Videogum » Forest Whitaker

Renee Zellweger Is Going For Her EGOT!

Gabe — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:15:48 +0000

So, Renee Zellweger has returned from her break and is starring alongside Forest Whitaker in a new movie called My Own Love Song. The movie is basically Duets 2: The Squinty Eyed Female Crazy Heart, and it features a soundtrack of 16 brand new songs from Bob Dylan. Including a song that he wrote that Renee Zellweger performs herself called “Life Is Hard” (haha, good name, life IS hard, you guys). From 24bit.com:

As we mentioned last year, Bob Dylan’s most recent (non-Christmas) album, Together Through Life, came about after the iconic singer/songwriter became inspired during recording sessions for a soundtrack to the forthcoming Renée Zellweger-starring film My Own Love Song. [ed. note: now titled Life Is Hard, LOLO]

It may be a surprise to some that Dylan would agree to contribute new songs to this project, but given that the drama also stars Forest Whitaker, an actor Dylan praised in his memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, it makes perfect sense. What I didn’t see coming, however, was that Zellweger performs the brand new Dylan-penned song “Life Is Hard” in the film.

So, Bob Dylan is dead? I didn’t realize that. I am assuming he is dead because how else is he going to ROLL IN HIS GRAVE. Renee Zellweger performing Bob Dylan. What is this, an episode of Ruining Things with the Stars? After the jump, a clip of Renee Zellweger singing Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” followed by a slow-zoom on Forest Whitaker making the most serious face I have ever seen:

Writer Apologizes For Battlefield Earth, Now Just Needs To Apologize For His Apology

Gabe — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:45:39 +0000

Over the weekend, the New York Post published an “apology” from screenwriter J.D. Shapiro for his work on Battlefield Earth. Videogum, of course, has a personal relationship with this movie, as it was the first entrant in The Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time. It is terrible, no duh, and an official apology is long overdue. But does it have to be THIS official apology? Of course, Mr. Shapiro offers some consolation, like:

The only time I saw the movie was at the premiere, which was one too many times.

And:

Now, looking back at the movie with fresh eyes, I can’t help but be strangely proud of it. Because out of all the sucky movies, mine is the suckiest.

BING BONG. We all hate this thing LOL. But this letter is two pages long, and most of it is about Mr. Shapiro’s attempts to bang Scientologists? Gross, J.D. Shapiro. For example:

The Hunt For The Worst Movie Of All Time: Hope Floats

Gabe — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:17:04 +0000

I know that I have said this before, but I will say it again now, and probably again another time in the future, and probably again after that, all the way until the year 2012, but considering how much time, money, and human effort it takes to make movies, sometimes I am just baffled (BAFFLED!) that these things exist. Like, dozens of people and millions of dollars were involved in the creation of this week’s entry, Hope Floats, and at no point (apparently) did anyone stop to say “Hey, maybe we should NOT do this.” How is that possible? The documentary Idiocracy is about events that do not take place for many many years. I feel like Kevin Kline in his hit movie Dave in the scene where he sits in a White House conference room and solves all of America’s problems by cutting out the bullshit. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Hollywood.” That is something I would say if I was the Dave of Hollywood.

Until then, here is what I have to say about Hope Floats:

The Videogum Movie Club: Where The Wild Things Are

Gabe — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:15:00 +0000

I went to see Where the Wild Things Are on Saturday, but it was sold out. Ay-ay-ay. That was a surprise! I mean, anticipation for this movie seemed pretty high, but anticipation for lots of movies seems high, especially when you spend most of your days following movie anticipation trends on-line. Now, of course, we know that Where the Wild Things Are was the number one movie in the country, and it earned a WILD (sorry) $32.5 million. That is so many million! But we didn’t know that back then when we were like, “Sold out? That is not very enchanting.” So I went to the movie on Sunday instead. They had added a second, simultaneous screening, and both of them were packed. But packed with whom? There were certainly plenty of children with their parents in my theater, but there were also plenty of man-children, if you know what I mean. The dude sitting to my left was in his mid-30s, and he was alone. The young couple sitting next to me pulled books out to read before the movie started, and she was reading Jean Paul Sartre’s No Exit. Of course she was! This movie was really hitting on all cylinders, if there are only two cylinders, and they are children and over-educated upper-middle-class white people in their late 20s-mid-30s.

Also, security was super tight? Like, they wouldn’t let me into the theater at all because I had a banana in my bag, which I had to eat in a fury, like some kind of forest creature, cowering in the corner next to the garbage can. And then when I got to my particular screening the security guard hassled me about my ticket stub? And actually made a call to the head of security on his walkie-talkie before letting me into the movie? We’re still talking about a movie written by Dave Eggers based on a children’s book published 43 years ago, right?

Yes. We are. So let’s talk about it!

The MTV Movie Awards: Just The Funny Parts

Lindsay Robertson — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:33:15 +0000

Last night’s MTV Movie Awards were weird, because much of the two-hour paid advertisement for upcoming blockbusters (like the Sandra Bullock/Ryan Reynolds rom com The Proposal. JK.) was ACTUALLY FUNNY. (And we just knew KEYBOARD CAT was gonna show up.) I actually felt like I was watching it because I wanted to and not just out of some lame desire to keep abreast of what the kids are doing. But that said, it seems unlikely that the kids themselves — the actual coveted youth demographic, had any idea what was going on. They were probably just like “Twilight! Kiss, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, kiss!” Here’s video of the six funniest moments, (I can’t believe there were six!), with more in the photo gallery.

Jamie Foxx Is The Fourth Member Of Lonely Island, Apparently

Gabe — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:19:06 +0000

Jamie Foxx’s new music video for “Blame It (On The Alcohol)” is FUCKING INSAAAAAANE.

I was already laughing at Jake Gyllenhaal but then they showed Ron Howard and I farted so hard my head exploded. WHAT? What is this? FUCK LAND, JAMIE FOX IS ON A BOAT, MOTHERFUCKER. This is the best. Ron Howard went home and told his children (who are themselves all in their mid-60s) that he is a “pimp” now. “Right, children, isn’t that how you say it?” “Shut up, dad, we’re doing our taxes!”

SPOILER ALERT: it was Jamie Foxx in the panda suit the whole time.

On a side note, I can’t wait until Stealth 2: Plane, Interrupted comes out. (Get it? Because the plane is crazy. Like this music video.)

It’s Life, Jump Into Life: Winged Creatures

Gabe — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:32:28 +0000

When I was in high school, my friend Jason and I were at the movies when a trailer came on for some foreign film that centered on a bourgeois family and, like, maybe a car crash, or a pregnancy? No offense, NATO, but who cares. I’m all for the quiet depiction of human complexity, but bore me a river. Anyway, at one point, the matriarch of the family is on the phone giving some poignant life lessons to someone younger than her who was struggling with how hard it is being white and middle class, and she advised “It’s life, jump into life.” We LOL’ed before that was even a thing. Classic. Film is dead. Anyway, that’s the categorization I’m going to use for films like the upcoming Winged Creatures. Because woof. Trailer after the jump.

Big Brother Is Watching You, Bro

Gabe — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:39:34 +0000

Imagine a world in which Forest Whitaker directs a four minute long dystopian nightmare featuring an oversized skateboard, a “magical gourd of elixir,” a Native American elevator operator, and a SWAT team chase through a second-rate Dark City that turns out to be an advertisement for Mountain Dew. Still having trouble picturing it? Impossible is nothing:

WHAT? Mountain Dew probably didn’t even pay Forest Whitaker to make that. He came to them. He was like “This story needs to be told. I only took those Hollywood movies so I could fund my dream project, which is this retarded Mountain Dew ad. I’m the worst. I’ll show myself to the door.” That’s a transcript of the pitch meeting.

Even though this is ad is a couple years old, Mountain Dew still has the viral site (viral sites, so hot right now) up where you can make your own DewMocracy videos (DewMocracy. Yikes. I hope you’re standing on the shoulders of your forefathers so that you can reach up and put that noose around your neck because this is ridiculous). Check out the clips. My favorites are “Blowin’ Up,” “River Battle,” and “Vegas Fu.” If you put all of those together with a Nickelback song in the background it would be so X-Treme that your puka shell necklace would explode and Red Bull would gush from your severed neck like a fountain. And I would play in that fountain.

The Hunt For The Worst Movie Of All Time: Battlefield Earth

Gabe — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:47:57 +0000

Well, whoever suggested Battlefield Earth can give themselves a pat on the back and a punch in the face, because it is definitely very, very horrible. I will say right off the bat, though, that I’m not sure how well Battlefield Earth can stand up to some of the other films we have up for consideration, for the express reason that after watching it, I do not consider it an actual movie. A movie is made for one or more of the following reasons:

To turn a profit.
To inform.
To entertain.

Since Battlefield Earth did none of the above, I’m pretty sure it’s not a movie. It may be a painful experiment on the human tolerance for visual punishment, or a rich person’s idea of a joke. Or, of course, it’s just the vanity project of an over-indulged millionaire celebrity automaton who disconnected his reality chip years ago and is now floating in the soft, warm ether of his self-encapsulated ego. I’m not sure.