Ashley Judd Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Wayne Kramer's Crossing Over is a bad movie, but it's not bad in the usual ways. The camerawork doesn't shake, boom mikes don't dip into the frame, and the actors tend to remember their lines. The story moves forward in a reasonably cohesive way. On most levels it even resembles a good movie. In fact, it very closely resembles something that once won an Oscar for Best Picture: Crash (2005). Like that movie, It tells the story of a cross-section of characters in Los Angeles, all of whom are connected in some way to a sticky issue, immigration this time, rather than racism. Harrison Ford leads the way as Max Brogan, an ICE agent whose colleagues often tease him for being a softie. During a raid on a sweatshop, his heart goes out to a woman, Mireya Sanchez (Alice Braga), who claims to have a young son at home. He nearly lets her go, and later regrets his decision not to.

Next up, we get Ashley Judd as Denise Frankel, who is an immigration attorney focused on finding a foster home for a young Nigerian girl; Denise wears a little Africa pendant just to show how much she cares. Her husband is a louse of an INS official, Cole (Ray Liotta). One day, he gets into a car accident outside his office building. The driver of the offending vehicle is an illegal Australian immigrant, the beautiful Claire Shepard (Alice Eve), who has already found work as an actress but whose paperwork has been lost in the system. Cole quickly arranges to help her in exchange for a series of sleazy, sweaty hotel room encounters.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive final poster for Crossing Over, starring Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Jim Sturgess and Ashley Judd. Directed by Wayne Kramer (Running Scared, The Cooler), Crossing Over weaves together several stories about immigrants trying to achieve legal status -- as well as a better life for themselves and their loved ones -- in Los Angeles. The stacked cast should produce a variety of excellent performances (especially for a film released in February), and the Crash-like vibe I'm feeling over this film will definitely appeal to a lot of folks out there. You can check out the full-sized version of this poster by clicking the box below, and the trailer is available over on Moviefone.

Crossing Over hits theaters on February 27.

Browsing through the Sundance schedule is like walking through a supermarket when you're hungry -- there's so much brand new unopened content that you can't help but want to devour it all. One film that caught my eye was Mystery Team, screening in the Midnight section at this year's (but technically next year) Sundance fest. Here's the synopsis: "A group of kid detectives called The Mystery Team struggle to solve a double murder to prove they can be real detectives before they graduate from high school." I'm such a sucker for dorky high school comedies, and so this flick immediately leaped onto my radar. Cinematical reader DJ S. turned us on to a trailer that's floating around for Mystery Team -- and let me just say that something about it (silly humor, awkward glances, nicely timed foul-mouthedness) cracked me the hell up. Check it out below.

Warning: The following trailer contains foul language.



Check out the trailer for Helen, starring Ashley Judd, after the jump.

I think this is going to be one of the greatest cinematic pair-ups of all time -- Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Julie Andrews. I may be exaggerating a tad, but I am deadly serious. I really can't think of anything more charming, and it's really happening according to The Hollywood Reporter. (Editorial note: It's almost as crazy as Vin Diesel and Judi Dench! --SW)

The immortal Ms. Andrews is joining the cast of Tooth Fairy, which Ashley Judd joined just days ago. As mentioned in Peter's earlier post, Johnson plays a minor-league hockey player named Derek Thompson who has a tendency to knock out the teeth of his opponents. His inherent meanness causes him to crush some child's vague hope, presumably in the Tooth Fairy herself, and he gets sentenced to one week's hard labor as a real tooth fairy. And yes, that's complete with wings, tutu, magic wand, and lots of glitter. Somehow, the gig makes him rediscover his own hopes and dreams, quite possibly of a life in dentistry rather than minor league hockey.

Andrews will play Lily, a high-ranking and cutting supervisor of tooth fairies. If she does not have a beautiful fairy costume, I'll be angry. Suffering her biting wit will be Stephen Merchant, of The Office and Extras fame, who hasn't earned his wings and must act as Thompson's case worker.

As silly as the film sounds, it does have a good cast. My interest is unashamedly piqued now, because I adore Andrews, and I want to see her browbeat The Rock and force him into pink outfits. Also, I think there is humor to be milked from how gross the job of a tooth fairy really is. My mom still reminds us how disgusting it was to try and retrieve our bloody teeth from under our pillow. See? Hilarity!

In what is shaping up to be either a colossal train wreck or an inspired piece of lunacy, Southern belle Ashley Judd has joined the cast of the upcoming comedy Tooth Fairy as the titular character's girlfriend. Before (some of) you get your hopes up that a major studio production will feature a lesbian relationship, read on to learn how the superb dramatic actress figures into the story.

Dwayne Johnson was signed by 20th Century Fox for Tooth Fairy back in February, as Monika reported. He was to play "an ordinary man who's brought in to try to save the tooth fairy kingdom," though I prefer the unofficial synopsis that has found its way onto IMDb: "Tess is a 6-years-old girl who is very dissapointed when Derek (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) tells her that the tooth fairy isn't real." (Misspellings not mine.) Talk about high concept!

Variety now clarifies that Johnson will be playing a minor league hockey player nicknamed The Tooth Fairy, no doubt because he has a habit of knocking out opponents' teeth with his rough play. Judd will be playing his girlfriend, a single mother of two children, no doubt a romantic relationship that will help tame the Tooth Fairy's violent ways, especially when one of Ashley's children loses a tooth (just guessing here). You can probably write the rest of the story as predictably as two of the credited writers. Production starts in October under the direction of sitcom vet Michael Lembeck.

Right across the street from my apartment sits a nice, fat, corporate-owned video rental store that I rarely visit. It's conveniently located and if I rent older releases I can keep them for a week, but I've simply fallen out of the habit of renting in person. Online rentals are even more convenient, and if I'm patient, most US releases come to video on demand and eventually premium cable. I could admit that I'm just too lazy to schlep across the street to return my rentals, but I'd rather imagine that I'm trying to stay on the cutting edge.

Recently, though, I ventured into the store. Based solely on its premise, I was predisposed to like Yo-Yo Girl Cop: Japanese schoolgirl recruited as a secret agent for a government organization armed only with a yo-yo. It sounds an entertaining action flick; sadly, director Kenta Fukasaku, son of the late, great Kinji Fukasaku, sucks all the joy out of the concept. The action is shot in the fashionable, quick cut, crazy angle, handheld style, but without any grace or distinguishing rhythm. That's typical of the entire picture, which stitches sequences together without any style, wit, or originality, to diminishing and wearisome effect. The DVD includes a 40-minute "making of" feature that is informative and makes me curious to see the original films and TV show.

Paul Verhoeven's Black Book was just as good as everyone has been saying, including our own Ryan Stewart and Christopher Campbell: a rollicking, humanistic Nazi adventure thriller that sizzles right up until it goes off the rails to deliver a heavy-handed message about man's inhumanity to man (as if the preceding two hours hadn't already made that apparent). I'm sorry I missed it on the big screen, though. Carice VanHouten is stunning.

William Friedkin's Bug was even better than I expected from reading Jette Kernion's review; a mesmerizing descent into madness that I resisted initially. It's so powerfully cohesive, though, and features such amazing, award-caliber performances from Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd that my objections melted away. Friedkin is especially forthcoming about his strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker in an interview on the DVD, which helped make my trip across the street surprisingly worthwhile.

Having finished the immigration drama Crossing Over, which will come out this December in time for the last-minute Oscar push, Ashley Judd is getting ready to get depressed for her next film. Variety has reported that the actress is going to star in a drama called Helen, which will head into production next month, and is being made by Egoli Tossell Film and Insight Film Studios. Sandra Nettelbeck, who wrote and directed Mostly Martha and Sergeant Pepper, will wear both hats again for this production. The film is about "a music professor and mother who suffers from a deep, debilitating depression. Her family tries to help her, but no one can relate to her pain other than a young female student who knows depression all too well." So, Judd is bummed, but there's no word on who will help her through her struggle.

It's surprising -- as big as Ashley Judd's name is, she's definitely not one of those actresses with oodles of credits to her name. After starting her cinematic career with the terribly (yet pretty enjoyable) Kuffs, you know, that Christian Slater cop movie, she's averaged a few a year, which has slowed down lately. After a busy 2002, she's starred in Twisted and De-Lovely in 2004, Come Early Morning last year, and now Bug and Crossing Over this year. Now if we could only hear more about her Dame Alyce Kyteler adaptation...

If I had to make my top ten list for 2007 right now, there would be a lot of movies up for consideration, but there are only two that would be immediately added to the list: Paul Verhoeven's Black Book and William Friedkin's Bug. Even though it didn't find success at the box-office -- it opened against Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End -- Bug is a splendidly-acted little horror-drama about the perils of paranoia and the effects that lonliness and isolation can have on a person's judgement. It also contains one of the best performances Ashley Judd has given in years, without question. If you missed it in theaters like most people, then you should really give it a chance when it arrives on DVD on September 25th. The specs of the DVD have recently been released, along with the cover art seen here.

There's not going to be an avalanche of extras on the DVD, but there will be an audio commentary by Friedkin, along with two featurettes. One is called Bug: An Introduction and the other is A Discussion with William Friedkin, which I guess is exactly what it sounds like. I think they could have gotten a little more creative than this-- I'd like to see some extras that compare and contrast the stage production with the film, and maybe some interviews with Tracy Letts, the writer of both the play and the script. Oh well -- guess you can't have everything, right?

The cast and director of Bug recently assembled at a Manhattan hotel to answer some questions about the new horror-drama, which I saw and praised on this site. Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon star as two small-town Midwestern people whose lives intersect one night at her trailer-park home and the match-up creates a sort of perfect storm of paranoia, discomfort, and ultimately, terror. She fuels his pre-existing fears about being followed by a shadowy government agency, while he perversely fills for her a deep-seated need to be taken seriously and to be listened to. It's hard to explain the movie any more specifically than that -- you have to see it. William Friedkin had the press eating out of his hand, photographers wasted everyone's time by insisting on, like, ten minutes of posed photos, and Judd talked a lot about her process of mental preparation. Here is a sampling of the various questions and answers asked by all the assembled journalists -- enjoy.

Ashley Judd

Was it an easy decision, for you to sign on for this one?

AJ: It was very easy for me to decide to do Bug. Billy had been good enough to send the script to my agent. Bug also had in common a producer who was producing Come Early Morning, which was the film I shot right before Bug. So there was a streamline simplicity to the process. Of course, Billy's wife was my mentor early in my career, provided my big break in Hollywood, so it seemed like there were a lot of auspicious things that were coming together around the script.

I really loved Billy's response to Michael. He was very clear and impassioned and firm that Michael was the actor for the film, as he had been unabashedly the actor for the play. I was really impressed with how Billy was just not willing to negotiate around that, and helped me be very comfortable talking with the financier of the film about how Michael was also who I would want to play with in the movie, so there was a lot that I really liked. There was a good backbone and positive energy surrounding the project, and my agent, when she sent the script to me to read, she said 'you might not want to go there' and immediately that intrigued me. I don't think she was intentionally using reverse psychology, but that's the affect it had and I think I became willing to take the part on before I had in fact read it. There's a part of me that gets really competitive with my own creativity, like 'Oh, you think I can't do that? Really ... '

Did you feel you were coming to the part at a disadvantage, with your co-star having done the play?

AJ: I felt I was at a real advantage, because Michael clearly knew the material inside and out, had a very well-developed and evolved relationship with the material. Billy had seen it, he responded so passionately, and we began acquiring the rights, and there was a tremendous and respect there, and I felt I was able to just slipstream in there.

Last week was pretty easy to call; anyone who didn't think Shrek the Third would reign triumphant must have something against ogres of color. Our winners, each with perfect predictions, were bubba8193 (again!) and Mario. Congrats, guys. Your auras of superiority are in the mail.

1. Shrek the Third - $122 million
2. Spider-Man 3 - $28.5 million
3. 28 Weeks Later - $5.1 million
4. Disturbia - $3.6 million
5. Georgia Rule - $3.4 million

This week? Hmm, tough call. Will Lindsay Lohan's fans mobilize and launch Georgia Rule to the top of the charts?

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
What It's About: Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is trapped in Davy Jones' locker at the World's End, dead (or "dead") and insane; Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), feeling guilty for abandoning him, leads the rescue brigade; Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) wants to free his father from his debt to Davy Jones; and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) (who was dead, but is feeling much better) is antsy about the East India Company, which -- using Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) as its pawn -- is threatening to end the pirates' way of life forever. The motley crew heads to Singapore, where Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat) possesses not just the maps to the World's End but also the power to convene the Brethren Court of Pirate Lords.
Why It Might Break the Record: Last summer's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest set a box office record with an opening take of $135 million; this summer the title shifted to Spider-Man 3 ($151 million). Seeing as how the blockbusters seem to be setting new records practically every week, why shouldn't At World's End be any different? On top of that, this installment, which has all the members of the franchise returning, is something of a finale to the series ... even if it isn't (based on Depp's recent comments) actually the end.
Why It Might Not Break the Record: At 168 minutes, and with so many plotlines (some would say too many), it's not for the casual viewer. The length also limits the number of times per day that a theater can show the film; Spider-Man 3, if you're keeping score, was 139 minutes long. (Cranky old lady rant: Whatever happened to the days when two hours was considered long? Anyone? Anyone?)
Prediction: $168 million