Certain literary works, especially those that traffic in the fantastical, are best left on the page because they cannot be brought to cinematic life in a manner that remains true to their original spirit. Presumably, this is the case with Qing Dynasty author Pu Songling’s “Erotic Ghost Story,” a beloved work in Chinese culture, but […]
Blu-Ray Review: “Painted Skin: The Resurrection” Read More »
As I predicted in this week’s edition of Box Office Beat, “Skyfall” ended up earning the biggest opening weekend of any James Bond film to date, surpassing the last installment, “Quantum of Solace,” by about 30 percent. “Skyfall” grossed $87.8 million over the three-day and an even $90.0m when accounting for Thursday IMAX preview shows.
Weekend Box Office: “Skyfall” soars Read More »
The meat of Julia Loktev’s “The Loneliest Planet” stems from a single action that lasts no more than five seconds, nearly an hour into the film, and is never referenced again. An unfortunately timed bathroom break would render the second half unintelligible. There’s no denying that this structure is daring in its unwillingness to pander
Review: “The Loneliest Planet” Read More »
Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office results. It’ll be a short version this time, because there is only one new wide release, albeit a huge one: Daniel Craig as James Bond in “Skyfall.” I would usually be inclined to pontificate about the
Box Office Beat: Weekend of November 9 Read More »
Going into the weekend, there was a general feeling that the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy would depress grosses, especially with about 300 theaters along the Eastern Seaboard closed on Friday. But it did anything but–in fact, one could make a case that the box office actually improved this weekend because there was little else for Northeasterners to do–as
Weekend Box Office: Sandy no match for “Wreck-It Ralph” and “Flight” Read More »
In “The Sessions,” John Hawkes plays Mark O’Brien, a 38-year-old polio survivor living out his life in an iron lung who decides it’s finally time to lose his virginity. To accomplish this, Mark seeks the services of a sexual surrogate, Helen Hunt’s Cheryl Cohen-Greene, a type of therapist who engages in sex with those whose
Review: “The Sessions” Read More »
Detractors of “Wreck-It Ralph” will undoubtedly dwell on the shameless transparency of the Walt Disney Company’s attempt to expand the size of their potential audience by melding a classic arcade game-based premise that evokes nostalgia in 20- and 30-somethings with their usual family-oriented formula. But this isn’t a fair point of criticism unless one presumes
Review: “Wreck-It Ralph” Read More »
Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office results. Last week, I decided to take a much needed break before the onslaught of heavyweight holiday releases over the next couple of months, and it turned out to be a good time to do so:
Box Office Beat: Weekend of November 2 Read More »
In its third weekend of release, Ben Affleck’s period crowd-pleaser “Argo” showed no signs of slowing down at the box office, dropping just 24.9 percent from last weekend for another $12.4m. Even more impressively, “Argo” beat all four new wide releases by a sizable margin. While the impending Hurricane Sandy undoubtedly had a negative effect
Weekend Box Office: “Argo” bests all openers in down frame Read More »
One barely expects to find jokes referencing taboo topics like pedophilia, threesomes, and the use of Nair as an ass-grooming agent in an R-rated, John Hughes-inspired teen comedy, so the fact that they’ve turned up in a PG-13 version produced by Nickelodeon is shocking. And these gags are only the tip of the iceberg for
Review: “Fun Size” Read More »
