Tag: Cameron Diaz

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Cameron Diaz Coming Out Of Retirement To Star In Action-Comedy With Jamie Foxx

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Back in 2018, Cameron Diaz shocked the world by announcing she would be taking a step back from Hollywood. She didn’t exactly come out and say, “I’ll NEVER star in another movie ever again” but she made it clear that acting was no longer on her to-do list.

But just four years later, Diaz is coming out of retirement to star in an upcoming action-comedy film with her friend Jamie Foxx.

It’s a reunion of sorts. Foxx and Diaz worked together on the 1999 film Any Given Sunday and the 2014 ‘Annie‘ remake, which just so happens to be Diaz’ last feature film role.

Foxx shared the news on his Twitter account, even sharing an audio clip from the phone call with Diaz, when the deal was made official.

The movie is already set up with Netflix, and as Foxx mentioned above, filming is expected to begin later this year, which means a release date in 2023 is likely.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but once some information is leaked, we will share it with you.

According to the reports, Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) is directing the movie. He co-wrote the script with Brendan O’Brien.

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Movie Review: Annie (2014) – An auto-tuned, outdated remake.

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Right in time for the holidays, Columbia pictures released the heartwarming story of a single man who adopts a young orphan girl, with little to no government oversight, simply because he’s rich.

Wait, is that seriously the plot to Annie? Wow, that’s just wrong.

In this modernized rendition, Quvenzhané Wallis stars as Annie, a young, tough as nails orphan who was abandoned by her parents, with a promise they’d be back for her someday. Of course, they cared so much that they dumped her off with an incredibly cruel foster mom, Mrs. Hannigan, played by an evil Cameron Diaz. Then, she gets pulled from that life when Will Staxx (Jamie Fox) a wealthy New Yorker and mayoral candidate does the rent-a-orphan thing as a campaign ploy.

I’m going to say it. Annie is from a time when the world was a bit more innocent and people didn’t go on sex tours of Thailand. So regardless of how handsome or rich, there’s just something about a single man adopting a little girl that bothers me. I know it’s wrong and I know my mind is in the gutter, but the original movie had its roots in depression era America. Child sex trafficking was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. Today, that’s no longer the case.

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I have to say that I like the understated acting in this movie. In the past, Annie tended to be a bit too over the top and made of so much sugar, she could give you cavities. Quvenzhané Wallis had the ability to give enough edge to the roll to not make Annie unbearably sweet this time. Her singing was a bit more low key as well and anyone could tell they auto tuned the crap out of her performance of “Tomorrow”. But it was her acting, and her ability to play the role with grace that really did it for me.

But that’s all it did because the rest of the movie was just plain Bad, and that is with a capital B. Jamie Foxx has all the range of a stationary bicycle and Cameron Diaz seemed to think she was on a Saturday night live skit, with her completely unfunny comedic overacting. It was like Diaz was afraid to be mean to children, which is ridiculous because she rocked that role in Bad Teacher.

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But it was Foxx who really chewed the scenery with his ‘overacting by under acting’ rendition of Daddy Warbucks. Honestly, if I had the choice of being an orphan or living with the robotic Foxx, I’d pack my bags for the orphanage. I don’t think his facial expression changed once during the film.

Finally, who told the lead character that the ideal way to gain votes would be for a single man to adopt a small girl? Was it the same person who wrote the script?

Let be honest. The original Annie wasn’t that convincing, the acting was over the top and the characters were caricatures. But it had some catchy tunes. The first time I heard “Tomorrow” I knew that I’d be forced to listen a rendition from every single little girl with musical aspirations until the end of time. But this movie is missing what the original Annie had; music that is a virtual earworm.

WE GAVE IT : 3 STARS!  Watch the Official Trailer and See the Official Movie Poster below

stars

 

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Movie Review: Sex Tape (2014) – A disappointing effort from two stars that I usually like

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As a fan of both Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel, I was thrilled to see they were starring in a movie together. But unfortunately, the lack of chemistry really caused this one to fall flat.

The premise is this. Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) are couple that has fallen into the boredom that most married couples face after ten years of marriage. To try to spice things up, they decide to make a video of themselves getting it on. Of course, the video is lost and then they have a wild night of trying to get that video back before they become as famous as Kim Kardashian.

The premise is cute. I’ll give them that. But a great premise does not a great movie make.

Diaz and Segel lack the chemistry to play a couple. It’s weird, apart both of the stars are incredibly likable and enjoyable. Together, they’re just not believable as a couple. I don’t know why I didn’t buy it. They both played their parts reasonably well, with the confidence of knowing they’re two popular stars that would have a hard time pissing off their fans. But together, they just don’t work for me.

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Also, I wasn’t buying how the sex tape got out in the first place. Apparently, Jay has an endless supply of iPads that he hands out like confetti? The makers of this movie are aware that those things are pretty damn expensive, right?

The antics aren’t fun. They’re just exhausting. After an hour of watching the two slapstick their way around town I really felt like I needed a nap. The antics are nothing new. They have to break into a house and surprise, surprise, the home owner has a German Sheppard. Guess what happens after? If your answer is someone gets chased by a dog but no one gets seriously hurt, you’ve pretty much summed up a comedy trope so overused it feels like they added it in because it was required.

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This was a disappointing effort from two stars that I usually like. The premise is cute, but it’s accomplished in such a weird way that it makes it unbelievable and the movie falls apart from there.

Also, I’m sick of watching Diaz play the bubbly blonde. It was cute when she was in her 20’s, but now, it’s starting to get a bit pathetic. I much prefer her playing bad assed types, like in Bad Teacher.

As far as romantic comedies go, some married couples might relate to this duo, looking to spice things up after 10 years of marriage, but then the movie goes too over the top. A three hour sex tape, really? Handing out iPads so people can have your play list? A mommy blogger who is worried about her big fat blog paychecks if the sex tape gets out? I don’t know that many bloggers making that much money, I mean, it’s 2014 not 1998. Blogs are a dime a dozen.

It feels like someone came up with a really cute idea, and then just phoned in the plot line because they couldn’t be bothered to make it plausible. It feels like they rested the responsibility solely at Diaz and Segel’s feet to make the movie likable. The two don’t work as a couple and this movie didn’t work at all.

WE GAVE IT: 2.5 Stars

2.5 Stars

 

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Movie Review: The Counselor (2013)

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3.5 stars

I always feel bad for movies with an all star cast, produced by a legendry filmmaker, based on the work of a Pulitzer Prize winning author. Sounds crazy? Not really if you think about it. When you take an all-star cast and you team it up with an all-star crew, the bar gets raised impossibly high. When it comes to a movie this hyped, Lindsey Lohan stands a better chance of getting a good review than they do. Regardless of what the early critical reviews are saying, I have to say, I didn’t think the Counselor was that bad. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible.

The movie focuses around the Counselor, aka a lawyer played by Michael Fassbender and girlfriend, Laura (Penelope Cruz). Due to the lack of ethics that many lawyers’ seem to be born with, the Counselor winds up getting involved in some drug trafficking scheme and more than a few crazy characters like Reiner (Javier Bardem), Malkina (Cameron Diaz) and Westray (a cowboy hat wearing Brad Pitt). [more…]

The movie has strong dialog and a decent amount of attention grabbing characters. Everyone has a part to play and no one underplays their part. Cormac McCarthy, legendary novelist and Pulitzer winner, didn’t do a bad job of laying out great dialog and fantastic characters. However, his screenplay writing abilities fall a bit short when it comes to managing an often convoluted plot.

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McCarthy seems to have concentrated on the dialog, but fails to explain key elements in the plot. For example, why is the Counselor involved in drug trafficking at all? While he is a man who clearly likes to live beyond his means, it seems odd that he would randomly decide to get sucked into organized crime as a way of paying an overdue Visa bill. Of course, it winds up getting messy and the Counselor tried to get a message to his girlfriend…because this is a parallel universe where cell phones don’t work?

Diaz seems miscast as a bad girl who likes to watch her pet Cheetah’s rip apart bunnies. I’ve seen her playing the ditsy blonde too many times to buy her as a gold digging femme fatale. Brad Pitt’s character seems like an afterthought.

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Usually, movie producers frown on novelists writing their own screenplays. There have been a few exceptions to this, but it seems this is one of those cases where they shouldn’t have made an exception. McCarthy seems so stuck on staying true to the book that he left out key elements in the movie that could have made it a lot clearer. The dialog was fantastic and the action was fast paced.

In most normal cases, this would be an above average action/suspense movie. Here’s the problem. This is a movie coming from the guy who wrote “No Country for Old Men”. This is a movie directed by Ridley Scott. This is a movie where expectations were extremely high. Because of this, it’s hard to not go to the theater with high expectations.

If it weren’t for the star studded cast and crew, this movie would probably be getting at least average reviews. However, this is a movie that had every advantage going in. While worth the watch, if you are a fan of McCarthy, or the filmmaking of Ridly Scott, you will probably be disappointed.

Have you seen The Counselor?  If so Add Your Review and Earn some points!!