“The money’s getting to be out of control now… sometimes, the more money you have, the more blues you can sing,” Jimi Hendrix told Dick Cavett on national TV. Thirty years later, the Notorious B.I.G. was a little more succinct: “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” We all like to imagine that our problems would be over if we could just get a big check to cover expenses, but it’s not that easy — at least, not in the movies.

This past week Leonardo Dicaprio took on the iconic role of Jay Gatsby, haunted, self-made millionaire in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, pining after a lost love he can never get back. There’s something satisfying about watching the rich have a hard time, and there is no shortage of great movies to prove that point, just a click away on Blockbuster On Demand!

Brewster’s Millions

One of Richard Pryor’s best comedies has him as a penniless minor-league pitcher who learns he’s inherited $300 million from a long-lost uncle, on one condition: he has to squander $30 million and leave nothing to show for it. An inventive look at how the rich get rich without even trying, featuring John Candy as Pryor’s best friend.

Clueless

Alicia Silverstone plays a richer-than-rich girl who spars with her socially conscious ex-stepbrother (Paul Rudd) at home and reigns supreme at school, taking pity on an uncool classmate (Brittany Murphy) with a free makeover and playing matchmaker. Before long her puppet-mastery starts to backfire and she has to reassess. A cult classic.

Indecent Proposal

“I’ll give you one million dollars for a night with your wife,” super-rich Robert Redford offers struggling architect Woody Harrelson, and one of the most talked-about movies of the ’90s is underway. What is it about happily married Demi Moore that prompts this offer? Should they take it? If they do, then what? Directed by Adrian Lyne, the master of upperclass ennui (Unfaithful, Fatal Attraction).

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Matt Damon showed the world that he was for real with his performance as a chameleonic con man slithering his way into the jet set, specifically shipping heir Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) and his girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). Beautifully shot in Italy and set in the late ’50s for extra flavor.

Arthur

Whether you prefer the 1981 original or the 2011 remake (we’re partial to the original), the story is pretty much the same: a spoiled-rotten playboy (Dudley Moore or Russell Brand) who spends more time drunk than sober meets a delightful, less fortunate young lady (Liza Minnelli or Greta Gerwig), complicating his upcoming arranged marriage. The remake is not terrible, but the original is really charming, particularly the scenes between Dudley Moore and John Gielgud as his butler.

Roman Holiday

The world fell in love with Audrey Hepburn in this light romantic comedy about a princess, isolated from the outside world by her royal handlers, who slips security to take in the sights of Rome on her own, where she meets a journalist (Gregory Peck) who becomes her tour guide. Hepburn is absolutely adorable in the role.

Arbitrage

Kajillionaire investment banker Richard Gere is about to sell his company for hundreds of millions, but he has a couple of problems: one, he accidentally crashed his car and killed his mistress, and two, a past deal has gone south and he’s way overleveraged. A tight, tense thriller with great supporting turns by Susan Sarandon and Brit Marling.

The Game

What kind of gift do you get the man who has everything? For his birthday, super-rich Michael Douglas gets an unusual gift from his brother (Sean Penn): a totally immersive ‘game’ played all over the city, pushing Douglas to defend his wealth and get to the bottom of what’s happening. David Fincher lends his characteristic dread, dark directing style.

The Great Gatsby (1974)

The last time Hollywood took on the original Great American Novel, Robert Redford played the title role and Mia Farrow was the object of his quixotic desire. This was an unusually expensive production for the time, and it shows on the screen. The script was written by Francis Ford Coppola and Truman Capote, and is faithful to the book in skewering the strange world of the idle rich.

The post More Money, More Problems – Movies that prove money can’t buy happiness. appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

Whatever his troubles may have been in real life, nobody ever doubted that RDJ was a massive talent, as a review of his filmography proves. All the titles below are a click away on Blockbuster On Demand!

Weird Science

A couple of nerds (Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith) use their computer to create their own woman (Kelly Lebrock) in one of the sillier John Hughes ’80s teen flicks — Downey plays one of the cool kids that torments the heroes but changes his tune when he gets a look at their science project.

Back To School

Another supporting role, here as the too-hip-for-comfort best friend to Rodney Dangerfield’s college freshman son, whose life is made uncomfortable when Rodney decides to join them on campus. As in Weird Science, Downey makes an impression, even in a small part.

Natural Born Killers

In Oliver Stone’s prescient satire of the American fascination with violence in the media, Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis supply the violence as a pair of murderous lovers, while Downey stands in for the media as a sleazy tabloid-news host who gets a little too close to the story.

Soapdish

This severely underrated ensemble comedy, set behind the scenes at a daytime soap opera, features Downey as a slimy network executive whose every decision is influenced by sexual favors, along with Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Whoopi Goldberg, Teri Hatcher, Cathy Moriarty, Carrie Fisher, and Elisabeth Shue.

Chaplin

Downey got one of his two Academy Award nominations in the role of the first film superstar, Charlie Chaplin, in Richard Attenborough’s 1992 biopic spanning the silent-film comic’s entire career.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

After a long dance on the dark side that made him uninsurable and thus unemployable, rock-star screenwriter took a chance on Downey to take the lead in his first feature as director, a small L.A. potboiler with a debt to the classic film noir of the ’40s but both feet planted firmly in the 21st century. Downey is hilarious in the role, and it saved his career, paving the way for a certain billionaire industrialist playboy also known as…

Iron Man

When director Jon Favreau first suggested RDJ for the role of Tony Stark, Marvel was unambiguous: “under absolutely no circumstances will be he considered.” Somehow Downey and Favreau won them over, and four films (and counting) later, it’s tough to imagine what Marvel will do if (when?) Downey leaves the franchise. In any case, he proves here that Stark is the role he was born to play, funny and smart and wounded all at once, tied together with Downey’s trademark motormouth charm.

Zodiac

David Fincher’s meditation on obsession traces the investigation of the Zodiac murders of the late ’60s and early ’70s, both by the police and the media. Downey plays a flamboyant San Francisco Chronicle reporter trying to solve the crimes who eventually gets rattled when the killer sends him a threatening letter. Downey’s scenes with Jake Gyllenhaal, the film’s main character, are some of the best in the movie. Aqua Velvas, anyone?

Sherlock Holmes

Having launched one multi-billion dollar franchise, Downey teamed up with British crime comedy director Guy Ritchie to launch another: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s erstwhile 19th-century freelance detective. Ritchie’s take emphasizes action and eschews the deerstalker hat, and Downey’s restless intelligence (and mouth) proves well-suited to the role.

Tropic Thunder

Now here’s an acting stretch: an American actor playing an Australian actor playing an African-American soldier in a Vietnam movie. Downey somehow makes that bizarro premise work in hilarious fashion, along with strong turns by Ben Stiller (as a washed-up action star) and Jack Black (as a junkie comedian) in Stiller’s excellent takedown of Hollywood self-importance.

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Superhero films are big business these days and are seemingly now a staple of the summer movie lineup, so this week we want to take a look at some of our favorite superhero films and more importantly, why they were important to the genre.

X-Men

Let’s be honest here, the original X-Men film really wasn’t all that great as far as storylines go.  It was primarily carried by special effects and the wonder of seeing some of our favorite superheroes finally portrayed well in a live-action film.  But back in 2000, X-Men kicked off the current superhero movie craze because it had crisp writing and acting and showed that movie special effects had finally gotten to the point where they could make super powers look good.

While there had been successful superhero films before like the Superman films of the 80s and the Batman films of the 90s, they were a bit campy and not really produced by comic book lovers for comic book fan boys.  X-Men proved that superhero films could be big hits that dropped the campiness and appealed to mass audiences, paving the way for 13 more years (and counting) of nerd-driven films.

X-2: X-Men United

When X-2 came out in 2003, it gave superhero films a precedent that would be last for at least a decade: it gave us a superhero sequel that was leagues better than the original, basically improving on every aspect of the first film.  Now, every superhero film, regardless of how much money it makes, plans on continuing the story with a sequel in not many sequels.  Most films actually end with bonus scenes that hint at what comes in the next film.  Also, while X-Men: First Class was incredibly enjoyable, we still think X-2 is the flagship X-Men storyline and film of the series so far.  No X movie has weaved it characters and comic book roots together in one great film quite like X-2 did.

And this is still one of the greatest opening scenes of any superhero movie ever.

Iron Man

After the success of the X-Men and Spider-Man films, superhero movies started to draw some bigger names to star in them.  The shining example of this is Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr.  Downey Jr. showed us that we could have just as much fun watching a superhero when he’s out of his costume as we did when he was all suited up.

Additionally, Iron Man proved that when done properly, even heroes that were not as well-known outside of the comic book community could be a huge success.  Put another way, without the foundation and success of Iron Man, we never would have gotten The Avengers film.

Spider-Man 2

For the record, Spider-Man 2 is a fantastic film!  It took a popular storyline familiar to comic book fans and translated it perfectly for the mass audience to create a great film.  It also did a wonderful job of incorporating some of Spider-Man’s trademark quips and witty dialogue, truly bringing the wall-crawler from panel to screen.

Additionally, Spider-Man 2 took superhero movie villains to the next level.  Alfred Molina was perfectly cast as the diabolical Doc Ock and the special effects showed movie-goers that we could see just about any villain out there make the jump to the silver screen without giving him a major makeover like the Green Goblin had to do with his green jumpsuit and mask from the first Spider-Man film.

Spider-Man 2 is so good, if we try real hard to just focus on that, then we might forget this ever happened:

Marvel’s The Avengers

This past summer, Marvel’s The Avengers took the entire planet by storm, shattering box office records worldwide.  Now, by 2012, we already knew that superhero movies could make bookoo bucks, but Marvel took the biggest collection of heroes since the X-Men and pitted them against a relatively unknown villain (traditionally, bad villains mean bad movies) and made the whole film feel like you were watching a comic book.  This felt different than previous superhero films because in those, it felt like the characters were pulled from the comics and translated to a movie format, but The Avengers pacing, scenes, dialogue, and action felt like you were watching a live-action comic and it was awesome!

The comedic timing on this was ripped straight from comic panels.

The Dark Knight

I think by now everyone knows that The Dark Knight was amazing.  But do you remember what you thought when you first saw it? Sure, we had already seen Batman Begins, but Christopher Nolan’s take on Batman was so unique, because it started to make us think that it might be possible for a superhero like Batman to really, truly exist in our world. No other superhero movie has done that.  It was dark and gritty, but in many ways it felt realistic.  No one had superpowers, just a lot of money and resources. What if there really was an insane criminal mastermind clown out there?

Speaking of which, Heath Ledger was absolutely captivating as the Joker.  Every scene he was in, he stole the show and viewers couldn’t take their eyes off him.  He is the only person to win an Academy Award for a role in a superhero film.  His performance alone could set this film apart as the most memorable

Just when you thought he was caught and the movie was winding down…

The post Greatest Superhero Movies and Why They’re Important to the Genre appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

by Alex Castle

This week the artist formerly known as Marky Mark goes big, in several senses of the word, as a bodybuilding bank robber in Michael Bay’s action comedy Pain & Gain, opposite the artist formerly known as The Rock. Admittedly, Marky’s career has not been 100%, ahem, “Good Vibrations,” but considering he started out as a one hit wonder-slash-underwear model, his batting average is better than it has any right to be — as the Mark Wahlberg section on Blockbuster On Demand more than demonstrates. Feel it feel it!

Boogie Nights

The first big movie Wahlberg starred in and still the best: he plays a slightly dim kid from the San Fernando Valley with a big heart and an even bigger package who finds himself in the tail end of porn’s glory years. The visual audacity of Paul Thomas Anderson and a stellar supporting cast of Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, and Burt Reynolds makes this one a modern classic.

The Perfect Storm

Wahlberg, George Clooney, and John C. Reilly play the crew on a swordfishing boat that takes a couple of wrong turns and makes a couple of bad decisions to wind up between two storms and a hurricane. If you ever wondered what it’s like to die in a freak accident at sea, this movie more than delivers.

Rock Star

Based on the true story of how Judas Priest replaced their lead singer, this movie has Wahlberg as the frontman of a Steel Dragon tribute band who ends up onstage and on tour with his heroes, with all the sex, drugs and rock n’ roll that entails — though it’s largely kept offscreen to keep our hero sympathetic. Jennifer Aniston costars as his faithful girlfriend.

The Italian Job

There are not many pleasures better than a good old-fashioned heist film, and this one is better than most: Walhberg joins Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, Seth Green and Edward Norton on Donald Sutherland’s team for, say it with me, one last job. Great action setpieces, and the car chase with the Mini Coopers is awesome.

The Departed

Martin Scorsese finally won a Best Director Oscar in 2007 for his Boston crime story about an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) embedded with the Irish Mob and a Mob kid (Matt Damon) rising through the Massachussetts State Police. Wahlberg plays “Angry Masshole Cop” to a T.

Date Night

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are the main attraction here, as a bored married couple that gets into some classic mistaken identity intrigue, and the movie is a lot more fun than the posters made it look — in part because Mark Wahlberg’s cameo as a security expert who never wears a shirt is really funny.

Planet Of The Apes

Taking the lead from Charlton Heston in Tim Burton’s remake of the 1968 sci-fi classic, Wahlberg plays an astronaut crash-landed on a planet where speak, use tools, ride horses, and enslave human beings.

Ted

It’s only in the second decade of his film career that Wahlberg has ventured into comedy, and after a couple of solid cameos in other people’s movies, here he takes the lead in Seth Macfarlane’s raunchy story of a man and his walking, talking teddy bear.

The post Closeup: Mark Wahlberg appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

It’s kind of weird — there’s nobody in Hollywood that attracts as much snark and derision as a personality than Tom Cruise, and yet almost all of his movies make money, there are so, so many of them, and more of them are good than bad. Is it his impossible good looks? His religion? His excessive enthusiasm and zest for life? The fact that most of the time he plays super-cocky guys that could stand to be taken down a peg or two? I don’t know, but I do know better than to bet against Oblivion, which opened this past weekend. Need proof? Cue up almost any of his 24 movies available on Blockbuster On Demand, lie back, and enjoy The Cruise.

Risky Business

A straight-A high school student (Cruise) meets an extra sexy young call girl (Rebecca DeMornay), drives his dad’s Porsche into a lake, and turns the family home into a whorehouse while his parents are out of town for the weekend. Princeton could use a guy like Joel!

Top Gun

A super-cocky Navy pilot (you know who) goes to train with the best of the best, breaks all the rules, shares some uncomfortably long stares with Val Kilmer, plays volleyball, and beats the Russkies in a dogfight without starting World War III. All in a day’s work!

Rain Man

A high-end car salesman (who else?) learns he’s been cut out of his estranged father’s will in favor of the severely autistic older brother (Dustin Hoffman) he never knew he had, so he kidnaps him in hopes of getting a cut of the cash. Everyone remembers Hoffman’s performance, but this was Cruise’s first meaty dramatic role, for which he drew (deserved) critical accolades.

Born On The Fourth Of July

Clear-eyed Long Island kid Ron Kovic eagerly enlists in the Marines to fight in Vietnam, but when he comes back paralyzed from the waist down and severely shellshocked, his feelings about the war slowly change until he’s leading protest parades from his wheelchair. Based on a true story and directed by Oliver Stone, this is probably the best piece of Serious Acting in Cruise’s career.

The Firm

Harvard’s top law school graduate takes a job with a small Memphis firm, only to learn that it handles all the Mob’s business and that some dishonest measures have been taken to keep him in the fold. Based on the John Grisham novel, directed by Sydney Pollack, and sporting a stellar supporting cast: Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter, David Strathairn, and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

Magnolia

Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1999 follow-up to Boogie Nights is one of a handful of movies where Cruise has taken a part in the ensemble rather than the lead; here he takes his screen persona to a disturbing extreme as an insanely confident ladies’ man giving self-help seminars.

Eyes Wide Shut

It’s every actor’s dream to work with a director like Stanley Kubrick — until they actually work with Stanley Kubrick. Cruise got to do just that in 1999, starring opposite his then-wife Nicole Kidman as an affuent doctor so unsettled by his wife’s admission of a sexual fantasy he goes out looking for payback in a seamy sexual underworld.

Mission: Impossible III

He’s starred in four movies based on the old ’60s spy show, but for our money the best was the third, helmed by J.J. Abrams (in what would prove to be only the first old property he’d rejuvenate) and co-starring the lovely Michelle Monaghan, with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a better villain than most.

Tropic Thunder

You could be forgiven for not even knowing The Cruise was in this movie: he’s under about 40 pounds of makeup, fat suit, and bald wig, playing Les Grossman, the sleazy studio producer overseeing Tropic Thunder, the ridiculous Vietnam movie-within-the-movie starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. (under quite a bit of makeup himself) and Jack Black. Cruise has almost never done comedy, but he’s pretty funny here.

The post Closeup: Tom Cruise appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

LADYBUGS

First of all, how Rodney Dangerfield didn’t star in more movies, we’ll never know.  First Caddyshack and then Ladybugs! Come on, this guy deserves to do more films.  Anyway, if you haven’t seen this film, Dangerfield plays a business man that is promised a promotion if the girls soccer team that his company sponsors has a winning season. The problem is that they are terrible.  To overcome this deficit, Dangerfield convinces his soccer phenom son (played by Jonathan Brandis) to dress in drag and pose as the new star player of the team to help them make it to the championship.

Why it’s awesome: Because it’s a ridiculous plot that only made sense in the 1990s, and it wasn’t littered with today’s constant questions about a character’s sexuality.  As you might imagine, they get caught and amidst all the hijinks for more hilarity.

THE BIG GREEN

The Big Green is our second soccer-based movie and the first of many about a group of outcast, non-athletic kids banding together to create a championship-contending sports team.

Why it’s awesome: Because it had the redhead kid from The Sandlot as the goalie who always envisioned his opponents as “monsters” that paralyze him with fear. Oh and that opening scene with the Cheetos and the pigeons.

ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in one of his earliest roles alongside Tony Danza, Danny Glover, and Christopher Lloyd in this film about heavenly beings that help the California Angels go from the worst team in baseball to World Series contenders after a young boy prays for help for his father’s favorite baseball team.

Why it’s awesome: Because it was equally funny and emotionally-moving; and it created the Angel cheering motion that is still used at Anaheim Angels games to this day.  As a bonus, it also included early acting appearances of now famous actors such as Matthew McConaughey, Adrien Brody, Dermot Mulroney, and Neal McDonough.

LITTLE GIANTS

Back to the lovable, yet awful-at-sports kids who form a sports team and then go on to play for the championship formula.  Little Giants is by far the best football film about kids.  Rick Moranis stars as Danny O’Shea, who forms a football team of misfits after his talented daughter is cut from the town’s squad because she is a girl.  With some creative coaching and some help from some NFL players, the Little Giants get their chance to show how good they are.

Why it’s awesome: Let me count the ways: 1. Cameo’s by John Madden, Emmitt Smith, Tim Brown, and Bruce Smith. 2. The Annexation of Puerto Rico. 3. The hilarious nerdy kid who put Alka-selzer in his mouth to freak out the other team.

THE MIGHTY DUCKS

The Mighty Ducks was so good that it spawned two sequels (and

Also, arguably Joshua Jackson’s best role.

one of those was actually quite good).  We have the familiar formula of a ragtag group of kids that get coached by a former hockey player to become and extraordinary youth hockey team.  We’re including the whole series here, because who could forget how awesome it was when the Mighty Ducks traveled to the Junior Olympics to play Iceland in the championship, and we’ll let D3 slide because the first two were so good.

Why it’s awesome: This movie single-handedly got my cousins and I’m sure countless other kids into youth hockey.  Also, these films are arguably Emilio Estevez’s best roles.  Finally, to this day, I can’t go to a professional hockey game without making a “knucklepuck” reference.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

What sports kid hasn’t dreamed of somehow getting miraculously picked up to play for his favorite sports team, as a kid?  Well, Henry Rowengartner gets his chance to do just that after a freak accident turns his arm into a cannon and he accidentally shows off his skill at a Chicago Cubs game.

Why it’s awesome: Rookie of the Year had some of the best quotes.

•  “Pitcher’s got a big butt. Pitcher’s got a big butt.” For years, this chant could be heard around little league diamonds.
• “Funky buttloving!”
• “I just figured out why the Cubs lose every year. They’ve got more talent in the stands than they do in the field.”  Sidenote: John Candy was dynamite in this film.
• “Give him the big, STICKY CHEESE!”

THE SANDLOT

For many, The Sandlot is not only the greatest kids baseball movie of all time, but the greatest baseball movie of all time period.  A new kid moves to town and falls in with a group of boys that love playing baseball during the summer, but disaster strikes when they lose his father’s Babe Ruth autographed baseball over a fence with a monster dog.

Why it’s awesome: The Sandlot is an icon of baseball, the 1990s, kids sports movies, and an age of innocence that has some of the most memorable scenes in movies.  Who could forget when Squints jumps into the deep end of the pool just so he can get mouth-to-mouth from Wendy Peffercorn (possibly the greatest movie scene ever).  Or when the boys vomit chewing tobacco at the carnival.  Or all the different ways they try to get back the Babe Ruth autographed ball.

The post Greatest 90s Kids Sports Movies appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

That being said, many actors, even the big movie stars that we know and love, have to pay their dues at some point.  And that might mean being part of crazy, terrible films just because they are paying gigs (feel free to insert a joke here about how Nicolas Cage is still doing this on an annual basis).  Previously, we covered some A-list celebrities that got their film careers started with roles in absurd films, but this time around we want to look at Oscar nominees and winners who did one of these kooky films after they made it big.

If you think this looks terrible… you’re not wrong.

George Clooney – Batman & Robin

Batman & Robin is kind of a strange case because it is the black sheep of an otherwise very successful movie franchise, and in Clooney’s defense, it may have been hard to predict the direction of the film when he signed on.  But it is all too clear now that the public and critics hated Batman & Robin with it’s over the top fight scenes, incessant puns, and terrible dialogue.  We might have to give George a pass here because he probably thought he was continuing the awesome legacy of the cowl, but ended up just being the laughingstock of Dark Knight lovers.

You know it’s pretty bad when Chris O’Donnell, who plays Robin in the film, goes on record saying that he felt like they were making a toy commercial.  The video at the link below is pretty long, but interesting as it explains what they were at least trying to do with the film. http://youtu.be/eTtuS8CbAxw

Jon Voight – Anaconda

Jon Voight is an Oscar-winning actor who delivered amazing performances in Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, and Heat… and then he decided to be in the snake-horror movie, Anaconda.  We’re pretty sure they haven’t made a good horror movie about a killer animal since the original Jaws, but Anaconda sure tried by bringing in big names like Voight, Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Owen Wilson (perhaps they were all brainwashed to be in this).  Despite this starpower, the film was a critical disaster, but a relative box office success (go figure).

Throughout this “horror film” Voight plays the bad guy that is trying to capture the giant snake, endangering pretty much everyone else in this film while they are stuck in the jungles of Paraguay.  Anaconda went on to earn six Razzie nominations, including Worst Picture and Worst Actor for Voight himself.  Clearly, he was just phoning this one in.

Michael Caine – Jaws 4: The Revenge

Speaking of killer animals, were you even aware that there were four Jaws films?  Well, in Hollywood, where there’s money to be made… but 3 sequels?!?  Needless to say, they all got progressively worse.  After a killer shark invades a SeaWorld style park in Jaws 3, the producers decided that to top that disaster, they needed star power and a strong hook.  So what did they do?  They got Michael Caine to be in the film, and they had Police Chief Brody’s widow develop a psychic connection with the latest killer shark that alerts her to when the shark attacks people (I’m not making this up).

Now, Caine had been successfully acting for nearly three decades when this film came out, so we’re not sure why he signed on (they must have thrown a LOT of money at him), but he has gone on record saying that despite being in it, he has never seen the film and yes, he does know that it is terrible.

Ben Kingsley – Bloodrayne

Ben, tell us it ain’t so.  You did a Uwe Boll movie (although I’m hoping Boll isn’t reading this because he has been known to box his critics)?!  And you did it after your amazing performances in Ghandi and Schindler’s List?

Well, in 2005, Kingsley, played a vampire in the video game-based (first clue it wouldn’t be good) film, Bloodrayne, about a half-human, half-vampire woman that must stop the vampire king (Kingsley) from taking over the world and annihilating the human race.  When later asked about why he took the role, Kingsley responded, “To be honest, I have always wanted to play a vampire, with the teeth and the long black cape. Let’s say that my motives were somewhat immature for doing it.”

Sean Connery – Zardoz

After more than a decade of commercial acting success and even playing James Bond, Sean Connery donned some red bikini briefs and a 70’s mustache for the lead role of the film Zardoz, a movie about a revolutionary on Earth in the 23^rd century.  Zardoz is insane; the movie trailer alone is completely nuts and the film goes on about a bringing down a corrupt political and religious system in the future that hinges around a giant talking stone head.  It was critically panned and did terribly at the box office, but has since developed some level of cult following as a “so bad it’s good” movie.

This picture is really all that you need to know.

Check out those boots and overalls!

The post Oscar Winners That Did Terrible Films appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

Rejoice, friends, for this week the colors are a little brighter, the food tastes a little better, and the children are laughing a little louder; the awful five-month gray wasteland known as the baseball off-season has come to a merciful end. But why should you limit your enjoyment of the national pastime to every day (and most nights) between now and November? There are tons of baseball movies just a click away on Blockbuster On Demand to help fill in the gaps — here are some of the best:

The Natural

A baseball prodigy so devoted to the game he carves his own bat out of a felled tree, and so good-looking he’s played by Robert Redford, misses out on his prime when he gets shot by Barbara Hershey, but eventually gets a second shot as a 35-year-old rookie. Not the most realistic movie, but still very entertaining, with Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, and Kim Basinger co-starring.

Field Of Dreams

“If you build it, they will come.” Never has a more patently untrue piece of advice made it into the lexicon, as many a failed restaurant owner can attest. But one ghostly whisper into the ear of Iowa corn farmer Kevin Costner leads him to build a full-on baseball diamond in his cornfield, and next thing he knows, ghosts are playing on it. It sounds weird when you write it out like that, but it’s a good flick.

Moneyball

The massaging of a major-league team’s payroll through the use of innovative statistical analysis may seem like pretty thin gruel for a movie, but screenwriters Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian wisely keep the focus on Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and his struggle to get the organization to go along with his plan, and his relationship with his daughter. Far more compelling than it has any right to be.

Major League

The owner of the Cleveland Indians, who won the team from her husband in the divorce, needs ticket sales to fall low enough to justify moving the team to Florida, so she purposely assembles a squad from the Island of Misfit Toys, including washed-up old catcher Tom Berenger, Voodoo priest Dennis Haysbert, undrafted prospect Wesley Snipes, and ex-convict relief pitcher Charlie Sheen.

The Bad News Bears

Nearly every aspect in which society has changed in the ’70s can be seen in this movie, which has Walter Matthau drinking beers and tooling around in an old convertible Cadillac before he gets roped into coaching a little-league team, which in no way slows down his drinking, driving, or verbal abuse of the kids. They remade this movie with Billy Bob Thornton but even Bad Santa himself can’t top ’70s Matthau.

A League of Their Own

When all the baseball players get drafted to fight in World War II, the nation’s insatiable thirst for baseball is satisfied by an all-women’s league, with Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell, and Madonna on the field and Tom Hanks, as a boozy, washed up manager, in the dugout.

Eight Men Out

The true story of the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal, in which the eight members of the Chicago White Sox, considered at the time to be the best team in the game, were caught throwing games and allowing the Cincinnati Reds to win the World Series, is dramatized by the likes of John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, and a cast of “that guy”s cast specifically for their skills on the diamond.

The Babe

John Goodman plays the most famous baseball player of all time, Babe Ruth, and all the famous hallmarks of his career — the Called Shot, the trade from the Red Sox to the Yankees, the drinking, the whoring, and the ending his career with three home runs in one game.

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It is in this vein that our friends over at EW.com are in the midst of an Internet poll battle to determine the most beloved TV couples of all time. They’ve done their homework, with a March Madness-styled bracket that includes 64 famous TV couples, and voting is open to all.

That being said, there are a few that didn’t make the final cut. It might not be fair to call them “glaring omissions,” but it’s safe to say they qualify at least as “honorable mentions.” Here’s what we’re talking about:

Bull and Joy
Night Court

Bull Shannon learns that love truly is blind. Really, really blind.

What, you expected Judge Stone and Christine Sullivan? Sure, their romance arc bridged several season, whereas Bull and his blind girlfriend Joy’s (Elayne Boosler) relationship spanned two episodes. But what a tale of discovery those two episodes were… Especially where Bull decides wearing a blindfold will help him better empathize with his love interest. Blind jokes were all the rage in the ’80s.

Rudy and Bud
The Cosby Show

One of a long list of “adorable” and “precocious” youngsters on sitcom T.V., Rudy Huxtable was noted for her lispy one-liners and astute observations from a child’s perspective.  And then there was Kenny, her “boyfriend” who played the blues and learned a special brand of chauvinism from his unseen older brother. The best part of their relationship was Rudy’s pet name for him: Bud. Emphasis on the “…ud.”

Rosie and Mac
The Jetsons

Yes, even robots can find love, and Rosie, the Jetson’s maid certainly does, in the form of Mac, the building’s superintendent’s robot. Sure, he’s a complete klutz, and breaks pretty much everything he touches, but Rosie can see past his bucket face and bargain transistors to a heart of pure gold. Theirs is a tale as old as future time. Robot love.

Joanie and Chachi
Happy Days

The ’50s = denim.

Okay, we’re gonna have to toss the flag on this one. This one IS a glaring omission; so much so that there was a complete spinoff show dedicated to this romance. If an alien culture’s entire understanding of Earth was formed based on Happy Days, we could understand that they would be startled to meet a black person, or find Asians who aren’t short order cooks… but they would know what love is. Because Joanie and Cha-Chi TOLD them.  And also: red bandanas tied around your knee.

Mallory and Nick
Family Ties

One of the best sitcoms in history, Family Ties centered around a surprisingly liberal-minded set of parents raising their unique children – one an airheaded fashion-loving teenager named Mallory. Then, along came “artist” Nick, a monosyllabic knucklehead with a kind heart and a motorcycle. Their love endured through the rest of the run of the series, teaching us that love is not only blind… but dumb as a post.

The post Some Great TV Love Stories appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

Full Metal Jacket

Matthew Modine as Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.”

There was a time when Vietnam-era TV shows were all the rage… the 1980s. But the war kind of fell out of vogue in the ’90s as terrorism became more prevalent in Western media. It’s been long enough now for Vietnam to land in “vintage” status, and the characters in FMJ were painted with tight, detailed strokes. Joker’s continued search for reason and truth in the Mekong Delta is worth a deeper look.

The Sting
Considering the popularity of the period HBO drama Boardwalk Empire, it’s evident T.V. audiences are thirsty for more prohibition-era moonshine. The levity and wit the pairing of Paul Newman and Robert Redford brought to this cons-and-capers jaunt provide a buoyant counter balance to the heavy themes and bloody body count of Boardwalk Empire.

Heat
Speaking of crime drama, remember this one? The scene in the diner between Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino? One of the most blood-pressure-cooking gunfights ever filmed? The team DeNiro put together was efficient, ruthless and smart, and their picture-perfect planning made for some riveting arcs. Stretch this out into the criminal perspective with a gritty Southland feel, and you’ve got an Emmy juggernaut.

True Grit
It’s been a while since a good Western got its legs under it on the small screen, and Rooster Cogburn’s salty character is a perfect pitchman for this one. Both John Wayne and Jeff Bridges’ takes were magnificent, and that’s largely due to the fact that there were some meaty depths to plumb in Cogburn’s back story. He’s the kind of chaotic lawful protagonist contemporary audiences can root for; under all his dusty grime beats a moral compass with a strong true north.

The Terminator
That the Sarah Connor Chronicles didn’t make it longer was a travesty. It was a great cast and sharp writing that captured the in-between years before John Connor became the only hope for the future, but that doesn’t mean we should just abandon the concept. Instead, this time focus on the moments after D-Day, and Connor’s rise through the ranks of the resistance. It’s got all the post-apocalyptic overtones we’ve come to salivate over, thanks to America’s current zombie fixation. Except, instead of zombies, it’s robots.

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