
It's been nine years since the teenage boy who screwed an apple pie got married to Alyson Hannigan, and if you were wondering what's happened to him since - wonder no more. The fourth (and final?) installment in the "official" American Pie canon (not counting the direct-to-DVD crap) hits theaters on April 6th and gives us a chance to check in with Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nichols, and Eddie Kaye Thomas to see where life has taken them. The trailer for American Reunion went live today, and if it does anything well it's that it assures us that they intend to maintain the franchise's brand of raunchy humor. Check it out below.
Feb 22 2012
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This weekend sees the 84th annual Academy Awards with its veritable galaxy of gorgeous people, and once again the flagship pictures and prestigious heavy hitters will doubtless walk out with the majority of the loot. Oscar might have the glamour and the glitz, but true spirit is all about giving props to the little guy. With that in mind here’s a selection of small roles and minor characters that never won any awards, yet managed to embed themselves into our collective consciousness, pop culture iconography and done more than their share to help make some good movies truly great.
Feb 22 2012
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When an author dies, the rights to their work usually pass on to their family or whoever controls their estate. In the case of Robert Ludlum, the holders of his estate chose to allow sequels for his books to be written by other authors, and in the case of the Bourne saga that privilege went to Eric Van Lustbader who went on to pen The Bourne Legacy and five other novels. The Bourne films were made in an era when, though powerful, studios could no longer easily hoodwink intellectual property owners into signing away their babies for nigh perpetuity. Such was not the case when Mario Puzo's The Godfather was optioned by Paramount and then released in 1972. Or at least, that's what Paramount is arguing: that they have a say in the development of any further Godfather properties, whether on the page or on the screen. Mario Puzo's estate doesn't like that idea.
Feb 22 2012
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Yesterday, SolarSolar released their freshman album "Pilot" which features tracks like "I Can't Find You" and "Walking Like Children". The two tracks are perfectly representative of their sound and both feel like the audio equivalent of walking out into your backyard after a heavy snow and finding a whole new world. The light, airy sense of wonder SolarSolar imbues into their music makes it incredibly easy to listen to, and their video for "I Can't Find You" captures that perfectly. "Walking Like Children", while still quite mellow, has a stranger vibe to it, and much like the would-be magician featured in it, the listener follows along not knowing where it's going. The song and the video both meander along melodically over the unsettling but absorbing synth line running throughout the song. We've included the videos for both songs below, so check them out, and if you like what you hear, support SolarSolar by buying their album.
Feb 22 2012
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First off, let us clarify that we here at JustPressPlay are well aware that "Texify" is not a word, as much as ABC and/or Texas might want it to be. What's even more disconcerting, is not that we're unsure of what Texify means, but we don't even know what GCB, the name of the show, stands for. A quick Googling returned the following options: German Conference on Bioinformatics, Gaming Control Board, Gas Circuit Breaker, a McDonalds sandwich launched in China, and so on. We're pretty sure none of those is the answer. However, judging from the posters for the show featuring Kristin Chenoweth and a cross, and a general cast of Leslie Bibb and Annie Potts, we're willing to bet it's something like "Good Christian Boys", "Good Christian Belles", or "Good Christian Biohazard", etc. The second one is our favorite to win given the context - but "Biohazard" would be cool too.
GCB starts on March 4th and to help get you in the mood for GCB (maybe it's a hallucinogenic drug?) we're giving away a prize pack for the ladies.
Feb 22 2012
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Letting us know just how stupid NBC really is, Dan Harmon, the creator of Community, has told the world by tweet that his show will be returning on March 15 -- even though NBC has failed to air any commercials announcing the return of one of their most fan-loved shows. Both NBC and ABC caused quite an upset when they announced they were benching Community and Cougar Town, respectively, and then took their sweet time announcing that the suspensions were only temporary. Cougar Town returned last week, and until today Community was the only one whose fans were left hanging.
Thank you Dan Harmon for putting an end to that. So mark your DVR calendars everyone, because March 15th will be a day of joy. I wouldn't be surprised if Obama proclaims it Community Day (it could still be relevant even after the show fades away). Of course, there is one caveat to this good news.
Feb 21 2012
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Obviously that's the point of making such a film, and for adults who see it the documentary might open their eyes to the terrorizing that happens at their kids' schools, but could it have an instructional effect if shown to kids? The Weinstein Company argues that yes, Lee Hirsch's film Bully, a documentary on the rise in bullying awareness that has swept the world in the past few years, could and should be used in schools for just that purpose. The only problem is that the content of the film has garnered it an 'R' rating meaning that it can't be shown in schools were it could theoretically do the most good. Every year there's a new case of someone challenging the (antiquated) MPAA on their inability to see the bigger picture, and there are few nobler cases than this.
Feb 21 2012
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We're sorry for the joke, but it just can't be helped. We were always a bit wary of the premise for The Raven, what with John Cusack playing an Edgar Allen Poe whose stories have become the inspiration for a string of murders, and after watching the trailer we're tempted to preemptively mark the film as yet another disappointment in Cusack's filmography. When a serial killer writes you a letter challenging Poe to a "battle of wits", the story is all too nicely laid out. Nevermind that he then offers to leave clues. If there was something uniquely tying this to Edgar Allen Poe's history as a writer, The Raven might actually be an interesting idea. But this is just The Da Vinci Code or National Treasure, with murder, and a famous writer at its center. It wants to be closer to a Sherlock Holmes story, but it doesn't help that the dialogue all seems ridiculously expository.
Feb 21 2012
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In April, Canada's Our Lady Peace will release their 8th studio album Curve and their first single off of it, "Heavyweight", has a modest music video put together. Perhaps more important, is their upcoming tour which kicks off in about a month starting in (and returning to midway through) Ontario and closing in Seattle. We'll include the dates below, but for now let's get back to "Heavyweight", the video for which, appropriately, puts the lyrics over boxing footage. As videos go, it's quite simple, but then Our Lady Peace have never challenged what a music video can do. Their other recent video, put out in October of last year, focused on the Occupy Wall Street movement (and the others that popped up around the country after that). Footage of protestors is a great background for "Fight the Good Fight", and it's considerably catchier than "Heavyweight", but again it's not the kind of huge undertaking some artists put into their videos. Notice that both don't have the band's presence anywhere in them. Maybe that's because they prefer to expend their energy elsewhere. Take a look at those two videos below.
Feb 21 2012
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The idea of a city touring the world is an interesting thing to ponder. For one thing, it would revitalize the airline industry with that many people flying that often. And think about the boon it would be on the various economies it touches. Sadly, Owl City's "All Things Bright and Beautiful" world tour didn't quite have that effect. Maybe that's because Owl City has a population of 1. So even though Owl City went around the world, its impact on the world economy was minimal. On the plus side, it did give fans the world over a chance to see the platinum artist live. It was a trade off.
In case you missed it, the concert experience was captured on film at LA's Club Nokia and if you'd like to take part, we're giving a copy to three lucky readers. To find out how you can snag one, keep reading.
Feb 20 2012
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