Well, this weekend proved it: Robert Downey Jr. is the world’s biggest movie star. Let’s look at some quick numbers. Downey has made nine films since the first “Iron Man” in 2008. Of those nine, eight have earned more than $100 million at the domestic box office. Four have topped $200 million domestically. Six of … Continue Reading →
Experience isn’t everything. Neither is prior success. The box office this weekend should prove that once and for all. For the second year in a row the summer blockbuster season is being kicked off with a huge Marvel movie starring Robert Downey Jr. And for the second year in a row that Marvel movie has … Continue Reading →
From the look of this summer’s movie offerings, we are a very worried world. Apocalyptic possibilities are everywhere, from the zombie virus threatening mankind in “World War Z” (June 21) to gargantuan alien monsters rising up from the oceans in “Pacific Rim” (July 12). And you can be sure that each of this summer’s superhero … Continue Reading →
The average cost to a family of four attending a pro-football game in 2012 was $313.52. That same family going to a theme park could expect to pay $199. By comparison, the admission cost of taking a family of four to a movie was on average $31.84. This price comparison comes courtesy of the Motion … Continue Reading →
Roger Ebert wielded the mightiest thumb in Hollywood. That thumb helped inform what we see, and helped us understand what we saw. Ebert, who democratized the medium of film criticism and made it amenable to the masses, died Thursday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 70. Ebert’s name was synonymous with the movies, … Continue Reading →
“The Hangover Part II” was a really terrible movie. Just awful, really. The kind of thing you wouldn’t watch even if it was 3 a.m. and you couldn’t sleep and the only other thing on TV was a marathon of “Bar Rescue.” Are you kidding? “Bar Rescue” is great anyway, but especially great when compared … Continue Reading →
Here is the trailer for HBO’s Phil Spector movie, titled — wait for it — “Phil Spector.” In it, the madman music producer is played by Al Pacino, who judging by this trailer is giving Phil Spector the full Al Pacino treatment. Al Pacino knows that Phil Spector was not Al Pacino, right? Because Pacino … Continue Reading →
After yesterday’s Screen Actors Guild awards, the Oscar race is now officially a beautiful mess. All the tea leaves point now to an upset win for “Argo” in the best picture category, despite the fact that “Argo” director Ben Affleck was not nominated for an Oscar. “Argo” won best ensemble at the SAG awards (basically … Continue Reading →
Plenty of respected actors and even a few Oscar winners show up in “Movie 43,” a bottom-of-the-barrel scraping exercise in scatological humor, fart jokes, bathroom gags and “outrageous” behavior. A cast this talented — Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Greg Kinnear, Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Banks, Halle Berry and Richard Gere are among … Continue Reading →
There is a new “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movie out today. Its title is simply “Texas Chainsaw.” The “Massacre” is implied. Since Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original, there have been five entries in the “Texas Chainsaw” franchise, few of them notable, save for 2003′s brutally effective Michael Bay-produced reboot. The latest movie ignores all of them and … Continue Reading →