Rejoice! For James Franco has a new web series. It's called "Undergrads," and it follows a bunch of overwhelmingly white co-eds at USC as they drink, hook up, and play games on the grass of the quad. And guess what? The show looks completely and utterly boring. more ›

Many of us who watched the 2011 Academy Awards found the hosts to be somewhat...underwhelming. James Franco appeared stoned and practically asleep next to hyper, overzealous Anne Hathaway. Since then, the two have been getting panned right and left for their odd and ultimately not very compelling performance, but one man is speaking truth to power about the whole incident. more ›

Look out James Franco! Disgraced former democratic vice presidential nominee, presidential candidate and ex-Senator John Edwards looks like a shoo-in to play Jack Tripper in the Three's Company stage/screen adaptation that Franco spread rumors about at Sundance. more ›

Director David Gordon Green’s latest film, Your Highness, brings back the star of his hit film Pineapple Express, James Franco, but puts him in a whole new world, or rather an old medieval one. It’s a world created by it’s co-screenwriter Danny McBride, who also appears in the film as Thadeous, the “spare” to Franco’s royal brother “heir,” Fabious. more ›

There's been musings about whether or not Stephen Colbert really offered James Franco (another) job on last night's "Colbert Report" - we don't think so. --- Amy Poehler has been invited to speak to Harvard's graduating class in May, congrats to the Boston College grad! --- All this and tonight's TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan & the listings. more ›

Last night's Oscars failed to gain viewership despite the months of promotion and hype leading up to it. Certainly some of it can be blamed on the performances of the hosts, James Franco and Anne Hathaway, but they were only an item on a long list of problems that is becoming typical of the Academy Awards. more ›

It may have been a down year at the box office but Oscar organizers plan to take their social media and online fan engagement to the next level this year. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences presents its 83rd annual award show Sunday night. But the festivities have already begun online. more ›

In these weeks leading up to the Oscars, many a conversation throughout our fair city has posed the same query about this year's hosts, Anne Hathaway and James Franco: "Aren't the Oscar hosts supposed to be funny?" And indeed, we have come to expect some level of humor from emcees of the esteemed awards. more ›

In addition to rescuing princesses in a "high"-concept stoner quest, participating in the prequel Ape-ocalypse, co-hosting the 2011 Oscars and possibly being nominated for 127 Days, the once geeky freak James Franco is now also in talks to direct two, big-deal literary works. This high-brow arc, however, has not compromised the man's sense of humor. He also has a Three's Company installation planned for Sundance. Expect a full LAist report from that front line. more ›

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has asked James Franco and Anne Hathaway to co-host the 83rd annual Academy Awards, according to an official Academy press release. Both youngsters are currently starring in Fox features (Franco in Searchlight's 127 Hours, Hathaway in big Fox's Love And Other Drugs) and Franco is likely to be Oscarly nominated for Best Actor. more ›

There’s a screening of 12 films from the Ottawa International Animation Festival 2009 tonight at REDCAT at 8:30 pm. These films--Canada, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland and the United States--showcase experimental animation as personal art. Many are Los Angeles premieres. In person: Suzan Pitt, Ottawa International Animation Festival jury member. Tickets: $9, $7 students, $5 CalArts students, faculty and staff. more ›

Every January the quaint Mormon hamlet of Park City, Utah is overrun by tens of thousands of people eager to attend the films (and parties) of the Sundance Film Festival. Having attended the festival for the last three years, I can highly recommend the experience. In fact, I'd say that everyone should try to attend at least once. From the freezing weather to the immense crowds to the abundance of cinema, alcohol and sleeplessness, it is a film festival that is unique to the world, and tomorrow night a little bit of Sundance comes to Los Angeles. more ›

Let the Right One In was a fiendishly good reimainging of the vampire story. Naturallly, it is now being re-made into what will surely be an inferior, American film. I thought Mickey Rourke gave the performance of the year in The Wrestler, but Sean Penn was almost as impressive with his rendering of the late Harvey Milk. Speaking of fine actors, Anne Hathaway stirs my drink. While I liked Synedoche, New York, I was let down by it because of my absurdly high expectations for Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut. Role Models was better than it had any right to be. I'm still amazed that Seann William Scott is the sole survivor of the American Pie crowd. more ›

Boobies, bathroom humor and bongs collide in Pineapple Express, the latest DVD release from indie writer/director extraordinaire, David Gordon Green. The film follows two dimwitted stoners, Dale (Seth Rogen) and Saul (James Franco), whose connections to the underworld of illegal drugs inadvertently make them witnesses to murder. It's the classic tale of marijuana dealer meets boy, boy meets marijuana dealer and over the river and through the woods into a drug dealer's hideout with guns they go. more ›

I've said it over and over again but is a perfectly stupid title for a perfectly stupid film. Toupee alert! more ›

While 2008 was no 1999 in terms of truly amazing films, it was better than most may think. Last year, I went with a top 10 that was headed by the wondrous and magical . Accordingly, I've put them at the very top of my list. The rest are in alphabetical order. See each one of them and I promise you will have lived a better life once you're done. more ›

Despite sucking and being overwhelmingly patronizing, is looking more and more like a big flop ($4.2M/$37.8M). more ›

So-called ‘viral marketing’ has become such a pervasive element of the media landscape that it’s almost become a parody of itself. It is being utilized, to varying degrees of success, on almost all levels; the broke artists love being able to throw up a couple of websites and cryptic messages to start a movement, while the studio bigwigs can’t argue with the bottom line and the intriguing ability to mobilize a mass of people with one stick and a few well-placed carrots. more ›

Despite not being terribly funny, opened to a relatively disappointing $12.3M ($18.5M). more ›

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One of the great things about living in Los Angeles is that there are countless opportunities to see movies in advance for free. Spend any afternoon at the Burbank Town Center or the Third Street Promenade and you'll see people hanging around movie theaters with clipboards and flyers for upcoming screenings. Next week, as part of MTV's Sneak Peak Week, five of the summer's biggest comedies will be screening around town. All you have to do is show up early (real early!) with a ticket and get in line. Bring a book and an iPod. Details below: more ›

Now that the writer's strike is on, what will happen to your favorite shows? The LA Times has worked up a grid explaining the future status of shows like "Lost," "Scrubs," and "Battlestar Galactica". The real tragedy here, of course, is that "The Colbert Report" is immediately going into reruns. Heathrow and Chicago O'Hare share the dubious honor of TripAdvisor's Least Favorite Airport: and yes, LAX represents itself nicely at #4. LA Weekly takes... more ›

For years, Filipino veterans and citizens who served under U.S. armed forces during World War II were denied the same benefits afforded to other servicemen and women though their sacrifices were equal. The U.S. government didn’t begin to redress this inequity until recently -- when many of the soldiers and volunteers were long gone. more ›