Composed almost entirely of stock footage from 1966-‘71, “When You’re Strange” is a rock documentary narrated by Johnny Depp on the career of seminal blues-psychedelic band The Doors. On a stylistic level, the film succeeds admirably. The grainy footage gives the audience a sense of what the band must have really looked and sounded like, both […]
Streaming Pick: “When You’re Strange” (2009) Read More »
Nora Ephron, the writer/director behind celebrated Hollywood rom-coms such as “Sleepless in Seattle” and “When Harry Met Sally…”, died today after a six-year battle with leukemia. She was 71. Ephron, who began as an essayist and novelist in the 1970s, penned her first theatrical screenplay nearly three decades ago, for Mike Nichols’ 1983 film “Silkwood,”
Filmmaker Nora Ephron dies at 71 Read More »
I keep thinking that this is all an elaborate prank — that Disney has allowed Tim Burton to make a black-and-white animated riff on Frankenstein, with children as a part of the target audience, designed to play in IMAX and 3-D. It sounds like financial suicide to me, but that just makes the movie itself
New trailer: “Frankenweenie” Read More »
Tyler Perry is trading Madea’s chainsaw for a gun and badge. In this new trailer, he slips into the shoes of James Patterson’s Detective Alex Cross in the appropriately titled “Alex Cross.” Perry will square off against a sadistic mob hitman played by Matthew Fox. The Alex Cross role was formerly played by Morgan Freeman
New trailer: “Alex Cross” Read More »
If you spot someone over the age of 10 who has peed their pants this week, there’s a pretty good chance that he/she is a film buff who has just learned the news that Universal will soon be putting out a Blu-Ray set of 15 Alfred Hitchcock classics, 13 of which have never received the
Finally: the Hitchcock collection goes Blu Read More »
When producer Harmon Kaslow announced that plans to make an “Atlas Shrugged” trilogy would continue in spite of the first film grossing a paltry $4.6 million at the domestic box office (against a $20m budget), the news was met with a great degree of surprise. But now that the sequel is in the can and
“Atlas Shrugged: Part 2” sets release date, hires team of seasoned marketing execs Read More »
If you read my Friday box office report, then you already knew that “Brave” would come in at #1, over tripling the gross of its nearest competitor (“Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted”). Thus, it should be of more interest to you that Woody Allen’s “To Rome with Love” grossed a bang-up $379,000 in its initial
Weekend Box Office: “Brave” tops chart, “To Rome with Love” sizzles on specialty circuit Read More »
It’s doubtful that there is a living soul who cares about the Daytime Emmy Awards and doesn’t work for one of the nominated shows, but just in case those who work for the nominated shows visit Critic Speak and missed the ceremony when it aired live on HLN earlier tonight, I’ll post the winners here. And
Complete list of 2012 Daytime Emmy Award winners Read More »
With “Brave,” Pixar has declared that audiences and critics can stop raving about how inventive and original their latest films are, and can begin classifying them as simple kids’ fare instead. The studio behind heartfelt, gorgeous animated treasures such as “Toy Story,” “WALL-E,” and “Up” demonstrates an astonishing lack of creative energy with their latest
As expected, Disney/Pixar’s “Brave” was a far-and-away #1 at the Friday box office, beating its nearest competitor, fellow opener “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” by double-digits. With a $24.5m Friday in the books, the Scotland-set animated flick should post a weekend figure in line with Pixar’s best non-sequel openings ($71m seems reasonable). Meanwhile, last week’s releases
Friday Box Office: “Brave” slays all competition Read More »
