Barnabas Collins has risen from the grave once more via the Blu-Ray and DVD release of Tim Burton's film adaptation of Dark Shadows, and so has spirited argument over who created the tortured vampire back in the 1960s. Johnny Depp's interpretation of the fanged fan favorite originated by Jonathan Frid may have been D.O.A. at the box office, but, 45 years after Collins debuted on the gothic ABC soap opera and became a cult icon, the squabbling over his invention just won't die. more »
"James Cameron is who James Cameron is because James Cameron does what James Cameron does." At least I think that's what James Cameron's doppelganger said on Wednesday night's new episode of South Park after diving into the depths to "raise the bar" and save the world from Honey Boo Boo and fat people who terrorize the world on motorized scooters. more »
If time travel is ever to be invented, wouldn’t we already have had evidence of it? The question is enough to give grammarians seizures, let alone filmmakers. As Jeff Daniels’s world-weary time-traveling crime lord says in Rian Johnson's Looper, “this time travel shit fries your brain like an egg.” And the film, out this Friday, is far from the most brain-frying cinematic treatment of time travel. more »
Only 20 percent of reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes, roughly one out of five, recommend April's military-themed romance The Lucky One, about an ex-Marine who walks across the country to find the girl whose photograph he believes saved his life overseas. But having already seen it on opening weekend months ago I've been waiting for today, the day it hits DVD and Blu-ray, for one very special reason: Zac Efron.
more »
I should admit up front that I've long been skeptical of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson's off-screen romance. They make a beautiful couple, as the Twilight franchise box-office numbers demonstrate, but, if you ask me, their real-life relationship has always had an odor of Hollywood hoodoo — the inspired idea of some marketing or public-relations executive who saw a way to keep fan interest in the blockbuster saga alive between movies. more »
"Good morning, shooters," came the tweet from @NRA_Rifleman. "Happy Friday! Weekend plans?"
Funny you should ask.
The tweet was soon deleted by whoever maintains the National Rifle Association-affiliated Twitter account, likely (but unofficially) the reaction to an outpouring of protest over the insensitivity of such a query mere hours after James Holmes allegedly opened fire in an Aurora, Colorado, multiplex, killing 12 and wounding 50. Moreover, it was a stupid question because we know everybody's weekend plans, curled up with the cultural imperative to "process" the event: To blame, to pray, to reflect, to understand. Was it linked to The Dark Knight Rises, whose feverish midnight showing served as the flashpoint of the massacre? Was it an outgrowth of generations of mediated violence — a gory cocktail of TV shows, video games and shoot-'em-up blockbusters? Was it just a 24-year-old nutjob wanting to hurt, maim and kill for no other reason than to simply do it?
more »
On Monday a shockwave rippled through the delicate ecosystem that is the internet, the place where fans, critics, commenters, bloggers, and lurkers live and breathe (and mouth-breathe), over the first reviews of The Dark Knight Rises. The Bat- and Christopher Nolan-faithful rose in arms against the first critics who dared break the news that the comic book movie threequel was maybe not the best movie of all time. Threats were made. Nasty comments were flung. Entire websites were overrun and taken out in retribution. So I ask you, Bat-fans: What Would Batman Do?
more »
It seems like only yesterday comic book fans were all excited about the very first Spider-Man movie — Sam Raimi's 2002 take on the webslinging superhero, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. With Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone stepping in to lead Marc Webb's high school-set The Amazing Spider-Man, a lot of people are wondering if the reboot is any different at all. Time will tell if fans decide Amazing is better or worse, or maybe just the same as Raimi's Spider-Man — but looking back on interviews from 2002's Spider-Man junket, it turned out some of the exact same questions were asked of both sets of directors and stars.
more »
Like many other feminist moviegoers, I was more than a little disappointed that Pixar’s long-awaited first female protagonist, Brave’s Merida, is a princess. But what’s striking, even astonishing, about Brave's treatment of princessdom is its historical honesty; even though Merida convinces her parents to abolish the tradition of arranged marriage, the film's resolution essentially has our heroine accepting that she has to get married and that her nuptials will be used as a bond between rival clans. (Score one for the patriarchy.) Brave can boast some narrative complexity, if not much feminist bona fides, for having Merida occupy the role that real-life princesses have held for most of history — as insurance against war. This gloomy take on the purpose of royal females aligns Brave more closely with HBO’s medieval misery-fest Game of Thrones than with any other Disney princess movie that's come before.
more »
The Prometheus post-mortem continues (really, the fact that it's still provoking discourse says something... right?) with screenwriter Damon Lindelof talking end-of-movie spoilers with TIME Magazine. Namely, what does it mean that you-know-who does you-know-what with the whatsit at the end? Kidding! Dive in to hear the LOST veteran address the certain future of our heroes, plus: An infographic that breaks down Prometheus' DNA in one handy chart.
more »
I’m a sucker for a good time-travel story. I’m also a sucker for a mediocre time-travel story with a stylish veneer or a sense of humor, so I found myself surprisingly captivated by the latest, belated Men in Black sequel. It doesn’t really work, but it does make for a more interesting story than the tedious Exploits with Alien Goo that I remember from the first two Men in Black films. Fortunately, it looks like there might be even better time-travel movies on the horizon. I have high hopes for Looper, which looks somewhat Twelve Monkeys in its mood and time-travel philosophy, and Sundance favorite Safety Not Guaranteed appears to be taking the indie, Dana Scully approach to the conceit. For these and other future efforts, I’m offering four ingredients for a successful time-travel story.
more »
The Avengers probably wouldn’t ever find itself compared to The Cabin in the Woods if the two films hadn’t been released within weeks of each other. As it is, moviegoers have had a virtual feast of familiar tics laid before us by writer-director-geek hero Joss Whedon. My Whedon fatigue is well-documented, so I was pleasantly surprised to find some of his schtick to be the best part of The Avengers. It’s not a straight-up assessment of quality -- I liked The Cabin in the Woods better overall than The Avengers – but some of Whedon’s usual crutches worked better under the restrictions of the big-budget blockbuster than they did in the small, indie, meta-horror film, where he could let his id run wild. On the Whedonism scale of distracting to effective, here are four familiar tropes that worked well in The Avengers.
more »
While Think Like A Man may have conquered the domestic box office two weekends in a row – an impressive feat for what Hollywood execs refer to as an “urban comedy” – there’s no question that the film’s success is as much due to the popular self-help book on which it is based as it is to its comedic merits. Roger Ebert hit the nail on the head in his review, remarking: “The movie's mistake is to take the book seriously. This might have worked as a screwball comedy or a satire, but can you believe for a moment in characters naive enough to actually live their lives following Steve Harvey's advice?” The funny thing is that the screwball version film Ebert would have liked to see actually exists -- and is infinitely superior to the more dramatic, contemporary incarnation.
more »
There are a number of givens when one is confronted with a Nicholas Sparks story, the surest thing being that you will cry. Oh yes, you will weep. That is, if you're one of the many out there predisposed to falling under the spell of Sparks's carefully crafted, timeworn magic formula of love, tears, and tragedy. But how does this week's Zac Efron-starring The Lucky One measure up to its predecessors in terms of The Sparks Quotient?
more »
The Cabin in the Woods is mind-blowing, daring and revelatory – unless you’re a nerdy girl who grew up watching Joss Whedon’s television series. Then it’s just kind of nostalgic and occasionally tiresome, like talking to an ex at a high school reunion. Yes, the movie’s a lot of fun, especially if you didn’t start watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer from its low-budget beginnings. But if, like me, you’re intimately familiar with Whedon’s works and regular crutches, you’re going to see a lot of things you recognize in Cabin, which he co-wrote with longtime collaborator and director Drew Goddard.
more »
