Reason No. 68 why the disconnect between film critics and moviegoers is bigger than ever: The elitism of the old guard. Over the course of the past week, well known and nominally intelligent film critics Roger Ebert and A.O. Scott both wrote that the decline of the film industry is in direct Read More
The most ingenious part of the marketing campaign for G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra—on which Paramount has spent an ungodly $150 million—ended up costing nothing at all: That would be the decision to not screen the bloated and sure-to-be eviscerated film for critics before its release tomorrow. Naturally this slap in the face Read More
With all this extra money lying around, perhaps it might be time for Hogwarts to add a new wing to the campus: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ruled the roost over the weekend conjuring up an estimated $79.4 million in ticket sales. (Wizard jokes, hello!) Add that to the nearly $80 million the Read More
What’s Austrian for “not as good as we thought?” It was a tale of two weekends for Sacha Baron Cohen’s Brüno. On the one hand, the guerrilla comedy pulled down an estimated $30.4 million in ticket sales to pace the field; on the other, the total gross came in well below the high Read More
Ladies and gentlemen: We have a draw! Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs each pulled down an estimated $42.5 over Fourth of July weekend to tie atop the charts, meaning a winner won’t be decided until the final numbers are tallied later today. (Our money is on Read More
A word of advice: If you’re one of the few who has yet to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (and judging from the $200 million–plus grosses, you probably aren’t), we suggest rushing out immediately to see Michael Bay’s latest in its full IMAX glory. Quality aside—the over-long extravaganza isn’t nearly as bad as Read More
It’s not like anyone ever accused the Academy Awards of having good timing, but even by their standards, putting out a major press release on a Friday—following the death of Michael Jackson—has to rank as a poor decision. Since you, like the rest of the developed world, probably missed it: The Music Branch Read More
For the sake of storage, we hope one of the Autobots also doubles as a very large bank vault. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen dominated the box office this weekend to the tune of $112 million in ticket sales. Couple that with the $89.2 million earned since the film opened last Wednesday, and Transformers has Read More
If you trek to the theaters this weekend, we hope you’re prepared to encounter hordes of killer robots (and teenage boys). Four movies hit the multiplex today, but all anyone will really care about come Monday morning is Transformers. As we do every Friday, here’s a handy guide to the new releases.
Transformers: Revenge Read More
It’s been well over 12 hours since I saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and I must say I’m not sure my audio/visual senses have quite recovered. It is almost two-and-a-half-hours long; the most common reaction when people spilled out of the packed theater in Times Square last night (some cheering, others limping out of Read More
Break out the SPF 50! The summer movie season starts in earnest this weekend with the openings of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and, frankly, we could not be more excited. Bank on the next four months being filled up by superheroes, stunted man-children, teenage wizards and an unusual amount of killer Read More
While normal Americans spend each waking moment trying to figure out ways to tighten their belt strings in this economy from hell, Hollywood is throwing money around with a devil-may-care attitude that seems left over from 2006. In an alarming recent trend, studios are moving ahead with plans for sequels… before the original films even Read More
That turned out to be quite a game, huh? After nearly putting us to sleep through the first three quarters, Super Bowl XLIII lived up to its moniker with a fourth quarter that will most certainly be described as "for the ages." Meanwhile, from a viewing standpoint, the coverage was bloated, distended and rough around Read More
We all know the old adage that most people only watch the Super Bowl to see the commercials. Fair enough; but that will especially be true on Sunday, as Super Bowl XLIII sees the Pittsburgh Steelers battle the Arizona Cardinals in a matchup that seemed about as believable before the season started as whatever time-travel Read More
