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.
Rendition is a powerful film that examines the effects of fear and hatred in a post-9/11 world. Similar conceptually to Babel and Crash, it follows a group of people whose lives intersect in devastating ways after a bomb goes off in the village square of an unnamed African city.
It is immediately engaging when we witness Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-American bio-chemist, nabbed by government agents in an airport. During a terrifyingly real ordeal, Anwar is shuttled to an undisclosed country with a heavy bag over his head, stripped, handcuffed, tortured and kept in a hole. The CIA has (weak) evidence that Anwar has been in contact with the leader of a terrorist group that is claiming responsibility for the bombing. The group’s bombs have become more advanced since Anwar’s alleged contact with them, and it is assumed he used his expertise to aid them. Metwally’s performance has a huge emotional impact, and the tension of whether or not he’ll get back to his pregnant wife (Reese Witherspoon) is intense. Metwally is a fine actor; the look on his face when he parts with agent Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a perfect mix of disgust and gratitude.
The cast is excellent, with veterans like Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin. But their roles as hard-hearted government officials are a little dry. Newcomers Moa Khouas and Zineb Oukach give standout performances, as Oukach is seduced by boyfriend Khouas into joining a terrorist group. Their tragic love story also involves a timeline twist.
The film does itself a disservice with a somewhat contrived idea of keeping the characters generic and stereotypical. For example, Jake Gyllenhaal is a conflicted CIA agent who joined the agency immediately after 9/11. We are never given a particular reason, like if he lost a loved one. He stands for all of the Americans who are still struggling to understand their moral stance in this new reality. The effect disallows much needed character development. There are so many stories and so much technical information to be conveyed that the film does feel like it’s missing something.
Other characters seem to have muted emotion. Witherspoon maintains a very calm, doe-eyed demeanour throughout most of the film. For a character whose husband has been detained by shady people who are doing God-knows-what to him, the portrayal didn’t settle right. While Streep’s cold and unsympathetic CIA executive does provide the little sarcastic comedy that can be found in the film, there is no moment of humanity to round out the character, nor does she receive any gratifying come-uppance. This may have been intentional, however. Peter Saarsgaard’s character is extremely disappointing when he makes a quick switch from being a champion for the El-Ibrahimi family to a coward. And Gyllenhaal’s lover is a completely unnecessary element to the story.
The film is realistic in the way that it ends the story somewhat unsatisfactorily. It is not wrapped up in a pretty little bundle. Just like in real life, the corruption and devastation are nowhere near resolved.
Rendition should be applauded for its intentions. It vehemently reprimands the government for its monstrous activities, and illustrates how sick it is that so much power and political immunity is given to ordinary people with titles. And in violent conflicts, no side comes out clean.
