Jeff Pfeiffer, Author at StayTuned Magazine

VOD Spotlight: “30 Minutes or Less” leaps from the “Black List” to the screen

November 29, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

In the action-comedy 30 Minutes or Less, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a small-town pizza delivery guy whose mundane life collides with the big plans of two wannabe criminal masterminds (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson). The volatile duo kidnaps Nick and forces him to rob a bank. With mere hours to pull off the impossible task, Nick enlists the help of his ex-best friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari). As the clock ticks, the two must deal with the police, hired assassins, flamethrowers and their own tumultuous relationship. For the film, star Eisenberg reunited with his Zombieland director, Ruben Fleischer. For his part, […]

VOD Spotlight: Twenty years, two people, one bittersweet love story in “One Day”

November 29, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

Directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education, Academy Award-nominated for Best Picture), the romantic drama One Day is adapted for the screen by David Nicholls from his bestselling novel of the same name. After one day together – July 15th, 1988, their college graduation – Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess, Across the Universe) begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground. For the next two […]

VOD Spotlight: The latest incarnation of “Conan the Barbarian” keeps the pulp

November 22, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

Ever since being created by Robert E. Howard in a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine starting in 1932, Conan the Barbarian has been a fixture in popular culture, and arguably ushered in the beginning of sword-and-sorcery/heroic fantasy fiction, which would spawn everything from The Lord of the Rings to Dungeons & Dragons. Outside of books and magazines, Conan has found himself and his adventures featured in comic books, video games, collectible card games, animated TV series and, probably naturally, in role-playing games. But the majority of audiences are probably familiar with him from his 1980s exploits […]

VOD Spotlight: Dominic Cooper with a challenging, multi-role performance in “The Devil’s Double”

November 18, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

The Devil’s Double began as an astonishing autobiographical tale of the same name, written by Latif Yahia, who was ripped from his family and forced to become the fiday (which roughly translates to “bullet catcher”) for Saddam Hussein’s lunatic son Uday. The book was a glimpse into the deeply depraved web of fast cars, endless money, easy women, pure corruption and wanton violence in which Yahia was captive for years. Once producers secured the rights to the book, enlisted screenwriter Michael Thomas (Scandal, Backbeat) to translate the story to film and found a director in Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors), […]

TV characters in need of the Great American Smokeout

November 17, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

Today is the 36th Great American Smokeout. To those who have kicked the smoking habit, and to those who are trying, congratulations and continued success! We know that throughout its history, television has not made it easy for you. There have been frequent phases when images of cigarette-smoking were common on the little screen, not just in commercials but in shots of smoking being done by characters within episodes. Smoking on television has been portrayed in various lights, from making a character seem cool, to humorous, to villainous. Sometimes an actor would step out of character to pitch a particular […]

VOD Spotlight: Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts team in “Larry Crowne”

November 15, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

The best films connect with audiences on a visceral level, and the romantic comedy Larry Crowne is no exception. Directed, co-written and starring Tom Hanks, it’s the story of Larry Crowne, a divorced blue-collar worker who is unexpectedly let go from his position at a big box store because he has no college education. He does what anyone with ambition and a bit of courage might do — heads back to school. At his community college, he meets a public speaking professor (Julia Roberts) whose own ambitions have not panned out. He also sheds his gas-guzzling SUV for a scooter […]

NGC’s “Knights of Mayhem” explores the world of full-contact jousting

November 14, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

By Jeff Pfeiffer You’re probably familiar with the medieval sport of jousting, either through watching movies or seeing Renaissance fair performances. But did you know that there are groups of people who are diehard, modern-day practitioners of that activity? One of them is Charlie Andrews (pictured), who leads the Knights of Mayhem — a group that is the subject of National Geographic Channel’s new reality series Knights of Mayhem, premiering Nov. 15 with two episodes at 9pm and 10pm ET/PT. Charlie and his “knights” are hoping to put jousting on the global map while competing in various tournaments across the […]

VOD Spotlight: Matthew Lewis talks “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”

November 11, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

By Karl J. Paloucek Follow @ChannelGuideK The Harry Potter gang has truly grown up. It’s been a long and dark road full of magic, peril and more than a little growth — both personal and physical — for the young wizards at Hogwarts. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 presents the final showdown with Voldemort, and — for the unimaginable few reading this who haven’t read the books or seen the film yet — at what can only be described as the most crucial scene in the story, that paragon of not-being-so-sure-of-himself, Neville Longbottom, played by Matthew Lewis […]

History’s “Vietnam In HD” brings the war up close and personal

November 8, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

By Jeff Pfeiffer As America slogs on into its second decade of war in Afghanistan, and is finally starting to bring its troops in Iraq home after nearly a decade, we have heard descriptions of these conflicts as “quagmires” and heard them compared with the Vietnam War. Whether that comparison is accurate or not, it’s hard for those who were not alive during the Vietnam War to understand just how controversial and devastating — in so many ways — it was. Even some who lived during the time might not fully realize its nature and impact unless they were actually […]

VOD Spotlight: A “Change-Up” for Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman

November 8, 2011 Jeff Pfeiffer

It’s a premise as old as film itself — call it the body switch. And though usually played for laughs, the switch often leads to some interesting revelations. In The Change-Up, two friends — married-with-children lawyer Dave (Jason Bateman) and free-spirited bachelor Mitch (Ryan Reynolds) —spend a night on the town and wake the next morning in each other’s bodies. Each has envied his friend’s life and, as happens in films with this premise, each is in for a rude awakening. The film, written by The Hangover creators Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, does not hold back on crude humor, […]