I missed out on the whole Fame fever thing when it debuted in 1980 and second-debuted in 1982 with a five-year run on TV . I just couldn’t get behind all that random singing and dancing and random toe-touching jump splits of joy. Lame. 28 years later, Fame’s done got itself a remake releasing too soon. Yes, Fame is going to live forever. Who knows if the toe-touching jump splits of joy are gone, but you can bet your booty …
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11 years ago, Saving Private Ryan singlehandedly reignited interest in all things WW II and set the History Channel up with a sweet gig of nonstop WWII programming. The predictable Hollywood WW II glut ensued and things cooled off a bit– especially after middling returns on Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers duology. In the mean time, Red Tails*, a George Lucas-produced project based on the overshadowed story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the only group of African-American pilots who flew …
Disney may have the happiest slice of Anaheim real estate on earth (hear, hear!), a family-friendly empire always willing to shovel cash into its coffers and a surefire marketing machine that prints its own license to make money, but Disney’s also got some serious, swinging chutzpah. If they want you to take a permanent ride on their heavily subsidized bandwagon of Blu-Ray technology, by Walt’s ghost, you’re gonna do it. Take Snow White for example. Disney animation’s first feature length …
I predicted “Monsters vs. Aliens” would whoop booty this weekend, but it looks like Vin and Paul had other plans. Not only did “Fast and Furious” win the box office, but it earned over $72 million. I guess there are way more clueless, hotrod driving punks in America than I had previously thought. And for the curious, “Monsters vs. Aliens” nabbed $33 million for second place, everything else was left weeping and sniffling below $10 million.
I’ll make no apologies. I’m an ardent defender of Michael Bay’s filmography. Yes he’s known as a cocky, volatile potty mouth who subsidizes the cochlear implant industry with big, dumb action movies– and all with the prettiest feathered hair you’ve ever seen this side of The Max. But when explosions and flying chunks of debris demand star treatment–when you need a sunset silhouetted money shot–Michael Bay refuses to disappoint. So put your Pearl Harbor hatred down and back away from …
We didn’t really cover much of the “Oooooo! Someone’s in double-dutch!!” that was the X-Men Origins: Wolverine internet leak. You know, the unprecedented full feature, major-tentpole-leak-a-month-before-it-hit-theaters X-Men Origins: Wolverine internet leak? The one that had 20th Century Fox calling up the FBI, threatening major jail time and promising it was only an “early version” (i.e.- if you think it sucks, we’ve got our butts covered just long enough to delay any potential bad word of mouth). Still, it happened. And …
Forget war, famine, economic catastrophe and global warming. The newest sign of the impending apocalypse is the fire “Fast and Furious” set to movie houses across America yesterday. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker’s return to the franchise propelled the movie to $30 million in ticket sales yesterday. In case you were wondering, that’s the biggest pre-May opening day since “300” back in 2007. It’s not hard to imagine “Fast and Furious” coming close to a $60 million weekend take. It’s …
I didn’t get a chance to screen “Adventureland” before its release today, but I traveled to the thriving metropolis of Ogden, Utah, even to the late Larry H. Miller’s newish Junction Megaplex, to catch a late show with my sisters. Based on the redband trailer and the helmsmanship of director Greg Mottola, I was expecting crass and crude, something like “Superbad.” But that’s not what was served. What I saw was a charming, smart, heartwarming (and yes, sometimes crass) comedy …