700

Previously, I'd mostly known The Wackness as that weird-looking Sundance movie in which an Olsen twin makes out with Ben Kingsley and which features a ton of pot smoking. While those things are true, I also gotta say I really liked this weirdo pot-smoking movie. I can easily see why The Wackness won the audience award at Sundance this year: it's funny, it's got that tender boy-grows-up storyline, and there's plenty of sex, drugs and a ridiculously awesome, rap-heavy soundtrack.

Also, it's got Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby and Ben Kingsley at the heart of it, which is what ended up endearing this movie to me most of all. Peck plays Luke Shapiro, a kid on the Upper East Side who deals pot and feels alone amongst his classmates. He lives with parents who fight about money nonstop and he sees a therapist, Dr. Squires (Kingsley) in exchange for weed. Luke soon graduates high school and starts another summer of peddling his goods from out of an ices cart. He befriends his therapist's stepdaughter Stephanie (Thirlby) and then quickly falls in love with her. That's not all, though, so

Movie Preview: The Love Guru With Meyers, Alba, Timberlake and More

BuzzSugar — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:30:00 -0800

Okay, I'm willing to give The Love Guru a huge chance based on the cast alone: Mike Meyers (natch), Romany Malco (Conrad from Weeds!), Justin Timberlake (dressed all funny and bewigged), John Oliver (hilarious British guy from The Daily Show) and Ben Kingsley (funny because of, you know, his Oscar-winning performance as Ghandi). Oh, and Jessica Alba's in it too.

The new trailer for The Love Guru looks silly in the Austin Powers kind of way, though less charming and less humorous. Still, I have sorely missed Mike Meyers in recent years and it's oddly comforting to see him back in action. According to IMDB, Meyers plays a guru who travels to the U.S. in the hopes of breaking into the self-help business. "His first challenge: To settle the romantic troubles and subsequent professional skid of a star hockey player (Malco) whose wife left him for a rival athlete (Timberlake)." The Love Guru opens June 20. To check out the trailer and tell me what you think,

Sundance Spotlight: The Wackness

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:30:00 -0800

I am so thrilled to go to Sundance this year, and I can't wait to see as many movies as possible while I'm out there! For the next few days I'll be highlighting some of the films I'm most curious to see. Today's spotlight: The Wackness

I first heard about The Wackness in conjunction with these photos which certainly do seem to embody the term "wackness". . . if there were such a term. I'm totally intrigued by the idea of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ben Kingsley onscreen together; I'd go to see a movie just for that.

The story is set in 1994 for reasons I don't yet understand and "centers on a troubled teenage drug dealer and a drug-addled psychiatrist — after the former trades pot for therapy sessions, then falls for the doctor's daughter." We'll see how this goes. Even if it ends up being a totally crazy train wreck, I'm excited to be around as a witness.

Source

Buzz News Roundup, 9/24

BuzzSugar — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:32:38 -0700

The New York Times has the obituary for the famous French mime Marcel Marceau who died Saturday at age 84.
Jason Bateman will join Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the movie State of Play, ComingSoon reports.
Tomorrow Chaka Khan will release her first album in ten years, Billboard reports.
The Hollywood Reporter writes about a study that shows the number of gay characters on primetime TV has dropped for the third year in a row.
Justin Timberlake led the MTV Europe Music Awards nominations, People reports.
Hollywood Reporter has news that Ben Kingsley will play William Shakespeare in Will, a movie about the playwright's deathbed meeting with his lawyer to discuss his last will and testament.
Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern and Denis Leary headline the all-star cast for "Recount," HBO's movie about the 2000 presidential election, Variety reports.
Variety reports that "Sex and the City" writer Cindy Chupack will co-write a romantic comedy series for NBC.
Zap2It has news that Alice Ghostly (Esmeralda on "Bewitched"!) has died at age 81.

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"The Daily Show"'s John Oliver Joins Love Guru Cast

BuzzSugar — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:26:52 -0700

I just love this guy.
John Oliver is one of the greatest, funniest, dead-panniest parts of "The Daily Show" so I am thrilled to see that he's been cast in a real movie!

However...
Said movie is The Love Guru, in which Oliver will star alongside Mike Myers, Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake. In addition to Oliver, Meagan Goode and Ben Kingsley have joined the cast.

What are they all doing in this movie?
Good question! Oliver has been cast as a gentleman named Dick Pants, a "manager whose goal is to get the Love Guru on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' to settle a rivalry between his client and Deepak Chopra."

Kingsley, who's been making odd choices lately, is playing "Guru Tugginmypudha, the ashram leader who teaches the title character (Myers) how to love himself and how to wear a chastity belt."

Meanwhile, Goode is playing a woman named Prudence who trades one hockey boyfriend (Romany Falco) for another (Timberlake).

So...
There's no shortage of cheeky names and silly premises, but I'm probably still going to see this — especially now that Oliver's climbed on board.

Source

Mary-Kate and Ben Kingsley Are The Wackness

Molly — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:31:03 -0700

It's no secret that I love me some Mary-Kate Olsen and was especially excited to hear about her career taking a positive step with her role on the excellent (and coming back tonight!) "Weeds," but this newest bit of casting news is a little disheartening to say the least.

First of all, it's titled The Wackness
Yup, that's right. She and Ben Kingsley are starring in a comedy inexplicably set in 1994 about "a troubled teenage drug dealer and a drug-addled psychiatrist — after the former trades pot for therapy sessions, then falls for the doctor's daughter." Yikes.

The Good?
Sir Ben Kingsley generally makes pretty good career decisions, right? Sigh, least MK has "Weeds."

The Bad?
Sadly it seems, everything else. From the ludicrous plot line to the outrageous costumes (check out some on set photos here), I fear this may not be the role that catapults little MK to the acting elite. And Ben Kingsley's hair and shoes are definitely not helping. I suppose there's always a chance it'll be a good movie, but at this point I'm just hoping it's forgotten quickly.

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Movie Preview: You Kill Me

BuzzSugar — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:18:06 -0700

Next Friday, along with the openings of A Mighty Heart and Evan Almighty, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson and Ben Kingsley will star in You Kill Me, a kind of dark-humored crime comedy. Kingsley plays Frank, an alcoholic hit man who travels to San Francisco to get sober when his hit man abilities get sloppy. There he befriends the saucy Laurel (Leoni) who may prove helpful when Frank is called upon to return to finish some business in Buffalo, New York. Wilson plays Frank's gay AA sponsor. You can watch the trailer if you