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Below Deck Med Season 9 kicked off last night, and fans already have much to say about it.

The premiere featured Captain Sandy Yawn back at the helm, with Aesha Scott taking on the chief stew role.

In true Below Deck Med fashion, the season already faced major problems, including a provision fiasco, a laundry disaster, and clashing crew members.

The episode ended with stew Ellie Dubaich waking chef Johnathan Shillingford for the second time to ask for help making late-night snacks for the guests.

Johnathan wasn’t happy, ending the premiere on a cliffhanger and giving viewers a lot to talk about.

Talk they have done, too, as X (formerly Twitter) has been buzzing since the Below Deck Med Season 9 kicked off.

Below Deck Med fans sound off on Season 9 premiere

“Stop hiring unqualified people! It’s not fair to the charter guests & an insult to the viewers. A...

Below Deck fans have blasted deckhand Ben Willoughby for his messy behavior and stirring the pot on Season 11.

Ben came in hot for his second stint on the hit yachting show after not being given the bosun role.

Instead, he returned as a lead deckhand, immediately taking issue with Bosun Jared Woodin.

Ben isn’t necessarily wrong for his treatment of Jared, who doesn’t seem to be able to hack it as bosun.

What he is wrong for, though, is stirring the pot between stews Cat Baugh and Barbie Pascual.

Ben’s actions have Below Deck fans coming for him, just like Fraser Olender did in the most recent episode.

Below Deck fans blast ‘messy’ Ben Willougby for stirring the pot

X (formerly Twitter) was on fire, with Below Deck fans taking aim at Ben over his recent behavior.

“#Belowdeck: ben is such a little b***h. this is...

Below Deck reunions have become a thing of the past and viewers are not happy about it at all.

In the past year, only one of the Below Deck shows had an end-of-season reunion show to hash things out.

Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 4 featured a two-part virtual reunion, which was explosive and oh-so-good.

The virtual chat gave fans answers to what really happened between Daisy Kelliher and Colin MacRae after cameras were spotted rolling and more.

Now, as Below Deck Med Season 8 came to a close without a reunion, virtual or in person, fans are wondering what Bravo has going on.

After all, the Real Housewives and other Bravo shows get multi-part reunions, so why is Below Deck getting the shaft?

Let’s take a look at what we know.

Why are Below Deck reunions not happening anymore?

When Below Deck Down Under Season 2 didn’t have a reunion,...

Vera Ann Farmiga is an American actress who is perhaps best known for her distinct role as real-life paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the mystery/thriller film franchise The Conjuring, where she demonstrated her bone-chilling scream.

Vera Farmiga Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education

Farmiga was born on August 6, 1973 (Vera Farmiga age: 49) in Clifton, New Jersey. Her parents came from Ukraine. Her father, Mykhailo Farmiga, worked as a computer systems analyst, while her mother, Lubomyra “Luba” Farmiga, was employed as a schoolteacher. Farmiga has one older brother, Victor, as well as five younger siblings, Stephan, Nadia, Alexander, Laryssa and Taissa. Farmiga’s maternal grandparents were introduced at a displaced persons camp in Karlsfeld during World War Two.

Farmiga has publicly stated that she is “100% Ukrainian American,” as she was raised in an insular Ukrainian American community located in Irvington, New Jersey, with Ukrainian being her native tongue. She hadn’t...

While covering TIFF this year, I was invited to do something rare in this era of Covid-19 – an in-person interview. Even more exciting was the fact that the interview would be with Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale. How is that for a dynamic duo? They were in town promoting Prisoner’s Daughter, a small-scale drama directed by Catherine Hardwicke that I was a big fan of. While I did extensive interviews with them and Hardwicke, which I’ll be running shortly, one thing I thought was interesting was their reaction when I brought up several of their more obscure films.

Beckinsale noted that it’s often the smaller, lesser-seen stuff that winds up being special to an actor, with her noting Rod Lurie’s Nothing But the Truth as a particular favorite. As it happens, one of my favorites of hers is a movie she did with David Gordon Green and...

"Underworld" actress Kate Beckinsale, star of the upcoming feature "Canary Black", poses for the latest digital issue of "Flaunt" magazine, wearing Max Mara, Hermès and Dundas, photographed by Frederic Auerbach:

Beckinsale made her film debut in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She then appeared in Brit 'costume dramas' including "Prince of Jutland" (1994), "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995), "Emma" (1996) and "The Golden Bowl" (2000).

In the US she appeared in indie dramas "The Last Days of Disco" (1998) and "Brokedown Palace" (1999), followed by starring roles in "Pearl Harbor" (2001), "Serendipity" (2003), "Tiptoes" (2003), "The Aviator" (2004) and "Click" (2006).

Since being cast as 'Selene' in the "Underworld" film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale has become known primarily for her work in action films...

...including "Van Helsing" (2004), "Whiteout" (2009), "Contraband" (2012) and "Total Recall" (2012).

Beckinsale continues to work in film including "Snow Angels" (2007), "Nothing but the Truth" (2008), "Everybody's Fine" (2009), "Love & Friendship" (2016), "Underworld: Blood Wars" (2016)...

..."The Only Living Boy in New York...

"Underworld" actress Kate Beckinsale, star of the upcoming feature "Canary Black", poses for the latest digital issue of "Flaunt" magazine, wearing Max Mara, Hermès and Dundas, photographed by Frederic Auerbach:

Beckinsale made her film debut in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She then appeared in Brit 'costume dramas' including "Prince of Jutland" (1994), "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995), "Emma" (1996) and "The Golden Bowl" (2000).

In the US she appeared in indie dramas "The Last Days of Disco" (1998) and "Brokedown Palace" (1999), followed by starring roles in "Pearl Harbor" (2001), "Serendipity" (2003), "Tiptoes" (2003), "The Aviator" (2004) and "Click" (2006).

Since being cast as 'Selene' in the "Underworld" film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale has become known primarily for her work in action films...

...including "Van Helsing" (2004), "Whiteout" (2009), "Contraband" (2012) and "Total Recall" (2012).

Beckinsale continues to work in film including "Snow Angels" (2007), "Nothing but the Truth" (2008), "Everybody's Fine" (2009), "Love & Friendship" (2016), "Underworld: Blood Wars" (2016)...

..."The Only Living Boy in New York...

Exclusive: Lionsgate has attached Riverdale and I Still Believe star Kj Apa to star in West Pointer, a drama written and to be directed by Rod Lurie. Deal was put together by Erin Westerman, President of Production for the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.

Pic is set against the backdrop of the prestigious United States Military Academy at West Point. Apa plays a cocky plebe who graduated top of his class in high school but now must learn to navigate and compete at a storied place where every student was also the best in class.

Lurie writes from experience; he is a 1984 graduate of West Point and went on to serve for four years as a Combat Arms officer in the U.S. Army. The production will seek permission to shoot at the legendary campus.

Lurie will produce with his longtime producing partner Marc Frydman, along with Matt Luber, and Mike Weber.

When do today’s top directors know that they have gotten the perfect shot? What do they wish they knew when they first started out as filmmakers about the ups and downs of directing a film that they know now? And which classic films do they revisit and love the most?

These were just some of the questions answered by four top helmers during Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts directors Q&a panel. Watch our full group chat with Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (“Cherry”), Rod Lurie (“The Outpost”), Ramin Bahrani (“The White Tiger”) and Robert Jury (“Working Man”) above. Click on each name above to view each person’s individual interview.

See Meet the Experts Directors panel: ‘The Father,’ ‘Greyhound,’ ‘I’m No Longer Here,’ ‘Sound of Metal’

“I miss those moments from my first films where I knew nothing,” admits Bahrani when asked what advice he would give his younger self.

“He was the same age as the men who died in the Battle of Kamdesh,” reveals “The Outpost” director Rod Lurie about the tragic loss of his son Hunter Lurie, who died during production of the film at 27 years of age, like many of the men who were killed in action in Afghanistan. We talked with Lurie as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with key 2021 guild and Oscar contenders. Watch our interview above.

“When you’re making the film, it’s for not just me but all the Gold Star families who were behind us and everybody on the crew and the actors and military personnel who were there, there was this galvanizing effect,” Lurie explains when reflecting on how his son impacted the making of this deeply personal film. “We had no money. We had very little time. But we’d be...

Four top film directors will reveal details behind their projects when they join Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with key 2021 guild and Oscar contenders this month. Each person will participate in two video discussions to be published on Thursday, January 28, at 5:00 p.m. Pt; 8:00 p.m. Et. We’ll have a one-on-one with our senior editor Rob Licuria and a group chat with Rob and all of the group together.

RSVP today to this specific event by clicking here to book your reservation. Or click here to RSVP for our entire ongoing panel series. We’ll send you a reminder a few minutes before the start of the show.

This “Meet the Experts” panel welcomes the following 2021 guild and Oscar contenders:

“Cherry” (Apple TV+): Joe and Anthony Russo

The Russo brothers are Emmy winners for “Arrested Development.” Other projects have included “Avengers: Endgame,...

We’ve got a big week of home media releases ahead of us, so I hope that your wallets are ready to suffer a whole lot of abuse this Tuesday, because there are a ton of must-own titles headed home that genre fans are definitely going to want to add to their collections. We have two new Vestron Video Collector’s Series releases to look forward to—David Cronenberg’s Shivers and Little Monsters (1989)—and for the first time ever, Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn is being released on Blu-ray.

If you’re a Stephen King fan, Paramount has assembled a 5-Movie Collection on Blu that includes both iterations of Pet Sematary, Silver Bullet, The Stand, and The Dead Zone. Kl Studio Classics is showing some love this Tuesday to the horror comedy The Ghost Breakers featuring Bob Hope, and Dark Sky Films is set to release Luz: The Flower of Evil this week,...

Rod Lurie is an incredibly underrated director. In particular, his three political films in The Contender, Deterrence, and Nothing but the Truth, really are phenomenal works. Catching up on an exciting new Trailer from earlier in the week, we have Lurie’s latest movie, the Afghanistan war drama The Outpost. Not only is the Trailer quite intriguing, the flick itself has the added bonus of planning to actually play in theaters in early July. More on that in a few short paragraphs, and of course you can see the Trailer below. First, though, lets talk about the project a little bit. The film is a war drama, centered on a small team of U.S. soldiers battling against hundreds of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, culminating in what would be the most violent skirmish in that war. Here’s the official description: “In this military thriller, based on The New York Times best-selling non-fiction book,...

"Underworld" actress Kate Beckinsale poses for the January/February 2020 issue of "Women's Health" magazine, wearing Fila, Heroine Sport and Koral, photographed by Ben Watts:

Beckinsale made her film debut in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She then appeared in Brit 'costume dramas' including "Prince of Jutland" (1994), "Cold Comfort Farm" (1995), "Emma" (1996) and "The Golden Bowl" (2000).

In the Us she appeared in indie dramas "The Last Days of Disco" (1998) and "Brokedown Palace" (1999), followed by starring roles in "Pearl Harbor" (2001), "Serendipity" (2003), "Tiptoes" (2003), "The Aviator" (2004) and "Click" (2006).

Since being cast as 'Selene' in the "Underworld" film series (2003–2016), Beckinsale has become known primarily for her work in action films...

...including "Van Helsing" (2004), "Whiteout" (2009), "Contraband" (2012) and "Total Recall" (2012).

Beckinsale continues to work in film including "Snow Angels" (2007), "Nothing but the Truth" (2008), "Everybody's Fine" (2009), "Love & Friendship" (2016), "Underworld: Blood Wars" (2016)...

..."The Only Living Boy in New York" (2017) and the ITV...

Viacom is adding a trio of channels from its recently-acquired Pluto TV to My5, the on-demand service of Channel 5, the U.K. free-to-air broadcaster it also owns.

Ad-supported Ott service Pluto TV is already available in the U.K., but the My5 deal widens its distribution. It also bulks up My5 at a time when traditional broadcasters are keen to bulk up their on-demand offerings in the face of fierce competition from the streamers. My5 has a raft Channel 5 shows and the broadcaster has been adding third-party content as it beefs up the service.

Pluto TV Drama, Pluto TV Movies and Pluto TV Food hit My5 on Thursday. The foodie service has shows including Gordon Ramsay’s “The F Word” and “Kitchen Nightmares,” and the drama channel Tom Hardy series “Flood” among others. Bruce Willis film “The Assassination” and Kate Beckinsale starrer “Nothing But the Truth” are among the titles on the movie offering.

Kate Beckinsale is a revelation in “Farming,” portraying a working-class woman whose Nigerian-born foster child joins a skinhead gang.

The low-budget drama premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and marks the feature directorial debut of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, an actor who drew on his own troubled youth to make the movie. “Farming” doesn’t just explore hot-button issues such as racial prejudice, xenophobia, and urban poverty, but pulls back the curtain on a little-remembered social experiment in the U.K. during the 1960s that involved the farming out of Nigerian children to white families.

Beckinsale, best known for portraying elegant leads in the likes of “Pearl Harbor” and “Love & Friendship,” or the kick-ass vampire Selene in the “Underworld” franchise, completely transforms herself. With a thick Tilbury accent, dowdy clothes, and a sharp tongue, she creates a complex, flawed, and compelling woman. Ingrid Carpenter, Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s foster mother,...

Our favorite Jedi master is a single man! Or is he?

Ewan McGregor, 46, was recently spotted kissing his Fargo costar Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 32. Following the sighting, a family source confirmed to People that McGregor and Eve Mavrakis, his wife of 22 years, have been separated since May.

With McGregor having seemingly moved on, here’s a look at some of the highlights from his life with the French production designer.

Related: Ewan Mcgregor Splits From Wife Of 22 Years — As He’s Spotted Kissing Costar Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Their Careers Brought Them Together

McGregor and Mavrakis, 51, reportedly met on set of the...

Millennium Films announced today that Rod Lurie (Straw Dogs, Nothing but the Truth) has been tapped to direct Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson’s (The Fighter) adaption of Jake Tapper’s The Outpost: An Untold Story Of American Valor.

Paul Merryman developed the script, which Tamasy and Johnson co-wrote, and will produce alongside Tamasy and Marc Frydman under their Battle Plan Productions banner. Jeffrey Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, Les Weldon, and Matt O’Toole are also producing for Millennium Films, with John Thompson, Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, and Yariv Lerner executive producing.

Based on CNN news correspondent Jake Tapper’s bestselling book, The Outpost tells the epic true story of the 50 soldiers who battled a force of over 400 Taliban in Northeastern Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. Originally built to engage the locals in community development projects and help the spread of democracy, Outpost Keating faced a constant threat of being attacked by the Taliban,...

Image Source: Getty / Allan Tannenbaum Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance will be celebrating 20 years of marriage this October, and the couple has long been a shining example of black love in Hollywood (as well as a shining example of how black doesn't crack). While many would assume that the two met on the set of a film or through famous friends, Angela and Courtney's initial encounter happened way back in the '80s, when they were both enrolled in one of the country's most prestigious acting programs. RelatedAll the Times Angela Bassett Proved Age Ain't Nothin' But a Number Courtney and Angela first met while studying at Yale School of Drama - fellow alums include Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, and Lupita Nyong'o - and ran in the same circles as students. They became best friends, and eventually their bond grew deeper and blossomed into a romance. Angela graduated in...

If you live on the West Coast and you're a fan of Death Dealer Selene from the Underworld movies, then you'll want to mark the weekend of June 17th–18th on your calendar, because Kate Beckinsale will be a featured guest at Wizard World Sacramento. In today's Horror Highlights, we also have details on the Blu-ray / DVD release of Peelers and the lineup for Attack of the 50 Foot Film Fest in Atlanta.

Kate Beckinsale to Attend Wizard World Sacramento: Press Release: "Sacramento, Calif., June 5, 2017 – Kate Beckinsale, star of such films as Underworld and Pearl Harbor, and Val Kilmer, standout in Batman Forever and Top Gun, have been added to the top-flight celebrity roster at Wizard World Comic Con Sacramento at the Sacramento Convention Center. Both will appear on Saturday and Sunday, June 17-18, when they will greet fans, sign autographs, pose for photo ops and conduct interactive Q&A sessions with fans.

Sneak Peek footage and images of Emmy nominated actress Vera Farmiga ("Bates Motel"), now attached to co-star in director Michael Dougherty's upcoming feature "Godzilla: King Of The Monsters":

Farmiga's breakout film work was in "Down To The Bone" (2004), followed by "The Manchurian Candidate" (2004), fan-favorite "The Departed" (2006), "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" (2008), "Nothing But the Truth" (2008) and an Oscar-nominated best Supporting actress role in "Up In The Air" (2009).

This was followed by work in Orphan (2009), "Source Code" (2011) and "Safe House" (2012). 

Farmiga also starred in and directed the feature "Higher Ground" (2011).

She played paranormal investigator 'Lorraine Warren' in the horror feature "The Conjuring" and the 2016 sequel "The Conjuring 2".

Since 2013, Farmiga has starred as 'Norma Louise Bates' in the A&E drama-thriller series "Bates Motel".

Farmiga is now set to star in Shana Feste's "Boundaries" (2017) followed by "The Commuter" (2018), Rupert Wyatt's "Captive State"(2018) and "Godzilla:...

Rebecca Clough Jan 20, 2017

As America gets its new President, we look at some excellent political drama films that may have slipped under your radar...

Political dramas can be entertaining, informative and even educational, opening up debates and offering new points of view. (When experiencing a year of tumultuous change like the one we’ve just had, they can also be a comforting reminder that, no matter what your situation, it could always be worse...) With the full whack of corruption, war, and conspiracy, here are 25 political dramas which deserve to be better known.

See related 25 underrated political thrillers 17 new TV shows to watch in 2017 Taboo episode 3 review The Girl On The Train review 25. The Marchers/La Marche (2013)

When teenager Mohamed (Tewfik Jallab) is shot by police, his friends want revenge, but he has a better idea: peaceful protest. Marching from Marseille to Paris, they band together with quite an assortment of characters along the way.

Mubi is partnering with the New York Film Festival to present highlights from Projections, a festival program of film and video work that expands upon our notions of what the moving image can do and be. James N. Kienitz Wilkin's Indefinite Pitch (2016), recipient of the festival's Kazuko Trust Award, is showing on Mubi in many countries around the world from October 18 - November 16, 2016.I’ve come to the conclusion that movies always communicate the circumstances in which they were made, and most of the time, these circumstances are unconscious influences. If one identifies with movies, or has dedicated one’s life to, or expects to make a living from, movies, then circumstantially, one's personal ambitions, dreams and memories get riskily exposed. Indefinite Pitch tries to pinpoint this.But not everything can be pinned down. In music, not all instruments make notes with a clear pitch. The rising and falling background...

Vicky Pattison claims Spencer Matthews dumped her because he couldn't understand her accent. The 28-year-old reality star - who met Spencer on 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!' - revealed she deliberately exaggerated her Newcastle tones after the hunky Londoner failed to see the funny side of her joke comparing the northern town of St Helen's to his fancy Caribbean residence, and as a result the pair never ended up going on a second date. In an extract from her autobiography, 'Nothing but the Truth', she revealed: ''He tried to chat me up over Twitter and then he sent me...

Commander in Chief

Showcase Inventory

Created by Rod Lurie

Produced by Battleplan Productions, Stephen Bochco Productions, Touchstone Television

Aired on ABC for 1 season (18 episodes) from September 27, 2005 – June 14, 2006

Cast

Geena Davis as Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Allen

Kyle Secor as Rod Calloway

Donald Sutherland as Nathan Templeton

Harry J. Lennix as Jim Gardner

Show Premise

After beloved President Teddy Bridges falls fatally ill from a cerebral aneurysm, the protocol of replacing him brings forth Vice President Mackenzie Allen to take over his presidency, marking a landmark moment in history, as the United States pronounces their first female Potus to preside over the White House. Manning the helm of Commander in Chief is never an easy task for anyone coming in unplanned, but much less so when stepping into the oval office as a woman; getting doubly criticized, undermined, and penalized by a governmental system that had been primarily patriarchal. Controversy stirs from the day she takes the oath,...

Exclusive: Writer-director Rod Lurie has optioned Julia Heaberlin's bestselling crime novel Black-Eyed Susans and is adapting the screenplay with his wife, author Kyra Davis. The book tells the story of the lone survivor of a serial killer who launches her own investigation after she begins having doubts about the guilt of man convicted of the crime. Lurie, whose films include The Last Castle, The Contender, Straw Dogs and Nothing But The Truth, says his Battleplan…...

For once, a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book appears to be populated by relatively realistic approximations of human beings dealing with relationship conflict in realistic ways. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): not a fan of Nicholas Sparks

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

I think this might be the first movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel that I haven’t hated. Oh, sure, it’s set in an American South — specifically, North Carolina — where there are, impossibly, no black people (see also: Safe Haven), and where it only ever rains as an expression of manly sadness that cannot be articulated in any other way. It uses a motif similar to The Notebook’s, in which romantic handwritten documents of a relationship — in this case, love letters — allow for flashbacks to the 1940s,...

Geordie Shore's Vicky Pattison has signed a deal to write two novels.

The reality star - who announced recently that she is leaving the hit MTV show - released her autobiography Nothing But The Truth this year and is now turning her hand to fiction, The Bookseller reports.

However, it seems that she is sticking closely to the maxim of 'write what you know', as the novels are expected to focus on a "young woman who's plucked from obscurity and thrown into the media-crazy world of reality TV".

"This is something I've wanted to do for a long time and I couldn't be happier to have this opportunity to get these books in front of my fans," Pattison said.

"These novels are going to be full of heart, glamour and romance and will feature aspirational heroines that every 20-something woman can relate to. I can't wait to get started.

What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.

new to stream

Easy Money (Snabba cash): a smart, affecting, slow burn of a movie, a spectacular example of Nordic noir [my review] [at Netflix] Nothing But the Truth: flawed but earnest and honest journalism drama, with a great performance by Kate Beckinsale [my review] [at Netflix]

streaming now, before it’s on dvd

Tim’s Vermeer: must-see, chills-inducing documentary looks at the intersections of art, craft, and technology [at Amazon UK Instant Video] The Wolf of Wall Street: a debauched end-of-empire horror story disguised as an outrageous comedy, with remarkable performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill [my review] [at Amazon UK Instant Video]

new to Prime

Chronicle: the superhero origin story in its purest form, stripped of all the pulp and all the camp that has accreted around the genre [my review] [at Amazon UK Instant Video] The Descendants: the meaning of life, via Alexander Payne and George Clooney: funny and brutal, crazy and...

Geordie Shore's Vicky Pattison has unveiled her autobiography.

The star is set to release Nothing But the Truth: My Story on July 17.

She posted a picture of her book's front cover on her Instagram, writing: "It's happening!!!! This is a sneak peek of my first official autobiography!!! It's out on the 17th of July but available to preorder now!! #thetruth #comingsoon."

Pattison's Geordie Shore co-star Gaz Beadle released his autobiography, Gaz (And My Parsnip) - The Autobiography of Geordie Shore's Ultimate Lad, earlier this year.

The Geordie Shore star currently features in MTV's Ex on the Beach, which managed the highest average audience among 16-34s for a launch episode of a new series in the channel's history.

Watch Vicky confess all in The Naked Truth:...

What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.

streaming now, before it’s on dvd

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: far from perfect, but its humor is nearly Monty Python-esque, much more deliciously absurd and creatively bizarre than its predecessor [my review] [at Amazon UK Instant Video]

new to streaming

G.B.F.: sharp satire cutting through the sweet silliness makes this a refreshing change of pace for teen comedies [my review] [at Amazon UK Instant Video] Fill the Void: underplayed drama about love and marriage in an orthodox Jewish community never quite catches fire, but does offer a peek into a usually hidden world [at Amazon UK Instant Video]

new to Amazon Instant

Nothing But the Truth: flawed but earnest and honest journalism drama, with a great performance by Kate Beckinsale [my review] [at Amazon UK Instant Video] Now You See Me: most of it makes no sense at all, but who cares? this is cheerful ridiculousness pulled off with panache [my review] [at Amazon UK Instant Video] Adventureland:...

Click below to check out StageBuddy's sneak peek at the songs of this year's New York Musical Theatre Festival Featuring 'What If' from Julain Po, 'Brave' from The Water Dream, 'Too Busy Running' from Marry Harry, 'Let Me Be Your Cyrano' from Crossing Swords, 'I'm Commin' Round' from Mother Divine, 'Whatever' from Legacy Falls, 'Nothing But The Truth' from Standby, 'Jabali' from Volleygirls, and 'Come With Us' from Dizzy Miss Lizzie's Roadside Revue Presents The Brontes, performed by the likes of Anthony Rapp, Danielle Lee Greaves and more...

Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Vera Farmiga, Alan Alda, Angela Bassett, David Schwimmer, Noah Wyle | Written and Directed by Rod Lurie

I’m always somewhat skeptical when it comes to modern films that have an overlong transition from celluloid to home video, as there either wasn’t enough interest in a DVD release from the original distributor or nobody else thought it was worth putting out, and neither reason fills you with confidence that the flick’s going to be any good.

So when I saw that Nothing but the Truth had its cinematic run in 2008, I gulped and may have even rolled my eyes just a smidge. A quick recon of the plot – a political correspondent (Kate Beckinsale) for a D.C. newspaper refuses to reveal a source that led to her outing a CIA operative and lands herself in jail until she breaks – didn’t fill me up with enthusiasm,...

On the big screen, film critic turned filmmaker Rod Lurie has explored a Valerie Plame-like scandal ("Nothing But the Truth"), the case of a homeless man who claims to be a former famous boxer ("Resurrecting the Champ") and the issues surrounding the nomination of the first female Vice President ("The Contender"), a theme he sort of revisited on the small screen with his 2005-2006 ABC drama "Commander in Chief," starring Geena Davis as a VP who ascends to the presidency after the death of the President. Lurie has a new TV project in the works, this one on cable -- Starz announced today that it's developing "Monsters of God," a period drama set in 1867 Texas during the Comanche Wars and centered aroun two ex-cavalrymen who struggle to maintain order over the men they command in unsettled territory. Luri and Marc Frydman will executive produce the project, which will be...

Signature Entertainment will release Nothing But The Truth on Blu-ray from May 20th. We have three copies of the Blu-ray to give away to our readers.

Washington DC political journalist Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale), writes an explosive story about a government scandal in which she reveals the name of a covert CIA agent (Vera Farmiga). When a special government prosecutor (Matt Dillon) demands she divulge her source, she refuses and finds herself behind bars, struggling to defend the principles she has based her career upon.

Nothing But the Truth is based on the real life story of journalist Judith Miller who was jailed in July 2005 for outing a CIA agent and refusing to reveal her source before a federal grand jury.

Kate Beckinsale (The Aviator) who plays Rachel Armstrong, the journalist in crisis and Oscar-nominated Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), who stars as the CIA agent, deliver a strong...

The Iceman is the electrifying true story of Richard Kuklinski (Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon, “Boardwalk Empire,” “Take Shelter”), notorious mob contract killer and loving family man. He earned his nick-name by freezing the bodies of his victims, disguising the time of death and throwing police off-track. He was a man who used his tendencies toward violence and detachment from consequence to create an idyllic family life. His family and neighbors believed he was an average businessman, having no idea about his deadly alternate life. Kuklinski killed over one hundred people during his life. He never felt remorse for anything he had done, except hurting his family.

The film was shown ‘Out Of Competition’ at the 69th Venice International Film Festival today (Aug 30), will be shown this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival and will go onto the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10 & 11.

From Millennium Films, The Iceman also...

Blu-ray Release Date: Nov. 13, 2012

Price: Blu-ray $279.98

Studio: Warner Home Video

Still in syndication, the long-running 1990s sitcom Friends has been available as a Complete Series Collection set since 2006, but only on DVD. Diehard fans won’t care, though, jumping at the chance to enjoy the exploits of Rachel and Ross, Monica and Chandler, Phoebe’s crazy antics and Joey with… every girl, in high-definition, especially as the Blu-ray has new special features.

The TV show made household names out of Jennifer Aniston (Horrible Bosses), Courteney Cox (TV’s Cougar Town), Lisa Kudrow (Easy A), Matt LeBlanc (TV’s Episodes), Matthew Perry (TV’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) and David Schwimmer (Nothing But the Truth) and featured a bunch of star actors during its 10-season run. Among those who were guests are Hank Azaria (Love & Other Drugs), Paul Rudd (Wanderlust), Tom Selleck (TV’s Blue Bloods), Bruce Willis (Red...

Today we have the trailer and 14 photos from Robert Heath-directed Truth or Dare movie. A group of college friends celebrate the end of term with a party to end all parties. During a drink and drug-fuelled evening, an innocent game of ‘Truth or Dare’ has a very sore loser, sparking a terrifying sequence of [...]

Continue reading Truth Or Dare Trailer and 14 Photos on FilmoFilia.

Related posts: The Ugly Truth a Bunch of Photos “Nothing But the Truth” Official Trailer Sam Worthington as Dan Dare Confirmed...

The fanboy-wank-material franchise continues! Kate Beckinsale runs around a dank, rainy, gothy, first-person-shooter generic urban landscape -- in slo-mo! -- in skintight leather! or some sort of pleatheresque rubber at least! -- killing werewolves and never ever combing her hair! Cuz that’s sexy, if you’re a 14-year-old boy. And the blood and brainmatter splatters out at you in 3D! Please to have a cinemagasm! *grrr* Behold The Cleansing -- also known as The Purge -- when humanity finally discovers the existence of vampires and lycans and engages in some martial law and some flamethrowing in order to wipe out the monsters. Is this fascist fantasy meets fantasy horror of any narrative consequence? None whatsoever. The Biggest Thing Ever for planet Earth and human civilization is dispatched in mere minutes at the opening of Underworld: Awakening, though not before Beckinsale’s (Whiteout, Nothing But the Truth) badass lady vampire...

Chicago – The 2011 remake of Sam Peckinpah’s galvanizing 1971 classic is a film destined to appeal to no one. It’s not poorly made, and the writer/director Rod Lurie is gifted at crafting suspenseful morality tales (such as the under-appreciated “Nothing But the Truth”). But it’s difficult to understand why Lurie would bother putting his personal stamp on a picture that he considers repugnant.

By taking the moral high ground and cutting out the original film’s offensive content, Lurie has entirely lost the point of Peckinpah’s tale, and instead veered into severely hypocritical territory. If “Straw Dogs” isn’t about the animalistic nature of man, then what’s left to explore? It’s like draining the anti-Semitism out of “Triumph of the Will.” Lurie has essentially taken Peckinpah’s blueprint and morphed it into one of those maddening “Get the Hell Out Of There” idiot plots inhabited...

Blu-ray Review

Straw Dogs

Directed by: Rod Lurie

Cast: James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard

Running Time: 1 hr 50 min

Rating: R

Due Out: December 20, 2011

Plot: A married couple moves back to the wife’s old hometown so he can write a screenplay in peace and quiet. But soon the locals start to seem more menacing than welcoming.

Who’S It For? I really don’t know. Fans of vigilante films who hate women?

Movie:

Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs was hugely controversial due to it’s graphic violence on its release in 1971. After 40 years, Rod Lurie’s remake plays like run-of-the-mill torture porn. Amy (Bosworth) and David (Marsden) move from the big city to the small Southern town where Amy grew up. There she runs into Charlie (Skarsgard), an old high-school boyfriend who still has the hots for her. David invites Charlie and his friends to work on the roof of the barn.

Kate Beckinsale was "heartbroken" her 2008 movie Nothing But The Truth failed to make it to the big screen, because she was bursting with pride over the project.

Critics who'd seen the film tipped the actress to get her first Oscar nod for her turn in the drama, in which she plays a reporter who goes to jail rather than name a source.

But Yari Film Group - the studio behind the movie - was forced into involuntary bankruptcy because of the global financial downturn, and it was never was given a theatrical release, going straight to DVD in 2009.

Beckinsale tells Britain's Total Film magazine, "To be honest, I was a little bit heartbroken after doing that movie. I was really pleased with it and proud of it.

"I was nominated for a Critics' Choice award for it, and the next day the film company went bankrupt and the movie never came out. I just felt really bruised by that."...

Kate Beckinsale admits she was ''heartbroken'' after her last movie wasn't released. The actress worked with director Rod Lurie on thriller 'Nothing But The Truth' and was very proud of her performance so was devastated when the film company went bankrupt, meaning the movie would never come out. She said: ''To be honest, I was a little bit heartbroken after doing that movie. I was really pleased with it and proud of it, I was nominated for a Critics' Choice award for it, and the next day the film company went bankrupt and the movie never came out.

By Sean O’Connell

hollywoodnews.com: Anthony Mackie and Kate Beckinsale will announce the nominees for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 8 a.m. at The London West Hollywood Hotel, it was revealed today by Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival.

As previously announced, the 27th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards will be held at the beach in Santa Monica on Saturday, Feb. 25.

The premiere broadcast of the ceremony will air later that evening at 10 p.m. Et/Pt on IFC.

Bios on each actor, from a release:

Anthony Mackie was classically trained at the Julliard School of Drama and was discovered playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway play “Up Against the Wind.” He made his film debut in Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile and proceeded to garner roles in Spike Lee’s Sucker Free City and She Hate Me,...

Writer-director Rod Lurie was in a bit of a lose-lose situation when it came to dealing with the hardcore Straw Dogs fans. Like all remakes, if Lurie deviated too much, many critics would ask, “Why call it Straw Dogs?” If the Nothing But the Truth director stayed too faithful, then he’d get ripped on for making a carbon copy. There’s a tough middle ground between those two sides, and Lurie made enough changes to try to find it. For one thing, unlike Sam Peckinpah, Rod Lurie doesn’t hate women. All jokes aside, the original film earned controversy, partly because Peckinpah’s depiction of his female lead was deemed misogynistic. That’s not much of a surprise — Peckinpah treated that character with such disgust, as he treated all the main characters in that film with disgust. His film was about David (played in this version by James Marsden) finding his inner animal, while...

Director Rod Lurie (The Contender, Nothing But The Truth) has had a long three years of dodging and absorbing criticism ever since it was announced that he would be taking the reigns on a remake of Sam Peckinpah's 1971 classic, Straw Dogs Loosely basing his film on the book "The Siege At Trencher's Farm" by Gordon Williams, Peckinpah fashioned a unique statement about the politics of masculinity in his story about American mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) and his wife Amy (Susan George) who visit her hometown in England only to find fissures in their marital dynamic. The cracks in their relationship are tested by the differing cultural environment and the local populace (including Amy's ex-boyfriend Charlie) and by the end of the film, well... things get a little out of hand.

Madison Gate Records will be releasing the soundtrack album for the thriller Straw Dogs. The album includes the score from the movie by composer Larry Groupé (The Contender, Commander in Chief). The soundtrack will be released on September 13, 2011, both digitally and as an on-demand CD-r on Amazon. Audio clips will be added in a couple of days. Check out the press release with more information about the score below. Straw Dogs directed by Rod Lurie and starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgård, Dominic Purcell, Laz Alonso, Willa Holland and James Woods is a remake of the 1971 Sam Peckinpah film. The movie will be released in theaters on September 16, 2011. For more information, visit the official film website and Facebook movie page.

Here’s the album track list:

1. Main Title

2. Charlie Flirts

3. Southern Daddies

4. Covet They Neighbor’s Wife

5. The Farm

6. Quarry

7. Where’s Flutey

8. David Goes Hunting

9. Dogs of Straw...

It's always risky to remake a movie, but that goes double or even triple when you're tackling materials from the past that's beloved. It's one thing to churn out another take on A Nightmare on Elm Street or try and right what went wrong with the original True Grit, but to redo a movie that's already considered a legitimate cinema classic? That takes guts. Rod Lurie, the director behind The Contender and more recently Nothing But the Truth, has guts of steel as he prepares to release Straw Dogs, his remake of the 1971 Sam Peckinpah film about a young couple (Dustin Hoffman and Susan George) who move out to the countryside only to be harassed by the locals. Lurie's film moves the action from rural England to the deep South, where James Marsden and Kate Bosworth play the couple with Alexander Skarsgard as the local tough who's after them. The...

There are two films coming out in the next few months that bear a lot of similarities: Joel Schumacher's Trespass, starring Nic Cage and Nicole Kidman, and Rod Lurie's Straw Dogs remake, starring James Marsden and Kate Bosworth.

Which will be better? Let's break it down:

Director: Joel Schumacher vs. Rod Lurie. Schumacher is a hack, but a hack with some early career winners (Flatliners, The Lost Boys) and a mid-career gem, Tigerland. But he's coming off the dreadful Twelve and hasn't made anything worthwhile in over a decade. Rod Lurie, meanwhile, is mostly known as the screenwriter behind Joan Allen's phenomenal Contender, though he did direct the well-received but little seen Nothing But the Truth, with Kate Beckinsale and Matt Dillon.

Advantage: A slight advantage to Straw Dogs

The Married Coupe: Nic Cage and Nicole Kidman vs. James Marsden and Kate Bosworth: Nicole Kidman is barely recognizable as herself anymore,...

This morning, I had the great pleasure of chatting for about 25 minutes over the phone with Vera Farmiga, one of the most unusually talented (the New York Times has likened her to Meryl Streep) and unconventionally sexy (her exotic looks, melodic voice, and unmistakable confidence are all very European) movie stars working today.

The 38-year-old Ukrainian-American is best known for playing love interests in big studio pics, such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon’s in Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” (2006) and of George Clooney’s in Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” (2009), but she has particularly shone in little-seen indies, such as Debra Granik’s “Down to the Bone” (2004), for which she won best actress awards from the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and Rod Lurie’s “Nothing But the Truth” (2008), for which she received a best supporting actress nod from the Broadcast Film Critics Association.