In Contention

Tag: Megan Fox

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Wonder toys

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    As it turns out, Armond White was unable to convince most Americans to not see “Toy Story 3.” Pixar’s eleventh animated feature became their highest debuting in history with a $109.0 million weekend. That also makes it the third biggest June debut and third biggest animated debut of all time, while instantly placing it in pole position to wind up the most successful film of the summer.

    Maybe it was the 3D, maybe it was the weak market, or maybe it was nostalgia for Jim Varney but the film was able to one up the $89.8 million debut of “Toy Story 2,” although its $27,100 per theater average is virtually identical to the figure posted by its predecessor. Reviews amongst those who don’t receive weekly death threats are universally positive and this should have the staying power to flirt with $400 million by the end of its run.

    Are we looking at the second threequel to get a Best Picture nomination and the first without similar recognition for the previous installments? In a word, yes.

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  • One more round

    Megan Fox may be an airhead and Shia LaBeouf may be a lightweight, but when it comes to speaking the truth, they deserve credit for having far more bracing honesty than most of the suck-ups who rule the business. Only in Hollywood is calling a lousy movie a lousy movie considered an act of sedition.

    From Patrick Goldstein’s most recent Big Picture post.

  • Megan Fox: “I don’t want to live that character.”

    Megan FoxAs someone who is neither a fan nor a detractor of Megan Fox, Lynn Hirschberg’s mammoth profile of the actress in yesterday’s New York Times made for fascinating, and rather upsetting, reading.

    Less a straightforward interview than a scientific deconstruction of her star persona, the picture it paints is of a savvy career woman who has invested so much time and effort in building her public image that her own personality has been obscured — even to herself.

    I have no real opinion of Fox as an actress, as we haven’t been given enough to judge her on: she is precisely as good (or bad, according to taste) as her roles demand in “Transformers” or “Jennifer’s Body.” Physically, she’s obviously attractive, but not sparky or distinctive enough to interest me personally.

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  • 9/30 Oscarweb Round-up

    George Clooney in The Men Who Stare at Goats• Roger Ebert talks “Capitalism: A Love Story” with Michael Moore. [Chicago Sun-Times]

    • Noah Forrest stands up for Megan Fox against a weird culture of hatred toward the actress. [Movie City News]

    • George Clooney vs. George Clooney at the November box office. [Vulture]

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 3 — ‘A Serious Man,’ business in Toronto and unacquired hopefuls

    Oscar TalkThe third installment of Oscar Talk lands as Toronto winds down and, seemingly, the season’s biggest questions are being answered. Or are they?

    I’m joined by Anne Thompson of indieWIRE as always and we discussed the following:

    • The Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man,” Anne’s thoughts, my thoughts, the Coens doing Woody, etc.

    • The first sell of Toronto, “A Single Man” (not to be confused with “A Serious Man”), and the Oscar prospects of Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

    • Business at the fest and a shifting acquisition paradigm in the industry.

    • Anne gives her thoughts on Annette Bening and Samuel L. Jackson in Rodrigo Garcia’s “Mother and Child,” great performances, but will it be picked up?

    • Robert Duvall’s Oscar-worthy work in “Get Low,” a film that has yet to be picked up when it’s the sort of film that may have ignited a bidding war in years past.

    • Thoughts on other films that bowed at Toronto, including “Capitalism: A Love Story,” “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and “Jennifer’s Body” (leading to a conversation about Megan Fox’s talents that will put each of us out on a limb).

    • Anne loved Edward Norton in Tim Blake Nelson’s “Leaves of Grass” but found the film on the whole to be a missed opportunity.

    But nothing seems to be decided even with a bulk of the season’s offerings having been screened in Venice, Telluride and Venice. Onward!

    As always you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here.  (If you have some audio issues with the levels, my apologies — with Anne in Toronto and me in North Carolina, we had some technical difficulties.)

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  • Jennifer’s Basterds

    What’s with all the poster action today? I can’t keep up. Anyway, in the interests of efficiency, I’ve paired up the new one-sheets for “Jennifer’s Body” and “Inglourious Basterds” (yes, another one) for your viewing pleasure. Why not? After all, they’re both advertising blood-spattered comedies from smart-aleck Oscar-winning writers, and they both seem destined to grace a lot of teenage boys’ walls, albeit for fairly different reasons.

    Jennifer's BodyInglourious Basterds

    [Source: Bloody Disgusting and Screen Rant]

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  • ‘Jennifer’s Body’ red-band trailer

    As someone who believes “Juno” largely succeeded despite its multi-garlanded screenplay, rather than because of it, I can’t say I’ve been looking forward to Diablo Cody’s follow-up with great anticipation. (Evidently hot soundtrack notwithstanding.) Still, while this cheerfully tacky trailer for “Jennifer’s Body” does little to change my mind in that regard, I do credit Cody for playfully running as far from Oscarland as she could with this effort — a canny way to keep the industry pressure at bay.

    To any Karyn Kusama fans waiting for another “Girlfight” … keep waiting. To any Megan Fox fans waiting for cleavage shots … voilà.

  • Megan Fox at Tokyo ‘Transformers’ premiere

    Sorry for the testosterone overload on this admittedly pointless post, but I just…I…

    Megan Fox at the Tokyo premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

  • First look at Josh Brolin as ‘Jonah Hex’

    You probably know we’ve been following the upcoming adaptation of DC Comics’ “Jonah Hex” pretty closely around these parts.  It’s the intersection of westerns and comic books.  How could I not be all over that?  Then again, despite having each of the 40-some issues of the recently re-booted “Jonah Hex” comics series, I’ve only read one or two.  Maybe I should dig into those things.

    Anyway, courtesy of I’m Not Obsessed today (via Cinematical), on the heels of some ooh-la-la shots of Megan Fox that landed a few weeks ago, we finally have our first look at Josh Brolin as the title character.  Check it out (one more image after the jump):

    Josh Brolin in Jonah Hex

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  • Megan Fox in ‘Jonah Hex’

    I’ll leave it to the readership to answer the question, lest I seem like some kind of ass (too late).  But is it okay for one site to take another site’s exclusive pics and slap a watermark on them?  Anyway, Megan Fox is looking great in these new pics from the set of “Jonah Hex,” a project that has my fingers crossed:

    Megan Fox on the set of Jonah Hex

    Check out the rest at Movie Gab.