In his latest movie, The Woman In Black, Dan traded his Hogwarts uniform for a totally new role as a Dad.
Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
He’s only directed three other movies, yet five minutes into Australia I could already tell I was watching a Baz Luhrmann film. It wasn’t just the old-time opening, or the grainy-yet-computerized globe-trotting animation detailing Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman)’s journey from Britain to Australia (though that certainly helped), it was the film’s aggressively old-fashioned atmosphere, combined with a complete lack of cynicism on the director’s part. Formula rules in studio movies, but it’s a knowing, calculated formula, created by executives who don’t believe in it to hoodwink the masses who do. Like Moulin Rouge before it, Australia is most groundbreaking in its creator’s sincerity.
Pity it’s not a better movie.
It starts off well, justifying the reason for its existence by mentioning something about the Australian government’s policy during WWII to kidnap half-white/half-aboriginal boys and take them away to be trained for service – and to have the “black” stripped from them. These kids, according to the movie, became known as “the lost generation,” and the government didn’t issue a formal apology for them until this year. Australia is narrated by one of these lost boys, a “half-breed” known as Nullah, played by newcomer Brandon Walters. It quickly becomes clear, however, that Nullah’s place in history is just a backdrop for the old-fashioned romance he witnesses between Lady Ashley and Drover, a cattle driver played by Hugh Jackman.
This Western romance, which takes up the movie’s first act, is gorgeous and entertaining, as Luhrmann makes liberal use of both the Australian outback and his effective leads to bring us scenes that are by turns touching, thrilling, and funny. Lady Ashley and Drover (with Nullah’s help, of course) lead a cattle drive across the desert while contending with a group of wranglers led by Lady Ashley’s former rancher (played by David Wenham). I’d heard complaints the movie feels too long, but my impression with this first act was it wasn’t long enough – most glaringly we hear multiple stories about the treacherous “Never Never,” and apparently Nullah and co. trek through it, but we never actually see it.
Then their trek comes to a successful close (was there ever any doubt?) and the second act begins.
The problem is this second act, the brooding, romantic war epic promised by the trailers, feels completely separate from the first. And since I already felt like I had seen a complete film, it would have needed a new setup to engage me. As is, it never gained its footing. The second act isn’t a total loss, since Kidman, Jackman, and Walters’ characters remain engaging, and Wenham makes an especially good nasty-yet-sympathetic villain, but instead of being pulled along like I was in the first act, I felt disconnected, and was simply watching it lumber from one plot point to the next with Luhrmann’s characteristic quickness. Perhaps audiences will disagree with me; I hope they do. Personally I was left to think about (and shudder at) what was ideologically wrong with the movie.
You didn’t think I’d finish this review without mentioning something, did you? The film pretends to be about something, but really isn’t. It elevates a beautiful white woman to sainthood for realizing how unfortunate the circumstances around her are, but never leaves any doubt that she is above them, nor does it address the underlying reasons. It pays the social consequences Nullah would have faced being a half-breed lip service without depicting them. It presents another character as an adult mirror to Nullah – half-black, half-white, when in reality he isn’t, nor could he look, less black. No less than three aboriginal characters are reverently presented as magic negroes, including one who heroically sacrifices himself. You really want to depict a lesson being learned? Have the sexist, racist white Russian sacrifice himself.
…And yet this is a Baz Luhrmann film. It was clearly directed by someone who cared about his audience and wanted to entertain. It looks like something that required nine months of shooting. As I’ve said before, better a movie that aims high and misses than a movie which aims low and hits. I would not have regretted spending $11 to see it. We deserve a market for intelligent filmmaking like this, so here’s hoping it does well.
I just can’t help wishing Australia had been a better movie.
