Blogcritics Author: Chris Evans

The War on Women's Films

Chris Evans — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:27:19 EDT

What is it that's keeping men from going to see women's movies?
In October of 2007, John Robinov, the president of production at Warner Bros. Pictures, decreed, "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead." This came shortly after the commercial failures of the films The Invasion and The Brave One, starring Nicole Kidman and Jodie Foster, respectively. Sources said he didn’t even...

What's Next For Christina Aguilera?

Chris Evans — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 23:17:49 EDT

DJ Premier gives insight into Christina Aguilera's new album.
In 1999 Christina Aguilera released her self-entitled debut album, which may not have created quite the same splash as her pop peers like Britney Spears and 'N Sync, but established her as a force to be reckoned with and showed the world she wasn't just a product of good recycled marketing, but a real singer with a powerful voice. She even...

Ten Rising Gay Icons

Chris Evans — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:22:53 EST

A list of this generation's new gay icons.
Justin TimberlakeAny popular boy band has its fair share of a gay following, and 'N Sync was not exception. Just the idea of four or five men traveling the world together on a bus, singing, dancing, and pelvic thrusting in matching outfits reeks of homoeroticism. Justin Timberlake's support from the gay community has followed him into his...

Christina Aguilera Planning Duet With Aretha Franklin

Chris Evans — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:41:05 EDT

It's believed the song will be new, not a cover of a past Franklin hit.
Pop diva Christina Aguilera and soul legend Aretha Franklin are releasing a duet according to legendary hip-hop producer DJ Premier. Premier produced much of the first disc of Aguilera's double album Back to Basics, including her Grammy winning hit single "Ain't No Other Man." During an interview with Hip Hop Canada, he said...

TV Review: Desperate Housewives Gets Off To A Good Start

Chris Evans — Mon, 1 Oct 2007 07:48:59 EDT

Desperate Housewives gets back to its juicy roots in pleasing season premiere.
After critics praised the first season of mystery-laced soap dramedy Desperate Housewives, Marc Cherry and his five darlings of prime time were on top of the world. Teri Hatcher won the Golden Globe and the SAG award, Felicity Huffman won the Emmy, the show itself was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series, and the ratings were through...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Brokeback Mountain Coming To Broadway?

Chris Evans — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:24:04 EDT

Rumors are swirling that there is an effort to bring the massive hit and critically acclaimed cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain to Broadway. There is no word as to whether it will be adapted as a play or as a musical, but there are two stars who are supposedly being approached to star in the Broadway adaptation. X-Men co-stars Hugh Jackman and James Marsden have been named as the two actors they are shooting for to star as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in the weeper love story. Considering the hopeful casting choices, I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s being adapted into a musical. We know Hugh Jackman for his singing from his Tony-winning performance in The Boy From Oz, where he played gay singer and songwriter Peter Allen, and James Marsden just recently showed off his impressive vocal chops as Corny Collins in Hairspray. Both have sung previously, and both have played gay roles before -- Marsden played a gay man in the movie Heights -- but would either of them take on such an acclaimed and successful film, knowing the difficulty of duplicating the success and praise when brought to a stage, especially to music? I could definitely see the show being a commercial hit, especially with such hunky co-stars - many will turn out just to see them kiss on stage – and I can’t imagine the stage door frenzy after each show. But I’m skeptical as to whether this story will translate well to the stage (I mean, it takes place on a mountain -- what about the sheep?) and whether it will work as a musical. But then again, I was wary of The Color Purple on Broadway, and that turned out to be a wonderful play. Time will tell if any of these rumors are even true.

OK Magazine Names Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts Among Richest Women

Chris Evans — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:21:39 EDT

Premonition may have sucked and bombed, and Perfect Stranger may have been as embarrassingly bad as its gross at the box office, but I suppose Sandra Bullock and Halle Berry are still doing pretty well for themselves financially.A-list actresses Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, and Nicole Kidman, along with singers Madonna and Christina Aguilera, have made the top 10 of OK Magazine's new list of the richest celebrities. They were all beaten by Oprah Winfrey in the Female Breadwinners countdown, who was atop the list with a $1.5 billion net worth. The top ten list also featured others such as Fantastic Four star Jessica Alba.Glad to see my girl Christina on the list, and of course the queen, Oprah. Can anyone remember the last time Nicole Kidman even released a movie? And how the hell is Jessica Alba’s no-talent ass on the list? I'd be interested to see the entire list once it actually comes out, so I can see what exactly they based it on. Surely Jessica Alba's modest career couldn't have already gotten her salary in the range of the box office powerhouses like Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts, so maybe popularity and recent success is taken into account as well.I wonder though, if Sandra's box office charm is going to wear off soon. Recently, she said that she doesn't care if her movies bomb or not, which I found to be really disappointing. If you look back at her movies that have bombed, they bombed because they were bad. It's not like she picked some difficult role in a small indie flick and no one went to see it. So instead of worrying about what the box office gross will be, how about at least seeking out good movies? There's no way in hell you could have read the screenplay for Premonition and been motivated to do it for any other reason than money, sheer boredom, and Julian McMahon's sexy grin. Get it together, girl!

Anne Hathaway Reveals Why She Turned Down Knocked Up

Chris Evans — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:17:46 EDT

I have some harsh words for young Hollywood starlet Anne Hathaway. She recently gave an interview to Marie Claire magazine, and they asked her about doing nudity for movie roles -- as she's gotten naked in both Brokeback Mountain and Havoc. Hathaway said about her nudity policy that she doesn't actively search for roles with nudity but neither does she avoid them. She added, "It is what it is. Some people choose not to do it on moral grounds; I think that’s a shoddy argument. I turned down another movie because it was going to show a vagina – not mine, but somebody else’s. And I didn’t believe that it was actually necessary to the story." I’ve liked Anne Hathaway since The Princess Diaries and fell in love with her after I saw Brokeback Mountain. To me, she’s this generation’s Julia Roberts. But I just lost some respect for her with that comment.First of all, she contradicted herself. She said she would never NOT do a movie because of the nudity, then she goes onto explain a situation in which she in fact did. The movie she’s referring to is Knocked Up, which I just saw recently and it was very good. I remember hearing a while back that Anne dropped out of the film and was replaced with Katherine Heigl, but there was never a reason stated as to why, though some speculated it may have been because of the frontal nudity.I chose not to believe that rumor because it seemed so stupid to me that such a smart and talented actress would turn down a great role just because of some nudity – mostly because, as Anne herself said, the vagina was not hers. I actually think it was a prosthetic because in the film the vagina is shown as the baby is poking its head out.Then Anne says she didn’t feel like it was necessary to the story, which is a really dumb thing to say. It’s a comedy. One of the friends thinks there’s something wrong because he hears Katherine Heigl’s character screaming, so he runs into the room even though everyone tells him not to, and when he does, he sees the baby’s head poking out of her vagina. It’s an absolutely hilarious scene, and it wasn’t gratuitous as all.I’m sorry Anne, as much as I love you and your work, you just went down a notch on my respect meter for turning down a great role because of five seconds of someone else’s nudity.

Carrie Underwood To Release New Album This Fall

Chris Evans — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:01:39 EDT

It may seem really soon, but if you think about it, it’s been almost two years since Carrie Underwood released her debut album Some Hearts, and apparently she’s been in the studio for a while now working on a follow up to her six times platinum effort. According to reports, Carrie’s second album is slated to come out on October 23, and some are hoping it’ll be more Shania and less Leann.The album does not currently have a title, but Underwood will be working with Mark Knight who penned most of the tracks on Some Hearts. Knight says she’ll be staying with the country genre with this second CD, but something tells me the songs will be more in the vein of "Before He Cheats" to try to replicate the success of her top 10 hit, which was her first crossover pop radio hit ever.I enjoyed some of the tracks on Some Hearts – specifically the aforementioned "Before He Cheats," "Jesus Take The Wheel," "Wasted," and even "We’re Young And Beautiful." But to be honest, I found the CD to be quite bland, especially for someone with such a great voice, an I’m hoping they spice up her songs a bit on this next album. I have no problem with her staying country, but I just want the songs to be a little less boring. It was a solid album for a debut, but she’s gonna have to up her game on this next record – especially if she wants to finally become a success somewhere else besides the U.S.

Christina Aguilera Calls Britney A Good Mom

Chris Evans — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:31:41 EDT

Grammy winning pop diva Christina Aguilera has defended her former friend and rival Britney Spears and her parenting skills, which have come under fire recently. According to Contact Music, Christina, who is currently expecting her own child, said "Britney is a good person and a good mom. She's been under so much pressure since she was a child. I don't think any of us should judge her or jump to conclusions. She loves her boys (Sean Preston and Jayden James) and they're turning out great."One might argue Christina isn't the best judge of Britney's current state of mind or parenting skills considering the two haven't been close since childhood, and haven't even seen each other in years. I believe Britney sent Christina and her husband Jordan a wedding gift after they were married, and Christina sent Britney baby gifts after each of her children were born, but that has been the extent of their relationship for a very long time. But either way, kudos Christina for at least giving Britney the benefit of the doubt and not jumping on the Britney-bashing bandwagon (as fun a ride as it is). I often hear people say these days, "who knew Christina would turn out to be the sane one", which sort of puzzles me. When did Christina ever show any signs of being insane? Even during her infamous "dirrty" days, she may have been wearing racy outfits and dancing provocatively in her music videos but she always was in control, and seemed like she had a good grasp of herself and her life. It's completely different from Britney's current state where she just seems to be crumbling. Regardless, CPS has visited Spears' home on multiple occasions and the children have never been removed from the home. I don't believe she's ever even had a hearing, so the professionals seem to think she is doing an alright job of parenting her children.Many people are speculating as to whether Spears can make a real comeback, especially in light of the trainwreck of a mini-tour she recently embarked on that caused even Madonna's brother to bash Britney's mess of a show, but no matter how hard she falls people always love a good comeback. We'll just have to wait and see if her fans haven't outgrown her music.