GOT A QUESTION FOR ABIGAIL BRESLIN?

Still from New Year's Eve

The beautiful and talented Abigail Breslin will be in Toronto Wednesday, November 30 through Thursday, December 1, 2011 for her latest Film, New Year's Eve from Warner Bros. Those of you who saw Box Office smash Valentine's Day and loved it will find every reason to love this Romantic Comedy with a Cast of Megastars! Hilary Swank, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Biel, Lea Michele, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sofia Vergara, Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel all star in the Film, opening December 9, 2011.

Breslin plays the role of Hailey in Gary Marshall's new Opus and I'll have the pleasure of getting a bit of face time with the Oscar-nominated star of Little Miss Sunshine. Any questions you want me to ask her? Leave a comment and I'll do my best!

(Photo credit: Warner Bros.)

NEW TRAILER FOR "NEW YEAR'S EVE"

 "There's nothing like New Year's Eve in New York City.".

While we're waiting on the official Artwork for Warner Bros.' New Year's Eve from Director Garry Marshall, let us feast our eyes on this just-released Trailer for the All-star Cast Rom-Com.  Following the same formula as last year's Box Office hit Valentine's Day also from the same Studio, this forthcoming release follows the intertwined stories of various New Yorkers leading up to that one big night in the year where we let go of the unhappy and ring in new hopes and aspirations.

The Cast of New Year's Eve is extraordinary: Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, Yeardley Smith, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Lea Michele, Ashton Kutcher, Josh Duhamel, Jessica Biel, Katherine Heigl, Robert De Niro, Sofia Vergara, Abigail Breslin, Halle Berry, Alyssa Milano, Ludacris, Sienna Miller, Ryan Seacrest, Seth Meyers, Ludacris, Russell Peters and Jon Bon Jovi are some of the names seen.  Kutcher to clarify, does not play the same character he did in Valentine's Day.

New Year's Eve opens in theatres December 8, 2011.  Although I didn't particularly enjoy Valentine's Day for the same reason I don't usually enjoy movies with All-star Casts, as their stories often are written too thinly, I'd be willing to walk in with a clean slate on this one!

Watch the Trailer in full below:

THE CAST OF "SEX & THE CITY 2" WIN WORST ACTRESS AT THE RAZZIES

Still from Sex and the City 2

LOL.  The 31st annual RAZZIE Awards were held yesterday in Hollywood, honouring the worst in Film from 2010.  The ultimate honour of Worst Picture went to M. Night Shymalan's The Last Airbender; the Filmmaker also won Worst Director.

What was unique about this year's Awards was that Worst Actress was awarded to a group of four Actresses collectively: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis for their work on Sex and the City 2.  Unlike many of the evening's other Winners though, Sex and the City 2 at least was a commercial success, earning $288 million worldwide at the Box Office.  Worst Actor went to Ashton Kutcher for his work on Valentine's Day and The Killers last year - both completely forgettable.

Worst Supporting Actor honours went to Jackson Rathbone of The Twilight Saga, who has the distinction of also appearing in The Last Airbender.  Jessica Alba was awarded Worst Supporting Actress for her work on Valentine's Day, The Killer Inside Me and Little Fockers.

Visit The RAZZIES' official website for more.

(Photo credit: Warner Bros.)

SHUTTER ISLAND PADDLES ITS WAY TO NUMBER ONE

Not that there was ever never any doubt about it, Martin Scorcese's new drama-thriller Shutter Island out-paddled its competition with a gargantuan debut this weekend.  From 2,991 screens, the excellent Paramount film brought in $40 million, recovering half of its production budget already and it hasn't even opened overseas yet.  Expect this total to double shortly.

In its second week after a huge debut, Valentine's Day slipped to second spot this weekend with $17.6 million bringing its total domestic earnings to a stellar $87 million.  A great showing still, but too bad it kinda sucked.

Avatar has definitely seen brighter days, falling to number three with $16.1 million in its tenth week of release.  For those of you who are curious, the film has grossed a ridiculous $2,462,821,000 worldwide. Holy F&#k!

Other than this, there were not much else notable as Shutter Island was the only film in wide release to open this past weekend.  Crazy Heart though, continues to exceed expectations with Jeff Bridges' Best Actor buzz, and that is the sign of a true quality film.  Despite showing at only 1,100 screens, the film made $3 million this weekend, earning $21.6 million to-date. 

REVIEW: VALENTINE'S DAY

When you have a film with a star-studded cast, the results can be well, fabulous like in Love Actually or He's Just Not That Into You.  They can also be disappointing like in Garry Marshall's Valentine's Day.   Marshall despite being quiet of late, has brought us some of the greatest films of our time like Pretty Woman and Beaches.  On paper, the cast almost looks too good to be true: Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane, Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace, Queen Latifah, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, Shirley MacLaine, Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner, Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates and many, many more. 

The film houses multiple story lines which run in tandem one Valentine's Day in Los Angeles.  The film's primary story line revolves around florist and all-around nice guy Reed (Ashton Kutcher), who proposes to his girlfriend Morley (Jessica Alba).  Upon announcing this news to his friends who all seem surprised that she said "yes", we get the back story that their relationship might be rockier than it seems.  Reed is best friends with school teacher Julia (Jennifer Garner) and she is involved with Harrison (Patrick Dempsey), a married doctor.  She doesn't know about his marriage though until Harrison buys flowers from Reed's shop for both his wife and mistress Julia.  Perhaps there might be an undertone of romance between Reed and Julia, an option neither has explored.

Liz (Anne Hathaway) works odd jobs including a temp job at a Public Relations agency where she reports to Paula (Queen Latifah).  Liz is dating Jason (Topher Grace), but he has no idea that she is working a side job as a sex chat line worker.  Hathaway steps outside her comfort zone, completely embarrassing herself in her scenes with awkward sex dialogue - she even does a hilariously spot-on Russian accent in one of them.  Although she is brilliant as usual, I'm sure she'll be regretting this role at some point down the line.

VALENTINE'S DAY FINDS LOVE

Mega-romantic comedy Valentine's Day from Warner Bros.' obliterated the competition it its opening weekend of its namesake.  The celebfest brought in $52.4 million from 3,655 screens, knocking one-week champion Dear John out of top spot.  Despite terrible reviews overall, it just goes to show how you can put a bunch of pretty faces on a screen with minimal plot and movie-goers are still happy with a bit of that razzle dazzle.  A review will be coming soon.  Dear John dropped to fifth this week, still bringing in an impressive $15.3 million.

Coming in second was Percy Jackson & The Olympians which in all honesty I've heard nothing about at all.  The animated feature from Fox earned a staggering $31.4 million on a very busy Valentine's Day weekend. 

Much-anticipated The Wolfman from Universal Pictures performed below well, well below expectations in third just getting edged out of second spot with $30.6 million.  The film was made for $150 million, which means a huge loss for the studio.  Perhaps Benicio Del Toro, despite being a fine actor, just doesn't have the star power to carry a big budget film like this as he also headlined Steven Soderbergh's four hour-long epic Che last year and that also failed to impress.

Avatar slips to fourth this week,  bringing Fox $22 million, which makes me wonder, in its ninth week in the Top Ten, who really is still crawling out to the theatre to see it for it to be bringing in these numbers still?

Oscar-buzzed Crazy Heart is also performing quite well in ninth place, earning $4 million from 1,000 screens, bringing its total earnings to $16.5 million.  Not bad from a $7 million investment by Fox Searchlight.

FOOD: VALENTINE'S DAY RED VELVET CUPCAKES/MINI-CAKES BY MR. WILL-W.

Red Velvet Cupcakes are all the rage as you know and in celebration of Valentine's Day, I decided to bake my Mavenati some goodies.  To save time, you can purchase Red Velvet Whoopie Pie Cake Mix from Williams & Sonoma at $20 CAN/box. It comes with Butter Cream Frosting Mix and rest assured, just because it's instant doesn't mean the quality's not there. They use the finest ingredients in their mix including exotic Callebaut Red Cocoa.  Otherwise, you can use your favourite Chocolate Cake recipe, adding a few drops of Red Food Colouring and some Vanilla Extract for a similar effect. 

1. Prepare your cake batter.

2. The secret to any moist cake is to add pudding to the mix.

3. I got these adorable heart-shaped pans from Crate & Barrel.  Grease these well and only fill them sparsely with about two tablespoons of batter.  Bake at 325° for 17 to 20 minutes.  Do not overbake - remember, we're baking cakes, not bloody Scones! Well bloody, yes. Scones, no.

VALENTINE'S DAY MOVIE: BRIBING ITS WAY TO THY HEART

Now that's how you get the buzz going for a movie - bribes!  Courtesy of Warner Bros. today: a heart-shaped Air Freshener and Lollipop and Poster promoting Valentine's Day, due in theatres Friday, February 12, 2010.  Anne Hathaway, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Taylor Swift, Topher Grace, Kathy Bates, Jennifer Garner, Queen Latifah.  Need I say more?  

Are you going to see it?

NEW MUSIC: TAYLOR SWIFT - TODAY WAS A FAIRYTALE

The first single to surface from the soundtrack to Valentine's Day, is Taylor Swift's Today Was a Fairytale.  The film in which she stars, is directed by Garry Marshall. It is said to be the romantic comedy event of the year with a cast filled-to-the-brim with A-listers.  This acoustic number pretty much picks up where love-obsessed Swift left off on 2009's best selling album Fearless.  There is a climb in maturity here of Faith Hill/Shania Twain proportions.

The Big Machine/Universal Music soundtrack to be released February 9, 2010, will also feature a second contribution from Swift's most recent album, titled Jump Then Fall and a mix of material from Amy Winehouse, Maroon 5, Jewel and Jamiroquai, among others.


Check out Today Was a Fairytale in full below (courtesy of Big Machine/Universal Music):

VIDEO: VALENTINE'S DAY TRAILER

.... this could be really great.  Or really bad.  I'm willing to bet my $12 that this will be great.  Warner Bros.' Valentine's Day hits theatres February 12, 2010 just in time for.... well.  That day. That day which is really great for some.  Or really bad for others.

The multi-storylined film stars - get this - Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift, Anne Hathaway (!!), Ashton Kutcher, Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane, Bradley Cooper (!!),  Jennifer Garner, Shirley MacLaine, Topher Grace, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Jamie Foxx, Emma Roberts, Taylor Lautner and many, many more. Should make a killing.  Are you going to see it?