Historically, Robert Zemeckis’ dramas have worked by harnessing their thick characterizations and exaggerated situations to unabashedly play to the audience’s emotions. From Forrest Gump’s run across America to Chuck Noland’s bald-faced wailing at the loss of his beloved volleyball Wilson in “Cast Away,” Zemeckis’ finest work may be coated in Hollywood sheen, but it nonetheless […]
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 »
The “Silent Hill” video game franchise is beloved primarily for its ability to instill dread in the player by pairing unsettling art direction and atmospheric music with character-driven narratives. In 2006, when director Christophe Gans adapted the series for the screen, he chucked the Japanese game developers’ multi-faceted storytelling approach out the window in favor
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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
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In the opening scenes of “Smashed,” Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Kate Hannah immediately reveals herself to be a full-fledged alcoholic. She wakes up hungover, swigs beer in the shower, and sneaks a flew sips from her flask before walking into work… as an elementary school teacher. In the middle of class, Kate vomits, causing a student
If it weren’t for the ‘Scope cinematography, one could easily mistake “Alex Cross” for a rejected CBS pilot. Consider the main characters: a psychologist/homicide detective protagonist who has the ability to read body language with near-perfect accuracy, a partner who loves him like a brother, a heinously violent villain whose motivations aren’t made clear until
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As expected, “Paranormal Activity 4” earned the top spot at the domestic box office this weekend, but it did so without grossing anywhere near as much as the previous couple installments. #4’s $30.2m opening was down 42.5 percent from #3’s $52.6m and down 25.8 percent from #2’s $40.7m. Perhaps people heeded the advice of our
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If one were to graph the quality of the “Paranormal Activity” movies, the result would look much like a sine wave. The first film kicked off the series with great promise, thanks to the high tension that it was able to elicit from only two people, a camera, and a long, dark hallway. Its sequel
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Historically, Robert Zemeckis’ dramas have worked by harnessing their thick characterizations and exaggerated situations to unabashedly play to the audience’s emotions. From Forrest Gump’s run across America to Chuck Noland’s bald-faced wailing at the loss of his beloved volleyball Wilson in “Cast Away,” Zemeckis’ finest work may be coated in Hollywood sheen, but it nonetheless
NYFF Review: “Flight” Read More »
“Good luck,” warned Jack Turner as he introduced “Compliance,” Craig Zobel’s squirmy new film, to a sold-out crowd at the Downer Theatre. Turner, a producer working on Zobel’s next project, reminded filmgoers at the Milwaukee Film Festival that “Compliance” provoked walkouts and charges of misanthropy at Sundance. Nervous energy rippled through the rows, but the
Notes from the 2012 Milwaukee Film Festival Read More »
