"Tresspassing" gives glimpses into the true Adam Lambert
(Wed, 16 May 2012 15:55:33 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Well, the upcoming movie adaptation of "Fifty Shades of Grey" has its theme song, if it wants one. "Chokehold," a provocative track from Adam Lambert's second album, sounds tailor-made for the S&M occasion: "Sheets are in a knot... I kinda like the pain... I keep running away from you, but I can't stop breaking the chains." Madam Ana, he's Adam. Lambert may play the submissive in "Chokehold," but through the rest of "Trespassing," he's trying to assert himself in a way that he didn't on his debut album. ...

Review: Willie Nelson's son also rises on "Heroes"
(Tue, 15 May 2012 19:48:58 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Everyone remembers the most galvanizing moment of this year's Grammys - when the telecast cut to commercial and, over a Chipotle ad, we heard a studio recording of Willie Nelson singing Coldplay's "The Scientist." You can relive that very special Grammy moment (minus the environmentally themed animation and Chipotle logo) at the climax of Nelson's new album, "Heroes," a mostly satisfying grab-bag of celebrity duets, nepotism, odes to wacky weed and interpretations of everyone from Bob Wills to Pearl Jam. ...

"Girl in Progress" is mother-daughter appropriate
(Thu, 10 May 2012 16:45:05 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Just in time for Mother's Day, "Girl in Progress" is providing illustrative lessons on how to be the antithesis of an exemplary Mom. The movie's not-so-model single mum eats the last of the cereal and milk before her adolescent daughter comes down for breakfast, is sleeping with a married man and leaves the kid alone overnight while crashing drunk at a new boyfriend's house. She then has the nerve to tell her daughter, "You need to grow up!" In "Girl in Progress," the daughter is trying to do exactly that, way too fast and way too soon for her own good. ...

Book Talk: Memory and re-invention with Allison Winn Scotch
(Thu, 10 May 2012 20:19:03 -0400)
TOKYO (Reuters) - A fear of flying inspired bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch's latest book, centering on a woman who awakes in a hospital with total amnesia, one of two people left alive after a massive plane crash. "The Song Remains the Same" follows Nell Slattery as she tries to piece together her former life even as her nearest and dearest - her husband, mother and sister - all feed her information about who she was in line with their own personal agendas and issues. Scotch spoke with Reuters about her book, identity and who we are without our memories. ...

"Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," a sweet, funny fantasy
(Fri, 04 May 2012 00:30:23 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - From "A Room with a View" to "Enchanted April," it's been a movie truism that British people have to leave Britain if they want to unshackle themselves from their soul-crushing Britishness. And so we have "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," in which a handful of pensioners set off to retire in India, where they learn life lessons, fall in love, and get a second chance at being useful. ...

Review: "A Little Bit of Heaven" is a cutesy, cancerous hell
(Fri, 04 May 2012 00:19:40 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - When "A Little Bit of Heaven" starts unfurling, you can feel the film ticking off the cutesy romantic comedy conventions, one by one: Kate Hudson (check) stars as a free-spirited ad exec (check) who has a gorgeous courtyard apartment (check) in New Orleans, complete with sassy gay neighbor (check) and adorably mush-faced bulldog (check). ...

Review: "The Perfect Family" is far from perfect
(Thu, 03 May 2012 18:27:22 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - As sure as the Pope resides at the Vatican, the Catholic Church won't be organizing busloads of parishioners for fieldtrips to go see "The Perfect Family." That's because this slight satirical comedy has as its center a woman so slavishly devoted to the church that she has worn blinders for years that keep her from seeing that her own family is falling apart. The film's title, "The Perfect Family," is meant to be ironic with a neon yellow highlighter through it. ...

Review: "Smash" soundtrack comes up skimpy
(Wed, 02 May 2012 14:33:00 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - There's an old adage that goes "Leave ‘em wanting more," and although that may not be a specifically Broadway or TV adage, it's been adopted for the "Smash" soundtrack album, which solves the problem of whether to fill the disc up with pop covers or musical-comedy originals by not offering enough of either. Another five-letter S-word would seem to apply: s-k-i-m-p. ...

Review: 'Dark Shadows' retread sucks out the fun
(Thu, 10 May 2012 14:05:48 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - The original idea of a Tim Burton-directed "Dark Shadows" certainly must have seemed like a good one on paper, with the master of mass-market Goth applying his imagination and a Hollywood budget to the infamously on-the-cheap, Dan Curtis-created cult soap opera that ran from 1966 to 1971 on ABC before spawning various film and TV follow-ups. ...

Book Talk: Memory and re-invention with Alison Winn Scotch
(Thu, 10 May 2012 00:09:02 -0400)
TOKYO (Reuters) - A fear of flying inspired bestselling author Alison Winn Scotch's latest book, centering on a woman who awakes in a hospital with total amnesia, one of two people left alive after a massive plane crash. "The Song Remains the Same" follows Nell Slattery as she tries to piece together her former life even as her nearest and dearest - her husband, mother and sister - all feed her information about who she was in line with their own personal agendas and issues. Scotch spoke with Reuters about her book, identity and who we are without our memories. ...

Review: Underwood's "Blown Away" is a breeze
(Tue, 01 May 2012 16:45:13 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It's a good thing that you can't judge a book by its sleeve art, because Carrie Underwood's fourth album, "Blown Away," arrives this week bearing one of the tackiest country music album covers of all time - a ludicrously airbrushed portrait that dares you not to focus on Underwood's gleaming, Angelina-like right gam while the star gazes into the distance like a fembot on a romance-novel jacket. It's a relief to find the music inside is better... sometimes, much better. ...

Review: Harrison's "Early Takes" is beautifully bare
(Tue, 01 May 2012 17:59:18 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Back in 2003, the surviving Beatles authorized the release of "Let It Be... Naked," an album of remixes that stripped away the most outlandish production flourishes producer Phil Spector had added to the original "Let It Be" album in 1970. In a way, the new George Harrison release "Early Takes, Volume 1" does the same thing for the former Beatle's Spector-produced 1970 solo debut, "All Things Must Pass," as, among other selections, it offers up six songs from that landmark effort in completely unvarnished form. ...

Spoofs take steam out of "Fifty Shades of Grey"
(Tue, 01 May 2012 15:07:48 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Spanking, sex and submission are raking in profits for erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey", reinvigorating marriages and sparking anguished debates among feminists, but there has been one unintended result of the novel - laughter. The best-selling book by British writer E.L. James that has taken pop culture by storm also has become ripe for spoofs and parodies, even as Hollywood is agog over who will play the leads in an upcoming movie. ...

"Pirates" mostly gets the booty
(Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:49:34 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Pirates are right up there with vampires, werewolves and people saying "LOL" out loud on the list of Played-Out Pop Culture Phenomena, but leave it to the folks at Aardman Animation to find the remaining reservoirs of fun in a bunch of seafaring scalawags. Whether you're besotted with peglegs or sick to death of skulls and crossbones, there's a good chance you'll find yourself enchanted by "The Pirates! Band of Misfits. ...

Writer worked to make vampires scary again
(Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:12:01 -0400)
TOKYO (Reuters) - What with romance and suave, sensitive characters, vampires weren't scary enough for author David Wellington anymore. So he decided to see if he could bring some terror back to tales about the centuries-old undead creatures. The result was five books starring policewoman Laura Caxton and Justinia Malvern, the ancient vampire she fights, climaxing in the just-released "32 Fangs" - a chilling, sometimes graphic tale of their final, epic battle. ...

Book reveals hidden horror of N.Korean labor camps
(Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:07:19 -0400)
LONDON (Reuters) - "Escape From Camp 14" makes for grim reading. Journalist Blaine Harden's account of a young man's life in and escape from a labor camp in secretive North Korea has drawn parallels with the Soviet gulags and Nazi Holocaust. One big difference is that North Korea's political prison camps, holding an estimated 200,000 people and handing out their own brand of extreme cruelty, are still operating. The story of Shin Dong-hyuk combines a thrilling and unique tale of escape with a harrowing memoir of Camp 14, which lies to the northeast of the capital Pyongyang. ...

"Chimpanzee" presents sanitized jungle
(Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:23:28 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Chimpanzees eat monkeys. That's one of the big takeaways from "Chimpanzee," the latest in the DisneyNature series of documentaries. We don't get to see this happen in a way that would jeopardize the movie's G rating, of course, but between description (by narrator Tim Allen) and implication, we get the general idea. And while that's certainly educational — it's the first thing that's going to come to my mind next time I need to distinguish between the two animals — the movie's coyness about portraying that fact of life pinpoints the general problem with "Chimpanzee. ...

Review: "Think Like a Man" an infomercial that clicks
(Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:37:08 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Were you aware that comedian and radio personality Steve Harvey had written a self-help book for women entitled "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man"? By the end of the new movie "Think Like a Man," you will have no doubt in your mind that Steve Harvey has written a book entitled "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man." Mainly because the characters in the movie keep talking about Steve Harvey and his book, "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man." And even Steve Harvey pops up periodically to discuss his book, "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. ...

Review: sheer adrenaline keeps "Battleship" afloat
(Thu, 17 May 2012 18:46:58 -0400)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - As a defender of the 1985 comedy "Clue," I can't automatically reject the idea of basing a feature film on a board game. But the game Clue comes with characters and a plot and a house. Battleship comes with a grid and boats and pegs. All those things turn up in "Battleship," a big, loud, stupid Hollywood movie that winds up looking all the better by virtue of not being as elephantine and deafening and moronic as a Michael Bay "Transformers" adventure. ...