One of my most vivid childhood moviegoing memories is when my dad took me to see “The Waterboy” starring Adam Sandler. I was nine, and I laughed and laughed and laughed, probably harder than I ever had before. Critics panned the movie, but they weren’t part of the ideal audience. I was — old enough to “get” […]
Review: “A Million Ways to Die in the West” Read More »
I’m genuinely eager to thumb through William Joyce’s picture book “The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs,” the credited source material for “Epic,” just to see how much in common the movie has with the 1996 text. That’s because the movie plays less like an original creation than the result of its (count ‘em)
Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office results. After coming very close to nailing “Star Trek Into Darkness” last week, coming within three percent of its actual gross, I feel pretty good going into this four-day holiday frame. But with three new wide
Box Office Beat: Weekend of May 24 Read More »
Not two minutes into “The Big Wedding,” we know what its primary purpose is: to allow Robert De Niro to earn a paycheck for minimal work. The film begins with lackadaisical voiceover from the legend-turned-professional-phoner-iner that’s reminiscent of most of the other roles he’s collected on lately, in “New Year’s Eve” and “Little Fockers” and
Review: “The Big Wedding” Read More »
“Les Misérables” has been filmed for the silver-screen several times before–most recently with Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman, for director Billie August, in 1998–but the movies have never set the world a flurry in the way that the source material has. That could change this December, for this adaptation has all the markings of Oscar. Director Tom
New trailer: “Les Misérables” Read More »
There are five new options for home viewing this week. We’ve got you covered… Coriolanus, actor Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut, is a post-modern treatment of Shakespeare, but those hoping for the exuberance of Baz Lurhman’s Romeo + Juliet had best stay far away. Here, Fiennes and writer John Logan transplant the Bard of Avon’s dialogue–largely
Video Minefield: DVD & Blu-Ray releases for May 29 Read More »
