Aubrey Plaza Page 4

Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates Review

Weak

Watching this gross-out comedy, it's clear that the gifted cast and crew had a great time making it. Scenes are packed with wildly ridiculous improvisation, as the script throws characters into some genuinely outrageous situations. And yet it's never actually funny. The longer the film goes on, the more the audience will wonder why they don't feel in on the joke.

It's loosely based on the true story of chucklehead brothers Mike and Dave (Adam Devine and Zac Efron), whose parents (Stephen Root and Stephanie Faracy) tell them they can't go stag to the wedding of their sister (Sugar Lyn Beard) in Hawaii. They have to find dates to calm down the antics that have ruined family events for years. So Mike and Dave put an ad on Craigslist, and it goes viral, drawing the attention of slacker flatmates Tatiana and Alice (Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick). Pretending to be nice girls, they win over Mike and Dave and head to Hawaii for the big event. But the girls are even more anarchic than the boys. So it's no surprise that a wave of disruptive mayhem follows.

Basically this is a simple coming-of-age story, structured like a standard romantic-comedy that plays out in a series of messy set-pieces. Every beat of the plot is predictable, and the big surprise is that the filmmakers seem terrified of genuine sexuality. Despite using sex and nudity as the (ahem!) butt of most jokes, the film is childish and even prudish. And it doesn't help that virtually all of the gags are obvious and cheap.

Continue reading: Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates Review

Dan Stevens To Star In 'X-Men' Spin-Off Series 'Legion'

By Stephanie Chase in Movies / TV / Theatre on 01 June 2016

Dan Stevens Aubrey Plaza Jean Smart X-Men

The ‘Downton Abbey’ actor will play David Haller in the eight-part FX series.

Former ‘Downton Abbey’ star Dan Stevens has landed the lead role in 'Legion', an upcoming television series based on the X-Men franchise. The eight-part FX drama is set to debut in early 2017 and will also star Aubrey Plaza, Jean Smart and Rachel Keller.

FX Picks up drama series Legion. @noahhawley https://t.co/VERlpiVoY3 pic.twitter.com/DZ4x7JAfKB
— FXNetworks (@FXNetworks) May 31, 2016

Continue reading: Dan Stevens To Star In 'X-Men' Spin-Off Series 'Legion'

Aubrey Plaza Set Voice 'Grumpy Cat' In Lifetime's 'Worst Christmas Ever'

By Nick Hill in Movies / TV / Theatre on 19 September 2014

Aubrey Plaza

The 30 year-old actress will voice the internet sensation 'Grumpy Cat' in a live-action TV movie.

Aubrey Plaza has just landed herself a career defining role! The American actress has signed on to be voice of the famous fluffy, grumpy cat in the Lifetime straight-to-TV movie 'Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever.'

Aubrey Plaza
Plaza will voice the internet sensation 'Grumpy Cat'

Plaza, who was one of many celebrities involved in the recent nude celebrity photo scandal, will voice the pet cat, real name Tardar Sauce, who became an internet sensation back in 2012 after featuring on many hilarious memes.

Continue reading: Aubrey Plaza Set Voice 'Grumpy Cat' In Lifetime's 'Worst Christmas Ever'

Aubrey Plaza Is 'Grumpy Cat' In Lifetime's 'Worst Christmas Ever'

By Michael West in Movies / TV / Theatre on 18 September 2014

Aubrey Plaza Tim Hill

The lovable internet sensation known as 'Grumpy Cat' has a new film starring Aubrey Plaza.

Aubrey Plaza has had a couple of weeks she'd probably rather forget, but it's business as normal for the actress who has signed on to voice boorish grumpy cat in Lifetime's TV movie Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever.

Tardar Sauce at Licensing Expo 2014
Tardar Sauce finally gets his big break

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Plaza - best known as Parks and Recreation's April Ludgate - will voice the pet-store cat that is perpetually overlooked. Real name Tardar Sauce, the real life cat became an internet sensation in 2012 and has already spawned a ton of endorsements and advertising deals.

Continue reading: Aubrey Plaza Is 'Grumpy Cat' In Lifetime's 'Worst Christmas Ever'

Review Roundup: "The To Do List" Doesn't Sizzle, It Fizzles

By Victoria Pavlova in Movies / TV / Theatre on 26 July 2013

Aubrey Plaza Rachel Bilson

The reviews aren't too favorable for this lady-centric guy comedy.

Ah, the summer comedy. It’s a noble tradition of coming of coming-of-age stories, simple scripts, predictable dialogue and, usually, a lot of sexual exploration. Cue The To Do List, which does pretty much the same thing, except with a female protagonist - Aubrey Plaza as the Type A loser kid Brandy. What The Heat was for the buddy cop genre, this is for that special category – summer fling movies. And, similarly to The Heat, the reviews are lukewarm at best.

Aubrey Plaza, To Do List Premiere
Plaza is usually a favorite with critics, but this time is an exception.

The LA Times’ Betsy Sharkey gives the film the ultimate “meh” rating – “it’s not that bad, but it’s not that good either.” Sharkey’s review points out that it takes a lot more than raunchy language to make a movie like this work and The To Do List lacks some much needed self-irony.

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CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Award Winners Take To The Red Carpet [Photos]

By Holly Williams in Movies / TV / Theatre on 19 April 2013

Owen Wilson Vince Vaughn Melissa McCarthy Asa Butterfield Harrison Ford Hailee Steinfeld Chris Pine Morgan Freeman Armie Hammer Aubrey Plaza Elizabeth Banks Joseph Gordon-Levitt Justin Lin

Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman and Chris Pine among award recipients at CinemaCon's closing night Big Screen Achievement Awards.

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson at CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Awards

The honourees at this CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Awards proudly displayed their accolades on the red carpet at Caesars Palace on April 18th 2013.

This year twelve phenomenal actors and directors were awarded at the Las Vegas resort and casino as CinemaCon came to a close this week. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson landed Comedy Duo of the Year as they are set to reunite for the first time since 2005's 'Wedding Crashers' in 'The Internship'. Melissa McCarthy won Female Star of the Year after being hilarious in 'Identity Thief', while young Asa Butterfield who is set to star in 'Ender's Game' later this year won Rising Star of 2013. His co-star, Harrison Ford, was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award while his other co-star Hailee Steinfeld was given an award dubbing her Female Star of Tomorrow as she takes on leading roles in 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Can a Song Save Your Life?' this year. Male Star of the Year went to Chris Pine with the upcoming release of 'Star Trek Into Darkness', 'Oblivion' star Morgan Freeman won Cinema Icon Award and Armie Hammer became Male Star of Tomorrow as he takes on the lead role in 'The Lone Ranger'. Other actresses to land awards were Aubrey Plaza with Breakthrough Performer of the Year as she is set to appear in 'The To Do List' and Elizabeth Banks from 'The Hunger Games' who won an Award of Excellence in Acting.

Continue reading: CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Award Winners Take To The Red Carpet [Photos]

A Week In News: Bieber In Amsterdam, Psy Returns, Lindsay's Late

By Michael West on 17 April 2013

Justin Bieber Psy Lindsay Lohan Aubrey Plaza Brad Pitt Bradley Cooper Beyonce Knowles Chris Pine

Another action-packed week in the world of entertainment saw Justin Bieber hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in Amsterdam, Psy proved he may not be a one-hit wonder, and Lindsay Lohan did her very best to hold up the Scary Movie 5 premiere.

Frankly, Do We Care? It's becoming familiar reading, though Justin Bieber committed another classic PR gaffe this week. The rules are: don't suffer a wardrobe malfunction, don't be racist or homophobic, and don't be insensitive to victims of the Holocaust. Justin Bieber committed one of these this week.

Psy-chic: South Korean rapper Psy appears to know exactly what the public want from their beat heavy catchy pop tunes. Actually, we're still not sure who's watching this guy's tunes, but over 80 million of you have watched the follow-up to Gangnam Style, Gentleman. Come on now, own up.

Continue reading: A Week In News: Bieber In Amsterdam, Psy Returns, Lindsay's Late

Did Aubrey Plaza Steal Will Ferrell's Thunder When She Kanye'd His Acceptance Speech

By Hayley Avron in Movies / TV / Theatre on 15 April 2013

Aubrey Plaza Will Ferrell Kanye West

Just what was Aubrey Plaza trying to do when she interrupted Will Ferrell's MTV Movie Awards acceptance speech?

What exactly was running through Aubrey Plaza’s mind, do you think, when she decided to get onstage and ‘Kanye’ Will Ferrell’s MTV Movie Awards acceptance speech? Who cares! It was hilarious. In fact it was just as funny as anything Will Ferrell has ever done, and possibly a little more daring. To set the scene; Ferrell was accepting his Comedic Genius award from his Elf co-star Peter Dinklage and was in the middle of giving his acceptance speech, when Parks and Recreation star Aubrey Plaza rocked up onstage an Kanye’d his moment.

We are referring, of course, to the time that Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at an MTV Music Awards, a moment that Aubrey was clearly referencing, as she walked silently up to Ferrell and attempted to prise his ‘Golden Popcorn’ award from his hands as he spoke. Will wasn’t about to give up his award that easily though and after an awkward couple of moments as she looked into his eyes and grasped at his trophy, she walked away, as silently as she had arrived. Plaza then returned to her seat, spilling her drink as she went. She may not have said much but it’s become the most talked-about moment of the awards. Plaza also had the words The To Do List emblazoned on her chest – that’s the name of her new movie, in case you were wondering. On Twitter, Plaza even thanked Kanye for his supposed ‘advice.’

Continue reading: Did Aubrey Plaza Steal Will Ferrell's Thunder When She Kanye'd His Acceptance Speech

The Ten Best Films Of 2012

By Staff Writer on 24 December 2012

Ang Lee Suraj Sharma Marion Cotillard Jacques Audiard Jean-Louis Trintignant Emmanuelle Riva Alice Lowe Steve Oram Ben Affleck Bryan Cranston Aubrey Plaza Mark Duplass Bradley Cooper Jennifer Lawrence Denis Lavant Edith Scob

A range of intelligent blockbusters, inventive foreign films and beautifully crafted storytelling made 2012 a good year at the cinema...

Life Of Pi Poster 1. Life Of Pi
Ang Lee's clever, thoughtful adaptation of Yann Martel's acclaimed novel is an unexpected work of art. It's also one of the richest, most challenging, most visually spectacular movies we've ever seen.
Starring: Suraj Sharma & Irrfan Khan
Read the review of Life Of Pi Here!

2. Rust & Bone
French filmmaker Jacques Audiard follows up his amazing prison drama A Prophet with this startlingly edgy, tough-minded romance about two deeply wounded people who find each other.
Starring: Marion Cotillard & Matthias Schoenaerts.
Read the review of Rust And Bone Here!

Continue reading: The Ten Best Films Of 2012

Safety Not Guaranteed Review

By Rich Cline

Essential

With a low budget but a lot of imagination and talent, director Trevorrow and writer Connolly create a deceptively simple comedy that's one of the most entertaining films of the year. It's so cleverly written that every moment of the film is hugely engaging, and it's so perfectly played by its cast that we can't help but fall for the likeable, flawed characters.

Set in Washington state, the story centres on Darius (Plaza), a sardonic Seattle magazine intern whose life derailed when she was 14, after her mother's death. So her interest is piqued when she hears about a classified ad asking for an assistant on a time travel mission ("Bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed"). She accompanies arrogant journalist Jeff (Johnson) and fellow intern Arnau (Soni) to a seaside town to write up the story for the magazine, but once they track down the ad's author Kenneth (Duplass), nothing goes as expected.

Each of these three magazine reporters has a full-bodied story, expertly set within the larger investigation of whether Kenneth is nuts or not. All of these characters are caught between their past and the present, exploring who they once were, who they are and who they want to be, which makes them easy to identify with even as they do some amusingly silly things. And the filmmakers cleverly refuse to play into our expectations, keeping us guessing about where the movie is heading. So each scene bristles with possibility, and each twist and turn of the plot and side-plots is both thrilling and hilarious.

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The To Do List Trailer

Brandy Clark is an ordinary high school senior who finds herself suffocated under the pressures of pre-college life. As a sexually curious virgin, she is determined to explore the world of bedroom pleasures before starting her first year at college. From the most bizarre to the most unpleasant and unimaginable, she is resolute that she will experience every sexual adventure she's ever heard of and makes a long, colorful list of everything she hopes to err. 'achieve' in the short time she has left as a senior. Locating willing participants doesn't prove too difficult with many members of the opposite sex on a similar quest to her, and her new found promiscuity proves a lot for her anxious parents to handle.

This hilarious new romantic comedy is not like regular Valentine's Day flicks; it's frank and explicit with no room for censorship, just like a normal pre-college teenager. 'The To Do List' has been written and directed by Maggie Carey in her first feature length movie and its set to be released bang on time on February 14th 2013. Prepare to cover your ears and eyes as you venture into that world you thought (and hoped) you'd long forgotten.

Starring: Connie Britton, Aubrey Plaza, Rachel Bilson, Andy Samberg, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Alia Shawkat, Clark Gregg, Johnny Simmons, Bill Hader, Scott Porter, Nolan Gould, Donald Glover, Adam Pally, Sarah Steele & Lauren Lapkus.

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10 Years Trailer

'10 Years' is the story of group of former high school friends that reunite ten years after their graduation. The reunion brings together best friends Jake, Cully, Reeves, AJ, and Marty; Jake is now in a happy relationship with his girlfriend Jess who he wishes to marry, former jock Cully is now married to his cheerleader girlfriend from school, Sam, Reeves is now a famous musician with fans everywhere while pranksters AJ and Marty haven't really changed in the slightest and are still trying to gain the attention of the beautiful and popular Anna. Things take a heavy turn when Jake's high school sweetheart Mary shows up at the reunion bash and he can't seem to switch off his feelings for the sake of his girlfriend who is clearly troubled by the situation. On the other hand, a new romance looks set to ignite when Reeves runs into his old crush Elise and the group begin to realise that they have far from grown up in the last decade; it's as if their high school lives had been put on standby until they were all together again and could finally pick up where they left off.

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Damsels In Distress Review

By Rich Cline

Very Good

Funny, fizzy and packed with astute observations, this endearing film can't help but make us smile. It's perhaps overly mannered and obtuse, but anyone looking for originality in the cinema won't be able to resist it.

Lily (Tipton) transfers to a rather pathetic New England university, where she's immediately adopted by the obsessive-compulsive Violet (Gerwig) who, with cohorts Rose and Heather (Echikunwoke and MacLemore), runs a centre for the rather large number of suicidal students. Lily starts dating two guys - charmer Charlie (Brody) and seducer Xavier (Becker) - just as Violet catches her dim-bulb boyfriend Frank (Metcalfe) snogging one of the depressed girls (Fitzgerald). And things start to get increasingly complicated for everyone.

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Damsels In Distress Trailer

Violet and her friends, Heather and Rose, are students at the formerly all-male Seven Oaks University. Their mission, while they are students there, is to rid the campus of the 'male barbarism' that is still around. They also run the suicide prevention centre, where they help depressed students with the aid of donuts and tap dancing.

Continue: Damsels In Distress Trailer