Peter O’Toole, the 79-year-old actor made famous by his starring role in David Lean’s epic “Lawrence of Arabia,” released a statement today that he has decided to retire from acting. Via The Hollywood Reporter: It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone […]
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One of the most valid critiques of the mumblecore movement is that its stories lack universality — that they speak specifically to hipster audiences in their late 20s and early 30s who share a sense of directionless-ness with the characters, as if said characters have nothing in common with any other demographic. The major exception
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Ernest Borgnine, the prolific film and television actor whose filmography spanned more than 60 years, died Sunday in Los Angeles of renal failure. He was 95. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Borgnine started his acting career. His big break was in 1953’s “From Here to Eternity.” Shortly thereafter, he won an
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“The Amazing Spider-Man” was number 1 at the box office this weekend, with $65m Friday through Saturday and $140m since its Tuesday opening. But you knew that would be the case. The real winners of the weekend were Wes Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom” and Woody Allen’s “To Rome With Love,” both in modestly wide bows of
Filmmakers, like humanity in general, have long been obsessed with death – and why wouldn’t they be? The construct is simultaneously universal and intensely personal, terrifying and exciting, certain and unknown. These bipolarities make for good theater. But for as frequently as The End is dramatized on the silver-screen, the years leading up to it
Reviews by Request: “Make Way for Tomorrow” (1937) Read More »
As expected, “The Amazing Spider-Man” came in at #1 on Friday, continuing to do healthy business after a robust Tuesday opening. The movie is not quite performing up to par with previous superhero phenomenons (Sam Raimi’s original “Spider-Man” trilogy included), but it’s doing fine business. It may prove to be the latest “3-D killer,” however,
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This is the Oliver Stone I like. In recent years, the famously intense, quasi-loony auteur has produced one oddity after another, from a big budget catastrophe (“Alexander”) to a saintly solemn portrayal of 9/11 responders (“World Trade Center”) to a schizophrenic hit-piece on President 43 (“W.”). None of them reached the thematic highs of “Platoon,”
We’re barely past the Fourth of July, but that’s not stopping DreamWorks Animation from releasing the trailer for its Holiday Season tent-pole, “Legend of the Guardians,” based on the book by William Joyce. The family-friendly pic tells the story of five children’s heroes – Santa Claus, Jack Frost, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman, and the
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In the age of viral Internet marketing and 30-second TV spots, audience appraisals that a film “didn’t live up to expectations” usually imply that said film wasn’t as good as its advertising campaign. But what about the expectations established within the film itself? It’s hard not to watch the opening scenes of “The Hunter” with
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When doing press for comic book movies, directors and actors almost always claim that they counted themselves as diehard fans of the source material long before they signed on to the lucrative task of adapting it for the screen. While this is likely more often than not a lie, Mark Webb was clearly telling the
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