Tag Archive for 'The Proposal'

News Hound | Tom Cruise takes on a 4th Mission: Impossible and 24’s Jack Bauer goes feature-length

Published
by
Adele
on February 10, 2010
in News and News Hound
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News Hound sniffs around the back alleys of the internet to bring you the latest showbiz news - so you don’t have to get your paws dirty…

paw-print.jpgDisney are going to make a sequel to their hit musical Enchanted and are trying very hard to get Amy Adams, James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey back on board. Anne Fletcher (The Proposal, 27 Dresses, Step Up) is going to direct.

Amy Adams in Disney’s Enchanted

paw-print.jpgIt’s looking likely that Russell Crowe will take on the role of alcoholic musician in the latest remake of A Star is Born. And the starlet he mentors will be none other than Beyoncé.

paw-print.jpgTom Cruise has sealed a deal for Mission: Impossible 4 with JJ Abrams producing and Alias writers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec providing the script.

Impossible III

paw-print.jpg20th Century Fox have announced plans to make a feature-length spin-off of popular TV series 24. The film will be set in Europe and Kiefer Sutherland is on board as the relentless Jack Bauer.

paw-print.jpgAccording to rumours, Penelope Cruz has joined the cast of Lars von Trier’s psychological disaster movie Melancholia. The film is said to have been written with her in mind.

Penelope Cruz in Nine

Couch Potato Pickings | Best of Bullock

Published
by
Beth
on January 19, 2010
in Couch Potato and Films on TV
. 1 Comment

So, Sandra Bullock has won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -  Drama. Do you think she’ll win Best Actress Oscar? Or will it be Meryl?

I think both are great. Bullock is brilliant and marvellous Meryl truly deserved her Best Comedy Actress gong for Julie and Julia. How ironic that Meryl scooped the Globe for her portrayal of Julia Child on the same day that some surgeon made the news trying to impose a ban on butter. Hasn’t he seen the film? How can we all continue to declare ‘Bon Appetit’ without Julia Child’s favourite ingredient?

Julie and Julia, Meryl Streeo,Amy Adams

Anyway, I digress. Since I’ve kind of done a best of Meryl Streep before (check that out here), I thought I’d do a Best of Bullock today. People seem to have forgotten, you see, that Bullock isn’t only a comedy actress. Only yesterday, I overheard someone exclaiming that Bullock has only ever been in daft comedy films.

But it’s not true! Not only is Bullock’s Golden Globe win for her role in The Blind Side - a serious drama, but this isn’t the first film that’s seen Sandra reining in the comic klutziness and applying her talents to serious stuff. Think her Harper Lee role in Infamous or her bigoted wife role in Oscar-winner Crash.

Infamous,Sandra Bullock

I’ve not seen The Blind Side yet, but it’s already broken records for the highest Box Office figures for a female-led movie ever. Since I love Sandra Bullock, it’s a must-see for me, so the 12th March weekend will see me leaving my couch - a rare experience for me (click here to find out why that is).

In the meantime, check out my Best of Bullock here:

Speed

Speed,Keanu Reeves,Sandra Bullock

With the help of Keanu Reeves, Sandra takes the wheel on a bus that’s wired to explode if it slows under 50mph. This was Bullock’s first big film.

While You Were Sleeping

This romcom was Bullock’s next big movie after Speed. She plays a ticket-seller who has a crush on a commuter. After saving him from a speeding train, she tells his family that she is his fiancée  as he lies in a coma.

Miss Congeniality

Miss Congeniality,Sandra Bullock

What’s not to love about this? As Chandler from Friends explains ‘She’s an FBI agent, posing as a beauty contestant.” Enough said.

Crash

Crash, Sandra Bullock

In this Oscar-winner, Bullock is brilliantly despicable as a racist bigot whose prejudices are ignited further when she and her husband experience a carjacking.

Miss Congeniality 2

Miss Congeniality 2, Sandra Bullock

Bullock glitters once again in this watchable sequel, which benefits greatly from its Dolly Parton cameo (Happy Birthday Dolly).

The Lake House

The Lake House, Sandra Bullock

Bullock reunites with Keanu to play a doctor who falls in love with an architect after corresponding with him by mail. However, one is living in 2006 and the other is still in 2004…  The movie is let down by its slow pace, and the time travel plot can be confusing, but it’s a strong role for Sandra.

Infamous

Infamous, Sandra Bullock

It may be the lesser known of the two Truman Capote biopics, but this one is in my opinion far better than Oscar winner Capote. Bullock stars as Capote’s close friend and fellow writer Harper Lee.

The Proposal

The Proposal, Sandra Bullock

In this Golden Globe-nominated blockbuster, Bullock plays a bossy publishing executive who forces her assistant to pretend he’s her fiance so that she can avoid deportation. The charade gets complicated when the pair attempt travel to Alaska to meet his family. I love this romcom, which includes a wonderful performance from Betty ‘Rose from the Golden Girls’ White. For me, this is Bullock’s best film yet.

The Blind Side 

I’ve not yet seen this sports drama, so I’m afraid I can’t comment, but I’m confident that it deserves to sit among the best.

The Proposal is currently available on demand on Sky Box Office and Filmflex.

Click here to get email alerts when Sandra Bullock’s films are scheduled to show on UK TV.

Small Screen – this week’s top ten DVDs…

Published
by
Dean & Ellen
on December 11, 2009
in Small Screen - Top DVDs
. 0 Comments

  1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

    2. It’s a kind of magic… Harry and his Hogwarts cohorts have to contend with a new potions teacher, Voldemort’s Death Eaters, and raging hormones in their sixth year at the School of Witchraft and Wizardry.


  2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

    3. Robots in disguise… This big-budget sequel sees Sam Witwicky again joining forces with the Autobots in their battle against the Decepticons; a battle, it seems, that may have started on Earth many years before…

  3. Inglourious Basterds

    4. Bloody battle… Set in Nazi-occupied France during World War Two, Quentin Tarantino’s revenge movie follows a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers as they attempt to spread fear through the Third Reich.

  4. The Hangover

    5. Night to remember… Four friends travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. The next morning, they wake up with no memory of the night before!

  5. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

    6. Mission impossible… Sienna Miller stars in this Hasbro toy-inspired action movie about an elite military unit’s battle against an evil organisation.

  6. Terminator Salvation

    7. Robot wars… Christian Bale attempts to save humanity from being wiped out by intelligent machines – and woe betide any cinematographers who get in his way.

  7. Star Trek

    8. Lost in space… Director J.J. Abrams reboot of the classic sci-fi franchise is set in an alternate reality and features space ships, black holes, phasers and pointy ears.

  8. The Proposal

    9. Here comes the bribe… This romantic comedy sees Sandra Bullock plays a pushy editor-in-chief who forces her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her.

  9. My Sister’s Keeper

    10. Family ties… Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin star in this adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel about a young girl suffering from leukemia and the efforts of her family to keep her alive.

  10. Four Christmases

    11. Festive friction… Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon play a married couple forced to visit all four of their divorced parents in one day.


Small Screen – this week’s top ten DVDs…

Published
by
Dean & Ellen
on December 3, 2009
in Small Screen - Top DVDs
. 0 Comments

  1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

    2. Robots in disguise… This big-budget sequel sees Sam Witwicky again joining forces with the Autobots in their battle against the Decepticons; a battle, it seems, that may have started on Earth many years before…


  2. Terminator Salvation

    3. Robot wars… Christian Bale attempts to save humanity from being wiped out by intelligent machines – and woe betide any cinematographers who get in his way.

  3. Star Trek

    4. Lost in space… Director J.J. Abrams reboot of the classic sci-fi franchise is set in an alternate reality and features space ships, black holes, phasers and pointy ears.

  4. The Proposal

    5. Here comes the bribe… This romantic comedy sees Sandra Bullock plays a pushy editor-in-chief who forces her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her.

  5. My Sister’s Keeper

    6. Family ties… Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin star in this adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel about a young girl suffering from leukemia and the efforts of her family to keep her alive.

  6. Brüno

    7. Camp crusader… Flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter, Brüno Gehard (Sacha Baron Cohen), sets out to make a name for himself in the States in a series of controversial and cringe-inducing stunts.

  7. Night at the Museum 2

    8. Lively display… History comes to life in this adventure-comedy sequel, as museum security guard Larry (Ben Stiller) does battle with more restless exhibits.

  8. Four Christmases

    9. Festive friction… Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon play a married couple forced to visit all four of their divorced parents in one day.

  9. Coco Before Chanel

    10. A stitch in time… Audrey Tautou portrays the rise of legendary designer Coco Chanel, from obscure beginnings to the heights of the fashion world.

  10. X Men Origins: Wolverine

    11. Killer instinct… The troubled mutant clashes with his fearsome half-brother in this spin-off prequel, giving Hugh Jackman ample opportunity to flex his muscles and growl.


Big Screen – this week’s top ten at the cinema…

Published
by
Dean & Ellen
on August 26, 2009
in Cinema Releases
. 0 Comments

  1. Inglourious Basterds

    2. Bloody battle… Set in Nazi-occupied France during World War Two, Quentin Tarantino’s revenge movie follows a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers as they attempt to spread fear through the Third Reich.



  2. The Time Traveler’s Wife

    3. Endless love… Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams star in this sci-fi romance about a man with a genetic condition that causes him to involuntarily time travel, and the complications it creates for his marriage.

  3. G-Force

    4. Fists of furry… This live-action comedy-adventure from Disney sees a squad of guinea pigs, specially trained by the government, dispatched to save the world from a diabolical millionaire.

  4. Aliens in the Attic

    5. Little Green Men… A group of youngsters (including High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale) attempt to protect their vacation home from invading aliens.

  5. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

    6. It’s a kind of magic… Harry and his Hogwarts cohorts have to contend with a new potions teacher, Voldemort’s Death Eaters, and raging hormones in their sixth year at the School of Witchraft and Wizardry.

  6. Dance Flick

    7. Body popping… This dance movie parody follows aspiring street dancers who hope to make it big by winning a local dance contest.

  7. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

    8. Mission impossible… Sienna Miller stars in this Hasbro toy-inspired action movie about an elite military unit’s battle against an evil organisation.

  8. The Ugly Truth

    9. Heart of the matter… This romantic comedy sees a lovelorn TV producer having her eyes opened to the realities of dating by her show’s chauvinist presenter.

  9. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

    10. Sub-zero heroes… The third instalment in the animated franchise sees Sid’s attempts to start a family landing him – and his pals – in a strange underground world.

  10. The Proposal

    11. Here comes the bribe… This romantic comedy sees Sandra Bullock plays a pushy editor-in-chief who forces her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her.


Big Screen – this week’s top ten at the cinema…

Published
by
Dean & Ellen
on August 20, 2009
in Cinema Releases
. 0 Comments

  1. The Time Traveler’s Wife

    2. Endless love… Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams star in this sci-fi romance about a man with a genetic condition that causes him to involuntarily time travel, and the complications it creates for his marriage.



  2. Aliens in the Attic

    3. Little Green Men… A group of youngsters (including High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale) attempt to protect their vacation home from invading aliens.

  3. G-Force

    4. Fists of furry… This live-action comedy-adventure from Disney sees a squad of guinea pigs, specially trained by the government, dispatched to save the world from a diabolical millionaire.

  4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

    5. It’s a kind of magic… Harry and his Hogwarts cohorts have to contend with a new potions teacher, Voldemort’s Death Eaters, and raging hormones in their sixth year at the School of Witchraft and Wizardry.

  5. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

    6. Mission improbable… Sienna Miller stars in this Hasbro toy-inspired action movie about an elite military unit’s battle against an evil organisation.

  6. The Ugly Truth

    7. Heart of the matter… This romantic comedy sees a lovelorn TV producer having her eyes opened to the realities of dating by her show’s chauvinist presenter.

  7. Bandslam

    8. Rocking out… Music-obsessed Will moves to a new town and assembles a fledging rock band to compete in the biggest event of the school year, a battle of the bands.

  8. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

    9. Sub-zero heroes… The third instalment in the animated franchise sees Sid’s attempts to start a family landing him – and his pals – in a strange underground world.

  9. The Proposal

    10. Here comes the bribe… This romantic comedy sees Sandra Bullock plays a pushy editor-in-chief who forces her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her.

  10. A Perfect Getaway

    11. Holiday from hell… There’s terror in store for two couples, when their Hawaiian vacation is rocked by the discovery that psychopaths are murdering tourists on the island.


Big Screen – this week’s top ten at the cinema…

Published
by
Dean & Ellen
on August 6, 2009
in Cinema Releases
. 0 Comments

  1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

    2. It’s a kind of magic… Harry and his Hogwarts cohorts have to contend with a new potions teacher, Voldemort’s Death Eaters, and raging hormones in their sixth year at the School of Witchraft and Wizardry.

  2. G-Force

    3. Fists of furry… This live-action comedy-adventure from Disney sees a squad of guinea pigs, specially trained by the government, dispatched to save the world from a diabolical millionaire.



  3. The Taking of Pelham 123

    4. Rush hour… Denzel Washington and John Travolta star in this thriller about the hijacking of a New York subway train.

  4. The Proposal

    5. Here comes the bribe… This romantic comedy sees Sandra Bullock plays a pushy editor-in-chief who forces her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her.

  5. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

    6. Sub-zero heroes… The third instalment in the animated franchise sees Sid’s attempts to start a family landing him – and his pals – in a strange underground world.

  6. Land of the Lost

    7. Step back in time… Will Ferrell heads the cast of this comedy about a paleontologist who is sucked into a vortex and ends up in a parallel universe, where ape men and dinosaurs run riot.

  7. Brüno

    8. Camp crusader… Flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter, Brüno Gehard (Sacha Baron Cohen), sets out to make a name for himself in the States in a series of controversial and cringe-inducing stunts.

  8. The Hangover

    9. Night to remember… Four friends travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. The next morning, they wake up with no memory of the night before!

  9. Coco Before Chanel

    10. A stitch in time… Audrey Tautou portrays the rise of legendary designer Coco Chanel, from obscure beginnings to the heights of the fashion world.

  10. Love Aaj Kal

    11. Heart of the matter… This Bollywood romance looks at how the ways of finding love have changed over time, while the experience of being in love has remained the same.


The Best view | Katherine Heigl & Gerard Butler star in crass and sexist romcom - that’s The Ugly Truth

Published
by
Jason Best
on August 5, 2009
in Cinema Releases and The Best View
. 3 Comments

The Ugly Truth - Gerard Butler and Katharine Heigl play chalk ‘n’ cheese lovers in this limp romcom

Hard on the spike heels of the lame Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds romantic comedy The Proposal comes yet another battle-of-the-sexes romcom. Difficult though it may be to imagine, The Ugly Truth is much, much worse - a hideously misguided attempt to marry girly chick-flick sentiment with laddish Judd-Apatow-style raunch.

Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler play the film’s chalk ‘n’ cheese pairing. She’s Abby Richter, the ball-breaking producer for a morning talk show in Sacramento, and he’s Mike Chadway, a boorish cable TV shock jock who’s brought in over her head to pep up the show’s flagging ratings with his merciless pointers to the lovelorn. Sample of his brutal advice to women looking for a man: “Get a Stairmaster.”

The Ugly Truth - Gerard Butler’s shock jock Mike Chadway puts a couple of babes on the TV show

Abby is a neurotic, control-freaky singleton; she gets her assistant to do background checks on her internet dates and has a checklist of qualities to be met by her ideal man. Of course, knuckle-dragging Neanderthal Mike ticks none of her boxes: it’s loathe at first sight.

Yet thanks to the kind of contrivance only a team of screenwriters (three, all women) can conceive, when Abby sets her cap at her dreamy surgeon neighbour (Eric Winter), it’s Mike she turns to for tips on how to snag him. Inevitably, he gives her a makeover: taking her shopping, changing her hair and pushing her into a push-up bra. When she goes on a date with the doc, he’s there too, talking into her earpiece to guide her through the necessary manoeuvres; the well-worn Cyrano-steal that Steve Martin pulled off with infinitely more comic panache in Roxanne.

The Ugly Truth - Katharine Heigl’s Abby Richter goes on a date with Eric Winter’s dreamy doctor Colin

The film’s nadir comes after Mike gives Abby some remote-controlled vibrating underwear as a gift. Somehow, she ends up wearing them to a starchy business dinner and gets her knickers in more than a twist when a kid on a neighbouring table takes hold of the remote.

Naturally, the pair will eventually come around to seeing each other in a different light, but we have to endure yet more witless piffle before they get there. Butler comes through relatively unscathed, but Heigl, so good opposite Seth Rogen’s stoned slacker in Knocked Up, so wasted in this and last year’s 27 Dresses, seems hell bent on squandering her comic gifts.

On general release from 7th August.


To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.

Big Screen – this week’s top ten at the cinema…

Published
by
Dean & Ellen
on July 29, 2009
in Cinema Releases
. 0 Comments

  1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

    2. It’s a kind of magic… Harry and his Hogwarts cohorts have to contend with a new potions teacher, Voldemort’s Death Eaters, and raging hormones in their sixth year at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

  2. The Proposal

    3. Here comes the bribe… This romantic comedy sees Sandra Bullock plays a pushy editor-in-chief who forces her assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her.


  3. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

    4. Sub-zero heroes… The third instalment in the animated franchise sees Sid’s attempts to start a family landing him – and his pals – in a strange underground world.

  4. Brüno

    5. Camp crusader… Flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter, Brüno Gehard (Sacha Baron Cohen), sets out to make a name for himself in the States in a series of controversial and cringe-inducing stunts.

  5. The Hangover

    6. Night to remember… Four friends travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. The next morning, they wake up with no memory of the night before!

  6. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

    7. Robots in disguise… This big-budget sequel sees Sam Witwicky again joining forces with the Autobots in their battle against the Decepticons; a battle, it seems, that may have started on Earth many years before…

  7. Public Enemies

    8. Cops and robbers… Michael Mann directs this Thirties-set thriller, in which FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) is tasked with bringing gangster John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) to justice.

  8. My Sister’s Keeper

    9. Family ties… Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin star in this adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel about a young girl suffering from leukemia and the efforts of her family to keep her alive.

  9. Moon

    10. Lost in space… An astronaut who has spent three years on the moon with only a robot for company begins to have some unnerving hallucinations.

  10. Antichrist

    11. Cabin fever… Lars von Trier’s controversial drama follows a grieving couple as they retreat to their cabin in the woods and confront the darker side of nature.


The Best view | The Proposal - Is Sandra Bullock’s new rom-com a dead duck?

Published
by
Jason Best
on July 22, 2009
in Cinema Releases and The Best View
. 0 Comments

The Proposal - Ryan Reynolds & Sandra Bullock star in this romantic comedy that reverses some familiar roles

After declaring the romantic comedy genre a dead duck back in 2002, Sandra Bullock is back in a movie that shows every sign of belonging to the shunned species – it waddles, it quacks, but is it healthy? What are its vital signs? Is it, in fact, a twitching carcass, a living-dead duck?

The Proposal starts promisingly, with Bullock flexing her comedy muscles in the role of a tyrannical New York publishing executive whose very presence causes minions to quake. (Shades of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.) “The witch is on her broom,” is the instant message that pings between members of her staff the instant Bullock’s Margaret Tate steps into the building.

The minion quaking the most is Margaret’s much put-upon assistant, Ryan Reynolds’s Andrew Paxton, who has spent years under her thumb, bullied and exploited. Yet – and here comes the familiar rom-com setup – when Margaret finds herself facing summary deportation back to her native Canada (shades of Green Card), she bribes him into going through with a sham marriage proposal.

The Proposal - Betty White, Mary Steenburgen, Ryan Reynolds & Craig T Nelson

To keep the immigration hounds off her back, she agrees to accompany Andrew on a visit to his Alaskan hometown to meet his – you knew this was coming – oh-so quirky family (mother Mary Steenburgen, father Craig T Nelson and grannie Betty White, still game at 87 - that’s the Golden Girl herself; her character’s 89 pushing 90).

Of course, Margaret’s a fish out of water when she arrives in her high-heeled Christian Louboutin shoes in rugged, rustic Alaska (Andrew’s family appears to own an entire island); before long, though, she’s actually in the water, tumbling out of a speed boat in one of a series of humbling comeuppances designed to bring her down to earth and, ultimately, to bring her closer to Reynold’s blandly handsome Andrew (Reynolds is married to Scarlett Johannson, so he must have something).

The Proposal - Sandra Bullock’s high-powered publisher Margaret Tate gets brought down to earth in this romantic comedy

There you have it – all the features you’d expect of the particular breed of romantic comedy in which the leading couple start off hating each other, spend several reels squabbling, and end up falling in love.  Just think of any number of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy films or Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally…

Compared with those classics, The Proposal is a pretty feeble offering – not that that has stopped it topping the US box office. Yes, it’s good to see Bullock showing off her great comic timing and flair for goofy pratfalls, and good to see her showing off a remarkably buff body in a scene that finds her completely naked save for a strategically placed loofah. Yet the movie is so formulaic that you’ll need a pretty high tolerance level for rom-com foolery for The Proposal to be to your taste. Those allergic to duck should look elsewhere.

On general release from 22 July.


To activate the sound in the trailer: hold your cursor over the screen to reveal the control panel and click on the volume control in the bottom right-hand corner.